10 Movies With INSANE Casts You've Never Heard Of
7. All the King's Men
On paper, 2006's political drama All the King's Men had everything it needed to be an incredibly memorable and successful piece of work.
It's written and directed by Oscar-winning Schindler's List writer Steven Zaillian, adapted from a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, and best of all, rocks an almost laughably distinguished cast including Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, James Gandolfini, Patricia Clarkson, Mark Ruffalo, Jackie Earle Haley, Frederic Forrest, and Kevin Dunn.
To recap, that's three Oscar winners (Penn, Winslet, Hopkins) and a stonking five Oscar nominees (Law, Ruffalo, Clarkson, Haley, Forrest), not to ignore the fact that the late, great James Gandolfini is a three-time Emmy winner for his work on The Sopranos.
As for how such a stacked movie can fall below the radar? Reviews were brutal out of the gate, with many criticising Penn's "scenery-chewing" performance as well as Zaillian's surprising failure to make the most of the source material. The critical scorn led to a dire box office, with All the King's Men grossing just $9.5 million worldwide - a pitiful fraction of its sizable $55 million budget.
For Zaillian's part, he admitted to being totally surprised by the hostile response, likening it to "getting hit by a truck."