Top 10 What If? Movies

In the world of movies, there’s always something that can go wrong. Sometimes creative decisions or differing opinions between a filmmaker & a studio can result in a film being unsuccessful, either critically or commercially. Sometimes these hold ups, or a variety of other issues, keep a film from ever making it into development. In this article I’m going to highlight 10 of the most interesting films that never happened. Some are sequels, some are remakes, and some are adaptations, but the only requirement for this list was that it never happened. I’m excluding films that were completely or partially filmed and never released, because those deserve a list of their own! And they have one, which you can read HERE. 

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ - Before Denis Villeneuve helmed the extremely successful Dune duology (with a third film on the way), there was John Harrison’s miniseries. And before Harrison’s miniseries there was David Lynch’s ill received film. And before Lynch took his crack at it, Jodorowsky did. The whole story behind this film is an absolute trip, so for full details read this article: HERE.

2000-2010s ‘A Star is Born’ - I hesitated to put this on the list, because another ‘A Star is Born’ film was eventually released in 2018, with the Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper led film earning several Oscar nominations. The film had been made 3 prior times in English, in 1937, 1954, & 1976. In the late 90s another remake was being pursued (on track with the roughly two decade gap between all the others) with Will Smith in the lead, however Smith was not able to commit due to filming ‘Ali.’ Two filmmakers were both interested in helming the film, Oliver Stone & Jamie Foxx, with Foxx wanting Paul Walker & Aaliyah in the leads. Alicia Keys apparently turned down the role, with Lauryn Hill & Mariah Carey also being considered. In 2011 a new film was announced starring Bradley Cooper with Clint Eastwood set to direct and Beyoncé as the female lead. The project was going to be based partially on the life of Kurt Cobain, but got delayed due to Beyoncé’s pregnancy. Over the next few years several different stars were connected to the film, with Cooper eventually taking both the male lead & directorial helm.

So many Quentin Tarantino films - Literally there is a whole Wikipedia page of ‘Quentin Tarantino’s unrealized projects.’ Some of the notable ones include adaptations of the Silver Surfer, Luke Cage, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Green Lantern, Iron Man, Casino Royale, Sgt. Rock, Westworld, Star Trek, Less Than Zero, & First Blood. Others include sequels for the Halloween franchise, Kill Bill, Grindhouse, several for Django Unchained (including a Zorro crossover), and a crossover of Pulp Fiction & Reservoir Dogs. There’s also several other random genre films like a prison movie, a disaster movie, a kung fu movie, a 30s gangster movie, a screwball comedy, a medieval movie, a sci-fi movie, and a James Brown biopic. There’s several others that you can read on Wikipedia HERE.

Terry Gilliam’s ‘Watchmen’ - This comics team did get a film adaptation in 2009 from director Zack Snyder. That film has divided some folks, but has become beloved by many devoted fans in recent years. But before that, Terry Gilliam was set to adapt the popular graphic novel. Gilliam was courted to direct the film in the 90s, but the funding needed was never obtained. Gilliam’s film was going to end with the all-powerful Doctor Manhattan retcon the events of the entire film, which is something the character has done before in comics. Gilliam may seem like an odd choice if you only know him from Monty Python, but it makes a little more sense if you look at some of his film work such as ‘Brazil’ & ‘12 Monkeys.’

Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Napoleon’ - Similar to Tarantino, Kubrick has a whole article that you can find HERE but I’ll be highlighting a specific film. After the success of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Kubrick began preproduction on a Napoleon Bonaparte biopic. He watched ever film he could find on the individual & topic, and conducted a ton of research. Kubrick’s preference for the lead roles was Jack Nicholson as Napoleon & Audrey Hepburn as Josephnie. The film was eventually cancelled and a lot of the director’s research then went into his film, ‘Barry Lyndon.’ As of 2023, Steven Spielberg is working on a miniseries at HBO based on Kubrick’s screenplay.

