Said by many to be one of the greatest films never made was an epic adaptation of the John Milton poem Paradise Lost, which concerns the biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, as realized by visionary director Alex Proyas, who also had a hand in the screenwriting process alongside the team of Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi, Academy Award nominee Lawrence Kasdan, frequent collaborator Stuart Hazeldine, and struggling scribe Ryan J. Condal. The project's initial director, Scott Derrickson, would serve as an executive producer on the project alongside frequent writing partner Paul Harris Boardman, Hazeldine, and Proyas' production partner Topher Dow, while Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni of Legendary Pictures would produce in collaboration with Proyas and Vincent Newman. The film boasted an impressive ensemble cast, including Bradley Cooper, Benjamin Walker, Djimon Hounsou, Rufus Sewell, Casey Affleck, Dominic Purcell, Diego Boneta, Camilla Belle, and Callan McAuliffe. No doubt many of Proyas' frequent collaborators would've also joined in, including score composer Marco Beltrami, costume designer Elizabeth Keogh Palmer, film editor Richard Learoyd, production designer Owen Paterson, and cinematographer Simon Duggan. With a production budget of $120 million, Proyas had very ambitious plans for the film, intending to craft a more action-oriented take on the story that required an enormous amount of visual effects, utilizing 3D and motion-capture technology. Alas, Legendary's budget consciousness would prove to be the film's undoing, attempting to push production back to the summer of 2012 as opposed to the initially planned January of that year as a means of scaling down costs, only to pull the plug in early February. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?" Music: "Main Titles" – Marco Beltrami (The Giver) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taaKxlSxvNc

Paramount Pictures had been developing a live-action feature film adaptation of the Mego toyline and formerly Marvel-owned comic book series Micronauts — which told of a Microverse in which diverse worlds were linked together and in which a power-mad dictator named Baron Karza kills the royal family, taking control, thus a small group of eclectic characters, including a pilot awoken from a centuries-long deep sleep, alien gladiators, and survivors of the coup, band together to form a resistance — for well over a decade. After Hasbro acquired the rights to the property, Paramount entered negotiations to develop the film in 2009, in conjunction with producer J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot. Zombieland and future Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were tapped to pen the script, with their take reportedly being a radically different one than the comics. Tom Wheeler was hired to write a new draft six years later, with Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis joining Abrams as producers through AllSpark Pictures. In 2016, it was announced that Paramount was developing a Marvel-style cinematic universe centering around various Hasbro properties, including Micronauts, G.I. Joe, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, M.A.S.K. and Rom, with the writers' room shephered by Academy Award-winner Akiva Goldsman and including such talents as Michael Chabon, Brian K. Vaughan, Nicole Perlman, Lindsey Beer, Cheo Hodari Coker, the team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, Joe Robert Cole, Jeff Pinkner, Nicole Riegel, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. However, this idea was promptly disbanded after Transformers: The Last Knight was a major domestic flop the following summer, losing over $100 million for Paramount and Hasbro. In the fall of 2019, it was reported that How to Train Your Dragon trilogy and Lilo & Stetch co-helmer Dean DeBlois would be writing and directing the film, in what was to be his live-action directorial debut, with Paramount seeking a family-friendly approach to the material and Greg Mooradian coming aboard as a producer. No doubt DeBlois would've brought on frequent collaborator John Powell to compose the musical score, and it'd certainly be interesting if he'd somehow convince Roger Deakins to also take part in the production. DeBlois' take on the property was scheduled to premiere on June 4, 2021, but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Paramount took it off their release schedule in the fall of 2020 and no further news ever came of it, with DeBlois instead now set to make his live-action directorial debut on a new How to Train Your Dragon film. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?" Music: "Trolley to HQ" – John Powell (Don't Worry, Darling) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1af-crDNp1Y

In the summer of 2014, it was announced that visionary filmmaker Edgar Wright would be directing a coming-of-age sci-fi film for Sony's Columbia Pictures entitled Grasshopper Jungle, from a screenplay penned by Con Air and High Fidelity scribe Scott Rosenberg, adapted from the young adult novel of the same name by Andrew Smith, which follows the lives of two young high school boys who fight for their lives and deal with sexual confusion during an apocalypse in their run-down, half-abandoned hometown of Ealing, Iowa. Wright's production partner Nira Park would also serve as a producer on the project alongside Matt Tolmach, with Arnon Milchan joining through Regency Enterprises three years later. No doubt many of Wright's frequent collaborators would've also joined in, including score composer Steven Price, film editors Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss, production designer Marcus Rowland, and cinematographer Bill Pope. However, no further news would ever come of the project following reports of Regency's involvement. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?" Music: "This Is Our Planet" – Steven Price (Our Planet) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziF1XVurxHU

The process of trying to get a live-action feature film adaptation of the popular Hanna-Barbera animated sitcom The Jetsons off the ground has been a long and troubling one, with numerous writers and directors coming and going on the project, including the likes of Joe Dante, Chuck Russell, Rob Minkoff, Adam Shankman, Conrad Vernon, Matt Lieberman, Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, Adam Sztykiel, Amy Holden Jones, Jared Stern, and Sam Harper among many, many others. One of the great what-ifs of its development history was a version that was to have been directed by Robert Rodriguez, from a screenplay adapted by Adam F. Goldberg, revised by John Altschuler & Dave Krinsky, and further polished by Van Robichaux & Evan Susser. Rodriguez's take on the property was to be a hybrid of live-action and animation, much of it shot against a green screen, similar to his work on the Spy Kids sequels and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. The film was to be a co-production between Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures, with the chief producers on the project being Denise Di Novi and Donald De Line. Rodriguez hoped to begin filming in the summer of 2010, but ultimately, it wasn't meant to be. Co-producer Elizabeth Avellán cited potentially massive production costs as a factor, while Di Novi stated that Rodriguez's vision for the project wasn't as mainstream as Warner Bros. was looking for. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?" ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o5E2gkf4b0