Pascal could see for herself that the movie was overstuffed and disconnected. In an email to Doug Belgrad, president of Sony Pictures, two months before its release, she enumerated the problems: “Uneven, schizo tone . . . weird, disjointed, no one single great set piece because action is just big and not storytelling, not funny . . . if I’m really honest, wrong director and wrong casting.” She concluded, “We will almost get away with it and we can never go back.” “Almost get away with it” was an accurate prediction. Although the movie was projected to make $865 million and Sony hoped that it
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