History Main / SavedfromDevelopmentHell

* Similar to Sweden, in 1985 [[UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks Canada]]'s government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was set to replace its then over 20-year-old Sikorsky Sea King helicopters with a new model. By the time a replacement model (the Westland EH-101 was decided on, it emerged that the Labrador search-and-rescue helicopters also needed replacement. The replacement was tacked onto the Sea King replacement order, ballooning the contract price to nearly $6 billion. With Canada entering a recession in 1993, new Prime Minister Kim Campbell announced that the order would be shrunk, bringing the price down to $4.4 billion. However, it wasn't enough to salvage an already unpopular government, and a new government under Jean Chretien was elected later that year. The order was swiftly cancelled (costing about $500 million in cancellation fees), but as the decade progressed it became more apparent that the Sea Kings were still growing older and becoming even more obsolete - [[TheAllegedCar requiring over 30 hours of maintenance for each hour of flight]]. By 2003, Chretien and his successor Paul Martin made the replacement of the Sea King a priority. The Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone was chosen in 2004, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2008. Problems with Sikorsky, which nearly led to yet another cancellation, delayed the first arrivals until 2015 - ''thirty years'' after the first selection process began.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** The second season, both in Japan and the USA.
** Also, the second season finally started airing in the middle of a rerun of the first, with no advertising to speak of, amid official denials from the publisher. It's like they think the fans are masochists or something.

* An anime adaption of Kizumonogatari, the prequel to ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'', was announced back in 2011 after the first installment's conclusion. Shortly afterward it was instead announced as a theatrical release delayed to March 2012. And then it was delayed again... And then again. The one time the movie ''did'' have a release date, it was rescinded the same day and never mentioned again. Since the announcement of Kizumonogatari, Creator/StudioSHAFT has released five more installments to the Monogatari series and over a dozen other projects with no sign of Kizu seeing the light of day. It finally released in 2016 in the form of a three-part movie series.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' missed out on a direct fourth season in 1998 due to production issues and Music/MegumiHayashibara having schedule conflicts, and while there were more [=OVAs=], a movie (''Slayers Premium'') and other media, it took ''eleven years'' for a fourth season to finally appear. A fifth then occurred the following year.

* ''...And Ladies of the Club'' took Helen Santmyer ''fifty years'' to write.

* The third book in the Literature/InheritanceCycle took around three years to finish. Then Creator/ChristopherPaolini said the book was too long so he split it in two and still took more time before releasing it. In the acknowledgments for ''Brisingr'', he thanked one person in particular for "giving me a much-needed kick-in-the-pants early on" and mentions that without which, he would probably still be working on the book.

* Creator/LilithSaintcrow published one book of a planned ''Steelflower'' trilogy in 2007, but [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil piracy of the ebook led her to cancel the other two]]. She changed her mind ten years later and published ''Steelflower at Sea'' in 2017 and ''Steelflower in Snow'' the year after.

* Creator/StephenieMeyer worked on ''Literature/{{Midnight Sun|2020}}'', a POVSequel of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' in conjunction with the original tetralogy. However, when excerpts of it were leaked, she put the project on hold indefinitely, stating that she wanted to finish it "when everyone's forgotten about it". She fulfilled the promise: it got released in 2020, over a decade later and well after the ''Twilight'' fad had died down.

* ''WesternAnimation/PawsOfFuryTheLegendOfHank'' was announced in 2015 for a 2017 release under the name ''Blazing Samurai''. Sometime during that, its two animation studios, Mass Animation and Arc Productions, after TroubledProduction were both shut down along with the film's main distributor Open Road. The movie was nowhere to be seen despite various companies announcing their work on it and actors stating it was still happening until Creator/{{Paramount}} (under the Paramount Animation brand before switching it last minute to Creator/NickelodeonMovies) finally announced it as ''Paws of Fury''. It will finally release on July 15, 2022.

* There is a proverb in the Finnish language, ''rakentaa kuin Iisakin kirkkoa'' ("to construct like Church of Isaac"), meaning a meticulous, lengthy and never-ending project. The proverb refers to the Church of St. Isaac the Dalmatian in St. Petersburg, Russia. Its construction lasted for forty years, from 1818 to 1858.

* There was talk around 2008-9 of a live-action remake of ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'', possibly produced or even directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg, but he seems to have passed on it in favor of other projects. It finally got a director, writer, and production team in 2014 with Dreamworks distributing (Paramount overseas) and Creator/ScarlettJohansson and Creator/PilouAsbaek attached to star. It officially began filming in early 2016 and [[Film/GhostInTheShell2017 released in 2017]].

* An adaptation of ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' has been talked about for as long as the comic book existed. It first started as a version of the “Gone to Texas” story arc with [[Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare Rachel]] [[Film/TankGirl Talalay]] directing, but it was canned due to budget issues and the dark subject matter. Then it was going to be on HBO with [[{{Film/Daredevil}} Mark]] [[{{Film/Ghostrider}} Steven]] [[Film/FridayThe13th2009 Johnson]] wanting to do every episode issue by issue, but again the dark subject matter got it canned. Then Creator/SamMendes was attached to do it, before the rights we’re sold to AMC in 2013. The pilot episode was finally filmed in May 2015, with Creator/SethRogen and Evan Goldberg directing and Creator/DominicCooper starring. It debuted summer 2016.

* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's esteemed series ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' did this with its fifth book. While writing the fourth novel in the series, Martin realized that the manuscript had gotten literally too large to publish, so the decision was made to split it in half. The fourth novel was published in 2005 as ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'', with the fifth, ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', listed in its afterward as a 2006 release, since so much of it had (theoretically) already been written. It was ''actually'' completed in April 2011, and was rushed to store shelves in three months.
** Incidentally, by "too large to publish" we mean that if GRRM had not split the story, he'd be handing us a book with [[{{Doorstopper}} 1600 pages]] in it. ''Before'' the lengthy House indexes in the back.
** Even better, his original plans were for Book 2 (now called ''Literature/AClashOfKings'') to be entitled ''A Dance with Dragons'', and first editions of ''Game'' have it listed as the sequel. In other words, we've been waiting for ''some'' book, ''any'' book, called "A Dance with Dragons" for well over a decade.
** Martin's decreased writing pace has also raised concerns because the series has been adapted for television as ''Series/GameOfThrones'', with the final season being released in 2019. Despite this, Martin has yet to finish the last two books (it took six years to finish ''A Dance with Dragons''). While Martin believes ''Dance'' was his DarkestHour and the final two books will be easier to produce, he has ''admitted'' concern over getting Book 7 (''A Dream of Spring'') out on time, which isn't precisely easing the fandom's mind.
** Fortunately for the fans, Martin did reveal several major plot points to the producers of the show in case he got [[Creator/StephenKing "hit by a truck".]]

* Creator/MarcellJankovics's AnimatedAdaptation of the Hungarian play ''Animation/TheTragedyOfMan'' had its script written way back in 1983, alongside a ''[[Literature/TheBible Bible]]'' series that was co-financed by an American backer. Said backer disappeared some years later, prompting the studio to greenlight ''The Tragedy of Man'' instead. Production began in '88, only for state funding to cease a year or two later. Jankovics and various animation teams kept working on the film for the following decades, trying to raise interest by screening completed scenes at festivals. With the help of an aborted gig at Disney (see ''Kingdom of the Sun'' below) and a GM advertizing deal, the animation was finally done by 2009. The finished film, with updated vocal work, was released in late 2011.

** Ride/TheHauntedMansion at Ride/DisneyThemeParks was delayed several times, due to the sheer number of [[WhatCouldHaveBeen unused ideas]] that were thought up. The ride itself has an example of it. In the beginning, one of the planned characters/gags in the ride was going to be the "Hatbox Ghost", the groom to the Attic's bride, whose head would disappear from his shoulders and reappear in his hatbox in time with the bride's heartbeat. The figure was produced, and the lighting implemented to create the disappearing trick, but the figure was taken out very shortly thereafter once it was clear that the distance between the riders and the figure was too short to allow the effect to work. Because it was taken out so early and so few people had seen it, the Hatbox Ghost achieved legendary status within the fanbase. His presence endured in the franchise, and in 2015, with decades of technological advancement, the Hatbox Ghost was made again with a more complex digitally-aided head-transfer effect and more animation, finally placing him in the ride like he was always supposed to be.

* ''Pantheon High'', an American manga, was published by Creator/{{Tokyopop}}. Unfortunately, Tokyopop stopped publishing -- but didn't go bankrupt -- in 2011, right before the third and final volume was to be released. Since Tokyopop wasn't publishing, they didn't release the volume, but since the company still existed, the authors couldn't get the rights back to have it published somewhere else. Comixology finally picked it up in May 2014 and is now selling all three volumes.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' missed out on a direct fourth season in 1998 due to production issues and Music/MegumiHayashibara having schedule conflicts, and while there were more [=OVAs=], a movie (''Slayers Premium'') and other media, it took ''eleven years'' for a fourth season to finally appear. A fifth then occurred the following year.
* It took ''nine years'' for Creator/KeikoTakemiya to get her manga series ''Manga/KazeToKiNoUta'' published, due to the plot focusing on a homosexual relationship and Takemiya's refusal to release the series with any censoring.
* The ''Manga/GiantRobo'' OVA, The Day The Earth Stood Still, took ten years to finish. There are seven episodes.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** The second season, both in Japan and the USA.
** Also, the second season finally started airing in the middle of a rerun of the first, with no advertising to speak of, amid official denials from the publisher. It's like they think the fans are masochists or something.
* ''Anime/{{Steamboy}}'' was in production for 16 years, which definitely shows in all the SceneryPorn.
* After two years, Maikaze finally released a trailer for the second episode of their ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' {{fanime}} ''Anime/MusouKakyouASummerDaysDream'', which had been rumored to have been scrapped over criticism, both from the series' original creator ZUN and from fans.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'':
** The original series' infamous GainaxEnding was the product of severe budget cuts that left many loose threads hanging. It wasn't until later that Studio Gainax was able to secure the funding for a movie that became ''The End of Evangelion'', which serves as the proper, intended ending to the series.
** ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'': The third movie, ''You Can (Not) Redo'', took a really, ''really'' long time. It was released on November 17, 2012, more than ''three years'' after the previous movie. The end product [[NeverTrustATrailer had nothing to do with the material from the trailer at the end of 2.22]] because the original script was scrapped mid-production, having already reached storyboarding.
*** The fourth and final movie, ''Thrice Upon a Time'', took even longer due to a CreatorBreakdown after the third, with the first teaser being released ''six years'' after the third movie's debut with a tentative 2020 release. After ''that'' was [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic inevitably delayed]], it was then announced the film would have a March 8th, 2021 release date, [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-03-09/final-evangelion-film-1st-day-sells-539623-tickets-for-over-802774200-yen/.170411 which actually stuck this time]].
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'': Due to Tokyopop losing the license, the U.S. release was stalled after two volumes. Yen Press acquired the rights in 2013, and are releasing all five volumes in two omnibus editions. Similarly, they've released all three volumes of the ''Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix'' manga in two volumes.
* Whilst its stay in development hell was rather short, ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' does fit. Announced at TGS 2003, and originally targeted for a summer 2004 release, it ended up appearing in its original form in September 2005. The reason, according to [[WordOfGod director Tetsuya Nomura]], was that the movie was originally meant to only be roughly 40-50 minutes long. However, fan interest skyrocketed as soon as the movie was announced, so the script was rewritten and the movie lengthened to accommodate for an expectation. ''Advent Children Complete'' again deserves a mention: it saw release in April 2009, after being announced at TGS 2006.

* The ''Anime/CodeGeass'' Gaiden was first mentioned in the 2008 or 2009 time frame, though its official announcement wasn't until early-mid 2010. It was supposed to air in 2011. It finally came out in late 2012.
* ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal'' was announced in June 2012 with a tentative premiere scheduled for Summer 2013. The year went by with no updates on the project, and it missed its announced premiere window. Then producers suggested it was pushed back to Winter 2013, and then it failed to make ''that'' window. Then updates finally started happening, the first promo image was revealed in March 2014, and the series finally premiered in July 2014, a year behind schedule.
* While writing ''Manga/{{Orange}}'', the author Takano Ichigo became extremely ill and had to paralyze the publication of her work for more than a year. She's resumed publishing by now (even moved to another magazine from a different publisher), but she still has sequels, meaning the series doesn't get published monthly if the author couldn't make it to the deadline. The series has been completed as of late 2015, however.
* An anime adaption of Kizumonogatari, the prequel to ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'', was announced back in 2011 after the first installment's conclusion. Shortly afterward it was instead announced as a theatrical release delayed to March 2012. And then it was delayed again... And then again. The one time the movie ''did'' have a release date, it was rescinded the same day and never mentioned again. Since the announcement of Kizumonogatari, Creator/StudioSHAFT has released five more installments to the Monogatari series and over a dozen other projects with no sign of Kizu seeing the light of day. It finally released in 2016 in the form of a three-part movie series.
* Back in September 2016, there was an announcement on a basketball sports anime called ''Barangay 143'' which would be set in the Philippines and would be produced by Creator/TVAsahi and the Philippine-based studio Synergy 88. Initially, it was supposed to be released in Spring 2017; however, the project is delayed due to lack of manpower. A [[http://www.dageeks.com/games/synergy88-talks-about-barangay-143-game-and-upcoming-anime-during-esgs-2017/ a mobile video game app]] was released instead which is sort of a prologue to the upcoming anime. After months of being in limbo, the first-ever Filipino-made anime [[http://entertainment.inquirer.net/284238/filipino-made-anime-barangay-143-to-air-in-october will be aired on October 2018]] on GMA Network.
* ''Anime/NeppuKairikuBushiRoad'' was first announced in 2003 and was to be released in 2005. Then various complications happened (e.g. the staff members all left). It was later announced to become a 3-hour special on New Year's Eve of 2013. That's '''10 YEARS''' it's been stuck.
* To celebrate the show's [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]], the long-delayed ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' movie was finally announced as part of 2021-2022's ''Gundam SEED Project Ignited'' multimedia project. Contributing to the long delay was the illness, and [[DiedDuringProduction eventual death]], of head writer Chiaki Morosawa, wife of director Mitsuo Fukuda, from an aortic dissection in February 2016.
* Despite having been teased since 2011, ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'''s second season has been stuck in a state of limbo due to the people involved with the show leaving Creator/StudioGainax to form Creator/StudioTrigger and legal issues preventing the latter from continuing it. Finally though, after twelve years, the second season would finally be announced in 2022 during Anime Expo 2022, by none other than TRIGGER themselves.

* [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate]] [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] Versus ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (Issue 3). Originally solicited for April 19th, 2006. Finally released in March 2009. Frankly, it's amazing Marvel finally remembered.
* Creator/KevinSmith's ''ComicBook/SpiderManBlackCatTheEvilThatMenDo'' mini-series. A 6-issue mini-series started in 2002 but went into hiatus after the 3rd issue. Issues #4-6 were published in 2006.
* [[https://indyplanet.com/?s=Gemini+Storm Gemini Storm]] was created in 2008, but had massive delays since everyone on the project was new to ongoing comics and weren't used to deadlines, especially the colorist. Finally released in March 2010. And then the second issue was on hold until December 2010. According to the notes though, Wood has stopped inking the pages, which has sped up the process and the new colorists are much more reliable.
* Issue #8 of Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/TheTwelve'', a 12-issue limited series, came out in January 2009. Issue #9 came out over three years later, in February 2012.
* Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity'' was notoriously in the works ever since the end of ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', scheduled for 2010, then 2012, then 2013, until finally being solicited in 2014.

* The third mini-series of ''ComicBook/{{Phonogram}}'', concentrating on Emily Aster and titled ''The Immaterial Girl'', was teased by Creator/KieronGillen and Creator/JamieMcKelvie for years and initially scheduled to be released in 2012. Gillen's afterword to ''ComicBook/TheWickedAndTheDivine'' #5 strongly hinted that they'd given up on the story because they'd both changed too much over the years to want to write/draw in that world anymore. It finally got SavedFromDevelopmentHell in 2015, when its release was announced at the Image Expo, and it finally began in August of that year.
* ''Creator/SergioAragones Funnies'' had an 18-month gap between issues 7 (January 2012) and 8 (June 2013). This was due to Sergio Aragones needing an operation, which set everything back.
** Speaking of which, the ''[[ComicBook/GrooTheWanderer Groo]] vs. [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]'' crossover was originally announced in 2007, but got delayed several times for various reasons, the aforementioned operation being one of them. It finally came out in 2014, seven years later.

* ''ComicBook/WhiteSand'' was languishing on Brandon Sanderson's shelf as a piece of literature for ten-odd years, always awaiting a rewrite, before Dynamite came along and asked if there's something Sanderson has that they could turn into a graphic novel.
* ''ComicBook/{{NYX}}'' by Creator/JoeQuesada started out as a mini-series in 2003 but repeatedly faced delays in production and release of new issues. It went on hiatus following the 5th issue (September 2004) and was thought discontinued. The final two issues were published in September-October, 2005, completing at least the introduction of the main characters. Some unresolved subplots were covered in a sequel mini-series in 2008-2009.
* ''ComicBook/GhostRider'' vol. 2 (1990-1998) was discontinued after 93 issues, mostly because Marvel Comics was facing financial problems and was forced to cancel several of its ongoing series. A number of long-running plotlines and in-series mysteries were supposed to be resolved in issue #94, but that issue was not allowed to be published. After several years of inaction, Marvel published the missing issue as ''Ghost Rider Finale'' in 2007.

