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1[[quoteright:196:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neversee.jpg]]
2
3->''"Making a movie is like getting on a stagecoach. At first, you're hoping for a pleasant journey. After a while, you're just hoping you get there."''
4-->--'''Creator/StevenSpielberg''', quoted in the introduction
5
6''The Greatest Movies You'll Never See: Unseen Masterpieces by the World's Greatest Directors'' is a 2013 book by Simon Braund about movies that were either never released, never completed or in numerous cases never even started, and what went wrong.
7
8!!Contents:
9
10* Chapter 1: The Twenties-The Fifties
11* Chapter 2: The Sixties
12* Chapter 3: The Seventies
13* Chapter 4: The Eighties
14* Chapter 5: The Nineties
15* Chapter 6: The Two Thousands
16* Not Coming Soon
17
18!!"The Greatest Tropes You'll Never See"
19
20* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: Invoked. ''Who Killed Bambi?'', which would have been a [[Creator/RussMeyer Russ Meyer]]-directed film about the Music/SexPistols, would have ended with [[Music/JohnLydon Johnny Rotten]] BreakingTheFourthWall by looking directly into the camera and asking, "Ever get the feeling you're BeingWatched?" Rotten would end the final Sex Pistols concert, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, CA on January 14, 1978, by asking the crowd, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night," dropping the microphone and walking off stage.
21* AlienInvasion: Creator/RayHarryhausen's abandoned adaptation of Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', and Steven Spielberg's ''Night Skies''. See LighterAndSofter below.
22* AlliterativeTitle: Creator/DavidLynch's ''Script/RonnieRocket''.
23* AmericanTitle: Type 2. In 1930, Creator/SergeiEisenstein wanted to film an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's ''Literature/AnAmericanTragedy''.
24* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: From the "Not Coming Soon" appendix, about the various failed attempts to film an adaptation of ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'':
25-->"Look at the statistics: Creator/JohnBelushi, Creator/JohnCandy, Creator/ChrisFarley (actors attached to the project)- dead; Natasha Lyonne (actress attached to the project)- [[Creator/LindsayLohan Lohan]]-esque career derailment; UsefulNotes/NewOrleans (city attached to the project)- decimated by Hurricane Katrina; Jo Beth Bolton (Louisiana Film Commissioner attached to the project)- murdered; Creator/WillFerrell (actor attached to the project)- made ''Film/BladesOfGlory'' (2007) instead."
26* ArtificialStupidity: ''Frank or Francis'', which is on the surface about an online feud between a critic and a screenwriter, would have included a disembodied robotic head that was programmed to write the perfect screenplay, the mass appeal of which would have been matched by its complete lack of artistic integrity.
27* BitingTheHandHumor: It's suggested that this is the major obstacle against ''Frank Or Francis'' getting produced.
28-->"After all, what industry would fund a project that sets out to expose it as shallow, venal and ethically bankrupt?"
29* BoxOfficeBomb: Invoked. The fact that the 2012 ''Film/JohnCarter'' failed means that an AnimatedAdaptation of ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars A Princess of Mars]]'', considered going back to the 1930s, won't happen.
30* CharacterTitle: Creator/CarlTheodorDreyer's ''Jesus'', Creator/FedericoFellini's ''Il Viaggio Di G. Mastorna'', Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Literature/DonQuixote'', among many others.
31* ClassyCatBurglar: ''Romance of Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' would have been about Inspector Clouseau falling in love with one.
32* CreativeDifferences: Invoked a few times.
33* DevelopmentHell: Invoked throughout, of course.
34* DuelingWorks: Invoked by Creator/StanleyKubrick, since the release of ''Film/SchindlersList'' led to him abandoning ''The Aryan Papers'' since he didn't think that audiences could handle two movies about UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust in the same year.
35* EitherOrTitle: ''Frank or Francis''
36* ExecutiveMeddling: Invoked many times. As just one example, the Creator/DavidORussell film ''Nailed'' was shut down and taken away from him right before the most crucial scene could be filmed. The film was later released as ''Accidental Love'' in 2015, two years after the book was published, and was promoted as a RomanticComedy instead of the political {{Satire}} of the American health care system that it was intended to be. Russell disowned the film and is credited as "Stephen Greene," which follows in the tradition of AlanSmithee.
37* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Both Creator/CharlieChaplin and Stanley Kubrick wanted to make films about UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte.
38* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Screenwriter Christopher Hampton notes that Creator/DavidLean's intended production of Creator/JosephConrad's ''Literature/{{Nostromo}}'' could have been made for Creator/WarnerBros in 1987 if Lean hadn't set such exacting standards for himself and everyone around him. Instead, Lean passed away at the age of 83 on April 16, 1991 after Creator/ColumbiaPictures pulled the plug on the project, making it a quite literal Creator Killer.
39* JesusTheEarlyYears: Carl Theodor Dreyer's ''Jesus'' was intended as a human portrayal.
40* LetsSeeYouDoBetter: Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky, who had attempted to film an adaptation of ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' during the 1970s, said that he felt relieved when he saw David Lynch's adaptation and discovered that Lynch couldn't make the material work either.
41* LighterAndSofter: While making ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Steven Spielberg's concept for ''Night Skies'' started leaning in this direction, leading to him turning the project into the blockbuster ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''.
42* LiveActionAdaptation: Creator/TimBurton's ''Franchise/{{Superman}} Lives'', Creator/DarrenAronofsky's ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'', Creator/DavidFincher's ''ComicBook/BlackHole'', Creator/FrancisFordCoppola's ''[[Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio Pinocchio]]''..
43* TheMafia: The subject of ''Potsdamer Platz''.
44* MononymousBiopicTitle: Carl Theodor Dreyer's ''Jesus'', Stanley Kubrick's ''Napoleon''.
45* TheMusical: ''Frank Or Francis'' would have been one.
46* NameAndName: Creator/{{Leo McCarey}}'s abandoned ''Literature/TheBible'' adaptation ''Adam and Eve''.
47* TheNounAndTheNoun: ''The Captain and the Shark''
48* ThePlague: ''The Hot Zone'', which would have been a fact-based story about Ebola centered around an infected {{Maniac Monkey|s}}.
49* QuestioningTitle: ''Who Killed Bambi?''
50* RealLifeWritesThePlot: More accurately, real life often destroys the project. As just one example, in 2001, Creator/FrancisFordCoppola was starting ''Film/{{Megalopolis}}'', a film he'd been trying to make since 1984, when the 9/11 attacks made a film about the rebuilding of an idealized UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity an impossibility (at the time at least, it's been completed since).
51* RippedFromTheHeadlines: ''Moon Over Miami'', an intended 1982 Creator/LouisMalle film about the Abscam scandal.
52* ScrewedByTheLawyers: Invoked regarding the intended Film/JamesBond film ''Warhead''.
53* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Invoked several times.
54* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Creator/JerryLewis told producer Nathan Wachsberger that he wasn't the right person to star in ''Film/TheDayTheClownCried''. Then Lewis made the movie, which, by all accounts, proved Lewis right.
55* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: Invoked with ''The Day The Clown Cried'', since, at the time the book was published, it was the only film that had actually been completed, but remained unreleased.
56* ShrugOfGod: Invoked. Creator/RogerEbert is quoted about the script he wrote for ''Who Killed Bambi?'':
57-->"I can't discuss what I wrote, why I wrote it or what I should or shouldn't have written. Frankly, I have no idea."
58* ThreateningShark: ''The Captain and the Shark'', which would have told the story of the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35) U.S.S. Indianapolis]]'' from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
59* {{Troperiffic}}: It's amazing how many tropes can be found in a book about so many unmade films.
60* TroubledProduction: Invoked throughout, of course.
61* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Invoked a few times. It's mentioned that Creator/AlfredHitchcock's abandoned 1960s SerialKiller project ''Kaleidoscope'' would seem dated today, citing ''Film/HenryPortraitOfASerialKiller'', Franchise/HannibalLecter and the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' movies.
62* VideoGameMoviesSuck: Invoked/discussed at the start of the article about Creator/NeillBlomkamp's attempt at making a film based on the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' video game series.
63-->"Video games don't have the greatest track record when it comes to being transformed into film. There have been occasional hits, like ''Film/LaraCroftTombRaider'' (2001) and the ''Film/ResidentEvil2002'' franchise (2002-present)- but, even when financially successful, these films tend to be vilified by the very fans they're seeking to attract. Halo, for a while, looked like being different."
64* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Invoked, as it's the whole ''point'' of the book.
65* WrongGenreSavvy: Creator/SalvadorDali, as the book explains why his intended collaboration with the Creator/MarxBrothers, ''Giraffes on Horseback Salads'', wouldn't have worked. DalĂ­ didn't understand that what made the Brothers' act work was that their craziness was set against a backdrop of utter normalcy, but that they would disappear in an environment where everyone was crazy.

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