The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made

Where I think this book fails most is its approach. It's spends a lot of time dealing with production notes on the movies that were made instead (for example, Alien3), instead of the movie that wasn't made (Aliens vs. Predator). Furthermore, it never gets to the key issue -- why would this particular unmade movie have been great?

So, I'd recommend this book only as a follow-on if you've already read the "original".


How Hollywood keeps on failing to make a good Sci - Fi movie   September 19, 2002
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

A must for all Sci-Fi and film fans (like myself!). I'd always wondered why some of the greatest Sci-Fi stories had never made it to the silver screen and why the one that had were often very disappointing; after reading this book, I now know why!!!

Not only due to you get all the facts and figure regarding the featured "never made" movies, this book lets inside the hearts and mind of the people that tried their hardest to make these movies happen and the studio management idiots that stopped them!

Like movies? Like Sci-Fi books? Want to know why your favourite stories never made it to celluloid? Read this book and find out!


Research? Well....   June 2, 2006
Michael L. White (Westland, MI United States)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful

After reading Chris Gore's disappointing and disheveled The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made (see CdC #10), I had nothing but high hopes that David Hughes would be able to overcome the hurdles which tripped up Gore's earlier work, especially by limiting his scope to one genre rather than all of cinema. Alas, while Hughes's work is head and shoulders above Gore's, it remains lacking.

Fans of Cashiers du Cinemart's articles such as "The Metamorphoses of ALIEN III" (CdC #12), or "They Tried and Failed" (CdC #13), might be tempted to pick up a copy of Hughes's book as he covers similar ground in two of his nineteen chapters. Too often, however, I found myself consternated by Hughes's muddled writing. Additionally, the more I read, the more I doubted the validity of Hughes's research.

Several devilish details stuck in my craw and wouldn't let me appreciate Hughes's work. In the first chapter Hughes states that the protagonist of Richard Stark's novels is Walker, not Parker, mixing up the Stark novels with the Boorman film, POINT BLANK. An innocent mistake, yes, but an easily avoidable one. Meanwhile, I'm no expert at science fiction but even I know that the title for the unproduced WATCH THE SKIES is a nod to Howard Howard Hawks's THE THING rather than Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Oddly, several of the films that Hughes covers have been made, albeit not in their original form. Perhaps the originals may have ranked among the "greatest" sci-fi films never made, I remain unconvinced. Too often Hughes merely reports on the back story to the production of films such as ALIEN III, ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, SUPERNOVA, et cetera rather than demonstrating how great their initial incarnations might have been.

Here's hoping that the next project someone does about unmade movies will either focus on truly great works or that they'll rethink their title!


A little outdated but still interesting   November 11, 2009
J. Hartmann (Hollywood, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Well, 12 out of the 19 movies covered have since been made! The book still allows an interesting, and in some cases facinating, peek behind the curtain to learn how these films were developed. The chapter on Star Trek sequels feels a bit out of place as it ventures way beyond the one version that could have been and explores in great detail how all the other TEN films got greenlit. Also a lot of the information in the book stems from other books and magazines. But it's still a good compilation and a worthy read for all who are interested in how Hollywood works.