* ''ComicBook/SkyDoll'' is a Franco-Italian sci-fi comic started in 2000, whose very complex art style needs long preparation time. Issue 3 came out in 2006, and after some (admittedly gorgeous) preparatory sketches from 2012 or so, issue 4 finally saw the light of the day in 2016, a full decade later.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' -- "A Shepherd's Tale". Announced in 2007, finally released in November 2010.

* For a long time, Season 5 of ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' updated bi-''yearly'', if at all, all throughout the serial "Nocturnals". Eventually, on September 1 2, 2013, Creator/{{garfieldodie}} uploaded Part 2 of Season 5 and revealed that it would update on a semi-regular basis and that the absence was caused by real life getting in the way.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Atelier}} Atelier Marie and Elie]]'' had various FanTranslation programs going on for both the original games and the [=PS2=] compilation for well over a decade, before a French team finally delivered the game in English in March 2018, roughly 20 years after the games first hit shelves in Japan.
* ''[=BioCraft=]: Chronicles'', a spoof-style ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' fan film made using ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' was set to come out at the end of 2011. After being scrapped and started over, it was put on indefinite hiatus in '14. The project and its status became a kind of running joke in the community, and after final release date of April 1, 2019, was announced, it surprised many when it ''did'' come out.

* One of the ultimate examples: in the '60s, Creator/RichardWilliams began work on ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'', an Arabian nights-esque tale featuring a silent Creator/BusterKeaton style protagonist and a big name star in Creator/VincentPrice. The film languished in production for decades, with Williams steadfastly refusing to give up on it. In fact, pretty much every job he took in the interim was done purely for the money so he could continue working on his [[DoingItForTheArt labor of love]] (which certainly explains the likes of ''WesternAnimation/RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure''). By the time the film was finally released in a severely compromised form in 1995, the hero had several lines and Price had been dead for two years. Fortunately, there now exists a fan-created version of the film, which uses both footages from the compromised release as well as the animators' own rough animation tests to better suit the original vision of the story.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}} Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil]]'' was supposed to be released in January 2010. However, it was stuck in development hell.[[note]]Burger King apparently didn't get the memo and released kid's meal toys around the time the movie was supposed to be released.[[/note]] [[http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/whatever-happened-to-hoodwinked-too.html The creator himself wasn't sure when it was going to be released]], if ever. It finally came out in April 2011. Bizarrely, this meant Creator/HaydenPanettiere had two movies SavedFromDevelopmentHell in 2011, as ''Fireflies in the Garden'' (filmed in 2008 and released in Europe) had a long wait before U.S. release due to mixed reactions in Europe and distributor difficulties (the original distributor Senator Entertainment went under); it was eventually released in October of that year.
* The French animated film ''WesternAnimation/TheKingAndTheMockingbird'', which started production in [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1948]], and wasn't finished until ''1980''.
* In 2004, the CGI film ''WesternAnimation/{{Foodfight}}'' was announced (it had been in development since the '90s, but production was halted in 2002 when the files containing the animation were stolen from a hard drive and the animators had to start over from scratch). Best described as "''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' in a supermarket", the film promised to bring together over 80 famous [[ProductPlacement beloved advertising characters]] (the process of licensing that many food mascots took YEARS, and even then, they couldn't license all 80 they wanted, so the characters they couldn't license were replaced with rather unintelligent {{Expies}}) with voice talent including Creator/CharlieSheen, Creator/{{Hilary|Duff}} and Haylie Duff, Creator/WayneBrady, and Creator/EvaLongoria. The creators expected it to be a real commercial hit, merchandise for the movie started appearing on store shelves before the movie even had a release date... unfortunately the film ran into countless problems as detailed [[http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/whatever-happened-to-foodfight-19787.html here]], or perhaps [[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/movies/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-computer-animated-foodfight.html in this New York Times article]]. After many years, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9r4pfoT1As a trailer]] was finally shown at AHM in 2011, and [[http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/foodfight-coming-to-dvd.html a company has the bought the DVD rights for this film in Europe]], and a quiet American release though Video-On-Demand came in 2013, at which point it was quickly destroyed by internet critics.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Delgo}}''. Development was begun in 1999 by Marc Adler, who wanted to make a big-budget, computer-animated film independent of titans like Disney and [=DreamWorks=]. Alder and his small animation studio, Fathom Studios, spent $40 million making the film, cast the likes of Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Val Kilmer, and took so long to finish it that by the time it was released, two of the actors (Anne Bancroft and John Vernon) had been dead for three years. When they couldn't get any major studio interested in the film, Fathom instead had a distributor-for-hire give the film a wide release, which it received on December 12, 2008. It is now famous for having [[http://web.archive.org/web/20081227205014/http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/delgo-worst-opening-ever.html the worst opening weekend of any wide-release film ever]] until it was dethroned by ''Film/TheOogielovesInTheBigBalloonAdventure'' in 2012. The fact that the film itself is a ClicheStorm of epic proportions certainly didn't help.

* Creator/MarcellJankovics's AnimatedAdaptation of the Hungarian play ''Animation/TheTragedyOfMan'' had its script written way back in 1983, alongside a ''[[Literature/TheBible Bible]]'' series that was co-financed by an American backer. Said backer disappeared some years later, prompting the studio to greenlight ''The Tragedy of Man'' instead. Production began in '88, only for state funding to cease a year or two later. Jankovics and various animation teams kept working on the film for the following decades, trying to raise interest by screening completed scenes at festivals. With the help of an aborted gig at Disney (see ''Kingdom of the Sun'' below) and a GM advertizing deal, the animation was finally done by 2009. The finished film, with updated vocal work, was released in late 2011.
** The work that had gone into the unmade 80s ''Bible'' adaptation would also be partially salvaged and made into a 2015 illustrated book, alongside a 26 minute long cartoon episode, the only one to be completed.

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''. Disney came up with an idea for a movie about video games back in the late '80s, under the working title ''High Score''. This incarnation of the movie never got off the ground. Then they revived the concept during the late '90s, this time under the title ''Joe Jump'', but this one didn't get very far either. The concept was revived yet again in the mid-2000s as ''Reboot Ralph'', and production finally started around 2010 or 2011, now with the title ''Wreck-It Ralph''. The movie was slated for a March 2013 release, but due to the film being finished quicker than expected, it was moved to a November 2012 release (with the DVD and Blu-Ray coming in March, funnily enough), going on to be a critical and commercial success, while Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'', which was slated for that time frame, was moved to Summer 2013.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCroods'' was in development for around a decade. It was originally set to be a Creator/AardmanAnimations film animated in stop-motion and written by Creator/JohnCleese titled "Crood Awakening" but it ended up falling through. When Creator/DreamWorksAnimation broke off their deal with Aardman, they retained the rights and different directors tried working with it until it was given to Chris Sanders and gained its current form, released in 2013.

* For a better part of the 1990s, Disney had been struggling to make ''Kingdom of the Sun'', a typical animation renaissance-era musical based on ''The Prince and The Pauper'', but after hitting numerous walls in story development, the creators scrapped 90% of what they had drastically re-tooled it into the comedy classic now known as ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLastDaysOfConeyIsland'' from Creator/RalphBakshi was announced in 2005, but due to multiple distributors and production problems, it was eventually out in Development Hell. However, in 2013, Bakshi managed a successful Kickstarter for the film to be made as a short anthology film. It was eventually released to Vimeo on his 77th birthday on October 27th, 2015.

* Since 2003, there had been talks of doing another ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' film known tentatively as "''The Jungle Movie''" which would be the GrandFinale of the series. It would have had Arnold discovering what really happened to his parents and resolving things with Helga. After the box office failure of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'', this was put on the back burner. In 2016, it was announced that the movie will finally be made (as a MadeForTVMovie) with Creator/CraigBartlett at the helm and [[WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie was released in 2017]].

* ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'' (1955) spend more than a decade in development hell. The film concept was conceived by Disney story man Joe Grant in 1937. Grant used his own pet dog called "Lady" as an inspiration. Grant and several other Disney artists worked on various proposed scripts for the film for the rest of the 1930s and 1940s, but all versions were rejected by Walt Disney himself (who thought their stories lacked in action and their protagonist was too sweet). After 12 years of working on a never-finished script, Grant left the Disney studio in 1949. Other storymen continued where Grant left off, and the script was completed in 1953. The animation department worked on the film for two years (1953-1955), and production again faced unexpected delays. Among other things animator, Frank Thomas insisted that a romantic scene he put much effort in (with Lady and the Tramp eating spaghetti) had to be kept, and repeatedly argued with Walt Disney who wanted the scene cut. And the film's initial background artist Mary Blair quit early in production, in order to start a new career as a book illustrator. A replacement had to be found and backgrounds remade in a new style.
* ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' (1951) spent almost 20 years in development hell. Creator/WaltDisney reportedly conceived of the idea of making his first animated feature film in 1932, and that film was supposed to be Alice. He purchased the rights to John Tenniel's illustrations of the story and even had an actress in mind to hire. But then he found out that Creator/{{Paramount}} was working on an Alice film and discontinued the project. Alice was replaced in the production schedule with a feature film about [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Snow White]]. Disney revived the Alice project in 1938 and discontinued it again in 1939, this time over concerns with the budget. Disney revived the Alice project again in 1945, but delays in the scriptwriting process, redesigns of the characters and animations, and the studio's focus on higher-priority films kept it unfinished until 1951.

* Creator/{{Filmation}} started working on ''WesternAnimation/JourneyBackToOz'' around 1964, but due to the funding running out they were forced to put it aside, with the studio becoming busy producing Saturday Morning shows. Eventually, in the early 1970s, they finally received enough funds to finish the film. It premiered in 1974, a whole decade after it entered production.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheHauntedWorldOfElSuperbeasto'' was supposed to come out in May 2007 but it was released only two years later when Music/RobZombie completed his other commitments.
* ''WesternAnimation/PawsOfFuryTheLegendOfHank'' was announced in 2015 for a 2017 release under the name ''Blazing Samurai''. Sometime during that, its two animation studios, Mass Animation and Arc Productions, after TroubledProduction were both shut down along with the film's main distributor Open Road. The movie was nowhere to be seen despite various companies announcing their work on it and actors stating it was still happening until Creator/{{Paramount}} (under the Paramount Animation brand before switching it last minute to Creator/NickelodeonMovies) finally announced it as ''Paws of Fury''. It will finally release on July 15, 2022.

* ''Film/FreddyVsJason'':
** If ''AVP'' is the most famous case, this is likely the second most famous, as the film was also famously mired in development hell for years; originally, the studios who owned the [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet two]] [[Franchise/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...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 story of the film's stay in Development Hell--and the numerous script ideas that came before the final script--is a bonus feature on the movie's DVD.
* ''Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve'' suffered a similar ordeal but in a smaller scale and shorter time period.
* One of the earliest examples of this was Creator/HowardHughes' ''Film/HellsAngels'', which, due to Hughes' perfectionism and insistence on the latest film technology, took three years and a budget of $3.8 million to create, something unheard of at the time (and equaling somewhere on the order of $225 million in today's money). Two decades later, Hughes would take ''seven'' years to complete a similar film, ''Jet Pilot''.
* ''Literature/FirstBlood'' got Hollywood's attention upon release, but Warner Bros. repeatedly couldn't adapt it, having gone through 13 different screenplays and various possible stars across 8 years before selling the rights to Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. Both brought in Creator/SylvesterStallone, the big name attracted investors, and [[Film/FirstBlood the adaptation]] finally came out in 1982, eventually starting the successful ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' franchise.
* [[Film/SupermanReturns The fifth film]] in the ''Film/{{Superman}}'' franchise was stuck in pre-production for nearly two decades. The first part of this was mostly the producers wanting to distance themselves from the failure of ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'', while the latter half was due to ExecutiveMeddling driving director after [[Creator/KevinSmith director]] after director away from the project. ''Its'' proposed sequel similarly became mired in development hell, after ''Superman Returns''' lackluster performance at the box office caused a sequel to be put on the back burner, and Creator/BryanSinger abandoned the project to direct ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'' instead. When a Superman film ''finally'' came back into production, it was as a ContinuityReboot, ''Film/ManOfSteel'', with a new cast and director Zack Snyder, producer Creator/ChristopherNolan, and writer David Goyer. The latter two were responsible for the successful [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy reboot]] of the Batman franchise, incidentally... (see below)

* The rights to a live-action adaptation of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' were sold to United Artists shortly before Creator/JRRTolkien's death in 1973. Although scripts were intermittently under development and two animated adaptations made it to the screen despite their own [[DevelopmentHell development hells]], the conventional wisdom was that the trilogy as written was unfilmable due to its sheer length and complexity. Studios were extremely reluctant to green-light scripts that would obligate them to more than one film. Even one-film scripts (adapted [[InNameOnly almost beyond recognition]]) came with 3-hour running times, well beyond what [[ExecutiveMeddling studios believed]] moviegoers would be willing to sit through. It wasn't until 1994 that Miramax gave Creator/PeterJackson permission to move forward on a 5-hour, 2-movie script. By 1999, with shooting not even started, the studio had lost confidence and Jackson had to shop the script around again. New Line not only picked it up but also approved the third film, bringing the total running time to 7 hours. Jackson and his writing team, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens had to completely revamp the script ''during shooting'' to meet the new parameters. [[note]]In the directors' commentary track and making-of documentary footage from the Extended Edition DVD releases, Jackson and the writers point out several plot elements (such as Arwen rescuing Frodo at the Ford) that were originally created to get around time constraints but were retained for other purposes (such as increasing the prominence of female characters) or that might have eventually been removed if they hadn't run out of time for rewrites.[[/note]] [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The first film]] was not released until 2001, 28 years after the film rights were sold...but finally redeemed ''Lord of the Rings'' from Development Hell with blockbuster success.
* ''Film/TheHobbit'' had to resolve some serious legal issues before it could be green-lit, delaying production until 2009 despite the fact that Jackson had been seeking an adaptation since 1995. The film then suffered creative control problems -- such as the studio's refusal to film in New Zealand (the location for the LOTR films) -- which caused then-director Guillermo del Toro to leave the project. Fortunately, Peter Jackson managed to retake control as both director and producer and the first of three ''Hobbit'' films came out in December 2012.
* ''Film/{{The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy|2005}}'' was announced in 1982, but filming did not begin until 2003, two years after series creator Creator/DouglasAdams died from a sudden heart attack. Adams said of his experience trying to get the film made, "Getting a movie made in Hollywood is like trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it." For several years, the About the Author blurb in Adams' books included the line (in the context of discussing the Hitchhiker's series) "A major motion picture is currently in development hell and should be coming out any decade now." This no doubt helped popularize the term.
* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' and ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' were both announced as films in the mid-1980s and were mired in development hell well into the 2000s, due to budgetary concerns, the difficulty of finding suitable directors, and Creator/AlanMoore's complete unwillingness to participate in adaptations of his graphic novels. ''Film/VForVendetta'' eventually saw release in 2006, and ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' was released in 2009. Both these films seem to have come to fruition due mainly to the enormous clout of Creator/TheWachowskis and Creator/ZackSnyder.
* Creator/QuentinTarantino announced his plans to shoot a WWII movie titled ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' shortly after the 1997 release of ''Film/JackieBrown''. As of 2007, he was still working on the script, but in late 2008 it began shooting and was released in August 2009.
* A fourth ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' was initially intended to begin production in 2004 for a summer 2005 release, but soon entered development hell. The producers even considered pulling the plug once Creator/MichaelCrichton died in 2008. Then in 2011, Creator/StevenSpielberg confirmed the fourth movie was on the way, and in 2013 the eventual director of ''Film/JurassicWorld'' was hired. The film was eventually released in June 2015, being as much of a box office behemoth as the original.
* The ''Film/SpeedRacer'' live-action film was first announced in 1992. Four directors later and through many casting, studio, and writer changes, the film was released in May 2008.
* The 2000 film ''Film/{{Supernova}}'' (not to be confused with any of the many other films with that title) was in development for 12 years and cost an estimated 60 million dollars. Although the theatrical version runs only 87 minutes (the director's cut is 91), reportedly several hours of completed footage exists, much of it self-contradictory due to changes made to the script during the filming stage. Both Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and Creator/HRGiger were involved at one point.
* In a unique example of development hell continuing into post-production, the film ''Film/ExorcistTheBeginning'' had completed filming and was having some final SFX work done when the studio fired Creator/PaulSchrader and replaced him with Creator/RennyHarlin, who recast almost all of the supporting characters, changed the context of the scenes he didn't have reshot, and completely rewrote the film's climax. After Harlin's film bombed, Schrader was allowed to finish his version with a ''very'' limited special effects budget, and it received a theatrical release under the title ''[[Film/TheExorcist Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist]]'', and did a ''little'' better critically (due to a limited release, the gross was even shorter).
* The rumors of a remake/reboot of ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' were first floated around the turn of the millennium, with everyone from Creator/KevinSpacey to Creator/ChrisTucker to Creator/MikeMyers reportedly being considered for Inspector Clouseau.[[note]]Myers was apparently the favorite of the studio, but his asking fee was too high.[[/note]] It filmed as [[Film/ThePinkPanther2006 a reboot]] in 2004 with Creator/SteveMartin, but wasn't released until early 2006, largely due to a studio merger in the interim. There was also some editing done, in order to re-cast it as a family-friendly comedy rather than the more ribald, raunchy film of its original iteration.
* It was also around the TurnOfTheMillennium that the prospect of a new adaptation of ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' began development in earnest, going through several potential directors (Gary Ross, Creator/MartinScorsese) and a gigantic list of potential Willy Wonkas (Creator/WillSmith, Creator/RobinWilliams, Creator/NicolasCage, Music/MarilynManson, etc.) before settling on Creator/TimBurton as director and from there Creator/JohnnyDepp as Wonka.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''. It took a long time before Creator/GeorgeLucas, Creator/StevenSpielberg and Creator/HarrisonFord agreed on a script - and thus the TrilogyCreep came [[SequelGap 19 years]] after ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', with a fifth film scheduled for 2023.
* A ''Film/CatsAndDogs'' sequel was intended for release in 2005. After some story rewrites, it was finally released in 2010.

