Directors Who Were Fired During Filming

a movie is a very expensive Endeavor so you would think that producers would get all their ducks in a row and hire a director that's not only competent but that they're comfortable handing over a lot of power and money too keyword being think because even on movies whose budgets exceed $300 million directors have been let go at various stages of production in this video I want to zero in on perhaps the most important stage the filming process itself specifically I want to look at directors that were fired in the middle of shooting and in some cases just weeks away from finishing a film first we'll look at some cases where bad onset Behavior behind the scenes politics and most shocking of all actual creative differences led to directors getting the boot in all of these cases the movies were very close to completion and most of them happened in the last 10 years second we're going to take a quick look at older movies interestingly in all these cases directors were fired in the first few weeks of filming instead of the last few which is the recent Trend I think this has to do with the technology available with CGI you can make more changes in post- production than you could when working on actual film the messy production of the Star Wars franchise since the acquisition by Disney has been well documented a lot of the issues happen in pre-production where directors and writers get shuffled around or Worse projects get cancelled like yald Del's job of the Hut movie but even Star Wars and by extension Lucas film and Disney are not immune to missteps that cost tens of Millions on movies that cost hundreds of millions there are at least two Productions where the directors in charge have walked from the movie and had have another director step in finish the job though it's less clear in the first case Gareth Edwards was hired to direct 2016's Rogue one thanks to his successful reboot of Godzilla under legendary pictures the film cycled through a number of screenwriters in a short half year and even more would contribut to it throughout production despite that when filming began in August of 2015 at Pinewood Studios in England it seemed as though everything was going pretty smoothly but then came the re-shoot reports about the re- shoots are conflicting especially between Gareth Edwards and the man that was hired to do the re-shoot for $5 million Tony giloy Edwards was sangin about the experience say quote the stuff that is out there on the internet about what happened on that film there's so much inaccuracy about the whole thing Tony came in and he did a lot of great work for sure no doubt about it but we all worked together until the last minute of that movie and quote Edward says that he was fully involved in the re-shoot which were scheduled well in advance prior to principal photography he noted that quote the very last thing that we filmed in the pickup shoot was the Darth Vader Corridor scene I did all of that stuff end quote but a lot of this might just boil down to the this being Edward's third movie after monsters and God solo and just his second movie under a major Studio Edwards a good guy by all accounts noted that he was happy to just have a crack at Star Wars saying that quote someone who gets that opportunity to make a Star Wars movie and then starts complaining about it I don't think many people have that much empathy for that kind of person end quote he followed that with quote what goes into fight club stage and Fight Club kind of thing it's like that I just want to sound grateful for what happened and not talking negatively about anything end quote there's a slight coinness there that leads one to believe that maybe there was something else going on but there's also something admirable about doing the work being grateful for the chance and moving on Tony giloy however tells another story giloy had worked with Edwards before on the story for Godzilla before coming into help with the rewrites reshoots and working as second ad on Rogue one he was blunt about the condition that he thought the movie was in saying that after the assembly cut or the first rough cut of the film quote they were in such a swamp in so much terrible terrible trouble that all you could do was improve their position end quot Ben Mendelson who played oron krennic seemed to affirm how different Edwards and giloy movies were saying there were quote enormous differences within I would have said 20 or 30 of the scenes end quote the film was partially edited by Tony Gilroy's brother John Gilroy who said that his brother convinced Disney that they needed to take a new track with the movie and that it would require a quote sizable investment in time and money and quote and as Disney was apparently unhappy with the assembly cut they decided to go ahead with the re-shoot which centered around character development with the one source and quote it's a lot of talking in cockpits end quote and with giloy leaning more into the movie being about sacrifice considering the secrecy that surrounds movies as a default the true story is unlikely to ever be known Disney was obviously happy with whatever work Tony giloy had done as