10 Great Movies Everybody Hated Making
Mad Max: Fury Road's hellish vision was basically produced in actual hell.
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00:00The enormous amount of work that goes into making even a terrible film is undeniable.
00:06Any completed movie is the result of hundreds of cast and crew members pooling their talents
00:10to try and create something worthwhile.
00:13But truly great films are often only achieved through tremendous adversity, enough that
00:18those who worked on them, both in front of and behind the camera, had an absolutely miserable
00:23time.
00:24So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with 10 Great Movies Everybody
00:29Hated Making.
00:3110.
00:33Gravity
00:34Alfonso Cuaron's 2013 sci-fi masterpiece Gravity is an incredible feat of effects-driven
00:40filmmaking.
00:41Cuaron originally planned to complete the project within a year, but due to the mind-boggling
00:46complexity of the visual effects, it ended up taking almost five years of his working
00:51life, while the shoot itself required absolute precision from its cast and crew.
00:56Case in point, Robert Downey Jr. was originally signed to star as astronaut Matt Kowalski,
01:01a role eventually played by George Clooney, but he bailed after it became clear that his
01:06improvisational acting style clashed with the strict requirements of such a carefully
01:10controlled project.
01:11The experience for stars Clooney and Sandra Bullock was uncomfortable, to say the least.
01:16With most of the film's imagery being computer-generated, the actor spent up to 10 hours a day inside
01:22a 9-by-9-foot mechanical rig intended to simulate a space shuttle while being directed
01:27via earpiece.
01:28Bullock said of the harrowing experience,
01:31"'It was just frustrating, painful, and isolating.
01:34I wanted to kill producer David Heyman and Alfonso regularly.
01:38So all of your hate and your anger and your rage, you just give forth in your work and
01:43hope it translates on screen.'"
01:44Ultimately, Gravity went on to win seven Oscars, including Best Director and grossed over $700
01:51million worldwide.
01:529.
01:53Apocalypse Now
01:54Frances Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is arguably the greatest war movie ever made,
02:00and certainly the one whose production most closely resembles an actual war in its own
02:04right.
02:05Enough that a brilliant documentary, Hearts of Darkness, a filmmaker's apocalypse, was
02:10made about it.
02:11In Hearts of Darkness, Coppola famously said of the shoot,
02:14"'We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money,
02:19too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.'"
02:21He's not exaggerating.
02:24Shot in the Philippines for over a year while going massively over budget, Apocalypse Now
02:28wore its cast and crew down over the course of production, with Coppola becoming so despondent
02:34by everything that went wrong that he had a nervous breakdown, lost a terrifying amount
02:39of weight, and considered suicide.
02:41In terms of the cast, Martin Sheen had a near-fatal heart attack mid-shoot, which took him out
02:47of commission for six weeks.
02:49Marlon Brando showed up to set over weight and without having learned his lines while
02:53clearly having little desire to be there, and Dennis Hopper found Brando irritating
02:57enough that he decided to intentionally anger him wherever possible.
03:02Many other cast and crew members were drunk or high for much of the shoot, and given the
03:06utterly ramshackle nature of the production, can you really blame them?
03:108.
03:11Wayne's World
03:12Wayne's World is such an absurdly entertaining and hilarious film that you probably assumed
03:17it was also a total blast for the cast and crew to make, right?
03:20Oh, how wrong we all are.
03:23Several of the key players ended up clashing throughout shooting, namely star Mike Myers
03:28and director Penelope Spheeris, with Spheeris calling Myers emotionally needy and claiming
03:33that he got more difficult as the shoot went along.
03:36Spheeris was torn between the creative needs of Myers, co-star Dana Carvey, and producer
03:41Lorne Michaels, allegedly resulting in her shooting scenes three different ways on numerous
03:46occasions in order to keep them all happy.
03:49Spheeris and Myers also butted heads over the final cut of the film, while Myers battled
03:54producers who had their own ideas for what Wayne's World should be.
