Development hell , also known as development purgatory or development limbo , is media - and software -industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time because of legal, technical, or artistic challenges. A work may move between many sets of artistic leadership, crews, scripts, game engines , or studios. (The related terms production hell and production limbo refer to situations in which a film has begun production but has remained unfinished for a long time without progressing to post-production .)
60-517: The Following is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson , and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television . The first season follows former FBI agent Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon ) trying to help recapture serial killer Joe Carroll, while Carroll's assembled cult captures Carroll's son from his ex-wife and sends Carroll's messages to
120-450: A 2013 interview, Williamson detailed his original script, which would have seen the killers be a Stab fan club of Woodsboro kids working on the orders of a still-alive Stu Macher from prison. All the members of the club would have been involved in the killings and the final twist "of the movie was when Sidney walked into the house after Ghostface had killed everyone ... and they all rose up. None of them were actually dead and they'd planned
180-630: A BFA in Theatre Arts. He told Entertainment Weekly interviewer Melissa Maerz, "When I was growing up, my mom and dad took me to the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia . It was a little house downtown, and The Raven was written on the walls. You had to move from room to room to read the whole story. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world." After graduation, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. Though he landed
240-480: A dark and twisted psychological thriller". The pilot was also directed by Friedlander (who also directed episodes of The Vampire Diaries , The Following and Stalker for Williamson) and starred James Wolk , Billy Magnussen , Dania Ramirez , Kim Cattrall , Danielle Campbell and Paul Wesley . The latter was one of the main actors in Williamson's previous show, The Vampire Diaires . The show began airing on CBS All Access on October 31, 2018. In March 2020, it
300-477: A fourth show in the universe together. In March 2024, Williamson was confirmed to be returning to the Scream franchise as the director of the upcoming untitled seventh Scream film . Williamson is gay. He came out to his friends and family in 1992. Development hell Some projects enter development hell because they were initially designed with ambitious goals, the difficulty of meeting those goals
360-532: A full-season on October 12, 2011. It was eventually cancelled. Williamson was the writer and producer for Scream 4 , which began shooting in June 2010 and was released in theaters on April 15, 2011. Williamson created the TV series The Following , which began airing on Fox in the 2012–13 television season . Starring critically acclaimed actor Kevin Bacon , the series follows an ex- FBI agent who finds himself in
420-588: A gated community in Palm Springs, California , where he uncovers dark secrets about his neighbors and his home's previous tenants. Hidden Palms was originally intended to be a midseason replacement set to air in March but its timeslot was filled by Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll instead. The pilot eventually premiered on May 30, 2007, to favorable reviews. However, after eight episodes,
480-509: A girlfriend. Weston follows a different path and chooses to hunt down Mark Gray. Carroll is on death row, waiting to be executed, but plays an important role in the season. Another serial killer proves to be just as dangerous and capable as Joe Carroll. Bob and Harvey Weinstein approached Kevin Williamson in early 1999 to pursue a full script for a third installment of the Scream franchise , Scream 3 . However, following his successes with
540-527: A late-night, sexualized version of his earlier show, Dawson's Creek . It aired for just 3 episodes in October 1999 before being canceled. The remaining 10 episodes were aired on Showtime's ShowNext channel in 2001. In 2001, Williamson created Glory Days as a mid-season replacement for The WB . The series followed a novelist returning to his hometown, a coastal community within Washington state, which
600-399: A long delay from one season to the next. Screenwriter Ken Aguado states that "development hell rarely happens in series television", because writers for a television series "typically only get a few cracks at executing a pilot , and if he or she doesn't deliver, the project will be quickly abandoned." Video game development can be stalled for years, occasionally over a decade, often due to
660-453: A love triangle between Stefan and his older brother, Damon ( Ian Somerhalder ), while the brothers are also being haunted by the past they've had with Katherine Pierce (also played by Dobrev). The series also focuses on the lives of Elena's friends and other inhabitants of the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia . The Vampire Diaries premiered on September 10, 2009, and has become a domestic and international hit. Williamson developed
