comment #1

Stringer Bell says ...

Article's already online because it was from 7/15/08.

comment #2

Ray says ...

ALIEN fans need to come to grips with the truth: Vincent Ward's version of ALIEN 3 would have been a DISASTER had it been made. Sure, it's creative - and the resulting film isn't particularly great - but ultimately the idea doesn't make any sense.

comment #3

Rich S. says ...

"the resulting film isn't particularly great"

Easy, Ray. That's Fincher. That kind of talk can get you in big trouble 'round these parts.

They also forgot Harlan Ellison's "Citizen Kane" take on I Robot. It's an interesting script but ultimately, like most of Ellison's unproduced scripts, not quite as good as Harlan thinks it is.

comment #4

Bilge says ...

Kubrick's A.I. kinda needs to be on this list. Only an idiot would mistake Spielberg's version for Kubrick's.

comment #5

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Spielberg followed Kubrick's lead pretty carefully on A.I. apparently. And the sentimental ending was Kubrick's addition. Spielberg invented the darker bits, like the "Flesh Fair" that everyone presumed was Kubrick's.

It's a good movie.

comment #6

lonniechung says ...

What about David Lynch's Return of the Jedi?

comment #7

BurmaShave says ...

Thank you Bosh. Well stated. An opinion some of us share, though certainly not the boss man.

comment #8

bluefugue says ...

Josh Friedman's "Orphan's Dawn" should be up there. It's one of the best unproduced screenplays I've read.

comment #9

EdHavens says ...

There are at least two books out there called "The Greatest Science Fiction Films Never Made." I bought one of them at Powell's Bookstore in Chicago two years ago, the other was offered to me for review about four or five months ago. The second book had almost all of the same films as the first book, although they were written by different authors, and this list above shares many of the same title as the books.

And what makes anyone so sure they would have been great? The title of these books and this article should have been more along the lines of "The Most Promising Science Fiction Movies Never Made." A movie can't be great if it only exists in screenplay form with some pre-production artwork. Those materials can be great, but the projects themselves were promising at best, and I still think a Jodorowsky Dune would have been anything less than an absolute mess.

comment #10

raygo says ...

Kaufman's remake of Body Snatchers is my favorite sci-fi film so far. Not so much for effects (there aren't that many), but for tone and character development. That film really creates the mood (for me, anyway).

Elizabeth Driscoll: I have seen these flowers all over. They are growing like parasites on other plants. All of a sudden. Where are they coming from?
Nancy Bellicec: Outer space?
Jack Bellicec: What are you talking about? A space flower?
Nancy Bellicec: Well why not a space flower? Why do we always expect metal ships?

comment #11

le corbeau says ...

Cecil B. DeMille contemplated a version of When World Collide around the end of silent films/early sound. That would have been cool.

Kubrick never made A.I. because he wanted it to be Spielbergian, and couldn't get there scriptwise from being Stanley Kubrick. Only Spielberg could.

Anyone who thinks there's ANYTHING warm and fuzzy in Spielberg's A.I. need to watch it again, more carefully. The chilliest, bleakest movie ever made.

comment #12

Sabina E says ...

slightly off topic, but I really, REALLY am surprised that no Hollywood studio (or director) has attempted to do a film version of THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS (awesome novel by Robert A. Heinlein). It could become a fantastic sci-fi epic film, like Star Wars or Star Trek (2009).

comment #13

lazarus says ...

I was listening to Alejandro Jodorowski's commentary on The Holy Mountain recently, and he was talking about his plans for Dune, which led to to reading about this lost project online.

Man, the cast and crew he had lined up for that thing was unreal: Moebius, H.R. GIger, Pink Floyd, Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, Dan O'Bannon, Gloria Swanson, and Alain Delon??

comment #14

The Winchester says ...

Good call on the Lynch Return of the Jedi.

I would add Wolfgang Peterson's (at his prime) Ender's Game, and Terry Gilliam's Watchmen. We will never get to witness these films.

