10 Directors Who Should Never Be Trusted With Giant Budgets

9. Stephen Sommers

After making his feature debut in 1989 with the $800,000 Catch Me If You Can, Stephen Sommers moved on to write and direct well-received literary adaptations The Adventures of Huck Finn and The Jungle Book for Disney. His next movie, the $45m horror Deep Rising, began a long affinity for poorly-structured genre fare that relied too heavily on special effects. The movie earned just $11.3m at the domestic box office, but despite that disappointment Sommers' convincing pitch to Universal executives saw him given $80m to resurrect the studio's long-dormant Mummy franchise. Earning over $415m worldwide, The Mummy is a strange beast; an old-fashioned adventure that manages to be equal parts entertaining and empty. The movie's success guaranteed a sequel, and The Mummy Returns upped the budget to $98m and essentially delivered more of the same. Still, the movie out-grossed its predecessor, and Sommers decided to continue his relationship with Universal's classic stable of monsters and moved on to Van Helsing. A great idea poorly executed, the unlimited potential of the premise is swallowed up in a bloated $160m blockbuster. Intended as a franchise-starter, lukewarm reception and disappointing box office returns nixed the idea. Sommers' last big-budget release was the unintentionally hilarious GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. Basically a $175m live-action remake of Team America, the movie suffers from the same problems as most of the director's output; poor writing, a nonsensical plot and an over-abundance of visual effects. Barely squeaking past $300m worldwide, Sommers was replaced by John Chu for the sequel. Despite a career as a critically-derided purveyor of vapid studio fare, his movies have nonetheless grossed over $1.5bn at the box office. Ironically his latest movie, Dean Koontz adaptation Odd Thomas, is his cheapest effort in nearly 20 years but legal troubles have seen the movie shelved indefinitely in the States.