Customer Reviews

The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made (Fully Revised and Updated Edition)

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Well, Hughes has done it again. He has written a book that appeals to students of science fiction (of all types, not just films), movies, history, economics, you name it - and has made it completely entertaining and utterly un-putdownable at the same time. Fans of his earlier book on David Lynch will appreciate the chapter on Lynch's two "lost" movies, Ronnie Rocket and One Saliva Bubble.
Also, even though this book is only a couple of years old, it is interesting to see what has happened with some of these projects. For instance, Spider Man and Terminator 3 have already been released, Thunderbirds and Alien vs Predator are being filmed right now (Jan 2004), and apparently I Am Legend and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy are being cast and actually being made (for sure this time!). I think this proves how fascinating this book is - with any other writing the fact that you are reading about Terminator 3 as a "dead" or "possible future" product would ruin the reading experience. With this book, though, it is still just as fascinating to see why the projects took so long to come to fruition.
So if you have any interest in films, art history, behind the scenes Hollywood gossip, or just a fascinating read, pick up this book NOW. Then go on to read his David Lynch bio, and everything else this man has written. I GUARANTEE you won't be disappointed.

This isn't a bad book, but it's namesake _The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made_ does a far better job at similar material. There is almost no overlap between the two books, despite the fact that the former book does cover a good deal of science fiction.

Where I think this book fails most is its approach. It's spends a lot of time dealing with production notes on the movies that were made instead (for example, Alien3), instead of the movie that wasn't made (Aliens vs. Predator). Furthermore, it never gets to the key issue -- why would this particular unmade movie have been great?

So, I'd recommend this book only as a follow-on if you've already read the "original".

A must for all Sci-Fi and film fans (like myself!). I'd always wondered why some of the greatest Sci-Fi stories had never made it to the silver screen and why the one that had were often very disappointing; after reading this book, I now know why!!!

Not only due to you get all the facts and figure regarding the featured "never made" movies, this book lets inside the hearts and mind of the people that tried their hardest to make these movies happen and the studio management idiots that stopped them!

Like movies? Like Sci-Fi books? Want to know why your favourite stories never made it to celluloid? Read this book and find out!

Well, 12 out of the 19 movies covered have since been made! The book still allows an interesting, and in some cases facinating, peek behind the curtain to learn how these films were developed. The chapter on Star Trek sequels feels a bit out of place as it ventures way beyond the one version that could have been and explores in great detail how all the other TEN films got greenlit. Also a lot of the information in the book stems from other books and magazines. But it's still a good compilation and a worthy read for all who are interested in how Hollywood works.

First, I should say this book does a good job of tracing the torturous path to production these films followed. Hughes has a very pleasant style and the book never turns into a hatchet job against the producers, actors or directors named.

However, this book is not essential or even that necessary. While it is hardly Hughes' fault that many of the movies or properties covered in this book have been filmed in the last few years (even if not in the forms he covered in his book), he does have a problem making the material interesting. For every tidbit about the Star Trek cast intriguing against producers or the ridiculous problems besetting Island of Dr. Moreau, there are twenty vague quotes from producers about why they asked for a new draft or a synopsis of minor changes from draft to draft.

And though it is commendable that Hughes tries to avoid playing favorites, he rarely makes any judgements or states his opinion. Most of the time, he is fine with just setting down the quotes and differing opinions of different parties without sifting through them or analyzing them. Many times, the book degenerates into a case of "he said/ she said". Given Hughes' experience with the industry, shouldn't he be able to offer some sort of opinion?

And the closer to the present that Hughes gets, the more he and his sources pull punches, playing coy about the identities of misbehaving screenwriters and producers. I understand that the parties involved want to protect their careers, but then why write this book? At points, the book has all the bite of a movie magazine puff piece. For the comic book properties especially, comic book websites and magazines (including Wizard) have frequently covered the territory in more depth and in more interesting ways.

