10 Films With Troubled Histories

Tempers. Studio interference. Weather.

When a film comes out, we sometimes do not think of the process that goes into it. We just enjoy it or hate it. However, many movie sets experience actors quitting, budget issues, directors walking, financial problems, production crew feuds, and even bad weather. All of which can cause trouble behind the scenes.

There are a lot more examples of this than you think. As a film history amateur, I found these films and their chaotic productions interesting.

Here are 10 movies with troubled histories:

Lawrence Of Arabia

The epic biopic was directed by Sir David Lean, who had just come off his success of The Bridge on the River Kwai. He attempted to reunite much of the film’s cast for Lawrence of Arabia, about the real historical figure T. E. Lawrence. The problem was that no one wanted to work with him. Lean was reportedly a dictator during the filming of previous movies.

This led to recasting, which led to more negotiations, and when they finally got a cast settled, the screenplay was not. To make matters worse, some of the actors who got signed on misbehaved on the set. This included Peter O’Toole, who was constantly drunk.

Additionally, they intended to film in Arabia, but it was too expensive, so they had to move to Spain and Morocco. This caused more delays. However, the final is considered by many to be one of the best biopics of all time.

The Thief And The Cobbler

This animated feature took 31 years, yes 31 YEARS to produce. What was the problem? The original filmmaker, Richard Williams, lost financial backing because his perfectionism caused constant delays, and he eventually lost control of production.

A version of the film came out in 1992 thanks to the efforts of Fred Caulvert. Miramax bought the rights and re-edited it as Arabian Knights. A “Recobbled Cut” restored most of the original production and was released in 2006.

Heaven’s Gate

Based on the story of The Johnson County War, the plot makes so many historical errors that many consider it an “alternate history” film. Its production was prolonged by such things as a tyrannical director, cast rebellion, budget problems, and a crumbling set.

Basically, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. In the end, the film ran for almost four hours. To make matters worse, it went over budget, which it did not recoup at the box office. Many “cuts” have been released in an attempt to save the film’s “legacy.”

Alien 3

David Fincher was promised a sizable budget, but the studio cut it just before production, forcing him to do a rewrite of the script. To make matters worse, when he sent the studio the rough cut, they butchered it so much in post-production that it was almost completely unrecognizable. Fincher gets most of the blame, but this was a clear case of studio meddling with a franchise.

Terminator Salvation

Poor Christian Bale gets so much flack and blame for what went wrong with the film. The truth is, tension had been brewing on set for a while before his viral outburst. The film had so many executive and associate producers that their egos got in the way of filming.

Director McG had to extend filming scenes sometimes for weeks after the studio demanded reshoots. The cast and crew began to get tense with each other, leading to the infamous Bale meltdown on the set of the film.

License To Kill

Ever wonder why this James Bond film did not have a single scene in England? EON was facing tax issues, forcing them to move production to Mexico. That forced the plot to revolve around a Latin American drug lord and Bond losing his license to kill. Meanwhile, the heat was almost unbearable for the cast.

To make matters worse, there was a writer’s strike that delayed production. The film was originally titled “License Revoked,” leading to a marketing disaster due to audience confusion after seeing posters with two different titles.

The Magnificent Seven

Despite being one of the best Western films of all time, the film was plagued with constant delays. It went through three screenwriters and barely got the cast signed on before a pending actor’s strike, forcing production to move to Mexico. Mexican censors had to be on set to be sure that the farmers were not shown in a negative light, leading to more tension.

The most outrageous thing was that the seven actors constantly let their egos get in the way of acting. Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner were constantly trying to one-up each other while shooting. Director John Sturges was afraid the film would suffer because they bickered, but it is now considered an excellent Western flick.

ROAR

The story of a family that lives on a big cat reserve seems good on paper. Unfortunately, several actors and crew members were injured on the set as director, writer, producer, and star Noel Marshall just let the animals wander around supervised. Flooding also caused the set to be destroyed, and the rebuild almost doubled the budget.

47 Ronin

I personally enjoyed this film, but it did not fare well at the box office. Carl Erik Rinsch was a rookie director who had never done a feature film before, clashing with Universal Studios constantly over the film’s direction.

He wanted the film to be a straight-up historical drama, but Universal wanted a fantasy film to compete with The Hobbit and Avatar. There are even rumors that Rinsch was fired at one point, but Universal denies this.

Fitzcarraldo

Director and writer Werner Herzog sought to create an epic adventure film about a man attempting to haul a steamboat over the Andes Mountains in South America. Unfortunately, his lead actor fell seriously ill early in production, forcing him to hire Klaus Kinski, with whom he had previously worked and disliked.

Kinski caused so much trouble that locals hired to help with the production offered to kill him for Herzog. When production wrapped, Kinski snuck out of South America to head back to Europe.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, anime, movie, or novel you would like me to review.