Movies That Killed Careers

There are times I love Stone’s movies and hate them but I would love for him to tackle who you are thinking of. If it is anything like Nixon it could be fascinating.

 

As much as I enjoy Landis’ movies in the past, he should have been held accountable for this tragedy. It was ultimately HIS responsibility.

 

He still got a lot of good directing gigs after his negligence led to the death of 3 people. I read a book written about the whole incident and aftermath. It painted a picture of a non-repentant major A-hole.

 

Yeah that was unfortunate. It did however damage his career which was a good thing considering the negligence.

 

One of the things I remember being told by my criminal law professor in law school was that juries, though fully instructed on the law by the judge, nevertheless provide a "sense of the community" that can run contrary to what an otherwise fair and appropriate application of the law might dictate. That "sense" changes over time. Of course, that is little consolation to the person on the short end of the judicial stick. The result might be different today.

 

I don't think the "Twilight Zone" tragedy damaged Landis's career at all.

Months after the movie's release, he directed "Thriller", arguably the most famous music video of all-time.

And he continued to make big-ticket movies with major stars...

 

He must be the only guy to play to superheroes batman and daredevil

 

Landis and four others were tried for involuntary manslaughter but acquitted by a jury so at least the government tried (although I remember one writer suggesting they might have had better luck trying him on a lesser charge). The film industry should have told him to go work in a McDonald’s for a decade before coming back but no...he was too successful.

 

I find it difficult to watch Peeping Tom: that murder weapon is just repulsive.

Hitchcock knew what he could, and couldn’t, get away with.

 

Mutiny On The Bounty damaged Marlon Brando’s career, largely because his behaviour on set helped cause the film to go massively over budget. Thus began a long bleak period for him that lasted the best part of twelve years until The Godfather (a film for which he had to do a screen test!) finally restored him to prominence and bankability.

 

Not the absolutely awful "The Cat In The Hat"?

 

Like I said: a few months later - smack dab in the middle of the continued controversy - the biggest musical star in the world chose to work with Landis.

And plenty of major stars still worked with him.

Landis's career didn't falter until his movies no longer made money...

 

In what might be a classic example of Hollywood double standards, the 1973 flop The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing did nothing to halt the unstoppable momentum of Burt Reynolds’ film career but basically ended that of Sarah Miles. The off-set drama that blew up during the making of the film overshadowed the film itself:

The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (film) - Wikipedia

 

It was a box office disappointment but not an outright bomb like "Love Guru".

Also, I think Myers escaped some of the negative reaction to "Hat" because it wasn't an "actor's movie" - it was him done up as a feline in a kiddie story.

"Love Guru" was his baby: he co-wrote it and he was clearly the main draw.

Also "Hat" came out not long after "Goldmember", so Myers had a recent hit behind him.

Myers made no live action movies between "Hat" and "Guru", so he lacked the box office clout of 5 years earlier...

 

Yeah I remember and was shocked that he got off.

 

His jury deliberated for nine days. Go figure.

 

Although John Landis escaped criminal charges filed against him in court and managed to elude a total blacklisting within the Hollywood studio-system for his reckless disregard of basic safety measures (particularly California's child labor laws) during the troubled and deadly production of 'Twilight Zone : The Movie' (1983), which ended the lives of actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children, the scandalous event certainly didn't leave his career in Hollywood altogether unscathed. Many of Landis' close friends in the movie business refused to support him during the lengthy trial or even to be seen with him in public. Some even ended their friendship with Landis completely after the incident, notably Steven Spielberg, who commented upon the tragedy - “No movie is worth dying for. I think people are standing up much more now, than ever before, to producers and directors who ask too much. If something isn't safe, it's the right and responsibility of every actor or crew member to yell, 'Cut!'”

 

The video and account of the death of the three are unbelievable. Actually being in Vietnam during the war in the middle of a major battle probably was safer. I fail to see how anyone could possibly think using a real actual helicopter in such situation was anything short of insanity.

 

I never saw the video and I remember at the time being blown away that something that horrible can happen on a movie set...I could not believe it! an incredible loss of life...

 

What was Melanie Griffith's career-ender - Crazy in Alabama, perhaps?

 

Griffith's 'career-ender' was being a woman in her 40s!

 

No question. There must be five actresses who get all the over 40s parts. (But why Helen Hunt is one of them is beyond me.)

 

I actually can't remember the last time I saw Hunt in a prominent movie. She seems to have faded away from the limelight.

I see on IMDB that she still works, but she doesn't seem to get big roles anymore...

 

I was kidding. I've seen her in a couple of fairly recent things, and she looked downright scary.

 

Yeah, I think Myers more or less got a pass on Cat in the Hat because he was buried under makeup and the movie wasn't really sold on his star power. It was sold strictly to kids. It was a career-killer for Bo Welch though, who was trying to pass from being a top-rated technician on movies to directing like Barry Sonnenfeld and Jan de Bont had before, but completely failed here in his first shot and never got another shot. He didn't even do production design for another movie for 5 years after that. Maybe voluntarily, I don't know.

I think the career-killer for Griffith was Shining Through in 1992 four years after Working Girl. She was the co-lead and she and the film got the Razzie. She was in Bonfire of the Vanities before that, but there was so much more controversy around that film that people weren't talking about her, although she did get a Razzie nom for it. I'm honestly not quite sure why Bonfire became such a favorite for the media to attack, but I think they had it pegged as a flop even before it came out. But Shining Through was I think considered an A-list production as Michael Douglas' first movie of the 1990s and was not expected to be so poorly received. Besides Shining Through, Griffith did an even worse performing movie in 1992, A Stranger Among Us, so it was a one-two punch that year. It didn't help that she starred with hubby Don Johnson in two other go-nowhere movies right before and after those.

I think some of what Stone has been criticized for since Nixon is being too fair and balanced. Part of the audience wants him to be much tougher on his subjects and the other part of the audience thinks he's being too critical. So that sounds like a trap he'd be likely to fall into again with Trump. Politics is so polarized now that nobody wants to see a portrayal of anybody unless it's a complete character assassination. He needs to find a subject who the general public can get behind completely trashing, like Bernie Madoff or Jeffrey Epstein. His best bet might actually be the Clintons, who the Democrats have pretty much disowned at this point, and who still have the name recognition to sell a movie. His movies also tend to work better after some years have passed since the subject matter at hand. W., Money Never Sleeps and Snowden probably suffered for being essentially "current events" movies, which the public usually doesn't eat up from anybody.

Not quite, Ryan Reynolds was Green Lantern and Deadpool. Chris Evans was Human Torch and Captain America. Josh Brolin was Cable, Jonah Hex and the villain Thanos. Michael B. Jordan played Human Torch and the villain Killmonger. There's more if you branch out into TV or non-Marvel/DC heroes.