The Robert Downey Jr movie that received hate mail before shooting even started
The careers of many actors can be categorised into distinct periods, and when it comes to Robert Downey Jr, that’s not difficult at all. A significant portion of the actor’s professional years is defined by his past problems with substance abuse issues, with reports of excessive drug use and arrests almost derailing his journey as an artist.
Of course, he eventually turned it all around with appearances in acclaimed works like David Fincher’s Zodiac as well as massive box office successes such as Marvel’s Iron Man. However, even while he was trying his hardest to get back on the right track, there was a time when potential collaborators were scared off by his former reputation.
One such example is The Singing Detective, the 2003 adaptation that paved the way for Downey Jr’s return to acting after the rehab process. Based on the popular BBC series written by Dennis Potter, the original managed to garner a solid following because of its subversion of detective fiction tropes with genre-bending elements.
Names like Robert Altman and Dustin Hoffman had been attached to the film adaptation at some point or the other, but it found its way to Downey Jr and director Keith Gordon, who had problems before they even started. Not only did studios not want to touch the project as the future Iron Man star was attached to it, Gordon also received hate mail because fans of the show did not want him to ruin its legacy.
Gordon told Filmmaker Magazine: “The movie rankled a lot of people, which I understand because whenever you do an adaptation or a variation on something beloved some people are going to hate it. And people loved this original miniseries – rightfully so, it was brilliant. I was getting hate mail before I even started shooting, and people criticised me for changing the time period and compressing the story and softening the end… all things that were in Potter’s script.”
The director added: “I didn’t do anything that wasn’t in Potter’s script! And I think he had very strong reasons for all the changes he made to his own material, including giving it a slightly more positive resolution – something we were criticised for doing because people thought we were trying to sell more tickets or something. Believe me, we never thought this movie was going to sell a lot of tickets, which is why it ended up getting made the way it did.”
While it’s become a forgettable part of Downey Jr’s career now, it marked the beginning of a long comeback that eventually propelled him to the top of the industry. In addition, one of the failed adaptation’s few elements that were praised by fans and critics was actually Downey Jr’s performance, who gave it the best he could.
