Films that had crazy shoots/production

Chin Stroker

Apocalypse Now probably holds the title for All Time Craziest Movie shoot. The disappearance of several helicopters needed for a scene, costs that spiralled out of control and Dennis Hopper was constantly off his tits on drugs.

The behind the scenes of the film is like a Hollywood storyline in itself. Whats your fav stories about films that had crazy shoots/production?

krudler

The Abyss, Ed Harris nearly had a nervous breakdown, the crew did loads of their own stunts, including Mary Elizabeth Mastarantonio being dragged by Harris underwater with no breathing apparatus for real, and her storming off the set after they nailed a take of the brilliant drowning scene only to be told there was no film running through the camera. Ed Harris won't speak about making the film since it's release. It all did make for one of the best making of docs ever.

milltown

Deliverance?
Story goes that for the infamous "squeal like a pig" scene, the genuine *ahem* "mountain folk" that they used for those parts were getting so excited and into the scene that Ned Beatty had to be restrained from beating the carp out of his acting partner once the take was done.

Sad Professor

krudler wrote: »

The Abyss, Ed Harris nearly had a nervous breakdown, the crew did loads of their own stunts, including Mary Elizabeth Mastarantonio being dragged by Harris underwater with no breathing apparatus for real, and her storming off the set after they nailed a take of the brilliant drowning scene only to be told there was no film running through the camera. Ed Harris won't speak about making the film since it's release. It all did make for one of the best making of docs ever.

I wish Cameron/Fox would get up off their arse and release the Blu-ray already. The DVD is awful. Nasty NTSC-PAL conversion which was ported from the laserdisc. My old VHS tape of the film looked better.

mike65

Cleopatra (1957-1963)

Did anyone watch the documentary about this on BBC4 last week? Amazing! What started as a two million dollar cash generating quickie quickly escalated into a larger production, shooting started in 1959 in Pinewood, after 8 months and 7 million dollars the whole shoot was scrapped. Liz fell ill and nearly died and it tuned out the British winter weather was not very Roman so they moved to Cinecitta outside Rome. With pre-production underway while the star recovered. After she returned they got down to wasting the money properly. The perks the cast and crew got was pretty amazing, you'd have to sign for everything now back then it was help yourself.

The some of London sets and props/costumes were recycled for Carry on Cleo.

Check out the documentary about Troy Duffy. He was the director of those cult turkeys 'Boondock Saints'

It's called Overnight

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390336/?ref_=sr_3


It is more of a study of Duffy's character on finding "success" and how he conducts his business rather than the Boondock movies themselves, but that is immaterial based on how much of a total knob Duffy is. It's engrossing to say the least.

DazMarz

One of the most genre-defining films, one of the films that did more to change how films were made, was almost never made itself. That film is Star Wars.

The production of this film was so stressful that George Lucas was nearly hospitalised during it. 20th Century Fox threatened to close down production numerous times. The actors derided some of the dialogue. Lucas was in constant clashes with the English production crew who refused to take orders from the young American director with a vision. The Tunisian shoot was nearly destroyed by sandstorms and the droid props used in Tunisia did not work properly most of the time. The first edit of the film was so poor that it was unlikely to be released. The film ran over its budget. And so on.

The documentary "Empire Of Dreams" sums up all of these crises that nearly sunk the whole thing very well. Thankfully, the film did get made (just about) and thus was born arguably the most successful film franchise in history (if you consider all the merchandising and off-shoots). And the whole film industry was changed. Special effects companies were spawned and a true summer blockbuster was born.

"Empire Of Dreams" sums it up better than I did. It's a long documentary, but well worth watching.

