by Eric Forsman
In the wild world of Hollywood, for every movie that’s made, dozens of other ideas are rejected. It’s interesting to think about some of the “what if” scenarios – such as Tom Cruise as Tony Stark or John Pertwee as Willy Wonka. Here are 10 films that “could’ve been…but never were.”
10. Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent
Before the official sequel of Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the all-female reboot, Ghostbusters 3 was in development hell going over a plethora of ideas that ended up not working with the cast. One of these ideas was literally set in hell as the Ghostbusters would walk into another dimension known as “ManHELLton” where everyone is evil and ruled by Lou Siffler aka the devil - with a Donald Trump-esque personality. The Ghostbusters would form a corporation and start training some new recruits. Overall, I feel this film could’ve been an interesting new element to throw into the franchise along with passing the mantle to a new set of ghostbusters without it going through a retelling of the first movie.
9. Popeye (Sony)
There have been many animated films scrapped over the years, but this one was probably one of Sony’s bigger mistakes. This would’ve been a Popeye movie directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, the man behind Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania, etc. Aside from date delays, the film seemed to go in a smooth progress with even an animation test footage shown online with Tom Kenny (Spongebob) as Popeye, giving some massive praise from audiences. Sony however scrapped this film for The Emoji Movie, a film that got quite the opposite reaction and was hated by masses and brought up as one of the worst movies of all time. Luckily Sony is getting back on its feet thanks to Into The Spider-Verse but that’s a lesson in pop culture banality, maybe they shouldn’t have scrapped a classic cartoon character for Emojis.
8. The Muppet Man
Coming in at number 8 is a strange Jim Henson biopic called The Muppet Man by Christopher Weekes that topped The Hollywood Black List in 2009. A ton of people were interested in the role of Jim Henson such as Jim Carrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Hugh Jackman but it would eventually go to Donnie Darko himself, Jake Gyllenhaal. The film would contain an alcoholic wasted Kermit The Frog who is mad that Miss Piggy is with another muppet, which is a strange addition, given Jim Henson was never an alcoholic. The project ended up not going anywhere due to various inaccuracies and the idea of an alcoholic Kermit is about as much fun as all the edgy jokes in The Happytime Murders.
7. James Cameron's Spider-Man
In the 90s, James Cameron rose to Hollywood prominence with many great films like Alien, Terminator, and Titanic so logically a man of such talent and box office success was approached to create a Spider-Man movie. This film starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the web-slinger battling Arnold Swartzeneggar as Doctor Octopus. Overall, due to budget and probably superhero films being box office poison at the time, the film was scrapped but this won’t be the last you’ll hear of scrapped Spidey content. Read on!
6. Jack Nicholson’s Grinch
We return to the 90s with a scrapped remake of the Christmas classic, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The film would’ve been animated by Berkely Breathed (Bloom County) and would’ve had Jack Nicholson as the holiday grump. Storyboards of this concept were posted online containing a unique design of the Grinch that looks rather creepy. While i’m not a fan of the Jim Carrey variation of The Grinch I can at least be thankful it didn’t turn into a festive nightmare that was Jack Nicholson’s Grinch.
5. The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made
We would like to welcome back The Muppets and Jim Henson to the #5 spot on our list. In the mid 80’s, Henson teamed up with Jerry Juhl, and Frank Oz to create The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made. Henson realized they would have to cut the budget on their next Muppet movie so the idea was that Gonzo would direct a movie about a chase around the world but he spends the entire budget on the opening titles and the film gets cheaper and cheaper as it goes on. Every street corner from different places of the world end up being the exact same. The quality would also get worse as it would change into a black and white super 8 film, then a slide show, and at some point, just storyboards, until Gonzo gets some corporate sponsors at the very end to make it a super high quality ending.
4. Tim Burton's Superman
Tim Burton is known for some great films, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and even enjoyed big action hits with Batman and Batman Returns. In the 90s, DC logically thought if Burton could do Batman, then maybe he could do DC’s other big hero Superman. The movie ironically known as Superman Lives would be written by Kevin Smith and star Nicolas Cage as Superman going up against the alien villain, Brainiac however due to budget troubles and overall difficulties on set, the film ended up scrapped though Nicolas Cage would eventually become the man of steel in the animated film, Teen Titans GO! To the Movies.
3. Batman VS Godzilla
Many people know about the legendary rivalry between Godzilla and King Kong thanks to the 1962 film but what a lot of people don’t know was that another potential crossover was developed in the 60s featuring Godzilla vs. Adam West’s Batman. Given both series 60’s style, the film probably would’ve contained a lot of fantastic cheesy and campy moments: A mad scientist is controlling Godzilla but complications arise when Batman can’t simply stop the monster with Godzilla Repellent Spray. Instead of movie fans getting this awesome 60’s film, 2021 is slated to bring us Adam Wingard’s reimagining of the original: Godzilla vs. King Kong
2. Michael Jackson’s Spider-Man
You read this right, the king of pop himself, Michael Jackson, wanted to do a Spider-Man movie where he got to be Spider-Man. In the late 90’s, Marvel was nearly bankrupt and Michael Jackson was so desperate for this to happen that he almost bought Marvel Comics, just so he can play Spider-Man. Thankfully, it never happened or we would’ve seen Spider-Man moonwalking around New York yelling “Shamone!” at The Green Goblin.
1. Beatles/Kubrick Lord of the Rings
#1 on the scrapped film list features one of the best directors of all time (Stanley Kubrick), one of the best bands of all time (The Beatles) and one of the best novels of all time (The Lord of the Rings). All of these are widely praised for their artistic impact around the world and are an important part of our shared history. I am both disappointed, and thankful that they never ended up coming together. During the mid-60’s John Lennon approached Stanley Kubrick about doing a movie based on the Lord of the Rings book starring the Fab Four. The casting would’ve been Paul and Ringo as Frodo and Sam, George as Gandalf, and the weirdest of all, John as Gollum. The movie would also contain original songs, so imagine a Stanley Kubrick stylized Lord of the Rings film starring the Beatles singing Hobbit music in this weird experimental fantasy movie. This film feels like it would’ve been a fever dream/trippy disaster and yet I’m so curious about this weird fusion that it makes me anxious wondering how unbelievably strange and amazing this film and music would have been.
-Eric Forsman, August 7th 2020
Eric is a filmmaker and fan of comics, movies all things nerdy. Dragonsblood23@hotmail.com