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Its development is certainly taking forever. "The difference between me and Neil in our attitude to movie projects is that he doesn't believe they're going to happen until he's sitting in his seat eating popcorn, and I don't believe they're going to happen."
The state wherein an announced film becomes mired in pre-production for years without casting or production ever beginning. A common occurrence with book adaptations and other licensed materials, as legal squabbles over rights, Executive Meddling, and differing artistic visions keep the project from going before the cameras. Development Hell becomes a sort of self-reinforcing feedback loop over time — as one director gets fed up and quits, the project is assigned to a new director, who orders a new screenplay with a new vision, which results in producers demanding changes, etc.
The film equivalent of Vaporware. Compare What Could Have Been.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Though it hadn't been waiting as long as some of the other projects listed here and is a dub rather than a movie, ADV Films had Keroro Gunsou for nearly two years and had yet to release so much as a cast list, let alone a DVD or anything close. Funimation acquired the distribution rights to Keroro Gunsou from ADV in early July 2008 and released a "test episode" on Funimation's You Tube channel seeking feedback in late 2008. Season 1 part 1 was eventually released on DVD in September 2009, and some of the episodes of the final version are up on their video portal.
- An anime adaptation of Tonari no 801-chan was originally supposed to be animated by Kyoto Animation, and even had a preliminary website up for it. Then something happened and it fell into limbo. Until recently; it's been revived as an OVA project.
- One Piece had a crazy situation with this in America, especially if you're talking uncut episodes. First 4kids gets it after a few years, and said would be making uncuts of all shows, then that idea suddenly died, then they gave up the license all together. Then Funimation makes it and starts putting their version on Toonami...which rather quickly gets canceled. DVDs continue, however. Then the online simulcast was announced, and was hacked on the very first night, canceling the event and leaving Funi and Toei talking for months leaving fans wondering if they'd ever get caught up to Japan (or keep getting DVDs at all.) Then, finally, months later, the simulcast is back and DVDs are still rolling.
- A stall can be typical of all English manga distributors, especially for less common titles, but the Yaoi distributor Drama Queen seems to have either gone on a dragging hiatus since 2007, or is dead and no one can figure out where it's been buried, so to speak.
- It's pretty much unlikely at this point that Maikaze will finish the promised second and third episodes of Touhou Musou Kakyou, due to low sales and criticisms over the artwork.
Comics
- An animated Elfquest movies has been "coming soon" since the mid eighties. Though much of the (albeit scarce) pre-production art looks great, I wouldn't bet the farm on it ever coming out.
- Sasmira: The second album of the series has been expected for 12 years and counting.
Film
- Enders Game. Would you say that the wait for this one is ''endless?''
- Invisible Monsters, based off of a book penned by Chuck Palahniuk (of Fight Club fame), has been in development for forever and a half.
- Alien Vs Predator is probably the most famous case of development hell. It was finally released in 2004 after more than a decade of different scripts, changes to the cast, false starts, orphaned tie-ins, two unusually good video games and even promotions of the believed-to-be-coming-soon movie.
- Technically the video games were tie-ins to the comics and novel series, which pre-date the project by several years.
- If AVP is the most famous case, Freddy Vs Jason is likely the second most famous, as the film was also famously mired in development hell for years; originally, the studios who owned the two franchises involved with the titular crossover had wanted to make it for years, but could never agree on how to make it (each studio wanted to license out the other's character and do the film their way). When New Line Cinema bought the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise, the film stayed in development hell as New Line went through numerous screenwriters and even more script ideas (some of which were So Bad Its Horrible)...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.
- The X Files: I Want to Believe suffered a similar ordeal, but in a smaller scale and shorter time period.
- Fahrenheit 451. It had a French version successfully released in 1966, but those guys over at Hollywood are still stuck on this.
- One of the earliest examples of this was Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels, which, due to Hughes's 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. Two decades later, Hughes would take seven years to complete a similar film, Jet Pilot.
- John Carter of Mars, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter stories, has been mired in Development Hell since 1931, as almost every major studio in Hollywood has tried, and failed, in putting a film together. In 2006, Disney acquired the rights after Paramount's attempt at filming it failed, Paramount having acquired the rights from Touchstone (a Disney company) in 2002. Actual filming began in January 2010, with plans for a 2012 release. Time will tell.
- The fifth film in the 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 Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, while the later half was due to Executive Meddling driving director after director after director away from the project. Its proposed sequel has similarly become mired in development hell, after Superman Returns' lackluster performance at the box office caused a sequel to be put on the back burner, and Bryan Singer abandoned the project to direct Valkyrie instead.
