Random Behind-The-Scenes Feuds That Changed The Direction Of Movies (15 items)

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  (#5) Cop Out

  • Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Adam Brody, Kevin Pollak, Guillermo Díaz, Seann William Scott, Jason Lee, Ana de la Reguera, Michelle Trachtenberg, Rashida Jones, Jim Norton, Susie Essman, Sean Cullen, Francie Swift, Michael A. Pitt

  Cop Out (2010) was both a box office bomb and critical punching bag. The film was called joyless, poorly paced, cliched, poorly executed, and half-baked. But who was to blame when this big-budget movie tanked? Was it director Kevin Smith, the writers, or the film's stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan?

  According to Smith, the brunt of the blame should be placed on Willis's shoulders because of his attitude on the set. Smith talked about the experience of working with Willis on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast: “It was difficult. I’ve never been involved in a situation like that where one component is not in the box at all. It was f*ckin’ soul crushing. I mean, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Oh, you’re just trying to blame the movie on him.’ No, but I had no f*cking help from this dude whatsoever.”
  
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  (#2) Once Upon a Time in America

  • Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld, Burt Young, Joe Pesci, Danny Aiello, William Forsythe, James Hayden, Darlanne Fluegel

  Once Upon a Time in America, Sergio Leone's epic ode to American gangster films, is a classic case of studio interference. Leone's original tale of Jewish gangsters in prohibition-era New York City ran for 229 minutes. Leone and studio heads clashed over the film's running time, and distributors subsequently edited the film down to a mere 139 minutes. They also turned the film's non-linear narrative into a chronological tale, a move that critics widely criticized. The butchering made the story very difficult to understand, and it ultimately resulted in box office failure. However, Leone's original vision is available for viewers who don't mind the four-hour running time.
  
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  (#13) The Island of Dr. Moreau

  • Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, David Thewlis, Fairuza Balk, Ron Perlman, Marco Hofschneider, Temuera Morrison, William Hootkins, Daniel Rigney, Nelson de la Rosa

  It's hard to believe that Val Kilmer is actually harder to work with than Marlon Brando, but that was the case for this feud. Audiences got to go behind the scenes of the sci-fi remake The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) thanks to the documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau. Val Kilmer's career was smoking hot at the time after portraying Batman and he arrived on set with a bad attitude. Richard Stanley tried to direct him, but Kilmer was often disagreeable, sometimes refusing to act in a scene. 

  The feud and Kilmer's behavior got the best of Stanley; he left the production after only a few days and was replaced with John Frankenheimer. However, Stanley did return to the set in disguise to work as an extra. Who knows what could have been if Stanley stayed on to direct, but we know for sure that Frankenheimer's version was a box office disappointment and a critical punching bag.
  
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  (#14) Charlie's Angels

  • Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray, Sam Rockwell, Tim Curry, Kelly Lynch, Crispin Glover, Matt LeBlanc, LL Cool J, Tom Green, Luke Wilson, John Forsythe

  Bill Murray is known to sometimes be unkind on movie sets. The legendary story from Charlie's Angels (2000) is that Murray got into a fight with co-star Lucy Liu and said to her, "What in the hell are you doing here? You can’t act!” Liu reportedly responded by throwing punches at Murray. Director McG, who claimed Murray headbutted him, was also not happy with Murray's on-set antics. The director replaced Murray with Bernie Mac as Bosley for the next film in the franchise, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003). 
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  (#3) Iron Man

  • Robert Downey, Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Shaun Toub, Faran Tahir, Leslie Bibb, Sayed Badreya, Clark Gregg, Bill Smitrovich, Jon Favreau

  Due to Iron Man's enormous success, it's hard to remember what a mess Robert Downey Jr. was before putting on the suit. His battle with drugs and alcohol led to multiple arrests, and it seemed like the talented actor's career was over. However, sometimes all it takes for a comeback is to have one very persistent man in your corner. Director Jon Favreau battled Marvel to cast Downey as Iron Man. The studio rejected the idea several times, but Favreau insisted because he knew Downey was perfect for the part. "It was my job as a director to show that it was the best choice creatively…and now the Marvel Universe is the biggest franchise in film history," Favreau said. Sometimes feuds actually do end well.
  
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  (#9) Blade Runner

  • Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, William Sanderson, Brion James, Joseph Turkel, Joanna Cassidy, James Hong, Morgan Paull, Kevin Thompson, John Edward Allen, Hy Pyke, Kimiro Hiroshige, Bob Okazaki, Carolyn DeMirjian

  Now, Blade Runner is considered a sci-fi noir classic, but at the time of its release, the movie totally flopped at the box office. The well-known story is that director Ridley Scott wanted to use a twist for the film's ending which hinted that Deckard (Harrison Ford) was actually a Replicant. Ford was completely against the idea, and it caused a feud between the actor and director. Scott ignored Ford and shot the scenes that would signal at Deckard's true nature.

  Since Scott wasn't listening to Ford, the actor decided to talk to the studio about his opinion. The studio agreed with Ford, and the scenes were cut. Thankfully, Scott was later able to add the deleted scenes in his 1992 Director's Cut. It makes for a more interesting, thought-provoking story with a realm of possibilities.
  

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