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#1732797743452720-424: A man and dump his body in an attempt to go on with their lives, the plot focuses on the four friends a year after the accident when they become the victims of a serial stalker. Despite receiving negative reviews from critics, the film helped launch the careers of actors Jennifer Love Hewitt , Freddie Prinze, Jr. , Sarah Michelle Gellar , and Ryan Phillippe , going on to spawn two sequels, neither of which Williamson
780-401: A new TV series for The CW entitled The Secret Circle , which was from another book series of Vampire Diaries writer, L. J. Smith . The series revolves around six teenage witches who form a Circle coven on the fictional town of Chance Harbor, Washington . The Secret Circle premiered on September 15, 2011, just after the third-season premiere of The Vampire Diaries . It was pickup for
840-426: A part on the soap opera Another World in 1990, he moved to Los Angeles the following year, where he had small parts on the TV series In Living Color , in the films Dirty Money and Hot Ticket , and in music videos. While taking classes on screenwriting at UCLA he wrote his first script, Killing Mrs. Tingle (later retitled Teaching Mrs. Tingle ) which was bought by a production company in 1995 and put on
900-416: A project being moved to different production studios, multiple iterations of the game being created and abandoned, or difficulties with the development of the game software itself, such as loss of funding, overambitious scope, and poor development time management. In the computer industry, vaporware is the term for a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but
960-469: A released game may also result in any prospective sequels being delayed or cancelled. If a film is in development but never receives the necessary production funds, another studio may execute a turnaround deal and successfully produce the film. For example, Columbia Pictures stopped production of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Universal Pictures then picked up the film and made it
1020-478: A script based on Williamson's notes. The environment for Scream 3 ' s development had become more complicated than with previous films. There was an increased scrutiny on the effects of violence in media and the effect it could have on the public in the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre which occurred shortly before production began on the film. In addition, since the release of
1080-512: A semi-autobiographical tale set in a small coastal community not unlike Oriental . Williamson was the model for the title character, Dawson Leery , a hopeless romantic who is obsessed with movies—especially those of Steven Spielberg. Joey Potter , the platonic girl-next-door, was based on a real life friend of Williamson's when he was young. In December 1995, the show was pitched to the Fox Network , where Stupin had been an executive, but it
1140-465: A studio doesn't dare break up with. And that's how you end up for two years just, you know, polishing a turd . Until, finally, somebody walks away, at great cost." With video games, slow progress and a lack of funds may lead developers to focus their resources elsewhere. Occasionally, completed portions of a game fail to meet expectations, with developers subsequently choosing to abandon the project rather than start from scratch. The commercial failure of
1200-456: A writer. The film opened to negative reviews and suffered at the box office, taking in less than $ 900,000 in gross revenue. In 2006, Williamson began production on a new teen drama, tentatively titled Palm Springs , for The CW , the successor to the WB network. Later retitled Hidden Palms , the series was a coming-of-age drama about a troubled teen who moves with his mother and new stepfather to
1260-448: Is exceedingly well played." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly stated: "The weakest part of The Following is the idea that Carroll was a college professor who held his classes spellbound with lectures about Thoreau , Emerson , and, most crucially, Edgar Allan Poe ." He added: "The drama's strongest elements override this flaw. Both Bacon and Purefoy are so intensely earnest, The Following quickly supersedes its patent Silence of
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#17327977434521320-502: Is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. A number of popular audio series are dedicated to discussing the topic of unmade creative projects, including Development Hell , a Dread Central podcast which uncovers notable cancelled horror films. The concept artist and illustrator Sylvain Despretz has suggested that, "Development hell doesn't happen with no-name directors. It happens only with famous directors that
1380-482: Is some suspense here, even if it is mainly because the violence when it comes is so swift and sickening. But the show still feels slack. Is it a case of a serial-killer cliché too far?" Hank Stuever of The Washington Post called the series "a trite, gratuitously violent exercise in still more stylishly imagined American horror stories." He added, "It is filled with melodramatic sleuthing that you've seen over and over." Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times said
1440-478: Is turnover at the studio's executive level and the new leaders have a different vision; or when, due to changes in the wider economic, cultural or political climate, the film's topic comes to be seen as no longer marketable. Production hell refers to a situation in which a film has entered production but has remained in that phase for a long time without progressing to post-production. Television series can experience development hell between seasons, resulting in
