1. Watchmen
Time In Development Hell: 22 Years When two producers bought the rights to adapt Watchmen into a movie, nobody could predict the epic odyssey that would follow. Alan Moore was initially excited by the idea, but when he read a draft of the script by Batman writer Sam Hamm he quickly changed his mind; he hated it and the changes it made to make the story more commercial and vowed not to be involved. Terry Gilliam worked on it for awhile, but he left when he decided the book was unfilmable; he also didnt like the idea of Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Dr. Manhattanm which the studio wanted. The project spent the next decade leaping around from director to director, including Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass, and star names like Tom Cruise and Joaquin Phoenix circled it; yet it kept falling apart for budget and script reasons. Finally Zach Snyder hot off the success of 300 was brought on board, and managed to convince the studio to make a faithful adaptation with some major tweaks to the ending. Worth The Wait?: Depends on who you ask; some people love the movie for its faithful recreation of the comic and the gorgeous visuals, and some think its a hollow, flashy fan film that doesnt really understand the source material. Which other movies that escaped from development hell belong on this list? Share your favourites below in the comments thread.