Two-time Oscar winner's career almost killed by most expensive film ever made

Daily Mirror

5 hours ago

The 1995 post-apocalyptic action film Waterworld was dubbed as the most expensive film ever made - but it nearly ruined two-time Oscar winner Kevin Costner's career
The 1995 post-apocalyptic action flick Waterworld caused quite a stir when it premiered, but for all the wrong reasons.
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Labelled as the priciest film ever produced, the Kevin Costner-led movie nearly sank the career of the two-time Oscar winner.
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Helmed by Kevin Reynolds and penned by Peter Rader and David Twohy, the film was based on Rader's original 1986 script. Costner also served as a producer alongside John Davis and Charles Gordon.
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Set in a far-off, post-apocalyptic future where the polar ice caps have entirely melted and sea levels have surged over 7,600 metres (25,000 feet), Waterworld centres around a nameless antihero known only as 'The Mariner', who navigates the submerged Earth in his trimaran.
Waterworld's reported production budget was a staggering $172 million, which ballooned to a total expenditure of $235 million once marketing and distribution costs were added. Despite earning the title of the most expensive film ever made at the time and becoming the ninth-highest grossing film of 1995, the Kevin Reynolds-directed film was still deemed a box-office flop, reports the Express.
The film eventually turned a profit - thanks to home video sales, TV broadcast rights, and other revenue streams - yet it was still viewed as a letdown at the box-office. It even scored an Oscar nomination for Best Sound at the 68th Academy Awards.
The film's launch resulted in the creation of four themed attractions named WaterWorld at Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Singapore, Universal Studios Japan, and Universal Studios Beijing. Computer games and a book adaptation also followed the movie's debut.
Featuring Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, Michael Jeter, Jack Black, and Gerard Murphy, Waterworld struggled with reviewers. This alongside its cinema takings upon launch meant it was deemed a flop, particularly within Academy Award winner Kevin Costner's body of work.
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The picture's poor critical and box office reception sparked doubts about Costner's appeal as a headline star - given the production was the most costly movie ever produced at that point.
With a 59 per cent critics approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, film writers weren't particularly taken with the expensive cinema venture, as one reviewer wrote: "Far from being the magnificent bomb many had predicted, Waterworld is worse. It's mediocre, and that just won't do."
Another critic added: "What the mind remembers of the film is simply water, and everything else - the action, the romance, the pseudo-green politics, the strenuous special effects - amounts to words written on water."
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One critic remarked on the film's cost, saying: "With its wisp of a story and its even greater wisp of an action star, Waterworld will be remembered more for its cost than for its achievement."
Audience reviews were equally unimpressed, with one viewer writing: "A totally passable and forgettable action movie. I liked the villain, he seemed to be the only actor really trying, but besides that it's all low effort 90's cheese, and it just so happened to be the most expensive movie ever at the time".
Another viewer added: "I waited nearly 30 years to watch this film. I heard it was bad. How bad could it be? It's awful."
Waterworld can be rented on Amazon Prime Video for £3.49.