During his long career, American film director Francis Ford Coppola has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these productions fell in development hell or were cancelled.

1960s Pilma Pilma In 1962, Coppola won first prize in UCLA's eighth annual Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Creative Writing contest for the original screenplay Pilma Pilma. Despite gaining some notoriety in the industry, his screenplay was never produced into a film.

The Fifth Coin One of Coppola's early screenplays, titled The Fifth Coin, at one point was to star George Segal and be helmed by British director Ken Annakin in the mid-60s.

My Last Duchess According to Scenario magazine, Coppola had written an early script called My Last Duchess, loosely inspired by the Robert Browning poem of the same name.

Reflections in a Golden Eye

Coppola wrote an early draft of Reflections in a Golden Eye, at that time with Tony Richardson attached to direct, but his revision was ultimately never used after Richardson was replaced.

1970s Jeremiah Johnson

In May 1970, Coppola was set to direct and John Milius was hired to write Jeremiah Johnson for Warner Bros. After Robert Redford became interested in the project, he bought the script and enlisted Sydney Pollack to direct the film.

The Disenchanted In the early 1970s, Coppola wrote a screenplay adapting the period novel The Disenchanted, by Budd Schulberg. The novel was based in part on the relationship between Schulberg and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the ill-fated writing assignment they were tasked with in the 1920s. Several filmmakers had made attempts at adapting the work previously, including John Huston and Julius J. Epstein, "but Coppola's script is the best," claimed Schulberg. In 1990, there was talk of Gene Kirkwood trying to secure financing for Coppola's adaptation. Unlike the novel, which told the story through flashbacks, Coppola's adaptation told the entire story through the use of flashforwards. His screenplay is now believed to be lost.

Untitled twin siblings film In 1974, Coppola told The New York Times that he was writing a "small, personal film—about twins, one male and one female."

First Contact In April 1975, it was reported that Coppola would co-write, direct and produce the science fiction TV special First Contact for NBC‐TV during the 1976–77 season. Collaborating on the original story with astronomer Carl Sagan, Coppola said it would concern "the earth's response to its first contact with beings from another planet." The television program was never produced, but in 1985, Sagan published their script as the novel Contact, albeit without Coppola's credit or permission, and sold the film rights to Warner Bros. before his death. This led to a lawsuit between him and Warner, with Coppola claiming that it was based on his story, seeking $250,000 in compensatory damages and an injunction against production or distribution of the film.

The Brotherhood of the Grape In September 1975, Coppola acquired the screen rights to John Fante's novel The Brotherhood of the Grape. He was reported to direct the film from a screenplay by Robert Towne, but the film was ultimately never made due to Coppola's preoccupation on the lengthy production of Apocalypse Now.

Elective Affinities Coppola intended to follow up Apocalypse Now with a multi-part film version of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Elective Affinities in 3D, which would combine Eastern and Western influences. Inspired directly by Kabuki theater and how the form abandoned realism for illusion in scenery, story, and actors, Coppola envisioned Elective Affinities taking place over a ten-year period in both Japan and America:

"My idea is to make it a quartet of works in which each part will fit in and qualify the other, each part will present a different season and a different character. Everything will be based on four, and it will have many levels to it. One part will take place in the period when the Americans and the Japanese first met, another in postwar Japan, another during the period of the '60s—the business-Mishima-gay bar scene—and the fourth time period will be the future. This last part will deal with an enormous space telescope the size of the Graf Zeppelin that America and Japan send out into the universe because of its incredible capacity to witness the birth of the universe. And the last ten minutes or so of the movie, at the moment that it gets to that point, will be what it sees. It's a crazy thing, and I run through it for fun in my head."

Coppola first conceived the idea while in Japan after finishing Apocalypse Now:

"As I think back, I realize I had made The Godfather, The Conversation, Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now in short order, one after the other. I wanted to do something totally different in style and form, something with songs, like theater. Also, in my so-called mind, with my marriage failing, I imagined it would be part of a great four-part project based on Goethe's Elective Affinities, with its story related to the Man, the Woman, the Other Man, the Other Woman. To this day I am fascinated with form. I know I am filled with emotion; I just need the right envelope to put it in."

