10 Ingenious Ways Film Directors Beat The Studio

Cult classic mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous didn't move the needle critically or commercially upon its initial 1999 release, its subversive, darkly comic riff on teen movies of the era proving rather ahead of its time.

And New Line Cinema were seemingly equally puzzled by the movie, as while the studio had largely left director Michael Patrick Jann alone during principal photography, they began to panic in post-production when the film's box office tracking turned out troublingly low.

Executives asked Jann to create a new, softer cut which was closer in tone to teen sensation Clueless, in the hope of elevating the film's box office prospects.

Jann, frustrated at the studio's 180 in attitude to the project - having previously been effusively supportive - ultimately elected not to compromise his vision. In his own words, "It's too late. It's not like that. This is for the girls who went to Clueless and were like, 'F**k them.'"

Because there wasn't much time to fix the film and New Line had already pre-sold international rights, they decided to simply release the film as-is, having mostly mitigated their financial exposure before it hit cinemas thanks to its low $15 million budget.

Jann got the last laugh by standing his ground and refusing to contrive a sanitised, Frankensteined re-edit of the movie, though, as it found a second life on streaming in recent years, resulting in a critical re-evaluation of its entertaining deconstruction of the teen comedy.