5. Alien 3
Alien 3 is one of those movies that is almost universally despised. It was David Finchers directorial debut and hes completely disowned the film. Following the success of
Aliens, 20th Century Fox was keen to make a third version, with lots of different scripts flying around. William Gibson took a crack at it. David Twohy (who went on to direct his own version of an Alien movie with
Pitch Black) wrote a script involving a prison planet with prisoners being used in experiments on the aliens. It also introduced the idea of the different types of aliens. Vincent Ward then wrote an entirely new script, about Ripley and the alien landing on a monastery-like satellite with a partially wooden interior its all-male population would have been made up entirely of monks. The eventual script combined Twohys prison planet with Wards monks, so that should show you what a rushed and slapped-together production
Alien 3 was. Fincher had to constantly rewrite the script as they filmed, fitting in sets that were already built for previous versions, and dealing with relentless studio interference. Once the movie was finished, the studio completely dismantled Finchers version and cut together their own. This was such a miserable experience for everyone involved, the studios interference was felt by everyone. The massive downbeat feel of the series can easily be attributed not only to the script, but what the environment must have been like.
But no one felt it worse than Fincher, who once said he would rather die of colon than make another movie after that experience. Finchers still scarred by the experience, to the extent that when 20th Century Fox released the
Alien Quadrilogy that featured alternate versions of the films, Fincher was the only director from the series who refused to participate. Instead, an Assembly Cut was included that makes a lot more sense and flows much better than the theatrical cut. If only Fincher would take a chance to cut together his own version.