10 Worst Films Adapted From Black List Screenplays

One of the most colossal flops in recent cinema history, Keanu Reeves fronted samurai action-fantasy 47 Ronin was a fiasco of momentous proportions practically from start to finish that left studio Universal Pictures floundering in the red in 2013.

Based on a real-life incident in 18th century Japanese history but with added fantastical stuff like dragons and ogres, Chris Morgan’s 47 Ronin script found its way onto the 2008 Black List. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where things went wrong, although the script did undergo significant rewrites under screenwriter Hossein Amini and let’s just say casting Keanu Reeves as a ‘half-breed’ samurai and hiring first-time feature director Carl Rinsch to helm the movie might not have been the best ideas.

Studio interference during filming resulted in more script rewrites and further meddling during the post production stages saw 47 Ronin’s already considerable $175 million budget balloon to $225 million. Unsurprisingly, the final product ended up a muddling mish mash of pseudo-Japanese history and CGI heavy, Western oriented blockbuster that funnily enough failed to impress either Western or Japanese audiences.