10 Directors Who Knew Their Movies Were Ridiculous

There's a good chance most people reading this haven't heard of a movie called Catchfire from 1990. The film is a romantic action thriller directed by Dennis Hopper, and it's filled with talent. In addition to Hopper, Jodie Foster, Fred Ward, Vincent Price, Charlie Sheen, Joe Pesci, and Catherine Keener were all involved.

While all that star power doesn't necessarily ensure the film will be a hit, the fact that few have seen or even heard of it does seem strange at first glance. Of course, there's a reason nobody has seen this flick, and it's everything to do with Hopper's problems finishing the movie.

In 1988, the Writers Guild of America launched a strike, and it directly affected rewrites during production. While dealing with that, Hopper and the studio butted heads constantly, and his 210-minute cut was knocked down to only 98 minutes.

Hopper was so infuriated by the damage the studio caused to his film, he completely removed himself from production, and insisted it be released under the Alan Smithee pseudonym. The film is objectively bad, and Hopper knew it. Eventually, Catchfire was repackaged under the title, Backtrack, and unsurprisingly, it bombed.