Over the course of his career, American film director and writer John Hughes had worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage.
In 1979, Matty Simmons hired Hughes and Tod Carroll to write the script of the third Jaws film as a National Lampoon parody from Universal Pictures.
[1][2] In 1982, Hughes scripted a comedy/romance reworking of Romeo and Juliet for Paramount Pictures set in a Chicago high school about a romance that happens in the division between two feuding groups, the Motorheads and the Sportos.
In the early 1980s, Hughes and P. J. O'Rourke scripted an unproduced adaptation of National Lampoon Sunday Newspaper Parody which they titled The History of Ohio from the Beginning of Time to the End of the Universe.
"[8] The Joy of Sex: A Dirty Love Story was initially set to be Penny Marshall's directorial debut and Hughes' first produced script, which consisted of several unrelated vignettes.
"[1][14]Molly Ringwald claimed that after he finished The Breakfast Club (1985), Hughes had written a script based on The Cure song, "The Love Cats.
"[1][14][15] After he finished Pretty in Pink (1986), Hughes wrote the script of a film titled Oil and Vinegar, which was to star Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald.
[18][19] In 1990, it was reported that Hughes would direct Sylvester Stallone and John Candy in a comedy he had written titled Bartholomew vs. Neff for Carolco Pictures.
[1][21] In February 1991, it was reported that three new Hughes films were greenlit for production by new 20th Century Fox chairperson Joe Roth; The Nanny, The Bugster and Ball 'n' Chain, in addition to the already-shot Dutch (1991).
In November 1991, it was reported that Hughes would write, produce and direct Black Cat Bone: The Return of Huckleberry Finn for 20th Century Fox.
[33] After four hand-drawn animated movies made by Cinema Center Films and Paramount Pictures, in November 1992, it was reported that Hughes would write and produce a live-action adaptation of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts for Warner Bros.[34] Hughes reportedly visited Schulz at his home in Santa Clara, California to talk about adapting Peanuts into a film.
[36] Due to the commercial success of Home Alone (1990), Hughes felt determined to make The Bee, a live action family comedy film that he wrote that required a $50 million budget.
[37] By June that same year, it was officially announced that Hughes would write, produce and direct The Bee for Walt Disney Pictures with a budget of $25 million.
[1][39] Simon Brew credits Hughes's 1994 departure from Hollywood, along with the critical and financial failure of Baby's Day Out (1994), which he wrote and produced for Fox, as factors that led to the film's cancellation.
[40] In 1995, it was announced that Hughes was set to write, produce and direct a live action Peter Pan film as a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and TriStar Pictures.
[43] Hughes was the initial director of the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan (2002), a modern retelling of Cinderella then under the title The Chambermaid, with Hilary Swank at that time set to star as the lead.
[44] In 2002, Hughes had written a script titled The Grigsbys Go Broke, which was about a wealthy family in Chicago who lose all of their money and are forced to move to the other side of the tracks.
[46][47] In 2013, the project was back in development at Paramount, and it was revealed that Ice Age: The Meltdown screenwriter Jim Hecht would rewrite the script.