During its 50+ years on TV, Saturday Night Live has introduced the world to countless memorable characters. A select few even had their sketches spun off into movies, from Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s Blues Brothers to Will Forte’s MacGruber. But several others came close to getting their own big-screen adaptations as well, and some pretty big stars were attached to them at one point or another.
Let’s take a look at the ones that fell apart at the last second.
1. DIETER
Following the success of the second Austin Powers movie, Mike Myers was planning to bring another one of his famous characters to the silver screen: Dieter from SNL’s Sprocket sketches. The film, which was scheduled for release in 2001, centered on the West German talk show host’s pet monkey, Klaus, being kidnapped and held for ransom. Will Ferrell and Jack Black were set to co-star, but Myers eventually backed out because he wasn’t happy with the script. Universal Pictures later sued him for the millions of dollars they had invested in pre-production for the film.
2. THE AMBIGUOUSLY GAY DUO
Somebody first pitched Robert Smigel an idea for an Ambiguously Gay Duo movie, based on his popular animated shorts, back in 2000. From there, he envisioned a live-action version starring Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Fallon, but rights issues prevented it from happening. Years later, Steve Carell, who voiced one of the original cartoon characters, managed to get Jim Carrey interested in playing the other role in a movie. That got Universal involved, and a script was commissioned. By the time the screenplay was finished, Carrey, unfortunately, no longer wanted to do it.
3. HANS AND FRANZ: THE GIRLY MAN DILEMMA
According to a 2014 interview with Dana Carvey, Robert Smigel, and Conan O’Brien, once wrote a script for a Hans and Franz movie that would’ve heavily featured Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was reportedly an over-the-top musical that followed the two bodybuilders (played by Carvey and Kevin Nealon) as they traveled to Los Angeles in search of Schwarzenegger. Sylvester Stallone was also supposed to make a cameo, and film critics Siskel and Ebert had been written into the story, though whether or not they would’ve actually appeared in the movie is unclear. Things are said to have fallen apart after Schwarzenegger dropped out of the project.
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