10 Movies That Took Extreme Measures To Shoot Scenes
5. Producers Shipped 60 Tons Of Utah Dirt Back To Hollywood For Reshoots - The Conqueror
Dick Powell's 1956 epic The Conqueror is infamous for not only casting the totally ill-fitting John Wayne to play Mongol legend Genghis Khan, but also the fact that many exterior scenes were filmed downwind of the U.S. government's nuclear tests.
As a result, a statistically improbable number of the cast and crew ended up being diagnosed with cancer in the decades that followed. Notably, director Powell died of cancer just seven years after the movie's release, while Wayne passed from stomach cancer in 1979.
The on location Utah shoot was difficult, resulting in reshoots being scheduled back in Hollywood.
To ensure continuity, producer Howard Hughes went to the extreme length of having 60 tons of Utah dirt shipped to the reshoot set, with the U.S. government having assured the production that the nuclear tests were entirely safe.
Not only was this untrue, but The Conqueror went on to be excoriated by the press and viewers alike, and continues to be regarded as one of the worst films ever made. So much effort for such atrocious results.