Alan Smithee is a name you might be familiar with. He appears to be behind numerous different aspects of film production, in a fairly diverse number of projects. He even has his name above the title with 1998's Burn Hollywood Burn. The weirdest thing about him, though? Alan Smithee is not a real person. C'mon, as if anybody's actually called Alan Smithee. It's actually a pseudonym taken by writers or directors when they're unsatisfied with a piece of work and don't want it to be put out with their name on it. The guy who actually directed American History X considered doing it when Ed Norton took control of the final cut. It's a fairly common practice in Hollywood, but Smithee was also credited with writing a run of Daredevil comics during the mid nineties. Daredevil #338-342 was actually written by Dan Chichester, but he protested his dismissal from the book by taking the Smithee name.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
