6. David Fincher - Alien 3
Alien 3 (1992) was music video director David Fincher's first foray in to studio filmmaking- and from the stories told, it was a pretty bad experience for him overall. Alien 3 was a troubled production right from the get-go, with 20th Century Fox unable to settle on a suitable script, and Fincher constantly having to re-write it on set, which is always a bad sign. The production even had to shut down to accomodate re-writes. Fincher also had to deal with constant studio interference. Fincher eventually disowned the film and walked off the set before editing began, due to him learning that whatever film that was going to hit theatres would not be his vision. The film has never been as positively received as the first two films in the series, but the "Assembly Cut" of the film, put together for the 2003 DVD release of the series, which was based on Fincher's earlier work print, is seen by many as a stronger version of the film. While the Assembly Cut reportedly has Fincher's blessing, it's not really a "director's cut" since Fincher has said that a true director's cut of the film would mean starting production over from scratch, due to his lack of control of the original production. Fincher, of course, bounced back from this troubled production and with his next film, Seven (1995), starting his path towards becoming the acclaimed filmmaker he is today.