Most of us who follows Hollywood knows that there are many scripts movie studios refused to turn into films. For whatever reasons the executives just didn’t believe in any of these scripts but of course they had no problem greenlighting several bad scripts each year. But that’s how the business works, if the scripts aren’t about sequels, reboots, remakes or comic book based, then they won’t get made into actual films.

Below are list of scripts I would love to see come alive and shown on the big screen someday but chances are these will never make it to the cinemas.

1. Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis
   Coppola spent years working on this script and around early 2000s he was ready to shoot the movie and he even got Russell Crowe on board to star as his leading man. The story is about government corruption in New York City set 300 years in the future. Coppola said he needs $200mil to make this world come alive but the problem is he hasn’t had a box office hits in years and he knows no studio in Hollywood will give him that kind of money to make this film. So he decided to put the project on hold and focus on smaller films. I hope he gets to make this film someday because I think it sounds great and the film could be a big comeback for him. I’m sure he’ll have to get another actor for the lead role since Crowe is not the A-list actor he once was 10 years ago.
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2. David Fincher’s Mission: Impossible 3
   When Paramount hired David Fincher to take over the Mission: Impossible franchise back in 2002, I was quite excited to see his take on the spy flick. To read more about why Fincher left the project this project, please read my full article about this film. I do hope Fincher take this script and make it into his first action/adventure film someday.
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3. Torso
   
   This script based on a graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko was supposed to be David Fincher’s next film after The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but again Paramount didn’t want to put the up the big money so it’s currently stuck in a limbo. The story takes place in the 1930s and it’s about a serial killer who only left torsos of his victims after the he killed them. The investigator of the case was Elliot Ness, yup that’s the same Elliot Ness from The Untouchables. According to this HeroComplex article from back in December 2008, “…[Paramount] studio’s rights to the project… are due to expire on Dec. 15 [of that year].”
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   Matt Damon was rumored to be the front runner for the Ness role. According to some reports, Fincher was demanding a budget of $100mil or more and Paramount wasn’t willing to give him that kind of cash to shoot a movie about a serial killer in the 1930s. I understand the risk, but I think this film could be something special. Didn’t Paramount executives see Se7en? Currently the producers are pitching the project to other studios in Hollywood, I hope we get to see it on the big screen soon. Maybe Henry Cavill could step in and play Elliot Ness since he’ll be a household name by the time this film is ready to start shooting.
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4. I, Robot (The unproduced script from the late 1970s)
   Yes I know I, Robot‘s already been made into a film but I’m referring to this script. It was written back in the late 1970s and it’s considered one of the best sci-fi scripts ever written. If you haven’t read it, please give it a try it’s excellent. The reason it was never made into a film was because back in the 70s, the technology just wasn’t available for filmmakers to make the script come true and also it would’ve cost 3 times more than any Hollywood’s film budget at that time.
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   The script is nothing like 2004’s I, Robot, it’s in the same vein as Blade Runner, more of a thinking man’s sci-fi thriller as oppose to shoot’em up action/adventure. The last I heard Fox is developing a sequel to their 2004’s hit, I wonder if they’ll incorporate some of the elements from this script. I highly doubt it since they’ll probably make it into louder and bigger than the first film.
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5. Batman: Year One
   As much as I love Nolan’s Batman Begins, I still would love to see Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One made into a film. Back in early 2000s, Warner Bros. hired Darren Aronofsky to reboot their Batman franchise. Darren then got Frank Miller to come on board as his screenwriter. To read more about what happened, check out this from-vision-to-film post.
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   Maybe 15 years from now when Warner Bros. is ready to reboot the franchise again, we might get to see Miller’s Batman: Year One on the big screen.
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6. The Prisoner
   Back in the 90s, Hollywood was crazy with turning old TV shows into films thanks largely to the success of Batman, The Fugitive and Mission: Impossible. So it was no surprise that they planned to churned out more films based on old TV shows, next on the list was The Prisoner. Even though it aired for only one season in England, the premise was intriguing enough that a movie studio, Paramount Pictures if I remember correctly, was confident that it will make a great tent pole picture for them. So in the late 1990s, they hired Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) to develop the film version. …
   Unfortunately by the late 90s, TV shows turned into films weren’t that successful, The Saint came out in 1997 and it tanked, the next year The Mod Squad made into the big screen and it also was a huge failure. So when the studio realized the trend is dying, they’ve decided to put the project on hold.In early 2000s, the project was again circling around Hollywood.
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   At one point Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott names were attached to the project but nothing happened. Then after Chris Nolan made a name for himself with Momento, he said he was developing a film version of The Prisoner, this was a year or two before he landed the Batman Begins gig. Even though he was working on the Batman films, Nolan was still working on The Prisoner’s script. But then in 2008 AMC Network announced they’re going to make a TV mini-series version, so in late 2009 Nolan decided stop developing the film version.
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   I was little bit upset when I heard he left the project, so much so that I decided to not watch the TV mini-series version. I guess I didn’t miss much since it didn’t do that well at all on ratings and most TV critics hated it. Now no one really know why Nolan decided to stop working on the film version, I’m assuming he wasn’t happy with the news that a mini-series was coming out and also maybe there are some legal issues and he didn’t want to deal with them. I do hope he goes back to work on developing the film version again, who knows he might do that once he finished with the third Batman film. I mean the premise of the TV show fits well at what Nolan does best and with a big budget and a good leading man, he could turn it into a great summer action/sci-fi/psychological thriller.

Well, what do you think, would you like to see any of these projects on the big screen? Do share your own wishlist of scripts you wish would get made into feature films.