The Force Will Be With You... Always.

pixelburp

Jaws (and the Abyss) sprung to mind when opening this thread: I'm not even sure where to begin describing the problems that befell that production. Most famously of course, the animatronic shark wouldn't work in salt water, which as it turned out was a happy accident that merely upped the tension and suspense of the final film (I can't help wonder how bad the film could have been if the prop worked in the first place). The script went through rewrites; the production went over budget and schedule; location shooting at sea was a total disaster, taking tensions already bubbling under the surface and accelerating them out in the middle of the ocean; the cast felt out with each other - Dreyfuss and Shaw hated each other passionately, that rivalry onscreen wasn't just good acting from the pair; and like Star Wars, Spielberg had problems with the crew (the rumor goes that on the last day of shooting, Spielberg secretly left the set because he feared he'd be thrown into the ocean)

johnny_ultimate

Fitzcarraldo surpasses all. Or really anything in which Kinski and Herzog were within 100 metres of each other.

madfred

Lost in La Mancha is well worth a watch. About the making of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote which, eh, didn't get made.

Dyr

William Friedken fired a shotgun behind one of his actors before a take to get him in the right frame of mind.

Tayleur

pixelburp wrote: »

Jaws (and the Abyss) sprung to mind when opening this thread: I'm not even sure where to begin describing the problems that befell that production. Most famously of course, the animatronic shark wouldn't work in salt water, which as it turned out was a happy accident that merely upped the tension and suspense of the final film (I can't help wonder how bad the film could have been if the prop worked in the first place). The script went through rewrites; the production went over budget and schedule; location shooting at sea was a total disaster, taking tensions already bubbling under the surface and accelerating them out in the middle of the ocean; the cast felt out with each other - Dreyfuss and Shaw hated each other passionately, that rivalry onscreen wasn't just good acting from the pair; and like Star Wars, Spielberg had problems with the crew (the rumor goes that on the last day of shooting, Spielberg secretly left the set because he feared he'd be thrown into the ocean)

And to complete the trilogy. Waterworld

http://www.ugo.com/movies/waterworld-turbulent-story-of-waterworld

tunguska

mike65 wrote: »

Cleopatra (1957-1963)

Did anyone watch the documentary about this on BBC4 last week? Amazing! What started as a two million dollar cash generating quickie quickly escalated into a larger production, shooting started in 1959 in Pinewood, after 8 months and 7 million dollars the whole shoot was scrapped. Liz fell ill and nearly died and it tuned out the British winter weather was not very Roman so they moved to Cinecitta outside Rome. With pre-production underway while the star recovered. After she returned they got down to wasting the money properly. The perks the cast and crew got was pretty amazing, you'd have to sign for everything now back then it was help yourself.

The some of London sets and props/costumes were recycled for Carry on Cleo.

I dont have BBC4 unfortunately so missed that one. Anybody have a link to it?

mike65

tunguska wrote: »

I dont have BBC4 unfortunately so missed that one. Anybody have a link to it?

A good copy on youtube split into sections.

Sleepy

pixelburp wrote: »

Jaws (and the Abyss) sprung to mind when opening this thread: I'm not even sure where to begin describing the problems that befell that production. Most famously of course, the animatronic shark wouldn't work in salt water, which as it turned out was a happy accident that merely upped the tension and suspense of the final film (I can't help wonder how bad the film could have been if the prop worked in the first place). The script went through rewrites; the production went over budget and schedule; location shooting at sea was a total disaster, taking tensions already bubbling under the surface and accelerating them out in the middle of the ocean; the cast felt out with each other - Dreyfuss and Shaw hated each other passionately, that rivalry onscreen wasn't just good acting from the pair; and like Star Wars, Spielberg had problems with the crew (the rumor goes that on the last day of shooting, Spielberg secretly left the set because he feared he'd be thrown into the ocean)

Also, the infamous opening scene where the stunt rigging didn't work so well and the actress playing the victim of the midnight attack ended up with multiple broken ribs...

eviltimeban

Titanic - spiralled over budget, disgruntled staff member poisoned the catering food, actors in water for hours on end leading them to come down with cold and flu and kidney infections, Cameron was like a tyrant onset, Winslet chipped an elbow bone, and the film industry had more or less written it off as a potential "biggest flop of all time"... of course, it became the first film to make a billion dollars!

Ipso

milltown wrote: »

Deliverance?
Story goes that for the infamous "squeal like a pig" scene, the genuine *ahem* "mountain folk" that they used for those parts were getting so excited and into the scene that Ned Beatty had to be restrained from beating the carp out of his acting partner once the take was done.

