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William S. Wilson: First and foremost I'd say Charles Band’s two companies, Empire Pictures and Full Moon Entertainment. The ratio was 5:1 in what they advertised versus what actually got made. Charles Band always says their strategy was basically to 'throw a bunch of stuff out there and see what garners interest'. Cannon Films were a close second.

The process definitely still occurs today. I can name countless unmade projects from the last five years. Hollywood producers – both big and small – will always look for a reason not to spend their money and waste a filmmaker's time. What you do see a little bit less of today, are the attempts to advertise something before it is made.
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Yes, there’s this story about how Cannon went to Cannes with a Charles Bronson film for presale, and all they had was the title 10 To Midnight. No script, just the title and Charles Bronson. In fact, Cannon first billed it as a film about him fighting terrorism, but the final movie was Bronson as a cop taking on a serial killer. You gotta love that.

The story was pretty much that an apartment building needed to keep "feeding" on human blood and flesh to keep itself alive. As far as stars and locations, I don’t think they ever got that far. But since it was late 80s Romero, chances are he probably would have shot it in Pittsburgh. I found a Variety quote from a 1987 issue: "Apartment Living is a science fiction horror movie about an apartment that is actually alive and traps a young couple inside. Romero has done extensive preproduction on the subject and has tested special effects, but actual production has been postponed until October."

Yeah, they are definitely close. I’d argue that back in the day – when porn was shot on film – they were even closer. So was anyone from the low-budget unmade movie era getting involved in porn?
Sure, plenty of people started in porn and have gone on to great mainstream success. Folks like William Lustig, Wes Craven, Sean Cunningham, Roberta Findlay – all got their start in the adult industry. But the ability to transition from that genre to more mainstream fare was easier back then. Cool. Thanks William! Check out William S. Wilson and his co-writer, Thomas T. Simmons' excellent movie blog here.
