During his long career, American film director Terry Zwigoff 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.

1980s Sassy According to Vice, Zwigoff and Robert Crumb were once hired by the Mitchell brothers to write a pornographic film based on one of Crumb's comics about a female sasquatch who is dragged from the wild into the culturally bankrupt world of modern America. Their unproduced and ultimately non-pornographic screenplay, titled Sassy, was written in 1988.

1990s Stuart In 1997, it was reported in Variety that Zwigoff was attached to direct Stuart, a film co-written by Dave Sheridan with Larry Doyle, based on a hapless character Sheridan created in a short film years prior. The plot follows a Texan who lives in a trailer and becomes obsessed with a female acquaintance of his after she casually mentions something about love.

2000s Elf

Zwigoff turned down the offer to direct Elf (2003) in favor of directing Bad Santa (2003).

Happy Days In July 2006, it was reported that Zwigoff was to write and direct a film adaptation of the French novel Happy Days by Laurent Graff. Jerry Stahl was to have co-written the script with Zwigoff and the film was to have been produced by Johnny Depp via Infinitum Nihil and Graham King via Initial Entertainment Group.

The $40,000 Man In September 2007, it was reported that Zwigoff was to direct and co-write with Daniel Clowes a film titled The $40,000 Man for New Line Cinema.

King's Court TV series In 2008, Zwigoff attempted to make a proposed series called King's Court for HBO, which would have starred Tony Cox in the lead as a donut shop owner with big dreams. "The idea was a largely black cast in an area of L.A. that was in an apartment complex," Zwigoff said. "It wasn't about race, but it was about class. I thought it was really funny and [Cox] loved it. [...] I sent it to HBO and they said 'I don't know, we already have a Black show'."

2010s Maximum Bob In a 2012 interview with IndieWire, Zwigoff claimed he attempted to write and direct a film adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Maximum Bob.

Justice for Al In June 2013, it was reported that Zwigoff was to direct Fred Armisen in a film he co-wrote with Melissa Axelrod titled Justice for Al.

Lost Melody In July 2013, it was reported that Zwigoff was to direct a film he co-wrote with Melissa Axelrod titled Lost Melody with Edward R. Pressman producing and Nicolas Cage slated to star.

Edward Ford Zwigoff confirmed in a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair that he attempted to make Lem Dobbs’ unproduced script titled Edward Ford into a film with Michael Shannon slated to star. According to Zwigoff, the film was never made because "the money fell through."

2020s Untitled TV series In the 2020s, Zwigoff was reportedly developing a series with writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. He expressed interest in casting Tony Cox for a role if greenlit for production.

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