Making movies is a difficult business. Deadlines, technical problems, stuck up actors, the list goes on and on. Movies can be even more of a pain for a director. It’s a role that can be a lot of pressure. The director has to appease the corporate suits of the movie studio while also trying to realize their artistic vision and keep their sets a well-oiled machine. They must be tough but compassionate, artistic but efficient. The weight of the whole movie is under them, and it’s their job to make sure everyone is in line and doing what they have to in order to get the best production out on time. It takes a certain kind of personality, one that can handle pressure and have a vision.
While most directors don’t have any problem with that, there are the rare few that just can’t handle the responsibilities that being a director comes with. Some directors have left films over disputes with studios while others leave due to their unhappiness with the production while working on set. Some directors don’t leave at all and end up getting kicked off the project. They could be falling behind with production deadlines, incompetent for the demands of the job, or their work is just not what the studio is looking for.
These are just a few of the reasons why a director would be replaced mid-way through working on a film, sometimes it’s even a film they’ve been developing for years. It happens more often than you would think!
Here are 10 Movies That Were Hurt By A Mid-Filming Director Change (And 10 That Were Saved).
Saved: Superman II
Superman is a modern-day classic. Its mix of superhero storytelling, solid acting, and ground-breaking special effects bolstered the film to Hollywood success, so it was no surprise that the sequel was just as successful. With the same strong cast and even stronger villains, Superman II was an example of a sequel that improved on the original.
Director Richard Donner had helmed the production of the first film and was about seventy-five percent done with the second one when he was surprisingly given the axe. It was a decision that surprised cast and crew alike, with no one ever really finding out why he was cut. Some say it was because of production overruns and others say he quit. Regardless, Richard Lester was brought in to replace Donner and the film was completed.
Saved: Jaws
Jaws is one of the biggest films in movie history. Known for its soundtrack, writing, and special effects, the film single-handedly created what became the summer blockbuster. Even at just the mention of Jaws, that famous theme comes springing to mind. What also comes to mind is one name: Steven Spielberg.
The legendary director took the film and the medium as a whole to new heights, but he wasn’t the first one on board to direct the feature.
Dick Richards was originally set to direct, but was quickly dropped after he continued to refer to the shark as a whale.
Obviously, this annoyed the producers and he was canned in favor of the blossoming Spielberg. With how legendary the film and the director became after its release, they made a good choice.
Hurt: Solo: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars movies have been the apple of every space-lover’s eye since the first one was released back in the ’80s. Following the prequel trilogy, the series took a break before releasing the sequel trilogy. Along with the main series films, spinoffs are being released for side characters, including Solo.
There are different theories for the film’s moderate performance. Some believe it is because of Star Wars fatigue, while others think it’s because no one wants to see a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford. However, it could also be from production woes.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were the original directors, shooting over half of the film before they were replaced by Ron Howard.
The studio was not happy with the original comedic tone of the film and commissioned Howard to overhaul it.
Saved: The Wizard of Oz
It’s even rarer for a film to have gone through five different directors by the time it is wrapped. Such was the case with the legendary production of The Wizard of Oz. The set was fraught with problems; many actors were badly injured, crew members were duking it out and the film couldn’t keep a director to save it’s life.
While Victor Fleming shot the biggest portion of the film, there were four others who held the spot before and after him.
Fleming famously said that a calm set and friendly cast rarely gives you a strong end result. This was about as crazy as it gets. Despite the amount of trouble with the production, King Vidor was brought in to finish the picture and the rest is history.
Suffered: Justice League
The DC Extended Universe was off to a rocky star. None of its movies except for Wonder Woman have fared particularly well. When Justice League finally brought everyone’s favorite heroes together, audiences were hoping this would finally be the movie to right the wrongs. Unfortunately, it didn’t do that completely.
The film didn’t even make enough to break even and was still negatively received by critics.
Zack Snyder had been directing the film like previous entries but was forced to leave due to the tragic passing of his daughter. The studio then brought in Avengers vet Joss Whedon to finish the film. This resulted in an unusual product, mixing Snyder’s darker tones with Whedon’s trademark lightness. If Warner Bros. had delayed the release for a bit longer and let Whedon work his magic, then the end product would have been more consistent.
Improved: Brave
Pixar is notorious for its high production quality. It’s rare that you see a film come from the studio that is any less than a money-pumping machine. As such, top quality talent is hired to keep the hits coming. It’s no surprise that the studio has a history of shuffling personnel. In the case of Pixar’s Brave, the film was conceived by director Brenda Chapman, taking inspiration from her relationship with her daughter.
