History TroubledProduction / FilmHToN

* ''Film/{{Ishtar}}'' is right up there with ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'' as one of the most infamously troubled film productions ''ever'', and certainly in its own decade:

** May was sick with toothaches most of the time, and spent a lot of time arguing with Creator/WarrenBeatty, her producer and star. She got pissed at him for constantly taking the side of Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro in disputes, and didn't get along much with Isabelle Adjani, the female lead, who also happened to be Beatty's girlfriend at the time. Creator/DustinHoffman says there were periods when Beatty and May wouldn't talk to each other. Some of the crew said that any other director would have been fired for pulling the attitude she pulled on him. Eventually they compromised by shooting every scene twice, one her way and one his. "This was the kind of film where nobody would say 'Sorry, we can't afford that,'" said the guy in charge of the budget.

** As if due to a FaustianBargain, the warlock that enacted the ritual Stanley had asked for had to go to the hospital due to irradiation affecting his bones and in the hospital said warlock then was afflicted with necrotizing fasciitis! Stanley's mother's house was also struck by lightning and his assistant was bitten by a poisonous spider.

* Production for ''Film/HarlemNights'' suffered from much HostilityOnTheSet. Creator/EddieMurphy, stepping into the director's chair for the first time, was initially excited to work with his comedy idol Creator/RichardPryor, only for Pryor to make it painfully clear that he resented Murphy for his success and blamed him for Pryor's own career downturn. There were also tensions with Creator/MichellePfeiffer, who had been initially case as Dominique, resulting in her firing early in the production. Murphy claimed that Pfeiffer's casting just wasn't working out, but Pfeiffer countered that she had been let go after rejecting Murphy's romantic advances; a lawsuit filed by Pfeiffer ended in an out-of-court settlement. The film's failure upon release [[StarDerailingRole put Murphy's career in decline]] for a better part of the following decade, and he also hasn't [[CreatorKiller directed another movie since]].

** They decided to shoot the desert scenes in Morocco instead of the Southwest United States because the studio had money in banks there it couldn't repatriate. Filming began in the midst of unrest across the Middle East, adding security costs to the movie. Following the Palestinian Liberation Front hijacking the Italian cruise ship ''Achille Lauro'' in October 1985 (the month principal photography began on ''Ishtar''), which included the murder of 69-year-old, wheelchair-using Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, there were fears that star Creator/DustinHoffman, who was also Jewish-American, would be targeted for kidnapping; some of the locations also had to be swept for land mines. And no one in Morocco had experience supporting a big-budget studio production, so logistics got really screwy.

** Ultimately, the film fell short of $15 million in profits, well short of its $55 million budget and cementing it as a famous BoxOfficeBomb to this day. By the time the dust cleared, The Coca-Cola Company had jettisoned Columbia Pictures due to the film's poor performance, and Columbia in turn would jettison president David Puttnam scant months later, as he had leaked enough information about ''Ishtar''[='=]s production that much of the Hollywood community had alienated him. As for Elaine May, she would never direct another film, though she would receive writing credits in future films like ''Film/TheBirdcage'' and ''Film/PrimaryColors''; Beatty would admit in interviews years later that the only thing that kept him from firing May in mid-production was the fear that taking a film away from one of Hollywood's only female directors would hurt his image as a women's rights activist.

** They decided to shoot the desert scenes in Morocco instead of the Southwest United States because the studio had money in banks there it couldn't repatriate. Filming began in the midst of unrest across the Middle East, adding security costs to the movie (some locations had to be checked for land mines). And no one in Morocco had experience supporting a big-budget studio production, so logistics got really screwy.
** The lore from this one is great. There was the production assistant who went looking for a blue-eyed camel in the market. Not realizing how rare they were, and that he should have just bought it right then and there, he went looking for another one so he'd have a price to bargain with the first guy. By the time he figured that out, the first guy had ''eaten the camel''. Then there was the time that director Elaine May supposedly suddenly changed her mind about wanting sand dunes in a scene. So the production had to spend $75,000 and ''ten days'' having a ''square mile'' of desert bulldozed flat.

