The only Christopher Walken movie you’ll never see: “Something amazing happened”
Having made so many movies that he’s admitted he hasn’t come close to seeing them all, it’s worth wondering if Christopher Walken even knows there’s one picture he starred in that’s never been made available for public consumption.
The Academy Award winner has never slowed down since making his screen debut at ten years old in the 1953 TV series Wonderful John Acton. Walken loves to work, and that’s become evident to anyone following his career, because there doesn’t seem to be anything he’ll say no to.
He’s been everywhere for the last seven decades, whether it’s features, TV shows, the occasional miniseries, stage productions, short films, video games, or music videos. With upwards of 150 credits covering virtually every aspect of the performing arts, it would take a long time for the most ardent Walken fan to see everything he’s done, so he shouldn’t be expected to keep apprised.
It’s equally remarkable that he doesn’t have any regrets, even if he’d prefer it if screenwriters didn’t alter the scripts to ‘Walkenise’ them once he signs on, and he’d definitely be much happier if Will Ferrell didn’t ruin his life with the infamous ‘More Cowbell’ sketch on Saturday Night Live.
That’s what makes 2013’s Gods Behaving Badly such a curiosity, though; it’s the one movie he’s made, whether they’re theatrically released, made for television, or sent straight to video, that nobody has seen since its premiere. Why? Probably because its first-time director took such a pasting from the first screening that he decided it was better off locking it away forever instead of opening himself up to further ridicule.
An experienced producer who landed an Oscar nod for the ‘Best Picture’ nominee Little Miss Sunshine, Marc Turteltaub dipped his toes into directing with an adaptation of Marie Phillips’ eponymous novel, which follows a London couple discovering a cabal of Greek gods living in a rundown flat as their powers dwindle, with the setting changed to New York.
A star-studded affair, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Alicia Silverstone’s mortals were joined by Walken’s Zeus, Sharon Stone’s Aphrodite, John Turturro’s Hades, Edie Falco’s Artemis, Oliver Platt’s Apollo, and Kathleen Turner’s Styx, to name just a small few of the recognisable names involved. Initially, Turteltaub seemed confident that his debut film would be a winner.
“After writing the screenplay, we sat around dreaming who would be the ideal cast to play our gods,” he recalled. “Whoever it was, they would have to be bigger than life. How about Chris Walken to play Zeus? Yes, everyone shouted in agreement. We threw out all our favourite ideas. And then, something amazing happened: they all said yes. I wanted to create a fable in which the gods exhibited all the foibles of mankind and forgot their true nature.”
It sounded promising, at least until the 2013 Rome Film Festival. To put it lightly, the response to the premiere was not kind. Everyone in attendance tore Gods Behaving Badly apart, and whether that was the catalyst behind its permanent shelving or not, it seems likely, considering it was almost immediately wiped from the collective memory and still hasn’t been released a dozen years later, making it the ultimate Holy Grail for Walken completionists.