Despite the project basically coming from Chapman, she was replaced a year before the films release by Mark Andrews due to creative disagreements.
While Chapman was initially disappointed about being removed from the project that was essentially hers, she later stated that she believed the film captured her vision. She was given a directing credit and the movie was unsurprisingly a big success.
Suffered: Rumor Has It
Rumor Has It was Ted Griffin’s baby. He wrote the screenplay and had been developing the project for a solid three years. In an unexpected turn of events, Griffin was fired from the director’s chair and replaced by Rob Reiner. Production was already behind and it wasn’t going to get finished very quickly with Griffin in charge. The set was shut down for nine days while Reiner made various changes, like hiring Kathy Bates and reworking part of the script. Rumor Has It was released and ultimately failed with critics and audiences alike.
Despite the movie being Griffin’s lovechild, none of his footage was even included in the final cut.
Chances are it would have been a much better film with the creator in charge, but the studio needed that quickly released cash instead of delayed art. Don’t they know that good things come to those who wait?
Improved: Gone With the Wind
All of these classic films are so renowned that it is hard to believe they suffered such a troublesome production. Gone With the Wind had many troubles that correlated with The Wizard of Oz.
George Cukor was the original director and had three troublesome weeks of footage all wrapped up before getting canned. He went on to stand in for Oz while Victor Fleming came straight from the same set to take his place. However, even Fleming wouldn’t stick around. The director collapsed three months after being put on the film and scenes had to be finished by replacement Sam Wood.
For a production as exhausting as this one, the result was completely worth it. Gone With the Wind went on to become one of the most critically and financially successful movies of all time.
Suffered: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The cult film based on the popular novel went through a troublesome production. Director Alex Cox went round and round with actor Johnny Depp and the novels author Hunter S. Thompson. They both believed his script to be horrible and didn’t see eye to eye with him on ideas for the film, particularly an animated sequence pitched by Cox. This resulted in the director getting canned and Terry Gilliam was brought in to replace him. Ironically, Gilliam’s script also included an animated sequence, which makes the director an odd choice in retrospect.
The film was released but ended up becoming a critical and commercial failure. Perhaps if they had just went with something different in Cox, the movie might have fared better. In recent years however, the production has become somewhat of a cult film.
Improved: Ratatouille
Pixar has a thing for replacing its directors. Even some of those who create and develop the story are pushed away from their ideas. Jan Pinkava was deep in development with Ratatouille, creating the character designs, settings and storylines.
Eventually Pixar replaced Pinkava with Brad Bird due to a lack of confidence in his ability to develop a complete story.
Bird took the production on to be another big success for the studio, developing the rest of the story after paying visits to Paris and eating at the top four restaurants there. Pinkava unfortunately joins the ever-growing list of creators who have been forced from Pixar’s creations in the service of the studio.
Suffered: Exorcist: The Beginning
The Exorcist is a horror classic. While other movies from its time have aged rather badly, this movie still manages to keep you up at night. Like many horror movies from the ’70s/80s, the film’s success spawned a franchise of awful, unwanted sequels, including Exorcist: The Beginning.
Paul Schrader was originally the director, shooting most of the footage and even putting together his own cut of the film. Of course, the studio was unimpressed. Schrader was fired and Renny Harlin was brought in to retool the film.
It was critically panned and financially unsuccessful so, in a rare turn of events, the studio called upon Schrader to release his cut under the name Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
His cut fared better and proved that sometimes, a studio can admit mistakes.
Improved: Spartacus
Spartacus had a large production which Universal wanted to keep on schedule and budget. Anthony Mann was originally the director of the film but was fired soon after filming began as the studio didn’t believe he had the proper vision to take on a production of such an epic scope. Enter director Stanley Kubrick.
With several major pictures already under his belt, Kubrick proved to be more well suited to the epic.
Things weren’t exactly smooth sailing however, with many conflicts arising between crew members and the director. Kubrick himself even went on to disown the film, not even giving it a spot in his well-known canon. The movie went down in history as a success, although it was a very frantic one.
Suffered: The Island of Dr. Moreau
The stories surrounding this movie are seemingly endless. What seemed like an absolute dream production for director Richard Stanley turned out to be a nightmare. Lead actors Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando were reportedly difficult to get under control, with Kilmer being uncooperative while Brando was his infamously difficult self.
Stanley failed to keep the stars in line, resulting in him being replaced by John Frankenheimer.