** May liked to shoot lots of film. She supposedly demanded 50 retakes of a scene where some vultures landed next to Beatty and Hoffman. Ultimately she shot 108 hours of raw footage.

** Ultimately, the film fell short of $15 million in profits, well short of its $55 million budget and cementing it as a famous BoxOfficeBomb to this day. By the time the dust cleared, The Coca-Cola Company had jettisoned Columbia Pictures due to the film's poor performance, and Columbia in turn would jettison president David Puttnam scant months later, as he had leaked enough information about ''Ishtar's'' production that much of the Hollywood community had alienated him. As for Elaine May, she would never direct another film, though she would receive writing credits in future films like ''Film/TheBirdcage'' and ''Film/PrimaryColors''; Beatty would admit in interviews years later that the only thing that kept him from firing May in mid-production was the fear that taking a film away from one of Hollywood's only female directors would hurt his image as a women's rights activist.

** Lambert refused to use a fake sword for the fight scenes, something ''extra'' dangerous in his case since lambert is ''legally blind'' [[BlindWithoutEm without his glasses]] and cannot wear contacts. In his first scene with it, he cut his finger to the bone and Creator/MichaelIronside dislocated his jaw in the dome fight. After these accidents, Lambert agreed to use a plastic sword.

** Lambert refused to use a fake sword for the fight scenes. In his first scene with it, he cut his finger to the bone and Creator/MichaelIronside dislocated his jaw in the dome fight. After these accidents, Lambert agreed to use a plastic sword.

** Filming itself went smoothly for the most part until the decision was made to split it into three movies instead of two. The sound designers, mixers, and editors had to create and edit new sound effects halfway through doing the second film. Then there was the decision to CGI Azog, Bolg, and the orcs in the first and second films, with the decision regarding Bolg being made so suddenly that whole sequences had to be re-shot, which is why in the trailers Azog is the one chasing the dwarves but in the film it's Bolg.

** The shoot pushed Ford over the edge: usually abstemious while filming, Ford began drinking heavily, and was hospitalized in Hawaii for alcohol poisoning. Ford recovered enough to start shooting interiors back in Hollywood, but soon required gallbladder surgery. Ford's health and erratic behavior convinced Warner Bros. to act: with shooting about half-completed, Mervyn Leroy was assigned to replace Ford.

* ''Film/{{Ishtar}}'' is right up there with ''Film/Cleopatra'' as one of the most infamously troubled film productions ''ever'', and certainly in its own decade:

* ''Film/{{Ishtar}}''. Where to begin?

** Beatty would admit in interviews years later that the only thing that kept him from firing May in mid-production was the fear that taking a film away from one of Hollywood's only female directors would hurt his image as a women's rights activist.

** The delays in getting the screenplay together forced original female lead Creator/IsabellaRossellini to drop out -- Willis would instead later work with her on ''Film/DeathBecomesHer'' -- and filming began with Dutch actress Maruschka Detmers in the role of Anna. After only a few days of filming, Detmers dropped out, allegedly due to a back problem.[[note]](Some sources indicate that Detmers quit after openly insulting Willis and decrying the screenplay's quality on-set, though this is contradicted by other sources, which claim that Willis got Detmers a role in ''The Mambo Kings'' out of sympathy for her being forced to drop out of ''Hudson Hawk'')[[/note]] Creator/AndieMacDowell in turn replaced Detmers -- Willis reportedly wanted Creator/FamkeJanssen, but was overruled -- at such short notice that she didn't have time to learn how to do a convincing Italian accent, leading to Anna conspicuously having a Southern American accent despite her Italian name.

** The film's meagre budget ultimately prevented Paul from being able to film all the scenes that he wanted to, and he ended up having to borrow stock footage from, of all things, ''The Rock'' in order to complete the film.

