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Mad Max: Fury Road's hellish vision was basically produced in actual hell.
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00:00The enormous amount of work that goes into making even a terrible film is undeniable.
00:06Any completed movie is the result of hundreds of cast and crew members pooling their talents
00:10to try and create something worthwhile.
00:13But truly great films are often only achieved through tremendous adversity, enough that
00:18those who worked on them, both in front of and behind the camera, had an absolutely miserable
00:23time.
00:24So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with 10 Great Movies Everybody
00:29Hated Making.
00:31Number 10 Gravity
00:34Alfonso Cuaron's 2013 sci-fi masterpiece Gravity is an incredible feat of effects-driven filmmaking.
00:41Cuaron originally planned to complete the project within a year, but due to the mind-boggling
00:46complexity of the visual effects, it ended up taking almost five years of his working
00:51life, while the shoot itself required absolute precision from its cast and crew.
00:56Case in point, Robert Downey Jr. was originally signed to star as astronaut Matt Kowalski,
01:01a role eventually played by George Clooney, but he bailed after it became clear that his
01:06improvisational acting style clashed with the strict requirements of such a carefully controlled
01:11project.
01:12The experience for stars Clooney and Sandra Bullock was uncomfortable, to say the least.
01:16With most of the film's imagery being computer-generated, the actors spent up to 10 hours a day inside
01:22a 9x9-foot mechanical rig, intended to simulate a space shuttle, while being directed via earpiece.
01:29Bullock said of the heroin experience,
01:31It was just frustrating, painful and isolating. I wanted to kill producer David Heyman and Alfonso
01:37regularly.
01:38So all of your hate and your anger and your rage, you just give forth in your work and hope it
01:43translates on screen.
01:44Ultimately, Gravity went on to win seven Oscars, including Best Director and grossed over $700
01:50million worldwide.
01:529. Apocalypse Now
01:54Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is arguably the greatest war movie ever made,
01:59and certainly the one whose production most closely resembles an actual war in its own right.
02:05Enough that a brilliant documentary, Hearts of Darkness, a filmmaker's apocalypse,
02:09was made about it.
02:11In Hearts of Darkness, Coppola famously said of the shoot,
02:14We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money,
02:18too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.
02:22He's not exaggerating.
02:23Shot in the Philippines for over a year while going massively over budget,
02:27Apocalypse Now wore its cast and crew down over the course of production,
02:32with Coppola becoming so despondent by everything that went wrong that he had a nervous breakdown,
02:37lost a terrifying amount of weight, and considered suicide.
02:41In terms of the cast, Martin Sheen had a near-fatal heart attack mid-shoot,
02:46which took him out of commission for six weeks.
02:49Marlon Brando showed up to set overweight, and without having learned his lines,
02:52while clearly having little desire to be there, and Dennis Hopper found Brando irritating enough
02:58that he decided to intentionally anger him wherever possible.
03:01Many other cast and crew members were drunk or high for much of the shoot,
03:05and given the utterly ramshackle nature of the production, can you really blame them?
03:098. Wayne's World
03:12Wayne's World is such an absurdly entertaining and hilarious film that you probably assumed it was
03:17also a total blast for the cast and crew to make, right? Oh, how wrong we all are.
03:23Several of the key players ended up clashing throughout shooting, namely star Mike Myers and
03:28director Penelope Spheris, with Spheris calling Myers emotionally needy and claiming that he got more
03:34difficult as the shoot went along. Spheris was torn between the creative needs of Myers,
03:39co-star Dana Carvey and producer Lorne Michaels, allegedly resulting in her shooting scenes three
03:45different ways on numerous occasions in order to keep them all happy. Spheris and Myers also
03:50butted heads over the final cut of the film, while Myers battled producers who had their own
03:55ideas for what Wayne's World should be. And yet there's not even a hint of that strained
04:00production in the end result, which remains one of the most beloved studio comedies of the last 30 years.
04:077. Total Recall
04:10Few directors relish a chaotic production quite like the legendary Paul Verhoeven,
04:14who has thrived on countless disordered shoots, including 1990s Arnold Schwarzenegger starring sci-fi
04:21classic Total Recall. Due to Verhoeven's decision to shoot the film mostly in sequence while demanding as
04:28much as 20 takes per scene, the budget ballooned from an initial $30 million to a rumoured $80 million
04:34by the time it was in the can. Yet the strife came largely through the Mexico City shooting location,
04:41with almost the entire cast and crew falling ill due to consuming contaminated food and water.
04:46The only exceptions were Arnold Schwarzenegger, who having previously become sick from eating local
04:51cuisine while shooting Predator, had his food shipped in from the US, and producer Ronald Chuset,
04:57who gave himself vitamin B12 shots every day. The movie's dusty Mars sets also caused temporary
05:03respiratory problems for almost the entire cast and crew. Elsewhere, Schwarzenegger suffered numerous cuts
05:10and broken fingers while performing stunts, and Michael Ironside cracked his sternum and separated two
05:15ribs, resulting in him having to complete the shoot while still recuperating from his injury.
05:206. The Lighthouse
05:23Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse was one of 2019's most acclaimed movies, receiving enormous praise for
05:29Eggers' direction and the phenomenal, arguably career-best performances from both Willem Dafoe and
05:35Robert Pattinson. And yet, the treacherous location shoot was majorly trying for most everyone involved.
05:42For starters, the harsh, soggy weather at Cape Fortue, the Canadian fishing village where most of the film
05:48was shot caused camera equipment to frequently malfunction and lenses to uncontrollably fog up,
05:54such that it took 25 takes to capture a clear shot of Pattinson walking into the ocean for one scene.
