10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Contents

Some of the most celebrated movies went through a director or two before they found the right fit. Here are a few movies that axed their directors.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Though it’s the director that controls every aspect of the development and production of a movie, it’s actually the producers who have the ultimate creative control and the final say on the movie. And sometimes, producers make the wrong decision on who they hire to direct the movie, but they don’t realize it until they see the dailies and it’s too late.

After realizing that the studios’ visions don’t go hand in hand with the director’s, sometimes replacing the director works brilliantly, but other times it can jeopardize the movie’s quality even further. Whether it’s beloved animated movies, 60-year-old epics, or polarizing superhero movies, the final cut is sometimes a result of the original directors being replaced.

10 Brenda Chapman – Brave

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Brave broke the Pixar mold in a lot of ways, and it’s arguably the most unique film in the studio’s filmography, but it could have been a lot different. Brenda Chapman would have been the first female director of a Pixar movie, but it was taken away from her and she was replaced by a male director.

But the reason why is because Chapman had planned for it to be a much darker movie, and considering how the movie is already pretty dark, it may have been a safe choice from Pixar’s perspective.

9 Steven Soderbergh – Moneyball

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Steven Soderbergh has been in the game so long that there are a ton of movies he almost directed, but one of the most infamous was Moneyball. The director had gotten so far into production, and he was fired just a week before principal photography was set to begin.

The director handed in a last-minute rewrite of the script that was so heavy in baseball terminology that it would have risked alienating viewers, according to the producers. On top of that, the treatment was completely different from the final result, as it was intended to have a documentary approach. The studio completely shut down production before finding a new director.

See also  10 Underrated SciFi Films From The 2010s You Have To See

8 Ash Brannon – Toy Story 2

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Brave isn’t the only movie where Pixar decided that their vision wasn’t completely in line with the director’s. When Ash Brannon was at the helm of Toy Story 2, he was reportedly going at a snail’s pace, so Pixar founder John Lasseter had to step in and take over directing duties.

Funnily enough, when Ash Brannon was directing the movie, it was originally supposed to be direct-to-video. But after Lasseter took over, it became something so much bigger, won an Academy Award, and is one of the best Pixar movies ever.

7 Anthony Mann – Spartacus

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Before it was classed as Stanley Kubrick’s breakthrough, Spartacus was director Anthony Mann’s passion project. Even though the star of the movie, Kirk Douglas, wasn’t even a producer and had no involvement in the production, the actor had so much star power that he fired Mann himself.

There are scenes that Mann shot that made it into the movie, but it isn’t clear as to which shots were directed by which director. But thanks to hiring Kubrick, the film became the highest-grossing movie of 1960, and if it wasn’t for Spartacus, fans may not have gotten the classic Kubrick movies, like A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.

6 Jan Pinkava – Ratatouille

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

As yet another Pixar project that saw the director get replaced after creative differences between him and the studio, it comes as a surprise that Pixar movies actually turn out as amazing as they do.

Pixar believed that Jan Pinkava’s approach to Ratatouille was “too ethereal,” and that it wouldn’t have been commercially successful. The studio replaced Pinkava with Brad Bird, who was the perfect pick considering how Pixar wanted the movie to be more commercial. Bird had previously directed The Incredibles, one of the most commercially successful Pixar movies up to that point.

5 Richard Donner – Superman II

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Richard Donner directed the first Superman movie in 1978, and as it was so successful, Warner Bros. had him return for the sequel.

The producers claimed that the troubles all came down to budget and that Donner was constantly overspending. And on top of that, Donner wanted Marlon Brando to return as Jor-El, whereas the producers didn’t want to have to give the movie star 12 percent of the gross take, like he had gotten in the first film. So the producers ultimately came to the decision to replace Donner with Richard Lester, as he’d be more of a “yes man.”

See also  15 Steamy Photos Of The Cast Of Breaking Amish

4 Bryan Singer – Bohemian Rhapsody

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

It might have not been the most historically accurate biopic in the world, but for the most part, Bohemian Rhapsody is a highly entertaining and upbeat movie. It overperformed at the box office and Rami Malek won an Academy Award for his performance. However, after director Bryan Singer kept disappearing offset and constantly locked horns with the cast, 20th Century Fox fired him.

Apparently, two-thirds of the principal photography of the movie was already filmed, and that’s when Dexter Fletcher stepped in to finish things off. However, Singer did get final credit for directing the movie, considering that the film was already very close to being completed.

3 Zack Snyder – Justice League

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Though it depends who is asked, as Zack Snyder disputes the claims that he was fired from the production of Justice League, there are many sources that say the visual director was, in fact, let go. Snyder’s rough cut of the movie was supposedly “unwatchable,” but given that the newly released Snyder Cut has been widely acclaimed, it seems like nobody will know the real story.

Whatever it is, Snyder was replaced by Joss Whedon, who made the movie brighter and added more jokes. It was the studio’s decision to add these after fans and critics criticized the DCEU for being so dark.

2 Phil Lord And Chris Miller – Solo: A Star Wars Story

10 Movie Directors Who Were Replaced During Production

Fans and reporters were starting to get concerned about the direction of the Star Wars prequel when there were rumors that Disney had hired an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich midway through production.

Following that, Eldenreich claimed that the directing duo were making Han Solo look like Ace Ventura. And it’s reportedly Ehrenreich who reported their direction to producer Kathleen Kennedy, which led to their firing. After they were fired, Kennedy hired filmmaking veteran, Ron Howard.

1 Edgar Wright – Ant-Man

When it was announced that Edgar Wright would be directing the Ant-Man movie, fans thought it was a perfect fit, as the director is known for his kinetic editing and affectionate genre homages, something that Ant-Man is full of.

There is even apparently a lot of Wright’s writing and effects still in the movie, but the director attached to the movie is Payton Reed. It comes down to that age-old statement of “creative differences.” The biggest problem seemed to be that the director didn’t have much interest in connecting the movie to the MCU, at large.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/movie-directors-who-were-replaced-during-production/

Reviews -