Long Time No See Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atlas Shrugged

Although Ayn Rand's works have been popular for their political views and philosophical points, they've been divisive texts, and bringing any of them to the big screen in any way has always been a trying process. "Atlas Shrugged" was originally shopped to studios in the early 1970s (the book released in 1957) but it languished time and time again because of the scope of the project and the inability for studios to latch onto casts and crews for any significant time.

At points, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, and Julia Roberts were all up for the same role. Ultimately, the book was adapted over three critically panned movies releasing between 2011 and 2014, each with different casts and directors. None of them made a profit.

Answer: Duke Nukem Forever

Although a lot of video games suffer poor reboots from generation to generation, "Duke Nukem 64", while obviously cheesy and dated in in its own right, was somewhat of a cult classic on the Nintendo 64 and definitely one of the few Mature-rated titles on the popular console.

It took fifteen years before fans got another taste, mostly due to internal conflicts (the game had half-a-dozen different development teams by the end) and game engine changes. What resulted was commonly regarded as a mess, both due to lousy controls and gameplay and offensive content.

Interestingly, many reviewers had to compare it to the original version on the PC and N64, stating that held up to that game, the new one was inferior despite the time gap. Ironically, the poor sales and release of "Forever" caused the final developers at Gearbox Software to shelve the series indefinitely.

Answer: The Dark Tower

There's a long story behind all of this. Stephen King started his "Dark Tower" series in the early 1980s and the tone shifted as wildly as the page count. By the time the fourth book, "Wizard and Glass", released in 1997, he'd gone through a lengthy period of drug addiction.

It wasn't until six years later that the fifth, sixth, and seventh books were released in quick succession to round out the series. He would release an eighth (between books 4 and 5) in 2012. Many regarded "The Dark Tower" to be rife for adaptation, but for years and years, directors (J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, etc.) and lead actors (Javier Bardem, Viggo Mortensen, ETC.) signed on without any result. Ultimately, the first shot at a film would show up in 2017 starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.

It was critically-panned.

Answer: Mad Max: Fury Road

"Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", the third film in the Australian-made "Mad Max" series, was released in 1985, and "Mad Max IV" would have been released sooner if the script and production didn't fall into Development hell due to money issues, rights issues, and at one point, the September 11th attacks (which gutted the economy).

When Mel Gibson dropped out of the series, further delays were made. And then the Iraq War complicated things. Locations weren't scouted until 2009, it never filmed until 2012, and the movie wasn't in theatres until 2015 due to extensive special effects work.

It paid off; the movie was critically lauded, made over $375,000,000 internationally, and won six of its ten Oscar nominations.

Answer: Chinese Democracy

It's hard to figure out which element of "Chinese Democracy's" creation proved to be the most crippling. After the release of both "Use Your Illusion" albums in 1991, Guns 'N' Roses had an album of covers before the band fell to pieces. "Chinese Democracy" took fifteen years because most of the members of Guns 'N' Roses left (only Axl Rose and Dizzy Reed stayed with the name) and because it was re-recorded several times, ultimately costing more money to make than any rock album ever made (the final price tag was more than $13,000,000 USD in 2008). Axl Rose would go on as a touring member of The Rolling Stones and AC/DC in the years to follow; Guns 'N' Roses would reunite in 2016 for a multi-year tour as well.

Answer: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

The interesting thing about this film's long and sordid creation process is that it was partially chronicled in a documentary. In 2002, the film "Lost in La Mancha" took a closer look at the failure that was Gilliam's first attempt to bring his long-expected film to the big screen with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort. Ultimately, the film starred Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce.

The movie was expected to release in 2018 (a year earlier than it did), but it was marred by legal battles and studio issues; one producer took Gilliam to court, alleging that the rights to the film were his. Nonetheless, it still debuted as the final film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

It was nowhere near recouping its budget.

Answer: The Last Guardian

The follow-up to Team Ico's popular PS2 title "Shadow of the Colossus", "The Last Guardian" showed up at E3 in 2009 not appearing on a console for more than seven years due to technical issues and a need for a more robust development team. As a result, Sony brought in their in-house team and pushed the release to the more powerful PS4, improving the graphics and art direction.

The game itself followed a boy and a fantastical winged creature known by the name Trico. Though it sold less than anticipated, it was commonly regarded as a successful artistic endeavour.

Answer: The Smile Sessions

"The Smile Sessions" are particularly notable because the set contains songs that might have been used on the band's release that was meant to follow "Pet Sounds". Over the years, however, they weren't released due to a general dissatisfaction with the end result, and it led Brian Wilson to release his own version of the album in 2004 (named "Brian Wilson Presents Smile"). Ultimately, Capitol Records dredged up the old recordings, releasing them both as a nineteen-track album and as a four hundred minute, comprehensive study, ultimately making one of the most universally high-regarded box sets in rock music. From the start of recording to the release of the set, forty-six years had passed.

Answer: Inglourious Basterds

Instead of finishing his remake of the 1978 Italian film "The Inglorious Bastards", Tarantino moved onto both volumes of "Kill Bill" and the "Grindhouse" offering "Death Proof", returning to "Inglourious Basterds" in 2007 and filming for a 2009 release after mulling over the film's end (involving a major fire in a Parisian movie theatre and the untrue death of Adolf Hitler). Multiple scripts were made over that time, and it probably worked out for the better in the end; Christoph Waltz got his first Oscar for his role in the film (he would get another for "Django Unchained") and the movie was nominated for seven more awards at the same ceremony (including Best Picture and Best Director).

Answer: Under the Dome

1972 pre-dates the majority of King's novels and, interestingly, "The Cannibals" took several forms before becoming "Under the Dome". That said, the length of the book exploded; the manuscript for "The Cannibals" that showed up ten years after the first was more than four hundred pages (at a time when King had already released his first 1000-plus page novel, "The Stand"). "Under the Dome", on final release, capped out at 1,074 pages.

The book followed the story of a small town that found itself trapped in an invisible dome.

It was only a short time before it became a TV show, so even if it took more than forty years to show up as a book, it seemed the ball was rolling when it finally published.