Mining Trade Production Listings from the 90’s

I recently stumbled upon some archived production listings from the early 90’s on this site. They instantly took me back to my high school years, when I would rush to the mailbox every Monday afternoon eagerly looking for my copy of Weekly Variety.

Anyway, there’s some really fascinating stuff to be found within. I’ve pulled some of the jucier listings below, my comments in blue.

FASCINATING WHAT-COULD-HAVE-BEEN’S

PRINCESS OF MARS (Hollywood)
Summer, 1993
Dir: John McTiernan
Cast: Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts (tentative)
Producers: Michael Engelberg, Andy Vajna
Screenplay: Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, Bob Gale
Start Date: 6/92
(With an A-list director and the two biggest stars of the day – this project amazingly couldn’t get off the ground. 15 years, multiple studios and directors later, it still rests in development hell.)

WHO DISCOVERED ROGER RABBIT (Touchstone)
Christmas 1993
Dir: Rob Minkoff
Cast: Voice of Charles Fleischer, TBA
(Lots of behind-the-scenes drama involving Amblin Entertainment and Disney killed this before it could roll. Minkoff rebounded by directing the biggest animated film of all-time.)

ZORRO
1992
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Cast: TBA
Screenplay: Nancy Larson
(Never warmed up to the eventual Spielberg-produced version, not sure that him being behind the camera would have helped much, either)

FRIDA: THE BRUSH OF ANGUISH
Dir: Luis Valdez
Cast: TBA
Producers: Eduardo Rossoff, Donald Zuckerman
Screenplay: Luis Valdez, Lupe Valdez
Start Date: 4/92, Mexico, France
(Assuming this was an unmade Frida Kahlo Biopic from the director of La Bamba)

THE CROWDED ROOM
Dir: James Cameron
Cast: John Cusack
Producers: James Cameron, Larry Kassanoff
Screenplay: Todd Graff, from Daniel Keyes’ novel “The Minds of Billy Milligan”
Start Date: 4/92
(Not sure why it didn’t happen. The screenplay is all over the internet for anyone interested. I believe Cameron had Brad Pitt in the lead role before it collapsed.)

SUNRISE IN HIS POCKET 1993
Dir: David Zucker
Cast: TBA
Exec Producer: Jon Peters, Peter Guber
Screenplay: TBA, based on Paul Hutton’s book
(Forgotten big-budget Davy Crockett picture from the days when the Zucker Brothers were considered a powerful force in Hollywood)

CHARLIE CHAN
Dir: David Mamet
Cast: TBA
Exec Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
Producers: John Davis, Wayne Williams
Screenplay: David Mamet
Negative Cost: $20 million
This Imagine Entertainment film will be budgeted on the southern side of $20
million. A worldwide search for the actor to be the new Charlie Chan is
underway. Mamet most recently wrote and directed HOMICIDE.
(?! Not sure what this was, but it’s certainly an oddity)

SPEED RACER
1993
Dir: Patrick Read Johnson
Cast: TBA
Producers: Joel Silver, Richard Donner
Screenplay: Patrick Read Johnson, John Lau
(Good thing this fell into development hell. Who would ever see something like that?)

LES MISERABLES
1993
Dir: Bruce Beresford
Cast: TBA
Producer: Cameron Mackintosh
Screenplay: Alain Boublil, Calude-Michel Schonberg
Start Date: Spring 1992, France, England
Negative Cost: $40 million
(Two decades later, there’s still not a filmed version of the Les Miserables musical. Assuming receipts on things like Rent and Phantom won’t help.)

HOOVER
1993
Dir: Francis Coppola
Cast: TBA
Producer: Quincy Jones
Screenplay: based on “J. Edgar Hoover, the Man and the Secrets” by Curt Gentry. Coppola and Quincy Jones team up for the first time to film the biopic on Mr. FBI’s life from 1924 until the time of Nixon. Revealed will be the undue influence Hoover had over 10 presidencies.
(VERY interesting. Would love to know more about this.)

