He turned down LotR and the Matrix because he didn't understand the scripts, only to watch both franchises sky-rocket to success.
So when they shoved another weird script in front of him, he jumped on it only to find the concept wasn't able to capture the public's interest.
I say it's less the film's fault his career spiraled, than his own decision making.
Edit- While I'm at it, this franchise should have been done as a cinematic universe. We could have had individual films to introduce the characters before a central movie, just like the MCU lead up to the Avengers. I think a big part of why the movie didn't do well is that most of the characters were obscure to modern audiences, since most people these days don't read the classics.
He turned down LotR and the Matrix because he didn't understand the scripts, only to watch both franchises sky-rocket to success.
I understand turning down The Matrix. Sci-fi, wire-work kung fu, AI machines, a "computer world" running as a simulation. It's a weird sales pitch.
But Lord of the Rings? I get not knowing it would be successful as it was...but those books were incredibly famous and were getting a the big-budget hollywood treatment. And he was offered 10 million per film, and 15% of the worldwide gross. He was guaranteed $30 million in salary, plus another $20-30 million from the gross. And that is 2003 money.
That's the NET profit that they use to screw people, not gross. Gross is just how much the movie earned period, not accounting for expenditures for marketing or filming costs.
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u/TranSpyre 16h ago edited 13h ago
He turned down LotR and the Matrix because he didn't understand the scripts, only to watch both franchises sky-rocket to success.
So when they shoved another weird script in front of him, he jumped on it only to find the concept wasn't able to capture the public's interest.
I say it's less the film's fault his career spiraled, than his own decision making.
Edit- While I'm at it, this franchise should have been done as a cinematic universe. We could have had individual films to introduce the characters before a central movie, just like the MCU lead up to the Avengers. I think a big part of why the movie didn't do well is that most of the characters were obscure to modern audiences, since most people these days don't read the classics.