Hello all. It's been a while since my last rating thread, but I figured with the current release of The Wolfman and all the problematic production troubles, this hasn't been touched on too often. So I figured I would make a thread about it. Please comment your own opinions and thoughts on the top 10. I did as much research as possible on a lot of troubled film productions, but these ones just continue to stand out. I find it interesting that there are good things in a lot of these films, but the problems overshadow the film sometimes and it is impossible to save.

10. Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

What is remained to be seen. You have truly the first failure of Steven Spielberg and John Landis, who wanted nothing more than to recapture the magic of the claimed Twilight Zone series created by Rod Sterling. Spielberg and Landis would both write original stories for their segments (Landis also the opening) and hire two other flashy directors for the remaining two based on popular episodes to series, but this was not to be. After completing the opening scene, mostly improved by Albert Brooks and Dan Akyroyd, the film spirals into a mess with the two segments by the acclaimed directors. The reasoning, Victor Morrow, the star of Landis' segment along with two illegal extras were killed/ decapitated by helicopter that malfunctioned. Landis and Spielberg would be in courtcases against the grieving families for the remainder of the 80s. As a result, Spielberg completely abandoned the project (After adapting a story from the show about monsters that trick or treat), grabbed the easiest episode and directed it in record time. The segment is easily some of the worst work Spielberg ever did with no heart whatsoever. John Landis on the other hand had an even bigger issue, with the main star dead in his segment he had to find a way to edit the film around him, making it an interesting if waste of talent segment that goes absolutely no where. The other segments of the film are decent as now George Miller and Joe Dante almost had full control with Spielberg and Landis distanced from the project. The production problems are very evident in the film, and sequel plans were immediately ended, despite the film actually making money, if just on the name brand.

Overall, it was a great idea in the hands of two people that had the pedigree to make a great film, but tragedy, this is certainly not the last one, will affect any film.



There is also the entire film on youtube, as well as the accident of Vic Morrow, a true tragedy.

I'll try and get 8 and 9 up today as well.

9. Highlander 2: The Shittening (1991)

Or from the 7 people that like the movie, Highlander 2: The quickening. Honestly what the hell were they thinking when they made this film. The producers saw a film that was basically impossible to make a sequel, but tried anyway. Here are the production problems. 1. The script is ludicrous, and not only manages to be worthless, but shits on the original. Sean Connery returns from the dead because Lambert became friends with him on the original and demanded he be written in. 2. None of the actors do anything interesting: John C. McGinley admits that every instinct he had in the film was terrible; Virginia Madsen does nothing but get somewhat naked; Michael Ironside chopped off part of Lambert's finger and the sword fights are so poorly choreographed; In comes post production with terrible special effects; 3 reshoots of different endings, all possibly worst then the last; and 20 miinutes of bizarre subplots including aliens revolts and banishments to Earth, obvious separate fight scenes edited together. There are currently 4 versions of the film, all bad in their own way. The only good thing about the production problems in this film is the fact that this film is hysterically bad and I hope you get a chance to watch it sometimes. Overall, the production of Highlander 2 from concept to a sequel to a 2nd new version 13 years later is not good in any way. Highlander 4 is equally bad in its own way. Here is a clip of one of the original endings of Highlander 2

Yeah Highlander 2 was such a mess, and lol about that ending.

The last story from Twilight zone movie was great, John lithgow gives a great performance.

Yeah, the Landis one and the opening segment are the only noteworthy parts of that movie.

8. Waterworld (1995)

In the modern world, this is by far the biggest budgeted film of film on the list. One can truly realize why films outside of the Pirates franchise that take place at sea are usually muddled with production problems. And as a result comes Waterworld. A film that the budget was originally at 100 million. At that time, only two other films were approved at that price (T2 and True Lies) But add in 157 days of filming; Star Kevin Costner almost drowned to death, Also him and Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Director, and supposed great friend of costner) had a huge fight, causing Reynolds to quit the film and Costner took over. You also had crew members lost at sea, sets destroyed by a hurricane, and massive edits of almost 50 minutes taken out of the original cut (39 were brought back in a so called directors cut) it's budget increased 75% to 175 million. The movie overall was one of the first modern era films to be somewhat saved by overseas grosses and video sales. It's not a bad film, its just a very simple adventure movie in a production nightmare of a setting. It also doesn't help that it is the last Kevin Costner film to make over 60 million in the United States.

hmmm i thought ww world be higher

Hahahaha...

