James Mangold's unrealized projects

[3] In 2000, Columbia Pictures purchased the screen rights to Jim Kokoris' The Rich Part of Life with Mangold attached to adapt and direct the then-unpublished novel, and produce the film with Cathy Konrad.

Mangold compared it to To Kill a Mockingbird, drawing comparisons from the main character to Scout Finch, saying "There's this very wise child who tells of a year in his life that everything was turned upside down.

[10] Also in 2007, while promoting 3:10 to Yuma, Mangold stated in an interview that he was "working on several scripts" including a family comedy set in Chicago which he likened to Terms of Endearment.

[15] In 2011, Paramount acquired the rights of the movie with the writers Eyal Podell, Jonathon E. Stewart, Aryan Saha, Chad and Dara Creasey on board to develop the script.

[17] Sasha Jenson and Casey La Scala, who discovered the story and brought Mangold on board, wrote the screenplay about two brothers from New Orleans who sue a multi-national company after a typhoon kills several oil rig workers in the South China Sea.

[18][8] In July 2009, Variety reported that Mangold was hired to direct Three Little Words, an adaptation of the memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter written by Lewis Colick and Michael Petroni.

[24] In July 2010, Mangold (along with directors J. J. Abrams, Ryan Murphy and Rob Marshall), was considered to direct the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked.

[28] On March 4, 2014, Mangold was attached to direct the film adaptation of John D. MacDonald's mystery paperback The Deep Blue Good-by which was to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson-Killoran and Amy Robinson.

[33] In February 2016, Mangold signed on to helm Disney's Captain Nemo, an origin story based on Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas that had Sebastian Gutierrez working on the latest draft.

[40] In March 2017, Mangold was in negotiations with Fox to develop and direct an adaptation of Don Winslow's upcoming novel The Force about corrupt NYPD officers.

[44] In November 2017, it was reported that Mangold was attached to direct Crenshaw, a feature adaptation of a children's book from Newbery-winning author Katherine Applegate for Fox.

[46] On January 11, 2018, Fox opted not to move forward with the film after a statement Hearst made condemning Toobin's book, saying it "Romanticizes my rape and torture and calls my abduction a rollicking adventure.

"[47] In 2018, Mangold was co-writing a standalone Star Wars script centering on the character Boba Fett with Simon Kinberg, who was signed on to produce the film.

[49] Speaking in 2023 about the project, Mangold said he envisioned it as a "borderline R-rated, single planet spaghetti Western," adding that "They probably would never be able to embrace Baby Yoda if I had made that.