30 Movies That Stopped Filming and Started Over

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Max Evry and ComingSoon.net took a look at 30 Movies That Stopped Filming and Started Over.   This is an interesting article.  It’s amazing how quickly directors can fall behind schedule and over budget to the tune of millions and millions of dollars.  Then there’s always the possibility of “creative differences” causing stars to clash with each other or the director.  Most of these films that started over still failed at the box office… but not always.  Here are three of my favorites from Evry’s list…

Back to the Future (1985)

Without question, the most famous case of a movie stopping and starting over again (as well as the most successful) was when director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg made the unthinkable decision to fire Eric Stoltz as lead character Marty McFly well into the shoot at a cost of $3 million dollars. Apparently Stoltz’s performance was deemed too dramatic and not light enough for the comedic film, as well as his being uncomfortable on a skateboard. Five weeks into the shoot, they let Stoltz go and hired Michael J. Fox, who was the original choice, and the rest was history. The film became a SMASH success and is now considered a classic, spawning two beloved sequels. Film stills and a small amount of footage has been released of Stoltz in the part, and while the actor went on to have a fine career afterwards, his version of those scenes is one of the most sought-after holy grails of geekdom.

Tombstone (1993)

The late screenwriter Kevin Jarre (Glory) was the original director on this story of Wyatt Earp, but he reportedly was in over his head on set, demanding a level of authenticity and length that proved unwieldy, falling behind on the shooting schedule. A month into filming, producer Andrew Vajna replaced Jarre with George P. Cosmatos, for whom he had ironically written the script for Rambo II. All of Jarre’s footage was scrapped with the exception of all scenes with Charlton Heston, who was unavailable to return. The script was parred down to make the shoot more manageable, and Kurt Russell acted as a kind of ghost director on set. The film was a surprise box office success, bringing in $56 million and besting Kevin Costner’s more expensive rival Wyatt Earp film.

Rambo III (1988)

Russell Mulcahy of Highlander fame was originally hired to helm this third installment of the Rambo franchise, with Sylvester Stallone at his physical (and egotistical) peak. Unfortunately, Mulcahy and Stallone clashed and after three weeks the director and much of his crew were sacked. One reason given was an incident where the director was supposed to hire vicious Russian troops but according to the actor hired “pretty boys.” Another reason was three weeks into production they were already two weeks behind schedule. Stallone promoted veteran second unit director Peter MacDonald, who had worked on Rambo II as well, to capable first-time director. The sequel became the most expensive movie ever made up to that time, but was unfortunately released after the Russians had already left Afghanistan and suffered at the box office.

I was surprised to learn that Spartacus and Phantom of the Opera started over.  Usually, when this happens it is pretty big news.

I always wanted to see footage from Rambo III directed by Russell Mulcahy.  I am a huge fan of the original Highlander and was interested in what he’d bring to Rambo… although “pretty boy” Russian troops wasn’t in the thought process.