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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