I always found it kind of ridiculous that a director is expected to make hit after hit all in a row with no mistakes at all. It's not realistic.

The fact that Zack Snyder still has an active career despite the fact he hasn't made a profitable and well received movie since 300 is astonishing.

I believe in Damien Chazelle.

It's way too soon to say either way with Damien Chazelle or James Mangold. But I'm shocked no one here has mentioned Tom Hooper with Cats. Guy won an Oscar for directing and hasn't even been heard of since Cats.

Babylon was released in a time where counter programming doesn’t exist. Babylon should’ve done moderately well (though the high budget would always be an issue) as the adult drama placed against the general audience big blockbuster, but the previous Christmas had a similar situation with West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, and Nightmare Alley all being major flops against Spider-Man. The barbenheimer meme was so large that we had an exception, but otherwise it’s been hard for non IP blockbusters to compete against the tent poles in the current times.

I hope Damien Chazelle makes another low budget movie. Whiplash proved he can do a lot with a little.

All of Kubrick’s movies made studios money, that’s why studios gave him what ever he wanted . . Ridley Scott has a much more erratic box office record but when he hit big, it was huge.

May Denis Villeneuve have all the time and money he needs. May his audience have the intelligence to grant him the successes he deserves.

Francis Ford Coppola is another big director who was put in movie jail for One from the Heart

Babylon is still a masterpiece to me. 🎬

It's insane how much money La La Land made for an old fashioned musical.

Hollywood is a dark place man, if a struggling director refuses to take the studio's shitty project then that director is banned to ever work in the industry. Same goes for the actors and the actresses. A proper puppet technique.

Damien Chazelle isn’t even in movie jail. He has a new movie at Paramount slated for next year. Budget is smaller, but he is still working with the same studio

Singer didn't direct Dark Phoenix, it was Simon Kinberg

Damien Chazelle's career is not wrecked lol. He's already got another in the movie in the works and signed a deal with Paramount post-Babylon. Every great director misses once in a while.

The biggest problem with Babylon, was its marketing along with its name. All they were showing in trailers were people dancing, drinking, having sex and doing drugs. . There was no interesting dialogue or premise of what the movie was really about in its marketing. So, no one showed up.

Chazelle is a generational talent. He’s not going away anytime soon.

Surely Alex Cox is the best example of a director in movie jail. Walker was so controversial it wrecked his career completely

JJ Abrams seems to be in movie jail as well post ROS.

Couldn't get past the elephant shitting and the guy getting pissed on within the first 10 minutes of Babylon. First Man is so underrated.

people seem to forget it but Akira Kurosawa was in director jail in Japan in the mid to late 70's after Dodeskaden and quitting/fired from Tora Tora Tora. He was only able to get KAGEMUSHA made because Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg came to the rescue.

Robert Townsend is another great example. Hollywood shuffle was a movie made for 40 to 60K. To be more specific he maxed out his credit cards. The return on the movie was 5 million dollars… that’s insane. Next thing you know he’s making a big budget movie called meteor man with pretty much every black celebrity except Denzel, Washington and Wesley Snipes . The film cost 20 million to make and it’s returned was a poultry eight Million. He never truly had a shot to make a big budget film again.

Chazzelle will be fine he has stuff lined up. Also babylon is underrated

I wonder if when a movie is ruined by studio interference, the executives/vps responsible are also put in 'executive jail' just like a director would. It seems unfair that when a director fails is personally crucified, but when a studio fails, nobody really seems to be held accountable. Convenient double standard that results in the same incompetent studio people being involved and running into the ground dozens of projects behind the scenes and then blaming the contractors, and now even the audience. They are really running out of excuses tho at this point.

The saddest part of this is that Damien Chazelle's Babylon is one of the best films I've ever seen in this century. I still believe that he will survive through movie jail fairly easily.

This is a superbly put together video, i look forward to seeing more of what you produce.

James Mangold is already on his way directing his next movie A Complete Unknown about musician and singer Bob Dylan. Despite the poor box office performance of Dial of Destiny (which I did like then most people), Mangold has proven himself on and off that he can make studio movies in various genres and budgets to both commercial and critical success. One of the reasons he managed to move from Dial of Destiny to A Complete Unknown is because he was already attached to make the latter around the same time he was asked to do Dial of Destiny. So he was always going to jump to A Complete Unknown no matter what, and he’s currently filming it right now. However, I do think it’s very obvious that budget for A Complete Unknown is not anyway near the 250 to 300 plus million dollar range 😂.

