Tales From Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made?

David Hughes' Greatest Movies Never Made

by David Hughes

A compulsively readable journey into the area of movie-making where all writers, directors and stars fear to tread: Development Hell, the place where scripts are written, actors hired and sets designed... but the movies rarely actually get made!

Whatever happened to Darren Aronofsky's Batman movie starring Clint Eastwood? Why were there so many scripts written over the years for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's fourth Indiana Jones movie? Why was Lara Croft's journey to the big screen so tortuous, and what prevented Paul Verhoeven from filming what he calls "one of the greatest scripts ever written"? Why did Ridley Scott's Crisis in the Hot Zone collapse days away from filming, and were the Beatles really set to star in Lord of the Rings? What does Neil Gaiman think of the attempts to adapt his comic book series The Sandman?

All these lost projects, and more, are covered in this major book, which features many exclusive interviews with the writers and directors involved.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Media Tie In, Pop Culture, History, Business, Comedy

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

David Hughes has written about film for numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, Empire, GQ, SFX, Fangoria and Cinefantastique. He is the author of Virgin's The Complete Kubrick and The Complete Lynch, and wrote Titan Books' acclaimed The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made.

Reviews

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m something of a cinema geek, so reading this guide to the behind the scenes rumblings and the roadblocks of trying to get a big budget film made (or not getting a big budget film made, as is mostly the case here) fell clearly in the area marked 'my kind of thing'. But even primed as I was to like it, this did still feel like a series of magazine articles on the same topic just strung together. And whereas I’d certainly have enjoyed reading one of these in a Sunday Supplement, fourteen of them in a row just seemed - well - too much. You can like coffee, without necessarily wanting a dozen-plus espresso shots dropped into the same cup.

Years ago I remember talking to an old flatmate about Simon Louvish’s generally excellent biographies of silent film/early talkies film stars. Her view was that the books got bogged down relating synopses for films which no longer existed or – at best – were hard to find. Reading TALES FROM DEVELOPMENT HELL, I could see where she was coming from. Page after page is crammed with plots for films that have never been made (and which, we’re told afterwards, were changed at a later date anyway). Although, perhaps, given that David Hughes is the author or twelve unmade screenplays himself, maybe he's heading down those cul-de-sacs to try and create an artificial sense of frustration, so we the readers can properly understand the endless annoyance of the whole process.

Despite that grumble, it is a fun read, a geeky read and a read which confirmed my worst suspicions that even the people who made Tim Burton’s version of THE PLANET OF THE APES (including Tim Burton) himself) had no flipping idea what was going on in the ending.


If you get chance, please visit my blog for book, TV and film reviews - as well as whatever else takes my fancy - at frjameson.com
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[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Undeniably fun to read, and I probably "enjoyed" this more than books to which I've given higher ratings.

The fun part, of course, is delighting in the stupidity of Hollywood execs, who throw millions at writers to develop stories and scripts, then destroy them with market research and hubris. Read "Tales from Development Hell" and marvel at how any movie, ever, gets made.

The reason for my low(ish) rating is I feel like I've heard the stories before. Anyone who regularly follows film sites is probably familiar with many of these stories (and, in fact, it sometimes appeared as if the book was put together after an afternoon of scouring Aint It Cool News). A fun, easy read, but if you're already a fan of how movies come together, you might feel as if you've seen this one before.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on Misprinted Pages.

In his newly updated book, David Hughes gives more than a tourist’s definition of the dreaded “Development Hell.” Like Bilbo Baggins, he’s been there and back again, and his difficulty in slaying the dragon—getting a movie made and in theaters—is a problem that plagues amateur and seasoned writers, producers, and directors alike. Tales from Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made? is a insider’s guide to Hollywood’s rejects, flops, and almost-weren’t—and more so, Hollywood itself.

