A sci-fi epic that fled 22 years in development hell just to take a critical pasting and lose $111 million reborn as one of Netflix’s biggest hits

Based on how often long-gestating projects that have spent decades in development hell turn out to be disasters, Gemini Man.

Writer Darren Lemke first sold his spec script to Disney in 1997, but it would be another 22 years before the blockbuster $138 million sci-fi action thriller made it to screens. Having Academy Award winner Ang Lee and A-list megastar Will Smith attached was an enticing combination, but the results were dire.

Roasted to the tune of a 26 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Gemini Man tanked at the box office for good measure, with the movie losing an estimated $111 million by the time the dust had settled. The core concept of an elite assassin doing battle with his younger self remains tantalizing, but the execution was nothing short of woeful.

Having cycled through at least three directors and seven writers during its arduous journey to the multiplex, maybe the fact that so many people had tried and failed to bring the story to life was a warning sign that Gemini Man was one of those rare nuts that simply couldn’t be cracked.

That being said, its status as an expensive and effects-heavy genre film with a big name front-and-center means that streaming subscribers are more likely to be receptive to its minuscule charms, which has yet again proven to be the case after FlixPatrol revealed Gemini Man to be one of the biggest hits on Netflix after cracking the Top 10 in 53 countries around the world.