The atmosphere didn’t change however, and the film that was subsequently released became one of the worst movies of the 90s both financially and critically. If Stanley had been able to keep the two actors in line, perhaps this could have become that dream production that he wanted. Alas, we all must fail sometimes. Even if you’re Val Kilmer or Marlon Brando.
Improved: The Good Dinosaur
One of Pixar’s lesser known projects, The Good Dinosaur was being directed by Bob Peterson, who also came up with the idea for the story. Peterson was more than halfway done with the movie but could not figure out a way to finish it. To keep the production moving and on schedule, Pixar replaced Peterson with Peter Sohn, and the film was completely revamped as the studio didn’t believe that the story was strong enough.
After being pushed back several years, The Good Dinosaur was finally released on November 25, 2015, to moderate success by Pixar standards. It was the studio’s lowest grossing film due to delays, but the final product still soared, pulling in over $300 million and receiving positive reviews. Even at their lowest, Pixar still comes out on top.
Suffered: Piranha 2
Conceived as a knock-off of the classic Jaws, the first Piranha did well enough to spawn a sequel.
Directed by Miller Drake, the film’s original plot involved Kevin McCarthy, who had taken refuge on an oil rig, creating piranhas that could fly. The producers fired Drake quickly and replaced him with a then-unknown James Cameron. Cameron didn’t get along much better, though. He often argued with producers on the direction of the film and was also given the boot a mere two weeks later.
Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis took over but Cameron’s name was left in the credits as the studio didn’t want to sell a picture with an Italian director attached.
The film tanked with both the box office and the critics, with Cameron himself distancing his work from the movie. It was probably a smart choice.
Improved: WarGames
Martin Brest was the first director up to bat for the ’80s hit WarGames. However, once the initial footage reached the studio, they had some problems with it. The biggest problem was that nobody in the film looked like they were enjoying themselves. The tone was completely off, and the footage had a feel that the studio was not looking for.
John Badham was brought in to get the film finished and this resulted in a much more exciting product. WarGames was a big success and it could have been one for Brest, who later went on to direct the infamous bomb Gigli. If only he had done things differently, then the future might have been a little better for him. However, WarGames might not have been as good either.
Suffered: Bad Girls
Bad Girls was a good idea. The story focused around four women in a wild west setting trying to find a better life for themselves. It was chance for a woman led cast to shine in a male-dominated genre. If only they would have let original director Tamra Davis execute her vision, it could have turned out a better production. The studio grew unhappy with the direction that Davis was taking the film and replaced her with Jonathan Kaplan.
Kaplan ordered a new script and upped the amount of action, deciding to spend less time on character development. The new direction didn’t work; Bad Girls was a critical and financial failure that fell into obscurity.
Hurt: Crazy People
If the film Crazy People doesn’t sound familiar, that’s because it didn’t do all that well. Dudley Moore stars as an advertising executive who strikes gold. Sounds interesting enough, right? Wrong!
The movie was panned by critics and didn’t even make back its budget. Mitch Markowitz had written the screenplay and was directing the film when he was unsurprisingly removed for reasons unknown. Tony Bill took his spot and finished the film, but we can’t help but wonder if Markowitz would have done it better.
Not only was he the one that wrote Crazy People, but he also wrote the incredible Good Morning, Vietnam! ]If he can write a film that good then he had likely a clear vision for where he wanted to take this one.
Saved: The Outlaw Josey Wales
Clint Eastwood has had an incredibly successful career as both a director and actor. The Outlaw Josey Wales was one of his most successful directing hits, but it wasn’t supposed to be that way.
Originally, Philip Kaufman was tapped to direct, with Eastwood starring in the lead role. Production had only been going for a few weeks but it was clear there was a problem. Kaufman wanted to tone down the politics of the movie, something that Eastwood disagreed with and subsequently fired the director, taking control of the production himself.
The film became a huge success under Eastwood’s direction, but also resulted in a new rule by the Directors Guild of America, stating that no actor or producer can fire a director and take the lead.
Hurt: The 13th Warrior
The movie based on Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead went through a lot of trouble. Focusing on a character who travels with Vikings to their settlement, the story was already a tough one to translate to screen. On top of that, test audiences were not receptive to initial footage that was show and the film kept having to undergo several edits.
Director John McTiernan was replaced by Crichton himself after several of the cuts proved to be unsatisfactory. Crichton recut the film, reshot the ending, and added a new score. All of these changes pushed the release date back by a year, but the effort proved to be futile. The 13th Warrior was critically panned and a box office bomb, showing that sometimes the creator doesn’t always know best.
What other movies were affected by director changes? Let us know in the comments!