I think that's up there with Paul from The Wonder Years is Marilyn Manson.
The actor was an accomplished actor, who may or may not gave lived near a mountain.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKinney

NothingMan

Anything by Terry Gilliam. Every time that man starts something it's an uphill struggle from day one. And god help you if you're the star, you'll be lucky to escape with your life.

"In the mid-1990s, Gilliam and Charles McKeown developed a script for Time Bandits 2, a project that never came to be made. Several of the original actors had died."

"In 1999, Gilliam attempted to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, budgeted at US$32.1 million, among the highest-budgeted films to use only European financing; but in the first week of shooting, the actor playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc, and a flood severely damaged the set."

And then the great Heath Ledger died during The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassius and was only finished when 3 other big names stepped up to fill in the roles in a fantastical world where looks could change.

youngblood

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, huge production problems, rights issues & lawsuits, on set fights, demands feuds, huge editing and deleting of characters post production, Connery quit acting after this movie until his come back in 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen_(film)

http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=13539&cmin=10&columnpage=1

krudler

Bambi wrote: »

William Friedken fired a shotgun behind one of his actors before a take to get him in the right frame of mind.

Slapped the priest who talks to Merrin near the end as well to make him look more shaken, he was a real priest who was an advisor on the film and cast in a minor role. Ellen Burstyn severly hurt her back during the scene where Regan slaps her and sends her flying to the floor, the guys who pulled on the rig designed to slam her into the floor pulled too hard and the scream she let out as she's in agony was very real.

krudler

pixelburp wrote: »

Jaws (and the Abyss) sprung to mind when opening this thread: I'm not even sure where to begin describing the problems that befell that production. Most famously of course, the animatronic shark wouldn't work in salt water, which as it turned out was a happy accident that merely upped the tension and suspense of the final film (I can't help wonder how bad the film could have been if the prop worked in the first place). The script went through rewrites; the production went over budget and schedule; location shooting at sea was a total disaster, taking tensions already bubbling under the surface and accelerating them out in the middle of the ocean; the cast felt out with each other - Dreyfuss and Shaw hated each other passionately, that rivalry onscreen wasn't just good acting from the pair; and like Star Wars, Spielberg had problems with the crew (the rumor goes that on the last day of shooting, Spielberg secretly left the set because he feared he'd be thrown into the ocean)

I heard that Shaw deliberately antagonised Dreyfuss on set until after they filmed the scar comparing/Indianapolis speech scene to rile him up until the characters bonded on screen. It put Spielberg off ever shooting a film at sea again, the continuity is really difficult to maintain, there's loads of shots where its blue skies one second and cloud the next, or calm water to choppy because everything is so temperamental out there and shots were days or weeks apart.

milltown

Ipso wrote: »

I think that's up there with Paul from The Wonder Years is Marilyn Manson.
The actor was an accomplished actor, who may or may not gave lived near a mountain.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKinney

In which case I shall get my coat and bid you good day.

Edit: Maybe not entirely though.

Mc.Kinney's IMDB bio wrote:

"In his autobiography, McKinney's Deliverance (1972) co-star, Burt Reynolds (whose character dispatches The Mountain Man with an arrow in the back) said of McKinney, "I thought he was a little bent. I used to get up at five in the morning and see him running nude through the golf course while the sprinklers watered the grass...."

McKinney denies this, and also disputes Reynolds contention that he was overly enthusiastic playing the infamous scene where his character buggers Ned Beatty.

"He always played sickos", Reynolds said of McKinney, "but he played them well. With my dark sense of humor, I was kind of amused by him.... McKinney turned out to be a pretty good guy who just took the method way too far".

McKinney told Maxim magazine in an interview honoring him and his Mountain Man partner 'Herbert "Cowboy" Coward' as the #1 screen villains of all time that Reynolds' stories were untrue. "If you lose control on a movie set", McKinney told Maxim, "it's not acting, it's indulgence."

Presumably it's not good for an actor's (method or otherwise) job prospects to admit that he got a bit carried away while raping his co-star, so not a huge surprise that he denies it.

