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Development Hell
The state wherein an announced creative project becomes stuck at the preparation stage for years.
The term originates in the film industry, referring to films mired in pre-production without casting or production ever beginning. A common occurrence with book adaptations and other licensed materials, as legal squabbles over rights, Executive Meddling, budgetary problems, and differing artistic visions keep the project from going before the cameras. And even if it does make it to the shooting stage, a Troubled Production can easily derail it and throw it right back here.
Films stuck in Development Hell are called Vaporfilm. The Video Game equivalent of this trope is Vaporware.
Development Hell becomes a sort of self-reinforcing feedback loop over time — as one director gets fed up and quits, the project is assigned to a new director, who orders a new screenplay with a new vision, which results in producers demanding changes, wash, rinse, repeat etc. Projects in other media can sink into similar cesspits. Sometimes examples of this trope lead into cases of What Could Have Been or Trailer Delay.
The Shelf of Movie Languishment is a variation where a finished film gets stuck in release limbo.
Compare to Extremely Lengthy Creation, where a work did take a long time to come to fruition, but with no problems involved.
For those examples which finally became real, after years, or decades in some cases, look at Saved from Development Hell.
The Other Wiki has an entry about Development Hell, with a list of films that are either in Development Hell or once were.
Examples with their own page:
Other examples:
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Anime & Manga
- An anime adaptation of Tonari no 801-chan was originally supposed to be animated by Kyoto Animation, and even had a preliminary website up for it. Then something happened and it fell into limbo. The project was ultimately cancelled, though a 90-second animated OP was created by A-1 Pictures and bundled with Vol.4 of the web manga.
- After the third season of the Slayers anime (titled Slayers TRY) aired in 1997, a fourth season (Slayers AGAIN) was slated for the following year; unfortunately, Megumi Hayashibara's (the voice of the female lead) schedule was hectic, and since the entire staff and the other actors had no interest in doing the show without her, there was no direct fourth season...until 2008. There was an OVA, a movie, and some radio dramas that followed through the early 2000's. However, eleven years for a direct fourth season is an awfully long time...
- Lost Universe: Which had only one season, one fraught with Troubled Production; a second season was due to follow, but because of a financial pitfall occurring through animation studios at the time, it was held off in favor of more Slayers media, and may be still.
- A stall can be typical of all English manga distributors, especially for less common titles, but the Yaoi distributor Drama Queen seems to have either gone on a dragging hiatus since 2007, or is dead and no one can figure out where it's been buried, so to speak.
- Kingdom Hearts II: The manga adaptation is stalled in Japan, but Word has it they plan to go back to it after the manga of 358/2 Days finishes.) The U.S. release WAS stalled due to Tokyopop's losing the license to the series but has, as of 2013, been Saved from Development Hell.
- The U.S. release of Shonan Junai Gumi is similarly stalled.
- The Five Killers was supposed to be an original creation from writer/producer Eric Calderon as an animated TV series (12 episodes with a 1 hour finale) done by GONZO. A trailer is unfortunately all that came out due to GONZO's financial situation.
- An Appleseed television series titled "Appleseed: Genesis" was first announced in 2005 and languished in Development Hell until it was officially canceled in 2008, resulting in several lawsuits. A new (possibly a replacement or even a Retool) series titled "Appleseed XIII" was released in 2011 and dubbed into English in 2013.
- After Gundam SEED Destiny ended, it was announced that there would be a movie sequel which would be the Grand Finale for the Cosmic Era timeline. However, the film's head writer Chiaki Morosawa underwent a hysterectomy to treat her uterine fibroids and an ovarian cyst (according to her April 2008 interview with Animage magazine, in which she explained the delays behind the movie), so literally no progress has been made on the film since 2005.
- Despera's production is currently on hold due to the director Ryutaro Nakamura's health issues and his untimely death.
- We might have found out what happens after GaoGaiGar FINAL if not for the fact that Project Z ceased to be.
- After the release of its third movie, the credits listed the release of a third Tenchi Muyo! OAV series. Took about five years and a series that took place a year after it to do so. This is pretty normal for the franchise, because its creator, Masaki Kajishima, is essentially a free agent and always seeks to obtain funding without relinquishing the rights and the creative control, which is quite difficult.
- And let's not forget the fact that the English release of said 3rd OAV series' 2nd and 3rd volumes languished for a year due to the fact that Funimation screwed up on its contract.
- The Dream Machine the last film by Satoshi Kon was back on track for a short while but recently financial difficulty has put the film off indefinitely.
- The Code Geass Gaiden was first mentioned in the 2008 or 2009 time frame, though its official announcement wasn't until early-mid 2010. It was supposed to air in 2011. It finally came out in late 2012.
- The English version of Heroman falls into this category thanks in part to a lack of cooperation between Studio BONES and Disney. The deal with Crunchyroll to get it streamed to English speaking territories was rushed in at the last minute.
- Hunter × Hunter. Due to the writer, Yoshihiro Togashi, being extremely ill in real-lifenote , the manga goes on hiatus for long periods of time. The Chimera Ant arc took roughly seven years to complete because of this.
- The D.Gray-Man manga suffers a similar problem to Hunter × Hunter where its manga creator, Katsura Hoshino, was involved in a car accident in real-life which gravely injured her writing hand. To help endure the pain, the D.Gray-Man manga was later switched from weekly to monthy releases, but even then, she has a rough time turning the work in monthly.
- NANA has been in this since the summer of 2009, due to Ai Yazawa's serious illness and hospitalization. While she was released from the hospital in April 2010 and a special chapter/spin-off was made in 2013 for the 100th issue of Cookie magazine, as of December 2014 the main series is still on hold.
- Neppu Kairiku Bushi Road was first announced in 2003 and was to be released in 2005. Then various complications happened (e.g. the staff members all left). It was later announced to become a 3-hour special on New Years Eve of 2013. That's 10 YEARS it's been stuck.
- The first season of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, which aired in 2010, had a typical Gainax Ending plus Sequel Hook. Despite Studio Gainax releasing promotional images for season 2, it has been put on hold due to most of the show's staff leaving to form Studio Trigger.
- In July 2011, an anime adaptation of the light novel Savanna Game was announced, planned to air in 2012. There has been no word on it since. It has gotten to the point that some people believe there was never going to be an anime and that the announcement was just shameless advertising for the novel.
- While writing Orange, the author Takano Ichigo became extremely ill and had to paralize the publication of her work for more than a year. She's resumed publishing by now (even moved to another magazine from a different publisher), but she still has sequels, meaning the series doesn't get published monthy if the author couldn't make it to the deadline.
- An anime adaption of Kizumonogatari, the prequel to Bakemonogatari, was announced back in 2011 after the first installment's conclusion. Shortly afterward it was instead announced as a theatrical release delayed to March 2012. And then it was delayed again... And then again. The one time the movie did have a release date, it was rescinded the same day and never mentioned again. Since the announcement of Kizumonogatari, Studio SHAFT has released five more installments to the Monogatari series and over a dozen other projects with no sign of Kizu seeing the light of day.
- A sequel to Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 entitled Tokyo 2041 was announced almost a decade ago to be in the early stages of production, with ADV Films, the US distributor of Tokyo 2040, backing the project. ADV later said that they were waiting on the staff from the original series to become available before they could proceed. We haven't heard any updates since, and with the downfall of ADV Films, and the rights to Tokyo 2040 now belonging to FUNimation, it's safe to say the project is canceled.
- Monica, a French luxury automobile brand, created 22 prototypes, of which 8 went into production before work was stopped indefinitely. Read more here. It was a sign of What Could Have Been. Here's a photo◊.
- General Motors planned to turn Saturn into Opel of America, with more vehicles added to the product line, when the 2007-2009 global economic crisis struck. The name then disappeared as 2009 ended and 2010 started.
The Saturn division itself was first announced and a prototype shown in 1983. It was 1991 by the time you could actually buy one, and the original sedan's wraparound rear window had been stolen internally by Oldsmobile, leading observers to see the Saturn as the "copy". - Due in large part (but not entirely) to World War II, the VW Beetle design was finalized for production in 1938 but the first cars delivered to retail customers weren't until 1947.
- Fiat has been teasing the return of their Alfa Romeo brand to the United States since about 2003. Aside from a few 8C Competizione supercars being sold to American collectors, nothing has come of it. Now that Fiat owns Chrysler, though...
- The Oakland Athletics have been trying get a new home at least since the 1996 renovations to the Coliseum to bring the NFL's Raiders back turned one of the most picturesque stadiums into one of the ugliest. A plan to build a ballpark for them in San Jose has stalled since its announcement in 2009; as of 2013, a new plan to keep the team in Oakland's city limits with a waterfront ballpark near Jack London Square has emerged.
- The main reason the San Jose option stalled was that the A's gave the San Francisco Giants "territorial rights" to Santa Clara County back in 1992 when the Giants were thinking of moving there while their own ballpark plans were in limbo. The matter is currently the subject of a lawsuit between the city and MLB. The Giants eventually built their new park within San Francisco, while the 49ers (whose own new stadium plans had been in Development Hell for a long time) finally got their new stadium in Santa Clara.
- The dithering behind getting a new football stadium in Los Angeles makes their Bay Area counterparts look fast-tracked. The NFL's Rams and Raiders both moved out of L.A. in 1994, citing the lack of a modern stadium as a major factor. Various groups have been trying to get a plan approved ever since, with no plan so far garnering both the needed city council approval and necessary financial backing. Despite several deadline extensions from the NFL, this lack of a concrete plan caused the league to bypass them for an expansion team in 2000, awarding it to fellow ex-NFL city, Houston. The fact that neither the city nor investors will commit to such an expensive project without a definite occupant and no NFL team is willing to make the move without a stadium plan in place has meant two decades (and counting) without the NFL in Los Angeles.
- St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has unveiled his own plans to build a new stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood on land he owns, following a failure to come to an agreement to conduct massive renovations to their current home, the Edward Jones Dome. The Rams can opt to exercise their out clause as of March 15, 2015, and St. Louis city officials have been scrambling to push their own replacement stadium proposal. Kroenke's LA stadium received approval from the Inglewood city council, with a planned start date of December 2015. Meanwhile, the Raiders and Chargers have come up as potential tenants for one of the other LA projects.
- The main reason the San Jose option stalled was that the A's gave the San Francisco Giants "territorial rights" to Santa Clara County back in 1992 when the Giants were thinking of moving there while their own ballpark plans were in limbo. The matter is currently the subject of a lawsuit between the city and MLB. The Giants eventually built their new park within San Francisco, while the 49ers (whose own new stadium plans had been in Development Hell for a long time) finally got their new stadium in Santa Clara.
- The Ballpark Village shopping/entertainment/apartment complex in downtown St. Louis, designed to revitalize the area. Building began in 2005 with a planned completion date of July 2009. Around 2008, building stopped as financier Bill DeWitt refused to spend any more money on the project (and he is a multi-billionaire who makes a lot of money off of the St. Louis Cardinals, so his penny-pinching is completely inexcusable). It's finally completing its first stage of development (which includes Wrigley-like "rooftops") by the time the 2014 season starts.
