Gerard Butler's Forgotten Time Travel Movie With Paul Walker Is Streaming On Paramount+
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Some of the greatest movies of all time involve time travel, like "Back to the Future." It may not have been nearly as memorable, but the king of modern trash cinema Gerard Butler ("300," "Plane") once starred in one of these sci-fi pictures alongside the late Paul Walker, known best for his work as Brian O'Connor in the "Fast and Furious" franchise.
The movie in question is 2003's "Timeline," which is streaming now on Paramount+. It was directed by Richard Donner ("Lethal Weapon"), with a script by Jeff Maguire ("In the Line of Fire") and George Nolfi ("Ocean's Twelve"). In its day, the movie was a major disappointment. All the same, it's a pretty wild time capsule for most of the creative team involved.
The movie centers on three students working on an archeological dig. They must travel back in time to 14th century France to rescue their professor, who is trapped in his favorite era. The movie was based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, which made it a promising prospect. He's the only author to ever have the number one movie, TV show, and book at the same time — and it happened twice. While we were slightly beyond the era of "peak Crichton," there was still reason to believe this well could be effectively tapped.
Mind you, this was just ten years after Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" became a box office hit that changed movies forever, becoming a then-exceedingly rare $1 billion smash. Naturally, after that movie did what it did, Hollywood looked at what else Crichton had lying around to see if they could replicate that success. Not to spoil anything but "Timeline" very much was not able to replicate that success.
Timeline is a movie that had a lot going for it
On paper, "Timeline" is a movie that had everything going for it. Richard Donner, the man behind "Superman: The Movie" and many other classics, was a master of his craft. Michael Crichton was a huge success. Meanwhile, Paul Walker had just broken out thanks to "The Fast and the Furious," even though other actors nearly played his role.
At the same time, Gerard Butler had yet to land his breakout role in Zack Snyder's "300" but he was on the up. Other sturdy actors were on board as well, such as Neal McDonough ("Walking Tall") and Frances O'Connor ("Bedazzled"). The movie also featured an intriguing premise, had a huge $80 million budget, and best-selling source material. What could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, critics of the day were far from kind to "Timeline." It currently boasts a lousy 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also opened during a crowded Thanksgiving weekend at the box office, losing out to Disney's "The Haunted Mansion," which was also a failure in the end. In any event, the movie only made $44 million worldwide, a ruinous sum for a big-budget blockbuster.
It proved to be Donner's second-to-last movie as a director. Crichton passed away in 2008 and this was the last feature film based on his work that he lived to see. Fortunately, both Butler and Walker went on to have very fruitful careers. Unfortunately, Walker passed away at the age of 40 in 2013, with his career and life cut tragically short. This remains an underseen entry in thee body of work he left behind.
You can also grab "Timeline" on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon if you don't want to stream it on Paramount+.