Buzz
The final version of a movie often hides the chaotic battles fought during its creation; even the most disastrous Hollywood films can appear surprisingly polished. Explore 12 infamous film productions where chaos reigned and nothing seemed to go as planned.
1. Alien 3
Following four years of crafting a sequel to Aliens, Alien 3 began production in 1991 with David Fincher as director. Prior to Fincher's involvement, two directors (Renny Harlan and Vincent Ward) declined the project, and Twentieth Century Fox had already spent $7 million on pre-production and development. With this significant investment, the studio set a summer 1992 release date before even finalizing the script.
Since costly sets were built before finalizing the plot, Alien 3 had to adapt to the existing structures. This led to a storyline where Ellen Ripley finds herself stranded on a prison planet with an alien embryo growing inside her, contradicting teaser trailers that hinted at Xenomorphs invading Earth to unleash chaos.
David Fincher entered the production ill-prepared for the intense studio meddling and creative constraints. Constant script revisions and reshoots exasperated the fledgling director, prompting him to exit the project before post-production began.
"My debut film is famously known as a disaster. I naively believed that the financiers had more at stake than I did if it failed," Fincher explained to BBC One in 2011. "I let myself be guided into a collaborative process, but when things fell apart, everyone vanished, leaving me to face the fallout. Now, if I'm going to take the blame, I'm going to make the decisions."
2. Waterworld
Filming on open water is notoriously risky due to unpredictable weather and sea conditions. Waterworld, initially budgeted at $100 million—a record-breaking sum for Hollywood at the time—saw its costs soar to $175 million by the end of production in 1994. This was largely due to expenses like ferrying extras to remote sea locations, frequent breakdowns of watercraft, and the loss of an expensive floating set.
"Logistically, it's a nightmare," director Kevin Reynolds explained to Den of Geek. "Every day, we had to transport hundreds of extras from land to the atoll, get them through wardrobe, onto boats, and into position for filming. Then, during lunch breaks, we had to ferry everyone back to shore to eat, only to repeat the process afterward."
In addition to skyrocketing costs, Kevin Costner faced a near-death experience in a sudden storm, jellyfish repeatedly stung the cast, and Joss Whedon was brought in for emergency script rewrites. Whedon later called the experience "seven weeks of hell" and joked about being the "world's highest-paid stenographer" due to the endless notes he took from Costner and studio executives.
Whether Kevin Reynolds quit or was dismissed remains unclear, but Kevin Costner had to step in to complete the film with just two weeks left in production. Ultimately, Waterworld was critically panned and became one of the most infamous box office failures upon its summer 1995 release.
3. The Shining
Stanley Kubrick was infamous for requiring dozens of takes for each scene. While filming The Shining, he made Shelley Duvall repeat the iconic baseball bat sequence with Jack Nicholson 127 times to capture the perfect mix of fear and horror. This is just one example of the grueling demands Kubrick placed on his actors during the 13-month shoot.
Script revisions were a daily occurrence with Kubrick and co-writer Diane Johnson constantly reworking scenes. This was so routine that Jack Nicholson avoided memorizing his lines until arriving on set, knowing they would likely change before filming. Shelley Duvall endured immense stress due to frequent clashes with Kubrick over her portrayal of Wendy Torrance. Kubrick's insistence on keeping Duvall in a perpetual state of fear and isolation took a toll on her health.
In a 1980 interview with Roger Ebert, Shelley Duvall described her experience with Stanley Kubrick as "almost unbearable, yet in some ways, quite rewarding, I guess."
4. Heaven's Gate
Following his Academy Award wins for The Deer Hunter in 1978, Michael Cimino's next project, Heaven's Gate, became infamous for nearly driving United Artists into bankruptcy. Initially budgeted at $11 million, costs ballooned to $44 million (equivalent to $122 million in 2014) by the film's completion in December 1980. Cimino's meticulous approach included endless retakes, reconstructing costly sets, and even waiting for the perfect cloud to appear. This resulted in over one million feet of film (roughly 220 hours of footage), costing the studio nearly $220,000 daily.