- When the Texas Rangers' new Ballpark in Arlington opened in 1994, it was supposed to be part of an expanded entertainment district that included, of all things, an amphitheater just to the northwest of the park. When Tom Hicks bought the club four years later, he promised an entire "Rangers Village" of condos and restaurants surrounding the area. As of 2014, the hill that was to contain the amphitheater has been paved down for a parking lot, the first set of condos built further to the northwest remain only half completed (largely due to Hicks declaring bankruptcy, which forced him to sell the team in 2010), most of the restaurants that have opened over the time closed down in just a couple years (including the one built into the ballpark), and many homes to the southwest were seized and torn down by the city to build the new Cowboys stadium. What's more, even though the Rangers are only halfway through their current lease, grumbling among some fans and media has begun on the need for a whole new ballpark on the grounds the current one does not have a roof to counter the extreme North Texas heat.
- Cologne Cathedral in Germany had the same development hell treatment during the time it was constructed. Construction started during the Middle Ages, halted construction during the 16th century, resumed during the 19th century, and finally completed in 1880. This is fairly common in medieval churches and cathedrals. The grander ones, even in the best case scenario, couldn't be completed in one generation. Under less than ideal conditions, many had construction that dragged on for decades or centuries as they repeatedly ran out of money and had to raise more. As a result, different sections are built according to the architectural styles of different eras, or are asymmetrical because they couldn't afford to build something again on the other side.
- Perhaps the most famous example of a cathedral (well, basilica—it's not a cathedral because the Archbishop of Barcelona's cathedra or throne is somewhere else) in Development Hell is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, which began construction in the early 1880s under the direction of the architect Antoni Gaudí. Thanks in large part to Gaudi's death and the Spanish Civil War (and in large part to the incredible complexity of Gaudí's design), the construction for the cathedral has dragged on for decades. It is not scheduled to be completed until 2026, the centennial of Gaudi's death.
- For another outstanding example, the Milan Cathedral began its construction in 1386 and its final touches were done in 1965.
- The Episcopal Cathedral of St John The Divine in New York City is one of the largest churches in the world, and has never been finished since construction started in 1892.
- For a non-Christian example, we have Scientology's Flag Building, a.k.a. the "Super Power Building", in Clearwater, Florida, which was announced in 1993, broke ground in 1998, and subsequently put off its completion date for eleven years. And even after the building supposedly became ready for occupancy in 2010, it sat empty for another three years. Then, after the grand opening was scheduled for October 2013, Scientology announced in mid-September that the event would be held up "indefinately" over a dispute with the city over permits for the ceremony. The building finally opened on November 17, 2013.
- Several shopping malls:
- The Mall at Oyster Bay was first planned to open in 1997 in Syosset, New York. The land was finally sold in 2014.
- Great Mall of Las Vegas in, well, Las Vegas. Proposed in the 2000s as an outdoor mall featuring Macy's, Dillard's, a movie theater and condominiums. The property went into default in 2009.
- Shops at East Prairie in Ames, Iowa. Proposed in 2002, canceled in 2011 when the land was sold.
- A small outdoor mall in suburban Flint, Michigan called Trillium Circle was first proposed in 2004. Things first hit the skids when an existing grocery store decided to close instead of relocate into the mall. A theater opened on the site in 2006, but the economic decline and poor anchor choices (it would've had a Circuit City, but they went out of business) ground development to a halt, with only a Buffalo Wild Wings and a bank being built on outparcels. The developers have since sold off the land.
- Bridges at Mint Hill, a proposed mall in Charlotte, North Carolina. Originally slated for a 2007 opening, it quickly became a Troubled Production due to many factors declining economy, protection of an endangered species of mussel, and the bankruptcy of the developer (General Growth Properties). Another developer finally bought the property in 2012 and revived the plans.
- Glacier Town Center in Kalispell, Montana (which would consist of both a mall and a planned community) was first proposed in 2002. The developers were given a one-year extension in 2010, but since then, nothing has happened.
- And going the other way, the Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois closed in 1978 (yes, that's a seven). A portion was briefly used as temporary school space, and one wing was fitted with fake storefronts for the famous "car chase through the mall" scene in The Blues Brothers, but the structure just sat unused otherwise, at the mercy of vandals and weather. The first redevelopment plans were announced in 1997, but redevelopment of the long-vacant building did not begin until 2005, when it was announced that a kitchen supply company wanted to open in one of the former anchor stores. The plans were later changed to demolish the building for a new retail center, but all development was halted when it was realized that the mall was loaded with asbestos, and the company that started demolition did not have a permit (that particular store that would have housed the kitchen supply store, a former Montgomery Ward, was essentially damaged beyond repair when the company illegally due to the asbestos problem not being solved tore down the central power plant on Christmas Eve before the mayor saw it and stopped them). Another company announced plans to build a new retail center on the site in 2010, but nothing happened until mid-2012, when the land was finally cleared.
- American Dream Meadowlands, originally Xanadu Meadowlands, was designed as not just a mall, but a full lifestyle center complete with an indoor ski slope, ice rink, amusement park, live theater, and other attractions. It has been in development since 2003. The opening of the mall, located near Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, has been pushed back several times due to various companies going bankrupt (two companies behind the construction of the mall and Circuit City, which was supposed to be a major tenant) and stores pulling out because of the delays. It also didn't help that the mall was originally, as New Jersey's former Acting Governor Richard Codey said, "yucky looking." American Dream has been at least 80 percent complete since 2009, when it was also 70 percent leased. In 2011, the indoor ski slope collapsed under record breaking snowfall, delaying the opening of the mall even further. Now the mall won't open until at least Spring 2014.
- Since 2007, Lockport Mall in the Buffalo, New York suburb of Lockport has been slated to be demolished and replaced with a Walmart. While the mall was successfully torn down (except for one department store which remains in operation), the Walmart construction has been repeatedly been held back due to seagulls nesting on the site.
- The Sydney Opera House, when it was built between 1959 and 1973. It ended up 10 years behind schedule and 14 times over budget, due to the complexity of the architecture and manufacture of the steel beams. On top of that, the architect, Jorn Utzon, quit in disgust.
- Utzon's departure from the project was half Creator Backlash and half Creator Breakdown. His background was in small-scale projects like local Danish churches; when he entered the international design competition for the Opera House nobody expected him to win, least of all Utzon himself. But the contest was being judged by Eero Saarinen, and Utzon's dramatic white clamshell design piqued his interest (for some reason). Saarinen browbeat the other judges into picking Utzon's design, and it was only after the contract was awarded that people discovered Utzon didn't actually know how to build the thing. Completing the Opera House required the services of a major structural engineering firm to work out a stable way to build the sail-like shells and an acoustic specialist to completely redesign the performing space. In the end, though, the finished form of the Opera House is strikingly similar to Utzon's original designs.
- The Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was begun as the central venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It was finally completed in 1987 with the installation of the retractable roof (which had remained in storage in France until 1982). At this point, it was discovered that the roof was not correctly designed and tore easily in use. It was removed in early 1998, and in the later part of the year replaced with a different, fixed roof...which failed dramatically during the first winter, causing the annual auto show that was being set up at the time to permanently change venues. In 2004, a contract was awarded for a new, permanent steel roof. In September of that same year, the stadium lost its biggest tenant when the Montreal Expos baseball team (which had already been splitting time between Montreal and San Juan, Puerto Rico for home games for two years) moved to Washington D.C. In 2009, the local fire department warned that without substantial repairs, including a new roof (still not installed) the stadium might be ordered closed. In 2011, approval for the new roof contract was sought.
- The second El Rancho Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas originally opened in 1948 as the Thunderbird and closed for good in 1992. For almost a decade the marquee advertised a future Countryland USA casino (with hotel towers shaped like cowboy boots), though by the mid-90's that project had fallen through along with a sci-fi themed "Starship Orion" resort as the property changed hands numerous times. An investigation by the local NBC station in 1999 found most of the building's interior had rotted away, though a small portion had been maintained in pristine condition (including working slot machines) as an attempt to attract a buyer. The state of Nevada finally ordered the property sold in 2000, and it was bought by a condominium company. The decrepit building was imploded later that year and, while part of the land was used for a neighboring casino project, the majority of the land remains vacant to this day.
- The Ryugyong Hotel (Korean: 류경호텔) of Pyongyang, North Korea. Its name ("capital of willows") is also one of the historical names for Pyongyang. Construction began in 1987 but was halted in 1992 as North Korea entered a period of economic crisis after the fall of the Soviet Union. In 2008, construction of the building resumed, and the building is scheduled to begin partial operations in mid 2013.
- The rebuilt World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan of New York City. Years after the events of 9/11/2001, the 16-acre site formerly known as "Ground Zero" remained depressingly empty. Plans for a new World Trade Center complex were approved in 2003, scheduled to finish by the 10th anniversary; a cornerstone was laid in 2004... and all work halted until late 2006 while financial and architectural lawsuits raged.
- One World Trade Center proceeded with construction in late 2006 with foundation work to street level over one and a half years. It began rising above street level in early 2008 and it's estimated to be sometime in 2014 before it's finished for tenancy.
- Two World Trade Center has had assembly to street level occur from 2010 to 2013, but is currently on hold until a major company signs a deal to occupy the skyscraper.
- Three World Trade Center had underground foundation work manufactured to street level from 2010 to 2013, but has only been built to several floors above street level as of May 2014.
- Four World Trade Center began construction in 2008 with foundation work. It was built to street level in 2009 and fully constructed and opened 4 years later on November 13, 2013.
- Five World Trade Center, which occupies the site that was formerly the Deutsche Bank Building, is on stand-by until a potential building developer and work tenants for occupancy are set.
- A proposed Performing Arts Center, which may or may not be called Six World Trade Center sometime in the future, cannot be constructed until after 2016 as a temporary exit from the PATH station still exists on-site.
- Seven World Trade Center is the only building to not fall victim to this trope as it is independent from the main site. Having a smaller footprint than the original red granite facade structure, the buildings construction proceeded on May 7, 2002 and achieved completion on May 23, 2006 (just a few weeks more than 4 years).
- The Cityplace Center in Dallas was initially going to be twin towers on either side of Central Expressway with a skybridge in between. However, the real estate market crash of the late 1980s torpedoed plans for the second building (along with many majestically-planned skyscrapers in Dallas). The result is the building's dedication plaque reading "Cityplace Center East" with no counterpart on the west side of the freeway. The land initially allocated for the West tower is now used as an entrance to the Cityplace underground DART station (the only underground station in the system) and a turntable terminal for the McKinney Avenue heritage streetcar line.
- The Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany is in construction since 2007, and was supposed to be finished in 2010, but as of now is still not completed. Needless to say, the costs exploded too. Since its construction is to a great part financed by tax money, the citizens of Hamburg are quite understandably a little bit angry concerning this whole affair...
- An animated Elfquest movie has been "coming soon" since the mid eighties. Though much of the (albeit scarce) pre-production art looks great, it's still never gotten further than that and will likely never be produced.
- Sasmira: The second album of the series has been expected for 12 years and counting.
- Kevin Smith's smash Daredevil relaunch got him on a comics kick which turned out to be more than he could handle. His Spider-Man/Black Cat miniseries had a gap of over three years between issues 3 and 4. During that time, most fans had dismissed the remaining issues as vaporware — as they have his Daredevil/Bullseye miniseries, whose only issue to date was published in 2002.
- The manga-inspired Battle Chasers was meant to be Joe Madureira's magnum opus, spanning several years and hundreds of issues. However, thanks to his obsession with playing video games and, in the early 2000s, pretty much abandoning the industry to draw concept art for start-up game publishers, it petered out at about ten issues, with the final issue having a delay of about 1 1/2 years and ending on gigantic cliffhangers. (And no, not Monika's.) A continuation had been promised, but going on eight years later it still hasn't materialized.
