Unreleased movies?

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Another one. Black Water Transit, from Tony Kaye (American History X), shot in 2007. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Karl Urban, Aisha Tyler, Beverly D'Angelo, Brittany Snow and Callahan from the Police Academy series. The producers most likely embezzled funds from their investors, then declared that the cut they had was unreleasable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Water_Transit

[Shit Good Nose]

I've always wanted to see the rumoured original cut of Smokey and the Bandit 3, titled Smokey IS the Bandit and very different from how it ended up (depending on who you ask, 50-75% completely reshot after test audiences got confused).  A petition to Universal was started some years ago in an attempt to get them to release it, but apparently the Gleason family has the only known copy and has always refused any request to view it.

Just to confuse matters even further, there is now some uncertainty about whether that version of the film even got past pre/early production.  An early teaser trailer featuring Gleason exists, as does a still of him in the Bandit's clothes. 


Another one I'm keen to see is Terrence Malick's comedy short Lanton Mills, in which he stars with Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton.  Until recently you had to be a registered academic or student in order to view it at the American Film Institute, but apparently it has had sporadic showings on some (legit) streaming sites.

[Famous Mortimer]

Another one. Black Water Transit, from Tony Kaye (American History X), shot in 2007. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Karl Urban, Aisha Tyler, Beverly D'Angelo, Brittany Snow and Callahan from the Police Academy series. The producers most likely embezzled funds from their investors, then declared that the cut they had was unreleasable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Water_Transit

That is one wild "post-production" section.

[mothman]

Tony Kaye hasn't had a lot of luck, has he? Probably a thread there, "Unlucky Directors." Him, Richard Stanley, Orson Welles...

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

As The King's Daughter, from 2014, is getting a US release today, I've heard of a few other qualifying titles.

The King's Daughter was shot in 2014 with Pierce Brosnan as Louis XIV and Fan Bingbing (it's a Chinese coproduction) as a mermaid. It was pulled by Paramount just three weeks before its 2015 release date, then was sold to different distributors twice, with Julie Andrews getting hired to provide narration a couple of years ago.

https://youtu.be/OdCNs2pkNLk

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/21/the-kings-daughter-pierce-brosnan-mermaid

Then, Queens of Country, some comedy featuring noted Southern actors Lizzy Caplan and Ron Livingston, with some thick accents. And Joe Lo Truglio in drag. Intended for a 2011 release.

https://youtu.be/axlJjd3Oqp4

Then, shot around the same time, some Chinese epic with a mostly Western cast that was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy.

https://youtu.be/b3dnwxUSK9k

The whole Wikipedia entry about the history of the production is one of the most insane things I've read in that department. The investor behind the project had to hire three different directors to get shooting completed, and he was still looking to get the CGI refined in 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empires_of_the_Deep

[Famous Mortimer]

Then, Queens of Country, some comedy featuring noted Southern actors Lizzy Caplan and Ron Livingston, with some thick accents. And Joe Lo Truglio in drag. Intended for a 2011 release.

https://youtu.be/axlJjd3Oqp4

Blimey! Caplan and Lo Truglio look like they were hired for a completely different movie, and turned up on the first day of filming to be all "it's a country and western movie now? We still getting paid? Cool". Also featuring Tool frontman, vegan hater and dodged-his-metoo-allegations Maynard James Keenan.

[Bad Ambassador]

Then, shot around the same time, some Chinese epic with a mostly Western cast that was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy.

https://youtu.be/b3dnwxUSK9k

The whole Wikipedia entry about the history of the production is one of the most insane things I've read in that department. The investor behind the project had to hire three different directors to get shooting completed, and he was still looking to get the CGI refined in 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empires_of_the_Deep

You know things are getting nuts when the director is smuggling actors out of the country.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

That Fantastic Four movie they made just to stop the rights reverting before the option expired...

What's the deal with that? Apparently it cost a million dollars, which is sod all for this sort of film, but it's not nothing either. Was there some contractual obligation for it to appear vaguely bona fide, instead of just spending a few thousand filming some am-dram types in blue leotards?

[greenman]

Unless you were at the Cannes screening from 2019, you haven't seen part two. The 3 hr film, Canto Uno, is only the first part.
The whole project is supposed to be an adaptation of a novel by the same writer the 2008 Palme d'Or winner The Class is based on (he also played the lead in the adaptation). Except that Kechiche let the scenes he shot play "organically", which means that none of the plot from the book has actually been featured so far in the films (after more than six and a half hours at this point), which are actually more of a loose autobiography for Kechiche. And the main character has mostly stayed in the background, even like some kind of a peeping Tom.

I have to acknowledge that I think that Kechiche capture the dynamics of people partying during summer quite right, with groups gaining and losing members, going from place to place without sticking to some clearly established plan. And the whole sequence about filming the birth of the lamb is a standout.
But the whole project reeks of self-complacency, and Kechiche has clearly developed some fixation on asses that exceed anything involving feet from Tarantino (there's some definite wink to the audience from Tarantino when he puts together such shots). The opening scene from Canto Uno fixates on the butt of the lead, which may arguably have something to do with the somewhat creepy passive interest the lead, her male friend (who peeps her having sex through the window), has for her. It then gets worse, as halfway through the movie, there's a scene where she changes clothes in her room at the family farm, and there's a good minute of the actress in her thongs seen from the back while she takes her time to put in a different pair of shorts. She's all alone, but the director still has the exact same gaze for the camera from the opening scene.

