History WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants / Film

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. There was a vague plan when making the trilogy that each film would have key focus on one of the three main characters from the Original Trilogy, with Episode 7 focused on Han Solo, Episode 8 focused on Luke Skywalker, and Episode 9 focused on Leia (more on this below). Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. This limited pre-planning caused some issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because he wanted to go in a different direction than expected with the film (especially since Episode 7 repeated several key plot elements from ''Film/ANewHope'') instead of simply "building off" from the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or changed many of Abrams's plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with a limited number of plot-points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the initial draft of the film's script that Trevorrow produced]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write the story themselves in such a way that each film would give the next director material stuff to use for it, but this loose control over directors in maintaining a single vision caused what some view as a tonal problem with the trilogy.

** This tradition was tragically enforced after [[DiedDuringProduction the unexpected death]] of Creator/CarrieFisher (Leia), who was supposed to have a huge planned role in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. Her death reportedly left the writers scrambling. They ultimately brought back some unused shots of her from ''The Force Awakens'' and added some FakeShemp moments to cobble together an ending for her arc. In fact, several analysts of the trilogy argue that it is Fisher's Death, rather than the loose overall planning, that ''really'' threw a wrench into the original plan of the Sequel Trilogy; especially since Creator/Rian Johnson decided, out of respect, to leave her full final performance intact instead of altering the film to kill Leia.

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. This lack of pre-planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams's plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the initial draft of the film's script that Trevorrow produced]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write the story themselves in such a way that each film would give the next director material stuff to use for it, but a combination of the second movie having an abrupt AbortedArc and the third director leaving caused the trilogy to spiral into chaos as nobody knew what to do.
** This tradition was tragically enforced after [[DiedDuringProduction the unexpected death]] of Creator/CarrieFisher (Leia), who was supposed to have a huge planned role in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. Her death (and Rian Johnson's decision to leave her final performance intact instead of altering the film to kill Leia) reportedly left the writers scrambling. They ultimately brought back some unused shots of her from ''The Force Awakens'' and added some FakeShemp moments to cobble together an ending for her arc.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 The first film]]'s ending was never meant to lead into a sequel, and in particular Creator/RobertZemeckis and Bob Gale have said putting Jennifer in the Delorean with Marty and Doc caused a ton of headaches until they resorted to simply putting her to sleep for most of the movie. Creator/CrispinGlover's refusal to return also caused serious writing issues, which led to the alternate 1985 timeline where [[spoiler:George was murdered by Biff]] and [[FakeShemp recasting George with actor Jeffrey Weismann, who was shown obscured]], as well as using footage from the first film to show George from 1955 (Glover would sue the producers, saying they misappropriated his likeness, which led to the Screen Actors Guild writing new rules about stock footage).

* Creator/JohnWoo went into filming ''Film/TheKiller'' with only a short treatment for the film and wrote the details of the script while filming.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': [[Film/BackToTheFuture The first film]]'s ending was never meant to lead into a sequel, and in particular Creator/RobertZemeckis and Bob Gale have said putting Jennifer in the Delorean with Marty and Doc caused a ton of headaches until they resorted to simply putting her to sleep for most of the movie. Creator/CrispinGlover's refusal to return also caused serious writing issues, which led to the alternate 1985 timeline where [[spoiler:George was murdered by Biff]] and [[FakeShemp recasting George with actor Jeffrey Weismann, who was shown obscured]], as well as using footage from the first film to show George from 1955 (Glover would sue the producers, saying they misappropriated his likeness, which led to the Screen Actors Guild writing new rules about stock footage).

** ''Film/MissionImpossible'' went into pre-production without a script that the filmmakers wanted to use. Creator/BrianDePalma designed the action sequences but neither Creator/DavidKoepp nor Creator/RobertTowne were satisfied with the story that would make these sequences take place. Towne ended up helping organize a beginning, middle, and end to hang story details on while De Palma and Koepp worked on the plot. Towne rewrote scenes literally between takes during filming.
** For ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'', Creator/SimonPegg revealed that when production began, [[https://www.metro.us/entertainment/movies/the-script-for-mission-impossible-fallout-was-just-33-pages-long-when-filming-started the film's script was only 33 pages long]], in contrast to typical 85-100 page scripts. As a result, Creator/ChristopherMcQuarrie had to make events up throughout the filming process.

