Movies That Were Stolen From Directors

directors often spend a long time with movies usually on the order of years but sometimes despite years of Blood Sweat and Tears often in the literal sense these self-same directors disown the final work or at least aren't satisfied with the release in almost all cases it has to do with Studio interference in this video I want to take a look at the directors who are with the movie all the way to the end except for crossing the finish line along the way creative differences between investors and creatives reared their head and the investors won the battle that in turn would lead to directors disowning their works in the most extreme cases though often they were try to grin and barar it in some cases things were made right in most they weren't in a few the directors try to even get their name removed from the movie first we'll look at some individual directors and movies where the director either never got Final Cut or in one case got it 25 years after the fact then we take a quick look at two Studios that have made a sport out of taking films from their directors Marvel and DC Frank Herbert's dun had a troubled filmic history before Den vne finally got it right before David Lynch's Dune in 1984 a number of directors including Arthur Jacobs Alejandra jarowski and Ridley Scott were attached to direct Scott is particularly interesting because he left Dune to film arguably the greatest sci-fi movie of the 1980s aside from Empire strike Strikes Back That of course was his Masterwork Blade Runner a movie that also had a troubled production and also had its theatrical cut ripped from the hands of its director but more on that later Lynch was approached to direct the movie after producer rafhaela dentes saw the Elephant Man at the time Lynch was also been considered for Return of the Jedi and he hadn't read Dune but after doing so he decided to take the project on not expecting how much he would regret the experience Lynch worked through half a dozen drafts and figuring he might not get to make two films tried to condense it into one the issues were apparent as soon as they began adapting the at the time considered to be unadoptable movie a snippet from a September 1983 New York Times article by algen hermetz captures the difficulty and grandiosity of the shoot quote there are 53 speaking rules 20,000 extras four separate planets to be created nearly 70 sets to be built and torn down 900 men and women who have worked on the crew at one time or another during the last year 200 of those men spent 2 months crawling on their hands and knees over three square miles of desert to clear it of rattlesnakes scorpions and every inch of cactus nothing grows or lives on the surface of the deep deserts of the planet oracus the Dune of Mr Herbert's intricate novel about a new Messiah end quote and the decision to make it in Mexico in order to take advantage of favorable exchange rates between the dollar and peso compounded the problems the electricity would go down so they couldn't do basic tasks like using the phones and using sewing machines and ancient volcano bed that they wanted as a location turned out to be a dump for dead dogs 15% of the crew landed in the hospital and more after more than six arduous months in Mexico the filming was complete then they started running into the fundamental issues Dune is a long book so it makes sense that Lynch's original cut would also be long the rough cut was 4 hours long but Lynch was able to condense it into 3 hours that was already pushing it but the Distributors and financiers expected him to get it down to 2 hours when Lynch was unable or unwilling to do that Dino and rafhaela de lenes decided to take matters into their own hands and started to cut or re-shoot scenes including the famous opening introduction by Virginia Madson Lynch who isn't particularly confrontational didn't go nuclear like another director on our list did though he would call it a quote terrible terrible experience end quote and said that it nailed for him the idea that one should quote never never do a film without Final Cut end quote despite being offered the chance to do his own director's cut multiple times Lynch has consistently turned down the offer the longest cuts of the movie were edited together for television there Lynch refused to even have his name on the credits the direction of the movie is credited to Alan smiy which is a pseudonym directors in the past have used in order to disown a film the writing is credited to Judi Booth a com combination of Judith es scariot and John WS boo evidently David Lynch is not a fan of his Dune rley Scott's 1982 Masterwork Blade Runner is probably one of the most important films of all time while it didn't create cyber Punk it certainly helped to find what we think of when we think of the genre and it's influenced almost all sci-fi that has come after it famously Blade Runner also had a very troubled production that led to seven different versions of it existing over the years thanks to significant interference from Studio exacts ver Scott began work on Blade Runner after he had departed Dune wanting to immerse himself in work after the tragic death of his