Bruce Willis And Tom Hanks Wish They Never Made This '90s Flop

In the late '80s and '90s there were few bigger stars than Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks. Both starred in some of the most iconic movies of those decades, but typically in different genres, with Willis the action hero and Hanks a comedy or dramatic actor. Their paths collided in 1990, however, when they teamed up to headline a dark comedy that both consider a huge regret: The woeful Brian de Palma flop, "The Bonfire of the Vanities."

Based on Tom Wolfe's best-selling book, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" follows a New York City journalist (Willis) who pursues a story involving a hit-and-run committed by the spoiled girlfriend (Melanie Griffith) of a powerful Wall Street executive (Hanks). It couldn't even scrape together half of its relatively modest budget in theaters, and was widely slammed as one of the worst movies of the year as well — although it doesn't make the list of Willis' worst movies, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaking with Playboy writer David Sheff six years after the movie's release, Bruce Willis admitted that "Bonfire" was a disaster from top to bottom. "It was stillborn, dead before it ever got out of the box. It was another film that was reviewed before it hit the screen," Willis said, remarking that critics had made up their minds on the movie before it was even released — even to the point of dreaming up a better cast. But Willis says its early critics were right. "I was miscast. I know that Tom Hanks thinks he was, too," he acknowledged.

Bruce Willis isn't the only "Bonfire of the Vanities" star to lament the film, as Tom Hanks once famously told Oprah Winfrey that it was "one of the crappiest movies ever made." Many Tom Hanks movies have made us cry, but "Bonfire" isn't one of them, and in addition to being awful, it was also a challenge to produce.

At the time of its production, of course, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" was a publishing blockbuster, and the industry was frothing at the mouth to turn it into a movie. But landing the right director wasn't easy, and while Brian de Palma was a curious choice in hindsight, he was only hired because another director departed the project just before shooting. And then there are the endless casting troubles, as finding the right actors proved to be one of the biggest challenges. 

John Cleese and Jack Nicholson both reportedly passed on the film, while stars like Steve Martin and Chevy Chase didn't pan out either. Eventually, casting became such a challenge that the studio forced de Palma to cast Bruce Willis, who'd just become a superstar thanks to "Die Hard." A contract dispute with co-star F. Murray Abraham led to his name being removed from the credits. Even the modest budget proved cumbersome, while an infamous 10-second shot of a Concorde plane cost $80,000. The project had so many problems that it was the basis for a book, "The Devil's Candy," which explored the making of this disastrous film.