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Never Produced

Alfred Hitchcock's The Short Night by David Freeman
In the last few years of his life, Hitchcock was developing a spy story with screenwriter David Freeman. The script has been published, along with behind the scenes details, in The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock.

Cleveland Smith, Bounty Hunter by Scott Spiegel and Josh Becker
Bruce Campbell was to have starred in this parody of Indiana Jones. Sam Raimi directed a 10 minute short to raise funding, but the project didn't get off the ground.

Read the script at BeckerFilms.com.

Watch a 30 second clip of the Cleveland Smith short here.

Escape from L.A. Treatment by Peter Briggs
Peter Briggs, without invitation, wrote a spec treatment for an Escape from New York sequel. His treatment had nothing to do with the actual movie. Courtesy of Looker Online.

Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash Treatment by Unknown
Bruce Campbell himself thought this movie probably wouldn't work. How do you do each franchise justice? Personally, I think the Friday the 13th and Elm Street series interlock nicely, but tying in the Evil Dead continuity seems wrong. After this projected sequel to Freddy Vs. Jason was dropped, Bloody-Disgusting posted the treatment. Now it's nowhere to be found online, probably due to legal reasons.

Kaleidoscope/Frenzy by Benn Levy
Alfred Hitchcock was intrigued by the style of French and Italian "new wave" directors of the late 60s. He devised a story of a sexual predator, to be shot in a dressed-down documentary style. Some test footage (which can be seen in Dial H for Hitchcock) was shot, but the studio balked. Hitch was imprisoned by his own reputation. As much as he may have wanted to experiment, the backers preferred a typical Hitchcock suspense movie. The script, (sections of which are available in Hitchock's Notebooks) was alternately called "Kaleidoscope" and "Frenzy." Years later, Hitch recycled certain ideas for his 1973 film, Frenzy, but it was not the same story overall. Find out more at Steven DeRosa's Writing with Hitchcock website.

The Killer (Remake) by Walter Hill (zipped HTML page)
The Killer was a break-out film for director John Woo and actor Chow Yun-fat. After the Hong Kong movie made the film festival rounds, Tri-Star became interested in doing an English language remake, with Richard Gere as the hitman and Denzel Washington as the cop. But because the relationship between the two male characters might be hard for western audiences to accept,the producers later considered casting Michelle Yeoh in the cop role. The project never came together and was eventually set aside.

Neuromancer by William Gibson
Did you ever see Johnny Mnemonic? Ignore the overall quality of the movie for a moment... Did you at least like the idea of jacking your brain into the internet? Gibson's novel Neuromancer conveyed that in a fun and exciting way. The book was optioned, and Chuck Russell turned in a draft. Read a review of the Russell draft at UGO Screenwriter's Voice.That didn't get made, so Gibson took a crack at it himself. Read Gibson's draft here.

Predators by Robert Rodriguez
While waiting for the greenlight on Desperado, Rodriguez was commissioned to write the third Predator movie. Now that the Aliens and Predator franchises have merged, there's little chance we'll ever see this one made. Read a script review at Screenwriter's Utopia.
"...And it was really a cool script, it's floating around somewhere. But it's huge, and will never be made, the studio edited it and said there's no way we can make this, this would cost -- even at that time -- 150 million, and no women would ever go see this movie."
- Robert Rodriguez, in an interview at Moviehole.net.

Roger Rabbit Two: The Toon Platoon by Nat Mauldin
As Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a parody of film noir, this movie would have taken on the war genre, with Roger involved in WWII. I have a hard copy of this script, but haven't had the chance to get it transcribed. Read a review at Film Buff Online. See "Who Screwed Roger Rabbit" at the Animation World Network.

A Scanner Darkly by Charlie Kaufman
Kaufman is a hot screenwriter. The source material is by hot adaptee Philip K. Dick, master of the sci-fi mindbender. What's not to love? Well, when Richard Linklater took on the movie, he wrote his own screenplay instead.

Superman Lives by Kevin Smith
Smith has been pretty vocal about the horrors of development. For all the hype, I'm not too keen on this script. It has some interesting elements: the death and rebirth of Superman, the presence of both Lex Luthor and Braniac. I liked the way the story just starts without explaining who Superman is -- like a comic, or an episode of the animated show. But there is some humor that doesn't work, and three separate robot characters. That's at least one too many robots for me.

Superman: Man of Steel by Alex Ford
I presume this draft came after Smith was off the project. Could this be when Tim Burton was involved? Or Nicolas Cage? I can't keep track.

Batman Vs. Superman by Andrew Kevin Walker and Akiva Goldsman
After several failed attempts to get a new Superman off the ground, this script appeared. It was designed to relaunch both the Superman and Batman franchises. I think it's a great idea. Sure, they're both good guys, but as anyone who reads the comics knows, the two heroes have conflicting personalities and ideologies.This screenplay was scrapped when other (separate) Superman and Batman projects came into favor and director Wolfgang Peterson left to do Troy. Read a review at UGO Screenwriter's Voice.