brother Frank the movie was an adaptation of Philip K dicks to Android stream of Electric Sheep while the title was derived from an allen e Norse novel called The Blade Runner where it referred to a Smuggler of medical supplies despite departures from the Nela Philip K dick seemed to enjoy what he had seen of the movie prior to his passing before its release saying quote after I finished reading the screenplay I got the novel out and looked through it the two reinforc each other so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel end quote Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford who played the titular Blade Runner famously buted heads throughout their work on the movie 10 years after Blade Runner Ford said in an interview that quote Blade Runner is not one of my favorite films I Tangled with Fridley end quote still he respected Scott's vision and some of the dislikes stemmed from the studio interference on the movie he said as much in an interview saying quote when we started shooting it had been tacitly agreed that the version of the film that we had agreed upon was the version without voiceover narration it was a [ __ ] nightmare I thought that the film had worked without the narration but now I was stuck recreating that narration and I was obliged to do the voiceovers for people that did not represent the director's interests end quote and that is where Ridley Scott's issue with the Blade Runner come into play there were seven different cuts of the movie two of them were screened for test audiences while five saw some form of public release the two screened ones were the 1982 workprint cut later disown by Ridley Scott which scared the studios and started the interference but what later resonate with audiences when it was accidentally leaked in 1990 and 1991 the other was a snake preview shown in San Diego that included some scenes that weren't included in the Final Cut which would be the definitive edition the five public releases were the 1982 us theatrical release the 198 2 International release the 1986 us broadcast release the 1992 Ridley Scott quote unquote approved director's cut and 2007's the Final Cut which is the only one that Ridley Scott had full control over the most interesting for us are the 1982 theatrical cut the 1992 director's cut and the 2007 Final Cut by the end of filming Ford and Scott had a film they were mostly happy with the workprint cut but when it was shown to test audiences who said that they didn't understand what was going going on producers decided to insert some narration that was already filmed and recorded but that Scott had decided to leave out Scott and Ford argued against the narration but as Scott did not have Final Cut he was overridden the narration was pretty bad which will LED some to believe that Ford intentionally did a bad job so producers wouldn't use it according to Ford quote I delivered it to the best of my ability given that I had no input I never thought they'd use it but I didn't try and sandbag it it was simply bad narration quote the studio would also change the ending of the movie going with the happy ending which also ran contrary to what Scott wanted shocking as it may seem now the movie was a box office bomb when it was released and had more mixed reviews than anything with American audiences criticizing it for being slow that of course would change what the rotten Tomato's current consensus reading quote misunderstood when it first hit theaters the influence of Ridley Scott's mysterious neon Noir Blade Runner has deepened with time a visually remarkable achingly human sci-fi Masterpiece end quote the 1992 director's cut was slightly more in line with what Scott had wanted though he didn't personally oversee its creation it was prompted thanks to Michael Eric who oversaw the creation discovering the workprint cut which theater owners learned of and decided to screen they got permission from Warner Brothers who didn't know that they were going to screen this particular cut but seeing how successful it was and how much audiences now like the movie without the narration they decided to expand the screenings Scott however was unhappy and expressed his dissatisfaction saying it was more of a rough cut than anything else Warner Brothers pulled the screenings and considering the new phone popularity and rise in cold status of the film asked Scott for his input on Crafting a director's cut still the final product was still in the hands of someone else that was the case until the definitive version of the movie was released in 2007 this being the final cut this is the only version of the movie that was under Ridley Scott's complete creative control and is the version he wanted to be released Scott started working on it in the mid 2000s but was only able to fully get it done after Warner Brothers closed some open legal battles surrounding the film he worked with restoration producer Charles Del oara who helped supervise many of the special editions of Scott's movies as well as for directors like James Cameron David Lynch Michael Bay and the Cen Brothers Scott got to work on creating the Masterwork that he had set out to make decades ago along with a 3 and 1/ half