15 Great Movies That Were Extremely Difficult To Film

Jimmy Henton

A great movie with many breathtaking scenes as well as catchy stories is something we really enjoy. However, what took place behind the scenes is not enjoyable at all. The process of filming seems hard to be flawless. From directors to actors, they have to deal with many obstacles.
Several movies got it hard to gain financing from the studio. “Star Wars” is a great example of that. This movie early become a blockbuster, yet the script was not appreciated from the get-go, then there was no financing for filming at this time. Besides, the meticulous director is also the stuff of a nightmare that made the production take ages to complete.
What are some of the thousand obstacles making it hard to film a movie? In this post, we highlight 15 great movies that got difficult to make. In the end, you will be surprised that your favorite movies had a rocky road getting to the screen.

#1 Star Wars

Source: 20th Century Fox

Difficulty: Sci-fi was viewed as a dead genre at that time.
Star Wars is a banger that needs no introduction, yet this hit got the obstacle right from the beginning. The movie got not have much trust from the get-go as sci-fi was seen as a dead genre at this time. That’s why Lucas lost the two-picture deal with Universal. Besides, the marketing department found no way to sell the film. Many people involved with the project thought the film would be a joke in Hollywood.
Luckily, Lucas found a friend in 20th Century Fox president Alan Ladd Jr. He supported Lucas wholeheartedly throughout the entire process. After all, Star Wars became the blockbuster of all time.

#2 Twilight Zone: The Movie

Source: Twilight Zone: The Movie

Difficulty: A tragic accident happened during filming.
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) is an anthology film including four stories. Sadly, the John Landis-directed story, " A Quality of Mercy," had a tragic ending. In the story, a helicopter pursued actor Vic Morrow and two kids across a river in the plot. However, a malfunctioning pyrotechnic led to an explosion that caused the helicopter to crash, killing both the children and Morrow.
Moreover, it was against the law for Landis to allow the two kids to work at night on the set. A high-profile court case was started in response to the tragedy, although no one was found to be criminally at fault.

#3 The Revenant

Source: 20th Century Fox

Difficulty: Extremely low temperatures and a challenging production environment.
The Revenant (2015) is a true story about a frontiersman who bravely contends with the harsh environment and survives in the end. Some members of the film crew who worked on it described it as a "living hell" and the worst experience of their careers. At the stark cold temperature, the production nightmare of director Alejandro Iñárritu's desire to film the movie chronologically, and several crew members couldn't handle that and quit during filming.

#4 Titanic

Source: 20th Century Fox

Difficulty: James Cameron's Nazi style of running movie production.
The epic love story directed by James Cameron, which takes place on an "unsinkable" ship, had to face many difficulties, most of which were brought about by the director. Cameron's $200 million-plus production, which at the time was the most expensive ever, required the construction of a six-acre studio that included a 17 million-gallon water tank and a 750-foot-long Titanic replica.
In addition, A PCP-spiked soup incident that affected 50 cast and crew members also happened. It was presumably the fault of two chefs who were fired. Cameron also had a reputation for not being very actor-friendly; it was said that he made the actors spend extended lengths of time wading through extremely chilly water. When speaking about her time working with Cameron, actress Kate Winslet remarked, "To work with Jim once more, you would have to pay me a lot of money. If even the smallest thing went wrong, he would completely lose it. He was screaming and shouting and it was hard to concentrate." In 1998, Titanic won 11 Oscars, including the Best Director and Best Picture prizes.

#5 The Abyss

Source: 20th Century Fox

Difficulty: Shooting almost a whole film underwater.
It’s James Cameron again! He made The Abyss one of the toughest films to shoot in history. The majority of the science fiction drama is set underwater, which is blatantly a very challenging location to film in.
The 150,000-gallon water tank constructed for the movie began to leak on the first day of production. Cameron nearly drowned in the tank while putting up a shot after filming eventually began. There were no stunt doubles used in the movie, and the actors were even obliged to become licensed divers.
Actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio experienced a mental breakdown while working 40 feet underwater for 12 hours a day. The crew's situation was made worse by the fact that they were stationed at a depth that required decompression to safely return to the surface.