I really tried to like Babylon, but it felt like overflowing visual bloat with a bunch of pretty pictures, and the story was hugely boring around the cast. I understand that the narrative style was almost like the rhythm of a musical, but despite its massive visual style, it felt really hollow. But maybe I'm alone in my opinion.

I never knew that M. Night Shamamalan took out a loan against his house just to make The Visit and another loan to make Split. That’s some hardcore dedication that paid off. He basically flexed on everyone saying that he’s still got it. Not every film he makes will be a hit, but I’m always eager to see whatever he’s cookin. M. Night or BUST!

About as comprehensive as one could get describing the modern state of Hollywood. Great vid!

The thing that's lowkey upsetting is Babylon was a really good movie and maybe if the marketing wasn't so bad and it was released earlier in the year (or even the next year) it could've been a humongous box office success and another Oscar success but I think the main thing that brought Babylon down was the god awful marketing. Babylon deserved better!

Subbed! Great content, analysis and uour final points are so well said.

I’d rather watch Babylon then Way of Water any day.

if youre gonna make a 3 hour long movie you gotta bring back the early 1900s practice of INTERMISSIONS, some of us gotta pee and would rather watch that stuff at home so we can pause

Thank god there’s such a thing as independent films.

Shyamalan is a risk taker, loves what he does, not for everyone but great choices from him. His choice to put his house on mortgage could have been a disaster but it paid of in the long run.

Okay if you directed whiplash I think you should get a one bad movie free pass

Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!

While no one likes studio interference, sometimes a director needs to know how to play the game or get out of the ballpark. It's one thing to expect unlimited control on your low-risk indie film, but when you're granted big studio money, especially early in your career, you need to tread lightly, and always expect those people to interfere at any chance since they're the one pulling the strings, not you. Some directors understand this, and know how to compromise or work within their limitations, and often have prolonged successful careers because of it. Butting heads with the executives and financers is almost always a guaranteed path to movie jail.

Fantastic video man! 🙌

I love Babylon than most of the director's movies so no idea why it's so hated.

This was well explained. You had my distracted mind unusually focused lol thanks

Really interesting, I had never before heard of "Movie Jail" though it makes sense and could explain why some new directors I enjoy (that don't make blockbusters though) tend to disappear really quickly or enter the indie scene. If I can give some constructive criticism may I recommend trying to have some more fluctuation in your voice? It's soft and nice to hear but tends to be a bit monotone. Fantastic video nonetheless, loved it :) super informative and gave a lot of info but made it super easy to consume.

Great video. Just a little advice: consider improving the audio, cause I could barely make out what you said sometimes.

Babylon being his downfall is just so ironic and poetic lol

The story of Heaven's Gate is more telling than that. UA took outside money on the production, not unusual, but they took part in dealing with Cimino, which meant he was directly funded by first-time producers from completely outside the industry. As filming went along, spending more and more, the newbies stepped in and demanded to know where all the money was going. Cimino showed them a "sizzle reel" filled with beautiful shots that were put together with painstaking detail, so much detail that he described the clothing on extras being handmade and period correct for the time. This looked and sounded amazing to the producers, so they just let him go. They didn't get dailies, and they didn't ask questions after that, assuming he would blow the market away with his passion project. UA had little to do with the actual production. Amateurs. Yeah, Cimino went crazy with the money, and everyone got what was coming to them. EVERY movie needs cost controls. Dealing with them effectively is half the creativity of the profession. On that subject, RIP Roger Corman, we need him now more than ever. There's no GOOD reason we shouldn't have an army of low-budget auteurs slamming together original films for $250k all over the streaming services.

Amsterdam and Babylon looked like something I would watch and then feel bad about my life lol, I’ll pass

Great video! Thanks!

Bryan Singer was not involved with Dark Phoenix. He was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody with roughly 3 weeks left of production and hasn't directed a new film since. Bohemian Rhapsody, I should add, made over $900 million on a roughly $50 million budget, while also winning the Golden Globe for Best Drama and 4 of the 5 Oscars it was nominated for. I should also mention that Dark Phoenix was held back by BOTH Fox during and Disney after their merger and the last 40 minutes of the movie were completely scrapped, re-written and re-filmed so that elements originally intended for the film could be directed toward other MCU properties. Disney brought in a ghost crew to finish it up, as many of the people that started working on the film were let go when Disney took over. It was originally meant to be a two-part film, but Disney ultimately had it sent off to die so they could integrate the X-Men brand back into their mainstream Marvel media.

studios putting a director in movie jail when they were the ones who chose to release a film during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC is absolutely insane.

