10 Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made
How could they say no to this?
Science-Fiction has been a staple of feature films since the beginning of the medium, and there's a reason for that. They tend to rake in a ton of cash.
Granted, not every sci-fi movie does well, but when the top-grossing of movies of all time include the likes of Star Wars, Avatar, and Avengers: Endgame, it's no wonder the genre is well-represented in Hollywood.
Still, despite having some of the highest-grossing films of all time, sci-fi movies aren't a guaranteed hit, and over the years, movies have come out that proved themselves the exception to the rule. When a film flops, any planned sequels often never see the light of day.
It happens more often than most people realize, and movies that languished in Development Hell for years may have come close to clawing their way out, but never managed to actually do it. Studios trash projects all the time, and nothing is guaranteed.
Of course, there are those movies that look to be all but guaranteed right up until the studio pulls the plug. These ten sci-fi movies were all set to tread their way out of Development Hell, only to wither and die, never to be released... at least, for now...
10. Halo
Halo is one of the most popular first-person shooter franchises around, and it's not only found on the Xbox anymore. There are Halo comic books, web series, novels, and more. With so much money being thrown around in the franchise, it's surprising that there hasn't been a Halo live-action movie.
Of course, there were plans to make one, and in 2005, it seemed a certainty that the movie would come to fruition. A script was written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Dredd), which he had delivered to the studio by couriers dressed as Master Chief.
20th Century Fox and Universal came on board to produce, and soon after, Peter Jackson signed on as executive producer. Neill Blomkamp was set to direct, and production began. Then it stopped. Then it began again. And so-on in that fashion until Universal issued an ultimatum to Jackson and Columbia Pictures' President Peter Schlessel to cut their "first-dollar" deals, or the movie wasn't going to happen.
Neither side budged, and as a result, the movie died for good.
Blomkamp declared the film's death in 2007, then he and Jackson worked together to make District 9 a reality. A Halo movie may be made one day, but as of July 2020, nothing is planned in terms of a feature film.