I like making lists.

The Top Ten Films Never Made (but really should have been)

Now, I realize that this is inherently pulled from a list of infinite possibilities. The list will be comprised of ideas that were very close to being made, or were at least largely suspected would happen.

I have a few ground rules in my mental process:

1. I will avoid existing films that were just almost made by a different director, for example Ridley Scott's I Am Legend. Would it have been better? I'm sure, but that's not an interesting choice.
2. I tried to stay away from sequels, although one did crack the list. I will be focusing more on films that were very original or unique ideas, not just expansions on stories already told. That being said, the one sequel that did make the list was drastically different from the original and that's how I justified it.
3. None of these are fan wishes – so no Serenity 2, no Unbreakable 2, etc. I don’t know that they would have cracked the list anyway because the ten I’ve selected sound better, but I wanted to focus on projects that at the very least had a script. Some of these even got as far as casting or having second unit footage filmed.

Here we go...

10. Ridley Scott's Gladiator II



I did mention that I was including a sequel, so I figured I should get it out of the way first. I’m sure we’ve all seen the original Gladiator by now, came out in 2000, Russell Crowe plays Maximus, a Roman general turned gladiator, and dies at the end of the film.

In the later 00’s, there was a lot of discussion about an apparent attempt at a sequel to the original. From what I’ve read, it is an insane idea and would have been a very epic film had it never been made. Maximus is reincarnated after a deal made with the gods in the afterlife, becomes immortal, defends early Christians, reunites with his son, and then essentially lives forever through every important period of time in history all the way up to the present day where he is a General in the Pentagon.

The studio balked because, and I don’t really blame them, it’s kind of a crazy idea but I think it would have been a lot of fun. I think potentially it might have seriously undermined the first film though - a serious, epic, period drama, followed by a time-traveling, supernatural action film.

The more I write about this the more I’m wondering if the creators of the Assassin’s Creed games took any influence from this. Obviously the concepts are not one and the same, but the concepts are somewhat similar. Maybe that’s as close as we’ll ever get to seeing a realized Gladiator II.

It would have only worked IF it was a sequel to Gladiator.

I think you're both full of shit. This would be awesome in every way.

9. Alfred Hitchcock's Kaleidoscope



While elements of Hitchcock’s Kaleidoscope have shown up in other films (Frenzy), it is largely one of many Hitchcock projects that never truly saw the light of day. A cat-and-mouse game about a young bodybuilder luring pretty women to their deaths, the police trying to capture him, and the film would be seen from the eyes of the killer (potentially played by Robert Redford or Michael Caine). Sounds awesome.

Unfortunately it never happened. Hitch was told the film was too uncommercial and was convinced to pursue other projects. The project was filled with sex, violence, rape, murder, acid baths, necrophilia, etc. While Psycho had a few of these themes, they were blended with the mystery of the film itself. This was a hard-hitting piece; it might have been Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Hitchcock was all about revolutionizing film, and he would have certainly achieved that here had it been made.

I’ve read that the script is still being kicked around, so I’m hopeful that someone will eventually make it someday. I’m sure it won’t be of the same quality that Hitchcock would have produced, but I think it’s an interesting story regardless of who makes it… although in 2015 it might not feel all that different from a lot of films released every year now. Hitchcock’s would have set a new precedent for American cinema; now it might be perceived as a rip-off of “Dexter” or another movie/tv series with similar ideas.

Right!? This has been kind of a depressing list to make. The more research I've done the more I've realized how many potentially incredible ideas are just out there floating in limbo.

I'll have two more up tomorrow.

You're not a happy guy are you, Frank?

No it's real.

I may not be on board with Gladiator II, but your subsequent choices both sound great.

You're right, I would definitely be surprised.

I remember when Crusade was at a point where it was going to happen. Right after True Lies, when Arnie was at the peak of his career. It probably would've kept his momentum going a few more years, but it never did and his movie career slowly started to decline.

I have a book called Tales From Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made, and Crusade is one of the films talked about in there. Yeah, it sure sounded interesting.