15 Movie Sets You Didn't Know Were Hell To Work On

13. The Bourne Identity

Why It Was Hell: Director Doug Liman and Universal clashed from the very beginning of production, with them expressing concern over countless plot points and Liman's directorial style. Liman and star Matt Damon fought the studio on the third act in particular, which Universal wanted to be massively re-written, with writer Tony Gilroy faxing in new scenes on a daily basis. Liman resorted to filming extra scenes without studio approval, and instructed his second-unit director to film the majority of the famous Paris car chase, while he continued work on the rest of the film. It ultimately went through four rounds of re-shoots, going $8 million over budget and hugely souring the studio's relationship with Liman, such that his upcoming film, Mena, is his first collaboration with Universal since. Was It Worth It?: Certainly. Aside from grossing more than 3.5x its $60 million budget, Identity opened to strong critical acclaim and, most importantly, kick-started a franchise which is about to start shooting its fifth installment, and to date has raked in over $1.2 billion for Universal, as well as establishing Matt Damon as a plausible action star. On the debacle? Damon said, "The word on Bourne was that it was supposed to be a turkey...It's very rare that a movie comes out a year late, has four rounds of re-shoots, and it's good."