4. The Sandman
The Sandman is one of the most famous and critically acclaimed graphic novels of all time. The 75 issue series, written by Neil Gaiman and published under DC's Vertigo imprint, ran from 1989 to 1996, chronicling the adventures of Dream, the Lord of Dreams. Gaiman described the plot as "The Lord of Dreams learns that one must change or die, and makes his decision." Warner Bros. has been planning a film adaptation of the series since the late 90s, and hired Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction co-screenwriter Roger Avary to direct. Pirates of the Caribbean writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were brought on to write the film in 1996. When Avary began to butt heads with executive producer Jon Peters (famous for his often batsh*t ideas for films like Superman Lives), he was fired. The movie then went through several drafts with various writers before going to William Farmer (Jonah Hex). Farmer's script was met with disdain from fans and from Gaiman himself, who called it "quite easily the worst script I've ever read." The film fell into development hell in 2001 and it wasn't until only a week ago that it began to gain traction again.
BadassDigest reported that David S. Goyer has taken an interest in the project with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in mind to star. Apparently Goyer is still only pitching the idea to execs at the studio so the project is still in the very early stages of development and may once again fail to come to fruition. At this point, it's hard to get excited about news of a Sandman film, and even Gaiman has stated that he'd rather not see a film at all than see a bad adaptation. Now that Goyer has landed a first-look deal with Warner Bros that will give him a bit more power at the studio, the chances are that it could happen, though you should take this news with a grain of salt for now.