10 Films That Directors Just Made Up On The Fly

2) The Island Of Doctor Moreau

It seemed that the original director on The Island of Doctor Moreau, Richard Stanley, at least had an idea of where he wanted to go with it. But once Stanley was fired – three days into shooting – any solid plan went out the window. John Frankenheimer was brought in as a replacement, to rein in a spiteful Val Kilmer, martial a difficult Marlon Brando and make use of sets and a script he barely cared about or understood.

Stanley’s script was rewritten to suit Brando and Kilmer was replaced in the lead by David Thewlis, but the production ran no smoother. Brando did as he pleased in his scenes, bringing bizarre ideas to the film to mess with Frankenheimer, while Thewlis – since admitting “we all had different ideas of where it should go” – rewrote his character himself. Predictably, critics hated the mess that came out the other end.