And because Warner Bros recently said Batgirl won’t see the light of day despite being almost finished let’s have a look at some famous unreleased movies and the stories behind their shelving. For this list, we are highlighting finished movies that were never released to general audiences. Either theatrically or on home media. 

The Day The Clown Cried

The holy grail of unreleased movies. The Day The Clown Cried is about Helmut Doork, a clown sent to a Nazi concentration camp who uses his talents to entertain the children in the camp. Before ultimately leading them to their deaths. Making a film like this was incredibly bold, but with such sensitive subject matter, you would have to approach the story incredibly carefully. Ultimately through the action of both co-writer Joan O’Brien and director/star Jerry Lewis’ disgust at the project, the film was buried. Lewis apparently did donate the film’s print to the Library of Congress before his death. Under the condition that it couldn’t be shown until 2024. Whether good or bad it’s hard to not want to see the film for historical purposes. At its worst, it can serve as a valuable monument to how careful artists need to be when discussing the Holocaust. 

Cocksucker Blues

There are many great musical tour documentaries. However, the Rolling Stones took director Robert Frank to court to ensure this behind-the-scenes look at their American 1972 tour was kept from cinemas. This was done because the film, shot cinema verite style to capture life on the road, showed images that the band objected to and which were potentially incriminating (a lot of drug use). The film is available online but could only have a limited number of public screenings a year with Frank present. And since his death, the film’s status has been very unclear.

Fantastic Four

Marvel’s first family didn’t debut on film in 2005. A Fantastic Four film had already been made in 1994. This project served as a group origin story and showcased their struggles against The Jeweler and Doctor Doom. There are conflicting reasons for the movie being unreleased. Some say Constantin Film wanted to hold onto the Fantastic Four rights, so Roger Corman was hired to make a Fantastic Four movie quickly and cheaply before they expired with the film never intended for release. Others say Marvel executives wanted the film suppressed so it wouldn’t embarrass their brand. Whatever the reason, the film has unofficial uploads available online. Check it out so the cast and crew’s hard work was not in vain.

A Woman of the Sea

The oldest unreleased film on this list, A Woman of the Sea was a 1926 Josef Von Sternberg silent film produced by Charlie Chaplin. The story centred on a fisherman’s daughter who competes with her sister for love. Apparently, after Von Sternberg held a screening without Chaplin’s permission and initial impressions were negative Chaplin shelved the film, until 1933. When he burned the film’s negative for tax purposes. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely another copy of the film existed. Meaning the finished film is lost.

Hippie Hippie Shake

Finally, our list’s most recent movie. Hippie Hippie Shake depicts the life of Richard Neville (Cillian Murphy) and his partner Louise Ferrier (Sienna Miller) as they set up Oz magazine’s UK division in the 1960s. As well as the problems they encountered when the magazine was taken to court on obscenity charges. The film’s production originally began in 1998. Filming eventually took place in 2007. And despite a rough post-production test screenings of the film were positive. However, the production company, Working Title, stopped its release for financial reasons. It seems a shame for the film to not be seen after all that effort. That said, with over a decade of silence the release of Hippie Hippie Shake seems unlikely.

Would you like to see any of these movies come out in the future or are there any other movies languishing in a studio vault we should have highlighted?

Also Read: Horrors On Horror Sets

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post Five Unreleased Films And Their Stories appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Selling Priceless Treasures

Back in the late 1990s, no one knew how big superhero films were going to be. After all, it wasn’t that long after the trainwreck of Batman and Robin. So it made sense to sell the rights to some properties and let film studios take all the risk while Marvel still got a big pile of cash. Then X-Men was a huge hit and this started a slew of superhero films – some great, some not so great and Marvel came to regret giving up cinematic control to some of their most valuable superheroes.

