9. Edward Norton vs Tony Kaye
When Director Tony Kaye states that studio New Line Cinema "raped" his first feature film and quotes his leading man Edward Norton as being a "narcissistic dilettante" who ruined his film in the editing room, you know this one belongs on this list. When he met Edward Norton, Kaye told him straight up that he wasn't right for the role of Neo-Nazi Derek in his film American History X. New Line Cinema gave him five weeks to find an alternative, and after he couldn't come up with the goods in the short time frame, Kaye was stuck with a leading man he didn't want. Not the greatest of starts for any director/actor relationship, but it only got more sour from there. Norton initially cited their relationship as one that was "incredibly fruitful, satisfying, healthy and a positive collaborative dynamic" - a PR manager's wet dream. As the shoot went on, Kaye was noticeably lax in his directorial style - he was his own cinematographer, he gave lead roles the freedom to craft their own performance and he would take and use suggestions from just about anyone on set. With a silly amount of footage (200 hours plus), Kaye managed to cut it down to a decent rough cut, decent enough to impress New Line, who gave him a few notes to work on for the final edit. Problem was, Kaye wasn't happy with the edit he had made, so he sank himself back into the edit room and began to chop the film down to a 90 minute running time. Norton wasn't impressed with the new edit made by Kaye and asked him if he could join him in the editing room to help boost the film's running time and add to its content. Too many cooks finally spoiled the broth for Kaye, as studio heads and producers from all over New Line were popping in to have their say. Tempers reportedly ran so high in the editing room that Kaye smashed his fist through a wall, breaking his hand in the process. It was Norton he had the real issue with, despite the actor now claiming that he hardly anything to do with the edit. Kaye adamantly suggests that Norton got away with whatever he wanted as the studio were so afraid of him. Kaye left cryptic messages in The Hollywood Reporter about the way he was treated, asked New Line for eight weeks of free editing alone and generally bad-mouthed anything to do with what he now called 'The Edward Cut' of his own film. New Line Cinema gave Kaye eight weeks to edit alone. He jetted to the Caribbean to consult the thoughts of Nobel Prize winning poet Derek Walcott on his film and when the studio asked him what he was thinking he said "If Kubrick gets the time he needs, I deserve the same". Needless to say, the studio had had enough of Kaye; they released their cut of the film (largely done by Norton) which received immediate acclaim. Despite the success, Kaye went to every festival and demanded it was taken down, sometimes to avail, other times not. Norton often states that Tony Kaye only thinks about Tony Kaye, and is notoriously difficult to work for or with due to his fragile mentality of wanting people to think he is some sort of artistic genius.
Who won? You only have to look at Kaye's spotty career, that harbors little in the way of a comeback, to see who had the last laugh on this one.