It's good to know you read the thread!

3. Cleopatra (1963)

This film is probably one of the lesser known ones on this list, as it is mostly known for it being one of the biggest flops. It is to this day still the only #1 film of a year to declare a loss, and in fact 20th Century fox almost went bankrupt and didn't recover until the Sound of Music in 1965, and Cleopatra did not break even until 1973 with a record TV contract from ABC.

However what were the problems. It really must be noted that when filming began in 1960 the budget was 2 million, by the time it finished with all the delays and other problems 44 million had been spent. In 2009 numbers its the same as a 14 million dollar film exploded to 307 million dollars. That is without a doubt the most reckless use of money by a studio ever. The main reason, it's star Elizabeth Taylor. During the beginning of filming she grew very ill and needed an emergency tracheotomy and months to recover. As a result the original director left, as did the two main lead actors who were under commitments. Now 5 million over budget they needed new actors, a new director, and because of Taylor's recovery, the entire production moved from England to Rome. The entire film needed to be reshot as Taylor was needed for almost every scene of filming and they filmed a lot with the original two actors. The massive sets needed to be rebuilt on 3 different occasions causing more and more delays. There was also two big lawsuits between Taylor and the studio resulting in Taylor receiving a then unheard 1 million salary, as well as some gross points. As filming eventually wrapped, they fired director Mankiewicz. Spent money on a cut that they seemed impossible to make, so they rehired Mankiewicz. His first cut of the film was 6 hours long and hoped the studio would cut the film into two epics. This possibly could have been a smart move as two films it may have turned a profit. Fox refused however, and the running time was eventually trimmed to 3 hours and 10 minutes. Multiple characters, huge scenes, subplots were completely discarded. Eventually a directors Cut with an additional 40 minutes of footage surfaced (But much still remains to be seen, despite being preserved in a vault) Apparently the film drove execs at Fox mad and desperate for this film to make money, pouring more and more into it cancelling over 50 films during Cleopatra's 3 and a half year production.

Cleopatra is not close to a good film or even epic. Though it's production troubles are epic and legendary that few will ever no the true extent (Most involved are now dead) Though it certainly is not a film that should be missed. This is just as famous as great movies for its massive troubled production and epic awfulness.

What a fool you must be or just a post whore.

#2 and 1 I'll put up together tomorrow as I think If I put one the other might become obvious.

Cleopatra was a major mess. I wonder if we will ever see the 6 hour film.

Might? Think A...Now is #1 as if it was #2 there should could be a few different possibilities for the #1.

This is very late and I apologize, I have some personal issues come up so I haven't been able to post big things on here for a couple of days. These as a result will be a little more brief than the others.

2. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Now a lot of people can certainly argue that this is the most troubled production. This film's production is in the how to book on how not to make a film. You almost have a film directed by George Lucas, Harvey Keitel in the lead role for a few days before being fired and replaced by Martin Sheen. A Typhoon put filming back 8 weeks with destroyed sets. Sheen then suffers a heart attack on set causing massive delays. Brando then who promised to read the script and loose over 60 lbs turned up more overweight then before and decided to improvise almost all of his lines and the ending needed to be rewritten. Martin Sheen then had a heart attack and needed about 40 days of recovery. Also many got very sick from food poisoning and the a lot of drug and alcohol abuse to add to the intensity of the characters. 4 months of Post Production turned into more than a year and a half with the narration needing to be completely rewritten, very public terrible test screenings and going into Cannes without a finished film. Without a doubt so ironic how amazing this film turned out And as Coppola has stated, he'll never be the filmmaker he was again after this film, and the extensive material is just as impressive.

And I have to leave now, so I hope #1 still shocks you

Flipped the order? As I thought you said something like > if one was given the other would be known.

Anyway sure hope that you re-thought the whole list as it has to be one of my two choices that you said weren't good enough. Heavens gate or Town and Country.

I am going with Town and Country as it is universally known as one of the most troubled productions in movie history.

It seems you still are very fucking confused. I, for one, cannot remember even two worthwhile Landis films.

Can't predict #1 but I'm surprised no Terry Gilliam films are here. Unless perhaps his Man of La Mancha fiasco shows up.

And yet he is doing it again!

Animal House and Trading Places are 2 for starters.

And lol on man of la macha.

If you are 'very fucking confused', yes.

He is!

Well I can see you just don't have a sense of humor.

And also then I will add coming to america and american werewolf if london.

And for # 5 the blues brothers.

