Batgirl was supposed to be one of the highlights of HBO Max’s 2022 line-up. The feature-length movie was set to introduce us to Leslie Grace’s Barbara Gordon, feature Brendan Fraser as Firefly, bring back J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and — most excitingly of all — see Michael Keaton’s Batman return after thirty years away from the cowl.
Those plans are now in tatters, as Warner Bros and Discovery have announced they’re permanently shelving the movie. Worse, industry rumors say it’ll be treated as a tax write-off, meaning Warner Bros are legally unable to profit from it so they cannot ever release it. Batgirl will be joined on its one-way trip to the vaults by Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, which was also said to be nearly ready to release.
But while the Batgirl situation might be a shocker it’s not entirely unprecedented. There are multiple occasions where a studio will spend millions of dollars on a movie, tease its release, and then, for a variety of reasons, ensure that the public never gets to see it.
So, here are some of the most dramatic examples of complete (or very nearly complete) movies that were never released:
The Day the Clown Cried
Let’s get the most famous one out of the way early. In 1972 comedy megastar Jerry Lewis set out to expand his range, choosing to take a role in a holocaust comedy. Lewis played “washed up clown” Helmut Doork, who finds his purpose entertaining child prisoners in Auschwitz. The film ends with Lewis’ character becoming so despondent that he takes the children by the hand and marches into the gas chamber alongside them. That’ll get the audience rolling in the aisles!
A rough cut of the film was completed and screened to a select few. Reactions were sheer disbelief that this was ever considered a good idea. The Simpsons and This is Spinal Tap star Harry Shearer saw it in 1979 and said:
“This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. “Oh, My God!”—that’s all you can say.”
Lewis promptly vowed “no one will ever see it” and reportedly locked the sole surviving print away in a safe. But there’s some light on the horizon. As of 2015 the Library of Congress had received a copy of the movie from Lewis’ estate on the provision it not be screened before June 2024. So in just two years, we might see whether The Day the Clown Cried is really as awful as its reputation suggests.
Empires of the Deep
In 2009 Avatar set the world on fire with its stunning CGI and groundbreaking use of 3D. James Cameron’s movie was particularly popular in China, so real estate tycoon Jon Jiang decided to get in on the action with a $130 million 3D extravaganza starring Quantum of Solace and Black Widow‘s Olga Kurylenko in a Greek mythology-influenced adventure about a mermaid queen battling against a demon army. Jiang envisioned Empires of the Deep as China’s answer to Star Wars, describing his vision as “Transformers meets Shakespeare”.
But despite promoting itself with all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster the cast and crew soon realized something was up when they began shooting. Reports indicate a general lack of professionalism on set, cast and crew weren’t paid, and the stunt team suffering repeated injuries due to lack of safety. Things really got scary when actress Irena Violette quit the production and the producers withheld her passport to prevent her from leaving China. Violette and her partner had to secretly flee to the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai in order to escape the country.
The shoot was eventually completed, though disastrous screenings saw the movie fail to find a distributor. Faced with the prospect of expensive reshoots and what sounds like a cast iron stinker, Empires of the Deep still hasn’t been released to this day. All we’ve ever officially seen of the movie is a trailer that looks like an Asylum Pictures take on Aquaman.
Suicide Squad
We know what you’re thinking, yes, you’ve seen Suicide Squad. Despite terrible reviews the 2016 movie was a sizeable hit for Warner Bros, grossing $750 million against a $175 million budget and launching Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn to icon status. But there’s a whole other version of the movie sitting in Warner Bros’ archives that has never — and likely never will — see the light of day.
This is the fabled “Ayer Cut”, the version of the movie director David Ayer wanted to release before Warner Bros executives took the film away from him and reportedly gave the final cut to the team responsible for the trailer. So, is the Ayer Cut really that distinct from the theatrical release?
Ayer describes it as “Shockingly different. Apples and oranges“, going on to say:
“The studio cut is not my movie. Read that again. And my cut is not the 10-week director’s cut – it’s a fully mature edit by Lee Smith standing on the incredible work by John Gilroy. It’s all Steven Price’s brilliant score, with not a single radio song in the whole thing. It has traditional character arcs, amazing performances, a solid third-act resolution. A handful of people have seen it.”
Reports are the Ayer cut features way more of Jared Leto’s Joker, inserts a romance subplot between Deadshot and Harley, and links the villainous Enchantress to the Apokalyptian story seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
As recently as May Ayer confirmed that his version of the movie is practically complete, wouldn’t require reshoots, and needs just a little VFX work to get it to release standard. Sadly even after Zack Snyder’s Justice League Warner Bros doesn’t seem remotely interested in letting us see Ayer’s Suicide Squad. Maybe one day…
Gods Behaving Badly
Sometimes all the stars seem to align on a picture and then things just don’t work out. Gods Behaving Badly was a 2013 movie adapting the bestselling 2007 novel about the Greek gods living in modern London as their divine powers wane. Famed producer Marc Turtletaub chose Gods Behaving Badly to be his directorial debut, with Alicia Silverstone in the lead role, Christopher Walken as Zeus, Sharon Stone as Aphrodite, John Turturro as Hades, Edie Falco as Artemis, Oliver Platt as Apollo, and Henry Zebrowski as Hermes.
Gods Behaving Badly received a single screening at the 2013 Rome Film Festival, though the audience couldn’t have known they might be the only people to ever see it. The Hollywood Reporter’s reviewer described it as an “outdated, unfunny satire that feels like an extended SNL sketch from the early 90s” and Variety proved eerily prophetic by saying it was “so wishy-washy it’s possibly unreleasable”.
And it never was. Gods Behaving Badly hasn’t emerged in any form and at this point almost certainly won’t be. All that remains are a few production shots teasing Walken as Zeus.
Black Water Transit
You’d think an action crime drama set in a post-Katrina New Orleans starring Laurence Fishburne, Karl Urban, Brittany Snow, and Stephen Dorff from American History X director Tony Kaye would be a home run, but Black Water Transit seems to be a truly cursed production.
The film was shot on location in New Orleans in the summer of 2007 and was expected to release in 2008/9. A rough cut was soon complete and was screened by Kaye to Fishburne, who apparently loved what he saw. Then the legal troubles began, with producer David Bergstein claiming he expected something like Die Hard and wasn’t happy with the gritty tone.
Kaye countered by saying Bergstein was in financial trouble and his criticisms were intended to avoid him having to spend any more money on the movie. The lawyers were called in and a series of million-dollar lawsuits followed, with Bergstein arguing Kaye’s film was “unreleasable” and Kaye pointing out he’d delivered the movie as per his contract.
Things rumbled on through the courts for the next six years, with the movie being considered a financial asset valued at $26 million. It all came to a head in 2018 when Bergstein was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud, with the prosecution saying he used stolen money to pay his massive credit card debt, take lavish trips, travel via private jet, and fund his expensive bonsai tree habit.
All of which means we probably won’t ever get to see Fishburne as a “shipping executive getting more than he bargained for” on the mean streets of New Orleans.
One day some of these films will eventually crawl out from under their rocks, though many will simply collect dust forever. Whether that fate will befall Batgirl remains to be seen, though the consternation from fans and the instant #ReleaseBatgirl campaign could end up putting pressure on Warner Bros in much the same way as #ReleaseTheSnyderCut did.
Here’s hoping that happens, as it’s got to be painful working on a film for years and then realizing it’ll never be seen by audiences.