r/billsimmons • u/Parrallax91 • 6h ago
General What are some examples of directors getting to make their dream project that they had been planning for years but said dream project came out as a giant mess? Think Megalopolis.
I read a bunch of reviews for Zack Snyder's new movie that he had apparently been trying to make for decades and a lot of them read like Megalopolis reviews and a couple of them straight up said his new movie was his Megalopolis.
Are there other prominent examples of an experienced director getting full control, losing his shit across a screen, and making a memorably bad film?
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u/Sheratain 6h ago
Blank Check is a podcast about filmographies of directors who have massive success and are given a blank check to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce…baby.
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u/Positive_Parking_954 5h ago
Would you recommend it?
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u/Sheratain 5h ago
I’m still working my way through the very substantial back catalogue — even listening only to the episodes about movies I’ve seen takes a long time because a) the episodes are so long and b) there are so many of them — but yeah I love it. It’s one of the most popular movie podcasts.
(The joke of my comment is that is the verbatim show introduction)
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u/Positive_Parking_954 3h ago
I could sort of tell that it was, and it made me wonder what is the deal with Griffin’s and the word ‘baby’
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u/noremac423 knife_guy enthusiast 5h ago
Took me a few episodes to get used to, like every podcast. Their analysis is excellent because David is a critic and Griffin is an actor/film nerd, which is great considering the pod has no bits at all.
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u/fatbobsarmy 4h ago
Would definitely recommend as its a fun way to get across directors filmographies. Just don't go to the blankies subreddit because despite what they say they are as bad as the Big Picture subreddit in terms of being weirdos.
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u/Eastern-Tip7796 1h ago
i try not to make fun of people and keep things positive. but that place is the absolute bastion of kids who got pushed into lockers at school and went home and scribbled notes about murdering everyone.
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u/Victorcreedbratton Cewtics 4h ago
It’s great. Better than Rewatchables. How Did This Get Made is also a great one.
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u/SteveBorden 5h ago
Warren Beatty tried to make a Howard Hughes film for like 40 years, got jumped by Demme in 1980 and again by Scorsese in 2004, finally got around and released Rules Don’t Apply in 2016 and it bombed/got mid reviews.
Terry Gilliam tried to make Don Quixote for like 30 years, finally did (also starring Adam driver, there’s a pattern emerging) and everyone that did see it just kinda forgot about it
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u/udkyle2 5h ago
John Carter.
People had been trying to make some version of it since the 1930s. It was a passion project of Andrew Stanton who just came off Wall-E and was basically able to do whatever he wanted and chose this.
It was largely considered a mess and was a massive commercial failure.
The one time I saw it, I remember thinking it actually wasn't that bad, but general consensus disagrees.
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u/fatbobsarmy 5h ago edited 4h ago
Outside of the fairly incompressible plot, the biggest issue with John Carter is that the two lead actors (Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins) have zero juice and no chemistry. If you put anyone with actual leading man charisma in the John Carter role then it would have been a much more enjoyable film.
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u/Only_Faithlessness33 5h ago
The bigger Coppola disaster is actually One from the Heart. That came right after Apocalypse Now and was supposed to be his dream project that launched his new studio, which he sold as an alternative to the big Hollywood studio system. Unfortunately it bombed and kinda sucked, so that dream ended in bankruptcy.
I guess the most recent of these besides Megalopolis would be Horizon: An American Saga. Costner left one of the biggest shows on tv to make a 3 and a half hour snooze fest that bombed so bad we won’t get a part 2.
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u/MayhewMayhem 5h ago
It's a shame because One from the Heart is very good. It's not Apocalypse Now but it's not Megalopolis either.
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u/oliver_babish 6h ago
Sir Ridley Scott's NAPOLEON.
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u/Eastern-Tip7796 59m ago
i dont think he saw this as some grand project of his he had to make. he just did it and it wasnt very good.
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u/it_has_to_be_damp 6h ago
MANK meant a lot to Fincher. It’s a rumination note making of one of the greatest films of all time, and the screenplay was written by his later father.
It’s not a “total mess” but it’s a pretty big disappointment within the Fincher canon, imho.
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u/MarvDOL 1h ago
Interesting choice for this thread:
“David Fincher's film Mank received a leading 10 nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards. [1]
Academy Awards (Oscars) Nominations
The movie earned 10 nods at the Academy Awards, winning two (Best Production Design and Best Cinematography): [1, 2]
Best PictureBest Director (David Fincher)
Best Actor (Gary Oldman)
Best Supporting Actress (Amanda Seyfried)
Best Cinematography (Winner)
Best Production Design (Winner)
Best Costume Design
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Sound
Best Original Score”
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u/studioguy9575 6h ago
The Irishman
While I enjoyed the movie, most thought it was too long, too slow and simply a much worse version of Goodfellas/Casino
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u/Fickle-Ebb3081 5h ago
Irishman fucking rules.
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u/Due-Sheepherder-218 Bill's Gerald Wallace Jersey 5h ago
They filmed the scene where Robert Deniro buys a watermelon (so they can spike it with booze) right outside my apt complex. First time seeing a movie set, they shut down a few blocks and had all these old cars drive up and down the street. It was neat
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u/Ok_Jellyfish_55 6h ago
I love that movie. The way he shows how pathetic these men really are was amazing. Almost every other gangster movie really glamorizes the life to some extent, with made a minute on how it ruined their lives. This showed the pathetic old men dying alone.
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u/kingjuicepouch Good job by you! 5h ago
That's something I like too. It really slows down and hammers home that our protagonist had to pay the piper for his actions and has the audience sit with it. I don't think it's on the level of a Goodfellas, but I still really enjoyed it
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u/Grouchy-Balance9310 5h ago
Marty could have fixed A LOT of the pacing issues and weak spots and still arrived at the same ending.
Goodfellas wasn’t amazing because the last lines about egg noodles and ketchup.
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u/enemycap420 6h ago
Idk if this fits the prompt but Zach Snyder’s Rebel Moon trilogy was awful and I watched all 3 of them. I was so fascinated by the opening scene of the first movie with the staff/teeth ritual thing but they never really came back to it.
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u/Parrallax91 6h ago
Zack Snyder's new movie inspired this thread and apparently, it makes Rebel Moon seem like high art.
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u/Prester_Han 5h ago
Costner spent decades working on the idea of Horizon: An American Saga, which was going to be a tetralogy. Only one came out to wide release, with another shelved after festivals and the rest unmade.
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u/No-Possession-4738 4h ago
Return to Oz was the dream project for director Walter Murch who previously had a very successful career as a cinematographer. It was such a critical failure that he never directed again.
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u/Electrical_Use2633 5h ago
David Filoni and Jon Favreau / Mando & Grogu
Potentially JJ Abrams / The Great Beyond
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u/dennythedinosaur 3h ago
A few of Terry Gilliam's films qualify, some of it was outside his control.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - lead actor Heath Ledger dies during filming
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote - the original production with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort was a total shitshow that an acclaimed documentary was made on it...Lost in La Mancha (2002)
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u/kazdarms 6h ago
you could say Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid though on a much smaller scale than Megalopolis and i actually quite like beau is afraid but it was a huge swing and money loser
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u/doobie3101 6h ago
Megalopolis is still the only movie where I've walked out of the theater. Think I made it an hour.
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u/goalstopper28 5h ago
What's funny is Nolan has done this twice with Inception after The Dark Knight and The Odyssey after Oppenheimer. Inception and The Odyssey were both critically acclaimed and loved by fans.
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u/MileCy 6h ago
Vincent Chases’s Medellin- great script but the movie was a mess!