Top 10 Movies That Were Never Released For Surprising Reasons

Before Tim Story and Josh Trank came along, an independent adaption of Marvel’s first superhero family was made. Unlike the aforementioned big-budget versions, at least this 1994 relic is entertainingly cheesy. We wouldn’t expect anything less from B-movie extraordinary Roger Corman, who served as an executive producer. Watching even a few seconds, though, you can see why its premiere was abruptly canceled. Stan Lee stated that the film was never meant to be released. It was hastily done on the cheap just so producer Bernd Eichinger could keep the rights. Corman and Eichinger claim otherwise, but a $1 million “Fantastic Four” movie was always doomed. While it was screened in May 1994 and eventually pirated, don’t expect the film to appear on Disney+ anytime soon.

Movies go unreleased for a variety of reasons, but “Dark Blood” is one of the most tragic cases. Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer had completed 80% of this thriller by October 1993. That same month, star River Phoenix died of combined drug intoxication. With several of Phoenix’s scenes unfinished, the film was put on hiatus before ultimately being canceled. Sluizer held onto the footage and almost two decades later, the film got something resembling closure. The director worked around the lead actor’s absence using narration, although Phoenix’s family refused to participate. While “Dark Blood” would make it to several film festivals, the closest it got to a general release was in Germany on DVD. Sluizer passed away in 2014, making this his last directorial effort.

Written by and starring John Malkovich, this Robert Rodriguez film may see the light of day. Most of us won’t be around to watch it, however. The title is to be taken quite literally. “100 Years” came to the public’s attention in 2015 with its release date announced for November 18, 2115. This was apparently one of several shorts that Rodriguez made for Louis XIII Cognac, which is aged for a century. The sci-fi film was locked away in a safe that will automatically open on the scheduled premiere date. Metal tickets have been sent to Rodriguez, Malkovich, and about 1,000 others, although they’ll likely need to pass them on to future generations. For now, “100 Years” has three teasers presenting three different futures.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 remains one of the century’s most curious mysteries. On March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777 took off at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, but failed to reach its destination in Beijing. Nobody knows what happened to the airplane, which disappeared along with the 239 souls aboard. Only a couple of months later, the Cannes Film Festival showcased a trailer for “The Vanishing Act: The Untold Story of the Missing Malaysian Plane.” The teaser was generally seen as insensitive towards the missing passengers and their families, especially since the film was grounded more in theories than facts. Regardless, director Rupesh Paul planned to release “The Vanishing Act” that August. Much like Flight 370, though, several years have passed and nothing has turned up.

A Chinese-US co-production, “Empires of the Deep” aspired to jumpstart a franchise on par with James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Judging from the trailer, it looked more like the next “Dungeons & Dragons” movie. Where most of the films on this list had low to modest budgets, this 3D fantasy adventure cost at least $130 million US. The production was plagued with problems, swapping out four directors and going through 40 drafts. Multiple actors quit mid-shooting while some weren’t compensated. A trailer was unveiled in 2012, featuring Olga Kurylenko as a Mermaid Queen, giant crabs, and effects akin to a Syfy original movie. Unsurprisingly, the film has yet to surface in theaters, but if it ever does, please use the working title: “Mermaid Island USA vs the Plesiosaurs.”

Louis C.K. served as this dramedy’s writer, director, editor, and star. After premiering at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, The Orchard picked up the distribution rights for $5 million with a November 2017 release planned. The studio saw the film as a potential awards contender with screeners going to multiple critics groups and Academy voters. As C.K. found himself embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal, though, The Orchard canceled the premiere. C.K. reportedly bought the distribution rights back while several co-stars, including Chloë Grace Moretz and Charlie Day, refused to promote the film. Speaking of the cast, this is another film starring poor John Malkovich that’s been banished to release limbo. Based on the reviews, audiences probably aren’t missing much anyway.

Between 1993’s “This Boy’s Life” and the 2013 adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” then-up-and-comers Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire starred in this independent drama. Also starring a young Kevin Connolly, “Don’s Plum” centers on a group of friends who meet up at a restaurant and… that’s about it. The dialogue was largely improvised with producer David Stutman saying that Maguire “revealed personal experiences or tendencies.” That might be part of the reason why Maguire and DiCaprio didn’t want the film released. The two stars felt led astray, claiming they signed on for a short rather than a feature. In time, a deal was worked out to show the film… just not in the U.S. or Canada. “Don’s Plum” can be found on YouTube, however.

Penelope Spheeris is known for such films as “Wayne’s World” and “The Little Rascals.” Before achieving mainstream success, she shot this student film starring Richard Pryor. As the story goes, Pryor destroyed the negative during an argument with his spouse, Shelley R. Bonus, who supposedly felt he cared more about the film than her. Spheeris attempted to patch the unfinished film up, which was supposedly screened for Bill Cosby. Since then, footage from “Uncle Tom’s Fairy Tales” popped up in a 2005 DGA retrospective of Pryor’s career, which resulted in a lawsuit from the comedian’s wife, Jennifer Lee. Even if the film had been released, its plot, which apparently involved Black Panthers kidnapping a rich white man, might’ve raised a few eyebrows.

Remember “Life Is Beautiful,” the film where Roberto Benigni’s character used humor to shield his son from the horrors of the Holocaust? Well, another comedian made a film with a similar premise almost 25 years earlier. In “The Day the Clown Cried,” Jerry Lewis played a clown who goes from the circus to a concentration camp. Joan O’Brien, who came up with the original story, called the rough cut a “disaster.” Lewis himself was so embarrassed by the film that he fought to hide it from the public eye. In 2015, two years before his death, Lewis did donate a negative to the Library of Congress, although he insisted that the unfinished film not be shown for almost a decade.