Coppola began developing the project, even laying out plans to construct a 2,000-seat theater in the Rocky Mountains for the first showing as a weekend event. A resort hotel would have also been built underneath the theater so that guests could view any part of the film again to rewatch a scene that was missed or wasn't understood. Coppola described this as "a new kind of mental theme park." He ultimately chose to postpone the project until he felt he was ready, believing at the time that it was too big for him, both intellectually and technologically. Plans officially stalled at American Zoetrope in 1982, following the commercial and critical failure of his film One from the Heart.

On the Road In September 1978, the screen rights to Jack Kerouac's On the Road were bought by Coppola. Initially interested in directing the film himself, it underwent several different adaptations throughout the 1980s, with Coppola enlisting a new co-writer each time, intent on getting a script that captured the spirit of the source novel. Michael Herr and Barry Gifford both worked on screenplays at separate stages, as well as Coppola's son, Roman. "I tried to write a script, but I never knew how to do it," Coppola said in 2007. "It's hard – it's a period piece. It's very important that it be period. Anything involving period costs a lot of money." At the time, Coppola and Fred Roos wanted to cast Jack Nicholson for a role. Later, in 1995, Coppola toyed with the notion of filming On the Road on black and white 16 mm film, with Ethan Hawke and Brad Pitt playing the two leads. According to John H. Williams, the film's producer at the time, Coppola "got backed up" in his infamous studio lawsuit with Warner Bros. and had to abandon the project. After this version also faltered, Coppola stepped away as director, and in 2001 enlisted novelist Russell Banks to pen a new adaptation for Joel Schumacher to direct. Schumacher wanted Billy Crudup and Colin Farrell, but this too failed. In 2005, it was reported that an adaptation of On the Road would begin shooting the following year in Spring, with Walter Salles instead taking over as director, using a separate adaptation penned by José Rivera. Coppola served as executive producer on this version, which would be delayed for another several years before eventually seeing release in 2012.

Serpentine In 1979, The Washington Post reported that author Thomas Thompson had struck a deal with Coppola to direct the adaptation of his novel Serpentine.

1980s Spring Snow Coppola planned to direct Spring Snow, adapted from the first novel in the tetralogy of novels written by Yukio Mishima. The film was among the projects that were in development at American Zoetrope in 1981.

The Murder of Napoleon In May 1982, it was reported that Coppola had lost the bidding war for the film rights to The Murder of Napoleon, the nonfiction book by Ben Weider and David Hapgood about Napoleon Bonaparte. Jack Nicholson instead purchased the rights, and wanted Robert Towne to adapt; with the hope of interesting Stanley Kubrick in the project. In a 1999 interview, John Milius said, "another thing [Coppola and I] were going to do, is I've always felt he really should do something on Napoleon that he's always wanted to do."

The Pope of Greenwich Village

In fall 1982, Coppola made a deal with Orion Pictures and HBO to direct The Pope of Greenwich Village, then under the title The Village, with Mickey Rourke and Al Pacino signed to play the leads. However, after the film moved back to United Artists, Coppola dropped out. For the final film, Rourke remained in the cast, but Pacino was replaced by Eric Roberts.

Unforgiven

According to David Webb Peoples, Coppola optioned an early draft of his script in 1984 when it had been developed under the titles The Cut-Whore Killings and The William Munny Killings. Despite his interest, Coppola failed to the raise the money to develop the project any further, and the film was later made by Clint Eastwood as Unforgiven, in 1992. Coppola wanted John Malkovich as Munny and actually met with him to discuss the part.

Legs After having previously partnered with author William Kennedy on the screenplay for The Cotton Club, Coppola developed an adaptation of his novel Legs in 1984 that was to star Mickey Rourke in the role of Jack "Legs" Diamond. After Coppola, the project briefly had Michael Cimino attached to helm, for Dino De Laurentiis. Neither version was made.

Agnes of God

In August 1984, Coppola approached Columbia with interest in directing the Agnes of God adaptation. The following month, Jane Fonda was cast to star and Norman Jewison was decided to direct.

Evita

In the mid-1980s, Madonna interested Coppola in directing her in the film version of Evita. After several meetings, Coppola pulled out of the project as well, and the film was eventually directed by Alan Parker.

LaBrava In 1986, Coppola was one of several directors approached by Walter Mirisch and Elmore Leonard to direct the adaptation of Leonard's novel LaBrava for Cannon Films. Dustin Hoffman was attached to star, and Coppola wanted to do it, but only after he finished Peggy Sue Got Married and the then-in-the-works Legs. However, this postponement would have taken past the mandated start date for shooting, so Cannon and Coppola parted ways.

The Adventures of Pinocchio