* ''Film/HellsAngels'', a 1930 film by Creator/HowardHughes, was notorious at the time for its nasty production, and was dramatized 75 years later in ''Film/TheAviator''. Due to Hughes's overbearing production techniques, the original director walked off the picture. When sound was introduced with ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', Hughes decided to re-shoot the ''entire'' film as a talkie. Helen's original actress Greta Nissen, whose thick Norwegian accent was previously concealed by the lack of sound, thus had to be replaced with the then unknown Creator/JeanHarlow. The climactic air battle was shot by staging an actual one, where Hughes even took the wing and flew one of the planes himself. He was seriously injured as a result, with three other pilots dying. Overall about 137 pilots were used in the sequence, which contributed to the already-bloated budget. Due to production delays, James Whale, who was directing the talking scenes, was able to shoot an entire other film before ''Hell's Angels'' was even released.

** Another piece of evidence of the suddenness of switching from two movies to three: [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment the scene where the group tries to bury Smaug in gold in the forges]] was added only because the filmmakers needed a cliffhanger (they confirmed this when asked) and the actors and some of the crew literally had no idea what they were filming until the finished film.

** Crawford, who years later admitted [[LadyDrunk her drinking had "crossed a line"]] during ''Baby Jane'', proved to be very difficult on set - turning up with about twenty suitcases for one week's worth of location shooting in Baton Rouge, and forcing the wardrobe mistress to have to iron many chiffon dresses in the 100-degree weather. Crawford also refused to work longer hours, and eventually stopped speaking to Aldrich at all - forcing him to communicate through her make-up artist. Not helping matters was Davis throwing a few barbs at her during filming, and Davis basically forcing all the crew, some of whom had worked on pictures with both her and Crawford in the past, to declare which side they were on. Given Crawford's behavior, many who had originally sided with her began supporting Davis.

* Leaked memos from Sony reveal that the studio was extremely antsy about the Creator/SethRogen[=/=]Creator/JamesFranco movie ''Film/TheInterview'', claiming the movie was "Desperately unfunny". The execs also felt that the plot was inflammatory and inappropriate, and that the frequent use of {{Gorn}} would be off-putting for most audiences. There was also the fact that very few foreign markets wanted to touch the movie, with reasons ranging from the touchy subject matter to the fact that Seth Rogen apparently has [[AmericansHateTingle very little appeal outside the United States]]. [[http://defamer.gawker.com/leaked-emails-the-interview-sucked-for-sony-even-befor-1671234001 You can read more here]]. And of course, the memos were leaked because amidst North Korea's threats about being used in a comedy, hackers invaded the studio's servers and released plenty of papers and even a few movies online (Korea has been accused of sponsoring this, but denied those allegations), giving such bad publicity Sony cancelled the US wide release. Then acquiesced due to the StreisandEffect.

** The lore from this one is great. There was the production assistant who went looking for a blue-eyed camel in the market. Not realizing how rare they were, and that he should have just bought it right then and there, he went looking for another one so he'd have a price to bargain with the first guy. By the time he figured that out, the first guy had ''eaten the camel''. Then, of course, there was the time that director Elaine May supposedly suddenly changed her mind about wanting dunes in a scene. So the production had to spend $75,000 and ''ten days'' having a ''square mile'' of desert bulldozed flat.

* ''Jet Pilot'', starring Creator/JohnWayne and Creator/JanetLeigh, began production in 1949 and didn't finish filming until 1953. And it didn't get released until 1957 due to the endless tinkering of RKO's owner, Howard Hughes. By the time it was released, Hughes didn't even own RKO anymore and the studio was pretty much dead in the water; the film was distributed by Universal to poor reviews and considerable [[CreatorBacklash backlash]] from Wayne, who thought it was one of the worst pictures he'd ever made. (But hey, at least they got ''Chuck Yeager'' to do some of the flying!)

** Meanwhile, the crew couldn’t decide on whether to make it a kids' movie or an action movie. Because of how rushed the filmmaking process was, [=McTiernan=] and the rest of the crew had to work 18-hour days. Actor Austin O'Brien (Danny) didn’t get a chance to see how rushed the production was until he passed out after his harness suffocated him during a scene taking place on a skyline. [=McTiernan=] literally came up to him afterwards and told him, "We cannot afford to stop shooting."

