Getting any movie made is a minor miracle. While the finished film only takes anywhere from 90-120 minutes to enjoy, years of hard work went into making that become a reality. It begins with the script, obviously, but production can be its own special nightmare, and then various decisions have to be made during post-production to put the film together just right. That’s not to mention the fact that, depending on how the film was produced or financed, you may have 5, 7, or 10 different people "in charge," each demanding their own tweaks, adjustments, and changes. So yeah, moviemaking is hard.

But some films are particularly challenging to put together, and their “making of” stories could result in compelling movies in and of themselves. Below, we go through nine different films that were notoriously difficult to get made. From fired actors to budget overruns to PCP doses (seriously), these nine films were really tough to create, but they all reached the finish line—for better or worse.

Alien 3

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Alien 3 was not only David Fincher’s first feature film, it’s also one of the most important films in his entire career. Fincher’s experience making Alien 3 colored how he approached his work from then onward, resulting in a confident attitude that allowed him to craft some truly groundbreaking films within the studio system while refusing to compromise his vision.

Fincher was not the first director on Alien 3. Vincent Ward, the filmmaker behind The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, was the original director attached. His story took place on a wood-centric planet populated by Luddite-like monks, where Ripley’s escape pod crash lands and she becomes the only woman in the monastery. Development began, sets were starting to be assembled, but when Fox executives asked Ward to make significant changes, he balked and left the movie.

So Walter Hill and David Giler were brought on to refine the script while Fincher was tasked with replacing Ward as the director. The basic outline of Ward’s story remained, but the wood planet was turned into an ore refinery and the monks were turned into prisoners. Filming began, but two weeks in cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth—Fincher’s closest ally on the production team—had to depart the project due to Parkinson’s disease, so he was replaced by Alex Thomson.

As production wore on, Fincher started butting heads with producers and studio executives more and more. Not only had he inhabited someone else’s film that had already left the station, but the script was never finished. The notoriously meticulous Fincher was trying to get his shots and craft his film while the script was simultaneously being written (and rewritten) and studio executives and producers were looking over his shoulder, trying to make the film more in line with the previous two Alien movies.

The battles continued into post-production, during which reshoots were ordered and arguments heatedly revolved around the ending. Fincher would oversee the editing, but when he left the room, the film’s editor would recall that producers and/or studio executives would come in and force him to undo or ignore Fincher’s instructions.

By the end of the project Fincher had little control left and all but disavowed the movie. The film was released to negative reviews and little fanfare, and years later Fincher would say, “No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me.”

The Bourne Identity

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Image via Universal Pictures

The Bourne Identity is proof positive that difficulties during production, and even creative differences with the director, doesn’t always equal a bad movie. The spy thriller marked Go and Swingers filmmaker Doug Liman’s biggest film to date and was Matt Damon’s first foray with an “action hero” role, but the two had no interest in making your standard actioner. Indeed, Liman’s almost documentary-like approach to The Bourne Identity adds a visceral quality to the 2002 film that your standard, clean-shaven actioners lacked at that time.

But once filming commenced, Liman and Universal Pictures started butting heads. The studio was unhappy with the film’s pacing and smaller scale action set pieces, and Tony Gilroy and Liman were rewriting the script constantly, causing the film’s release date to push from September 2001 to June 2002. Things were so hectic that Matt Damon later revealed that producer Frank Marshall ended up directing some scenes himself, because it was all hands on deck. A major point of contention was the third act, specifically the sequence set at the farmhouse. Universal wanted it cut, but Liman and Damon argued it was crucial to understanding Bourne as a character, so it went through numerous rewrites and reworks to make both Liman and the studio happy.

All involved assumed the film would be a flop, but of course it wasn’t—it was a huge hit and spawned one of the best action franchises of the 21st century. Still, Liman’s relationship with the franchise and studio was broken, and he was not asked to return to direct the sequel. But his method of figuring out the film on the fly has become standard procedure for A Doug Liman Film, making some anxious but resulting in great movies like The Bourne Identity and recently Edge of Tomorrow.