Blue Is the Warmest Colour suffered from some extremely heavy-handed didacticism about social classes, mostly conveyed through food. There's an insane amount of time spent dealing with pasta and mouths, as spaghetti with tomato sauce are repeatedly depicted as a social marker for the working class. And of course, the sex scenes were totally some male fantasy about lesbians, shot the way porn handles lesbian scenes for a straight male audience, as opposed to something Chantal Akerman, for instance, could have shot.

So, at this point in his career, Kechiche can fuck himself. Or go to hell. But he still has supporters. The reason I was reminded about Mektoub is that yesterday, there was a conversation on a French arthouse film message board, where people were still asking about the release of Intermezzo, and found it a tragedy that he hasn't been able so far to finish his magnum opus.

Honestly though I suspect a lot of the divide is between the films themselves and all the behind the scenes talk. I didnt really see too much wrong with Canto Uno personally, maybe a bit self obsessed and lacking in great depth but I felt he does film that kind of extended flirty conversation really well and it does look very nice with scenes like the lambing. I'd say film as a whole was obviously very sex heavy as well focusing mostly on young people looking each other up so I'm not sure you can say he was throwing in excessive shots of womens behinds(not exactly an abnormal representation of sex) equivalent to Tarantinos feet(although I think thats almost an in joke by this point). I would say as well in that film at least Ophelie Bau came off as a well enough rounded character with plenty of agency, I can think of a hell of a lot of films were women have been more objectified than that.

By far the worst allegation is I'd say the claimed sexual assault by an actress at his house, I don't think anything came of it in terms of charges and it doesnt seem to have brought forward anyone else but still getting an actress drunk at your house doesnt look good. Really it seems the feud with Seydoux wasnt actually that specifically about the sex scenes(although I spose that gained the most attention), it was more him being generally very controlling of her and demanding dozens of takes of scenes like the breakup even when he co star was hurt.

I admit I thought it was quite prescient(didnt see it for a couple of years) in terms of class politics pre the rise of genuinely left wing politics in the US/Uk/France shortly afterwards without really being that nasty. I do wonder whether that didnt drive some of the reaction to it as well, essentially subverting the typical plot of middle class liberal saves working class person from bigotry and instead having their elitism sink the relationship, I can see a lot of the media covering it viewed that as targeted at them. Equally though it does seem like he has a pretty big chip on his shoulder about Seydoux's background rather that taking on any criticism of his working methods.

It does seem to me that really the big issue in terms of his career stalling though is actually more finical, he's basically pushed well beyond the agreed budgets multiple times and fallen out with Wild Bunch who did most of the bankrolling as a result.

[George White]

What's the deal with that? Apparently it cost a million dollars, which is sod all for this sort of film, but it's not nothing either. Was there some contractual obligation for it to appear vaguely bona fide, instead of just spending a few thousand filming some am-dram types in blue leotards?

Basically, a million dollars was chump change compared to the value of the rights, so COnstantin Film got Corman to make it.
But Corman thought he had a potential break-out hit on his hands, that could at least have been a TV pilot.

[Angst in my Pants]

There's an interview with Richard O'Brien where he claims to have filmed a sequel to Rocky Horror Show, he mentions he has the reels of film in a drawer but he doesn't want to release it because the time isn't right, or somesuch guff.  I can't find any info about a completed film on the net, just comments about unfinished/barely started projects, so can only conclude he was bullshitting.  Some of the fans are pretty obsessed and there'd surely be more info out there if a completed film existed.

I guess you're not referring to the released Shock Treatment, but I suppose this could be referring to the failed project Revenge of the Old Queen?

That was written around 1990, but I don't believe any of it was filmed.

Pre-production started, and a demo tape of two songs was made, The Moon Drenched Shores of Transylvania and Never let your Daughter Date an Alien.

But then 20th Century Fox backed out after a change of staff, and so the project was eventually abandoned.

Perhaps RO'B was referring to having the screenplay or the demo tape in his drawer? Existence of the demo tape was confirmed by one of the backing singers (either Zalie Burrow or Kate O'Sullivan) at a Rocky Horror convention.

A bootleg copy of the screenplay is available online here, and of the first demo song here.

Apologies if you already knew all this, of course.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I guess you're not referring to the released Shock Treatment, but I suppose this could be referring to the failed project Revenge of the Old Queen?

No not Shock Treatment, I'd already seen that.  It was 1993/94. A friend had recorded an interview with Richard O'Brien off the tv and I borrowed the tape. Interview was recorded in his home and at one point he mentions that he filmed a sequel and says he has the film cans in a drawer but he won't release it because the time isn't right.  Of course it's possible I've probably totally garbled that memory.

Edit: I'm even thinking it might have been a magazine article not a tv interview.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Just noticed that Superman IV director Sidney J. Furie has had an amazingly long career, starting in 1957 (and along the way directing Cliff Richard in The Young Ones, Michael Caine in The Ipcress File and three of the four Iron Eagle movies) and he's still working now, with something called Finding Hannah completed but yet to be released. That said he also directed "Drive Me to Vegas and Mars" in 2018 and that's not been released either, which seems a little odd, but it's fascinating to see someone whose worked for so many decades.