Hollywood loves a crossover, and so do I. From Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man to King Kong vs. Godzilla, Freddy vs. Jason, and Alien vs. Predator, audiences have been watching characters from completely different franchises collide on the big screen for decades. But for every crossover that actually made it into theaters, there are plenty that never made it past the development stage.
Some of these movies had scripts and filmmakers attached. Others were pitches that made it surprisingly far before studios pulled the plug. And some are so completely bizarre that it’s hard to believe anyone in Hollywood actually considered making them.
What if Chucky had gone up against the kid from Problem Child? What if Jay and Silent Bob had opened the Lament Configuration? What if Michael Myers had faced Pinhead? These aren’t fan-made movie concepts. They were real crossover ideas that were, at various points, discussed or developed by the people who could have actually made them happen. These projects did exist at very different stages of development, though. Some had scripts and filmmakers attached, while others were treatments or pitches that never got that far.
Here are 11 crazy movie crossovers that almost happened… and, in most cases, I wish they had.
Junior from Problem Child and Chucky from Child’s Play could have shared the screen decades ago. Problem Child writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski recently revealed that they actually pitched Universal on a crossover between the two franchises in the 1990s. The idea was to bring Junior face-to-face with the murderous Good Guy doll, but Universal passed on it.
The concept was envisioned as an Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein-style horror comedy, which makes the pairing pretty obvious: Junior is a pint-sized agent of chaos, while Chucky is a pint-sized serial killer. Both franchises were also Universal properties, making this one of those bizarre crossover ideas that really could have happened. Instead, Problem Child vs. Chucky remained a pitch, and the world was denied what could have been one seriously weird comedy. Meanwhile, Child’s Play franchise creator Don Mancini has let it be known that the crossover he wants to see is Chucky vs. Freddy.
After Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dimension Films chairman Bob Weinstein wanted Kevin Smith to turn Jay and Silent Bob into an Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein-style comedy duo who crossed paths with the studio’s various horror properties. Dimension had Hellraiser, Halloween, and Children of the Corn, and Weinstein suggested a movie where Jay and Bob met those modern-day monsters. Smith said they “mulled over” Jay and Silent Bob Meet Michael Myers for about five minutes, but his favorite idea was Jay and Silent Bob Meet Pinhead.
Smith imagined Jay and Bob finding the Lament Configuration and discovering that their version of Hell involved being sent to rehab. He thought the idea was funny, but ultimately couldn’t “get his head around” making the movie. Dimension, however, seemed genuinely interested enough for Smith to consider how it might work. When he told his friend Ben Affleck about the idea, Affleck initially laughed before thinking about it and predicting, “That movie would make $100 million.” Instead, the most we ever got was a Jay and Silent Bob cameo in Scream 3.
Following the success of Freddy vs. Jason, Dimension Films looked to its own horror library and came up with another unlikely matchup: Michael Myers vs. Pinhead. The proposed Halloween/Hellraiser crossover was reportedly called Helloween, and Pinhead actor Doug Bradley confirmed in 2003 that Dimension was planning the movie, while filmmakers were brought in to pitch it.
Things got especially interesting when Dimension approached Clive Barker and John Carpenter about working on the film. Barker agreed to write it if Carpenter would direct, while Carpenter agreed to direct if Barker would write. For a brief moment, the prospect of having the creators of Hellraiser and Halloween team up on a Michael Myers vs. Pinhead movie was very real. Unfortunately, Helloween eventually stalled. Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad strongly opposed Michael Myers appearing in another horror franchise, and the Weinsteins reportedly eventually lost interest as well. Barker later complained that the studio treated Myers too preciously, like Hamlet. Considering who was involved, this is one crossover that could have been something truly special.
Sony actually got surprisingly far with a 21 Jump Street/Men in Black crossover. Known as MIB 23, the movie had a script that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller described as “very funny and very crazy,” with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s characters getting caught up in the world of the Men in Black while on a medical school adventure and eventually teaming up to stop an alien takeover.
Lord and Miller even revealed one of the script’s strangest ideas: the black suits would work like martial arts belts, meaning Hill and Tatum would initially be stuck wearing powder-blue Men in Black suits. James Bobin was attached to direct, and the project came close to happening before Sony ultimately gave up. Producer Walter Parkes admitted in 2019 that it was an “impossible match-up.” Considering the 21 Jump Street movies’ comedic style, though, MIB 23 sounds like exactly the kind of ridiculous idea that might have worked.
After making Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, director Tom McLoughlin pitched Paramount executive Frank Mancuso Jr. on an unusual idea for the next sequel: Cheech & Chong Meet Jason. Since Paramount was behind both franchises, the crossover was actually possible, with McLoughlin imagining Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong as camp counselors (or possibly just two forest-dwelling stoners) who secretly ran a weed farm in the woods while encountering Jason Voorhees.
McLoughlin admitted the idea was “half-kidding and half-serious,” but he and Mancuso quickly realized the problem: a Cheech & Chong movie would probably be more comedy than horror, potentially angering Friday the 13th fans. Paramount instead moved forward with Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, leaving this wonderfully strange crossover behind. And so, what could have been one of the best movies of the 1980s was just tossed aside. Having Cheech and Chong as camp counselors in a Friday the 13th movie would have been amazing.
Before King Kong vs. Godzilla, Willis O’Brien, the stop-motion effects artist who brought the original Kong to life, tried to get another Kong monster mash made. His idea was King Kong vs. Frankenstein, later called King Kong vs. The Ginko, which would have pitted Kong against a Frankenstein-created creature made from animal body parts. O’Brien envisioned the monsters eventually battling through San Francisco and onto the Golden Gate Bridge.
