Boy oh boy, let me tell you two stories about actors and bad contracts. The first is about The Italian Job (2003), Mr. Edward Norton, and Paramount Pictures…
In 1995, Edward Norton was an unknown actor getting ready to film his debut role in Primal Fear. His contract for this film stated that he had to make two more films for Paramount after this one. Studios like to do this in case an unknown ends up really soaring at the box office. They secure their salary early so that they don’t have to readjust based on box office draw later.
Primal Fear was a HIT, and Edward Norton was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his film debut.
Norton would go on to be nominated again just a few years later for American History X (1998) and (while he was robbed of that Oscar) Fight Club (1999) solidified his status as a major star.
His second film with Paramount was The Score (2001). It was solid, but not as good as Primal Fear. Then the third film…
Norton was offered a role in Paramount’s planned remake of The Italian Job (1969). He wasn’t interested. Paramount wanted some star power in their remake, and it had been 8 years since he signed his original contract that he still hadn’t fulfilled. So Paramount threatened to sue him for breach of contract if he didn’t appear in the film.
Norton was very unhappy with being forced to star in a film. So he refused to do any promotion after filming finished, and subtly badmouthed it at every opportunity.
It isn’t that bad of a film, but I get why he would want to turn it down. He was the best part of it.
The second story is about Emily Blunt, Gulliver’s Travels (2009), and Fox Pictures.
Emily Blunt, a true gem in Hollywood, was in Fox 2000’s classic 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. She was fantastic but…
a part of her contract stipulated that she had to appear in another Fox 2000 film at some point in the future.
When you’re an actor trying to break-out, a guaranteed second role with a major studio sounds great right?
Wrong
In 2009, Blunt was signed on to appear in Iron Man 2 (2010) as Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow
Unfortunately for poor Emily, Fox 2000 had found the perfect film to make her appear in: Gulliver’s Travels (2010). While at the beginning the studios tried to accommodate a dual filming schedule, it just wasn’t feasible And because she was contractually obligated to appear in Gulliver’s Travels, she had to drop out of Iron Man 2 and was replaced by Scarlett Johansson. And instead, she starred in one of the worst movies ever made.
Poor girl. If only they had just picked another film…