History TroubledProduction / FIlm

** When it was released that September, ''Curse'' had the largest opening weekend out of the entire series but was ravaged by critics and fans, and plunged fast. One of its fiercest critics was Farrands, who hated the final film's deviations from his script. The series would be partially [[ContinuityReboot rebooted]] three years later in 1998 with ''Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater'', which took only the first two films as canon. Eventually, when the film was shown on TV, someone unearthed the original Producer's Cut from before the reshoots; while it cuts the violence and profanity, it otherwise retains most of the original content, and Farrands has given it his tepid (if still disappointed) approval.

* ''Film/RadioFlyer'', the story of two brothers who escape an abusive stepfather with a homemade flying machine, was a red-hot script when it was picked up by Columbia Pictures and initially was directed by its screenwriter, David Mickey Evans (who later did ''Film/TheSandlot''). But after a week of shooting, he was fired and production was shut down until Creator/RichardDonner was brought in to replace him. In the process, the production budget more than doubled from $15 million to $35 million.
* ''Film/TheRageCarrie2''. To begin with, the film was supposed to start production in 1996 as an original project titled ''The Curse'', with no relation to ''{{Carrie}}'' beyond a similar plot. However, production got stalled for two years, during which time it was [[DolledUpInstallment rewritten into a sequel]] to ''Carrie''. A few weeks into production, director Robert Mandel quit, citing CreativeDifferences, leaving Katt Shea (maker of ''Film/PoisonIvy'') to take over the production with less than a week to prepare. This also forced two weeks of reshoots.

* Creator/DavidLean's next film after ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' was ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia''. Somehow it managed to be a worse experience than ''Kwai''.

** Sam Spiegel and DavidLean's already testy relationship soon reached the breaking point. For a start, Spiegel adamantly opposed Peter O'Toole's casting as Lawrence due to an unpleasant past encounter. [[note]]O'Toole had auditioned for ''Suddenly, Last Summer'' and irritated Spiegel with flippant ad-libbing. Spiegel also wanted Marlon Brando to play Lawrence.[[/note]] Spiegel rarely visited the set, but constantly complained long-distance about Lean's "wasting" money and allegedly poor footage. On one visit he showed up with William Wyler in tow, threatening to replace Lean if he didn't work faster. Lean eventually [[TakeThat got back at Spiegel]] by sneaking into the dailies a shot of him flipping Spiegel off... [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome in 70mm]]. Unsurprisingly, ''Lawrence'' marked their last collaboration.

* Creator/DavidLean followed his jungle and desert epics with a winter epic in ''Film/DoctorZhivago'', and its production provided more of the same chaos as the previous two films.

* Creator/DavidLean simply couldn't escape this trope after the mid-1950s; the Irish love story ''Film/RyansDaughter'' should have been a breather film after the more ambitious trio of ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'', ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', and ''Film/DoctorZhivago'', but it still managed to turn into a severely troubled production.

** Cindy Morgan was uncomfortable with doing nude scenes, and while Harold Ramis was willing to change the script, producer Jon Peters told Morgan that her career would be over if she refused. Peters then invited {{Playboy}} to the set to photograph her, which angered her greatly, and she, with Ramis' support, again refused to do the scene until Playboy photographers were sent home.

* No film qualifying for this trope could have had a more apt name than the 1994 Meyers-Shyer rom-com ''ILoveTrouble''. Or a more telling plot {{McGuffin}} ... a ''train wreck''.

** Which was actually a testament to their acting skills, because the two of them ''did'' have chemistry—the volatile, explosive throw-things-at-each-other-and-scream kind. Not what you want to show on screen in a romantic comedy. The antipathy [[FromBadtoWorse deepened over the course of filming]] to the point that they refused to shoot their later scenes together, necessitating some quick rewriting and clever editing and camera tricks. By some accounts they did more scenes with stand-ins than with each other.

** It didn't end when they wrapped. Due to all the strife between the two leads and the ways the production had had to accommodate it, Disney's marketing department scrambled to recast the film, which it had been teasing as the romantic comedy originally intended, into something more like a conventional suspense thriller. "It's gone from a Hepburn-Tracy ''WomanOfTheYear'' to ''ThePelicanBrief'' in a very short time span," one competing studio marketing person noted before it was released.