Producer John Beck took O’Brien’s concept and developed it into a screenplay called King Kong vs. Prometheus, but couldn’t find a studio willing to finance it. Then he approached Japan’s Toho Studios, which was looking for a major movie to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Toho liked the idea of bringing Kong back, but wanted to put him against their own giant monster instead. O’Brien’s Frankenstein concept was discarded, and the project ultimately became 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla.
Godzilla and Gamera are two of Japan’s most famous giant monsters, but they belong to different companies. Godzilla is owned by Toho, while Gamera originated with Daiei, which was later acquired by Kadokawa. That hasn’t stopped people on both sides from trying to bring the two titans together. During production of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe in 1995, Daiei executive producer Yasuyoshi Tokuma expressed interest in a Godzilla/Gamera crossover and approached Toho about the possibility. The idea didn’t come together, but it resurfaced after Kadokawa acquired Daiei’s properties. In 2002, Kadokawa president Kazuo Kuroi announced plans for a Godzilla vs. Gamera movie and again approached Toho, only for Toho to turn the proposal down.
So this wasn’t just a case of fans wondering what would happen if the two monsters fought. The companies that controlled Godzilla and Gamera actually discussed making it happen more than once. Even Shusuke Kaneko, director of the Heisei Gamera trilogy, has called a Godzilla/Gamera movie his dream project. Unfortunately, the rights holders never managed to agree on a deal, leaving one of Japan’s most obvious monster mashups permanently stuck in development hell.
Godzilla has fought just about every giant monster imaginable (aside from Gamera), but one of the strangest opponents ever seriously considered for the King of the Monsters was Batman. Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa, who had written several Godzilla movies, was looking to replicate the international success of King Kong vs. Godzilla when he came up with the idea of putting Godzilla up against one of America’s most popular superheroes. He submitted a treatment to Toho in November 1965, just two months before the Batman TV series starring Adam West premiered.
Sekizawa’s story featured a villain using high-tech devices to control both the weather and Godzilla, forcing Batman, Robin, and Batgirl to battle the monster with an arsenal of gadgets and vehicles, including the Batmobile. The treatment never developed beyond that stage, but a few years later there was another attempt. In 1968, Batman producer William Dozier considered a movie called Batman Meets Godzilla, which would send Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara to Tokyo, where Godzilla’s arrival would force Batman and Robin to travel to Japan. Another treatment was written, but that project also went nowhere. What’s fascinating is that both sides apparently had their own Godzilla/Batman movie in mind, although it’s unclear whether Toho and Dozier were ever actually in contact about the two concepts. Either way, the Dark Knight came surprisingly close to facing Godzilla on the big screen… twice.
After the success of Freddy vs. Jason in 2003, Hollywood started looking for more horror icons that could be thrown together for another crossover. One of the strangest ideas was Leprechaun vs. Candyman, which actually made it far enough for a rough draft of the screenplay to be written and presented to Tony Todd. Todd, who played the titular Candyman, immediately rejected the idea. Todd had enormous respect for the Candyman character and felt that putting Candyman into a comedy-horror crossover with the Leprechaun franchise would undermine what made the character special.
The two series did have one important thing in common: Lionsgate was involved with both, meaning the studio didn’t have the same kind of rights problem that killed many other crossover ideas. But Todd wasn’t convinced that was a good enough reason to make the movie. It’s easy to imagine how the tonal clash could have been a problem. Warwick Davis’s Leprechaun tended to be very comedic, while Todd’s Candyman was conceived as a more tragic and genuinely frightening figure.
It sounds like the kind of crossover someone would invent as a joke, but Rocky Balboa and Daniel LaRusso almost shared a movie universe. A Rocky/Karate Kid crossover was reportedly being developed as recently as 2012, with John G. Avildsen, the director of the original Rocky and Karate Kid movies, approached to direct. The story wouldn’t actually have centered on Rocky and Daniel, though. Instead, it would have followed Rocky’s son, Rocky Balboa Jr., and Daniel’s daughter, who meet and open a dojo together before discovering that their fathers are long-lost relatives.
The odd family connection wasn’t the only problem. The concept reportedly had little interest from Sylvester Stallone and Ralph Macchio, and without the two iconic characters at the center of the story, there wasn’t much reason for audiences to get excited about the crossover. The project ultimately went nowhere, and that’s probably for the best. Instead of forcing Rocky and Daniel into the same family tree, both franchises went on to successful new chapters with Creed and Cobra Kai.
I saved this one for last because the fact that this movie didn’t happen is the greatest cinematic disappointment of my life. After the box office success of Freddy vs. Jason in 2003, New Line Cinema began working on a sequel that would have added chainsaw-wielding hero Ash Williams (played by Bruce Campbell) of the Evil Dead franchise to the battle between Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. New Line was working with Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi to bring Ash into the franchise, and there was even a treatment for the movie.
According to Bloody Disgusting, the project had a verbal agreement in place and was expected to be officially announced at the end of October 2004. Then The Grudge, produced by Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, opened to big box office numbers of its own. Raimi subsequently announced that he would produce a reboot of The Evil Dead, reportedly backing away from the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash deal in the process. With Raimi no longer moving forward with the crossover and instead looking forward to a reboot that would take nine years to be made and released, the movie was dead. The fact that a complete treatment exists gives us a pretty good idea of what we missed. Freddy, Jason, and Ash really could have been the next great horror crossover after Freddy vs. Jason. Instead, fans eventually got a comic book in 2007, which adapted the concept into a six-issue series. It’s one of those rare unmade movies where we can actually read the story that almost made it to the screen. Still, even twenty years later, I remain heartbroken that I didn’t get to see Bruce Campbell share the screen with Freddy and Jason.