During his long career, American actor and filmmaker Orson Welles had worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage or were not completed satisfactorily during production. Welles's reliance on self-production meant that many of his later projects were filmed piecemeal or were not completed. Welles financed his later projects through his own fundraising activities. He often also took on other work to obtain money to fund his own films.

1930s Too Much Johnson

Too Much Johnson is a 1938 comedy film written and directed by Welles. Designed as the cinematic aspect of Welles's Mercury Theatre stage presentation of William Gillette's 1894 comedy, the film was not completely edited or publicly screened. Too Much Johnson was considered a lost film until August 2013, with news reports that a pristine print had been discovered in Italy in 2008. A copy restored by the George Eastman House museum was scheduled to premiere October 9, 2013, at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, with a U.S. premiere to follow. The film was shown at a single screening at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on May 3, 2014. A single performance of Too Much Johnson, on February 2, 2015, at the Film Forum in New York City, was a great success. Produced by Bruce Goldstein and adapted and directed by Allen Lewis Rickman, it featured the Film Forum Players with live piano.

Heart of Darkness In 1939, Welles intended to make his feature directorial debut with a film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for RKO Pictures. It was planned in extreme detail and some test shots were filmed. The footage is now lost. It was planned to be entirely shot in long takes from the point of view of the narrator, Marlow, who would be played by Welles. His reflection would occasionally be seen in the window as his boat sailed down river. The project was abandoned because it could not be delivered on budget, and Citizen Kane (1941) was made instead.

The Smiler with the Knife After Heart of Darkness fell through, Welles quickly turned to an adaptation of Nicholas Blake's thriller The Smiler with the Knife. However, due to problems with casting the central role and established stars being uncertain about working with the inexperienced Welles, the film was never made. Welles suggested Lucille Ball but RKO turned the idea down.

1940s Santa In 1941, Welles planned a film with his then partner, the Mexican actress Dolores del Río. Santa was adapted from the novel by Mexican writer Federico Gamboa. The film would have marked the debut of del Río in the Mexican cinema. Welles made a correction of the script in 13 extraordinary sequences. The high salary demanded by del Río stopped the project. In 1943, the film was finally completed with the settings of Welles, led by Norman Foster and starring Mexican actress Esther Fernández.Ramón (1997), vol. 1, p. 59

Mexican Melodrama Welles wrote an unproduced screenplay titled Mexican Melodrama, which was to have been a film adaptation based on Arthur Calder-Marshall's The Way to Santiago. Dolores del Río would have starred in the film as Elena Medina, "the most beautiful girl in the world," with Welles playing an American who becomes entangled in a mission to disrupt a Nazi plot to overthrow the Mexican government. Welles planned to shoot in Mexico City in 1941, but the Mexican government had to approve the story, and this never occurred.page 10

The Life of Christ In 1941, Welles received the support of Bishop Fulton Sheen for a retelling of the life of Christ, to be set in the American West in the 1890s. After filming of Citizen Kane was complete,Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich, This is Orson Welles. HarperAudio, September 30, 1992. Audiotape 1A 13:07–14:46. Welles, Perry Ferguson, and Gregg Toland scouted locations in Baja California and Mexico. Welles wrote a screenplay with dialogue from the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. "Every word in the film was to be from the Bible—no original dialogue, but done as a sort of American primitive," Welles said, "set in the frontier country in the last century." The unrealized project was revisited by Welles in the 1950s, when he wrote a second unfilmed screenplay, to be shot in Egypt.page 38

It's All True

Welles did not originally want to direct It's All True, a 1942 documentary about South America, but after its abandonment by RKO, he spent much of the 1940s attempting to buy the negative of his material from RKO, so that he could edit and release it in some form. The footage remained unseen in vaults for decades and was assumed lost. Over 50 years later, some (but not all) of the surviving material saw release in the 1993 documentary It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles.

Lady Killer In 1941, Welles intended to write and direct a "dramatized documentary", provisionally entitled Lady Killer, based on the story of French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. He pitched the idea to Charlie Chaplin, who initially agreed to star in it, but later changed his mind. Instead, Chaplin bought the film rights and turned Welles' story into Monsieur Verdoux (1947). The final film credits Chaplin with the script, "based on an idea by Orson Welles."

War and Peace In 1941, producer Alexander Korda announced interest in adapting Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace for the screen, with Welles directing and Merle Oberon starring. The film was to be made in cooperation with the Soviet government. Agnes Moorehead and her husband Jack Lee were also set to star in the production, with Lillian Hellman writing the screenplay, but it was never realized.

