Carl Andy's unrealized projects

The following is a partial list of unproduced Carl Andy projects, in roughly chronological order. durring a career that spanned roughly six decades, Andy had directed more than 30 feature films in addition to writing and producing various other productions, and worked on a number of others which never made it beyond the pre-production stage.

Call Me Back (1964-65)
Andy inteded this to be his follow-up feature film to The Big Arena (1964) after securing a deal with American International Pictures, this deal resulted in the films Surfer Vampires from Beyond the Grave and Carnival of Madness! which were both released in 1965, however this screenplay predates both those films. not much is known besides Andy stating it would have been a Rope-like single room thriller involving a phone operator recieving various malicious calls, each one more threatening than the last. The project was scrapped due to the potentially expensive budget of filming in such a location.

At some point, Andy considered revisiting the idea in the 80s in response to the slasher movie craze before deciding to scrap it entirely as a result of not reaching a deal with Orion Pictures, AIP's succesor of interest, who still owned the original script.

King's Ransom (1972)
Andy had considered a film adaptation of the 1959 crime novel King's Ransom, which had previously been filmed in Japan by Akira Kurosawa as High and Low (1963). not much is known why it was scrapped other than being preoccupied with getting Toby off the ground at the time.

Carl Andy's brother, Joseph Andy eventually filmed the novel in 2007 as 87th Precinct Mystery.

The Jazz Singer (1975-76)
Intended as his follow up to Toby, Carl Andy expressed interest in doing a new film adaptation of The Jazz Singer, famously adapted in 1927 and 1952. He pitched the idea to United Artists (who then owned the 1927 film through Associated Artist Productions), however he couldn't get the greenlight due to Warner Bros. also owning the trademark, having produced the 1952 remake. As a result, Andy gave up on the project and decided to do 2999 in England.

The film would eventually be made without Carl Andy by EMI Films in 1980, starring Neil Diamond.

Toby sequel (1976-77)
Following the release of Toby, the idea of a sequel that covers the second half of the manga was considered by producers Joseph E. Levine and United Artists. Andy was offered to return to the director's chair with James William Guercio co-producing but both turned it down due to other commitments. chances of a sequel were lessened when Star Wars became a massive hit and Carrie Fisher became an overnight superstar, on top of her and co-star Joey Miyashima getting older. following this, Guercio sold his share in the Tobio rights to Andy who then made a deal with Paramount to produce a TV series based on the IP, and eventually gained the US airing rights to the 1979-82 Anime.

MW (1980-81)
Andy bought the rights to make a feature film based on Osamu Tezuka's manga MW with Warner Bros. producing, in what would have been his second adaptation of Tezuka's work following Toby in 1975. The project was eventually scrapped due to budget concerns and the collapse of the New Hollywood era following Heaven's Gate in 1980.

Everybody Comes to Rick's (1982-84)
Andy had set up a film dramatization on the making of the classic film Casablanca at Warner Bros., titled Everybody Comes to Rick's after the name of the unproduced play that would form the basis of the film. However, he couldn't reach an agreement with MGM/UA, the then-owner of the Pre-1950 WB catalog which included Casablanca. The film was silently cancelled by 1984.

Tapper (1986-88)
Andy (an avid video game player) bought the rights to make a feature film based on the Bally Midway arcade game Tapper (1983) for Warner Bros., Fandango writer and director Kevin Reynolds wrote a screenplay around the game about an aging bartender mentoring a young protoge who teaches him his beer sliding tricks (an ability depicted prominently in the game). the film would have pre-dated 1993's Super Mario Bros. as the first feature-length live action movie based on a specific video game.

When executives at Bally Midway were given the script, they felt the movie was too sentimental and too similar to films like The Big Chill and The Flamingo Kid. there was also concern for possible competion with a similar Bar-themed movie that was in production around the same time, which became the 1988 movie Cocktail. In the end, the movie was scrapped for this reason alone. Ironically over a decade later, Warner Bros. would gain the rights to the Tapper IP following their 2009 aquisition of Midway Games' assets.

Carl Andy's Stories from the Hebrew Bible (1992-93)
In 1992, Following a two year hiatus, Carl Andy had plans to produce a direct-to-video series based on stories from the Hebrew Bible with segments animated by different animation houses with Andy in live-action wraparounds, something of a spiritual succesor to his earlier Toons from Around the World television series. Family Home Entertainment were to distribute the series on VHS. However these plans fell through, in part due to potential budget issues with the individual studios involved. only one installment was produced before the series was scrapped, this remained unseen for 30 years until a former FHE employee uploaded the full video on YouTube in 2022.