13 Long-Delayed Film Projects We Wish Would Get Made Already

6. Downsizing

Originally Announced: March 2009 Status: May still happen, but not for a couple more years. Plot Details: "A man low on money decides he can have a much nicer life if he undergoes a process to shrink himself." - Variety Why Has It Been Delayed? Budget issues. Downsizing is director Alexander Payne's baby - his passion project. He had been working on it for a number of years before the project was announced in the spring of '09 and has described it as a "science-fiction social satire." He also considers it to be his "epic masterpiece." Downsizing has been delayed so long because of the amount of prep work that would be required for the digital effects, something Payne is not particularly used to. At one point, Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon, and Sacha Baron Cohen were attached to the film and things did look like they were moving forward in 2009. But, as with so many of these other projects, things began to fall apart, though Alexander Payne still very much wants to make it. He told Thompson On Hollywood, back in 2011, that Downsizing was two films away and that he wanted to focus on making "regular human old films" until then. So, now that Nebraska has come out, does that mean Payne is only one film away? Should we get our hopes up?