10 Actors Who Knew The Movie Was Doomed On Day 1
2. Matt Damon - The Great Wall
2016's The Great Wall was a sci-fi monster movie co-produced by American and Chinese movie studios, starring Matt Damon as a European mercenary who joins forces with Chinese warriors to help battle an alien threat emerging by the Great Wall of China.
Despite being directed by the great Zhang Yimou (Hero) and boasting a stellar supporting cast including Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal, The Great Wall received largely negative reviews for both its weirdly boring execution and accusations that it was perpetuating yet another "white saviour" narrative.
Though the film went on to gross $334.9 million globally, its $150 million budget and large marketing spend meant it ultimately failed to turn a profit.
While star Damon has largely kept quiet about the film in the years since, last summer he did break his silence and confirm that he knew the project wasn't working when he saw how director Yimou was being pressured by financiers to change his vision for the film. He said in an interview with Marc Maron:
"I was like, 'This is exactly how disasters happen.' It doesn't cohere. It doesn't work as a movie... I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor: knowing you're in a turkey and going, 'OK, I've got four more months. It's the up at dawn siege on Hamburger Hill. I am definitely going to die here, but I'm doing it.' That's as s**tty as you can feel creatively, I think. I hope to never have that feeling again."
Hilariously, Damon added that his teenage daughter loves to rib him over his failed movies, and even calls The Great Wall simply "The Wall," because in her own words, "there's nothing great about that movie."