- Firefly — "A Shepherd's Tale". Announced in 2007, finally released in November 2010.
- Devil's Due Publishing has been putting off publishing Halloween comics, including the third and final issue of Halloween: The First Death Of Laurie Strode and the miniseries The Mark of Thorn (which had at least a dozen covers revealed) over and over again for somewhat vague reasons.
- Neil Gaiman's introduction to The Sandman: Endless Nights mentions a story called Obsessional that he plotted with the artist of Going Inside. It involves the population of Manhattan joining a procession into the East River.
- Gaiman also mentioned in interviews that he was planning to do a Batman story illustrated by painter Steve Bisley, which was to be titled "Night Circus". This was in about 1992, and the story is still yet to appear.
- Despite being created in late 2008, Gemini Storm issue one wasn't released until March 2010. Herbert claims production on issue two is moving along much more quickly.
- Issue two was released last December and issue three's line art is done. Harrison Wood, the artist, has released half the pencils for issue four on his deviantArt account. Looks like it's been saved.
- DC's "All Star" line has several examples. As the line has been discontinued and creators have moved on to other projects, it seems unlikely that they will be revived:
- All-Star Wonder Woman by Adam Hughes. Hughes has shown off some concept art, but has since moved on to Before Watchmen.
- All-Star Batgirl by Geoff Johns and J G Jones. Announced in 2006 but no sign as of mid-2012.
- All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #11 and #12 don't look like they're ever going to happen.
- Sam and Max Plunge Through Space was a concept Steve Purcell was working with as a game and a comic, variously. It never got made and beyond fan discussion it probably won't see the light of day.
- Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk had a 3-year gap between issues #2 and #3.
- Issue #8 of Marvel Comics' The Twelve, a 12-issue limited series, came out in January 2009. Issue #9 came out over three years later, in February 2012.
- Steve Moncuse announced in a 2010 interview that he would be reviving Fish Police. This is still the only acknowledgement of such a revival.
- Archaia Entertainment announced a prequel to Labyrinth, an origin story for Jareth the Goblin King, in early 2012. It was supposed to be in stores by year's end, and the one-shot story "Hoggle and the Worm" was published in the company's Free Comic Book Day compilation to hype it. Then the date was pushed back to April 2013...but at the end of February it was pushed back again and its Amazon preorder page taken down entirely. The 2013 and 2014 Free Comic Book Day compilations each include an additional one-shot story, while the offical explanation for the delay on the main book is that the company doesn't want it to go out until it's perfect. Given how controversial the previous attempt to establish an Expanded Universe for this movie — Tokyopop's OEL Manga Return To Labyrinth, by a different writer and artist — was in the fandom, particularly over how it handled Jareth, one can forgive Archaia for not rushing things.
- The third mini-series of Phonogram, supposedly concentrating on Emily Aster and titled The Immaterial Girl, has been teased by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie for years, but never appeared. Gillen's afterword to The Wicked And The Divine #5 strongly hints that they've given up on the story because they've both changed too much over the years to want to write/draw in that world any more.
Fan Works
- Ian Flynn's infamous comic Other-M is currently unfinished, and since Ian is head writer for the current Archie Sonic and Mega Man comics it's likely to stay this way.
- Fan works related to BIONICLE:
- Both of the biggest CGI fan-film projects, Quest of the Toa and BIONICLE: The Next Generation. The first received notoriety among fans very fast for being produced (voice acting aside) by a single person. It seemed to have gotten pretty far, and was set to be released at the end of 2006, but around 2007, the author disappeared. He attempted to restart the project several years later, with little success, and he uploaded the last teaser video in 2010.
As for BNG, it's had a very Troubled Production. Originally meant to be a series of feature-length 3D films, the project eventually separated into a 2D and 3D "team". The former produced a video short in the style of the old official BIONICLE Flash videos but due to the creators' other occupations, the project got canceled. However, the 3D team is still said to be functioning and working on a fan film of their own. - Quest of the Toa had two sister-projects going on: a fan-game based on the movie and the Lewa Q&A comedy series. Both have met such a fate, though to make up for losing the game files, the game's creator has set his sights on finishing a smaller fan project, of undisclosed nature.
- BioCraft: Chronicles, a spoof-style fan film made using Minecraft, was set to come out at the end of '11. After being scrapped and started over, it was put on indefinite hiatus in '14, with plans to do something with it eventually.
- Both of the biggest CGI fan-film projects, Quest of the Toa and BIONICLE: The Next Generation. The first received notoriety among fans very fast for being produced (voice acting aside) by a single person. It seemed to have gotten pretty far, and was set to be released at the end of 2006, but around 2007, the author disappeared. He attempted to restart the project several years later, with little success, and he uploaded the last teaser video in 2010.
- Chapter 2 of the Star Wars fan film series IMPS: The Relentless was in post-production, "almost done", for four years. It was finally released November 2009. Only 6 more to go according to the website.
- The Doctor Who fan film Devious, which follows a half-regenerated third Doctor working for the Time Lords, has been filming on and off since 1995. In 2009, a 12-minute preview, including the entire Jon Pertwee scene, was included on the DVD of "The War Games". Five years later, it still isn't finished.
Films — Animation
- The planned Spiritual Successor to the Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, Aoki Uru, entered preproduction in 1988, but hasn't been completely abandoned yet. Despite it being shelved indefinitely, Gainax is still wishing to eventually produce it, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto still releases the concept arts from time to time.
- Gatchaman's CGI film, now officially never after Astro Boy bombed and Imagi Studios went flat.
- The Movie of Clerks: The Animated Series. Originally planned as Clerks: Sell Out, wherein Dante and Randall decide to make a movie about their escapades in the Quick Stop, this got an animation test in 2006 and was supposed to go straight to DVD a little while after Clerks II. However, according to Kevin Smith, Disney still own the rights to the series and all designs related to it, which essentially negates all possibility of there being a movie any time soon.
- Teen Titans: Judas Contract was originally meant to be one of the first of the new franchise of DC Animated films. It was supposed to be a recreation of the classic storyline meant to piggyback off the success of the canceled Teen Titans TV series. It was even supposed to maintain all the racier elements of the arc, such as a scene with Terra in Deathstroke's room with a nightgown on and smoking. Unfortunately it kept getting pushed back further and further to let other more popular heroes a chance to shine until eventually it was revealed the project had been cancelled. Not that it wasn't a surprise since that announcement came about several years after the start of the animated movies and they were already adapting Superman/Batman: Public Enemies to the animated screen.
- The project seems to be dead in the water. It's now been over eight films since Public Enemies, and still no word on Judas Contract. The renewed focus on only Superman, Batman, and Justice League-related movies (in light of disappointing sales for Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight) certainly doesn't make the film's prospects seem too optimistic.
- Actually it was revealed to be canceled a couple of years ago citing that they didn't think it was popular enough to turn into a film. And this was loooong before Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight.
- The Bone movie. Partially delayed in Jeff Smith's refusal of Nickelodeon's demands of putting pop music in, apparently the rights are now with Warner Bros.. According to the latest news, it's in early stages of development. Smith doesn't seem very involved as of yet and makes very little comment on the animation/design, saying only that it is dynamic.
- A sequel/prequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. One was attempted during, but floundered due to many problems at Disney, with Steven Spielberg, problems converting the characters to CGI, and a skyrocketing budget. Attempts to make a sequel anyway continue to be discussed, but Roger Rabbit remains one of the biggest film properties to never be properly capitalized. But between Bob Hoskins' retirement from acting in 2012 and his passing in 2014, it's unlikely to ever materialize.
- A CGI Spyro the Dragon movie was announced in late 2007, and posters emerged in early 2009 which slated the film for a Christmas release. The movie never came out, and it was later cancelled.
- Dragon's Lair: The Movie which is supposed to be animated by Don Bluth himself.
- The CGI Thundercats film, which was supposed to be made by the art director of Halo, which apparently reincarnated in the form of new Animated Series ThunderCats (2011), which premiered in July 2011 on Cartoon Network.
- The Samurai Jack Movie. It seemed to be seeing the light of day again... in 2009.
- The Fairly Oddparents also had an animated film in Development Hell for a while. That Other Wiki says the "Wishology" specials may have started out as that movie; a live-action FOP TV movie that was meant as a conclusion to the series was eventually released in 2011, with a sequel released in 2012.
- The Last Days Of Coney Island from Ralph Bakshi was announced in 2005, but due to distributor and production problems it was put on hold a few years later. Eventually in 2013, Bakshi created a successful Kickstarter for the project to do it as a series of shorts that will eventually be put together as a Compilation Movie.
- Disney's 2D adaptation of The Snow Queen has been going in and out of production, most recently in 2002 when John Lasseter expressed interest in the project. However, it went back on hold after The Princess and the Frog, and remained in limbo until being brought back into production in 2011 as the CGI film Frozen, released in 2013.
- Also, one of the projects the directors of Aladdin were offered before picking that movie, an adaptation of Swan Lake, seems to have languished into this.
- It's worth noting that Frozen quite possibly holds the record for longest amount of time in development hell, as The Walt Disney Company had been trying to get a Snow Queen adaptation off the ground for 70 years by the time of its release.
- Disney announced in 2008 that a 3D adaptation of Philip K Dick's short story "The King of the Elves" was scheduled for 2012, but the project got shelved in 2009. Reports in 2010 and 2011 claimed that the project had gone back into development with a new director and script writer, but there hasn't been any news on that front since then.
- DreamWorks Animation has had a few:
- Truckers: DreamWorks was supposed to do an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's book with Academy Award winning writer Simon Beaufoy writing the script and a set release date of 2012. The talks of making the film seemed to die down once the script was completed and everyone has since moved on.
- Similarly, they purchased the rights to make a film adaptation of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine in 2006, shortly before they released their adaption of fellow comic strip Over the Hedge. Since then however, nothing has come of it.
- An Aardman/Dreamworks project retelling "The Tortoise and the Hare" that might have featured Michael Caine as one of the voiceover performers withered on the vine.
- Dreamworks also planned to adapt a character from the extremely obscure 1980s black-and-white furry comic Tales From The Aniverse in the early 2000s, but reps had a hard time comprehending the treatment that the comics' creator gave them.
- Me and My Shadow, a film about a man's friendship with his Living Shadow that would have featured a unique blend of 3D and traditional animation, was scheduled to be released in early 2014 but seems to have fallen through the cracks after Dreamworks's split with Paramount.
- B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, a film centering on an agency of ghosts, was set to be released in the summer of 2015. It has now been put on the back burner due to DreamWorks' restructuring plans.
- Blue Planet, a CGI sci-fi action movie planned by now-defunct Rainbow Studios (later aquired by THQ), with a video-game tie-in. A trailer was released, to widespread acclaim, which showcased the for-the-time high-quality CGI, parodies of Pixar's Toy Story and A Bug's Life characters, and a soundtrack featuring "More Human Than Human" by Rob Zombie. Much of the already-shot footage was recycled for the tie-in game, which was eventually released as Deadly Tide.
- In the late 1990's, Fox and Matt Groening signed a deal to make three films based on The Simpsons. The first film was released in 2007 but absolutely nothing has been heard about the sequels (rumors have had one of the films might be based on Itchy and Scratchy).
