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Development hell

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Development hell, also known as development purgatory or development limbo, is media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time because of legal, technical, or artistic challenges.[1] A work may move between many sets of artistic leadership, crews, scripts, game engines, or studios. (The related terms production hell and production limbo refer to situations in which a film has begun production but has remained unfinished for a long time without progressing to post-production.)

Some projects enter development hell because they were initially designed with ambitious goals, the difficulty of meeting those goals was underestimated, and attempts to meet those goals have repeatedly failed.

The term is also applied more generally to describe any project that has unexpectedly stalled in the planning or design phase, has failed to meet its originally expected date of completion, and is languishing in those phases for what is seen as an unreasonably long time.

Many projects that enter development hell are gradually abandoned by the involved parties and are never produced.

Overview

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Film

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Film industry companies buy the film rights to many popular novels, video games, and comic books, but often take years to bring those properties to the screen, having first made considerable changes to their plots, characters and general tone. When this pre-production process takes too long, a project will often be abandoned or cancelled outright. This happens quite often: Hollywood starts ten times as many projects as it releases.[2] Less than two percent of all books that are optioned make it to the big screen.[3]

As David Hughes, author of the book Tales From Development Hell, has noted, one reason production is delayed is that, after producers, directors, and actors have been attached to a project, they may request script rewrites.[4] Another cause of delay is that, after people have been attached to a project, they find they have conflicting interpretations of it or visions for it.[5][6] For example, the director and the studio executives may have different opinions about a film's casting, plot or budget. Development delays can also result when a lead actor or a key member of the production team withdraws from the project, or is taken ill, or dies;[7] when there are labor strikes involving the writers, directors, crew or cast;[8] when there are disputes about intellectual property rights or contract terms;[9] when there is turnover at the studio's executive level and the new leaders have a different vision; or when, due to changes in the wider economic, cultural or political climate, the film's topic comes to be seen as no longer marketable.[10]

Production hell refers to a situation in which a film has entered production but has remained in that phase for a long time without progressing to post-production.[11]

Television

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Television series can experience development hell between seasons, resulting in a long delay from one season to the next. Screenwriter Ken Aguado states that "development hell rarely happens in series television", because writers for a television series "typically only get a few cracks at executing a pilot, and if he or she doesn't deliver, the project will be quickly abandoned."[12]

Video games

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Video game development can be stalled for years, occasionally over a decade, often due to a project being moved to different production studios, multiple iterations of the game being created and abandoned, or difficulties with the development of the game software itself, such as loss of funding, overambitious scope, and poor development time management.[13] In the computer industry, vaporware is the term for a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled.

Podcasts

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A number of popular audio series are dedicated to discussing the topic of unmade creative projects, including Development Hell, a Dread Central podcast which uncovers notable cancelled horror films.[14]

Causes

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The concept artist and illustrator Sylvain Despretz has suggested that, "Development hell doesn't happen with no-name directors. It happens only with famous directors that a studio doesn't dare break up with. And that's how you end up for two years just, you know, polishing a turd. Until, finally, somebody walks away, at great cost."[15]

With video games, slow progress and a lack of funds may lead developers to focus their resources elsewhere. Occasionally, completed portions of a game fail to meet expectations, with developers subsequently choosing to abandon the project rather than start from scratch. The commercial failure of a released game may also result in any prospective sequels being delayed or cancelled.[16]

Turnaround deals

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If a film is in development but never receives the necessary production funds, another studio may execute a turnaround deal and successfully produce the film. For example, Columbia Pictures stopped production of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Universal Pictures then picked up the film and made it a success. When a studio completely abandons a film project, the costs are written off as part of the studio's overhead, thereby reducing taxable income.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Doyle, Barbara Freedman (2012). Make Your Movie: What You Need to Know About the Business and Politics of Filmmaking. Waltham, Massachusetts: Focal Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-240-82155-9. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  2. ^ Spillman, Susan (January 16, 1991). "Cover Story: Writers Paid for Movies Never Made". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. p. D1.
  3. ^ Kean, Danuta (April 15, 2007). "No room at the Oscars: The cinemas are full of turkeys yet that brilliant novel you read three years ago has never been made into a film". The Independent on Sunday. p. 1. Available via ProQuest.
  4. ^ Hughes, David (2012). Tales From Development Hell (New Updated Edition): The Greatest Movies Never Made?. Titan Books.
  5. ^ Mitchell, Kerrie (February 2005). "Dept. of Development Hell". Premiere. Vol. 18, no. 5. New York. p. 40.
  6. ^ Warren, Patricia Nell (April 2008). "Books Into Movies: Part 2 (Best Selling Novel The Front Runner has Spent Over 25 Years in Development Hell)". Lambda Book Report. Vol. 8, no. 9. Washington. p. 9.
  7. ^ "How Long Does It Take To Make A Movie? Everything You Need To Know". www.nfi.edu. National Film Institute. February 16, 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  8. ^ "How Long Does It Take To Make A Movie? Everything You Need To Know". www.nfi.edu. National Film Institute. February 16, 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  9. ^ "How Long Does It Take To Make A Movie? Everything You Need To Know". www.nfi.edu. National Film Institute. February 16, 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  10. ^ Jensen, Jeff; Svetkey, Benjamin (September 24, 2001). "Hollywood reacts to the crisis". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  11. ^ "'The New Mutants' Director Josh Boone Says The Film Never Had Reshoots". Atom Insider. March 9, 2020. Archived from the original on July 14, 2021. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  12. ^ Aguado, Ken (June 21, 2021). "Principles of Hollywood Development". pipelineartists.com. Pipeline Artists. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  13. ^ LeBlanc, Wesley. "Video Games Stuck In Development Hell: Part 2". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  14. ^ Chernov, Matthew (October 26, 2021). "12 Horror Movie Podcasts to Make You Scream". Variety. Archived from the original on January 24, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  15. ^ Schnepp, Jon (director) (2015). The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? (Documentary). Event occurs at 1:27:52.
  16. ^ Johnson, Leif (May 10, 2016). "The 13 Biggest Video Games That Never Came Out". IGN. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  17. ^ McDonald, Paul; Wasko, Janet (December 13, 2007). Hollywood Film Industry. Hoboken, New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-4051-3388-3.
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