Movies That Wrecked Directors' Careers

movie Joe is where all the directors that had once promising careers end up when they make the one mistake movie studios hate the most lose money it's the one place no director wants to end up in but as budgets get wildly expensive and few movies get made it's more likely that that's where directors will inevitably end up it's even claimed some of the brightest stars of Hollywood derailing their careers for years if not forever when Daman chazelle arrived on the scene he was something of a Hollywood wonderkid here was a guy not even 30 yet and he had already directed Whiplash considered to be one of the best movies of the 21st century so far even better the movie was a surprising Commercial Success making 49 million on a tiny $3.3 million budget then just 2 years later he made history with 2016's La La Land the Musical made $447 million on a $30 million budget and similar to whiplash is also considered one of the best movies of the 21st century more important for chazelle though it made him at 32 the youngest director to win the Academy Award for best director for context the previous record was set by Norman toog for 1931's Skippy when he was also 32 in his early 30s chazelle had two critical and Commercial successes on his hand and was the next big thing then it all started to go wrong very very wrong first came 2018s first man a biopic about Neil Armstrong the movie had great reviews and is a good movie about an interesting stoic man but it did not succeed at the box office okay so one movie that underperformed not a big deal but what was a big deal was that his next movie was not only the most expensive movie that he done but an unqualified box office disaster this was 2022 is Babylon and epic about Hollywood's transition from solent films to talkis in the late 1920s Babylon had a a lot of things going against it for one it was a very polarizing movie for two it was a very long movie at 3 hours and 9 Minutes theaters don't like 3-hour plus long movies because they end up taking valuable screen real estate for long periods of time and they especially don't like it when the movie that Babylon was trying to compete with was James Cameron's Avatar the way of water the now third highest grossing movie of all time and perhaps the most anticipated movie of 2022 sure it featured Margo Robbie but this was pre- Barbie and Robbie was just coming off another movie bomb Amsterdam directed by David O Russell it did not stand a chance against the Juggernaut that was Avatar the way of water so you won't be surprised to learn that it collapsed under its own weight pulling in a rough 63.4 million on a budget of as much as 80 million movies need to make at least 2 and 1 half times their budget to break even so Babylon would have needed to make 200 million to break even that didn't happen Babylon wasn't the only casualty though Damon chazelle's bright star dimmed alongside the movie he landed in what we call movie jail the place where those that commit the cardinal sin losing a bunch of money for movie studio go in order to reflect on their mistakes and build up their trust so they can get another large budget again of course the executives that Greenlight these movies don't go to as often but that's for another video rather in this video I want to look at three main things the first is how directors end up Landing in movie Joo the second is other directors that have been or are in the same position as shazel and what happened to them including if and how they got out and the third is how Hollywood can change to ensure things like this don't happen because they're kind of shooting themselves in the foot and those changes will need to happen on both sides of the aisle movie Joe is not a difficult concept to grasp it basically means that if you lose these Studios money on a film that film might be the last one that you do either forever or for a long long time if you're lucky enough to continue making movies your budget will be a lot smaller you'll be on a much tighter leash and producers will probably be keeping tabs on every penny the more interesting question is why it exists at all and the impact it can have on a director's career and person as movies have gotten more expensive and as fewer of them are being made coupled with the pandemic and the recent strikes film creatives are standing on a knife's edge if they lean too much to one side and fall off that edge they could very quickly find themselves out of a job a movie doesn't even have too bomb underperformance might be enough to land you in hot water with Studios part of the reason movie Gill exists at all is because of the overall business landscape most major Studios at this point such as Paramount which produced Babylon are either public companies themselves or part of public companies that means they have investors and Wall Street breathing down their necks about showing improvements on a quarter over quarter basis when a movie bombs or underperforms you should think of it as an investment underperforming or Worse getting wiped out Hollywood has always had a pushpull relationship between the creative side and the business side and it's shifted over the decades in the late 60s to 70s were the UR driven era where the director was the star of the film but a bomb by Michael chimino one of the directors we'll be talking about in a minute led to the end of that era and the ascent of the studio the80s lean more to the business side which makes sense as Blockbusters were a new thing Star Wars had shown that toys and merchandise were billion dollar businesses and there was an overall period of consolidation ushered in by the deregulation prompted by Ronald Reagan the '90s shifted yet again the creatives had more power thanks to movies being cheaper to make and more revenue streams such as home distribution there's a reason