03:58And yet there's not even a hint of that strained production in the end result, which
04:02remains one of the most beloved studio comedies of the last 30 years.
04:077.
04:08Total Recall
04:10Few directors relish a chaotic production quite like the legendary Paul Verhoeven, who
04:15has thrived on countless disordered shoots, including 1990s Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring
04:20sci-fi classic Total Recall.
04:22Due to Verhoeven's decision to shoot the film mostly in sequence while demanding as
04:28much as 20 takes per scene, the budget ballooned from an initial $30 million to a rumoured
04:34$80 million by the time it was in the can.
04:37But the strife came largely through the Mexico City shooting location, with almost the entire
04:42cast and crew falling ill due to consuming contaminated food and water.
04:46The only exceptions were Arnold Schwarzenegger, who having previously become sick from eating
04:51local cuisine while shooting Predator, had his food shipped in from the US, and producer
04:56Ronald Shusett, who gave himself vitamin B12 shots every day.
05:01The movie's dusty Mars sets also caused temporary respiratory problems for almost the entire
05:06cast and crew.
05:07Elsewhere, Schwarzenegger suffered numerous cuts and broken fingers while performing stunts,
05:12and Michael Ironside cracked his sternum and separated two ribs, resulting in him having
05:17to complete the shoot while still recuperating from his injury.
05:206.
05:21The Lighthouse
05:23Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse was one of 2019's most acclaimed movies, receiving enormous
05:28praise for Eggers' direction and the phenomenal, arguably career-best performances from both
05:34Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
05:37And yet, the treacherous location shoot was majorly trying for most everyone involved.
05:42For starters, the harsh, soggy weather at Cape Fortune, the Canadian fishing village
05:47where most of the film was shot, caused camera equipment to frequently malfunction and lenses
05:52to uncontrollably fog up, such that it took 25 takes to capture a clear shot of Pattinson
05:58walking into the ocean for one scene.
06:01As for Dafoe and Pattinson, they've both spoken extensively about the physically and
06:05psychologically trying nature of the shoot, which caused them to barely talk outside of
06:10filming scenes.
06:11Given the movie's material, though, this anguish really only ended up enhancing its
06:16manic, unsettling energy, and the end result was surely worth the 35 days of hell shooting
06:22it.
06:235.
06:24Blade Runner
06:25Blade Runner is a cinematic sci-fi monolith beyond compare, and its wonderfully gloomy
06:30mood might be informed in part by the constant behind-the-scenes discord during shooting.
06:35For starters, star Harrison Ford didn't work well with either co-star Sean Young or
06:41director Ridley Scott.
06:43Ford felt that Young's lack of experience was slowing production, and he also argued
06:47intensely with Scott over whether or not his character Deckard was a replicant.
06:52Scott also didn't endear himself much to the film's cast or crew.
06:56He regularly demanded upwards of a dozen takes for seemingly insignificant camera
07:00set-ups, enough that Warner Bros. almost intervened and had him replaced.
07:05Scott also pissed off the production's American crew members after claiming in an interview
07:09that British film crews worked harder, prompting American makeup supervisor Marvin G. Westmore
07:14to create t-shirts mocking Scott's claim.
07:17Then there's late legendary cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, who had been diagnosed
07:22with Parkinson's disease the year before shooting started, and his condition debilitated
07:27enough that he was working from a wheelchair by shoot's end.
07:31And on top of all this, everyone's moods were worsened by the bulk of the film being
07:35shot at night, while the continual dousing of fake rain made everyone soggy and tired.
07:414.
07:42Titanic
07:43James Cameron has proven repeatedly over the years that he thrives when getting wildly
07:48in over his head, and this has never been truer than during the production of his best
07:52picture-winning smash hit Titanic.
07:55The issues began early when Cameron personally insisted upon taking a submersible down to
08:00the actual Titanic's resting place to film footage, with one of his dives resulting in
08:05a nearly catastrophic collision between the vessel and the Titanic.
