10 Movies That Changed Drastically Midway Through Production
7. Payback
Shortly after director Brian Helgeland had finished the principal photography phase of his 1999 crime drama, the powers-that-be realised that the film had a problem: the main character - Mel Gibson's Porter - was too unlikeable.
Gibson's own production company - Icon - as well as distributor Paramount, thought that the film was too edgy overall, and needed some extra work to lighten things up. They returned to Helgeland with this request, but he refused, reluctant to knowingly compromise his original vision. Consequently, he was fired, and production designer John Myhre was drafted in as a replacement.
From here, roughly a third of the film was re-worked. Actor Kris Kristofferson was brought in to play an entirely new villain character, Porter was softened up significantly, and a happier ending was crafted. The changes were so huge that Helgeland considered taking his name off the film, but in the end, he remained as the credited director.
Ultimately though, Helgeland got some "payback" of his own, when his original cut was released in 2007 and received a much more positive response than the theatrical cut.