* ''Film/{{Dead Air|2009}}'', which had been pushed back twice. It eventually got released.
* A live-action ''Manga/DragonBall'' movie was announced in 2002, but didn't get out until 2009 as ''Film/DragonballEvolution''.
* For some unknown reason, there was a 14-year gap between the fourth ''Film/StTrinians'' movie (''The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery'', 1966) and the fifth (''The Wildcats of St. Trinian's'', 1980). But there's no mystery why there was a 27-year gap between ''Wildcats'' and the sixth (''Film/{{St Trinians|2007}}'', 2007); ''Wildcats'' was reportedly so dire that it's the only one not available on DVD.

* The ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' franchise post-''[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay T2]]'':
** ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'', helped by the collapse of Creator/{{Carolco|Pictures}}, complicating an already complex rights ownership situation. Rights bought in 1997, Schwarzenegger hired in 2001, the movie came out two years later.
** ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'', which also burned in said DevelopmentHell during its production as well. There were ''seven'' writers of the script when you include Jonathan Nolan and the two guys who actually did the original script, and the ending was fundamentally altered after test audiences reacted negatively.
** ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'', helped by ''Salvation'''s production company going bankrupt. The hedge fund they owed money to became the rights holders before selling them to Megan Ellison's Annapurna Films in 2012. Ellison's brother David and others from his Skydance Productions agreed to co-produce the film, which came out three years later.
* ''Film/MissPettigrewLivesForADay'': In 1939, the film rights for the novel were bought, and production was about to begin when UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started, throwing everything into a spin. The movie was shelved. They tried again in 1954, but nothing came of it. The movie finally was released in 2008. Nearly ''seven decades'' after the movie rights were purchased. A sequel is now in the works. Let's see how long the development period will be on that one.
* Throughout 1989 and 1990, Creator/StanLee and Creator/ChrisClaremont were in discussions with Creator/JamesCameron and Carolco Pictures for an ''Franchise/XMen'' film adaptation. The deal fell apart when Cameron went to work on ''Spider-Man'', Carolco went bankrupt, and the film rights reverted to Marvel Studios. In December 1992, Marvel discussed selling the property to Creator/ColumbiaPictures to no avail. Meanwhile, Avi Arad produced ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' for Creator/FoxKids. Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox was impressed by the success of the TV show, and producer Lauren Shuler Donner purchased the film rights for them in 1994. [[Film/XMen1 The film]] went through a number of scripts and actor and director changes and was eventually released in July 2000, starting a long-running film series and spawning a reemergence of superhero films.
* A ''Film/SpiderMan1'' film was released in 2002, after the filming rights jumped through several companies for 20 years: [[Creator/TheCannonGroup Cannon Films]], which almost made a low-budget flick in the vein of ''Film/{{Superman IV|TheQuestForPeace}}''; Creator/CarolcoPictures, which even considered a screenplay by Creator/JamesCameron before suffering financial and legal troubles; and [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]], which traded the rights with Columbia for the rights to ''Literature/CasinoRoyale''.
* The fourth ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' film went through this later on, to the point where Columbia and director Creator/SamRaimi ended up canceling the project altogether in early 2010, with Raimi announcing that he could not meet the May 2011 release date. At the same time, Columbia announced a reboot was to begin development shortly, and ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' was released in July 2012.
* ''Film/{{Hulk}}'': Development began in the 1990s, but the film was not released until 2003.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** An ''ComicBook/IronMan'' film adaptation was in development since 1990 when Universal Studios bought the rights. The film then went through several changes in studios, writers and directors for more than a decade until 2005 when Marvel Studios reacquired the rights and put the film in production as their first independent feature. The [[Film/IronMan1 film]] finally released on May 2, 2008, to great success.
** ''Film/{{Thor}}'': Creator/SamRaimi originally envisioned making a ''Thor'' movie after ''Film/{{Darkman}}''. He met Creator/StanLee and pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox, but they did not understand it. The project was abandoned for a while, but the success of ''Film/XMen1'' in 2000 helped it gain some momentum. The film went through several writers, directors, and studios before the rights went back to Marvel in 2006, who finally produced the film and released it in May 2011.
** Yet another Marvel property, ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'', also languished in development hell as far back as 1997. In May 2000, Marvel teamed with Artisan Entertainment to help finance the film. However, a lawsuit arose between Marvel Comics and Joe Simon over the ownership of Captain America copyrights, disrupting the development process of the film. The lawsuit was eventually settled in September 2003. The rights were later acquired by Marvel in 2005 who were planning to independently produce several films with Creator/ParamountPictures distributing, and [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger the film]] finally saw release on July 22, 2011.
** A Comicbook/DoctorStrange film has been considered for three decades, with big names like Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/GuillermoDelToro attached. An adaptation of sorts did get off the ground under Full Moon Features, but hastily became a CaptainErsatz product when they lost the rights, becoming ''Film/DoctorMordrid''. But as soon as the MCU started up properly, production streamed through from 2010 onwards and [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 a movie of the Sorcerer Supreme]] was done as part of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring Creator/BenedictCumberbatch and directed by Creator/ScottDerrickson, hitting theaters in late 2016.
** Creator/WesleySnipes began campaigning for a ComicBook/BlackPanther film in 1992, and even after he was cast to play the title character in the popular ''Film/BladeTrilogy'', the project was still in various stages of production throughout most of the '90s and the TurnOfTheMillennium. Avi Arad announced a ''Black Panther'' movie as part of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse way back in 2005, but nothing came of it until late 2014, when Marvel officially confirmed that a ''[[Film/BlackPanther2018 Black Panther]]'' movie starring Creator/ChadwickBoseman was released in 2018. Like the Wonder Woman example below, Marvel first introduced the character in another movie (''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'') before spinning him off into his own film in 2018.
** A ComicBook/BlackWidow film was first considered when Lionsgate commissioned a script from Creator/DavidHayter back in 2004 before dropping the project, and once Creator/ScarlettJohansson became the MCU's Natasha Romanoff in 2010, Kevin Feige and Marvel were soon discussing making a solo movie. The movie finally got announced in July 2018, with Jac Schaeffer tapped to write and Cate Shortland as director. Filming eventually started in early 2019, and [[Film/BlackWidow2021 the movie was ultimately made]], but ended up being one of the ''many'' projects screwed by the Usefulnotes/Covid19Pandemic hitting less than two months before its original scheduled debut, forcing three delays. The movie finally hit theaters (and [[Creator/DisneyPlus streaming]]) in July 2021.
** Attempts to get the ball rolling on a ComicBook/ShangChi movie date back to the 1980s, when Creator/StanLee reportedly met with Creator/BrandonLee about possibly playing the character. In 2003, a Shang-Chi film was announced to be in development at [=DreamWorks=], with Hong Kong action legend Creator/YuenWooPing directing and Creator/AngLee producing. The production soon fell by the wayside and the character’s rights reverted to Marvel, who subsequently mentioned Shang-Chi as one of the projects being developed for the nascent MCU back in 2006. Despite this, the movie wouldn’t officially pick up steam until a writer was hired in late 2018, which was followed by director Creator/DestinDanielCretton signing on in 2019. The resultant movie, ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'', would finally be released in 2021, with Creator/SimuLiu starring in the title role.
** The third ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' was placed on indefinite hold after Disney executive Alan Horn fired director James Gunn in July 2018 for some nearly decade-old offensive jokes made on Twitter (that he's sincerely apologized for). Although Disney and Marvel kept Gunn's script out of goodwill, the film lost its original 2020 release date when it became clear no director wanted to take over in light of the controversy, and several cast members, most notably [[Wrestling/{{Batista}} Dave Batista]], threatened to leave in protest of Gunn's dismissal. Worse, it turned out that the jokes were dug up by alt-right trolls trying to smear Gunn for his political views, thus discouraging anyone from associating themselves with the film. Three months after his firing, Gunn was hired by Warner Bros. to write and direct a new ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' film, making him even less likely to come back to MCU. Gunn's dismissal also led to the scrapping of many of the cosmic storylines that would take place after ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', since he was supposed to oversee them. Although Gunn was rehired in March 2019, his commitments to ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'' and the COVID-19 pandemic pushed filming alone to 2021, with ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'' finally landing a mid-2023 release date.
* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:
** Plans for a ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' movie have been in various stages of production since the 1990s, with creators ranging from David E. Kelley to Creator/JossWhedon attached at various points. In October 2014, WB finally announced that [[Film/WonderWoman2017 a Wonder Woman movie]] was in the works, which opened to great success in 2017. Additionally, the character first made her film debut in 2016's ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', portrayed by Creator/GalGadot.
** The previously planned ''Franchise/JusticeLeague'' film (a serious case of WhatCouldHaveBeen) petered out after a year in development. In 2007, pre-production got underway, with many major names attached to star in the film (including Creator/AdamBrody as The Flash, Music/{{Common}} as Franchise/GreenLantern John Stewart, and Creator/MichaelGough as Alfred [reprising his role from the Film/BatmanFilmSeries). Numerous problems happened during pre-production (the film's costume designer passed away, a Hollywood writer's strike derailed the script development and there were rumors that director Creator/GeorgeMiller had been canned from the project). Finally, the film was delayed less than ''a month'' before it began shooting and become effectively moribund. Then, with the success of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, specifically ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', the studio began again to make the film happen, with [[http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Justice-League-Movie-What-We-Know-So-Far-32429.html 2013 rumors]] of releasing ''Film/ManOfSteel'' first leading into an ''Avengers''-like team-up of Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/GreenLantern, Franchise/WonderWoman and Franchise/TheFlash. Then, the ''Man of Steel'' sequel, ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' was made as a BackdoorPilot to ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' (to the point its subtitle is "Dawn of Justice"). The Justice League film was then released in 2017, after a TroubledProduction that led to Joss Whedon taking over directing duties from Zack Snyder (from both ''Man of Steel'' and the sequel) to retool the movie. It resulted in mixed-to-negative reviews. Due to [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow fan pressure]], a version of the film that adhered closer to what Snyder and screenwriter Creator/ChrisTerrio intended, ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', was eventually released in 2021, and was much better received.
** Wrestling/DwayneJohnson was cast as Film/{{Black Adam|2022}} as far back as ''2007''. He never gave up on the film project and it ended up being made in 2021.
* The ''Film/Deadpool2016'' movie was announced as far back as 2000; when [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century Fox]] got their hands on the project, they originally planned it as a spin-off of ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' with Creator/RyanReynolds reprising his role as the title character. The overwhelmingly negative reception to ''Origins'' nipped these plans in the bud, and though various screenplays still floated around, it wasn't until 2014 that Fox ''finally'' gave the project the green light (thanks primarily to the overwhelmingly positive response to some leaked test footage which had been sitting on a shelf since 2012), with the film finally released on February 2016 to enormous success. And in case you're wondering, [[CanonDiscontinuity no, the final film is not connected to]] ''Origins'' in any way ([[TakeThat besides taking multiple potshots at it]]); it helps that ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' gave ''Film/Deadpool2016'' a major out by outright {{retcon}}ning ''Origins'' out of the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' movie canon.
* ''Film/TheBoondockSaintsIIAllSaintsDay''. The original came out in 1999, and by 2002 had finally received backing for a sequel. Planned for release in 2005, the film didn't come out until 2009, ten years after the original.
* The first American ''Film/{{Godzilla|1998}}'' movie was first suggested way back in the 1970s. Of course, due to things like budget, rejected scripts, and the like, it wasn't until 1998 that the movie was finally released.
* The film adaptation of the ''ComicBook/{{Whiteout}}'' comic book finally got released in 2009 after having been announced nearly 10 years ago.

* It took over a decade for ''Series/TheATeam'' [[Film/TheATeam film]] to be made, and the movie went through 11 scripts. In the first script, the team members were supposed to be veterans of the ''First'' Iraq War!
* When Creator/MartinScorsese is [[TheDeterminator determined]] to make a film he follows through, no matter how many decades or how many films he makes in-between, he will eventually make his passion projects:
** ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' was first recommended by actress Barbara Hershey (who eventually played Mary Magdalene ''19 years later'') to Scorsese during the making of ''Film/BoxcarBertha''. Scorsese had always planned on making a film about Jesus, and initially, he even considered adapting Robert Graves' ''King Jesus'' before settling on Nikos Kazantzakis' unusual take. ''The Last Temptation'' actually entered pre-production in TheEighties with Creator/AidenQuinn as Jesus and Music/{{Sting}} in key roles but Paramount pulled off and canceled the film. Scorsese then made ''Film/AfterHours'' and followed with ''Film/TheColorOfMoney'' whose box-office success he parlayed, successfully, into getting ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' off the ground by the end of the decade.
** ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' was planned since TheSeventies before finally entering production in the late 90s, releasing in 2002. A good deal of his DVDCommentary on the film is devoted to explaining the arduous process. Scorsese's initial plans were considered radical and ambitious. In the 70s, he planned to make it a collaboration with Music/TheClash, making it a punk musical starring Creator/MalcolmMcDowell and Creator/RobertDeNiro. In TheNineties, he considered making it a trilogy. He also stated that it was his hope that the film launch a new genre, a 19th Century Urban Western, with many films set in nascent conurbations, but it didn't quite take off as he expected.
** ''Film/{{Silence}}'' his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel was planned since TheNineties (after ''Film/CapeFear'') and entered production in 2015 and set for a 2016 release. The film was always regarded as "uncommercial" and Scorsese has hinted in interviews that several films made in TheNoughties were essentially MoneyDearBoy projects to finally give him the cash to make ''Silence''. It was planned to be produced after ''Film/TheDeparted'' with Creator/BenicioDelToro and Creator/DanielDayLewis but finally had Creator/AndrewGarfield, Creator/AdamDriver and Creator/LiamNeeson take over.
** Scorsese and Music/MickJagger had talked about making ''The Long Play'' in TheNineties, a movie about the music business, its ups and downs. Eventually, the ideas behind it got repurposed for Creator/{{HBO}} and it became ''Series/{{Vinyl}}'', which has been canceled after one season.
** ''Film/TheIrishman'' was rejected by theatrical studios for a long time due to its humoungous cost (its DigitalDeaging technology in particular) and niche market prospects. Creator/{{Netflix}} ended up financing it.
* Creator/StevenSpielberg's [[AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder busy schedule]] lead to many instances of this.
** ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'': the story that inspired it was published in 1969, Creator/StanleyKubrick begun thinking about adapting it in the early '70s (complete with bringing the author to adapt), brought in Spielberg to the project in 1985, and many false-start announcements appeared through the '90s. Then he died in 1999, Spielberg assumed control of the project, and the film finally took off.
** Since ''A.I.'' was mentioned, two films Spielberg considered directing at the time: ''Film/MinorityReport'' (announced as early as 1998 - postponed twice, first by ''A.I.'', then by Creator/TomCruise's ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleII M:I:2]]'') and ''Film/MemoirsOfAGeisha'' (eventually released in 2005, but only produced by Spielberg).
** ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011'', which has a story very close to ''Franchise/IndianaJones'': Creator/StevenSpielberg met the comic after ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' was compared to the series, tried to make a movie but became dissatisfied and did ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' instead, and finally started motion capture (with Creator/PeterJackson's assistance) after ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' was finished.
** Spielberg got interested in ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'' after the writer revealed the biography ''Team of Rivals'' in 1999 and purchased the rights two years later. The book came out in 2005, and the film released in 2012.
** The concept for the film ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' was first concieved in the early-to-mid 2000s by black hole physicist Kip Thorne and film producer Lynda Obst, who had been friends since Creator/CarlSagan set them up on a blind date decades earlier. The idea attracted Spielberg and development began in 2006, but the project got sent into a spiral when Dreamworks shifted distributors from Paramount to Disney, unmooring Spielberg from the project. The film was finally released in 2014, directed by Creator/ChristopherNolan.
* In 1988, Fox got interested in making a new ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' with Adam Rifkin (who would later write ''Film/{{Mousehunt}}'' and ''Film/SmallSoldiers'', among others). New executives made the project crash. Creator/PeterJackson, Creator/OliverStone, Creator/ChrisColumbus, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Creator/JamesCameron were involved with the movie in the following years. It only took off after William Broyles, Jr. (''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'', later ''Film/CastAway'') wrote a script in 1999, which attracted Creator/TimBurton, and led to [[Film/PlanetOfTheApes2001 the film released in 2001]].

