It has been said, and shown a thousand times; : At Hitek, we are big fans of fantasy. After our selection of the best fantasy films that are notThe Lord of the Ringsand the 10 best animated fantasy films, we this time returns to the sad fate of eight abandoned Fantasy film and series projects that you will never see (and why).
#8 The Lord of the Rings by Stanley Kubrick with the Beatles
The Lord of the Rings was immediately popular. a literary success in England. The Return of the King, released in 1955, was particularly well received by the younger generation. A few years later,the counterculture and the hippie movement recognize each other and appropriate the eco-responsible ideas put forward by the book. In the United States, the book is already inspiring people. the storefronts of San Francisco and slogans during anti-war and/or progressive demonstrations calling for “Gandalf for President”. At the same time, it’s the emergence of the pop group phenomenon ne,the Beatles. After the big successes of their musical films A Hard Day's Night(Four Boys in the Wind) and Help!, they have carte blanche for their next film. So it's decided,it will be The Lord of the Rings.
For their adaptation of Tolkien's trilogy, those nicknamed the Fab Four dream big. First, they take ownership of the roles that interest them most. So, Paul McCartney would be Frodo, Ringo Starr would play Sam, George Harrison would play Gandalf and John Lennon would be Gollum (?!). But above all, the Beatles do not want a little anecdotal film shot on a daily basis. à hastily anddecide to turn to the director behind Paths of Glory andDoctor Strangelove, two of the greatest anti-war (and anti-system) films of the time: Stanley Kubrick. Problem, the Beatles will encounter the outright refusal of Tolkien himself. Kubrick or not Kubrick behind the camera, the author refuses to allow the group to take over his work.
#7 Game of Thrones: the prequel series with Naomi Watts
Game of Throneswas a gigantic shock in the history of the series.The cultural impact of this work is immense and it will probably take a few more years to fully understand its full impact. Of course, in the hands of any studio, such a phenomenon might have been a simple cash cow from which we could have already drawn 4 or 5 animated series spin-offs and half a dozen feature films of questionable quality (follow my gaze…). But it is clear that HBO, which holds the rights to the G.R. Martin universe, seems rather determined to take your time to first and foremost do things well. The proof: they producedpiloted a spin-off series for $30 million before deciding it was a bad idea.
Baptized Game of Thrones: Blood Moon, the series was to be headlined by Naomi Wattsand in all likelihood, tackle a completely new period and never treated by the author of the novels himself . It was an unpublished prequel set during what is known as “the Age of Heroes”, approximately 5,000 years before the elements from the original series. In all likelihood, it was a sort of “origin story” of what we call the Long Night, a period known as an interminable winter at night. Westeros.
#6 John Carter from Mars by John McTiernan with Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts
John Carter is certainly one of the biggest flops in Disney history. We know thatthe film caused the company to lose, at least, $108 million. Disney.The story behind this failure and its consequences are so aberrant that much attention was devoted to it. a whole article that you can find right there. But before becoming this legendary failure, John Carter was a very long-running project that has haunted Hollywood since at least the late 1930s. À At this time, the serials (series visible only in cinemas, to put it simply) of Flash Gordon and Tarzan were a hit. As a result, many say thatadapting the John Carter books written by the author ofTarzanwould be a good operation, but it will be fifty years before a director comes close to the goal.
The project John Carter from Marswas an ambitious adaptation of the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, developed by director John McTiernan, famous for his action films à hits such as Die Hard and Predator. À At that time, the director was a Hollywood giant. He then signed a major contract with Columbia Pictures and in 1990 offered them the opportunity to produce a gigantic blockbuster. 120 million dollars (the equivalent of a budget of 248 million in constant dollars). This gigantic blockbuster will bring together the poster Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, two of the biggest stars of the time.
The project promised to be a grandiose production, with innovative special effects for the time and could have redefined the science fiction genre. However, several obstacles prevented this from happening. the making of the film. First, the technical challenges andthe costs associated with The creation of the Martian environment and extraterrestrial creatures was considerable. Then, creative differences between McTiernan and the studios contributed to the creation of the Martian environment and the extraterrestrial creatures. à delay the project. Finally, a revisited script by the authors of Pirates of the Caribbean is commissioned. The new script, which introduces a lot of humor, discourages Tom Cruise and the project is abandoned.
#5 Dungeons & Dragons: The Series
After the disastrous triptych of films in the 2000s, everyone thought it unlikely that we would ever see a satisfying “live” adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons universe. Released in 2023, the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was therefore a huge gamble.Especially since it was thought to be from the start as the key The mainstay of a long series of films and spin-off series. From a critical point of view, it is a huge success; the film even gets 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, on the sideé at the box office, it’s a flop. =”image/webp”>
Released at the same time as the cartoon Super Mario Bros and with not really convincing marketing, Honor Among Thieves did not bring in any revenue. only $208 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $150 million. Taking into account marketing and distribution costs, Honor Among Thievesdidn't achieve this. sufficient profitin the eyes of the studios. If for the moment the possibility of Although the idea of a sequel to the film has not been completely abandoned, the spin-off series project has been completely abandoned.