06:01As for Dafoe and Pattinson, they've both spoken extensively about the physically and
06:05psychologically trying nature of the shoot, which caused them to barely talk outside of filming scenes.
06:11Given the movie's material, though, this anguish really only ended up enhancing its manic,
06:16unsettling energy, and the end result was surely worth the 35 days of hell shooting it.
06:225. Blade Runner
06:24Blade Runner is a cinematic sci-fi monolith beyond compare, and its wonderfully gloomy mood might be
06:31informed in part by the constant behind-the-scenes discord during shooting.
06:36For starters, star Harrison Ford didn't work well with either co-star Sean Young or director Ridley
06:42Scott. Ford felt that Young's lack of experience was slowing production, and he also argued intensely
06:48with Scott over whether or not his character Deckard was a replicant. Scott also didn't endear himself much
06:54to the film's cast or crew. He regularly demanded upwards of a dozen takes for seemingly insignificant
07:00camera setups, enough that Warner Bros. almost intervened and had him replaced. Scott also pissed off
07:06the production's American crew members after claiming in an interview that British film crews worked harder,
07:11prompting American makeup supervisor Marvin G. Westmore to create t-shirts mocking Scott's claim.
07:17Then there's late legendary cinematographer Jordan Cronenworth, who had been diagnosed with
07:23Parkinson's disease the year before shooting started, and his condition debilitated enough
07:27that he was working from a wheelchair by shoot's end. And on top of all this, everyone's moods were
07:33worsened by the bulk of the film being shot at night, while the continual dousing of fake rain made
07:38everyone soggy and tired. 4. Titanic
07:43James Cameron has proven repeatedly over the years that he thrives when getting wildly in over his head,
07:49and this has never been truer than during the production of his best-picture-winning smash hit
07:54Titanic. The issues began early when Cameron personally insisted upon taking a submersible
08:00down to the actual Titanic's resting place to film footage, with one of his dives resulting in a nearly
08:06catastrophic collision between the vessel and the Titanic. As for principal photography itself, it's no
08:12secret that Cameron was a taskmaster, frequently chewing out the cast and crew during the high-pressure
08:18shoot. Kate Winslet suffered numerous injuries while shooting the water scenes, and initially
08:23vowed to never work with Cameron again, though ultimately decided to re-team with him for the
08:27upcoming Avatar The Way of Water. Other cast members were kept in cold water for egregious amounts of
08:33time per shooting day, causing widespread illness. 3. The Exorcist
08:39It's been well documented that director William Friedkin treated his cast with a cavalier regard,
08:44intentionally creating a deeply uncomfortable atmosphere in order to tease out legitimately
08:49terrified performances. In one instance, he fired a gun near actor Jason Miller to startle him,
08:55and had the crew yank Ellen Burstyn's harness so hard during a stunt that she received a permanent
09:01back injury when she collided with a wall. A take that was kept in the film, no less. Friedkin also had
09:08air-conditioning units brought into the McNeil House set to shoot the film's climax, which for young
09:13Linda Blair, who was wearing a threadbare nightgown, was extremely uncomfortable and gave her a lifelong
09:19aversion to the cold. Despite Friedkin's antagonistic nature on set, he didn't exactly have a picnic
09:25making the film either. Warner Bros. frequently protested his casting choices, and in part because
09:31a fire destroyed much of the set, production took twice as long and cost twice as much as originally
09:37planned. 2. Mad Max Fury Road
09:41The fourth Mad Max film was in development in various forms for the better part of 30 years
09:46before it began shooting, and that's where the issues really started. First and foremost,
09:51the unforgiving landscape of the Namibian desert was severely detrimental to the physical and mental
09:57health of the cast and crew, who had to deal with excruciating heat, extreme cold at night,
10:02and dust storms. With the cast and crew suffering so much, including actress Riley Keough catching
10:08hypothermia, it was decided to give everyone a week's break in the middle of filming.
10:12But there were also creative issues. Charlize Theron bristled with Tom Hardy over his penchant for
10:19method acting, and both Theron and Hardy had difficulty working with Miller. Theron felt that Miller wasn't
10:24directing her adequately, while Hardy frequently argued with him. Many said that Miller was visibly
10:30weathered by the six-month shoot, losing an enormous amount of weight, all while having to contend with
10:35the deeply concerned Warner Bros., who sent studio reps to the set to supervise his work. Yet Theron and
10:41Hardy in particular have since been hugely emphatic in stating their joy at the film's reception,
10:47with Fury Road receiving near-universal praise while winning six of its ten Oscar nominations.
10:531. The Love Witch
10:56Annette Billa's 2016 comedy horror film The Love Witch received near-universal acclaim for its
11:01stylistically on-point parody of 60s horror, and also a terrific performance from lead actress
11:07Samantha Robinson. However, more than a year after its release, director Billa herself tweeted that
11:13most of the crew hated what we were shooting and did not even see the movie after it was done.
11:19She added that numerous pivotal crew members were swapped out during shooting and alleged that some
11:23even attempted to sabotage the production. Billa blamed the set's tempestuous atmosphere on both
11:29crew members affronted at working for a female director and a line producer who set up a bad vibe
11:35and then disappeared, whatever that means. For his part, cinematographer M. David Mullen offered no
11:41comment when asked to address the controversy. And yet the end result feels like such an holistic
11:46achievement on Billa's vision that you'd never guess there was major behind-the-scenes tension.
11:52And that concludes our list, if you can think of any that we missed then do let us know in the comments
11:56below and while you're there don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also head over to
12:01Twitter and follow us there and I can be found across various social medias just by searching
12:05Ellie Littlechild. I promise it's safe, it's not a joke, that is my name. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture,
12:11I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you next time.
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