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Movies Television Entertainment

Notorious Movies and TV Shows That Have Never Been Released (hollywoodreporter.com) 200

From "Batgirl" to "Star Wars Detours" to "Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay," the Hollywood Reporter highlights twelve infamous films and series that made headlines for being canceled -- and are not available anywhere. From the report: The vast majority of axed Hollywood projects are run-of-the-mill concepts that simply didn't work out or eventually find their way online. That's not the case with these titles. The below roundup of films and TV series features projects you cannot see anywhere that have achieved a level of notoriety -- either due to their scandalous content or because fans desperately want to see them (or both). The list includes: 1. Batgirl
2. Ultimate Slip 'N Slide
3. Tremors (2018 TV Pilot)
4. Star Wars: Detours
5. Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay
6. My Best Friend's Birthday
7. 100 Years
8. Uncle Tom's Fairytales
9. Bloodmoon (Game of Thrones Prequel)
10. The Original Game of Thrones Pilot
11. Our Little Genius
12. The Day the Clown Cried
Some of the canceled shows were yanked for "creative reasons" or the potential to ruin a company's brand; others were given no reasoning whatsoever, leaving it up to speculation.

Under each show included on the list is an explanation of events that help to explain why it's one of the "most legendary of the unseen." You can view the full article here.
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Notorious Movies and TV Shows That Have Never Been Released

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  • Ultimately, the powers that be decided in their massive corporate reorganization, the $90 million to develop Batgirl, (with many A-listers, like Michael Keaton as batman), was better spent as a tax write-off [hollywoodreporter.com] then as an investment requiring a few more tens of millions to market it internationally.

    • How bad must a movie be that you think you can't even recover the cost for its ad campaign?

      But I think the reason is a different one. They've seen what happens to an IP when a movie is met with lackluster reviews. The Batman universe is one of the biggest IP assets for DC, and most of the movies set in this universe had fairly good reviews, some of them had worse reviews (like Suicide Squad) but they still did well at the box office. Some, like Joker, were met with very mixed, if not outright hostile, revie

      • It sucks. If it were a hit, they'd release it, regardless of how much it may change tonal direction, or a few tens of million more to push it out the door.

        • Personally, I can't see anything in that list that I've heard of before.....much less would want to see, even if released for free.
          • by irving47 ( 73147 )

            Star Wars Detours clips on youtube. Several. Disney canned it the moment they bought Lucasfilm.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I'm fairly sure it was the tax write-off, although there is some suggestion that the new boss wants to continue with the Zack Snyder DC universe, known as the DCEU. That doesn't seem very practical given that some of the actors are out of contract and unlikely to return.

        There is also The Flash movie that they need to either release or ditch. Apparently they are considering three possibilities.

        1. Ezra Miller issues a public statement explaining their actions and apologising, then does limited publicity.
        2. Li

      • I agree; the movie itself might be more "meh" than "ew", but we've seen it with Star Wars - a lackluster movie can keep paying viewers away from even related movies and other media.

        And as I understand it, post-production isn't done either, so there's more millions there just to finish the movie up, do the special effects, all that.

        • Like I said elsewhere, some movies are bad enough that they can sink a whole franchise. Single movies rarely have that kind of impact, unless they rewrite the universe in ways that can't be salvaged anymore, and such a feat is exceedingly rare, but it doesn't take a lot. 2-3 bad movies in a row that piss fans off is often already enough to destroy an IP worth billions.

          What bad movies do, though, is they tarnish the IP. They may even perform well because people go to a franchise movie because of the franchis

          • Like I said elsewhere, some movies are bad enough that they can sink a whole franchise. Single movies rarely have that kind of impact, unless they rewrite the universe in ways that can't be salvaged anymore

            *cough* Ghostbusters (2016) *cough*

            • That movie is easy to resolve. Disown it, kick it out of the canon and move on.

              It's way harder if other media already built on top of the train wreck.

    • by gillbates ( 106458 ) on Friday August 12, 2022 @09:28AM (#62783520) Homepage Journal
      I heard it was because batgirl couldn't drive [babylonbee.com].
  • It may not matter much for movies that are one-shots. Movies set in their own universe that have no responsibility to bear when it comes to canon and expectations towards other movies. This is different for movies that are set in a universe they share with other movies and other media. By doing something, allowing something to happen or the opposite, declaring something impossible (so there is no easy way out and the heroes have to use a more convoluted, and dramatically more interesting, way around), you c

  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday August 12, 2022 @05:32AM (#62782962)

    None of those in the list even remotely burnt through $90m and finished filming with A-list actors. Lumping Batgirl in with the rest of them really doesn't do the insanity of not releasing it any justice.

    • Had it been released, it might fit better on a list with Heaven's Gate and Waterworld.

      Now they can just lie. But nobody refuses to release a hit, not in this town. Therefore, it sucks.

      • Studios end up releasing lots of sucky movies, hoping that overseas, DVD and streaming might at least put the film in the black. For a studio to literally take what sounds like a nearly finished film and deep six it means it was more than bad.

        Perhaps at some point the studio will green light someone trying to recut the film and some version may emerge. Or possibly someone will leak it. Because this is pretty much right up there with Jerry Lewis's The Day The Clown Cried, which is probably the most sought af

        • Studios end up releasing lots of sucky movies, hoping that overseas, DVD and streaming might at least put the film in the black.

          It can be complicated, but there's a bit of sunk cost fallacy here. Basically, you always consider the money already spent as gone. Null for the purposes of calculating future profit. All you care about at that point is the FUTURE money that needs to be spent to bring in the profit.

          So if you've spent $100M on a film, think that if you spend $20M finishing, advertising, and releasing it* that you can make $50M. The logical option is to release it, even though you fully think that it will never come close

      • But nobody refuses to release a hit, not in this town. Therefore, it sucks.