** ''Last Action Hero'' proceeded to open in second place, unable to compete with ''Jurassic Park'''s better reviews and audience interest. The movie ended up [[BoxOfficeBomb flopping]] pretty badly, as did all the tie-ins (the video game adaptations warrant their own entry at the Video Games subpage for this trope) and it proved to Schwarzenegger that he wasn't the unstoppable money maker that he thought he was. [[StarDerailingRole His career slowly diminished from that point on]], with only ''Film/TrueLies'', ''Film/{{Eraser}}'', and ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' proving financial blockbusters (and even the latter two were [[CriticalDissonance hits with mixed reactions]]). [=McTiernan=]'s career was [[CreatorKiller also never the same after this movie]].

** Post-production was similarly rushed and left in the hands of staff members hopelessly out of their depths, leading to such scenes as the widely derided "pebble dance". By this point, Shyamalan had given up arguing with the overheads, and [=DiMartino=] and Konietzko were only listed as executive producers because they created the original series, not because they were allowed any input into the film itself. Finally, 30 minutes were cut when Paramount decided on a last-minute 3-D conversion and found there wasn't enough money to convert the entire film. The result was eviscerated by critics and fans of the series, and [=DiMartino=] and Konietzko have publicly said they prefer to pretend it never happened.

** During production Carrey absolutely refused to break character or respond to his real name on set, even occasionally badmouthing "Jim Carrey". The cast and crew -- many of whom, like [=DeVito=], actually knew Kaufman in life, including family members and collaborators -- was stunned by how completely Carrey "got" him, down to mannerisms not in the script. But this meant "Andy" was up for more than a little mischief when the cameras weren't rolling, such as dressing up as Norma Bates from ''Psycho'' and running up, prop knife in hand, to [[Ride/UniversalStudios passing trams on the Universal Studios backlot tour]] to playfully threaten the riders! When it came to the wrestling-related sequences, Carrey seriously pissed off Wrestling/JerryLawler by getting ''too'' into {{Kayfabe}} (Kaufman's agent George Shapiro would tell Judd Apatow in ''Sicker in the Head'' that this stemmed from Carrey's own distaste for Lawler), perpetually mocking him and even spitting on him as Kaufman did in 1982 until Lawler reacted physically, sending Carrey to the hospital with a hairline fracture in his neck -- [[HistoryRepeats an injury not unlike what Kaufman himself sustained]].

** The film, despite receiving several rave reviews ''especially'' for Carrey's performance (which won him his second Golden Globe and an honor from the Boston Society of Film Critics), became his first BoxOfficeBomb as an A-lister and was completely shut out of Oscar nominations. However, it would pick up a cult following on video and cable thanks in part to, of all things, [[PeripheryDemographic Carrey's large fanbase of kids who couldn't see it theatrically due to its R-rating]]. Eventually Universal loosened its grip on the behind-the-scenes footage for documentarian Chris Smith, who combined it with a new interview with Carrey to create the 2017 retrospective ''Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond'', which itself drew excellent reviews.

** First and foremost, there were Baldwin's violent [[HairTriggerTemper temper tantrums]] in which he threw a chair, smashed camera lenses, punched a wall and ripped a cellular phone from a Creator/{{Disney}} executive's hand. Things had already gotten off on the wrong foot when Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, when first meeting Baldwin, reportedly joked, “We could get a gate guard to do the same job as you.” Baldwin, naturally, didn’t take kindly to the joke.