1500-616: The Scream franchise —along with those for Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 4 (2011). He is also known for creating the WB teen drama series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003), the CW supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017), the Fox crime thriller series The Following (2013–2015) and the CBS All Access thriller series Tell Me a Story (2018–2020). Williamson also wrote
1560-791: The Philippines , Canal+ & TVN7 in Poland, FOX in Portugal , and Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom, and around 2015 will start to air in Colombia on Caracol Television . Kevin Williamson (screenwriter) Kevin Meade Williamson (born March 14, 1965) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He is known for developing and writing the screenplay for the slasher film Scream (1996)—which launched
1620-415: The Scream series and other projects such as I Know What You Did Last Summer , Williamson had become involved in multiple projects. These included the development of the short-lived TV series Wasteland and directing his self-penned film Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), which Williamson had written prior to Scream and which had languished in development hell since. Unable to develop a full script for
1680-484: The Lambs setup. The moments that focus on Carroll's criminal cult give the series its real power, and the modern-day variations on Charlie Manson 's kill-crazy crew are genuinely spooky." The Wall Street Journal 's Nancy Dewolf Smith considers the series "both better and worse than those movies where a procession of young people get killed so reliably and gorily that the audience laughs after it screams," adding, "There
1740-412: The big screen. As David Hughes, author of the book Tales From Development Hell , has noted, one reason production is delayed is that, after producers, directors, and actors have been attached to a project, they may request script rewrites. Another cause of delay is that, after people have been attached to a project, they find they have conflicting interpretations of it or visions for it. For example,
1800-421: The director and the studio executives may have different opinions about a film's casting, plot or budget. Development delays can also result when a lead actor or a key member of the production team withdraws from the project, or is taken ill, or dies; when there are labor strikes involving the writers, directors, crew or cast; when there are disputes about intellectual property rights or contract terms; when there
1860-553: The involved parties and are never produced. Film industry companies buy the film rights to many popular novels, video games, and comic books, but often take years to bring those properties to the screen, having first made considerable changes to their plots, characters and general tone. When this pre-production process takes too long, a project will often be abandoned or cancelled outright. This happens quite often: Hollywood starts ten times as many projects as it releases. Less than two percent of all books that are optioned make it to
The Following - Misplaced Pages Continue
1920-443: The latter's escape from prison. Hardy soon discovers that Carroll has surrounded himself with a group of like-minded individuals, whom he met while teaching and in prison, turning them into a cult of fanatical killers, making Emma Hill ( Valorie Curry ) his right-hand woman. When Carroll's son, Joey Matthews ( Kyle Catlett ), is abducted by his father's followers, Agents Mike Weston ( Shawn Ashmore ), Debra Parker ( Annie Parisse ), and
1980-580: The middle of a network of serial killers. The series was cancelled by Fox on May 8, 2015, however it was reported the series was being shopped to Hulu for a possible fourth season. Williamson also created Stalker , a psychological thriller centered on a pair of detectives who handle stalking incidents for the Threat Management Unit of the LAPD. The pilot was directed by Liz Friedlander and starred Dylan McDermott and Maggie Q . The series
2040-432: The most violent, and certainly the most frightening, series ever made by a commercial broadcast network," adding "some plot twists seem implausible at best, others are overdone or gratuitous. But some implausibility comes with the horror/suspense genre, and there's no question [Kevin] Williamson has mastered it — just as there's no question that the match of wills between the wounded [Kevin] Bacon and malevolent [James] Purefoy
2100-413: The original Scream films, various acts of violence had taken place which had gained notoriety and media attention when they were linked to, or blamed on, the films. Eager to avoid further criticism or connection to such incidents, Williamson's notes were largely discarded as the studio insisted that the script should focus on the comedic elements of the series while significantly reducing the violence. In
2160-496: The production, Williamson instead wrote a 20- to 30-page draft outline for the film that involved the return of Ghostface to the fictional town of Woodsboro where the Stab series, a fictional series of films within a film that exist within the Scream universe and are based on the events of Scream , would be filmed. The Weinsteins hired Arlington Road scribe Ehren Kruger to replace Williamson and helm writing duties, developing