- Around 2003, 20th Century Fox planned to make an animated adaptation of the children's novel The Wainscott Weasel. They finally dropped the idea in 2006.
- In 2001, Shrek producer John H. Williams founded his own studio, Vanguard Animation, which created Valiant, Happily N'Ever After, Space Chimps, and a direct-to-video sequel of the same. Their website shows several other projects in the pipeline, such as The Nut House (a heist film parody involving squirrels and acorns), Rotten Island (adaptation of a book by William Steig, who also wrote the books that inspired Shrek), an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Twits, and many more are mentioned in a 2010 press release. However, other than the October 2011 announcement of The Nut House, it seems Vanguard has vanished. Coincidentally, another studio with no ties to Vanguard came up with another squirrel heist parody, The Nut Job, in 2014.
- The Magic 7, which apparently was a fantasy film with environmental messages, begun production in 1990, was first announced for a release in 1997, but hasn't seen the light of day ever since. Two of the actors who had recorded lines (John Candy and Madeline Kahn) even died ever since the project started.
- Dino Time was delayed several times after its completion. It was released in 2012.
- Paramount announced plans for a sequel to Rango in late 2011 but despite the film grossing over $100 million and winning an Academy Award, it looks like the sequel is no more due to Disney buying Industrial Light and Magic (who did the animation on the film).
- Then there was The Thief and the Cobbler, which still holds the record for the longest development among animated films, at thirty years. The project started in 1964. Then, in 1992, it fell into the hands of a different studio who had no idea what it was supposed to be, but did manage to get the bastardised result out in 1995.
- Henry Selick's Shademaker began development in 2010 at Disney as part of a new foray into stop-motion animation for the studio with a set release date of 2013. Disney even set up a new animation studio in San Francisco for Selick to do the film and future projects. But in the summer of 2012, Disney dropped the film for no apparent reason and gave the rights back to Selick. Not long after, Disney closed the animation studio and now the film's future is up in the air.
- Ever since the announcement of a Phineas and Ferb movie, there have barely any details about it except that the movie would somehow combine live action and animation. The creators have even stated that the movie is in "Development Hell". This probably is due to the series' noticeable decline in popularity.
- In the early 2000's, three Felix the Cat holiday movies were announced. Only the Christmas movie was released in 2004, while the Valentines and Halloween movies were never heard of again.
- The Sega Genesis game Vectorman was supposed to get an animated movie adaption, but it never materialized.
- A Darker and Edgier CGI version of The Wind in the Willows was supposed to come out in 2012. It's been 2 years and nothing's happened, so it's presumably entered this trope.
- Yuriy Norshteyn's The Overcoat, a stop-motion film using cutouts. Largely a single-man project, with the man working on a lot of other projects and suffering from severe perfectionism. Probably the current record holder, being in production since 1981; as of 2004 only 25 minutes out of planned 1 hour were ready. A number of preview fragments have been released.
- Disney's remake of Yellow Submarine, cancelled after the record-setting box office failure of Mars Needs Moms.
- Seth MacFarlane has been in talks to make a Family Guy feature film since 2007. He stated in 2008 that he planned to produce the movie within the next year, and has given similar responses to the movie's production in recent years.
- A Marvin the Martian hybrid CGI/live-action film was announced in 2008, with Mike Myers voicing Marvin. It was planned to come out in late 2011/early 2012, but vanished without a trace. The only thing to materialize out of it since was some leaked test footage.
- Along with the above mentions Marvin the Martian film, a Hong Kong Phooey CGI/Live-action film was also announced along side it, with Eddie Murphy to voice the title character. Test footage was released in 2012, but nothing else had came of the film until casting information sprang up in late 2014. The film as of resent appears to have been Saved from Development Hell, as a release date of September 18, 2015 has been announced.
- The Waterman Movie, based on the Flash animated web series Waterman, has been in development hell since at least 2010. The film was announced in 2007 and was financed through crowd funding. What makes the film notable is that it is the last film appearance of the late Leslie Nielsen, who had recorded all his dialogue for the film before his tragic death. Many planned release dates have been made, going back as early as Winter 2007, and as late as Christmas 2012. As of March 2015, no information on the film has come up since June 2011.
- A CGI animated adaptation of the popular comic The Goon, with the voices of Clancy Brown as The Goon and Paul Giamatti as Franky. Was announced back in 2010, with a fully animated and voiced trailer being released. An official poster was also released claiming the film will be released theatrically. Due to financial troubles, Blur Studios launched a Kickstarter, which it successfully reached in late 2012. No information has come up since then.
- Sony put the All-CGI Cartoon film adaptation of Popeye on hold after director Genndy Tartakovsky left the film's production. He cited Sony Pictures' Executive Meddling as a result of the hacking scandal as a reason for leaving the film, irritated that despite very positive reception to the film's test reel Sony's executives would not give the go ahead to start production. There's still hope that the film is alive, however, as Sony Pictures Animation's website continues to list Popeye as an upcoming film despite losing Tartakovsky.
Films — Puppets
- The Jim Henson Company has been planning a Fraggle Rock movie and The Dark Crystal sequel for quite some time. Every now and then, they'll announce The Dark Crystal sequel, but no progress appears to have been made. This was parodied by Robot Chicken, which joked that the primary reason it's not going forward is that today's kids don't want to watch an all-puppet film. As well, many fans are skeptical as to whether there needs to be a sequel when the original's ending left no plausible room for one (indeed, the graphic novel Expanded Universe consists of prequel stories). Frank Oz, who has not been asked to participate in the production, has only one thing to say about the proposed sequel: "Why?".
- In early 2012, the film was shelved indefinitely due to 'budgetary concerns'; instead TJHC has moved on to producing a fan-written prequel novel as part of a contest.
- Also from Henson, in 2008 they announced an adult puppet project called The Happytime Murders, which is suppose to be a send up on the crime/film noir genre. It was only after the success of The Muppets that the film could really build momentum. Despite the casting of Katherine Heigl as the love interest, though, production is going as fast as a snail.
- The idea for a Muppet movie known as The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made was originally floated in 1985. It's presumably about Gonzo directing a Muppet movie and he blows half the budget on the opening titles, resulting in the movie progressively getting shittier and shittier to the point where a shot of the same street corner is used for every city in the world. The title card was revealed in September 2009, but it was subsequently set aside in favor of The Muppets.
- Then there's talks about a third Sesame Street movie, which tapped Shawn Levy to produce.
- Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming was started in 1962 (which may as well be the Bronze Age as far as computer programming is concerned) and not all the volumes are out yet. Initially not helped by Knuth deciding to create a typesetting system from scratch since he was not satisfied by what was available.
- Not entirely accurate, he didn't decide to develop the typesetting system until after the reissue of the first volume in 1977. He began development of the typesetting system (called TeX) in 1978, and it ended up in its own development hell as well, the input format not being finalized until 1989.
- Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole collaborated on a six-issue Star Wars Expanded Universe comic for the X-Wing Series which bridged over into Zahn's Thrawn books. It's called The Reenlistment Of Baron Fel. But the X-Wing Series comics were canceled abruptly. So Zahn and Stackpole worked on the script and turned it into a four-chapter novella, something that they've done before. And Del Ray did not buy this script. Both versions are languishing on their hard drives, and it's been something like ten years since the X-Wing Series was going.
- It's particularly frustrating when you see that in 2005 someone came out with a three-issue X-Wing Series comic, Rogue Leader, which had nothing to do with Stackpole and is generally considered inferior due to Off Model art, rampant decompression, and a basically pointless storyline, without even any good character interaction, that could be summed up in two sentences: "The Empire will fight even without an Emperor, and some of its people are monsters. Luke Skywalker leaves Rogue Squadron to do Jedi things."
- Now that the post-Return of the Jedi Star Wars books have been de-canonized by Lucas Film, it's hard to say what will become of these books.
- What about The Book of Dust? We've had a sequel novella and a prequel novella, and they are nice but?
- Stephanie Meyer put off writing Midnight Sun because an unfinished copy was leaked. She said in 2008 that if she can go two years without hearing anyone mention it, she may begin work on it again once "everyone's forgotten about it", but that clearly did not happen.
- She also has talked about working or planning to work on a story from Renesmee's point of view, a story from Leah's point of view, a mermaid story, a ghost story, and a time travel story. There's no sign of any of these.
- Not to mention her The Host sequel.
- A Dance with Dragons has been in the queue in the A Song of Ice and Fire series in one form or another for nearly a decade. It was originally going to be one massive book, but it eventually surpassed a reasonable publication size so author George R. R. Martin decided to split it into two books based on certain Point Of View characters and plotlines. The "A" half of the novel (the characters Martin had finished at the time) became A Feast for Crows, while the "B" half of the novel became A Dance with Dragons (a title bestowed on then revoked from a few ASoIaF books now). This occurred in 2005. Martin claimed that he was more-or-less finished with Dance at the time Feast went to print and there is a post-script at the end of Feast where Martin promised the book would be out the next year (which would have been 2006). In the intervening years, a rabid hatedom has sprung up in response to the seemingly inexplicable delay.
- Until it was announced on April 27th, 2011 - GRRM's blog, no less - that the book is finally complete! (And it was indeed published, in July on that year.) Saved from Development Hell, in-deed!
- And there's two more two-part books to go, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. ...at some point. Any day now. Martin's being as elusive as ever in regards to when the books are going to be finished, though he has said he doesn't want the show to catch up with him.
- Until it was announced on April 27th, 2011 - GRRM's blog, no less - that the book is finally complete! (And it was indeed published, in July on that year.) Saved from Development Hell, in-deed!
- They did get someone to finish the late lamented Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series.
- Another book example is the Harlan Ellison-edited anthology The Last Dangerous Visions (sequel to Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions). It was originally announced for 1973 and has not yet appeared as of 2014; Ellison still claims he's eventually going to release it. As he's now 80 years old, it's not looking likely.
- There's even a (short) book about this fiasco, The Book on the Edge of Forever, by author Christopher Priest (most famous for The Prestige). When you consider that TLDV was slated to include stories by long-dead authors such as Frank Herbert, Alfred Bester, and Cordwainer Smith (who died in 1966!!), this is the very pinnacle of development hell. Priest's "The Last Deadloss Visions," the basis for The Book on the Edge of Forever, can be read here.
- Cordwainer Smith's story, "Himself in Anachron" was published in a collection, The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith. Ellison was not happy, but eventually some sort of settlement was made.
- There's even a (short) book about this fiasco, The Book on the Edge of Forever, by author Christopher Priest (most famous for The Prestige). When you consider that TLDV was slated to include stories by long-dead authors such as Frank Herbert, Alfred Bester, and Cordwainer Smith (who died in 1966!!), this is the very pinnacle of development hell. Priest's "The Last Deadloss Visions," the basis for The Book on the Edge of Forever, can be read here.
- Diane Duane has been somewhat notorious among her fans for this. In her Young Wizards series, there was a eight year gap between the release of A Wizard Abroad and The Wizard's Dilemma, and a five year gap between Wizards at War and A Wizard of Mars, which was released in April 2010 after getting pushed back by its publishers about six times. Finally, there is the Tale of the Five series which has lain unfinished for nearly eighteen years now, with the last part, The Door into Starlight having gone unfinished since 1992, but she promises she is still working on it.