** Which was actually a testament to their acting skills, because the two of them ''did'' have chemistry—the volatile, explosive throw-things-at-each-other-and-scream kind. Not what you want to show on screen in a romantic comedy. The antipathy [[FromBadtoWorse deepened over the course of filming]] to the point that they refused to shoot their later scenes together, necessitating some quick rewriting and clever editing and camera tricks. By some accounts they did more scenes with stand-ins then with each other.

** It didn't end when they wrapped. Due to all the strife between the two leads and the ways the production had had to accommodate it, Disney's marketing department scrambled to recast the film, which it had been teasing as the romantic comedy originally intended, into something more like a conventional suspense thriller. "It's gone from a Hepburn-Tracy ''WomanOfTheYear''' to ''ThePelican Brief'' in a very short time span," one competing studio marketing person noted before it was released.

* ''Film/RoboCop1987'' was shot during a very hot summer in Dallas, and Peter Weller's costume not only came in late, but he could barely move in it, rendering his previous mime training useless. In addition, it ran behind schedule and over budget, actors Kurtwood Smith and Ray Wise stole the crew's golf carts during the shooting of one scene and [[ExecutiveMeddling executives kept trying to interfere with the production]] while it was still going on.

* Like previous installments in ''Alien'' franchise, ''{{Film/Prometheus}}'' ran into a lot of this:

* Even ''Film/TheCounselor'' wasn't completely safe from this. Scott took up the project after trying to get ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' away from DevelopmentHell (a script was written but they execs wouldn't greenlight it due to the book's [[{{Gorn}} grim]] [[DownerEnding content]]). About halfway during filming, Scott's brother [[Creator/TonyScott Tony]] committed a tragic suicide that halted production for a week. After production finished up, some of the higher ups demanded changes to be made, such as trimming down the film's running time and redubbing the lines of [[Creator/CameronDiaz Cameron Diaz's]] character Malkina.

* Even ''Film/TheCounselor'' wasn't completely safe from this. Scott took up the project after trying to get ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' away from DevelopmentHell (a script was written but they execs wouldn't greenlight it due to the book's [[{{Gorn}} grim]] [[DowneEnding content]]). About halfway during filming, Scott's brother [[Creator/TonyScott Tony]] committed a tragic suicide that halted production for a week. After production finished up, some of the higher ups demanded changes to be made, such as trimming down the film's running time and redubbing the lines of [[Creator/CameronDiaz Cameron Diaz's]] character Malkina.

* The upcoming biopic about Gregg Allman, ''Midnight Rider'' has been put on indefinite hiatus after a crew member, Sarah Jones, was tragically struck and killed by an oncoming freight train during a shoot on a bridge with open train tracks, in addition to several other injured crew members. The incident was widely publicized, and raised awareness for safety on movie sets, with a successful petition to give Jones a tribute at the Academy Awards. The studio behind the film has now found themselves in intense hot water, and facing ''many'' lawsuits, especially after the suspicion that the crew may not have had permission to film on that particular location. In addition, the first assistant director has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The film's star, William Hurt, has now officially dropped out of the film, leaving the film's production very uncertain at this point.

* ''{{Caddyshack}}'' may now be considered a cult classic, but it had a hell of a time getting there:
** The film was originally supposed to be a simple coming-of-age story about kids working at a golf course. It slowly morphed into a showcase featuring comedy veterans like RodneyDangerfield, ChevyChase, BillMurray (whose parts were originally supposed to be much smaller), and TedKnight. Much of the dialogue was improvised on the spot, and production was extremely disorganized.
** On the first day of shooting, Hurricane Dave came through, and production had to wait to begin filming until the storm passed and the flooding cleared. The Florida weather proved intense for the cast/crew, who were often unwilling to film, and there were frequent no-shows on set.
** Cindy Morgan had to be persuaded to do nude scenes, and when she finally agreed, execs invited {{Playboy}} to the set to photograph her, which angered her greatly, and she again refused to do the scene until Playboy photographers (who told her that her career would be over if she refused) were sent home.
** In addition, few co-stars got along. Chevy Chase and Cindy Morgan got into a scuffle, and almost refused to do their scene, and Ted Knight didn't get along with his younger co-stars or Chevy Chase. Bill Murray, who was only available for six days, also didn't get along with Chevy Chase[[note]]The two had nearly come to blows right before the show the week Chevy hosted ''SNL'' during its second season[[/note]], and when execs insisted on them having a scene together, everyone in the production feared what would happen, but fortunately the scene turned out beautifully. Also, the cast/crew partied hard every night, getting stoned out of their minds, wrecking the golf carts and ruining the golf course on a regular basis.
** After the filming ended and the rough-cut came in, it was too long, and over two hours had to be cut. This also included key parts of the main plot, and the film made no sense, so more money had to be spent on a mechanical gopher to add extra comic relief and to tie the picture together, and an ending had to be filmed (with an explosion!).

