Rollerball: The Box Office BOMB That Landed Its Director in Jail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTFafY5r9Jk

In today's episode, we'll be discussing the 2002 remake of "Rollerball" directed by John McTiernan.

In 1999, John McTiernan signed on to direct a remake of the 1975 movie "Rollerball" directed by Norman Jewison (originally written by William Harrison). The remake starred Chris Klein (American Pie, Election, We Were Soldiers), LL Cool J (Halloween H20, Deep Blue Sea, S.W.A.T., Charlies Angels), Rebecca Romijn (X-Men, X2, X-Men First Class, Austin Powers, Dirty Work), Jean Reno (Leon The Professional, Flyboys, Da Vinci Code), and Naveen Andrews (Lost, Grindhouse).

The original script for the movie was very similar to the 1975 Rollerball, but expanded upon it with bigger set pieces and more of a focus on dystopian themes. The script received multiple revisions, and in it's final form, focused mostly on the sport of Rollerball with very little social commentary. When shown to test audiences, the film received an extremely negative reaction, so United Artists and MGM advised John McTiernan to re-shoot and re-edit portions of the film. The movie was delayed, and eventually released in February of 2002. Critics and audiences despised the film, and it has since been disowned by John McTiernan.

Years after the movie released, an investigation involving Anthony Pellicano (Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano on FX) revealed that John McTiernan hired him to wiretap and listen in on Charles Roven, producer of Rollerball. After a lengthy investigation and trial, John McTiernan was sentenced to federal prison in 2010 - and was jailed a few years later in 2013. After his release, John directed several short promos for the video game "Ghost Recon Wildlands", and is set to direct his first film in over 20 years, very soon.