HOUDINI
1993
Dir: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: TBA
Producer: Ray Stark
Screenplay: Peter Seaman, Jeffrey Price
Start Date: 1992
A big screen treatment of the life of legendary illusionist Harry Houdini comes to life after twenty years of development by mega-producer Ray Stark.
The film will approach the subject from the angle of the relationship between Harry and his wife and how their lives were interwoven with mysticism and
spirituality. Stark calls Zemeckis “the most important young adult director since John Huston. He has vast cinematic knowledge, but it is never more than
a background for his feelings toward humanity.” Price wrote WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.
The film is a Columbia-Universal co-production, and it has not been announced as to who will release it domestically.
(Ditto)

MEN
1993
Dir: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray
Producers: Mark Rosenberg, Paula Weinstein
Screenplay: Elaine May
Remake of Dorris Dorrie’s German comedy reteams three of the TOOTSIE
principals and a three of those from ISHTAR.
(Not sure why this never got off the ground. Pollack ended up doing The Firm and Murray did Groundhog Day/Mad Dog and Glory, so I guess things worked out in the end.)

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Christmas 1993
Dir: Joel Schumacher
Producer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Start Date: 1/93
The musical smash is on again as a film…. Schumacher is once again slated
to helm, after playing musical directors with Franco Zeffirelli. Both quit
over lack of creative control.
(Pretty amazing that Schumacher held onto the project for another 11 years before it rolled. Shame it was a such a disappointment.)

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON TBA
Dir: John Carpenter
Producer: Sandy King
Remake of the classic horror film.
(Carpenter ended up getting replaced by Clive Barker, I believe. The flick never happened regardless)

OCTOBER SURPRISE
1993
Dir: TBA
Cast: TBA
Producer: Jon Peters
Screenplay: TBA, based on Gary Sick’s book “October Surprise: America’s
Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan”
Start Date: 1992
Columbia sees this project as having the scope and epic quality of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.
(Could have been very interesting depending on talent involved. Sounds like a Mike Nichols flick to me.)

INTO THE WOODS
Christmas 1993
Dir: TBA
Cast: TBA
Exec. Producer: Brian Henson
Producers: Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Patrick Duncan Kenworthy
Screenplay: TBA
Start Date: late 1992
Zadan anticipates a $30 million budget on this big-screen adaptation of the
Tony-winning musical. It will be co-produced by Jim Henson Productions and
will feature live action mixed with Henson puppets. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine will consult on the production. Filming will be either in Los Angeles or London.
(Yet another 80’s Broadway adaptation in development hell. If memory serves: Spielberg ended up getting involved along with Chris Columbus before it died)

HELL CAMP
Dir: Milos Forman
Cast: Dylan Walsh
Producer: Michael Hausman
Screenplay: Adam Davidson, Milos Forman
D.P.: John Bailey
Start Date: 1/92, Tokyo, New York
Story of a New Yorker sent by his Japanese-owned company to train in Japan
where he becomes an accomplish sumo wrestler has been put on hold due to
conflicts with the Sumo Wrestling Society of Japan. It was to have begun
production on 11/18/91 for a Christmas 1992 release.
(The Sumo Wrestling Society of Japan is responsible for killing a Milos Forman picture?! I would love to a) know the details b) have seen the finished product.)

TITLE/CAST/DIRECTOR CHANGES

BLUE MAAGA (Touchstone) 1992
Dir: Brian Gibson
Producer: Dawn Steel
Screenplay: Lynn Siefert
Start Date: 1/92, Jamaica, Calgary Alberta
(Ended up as Cool Runnings)

THE BABOON HEART
TBA
Dir: Tony Bill
Cast: Brad Pitt
Screenplay: Tom Sierchio
Start Date: 3/1/92
(Ended up as Untamed Heart with Christian Slater replacing Pitt)

THE FLINTSTONES
Christmas 1993
Dir: Richard Donner
Cast: John Goodman
Exec. Producer: Steven Spielberg
Start Date: 4/93
(Donner was replaced by Brian Levant. The movie would have probably been a rancid piece of garbage regardless)

THE SAINT
December
Dir: Renny Harlin
Cast: TBA
Producer: Robert Evans
Screenplay: Terry Hayes
(I believe Tom Cruise was in talks before this incarnation died)

LEGENDS OF THE FALL
1993
Dir: Ed Zwick
Cast: TBA
Screenplay: TBA, based on Jim Harrison’s novella
Talks have been held with Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise and Sean Connery to star.
(The eventual cast of Pitt, Hopkins and what’s-his-name would have certainly been overshadowed by the trio above)

THE QUIZ SHOW
TBA
Dir: Harold Becker
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss
Producers: Mark Johnson, Fred Zolo
Screenplay: Paul Antanasio
The scandalous days of the Fifties’ television quiz shows are relived.
(Dodged a bullet here. The eventual Redford/Fiennes version is one of the best films of the 90’s.)

SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER
TBA
Cast: Chevy Chase
(And another bullet dodged…)

FATHER’S DAY
1992
Dir: Brian DePalma
Cast: John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich
Producer: Gale Anne Hurd
Screenplay: Brian DePalma
Start Date: 10/91
(Ended up as “Raising Cain”)

KING OF THE JUNGLE
70mm Fall, 1993
Screenplay: Linda Woolverton
Disney’s 32nd animated feature concerns the coming-of-age of a young lion.
Woolverton wrote the sensational BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.
(Maybe “Lion” should be in the title…keep the “king”.)

ROMEO IS BLEEDING
TBA
Dir: Peter Medak
Cast: Madonna
Screenplay: Hilary Henkin
(Lena Olin ended up replacing Madonna. Again, crisis averted)

GONE FISHIN’
Summer 1992
Dir: Steve Herek
Cast: John Travolta
Producer: Debra Hill
Screenplay: Jeffrey Abrams, Jill Mazursky
Start Date: 12/91, Orlando
Comedy/adventure about two hen-pecked husbands. Shot at Disney-MGM Studio
(Assuming this eventually became the Joe Pesci/Danny Glover flick that’s more famous for killing crewmembers than box-office records.)

WTF?

MIDKNIGHT
1993
Dir: TBA
Cast: Michael Jackson
Exec. Producer: Anton Furst
Screenplay: Caroline Thompson, Larry Wilson
Start Date: 1992
(I wonder if this was the flick where he was going to be a transforming car?)

COOL AS ICE (Alive)
October 18
Rating: “PG”
Dir: David Kellogg
Cast: Vanilla Ice, Kristin Minter
Producers: Carolyn Pfeiffer, Lionel Wigram
Pale rapper Vanilla Ice makes his feature film debut in this music-motorcycle
film as a free-wheeling stranger who roles into town, falls in love with a high
school honor student and does some rappin’. The film was tested August 13 at
the Cineplex Universal City with the target young female audience. It received
92% in the top two boxes and 79% in the top box. The definite recommend level
was an astounding 90+%.
(This was obviously made, but the tracking notes made me laugh)

NEW JACK CITY 2
Summer 1992
Dir: TBA
Cast: TBA
Producers: Doug McHenry, George Jackson
Sequel to the 1991 hit starts shooting in early 1992. There will be teaser
trailers on 3000 screens promoting the film at Christmas 1991.
(No-brainer, license-to-print-money sequel that somehow ended up taking 16 years to produce)

TOXIC CRUSADERS
Spring 1993
Dir: TBA
Cast: TBA
Troma goes big-time with a $10 million New Line film starring a group of
environmental accident mutants (ala TMNT) based on THE TOXIC AVENGER. Headed
by Toxie, they will include Nozone, Major Disaster, Headbanger and Junkyard.
They fight the evil Dr. Killemoff, Psycho and Bonehead.
(Wow.)

YO, ALICE!
1993
Dir: TBA
Cast: TBA
Producer: David Permut
Screenplay: TBA
Negative Cost: <$10 million
A hip-hop musical film version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND that was developed by Maurice Hines, who may choreograph and/or perform in the film. In this
version, Alice Huxley is a 17-year-old African-American who ventures on a voyage of discovery when she and her friend Harvey (who is transformed into the
Rabbit) get sucked into the VCR. The lead role will be cast with an unknown, but there will be some big names in supporting roles.
(Again, wow.)

And my personal favorite of this category:

MOT
TBA
Dir: John Badham
Cast: John Goodman
Goodman is a dyslexic janitor named Tom based in San Francisco this film that rolls once ROSEANNE goes on hiatus.
(Even the title is brilliant. And by John Badham, no less?!)