they gave him the Reign to Andor not bad for a guy who said quote I've never been interested in Star Wars ever so I had no reverence for it whatsoever I was unafraid about that end quote Edwards meanwhile will have a much deserved turn in helming Jurassic world 4 and considering how well he does with movies with giant monsters there's probably no one better and considering how rad one turned out I think this is a case of all well that ends well that wasn't the case for 2018 solo a Star Wars story which saw the departure of a pair of directors on a movie that cost as much as $300 million when 3/4 of the movie was already filmed solo was to be directed by Duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller who had directed the 21 and 22 Jump Street movies as well as the Lego movie all of which were solid enjoyable and successful films writing was done by Lawrence and Jonathan Casten the former of whom also wrote Raiders of the Lost AR Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi while casting took a long time apparently more than 3,000 actors were looked at for the lead role of Han Solo when filming began on January 30th 2017 it seemed as though things were actually moving a pace by June of that year it had all Fallen apart Lord and Miller were 75% of the weight complete with filming when Lawrence Caston decided to let them go from the project over creative differences with the backing of Kathleen Kennedy who he had known for decades now creative differences is used in pretty much all cases when someone departs a movie and it can anything from they were fired because they were wasting money and time to they were fired because of their rampid drug use but in this case it actually did seem to just be a difference in the direction that each party Wanted the movie to go the Duos seem to confirm this saying quote unfortunately our vision and process weren't aligned with our partners on this project we normally aren't fans of the phrase creative differences but for once this cliche is true and quote these specific creative differences were them trying to make a funnier movie with a more comedic Han Solo a Hollywood Reporter article put it as such quote Lord and Miller have a comedic sensibility and improvisational style while C and favors a strict adherence to the written word what is on the page is what must be shot end quote their version of Han Solo was funnier which once Source took issue with sing quote people need to understand that Han Solo is not a comedic personality he's sarcastic and selfish end quote Kathleen Kennedy seemed to affirm the creative differences boiling over comedy angle as well same quote I think these guys are hilarious but they come from a background of animation and sketch comedy and when you are making these movies you can do that and there's plenty of room for improvisation which we do all the time but it has to be inside of a highly structured process or you can't get the work done and you can't move the armies of people to anticipate and have things ready so it literally came down to process just getting it done end quote their style was known from the beginning but Disney and Lucas film seemed to believe that it was something that could be worked through over the course of the shoot that evidently was not the case and no one seemed more surprised than Lord and Miller who were supposedly let go during a short Hiatus they took to take stock of their progress Ron Howard who interestingly enough was asked by George Lucas to direct The Phantom Menace was brought in to bring the film across the Finish Line two days after their firing but in order to receive sole credit he also had to scrap what Lord and Miller had done and re-shoot many of the scenes himself s though he was often able to get them faster doing in two or three takes what would take Lord and Miller 20 or more takes Howard a good guy by all accounts was diplomatic about his hiring s quote philm and Chris's fingerprints are all over the movie given how much they put into it and the time they put into it end quote Lord and Miller have also remained diplomatic over the years about the firing calling it a learning experience still they stand behind their Vision even if it might not have resonated with Disney saying that quote if you're giving the audience exactly what they expect and a bunch of fan service they're going to end up disappointed end quote in the case of solo that definitely ended up being the case it was a disappointment critically and commercially Brian Singer has a really bad personality I'm not even talking about the sexual assault allegations I mean that over the years he built up a reputation for causing problems on set he would show up late or unprepared and when he was asked to do better he would literally cry about it he would also just leave his duties behind to go party with his friends according to a Hollywood Reporter article while working on the first X-Men movie quote others onset characterized his drug use as problematic leading to late arrivals to the set mood swings and explosive Tantrums end quote one example of a mood swing was having Rebecca romin who played Mystique sit for hours of body paint and then