Thanks for the Patience

1. Superman II (1980) Sidebar Superman IV, Returns

I am surprised at how many people have forgotten about Superman II, its fucked up production is without a doubt one of the worst things I've ever heard. But the Superman series in general has been plagued by so many problems over its 5 installments over 30 years its without a doubt the most troubled franchise to ever come to the screen. Despite loving Superman II when I was younger it has a black coldness in my hear now for what has been done and what could have been. Much like our #2 film Marlon Brando played a big role in the makings of the problems. Back in 1977 when Superman 1 and 2 were filmed together Richard Donner had filmed roughly 75% of Superman II before being ordered to just finish the original. That included using his filmed ending for the 2nd film as the ending for the first film. Superman: The Movie was of course a benchmark film not only for science fiction and fantasy, but that of the superhero genre. Donner of course had many problems with the Salkinds during the original film and brought on Richard Lester as a mediator between the two. The biggest fight was over the Campy tone that the Salkinds wanted that Donner hired Tom_Mankiewicz to rewrite both films screenplays to be much more serious. By the time production was to begin on the 2nd film though, Brando insisted on almost 12% of gross. They told Donner to rework the film as that was ridiculous and Donner refused. The movie was already filming before Donner got sent his working papers. As a result Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, and Reeve openly criticized. Mankiewicz also chose not to return and Hackman not under contract did not chose come back for filming. John Williams also did not wish to score the film. The Salkinds brought back the writers before Mankiewicz and they brought back their campier version of Superman II almost line for line. The Salkinds however did not want to give Donner the director credit, you need at least 51% of the footage to be your own, so they hired Lester to reshoot the stuff Donner couldn't, a bunch of scenes Donner already had with a much larger Christopher Reeve and Anorexic Margot Kidder. When all was done, only 17% of Donner footage remains (Gene Hackman scenes, the moon scene, a lot of the whitehouse takeover, and the diner (A well received scene that Lester took credit for that openly show Richard Donner in the film, proving that he didn't direct it) All of Marlon Brando's scenes were reshot with superman's mother, leaving for drastic plot wholes and continuity issues and a lot of humor that is much more evident in Lester's complete Superman III. Also to save money, most of the reshoots from Lester were filmed on a much smaller scale than Donner that was considered very mediocre to the cast and crew that was still there.

Superman II is a hack job of a film with a few good moments and story ideas of Donner and Mankiewicz Superman still intact and an incomplete Donner cut was released with 83% of Donner's footage giving a the film a much better perspective of what could of been. However, it is still incomplete due to Donner never being able to finish and the Donner Cut is nothing more than a great behind the scenes.

The Salkinds ran the franchise further into the ground when they released Lester's Superman III and original style they wanted was a big turnoff for audiences. Superman IV they decided to sell to Cannon and they gave them 34 million (The same as Superman III) to make the film with an interesting Bizarro script that Cannon threw out when they decided to cut the budget in half so they could make the other famous Cannon film Masters of the Universe starring Dolph Lundgren (Remember that beauty) Reeve and Hackman returned only for financing of other projects and story was quite trashy but did have heart that the third severely lacked. The Special effects due to the budget cut hurt the entire film though as a result. And 57 minutes including an entirely different villain were deleted after poor test screenings. Donner stated that he had 4 Superman ideas in his head and one has to dream to where he would have went.

There is of course Tim Burtons Superman starring Nicholas Cage and Sandra Bullock (3 times the budget of Superman IV was wasted on the preproduction of this ultimately unfilmed version) And many more startups before Superman Returns finally came out in 06.

Superman II is in my opinion the most troubled production ever with Absurd fights, out of control budgets, reshoots, Re Edits, Deleting about 20 minutes of Marlon Brando that is some of the best stuff of the series, It's production problems that are so ridiculous my entire viewing of the film will never be the same. Hopefully some of you can catch the Donenr Cut and Superman II as they are very different film. Attached is the trailer for Superman II and a famous yet terrible deleted scene from Superman IV with the original music that hadn't been seen since a test screening in 1986.

Not sure about your statement. People will know #1 after I put up #2.

Anyway. Not going to say anything bad about your list but like to hear quick comments about other choices. As either you missed something or the reasons they weren't good enough for the top 10. If you want of course.

Perfect Top 10. Not a single film missing.

Into the Night was kinda good. Otherwise his movies are not so good. I hate Animal House and without John Belushi there would be no According to Jim; a fine trade-off in my view.

Welcome to our forum, Harold. You will find our moderators have great solicitude for the health of the forum.

I wonder how they shall express their solicitude. Thank you for your warm welcome, anyway.

There were certainly quite a few films I considered and Town and Country and Heaven's Gates were certainly considered. The thing about Town and Country was the production itself wasn't too troubled. They hired actors that had contracts for other films that needed to be fulfilled and there was a massive delay on the film, as a result most actors had to be paid there salaries again, pushing the 46 budget to 90 million. And heaven's Gate is a film that the production was not troubled, it was merely overshot, and the studio couldn't do anything to the director because of his contract. You are correct though that Director Control in films to come was certainly a direct result of United Artists (Who bounced back that same year with For Your Eyes Only)

These films definitely had problems, but the films mentioned had a lot of problems going into, during, and after filming that could not be ignored.

Superman just really is disgusting how it was treated, I'm not a comic guy at all, but I did love the movies growing up and the behind stories are just fascinating.

Superman and Superman (thanks to all the reshoots, and mentioned results) Both would be the most expensive film of all time, Superman being 55, and Superman II 54. Its hard to just adjust the films but your looking at 180 million for 1 and 153 million worth of reshoots. Superman III's budget would adjust to 90 million (certainly smaller, but Superman III still had decent special effects) Superman IV's budget adjust to 33 million today. 33 FUCKING MILLION! That is unbelievable. Meanwhile Batman and Robin has one of the most ludicrous budgets of the 90s, (only the 2nd film ever to have an announced budget over 140 million, and the other film was Titanic)

Other films with big problems not on my list

The Invasion
Batman Forever (There are still hints of Burton's first cut, but not enough)
The Magnificent Ambersons (88 minutes from 148)
And I can't remember but there was a film where film was shot.

Terry Gilliam had some whoppers but it turned more into just constant director vs. Studio feuds than very troubled productions. I actually think that though many films have had actors die, Gilliam solved it probably the most ingenious way.

ha, I meant stolen. Im sure there was a film where someone actually shot it with a gun disappointed with the results. All productions are troubled don't let anyone fool you. Halloween 2 almost made it on here too (The original)