Jaws

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Image via Universal Pictures

Steven Spielberg is notorious for working quickly, knowing exactly what he wants, and sometimes releasing two masterpieces in the same calendar year. But the filmmaker was almost broken before his career got off the ground. At 26 years old, Spielberg lobbied for the gig to direct an adaptation of Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws. Having just worked with producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown on The Sugarland Express, they opted to take a shot on the up-and-comer, and thus one of the most troubled productions in history began.

Spielberg actually tried to leave Jaws just after signing his contract for fear of becoming typecast after Duel, but Universal exercised its right to veto Spielberg’s planned move over to 20th Century Fox’s Lucky Lady. Unhappy with Benchley’s own adaptation of the novel, Spielberg enlisted a slew of different writers to take a crack at the script, making the characters more likeable and adding more humor. Carl Gottleib was originally contracted to just do some punch-ups, but eventually became the primary screenwriter.

Filming began on a budget of $4 million that quickly ballooned up to $9 million. The reason? One of the biggest issues facing the production was Spielberg’s decision to shoot the film on actual open water rather than in a tank. The filmmaker didn’t realize how difficult this would be, nor was he expecting the mechanical shark—the title character in the film—to be mostly unusable. Indeed the shark, which was nicknamed Bruce, was originally intended to show up much earlier in the film. But since the prop didn’t work, Spielberg had to create suspense and terror in other ways. One fix was the yellow barrels, which ended up being one of the film’s most memorable sequences.

Shooting at sea caused delay after delay, as cast and crew members got sick, cameras malfunctioned, and resetting shots took hours. Spielberg went so far as to estimate that out of a 12-hour workday on Jaws, only an average of four hours were spent actually filming something. Originally scheduled for 55 days, principal photography droned on for 159 days in total, extremely over budget and over schedule.

Spielberg was convinced he’d never work again. That the studio was furious with him. That he had ruined the movie. Instead, he ended up creating one of the best films of all time and singlehandedly crafting the first “summer blockbuster.” All’s well that ends well.

World War Z

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Image via Paramount Pictures

It’s not often that a film undergoes reshoots to make its third act smaller, but that’s exactly what happened with World War Z. The zombie actioner was directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) and intended as a franchise vehicle for star/producer Brad Pitt. But troubles plagued production as the script was never fully locked down and the aspects that drew Pitt to the project in the first place—the geopolitical angle of the story—fell away in favor of more action. As shot, the film originally ended with a major action set piece in Russia, where Pitt’s character was leading an army of human subservients who fight off a zombie invasion in the Red Square. This, uh, didn’t work.

During post-production, Pitt invited Damon Lindelof to watch a 72-minute edit of the movie. Lindelof pitched his take on a new ending, one that raised the dramatic stakes, made it more character-centric, but ditched the big action scenes that had already been shot. To their credit, Pitt, Paramount, and Forster said okay. They ditched the action-heavy ending for a quiet, horror-driven conclusion. Their big, climactic, Russia-set finale hit the cutting room floor.

Lindelof enlisted friend Drew Goddard and in the span of about 10 days, the two delivered around 60 pages of new material for the brand new ending. Christopher McQuarrie was then hired to remain on set and revise the script as needed as the new scenes were shot, and while Forster remained onboard as director, reports indicate he remained mostly quiet and let Pitt’s production company Plan B take the lead on bringing this thing home.

And it worked! World War Z is proof positive that reshoots and troubled productions don’t always equal bad movies, and indeed the new third act is the best part of the entire film. And while it’s been a few years, a sequel is in development with none other than David Fincher directing.

Titanic

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Image via Paramount Pictures

Never, ever bet against James Cameron. During the production of Titanic, reports swirled about the film’s cost overruns, production problems, and Cameron’s heated temper. Everyone earmarked Titanic as a herculean disaster. One of the most expensive flops in history. Then it became the highest grossing movie ever made.

