CinemaRobert Downey Jr’s film that was the target of haters even before recording The work in question was released long before the actor established himself as Tony Stark in the Marvel Universe

Years before living the Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. He was trying to resume his career after suffering from drug addiction and having legal problems. At the time, the actor was cast as the protagonist of a film inspired by a popular British series.

The work in question is Crimes of a Detective (2003), based on the miniseries The Singing Detectiveshown in the United Kingdom in 1986 on the channel BBC. One of the great attractions of the project was the presence of Dennis Pottercreator of the original work and responsible for the adaptation script.

The problem is that the idea was not very well received by fans of the series. Even with the involvement of Potterthe public did not like the news so much.

In an interview with Filmmaker Magazinethe director of the film, Keith Gordonrevealed that he had received several letters with complaints and insults from fans of the original work — even before filming began. He stated:

The movie made a lot of people angry, which I understand, because any time you create an adaptation or variation of something beloved, some people are going to hate it. And a lot of people loved this original miniseries — it was definitely brilliant. I received a lot of letters from haters before I even started recording.”

Despite this, the criticisms mentioned by the filmmaker concern elements that could only be discovered after release, by those who watched it. The director states:

People criticized me for changing the time period, for compressing the story and lightening the ending. All of these things were present in his own script (Dennis) Potter.”

Gordon he also guaranteed that he had not done anything other than what was written. He also denied that the changes made were intended to generate greater box office sales.

I didn’t do anything that wasn’t in the script. Potter! I think he had strong reasons for all the changes he made to his own material, including a slightly more positive resolution – because of that, we got criticized because people thought we were trying to sell more tickets or something. Believe me, we never imagined this film would sell a lot of tickets and that’s why we made it this way.”

About Crimes of a Detective

Crimes of a Detective has as its protagonist a writer named Dan Dark (lived by Robert Downey Jr.), hospitalized due to a serious skin disease. There, he begins to imagine being the detective of the book he is rewriting.

In addition to Downey Jr.the cast also includes the presence of Katie Holmes, Adrien Brody, Robin Wright, Jeremy Northam and Carla Gugino. The veteran Mel Gibson not only acts, but also plays the role of producer.

Crimes of a Detective received average to negative reviews. His own performance Robert Downey Jr. proved to be one of its few positive points, according to critics in general. Its box office collection still had low revenue: just over US$435 thousand, with a budget of around US$8 million.

Collaborated: Augusto Ikeda.