![\"Jerry](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\tGetting a film through production, post and released is no small feat. Multiple high-profile films remain stuck in limbo. We even broke news about one of them this year. That got us thinking about buzzy projects down the years that were made but still haven\u2019t seen the light of day.<\/p>\n
\n\tCheck out our piece below on 18 such projects, all starry features that were largely shot, but sadly haven\u2019t had a release for one reason or another.<\/p>\n
\t\tA Woman of the Sea\t<\/p>\n
\n\tA Woman of the Sea, also known by its working title\u00a0Sea Gulls, is the unreleased silent film produced in 1926 by Charlie Chaplin. The love story set against the sea was a starring vehicle for his former leading lady Edna Purviance. But it is one of only two lost Chaplin films, having been destroyed by Chaplin himself as a tax write-off, despite six months of filming and an estimated $90,000 spent on production. Filmmaker John Grierson, who reportedly saw some of the film before the negatives were burned, called it \u201cextraordinarily beautiful \u2014 but empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Deep \t<\/p>\n
\n\tOrson Welles worked on this film from 1966-1969 and still harbored hopes it might be completed in the years after that. The drama was to follow a couple\u2019s honeymoon trip aboard a yacht. The production was plagued by financial and technical problems and as work on the film became more sporadic and difficult, Welles is said to have become increasingly withdrawn. The original negative was lost and the film only exists in two work prints. Despite its challenges, lead Jeanne Moreau was among those to look back on the production as \u201ca fantastic experience,\u201d adding that \u201cthe only disastrous thing was that later on, the film disappeared.\u201d Another lead actor in the film, Laurence Harvey, died in 1973, effectively ending hopes the project could film its last remaining scenes.<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Day The Clown Cried\t<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tJerry Lewis in \u2018The Day the Clown Cried\u2019<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/p>\n
\n\tThis 1972 Swedish-French drama, directed by and starring Jerry Lewis, was about a circus clown imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. The film has gained notoriety and mystique over the decades both for its controversial premise and because it never saw the light of day. Lewis repeatedly insisted the film\u00a0would never be released, but later donated an incomplete copy to the Library of Congress in 2015 under orders that it wasn\u2019t to be made available until 2024. A journalist screened the five-hour footage that year but said that the film wasn\u2019t complete. It later emerged that a complete copy had existed but was stolen by an actor in the film.<\/p>\n
\t\tBig Bug Man\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis unreleased American animated TV film starred Brendan Fraser and Marlon Brando, marking the latter\u2019s last film role. It followed a candy company worker who gains special abilities after being bitten by insects. The hand-drawn film is reported to have cost as much as $20 million. Pic was written by Bob Bendetson, who also wrote episodes of The Simpsons, and was directed Bendetson and Peter Shin. Brando was originally asked to voice a male character, but Brando thought it would be fun to voice the old lady Mrs. Sour instead. Brando reportedly wore a blonde wig, a dress, white gloves, and full makeup while recording the voice. An unwell Brando died shortly after recording his part in the film. It was originally scheduled for release between 2006 and 2008, but never got a release.<\/p>\n
\t\tHippie Hippie Shake\t<\/p>\n
\n\tHippie Hippie Shake\u00a0is an unreleased UK drama from Working Title chronicling the release of an Australian satirical magazine in 1960s London and the staff\u2019s trial for distributing an obscene issue. Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller starred in the film, which was repeatedly delayed. In 2007 the film finally began shooting, but by 2009 creative differences led to director Beeban Kidron quitting during post. By 2011, Working Title admitted the film wouldn\u2019t be released.<\/p>\n
\t\tBlack Water Transit\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBlack Water Transit\u00a0is an unreleased 2009 American crime-drama directed by Tony Kaye of American History X fame. Laurence Fishburne and Karl Urban are among cast of the film set in post-Katrina New Orleans, where a shipping exec finds himself getting more than he bargained for after agreeing to help feds expose a smuggler. The film got bogged down in various complex lawsuits over many years. Along the way, exec producer David Bergstein went to prison for a separate fraud charge.<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Magic 7\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Magic 7\u00a0is an animated TV film written and directed by Roger Holzberg. The film centers on the adventures of two children and a dragon as they fight the arch-enemies of Earth. The stellar voice cast included John Candy, Michael J Fox, Ted Danson, Ice-T, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore and James Earl Jones. It was slated to air on Earth Day, April 22, 1997, but was postponed. After later plans for a 2005 release, the film was again suspended.<\/p>\n
\t\tGore\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBased on Jay Parini\u2019s biography of Gore Vidal, the 2017-shot film was in post-production when Netflix decided to cancel it following the sexual assault allegations against Kevin Spacey. It would have been an early prestige Netflix original and came on the heels of the streamer\u2019s hit collaboration with Oscar winner Spacey on\u00a0House of Cards. But the film was killed in post. There\u2019s speculation online that the largely finished film privately screened for one or two top-ranking Netflix executives at the time.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tLeslie Grace as Batgirl<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWarner Bros Discovery<\/p>\n
\n\tThe DC Comics adaptation is possibly the highest-profile instance of an unreleased movie. Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the film starred Leslie Grace as Batgirl alongside JK Simmons, Jacob Scipio, Brendan Fraser, Michael Keaton and Ivory Aquino. Joss Whedon was originally attached to write and direct but left a year into work on the movie. El Arbi and Fallah were hired to direct in 2021 when the film was confirmed as an HBO Max original. In summer 2022, DC Films and WBD announced that, while the film had entered post-production, the studio no longer planned to release it as scheduled due to the company\u2019s cost-cutting measures and a refocus on theatrical releases. The shelving of a nearly complete, $90 million film for tax write-off purposes drew widespread condemnation, but it wasn\u2019t the last time a studio pulled such a move.<\/p>\n
\t\tScoob 2\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis HBO Max mystery-comedy, scheduled for release in 2022, was a prequel to the studio\u2019s 2020 film Scoob!, both based on the Scooby-Doo franchise. Mark Hamill, McKenna Grace and Maya Hawke were among cast but WBD shelved the film citing cost-cutting measures and an intent to refocus on theatrical films over projects made for streaming.<\/p>\n
\t\tNewborn\/Solitary\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis Nate Parker drama, shot back in 2020, follows a man who is released into a newly self-isolating society after years of solitary confinement. David Oyelowo is in the lead role and support comes from Barry Pepper, Olivia Washington and Jimmie Fails. Parker\u2019s career hit major turbulence some years before this movie was shot and the film\u2019s financier Bron has subsequently gone under, making a release even harder. We hear from sources that there may still be hope of a release for this one, however. Watch this space.<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Way of the Wind\t<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018The Way of the Wind\u2019<\/p>\n