Hollywood is a famously cut-throat place, where anyone is only as good as their last movie. Todays big star could be struggling to land a supporting role on a CSI spin-off in a few years, if they rack up a few flops in a row. Its a business that values money over talent and creativity; if you keep making money for the studios you get to have a career and if not, then good luck with your future endeavours. Directors of huge tentpole movies know this pressure better than anyone, because if it fails the blame always falls on them. It doesnt matter if the studio messed around with it during production, or the star was a jerk that made everything difficult; its the directors name in the credits, so it must be all their fault. When filmmaker's find themselves with such a public and more importantly, costly failure on their hands, theyre said to have been sent to Movie Jail. If they were in demand before then their phones will stop ringing, and it could take years for them to get another movie going. The spectre of that failure could follow them the rest of their careers, and they may never get a chance to redeem themselves. This is an ugly situation to be trapped in, as in most cases the failure was completely out of their hands. Here are some of the more high profile examples of directors landing themselves in "jail", and have yet to be granted parole.
