10 Movie Franchises That Embarrassed Their Creators

1. Willy Wonka

When Roald Dahl's classic children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first being adapted to the screen, Dahl himself was hired to pen the screenplay.

However, with Hollywood being Hollywood, Dahl's script was ultimately given significant rewrites by David Seltzer, much to Dahl's chagrin.

Dahl was also unsatisfied with Paramount's refusal to hire British comedian Spike Milligan to play Willy Wonka, opting instead for the decidedly more famous Gene Wilder.

Dahl was ultimately so upset by the final film, despite its enormous popularity, that he didn't grant the rights to any further adaptations of his work for many years, and made a legal provision that the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, could never be adapted into a movie.

In 1998, almost a decade after Dahl's death, Warner Bros. finally struck a deal with the Dahl estate to re-adapt Dahl's novel, the result of which was Tim Burton's Johnny Depp-starring equivalent.

While it's obviously impossible to know exactly what Dahl would've made of it, it's tough to believe the film's glossy excess and A-lister casting would've flown well with him.