United Artists attempted to fire Cimino, but his contract prevented it. After filming wrapped, Cimino and editor William H. Reynolds worked tirelessly to deliver a five-hour-and-25-minute cut. The studio rejected it, demanding a shorter version, which was trimmed to two hours and 48 minutes. Critics lambasted the film for being overindulgent and incoherent, and it flopped at the box office, earning just $3.4 million in 1980.
5. World War Z
The movie adaptation of Max Brooks' popular novel World War Z was originally set for a December 2012 release but was delayed until summer 2013 due to production issues. With only three weeks left in filming, Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard were hired to rewrite the third act and conclusion. "The script required months of revisions, not days," a studio insider revealed to Vulture in 2012. "Changes were necessary across the entire film, not just the ending."
By this point, Brad Pitt and Marc Forster had stopped communicating, prompting a studio executive to mediate on set in Budapest. During the production hiatus, Lindelof and Goddard spent weeks reworking the ending, and Paramount allocated additional funds for seven more weeks of reshoots.
As Vulture reported, "Pitt, not Forster, had final say over all script changes, and the lack of communication between the actor and director made it difficult for Paramount to predict when production would wrap." The revised ending shifted focus to smaller action sequences and centered on a man striving to reunite with his family rather than saving humanity from annihilation.
Released in June 2013, World War Z received mixed critical praise and grossed $540 million globally. Plans for a sequel were announced, with Juan Antonio Bayona taking over as director instead of Marc Forster.
6. Apocalypse Now
Following the triumph of The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola spent five years trying to bring Apocalypse Now to life. He eventually gathered a sizable cast and crew in the Philippines for what was planned as a five-month shoot. However, relentless monsoon weather extended filming to 16 grueling months.
After two months, production halted when a typhoon destroyed sets and locations, requiring them to be rebuilt or relocated. Additionally, lead actor Martin Sheen—who replaced Harvey Keitel after Coppola deemed him unsuitable after a week—suffered a heart attack. Constant delays forced crew and cast to either stay in local hotels or return to the U.S. for weeks, causing the budget to skyrocket. To make matters worse, the film's payroll was stolen.
Originally set for a May 1978 release, Apocalypse Now was delayed until August 1979 due to ongoing post-production issues. Coppola's struggles during filming left gaps in jungle and military sound effects, necessitating extensive re-recording of audio.
The chaotic production of Apocalypse Now is chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness.
7. The Abyss
James Cameron is often called "the most intimidating figure in Hollywood" due to his authoritarian and rigorous directing style. While Titanic and Avatar faced their own production challenges, The Abyss stands out as one of the most exhausting and emotionally draining projects of Cameron's career.
Much of The Abyss was filmed underwater, and combined with Cameron's intense directing approach, it led to numerous production horror stories and life-threatening situations for both the Oscar-winning director and his cast.
On the first day of filming, the massive 150,000-gallon water tank developed a leak, adding over $4 million to the budget. Safety was a top priority, so a decompression chamber was installed on set, and each actor was assigned a safety diver and bell to prevent drowning or decompression sickness.
James Cameron nearly drowned while planning a shot in a flooded room, and Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio endured significant mental and physical strain due to the slow pace and underwater filming. During one of the many takes for Dr. Lindsey Brigman's death scene, the camera ran out of film, prompting Mastrantonio to storm off set, shouting, "We are not animals!"
"I anticipated a tough shoot, but I never imagined it would be this grueling. I never want to experience something like this again," remarked Cameron. "The Abyss was many things, but enjoyable to make wasn't one of them," Mastrantonio added.
8. Twilight Zone: The Movie
While filming the "Time Out" segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, directed by John Landis, a tragic accident claimed the lives of actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen. The scene, part of the story's climax, involved Morrow's character attempting to rescue two children during a simulated U.S. Army helicopter attack on a Vietnamese village.
The disaster unfolded when a stunt pilot struggled to control a helicopter flying low through thick smoke and debris from pyrotechnics. An explosion caused the helicopter to lose control, crashing onto the actors and killing them instantly.
