Film-sets that were a notorious NIGHTMARE to work on....

I Heart Huckabees

Three Kings

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

The Witches of Eastwick

Terms of Endearnent

Olivia de Havilland was the reason George Cukor walked off the set of Gone With The Wind - she insulted him with homophobic slurs and also made racist jokes about black extras, made ageist jokes about Leslie Howard and poured chloroform into the Aunt Pittypat's smelling salt bottle prop. Poor Laura Hope Crews even had to be rushed to the hospital.

The Conqueror (1956), The Twilight Zone (1983)

So many, wgere to begin?

Suddenly, Last Summer - Among other things, Katherine Hepburn spat in the director's face on the last day of filming.

Myra Breckenridge - Everyone hated the script and especially the director, and gave negative interviews about him while filming was still going on. Mae West was condescending to Raquel Welch who, in turn, took it out on Farrah Fawcett.

The Abyss

Titanic

DETAILS! Don't just list titles.....

[quote]and poured chloroform into the Aunt Pittypat's smelling salt bottle prop

So THAT'S why we ran out!

I own this thread, considering I almost cost my star its life.

I agree details would be hugely appreciated. Why was making ELECTION a nightmare?

Apparently the disaster AT LONG LAST LOVE. Cybill Shepherd kept crying because she thought the lights were too hot.

[quote] Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Why? Was Jim Nabors trying to score with the Aggies?

The remake of "The Stepford Wives." Everyone hated Bette Midler, but hated Frank Oz more.

The Island of Dr. Moreau. Val Kilmer was at the zenith of his asshole-ness and annoyed everyone, and Marlon Brando treated everything like a complete joke.

Apocalypse Now. The shoot was so physically grueling that it gave Martin Sheen a heart attack; Francis Ford Coppola brought his wife along and still had an affair on set, which she could not help but know about; Marlon Brando showed up without having read "Heart of Darkness" (which is only ninety pages) as he had been asked to do to find out any background about his character, and insisted on having long inane conversations about his character instead with Coppola which stopped shooting for days and days.

[quote]Olivia de Havilland was the reason George Cukor walked off the set of Gone With The Wind - she insulted him with homophobic slurs and also made racist jokes about black extras, made ageist jokes about Leslie Howard and poured chloroform into the Aunt Pittypat's smelling salt bottle prop. Poor Laura Hope Crews even had to be rushed to the hospital.

Oh my God.

Cleopatra (1963) with Liz Taylor, and if you don't know about the production problems with this gem of a film, you lose your gay card.

The Whales of August. Bette Davis kept loudly carrying on that everything was awful and not up to her standards, and made life hell for everyone. Lillian Gish literally tuned her out by ostentatiously turning her hearing aid off between takes and smiling sweetly at everyone, which only made Davis more furious.

CHINATOWN, notoriously.

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) - sunk by Marlon Brando's boated ego and waistline.

Re CLEOPATRA, when 20th Century Fox agreed to Elizabeth Taylor's $1 million asking price, its resident superstar Marilyn Monroe became insensed. She had been the studio's most bankable star for the past 10 years yet she was [italic]only [/italic] getting paid a tenth of Taylor's salary for her latest picture SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE. This proved to MM how little Fox thought of her. And to top it off, SGTG was rushed into production with the hope that its box office profits would help bankroll CLEOPATRA's ballooning budget. MM felt like she was working to pay ET's salary.

Production delays on SGTG, caused by MM's many illnesses (sinusitis, influenza, etc.) and script rewrites that MM had trouble learning, hampered Fox's plans of getting this picture out in time, and wary of another budget-busting production, they fired MM. They eventually rehired her, under a new contract at $1 million for a two-picture deal, but MM died shortly thereafter.

Wasn't Heaven's Gate supposed to be a nightmare?

Poltergeist for all the cursed deaths

Dawson's 50 Load Weekend. The star was said to be furious there weren't 100 loads.

Superman and Superman 2

Richard Donner, who was directing both films, was fired after a big chunk of Superman 2 was shot...it doesn't get more nightmarish than that. They had to reshoot stuff. Margot Kidder became an anorexic, neurotic mess. Brando was demanding divo on the set and was asking so much money that he was completely cut out of the sequel. Producers clashed.

Mr. Skeffington

Bette Davis' third husband died during production setting things way back and throwing her into an emotional turmoil that she acted out. Director Vincent Sherman wound up sleeping with her to placate her (so HE said).

"I've never seen her like this!"-co-star Claude Rains

The original "Blade: The Vampire Hunter" had no written ending at all. They couldn't decide. Shooting was extended an additional two months.

Chinatown obviously, with urine cups flying all over the set.

Apparently Jake G was a nightmare diva on set of Jarhead.

The Charlie's Angels movie (or was it the sequel? ).

The grand daddy of them all. Heavens Gate.

John Hurt almost quit acting during that one.

Any set of a Christian Bale film

"Queen Kelly" (1929). Erich Von Stroheim was the caricature of "mad artistic director" and mentally tortured Gloria Swanson. As we know, Von Stroheim was notorious for his long, outrageous films and routinely had problems finishing them and doing anything under budget because he'd refuse to cut hours worth of scenes, that should have never even been considered to be included, to begin with.

Years later, Swanson and Von Stroheim made-up and actually became good friends, he relaxed and was able to laugh at himself, which culminated in a perfectly camped up butler in "Sunset Blvd."

"There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Later he strangled himself with it." - Max Von Mayerling

The Twilight Zone.

Copter accident on set killed actor Vic Morrow & I think a few other crew. Morrow was decapitated IIRC.

Where is Judy Davis troll? They've missed their cue!

R2 - Why was The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas such a bad set?

R4 are you the ghost of Joan Fontaine?? Cukor left GWTW because Clark Gable got him thrown off. Cukor knew about Gable's gay past and how he used his relations with gay men in Hollywood to get ahead. Gable got Victor Fleming hired.

Even after Cukor was fired, Leigh and De Havilland continued to meet with him secretly to get direction as Fleming was hopeless.

Plus Marlon Brando wanted to play the part of Superman's dad as a bagel, R26.

On the set of Island of Dr. Moreau, Brando argued with the director because he wanted to play the part of Moreau as a porpoise. Also, he would refuse to wear his pants on set, so they had to film him from the waist up.

"Aguirre, The Wrath of God" and "Fitzcarraldo." The stories from those two sets are legendary, with director Werner Herzog and madman actor Klaus Kinski repeatedly coming to blows, and crew and tribal locals threatening to kill Kinski. They hated him that much.

R38, I think R4 is just joshin' us.

Although the ghost of Joan Fontaine seems plausible...

Superman Returns. Bryan Singer's drug use was so bad that the studio took the film from him and the editor re cut it, causing the film to have pacing problems and scenes mixed up.

Was HOOK an all around bad set, or was it just push pull with Julia Roberts' addiction

National Lampoon's European Vacation. Amy Heckerling hated asshole Chevy Chase, the script was constantly being re-written on the set, it was hard for them to get any work out of the foreign crews

42 didn't know that. What kind of drugs was Bryan on.

Makes sense R44, because European Vacation was an unfunny piece of shit.

Anything David O. Selznick was involved with, but especially "Since You Went Away", where he cast his mistress Jennifer Jones opposite her estranged husband Robert Walker, sadistically forcing them to perform loves scenes together (before rather symbolically killing off Walker's character).

"The Birds"--for the climactic attack scene, sicko Hitchcock tied angry seagulls to Tippi Hedrin and she nearly had her eyes pecked out

The Birds and Marnie were both awful shoots as Hitchcock tortured Tippi Hedren for not reciprocating his attraction to her.

American History X.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre filming was apparently awful- all the cast went a bit loopy with the relentless heat, smell and intensity of the set. I think i remember the director saying they had two separate wrap parties- one for the cast and the other himself alone outside because they couldn't stand him by the end

R35 In addition to Morrow two child actors were killed. They were ages 6 and 7.

R45, coke mostly, but other stimulants too. It didn't help that the two writers he hired were both twinks who he partied with. And Spacey got involved too. The whole shoot was a clusterfuck. It amazes me that the film turned out as well as it did, all things considered. It's certainly better than the Zach Snyder shitfests.

The movie that Madge and Pe.n did together. Was that when they were dubbed, "The Poison Penns"?

R52 That definitely wins for worst. Horrible.

The Vic Morrow beheading used to be on YouTube. The two children were so close to the helicopters. They paid their parents in cash to let them do it. The chopper flipped and they were instantly beheaded. Sick.

RE: The Twilight Zone movie. And John Landis got away scot-free. I think he only paid a fee for disregarding safety violations.

Why does John Landis still work in Hollywood? Others are blacklisted for life for doing nothing in comparison to what happened during the Twilight Zone shoot.

Summer Stock (1950) with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly

A simply eight-week shoot stretched to a wildly over-budget six months, with Judy rarely showing up often for weeks at a time. Bizarrely, the film is a delight with Kelly and Garland seemingly in top form. Judy, while a bit chubby, looks radiant in every close up, dances expertly with Gene, and the whole thing ends with "Get Happy" which became her signature number after "Over the Rainbow".

What about "Notorious" and "The Notorious Landlady"? Were they notorious nightmares?