* One of the strangest cases of development hell occurred with the film ''Film/PhoneBooth''. Writer Creator/LarryCohen began work on the project in the 1960's as a project for Creator/AlfredHitchcock. After Hitchcock died, the screenplay was shelved until Creator/JoelSchumacher read the screenplay and shot the film on a low budget for two weeks in 2000 (with a then-unknown Creator/ColinFarrell and Ron Eldard as the villain). After seeing a rough cut of the film, Fox shelved the project and re-shot Eldard's scenes with [[spoiler: Kiefer Sutherland]]. While the film was on the shelf, Cohen reworked parts of the Phone Booth screenplay, updated the technology and sold ''Film/{{Cellular}}'' to New Line Cinema (which was released in 2004) with Creator/ChrisEvans in the lead role. Eventually, Fox scheduled ''Phone Booth'' for November 15th, 2002, only for it to be delayed to April 4th, 2003 [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents following the Washington, D.C. beltway sniper attacks]], and the film managed to become a hit at the box office.
* This happened to the 2002 ''Film/PeterPan''. The original plans were made by producer Lucy Fisher who acquired the rights in 1980.
* ''Film/TheWarriorsWay'' was meant to come out early 2008... almost 3 years later it finally found itself in cinemas.
* ''Film/TrickRTreat'' went through post-production hell. It was supposed to have been released in 2007, but was eventually released in October of 2009 on DVD. Some saw this as a punishment to Bryan Singer from Warner Bros. who was disappointed with ''Superman Returns''.
* Creator/JamesCameron wrote the script for ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' in 1994, and planned for a 1999 release. It took ten years for technology to advance to the point where he could convincingly and reasonably depict another planet with CGI. [[SceneryPorn He succeeded.]] Since it was already written at the time, he even snuck [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC-OTMFJm2Q a reference to Avatar]] into ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}''.

* The film adaptation of ''Film/AtlasShrugged''. There were two failed attempts in TheSeventies to turn it into a MiniSeries -- the first one fell through when Creator/AynRand wasn't able to secure final script approval, while the second one had a finished script (with Rand's approval) written by Stirling Silliphant (writer of ''Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight'', ''Series/{{Route 66}}'', ''[[Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960 Village of the Damned]]'', ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'', and ''Film/TheToweringInferno'') and was gearing up for production at Creator/{{NBC}}, but that too was halted after Fred Silverman came to power at the network. Rand started work on her own script, but [[DiedDuringProduction she died]] with only a third of it finished. The film rights switched hands multiple times in the ensuing decades, and at one point such stars as Creator/AngelinaJolie, Creator/BradPitt, Creator/CharlizeTheron, Creator/JuliaRoberts, Creator/AnneHathaway, and Creator/RussellCrowe were all attached. All of their deals, however, fell through, and the current rights-holders rushed through an independently-financed production [[AshcanCopy in order to prevent the film rights from reverting to the Rand estate]]. The result, released in 2011 as ''Atlas Shrugged: Part I'', was critically thrashed and went largely ignored even by the conservatives and libertarians that its marketing aggressively courted. Still, the filmmakers managed to get the second and third parts of the trilogy out the door in 2012 and 2014, albeit with [[NoBudget even smaller budgets]] (the third film was made for just $5 million) and [[TheOtherDarrin recast actors]] in every film.
* ''Film/{{Superbad}}'' was written by Creator/SethRogen and Evan Goldberg in the mid-'90s, as a way to prove that they could write a movie script. Years later, after working with Creator/JuddApatow on the short-lived TV series ''Series/{{Undeclared}}'', they pitched the script to him. Originally, Seth Rogen was to play the role of Seth, and he recorded a script reading of the lines back in '02. During the early and mid-2000s, they could not find a company who wanted to distribute the film. The script also went through a few revisions, the whole idea of Seth and Evan going to separate colleges, and the emotional friendship stuff was added in a later revision. Anyway, after the success of ''Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby'', Apatow and Rogen pitched the script to Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and they accepted it. But by this time, Rogen looked too old to play the role of Seth, so they had then-unknown Creator/JonahHill take the role.
* The film version of the Creator/DaveBarry novel ''Literature/BigTrouble'' had been filmed, had a star-studded cast and was looking to be a big box-office hit...and then September 11 happened a week before the film was to be released. Being a comedy about a plane hijacking with a subplot about two teenagers playing a large-scale tag game called "Killer", the movie was shelved indefinitely. It finally appeared in theaters with little promotion in April 2002. Despite decent reviews, it failed spectacularly at the box office.
* Creator/WoodyAllen wrote the screenplay of ''Film/WhateverWorks'' in the 1970s, with Zero Mostel in mind for the main role. After Mostel died in 1977, Allen shelved the project for more than thirty years. The film was eventually released in 2009, starring Creator/LarryDavid.
* ''Film/{{Hounddog}}'' by D. Kampmeier. The script was originally written in the nineties, but the project hasn't found financing until 2005. When production started in summer 2006, it was overshadowed by [[PaedoHunt accusations of sexual exploitation of the child actors involved]]. The film was shown at the Sundance Festival in early 2007, booed and basically sent back into DevelopmentHell. It was finally ready in 2009 but was almost completely pulled from distribution at the last moment (only having 22 screens at most). It's been available on DVD since fall 2010.
* Creator/GeorgeLucas began development on ''Film/RedTails'' in 1988, but could not get any studio to produce the film (due to studios being uneasy on an adventure film with a mostly black cast). Finally, he decided to finance the film himself and had most of it filmed between 2009 and 2010. Then the film entered post-production hell due to the many scenes of visual effects, the difficulty in finding a distributor, and the film's director being unavailable for reshoots (due to his work on the show ''Series/{{Treme}}''). The film was finally released in 2012.
* The rights to the remake of the 1976 movie ''Film/{{Sparkle}}'' were bought by Music/WhitneyHouston's production company in the mid-90s, and Music/{{Aaliyah}} was intended to be cast as the lead. However, after Aaliyah's death in a plane crash in 2001, the film was not produced. In 2005, interest in the remake started again with Creator/RavenSymone in talks to star. In 2011, Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil, the producers of ''Film/JumpingTheBroom'', took on ''Sparkle'' as their next project (with Jordin Sparks in the lead and Houston as her mother) and filming ended in November 2011. The movie was released on August 17, 2012 (sadly, Houston had passed away earlier that year).

* ''Film/{{Predators}}'' was based on a 1996 script by Creator/RobertRodriguez. The finished film was released in 2010.
* James Clavell's ''Tai-Pan'' and James A. Michener's ''Caravans'' had their film rights bought up by Creator/{{MGM}}, with the 1967 promotional short "Lionpower from MGM" announcing both as future projects. [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem But MGM was falling apart]] and ultimately both books reached the screen through other means. ''Caravans'' arrived in 1978 via Creator/{{Universal}}, and ''Tai-Pan'' in 1986 through De Laurentis Entertainment Group.
* ''Film/SinCityADameToKillFor'', which was supposed to be released in 2008, finally came out in 2014. This caused several cases of TheOtherDarrin since [[Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan some]] [[Creator/BrittanyMurphy actors]] had died in the intervening years.
* A film adaptation of the ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' musical was discussed for many years; the 1991 souvenir program for the stage show claimed it was coming out in 1993 via [=TriStar=] Pictures. Universal Pictures was the studio that finally brought [[Film/LesMiserables2012 the movie to the light of day in December 2012]].
* ''Film/GrownUps'' was supposed to be made in the late 90s, and starring Creator/AdamSandler, Creator/ChrisRock, Creator/ChrisFarley, Creator/DavidSpade, and Rob Schneider, who were all known as "The Bad Boys of [[Series/SaturdayNightLive SNL]]" in the early 90s. However, after Farley's death in 1997, it got put away before it was finally made in 2010 with [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Kevin James]] in the role meant for Farley.

* Creator/WarrenBeatty spent most of the 1960s trying to make ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'', even pitching the idea to UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave directors Creator/FrancoisTruffaut and Creator/JeanLucGodard.
** Beatty also planned a Creator/HowardHughes biopic after seeing him in a hotel lobby in the early 1970s and being fascinated by him. Initially planned as a companion piece to ''Film/{{Reds|1981}}'', it was finally made as ''Rules Don't Apply'' in 2016.
* Creator/WilliamGoldman tried to get his book ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' made into a movie for about a decade. He had a deal with one studio, but the CEO was fired and the first thing the new guy does, according to Goldman, is to cancel all projects in progress (so the old guy doesn't get any credit if any of them are hits). He made another deal with a different studio, only to have the ''entire studio'' shut down.
* The movie adaptation of Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' was being talked about at the end of TheEighties but didn't arrive until 2004.

* ''Film/HighlanderTheSource'' stalled for several years and went through several writers and numerous script rewrites before the final project was made. Fans hoped it would improve the thing, but it was still terrible.
* The truly bizarre story of ''Dark Blood'': The movie was, by director George Sluizer's estimation, "80 percent finished" when shooting wrapped up for the night on October 30, 1993, the night that the film's star, Creator/RiverPhoenix, died of a drug overdose. Much of what was left to be filmed consisted of interior shots requiring close-ups of Phoenix's character, so the filmmakers and the insurance company were left to conclude that there was no cost-efficient way to salvage the movie, at which point the investors were paid out and ownership of the movie transferred to the insurers themselves. In 1999, no longer willing to pay to warehouse the film, the insurance company was set to destroy it, but Sluizer [[NoodleIncident somehow]] rescued the footage. Flash forward to Christmas Day, 2007. Sluizer collapses suddenly while vacationing in the French Alps and was evacuated to a local hospital, then driven five '''hours''' to a cardiovascular hospital to be treated for...an acute aortic dissection, which normally kills a person within five '''minutes'''. While he's recovering, he comes to the decision that he has to complete this movie, and starts soliciting donations on what amounts to the Dutch equivalent of Website/{{Kickstarter}}. Ultimately, the decision was made to fill in the narrative gaps using a voiceover, with Sluizer considering using an actor but eventually deciding to do it himself. The film premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival on September 27, 2012--nearly ''nineteen years'' after the death of its star.

* ''Film/TheFighter'' was in limbo for four years. Creator/MarkWahlberg began training (boxing) for the role in 2005. Throughout the various production delays, Wahlberg continued to train every day so that he could be ready for filming. Filming finally began in July 2009.
* It appeared at one point in time that ''Film/TheLoneRanger'' would never be made due to its budget coming in at well over $200 million, in part due to the poor performance of ''Film/CowboysAndAliens''. As late as fall 2011 Disney announced it had shelved the project, though production picked up again a few months later, and the film rode into theaters in 2013.
* ''Film/EndersGame'' was written in 1985, and author Orson Scott Card started writing the screenplay for the movie in 1996. The film was finally released in November 2013. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game_%28film%29#Development Here]] are more details of its very long development.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** The prequels only started development in 1993, 10 years after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' (and [[Film/ThePhantomMenace the first]] reached theaters six years later), as Creator/GeorgeLucas felt audiences still had interest in his saga, and ''Film/JurassicPark'' showed effects were advanced enough to make his ideas easy to film.
** The Sequel Trilogy was planned since 1975, as Lucas' original idea was for 9 movies (with [[Film/ANewHope the first filmed]] being [[AnachronicOrder the fourth]]). After later being abandoned and denied for several years - ultimately during production of the prequels, as Lucas stated he had no interest in continuing the story as the hexalogy provided a complete HerosJourney for [[FallenHero Anakin/Vader]] - the trilogy was brought back in 2012 after Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm. ''Star Wars: Episode VII: Film/TheForceAwakens'' was released in December 2015, ''Episode VIII: Film/TheLastJedi'' was released in December 2017, and ''Episode IX: Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' was released in December 2019. In-between the regular chapters, Disney released {{Spin Off}}s, with ''Film/RogueOne'' in 2016 and ''Film/{{Solo}}'' in 2018.
* A live-action adaptation of ''Anime/KikisDeliveryService'' has been rumored since (according to IMDB) 2005. In April 2013, it was announced that Creator/TakashiShimizu (the known director of Film/JuOn) will direct it, and rather than being a remake of the Creator/StudioGhibli movie, it's a more direct adaptation of the illustrated novel by Eiko Kadono. The Japanese release occurred in March 2014.
* The ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2015}}'' reboot was announced by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 2009, but the film languished in limbo until a cast and director were finally chosen in 2014, and it was released in 2015. [[HereWeGoAgain Unfortunately, it was a critical and financial failure, so now, another reboot is being planned...]] [[ChannelHop but by]] Creator/MarvelStudios, thanks to Fox's purchase.
* ''Film/ThisMeansWar2012'''s initial script goes back at least a decade, with screenwriter Larry Doyle claiming he read an early draft of the script in 1998. Creator/SethRogen, Creator/BradleyCooper, Creator/SamWorthington, Creator/ChrisRock, and Creator/MartinLawrence all declined roles in the film. It was finally released in 2012 starring Creator/TomHardy, Creator/ChrisPine and Creator/ReeseWitherspoon.
* ''Film/TheWolfman2010'' was planned out and was to be directed by Mark Romanek (of ''Film/OneHourPhoto'' fame), but he left due to not being able to make changes during the writer's strike at the time. Joe Johnston took over and shot the film in spring/summer of 2008 for a fall 2008 release, but was held back until 2010 due to re-shoots by demand of the studio.

* The 2014 film ''Film/DraculaUntold'' has been tossed around in one form or another since 2007. Initially called Dracula Year Zero, Sam Worthington was set to star before development hell set in and the film restarted under a new name with a new lead. Alex Proyas, director of ''Film/TheCrow'', was originally lined up as director.
* In the early Nineties there were talks of a film adaptation of the musical ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'' by Columbia Pictures, where Creator/RobinWilliams would have played The Baker and Jim Henson Productions deal with the effects. It was eventually dropped by the studio by the end of the decade. Then in 2002, the success of ''Film/{{Chicago}}'' made Rob Marshall approach creator Music/StephenSondheim towards adapting one of his musicals, with Sondheim suggesting ''Into the Woods''. He accepted, but Marshall postponed the film until he finished ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'' in 2011, leading him to pitch the project to that film's studio. Disney accepted in early 2012, filming begun in 2013, and ''Film/IntoTheWoods'' finally hit theaters at Christmas 2014.
* Creator/SergioLeone's gangster epic ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'' (1984). Leone read Harry Grey's novel ''The Hoods'' in 1967, and wanted to adapt it as a follow-up to ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''. It took Leone 17 years of planning, arm-twisting, fund-procuring, and numerous screenplays to bring ''The Hoods'' to the big screen - during which time he directed two other films and produced several others.
* ''Film/KickAss2'', originally subtitled ''Balls to the Wall''. The film was intended to be ready in time for a 2012 release but had been put on hold due director Matthew Vaughn being busy with other projects and star Aaron Johnson wanting to be closer to his family. Vaughn decided to only produce, ''Film/CryWolf'' director Jeff Wadlow took over, and the film was released in August 2013.

