(Credits: Far Out / Paramount Pictures)
Fri 14 November 2025 20:15, UK
As the creator of Wayne Campbell and Austin Powers, not to mention the voice of the title character in the Shrek franchise, Mike Myers will always hold a special place in the hearts of audiences from multiple generations, and rightly so.
On the other side of the coin, his reputation within the industry has been tarnished by countless tales of woe relating to his behaviour and conduct both on the set and off, which reached boiling point when he was trashed by one of the most powerful studios in Hollywood for attempting to renege on a deal.
When he’s good, Myers is very good. The first two Wayne’s World films are still rewatched regularly, and, despite the character embracing his appointed moniker as the maddest shagger of his, or any other, era, the Austin Powers trilogy holds up remarkably well more than 20 years after the release of Goldmember.
Shrek speaks for itself, really, with the fifth instalment set for release in the summer of 2027, which will inevitably bolster the coffers even more. The previous four flicks, and the two Puss in Boots spinoffs, have earned upwards of $4 billion at the box office and spawned short films, TV specials, video games, theme park attractions, and more merchandise than you can shake an angry ogre’s stick at.
The Love Guru has been pinpointed as the disaster that cast Myers out of the mainstream, and rightly so, but the first time things really went sideways was The Cat in the Hat, which was so reprehensible that Dr Seuss’ widow immediately forbade any more of her late husband’s books being made into live-action films, which is the reason why every single one of them since then has been animated.
The former Saturday Night Live stalwart only made the nauseous fantasy to avoid getting into even hotter legal waters, with Universal Pictures suing him for $3.8 million in a breach of contract lawsuit after he abandoned the development of a feature-length outing for his SNL character, Dieter.
He was also sued by Imagine Entertainment for $30 million, and imagine how badly you need to have fucked up to get sued by Ron Howard. Myers said he walked away from the film because “the script was unworkable,” and that “I cannot in good conscience accept $20 million and cheat moviegoers who pay their hard-earned money to see my work by making a movie with an unacceptable script.”
Simply put, the opposing party wasn’t having it. “He claimed he had not approved the screenplay,” a counter-statement read. “Who wrote the screenplay? Myers.” The handbags were well and truly out, with the actor and comedian also accused of “betraying the trust of others and causing serious damage to those with whom he deals through selfish, egomaniacal, and irresponsible conduct.”
Eventually, a compromise was reached. Myers would star in The Cat in the Hat, which was produced by Imagine and distributed in the United States by Universal, but the dirty laundry had already been aired, leaving a lingering stench in its wake.
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