Every year, we get to see a multitude of projects that are released as a result of careful production and years of creative labour that is put into its making. But the counter side of this is so many unreleased and underdeveloped films that don’t get to see the light of the day, becoming nothing other than just another good idea. Similarly, filmmakers have a tremendous amount of stacked ideas that they intend to create someday. But none of them have a list of unfinished work as interesting as that list of Guillermo del Toro movies that never got made. His upcoming Netflix movie Pinocchio, is one example of what this director’s dream fantasy world looks like. And unlike Pinocchio, there’s so much no one has seen or heard of. So today, we are about to show you all the unmade movies by the 58-year-old Academy Award Winner which never got to leave the vault.
Let’s begin with all the Gullermo del Toro movies that were never made.
A Star Wars Movie
Although the Star Wars franchise is already notorious for abandoning its movies and TV shows halfway through its production journey, one of its movies is now a part of Guillermo’s unattended projects list as well. He confirmed his link to the franchise on social media writing:
“Many many moons ago.”
He also revealed a few initials which were J and BB which meant Jabba the Hutt. It’s kind of unfortunate that we won’t be seeing Guillermo’s take on one of the most beloved characters of Star Wars. Let’s hope he picks it up sometime soon and gives a reason to rejoice to the Star Wars fans.
Guillermo del Toro Movies About Frankenstein
When we think about Mary Shelley’s classic horror tale Frankenstein being adapted into a movie, we can think of a few directors who would qualify to do the job right, and Guillermo del Toro happens to be one of them. His fantastical universe is all about bringing such literary masterpieces to life and it would drive us crazy if he would ever do it. Unfortunately, Universal Studios decided to make the monster of Frankenstein appear in its Dark Universe and henceforth, deprived us of a movie that Guillermo intended to base on Frankenstein’s adventures, at least as long as Universal wants.
Hellboy III From One Of The Best Of Gullermo del Toro’s Movies
Hellboy III is a project that couldn’t happen due to the mild success of its prequels. Both of the former movies in this trilogy did not perform as well as expected. Guillermo had some amazing ideas for the third film. Sadly, unlike the other two movies that were picked up by Sony and Universal respectively, Hellboy III couldn’t find a production house and was ultimately shut down.
Hellboy Silverlance
Another strong idea that wasn’t backed up. Guillermo had a strong vision to feature Hellboy II’s villain Prince Nuada in a new movie called Hellboy Silverlance. The script was centred around Prince Nuada’s connection to Hellboy’s past and his life events. Unluckily, when the third movie of the series failed to happen, this movie automatically received a red signal and got canceled immediately.
Saturn and the End of Days Is One The Rarer Guillermo del Toro Movies
Joining Guillermo’s innovative ideas of filmmaking, this next project seems to be one of the most interesting and gorgeously imagined ones. He once again wanted to work on a childhood film where he could play with the idea of the apocalypse as it takes place while you’re running your daily errands. He called it Saturn and the End of Days. Before we witnessed the world coming to an end from Guillermo’s lens, he ended up ending our hopes by burying the project somewhere deep.
The Haunted Mansion
Back in 2010, Guillermo announced that he was working on this movie as the writer and producer. Even though he didn’t promise to direct it, he made it clear that it would be scarier than the older 2003 version. Later in 2019, he confirmed finalizing some details with Ryan Gosling‘s name attached to the movie. Welcome to 2023, Haunted Mansion was officially released in July, directed by Justin Seimien, produced by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, and based on Disney’s The Haunted Mansion. You get the gist of it, don’t you?
At the Mountains of Madness
Out of all the projects on this list, this might be the toughest of the Gullermo del Toro movies for him to abandon. With a compelling story, and big names involved as cast members including Tom Cruise, the film could never come together as a whole. Ever since its perception, it has been cancelled multiple times for reasons like its hefty budget and a complicated narrative about an ancient Antarctic civilization. Nothing could make this wonder happen on the big screen. We hope it gets picked cause I would watch this movie for sure!