I heard REDS was a nightmare. Warren Beaty's ego was bigger than the budget.

R19 there are so many funny stories about The Whales of August.

When anyone would speak to Lillian, Bette would bellow, "You're going to have to yell. She's deaf as a post." Once when the director was explaining to Gish how he was going to shoot her in a close-up for a scene, Bette screamed, "She knows what a close-up is! Christ, she was there when they [bold]invented[/bold] them!"

When a co-star privately complimented Lillian on her tolerance of Bette, Gish said, "We must bear and forbear. Look at her face. Have you ever seen such a tragic face?"

Ishtar

Misery was notoriously miserable.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man. Karloff was on Broadway doing Arsenic and Old Lace, and Chaney Jr. was playing the werewolf, so the only name horror man left was Bela Lugosi, who was cast as the Monster. He was way too old, and collapsed on the set under the burden of the makeup and costume. So stuntmen completed Bela's scenes, and he was mostly seen only in the closeups.

Meanwhile, Lon Chaney and his co-star Maria Ouspenskaya were doing a scene using a horse and buggy, and they got into an accident. Chaney was okay, but Ouspenskaya broke her foot. And Chaney's dog was run over on Universal's backlot. Then when the film was previewed, audiences laughed when the Monster talked(he had dialogue in the script), so all of the dialogue was cut, and you can see Lugosi walking around the film flapping his lips with no sounds coming out.

Despite all of this, the movie was a monster hit.

Although it won Best Picture at the Oscars, apparently "Gigi" had a rough time of it. Preview audiences were very negative to early screenings, and it endured an endless round of reshoots and edits to come up with a film that ended up being almost universally praised and enjoyed at the time. Go figure.

People like R65 are one of the rason I love the Datalounge. So many people know obscure but interesting stuff.

R58: There was a book from around 1988 that alleged Landis was guilty and only got off due to the DA's incompetence, foreshadowing O.J. doing the same in the 1990s.

[quote] National Lampoon's European Vacation. Amy Heckerling hated asshole Chevy Chase, the script was constantly being re-written on the set, it was hard for them to get any work out of the foreign crews

Has Chevy Chase ever NOT burned bridges with someone?

R68 It's pretty obvious he was going to get off virtually scot free even with an inept DA. FFS Frank Marshall (co-producer), the guy that paid the families of the children murdered to be there, was hiding out in Europe whilst the trial was going on so he could avoid getting a subpoena. The whole ordeal stank and still does.

[quote]The whole ordeal stank and still does.

Yet with the exception of Tom Arnold's film career, nobody died on the set of [italic]The Stupids[/italic].

R71 I don't know about that. I'd say everyone's dignity died on that set too.

R65 That sure wasn't in the magazine I loved as as a child, Famous Monsters of Film Land.

I did read that actor Dick Moran was badly burned as he fell down the stairs in The Mummy's Tomb, landing on his torch. Universal was too cheap to use a stuntman.

[quote]I'd say everyone's dignity died on that set too.

Mine already died the day I directed Robert Reed to kiss Julie Andrews.

Jaws. There were constantly problems with the mechanical shark. Whole days were wasted without a single scene completed due to to that shark.

As a young child - maybe 6 or so - one of my first memories about what was referred to as "cursed sets" was the talk of that Twilight Zone movie. My father was a huge fan of both the original and "new" series and I think that anyone who cared for the sci fi medium knew about the gruesome deaths. It was legendary then. And this was years and years after the film was released..

[quote] Superman Returns. Bryan Singer's drug use was so bad that the studio took the film from him and the editor re cut it, causing the film to have pacing problems and scenes mixed up.

The editor should share credit with a bunch of low-level executives who were probably looking over his shoulder the whole time and telling him what to cut.

There's still film online of the Twilight Zone helicopter accident if you crave that shit. It's not bloody--it's from a distance--but I'm sorry I watched it.

I learned my lesson.

Jane Velez-Mitchell said she saw the whole Luka Magnotta murder/cannibalism video and advised her viewers not to search it out, as she couldn't remove it from her brain. I didn't see it but a "friend" sent me a still of the Asian guy's throat slit.

Some things you can't un-see.

Transformers 2--Allegedly, Michael Bay expected his fuck for hire contract with Megan Fox to be repeated for the sequel. She disagreed, and fucked everyone and the gaffer on the set to spite him. The rich, misogynist mama's boy who generated billions for the studio did not take kindly to the public dis from a D list "actress". The atmosphere was even worse than usual on a Bay set.

The the local hookers he picked up on location didn't placate him any, especially when they drugged him and stole his stuff-including the computer with all the proprietary VFX files. The execs at both the studio and the VFX house were furious.

Judy Garland and Gene Kelly? Lol let it go

Regarding Brando and Mutiny on the Bounty, the IMDB trivia page for that film is a long catalog of the film's difficulties. Not all but mostly caused by Brando.

For example, "Not only did Marlon Brando improvise his lines in scenes with Trevor Howard, making it impossible for his co-star to pick up his cues, but he even started putting cotton in his ears so he couldn't hear Howard's lines".

One item not mentioned here but which I've seen described elsewhere was that at the end of each day of filming on the replica Bounty, Brando would take his Navy fore and aft hat and throw it overboard. The hats were specially made for the film at a rather steep price.

Apocalypse Now, hands down one of the worst.

Eleanor Coppola even made a film/wrote a book about what a nightmare it was.

There're tests of Garland for VOTD that aren't terrible; evidently she was fired because she got too insecure to come out of her trailer. She was replaced with Susan Hayward who took no shit from Robson.

The young actresses were afraid of director Mark Robson (as Garland was). He wanted a new Peyton Place (which he'd directed to accolades for 20th Century-Fox and received a second Oscar nomination).

Surely he'd read the script, a poor adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's juicy book. Surely he knew that the script was weak but agreed anyway.

In any case, he tormented the young actresses and it was a nightmare for all.

I would say, The Twilight Zone.

I remember reading a piece in Premiere Magazine back in the 1990s about the Sean Connery film Medicine Man...in addition to it being a jungle shoot (rarely easy) Lorraine Bracco, who was just coming off Goodfellas, was a nightmare. Non-stop bitching about everything from the food to the weather to the script, and demanding as fuck, with a massive entourage (nannies, hairstylists, makeup artists, acting coach, etc etc). She drove Sean Connery and the director John McTiernan batshit and was loathed among the crew. At some point it was arranged that McTiernan would convey any direction he had for her to her acting coach, who would in turn pass it on to Lorraine, because McTiernan refused to deal with her shit any more. Connery stopped speaking to her as well. And after all that trouble, her performance was a disaster, on a par with Kate Capshaw's in Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. It pretty much killed her brief career as an A-lister. The Sopranos rescued her from the dump, years later.

Marlin Brando probably was always a problem...then put him and Val Kilmer together.

Two other Cukor films. His last one Rich And Famous where he was fine some days (like the day the then ravishing Matt Lattanzi was shot like a Sunset Boulevard rentboy pickup) , and gaga the next, so that Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen ended up directing themselves. And then there was The Blue Bird (which should have been called The Turkey) shot in Breshnev's Russia as part of the entente deal, with Elizabeth Taylor and other has-beens. The food was still Soviet as was the hotel, and I think they ended up flying in food from London.

Landis should have been cooling his heels in prison for about 20 years.

Lorraine Bracco is about the worst actress I can think of.

It's not notorious because no one really knows or cares, but just imagine the fun that was had on the set of Little Odessa with...

A supremely neurotic director, straight out of film school, who went from the highest of ego highs to the lowest of lows when he realized that he was in way over his head....on approximately day one.

Vanessa Redgrave - just horrified and ready to bolt at any second.

Maximilian Schell - doing the Maximilian Schell thing.

Eddie Furlong - it was all downhill from here.

Tim Roth - poor Tim Roth.

The shoot was plagued with bad weather and it was shot in a horribly cramped apartment which the director insisted on keeping oppressively hot and dry. It also had to smell like death -- literally -- using a training aid for cadaver dogs. No one was supposed to feel comfortable breathing. Lips were cracking, noses were bleeding, itchy throats and dry coughs were the order of the day, and that was a good thing. This was just the beginning of the unusual methods meant to extract the desired performances.

Then there was the scene in which Maximilian Schell was kicking Tim Roth out of the house, shoving him while waving his belt. It looked too actory so the genius idea was to pull Maximilian Schell aside and tell him to hit Tim as hard as he could with the belt, and shhhhh, nobody tell Tim what's about to happen! The look on his face is going to be fucking awesome! That went as well as could be expected with Tim not speaking to anyone for the rest of the shoot, and beyond.

And then there was the execution scene in which the victim's tongue was cut out, outside, in the dark, in a very wide shot. The tongue was to be cut out and thrown, and given all of the above, what was happening wasn't decipherable at all. A tongue could not be seen....just some random black spot going through the air.

Of course the prosthetic tongue didn't look right (despite being impossible to see) so everything stopped while PAs were sent out to butchers the next day to find animal tongues that looked like human tongues; as if butcher shops are just teeming with exotic tongues. I think lamb was finally deemed acceptable, probably because it was between that and cow. In the end, the real tongue was just as invisible as the silicone one.

