10 Films That Could Soon Escape Development Hell

Last month there came some surprising news: Bad Boys 3 was finally a go.

It was an unlikely prospect – the last Bad Boys movie was made 12 years ago, and since then blockbusters – not to mention director Michael Bay – have moved on from casual ultra-violence and buddy cop antiheroes to more family-friendly action. And yet, perhaps it’s not wholly unexpected. Will Smith and, to a much greater extent, Martin Lawrence have become less bankable in recent years, and a sequel to one of their hits could just put the pair back on the map. Plus, maybe Michael Bay is in need of some change after four Transformers movies.

So many films escape development hell this way: the actors and/or director needs a hit, and pushing a long-burning sequel out of the gate can be the way to put them back in favour. Other times, movies that flounder in development hell stick around because they’re passion projects that have problems with finding funding; others still because there’s a great concept on the table that, for whatever reason, creatives find difficulty in tackling.

With that in mind, here are ten films that could still escape development hell very soon.