10 Great Directors Who Made Terrible Debut Films

2. Doug Liman - Getting In

Fear And Desire
TriMark

Doug Liman is somewhat of an underrated director with hits across a wide variety of genres from gritty action film The Bourne Identity to Brangelina action comedy Mr & Mrs Smith.

However, his first film was black comedy Getting In starring a pre-Friends Matthew Perry and this very nearly ended his career. One critic noted of this ill-fated 1994 film it was a "series of predictable clichéd situations and jokes that would hardly make anyone laugh." Who could have predicted that this failed director would go on to collaborate with Tom Cruise on Edge of Tomorrow, American Made and even direct the action star in his upcoming outer-space film? Certainly not Liman.

Thankfully Liman was given a second chance when unknown actor Jon Favreau showed him a script he had written based on his struggles as an actor in Hollywood which was called Swingers. This cult classic comedy introduced the world to Favreau and Vince Vaughn while proving Liman was a force to be reckoned with.

Contributor

An avid cinephile, love Trainspotting (the film, not the hobby), like watching bad films ironically (The Room, Cats) and hate my over-reliance on brackets (they’re handy for a quick aside though).