11 Unmade Movie Adapatations That Were Just Weird
Asking the question of just what's in Hollywood's water supply...
Right now, adaptations are where the real money is when it comes to movies. Taking something that already exists means that quite a bit of the creative legwork is already done, and you have a ready-made fan-base queuing up to give you their money. They'll also call for your head the moment you put a foot wrong, but you have to take the rough with the smooth.
But even though they usually seem like a sure thing, film adaptations tend to be pretty hit-and-miss. Paddington's out there fighting the good fight with a hard stare, but at the same time, Peter Rabbit is hooking up an electric fence to Mr McGregor's doorknob. But outside of good and bad adaptations, there are ones that are just weird.
Sometimes, like Superman Lives, they're ridiculous enough to spawn an entire documentary, but at others, they land just on the wrong side of strange. Not good by a long chalk, but rarely quite as idiotic as "I don't want Superman to fly". A lot of the time, these strange adaptations never get off the ground, and with the benefit of hindsight, it's pretty clear why.
11. Doctor Who
Another Doctor Who movie, especially one headed up by Harry Potter director David Yates, seems pretty obvious, so you might be wondering why this was a weird one. Well, it turns out that Yates was talking out of his Relative Dimensional Stabiliser when he announced his plans in 2011.
Yates' plan was for a straight-up reboot independent of the TV series' continuity (as loose as it is) with a completely new Doctor. But after he got wind of this, Doctor Who’s lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat quickly took to Twitter to shut it down.
Moffat confirmed that not only had no deal been struck with Yates, but that if there was another Doctor Who film, unlike what Yates had promised, it would feature the current Doctor, follow the continuity of the series, and would absolutely not be a Hollywood reboot.
So why so weird? Well, even with four Harry Potter movies under his belt, Yates blundered into things, making grand promises like a twelve-year-old bragging about how he has an uncle who works at Nintendo, only for another twelve-year-old to verbally wipe the floor with him seconds later. Except this was a pair of middle-aged multimillionaire film and TV professionals. Aren’t movies magical sometimes?