not use her in a scene and this is how a fox executive would put it when talking about singer's behavior on the movie quote his behavior was poor on the movie we accommodated him on the first one and therefore we can accommodate him on the second one and on and on and it created a monster end quote and so after creating a monster what did Fox do despite knowing about the abuse allegations they hired him for another movie of course singer made a lot of money for the studio so what wasn't forgiven was swept under the rug Brun singer's Fall From Grace was something else his breakout hit was 1995 is The Usual Suspects perhaps one of the best written films of all time predictable it did well at the box office and with critics and just 5 years later he was put in charge of X-Men and its SQL X2 like any director he had his misses 2006's Superman Returns and 2013's Jack the Giant slay were both commercial disappointments though X-Men days of Future's Past went a long way in rehabilitating his commercial image and getting him back in Fox's good graces amidst all the allegations and despite knowing about his issues Fox wanted to work with him again after bohemian rapsy languished in development hell for so long they figured that singer was the guy who would get it to work and he would to an extent but it would also be the last thing he's worked on in over 5 years the issu started almost immediately and they were the same that singer exhibited on X-Men the only difference is that he would get the boot this time he was given a warning Stacy Snyder chairman of 20th Century Fox at the time reportedly warned singer quote don't break the law show up to work every day failure to comply will bring consquences end quote but apparently her words had no effect singer would start shooting say he was tired and let his cinematographer Newton Thomas Seagle do the work Ramy mik who was in the makeup Tour by 6:30 a.m. every day would still be waiting around for singer when everyone else was ready to go after singer reportedly threw around some equipment Malik called Fox which sent some people down to oversee the production filming was more than halfway done so they were hoping that just a little push would be all that was needed and then everybody body he could go home Happy how wrong they were things came to a head around Thanksgiving of 2017 singer said that he was exhausted and wanted to stop production for a couple of weeks which is what they needed to finish shooting Snyder asked him not to go but singer left anyways also saying something about how his mother wasn't feeling well this was the last straw for Fox Malex claims about singer's quote not being present on set unreliability and unprofessionalism end quote turned out to be true singer was fired from the movie on December 4th 2017 and Dexter Fletcher was brought in to finish the job at the behalf of Ramy Malik who told him quote if you come to set and on the floor you'll still do a better job than this guy end quote Fletcher who was attached to direct Bohemian rapsy when it was still out Sony was a total professional and wrapped filming in three more weeks according to the Hollywood Reporter some of the scenes he was responsible for were quote when Freddy Mercury celebrates his birthday at his parents dinner table and when the band writes another one by the dust end quote the movie went on to become a wild success while singer as a result of his actually being difficult to work with and the multitude of sexual assault allegations seemingly fled the country heading to Israel in 2019 the best Superman movie ever made is still Richard Donner's 1978 Masterpiece it wasn't the first DC Superhero film or arguably even the first superhero film but it was the first good one and was the standard that everything that came after it was held to until 2008 The Dark Knight the movie was a critical and Commercial Success not bad considering that Donner wasn't the first choice or the second or third or even the fourth fifth sixth or seventh but he was the final choice and the right choice the film rights were held by Ilia and Alexander suin and their partner pier spingler and by the end of the movie the relation between them and Donna would get so bad that Donner would be fired from Superman 2 and would refuse to speak with them the filming of the movies was odd to say the least because instead of just filming Superman Donna was hired to film both Superman and Superman 2 at the same time similar to how the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed and then they would stagger their release in order to get the most out of it this of course is a complicated process and problems were immediately evident one thing to keep in mind is that this was pre Superhero Movie Mania this was not the MCU Heyday and while the Adam West Batman series was popular there's no guarantee that the Superman movies would be a success it's why the producers were willing to Shell out big bucks to get Marlon Brando and Jee Hackman during a time when the star power mattered but if the first movie bombed it would also spell Doom for the second the two biggest problems were the schedule and the costs filming on both movies began in