Draft:Roland Emmerich's unproduced projects

The following is a list of unproduced Roland Emmerich projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, Emmerich 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.

Fantastic Voyage remake
On February 17, 1998, Emmerich was set to direct a remake of Fantastic Voyage at 20th Century Fox.

Alien Prison
On March 20, 2002, Emmerich was in talks to direct and produce Alien Prison with Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher producing through Red Wagon Productions and Sony Pictures set to distribute.

Foundation film trilogy
On January 16, 2009, Emmerich was in talks to direct the film adaptation of Isacc Asimov’s Foundation, as well as produce the film adaptation with Michael Wimer. On July 25, 2009, it was announced that Robert Rodat would write the screenplay. On October 9, 2009, Emmerich confirmed that he would direct the film adaptation of Asimov’s Foundation trilogy after Anonymous. On February 11, 2010, Emmerich intended to use 3D motion capture for his film adaptation of the Foundation trilogy. On September 15, 2011, Dante Harper was hired to adapt the trilogy. The film failed to materialize, and eventually the books were adapted into the television series of the same name on Apple TV+.

The Zone
On October 29, 2010, Emmerich was set to direct the found-footage alien invasion film The Zone, with Guillaume Tunzini writing the script and Loucas George will produce the film for Columbia Pictures, and later that November, the film was shut down the week before it was meant to start filming.

Singularity
On June 29, 2011, Emmerich was set to direct the film Singularity, with Harold Kloser writing the script, and later that November, Luke Grimes, Logan Marshall Green, Julian Morris, Thomas McDonell, Ben Barnes, and Luke Bracey auditioned for the lead role. On January 4, 2012, Sony halted production on the movie.

2012 Election TV pilot
On January 4, 2012, Emmerich was set to cowrite an apocalyptic series set during the 2012 Presidential Election with Harold Klosner, that Emmerich and Klosner will produce with The Mark Gordon Company, as well as direct the pilot episode for the 2012-2013 television season for ABC.

Hero: The Life And Legend Of Lawrence Of Arabia TV miniseries
On April 30, 2013, Emmerich was set to produce the six-hour miniseries of Michael Korda’s biographical novel Hero: The Life And Legend Of Lawrence Of Arabia through his Centropolis Entertainment, with Rod Lurie writing the miniseries and Marc Frydman producing through Fremantle International.

Emergence
On June 7, 2013, Emmerich was in talks to direct the sci-fi movie Emergence from Nic Kelman and Emmerich will produce through Centropolis Entertainment.

Maya Lord film
On April 28, 2014, Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment acquired the movie adaptation rights of Maya Lord, a biographical novel about Gonzalo Guerrero.

New Angeles TV series
On September 9, 2014, Emmerich was set to produce Gregg Hurwitz’s sci-fi TV series New Angeles through Slingshot Global Media, with Keanu Reeves attached to produce the series and potentially star in the series and Emmerich directing the pilot episode.

Lost Amazon
On November 3, 2015, Emmerich was set to produce the animated movie Lost Amazon, in a collaboration with Awesometown Entertainment.

Scarletville
On November 22, 2016, Emmerich was set to produce Jason Young’s thriller spec script Scarletville, there was no further announcement since.

Dark Matter film
On December 15, 2016, Emmerich was in talks to direct the film adaptation of Blake Crouch’s sci-fi novel Dark Matter, which fell through until Crouch was set to showrun the television series adaptation for Apple TV+.