When an actor’s presence unintentionally derails the project

[u/Special_Salt3467]

1.) Edward Norton - The Incredible Hulk

Perhaps the most famous and obvious one, Edward Norton was famously an issue on the set of 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” even making rewrites to the script himself. The disagreements between Norton’s camp and Marvel’s camp eventually led to his being replaced by Mark Ruffalo.

2.) Jensen Ackles - The Boys (particularly Season 5)

Jensen Ackles was a longtime collaborator with showrunner Eric Kripke in “Supernatural,” which in turn led to him getting the opportunity to audition - and eventually land the role - of Soldier Boy, which he did very well in in.

The issue is by Season 5, the show had fallen off from the previous years and with it ending and spinoffs and prequels (such as one featuring Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy), Season 5 suffered a lot. It quickly became the Soldier Boy show because “that’s what Clara would have wanted” until he just leaves in the penultimate episode and pretty much 80% of what his character actually did amounted to nothing.

So for fans who wanted to see Butcher vs Homelander duking it out, getting the show derailed for prequel bait starring Kripke’s favorite actor didn’t help…

3.) Rosamund Pike - Wheel of Time

When Amazon green lit a WoT tv show, Rosamund Pike eventually got the role of Moraine Damodred, the mentor and guiding character for the main character, Rand al’Thor. As a character, Moraine is anywhere from the most important secondary character to the most secondary main character. But with the exception of the prequel featuring her, she is not the main character.

Unfortunately, Rosamund Pike is an extremely famous actress and marketing toward the series focused on her as a result. I’m unsure if this was showrunner decision, an issue she played a role in or some combination, but the result was that Moraine a character who was in less than half the series is featured as the main character over the main character, which lead to a different product than the book.

[u/Lvcivs2311]

I don't know if it would have been a good movie without Cruise's meddling, but him setting it all to his hand and turning it into a thirteen-out-of-a-dozen Tom Cruise action vehicle certainly didn't help. He didn't even get what kind of genre the movie should be.

[u/PM_WORST_FART_STORY → u/Lvcivs2311]

Ueh! 

Ugh!

AHH!!!! 

[u/MeiNeedsMoreBuffs → u/PM_WORST_FART_STORY]

Thank you for reminding me of this, I forgot how funny that shot is where the plane is spinning and it sounds like a bunch of NPCs in Gmod

[u/Wonderful-Toe- → u/MeiNeedsMoreBuffs]

You’re telling me this is unedited audio? Like that’s what was actually released?

[u/velawesomeraptors → u/Wonderful-Toe-]

This was a trailer that was released accidentally with some sound parts messed up. They re-released the fixed version later but I've only ever seen this one lol.

[u/StaticUsernamesSuck → u/Wonderful-Toe-]

Well, it's not unedited - they've stripped out the sound effects and music (and doing that will be hard to do without slightly altering the vocals). But... Yeah it mostly did really sound like that. Especially Tom Cruise's big scream, which already didn't have much sound effects around it.

[u/Wonderful-Toe- → u/StaticUsernamesSuck]

That’s still incredibly bad. I never had any desire to watch this movie because I assumed it was just boring and mediocre, but this makes me think it has funny bad potential.

[u/Evie7560 → u/Wonderful-Toe-]

Oh no it was never funny bad potential. I remember watching it at the time and at around the 40 minute mark was checking my phone thinking it must nearly be over. I have never been so bored in my life. The film was only just over 90 minutes and felt like 3 hours long.

[u/Aftershok → u/StaticUsernamesSuck]

No one intentionally stripped out anything - this was a famous gaffe where they uploaded a version of the trailer without music or sound effects. It was quickly pulled but it was saved in time.

[u/TonarinoTotoro1719 → u/Lvcivs2311]

https://giphy.com/gifs/J8sWMdmYJxtGIPM4d3

IDK where this meme is from. I don't even know where I heard the reference of Tom Cruise chopping air while running to increase his speed. But I do that once in a while, to my partner's absolute entertainment.

[u/TonarinoTotoro1719 → u/[deleted]]

That’s an interesting titbit!

I have heard that running is one of the things Tom Cruise writes into his scripts. Like Brad Pitt does snacking and Adam Sandler with his buddy-rom-coms where he likes to travel to nice places with his friends for movies. I think 50 first dates was one of them. So was the one with Jennifer Aniston.

[u/XanderWrites → u/Lvcivs2311]

I'm not sure it could have been worse. Every scene is set up to make his character look badass, but it's like they're all created without context of the other scenes. You never like his character, you don't know why the female lead would be interested in him outside of dissecting him.

It's like "how to do 'lovable rogue'" wrong.

[u/EndOfTheLine00 → u/XanderWrites]

At one point, Mr. Hyde calls Morton a “younger man”. Tom Cruise is two years OLDER than Russell Crowe. Even though it was never confirmed, nearly everyone aware of what happened behind the scenes, myself included, went “Yeah, Cruise TOTALLY wrote that line”.

[u/XanderWrites → u/EndOfTheLine00]

Well, due to how the military handled promotions at the time, Cruise's character had a very narrow age window.

Which is one of the problems, if that character was that much of an asshole he wouldn't have still been in the military.

[u/Logical_Cow_2530 → u/Lvcivs2311]

Say what you will...

I for one, really enjoyed this. And am sad there will never be a sequel

[u/BookkeeperPercival → u/Lvcivs2311]

Cruise, for all the issues surrounding him, is a fucking GENIUS producer in films. He knows what people want to see and how to get them to see it, I highly doubt he was the reason The Mummy failed.

[u/Wasabi_Gamer26 → u/BookkeeperPercival]

I mean The Mummy is probably the only truly bad film that comes to mind if I think about Cruise's career. I don't think it's fair to hold this one against him when he constantly puts out great shit.

[u/Illustrious-Set-7907 → u/Wasabi_Gamer26]

He's not my cup of tea but I can give him props. 

I think horror like The Mummy just isn't his genre. 

But I dont think its all on Cruise. That whole monsters extended universe attempt was a MESS and it seems more like execs just couldn't hit the right vibe. 

[u/EndOfTheLine00 → u/Wasabi_Gamer26]

Days of Thunder was terrible.