Blade Runner 2049 hits theatres this week – yet it was first announced back in 2011. Up until the first reactions and reviews hit, there was concern that this would be a somewhat underwhelming sequel, a follow-up set 30 years after the original that no one was sure they even wanted.
Not so! It's too soon for box office results, obviously, but the glowing reviews and renewed buzz suggest that this might just be a hit. It wouldn't be the only smash that looked like it might be stuck in the movie limbo of development hell for ever.
Here are six highly successful movies which clawed their way to freedom to achieve glory.
1. It
It might be the highest-grossing horror movie of all time, but the reappearance of everyone's favourite clown was no way a dead cert. Optioned back in 2009, an initial single film screenplay was being developed by David Kajganich (who's incidentally currently writing a screenplay for a Pet Sematary remake).
Later in 2012 Cary Fukunaga and Will Poulter (attached to play Pennywise) came on board with a new two-part version developed by Fukunaga. Filming was all set to start in April 2015 until Fukanaga parted ways with the project over creative differences with New Line.
With the Poltergeist remake (which they'd tried to promote with scary clown imagery) landing to no fanfare, the studio worried that clowns weren't so hot right now and the project nearly stalled altogether.
Fortunately later that year Andy Muschietti floated in to resurrect the project. Beep beep, New Line, good call.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
[youtube ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJnMQG9ev8&t=3s[/youtube]
George Miller, director of the original Mad Max movie re-acquired the rights from Warner Bros in 1995 with plans to develop a fourth movie in the Mad Max franchise (after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome in 1985).
Miller developed an idea where marauders were fighting for human slaves. There were plans to shoot in 2001 with Fox but the World Trade Centre disaster put that on hold. Miller moved on to animated penguin movie Happy Feet, the most obvious natural choice, and production was delayed again.
Plans for a 3D animated version were mooted. Miller then reverted back to live action. A whole load of locations were considered and the movie came back to Warners.
Finally, 30 years after Mad Max 3, Fury Road hit and it turned out to be a masterpiece, grabbing a rare (for a genre movie) best-picture Oscar nomination as well as ample worldwide box office.
After Fury Road's success there is talk of further sequels (or possibly prequels) with star Tom Hardy saying he's signed on to do three. Back in January he told Collider "It's just a question of when." Well quite.
3. Deadpool
With Deadpool 2 building momentum at a healthy pace it's easy to forget just how long Ryan Reynolds was petitioning to get a Deadpool movie made – to the point that we thought it was just never going to happen.
Reynolds had been keen on the project since he learned that Deadpool himself refers to his appearance as 'Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar-Pei' in the comics. By 2004 he was working on a version with writer/director David S Goyer, though rights issues caused delays.
Reynolds made his first appearance as The Merc with a Mouth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (where he has his mouth sewn shut), with the hope that he'd get his own spin-off more in keeping with the tone of the comics.
Tim Miller was brought on board to develop a script and direct in 2011 but after Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern movie was a total car crash Fox got nervous. Eventually Reynolds convinced Fox to finance some test footage of the movie they wanted to make. Fox were not convinced until someone in 2014 leaked that footage online to a hugely positive response.
The movie moved on from there and broke a range of box-office records despite carrying a much lower budget than most superhero movies.
4. World War Z
The book was optioned in 2007 but went through multiple iterations of screenplays largely due to the very complex nature of adapting Max Brooks' novel. And, according to first screenplay writer J Michael Straczynski, "creating a main character out of a book that reads as a UN report on the zombie wars."
Marc Forster signed on to direct and the tone of the project was likened at different stages to '70s conspiracy thrillers, The Bourne Identity and Children of Men. What was clear is that it wouldn't be cheap, with Brad Pitt on board to star.
Pre-production didn't start till 2011 and shooting began the same year but after unhappiness with the third act, new writers were brought on board and re-shoots ran into 2012. This included the decision to shoot 30-40 more minutes of extra footage to make the ending coherent (though this upped the budget even further).
By the time the movie was finally released in 2013 audiences were skeptical. It turned out they had no need. The movie was both a critical (mostly) and financial success and a sequel is currently in production with David Fincher lined up to direct.
5. The Hobbit trilogy
Peter Jackson initially started trying to adapt The Hobbit back in 1995, intending to make it ahead of The Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, a snarl in the rights prevented that from happening so the second story ended up coming to the big screen first. Those movies (which had their own long and complicated Hollywood journey) came out between 2001 and 2003.
Jackson and New Line Cinema ended up in a legal battle over the profits from the franchise, but in 2007 he was still announced as executive producer on a two-movie adaptation of The Hobbit. Guillermo del Toro was hired in 2008 to direct the films, and he began planning a story that would have been more fairy tale-like (ie del Toro-ish) than Jackson's previous films.
By May 2010, ongoing delays caused del Toro to drop out of the project, complaining that it was still yet to receive an official green light. Jackson was announced in October of that year to be stepping in to direct the movies. Industrial action in New Zealand led to further delays, threatening to drive the production elsewhere until the government... uh… created legislation to block movie-industry employees from forming unions.
Production eventually shuddered into gear, with the first movie An Unexpected Journey released in 2012, but not before it was announced that the two films would actually be three. That final, third movie, The Battle of the Five Armies, came out in 2014, and don't expect the Tolkien estate to be permitting any more.
6. Avatar
Development Hell might be an unfair way to describe a movie which invented a whole new technology to realise. However, it is true it was in development for an extremely long time. Cameron planned to make the movie featuring full CG characters after he'd finished Titanic. The original plan was to begin in 1997 for a 1999 release but Cameron felt technology hadn't caught up with his vision.
Instead Cameron made docs and developed the tech for years until it was revealed Fox had stumped up $10 million for some proof of concept footage which he delivered in 2005.
Cameron begun work on the world and mythology but by 2006 Fox were wavering after the problems with the shoot and escalating costs on Titanic and the massive budget of his new project. Fox even passed on the film at one point but exercised right of refusal when Disney planned to pick it up, eventually finding additional funding.
Of course, the gamble paid off with Avatar still the highest-grossing movie of all time.