hour documentary directed by loar that documented the making of Bladerunner it took 25 years from the date of its release until Ridley Scott was finally able to do the version that he wanted that said Blade Runner was a hell of a film from the jump and despite the first release not being what he intended it still resonated with a lot of people American History X was a critical success that earned Edward Norton an Academy Award for best actor nomination it also all but ruined director Tony K's career though it's arguable that much of the pain was self-inflicted that said the drama surrounding the movie also gets to the heart of who a movie belongs to things were going well for a while Kay was able to deliver his cut of the movie on time and under budget which is something of a rarity in Hollywood often one of those is missing and sometimes both now the production was shockingly smooth considering the subject matter that doesn't mean all was well though even before things moved into post- production Edward Norton was asserting his control over the movie sometimes rewriting parts of the script David McKenna who wrote the script said that Norton never made changes by himself and only made changes with him whatever the case Kay and Norton seemed to work fine together on the movie when new line Cinema test screened the movie they found that people were receptive to it despite the subject matter but then all hell broke loose when Edward Norton demanded to recut the film refusing to do press otherwise NE line okay the idea and K through gritted teeth agreed s quote I'm fully aware that I'm a firsttime director but I need the same autonomy and respect that Stanley kubri gets end quote things turned violent very soon according to an LA Times article quote one day K stormed out of the editing room and punched a nearby wall cutting his hand to the Bone my hand must have hit a hidden nail because I had blood gushing anywhere he recalls I had to go to the hospital to have stitches I still have the scar end quote Mitch Goldman who ran marketing and distribution at new line said that the two cuts were virtually identical despite the new cut cut supposedly adding another 18 minutes of footage in his words quote I could hardly tell the difference I told Tony that the current version is every bit as emotionally powerful end quote but it was the principle of the matter that concerned Kay and he alled it be known in a powerful way after test screening the new cut they found that audiences liked it even more than the original new Lions chairman Bob Shay who we can also thank for Lord of the Rings being a Trilogy of movies and Michael DeLuca president of new line tried to convince K to go with a new cut K instead decided to go nuclear first he threatened to take his name off the movie despite further concessions like another 8 weeks to work on the film Kay instead decided to destroy any hint of a friendly solution then he spent six figures on taking out ads in the Hollywood trades that had quotes from famous figures lambasting new line during those eight weeks instead of doing something that could help the film he quote spent several weeks working on new scenes and voiceover dialogue with Nobel prize winning poet Derek Walcott end quot when he was supposed to show them his work K quot showed up with a rabbi a priest and a Tibetan monk end quote why who knows maybe he thought that they would help Deluca and Shay see the light new line put its foot down and said that the new cut was going to Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival so Kay tried to sabotage it by asking the organizers to reject the movie and filmed himself demanding as such neine would pull the film he tried to get his name removed from the film to be replaced by a ponet his choice Humpty Dumpty in case words quote I like the sound bit directed by Humpty Dumpty in fact I'm going to hire someone to wear a Humpty Dumpty outfit walk around new Line's Plaza and sit on their little wall and occasionally fall off end quote he would eventually Sue nine for $200 million but the case was dismissed and K got himself blackballed from the industry K1 said quote it's only after we're dead that people finally say you know he actually made a lot of sense end quote he didn't wait that long and came to regret his action saying quote I was overcome and I was egotistical back then my ego got in the way whenever I can I take the opportunity to apologize to all the people that I aggravated I was doing my best it was my passion but I was still completely in the wrong end quote 2012's dread is a sci-fi movie that follows squarely in the Blade Runner tradition despite not being a commercial hit it did well enough with critics and fans that it became a hit on home video releases after the fact and has thoroughly embedded itself as a cult hit Alex Garland began writing the script for dread in6 Pete Travis was slated to direct and Carl Urban was brought on board to play Judge Dread filming began in November of 2010 in Cape Town And while it mostly went smoothly there were some signs of future consternation the biggest was that garland would almost always be on set for the shoot which is unusual for writers who