5. A Director Disowns A Film About Directors Disowning Films
If you've ever seen the name 'Alan Smithee' attached to a film and wondered who he was, then you've misunderstood one of Hollywood's strangest traditions. You see, Alan Smithee isn't a person he's a pseudonym created by the Director's Guild Of America which allows directors to distance themselves from films. In order to qualify for the moniker, the director must prove that they weren't able to excise creative control over their project. Such was the situation Arthur Hiller found himself in come 1998, feeling that producer Joe Eszterhas had undue influence on the making of his film. In any other circumstances, such news would quickly pass into obscurity, another sad tale of creative differences derailing a movie. However, in this instance the film was entitled An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, and poked fun at this very practice. You can see the headlines writing themselves. The film itself followed Eric Idle as the director of Trio, a Sylvester Stallone-Whoopi Goldberg-Jackie Chan vehicle described as 'worse than Showgirls,' and his efforts to distance himself from the film by replacing his credit with a pseudonym. Unfortunately and here's the 'hilarious' kicker his name is Alan Smithee, meaning it's a fruitless endeavour. So instead, our noble protagonist steals it and threatens to burn his efforts. Needless to say, Burn Hollywood Burn was a terrible film which took only $52,850 against a $10,000,000 budget and swept the board at the Razzies, bagging Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay and Worst New Star the latter going to Eszterhas, who shows up for a risible cameo and shared a Worst Supporting Actor nomination with co-star Sylvester Stallone. No wonder the also-nominated Hiller wanted shot of it. Needless to say, he got his wish, and the world got a black hole of irony. Bonus: Just to prove the film operated like a reverse King Midas, the DGA ended up changing their rules on director pseudonyms in its wake. So in place of Alan Smithee, we now have Thomas Lee look out for him helming terrible films near you.
