The Unproduced Screenplay Thread

[1upmushroom]

Have you ever thought of the question "What if" while regarding films? Well usually that question is answered by unproduced scripts, the scripts that didn't make it to the big screen. This thread is for the discussion for any unproduced script ever made. Rather it be an early version of a movie or a script for a movie that was never made.

Here's one example:

The Sam Hamm screenplay of Watchmen: An unproduced screenplay for the infamously famous novel Watchmen. The script is one of those so bad it's good scripts in this excerpt from TV Tropes:

Like the graphic novel it's based on, Hamm's Watchmen is set in an alternate version of late-20th-century America, in which superheroes once thrived but have been outlawed by 1985. When the superhero/government operative the Comedian is murdered, the vigilante Rorschach investigates, reuniting with his former partner Nite Owl and eventually uncovering a conspiracy that extends all the way up to Dr. Manhattan, the only truly superpowered being in the story's universe. That's about where the similarities to the original end, however, outside of the very barest plot outlines. Instead of a deep exploration of the darker side of superheroes, Hamm chose to create a borderline comedic (at least, one can hope he wanted it to be funny...) action-adventure, complete with cackling villain and one hell of a Gainax Ending.

That description can't even describe the insanity of the script.

[Phlibbit]

Sounds pretty bad. Have you read Sam Hamm's original draft of "Batman II" (which eventually became Batman Returns)? It's horrible.

[1upmushroom]

It seems Sam Hamm isn't that good of a writer if you look at the early drafts he wrote.

And speaking of Batman scripts, there's the Mike Ulson and Tom Makiewicz 1983 draft of Batman (1989). Simply put, it's so bad it's completely AWESOME!

I'd elaborate more but words could simply not describe this script. It's more insane than Sam Hamm's Watchmen script.

[ultimateemail5000]

I honestly think that anything is better than Batman Returns. I hate that sequel so much. I wouldn't say there are unused scripts I want to read, other than MOTUII which turned to Cyborg. I would rather read original drafts of movies. I'd like to read Goldmember. I really want to know what happened to Felicity Shagwell, and feel that movie had so much butchered from it. Evil Dead I and II. I read in the original draft of EDII Ash was convicted of murder, going insane, and was arrested. That's where EDR for PS2 came in. There's so many other original drafts I'd like to read.

[1upmushroom]

Well, if they weren't used during the production then that makes them an unproduced script.

[Redstar]

I've always been fascinated with how films come into fruition, particularly as far as unproduced and early scripts. That's a huge part of how I became involved with this site as Super Mario Bros. has such a long and troubled production.

io9 has an interesting retrospective on the many versions of Total Recall 2 which were never produced, yet still led into the eventual production for Spielberg's Minority Report with Tom Cruise.

[1upmushroom]

Let's not forget Die Hard which not only was based on a book that was a sequel to a book called The Detective but was also originally written as a sequel to Commando.

That is really interesting.

[1upmushroom]

Wait....so Die Hard was supposed to be Arnold's movie?

"AGGH YIPPE KAAAAH YAAAAY MOTHA FAKKA GAAAHHH!"

Entertaining as that is I don't think the film wouldnt've been as good as it was and would've ended up being a guilty pleasure.

[Prime Evil]

I have an unproduced script for Doctor Who: The Time Lord written by Johnny Byrne, George Dugdale, and Peter Litten.

In the aftermath of the show's cancellation in 1989, there were many attempts to jump-start the property. One of these was a BIG-BUDGET, MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR MOTION PICTURE to be produced by a company called Green Light/Coast to Coast/Daltenrays (the name changed many times).

And...I'm quite glad nothing ever came of it. The script sends the Doctor after a renegade Time Lord called "Varnax," who is trying to create a new Universe and become God. He succeeds in stopping Varnax at first, but is put on trial for destroying a nearby planet in the process. He escapes with his niece (I think--can't remember her name) in search of his foe; along the way, they encounter an alien version of Jack the Ripper, meet Christopher Columbus, battle Varnax's Mordread henchmen at the Smithsonian, and do a lot of other funstuff.

It's pretty dire, and has none of the humor or fun of Doctor Who proper.

[Serum]

The unproduced screenplay for "Resident Evil" by George Romero is fantastic.

Also, there was a draft of "Freddy Versus Jason," which I thought was fantastic-- it ended with Jason speaking for the first time as he slaughters Freddy and yells "FREDDY'S DEAD!"

Another great unproduced script I've heard about is Roger Avary's (Academy Award winning screenwriter of "Pulp Fiction" and later "Silent Hill") "Phantasm 5" which would have elevated a great science fiction series to the next level. If you've never seen the "Phantasm" movies, they're sci-fi movies cleverly disguised as horror movies, which make for great fun and would later go on to inspire such phenomena as "The Slender Man."

[1upmushroom]

Darren Aronofsky's Batman Reboot...Words can do this no justice.

From Tv Tropes: "The story revolves around Bruce Wayne writing letters to his dead father. Oh, and Wayne is a homeless psychopath whose only friends are a pair of mechanics named Big Al and Little Al. After he starts his crimefighting career by attempting to take on a corrupt police captain at a brothel (and gets royally schooled by the madam at the brothel, who will turn out to be Catwoman), he elects to start beating up low-level thugs (one scene has him cook up a homemade bomb after he's trapped in a men's washroom at a club by a group of thugs, and then systematically take out the now on-fire thugs one by one). He then creates his Batman disguise and enlists the help of Jim Gordon, who is one of the only two honest cops on the entire police force (and a cheating womanizer). The script's finale has Gordon and Batman taking on Commissioner Loeb, who is revealed to be the corrupt mastermind behind most of the city's underworld dealings. Loeb kidnaps Gordon's wife, Barbara, and Batman stops him. By throwing a knife into his eye. The script ends with Wayne and the two mechanics moving into Wayne Manor."