10 Terrible Movies That Should Have Stayed In Development Hell

Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake has taken a battering over the years since it was first released in 2001, but sometimes it's easy to forget that it was actually a big hit at the box office, earning over $362m. Obviously, it has now become a byword for shoddy re-imaginings and been blown out of the water by the recent reboot trilogy, but Fox must have wondered why they spent so long trying to get it made in the first place after facing such huge backlash.

A reboot of the franchise had been in the works since 1988, with Peter Jackson at one point pitching an idea to the studio. Oliver Stone was attached to executive produce and co-write the script in the early 90s, while Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to star for director Phillip Noyce in 1995.

Schwarzenegger remained on board as first Chris Columbus and then James Cameron flirted with the idea of Planet of the Apes, before the big Austrian also jumped ship, although the reboot still lingered in development hell as Michael Bay turned it down and Peter Jackson ironically knocked it back twice.

Burton finally got it in front of cameras armed with a $100m budget, but as the decidedly mixed reviews flooded in it seemed as though the reinvention of the classic sci-fi franchise had more than lived up to its title as a cursed endeavor.