Movies That Were A Nightmare Behind The Scenes
Making movies isn’t always fun and games, many times there are setbacks and unexpected issues that can make the process a living nightmare. You can’t predict everything that’ll happen during filming, sometimes even your best isn’t enough. But you know what they say “one man’s misery is another man’s fortune” and boy did we strike gold. This time we’ll be talking about all the things that went wrong during the production of famous films.
You might even get a new sense of appreciation for some of the movies after seeing all the things that went wrong. From disputes between actors to bureaucratic shenanigans and even mother nature’s divine intervention. Grab a friend and a bucket of popcorn because you’re not going to believe some of these!
The Wizard of Oz
Before CGI and visual effects, costumes and makeup were a fundamental part of every character’s design. We aren’t talk about foundation, eyeliner, and blush, we’re talking about Jim Carry as the Grinch level of makeup. The obvious downside to having chemicals applied to your skin daily is potential skin damage.
The 1939 Wizard of Oz wasn’t any different. There are many Hollywood horror stories of actors who were exposed to chemicals in makeup that damaged them in one way or another and this is one of them. All of Dorothy’s friends suffered in their costumes, from the scarecrow having facial scars to the tin man who suffered from violent cramping in his hands, arms, and legs due to aluminum poisoning.
Poltergeist
The 1982 Poltergeist was a cult classic, it was on every horror fanatic’s watch list along with The Exorcist and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Throughout the movie, a lot of supernatural things happen, flying furniture, electrical mishaps, and worst of all killer clowns. Why did it have to be killer clowns?
It wasn’t the director’s intention to choke Robins with the clown, but that’s one of the risks of show business. When he was pulled under the bed by the contraption, it got caught around his neck. Unable to get free and confined to a tight space he was in grave danger. Luckily the producer had a feeling this would happen and saved Robins in the nick of time.
Jurassic World
If a movie takes almost ten years to come out it’s either going to be amazing or a complete train wreck. Jurassic World was slated to come out in 2005. But somewhere along the way so many issues came up that they were forced to postpone the release to 2015.
We’re not sure why it took so long but we have a hunch it has something to do with the fact that the script passed through several hands. With that many changes, you’d think the final product would be a disaster. But in the end, everything worked out, and we got to enjoy Chris Pratt and raptors on our screens.
Deliverance
Stunt doubles exist for a reason, they keep “less athletic” actors from killing themselves. But that’s not what John Boorman thought when he decided to force his actors to row by themselves. Fortunately, because the movie was filmed in sequences, the cast became expert canoers and could overcome the harshest waters.
Another mishap that happened during shooting was Burt Reynolds’ serious injury. Blinded by his reputation as the tough guy, he refused to use a dummy when filming the waterfall scene. As he was falling he hit a rock and severely cracked his tailbone. Imagine not being able to sit and go to the bathroom properly because you weren’t careful.
Les Misérables
It’s hard to imagine that the person behind a masterpiece like The King’s Speech could make a catastrophic film like Les Misérables. One of the worst things about the movie is the camera positioning. For some reason, Tom Hopper thought it would be a good idea to film everybody extremely close up, making many scenes uncomfortable to watch.
But the person who suffered the most during filming was Hugh Jackman. He and Anne Hathaway had to sing all the songs live on set, as opposed to pre-recording them in a studio. The rehearsals were exhausting and filming was hell for him, at the end of the day he was enraged and exhausted. This is one movie that pushed performers to a dangerous limit.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The newest Star Wars movies are a heated subject of debate, you either love them or hate them with a passion. So you can only imagine how stressful it must be to make those films knowing that millions of people will hate them from the get-go and criticize every little detail. That was Tony Gilroy’s experience on set.
Another thing you might’ve not known about the movie is that it went under intense re-shooting and re-writing. In fact, almost 40% of the original movie was remade, which altered major character arcs and completely changed the tone of the film. This movie likely went through a record number of changes throughout its development.
Where the Wild Things Are
Much like the first Sonic movie, “Where the Wild Things Are” underwent major changes because Warner Brothers deemed it to be “too weird”. To be fair, it’s kind of hard to make a fantasy movie about giant monsters hanging out with a kid in pajamas. Not to mention the original character design of the monsters.
