Throughout the history of film, there have been too many aborted film projects, and the film masters we know are no exception, and these films that have not been made have one unforgettable story after another. Looking at their plot and ideas, if they are made, it is likely to be another masterpiece.
Unfortunately, now we can only guess what those unfinished works look like. However, if it is not filmed, it will become a sealed dream.
Clozo's "Purgatory"
In 1960, after the completion of the film "The Truth" by the famous French director Henri-Georges Kluzo, the new work "Purgatory" aroused high expectations from all parties, especially the Investment of the United States. It tells that Paul, a sensitive man, has a wife who is incredibly beautiful, but since the day he saw his wife with other men, he has fallen into endless suspicion and jealousy, and his spirit has almost collapsed, causing irreparable tragedy.
Romi Schneider in the movie Purgatory
Cruzzo was fascinated by the art of movement and invited the standard-bearer, Jean-Pierre Vasaréry, to incorporate his aesthetic style into the film. Conductor Gilbert Amy designed sound effects for the film, using sound and music to project the delusional state of the male protagonist Marcel. The actors and actresses were finalized by Serge Reggioni and Romi Schneider, respectively.
In March 1964, Clouzot summoned several vision workers to a regular meeting at The Boulogne Studio to discuss the visual tests in the film—color inversion, shadows, repetitive exposures, and other effects. Co-funded Colombian film executives offered to increase investment. Clouzot photographed Marcel's daily life in black and white, and Marcel's psychology in psychedelic color. The preparation of "Purgatory" was exhaustive, and a complete storyboard was drawn, including what lenses and depth of field it was equipped with.
In July 1964, the film was launched, and Clouzot used three sets of shooting to speed up the construction period. However, she is notorious for her pressure on the cast, often waking up the actors and crew in the early hours of the morning to explain what was shot the next day. Even quarrels with actors to push the limits of acting. While filming the actor Serge Reggiani running along the lake, Clozo let him run for many days in a row, and Rikia finally quit on sick leave. Later, many of the crew quit, complaining about not being able to work in this chaotic situation.
Clouse brought in Jean-Louis Trentinion to replace Reggioni, but he didn't make a scene a few days after he joined the group. Cruzot was so busy that he even had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Although not life-threatening, the plan was halted by the film company, and the plan ultimately fell through.
In 2009, under the guidance of documentary filmmaker Serge Brownberg, He mixed up clips from "Hell" to make a documentary that revealed the story behind "Hell", "The Hell of Henry-George Kruzo", allowing people to see the kaleidoscopic image of Cruzot.' In fact, the full story of "Hell" was remade by french New Wave director Claude Chabrol in 1994 as "Beautiful Torture", starring Emmanuel Bea and François Kruce, and several scenes are completely copied from Cruzeau's concept. Hitchcock's Kaleidoscope
In the mid-1960s, Alfred Berger, who finished filming Marnie and Breaking the Iron Curtain, was the first to do so. Hitchcock's film career hit a waterloo, and he tried to bounce back and plan to make a groundbreaking low-budget experimental film, which also heralded a major change in his style. He co-wrote a screenplay with the screenwriter called Frenzy, which was not his 1972 "tie killer" film, but a violent film about mentally unsound psychopaths killing women. It was later renamed Kaleidoscope.
"Kaleidoscope" is based on the Novell of London killer. Adapted from the crime story of the Sith, the criminal, known as the "babyface" by later generations, relied on his childish face and temperament to seduce women so that they could treat him in a maternal manner before killing them. In the end, his mother cooperated with the police to crack the case. In September 1966, Universal invited the novelist Howard M. Fast travels to Los Angeles to work with Hitchcock. Hitch said he had just watched Italian director Antonioni's "Zoom" and admired it, saying that these Italian directors were technically a century ahead of him. This time, Hitch wanted to apply the style of European cinema to his new work, and personally planned four hundred and fifty camera positions in the film.
Kaleidoscope sample
He set the story in New York, where he had sought out screenwriter Samuel. Taylor and Alec. Karp had discussed the plan, but none of them had been able to make it happen. Before the end of the year he found an old friend Benn. Levin, Levin fleshed out the idea of Hitch. The story revolves around the "babyface killer" Noveller. How the Sith uses his charm to seduce young women, thus having sex with them and then killing them. The New York police set a trap for him and sent a young policewoman to trap him. The script revolves around three murder scenes, one on the edge of a waterfall, the second in a closed kayak, and the third in the finale that will take place in an oil refinery.
