As Hollywood ramps up their comic book movie development plans to sustain them until the end times, IGN looks back at all of the comic book movies still burning in Development Hell.

Joss+Whedon's+Batman

David+Goyer's+Original+Blade+3+Pitch

<a+class='autolink'+href='https://movies.ign.com/objects/032/032292.html'>Sandman</a>

Title+page+to+the+Sandman+script.

<a+class='autolink'+href='https://movies.ign.com/objects/034/034314.html'>Batman+Beyond</a>

<a+class='autolink'+href='https://movies.ign.com/objects/496/496586.html'>Shazam</a>!

James+Cameron's+<a+class='autolink'+href='https://movies.ign.com/objects/033/033717.html'>Spider-Man</a>

Before Chris Nolan gave us the best Batman movies ever, Warner Bros. was feverishly searching for new takes to revitalize their Dark Knight franchise. Several filmmakers, from Darren Aronofsky to George Miller, all had their hats in the ring. And so did Buffy's Joss Whedon His take? Arkham Asylum is home to a Hannibal Lecter-type villain, who serves as a sort of mentor/research subject for Bruce Wayne. The story would unfold during Bruce's early days in Gotham, and have a strong emotional core that would fuel Wayne's Batman outings. The studio responded with 9 different types of "No," and Whedon went on to do other things. While this take is very left-of-center, it's the Joss. More than likely, he would have knocked this out of the park, or tweaked the idea to be the home run fans want.Maybe if Whedon gets to do the idea as a comic, as he has expressed a desire to do, we'll get to see it.The movie that became Blade: Trinity was originally intended to be very different. And actually good.Writer/director David Goyer's original story proposal was set decades in the future. In a post-apocalyptic scenario, vampires have taken over the world and enslaved the human race. Blade, still youthful and strong because of his vampire abilities, but not as sharp as he used to be, is the only hope for humanity. Rather than Abigail Whistler, Goyer originally planned to use the Rachel Van Helsing character from the Tomb of Dracula comics.We don't know about you, but this sounds much more promising than the "Blade fights Hipster Dracula" plot that Trinity ended up with. Unfortunately, New Line considered the post-apocalyptic scenario too dark for the franchise (read: too expensive) and the rest is history.Neil Gaiman's Sandman was one of the early driving forces behind DC's Vertigo imprint and proof positive that comics could be about much more than just superheroes. Naturally, plenty of studios and would-be directors have voiced an interest in adapting the series for film.In 1996, director Roger Avary teamed with screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio to make a movie. Their screenplay adapted the first two Sandman graphic novels into one film. However, Avary left the project due to creative differences, eventually pairing with Gaiman again for 2007's Beowulf. Meanwhile, the Sandman script continued to evolve at Warners, but poor reception from fans and Gaiman himself helped slow the project to a halt.There's been talk of tackling the Sandman franchise more recently, either through a direct adaptation or a spin-off story like Death: The High Cost of Living . But for now, fans get used to waiting with baited breath.Batman, kicking ass in the future, with rocket boots?! Eff yeah!There have been numerous Batman movies that never made it out of development hell – enough for a completely separate feature (which we may just do one day). One of the more interesting attempts at resurrecting the Batman franchise following the life-suck that was Batman & Robin was this proposed live-action adaptation of the Batman Beyond animated series.The project was announced in 2000, with Boaz Yakin slated to direct and writers Paul Dini and Alan Burnett hired to pen the screenplay. Yakin was hot off Remember The Titans, and the studio had success with Dini and Burnett's work on Batman: The Animated Series. The filmmakers were sent to develop the story they wanted, with no studio interference. Like the show, Batman Beyond would have been set in the future, with an aging Bruce Wayne training a younger and more high-tech Batman.Rumors suggested Michael Keaton would reprise his role as Bruce, while Will Friedle might jump from voicing Terry McGinnis to portraying him in live-action. Keanu Reeves was also suggested for Terry, and Paul Newman was rumored to have been considered for Elder Bruce. (Damn, Paul Newman as Bruce Wayne? Cool on cool, that is.)So what happened? The rumor mill says that Yakin and Company's take steered too close into R-rated territory, and creative differences resulted in the abort order being given.Once upon a time, Captain Marvel was the most popular superhero in the world. He's enjoyed both a movie serial and a live-action TV series. These days, however, he can't seem to catch a break in Hollywood.A Shazam! movie was in development at New Line in the early part of last decade. The script was handled first by William Goldman and Bryan Goluboff, and then by John August (Go, Big Fish). Peter Segal (Get Smart!) was attached to direct. No actor was ever named for Marvel himself, but Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was a contender to play his nemesis Black Adam. In fact, rumors suggested Johnson might have actually played both characters. How badass would that have been?Unfortunately, Warners couldn't smell what the writers were cooking, when they inherited the project from New Line. August wisely departed the film after Warners mandated that the script be rewritten to match the realistic tone of The Dark Knight. The project stalled, and recent whispers indicate the project may see life as a TV series.Spider-Man may have debuted in live-action on television in the '70s, but it was a long time before he made the jump to theaters. The franchise came closest to Hollywood glory in the early '90s, when James Cameron became attached to the property.Cameron helped write a scriptment that drew from previous efforts in the '80s and featured heavily-altered versions of Electro and Sandman as villains. (A little Google-ing can locate the scriptment.) In addition, Arnold Schwarzenegger was frequently named as a candidate to play Doctor Octopus (we don't envy whatever writer would have been tasked with the octopus puns).It's easy to imagine how much the landscape of comic book movies might have changed if Cameron had directed a Spider-Man movie to the same acclaim as his prior work on the Terminator films. Sadly, the project was completely derailed by a series of lawsuits and legal wrangling between various rights holders. By the time the rights situation was ironed out, Cameron had moved on and Sony and Sam Raimi stepped in.