10 Best TV Shows That Were Never Made
4. James Ellroy's American Tabloid Has Been Attempted Multiple Times
Author James Ellroy is best known for his L.A. Quartet, featuring four interconnected novels that play with the stories behind the real history of the city of angels from the 40s to the early 60s. Starting with The Black Dahlia and concluding with White Jazz, every novel in the series has, at one point, been at some stage in production.
As for his other masterworks, producers felt they were ripe for serialized television. His Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy opens with American Tabloid and concludes with Blood's A Rover - each novel covering the notable assassinations in the 1960s and the men who orchestrated them, either indirectly or intentionally.
In 2002, the property fell into the hands of Bruce Willis, who felt the first two novels (Blood's a Rover had yet to be written) would work well as a miniseries. But his option expired before he could get production running.
In 2008, Tom Hanks' production company Playtone was developing them as either a mini or ongoing series for HBO - the one place on television that would tolerate the racial slurs, violence and vicious takedowns of important historical figures.
Currently, none of Ellroy's work is optioned, with several projects falling through. He continues to write and be a particularly vulgar guest on Conan O'Brien.