Your narration-style is an interesting choice.

This is a very intelligent and well produced video. I would suggest that more than a director’s hits in defining their ability is their failures. Hits are usually the result of many contributions, not just the directors’s. Failures usually reveal the director’s inabilities. Babylon was so horrifically bad that I think it indicates Chazelle’s serious limitations. AI imagery will end the myth of the auteur theory. It will prove that the most important element of any film is the screenplay. However, most successful films today are adaptations of novels, comic books, video games, or plays, so even the Hollywood screenwriter will be debunked as AI requires original stories which only a handful of writers can create.

Director Martin Brest came off the spectacular "Meet Joe Black" with "Gili." He never worked again.

Gore Verbisnki did 3 masterpieces ( Pirates of Caribbean) then just....well. Hope he gets out of Jail 😂

Paul Schrader is a good example of a guy who's been to movie jail multiple times, but always managed to stay up directing low budget stuff and come back with a banger after a while. Richard Kelly is one very sad example. Southland Tales was an ahead-of-the-time masterpiece that was sadly misunderstood and messed up theatrically. I hope with the recent resurgence of Southland Tales and its growing cult status he will get another chance - he hasn't done anything since The Box. One person who was in movie jail for around a decade, which was absolutely criminal, was David Cronenberg - the fact that one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time couldn't manage to get a movie made for almost a decade, had multiple projects cancelled, and had to resort to writing a book and playing supporting characters in TV shows in order to get some money for Crimes of the Future...

Guy Ritchie was another director that went into movie Jail and came back again

I would love a good comeback story for David Robert Mitchell and Richard Kelly. Their get out of jail card after misfires is going back to the movie that made them successful. Mitchell with a sequel to It Follows set to go and Kelly suggesting going back to Donnie Darko for more. Fingers crossed.

Great video. Subscribed.

Great vid!

Wow interesting topic and great video

If there's a "movie jail", then there's a "Get free out of jail" card around because there's also too many writer directors making money despite making sh1t...

What movie is the animated hand pulling a trigger at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="365">6:05</a> from?

Reminds me of Ryan O’Neal character in Irreconcilable Differences. Makes one hit, then his Gone With the Wind musical goes kaput.

Great video

Heavens gate is underrated, it's long and inconsistent, but has moments of absolute beauty

I think with musicals there is a fine line between how much singing is just right and too much. Wonka got it just right, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

No mention of Tom Hopper and his disastrous _Cats_ movie?

Fingers crossed for Rogue Moon 2 being added to the list in the future

I'm surprised that you didn't mention David Robert Mitchell, he directed It Follows and the follow up Under The Silver Lake was basically buried by A24 until it was begrudgingly released on streaming. Such a good movie that sadly wasn't given a proper run by the distributor.

Carl Rinsch, director of 47 Ronin has also been in film jail since. The film cost 175 million and bombed at the box office.

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="806">13:26</a> waiting for a cloud to come into frame sounds reasonable to me

Is it really the directors fault when a film under preforms? I thought the studio was in charge of promoting it for the most part.

I am anticipating the first A.i. directed film. Most of the audience do not appreciate good cinema, they just want something which is mildly entertaining.

Babylon was incredible. What a shame. Here’s to the next one Damien 🎉

there's two good articles online about Phil Joanou and Bob Rafelson (Esquire), both who's strong personalities got them in director jail. Not playing well with others, is probably the bigger crime. The directors who never got out of movie jail were well publicized for being a pain in the ass - Cimino, Trank, Carl Rinsch...

I do find it interesting to note now adays Heaven's Gate got a reevaluation is considered a masterpiece after the studio cut got yeeted

Tom Hooper should have been mentioned, he is also in movie jail after the Cats disaster. I loved this video, thank you for it.

I really had high hopes for *Babylon*

Stephen Sagal proved that anyone who really wants to make a movie can find a way.

