The Wrong Directors
I haven't watched the series since it was on last summer, so I don't remember a lot of names. But I remember thinking when they chose the 2 guys it was really a bad choice.
I also don't think they should have chosen that script if all they wanted to do was change every scene in it. Honestly, I remember they all loved the script Prisoner (which I read and it was very good), but chose to go with the weaker script then spend the rest of the production trying to fix it up.
Then they chose those two as directors. Which I thought was an odd choice because their test film was the obviously weakest one of the group, and they didn't express too much interest in that script. They were more interested in goofy comedy than subtle human comedy.
And I also remember that there was a director who was absolutely in love with Shaker Heights and said that was the only script she wanted to do if she was chosen. They all thought she was weird, but I kept thinking that is the kind of passion a director needs to make a great film. She loved the script, was over the moon to direct it, probably would have only wanted the best for the script and done a better film. Instead they choose the moron twins who weren't huge fans of the script.
And poor Shia, he loved the script because he related to it so much, all the dramatic family moments mirrored his life, and they just cut them out.
So they chose a serious family drama with dashes of humor in it and tried to transform it in editing to just a comedy with dashes of seriousness.
It's choices like that that make these films bomb. Poor Miramax, hopefully they'll learn something with season 3.