Babylon A.D. director Mathieu Kassovitz evidently hates his own movie.
Kassovitz's version of the futuristic sci-fi action pic starring Vin Diesel (pictured above, left) got recut by 20th Century Fox, and the French filmmaker is pretty steamed. The final version of the movie, which opens Friday, leaves most of the flick's political commentary on the cutting-room floor, Kassovitz told AMCTV.com.
"I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be," he complained. "The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience."
Kassovitz is hardly the first arty European filmmaker to get entangled with a mangled movie. Ridley Scott famously waited 25 years to realize his vision for Philip K. Dick's noir thriller with the Blade Runner: The Final Cut DVD. But the original 1982 movie -- though manhandled by financiers after Scott went over budget -- was hardly a total stinker.
Still, a long line of independent-minded filmmakers have butted heads with studio execs, only to emerge with a big-budget train wreck.
Here's a look at good intentions gone haywire in Hollywood.
Aeon Flux (2005)
It made sense on paper: Charlize Theron, fresh from an Oscar win, taps Karyn Kusama, director of the gritty Michelle Rodriguez boxing movie Girlfight, to make a tough chick flick on a larger scale. Instead of a character-driven action spectacle, Kusama produced a chilly flop.
Photo courtesy Paramount
- - -
The Invasion (2007)
Oliver Hirschbiegel's brilliant German-language Das Experiment, inspired by Stanford University's "human behavior experiments," earned him the opportunity to put his spin on this Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig performed capably but producer Joel Silver and Universal, underwhelmed by the action sequences, hired the Wachowski brothers and James McTeigue for uncredited reshoots.
Photo courtesy Universal
- - -
Catwoman (2004)
After winning her Best Actress Oscar for Monster's Ball, Halle Berry was handpicked by French visual effects wizard Pitof (Alien: Resurrection) to give this superheroine adventure an artistic edge. Instead, Pitof's moody visuals failed to compensate for lousy dialogue, story, character development and humor.
Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
- - -
[
](/images_blogs/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/26/gothika300.jpg)
Gothika (2003)
We're not trying to pick on Ms. Berry, honest, but for this crackpot thriller she teamed with another visually skilled French director with equally drab results. The auteur successfully created a brooding atmosphere, but failed to overcome the confusing "I'm going crazy -- or am I?" story line. Who was the stylish French director? None other than Babylon A.D. director Kassovitz.
Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
- - -
Dune (1984)
Blue Velvet's all-American creep show was one thing. Being hired to oversee a massive sci-fi epic filmed in Mexico under increasingly strained circumstances was another, which may explain why David Lynch got the boot from producer Dino De Laurentiis. The studio released a 137-minute flop and Lynch distanced himself from the project, which would later get re-edited without his cooperation as a whopping 190-minute TV film. Some versions of *Dune * credit the director as "Allen Smithee," the standard alias for disgruntled filmmakers.
Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
- - -
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Director Ridley Scott cast Orlando Bloom in this heroic Crusader epic, but the film suffered puzzling gaps in the story and fizzled with audiences. Though Scott dutifully promoted the theatrical version, the picture he really had in mind came out a few months later as an extended 144-minute DVD release.
- - -
Other questionable cuts
- Terry Gilliam's sprawling 142-minute freakfest Brazil (1985) got trimmed 11 minutes for U.S. release before the director found vindication with a Criterion Collection "director's cut" DVD.
- Financiers disliked director Paul Schrader's take on Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) so much that they hired Renny Harlin to essentially reshoot the whole thing. Heads did not spin at the box office.
- David Fincher had one Alien 3 (1992) in mind. Fox had another, and tossed the auteur's longer version out the window.
We're really just scratching the surface -- this pap parade could go on all day. What else did we miss?
See also:
