Unfinished Films by Famous Directors

[Steven H]

Does anyone know if a script for Bresson's Genesis exists or ever existed? I'd love to read that.

[Arcadean]

Stalin did not like what he was seeing when he watched both Ivan the Terrible movies and shut them down. He saw that Ivan's story was an allegory to Stalin himself. Ivan the Terrible Part 2 was then shelved until both Stalin and Eisenstein died then it was released I believe. Eisenstein was shooting part 3 when Stalin halted the trilogy so thats why there is some footage of it that exists.

[milkcan]

I believe Timothy Carey shot hours of footage for his Tweets Ladies of Pasadena, but never completed the entire production. I think it was also intended for television in the late 60s and early 70s. Carey (again, I think) also never completed AL, which he says was "like The Bicycle Thief." His son appears to be cleaning these prints up and getting them into the public.

[Faux Hulot]

Though technically not "unfinished" since none of it was actually shot, there's also Jacques Tati's Confusion, co-written with Jonathan Rosenbaum. Sadly, the director had fallen so far from favor after the commercial failure of Playtime that he simply couln't raise the funds.

[Gordon]

There's Walter Brown Newman's exquisitely detailed, unproduced 177-page script of Harrow Alley, a story set in 1665 London, during the Plague. More information, HERE.

I believe that the footage of Hitchcock's, Kaleidoscope is test footage (about 40 minutes), with no sound. The plot focuses on a serial rapist-killer. As noted above, Hitchcock was going to use experimental, 'arty' techniques. I'm sure it would have been interesting.

[mmiesner]

Alejandro Jodorowsky was initially tagged to do 'Dune'. most amazingly about that was the HR Giger was hired to do the art direction. the project fell through and Giger used many of his designs for 'Alien' instead. that, along with Kubrick's 'Napolean' and 'Aryan Papers' are easily my strongest wishes for films that would have been made. oh so sad.

as a quick question - why did Hitchcock's 'Kaleidoscope' fall through? i had not heard of it until i bumped across this thread, it looks intriguing.

[Lino]

as a quick question - why did Hitchcock's 'Kaleidoscope' fall through? i had not heard of it until i bumped across this thread, it looks intriguing.

It was deemed too strong and violent for the times and as a result it did not pass the pre-production phase. Some people that have seen the little footage that was shot, have said that this would possibly have been one of Hitch's greatest films if he had been given green light to go ahead with it.

[Grimfarrow]

Well, we can all add The Man from London by Bela Tarr to that list now.

[solaris72]

Wan't Moebius also involved in the production design? Jodorowsky/Giger/Moebius... the mind reels.

Not just production design, but also storyboarding. The entire screenplay was storyboarded. You get a peek at it in the documentary Constellation Jodorowsky on the UK Santa Sangre dvd and the now OOP Fantoma Fando y Lis dvd. According to Moebius and Jodorowsky, a lot of what was to go into Dune ended up in their comic book collaboration, The Incal. I haven't read the Moebius Incal issues, only the Janjetov/Jodorowsky Incal prequel, but in another Jodorowsky comic, Technopriests, there's a character who seems to have a lot in common with what Jodorowsky had planned for the Baron Harkonnen (who was to be played by Orson Welles, by the way).

Here's an essay by Jodorowsky on Dune: The Movie You Will Never See

[Miguel]

Well, we can all add The Man from London by Bela Tarr to that list now.

What happened? I was really looking forward to this one.

[mmiesner]

the producer of Man From London committed suicide in February - Tarr didn't want to get a new producer for fear of the producer having creative differences or wanting control. at least that's how i understand it.

[Miguel]

Thanks for the information. I wonder whether the producer's suicide had anything to do with the production of the film.

[Grimfarrow]

the producer of Man From London committed suicide in February - Tarr didn't want to get a new producer for fear of the producer having creative differences or wanting control. at least that's how i understand it.

That's not exactly the case. I received this and was asked to help:

SOLIDARIT�TSERKL�RUNG F�R B�LA TARR

Wir, die Unterzeichner, erkl�ren unsere Solidarit�t mit B�la Tarr, der einer der bedeutendsten Filmregisseure unserer Zeit ist. Er ist Sch�pfer der Filme �Verdammnis�, �Satanstango�, �Werckmeister Harmonien�, die Teil der Weltfilmkunst sind.B�la Tarr steht gerade w�hrend des Prozesses der Realisierung seines neuen Filmes �The Man from London� schrecklichen Schwierigkeiten gegen�ber. Als Folge des Todes seines franz�sischen Produzenten Humbert Balsan versucht B�la Tarr unter niederschmetternden und erniedrigenden Bedingungen und inzwischen v�llig schutzlos, ohne seinen Produzenten auf Korsika seinen neuen Film zu drehen. Wir bitten ihn, stark zu sein in dieser Situation, nicht aufzugeben und seinen Film zu beenden. Wir bitten jeden, der die M�glichkeit dazu hat, B�la Tarr und seiner Produktion zu helfen, denn wir sind davon �berzeugt, da� auch dieser neue Film ein bedeutendes Kunstwerk des Weltkinos sein wird.

