In the latest episode of The Infection Cut, the team unspools the crazy story of Crusade, Paul Verhoeven and Arnold Schwarzenegger's wild, big-budget epic about the 13th century Catholic Crusades. This film had a cast, sets built, and yet was killed just days before filming started. As always, we focus on what really matters:

• What could make a Hollywood studio cancel a film with $10 million dollars already spent on cast, crew, and sets?

These questions and many more are answered in this month's The Infection Cut!

Show notes

After the blockbuster success of the Alien sequel Aliens, producing a 3rd movie was a top priority for 20th Century Fox. The tortuous development process that followed eventually led to 1992's divisive Alien3. Eric and Halstead look at the many false starts to see if there was a better way. Could the second Alien sequel have been salvaged? How might that have led to a golden age of auteur-driven science fiction? Join Halsted and Eric in their latest adventure in the cinematic multiverse!

Bibliography: https://tinyurl.com/38uaem7v

We had too much fun stunt casting Batman Year One and discussing a new vision for DC films in the 21st century, so we spun that discussion off into our first-ever bonus episode! Hopefully, that was a good idea.

After the underperforming Batman and Robin, a young filmmaker named Darren Aronofsky pitched a hard-R, 1970s set reimagining of Batman's origin. And it got surprisingly close to seeing the light of day. What if it had been made instead of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins? Would we have the Aronofsyverse instead of the Snyderverse? Join Halsted and Eric in their second adventure in the cinematic multiverse!

Bibliography: https://tinyurl.com/47yhy9c2

In our inaugural episode, Eric & Halstead look at the tortured history of Peter Jackson’s never-made film based on the Halo video game franchise. What led to the film’s failure to launch? Who could have brought this film across the finish line? Why would a Halo film lead to the streaming wars starting a decade earlier?

Bibliography