Sequels That Never Were (Thankfully).

Never heard of EI8HT but I believe it, since spec scripts are certainly rewritten into franchise installments occasionally (DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE was a non-DIE HARD spec called SIMON SAYS, iirc, and I, ROBOT started as an original script called HARDWIRED).

You can read the ET II: NOCTURNAL FEARS treatment here.

Dunno if there's a copy of the GUMP & CO. script out there, but the book certainly exists.

I know the script to GHOSTBUSTERS 3 Aykroyd passed around in the late 90s was by most accounts completely batshit (as were his first drafts to the other two, to be fair), involving the Ghostbusters going through a dimensional portal to Hell.

if you're morbidly curious enough to find a copy somewhere, I own and have read about half of an ET sequel novel called "ET: The Green Planet" which picks up immediately after ET's ship takes off. He goes to his planet and ... hangs out? ... talks to his weird talking 'pet' thing that is described as having a hundred or so tendrils that it walks on and can dig through dirt very well, apparently. He tries and fails several times to send Elliot brain messages that always miss and hit a radio or a TV or an arcade machine or whatever nearby and he never gets through...

I got halfway in and realized that there's literally no actual story going on by that point. You just meet a bunch of weird aliens who talk about how awesome their planet is cause of all the different types of plant life and shit. Whoever wrote it must have been stoned out of their minds...

As far as movies that were in the pipe but never got made... hmm...

Well, the Gladiator 2 script they mention in that article... That kinda already exists...  sorta...  in a comicbook form. There's a comic called "Mr. Blank" that's just about the most bad-ass action-comedy movie never made. It's got time travel, giant robot samurais, a big-ass zepplin, ninjabots, guys that are thousands of years old pretending to be businessmen, a clone of a guy with super powers, a mutant mime with super powers, a russian half-demon, a really smart alternate take on the christian theology, a nice puppy dog, a robotic copy of a clone of a guy, hover bikes and a really angry little german scientist guy.

And also some dude named "Sam". With moxie.

It's fucking awesome.

Tim Burton's Superman Lives? The guy was going to put nic cage into a translucent neon-glowing sparkle-suit (even redesigning the "S" symbol), have him fly around a dark... the concept art I've seen makes it look like some kind of cavern or something, but with sci-fi shit going on with the walls. Like an underground lair, but massive in scale. Fighting a giant spikey metal ball thing that was apparently supposed to be brainiac. The various concept art I've seen of the suit showed a variety of little doodads. Superman was rumored to employ some sort of firearm as well, like an arm doohickey that would shoot lasers or rockets or some such bullshit, tho that info isn't anywhere online that I can see. I swear to god there's an old issue of Wizard! Magazine that had an interview with someone who was talking about giving superman weapons and armor and shit.

It's the prequels I'm worried about. They're making two cabin fever prequels as we speak, and I've heard people whispering in hushed tones about a saw prequel and/or spinoff. I think Lionsgate misses getting a reliable $30 Million or so every October.

Last edited by Squiggly_P (2012-02-28 01:42:38)

Superman by Tim Burton starring Nic Cage.... haha, now that I would pay money to see.

The first script to Die Hard was originally written as a sequel to Commando.

According to wiki-

'A sequel was written by De Souza and Frank Darabont, based on the 1979 book Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp (which is, itself, a sequel to his 1966 novel The Detective, made into a film of the same name in 1968 featuring Frank Sinatra and Lee Remick), but Schwarzenegger was not interested in making a sequel as his previous sequel (Conan the Destroyer) was less successful critically and did not do as well domestically at the box office. The script was reworked with a new central character, eventually played by Bruce Willis, and was retitled Die Hard. The fictitious country of Val Verde is later nodded to in the sequel to Die Hard.'

That is the story I've always known. And Steven E. de Souza wrote both Commando and Die Hard, so I don't see how it's bollocks. Although, you never know

Last edited by Jimmy B (2012-02-29 19:00:55)