10. Dying Of The Light Gets Disowned By Its Cast & Crew
In October of last year, Paul Schrader took to Facebook to tell his fans that his latest movie, Nicolas Cage-starring cop flick Dying of the Light, had been taken away from him by his producers and re-edited, scored, mixed and colour-corrected without his input or permission. While Schrader, Cage, executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn and co-star Anton Yelchin were all barred from publically criticising the film due to non-disparagement clauses in their contracts, they decided on an unusual protest to express their disgust. Each of them posted a picture of themselves wearing a T-shirt quoting said clause, a silent protest of sorts that nevertheless made their disappointment 100% clear. Undeterred, Lionsgate ended up releasing the movie straight-to-VOD on December 5th, a severely neutered 94-minute cut that was unsurprisingly destroyed by critics. While it's difficult to watch the finished product and see the promise of a great film at all, the movie's butchered release was still a loss for freedom of artistic expression, especially as it's unlikely that Schrader will ever be allowed to release his own cut given the movie's critical and commercial failure.