By all accounts, Mr. & Mrs. Smith was just your regular old Doug Liman production - which is to say, it was godawful chaos. The screenplay was redrafted over 50 times, actors repeatedly signed up and bailed, while much of the footage from the shoot was never even used in the final cut. As the anarchy of Liman had previously worked for The Bourne Identity, another troublesome shoot helmed by the director, some were confident it was going to work again for Mr. & Mrs. Smith. When they finally got to see it, critics and audiences alike generally agreed it didn't. The film was originally to feature a trio of veterans who really deserved better than to become victims to the editor's knife: Golden Globe-winner Jacqueline Bisset, along with Academy Award nominees Angela Bassett and, best of all, cockney badass Terence Stamp as a shady villain. Fans of General Zod who turned up to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith must have been fuming after getting through to the end of Liman's mess of a film only to learn Stamp was going to be threatening absolutely nobody today.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
