4 TV & Movie Projects Trapped In ‘Development Hell’ We’re Still Holding Out Hope For
We’ve all been here before. Googling every few months or years to see what happened to our favorite project in the making, only to see that it’s stalled again.
The entertainment industry refers to these never-ending delays as ‘development hell’, and for good reason. Even so, here are four projects we’re just not ready to give up hope on…yet.
The Lore Olympus TV Adaptation
This Webtoon turned best-selling graphic novel series by New Zealand artist Rachel Smythe, Lore Olympus is a stylistically delicious retelling of Greek Mythology, casting our favorite gods and goddesses as if they were characters on Desperate Housewives. Staying true to the original IP by not skirting around adult content, these characters may sport skin tones that perfectly explain why the Jim Henson Company signed on to adapt the animated TV series, but it’s been over five years since the partnership was originally announced. We know that developing an animated series can require extensive time and effort, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed until this title is available to binge.
Sherlock Holmes 3
It’s been fourteen years since Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes sequel, A Game Of Shadows, hit theaters, but that doesn’t mean we’ve lost all hope of seeing Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law share the screen again as the iconic Baker Street duo. We know that when this many talented people are involved in a project, scheduling can be a nightmare, but if there’s any chance we can get Rachel McAdams back as Irene Adler for this third installment, I’d say it’s well worth the wait. The latest update from Law is that a new script draft is in the works, but only time will tell if this project will ever truly come to fruition.
Euphoria Season 3
Do we really want to see the third season of this show when we think about how emotional devastating and anxiety inducing it’s bound to be? The answer is up for debate. But knowing what a huge platform the series has been for launching stars like Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, and Jacob Elordi, it deserves an ending with closure, and maybe some therapy? The 2023 Writer’s Strike, talent schedules, script rewrites and the death of Angus Cloud all impacted the course of the series, but of all the projects we’re rooting for here, this seems the most likely to air, even if HBO confirmed it won’t be before 2026.
The Secret History Film Adaptation
Donna Tartt has been called the Dickens of our generation, and while her 2013 novel, The Goldfinch, was completely butchered by its film adaptation starring Ansel Elgort, we’re still holding out for her other international bestseller, the dark academia thriller The Secret History, to make it to the big screen after being stuck in development hell for over thirty years. Since the book released in 1992, everyone from Joan Didion to Gwyneth Paltrow has tried to get this project off the ground, only to see it stall or fail. Perhaps it’s for the best that Richard, Bunny, Charles, Camilla, Francis, and Henry all remain pristinely protected as we first saw them in our imaginations.
