8. James Cameron's Battle Angel Alita
Description: Alita, a female cyborg, awakens with no memory of her previous live and pretty damaged. Fixed up, she becomes a mercenary/sports star who takes out cyborg baddies, and presumably searches for clues to her identity. Basically The Bourne Identity meets Dog The Bounty Hunter, but with robots.
Why It's Not Happening: Avatar. Plain and simple, James Cameron had two projects on his desk a couple years ago: Battle Angel Alita and Project 880 (aka Dances with Smurfs). Faster than you can say "La, la, la la la la", Cameron chose Avatar and began developing a 3-4 movie plan that would take him into 60 FPS/3D shooting territory. Cameron's sole focus at this time seems to be Pandora: its ecosystems, its people, and its dramas all being crafted out as we speak.
The Last Word?: James Cameron keeps promising he'll make the film after he's done with Avatar, though that promise has been downgraded as recently as September 2012 to a "possibility". Then again, Cameron told us he'd have a tie-in novel for Avatar the year after the first film was released, and so far even that is a no-show.
If You Really Want To See It...: ...re-read the Manga. Or, you know, don't go see Avatar 2-4, tank the whole project, and force James Cameron's hand. Think of it as a Director's Default policy.