Adam McKay's unrealized projects

The following is a list of unproduced Adam McKay projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American filmmaker Adam McKay has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.

August Blowout
In 1999, McKay and Will Ferrell wrote the business comedy August Blowout that impressed Ben Stiller and Paul Thomas Anderson, but McKay and Ferrell ended up making Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy instead, and would produce a similar comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009).

Utopia Road
In 2001, McKay wrote the screenplay Utopia Road with Jay Roach attached to direct, but it fell through the cracks and Etan Cohen rewrote McKay’s script.

Land of the Lost film
In 2005, McKay was set to write, direct and produce a film adaptation of the television series Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell and Jack Black set to star, but Brad Silberling ended up directing the film without Black.

CEO
In 2005, McKay was set to direct the comedy CEO from a screenplay by Ian Roberts and Jay Martel, but made Step Brothers instead.

Channel 3 Billion
In 2008, McKay was set to direct and produce a sci-fi comedy film similar to Brazil entitled Channel 3 Billion, which he co-wrote with Dennis McNichols around the time The Other Guys started filming, but there has been no word about the film since.

HBO I Don’t Care About Your Band TV series
On July 29, 2010, McKay was set to produce the television adaptation of Julie Klausner’s memoir I Don’t Care About Your Band for HBO with Jessica Elbaum set as the show creator and Lizzy Caplan set to portray Klausner.

3 Mississippi
In 2011, McKay was in talks to direct the Thanksgiving comedy film 3 Mississippi, with Robert Carlock and Scott Silveri writing the script and Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, and Jeremy Renner cast in the film for Warner Bros. But on April 11, 2012, Sean Anders was hired to direct the film instead as McKay was going to start Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

Uptown Saturday Night remake
On April 26, 2012, McKay was set to direct the remake of Uptown Saturday Night with Will Smith and Denzel Washington possibly attached to star. On November 25, 2013, Nicholas Stoller was hired to write the screenplay for McKay’s remake, and Smith and Washington were set to star when their schedules line up.

HBO Wall Street comedy TV series
On May 14, 2012, McKay was set to co-write with Chris Henchy Rob Riggle’s proposed Wall Street comedy TV series for HBO.

Manimal animated film
On July 22, 2014, McKay was attached to produce the animated movie adaptation of the TV series Manimal through Sony Pictures Animation.

Archie stage musical
On August 5, 2015, McKay was set to write the Broadway musical based on Archie as a collaboration between Funny or Die and Archie Comics.

Irredeemable film
On May 5, 2016, McKay was set to direct and produce a film adaptation of Mark Waid’s comic book series Irredeemable, with Tommy Wirkola writing the screenplay, Boom Studios Ross Richie, Stephen Christy and Adam Yoelin producing and 20th Century Fox distributing. But, on March 17, 2022, Netflix and Boom Studios were set to adapt Irredeemable and Incorruptible into a single film with Jeymes Samuel set to direct and produce and Kemp Powers writing the screenplay, without McKay's involvement.

The Collector TV series
On May 5, 2017, McKay was set to produce Mark Cullen’s gambling addiction drama TV series The Collector for TNT.

Cutblock TV series
On December 18, 2020, McKay was set to produce the limited series Cutblock for HBO through Hyperobjects Industries.

Average Height, Average Build
On April 30, 2023, McKay was set to write, direct, and produce Average Height, Average Build with Robert Pattinson, Amy Adams, Robert Downey Jr., Forest Whitaker, and Danielle Deadwyler set to star and Netflix distributing. On December 4, 2023, McKay decided to scrap this movie for a climate change movie for Netflix.

Swear to God
On June 29, 2011, McKay was offered to direct the remake of Swear to God with Will Ferrell attached to star in after Warner Bros. bought Alan Cohen and Alan Freedland’s screenplay. On August 10, 2012, Justin Theroux was hired to direct the movie instead of McKay.

Border Guards
On April 15, 2014, McKay was offered to direct the comedy movie Border Guards for Columbia Pictures.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
On December 19, 2018, McKay revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that Kevin Feige offered him the opportunity to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 while James Gunn was fired from directing the movie.