Geez, are there any films that were *fun* to work on?

The Crow

Solitary Man. Unbelievable. No one had respect for another. In some cases, rightfully so. Brian Koppelman is insane and must've been going through something privately, either that or he's just bonkers. Susan Sarandon is fabulous, though.

Any David O. Russell film.

Tootsie

[quote]Vanessa Redgrave - just horrified and ready to bolt at any second.

Why, were there too many Jews for her to handle?

I don't know the movie but I read in one of the threads here that a crew mentioned that Mark Walbergh was so fucked up on coke that they had to shut down production of a movie for at least a wk. He tried to get drugs from everyone...

[quote]Two other Cukor films. His last one Rich And Famous where he was fine some days (like the day the then ravishing Matt Lattanzi was shot like a Sunset Boulevard rentboy pickup) , and gaga the next, so that Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen ended up directing themselves

I've heard stories about Rich and Famous, most particularly about Lattanzi who'd previously worked on Grease 2, for Allan Carr.

I was shocked when he married ON-J as Matt's so queeny he couldn't even pull off being straight when Jacqueline Bisset was undressing him. (Hart Bochner wasn't convincing, either, but I I've been told he's...)

RIchard Harris used to talk about "Mutiny on the Bounty". If you've ever seen it, RIchard Harris is the 3rd billed, behind Brando and Trevor Howard. But Harris says when the movie was premiered, people were asking "Who is Richard Harris?" because he is barely there.

Harris said he was so bored or annoyed by what was going on, that he used to go off wandering the island for days at a time and disappear and apparently no one noticed. He would just come back at some point and they would ask him..."Where were you standing yesterday?" and he would just vaguely point to somewhere on the ship and step back into the picture.

Kramer vs Kramer-- Dustin Hoffman was supposedly an egocentric controlling ass.

Day of the Locust --everyone was miserable. William Atherton had a particularly hard time and walked off the set more than once

[quote] I was shocked when he married ON-J as Matt's so queeny he couldn't even pull off being straight

And she could?

[quote]And then there was The Blue Bird (which should have been called The Turkey) shot in Breshnev's Russia as part of the entente deal, with Elizabeth Taylor and other has-beens. The food was still Soviet as was the hotel, and I think they ended up flying in food from London.

Jane Fonda was in that mess, too; she wanted to talk politics, but the crew members all rolled her eyes when they realized what a political dilettante she really was. Meanwhile, the studio boasted that they still had the same cameras and editing equipment they used on [italic]Battleship Potemkin[/italic].

That movie proved once and for all that Communism doesn't work.

I remember watching the Landis trial on TV, or at least the local news coverage. Landis and his wife/girlfriend (?)came under very heavy criticism for their jolly fun-day-out attitudes. They were seen laughing it up and having a grand old time, entering the courthouse as if they were walking the red carpet. They showed no sense of the seriousness or gravity of the situation.... being held responsible for the careless deaths of his actors... seemingly not giving a shit and treating the whole thing as a joke. The jury of course was accused of being star-struck (surprise) Landis to this day denies any culpability, blaming the tragedy on anyone but himself, especially the FX dept.

I imagine most Oliver Stone films would be fun for some, a nightmare for others.

David O'Russell recently brutalized Amy Adams on the American Hustle set.

What, nobody's mentioned "The Revnant"?

Out in the middle of freezing fucking nowhere shooting 3hrs a day because the crazy-ass director Innaritu wanted nothing but perfect natural light, and Tom Hardy allegedly punching his director, he was such an unbalanced motherfucker? The director, not Hardy, that is. Rumor had it that Innaritu had it coming and nobody blamed him.

Apt Pupil.

I don't know why Best Little Whorehouse set was a nightmare, but on another thread someone mentioned that the cast and crew started wearing T-shirts that said "I survived Best Little Whorehouse."

R73, you can read about this stuff in books by Gregory Mank and Tom Weaver. They have done incredible research, unearthing facts that were obscure. They scoured Universal's own production files, plus did interviews with surviving members of the cast and crew of these movies.

I'd like to see David O. Russell try that shit with Alec Baldwin on a set. Only one of them would get off that set alive.

If you have the nerve, here is video of the Twilight Zone accident, taken from various camera angles; the most horrific are at the end.

Also disturbing in the video is the first crew member to arrive on the scene of the accident, you can see him stumble back in horror at what he sees.

Wow, I didn't know about the Twilight Zone movie, I'll pass on watching the video, reading about it is bad enough.

I'm surprised that movie saw the light of day after that tragic disaster.

Ned Kelly, as Marianne Faithfull attempted suicide during the filming.

Whorehouse was a disastrous shoot because many people behind the camera were fired before and during production. In Dolly's book, she says there was a bump sticker going around California at the time that said "Honk if you've been fired from Whorehouse."

Dolly was also going through gynecological problems during filming and admitted that she was difficult to work with. She didn't along with the director who had worked with her on 9 to5. To top it off, Burt got a hernia from carrying Dolly in the final scene and had to be hospitalized.

Larry King, who wrote the musical, wrote a book about the troubled shoot.

R114, I dont understand how it ever could have been released. I assume too much money was riding on it. I cannot imagine the film not being cancelled if something like that happened now.

There are other films that have been released after a death on set.

I recall The Crow & Poltergeist 3

Everyone is down on Christian Bale for screaming at that lighting guy, but he was walking around DURING A SCENE. That's incredibly rude and unprofessional. No wonder Bale was mad. That director obviously had no control over the set. Both he and the lighting guy should have been fired.

If that had happened during the studio era, they wouldn't be out of just a job. They'd be out of a career.

Poor Terry Gilliam's "Don Quixote". It was such a disaster, they made a documentary about it.

And "Twilight Zone" redux: 2014's "Midnight Rider". I had close friends who worked on that film, and they say that Randall Miller and his wife, Jody say that they'll say they are sorry, but don't really mean it. They have always maintained that they aren't guilty of the events that killed one crew member and injured several others. Smug bastard wants to keep on making films. He is a pariah in the film Industry now.

r119, I had camera friends who worked on that film. The cinematographer (or DP) is notorious for verbally berating his crew, and Bale saw it all. Bale is also Method, and when working with Method actors, you NEVER get in their eyeline. Bale killed 2 birds with one stone by getting back at the DP for the crew and for himself.

Spielberg was attached to The Twilight Zone...that's why it was released

We all know that the Revenant was over budget and behind schedule, but now that everyone involved has their Oscar (especially Leo), it will be interesting to hear how bad it really was.

Christian Bale- he's a professional, he should have finished the scene. He should buy some anger management classes with all those overblown millions he gets for playing pretend. Amy Adams would have finished the scene. Amy Adams can do no wrong.

[quote] Spielberg was attached to The Twilight Zone...that's why it was released

And how did he manage to wash his hands of the whole sordid affair?

[quote]Amy Adams can do no wrong.

My first boyfriend and I went to see [italic]Julie and Julia[/italic], then we broke up.

My second boyfriend and I went to see [italic]The Muppets[/italic], then we broke up.

R125 Spielberg never directed the death segment, Landis did. Although he was the co producer and really should never have released the movie and profited at the expense of the three deaths. Landis is the one entirely responsible. As for washing his hands, he's a jew. It comes naturally.

r126: That bitch!

The movie was not very successful when it was released.

[quote] The movie was not very successful when it was released.

I imagine a lot of people refused to see it because of that.

Among the many things that made the [italic]Heaven's Gate[/italic] set such a nightmare was the trip-wire they used on the horses. IIRC there were protests over that from animal rights groups.

[quote]And how did he manage to wash his hands of the whole sordid affair?

By leaving the country for a year so he couldn't be subpoenaed.

[quote]By leaving the country for a year so he couldn't be subpoenaed.

How convenient, then, that they shot [italic]Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom[/italic] in Sri Lanka and England. But I assume that would have happened anyway.

Spielberg was producer and directed another segment.

I always wondered why Spielberg lived in England during that time. Now I know why.

I remember the old Premier magazine wrote a wild piece on the Marrying Man with Alec Baldwin & Kim Bassinger from the early 90s. Both on runaway ego trips.

Dawsons 50-Load Weekend. They couldn't afford enough Wet Wipes.

R50, what was the deal with "X"?

Not r50 but I heard Norton was a diva control freak

Actually, in this day and age - "Twilight Zone" would have benefited from the horror and had a bigger initial box office. We are all sickos these days - at least the chance to get a first look at a movie which killed people. But don't forget - everyone interested in sci fi back in those days knew the horror that occurred. It was no secret.

Nobody mentioned that miserable film I LOVE TROUBLE with Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte? They fought the whole way through and it absolutely shows onscreen...

[quote]Landis should have been cooling his heels in prison for about 20 years.

At least. And the guy referenced above who hid out in Europe.

Hi. Where is the link mentioning Election and the drama,OP?

[quote]I remember the old Premier magazine wrote a wild piece on the Marrying Man with Alec Baldwin & Kim Bassinger from the early 90s. Both on runaway ego trips.

I recall reading at the time that the crew detested Basinger and Baldwin who would spend lots of time in their trailers fucking one another. Allegedly, the crew mic'd the trailers to record them having sex and they then played them back so that B&B could hear (or something like that).