2220-515: The rest of the FBI team discover that it is the first step in Carroll's wider plan to escape custody, humiliate Hardy, and be reunited with his ex-wife Claire Matthews ( Natalie Zea ). The second season centers on a new cult, led by Lily Gray ( Connie Nielsen ) and her twin sons Mark and Luke Gray (both played by Sam Underwood ), as they begin to make public statements to lure Carroll out of hiding while
2280-421: The rest of the world believes him to be dead. Weston is re-recruited by Special Agent Mendez ( Valerie Cruz ) and the FBI in order to find the new cult, while Hardy and his niece Max Hardy ( Jessica Stroup ) have their own plans to track them down and find Carroll, if he is in fact alive. The third season follows Hardy's life after Carroll's arrest and shows Hardy in a better place. He is close to his niece and has
2340-429: The role. When his agent suggested Bacon himself, Williamson discovered that Bacon had spent the past four years trying to find a television program he would like to do. Bacon described his attraction to the role as stemming from the way it centered on a life-or-death situation. Jeananne Goossen was cast in the role of FBI agent Jennifer Mason in the pilot, but the role was reworked and in subsequent episodes her character
2400-455: The same episode there's an actor cutting someone in the jugular, and you're harping on the sex scene? So I sent a little email to [Fox Entertainment chairman] Kevin Reilly , and within 15 minutes the broadcast-and-standards people were like, 'It's okay'". Williamson wanted to cast "a tough guy with a boyish side" as Ryan Hardy and told his agent that he had someone like Kevin Bacon in mind for
2460-760: The screenplays for the films I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), The Faculty (1998), Cursed (2005), and Sick (2022). He made his directorial debut with the black comedy film Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999). Williamson was born in New Bern , North Carolina , the younger son of Faye and Wade Williamson, a fisherman. He spent his early years in Aransas Pass, Texas, near Corpus Christi, Texas. Williamson's family returned to North Carolina for his high school years. He then attended East Carolina University in Greenville , North Carolina, where he received
The Following - Misplaced Pages Continue
2520-630: The script for $ 400,000 for their new Dimension Films label in the spring of 1995. Directed by Wes Craven , the film was renamed Scream , and released in The United States on December 20, 1996. It became a commercial blockbuster and critical success—ultimately drawing $ 173 million in ticket sales worldwide. Kevin Williamson earned the Saturn Award for Best Writing in 1996 for his work on Scream . In 1997, Dimension Films released Scream 2 , also written by Williamson. It, too,
2580-926: The series was "hard to turn off and even harder to watch" and that "precisely because it is so bleak and relentlessly scary, The Following offers a more salutary depiction of violence than do series that use humor to mitigate horror — and thereby trivialize it." The series is broadcast in Canada through the CTV television system . For season three, the show will be broadcast on Canada's sibling specialty service Bravo . Internationally, it also airs on Nine Network in Australia, TF1 in France, Warner Channel in Latin America , SABC 3 in South Africa , Jack City in
2640-422: The series was canceled due to low viewership ratings. The final episode aired on July 4, 2007. Williamson developed a new TV series for The CW entitled The Vampire Diaries , which was adapted from a novel series of the same name by L. J. Smith . The series follows the life of Elena Gilbert ( Nina Dobrev ), who falls in love with vampire Stefan Salvatore ( Paul Wesley ), and soon finds herself caught in
2700-604: The series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on January 19, 2014, and concluded on April 28, 2014. The series' renewal for a third season was announced on March 7, 2014, and the season premiered on March 2, 2015. On May 8, 2015, Fox canceled The Following after three seasons. The final episode aired on May 18, 2015. Set in New York City, The Following ' s first season centers on former FBI agent Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon ) and his attempts to recapture serial killer Joe Carroll ( James Purefoy ), following
2760-465: The shelf. Inspired by the March 9, 1994, episode of the news magazine Turning Point on Danny Rolling , a serial killer in Gainesville, Florida , who preyed on college students, Williamson wrote a horror movie script, originally titled Scary Movie . Its characters had seen many classic horror movies (e.g. Halloween , A Nightmare on Elm Street ) and knew all the clichés. Miramax bought
2820-458: The show to focus on other endeavors, among them ABC 's Wasteland , which failed to attract a sizable audience and was canceled after its thirteen-episode first season. He later returned to Dawson's Creek to pen the two-part series finale in 2003. In 1997, Williamson penned his next film, I Know What You Did Last Summer , based on a 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan . Centered on four high school friends who accidentally run over
2880-567: The weight of every victim on his shoulders". Williamson knew he wanted to produce a show that would be gory and knew it would be controversial. When Fox Broadcasting chief operating officer Joe Earley was asked about the subject material, he answered that the network felt pressured to draw in a large audience to equal the broad scope and intensity of the narrative. To slip gory scenes past the Standards and Practices department at Fox Broadcasting, Williamson explained, "There are tricks... Okay, in
