10 Behind-The-Scenes Movie Stories Better Than The Actual Plot
8. The Director Thought He Was Playing SimCity - Heaven's Gate
In the '70s, after making the films Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino was the new up-and-comer who could do no wrong. Cimino had written the script for Heaven's Gate in 1971, but no one wanted to touch it. Now, with newfound fame and success, he was given a budget equivalent to almost $41 million in today's money. Disastrously, though, he was also given carte-blanche and wound up costing over $111 million, when adjusted for inflation. Based on the Johnson County War, the film is set in the 1890s and stars an ensemble cast of A-listers.
Cimino did all kinds of insane things: He intricately designed a road, only to not like it, and order it to be totally dismantled and moved three feet back; he had a whole tree cut apart and reassembled on set; and even built an entire underground irrigation system to maintain vivid greenery on the stage.
Cimino managed to film 220 hours of footage, costing the studio $200 thousand a day. He delayed filming to wait for the right cloud to pass by! The production took so long John Hurt was able to depart, film the entirety of his scenes for David Lynch's The Elephant Man, and then return to finish filming his scenes for Cimino. Stars Jeff Bridges and Kris Kristofferson actually got so bored during filming they decided to start a band together.