30 Movies That Could Have Been Masterpieces but Were Never Finished

Hollywood is filled with promising movies that never reached an audience. Some stalled during development, while others collapsed after cameras were already rolling. Financing disappeared, studios changed direction, filmmakers clashed, and the loss of a key creative force sometimes made finishing a production impossible. Even celebrated directors and major stars couldn’t guarantee that a film would survive.

The following projects made it far enough to leave behind an intriguing trail of scripts, footage, concept art, casting announcements, and Hollywood stories. There’s no way to know whether every one would have succeeded, but each had at least some of the ingredients of a memorable film. Together, they offer a glimpse at 30 movies that might have become classics if they had ever been completed.

This Superman reboot starred Nicolas Cage, but never got off the ground. While concept art and costume tests were made, this would-be Tim Burton film was canceled only weeks before filming.

Directed by George Miller, this DC Comics project was based on comic book storylines from "JLA: Tower of Babel" and "Superman: Sacrifice". Unfortunately, the 2007 WGA Writers' Strike put it to sleep. Once Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" was released, its success kept this Miller movie unfinished.

Guillermo Del Toro may be the master of fantasy horror, but his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's novella remains unfinished. Even though it reportedly had great visuals and Tom Cruise was attached to star, its violent content and big budget proved too much for Universal Studios to back.

Darron Aronofsky planned to make a gritty R-rated Batman film where Bruce Wayne was homeless and his loyal Butler worked as a car mechanic. While this unfinished film foreshadowed later violent reboots, Warner Bros. scrapped it to make "Batman Begins."

This sequel to the "Suspiria" remake was planned by director Luca Guadagnino, but it never got farther than that. Envisioned as a two-part story, the sequel seems a moonshot considering the first film's box office sales and budgetary limitations.

The success of "2001: A Space Odyssey" gave Stanley Kubrick the potential to make practically any movie. He set his sights on Napoleon Bonaparte. Kubrick became so obsessed that he started eating his food like the famous leader. While Jack Nicholson was attached to the starring role, corporate changes at MGM put this unfinished epic to rest.

After the success of "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs," Quentin Tarantino publicly mentioned a prequel involving the Vega Brothers. Initially set in Amsterdam, the film would show the origin story of the criminal siblings. Ultimately, too much time passed, and Tarantino moved on to other film projects.

The first several Sam Raimi Spider-Man films went well, so the director planned a fourth film with Tobey Maguire reprising his starring role. Unfortunately, it never made it off the ground. Sony rebooted the sequel with Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man instead.

The success of “Beetlejuice” brought Tim Burton many potential avenues for a sequel. The most absurd option was Beetlejuice goes Hawaiian. It sounds ridiculous, but a script was written, and it was shopped around. Eventually, it was shelved and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” became the sequel.

Inspired by Italian filmmaking techniques, Alfred Hitchcock employed novelist Howard Fast to write a treatment about a serial killer. Hitchcock constructed a storyboard and shot an hour’s worth of color tests. In the end, the script was too disgusting for Universal’s corporate palette, and “Kaleidoscope” was dead on arrival.

With its breathtaking setting and timeless themes, Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness” was bound to be a movie. Orson Welles attempted it, but his script was too long. Plus, the required special effects and massive jungle set pieces made the budget balloon too big. It remains unfinished, but “Apocalypse Now” paid homage to the classic novel.

Andrei Tarkovsky was once the golden child of Russian cinema, so he set his sights on an adaptation of 
Dostoevsky’s famous novel “The Idiot.” Tragically, Tarkovsky died before the film version could be fully realized.

Planned as a direct sequel to Robocop, ignoring all other reboots and sequels, Robocop Returns was once Neill Blomkamp’s baby. He eventually lost interest in the project, however, and the robotic cop sequel went cold. 

Walker Percy’s debut novel, “The Moviegoer,” seemed perfect for the silver screen; it took place in New Orleans and featured a character obsessed with movies. Famed auteur Terrence Malick was slated to direct, but Hurricane Katrina put a stop to this potentially great adaptation. 