- Mad Max IV: Fury Road was preparing to start filming in 2001 when the 9/11 attacks made it unfeasible for the production crew to travel to Australia. Since then, Mel Gibson has lost interest in reprising the role, making it unlikely that the film will be shot any time soon.
- As of 2009, there are reports that it will now be made without Gibson's involvement.
- The rights to a live action adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings were sold to Universal shortly before JRR Tolkien's death in 1973; it wasn't until 1994 that Peter Jackson was given approval to begin shooting (by Miramax) and the first film was not released until 2001 (by New Line). A proposed adaptation of The Hobbit has been held up because the rights to that work were sold separately and MGM was unwilling to part with them. It looks like it's finally being made, though. With Guillermo del Toro at the helm.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was announced in 1982, but filming did not begin until 2003. Douglas 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.
- Watchmen and V For Vendetta 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 Alan Moore's complete unwillingness to participate in adaptations of his graphic novels. V For Vendetta eventually saw release in 2006, and Watchmen was released in 2009. Both these films seem to have come to fruition due mainly to the enormous clout of the Wachowskis and Zack Snyder.
- Even then, after filming, Watchmen almost didn't get released due to a legal battle between Warner Bros and Fox over who owned the right to distribute the film. Fortunately, both studios managed to settle before the planned release date.
- Terry Pratchett has joked that the road to film for Good Omens (which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman) has become so long and complicated that even he has stopped paying attention. He relies on fans at conventions and signings to keep him posted on the latest news/rumors (Robin Williams will play the angel!)
- Dreamworks was going to make a Bromeliad movie. Where'd that go?
- And a couple of years ago the big news was that Sam Raimi was directing The Wee Free Men from a script by Pamela Pettler (who wrote Tim Burton's Corpse Bride). Since the initial announcement, nothing.
- Latest news on that one: Pratchett has apparently vetoed a script that "had all the hallmarks of something that had been good, and then the studio had got involved", and now thinks "it probably won't happen".
- The Man Who Killed Don Quixote by Terry Gilliam; Gilliam eventually released a documentary about making the film, but the film itself was never completed. Gilliam was also going to direct Good Omens.
- Just about every Gilliam film experiences this one way or another. Says Eric Idle on Terry Gilliam productions, "Go and see them by all means - but to be in them, fucking madness!!!"
- The unfinished 1938 production of I, Claudius was waylaid by an accident involving its lead actress and by the difficulty that Charles Laughton had in getting into the titular role. Only a few scenes from the film were ever publicly released in the 1960s. (The DVD release of the TV version of I, Claudius includes a documentary which features this footage.)
- The Red Dwarf movie is rather notorious for its stint in Development Hell amongst its fanbase. The filmic style of series VII was considered a "dry-run" for the then relatively-certain movie production, and the project itself got as far as script readings and prosthetic make-up tests for Robert Llewellyn (the actor who portrays Kryten) in the early '00s. However, the project mysteriously dissapeared soon afterwards with very little mention of how production was proceeding or indeed any indication that it was even still alive. Doug Naylor, one of the co-creators of Red Dwarf, cleared up the matter with a statement on the Series VIII DVD, explaining that the movie had run into serious financial difficulties, and Grant Naylor Productions were having problems garnering enough funding from potential investors. With the 3-part special Red Dwarf: Back To Earth airing in April 2009, it is likely that the Red Dwarf movie will never see the light of day, although some may argue that if the specials do well enough it may provide the movie with a second chance.
- There are rumors of a live-action adaptation of The Last Unicorn, which has reputedly been in Development Hell for many years now.
- Quentin Tarantino announced his plans to shoot a WWII movie titled Inglorious Bastards shortly after the 1997 release of Jackie Brown. As of 2007, he was still working on the script, but in late 2008 it began shooting and was released in August 2009.
- Creature From The Black Lagoon had a rumored remake on the way for 2007. Checking the calendar, you'll find that it is overdue.
- The film version of Preacher has been talked about for at least 10 years now. There was a rumor back in the day that it would resurface in 2008 — as an HBO series. Nearly two years later, we still have nothing.
- Rumor has it HBO passed on this, Saying it's too dark....DAMN!
- The live action Neon Genesis Evangelion movie was originally announced in 2003 by ADV Films and as of 2010 has not yet started production - apparently due to the insane costs of pulling the series off correctly in live-action compared to actual interest in such an endeavor.
- As of 2009, John Woo is at the helm as producer, looking for other producers. Matt Greenfield denies that it's in you-know-what.
- Considering that the market just isn't there to support such an insanely costly project, perhaps it would be better for it to remain in development hell. Either a poorly-done bastardized version that the actual fanbase would hate and the regular viewing public would ignore would result, or a well-done proper adaptation is created that ends up losing a fortune due to lack of interest. There's no winning option here.
