Lights, Camera, Chaos!
With Oppenheimer and Barbie absolutely destroying the summer box office (and painting the debris pink), audiences have once more validated the notion of auteur filmmaking. Both films' directors, Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig were able to navigate the myriad trials of big budget productions within the studio system to leave their unique fingerprints all over their finished products - Proof if it's needed that a cohesive, interesting vision will generally trump the type of by-committee blandness and unoriginality so often spoon-fed to audiences. The phenomenon that is Barbenheimer represents a lightning rod for Hollywood.... one it will no doubt attempt to cynically imitate and replicate. When money is involved, and in the movie business it's big money with a side order of huge ego, decisions are frequently made whose motivations butt heads with the artistic, creative process. Subtlety, nuance and subtext are often jettisoned for bombast and audiences are frequently not credited with the patience or intelligence some filmmakers still believe they possess. Even directors with significant clout and impressive track records have found themselves wrestling the “money-men” for control of their productions.
In the wake of his departure from Netflix and move to Amazon Studios, Mike Flanagan, the creative force behind such hits as The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Midnight Club recently discussed his professional battles with We Got this Covered. Despite the great critic and audience reactions to his previous works, Flanagan still found himself cursed with endless studio “notes” whilst making 2021's excellent Midnight Mass, finding his deliberately paced, cerebral, frequently ambiguous vision at odds with studio execs who wanted giant breadcrumbs for the viewers and more obvious scares. One battle he says he fought hard but eventually lost involved a scene in the pilot episode pertaining to the disappearance of several cats on the small, sparsely inhabited island where the story's supernatural and religiously charged events unfold. Netflix insisted on dialling in an explanation early on and despite the persistent protestations of writer/director/producer/editor Flanagan (surely those credits give you some say??!...), he was forced to include a POV scene where a cat is stalked and snatched from the ground by the creature which eventually proves to be a key antagonist in the story. Although it occurs so early in the series, the shlocky scene in question already feels tonally at odds with the lived-in aesthetic Flanagan has quickly established. Says the auteur:“It’s like a feline Friday the 13th scene. It remains the stupidest scene I’ve ever filmed.” Flanagan is not the first prominent director to see their intended artistic legacy hit the wall of short-term commercial thinking, and Hollywood history is littered with missed opportunities and compromised productions.
Despite the mega success, both critically and commercially of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 in the early noughties, Sony went against the director's wishes, insisting on increasing the character roster for the trilogy capper with not two, but three villains. Eager to include fan-favourite Venom, regardless of Raimi's protestations against shoe-horning him into the already stuffed story, the resulting movie was a mess and saw Raimi walk away from the studio, stalling the franchise until its well received 2012 revival with The Amazing Spiderman.... and subsequent re-stall with number two - another bloated, unfocussed mess, with too many antagonists....
Joel Shumacher ran afoul of rampant capitalism with his abysmal 1997 caped crusader flick Batman and Robin. More a two hour toy commercial than a coherent movie, the cringe-tastic dud is notorious for putting nipples on the bat suit and paying Arnold Schwarzenegger $30 million to spout some of the most godawful puns imaginable as bad guy Mr. Freeze. According to producer Michael Uslan, the studio wanted to maximize potential toy tie-ins, stipulating there should be three heroes and three villains with two vehicles and two costume changes each. It's everything that's cynical and wrong about moviemaking, guided by greed, not art. The universally panned, neon-coloured, Happy Meal friendly “Dark” Knight was subsequently put on ice until Nolan's 2005 Batman Begins once again showed Hollywood how things should be done.
A filmmaker recognised today for his singular vision, David Fincher nevertheless had an inauspicious start in the biz, battling Fox for control of Alien 3, a troubled (pre) production in a $7 million hole before a finished script had even been delivered. Fox had hired then fired original director Vincent Ward before drafting in a young Fincher and pummelling him into submission during filming, and furthermore in the editing suite. The resulting misery-fest killed off fan favourite characters and was generally seen as a disservice to the franchise classics which preceded it. Fincher, his chest clearly not bursting with pride, disowned it.
Even earning the type of impeccable reputation Sergio Leone had is no guarantee your work won't be butchered by a studio with dollar signs in their eyes. Longer films mean less showings and so Leone saw his nearly 4 hour-long decade-in-the-making crime saga, Once Upon a Time in America hacked down to a 2 hour 19 minute US theatrical cut, eviscerating the story and alienating audiences and critics alike. Fortunately, the director's cut eventually saw the light of day and was rightfully hailed as a masterpiece. Too bad Leone was no longer alive to receive his praise.
The legendary Ridley Scott faced similar woes with historical epic Kingdom of Heaven, the studio gutting an hour of footage from the edit, removing much needed context and character motivations and leaving cinema audiences bewildered. The subsequent DVD Director's Cut is extremely well regarded but was released too late to generate much popular interest.... though at least Scott was still around to see it!
By Ian Greenland