10 Big-Budget Movies That Were Doomed From The Start

What happens when you hand an unproven and woefully unprepared director $175m to make their feature debut with an effects-heavy fantasy blockbuster? Carl Rinsch's 47 Ronin, apparently.

The movie was such a long time coming, and the tales from behind-the-scenes so overwhelmingly negative, that it couldn't possibly be anything other than a total sh*tshow. Originally announced in December 2008, it would be a full five years before 47 Ronin stumbled into theaters, where it quickly became one of the biggest box office bombs in history.

After principal photography had wrapped, an early screening of the movie set alarm bells ringing among Universal executives. They ordered extensive reshoots that increased the presence of Keanu Reeves' character and added a love story, added more action and heavily revised the script. Things came to a head during post-production when it was revealed that Rinsch had been removed from the project entirely, with the budget ballooning up to $225m in the process.

It came as no surprise then when 47 Ronin, a movie plagued for years by nothing but negative buzz, resulted in a massive financial loss for Universal. All told, a box office total of just over $150m was the cause of much embarrassment and just like that, Carl Rinsch's filmmaking career was over before it had even began in earnest.