Gigli was such a infamous flop that director Martin Brest can’t even carry himself to say the identify of the Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez film.
Martin Brest directed Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Scent of a Lady, and Meet Joe Black, however his final film was such a flop that it introduced his profession to a grinding halt — In fact, I’m speaking about Gigli.
Gigli was a romantic comedy crime film starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Because the pair have been romantically concerned on the time, the film generated an unlimited quantity of curiosity but it surely wound up changing into a box-office bomb that some take into account to be one of many worst motion pictures ever made. Woof. The failure of Gigli affected Martin Brest a lot that he advised Selection he can’t even carry himself to say its identify.
Of all the flicks that I’ve labored on, I do know them inside and outside. I don’t even know what that film appears to be like like, frankly, due to the way wherein it took form. Even the identify… I seek advice from it as ‘the G film.’ Most likely the much less stated about it the higher.
Martin Brest went on to elucidate how studio interference gutted the film to the purpose the place he didn’t acknowledge it. “The whole context of the movie was upended so profoundly, the unique intention was just about obliterated,” Brest stated. “I’m wondering if ever a film had been modified that a lot… I’m positive it has within the historical past of Hollywood, but it surely was modified so radically.” Brest continued, “The themes of the film have been radically totally different. The plot was totally different. The aim of the film was totally different. However I can’t escape blame. [But] it’s so bizarre — I actually don’t bear in mind the film that was launched, as a result of I wasn’t beneath it in the way in which I used to be beneath the hood of all my different motion pictures. So it’s actually a bloody mess that deserved its excoriation.“
On the finish of the day, Brest needs that he had simply taken his identify off the film. “In depth disagreements between the studio and myself received to the purpose the place post-production was shut down for eight months whereas we battled it out,” Brest defined. “In the long run I used to be left with two selections: give up or be complicit within the mangling of the film. To my everlasting remorse I didn’t give up, so I bear accountability for a ghastly cadaver of a film.“
Though he hasn’t directed a film since Gigli, Martin Brest does nonetheless have tasks he desires to make… if anybody will let him. “I wrote one script after which I put that apart, after which I wrote one other script that I’ve been burning for just a few years to do, however I’ll simply need to burn as a result of no one else appears to be desirous to burn together with me,” he stated. “It looks like a constant theme that administrators who’re not within the enterprise at all times have their pet undertaking that they need to do. I suppose that’s mine.“
I’ll admit to by no means having seen Gigli (maybe that’s for the perfect), however was it actually so unhealthy that Martin Brest deserved to be pushed out of Hollywood?