10 Greatest Movies Never Made

6. Nostromo

During the late '80s and early '90s, David Lean obsessed over adapting the Joseph Conrad novel, Nostromo. He intended it to be his last great epic, and although he claimed he found the novel boring, he was relentless in working on the movie with the intention to modernise it.

Steven Spielberg was brought on as a producer but the pair had a tumultuous relationship and their disagreements over the script led to a contentious parting. After many years and a number of screenwriters including Christopher Hampton, Robert Bolt, and Maggie Unsworth working on the script with Lean, the project seemed like it was going nowhere as the sheer scale of work was affecting Lean's already failing health.

Eventually, the right script was found, but that was just the start of the problems as the budget for the film was going to be astronomical; the studio had to take out a large insurance policy on Lean and casting was proving to be severely problematic. Marlon Brando, Alec Guinness, Peter O'Toole, Dennis Quaid, and Isabella Rossellini were all linked to the film, but Guinness thought he'd be terrible for the film, O'Toole would only do it if it was filmed near his home, and Marlon Brando was acting like Marlon Brando.

Eventually, Lean succumbed to throat cancer and he died frustrated at never being able to see his grand vision on the big screen. There were rumours that Martin Scorsese was going to realise Lean's dream in 2002 with Brando to star, but as of now, the project doesn't appear to be on Scorsese's horizon and Brando has been dead for over a decade.