Films Not Made

The Sisyphus of Niagara: A Dark Comedy's Eternal Struggle

Films Not Made — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Filmmaker Joe Maggio joins Amy Hobby and Avi Zev Weider to resurrect The Fall, a dark comedy about a moral Niagara Falls attorney whose life spirals out of control after he commits a terrible sin and is unexpectedly rewarded with everything he ever wanted. The project, originally conceived as an existential drama inspired by Kafka and Joe's vicious, domineering grandmother, almost became Joe’s breakout film during the early 2000s Indie Boom.

We are also joined by Tom Hall, Artistic Director of Montclair Film, who lends his expertise as a film festival programmer and "walking encyclopedia of film" to assess the project's concept and casting.

Joe shares the incredible saga of The Fall’s near-production: from writing the script on his honeymoon and securing his dream lead, John Turturro, to the painful collapse of the deal. John Turturro perfectly captured the chaos, calling the process like "holding on to the horns of a bull and I'm wearing roller skates".

We present Joe with a modern pitch deck for The Fall—complete with Paul Dano as the lead and a hot take from an AI film executive—forcing Joe to confront his “biggest regret” and consider if the bittersweet film that was not made is now ready for its resurrection.

Tom Hall's Back Row Manifesto https://backrowmanifesto.substack.com/

Joe Maggio's Incidental Films https://www.incidentalfilms.com/

Go to https://filmsnotmade.com/ for info on the show, transcripts and more.

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Shot by Shot: Inside the AI Trailer Workflow

Films Not Made — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Host Avi Weider walks you inside the actual workflow behind the AI trailers we make for every guest — shot by shot, prompt by prompt. From Claude Code to GPT Image 2 to Kling to Premiere, nothing is theoretical here. And it's constantly evolving. This is what it looks like when the tools meet the timeline and you're still trying to make something that feels like a real movie. We're showing you how we use AI as a tool to finally see the films that never got made. Here's what that looks like behind the scenes.

Go to https://filmsnotmade.com/ for info on the show, transcripts and more.
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DJ Natalie's Neighborhood with Natalie Weiss

Films Not Made — Tue, 26 May 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Musician and playwright Natalie Weiss has come to resurrect her children's show concept, DJ Natalie's Neighborhood, which she pitches as “Pee-wee’s Playhouse meets Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood set to a DJ beat”. The series is rooted in her real-life, viral "Baby DJ School" and features Natalie as the host alongside her zany puppet roommates in a magical Brooklyn apartment, including Ms. Hay Hay, the glamorous horse diva, and LD the glow worm lighting designer. The core premise is teaching kids musical concepts and ASL to solve everyday problems.

Despite getting her foot in the door with top-tier executives at networks like Netflix and Sesame Street, Natalie learned the industry was shifting away from adult hosts in favor of child protagonists. The executives "wanted sanitized boring Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood".

Natalie got a renewed sense of purpose, leaving her energized, as she states, with a "total fire under my ass. I just want to work on this again."

Come to the playhouse "where beats are dope and life is good."

https://www.natalieelizabethweiss.com/
https://www.instagram.com/djnatalienyc/

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#DaveedDiggs #DonaldGlover #BillyPorter #AyoEdebiri #AliWong #KeeganMichaelKey #StephenRoot
#FilmsNotMade #DJNataliesNeighborhood #BabyDJSchool
#NatalieWeiss #KidsTV #PuppetShow #UnmadeProjects #KidsMusic #IndieFilm #ChildrensTelevision
#PeeweesPlayhouse #MrRogersNeighborhood #Brooklyn #MusicEducation #ASL #PodcastLife #HollywoodDevelopment #WhatIfWeMadeItNow #HollywoodStories

Backlot: Adam Schartoff of Filmwax Radio

Films Not Made — Tue, 19 May 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Adam Schartoff of Filmwax Radio is a veteran nearing 900 episodes interviewing everyone from Gus Van Sant to Werner Herzog. Filmwax began in 2011 as a small film series in a Brooklyn bar, quickly evolving into a podcast by 2012.

Adam, Avi and Amy discuss the biggest challenges in getting a film seen, changes in distribution, incorporation of AI, and working from the heart.

We asked his dream guest: Jim Jarmusch, the ultimate New York indie filmmaker he’s been "orbiting" for 15 years. Put that wish out there! Find Adam’s terrific archive at FilmwaxRadio.com.

