Famous (and Infamous) Movie Passion Projects

2024 saw the release of Megalopolis, a cinematic oddity that Francis Ford Coppola had been noodling since 1977—while he was in the middle of filming another of his own passion projects, the legendarily fraught Apocalypse Now.

2025 will, perhaps, be the year that similarly renowned director Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave) will release his adaptation of Donald Westlake’s The Ax, involving a laid-off middle manager who decides to take his career in hand (by killing off competitors for the job he wants). Initially announced in 2009, the project (entitled No Other Choice) has been sidelined in favor of other projects, but not for lack of enthusiasm: Park says that it’s his hope “to make this film as my masterpiece”—no small thing given the director’s impressive resume.

With long-gestating cinematic passions bearing fruit lately, for better or worse, let’s take a look at some of the longest-simmering and most fought-for of movie love children.

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

One of the longest-gestating projects in Hollywood history, and a movie that outlived its director (and much of its cast) by decades, The Other Side of the Wind was conceived by Orson Welles in 1961, shortly after the death of Ernest Hemingway—the writer serving as the inspiration for the maverick director played by John Huston in the movie. (Of course, the story of a director trying to make a Hollywood comeback following years in Europe has shades of Welles.) Self-funded, the project commenced in 1970, production running only until Welles was handed a large tax bill that he needed to pay off. Things picked up again in 1974 until a major investor took off with some of the film’s budget. Principal photography was completed by 1976, but budgetary and legal obstacles kept Welles from completing his edit of the picture. Welles’ friend, protege, and co-star of the film Peter Bogdanovich made it a mission to see the film completed, which finally happened following years of contractual battles. A Netflix release, it’s hard to know exactly how well the film did in terms of viewership—but the reviews are almost universally glowing, and it serves as a fitting cap on Welles’ career. You can stream The Other Side of the Wind on Netflix.

Eraserhead (1977)

With a scholarship to the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, David Lynch spent most of his time as a student working on his debut feature. Lynch was fortunate in being able to scrabble together cast from various sources, including from his own cast and crew—Jack Fisk had a role in the film, and the film was kept afloat, in part, by Fisk and his wife, Sissy Spacek; similarly, star Jack Nance and his wife, Catherine Coulson (Lynch’s future Log Lady) tossed in what they could. Taking five years to create, the horrifying and highly experimental result served as a launch pad for Lynch’s career and remains, almost certainly, the most successful student film ever made. You can stream Eraserhead on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

So notorious is the production of Terry Gilliam’s take on the Miguel de Cervantes novel that, in the years between its conception (1989) and its release (2018), an entire documentary was produced on the film’s plagued development. Initially, Gilliam worked on a film version, one possibly to have starred Sean Connery, for nearly a decade, unsuccessfully navigating studio demands and budgetary constraints. Following the success of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam announced a new version and began filming in late 2000—a two-month European shoot that proved to be a disaster of epic proportions.

Schedules were misaligned such that performers meant to appear in scenes together were never on set at the same time; fighter jets flew overhead, ruining any audio recordings; a flash flood on the second day destroyed equipment and supplies while also altering the surrounding landscape; and, finally, the lead actor suffered from prostate and back problems, making it nearly impossible for him to ride a horse—no small matter in a story where the horse, Rocinante, is almost as famous as his rider. Sporadic attempts over the next decade or so failed because of rights and budget issues, until, production began in earnest in 2016. A contract dispute with a producer, Paulo Branco, nearly derailed that version as well, but it was finally released in 2018. A charming, goofy, mixed-bag of a film, and one that sank at the box office, the finished product doesn’t quite justify the build-up, but serves as a testament of Gilliam’s tenacity. You can stream The Man Who Killed Don Quixote on Peacock and Pluto TV or rent it from Prime Video.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Another movie whose plagued production inspired its own documentary (Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse), the story of Apocalypse Now begins in 1967, when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg encouraged filmmaker John Milius to write a Vietnam War movie. For several years, it seemed as though a pre-Star Wars Lucas was going to be the one to direct it—a fascinating “what if?” both in terms of this movie, and with regard to a potential alternate path for Lucas’ career. Francis Ford Coppola eventually decided that he’d make it if no one else would get around to it, kicking off a nearly year-long shoot in Manila that saw a typhoon; the recasting of the lead (Harvey Keitel out, Martin Sheen in); that new lead suffering a near-fatal heart attack; and the director’s inability to settle on an ending. At least in this case, the movie was a critical and box office triumph, even if it’s nearly as famous for its fraught production as it is for its own merits. You can stream Apocalypse Now on Plex or rent it from Prime Video.