typically have moved on to another project by the time the written project starts shooting unless they're writer director if changes are needed writers are asked to make the changes from wherever they are and they'll be reflected on the shoot that wasn't the case here though and as the script erupted from the mind of Alex Garland Carl Urban would often ask him for direction instead of the actual director Pete Travis of the situation Urban said quote we had the benefit of having Alex Garland on set for pretty much the entire shoot it seemed quite natural that when I had a question about the character I wouldn't turn to the director our return to the guy who wrote it I honestly think Pete welcomed the input end quote whether or not he did something Travis did not appreciate was what happened when filming wrapped and they moved to post- production namely that his involvement was minimized until it was completely cut out according to the LA Times which broke the story quote although he completed shooting the picture earlier this year Travis has not been involved in the current editing phase of the movie after creative disagreements with producers and Executives in charge of the film reaching a bowling point end quote the report went on to say quote instead the editing room is now being run by a writer producer on the film screenwriter Alex Garland the people said and quote some even said that garland would seek a co-director credit though that didn't come to pass Travis and Garland would eventually release a joint statement that read quote during all stages of the film making dread has been a collaboration between a number of dedicated creative parties from the outset we decided on an unorthodox collaboration to make the film this situation has been misinterpreted to set the record straight Pete was not fired and remains a central part of the collaboration and Alex is not seeking a co-director credit we are all extremely proud of the film we have made end quote that runs very contrary to what Carl Urban would say in 2018 in an interview with Joe Blow Urban said quote a huge part of the success of dread is in fact due to Alex Garland and what a lot of people don't realize is that Alex Garland actually directed that movie and quote after dread Travis would go on to do one more feature film city of tiny lights before moving to doing TV Garland meanwhile has established himself as a tour to force filmmaker with movies like sexm Annihilation and Civil War the truth is probably somewhere in between it's not like a studio could out and out say that the budded the director at the last minute after all Once Upon a Time in America was Sergio Leone's last film and it was subject to quite the butchering by Studio XX Le only first arrived at a 269 minute cut but in in order to please Distributors was able to get it down to 229 minutes which was sated for international release but American Distributors weren't too happy about that as it ran almost 4 hours so Studio exec decided to take a knife to the movie cutting it down to 39 minutes or a full hour and a half shorter than Leone's compromise to top it all off this was done without Leone's permission or supervision reviews were understandably derisive as many critics knew about what had gone on behind the scenes they attacked the short version with the Roger Ebert hailing the uncut version as a four out of fourstar Masterpiece and the American edit as a one out of four-star travesty his partner Jean csll called the uncut version the best film of 1984 and the cut version the worst film of the same year Leon's daughter rafhaela said this of the American version quote he never considered it a version of his movie to be able to ruin such a masterpiece it's a record that for sure is better to forget and of which we hope everyone will forget end quote efforts are still underway to release the full 269 minute version of the movie though a 251 minute version that premiered at can in 1984 to a 15-minute standing evasion is now available in the year since this release the movie has been Hil as one of the best gangster films of all time and it's close to being released as Leon wanted it to be 1986's heat starring Bert Reynolds had a hell of a production and at times it got violent William Goldman who WR screenplay called a quote one of my major disasters and quote and said that the movie reportedly went through multiple directors during its short 36-day shoot Robert Alman was the first choice to direct the movie though he left over not liking the script he was replaced by dick Richards who had a violent relationship with Bert Reynolds whatever brought it on it would lead to Reynolds literally punching dick in the face according to Reynolds quote that punch cost me half a million dollar end quote Richards understandably displeased left the the movie which was now to be directed by Jerry Jameson but for whatever reason Jameson didn't work out so they brought dick back but for some reason this movie just was not Richard's scene because as soon as he got back Richards had another accident he fell from a camera Crane and had to be hauled away on a stretcher Richards would later try to get his name removed from the movie