“Chocky”
There’ve been disappointingly few great adaptations of John Wyndham’s novels, but with titles like “The Day Of The Triffids,” “The Kraken Wakes,” “The Chrysalids” and “The Midwich Cuckoos” (the latter of which does have a great screen version, with 1960’s “ Village Of The Damned”), he’s proved endlessly influential on the sci-fi genre. Could Spielberg have been the one to deliver another great Wyndham adaptation? After “Chicago 7” fell apart, and with projects including “Cowboys & Aliens” (bullet dodged…) and “Indiana Jones”-ish book adaptation “The 39 Clues” competing for his attention, DreamWorks optioned the rights to Wyndham’s novel “Chocky,” and Spielberg announced that it would be his next movie. The
film’s a dark story (previously adapted for a 1970s BBC TV series) about a father who becomes concerned that his son still has an imaginary friend, only to discover that the imaginary friend is actually an alien consciousness communicating with his son’s mind. Seemingly clicking with many of the director’s interests, the project was mooted for a 2009 shoot, in part because financing on “The Adventures Of Tintin” was beginning to look shaky after Universal pulled out. But that film eventually came through, and little’s been heard of “Chocky” since, sadly.
“Harvey”
After falling out of “Chicago 7,” Spielberg shot the motion-capture elements of “The Adventures Of Tintin,” and in mid-2009, after flirting briefly with spy franchise “Matt Helm,” and with DreamWorks then cementing their deals with 20th Century Fox and Reliance, he finally picked out his next project: a remake (or more accurately, another adaptation of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play) of the 1950s Jimmy Stewart classic “Harvey.” A deceptively dark tale about a gentle, eccentric alcoholic who believes his best friend is an invisible six-foot rabbit, the redo was penned by Jonathan Tropper (now co-creator of Cinemax’s “Banshee”), and the helmer came on in the summer of 2009 with hopes of shooting early in 2010 for an awards season release. But it came a cropper over casting: Tom Hanks was approached but was reportedly not keen on courting comparisons to Stewart’s original turn, and after some mention of Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr, newly revived after “Iron Man,” was made an offer. But supposedly Downey Jr and Spielberg didn’t mesh on script rewrites, and when the star fell away, Spielberg dropped the project altogether.
“Gershwin”
Spielberg’s proven to be rather biopic-friendly in recent years: alongside “Lincoln” and “Bridge Of Spies,” the director was also developing “The Rivals,” “Chicago 7,” “American Sniper” (eventually passed off to Clint Eastwood) and a biopic of Formula 1 driver James Hunt,
that would have starred “Magic Mike”’s Alex Pettyfer, but was scuppered by Ron Howard’s rival project “Rush.” But one of the more intriguing possibilities was a movie about the legendary composer and pianist George Gershwin. Penned by “Quills” writer Doug Wright (a
Pultizer-winner for “I Am My Own Wife,” the movie would have told the story of the “Rhapsody In Blue” composer, who bridged the classical, jazz and Broadway worlds before passing away tragically early at the age of 38. The film even got as far as landing a lead, with “Star Trek” star Zachary Quinto landing the title role, and was planned to shoot in April 2010. But though it was deep into prep, the director ultimately decided to shoot “War Horse” instead, and the Gershwin movie fell away. In a 2013 interview, Quinto said “I don’t know whether it’s on Steven Spielberg’s roster… we would talk about it, but he’s obviously got a billion dollar company to run and a lot of considerations beyond that specific project.”
“Robopocalypse”
Plenty of movies on this list got close to production, but few got closer than “Robopocalypse,” the most recent lost Spielberg movie here. Based on a 2011 novel by Daniel H. Wilson, adapted by “Cabin In The Woods” and “The Martian” scribe Drew Goddard, it was a realistic look at a war between humanity and a sentient A.I — soon after he came on board in 2012, Spielberg told Time Out, “It’s a movie about a global war between man and machine. I had a great time creating the future on ‘Minority Report’ and it’s a future that is coming true faster than any of us thought it would. ‘Robopocalypse’ takes place in 15 or 20 years, it’ll be another future we can relate to. It’s about the consequences of creating technology that makes our lives easier, and what happens when that technology becomes smarter than we are.” Originally set by Fox for a July 3rd, 2013 release date, and mooted to be shot at least in part with IMAX cameras, the movie was delayed a little to let him finish up “ Lincoln,” aiming for April 2014, and got tantalizingly close to production, with Chris Hemsworth, Anne Hathaway and Ben Whishaw all signed on to star. But in early January 2013, the film was indefinitely postponed, with the director commenting, “We found that the film was costing a lot of money and I found a better way to tell the story more economically, but also much more personally. I found the personal way in, and so I just told everybody to go find other jobs. I’m starting on a new script and we’ll have this movie back on its feet soon.” The delay was said to only be six to eight months, but little’s been heard of the movie since.
Aside from all the other movies Spielberg was attached to that other directors went on to make, from Burt Reynolds vehicle “White LIghtning” to “American Sniper,” there are a few others out there that haven’t gone away entirely. Another Cruise project was a Western called “Arkansas,” while the director was also attached to an adaptation of the play “A Steady Rain,” which starred Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman on Broadway. He’s also long been planning a movie about Martin Luther King, and reportedly has talked to David Oyelowo about reprising his “Selma” role, while his “West Side Story” remake is still out there in the ether too. And he may follow the upcoming “Ready Player One” with the Javier Bardem-starring “Montezuma,” or the Tony Kushner-scrioped “The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara.”
Anything else we missed? Let us know in the comments.