They Can’t All Be Winners, Kid: Seven once-hopeful film franchises that never took off

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

This nostalgia-bait CGI extravaganza is more notable nowadays for giving us one of the first instances of an actor being digitally resurrected to perform a part (Laurence Olivier’s still turning over in his grave for that one), but at the time it was seen as a potential franchise-starter. It looked like it had everything: Robots! Planes! An interesting setting! But unfortunately, Jude Law was in one too many movies that year, as Chris Rock would have had you believe, and audiences didn’t flock to it. In retrospect, it’s a great deal like Joe Johnston’s sterling piece of retro entertainment The Rocketeer, which also was given a large budget and featured extensive effects work and couldn’t generate any interest, and though it’s significantly less entertaining that than that film, Sky Captain’s a pretty solid little piece of work. 2004 just wasn’t ready for this stuff.