History Main / SavedfromDevelopmentHell

* ''StarCraftII: Wings of Liberty'' - A sequel to StarCraft was in DevelopmentHell for a total of 10 years. Wings of Liberty took 4 years, but there was another 6 years waiting for StarCraftGhost (which they gave up on and changed focus to Wings of Liberty) ... but it was worth the wait.
** SC 2 was never in DevelopmentHell, Ghost yes, very much so, but there is a big deference between just taking forever to make a game, and the game getting stuck in hell. Especially when the game is being made by Blizzard.

* And don't forget ''Mother 3''!

* After 1997's ''Medazzaland'', {{Duran Duran}} began work in earnest on their next album. In the meantime, {{Blondie}} reunited and Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo were assigned the task of writing some songs for their upcoming album. These songs were never used for some reason and the Blondie reunion album, 1999's ''No Exit'', included only Blondie's songs. Nick and Warren decided to use them for the upcoming Duran Durana lbum instead. Another complicating factor was the fact that EMI (Duran Duran's record company) dropped them from the label and the band had to find a new record company. Finally in 2000, ''Pop Trash'', whose title is taken from one of the album's songs that were originally written for Blondie ("Pop Trash Movie"), was released on Disney-owned Hollywood Records.

* ''GranTurismo 4'' and ''5''.

DevelopmentHell. What some works (and their authors) go through if there's too much of ExecutiveMeddling, lawsuits and so on. The fanbase is waiting more and more impatiently, but nothing gets done.

* Peter Sellers read ''BeingThere'' circa 1972 and immediately visualized a film adaptation he could play [[Main/ChanceTheGardener the lead role]] in; it didn't come to pass until 1979 (he had to rebuild his box-office clout, for one thing).

* In 1988, Fox got interested in making a new ''PlanetOfTheApes'' with Adam Rifkin (who would later write ''Mousehunt'' and ''SmallSoldiers'', among others). New executives made the project crash. PeterJackson, OliverStone, ChrisColumbus, ArnoldSchwarzenegger and JamesCameron were involved with the movie in the following years. It only took off after William Broyles, Jr. (''Apollo 13'', later ''CastAway'') wrote a script in 1999, which attracted TimBurton, and led to a release 2001.

* And don't forget ''Mother3''!

* ''{{Alien Vs Predator}}'' is probably the most famous case of development hell. It was finally released in 2004 after more than a decade of different scripts, changes to the cast, false starts, orphaned tie-ins, several series of [[BetterThanCanon video games commonly agreed to be better than even the Aliens sequels]] and even promotions of the believed-to-be-coming-soon movie.
** Technically the video games were tie-ins to the comics and novel series, which pre-date the project by several years.
* If ''AVP'' is the most famous case, ''FreddyVsJason'' is likely the second most famous, as the film was also famously mired in development hell for years; originally, the studios who owned the [[ANightmareOnElmStreet two]] [[FridayThe13th franchises]] involved with the titular crossover had wanted to make it for years, but could never agree on how to make it (each studio wanted to license out the other's character and do the film their way). When New Line Cinema bought the rights to the ''Friday the 13th'' franchise, the film stayed in development hell as New Line went through numerous screenwriters and even more script ideas (some of which were SoBadItsHorrible)...until the two men who ended up writing the script for the film threw out every other script that came before them and set a list of rules to follow that respected both parent franchises involved as they wrote their script. The film was ''finally'' released in 2003, and ended up making more money than any other film in either of the parent franchises.

* The rights to a live action adaptation of ''TheLordOfTheRings'' were sold to Universal shortly before JRR Tolkien's death in 1973; it wasn't until 1994 that Peter Jackson was given approval to begin shooting (by Miramax) and [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings the first film]] was not released until 2001 (by New Line). A proposed adaptation of ''TheHobbit'' has been held up because the rights to that work were sold separately and MGM was unwilling to part with them. ''That'' project remains in DevelopmentHell, as announced director Guillermo del Toro has quit the film in May 2010 and a replacement has yet to be named.
** A live action adaption starring TheBeatles was mulled over in TheSixties, but never saw the light of day.

* The fourth ''IndianaJones''. It took a long time before Lucas, Spielberg and Ford agreed on a script.
* A CatsAndDogs sequel was intended for release in 2005. After some story rewrites, it was finally released in 2010. [[YourMileageMayVary Whether or not that is a good thing is up to you]]

* A live-action ''{{Dragonball}}'' movie was announced in 2002, but didn't get out until 2009 as ''DragonballEvolution''. [[YourMileageMayVary Perhaps]] [[{{Understatement}} it should have stayed]] [[AdaptationDecay in development hell after all.]]