- Well, assuming it's heavily promoted and focuses more on the action/horror parts of the series than the navel-gazing (i.e. live-action Rebuild), it could do fairly well.
- Halo - the movie, at least. Mostly due to creative control than budgetary constraints/disputes. Or So I Heard.
- The story goes like this: Jackson basically went to Blomkamp and said "Sorry that Halo thing didn't work out, here's $35 million, make whatever you want" and Blomkamp took the short film he had made before and made District 9. While it lets Halo fans reflect on What Could Have Been, Blomkamp has said in interviews that he might say no to a Halo film if the project gets revived.
- Supposedly the halo film might still be on life support at least. But the movie will now be based on the fall of reach instead of halo 1.
- There are rumors that Steven Spielberg was in talks to direct the film, but Microsoft has stated that they currently have the project on hold. Likely to concentrate on the release of Halo:Reach. Rumor has it that screenwritter Stuart Beattie went back and wrote another script based off of the Fall Of Reach novels. Which is why people think that after being on hold the resurrected project will be based around the aforementioned Reach.
- Artemis Fowl, with Jason Statham as Butler.
- The Sandman. Considering that the people interested in filming it were Joel Schumacher and Jon Peters, though, it may be fortunate that this film never got off the ground.
- The proposed script is available online. Trust me, it's better this way.
- The script Roger Avary and the guys behind Pirates Of The Caribbean worked on was a pretty sweet blending of the first two collections and the "Endless gather again for the first time" scene from Season of Mists. But then the script was sent in for rewrites under Jon Peters, and Neil Gaiman called the script not only the worst Sandman script he'd seen, but one of the worst scripts he'd ever seen.
- The film adaptation of The Sandman spin-off Death: The High Cost Of Living has also been in development hell for several years. IMDB has a release date of 2011 but there's not even a production company attached yet.
- It wasn't until making Pans Labyrinth that Guillermo del Toro finally got a studio to okay his script for At the Mountains of Madness. Apparently, it's going to have no romantic subplot, a Bittersweet Ending, and very vague monsters, none of which are things producers want. It's also going to have Ron Perlman, apparently; he's joked that del Toro will let him pick the sort of jar he gets to float in.
- Either way he's busy with The Hobbit so At the Mountains of Madness may still be in development hell. Though Ron Howard expressed interest in the film.
- Speaking of del Toro, he was also planning an adaptation of Domu: A Child's Dream, by Katsuhiro Otomo (better known for Akira), which has apparently been called off due to rights issues.
- The film "Quality of Life", a movie that was supposed to wrap up the storyline of the Canadian series DaVinci's Inquest
 , about a coroner living in downtown Vancouver who champions rights for heroin junkies and prostitutes. The series ended after eight seasons (with one of those seasons being a spin-off where the lead character becomes the Mayor of Vancouver, emulating the real-life example of coroner Larry Campbell). The film was due to be released in 2006, but has been pushed back continually, to the point that it is on hold indefinitely. Of course, considering that the show was cancelled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during an election, and the film deals with hot-button issues like prostitution and safe-injection sites, perhaps there is more to this situation than meets the eye...
- The Speed Racer 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 Logans Run remake.
- The Punisher sequel went through this for awhile.
- There's A LOT of Marvel films that appears to have stalled.
- Looks like this is what happened to Wonder Woman....*sigh*
- Battle Royale...Damn you to hell Seung-Hui Cho
- Also an American remake of Battle Royale with Quentin Tarantino at the helm. According to Hollywood buzz, he couldn't get a studio interested in a movie about high schoolers killing each other, considering the school shooting panic in America. When he finally found an interested studio, they told him they'd let him go ahead if the teenagers were changed to adult prisoners, and he passed, stating that ruined the entire point of the movie.
- Was this the reason The Condemned with Stone Cold Steve Austin was made? No wonder the premise sounded familiar.
- In June 2006, producers Neil Mortiz and Roy Lee announced that they had the greenlight to go ahead with the movie, which would, indeed, retain the "high schoolers killing each other" theme, and that New Line Cinema had given a tentative release date of 2008. Aside from the Virginia Tech Massacre making New Line gunshy about the endeavor (pun seriously not intended), as of 2008, they hadn't even secured the remake rights from the original Japanese production company, and seemed to be making no move to do so.
- The Castlevania Movie seemed to have been this one for some years, and still is, thanks to the Writer's Strike.
