4. Dark Blood
It sort of sucks when your lead actor dies mid-way through production, because as a director, you're essentially powerless - unless you're lucky enough to be directing absurdist fantasy, such as The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - and more often than not, will just have to shut production down. In Dark Blood, River Phoenix played a young man who lives on a nuclear testing site, counting down his time until the world ends, until he meets a couple who change his life path. However, Phoenix's drug overdose death 11 days before the end of production derailed everything, and the film was shelved indefinitely, with director George Sluizer retaining the rights until this day, and recently premiering it at the Netherlands Film Festival in cobbled-together form. A public release is unlikely to occur, though, especially when we consider that the studio originally tried to sue Phoenix's mother for $6m in his lieu, a crass demon that it is doubtful they would want brought to the forefront in the event of a resurgence.