Lost Books/Unrealised Projects

josef k.

Dangerous Mystagogue
Someone says in another thread: "Monte Hellman was penciled in to make so many films he didn't make, its a shame to think what could have happened."

I'd like to start a thread about the great lost books and unrealized projects.

I can think of the following:

The second volume of Gogol's Dead Souls (supposedly destroyed by him shortly before his death).

The Jodorowsky version of Dune (with Salvador Dali penciled in to play The Emperor of the Universe)

Benjamin's Arcades Project, allegedly lost somewhere on the road to Spain.

Aristotle's Second Book of Poetics (which burns down the library in the book by Umberto Eco which I can't remember the title of).

A proposed collaboration between Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis (broke down because Hendrix couldn't read the music Davis had written for him)
 
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slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
A proposed collaboration between Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis (broke down because Hendrix couldn't read the music Davis had written for him)

That could have been a dream...Gil Evans partly realised it by recording Hendrix tunes with negligable success. Then again, Miles did alright in the 'Jazz-Rock' arena without Jimmy.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
There is this (possibly apocryphal) recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen playing three Kraftwerk tunes, and Kraftwerk playing three Stockhausen tunes, at some festival in the early 1970s.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
The Jodorowsky version of Dune (with Salvador Dali penciled in to play The Emperor of the Universe)
I'm hoping that the Jodorowsky-Lynch collaboration sees the light of day soon:

King Shot is a film by Alejandro Jodorowsky scheduled for release in 2009. The film is co-produced by David Lynch, and the cast includes Nick Nolte, Asia Argento, Mickey Rourke, Marilyn Manson, Udo Kier, and Santiago Segura.
Jodorowsky describes the film, his first since the 1990 film The Rainbow Thief, as a "metaphysical spaghetti western."
How can it fail to be the best thing ever?
 

Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
Merleau-Ponty's last book The Visible and the Invisible, which may have been better because he died before he could finish it. the last third or so is all fragments and outlines.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
Of course, Mount Analogue was left unfinished because of the author's death. Same goes for Denton Welch's incredible novel "A Voice Through the Clouds".
 

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
Poodle Springs/Raymond Chandler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poodle_Springs

Not sure if this counts as it was started by Chandler and finished by some other guy almost 40 years later (well it should).
I read it when it came out, but have forgotten all about what I think/thought about it.
Probably not very good then.
 
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Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
Kubrick's lost movie, "The Aryan Papers"

And then there's this

"The movie may have been abandoned but audiences will at least have the chance to experience the "ghost" of The Aryan Papers through a new installation by the Turner Prize-nominated artists Jane and Louise Wilson, which will be shown as part of next month's Stanley Kubrick season at BFI Southbank. The Wilson sisters have scoured the Kubrick archives for stills and information about the movie, poring over wardrobe research stills and period stills."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...cks-lost-movie-now-we-can-see-it-1516726.html

More info here:http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_project/kubrick/kubrick

kubrickscan013615_0.jpg
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
One of the most famous of these things is Coleridge's Kubla Khan. I think the story is that he composed the whole thing while in the middle of an opium dream and on waking began ferociously scribbling it down - only to be interrupted by a visitor on business. By the time the visitor left the flow of inspiration had been blocked and the truly spontaneous poem was never quite what it could and should have been. He may have just made this up of course to excuse the way he considered it to have gone downhill after a great start.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
A proposed collaboration between Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis (broke down because Hendrix couldn't read the music Davis had written for him)

i heard this was due to Miles discovering that Jimi was sleeping with his girlfriend (Betty?)
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Ralph Ellison's attempted second novel - I forget the name. Also Fur Sadie by Archie Hind, author of the mighty The Dear Green Place. Both of these have been published in their incomplete forms I think. I'm quite interested by the phenomena of authors who only manage to complete and publish one novel in their lifetime, and it turns out to be a total powerhouse.
 
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