Avatar: The Way of Water, in the short time it has been in theaters, has owned the box office. In fact, it has becomethe third highest-grossing movie of all time, two behind its predecessor, 2009’sAvatar,and one ahead ofJames Cameron’s other epic,Titanic. Not bad for a film that was first announced way, way back in 2010. The reason for its delay isn’t surprising for those who know Cameron’s work: the technology simply hadn’t caught up to his vision until now. That’s one film, however, among many that have faced delays from the start of production until its release (and in one instance, the film still hasn’t been released to this day). Lost footage, finances, deaths – there’s a whole laundry list of reasons why films are delayed, and these are the most pokey pictures of them all.
RELATED:‘Blade’ and the History of MCU Delays
‘The Tragedy of Man’ - 23 Years
Based on the 1861 playThe Tragedy of ManbyImre Madách, the ambitious, animated Hungarian film consists of 15 segments, as does the original play, each animated in a different visual style. The film travels across multiple historical eras, from the Biblical creation of the Earth to a time far off in the future, and features Adam (Tamás Széles), Eve (Ágnes Bertalan), and Lucifer (Mátyás Usztics) as they look for the meaning of life by exploring humanity. The film went into production in 1988, but when communism fell in Hungary, so too did the state-funded system that financed Madách’s previous films. This forced Madách to find alternative funding. When enough funding came through to finance a segment, it was completed and then operations ceased until more funding came through for the next segment… and so on, and so on. Over the years, some of the segments were shown at film festivals and on Hungarian television, but it wasn’t until 2011 that the entire three-hour marathon film premiered in its entirety at the Anilogue International Animation Film Festival.
‘Los resucitados’ - 23 Years
The film begins in Spain, in 1602. Generations of fighting against El Caminante, the herald of Hell, have come to an end, after the defeat of the Knights of the Order of the Sword. These defenders of the faith were left shattered when El Caminante possessed the most virtuous and celibate of them all, General Molina (Paul Naschy). But somehow, those still alive, left mutilated and weakened, need to find the courage to fight against the risen dead and prevent the fall of the kingdom of God at the hands of the devil. Filming began in 1994, and in 1997, the first cut was made. And then promptly lost. Years later, the film was found again, but somescenes were either silent or had sound that was largely unusable. The film was redubbed and finally made its debut at the Sitges Film Festival in October 2017.
‘Horizon Blue’ - 24 Years
From a manga byKondō Yōko, the adaptation was first conceived in 1995, a powerful story about loneliness, family relations, and social constraints. DirectorHiroshi Haradauses a mix of animation, low-res video, and documentary, keeping with his style. It wasn’t completed until 2019, apparently due to the director working on the project alone, performing all the work on the film by himself.
‘Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection’ - 25 Years
It’s 2220, and a black hole is making its way toward our solar system (you know, as black holes do), which most definitely means the end of all life on Earth. The decision is made to evacuate the entire population of Earth and move them to a planet called Amare, 27,000 light-years away in the Sariam star system. The Japanese animated science fiction film was first announced in 1984, intended for release in 1987. A number of revisions kept being made, however, and despite steps towards actually starting on the film in 1993, it was put on hold, and not released until22202009. Fun fact: the film wassupposed to be the start of a series, but nothing more ever came of it. I guess that happens when it takes 25 years to finish one (unless you’re James Cameron, obviously).
‘The Thief and the Cobbler’ - 29 Years
An animated film with hints ofAladdin,The Thief and the Cobblerintroduces Tack (Matthew Broderick), a young cobbler who is to be executed for upsetting ZigZag the Vizier (Vincent Price). Thankfully, Princess YumYum (Bobbi Page) saves him from death, but may not be able to stop ZigZag’s plan to marry her in order to succeed her father, King Nod (Clive Revill). To complicate matters, a thief makes off with the three protective orbs atop the palace. So now it’s up to Tack and YumYum to get the orbs back and stop ZigZag and the One-Eye army. DirectorRichard Williamsstarted work on the film in 1964, and thanks to issues with funding and highly detailed animation, the film went in and out of production for almost 30 years. Warner Bros. agreed to finance and distribute the film in 1989, but when the film was going well over budget and, again, behind schedule, the film was taken out of Williams' hands, where it was butchered and re-edited to make a 1993 release, only renamedThe Princess and the Cobbler. Another re-edit would follow two years later, with Miramax releasing the film under the titleArabian Knight(the actors referenced in the roles above are from this version of the film). Sadly, it still has never been released in its original version.
