10 Awesome-Sounding Sequels That Will Never Happen

If there's one thing Hollywood loves, it is sequels.

Every year we get swamped by returning franchises and while it makes it easier for the studios to turn a profit by having a reliable cash-cow they can wring every last penny out of, it also makes it a lot more difficult for a great original movie to gain traction at the box office. Split, Baby Driver and Get Out have bucked the trend this year but for the most part the highest-grossing movies are always franchise films of some kind.

We live in a world where there are seven Madea movies, six Resident Evils, six Paranormal Activity movies, five Underworlds and an eighth Saw is on the way. That's a combined total of thirty-two movies, and not a single one of them is even approaching good. Who says Hollywood is devoid of originality?

Sometimes there are sequels with massive potential that remain trapped in development hell and never see the light of day, maybe because the studio doesn't want to stump up the money or the key creative minds just aren't interesting in returning, or simply because a project that intentionally left itself wide open for a sequel tanked at the box office.

While far too many franchises are being sequelized to death in the current climate, there are still plenty of missed opportunities that may have robbed us of a genuinely great movie.

It surely can't be a coincidence that Inside Man, the most overtly-commercial 'Spike Lee Joint' of the often-controversial director's 30 year career, is also his biggest hit. Stepping out of his wheelhouse to make a studio-backed crime thriller, the movie received strong reviews and earned almost $185m at the box office, as well as having an ending that left things open for a sequel.

A clever genre flick that subverts the tropes of the countless heist movies that came before it, Inside Man benefited tremendously from Lee's propulsive energy that offset some of the script's more implausible elements, backed by a fantastic cast that saw Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor and a scenery-chewing Jodie Foster lend able support to the always-watchable Denzel Washington.

Several months after its release, a sequel was announced with Russell Gewirtz again on writing duties and Lee in negotiations to return behind the camera with all four main cast members reprising their roles. Lee continued to talk up the project for years before it was officially cancelled in 2011, with an inability to secure funding said to be the reason.

Heist movies are ten-a-penny these days and often as generic as they come, so missing out on seeing another one directed by a filmmaker with a unique and distinctive voice such as Spike Lee ranks as a major missed opportunity. In a time where any remotely-profitable movie is instantly granted a follow-up, Inside Man recouped four times its production budget and still couldn't escape from development hell.