Unproduced film projects

Nicholas Walker3 said:If you're claiming this is totally unique without knowing about the Brass project... well—unfortunately, everything ended up being pretty much the same anyway—though one version could honestly be classified as straight-up pornography!

It is one thing when Tinto Brass—a director who primarily focuses on anatomy regardless—ventures into Hollywood seeking his dream directorial project, hiring heavyweights like Malcolm McDowell and Peter O'Toole just to shoot his usual fare with a higher budget and better lighting.
It is an entirely different matter when De Palma, a director who has worked with untouchable Hollywood icons like Travolta and Pacino (in films like Blow Out and Scarface) and has been a staple studio director since Carrie, decides to assemble a cast featuring a certain "queen of adult cinema" and the scandalous Annette Havens. His goal was to bring them to Hollywood to film a sort of "Hitchcockian" erotic thriller where the lead actress might serve as a provocative incarnation of a Hitchcockian Grace Kelly or Kim Novak.
While the content might share some superficial similarities in a purely pornographic sense, the context and the circumstances surrounding the creation of Caligula versus De Palma's film are actually diametrically opposed.
A while back in London, I picked up the DVD of Body Double which includes some excellent supplemental material; apparently, the producers De Palma approached with this concept were absolutely livid, reacting with pure disbelief and fury.
In short, De Palma's idea back then—much as I fear it is now—was a precedent in the truest possible sense of the word.

Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Robocop) really should have teamed up with Schwarzenegger to film The Crusade, a movie about Crusaders.

David Cronenberg should have directed Star Wars: Return of the Jedi—but he turned it down...

casualranger2 said:Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Robocop) really should have teamed up with Schwarzenegger to film The Crusade, a movie about Crusaders.

Well, yeah... 😛

he mentions that in a different post...👍

wiredbison82
It was a huge deal when Peter O'Toole found out which movie he’d actually signed on for—all that drama over different versions and everything else... it's all the same. Honestly, De Palma isn't some revolutionary figure, and Brass certainly wasn't either. These ideas have been popping up since the early days of cinema—back when adult films were shot in secret during the interwar period because major studios wouldn't touch them directly, using middlemen instead... it's a long story that started way before De Palma!

wiredbison82 said:In the early eighties, Brian De Palma—arguably one of the most daring directors working in America today—was reportedly set to direct a first high-budget porn.
He was in talks with Trace Lords, who was at the peak of her career at the time, as well as the slightly more seasoned star Annette Heaven.
The producers ultimately couldn't be swayed; the project was scrapped, and De Palma went on to film Body Double, which featured nudity, though certainly nothing beyond what Hollywood typically expects.

The studios just get spooked. Honestly, I’m sitting here wondering when it'll finally happen. When some heavyweight director actually tackles a massive budget, big-name cast, the whole mainstream package... you know, for that genre. Who knows, maybe in the future they'll just add a new category to the Oscars: Best Felatio.😁 Then you'll have all the film buffs arguing over who snubbed whom for an Oscar.🤣

briskhound2 said:Speaking of Schwarzenegger and Ridley Scott... I remember reading somewhere a while back that the two of them were actually looking at doing a new take on "I Am Legend," which honestly would've been such a cool watch. Then you've got James Cameron—who, unfortunately, ended up dropping out of Spider-Man because of all that endless, drawn-out legal tug-of-war over the rights... he eventually just pivoted over to Titanic instead. Word is they were eyeing Michael Biehn for the lead role, too, which... man, that really would've been something special to see.

Heh... that’s exactly what I was getting at.

Leone actually wanted to do a remake of Blow Out.
I honestly can't help but wonder how that would have turned out...😂I've been trying to picture it, but I just can't wrap my head around it.

Henry Lee84 said:Which unmade film projects do you guys actually regret never getting to see?

Stanley Kubrick was planning this whole thing about Napoleon starring Jack Nicholson... everything was lined up, then he just backed out for a bunch of different reasons. Dammit! Honestly, I think it would’ve been a fucking masterpiece. And don't even get me started on what if he had directed AI instead of handing the reins over to Steven Spielberg. That would have been another absolute classic...

Then there's Sergio Leone. He was supposedly working on a film about the siege of Leningrad with Robert De Niro in the lead. Death got to him first. I really feel like we were robbed of another one of his masterpieces because of that. If he had lived just a little longer, who knows how many more legendary movies he would've dropped on us...

Quentin Tarantino was actually looking into making a western for a while. It would've been the perfect genre for him, especially since he's such a huge fan of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone. I truly believe he could've breathed life back into the genre, and maybe even revitalized his own career in the process. (I haven't been feeling his recent stuff much lately, though... just picked up Inglourious Basterds, so we'll see)

Ugh, those are all such fascinating projects... but I don't quite get why you're mourning the fact that AI went to Spielberg? I mean, he did a pretty stellar job with it. I suspect Kubrick (even though he gave us three all-time classics) might have just needlessly surrendered to some philosophy that even he didn't fully grasp...

So, apparently Monica Bellucci and her dear Vincent wanted to film some kind of adult movie (kind of like a follow-up to 😁), but they supposedly backed out because nobody was taking them seriously or something like that.

Back in the day, John Carpenter was actually lined up to direct Firestarter, and they were planning on having Darwin Joston—you know, the legendary Napoleon Wilson from his role in that Attack on the Police Station—take on the part that eventually went to George C. Scott. He ended up dropping out after The Thing didn't exactly kill it at the box office, but man... nowadays you can't help but wonder how that whole project would've turned out if it had been handled by a true master instead of just a journeyman like Mark L. Lester.

Lisa Ross65 said:David Cronenberg should have directed Star Wars: Return of the Jedi—but he turned it down...

Of course he did—Cronenberg is just far too good for that typical Hollywood crap.

Lisa Ross65 said:David Cronenberg should have directed Star Wars: Return of the Jedi—but he turned it down...

I’m having dreams where Lynch was supposed to direct a sequel too (I think it was a return of something), but he passed on that to do "Dune" instead. Just imagine if Return of the Jedi had been directed by David Lynch...