One of the last movies with Bruce Willis, it was 20 years in the planning and a catastrophic flop

Join the Amazon Prime* streaming program now, on September 19, 2023a film that has a 20-year history behind it: Motherless Brooklyn by and with Edward Norton. For co-star Bruce Willis, it was one of his last films to be released in Germany before he ended his acting career due to illness. Despite a top-class cast, the noir crime thriller failed disastrously four years ago and didn’t even come close to making back its expenses.

Now on Amazon Prime: Motherless Brooklyn failed after 20 years despite Bruce Willis

Ever since the book * was published in 1999, the film adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn has been a passion project for Edward Norton. Since Fight Club, the star has tried again and again to initiate implementation. But even though he ultimately wrote the script himself and even took over the direction in 2014, the project as a whole stalled two decades in production hell until it finally saw the light of the screen in 2019.

In Motherless Brooklyn, Edward Norton plays Lionel Essrog in 1950s New York Private detective with Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but who has an eye for detail. His only confidant is his mentor Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). But his partner doesn’t share all of his investigation results and then he’s suddenly dead. Lionel goes looking for clues to understand what happened to his only friend and gets caught up in a web of conspiracies.

Actually, Motherless had Brooklyn Edward Norton’s big comeback. In fact, the role of the lonely private detective with numerous tics was fitting After roles like Fight Club, The Score and Twilight, he is a perfect match for Norton’s previous ambiguous roles. But the dream he had had for 20 years finally shattered at the box office. More people will probably see it streaming on Amazon than on the screen.

Bruce Willis’ last movie: The crime thriller Motherless Brooklyn flopped hugely

Because Motherless Brooklyn was a financial flop: with a budget of 26 million dollars, the crime thriller only grossed 18 million worldwide and thus made a profit several million dollars worth of crap without making a profit. Other stars alongside Bruce Willis such as Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe also failed to attract enough of an audience.

Motherless Brooklyn was after Glass and before his acting retirement, announced in 2022 Bruce Willis last real cinema appearance in Germany. In between, the Die Hard star was only seen in supporting roles in B movies, which were released directly on DVD due to the quality. (Strictly speaking, we’re not counting his last movie, A Day To Die, because the action B-movie was just riding on the shock of Willis’ retirement announcement.)

You can now judge for yourself whether Motherless Brooklyn was a worthy final film role for Bruce Willis in the stream on Amazon Prime.

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