What did Warner Brothers expect when they took on the project? A better version of The Never Ending Story? Fortunately, thanks to a major fan backlash, the higher-ups decided to keep the original shots and script. This is great because the movie has some amazing moments of transcendent beauty and profound silliness.
Predator
Nothing’s worse than having to replace an actor mid-shooting. But sometimes it has to be done when the actor won’t stop complaining about every little thing, even if he is Jean-Claude Van Damme. One of his biggest gripes was with the predator suit, which he described as, “thick, you couldn’t see through it and it was hard to keep the balance”.
Despite all that it seems that the real reason he was fired was that he passed out one too many times. According to actor Bill Duke, he passed out twice during filming and the producer said “if you do that again you’re out”. In the end, he was replaced by actor Kevin Peter Hall, while he did a great job this was still a setback for production.
The Bourne Identity
Disputes between directors and writers are an issue as old as time. Being a writer is hard, especially when people are constantly trying to alter and undermine your creative decisions. That’s exactly what happened on the set of The Bourne Identity between director Doug Liman and writer Tony Gilroy. Liman constantly tried to alter the original script, which according to Gilroy made it worse.
The disputes were so bad that eventually, Liman had the script rewritten by William Blake Herro which brought on troubles of its own. Liman wanted to make a hero that could “figure out the simplest, least energetic, most efficient way to get something done,” which was different from your average action movie.
Toy Story 2
Even animated movies aren’t safe from having disasters on set. They might not have as much drama as live-action ones, but things can still go very wrong. Problems can occur when people don’t know what they’re doing on the computer. Since many animated movies are done digitally, it’s easy to make an error that can cost the entire movie.
In Toy Story 2’s case, almost all the files were nearly deleted because of the mistake of one man. He accidentally ran a command that started deleting movie files and there was nothing he could do to stop it. We don’t know who was in charge of fixing this giant dumpster fire but we hope that he got promoted.
Apocalypse Now
Filming outside of America can be challenging, especially when you’re making a movie with war elements like Apocalypse Now. One of the many obstacles Francis Ford Coppola and his crew had to overcome was a typhoon that struck the set two months after filming began. As a result, the production team was forced into an unscheduled three-month hiatus.
Since the movie had many shots with tanks, jets, and explosions, they required the assistance of the U.S military. Imagine their surprise when they refused to cooperate with them, and the governments of Australia and the Philippines were pressured to deny production assistance to the film. Combine that with lead actor Martin Sheen having a heart attack and you have a recipe for a disaster.
The Evil Dead
Not many productions start on the right foot very few do. The Evil Dead is no different. Although, you could say that their misfortune was more comical than others. Their first day of filming embodies the phrase “Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it can”. On day one, their van got lost and they found that someone drove it into a ditch.
Weather conditions and the set were far from comfortable. The road leading to the cabin froze and the location had no running water, electricity, or phone service. Oh, and director Sam Raimi had to sleep there to prevent equipment from getting stolen. Kudos to the cast and crew for pushing through all of that!
Heaven’s Gate
If you’ve watched Heaven’s Gate you definitely remember the battle scene between the settlers and the mercenaries. Did you know that this seven-minute sequence took weeks of planning and around a month of filming? And just wait until we tell you about the figurative hell everybody there had to go through.
For starters, the director Michael Cimino chose a very remote location for this scene, it was a three-hour drive from the base of production. That meant everybody had to get up as early as 3 am to get on a van to take them there. Needless to say, the actors and extras weren’t happy about it.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Those of us who grew up watching the first two Indiana Jones movies probably see The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as a mockery of the franchise. George Lucas is mainly known for two things, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. We figured it was a matter of time before he would try and incorporate his first passion into the other, incorporating aliens into Indie’s adventures.
Thankfully, almost everyone to whom he pitched this idea to was against it to some degree, which is why we only see them in one scene. But his fight for the inclusion of aliens delayed production for quite a while, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford really hated the space angle!
Fantastic Four (2015)
Despite what we might think, there’s a lot of bureaucracy going on in the film industry. Sometimes it can result in a last-minute script and editing changes. While other times it can lead to re-shooting entire scenes altogether. In the case of Fantastic Four, the company in charge of production made the cast’s life a living hell.