Stamp & Deliver with Dan MIrvish

Films Not Made — Tue, 12 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT

Dan Mirvish, co-founder of Slamdance, comes on to talk about the unmade film that haunted him for years. Stamp & Deliver was a darkly comic postal western — think No Country for Old Men meets Office Space — and it got closer than most. Sets were built in Austin. Brittany Murphy auditioned. Ed Asner and Peter Fonda were in. Neil Young was going to produce and score it. Then 9/11 happened.

We go through the whole story, run the original script through our AI pipeline, and give Stamp & Deliver the trailer it never got and still deserves. Our film executive Meredith also stops by with notes — and sounds exactly like every development meeting you've ever sat through.

If you love indie film, hollywood stories, development hell, and the ones that got away — this one's for you.

https://linktr.ee/atomicfondue
https://substack.com/@danmirvish
https://www.danmirvish.com/Stamp-Deliver
next film, Atomic Fondue (still raising money!)
https://www.danmirvish.com/Atomic-Fondue"

Go to https://filmsnotmade.com/ for info on the show, transcripts and more.

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#FilmsNotMade #UnmadeFilms #DevelopmentHell #StampAndDeliver #PostalWestern #Slamdance #IndieFilmHistory #DanMirvish #IndieFilm #IndependentFilm #FilmHistory #AIFilmmaking #GenerativeAI #AITrailer
#FilmPodcast #HollywoodStories #Screenwriting #MakingMovies #MovieTrailer

Backlot—The Amateur Pornographer Table Read

Films Not Made — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

It's been over 25 years since Matthew Rhys first read the script of The Amateur Pornographer. This project broke the heart of writer-director Christopher Monger.

In this special Backlot episode, actor Matthew Rhys, along with Ian McNiece and Meryn Williams Davies, share and read two scenes from the original screenplay. Chris and producer Ted Hope are in the room, reinvigorating the passion behind the script and desire to bring this Welsh film to life.

Christopher said, "Seeing Matthew Rhys and Ian McNeice and Meryn Williams Davies read a couple of scenes made me both happy and sad. Happy in that, yes, I think it is a good script; and sad because, no, it did not get made. When I re-read Amateur Pornographer I was filled with the excitement I had when writing it."

Go to https://filmsnotmade.com/ for info on the show, transcripts and more.

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The Amateur Pornographer with Chris Monger and Ted Hope

Films Not Made — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT

Christopher Monger, a Welsh native, was fresh off the Miramax release of his film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain starring Hugh Grant. His next project was to shoot in a small town in Wales, and producer Ted Hope felt it was a sure thing. The Amateur Pornographer was nearly made with a young Matthew Rhys and later got traction at HBO, with one note: Could the film be set in the United States instead of Wales?

Christopher Monger IMDB

Ted Hope’s Substack “Hope for Film”

Check out our curated Letterboxd List for some New York mid 90s indie classics to go with our Ted Hope-Good Machine vibe.

We have merch! Buy our awesome Films Not Made signature mug or 100% cotton t-shirt.

Go to FilmsNotMade for the all transcripts and more.

Follow the show on YouTube@filmsnotemade

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The Sisterhood: The Conspiracy Thriller That Was 15 Years Ahead of Hollywood

Films Not Made — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT

In 2007, producer Effie Brown and novelist Nichol Bradford put together a 40-page pitch deck for The Sisterhood — a global conspiracy thriller about a secret network of women of color who build an alternative system of wealth, protection, and care, and get targeted for it. The deck built an entire world around the project — a transmedia universe of community, content, and activism — before that phrase existed.

Hollywood still said no.

In this episode of Films Not Made, Effie Brown (producer of Dear White People and Real Women Have Curves, CEO of Gamechanger Films, Academy Board of Governors) and Nichol Bradford (author, technologist, Singularity University faculty, Executive in Residence for AI and the Future of Work at SHRM) join Amy and Avi to finally open the drawer on The Sisterhood — a project that hasn't been pitched in over a decade and somehow feels more urgent right now than ever.

Effie's pitch: "Bourne Ultimatum meets House of Cards — but with sisters." A vaccine that could collapse the global drug economy. A murder. A reckoning. And the question underneath all of it: who actually runs the world, and what happens when someone tries to build outside the system?