7. Exorcist: The Beginning/ Dominion/ Whatever the fuck (2004)

They apparently learned nothing from Exorcist 3. A film that just missed out on this list, but I figured I would at least touch on it here. That film was considered a great horror film and in many ways better than the original (certainly the first sequel, another very troubled production.) They however had nothing but post production troubles, insertion of characters and a subplot to involve an exorcism that was not in the original cut, all in all Legion survived.

Fast forward 14 years and thanks to TCM and Dawn of the Dead, it was time for Exorcist to get a reboot, prequel treatment. First director left early, as he was dying. 2nd director made a film for 30 million called Dominion, a psychological thriller. Studio head hated the film and fired Schrader, and brought on Renny Harlin (Another director who can't handle budgets) with an additional 50 million. What you have now is a very different movie with probably the most extensive reshoots I've ever heard of. 3 characters and subplots are dropped from Dominion; Different actors and characters were added in, and some absurd violence along with very cheesy effects. Now titled: Exorcist the Beginning has basically the same story of Dominion, but with equally bad acting, effects, music, and a few more scares. Stellan Skarsgard is the only constant thing in both films and to his credit he is decent as always as the young Max Von Sydow. After Harlin's film was a mild success, they decided to give Schrader $35,000 to finish his film, released a year later in limited release, Shrader's version was also a disappointment. Interesting is that there are two very different versions of the film and one of the few times where the problems were widely covered and made available to the public. Basically it's interesting to check out both films sometime. They are not terrible, especially if your a horror movie fan, but they are both average at best more known for the problems than anything else.

Here is a clip for both versions. Trailers are probably the best part of Beginning.

With the following now, you could all make a case for it being the most troubled production ever for a number of reasons, so the ranking is more just out of sheer amount of problems from here on out.

6. Blade Runner (1982)

Sure it may be considered one of the best films ever made, but my god there are 7 different versions of this film in existence. And those are just the post production problems. You sets being built upside down, American vs. English crew fights, almost an entirely different movie with Dustin Hoffman cast in the lead for 6 months, almost the entire cast being at odds with Ridley Scott, especially Ford (Who while friends now, they had a very tough time working together) The darkness and constant wet conditions filled with smoke made everyone unhappy, and of course all the editing problems including the famous studio intervention of the voiceover after Ridley and Ford decided to remove as much. The studio looked at the first cut and said "WTF is this" and made them have Ford explain in half assed VO. It's one of those films however where the problems may have been for the best, as the movie has a very unsettling awkward feeling that just works with the setting and plot. like said you have many different version to chose from for your ultimate edition. And of course the curse in which almost all companies that paid for product placement went down under afterwards. There have also been a few documentaries on all the problems. Here is a trailer from Dangerous Days.

Are you confused? I feel like you meant the George Miller segment. Especially since it sounded like you were agreeing with neo_wolf who, again, was referencing the George Miller segment.

I agree George Miller's was awesome and Dante's is very bizarre.

Not really sure about Blade Runner's inclusion on the list. It was a troubled production, but not exceptionally so. Scott for some reason likes to do new versions of the movie every once in a while, but he actually approved the original theatrical version at the time.

I'll assume Apocalypse Now will be on your list, as it was one long disaster of a production, but somehow became one of the greatest movies of all time.

Its not exceptionally so that you ever here from, but from beginning to end it was a film that was a complete mess, with 8 years of preproduction, and while Scott approved the original, he has hated the fact that it was not his own. Theres few films with so much fighting going on throughout, in fact Blade Runner is many lists #1. The film had almost 12 years of Pre Production that went nowhere and everyone involved has hated making the film despite loving the final product. Despite how much the film is loved, its problems will never be overlooked.

I'm very fucking confused.

I think it's because I'm used to Landis making good films and George Miller, well, not.

