Red Dwarf: 11 Episodes That Never Made It To Air

A Red Dwarf movie seems to be Doug Naylor’s Holy Grail but is constantly just out of his reach. The biggest issue in getting the movie off the ground was always funding, but at least once it was stalled by unrealistic compromises. Naylor met with a producer who suggested a complete recast including Hugh Grant as Lister and Emma Thompson in an unspecified role. Naylor later described himself as having left the meeting rather quickly. Presumably in a pair of jet-powered rocket pants.

There were plans to shoot in Australia in late 2003 at the recommendation of Weta Workshop founder Richard Taylor, and a movie did get to the pre-production stage at least once in the early 2000s. With storyboards being drawn up, test shots of Red Dwarf being filmed, and Robert Llewellyn having his head cast for a new Kryten mask. The script has never been made publically available but a promotional posted created by Winchester Films as part of Naylor's fundraising efforts describes the plot as involving cyborgs called Homo Sapienoids targeting the Dwarfers after wiping out the rest of mankind and dominating the solar system.

The Movie was rescued from purgatory in 2012 when Series 10 ran into production problems (which we’ll get to) and two new scripts were needed at short notice. With a looming deadline, elements of the various drafts of the movie’s script were used for the series finale The Beginning. So with three new series filmed and elements of the movie’s script already used for Series 10, it’s unclear if Naylor still plans to bring Red Dwarf to the big screen.