AS A CERTAIN SWAMP dwelling Jedi Master once taught us, “Always in motion is the future.” But in Hollywood the past is equally in a state of flux. Every completed film trails countless possibilities behind it: discarded drafts of screenplays; abandoned storytelling choices; dead end plot avenues; characters and scenes that are tweaked, reshaped or deleted. Movies are built on the backs of what-ifs and might-have-beens. The ghosts of the great unmade haunt the screen, concealed between the frames of the final product.
“For me, it becomes an obsession with what could have been,” says Stephen Scarlata, co-host of the Best Movies Never Made podcast and producer of Jodorowsky’s Dune, a documentary on the cult filmmaker’s attempt to bring Frank Herbert’s epic SF novel to the screen. “I just need to know everything and put it together, the best I can in my head. It’s that mystery and how it would have shaped the landscape of cinema.”
About this time last year an alternate vision for Star Wars Episode IX tumbled through a crack in hyperspace. Jurassic World writer/ director Colin Trevorrow was Lucasfilm’s original choice to land the ending of the trilogy of trilogies. Collaborating with Derek Connolly (Jurassic World, Kong: Skull Island), he delivered a draft of the screenplay in December 2016, only to leave the project by September 2017, replaced by JJ Abrams.
This story is from the February 2021 edition of SFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2021 edition of SFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
ANCER MAHAGEMENT
WITH A NEW TRILOGY IN SIGHT, WE SPEAK TO THE DIRECTOR OF 28 WEEKS LATER THE ORIGINAL CHILLING SEQUEL TO DANNY BOYLE'S SEMINAL SURVIVAL HORROR
WHO YA CONNA CALL?
BEHIND THE SCENES AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS FOR GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE
SPEAK OF THE DEVIL
THE DEVIL'S HOUR STRIKES TWICE AS THE GENREDEFYING DRAMA RETURNS
SCARRY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK
FROM THE RETURN OF EC COMICS TO SCREAM!, THIS YEAR'S HALLOWEEN OFFERS UP HORROR COMICS FOR ALL THE AGES
UNDEADS REFLECTIONS
NEIL JORDAN ON BRINGING ANNE RICE'S MODERN VAMPIRE CLASSIC TO SCREEN, 30 YEARS ON
MUNSTER MASH!
PRODUCTION HELL, SHOCK RECASTING AND HOTLY CONTESTED AUTHORSHIP. AS THE MUNSTERS CELEBRATE THEIR 60TH ANNIVERSARY, WE UNCOVER HOW THE SPOOKY SITCOM WAS ALMOST DEAD ON ARRIVAL
COMING TO AMERICA
THE MOGWAI LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THEIR SECOND CHAPTER, GREMLINS: THE WILD BATCH
BEING HUMAN EVOLUTION
IT MAY HAVE BEEN AN INSTANT HIT, BUT BBC THREE'S DARKLY COMIC DRAMA ABOUT A HOUSE-SHARING VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF/GHOST TRIO HAD A STRANGE JOURNEY TO THE SCREEN, SERIES CREATOR TOBY WHITHOUSE TELLS SFX
THE MAINE EVENT
THE DARK IS RISING IN SALEM'S LOT AS STEPHEN KING'S DEATHLESS TALE RETURNS TO THE SCREEN
WHY DON'T YOU STAY FOR A BITE?
THE VAMPIRE COMES HOME AS DIRECTOR EUROS LYN WELCOMES SFX TO HIS NEW DARK COMEDY THE RADLEYS
