Where the Wild Things Are (lost production material of unfinished film adaptations of children's book; 1980s-2000s)
Cover of the book the films were based on.
Status: Lost
Where The Wild Things Are is a 1963 children's book by famed author Maurice Sendak. The book captured the hearts of many children and is considered a classic.
There have been many attempts to bring the book to the big screen. A few stabs were made in the 1960s and 70s that did not get past the pre-production stages. In 1983, John Lassater (future PIXAR animator) took an idea to adapt the film to Disney Animation studios. Enthused, they told him to do an animation test based off of his idea. The film was to feature 2D animated characters in a computer generated, 3D environment. Disney, though impressed, decided to cancel the project. Though the animation test was broadcasted on The Disney Channel and is commonly seen on YouTube, Lassater completed a few more film elements before its cancellation. All of these are yet to be seen by the general public.
A few more small attempts were made at making a film, most of which now only remain as scripts. In 2001, Universal Studios attempted another animated adaptation that was entirely done with computer generated 3D graphics. The movie was apparently halfway completed before Universal pulled the plug for unknown reasons. None of the film's elements have been seen or have been leaked online.
While the book did eventually receive its much-deserved film adaptation in 2009, its fascinating to see exactly how many failed film adaptations it had before getting there. At the very least, Sendak got to see his classic story finally come to life before his death in 2012 at age 83. He was reportedly happy with the results.