This Director Initially Refused to Work With Sylvester Stallone Because of His Reputation
Sylvester Stallone isn’t just an actor, but a director and writer himself. Because of this, Stallone once had an unfavorable reputation behind-the-scenes of wanting to take control of the projects he starred in.
So when Stallone was cast in this obscure thriller, this filmmaker flat-out refused to collaborate with him. Until he was forced to.
‘D Tox’ Director was hesitant about working with Sylvester Stallone because of a bad reputation
The 2002 feature film D Tox, also titled Eye See You, might be one of the more obscure films in Stallone’s filmography. The movie was based on the novel Jitter Joint, and starred Stallone as a psychologically tortured federal agent hunting down serial killers.
Filmmaker Jim Gillespie would helm the project. He had a long list of big-named actors he wanted to work with on the thriller, but the Rocky star wasn’t one of them. Gillespie actually passed on the actor at first because of what he’d heard about Stallone from other sources.
“To be honest, Sly’s name had come up, and I passed on him,” Gillespie once told Viking Samurai. “Because I know a lot of people that work with him and there was a lot of kind of not great stories of him being a bit of a control freak. And it’s very difficult if you’re the director, because he would take over.”
After Gillespie rejected Stallone, however, Gillespie and the studio had trouble securing a popular star for their movie. The studio would end up casting Stallone, who was interested in the project. And if Gillespie didn’t like the decision, the studio would simply find someone else to take his place.
“I got a phone call to say, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news.’ And I went, ‘Okay, give me the good news.’ ‘We’ve greenlit D Tox. It’s definitely happening.’ I was like, ‘Yes. What’s the bad news, then?’ ‘Sylvester Stallone is playing Jake Malloy. In or out, that’s your choice. We’re making the movie. If you want to make it, we want you to make it. If you don’t want to make it, see you later,'” Gillespie recalled.
What was Sylvester Stallone like to work with on ‘D Tox’?
Gillespie and Stallone would eventually meet in person. As the two chatted to get to know each other, the director was surprised by Stallone’s demeanor.
“We sat and we had coffee, and we chatted about the script. He was very open about, ‘People are gonna tell you I’m a control freak and all that. I’m not like that, that’s just the Hollywood stuff,'” Gillespie recalled. “The truth is, everybody has a reputation. People who you get told are difficult might be, but they equally might not be. And they might not be difficult with you.”
After the two actually worked on the movie, it turned out The Expendables actor wasn’t the control freak he was made out to be.
“Through the shoot, I have to be honest and say Sly was a hard working, straight up member of an ensemble. He acted his socks off, he committed %110 to the role,” Gillespie remembered.
Sylvester Stallone theorized why ‘D Tox’ bombed
The movie was based on the novel Jitter Joint, and starred Stallone as a psychologically tortured federal agent hunting down serial killers. The film was a departure from Stallone’s more notable franchises like Rocky and Rambo. Those were pure action franchises, whereas D Tox was more of a cerebral thriller.
But it was a genre that Stallone wanted to dip his toe in, as it reminded him of other dark thrillers he admired.
“I haven’t really done a full-on thriller; I really like those films because they really get you out of your seats, like Memento or Seven”, Stallone once told Dark Horizons.
But D Tox wasn’t the commercial or critical success that both Memento and Seven were. The film only made $6.4 million at the box-office, and was ravaged by critics. Even the film’s release date faced complications. D-Tox received an overwhelming negative reaction from audiences during a test screening. This would result in the film going on hiatus, with changes being made to the film’s story to make it more accessible.
D Tox would see a brief international release, although it wouldn’t be shown in the United States. Eventually, the feature would be shelved entirely.
In an interview with Ain’t It Cool News, Stallone delved a little further into the debacle of D Tox.
“It’s very simple why D-TOX landed in limbo. A film is a very delicate creature. Any adverse publicity or internal shake-up can upset the perception of – and studio confidence in – a feature,” Stallone said. “For some unknown reason the original producer pulled out and right away the film was considered damaged goods; by the time we ended filming there was trouble brewing on the set because of overages and creative concerns between the director and the studio. The studio let it sit on the shelf for many months and after over a year it was decided to do a re-shoot. We screened it, it tested okay, Ron Howard was involved with overseeing some of the post-production… but the movie had the smell of death about it.”