Never Released

My Best Friend's Birthday (1987)
written by Craig Hamann and Quentin Tarantino
directed by Quentin Tarantino
Before QT directed his first movie (Reservoir Dogs), he directed ANOTHER first movie, My Best Friend's Birthday. Shot over 3 years, it was an amateurish effort that Tarantino wasn't very proud of.When he was putting together "Dogs," he decided to lie about ever having directed before. "Birthday" was so embarrassing that he thought it would cause the investors to hire another director.Through a lab mishap, only 2/3 of the movie exists today. A bootleg is available from Super Happy Fun.

The Day the Clown Cried rough draft (1972)
screenplay by Joan O'Brien and Charles Denton
directed by Jerry Lewis
Clowns and the Holocaust. Who wouldn't want to see that? Never released due to the bad taste factor, but after Life is Beautiful, could the world be ready to see Jerry Lewis take on the death camps? Read about the movie's history at Film Threat.Read the final draft (with notations from the set) and view behind-the-scenes footage at Subterranean Cinema.

Radically Changed

Alien III (first draft) by David Twohy
Alien III (first draft) by John Fasano
Alien III (revised first draft) by William Gibson
Alien 3 (unspecified draft) by Eric Red
Alien III (revision of Hill/Giler 12/90 draft) by Rex Pickett
Alien III (final draft) by Walter Hill and David Giler
From monks to prisoners, this was a strange up and down journey for a sequel to take. (Personally, I never could forgive them for killing off Hicks and Newt before the plot even kicked in.) It's unclear on who wrote the first draft, seeing how there's one credited to Twohy and one to Ward and Fasano. Perhaps multiple writers were commisioned at the same time.

Alien 5 Treatment by James Cameron and ???
After Alien Resurrection, Ridley Scott and James Cameron discussed doing another sequel. Cameron and another writer (name?) worked up some ideas, but the project was scrapped when Alien Vs. Predator moved forward. Cameron mentions his involvement briefly in an Ain't it Cool interview here.

Aliens Vs. Predator by Peter Briggs
This script was written as a spec, based on the Dark Horse comic. Briggs didn't option the property first (as is the accepted practice), but the script was actually purchased by Fox anyway. Things fell apart when they decided to go ahead with Alien Resurrection instead. The final Alien vs. Predator utilizes a new script by Paul W. S. Anderson. It takes place in Antarctica and has little to do with the Briggs screenplay. Notice the original title was "Aliens (plural) vs. Predator".

Batman 2 by Sam Hamm
Here's an early version of Batman Returns. Sam Hamm wrote the first Batman (and has taken a crack at many other comic book movies), so it made sense for him to do a draft of the sequel. The final screenplay was written by Daniel Waters.

Blade Runner (July 24, 1980) by Hampton Fancher
Blade Runner (Feb 23, 1981) by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples
Writing this one was torture. Once Ridley Scott came in, he wanted everything taylored to his style. I love the final result, plotholes and all.

The Crow 3: Resurrection by Steven E. de Souza
The Crow 2037 by Rob Zombie (zipped PDF)
I don't know what the story is on "Resurrection," but Zombie's "2037" would have been interesting. He was really frustrated when they dropped him... and I was equally frustrated when The Crow Salvation turned out to be such a boring retread.

Dune by Alexandro Jodorowsky
In the mid 1970s, surrealist filmmaker Jodorowsky worked to put together his dream version of Dune - which would include many bizarre elements that author Frank Herbert understandably had problems with. He assembled a dream team of collaborators. French comic artist Moebius contributed some 3000 storyboards. British painter Christopher Foss and Swiss artist H.R. Giger were brought in as conceptual artists.Dan O'Bannon, who did sci-fi on the cheap with Dark Star, would do miniature effects.The film would be scored by Pink Floyd. And the mad Emperor of the Galaxy would be played by Salvador Dali. Unfortunately, big budget sci-fi was considered risky at the time. When Jodorowsky's Dune fell apart, Moebius, Foss, O'Bannon, and Giger went on to work on Alien.Dune (directed by David Lynch) was eventually made after the success of the Star Wars movies, Alien, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.Read Jodorowsky's behind-the-scenes essay: The Story of Dune- 'The Movie You Will Never See. Hosted by Hotweird.com.

Freddy Vs. Jason
New Line commissioned tons of scripts for this project. They spun their wheels for several years, and then produced a movie that was good, clean, mediocre fun. Sure, I liked it, but I think that had more to do with director Ronny Yu than the quality of the writing. Briggs' script is notable for its reference to the Phantasm movies. (Look for the SILVER "PHANTASM" BALL near the end.)

• Nightmare 13: Freddy meets Jason by Lewis Abernathy
  
• Freddy vs. Jason by Peter Briggs
  
• Jason vs. Freddy (1997) by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
  
• Freddy vs. Jason (12/98) by Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger
  
• Freddy vs. Jason (2000) by Mark Protosevich

Indiana Jones III
a.k.a. Indiana Jones IV
a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Monkey King
a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Garden of Life
by Chris Columbus
From what I can gather, this script was actually written by established screenwriter Chris Columbus. He wrote it unsolicited and presented it to the Lucas camp after the success of Temple of Doom. It wasn't produced, as Jeffrey Boam's Last Crusade script was used instead.Years later, the Monkey King script showed up online, with changes to the title and date made to fool the fan community that this may be a script for the fourth movie. Don't believe it.

