Here Are 11 Movies That Never Made It To Cinemas, And The Fascinating Reasons Behind Why They Were Cancelled

As the saying goes, "lights, camera, no action".

Whether it's a remake, a sequel, or a brand new movie, films are constantly being cancelled in the middle of production or development.

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From budget constraints to creative differences to a lack of audience excitement, here are 11 films that never even made it to the editing room.

1. The horror film turned rock musical turned musical-horror-comedy-blockbuster, Little Shop of Horrors, was *so close* to being remade again.

Warner Bros. / Mike Marsland / Via Getty Images

Taron Egerton was set to lead a remake of the '80s classic alongside Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Billy Porter, but the project was ultimately shelved after being put on indefinite hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Not much is known about how the storyline of the remake would be similar to or different from the original cult classic. Filming was supposed to begin in mid-2020, but unfortunately, the movie never got past the development stage. 

Taron Egerton, who was due to bring Rick Moranis' character Seymour Krelborn back to life, admitted in an interview, "I just don't get it. There was so much goodwill around it but it just fizzled out. Who knows if it will come back, but I can't help but feel that it just might not. I love when Chris Evans talks about it because he's keeping the hope alive... but at the moment, my understanding is it's completely dormant."

Here's Chris talking about the film:

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2. 10 Things I Hate About Life is the 10 Things I Hate About You sequel we didn't even know we dodged.

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Vision Films

More than 10 years after the original film – which is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew – was released, the film's director Gil Junger and producer Andrew Lazar had the intention of creating a sort of sequel. 

Gil Junger said that the film was not a sequel per se, but actually "a story that advances the situations" of the original film. Because of this, the almost-movie would've had none of the original cast in it, and instead focussed on two adults who fall in love while contemplating taking their own lives.

The movie halted production after a month of filming due to its star, Evan Rachel Wood, leaving to focus on her pregnancy. Despite a trailer being released, hopes to resume filming after the delivery of Wood's baby were dashed, and the production never continued. The film company even attempted to sue Wood for an alleged breach of contract, but the lawsuit never gained traction.

Here's a trailer for the movie:

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3. 41 years after the original Yellow Submarine came out, Disney planned and then scrapped a remake.

United Artists

The Beatles' beloved animated film, Yellow Submarine, came out in 1968 as a visual accompaniment to their album of the same name. 41 years later in 2009, Disney announced plans to create a remake directed by Robert Zemeckis. The plan was to utilise his style of motion-capture animation — seen in his ~uncanny valley~ animated films like The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol.

In 2011, following the box-office failures of A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms, Disney not only binned the plans for Yellow Submarine, but shut down their animation studio collaboration with Zemeckis, ImageMovers Digital, completely. 

The idea of the CGI Beatles was considered to be nightmare fuel at the time, but David Tennent reportedly was in the middle of auditioning for the film when it was cancelled — and having him in the movie could've been a lot of fun, at least!

Here's a trailer if you're interested in seeing Zemeckis' vision:

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4. For a VERY BRIEF moment in time, we almost had a Revenge of the Nerds remake.

20th Century Fox/Gregg DeGuire / Via Getty Images

A remake of the 1984 sex-comedy shot for exactly two weeks before 20th Century Fox executive producer, Peter Rice, placed the production on a "permanent hold" following a dailies screening of the early footage.

This cancellation announcement also followed on from a major issue with the production being allowed to film on Georgia's Emory University campus. As it turns out, university officials were not fans of the raunchy material in the script.

Although we'll never see an Adam Brody-led Revenge of the Nerds remake, there is a Seth MacFarlane-produced reboot rumoured to be in the works that won't try to include the more problematic elements of the original film franchise.

5. A tricky contract clause cancelled the first Barbarella remake... but there's still hope!

Paramount Pictures/Vera Anderson / Via Getty Images

The original 1968 film adaptation of the French comic book Barbarella was ICONIC. A 2009 remake, starring Rose McGowan and directed by Robert Rodriguez, set out to be just as stunning, but with even more female empowerment. Unfortunately, pre-production never took off due to the fine print in Rodriguez's contract with the studios which stated he would have to film and carry out post-production in Germany. 

He later stated in an interview, "Nothing against Germany, but I have five kids and I was like, 'God, I don't know if we can do that. I don't know if I can be away that long." Beyond that, there's also a rumour that Rodriguez ultimately decided to cancel the project because his original vision would've cost upwards of $80 million, and Universal Pictures would ~only~ pay $70 million. Still, a $70 million film was turned down.

However, as of late 2022, Sydney Sweeney has announced plans to executive produce and lead a Barbarella remake backed by Sony Pictures. Currently, the project is still in early development with no director or producer publicly attached to it yet.

The original Barbarella, Jane Fonda, did get real about a reboot, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "I try not to [think about it]. Because I worry about what it's going to be, I had an idea of how to do it that [original producer] Dino De Laurentiis, when he was still alive, wouldn’t listen to. But it could have been a truly feminist movie."