March of 1977 and was scheduled to last 8 months Max it would end up lasting 19 months through October of 1978 this was a problem because the movie was supposed to come out in June of 1978 before it got pushed to December of the same year the literal doubling of the shooting schedule also meant that of course costs were going up dramatically and that was after Superman was already budgeted to be the most expensive movie made at that time Donner didn't exactly indar himself to the suin from the jump unlike them he wanted to make a good movie that would live up to the tagline you will believe a man can fly the first thing that Donner did was trash the original campy 550 page script written by the Godfather scribe Mari puso and Rewritten by several others Donner instead hired Tom MWI to rewrite it in an interview with Empire Donner a fan of Superman from his youth was Frank saying quote the way these people were making it was a defamation and quote issues surrounding the schedule and costs were Apparent from the beginning before shooting anything they needed to figure out a way that would make a man believably fly on the screen that alone cost $2 million to figure out then there were the actors Brando was difficult to work with he refused to learn lines so they had to be written on Q cards and even on his co-star's foreheads so that he could recite them meanwhile Jee Hackman who played Lex Luther refused to shave his head his wardrobe wigs and makeup would run the production more than 50 Grand per day oh yeah and they were also missing their Superman it took hundreds of auditions and dozens of rejections before they finally found Christopher Reef who had to Boke up for the role Donner and the producers also disliked each other intensely The Producers blamed him for going over budget and over time but Donner had a good counter he didn't know what the budget or the schedule was because they refused to tell him Donner seemingly was Flying Blind unsure of how much he had to work with and by when he should be meeting certain Milestones he credited Warner Brothers who were distribute the movie and were the ultimate owners of Superman for backing him to the hilt around this time Richard Lester who directed The Beatles films A Hard Day's Night and help was brought in to serve as they go between between Donner and the producers that was probably a good idea as Donna reportedly threatened to punch the hain's partner Pier Spangler if he showed up on set Lester took on the duties of the second unit director to help pick up the shots that Donner couldn't the two seemingly had a decent enough working relationship Lester would only go if Don invited him which he did and Donner would ask Lester for advice on improving the ending which is what led to the time traveling scene Lester was also the one who convinced everyone to put all their focus on the first movie and then worry about the second one after the first one was done well Superman was a massive critical and Commercial Success setting the standard for what a superhero movie should be Richard Donner was flying high or rather he should have been unknown to him behind the scenes the salins and Spangler planned on restarting production on Superman 2 without informing Donner and having Lester directed in Donner's words quote one day I got a telegram from them saying my services are no longer needed and that my dear friend Richard Lester would take over to this day I have not heard from them end quote Tom MWI and editor Stuart beard refused to return out of loyalty to Donner while Jee Hackman refused to do re-shoot which meant hiring a standed despite 75% of Superman 2 being shot the producers and Lester decided to re-shoot most of the movie in order to take directorial credit away from Donner they also decided to cut out Marlon BR scenes because they didn't want to pay him the 11.75% of the box office receipts that Brando had negotiated for and because Brando had sued the soins for $50 million claiming that he wasn't properly paid on the first movie Superman 2 was a critical and Commercial Success but did not quite live up to the bar set by the first movie and perhaps as something of an olive branch Lester would offer to share a co-director credit with donam who refused saying quote I don't share credit end quote almost 30 years later in the leadup to 2006's Superman Returns Richard Donner returned to Superman 2 he was able to recover all of the footage that he had shot and Superman 2 the Richard Doner cut was released the movie got better reviews than the original cut of Superman 2 which leads one to believe that if producers and donor could have put aside their differences one more time they could have made an even better sequel in all of these cases directors were fired toward the end of a movie only a few weeks of shooting were left and if everybody had come together they probably could have finished it but the problems were a bit too insurmountable but directors being fired for movies goes back a long long ways with the difference being that they used to be fired in the beginning of a movie instead of towards the end 1960 Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Stanley kubri was a