* According to the book ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'', everything that fans love about ''Film/TheRoom'' was [[ThrowItIn ad libbed]]. Despite kicking off with a formal script (which [[MemeticMutation his best friend]] Greg Sestero was the first to read), Tommy Wiseau was writing, directing, casting, rewriting, and acting by the seat of his pants, practically making up the film as he went.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': [[Film/BackToTheFuture The first film]]'s ending was never meant to lead into a sequel, and in particular Creator/RobertZemeckis and Bob Gale have said putting Jennifer in the Delorean with Marty and Doc caused a ton of headaches until they resorted to simply putting her to sleep for most of the movie. Creator/CrispinGlover's refusal to return also caused serious writing issues, which led to the alternate 1985 timeline where [[spoiler:George was murdered by Biff]] and [[FakeShemp recasting George with actor Jeffrey Weismann, who was shown obscured]], as well as using footage from the first film to show George from 1955 (Glover would sue the producers, saying they misappropriated his likeness, which led to the Screen Actors Guild rewriting their rules on stock footage).

* Kevin Williamson had always intended for the ''Film/{{Scream}}'' series to be a trilogy, and had written plot outlines for the next two films at the same time that he wrote the screenplay for [[Film/Scream1996 the first]]. [[TroubledProduction Problem was]], the outline for ''Film/Scream3'' had to be thrown out in its entirety just weeks before it entered production, as the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School massacre]] and resulting [[TheNewRockAndRoll backlash against violence in the media]] had made its plot -- about one of the killers from the first film being alive, in prison, and leading a group of obsessive SlasherMovie fans to carry out a new teenage murder spree[[note]]Williamson would later get to [[DivorcedInstallment use this plot]] for the TV show ''Series/TheFollowing''[[/note]] -- [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents suddenly hit much too close to home]]. Since Williamson was busy with other projects, new writer Ehren Kruger was hastily brought in to come up with a brand new story and script in a matter of weeks. Naturally, the script was still unfinished when the film went into production, with pages usually completed the day they were to be filmed.

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. This lack of pre-planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams's plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the first draft of the script]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write the story themselves in such a way that each film would give the next director material stuff to use for it, but a combination of the second movie having an abrupt AbortedArc and the third director leaving caused the trilogy to spiral into chaos as nobody knew what to do.

* The WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse, a series of direct-to-DVD movies, was a case of this due to ExecutiveMeddling both creating and ending the franchise. However the executive producer James Tucker, who was mainly the one in charge, has said that he enjoyed this as he would have found the job of planning out the universe daunting and that meant he felt it allowed the universe to develop organically.

* Befitting its [[TroubledProduction chaotic production schedule]], ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' was made largely with this and ThrowItIn Creator/FrancisFordCoppola didn't even have an ending, as he'd considered Creator/JohnMilius' ending (Willard joins Kurtz, and the film ends with Kurtz shooting at American warplanes bombing his temple while screaming about his erection) ridiculous. This, and much more, is shown in the making-of documentary ''Film/HeartsOfDarknessAFilmmakersApocalypse''.

** This tradition was tragically enforced after the unexpected death of Creator/CarrieFisher (Leia), who was supposed to have a huge planned role in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. Her death (and Rian Johnson's decision to leave her final performance intact instead of altering the film to kill Leia) reportedly left the writers scrambling. They ultimately brought back some unused shots of her from ''The Force Awakens'' and added some FakeShemp moments to cobble together an ending for her arc.