Already mentioned but Kramer and Tootsie due to Dustin Hoffman.

Streep did not like Charles Dance on Plenty.

DOR is unfortunately enabled by people like Lawrence, DeNiro andCooper, who all suck his cock

I believe Days of Heaven was also a hard shoot because Terrence Malick did not know what he was doing, and the actors spun their wheels. It ended up a beautiful, visual film but they used very little of the actors speaking

On Edward Norton's "Hulk", he wasn't just a diva bitch, he ended up rewriting the script because he didn't like the original one. It bombed and his career's never recovered.

And R143, Spy Magazine did a legendary behind-the-scenes takedown on Baldwin and Basinger in "The Marrying Man", where apparently their diva demands drove the budget through the roof and drove everyone else involved nuts - neither of their careers recovered for a long time. I don't remember many of the details, but in addition to fucking and fighting, they'd demand that the studio spend endless amounts of money on them. Like when Basinger had closeups she didn't just have her makeup touched up between takes, she'd have her makeup removed and entirely redone each goddamn time, so retakes took hours instead of minutes. And I also remember a quote from a crew member: "You can have diva behavior, but you've got to back it up with more than hair!".

Norton's Hulk wasn't bad at all.

Basinger also yelled at Neil Simon once on the set saying "you don't understand comedy."

or something like that.

I enjoyed Norton's firm buttocks in American History X.

R142 here it is

This thread is why i come to DL.

I have a gut feeling "Prometheus" was a bad set. I can feel it.

Winger and coke were not easy.

r144 it wasn't so much that Malick didn't know what he was doing, it's that he got mired down in detail and insistence on shooting in natural light.

Christopher Plummer below, talking about working with Malick on The New World, and how difficult it can be for actors to work with him, knowing they might not make it into the final film.

A Passage to India. David Lean got into huge trouble from using explosives to blow up entrances in thehills of Savandruga in what are in the movie are supposed to be the Marabar caves from Indian nationals protesting British exploitation of their landscape, but then it turned out that some sort of quarrying company was also blowing up parts of the hills to extract granite from them.

As always, Lean was a terrible bully to his actors, and Alec Guinness--who had only just that year began to be friends with Lean again after their terrible fights on the set of Doctor Zhivago--fought with him all over again, and ultimately stopped speaking to him for years.

When Lean tried bullying Judy Davis, she instantly figured out what he was doing and bullied him right back even harder. She kept telling him in front of everyone on the set that he was too stupid to understand E. M. Forster's novel properly, which hugely rattled him (because in many ways she was right).

"The Misfits"...mainly Marilyn Monroe getting "sick" and she was also at the end of the affair with Yves Montand who had gone back to his wife. She was still trying to get him back with no luck. Marilyn was breaking up with Arthur Miller at the same time. Clark Gable just sat under a tree for shade in the desert and watched it all take place. He cashed his paycheck and went home at 5 whether or not any filming had been done. Of course he died of a massive heart attack not long after the picture finally wrapped.

"Neighbors" with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. Belushi was drugged out most of the time and decided that he knew better than anyone else how the picture should be directed. He constantly fought with the director and the picture wound up to be a mess of massive proportions.

Isn't constantly redoing scenes not knowing what you are doing? :)

Oh Lordy, R155, we've devoted thousands of words to how Marilyn Monroe made most of the sets she worked on into notorious NIGHTMARES! Taking hours or days to show up and do some work, booze and pills and freakouts, the horrible Paula Strasberg, etc. Did anyone work with that awful woman twice?

Judy Garland wasn't much better, of course.

Of course, not all difficult actors make productions into nightmares. During one of his films, Cary Grant drove the wardrobe people absolutely crazy, constantly complaining that the cuffs or lapels or some detail on his costumes were not absolutely perfect. Finally, the costumers went to the director to ask him to get Grant to lay off them, and the director said "No, no, that's what we're paying for! We WANT him to look like Cary Grant, down to the smallest detail!".

[quote]Judy Garland and Gene Kelly? Lol let it go

I guess you missed the Charlie Chaplin story, huh?

Just where do you think you are, anyway?

Shortly after completing his final film, THE NEXT BEST THING, director John Schlesinger suffered a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. During his recovery, he fired off a series of memos to studio exec Sherry Lansing, blaming his condition on his leading lady, Madonna, and her attempts to influence everything from musical score to the final cut. She demanded scenes be cut or rewritten and requested that computery imagery be used to beautify her in numerous scenes, which would've driven up the budget. He was even more incensed that star Rupert Everett and producer Tom Rosenberg were siding with her and giving in to her demands. Poor Schlesinger had a stroke around 2000 and was taken off life support in 2003.

I apologize if it was mentioned already, but Lars Van Trier is famous for being a total creep on set and making them unnecessarily difficult and grueling for actors and crew. Bjork vowed to never act again after her experience with him in Dancer in the Dark.

A lot of movies with Tom Hardy seem to have problems. I believe the DP of Mad Max: Fury Road said that days with Tom on set would typically be 2-3 hours longer. LOL.

The Bourne Identity had a lot of problems. Apparently, a lot of the final product was the result of reshoots, as the film was supposed to come out in the fall of 2001 but was bumped back to the following summer. Matt Damon and Doug Liman fought a lot, but I guess everything worked out in the end.

The appropriately named Cursed was also reshot over and over again. There were actors who filmed scenes and their parts were dropped from the final cut. I believe only a third of the original cut made it in the finished film. At the last minute, the studio decided to change it from R to PG-13, editing out profanity and the more violent scenes.

Who or what is DOR, R144?

Director David O. Russell?

That's a means to an end though R160, because he makes great fucking movies.

Norton hated the director of American History X, basically getting him fired and then re-edited the film to increase his part. The director unsuccessfully tried to get his name removed from the credits and has barely worked again.

Everything r53 says is true. At one of Singers parties, during that time, coke was offered around on trays like it was finger food. Anna Nicole showed up so utterly wasted she could barely talk and made out with two guys at the same time.

Anna Nicole was always so wasted she could barely talk

Marlon Brando and many of the crew on the set of the 1962 Bounty crew took quite a fancy to the gorgeous Tahitian women on location and screwed several of them, causing a mini VD epidemic.

I worked with Landis on Burke and Hare a couple of years ago, worst experience of my life. He completely disregarded basic safety, forced extras to climb on top of decaying castle walls with no safety harnesses in pouring rain, nearly killed Simon Pegg while shooting the hanging scene, and ignored labor laws and forced the ADs to lie on the time cards.

I think the best explanation for Stroheim's outrageous behavior during his time as an A-list Hollywood director is bipolar disorder. He later got a handle on it and successfully relaunched his career as an actor in France, which led to his Hollywood comeback.

He had an amazing life, a Jewish hatmaker's son from Vienna who went to America, passed himself off as an Austrian nobleman and worked his way up in the film industry through sheer talent and bravado. A friend of mine likes to say that if you made his story into a novel or film people would say "That's ridiculous, that could never happen."

r160: That's too bad for Björk, because Dancer in the Dark was a great movie and she was great in it.

War of the Worlds - Spielberg will never work with Tom Cruise again because of Cruise's insane bullshit during and after the production.

Tom Cruise was the best thing about the schlocky War of the Worlds

Thanks for weighing in, LeeAnn.

R170, have you read convincing evidence that Von Stroheim was bipolar, or do you just want to believe that nobody would behave that way without being mentally ill?

r165- I've worked with Tony Kaye, and he's really difficult to work with- I was spared, because I resemble someone in his family, but he would snap and fire people for no reason, and production would have to hire them back. He used to be a screamer (I'm sure in his AHX days), but apparently he mellowed when I started to work with him. His paintings are interesting, but he has a mania about eyes and self portraits. One of those barely functional mad geniuses with anger issues.

Thank you R150.

I'm OP. Maybe I'm spreading misinformation. I read one woman's account of what it was like to work on the set of Election and it sounded like a nightmare, but it could have been only her? I'll link to it when I can find the article

On the set of The Conqueror Worm, Vincent Price and the director fought like crazy. At one point when the director questioned Price's instincts, Price snapped, "I've made 87 films, what have you done?" The director responded, "I've made three good ones."

Any film with Debra Winger

Seriously, the fighting between Winger and Richard Gere during the filming of An Officer and a Gentleman are legendary

Same thing for most of her other films. No one wanted to work with her.

I know it wasnt a film but Queer as Folk USA.

the thing with Winger r179 still seems to be going on.

She was on Broadway with Patti Lupone in a David Mamet play and that was warfare too. The odd thing was Winger went to the press with her complaints. She seemed to have no clue that people would just think oh yeah same old shit from Winger.

Buffalo 66. But I'd say it was worth it.

I, Claudius, not the BBC/PBS miniseries, but a 1930s Alexander Korda film adaptation of the same Robert Graves novel starring Charles Laughton and Merle Oberon, directed by the legendary Joseph von Sternberg. Supposedly a nightmare. When Oberon was mildly injured in a car accident, everyone involved lied to the insurance carriers to say production would have to be shut down for months to get out of it but have the insurance cover the losses and production was permanently shut down.

