While numerous comic book movies have dominated the box office for the last decade, there have been dozens that never made it past the production stage. Some of these unmade films are legendary among fans of the genre.
For instance, there is Tim Burton's Superman Lives; the Kevin Smith scripted epic which famously featured the titular character battling a "Thanagarian Snare Beast," or George Miller's Justice League Mortal, which was canceled just months before production was set to begin. All of this makes you wonder what other potential masterpieces were shelved before they made it to the big screen.
10 Kathryn Bigelow's X-Men
Before she directed Point Break in 1991, Marvel was in deep discussions with Carolco Pictures to produce a feature-length X-Men film with Kathryn Bigelow serving as the director. The project was to be produced by her husband (at the time) James Cameron.
Production got far enough along that a treatment was written for the film with a dream cast of movie stars that would have seen Angela Bassett as Storm and, strangely enough, Bob Hoskins as Wolverine. Unfortunately, the film fell apart in pre-production due to Cameron’s stronger interest in developing a Spider-Man film as well as Carolco’s bankruptcy.
9 John Milius' Sgt. Rock
In the 1980’s action movie producer legend, Joel Silver attempted to get a live-action feature based on DC Comics’ WWII hero Sergeant Rock off the ground. John Milius, the eccentric (to say the least) director of Conan the Barbarian and writer of Apocalypse Now, signed on to helm the film.
His leading man? None other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would have played a re-imagined Austrian-American version of the character. Who knows how well this would have gone over with the comic fandom of that time, but the collaboration between such a super-star actor and talented director would have definitely produced a memorable film.
8 Brad Bird's The Spirit
In the 1980s, long before he was the titan of animation he is today, The Incredibles and Iron Giant director Brad Bird was a dissatisfied animator working at Disney. Unhappy with the creative decisions being made at the studio, he attempted to pitch a fully animated adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit to none other than Steven Spielberg.
While it never got past the pitch stage, a rough demo reel and concept art for the project exist, giving us a look at what could have been a spectacular film. One can definitely see the style that would be on display in his later films throughout the pitch.
7 Peyton Reed's Fantastic Four
While Peyton Reed eventually got to direct a superhero movie when he took over directing duties on Ant-Man for Edgar Wright in 2015, he was attached for two years to direct The Fantastic Four in the early 2000s with a script from screenwriter Chris Petrie.
His pitch was for a 1960’s set film, heavily influenced by the Beatles' film Hard Day’s Night with Charlize Theron as the Invisible Woman, John C. Reilly as the Thing, and the late Paul Walker as the Human Torch. Unfortunately, the concept was not what the studio had in mind, and they opted to go with the Tim Story version of the film that exists today.
6 The Wachowski's Plastic Man
Since the mid-1990s, the Wachowskis have intermittently attempted to produce a film based around Plastic Man. The closest they came to seeing this project to fruition was following the release of 2008’s Speed Racer when it was announced that their The Matrix collaborator Keanu Reeves was in talks to star in the lead role.
The Wachowski’s reportedly planned to make the film a comedy with an environmental twist. For example, there was allegedly a scene where Plastic Man, upon receiving his new powers, would have had a breakdown over his urine no longer being biodegradable. This is one hundred percent true.
5 Joe Carnahan's Daredevil
In the months before 20th Century Fox reverted the rights for Daredevil to Marvel Studios in 2012, they desperately attempted to launch a new film featuring the character. One director they reached out to was Joe Carnahan, director of A-Team and The Grey, who pitched a 1970’s set period piece which pulled from the famous Daredevil storyline Born Again.
While talks between the two parties went sour, a very cool “sizzle reel” presenting Carnahan’s intended vision is widely available to be seen online. It definitely gives you a feel for the undoubtedly crazy and edgy take he intended to deliver to audiences.
4 Darren Aronofsky's Batman: Year One
After the failure of 1997’s Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. brought in director Darren Aronofsky, fresh off the success of his first film Pi, to develop a new take on Batman with the assistance of the legendary Frank Miller.
What the two came up with was a bizarre and grim re-imagining, one that was expected to be R-rated. Their take would have seen a raggedy version of Bruce Wayne, who would operate out of an auto body shop owned Alfred, here called “ Big Al.” This film seems as though it would have taken the dark moodiness we've seen in Batman before to a whole new level.
3 David S. Goyer’s Green Arrow: Escape From Supermax
Years before the release of Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. began to develop another feature centered on the villains of the DC Universe. Written by David S. Goyer, known for his work on the Dark Knight Trilogy and Blade films, Supermax would have seen the heroic Green Arrow framed for murder and shipped to a remote and inescapable prison designed specifically for Supervillains. It would have contained numerous cameos from established DC bad-guys.
According to Goyer, the majority of executives working at the studio at the time wanted to focus on established DC characters like Batman and Superman, so, unfortunately, his script never saw the light of day.
2 Rob Smigel's Green Lantern
In 2004, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O’Brien writer Rob Smigel was hired by Warner Bros. to write the screenplay for a Green Lantern movie. His pitch? Due to a malfunction, the Green Lantern power ring would have overlooked Hal Jordan and chosen a new host. Smigel's script would have seen a spoiled reality television star played by none other than Jack Black become the new Green Lantern of Earth. That would have been something!
While this could have been hilarious, fans across the internet caused an uproar when the film was announced, leading the studio to scrap the project.
1 JJ Abrams's Superman: Flyby
In the period between Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987 and Superman Returns in 2006, multiple projects were developed with the goal of returning the Man of Steel to the big screen. One of these was Superman: Flyby, from a script by JJ Abrams. While the finished product would have undoubtedly been visually spectacular it would have been highly controversial.
Originally set to be directed by Brett Ratner, the script features a take on the famous Death and Rebirth of Superman arc along with a version of Lex Luthor who is revealed to be an evil Kryptonian soldier sent to earth years earlier to prepare for an invasion. While this film got far enough into the pre-production stage for casting negotiations to begin, the studio deemed the project to be too expensive to be filmed at the time.