Considering how much work goes into the making of every film that comes out, all of us should appreciate the fact that so many movies come out each year. However, there is no denying that there are loads of bad movies that come out. In fact, there are so many poor-quality movies released annually that there is a set of awards that are given out for the worst achievements in film each year.

Even though there is a glut of films that perform badly, there are some movie releases that are so disastrous that they become the thing of legends. Unfortunately, when a movie like that comes out, a lot of the people who worked on it see their careers take an extremely serious hit. Worse yet, a lot of the actors who starred in those disastrous films have seen their careers decimated in the aftermath. For instance, Emma Stone could’ve tanked her career had she picked one controversial film.

. Amazingly enough, during the early stages of Keanu Reeves’ career, he came close to playing one of the lead roles in one of those epic failures.

A Near Miss

During the early to mid-90s, Renny Harlin was one of the most in-demand action filmmakers in the world. Best known at the time for directing Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger, Harlin was the kind of director that most movie stars were overjoyed to work with at the time. Unfortunately for him, Harlin was tapped to direct a movie called Cutthroat Island at the peak of his career.

Behind the Scenes – Cutthroat Island#GeenaDavis #MatthewModine #RennyHarlin #cutthroatisland #behindthescenes #Pirates pic.twitter.com/lQ0EAMDtk4

— Phil Edwards (@Live_for_Films) July 27, 2020

After initially hiring his then-wife Geena Davis and Michael Douglas to headline Cutthroat Island, Renny Harlin was taken aback when his male lead departed the film. Forced to quickly recast, Harlin had to spend his time meeting with several famous actors in an attempt to get them to take the part instead. Luckily for Keanu Reeves, he passed on the project when Harlin met with him about starring in Cutthroat Island.

Things Go Horribly Awry

Since Renny Harlin suddenly found himself spending most of his time trying to find a new male lead for Cutthroat Island, he wasn’t present as the film went through the preproduction process. As it turns out, that was a huge problem as things quickly went out of control. In the end, the movie that originally was supposed to cost $60 million to make wound up being produced for $98 million instead. Since Cutthroat Island was released in 1995, that is a staggering amount of money when adjusted for inflation.

Since Cutthroat Island became such an expensive project, the stakes were incredibly high when the film was released with Matthew Modine playing the male lead. Sadly, Cutthroat Island got meager reviews from critics and audiences failed to show up to see the film in theaters. As a result, the movie only brought in $10 million at the box office which made it one of the biggest flops of all time. In fact, Cutthroat Island was such a complete failure that it held the record for the largest loss in movie history for many years.

Keanu’s Averted Fate

If it wasn’t bad enough that Cutthroat Island was a massive failure at the box office, the independent film production company that made it went bankrupt shortly after its release. Of course, the fact that Cutthroat Island lost millions was never going to help the company that produced it, Carolco Pictures. However, the truth of the matter is that the company was on the ropes long before it made Cutthroat Island in a last-ditch attempt to turn things around.

Even though a lot of failed movies contributed to Carolco Pictures closing up shop, Cutthroat Island quickly earned the reputation as the movie that bankrupted a studio. Unsurprisingly, the major studios didn’t have much interest in working with the people who were most closely associated with Cutthroat Island’s failure.

In the years that followed the release of Cutthroat Island, Renny Harlin continued to get regular work. However, there is no doubt that his career took a serious hit since he would never work with the likes of Bruce Willis or Sylvester Stallone again. Unfortunately for Matthew Modine, he immediately went from being an actor who was in the running to headline major movies to one who only could land small roles in big-budget films. Worst of all, Geena Davis’ career took the biggest hit as she ceased being a notable leading lady seemingly overnight. As a result, Davis became so disinterested in Hollywood that she took up archery and she proved that she is a total badass by almost qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Given the fact that Cutthroat Island decimated the careers of Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, and Renny Harlin, it is a safe assumption that it would have done the same thing to Keanu Reeves. For that reason, we are all lucky that he passed on the film. After all, it is hard to imagine a different actor starring in the Matrix and John Wick movies. Worse yet, if Keanu left the spotlight during the mid-90s, the world likely never would have learned how awesome he is as a human being.