10 Chaotic Productions That Somehow Resulted In Great Films

Obviously it's not wise for a filmmaker, their cast, and their crew to go into production on a movie under-prepared. Most of the best films are so good (and so coherent) because they involved lots of planning in advance, to ensure that the production wouldn't be arduous, and to have more chance of the film not turning out as a complete mess in the edit. Most of the time, reshoots, delays, and trouble on the set are all good signs that the film itself won't be turning out so well. Think of Josh Trank's recent Fantastic Four, or something like the embattled I Heart Huckabees, which revealed itself to be as erratic as writer-director David O. Russell was during filming. Occasionally, however, some of the best movies are born from completely chaotic productions. You can have directors losing it, studios interfering with the film, and cast and crew duking it out, but that doesn't necessarily mean the movie itself can't still turn out great. Here, then, are 10 shambolic productions that resulted in great films all the same.... 10) The Bourne Identity The Production: "When I hear people saying that the production was a nightmare, it's like, a 'nightmare'? Shooting's always hard, but we finished." So said Matt Damon of The Bourne Identity's troubled shoot, which saw director Doug Liman clash with studio Universal, release delays due to those disagreements, major reshoots, and a budget increase of $8 million. It didn't help that Liman was inherently mistrustful of studio involvement and firm on his way - as opposed to the studio's - being the right way. Nor was anything made easier by Tony Gilroy re-writing the film as it shot, literally faxing new pages in throughout production. The Film: While not an enormous blockbuster success, The Bourne Identity was a sleeper hit that did better business than expected. The film didn't turn out too shabby either, arriving as an old-school spy thriller that served as a more intelligent counterpoint to James Bond. In fact, it was so good that it spawned one of the best action/spy franchises around, and some even argue The Bourne Identity is still the best in the series. 9) Mad Max: Fury Road The Production: Dreamt up in 1998 and finally released in 2015, it was not an easy journey to the screen for Mad Max: Fury Road. After the shoot relocated in 2011, from New South Wales to Namibia (the reason being New South Wales had come in for a spot of rainfall, and no longer looked suitably apocalyptic), filming began and wrapped in 2o12. Rumors of a rift between stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, and accusations that the practical stunt-heavy production damaged part of the Namib Desert, didn't stop director George Miller and team returning in 2013 for heavy reshoots, though. Then editing began - on 480 hours of footage - and didn't end until 2015, when the film finally saw the light of day. The Film: With such a delay, who really expected Mad Mad: Fury Road to be as good as it turned out to be? It's not just the best Mad Max film, nor Miller's best film, nor the best film of 2015 so far: Fury Road is one of the greatest action movies in cinema, period. And it was the brainchild of a 70-year-old retired doctor who was also responsible for the Babe and Happy Feet movies - go figure that one out. 8) Margaret The Production: Something of a unique specimen on this list, the shoot for Kenneth Lonergan's long-awaited You Can Count On Me follow-up, Margaret, apparently went pretty smoothly. Then the film went into post-production, and that's when the fun really began. Although it finished shooting in 2005, it didn't see the inside of a theater until six years later. This was in part due to Fox Searchlight and Lonergan tussling over the final cut, and various lawsuits stemming from that and other financial issues. There were four edits of the film in total - the theatrical version finally released in 2011 was done for free by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker. The Film: An epic drama dealing in the complexities of human emotions, Margaret isn't the kind of movie you see very often (which is probably a big reason why nobody seemed to know what to do with it for so long). When the film was finally released - in a truncated theatrical form and a director's cut, again indicating indecisiveness behind the scenes - it was hailed as something of a difficult modern classic. 7) Eyes Wide Shut The Production: While most of the films on this list are examples of productions out of control, Eyes Wide Shut is actually the opposite: a film made so carefully and meticulously that shooting ran over again and again, to the point where the film became the holder of the record for longest continuous shoot, at 400 straight days. Due to director Stanley Kubrick's intense tinkering (he had to approve every single prop and visual element in the film, down to the wallpaper and items of furniture), Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh shot scenes then had to leave production when it wouldn't stop running. Kubrick's obsessiveness didn't stop there, either: after shooting completed, he went into post-production for almost a year. The Film: Like so many Kubrick movies, Eyes Wide Shut was largely misunderstood upon release, but has gradually earned a reputation as another one of the mercurial filmmaker's beautiful, complex movies. So dense and detailed it requires multiple watches just so the viewer can begin fathoming it, Eyes Wide Shut is one of the darkest, strangest movies of the 90s. Within his filmography, it's minor Kubrick, but even minor Kubrick is still better than the vast majority of films out there. 