that the '90s were a decade of independent cinema then we got into the 2000s the internet would turn everyone into a Critic so movies had to walk a tight that also meant that they became more homogenized Studios would take fewer risks and find comfort in Nostalgia driven sequels remakes and reboots some of which were successful many of which were not the rise of streaming made them more reliant on safe bets that were sure to be hits with audiences most notably with the MCU which dominated most of the 2010s in fact of the top 50 highest grossing films of the 20110 only a few were original one issue with this environment of safety was that creative risk is not only look down on but can actively end careers in February of 2024 chazelle was on the talking pictures podcast and was not only cognizant of but reflective on his career after Babylon in his words quote I have no Illusions I won't get a budget of Babylon size anytime soon or at least not on this next one end quote the fact that he did get a next one at all is a miracle unto itself though considering his overall track record it should be warranted shazel is a great director and has a lot left in him but the boond doggo that was Babylon left something of a metal scar on Damian chazelle he had mentioned being in a quote trepidatious sort of Mind end quote and that he quote learned the hard way way that there will be some fundamental part of me that's anxious no matter what whether the previous one worked or didn't end quote some people have a notion that once you get knocked down you'll get back up like nothing happened at all in real life that's not how it works after you've been knocked down part of that will stay with you and you will understandably become nervous that's what happened to chazelle who also said that while you try not to let it get to you you can't help but let it get to you the pressure is further increased by the tractions in the industry which might be the biggest contributing factor that is there are fewer movies being made both big budget and mid-budget the latter is an especially painful loss because traditionally it served as a training ground and Proving Ground for directors you would usually make an indie film and if it found success you would get a slightly higher budget and make a mid-budget film and if that found success you would get a shot at a big budget film Chad stahelski Damen chazelle Greta gwi and Ryan cougler all followed this path to varying degrees but the future landscape has moved almost entirely toward intellectual property-driven features and those often come with producers that micromanage these movies the biggest offender is probably Marvel and others have done great videos on the homogeneity in Marvel movies you need not look further than how the movie is marketed it's always Marvel Studios presents so and so and not Ryan cougler presents Black Panther or John Ferro presents Iron Man the studio that is the franchise the intellectual property replace the movie star and the director as the star for most of the last decade and a half of movies studios are also getting more stringent with their purse strengths and who they hire for a job Mia galupo writing for The Hollywood Reporter wrote a piece about the state of director hiring in the industry she noted that non-writing directors or directors for hire that direct movies that other people have written are having a harder time getting job jobs and that directors that come up in the festival circuit with a few movies are also finding it difficult to break in in her words quote new Talent must deliver multiple successful projects in a row sand slip UPS before being afforded the grace albeit only so much to fill at the studio level end quote the studio of course has its own needs it needs people that can deliver movies quote on time on budget and on brand end quote basically they need more Ridley Scots and fewer Stanley kubric granted Scott had a recent failure in Napoleon but he built a multi-decade reputation for making movies that were often finished on or before time and on or under budget kubri meanwhile would take all the time and money he wanted to make a movie but no one would question it because it was Stanley kubric and he gave the man whatever time and budget he damn well pleased right now Studios prefer the Scott model the Outlook isn't much different or better on the streaming side there unless you're already a well-known theatrical director like David Fincher Zack Snider Ryan Johnson or Martin scorsi you're unlikely to see a boost in prospects from streaming I was thinking about all the movies I had seen on Netflix Apple TV plus Amazon Prime and elsewhere and it hit me that I don't really know any of the directors that make these direct two streaming movies I know the brand Netflix Apple TV Etc but that's it I don't know who directed 365 days or squel and I don't know who directed The kissing booth movies it's telling that the most successful Netflix originals are all by directors that already made their bones in the industry there aren't any homegrown successes in Mia goo's article on director jail one of the people that she asked questions of was even more blunt saying quote no one cares if your movie did well on streaming end quote it makes sense in a way film is a Cutthroat industry full of ambitious people and Theatrical is still the way to make one's name in the industry over the decades several other directors found themselves in the exact same position as Damon chazelle it's actually kind of wild how similar their stories are they were often young men who arrived on the scene with either a critical or financial bang their first or second features did very well and they were able to earn more creative and Financial Freedom from the studios but often this creative and Financial Freedom would end up being their downfall they took massive