How Film & TV Handle the Death of a Director

MsMojo

When tragedy strikes behind the camera, productions face difficult decisions. Join us as we explore how film and TV industries handle the sudden loss of their creative leaders. From replacing directors mid-production to abandoning projects altogether, we examine the profound impact these losses have on the entertainment world and the various ways studios navigate these challenging circumstances.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're breaking down the ways that big-budget media productions

00:07have dealt with the unexpected passing of their directors.

00:16Swap them out and keep going. Thankfully, there aren't an overwhelming number of cases in which

00:20the untimely death of a director has thrown a chaotic wrench into a production. But with that

00:25in mind, it's important to note that it has happened, and it's posed significant problems.

00:30But you probably would have guessed that. In most instances of such a passing, it may not be a huge

00:35surprise to learn that in order for movie studios to protect themselves and their sizable investments,

00:41they'll simply hire another director to fill the shoes of the deceased. This can produce interesting,

00:45sometimes morbidly amusing results, like in the case of director Robert Altman's final film,

00:502006's A Prairie Home Companion.

00:53Hello everybody on a Saturday night, welcome to a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion.

00:59A Prairie Home Companion. It was a live radio variety show. The kind that died 50 years ago,

01:07but somebody forgot to tell them until this night.

01:10The influential filmmaker, who died aged 81 just a few months after it was released,

01:14was already in failing health from leukemia. In order for an insurance company to sign off on

01:18the production, Altman agreed to hire a backup director, in the event that he fell ill or even

01:23died during filming.

01:24A big corporation down in Texas had bought up the radio station.

01:27Well, this isn't really going to be your last show, is it?

01:29Every show's your last show. That's my philosophy.

01:32Thank you, Plato.

01:33It was curtains, and everybody knew it. A lot of good people up there. These folks put their lives into this.

01:38Now they can put their lives into something else.

01:40You're going to say something about it. How about just a moment of silence?

01:43Silence on the radio. I don't know how that works.

01:45Given his outsized reputation, Altman secured a pretty good benchwarmer. Multiple Oscar nominee

01:51Paul Thomas Anderson, then best known for Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Ultimately,

01:56Altman was able to finish the shoot without Anderson needing to step in, although we can't

02:00help but wonder what an Altman-Anderson mashup might have looked like.

02:04Hey, Lola.

02:05Hi.

02:05Heard you're going to sing a song for us.

02:06I only know my own songs.

02:08Well, sing one of them then.

02:09They're mostly about death.

02:11Oh.

02:11She shot the bastard in the heart and ruined his nice suit.

02:16I used to listen to this show every week.

02:18Well, it was great in its time, but the time's up. Life moves on.

02:22Of course, that doesn't quite answer the question. What about when the person helming a film

02:27actually does pass away? Unfortunately, a handful of historical movie productions have

02:31had to learn the hard way.

02:33It was a beautiful ceremony, wasn't it?

02:35Yes, very.

02:37And the devotion of the people it was touching. They all seem so happy.

02:41They were taking to you, I could feel it.

02:43Decades before Altman, Anderson, and Prairie Home Companion, German-born director Ernst Lubitsch

02:49died a mere eight days into the filming of the 1948 musical That Lady in Ermine.

02:55Luckily, Lubitsch had a trick up his sleeve. That would be his friend and fellow director,

03:00Otto Preminger.

03:01Preminger was hired by 20th Century Fox co-founder Darrell F. Zanuck a few years earlier to

03:08substitute for Lubitsch on 1945's A Royal Scandal, while Lubitsch recovered from a spell

03:13of poor health. That made Preminger a natural fit to take over for Lubitsch in the case of

03:18That Lady in Ermine. Despite helming the majority of the shoot, Preminger refused credit for his

03:23work, out of respect and reverence for Lubitsch and his esteemed career.

03:27When I'm sad, you will play something gay. When I'm gay, you will play something very, very sad.

03:34When I'm angry and break the violin over your head, don't worry. You'll get a new violin.

03:40A similar instance occurred during the production of the 1968 British spy film A Dandy in Aspic.

03:46It would turn out to be versatile auteur Anthony Mann's final project, as much like Lubitsch,

03:52he would die of a heart attack in the middle of production.

03:55Will we wait here?

03:56No. Henderson, or whatever his name is, lives in that building just there.

04:05How do you know?

04:07He sent me a postcard. How the hell do you think I know? Not from you anyway.

04:12The man's such an amateur. He even tried following me.

04:15However, instead of hiring a pro like Preminger, Columbia Pictures chose an interesting alternative

04:21route, allowing Lawrence Harvey, who starred alongside Mia Farrow, to command the director's chair.

04:26Admittedly, Harvey had directed 1963's The Ceremony, meaning he wasn't a totally left-field choice.

04:33The actor-turned-director would himself die just five years later.

