Films that you personally think, genuinely hurt a director's career

[SymbioticFunction]

Doesn't necessarily mean a 'bad' film at all. I'll start the ball rolling, hopefully others will want to join in and participate. My choice is Neil Marshall's Doomsday from 2008 (although I was tempted to choose Michael Powell's Peeping Tom).

My take on the film - I should have loved Doomsday. The director's first low-budget film was pretty solid (Dog Soldiers) and his second film was truly AMAZING (The Descent which had a couple of nods to Carpenter masterpiece, The Thing).

Then Marshall decided to create an exploitation film that was designed to be a homage to Escape From New York, Mad Max, Excalibur and "infected"/zombie films. Sounded great on paper but viewing the final product just left a really bad taste in my mouth - it was an incredibly disappointing, far too self-indulgent mess of a movie - I saw it as a complete misfire that had badly hurt the director's cinematic career.

Marshall on Doomsday: "I do think it's going to divide audiences... I just want them to be thrilled and enthralled. I want them to be overwhelmed by the imagery they've seen. And go back and see it again." According to imdb, the Doomsday budget was an estimated $30,000,000. Worldwide, Doomsday grossed $22,211,426 according to wikipedia and it received a Rotten Tomato rating of just 49%.

Rodriguez's rather zany Planet Terror from the year before, was a much better example of that kind of film. I downloaded a copy of Marshall's 2008 film so that I could take a fresh look at it. Quality wasn't very good so I bought a cheap blu-ray copy instead - whilst I didn't think it was quite as awful as I had previously thought, I would certainly struggle to describe it as a good film. I won't be keeping it.

Dog Soldiers. 2002. Rotten Tomatoes score: 77%.

The Descent. 2005. Rotten Tomatoes score: 85%.

Doomsday. 2008. Rotten Tomatoes score: 49%.

Centurion. 2010. Rotten Tomatoes score: 59%.

After Doomsday, Marshall then received a much lower budget to make Centurion (which was nothing very special). Those Neil Marshall films were then followed by television work on shows such as Game of Thrones or Constantine.

[chris_sc77]

Gigli sadly apparently killed the career or Martin Brest who made some great films ( midnight run, scent of a woman,etc.)

[Strevlac]

Ryan's Daughter

The Adventures of Baron Muchausen, I guess. Maybe. Gilliam made a few good (and profitable) movies after this one but at the very least I think his career would have been much different had it been a hit. Which there's no chance it ever could have been, imo.

[demonknight]

Joe Dante must have done something awful I don't know about. He had a bunch of moneymaking big budget studio pictures and then, bam, Looney Toons: Back in Action (a dream project of his). Everything since has been super low profile, and his latest sits on the shelf, just like his last one.

It's not even that bad of a movie. Not great, but I found Innerspace and The Hole to be far worse.

[grape_jelly]

After Jersey Girl tanked due to the Bennifer casting decision and the heavy departure from Kevin Smith's earlier work (it's actually a pretty decent flick), Smith became desperate to try and make films with the most mainstream appeal possible. Zack and Miri tanked due to atrocious marketing, and Cop Out was... a poor decision for him not to write his own material.

All three of these films put Smith in a place where he was forced to work with small budgets once again, especially after his directing hiatus, and it seems like the dude's pushing himself harder creatively than ever before. I adore post-Red State Kevin Smith, and can't wait for Yoga Hosiers, Moosejaws, and Clerks 3 to finally come out. I'd pre-order the blu-rays already if I could.

But yeah, Jersey Girl killed his career and Zack and Miri/Cop Out pissed on his directorial corpse. I'm glad to see he's resurrected.

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by grape_jelly

After Jersey Girl tanked due to the Bennifer casting decision and the heavy departure from Kevin Smith's earlier work, Smith became desperate to try and make films with the most mainstream appeal possible. Zack and Miri tanked due to atrocious marketing, and Cop Out was well... a poor decision for him not to write his own material.