#6 Back to the Future

Source: Universal Pictures

Difficulty: Nobody wanted to support the movie.
Like “Star Wars”, Back to the Future didn’t earn any support from the beginning due to its saccharine story that didn’t suitable at this time. It was refused over 40 times, even Disney was shocked when receiving a story that sounded like incest.
One of the company's executives told Zemeckis and Gale claimed with Zemeckis and Gale, "Are you guys out of your minds? You can't make a movie like this here. This is Disney, and you're giving us a movie about incest! The kid with his mother in the car, that's horrible!". After all, Zemeckis gave his friend Steven Spielberg the script, who persuaded Universal to make the picture.

#7 Waterworld

Source: Universal Pictures

Difficulty: The production nightmare of making an epic film on the open sea.
Maybe this is one movie that never should have been made. Considering that the movie was filmed on the open ocean off the coast of Hawaii, the production team had to cope with hurricanes as well as the usual production challenges that come with setting up a location on the water. The $100 million initial budget ballooned to $180 million, making it the most expensive movie at the time (or nearly $335 million today when adjusted for inflation).
The movie also underwent a slew of different script authors and several last-minute script changes.

#8 Jaws

Source: Pinterest

Difficulty: Obstacle: The mechanical shark suffered acute malfunctions.
When he was chosen to direct Jaws in 1974, Steven Spielberg was just a young up-and-coming director. The film's producers wanted Spielberg to use a real shark, but the filmmaker chose to use an artificial shark instead. Spielberg made a poor choice, and the artificial shark turned out to be a nightmare. Its components deteriorated from the corrosive salt water, and it would always sink to the bottom of the ocean.
The shark problem could be Spielberg's demise. But the director's inner film student pondered how Alfred Hitchcock would approach the circumstance. “I had no choice but to p out how to tell the story without the shark,” Spielberg said. “So I just went back to Alfred Hitchcock: ‘What would Hitchcock do in a situation like this?’...It’s what we don’t see which is truly frightening.”
Of course, it was a brilliant move to only shoot a portion of the shark. Jaws became one of the biggest box office hits in cinema history and practically pioneered the summer blockbuster. Additionally, it was so terrifying that generations of moviegoers continue to have a dread ocean swimming more than 40 years later.

#9 The Princess Bride

Source: 20th Century Fox

Difficulty: Enable to get funding.
It's incomprehensible to consider that one of the greatest fairy tale romances ever almost didn't get made. Francois Truffaut, Norman Jewison, and Robert Redford were among the renowned directors that attempted but failed to secure money for The Princess Bride (1987) over 15 years.Fortunately, Rob Reiner, who calls the book from which the film is adapted his favorite novel of all time, successfully convinced 20th Century Fox to finance the movie. The only reason is that he had previously directed the very successful This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and Stand By Me (1986).

#10 Apocalypse Now

Source: United Artists

Difficulty: You name it, it happened.
Issues plagued every aspect of Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece's filming. After two weeks, lead actor Harvey Keitel was sacked and replaced by Martin Sheen, who was battling his alcohol problems. At the filming location in the Philippines, there was complete chaos: Coppola was writing the script as it was being shot, the cast was suffering from terrible tropical illnesses, powerful typhoons were hitting the area, a fire broke out, there were tiger attacks, people were throwing wild cocaine parties, and Marlon Brando had a major diva complex.
Several crew members refused to accompany Coppola back into the woods after a hurricane forced a month-long production halt. Martin Sheen decided to return, but he did so reluctantly—so much so that he even warned pals, "I don't know if I'm going to live through this." And Sheen almost didn't; he had a heart attack right then and then.

