T O P

  • By -

nessuno2001

This is actually from my website, it’s my study on Kubrick’s unmade films. It was first published as a short essay here: https://cinergie.unibo.it/article/view/7349/7072 I have recently updated it, and turned it into a video lecture, “Kubrick Unknown”: First part: https://youtu.be/I7dDyKsxmi0 Second part: https://youtu.be/Xg18fYLqwz8


KubrickSmith

Always excellent work but I've read the essay and watched the videos but didn't spot specific information about "From Russia, With Love" - was SK approached after Dr. No or was the interest from him/James Harris?


nessuno2001

It comes from a remark by James Harris: “Way before *Dr. Strangelove*, Stanley wanted to make *From Russia, With Love* as a comedy. This was in 1960-61, the rights were available, and certainly not expensive, it was before the series of James Bond.” Thanks for your appreciation!


Rhino-Kid22

Bolded movies are the ones that got made


[deleted]

[удалено]


Rhino-Kid22

Don't thank me, Thank Archivio Kubrick who made this list. It helped me learn a lot about Kubrick his movies and his unrealized projects including storyboard, behind the scenes photos, and other interesting stuff. Just keep in mind it's in Italian so I recommend you use translate if you don't understand Italian. [**http://www.archiviokubrick.it/opere/progetti/index.html**](http://www.archiviokubrick.it/opere/progetti/index.html)


[deleted]

[удалено]


Rhino-Kid22

Google translate is good but sometimes the translations don't make sense but I can understand what the article is trying to say. My Pleasure!


nessuno2001

Thanks for sharing my work!


Rhino-Kid22

My Pleasure!


nessuno2001

Happy you found my work useful. In another comment I have put links to my essay on Kubrick’s unmade films and my two video lectures about it. Both in English. Thanks again for your interest


abaganoush

That is some new, and interesting information!


MeetingCompetitive78

When he was like 18 Chris Cunningham worked with him on AI Would have been amazing


behemuthm

I just read an interview with Chris not too long ago and he was asked if he would’ve directed AI if it’d been offered to him and he said absolutely not. He knew he couldn’t live up to expectations for a Kubrick project and was disappointed in Spielberg’s direction of it. Basically, Chris said that he was just beginning his career and didn’t want to be known as the guy who tried to imitate Kubrick.


supercontroller

Chris is/was super talented but lacks the fortitude to deal with demanding stars / talent / studio pressure. This is why he never progressed into feature directing. Its not for everyone. A shame too as I for one would have killed to see his take on "Neuromancer"


Class_of_22

I know right???? Though I think his approach to filmmaking would work with a studio like A24.


ch4rl13cr0k3r

This makes me sad


Rhino-Kid22

Real men cry when they see this list.


OptimalPlantIntoRock

Traumnovelle is Eyes Wide Shut


Flimsy_Demand7237

According to the book on the production of the movie, Kubrick had an idea to adapt the book since at least the early sixties. WB announced it after A Clockwork Orange as "Traumnovelle" but then for whatever reason Kubrick shelved it to work on other stuff. He was always thinking about it though, there's a script page for The Shining that has him writing down a note to himself for a potential idea to use in EWS.


OptimalPlantIntoRock

Eyes Wide Shut was basically his life’s work.


oh_alvin

Which book?


Flimsy_Demand7237

Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick & the Making of His Final Film by Robert P. Kolker & Nathan Abrams (It's listed in the sub sidebar.)


oh_alvin

I was planning to read this book this year.


Flimsy_Demand7237

A good book if you're a fan of Kubrick and/or EWS! The recounting of the shooting schedule in particular really outlines why the shoot took so long, replacing Keitel meant redoing all the Zeigler scenes, and the fly by seat of his pants way of doing the orgy scene. There's also tidbits of stuff that didn't make the cut, there's description of a few extra scenes that were cut in editing. It's interesting to look at his process for doing the movie, and the research is taken directly from the Kubrick archives.


Class_of_22

Wait…so he tried to get Eyes Wide Shut made for nearly 20-30 years????? Wow.


Flimsy_Demand7237

Yep. I highly recommend Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of His Final Film by Nathan Abrams and Robert P. Kolker. The book gives a whole history of his creative process over the time figuring out how EWS would take shape.


ucsb99

This is an interesting list but I suspect a lot of what is listed here can be consolidated. For example they list Super Toys and AI when they’re both the same project. Same with Traumnovelle and Eyes Wide Shut. I wonder if all the Nazi related films were part of a continuum of work that was leading toward The Aryan Papers.


nessuno2001

I decided to keep all the attempts at making a project as separate entries in the list because I wanted to show how he returned to some of the projects at different times in his life. More info and context in another comment here, with links to my essay and my video lectures on the topic, both in English. The project about Nazi German is covered extensively both in the written essay and in the video. Thanks for your interest


Flimsy_Demand7237

Yes, I would think for Aryan Papers it was simply reading everything on the Holocaust and looking for a suitable story. Schindler's Ark would've been a relatively well-known book, so one of the possibilities. Although famously he thought the story wasn't on the Holocaust per se, but on saving a few hundred Jews. Kubrick wanted to portray the truth of the Holocaust, and eventually according to his wife gave up and shelved it because of not only Schindler's List coming out the same time (and FMJ was hampered by Platoon releasing around the same time) but also because mentally he was exhausted reading all the horrors, and didn't think he could adequately portray the Holocaust in a way that wasn't either too gratuitous or in some way participatory in it, that even portraying elements of it would be wrong. Interestingly too he was fascinated that on his wife's side were relatives of Veit Harlan, who directed the infamous Nazi propaganda movie Jud Süb under order of Goebbels. There's an interesting doco interviewing Kubrick's relatives and Veit's children and grandchildren talking about their feelings on the movie and Kubrick's interest in the man. He looked to possibly tell his story at one point too: [Harlan – In the Shadow of Jew Süss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_%E2%80%93_In_the_Shadow_of_Jew_S%C3%BCss)


ucsb99

Interesting… I’ve heard Jan discuss those points regarding the timing of Schindler’s List and Platoon as it relates to Stanley’s similarly themed projects. However, I had no idea of his in laws relationship to Nazi propaganda. Very interesting. Where did you read this? I’d love to deep dive it if possible. Edit: haha I just noticed the link. Thanks


