• From: Buffalo, NY
  • Registered: 2010-01-08
  • Posts: 2,037
  • User Karma: 202

Topic: When pre-production sets movies up to fail

I rented Lost in Space again to listen to the commentary, which as I mentioned in another thread is incredible. The writer and director (and probably the FX crew in the second commentary) go through what the hell happened, and almost all of it was due to choices set up way before filming started. A short list:

-the Jupiter 2 set was designed to be impossible to light and shoot in ("if there's a sequel, we're blowing it up 5 minutes in")

-the space suits all had batteries which died at different times, making for endless delays

-the special effects were divided up among lots of UK companies who didn't talk to one another and had never done something this big. Two days before the film was due they were cutting the negative to edit around major shots that weren't delivered.

-the monkey puppet looked like crap, as did the CGI replacement

and that's just half way through, and not counting all the story and tone changes done during the shooting and editing process smile Any other fun examples where they really should have thought things out better before starting to build sets, let alone film?

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

Thumbs up Thumbs down

  • From: Florida
  • Registered: 2009-12-01
  • Posts: 703
  • User Karma: 27

Re: When pre-production sets movies up to fail

Sorta; Alien 3 was originally going to take place in a wooden ecclesiastical type of setting, but when the first director (and credited writer) was fired, the script was rewritten to take place on a prison world.  The sets were already under construction, so they just painted everything gray and threw in a few buckets of grime.

Matt Vayda's Website

Thumbs up Thumbs down

  • From: Gardena, California
  • Registered: 2009-11-26
  • Posts: 1,598
  • User Karma: 484

Re: When pre-production sets movies up to fail

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9904/13557padmepadmadestiny.png
lulz

Thumbs up Thumbs down

  • Registered: 2010-05-27
  • Posts: 444

Re: When pre-production sets movies up to fail

Didn't Star Trek V: The Final Frontier waste money on a rock monster idea? I'll always kinda feel bad for Shatner on that one. I haven't read my Cinefex for that one in a long time but apparently there was a writer's strike, so when production eventually began no A-list vfx shops where available, so some company in New Jersey did it. They bought a ton of new equipment and had to reinvent the wheel, like the white Enterprise was tricky to shoot against a blue screen, etc. Stuff ILM had mastered.

They say Michael Cimino (i'm a big Year of the Dragon fan) ignored his $3m budget on Heaven's Gate and blew through another $40m+, which was a lot in 1979. There's no way that wasn't going to end in tears. Some studio exec said yes to all that, or didn't say no, but Cimino got the blame.

Thumbs up Thumbs down