2940-404: The whole thing." Williamson then adapted his original script as a television pitch, The Following , removing all references to the Scream franchise. Williamson pitched The Following to Fox rather than another company because it was "home of his all-time favorite show, 24 " . Comparing Hardy to Jack Bauer , he described the character as someone who "will die saving the moment" and "[carries]
3000-515: The world. The second season introduces Hardy's niece, who provides help in finding Carroll after his faked death while also dealing with a new cult. The series was broadcast on the commercial broadcast television network Fox . In its first two seasons, it starred Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy in leading roles, as well as Shawn Ashmore , Natalie Zea , and Valorie Curry . The first season, comprising 15 episodes, premiered on January 21, 2013, and concluded on April 29, 2013. On March 4, 2013,
3060-404: Was a critical and box office hit and paved the way for two more installments, Scream 3 (2000) and Scream 4 (2011). The latter was written by Williamson. Paul Stupin , an executive at Columbia TriStar Television , read Scream after the bidding war for the script and was convinced Williamson was just the man to create a television series for his company. The result was Dawson's Creek ,
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#17327977434523120-417: Was announced that Williamson would serve as executive producer for the fifth installment of the Scream franchise , which was directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin . The film was released on January 14, 2022. In January 2022, it was announced that Williamson would reunite with Julie Plec for an adaptation of the comic Dead Day for Peacock . In January 2023, it was announced Peacock
3180-566: Was cancelled on May 11, 2015, after one season. It was reported Warner Bros. would possibly shop the series around. In 2017, Williamson developed Time After Time , based on the novel of the same name , with the plot reset in 2017 New York City. It failed to capture a large enough audience for ABC. In 2018, Williamson created Tell Me a Story , a psychological thriller based on the Mexican television series Érase una vez , who takes "the world's most beloved fairy tales and reimagines them as
3240-517: Was experiencing strange occurrences—seeming to mirror the plot ABC 's Twin Peaks . Debuting in January 2002, the series was canceled after the airing of nine episodes. Williamson penned another script which Wes Craven would go on to direct called Cursed , after a failed first shoot starring an almost entirely different cast before re-writes and re-shoots turned the project into something new, it
3300-406: Was finally released in 2005. Due to the many script changes, delays in production and low promotional budget due to all the re-shoots, the film failed to perform at the box office. Later that same year, Dimension Films released Williamson's horror film Venom , about a group of teens stalked by a crazed killer in the bayous of Louisiana . Williamson is listed as a producer of the film but not as
3360-449: Was involved with. Williamson gave up the job of writing the full script for Scream 3 in order to direct his first penned script, originally titled Killing Mrs. Tingle , a comedy thriller, inspired by an event he experienced in high school. Teaching Mrs. Tingle (as it was renamed after the Columbine High School massacre ) followed a group of students getting even with their vindictive teacher. In 1999, Williamson created Wasteland ,
3420-486: Was no longer moving forward with Dead Day but that the potential series was being shopped to other networks. In February 2022, it was announced that a sequel to Scream (2022) had been greenlit, with a planned release date of March 31, 2023, with Williamson on board as an executive producer. In June 2022, Julie Plec, who co-created The Vampire Diaries with Williamson, announced that she, Williamson, and another TVDU executive producer, Brett Matthews, were working on
3480-551: Was rejected. Then in 1996, Stupin and Williamson went to, and struck a deal with, The WB . Williamson said, "I pitched it as Some Kind of Wonderful , meets Pump Up the Volume , meets James at 15 , meets My So-Called Life , meets Little House on the Prairie ." Dawson's Creek premiered on The WB on January 20, 1998, and was an immediate hit that helped launch the newly created television network. In 1999, Williamson left
3540-425: Was underestimated, and attempts to meet those goals have repeatedly failed. But the term is also applied more generally to describe any project that has unexpectedly stalled in the planning or design phase, has failed to meet its originally expected date of completion, and is languishing in those phases for what is seen as an unreasonably long time. Many projects that enter development hell are gradually abandoned by
3600-536: Was written out and replaced by Special Agent Debra Parker, played by Annie Parisse . The lighthouse scenes in the first season's finale were filmed at the Fire Island Lighthouse in Fire Island , New York. Including other digital sources, the premiere episode was watched by a total of 20.34 million viewers. USA Today ' s Robert Bianco rated the show highly, calling it "one of
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