During his long career, American film director Kevin Smith mostly has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects are officially cancelled and scrapped or fell into development hell.

1990s 4:30 Long before Clerks, Smith worked on an anthology movie consisting of four thirty-minute shorts.

The Six Million Dollar Man Universal Pictures developed a screenplay in 1995 with Smith based on the 1970s television series of the same name. But, by 1998 the outing never materialized and has been passed on to other studios. His script was remade into a limited comic book series titled The Bionic Man.

Busing Following Clerks, Smith wrote a film called Busing (has also appeared as "Bussing") for Hollywood Pictures, a now-defunct Disney studio. It was described as "Clerks in a restaurant." The film was announced around 1994 and was intended to be part of the View Askewniverse. The film was not made, but a poster for it parodying the Clerks poster appeared at the end of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and on Millenium Faulken's bedroom wall in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

Clerks: The TV Show

The Architects of Fear In 1996, Smith was offered three films to potentially rewrite for Warner Bros.; one of them was a film adaptation of The Outer Limits episode, "The Architects of Fear".

Scooby-Doo Smith was interested in working on the 2002 Scooby-Doo remake. He was offered a position by Turner Pictures to write a script in 1996 but Smith would only accept if his producer Scott Mosier agreed to write with him.

Superman Lives

After Smith was hired to write a new Superman film, he suggested Tim Burton to direct. Burton signed on with a pay-or-play contract of $5 million and Warner Bros. set a theatrical release date for the summer of 1998, the 60th anniversary of the character's debut in Action Comics. Nicolas Cage was signed on to play Superman, with a $20 million pay-or-play contract, believing he could "reconceive the character". Producer Jon Peters felt Cage could "convince audiences he [Superman] came from outer space." Burton explained Cage's casting would be "the first time you would believe that nobody could recognize Clark Kent as Superman, he [Cage] could physically change his persona." Kevin Spacey was approached for the role of Lex Luthor, while Christopher Walken was Burton's choice for Brainiac,Tim Burton, Jon Schnepp, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?, 2015 a role also considered for Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman. Sandra Bullock, Courteney Cox and Julianne Moore had been approached for Lois Lane, while Chris Rock was cast as Jimmy Olsen. Michael Keaton confirmed his involvement, but when asked if he would be reprising his role as Batman from Burton's Batman films, he would only reply, "Not exactly."

Filming was originally set to begin in early 1998. Burton hired Wesley Strick to rewrite Smith's script and the film entered pre-production in June 1997. Smith was disappointed, stating, "The studio was happy with what I was doing. Then Tim Burton got involved, and when he signed his pay-or-play deal, he turned around and said he wanted to do his version of Superman. So who is Warner Bros. going back to? The guy who made Clerks, or the guy who made them half a billion dollars on Batman?" When Strick read Smith's script, he was annoyed with the fact that "Superman was accompanied/shadowed by someone/something called the Eradicator." He also felt that "Brainiac's evil plot of launching a disk in space to block out the sun and make Superman powerless was reminiscent of an episode of The Simpsons, with Mr. Burns doing the Brainiac role." However, after reading The Death and Return of Superman, Strick was able to understand some of the elements of Smith's script.

Green Lantern

In 1997, Smith was given the opportunity to write a Green Lantern film as he was finishing up the script for Superman Lives. But he declined the offer as he felt there would be more talented people who can work on it. Following his decline, it would not be for another 14 years until a Green Lantern film would be released and would eventually become a critical and box-office disaster.

Hiatus Smith revealed at Wondercon in 2010 about a lost porn-centered television series that eventually became his 2008 film, Zack & Miri Make a Porno. The series would have starred Jason Lee, and was about a man returning home after being away in California and has Lee leading a double life as a porn star. When Smith pitched the series to TV networks in 1997, they all rejected the idea believing that the kind of material handed to them can never happen on television.

Name A follow-up to Chasing Amy, Smith wrote a new film set in his View Askewniverse starring the trio from Chasing, but it was not a sequel. Smith said "it was kind of porn-bent." Both Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams were interested in doing the film, but it fell through. In January 2018, Smith discussed possibly developing the film in some form with students of the Ringling College of Art and Design.

2000s Unmade Clerks: The Animated Series episodes

Clerks: Sell Out For several years following the cancellation of Clerks: The Animated Series, Smith announced plans to make an animated film. He revealed in a commentary on Episode 6 that it would go theatrical (with the hopes to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature), but later made plans to go direct-to-video. The basic plot involved Dante and Randal making a movie about their lives at the Quick Stop, a reference to the production of the original film. In an interview, Smith expanded on the delays surrounding the film. He stated that when Harvey and Bob Weinstein left Miramax, owned at the time by The Walt Disney Company, the split was not completely amicable. The rights to the Clerks television series were still owned by Disney, who as a result were reluctant to work with The Weinstein Company, throwing the future of Clerks: Sell Out into question.MTV Movies Blog - Kevin Smith Hopes To Make Jay And Silent Bob Animated Film by Shawn Adler, December 3, 2007 At the 2007 Cornell Q&A, Smith said due to the Miramax/Weinstein argument "you will see a Jay and Silent Bob cartoon before Clerks: Sell Out."

