Mila Kunis: "We understood that the film would flop"

 The actress explains how the "Matrix" directors' ambitious "Jupiter Ascending" turned into a disaster.

Most actors have one - that big movie that could be as awesome as you want, but tanked hard at the cinema and was seen by everyone.

 

For Mila Kunis, it's "Jupiter Ascending" that sticks out like a black spot on her resume. But what really happened to the "Matrix" directors' spectacular sci-fi film, named one of the big flops of 2015? Money problems happened.

 

The actress says in a new interview that the film's budget was cut shortly before shooting, which was the death knell for the project:

 

- When did we know the film would flop? Before production even started, because our budget was cut in half. We would have actually received twice as much money, and then you can do so much more, explains Kunis.

 

- This type of script has a good story, but also other things that are really spectacular. But for a thousand different reasons that had to do with the studio and other things, the budget was cut, and it became a different film.

The Wachowski sisters still received around 150 million dollars (possibly over 170, according to other sources) to realize their space opera "Jupiter Ascending", based on a completely original idea. Considering Kuni's comment, they had probably expected over 300 thousand - which would have made the film one of the most expensive in film history. (No wonder Warner Bros. got cold feet and decided to stick it out.)

 

But the film backfired by $100 million, and was butchered by critics. The question is, could a higher budget really have saved it?