Flops

I've been looking at a book called Fiasco. A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops by James Parrish and enjoying it immensely. The book looks at the history of Hollywood and highlights some movies that never came close to recouping what was spent making them.

The book looks at a number of movies which includes; Cleopatra, Paint Your Wagon, Popeye, Last Action Hero, Showgirls, Waterworld and Battlefield Earth.

Each movie gets a chapter which details some of the reasons why that particular movie's costs spiralled out of control. Actor's egos, producer follies, expensive locations, labour disputes, weather, lack of a shotable script and many more all played a part in ratcheting the cost skywards.

Hollywood has been responsible for a large number of great films, but it is fun to also look at some of the failures as well. When Hollywood is on its game it can be good, but when its very, very bad it can be great. There are genuine head shaking moments as you realise that yes people can be that stupid, and egotistical. So all in all a good book that you can dive into and read a few chapters and then come back to later and read a few more.