Alfred Hitchcock's unrealized projects
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock%27s_unrealized_projects
Which ones would you like to have seen made, and who would you have cast in them?
All of them, but particularly the ones from Flamingo Feather on.
Keep in mind that he had casts committed (at least on paper) for some of them:
Flamingo Feather:
James Stewart. (with hopes for Grace Kelly to leave her princess job for awhile.)
No Bail for the Judge
Audrey Hepburn(Hitch always regretted not directing her)
Laurence Harvey(as the gentleman thief hero; Richard Burton had been considered, but Harvey got the role)
John Williams(used before in Dial M and To Catch a Thief.)
The Blind Man
Stewart, again -- but this would have been after Vertigo. I think Vertigo should have stood as Stewart's final Hitchcock film. David Niven was mentioned as an alternative -- go with him.
RRRR:
The hero and heroine were to be Italians. Hitchcock wanted Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. Good enough for me!
"The First Frenzy"
The lead was a young and sexually active male psycho. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford have been suggested for this casting. Might have wrecked their careers. John Phillip Law(Barbarella) was pitched by agent Sue Mengers to Hitch. Might have worked.
The role of the killer's mother -- a Broadway star -- was intended for Ingrid Bergman.
The Three Hostages:
Intended to re-unite Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren after Marnie. Connery yes..Hedren no. Connery was to play Richard Hannay, the Robert Donat Role in The 39 Steps.
The Short Night.
Hitchcock pitched both Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood for the lead. In a "fantasy world" let's give it to Eastwood. He never worked for Hitchcock. Liv Ullman and Catherine Denueve were pitched for the heroine. Let's give it to Denueve -- the Hitchcock Blonde who never worked for Hitchcock. Walter Matthau tentatively accepted the villain. Great!
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CONT
But of all the unmade projects, "Mary Rose" always sounded nearest and dearest to Hitchcock's heart. He wanted to bill it as "Mary Rose, A Ghost Story By Alfred Hitchcock." Which would have been a first. Tippi Hedren was considered but again NO.
I'm not sure of the nature of the female lead -- she's the ghost? -- but how about Audrey Hepburn? Or Lee Remick? Or Eva Marie Saint?
I think I read somewhere that Hitchcock was considering Rod Taylor for the male lead. Go bigger -- Burton or O'Toole or maybe Michael Caine.
But, again: Mary Rose is perhaps the greatest Hitchcock movie that was never allowed(by Universal) to be made. Word is that it could have been as powerful as Vertigo.
CONT
and oh..a Hitchcock Titanic would have been great. He was brought over from England by Selznick to MAKE Titanic but ended up making Rebecca( a Best Picture winner) instead.
Still, given what James Cameron gave us, perhaps a Hitchcock Titanic circa 1940 never would have topped THAT.