(Could say the same for Gilliam's Good Omens, but he still promises to do it, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt).

comment #15

prairie_oysters says ...

Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars is in production though. With Andrew Stanton as director, two sappy looking 90210 leads and Samantha Morton in a supporting role

comment #16

MikeSchaeferSF says ...

DBTP: Dunno about "Harsh Mistress" but hasn't Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" been kicking around H'wood for decades? I seem to recall Hanks being attached to it at one point. I'd also like to see someone try his "I Will Fear No Evil".

comment #17

Aris P says ...

"Jodorowsky's initial script would have resulted in a 14 hour film." (wikipedia)

LOL.

comment #18

Steven Kar says ...

How about Rendezvous with Rama?

comment #19

lazarus says ...

MikeSchaefer: My dream as a filmmaker is to someday get Heinlein's Time Enough For Love made, and it's what inspired my moniker. Obviously, not an easy property to realize, let alone market. Of course, none of his late novels are.

Also, thank god Stranger didn't get made with Hanks.

comment #20

Bilge says ...

I actually don't dislike Spielberg's A.I. And I'm well aware of what parts were Kubrick's ideas and which were Spielberg's.

I'm sure Kubrick *did* eventually want Spielberg to direct the film, as reported. But we're talking about the great sci-fi films that were *never* made -- and A.I., as directed by Kubrick, which he planned for many years but never realized, should be on that list.

I mean, Vincent Ward was a producer on the ALIEN 3 that did get made, too. I still wish I could have seen his version.

comment #21

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

Also surprised that Scorcese's adaptation of Dan Simmons' HYPERION novels isn't on that list (with Leo DiCaprio at one point reportedly attached).

Fincher's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (with Morgan Freeman presumably to star as Norton)?

And yes...I still mourn the fact that Kimberly Peirce's CHILDHOOD'S END adaptation has yet to make it to the screen.

Bester's THE STARS, MY DESTINATION was already made as a film, however -- it starred Hayden Christensen, and was called JUMPER.

comment #22

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

EDIT: Looks like Steven Kar already mentioned RAMA above; sorry about that.

comment #23

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

EDIT #2: Here's hoping that Ridley's THE FOREVER WAR doesn't end up on this list one day...

comment #24

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

EDIT #3: Last one, swear to God:

Shekhar Kapur's big-screen version of Asimov's FOUNDATION?

Fucker's been in turnaround for decades, but it's easy to see why. Unfortunately, it now appears that Roland Emmerich now has his paws all over this one.

comment #25

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

Ugh...one too many "now"s in that above post...

comment #26

creepingmalaise says ...

I think the original name of the unmade Spielberg film was WATCH THE SKIES.

comment #27

Alboone says ...

The one they failed to mention was George Lucas's real intention of the SW prequels which was to concentrate on the earlier era of how the Jedi and Sith came to be. It would've had a more miedeval tone than the prior films.

comment #28

DavidF says ...

Lynch + Jedi SOUNDS interesting but based on Dune I'm going to say that genre, sci-fi is probably not the man's strong suit.

SPIELBERG doing a Stars Movie, however...that would have been cool.

I agree with the comments above about Ward's Alien3. It sounds like there was some undoubtedly interesting stuff in there but it still seems like it was going too far off base.

As it stands now, it's a fascinating entry to Fincher's world with a few great bits.

And I love how people who like AI (including me) are STILL telling people they have no clue what bits were Kubrick and what bits were Spielberg. Sheesh.

comment #29

lazarus says ...

I love how people who defend Spielberg by claiming the ending of A.I. was Kubrick's idea can't process the notion that the latter would never have actually executed it in such a ham-fisted, awkward, and exposition-heavy way.

And I love the rest of the film, for the record.

comment #30

Gnome de Guerre says ...

Not really scifi, and not really never made because it never really existed to begin with, but Orson Welle's Batman project sounds amazing. www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=14529

It was a hoax, or wishful thinking, but whatever...
One day we'll have software/AI so powerful it'll take a filmmaker's entire body of work and be able to reproduce his style at any era to mimic or simulate what one of these "what-if" scenarios would actually look like. We'll be able to swap in different crew and see what the effects would be on the final film.