All three of these films put Smith in a place where he was forced to work with small budgets once again, especially after his directing hiatus, and it seems like the dude's pushing himself creatively more than ever before. I adore modern Kevin Smith, and can't wait for Yoga Hosiers, Moosejaws, and Clerks 3 to finally come out. I'd pre-order the blu-rays already if I could.

But yeah, Jersey Girl killed his career and Zack and Miri/Cop Out pissed on his directorial corpse. I'm glad to see he's resurrected.

Yeah. He was strong until Jersey Girl. They didn't put him in that place though. Cop Out was financially successful. WB invited him back to direct (but not write) more movies. He declined, did Red State, and said he was going to retire.

That all changed one June day in 2013 when he heard the word walrus and the rest is history.

[Buscemi]

Marshall was actually considered to direct the Boba Fett movie recently (Rian Johnson got the job) so I don't think Doomsday hurt his career (both Doomsday and Centurion came out as the UK film industry was entering a decline and television was simply an easier way to get work).

I have a few:

Neil LaBute: The Wicker Man. Before The Wicker Man, he did several acclaimed independent films. After The Wicker Man, it's mostly been for-hire projects (though Some Velvet Morning might have repaired his career some).

David Slade: Eclipse. This is a bit weird as the movie was quite successful at the box office and had some decent (if not great reviews). And yet, Slade has not directed a film since (mostly working in television). Apparently, Slade criticized the Twilight franchise and many fans of Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night turned their backs on him after agreeing to direct Eclipse.

Cameron Crowe: Almost Famous. Though the movie is considered high quality, it was an expensive film ($60 million budget) with an unknown lead and a genre that was (and still is) box office poison. The film flopped, the lead's career never took off (as the distributor put all the focus on Kate Hudson) and Crowe's career has been mostly down since.

John Frankenheimer: Prophecy. Before Prophecy, Frankenheimer was near-invincible (he even recovered from The Extraordinary Seaman, a much worse film). After that, his career was like an endless rollercoaster: up and down.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

David Slade: Eclipse. This is a bit weird as the movie was quite successful at the box office and some decent (if not great reviews). And yet, Slade has not directed a film since (mostly working in television). Apparently, Slade criticized the Twilight franchise and many fans of Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night turned their backs on him after agreeing to direct Eclipse.

Slade has done some great work on TV's Hannibal.

How about Dreamcatcher? Pretty much killed Lawrence Kasdan's career (I think he's made ONE movie since, and it was barely released).

[grape_jelly]

Originally Posted by demonknight

Yeah. He was strong until Jersey Girl. They didn't put him in that place though. Cop Out was financially successful. WB invited him back to direct (but not write) more movies. He declined, did Red State, and said he was going to retire.

That all changed one June day in 2013 when he heard the word walrus and the rest is history.

I had no idea Cop Out was a theatrical success. Let alone that WB encouraged him to direct further films he didn't write. Talk about playing against someone's strengths.

Did he talk about this on a Smodcast episode or something?

[Buscemi]

Dreamcatcher's a good pick (changing the book's ending really hurt that movie). Meanwhile, Darling Companion might actually be the worst film of Kasdan's career. That film did not help either him or Diane Keaton in their comeback attempts.

And speaking of movies with alien themes:
Joseph Ruben: The Forgotten. The movie did well at the box office and Ruben had a decent track record before it (with films such as The Stepfather, Sleeping with the Enemy and The Good Son) but he didn't direct again until 2013's Penthouse North (which in the US was dumped onto Lifetime in a cut version titled Blindsided).

[Clark Kent]

Many of these films didn't kill their careers, the directors were hanging on for dear life in the first place. No one directs a mostly unknown Stephen King property thinking they are going to make it big again.

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by grape_jelly

I had no idea Cop Out was a theatrical success. Let alone that WB encouraged him to direct further films he didn't write. Talk about playing against someone's strengths.

Did he talk about this on a Smodcast episode or something?