- David Gerrold's fans have been waiting for the fifth The War Against the Chtorr novel (A Method for Madness) since at least 1994. And it's only the third-to-last in the series. Gerrold, of course, is getting up in his years, and Author Existence Failure could result in an Orphaned Series.
- "The Scarlet Gospels" by Clive Barker.
- Quite a few by Neil Gaiman. In the world of Neverwhere, The Seven Sisters and How the Marquis Got His Coat Back. In the world of Stardust, American Gods, and Anansi Boys, Wall (the prologue has been published) and a story about Tristran going to Hell in a hot air balloon.
- The Captal's Tower, third book in Melanie Rawn's Exiles Trilogy, is still nowhere to be seen 13 years after the release of the second book.
- David Weber is responsible for this in two series.
- The Hellgate Series, cowritten with Linda Evans, ended the second book on a cliffhanger and there's no sign from the publisher or the authors that a third book will ever come out.
- His Prince Roger collaboration with John Ringo has had no development since 2005 in spite of fandom interest in the series continuing. A Face Book post by Ringo suggests he's looking to change that status, however.
- There were rumors for years about a sequel to The Princess Bride called Buttercup's Baby. In some editions of The Princess Bride, this sequel was mentioned in the epilogue and was "having trouble getting published due to legal problems with S. Morgenstern's estate". An address was also listed that readers could write to for information. This was of course, completely fictional since S. Morgenstern is an alias made up by the REAL author, William Goldman. Still, people who wrote in got a sample chapter (which was simply published in later editions). In 2007, Goldman stated he actually wanted to write it, but was having trouble coming up with ideas. Nothing has been heard since.
- Orson Scott Card and Kathryn H. Kidd's 'Rasputin,' a sequel to 1994's 'Lovelock' and the second in 'The Mayflower Trilogy.' Still listed as a work in progress on Card's website.
- Card has a similar situation with his Pastwatch series; as of 2010, he stated that he was still wanting to work on the series.
- Universercus, the promised third book in Gillian Rubenstein's Galax-Arena trilogy, is yet to be more than briefly mentioned at the end of Terra Farma (which was published in 2001). Even though the auther has published books since then and left the plot gaping open!
- For the Warrior Cats series, they announced in Feb 2010 that there would be some sort of online multiplayer game based on the books. They picked beta testers in March 2010, saying that the game would be out at the end of 2010. Though for a while they kept listing the release of the game in the "marketing/publicity" section for each new book in HarperCollins' catalog, the beta testers never got another message after the one saying they were picked to be one, the gamemakers didn't make any posts on the official forum to keep fans updated on the game's progress though they'd promised to (to the point that the subforum for it was, eventually, removed because it confused new members), and they have not made any official statements saying whether or not it's cancelled.
- A Gone with the Wind sequel entitled "Tara" was nearly published by author Anne Edwards in the 1980s; it was apparently well-written, as the few who read it gave it very good reviews. It was never published due to legal problems with the estate of Margaret Mitchell.
- The Repossession Mambo (which was adapted as the film Repo Men) was written in 1996 but did not find a publisher until 2008. However, the manuscript had been circulating in Hollywood for some time and the film was greenlighted a few years before the book was published. The film also suffered through post-production hell as Universal shelved it for two years.
- The Railway Series was slated to have a book titled Barry the Rescue Engine, but Christopher Awdry has not yet completed or released it.
- The Last Great Tortoise Race, the third and final Nursery Crime book by Jasper Fforde. The page on his website saying it will be published "Spring 2012" still exists, but the current "upcoming books" page doesn't mention it at all.
- The fourth book in the Millennium Trilogy (which was originally planned as ten books). Stieg Larsson had a 75% completed manuscript when passing away but it has never been published due to an ownership dispute (Larsson's then-girlfriend claims to hold the rights since she retains the computer that held the manuscipt but after Larsson died, his parents got the rights due to Swedish law giving the properties of a person who died unmarried to their surviving parents or next of kin). Since Larsson could not get married due to Swedish law making any married couple public (Larsson had made many enemies as a news reporter and he believed that his life becoming public would allow him to be the victim of an assassination, therefore insisting that his privacy be protected), his girlfriend tried to use this as an attempt to gain the rights (since the two were already very much a couple otherwise) but failed to convince the courts. At this point, any attempt to complete the manuscript is near impossible.
- Bruce Coville's The Unicorn Chronicles. After writing books one and two in fairly quick succession (1994 and 1999 respectively), and leaving the captive audience with a massive cliffhanger, he then dropped off the face of the earth for nine years before publishing the third book in 2008
which ends with another cliffhanger. Coville even lampshades this in his author's note, saying that he feared fans of the first books would have outgrown the series before he finished it. Fortunately, The Last Hunt was released in June 2010, less than two years after Dark Whispers.
- Coville also has a number of books he'd LIKE to write, including further installments in The Unicorn Chronicles, the Magic Shop series, the Nina Tanleven series and others. Unfortunately, publishers don't seem interested. The truly curious can find references to many of these works and others in his replies on the guestbook of his official website.
- The tenth and final book in the Night World series. It's been more than a decade since the last book came out, and the publishers even re-released the earlier books in pretty omnibuses in anticipation of Strange Fate. Alas, she is still writing it.
Live Action TV
- K9 was first announced in 1997. It subsequently premiered in the UK in 2009, airing its full season in Scandinavia in 2010.
- The Disney Channel series JONAS suffered from this. The original plan was to launch the vehicle for The Jonas Brothers with the band serving as a front for a group of secret agents (think a Kim Possible meets Hannah Montana hybrid) with the name standing for "Junior Operatives Networking As Spies). For whatever reasoning, that didn't fly, resulting in Retool after retool, ultimately culminating in a standard, run of the mill sitcom (albeit sans Laugh Track). Then after a botched launch on Saturdays where iCarly cleaned its clock, it went through yet another retool after the first season, and with the Jonas Brothers fading among teenagers, turned into an unexpectedly depressing soapish dramedy in the second season, renamed, JONAS LA, (yes, it's in ALLCAPS). JONAS LA was canceled, because of predictably low ratings.
- The team behind Human Giant announced that MTV had allowed them a third season. Unfortunately, they couldn't film much because Aziz was busy on Parks and Recreation. Since then nothing has been said.
- The Sci-Fi Channel announced in 2002 that they would produce a Quantum Leap television movie featuring Sam's daughter as a new leaper. A proposed release date of 2004 was given, and the movie's writer even gave a QL fansite an interview about the plot, but ultimately nothing ever came of it.
- A few years ago, a planned live-action Star Wars TV series was announced, but since then there hasn't been much news about it. Reportedly, it will be a Darker and Edgier episode-based show that focuses on the minor characters of the series rather than the main storyline, and will take place between Episodes III and IV.
- It seemed to pick up a bit after the CGI The Clone Wars started doing well, but has been put on hold because they couldn't figure out how to do Star Wars on a TV show budget. The title has been announced to be Star Wars: Underworld.
- Since then, Disney bought the franchise and immediately set about making a new trilogy, plus several spin-off movies with the aim of making one Star Wars movie a year after 2015. Given the amount of money Disney are funneling into the new movies, it's looking very, very unlikely that Star Wars: Underworld will ever be made.
- ER's Pilot script was written in 1974 but the show wasn't filmed until 1994.
- Adapting Super Sentai over to Power Rangers was a very difficult task. There are reports that Haim Saban had been planning to adapt Bioman, which was made 8 years before. the first seasons to be adapted Zyuranger.
- Also Marvel planned to adapt Super Sentai into Power Rangers with Executive Margaret Loesch being laughed out of building similar to Saban. Loesch eventually gave up and the rights reverted back to Toei, but as fate would have it Loesch was the very person who gave Haim Saban the go ahead to do the series.
- Entertainment Weekly reported in 2010 that a remake of The Wild Wild West (the series, not the movie) was being developed by Ron Moore and Naren Shankar for CBS; exactly nothing else about the project has been announced since then.
- A spinoff from Buffy the Vampire Slayer focusing on Giles to be called Ripper was on the drawing board for years once the original show ended in 2003. It's probably safe to say the actual spinoff will remain the only one...
- No fewer than ten pilots were made between 1996 and 2010 for a revival of the Pyramid game show franchise. Even with a successful revival from 2002 to 2004, the pilots just kept coming in the subsequent years.
- A pilot was taped for GSN on June 16, 2012. The revival finally started in September, but died only a couple months later.
- In September 2011, FX started advertising a series called Untitled Jersey City Project with a vague "Coming Soon" mention (which probably meant it would start in Winter 2012). Cut to Summer 2012 and the show still hasn't aired (and according to some reports, the show was never intended to air and was instead supposed to be an ad for the Audi A6).
- The fourth series of Torchwood ended on a massive cliffhanger, and Russell T Davies said that he intended to do a fifth season in America (where part of the fourth series was filmed.) Unfortunately, his partner fell ill, requiring him to move back to the UK so they could be closer to their families while he underwent treatment. While there, he started developing Wizards Vs Aliens as a replacement series for The Sarah Jane Adventures. The majority of the cast have said they'd like to do more, but there's no definite answer regarding when or if that'll happen. It didn't help that "Miracle Day" was not very well received.
- Since 1999, there have been at least two attempts to revive Match Game: One in 2004 was titled What the Blank?! and intended for FOX; the other was to have aired on TBS in 2008. Both stopped at the pilot stage.
- However, 2013 did bring a revival on The Comedy Network in Canada, with comedian Darrin Rose hosting.
- The American version of Red Dwarf never got past the two pilots made, seems NBC really wanted to create their own version but couldn't capture the spirit of the series.
- The only Classic Who story with half or more of its episodes surviving that has never been released on DVD is the Patrick Troughton story "The Underwater Menace", because the animation studio commissioned to replace the missing episodes 1 and 4 decided to 'focus on higher priority projects'. (A trailer for it had already been released as a special feature for the DVD release of "The Moonbase".) This fuels speculation on the "omnirumour" (a theory that holds all/most of the Who Missing Episodes have been found and the BBC is keeping them hidden) - some people theorise that the BBC is refusing to pay for animated recons of the episodes, because it found them soon into animation development. However, the animation quality of the recons has been steadily increasing (note the beautiful Animesque "The Moonbase"), so a more plausible theory is that the complexity got to the level where it was significantly more difficult and expensive for the animators to do it than anticipated.
- At one point in time there was talks of a Fallout tv show. But so far nothing has been said about it.
- There was also Blood and Chrome, a prequel series of Battlestar Galactica. Three webisodes was made for YouTube. But after that nothing else was heard about the prequel series.
- It was always insisted upon that Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country did not neccecarily represent last appearance ever of any of the the original Enterprise crew, just the last appearance of them together. And indeed, they have made sporadic individual appearances up to and including the present. Knowing that Sulu was now captain of the Excelsior, producers gave fans the idea that they were considering a series (or even movies) about Captain Sulu. Nothing was ever done to discourage these rumours. Nothing was done however, to give evidence that anyone was seriously ever working towards the adventures of Captain Sulu. Most agree that they may have seriously considered it but ultimately elected to foucs on the current generation and limit appearances by original crew characters to cameos and guest appearances, and a straight continuation of 'the original Enterprise crew going about on their adventures' seems very unlikely given Leonard Nimoy's death.
