Every now and then, there's a movie announcement that gets film buffs excited, but the studio annoyingly doesn't follow through on its promises. However, the movie is never canceled, and it forever remains in development hell. There are so many great ideas dwelling there, and Redditors have their own favorites.
While there are movies that do somehow manage to crawl their way out of development hell, such as Deadpool, The Irishman, and Uncharted, it's incredibly rare. Unfortunately, though there are sporadic updates about some of these movies from studios, Redditors will probably be left disappointed when they never see the light of day.
Quentin Tarantino's Star Trek
It has been well-documented how much-celebrated director Quentin Tarantino wants to make a Star Trek movie. The idea is almost impossible to imagine, as the director's gruesome revenge stories full of colorful language don't really match with the slow-moving and methodical sci-fi series.
But that's exactly why audiences want to see it, especially Mit007007mit. The Redditor asks, "can you imagine how crazy it would be to bring Tarantino's sensibilities/dialogue to Star Trek?" And there'd be nothing more interesting than Spock and Captain Kirk riding around the final frontier talking about quarter pounders and massacring their enemies. Unfortunately, it might not ever happen, as, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Star Trek's creator's son rejected Tarantino's script.
Conan The King
AStartlingStatement is still holding out hope that Conan The King will someday see the light of day. The Redditor notes that "Arnold at one time was attached," referring to Schwarzenegger who played the titular character in Conan The Barbarian and its sequel, Conan the Destroyer.
So many different directors and producers have been attached to the project over the years. It's also one of the many unrealized Wachowski sisters projects, as the Matrix directors were developing it at the same time as The Matrix Reloaded and had given it the exciting title, King Conan: Crown of Iron.
Metal Gear Solid
An adaptation of one of the most groundbreaking stealth video games ever, Metal Gear Solid, has been "in development" since 2006. But 15 years later, audiences are still waiting for the first great video game movie. However, it looks like the video game adaptation is finally getting off the ground, as Oscar Isaac has been cast as Solid Snake.
Though they want nothing more than to see the movie come to fruition, Kinggatsu is still so skeptical that it'll ever happen. The Redditor claims that they "won't believe the rumors that the movie is in pre-production again with Oscar Isaac tied to the project until I see a trailer." In fairness, the casting announcement was over a year ago and there has been radio silence ever since.
MIB23
2012's reboot of 21 Jump Street helped pave the way for the now popular trend of movies being self-aware. The movie made jokes at the original series' expense and the sequel took it even further, as the finale posited ideas for over 20 sequels, including 32 Jump Street: Fireman School and 43 Jump Street: Mariachi School.
Following 22 Jump Street, there were talks between Sony and Jonah Hill about a crossover with Men In Black, and MIB23 is the crossover that audiences didn't know they wanted until they found out it was in development. It would be the most meta and self-aware follow-up possible. SunnyWynter accurately points out that "it definitely couldn't have been worse than the most recent MIB movie."
Tron 3
It's hard to believe that Disney would even go ahead with a third Tron movie, as the series has proven twice now that it isn't successful. Though the original movie is a cult classic, it was a financial disaster for the studio when it was first released in the 80s.
Tron: Legacy, which came two decades after Tron, was a box office bomb too. However, though it sounds more hopeful than anything, Neon notes that the threequel is "by all accounts still happening. But sounds more like a reboot than the legacy sequel I crave."
Megalopolis
Despite being one of the greatest ever American filmmakers, Francis Ford Coppola has been out of the game for a while now. The Godfather director hasn't made a movie in years, but there's one project of his that he's been talking about for close to two decades.
Spillyerbeanz wants to see "Coppola's 9/11 film that's supposedly 4 hours. I'm just morbidly curious." That movie is Megalopolis. Though the movie isn't specifically related to the disaster, there are a lot of parallels between the two, as Megalopolis is about rebuilding New York in the modern day. The director is now making some big moves to make the long-talked-about movie come to life, as Coppola's currently trying to cast the film.
Sherlock Holmes 3
BBC's modern take on the character, Sherlock, has become the gold standard of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. But that doesn't take anything away from how entertaining the Robert Downey Jr.-led blockbuster movies are. They might not be as clever, but they're just as entertaining and have some epic set pieces, and Sherlock Holmes 3 has been in development ever since 2011.
Paper-Dragon notes that "if it followed its last release date announcement, it would've been out this week," as Warner Bros. announced the release date of December 22, 2021, back in 2019. Director Guy Ritchie has been very busy lately, as he has directed three movies in the past three years, has another one out in March, and is currently shooting his next one. So who knows when he'll ever have the chance to get to direct Sherlock Holmes 3.
National Treasure 3
While Disney is seemingly working hard to resurrect Tron, they're leaving franchises that were actually successful on the shelf. The two National Treasure movies released in the 2000s grossed a combined total of $800 million at the box office, but fans, including blongstaff, are still waiting for the third movie.
There has been some movement, but Disney has been awfully cavalier about it and are clearly in no rush. There's also a TV series adaptation in development, and as the studio is pushing Disney+ hard, it's more likely that fans will see that before a movie.
Constantine 2
Though critics weren't kind to it when it was released and it didn't have the best reception from audiences, it seems as though people have reassessed Constantine in recent years. The movie has a huge fanbase, and though it might have something to do with the Keanu Reeves renaissance the world is currently living through, there's no denying the film's fascinating premise.
Phalex wants desperately to see the long-in-development sequel, noting that "Keanu Reeves even says he wants to do it." The supernatural flick is one of the best Reeves-led action movies, and given that the actor is so popular again, there's no better time to strike than now.
At The Mountains Of Madness
At the Mountains of Madness is a 1930s novella, but despite its age, it's still a hot property to many filmmakers and even actors in Hollywood. The movie adaptation has been in development for years, and writer-director Guillermo del Toro wrote a screenplay of it as far back as 2006.
IsTheTOGuy notes that he wants to see del Toro's movie, "or failing that, Tom Cruise's At the Mountains of Madness. I just want H.P. Lovecraft given the dues he deserves on the big screen." At one point, according to Salon, the Mission: Impossible actor was even attached to star, but as fascinating as the sci-fi adventure movie sounds, it seems unlikely that it'll ever enter production.