Josh Trank (Fantastic Four, 2015)When Josh Trank was hired to helm the Fantastic Four in 2012, all the signs pointed to him being a great choice. He was one of the hottest young names in directing at that point after the massive success of Chronicle, a found-footage superhero movie that banked $125 million at the box office. In fact, 27-year-old Trank became the youngest director in history to open a film at number one – yet three years later, his career was in tatters.Fantastic Four was a troubled production, with creative differences rearing their head throughout. Trank had pitched the movie as a body horror-adjacent take on the superheroes who gain extraordinary powers after being zapped by cosmic rays, but when Marvel and Fox saw his first cut of the film, the executives baulked. Reshoots were ordered, and changes made that he wasn’t aware of, while rumours gained traction of erratic behaviour on-set.Ultimately, the film was savaged by critics and became a box-office disappointment. Trank didn’t help matters, either. After betting his entire career on Fantastic Four and seeing his vision be so severely compromised, he tried to sabotage it the day before release. It took him five long years to make another film, but his bizarre Al Capone biopic starring Tom Hardy wasn’t even granted a theatrical release.[embedded content]Francis Ford Coppola (One From the Heart, 1982)Francis Ford Coppola spent the 1970s embarking on one of the greatest runs any director has ever had. The filmmaker delivered The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now consecutively, winning five Academy Awards from 12 nominations in the process.His legacy was already secure as one of his generation’s best, so he decided the best way to leverage his newfound creative freedom and wealth was to try reinventing the medium of cinema. He deserves points for trying, but all he had to show for it once One From the Heart had been released was his first declaration of bankruptcy and one of the biggest box office bombs in history.Coppola suffered even more financial misery two years later when The Cotton Club flopped after he’d funnelled even more of his own money into the production, and by his own admission, the only reason he made studio movies like Peggy Sue Got Married, The Godfather Part III, and Dracula was that he needed the money after betting big on himself and losing.[embedded content]Richard Kelly (Southland Tales, 2006)Richard Kelly’s 2001 headscratcher Donnie Darko was so brilliantly enigmatic and mysterious that Hollywood was undoubtedly convinced that Kelly was a filmmaking genius to get behind because he was soon granted a $17 million budget to make his follow-up movie, the genre-hopping dystopian opus Southland Tales.To say Kelly’s vision was ambitious would be an extreme understatement. He saw his new vision of the near future as a nine-part interactive experience, with the first six instalments taking the form of 100-page graphic novels published monthly in the lead-up to the movie and the final three encompassing the film. A website was also developed with the idea that it would go hand-in-hand with graphic novels and movies.To Kelly’s chagrin, though, writing that volume of comic book material while trying to wrangle a massive film production was too much of an ask. He sensibly reduced the graphic novel part of the story to three volumes, which were published between May 2006 and January 2007. Unfortunately, they didn’t help the film, which largely confused critics and baffled the small audience that actually paid to see it. In the end, Kelly had probably flown too close to the sun – and got his wings burned.[embedded content]Brad Bird (Tomorrowland, 2015)With The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille under his belt, Brad Bird was known as one of modern animation’s finest directors, and for a while, it looked as though he would make a seamless transition into live-action.For somebody who’d never helmed a movie starring real people before, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was a hell of an introduction, with Bird displaying a knack for action sequences and character beats in the midst of the chaos. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a false dawn.A Tom Cruise action sequel was about a safe bet as any for his first live-action foray, and when Bird turned his hand to the semi-original Tomorrowland, it failed so badly that it even forced Disney to cancel an in-development Tron movie. Fleeing back to animation with his tail between his legs, the only film Bird has made since was The Incredibles 2. His next one? The Incredibles 3, with the filmmaker seemingly intent on remaining in his wheelhouse after venturing out of it went so badly the second time around.[embedded content]Kevin Costner (The Postman, 1997)In his defence, Kevin Costner was well within his rights to sink millions of dollars into The Postman, a movie he produced, directed, and starred in. After all, it had gone pretty well for him on Dances with Wolves.Whereas his first feature behind the camera became the highest-grossing western of all time and won seven Academy Awards from 12 nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, his sophomore stint wielding the megaphone suffered almost diametrically opposed fortunes.A catastrophic flop that swept the board at the Razzies by winning all five of the prizes it was shortlisted for, Costner confidently turned down the part that had been written specifically for him in Air Force One to make The Postman, a dud so overwhelming it set his career back by decades.