Gargoyles was a live-action film that was based on the Disney television series of the same name. It was supposed to be an adaptation of the animated series of the same name, but ended up being shelved over the years.
Production[]
In 1995, a year after the original Gargoyles was released, it was reported that Disney has been developing a live-action adaptation of the animated series. Over time, the project was shelved indefinitely, followed by the Gargoyles production team consisting of writers and executives being changed over time with no actor being cast for the film[1]. During development, this film had its own separate continuity from the television series itself, and therefore the movie itself would be non-canonical to the original animated continuity.
At an unknown date in 1998, Rick Baker, a visual effects artist, was involved with the project and designed a maquette for a gargoyle prototype (presumably Goliath)[2][3]. In addition to the gargoyle prototype that was made, there were several sketches for characters that were supposed to appear in the live-action film designed by artists Bryan Spaulding Fuller and Carlos Huante[4][5].
It was announced in 2010 that Disney was developing a live-action adaptation about medieval gargoyles trying to adjust to modern times, but was unrelated to the Gargoyles animated series itself[6][7]. Three years later, this project was put in development with writers being changed throughout the development.
In 2018, director Jordan Peele expressed an interest in working on a live-action adaptation of Gargoyles[8]. It was also reported that Richard Rushfield, founder of The Ankler, has noted that the film is no longer worth digging through [9][10].
Script[]
During development of the film, Touchstone Pictures originally expressed interest in the project where they asked Gary Krisel, president of Disney Television Animation, into making this project. Krisel suggested to Touchstone that they should consult with the writers who were familiar with the television series, as Touchstone contacted Greg Weisman and Michael Reeves to be co-producers for the film where they submitted a treatment for the film, but was rejected [11]. The project then changed when Gary Krisel left Disney which according to Greg, both he and Michael were "swept aside" on the adaptation where they remained co-producers of the project and they would still be consulted, but they neither ever were consulted[12]. Michael Reaves decribed the participation as basically being "Here's some money, now get off the lot.[13]
Dean Devlin, one of the writers of the film, wrote a draft of the film, but Touchstone felt dissatisfied with Devlin's script[14][15]. In 1998, all Greg Weisman knew about the production of the film was it was supposed to include characters such as Goliath and Elisa Maza rather than rewriting the film, which Touchstone hired in new writers (including Jim Kouf) to start from scratch[16][17][18].
In the summer of 2000, Simon Kinberg (who later worked with Greg Weisman on Star Wars Rebels) was revealed to be writing the script with plans to turn it into a first draft on October 2000, which was believed that Kinberg was at least the sixth writer for the project[19][20]. Neil Gaiman was also approached, but declined.
Since 2001, Touchstone was struggling to find the right screenplay to create a live-action adaptation of Gargoyles[21]. Two years later, it was believed that after seven years of actively working on a script, Touchstone put the film on hold indefinitely, leading Touchstone executives to be uninterested in working on the film adaptation of Gargoyles[22][23].
At the 2006 Gathering of the Gargoyles convention, Greg Weisman and Michael Reaves considered that although Touchstone liked the name Gargoyles, they felt that they were no longer interested in working the property.[24]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Had this film been made, this would have been the first live-action film adaptation based on a Disney animated series, predating the 2019 film adaptation of Kim Possible.
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External links[]