- Castlevania might actually be one of the rare cases in which Development Hell is good thing. Originally, the script was referred to as a sort of "Dracula Begins" and did away completely with the Vampire Killer (instead, Simon had a BFS) and everything that makes Castlevania what it is in favor of basically a retelling of Dracula. The current director signed onto the project BECAUSE of the Vampire Killer and how the hero can be just as "dangerous and sexy" as the villain. The recently revealed poster shows Simon holding a katana as well as the Vampire Killer looking upon Dracula's castle in a similar picture to what is usually used as box art for the games.
- In a unique example of development hell continuing into post-production, the film Exorcist: The Beginning had completed filming and was having some final SFX work done when the studio fired director Paul Schrader and replaced him with Renny Harlin, who recast almost all of the major characters and started from scratch. After Harlin's film bombed, Schrader's version received a theatrical release under the title Dominion, and did a little better at the box office.
- Perhaps the ultimate example of all time: in the '60s, Richard Williams began work on The Thief and the Cobbler, an Arabian nights-esque tale featuring a silent Buster Keaton style protagonist and a big name star in Vincent Price. 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 labor of love (which certainly explains the likes of Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure). 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 footage from the compromised release as well as the animators' own rough animation tests, to better suit the original vision of the story.
- The rumors of a remake/reboot of The Pink Panther were first floated around the turn of the milennium, with everyone from Kevin Spacey to Chris Tucker to Mike Myers reportedly being considered for Inspector Clouseau (Myers was apparently the favorite of the studio, but his asking fee was too high). It filmed as a reboot in 2004 with Steve Martin, but wasn't released until early 2006, largely due to a studio merger in the interim.
- It was also around this time that the prospect of a new adaptation of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory began development in earnest, going through several potential directors (Gary Ross, Martin Scorsese) and a gigantic list of potential Willy Wonkas (Will Smith, Robin Williams, Nicholas Cage, etc.) before settling on Tim Burton as director and from there Johnny Depp as Wonka.
- Peter Sellers read Being There circa 1972 and immediately visualized a film adaptation he could play the lead role in; it didn't come to pass until 1979 (he had to rebuild his box-office clout, for one thing).
- There is a rumor that there would be a Fatal Frame movie, but it seems we're in for a long wait.
- Dude, where's my Sliders movie?
- The Dionaea House, a story told virally over the internet from 2004 to 2006, abruptly stops on several cliffhangers at different points in time, apparently because Warner Bros. purchased rights for a film adaptation. According to eBay's film listing, it was supposed to come out in 2007. IMDB once had a listing for a 2010 release (under the name The Residents for some reason), but even that has fallen down the Memory Hole.
- According to the creator its dead for now.
- The Jim Henson Company has been planning a Fraggle Rock movie and The Dark Crystal sequel for quite some time.
- Gotchaman's CGI film, probably never after Astro Boy bombed. And then there's the financial issues of Imag I studios.
- A Nightmare On Elm Street prequel.
- Hack/Slash
- World War Z; J Michael Straczynski implied the studio was nervous due to script leaking DESPITE BEING BASED ON A BOOK. The director Marc Foster claims that they're still scripting. And that he doesn't think it'll be his next film. The latest news is that Straczynski's script has been re-written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (for better or for worse), and that Marc Foster has left the project. But other then that nobody knows. Some are speculating that nobody wants to fund a R-rated zombie epic, and the re-writes of the script worries some fans.
- Meg, which was supposed to have arrived in 2005.
- The American adaptation of Infection
- Tulia, which is about an attorney who works on behalf of a group of local black men who are wrongly convicted of their involvement in a drug ring. Likely the source material has derailed this project.
- Similarly, Pinkville, which is about the My Lai Massacre.
- At one point there was talks of a Dead Rising movie.
- The Sin City sequels.
- We3
- American McGee's Alice. There were even rumors of Tim Burton directing, probably just because the game appears heavily inspired by his works. Now a Burton-directed Alice movie is coming out for real, but it has nothing to do with the videogame.
- The Movie of Clerks The Animated Series. Originally planned as Clerks: Sell Out, wherein Dante and Randall decide to make a movie about their escapades in the Quick Stop, this got an animation test in 2006 and was supposed to go straight to DVD a little while after Clerks 2. However, according to Kevin Smith, Disney still own the rights to the series and all designs related to it, which essentially negates all possibility of there being a movie any time soon.
- Trick 'r Treat went through post-production hell. Which 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 dissapointed with Superman Returns.
- The Bad Seed remake
- Halloween 9 seemed to have stalled. Once producer Mustapha Akkad died, the 9th film appeared to have died with him. Ironically, the remake of the first film got fast-tracked once he died... That's just cruel.