* Production on ''Film/MazeRunnerTheDeathCure'' was [[http://variety.com/2016/film/news/maze-runner-production-delay-dylan-obrien-1201763790/ substantially delayed]] after Creator/DylanOBrien, the star of the film, suffered a serious on-set injury on March 17, 2016. He was projected to return to work on May 9, but his injury turned out to be more serious than they initially thought, forcing them to put production on indefinite hold. Fortunately, he did recover and filming resumed, but the film's release had to be pushed back almost an entire year, to January 2018.
* The jungle shoot of the 1992 Creator/SeanConnery film ''Film/MedicineMan'' was, by all accounts, a nightmare. Creator/LorraineBracco, who was just coming off ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', complained non-stop about everything from the food to the weather to the script. Bracco also came with a [[SmallNameBigEgo massive entourage]] (nannies, hairstylists, makeup artists, acting coach, etc). In a nutshell, she soon drove Sean Connery and the director Creator/JohnMcTiernan insane and was loathed among the crew. At some point it was arranged that [=McTiernan=] would convey any [[WagTheDirector direction]] he had for her to her acting coach, who would in turn pass it on to Bracco, because [=McTiernan=] refused to deal with her anymore. Connery stopped speaking to her as well. And after all that trouble, her performance was a disaster, as she would be nominated for a [[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress]]. It pretty much [[StarDerailingRole killed her brief career]] as an A-lister. ''Series/TheSopranos'' [[CareerResurrection rescued her from the dump]], years later.

** Eric Ambler was hired to write the script, incorporating material from the Nordhoff and Hall novels. A replica ''Bounty'' was to be built in Nova Scotia and sailed to Tahiti, where MGM had decided to film to take advantage of the color and widescreen processes now available. Accordingly, the cast and crew basically took over a local hotel. The remote island location also meant that many things cost more than usual.

** Rourke's cut was reportedly set InMediasRes, with a present-day subplot about Nan travelling to Ireland to reunite with her estranged sister serving as the FramingDevice for the main 1940's scenes. Given NoBudget to do it with, Tate was tasked with transforming the film into being about that present-day RoadTripPlot, with the entire original cut being reduced to around 20 minutes of flashbacks and 10 minutes of recycled present-day scenes. The new footage which now makes up the majority of the film is about Nan getting into all kinds of antics at home and on her way to Ireland, all with a much stronger focus on comedy. The budget for these reshoots was so tight that several sequences are told through extremely crude ClipArtAnimation, with an [[LoopingLines ADR’d]] line about a character being an amateur animator being inserted in to justify it. The big criticism of the final version of the film is the MoodWhiplash between the dramatic flashback scenes and low brow comedy of the present-day scenes, basically because they really are from two different films.

* Creator/JoeDante described the production of ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' as "a nightmarish year and a half of [his] life that [he would] never get back", and an experience he wasn't eager to repeat.
** Dante's biggest headache came from Creator/WarnerBros Feature Animation, which handled animated films at the time. Warner Bros., who, like other studios, was eager to ride the coattails of the 1990s Disney Renaissance, had no conception on how to actually produce animation, and slapped together animation teams without understanding the effort their work took or having any infrastructure in place. The studio rushed films into production before they were properly prepped, truncated their schedules, and engaged in top-heavy micromanagement, leading to high turnover rates and scripts being repeatedly retooled. As a result, of the six animated flicks Warner Bros. Feature Animation put out in its fourteen-year existence, five were [[BoxOfficeBomb Box Office Bombs]].
** When ''Film/SpaceJam'' became the studio's first success (and their only one at the time), Warner Bros. spent years trying to get a follow-up off the ground, floating ideas like having the Looney Tunes star in movies with Creator/JackieChan, [[UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} Jeff Gordon]], Tony Hawk, and Tiger Woods. (''Space Jam'' wouldn't get a true sequel until ''[[Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy A New Legacy]]'' twenty-four years later.)
** When Dante joined the production for ''Back in Action'' in the early 2000s, he found himself caught in the middle between Warner Bros. execs who weren't really interested in making the movie and studio marketeers who did, with the two sides not agreeing to what the tone and humor of the film would be. Lacking any basic understanding of how the animation process works, Warner Bros. executives [[ExecutiveMeddling demanded for dialogue to be changed]] even after the animation for that dialogue had been produced. They also believed the movie wasn't funny, which led to 25 gag writers being hired, but only one writer being credited.
** What well and truly killed the movie was once again Warner failing to choose a proper release date for the film, just as it killed each of WBFA's previous projects. Originally set for release in July 2003, it was abruptly moved to November when Warner claimed that ''Finding Nemo'' was hogging the family audience at that time. However, the studio had effectively moved it from the frying pan to the fire, placing it in the middle of a particularly intense competition at the box office, amidst films like ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'', ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', and ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''... ''all'' of which had far more advertising. Not to mention, the initial invasion of Iraq that triggered the Second Gulf War would occur ''that week'', even further distracting the intended audience. With little-to-no promotion and no faith from Warner Bros., the film flopped ''hard'' at the box office, only making a total of $68 million on a budget believed to be around $80 million, directly resulting in the shuttering of Warner Bros. Feature Animation, killing any goodwill Dante still had in Hollywood, and almost singlehandedly ending any popularity the Tunes still had at the time. It wasn't until 2011 that they had [[WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow a particular revival on]] Creator/CartoonNetwork once more (whereas it was a staple of the net beforehand), but they wouldn't see theater again until ''Space Jam: A New Legacy'' in 2021.
** All that said, the film ''does'' have a following of sorts despite mixed reviews, many fans in particular citing it as a better representation of the characters than ''either'' of the ''Space Jam'' films.

