The 55 Strangest, Greatest Films Never Made (Chosen by John Green)

The Lord of the Rings star­ring the Bea­t­les?

The Lit­tle Prince, adapt­ed by Orson Welles?

Bat­man vs. Dwight D. Eisen­how­er? 

These are movies I’d pay to see! The first two made Men­tal Floss’ list of 55 Unfor­tu­nate­ly Unfin­ished Films, a roll call of movies that got hung up in pro­duc­tion or pre-pro­duc­tion, nev­er mak­ing it to the screen. As far as Bat­man bat­tling the 34th pres­i­dent goes, that one’s mere wish­ful think­ing, deliv­ered as a typ­i­cal­ly off-the-cuff remark from list pre­sen­ter, author John Green.

Mov­ing at a speed that will be famil­iar to fans of his Crash Course series, Green races through a tempt­ing menu of triv­ia and mis­for­tune, obses­sion and obscu­ri­ty.

Super­heroes fig­ure promi­nent­ly, as do musi­cians. The Clash in Gangs of New YorkThe Sex Pis­tols in Who Killed Bam­bi? (The screen­play of which is avail­able online, cour­tesy of its author, Roger Ebert.)

Death turns out to be anoth­er big plug-puller here. The untime­ly if not entire­ly sur­pris­ing ear­ly exits of John Belushi, John Can­dy, and Chris Far­ley led to the “curse” of A Con­fed­er­a­cy of Dunces.

As for Don Quixote, both Ter­ry Gilliam and the afore­men­tioned Mr. Welles have tilt­ed at that wind­mill only to find out their dream was impos­si­ble, if not unfilmable.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Orson Welles Explains Why Igno­rance Was the Genius Behind Cit­i­zen Kane

Mar­tin Scors­ese Brings “Lost” Hitch­cock Film to Screen in Short Faux Doc­u­men­tary

Jean-Paul Sartre Writes a Script for John Huston’s Film on Freud (1958)

Ayun Hal­l­i­day would love to see John Green under­take a Crash Course Cin­e­ma series. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday


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