[mmiesner]

fichen. meine deutsch needs some brushing up. i didn't understand a damn word that was trying to tell me.

[der_Artur]

I'll paraphrase it, the text doesn't say that many important things.

The signers (whoever they are) show their solidarity with B�la Tarr, one of the most important directors of our times and creator of art cinema like "Satantango". Because of the death of his producer Humbert Balsan he tries to finish his movie "The man from London" all by himself on Corsica. We want him not to give up, and want anybody who's able to help B�la and his production to do so. We are sure this movie too will become an important piece of art of world cinema.

[davida2]

A satirical sci-fi comedy about a gentle-natured alien (and his ship) discovered in Bengal, which is worshipped by locals, protected by children, and purused by an industrialist. A screenplay was finished, and Hollywood backing was secured, with Peter Sellers attached, and Ray's screenplay circulated around Hollywood. Sellers continued to change his mind, Columbia kept expressing interest through the 1970s, though ultimately the project died with Sellers - the life of the project was discussed in Ray's bio, and an October 1980 article. Shortly thereafter, ET appeared, and a number of individuals involved with Ray's project (famously Arthur C. Clarke, who put Ray in touch with Sellers) publicly commented on the similarities between the two stories.

Ray was also offered "A Passage To India" and had other projects get in the way.

[Dylan]

Kubrick's Napoleon was scripted, but cancelled because of the release of Waterloo (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066549/).

I've read the Napoleon script, which is great, and that's very interesting to know it wasn't filmed on account of "Waterloo," especially since Kubrick apparently asked Nino Rota to score "Barry Lyndon" because of Rota's score for "Waterloo" (a score Kubrick reportedly loved). It was either Rota who declined or Kubrick who let him go in favor of classical, though that would've been a fascinating collaboration (though for my money, "Barry Lyndon" remains Kubrick's greatest use of music, particularly the final scene before the Intermission).

Two more abandoned projects, both by Bernardo Bertolucci: "Red Harvest," from Dashiel Hammet's 1929 novel, and "1934," from the Alberto Moravia novel.

Dylan

[zedz]

This is an interesting thread, but it seems to have got off the original track of unfinished films (Other Side of the Wind, Ivan Part 3 etc.) and ended up discussing films that were never started (unfilmed scripts etc.). Is the unfinished conversation really finished, or should we split into two?

[whipsilk]

Before it gets "split in two", I'd like to nominate two legendary Robert Altman titles I'm dismayed we never got to see. One was Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions (whose script was adjusted and filmed -- not all that well -- by Altman protege Alan Rudolph). One of the most intriguing aspects of this film was that Altman was going to cast Ruth Gordon as Eliott Rosewater (along with Peter Falk, Sterling Hayden, Cleavon Little, and Alice Cooper as Bunny Hoover). What a treat that would have been.

I have no idea whether any footage was ever shot, but I mourn the fact that The Yig Epoxy was never filmed -- or completed -- by Altman. It was a project that at the time (mid-1970s) was dear to Altman's heart. The cast was to include Peter Falk, Sterling Hayden, Henry Gibson. Altman described it as "a flat-out comedy, a cross between Dr. Strangelove and M*A*S*H....I'm going to see if I can make the audience wet their pants." <sigh>

[g30]

Let's split it into two. I'm very much enjoying all of the posts. I want to read more.

G30

[dx23]

Has somebody seen or read this book called The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made? Here is the link

From the synopsis, it looks mildly interesting, but the mention of Howard Stern's Fartman has prevented myself from making a blind buy. It is also relatively dated, since it mentions that Disney's and Dali's Destino hasn't been made/released, but the Hitchcock reference in the summary caught my attention.

[Ovader]

Antonioni had two abandoned film productions in the late 90s.

Just To Be Together: The $11 million English-language drama originally was to start shooting on Los Angeles locations in February 1998. The cast included Robin Wright Penn, Sam Shepard, Winona Ryder, Johnny Depp and Andy Garcia. Wright Penn, who was to play the central character, withdrew for personal reasons. Atom Egoyan was signed on as a backup director but the delays conflicted with Egoyan's schedule. The story dealt with a successful urban-planning architect who divides her affections between her husband (Shepard) and her lover (Garcia). Antonioni and Rudy Wurlitzer adapted the film from the director's 1974 short story, "Two Telegrams."

Destinazione Verna: A woman buys a ticket to live on a planet called Destinazione Verna. Written with Tonino Guerra and was to be produced by Felice Laudadio in 1999. The cast included Anthony Hopkins, Sophia Loren, Naomi Campbell, Laura Morante, Stefania Rocca, Kim Rossi Stuart, Carlo Cecchi and Chiara Caselli.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Roger Ebert got David Gordon to explain why Dunces was put on hold in his bi-weekly answer man column.

Slate has an interesting overview of the various attempts to adapt this novel to the big screen, here.

[justeleblanc]

I love this book but I can really only see a horrible film being made from it, unfortunately.

[David Ehrenstein]

Nicholas Ray went into pre-production on The Doctor and the Devils in Yugoslavia circa 1965. Barbara Steele was to have been one of the stars.