Like Vern’s Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer!: Writings on Bruce Willis, Badass Cinema and Other Important Topics (also from Titan Books), Tales from Development Hell (the expanded version, out today) belongs in every cinephile’s collection. It profiles some of the hottest movies in years, beginning with their conception and detailing their progress and devolution from brilliant scripts to idiot rewrites, thrown about by bossy studio executives and moody actors. Most chapters strike a relevant note. For example, the Planet of the Apes story ties in nicely with the recent Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie starring James Franco, and Lady Croft’s big screen adventures are ripe for renewal now that Crystal Dynamics is prepping a total reboot of the video game series Tomb Raider. Hughes includes household names such as Indiana Jones and lesser known curiosities like Isobar, a broad selection certain to deepen the knowledge of any movie lover. Hughes even ends the book by describing his own excursions into Development Hell, reiterating the idea that regardless of a script’s quality, Hollywood is as Hollywood does.

That’s the most valuable asset of Tales from Development Hell: what it bares about Hollywood. From the outset, Hughes explains the process of filmmaking behind closed doors—a needlessly lengthy, overly complicated mess from start to finish, even in the best cases. While he doesn’t sound cynical, he isn’t exaggerating, either. Hughes supports his claims with 200+ pages of evidence that show how Hollywood dirties the handiwork of others, bringing in writer after writer, director after director, and actor after actor until the script either winds up in the trash bin or on the desk of someone who knows zilch about the project, reducing the finished film to a tenth of its original glory. That’s movie-making in a nutshell. Everyone blames the writers and often neglects to pay them for their numerous drafts. Meanwhile, actors push for fatter paychecks and meatier roles, occasionally arresting the entire development of a film. And studios turn down elegant scripts for ones that they think will resonate better with audiences—99% of the time for misguided reasons.

Tales from Development Hell teaches a brutal lesson to aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters: Even if your movie isn’t totally incinerated, you might have to trek through the bowels of Hell just to get it made. So the next time you criticize a movie for its untimely appearance, its poor writing, or even if you’re commending it for its success, keep in mind all the work—and conflict—that was dumped into it. The story is much bigger than you might think.

[David Keaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a look for the behind-the-scenes Hollywood clusterfuckery. A bit of false advertising though, as a lot of time is devoted to a bunch of movies that were actually made - so the subtitle should probably say something like The Greatest (Alternative-Future Versions of) Movies Never Made? - but it's still a fun distraction. Planet of the Apes? Tomb Raider? Who gives a shit. The Cronenberg Total Recall though? Weep for what might have been! The mutants in the Verhoeven film were Cronenberg's idea, of course. Other standout cautionary tales include something called Smoke and Mirrors, which sounded like a cool, old-fashioned throwback kinda movie, but now its future looks bleak because of those double magician movies that scooped it, The Illusionist (decent murder mystery ruined by horrible CGI "magic tricks"), and The Prestige (essentially a perfect film and by far Nolan's best work), though with the new Now You See Me franchise (!) out there, maybe they should try again. What else... a totally redundant Alien-on-a-train movie called Isobar (huh?), with a by-the-numbers script that, for some fascinating reason, Stallone was really really into getting made back when he was doing straight-to-cable junk like Driven and Daylight (no wonder they all started with a "D"!). Today Isobar would probably be straight to Netflix and called "a pleasant enough small-screen diversion." But the book is worth the cover price alone for the high drama and rival-studio espionage behind the dueling virus movies, The Hot Zone and Outbreak (a.k.a. the entire stolen plot of The Hot Zone). I want to see that movie. A fun epilogue, too, that maps out the author's own misadventures in Development Hell. Myself, I only made it to Development Heck with my own misguided screenplays (which is a much sadder fate), so I ate up this book pretty fast. Put mustard on that shit and crunch.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes a bit dry at times, but if you're interested in seeing how the sausage is made (or not made, as the case may be) this is a great look into how several films did and didn't get made.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating, occasionally maddening look at how movies are (and more usually, are not) made.

