What the Hell Happened to Jason Patric?

http://lebeauleblog.com/2013/05/27/what-the-hell-happened-to-jason-pat ric/

His next career move seemed like a bid for commercial success. Unfortunately, Patric’s bid for box office stardom was a notorious flop.

In 1997, Patric starred opposite Sandra Bullock in Jan de Bont’s action sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control.

Three years prior, Bullock became a household name starring opposite Keanu Reeves in the original Speed. Speed had been a surprise success. So much so that Bullock and Reeves were not obligated to appear in a sequel. When Speed turned out to be a huge success, Fox assumed that Reeves and Bullock would reprise their roles. They were only half right. Bullock agreed to return in order to get financial backing for her movie, Hope Floats. But Reeves decided he would rather tour with his band, Dogstar.

At the time, it seemed like Reeves was making a huge mistake. But as it turns out, passing on Speed 2 was probably one of the better decisions of Reeves’ career. Reeves claimed that Fox was furious and launched a propaganda campaign against him. De Bont said the role in the sequel could be played by any young actor, as long as he could have chemistry with Bullock. Given that Bullock was basically a chemistry machine, any actor should be able to fit that description.

Bullock initially suggested Matthew McConaughey to replace Reeves. But McConaughey passed to star in Contact. Several other actors including Christian Slater were also considered. After McConaughey passed, Bullock recommended Patric, whom she had wanted to work with since seeing his performance in After Dark, My Sweet. De Bont wanted a bigger star, but was reminded that Bullock was an unknown when she made the original Speed. After watching Sleepers, De Bont cast Patric.

After accepting the role, Patric admitted that he never saw Speed and had no plans to watch it. Reeves said he was looking forward to seeing Patric in the sequel and that it was “going to be entertaining with another actor”.

Several story ideas were submitted to De Bont. But the director rejected them all in favor of his own idea. He had a recurring dream about a cruise ship crashing into an island. So at De Bont’s insistence, the sequel to Speed was set on a slow-moving boat.

De Bont wanted his sequel to feel “bigger” than the original. So he insisted on a larger budget. The first Speed was made for $30 million dollars. Speed 2 was budgeted at $100 million dollars. The production was plagued with problems. Stories circulated that said De Bont was out of control. De Bont demanded that his stars perform most of their own stunts. There were accusations that working conditions were unsafe.

Speed 2 was released to terrible reviews and flopped at the box office. It received a then-record 8 nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Couple for Patric and Bullock. It won Worst Sequel or Re-make.