The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Twilight are three of the most successful film franchises of all time – but what about the planned adaptation series that never took off?
Whether it be for better or worse, Hollywood loves an adaptation. From novels, comic books and television series, to blockbuster video games, the movie studios love nothing more than banking on a source material’s built-in fanbase. As we all know, this strategy can lead to record breaking box-office receipts and multiple sequels. James Bond has been running for over 50 years, the third Lord of the Rings film swept the Oscars, and eight of the top 10 grossing films of all time were based on existing properties.
However, it’s not all plain sailing. Getting an adaptation wrong, or just choosing the wrong source material, can lead to disastrous losses and many, many disappointed fans. To remember the film franchises we’ve lost, Hypable has selected a list of seven movie adaptation franchises that were cut short.
‘Eragon’ (2006)
Released three years after Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Eragon tried to become the next big thing – and on paper, things seemed good. Combining elements of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy and a character back-story not unlike that found in Harry Potter, the movie was tipped for success. Based on the first book in The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (who started writing the series at the ripe young age of 15), Eragon follows the titular teenager as he discovers and trains a mysterious dragon, all the while being hunted by the sinister Ra’zac.
Though it was, technically, a box-office success (earning $249 million worldwide, on a $100 million budget) Eragon was universally panned by critics. With just a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film was one of the worst received films of the year – dubbed “lifeless,” “silly,” and “lame” by many reviewers (and audiences). The naysayers got their way, as the combination of bad reviews and a good-but-not-spectacular box-office taking meant that plans for a sequel were shelved.
The book series continued to enjoy success though, with the final book, Inheritance, selling half a million copies in its first day of publication.
‘The Golden Compass’ (2006)
Lord of the Rings studio New Line Cinema made no secret of the fact they were hoping they had bagged themselves a new smash-hit series with His Dark Materials. One of the trailers for The Golden Compass even featured the One Ring of Middle Earth transitioning into the Alethiometer. Based on the books by Phillip Pullman, the His Dark Materials movies were intended to be a trilogy following orphan Lyra and her friend Will in a dimension-hopping adventure featuring witches, gypsies, and talking polar bears. The popular and critically acclaimed source material was twinned with an impressive cast including Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, and Ian McKellan. A sure fire hit, right? Wrong.
Plagued by production woes and last minute interference by the studio, the plot of The Golden Compass saw seismic shifts in story structure and set-pieces. What’s more, the film was boycotted by several religious organisations who were outraged by the book’s criticism of Catholicism. A disappointing opening weekend, and the relinquishment of international distribution rights meant that New Line suffered considerable losses on the production, and as a result had to massively restructure their whole company.
In 2011, author Phillp Pullman declared that we wouldn’t be seeing any more His Dark Materials films with the same cast, permanently quashing any hopes of a completed trilogy. However, his remarks do leave the door open for a potential reboot.
‘John Carter’ (2012)
Perhaps one of the most public box-office bombs in recent history, John Carter was in effect doomed from the beginning. With a bloated budget of $250 million and well documented production problems (the project switched from Disney to Paramount, and eventually back again), John Carter needed to earn at least $600 million at the box-office to break even on the film’s budget and marketing costs. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though, as there were certain signifiers of success. The movie was based on A Princess of Mars, the first entry in the Barsoom series which spawned ten sequels. John Carter was also the live-action début of Finding Nemo and WALL-E director Andrew Stanton.
However, even a bit of Pixar magic couldn’t balance the books – as the movie resulted in massive losses for Disney. Despite unwavering enthusiasm for further entries in the series from cast and crew, the studio aren’t likely to be getting behind another undoubtedly expensive and risky film.
‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’ (2001)
Before the days of Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series was one of the giants of the games industry. So, nobody was surprised when the company set up Square Pictures and announced Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. With series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi directing, and a sizeable budget of $137 million (still the most expensive film based on a game series), it seemed the project had the creative and financial backing it needed. Spirits Within also brought plenty of innovation, becoming the first photo-realistic computer animated film.
However, it seems Square couldn’t rally its gamers into the cinemas – as the film made a loss of $53 million and received decidedly mixed reviews. The unforeseen production time and growing budget led to the eventual closure of Square Pictures.
It’s not all bad though, as Square did spawn a successful film in Advent Children: a sequel to the universally loved Final Fantasy VII.
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