Tales From Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made?

Summary:
A book covering the troubled development of 12 movies from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. Includes the Planet of the Apes, The Indiana Jones Franchise, Total Recall, and Batman. Includes interviews with writers, directors and occasionally actors. Details the process of how movies can start off as one idea, but often end up as something completely different due to competing visions, studio interference and more often than not, the egos of the stars that were contracted to star in the films.

My Thoughts:
I thought this was an interesting book for what it covers. It gave a different take on some of the movies that I grew up watching and never realized how many external forces changed what was originally pitched to show more what was eventually shown on the screen. What was really interesting in some cases was how much influence an actor that was cast to star in a role could influence how the script was changed. Whether it’s their ego, their brand, or the dreaded “market research” actors like Willis, Schwartzaneger, Van-Dam or Ford could land a script in development hell for years until their desires were met. There are also several bits of trivia in this book that were neat and not something that I’ve come across before. It may be a bit out of date but is still an interesting read especially considering what has happened with some of the people discussed since it was written. If your interested in what goes on behind the scenes of movies give this one a read. show less

A fun book with lots of incredible stories about how movie projects went wrong. Anyone interested in movies should get a kick out of this.