# David Ayer's unrealized projects

The following is a list of unproduced David Ayer projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American filmmaker David Ayer has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.

## Unrealized projects
### The Wild Bunch remake

On November 4, 2005, it was announced Ayer was set to write and direct a modern-day remake of The Wild Bunch for Warner Bros. Pictures, with Jerry Weintraub and Mark Vahradian producing, but the film never materalized. Ayer had written his own script, "updating the tale", according to Film Review.

### Cash Truck remake

On October 9, 2008, Ayer was hired to co-write with Andrew Kevin Walker Armored, the American remake of the 2004 French thriller Cash Truck, for F. Gary Gray to direct, with Eric Bana in talks to star, Millennium Films producing, and Paramount Pictures distributing. The film would eventually be directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie and released as Wrath of Man, starring Jason Statham and produced by Miramax.

### Deep Sea Cowboys film

On February 13, 2009, Ayer was set to write the feature film adaptation of the Wired article "Deep Sea Cowboys," about a deep-sea salvage crew, for DreamWorks Pictures, with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci producing through their K/O Paper Products company; the film was retained by DreamWorks when it split from Paramount Pictures and was expected to be released through Disney's Touchstone Pictures label, but Paramount retained an option to co-finance and co-distribute the film.

### Last Man

On March 9, 2009, Ayer was set to write and direct the science fiction action film Last Man for New Regency and 20th Century Fox, with Erwin Stoff, Scott Stuber, and Pamela Abdy set to produce.

### Commando reboot

On April 28, 2010, Ayer was set to direct and write a reboot of Commando with Erwin Stoff and John Davis producing for 20th Century Fox.

### Scarface remake

On May 19, 2017, Ayer was set to direct a remake of Scarface for Universal Pictures from a screenplay by Jon Herman and the Coen Brothers, with Diego Luna set to star and Dylan Clark producing. On July 12, 2017, Ayer left the project.

### Family Crimes TV series

On November 15, 2017, Ayer was set to direct and write Latina crime drama series Family Crimes for Starz; Ayer would also executive produce the series alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, and KristieAnne Reed. On April 27, 2018, Starz passed on the series.

### The Bone Church TV series

On February 23, 2018, Ayer was set to executive produce a television series adaptation of Stephen King's poem "The Bone Church", with Chris Long producing with Ayer.

### Sons and Soldiers TV series

On October 19, 2018, Ayer was set to produce the television series adaptation of Bruce Anderson's World War 2 novel "Sons and Soldiers," with Ayer directing the pilot episode, Eric Tuchman writing the series and Entertainment One set to produce and distribute the series.

### El-Alamein film

On August 8, 2019, Ayer was set to direct a war film about the Second Battle of El Alamein for Lionsgate Films, with James Coyne writing the screenplay, Di Bonaventura Pictures' Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian producing with Thomas Augsberger; filming was planned to begin in early 2020.

### The Dirty Dozen reboot

On December 16, 2019, it was announced that Ayer would direct and write a contemporary-set reboot of The Dirty Dozen as a co-production with Simon Kinberg's Genre Films and Warner Bros. Pictures; the film was set to be fast-tracked for production in 2020.

### Six Years film

On May 26, 2020, it was announced Ayer would write and direct a feature film adaptation of Harlan Coben's novel Six Years for Netflix, with Ayer also set to produce the film with his Cedar Point Entertainment partner Chris Long.

### End of Watch TV series

On February 10, 2022, Ayer was set to executive produce and co-write a pilot for a television adaptation of his film End of Watch for Fox.