Often, a sequel is announced to a project in a blaze of glory, only to die in development hell, or be quietly shelved for other reasons. Such as these…

Total Recall 2

The death of Carolco didn’t stop Mario Kassar trying to revive some of his most lucrative franchises over the years, and a sequel to Total Recall was long talked about as one of those projects. Sadly, with no sign of interest from Arnold Schwarzenegger or director Paul Verhoeven, it was in trouble from the off. What’s likely to have killed this for good though is the performance of the sequel Kassar did get off the ground in recent years: Basic Instinct 2…

Planet Of The Apes 2

It was little secret that Fox saw its late 90s revival of Planet Of The Apes as a chance to get a whole new crack at the franchise going. Sadly, the ‘reimagining’ of the original, with Tim Burton at the helm, may have brought in the cash, but not many people – and that’s an understatement – actually seemed to like it. Talk of Planet Of The Apes 2 was quietly forgotten.

Fantastic Four 3

It wasn’t really talked about, but it was all but assumed that a third Fantastic Four movie would be blazing its way into cinemas in a year or two. After all, while Tim Story’s family-friendly pair of films would never go down as classics, they did make a lot of money. Yet the likelihood now is that the Silver Surfer – who single-handedly made the second film interesting – is going to get his own spin off, and Marvel’s first family can go back to comics instead….

Battlefield Earth 2

As director Roger Christian said in a soon-to-be-published interview with Den Of Geek, a lot of the meat of the Battlefield Earth project was in the second half of the book, and that was to form the basis of the second film. Yet the critical savaging that the first one received (even though it did make a profit) killed any chance of BE2.

True Lies 2

James Cameron had long talked about doing a sequel to True Lies, but in the wake of the world-conquering Titanic, he seemed reluctant to step back behind a camera. That said, he kept mentioning True Lies, which could have panned out into a Bond-like franchise, yet the atrocities of September 11th are likely to have ended any enthusiasm or interest Cameron had in the project.

Jinx

There was talk, in the light of the success of Die Another Day, that a pseudo-sequel based around Halle Berry’s character would be in the offing. But Jinx never happened, as Berry continually proved that she couldn’t bring home the box office bacon unassisted. It was a project people quietly stopped talking about…

Mad Max 4

There have been several attempts to bring Max back to the silver screen for one more outing, and even in recent times, it’s believed that Mad Max 4 had a production office on the Warner Bros lot. Yet Mad Max 4: Fury Road (it had a title and everything) seems to, in spite of the intentions of George Miller (who’s trying to get it moving again), be nowhere close to a cinema screen. The latest reports suggest it may go ahead without Mel Gibson, which would be a bit, erm, odd…

E.T. 2

In the light of the success of the original, there was talk of a second film that would have seen Elliot in space, and needed E.T.’s help to get back to Earth. It didn’t sound very good really, did it? Fortunately, Spielberg and co decided that the original was best left as it was…

Airplane III

A film that did, apparently, at least make it to the drawing board. The idea was that the team behind the second film would make a third, but the box office numbers killed the idea.

The Rocketeer 2

Some at Geek Towers still have a soft spot for Bill Campbell’s big screen take on The Rocketeer (directed by Joe Johnston), and certainly the early talk was that it should be franchised. Sadly, box office returns killed the idea stone dead.

Titanic: The Prequel

This was primarily paper talk at the point where Titanic was dominating the global box, but it was strongly mooted that the Jack and Rose story would be made into a film of its own. Thankfully, it never was.

Gladiator

Another film that was set to get a prequel, and some reports suggest it was even scripted. However, with none of the parties concerned seemingly interested in getting the project going, Gladiator 2 is set for a life in development hell.

Ghostbusters 3

At one point, it seemed that a third Ghostbusters film was all ready to go, and Columbia was seemingly fully intending to make it. But the project, for some reason, never came together, and the latest report is that Bill Murray – who apparently wanted his character to die – will not even turn up for a cameo if it goes ahead.

Shark Tale 2

DreamWorks did, it seems, start work on a sequel to their visually striking yet really quite dull animated movie. Common sense prevailed, and it was flushed down the toilet before the project got much further.

The Bodyguard 2

Kevin Costner has never done a sequel, but if you believe him, the closest he got was a script he was working on for a Bodyguard sequel. His co-star? Princess Diana. Her untimely death ended the project, and Costner only talked about it in the years that followed, so she never had a chance to confirm or deny the story.

Dirty Harry 6

Recent speculation arose that suggested Clint Eastwood may do one more Dirty Harry film, although the man himself eventually killed the idea off. To be fair, an 80-year old Harry, while a fascinating character, wouldn’t really fit the tempo of the previous films, much though we’d love to see it. And we haven’t forgotten The Dead Pool, either…

ID4Ever

1996 was the summer of Independence Day, and the height of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s clout. Inevitably, talk surfaced of a follow, with the working title of ID4Ever. Devlin and Emmerich, after some discussion, decided not to press ahead with the project, and Devlin has recently confirmed that they never will.

League Of Extraordinary Gentleman 2

It’s believed that the original plan with LXG was to cover the first comic in the first film, and then go back and do the second. It’s hard to tell whether it was the disastrous production, replete with all its problems, or the box office returns that rammed the nails in the coffin of the idea, but there’s no chance of LXG 2 now.