Directorial Disappointment

Disappointment happens often in regards to films.  I know that my friend Justin was greatly looking forward to Battle: Los Angeles, making that disappointing film even more disappointing to him.

I am a huge Ang Lee fan and a huge Incredible Hulk fan, but it turns out that the marriage of those two was  not worth the excitement that I had going into the film.

Let's not even go into the Star Wars Prequels (although there was a great moment in last night's How I Met Your Mother where Marshall tested how far he could take the gang's desire to be nice to him so he claimed that A Phantom Menace was the best Star Wars episode.  "It ages well," Barney attempted to agree.  Hilarious stuff), the point being that disappointment is a very real possibility when it comes to film.

Usually, it happens after the movie is out, but in a couple of recent cases, the disappointment has occurred before the first shot was even framed.

Guillermo Del Toro is no longer directing the Hobbit, and even more recent, Darren Aronofsky is no longer directing The Wolverine.

Unlike with Ang Lee and Hulk, there was reason to be very excited about these two directors being attached to these projects.

What did I ever do to you, Peter Jackson?

The classic and varied characters of Tolkien's The Hobbit under the imagination of Guillermo Del Toro would have been mind-blowing and finally would have made the world realize how incredible The Lord of the Rings should have been, because as good as LOTR was under Peter Jackson, it could have been much, much more amazing (and not just by including Tom Bombadil).

His vision of The Hobbit would have been as perfect as his vision of Mike Mignola's masterpiece, Hellboy.

Sometimes, a movie adaptation can capture the imagination of the original perfectly, and Guillermo Del Toro has shown that he has that ability.

I will never be okay with the fact that we don't get his version of Middle Earth.

The announcement that Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream, Pi, and The Fountain) would be in charge of the new Wolverine movie, and that Aronofsky was going to be ignoring the movies that came before refusing to be held hostage by the atrocities that were X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine, gave me great excitement for the places that this movie could go since Wolverine is such a great character and Hugh Jackman has captured him quite nicely.

Sadly, recently it was announced that Aronofsky did not have the time to apply to the film (which would be shot and take place in Japan based on a particularly popular storyline from the comic book) , and therefore was stepping down as director.

Here is what the director had to say on his reasons for leaving.

As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, it became clear that the production of 'The Wolverine' would keep me out of the country for almost a year. I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time. I am sad that I won't be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again.

 Before I completely swear off the new Wolverine movie, I will wait to hear who FOX hires to replace Aronofsky, but my disappointment will likely remain.

Until Next Time, what is your biggest movie related disappointment?