Liberties sometimes taking a couple of Miles when they were just given an inch often to disastrous results some of them would get other chances but for many their stories were effectively over perhaps the most famous case of movie Gill happened with Michael chimino his first movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was a solid critical and Commercial Success based on its $4 million budget but it was his next movie the deer hunter that really took Hollywood by storm considered one of the best movies ever made the film on critical Acclaim was a modest box office success and one five of the nine Academy Awards it was nominated for including best picture and Best Director so for his next movie chimino got a massive budget for the time and full creative control he was given an inch and decided he would take as many miles as he could and he did just that heaven gate was a disastrous bomb grossing just $3.5 million on its insane $44 million budget it was called one of the worst movies ever made and according to some contributed to the fall of United Artists and creative control back in the hands of the studios who didn't want another instance like it ever again chimino let the success of the deer hunter get to his head and it screwed him in the end the original budget was much more modest around 11 million but the costs just kept going up and up now granted that happens from time to time Seven Samurai directed by air carawa also had costs go up and up but Michael chimino was no Aira Kurosawa he was something of a dictator on set and was obsessive to the point of Ridiculousness with some of his shots the most amusing story is that he once held a production so a particular Cloud was in frame before rolling the cameras tamino's next movie was Year of the Dragon another flop that came 5 years after Heaven's Gate none of his movies after the deer hunter would do well and his last movie was 1996's the sunchaser which made $2,583 million it was the last movie that he would ever do ight sham is another example though he eventually worked his way out of movie jail he was held as the next Spielberg around the time that the Sixth Sense came out and it's easy to see why like chazelle Shyamalan had a massive hit at 29 and his next several movies unbreakable SS and the village were similar successes he took a bit of a dip with the lady in the water but was back on top with the happening but then came the two missteps that would derail his career the last air bender and After Earth the last ear Bender was critically paned but still managed to double its budget so he got another chance but after Earth was not just critically panned but failed to even double its budget meaning it probably lost money considering the outsized impact of rotten tomatoes and considering both of these movies lackluster scores shamalan was relegated to movie jail he couldn't get a budget for any more movies so in order to get himself out of movie jail he had to risk it all admirably shaan took out a loan against his house and self-funded his next movie 2015's the visit made on a budget of $5 million the movie made almost A1 million at the box office 2016 split was similar a self-funded venture to the tune of 9 million which made close to 279 million at the box office when he was sent to movie Joe Shyamalan didn't depend on the studios to bring him back he decided to turn away from big budget boondoggles and returned to his roots weird small movies that could have an outsized turn at the box office he broke out of movie jail by himself and in that regard is one of the few to do so Josh Tran however is on the other far more depressing side of the spectrum the saddest thing about Tran is that there's not much to say because he wasn't able to do much before his career collapsed in part thanks to one movie he arrived on the scene at the tender age of 28 with 2012's Chronicle a $15 million superhero movie that made a solid 127 million at the Box office and got good reviews but suddenly producer 20th Century Fox for some reason decided to take a massive risk on Tran giving him the Reigns to 2015's Fantastic Four Tran jumped from a modest $15 million budget to a $120 million budget that swelled to 155 million one would assume that with great power would also come great responsibility but that was not the case for trink fantastic Force production was a mess Tran and his producers at Fox buted heads which will led to Fox changing the film without Tran's permission while it's likely we'll never know the true story of what happened one thing is clear at a certain point Tran was removed as a director and all but name and would later go on to disavow the film entirely saying that his version is not the version that we see and whether or not reports of his erratic Behavior were true or not it led to Lost opportunities Tran was selected to helm a standalone Boba Fett movie but after the reports about The disastrous production A Fantastic Four he was fired from that role his most recent movie was 2020s Capone a movie about Al Capone whose relies unfortunately coincided with the height of the pandemic it wasn't able to perform at the box office and did not perform well with critics either he's still a young guy so I'm hoping that he's able to make a comeback Chronicle was an interesting film and he has a biopic about Theodore Rosevelt in development alas there's been nothing for 4 years which might as well be forever in Hollywood Patty Jenkins has had arguably the most undeserved stint in movie jaill she was just 32 when she came out with monster a wildly successful movie about serial killer alien warn notes that start Charlie's theren it had a tiny budget of 1 a.2 million and made 64.2 million at the box office was a critical success and even won theen an Academy Award but then for whatever reason nothing no movie for 14 years despite attempts to get