That was partially the reason why working with director Josh Trank on set was a nightmare. His disputes with the studio resulted in him acting combative and abusive. This was helped by Fox delaying casting and script approvals, all while slashing the budget by tens of millions of dollars.
Jaws
Did you know that Spielberg’s career was almost over in 1975 when he was filming Jaws? Well.. not really, but it sure felt like it was on the count of all the disasters that happened on set. There’s a reason why films rely heavily on CGI these days: it’s reliable, doesn’t break while filming, and can be relatively cheap to produce.
During the filming of this movie so many things went wrong, once you read about it you’ll be glad we use special effects today. The animatronic shark would break constantly causing massive delays in schedule. On top of that, stunts were going wrong all the time. Richard Dreyfuss was trapped underwater at one point, and Carl Gottlieb was nearly decapitated by one of the boat’s propellers.
The Lighthouse
Sometimes making great movies requires breaking a few eggs, or in this case a few actors. The filming of The Lighthouse was an intense process, especially when it came to the relationship between actor Robert Pattinson and director Robert Eggers. Oftentimes he would force Pattinson to film the same scene over and over again until the actor snapped.
Eggers could be described as a perfectionist, wanting every scene to be shot the perfect way. This is great if you want to watch a high-value film, but it sucks for the actors who have to go through all the grueling takes. It’s a good thing the movie was so well received, otherwise we think Pattinson might’ve actually punched Eggers.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Fury Road was a very ambitious movie. If you look at all the stunts, costumes, and complicated action choreography that was put into it, you’ll realize how hard it must’ve been. Now add to that the fact that it was filmed in the Namibia desert. You can imagine why the casting crew went a little mad over the six-month period.
Did you know making this movie was a struggle long before filming began? It took the studio almost a decade to develop a script everybody was happy with. But it was nothing compared to those six months in the desert where it probably felt like boot camp.
The Shining
When it comes to incredibly hard directors to work with, few are as extreme as Stanley Kubrick. He’s known to film multiple takes of the same scene over and over again, even when it comes to the most minute details. You can only imagine how emotionally and mentally draining it was for the cast. It was especially hard on actress Shelley Duvall.
Kubrick was so demanding that the stress got to her and she was sick for months. Furthermore, some people noticed Duvall’s hair began falling out because she was so stressed from production. To add insult to injury, most of the film’s credit went to Stanley Kubrick and her co-star Jack Nicholson
Suicide Squad
Whether you watched the movie or not, one thing everybody knows about Suicide Squad is how crazy Jared Leto was on set. He really tried to embrace Gotham’s Clown Prince but in a very disturbing and unproductive way. Aside from his little “pranks”, the movie faced multiple issues from the studio.
And Leto wasn’t the only one who was playing mind games off-set. Director David Ayer participated in intensive pre-production therapy sessions with the cast members which was very awkward for them. They were forced to reveal their childhood trauma which Ayer would use later during the shooting to push their buttons.
Team America: World Police
It seems like Trey Parker and Matt Stone really like making their lives difficult by creating content that requires a lot of work. Starting with South Park which began as stop-motion photography of construction-paper cut-outs, and then puppets. Can you imagine how much time and effort was poured into this project?
Despite the ridiculous amount of puppets featured in the movie, they all had very limited movement capabilities. This forced the duo to make last-minute changes, making filming a whole lot harder. Although the movie was very successful, we don’t think Parker and Stone would want to see another puppet after that experience.
Titanic
Although the movie was a great success, it was a disaster behind the scenes. Starting with the cost which ended up going $105 million over budget. James Cameron had to constantly fight with the studio as the budget kept on rising. As a result, the production schedule was extended by 138 days.
But money was the least of their worries. During the drowning scene, actors were forced to spend hours on end in cold water tanks which resulted in many of them catching the flu. And that’s not even mentioning everyone getting high on PCP after someone spiked the cast and crew’s food!
No Time to Die
Filming action movies is a risky job, there are so many things that can go wrong. And in the case of No Time to Die everything that could go wrong did. Starting with Daniel Craig who suffered an ankle injury and was rushed to get emergency surgery. If that wasn’t enough, one of the explosions caused a massive fire to erupt which almost burned down the sound stage.
