Intro These days, every movie fan knows the one
word that can spell disaster, or pull of a miracle: reshoots. But reshoots are a lot
more common than you might think. And even if some tend to be exaggerated, there are
plenty of hit movies that really WERE drastically changed due to studio concerns, or saved by
a director's second pass. Here are 10 Movies Completely Transformed By Reshoots.
Thor: The Dark World It may not be Marvel's biggest hit, but ask
fans of the second Thor movie what saved the day, and they'll probably agree it had a lot
to do with Tom Hiddleston's Loki playing a major role. From the opening scenes that pick
up right after Avengers, to Loki's impression of Captain America, he made sure to deliver
the best laughs, and help set off the ultra-stoic Thor. But nearly all of those scenes were
added for fear it was getting a bit dry - and were just a few of the many action scenes
heightened to keep things moving. I Am Legend
It might be the most famous example of a re-shot ending that actually got things completely
wrong. The original ending for this tale of a vampie-zombie apocalypse was a shocker,
revealing that the monsters weren't just intelligent, but willing to let the hero live if he returned
the leader's mate. But that ending - which saw mankind basically drop down the food chain
- got the studio nervous. Instead, an ending was reshot to have the hero find a cure, then
blow everyone up. Basically, the opposite message - and an ending few fans would actually
have chosen. Mad Max: Fury Road
George Miller relied on action and landscapes, more than dialogue to build his post-apocalyptic
world, and - no surprise - the studio had a hard time seeing what he did. Once he turned
in his first cut, Warner Bros. was blown away. So impressed, they agreed to give Miller the
extra money needed to film the scenes from the script that they had forced him to cut:
the opening and closing sequences set in Immortan Joe's massive Citadel. It's hard to imagine
the film without those landmarks, which is probably a sign that the studio made the right
call, giving Miller the reshoots needed to bring his ENTIRE vision to life.
World War Z There was a time when the Brad Pitt zombie
thriller was marketed as the first of a franchise... but all that changed when the movie started
nearing its big conclusion. While most of the movie was a character drama, the original
ending would have sent Pitt's character into a massive zombie battle in Russia, before
he made it to the Siberian coast, and set out with medieval weaponry to rescue his family
in America. The studio got cold feet, and shut down production completely. In the end,
a completely different, smaller, and cheaper third act was written and shot.
Superman 2 Director Richard Donner's Superman is hailed
by many as the best film version the world has seen, so it was no surprise the studio
chose to film its sequel back-to-back to cut costs. But the legendary director was at odds
with the producers from the start. So when Superman became a hit, they cut him loose,
figuring he was no longer needed. Richard Lester was brought in to replace him, and
began re-shooting nearly the entire movie to remove Donner's directing credit. The dumb
jokes are a sign of the humor Lester went for, but fans still wonder what could have
been... Back to the Future
There's a difference between reshooting scenes and reshooting a movie - and Back to the
Future was practically the latter. Director Robert Zemeckis knew as soon as the cameras
started rolling that Eric Stoltz, cast as Marty McFly, wasn't the right kind of funny
for the movie's tone. But knowing Michael J. Fox's schedule wouldn't be open for weeks,
they kept on rolling - doing their best to shoot around Stoltz so Fox's shots could be
inserted later. When he became available, the switch was made - along with movie history.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The modern reboot of the classic comic mutants
took a crazy twist on the villain Shredder, but would you believe that he almost wasn't
included in the movie? The original version of the movie used business mogul Eric Sacks
as the Shredder hiding in plain sight, but when fans flipped over Iron Man 3 revealing
a fake Mandarin, the producers realized they were basically pulling the same twist. Reacting
fast, the new Shredder was added, and fans were none the wiser.
Fantastic Four There are times when reshoots can hurt a movie,
and times when they just plain ruin it. That's probably the case with Josh Trank's "Fantastic
Four" reboot, with the first trailer promising a blend of sci-fi and horror in a genre filled
with popcorn action. The first act of the movie follows through, but soon after, the
changes and reshoots reported to be demanded by Fox start to show. It's hard to know if
Trank gave star Kate Mara the fakest wig we've ever seen for her reshoots so fans could tell
how far the film strayed (you can use all kinds of clips from the third act, because
it's all wig). Trank and the cast have all claimed the original cut was the better one,
which means we'll probably never get to see it.
Finding Nemo Okay, so you can't technically reshoot a CG
animated film, but Pixar's insane hit Finding Nemo could have turned out completely different,
since the role of Marlin - Nemo's dad, and the movie's star - was originally completely
voiced by actor William H. Macy. Pixar's bosses sensed it wasn't quite working, and Albert
Brooks was brought in instead. Since Brooks' performance is a major reason the film works
as well as it does, Macy's role, no matter how good, would have resulted in a different
star, and a different movie. Men in Black
Everyone knows the movie's story, but it changed even after key scenes had been filmed. For
starters, the two aliens who meet on Earth to make sure the "galaxy on Orion's belt"
is safe? They were originally enemy races, trading the galaxy to end an ancient war between
them - with the movie's villain wanting it to continue. When the story changed, the entire
scene - performed in English - was dubbed over in alien, with completely different subtitles.
It's also a talking pug who lays out the plot - the new one, since his lines were completely
re-written after the scenes had been shot. BONUS:
Suicide Squad/Rogue One Just because a movie has yet to be released,
that doesn't mean fans aren't ready to shout disaster or just celebrate. When DC's Batman
V Superman took hits from critics over its dark, not-so-fun story, one word of reshoots
on Suicide Squad was all some needed to call it damage control, claiming new scenes were
being filmed to lighten the mood and add humor. The cast and director laughed off that story,
claiming the studio was so impressed, they'd been given the chance to add even more action
- meaning the bad news was... good, actually. The same happened when Star Wars: Rogue One
added reshoots, with claims that half the movie was being remade and rewritten, and
director Gareth Edwards replaced - all shot down just as soon as they were made. We'll
just have to wait and see... Those are just a handful of movies that prove
a director's second shot at delivering a hit can be exactly what's needed, or all it takes
to kill any chance it ever had. The producers and directors behind the decision seem to
be right as often as they're wrong, but can you think of some examples that we've overlooked?
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