** To the end of his life, even though the film became better appreciated over time, Creator/HaroldRamis was dissatisfied with his directorial debut. "All I see are compromises and things we could have done better," he told ''GQ'' magazine in the late 2000s. His greatest complaint was that no one in the film other than Chris O'Donnell [[GretzkyHasTheBall was able to swing their golf clubs properly]].

** Lean and Spiegel differed widely over ''Kwai'''s focus. Lean was more interested in the prison camp rivalry between Nicholson and Saito; Spiegel felt the novel's action-adventure elements (namely the commando storyline, a subplot in the book) deserved more focus. Early scripts featured elaborate action scenes like an elephant stampede, army ant attack and even a submarine battle, which Lean adamantly vetoed. The finished film is a compromise, making the commando story more prominent without diminishing Nicholson and Saito's plot. Concerned about American box office, Spiegel changed Shears (a British character in the book) into an American POW who escapes from the camp, then is dragooned into helping destroy the bridge.

** Location scouts found that the actual River Kwai was a mere trickle, so, at Jack Hawkins' suggestion, production was set up near Kitulgala in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The remote location required special construction of a bungalow complex to house the cast and crew. Though Lean was right at home in the tropical climate, most of the other personnel suffered in the intense heat and humidity. They were frequently forced to call in sick, and had to share the area with snakes, leeches,[[note]] though the swamps through which the demo squad treks were specially constructed - the local swamps were too dangerous to use for filming - the leeches were real[[/note]] and other wildlife. The slow pace of filming resulting from Lean's rampant perfectionism did not help. Furthermore, Spiegel did not allocate money for extras, so the British soldiers were mostly played by crew members and Ceylon natives wearing Caucasian makeup.

** Finally, Spiegel was determined to release the film before the end of 1957 to make it eligible for the year's Academy Awards. However, because of the chaotic production, by early December 1957, the film still had no music score - no-one had even been hired to compose it. The composer ultimately hired by Spiegel, Malcolm Arnold, had to write and record the score in just ten days.[[note]] His compressed time limit did pay off. Arnold's efforts were rewarded with a Best Score Oscar. Spiegel and Lean also won awards for Best Picture and Best Director at the 1957 Oscars.[[/note]]

** Logistics filming in Jordan were a nightmare. For a start, gaining rights to film there required intense negotiation: Spiegel brought in Anthony Nutting, a former British Foreign Office official, [[note]]Nutting had resigned over the Suez Crisis, earning him wide respect in the Arab world. He also was friends with King Hussein[[/note]] to secure King Hussein's approval. The crew commandeered tanker trucks full of fresh water from Aqaba and airlifted frozen food to the location every day. Lean and crew had to meticulously sweep the desert sands free of footprints and tire tracks between takes. Outbreaks of illness laid many crew members low. Peter O'Toole's on-set drinking caused tension with Arab extras. The Jordanian government initially cooperated with the production but proved leery about filming in cities like Aqaba and Maan.

** The production started without a script. Michael Wilson worked on the screenplay for over a year, then was summarily dismissed by Lean for unsatisfactory work. Unfortunately the cast and crew were already in Jordan and waited for weeks before a new writer was hired. Robert Bolt's tenure as screenwriter got off to a rocky start when he was arrested for taking part in a CND demonstration in London, forcing Sam Spiegel to bail him out of jail. Eventually Spiegel invited Bolt to live on his private yacht in Aqaba, mostly to keep an eye on him.

