Development hell
Development hell is media-industry jargon for a movie or television screenplay (or sometimes just a concept or idea) getting stuck in development and never going into production.
The screenwriter may have successfully sold his screenplay to a certain set of producers or studio executives, but then the executives in charge change, and these new people raise objections to all the scripts and casting decisions they oversee, mandating rewrites and recasting. As a director and actors become "attached" to the project, further rewrites and recasting may be done in order to accommodate the needs of the new talents involved in the project. Should the project fail to meet their needs, they might leave the project or simply refuse to complete it, causing further rewrites and recasting. Worse still is when a finished project (for example, a television pilot) is sent back for rewrites and recasting, which can often force a project to begin again from scratch. This process can last for months or years, and a project trapped in this state will more often than not be abandoned by all interested parties or outright cancelled. This process is not naturally an element of filmmaking. Many times, this "Hell" occurs simply due to the lack of foresight and competing visions of those parties involved. This revolving door in the film industry happens most commonly with projects that, to some, may have multiple interpretations and affect several points of view.
Projects known to have been, or thought still to be in Development hell
- A remake/additional film of Superman produced by Jon Peters, directed by Tim Burton and starring Nicolas Cage in a white costume. This project was ultimately canceled though there are several known versions of the script that took on possible storylines such as Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday and his resurrection. Director Kevin Smith is said to have written a script for this picture and in interviews has discussed several alleged elements of his involvement with the project including the producer's insistence that Superman could not fly. Wolfgang Petersen was attached to develop a joint Superman/Batman film but this also fell through. A second script by J J Abrams had various Directors attached with Bret Ratner, and McG actually commissioning set designs. In 2004 it was announced that production would start on a new script with Bryan Singer as Director.
- A film of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, Terry Gilliam had been tipped as director in the early 1990s. In 2005 a new production was announced with Paul Greengrass as director but shortly before casting the production was cancelled.
- For many years the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd had been touted as prime film material but various initial attempts to get the project off the ground floundered. Eventually a film was made but was widely regarded as disappointing by fans of the comic strip.
- A screenplay of the William Gibson novel Neuromancer was optioned soon after the novel was first published in 1984, and has been in development hell ever since. Because the rights to the story and characters are owned by the studio that owns the screenplay, the character Molly Millions had to be replaced with a generic girl named "Jane" in the movie version of Johnny Mnemonic.
- The movie of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was in development hell for over 20 years ever since it was first suggested in 1982, it finally escaped in 2003 and was released worldwide in March 2005.
- The next film of the James Bond series appeares to be in a state of development hell as Pierce Brosnan and Quentin Tarrantino both stated an interest in a new adaptation of Casino Royale to take the series in a new direction. However differences with the producers have led Brosnan to announce he will not be appearing as Bond again.
- Terry Gilliam expressed interest in directing an adaptation of Good Omens, a book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, but this has been stuck in development hell for several years.
- A feature-film version of another project by Neil Gaiman, the BBC mini-series and HarperCollins novel Neverwhere, was originally bid for by Jim Henson Studios after the TV series was complete.
See also
- Film production
- Film finance