The Forgotten Henry Cavill Box Office Flop That Ridley Scott Produced

20th Century Studios

Ridley Scott is one of the most respected and powerful filmmakers working in Hollywood, and has been for decades. Meanwhile, Henry Cavill, the star of "Man of Steel" and "The Witcher," is currently one of the biggest actors in the business. One would imagine a team up between these two would result in something major. Well, that collaboration did happen back in 2006 and all it resulted in, sad to say, is a big flop that effectively killed the production company that backed it.

The movie in question is "Tristan & Isolde," a historical epic that was once a passion project for Scott. The director loves historical epics to this day, having recently directed the blockbuster "Gladiator II," a sequel to his 2000 Best Picture-winner. Good things can happen when Scott is in the director's chair. Unfortunately, Scott was merely a producer on this film.

"Tristan & Isolde" takes place after the fall of the Roman Empire and centers on Tristan (James Franco), an English orphan who meets and falls in love with Isolde (Sophia Myles), an Irish princess due to marry Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell), who raised Tristan. The passion of these two young people causes a rift with the country's leadership, leading to a massive, deadly battle. Cavill, who was just emerging as an actor, played the supporting role of Melot.

Kevin Reynolds, the man behind the infamous flop that was "Waterworld," ended up in the director's chair for this one. 20th Century Fox signed on to distribute the film, with Scott Free Productions producing alongside the now-defunct Franchise Productions. Why is it now defunct? In short, it made some bad financial decisions, but this was the final nail in the coffin.

"I wanted to make 'Tristan & Isolde' as my second movie," Scott explained to MovieWeb in 2006. "My first movie was 'The Duellists.' And I was standing in a very romantic part of France looking around me thinking, 'My God, this would be perfect for Tristan,' and to cut a long story short it never happened because I did 'Alien' instead."

20th Century Studios

For what it's worth, Scott absolutely made the right decision as "Alien" was a massive, career-defining box office smash hit. He then became an in-demand director and worked on many other films, ranging from "Blade Runner" to "Black Hawk Down." A-list directors tend to have lots of projects in development at any given time, and they simply can't tackle all of them. So, sometimes they hand them over to another director and come on board as a producer instead.

That's precisely what happened here. As Scott explained in that same MovieWeb interview, he didn't hover over Reynolds' shoulder while he was in the director's chair. It was his movie, for better or worse:

"As a director, with someone like Kevin you don't have to be. It's how I've managed to get [...] you can't make everything. And sometimes you get a little stockpile so it's nice to get them made."

Ultimately, Reynolds didn't wind up producing a hit. "Tristan & Isolde" made just $28 million at the global box office against a budget estimated to be in the $30 million range. It also was far from a success with critics, boasting a mere 31% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences seemed to like it more, but not enough to save it from being a financial failure.

The bigger problem for Franchise Productions is that it was already in bankruptcy largely thanks to the all-timer of a flop that was "Battlefield Earth." To make matters worse, the company was also facing several lawsuits for, among other things, inflating budgets on projects. As Variety reported in 2004, Franchise had to pay out nearly $100 million in damages. That's difficult to recover from. This flop was the final straw. Franchise's last film, "The Wendell Baker Story," arrived in 2007 and that was that.

This film's failure certainly didn't do Reynolds any favors. Scott was okay though, and Franco went on to become a big star for a time. Cavill also ended up on Hollywood's A-list in the years that followed, eventually playing Superman in Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel." He's got a big slate of projects on his to-do pile right now, including a "Highlander" reboot and a "Voltron" movie.

"Tristan & Isolde" is available on VOD, or you can pick it up on DVD via Amazon.