Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 11:24:32 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Production Disasters that Turned Out Okay

Started by garnish, December 11, 2018, 08:41:24 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

buzby

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on December 13, 2018, 08:53:06 AM
There's also several bits of footage of it not working in the numerous docs that have been made over the years.  I seem to also remember an out-take where it grinds to a halt mid-bite and you hear loud hissing as the pneumatics/hydraulics get fucked up.
Ridley Scott had a similar problem with the suit in Alien - it looked too much like a skinny tall man in a suit wearing a headpiece, so he decided to show it only in closeups, or heavily disguised by shadows and lighting effects. The version of Lambert's death that ended up in the film versus the one from  the deleted scenes is a good example of this decision paying off

Scott's most famous production disaster was of course Blade Runner, which even in it's original form turned out ok despite having a terrible working atmosphere onset, being effectively unfinished and editorial control being taken over by the production insurance bondholders due to going over budget.

Noodle Lizard

Pretty much every Terry Gilliam film.  Swear that man has a curse on him - or maybe it's that he publicizes his disasters whereas others keep them quieter.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on December 13, 2018, 09:31:39 AM
Yep, you can see it not working in all of that footage. I get why people might be suspicious of the story behind the making of Jaws, as it almost sounds too good to be true, but the documentation is all there.

Indeed.  Heck, even the 2012 feature-length documentary (as found on the Blu-Ray release) is knowingly titled The Shark Is Still Working.

lazyhour

Ant Man seemed to have a pretty troubled production, but turned out really enjoyable.

#34
I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but The Revenant had some bad on-set reports while it was being made, mostly because of the part of the world that they shot it in (not unlike the similarly problem-plagued and Tom Hardy staring Fury Road... ).  I remember watching the first trailer and thinking "I'm getting serious Heaven's Gate vibes from this..." 

The film became a big hit and won Dicaprio an Oscar.

Brundle-Fly

Rogue One (2016) had significant cuts and hasty reshoots before its release five months later. Seemed to be well received.

phantom_power

Quote from: lazyhour on January 09, 2019, 09:14:59 PM
Ant Man seemed to have a pretty troubled production, but turned out really enjoyable.

I think the only problem was Edgar Wright leaving quite close to filming that sort of thing happens quite a lot. I think actual production itself wasn't too bad. I don't think there were on-set issues or massive reworking of parts of the film that typify a troubled production

gilbertharding

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on December 11, 2018, 09:30:55 PM
I can't remember any specific stories, but I remember what seemed to be months of rumours and jokes about Titanic being a sure fire dud.

I remember stories that being on the set of Titanic was nearly as dangerous to life and limb as being on the actual ship - and watching the finished product you can see why - but not people saying it was a turkey. 

NoSleep

Quote from: mothman on December 11, 2018, 10:15:33 PM
Waterworld.

It doesn't make "okay" by any stretch. I'm hard pushed to think of anything good to say about it.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: gilbertharding on January 11, 2019, 03:31:53 PM
I remember stories that being on the set of Titanic was nearly as dangerous to life and limb as being on the actual ship - and watching the finished product you can see why - but not people saying it was a turkey. 
It was more the ballooning budget that I remember reading about. The expectation seemed to be that it would be an overambitious flop, along the lines of Heaven's Gate or Cleopatra.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: buzby on December 13, 2018, 09:58:43 AM
Ridley Scott had a similar problem with the suit in Alien - it looked too much like a skinny tall man in a suit wearing a headpiece, so he decided to show it only in closeups, or heavily disguised by shadows and lighting effects. The version of Lambert's death that ended up in the film versus the one from  the deleted scenes is a good example of this decision paying off

Scott's most famous production disaster was of course Blade Runner, which even in it's original form turned out ok despite having a terrible working atmosphere onset, being effectively unfinished and editorial control being taken over by the production insurance bondholders due to going over budget.

Now you've mentioned Alien, I must point out that in Alien 3 (better than people say it is) they had to abandon their initial plans of strapping stuff to a whippet because it looked ridiculous.




Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

DOGGO3
Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on January 11, 2019, 09:29:24 PM
Alien 3 (better than people say it is)
Worse than some people on here say it is though.

Sebastian Cobb

It'd be pretty good to get a coat like that to stick on your whippet/greyhound/lurcher though wouldn't it? The normal velcro coats make them look rubbish.

greenman

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 10, 2019, 06:52:34 PM
Rogue One (2016) had significant cuts and hasty reshoots before its release five months later. Seemed to be well received.

Does I think make it easier to believe the idea that Gilroy was brought on more to work with Edwards rather than replace him, I mean I think you see the difference compared to Solo that very much feels like a film that's been repurposed away from its original intent when Howard took over.

Icehaven

I haven't seen it yet but didn't Bohemian Rhapsody take years to get made and have a lot of off-screen hassle (Sacha Baron Cohen dropping out, issues with the director etc.) Seems to have done pretty well though.

Brundle-Fly

The original cut of Fat Slags (2004) was originally only an hour long and they had to quickly tag on another twenty-five minutes of pointless back story to make it a proper feature film. It won a Golden Globe that year.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 13, 2019, 05:00:15 PM
The original cut of Fat Slags (2004) was originally only an hour long and they had to quickly tag on another twenty-five minutes of pointless back story to make it a proper feature film. It won a Golden Globe that year.