- That means the fate of John Tate and Molly Cartwell(Michelle Williams), who were Put On A Bus at the end of H20("Drive down to the Beckers"), will probably never be resolved.
- The Spawn movie sequel.
- Jurassic Park IV.
- A Spider-Manmovie only came out in 2002 because of the filming rights going through various hands during 20 years - Cannon Pictures, which almost produced a short-budget movie like Superman IV; Carolco, which even considered a screenplay by James Cameron, but was stopped by continued financial and legal problems; and MGM, which traded the rights with Columbia for the James Bond ones they didn't own, after Columbia announced plans on a rival 007 franchise.
- In 1939, the film rights for a novel called Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day were bought, and production was about to begin when World War II started, throwing everything into a spin. The movie was shelved. They tried again in 1954, but nothing came of it. The movie didn't see the screens until 2007.
- Hey Paul Reubens, when are you going to make those new Pee-wee Herman movies?
- Rumor has it the Gears Of War film might be going down this road. Of course Gears Of War game developer Cliffy B. denies this. So who knows....
- Onimusha, due to the death of Heath Ledger
- The Silent Hill film sequel
- Mutant Chronicles, Don't know what happened here...
- The remake of THEM!
- The sequel to Dog Soldiers, Which was possibly derailed because of "
Identity Politics Gender Flip. Or So I Heard.
- Rendezvous with Rama
- A few years ago there were competing development projects about Hannibal Barca. One with Denzel Washington, another with Vin Diesel. Either one could have been interesting. But so far nothing.
- The next Evil Dead film, which was either gonna be a sequel or a remake.
- Boondock Saints: All Saints Day. 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 prequel/sequel film or miniseries to John Carpenter's Film/The Thing., Supposedly the prequel starts shooting this march...maybe.
- The Sky Is Falling, which is said to be the greatest screenplay never filmed.
- Similarly Brian Flemming's Danielle
- Ripley's Believe it or Not!
- The American Godzilla movie was first suggested waaaaay back in the 1970s. Of course, due to things like budget, rejected scrips, and the like, it wasn't until 1998 that the movie was finally released.
- The IMAX special Godzilla: 3D To The Max is currently in development hell mostly because the people behind the film have yet to garner any money to actually produce it.
- Deus Ex
- Hunter: The Reckoning
- Mortal Kombat: Devastation, Derailed by Hurricane Katrina. The studio had been set up in New Orleans.
- Spy Hunter
- Nightmare Creatures
- The Farrelly Brothers' Three Stooges movie
- The ongoing tale of A Confederacy of Dunces. First of all, the book was only published years after its author's suicide when his mother found a handwritten manuscript. Attempts were made to make a movie starring John Belushi...in 1983. Then there was going to be one with John Candy...in 1994. And then one with Chris Farley...in 1997. Yet another attempt with Will Ferrell seemed to be going well, and had even accrued other big names like Lily Tomlin and Mos Def. Then Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the film's setting.
- The remake of Hellraiser. Mostly due to the fact that The Weinsteins keep rejecting the ideas of every writer and director that has ever been attached to the project.
- The rerelease/remake of LetItBe.
- Opus: The Last Christmas, which is "dead" according to Berkeley Breathed.
- Similarly, a Get Fuzzy movie has been long rumored.
- Justice League: Mortal
- Teen Titans: Judas Contract
- The Man Of Steel
- The Magic 7. This December it finally comes out.
- What the hell is up with Stephen King's Cell movie?!
- Similarly The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
- Martin Scorsese first started trying to get Gangs of New York made in 1978. He finally did it in 2002, and a good deal of his DVD commentary on the film is devoted to explaining the arduous process.
- The Bone movie. Partially delayed in Jeff Smith's refusal of Nickelodeon's demands of putting pop music in, apparently the rights are now with Warner Brothers.
- A remake of A Clockwork Orange was originally announced in development but due to the death of Heath Ledger who had expressed great interest in playing Alex before the project was announced it is unlikely that production will continue.
- The fourth Indiana Jones. It took long before Lucas, Spielberg and Ford agreed on a script.
- A sequel/prequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- The Box, which is the Chinese Democracy of the film world.
- The Movie of Arrested Development
- Dead Air, which has been pushed back twice. It eventually got released.
- Case 39, The film has been completed as far back as 07. But it stayed in limbo until recently.
- The American Live action Adaptation of Wicked City
- Hellsing. A while back, there was a trailer, but nothing more has been even whispered about it. Said Trailer is now lost in the annals of internetdom.
- Technically, it was a concept trailer, used to pitch the idea to studios to get them interested in the project. The girl playing Seras in the trailer was a hired model. However, the company developing the film pulled the trailer from their site and Youtube, indicating things may have not gone in favour of the project.