** The film was originally conceived after Creator/DanAykroyd, his brother Peter, and producer Robert K. Weiss attended a screening of ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}'' while Weiss was recovering from a fractured rib. After the three found themselves joining the theater audience in laughing at the straight horror movie, Weiss suggested doing a horror-comedy, and Aykroyd -- drawing inspiration from a past incident where he was pulled over in upstate New York and fined $50 by the local justice of the peace in a "KangarooCourt" -- set about writing the script.

** Aykroyd had trouble settling on the ending, which was written and re-written during the shoot. Eventually, they settled on Chase's character learning through the television that Valkenheiser survived the destruction of Valkenvania and leaving a Chase-shaped hole in the wall. The crew was dissatisfied with the ending, but it was the best they could come up with.

** Upon release, the film proved to be a critical and BoxOfficeBomb, recouping around $8 million of its $45 million budget and having one of the lowest per-screen viewing averages in movie history. It also proved to be Aykroyd's only directing credit and strained his friendship with Robert K. Weiss. However, the crew absolutely loved the process of making it, with many crewmembers later calling it the best experience of their careers. The crew attended a special screening before release (which wasn't attended by Aykroyd or the principal cast) and howled with laughter at their bizarre creations which made it into the final product. In the years since, despite retaining a 5% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has gained the status of a CultClassic.

** The delays in getting the screenplay together forced original female lead Creator/IsabellaRossellini to drop out -- Willis would instead later work with her on ''Film/DeathBecomesHer'' -- and filming began with French actress Maruschka Detmers in the role of Anna. After only a few days of filming, Detmers dropped out, allegedly due to a back problem.[[note]](Some sources indicate that Detmers quit after openly insulting Willis and decrying the screenplay's quality on-set, though this is contradicted by other sources, which claim that Willis got Detmers a role in ''The Mambo Kings'' out of sympathy for her being forced to drop out of ''Hudson Hawk'')[[/note]] Creator/AndieMacDowell in turn replaced Detmers -- Willis reportedly wanted Creator/FamkeJanssen, but was overruled -- at such short notice that she didn't have time to learn how to do a convincing Italian accent, leading to Anna conspicuously having a Southern American accent despite her Italian name.

* ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}'' took more time to film than expected and eventually went over-budget, leaving several scenes omitted because there was no money left. This contributed to the movie's rather disjointed narrative and from there middling reviews and remarkably poor box office performance. The movie's failure dealt a fatal blow to Tobe Hooper's career; he would only direct one more big-budget movie as part of his contract with Creator/TheCannonGroup, and ''Invaders from Mars'' fared no better at the box office. ''Lifeforce'' was also the first of several big-budget flops that eventually brought down Cannon Pictures as a whole.