Maybe filmmakers will even rent us neural scans of their creative cortexes (hey I took neuroanatomy, I promise! That part is right behind your left temporary lobule and behind your patella) so you can upload them into your auto-movietron(tm) at home and create the film on the fly as you watch it (performed live in VR of course). Beats HD downloads, don'it?

Some will pay a steep fine for the pleasure of having the Bay module rework the script of Moneyball in real time for them, especially if they've linked their movietron to their orgasmatron. And others will pay a pretty penny to watch Transformers: Soundwave's Greatest Hits remixed by the dream team of Soderbergh, Chaplin, Lean, a bit of Lucas, and a dash of McG.

And we'll have books like The Greatest Movies Actually Produced Once, Like, For Real and people will wonder why they were so great... they won't understand how rare it was to find a talent like Michael Bay and have him kiss your eyes with his vision back in the day because they'll be seeing every scriptogram uploaded into their movietron through their BayGoggs. And they'll eagerly await the module that'll unlock their gadget's true uber potential, allowing them to see everything through their BayGoggs, even as they decide to experiment and program their Tarkovsky module to also wear its BayGoggs while it composes a live performance of their neighbors' McG module's Mean Streets India-set reboot, the one from that dinner party back in 2048.

comment #31

Gnome de Guerre says ...

Sigh. Well, you can't expect me to keep track of html end-tags when I'm on a roll, right?

comment #32

Josh Massey says ...

Hell, Lucas is always looking for a way to milk more money out of the Star Wars franchise. Have Lynch remake Return of the Jedi today.

comment #33

DavidF says ...

Lazarus - that's not a FACT. It's what Donald Rumsfeld would call a "known unknown."

Even if it were true, the fact remains the general criticisms of AI tend to be about how Spielberg bastardized Kubrick's vision when the realities are that:
a) Kubrick WANTED Spielberg to direct it, knowing full well who he was and what he would bring to it
b) Certain scenes which are specifically cited as Spielbergian (eg Blue Fairy, the ending) were 100% Kubrick while scenes people think are Kubrickian (eg flesh fair) are all Spielberg. That's what makes the movie special.

You think Kubrick could have done the scene where Monica leaves David in the forest as effectively as Spielberg? I doubt it. And so did Stanley.

comment #34

DavidF says ...

p.s. Above I wrote "Spielberg doing a Stars movie would have been cool."

Yikes. Obviously (hopefully) I meant "Star Wars."

comment #35

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Nice to see A.I. getting some love.

The ending is quite damning indeed. The robots from the future have to create a simulation of human love to satisfy the young boy's needs because humans themselves were unable to provide it. The robots display more compassion and "humanity" than humankind itself.

And on an aesthetic level there's much to enjoy. Kaminski makes it looks fantastic. Production design is brilliant. Teddy is inspired. Effects are seamless. Osment and Law are brilliant. Williams' score is gorgeous, etc.

It's a real underrated gem. As is most of Spielberg's 2000s output.

comment #36

le corbeau says ...

"But we're talking about the great sci-fi films that were *never* made -- and A.I., as directed by Kubrick, which he planned for many years but never realized, should be on that list."

Yeah, the problem is, there you're talking about the great science fiction films that were never actually finished in the script stage. Which is a different thing to me. Spielberg's A.I. exists and Kubrick's doesn't because Spielberg knows how to cut bait on a project. (Unless it's about Lincoln, apparently...)

comment #37

Breedlove says ...

I always preferred MINORITY REPORT to A.I...MINORITY REPORT is a great fucking movie, one of Spielberg's best.

comment #38

frankbooth says ...

Please don't let this turn into another "pros and cons of A.I. and who did what" thread. It's been beaten to death. Seriously.