Cameron already had a reputation as a man who doesn’t suffer fools, and indeed that personality was on full display during the arduous Titanic shoot. The film was shot in Nova Scotia in a giant water tank, but shooting in the water left many cast and crew members ill. Kate Winslet chipped her elbow and was afraid she would drown, and other people came down with kidney infections and colds from working in the water.

One infamous incident occurred when an unknown (and angry) crew member put PCP into the soup that Cameron and other crew members were to eat. 50 people were sent to the hospital, including Bill Paxton. And for what some categorized as a split personality, Cameron earned the nickname “Mij”, which is Jim spelled backwards.

Filming was scheduled to last 138 days but instead took 160, with costs soaring up to $200 million. Already plagued with bad buzz, Fox balked when Cameron turned in a three-hour cut of the film, fearful that the long runtime would mean fewer showings and thus less return on what they already saw as a bad investment. Cameron refused to cut the movie, telling Fox they’d have to fire him first. Instead, to ease fears, Cameron gave up his share of the profits—a gesture Fox initially felt was hollow given that they didn’t think the movie would make any money anyway. Obviously, they were very, very wrong.

Titanic was a smashing success, winning 11 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. And so much for bad blood—Winslet is reteaming with Cameron on The Avatar Sequels.

The Lone Ranger

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Image via Disney

While The Lone Ranger is on this list, we could just have easily have singled out director Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean sequels Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End, which he shot back-to-back in one fell swoop and which led to an exhausting, frenzied race to the finish line. But Verbinski’s live-action follow-up is even more fascinating, as The Lone Ranger nearly got the plug pulled before cameras rolled.

After venturing into the world of animation for Rango in 2011, which netted Verbinski an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the filmmaker opted to return to the world of epic Disney blockbusters with a wholly unique spin on The Lone Ranger. Intended to start a new franchise, Verbinski signed on to direct with Johnny Depp in the lead role as Tonto and Armie Hammer playing a sidelined Lone Ranger, and Jack White providing the original score.

But as development progressed, the budget ballooned to over $250 million, and in August 2011 the entire movie was shut down. At the time, Disney had the expensive John Carter and Oz the Great and Powerful in the can and Hollywood had just pulled the plug on At the Mountains of Madness and The Dark Tower over similar cost overruns. So Verbinski and the team came together and worked to get the budget down to $215 million, which they did by cutting action sequences and their own upfront fees, opting instead to take money on the backend.

Then filming began and, wouldn’t you know it, the budget ballooned back up to a reported $250 million. Verbinski was once again asked to trim the script, but the film was also falling behind schedule due to weather delays. And when Alan Horn replaced Rich Ross as chariman of the Walt Disney Studios, he requested the trimming of a scene in which William Fichnter’s character eats the heart of James Badge Dale. Oh but it got weirder—rumors swirled that the original script for the film included werewolves, which were cut over the initial budget concerns.

By some miracle The Lone Ranger actually made it to the finish line, but the disappointing $260 million box office didn’t even match how much Disney had already spent on the film. Reviews were pretty scathing, but in recent years folks have come around a bit and embraced Verbinski’s delightfully strange vision. Even so, The Lone Ranger remains one of the most egregious examples of a trouble production in recent years.

Apocalypse Now

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Image via Zoetrope/United Artists

You know it’s a tough shoot when your lead actor literally has a heart attack in the middle of production. Indeed, principal photography for Apocalypse Now spanned a full year, beginning on in May 1976 and ending in May 1977. A typhoon wrecked the sets, ruining a month of shooting and forcing much of the cast and crew to return to the U.S. while new locations were scouted and new sets were built. As cost overruns began, director Francis Ford Coppola had to start offering up his own assets to bankroll the film, including his profits from The Godfather.

And then there was the cast. Coppola had to work hard to convince Marlon Brando to take the pivotal role of Colonel Kurtz, but Brando arrived on the set overweight, having not read the source material Heart of Darkness, and having not learned his lines. Coppola worked around Brando’s weight by shooting him in shadow and darkness. Then Martin Sheen had a heart attack in the middle of filming, took a month off, and returned to resume his duties. Sheen was also battling alcoholism, and indeed in one of the film’s early scenes of Willard alone and drunk in his room, Sheen himself was actually drunk and really cut his hand during the take.

