WTF Happened To This Movie

In this episode of "WTF Happened To This Movie," we look back at what happened to director Paul Verhoeven's now-classic sci-fi epic, STARSHIP TROOPERS! Initially released in 1997, the film was hated by critics and quickly fell out of the Box-office Top 10 after debuting at number 1. The film starred a young cast comprised of Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, Jake Busey, Dina Meyer, and Clancy Brown. The adaptation of the award-winning novel by Robert A. Heinlein was plagued with production problems that saw its release date pushed back several times. The film barely recouped its reported $105-million production costs in its initial release. But, once it hit home video, the movie's ultra-violent action, savvy satirical perspective, and amazing visual effects turned it into a revered cult classic. Which leaves us to ask the question, WTF Happened To This Movie?

In this episode of WTF Happened to This Movie we look back at what happened to David Fincher's feature film debut and sequel to the Alien series, Alien 3. Met with critical backlash and fan rage over the death of key characters, as well as a claustrophobic setting, Alien 3 quickly became the Black Sheep of the franchise, but later gained a cult following with a longer cut released and a revisit after Alien: Resurrection, the 4th sequel, failed to right any wrongs of the past.

In this episode of "WTF Happened To This Movie," we look at what happened to John Carpenter's 1986 martial arts fantasy action pic "Big Trouble In Little China," starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrell, Dennis Dun, James Hong, and Victor Wong. 20th Fox century tapped John Carpenter to direct the film. Armed with a relatively large budget of $25-million, the director who had recently turned down the chance to helm a little movie called Top Gun reunited with actor Kurt Russell to create an action-packed martial arts masterpiece.  But the film became a massive box-office bomb making only $10-million in its initial run and debuting out of the Top Ten. What happened? How did a movie that became one of the biggest cult classics of all time fail? We'll find out in this episode of "WTF Happened To This Movie."

In this week's episode of WRF Happened to This Movie we take a deep dive into the long road to the big-screen success of DEADPOOL, starring Ryan Reynolds. The movie ended up a worldwide phenomenon, so why did it take to long to happen? Why was the rating so important? What kept Ryan Reynolds chasing the project for so long, even after a failed first attempt at a superhero role? Time to make the chimichangas and find out!

In this episode of WTF Happened To This Movie, host Ian Jentzsch dives into the insane production and release 1993's videogame adaptation of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros., starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper. Hoskins famously called the film the worst" he'd ever done and Hopper said it was a "nightmare" to work on. The movie flopped at the box office and was a critical failure, now residing in a weird kind of cult status. So, What The F*ck Happened To This Movie?

The screenplay for Waterworld floated around Hollywood for over a decade until an ambitious Academy Award Winning director and actor by the name of Kevin Costner decided that he had what it took to make an epic action-packed film the likes of which Hollywood had never seen. But Kevin was in for a rude awakening as a perfect storm developed over the project that seemed hell-bent on sinking his most ambitious film to date. Hurricanes, cost overruns, and bitter arguments with his film-making partner threatened to not only torpedo Waterworld before it even hit the big screen, but also his career. Join us as we talk a look at What The F*$@ Happened to Water World.

In this episode of WTF happened to this movie host Ian Michael Jentzsch takes a deep dive into the troubled production of Josh Trank's 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four, starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell to unravel just what went wrong with this superhero disaster.

In this episode of WTF happened to this movie, we take a deep into James Cameron's 1989 underwater sci-fi thriller THE ABYSS, which stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The film was a tremendous undertaking to make and one that Cameron has called the worst production of his career, while Ed Harris, who nearly drowned while filming, still refuses to discuss the film publicly. It wasn't quite a box office disaster, but certainly not a massive success, especially compared to Cameron's later films, all of which have been blockbusters.

In this episode of WTF Happened To This Movie we take a look at the journey of Wonder Woman from the comic page to the big screen. After 20-years in development hell and numerous false starts, along with several high profile directors and actresses tied to the project, we find out why 2017's Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins, starring Gal Gadot was well worth the wait,

Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: WTF Happened To This Movie? For this episode, we take a look at the oft-forgotten turbulent production of Toy Story 2, which suffered many disagreements, changes and even the loss of 90 percent of the film at one point. Find out how one of the most beloved Pixar films almost never happened!

This episode we dive into the tumultuous production of Superman II, which saw director Richard Donner fired and replaced by Richard Lester, which caused a series of massive changes that disrupted Donner's original vision for the film. Decades later, The "Donner Cut" would be released and more light was shed on what went down during production.

Our latest episode goes to a galaxy far, far away with ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, which had a troubled production when director Gareth Edwards was "helped" by writer/director Tony Gilroy with heavy reshoots and restructuring that may well have been the factor that made the film such a big hit. Join host Ian Michael Jentzsch as he lights speed into this fascinating tale of production woes that ended up making a box office smash!

Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: WTF Happened To This Movie?