- Warner Bros. announced in 2011 that a Live-Action Adaptation of Wonder Woman was to be produced as a series. NBC picked up a pilot after initially turning it down. However, after the pilot was finished and screened to the standards & practices division, NBC turned it down, knowing it will not be something the audiences and fans alike will enjoy.note
- A television series following up on the film 2012 was proposed after the film's success, but cancelled due to budgetary concerns.
- In 2011, it was announced that Prime Focus - the company that made the Discworld Made For TV Movies - were in discussions with Terry Pratchett concerning a TV series based on the Watch, which Sir Terry described as CSI: Ankh-Morpork. In 2012 it was announced that this was now being done by Sir Terry's own production company Narrativia, and that The BBC Worldwide were very interested and were bandying about terms like "the next Doctor Who". Since then, the only word is that it is still progressing, but only once they're sure they can do it right.
- Various attempts have been made to get an adaptation of VC Andrew's Landry series made. First by CBS (Who had also bought the rights to the Cutler series) in the mid-90s as a four hour miniseries, which was canceled after the executive who wanted it was no longer apart of the network. CBS tried again in 2002, which quickly went nowhere. Lifetime then started development for a miniseries under the title The Landry in 2007, but the writer strike disrupted those plans and the possibility of moving to another station came up due to money issues with the Lifetime before it was abandoned. In 2013, it was announced that the project was going on again, and development started in 2014, with rumors of Warner Bros. Television involved.
- Kamen Rider Kuuga was planned to have a movie which would take place after the events of the TV series, but the staff could never come up with a script that really suited the idea, and after spending five years in Development Hell the plans were finally canned for good in 2006.
Mythology and folklore
- In some traditions, God needed more than one go at creating a female helpmeet and companion for Adam. In Jewish tradition, his first go was called Lilith, who proved to be surly, combative, stubborn, unbiddable and headstrong, to the point where she was despatched to Satan to work for him. Woman 1.1 was of course Eve, who was programmed to be subordinate to Adam by the simple means of using one of his ribs to symbolise that as Adam came from God and is subordinate to Him, Woman came from Man and thus is subordinate to her husband. Outwardly submissive and passive, Eve fell for the persuasive talk of another male, the serpent. thus it could be argued that from a Judeo-Christian perspective, the whole world (hardware) and the human race (software) is God's Development Hell...
- In a milder example than most, development of Stern Pinball's Shrek was delayed — and the costs raised — due to demands and red tape from Smash Mouth as well as the films' actors.
- John Popadiuk has been accused of letting his pinball machines in the 2010's languish in development hell. This came to the forefront in late 2014 when he showed two empty cabinets of the machines he had been working on during Pinball Expo 2013, then showed up with the same two empty cabinets for Pinball Expo 2014 while other producers had since been created and produced playable prototypes. Whether or not this is actually the case is uncertain — Popadiuk is incredibly secretive and prefers to reveal as little information as he can, which can give the impression that progress is slow — but the fact remains that both Magic Girl and Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland have had at least 3 years in development when most other industry professionals spend no more than one.
- A development blog and preview site for Magic Girl were finally revealed in February 2015, providing numerous images of the game's backbox and playfield art, audio and video clips, and other game elements. While a release date has still not been announced, it shows that some progress has been made.
- The Star Wars Radio Drama adaptation of Return of the Jedi ended up shelved for a decade due to Ronald Reagan's cuts to NPR's federal funding.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40,000: Since updates to rulebooks and models for different armies are largely based on player demand, and player demand is in turn based on the availability of up to date rulebooks and models, some teams spend years in development hell. This was exemplified by the Dark Eldar who went over a decade without an updated codex while the much more popular Space Marines received seven. They were mercifully Saved from Development Hell with an excellent new codex and model range, but others haven't fared so well.
Games Workshop recently started work on updating older books, which thankfully will see a resurgence of the forgotten armies. However the Sisters of Battle are notable in that while they're not as old as the Dark Eldar, they might very well have to wait quite a bit longer given that they're getting a Magazine Codex (which usually means development on them has halted and they're just getting lip service in the meantime). Even more notable is that the army is so old, they're the only ones who still require you to use metal models for the entire army (every army, even the Necrons and Dark Eldar, had plastics for troops. Sisters are not so lucky).- With the release of the Necrons during the halloween of 2011, the Sisters of Battle is now literally the oldest range, having not received a new model in the longest time.
- In-universe, this is also currently happening with Abbadon the Despoiler's 14th Black Crusade. It's been in limbo for ages because Abbadon has his heart set on getting all the surviving Traitor Primarchs to participate. Considering how much they all hate each other, it's unlikely to happen any time soon.
- Gary Gygax had always wanted to release a version of his iconic "Castle Greyhawk", the location that pretty much launched Dungeons & Dragons while at TSR. Due to his busy schedule as the head of TSR, and his writing duties on a myriad of other modules, he never was able to complete or even start the module. (His being sent to Los Angeles to develop the D&D cartoon series didn't help either). In 1982, the module had been advertised in Dragon Magazine, but as of 1986, when Gygax left the company due to "Creative Differences", no module had been published. In '87, TSR did a wild and mostly unfunny parody version of the Castle that bore no resemblance to Gygax's design. It was seen by many gamers as little more than a parting shot against Gygax, and the module has been pretty solidly rejected by players and pretty much disowned by TSR and Wizards of the Coast, leading to a second try at the module which was much more warmly received.
- Still, that wasn't Gygax's castle, one that wouldn't see print until 2008, when "Castle Zagyg" was published by Troll Lord Games. Sadly that one went straight back into development hell after Gary died shortly after the first installment was released and the deal Troll Lord Games had with Gygax fell apart when his wife took control of the company. Nobody's sure what exactly happened, all people know is that in 2008, Gygax Games was going to find a way to publish the rest of the castle. It is now 2012, and as of this writing, the Gygax Games website has been ofline since at least 2009, still promising "something good in the works."
- This blog post describes the 17-20 years of development hell experienced by one Champions book.
- "d20 Spectaculars" was a Super Hero add-on to d20 Modern that was supposed to be published by Wizards of the Coast in 2006, but it never materialized - possibly because Mutants & Masterminds already had rules for d20 supers and did it very well, possibly because that's when they started work on 4th edition.
- Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition was supposed to be released alongside a series of software tools. The most notable was a "virtual game table" allowing people to play live D&D online, complete with 3D models of characters and monsters. The virtual tabletop was postponed and the game came out in 2008 without any of the promised tools. The subscription-based Dungeons & Dragons Insider service did eventually provide some of them, such as the Character Builder, Monster Generator, and Rules Compendium (with less functionality than originally promised in some cases), but several others including the tabletop were still nowhere to be seen. The virtual tabletop eventually went into beta testing, but lacked the promised 3D models or the (absolutely crucial) ability to use one's own maps, and was officially cancelled in mid-2012. Later that year (on the most generous reckoning), 4th Edition was basically abandoned in favor of developing a new edition. By then there were several free virtual tabletop programs available online, though none had all the features of the version Wot C had planned.
- Exalted Third Edition began development in 2011, was announced in 2012, had a very successful Kickstarter in 2013, and the developers have yet to release even the core rulebook. The current estimate is early 2016.
- GURPS: Girl Genius seems to be in perpetual limbo, possibly due to an edition change since the Foglios wrote most of the content, perhaps because the Foglios have lots of other, probably more profitable work in hand. Other GURPS examples might include:
- GURPS The Difference Engine - announced in October 1991 for 1992 publication. The problem was said to involve the original assigned writer suffering a fatal accident, and the license will long since have expired, so this one can be considered defunct.
- Similarly, GURPS Alvin Maker - announced 1992 for 1993 release, and apparently to have been written by Orson Scott Card himself. (It's possible that this one is simply waiting for him to finish writing the actual series...) Again, the license agreement will have expired.
- The third edition did have a GURPS Middle Ages I (which dealt with Britain), and there was supposed to have been a Middle Ages II (for the continent) which never materialized. However, there's no evidence of that even having been started; sales on volume I may simply have been too disappointing for the project to continue.
- GURPS Thaumatology did eventually appear after only a moderate delay. However, the excuses for that apparently included both the author and the editor experiencing some fairly bizarre (unrelated) health issues, and the publisher being mugged. As the book was about exotic magic systems, there was some joking discussion of a possible curse.
- The entire line, including several partly-completed books, suffered significant delays in 2012-3, along with some other projects from the publisher, Steve Jackson Games. This was mostly because the company had decided to use Kickstarter to fund a relaunch of their classic board game Ogre, which had proved so spectacularly successful that delivering on the promises made devoured most of the company's time and resources.
- Capcom World Tournament was delayed for a while, then put on hiatus, due to issues with Living Room Games being unable to guarantee a profit through traditional distribution and being unable to risk alienating retailers with distribution methods that would be more likely to turn a profit, like electronic-only format or Publish On Demand. It's still not officially "canceled", despite their decision allowing the license to lapse and their not being able to release it now if they wanted to. This particular bit of vaporware essentially killed the company, too.
- There was some talk of releasing it with the Capcom elements removed, but Living Room Games folded due to the financial loss incurred by not actually releasing the game before this could happen. Many RPG fans are disappointed, as by all accounts, it was one of the best and most novel applications of the d20 system ever.
- Mekton is pretty much the (barely-) living definition of Development Hell for Tabletop RPGs. Plans for a new edition, using R Talsorian Games' then-new Fuzion system, were announced in the late 1990s. This version, Mekton Double Zeta, stalled very quickly, and very little was heard from it. RTG then sold Mekton to Atomic Rocket Games with the intent of either producing a new edition or alternatively putting Mekton Zeta back into production. Instead, ARG sat on the licence and did nothing with the IP before selling it back to RTG, while retaining a limited licence to produce supplements and Sourcebook material (As of 2010, they have only produced a few short PDF products). At some point after that, the Fuzion version was dropped with development of any new edition being effectively cancelled. In 2009, Mike Pondsmith, the game's original creator, returned to the company and announced a new version, Mekton ZERO, was in development; however, as yet, no details of the new edition have emerged and there has been no activity from RTG beyond random posts on the Mekton mailing list from Pondsmith, and even those have ceased.
- A Kickstarter campaign for Mekton Zero has since come and gone. Nothing has been heard since.
- In the 1990s, RTG licenced Mekton to a Japanese company to produce a Gundam RPG. In about 2000, RTG then licenced this RPG with the intent of eleasing an english translation in the West. Since then, there has been no news on the progress of the translation, despite being 'in progress' for nearly a decade.
- Mekton Zeta itself was subjected to a lot of development hell. The first sourcebook for the edition was out over a year before the rulebook was released. The mecha in it were contructed with a hybrid of Mekton II and Zeta rules and contianed a number of substantial differenes to the construction rules from either. By the time that Zeta was released, the rules had been further revised, leaving the book effectively obsolete and unsupported.
- Richard O'Brien has, for years, planned on making a sequel to The Rocky Horror Show. So far, however, nothing beyond a few rumors and some scrapped script ideas. All that's known about the yet-to-be-made sequel is that it would've involved Frank N Furter coming back to life.
- The first "leaked" script, Revenge of the Old Queen, began making the rounds in the late '90s, though it reads more like a glorified Fan Fic. Last year, O'Brien announced that he had finally begun writing the playbook for a true sequel, entitled Rocky Horror: The Second Cumming. See the Discussion page for a more detailed version.