* R.L. Stine's ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books made a [[Series/{{Goosebumps}} successful '90s TV series]], but there were also numerous attempts to adapt them into a feature film long before the 2015 version. As far back as 1998, Creator/TimBurton was tapped to produce a big-screen adaptation that never materialized, partly due to financial turmoil at Twentieth Century Fox, the cancellation of Creator/FoxKids (which produced the series), and the books' loss of popularity. In 2008, after the ''Horrorland'' revival series, Columbia Pictures announced a new ''Goosebumps'' movie, but the movie was sent to development hell, with various producers and writers attached at different times. Then in fall 2013, Creator/JackBlack became attached to star as an AuthorAvatar of Stine. Principal photography officially began in April 2014 and completed in July 2014; ''Film/{{Goosebumps|2015}}'' was released to theaters in October 2015.
* After ''Film/LeprechaunBack2ThaHood'' (2003), treatments were written for ideas with the Leprechaun encountering spring breakers or pirates, even a WildWest setting. Though star Warwick Davis and director Brian Trenchard-Smith were keen on another installment, Lionsgate dragged their feet for years. Instead of making a direct follow-up, Lionsgate ultimately produced ''Film/LeprechaunOrigins'' in 2014, a DarkerAndEdgier franchise reboot starring Dylan Postl (Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s Wrestling/{{Hornswoggle}}), without the involvement of Davis or other members of the original franchise.
* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} 3''. The story behind the third film is as strange as it gets. Rumors of multiple scripts and new Ghostbuster cast members have floated around the internet for years. To give you some perspective as to how long this was going on, ''Creator/ChrisFarley'' was being considered as a supporting character back in the '90s. Creator/DanAykroyd has reportedly written several scripts over the years, all of which failed to ignite enough interest to start pre-production. At one point, there was apparently a script written where the original team journeyed to a hellish AlternateUniverse UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity called "[=ManHellton=]" (which, in turn, prompted the Russian video game studio [=ZootFly=] to produce a ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar''-esque [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM4cuKgGNvg tech demo]] based on this proposed script in the late '00s). This, in turn, spurred the development and eventual release of ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame'', which (according to Aykroyd) may as well be the canonical third film.\\
\\
And yet, script and cast rumors still continued to float around -- Creator/BenStiller, Bill Hader, and Creator/ElizaDushku have all been rumored to be potential replacement candidates. In January 2010, Ivan Reitman announced he was directing the film, and Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (''Series/TheOfficeUS'') reportedly wrote a script with Aykroyd and co-creator/co-star Creator/HaroldRamis, that all were very happy with. Yet, still there was no word for years on the status of development. A major part of the delay seemed to involve Creator/BillMurray -- as of [[http://screenrant.com/ghostbusters-3-bill-murray-2-aco-99337/ early 2011]], it appeared the production was only waiting on Murray to approve the script before they moved forward with pre-production. The film was slated to start production in 2012, but that year came and went with no news other than the report that new writers were hired to craft yet another script, as well as more back-and-forth on whether Murray would return. Then Reitman began talking about the possibility of a [[ContinuityReboot remake]] for a while, before Aykroyd shifted attention back to the third film in March 2013, in an interview on Canadian television (for a charity project he was doing), saying they have a script (penned by Etan Cohen), they are planning to begin production in fall 2013, and Bill Murray will ''not'' be a part of it at all... more or less, what he'd been saying for the past three years. Fall 2013 came and went with very little new news from Aykroyd -- the script was being rewritten ''again'', and this time actors Jonah Hill and Emma Stone were being considered as part of the "new" team of Ghostbusters being brought in alongside the older generation (minus Murray). Then Harold Ramis died in February 2014.\\
\\
Then in Late July 2014, Aykroyd was on Creator/{{NBC}}'s ''Series/{{Today}}'' and again claimed that production would begin in Spring 2015, though he was cryptic about it and said it was uncertain who would be involved with it. So, doubt still remained when the development hell would end.''' And then''', it was reported that director Paul Feig was [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/02/paul-feig-ghostbusters_n_5644486.html in talks]] to direct a ContinuityReboot, starring a [[DistaffCounterpart female crew of Busters]]. This ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|2016}}'' began filming in June of 2015 and was released in July of 2016.\\
\\
That film, however, ended up getting a poor response and [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ghostbusters-box-office-loss-sequel-unlikely-918515 flopped at the box office]], which pretty much ended the rebooted franchise. In 2019, it was announced that [[https://ew.com/movies/2019/01/15/new-ghostbusters-movie-jason-reitman/ Jason Reitman was developing a film that would be a sequel to the first two films]], titled ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife''. Basically, the film that fans had been wanting for decades, a sequel to the original films, was finally coming into fruition.
* The planned ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' film adaptation has been mired in development problems for years. The rights to the franchise were acquired by Legendary in 2006, and Blizzard brought on Sam Raimi to direct. According to interviews, the first script (which was written by Blizzard's in-house writers) didn't go over well with Raimi, and a second script (written by Raimi and screenwriter Robert Rodat) wasn't accepted by Blizzard, who wanted the story to go a different way. After months of back-and-forth, Raimi walked from the project, blaming mismanagement on Blizzard's part. As of early 2013, Legendary announced that Duncan Jones (''{{Film/Moon}}'') became attached to direct and it all became smooth, yet also painfully slow, sailing. The ''Film/WarCraft'' film was finally released in June 2016.
* The Brazilian film ''Chatô'' had a long process that started in 1994, with Guilherme Fontes acquiring the film rights to the acclaimed novel (a biography of media mogul [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assis_Chateaubriand Assis Chateaubriand]], who introduced TV to the country), then production started in 1995 with help from none other than Francis Ford Coppola with him promising the press that it would be the greatest film in Brazilian history. Principal photography started in 1998 and then suddenly stopped the next year. That was when the government of Brazil started an investigation which ended with Fontes and the production company being jailed for improper use of funds, as most of the budget came from the Ministry of Culture, and failure to deliver a film project. They were then sentenced to 3 years in prison (later changed to community service) and had multiple court hearings condemning them to return the money used for the film. And then in November 2015, after years of failed promises and controversies, the film was released. It received decent reviews, but barely got distributed - possibly due to being OvershadowedByControversy.
* There was talk around 2008-9 of a live-action remake of ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'', possibly produced or even directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg, but he seems to have passed on it in favor of other projects. It finally got a director, writer, and production team in 2014 with Dreamworks distributing (Paramount overseas) and Creator/ScarlettJohansson and Creator/PilouAsbaek attached to star. It officially began filming in early 2016 and [[Film/GhostInTheShell2017 released in 2017]].
* ''Film/TheRevenant'', a revenge drama [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory inspired]] by the legend of UsefulNotes/HughGlass and his tale of survival after being mauled by [[BearsAreBadNews a bear]], had been in development since 2001. In its first inception, director Creator/ParkChanWook was originally in line to make the project with Creator/SamuelLJackson to star and David Rabe to write but left and the project went into limbo for a while. In 2007, a new script was written by Mark L. Smith and wound up on the Hollywood Blacklist of best unproduced scripts. In 2010, the project gained tract again with director John Hillcoat (''Film/TheProposition'', the film version of ''Literature/TheRoad'') and Creator/ChristianBale but after that fell through, Creator/AlejandroGonzalezInarritu and {{Creator/Leonardo DiCaprio}} joined the project a year later and began filming in 2014 after Iñárritu was finished with ''Film/BirdmanOrTheUnexpectedVirtueOfIgnorance''. After a long and much-noted TroubledProduction, the film finally came out on December 25th, 2015 to box office and critical success, finally earning [=DiCaprio=] his Best Actor Oscar while Iñárritu picked up another Best Director Oscar in row after his ''Birdman'' win.

* ''Film/TheGodfatherPartIII'' went into development shortly after ''Part II'''s release in 1974. Unfortunately for Paramount, neither Creator/FrancisFordCoppola nor his cast showed any interest in continuing the franchise, which didn't stop the studio from trying. [[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-12-25/entertainment/ca-7119_1_godfather-iii This LA Times article]] details some of the many prospective stories mooted during the '70s and '80s: depending on the script, the Corleone family becomes involved with the CIA, South American drug lords, African-American gangsters and/or Third World dictators; a few were InNameOnly sequels focusing on Michael's son or [[RememberTheNewGuy long-lost relatives]]. One script written by Thomas Lee Wright was even retooled into ''Film/NewJackCity''. Finally, in the late '80s Coppola and Mario Puzo agreed to revisit the series, mostly [[MoneyDearBoy due to financial woes]]. After sixteen years, ''Part III'' was released in 1990 to a decidedly mixed reception.
* Creator/ShaneBlack wrote the first version of ''Film/TheNiceGuys'' in 2002. In the intervening years, where he even begun directing with ''Film/KissKissBangBang'', he tried reworking the screenplay into a TV pilot, only to have its questionable content halt any network ambitions. Then after 2013's ''Film/IronMan3'', Black decided to make ''The Nice Guys'' - which by this time had been changed from a contemporary work to a period piece set in TheSeventies. It was announced in 2014, filmed the following year, and released in 2016.
* The American adaptation of ''Manga/DeathNote''. It was announced by Creator/WarnerBros in 2008 after a huge bidding war and said to be released in 2011 (with a rumor around that the protagonist would be played by Creator/ZacEfron). Creator/ShaneBlack had been announced as the director, but he left the project in July 2014, citing CreativeDifferences (read: he wanted to stay more faithful to the manga; the studio wanted to [[ExecutiveMeddling change everything]]). Gus Van Saint was rumored to be directing, but the currently attached director is Adam Wingard (''Film/GodzillaVsKong''). Nat Wolff and Margaret Qualley were cast in roles for the film, and production was moving along smoothly until Warner canceled the project in their decision to release fewer films per year following the disappointing numbers of ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. However, they allowed Wingard to shop the project elsewhere, and Creator/{{Netflix}} picked up the rights, with Keith Stanfield, Paul Nakauchi, and Shea Whigham joining the cast and Jeremy Slater writing the script. Filming officially began in Vancouver on June 30, 2016 for a 2017 release.
* ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'', the LiveActionAdaptation of ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' by director Creator/JamesCameron. On again and off again with rumors as far back as the early 2000s including supposed casting calls for a little girl who could move like a cat ... then nothing. Then he said he was waiting for the technology to catch up to his vision. Then ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. WordOfGod has stated that after he was done with ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' he ''still'' did not believe the technology was ready yet. After multiple delays and Cameron being way too busy with the Avatar Sequels, he officially passed the project off to Creator/RobertRodriguez to direct (with Cameron still producing). Creator/RosaSalazar has been cast in the title role (beating out Maika Monroe and Creator/{{Zendaya}}), and Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox began negotiating the budget down from the $170-200 million range before they could officially green-light the film. The film was finally released on February 14, 2019.
* ''Film/TheManWhoKilledDonQuixote'' by Creator/TerryGilliam has been trapped in DevelopmentHell for over two decades coupled with a TroubledProduction in 2000. Gilliam eventually released a documentary about making the film (appropriately titled ''Lost in La Mancha''), but the original incarnation of the film itself was never completed. Pre-production resumed in 2009, but as of late 2010, the project was shelved again due to a collapse of funding.
** In 2014, Gilliam's seventh attempt at production was underway, this time with Creator/JohnHurt as Quixote and Jack O'Connell as Toby Grisoni, whose character travels back in time and replaces Sancho Panza. Filming was set to begin in January 2015, with the film being released in May 2016. Filming was suspended again in fall 2015 after John Hurt was diagnosed with early-stage pancreatic cancer and he was forced to leave the project. Hurt passed away in January 2017.
** After more delays, Gilliam was able to regain funding for ''Quixote'' in 2016 with Creator/AdamDriver and Creator/JonathanPryce taking over the lead roles of Toby and Quixote respectively. Principal photography finally restarted on March 2017 and wrapped up [[http://www.indiewire.com/2017/06/terry-gilliam-wraps-production-on-the-man-who-killed-don-quixote-1201836951/ on June 2017]], fulfilling Gilliam's desire to get his dream project off the ground. The film was released in 2018 from Creator/AmazonStudios.
* ''Film/MaryPoppins'':
** Creator/WaltDisney had first considered making a live-action adaptation of ''Literature/MaryPoppins'' as early as 1938, but author P.L. Travers didn't think it could do justice for her books, mainly because Disney hadn't done any live-action films at the time. After sales of the books started declining, Mrs. Travers finally met with Disney to discuss a movie treatment, and the story finally reached theaters in 1964.
** Plans for a sequel, based on some of the later books, date back to at least 1965, with an actual outline prepared during TheEighties. However, CreativeDifferences with Mrs. Travers caused it to become shelved. (Among others, Mrs. Travers wanted the sequel to feature Mary Poppins taking Jane and Michael Banks on further adventures, while Disney wanted to explore the possibility of a grown-up Jane or Michael hiring Mary Poppins as the nanny of her or his own children.) Production on the sequel, now titled ''Film/MaryPoppinsReturns'', resumed in TheNewTens (following Disney's own idea of an adult Michael hiring Mary Poppins as nanny of his own children), with a December 2018 release date.
* Creator/JohnHuston had wanted to make ''Film/TheManWhoWouldBeKing'' since the 1940s. The proposed stars went from Creator/ClarkGable and Creator/HumphreyBogart, to Creator/BurtLancaster and Creator/KirkDouglas, to Creator/RichardBurton and Creator/PeterOToole, to Creator/PaulNewman and Creator/RobertRedford, to finally, Creator/SeanConnery and Creator/MichaelCaine.
* The production of ''Film/DangerousMen'' began in 1984, and was continuously worked on until its limited release in 2005.
* The 2012 movie ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' became an AcclaimedFlop, so plans for sequels were shelved despite many of the creators repeatedly asserting that they wanted to do a continuation and were "in talks" with various studios. Eventually a [[RecycledTheSeries spinoff series]], titled ''Judge Dredd: Mega-City One'', was greenlit in 2017 as an in-house production by Rebellion.
* In 2007, Platinum Dunes announced the GroundhogDayLoop horror film ''Half to Death'', which they eventually ditched after rewrites. Nearly a decade later, the guy responsible for the rewrites was reminded of the film by the original producer, gave his script to Blumhouse (he worked there in the ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' sequels) and it was greenlit, eventually being released as ''Film/HappyDeathDay'' in 2017.
* ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. In the documentary ''Film/HeartsOfDarknessAFilmmakersApocalypse'', which chronicles the TroubledProduction, it's mentioned that Creator/OrsonWelles planned to adapt Creator/JosephConrad's ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' in 1939, but it was abandoned in pre-production (Welles made ''Film/CitizenKane'' instead). Creator/FrancisFordCoppola started planning ''Apocalypse Now'' in 1969, the idea being to film it in Vietnam. Unsurprisingly, the studio thought it was too dangerous, what with UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar still going on at the time. The plans were revived in 1975 following Coppola's successes ''Film/TheGodfather'' and ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII''. The movie was released in 1979, ten years after Coppola conceived of it and forty years after Welles' initial plans to adapt the novel.
* Creator/PeterJackson purchased the film rights to the novel ''Literature/MortalEngines'' in 2009, but the project was put on the back burner due to Jackson and his production company already being busy making ''Film/TheHobbit'' trilogy. Production would officially start in 2016, with the [[Film/MortalEngines final film]] being released in December 2018.
* ''Film/TheOtherSideOfTheWind'', Creator/OrsonWelles' last completed film, began shooting throughout 1970-1976, but endured a TroubledProduction due to financial problems and a legal tangle of epic proportions. The latter especially would lead to the film not being released until ''2018'', after a team that included actor Creator/PeterBogdanovich [[note]]who starred in the film and had since become a director[[/note]] and Creator/AmblinEntertainment's Frank Marshall[[note]]for whom the film was his first gig in the industry[[/note]] worked with Creator/{{Netflix}} to get the film out of legal hell and finally finished, premiering at the 75th Venice International Film Festival before appearing on Netflix later that year. The critical reception was well worth the effort, but a gap of '''''42 years''''' from start to finish is nothing to sneeze at.
* Creator/KeanuReeves and Alex Winter spent years saying that they were eager and willing to make a third ''Film/BillAndTed'' film. A screenplay was completed and gone through several rounds of rewrites, and there was a production company willing to front at least part of the budget. Unfortunately, none of these were with the company that owns the actual rights to the franchise and everything kept hitting a roadblock over who pays for what and gets how much of the resulting pie. Fortunately, it was announced on May 8, 2018 that [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/cannes-keanu-reeves-alex-winter-reteaming-bill-ted-3-1107419 the third film is now in production for real]], although a release date wasn't announced at the time. [[https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/03/bill-ted-3-release-date/ On March 20, 2019]], Reeves and Winter announced that production had started and that the film, later titled ''Film/BillAndTedFaceTheMusic'', was released in August 2020.
* An adaptation of ''Literature/TheArtOfRacingInTheRain'' was in development at Creator/{{Universal}} in 2009, but was put in turnaround after they couldn't find a director. The project later moved to Creator/{{Disney}} in 2016 with Neal H. Mortiz producing, but it also didn't go anywhere at the studio. A year later, Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox (who would later get acquired by Disney during production) picked it up with Mortiz remaining on board; filming began on May 2018, and it's set to be released on September 2019.
* The adaptation of ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' started development at Universal in 2008 with Kenny Ortega as the director. But months before production would've started, the studio pulled the plug in spring 2011 due to budget concerns. In 2016, Creator/LinManuelMiranda announced that he would produce the film with Harvey Weinstein over at [[Creator/TheWeinsteinCompany his studio]] with Creator/JonMChu helming production. However, development again came to a halt a year later [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor when news reports came in about Weinstein's many sexual harassment allegations against him]] and the rights were given back to the other producers. Fortunately, by that point, Miranda became a huge star after the massive success of ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' and his reputation got multiple studios interested in the project with Creator/WarnerBros winning the rights in a bidding war. Filming started in April 2019, and it arrived in June 2021.
* The ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'' movie finally came out after over a decade of on-again-off-again news about its production. Apparently, trying to round up all the actors of the ensemble cast and aligning their schedules was an enormous challenge for David Milch and HBO.

* In 2014 Italian comic book author Zerocalcare mentioned that his comic book ''La profezia dell'Armadillo'' ("The Armadillo Prophecy") was being adapted into a movie. Nothing else was said again until late 2017, where the film was confirmed but seemingly without Zerocalcare's involvement. When the film actually came out in September 2018 (again without comment from Zerocalcare), it was clear why: it was a very poor adaptation that lasted a very short time in theaters and was totally forgotten afterwards.
* Plans for [[Film/ArtemisFowl the film adaptation]] of ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' were announced as early as 2001, but nothing came of them until 2013 when the film rights passed to Disney. The film release was announced in 2017 to be scheduled for August 2019. Despite this, the release still became an issue, as it was moved to and pulled from a theatrical May 2020 release date to a digital release on June 12, 2020.
* A ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'' movie [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/17/the-legend-of-korra-the-movie was announced in 2012,]] but nothing came of it until 2017 when it was announced that [[https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1717131/dora-the-explore-is-getting-her-own-movie-and-yes-michael-bay-is-involved Michael Bay]] would be working on it. That film became ''Film/DoraAndTheLostCityOfGold''.
* After the success of the British film adaptation that was released in 1949, several Hollywood studios were interested in Henry De Vere Stacpoole's best-selling novel ''Literature/TheBlueLagoon''. The first attempt to adapt the novel into a major motion picture by a Hollywood studio was in 1955 when the rights were optioned by Creator/WarnerBros, and the project was announced the following year as part of a three-picture deal for Tab Hunter and Creator/NatalieWood, with Creator/RaoulWalsh to direct, however, Hunter's agent turned down the project and was quietly shelved. Creator/ColumbiaPictures purchased the rights to the novel from Warner Bros. in 1971, not long after the success of ''Film/LoveStory'', went through many iterations, and the [[Film/TheBlueLagoon finished product]] was released to theaters in the summer of 1980.
* ''Film/ChaosWalking2021''. Lionsgate bought the movie rights back in 2011 and the first draft of the screenplay was written in 2012. Nothing else came of it until 2016 when Doug Liman was announced as director; principal production finally began in 2017. That wasn't the end of the film's [[TroubledProduction troubles]], though, as it got delayed again for reshoots. It has ''finally'' gotten a release date for early 2021.
* Following the failure of ''Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation'', a third movie based on the games but independent of that languished for decades, including a project that was supposed to be filmed in Louisiana until Katrina ravaged it, and another that would follow the interest raised by ''WebVideo/MortalKombatRebirth''. Only in 2019 did a new ''Film/{{Mortal Kombat|2021}}'' finally started filming, hitting theaters in 2021.