08:10As for principal photography itself, it's no secret that Cameron was a taskmaster, frequently
08:15chewing out the cast and crew during the high-pressure shoot.
08:19Kate Winslet suffered numerous injuries while shooting the water scenes, and initially vowed
08:23to never work with Cameron again, though ultimately decided to re-team with him for the upcoming
08:28Avatar The Way of Water.
08:30Other cast members were kept in cold water for egregious amounts of time per shooting
08:34day, causing widespread illness.
08:363.
08:37The Exorcist
08:38It's been well documented that director William Friedkin treated his cast with a cavalier regard,
08:45intentionally creating a deeply uncomfortable atmosphere in order to tease out legitimately
08:49terrified performances.
08:51In one instance, he fired a gun near actor Jason Miller to startle him, and had the crew
08:56yank Ellen Burstyn's harness so hard during a stunt that she received a permanent back
09:01injury when she collided with a wall, a take that was kept in the film, no less.
09:07Friedkin also had air conditioning units brought into the McNeil House set to shoot the film's
09:13young Linda Blair, who was wearing a threadbare nightgown, was extremely uncomfortable and
09:18gave her a lifelong aversion to the cold.
09:21Despite Friedkin's antagonistic nature on set, he didn't exactly have a picnic making
09:26the film either.
09:27Warner Bros. frequently protested his casting choices, and in part because a fire destroyed
09:32much of the set, production took twice as long and cost twice as much as originally
09:37planned.
09:382.
09:39Mad Max Fury Road
09:41The fourth Mad Max film was in development in various forms for the better part of 30
09:46years before it began shooting, and that's where the issues really started.
09:51First and foremost, the unforgiving landscape of the Namibian desert was severely detrimental
09:55to the physical and mental health of the cast and crew, who had to deal with excruciating
10:00heat, extreme cold at night, and dust storms.
10:03With the cast and crew suffering so much, including actress Riley Keough catching hypothermia,
10:09it was decided to give everyone a week's break in the middle of filming.
10:13But there were also creative issues.
10:15Charlize Theron bristled with Tom Hardy over his penchant for method acting, and both Theron
10:20and Hardy had difficulty working with Miller.
10:23Theron felt that Miller wasn't directing her adequately, while Hardy frequently argued
10:28with him.
10:29Many said that Miller was visibly weathered by the six-month shoot, losing an enormous
10:32amount of weight, all while having to contend with the deeply concerned Warner Bros., who
10:37sent studio reps to the set to supervise his work.
10:40Yet, Theron and Hardy in particular have since been hugely emphatic in stating their joy
10:45at the film's reception, with Fury Road receiving near-universal praise while winning
10:50six of its ten Oscar nominations.
10:531.
10:54The Love Witch
10:55Annette Biller's 2016 comedy horror film The Love Witch received near-universal acclaim
11:01for its stylistically on-point parody of 60s horror, and also a terrific performance from
11:07lead actress Samantha Robinson.
11:09However, more than a year after its release, director Biller herself tweeted that most
11:14of the crew hated what we were shooting and did not even see the movie after it was done.
11:19She added that numerous Pivotal crew members were swapped out during shooting, and alleged
11:23that some even attempted to sabotage the production.
11:26Biller blamed the set's tempestuous atmosphere on both crew members affronted at working
11:31for a female director and a line producer who set up a bad vibe and then disappeared,
11:36whatever that means.
11:37For his part, cinematographer M. David Mullen offered no comment when asked to address the
11:42controversy.
11:43And yet, the end result feels like such an holistic achievement on Biller's vision
11:48that you'd never guess there was major behind-the-scenes tension.
11:52And that concludes our list.
11:53If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below, and
11:57while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
12:00Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
12:05just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:07I promise it's safe, it's not a joke.
12:09That is my name.
12:10I've been Ellie with What Culture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you
12:14next time.