1. The Entire Damn Cast of September
Anybody who's spent any time studying his films knows that Woody Allen tends to approach the actual shooting process as just another draft of the script. Annie Hall, that charming little romantic comedy everybody loves, was originally a two and a half hour mind-f*ck trip through Woody Allen's brain, with the relationship with Diane Keaton only a minor subplot; Crimes and Misdemeanors originally included a subplot involving Sean Young completely cut from the finished film. Creatively, this is arguably a smart way to work -- instead of being married to/carrying out a flawed concept, Allen can look at the film as it stands, see what works, see what doesn't, and readjust, much the way directors and playwrights will do in the theater -- but it raises eyebrows in the film world, where people tend not to want to spend any more money than they have to getting a movie finished. This all pales, though, to the strange story of September. Allen originally filmed September with Maureen O'Sullivan, Mia Farrow, Sam Shepherd, Charles Durning and Dianne Wiest; then he looked at the assembled film and decided to
completely re-write and reshoot it, replacing O'Sullivan with Elaine Stritch, Denholm Elliot replaced Durning and Sam Waterston was brought in to replace Shepherd. (Apparently because all those actors had prior commitments, but still -- jeezus, Woody!) It's one thing to recast a part a few weeks into shooting. It's another thing entirely to completely finish a film, look at it, and then decide to reshoot it with an entirely different cast. You only get to do
that if you're Woody Allen.