* The upcoming biopic about Gregg Allman, ''Midnight Rider'' has been put on indefinite hiatus after a crew member, Sarah Jones, was tragically struck and killed by an oncoming freight train during a shoot on a bridge with open train tracks, in addition to several other injured crew members. The incident was widely publicized, and raised awareness for safety on movie sets, with a successful petition to give Jones a tribute at the Academy Awards. The studio behind the film has now found themselves in intense hot water, and facing ''many'' lawsuits, especially after the suspicion that the crew may not have had permission to film on that particular location. The film's star, William Hurt, has now officially dropped out of the film, leaving the film's production very uncertain at this point.

* The upcoming biopic about Gregg Allman, ''Midnight Rider'' has been put on indefinite hiatus after a crew member, Sarah Jones, was tragically struck and killed by an oncoming freight train during a shoot on a bridge with open train tracks, in addition to several other injured crew members. The incident was widely publicized, and raised awareness for safety on movie sets, with a successful petition to give Jones a tribute at the Academy Awards. The studio behind the film has now found themselves in intense hot water, and possibly facing many lawsuits, especially after the suspicion that the crew may not have had permission to film on that particular location. The film's star, William Hurt, has now officially dropped out of the film, leaving the film's production very uncertain at this point.

* ''[[TwilightZonetheMovie Twilight Zone: the Movie]]'' with the fatal accident while shooting in which long running television actor Vic Morrow and two child actors named My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (both working illegally, without proper work permits and at 2AM, far later than the times allowed for child actors), were killed when a stunt helicopter crashed near them during the filming. This led to nearly a decade's worth of lawsuits, changes in the law about child actors doing stunts, and fewer helicopter scenes in movies thereafter until CGI made it possible to put them in digitally. Director John Landis was acquitted of manslaughter charges but [[CreatorKiller his career went into decline]] after this.

** The real trouble was with the script. Ultimately 17 writers worked on it. All of them, except for Creator/LarryMcMurtry, who disliked the novel to begin with, petitioned the Writers' Guild for credit on the released film. Between the writing clusterfuck and the efforts to find a ship that could be dressed to look like the ''Titanic'', $15 million (an amount that could have paid for a few modestly budgeted films at the time) had been spent without shooting a single frame.
** It didn't help that they didn't have a cast after Creator/ElliottGould turned down the part of Pitt. Eventually an all-star cast including Creator/JasonRobards and Creator/AlecGuinness was hired at yet more considerable expense.
** The film had to deliver on its title promise, and in order to do so a 50-foot (15-meter) model of the ''Titanic'' was built. It turned out to be too large for any existing water tank, so a special 10-million-gallon "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_tank horizon tank]]"[[note]]one of the film's few positive legacies, in concept anyway[[/note]] was built off the coast of Malta. As if they hadn't already spent enough money they never expected to, it took ''50'' takes to get the shot of the ship rising they way they wanted it.
** Thus finished, the film [[TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment sat on the shelf for two years]]. Its 1980 release made just barely $7 million, nowhere near the final budget of $40 million (again, almost astronomical for the time—Grade famously quipped that it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic) and video rentals weren't much help. The failure is crediting with [[CreatorKiller ending Grade's career in film]]. Cussler was so disappointed in the result he not only refused to sell the film rights to any more of the Pitt books, leaving it a StillbornFranchise for a quarter-century[[note]]and [[Film/{{Sahara}} ''that'' attempt]] also failed miserably[[/note]], he refused to sell the film rights to ''any'' of his books.

* ''Film/RadioFlyer'', the story of two brothers who escape an abusive stepfather with a homemade flying machine, was a red-hot script when it was picked up by Columbia Pictures and initially was directed by its screenwriter, David Mickey Evans (who later did ''The Sandlot''). But after a week of shooting, he was fired and production was shut down until Richard Donner was brought in to replace him. In the process, the production budget more than doubled from $15 million to $35 million. While it was intended as Columbia's big movie for the summer of 1991 -- odd in hindsight given its B-level cast, lack of big special effects, and grim subject matter for a family film -- the release date was constantly shuffled due to reshoots, production delays, and finally bad test screenings. Eventually, the film was quietly released in February 1992 and was a critically-savaged BoxOfficeBomb.

