Unfinished Films

What Happened to Jesse L. Martin's Marvin Gaye Film? Might F. Gary Gray Be Working on One?


Credit to @James Slattery

 

Great documentary on Inferno too, especially if you think Romy Schneider was hot, which I most definitely do....

 

My favorite unfinished film in all three versions
(workprint preview, theatrical, and digital restoration)

 

By that standard you can claim Apocalypse Now is an unfinished film

 

No.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid never finished principle photography.
The budget was cut and the schedule shortened in midstream which
prevented the director from finishing what he had started. They
wrapped it up as best they could but important stuff was never shot.
A continuity was pulled together in the editing room. The studio had
other ideas and trimmed that.

Apocalypse Now completed principle photography. The two edits
are because the director tried different approaches. He had all the
scenes and all the footage he needed to work with.

 

I never heard that PG&BtK didn't finish shooting. If I'm wrong, my bad.

Technically then Cross of Iron and Hell Is For Heroes are both unfinished films, as funding was pulled on both before the climactic scenes were completed.

I really think that's different from what we're discussing.

 

The Deep (unfinished film) - Wikipedia

The Deep is an unfinished film directed by Orson Welles, based on Charles Williams' novel Dead Calm (1963), which was later adapted as an eponymous 1989 film. Welles produced and wrote The Deep, as well as played the role of Russ Brewer opposite Jeanne Moreau and Laurence Harvey.

Welles worked on the film from 1966 to 1969. The film is incomplete; several major scenes were never shot, and portions of the soundtrack remain unrecorded. The original negative has been lost, and the film exists in two work prints, one in black and white and the other in color (the way the film was intended to be shown).​

On the set:









Scenes from the film:

 

Jacqueline looked much better in the wet T shirt than Orson would have.

 

Claude Chabrol filmed Clouzot's screenplay in the 90s, though without the huge budget and psychedelic effects.

 

I don't understand you're reasoning, but there's no point in
debating the point.

 

boy that sure explains a lot - there are whole portions of that movie that really don't make a lot of sense. I thought it was intentional.

 

I wonder how many of Peckinpah’s films would be considered a complete vision of what Sam wanted? Maybe ALFREDO GARCIA? Edit: although I think I remember hearing there was more filmed in the graveyard scene than was shown.

 

Alejandro Jorodowsky's initial attempt to film Dune. I don't believe it ever even got lensed.

 

Creation (unfinished film) - Wikipedia

Creation is an unfinished feature film, and a project of stop motion animator Willis O'Brien. It was about modern men encountering dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on an island. The picture was scrapped by RKO studio head David O. Selznick on the grounds of expense, and Merian C. Cooper, the studio producer who recommended the film's cancellation, considered the storyline to be boring, due to lack of action. The completed footage ran 20 minutes in length, although approximately eleven minutes of footage is all that survives today. Cooper later used some of the miniatures and dinosaur armatures and O'Brien's stop-motion animation techniques for King Kong.​

 

Suprised Kubrick's Napoleon doesnt get a mention here? Or are we moving goalposts?

 

It never actually began shooting, correct?

Try here:

Films that never materialized?

 

Bubblegum Crisis (a 1980s anime original video animation). According to Wikipedia it was supposed to be thirteen episodes, but only eight were actually produced due to legal issues. From what I understand, by the time they were able to continue the series its animation style looked dated. Instead, they did a reboot series named Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 (26 episodes) which I thought was an improvement over the original (Linna, who seemed to be a fifth-wheel in the original series, was made the central character in the new series).

 

My favorite unfinished film to actually sit down and watch. Mario Bava's only crime/drama film, the movie went unedited with missing scenes (mainly a prologue) when the financers declared bankruptcy. It was resurrected with help from the lead actress some 24 years later, edited together according to Bava's notes, the missing prologue was filmed by Lamberto Bava (and sticks out like asore thumb) and released in 1998 when the Kalifornia/Tarantino vibe made it feel right at home. Lamberto later edited in more material and called it Kidnapped. The first version is a masterpiece, and in the land of Bava that is high praise.

 

Fantasia

The original concept for the movie was it would be revised each time it was released, so it was never supposed to be truly finished. When they released Fantasia 2000 they replaced all of the animated segments with the exception of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and also added new live-action host segments between the animated segments, replacing the originals with Deems Taylor.

I wonder if they will eventually release a Fantasia 2060...