10 Directors Who Absolutely Hated Their Own Movies

In the mid-nineties, the notion of the Summer blockbuster had been elevated thanks to the enormous success of Jurassic Park (1993). And thanks to his roles in the likes of Dances With Wolves (1990) and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991), Kevin Costner was one actor with some serious star power come the middle of the decade. He was also an Oscar winning director (Dances With Wolves), and had already been part of the production team on a number of successful movies by the time he was brought in to help create and take the leading role in Waterworld.

However, directing the movie had been assigned to Kevin Reynolds, who Costner had previously worked with on Robin Hood. The relationship of the two creatives would become incredibly strained by the difficult production and spiralling costs of Waterworld, as the reality of creating a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-style adventure movie on water became all too apparent. Costner fought to gain more control of the creative process using his star power to insist on script rewrites and the reshooting of scenes.

Director Reynolds would eventually walk during pre-production, allowing his former friend the opportunity to finish editing the movie in his own image. Costner focused on the action sequences of the film rather than the essential world building, and as reported in The Daily Express, Reynolds would famously remark at the time, “Kevin should only star in movies he directs. That way he can work with his favourite actor and director”.