David Pierdomenico
The last thing a studio wants to hear is that they’ve wasted time and money on a product that’s lackluster. An option often taken is shelling out a millions more to reshoot portions of the film rather than take a huge hit at the box office. Sometimes it pays off and other times it backfires spectacularly.
More Common Thank You Think
Most Hollywood films out there have gone through some form of “pick up shots” as they’re called. It’s not at all uncommon for directors, producers, or editors to notice something off or missing, and go back to recraft that portion. The Lord of the Rings trilogy’s director Peter Jackson boasted that the films were shot back to back over 15 months in New Zealand. But the truth is just about every actor in it had to fly back there from time to time as they were being released from 2001-2003 to obtain shots and new scenes that were previously not filmed at all or done incorrectly. And while the process itself is semi common, they’re usually not too extensive. They usually don’t reach the point of hiring a new director and spending weeks or months more of production, effectively redoing a sizable portion of the film. At least that’s how it used to be.
Studio Interference
The typical cause for reshoots comes from studio apprehension about the film they’ve just seen a rough cut of. Sometimes they ask the directors themselves to take on the task, and other times they’re put at odds with directors. In the case of the 2015 reboot Fantastic Four, director Josh Trank took to Twitter to voice his transgressions, stating that he had directed a quality film that audiences would never see due to 20th Century Fox maiming his original film.
The same thing happened to Zack Snyder who allegedly gave Warner Brothers an “unwatchable” three hour long cut of Justice League, so in response they fired him and hired Joss Whedon to redo half the movie. Initially it was reported that they were allowing Synder to spend time with his family due to the tragedy of his daughter’s suicide, yet memos from the company reveal they had planned on firing him anyway. Modern filmmaking can feel like an epic chess match between directors and studios. A director comes to a film with their artistic vision, while a studio sees only the potential for a hit or a flop. And at times either can be right or wrong in the end.
Does It Work?
Perhaps it’s just bad luck, or perhaps it’s a symptom that Warner Brothers and DC have no idea how to do it properly. Because it seems that so many examples of reshoots not paying off were helmed at their demand. Films like Justice League, Suicide Squad, and even Superman II from decades ago all demonstrate how the process gave their films inconsistent tones. So much so that they feel like art by committee. One of the most infamous examples was the 2004 prequel, Exorcist the Beginning. Morgan Creek Productions was displeased that Paul Schrader’s film wasn’t “action-packed” enough, because that’s what they believed fans wanted out of a psychological horror film. To counter this, they hired Renny Harlin to direct an entirely new film which was released to mediocre reviews. Later on they swallowed their words when the original film was released on DVD as Dominion: Original Prequel to the Exorcist to a much more positive reception.
However, there have been times that reshoots were quite beneficial and helped a film succeed. Out of fears that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story lacked edge, Disney hired The Bourne Legacy director Tony Gilroy to do uncredited reshoots in order to give the film a gritty war film atmosphere, and it paid off immensely. Just this past Fall, in light of the awful revelations about Kevin Spacey, Ridley Scott reshot his role with Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World. The film was a hit and Plummer himself was nominated for several awards for his last minute reshot performance.
The Debacle of Solo
Can Disney strike gold twice with reshooting their spinoff? The stories coming out of Solo’s production have been less than inspiring. According to reports, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were “let go” by Disney due to delivering a film that was trying too hard to be Guardians of the Galaxy but in fact gave off a strong Ace Ventura vibe. At the time, roughly 80% of the film had already been shot and Disney feared they had a flop on their hands, so they brought on Ron Howard to completely reshoot the vast majority of the film. Whenever a film is redone to this extent, it’s difficult to know what the result will be. It’s as if it will be a completely different film. That, along with Ron Howard’s reputation preceding him, gives Solo the very best chance it can have.
But there is still reason for concern. If the film is anything but amazing, or if it has a hard time earning at the box office being so close to the release of Infinity War, Disney will be taking a huge hit. And it may result in their reluctance to greenlight future Star Wars spinoffs. But honestly, would that be the worst thing in the world? Not that we should hope for failure. Any true fan wants to enjoy Solo. But if Ron Howard can’t save it, Disney can’t say they weren’t warned by the mistakes of so many others.
