We review some titles that, despite being ready to see the light, never made it to theaters. cinema for many reasons.
Making a movie is not as easy as it seems (if not, ask Blade). Although most productions reach theaters without major problems, there are titles that cannot avoid falling into cinematographic limbo: that place where projects that come to an end, but fail to be released, end up.
Legal conflicts that never end, whims of the distributors, indiscretions on the part of those involved… the reasons why are as varied as these examples.
The Fantastic Four (1994)
In the mid-nineties, producer Bernd Eichinger got together with the low-budget king, Roger Corman (RIP), with the intention of making a film about the Marvel superhero quartet.
The story directed by Oley Sassone – best known for his music videos – told the origins of the Fantastic Four, as well as that of their archenemy Doctor Doom, combining elements of their first confrontation with other more original ones, based on the comics. The Fantastic Four #1 and Fantastic Four Annual #2.
The independent film starring nobody, nobody and nobody, which cost nothing more than a million dollars, never reached theaters and, apparently, that was always the intention of Eichinger (same producer of the 2005 film and its sequel) , which only sought to retain the rights to the characters.
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Black Water Transit (2009)
Laurence Fishburne and Karl Urban are the protagonists of this crime drama directed by Tony Kaye, based on the novel of the same name by Carsten Stroud. The story takes us to the city of New Orleans, post-Hurricane Katrina, where shipping executive Jack Vermillion (Fishburne) must face the consequences after agreeing to help the feds expose the evil smuggler Earl Pike (Urban).
It seems that producer David Bergstein was involved in several financial bludgeons and was accumulating litigation with different companies over the years. Meanwhile, the film remains in limbo, unable to reach theaters until the conflicts are resolved.
Gods Behaving Badly (2013)
Christopher Walken, Sharon Stone, Alicia Silverstone, John Turturro, Nelsan Ellis, Oliver Platt and Edie Falco, among other greats, star in Marc Turtletaub’s first feature film: a dramatic comedy based on the novel of the same name by Marie Phillips, which never made it to the theaters after having been premiered at the Rome Film Festival in 2013.
Here, the classic Greek gods live comfortably in a New York City apartment. After crossing paths with a young mortal couple, Kate (Silverstone) and Neil (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), they put this love in check, as well as the future of the rest of humanity.
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Empires of the Deep
Olga Kurylenko is the protagonist of this fantastic 3D adventure, described as “a unique love story between a young human and a mermaid… in a mythical world”, in the middle of a war between the different empires of the title, among them, the crabs (?).
The Chinese-American co-production, the largest up to that time – costing 140 million – spent almost five years in post-production and was ready for its Asian premiere in December 2015. This never happened and, to this day, He’s still looking for rooms. Empires of the Deep passed through the hands of four directors, ten screenwriters, and it is said that many of those involved have not yet been paid for their work.
Hippie Hippie Shake
Based on the memoirs of Richard Neville – editor of Oz magazine, a satirical and controversial Australian publication – this English drama starring Cillian Murphy, Sienna Miller, Sean Biggerstaff, Max Minghella and Emma Booth, among others, dives headfirst into the sixties, Neville’s (Murphy) relationship with his girlfriend Louise Ferrier (Miller) and the launch of the British edition amid the counterculture of the time; a move that took him to court, along with his staff, for distributing “obscene material.”
The idea had been around since 1998 and production only began in 2007, but the film directed by Beeban Kidron never reached theaters, among many reasons, due to “creative differences” between the filmmakers and the Working Title Films studio.
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