Despite the fact that Sell Out might not get made, Smith's new script for Clerks III followed the original plot from the animated film.

Fletch Won

Untitled Prince documentary

Dogma II In late November 2005, Smith responded to talk of a possible sequel to Dogma on the ViewAskew.com message boards:

Over a decade later, there has apparently been no further discussion.Franich, D. On 'Dogma,' Kevin Smith, and the road not taken. Entertainment Weekly archive, retrieved January 11, 2016. But in October 2017, Smith revealed that he no longer desired to make any new religious films.Kennedy, Michael (October 5, 2017). "Kevin Smith Says Dogma 2 Will Never Happen." ScreenRant.com. Retrieved 2018-05-14.

Near the same time as the cancellation, just weeks before the Weinstein scandal broke to the public, Harvey Weinstein pitched to Smith about doing a sequel. Not much came from this pitch, but it was just a mere idea for Weinstein. According to Smith in an interview with Business Insider, he recalls:

Smith speculated that he only got the call because, "It was him looking to see who was a friend still because his life was about to shift completely."

Scary Movie 3

Smith was assigned to write the 2003 movie, Scary Movie 3. His script was eventually not used.

Ghost of Girlfriends Past Smith was attached at one point to direct Ghosts of Girlfriends Past for Disney, under their Touchstone Pictures banner. He said that it never went through due to his attempt to get Fletch Won made. He recalls on a Twitter rant in 2012:

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past was eventually released in 2009 under the Warner Bros./New Line Cinema banner to negative reviews, but was a modest box-office hit.

The Green Hornet

In February 2004, Miramax Films president Harvey Weinstein announced that Smith was to write and direct a Green Hornet film, based on their previous four-film collaborations. "I dig the fact that he kicked off a run of billionaire playboys who decided to put on a mask and fight crime and that he was Batman before there was a Batman," Smith said. I always said I'd never do a superhero film, based on my limited experience writing on Superman Lives and having to answer to the studio, Jon Peters, the comics company and eventually a director. Then there's a fandom that gets up in arms if you even try to stray from their character. Here, there is simplicity in the character and the situation.. (Requires subscription.) Jon Gordon and Hannah Minghella were now on as producers, with Harold Berkowitz and George Trendle, son of the character's co-creator, as executive producers. Smith approached Jake Gyllenhaal for the lead role in March 2004. In mid-November of that year, he said he had written about 100 pages, and estimated another 100 to come. In February 2006, Smith's official website noted, "Kevin officially no longer has anything to do with the Fletch Won or Green Hornet projects." Smith went on to write the Dynamite Entertainment comic book Green Hornet, which has run 11 issues as of late 2010.

Degrassi: The Next Generation film adaptation Smith, a longtime fan of the Degrassi teen drama franchise, was assigned to direct a feature film adaptation of the franchise's fourth iteration, Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2005. Smith had wanted to direct an episode of the television series, but was unable to due to Canadian content laws, which prohibited him from directing episodes, but allowed him to direct films. By September that year, the film was already at the script stage and awaiting a green light from Paramount Pictures. Smith told Playback that he had considered getting Ben Affleck to cameo in the movie, but decided against it. The project did not go forward for an unspecified reason.

In 2022, Smith revealed to Screen Rant that the movie would have heavily centered on Jimmy Brooks, a character played by Aubrey Graham who was paralyzed in a school shooting, "getting up and walking". Smith claims that they incorporated elements from the script into a future episode of the television series.

Heroes: Origins

Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers Smith was working on a science fiction film since 2008 titled Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers, or simply Ranger Danger. According to Smith, he said it is, "My stab at a comic-book/sci-fi movie. It's in the vein of Flash Gordon, something I've noodled with a couple of years. Now I feel we are mature enough filmmakers to tackle it." The appearance of Ranger Danger first appeared in Clerks II on a t-shirt that Randal was wearing. The movie was intended to be his 10th film (following after Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Red State). In 2012, when it was announced that Hit Somebody would be Smith's final film as a director, Smith was asked if he was no longer interested in making Ranger Danger. He said,

As of 2017, no new updates have been announced for Ranger Danger. Although the Ranger Danger project is left in development hell, the character made an appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. This version is described as "a gritty, rebooted version of a childhood superhero fave."

2010s Hit Somebody