#4 The Lord of the Rings by John Boorman
< p>We talked about it; a little higher: The Lord of the Rings has come a long way before finally getting an adaptation worthy of its name.Many have approached this prestigious literary saga and fallen in love with it. the teeth. So, after the Beatles failed, à to bring their version to fruition, the rights to Lord of the Rings were finally granted. acquired in 1969 by United Artistsstudios. The studio's idea is to entrust the project to the director of the traumatic Deliverance: John Boorman.
Indeed, the director sees in the Lord of the Rings the perfect setting into which he can project all his obsessions. This project planned to condense the entirety of the project. Boorman envisioned a very stylized version, with, among other things, a very personal interpretation of the characters and events in the book. His script contained scenes and concepts that diverged significantly from the source material, introducing considerations of sexual sexuality. and psychology of the 1970s.
Finally,the scenario apparently did not hesitate to make fun of the work by including a humorous or even parodic dimension.This latest information is however up to date. take it in the conditional since it could be a confusion with the subject of the book Lord of the Ringards released in 1969. In any case, between a budget that is too constitutive of the book Although, an unsatisfactory script and a dissatisfied Tolkien, the film will never be made.
#3 Red Sonja by Robert Rodriguez with Rose McGowan
Red Sonja is an extremely popular character in American pop culture. Loosely inspired by a character created by author Robert E. Howard (the creator of Conan),it is about a warrior who faces dragons and sorcerers while roaming a fantasy world in which almost anything is possible for the different artists who focus on the concept, particularly in comics. After the enormous success of Sin City and before the future failure of the Grindhouse project that he will carry out with Tarantino,Robert Rodriguez has great ratings in Hollywood.Persuaded that Grindhouse will be a huge success which will explode the career of his new partner Rose McGowan, he proposes to adaptRed Sonja with McGowan in the role title and drawing inspiration from the filming techniques ofSin City.
Very quickly, the project seemed to have the green light and we even discovered the first visuals which allowed the director to create new ideas. A Night in Hell to sell the project. Except that, Grindhouse is a gigantic flop. The Rodriguez and McGowan couple are quickly losing ground. Then it's a rights problem that gets in the way. Rodriguez can no longer make the film alone and must wait for the producers to first release the remake of Conan with Jason Momoa. The failure of this Conan will put an end to the Red Sonja project by Robert Rodriguez.
#2 King Conan by John Milius with Arnold Schwarzenegger and produced by the Wachowskis
King Conan is perhaps one of the greatest Arlesians of cinema; my Hollywood. Fantasy project since the epilogue of the very first film Conan the Barbarian,This is a film that would allow the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his iconic role of Conan. At the very beginning of the 2000s, the project finally came close. King Conan: Crown of Iron or simply The Legend of Conan, was to be produced by the Wachowskis,fresh from the success of Matrix,and carried out by John Milius. The story focused on an aging Conan, now king, facing a deadly threat. his latest adventures and challenges to defend his kingdom and establish his legend.
Despite the enthusiasm of the fans and the persistent interest of Schwarzenegger (still today in 2024 in fact), the project never came to fruition for several reasons. First of all , the very progressive Wachowski and the very conservative John Milius had difficulty in achieving their goals. agree on a script and a coherent vision that could satisfy them. Then, Matrix Reloaded and Terminator 3,without being real failures, were also not real failures. the successes hoped for by the studios. Then, Schwarzenegger suddenly launched into the game. in a campaign and became governor of California. The relative failure of Matrix Revolutions ended up burying the project. Today, the rights to Conan have become a real headache, but ArnoldSchwarzenegger does not despair of making King Conan his last big project.Small consolation prize, a fan film (with more than 2 million views) which uses DeepFake to imagine Scharzy as King Conan:
#1 Star Wars: Sequel Trilogy by George Lucas
In 2012, George Lucas sold the Disney studio the exploitation rights to all of his studio's creations for the astronomical sum of $4.05 billion. But George tries to sell a little bonus in passing: his screenplay for a third Star Wars. trilogy But Disney, who knows that Lucas' prelogy is not really doing unanimously, distrusts the ideas of the author-director of Attack of the Clones. All of George Lucas's ideas are more or less piers at the trash can,and it's the showrunner of the teen series Felicity who will offer a brand new “original” story.The rest, we know it: a series of three films so unlovedthat even Lucas’s most ardent opponents wonder what he could have done.
Obviously, it is very difficult to answer this question. that question. On the one hand,the script will certainly never be accessible, and on the other handGeorge Lucas has an unfortunate tendency to perpetually changing versions when he talks about his ideas.What we know about it approximately at At this stage, it is that initially, the bad guy would have been Darth Maul and his new apprentice Darth Talon, then suddenlya whole new danger appeared: the Whills. The Whills were creatures from a micro-biotic world that feed on the Force and control the universe in complete discretion. The idea was apparently to put one's back on back the two visions of the spiritual and scientific force (the midi-chlorians) and to discover how the new generation Skywalker would face the new generation of Skywalkers. this upheaval.