Hollywood simply hasn’t met a script it can’t rewrite, with seemingly every member of the production bringing on their own writer, or otherwise insisting on their own version. This often leads farcically to the original versions ending up back in play (or in the case of the Tomb Raider sequel, being essentially plagiarised to meet a deadline), or the successfully rushed version ending up relatively unsuccessful on release (Outbreak, which beat the more nuanced and truth-based The Hot Zone - later a miniseries). David Hughes highlights some fascinating cases that never were, like Christopher Nolan’s Howard Hughes movie starring Jim Carrey (!) and a high speed train thriller that briefly recruited H.R. Giger (Isobar). It’s somewhat heartening that a few of these stories do eventually lead to something, with Nolan’s Batman movies feeling like a somewhat natural end to that particular development hell, and (for better or worse) the fourth Indiana Jones movie using elements that are discussed here. (The book was concurrent with The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen going into production, which lends a comment about Sean Connery’s eagerness for more Indy a certain sad irony.)

There’s simply heaps of gossip here and it’s endless fun to find out about movies that never were.

[Vladimir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stuff, a good mix of obscure and more well-known titles.

[Glen Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've longed for this book but never knew it. Years ago I used to read about exciting new films like a 4th Indiana Jones film and an Arnold Schwarzenegger film called Crusade, but they never eventuated. Well, Indy 4 did but I remember hearing that it was going to be made at least a decade before it actually came out. The reports seemed to say that it was all set to go into production.
Anyway, this book is about those films stuck in development hell. The films that just can't seem to come together or go through so many script rewrites, personnel changes and studio decisions that they lose the vision of the original creatives assigned to the project.
Planet of the Apes (remake) Total Recall, Batman Begins, Lara Croft and others just took forever to come to the screen, and others like The Sandman, Isobar and the Fantastic Voyage remake didn't make it at all. Many of these projects had major stars attached, name directors, studio big shots involved but still fell over.
If you like Hollywood shenanigans of this type then this book by David Hughes and his team will keep you entertained and amused. It ends with Hughes own efforts at scriptwriting and involvement with The Exorcist prequel. This insightful chapter on his efforts to see his script become a major film was one of the book's highlights. A book for anyone interested in what happens behind the scenes.

[Catherine Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable book about the blood, sweat and tears -- and YEARS of frustration -- that goes into trying to get a Hollywood movie made. Reading this, it's a wonder anything makes it to the screen at all. But next time you leave the cinema feeling less than impressed, you'll remember that somewhere, a screenwriter is clutching his original, better script for it, trying not to cry about what might have been...

I was especially disappointed to read about how OUTBREAK, a decidedly mediocre film about one of my favorite subjects, virology, got in the way of a big-screen (and potentially better) version of one of my favorite books of all time, THE HOT ZONE. Gutted! :-(

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It contains some interesting stories, but as other reviewers have noted, "Tales from Development Hell" falls into a repetitive pattern pretty early on. It isn't Hughes' fault, necessarily, but unless you're interested in the particular film he's talking about in any given chapter, you're probably going to find it hard to keep from skimming.

[Metalfist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik ben altijd wel te vinden voor een boek dat gerelateerd is aan films, maar David Hughes trok mijn aandacht door een redelijk unieke insteek in de grote verzameling aan bestaande filmboeken: een boek gewijd aan films die nooit zijn gemaakt of die op zijn minst toch erg lang in de development hell hebben gezeten. Een korte blik op welke films er vermeld werden (onder andere een Lord of the Rings film die ooit nog met de Beatles in de hoofdrol gemaakt zou worden door Stanley Kubrick) zorgde er al helemaal voor dat mijn interesse gewekt was. Spoiler alert: ik had hier meer van verwacht.

