It's a miracle any movies ever get made, given
everything that can go wrong. With hundreds of people using dangerous equipment
while spending tens of millions of dollars, there are so many variables that, sometimes,
filmmakers have to call the whole thing off — all because someone did something dumb. Here are some movies that got canceled because
of an idiot mistake. Star Trek: Planet of the Titans Star Trek was canceled after three seasons
in 1969, but its popularity exploded in syndicated reruns. By 1977, the series was set to hit the big
screen with a film version called Star Trek: Planet of the Titans, where the Enterprise
and Captain Kirk would face off against the giants of Greek mythology. But just before filming was set to begin,
Paramount president Barry Diller canceled the whole thing for a really stupid reason:
Star Wars was already scheduled to arrive in theaters that year and he didn't think
fans could like sci-fi enough to support two space epics in the same year. Uh, way to totally completely misread the
entire industry, Barry. "Kahn" Justice League: Mortal Long before Marvel crushed the box office
with Avengers, Warner Bros. was planning its own superhero team-up in the form of Justice
League: Mortal, which went into production in 2007. With Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller
set to direct, the film had a budget of $200 million and had already begun rehearsing with
a cast that included Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, and the rapper
Common as Green Lantern. Just one problem: they forgot to actually
finish writing the script. And before they could get around to it, the
Writers Guild of America went on strike. By the time the strike ended, the actors had
moved on to other projects and the whole film had to be scrapped. Whoops! Newt In 2008, Pixar announced its slate of films
for the coming years, and among them was a movie called Newt. The plot: "What happens when the last remaining
male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the
species, and they can't stand each other?" It was so far along in production that Pixar
animators left little Easter eggs referencing Newt in Toy Story 3, such as the "Newt Crossing"
sign on Andy's bedroom door. But in 2011, Fox Animation Studios released
Rio, which had almost the exact same plot, only with birds instead of lizards — and
which had reportedly been in production since around 2007, one year before Newt was announced. Pixar panicked, worried that Newt would be
considered a rip-off, and canceled it entirely. Strange, they didn't do that with Antz and
A Bug's Life… "Ok, can we stop. Get me Cindy on the phone." Inhumans It sure looked like Inhumans — which features
Marvel characters who are kinda like mutants, but also kinda from space — would be the
next massive on-screen team-up for Marvel. Announced for a 2018 release, the film seemed
to be built up from two entire seasons' worth of storylines on ABC's Marvel's Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. But then Inhumans was quietly dropped from
the schedule. Why? There are a couple theories. Because of the disconnect between Marvel's
TV efforts and its movie business, Marvel Studios may not have been happy at having
the Inhumans movie's details dictated by a television sho w with middling ratings. Meanwhile, rumor has it that Inhumans was
the pet project of Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter. And when Perlmutter was ousted from his role
at Marvel Studios in favor of studio president Kevin Feige, Feige dumped the film to stick
it to his rival and pursue his own vision instead, namely Captain Marvel. "Captain Marvel herself. Brie Larson." Although, when you think about it, the biggest
mistake of all might've been Marvel selling the X-Men movie rights to Fox way back in
the 1990s. If they hadn't done that, we'd never have
had to hear about the Inhumans movie in the first place... A Revenge of the Nerds remake In 2006, Fox Atomic began filming a modern-day
reboot of the classic '80s college movie series Revenge of the Nerds at Emory University in
Atlanta. And then school officials actually read the
script. Here's actual footage from when Emory University's
president finished looking at the screenplay: "Ahhhhh" Anyway, after that, the college immediately
pulled out of the project, even though much of the movie had already been filmed. Producers were forced to complete the movie
at tiny Agnes Scott College. When Fox Atomic honcho Peter Rice saw how
rinky dink the movie looked as a result, he decided to just scrap the entire thing. Who made the bigger mistake: Emory for agreeing
to participate in the movie before reading the script? Or Fox for actually caring about production
values on Revenge of the Nerds? "You know Karate." "No" "Good" Two sequels to Terminator: Salvation In 2009, Terminator: Salvation earned $371
million worldwide, thanks in part to the star power of Christian Bale as the time-traveling,
robot-killing, humanity-saving John Connor. Two sequels were planned — except the Halcyon
Company, which produced the movie, went bankrupt. Even with all that revenue, through some kind
of financial idiocy, they couldn't pay off the $39 million they owed the hedge fund Pacificor. In order to pay their debt, Halcyon auctioned
off the rights to Terminator. The winning bid? $29.5 million, from… Pacificor. Nice exit strategy! "Come with me if you want to live." Dumb and Dumber 2 Here's a real what if: way back in 1998, South
Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed a $1.5 million deal with New Line Cinema to
write a prequel to the 1994 hit comedy Dumb and Dumber. It sounds like a match made in heaven. "So you're telling me there's a chance." So what was the idiot mistake? Turns out Parker and Stone didn't actually
want to do the project in the first place. They eventually gave the money back, leading
New Line to hire other writers for what eventually turned out to be the universally panned 2003
prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. Hey, I like that movie. The Adventures of Fartman Howard Stern first created his superhero alter-ego
Fartman back in 1981, and turned it into a pre-internet meme with a massively popular
appearance at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. "How'd that ass feel Luke?" "Great Ass, great ass, man" "Yeah" It was such a hit that New Line Cinema started
production on a feature film called The Adventures of Fartman, which screenwriter J.F. Lawton
promised would be just as crude and lewd as you'd expect from a Howard Stern movie. However, when executives got wind of what
Lawton was planning, they asked him to tone it down and make it a mainstream PG-13 film
instead. Stern immediately quit in protest at the dumb
request, and that was the end of Fartman. "Fartman" Oh, well. The Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was once set to
play the legendary lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991. It seemed like the perfect fit, since Cohen
is not only a big fan, he also bears more than a passing resemblance to Mercury. But Cohen backed out of the project when he
discovered that the surviving members of Queen wanted the second half of the film to focus
not on Mercury, but on how great the band has continued to be since his death. Two more Fletch sequels Eight years after Chevy Chase last played
smug and smarmy reporter I.M. Fletch in 1989's Fletch Lives, the franchise was set to make
a comeback thanks to filmmaker Kevin Smith. Smith wanted the film to focus on Fletch's
daughter, to be played by his then-girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams. But after Smith and Chase squabbled over a
plan to have Chase reprise his role as Fletch, the entire project was scrapped. Apparently Chase had something better to do. "Yeah, I was just passing through town and
ah, looking for something to do this evening. There was nothing going on at the rotary club
and I heard about this." Not to be deterred, Smith later convinced
Miramax to buy the rights to the franchise, this time for an origin prequel that would
star his buddy Jason Lee and wouldn't involve Chase at all. But Miramax didn't think Lee was a big enough
star and shut the whole thing down. Looks like Chase had the last laugh. Thanks for watching! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch
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