Hollywood has always had the power, the money, the talent, and the drive to bring the ideas of the world's greatest storytellers to life.But what it has often lacked is the restraint to get the hell out of the way and let those visionaries do their jobs.For every cinematic masterpiece, there's a boardroom where creative vision has fallen victim to an executive's decision to "make it shorter, funnier, clearer." And from botched endings to horrible reshoots, that meddling presents itself, clear as day, on screen, taking something glorious and turning it into something much, much worse.
Here are five well-known examples of movies that suffered from studio meddling.While some of them eventually found redemption through director's cuts or alternate versions, their originals left audiences scratching their heads.1 Justice League (2017) The "Snyder Cut" saga is now legendary.
With the original version of Zack Snyder's being deemed unwatchable by Warner Bros.executives, and after Snyder and his wife, producer Deborah Snyder, stepped away due to a family tragedy, the studio hired 's Joss Whedon to morph it into a lighter, tighter film.The retooling was a mashup of conflicting visions, and it entailed trimming it down to two hours, loads of re-shoots, and the infamous digital removal of Superman's (Henry Cavill's) mustache.
It goes without saying that the film bombed and the critics hated it (it still has a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes).Luckily, it was somewhat redeemed by the release of the four-hour director's cut, , which premiered on HBO Max in 2021, somehow making the theatrical release seem all the more pointless.Justice League PG-13 Action Adventure Sci-Fi Superhero Release Date November 17, 2017 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Cast Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, J.K.
Simmons, Ciarán Hinds, Amber Heard, Joe Morton, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Ingvar E.Sigurðsson, David Thewlis, Sergi Constance, Julian Lewis Jones, Salome R.Gunnarsdottir, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, Michael McElhatton, John Dagleish, Chris Courtenay, Björt Sigfinnsdóttir Runtime 120 Minutes Director Zack Synder Writers Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon Producers Charles Roven, Geoff Johns, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg Main Genre Action Franchise DCEU Characters By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, DC Comics Prequel Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Cinematographer Fabian Wagner Producer Chris Terrio, Christopher Nolan, Ben Affleck, Wesley Coller, Curtis Kanemoto, Charles Roven, Jim Rowe, Deborah Snyder, Emma Thomas Production Company DC Films, Warner Bros.
Pictures, Atlas Entertainment Executive Producer(s) Ben Affleck, Benjamin Melniker, Christopher Nolan, Curt Kanemoto, Emma Thomas, Jim Rowe, Michael Uslan Powered by Expand Collapse 2 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Studio Ghibli is so ubiquitous in the animation world that it seems comical that something like this actually happened.The studio’s legendary cofounder and visionary, Hayao Miyazaki, was blindsided when his gorgeous post-apocalyptic epic, , arrived in the U.S.in 1985.
It was unrecognizable.The distribution company, Manson International, had adapted it for Western audiences, slashing more than 20 minutes from it, rewriting the script, renaming the characters—the heroine Nausicaä became "Princess Zandra"—and even renaming it .Miyazaki was so traumatized by the ordeal that Studio Ghibli would later, and famously, send a katana inscribed with “No cuts” to Harvey Weinstein before the release of .
Studio Ghibli then adopted a strict no-edits clause for all future international releases.Thankfully, the fully restored version of was made available in the U.S.in 2005.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind PG Animation Adventure Sci-Fi Release Date March 11, 1984 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Cast Sumi Shimamoto, Gorô Naya, Yôji Matsuda Runtime 117 Minutes Director Hayao Miyazaki Writers Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis, Donald H.Hewitt, Kazunori Itô Main Genre Animation Powered by Expand Collapse 3 Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) I remember being so excited for the release of the standalone Han Solo movie, .I also remember when its directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller—the duo behind and —were fired from the project with just a few weeks of filming left, because Lucasfilm and Disney thought their more comedic, wily approach didn’t fit into the overall Star Wars universe.
Enter the ringer—Ron Howard, who stepped in and reshot roughly 70% of the movie.The result was a film that I, personally, grew to enjoy, but at the time it was universally panned.It famously became the first Star Wars film to lose money at the box office, raising the uncomfortable question of whether the Lord-Miller version might have actually been cool.