6) Fitzcarraldo The Production: No Werner Herzog production has ever been easy; but add combustible thesp Klaus Kinski into the mix, and you get guaranteed chaos. For this tale of an entrepreneur (Kinski) carting a steamboat through the Amazon, Herzog had locals haul the 320-ton ship for real, something which later prompted accusations of indigenous exploitation. Kinski was the real nightmare though, continually fighting with cast and crew to the point where native chiefs offered to kill him (Herzog politely declined). He wouldn't have even been there if original star Jason Robards hadn't been sent home with dysentery, forcing Herzog to scrap 40% of the film and start over with new lead Kinski. The Film: One of Herzog's finest achievements, Fitzcarraldo is a bizarre, luscious colonial epic about the blurred line between dedicated obsessiveness and insanity. Herzog won Best Director at Cannes, and the film itself was nominated for a slew of other awards. Together with Aguirre, Wrath of God and Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo represents two crazy, brilliant artists - Herzog and Kinski - working at the height of their powers. 5) Ratatouille The Production: Dreamt up by Oscar-winning Pixar animator and director Jan Pinkava in 2000, Ratatouille remained in development under Pinkava until 2005, when The Incredibles director Brad Bird stepped in to replace Ratatouille's creator and nail a story that all told hadn't up to that point been working to its full potential. 2007 was when this one was released, which means that Brad Bird took over production, changed the story and the script, redesigned characters, and had the film fully voiced and animated, all in just 18 months. The total time usually required to make a film like this is around three years. The Film: Acclaimed across the board, Ratatouille raked in over $600 million in box office receipts. Heartwarming, effortlessly charming, and visually luxurious, Ratatouille also crucially feels like Brad Bird's own, personal project. It's sad to say there's not much of Jan Pinkava's personality felt or much of his visual sense observed in the final film, but the movie that does exist is a winner all the same. Remarkable for something that was a relative rush job, Ratatouille could even be Pixar's best. 4) The Thin Red Line The Production: For his return to filmmaking after two decades, Terrence Malick pulled out all the stops for The Thin Red Line. Together with a cast of dozens, but minus the producers (who he barred from the shoot), Malick headed to Australia and the Solomon Islands to deviate from the script and spend a lot of time filming nature (action wasn't Malick's beat - at one point he seriously considered hiring Renny Harlin to cover the action scenes). Then, when he finally got to the edit, Malick significantly reshaped his movie, cutting out major stars (Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton) and diminishing the roles of others (Adrien Brody, George Clooney) considerably. The Film: Brody and Rourke weren't happy one bit, but almost everybody else was very taken with Malick's third feature film; it was even nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. So astoundingly shot and edited it comes across more like poetry than a war movie, The Thin Red Line may still very well stand as Malick's crowning achievement. 3) Sorcerer The Production: Shot over an extended ten months, William Friedkin's Sorcerer was beset by problems, starting with the crew. After Friedkin let original DoP Dick Bush go, the director clashed with teamsters, dismissed several production managers, had to replace multiple crew members who were found in possession of drugs, while around 50 people had to leave the film for medical reasons. This was because Sorcerer shot deep in the South American jungle, which posed all kinds of logistical problems, ramping up the cost of the film and dragging production on much longer than anticipated. The Film: Friedkin's personal favorite of his own films, Sorcerer may just be the New Hollywood auteur's greatest work. Going up against the mighty Star Wars on release, Sorcerer originally died a box office death. Time has been kind, however - Sorcerer is not only at least on a par with The Wages of Fear, the film it's a remake of, but it looks like one of the great masterpieces of 70s Hollywood cinema. 2) Heaven's Gate The Production: Heaven's Gate is the film that bankrupted a studio. Literally. United Artists forked out a then-unprecedented $44 million (up from an original budget of $11 million) for Heaven's Gate, just to see it tank at the box office and sink the studio for good. Over-running by months to take the total shooting time to almost a year, Heaven's Gate was plagued by rumors regarding animal cruelty and cocaine being factored into the budget, while director Michael Cimino took precise megalomania to new levels, spending whole days on single shots and endeavoring to shoot one million feet of film in order to 'beat' Apocalypse Now's Francis Ford Coppola. The Film: Critics at the time were unkind to Heaven's Gate, and audiences mostly steered clear, but the film has since come in for a significant critical re-evaluation. Now, it's generally accepted that Heaven's Gate is a sumptuous (if flawed) epic, with every frame a picture thanks to Vilmos Zsigmond's wondrous cinematography. It's the western as imagined by David Lean, complete with eye-popping imagery and melancholy tone. 1) Apocalypse Now The Production: This one is the granddaddy of shambolic productions. Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now took almost a year to shoot, Filipino storms wrecked the sets, and the film became so bloated that the budget swelled from $14 million to over $30 million. Original star Harvey Keitel was fired, his replacement Martin Sheen had an alcohol-fueled breakdown (as seen in the film) and almost died of a heart attack, some of the cast were on drugs for real, and Marlon Brando turned up to the set overweight, having not learnt his lines. Also, Coppola considered suicide as an escape, almost understandably. The Film: Apocalypse Now began shooting in 1976 (prep had been going on since 1975), and didn't see release until 1979. Most of the time, this would be a warning sign, indicating that the film in question wasn't any good. But Coppola - perfectionist that he was - had just been holed up in editing since the film's wrap in 1977. The final product revealed itself to be a phantasmagorical war-is-hell masterpiece, created by someone treading a very fine line between madness and genius.