The Director: Jan De Bont was the cinematographer for Die Hard, amongst other things, before he moved into directing. He landed a perfect high concept idea with Speed, which combined a great script (Joss Whedon was among the writers) with tense action. He followed that up with Twister, before deciding that the world needed a Speed 2. The Crime: Speed 2: Cruise Control already faced an uphill battle when Keanu Reeves turned it down, finding the cruise ship idea stupid. He wasnt wrong in fairness; the movie was a dull repeat of the original and most audiences couldnt get past the stupidity of the idea. The film was a flop upon release, with even Sandra Bullock disowning it. The Sentence: De Bont was a competent journeyman director, so he got given a couple of assignments that nobody else wanted. After the one-two punch of The Haunting and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life everyone lost his number, and he hasnt directed anything since 2003.