* ''Film/{{Ophelia}}'': According to Lisa Klein, author of the YA novel [[TheFilmOfTheBook the film is based upon]], the movie rights were first optioned when the book was published in 2006, but it took nearly ten years for it to be greenlit. Filming concluded in 2017 and it premiered at Sundance in 2018, before getting a wider theatrical release in 2019.
* It took about ten years to Creator/AlexandreAstier to get the ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'' [[TheMovie movie]] project off the ground. He faced a number of issues, including losing the rights (which he regained in 2015) and finding ways to finance it. In January 2019, a trilogy was eventually announced and the first film, ''Film/KaamelottPremierVolet'', was released in July 2021.
* Director Michael Caton-Jones originally [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-caton-jones-direct-catholic-choir-comedy-sopranos-1159464 optioned]] the film rights for ''Literature/TheSopranosWarner'' with his own money when the book was first published in 1998 and spent the next twenty years trying to get the project off the ground, the resulting film ''Film/OurLadies2019'' was released in August 2021.
* For ''Film/CryMacho'', N. Richard Nash's original script got repeatedly rejected by several big studios since 1975. He died in 2000, and it took twenty-one more years for it to be adapted, when Creator/ClintEastwood got the gig.
* ''Film/Scream2022''. [[Film/Scream4 The fourth film]] was supposed to be the start of a new trilogy (with Kevin Williamson writing outlines for the next two films), but after it failed to make money at the domestic box office (though it [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff did well overseas]]), the Weinsteins decided not to make it a top priority. However, they kept dropping hints that it was still going to happen, possibly as the conclusion to the whole franchise (since the fourth film ended on something of a cliffhanger). Williamson has said that he's not writing the fifth film, likely because of the ExecutiveMeddling that occurred during the fourth. MTV went on to air a [[Series/ScreamTVSeries television adaptation]] with a completely different storyline and set of characters, and then the Weinsteins said there will be no fifth film. Then Creator/WesCraven (director of all four films) died. Then the TV series itself was completely rebooted with [[Series/ScreamResurrection the third season]], ending its original story on a cliffhanger. A year after the TV series ended, a fifth film, simply titled ''Scream'', was finally announced to be in development, with Williamson executive producing and the three main actors (Creator/NeveCampbell, Creator/DavidArquette, and Creator/CourteneyCox) all returning. Filming was finished in November 2020, and it was released in 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it by a year.
* An adaptation of the 1997 novel ''The Moon and the Sun'' starring Creator/PierceBrosnan, Kaya Scodelario, and Benjamin Walker had its principal photography held in April and May 2014 and was announced by Paramount to release on April 10, 2015. However, three weeks before its wide release, Paramount canceled it, supposedly due to the film needing more time in post-production for its special effects. After being renamed in 2020 to ''The King's Daughter'', its distribution rights were picked up by Arclight Films, but it changed hands again in October the following year to Gravitas Ventures. ''The King's Daughter'' was finally released on January 21, 2022, to disappointing critical and box office reception, making only $750,000 during its opening weekend.
* Due to several directors dropping in and out in the course of making the film, the movie adaptation of ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' had percolating in various forms for over a decade. The film spent most of 2019 picking up steam with full casting for a shoot that Fall when the director, Travis Knight, had to drop out due to his and star Creator/TomHolland's clashing schedules. They found another director, Rueben Fleischer, and cameras were supposed to start rolling in Spring 2020 with the cast and crew assembled in Berlin. Then everyone got sent home and production was shut down until July due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production wrapped on October 29 that year, and ''Film/{{Uncharted}}'' hit theaters in February 11, 2022.
* Two adaptations of Creator/AndrewLloydWebber, ''Film/{{Evita}}'' (which Creator/AlanParker even thought about making in the 1970s before ''Film/{{Fame}}'', only to take the project in the 90s after Creator/OliverStone left) and ''Film/{{Cats}}'' (which almost became an animated film in the 90s before hitting theaters in 2019).
* ''Film/TheBelkoExperiment'' was a script written by Creator/JamesGunn in 2007 (inspired by [[BasedOnADream a nightmare he had]] about being locked in an office where all the employees were forced to kill one another), but while the film was greenlit the following year, with plans of it being shot in Brazil, Gunn decided to put the project on hold as he ended up going through a divorce and wanted to be around family, with the movie's premise being something he ''really'' didn't want to have to focus on for many additional months of his life. He later admitted he'd "kind of forgotten about it", and it wasn't until he finished ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' and received a phone call from [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]] where he was prompted on still doing the film. Production finally began in 2015, and while he had to sit out the director's chair due to other obligations ([=Greg McLean=] took his place), Gunn stayed on board as producer.

* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''. Creator/JRRTolkien worked on it ''from WWI to his death'' - over fifty years! - and it was published posthumously by his son Christopher.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' could count as well. The skeleton of the story was ready already in 1936, but the book was published nearly twenty years later 1954-1955.
* The third book in the Literature/InheritanceCycle took around three years to finish. Then Creator/ChristopherPaolini said the book was too long so he split it in two and still took more time before releasing it. In the acknowledgments for ''Brisingr'', he thanked one person in particular for "giving me a much-needed kick-in-the-pants early on" and mentions that without which, he would probably still be working on the book.
* It took Ricardo Pinto eight years to write the third book in ''Literature/TheStoneDanceOfTheChameleon'' trilogy, due to real life getting in the way. (His house burning down, for instance.) His British publisher picked up the book and reprinted the older two books, his American publisher did neither.

* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's esteemed series ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' did this with its fifth book. While writing the fourth novel in the series, Martin realized that the manuscript had gotten literally too large to publish, so the decision was made to split it in half. The fourth novel was published in 2005 as ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'', with the fifth, ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', listed in its afterward as a 2006 release, since so much of it had (theoretically) already been written. It was ''actually'' completed in April 2011, and was rushed to store shelves in three months.
** Incidentally, by "too large to publish" we mean that if GRRM had not split the story, he'd be handing us a book with [[{{Doorstopper}} 1600 pages]] in it. ''Before'' the lengthy House indexes in the back.
** Even better, his original plans were for Book 2 (now called ''Literature/AClashOfKings'') to be entitled ''A Dance with Dragons'', and first editions of ''Game'' have it listed as the sequel. In other words, we've been waiting for ''some'' book, ''any'' book, called "A Dance with Dragons" for well over a decade.
** Martin's decreased writing pace has also raised concerns because the series has been adapted for television as ''Series/GameOfThrones'', with the final season being released in 2019. Despite this, Martin has yet to finish the last two books (it took six years to finish ''A Dance with Dragons''). While Martin believes ''Dance'' was his DarkestHour and the final two books will be easier to produce, he has ''admitted'' concern over getting Book 7 (''A Dream of Spring'') out on time, which isn't precisely easing the fandom's mind.
** Fortunately for the fans, Martin did reveal several major plot points to the producers of the show in case he got [[Creator/StephenKing "hit by a truck".]]

* Harper Lee's ''Literature/GoSetAWatchman'' is an unusual example in that it is not technically a sequel, but the original first draft of ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' itself, written back in the 1950s and gathering dust for six decades. Since the original eventually was reset to the 1930s after the idea of setting it in the then-contemporary '50s was scrapped, this now makes ''Go Set a Watchman'' a sequel.
* Creator/LilithSaintcrow published one book of a planned ''Steelflower'' trilogy in 2007, but [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil piracy of the ebook led her to cancel the other two]]. She changed her mind ten years later and published ''Steelflower at Sea'' in 2017 and ''Steelflower in Snow'' the year after.
* The manuscript to ''Literature/Olivia1949'' was written in 1934. Bussy put it on ice for 15 years after a friend found the story unappealing.

* ''Series/TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager'' was shopped around from network to network for about ten years before getting picked up by ABC Family in 2008.
* Haim Saban had been trying to get a network to pick up an Americanized version of ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' for ''years'', but no one had faith in the idea. He finally got his lucky break as the then president of Fox Kids had previously had tried to do the same thing before but failed. Thus ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' was created, and the rest is history.

* The [[Series/TopGearUS U.S. version]] of ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'' went through three different pilots before finally being picked up. It lasted 6 seasons.
* Between 1996 and 2002, several pilots were shot for a revival of ''Series/{{Pyramid}}''. The show eventually built up a two-season revival with Donny Osmond as host, although this individual version didn't seem to have its own pilot. After that, several ''more'' pilots were shot over the next decade — one was almost picked up by CBS (''The $1,000,000 Pyramid'') but axed. ''Finally'', the show got greenlit for Creator/{{GSN}} to start in September 2012 as just ''The Pyramid'', but fizzled out only a couple months later. Then over the summer of 2016, ABC decided to pick up a primetime version as ''The $100,000 Pyramid'' as a companion to ''[[Series/FamilyFeud Celebrity Family Feud]]'' and its revival of ''Series/MatchGame''; this version was better-received than the GSN run, and was renewed for a second season.
* Music/TheAquabats tried for most of the band's existence to get their own TV show. And boy, did they try. And every time they tried, something shot the show down before it could go to air. Once the network got new executives and canceled the previously-greenlit show. Once the network just stopped talking to them. Once, admittedly, they themselves hated one of the pilots they made. But they just kept trying. It took three pilots, a few networks, numerous network executives, and ''a different band lineup every time'', but finally, after years and years of fighting, ''Series/TheAquabatsSuperShow'' got its time on TV on Creator/TheHub in early 2012.
* Writer Melissa Rosenberg had been trying to pitch an adaptation of ''ComicBook/{{Alias}}'' (no relation to [[Series/{{Alias}} the ABC show]]) called ''A.K.A. Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}'' as far back as 2010, but had no luck. The project was finally revived by {{Creator/Netflix}} for a 2015 debut (with a slight name change) as part of its collaboration with the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]].
* A ''Series/CloakAndDagger'' series was announced alongside ''Jessica Jones'' (as well as unproduced ''[[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]]'' and ''ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}}'' shows) back in 2011. Like the aforementioned series, it spent a significant time in Development Hell before it was officially picked up by Creator/{{Freeform}} in 2016, and began airing in 2018.

* ''Series/AllInTheFamily'': Norman Lear bought the rights to adapt the BritCom ''Til Death Do Us Part'' in 1966. It wouldn't be until 1968 when a pilot (titled ''Justice For All'') was taped, but ABC dropped it after the ''Turn-On'' fiasco[[note]]The infamous ''Series/LaughIn'' rip-off was cancelled ''during'' its only episode[[/note]]. Another pilot was made the following year (''Those Were the Days'') but it went unnoticed. Then a final pilot was taped in 1970, CBS picked it up, and the show premiered in 1971.

* ''Film/TheRoom'' director Tommy Wiseau shot a pilot for a new TV series called ''The Neighbors'' in 2007. Wiseau spent several years pitching the show to various networks until it finally premiered on Hulu in March 2015.

* ''Theatre/TheWiz'' almost received a TV special adaptation in 1998, courtesy of the producers and director of ''Film/Cinderella1997''. However, rights issues with Creator/{{Universal}}, the studio that distributed the movie version of ''Film/TheWiz'', prevented Disney from getting very far with their take. After the ''Cinderella'' producers started airing musicals on Creator/{{NBC}}, they finally got to release a TV special of ''The Wiz'' in 2015 - albeit with a different cast and crew than they had originally lined up for Disney.

* As early as 2011, ''Awkward Black Girl'' creator Issa Rae met with network executives to bring the web series to television. However, Rae faced ExecutiveMeddling from the network execs, who wanted to RaceLift the main character to white. Eventually in 2013 it was announced that Issa Rae would be teaming up with Larry Wilmore to create a pilot for HBO and the show premiered in 2016 as ''Series/{{Insecure}}''.
* ''Blonde Charity Mafia'', a docusoap about three charity organizers in Washington, D.C., was originally developed at Creator/{{Lifetime}} before ending up on Creator/TheCW. It was originally scheduled to air in summer 2009, but delayed to early 2010 before being shelved. However, the full series aired on MTV channels in Australia and New Zealand.
* Creator/NewLineCinema had spent $1.5 million dollars to develop a film {{Trilogy}} for ''{{Franchise/Foundation}}'' in 1998. Their failure to complete the project lead to Creator/PeterJackson's production of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy. In 2008, the company [[http://www.filmbuffonline.com/FBOLNewsreel/wordpress/2008/07/29/foundation-heading-to-big-screen/ announced]] that Creator/BobShaye and Creator/MichealLynne would be co-producers. Creator/ColumbiaPictures purchased the right to produce a movie from an auction in 2009, and contracted Creator/RolandEmmerich as director and co-producer. The other producer chosen at the time was Creator/MichealWimer. Two years later, Creator/DanteHarper was hired on to the project. After that lapsed, in 2014, HBO purchased the rights for a planned TV adaptation with Creator/JonathanNolan attached. In 2017, Skydance Television and Creator/DavidSGoyer announced that they would develop a TV series based on ''Foundation.'' In 2018, the series was purchaced by Apple and will be released on their streaming service in September 2021, nearly a quarter century after the project was first proposed.

* There was talk of a movie adaptation of ''Literature/ThirteenReasonsWhy'' for years before it finally became a [[Series/ThirteenReasonsWhy Netflix series]]. Creator/SelenaGomez was in talks to play Hannah when development first started in 2011, but by the time it actually entered production, she was way too old to play a high school student convincingly. She is a producer on the Netflix series, however.
* The British miniseries ''Series/OurFriendsInTheNorth'' was based on a play Peter Flannery wrote in 1979. Plans to adapt it for television in the 1980s were stalled for legal reasons, due to at least two characters being based on real people. It finally made it to screens in 1996, by which point a lot more history happened, thus causing the story, (which originally ended with UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher being elected Prime Minister) to be expanded to the (then) present.
* ''Series/{{K9}}'' was first announced in 1997. It eventually premiered in the UK in 2009, airing its full season in Scandinavia in 2010.
* The first script for a ''Literature/GoodOmens'' screen adaptation was written in 1992, it was a movie, and nobody liked it. Terry and Neil were asked repeatedly over the next few years whether there'd ever be a movie. It finally came out in 2019, several years after Terry's death, as [[Series/GoodOmens a very popular miniseries]].
* ''Series/OddSquad'':
** The show itself was in development for at least two years, since 2012, before officially being announced at the 2014 Creator/{{PBS}} Annual Meeting and premiering in November of that year.
** The ''Odd Squadcast'', a {{Podcast}} based on the show, was first announced in January 2020 alongside a new season of the show (which would premiere a month later). It was initially slated for a release sometime in the summer, but was pushed back to November 25, 2020, likely due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, and the second season of WebVideo/{{OddTube}} premiered in the summer instead. It was then pushed back further to December 2, 2020, where it finally premiered.
* A live-action adaptation of ''Literature/NancyDrew'' had been swirling for more than a decade, dating back to the early 2000s and involving multiple different networks. Each one passed on and the project was reworked numerous times, before The CW finally gave it [[Series/NancyDrew2019 a series order in 2019]].
* An adaptation of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' was first confirmed in January 2007, but was delayed a couple of times. HBO took its own sweet time to greenlight the project, then rejected the pilot because of poor test screenings, requiring a 90% reshoot. [[Creator/TamzinMerchant The actress]] who portrayed Daenerys Targaryen dropped out, requiring all of her scenes to be reshot with [[Creator/EmiliaClarke a new one]]. ''Series/GameOfThrones'' wouldn't see airing until April 2011. Fortunately, it ended up being a hit, and then some.
* ''Series/SquidGame'' creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk made the first draft for the show as early as 2008. However, his pitch had been rejected countless times for being "too grotesque and too unrealistic", and he believes that classist issues becoming more forefront as time went on is what eventually led to Netflix greenlighting the show in 2019, with the final product eventually releasing in 2021 to massive success. Prior to the show being picked up, Hwang had been a StarvingArtist and at one point had to sell his $675 laptop to make ends meet.