smashing critical and Commercial Success and would be Universal picture's biggest Money Maker for a decade that's not bad for a movie who lost its first director within a week of shooting but neither Stanley Kubrick or Anthony man the film's first director were the first choices that of course was David leene who had directed The Bridge on the River Qui and would be remembered for his epic work on Epic films when he turned it now the studio turned to Anthony man but Kirk Douglas who was as powerful as any director at that point did not think that man was up to the job say quote he seemed scared of the scope of the picture end quote so he fired him in the first week of shooting it's particularly Odd as man would go on to direct elid another historical epic though that was still several years away Douglas replaced him with a young director that he had worked with a few years ago on Paths of Glory Don kubri it was Kubrick's most expensive most epic feature up until that point but if there's one thing that kubri was not it was daunted or scared by anyone not even the mighty Douglas by this point his perfectionism had already set in and he would Clash with anyone in order to get his way on the film when the cinematographer Russell medy threatened to quit the movie over Kubrick's shocking Precision kubric said quote you can do your job by sitting in your chair and shutting up I'll be the Director of Photography end quote medy would go on to win the Academy Award for best cinematography for the movie Kubrick also fought with Dalton Trumbo over the screenplay and of course he fought with Kirk Douglas over things like the most famous line I'm Spartacus which Kubrick was not a fan of when he turned 100 this is what Kirk Douglas said of Stanley kubri quote he was a bastard but he was a talented talented guy and quote the two often fought though always in the service of making a better film than either could on their own amusingly despite being considered a masterpiece kubic distanced himself from the film because he did not have Final Cut I guess gu when you have multiple masterpieces to your name you can afford to dissociate from one or two 1976 is the outlaw Josie Wales which starred Clint Eastwood was supposed to be directed by Philip Kaufman but issues between Eastwood and Kaufman were Apparent from the beginning ranging from their different attitudes towards the story to both of them pursuing Leading Lady SRE lock behind the scenes to Kaufman's meticulous attention to detail during filming to eastwards shooting a scene when Kaufman had taken a momentary relief in October of 1975 Koffman was fired by producer Bob Dy which caused the Ruckus in Hollywood and led to the DJ passing the Eastwood rule which prohibited actors or producers from firing directors and then taking over directing duties themselves still thanks to Kaufman's meticulous pre-production the rest of the movie went off without a hitch which leads one to believe that whatever the reason for the firing it wasn't because Kaufman was doing a bad job 1983's War Games first had Martin breast as the Director but he was Far 12 days into shooting the issue similar to the case of Lord and Miller and solo was actual creative differences according to the director that replaced him John batam breast head quot taking a somewhat dark approach to the story and the way it was shot it was like brck and sheety were doing some Nazi undercover things so it was my job to make it seem like they were having fun and that it was exciting end quote The Producers wanted something a lot less serious than what breast was trying to accomplish so they brought in someone else still it had quite the mental impact on breast who later said quote I was fired 3 weeks into production that was pretty gruesome because it was only my second movie in the trades it said something like I was fired because I couldn't get the tone light enough or something like that end quote amusingly his next movie was Beverly Hills Cop one of the most successful comedies up until that point a movie is such an expensive and timeconsuming Endeavor it seems almost ridiculous that the studios don't have all their ducks in a row before hiring a director when someone leaves during pre-production it's understandable and is arguably the best time to part ways or fire someone but once cameras are rolling and the movie is a few short weeks away from filming at that point all the issues are self-inflicted that said not all cases are like solo where we're left wondering what could have been sometimes you get someone like Stanley kubric at the helm and they knock it out of the park it's seemingly rare but it does happen still ideally Studio should get it together before filming in order to save everyone a lot of stress once a director is hard unless there are extenuating circumstances just roll with the punches and ride it out until the end

Channel: Syntopikon

Views: 24,362

Keywords: directors that were fired, fired directors, worst directors, x men director fired, movie behind the scenes, bohemian rhapsody movie, superman movie, star wars fired, star wars director fired

Id: Wt0R_AH6tJk

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024