Brad Pitt's "World War Z" zombie flick, based on the book by Max Brooks, seems to be veering into the "cursed" category. Laden with issues from rewrites to re-staffing to re-shoots, the movie is fast becoming a different kind of example of the horror genre.
Pitt and his crew can take solace in the knowledge that they are not alone when it comes to disastrous shoots. Sometimes those movies even become cult classics, though often they do not. Here are five other films with problematic productions to keep "World War Z" company.
"Jaws"
Seen through the filter of time, "Jaws" is a Stephen Spielberg classic. However, during production the giant shark flick actually gained the moniker "Flaws" from its cast and crew due to its problematic shoot.
Even though they weren't real, the mechanical sharks still took a major bite, at least financially. Their malfunctions contributed to the film nearly doubling its budget, from $3 million to $7 million. Spielberg feared that helming a movie that ran 100 days over its schedule would end his career, but we all know how that story turned out.
This adaptation of "Heart of Darkness" transplanted to the Vietnam War was being shot on location in the Philippines when an act of God shut down production: Typhoon Olga.
But that is not the only bad luck that plagued "Apocalypse Now." Actor Martin Sheen actually suffered a heart attack while in a remote location, while Marlon Brando came back to the set having gained a significant amount of weight. To add insult to injury, at one point the payroll was stolen.
Worse than production problems, real tragedy struck during the filming of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" when actor Vic Morrow and two children, Renee Shinn Chen and Myca Dinh, were killed by a helicopter accident. Director John Landis and four others were charged with involuntary manslaughter for the deaths; all were acquitted.
It wasn't just the family that was dysfunctional on the set of this film. Apparently veteran actress Lily Tomlin and director David O. Russell saw less than eye-to-eye, resulting in the Tomlin rant (warning: NSFW) seen round the world.
Seeing as how the director and the morally handsome George Clooney reportedly nearly came to blows over Russell's purportedly poor treatment of an extra on the set of "Three Kings," the troublesome ball may be in Russell's court.
And then there are the movies that are so troubled they come to be only by the skin of their celluloid teeth. From a motorcycle accident that required Gerard Depardieu to drop out to stolen film to a reportedly astronomical budget overrun, it kind of seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a romantic comedy.
"Town & Country" started filming in 1998 and missed 11 release dates before it finally underwhelmed at the box office, taking in a little more than $6 million.
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