A comedy about a clown in a Nazi concentration camp. Lewis locked the only print in a vault, refusing all screening requests for decades.
Considered one of the most infamous unreleased films in cinema history. Lewis reportedly wept when discussing the film and expressed deep regret about its creation. A rough cut was donated to the Library of Congress with restrictions against screening until 2024.
Status: Partially released (LOC copy, 2024)
Music
Smile
1966–67 · The Beach Boys · Shelved
Brian Wilson's ambitious follow-up to Pet Sounds, abandoned amid mental health struggles and internal band conflicts.
Intended as a "teenage symphony to God," the album's complex modular recording sessions became legendary. Bootlegs circulated for decades. Wilson eventually completed a solo version in 2004, and a reconstruction from original tapes was released in 2011.
Status: Reconstructed and released (2011)
Games
Star Fox 2
1995 · Nintendo · Completed, shelved
Fully completed SNES sequel cancelled at the last moment to avoid competing with the upcoming Nintendo 64 launch.
Developer Argonaut Software had the game 100% complete. Nintendo feared releasing a technically impressive SNES game would undermine the N64's wow factor. ROMs leaked online for years before Nintendo officially released it on the SNES Classic in 2017.
Status: Officially released (SNES Classic, 2017)
Literature
The Original Ending of Great Expectations
1861 · Charles Dickens · Rewritten
Dickens wrote a bleak original ending where Pip and Estella part ways permanently. His friend Bulwer-Lytton convinced him to write the happier published version.
The original ending was considered too dark for Victorian readers. Dickens reluctantly replaced it with an ambiguously hopeful conclusion. The suppressed ending was published posthumously and many scholars consider it the superior version.
Status: Published posthumously
Government
MKUltra Documents
1953–73 · CIA · Destroyed / Partially recovered
CIA director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed in 1973. A cache of 20,000 documents survived due to a filing error.
The program conducted illegal experiments on human subjects to develop mind-control techniques. The surviving documents were only discovered through a FOIA request that searched financial records rather than program files — the one area Helms forgot to purge.
Status: Partially declassified (1977)
Film
London After Midnight
1927 · Tod Browning · Lost
Lon Chaney's legendary vampire film, destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire. No complete print has ever been found.
Considered the holy grail of lost cinema. Only production stills survive, from which a reconstruction using title cards was assembled by TCM in 2002. The original featured Chaney in one of his most elaborate makeup designs.
Status: Still lost
Music
Lootpack — The Lost Tapes
2000s · Madlib / Lootpack · Unreleased
Hundreds of hours of unreleased Madlib productions from the Lootpack era, sitting in crates in a Los Angeles storage unit.
Madlib's prolific output during this period means entire albums worth of material exist that have never been heard outside his inner circle. Occasional beats surface on compilations but the bulk remains vaulted indefinitely.
Status: Still suppressed
Film
Jodorowsky's Dune
1974–76 · Alejandro Jodorowsky · Never produced
A 14-hour adaptation of Dune with Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, and art by H.R. Giger and Moebius. Studios refused to fund it.
The pre-production bible — a massive book of storyboards and designs — influenced Alien, Blade Runner, Star Wars, and countless other sci-fi films. The unrealized vision arguably shaped modern science fiction more than any film that was actually made.
Status: Never produced (documented in 2013 film)
Literature
The Pale King (Unfinished)
2011 · David Foster Wallace · Posthumous fragment
Wallace's unfinished novel about boredom and the IRS, assembled from thousands of manuscript pages found after his death.
The published version represents editor Michael Pietsch's best attempt to assemble a coherent narrative from Wallace's chaotic notes. Entire chapters, alternate versions, and abandoned threads remain unpublished in the Harry Ransom Center archives.
Status: Partially published (2011)
Government
The Suppressed Chapters of the 9/11 Report
2002 · U.S. Congress · Redacted
28 pages of the Joint Inquiry report were classified for 13 years, reportedly detailing Saudi government connections to the hijackers.
The pages were finally declassified in 2016 with minor redactions. They detailed contacts between Saudi officials and some of the 9/11 hijackers, though the government maintained the contacts did not constitute direct support for the attacks.
Status: Declassified (2016)
Games
Silent Hills (P.T.)
2014 · Kojima / Konami · Cancelled
Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro's horror game was cancelled after Kojima's departure from Konami. The playable teaser was removed from PSN.
P.T. (Playable Teaser) became legendary as one of the most terrifying game experiences ever created. Konami removed it from the PlayStation Store, making PS4s with it installed into collector's items worth thousands. The full game will never exist.
Status: Permanently cancelled
Music
Sly Stone — The Unfinished Album
1975–83 · Sly Stone · Unreleased
Decades of unreleased recordings from the genius behind "Everyday People," lost to drug addiction and contractual disputes.
Stone reportedly recorded prolifically throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, but substance abuse and increasingly erratic behavior prevented any finished product from reaching the public. Master tapes are scattered across multiple studios and personal collections.