The mere fact of having directed the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy already guarantees Peter Jackson a very special place in the hearts of many movie lovers. However, his filmography is not limited to his forays into Middle Earthalthough precisely the trilogy of ‘The Hobbit’ led to the biggest failure of his career being only acting as producer and co-writer of ‘Mortal Engines’.
Jackson himself commented at the time that ‘Mortal Engines’ “It is a very big and ambitious film“and that his initial plan was to direct it when he took over the rights to the novel by Philip Reeve around 2007. Other projects caused it to be postponed and finally he entrusted the reins to Christian Riverswith whom he had been collaborating since the days of the unforgettable ‘Braindead. Your mother has eaten my dog’.
a real disaster
On paper, ‘Mortal Engines’ should have been a huge success, as Rivers had several members of the production team behind the hits of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’, not forgetting that Jackson signed the dash next to Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, Why, then, did a film destined to be a box office success end up being one of the biggest flops in the history of science fiction cinema?
It is clear that the very bad reviews that ‘Mortal Engines’ received did not help, to which we must add that it was not based on a literary work with so many fans throughout the planet. And of course, the fact that Jackson was not directing did not play in his favor either, but perhaps the most determining factor was that it was released the same weekend as ‘Spider-Man: A New Universe’, a universally loved film that was easily made with the number 1 at the US box office, while ‘Mortal Engines’ barely reached fifth place.
That led to any possible plans to continue the story were annulled. Because there were, but Jackson already made it clear several months before its premiere that “As for whether or not to go ahead with the others, it is out of our hands.while Boyens noted that “It has to work as a movie, because there may only be one. I hope that is not the case, because I think that the saga is getting better all the time“.
Maybe it would have helped to have a star in your cast? It may be, because it is true that there were familiar faces, but Hugo Weaving or Stephen Lang they are not actors who take people to the movies with their presence, while the career of Robert Sheehan he was still going through that slump he suffered in the interval between leaving ‘Misfits’ and the release of ‘The Umbrella Academy’, while Regé-Jean Page He would still have to wait to jump to stardom thanks to ‘The Bridgertons’. AND hera hilmarthe great protagonist, was not up to the task of leading a production of this magnitude.
That Hollywood would have squeezed literature endlessly young adultt also weighed, because ‘Mortal Engines’ came after seeing how several franchises were launched and abandoned before reaching their end. In many cases, like the one at hand -or ‘Powerful Minds’ that same year-, it never went beyond the first installment, but there are also more bloody cases like that of lionsgate Going from closing ‘The Divergent series’ with the adaptation of the latest novel.
All this led to barely grossed $83.7 million worldwide when its budget far exceeded 100 million. In fact, it is estimated that it generated losses of almost 175 million and there are only a handful of titles that can “presume” to exceed that amount. About the bloodiest case of all we already spoke to you very recently.
Of course, his failure in the United States has no rival, since there he barely received 15.9 million dollars, so little that even ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’, the documentary about World War I this time directed by Jackson himself, grossed more (17.9 million) when it was released shortly after. Curious way to embarrass yourself.
It was useless for Reeve to show his support for the film weeks before its premiere commenting that “I’ve seen ‘Mortal Engines’ twice this week and it’s great. Christian Rivers has done a fantastic job: a massive, visually stunning action movie with perfect pacing and a genuine emotional core. See it on the biggest screen you can“. There were very few who were as enthusiastic about the film as he was, but if you haven’t seen it, today you have an unbeatable opportunity, since It is broadcast on La 1 starting at 11:15 p.m., just after the Champions League soccer final.
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