The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made (Fully Revised and Updated Edition) [Paperback]

David Hughes' wonderfully readable The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made is not only a fascinating insight into the machinations of the Hollywood production factory, but a true testament to Sci-fi's enduring popularity as a film genre among mainstream audiences. It's amazing how long many of these movies languished in "development hell" and even more amazing how long the people involved hung on, despite the fact that quite often it was perfectly obvious that the project was on its last legs. Movie buffs and Internet users will be familiar with a lot of the tales here which have now practically passed into Hollywood folklore. Using combinations of new interviews and press clippings, quotes and statements Hughes pieces together the development behind some truly major motion pictures which all fell foul of budget constraints, studio nerves or extensive rewrites. And he unearths some real gems about movies that came tantalisingly close to the big screen, only to fail at the last hurdle. There's James Cameron's take on Spider Man (now being filmed by Sam Raimi) that was caught up in years of wrangling over who owned the rights; the live action version of Thunderbirds which would have seen Lady Penelope taking on the villainous Hood in a fist fight and Steven Spielberg's SF horror Night Skies which eventually transformed into ET with a slightly more cuddly alien as its star. Superhero fans will delight in reading about the cheapo version of the Fantastic Four, shot in just under a month, as well as Batman director Tim Burton' s attempts to get Superman to fly again in the ill-fated Superman Lives. There's also contributions from Alien designer HR Giger and Harry Knowles, who runs the Aint-It-Cool movie news Web site, and several pages of rare illustrations from aborted SF movies. This is by far the most well-written and absorbing account of Hollywood's broken dreams and it's truly heartbreaking to read about some of the fantastic films that were so close to becoming reality. Hughes writes with energy and enthusiasm, resulting in a book that movie buffs and Sci-fi fans cannot afford to miss. --Jonathan Weir --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

It's a muted celebration and a "melancholy examination" of what might have been in movie buff David Hughes's (The Complete Kubrick) The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made. In brief, slap-happily titled chapters (Twin Freaks; Alienated; Lights, Cameron, No "Action!") Hughes explains David Lynch's difficulties with movie financing, how a Spielberg project called Night Skies became the genesis for both E.T. and Poltergeist and why the Six Million Dollar Man never made it to the silver screen. Illus.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Tim Burton's Superman Lives to Steven Spielberg's Night Skies, the litany of uncompleted films presented here lends credence to the notion of Hollywood as a city of broken dreams. Hughes (The Complete Kubrick) draws on numerous exclusive new interviews with the disappointed filmmakers for this compendium of good intentions gone awry. Not surprisingly, the intricate machinations of business and financing tend to play the primary role in the demise of promising projects, together with healthy doses of petty bickering and infighting. Whether a prospective film might have turned out to be great cinema is usually a minor consideration. For instance, the proposed Terminator 3 faded away largely because the legal rights to produce the film were bogged down with the failing production company responsible for Terminator 2, writer-director James Cameron's interest was drifting away to other ventures, and Arnold Schwarzenegger insisted that he would not do another Terminator without Cameron. Serious sf fans and those fascinated by the inner workings of the film industry will be intrigued by the complexity of events that thwart these often promising projects. Recommended for academic libraries. Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

" An essential purchase ... read it and weep." - Empire

"Wonderful... Every sci-fi fan should own this" - Sci-fi-online.com

"An essential chronicle of broken promises" - Hotdog
"These are films I wish I could have seen ... Hughes's research is solid ... it's sobering stuff." 'Moriarty', Ain't It Cool News

"Every so often a book comes along that demands to be read at one or two sittings at the most... miss this one at your peril." - Starlog

"In-depth blow-by-blow analysis ... this has it all ... a must-read" - IGN Filmforce

What if I Am Legend had been directed by Ridley Scott, and had starred Arnold Schwarzenegger? What if James Cameron had directed Spider-Man?

This groundbreaking book, now fully updated and revised, tells the story of legendary unmade films. What would Terry Gilliam’s Watchmen have been like, and how did Darren Aronofsky almost end up directing the movie? Why was Nicolas Cage paid $20 million for not playing Superman?

Also covered are Steven Spielberg’s Night Skies, Stanley Kubrick’s Childhood’s End, Philip Kaufman’s Star Trek: Planet of the Titans, Kevin Smith’s Six Million Dollar Man, Tim Burton’s Superman Lives and James Cameron’s Alien 5!

DAVID HUGHES has written about film for numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, Empire, SKY, GQ, SFX, Dreamwatch, Fangoria and Cinefantastique. He is the author of Virgin’s The Complete Kubrick and The Complete Lynch, and wrote Titan Books’ acclaimed Tales From Development Hell.