Draft:Roland Emmerich's unrealized projects

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

The Train/I.S.O.B.A.R./Fantastic Voyage
In the 1980’s and early ‘90’s, Emmerich was set to direct a sci-fi horror film “The Train/I.S.O.B.A.R./Fantastic Voyage” with Steven E. de Souza writing a draft and Joel Silver as a producer at Carolco, which Emmerich and Dean Devlin bought for Columbia Pictures and Tab Murphy would rewrite and entitled it “Fantastic Voyage.”

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 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+ without Emmerich.

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.

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.

Ares
On December 14, 2015, Emmerich was set to produce Geneva Robertson-Dworet’s screenplay Ares, and on January 10, 2020, Emmerich was set to executive produce Ares, while Robert Zemeckis could direct for Warner Bros.

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+.

Spider-Man
In 1999, Emmerich was offered to direct Spider-Man before Sam Raimi was hired.