5. Alien 3 (1992)

Sequels are never a great idea, but when it came to the Alien series and the success of Aliens, people, critics, and especially studios were clamoring for another one. The end result, the Alien franchise was forever tarnished, not being well received critically or commercially, and to this day David Fincher (Who has become one of the industry's bigger directors) still refuses to discuss his time on the third film. The reason, a production that never had any ground story, even in the middle of production. The studios decided to combine some of the less interesting parts of the 10 different stories and hundreds of screenplay drafts and put it into production. They killed off three central characters from the last film offscreen, used CGI with a budget that was too small to make it look real, and an ugly film in general. They should have stuck with the original idea, even endorsed by Weaver where they filmed a two parter with the cast of Aliens returning for the most part. There was even a teaser trailer that has nothing to do with the film taunting that the Aliens would be on earth, showing how far into production the story was still not known. Fincher tried desperately to rewrite while filming was going on, but studio blockings made his directing almost futile (There are records of Fincher going nuts and expressing his frustrations) and of course the edits. The famed Producers cut is 30 minutes longer (Much more was said to have been lost) and ironically the film is actually leagues better and in many cases a good if unorthodox sequel, Not the Rocky 5 of Batman and Robin of the series that was released in 92. Alien 3's problems are legendary from ridiculous story ideas to the day it was released and then reedited 12 years later. Here is the teaser trailer mentioned above, and then another trailer that makes it seem like Aliens 2

Only 4 spots left??? I have 6 off the top of my head.

Town and Country
Heaven's Gate
The Crow
Waterworld
Apocalypse Now
Jaws > Yup Jaws as Spielberg said he couldn't believe how many things went wrong; that he thought his career was ruined.

Plus I am not sure about these

Enter the Dragon
Star Trek 1
The Health Ledger death movie

It's good to know you read the thread

Grill does not know how to read.

O yes, he does: but he learned to read where he learned to write.

Hmm, I didn't know about all that trouble with the Twilight Zone movie.

Apocalypse Now has got to be #1, though. Definitely.

4. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

This film gets an * next to it for being so high as there really is not so much trouble as far as the actual production went. Granted, I have yet to see so many terrible things and so much wrong with a film, I still go as much to say that the production was at fault. You have terrible props, Scenes from the final film with actual prop and costume malfunctions that you say "How is that the best take they had to make it into the final film" The film took ass time to be filmed (Almost a year, which is absurd even by today standards, films back then did not film for so long, usually 15-30 days when Hollywood was at its prime. The reason that this film does however land so high on my list is because film was probably the worst conception guaranteed to have a troubled production no matter what. This is because Bela Lugosi, who the film was dedicated to and one of the main villains of the film, as well as the main marketing ploy of the trailer, is not even in this film. Ed Wood (Who loved Bela Lugosi) filmed about 8 minutes of footage of promotional footage of Lugosi for a film that was never made because he died in 1956 for a different Ed Wood film. Wood then went on to write an entirely different film that would be just able to incorporate all the odd footage. Then they used a double who was half the age with black hair to pretend to be Lugosi for the rest of the film, the actor looked nothing like him whatsoever. Many call this the worst film ever made, and rightfully so, this is basically (think of the speech the Principal in Billy Madison gives to Adam Sandler when he tries to relate the industrial revolution to the Puppy that lost its way) The film took 3 years of edits to finally get distribution and footage of Lugosi that still doesn't even make sense in a film written around him from 4 years earlier. When you here Uwe Boll compared to Ed Wood, it truly is misguided. Ed Wood is the master of awful and terrible productions. It gets so high on my list because it is the most non sensical concept for a film ever, and its no reason its so lowly (though epically highly) regaurded.

Here is the trailer for the ill fated picture (Notice the two only locations that Lugosi were in that have nothing to do with the rest of the film, then the obvious double with the cloaked face)



And since I referenced it and you might (Very slight might) have no idea what I'm talking about.

Big deal. I missed waterworld as I was reading on my cell. At least I was smart enough to know it should be there.

And guess you are mad that with all of your research, you missed some that I thought of while I was just walking to the store. LOL.

Ugh No, you haven't mentioned a film I didn't think of. Most are just weaker then the ones on this list. You're getting confrontational for no reason.

Well we will just have to see if any of mine that were just off the top of my head as I walked, are really weaker after you finish your complete list....of most troubled productions!!!

And also I was just defending myself against your snide comment. As instead of nicely pointing out that Waterworld was #8, you have to make a snide comment witha smiley.