10 Behind-The-Scenes Movie Stories Better Than The Actual Plot

Elaine May had helped Warren Beatty to write Heaven Can Wait and Reds, the latter of which she went uncredited for. As such, Beatty felt indebted to her, so he helped produce and star in Ishtar - the story of a pair of incompetent musicians who get caught up in a war in Morocco.

Foolishly the movie was filmed on location in Morocco, within the confines of the actual Sahara Desert, itself - during a time when Morocco was beset by rebel insurgents. Likewise, Palestinian paramilitary groups were operating in the area and were said to want to kidnap co-star Dustin Hoffman, a famous Jew. The dunes they were filming on had to be swept for landmines daily before they could film anything.

One of the most famous stories of Ishtar involves a production assistant being sent to buy a blue-eyed camel. He had found one, but felt it was overpriced. He went searching for others, intending to find a cheaper one, but only then learned that blue-eyed camels are exceedingly rare. By the time he made it back to the original seller, the merchant had butchered the creature and eaten it.

It certainly didn't help matters that Beatty, Hoffman, and May were all perfectionists and numerous takes were done for each scene creating a deluge of footage to sift through in post-production. The trio were also said to feud constantly. Ultimately, the film would be considered one of the worst ever made. The resulting stress ruined the friendship between May and Beatty.