Welsh Megaman

Two words: Heaven's Gate.

Originally budgeted at around $7m, this number ballooned to around $40m, bankrupted an entire film studio (United Artists), and dissuaded Hollywood from making westerns for at least a decade, as well as ending the era of director-driven projects.

Director Michael Cimino would shoot up to FIFTY takes of a single scene, have entire trains, railroads and TOWNS built from scratch (even having the whole of one side of a street torn down and rebuilt, as it was a few inches out from how we wanted it).

Horses and other wild animals were slaughtered/blown up (leading to the 'No Animals Were Harmed...' statement in end credits of all films from that point on), use of cocaine was rampant on-set, and local residents complained when Cimino 'polluted' the nearby lake and rivers on purpose to give the film a 'bloody' look for the battle scenes.

Cimino also pulled the film after ONE showing in New York to re-edit the film (original running time - six hours)!

mike65

I have the book - Final Cut, must read it again some time.

Hematocyte

Back to the Future. Four weeks of footage was shot with Eric Stoltz before he was finally canned and they went back to (then available) original choice Michael J. Fox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nYvrS-jlcI

You can still (barely) see Stoltz in the final cut of the film. He's the one who throws the punch at Biff in the diner immediately prior to the skateboard chase scene.

Banjaxed82

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Two words: Heaven's Gate.

Originally budgeted at around $7m, this number ballooned to around $40m, bankrupted an entire film studio (United Artists), and dissuaded Hollywood from making westerns for at least a decade, as well as ending the era of director-driven projects.

Director Michael Cimino would shoot up to FIFTY takes of a single scene, have entire trains, railroads and TOWNS built from scratch (even having the whole of one side of a street torn down and rebuilt, as it was a few inches out from how we wanted it).

Horses and other wild animals were slaughtered/blown up (leading to the 'No Animals Were Harmed...' statement in end credits of all films from that point on), use of cocaine was rampant on-set, and local residents complained when Cimino 'polluted' the nearby lake and rivers on purpose to give the film a 'bloody' look for the battle scenes.

Cimino also pulled the film after ONE showing in New York to re-edit the film (original running time - six hours)!

Speaking of Cimino, for an Oscar winning director, that's some IMDB page. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001047/

Tumbleweeds comes to mind.

ziedth

http://www.empireonline.com/features/last-action-hero

This is an absolute must read on this, funnily enough i quite enjoyed last action hero.

tunguska

mike65 wrote: »

A good copy on youtube split into sections.

Cheers that was great. What the hell was up with Liz Taylor's health though, she was only 30 years old for Christ sake but even by that stage she was notorious for holding up shoots and for insurance companies not wanting to insure her.

As mentioned already, Jaws had a very difficult shoot. The BBC did a great documentary a few years ago on its 25th (or 30th) anniversery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MiVtavjD8w

krudler

ziedth wrote: »

http://www.empireonline.com/features/last-action-hero

This is an absolute must read on this, funnily enough i quite enjoyed last action hero.

Same, it was way ahead of its time, doing the post-modern thing before Scream made it cool. It just had the misfortune of going up against a certain dinosaur theme park film that summer.

Skerries

Hematocyte wrote: »

Back to the Future. Four weeks of footage was shot with Eric Stoltz before he was finally canned and they went back to (then available) original choice Michael J. Fox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nYvrS-jlcI

You can still (barely) see Stoltz in the final cut of the film. He's the one who throws the punch at Biff in the diner immediately prior to the skateboard chase scene.

James Purefoy was the original Guy Fawkes in V for Vendetta but left after 6 weeks of filming due to not being able to wear the mask all the time and was replaced with Hugo Weaving. A lot of the shots in the film are actually of Purefoy but were overdubbed with Weaving's voice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_%28film%29

Ipso

Hematocyte wrote: »

Back to the Future. Four weeks of footage was shot with Eric Stoltz before he was finally canned and they went back to (then available) original choice Michael J. Fox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nYvrS-jlcI

You can still (barely) see Stoltz in the final cut of the film. He's the one who throws the punch at Biff in the diner immediately prior to the skateboard chase scene.

