10 Directors Who Quit Movies During Filming

If you haven't heard of Empires of the Deep, don't feel bad, because the 3D fantasy film has never actually been released, despite starting shooting in 2009 with a stonking $130 million budget.

The film was the brainchild of Chinese billionaire realtor Jon Jiang who desperately wanted to produce his own Spielberg-esque mega-blockbuster.

After several higher-profile directors quit the project - including The Empire Strikes Back's Irvin Kershner - Jiang settled for commercial and music video director Jonathan Lawrence.

Lawrence, who had no major feature film credits to his name, has since detailed the extremely difficult shoot, defined by culture clashes between the Chinese crew and international cast, producer Jiang's intrusive amount of control over the project, and the misery of shooting on location in unpredictable weather conditions.

Tensions rose enough that Lawrence told Jiang the script was the worst he'd ever read, while cast and crew members weren't paid on time if at all, and corners were being cut by the local stunt crew which resulted in numerous accidents.

The situation became dire enough that Lawrence had to help an actress who wanted to quit the movie escape to the local U.S. embassy.

Lawrence toughed it out for five whole months before walking away from the production, at which point Michael French was drafted in to film the remaining two-thirds of the script.

French lasted two months before departing for an existing project, where he was replaced by Scott Miller, who successfully completed filming by late 2010.

Reshoots were conducted in 2014, and though trailers have since been released, crowdfunding efforts to complete vital VFX work haven't been successful. What a mess.