H.R. Giger's foreword, which discusses the difficulties collaborating with film-makers a continent away and his disappointment with the way his designs are handled, presents a better idea of the compromises and problems of the creative process and the ways it personally effects the parties involved than most of the book. And he does it without any cattiness or bile.

So, if you really want to know more about the specific movies covered in this book, you might enjoy it. But the book is nowhere as definitive or exciting as it pretends to be.

As a longtime film fan, one of the things that has always intrigued me is the uncompleted film project, the idea that for some reason stalls out and never makes it to fruition. This fascination is what made David Hughes's book such an interesting read for me. Using a mixture of firsthand interviews and exploitation of fan and film literature he chronicles numerous projects, drafts, and proposals for science fiction movies. While many of the projects he chronicles never saw the silver screen, he also describes some of the abandoned drafts and visions for some of the most enduring franchises of the genre, such as the Star Trek and "Alien" series.

Some of his chapters will be heart-breaking for fans of the novels and franchises that underwent the process, yet reading the book offers insight into the convoluted process of film making. Reading it can often be saddening, as Hughes often succeeds in firing the imagination with description of unrealized projects that could have been breathtaking. Though true fans of these various franchises may be familiar with many of details Hughes describes, the book serves as a good overall account of Hollywood's often awkward relationship with the genre and a nice gift for the sci-fi film fan in your life.

I can't remember who said it, but I believe there is a saying that the saddest words in the English language are "What might have been...." If the saying is accurate, then there are few books sadder than David Hughes's The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made.

Actually, the title is a bit of a misnomer; it may have been appropriate back in 2001 when the book was first published, but the 2008 edition acknowledges that some of these movies have been made, including Supernova, Thunderbirds, Fantastic Four and the Island of Dr. Moreau, or are pending release, such as Watchmen. Even in the case of these movies, Hughes does show how early incarnations of the movie were quite different from the finished product, whether for better or worse.

Each of the 21 chapters deal with a different movie. Many were based off of novels or comics, or occasionally old versions of either other movies (such as I Am Legend, also a book) or TV shows (Thunderbirds or the Six Million Dollar Man). Whatever the origins, however, the basic story is the same. A property is recognized as being a potential moneymaker, but certain snags always get in the way: the story is unfilmable at a realistic budget or because it doesn't translate well from page to film (such as Dune or Childhood's End); studio heads propose changes that completely contradict what made the story good to begin with; the legal waters get muddied by conflicting claims as to who owns the movie-making rights; or egos clash.

Even with the ten movies that still retain "never made" status--The Stars My Destination, Childhood's End, Night Skies, The Tourist, Ronnie Rocket, One Saliva Bubble, The Silver Surfer, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Outer Limits and John Carter of Mars--there remains hope for many of them, even John Carter, which has been in and out of development for over 70 years (it could have preceded Snow White as the first animated feature film).

The biggest lesson that this book seems to impart is how difficult it can be to make a movie, even before the shooting starts: often the planets have to be aligned just right. It almost seems like it's more surprising that some movies ever get made than that others don't. If you're a fan of science fiction movies, this well-written book will give you a glimpse at some movies that you will never truly see.

It's a miracle that a good movie gets made. Having seen the machinery at work while at Dino De Laurentiis Productions, I can attest to the fact that when it comes to a movie whatever can go wrong will go wrong and that's BEFORE a single frame has been shot.

Author David Hughes has updated his book so we have the ongoing saga about why good films often don't result from good novels, comic books and original screenplays. Hughes covers the difficult birth of "Spider-Man" a project tied up in legal limbo for over a decade. He also brings to light the long ongoing saga of both Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End which the late writer-producer Phil DeGuere tried to mount for TV as a mini-series only to see cut down several times and how Alfred Bester's classic science fiction novel The Stars My Destination was derailed before it ever had a chance to have a final screenplay written. We also learn about projects that eventually did get produced but after a birth so difficult that the creative team should have been given an epideral to deal with the pain.

