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23rd May '13 1:32:44 PM TheRedRedKroovy

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23rd May '13 7:15:12 AM KevinandVincent

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* The little-known Creator/SamRaimi \ CoenBrothers collaboration ''Crimewave'', that suffered from heavy ExecutiveMeddling (starting from them denying Raimi to cast his friend Creator/BruceCampbell as the protagonist; [[WriterRevolt he retaliated by expanding a minor role so Campbell would be there for most of production]]), going over budget despite being a minor production, and other difficulties such Louise Lasser was addicted to cocaine and at times refused to leave her trailer, Biron James was also addicted to cocaine (he destroyed the lights in his hotel room because he thought the ghost of his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend was coming to haunt him!) and Sam Raimi had difficulty working with Paul L. Smith. According to Scott Spiegel, Smith wasn't very co-operative. Smith's entire dialogue was dubbed in post production. And to add insult to injury, the studio forbid Raimi to edit the film. Raimi has disowned the film. Bruce Campbell provides a DVD commentary on the film explaining what went wrong. Because of this film's troubled production and box office failure, Evil Dead 2 was made.

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* The little-known Creator/SamRaimi \ CoenBrothers collaboration ''Crimewave'', that suffered from heavy ExecutiveMeddling (starting from them denying Raimi to cast his friend Creator/BruceCampbell as the protagonist; [[WriterRevolt he retaliated by expanding a minor role so Campbell would be there for most of production]]), going over budget despite being a minor production, and other difficulties such as Louise Lasser being addicted to cocaine and at times refused to leave her trailer, Biron James was also addicted to cocaine (he destroyed the lights in his hotel room because he thought the ghost of his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend was coming to haunt him!) and Sam Raimi had difficulty working with Paul L. Smith. According to Scott Spiegel, Smith wasn't very co-operative. Smith's entire dialogue was dubbed in post production. And to add insult to injury, the studio forbid Raimi to edit the film. Raimi has disowned the film. Bruce Campbell provides a DVD commentary on the film explaining what went wrong. Because of this film's troubled production and box office failure, Evil Dead 2 was made.

23rd May '13 7:13:03 AM KevinandVincent

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20th May '13 6:56:30 PM TheRedRedKroovy

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** It started with director Marc Forster, producer and star Creator/BradPitt's personal choice to direct the film -- and a man whose only experience making big-budget tentpole films was the lavish yet fairly straightforward [[Film/JamesBond Bond]] film ''Film/QuantumOfSolace''. It was hoped that he would be able to focus on story and characters while his crew could guide him on action and effects, but not only was he unable to bring his usual team with him, the lack of a strong leader at the head of the project produced a muddled vision for what the film would be like. As late as three weeks before shooting was to begin in June 2011, Forster hadn't even decided yet on what the zombies would look like or how they would behave.
** Several key crew members, including line producers and SFX workers, were replaced, sometimes multiple times. Cinematographer Richard Richardson asked more than once to leave the project, and struggled to keep the crew under control, often antagonizing them in the process. Furthermore, Pitt's schedule conflicted with his commitment to starring in ''Film/KillingThemSoftly'', and he also took time off to spend time with his family, pushing production back even further. Overall, on-set morale crumbled over the course of shooting.
** During shooting in Budapest in October, the crew found out the hard way that their 85 "prop" assault rifles were in fact fully-functional weapons when a Hungarian anti-terrorism unit raided their warehouse and seized the guns.
** In June 2012, Paramount ordered, depending on the source, anywhere from five to seven weeks of reshoots totaling forty minutes' worth of the film, including a twelve-minute battle sequence that was dropped entirely. They also hired Damon Lindelof to do a third-act rewrite; he later brought in his old ''Series/{{Lost}}'' buddy Drew Goddard to help him give the script a thorough overhaul after determining that it had much deeper problems. This pushed the film's release from December of that year to June 2013. By this point, the budget had ballooned past $200 million, and the filmmakers had [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/brad-pitt-world-war-z-keanu-reeves-47-ronin-362103 only 52 minutes' worth]] of continuous footage cut together (and a few minutes of other scenes) to show to the studio.

