10 Films That Saved Directors From 'Movie Jail'

David O. Russell has arguably never made a bad movie (under his name anyway) but it is his temperamental nature which has often made him difficult to work with. From headbutting a young George Clooney to infamously calling 63-year-old Lily Tomlin a "c*nt" in a heated argument, Russell's reputation on set nearly destroyed his career very early on.

It was this latter profanity-laden incident leaked from the set of his 2004 box office bomb I Heart Huckabees which did him no favours. Russell attempted to bounce back with his next project entitled Nailed, a comedy featuring Jessica Biel as a waitress who is accidently shot by a nail gun leading to 'hypersexual behaviour' towards Jake Gyllenhaal. The behind-the-scenes drama ended up being more interesting than the eventual film. Production was shut down more than a dozen times, actors were constantly walking off set and the studio eventually went bankrupt. Seven years later, it was released under the new title Accidental Love and credited to 'Stephen Greene', which was met with unanimously terrible reviews.

Luckily for Russell, his previous collaborator Mark Wahlberg was in need of a director for a boxing biopic he was producing and starring in. After a decade of troubled productions and one big box office flop, Russell came back in 2010 with Wahlberg's passion project The Fighter. Alongside earning him his first Oscar nomination for Best Director, The Fighter launched his career resurgence as an Academy Award darling with his subsequent films Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and Joy all picking up nominations.