Wild Wild West. It's said that if you say its name three times in front of a mirror, Jon Peters appears behind you and talks about mechanical spiders.
Often cited as the worst blockbuster of the late '90s, Wild Wild West's failures is matched only by the venomous hatred in which it's held by its director, cast, even Warner Bros. themselves pretty much hate the thing. Salma Hayek's spoken openly about how much she hated the film, Kevin Kline considered himself too good an actor for the final product.
Will Smith, however, has had the biggest problem with Wild Wild West since it began. Believe it or not, Smith turned The Matrix - yes, THE MATRIX - to star in Wild Wild West. Why? Because he "had so much success that I started to taste global blood and my focus shifted from my artistry to winning."
In a recent interview at Canens, Smith explained that he "wanted to win and be the biggest movie star, and what happened was there was a lag - around Wild Wild West time - I found myself promoting something because I wanted to win versus promoting something because I believed in it."
That's pretty honest. In fact, Smith has said repeatedly that turning down The Matrix was the worst decision of his career and even apologised to Wild Wild West's original star Robert Conrad for the film. Once the dust settled on Wild Wild West, the film made a paltry $222 million off of a budget of close to $180 million and is consigned to the dustbin of modern blockbusters.
Listen, if Will Smith is starting a tour of contrition for films he's made in the past, we'd like to see him apologise for Seven Pounds and After Earth. Those two were just as bad as Wild Wild West. At least Wild Wild West had Kevin Kline in it.
Where is he nowadays, actually?
Via THR
