12 Directors Who Blamed Studios For Failed Movies

12. David Fincher - Alien 3

David Fincher is regarded these days as one of the best directors going around, with his nihilistic stylings embraced by the studios lucky enough to acquire his services. This wasn't the case however for his directorial debut for the much maligned Alien 3. While the film has garnered a stronger appreciation over time, this hasn't stopped Fincher from disowning the film.

After working in the special effects department of many a blockbuster film and taking the Directorial duties for music videos for artists such as Madonna, Fincher was offered the seemingly dream directorial debut role, that unfortunately turned into a bit of a nightmare.

The third alien film was highly anticipated, but with that anticipation came much studio pressure and 'guidance'. As Fincher noted in an interview with the BBC, "when everybody’s wringing their handkerchiefs and sweating and puking blood because of the money that’s being spent and you’re going ‘Trust me, this is what I really believe in’...they turn around and say ‘Well, who the f### are you, who cares what you believe in?’”

While Fincher's original cut of the movie had a runtime of 144 minutes, the theatrical cut was trimmed down by thirty minutes, with a significant subplot completely removed. Losing this aspect of the film appears to be the biggest bugbear for Fincher, which explored the Xenomorph being captured before the character of Golic released it. A directors cut has since been released on DVD, which hopefully has brought some closure for Fincher on the messy affair.