Tarantino

I was reading an older article today and realized that Ringo Lam (City on Fire, The Replicant) has been virtually blackballed from Hollywood because of his dropping out of two or three films once attached, due to problems with scripts, etc.

I know that another director, Troy Duffy (The Boondock Saints), is blackballed as well, due to...well, just being an asshole.

Are there any other actors, directors, etc. that are basically shut out of work in Hollywood?

= J

Pressplay

I'd say director Tony Kaye. His (probably justified) flipping out on Ed Norton during the editing of American History X and his weird "friend of Brando and making a video" period made him kind of an outcast. But he seems to be getting back on track, IMDB shows he has a few projects in the works.

Matthew Chmiel

Troy Duffy is a fuckin' egotistical asshole and he should be blackballed. You don't piss people the investors off during your first feature film. I don't care if The Boondock Saints was his creation. It wouldn't have been made if people didn't fund him $5 million to film and edit the feature. If the investors want to change something, let them have their way. It's their money, not yours. Just suck it up and complete the film as the investors want it to be. This way you can secure some clout in Hollywood.

David Fincher knew halfway during filming he was never going to get his way with Alien 3. What did he do? He just shot the film per Fox's wishes and kept his mouth shut. Now he can pick whatever project he wants to do and he can secure final cut on a picture.

If Troy Duffy could've done the same, he'd still be in Hollywood, completing films the way he wanted to. I like The Boondock Saints a lot, but you don't want a bad rap by everybody in Hollywood after you first film.

Tony Kaye on the otherhand is just a weirdo.

The Bus

Has anyone seen Overnight?

Fincher Fan

Yep. Before I saw it, I thought people had just been exaggerating how egotistical Duffy is. Damn funny doco!

T.Bickle

Maybe it was more important to Troy Duffy to make the film he wanted to make rather than betray his vision in hopes of getting rich. The Boondock Saints turned out well enough, though it's not a great film it is enjoyable.

David Fincher, one of the best contemporary directors "shot the film per Fox's wishes and kept his mouth shut" and look how it turned out. When comparing the first three Alien movies Alien 3 is certainly the weakest.

I am not disagreeing with you, I'm just providing another possible point of view.

The Bus

Yes, but at least Fincher has gotten a chance to make more movies.

RichC2

Hard to believe Fincher isn't blackballed after:

Was originally set to direct The Black Dahlia (2006), but dropped out.
Was originally set to direct Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991), but dropped out.
Was originally set to direct Mission: Impossible III (2006), but dropped out.
Was originally considered to direct Spider-Man (2002).
Was originally considered to direct Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002).
Turned down the offer to direct Catch Me If You Can (2002), opting to do Panic Room (2002) instead.
Turned down the offer to direct Batman Begins (2005).
Turned down the offer to direct 8MM (1999), opting to do Fight Club (1999) instead.

But turning down 8MM to do Fight Club was a great idea. Would have loved to of seen him do something like Catch Me If You Can just to see how different it'd be (of course, then Spielbergs wouldn't exist).

auto

Directors jump in and out of projects all the time. It wasn't until sites like DVDTalk and AintItCool News became prominent on the internet that we were aware of it. I'm sure Fincher is doing just fine...

IG80Nate

So so true, auto.

And I'm sure that list is only the tip of the iceberg, regarding projects Fincher's been attached to.

riley_dude

I remember hearing that Mimi Rodgers was blackballed after divorcing Tom Cruise but I dont know if that is true. Same for both Dee Wallace stone and Margaret Avery after working for Spielberg.
I also remember reading somewhere that Cary Elwes was blackballed after his bad attitude on many films. Now he is doing stuff like Saw.
Can anyone confirm these rumors?

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

Pauley Shore

Green Jello

Steven Spielberg - No one will hire that clown anymore.

Johnny Boy

here's some guesses:

Robert Blake
O.J. Simpson
Lillo Brancato?
Corey Haim?

riley_dude

You would have thought Robert Downey would be blackballed by now but he still gets work.

jeffkjoe

How about Tom Sizemore?

After all his crazy shenanegans lately....

Hokeyboy

I know, done to death but considering the thead title:

H8nXTC

Mickey Rourke was backballed for a while after he grew a big head for 9 1/2 Weeks and Year of the Dragon and caused such problems hanging out with the Hells Angeles and bringing them to the set. But he still is one of my favorite actors after all these years and all the bad movies, he peaked when he first appeared. I still try to see all his movies, but I never seem to pay to see them in the theatre, I wait until they come out on TV, cable or video. It's been 5 years since I got my hair cut at Giuseppe Franco where I used to see him a there lot (along with the before governor Arnold), wonder if he still gets his hair cut there?

BigDan

Of course, in Overnight, he didn't seem to be about an artistic vision in the sense I normally associate with the phrase. He was more about "I am the greatest filmmaker/storyteller/person who ever lived and everyone else is a major idiot to not see that". In the doc, at least, he came across as being all about the money and what the money could get him.

Tony Kaye, while seemingly insane, at least seems to have come from an "I'm an artist and I must make my art unfettered" attitude. Duffy came across as a person who wanted to get into filmmaking (and music) in order to make a lot of money so he could bed a lot of women and have people be jealous of him.

ScandalUMD

Well, people turn down movies all the time. I don't think a studio holds it against a director for turning down one project for another. I can't imagine anybody getting "blackballed" for turning down a movie. He probably doesn't hold it against Sony that they picked Sam Raimi instead of him to direct "Spider Man," and Dreamworks probably doesn't hold it against him that he decided to do "Panic Room" instead of "Catch Me If You Can."

I don't think this kind of a record is unusual at all. Directors and actors certainly turn down projects all the time, and people drop off of movies all the time for various reasons. Frequently an actor or a director will have other time commitments, and there's a clause in the original agreement releasing from an obligation to a project if it's not running on schedule. Indeed, the agreements attaching someone to a film are complicated documents, and there are various reasons why a person may leave a project during pre-production.

It doesn't mean anything if a person is attached to a project and then leaves it. Breaching a contract is a no-fault transaction, and these agreements will usually contain clauses for liquidated damages, meaning that there's a pre-arranged payment that can change hands for the movie either buying out the director or actor, or the director or actor leaving the movie.

If a director is fired from a film in production, that's an unusual situation, and that's a director you may not see again. If a film is taken from a director after it's completed that's also often a bad sign, although that absolves the director for some of the blame if the movie sucks/flops, and may win him some cachet among fans who disfavor that kind of studio meddling, unless he's a hack and they hate him.

I'd guess there are a number of directors who nobody remembers who don't get work because they didn't make any money. I doubt any of the auteur types who have fans, even cult-type fans, can get blackballed for being obnoxious or for being flaky. Hollywood is full of obnoxious, flaky people

One weird thing is that Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez the guys who made "The Blair Witch Project," which grossed $140,000,000 have been fairly silent. Even with the backlash that that movie got, those guys should have been able to get at least a mid-level budget for their second project. IMDB shows a couple of small projects they're working on, and very little else about them. They could have become toxic in that failed attempt to turn "Blair Witch" into a franchise, but they didn't seem to be very directly involved with the bad and poorly-received sequel.

Anyone know what happened there?

DRG

Good article about that here:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3988556/

ShallowHal

Cary Elwes sucks because he was in The Chase, and Men in Tights. He's a tool.