You know who probably makes some great coin?Phil Tippett’s psychologist. Not convinced? Check outMad God, a stop-motion adult animated horror film about an assassin who descends into a hellhole - literally. The underworld contains a city, home to faceless drones that are ruled by a baby-babbling, filthy-toothed, seared-flesh beast. The assassin drops a time bomb in a suitcase deep under the city but is captured by a creeping monster behind him. And then it gets weird. A crowd surrounds as a surgeon splits open the assassin’s abdomen, rummages through the chest cavity, and pulls out an odd infant creature that the nurse takes away and brings to an alchemist’s lair, where the alchemist grinds the infant into liquid… Anyway, Tippett started work on the film in 1991, gave up on it when he worked onJurassic Park,firmly believing that stop-motion was dead, and picked it up again 20 years later, relying on volunteers to help him finish it. Finally,Mad Godhit the screens in 2021 at the 74th Locarno Film Festival.
‘Life of Crime 1984-2020’ - 36 Years
There’s actually a valid reason why 36 years went by before this documentary hit theaters.Life of Crime: 1984-2020is the final chapter in a documentary trilogy that sees directorJon Alpertcovering the lives of three people, entangled in crime and addiction in Newark. The first, 1989’sOne Year in a Life of Crime, saw the three committing criminal activities, each more dangerous than the one before.Life of Crime 2in 1998 caught up with the three, still trapped in a cycle of addiction and violence.Life of Crime: 1984-2020pulls footage from Alpert’s three-decade-long footage of his broken subjects, and it’s clear that Alpert has grown to care and love for these people over the course of the three films.1984-2020is a powerful film, well worth the 36-year wait.
‘Man in the Mirror’ - 38 Years
Apple Joe (Michael Dunn) is a former University professor who tries to come to terms with the past and find meaning in life in 1970s Manhattan. He owns an apple cart, vending on the streets in the shadow of the World Trade Center. He seems destined to stand up for the homeless and downtrodden people on the streets, but it’s only when he meets a man with a mirror that Joe embraces the challenge. Joe fights to make a home for the homeless, the street kids, and young women forced into prostitution, keeping hope alive in the face of an indifferent, greedy society. It’s a feel-good film, one where veteran actorMartin Sheenplays nine (yes, nine) roles. And it was filmed between 1970 and 1972 but wasn’t restored and completed until 2007, with a final scene taken on the modern-day Brooklyn Promenade, with a Manhattan skyline devoid of the World Trade Center that once dominated it.
‘BalikBaya #1: Memories of Overdevelopment, Redux VI’ - 38 Years
Take the 38 years with a grain of salt:BalikBaya #1: Memories of Overdevelopment, Redux VIis only the most recent release - 2017 - of the film that directorKidlat Tahimikfirst started working on in 1979. The film is partly about Enrique Malacca (Kidlat Tahimik), a Malay who was the slave of 16th-century explorer Ferdinand Magellan, and who completed Magellan’s quest to circumnavigate the globe as a free man. Then there’s footage of a mysterious, fictional senior, Tahimik again, and documentary footage of an artist community in Baguio, in the northern Philippines.
‘The Overcoat’ - 41 Years and Counting
An animated film based on theNikolai Gogolshort story of the same name,The Overcoattells the tragicomic story of a poor Russian government worker, who aims to raise his status at work by spending all of his money on a new overcoat. His tactic works, and he enjoys a time of social success. Until the overcoat is stolen, sending him into a downward spiral, one in which he can’t return to his anonymity, and sends him to his death. At least that’s how the story plays out. As of 2004, 25 minutes of the film were completed, and although there was a promise of the first 30 minutes being released in 2007, with a soundtrack no less, it never came to fruition. And so, we wait. What’s the holdup? It’s a combination ofRussian director and animatorYuri Norstein’s notorious perfectionism, and the unique animation he has been using, a cut-out animation using multiple glass panels to give a three-dimensional look.
‘The Other Side of the Wind’ - 48 years
“A New Film From Legendary DirectorOrson Welles,” who had already been dead for 33 years already. The current champion of delayed films at 48 years, Welles began working on the film in 1970, with famed movie director and actorJohn Hustonplaying famed movie director, JJ Hannaford. Hannaford dies in a car accident, days away from releasing his latest movie, “The Other Side of the Wind.” A documentary camera crew that had been following him around in the days preceding his death capture the events leading up to his death, the careers Hannaford destroyed, and the enemies he made. The drama was a satire of classic Hollywood, European filmmakers, and the dawn of a new Hollywood in the 70s. Welles worked on the film off and on, but the film got held up by legal complications, and financial complications, and even political complications, as if the first two weren’t enough. Then Welles' death. In 2014, directorPeter Bogdanovichand producerFrank Marshalloversaw the completion of the film, and in 2018 the long, long delayed film finally saw the light of day at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.
