Tripoli
Potential Cast: Russell Crowe

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe had been looking for a follow up to Gladiator and thought they found it when they set sail to the shores of Tripoli, a period drama penned by The Departed screenwriter William Monaghan. Crowe would play William Eaton, the U.S. diplomat during the Jefferson Administration who in the early 1800s sought to overthrow the ruler of Tripoli on the Barbary Coast by uniting the region's Christian and Muslim soldiers. Ben Kingsley had signed on to star alongside Crowe, and filming was supposed to start in 2003 after Scott had finished making Matchstick Men. But Fox, the studio producing Tripoli, had another Russell Crowe oceanic epic in the works with Master and Commander and deemed Tripoli not seaworthy at the time.

Project Status: Since Crowe and Scott disembarked from Tripoli to do two other films together, Keanu Reeves has been bandied about as a potential replacement for the lead, and Monaghan said in a 2007 IGN interview that "Tripoli will get made. There's no way it can't be."

NEXT: The Turtle and the Hare, a faux-documentary on the Aesop's fable