Dominique Charriau/Paramount Pictures / Via Getty Images

6. 2012 would've welcomed in the new year with the episodic sequel 2013, but the cost was too high.

Sony Pictures Releasing

The Roland Emmerich apocalyptic hit that was 2012 was originally planned to have a sequel in the form of a TV series. 2013 would follow the survivors of the apocalypse in 2012 as they build a new world and society in Africa (because every other continent was flooded if you recall).

The 2013 ship never set sail, however, because of the speculation that ABC had major budget concerns surrounding the translation of Emmerich's vision to TV. Although the spin-off series probably wouldn't have needed the $200 million budget that was forecast, there would still have been a lot of resources needed to get the show right. So the idea was abandoned altogether!

7. The fall in popularity of YA novels-turned-films caused the end of The Divergent franchise before its story could be finished.

Lionsgate

Despite being based on a *trilogy* of books, producers of The Divergent Series chose to go the route of successful franchises like Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter, and split its conclusion into two films. The Divergent Series: Allegiant – Part 1 was released as the lowest-rated film in the series and earned $100 million less at the box office than the previous movies in the franchise.

Following this, Lionsgate considered making the final film a made-for-TV movie that would then lean into a potential spin-off TV series set in the same post-apocalyptic world. The stars of the movies were just as shocked as the fans were by this decision. Soon after the announcement, Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and other members of the main cast stated that they wouldn't continue their roles if The Divergent Series: Allegiant — Part 2 (then called Ascendant) was a TV movie. 

No news has been heard about the TV movie or the spin-off TV series since late 2018, making it safe to assume that the ending of The Divergent Series will never come.  

Here's Shailene talking about the TV film idea:

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8. The sequel to World War Z spent almost ten years in production limbo before being tossed out.

Paramount Pictures

Fans of the hit action-horror, World War Z, have been waiting basically a decade for the sequel that was promised almost immediately after the original hit the screen. World War Z 2 had spent six years in pre-production before it was officially put on an indefinite pause in 2019.

Paramount wanted to have the sequel ready to release in 2017. However, with issues ranging from the production not being able to secure a director to huge budget constraints, shelving the project was nearly inevitable. 

Also, here's a not-so-fun fact – Paramount's ~actual~ original plan was to have a trilogy of World War Z films! Time will tell if this project will ever be raised from the dead.

Here's Brad Pitt talking about a possible follow-up to World War Z:

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9. The low ratings of Fantastic Four (2015) meant its sequel was cancelled before the script was even written!

20th Century Fox/Marvel Entertainment

Fantastic Four 2 was put on 20th Century Fox's studio release calendars before the first film even hit theatres. The original plan for the sequel was to go into production soon after the first film wrapped, and have it released two years later in 2017. 

Unfortunately, the first film performed surprisingly badly at the box office, with a lot of negative reviews and overall audience dissatisfaction. There was also behind-the-scenes drama between writer Jeremy Slater and director Josh Trank, which caused the tone of Fantastic Four to be lacking. For all of these reasons, Fox did the safest thing and pulled the plug on the sequel project and the reboot of the franchise entirely.

After the cancellation of the sequel, Marvel Studios reacquired the rights to the heroes and has since been planning a reboot of Fantastic Four within the MCU.

10. Thankfully, Disney scrapped the idea of a Pocahontas live-action remake VERY quickly.

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Disney has been faithfully adapting their animated classics into live-action films for almost 10 years now, all the way from Maleficent in 2014, to the much-anticipated The Little Mermaid coming out later this year.

While it may not be a surprise that Disney briefly considered adding Pocahontas to their live-action roster, it's a relief that the idea never progressed. Disney's version of Pocahontas' story in the 1995 animated film was heavily sanitised and many find it seriously problematic, so it makes sense that the idea of a live-action remake was near-immediately binned!

On the topic of why there probably will never be a live-action remake of the movie, legendary longtime Disney composer Alan Menken stated, "I don't know if we'll ever be able to do Pocahontas, I think that story is going to be difficult. With modern sensibilities, it'd be hard."

11. And lastly, the reboot that the Pirates of the Caribbean series desperately *needs* will sadly probably never happen.

Warner Bros. Pictures / Disney

Margot Robbie, alongside Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson, had been developing a women-led reboot of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise since 2020. However, things got a tad wonky when it was revealed that Disney was also in the middle of developing another script to reboot the series!

Of the two reboots, producer Jerry Bruckheimer stated, "We're talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two Pirates scripts — one with her, one without." After this comment, Margot told Vanity Fair that her visions for the next instalment in the Pirates franchise had been cancelled. "We had an idea and we were developing it for a while... But I guess [Disney] don't want to do it".

While the entire idea of a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie hasn't been thrown out, the original plans that Margot Robbie had could've been a "breath of fresh air" to the 20-year-old franchise, says this observer. It's sad to think of what could've been if not for a weird script race!

Did any of these surprise you? Perhaps we missed out a movie? Let us know in the comments!