10 Doomed Movies SAVED By Last-Minute Reshoots
4. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Looking back at Anchorman, it's hard to imagine the film that helped boost Will Ferell's movie career into overdrive almost didn't exist. After all, it's a perfectly made comedy classic, and there's so much about the movie that was done right, but there's a good reason for that: reshoots.
When the original cut of the film was shown to test audiences, it failed miserably. The plot was vastly different from the finished film and involved the kidnapping of Veronica Corningstone by a terrorist group called "The Alarm Clock." Ron and his buddies banded together to rescue her, and that ended the movie.
The test audiences absolutely hated it for the ridiculous plot, and apparently, it wasn't funny in the least. DreamWorks demanded rewrites and reshoots to save Anchorman from becoming another crappy comedy nobody bothered to see, winding up in the discount bin where it would fail to sell.
The ending was completely changed, and everything about the kidnapping and The Alarm Clock ended up on the cutting room floor. This eliminated performances by Amy Poehler, Justin Long, Stephen Root, Neil Flynn, Kevin Corrigan, Maya Rudolph, Chuck D, and Tara Subkoff, which is a shame, but probably for the best given how poorly the first cut was received.