one made and I'd say more than enough skill to deliver the goods she would work in TV for that time until finally she was able to helm Wonder Woman one of the few DC movies that actually made money Wonder Woman was a critical and Commercial Success Wonder Woman 1984 unfortunately had its release pushed back multiple times and had a simultaneous release on HBO Max which negatively impacted its box office prospects Jenkins however served her undeserved time in movie jail and doesn't seem likely to go back anytime soon some directors end up in movie jail because they are for lack of a better word disturbing there's BR singer who made movies like The Usual Suspects the X-Men movies and Bohemian rapity but hasn't had a project since 2019 Stark Phoenix a critical and Commercial flop whose Ries coincided with sexual abuse allegations the same with Brett Ratner who directed The Rush Hour Trilogy and 2014's Hercules but stopped producing movies around 2017 because of again sexual assault allegations John McAn who directed perennial action favorites such as predator and die hard didn't so much go to movie jail as he did actual jail after being one of the most in demand directors of the late 80s and 90s he hired a private investigator Anthony Pano to illegally wir the phones of two people then perjured himself about it and spent a year in prison his last movie was 2003's basic after which his star pretty much imploded now getting out of movie joil is obviously a lot harder than getting in M shamalan Petty Jenkins and Damian shazel really represent the three ways of doing it m shamalan route is the simplest but also the riskiest instead of relying on Studios to provide the money necessary he provided it himself he took a risk and it paid off but it just as easily could have failed his name had been dragged through the mud by the time of the visit and I'm sure he was as surprised as anyone when the movie ended up being a success eventually after several more years and several more self-funded theatrical successes he was able to to land a successful show on Apple TV plus and he reliably puts out a movie every two or so years Petty Jenkins after her first feature success tried to get others made but all of those deals would fall through so she went the TV route and made a name for herself there eventually she was able to get onto a project that interested her and a studio Warner Brothers and got one woman done of course that also took more than a decade to accomplish so this isn't a quick route and just as likely nothing might come of it Damian shazel route is a bit more complicated he's been able to rely on the successful past with only one notable failure and that's Babylon he still wants to make movies so he'll likely have to make some concessions the first is that for his next movie with Paramount Pictures he'll direct write and produce at a smaller budget than what he had for Babylon the second is that he'll probably have more oversight than he'd like from the studio but it represents a chance to get back into the studios and audiences good graces everyone loves a comeback story and if there's one something that Hollywood loves it's Nostalgia his next movie is slated for release in 2025 almost a decade since his historic Academy Award win if that's not a great comeback I don't know what is it's never been easier to end up in movie jail and I think Studios and creatives need to figure out a happy medium that works for both of them creatives need to understand that they must mix art with Commerce otherwise unless they're Stanley kubri or Paul Thomas Anderson or yoro elanos no one will want to give them the budget necessary to make a movie likewise Studios need to understand that a one strike and your out model is not a table model if they don't nurture Talent they'll be shooting themselves in the long run if directors were only ever judged on their first movie no one would be able to be a director since those movies almost always lose money Studios need a more tenable track that guides directors from independent to big budget film as was the case for Chad stahelski Greta Gerwig Ryan cougler and Daman shazel they all went from small budget movies to mid-budget movies to big budget movies the only difference between them is that chazelle had something of a stumble with Babylon he got a bit too ambitious and it backfired on him but I think overall Studios need to be a bit more forgiving of missteps shazel had far more hits than misses after all the sticking point is the budgets which need to come down in general as the current model seems unsustainable relying on brand name Studios like Marvel or DC or Disney to drive hits is unreliable as in the end they're faithless and not personable they're institutions yes but institutions can crumble film has always been about personalities people you can get behind or root for no one wants to root for a company but they will root for Christopher Nolan or gr gerwick or denal n Oppenheimer Barbie and arrival each prove that one can make amazing successful movies on budgets of $100 million or less and that they nearly $400 million budget for something like Indiana Jones and the dial of Destiny is unnecessary as well as unwarranted what movie jail ever fully go away no probably not but I hope more people in it get the opportunity to get out and that the stints get shorter filmmakers like shazel are in fact not a dime a dozen and in this era where even Nostalgia driven films like Indiana Jones or once Titanic franchises like the MCU are underperforming we need more people like Damian chazelle not fewer

Channel: Syntopikon

Views: 311,657

Keywords: movie jail, director jail, directors in movie jail, directors in jail, directors in director jail, damien chazelle, damien chzaelle oscar, damien chazelle babylon

Id: Mbj7CnGJczY

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024