How did these guys get DTV careers?... Val Kilmer

CASE STUDY 1: Val Kilmer

Where was he? Val Kilmer was one of those 'not quite a teen/not quite a man' teen stars in the 80s with films like Real Genius and Top Secret! and he quickly transitioned to grown up fare in Top Gun and The Doors. Then came an awesome set of three films back-to-back Tombstone, Heat, Batman Forever. He looked like he couldn't stop. Then came The Saint, a film he wisely/unwisely chose to take over returning as Batman in Batman & Robin. The Saint wasn't a great flick in fact it was generally poorly received but it wasn't Batman & Robin either. 

What film killed his career? Red Planet (2000) This film and Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars came out the same with a year of each other. This happens a lot with Hollywood flicks, two similar films come out within months of each other from separate studios, usually one succeeds and one falls flat (See Capote and Infamous). But in this case both flopped and after The Saint, Kilmer had used all his leading man lives up.

Where is he now? Kicking around in a lot of DTV films that star 50 Cent. Sure every now and then people like Werner Herzog put him in stuff like Bad Lieutenant but more or less you'll never see him on the big screen again. Maybe he should try getting a lead role in a CBS drama like Laurence Fishburne (and no Val, voicing KITT on Knight Rider doesn't count.) 

<= Batman Forever Part II: The Retirement Years. Having taken out the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, the Riddler and Two-Face Bruce Wayne apparently got a job as an office administrator and caught up on all those big macs he abstained from during his years of physical training.

Next time: Wesley Snipes