In the 1960s the BBC made a documentary called The Epic That Never Was about the failed project and included a great deal of edited and unedited footage that had been shot. You can see that it wasn't working yet much of it is simply magnificent. It used to be on youtube but if it isn't still, it's probably around somewhere and well worth checking out. It's fascinating.

The quick and the dead...

The raw sexual heat between Sharon stone & Russell Crowe was surpassed only by that between Leo & Mr Gene Hackman!

The delays were not to be believed...

......

The 1989 Batman. Michael Keaton was angry because the costume was torture to wear. The films script kept getting reworked during production. During production, the movie still didn't have an ending. So when Nicholson was walking up the Cathedral steps for the big finale, he asked Tim Burton why he was going up the steps. Burton said "We'll figure it out when we get to the top". Nicholson also supposedly said to Kim Basinger "I'm gonna kill that guy whose dick you're sucking", meaning Jon Peters. A good time was had by all.

The 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives. A book could be written about it.

Give us the cliff notes...

"We HATE Bette Midler".

There's your cliff notes!

Stepford Wives is another movie that was being rewritten as it was filming. They even did reshoots a few months before release. The set was also a nightmare because it was shot during one of the hottest summers on record and a lot of it was filmed outside. Kidman refused to come to set one day, though it was later revealed she was more or less sticking up for the crew who were dropping like flies due to the heat.

And of course, Midler and Frank Oz were fighting nonstop.

From the always entertaining Herbert Ross thread, here's info on the troubled Best Little Whorehouse filming;

[quote]WHOREHOUSE was to be directed by Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune, based on their 1978 Broadway production. However, once Dolly was attached, they were out and Colin Higgins, Dolly's 9 to 5 director, was in. This directorial change meant whole scenes were scrapped and new scenes were written to accommodate both Dolly and Burt Reynolds' talents, tastes, and personae. Lots or rewrites. And whole musical numbers were scrapped and replaced with original Dolly compositions. Dolly was blamed for a lot of the changes and delays. This, plus a grueling shoot schedule, personal and professional problems, and moral crises over her racy costumes and salty dialogue put undue strain on Miss Parton's nerves, resulting in her being bedridden for 18 months. This was not a happy shoot for Dolly and it made her question whether to continue a movie career.

And one more Whorehouse post:

[quote]"Honk if you've been fired from 'Best Little Whorehouse'" - bumper sticker in the Valley circa 1982

Dolly herself talks about the weirdo female producer she nicknamed Moonbeam who totally turned her off. She thought Tommy Tune was nuts too. The minute they left the room, she called her power players (Sandy G, no doubt) and told them to get her off this picture -- or them.

[quote]If you have the nerve, here is video of the Twilight Zone accident, taken from various camera angles; the most horrific are at the end.

Jesus Christ--against my better judgement, I just watched the death footage for the first time; the still-frames of those heads flying will haunt my dreams forever! If there's any comfort, it's that Morrow and the two children were dead before they realized what was happening.

I didn't know The Twilight Zone tragedy until I read it on here. Horrific.

As anyone know what happened to the Teen wolf lead actor? I've read that he had a terrible accident on a movie set but there's no info about him. Another negligence on film set?

My dad's best friend was a cameraman for over 25 years, but Courage Under Fire did him in and after shooting, he decided to leave the profession. He said Meg Ryan was the worst human being he ever worked with and he never wanted to be put through hell like that again. Matt Damon starved himself for what was supposed to be his breakout role in that film, but most of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. My dad's friend said people were genuinely worried about Damon's health on set because he always looked ready to collapse.

Debra Winger cracks me up. To this day, she'll say shitty things about Lynda Carter, and imply how awful she was to work with on the two episodes of Wonder Woman they filmed together.

Even today people in the film industry hate Debra for her diva antics. No one says anything bad about Lynda Carter.

Debra Winger is an extremely talented actress, but she basically shittalked her way out of her own career. You just cannot badmouth every single person you ever worked with. After a while people think it's you and not the other people you're complaining about, and as a result no one will want to work with you, no matter how talented you are.

I thought that Debra was talented - perhaps not as talented as her hype led you to believe though. Yes, her being a bitch 24/7 only hurt herself. Shocking that she was hired for so many either big budget or awarded films though. Yet, like a flash in the pan - she burned bright and then was just over. Shame.

Wasn't there some weird story about Winger literally and purposefully farting in Shirley McClaine's direction as she walked away from a fight they were having?

I think this deserves another mention.

R200 it did deserve another mention. I'm not sure WTF it has to do with this thread but I look forward to reading the article.

In the modern age, anything directed by Josh Crank, er Trank, falls into this category.

Hmm. Perhaps if you'd read the article before you fired off your silly response you'd know WTF it has to do with thread asshat.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Yes, there is already at least one recent thread devoted to Alexander Payne and this actress.

To add to the Basinger/Marrying Man saga - that was the film where her contract stipulated she had to have Evian water to wash her hair with. What a fucking nightmare she and Baldwin must have been.

Somebody mentioned batshit Lars Von Trier - John C. Reilly quit his film Manderlay on the spot when a real donkey was killed on camera for a scene. Reilly walked off the set and never returned.

Who knew I had to teaser interest in a film that is widely regarded as one of the greatest disasters in cinematic history by any metric conceivable- critical, financial and body count!

Interesting, I'd never heard that about The Conqueror. Tarkovsky's Stalker is another one where several of the crew (including Tarkovsky himself, his wife, and the lead actor) later died from cancer, which some have attributed to environmental factors during the shoot.

So casualties of Cold War nuclear ambitions on both sides even reach the titans of the film industry. I didn't know that about Tarkovsky and the others during the making of Stalker. I have never seen the film even though I have a copy on laserdisc somewhere. Reminds me of the song Soviet Snow by Shona Laing.

I used to wait on Debra Winger in the 80s. Total cooze.

Off topic but R185 - How did Lisa Kudrow not win an Emmy for The Comeback? An amazing performance both seasons.

It's her voice, R211. If I never hear it again, too soon, blah blah blah.

Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron hated each other on Mad Max.

Not one mention of Marci X, that horrible Lisa Kudrow movie? One of the Wayans brothers (forget which one) went off on Scott Rudin in front of the crew, yelling "I never wanna see that fat fucking faggot ass of yours on this set for one more goddamn minute!"

Not to defend one of the Wayans brothers, but Scott Rudin is certifiably insane and a horrible person.

r215 he may be an asshole, but he has common sense, and he has rare taste for an executive. I was impressed with his Sony e-mails, and I'm not a fan of his behaviour.

Then again people like to make him the scapegoat for Hollywood, when the real evil is hiding in plain sight.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Mickey Mouse was adamant that he would not share a scene with the "lowly Looney Tune" Bugs Bunny. Mickey only agreed to do the part if Betty Boop would blow him.

[quote]Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The story needs to be told.

That cunt Jessica Rabbit had production topsy-turvey from beginning to end. Her endless demands, her diva behavior..... that "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" had all of Toon Town rolling in the aisles with laughter. But what really had them splitting their sides was her bearding with Roger. Which one of them was more of a cock-hound is still debated.

How have we not talked about Steel Magnolias in this thread? Wasnt the director some sort of trout to the rest of the cast?

I wonder if the awful "Hobbit" movies belong on the list.

The LOTR movies were described as a big old lovefest behind the scenes, but from what I've seen of the behind-the-scenes stuff from the Hobbit movies it didn't happen again. For instance, the green-screen scale stuff drove McKellen to cry and talk about quitting film acting, star Martin Freeman is a nasty little man, some of the dwarves complained about unpleasant behavior on set, and the script was do bad it must have brought everyone down.

The BBC television series Orphan Black. Apparently the actress who plays "Alison" doesn't get along with the actress who plays "Helena" and they haven't been filmed in a scene together for two seasons.

Who did Claire Danes not get along with?

Claire Danes stars in Homeland if you're confusing the tv series. However, I heard Danes didn't get on at all with costar Kate Beckinsale in that prison movie they did many years ago.

The Pacific Ocean location shooting of Mister Roberts was a disaster. Director John Ford was drinking so heavily, the actor Ward Bond had to take over the director's duties temporarily. Ford punched Henry Fonda, the film's star, in the mouth, ending their long friendship. Co-director Mervyn LeRoy finally brought in the director and co-author of the stage version of Mister Roberts, Josh Logan, to finish the film.

Logan was already pissed off at having been passed over as director of the film. Despite its success, the Broadway show had a reputation for being a "gay play," due to Logan's fondness for displaying shirtless males on stage. Logan was also annoyed that the film's producer, his theatrical colleague Leland Hayward, had brought in another writer, in part to de-gay the script. Logan agreed to take no screen credit for directing. The finished film was a patch job that made money despite going way over budget.

So, does the thread expand to TV shows now?

Glee. Lea Michele's reign of terror must have been epic and filled with whiny temper tantrums. Cory Monteith's only way to escape that shitshow and his girlfriend. or beard, was to, accidently or deliberately, end his life with an overdose. Not to mention Lea's drama with Dianna Agron and Naya Rivera. Also what some of the guys had to do to stay on the show or get back on it (Chord Overstreet) would make gay porn interesting and probably shocking again.