Isn't it also Stoltz who dives into the DeLorean when the Libyans attack?

I'm not 100% sure of the stories behind these, so I'm probably wrong but ...

Three Kings -

During the filming of 1999's Three Kings, Russell and Clooney went fisticuffs during a highly pressurized shoot, because Clooney thought that Russell was mistreating the crew and the extras. Russell called Clooney a "pussy", causing the verbal altercation to come to blows. Clooney later said that while he respected Russell's talent, he would never work with the director again.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-
I can't find any sources behind this, but I remember there being a lot of problems with production and some say it attributed to Sean Connery's retiring from acting.

Even Dwarfs Started Small-
This is probably one of my favourite stories and highlights the kind of person that Herzog is

While filming the scene where a van drove in circles with no one at the wheel, one of the actors was run over, but immediately stood up uninjured. During the flower burning scene, the same actor caught fire and Werner Herzog raced over and beat the fire out. The actor only had minor injuries from the fire. After these two accidents, Herzog promised the actors that if they made it through the rest of filming without any more injuries he would jump into a cactus patch and allow the actors to film him doing so. The film was finished without any further injuries and the director made good his promise and dived into the cacti. Herzog has said, "Getting out was a lot more difficult than jumping in."[2]. The scene was inspired by an incident that occured when Herzog worked as a steward at the Munich Oktoberfest as a young man. Part of his duty was ensuring that drunk patrons did not attempt to drive their cars home, so when a drunk man insisted that he was capable of driving, Herzog got into his car with him, placed the steering wheel on full lock, then got out of his car. The man passed out and the car continued to drive in a circle until it ran out of petrol.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm not 100% sure of the stories behind these, so I'm probably wrong but ...

Three Kings

No, I think you're right. There were similar problems on the set of I [Heart] Huckabees, remember the Lily Tomlin meltdown?

Deleted User wrote: »

This is probably one of my favourite stories and highlights the kind of person that Herzog is

Ah Werner, at times he's more entertaining than his films. Slightly OT but worth a read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Herzog_Eats_His_Shoe

WWZ got quite fubar too, good article in Vanity Fair:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/06/brad-pitt-world-war-z-drama

Has anyone mentioned Blade Runner? That was quite fraught too with problems between Scott and the crew, writers, actors ... everyone I guess.

And, of course, you can't get much crazier than productions where people actually died like The Crow, Twilight Zone Movie, Return of the Musketeers ... also starring Oliver Reed who died filming Gladiator. And there's a biblical epic where (I think) the set had to be flooded and some people died too, which one I can't recall right now.

Duggy747

I think The Twilight Zone Movie is up there with one of the most notorious, considering one of it's main stars (Vic Morrow) and 2 illegally hired children were killed during a stunt in which a helicopter crashed on top of them.

The chopper decapitated Vic and the child he was carrying while the other child was crushed.

“The probable cause of the accident was the detonation of debris-laden high-temperature special effects explosions too near a low-flying helicopter leading to foreign object damage to one rotor blade and delamination due to heat to the other rotor blade, the separation of the helicopter's tail rotor assembly, and the uncontrolled descent of the helicopter. The proximity of the helicopter (around 25 feet off the ground) to the special effects explosions was due to the failure to establish direct communications and coordination between the pilot, who was in command of the helicopter operation, and the film director, who was in charge of the filming operation."

The deaths were recorded on film from at least three different camera angles. As a result of Morrow's death, the remaining few scenes of the segment could not be filmed and all of the scenes that were filmed involving the two Vietnamese children, Myca and Renee, were deleted from the final cut of the segment.

Myca and Renee were being paid under the table to circumvent California's child-labor laws. California did not allow children to work at night. Landis opted not to seek a waiver, either because he didn't think he'd get one for such a late hour or because he knew he would never get approval to have young children as part of a scene with a large number of explosives. The casting agents didn't know that the children would be involved in the scene. Associate producer George Folsey, Jr. told the children's parents not to tell any firefighters on set that the children were part of the scene, and also hid them from a fire safety officer who also worked as a welfare worker. A fire safety officer was concerned the blasts would cause a crash, but didn't tell Landis of his concerns.