The president of MCA (Universal Pictures' parent company) feared the film would ruin his reputation because the project was very different from the big director's previous works and was full of brutal violence and pornography. Hitchcock assured the MCA president that his films would only invest $1 million, and unknown actors. The MCA defined the film as a thorough project plan, with Hitchcock making a demo and then, depending on the circumstances.
He hired an unknown photographer to use hand-held photography and natural lighting to draw out several passages in the script and shoot a few paragraphs in New York, which, although unsound, were almost an hour long (some said 40 minutes, some said 50 minutes).
But none of this changed the perception of the studio, and in the fall, he would make the good samples for the president of MCA, MCA felt that the samples and scripts were too violent and pornographic, directly frightened the president of MCA, they thought that the protagonist was too "ugly" in psychological terms, not like Hitch's past polite murderers, dark, dirty, and the techniques were too experimental, saying that this story was made by others may be good, but it should not be Made by Hitchcock. In this way, the soundless sample of "Kaleidoscope" is forever sealed in the global database. Except for a very small number of global insiders, no one can appreciate this masterpiece of alternative works. Until 1999, parts of the film appeared in two documentaries, totaling no more than a few seconds. Kubrick's Napoleon
Just before Kubrick made Clockwork Orange, he was obsessed with making Napoleon's biopic, which he spent four years researching. The research work of this film is actually much richer than any other film of Kubrick, and it can even be said that it is the most complete database of Napoleon research in the world. Kubrick read nearly 500 books about the Bonamar family.
From the later stages of "A Space Odyssey", he wrote a plot outline. After that, he watched every film about the Bonama family, using reproductions of Bonama's distant relatives, perspective drawings depicting the Battle of Erxingen in which France defeated Austria, sketches, caricatures, oil paintings, small models, photographs of replica flags, candlesticks, coins, pistols, field clothing, and even an 18th-century horseshoe and everything related to Napoleon. These were all used as materials, and he even approached Zeiss, a friend of NASA and lens experts, to invent an ultra-fast 50-centimeter lens to cope with shooting natural light shots in low light.
Napoleon survey
In terms of casting, according to his initial notes, Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Jean-Paul Belmondo. In 1968, he first talked to Oscar Warner about cooperation, but then he fell in love with David Hemmings and Ian Home. By early 1970, he was considering switching to Jack Nicholson. He also aspired to add elements of psychoanalysis to explore the state of mind in Napoleon's various periods.
Hepburn's letter to Kubrick
Alison Cassel was chosen by Audrey Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, and Julie Andrews.
After the plan took shape, hotelier Kirk Corklean acquired MGM, who was so intimidated by Napoleon's increased budget that he ordered it to be stopped. Three Napoleonic films of the same period also suffered box office Waterloo, and Kubrick alone found Lianmei, who also believed that the film was too expensive and old-fashioned and extremely risky.
"Napoleon" audition photo
Kubrick had to sign three new film contracts with Warner Pictures, and "Napoleon" became the bottom of the box. This film, which could have become a masterpiece, was buried.
The latest plan is that HBO will adapt the script of "Napoleon" into a miniseries, with the director of the American drama "True Detective" Kyle Fukunaga expected to direct, with Spielberg as the producer, and the theme of the adaptation is to "restore Kubrick's ideas as much as possible".
Leonne's Leningrad
Leone (center) and Rod Stegel (left) and James Coburn (right) on the set of Once Upon a Time in the Revolution
The Nazi siege of the Soviet city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) lasted from September 1941 to January 1944, when about 40% of the citizens were killed. Sergio Leone, who has just finished filming Once Upon a Time in America, wants to bring "Leningrad" to the screen.
He began to construct his ideas through Shostakovich's 1941 Leningrad Symphony, a love story about a cynical American television news photographer and a young Soviet girl in this context. The photographer was commissioned to cover the war for twenty days. He did not leave until the end of the lockdown.
