I’ve heard nothing but complaints regarding Waterworld since the film’s release, but I’ve never understood it. The film is epic to me and it’s aged SO well! Costner was such a great action hero during the 90s. Would’ve been cool to see him as a superhero back then.
And The Postman is another great epic. Kinda like Waterworld on land in a lot of ways. Costner kicks butt in it and I greatly enjoyed seeing Tom Petty in it. Unfortunately both that and Robin Hood are Warner releases, so not sure if Arrow could ever release them (MAYBE Shout Factory on this side of the pond).
Here's what I remember about the production.
First Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991) The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds who was friends with Costner. There were problems on the set (because of the accent perhaps) and reports were that Costner took over the film at some point either in the editing room or earlier, having removed Reynolds. They had a falling out.
So then comes Waterworld and Kevin Reynolds is back again as the director. This time they won't have the problems they had on Robin Hood. Except, well they did. Again Costner doesn't like the way things are going and wants things done his way (remember Costner won Best Director and Dances With Wolves won Best Picture at the Academy Awards), causing massive budget overruns, until Reynolds finally quits (or Costner has him removed again, I don't remember which) and takes over directing himself or for reshoots, as well as editing.
And back then like today, when egos take over and things go bad, everything is reported in the media. So the backlash had to do with how this was the most expensive movie ever made up to that time (until Titanic just 2 years later) and people were probably expecting another Dances With Wolves and instead got "Kevin's Gate" or "Fishtar" as the trade papers were calling it. And you know the media loves to build the stars up and then tear them down.
After rumors got out that director Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Costner had a huge squabble over the film, resulting in Reynolds walking off the project and left Costner to finish it, Reynolds was quoted as saying that "Kevin should only star in movies he directs. That way he can work with his favorite actor and favorite director".
The trades were reporting on how the movie could never possibly make back the budget and that was before the movie was ever released. Made for $175,000,000 it only brought in $88,246,220 in the U.S. The Worldwide Gross: $264,218,220. They say now that with home video sales Waterworld eventually made a profit of $8 million. I don't know when that figure was reported so it could be more now.
Interesting Fact:
Seventeen years after this movie was released Kevin Costner worked with Kevin Reynolds on Hatfields & McCoys (2012).
j/k