* In 1988, Fox got interested in making a new ''PlanetOfTheApes'' with Adam Rifkin (who would later write ''Mousehunt'' and ''SmallSoldiers'', among others). New executives made the project crash. PeterJackson, OliverStone, ChrisColumbus, ArnoldSchwarzenegger and JamesCameron were involved with the movie in the following years. It only took off after William Broyles, Jr. (''Apollo 13'', later ''CastAway'') wrote a script in 1999, which attracted TimBurton, and led to a [[LoveItOrHateIt really divisive]] movie in 2001.
* ''{{Inception}}'' went through a stint in development hell that was actually self-imposed; Christopher Nolan saw the film as his personal opus and spent ten years revising the script until he was sure it was the absolute best he could make it, and everything in the complicated story made sense.

* Once upon a time, it looked liked ''HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' was stuck in development hell. The four previous books each came out a year apart, but ''Phoenix'' spent three years in the works. That may not sound like a long time, but it's a freakin' long time for a child or teen. Imagine you were to finish ''GobletOfFire'' when you were twelve years old and then don't get to find out what happens next until you're fifteen. Adding to the urgency, the [[Film/HarryPotter first two movies]] came out during those three years, raising concerns that the fifth book might not be out before work would have to start on the fifth movie. Of course, it all worked out and the fifth book came out between the second and third films.

* The ''BattlestarGalactica'' prequel ''{{Caprica}}'' was announced in 2007, in July 2008 it was picked up as a 2-hour pilot and in December of that year finally chosen to become a series. It wasn't until April 2009 that the pilot was released as a DVD and the series itself aired in January 2010, though rumors of difficulties with the script, such as the writers admitting difficulty with the 8th episode, and having several lead writers before it has even aired didn't inspire confidence.
** Ultimately it ran nine positively-reviewed episodes from January-March and will air another nine in October, with Syfy execs optimistic about a second season in 2011.
*** It was recently announced that this second set of episode would air in January, many fans cry that is the show being ScrewedByTheNetwork.
**** It seems the network changed their minds and it's now airing in october.

* The ''{{Spaceballs}}'' AnimatedAdaptation, though now it has made its way to G4 and well, YourMileageMayVary.

* ''{{Repton}}: The Lost Realms''. Originally titled simply ''Repton 4'', the game was written in 1988, [[TooSoon too close]] to ''Repton Infinity'' for publication. Abandoned, then rediscovered in 2008, by which time the game's home platform (the BBCMicro) was '''[[DeaderThanDead extinct]]''' and the source code lost, meaning the entire game had to be reprogrammed '''from scratch'''. [[MomentOfAwesome Even that didn't stop]] a dedicated team designing additional levels and graphics via emulator software, eventually getting the game ready for a scheduled release in November 2010.

* A live-action ''{{Dragonball}}'' movie was announced in 2002, but didn't get out until 2009 as ''DragonballEvolution''. [[YourMileageMayVary Perhaps it should have stayed]] [[AdaptationDecay in development hell after all.]]

* ''DukeNukemForever''. Perhaps the MostTriumphantExample by {{Gearbox}}.

* 3D Realms' game ''{{Prey}}'' began development in 1995, and was finally released in 2006 after they farmed out development to another team. The release of ''Prey'' served to give fans hope that 3D Realms' ''other'' long-awaited title, ''DukeNukemForever'', would eventually find its way out of DevelopmentHell as well.
** And at PAX 2010, ''DukeNukemForever'' itself has been '''''finally''''' slated for a 2011 release, now that Gearbox Software have picked it up.

* 3D Realms' game ''{{Prey}}'' began development in 1995, and was finally released in 2006 after they farmed out development to another team. The release of ''Prey'' served to give fans hope that 3D Realms' ''other'' long-awaited title, ''DukeNukemForever'', would eventually find its way out of DevelopmentHell as well. Sadly, this was not the case.

* ''DeadAir'', which has been pushed back twice. It eventually got released.

* ''Dead Air'', which has been pushed back twice. It eventually got released.

* The worst case ever is ''Smile'', which was supposed to be a Beach Boys album. Band leader Brian Wilson re-recorded and released it 37 years later, in 2004. What truly makes this sad is the reason it never came out: Brian Wilson suffered a CreatorBreakdown of epic proportions and allegedly deleted the original masters before sinking into a fog of mental illness for years.
* Shortly after releasing ''{{Tommy}}'', TheWho began working on an epic followup to be entitled ''Lifehouse'', which would have been accompanied by a film and a series of experimental concerts involving using the vital statistics of audience members to produce synthesizer tracks. The project fell apart and most of the songs were released on the Who's Next and Who Are You albums. Pete Townshend ultimately released Lifehouse in 2000 as a six-disc solo album and a radio play for the BBC, and the synthesizer concept found its way onto the web in 2007.

* ''HeartOfDarkness'' took 6 years to develop, and had its release date reported over and over for 4 years, before finally being released in 1998. In France, its Development Hell was so well known the game was sarcastically nicknamed "L'Arlésienne des Jeux Vidéos" by the French video game press.