11 Reshoots That Actually Improved Movies
If at first you don't succeed...
"Reshoot" is largely considered a dirty word in Hollywood, as it suggests a movie that's suffering through a troubled production and probably won't be very good. Much was made about Star Wars: Rogue One having up to 40% of its scenes reshot, and naturally, fans were pretty concerned, but the end product certainly seemed to justify the extra work.
Sure, there are plenty examples of movies that were made worse by reshoots: last year's Fantastic Four featured one of the worst wigs in cinema history, Scott Pilgrim had its ending changed to be less mature and more sappy, and I Am Legend's conclusion was a victim of the troubling "test audience" dictating what a wider crowd apparently want to see.
That said, there are a number of stellar examples that prove the potential virtues of reshooting scenes. After all, is it really better for a filmmaker to just stay quiet rather than accept their faults and try to fix them?
These movies instead prove that reshoots can fix a movie, and test audiences can in fact be valuable on occasion.
Here are 11 reshoots that actually improved movies...
11. Back To The Future
The Reshoot: The classic time-travel comedy originally starred Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, but four weeks into the shoot, it was decided that he wasn't well-suited to the part, and was ultimately replaced by Michael J. Fox (who was the studio's first choice anyway). Reshooting these scenes added a huge $3 million onto the film's $14 million budget.
How It Improved The Movie: Scant footage of Stoltz as McFly has done the rounds online, and it's clear that his Marty was much more serious, with director Robert Zemeckis noting that he gave a "dramatic performance", whereas Fox's work was much more warm and rooted in comedy.
The end result speaks for itself: Fox created one of the most beloved and iconic movie characters in history, and there's no doubt that everyone involved in the recasting and reshoots made the right call.