The first long shot of the opening is written imposingly. In 1984, Leonne pointed out in The International Screen magazine that Moscow Pictures, the largest studio in the Soviet Union, decided to shoot the film, and implied that Robert De Niro would play the male lead. "I have assured the Russians that this film will be an epic masterpiece that outlines the heroism and humanity of the people who rose up against the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union."
In 1988, Pravda announced the filming. In 1989, Leonne held a press conference in Moscow, revealing that the film would be produced by several Russian blockbuster studios and his own RAI company. His royal soundtrack, Morricone, will continue to be the soundtrack of the film, with royal cinematographer Tonino della Colli at the helm.
Leone (left) and Robert De Niro on the set of Once Upon a Time in America
Leone estimated that the film would take nearly three years from script to final cut. The budget for the film is 30 million, but the film industry estimates at least three times. He also planned to use four hundred tanks, at least two thousand for filming. However, Leningrad never had a script, and he did not really facilitate it. He was diagnosed with a heart attack while filming Once Upon a Time in America, and by 1989, at the age of 60, he had a heart attack and died. It was supposed to fly to Los Angeles two days later to make a final effort to fund Leningrad.
At the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, The director of Cinema Paradiso, Tornadore, announced that he would make an English version of Leningrad, tentatively titled 900 Days. But the plan was not implemented. In 2011, Tornadore said the project was still in progress, and he later reached a cooperation agreement with producer Ive Reiner. Hitchcock's The Short Night
Ronald Kirkbird's novel The Short Night
In 1976, Hitchcock was still busy preparing for a new film, Short Night, after completing his last film, Strange Case. The original book is a spy novel about a British double agent, Brand, who escapes from prison and plans to defect to Moscow on an island in Finland with his wife and children. An American agent who wants to capture Brand follows and falls in love with Brand's wife.
Hitchcock also incorporated Sean Baker's documentary The Flight of George Black. George was a double agent and sentenced to 42 years in prison. In 1966, Sean Baker was helping Blake boldly escape from London's Warwood Jungle Prison in London and escape to the Soviet Union. This experience was choreographed by Hitchcock as a prison break at the beginning of the film, and Hitchcock designed each camera position in detail.
Plans for Short Nights were first proposed in September 1968, and Hitchcock declared it the next work after Topaz, still following the realist spy film model of his two most recent Cold War spy films, Breaking The Iron Curtain and Topaz. In the pre-production stage of Topaz, Hitchcock traveled to Europe to choose actors. I also met Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, and after working with his wife Irma, producer Herbert Coleman and screenwriter Samuel Bergmann. A. Taylor travels to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, in search of a suitable location. After being advised by the locals, they chose Haimen Linna as an ideal filming location.
Stills from "Topaz"
Later in 1970, the project was shelved. Probably the factor was the disappointment at the box office of Topaz, as Hitchcock didn't want to make such films in succession. However, after completing Strange Case in 1976, he became interested in the project again, and announced in February 1977 that Short Nights would be his 54th film.
In May, he spent $150,000 to hire screenwriter James Costie, who later fired him. In October, Ernest Lehmann, the screenwriter of North by Northwest and Strange Case, was recruited, and Hilton Green, producer and director Norman Lloyd as assistant director, costume designer Edith Hyde, artist Robert Boyle, and visual effects artist Albert Wittlock were involved in the pre-production.
Hitch also went to Finland with Boyle and Lloyd to survey the scenery, announcing that filming would begin in September 1978. The cast was initially chosen: Sean Connery as Brand, Liv Ullman as Brand's wife, Walter Matthew as the scheming spy who helped Brand escape, and Catherine Denoff as the wife of the spy who helped Brand escape.
YY poster for Short Nights
At this point, Hitchcock wanted to include a scene in the beginning of the film in which Brand raped and killed a woman, but the screenwriter Riemann strongly disagreed. In the summer of 1978, Riemann was divided over this creation and eventually left the project. In July, Lloyd took over the project, but his progress was very slow, and in late September, he only wrote the early part of the remaining manuscript, and Hitchcock decided to start writing a split-shot script. Lloyd disagreed, arguing that he wasn't ready. So Hitchcock fired him again.
