10 Movies That Started Shooting Without A Completed Script

2. Alien 3

Not only was Alien 3 another threequel with script problems, of all the films on this list it had by far the most troubled production - so much so that director David Fincher rarely acknowledges it. Most of the production€™s many disasters stemmed from its screenplay problems. Alien 3 started development shortly after Aliens became a massive hit in 1986. Producers went through at least a dozen writers with very different takes on the movie, including some that only included series star Sigourney Weaver in a supporting role. One take by director George Ward, which nearly went into production, involved Ripley crash-landing on a "wooden planet" populated by monks. Seriously. The final script was written by Walter Hill and David Giler (with revisions by Fincher) based on elements from all the previous versions. However, when filming started in January 1991 the script hadn't been completed. Producers had already spent $7 million on sets and Alien effects based on earlier versions of the script that were never used. On-set disagreements, including those over the film's story, led to several people walking off the film and a three-month shooting break in late 1991. Though Fincher finished filming, he left during the editing process because of continued studio interference with the story. Even a decade later he refused to create a director's cut for the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set. Producers instead released an "Assembly Cut" which followed Fincher's cut before he walked off the film.