David Hughes blijkt zelf een scriptschrijver te zijn die al menig van zijn hersenspinsels in development hell heeft zien komen en hoewel dat op zich een interessant uitgangspunt kan zijn, vind ik het wel een beetje vreemd dat hij een volledig hoofdstuk aan zichzelf wijdt. De eerste hoofdstukken zijn het meest interessant omdat je daar nog niet bekend bent met het patroon dat Hughes erop nahoudt. Hij geeft namelijk altijd een beetje uitleg over het beginidee en wie er mee bezig is en besluit dan om de verschillende versies van een script (of een poging daartoe) te beschrijven. Op zich is dat hier en daar nog van toegevoegde waarde omdat je zo wel effectief een film ziet evolueren (het Tomb Raider hoofdstuk is daar een goed voorbeeld van), maar bij bijvoorbeeld de Indiana Jones film… Daar gaat het zelfs niet om officiële scripts, maar om dingen die een of andere fan zelf heeft gemaakt en online heeft gezwierd. Daar zit voor mij absoluut geen meerwaarde in en het is zonde dat Hughes zich tot dit soort veredelde bladvulling laat verleiden. Dit gaat dan zo’n 13 à 14 hoofdstukken door en het enige dat Hughes uiteindelijk echt weet te bekostigen is dat je je afvraagt hoe het überhaupt kan dat er nog films gemaakt worden. Het is een kluwen van idiote beslissingen en ego’s (en vooral van smijten met geld om te tonen wie de grootste is/heeft), maar het voelt ook alsof er onderling nog een paar vetes uitgevochten moeten worden. Ik heb Steven E. de Souza altijd erg gewaardeerd (toegegeven, ik heb gewoon een enorme guilty pleasure voor zijn Street Fighter) maar die oogt hier nogal giftig.

Het probleem met Tales from Development Hell is dan ook dat dit op zich een uitgangspunt is dat absoluut interessant is, maar dat er gewoon teveel films besproken worden en dan sluipt de herhaling zich naar binnen. Veel van de films zijn uiteindelijk in de een of andere vorm wel gemaakt geraakt (denk dan aan Indiana Jones IV en Tomb Raider) en als Planet of the Apes liefhebber is het tof om te zien waar het juist is misgelopen met die Tim Burton verfilming, maar ik blijf met het gevoel zitten dat hier meer mee gedaan had kunnen worden.

[Zachary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truthfully, I didn’t have high expectations for this book, but was kind of surprised to find what little expectations I did have somewhat dashed by the end of it. This is a collection of stories about Hollywood films that were either never made or which took an intensely circuitous route on the way to being made. Some of the stories are interesting, but the quality here is incredibly uneven, with some chapters telling their tales in extensive, even exhaustive detail and others seeming to skim only the highlights of a given script’s journey. There never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to which films got the better treatment, and even though I know the author did do some interviews with people to write the book, many of the chapters seem very strangely scantly referenced, or even to include only references that would seem obvious or publicly available, which just lends the book a somewhat cheap feel. The biggest problem, it seems to me, is organizational, where there’s never any recognition of which stories are the most interesting or the most important; it seems to me that those featuring the most well-known stars and directors would get priority at either the beginning or end of the book (and probably the end, to keep you reading all the way to that point), that apparently was not what the editors thought and so this whole volume ends up concluding with the tale of the Tomb Raider adaptation - a surprising climax given that the chapter itself acknowledges that both movies were pretty much ignored by audiences. I read this book, and I even learned a few things, I think, but I cannot say that I found the experience to be entirely worth it.

[Morgan]

Summary:
A book covering the troubled development of 12 movies from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. Includes the Planet of the Apes, The Indiana Jones Franchise, Total Recall, and Batman. Includes interviews with writers, directors and occasionally actors. Details the process of how movies can start off as one idea, but often end up as something completely different due to competing visions, studio interference and more often than not, the egos of the stars that were contracted to star in the films.