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
This untouched idea is probably the only project that despite its status received little recognition. That was possible because of Guilelrmo’s other hit movie The Shape of Water. The romantic track in this movie along with the presence of an extraordinary creature, won prestigious awards and was loved by the audience. Later, he revealed that most of the ideas in the film were inspired by Black Lagoon which was rejected by the studios. At least he got something out of it!
The Hobbit Could’ve Been A Great Guillermo del Toro Movie
Even though del Toro got credits for the screenplay of The Hobbit, he could never direct the movie that he planned to do earlier. Guillermo gave years to this project before quitting in 2010 after legal and financial strains. The movie came out to be a masterpiece, but we’re forever stuck with the mystery of what it could’ve been with Guillermo’s input as the director of the film.
Maphisto’s Bridge
When going through Guillermo’s unmade movies, one should know about his favourite screenplay that was never adapted. He wanted to create a movie based on a novel written by the British novelist Christopher Fowler named Spanky. The story revolves around a guy who finds his life changed by a personal demon. We do, however, know how it’s never wise to make deals with the devil and that he wants something sinister in return. This dark fantasy could’ve been a dreamy cinematic creation if it got the attention it deserved.
The Orphanage
We’re not okay with this next movie that got dropped. The creepy horror story called The Orphanage was about to have an English remake with Guillermo directing it. The story was about a woman who decides to reopen an orphanage she grew up in. According to reports, Guillermo had big plans for the movie and even began working on the script with the newly hired director Larry Fessenden. After a while, Larry quit the job and was even replaced. Despite all this progress, there’s still no news of this film’s development.
Justice League Dark
DC‘s Dark Universe has been cursed for a long time. With a vision of featuring villains and dark characters from the DC comics, it seemed like an amazing upcoming superhero-action film with specs of horror. It is not news that DC and WB studios often face developmental crises. Due to this reason, many creatives parted ways with this project. One of them was del Toro. The ongoing issues in the studios still forecast an unknown future for this universe.
The Incredible Hulk
It wasn’t just the DC Universe Guillermo formed a possible connection with. The director got his name considered for many Marvel Studios films including Thor and The Wolverine. The same thing happened with the TV show The Incredible Hulk. The show couldn’t go through development due to several reasons. Apart from the copyright issues, the show didn’t seem like a great idea to the MCU as they wanted to keep The Hulk for the big screen. Now we know this project may not be going anywhere which means we won’t be able to see Guillermo’s experimentation on one of the most iconic Marvel Comics superheroes.
Halo Before It Became A Series
Another left-behind film on this list is Halo which was set to be produced by Peter Jackson and del Toro was meant to direct it. Before he went on with his plans related to the film, del Toro left and was replaced by another director. Later on, Halo became a TV Series ready to be streamed on Paramount+. The finalized version of the show is quite different from Guillermo’s vision of the show.
Pacific Rim 2
After the less impressive success of the movie Pacific Rim its filmmakers still wanted to create its sequel. Guillermo revealed in an interview that he had crazy ideas for the sequel that he wanted to work on but ended up stepping away from the movie. The sequel came together under the direction of Steven S. DeKnight which flopped terribly.
Fantastic Voyage
The remake of the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage was under discussion for a long time. A well-made science fiction film about a group of micro-sized scientists who enter the body of a world leader to cure him was quite a fascinating concept that could have an awesome remake with today’s advanced VFX technology. Guillermo was initially attached to the film as the director, working with other renowned artists such as James Cameron. But things didn’t go as planned when Disney bought Fox and the development of the film halted, stripping away another possible Guillermo twist in this ’60s hit.
Overall
Such unfortunate events baffle us Guillermo’s fans as anything taken away leaves behind an endless spiral of what-ifs. Nevertheless, it is quite painful for the filmmaker himself as he mentioned once:
“You put a lot of effort—your body and soul—and then it doesn’t happen. The ones that don’t happen break your heart, that’s for sure.”
We’re still rooting for him and his upcoming films and simultaneously looking forward to the unreleased ones. Comment and let us know which movie you are most excited about!
