Filmmakers who HATED their own movie's sequels

Hollywood is a rough old game: one minute there’s a movie with your name on it playing in cinemas, the next, there’s a sequel you had nothing to do with that’s dragging your name through the mud. These Hollywood power players hated what the studios did with the sequels to their classic originals…

Richard Kelly – Directed: ‘Donnie Darko’ (2001)

Hated: ‘S. Darko’ (2009)

Cult classic ‘Donnie Darko’ was first released on unsuspecting audiences fifteen years ago, but you don’t hear much about the film’s ‘sequel’, ‘S. Darko’: the straight-to-DVD follow-up was shot on the cheap and followed Donnie’s sister, Samantha. However, the original film’s writer/director Richard Kelly was, in his words, “150% NOT INVOLVED” in the cash-in and actively despised the fact that a sequel was being spun off.

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“I haven’t read this script,” said Kelly back in 2009. “I have absolutely no involvement with this production, nor will I ever be involved. I have no control over the rights from our original film, and neither I or my producing partner Sean McKittrick stand to make any money from this film.” ‘S. Darko’ sank without trace; ‘Donnie Darko’, however, is re-released in cinemas this year.

Rob Cohen – Directed: ‘The Fast And The Furious’ (2001)

Hated: ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ (2003), ‘The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift’ (2006)

No one really expected a movie about street racing adapted from a magazine article to become the next billion-dollar Hollywood behemoth, least of all franchise creator Rob Cohen, who directed the first movie back in 2001. When Vin Diesel opted not to return to the series, Cohen also steered clear, later citing the poor quality of the sequels as the reason why. “What I hated about them was that it was just for money,” said Cohen. “The studio was just milking the cash cow. It’s a miracle they didn’t kill it. If you were to watch ‘The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift’, you’d say ‘I never want to see anything related to Fast and Furious again’.” Now the series is making serious bank, Cohen is oddly open to the idea of returning to the franchise.

Bryan Singer – Directed: ‘X-Men’ (2000), ‘X-Men 2’ (2004)

Hated: ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ (2006)

Singer made his name on the first two ‘X-Men’ movies, the films that kickstarted the entire superhero genre, but he bailed on ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ to make ‘Superman Returns’ instead. That didn’t quite go to plan, but in his absence, replacement director Brett Ratner took everything fans loved about the ‘X-Men’ and killed it. Singer has often spoken of his disappointment at ‘The Last Stand’, saying he wished he had directed it after all. However, he went one better: in sequel ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’, Singer tweaked the plot to ensure that ‘The Last Stand”s timeline effectively never happened, removing it from the canon – the ultimate middle finger to Ratner. Later, in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ – which is admittedly not that great itself – characters emerging from ‘Return Of The Jedi’ joke that “everyone knows the third movie is always the worst”. Meow! Saucer of milk, table two!

William Friedkin – Directed: ‘The Exorcist’ (1973)

Hated: ‘Exorcist II: Heretic’ (1977)

Interviewed on a late night cable TV channel back in the nineties, William Friedkin didn’t hold back his disdain for the sequel he called “an abomination”, even though the interview was to promote ‘Exorcist II: Heretic’ showing on the channel. Friedkin said the “so-called sequel” was “wrought by people who are, in my opinion, fourth or fifth rate intellectuals” and that “all they did was take the title and the logo type and some of the characters and trash them”. Continuing, Friedkin went one further: “It would be the equivalent of someone taking a novel by Tolstoy or Charles Dickens… taking the title and the characters and coming up with a porno musical. I’ve seen works of pornography that have more integrity than that picture.” Friedkin mentioned in 2013 that he still hasn’t seen the whole thing.

Clive Barker – Wrote: ‘Hellraiser’ (1987)

Hated: ‘Hellraiser: Revelations’ (2011)

Unwilling to let the rights to the ‘Hellraiser’ franchise go dormant while they figured out a proper strategy, Dimension Films created an “ashcan copy” movie in the form of ‘Hellraiser: Revelations’ – a rushed film that only existed so they could retain the rights for another day. The movie was written, cast and shot in just a few weeks, and even Doug Bradley – who played Pinhead over eight questionable movies – bowed out. Franchise author Clive Barker was furious that Dimension had the gall to bill the film as “from the mind of Clive Barker”, prompting the following epic Twitter rant: “I want to put on record that [Hellraiser: Revelations] IS NO F****IN’ CHILD OF MINE! I have NOTHING to do with the f***in’ thing. If they claim it’s from the mind of Clive Barker, it’s a lie. It’s not even from my butthole.”

Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez – Directed: ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999)

Hated: ‘Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2’ (2000)

Myrick and Sanchez spun gold with their instantly iconic found footage horror classic, turning a high concept shakycam experiment into a genuine cinematic phenomenon. Studio Artisan suddenly had a hot property on their hands and decided to rush a sequel into production for the following Halloween, with documentary maker Joe Berlinger directing and original writer/directors Myrick and Sanchez in meaningless executive producer roles – they were not invited to have any creative roles. Myrick later expressed his disappointment in ‘Book Of Shadows’: “We just felt betrayed, you know? It became this self-referential thing, where it was like the studio was purposely betraying the original mythology or they didn’t understand it. It’s like they didn’t understand anything about what made our movie work.” The pair were also credited as producers on 2016’s secret ‘Blair Witch’ sequel, which made even less than ‘Book Of Shadows’.

Ronald Shusett – Co-wrote: ‘Alien’ (1979)

Hated: ‘Prometheus’ (2012)

Along with Dan O’Bannon, Shusett wrote the original treatment for ‘Alien’, which Ridley Scott then adapted into the classic we know and love. It’s fair to say, however, that sci-fi writer Shusett was not a fan of ‘Prometheus’, Scott’s long-awaited step back into the world of ‘Alien’. “’Prometheus’ was the opposite of ‘Alien’, which was a thriller and edge of your set nail-biter,” said Shusett in 2013. “It ended up being talky and pretentious. It tried to be ambitious but it couldn’t achieve that. It was bogged down with things they had to do that nobody cared about and it was a major disappointment to everybody.” He went on to critique ‘Prometheus’ screenwriter Damon Lindelof’s technique of excessive teasing without ever delivering the goods: “You can’t just say we’ll tell you the reason why they wanted to kill us in the sequel to the prequel.”

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