10 Breakout Movie Performances That Ultimately Went Nowhere

The Big Break:

A 90s sitcom star best known for playing a dim-witted mechanic on long-running airport comedy Wings, Church channeled his never-quite-made-it energy into the role of past his prime actor Jack in Alexander Payne's bittersweet wine tasting road trip flick Sideways.

The film was a huge success, making over $100 million (a massive amount for a niche indie project about middle aged losers) and having measurable effects on the popularity of varieties of wine grapes. All of its stars were suddenly in huge demand.

Church was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his performance and won an Independent Spirit Award as well as countless critics' awards. He was quickly tapped up to play the villain in the next Spider-Man film (in the mid-2000s the biggest superhero series around).

But Then:

Church's Sandman was actually one of the better things about Spider-Man 3, having a poignant backstory and getting some cutting edge special effects, but he was lost in a mess of other villains and plotlines that meant the movie struggled to win over its audience. His next leading role, in Sandra Bullock comedy All About Eve, was a critical disaster, the movie currently standing at 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and picking up five Razzie nominations.

Church could recently be seen in a tiny flashback cameo as Lobster Johnson in the flop attempt to reboot Hellboy, his clout at getting comic book movie roles significantly reduced since Spider-Man.

Unlike his Sideways co-star Sandra Oh, for whom it was also a breakthrough role but who was able to translate that boost into long-term TV success, most recently with Killing Eve, Church's TV series Divorce was just cancelled after the end of a short 6 episode third season.