Peter Jackson was famous for directing really cheesy B horror movies before his 'big break' with the LotR movies. Stuff like Dead Alive and Meet the Feebles. Of course... Dead Alive was a bajillion times better than any of the LotR movies so may be this is a case of good celebrities gone bad?

And of course, Sam Raimi was in a similar situation with his awesome Evil Dead series, Darkman, etc. But then he got Spider-man, but Spider-man was good, at least. (At least the second one was).