‘Justice League Mortal’ - This DC studios film began production in the 2000s. The film was planned to be distinctly different from both ‘Superman Returns’ & ‘Batman Begins’ featuring different actors playing those roles in this film. After being passed around, the film landed in the lap of director George Miller. There were several high profile actors mentioned or involved at some point, but the final cast was as follows: D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Common as Green Lantern, Adam Brody as The Flash, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter, Jay Baruchel as Maxwell Lord, Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul, and the role of Aquaman yet to be filled. Between a writer’s strike and the success of ‘The Dark Knight,’ Warner Bros. decided to shift to focusing on individual character stories, scrapping this project. Cotrona & Brody would both go on to eventually play DC roles in ‘Shazam!’ and its sequel. DC has a ton of scrapped projects, but I decided to choose this one for the list.

‘Gladiator’ Sequel - Yes, we did get ‘Gladiator II’ last year. But the film could have been a lot different. As soon as ‘Gladiator’ was released a prequel or sequel was planned, and the plan was to focus on Lucius Verus, which is the route the actual sequel went and Ridley Scott wanted to go. But Russell Crowe really wanted Russell Crowe to be involved somehow. This evolved from a flashback to an afterlife cameo, eventually becoming something insane with Nick Cave (yep, that one) penning the script. Here’s the rundown of the script. It was going to focus on Maximus, stranded in purgatory. He was then to be resurrected as an immortal warrior by the Roman gods and sent back to Earth to kill the ultimate threat to the Roman Empire, Christianity. Maximus was meant to kill Jesus & his disciples because they were draining the power of the Pagan gods. But Maximus was tricked into killing his own son, now being cursed to live forever on Earth. He fought in the Crusades, World War II, & the Vietnam War, with the film ending with the character in present day with Maximus working at the Pentagon. I promise you I’m not joking. Steven Spielberg was advising Scott on the sequel and told him he better not do this one. Good call Steve.

‘The Dark Knight’ Sequel - Yes, again we did get a sequel for this film, but it could’ve been drastically different. Prior to the tragic death of Heath Ledger, the plan was to have Joker return in the third film, but after the actor’s passing, Christopher Nolan did not want to recast the role. Studio execs wanted to stay in a similar vain so they asked Nolan to incorporate The Riddler and pursue Leonardo DiCaprio for the role. But Nolan decided to go in a completely different direction, with the final product being Bane. I guess maybe this shouldn’t have a spot on this list, but I’m keeping it here because the film featuring the return of Ledger would’ve been an entirely different movie.

Christopher Nolan’s Howard Hughes Film - Another film from Nolan, this film was one of many adaptations of Howard Hughes being pursued in Hollywood. However, all of these were shelved when Martin Scorsese came on board for ‘The Aviator.’ Nolan once again tried to make the film after he finished ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy and Jim Carrey was reportedly attached to play Hughes. Nolan once again put his film on pause after Warren Beatty released his long awaited Hughes film in 2016, ‘Rules Don’t Apply,’ which I’ve genuinely never heard of until just now.

Various Adaptations of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ & ‘The Hobbit’ - There have so many attempts at adapting Tolkien’s Middle-Earth to the big screen. Of course Peter Jackson had an extremely successful (and, I might add, awesome) adaptation with his two trilogies and there were also some early, but not very popular, animated films released. But other filmmakers interested included Walt Disney (which would’ve been animated of course), John Boorman (which would’ve featured Al Pacino as Frodo & Mick Jagger as Sauron), Jake Kasdan, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, & George Lucas (Lucas was unable to obtain the rights, so he developed ‘Willow’ instead). But perhaps the craziest thing I’ve ever read is that United Artists was in active development to make a Lord of the Rings film starring The Beatles as the four hobbits. Yes, you read that correctly. The band was on a three picture deal and had already released ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ & ‘Help!’ (‘Yellow Submarine’ didn’t qualify as part of the deal since it was animated). The studio wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct, but Kubrick said the book would be unfilmable at the time, with modern filmmakers agreeing. After reading the books, John Lennon really wanted to play Gandalf, but then decided he should be Frodo. Paul McCartney also wanted to play Frodo and thought George Harrison should be Gandalf, Ringo Starr should be Sam, & Lennon should be Gollum. Yeah those two must’ve hated each other. Friend of the band, Donovan, really wanted to be Merry & the four hoped to get Twiggy on board to play Galadriel. I’m so glad this didn’t happen.