- The rights to make a Metroid movie were sold to two unnamed producers in 2003, who then sold them to John Woo in 2005, with a 2006 release date. Since then, not a word on so much as possible casting has been released, and no one's sure if John Woo even still has the rights or not. Although if you want to cause a bit of trouble with the fans, suggest that Uwe Boll obtained the rights and watch what happens.
- Rumors of a Devil May Cry movie being in production/already existing have been floating around since the release of the third game. Fan movies exist, but that seems to be where the trail ends.
- Since at least the early '90s, Roger Daltrey of The Who has been attempting to put a biopic of his late bandmate Keith Moon on the big screen. Robert Downey Jr. was once considered for the lead role before, in Daltrey's words, he read the script and did everything in it. Currently, IMDB lists Mike Meyers as playing the title role in "Untitled Keith Moon Project".
- In 1994 there were talks of a film adaptation of the musical Into The Woods, where Robin Williams would have played The Baker. Sadly, it never came to pass.
- The Bioshock movie project is apparently going down this road too, due to budgetary concerns, and it won't surely see the light in 2010 as first hoped. Seems that, due to too many bad past adaptations (damn you, Uwe Boll), a movie from a video game has much more difficulties in being taken as a serious project. Sad considering that the director/writer combo currently attached to Bioshock is Gore Verbinski and John Logan, not exactly two hacks.
- Arguably It Got Worse. Verbinsky stepped down as director after the higher ups decided to film the movie overseas for budget reasons. While Verbinsky may remain as a producer, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) will replace him as director.
- For some unknown reason there was a 19-year gap between the fourth St. Trinian's movie (The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery, 1966) and the fifth (The Wildcats of St. Trinian's, 1985). But there's no mystery why there was a 22-year gap between Wildcats and the sixth (St. Trinian's, 2007); Wildcats was reportedly so dire that it's the only one not available on DVD. (On a related note, it is a mystery why the upcoming movie is called St. Trinian's 2 when it's the seventh, not the second.)
- A CGI Spyro The Dragon movie was announced in late 2007, and posters emerged in early 2009 which slated the film for a Christmas release. While two years is hardly a stretch in Development Hell terms, as of this writing (September '09), virtually nothing is known about the film; there is no official web site, no confirmed release date, and no details about the cast or plot. Rumors persist that development has been postponed indefinitely due to the merger between Activision and Blizzard Entertainment and the subsequent closure of Spyro's parent studio Sierra Online.
- The film adaptation of the Whiteout comic book is finally getting released after having been announced nearly 10 years ago.
- An entire section of this page can go to planned video game movies, among other things, Rainbow Six (based off part 3) with John Woo as director, Perfect Dark was announced in 2001 (later changed to a tv series but still no word), Crazy Taxi back in 2000, and of all things a LIVE-ACTION Pac-Man movie was announced in 2003.
- The long-awaited Ender's Game film. The book was published in 1985 and has since been considered one of the greatest science fiction works of our generation, and indeed in the entire genre. A movie was often talked about as early as 1998, but only announced in 2003 to have a script. It then drifted into creator disputes before Card grasped control for himself and wrote his own script, finally completing it in February of '09. How that turns out remains to be seen.
- Carl Sagan wrote the 100-page film script for Contact in 1985. When it went to Development Hell, he just made a book out of it. The film was finally released in 1997.
- Whilst its stay in Development Hell was rather short, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children 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 director Testuya 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 accomodate for fan expectation.
- Advent Children Complete again deserves a mention: it saw release in April 2009, after being announced at TGS 2006. Square Enix seem to have a habit of announcing things way before they're actually finished.
- Although it eventually got a 2005 release in the wake of Doom 3, the Doom movie first began its life as a rumor shortly after the runaway success of the first game, and then a flurry of studio developments, press releases and wild fan rumors after Doom 2 proved even more successful. At one point, according to the stories, Terry Gilliam was interested in directing, and Arnold Schwarzenegger would have starred as the space marine, but then it sank back into development hell for another decade.
- The third Terminator film, helped in-between by changes of ownership (when Linda Hamilton divorced from James Cameron she got the franchise rights... with the sole intention of reselling them, which she did to the Terminator 2 producers - seeing this story Sarah Connor being dead in the movie might count as karma).
- Apparently, there were plans for a Warrior Cats movie, but they were dropped when it was considered a gamble in light of the economic recession, due to the disparity between the kind of people that would be attracted to a movie about talking cats, and the appropriatness of the content. The film's status has been downgraded from "definitaly going to happen", to "not even under consideration".