[embedded content]Renny Harlin (Cutthroat Island, 1995)When it came time to make 1995’s Cutthroat Island, Renny Harlin was riding high in Hollywood. The Finnish action director had delivered two hits in a row with Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger, so he was viewed as a bankable creative force. He was also married to Thelma & Louise star Geena Davis, who he wanted to turn into an action star. So, the two lovebirds teamed up on a pirate movie named Cutthroat Island, which was budgeted at $60 million. Problems cropped up almost immediately with the production. For instance, the original cinematographer broke his leg, and raw sewage leaked into the main water tank where much of the action was to be shot. Harlin wasn’t the only one who staked his reputation on Cutthroat Island, though, and he wasn’t the only one who paid dearly.To everyone’s shock, the movie didn’t just fare badly at the box office – it sank without a trace, making it a record-setting movie as the biggest bomb of all time. It also killed Carolco, as the studio went out of business following its disastrous performance. Harlin was given another couple of bites at the Hollywood apple in the late ‘90s, but his career has been firmly mired in DTV territory ever since.[embedded content]Elaine May (Ishtar, 1987)A supremely talented Bafta, Tony, and Grammy-winning actor, writer, comedian, and playwright, for a while, it looked like there was nothing Elaine May couldn’t do after Oscar-nominated rom-com The Heartbreak Kid and acclaimed crime caper Mikey and Nicky outlined her credentials as a director.Admittedly, the latter crashed and burned at the box office, and it would be another decade before May would direct again. When she did, the end result was the infamous Ishtar, forever remembered as a shining example of just how disastrously wrong a costly Hollywood production can go.Best by spiralling costs, behind-the-scenes disagreements, studio upheaval, post-production issues and more, what should have been May’s triumphant return – in a blockbuster epic with A-list stars, no less – instead endures as the final feature of her directorial career.Richard Stanley (The Island of Dr Moreau, 1996)Richard Stanley bet everything on his 1996 version of The Island of Dr Moreau – and it all went so horribly pear-shaped that a documentary was made about it. The young South African director had spent four years developing it as his dream project, and when he finally got a green light, it seemed like his dreams were about to come true. Instead, he was fired after only three days of production, which led to him shredding all the documentation of his sacking and disappearing.Official reasons were never given for Stanley’s firing, but it’s believed the studio didn’t believe he could keep star Val Kilmer under control. Kilmer, of course, was well known for being a difficult customer, and he made life hell for anyone and everyone he dealt with on the Dr Moreau set. Stanley had been offered his full directorial fee if he promised to sign on the dotted line and leave the production quietly. However, because he tore up his papers, executives were worried he’d return and sabotage the film. Amazingly, he did return, but he did it in secret – dressing as one of the dog men in the movie and performing as an extra. He didn’t burn down the set, as he threatened, instead admitting he simply had an emotional breakdown and went to ground in Australia. It took him 23 years to make another film.[embedded content]Andrew Stanton (John Carter, 2012)Winning two Oscars from five nominations as a writer, director, and producer and emerging as one of the jewels in Pixar’s crown, Andrew Stanton’s Finding Nemo and Wall-E kicked his behind-the-camera career off with a pair of massively successful, beloved, and acclaimed smash hits.Remaining under the Disney banner, Stanton opted to take the plunge and try his luck in live-action. Instead of easing himself in with a smaller-scale picture, he decided that one of the most expensive productions in history was the perfect way to get his feet wet.Things couldn’t have gone much worse when John Carter wound up as the single biggest box office bomb there’s ever been, and there were no surprises when Stanton’s follow-up, Finding Dory, saw him return to Pixar and play it as safe as possible for what was always going to be a hit. He was at least brave enough to return to live-action, but alarm bells are already ringing after sci-fi drama In the Blink of an Eye wrapped production in May 2023 but still doesn’t have a release date. [embedded content]Michael Cimino (Heaven’s Gate, 1980)Michael Cimino’s epic western cost four times the original initial budget, and the production was an unmitigated nightmare for everyone involved. Accusations of animal abuse on the set and rumours of the director’s tyrannical behaviour swirled in the air for months, casting a dark cloud over proceedings. In fact, by the time the film was actually released, it had a nuclear reputation. Reviews labelled Cimino’s picture as one of the worst movies ever made, and it only clawed back a mere $3.5 million at the box office against a budget of $44 million. The terrible press and horrifying financial return caused Transamerica Corporation, United Artists’ corporate overlord, to sell the independent studio to MGM. After that, Transamerica ceased film production altogether.Not only that, but it instigated a paradigm shift in the industry that saw Hollywood move away from the kind of director-driven material that thrived in the ‘New Hollywood’ era. Instead, it began to look toward high-concept blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars. Cimino only directed four more films after Heaven’s Gate, none of which were anywhere near as ambitious.[embedded content]
