There was a time in the 1990s when Joel Shumacher (The Lost Boys, Falling Down, Batman Forever) was one of the biggest directors around, but the times, they are a-changin'. In a reception quite unlike Schumacher's last small-scaled film, the 2000 Colin Farrell drama Tigerland, the director's new Lionsgate thriller Blood Creek was contractually dumped into a few theaters this past weekend with nary a whiff of press or promotion -- hell, there's not even a trailer.
Schumacher's moved on (he just wrapped the Chace Crawford vehicle Twelve) and Blood Creek's up-and-comers like Michael Fassbender and Henry Cavill will survive this indignity, but they're hardly the only ones to suffer this fate in 2009. Here's a healthy helping of big Hollywood stars who've seen their once-anticipated projects dumped into quiet release this year:
The Marc Pease Experience
High-profile talent: Ben Stiller, Jason Schwartzman
Ben Stiller is about as bankable a comic talent as we have right now, but Paramount utterly buried his Todd Louiso comedy The Marc Pease Experience after its specialty division Paramount Vantage was shuttered, preferring instead to throw studio weight behind Vantage's other orphaned comic vehicle, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. Stiller's bigger summer comedy, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, opened to $70 million. Marc Pease's opening weekend? $3,000.
Killshot
High-profile talent: Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Diane Lane
This Elmore Leonard crime adaptation is a famous Weinstein Company dump: Originally slated for release in March 2006, the studio pushed it back several times before announcing a DVD release in 2008. Then, when Rourke's star was resurrected by The Wrestler, the Weinsteins briefly reconsidered, promising theatrical bows that would capitalize on Rourke's heat in November 2008 and then January 2009. It was not to be, however, as the film went straight to DVD this past May. That's a rough way to treat Killshot director John Madden, who was once a Weinstein golden boy after delivering them a Best Picture Oscar for Shakespeare in Love in 1998.
Fragments
High-profile talent: Dakota Fanning, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, Kate Beckinsale
After winning Oscars in 2006, Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson surely had their pick of high-profile projects; unfortunately for them, they chose Winged Creatures, which limped into a handful of theaters two years after its 2007 shoot under the name Fragments. An ensemble drama filled with big stars like Dakota Fanning and Kate Beckinsale, Fragments had the misfortune of being clumsily handled by Peace Arch Entertainment, an outfit that previously buried films like The Deal, a comedy starring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan, and Watching the Detectives with Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu.
The Maiden Heist
High-profile talent: Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, William H. Macy, Marcia Gay Harden
This $20 million heist comedy can boast a raft of highly-awarded stars, but one thing it doesn't have is a theatrical release. Instead, it's going straight-to-DVD next month thanks to bankrupted producer Bob Yari (Crash). When Yari's independent distribution unit imploded last year, he tried to find a studio who'd pick up Maiden Heist, but none bit (not helping matters was his early decision to sell off ancillary rights to Sony, since no studio wanted to take a chance on an adult-targeted comedy without DVD and pay-TV profits down the line).
Carriers
High-profile talent: Chris Pine
Hey Chris Pine, you've become one of Hollywood's brightest young stars after playing Captain Kirk in Star Trek! How will Trek's parent company Paramount reward you for your success? By dumping your thriller Carriers after briefly exhuming it to draft off your Trek heat. The post-apocalyptic virus thriller was tossed out of the studio this month like a pesky stowaway thrown from Spock's ship. Better luck next time, Captain.