Showtime's Queer as Folk. Hal Sparks must have been one backstabbing schemer on the set. Not even trying to get into the are they or are they not a couple of Randy Harrison and Gale Harold. Then the eye rolling when the actors had to find out what their characters would get themselves into now. Then the salary drama that instead of giving them more money the show just cut episodes so the actors would receive the same money for less work.

Castle. Enough said.

Did anyone mention "Hook"? Julia Roberts' drug issues got all the press but a fantasy film full of special effects and child actors and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams must have made for a truly nightmare set.

Tender Mercies - Robert Duvall was such an asshole on set that director Bruce Beresford quit. Duvall had to fly to New York to apologize to get Beresford back on board.

Major Dundee - Director Sam Peckinpah was never easy to work with, but between his assholery and Richard Harris' unprofessional behavior on set, the usually professional Charlton Heston lost his temper. He was doing a scene on horseback and he charged Peckinpah with sword drawn. There's also a story about cast and crew pooling money to take out a hit on Peckinpah. Can't remember the title right now.

White Sands

Everyone hated each other. There were production problems as well.

Here's an excerpt from a book on Mickey Rourke :

There was also another incident where Mickey Rourke was invited to a dinner with producers, studio executives and some of the co stars including female lead Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. When Rourke was ridiculously late, Mastrantonio chastised him publicly to the point where most of the serving on his plate ended up on the table.

The set of the original Producers movie. Mel Brooks and Zero Mostel hated each other.

Are you a frau R225? You sound like one.

The movie Giant. James Dean was reportedly a complete diva on the set, showing up late, not preparing his lines, shit like that. He was still a nobody at this point only to become legendary in death. Rock Hudson stated later that the studios were so fed up with his behavior that it was likely he would have been black balled after the picture was shot. Of course they didn't have to worry about that considering he up and got killed not long after. And of course everyone already knows about the bet between Rock and Liz Taylor on who would fuck Dean first. Rock won, naturally. Although I wouldn't say this last part I mentioned counts as part of the nightmare. Guess it could have been for Dean. Rock was noted to be well hung and didn't like to use lube.

R231 - LUCKY Rock! James Dean had the ass of a bubble booty cherub. Raw fucking that sweet ass must have been epic. Rock was one of the most handsome actors ever. Something tells me that had Dean lived - he would have died of AIDS long before Rock. Horrible to say - but with that insanely round butt and that careless, wild, bipolar man-hungry fearlessness...

One of Bette Davis' biographers said she believed that whenever she made a movie that went smoothly, and everyone was "Hail fellow well met," the movie was a bomb. So she didn't give a damn about a harmonious set.

John Huston's "Freud". The infamous sadist Huston made a meal out of Montgomery Clift's cracked psyche.

I doubt Hudson fucked Dean.

"The Bonfire of the Vanities."

Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith were both divas, and Griffith got a major boob job during a break in filming, forcing the production to scramble so it wouldn't appear her tits were inflating and deflating scene to scene.

Of course he wouldn't r235. He was married to a woman then.

[quote]Did anyone mention "Hook"? Julia Roberts' drug issues got all the press but a fantasy film full of special effects and child actors and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams must have made for a truly nightmare set.

In my opinion "Hook" is perhaps the very worst big-budget, A-list Hollywood film I've ever seen, witless, dull, and just inept on every level.

Runner up? Why, "The Mirror Has Two Faces", of course!

I don't remember Julia Roberts' drug issues ever making it to the mainstream press or even the tabloids.

It was all over the tabloids. I saw it every day when I worked in a magazine store.

Terms of Endearment . Debra and Shirley battling everyone has heard about. The atmosphere on the set created by Jim Brooks was toxic also.

The Exoricist. Ditto Billy Friedkin.

r230, No, I am not a frau. Are you fat? because you type fat. You should do something about that, because it's not healthy.

R223 Brokedown Palace. Danes called Beckinsale "complicated" and "prickly".

"Geez, are there any films that were *fun* to work on?"

The original Arthur.

Liza and Dudley were coked to the gills.

I noticed this thread got posted to the Usenet group rec.arts.movies.past-films -- a big shout-out to you guys from an old ramp-f regular!

Not sure I believe you R242. I've never seen anyone other than DLs posse of insane fan fraus actually care about Glee or QAF, and have certainly never seen any gay men give credence to fangirl fantasies about the QAF stars.

Conclusion: Frau pretending to be a gay man.

r246, I don't give a damn about what you believe.

And you still type fat. Jesus, I have to put you on ignore because reading your posts make me feel like I am gaining ten pounds. How fat are you?

Mona Lisa Smiles...all the girls didn't get along with each other. The movie was dubbed, Mona Lisa Bitches.

[quote]"The Birds"--for the climactic attack scene, sicko Hitchcock tied angry seagulls to Tippi Hedrin and she nearly had her eyes pecked out

Oh my Gawd! No wonder Tippi was reported having a nervous breakdown during filming.

It's TV, but the set of [italic]Diff'rent Strokes[/italic] pretty much turned into a war zone by the end.

I would assume any film that had Edward Norton on the set.

Omg I just looked up Jon Peters because of this thread.... Has his book been published yet?

R249 boo-little-hoo. Tipsi Headrinse (as Mad Mag dubbed her) could never act her way out of a paperbag. Nobody would know who the fuck she was if it hadn't been for Hitchcock. She had a career in TV commercials before him.

I liked this part from the Jon Peters book proposal link above:

“As producer of Star Jon had to learn to cope with his own notoriety. When Barbara Walters did a television special on the film, she invited Jon alone to her New York apartment for a pre-interview interview. Keeping things very chummy, with no pretense of journalistic objectivity, she plied Jon with champagne and caviar, then changed into “something comfortable,” leaving her bedroom door strategically ajar as she stripped down to her bra and panties, giving Jon a 20-20 view, as it were, of the Barbara W in all her glory. Whether Barbara was setting a trap to get the scoop of a lifetime, or whether she was making a sincere pass, Jon didn’t snap at the bait. One Barbra was enough, and he had a blockbuster to promote…”

Apparently Peters wanted to cast Sean Penn as Superman and stipulated that Superman should never fly.

Yeah, that would work.

R247 is the frau-iest frau who ever fraued on DL.

You sound like my mother and her friends imitating DL (if she knew what it was) And they are not very good mimics

R whatever was right -- no one except for fraus cares about Glee and (especially) QAF. Though repeating the no-gay-man-ever-said-this nonsense about the QAF stars is the dead giveaway. We let you have one thread on here to spin your Fan Frau Fantasies.

Please don't abuse the privilege.

Tony Kaye hated Edward Norton and working on American History X so much that he wanted his name taken off the movie. But instead of using Alan Smithee which was the industry norm for directors insisting on pseudonyms, he wanted to be billed as "Humpty Dumpty".

The DGA had gotten rid of the "Alan Smithee" pseudonym because of an Arthur Hiller film called [italic]An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn[/italic], about a director by that name who makes a fiasco of a film and wants to take his name off of it, but can't because that's the only pseudonym the DGA would allow. That happened in real life: Arthur Hiller ended up taking his name off the film and giving directing credits to Mr. Smithee.

My friend was an extra in Hello Dolly. She said the film set and Streisand especially were such nightmares she burned all her Streisand records once she got home from filming.

Your "friend" was Rutanya Alda, as written in "The Mommie Dearest Diaries," r259.

[quote]Please don't abuse the privilege.

To add douchebags like you on my ignore list? NEVER!

Bye Felicia.

r40 speaks much wisdom. when a whole tribe wants to kill your leading actor, its speaks volumes about the morale on the set. Klaus Kinski was a genius but a total head case.

From the triva section of the Pink Panther (1963)

[quote]In the bath scene with Capucine and Robert Wagner, an industrial-strength foaming agent is used, which burned both of the stars' skin. Wagner, who was completely immersed at one point, became blind for four weeks.

R260 Honest, she was! I asked someone who read the book if she had mentioned it but they never got back to me. Haven't seen Rutanya in over 25 years. But thanks.

She did mention it, exactly as you retold it, r264. I'd like to meet Rutanya Alda. She seems interesting. If you ever see her again, tell her I'm one of her faaaans. Say specifically the message is from some anonymous gay guy. She'll know who it is.

Can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet. THE SHINING. I love love love the film, but it is widely known that Kubrick tortured poor frizzed Shelly to get her amazing performance and brought Scatman to tears with all the takes. The huge beautiful set was also built on a soundstage and the "outside" lighting was all artificial making the set unbearably hot. Near end of filming, the set burned down and had to be rebuilt.

Check out the IMDB trivia section for Waterworld. Wow Kevin Costner acted like a total Diva and the movie tanked and his career never recovered.

[quote]It is rumored that director Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Costner had a huge squabble over the film, resulting in Reynolds walking off the project and left Costner to finish it. Reynolds was quoted as saying that "Kevin should only star in movies he directs. That way he can work with his favorite actor and favorite director".

[quote]Joss Whedon flew out to the set to do last minute rewrites on the script. He later described it as "seven weeks of hell".

[quote] Kevin Costner insisted that his friend Kevin Reynolds be given the director's position, or he would quit. Later, Costner had a falling out with Reynolds over the film's direction.

