13 Comic Book Films Stuck In Development Hell

More superhero films are being produced than ever before right now, with various franchises churning out multiple movies a year. Over at Disney, there’s the all-encompassing juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox’s X-Men series is still going strong after sixteen years, and now we also have the burgeoning DC Extended Universe from Warner Bros. However, just because the genre is a guaranteed hot ticket in Hollywood at the moment, that doesn't mean that every superhero movie in the works gets made without a hitch. Unfortunately, there are so many comic book adaptations flying around that some just can’t get through the door. Either due to lack of studio support, problems with the creators or some other reason, these 13 comic book films are currently stuck somewhere in movie limbo, and we're unsure if they'll ever manage to escape... 13) Fantastic Four 2 20th Century Fox had big plans for their rebooted Fantastic Four franchise, with a sequel set for 2017 and a crossover with the X-Men on the cards. Unfortunately, the 2015 movie was slaughtered upon release and so those plans were ground to a halt as the studio tried to work out what they were going to do next. Producer Simon Kinberg has remained adamant that Fox wants to continue the series with the exact same cast, and stars Miles Teller and Kata Mara have also shown interest in returning. Still, nothing is being actively worked on right now, meaning that this one isn’t so much stuck in development as it is stuck in the conversation stage. 12) Nemesis Mark Millar’s work for Icon Comics - dubbed Millarworld - has been frequently adapted to the movies (see: Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service and Wanted). Nemesis, however, has not been so lucky in making it to the screen. Simply put, Nemesis is a reverse Batman story about a man who becomes a supervillain after the violent death of his parents. Originally, 20th Century Fox snapped up the rights to the property back in 2010, with Matthew and Joe Carnahan attached to write and direct. Despite Millar approving of the script, Fox eventually decided to pass on the project. In August 2015, however, Nemesis was picked up by Warner Bros. No news has arrived since then, but we remain hopeful that it will one day get made. 11) Chew Created by John Layman and Rob Guillory for Image Comics, Chew centres on Philadelphia-based detective Tony Chu who has the unusual ability to get a psychic impression of an object’s past after biting into it. Initially the idea was to turn it into a half-hour comedy series for Showtime, but in February 2013 they announced that they were passing on the project. Instead, it was to be made into an animated film. A strong cast of geek favourites were assembled for the movie – including Felicia Day, The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun and David Tennant, replacing Robin Williams after his untimely death. The last we heard of the Chew movie was over a year ago, however, and as of now, this one looks to be stuck in development hell for the foreseeable future. 10) Bloodshot After shipping Spider-Man off to Marvel, Sony announced that they were working on their own superhero cinematic universe based on the characters of Valiant Comics. The first movie in the series would be Bloodshot, based on the hero who's somewhere between Wolverine and Jason Bourne. Bloodshot is an ex-soldier with memory loss who gained regenerative capabilities after nanites were implanted in his blood. Kick-Ass 2’s Jeff Wadlow had written the script and Matthew Vaughan was going to exec produce. A release date was set for 2017. Seeing as the film is nowhere near shooting, however, we wouldn’t expect to see that being met. 9) Harbinger The next announced movie in the Valiant Cinematic Universe is Harbinger. The premise is somewhat X-Men-like as it stars a bunch of teen outcasts with special powers known as Harbingers. Their abilities are all psionic powers, such as telekinesis, pyrokinesis and mind control. Sony has big plans for the Harbingers. After their solo movie, they will meet Bloodshot in a crossover movie titled Harbinger Wars. Dinesh Shamdasani and Eric Heisserer are writing the film. At least, that was the situation as of April 2015. Things have gone quiet on the Valiant front since then, so it seems Sony are no longer in a rush to get this shared universe going. 8) The Incredible Hulk 2 Plans for another Hulk movie have been up and down ever since The Incredible Hulk arrived in 2008. Partly, this is because no one is exactly crying out for it – not even Marvel Studios themselves – but they couldn’t make one even if they wanted to. The problem is that Marvel and Disney don't have the full distribution rights for the character, as Universal still have a hold on the Jade Giant after their 2003 Hulk movie. As such, Marvel can only feature Bruce Banner as part of an ensemble. Hence Mark Ruffalo only appearing in The Avengers movies and Thor: Ragnarok. Maybe this one will happen someday, if the studios can come to an agreement. 