It seemed like the movie was set to failure from the start with Danny Boyle dropping out as director before filming even started. Cary Fukunaga was a last-minute replacement but it seems like he wasn’t the best pick. Fukunaga wouldn’t show up for filming and people speculated that it was because he was too busy, “playing on his PlayStation.”
The Lone Ranger
Everybody who watched this movie can tell that there was something off about it. It’s not that the actors were bad or anything, it had something to do with the script. As it turns out the script was changed several times to water down the re-examination of The Lone Ranger mythology.
It’s hard to make a good movie that appeals to everyone, especially when it’s something created for the radio in the 1930s. At this point, you have to consider the generational gap and what people find enjoyable and worthwhile to watch. Unfortunately, even Depp’s great acting couldn’t save this movie. Who knows, maybe the script changes caused the film’s demise.
The Abyss
Have you ever wondered where they film movies that take place underwater? Is there a very large pool somewhere in Hollywood, or do they actually go out at sea? We can’t speak for every movie, but what we can say is that James Cameron filmed The Abyss in a concrete containment tank at an abandoned nuclear power station.
If this doesn’t sound like the start of a new Marvel movie we don’t know what does. What’s even more impressive is that there were no stunt divers, the actors did all the hard work themselves. But this doesn’t come without its risks, one actor almost drowned while performing a scene where he is being towed 30 feet below the surface with a helmet full of water.
Dallas Buyers Club
Some actors go through a drastic transformation to look the part. One of the more common changes is gaining or losing weight, which can be really impressive when you look at actors like Christian Bale. But for this role, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto had to lose a significant amount of weight for their roles.
Another issue that came up very early was money, they didn’t have any and were forced to self-finance everything. That’s until Truth Entertainment and Voltage Pictures finally stepped in and helped them out. Funny enough the film grossed over $52 million worldwide against a budget of “only” $5 million. Hard to believe such a great movie could be made with such a low budget.
Deadpool
After Ryan Reynolds’s failed casting as Hal Jordan in the (hopefully) only live-action Green Lantern movie, he was eager to redeem himself. That’s probably why he poured so much of his heart and soul into the Deadpool movies. So far, they’ve been a booming success, receiving positive reviews from critics and fans alike.
But even the greatest movies don’t come without some hiccups, and in Deadpool’s case it was copyright. Since Disney owns almost all of Marvel’s characters it was near impossible to find X-men characters to cast. This left us with D-list characters like Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Deadpool’s breaking of the third wall. This setback forced production to get creative, and it definitely paid off.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Filming in a different country can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, you get unique and mesmerizing scenery which makes your movie feel more authentic. On the other hand, you’re in a country with a climate you’re not familiar with. And in the case of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, your entire movie can be almost ruined because of some rain.
Well, it was more of a freak rainstorm that caused a flash flood to pass through the camp and carry off most of the equipment. And if that wasn’t enough, the flood was so intense it actually transformed the area they were filming in, making it impossible to continue shooting there.
Dirty Dancing
It’s very rare for a movie production to have as many setbacks as Dirty Dancing did. Out of all the movies on the list, we think that this one is the most cursed. The problems began in pre-production when the original location of the movie, which was set to be in Europe, had to be changed due to terrorist incidents.
The first week of filming felt more like a series of unfortunate events than anything. Many actors and crew members fell ill, some got food poisoning while others were severely injured. On top of all that, lead actors Jennifer Gray and Patrick Swayze had a hot-and-cold relationship and would get into fights. It’s incredible to think that after so many disasters they managed to make such a masterpiece that people can enjoy to this day.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Have you ever heard of the Razzie Awards? It’s a parody award show honoring the worst cinematic under-achievements. If you ever wanted to know what movies to stay away from, make sure you check how many Razzie awards they got. The Island of Dr. Moreau received six of them, Worst Picture and Worst Director among them.
The funny thing is, it wasn’t the director’s or the cameraman’s fault. Actor Val Kilmer single-handedly destroyed this movie with his rotten attitude. From day one he came on set with the desire to make everyone’s lives as miserable as possible. He altered the dialogue in scenes and was hell-bent on having Marco Hofschneider’s role severely slashed.