* Kevin Williamson had always intended for the ''Film/{{Scream}}'' series to be a trilogy, and had written plot outlines for the next two films at the same time that he wrote the screenplay for [[Film/Scream1996 the first]]. [[TroubledProduction Problem was]], the outline for ''Film/Scream3'' had to be thrown out in its entirety just weeks before it entered production, as the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School massacre]] and resulting [[TheNewRockAndRoll backlash against violence in the media]] had made its plot -- about one of the killers from the first film being alive, in prison, and leading a group of obsessive SlasherMovie fans to carry out a new teenage murder spree[[note]]Williamson would later get to [[DivorcedInstallment use this plot]] for the TV show ''Series/TheFollowing''[[/note]] -- suddenly hit much too close to home. Since Williamson was busy with other projects, new writer Ehren Kruger was hastily brought in to come up with a brand new story and script in a matter of weeks. Naturally, the script was still unfinished when the film went into production, with pages usually completed the day they were to be filmed.

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. This lack of pre-planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams's plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the first draft of the script]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write the story themselves in such a way that each film would give the next director material stuff to use for it, but a combination of the second movie having an abrupt AbortedArc and the third director leaving caused the trilogy to spiral into chaos as nobody knew what to do, and plotlines and characters had to be quickly scrambled together.

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. This lack of pre-planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams's plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the first draft of the script]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write the story themselves in such a way that each film would give the next director material stuff to use for it, but a combination of the second moving fitting an abrupt AbortedArc and the last director leaving caused the trilogy to spiral into chaos as nobody knew what to do and plotlines and characters were thrown around due to it.

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. This lack of pre-planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams' plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the first draft of the script]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write the story themselves in such a way that each film would give the next director material stuff to use for it, but a combination of the second moving fitting an abrupt AbortedArc and the last director leaving caused the trilogy to spiral into chaos as nobody knew what to do and plotlines and characters were thrown around due to it.

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. However, this lack of planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams' plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the first draft of the script]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write the story themselves in such a way that each film would give the next director material stuff to use for it, but a combination of the second moving fitting an abrupt AbortedArc and the last director leaving caused the trilogy to spiral into chaos as nobody knew what to do and plotlines and characters were thrown around due to it.

** The reboot series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. However, this lack of planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams' plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the first draft of the script]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write each film in such a way that the next film could take the ending and expand it. However, this caused the films to have inconsistent tones and plotlines that seemed all over the place.

** The sequel series produced by Creator/{{Disney}} ran into this issue as a result of their initial plans fell through. Originally each film was supposed to be directed by a different director (Episode 7 by Creator/JJAbrams, Episode 8 by Creator/RianJohnson, and Episode 9 by Colin Trevorrow) like they did with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. However, Disney left it to the directors to make the plot and characters, hoping that each one would build off of the previous film to create a unique story that had different directorial flairs to it. However, this lack of planning caused issues when Creator/RianJohnson stepped up for his film, because, judging by the result, he had little interest in simply "building off" the previous movie, as his film ''Film/TheLastJedi'' essentially wrapped up or rendered irrelevant all of Abrams' plotlines from the ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving the final film with almost no plot points to work with. Colin Trevorrow would leave as well, forcing Abrams to return to direct the last movie and follow up on the few remaining plot points left from the previous film. Most notably, Rian said that [[spoiler:the next film could very well retcon his own idea of Rey's parents not being anyone special, although Daisy Ridley also said that the ''one'' answer Creator/JJAbrams had in mind [[http://collider.com/star-wars-reys-parents-answer/ was about Rey's parents, and it was the same as Johnson's.]]]] As it turned out in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:while Abrams was fine leaving Rey's parents "[[ExactWords nobodies]]", he still made her ''grandfather'' somebody, as in Emperor Palpatine, who himself wasn't even originally intended to return and become the overall BigBad in the first draft of the script]]. Basically, Disney was hoping the directors would be able to write each film in such a way that the next film could take the ending and expand it. However, this caused the films to have inconsistent tones and plotlines that seemed all over the place.