- The sequel for The Incredible Hulk has fallen into this territory. While some actors are under contract or willing to return for the sequel, Norton himself is not and it is unclear if he will reprise his role. Leterrier has gone back and forth on the decision, but has stated that he's open to directing the sequel, but it's predicted that said sequel won't be coming out until at least 2012 and after the much anticipated Avengers film. Even that film is moving very slowly.
- The rumors about a "Xena: Warrior Princess" movie have been circling around since the series ended in 2001. It has been discussed many times by series creator Rob Tapert, who kept saying it was stuck because of legal issues at Universal. Looks like it will never get made, though.
- The Dragonriders Of Pern has been in development hell since probaly the 80's. At one time there was a TV series that was in production, but it was basically In Name Only so it never went forward (most people see this as a good thing). A movie was supposed to be released last year (2009), but the date has been pushed back to 2011. This may or may not be a good thing—done well, it would make an EPIC movie. Done poorly, it would make a TERRIBLE movie.
Literature
- The ongoing tale of A Confederacy of Dunces. The book was only published 11 years after its author's suicide, when his mother found a handwritten manuscript. Film adaptations have been attempted since 1982, with John Belushi, John Candy, and Chris Farley all being attached to play the lead and dying unexpectedly. The adaptation developed a reputation for being cursed.
- Donald Knuth's The Art Of Computer Programming was started in 1962 and not all the volumes are out yet...
- Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole collaborated on a six-issue Star Wars Expanded Universe comic for the X Wing Series which bridged over into Zahn's Thrawn books. It's called The Reenlistment Of Baron Fel. But the X Wing Series comics were canceled abruptly. So Zahn and Stackpole worked on the script and turned it into a four-chapter novella, something that they've done before. And Del Ray did not buy this script. Both versions are languishing on their hard drives, and it's been something like ten years since the X Wing Series was going.
- It's particularly frustrating when you see that in 2005 someone came out with a three-issue X Wing Series comic, Rogue Leader, which had nothing to do with Stackpole and is generally considered inferior due to Off Model art, rampant decompression, and a basically pointless storyline, without even any good character interaction, that could be summed up in two sentences: "The Empire will fight even without an Emperor, and some of its people are Complete Monsters. Luke Skywalker leaves Rogue Squadron to do Jedi things."
- Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day was written in 1938. The rights to make a movie out of it were sold in 1939. The movie was made in 2008. That's 70 years in Development Hell!
- Wherefore The Book of Dust? We've had a sequel novella and a prequel novella, and they are nice but...
Live Action TV
- The film "Quality of Life", a movie that was supposed to wrap up the storyline of the Canadian series DaVinci's Inquest, about a coroner living in downtown Vancouver who champions rights for heroin junkies and prostitutes. The series ended after eight seasons (with one of those seasons being a spin-off where the lead character becomes the Mayor of Vancouver, emulating the real-life example of coroner Larry Campbell). The film was due to be released in 2006, but has been pushed back continually, to the point that it is on hold indefinitely. Of course, considering that the show was cancelled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during an election, and the film deals with hot-button issues like prostitution and safe-injection sites, perhaps there is more to this situation than meets the eye...
- The Blakes Seven re-imagining had an announcement of script ordering in mid-2007 and nothing since.
- The Doctor Who spin-off featuring robotic dog K9 was first announced in 1997. Since then little had been said...until 2009 when it was finally announced that the series was to premiere in Australia.
- The Disney Channel series JONAS, suffered from this. The original plan was to launch the vehicle for The Jonas Brothers with the band serving as a front for a group of secret agents (think a Kim Possible meets Hannah Montana hybrid) with the name standing for "Junior Operatives Networking As Spies). For whatever reasoning, that didn't fly, resulting in Re Tool after Re Tool, ultimately culminating in a standard, run of the mill sitcom (albeit sans Laugh Track).
- The Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica was announced in 2007, in July 2008 it was picked up as a 2 hours pilot and in December of that year finally chosen to become a series. It wasn't until April 2009 that the pilot was released as a DVD and the series itself is air in January 2010, though rumors of difficulties with the script (such as the writers admitting difficult with the 8th episode (despite having 2 years) and having several lead writers before it has even aired don't inspire confidence.
- Stupid writer's strike derailing Series/Heroes Origins.
Music
- Music example: Limp Bizkit's The Unquestionable Truth (Part 2)
- The Beatles on iTunes. It was supposed to happen at the end of 2008, but it just fell through...
- Remastered versions of Beatles C Ds also fell here. Until 9/9/09, that is. Along with a Beatles video game.
- Poe's third album.
- The career of Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy fame: "We are working on an album, inter alia, but the matter of single releases is currently on hold..." and has been for thirteen years. Fortunately, nobody cares.
