History Film / AnAlanSmitheeFilmBurnHollywoodBurn

* PlotHole: It's said that critics enjoyed watching ''Trio'', but it was also stated that the film never got released because of Smithee's actions, so how did critics get to see ''Trio'' if it never got released?

''An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' is a 1998 American {{mockumentary}} comedy film directed by Creator/ArthurHiller (in his final film), written by Creator/JoeEszterhas, and starring Creator/EricIdle. It is a satire of the filmmaking business.

A director (Idle) has been allowed to direct ''Trio'', a big-budget action film starring Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and Creator/JackieChan (all three of them [[AsHimself played by themselves]]). The studio recuts the film, and when the director sees the results, he wants to disown the film. Problem is, he can't use the AlanSmithee pseudonym used in Hollywood when someone does not want to have their name attached to a bad film, because his name ''is'' Alan Smithee, so he steals the film and goes on the run, threatening to destroy it.

''An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' is a 1998 American {{mockumentary}} comedy film directed by Creator/ArthurHiller (in his final film), written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Creator/EricIdle. It is a satire of the filmmaking business.

* ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction: Even back during the days when films were shot and edited on celluloid film, Smithee's destroying the master print of ''Trio'' would at best have been a minor inconvenience. Back in those days, the development labs would strike multiple physical film reels from each negative, meaning that all that the producers would have to do would be call up the lab, get them to ship over some spare reels, then use them to re-assemble the film -- a process that would take maybe a couple of days at the absolute most. If anything, the real problem that the studio would have faced would have been the bad publicity generated by Smithee's actions.

* AlanSmithee: Invoked. The plot of the film is about how a director wants his name out of the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within a Film]], but can't, because ''he really is named Alan Smithee'' in-universe. However, as noted in more detail in the Trivia page, this pseudoym ended up also being applied to ''this'' film in real life.
* ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction: The film desperately tries to justify this by portraying all the actors in the fictional movie as being total assholes who will only ever do a single take of a given scene, which later becomes a sticking point when the director steals and destroys the film's master print. Like everything else in ''Burn Hollywood Burn'', though, it fails dismally – not least because the fictional film is shown being edited on a computer at one point, meaning that a completed version of the film would probably survive in some form, even if the audio-visual quality was degraded.

* TakeThat: The film is full of Joe Eszterhas mocking Hollywood and everyone involved with it, from the film press to certain producers he didn't like.

''An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' is a 1998 American {{mockumentary}} comedy film directed by Creator/ArthurHiller (his final movie, as a matter of fact), written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Creator/EricIdle. It is a satire of the filmmaking business.

* PlotHole: It’s said that critics enjoyed watching ''Trio'', but it was also stated that the film never got released because of Smithee's actions, so how did critics get to see ''Trio'' if it never got released?

[[OvershadowedByControversy The film is best known for]] how its plot eventually, and ironically, described the film's own production: [[LifeImitatesArt director Hiller requested that his name be removed from its credits after witnessing the final cut completed by the studio]]. The film's creation set off a chain of events which would lead the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit.

''An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' is a 1998 American {{mockumentary}} comedy film directed by Creator/ArthurHiller, written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Creator/EricIdle.

[[OvershadowedByControversy The film is best known for]] how its plot eventually, and ironically, described the film's own production: director Hiller requested that his name be removed from its credits after witnessing the final cut completed by the studio. The film's creation set off a chain of events which would lead the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit.

* ChairReveal: Ryan O'Neal gets a pointless chair reveal at one point. It's one of the many things Creator/RogerEbert makes fun of in [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-alan-smithee-film-burn-hollywood-burn-1998 his review,]] along with it being a reference to the reveal of Music/FrankSinatra in Mike Todd's ''Film/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays1956''.

''An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' is a 1998 American {{mockumentary}} comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Creator/EricIdle.

* AlanSmithee: The plot of the film is about how the titular director wants his name out of the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within a Film]], but can't, because ''he really is named Alan Smithee''; which as it turned out, ended up also happening in real life with the director of this film.

[[OvershadowedByContoversy The film is best known for]] how its plot eventually, and ironically, described the film's own production: director Hiller requested that his name be removed from its credits after witnessing the final cut completed by the studio. The film's creation set off a chain of events which would lead the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit.

The film is best known for how its plot eventually, and ironically, described the film's own production: director Hiller requested that his name be removed from its credits after witnessing the final cut completed by the studio. The film's creation set off a chain of events which would lead the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit.

A director (Idle) has been allowed to direct ''Trio'', a big-budget action film starring Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and Creator/JackieChan (all three of them [[AsHimself played by themselves]]). The studio recuts the film, and when the director sees the results, he wants to disown the film. Problem is, he can't use the AlanSmithee pseudonym used in Hollywood when someone does not want to have their name attached to a bad film because his name ''is'' Alan Smithee, so he steals the film and goes on the run, threatening to destroy it.

* ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction: The film desperately tries to justify this by portraying all the actors in the fictional movie as being total assholes who will only ever do a single take of a given scene, which later becomes a sticking point when the director steals and destroys the film's master print. Like everything else in ''Burn Hollywood Burn'', though, it fails dismally — not least because the fictional film is shown being edited on a computer at one point, meaning that a completed version of the film would probably survive in some form, even if the audio-visual quality was degraded.

* RealJokeName: The director can't use the Alan Smithee pseudonym because his name ''is'' Alan Smithee.

* ChairReveal: Ryan O'Neal gets a pointless chair reveal at one point. It's one of the many things Creator/RogerEbert makes fun of in [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-alan-smithee-film-burn-hollywood-burn-1998 his review,]] along with it being a reference to the reveal of Music/FrankSinatra in Mike Todd's 1956 film version of ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays''.

''An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' is a 1998 American mockumentary comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Creator/EricIdle.

The film is best known for how its plot eventually, and ironically, described the film's own production: Director Hiller requested that his name be removed after witnessing the final cut of the film by the studio. The film's creation set off a chain of events which would lead the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/an_alan_smithee_film_burn_hollywood_burn.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: They weren't kidding with that {{tagline}}.]]

A director (Idle) has been allowed to direct ''Trio'', a big-budget action film starring Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and Creator/JackieChan (all three of them played by themselves). The studio recuts the film, and when the director sees the results, he wants to disown the film. Problem is, he can't use the AlanSmithee pseudonym used in Hollywood when someone does not want to have their name attached to a bad film because his name ''is'' Alan Smithee, so he steals the film and goes on the run, threatening to destroy it.