The decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to shelve its feature film \u201cBatgirl\u201d (with a budget somewhere in the $70 million to $100 million-plus range) caught both film industry professionals and casual movie lovers by surprise. Yet there is a precedent in Hollywood for creating a major film release and then yanking it from a release schedule.<\/p>\n
For your consideration, here are 10 examples of Hollywood films that got the \u201cBatgirl\u201d treatment.
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\u201cA Woman of the Sea\u201d (1926)<\/strong> \u2013 Charlie Chaplin agreed to produce this dramatic to highlight the talents of director Josef von Sternberg and leading lady Edna Purviance. Chaplin planned a release through United Artists, the distribution company that he co-owned, but the resulting work was so unsatisfactory that he opted not to make it available. The materials for the film were deliberately destroyed in 1933 in order for Chaplin to declare a tax write-off, and despite rumors of a stray surviving print \u201cA Woman of the Sea\u201d is considered a lost film.<\/p>\n \u201cThe American\u201d (1927) <\/strong>\u2013 Pioneering filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton helmed this silent revenge-fueled Western headlined by box office stars Bessie Love and Charles Ray. The film was supposed to be the first feature production made in the widescreen Natural Vision process, but its premiere at New York City\u2019s Roxy Theatre was cancelled following a dispute with the producer, George Spoor. The film was never shown and is now considered lost.<\/p>\n \u201cAn Enemy of the People\u201d (1978) <\/strong>\u2013 Steve McQueen baffled Hollywood with his desire to star in Arthur Miller\u2019s adaptation of the Hendrik Ibsen drama about a doctor trying in vain to warn a town about contamination in local springs that have become a profitable tourist attraction. McQueen sported long hair and a beard that made him unrecognizable, and Warner Bros. was at a loss at how to promote this unlikely vehicle. When test screenings affirmed a lack of audience enthusiasm, the film was shelved. Over the years, it popped up in isolated screenings and occasional television broadcasts before a 2009 DVD release.<\/p>\n \u201cHealth\u201d (1979)<\/strong> \u2013 Robert Altman\u2019s used a health food industry convention as the setting for his satire on U.S. politics of the late 1970s. Despite Altman\u2019s cred and an all-star cast including Glenda Jackson, Lauren Bacall, Carol Burnett and James Garner, 20th Century Fox repeatedly delayed its opening before giving it a brief single-screen run at New York City\u2019s Film Forum in 1982. The film has since turned up in cable television broadcasts, but it has yet to be released in any home entertainment format.<\/p>\n \u201cWhite Dog\u201d (1982)<\/strong> \u2013 Paramount Pictures initially did not have problems with the concept of Samuel Fuller\u2019s disturbing film about efforts to rehabilitate a dog that was trained by a racist to attack Black people. But when Fuller delivered the finished film, the studio was terrified that it would be accused of releasing a racist production. After a one-week run in Detroit made without marketing promotion, the studio shelved \u201cWhite Dog\u201d \u2013 although it was released in France and the U.K. Years later, the film would later turn up on cable television and in home entertainment releases.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing Lasts Forever\u201d (1984)<\/strong> \u2013 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer withdrew Tom Schiller\u2019s offbeat science-fiction comedy \u2013 which had Zach Galligan as the lead and Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in supporting roles \u2013 shortly before it was slated to play in theaters and, to date, has never made it available in any commercial entertainment outlet, although it did have a single broadcast on Turner Classic Movies in January 2015 and was presented in a handful of one-shot screenings. A bootlegged version was briefly on YouTube.<\/p>\n