My Thoughts:
I thought this was an interesting book for what it covers. It gave a different take on some of the movies that I grew up watching and never realized how many external forces changed what was originally pitched to what was eventually shown on the screen. What was really interesting in some cases was how much influence an actor that was cast to star in a role could influence how the script was changed. Whether it’s their ego, their brand, or the dreaded “market research” actors like Willis, Schwartzaneger, Van-Dam or Ford could land a script in development hell for years until their desires were met. There are also several bits of trivia in this book that were neat and not something that I’ve come across before. It may be a bit out of date but is still an interesting read especially considering what has happened with some of the people discussed since it was written. If your interested in what goes on behind the scenes of movies give this one a read.

[Andrew Foxley · Rating 3 out of 5]

“This script is perfect. Who can we get to rewrite it?”

This line pretty much sums up David Hughes' 'Tales from Development Hell', which tells the stories of some of Hollywood's most infamous unfilmed projects - or those that went through many, many different iterations before eventually reaching the screen. It's packed with interesting tales, shedding light on an area of the film business that’s often underexplored - we tend to hear so little about the writing process, the reasons for screenplays going through so many different drafts and writers and so on.

The author himself has done a fair bit of screenwriting, and has experienced the process of development hell first hand, so has a good understanding of the subject matter, and access to a wide range of sources, including interviews with key players willing to shed light on their involvement in various failed or stalled projects. I found the chapter on the fourth Indiana Jones film's long journey to the screen particularly fascinating, being a big fan of that series, but even the chapters on films I had little or no interest in could be compelling - Tomb Raider with its clashes of visions and personalities and an incredibly tight schedule is one of the most memorable in the book.

Inevitably, it only covers a limited number of projects, and it's quite subjective whether you're going to be interested in all of these. But if you have any interest at all in the movie business, this is well worth your time.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something so weirdly comforting reading about ideas for ambitious, big-budget movies that never came to fruition — for whatever reason. Hughes' book is a solid read documenting dozens of films-that-never-were-and-were-never-meant-to-be, running the gamut from absolute can't miss slam dunks (an action movie set during the Crusades starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Verhoeven) to films that would've been unmitigated cinematic disasters (that one proposal for a live-action "Sandman" movie helmed by the same guy who gave us "Wild, Wild West.") A few of the stories have been told a couple of times before — i.e., the chapter detailing all of the aborted Batman movies over the years — but the deep dives here are really, really entertaining. Interestingly enough, the most fascinating stories here don't involve the obvious candidates (like the '90s "Planet of the Apes" revival that never came together), but obscurer fare like an adaptation of "The Hot Zone" that would've directly competed against "Outbreak" and this weird idea for a runaway train/alien invasion flick from the same people who gave us "Independence Day" that sounds a *lot* like a prototype for "Snowpiercer." It has a few doldrums (like the "Tomb Raider" chapter), but there's enough quality material here to keep you checked in — I mean, the author's first-hand account of the debacle that was "The Exorcist: The Beginning" pretty much makes it a worthy read all by itself.

[Daanish · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this book promises "The greatest movies never made?" - in fact, nearly all of these movies were made in some form eventually (Batman begins, lord of the rings, lara croft etc) Thus the book is not so much an informative look at great unproduced scripts as it is a collection of overly long and meandering anecdotes about the making of very famous movies.

There is a thin line between thorough research and just copy and pasting any quote that you have found about a movie in chronological order. Note, most of the quotes in this book are just publicly available and culled from Hollywood Reporter and Variety - it's not like the author has reached out to these personalities himself and is presenting new insight and information. At a certain point, one has to wonder if the author can even say that he's "written" this book at all, and you're not just reading a list of quotes often each spanning several paragraphs.

Would recommend the first chapter as an example of what this book should have been throughout.