* When the final season of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' was airing at that time, CBS announced in the fall of 2013 that there will be a spinoff entitled ''How I Met Your Dad'' which would be aired in 2014. By that time, various news sites revealed the new characters unrelated to HIMYM cast and the new lead to be played by Creator/GretaGerwig with Creator/MegRyan as the lead's voiceover and the pilot was already made. But after the mixed reception of the HIMYM finale, interest slowly dwindled, the pilot wasn't picked up by CBS, [[https://twitter.com/CarterBays/statuses/487538367492395008 Carter Bays called it quits]] due to disagreements with CBS and the contracts of the actors expired at the end of the year. In December 2016, there was an attempt to produce the spinoff which is renamed ''How I Met Your Father'' with ''Series/ThisIsUs'' producers, Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. However after the success of ''This Is Us'' which promoted the two producers as co-showrunners, the spinoff is on hold again. In August 2017, there was another attempt to revive the spinoff with Alison Benett as the writer. Then on April 2021, Creator/{{Hulu}} ordered the series with Aptaker and Berger as the creators, writers, and executive producers along with the three original staff of ''How I Met Your Mother'' (original creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas and producer Pamela Fryman) as executive producers. The spinoff was eventually released on January 18, 2022.
* A live-action film or TV adaptation of the video game series ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' had been rumored since 2002 and was in various stages of development since then. Though two live-action webseries (''Film/Halo4ForwardUntoDawn'' and ''Film/HaloNightfall'') set in the ''Halo'' universe were released in 2012 and 2014 respectively, an official adaptation of the "main" story wouldn't come out until Creator/ParamountPlus finally released their ''[[Series/Halo2022 Halo]]'' TV show in 2022.
* A live-action adaptation of Creator/NeilGaiman's ''ComicBook/{{The Sandman|1989}}'' languished in development for over two decades. Every attempt at a film adaptation was stymied by ExecutiveMeddling, and Eric Heisserer (who at one time was attached to write) stated his belief that it would be a better fit to adapt the comics for TV. Netflix eventually greenlit [[Series/TheSandman2022 an adaptation]] in 2019, which finally saw release in 2022.

* The Music/GunsNRoses album ''Music/ChineseDemocracy'' was a famous example, being released [[http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Guns_N%27_Roses%27_%27Chinese_Democracy%27_released_after_15_years in 2008]], after 14 years in development (one of the signs it would come out was the song "Shackler's Revenge" being featured in ''VideoGame/RockBand 2'', [[EarlyBirdCameo about two months before the album itself was released]]), subverting the long-standing joke that China itself would become democratic before ''Chinese Democracy'' was released. And yes, it's BannedInChina. Showing that Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, the album received mixed but generally positive reviews.
* Music/MassiveAttack's next album. For a while, at the end of 2006, it had a confirmed release date, which was spring 2007, but it did not come out. Since then, it has no release date at all, the band even dropped the title, ''Weather Underground''. Ultimately it took until February 2010 for the album, which was retitled ''Heligoland'', to come out.
* Shortly after releasing ''Music/{{Tommy}}'', Music/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 ''Music/WhosNext'' 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.
** The album that became The Who's ''Endless Wire'' was announced in 1999 and hit the shelves in 2006, its release having been delayed by touring, Townshend's putting the finishing touches on ''Lifehouse'', and the death of John Entwistle. Two "preview" tracks were released on a compilation album in 2003 - neither made it onto the final album.
* Flavor Flav's solo album, ''Lifestyles of the Rich And Flavor'', had been touted (mostly by Flav himself) since the mid-90s. It finally saw release (sort of) as ''Flavor Flav'' in 2006. Most rap fans are completely unaware of the album's existence.
* A similar tale relates to [[Music/OutKast Big Boi's]] solo debut, ''Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty''. He originally released a single with Andre 3000 to promote it in 2008... then [[ExecutiveMeddling the label]] got involved. Unlike Lil Jon, though, Big Boi was able to take his previously recorded material to another company and get the album a 2010 release: fans agree it was worth the wait.
* Slightly odd example as it didn't involve newly recorded material: Music/NeilYoung's ''Archives'' self-curated best-of compilation. First discussed in the late 1980s, and announced several times since. There were rumors that Young had convinced himself that actually releasing them would send him into a terminal writer's block. First massive installment finally came out in 2009.
* Although Music/MeatLoaf has been fairly prolific over his nearly 40-year career, the ''Bat Out of Hell'' series of albums are notorious for their stints in Development Hell. The first, released in 1977, is still considered one of the greatest albums of all time. ''Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell'' wasn't released until 1992, however, due to ongoing conflicts between Meat Loaf and songwriter/producer Jim Steinman. And finally, after an almost as long gap, ''Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose'' was released in 2006, which ran into problems including Meat Loaf and Steinman fighting over who owns the rights to the title "Bat Out of Hell" (they were ultimately awarded to Meat Loaf) and only half of the tracks being written by Steinman, and those tracks not being original works, but rather recycled from his work with other musicians and solo projects. When asked to comment on his relationship with Steinman, Meat Loaf once said "Jim and I love each other. We're best friends. It's just our managers and lawyers that can't stand each other, and they're the ones that keep starting all this shit."
* After 1997's ''Medazzaland'', Music/DuranDuran began work in earnest on their next album. In the meantime, Music/{{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 Duran album 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 the Creator/{{Disney}}-owned Creator/HollywoodRecords.
* Music/SimpleMinds' ''Our Secrets Are the Same'' was recorded and intended for release in 1999. However it wasn't released that year because of a number of record company mergers, followed by their record company deciding they couldn't do anything with it and releasing the band from their contract in 2000. However, during this time an unmastered promo CD-R arrived in the hands of a Spanish radio host who proceeded to play all the tracks from the album over a few weeks. Fans recorded these and these recordings were subsequently bootlegged. Because of the bootlegs, an attempt to release the album in early 2003 fell through as it was considered unmarketable on its own. Eventually it was released officially as the last disc of the BoxedSet ''Silver Box'' in late 2003.
* Ohgr (Nivek Ogre of Music/SkinnyPuppy)'s ''Welt'' album was originally recorded in 1995, but got stuck in legal limbo until 2001.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Pena Paul Pena]] recorded his second album ''New Train'' in 1973, but it got caught in a tug-of-war between his management and his label and never got released. Oddly enough, Pena still made a fair amount of money from the project when Steve Miller had a huge hit covering one of the album's songs, "Jet Airliner". (Miller heard the song because his associate Ben Sidran produced the album and gave him a tape of it.) After 27 years, a deal was finally worked out and ''New Train'' was released in 2000.
* Music/MissionOfBurma released the EP ''Signals, Calls and Marches'' in 1981 and the studio album ''Vs.'' in 1982. Then singer Roger Miller lost his hearing. Sophomore effort ''[=ONoffON=]'' appeared in 2004.
* Music/{{Chicago}}'s ''Stone of Sisyphus'' was originally slated to be ''Chicago XXII'' in 1994, but Reprise rejected the album. They responded by leaving the label and making a big band-styled album as their 22nd. ''Stone'' would eventually be released in 2008 as ''Chicago XXXII'' on another label (Rhino) mostly intact.
* Music/DanielAmos finished recording their third album ''Horrendous Disc'' in 1978. Many factors--two record label changes, mistakes in the initial pressing of the album, and some other behind-the-scenes shenanigans that, to this day, no one really understands--conspired to delay its release. It didn't hit shelves until 1981... one week before Daniel Amos' fourth album came out.
* Dystopia had released two full-length albums (''Human = Garbage'' and ''The Aftermath'') based off tracks from various splits they did with other bands, but their first full album with new material had been in the working process for many years. Tracks were recorded in 2004, but due to label issues they didn't get released at the time. It wasn't until 2008, nine years after ''The Aftermath'' and several years after the band broke up, that ''Dystopia'' was finally released.
* Orchestral Manœuvres in the Dark's 11th studio album was announced in late 2002 and finally released, after several release dates were announced and retracted, in late 2010, under the title ''History of Modern''. Since Paul Humphreys rejoined the band during that time, a whole new album was recorded with him, and only one of the songs was retained (in re-recorded form). So technically the album that was announced in 2002 is ''still'' unreleased.

* Music/PeterGabriel was working on the album ''Music/{{Up|PeterGabrielAlbum}}'' for about 7 years-- he started working on it in 1995 (concurrently with ''I/O'', which as of TheNewTwenties is still in DevelopmentHell), it was supposed to be "near completion" in 1998, and yet it took four more years to finally see release. Then there's the debut album by the side project Big Blue Ball, which was in production for ''eighteen'' years.
* Nelly's album ''Brass Knuckles'', which was intended to be released in 2006, spent two years in delays due to having a large number of producers having different ideas on how to produce the record. The final album, with many guests and credited writers and producers, was released in 2008 to negative reviews and very weak sales (selling only 1/24th of what Nelly's previous album, the double album ''Sweat/Suit'' sold). Nelly hasn't recovered from its failure.
* ''Hysteria'' by Music/DefLeppard. Production for the followup to 1983's ''Pyromania'' was to begin in 1984, but their producer Creator/RobertJohnMuttLange was busy producing Music/TheCars' ''Heartbeat City'' album, so Leppard worked with Music/JimSteinman, the composer of Music/MeatLoaf's classic albums. Unfortunately, Steinman's method of producing was far looser than Lange's style. On top of that, on New Year's Eve 1985, their drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in a car accident. An undaunted Allen was determined to re-learn how to play the drums, using his one remaining arm and his feet. The rest of the band supported Allen fully and tried to boost his confidence (and their own) by having a special electronic drum kit made for him and scheduling a number of comeback concerts. Def Leppard reconvened with Mutt Lange in 1986, and were subject to his usual meticulous taskmaster production style, finally releasing ''Hysteria'' in late 1987.
* Recording for Music/{{Yes}}'s ''Big Generator'' album began in 1985, with former vocalist Music/TrevorHorn producing (having previously produced the band's comeback album ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive''). Due to CreativeDifferences between Horn and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist/co-writer Trevor Rabin, work resumed on the album with Rabin as producer until its release in 1987.

* Music/LupeFiasco's third album, ''Lasers'', was shelved in 2008 by his label because they thought it wasn't "pop" enough. A combination of Lupe caving to pressure and rewriting some songs (something he has said will forever taint his own opinion of the album) and general fan outrage led to the album finally being released in 2011.
* ''Static Age'' was technically the first album by Music/TheMisfits, recorded in 1978, but was their fourth studio album to be released. This is largely in part due being unable to find a label interested in releasing it, followed by their guitarist and drummer quitting after an early tour, leading chief songwriter Glenn Danzig to write new material for the newer members. Many of the tracks were released on compilations of rarities, such as 1985's ''Legacy of Brutality,'' but it took until 1997 for the album to be heard in its full, original form.
* Music/MyBloodyValentine fans spent ''twenty-two years'' wishing for a follow-up to ''Loveless'' to be released, being tantalised for much of that time by the knowledge that Kevin Shields was in fact working on a new album, but it was in DevelopmentHell. They finally got their wish on February 2, 2013, when the band's third full-length album, ''mbv'', was released.

* Music/UncleKracker's ''Happy Hour'' album spent nearly five years in development hell before it was finally released in 2009.

* Music/{{Wintersun}}'s second album, ''Time'', has been in development since 2006 due to a never-ending series of technological mishaps. The first half of the album came out in 2012, but the second half is still being mixed.
* ''Wildflower,'' the follow up to Australian plunderphonics collective Music/TheAvalanches' debut album ''Music/SinceILeftYou'', was released in July 2016, nearly ''sixteen years'' after their critically lauded debut. Every so often, a member of the band claimed it was done and they were just clearing the samples (this being important, since they're a plunderphonics group that means almost ''all'' of their music is samples), but then nothing was heard for a few years. Up to the release of ''Music/{{Wildflower}}'', the group even {{lampshade|hanging}}d the album's perpetual development with a trailer for a (pseudo) documentary entitled ''Since They Left Us'' that featured several artists that [[SpecialGuest would end up being featured]] on ''Wildflower'', including Music/DannyBrown, Ariel Pink, and Father John Misty. Fans and critics generally agree that ''Wildflower'' was worth the wait.
* Music/{{Obituary}}'s ninth album landed in DevelopmentHell for a couple years after the band was booted from Candlelight Records and couldn't find a new label. They eventually resorted to Kickstarter to raise funds for an independent release, which went better than they expected - the minimum level for the album's recording and release was $10,000, with $20,000 enabling the filming of a series of documentary-style short films during the recording sessions at Morrisound Studios. They got ''$60,000'' by the time the campaign closed, and the publicity later got them a distribution deal with Relapse Records for the album, named ''Inked in Blood'' and released in 2014, about two years after the original projected date.
* Music/DecrepitBirth released ''Polarity'' in 2010, but it took ''seven years'' for ''Axis Mundi'' to follow. Why? It was a mix of things. Matt Sotelo had to focus on his family, numerous lineup changes occurred (Dan Eggers and Joel Horner left basically right after ''Polarity'' was released, they had a revolving door of bassists that only finally ended after Sean Martinez left Rings of Saturn, and Chase Fraser was fired in 2014 after a lengthy history of being a dick), Samus Paulicelli went back to school and moved to Canada, the actual writing process was rather slow (and didn't even really begin until 2013) and involved at least one massive overhaul of the material after Samus told Matt that he didn't think it was up to par, the recording process was similarly drawn-out, and, once the album was actually ''done'', the label sat on it for months before giving them a release date. While it wasn't quite up to Necrophagist levels, people had given up hope that there actually would be a fourth album for a while.
* Most of ''Music/{{Northward}}'' was written all the way back in 2008 following a propitious jam session between then-Music/AfterForever singer Floor Jansen and Pagan's Mind guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad at [=ProgPower USA=] in '07. They planned to record while AF was on what was supposed to just be a hiatus due to [[CreatorBreakdown guitarist Sander Gommans suffering a burnout]]. Then AF broke up altogether, which [[ScrewedByTheNetwork scuttled the recording deal with their label]]. This led Floor Jansen to form Music/{{ReVamp}} as her new full-time band, putting ''Northward'' on hold again. ''Then'' she went through a burnout herself in 2011, after which she was called in to replace Music/AnetteOlzon in Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} on ''very'' short notice (the band later released a documentary about it called ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Please Learn the Setlist in 48 Hours]]''). Nightwish finally took a year off in 2017, during which Floor and her partner [[Music/{{Sabaton}} Hannes Van Dahl]] had a daughter and only ''then'' managed to block out time with Lofstad to record ''Northward''. It finally came out, to rave reviews, on 19 October 2018, ''ten years'' after it had originally been envisioned.

* Corelia's second album, ''New Wilderness'', spent five years in development. For about four of those years, the band was completely silent. Since the album was crowdfunded via Website/{{Indiegogo}}, where it raised over $30,000, this led some of their fans to question whether or not the album was even being made, or if it was all just a scam. The silence was finally broken in April 2020, when the band was forced to address the issue of an unrelated producer impersonating a member of the band and claiming that he would be releasing the album soon. In response, the real band members issued an apology, explaining that the album had been worked on, but mental health issues and the departure of one of their members resulted in its release being massively delayed. Finally, in May of the same year, their album ''New Wilderness'' was released, albeit in a rough, unmixed state.
* While Music/DavidBowie's 1987 album ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' was put out and released on-schedule, the CreatorBacklash-induced GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion ''Never Let Me Down 2018'' took over 30 years to get off the ground. Bowie first proposed a do-over of the album shortly after its release, only for Reeves Gabrels to talk him out of it on the grounds that it was too soon to do so. Bowie next brought it up shortly before starting work on ''Music/{{Earthling}}'', but this also fell through. Finally, Bowie managed to recruit a team of session musicians to record new backing parts for the album, based on a 2008 remix of "Time Will Crawl" that he had approved of. While Bowie died before recording sessions for ''Never Let Me Down 2018'' began, it eventually saw release two years later on the BoxedSet ''Loving the Alien (1983-1988)''.

* Creator/AndrewLloydWebber announced plans for a sequel to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' in the late 1990s; ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'' didn't open until 2010.

* ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark'' may be the ultimate theater example. After being batted around since 2007, it was finally supposed to open in February 2010. As of November 2010, it has had precisely one preview (in which the [[WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties technical difficulties]] that had caused the production to be so delayed in the first place still occurred and [[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/theater/29spiderman.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2 delayed the performance by over thirty minutes at one point]]). It has an announced opening on March 2011, which the producers said was "the final postponement". [[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/theater/spider-man-a-superlative-for-all-the-wrong-reasons.html?src=dayp Nobody bought it]], and was postponed for summer. Considering how [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/spiderman-turn-off-the-dark-terrible-or-make-it-st,51518/ the first reviews]] went, well...The show finally opened in [[http://www.playbill.com/news/article/151764-Believe-It-or-Not-Spider-Man-Turn-Off-the-Dark-Opens-on-Broadway-June-14 June 2011]], after some major rewriting of the story, and ran until January 2014.

* The Warriors of Chaos army book from the 7th edition of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' was released in late 2008 and featured images of a new model for the Daemon Prince. The model itself was released only in August 2010, with a ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' article explaining that they wanted to release it as part of a wave of new Chaos Daemons models and so it was postponed until more new models for that range were ready.