- Chinese Democracy until 2009.
- Dr. Dre's third solo album, Detox. It's been in talks for most of the aughties, though the current state of hip hop makes the prospect much less exciting than when Chronic 2001 came out.
- Anthony Rapp released a single solo album, Look Around, in 2000. After that, he claimed he was giving up solo work in favor of promoting his alternative/indie rock band Albinokid, and has promised they'll release an album since 2005. Several track listings have appeared on his My Space, and he's mentioned songs he plans to include at the band's live performances, but the album hasn't appeared four years later. In fact, from lack of information on the band, it seems that they broke up.
- Japanese power metal band Versailles's second album seems to have fallen into development hell because of the death of bassist Jasmine You.
- Wintersun's next album, Time, is taking forever to be released.
- E Nomine's next album. It was stated that it would be out by 2008 but as of September 2009 there has been no news of any band activity.
- Massive Attack'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. As of now (January 2010) we still don't know when will it come out and what will the title of the album be. They released an EP recently though.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40,000: Dark Eldar. Dark Eldar are one of the most un-updated teams in warhammer 40,000. They haven't received an update since 2003. The new army book for dark eldar was announced almost a year ago and has been delayed until mid next year.
- The general consensus is that Games Workshop is working on a complete overhaul of the Dark Eldar, rebuilding the entire army from the ground up, including scrapping the entire current line of models to create a new one. Naturally, this would take a long time, and it's anybody's guess when they'll be done.
- Also, Necrons, Daemonhunters, Witch Hunters, and Eldar are suffering this to a slightly lesser extent. Opportunities to update them have been passed over in favor of more popular armies, leaving players of these armies in the same boat as Dark Eldar players.
Theater
- Richard O'Brien has, for years, planned on making a sequel to the Rocky Horror Show. So far, however, nothing beyond a few rumors and some scrapped script ideas. All that's known about the yet-to-be-made sequel is that it would've involved Frank N Furter coming back to life.
- The first "leaked" script, Revenge of the Old Queen, began making the rounds in the late '90s, though it reads more like a glorified Fan Fic (see the page on Twilight for more on the subject of "glorified fan fiction"). Last year, O'Brien announced that he had finally begun writing the playbook for a true sequel, entitled Rocky Horror: The Second Cumming.
- See the Discussion page for a more detailed version.
- The severe postponing of the Belgian production of Tanz Der Vampire.
Video Games
- Duke Nukem Forever has often (not always jokingly) been said to be named after the length of time it'll take to get released.
- As of May 6th, 2009, developer 3D Realms cancelled production and downsized considerably, including firing the DNF team. Duke Nukem Forever will be released never.
- It was revealed in December of 2009 that the game's still in development. Granted, that won't be worth much to most people.
- Team Fortress 2 is another infamous example, having spent 11 years in on-and-off development. The game was eventually going to be released as a realistic military shooter, powered by the Quake-based GoldSrc engine with the subtitle Brotherhood of Arms, before receiving a massive overhaul before its final release, now powered by Valve's Source engine and redesigned with a cartoony, colourful look instead. In fact, the previous de fact Team Fortress release, Team Fortress Classic was released specifically to tithe players over until the release of Team Fortress 2.
- "Fortress", a Final Fantasy XII Gaiden Game developed by the guys who made Tom Clancys Ghost Recon, has been stuck this way for about a year and a half thanks to that dev studio going bankrupt and closing down. Final Fantasy XII itself was also a victim of this trope, spending six years in development due to Executive Meddling and the perfectionist tendencies of the project director. It got so bad that its own Gaiden Game was released before it was.
- The Legendof Zelda games, especially if they're the first made for a new console, often go a year past their deadline. If this doesn't occur then, the game will still be pretty good, but will be notably unfinished in same areas.
- Most of the Gran Turismo games have gone through this. Especially 5.
Webcomics
- In the webcomic Muertitos, the equivalent of Hollywood is actually called Development Hell, in a Shout Out to this. The story arc it appears in actually primarily parodies Adaptation Decay and So Bad Its Horrible, however.
Western Animation
- The Samurai Jack Movie.
- The Spaceballs Animated Adaptation, though now it has made its way to G4... and well, Your Mileage May Vary.
- 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. Marc 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, one of the actors 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 the worst opening weekend of any wide-release film ever. That the film itself is a Cliché Storm of epic proportions certainly didn't help.
- Jem And The Holograms has yet to see its third season put on DVD or any further releases after the rights changed hands to Sony.
Real Life
- One World Trade Center, or the Freedom Tower, or whatever they end up calling the building which they might, at some point, construct at Ground Zero in NYC.
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