[quote]Mark Isham's score was reported rejected because it was "too ethnic".

That Peters proposal misspells the names of Adolf Hitler and Fredric March, meanwhile gushing over one of the most scorned people in Hollywood history in purple prose.

But I'm sure some publisher will take it. Those more or less implausible scandal tales will guarantee free PR.

R265 It was so long ago I doubt Rutanya would remember me. She looks better now than she did then. I always felt so horrible when her actor-husband was tragically killed when hit by that bus, but at that point didn't know how to contact her. Does she discuss that in the book? (I swear, the book is on my Amazon wish list)

R266 Shelley Duvall is also a perfect example for that other thread, miscast projects. For anyone who read the Stephen King book, Shelley is nothing like the character as written. I love Shelley, but not in that movie. And not her fault Kubrick was so horrible to her.

I think R232 had to go clean himself up after that post.

Yes, she does, r260. She discusses most everything that ever happened to her in very direct and honest terms. That even with her husband was awful, and his years of drug abuse sound torturous.

R270 I think Shelly was perfect in the film. I dont think Kubrick gave two shits about the finer points much inferior novel ( and I actually love the book). Regardless, although Shelly said that the filming was unpleasant, she doesn't regret making the film. And, love it or hate it, it's an iconic performance.

To hear Frances Ford Coppola tell it, all three "Godfather" films. A good drinking game would be to play Coppola's commentary during GF1, then take a drink whenever he whines "They wanted to fire me..."

Also, on GF3, Winona Ryder, encouraged by her boyfriend Johnny Depp, bowed out due to "exhaustion" just before filming started, forcing Coppola to drag his daughter Sofia, kicking and screaming, into the major role of Mary Corleone, which required a complete re-write of the role. I am of the belief that Sofia was the third actress cast in the role; Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered the morning of her callback audition (Coppola, to this day, will neither confirm nor deny that she was about to be cast)

R272 Rutanya's husband, Richard Bright, had such gorgeous blue eyes in person. I knew he liked to drink but knew nothing of his drug abuse. It might have happened later. And I'm afraid to ask but really curious. How much does she discuss her son? It was strange, she really changed after he was born. She was obsessed with him unlike any mother I had ever seen. It broke up the marriage for awhile. Is that discussed?

Coppola's first choice before Winona Ryder was Julia Roberts. This was before Pretty Woman and Steel Magnolias had been released. But Julia was already committed to Sleeping with the Enemy. I had known about this for years but never saw it confirmed anywhere. Finally it appeared in the IMDB trivia page. Never heard the Rebecca Schaeffer thing.

And Winona wasn't with Depp yet. From what I recall, "exhaustion" was a cover for mental illness and she was in the hospital. But that was heavily rumored. Don't know for a fact.

As for Shelley Duval, Pauline Kael said she seemed woefully miscast in the role she was born to play - Olive Oyl in Popeye.

To the contrary, she said Duvall was perfect as Olive Oyl. She was pretty much the only thing Kael liked about that movie.

Rebecca Schaeffer was being considered for the role at the time she was murdered.

Julia Roberts would have been terribly miscast. Talk about dodging a bullet.

R279 - as opposed to Rebecca?

R280 What?

Re Ryder and GF III: I read an interview at the time in which she indicated that she had an ear infection and would have lost her hearing if she hadn't received treatment. Also, she apologized for getting sick and having to drop out of the movie.

R277, R278. I can't remember who the director was supposed to be before Altman, but Popeye and Olive Oil were originally supposed to be Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin.

R281 - Rebecca was shot.

R279 With Julia Roberts height, and darkening of her hair like in Mystic Pizza, she could have been very believable as the daughter of Diane Keaton and Al Pacino. And she definitely would have had far more chemistry opposite Andy Garcia than Sophia Coppola. I think she'd have been great.

R282 I don't doubt you read an interview, but c'mon. An ear infection? I'm sure she could have brought the ear drops to the set with her. Sounds like her publicist had the day off during that interview.

Link please r278

What makes r225 different from the other posts is the use of "must have been." She doesn't know any of her accounts firsthand, she didn't read about them somewhere, she put two and two together and decided what just has to be the truth.

Is R288 Lea Michele or Hal Sparks? (must be Hal. He's got a lot of time on his hands these days).

[quote]forcing Coppola to drag his daughter Sofia, kicking and screaming, into the major role of Mary Corleone

Yeah, he was forced. Because every other "available" actress couldn't be reached that day.

R30, Jarhead scene was about going psycho. Cockblocked from combat action, as in THE MEMOIR. Mendes pulled strings all the time, and "method" went too far.

Now Ledger on Brokeback set threw tantrums with JG, the staff. He - both of them - got too invested and it messed with their heads.

R275, Rutanya mentions her son only inasmuch as being helpful in editing the book (which he did badly). She does go into detail of Richard Bright's addiction problems, mostly with heroin. It's chronicled day by day in the diary portion of the book, recorded during filming of Mommie Dearest which she describes as being a highly contentious set due to Faye Dunaway's tyranny and the bizarre behavior Faye exhibited. Between Faye's weirdness and Richard stealing money and getting high, Rutanya had a tough time. Her only joy seems to have come from her beloved cat, Kukums, which she walked on a leash around the Chateau Marmont. It's a fun, interesting book, but, badly edited and clunky in layout. She comes across as a strong, sweet woman who has survived a truly tragic life...and Faye Dunaway.

Any stories on Linda Fiorentino ?

bump

If Tom Hardy keeps up with his surliness, he won't be getting big offers for very long.

Valley of the Dolls

The director was a total cunt to Sharon Tate, talked down to her, tried to make her look dumb and made her cry.

He pissed everyone off including Patti Duke.

[quote]Oh Lordy, [R155], we've devoted thousands of words to how Marilyn Monroe made most of the sets she worked on into notorious NIGHTMARES! Taking hours or days to show up and do some work, booze and pills and freakouts, the horrible Paula Strasberg, etc. Did anyone work with that awful woman twice?

Director Billy Wilder vowed never again to work with MM after THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, but just three years later, he was directing her again in another nightmare of a set in SOME LIKE IT HOT. Nevertheless, he said to the end of his life that he would've continued to work with MM had she lived, 'cause the final result was always worth it whatever hell she put the crew through.

R231 at one point, Dean also contemptuously urinated in front of the crew and local bystanders, who were watching the shoot. He just unzipped his pants in full view and went at it. Dean was a very passive-aggressive person.

There's no photograph of the event, so this will have to do:

Every Film set that Faye Dunaway ever worked on....

Her behaviour basically killed her career, not the bad surgery she'shad done....

R12, the "Election" stuff is based on one whiny woman who went public and said she quit the business because of how mean Alexander Payne treated her -- mostly because she was an idiot who sent the whole script to an underaged actress before they could explain the lesbian subplot required or something like that. After she'd been told not to. In other words, she fucked up and got yelled at for it. Boo hoo.

Have never heard any other horror stories about that shoot and we are talking 17 years that it has been out. And Payne seems liked by all accounts otherwise. Some people are not meant for this business, that's for sure.

Those Sex and the City movies. SJP was such a bitch to everyone. She stopped filming to nab an ice cream cone. She left the set with the shivers one day after a very long set up. Kim Cattrall wanted her replaced and they were seriously thinking of getting Laura Dern at one point to do so.

[quote]And Winona wasn't with Depp yet. From what I recall, "exhaustion" was a cover for mental illness and she was in the hospital. But that was heavily rumored. Don't know for a fact.

It was widely reported even then that she had a nervous breakdown and her then-boyfriend Depp flew to Rome to bring her back home.

All the biographies I've seen, like E! True Hollywood Story, say Winona had a respiratory infection and came down with it on the plane to Rome. She blamed being exhausted after doing 3 films back-to-back (Mermaids, Edward Scissorhands and Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael)

Thank You DLers. Made for interesting reads and chuckles...

R25 Dowd is consistent in hating the Clintons what are you talking about?

Gothika-Halle Berry broke her arm and Robert Downey Jr was supposedly was too rough in a scene with her and was responsible.

Wow! Laura Dern would have made a much more interesting Carrie Bradshaw. She can somehow make narcissistic characters very watchable a la Enlightened and Citizen Ruth.

Jinxed

[quote]Those Sex and the City movies. SJP was such a bitch to everyone. She stopped filming to nab an ice cream cone. She left the set with the shivers one day after a very long set up. Kim Cattrall wanted her replaced and they were seriously thinking of getting Laura Dern at one point to do so.

Do you mean the TV series? I can't imagine they would ever consider replacing SJP by the time they made the movies. And aren't SJP and Michael Patrick King close friends?

They wouldn't. My brother is friends with a longtime crew guy on SATC and I think reports of "nightmare" are major exaggerations. Kim C and SJP do not get along, mostly because resentment started once SJP became a producer on the show (so more "The Carrie Show" than an ensemble) but no big fights on set. The most interesting thing I ever heard was that Kristin Davis was a nightmare in another way; it took a dozen takes for her to get anything right. There is a long shot on one episode where KD, SJP and Nixon are walking down the street and there is this looooong gap before KD says her line and I swear it's a case of her forgetting it -- and no way to cut around it since all one long take (I think they are discussing Samantha's new lesbian status).

