10 Best S/F Films That Never Existed

Jamie mentioned (via a Metafilter discussion) a great article entitled The 10 Best Sci-Fi Films that Never Existed. From the piece: "There was a movie that perfectly captured the Douglas Adams experience, the combination of bitter sarcasm and sharp imagination, the droll British wit and whale-exploding slapstick that infused his novels. And that movie was Shaun of the Dead. That movie was not, unfortunately, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a movie that floated around Hollywood for about 20 years before it finally appeared in theaters as a flat, lifeless, americanized lump that was mostly hated by people who liked the book and loathed by people who hated the book. "

Comments

A comment and a revision

[Y-Crate]

Alien 3 was further brutalized by the studio cut that utterly ripped the guts out of the film. If you haven't already, go and watch the Director's Cut on the Quadriology (you can often rent it by itself). The film is infinitely better, and actually works as a small, dark, claustrophobic piece. It's not what fans were promised, it's not what they were expecting, it's not what should have been filmed. But it works. That's tough to admit, but it's nice to find a silver lining to the nightmare that was the movie's production.

Which brings me to...Alien 5

Since in the minds of Alien fans, Alien Vs. Predator simply does not exist, Alien 5 was intended to be something along the lines of what Alien 3's teaser promised. Long story short: James Cameron and Ridley Scott went to the studio with the pitch, the studio told them they were going to do A vs P instead, Cameron told them if that movie was made, he would walk. You know the rest. The film is officially, 100% dead.

Re:Classics

[DerekLyons]

There are rare exceptions like 2001 but the script was by the writer of the novel and Directed by Kubrick of coarse.

Actually, that's not true at all. Kubrick wrote the script, and Clarke wrote the novel - in parallel. Clarke's writings make it quite clear that his contributions to the screenplay were minimal and that Kubrick's contributions to the novel were equally minimal, even though they extensively borrowed from each other..

Re:Oopsie.

[LordLucless]

Neuromancer began the whole shades-and-black cyberpunk style, which pervades The Matrix. Much of The Matrix owes debts to an anime film called Ghost in the Shell. They might be major influences, but The Matrix had many, many more. That's not a bad thing - it's probably what made the first movie good, and the rest terrible.

Jodorowsky's Dune???

[rleibman]

Where the hell did this guy leave This Movie? Dali, Jodorowsky, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Giger (pre-alien), Orson Wells.
This is the greatest S/F film never made.