#11 The Wizard of Oz

Source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Difficulty: Some actors nearly died or were scarred for life.
Even though The Wizard of Oz (1939) is every child's favorite movie, several of the cast members were left with permanent scars. Buddy Ebsen, who was meant to play the Tin Man, was hospitalized for two weeks after experiencing a makeup reaction that caused his lungs to fail. An on-set fire caused Margaret Hamilton (the Wicket Witch of the West) and her stunt double to sustain severe burns to their hands and faces. The daily rubber mask that was pasted on left Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow) with lifelong scars on his face.
In addition, the Technicolor process required a very hot environment on set. Several actors and cast members fainted as a result of the heat. Now that there have been multiple script revisions and three directorial changes, it is difficult to comprehend how this timeless film was ever produced.

#12 I Heart Huckabees

Movies That Were Hard To FilmSource: Film at Lincoln Center

Difficulty: David O'Russell and Lily Tomlin took off their gloves for one of the most dramatic on-set brawls ever.
The only thing better than reading about a famous director/actor brawl is being able to watch it live, unfiltered, and online. The on-set altercation between director David O'Russell and veteran actress Lily Tomlin was made possible by living in the present day. View the video for yourself. Cursing (including the infamous c-word), temper tantrums, and extremely juvenile behavior are all on full display. Despite the obvious animosity between the lead actor and the director, I Heart Huckabees (2004) was successfully finished without any actual blood being spilled.
The existential comedy, however, got mixed reviews and had mediocre box office performance.

#13 The Shining

Movies That Were Hard To FilmSource: MUBI

Difficulty: Stanley Kubrick's desire for perfection.
The rumors that have surfaced about Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece The Shining (1980) production are legendary. As one of Hollywood history's most fastidious directors, Kubrick is renowned for being a perfectionist. He is also renowned for shooting situations in several takes until he thinks they are perfect. For instance, it took three days to film and more than 60 doors to create the famous but brief "Here's Johnny" scene (above), in which Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) smashes a door with an ax.
The horror film's production was intended to take 100 days, but it really took 250. Shelley Duvall, an actress, reportedly experienced hair loss as a result of Kubrick's extreme criticism, and she was on the verge of going insane. Additionally, Kubrick chose to shoot the movie in reverse chronological sequence, which made production difficult and time-consuming.

#14 Cleopatra

Movies That Were Hard To FilmSource: 20th Century Fox

Difficulty: Insane production costs.
The historical epic Cleopatra (1963) was a headache for 20th Century Fox from the get-go. After filming had already begun, actors had already begun to leave, and actress Elizabeth Taylor had already experienced a near-fatal illness, director Rouben Mamoulian was replaced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
All the lavish sets that were first erected in London were a complete waste of money because the original film was intended to be shot in London but was ultimately shifted to Rome. Additionally, the fact that both Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were having an affair while still married to other people caused a PR headache. Cleopatra was produced for a total cost of $44 million, or $320 million adjusted for inflation. Even though the epic was 1963's largest box office success, 20th Century Fox came dangerously close to going out of business. Even worse, the movie wasn't all that great. It was much too long and too slowly paced.

#15 Chinatown

Movies That Were Hard To FilmSource: Paramount

Difficulty: Faye Dunaway and Roman Polanski's heated on-set feud.
Conflict is a given on movie sets, and the legendary spat between eccentric filmmaker Roman Polanski and feisty actress Faye Dunaway is legendary in Hollywood. The conflict between the filmmaker and the actress appeared to result from Polanski's mistreatment of Dunaway. He'd say to her: "utter those f-king words. Your incentive comes from your pay!" When Polanski refused to let Dunaway use the restroom, the argument between them reached its peak. In retaliation, the snarky actress urinated in a coffee cup while seated in a car on the set and hurled the cup of urine in Polanski's face.
Despite their adversarial relationship, Chinatown (1974) became a box office hit and is frequently regarded as one of the best neo-noir movies ever created.
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