Game in the Sand (lost Werner Herzog short film; 1964)

In 1964, a short film titled Game in the Sand was produced by renowned German director Werner Herzog. At 14 minutes in length, the short was never released due to its apparently graphic nature. While Herzog has never come clean in terms of exactly what happened during the shooting of Game in the Sand, it is said to be a documentary of sorts involving four children and a rooster, the latter of which is said to have been buried up to its neck in sand at one point.

Herzog has stated that only three or four people have ever seen in and that he has contemplated destroying the negative before he dies, due to, as he put it, the shoot was "moving out of control". Herzog, who is not unfamiliar with violent or otherwise controversial on-set incidents (during the shooting of his 1970 effort Even Dwarfs, for example, an actor was accidentally set alight and run over by a truck, though miraculously, was not fatally injured) has never directly stated that the children proceeded to kill the rooster, though it is largely assumed, based on Herzog's body of work, that whatever happened to the rooster must have been pretty graphic and/or disturbing to warrant completely barring it from any kind of release.

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Werner Herzog in 2007.

Game in the Sand is an unreleased, documentary short film that was created in 1964 by German director Werner Herzog. The 14 minute black-and-white short was his second directorial effort, and is said to involve 4 children, and a rooster in a cardboard box. The rooster is, at one point, buried up to its neck in sand. No other details of the plot have been released.

Werner Herzog has stated that the during the shoot things "got out of hand", causing him to abandon the project (he did, however, finish the film), although he has never elaborated on the circumstances. It is assumed (but not confirmed) by many that the rooster was killed. He has likened the shoot to that of his 1970 film Even Dwarfs Started Small, in which an actor was accidentally set on fire and run over by a truck (although he was miraculously uninjured), piglets were seen suckling their dead mother, and chickens were seen engaging in cannibalism. Despite these controversial on-set incidents, Even Dwarfs was released on schedule. Whatever "got out of hand" during the shooting of Game in the Sand would, assumingly, have had to be worse than any of the controversial incidents that took place during the shooting of Even Dwarfs to warrant it being totally abandoned and barred from release.

Not much more is known about the development of the film besides the facts that Uwe Brandner did the music, and Jaime Pacheco did the cinematography. Game in the Sand has never been publicly shown or released in any form. Herzog has said himself that only 3 or 4 people have ever seen it, and that he will never release it in his lifetime; he has even suggested that he may destroy the negative before he dies.