- The movie sequel Shock Treatment is, according to Word of God, "not a prequel, not a sequel, but an equal". At best, it's a Spiritual Successor, but it is not in any way a true sequel.
- The severe postponing of the Belgian production of Tanz Der Vampire. This may be due to the severe fiasco that was Dance of the Vampires, the disastrous Broadway adaptation. (In short: The producer had it rewritten into a spoofy comedy, thinking that would play better to Americans, and then allowed lead actor Michael Crawford more control over the show than songwriter Jim Steinman.)
- Jim Steinman has been trying to get a Bat Out of Hell musical off the ground pretty much since the album was released, even stating in interviews it's a concept album that he imagines being adapted to the stage. But after the complete mess that was Dance of the Vampires, Steinman was all but blackballed from Broadway. He still claims he'll make the Bat Out of Hell musical a reality one day, though, even though he face yet another setback in 2006 when Meat Loaf successfully sued for the rights to the title.
- Bat Out of Hell was intended to be the music for a Rock Opera that never happened. At some point, Meatloaf must have decided to release it without the stage show because it was a lot of work to not get published.
- Also Jim Steinman wrote music for a proposed Batman musical.
- Vanities: The Musical was planned to be staged on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in 2009, but due to the recession, this was "postponed indefinitely", and thus its New York debut was relegated to a short run at the off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre.
- The Broadway version of Love Never Dies was set to open Fall 2010, but it was pushed back first to Spring 2011 and then indefinitely. Andrew Lloyd Webber still wants to get it to New York, but so far has had no success.
- Heart and Lights, a Rockettes vehicle that was supposed to be an annual springtime attraction for Radio City Music Hall, cancelled its premiere engagement just days before opening night in March 2014, citing script issues. The debut has been pushed back to Spring 2015, a new director and choreographer have been hired, and it's been retitled The New York Spring Spectacular.
- In The New Tens alone, musicals that have successfully run elsewhere and intend to get Broadway productions — but haven't firmly locked down opening dates/theatres in New York City yet — include:
- Rebecca (Austria) actually got as far as the sets going up before it turned out that the key investor didn't exist -- it was all an elaborate scam.
- King Kong (Australia) was initially announced for a Winter 2014 launch in New York but has since been delayed indefinitely.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (England) was initially shooting for a 2014-15 season New York arrival, but while (as of October 2014) it's still in the works and is even getting some rewrites according to composer/co-lyricist Marc Shaiman, a definite date is not yet in the cards. (Among the reasons: director Sam Mendes is busy with many other projects, the gigantic physical production will require a big theatre to become available, etc.)
- A musical adaptation of The First Wives Club had a limited engagement in San Diego in 2009 that was hyped as its pre-Broadway tryout but after it closed it lost its director and saw no other productions for years afterward. A Retooled version with a new director, book writer, and choreographer will open in Chicago in 2015, again with the intention of going to New York afterward.
Theme Parks
- Dubailand as a whole.
- EPCOT has had plans to add more countries to the World Showcase for decades now. Among plans include a Mt. Fuji themed roller coaster in the Japan area, which eventually led to Expedition Everest at the Animal Kingdom.
- The "Flying Turns," a modern replica of a wooden roller coaster popular in the 1930s, has been under construction at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pennsylvania since 2006. The main engineering problem appears to be recreating a 1930s ride that can also meet 21st century safety standards.
- Ah, Flying Turns. By now a punchline among coaster fans. With the countless of times the trains have been rebuilt, track has been reconfigured and all the testing that ultimately went nowhere, Knoebels has continually added new rides to hold the public over year after year. It finally opened on October 5th, 2013.
- Decades, the Rock'N'Roll theme park in Arizona, which got approval to be built by the state government but never saw the light of day mostly due to money problems and probably because they could not get licensing and permission from the artists themselves. Looking at these proposed plans◊ will give you an idea.
Video Games
- See Vaporware for more.
Web Comics
- The Princess Pi story "Princess Pi vs. Dr. 8" appears to have entered this. The list of Princess Pi villains released back in 2011 showed a drawing of Dr. 8, and described his gimmick as using mathematical calculations to determine the most effective evil schemes. Additionally, a post that cartoonist Peter Paltridge made on the Toon Zone forum compared his personality to that of Charlie Sheen. Despite all these details, Peter never gave a release date for the story.note Considering how many other comics and articles he must make, it seems highly likely that he'll never release it.
- In Muertitos, the equivalent of Hollywood is actually called Development Hell, in a Shout-Out to this. The story arc it appears in actually primarily parodies Adaptation Decay and So Bad, It's Horrible, however.
Web Original
- Parodied in this Onion article: Script Has Been Floating Around Hollywood For 75 Years
- The Masked Girl had a year between release of the opening and release of the actual first episode.
- Jack Douglass (of jacksfilms) has been promising a YouTube version of "Choose Your Own Adventure" since 2008.
- Shiny Objects Videos promised a fully stop-motion animated video back in 2010. It, uh... hasn't panned out.
- As part of their July-August 2013 Indiegogo fundraiser, Channel Awesome raised funds for three new shows: a pop culture game show called "Retro Pop Culture Challenge", a new comic book show, and a video game-based trivia show "The Gaming Gauntlet". As of December 2014 the pop culture show has apparently been filmed and is in post-production, but nothing has come of the other two shows.
- One of the shows, apparently now called Pop Quiz Hotshot, has had a few pictures of the set for the show pop up over time, featuring other site contributors such as Cinema Snob and Linkara, and even some test footage as well as an audition sign up page have popped up on the website. Very little of the show popped up since then, until March 31, 2015, when a pilot episode for the show was released.
- Go to the YKTTW and you likely see unfinished tropes that have been there for MONTHS. Which is why we have the YKTTW Bump handy to keep developing trope concepts alive.
- An in-universe example: In Homestar Runner, the game Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective, was in production for 4 1/2 years before finally being released in SPCG 4 AP Episode 4.
- The site itself hadn't had new content since September of 2009 until the April Fool's Day special was released in 2014.
- Their games aren't free from it, either: the periodically updated Stinkoman 20X6 had level 9 added in 2005, with a promise of the final level "coming soon". Nearly 10 years later, it hasn't been released yet.
- Worm was preceded by years of failed drafts. That's part of why so many minor characters have fleshed out backstories - several were originally planned to be the protagonist in earlier versions of the story.
- "Pimp Lando X" from the Pimp Lando series, which only has had a teaser released...in 2008.
Western Animation
- The three Code Lyoko OVAs. Reports conflict as to whether they were finally cancelled, but evidence points to their cancellation.
In a similar vein, the live-action series, which was announced as "in discussion" a year ago and has not been heard from since, is probably in danger of becoming this.Actually, some recent PDFs found on Moonscoop's website suggest that they are in the late planning stage/early filming stage. Of course, who knows about release dates... - Nelvana holds the rights to the Little Critter characters and at least a couple of scripts were written around 2000, but nothing further has been heard since and it is assumed development was dropped.
- Hasbro had planned two DVD releases based on the character TJ Bearytales and even released a music video featuring this character on a My Little Pony DVD. The DVDs were slated for release in either late 2007 or early 2008, but neither ever materialized.
- This webpage (Wayback Machine archive) has information on five series that qualify, they include Spinoff(s) of both Rugrats and Hey Arnold!, a clone of Teacher's Pet, a Animesque series like Avatar: The Last Airbender and a series that was supposed to be based off of a comic book. Another page (on the same website) has information on a show that was originally aired as a 15-minute short in 2002. But no more information has surfaced on it.
- Making Fiends was in the planning stage for years, and there were promos for it A YEAR before it aired on tv, only to get tossed back into development hell after 6 episodes.
- An animated series based on the comic book series The 99 was announced to be one of the launch programs on The Hub, no word about the series has been heard since its announcement in March 2010
- A DTV animated movie based on Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, with character designs by James Jean and a script by Warren Ellis, was announced in 2007, but no further developments has been made.
- Season 4 of The Boondocks was finally confirmed in May 2012...nearly two years after the final episode of season 3 aired.
- By the time this is written, over a year has passed since that date.
- Boondocks has done this before, however. Its first season ended in late 2005. Its second season didn't start until early 2008. It ended mid 2008, and the third season didn't begin until late 2010.
- The fourth season of the 2010 reboot of Pound Puppies has not been renewed and production of the series has stalled indefinitely due to poor ratings and the failure of the toy line.
- Robotech Shadow Rising is the proposed sequel to Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. Its fate is reportedly tied up with the schedule for the proposed live action movie on which no progress is known to have been made since its announcement in 2008.
- Shadow Rising has been put on hold in favor of another film project, Robotech: Love Live Alive, which was released on DVD with the special edition reissue of Shadow Chronicles in July 2013. Love Live Alive took the 50-minute OVA Genesis Climber MOSPEADA: Love Live Alive and added 40 minutes of new bridging material written and conceived by the late Carl Macek to create a full-length feature designed as a direct lead-in to Shadow Rising. Shadow Rising is expected to be out in 2015.
- The TV special The Magic 7 started in 1990, most of the voice tracks were recorded in the 90s - two of the involved actors (Madeline Kahn and John Candy) even died and had to be removed.
- The second season of the Thundercats remake has not been renewed and remains on indefinite hiatus.
- It's now canceled, ending the series on a cliffhanger, finishing only half of it's planned run.
- Revenge Of The Island was originally going to air in 2011. However, due to the radioactive disasters in Japan in that year, coupled with the radioactive creatures of the season, the seasons didn't air until a year after, creating the longest hiatus between seasons during the course of the show.
- And now Pahkitew Island was originally going to air on the day after Memorial Day, but got postponed until July 7th for unknown reasons.
- The sketch series MAD was not renewed for a fifth season and was halted indefinitely. Since Cartoon Network has now taken the show off the schedule, it's likely been quietly canceled.
- A series reboot of The Flintstones produced by Seth MacFarlane was announced in 2011. Problems with MacFarlane's schedule means that the series has gone no further as of 2013.
- It appears to be cancelled, as FOX sold the rights back to Warner Bros. , who are going to release a Direct-to-Video movie featuring the characters interacting with wrestlers from WWE. Seriously.
- Fearless Photog was a character created for a 1986 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) contest by then twelve year-old Nathan Bitner. Among other prizes the winning character was supposed to have entered into production. Unfortunately, the He-Man toys had stopped selling by then, so the entire line (including the Photog figure) was canceled. It wasn't until 2012 and after a massive case of "whatever happened to...?" on the Internet that Mattel finally made Photog, selling him to adult fans on their MattyCollector.com website.
- After the success of the Robot Chicken Star Wars episodes, Lucasfilm tapped Stoopid Monkey to produce Star Wars Detours, a CGI cartoon featuring various side stories, with a planned 2013 airdate. The series was apparently well in production, with footage being released online, before the Disney acquisition forced Lucasfilm to allocate its resources towards the sequel trilogy. 39 episodes were reportedly completed.
- The original short for Uncle Grandpa was produced in 2008/2009 as a part of The Cartoonstitute. The short lost out to fellow Cartoonstitute short Regular Show for being picked up as a full series, but the pilot lingered online for years. After years of fan demand, and the failure of another series by UG's creator, Uncle Grandpa was finally picked up in early 2013 and started airing on Cartoon Network later that same year.
