It used to be rare that a completed film would be shelved. Sure, movies would sit on the shelf for years sometimes, but inevitably, they would receive some kind of release. The Weinstein brothers were infamous for shelving films when they ran Miramax, but even something like Prozac Nation, which sat on the shelf for four years, eventually came out. Up until a few years ago, the Jerry Lewis holocaust film The Day the Clown Cried was one of the only real examples of a finished film that was permanently put on the shelf, and in this case, it was by Lewis himself, who swore it would never see the light of day (you can see an unofficial, thirty minute reconstruction here).
Yet, in recent years, more films have been cancelled after they’ve already been shot. Two of the more infamous examples come from Warner Bros, courtesy of studio head David Zaslav, with Batgirl and Coyote vs Acme both cancelled in favour of massive tax write-downs. Yet, this is becoming more common, with Netflix recently axing the Halle Berry sci-fi flick The Mothership. Just this week, two completed films were shelved, with Pharell and Michel Gondry pulling the plug on their film Golden over at Universal, while Netflix shelved Ezra Edelman’s nine-hour Prince docuseries amid pressure from the late singer’s estate. And heck, we’re not even counting the many projects that have been pulled from streaming, such as Disney Plus’s Willow series, which initially ran as planned but have now become lost media (although they’re easily findable online if you know where to look). So, of the movies that have completely been axed, which one would you most like to see? Please take the poll below and let us know!
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What’s Not Allowed