Nothing Is Ever Really DEAD HERE

“There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.” Billy Crystal’s line from The Princess Bride refers to the hero’s plight, sure, but writer (and keen Hollywood chronicler) William Goldman must have had the industry’s development process in mind, too. After all, in a town where “yes” often means “no,” there are those who simply refuse to give up. Here, an incomplete list of films by influential filmmakers that were all mostly dead for at least 10 years — until they weren’t.

Schindler’s List

Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to Thomas Keneally’s book in 1982, but fearing he wasn’t yet mature enough to make it, tried to give it away to other filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese — until he finally made it in 1993.

Gangs of New York

Martin Scorsese first read Herbert Asbury’s 1928 book back in 1970. That same decade, a notice appeared in the trades indicating that he was headed into preproduction. But the film, which ultimately marked his first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, didn’t come out until 2002.

Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller and star Mel Gibson were in Australia in 2001 prepping what would be the fourth Mad Max film. Then came 9/11, causing the U.S. dollar to collapse compared to the Oz dollar, stalling their plans. By the time it was made in 2015, Gibson was too old (and too tainted) to star and Tom Hardy took the male lead alongside Charlize Theron.

↑ Ferrari

Michael Mann optioned the script from Troy Kennedy Martin in the early 1990s and developed it at Disney a few years before shelving it. Both Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman were at one time attached in the mid-2010s, before STX stepped in to fund most of the $95 million movie with Adam Driver starring. Screenwriter Martin did not live to see it; he died in 2009.

Horizon

Kevin Costner has been developing his four-part Western epic since 1988, and after leveraging 10 acres of his Santa Barbara residence and investing $20 million of his own money, two features have been shot (and blamed for delaying production on the final season of his other signature Western, Yellowstone) and are set for 2024. Two more are in the works.

Megalopolis

Francis Ford Coppola dreamed up the sci-fi-tinged project in the 1980s, and by 2001 had Russell Crowe, Robert De Niro, Nicolas Cage and Paul Newman for roles for a 2002 shoot. It wasn’t to be, with 9/11 sensitivities derailing the project about a man attempting to rebuild New York after a disaster. After 40 years in development, the filmmaker decided to pay for the $120 million film himself, using money from the 2019 sale of his Northern California wineries and casting Adam Driver in the lead.