I should say "FEAR OF it becoming 'The Carrie Show". I don't think it ever really did.

I heard the set of Mary Poppins was a nightmare, with Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins vying for top dog position and poor Ed Wynn getting the brunt from both of them as he was the supposed "shoe in" for an Oscar.

Then the kid who played Michael Banks was a drug abuser even back then and died a teenager of the hep.

Now the whole city is some pathetic film set of Sex and the City III. NIGHTMARE.

R312 Ed Wynn, didn't he play Uncle Albert (the eccentric man who couldn't stop laughing and floating in the air)? How would a part like that win anyone an Oscar?

Those Freddy Krueger movies. Muahahahaha!

R312 Matthew Garber caught hepatitis during a trip to India, which is not the cleanest of places. Don't try and smear the dead.

He died before I was born, I'm glad I never knew he was dead when I was a kid, I used to love that film and I loved him in it (in a non-gay way)

R312 Of course it must have been a nightmare, didn't you see Saving Mr. Banks? That PL Travers seems like a right old battleaxe.

R300 Do you mean the actress who played Tammy, Chris Klein's lesbian sister? All I know about Election is Thora Birch was originally cast as Tammy but left due to "creative differences".

Checked IMDB, Tammy was played by Jessica Campbell, who only did several other things after Election and has no credits after 2002.

R307 Though I think she'd have gotten just as much grief about not being pretty enough to play someone who has as much sex as Carrie.

There is speculation that Thora was the underaged actress sent the script prematurely -- but not confirmed. The woman who bitched was told not to (not sure why it was such a big deal, not like there was some nude love scene or something), she fucked up, she got yelled at, she went public.

Tammy Metzler aka Jessica Campbell was great as cast, though, so they got lucky with a local hire. She indeed had a short ride though.

I've heard that on the set of "The Twilight Zone" Vic Morrow had a tendency to completely lose his head.

R320 I believe Chris Klein was a local hire as well.

Feel like i've seen that joke before R321

[quote]Matthew Garber caught hepatitis during a trip to India, which is not the cleanest of places. Don't try and smear the dead.

David Tomlinson's bigoraphy repeats that misinfo in earnest, sadly.

And Garber's best film work was in [italic]The Three Lives of Thomasina[/italic].

Most David O Russell movies.

About the woman who worked on Election (1999). It wasn't just her getting yelled at for sending the script prematurely - she was also sexually harassed by the assistant director. She was also told to forge SAG papers (Undermining unions ironically was and maybe still is pretty common in liberal Hollywood). A high school student was accidentally killed.

Thank you bump bitch at R325, giving us this update THREE YEARS AFTER THE LAST PERSON POSTED TO THIS THREAD.

I always find the Mario Bros. movie to be fascinating. Even as a kid, when most people can't tell the difference between a good movie and a bad one, I could tell that something had gone strangely awry with this movie. I guess I couldn't have guessed how many things!

The Exorcist. There was so much unexplainable damage to the set that they were able to do one take per day. That's not a scene; that's where the camera is set up, the lights are ready, the actor takes their place, says three words. That's all they were able to get. Floods, I'd google it if I wanted to go into lurid detail.

No internecine strife between the actors was mentioned. The only real casualty was the sweater of a member of the crew. It was used in the end when Father Karras was in close up. The director wanted the sweater torn up and trashed. And it was a gift from the crew member's wife or something. I'm tapping on memories from the mid-1970s here and I admit they're just a leetle hazy.

Didn't know that, R328.

Law & Order: SVU after Mariska demanded Executive Producer status to re-sign. To think that people wonder what has happened to the show.

Did anyone mention that one with the helicopter crashing and killing JJL’s dad and two Asian children? That’s the one that won right?

[quote]Once when the director was explaining to Gish how he was going to shoot her in a close-up for a scene, Bette screamed, "She knows what a close-up is! Christ, she was there when they invented them!"

That is hilarious. Bette was a salty old bitch to the very end.

I remember Davis's remark as something closer to "You don't have to explain to Miss Gish how to do a close up. She invented them."

The Snowman from a few years back. A detective whodunnit where they neglected to film 20% of the script because for some reason the studio forgot to hand over the missing pages to production. Then they had two different editors cut the film in completely different ways achieving completely different senses of pacing and tone and mushed the two edits together. Then the leading man refused to promote it. Then the director’s dad died the day before the premiere.

R334 isn't Michael Fassbender in that movie??

[quote]A high school student was accidentally killed.

During the filming of ELECTION? Do you have a link?

"Hitchcock tortured Tippi Hedren for not reciprocating his attraction to her."

Hitchcock wasn't attracted to women. He wanted to be a woman. His blonde girls were his avatars, and when his Barbies didn't do what he wanted (pose for hours in outfits, etc.) he would turn on them.

R26 what’s funny about that is; even after the debacles of Superman, Donner still cites THE GOONIES as the worst experience on a project he’s ever had in his career.

Donner was brought in last-minute to take over from an overbooked distracted Spielberg, and reluctantly agreed to finish the picture though he hated the premise and loathes working with children.

He’s cool with the cast and the movie now, but back then he says the misery and stress of making it could have finished him off.

R222 Leo DiCap, notoriously.

[quote] Ledger on Brokeback set threw tantrums with JG, the staff. He - both of them - got too invested and it messed with their heads.

Never heard this. Why was Heath throwing fits? Because he couldn’t get high? I’m surprised Ang allowed an actor to impede or antagonise staff, that’s not like him.

However I can see Jake getting too in his head about it all; that would explain why Heath’s death hit him like a freight train.

Fun stories - more, more, more

[quote] [R334] isn't Michael Fassbender in that movie??

Yep. He refused to do promotion because its bomb status was known for months in advance and he was focused on his pet project Assassin’s Creed which came out two months later.

Of course that bombed too.

Where was the thread referred to By OP?

Is it true that Marlon Brando refused to take direction from Frank Oz unless Oz used his Yoda voice? Can't remember where I heard that. Sounds made up, but with Brando all things are possible.

R344 Brando wanted him to speak in his Miss Piggy, not Yoda voice (which makes the tale even funnier).

[quote] Apparently Peters wanted to cast Sean Penn as Superman and stipulated that Superman should never fly. Yeah, that would work.

It might have. That was the original premise of Superman in 1939. He couldn't fly, but instead was "able to LEAP over tall buildings in a single bound".

-------------------

I never bought the story about Wayne and the others dying because of the atomic test site dust. Wayne was a Camel unfiltered four pack a day smoker. The others were little different. But blaming patriotic John Wayne's death on the American nuclear weapons program was just too good to pass up.

-------------------

Didn't see it in the old posts but the silent film "Noah's Ark" in 1928 should be on the list. The director was less concerned about safety than the Twilight Zone fiasco.

[quote] When cameraman Hal Mohr was shown how the climactic flood scene was to be shot, he objected on the grounds that it would place many of the extras in jeopardy. Mohr told the executives that while the trained stuntmen knew what to expect and could prepare for it, the ordinary extras would have no idea what was coming, and many would be hurt. When his objections were overruled, he quit the picture, and was replaced by Barney McGill. During filming of the scene, the huge torrents of water overwhelmed the actors; three were drowned, one was so severely injured his leg had to be amputated and almost a dozen had broken limbs and other serious injuries.

600,000 gallons of water was unleashed on the extras. Thirty-five ambulances attended the wounded. John Wayne and Ward Bond are two of the extras in the shot. As a consequence of this the first stunt safety regulations were enacted.

That Jon Peters manuscript his hilarious. He is so full of himself.

But he can't keep his story straight. On one page he is carefully scrutinizing Leslie Anne Warren's contracts, on the next he can't read a script because he's illiterate.

Also who were the two girlfriends who called to say "I just fucked the president!"? I assume Barbra and Kim Basinger -- and it was Clinton.

I think every movie production has interesting and/or nightmarish stories. There's so many different personalities working together. Moving parts. Endless bureaucracy and red tape - how could you not have interesting stories?

I just hopped on this thread. THANK YOU to everyone who provided details. Fuck you to the rest of you. Your input is useless.

It turns out I was right about the godawful "Hobbit" films being a miserable dumpster fire behind the scenes.

Awesome film critic Lindsay Ellis did a three-part documentary about the problems with making this film, the studio demands apparently made it a nightmare for everyone involved. Did you know that the slight little story was blown up into three films instead of one, because the five studios owned parts of the first film? Yeah, there were three films because Warners wanted to collect all the profits from two of the films, not share out the profits from one good, well-edited film.

So here's a link to part one of a three-part documentary, "A Long Expected Autopsy". Parts two and three care called "The Battle of Five Studios", and "The Desolation of Warners".

This is a terrific thread. I’ll bring one up that isn’t heard much: Tomorrow is Today (2006). An underage Scout Taylor Compton (Laurie from the Halloween remake) caused a great deal of trouble when she allegedly fled the set with a considerably older man she met on the production whom she had fallen in love with. There were long delays as crew members tried to locate them.

[Quote] An underage Scout Taylor Compton (Laurie from the Halloween remake)

Does she still act??

Most ,if not all of David O. Russell's sets.