But what became of the films?

By the end of the 1990s, the screenwriting career of Joe Eszterhas was in sharp decline.

Furthermore, projects that were previously live and kicking were being swept under the carpet.

But for a long while, Joe Eszterhas was that rarest of things: a genuine Hollywood writing superstar.

Some youll have heard of, but Id wager there are a few you havent.

Just wait until you get toSacred Cows.

He got $275,000 to pen the originalFlashdance.Jagged Edge?

The plan was to try and get them to outbid each other, to drive the price up.

The auction started at 10 one morning.

By noon, as Eszterhas tells in his book, we had offers up to $2 million.

The eventual winning bid?

A New Era Dawns In Hollywood read the subsequentVarietyheadline.

And it wasnt kidding.

What further fuelled the spec script boom of the 1990s was thatBasic Instinctbecame such a gigantic success.

However, the consensus seems to be the numbers above.

in about a sentences time, itll become clear why it never got made.

The central narrative was centred around a photograph of the storys current (fictional!)

president of the United States, having sexual relations with, well, a cow.

It thus didnt make it.

For the purposes of legal clarity, Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with a cow.

Another feeding frenzy for the rights to it was initially expected.

However, the project stalled, and it wasnt until 1995 that it picked up fresh life.

Evans and Eszterhas didnt really see eye to eye on the project.

According to the writer, Evans declared this movie is all about pussy.

Ive watched the film twice, and theres barely a kitten in it.

Eszterhas original words didnt fully make the final cut.

Paramount, against director Phillip Noyces wishes, asked for changes, which he reluctantly made.

The film ultimately fizzled.

He put some of that knowledge into a movie pitch by the name ofReliable Sources.

It centred on a 22-year old reporter whose actions covering a story leads to someone losing their life.

Whats more, it was the second time he sold it.

But get the rights he did, andJadewas sold to the-then new head of Paramount Pictures, Sherry Lansing.

I stared in disbelief, Eszterhas wrote when seeing the film for the first time.

I watched entire plot points and scenes and red herrings that werent in my script.

I heard dialogue that not only wasnt mine but was terrible to boot.

He described the movie as awful and critics would duly agree.

By this stage, Eszterhas was Hollywoods highest paid and highest profile screenwriter.

), and it hired Mike Figgis to make the final film.

One thing you wont find, though, is Eszterhas name anywhere on the credits.

I took my name off when the director… made my script unrecognisable to me.

Took my name off after New Line had paid me $4m for the script.

New Line had certainly changed the project, that its author initially described as 90% dialogue.

It brought in just $2.6m.

It is that explosive male rage which this script taps into.

But you cant tap into something by removing the something' he wrote.

Lansing would take Illsley off the film, but it would be destined to remain unproduced.

In the case ofForeplay, this was a spec script that he came up with about serial killers.

He set it in Florida, and described it as a spooky, dark comedy.

It was, bluntly, a movie star deal.

But it was never made.

Although it didnt quite turn out that way.

And Columbia put together some script notes, and sent them back to the writer.

Which he pretty much ignored.

The project stalled, and was ultimately never made.

It was a story about a bar owner who did battle with the IRS in the States.

Sidney Poitier at one stage was mooted to direct.

However, the project appeared to eventually peter out.