We run the full project through our AI pipeline: pitch deck, casting board (Angela Bassett, Danielle Deadwyler, Regina King, Lashana Lynch, Mads Mikkelsen with a satellite phone in a museum), a full trailer — and a live pitch to our AI film executive, who has opinions.

Effie's verdict on whether this could be made now: 1,000%.

Guests:

Effie Brown Gamechanger Films

Nichol Bradford

Films Not Made resurrects Hollywood's wildest unmade films.

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filmsnotmade.com
Substack@filmsnotmade

Letterboxd@filmsnotmade

#EffieBrown #NicholBradford #AIFilmmaking #TheSisterhood #FilmsNotMade #BlackWomenInFilm #DevelopmentHell #FilmPodcast #HollywoodStories #UnmadeFiles #Screenwriting #WomenProducers #BlackDirectors #BlackStorytelling

How to Tame a Fox with Heidi Ewing

Films Not Made — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp, Detropia) joins Amy and Avi to open the drawer on How to Tame a Fox — her shelved script about two Soviet biologists who secretly tried to domesticate wild foxes in Siberia while Stalin was busy persecuting anyone who liked science.

Based on the true story of Lyudmila Trut and Dmitri Belyaev, this is a Cold War thriller disguised as an animal story — or an animal story disguised as a Cold War thriller, depending on how you feel about foxes that eventually sing.

Heidi wrote a full pilot during COVID, had a dream cast (Daniel Day-Lewis, Cate Blanchett, Joaquin Phoenix), and then Putin invaded Ukraine and tanked the mood for celebrating Russian scientists. Timing is everything.

We fed the script into our AI pipeline, generated a new pitch deck and trailer, and let our AI executive Finn weigh in. Heidi's verdict: still a f***ing good idea. We agree.

Some projects don't die. They just wait.

Loki Films: https://lokifilms.com
Heidi Ewing on Instagram

#FilmsNotMade #UnmadeFilms #DevelopmentHell #HowToTameAFox #HeidiEwing #LyudmilaGrut
#DmitriBelyaev #FoxDomestication #SiberianFoxExperiment #FilmPodcast #IndieFilm #DocumentaryFilm #Screenwriting
#PeriodDrama #FilmDevelopment #WarOnScience
#SovietHistory #ColdWarDrama #StalinistRussia #MagicalRealism #DomesticationScience #AIFilmmaking #Cinephile #FilmPodcast

Backlot —Making the Theme Song

Films Not Made — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 21:00:00 GMT

Every unmade film deserves a score. Here's how ours got one. From the backlot of the show, musician Joe McGinty takes us behind the scenes on how he composed the theme music for Films Not Made! From groovy Conn Electric Band drum beats, to Moog boogie bass lines, to ARP arpeggios, Musonics Vanilla melody, and more.

Have listen and enjoy!

https://www.joemcgintymusic.com/
https://www.instagram.com/joemcginty7/
https://sidgolds.com/

American Prometheus: The Other Oppenheimer

Films Not Made — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT

When Christopher Nolan options the same Oppenheimer biography you've been developing for a decade, is it a tragedy or just really, really bad timing?

Writer-director Robert Edwards joins Amy and Avi to discuss his adaptation of "American Prometheus," the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer that he optioned in 2006—long before Christopher Nolan made it a billion-dollar blockbuster.

The episode captures both the heartbreak of near-misses in Hollywood and the strange consolation of being crushed by one of the greatest filmmakers alive.

We discuss what it means to have “your” film made by someone else, the ethics and anxiety around AI in filmmaking, and why Edwards’ take—an “atomic noir” focused on Oppenheimer’s 1954 security hearing—might still have life as OTHERHEIMER.

Robert Edwards — Writer/Director (Land of the Blind, When I Live My Life Over Again)
The King's Necktie "My One-Way Rivalry with Christopher Nolan": https://thekingsnecktie.substack.com/p/my-one-way-rivalry-with-christopher
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0250315/

🎬 filmsnotmade.com | @filmsnotmade

#UnmadeFilms #Oppenheimer #AIFilmmaking #DevelopmentHell #Screenwriting #AmericanPrometheus #JRobertOppenheimer #HistoricalDrama #IndieFilm #AtomicNoir #LostMedia

Poodle Power: The Animated Iditarod Film That Didn't Cross the Finish Line

Films Not Made — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:00:00 GMT

What if a team of standard poodles ran the Iditarod? Not as a joke—as a real animated feature film.

Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell spent nearly a decade trying to make "Poodle Power" happen. Based on the true story of John Suter, who actually raced poodles (alongside huskies) in Alaska's legendary sled dog race until the Iditarod committee banned non-husky breeds in 1990. The project went through countless iterations: from live-action rescue helicopter drama to animated adventure, from Blue Sky Studios meetings to pitch sessions with executives who loved it but wouldn't greenlight it.

Amy reunites with her producing partner Anne Hubbell (Provincetown International Film Festival, Kodak) and animation veteran Kent Osborne (SpongeBob SquarePants, Adventure Time) to autopsy eight years of development hell. They dissect the original pitch deck, revisit brutal notes from Oscar-nominated animators, and explore why a perfectly good idea about lovable poodles couldn't cross the finish line.

Then we feed everything into the AI pipeline—scripts, decks, news clips, character descriptions—and resurrect "Poodle Power" with a new pitch deck and trailer. Plus, we introduce Bob, our AI film executive, who weighs in on whether this project has legs now.

Guests:
Anne Hubbell - Producer, Co-founder of Tangerine Entertainment, Director of Provincetown International Film Festival
Kent Osborne - Actor, Writer, Director (SpongeBob SquarePants, Adventure Time)

Hosts:
Amy Hobby - Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning producer
Avi Zev Weider - Award-winning filmmaker

From analog rejection to digital resurrection - Films Not Made hosts Amy Hobby and Avi Zev Weider unearth both Hollywood and indie film projects too wild, weird, or ambitious to ever hit the big screen. You'll hear writers, directors, and producers ripping open old wounds by pulling out abandoned scripts, impossible casting lists, and brutal rejection letters. These honest conversations with creators become AI resurrections of the movies that never were.

Subscribe and follow on YouTube and all podcast platforms. Website: filmsnotmade.com

Substack/Instagram/TikTok: @filmsnotmade

Pod.Link: https://pod.link/1873083993

#UnmadeFilms #Animation #Iditarod #PoodlePower #IndieFilm #AIFilmmaking #DevelopmentHell

I Need Love: LL Cool J & Kool Moe Dee Love Story

Films Not Made — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:00:00 GMT

What if the legendary 1987 beef between LL Cool J and Kool Moe Dee was hiding a forbidden romance?

Filmmaker Michael Tully (Ping Pong Summer, Cocaine Angel) wrote exactly that script during COVID—a hip-hop fairy tale he describes as "Krush Groove meets Brokeback Mountain." And yes, he actually pitched it to Kool Moe Dee himself.

We explore why Michael wrote a film he knew would "never get made," how he balanced parody with sincerity, and what happened when he approached one of hip-hop's legends. Then we take his script, run it through our AI pipeline, and create a pitch deck and trailer to resurrect this impossible film.

Joining the conversation is Loren Hammonds (Peabody Award-winning producer, Time Studios, former VP at Tribeca Film Festival), who brings his perspective as both a documentary curator and former hip-hop emcee "Mojo the Cinematic."

Guests:
Michael Tully - Filmmaker, founding editor of Hammer to Nail
Loren Hammonds - Head of Documentary, Time Studios

Hosts:
Amy Hobby - Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning producer
Avi Zev Weider - Award-winning filmmaker, SXSW

Subscribe and follow on YouTube and all podcast platforms. Website: filmsnotmade.com
Substack/Instagram/TikTok: @filmsnotmade
Letterboxd "I Need Love"
Pod.Link: https://pod.link/1873083993

#UnmadeFilms #HipHopHistory #AIFilmmaking #LLCoolJ #KoolMoeDee

Coming Soon: Films Not Made

Films Not Made — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 01:45:51 GMT

What if you could finally see the films that never made it to the screen? Films Not Made is a revolutionary new weekly podcast launching March 3 that uses AI to resurrect Hollywood's most bizarre and heartbreaking unmade projects.

We give filmmakers closure and audiences a front-row seat to the greatest movies never made. Subscribe on your favorite platform to hear the stories—and follow our video show to see the films for yourself. Visit FilmsNotMade.com for more.