10 Films That Were Stuck In Development Hell For Years

Just like Freddy vs Jason, the idea of an Alien vs Predator movie went way back. In fact, the concept started off as a comic book, released in 1989. A little Easter egg in Predator 2 hinted at the idea, with an Alien skull appearing at one moment during the film, and a screenplay was written in 1990 by Peter Briggs, who impressed 20th Century Fox executives with his idea a year later.

Fox owned the rights to both Alien and Predator and liked the thought of doing a crossover, but shelved the project for over a decade while working on other movies, including Alien: Resurrection. The script and story then went through all sorts of changes and the film was openly talked about and even promoted several times before repeatedly disappearing off the radar.

Video games, comics, books, and action figures were all released in the 90s, building excitement for the project, but fans would have to wait until 2004 to finally see the film in cinemas. Paul W.S. Anderson, a fan of both franchises, had been working on a story for almost a decade himself and the producers really liked it, so he was chosen to helm the project, which was another box office smash.