Either in the first, second, or third episode of Hollywood Babble On, he mentions the success. His book, "Tough Sh*t" and the "An Evening With Kevin Smith" I went to filled in the blanks. Many episodes of HBO mention Cop Out in this regard though

[Buscemi]

Actually, Dreamcatcher was reasonably popular when it was released and the movie was anticipated when it opened (besides Kasdan, who had a good track record before it, it had a screenplay by William Goldman and it had the first segment of The Animatrix shown as an added attraction). King himself never really cared for it but it's more well-known as a story than say, Trucks (adapted into Maximum Overdrive) or The Lawnmower Man.

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

Actually, Dreamcatcher was reasonably popular when it was released and the movie was anticipated when it opened (besides Kasdan, who had a good track record before it, it had a screenplay by William Goldman and it had the first segment of The Animatrix shown as an added attraction). King himself never really cared for it but it's more well-known as a story than say, Trucks (adapted into Maximum Overdrive) or The Lawnmower Man.

Maximum Overdrive killed a directing career despite its great ad campaign (with Stephen King just talking about intending to scare you, with the Halloween III soundtrack playing in the background).

[Wireduck1]

'Peeping Tom' didn't help Michael Powell's career or reputation.

[Red Dragon]

Originally Posted by Wireduck1

'Peeping Tom' didn't help Michael Powell's career or reputation.

I had actually come on to post that title myself.

[SymbioticFunction]

Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera from 1998:

Argento's career never really recovered from this estimated $10,000,000 feature that is widely seen as a completely disastrous adaption/remake. Even the majority of his own hardcore fan base seemed to hate it. Whilst the Morricone score is wonderful and the Ronnie Taylor cinematography is impressive, the film contains a rather dreadful performance from Julian Sands as the titular character (viewing it in Italian helps fix that somewhat).

The film is meant to be a gothic romance but the two leads have absolutely no chemistry and it also has black comedy and gore effects added to the mix. An odd combination. It contains some risible moments such as Sands placing live rats down his trousers in some sort of bizarre man/rats sex scene and a giant cgi rat trap is seen floating in the night sky with folks squirming around in it.

Argento would never be able to raise money of this kind ever again and any subsequent projects were distinctly low-budget affairs.

[Wireduck1]

In terms of 'commercial' directing I think we're all glad that 'Dune' failed for David Lynch and that stigma allowed him the freedom to pursue his own idiosyncratic path again.

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

Marshall was actually considered to direct the Boba Fett movie recently (Rian Johnson got the job) so I don't think Doomsday hurt his career (both Doomsday and Centurion came out as the UK film industry was entering a decline and television was simply an easier way to get work).

I have a few:

Neil LaBute: The Wicker Man. Before The Wicker Man, he did several acclaimed independent films. After The Wicker Man, it's mostly been for-hire projects (though Some Velvet Morning might have repaired his career some).

David Slade: Eclipse. This is a bit weird as the movie was quite successful at the box office and had some decent (if not great reviews). And yet, Slade has not directed a film since (mostly working in television). Apparently, Slade criticized the Twilight franchise and many fans of Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night turned their backs on him after agreeing to direct Eclipse.

Cameron Crowe: Almost Famous. Though the movie is considered high quality, it was an expensive film ($60 million budget) with an unknown lead and a genre that was (and still is) box office poison. The film flopped, the lead's career never took off (as the distributor put all the focus on Kate Hudson) and Crowe's career has been mostly down since.

John Frankenheimer: Prophecy. Before Prophecy, Frankenheimer was near-invincible (he even recovered from The Extraordinary Seaman, a much worse film). After that, his career was like an endless rollercoaster: up and down.

Rian Johnson is directing and writing episode 8, with an option for 9. Not boba Fett.

[Monterey Jack]

Mission To Mars killed Brian De Palma's Hollywood career stone dead...all of his movies since then have been financed with European dollars (and only The Black Dahlia received any sort of wide release in the States, and was eviscerated by critics). He hasn't made a commercially-successful movie since Mission: Impossible almost twenty years ago.