After watching Boss Level and Cop Shop it's absolutely crazy to me studios are not lining up to throw money at Carnahan to direct big blockbuster movies. His action set pieces and choreography are top notch and his scripts recently are just perfect.

Submitted by herewego199209 t3_ycwcox in movies

Does anyone know if he's kind've blacklisted in Hollywood? He was attached to a ton of shit like Mission Impossible 3, Bad Boys 3, the daredevil reboot before Fox cancelled it, etc but it seems like after A-team bombed studios just have shied awa from him despite just a decade+ of really good smaller scale action movies that are outstanding on shoe-string budgets. It's really fascinating that certain directors with half the filmography or talent are getting huge movies while Carnahan is stuck making b-movies.

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darkness_escape t1_itoscqo wrote

He actually refuses to support Copshop. Him and Frank basically claim Butler hijacked the movie and they have distanced themselves from it.

I have never seen a better movie in my life that a director and star want nothing or little to deal with

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herewego199209 OP t1_itosshz wrote

That's strange because I think Cop Shop is the best movie he's ever made next to Narc. Sometimes directors getting control stripped from them makes for a better movie. It's like the Edward Norton story on American History X where Norton basically took over the movie and the editing and kicked the director off the movie and the movie actually got better because of it.

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darkness_escape t1_itosw9g wrote

Also Karl Urban said Alex Garland was more of a director on Dredd than the credited director

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herewego199209 OP t1_itot2x2 wrote

Yeah the Garland story is now infamous like the Spielberg actually directing Poltergeist instead of Toby Hooper, but in this case Garland is up front with being pissed about not getting a directors credit on Dredd.

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bobpetersen55 t1_itowhns wrote

I watched this for the first time last week and the ending, specifically the last five minutes, felt out of place. Maybe besides shrinking down Grillo's role, Gerard Butler had a hand in making that ambiguous ending on the highway with him and the cop waiting in the ambulance. It was just an odd way to finish a great movie and it felt like it was tacked on or reshoot in post production. That's just my take on this whole debacle.

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StudBoi69 t1_itoz2ev wrote

Carnahan has a reputation for clashing with major studio heads (he even wrote a scathing, profanity-laced email to an MGM exec when he had to bow out of the Death Wish remake). He's burned every bridge he could in mainstream Hollywood.

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MalignantFanAccount t1_itthx18 wrote

Oh God, I forgot about that. Yeah, he should be happy he's still getting to make anything.

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ithinkther41am t1_itp42zb wrote

I don’t know if he’s blacklisted, but his letter to the studio that made the Death Wish remake probably didn’t do him any favours.

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Other-Marketing-6167 t1_itq8wc0 wrote

He’s one of my faves, yeah. Narc, The Grey, and Smokin Aces are some of the best films of the last 22 years.

He doesn’t always nail it, but I like that you can tell he’s always trying. He swings for the fences in enjoyable ways.

As others have said, he’s also a volatile dude who has burned a lot of bridges. His hero is William Freidken, and if Carnahan had started out the same time as he had, he’d be fine.

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Sonny_Crockett_1984 t1_itrnsxd wrote

Friedkin made 3 masterpieces in the 70s then his career went to shit. Some artists just don't do well working with studios and executives.

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Scarns_Aisle5 t1_itrjeo2 wrote

To me, David Leitch is what Joe Carnahan probably wants to be. In many ways Bullet Train is like Smokin Aces but with more bureaucracy

Copshop was pretty good. Much better than smokin aces (which was fine).

Stretch is certainly an interesting project

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Thatoneasian9600 t1_itosxln wrote

Would love to see Joe Carnahan do something like Narc.

That intro still gives me chills to this day.

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HPmoni t1_itozr4c wrote

A Team flopped. Death Wish was shit. It really was.

Unless you're named Zac Snyder, you can't make flops.

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TheDadThatGrills t1_itqoead wrote

Wrath of Man fits into this same mold and was Jason Straham's best film in years

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pickles55 t1_ityvtxu wrote

A lot of times action scenes and choreography are handled by someone other than the director, that may have something to do with it

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