Philip Kaufman's unrealized projects
Kaufman had initially been attached to direct The Outlaw Josey Wales, and had adapted the novel for the screen with the aiding of Sonia Chernus and an uncredited Michael Cimino.
While he had wanted to stay as close to the source novel as possible, Kaufman was less happy with its fascistic political stance and felt that element of the script needed to be severely toned down.
In escaping through a black hole, they're hurled into the prehistoric past where they teach early man how to make fire,[6] similar to the alien influence on human ancestors seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
[9] After Chris Bryant and Allan Scott's script draft was rejected, they both quit, and Kaufman tried to rewrite the story, with the resulting treatment heavily inspired by the Olaf Stapledon sci-fi novels Last and First Men and Star Maker.
[8] Various reasons have been cited for the cancellation, including a regime change at Paramount, and that executives thought they had missed their window due to the imminent release of Star Wars, believing science fiction fans would not pay to see two such films.
"[15] In August 1995, Kaufman signed on to direct, executive produce, and adapt The Alienist for Paramount Pictures, based upon the 1994 period novel by Caleb Carr.
[20] In March 1997, after Francis Ford Coppola and Wayne Wang left the production of The Good Shepherd, screenwriter Eric Roth selected Kaufman to direct the film.
[23] Kaufman was developing the film the next month when he revealed it would tackle environmental issues by depicting Namor as having "bad feelings" towards the land residents of Earth over ecological concerns.
[24] In February 1998, it was reported that Kaufman would replace Alfonso Cuarón as director on the adaptation of John Grisham's The Runaway Jury, with the start date planned for Summer.
[18][31][32] Kaufman also stated around this time that he was working on an adaptation of Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King, and that Jack Nicholson had shown interest in playing the titular eccentric millionaire who embarks on a spiritual quest to Africa.
[33] In July 2001, Kaufman was reported to direct the long-in-development biopic about rogue CIA agent Aldrich Ames adapted from the book by Peter Maas.
[34] On August 22, 2001, Variety reported that Kaufman would direct a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion for Dimension Films and RKO from a script by playwright John Guare.
[35] On August 29, 2001, it was reported that Jerry Stahl was in talks to write the script, based on a forthcoming memoir You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish by Jimmy Lerner.
At this stage, Kaufman had been eying Julia Roberts to play the lead and screenwriter Frank Renzulli was in talks to rewrite Jon Bokenkamp's original premise.
Written by Nicole Perlman, the project was described as an investigative drama "in the vein of The Insider" that examined the role Feynman played in the probe of the Challenger shuttle explosion.
