Hollywood's Most Hyped Movies

The Exorcist

Local authorities helped the hype by banning the film and there were placard-waving protesters picketing the cinemas. It could only fail to live up to all this and the film seemed risible.

Saving Private Ryan

This was phenomenally over-hyped. People spoke of the best war film ever made and the level of realism making you feel what it was like to be under fire. All it meant was that you could not hear what anyone said. It did not live up to its billing.

Shakespeare in Love

I saw this months before the hype had begun and it started to trail its glittering array of Oscars. Then I thought it a pleasant, amiable little film. But I didn't recognise it from the publicity it generated. In the end it was probably worth the hype.

Titanic

The money and the hint of failure seemed to be used to promote this - could this be an example of double-negative hype? People thought it would be a flop and knew it was massively over-budget. But in the end it sold on its level of spectacular effects, but was still a disappointment.

Waterworld

This was another over-puffed watery flop where the publicity was driven by the money being spent. Unknown to most people it actually turned a profit. Its perceived failure probably prepared the ground for the Titanic hype.

Gone With the Wind

Although few people are left who can remember the fuss it caused, the expectations of this film were massive. They had a highly publicised trawl around the world for the actress who would play Scarlett and it was all driven by the huge success of the book.

Notting Hill

The hype for this is going into a second phase by now promoting Rhys Ifans as a star for the men to like. They have also had a chunk of publicity for passing the $100m mark in the US.

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

This was another example of a film everyone thought would fail. No one could believe the public would want to see a full-length animated film and it was dubbed `Disney's folly'. The fact that people loved it became the story.

The next Star Wars film

Last week an American magazine ran a story about who is supposed to be lining up to play Anakin Skywalker in the next film. This is a film that is light years away from release and hasn't even started production but already its started.

Selected by Brian Sibley, presenter of Radio 4's film programme `Talking Pictures'