saying quote I had nothing to do with the editing of the film I was one of five directors all I did was the casting and 13 days of shooting I should have taking my name off it entirely end quote DGA arbitration would credit Richards for directing 41% of the movie and Jameson for directing 31% so they got a co-director credit probably as a result of its discordant making the movie was a flop critically and commercially Marvel and DC have a real problem in letting their director's Visions be seen on the screen and it makes sense to group them together whether it's Zack Snider and Justice League David AER and Suicide Squad Alan Taylor and Thor the Dark World James gun and Guardians of the Galaxy or the russer brothers and endgame it's all but certain that producers and exacts at Marvel and DC will involve themselves deeply in the finished movie and to be fair part of it makes sense Marvel was trying to create a unified Cinematic Universe and only the people at the top namely Kevin feige were the ones that really knew where it was headed in order to realize their vision for what the MCU could be there needed to be a steady hand to guide filmmakers throughout the process but the word is steady not stultifying which is often what it ended up being several directors from each Studio would complain about incessant Studio interference in most cases the director would be able to shoot the film as they wanted adhering to the script that they already had but once it came to post-production all of that changed the movie was taken out of their hands and the producers would take the Reigns often putting together movie that if not at odds with the director was unexpected in its outcome but one commonality here is that the director themselves are very forthcoming about what it's like working on these superhero movies in describing how Marvel handles its Final Cuts Joe Russo said quote where I've seen issues is when a director's cut gets delivered and it's not what they were expecting or it's not working then Marvel turns it on and they come in and start to work with the filmmaker in a much heavier way to develop fixes for the movie and then go into extensive re-shoot and quote when crafting a Cinematic Universe it makes sense to an extent though it also risks homogenizing the movies which is something that we've seen and something that others have commented on that is Marvel movies all look and feel the same with rarely any discernable imprint by the director themselves James gun would ascribed these issues to the Marvel creative committee saying this about Guardians of the Galaxy quote there is some messy villain plot stuff in the first movie I'd like to deal with again there was a committee working for Marvel at the time now defunct who had a lot of input and that was primarily where it ended up end quote the committee was a group group of six people that were put together by Ike perometer in order to keep costs down and the Marvel Brand in good standing it was eventually disbanded in 2015 at the Beast of Kevin feige a member of the committee though not before crossing a lot of other filmmakers Alan Taylor who came in to do Thor the Dark World after Patty Jenkins left the project because of her clashes with the committee said quote the Marvel experience was particularly wrenching because I was sort of given absolute freedom while we were shooting and then in post it turned into a different movie so that is something I hope never to repeat and don't wish upon anybody else end quote David a suffered the same indignity on suicide squad where after he was finished DC did $20 million worth of re-shoot to lighten the mood before wrenching the final cut away from air and while Zack Snider was able to make things right with Justice League a never got that chance despite wanting an aircut he would never get it that incarnation of the DCU had moved on by then and a simply stated quote I'm done with DC end quote movies being stolen from directors in post- production is a surprisingly common occurrence though considering the secrecy that surrounds this kind of stuff it's rare that it's ever a cleancut kind of thing in some cases the directors are open about it like David Lynch or Tony K or several Marvel directors but in most cases they're a lot more diplomatic about what went on and it's likely the full story will never be known sometimes we get a director's cut and all is well but a lot of the time we're left wondering what could have been different different making a movie is a long expensive Endeavor that involves a lot of people so it's inevitable that toes get stepped on ideally though if a director was trusted to the point of giving them tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to work with they should be trusted to deliver the final product even if it might run foul of test audiences

Channel: Syntopikon

Views: 36,776

Keywords: movies stolen from directors, stolen movies, best movies ever made, best sci fi films, studio interference movies, blade runner ridley scott, dune david lynch, snyder cut, alex garland movies, james gunn dc, zack snyder dc

Id: O-cuB4fHgjA

Length: 24min 18sec (1458 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2024