I Robot by Harlan Ellison
Ellison did a good job pulling Isaac Asimov's stories into a cohesive script, but it was shelved anyway, never to be produced. Fortunately, fans can purchase the screenplay in book form, with many pretty pictures. You'll have to go to the bookstore for this one. In the summer of 2004, director Alex Proyas brought us a shiny new version starring Will Smith, with a script by Akiva Goldsman.

Kill Bill by Quentin Tarantino
Here's an early draft, presumably the one that Harry Knowles loved so much.It contains scenes and characters that were dropped in the final version, and thus several chapter names are different. Note that it contains all ten chapters, as the movie wasn't broken into two volumes until the post-production phase.Read comparisons of the script to the movies Kill Bill Vol. 1and Kill Bill Vol. 2 at UGO Screenwriter's Voice.

King Kong by Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson
Jackson first developed this project back before doing The Lord of the Rings. This 1996 draft has a much different tone than the final 2005 film.

Mulholland Drive (TV Pilot) by David Lynch
This doesn't happen often. Lynch's TV show was developed, the pilot was shot, and then dropped. (Not that unusual.) But then Lynch got funding to shoot some more scenes, re-edit the film, and release it theatrically. Not only did it work, it went on to win awards.A bootleg of the original TV pilot is available from Super Happy Fun.

Natural Born Killers by Quentin Tarantino
Oliver Stone turned this one inside out. To this day, Tarantino hasn't been able to watch the movie all the way through. Me, I like the final product, but I can see how heart-wrenching it could be for the writer.

Nightmare on Elm Street 6 by Peter Jackson
There was a time when New Line arranged for Jackson to take a crack at a Freddy script. It's probably locked away in a vault somewhere, waiting for just the right person to snag it for distribution on the web.

Pandemonium Reigns/Pulp Fiction by Roger Avary
Here's a section of Avary's Pandemonium Reigns script that found its way into Pulp Fiction. For more on how the script evolved, read about it on Avary.com

Planet of the Apes by Sam Hamm
Return of the Apes by Terry Hayes
This remake went through a few directors as well as writers. James Cameron was attached, then Oliver Stone, and finally Tim Burton. I'm not sure which script was favored by which director, however. Cameron gives his thoughts on the film in an Ain't it Cool interview here.

Resident Evil by George Romero
Romero got the shaft on this one. A German production company bought the rights to the video game and hired the zombie master to write and direct the adaptation. (Romero had already done some Japanese TV ads for the Resident Evil 2 video game.) According to Romero, the producers didn't really have any idea what they wanted. It was like they didn't understand the game's inherent gore factor, because they shied away from his concept and started over with Paul Anderson.

Spider-man Scriptment by James Cameron
Remember the huge legal battle over Spider-man? By the time Marvel and Sony had it figured out, Cameron was out of the picture. The final movie did use some of Cameron's ideas, however. The genetically altered (rather than radioactive) spider and the organic web-shooters had their origins here.

The Stand by Rospo Pallenberg, novel by Stephen King
George Romero has worked with Stephen King many times over the years. They planned on doing a theatrical version of The Stand, but it didn't happen. Romero's producing partner, Richard P. Rubenstein, ended up doing the mini-series after they parted ways. Read the Pallenberg script and an in-depth (if biased) history of the project, courtesy of Subterranean Cinema.

Star Wars Scripts by George Lucas
George wanted to do Flash Gordon. He couldn't get the rights, so he created his own space mythology. These drafts fascinate me. In some ways, they're very amateurish. But it amazes me to see how he formed the Star Wars galaxy through the course of rewriting. The first three scripts are drastically different from one another, but there are certain elements that survived to appear in the movies. Some plot points and names were never used until The Phantom Menace. Unfortunately, some parts seem to have been discarded for good. I'd love to see the opening scenes from the rough draft on the big screen. For more about these scripts, read John Flynn's article, The Origins of Star Wars.

• "The Star Wars" Story Synopsis
• The Star Wars (Rough draft)
• The Star Wars (1st draft)
• Adventures of the Starkiller: (episode one) "The Star Wars" (2nd draft)
• The Star Wars: From The Adventures of Luke Starkiller (3rd draft)
• Star Wars: A New Hope (Revised 4th draft)

They by Brendan Hood
Rewrites, test screenings, and reshoots turned a promising spec script into a movie that no one wanted to see. Read the whole sad story at the Creature Corner.Script hosted by Joblo.com.

The Tony Clifton Story by Andy Kaufman and Bob Zmuda
The story of Andy Kaufman and his alter ego. The film would have contained numerous comedy skits, as well as a key moment when Andy would break the "fourth wall" to announce the death of Tony. Download the script and read the backstory at Subterranean Cinema.

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