8 Movies That Got Directors Fired From Other Movies

If you don't remember 2015's Peter Pan origin story Pan, don't feel bad.

Despite being directed by the talented Joe Wright (Atonement) and starring Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard, while rocking a $150 million budget no less, the film was rinsed by critics and largely ignored by audiences, such that it's almost evaporated from the cultural consciousness entirely.

But the wider implication was that Pan ended up derailing the next directing gig Wright already had lined up.

While on the press tour for Pan, Wright had been tacitly hired to direct Emperor, a Julius Caesar biopic, for Lionsgate. But as soon as Pan's box office figures came through, those talks were abruptly put to an end.

Despite several sources corroborating the story, Wright's reps and Emperor's producers naturally denied that a hiring or firing had ever taken place.

Regardless, Wright quickly rebounded with the phenomenally successful, Oscar-winning Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour, while there haven't been any updates on Emperor since 2015.