Coppola would go on to battle further issues in post-production, including plenty of problems with the film’s audio. Upon release, Apocalypse Now received somewhat mixed reviews but nevertheless won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and notched eight Oscar nominations and two wins for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Again, all’s well that ends well, but the herculean production of Apocalypse Now has taken on a myth of its own, and is captured in full in the harrowing behind-the-scenes documentary Hearts of Darkness..

Fantastic Four (2015)

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Image via 20th Century Fox

A reboot of Fantastic Four was in the offing at 20th Century Fox pretty shortly after the Tim Story­-directed sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer, largely because if Fox didn’t make a Fantastic Four movie every few years, the rights would revert back to Marvel. Emboldened by the impending X-Men: Days of Future Past and a third Wolverine movie on the way (which became Logan), the studio enlisted Chronicle director Josh Trank to spearhead a new, darker take on the comics characters.

Development and casting seemingly went off without a hitch, beyond the ridiculous backlash to the race-swapped Johnny Storm with Michael B. Jordan playing the comics character. But rumors started swirling about troubles behind the scenes, with producers Simon Kinberg and Hutch Parker reportedly reworking the ending of the film. Reshoots commenced in January 2015, five months after principal photography wrapped, and reports surfaced that Fox was unhappy with Trank’s original cut with other sources claiming that Trank’s behavior was “erratic” on set.

This film is still fairly new so it may be some time before we know all the details, but Trank was removed as the director of an unspecified Star Wars anthology film in the wake of these reports and just before Fantastic Four’s release, Trank posted in a since-deleted Twitter message that a year ago he had “a fantastic version” of the movie that audiences would probably never see. Toby Kebbell, who played Doctor Doom, subsequently said Trank’s version was “great” and much darker than the final version of the movie.

When Fantastic Four eventually was released, the reshot scenes were made incredibly noticeable not just because of their inconsistent tone but because of Kate Mara’s super unconvincing wig. There were also plenty of shots from trailers and B-roll that revealed scenes that never made it to the finished cut, including a subplot involving the Fantasticar. Reviews for the film were unkind, but the cast seemed to get along quite well and Kinberg has expressed a desire to keep this rebooted franchise alive. Somehow.

Back to the Future

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Image via Universal Pictures

Recasting isn’t an altogether unique thing that happens in Hollywood, but it is rare. One of the most famous examples is surely Back to the Future. The project itself took some time getting off the ground, as Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s sci-fi script was turned down by studios for four years straight, with Zemeckis and Gale continuing to hone the story the whole time. They were told the film was too tame by most studios and not family friendly enough by Disney (re: a mother falling in love with her son). Steven Spielberg eventually set the project up at his studio Amblin Entertainment, and they finally found a home with Universal Pictures.

Michael J. Fox was the first choice to play Marty McFly, but his commitment to the TV series Family Ties made the prospect of him doing the film impossible. Thus, the producers settled on Eric Stoltz based on the strength of his performance in Mask. But after an entire month of filming with Stoltz, Zemeckis finally admitted the film was not working. Stoltz would have to be fired. Although it added more to the budget, Zemeckis and Spielberg agreed to recast the lead role and reshoot most of the movie, and by this time Fox’s schedule had opened up just enough so that he could shoot both Family Ties and Back to the Future.

A deal ensued that Fox’s main priority would be to Family Ties, so if a conflict arose, the TV series would win out. Fox would shoot Family Ties on weekdays during the day, Back to the Future from 6:30pm to 2:30am, and then shot exterior scenes for Back to the Future on the weekends. It was no doubt an exhaustive experience, but one that paid off in spades. Back to the Future was a smashing success, spending 11 weeks in the number on box office slot and earning an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. It also, obviously, spawned a franchise, with Zemeckis shooting both sequels back to back—but this time he had his lead actor right from the start.