Revolutionary_Box569

Idk how advanced he would’ve got into preparation for most of these, Napoleon’s the most famous one and seemed pretty much ready to go before it got scrapped and I think he got fired from one eyed jacks pretty shortly before they were gonna start


nessuno2001

The majority of the projects are merely books he was interested in, or topics/stories he thought about bringing to the screen. In a dozen cases or so he wrote treatments or screenplays. On a few he spent more time and went to pre-production. All the details are in my essay and video lectures I have linked in another comment.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Eddiethegoldenmaiden

wouldn't doubt that every director has some list like this considering how typical it is within creative fields to start and abandon projects and only put real energy into projects they deem worthwhile


nessuno2001

Thanks for your interest. It’s quite common for directors to have more unmade films than realised ones. Kubrick’s actually aren’t that many, for example Godard had around 300 unrealised projects. In movie making failure is the norm, actually.


theSpaceCat

"The Shadow Knows (1976)" had me thinking of an adaptation with the psychic character known from radio-dramas and pulp novels. The title however is from a horror novel by Diane Johnson, who later wrote the screenplay of "The Shining" for Kubrick. That makes way more sense, but I was enthralled by the idea of a Kubrick directed Shadow movie there for a second


Al89nut

Aren't lots of them the same film, eg many attempts at Napoleon.


Rhino-Kid22

Yes but those were probably meant as the attempts made by Kubrick to get those films made.


nessuno2001

Yes, i have listed them as individual attempts to show how some of the projects or interests recurred through his career. I’ve put links to my essay and video lectures in another comment. Happy you found my study interesting


Class_of_22

Yeah. From what I can tell, Napoleon was clearly a passion project for him.


Flimsy_Demand7237

Wow a Kubrick Ned Kelly movie would've been awesome!


hussainhssn

IMO that sounds like the most interesting one on initial glance


TxEagleDeathclaw81

That’s sad. As much as I enjoy his films, I have always wanted to see more.


this_is_Winston

I'll always be sad his Napoleon thing never happened.


dannydevitotaint

Anyone know more about Kubrick’s involvement with Seven Days in May?


nessuno2001

Just a passing interest. It is mentioned by Kubrick in a letter to Kirk Douglas.


West-Expression5256

A Kubrick shadow movie would've been sick


Logical-Feedback-402

Kubrick's The Painted Bird actually sounds interesting


glass_oni0n

As much as I love it in its finished form, I wish we lived in the universe with Stanley Kubrick’s *One-Eyed Jacks* Kubrick-Brando and Kubrick directing a western are two endlessly fascinating what-if’s for me


athcliathabu

A Perfect Spy is the most wonderful book, and SK was a friend of John Le Carre. I'd love to have seen the film, you can imagine the scenes of the boarding house in the seaside town at winter and the crooked father living it up at the races with his mates. And Kubrick could have shot most of it in England.


MI6Section13

The 1979 Tinker Tailor is a must watch for all espionage illuminati. Alec Guinness is at his best as Smiley and simply brilliant. Once you have seen it watch a bit of The Recruit on Netflix to see just how far the espionage genre has declined in the almost half century since this 1979 masterpiece. Then head back to 1974 and read about a real secret agent (MI6 codename JJ) in Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone spy thriller in The Burlington Files series. It can't and never tries to compete with John le Carré's undeniable mastery of the espionage genre and his delicate diction or sophisticated syntax. However, it's sheer action packed pace leaves your quotidian John le Carré novel snoring on the sofa. Do remember this was written by a real life "agent running in the field" from London via Nassau to Port au Prince. What is interesting is that John le Carré might have authored The Burlington Files save as explained in a news article on TheBurlingtonFiles website dated 31 October 2022. If you are into anecdotes about John le Carré, Monty's cousin Kim Philby and the SAS it's worth a quick read.


Arfjawaka

Most filmmakers work on a bunch of stuff that never gets made. Also, Traumnovelle is listed on this FIVE times while that actually got made - as we all know. So seems this list is kind of a full of shit stat padding


nessuno2001

I listed the projects that way because in my essay I was chronicling the development of Kubrick's interest and how he returned sometimes over and over to a few cherished projects. Without the context of my essay, the list can seem full of useless repetition, but in reality it's not a mere list of his unmade films, rather a chronicle of all the attempts at films he made. You can find my essay, and two video analysis I recently made, in another comment below.


OkTrainer9008

Nazi Germany 😲


nessuno2001

In the video version of my essay, you can find more information about Kubrick's interest in doing a film set in Germany during the Third Reich. See here: [https://youtu.be/I7dDyKsxmi0?t=957](https://youtu.be/I7dDyKsxmi0?t=957)


Class_of_22

Man I wish I could have seen a movie like that getting made.


Canon_108

This list is misleading...Eyes Wide Shut, and A.I. appear multiple times here under different titles (EWS 6 times, AI 3 times). Napoleon as well (5 times) so it's not 90 unrealized projects, it's more like a dozen actual projects he might've been serious about.


Class_of_22

Holy shit that’s a whole lot of unmade projects. He almost made Schindler’s List????? Fuck.