04:36Ironically, Harvey was similarly ill during production and passed away before the release of the film,

04:421974's Welcome to Arrow Beach.

04:44Generally, it seems that the preferred option is simply filling the late director's seat with another qualified professional.

05:02This includes even incidences in which the filmmaker tragically lost their life to an on-set incident.

05:08Consider the mostly forgotten 1982 NBC miniseries, World War III, originally set to be directed in its entirety

05:15by industry vet and father of Katie, Boris Segal.

05:19So what in the hell are you doing on my land? Reluctantly, but firmly retaliating.

05:26Retaliating against what?

05:28Against your grain embargo.

05:31It's our grain.

05:32Grain is food. Cutting off our food supply is criminal.

05:36In a shocking, bizarre, and deeply disturbing accident, Segal was fatally wounded after inadvertently

05:42stepping into a helicopter's tail rotor blade, having turned the wrong way upon exiting the helicopter.

05:49Segal died just hours later of his injuries. In this case, he was promptly replaced by British

05:53TV director David Green. As the old phrase says, the show must go on.

05:59Your country and mine have had an open secret ever since the end of World War II.

06:03An open secret that neither one of us could afford and therefore would not trigger World War III.

06:10I had hoped that the mention of war would never be raised in this meeting.

06:14What do you think we're doing here? Attempting to negotiate an agreement, are we not?

06:19Scrap the project altogether.

06:21You probably haven't heard of actor, filmmaker, and stunt driver H.B. Halicki, but you may have heard of his magnum opus,

06:48the 1974 indie action flick Gone in 60 Seconds, which became a sleeper hit and was remade in 2000,

06:55with Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie.

06:58Halicki wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Gone in 60 Seconds,

07:02and recruited his friends and family to act in it.

07:04You called me in here for that?

07:06Yeah, Mr. Big Shot.

07:07That's why.

07:10So what?

07:11I didn't connect the two until I found that card on the sun visor.

07:15H.D. Smith is none other than Harold Dwight Smith.

07:17A sort of proto-fast and furious, Halicki's film is perhaps best known for its central 40-minute-long car chase scene,

07:26which, at 40 minutes, clocks in as the longest chase scene in movie history.

07:31It's fitting, then, that for its sequel, Halicki chose to go bigger, aiming to topple a 160-foot-tall water tower.

07:39Said the Los Angeles Times, in announcing his death, witnesses told police that Halicki, 48, of Gardiner,

07:44died when a cable that was attached to a water tower snapped and severed a telephone pole, which fell on him.

07:52Without its creative driving force, Gone in 60 Seconds 2 was permanently cancelled,

07:57also likely a consequence of it being an independent production.

08:00Well, I'll tell you what to do.

08:03What's that?

08:04Why don't you just investigate Taylor Webb in your usual manner?

08:07By the time you get around to it, it'll be history.

08:09Hey, man. Be serious.

08:12How can I in this nuthouse?

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08:27Enter development limbo.

08:31This is definitely the least preferred option when a director dies.

08:35Japanese filmmaker Satoshi Kone was best known for the 1997 animated psychological thriller Perfect Blue,

08:42and was 46 when he died in August 2010 of pancreatic cancer.

08:46At the time of his passing, Kone was knee-deep in the production of his fifth feature-length film, Dreaming Machine.

08:52Yeah, it was the last one today. I don't want to sing.

08:55I don't want to sing that song.

08:56I don't want to sing that song so much, right?

08:59It's a chance, isn't it? I told you this before too.

09:02I'm going to be happy to make a new song for all of you.

09:05I'm going to buy a new song for all of you.

09:06I'm going to buy 20 of my brothers and my brothers and my brothers and my brothers.

09:09I don't know what to do with this industry.

09:11The auteur had mostly kept his grave illness a secret from the crew at animation studio Madhouse,

09:19and his death essentially ground production to a seemingly permanent halt.

09:23The last update on the project, as of 2025, came in August of 2016.

09:28Said producer Masao Maruyama,

09:30While Maruyama has declined to put Dreaming Machine to bed,

09:51the film now serves as an unfortunate cautionary tale as to what can go wrong when working on a movie,

09:57and how it can be impossible to recover from.

09:59What do you think is the best way to handle a director's unexpected passing?

10:24Be sure to let us know in the comments down below.

10:27Will you look at that?

10:29Hey, I think I'm in love.

10:30I'm talking about the car standing.

10:31Pretend it once you left the keys in.

10:33Hope you are doing it.

10:37You know a little bit.

10:38Bye.

10:39Let's go.

10:40Bye.

10:41Has to be a great question.

10:42Bye.

10:43Bye.

10:45I'm not sure if you leave the keys in it.

10:47Goodbye.

10:48Bye.

10:49Bye.

10:50Bye.

10:51Bye.

10:52Bye.

10:53Bye.

10:54Bye.

10:55Bye.

10:56Bye.

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