Hitch's health declined at this time, and at the end of 1978, he had a third screenwriter, Journalist, Playwright, and TV and Film Screenwriter David Freeman, continue revising the script. During this time, Hitchcock once again joined the rape scene. They worked together for 5 months and completed the first draft. Hitchcock's arthritis was so severe that he could not walk on his legs, and he decided to change the shooting date to spring 1979, but this decision completely prevented him from "Short Nights". In the summer of 1979, Hitchcock had difficulty walking, and he felt that he was not physically fit to complete the film, and the project was suspended.
David Freeman's Book Hitchcock's Last Days
Hitchcock died on April 29, 1980. David Freeman published the screenplay for Short Nights in his book Hitchcock's Last Days in 1999. Jodulovsky's Dunes The Dunes is the first in a series of novels by American science fiction writer Frank Herbert in 1965, depicting the legendary story of a feudal dynasty on the planets of the solar system, in which two dynasties kill each other over a precious new psychedelic drug.
Dune concept art
Alessandro Zodlowski, who began preparations for the film, was 45 years old at the time. Hollywood was not interested in the film, believing that the novel "Dune" could not be made into a movie at all, and that science fiction had reached its peak in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and was now fading. Jodulovsky vowed to surpass Kubrick, saying that Dune was not a realistic sci-fi film like 2001, he wanted a space opera. He first approached Douglas Trumpbu, the visual effects director of "2001", but could not stand his arrogance and high fees, and the two did not reach a consensus on cooperation.
Jodulovsky solved the problem himself, and he hired a group of first-class artists. The script was written by the French cartoonist Mebis, who had created the "Captain Blueberry" comic strip, and he drew three thousand concept drawings, each of which was wonderful. The other two artists were Chris Foss and Hans Giger, who later became famous for creating the concept art of Alien, who was not yet famous.
Musically, Virgin Records contacted Jodulovsky and proposed that the popular fried chicken Mike Oufield be the one. But Jodulovsky had already arranged for the British rock band Pink Floyd to work with roger Watts, who said "The Mole" was his favorite film of 1974. There were also unpleasant experiences, but they eventually agreed that Pink Floyd would compose most of the soundtrack, with the rest performed by the French rock band Magma.
Allegedly, the director will personally play the Duke of Leto Atreides, other actors include: Orson Wells as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, David Karatin as The Imperial Ecologist Dr. Kynes, Charlotte Lamplin Slate Lady Jessica, and Durowski's son as Paul Atreides, the duke's son. And the role of Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, the most fascinating of the entire film, he hopes to be played by the surrealist artist Dalí.
Zodlowski told Dalí that he needed to stay on set for seven days, and he believed that God's creation took seven days, and Dalí "can be said to be comparable to God, so he has to charge a huge amount of money, one hundred thousand dollars an hour" Zodlowski looked at the tarot cards, and the advice he got was: pat the butt and leave. Dalí's muse, Amanda Lil, told the director: Dalí is like a taxi, as time goes by, the price tag will get higher and higher, but the money you want to pay will only get less and less. Jodulovsky decided to cut the emperor's scene to 2 pages, and Dali was furious when he heard about it, but finally reluctantly agreed, because the director said that it would make him the highest paid actor in film history.
Dune storyboard script
In October 1976, it was signed that Dune's project was about to turn yellow. The film has already cost 2 million before it was made, and the 180 minutes in the contract may exceed 14 hours. Dalí's participation is also an unresolved matter, the French funder decided to withdraw the investment, and the film was officially aborted. David Lynch's later film Dune (1984) received very, very bad reviews, much to Jodulovsky's thrill. He said: "I think David Lynch is a really good director. When I went into the cinema to see which movie, I was very jealous, I felt that I was going to die, and I was extremely depressed. As a result, the movie was so bad that I was so happy that I was resurrected again! If David Lynch could make Dune the way he did, I don't think I'd be able to survive. ”
Documentary "Jodulovsky's Dunes"
In 2013, Frank Pavich made the story into a documentary, "The Dunes of Zodlowsky" (2013), in which the twilight Zodlowski talks to the camera, holding a storyboard, showing the audience that "passion" is a lifelong thing. Thankfully, he has turned the text of Dune into a visual storyboard, and its concept has influenced later generations of science fiction films. "I'm going to die, they're going to make my films." It is still very sad to see this sentence.