It currently holds a 69% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.Solo: A Star Wars Story pg-13 Sci-Fi Adventure Action Release Date May 25, 2018 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Cast Alden Ehrenreich, Joonas Suotamo, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandiwe Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Erin Kellyman, Linda Hunt, Ian Kenny, John Tui, Anna Francolini, Andrew Woodall, Warwick Davis, Shaquille Ali-Yebuah, Eben Figueiredo, Aaron Heffernan Runtime 135 Minutes Director Ron Howard Writers Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas Prequel(s) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi Sequel(s) Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker Franchise(s) Star Wars Main Genre Sci-Fi Budget $275–300 million Studio(s) Disney Distributor(s) Disney Powered by Expand Collapse 4 Alien 3 (1992) Thirty-four years on, and David Fincher's is still widely regarded as the worst film in the entire Alien franchise.But it wasn't his fault.
It was his first feature film, and it was famously plagued from the get-go.Filming had begun while the script was still being written (and having burned through several writers), several other directors had already had their hands on it in pre-production, and Fincher spent his days locked in battle with the producers over creative control to the point where he was locked out of the editing suite with no control over the final cut.The result: a film that threw away the emotional connection to by killing off several key characters, including the child Ripley fought to save in the last film.
And although Roger Ebert called "the best-looking bad movie I've ever seen," Fincher himself hated it and famously disowned it, rarely speaking of it again.Even a slightly more coherent "Assembly Cut" released on the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy box-set DVD couldn't rescue the franchise's reputation, although as the decades have passed, it has garnered a bit more of a cult following.Alien 3 R Science Fiction Action Horror Release Date May 22, 1992 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH RENT BUY Cast Sigourney Weaver, Charles S.
Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Danny Webb, Christopher John Fields, Holt McCallany, Lance Henriksen, Christopher Fairbank, Carl Chase, Leon Herbert, Vincenzo Nicoli, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Brennen, Clive Mantle, Peter Guinness, Deobia Oparei, Phil Davis, Niall Buggy, Hi Ching, Danielle Edmond, Tom Woodruff Jr.Runtime 114 minutes Director David Fincher Writers David Giler, Larry Ferguson, Walter Hill, Vincent Ward, Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett Producers Ezra Swerdlow Main Genre Science Fiction Budget $50 million Studio(s) 20th Century Distributor(s) 20th Century Executive Producer(s) Ezra Swerdlow Powered by Expand Collapse 5 I Am Legend (2007) Will Smith's 2007 zombie apocalypse movie, , may have been a big hit at the box office and did receive mostly positive reviews (68% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Roger Ebert awarding it 3/4 stars at the time), but the adaptation of Richard Matheson's much-loved novel was given a different, more palatable ending that opposed the book's.After test audiences hated the film's original ending, which was true to the book—the fierce zombie monsters that sole survivor, Dr.
Robert Neville (Smith) has been hunting turn out to be sentient beings with human emotions, and that he's the real monster for experimenting on them—Warner Bros.forced the ending viewers saw in theaters, where Neville sacrifices himself in a conventional Hollywood blaze of glory, saving Anna and her son.It's an ending that sidesteps the entire point of Matheson's novel, leaving many unsatisfied.
I admit that I enjoyed the original movie, but also having seen the alternate ending online in a comparison video, I see their point—the original ending is more poignant and a better conclusion.The studio should have left well enough alone.I Am Legend PG-13 Drama Horror Sci-Fi Thriller Release Date December 14, 2007 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH RENT BUY Cast Willow Smith, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan Runtime 101 minutes Director Francis Lawrence Writers Akiva Goldsman, Mark Protosevich Budget $150 million Studio(s) Warner Bros.
Pictures Distributor(s) Warner Bros.Pictures Powered by Expand Collapse Not every act of studio meddling is malicious; it's often born out of a million little notes from a thousand cooks in the kitchen that snowball into something bigger and more destructive.There are so many more examples of this that we could tap into— , this list goes on—but these five films are a quick reminder that the best movies often need protecting, and fan backlash often means a director's cut might be the best way to right a wrong.
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