10 Directors Who Went To Insane Lengths To Get Their Movies Made

If you thought Justice League had a troubled production, that's small potatoes compared to what Werner Herzog endured while making Fitzcarraldo. During filming, Herzog's wife was attacked, a crew member got stabbed in the throat with an arrow, the cinematographer had his hand cut in half, three people were killed in plane crashes, and a logger was bitten by a snake, forcing him to chop his foot off with a chainsaw.

However, the craziest thing about Fitzcarraldo is that it centres around a character dragging a 365-ton steamship over a hill - a feat Herzog performed himself! Even though the sequences revolving around the ship could've been achieved with camera tricks or miniatures, Herzog did it for real.

Also, the ship in the film wasn't hollowed out to reduce its weight. It was literally 365 tons! Now, since Fitzcarraldo is based on a true story, you might assume Herzog made the ship this heavy for the sake of historic accuracy. But in reality, the historic steamship was only 30 tons and was carried over in pieces rather than hauled altogether.

So, why did Herzog make this feat a thousand times more difficult than it had to be? Because he's crazy.