It takes a lot to get a film written, shot and released to cinemas. However, sometimes things don’t go to plan and, for one reason or another, films that manage to get completed never get to be seen by the public. Here are 7 films the public never got to see.
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The Fantastic 4 (1994)
The Fantastic Four films have never had much success, critically or commercially, but at least the last few have been released. The first one, which was meant to come out in 1994, never got released. It focused on the group’s origins and their first battle with Dr Doom and even though there were trailers in cinemas promoting it, no one got to see it because producer Bernd Eichinger supposedly made the film only to retain the rights to the Fantastic 4 so he could make a much more expensive film at a later date. Another claim is that the studio shelved the film because they thought the B-movie would tarnish the Marvel franchise.
2. The Day The Clown Cried (1972)
One of the more controversial unreleased films, The Day The Clown Cried starred Jerry Lewis as a clown at a Nazi internment camp who leads Jewish children into gas chambers. Lewis also directed the film and once it was complete, he realised the film should never be released. Luckily for him, the film was never released thanks to issues with the film’s script, rights and budget.
3. Empires of the Deep (2014)
A Chinese-US production with a budget of $130 million, Empires of the Deep has been completed, though due to various reasons it remains unreleased. During its five years of production, not only did its budget inflate, its script went through 40 drafts with 10 scriptwriters working on it, and it had four different directors work on it.
4. Hippie Hippie Shake (2010)
This film looked at the swinging 60s in London and starred Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy. It’s based on the memoirs of Richard Neville (played by Murphy), editor of Oz, a satirical magazine, and tells the story of his relationship with Louise Ferrier (played by Miller), as well as the how the London edition of the magazine is launched and a controversial issue ends up in a court battle. The film was initially delayed due to ongoing controversy surrounding Miller’s personal life and after that, various people working on the film left, resulting in it never being released.
5. The Other Side of the Wind (1976)
A satire of both classic Hollywood and new Hollywood, The Other Side of the Wind was directed by Orson Welles and has numerous problems throughout its six-year shoot. There were issues concerning the film’s budget, its cast and its production; as well as all these, the film suffered from legal troubles and its original negative was eventually impounded.
6. Glitterati (2004)
While filming The Rules of Attraction, an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel, director Roger Avary spent several weeks in various European countries with Kip Pardue, the film’s star. During that time, he shot some 70 hours of footage for what would be a very short sequence in the film. With several days of unused footage, he decided to rework it into its own film, Glitterati, which was essentially Kip Pardue in character picking up women who didn’t realise they were in a movie. Because of the legal complications surrounding the fact that the film’s cast didn’t know they were in a film (except for Pardue), the film never got released.
7. The Brave (1997)
Directed by Johnny Depp, The Brave tells the story of a Native American, Raphael, and his family who live in extreme poverty. Raphael eventually agrees to star in a snuff film in return for a large cash sum and the film looks at his final weeks of life. The film was an adaptation of the book of the same name by Gregory MacDonald; it made it to the Cannes Film Festival, though American reviewers were very critical of it and Depp decided not to release it given the backlash he’d suffered because of it.
