10 Insane Movies That Were Almost Made
2. Kaleidoscope
The Movie: Psycho director Alfred Hitchcock didn't exactly make light-hearted movies, but Kaleidoscope was perhaps a little too dark a proposition, even for him. Inspired by a pair of real-life serial killers, the movie would've followed a murderer called Willie, who enjoyed luring in young women and butchering them.
Where Psycho adopted a "less is more" approach to its mature content, Kaleidoscope would've been the exact opposite. Willie was to be portrayed as the film's hero, and in one scene, he would've been caught masturbating by his mother. In general, Hitchcock wanted to show lots of blood, sex and nudity - a line from the screenplay reads "the camera arrives on the girl’s abdomen where we see rivulets of blood."
The director also wanted to experiment with natural light, handheld camera techniques and an unknown cast: he wanted to make Kaleidoscope the most unorthodox, shocking movie of his career.
Why It Wasn't Made: With a script ready to go and some test footage having already been shot - Hitchcock was reportedly further into the development of Kaleidoscope than any of his other doomed projects - the director took the movie to Universal, who rejected it. The unrelenting sex and violence was just too much, and the studio wouldn't allow Hitchcock to film it.