Line #25 Trivia/Gigli


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2	* BoxOfficeBomb: Famously so, costing nearly $76 million to produce ([[http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/giglis-real-price-tag-or-how-studios-lie-about-budgets-30665 it was produced by a company with a nasty habit of grossly understating its productions’ budgets]]) and recouping less than a tenth of that -- $7,266,209. Notably, its first-to-second-week market share dropped by a whopping 89%.
3	* CreatorBacklash:
4	** Creator/MartinBrest was greatly displeased with Creator/ColumbiaPictures and Creator/RevolutionStudios reworking the script to cash in on the "[[PortmanteauCoupleName Bennifer]]" craze, and the experience ultimately prompted him to retire from filmmaking entirely after the film bombed.
5	** Creator/BenAffleck does ''not'' have fond memories of working on this film. Creator/KevinSmith likes to tell stories about how, whenever he and Affleck are play-fighting with one another, all Smith has to do to end the conversation is say, "Oh, by the way, ''Gigli''." Creator/MattDamon has also joked(?) that Affleck's left eye twitches every time he hears the word "Gigli".
6	* CreatorKiller: For Creator/MartinBrest. He made several successful films in the '80s and '90s, such as ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'', ''Film/MidnightRun'', ''Film/ScentOfAWoman'', and ''Film/MeetJoeBlack''. Since ''Gigli'', he hasn't directed another film.
7	* ExecutiveMeddling: The film started out as a straight mob movie. However, Columbia insisted upon changing it once "Bennifer" became the biggest tabloid story of 2002–03.
8	* MidDevelopmentGenreShift: What started out as a serious mob film became a romantic comedy.
9	* MissingTrailerScene: Several scenes from the trailer do not appear in the film:
10	** Talking with Larry's mother.
11	** Larry in a jumpsuit, walking toward man in car. Ricki and Brian watch from other car.
12	** Larry talks more with his mother.
13	** Brian making noises with a straw in a diner.
14	** Ricki in car, in a driving scene not present in film.
15	** Ricki and Larry are at some kind of junkyard it seems.
16	** Larry and Brian at a diner, talking to one another.
17	** Larry putting his hands in his palm, looking kinda sad.
18	** More junkyard footage, not to mention Larry mentioning a confession to Ricki in a diner scene not present in the film.
19	** Ricki walking away from Larry, looking sad. She has a backpack over her shoulder.
20	** More junkyard footage.
21	* PromotedFanboy: Ben Affleck agreed to do the film as Martin Brest was one of his favorite directors and he eagerly wanted to work with him.
22	* ReclusiveArtist: Not only has Martin Brest not done another film since this, but he essentially retired from public life entirely, to the [[https://web.archive.org/web/20141222232939/http:/www.playboy.com/articles/what-happened-to-director-martin-brest point that even industry professionals and former collaborators weren't certain of his whereabouts]]. That changed come 2023, [[https://variety.com/2023/film/features/martin-brest-director-beverly-hills-cop-gigli-1235672428/amp/ where he finally gave an interview]] discussing his career including this film.
23	* RomanceOnTheSet: Affleck and Lopez started a well-publicized fling while filming this movie. And said tabloid overkill is certainly one reason audiences didn't give a chloroplast in a fig leaf about it.
24	* SparedByTheCut: In the original cut, Larry shot Det. Jacobellis dead and would bleed to death from a gunshot wound at the end of the film.
25	* StarDerailingRole:
26	** Narrowly averted by Creator/BenAffleck, though the combination of this with his roles in ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' and ''Film/{{Paycheck}}'' that same year served to mark the low point of his career prior to his CareerResurrection of the late 2000s, finding major success as a director with ''Literature/GoneBabyGone'' and ''Film/{{Argo}}''.
27	** Music/JenniferLopez's film career suffered due to the film's failure, and while she maintained a successful music and television career, she starred in only a few films in the next decade or so, which were moderate successes at best. However, she enjoyed her own CareerResurrection in 2019 with a critically acclaimed performance in ''Film/{{Hustlers}}''.
28	* TroubledProduction: The script was rewritten from a straightforward mob movie to a romantic comedy to take advantage of the "Bennifer" media circus surrounding the RomanceOnTheSet between the film's leads, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Director Martin Brest had no problem with this -- after all, he'd made ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'' under similar circumstances and it was a hit.[[note]]When the script of ''Beverly Hills Cop'' was in development with Creator/SylvesterStallone in mind to play Axel, the character of Jenny was supposed to be the LoveInterest. After Creator/EddieMurphy was finally cast in the part, Creator/{{Paramount}} got nervous at the WhereDaWhiteWomenAt implications and mandated Jenny to become Axel's platonic childhood friend.[[/note]] While there were no reports of strife on the set, things blew up between Brest and the studio during post-production, as they fought for a long time over the final film. It was [[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gigli roundly]] [[https://www.metacritic.com/movie/gigli panned]] as one of the worst films ever when finally released[[note]]Let's put it this way. The DVD box had no quotations from reviews on it. None at all. Even most bad movies have at least one blurb from some middle-of-nowhere TV station or newspaper that the studio paid for. The fact that they couldn't even get ''that'' says something.[[/note]] and Brest, a fine comic director with ''Film/GoingInStyle1979'' and ''Film/MidnightRun'' also to his credit, has [[CreatorKiller not made another film since]].
29	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
30	** Creator/HalleBerry was originally cast as Ricki, but dropped out because of her previous commitment to ''Film/X2XMenUnited''.
31	** Creator/AdamBrody auditioned for Brian. [[https://variety.com/2023/film/columns/adam-brody-method-acting-guardians-of-the-galaxy-river-wild-1235686348/ He liked the original script]], especially the ending in which Larry dies and bleeds out on the beach, which he called "a nice image that they did not use in the movie at all" in 2023.
32	* WriteWhatYouKnow: Martin Brest worked at Bronx State Hospital during college, where he observed the behaviors of various patients. This, he claims, served as the inspiration for the character of Brian.
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Context Trivia / Gigli