James Gunn's unrealized projects

The following is a list of unproduced James Gunn projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director James Gunn has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these productions fell in development hell or were cancelled.

Gilligan's Island
In the late 1990s, Gunn and Charlie Kaufman attempted to make a film adaptation of the 1960s television series Gilligan's Island, but as a cannibal film. Although the project was supported by Warner Bros., the film was never made because Sherwood Schwartz, who created the show, disapproved.

Silver Surfer
In 1999, an executive from 20th Century Fox offered to hire Gunn to write and direct a film about the Marvel Comics superhero Silver Surfer.

Spy vs. Spy
Also in 1999, Gunn wrote an unproduced screenplay adaptation of Spy vs. Spy. According to Gunn, Jay Roach was to have directed and Nicolas Cage and Eddie Murphy were to have starred.

Scooby Doo 3
Gunn was to have helmed Scooby Doo 3, which would have been the third film of Scooby-Doo (2002). However, due to the critical and financial failure of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Warner Bros. cancelled the project.

Creature from the Black Lagoon remake
In 2004, Gunn pitched to Universal Pictures his screenplay that was intended to be a remake of the 1954 film Creature from the Black Lagoon, but the studio turned down the pitch.

Pets
In 2007, it was reported that Gunn was to write and direct a comedy film for New Regency titled Pets, with Ben Stiller serving as one of the producers. Gunn left the project due to creative differences.

It's Alive remake
Larry Cohen said in a 2017 interview that Gunn had approached him for permission to make a remake of his 1974 film It's Alive. According to Cohen, Gunn "couldn't raise enough money to buy the rights. I'm sorry today I didn't give them to him."

Starsky & Hutch TV continuation
On August 31, 2017, Gunn was set to direct and co-write a dramatic continuation of Starsky & Hutch with his brother Brian & cousin Mark Gunn as co-writers for Prime Video. On July 24, 2018, an Amazon Studios spokesperson revealed on Yahoo! Finance that the series was cancelled months before Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Ravagers TV spinoff
In August 2017, Gunn said that he was in talks with Marvel Studios to make a Ravagers spinoff series.