The 2000s and 2010s saw an explosion of superhero films – a seemingly never-ending parade of CGI fight scenes, origins stories and heroic struggles. A bright spark had had the idea of making all of Marvel’s superhero films exist in one universe, a huge sprawling world full of heroes and villains and it was all connected. Each film would build on the shared success meaning that people would need to watch each one if they wanted to fully appreciate the whole. I have reservations about this idea but undeniably it has been hugely successful and there is definitely a feeling that you need to see them all. It was very cool to see Iron Man making fun of Captain America in Avengers Assemble, or Thor and the Incredible Hulk fighting in Thor: Ragnorak or seeing Spider-Man team up with Wolverine and Reid Richards in…well, that one hasn’t happened yet and that’s because 21st Century Fox used to own the rights to X-Men and The Fantastic Four.

There is, of course, something that has to be pointed out. While the X-Men films have been commercially and sometimes even critically successful launching a nearly twenty year ascendancy none of the three Fantastic Four films has made much of an impact. And I’m not sure how many people, outside of hardened comic books fans, have been calling for Fantastic Four to be incorporated into the MCU. But there is good stuff there to work with and they could be a useful addition and will satisfy completists out there.

Lessons To Be Learned & Problems To Avoid Rebooting X-Men and Fantastic Four:

• X-Men – if you have run out of ideas for interesting powers stop making characters. I’d rather characters have similar powers than the barrel-scraping powers that have popped up in the X-Men films.
• Fantastic Four – Sue Storm has the power of invisibility (as well as being able to create force-fields) and while such a power could lead to dozens of interesting ideas it falls flat on screen and there has to be an interesting way to use that power in a film.
• X-Men – The role of Wolverine made Hugh Jackman a huge star and is probably the lead character of those films so don’t try and repeat that trick when it’s rebooted, do something different. Wolverine isn’t the be-all and end-all, they’re a team, let some of the other X-Men shine.
• Fantastic Four – this may be controversial – find a way to make Doctor Doom and Silver Surfer into interesting cinematic characters or let them go – it’s okay to make new stuff up.
• X-Men – Too powerful – Stop making people all-powerful. Wolverine is practically indestructible and immortal and every so often Jean Grey becomes all-powerful and, Professor X can do everything from mind control to stopping time

But it’s not just going to be problems and things going wrong and it has the potential to do some really interesting stuff.

What Fans Want (or at least what this fan wants)

• Deadpool with the X-Men – Deadpool was a great film and while not exactly an X-Man he’s X-Man adjacent and in the graphic novels he is definitely part of that world. The terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine already had one go at this and completely wasted their opportunity so maybe finally the MCU can give us the insanely over-the-top fight that a Deadpool Vs Wolverine Battle of the Indestructible Mutants deathmatch that we all desperately want.
• Who’d Win In A Fight Between….every playground’s favourite argument is who’d win in a fight between two people who should have no reason to fight. A popular one is who would win in a fight between The Hulk and The Thing (my money is on The Thing as The Hulk is driven by impulses whereas The Thing very much remains Ben Grimm). Reid Richards is a genius who could perhaps knock some of the smug out of Tony Stark while Magneto is perhaps the best villain in any of the Marvel films to date.
• Making Up For Past Mistakes – The Fantastic Four films were a disaster from start to finish and the X-Men franchise has not always struck gold so maybe this time they can take two decades of experience and get it right. The MCU has a had a go with the odder and wackier superheroes with Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy and I don’t see why they can’t apply the same skill to a new Fantastic Four film. As for the X-Men, putting Gambit in the regular line-up as I feel his presence has been sorely missed in the films. They could also have another go with Rogue, again making her a regular X-Man from the start, bring in Jubilee, and Cyclops doesn’t just have to be the boring guy going out with Jean Grey.

So there we have it what the MCU rebooted films of X-Men and Fantastic should avoid and what they should do. Getting these films right is trickier than it might appear and it can be a fine line between an enjoyable superhero film and a ridiculous folly that cost $300,000,000.

Also Read: Martin Scorsese and Denis Villeneuve Vs The “Marvel Movie” Formula

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post The Newest Additions To The MCU: X-Men & Fantastic Four appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.