As anyone with even a passing interest in film production knows, the path from a screenplay's inception to an actual film being shown for audiences around the world is often tumultuous at best. There are dozens of storie out there - both triumphant and traumatic - of excruciating film production periods, where the final film that emerges bares only a passing resemblance to what the creators had originally envisioned. There are other cases where a story never even gets that far, and the film languishes in what is candidly referred to as "development hell," usually before being cancelled and forgotten completely. So which films floundered in pre-production before going belly-up and disappearing from the hearts and minds of their studios and filmmakers? What are the stories and cinematic experiences that we, the viewers, will never get the chance to experience? Here are the 10 cancelled films that sounded like the they had the most promise but never saw the light of day, stories that might've intrigued, thrilled, inspired and entertained us, but never got the chance.
10. Conversations With Vincent - Tim Burton
All notable directors have their work shaped and influenced by previous film artists. For Tim Burton, one of his central inspirations seemed to not be the work of another director, but the Gothic cinematic landscapes inhabited by actor Vincent Price. Burton would eventually get the chance to work with his idol twice before Price's death in 1993: a collaboration which produced two of his greatest works: Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Vincent (1982). However, there was a third collaboration between Burton and his hero, a documentary titled Conversations With Vincent that to this day has never been completed. Following Edward Scissorhands, Burton sat down to do a series of filmed interviews with Price, with the subject being Price's reflections on his long and very distinctive career. Unfortunately, the actor would pass away before the interviews were completed and the rights to the footage from his films proved to be exceptionally difficult to obtain. All of this contributed to the film being abandoned and leaving the world tragically robbed of what could have been a great, intimate portrait of an iconic cinematic figure.