10 More Movies Where The Reshoots Were Painfully Obvious
The Force wasn't strong in Ewan McGregor's hairpiece.
Reshoots are an inevitable part of filmmaking. Most blockbuster releases require around $10 million's worth to iron out plot creases, give the movie a few tonal tweaks or fix issues that didn't sit well with test audiences.
Some films need more additional scenes to be captured than others and there's always a stigma attached to projects like this. When extensive patching-up is deemed necessary, it's usually a sign that the production is in trouble.
Adding reshoots to the mix is a fine art, especially when they require actors to get back into character to lay down new scenes. The stars may have moved onto preparing for other roles by then and altered their physical appearance as a result.
Variables like this are what makes shooting extra footage after the fact so challenging. If your star has gained several pounds or shaved his head since filming their initial scenes, continuity goes out of the window when you shoot some more.
There are ways around this, of course, from shrewd camera angles to digital editing techniques, but filmmakers don't always paper over the cracks seamlessly, and there are some high-profile examples of movies where the reshoots stood out like bad CGI in a Star Wars special edition.
10. Samurai Cop
With a title like Samurai Cop, it probably won't surprise you to hear that this B-movie was a piece of straight-to-video fodder, but it holds a cult following thanks in no small part to some comically jarring reshoots.
Several months after the movie's initial photography had wrapped, lead actor Mathew Karedas (credited in the film as Matt Hannon) shaved off his long, flowing locks in search of other work, which created a massive continuity problem when director Amir Shervan called him back to film extra scenes.
Apparently, the filmmaker was furious that Karedas had the audacity to get a haircut as it forced him to go off on a wild goose chase in search of a wig that resembled the star's original hairstyle. The closest he could find was a luxurious woman's toupee that looked nothing like the actor's original do.
Believing the reshoots were minor, Karedas agreed to wear the hairpiece, only to discover there was still half a film to lay down. Throughout the final cut, the star's hair goes from natural in one scene, to obviously fake in the next, and because these scenes weren't shot in chronological order, it then switches back again.
The only thing more ridiculous than a law enforcing martial artist in a woman's wig are the scenes where it's falling off his head to reveal his real hair beneath.