It has recently been revealed that the video game movie Bioshock is finally getting made at Netflix, and it’s one of the biggest success stories in Hollywood. The movie has officially been in development since 2008, and there have been so many writers and directors attached to the project over the past 15 years.
But Bioshock is far from the first movie that has escaped the clutches of development hell in Hollywood, and Redditors have some fascinating anecdotes about their favorite movies and their troubled development. Between several superhero movies, video game blockbusters, and even a Martin Scorsese-directed epic, these movies achieved the impossible, but some should have stayed in development hell.
Sonic The Hedgehog (2020)
Though some Redditors think Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is immature, the movie has gotten so much praise from fans and general audiences, and it’s even the start of a cinematic universe. But that almost never happened. Hovie1 notes that “development for a Sonic movie began nearly 30 years ago.”
But the hell didn’t end when Sonic the Hedgehog came out of development. Even when it was in post-production there were huge problems, as the blue hedgehog’s design in the first trailer was ridiculed, and according to Indiewire, it cost Paramount $5 million to completely redesign the character. But it worked out for the best, and the series has become more successful than the studio could have ever dreamed.
Gangs Of New York (2002)
Dear-Clerk4357 points out one of many of Scorsese’s most epic movies, Gangs of New York, as having the best development hell success story. The Redditor explains that “It was originally supposed to be Martin’s next film after Mean Streets and it even had a few test scenes shot with actors in the 70s.” But due to actors pulling out, Scorsese working on other projects at the same time, and the budget snowballing out of control, the movie was in a state of limbo.
Thankfully, the movie finally saw release in 2002 to huge fanfare. However, Gangs of New York did have a huge budget of $100 million, and it would have had an even bigger budget if it was for the director shooting in Italy. Scorsese built a mile-long street made to look like 19th century New York, which can be found in the epic period movie.
Unforgiven (1992)
It comes as a surprise that Unforgiven was stuck in development hell for so long, as it’s usually huge blockbuster movies that are part of existing properties that can’t get off the ground. Unforgiven, on the other hand, was a small-scale movie but a surefire hit, and it had bankable star Clint Eastwood attached to it from the very beginning.
But the 1992 movie wasn’t exactly in development “hell” per see, as Mst3Kgf explains, it “was originally written in the late 70s, but it wasn’t filmed until 1990 because Eastwood wanted to make sure he was old enough to play the role.” It’s admirable on Eastwood’s part that he put the movie above himself, and it’s something that so few actor-producers would do in 2022. And that could be why he’s held off playing Old Bruce Wayne in a Batman Beyond movie.
Spider-Man (2002)
Spider-Man has a huge success story, as it held the record for the biggest opening weekend of all time when it was first released. And while other writers and directors have had their own vision for other iterations of the character, it was Sam Raimi’s original movie that captured the tone and style that all Spidey movies would follow.
Letmethinkofagoodnam notes that the movie almost didn’t happen, as it “had been in the works for about a decade before it finally released. They originally wanted James Cameron to direct and for Leonardo DiCaprio to star as Peter Parker.” While Spider-Man did break box office records, repairing Titanic’s director and star together could have turned the web-slinging movie into the highest-grossing film of all time.
Batman Begins (2005)
Though the longest gap between Batman movies is 10 years, as The Dark Knight Rises was released in 2012 and The Batman was released in 2022, Batman still consistently appeared on screen in the DCEU in that time. The longest gap without any Batman whatsoever is eight years, which was between Batman & Robin and Batman Begins. That seems like an unordinary amount of time to go without one of the most successful movie heroes ever. But that’s essentially because Warner Bros. was too scared to pull the trigger on any project after the failure of Batman & Robin.
SlouchyGuy explains that “after the failure of Batman & Robin, WB tried to make a new Batman movie, it spent years in development until Nolan came up with his idea.” There had been other directors attached to the project, many of which were auteurs who wanted to take Batman in a darker direction, even Year One is an unrealized Wachowskis project. For whatever reason, all those projects fell through before Nolan came on board.
Dune (2021)
It seems like every iteration of Dune has suffered some sort of development hell. David Lynch’s Dune even suffered production and post-production hell. And because of the failure of that version, it took so long for what would become Denis Villeneuve’s masterpiece to ever see release. However, it’s Dune’s whole lifespan, starting with its development in the 1960s, that Dear-Clerk4357 refers to.
The Redditor explains that “from the day the book was published it was a hot commodity ‘in development’ piece.” The sci-fi movie was planned to be directed by beloved surrealist director Alejandro Jodorowski, and there’s even a 2013 documentary, Jodorowski’s Dune, which goes into great, fascinating detail about the troubled development.
Uncharted (2022)
The latest example of a successful development hell story is this year’s video game movie Uncharted. As DoughnutDrake notes, the movie “went through like 10 directors and numerous scripts over a 12-year period.” Interestingly, at one point, David O. Russell was set to direct with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci set to star.
There are tons of video game adaptations stuck in development hell, and it’s mostly because they’re so hard to adapt for general audiences while still satisfying die-hard fans of the series. And the newly released Uncharted is a great example of that, as the film is loved by non-fans of the game, but it’s also hated by fans, as the character depictions are so unlike their video game counterparts. Nevertheless, it was still a huge success at the box office, making close to $400 million worldwide.
Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)
While Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was technically a success at the box office, making over $800 million, it’s one of the most polarizing movies of the past 10 years. Not only that, but it massively underperformed worldwide given its inflated budget. However, it still has a strong fanbase, is loved by many, and is a quality Blockbuster movie, which is a huge surprise after the development hell it suffered.
Outbound_flight calls the movie Warner Bros.’ “white whale” and notes that “they started development on it way back in the early 2000s with Wolfgang Petersen attached as the director.” I Am Legend even infamously displayed a giant banner of a joint Batman and Superman logo in the dystopian city, teasing the team-up movie eight years before it ever saw the light of day.
Frozen (2013)
In terms of age-old screenplays finally getting produced, Frozen has the greatest success story of them all. Fishwithfish explains that while Frozen is one of the greatest modern Disney movies, it was planned to be a classic. The Redditor notes, “Disney’s adaptation of The Snow Queen began back in the 1940s and was scrapped multiple times over the next 70 years before finally arriving in the form of 2013’s Frozen.“
It’s amazing to think that Disney was sitting on the screenplay for well over 60 years, as that very screenplay was the foundation for a $1.2 billion grossing movie. The film became one of Disney’s highest-grossing movies of all time, and it had the top spot until 2019’s The Lion King was released.
Shrek (2001)
In 2001, Shrek was a phenomenon on every level. The film was a box office hit, and it was the very first animated movie to win Best Animated Picture. But during its development and well into production, it was the butt of the joke over at Dreamworks Animation.
LoneRangersBand goes into detail about the seemingly cursed development of the kids’ movie, noting that it was originally intended to be a mix of live-action and animation, a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with Nic Cage set to star. The Redditor even explains that animators were often sent to work on the movie as punishment, and they called it getting “Shreked.”
