Development Hell: Difference between revisions

== Anime and Manga ==

* An anime adaptation of ''Tonari no 801-chan'' was originally supposed to be animated by Kyoto Animation, and even had a preliminary website up for it. Then something happened and it fell into limbo. The project was ultimately cancelled, though a 90-second animated OP was created by A-1 Pictures and bundled with Vol.4 of the web manga.

* A stall can be typical of all English manga distributors, especially for less common titles, but the Yaoi distributor Drama Queen seems to have either gone on a dragging hiatus since 2007, or is dead and no one can figure out where it's been buried, so to speak.

* For a while it looked unlikely that Maikaze will finish the promised second and third episodes of ''[[Touhou Musou Kakyou]]'', due to low sales and criticisms over the [[Off-Model|artwork]], but a trailer for the second episode was released at Comiket 79, so there may be hope after all.

** However, it finally made it to air in 2019 as a [[Netflix]] miniseries.

* Dreamworks was going to make a ''[[Nomes Trilogy|Bromeliad]]'' movie. Where'd that go?

* ''[[Don Quixote|The Man Who Killed Don Quixote]]'' by [[Terry Gilliam]] turned into Development Hell. Gilliam eventually released a documentary about making the film, but the film itself was never completed. Pre-production resumed in 2009, but as of late 2010, the project appeared to be shelved again due to a collapse of funding.

* The unfinished 1938 production of ''I, Claudius'' was waylaid by an accident involving its lead actress and by the difficulty that Charles Laughton had in getting into Claudius's role. Only a few scenes from the film were ever publicly released in the 1960s. (The DVD release of the TV version of ''[[I, Claudius]]'' includes a documentary which features this footage.)

* The ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' movie is rather notorious for its stint in Development Hell amongst its fanbase. The filmic style of series VII was considered a dry-run for the then relatively-certain movie production, and the project itself got as far as script readings and prosthetic make-up tests for Robert Llewellyn (the actor who portrays Kryten) in the early '00s. However, the project mysteriously disappeared soon afterwards with very little mention of how production was proceeding or indeed any indication that it was even still alive. Doug Naylor, one of the co-creators of Red Dwarf, cleared up the matter with a statement on the Series VIII DVD, explaining that the movie had run into serious financial difficulties, and Grant Naylor Productions were having problems garnering enough funding from potential investors. With the 3-part special ''Red Dwarf: Back To Earth'' airing in April 2009, it is likely that the Red Dwarf movie will never see the light of day, although some may argue that if the specials do well enough it may provide the movie with a second chance.

** Given that the comic revolves around a character going on a quest to kill God, it's understandable why people are hesitant to touch the property, it's likely too controversial for any major studio to helm.

* The live-action ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' movie was originally announced in 2003 by ADV Films and as of 2010 has only ''finally'' started production—apparently due to the insane costs of pulling the series off correctly in live-action compared to actual interest in such an endeavor. The collapse of ADV and the general decay of the American anime market didn't help it, either. Who's actually still involved remains up in the air, but the last time they said anything about it, the producer of ''Appleseed Ex Machina'', [[John Woo]], was a producer and they were looking for more. This was in 2008.

* ''[[The Sandman]]''. Considering that the people interested in filming it were Joel Schumacher and [[Executive Meddling|Jon]] [[Giant Spider|Peters]], though, it may be fortunate that this film never got off the ground. One of the proposed scripts is available online. The script Roger Avary and the guys behind ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' worked on was a pretty sweet blending of the first two collections and the "Endless gather again for the first time" scene from ''Season of Mists''. But then the script was sent in for rewrites under Jon Peters, and Neil Gaiman called the script not only the worst ''Sandman'' script he'd seen, but one of the worst scripts he'd ever seen.

** The film adaptation of ''[[The Sandman]]'' spin-off ''Death: The High Cost Of Living'' has also been in development hell for several years. IMDB has a release date of 2013 (as of April 2011), but there's not even a ''production company'' attached yet.

** It wasn't until making ''[[Pan's Labyrinth]]'' that he finally got a studio to okay his script for ''[[H.P. Lovecraft|At the Mountains of Madness]]''—a script that apparently had no romantic subplot, a [[Bittersweet Ending]], and [[Ultimate Evil|very vague monsters]], none of which are things producers want. It was also going to have Ron Perlman, apparently; he joked that [[Author Appeal|del Toro will let him pick the sort of jar he gets to float in]]. [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_mountains_of_madness#Film But Universal Studios gave up on it in 2011, and del Toro gave up on it altogether in 2012].

** He was also planning an adaptation of ''Domu: A Child's Dream'', by [[Katsuhiro Otomo]] (better known for ''[[Akira]]''), which has apparently been called off due to rights issues.

* The Jim Henson Company has been planning a ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' movie and ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'' sequel for quite some time. Every now and then, they'll announce ''The Dark Crystal'' sequel, but no progress appears to have been made. This was parodied by ''[[Robot Chicken]]'', which joked that the primary reason it's not going forward is that today's kids don't want to watch an all-puppet film.

** As with ''Good Omens'' above, a ''Dark Crystal'' prequel series, ''[[The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance]]'', will air on [[Netflix]] in summer 2019.

* The idea for a [[The Muppets|Muppet]] movie known as ''[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Cheapest_Muppet_Movie_Ever_Made! The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made]'' was originally floated in 1985. It's presumably about Gonzo directing a Muppet movie and he blows half the budget on the opening titles, resulting in the movie progressively getting shittier and shittier to the point where a shot of the same street corner is used for every city in the world. The title card was revealed in September 2009, but it was subsequently set aside in favor of ''[[The Muppets (film)|The Muppets]]''.

 

 

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