"Empires Of The Deep": The $130 Million Dollar Mess Of A Movie That Came To Be

Three years, $130,000,000, and a cast of nobodies (Olga Kurylenko aka the Bond girl from "Quantum of Solace) makes for what is said to be one of the biggest flops of ALL TIME! Get to know "Empires of the Deep 3D" or it's production name "Mermaid Island USA"

youtube.com / Via slashfilm.com

The Chinese-American co-production stars Olga Kurylenko as the the queen of the mermaids who gets embroiled in an underwater war between various sea creatures and sea monsters.

Empires of the Deep had a notoriously rough go of it behind the scenes, starting out as a passion project by Chinese real estate tycoon Jon Jiang. The first-time producer wrote the script himself and enlisted the help of nearly a dozen Hollywood screenwriters for the rewrites, and then hired Pitof (helmer of the disastrous Catwoman) to direct. Pitof left before production began, and several other filmmakers came and went before Michael French wound up with final credit.

There’s no reason to believe China won’t eventually become a moviemaking powerhouse, as Jiang hopes, but Empires of the Deep will not be the film to make that leap. Especially seeing as there’s no stateside distribution yet, and there isn’t likely to be anytime soon.