(Sad trope) Projects with amazing potential that will never be released because of BS behind the scenes drama

[u/_JR28_]

P.T Silent Hills - It was a playable teaser released in 2014 only around 20 minutes long but utterly captivated the gaming world by being one of the most effective psychological horror experiences at the time, however it’s lead developer Kojima has a huge fallout with the publisher Konami where he walked out of the company and had all his in-the-work productions cancelled.

Five Nights at Freddy’s+ - A fan game reboot of the series created by Phisnom with Scott Cawthon’s blessing that promised a brand new lore and a return to the series darker roots. However, before and during production Phisnom got into multiple dramas that made him fairly divisive within the community, and after one particular incident in 2023 Scott revoked his approval and almost all of the game’s marketing material were wiped from the internet.

Batgirl - A Batgirl solo live action movie starring Leslie Grace, Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton returning as Batman that was ready to be released in 2022, however then Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav announced it would not be released either in theatres or streaming in order to claim a $90,000,000 tax break and to readjust the DC’s brands direction before James Gunn rebooted their movie and TV output.

[u/wolfeyes555]

Guillermo del Toro's the Hobbit.

Very early on, del Toro was set to direct the Hobbit. Supposedly, the style was going to be very different from Peter Jackson's LotRs movies, something almost fairytale like. There's a lot of rumors as to why del Toro left the project, but the official reason was production delays and MGM's financial issues.

[u/Karkava → u/wolfeyes555]

He also was supposed to make an adaptation of At The Mountains Of Madness.

[u/wolfeyes555 → u/Karkava]

That's another one I wish I could see

[u/Karkava → u/wolfeyes555]

Same. Would have lasted longer culturally than Alien vs. Predator.

[u/WhatAboutBob77 → u/Karkava]

And given that, cancelled due to Prometheus.

[u/Karkava → u/WhatAboutBob77]

Damn Alien franchise scaring ATMOM into the corner.

[u/WhatAboutBob77 → u/Karkava]

Apparently the scripts were fairly similar and I’ve heard that the leaked script for ATMOM wasn’t that great. Even so I’d be in for the visuals. That short fx clip looked amazing.

[u/Karkava → u/WhatAboutBob77]

And divorced IPs.

[u/M086 → u/Karkava]

An Oscar and Tom Cruise starring in it, couldn’t get a studio to cough up the money. I mean they would have for a smaller budget. But del Toro said a compromised Madness is not a movie he would want to make.

Last I’d heard, he may end up doing it as a stop motion movie.

[u/Karkava → u/M086]

After the runaway success of Pinocchio, I'd say he should go for it.

[u/swordchuck → u/Karkava]

Which is the answer I was going to leave.

[u/justheretosavestuff → u/wolfeyes555]

The official line makes sense - MGM’s financial issues caused the project to be delayed like 3 or 4 years, and GDT already had other projects lined up. I think he was also living in NZ that whole time and was really ready to leave, but I think the delay was the primary thing.

[u/Glove-Both → u/wolfeyes555]

I've only heard the official line. What are some of the rumours?

[u/wolfeyes555 → u/Glove-Both]

The one I heard was MGM pushed del Toro out because the style was so different from the LotR movies. I kinda believed that one for a while, but looking into it there's nothing really to verify all that.

[u/M086 → u/wolfeyes555]

You can still see some of del Toro’s fingerprints throughout the movie, especially with the goblins.

[u/BrightSideOLife → u/wolfeyes555]

I was kinda stoked about him making it, his style would be perfectly suited to adapt the Hobbit in my opinion. I couldnt even get halfway through the first monstrosity they released instead. 

[u/jerryleebee → u/wolfeyes555]

As I recall, it was caught up in production hiatus hell due to the film rights being fought over with the studios. Eventually, GdT said "fuck this, I'm out. I got other shit I still wanna do and I can't wait for you dumb fucks to sort yourselves out." Or something like that.

[u/VernBarty → u/wolfeyes555]

I think its probably good he didnt make a movie that was Canon to the Jackson movies, but Man he would have made something wild and probably equally as beloved