Top 10+ sci-fi movies we’ll never get to see – and the reasons why
Whether you're a fan of the goings-on in faraway galaxies or not, there's no denying the popularity of sci-fi. The genre has kept many of us glued to the screen for decades now, and there's a raft of big-budget sci-fi epics set to release in the coming months - from Jurassic World: Rebirth to the remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger classic The Running Man. But for every sci-fi epic taking us to unknown worlds, the path is littered with those that never quite made it. Here's 10 that once could have been box office gold, yet never saw the light of day... (Picture: Claudette Barius/20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
1. Planet Of The Apes sequel
First on the list is a Planet Of The Apes sequel - something which might confuse you given we've had many of those over the past few years, namely Rise Of, War Of, Dawn Of and Kingdom Of. But while it's true that the Apes franchise has given us many happy hours of big screen viewing, one follow-up which did slip through the net was the proposed sequel to Tim Burton's reboot of the series. The 2001 film starred Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter, and effectively remade the Charlton Heston original. It did well at the box office in spite of mixed reviews from critics, who came down especially hard on the plot and the ending. However when asked about making a follow-up, Burton told The Guardian: 'The idea of me doing a sequel - I'd rather jump out the window'. And so it never came to pass (Picture: Sam Emerson/20th Century/Zanuck Co/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
2. Alien 5: Awakening
Film fans have no shortage of Alien movies to get to grips with, from the terrifying 1979 original through to 2024's Alien: Romulus. But one entry into the franchise which we'll never get to see is Alien 5: Awakening - which marks yet another cancelled project for the director Neill Blomkamp. The movie, a direct sequel to Aliens which took place around 30 years after the events of that film, was set to feature Ripley, Hicks and a grown-up Newt. However, following the disappointing box office of 2017's Alien: Covenant, Fox scrapped the project altogether. So this is one screen reunion we'll never get to see, sadly (Picture: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/ Shutterstock)
3. Quentin Tarantino's Star Trek
Here's one we would loved to have seen. Over the past couple of decades Quentin Tarantino has given us some serious cult classics, from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction through to the likes of Django Unchained and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. But one project of Tarantino's which never became a reality was his planned take on Star Trekm with the helmer reportedly eyeing an adaptation of the episode A Piece Of The Action, set on a planet with a 1920s gangster culture. One can only imagine the possibilities. But sadly it never came to pass, with screenwriter Mark L Smith - who worked on a potential script for the film - revealing that the director didn't want to enter movie franchise territory. 'I can't say anything about the story,' he told Collider. 'But I think the vision was just to go hard, it was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence' (Picture: Paramount/ Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
4. Barbarella remake
This one's a bit confusing. The futuristic 60s classic is being lined up for an actual remake with Sydney Sweeney in the title role - although the project is still said to be in development, so who knows when we'll get to see it. However, did you know there was another attempt to remake the film in 2009 with Rose McGowan and director Robert Rodriguez? Yep, that happened, except it came to naught due to a detail in the From Dusk Till Dawn director's contract which stated he would have to film and edit in Germany, taking him away from his family for a considerable time. 'Nothing against Germany', he said in an interview with Hollywood.com, 'but I have five kids and I was like "I don't know if I can be away that long".' All of which ultimately meant we never got to see his vision of the Jane Fonda classic (Picture: Paramount/Kobal/REX/ Shutterstock)
5. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
When a movie is as classic as 1954's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, you'd assume by now it would have been remade, and indeed the Jules Verne novel came close to reaching the screen once again after David Fincher announced in 2010 he planned to make a new version. It never happened though, with the director revealing that disagreements with Disney over the project - for example he wanted Channing Tatum to play the lead role, while the studio wanted Chris Hemsworth - ultimately led to him stepping away. 'You get to a point where you go, "Look, I can fudge this, and I don’t want you to discover at the premiere what it is you’ve financed",' he told Letterboxd. 'It doesn’t make any sense because it’s just going to be pulling teeth for the next two years. And I don’t want to do that. I mean, life’s too short' (Picture: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
6. Jodorowsky's Dune
Hasn't there already been a film of Dune? Well yes. Several in fact. And director Denis Villeneuve hasn't done badly out of it either, nabbing a clutch of Oscar nominations for both movies as well as landing the job of directing the next Bond film. But there's one version of the Frank Herbert novel which ended up dead in the, er, dunes, that director Alejandro Jodorowsky was all set to direct. The El Topo filmmaker had a bolt vision for the project, which would have been a far more psychedelic experience than other Dune movies, but the film and its 1,200 storyboards failed to make it to the screen due to lack of financing. Producer Dino De Laurentiis ultimately snapped up the rights to the book in 1982, with David Lynch's version hitting screens in 1984. Which Jodorowsky subsequently described as 'terrible' (Warner Bros/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
7. Independence Day 3
Independence Day might have taken the box office by storm when it opened in 1996 but it equally took two decades for us to get a follow-up - 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence. A third film though? You'll be waiting a while for that, even if the belated sequel did introduce new characters that could well have set things up for a franchise, because the disappointing reviews and box office of part two - which made just $384m (£279m) compared to the original's $817m (£594m) - effectively rendered it a non-starter. Director Roland Emmerich has since said he'd still be keen to revive the series, potentially for Disney Plus, with a movie or series which would see Jeff Goldblum and Brent Spiner's characters take centre stage. 'They have now a streaming service and they need product. I would love to do maybe a third one, or a TV show, continuing the story,' he told Comicbook. Whether it will happen though? We'll have to wait and see (Picture: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/ Shutterstock)
8. Halo
There's no shortage of video game to movie adaptations, although some have proven more successful than others - but what of those who never made it? Among those is the proposed adaptation of Halo, despite an impressive pedigree which would have seen Peter Jackson producing and Neill Blomkamp (there's that name again) directing a screenplay by Alex Garland (Civil War, The Beach). However the project fell foul of financing issues, with Fox and Universal both interested in the project, and work beginning on props for the film, before disagreements over the spiralling budget led to it being shelved. While the game did later get a live-action web series, we'll always be left to wonder what might have been (Picture: Microsoft)
9. The Invisible Man (Johnny Depp version)
The 2020 version of The Invisible Man, starring Elisabeth Moss, was one of the last major movies to be released in cinemas before the pandemic caused them to shutter worldwide. However the movie was originally set to have a very different star - Johnny Depp. The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor was all set to take the lead in a planned remake by Universal Studios, intended as part of their Dark Universe franchise. However after the 2017 reboot of The Mummy failed to take off at the box office, ideas for the franchise were shelved and with them went the Depp version of the HG Wells classic. Saw director Leigh Whannell later took over and a very different Invisible Man made it to the screen, leaving the previously planned version to fade away quietly (Picture: Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
10. The Jetsons
Folk of a certain age will have grown up watching The Jetsons, a sort of space-age answer to The Flintstones which originally ran from 1962-63 before being revived in the 1980s. Given its status as a Saturday morning cartoon staple in the US, it's no surprise that attempts have been made to bring it to the big screen over the past few decades, including a live-action version in the mid-80s starring Chevy Chase as family patriarch George Jetson. However, it was scrapped amid budgetary concerns as well as other potential cast members turning the project down. Ultimately Universal bought the rights to the series, and released an animated big-screen version in 1990 - which bombed at the box office. And with that, any plans for a Jetsons live-action movie jetted off (Picture: Cuckoo'S Nest/Hanna-Barbera/Wang/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
