10 Movies That Escaped Development Hell (And Were Worth The Wait)
3. Silence
Silence was Martin Scorsese's passion project ever since first reading Shūsaku Endō's novel back in 1989, and during the 27 years it took for the film to finally make it to the big screen, the director admitted to being "obsessed" with getting it made.
Scorsese first tried to get Silence before cameras in 2009, with Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio del Toro, and Gael García Bernal set to play the main roles, though numerous false starts caused Silence to enter development hell, prompting him to direct Shutter Island and then Hugo instead.
The project had so many stalls that Scorsese was even sued in 2012 for failing to bring the project together, yet after he completed The Wolf of Wall Street, the director finally got around to shooting Silence for a 2016 release.
Though the film ultimately bombed at the box office and scored just a single Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, it nevertheless received strong reviews and is absolutely one of the director's best late-period efforts.