Fellini's Journey to Mr. Mastona
In 1969, fellini edited in the TV documentary Block-notes di un regista a huge scene set up three years earlier for il viaggio di g. mastorna. This masterpiece, which he could not complete, tells the story of a cellist who discovers after an accident that an emergency plane has landed that he is actually dead. Fellini wanted to illustrate in the film the last words of his psychiatrist Ernest Bonaghard: "Feel the pain of death with all your heart.".
Fellini (left) and Mastruani (right) play the footage for The Journey of Mr. Mastona
The film's opening paragraph has also been designed, the cellist Giuseppe Mastona's plane, because of a huge snowstorm forced to land in a small town square, passengers get off the plane and wander the streets, and later a bus takes them to a remote hotel. The group gathered in the hotel to watch On screen the life of Mastona. Masterner couldn't leave the scene until the film was over and accepted that he was such a person.
Storyboard script for Mr. Mastona's Journey
Fellini wrote an outline of the script for the film and persuaded Italian filmmaker Dino de Laurentis to fund the project. In the summer of 1966, Fellini co-wrote the script with screenwriter Dino Buzzati, and the film set began to be set on the set in Dino. He still wanted his royal actor Marcelo Mastruani to be the lead actor, but asked Laurentius not to sign the actor. In September 1966, he wrote to Laurentis that he didn't want to make the film anymore. Why?
To quote Mastruani in Director's Notes: "Don't you have any confidence? What do you seem to be afraid of? Fellini allegedly became obsessed with divination during the early stages of Mr. Mastona's Journey, and at a fortune-telling party, he began to believe that if the film was made, it would be his last work.
It is said that Mastruani took a makeup photo for "Mr. Thomas's Journey" in 1965
Lawrentis, who had already cast millions of lira for the film, filed a lawsuit against Fellini for default, and the court ruled in favor of him, allowing him to withhold valuables from Fellini's house and having a lien on large sums of money from Juliet and the Devil. In fact, the relationship between the two was still very good, and in early 1967, the two reached a consensus to continue filming "Mr. Mastona's Journey". However, at this time, Mastruanni had no schedule. He later signed Hugo Tonazzi.
However, this film seems to be really evil, and on April 10, Fellini lost consciousness and rushed to the hospital to diagnose acute pleurisy. After a few weeks of hospitalization, he was transferred to a hospital in Rome to recuperate. Lawrence also arranged for American actor Paul Newman to visit, hoping to get the American cast to play the film. Fellini still chose to give up, and did not want to go to court again, he promised Laurentis that he would cooperate with him on several films in the future as compensation.
In the years that followed, Fellini still wanted to bring Mastona to the screen, but never turned it on.
Bresson's Genesis
YY poster for Genesis
In 1963, Italian filmmaker Dino de Laurentis was brewing a fifteen-hour film of biblical psalms and summoning a bunch of European film masters to make it. The first of these, Genesis, directed by French director Robert Bresson, covers Creating Heaven and Earth, Tower of Babel, The Fall of Man, Cain and Abel, and The Great Flood. Everyone thought that Bresson would shoot the pomp and circumstance of Noah's Ark (crowded animal pens), and Bresson told Laurentius: "The audience will only see their footprints on the beach". It is said that there are really only footprints in the film wool, and there is no picture of animals, so Bresson is fired by Laurentis.
Bresson
Without a line of movie masters, Laurentis hired John Houston to direct, an all-American team that was later renamed The Bible: Genesis. Taken from the first 22 chapters of the Old Testament-Genesis, the lines and narration are faithful to the original text. The three-hour film tells the stories of God's creation, Adam and Eve, Cain Abel, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham. The Bible: Genesis topped the U.S. box office for several consecutive months in 1966.
Although Bresson left the crew, he was still brewing his own Genesis, and it is said that he wrote the script in 1952, before Dino de Laurentis approached him, and spent the rest of his life revising it. The "theme of the loss of innocence" is the main theme of many of Bresson's films. "The beauty of Genesis is that God named things and animals." Bresson says the idea is also applied to the Diary of a Country Priest and the Judgment of Joan of Arc.
Until the mid-1980s, after bresson's last film, Money, was released, he was ready to bring Genesis to the screen. At one point, it seemed that it would start filming earlier than "Money", but unfortunately it could not be brought to the screen until death.