Joel Schumacher's unrealized projects

The following is a list of unproduced Joel Schumacher projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, film director Joel Schumacher 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.

A Chorus Line
In mid-1979, Schumacher was hired by Universal Pictures to write and direct A Chorus Line, after having just completed his first feature, The Incredible Shrinking Woman. To market the film, Universal enlisted producer Allan Carr, who hired Marvin Hamlisch to write several new songs for the film and asked John Travolta to play the character Zack. Creative differences with Carr soon arose when Schumacher wanted the film to feature extensive flashbacks of the dancers as children, to dramatize the moment when they heard the call of the stage. In early 1980, Universal sold the rights to A Chorus Line to PolyGram Pictures, and the film was made by Richard Attenborough.

And the Band Played On
On October 1, 1991, Schumacher dropped out as director of the movie adaptation of Randy Shilts's novel And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic, which became the 1993 film of the same name by Roger Spottiswoode.

The Crowded Room
On November 5, 1995, Schumacher was hired to direct the movie adaptation of Daniel Keyes's novel The Minds of Billy Milligan entitled The Crowded Room. Eventually Schumacher left the project due to his commitment to Batman & Robin. On October 13, 2004, Schumacher was again attached as director of the project but soon left. An anthology television series of the novel aired on Apple TV+ in 2023, written by Akiva Goldsman who had written both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin for Schumacher.

Popcorn
On January 9, 1997, Schumacher was set to direct the film adaptation of Ben Elton's novel Popcorn, which didn't materialize.

The Runaway Jury
On July 23, 1997, Schumacher dropped out as director of the film adaptation of John Grisham's novel The Runaway Jury, which became the film of the same name by Gary Fleder.

The Apartment remake
On February 24, 1999, Schumacher was hired to direct the remake of Gilles Mimouni's 1996 film The Apartment for Paramount Pictures and Lakeshore Entertainment. Schumacher later left the project, which became Wicker Park, directed by Paul McGuigan.

On the Road
On February 24, 2002, Schumacher was hired by Francis Ford Coppola to adapt Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road with Billy Crudup as Sal Paradise and Colin Farrell as Dean Moriarty. Walter Salles ultimately directed the 2012 adaptation.

A Star Is Born remake
On September 27, 2002, Schumacher was attached to remake A Star Is Born, with Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez attached to play the leads for Warner Bros. Bradley Cooper would later direct a separate production of a fourth remake in 2018.

Inland Saints
On April 17, 2007, Schumacher was attached to direct Kurt Sutter's supernatural urban crime drama Inland Saints for Paramount Pictures. On November 17, 2008, Mark Swift and Damian Shannon was attached to rewrite Inland Saints to reflect Schumacher's post-apocalyptic, action horror direction for the film. There were no further developments since then.

Breaking News remake
On July 25, 2007, Schumacher was in talks to direct an American remake of Johnnie To's action crime thriller Breaking News for Paramount Vantage.

The Hive
On April 25, 2011, Schumacher was attached to direct Richard D'Ovidio's suspense thriller The Hive for Troika Pictures, which eventually became Brad Anderson's The Call.

The Big Girls TV pilot
On June 27, 2011, Schumacher was in talks to direct the pilot of Adam Mazer's television adaptation of the Susanna Moore novel The Big Girls for HBO, which didn't materialize.

Offers
On October 13, 2011, Schumacher opened up about rejecting offers to direct sequels to his films St. Elmo's Fire, The Lost Boys and Flatliners, with the latter being the only materialized project, albeit without the involvement of Schumacher.