Movies you're surprised were never made.

[RCMerchant]

I'm surprised that there isn't a whole series of films based on Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
Given the right director-or directors- that would be fantastic. IF they can manage to do it right. I've yet to see a half-way good Lovecraft film adaption. (I really don't count the Herbert West films...they have about as much in common with Lovecraft as FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER has to do with Shelly.)

The HPLHS have done The Call Of Cthulhu and Whisperers In The Dark that I thought were decent. I'd love to see Del Toro finally get At The Mountains Of Madness off the ground, but am resigned to it not happening.

I never heard of either of those. I may have to look them up!

As far as Del Toro... I don't think iv'e ever seen a movie by him.  I'm aware of who he is and what he's done, but I just ain't interested in seeing any of his movies.

EDIT:
Oh yeah- I seen Blade 2.

[Alex]

The Call was done as if it had been made in the 1920's so its silent and they use the sort of special effects you'd have seen back then. Whisperer In Darkness is more akin to a modern made film, but still in black and white. I picked them up on iTunes, but I'd imagine they'd also be available on the HPLHS website.

I almost sort of wish this had been made. No idea how familiar people in the USA are with the old Carry On... movies.

[The Burgomaster]

The story of a roguish vagabond and his adventures and misadventures in the Caribbean, Europe, South America, etc. during the 1st 2 decades of the 20th century. Based upon a series of Italian comic books.

Corto Maltese

While there was an animated TV series on French TV in 2002, there never has been a live action film.

However, I own the board game.

[316zombie]

thank you gentlemen , i knew he was familiar.
  ronny, you DEFINITELY would like the call and whisperers, we have them on dvd, they come off the shelf frequently.
 

[BoyScoutKevin]

What do these 5 films have in common?

Made, but by a different studio, with a varying degree of success.
Peter Rabbit
The Swan Princess
Tin Tin

Apparently this idea dates from the '50's and was suppose to star the original Mouseketeers.
Rainbow Road to Oz

And this ought to give it all away. In the mode of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, almost a century of characters from animated films, all appearing in the same film.
It Was All Started by a Mouse.

We don't know why those films were never made. We do know these films were never made because of a lack of financing.

2 American reporters + Prince Charles + a woman painted all in blue and frozen in time + an abandoned tube station + the British museum = Return of the White Worm
and
William Tell with Errol Flynn in the title role.

While the former never got past the script stage, the later had some footage shot, in color, ere the money ran out. Not I, but those who have seen the footage say it is unfortunate that the film was never finished, as it was shaping up to be one of the best films Flynn ever did, since his appearance in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

While lack of money is the main reason films are never made, there are a number of other reasons, including . . .
Coming up with a suitable script
Conflicts with the studio
Creative differences among the filmmakers
Failure to find . . .
--a distributor
--the right actor
--the right director
Lawsuits that prevent a film from being finished or released.
The original film dies at the box office, which puts the kibosh on the idea of doing a sequel.
And many other reasons.

[WingedSerpent]

Given we've had recent threads on movies never made, sympathetic villains, an d sexy monsters, it got me thinking.  There really aren't any stories about Medusa from her perspective.  If you know her origin (she wasn't born a gorgan) you know she's primed for a story in the vain of Wicked or Maleficient or such.




She's been in movies, and shows for certain, but usually as a villain.  The only one I can think of that has her in a more sympathetic position is an episode of Tales from the Darkside that had her revived in modern day and she falls in love with a blind man.

[RCMerchant]

The comic book guy Plastic Man. 

[Svengoolie 3]

I think we have to get a ren and stumpy movie, followed by a spin off of "POWDERED......TOAST....MMMAAAAANNNNNN!!!!

[Chainsawmidget]

The comic book guy Plastic Man. 

At one point there was plans to do that with Bruce Campbell as Plastic man.  I would have loved that.

[FatFreddysCat]

The long-running action paperback series "Mack Bolan, The Executioner" has been optioned for film countless times since the 1970s. I have seen old copies of the books from back in the day with banners on the front covers saying "Soon to be a major motion picture," but nothing has ever come of it.

Pretty much every action-hero type of the last 40 years (Steve McQueen, Sly, Arnold, Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel, etc.) has supposedly been involved with it at some point. Last I heard was three or four years ago, when Bradley Cooper of "The Hangover" was attached but he's since moved on.

After all this time I doubt a Mack Bolan film is ever going to happen. The books used to be published monthly, but due to falling sales they've been pared down to four new installments a year, and they're not even available in paperback anymore, just e-book/digital format (yuk!).

Besides, even if they did make a movie, audiences would likely dismiss it as a ripoff of Marvel's "The Punisher" (even though the Mack Bolan character pre-dates the Punisher by several years)...

[Svengoolie 3]

Yeah the punisher was a ripoff of the executioner, marvel's lucky pendelton didn't sue.

Then again they made a remo williams movie and look what happened to that.

[FatFreddysCat]

Yeah the punisher was a ripoff of the executioner, marvel's lucky pendelton didn't sue.

Then again they made a remo williams movie and look what happened to that.

Legend has it that Marvel originally wanted to do a Mack Bolan comic series, but they couldn't reach a deal with Mack's publisher (which I believe was Pinnacle Books)... so they basically went "Fine, screw you guys then" and "created" the Punisher, who was basically Mack Bolan with a super hero costume on.

[Chainsawmidget]

You're close on the details but not quite. 

"I was fascinated by the Don Pendleton Executioner character, which was fairly popular at the time, and I wanted to do something that was inspired by that, although not to my mind a copy of it. And while I was doing the Jackal storyline, the opportunity came for a character who would be used by the Jackal to make Spider-Man's life miserable. The Punisher seemed to fit." -- Gerry Conway creator of the Punisher.

However he didn't come up with the characters name or look on his own.  The name came from Stan Lee.  Gerry wanted to call him The Assassin, but Stan nixed that.  The idea was that Punisher would eventually become a hero and they couldn't have a hero called "The Assassin." 

John Romita Sr. is responsible for the Punisher's look as we know it.  Gery had drawn Punisher with a small badge-like skull.  Romita blew the symbol up to take over the whole chest. 

[Svengoolie 3]

For a brief time the punisher became a replacement for captain america.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/articles/7-heroes-who-wore-the-captain-america-costume/1100-149261/

[ER]

Stanley Kubrick was obsessed with making an epic about Napoleon Bonaparte, yet surprisingly never got around to it (before the Illuminati replaced him with a clone, then killed the clone).