In the early 1990's, visionary director Francis Ford Coppola entered negotiations with Warner Bros. Pictures to produce three projects for the studio through his production company American Zoetrope, including an adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel The Secret Garden, a biopic detailing the life and times of J. Edgar Hoover, and an adaptation of Carlo Collodi's beloved fairy tale The Adventures of Pinocchio, the lattermost of which he would also write and direct. No doubt many of Coppola's frequent collaborators would've also joined in, including costume designer Milena Canonero, film editor Barry Malkin, production designer Dean Tavoularis, and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Ultimately, with the exception of The Secret Garden, none of these films would ever come to fruition. In mid-1991, Coppola and Warner Bros. came to a disagreement over the compensation that was to be paid to Coppola for his directing services on Pinocchio, and when he tried to revive the project at Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. wrongfully stated that it still held the rights to the film and forced Columbia to drop it, which led to Coppola filing a lawsuit against them. Both parties deferred the issue and a settlement was finally reached seven years later, with jurors awarding Coppola $20 million as compensation for losing Pinocchio, as well as a further $60 million in punitive damages on top, stemming from his charges that Warner Bros. sabotaged the project, making it the largest civil financial verdict ever against a major Hollywood studio. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?" Music: "M'Lady de Winter (Lament)" – Michael Kamen (The Three Musketeers) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkWcP7mmcIY

The feature film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's inexplicably best-selling young adult romantic fantasy novel Twilight was initially in development at Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, with Mark Lord first hired to pen the screenplay. Lord originally pitched his take on the material as a vampiric twist on the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, but MTV Films president David Gale requested he turn in a draft that would deviate significantly from the novel, as he feared that an overemphasis on the romantic element would alienate male audiences. Lord's script was more of an action-horror hybrid than the romantic fantasy of the book, with Bella Swan being written as a much more active character, a track star who fights back against the rogue vampires and is turned into a vampire herself at the end of the story. Furthermore, Edward Cullen was more of a Blade-type vampire than he was in the novel, Bella's father Charlie gets killed, a Korean FBI agent-slash-vampire hunter was included as an additional antagonist, and there were several set pieces, including: Bella riding jet skis while being chased by the FBI, and the rogue vampires picking off members of a SWAT team who were sent into a forest after them. Paramount's production co-prexy at the time, Karen Rosenfelt, was so determined to get the film made that she even attempted to forge a co-production deal between the studio and Fox 2000 Pictures. In an interview with MTV Hollywood, Home Alone helmer and Harry Potter veteran Chris Columbus revealed that he took a glance at a script for Twilight very early on during the adaptation process; presumably, he might have been referring to Lord's draft. Had Columbus signed on, no doubt many of his frequent collaborators would've also joined in, including score composer James Horner, costume designer Judianna Makovsky, film editor Richard Pearson, production designer Howard Cummings, cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, and producing partners Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe. Alas, Columbus was too busy working on other projects, and Meyer's displeasure with the changes made from the source material and a change in management over at Paramount ultimately put the kibosh on this version, with the studio putting it into turnaround and letting the rights expire, which led to Rosenfelt taking the project over to Summit Entertainment, who agreed with Meyer that a much more faithful adaptation of the novel be produced, and the rest — as they say — is history. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?" Music: "A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics" – James Horner ft. Charlotte Church (A Beautiful Mind) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7JGTV_WoC4

Set to premiere simultaneously in theaters and on Peacock this Halloween season is the upcoming sixth installment in the Exorcist franchise, The Exorcist. Directed by David Gordon Green and co-written with Danny McBride, Peter Sattler, and Scott Teems, the film — which will be a legacyquel to the 1973 film of the same name, disregarding every other installment in the series, and the first chapter of a new trilogy — stars Leslie Odom, Jr. as the father of a possessed child; desperate for help, he goes in search of Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), who has had similar experiences in the past. Co-starring Ann Dowd, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, Raphael Sbarge, Jennifer Nettles, and Okwui Okpokwasili, the film will be produced by series veteran James G. Robinson, his son David, and Jason Blum, with Green and McBride serving as executive producers alongside Couper Samuelson, Ryan Turek, and Christopher H. Warner. The production crew includes special make-up effects designer Christopher Nelson, costume designers Lizz Wolf and Barbara Vazquez, production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly, and director of photography Michael Simmonds. A joint-venture production between Morgan Creek, Blumhouse, and Rough House Pictures, the film will be released on October, Friday the 13th by Universal Pictures. Music: "Tubular Bells" – Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy8O5m1698c

An adaptation of the Charlie Burns graphic novel Black Hole has been in varying stages of development since the mid-2000's, when the rights to the property were acquired by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, with Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment producing alongside Kevin Messick. Set in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington during the 1970's, the story deals with the aftermath of a sexually transmitted disease that causes grotesque mutations in teenagers, with the mutations functioning as metaphors for adolescence, sexual awakening, and the transition from childhood into adulthood. Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman were tapped to pen the screenplay in 2006, with acclaimed horror director Alexandre Aja first attached to direct. Two years later, Aja dropped out and was replaced with visionary filmmaker David Fincher, who had previously worked with Avary on developing the script for the Z-Boys biopic Lords of Dogtown. Two more years later, Fincher departed the project to instead direct the English-language re-adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In 2018, it was reported that Dope helmer Rick Famuyiwa would be directing the film, in what was to be his next effort following HBO's Confirmation, with Arnon Milchan's Regency Enterprises joining as co-financier and co-producer. Famuyiwa would also contribute revisions to the script, in his second contribution to a long-in-development comic book film following his short-lived tenure on The Flash for Warner Bros. Pictures and the DC Extended Universe. Alas, in the years since, no further news came of the project. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?" Music: "Meeting Neil" – Ludwig Göransson (Tenet) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goesF38V5Ac