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Not every passion project is a triumph—and some aren’t even particularly interesting. Battlefield Earth, a late-career science fiction novel from middling writer L. Ron Hubbard, had been something that Hubbard and company had hoped to see become a movie (with John Travolta attached) from its 1982 publication, but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that Travolta had the clout to get the movie made, willing then to use the Hollywood capital he’d built in the wake of Pulp Fiction. He said of it: “If we can’t do the things now that we want to do, what good is the power? Let’s test it and try to get the things done that we believe in.” Even still, money wasn’t easy to come by for the project; nevertheless, a resourceful Travolta managed to cobble together the ~$44m budget—only to see it crash at the box office, with a legacy that has seen it appear on many a “worst movies ever” list. Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t have some solid camp appeal. You can stream Battlefield Earth on Prime Video.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

It’s not entirely clear that A.I., based on the Brian Aldiss short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” was a passion project for director Stanley Kubrick, who worked on developing the project off and on for nearly two decades, even offering it up to Steven Spielberg somewhere in the middle. It didn’t really go anywhere until Kubrick’s unexpected death in 1999, shortly before the release of Eyes Wide Shut. At that point it became Spielberg‘s passion, and a mean of paying tribute to his friend with the blessing and support of the late director’s wife and estate. Spielberg wrote the screenplay from a treatment by Ian Watson, who’d been commissioned by Kubrick. The result is a not-entirely-seamless but still fascinating blend of styles from two very different filmmakers. You can stream A.I. Artificial Intelligence on Paramount+ and Pluto TV or rent it from Prime Video.

Spartacus (1960)

Sword-and-sandal movies were in their heyday when Kirk Douglas set out to adapt the novel of the same name by Howard Fast, who wrote the book while in prison for refusing to name names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, with the story of the enslaved gladiator serving as a metaphor for the entire Red Scare era. Douglas enlisted similarly blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo to create the screenplay and, eventually, Stanley Kubrick to direct. Douglas and the director didn’t entirely get along, and Kubrick wasn’t thrilled working on a project over which he, for once, didn’t have total creative control. Still, the film’s political subtext (it’s very nearly just text) and the director’s signature style make it a standout in an era of interchangeable ancient-themed epics. You can rent Spartacus from Prime Video.

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Werner Herzog’s classic dramatizes the story of the real-life Carlos Fitzcarrald, who led the transport of a steam ship over the Amazon mountains to get to some rubber trees. Turns out, it’s just as hard to do that on film as it is in real life, and Herzog’s desire for verisimilitude made it no less of an ordeal. Injuries (one crew member lost a foot) and even deaths plagued the production, and things only got worse when star Jason Robards had to quit after a bout of dysentery. Herzog hired his frequent star—and also arch nemesis—Klaus Kinski for the lead, and Kinski immediately alienated pretty much everyone, immediately. According to Herzog, a local leader offered to quietly have Kinski killed, though Herzog politely declined. Still, the result is a triumph of stressful cinema. You can stream Fitzcarraldo on Prime Video, Peacock, Tubi, or Freevee.

Malcolm X (1992)

Despite a string of critical successes, including 1989’s Do the Right Thing, it wasn’t at all clear that Spike Lee was suited for an epic biopic—his movies, to that point, had been on more intimate scales and (maybe ironically given the subject matter) he was Black, and the powers in Hollywood weren’t accustomed to hand over large sums of cash to non-white filmmakers. A Malcolm X bio had been in the wind for decades, and when Warner Bros. finally committed to it, they wanted director Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night) for the project, with Denzel Washington attached.

Following protests (including from Spike Lee), Jewison backed out gracefully and Lee took over. Funding was scarce, and the studio wanted something much shorter, but several Black American luminaries (including Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Prince, Magic Johnson, and Tracy Chapman) stepped up with the needed cash. The result is one of the great screen bios of all time, with Lee bringing an intensity and style to the film that’s lacking in so many other biopics. You can stream Malcolm X on Paramount+ or rent it from Prime Video.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Orson Welles came to Hollywood in his 20s, a boy wonder with a string of impressive, and highly inventive, successes in radio and on the stage. Perhaps feeling adventurous, RKO handed Welles a contract for two pictures, as well as an unprecedented level of creative control—certainly for someone who’d never directed a movie before. His first idea was for an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (see: Apocalypse Now), but instead collaborated with writer Herman J. Mankiewicz on a screenplay for a movie that would very absolutely definitely not (for legal reasons) be the story of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and his companion, Marion Davies.

The filming was grueling for the fastidious, hard-working Welles as well as for the cast and crew, but the real battles came after: Once Hearst and company got wind of the film’s focus, the Hollywood press went to war, with defenders of Hearst and his media empire trashing the project before anyone saw a single scene. The publicity helped the film as much as it hurt it at the box office, but Citizen Kane‘s legacy as one of Hollywood’s greatest (and one of my own favorites) speaks for itself. You can rent Citizen Kane from Prime Video.