5. American History X Tony Kaye Vs. Edward Norton & New Line
American History X is the gut-wrenching story of a reformed Neo-Nazi - played by Edward Norton - trying to prevent his younger brother from making his same mistakes. As far as we know, the production process was a piece of cake. It wasn't until post-production that things started to take a turn for the insane. After submitting a first cut of the film that Norton and the producers at New Line loved, director Tony Kaye decided that they were all idiots, and re-edited the film to his own liking. The now shortened "American History X" wasn't nearly as good as that first cut, and so Norton was given permission to perform a re-re-edit of the footage. Kaye, who felt Norton was just doing this to give himself more screen time, took out ads in Variety magazine blasting his own film, alluding to backstabbing from his star and producers. Despite this, New Line still gave Kaye the chance to edit the film once again. Eight weeks later, Kaye showed up to a meeting with a priest, a rabbi, and a monk, but no new edit. After presumably slamming their heads on their desks, New Line relinquished control of the final edit from Kaye and stuck with Norton. Kaye then tried to get his name removed from the film and replaced with the pseudonym Alan Smithee. However, because he publicly denounced the film in Variety, he was not allowed to change his credit.