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** Creator/BradPitt, the film's producer and star, was most intrigued by the book's geopolitical aspects (what with [[Creator/AngelinaJolie his partner]] being a UN Goodwill Ambassador and all), and his production company Plan B, together with Creator/{{Paramount}}, spent $1 million on the film rights. However, it soon became clear that much of the geopolitics that Pitt was interested in [[AdaptationDecay would have to be dropped]] if they wanted the story to come together on screen. Furthermore, Pitt's production company, Plan B, had never taken on a project of this size, its experience limited to eclectic, low-budget dramas; their biggest film before this was the Creator/JuliaRoberts rom-com ''Film/EatPrayLove''.
** The real problems started with director Marc Forster, Pitt's personal choice to direct the film -- and a man whose whose background (not unlike Plan B) was in making smaller, dramatic films like ''Film/FindingNeverland'' and ''Film/MonstersBall''. His only experience making big-budget tentpole films was the much-criticized [[Film/JamesBond Bond]] film ''Film/QuantumOfSolace''. It was hoped that he would be able to focus on story and characters while his crew could guide him on action and effects, but not only was he unable to bring his usual team with him, the lack of a strong leader at the head of the project produced a muddled vision for what the film would be like. As late as three weeks before shooting was to begin in June 2011, Forster hadn't even decided yet on what the zombies would look like or how they would behave.
** Forster and screenwriter Creator/JMichaelStraczynski clashed throughout the writing process. Forster wanted to focus on the action, which Straczynski felt detracted from the story's main themes; he was more interested in remaining faithful to the book, focusing on the characters and the global reaction to the ZombieApocalypse. Straczynski was eventually fired and replaced with Michael Carnahan (writer of ''The Kingdom'' and ''Lions for Lambs''), who made the film an action-adventure focused on a UN field specialist named Gerry Lane, dropping the book's first-person accounts. It was at this point that Pitt was cast as Gerry.
** And ''then'' production began. From the start, it was clear that Pitt, Plan B, and Forster were in way over their heads. Shooting in Malta for the Jerusalem scenes was a nightmare, with two film crews working side-by-side, hundreds of extras, and all sorts of minor costs dealing the budget a DeathOfAThousandCuts. One day, shooting had to be delayed for several hours because the caterer hadn't prepared enough food. When work in Malta finished, the wrap-up crew found a stack of purchase orders related to the cast and extras that had been casually tossed into a desk drawer and forgotten; the amount totaled in the millions of dollars. And all the while, the script still wasn't finished, with work still being done on the third act.
** Things got no better when production moved to Glasgow for the Philadelphia scenes. Forster began to fight with both Pitt and the head of the SFX team; the latter was dismissed after principal filming ended. Cinematographer Richard Richardson asked more than once to leave the project, and struggled to keep the crew under control, often antagonizing them in the process. Furthermore, Pitt's schedule conflicted with his commitment to starring in ''Film/KillingThemSoftly'', and he also took time off to spend time with his family, pushing production back even further.
** During shooting in Budapest in October for the climax in Russia, the crew found out the hard way that their 85 "prop" assault rifles were in fact fully-functional weapons when a Hungarian anti-terrorism unit raided their warehouse and seized the guns. Furthermore, Paramount, after seeing how out-of-control production had gotten in Malta, ordered a scaling back of the budget, forcing the production to scrap a number of scenes. Members of the production criticized the third act as "Franchise/{{Rambo}} vs. zombies", losing the character-driven drama of the rest of the film, and production wrapped with the knowledge that rewrites and reshoots were inevitable.
** In June 2012, Paramount ordered, depending on the source, anywhere from five to seven weeks of reshoots totaling forty minutes' worth of the film. They also hired Damon Lindelof to do a third-act rewrite; he later brought in his old ''Series/{{Lost}}'' buddy Drew Goddard to help him give the script a thorough overhaul after determining that it had much deeper problems. A climatic twelve-minute battle sequence was dropped entirely. This pushed the film's release from December of that year to June 2013. By this point, the budget had ballooned to anywhere from $170 to $250 million depending on who you ask, and the filmmakers had only 72 minutes' worth of largely incoherent footage to show to the studio.

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20th May '13 5:49:57 PM TheRedRedKroovy

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18th May '13 9:15:10 PM Sheora

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18th May '13 7:42:27 PM Sheora

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18th May '13 1:16:46 PM DanielCase

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fix this

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18th May '13 1:15:12 PM DanielCase

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not quite how this was

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* ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'' was almost as troubled. After LeonardNimoy had directed two successful films in the franchise, he suggested that WilliamShatner ask to direct the next one, since Paramount had an informal agreement with them that anything one got had to be offered to the other eventually, as well. 
**Shatner originally wanted to direct a film about Kirk saving his crewmates from hell, but he was met with opposition from the studio (who wanted a lighthearted comedic piece like the last film, as it had done so well), and cast (Nimoy and DeForestKelley objected to their characters betraying Kirk), leading to rewrites. Gene Roddenberry, who had essentially been shut out of the creative process for the movies since the first one, but was still consulted, was none too happy with Shatner for the eventual plot, which is a loose remake of "The God Thing", the never-filmed script Roddenberry had wanted to film as the pilot of the aborted TV series reboot. He dropped hints for the remaining years of his life that [[CanonDiscontinuity the film was to be considered non-canonical]] by fans.
**At the beginning of the production, the Teamsters went on strike. The crew had to hire non-union truck drivers and take precautions against sabotage. After one of the camera trucks mysteriously exploded in the parking lot at one location, police escorts were hired for all the truck convoys.
**The film also met with troubles with the budget and special effects, since ILM already had their hands full with IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade and Ghostbusters 2. So they had to hire Bran Ferren, who worked on the aforementioned ''Altered States'' leading to SpecialEffectsFailure in this film as well. 
**The film opened well, but quickly faded after a few weeks. It made money, but less than the other films had. It's true that that summer had a very crowded slate of sequels and potential blockbusters ... ''but still''.

17th May '13 3:00:24 AM ndrly

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