Right after "Passion" the buzz was that he was going to do a film called "Warrior Queen," (not about Barney Frank) about Boadicea who fought the Romans in early England. The word on that was that there was a rape scene that was in its own way very "passion-esque" and as a result, people started slamming him for violence and gore. He dropped it and made this goofy "Apocalypto." Since then, he has only made this take-off on "Taken" with the big bad corporation as Dr. Evil.
The point is, I don't know if he was scared off of "Warrior Queen" by the early criticism or not.
At any rate, it's Hollywood and you're only as good, or bad, as your next hit. Everything else is forgotten.