The accident led to civil and criminal action against the filmmakers which lasted nearly a decade. Landis, Folsey, production manager Dan Allingham, pilot Dorcey Wingo and explosives specialist Paul Stewart were tried and acquitted on charges of manslaughter in a nine month trial in 1986 and 1987.

In the aftermath of the accident, regulations were changed involving children working on movie sets at night and during special effects-heavy scenes. Hollywood also avoided helicopter-related stunts for many years, until the CGI revolution of the 1990s made it possible to use digital versions. As a result of the accident, second assistant director Andy House had his name removed from the credits and replaced with the pseudonym Alan Smithee.

Footage is on Youtube of accident.

Welsh Megaman

mike65 wrote: »

I have the book - Final Cut, must read it again some time.

Excellent documentary based on the book on youtube (split into 8 parts).

Here's part one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdcRiPLp4oU

enfant terrible

Already posted sorry

Welsh Megaman

ziedth wrote: »

http://www.empireonline.com/features/last-action-hero

This is an absolute must read on this, funnily enough i quite enjoyed last action hero.

Thanks for posting ziedth, great feature.

Just as in Christopher Guest's film 'For Your Consideration', the studio bosses more often than not can derail a film's success when it comes to marketing (ironically, 'For Your Consideration' itself appeared to have been meddled with by the studio, who no doubt did not like the way they were being portrayed - definitely Guest's worst film).

Anyhoo, back to the topic...

'The Blues Brothers' and Steven Spielberg's '1941'. On both occasions:-

1. Out-of-control budget.
2. John Belushi's legendary drug binges, causing him to go missing during filming - sometimes for several days.

An infamous event that took place during the filming of 'The Blues Brothers'...whilst filming the scene where Jake and Elwood practically destroy an entire shopping mall, Belushi went AWOL. It eventually transpired that he had walked off-set into the nearby neighbourhood, knocked at a random house, made himself a sandwich then fell asleep on the couch!

losthorizon

mike65 wrote: »

Cleopatra (1957-1963)

Did anyone watch the documentary about this on BBC4 last week? Amazing! What started as a two million dollar cash generating quickie quickly escalated into a larger production, shooting started in 1959 in Pinewood, after 8 months and 7 million dollars the whole shoot was scrapped. Liz fell ill and nearly died and it tuned out the British winter weather was not very Roman so they moved to Cinecitta outside Rome. With pre-production underway while the star recovered. After she returned they got down to wasting the money properly. The perks the cast and crew got was pretty amazing, you'd have to sign for everything now back then it was help yourself.

The some of London sets and props/costumes were recycled for Carry on Cleo.

Yeah saw that doc. Madness it was. And then the film turned out to be fairly crap.

Welsh Megaman

The only redeeming feature about 'Last Action Hero' is the soundtrack!

Wanna see Arnie dressed as Angus Young, even attempting the duckwalk?

Of course you do...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16yWFdSdOyM

Also on the soundtrack were Megadeth, Cypress Hill, Alice In Chains, Def Leppard and Anthrax!

But back to crazy shoots/production...Peter Sellers!

Who deserves his own thread for erratic on-set behaviour, especially in the last few Pink Panther films - having the script changed so that Clouseau wears more disguises (to cover up his failing health), coupled with several clashes with Blake Edwards resulting in stunt/body doubles and voice actors filling in at every opportunity (it is estimated that Sellers only appears in around 30% of both '...Strikes Back' and 'Revenge Of...'), as well as having props and sets that were a certain colour removed and/or changed because he believed they bought bad luck!

In his final movie 'The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu', he sacked director Piers Haggard halfway through and took over directing himself. Only when he realised the film was going to be a misfire, that he re-credited Haggard as the director!!

Chin Stroker

Seems like JC attracts/creates chaos on every major film he made bar Avatar

Welsh Megaman

Peter Sellers strikes again! Prepare for crazy shoot overload!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(1967_film)