I considered doing a "David Lynch's ROTJ: the lost footage" parody/remix for YouTube, but was beaten to it by more than one invidual. (You gotta be fast these days.) This is easily the best of the ones I've seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3nSFNZY9Y

Still, mine would have had an Ewok dancing like the dwarf from Twin Peaks, to a slowed-down version of the Yub Nub song, with some Badalamenti mixed in. And lots of extreme closeups of Jabba's mouth.

comment #39

drbob says ...

For all the Lynch posters two words: Ronnie Rocket. I couldn't give a rat's ass about a Lynch "Return of the Jedi." Give me Ronnie Rocket.

comment #40

Baltimore says ...

After Kirshner's budget-schedule blowout on Empire, Lucas wanted a cooperative hire for Jedi. Considering Empire's stylistic divergences from Ep4 (emotional performances and atmospheric photography), Marquand was a generic extreme; Lynch would have handled the actors better, and probably delivered a closer companion to Ep5.

If there were ever a valid excuse for employing the "Bobby wakes up from a bad dream" copout for a franchise reboot, Alien3 was it b/c everybody involved wound up as annoyed as the audience. And yet miraculously Bill Mechanic oversaw Alien Resurrection, foolishly allowing Sigourney even more creative input after her gibberish had already marred part 3.

Ward was credited as a producer on A3, but wasn't that merely contractual formality? I would think he was too busy working on Map of the Human Heart to actually participate in the clusterf*ck mess at Fox. Along w/ William Gibson's version (that kept Newt and Hicks alive) Fox should officially publish those "lost world" Alien sequels in graphic novel form, in better quality than a Dark Horse random mix bag. However, Eric Red's Alien3 with Renny Harlin would have been garbage, a pathetic followup to Cameron. Hopefully Ridley's proposed prequel will right these wrongs and erase the blighted memory of AvP.

Despite the pedigrees of Petersen + AK Walker i was disappointed in the Supes Vs Batman script, and very happy that WB chose instead to go with Nolan's vision which was a breath of fresh air.

I still consider 90s scifi to be a missed opportunity "what if" lost cause, considering the talent wasted by on-screen results of Demolition Man, Judge Dredd, Waterworld, Escape from LA, Fifth Element and Soldier - ALL of which were compromised by off-screen politicking that led could-have-been-masterpieces into ho-hum fare. You might also toss in the obscure indie misfire Slipstream from ex-Lucas partner Gary Kurtz.

As for now, I'm most eager for 2011's Tron update - yes, even more than Avatar.

comment #41

Baron Munchausen-by-Proxy says ...

As Baltimore pointed out, Ward's credit on "Alien 3" was entirely contractual.

"Yeah, the problem is, there you're talking about the great science fiction films that were never actually finished in the script stage. Which is a different thing to me. Spielberg's A.I. exists and Kubrick's doesn't because Spielberg knows how to cut bait on a project. (Unless it's about Lincoln, apparently...)"

Skip, regardless 'what it is to you', the list Jeff refers to includes a number of unmade films that were indeed "finished in the script stage", so your distinction is meaningless. On top of that, "cutting bait" on projects is a misplaced analogy/idiom, because there isn't a production 'bright-line' upon which one decides to entirely 'give up' on a project (save death, in Kubrick's case), there are location and availability-of-cast issues (budget doesn't really come into play with these names we're discussing).

Further destroying your point is the fact that both SK *and* SS have well-known film projects that they each "cut bait" on, and also that they each have/had under development for potential later production, which is hardly "cutting bait". Most of these other projects had already come up in the tread. Obviously you couldn't be bothered to read others' posts, because there is nothing you could possibly learn from lesser opinions.
(For review: SK gave up on "Wartime Lies", but never on "Napoleon" or "A.I.", SS gave up on "Night Skies" but never on "Lincoln" or "Chicago 6". Other examples abound.)

Quite surprised Copolla's "Megalopolis" hasn't had a mention - it was to be set in futuristic mega-cities decades from today.

comment #42

Kristopher Tapley says ...

FYI, this article isn't "forthcoming." I distinctly remember the piece's publication last year (when I was working at the paper). If that's not good enough, the date says "2008," so...just so ya know.