The incident sparked nearly a decade of legal battles and court proceedings. Ultimately, the filmmakers and producers of Twilight Zone: The Movie were cleared of manslaughter charges. "There was no silver lining to this tragedy. It's something I think about daily, and it profoundly affected my career, possibly irreparably," John Landis reflected in 1996.
9. The Island of Doctor Moreau
Richard Stanley, the initial director of The Island of Doctor Moreau, was dismissed after just three days of filming. While the exact reason remains unclear, rumors suggest conflicts with Val Kilmer led to his removal. John Frankenheimer stepped in as director after a brief production halt. Despite the delay, the script remained incomplete, with new pages being delivered during filming. Actor Rob Morrow exited the project, and David Thewlis was brought in as his replacement.
Frankenheimer accepted the role primarily because he wanted to collaborate with Marlon Brando, who proved challenging throughout the shoot. Brando refused to memorize his lines, so a radio transmitter was used to feed him dialogue during scenes. Frankenheimer and Brando frequently clashed with Val Kilmer, leading to constant on-set arguments. "There are two things I’ll never do again: climb Mt. Everest and work with Val Kilmer," Frankenheimer stated after the film's release.
10. Fitzcarraldo
Werner Herzog endured a production nightmare while filming Fitzcarraldo in the early 1980s. The movie tells the story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an ambitious Irishman aiming to haul a steamship through the South American jungle to access a lucrative rubber territory in Peru. Herzog insisted on realism, opting to move a real 30-ton steamship through the treacherous jungle instead of relying on miniatures or special effects, resulting in an arduous and lengthy production.
Jason Robards exited the film due to dysentery, forcing a recast with Klaus Kinski, who had a notoriously strained relationship with Herzog. A well-known anecdote claims an extra offered to kill Kinski for Herzog due to his difficult behavior, but the director refused, as Kinski was essential to completing the film.
Mick Jagger was initially part of Fitzcarraldo, but his role was cut when The Rolling Stones' tour schedule clashed with reshoots. Herzog had to restart production after nearly half the film was shot and a year into the process.
The production challenges of Fitzcarraldo are chronicled in the documentary Burden of Dreams.
11. American Graffiti
San Rafael, California, revoked American Graffiti's filming permits after just one night of shooting due to noise complaints from local businesses. Production was relocated to Petaluma, located approximately 20 miles north of San Rafael.
During filming, Harrison Ford was arrested after a bar fight, a crew member was detained for cultivating marijuana, and someone set fire to George Lucas' motel room. The night before crucial close-up shots, Richard Dreyfuss sustained a deep cut on his forehead when Paul Le Mat threw him into a pool. Additionally, two cameramen narrowly escaped death while filming the climactic drag race scene.
12. Ishtar
Ishtar is infamous as one of the greatest disasters in cinematic history. Warren Beatty produced the film as a favor to Elaine May, who had contributed uncredited screenwriting work on his Oscar-winning movie Reds in 1981. Beatty hoped Ishtar would elevate May's standing in Hollywood, but instead, it marked the end of her directing career.
Filming for Ishtar took place in Morocco and the actual Sahara Desert, rather than a studio set. This choice placed the crew in a volatile region with ongoing tensions between the Moroccan military and guerrilla groups, requiring daily landmine checks on the dunes.
May's directing approach involved countless retakes and extensive footage, causing Ishtar's budget to skyrocket from $27.5 million to $51 million. Elaine May and Warren Beatty clashed frequently during production, with Dustin Hoffman often mediating between the two.
Conflicts persisted into post-production, with three distinct editing teams working on Ishtar to accommodate the visions of Elaine May, Warren Beatty, and Dustin Hoffman, all of whom influenced the final cut. "I've faced challenges with every film I've made," May admitted to Movieline in 2011. "I never wanted to direct—I only sought approval as a writer."
The film was harshly criticized by reviewers and largely ignored by audiences. Ishtar merely earned $14 million upon its release in May 1987. "If everyone who claims to dislike Ishtar had actually watched it, I'd be wealthy today," May remarked.