7) The Inhumans The original plan for Phase Three of the MCU would have seen it rounded off with The Inhumans, a movie about a race of enhanced humans who many were theorising would be Marvel’s answer to the X-Men. J. Robert Cole was writing the screenplay and it was pencilled in for a November 2nd, 2018 release date, before being moved back to July 12th, 2019. In advance of the movie, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show introduced the concept of Inhumans. In April 2016, however, Marvel announced that Cole’s work had been discarded and Inhumans was removed from the release schedule. As of September, though, it's still not officially cancelled and it's thought that it will eventually re-emerge from development hell in the near future. 6) Black Widow Fans have been asking for a solo adventure for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow ever since she first appeared in 2010’s Iron Man. Marvel chief Kevin Feige has frequently expressed interest in making the movie, although at other times he has stated that Natasha Romanoff works better as a supporting player. Nonetheless, in May 2016, Feige confirmed that Marvel were now “committed” to making a solo film for the character, with the plan presumably being that it would fit somewhere in Phase Four. We can hope that it will actually come to pass this time, and not fall back down the to-do list at the studio. 5) Venom After The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony had a whole series of spinoff movies in mind. When that franchise crashed and burned, however, it rendered many of these movies null and void. There is one they are still holding on to, however – a solo film for Spidey’s nemesis, Venom. A Venom movie has been on the cards for years, with The Dark Knight’s David S. Goyer planning on writing one for New Line Cinema in the 00s. Now it's Sony’s idea to make a standalone Venom film that's totally separate from the MCU. As of April 2016, R&B artist Dante Harper was attached to write the script, but that's the last we've heard about the project. 4) Lobo Back in 2009, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director Guy Ritchie was confirmed to helm a movie about DC anti-hero and intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo. By 2012, Brad Peyton had taken over directing duties and was pursuing Dwayne Johnson for the title role. By the next year, however, Johnson was now attached to DC’s Shazam movie instead, as Black Adam. The Lobo film did get a new lease of life recently when it was announced that Jason Fuchs would be writing the script. We'll have to wait and see whether this will actually go anywhere this time, but we definitely hope it does. 3) Hellboy 3 Guillermo del Toro is the king of films stuck in development hell, with many a project suspended in limbo. One of these is unfortunately the long awaited third movie in his Hellboy series. Though the film have an ardent cult fanbase, the story of an anti-hero demon just doesn’t appeal to mainstream audiences like Spider-Man or Batman, and so, the Hellboy films have never been big money-makers. As such, though del Toro and star Ron Perlman are very keen to do a third outing, no studio is currently willing to supply the cash. Sadly, it’s looking increasingly likely that this one will only happen when hell freezes over. 2) The Sandman Neil Gaiman’s mythological comic series The Sandman broke the mold of what the comic book medium could do back in the day, so it’s no surprise that various attempts have been made to bring the seminal story to the screen. Most recently, the project finally seemed to have gained some momentum as David Goyer was set to produce alongside Gaiman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with a script by Jack Thorne. There was even some talk that it might kickstart a Vertigo Cinematic Universe, based around the comics published under DC’s mature banner. However, this one looks to have faltered too as Levitt – believed to have also been set to star - recently backed out of the film over disagreements with the studio. 1) Gambit You have to feel sorry for the Gambit solo movie, a spinoff of the X-Men franchise - it just can’t catch a break. Initially, things went smoothly. Back in 2014, Channing Tatum was signed up to play the Cajun stallion. After that, a director was nailed down in Rupert Wyatt who cast Lea Seydoux as female lead Bella Donna Boudreaux. The film was then given a release date of October 7th, 2016. In September 2015, however, Wyatt dropped out of the movie and was soon replaced by Doug Liman, though there was no hope of it meeting its release date. Then, last month, Liman also exited the project. And, just to rub salt in the wounds, he jumped ship to join DC’s rival superhero universe to direct their long touted Justice League Dark adaptation. Ouch!

13 Comic Book Films Stuck In Development Hell

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Christian Bone

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