The Adventures of Thomas

The Adventures of Thomas was a planned film starring Thomas the Tank Engine. It would have been made by HIT Entertainment along with CGI provided by Weta Digital.

Plot
The plot would have revolved around a boy who discovers the Island of Sodor, a place his father has visited before, but fails to remember. It is also confirmed that it would have a steam engines vs diesel engines conflict.

Why It Was Cancelled

 * 1) The steam vs diesels concept has also been done before in the straight-to-DVD movie Calling All Engines!.
 * 2) It got stuck in the development vault for a long time, first it was set to be released in 2010 during the 65th anniversary of the Railway Series, but then was changed to Spring 2011, then to 2012, then to 2013, and then to 2014. It was postponed so many times.
 * 3) Mattel took over HIT Entertainment (who was working on the movie) in 2013, meaning Mattel may have dropped production for this movie to make room for production of other projects such as Season 17-present and more straight-to-DVD films/specials.

Results

 * The film was permanently cancelled.
 * In 2020, a new theatrical Thomas movie is currently in production with Marc Forster as the director and will be produced by Mattel Films.

Trivia

 * This film would have made toys aimed for older Thomas fans than for generally younger Thomas fans.
 * Much like Thomas and the Magic Railroad, this film would have used live-action sequences, but would have a mix of CGI instead of electric model trains with static clay faces.
 * According to an interview with UCLA Magazine, this movie would have been released in 2013, it is however unknown if this is true or not.
 * According to SiF in 2019, the script was written and completed in 2010.
 * It appeared that the movie would have been distributed by Cinetic Media and UTA's Independent Film Group in conjunction with HiT Entertainment.
 * The plot of this movie is very similar to one of the side-plots in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
 * In early October 2020, Twitter user DiscussingFilm revealed that a live action/CGI film is in the works from Christopher Robin director Marc Forster. It is unknown if the film will be a revive of this film or if it will be a new film entirely.
 * The promotional poster for the movie and teaser do not show Thomas' face, so it is unknown what Thomas' face would have looked like in this movie.
 * The screenplay for the film was completed in 2011.
 * In 2021, pictures of an early CGI model (minus the face) were released, with some note worthy differences (a brass number plate instead of a painted one, a more saturated shade of blue, and the final model had rivets on the valences, running board, side tanks, & a bunker).
 * This would've been the first time Thomas was portrayed as an LB&SCR E2 (outside of some merchandise lines), with a Westinghouse air brake pump & a rear running board dip, which were carried by the real E2s but not by Thomas in the TVS.
 * According to Nitrogen's Production Timeline, character concept art for The Adventures of Thomas was created in 2009.