[6] Shortly after they did Predator together, McTiernan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and writer Shane Black were all set to team on a big-budget film adaptation of the DC Comics character Sgt.
According to McTiernan in the book The Last Action Heroes by Nick de Semlyan, the project was heavily developed in 1988 and 1989 only to be demolished by actor John Cleese, who would have starred opposite Schwarzenegger.
[7][8] As early as 1989, McTiernan had been attached to direct 20th Century Fox's The Adventures of Robin Hood, titled after the 1938 film, which was planned to be made after he finished Road Show.
The central character of McTiernan's version was named Sir Robert Hode, a young Saxon noble more interested in wine and women, until the threat of a lashing by the Norman authorities sends him racing to the woods.
[10][11] Plans, however, began to fall apart by late July when Kevin Costner signed on to star in Morgan Creek's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
[12] Though his was not made, McTiernan participated as executive producer in a low-budget, made-for-television version of Robin Hood which utilized Mark Allan Smith's story treatment.
The film, a romantic action-adventure based on The Last Cattle Drive by Robert Day, was to have been produced by McTiernan along with his then-wife Donna Dubrow, who described it as "The African Queen on the range".
Robert Getchell's adapted script had spent over a decade in development, with directors Martin Ritt and Richard Brooks both attached to helm at separate stages, prior to McTiernan's involvement.
[14] He hired screenwriter Bob Gale, whose take on the material offered more humor and incorporated elements from several earlier drafts written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.
Around this time, Tom Cruise also became loosely attached to the project as John Carter, with Julia Roberts approached to play the Princess of Mars, Dejah Thoris.
"[19] In 1992, Tom Clancy was in negotiations with Universal Pictures to write his first screenplay for McTiernan to direct based on the experiences of three military captains who led an assault on Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.
[20] Around 1992, after the success of Unforgiven,[21] McTiernan circled to direct the spec script Texas Lead and Gold by Jim Gorman and Michael Frost Beckner,[citation needed] which was described as an adventure story reminiscent of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
[22][23] In April 1993, Paramount Pictures was developing Bitterroot, to have been directed by McTiernan and star Brad Pitt, who would eventually drop out due to scheduling conflicts.
Later that month, the film was put into pre-production turnaround, allowing McTiernan and producer Donna Dubrow to set it up at a rival studio following Paramount's concerns over the casting and the projected $50 million budget.
[24][25] As reported in June 1993, McTiernan had at once "toyed" with directing a film of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island, but since had opted to take on the producing role.
[26] McTiernan was set to direct a remake of the 1935 film Captain Blood for Warner Bros., though he dropped out in December 1993 over creative differences and went on to do Die Hard with a Vengeance in its place.
[28] In November 1993, Warner Bros. lined up McTiernan as its director of the screen adaptation of Tom Clancy's bestseller Without Remorse, which was to be written by Christine Roum and produced by Brandon Tartikoff.
However, Touchstone pulled the project from development, allowing the screen rights to be purchased by Fox where the 2003 film was eventually made, directed by Peter Weir.
[37] By May 1998, after finishing production on Eaters of the Dead (later retitled to The 13th Warrior), McTiernan left Airframe to direct the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair for United Artists.
The project was based loosely on an actual 1856 event where the French government sent magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin to quell an uprising in Algeria begun by an alleged sorcerer.
[52] In January 2002, it was reported that McTiernan would direct a World War II film starring Kevin Spacey, John Travolta and Gérard Depardieu entitled The Garbo Deception.
[54] In 2003, McTiernan was attached to direct the $45 million action-adventure Murder In Canton, adapted from the Judge Dee mystery novel of the same name, which was being produced with financial backing from TF1.
McTiernan described the project as "A delightful story about two guys who make money by finding old crashed World War II planes in various end-of-the-way places.
[57] In 2006, McTiernan was set to direct the action thriller Deadly Exchange from Ronald Shusett and Ian Rabin's screenplay and Anthony J. Ridio and Ellen Wander producing through Film Bridge Intl.
In 2007, McTiernan was set to direct the action thriller Run with Michael Pierce and Mark Williams producing and Karl Urban attached to star.
Though he was strongly considering it as one of his next directing projects, he was reluctant to commit officially over disagreements with the producers who allegedly wanted to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger for a role in the film, which McTiernan felt was not right for the material.
[68] In November 2016, McTiernan revealed in China that he intended to make a World War II feature set there about the aftermath of the Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo in 1942.