        Whether it sucks or not is not the question. The question is why does a studio known for putting out some of the worst pieces of shit ever committed to film not release it to at least recoup some costs from their die hard fans.

        I mean how bad can it be? Surely it's no Battlefield Earth [rottentomatoes.com] or Catwoman [rottentomatoes.com] or Ecks vs Sever [rottentomatoes.com]

    • None of those in the list even remotely burnt through $90m and finished filming with A-list actors. Lumping Batgirl in with the rest of them really doesn't do the insanity of not releasing it any justice.

      Why is it insanity? Test viewings all indicate that it was Battlefield Earth levels of bad, and the consensus in Hollywood is that the movie was probably un-salvagable and would have to be nearly completely re-shot. Word is that it made Halle Berry's Catwoman look like Lawrence of Arabia in comparison. DC is still feeling the sting of their chopped up version of Justice League, and the collapse of that whole planned Marvel-like film universe, so it's no wonder they decided that, all things considered, the t

  • by bsdetector101 ( 6345122 ) on Friday August 12, 2022 @05:49AM (#62782984)
    Batgirl had bad pre-screenings and maybe had issues with "wokeness" that pushed too far. New CEO/board decided on killing it and take a tax write off.
    • All I can say is if that's the fact, then "thank you screening audience".

      We need more people throwing shit at screens when the movies suck.

  • In 2015, a couple years before he died, Lewis donated a copy of the film to the Library of Congress, but on the condition that it wonâ(TM)t be screened until 2024.

    Sweet! Setting a reminder in the calendar. Sounds like a real heartbreaker of a film.

  • AFAIK Mick Jagger has never approved the release of the full footage of "Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus". No one knows exactly why, as the acts that were able to get their own scenes back and release look pretty good. Maybe the Stones were just out-performed by The Who and ole Mick wants to take that secret to his grave.

    • That's the general theory, because The Who's performance of A Quick One While He's Away is probably one of the greatest bits of rock and roll to ever be filmed. Heck, even John Lennon leading Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell in the Dirty Mac (if there was ever a band deserving of supergroup, the Dirty Mac has to be it) in a rendition of Yer Blues was pretty good as well.

    • FYI, TRSR&RC has been out on video for years.

    • Maybe the Stones were just out-performed by The Who and ole Mick wants to take that secret to his grave.

      I've always preferred The Who over the Rolling Stones anyway...

  • Unfortunately the title can't get past the /. Lameness filter.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2... [imdb.com]

  • Well that's funny, I happen to have a pack of 7 episodes that fell off a truck... [magnet]

  • I think Jerry Lewis was a no-talent hack, and an awful person.

    But I can kind of see what he maybe was trying to do with this movie. I think he was going for "The Holocaust was even more awful than you can imagine". A clown that distracts Jewish kids as they are herded into the ovens? Yeah, that definitely would get that point across.

    I think maybe Lewis thought "This is going to be incredibly offensive, but that is the point". But there is a line you can't cross, and he crossed it.

    • To me it sounds like a zanier version of Life is Beautiful (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/) for which Roberto Benigni won an oscar.

    • The topic could certainly have worked as a heart-string yanker, but you have to be very, very careful how you pull it off. Lewis was mostly known for his comedies and this would absolutely certainly not have been a comedy, despite him playing a clown. There is no room for actual humor in a movie like that, any humor shown would have required to be strangled and choked for the audience to know that it's not to be laughed at.

      Pulling that off would have been quite nontrivial. Twice so for a typecast guy like L

  • by JBMcB ( 73720 )

    The 1994 Fantastic Four movie made by Roger Corman, for the sole purpose of retaining the copyright (not by Corman, but by the studio)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    I Love You Daddy by Louis CK, though I think he bought the film and could release it in the future.

    I don't think Rust will ever be released, though it was technically unfinished.

    There were a few films well into production that were drastically changed or dropped altogether when John Lasseter was put in charge of Disney animation. Probably for

    • After Revenge of the Sith, Lucasfilm had also begun pre-production work on a series supposed to take place between RoTS and ANH. I believe they even had scripts written. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day.

      Maybe if it had Lucas would've kept Star Wars and not sold out to Disney...

      • Maybe if it had Lucas would've kept Star Wars and not sold out to Disney...

        I keep forgetting that the younger kids of latter generations actually enjoyed the prequels. I prefer to pretend there are just 3 Star Wars movies, and some awful fan-fiction that shouldn't be watched.

        Also, there is only one Matrix movie.

        • by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Sure they liked them as kids but I imagine it was in much the way I enjoyed a lot of shitty movies when I was a child. Take The Monster Squad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] . I loved this movie as a kid, I mean it firmly established that Wolfman both has nards and that he can be kicked in them.

          Watching it as an adult though? It's a pretty bad movie.

      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        Maybe if it had Lucas would've kept Star Wars and not sold out to Disney...

        So Star Wars would have stayed with the person who butchered the original trilogy with a remaster featuring terrible CGI and character redefining (for the worse) film changes? The same guy who apparently destroyed the negatives to do this and refused to produce what everyone wanted which is just an upscaled version of the original? The same guy who hasnt made a decent movie since the 80's?

        Yeah, my childhood favorite was fucked either way.

  • How many movies never hit the screen, because they were canceled? I am willing to bet a whole lot of them, and they were being canceled for as long as we have had movies.

    Why? Because movie making is an Art, and a Business.
    Art is subjective and prone to have its popularity change on a quick whim. If it isn't going to be popular than it will be a bad business decision to continue it.

    Many early Science Fiction Movies (Pre WWII) were very apocalyptic showing the dangers of capitalism and industrialization.
    After

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