There are movies, like Deadpool, Watchmen, or Lord of the Rings, that, once finally released, delivered on everything they promised and were worth the long wait. Unfortunately, there are others that lost their identity somewhere along with the 100th re-write, ironically ended up being rushed, or lost the momentum and relevance. These five movies should have remained beautiful, unattainable dreams and never have escaped the development hell.
RELATED: Why The Star Wars Sequels Were Always Going To Be Disappointing
When released in 1996, the action-packed, effects-laden sci-fi extravaganza that is Independence Day was a huge success both with critics and fans and became a classic of blockbuster cinema. The director’s Roland Emmerich original plan was to follow it with two sequels, which he intended to shoot back-to-back. However, they entered development hell and remained suspended until 2009. The new script intended to bring back the original cast, but the film’s lead, Will Smith, refused to return (reportedly demanding $50 million that the studio couldn’t afford), so the revised concept focused on the mix of the new and old characters.
Independence Day: Resurgence, featuring Liam Hemsworth, Jesse Usher, Bill Pullman, and Jeff Goldblum, had too many clichés, lacked the unapologetic cheesiness and charm of the original, and the wit and charisma of Will Smith (who was substituted by four-too-many lead characters). When it finally hit the cinemas in 2016, the movie bombed at the box office, suffered dreadful reviews, and killed any possibility of a sequel.
Stephen King’s adaptations have always been a struggle for both writers and directors. While some of the results became modern classics, like Carrie and It, others, like Thinner and Graveyard Shift, were written off as awkward mistakes. The adaptation of the epic 8-book series of the same name, The Dark Tower, was an ambitious project. It was stuck in development hell for over ten years, with various filmmakers like J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard attached to it at some point and even a spin-off TV show canceled along the way.
In 2015, Sony finally announced that the movie was in the works. It was intended as the first installment in a multimedia franchise, which never happened due to the film’s critical and box office failure. While many fans believe that Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey did a great job portraying the lead character Roland and his nemesis, The Man in Black, the movie’s premise weakened it from the start. Instead of following the winning recipe of franchises like Harry Potter that used the traditional book-by-book adaptation format, The Dark Tower acted as a sequel to the series and tried (and failed) to compress King’s expansive fictional world and rich story into a single movie.
The massive success of Michelle Pfeiffer’s iconic performance of the notorious sexy cat burglar in Batman Returns created the perfect launchpad for a spin-off. While the lead actress, director Tim Burton, and writer Dan Waters originally wanted to make it a reality, Warner Bros. was not convinced with the new, decisively less family-friendly script and put the movie on hold, throwing it into the development hell. Eventually, Waters, Burton, and Pfeiffer jumped ship, allowing Halle Berry to step in as the lead actress and the music video maestro Pitof as director.
Catwoman strongly deviated from the source material and completely altered the main character, portraying her as Patience Phillips (rather than Selina Kyle), a graphic designer who worked for a cosmetics company run by an evil corporate overlord. Instead of being a burglar, she gets resurrected by a magical cat and develops catlike superpowers, similar to Spider-Man. Catwoman was a blatant critical and box office flop, scoring $20 million less than its production budget, and was nominated for 7 Razzie Awards, winning 4 (including Worst Picture).
Attempting a franchise crossover is always a risk. On the one hand, it can potentially double the audience, attracting both fans’ camps. On the other, the crossover has to live up to double the expectations. While the big baddie face-off recipe has worked for the likes of Freddy Vs. Jason, it wasn’t the case for Alien Vs. Predator.
The idea of a crossover appeared in 1993, and with the success of the same-concept comic book and a buzz-generating Easter Egg showing an Alien skull in Predator 2, 20th Century Fox was ready to move on it. However, Alien’s lead Sigourney Weaver, as well as James Cameron and Ridley Scott, disliked the concept, and the studio put it on hold. The movie, finally released in 2004 and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, lacked the scale, effects, and originality and was criticized for not doing either of the legendary monsters justice. The released sequel, Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem, prompted an even worse response, leading to the studio separating the franchises again and releasing the prequels Predators and Prometheus instead.
In 1993, George Lucas began working on the sequel’s concept, which, weirdly enough, featured aliens — the element that received much criticism from the fans and critics alike — from the very start. The project got stuck in development hell due to the endless re-writes, conflicting schedules, and both Ford’s and Spielberg’s reluctance to get on board. The finally released 2008 movie suffers from excessive CGI, over-the-top (even for Indi) plot devices — the scene with Jones hiding in a refrigerator to avoid being blasted by a nuclear explosion still makes most fans cringe — and a weak story. Worst of all, it turned Indi into a joke, a weary and cranky old man who is just tagging along for the ride with his greaser son. Still, with Indiana Jones 5 in the works, fans are hoping against all hope for the famed fedora-hatted adventurer to make a comeback he deserves.
MORE: Why This New Netflix Horror Movie Failed Fan Expectations