Same exact thing happened with Sex Lives of the Potato Men (also 2004).  2004 was the apex of the British film industry.

kidsick5000

Quote from: lazyhour on January 09, 2019, 09:14:59 PM
Ant Man seemed to have a pretty troubled production, but turned out really enjoyable.

Prolonged rather than troubled.
It really just took a while in the preparation stages, and then director and studio amicably parted

Ant Farm Keyboard

#48
Barry Lyndon.

First, Robert Redford turned down the lead part. Then, Kubrick would spend days on set without filming anything, asking instead his crew to call him "Isaac." The production started in Ireland, and they ultimately stayed there so long that the assistants were becoming quite close to local girls. That was the moment the IRA sent threats to the production for them to leave, because the locals didn't want some of the girls to get pregnant with a British bastard. Kubrick left basically overnight, with a few scenes missing.
They later worked on the war sequences, that involved German captain Potzdorf. Oskar Werner (Lola Montès, Jules and Jim) was originally cast, but he was fired after three weeks, due to his drinking, and replaced by Hardy Krüger.

During post-production, Kubrick asked composer Leonard Rosenman to write and direct orchestral arrangements of a few pieces. Kubrick was there for the recording sessions, and requested something like 106 takes of one particular cue, as he felt the performance was one third of a beat off. Rosenman then tried to strangle him, prompting Kubrick to say, "You're crazy." Rosenman remembered this moment quite fondly.

thenoise

Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky)

Due to a balls up in the film lab, over a year's worth of footage was rendered unusable.  Tarkovsky almost abandoned the film, but ended up hiring a new cinematographer and re-filming almost the entire film.  Unfortunately the film was made in poisonous location and many crew members died a few years later from similar diseases (including Tarkovsky himself).  So not a happy ending all round, but a great film came out of it...

DrGreggles

In a phase last year of deliberately seeking out bad movies, I saw 'Ishtar' for the first time.
It's fine. Nowhere near the eye AIDS that I'd always heard it was anyway.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: thenoise on January 26, 2019, 07:39:38 PM
Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky)

Due to a balls up in the film lab, over a year's worth of footage was rendered unusable.  Tarkovsky almost abandoned the film, but ended up hiring a new cinematographer and re-filming almost the entire film.  Unfortunately the film was made in poisonous location and many crew members died a few years later from similar diseases (including Tarkovsky himself).  So not a happy ending all round, but a great film came out of it...

I never knew it nearly got abandoned. The second attempt has a very 'soviet stock' look of the colour film.

St_Eddie

Quote from: DrGreggles on January 26, 2019, 09:28:59 PM
In a phase last year of deliberately seeking out bad movies, I saw 'Ishtar' for the first time.
It's fine. Nowhere near the eye AIDS that I'd always heard it was anyway.

Ishtar was originally infamous, not for being a terrible movie, but for being one of Hollywood's biggest flops.  Critically, it received a mixed reaction at the time of its release.  It's only in the intervening years that hyperbole has been used to label it as one of the worst movies ever made (by people, who I suspect, have never even watched it), based off its status as a flop.  Revisionist nonsense.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Sebastian Cobb

I've got ishtar on the list but always had the impression it's slating was because it was unprofitable rather than shit on an artistic level.

The first 25 minutes or so of Ishtar are absolutely brilliant, the rest of it is just okay

Keebleman

Quote from: St_Eddie on January 26, 2019, 09:40:06 PM
Ishtar was originally infamous, not for being a terrible movie, but for being one of Hollywood's biggest flops.  Critically, it received a mixed reaction at the time of its release.  It's only in the intervening years that hyperbole has been used to label it as one of the worst movies ever made (by people, who I suspect, have never even watched it), based off its status as a flop.  Revisionist nonsense.

I'd say you have it the wrong way round: it was regarded as terrible at the time with the production calamities cited as evidence, but since then people have been more enthusiastic.

When it was released there was a piece in one of the Sunday glossies that held to this line, and it was one of the few big films that Barry Norman - never a critic to go out on a limb - was happy to put the boot into.  It also won Worst Director at the Golden Raspberries, but as this piece suggests, that particular 'academy' is even lazier and more prone to groupthink than the real thing.

Gary Larson did a cartoon about Hell's Video Store which only had copies of Ishtar, but later admitted he hadn't seen it and when he later did he was dismayed at how good it was.  Tarantino, Scorsese and Gilbert Gottfried are also very fond of it.

Never seen it myself, but would like to.  Elaine May's A New Leaf is a superb debut, and while she hasn't exactly been starved of work since - she's currently appearing on Broadway and getting raves - it's a shame that her profile is so much lower than Mike Nichols' ever was.

McChesney Duntz

Elaine May's directorial oeuvre is a paltry four pictures, but damned if all four aren't each great on different levels, Ishtar very much included. Criterion's putting out Mikey and Nicky on Blu-Ray this month; can't wait.

Phil_A

Quote from: Keebleman on January 27, 2019, 12:32:23 AM
I'd say you have it the wrong way round: it was regarded as terrible at the time with the production calamities cited as evidence, but since then people have been more enthusiastic.

When it was released there was a piece in one of the Sunday glossies that held to this line, and it was one of the few big films that Barry Norman - never a critic to go out on a limb - was happy to put the boot into.

That and, of all things, Drop Dead Fred. He hated that film, and made a point of singling it out more than once as the worst film being shown over Christmas in his RT roundup.

Oh, The Cable Guy was another one that earned Norman's ire.

Shaky