Many directors of big-budget films are sabotaged by the very studio they are hired by. There's the "Bait and Switch" where directors have signed on for one vision only to have the studio and producers interfere with the director's vision-either by dropping scenes from the shooting schedule or cutting them out in the edit bay, which can often cause shooting schedule conflicts and a disjointed narrative. These changes can be responsible for an actor's lackluster performance, as changes by the executives does not afford the actor proper preparation or the edit will change the context of the performance. There are the unrealistic time frames put on directors for a release date, which hinders preparation, compromises the location shooting, and can drastically reduce the quality of the special effects both in model building or render time in CGI. Then there's also the marketing aspect. Much of the time, the marketing team will jump onto a trend to market a film and ride on the current hype or style of films which are the flavour of the moment. This is also a "Bait and Switch" but of the audience. When a member of the public pays hard-earned money for a film that is not what is promised due to false advertising and deceptive marketing, can be a devastating blow to the film's success. Thanks to social media, reviews can be published mere minutes after leaving the movie theatre. Word-of-mouth alone of a film employing shady tac-tics in it's advertising can infect a once positive and enthusiastic potential audience to a hostile and defensive non-existent audience. No audience will willfully tolerate that deception. My personal opinion in saving cinema is to completely restructure the industry by drastically reducing the ludicrous salaries by a-list actors. The industry can no longer sustain or bear that amount of budget expense on a single person. The strike rate of success would be higher in making ten moderate-budget movies as opposed to one major blockbuster. Putting all eggs into one basket at that level isn't a very smart strategy, so rehashing already established intellectual property to mitigate potential box-office damage can only work so-many times. Having a few well-received hits or a box-office smash from lower-budget movies can reward massive returns on initial investment, and will continue to pay dividends in ongoing future residuals. Lastly, put the movies back in the hands of the creators. The storyteller is king, provided that his vision is within reason. Too much emphasis has gone into the business side that that the art of filmmaking has been largely lost. If a good story is told and told well, people will pay for it.

But it is a business, money doesn' t allow you to fail.

Dawg Damien Chazelle is far from over, and Babylon was fantastic

Loved this video, and your suggestion to creatives. They do need to realise movies are simultaneously art and business. I just have one suggestion. Please be louder and clearer. The sound quality isn’t up to par

Andrew Dominik deserves a comeback

Babylon is incredible

I'm surprised Francis ford Coppola wasn't mentioned in this video

Actually, jkubrick's budgets were limited in advance, especially after joining Warner, where he spent the rest of his career, but he spent his money better than most filmmakers and that is not commented on enough.

It's important to note that, despite its lousy box office and critical reception, Babylon is a full-on masterpiece. Of Chazelle's four mainstream movies (I haven't seen Guy and Madeleine), he's made three masterpieces and First Man. That's a pretty insane track record.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1122">18:42</a> To my knowledge, Bryan Singer wasn't part of Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix.

M. Night Shyamalan is an interesting one: Sitxh Sense was OUTSTANDING and he never made another movie that impacted culture and movieland like this one. He definetly disappointed every Last Airbender-Fan on the planet but he managed to make DECENT movies. Im not EXCITED about his films but im always interested. The Happening, The Visit, Split, Old and Knock at the Cabin are decent entertaining movies. I was surprised how much his last movies entertained me even though they are on some levels even "dumb". I will definetly see his upcoming movie. Not at the cinema but i will likely rent it on Amazon for 4.99$ when its available for rent. Its cheaper than the cinema but enough excitement to pay for it and not to wait for another year until its somewhere for free on any streaming service. My point, he is NOT a very great director of stardom but he is enough to consider for simple entertainment for a few hours.

battleship might be lose at box office but it is still popular on youtube.

If the biopic doesn't center around the conflict Roosevelt had with journalists, I'm uncertain about its purpose. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1041">17:21</a>

Babylon was a MASTERPIECE. it's so sad more people didn't get it.

Great directors bombs are akin to a great singer making a bad song choice on a competition show. Still talented but stick to what fits if you want to win.

People just need to jump the Hollywood boat and create an entirely new industry to rival it

I read a lots of Babylon critics on RT and I still don’t get why they hate it. For me it’s one of the best in 2022. The most disappointing of that year should be Amsterdam

I remember watching Babylon, I genuinely love the film. I just wish they didn't put the end clip show.

You made a perfect video here. To the point that I think you're an angel in a human body.

Well I learned from this video that the winners of academy awards are rarely because of talent. As long as your politics are in style thats all that matters.

I think It's pretty bold to say Damien Chazelle career is now derailed when his latest film came out 2 years ago. I don't think he is a very good example for the case you're trying to make solely because his flop is so recent. There hasn't been enough time to make the claim that his career is now wrecked.