Planned as a war epic with a $150 million budget and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the starring role, Paul Verhoeven’s “The Crusades” sounded good on paper. But Carolco Pictures was saddled with several big-budget films, so they asked Verhoeven to make “Showgirls” instead. The company eventually went bankrupt, ensuring that “The Crusades” would never be made.

While Jerry Lewis is best known as a comedian, he took a surprising turn in the 1970s when he attempted to make “The Day the Clown Cried.” It centered on a clown in a Nazi Concentration Camp, but was too much for audiences at the time and never saw release. Nevertheless, a certain mythos has sprung up around it, and "The Day the Clown Cried" remains one of the most famous unfinished films ever "made."

Quentin Tarantino mentioned possible films to the press many times. One such potential film was a second sequel to the Kill Bill franchise, centered around Vernita Green’s daughter. As Tarantino’s interests shifted, however, Kill Bill Vol. 3 went by the wayside.

It was supposed to be a doomed love story about an American cameraman and a Soviet girl set against the siege of Leningrad during World War II. Sergio Leone, however, could not commit his growing wellspring of ideas to paper. Plus, the Soviet Union was unwilling to grant filming permission. 

Even before Stephen King finished writing “The Talisman,” Steven Spielberg bought the film rights. For the next several decades, it wilted in development. Eventually, a miniseries was scheduled instead. Cut to today, and “The Talisman” remains unfinished.

With a script by Academy Award-winning Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese at the helm, this biopic of American composer George Gershwin seemed like it would be a success. Complications over the film’s rights and Scorsese’s fear that it wouldn’t connect with audiences, however, kept it unfinished.

Robert Zemeckis planned to make a darker, computer-animated version of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. Though it was announced at Disney’s D23 expo in 2009, the film never saw the light of day.

James Franco’s film version of William Gay’s novel by the same name was filmed and finished, but never released. It likely had to do with one of the film’s actresses accusing Franco of inappropriate contact during filming.

Terry Gilliam’s attempt at making  “Don Quixote” is legendary. He started in 1989 but quickly gave up and moved on to other projects. The film eventually saw release as “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” but failed to capture the original idea’s verve. Gilliam reportedly tried to make the film 29 separate times throughout the 80s and 90s.

Jamie Foxx made a movie about basketball fans starring several big names, including Jeremy Piven, Benicio Del Toro, and Eva Longoria. First announced in the fall of 2012, “All-Star Weekend” has remained in development limbo ever since. However, there is a chance it gets released this year, but don’t hold your breath.

Since the runaway success of the animated film “Akira,” Hollywood has attempted to make a live-action version with little success. Currently, Taika Waititi is attached to direct, but it's unlikely this film ever comes to fruition.

After early arthouse success, Alejandro Jodorowsky set his sights on Frank Herbert’s epic novel “Dune.” This unfinished film is so legendary that a documentary was made about it. Jodorowsky’s psychedelic imagining of "Dune" was enticing, to be sure, but too radical for Hollywood to bring to the silver screen.

Batgirl was a planned film for the DC comics universe. Though it finished filming, it never made it to theaters due to studio cost-cutting measures. Fans, however, were not pleased.

One of the great unrealized film projects, “Jesus” by Carl Theodor Dreyer, was supposed to paint a human picture of the messiah. While epic, it remained on the page as Dreyer never advanced the movie past its screenplay.

Michel Gondry’s coming-of-age musical drama was inspired by Virginia Beach's Atlantis Apartments and set in the 1970s. Though big stars were attached, including Halle Berry, Missy Elliott, and Andre 3000, the finished product did not live up to expectations, and Universal Pictures scrapped it. 

It cost $40 million to make and starred Halle Berry, but Netflix's "The Mothership" never landed. It reportedly had a lengthy post-production process and featured several child actors who grew out of their roles between filming and re-shoots.