The movie business is crazy precisely because just when you think you've learned the rules, you learn there are no rules except that until the film is finally released it might not happen. It's a bizarre world where movie executives and "suits" often have no clue as to the history of a project (or even the history of film as an art and commerical form--when an executive wonders aloud who Alfred Hitchcock was or has never heard of "Citizen Kane" but has the clout to green light a project you know you've entered Porky's Wackyland)or even the history of the world (one executive suggested that the Mayan civilization somehow be featured in a "Star Trek" pitch by noted writer Harlan Ellison that was set before the Dawn of Man. The executive thought it would be cool because he had just read Erik Von Dankien's Chariots of the Gods not thinking about the fact that there were no Mayans nor any other humans for most of Earth's history)and yet influence the making of movies.

As I said it's a miracle when a good film is made because quite simply Hollywood will do absolutely everything it can to screw it up before you and I see it.

Highly recommended.

After reading Chris Gore's disappointing and disheveled The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made (see CdC #10), I had nothing but high hopes that David Hughes would be able to overcome the hurdles which tripped up Gore's earlier work, especially by limiting his scope to one genre rather than all of cinema. Alas, while Hughes's work is head and shoulders above Gore's, it remains lacking.

Fans of Cashiers du Cinemart's articles such as "The Metamorphoses of ALIEN III" (CdC #12), or "They Tried and Failed" (CdC #13), might be tempted to pick up a copy of Hughes's book as he covers similar ground in two of his nineteen chapters. Too often, however, I found myself consternated by Hughes's muddled writing. Additionally, the more I read, the more I doubted the validity of Hughes's research.

Several devilish details stuck in my craw and wouldn't let me appreciate Hughes's work. In the first chapter Hughes states that the protagonist of Richard Stark's novels is Walker, not Parker, mixing up the Stark novels with the Boorman film, POINT BLANK. An innocent mistake, yes, but an easily avoidable one. Meanwhile, I'm no expert at science fiction but even I know that the title for the unproduced WATCH THE SKIES is a nod to Howard Howard Hawks's THE THING rather than Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Oddly, several of the films that Hughes covers have been made, albeit not in their original form. Perhaps the originals may have ranked among the "greatest" sci-fi films never made, I remain unconvinced. Too often Hughes merely reports on the back story to the production of films such as ALIEN III, ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, SUPERNOVA, et cetera rather than demonstrating how great their initial incarnations might have been.

Here's hoping that the next project someone does about unmade movies will either focus on truly great works or that they'll rethink their title!

I picked up "The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made" because I wanted to see what kind of potential science-fiction epics had been shot down in favor of some of the dreck that ended up in theaters. However, the book's title is somewhat misleading because many of the films actually got made, albeit in a much different form than originally conceived. That shouldn't dissuade you from buying this fun and informative book about the filmmaking process, though.

Sure, some of the "greatest" sci-fi movies have yet to be realized, such as adaptations of classic works by Arthur C. Clarke ("Childhood's End") or Alfred Bester ("The Stars My Destination"). But iconic parts of these and other stories have been cherry-picked for various popular summer releases, which makes me wonder if their *actual* adaptations would be labeled as rip-offs! However, the majority of the stories presented here concern actual movies that went through drastic changes from conception to realization - for better or worse, as it turns out.

Indeed, I found the insights into the cinematic creative process more intriguing than the stories about unmade movies. One outstanding example here is the classic series "Dune" by Frank Herbert. Unlike a number of folks, I enjoyed the 1984 theatrical flick directed by David Lynch (but I was less enthused about the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel mini-series). "Dune" went through a number of iterations before either of these releases, defeating many writers (including Mr. Herbert himself) and producers, and rumors still persist of yet another remake.

A minor issue - this edition of "The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made" is a bit outdated, as it discusses the "Watchmen" movie "due in cinemas in 2009" (pg. 159) and the first draft of the "John Carter of Mars" screenplay (the film comes out this year). But that's true of any book of this nature, so it's still a fine addition to the sci-fi movie fan's library.