[Stephen Sambrook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories on their own are interesting and enjoyable enough (the saga of the rival 'Outbreak' project is great) but read back to back there's a lot of repetitiveness. Not to mention that a good few of these films made it out of development hell so you're just reading long chapters on how Tomb Raider or Total Recall got made. There are also a few errors that are minor but shouldn't have made it through (Total Recall was not the highest grossing film of 1990; Robert Downey Jr. didn't release Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes back-to-back in 2008). What drops it down to two stars for me though is the final chapter in which the author details their own scripts that never got made - generic-sounding ideas where its hard to tell if his own self-aggrandizing is winking at us or an attempt to pitch them to any producers that happen to be reading.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tedious. The focuses on 8 or 9 movies, and is hopelessly out of date as most of them wound up getting made in one form or another eventually. Some were incredibly poor choices, like Tom Raider. It had like 3 versions of the script and then started filming and came out on time. Who cares? There were only 2 or so that were unknown films - one about a magician and one about the crusades. The rest were films like Total Recall, The Aviator, and Outbreak - films that got made but that had a long development cycle.

This would be a very discouraging book for a screenwriter to read. It makes it seem like very little ever gets made, that your script will be hated and rewritten and then ultimately stolen, and you’ll receive no money or credit for your work. Fun!

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining if inconsistent, this works best as an insider's account of the wildly dysfunctional and creatively wasteful process of turning perfectly good, even excellent, scripts into incoherent messes. And then filming them. Largely exploring why some films turned out the way they did (Total Recall, Tomb Raider and that Indiana Jones one with the fridge) rather than films that never were, a lot of space is given to anonymous online script reviewers, which does get a bit tedious at times. Generally though, this is well worth a read for anyone interested in film and script writing.

[Brent Blackwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll echo what others have said. It's at times a fascinating look into the frustrating process of getting a movie made, but its oral history vibe can be exhausting at times. There's a tediousness to plowing through the book, and I'd recommend it only in occasional chunks. Consider it more a collection of histories rather than any kind of cohesive book. That being said, the histories ARE pretty interesting, so it's worth a look for movie fans out there.

[Andrew Kline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been picking through this book for a while. It is great for reading a chapter here and there. A good mix of screenplays that were never produced, and screenplays that went through so many revision they became unrecognizable compared to the original iteration. Thoroughly researched and well written, it is a fun read for anyone interested in film development or behind-the-scenes Hollywood stories.

[Aaron Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels edited

Having read this I was hoping for real warts and all tales of scripts in development hell. Instead we get a glossed over account. Maybe this is because the writer of the book is a screen writer and doesn't want to upset the very people he's trying to sell his scripts too. Still it was a good read.

[kesseljunkie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s really 3.5 but as I’ve complained MANY times before, goodreads doesn’t give you that option. It starts really strong but then loses steam, then it gets bogged down in the story of Tomb Raider which is not nearly as interesting as previous stories and seems like a personal obsession. It’s a good beach read, even though I didn’t read it at the beach.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s fascinating, in a surreal, I-can’t-believe-these-are-the-people-who-got-to-make-movies (or try to) way. It’s just a shame the book aims at being little more than a record of gossip and oral histories (and is poorly edited to boot.)

Which is a shame – these stories, and all that original research, deserve better.

[Studvet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd say a 3.5. Interesting and gives a good insight into how it all works and why Hollywood movies often end up so crap and predictable. The downside is that it gets a bit repetitious and I would have liked more inside knowledge of the personalities involved in these films and their tantrums, including the likely stars.

[Brendan M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a nerd on the internet since 2000, I'd heard a lot of these stories before, or heard about many of these projects before. Still, there were projects - like Smoke & Mirrors - that I didn't know about, and stories that were new to me. A fun, breezy read.

[Adam Windsor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging and readable, though not all that deep, overview of the troubled (non-)production of several films, from the various false starts at making "Lord of the Rings" to the boondoggle of the proposed "Sandman" film or the last minute collapse of "Crisis in the Hot Zone".

[Mike Whiskey Bravo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of bitchiness with fellow writers, which from experience reading other books about Hollywood is par for the course.

[Michal Sventek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what it promises, sometimes exhaustingly - however satisfyingly.

[Holly]

had to read for my dissertation. i will not be rating my diss reads.