10 Movies Delayed To "Get It Right" (That Still Got It Wrong)
2. Phone Booth - Four Decades Of Work For Farrell's Doubly Delayed Flop
Of all the examples on this list, Batman and Robin director Joel Schumacher’s Phone Book holds the debatably impressive record of being the longest-delayed release by far, with the initial idea for the project taking over four decades to reach the screen. Originally Phone Book was to be an Alfred Hitchcock film, and in the intervening decades stars as varied as Will Smith, Jim Carrey (!), and even Mad Max himself Mel Gibson were attached to star in the flick.
Eventually it was filmed with then-man of the moment Colin Farrell in the central role, although 24 star Kiefer Sutherland was drafted to replace the original villain when his scenes didn’t test well. This change prefaced another set of delays as the flick’s release was stalled due to some real-life sniper murders which hewed too close to its admittedly pretty clever premise.
When Phone Book was finally released, an unimpressed critical consensus and uninterested public proved that the delays were scarcely worth the wait for a fairly run of the mill thriller with little to recommend outside its clever premise.