* Ride/TheHauntedMansion at Ride/DisneyThemeParks was delayed several times, due to the sheer number of [[WhatCouldHaveBeen unused ideas]] that were thought up.
** The ride itself has an example of it. In the beginning, one of the planned characters/gags in the ride was going to be the "Hatbox Ghost", the groom to the Attic's bride, whose head would disappear from his shoulders and reappear in his hatbox in time with the bride's heartbeat. The figure was produced, and the lighting implemented to create the disappearing trick, but the figure was taken out very shortly thereafter once it was clear that the distance between the riders and the figure was too short to allow the effect to work. Because it was taken out so early and so few people had seen it, the Hatbox Ghost achieved legendary status within the fanbase. His presence endured in the franchise, and in 2015, with decades of technological advancement, the Hatbox Ghost was made again with a more complex digitally-aided head-transfer effect and more animation, finally placing him in the ride like he was always supposed to be.
* A ride based on ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' began planning in the early [=1990s=]. The plans went on hold due to the sluggish business of [=EuroDisney=]. During the following decade, a project to renovate California Adventure prompted production on a ''Little Mermaid'' ride to resume. It finally opened in the summer of 2011.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' (in-universe) had Dangeresque 3 finally released in movie form, four years later than Strong Bad originally announced. In real life, it was the basis of the fourth episode of ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople''.

* ''WebVideo/AwesomeComics'' was promised by Website/ChannelAwesome in 2013, but was saved in 2016 by their intern hosting it along with three new people.
* The ''Doctor Puppet'' stop-motion shorts inspired by ''Series/DoctorWho'' are a combination of standalone stories and a multi-part storyline, "The Adventures of Doctor Puppet", which aired its first two parts in March 2013 and features the Eleventh Doctor trying to rescue his previous selves. The time involved in making each individual short combined with the creators having to acknowledge new developments in ''Who'' with the standalones meant that the eighth and final short wasn't posted until October 2018, just days before the debut of the '''Thirteenth''' Doctor. TheStinger of the final part humorously acknowledges the biggest change to continuity that they couldn't incorporate into the story: [[spoiler: the War Doctor is kicking back on a beach in a spoof of the ending of ''Avengers: Infinity War'', as by the time "The Day of the Doctor" aired the puppet storyline had already moved past the point where he would have appeared had its creators known that yes, he ''was'' an actual incarnation of the Doctor]].
* Creator/RoosterTeeth's ''Series/Day5'' has been mentioned to have begun development in podcasts from early 2012. It finally came out in June, 2016.

* The show ''WesternAnimation/NiHaoKaiLan'' was originally announced for Spring 2007, but didn't materialize until February 2008, though the characters from the show were featured for months in the now-defunct Nick Jr. Magazine.

* The ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' spin-off ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'' was in development for six years before finally arriving.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' was supposed to premiere in Fall 1989, but the initial version of the pilot episode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E13SomeEnchantedEvening Some Enchanted Evening]]", was deemed atrocious by the executives and staff and had to be redone. The show premiered with the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E1SimpsonsRoastingOnAnOpenFire Christmas special]] first (December 1989), and the first official episode aired was "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E2BartTheGenius Bart the Genius]]" on January 14, 1990, with the redone pilot being aired as the season finale.
* The original short for ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'' was produced in 2008/2009 as a part of The Cartoonstitute. The short lost out to fellow Cartoonstitute short ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' for being picked up as a full series, but the pilot lingered online for years. After years of fan demand, and the failure of another series by UG's creator (''WesternAnimation/SecretMountainFortAwesome''), Uncle Grandpa was finally picked up in early 2013 and started airing on Cartoon Network later that same year.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' was first pitched around 1990 with a pilot made for Nickelodeon in 1992, but lack of faith in the project and [[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife additional commitments]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons from the]] [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants show's creators]] (hoping to get their big break that way), delayed the show for more than 15 years, finally premiering in 2007 on Disney Channel instead of Nickelodeon.
* ''WesternAnimation/PacManAndTheGhostlyAdventures'' was first announced in 2011 or 2012. There was no news for quite some time so people assumed it had quietly been canceled due to poor reception. It was eventually released in June 2013.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' was supposed to come out around early 2001 but didn't start until late 2002.

* ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' was in the planning stage for years and there were promos for it A YEAR before it aired on tv. It eventually came out only for Nickelodeon to [[ScrewedByTheNetwork cancel it after six episodes]] despite good ratings.
* Around 2007, Creator/WarrenEllis planned to make an animated movie based on ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse''. In 2017, ''WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania 2017}}'' was finally released on Netflix with Ellis as the head writer.
* Back in the early 80s, there were plans of a French-Hungarian co-produced AnimatedAdaptation of Creator/{{Voltaire}}'s ''Literature/{{Candide}}'', which were halted when the director's [[Animation/FoamBath feature film debut]] bombed, followed shortly by him passing away. Fast-forward to the 2010s, when the project got reimagined as a mini series, taking guidance from the creator's original notes and adapting his excessive DerangedAnimation to modern media. A completed episode was released in 2014, and the rest of the show, titled simply ''Candide'' (or alternatively ''The Adventures of Candide''), followed in late 2018, albeit censored and almost banned by the Hungarian state. The full, uncensored series was released on Vimeo's on-demand platform some time later.
* Two cases with the Chinese-Spanish series ''WesternAnimation/FillyFuntasia'':
** The show itself was announced in 2012 but its release kept on being pushed back, as a cause of [[TroubledProduction many production issues]]. It was initially due for a 2014 release, although slowly throughout the years, it was revealed that the show was still in production. Not so shortly after it was announced that it would come out in 2019, the show would finally premiere March 11 on an Italian channel, Frisbee. This would result in the episodes being infamously OutOfOrder in both seasons of the show.
** That being said, despite many trailers steadily being released in English (which is technically the original language), and some other-language versions airing on TV prior[[note]]Italian, Ukrainian, Mandarin Chinese, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovene, and Hebrew; most of them specifically using an English master as their footage[[/note]], the finalized English version would not see an official release until March 3, 2022, in Singapore, with an [[AuthorsSavingThrow organized episode order]] to boot. Although fans were unexpectedly treated to three sporadic English episodes being released on apps in the US in early 2021, it was a different, placeholder dub, and [[HongKongDub not many were satisfied with the results]].
* The ''Lakewood Plaza Turbo'' pilot came out in 2013. This lead to the ''OK K.O.! Lakewood Plaza Turbo'' mobile game and accompanying short series in 2016, 3 years later. The full series, ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'', would premiere the following year.
* Italian series ''WesternAnimation/{{Adrian}}'' is a vanity project by the famous singer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriano_Celentano Adriano Celentano]]: it was announced for a 2009 release, but the concept dates to around 10 years before that. It was picked up multiple times, but every time it was plagued by tons of problems, mismanagement, and went overbudget several times; finally, around 10 years after the initial announcement, it was released on Mediaset's Canale 5 in January 2019, in prime time and with great fanfare... and it was a humongous flop.
* In the early 90's, an animated series based on ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' called ''Gizmo and the Gremlins'' was going to debut. Due to ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'' flopping against the heavily-promoted ''Film/DickTracy'', production was cancelled. Almost 30 years after the original show was cancelled, a new Gremlins animated series, ''Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai'', will be made for Creator/HBOMax.

* ''WesternAnimation/HighGuardianSpice'' was supposed to come out in early 2019 via Crunchyroll as the first entry in their Crunchyroll Originals line of shows; however, after the initial announcement trailer, little was heard from the series and it missed its scheduled release date despite many of the crew stating it was completely finished. It was abruptly released in late October of 2021 with little fanfare.

* ''Wildflower,'' the follow up to Australian plunderphonics collective Music/TheAvalanches' debut album ''Music/SinceILeftYou'', was released in July 2016, nearly ''sixteen years'' after their critically lauded debut. Every so often, a member of the band claimed it was done and they were just clearing the samples (this being important, since they're a plunderphonics group that means almost ''all'' of their music is samples), but then nothing was heard for a few years. Up to the release of ''Wildflower'', the group even {{lampshaded}} the album's perpetual development with a trailer for a (pseudo) documentary entitled ''Since They Left Us'' that featured several artists that [[SpecialGuest would end up being featured]] on ''Wildflower'', including Music/DannyBrown, Ariel Pink, and Father John Misty. Fans and critics generally agree that ''Wildflower'' was worth the wait.

** ''Film/{{The Flash|2023}}'' has a long and storied history:
*** ''Film/BladeTrinity'' director David Goyer was hired to write and direct ''The Flash'' in 2004 due to the studio liking his screenplay for ''Film/BatmanBegins'', with Goyer claiming Creator/RyanReynolds was his choice to play Wally West. However, Goyer left the project in 2007 due to creative differences, and Creator/ShawnLevy was initially tapped as his replacement before leaving due to scheduling conflicts with the ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'' sequel. A new ''Flash'' film, this time conceived as a SpinOff of Creator/GeorgeMiller's ''Script/JusticeLeagueMortal'' with Dave Dobkin directing, was announced in 2007, only to fall apart due to the 2007-2008 Writers Guild strike, as well as ''Mortal'' failing to materialize. Creator/GeoffJohns wrote a ''Flash'' film treatment for producer Charles Roven in 2009, but again, nothing ultimately came of this. Creator/GregBerlanti, Michael Green, and Marc Guggenheim were hired to write a ''Flash'' screenplay in late 2010, but the failure of ''Film/GreenLantern2011'' the following year forced WB to rethink its plans for future DC movies.
*** Once the studio decided on creating [[Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse its own shared universe]] due to the success of the MCU, ''The Flash'' was said to be in the works for a tentative 2016 release, and was officially announced with a March 2018 release date in late 2014, with Creator/EzraMiller tapped to star as the title character. The movie subsequently went through a tumultuous turnover of directors and writers regarding the direction of the film and the change in the franchise's plans after ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' opened to negative reviews and underperformed at the box office. Seth Grahame-Smith (writer of ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'' and ''Film/PrideAndPrejudiceAndZombies'') was originally hired as the director before being replaced by Rick Famuyiwa (director of ''Film/{{Dope}}''), who later dropped out over creative differences, leading to Warner Bros. settling on John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (writers of ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' and directors of ''Film/GameNight''). However, production was repeatedly delayed due to Miller's commitment to the ''Film/FantasticBeasts'' series. Furthermore, Miller's dissatisfaction with the LighterAndSofter approach by Daley and Goldstein led to him rewriting the script with aid of Creator/GrantMorrison to make it DarkerAndEdgier. Daley and Goldstein would later drop out with [[Creator/AndresMuschietti Andy Muschietti]]of ''Film/IT2017'' fame signing on to direct in July 2019 while the studio rejected Miller's rewrite and instead hired Christina Hodson (''Film/BirdsOfPrey'') to draft a new script. Progress had been made throughout 2020, including some casting (most notably the addition of Creator/MichaelKeaton as Batman) but production got delayed due to COVID-19 related delays to the third ''Fantastic Beasts '' film. However, things got back on track in 2021, with Creator/SashaCalle joining the cast as ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and filming ''finally'' officially starting in Spring of that year.

* ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'' went through several attempts at a live-action movie adaptation. The earliest effort was in 1986 when Creator/TheCannonGroup planned to produce such a film, but was scrapped following the poor reception of their ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' movie. Nearly 30 years later, Sony announced plans to adapt ''Barbie'' on the silver screen, with Creator/AmySchumer in talks to play the title role, but she dropped out and Creator/AnneHathaway was drafted. Creator/DiabloCody was set to write before leaving due to scheduling conflicts with ''Film/{{Tully}}''. Even after Cody left, Sony still earmarked the film for a 2020 release, but Sony's option for the franchise expired and Mattel decided to set up its own movie unit. Mattel finally worked out a deal with Creator/WarnerBros, and in 2022 it went into production for a summer 2023 release, with Creator/GretaGerwig directing, Creator/MargotRobbie as Barbie and Creator/RyanGosling as Ken, though apparently Sony's concepts were passed up in favor a new script (written by Gerwig and Creator/NoahBaumbach).

** In 2017, it was announced that Creator/JossWhedon would be writing and directing a ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'' movie. Whedon subsequently parted ways with the project in early 2018, after which Christina Hodson was brought in to write a new script. The project languished in Development Hell until 2021, when it was announced that the movie had been revived as an Creator/HBOMax exclusive with Creator/AdilElArbiAndBilallFallah directing and Creator/LeslieGrace starring as Batgirl.

** The biggest cases are ''Film/GoldenEye'' (which emerged from the failed third Creator/TimothyDalton film; the six year gap is still the longest between installments[[note]]five months longer than the time until ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', which also owes to [[TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment over a year being delayed by the]] Usefulnotes/Covid19Pandemic[[/note]]) and ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' (EON started to arrange things. Then MGM got into financial problems, and it was kept on hold until the studio solved them).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' was originally announced in 2006 as a CGI FracturedFairytale named "''Rapunzel Unbraided''" about a girl and a pizza delivery boy who was transported into the world of ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'', where the actual Rapunzel and her prince had been [[BalefulPolymorph transformed into animals]]. This concept was abandoned rather quickly and it was turned into a more faithful adaptation. Originally it was meant to look like a watercolor painting, but pulling off such a look was too expensive and difficult at the time, thus it was swapped for a more traditional AllCGICartoon. The plot at this point was a DarkerAndEdgier GenreThrowback to early ''Franchise/DisneyPrincess'' films starring Rapunzel alongside a GentleGiant thief named Bastion. However, it was lightened up considerably when directors changed. Due to how tasking animating Rapunzel's hair was, and the multiple story changes, the movie didn't end up coming out until 2010. Take into account Creator/WaltDisney's own aborted attempts at adapting ''Rapunzel'', and the road to the premiere seems even longer.

* Throughout 1989 and 1990, Creator/StanLee and Creator/ChrisClaremont were in discussions with Creator/JamesCameron and Carolco Pictures for an ''Franchise/XMen'' film adaptation. The deal fell apart when Cameron went to work on ''Spider-Man'', Carolco went bankrupt, and the film rights reverted to Marvel Studios. In December 1992, Marvel discussed selling the property to Creator/ColumbiaPictures to no avail. Meanwhile, Avi Arad produced the animated ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' TV series for Creator/FoxKids. Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox was impressed by the success of the TV show, and producer Lauren Shuler Donner purchased the film rights for them in 1994. [[Film/XMen1 The film]] went through a number of scripts and actor and director changes and was eventually released in July 2000, starting a long-running film series and spawning a reemergence of superhero films.

* ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'' went through several attempts at a live-action movie adaptation. The earliest effort was in 1986 when Creator/TheCannonGroup planned to produce such a film, but was scrapped following the poor reception of their ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' movie. Nearly 30 years later, Sony announced plans to adapt ''Barbie'' on the silver screen, with Creator/AmySchumer in talks to play the title role, but left and was replaced by Creator/AnneHathaway. Creator/DiabloCody was set to write before leaving due to scheduling conflicts with ''Film/{{Tully}}''. After she dropped out, Sony put the film for a 2020 release, only for the film to be canceled when Mattel decided to set up its own movie unit and Sony's option for the franchise expired. Mattel finally worked out a deal with Creator/WarnerBros, and in 2022 it went into production for a summer 2023 release, with Creator/GretaGerwig directing, Creator/MargotRobbie as Barbie and Creator/RyanGosling as Ken, though apparently Sony's concepts were passed up in favor a new script (written by Gerwig and Creator/NoahBaumbach).

* A live-action adaptation of Creator/NeilGaiman's ''ComicBook/{{The Sandman|1989}}'' languished in development for over two decades. Every attempt at a film adaptation was stymied by ExecutiveMeddling, and Eric Heisserer (who at one time was attached to write) stated his belief that it would be a better fit to adapt the comics for TV. Netflix eventually greenlit [[Series/TheSandman2022 an adaptation]] in 2019, which finally saw release in 2019.

* [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate]] [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]] Versus {{Wolverine}} (Issue 3). Originally solicited for April 19th, 2006. Finally released in March 2009. Frankly, it's amazing Marvel finally remembered.

** The previously planned ''Franchise/JusticeLeague'' film (a serious case of WhatCouldHaveBeen) petered out after a year in development. In 2007, pre-production got underway, with many major names attached to star in the film (including Creator/AdamBrody as The Flash, Music/{{Common}} as Franchise/GreenLantern John Stewart, and Creator/MichaelGough as Alfred [reprising his role from the Film/BatmanFilmSeries). Numerous problems happened during pre-production (the film's costume designer passed away, a Hollywood writer's strike derailed the script development and there were rumors that director Creator/GeorgeMiller had been canned from the project). Finally, the film was delayed less than ''a month'' before it began shooting and become effectively moribund. Then, with the success of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, specifically ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', the studio began again to make the film happen, with [[http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Justice-League-Movie-What-We-Know-So-Far-32429.html 2013 rumors]] of releasing ''Film/ManOfSteel'' first leading into an ''Avengers''-like team-up of Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/GreenLantern, Franchise/WonderWoman and Franchise/TheFlash. Then, the ''Man of Steel'' sequel, ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' was made as a BackdoorPilot to ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' (to the point its subtitle is "Dawn of Justice"). The Justice League film was then released in 2017, after a TroubledProduction that led to Joss Whedon taking over directing duties from Zack Snyder (from both ''Man of Steel'' and the sequel) to retool the movie. It resulted in mixed-to-negative reviews and became a BoxOfficeBomb. Due to [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow fan pressure]], a version of the film that adhered closer to what Snyder and screenwriter Creator/ChrisTerrio intended, ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', was eventually released in 2021, and was much better received.