- Preschool Daze, a Rugrats spin-off focusing on Suzie and Angelica at school, was put on hold after the success of the All Grown Up!, one shot special, led to a series. Only four shorts were produced (making up two full episodes) and put on the Rugrats "Tales from the Crib" DVDs. At this point, it's safe to say it's canceled.
- In 2011 Mike Judge was supposed to be the producer of a new series for the MTV animation department called Worst Friends Forever, about three unpopular high school girls. Nothing more is known about it, since it was immediately canned.
- In 2006, Disney announced two Winnie-the-Pooh installments for their Learning Adventures series: Good Day, Good Night and Time to Rhyme. Trailers popped up in various Disney DVDs at the time, featuring fully animated footage. Sadly, neither of them were released making this a rather baffling example.
- Word of God is Lauren Faust doesn't really care for a Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls series but she's been trying to pitch it for years as she knows toy companies prefer when toys have Merchandise-Driven cartoons. There's still no sign of an animated special, or a complete series, after some 10+ years. She was trying to pitch Milky Way once and ended up creating Friendship is Magic instead.
- There have been talks of an Animated Adaptation of the book series Rainbow Magic for years, pretty much since the series started. All that's come out of it was a one-off movie/OVA released around 2010, and nothing else seems planned.
- There were apparently plans for an animated series of Barbie back in the late 80's, but all that materialized were 2 specials based on the Rockers line. Apparently DIC decided to make Maxies World and/or Beverly Hills Teens instead.
- A Johnny Test movie was announced around 2013, but the near-universal hatred of the franchise and the show's cancellation have apparently put the plans on ice.
- The Canadian/Australian production SheZows production has stalled and is most likely cancelled.
Transportation Infrastructure
General Note: Transportation infrastructure is a very complicated business from an engineering standpoint, and also from an economics standpoint (since nobody can ever agree on the most likely economic impact of the new infrastructure) and from a political standpoint (since inevitably these things get people nearby riled up for or against them, with the pro-side usually saying something like "Jobs!" and the anti-side usually saying "Too Expensive!" and "Noise and Smell!"note ). As a result, infrastructure projects tend to get hit with this trope very easily.
- U.S. Route 31 has sloooooowly been in the process of conversion to freeway from South Bend, Indiana to just east of Benton Harbor, Michigan. A leg on the west side of Niles, Michigan was opened in 1992 as a divided highway without exits but later upgraded. The next-to-last stretch was completed in 2003, but halted just a couple miles shy of an obvious hookup into the existing I-94/I-196 exit, due to a creek in the freeway's path being the habitat for a rare species of butterfly. For over a decade now, plans have been bandied about to fill in that last gap.
- The attempts to have a complete commuter rail system in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas have been hampered with multiple delays, which can't be completely surprising since the two major cities have separate transit authorities; it now looks like it was a major miracle that the Trinity Railway Express connecting the two was even completed at all, let alone back in 2001. DART's Orange light rail line was originally supposed to be complete by December 2012; while most of it is operational, the final extension to DFW Airport was pushed back until 2014 (but was finished two months ahead of the new December '14 target date). The Cotton Belt corridor line connecting the airport to the northern suburbs now has a proposed implementation date of 2025 at the earliest. Meanwhile, The TEX commuter rail line to run through Fort Worth originally had a proposed completion date of 2012. It's currently been pushed all the way to 2017 - and that's just for the first half that will connect downtown to Grapevine and DFW Airport; the southern end running to the medical district and TCU has been put off indefinitely.
- Another hurdle the cities have had to overcome is Arlington, which is believed to have long been the largest city in America with no public transit and whose citizens constantly vote down any transit plan. This is a huge problem for the Metroplex since Arlington sits in the middle and is one of the area's biggest tourist destinations, now being the home to the Dallas Cowboys in addition to the Texas Rangers baseball team and the Six Flags Over Texas theme park. The city has finally agreed to a two-year trial bus line connecting downtown Arlington and its entertainment district to the nearest Trinity Railway stop; service began in August 2013.
- Another example in the Metroplex, State Highway 360. South of Interstate 20, the main road ends and the highway continues as frontage roads, complete with dummy entrance and exit ramps, continues until the Ellis County line at US Highway 287. Subsequent plans have included possibly making it a tollroad in order to finish completion, with the latest proposal up in the air as of 2013.
- Sydney's second airport. Everyone agrees that the city badly needs one (since at least the 1980s, possibly earlier), but nobody's been able to find a good place for it, and the huge amount of costs would mean that the city might not even have one by 2020. (As of 2014, they've finally found a spot in Badgerys Creek.)
- The North-West Rail Link, Epping to Cherrybrook to Congegong Road has been wanted since the 80's and is now being built, but will be finished by 2023.
- The BMT Second Avenue Line of the New York City Subway was first proposed way back in 1929 and became more pressing with the demolishing of the elevated lines that used to serve the East Side of Manhattan in the 1940's and 50's - currently, the nearest line that serves the area is the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (the 4, 5, and 6 trains), which alone serves more passengers than the entire Washington Metro system (the second-busiest mass transit system in the US). City bond issues for the line were approved by voters twice (1951 and 1967note ) and construction finally began in 1972...right before the city became insolvent. The idea was finally put back on track in 2005 with another voter-approved bond issue, and assuming things don't go too wacky again the first part of the line is scheduled to begin service in December 2016, as an extension of the Q train from the BMT Broadway Line.
- I-95 is the major highway along the East Coast of the United States, stretching from Miami all the way up through Maine to the Canadian border. Despite being one of the first routes of the Interstate Highway System planned and started when the Interstate was first proposed in the 50's, it is still not one continuous route long after most of the nationwide system was built by the 1980's. The original plan was to build a new highway through New Jersey to connect Philadelphia and New York City, but thanks to both freeway revolts (local residents feared that the highway would bring unwanted development to area farmland) and opposition by the New Jersey Turnpike (what would you rather travel - a tolled road or a free one?note ) the route got canned. The gap is currently being rectified by a new project in Pennsylvania, which is expected to finish in 2018.
- The Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which is supposed to replace Berlin's two current international airports (Tegel and Schonefeld), has been in construction since 2006, and is suffering from a plethora of problems (most prominently the fire protection system) that led to exploding costs and the repeated delay of the opening date. As of now, only tiny parts of the airport (such as the cargo center) have been opened.
- The expansion of I-69 into a true Canada-to-Mexico corridor has been on the drawing board since the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. It was supposed to have been completed around 2012. Planned segments in southern Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi (planned to connect the existing northern I-69 route to I-69 in Texas) have been bogged down in political wrangling and budget woes since 2011.
- Even before that, I-69 had a big gap for several miles on either side of Lansing, Michigan. From 1973 to 1992, a "Temporary I-69" designation was placed on a surface highway with intersections until the Interstate was finally completed.
- Warsaw Metro rail system was envisioned as early as 1920s. Crisis, war and destruction of most of the city delayed construction until 1984 when first tunnels were dug. It wasn't until 1995 when first half (between city center and south) of the first line was finished (for those counting, that's around 2 meters a day). Stations further north were gradually built and opened until completion in 2008. Luckily, despite some delays, the second line is progressing quicker (started 2010, first stations to be opened in late 2014).
- Currently, I-73 exists as a rather short intrastate highway (around 80 miles or so) connecting Greensboro and Biscoe, North Carolina. Plans to extend it southward to just north of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, seem to be ready to go, but northward to an undisclosed location (Roanoke, VA and Grayling, MI, the latter at US 127's terminus at I-75, being among the locations kicked about) has run into similar problems that I-69 faces.
- New York City's largest train station, Penn Station, is currently a rather dreary underground complex beneath Madison Square Garden. As the Garden has been facing land-use difficulty and people have never really forgotten the demolition of the original Beaux-Arts Penn Station in 1963, there is currently an ungodly struggle between those who want to renovate the old James Farley Post Office next door and turn it into a new rail hub (to be named Moynihan Station after the great sociologist, diplomat, and Senator from New York Daniel Patrick Moynihan) and those who want MSG to pack up and go somewhere else with a new Penn Station to be rebuilt on the old site. A lack of money for either project has kept this tension bubbling along since at least 2000.
- When the Las Vegas Monorail opened along the east side of the Vegas Strip in 2004, connecting several of the Strip's casino resorts, the original plans had it expanding to nearby McCarran International Airport and Downtown Vegas, but its ridership has never been enough to warrant such. The primary reason for this is that the stations are located at the far back of the resorts, many of them are sprawling, and none of the resorts on the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard are included, so most visitors find it quicker to walk from the entrances of one resort to another, especially resorts that aren't on the line. Even the hopes that it would ease the Strip's notorious traffic congestion failed to be fulfilled.
- Washington, DC's Dulles International Airport has three main buildings: the main terminal, housing ticketing, check-in, a number of other things, and the "Z" gates, and two long "midfield" terminal buildings parallel to the main one, the closer building housing Concourses A and B and the farther one housing Concourses C and D. The farther one is supposedly a "temporary" building (despite housing United Airlines, for which Dulles is a major hub)...and has been since it was built in 1983. They haven't even started accepting proposals for the design of the "permanent" building.
- The Grand Prix of America is a Formula One street race in New Jersey. Or it would be, if they could actually get the permanent parts of the course built. It was first announced in 2011 for a spot on the 2013 F1 schedule, only to be pushed back to 2014 after the clearances weren't secured in time. Then it missed the 2014 date due to financial difficulties. In late 2013, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone publicly claimed the race's backers are in breach of contract due to the repeated delays, and that the slot is now open to any group who can put together enough money to finish the course. The backers have since slammed Ecclestone and claimed he's deliberately trying to sabotage their efforts. As of July 2014, Ecclestone has indicated that, regardless of who finishes the course, the earliest it could be added is 2016 (and he seemed very doubtful that even that mark could be met) due to an agreement with some of the bigger teams not to exceed 20 races in a season.
- Subverted with the revival of the United States Grand Prix, which was almost canceled due to a brief contract dispute between Ecclestone and the builders of the Circuit of the Americas, but ultimately went off on its originally scheduled date at the end of the 2012 season.
- The Westfield Shopping Center in Bradford, UK. Originally planned in 1998 to spruce up the cities fairly unpleasant shopping area, it finally got approval in 2003. Buildings in the area were completely demolished by 2006 and dug out. A number of shops closed up to prepare to move into the new building. After Westfield decided to focus on other projects the city was left with an enormous demolished pit (referred to locally as 'The Hole') until 2010 when a small section of the site was turned into a park. As a result an entire chunk of the city was basically abandoned, with nearby shops closing up due to lack of people visiting the area. Construction finally got underway in 2014.
- The Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Rolled out in July 2007, the plans were for flights to begin in 2009, with stretched versions coming out within two to three years. Then technically difficulties and parts delays meant the aircraft didn't make its first flight until December 2009. It wasn't until July 2011 that the 787-8 finally entered passenger service with All Nippon Airways. Then in December 2012, the aircraft was grounded worldwide due to problems with lithium ion batteries catching fire on a few aircraft, including a Japan Airlines 787 at Logan International Airport and at least one pop-the-evacuation-slides emergency landing at Tokyo Haneda Airport by an ANA Dreamliner. Fortunately, once the problems with the base 787-8 model were resolved, production of the longer 787-9 was much faster, as it took its first flight in September 2013 and within a year, United Airlines, ANA and Air New Zealand had pressed their first -9s into regular service.
- Neon Alley. In Canada. Need I say more?note
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