The Pickwick Papers According to Welles biographer Frank Brady, Welles suggested doing a film version of Charles Dickens' classic novel The Pickwick Papers with W. C. Fields as Pickwick and John Barrymore also in the cast. When later asked about the project however, Welles had no recollection.

The Little Prince In 1943, Welles tried to make a live action film with some animation of The Little Prince, and even wrote a screenplay for it. However, a meeting with Walt Disney left him storming out on Welles, saying "There's only room in this project for one genius."

Salome In 1946, it was reported that Welles would direct a screen version of Oscar Wilde's play Salome for Alexander Korda in England, to star Paulette Goddard. A script was worked on during filming of The Lady from Shanghai. A framing story was also added to the story in which Welles was to play Wilde. Production was set for the beginning of 1947, but The Lady from Shanghai overran its shooting and the contract became void.

Around the World in Eighty Days After Welles's elaborate musical stage version of this Jules Verne novel, encompassing 38 different sets, went live in 1946, Welles shot some test footage in Morocco in 1947 for a film version. The footage was never edited, funding never came through, and Welles abandoned the project. Nine years later, the stage show's producer Mike Todd made his own award-winning film version of the book.

Evidence In 1947, Welles purchased the film rights to Isaac Asimov's science fiction short story "Evidence" for $250, with the intention to direct. Asimov thought that he would become famous from a film based on the story, but Welles never used the script.

Cyrano de Bergerac Welles spent around nine months around 1947–48 co-writing the screenplay for an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac along with Ben Hecht, a project Welles was assigned to direct for Alexander Korda. He began scouting for locations in Europe whilst filming Black Magic, but Korda was short of money, so sold the rights to Columbia Pictures, who eventually dismissed Welles from the project, and then sold the rights to United Artists, who in turn made a film version in 1950, which was not based on Welles's script.page 219page 237

Portrait of an Assassin

Welles worked on the script of Portrait of an Assassin with Charles Lederer, initially for Erich von Stroheim to direct, which ultimately was not used. According to Welles, he clashed with the film's producers, "They didn't use one word we wrote. But they used the story." Furthermore, he and Lederer received payment from "a black market producer who came to the Lancaster hotel with the money wrapped in newspaper."

1950s Caesar At around the same time M-G-M was working on its film adaptation of Julius Caesar, Welles had been planning a modern dress version of the play, with financing from Egypt's King Farouk. Welles initially wanted to cast Richard Burton for the role of Brutus. Later, in 1967, he intended to send a copy of his synopsis for the planned adaptation of Julius Caesar to Romaniafilm. However, he clarified to his agent that production would need to be delayed due to "casting troubles." Welles' script, called Caesar, is part of the Beatrice Welles archive at the University of Michigan.

The Loves of d'Annunzio and Duse In 1952, Welles wrote this screenplay for Greta Garbo (to play Eleonora Duse) and Charlie Chaplin (to play Gabriele D'Annunzio) and described the project as a story about "two crazy monsters in a state of degenerate hyper-romanticism, with a ridiculous and theatrical passion." However, the film was not produced because neither Garbo nor Chaplin wanted to do it.

Paris by Night In 1953, it was reported that Welles would direct Paris by Night for Alexander Korda in England and France. This was a portmanteau film which was to include an episode based on Karen Blixen's short story "The Old Chevalier".

"The Tragedy of Lurs" Welles had worked on a seventh episode of his travelogue series Around the World with Orson Welles entitled "The Tragedy of Lurs," which was not completed. The documentary was based on the controversial Dominici murder case in France, and contained interviews with many of the principals shortly after the trial. A version of the film, using Welles's footage and additional sound, was constructed by French filmmaker Christophe Cognet and integrated into his 52-minute documentary titled The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles (2000).

Moby Dick–Rehearsed

Moby Dick—Rehearsed was a film version of Welles's 1955 London meta-play, starring Gordon Jackson, Christopher Lee, Patrick McGoohan, and with Welles as Ahab. Using bare, minimalist sets, Welles alternated between a cast of nineteenth-century actors rehearsing a production of Moby Dick, with scenes from Moby Dick itself. Kenneth Williams, a cast member who was apprehensive about the entire project, recorded in his autobiography that Welles's dim, atmospheric stage lighting made some of the footage so dark as to be unwatchable. The entire play was filmed but is now presumed lost. This was made during one weekend at the Hackney Empire theater.

Tip on a Dead Jockey

Originally slated to be produced in 1955, Tip on a Dead Jockey first had Welles signed as director, though he would be replaced by Richard Thorpe.

Don Quixote