20 Failed Movie Plans That'll Ruin Your Day

18. Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon

In the vast pantheon of abandoned movie ideas, few projects are as infamous as Stanley Kubrick's long-gestating historical epic, Napoleon. 

Following the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick set his sights on his greatest passion project, a detailed cinematic dive into the life, wars, fall and legend of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (to be played by Jack Nicholson!) Kubrick spent years plotting his movie, meticulously scouting locations, conducting staggering in-depth research, and perfecting a script. 

Tragically, though, Napoleon was not meant to be. Due to its high production costs and the failure of Sergei Bondarchuk's adaptation of War and Peace, the film fell apart. Kubrick promised it would be the "greatest film ever made," and coming from the man who made 2001 and Dr Strangelove, that's certainly saying a lot. 

Much of Kubrick's research later went into production for his masterpiece Barry Lyndon, and the lore surrounding the failed epic has slipped into legend, the subject of books, documentaries and fan theories even sixty years after it fell through. Oh, what could have been.