** The film was set to go in early 2013, with Creator/NataliePortman starring in and producing the film, Lynne Ramsay (maker of the film adaptation of ''Film/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin'') directing, MichaelFassbender playing the ex-lover of Portman's character, and Joel Edgerton as the villain. Before production began, Fassbender dropped out, causing Edgerton to take his role and Jude Law to take the role that Edgerton had vacated.

** Jude Law dropped out the day after Ramsay left, as he had signed on to the film mainly to work with her. Law and Ramsay were subsequently replaced with Gavin O'Connor (director of ''Film/{{Warrior}}'') and Bradley Cooper, respectively. Not long after, Cooper himself was forced to drop out, as his film ''American Hustle'' had been delayed by the Boston Marathon bombings, jamming up his schedule; Cooper was subsequently replaced by Ewan [=McGregor=].

* Coming right off his best film, ''Film/RideTheHighCountry'', Sam Peckinpah reworked the script of ''Film/MajorDundee'' from a basic Western adventure story to a ''MobyDick''-esque study of the title character, an officer who would do anything for glory. Everyone who read the final version thought he had another masterpiece in the pipeline—including Charlton Heston, who eagerly accepted the title role. With him attached, filming began in Mexico.

* Sam Peckinpah's ''Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'' filmed almost entirely on location in Durango, Mexico. Dust storms, hot weather and defective cameras delayed shooting from the start. Much of the cast and crew came down with influenza. Peckinpah's severe alcohol problems created tensions with coworkers. In this case though, ExecutiveMeddling proved the most persistent issue: penny-pinching MGM honcho James Aubrey repeatedly slashed the budget and refused to sanction re-shoots for several key scenes. After which the movie was cut from 124 minutes to 106 minutes, smuggled quietly into theaters and flopped. The film sunk into ignominy until the [[VindicatedByHistory preview cut resurfaced in the '90s]].

** It didn't help that they didn't have a cast after ElliotGould turned down the part of Pitt. Eventually an all-star cast including Creator/JasonRobards and Creator/AlecGuinness was hired at yet more considerable expense.

* ''[[TwilightZonetheMovie Twilight Zone: the Movie]]'' with the fatal accident while shooting in which long running television actor Vic Morrow and two child actors named My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (both working illegally, without proper work permits and at 2AM, far later than the times allowed for child actors), were killed when a stunt helicopter crashed near them during the filming. This led to nearly a decade's worth of lawsuits, changes in the law about child actors doing stunts, and fewer helicopter scenes in movies thereafter until CGI made it possible to put them in digitally. Director John Landis was acquitted of manslaughter charges but his career went into decline after this.

** ElmerBernstein had written the score, but with barely two weeks to go before the film hit theaters Meyers and Shyer decided they didn't like it and hired David Newman to write and record a new one. He had to hire other musicians, something he didn't normally do, and work almost nonstop to finish it in time. When the film hit theaters, some of the onesheets still listed Bernstein as the composer, and even the soundtrack album failed to credit all the musicians.

* ''Film/TwilightZonetheMovie'' with the fatal accident will shooting in which long running television actor Vic Morrow and two child actors named My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (both working illegally, without proper work permits and at 2AM, far later than the times allowed for child actors), were killed when a stunt helicopter crashed near them during the filming. This led to nearly a decade's worth of lawsuits, changes in the law about child actors doing stunts, and fewer helicopter scenes in movies thereafter until CGI made it possible to put them in digitally. Director John Landis was acquitted of manslaughter charges but his career went into decline after this.

** The film was released, instead, [[DumpMonths at the end of September of that year]]. About the promotion, "[It] could not have debuted with less fanfare had the film prints been thrown from the back of a speeding van," Sam Adams wrote in ''Slate'' a year later. Only two theaters showed the movie, it received no Oscar notice. Critics were mixed, with some seeing it as indeed a work of genius, while others saw it as an interesting failure due to its tangled history.