Film director Alan Smithee, who didn’t shoot a meter of celluloid

The first work attributed to Alan Smithee, lawless citya western playing Richard Widmarkthe actor due to his poor relationship with the original director of the film, Robert Tottengot him fired by the production company and replaced him don siegel As an act of friendship, he refused to sign the film. But Siegel’s decision created an unprecedented situation in the Hollywood studio system. According to the Directors Guild of America rules, movie works could not be signed with a pseudonym. However, given Totten and Siegel’s refusal to take responsibility for the author, lawless cityThe Filmmakers Association of America agreed to have the deal signed by a fictitious director named Alan Smithee, and from then on, many other productions, some of which were shot before this resolution went into effect, would be attributed to him.

movie productor Jud Taylorfor example, used the Smithee name retroactively to get rid of blackoutis a film released in 1968, a year before the conflict between Siegel, Totten, and Widmark. Another of the filmmakers who unexpectedly applied to Smithee was this: David Lynch In 1988 he requested that his name be removed from his version. sand dunes It enabled the MCA to be televised and released in video stores. Although it recovers images not included in the movie version and New York Times Confirming that the new montage improves understanding of the story compared to the montage Lynch signed for the movies, the American director was not satisfied and chose to play Smithee’s wildcard. Lynch’s displeasure was such that he even requested that the script written by him be signed, this time under another fictitious name. Judah Cabinet.

A VOICE SECRET

Alan Smithee’s true identity has not gone beyond the Hollywood world or film critics for years., some referred to the anecdote in their writings. in 1995, angel comasof the pioneersaid about hell rescue (1986): “There is no director Alan Smithee. He is actually a fictitious name for films whose directors are in conflict and do not want to take responsibility for the final product. The director of this current action is the story. Stuart Rosenberg. The film does not go beyond the elite category of garbage”. A B C Said on the occasion of the television transition in 1996 frightened (1989): “Signed by the non-existent Alan Smithee, given to directors who didn’t want their names to appear in the credits, considering their productions were manipulated by the production company.” A similar incident took place in the same newspaper in 2001. riot at home (1987) -“Paul Aaron Y Terry Winsor Hide behind the nickname Alan Smithee, ashamed of the consequences of this comedy”—and in 2006 birds 2: “Real birds, hitchhiking. Birds led by these Rick Rosenthalashamed of the result, withdrawing his signature and leaving the usual pseudonym of Alan Smithee ».

Everything would change with its 1999 premiere. Burn Hollywood!with original English title An Alan Smithee Movie: Burning Hollywood (An Alan Smithee Movie: Yak, Hollywood, Yak). It was written by the Hungarian-American Joe Eszterhas, who was responsible for its screenplays. Basic Instinct Y show girlsThe film was a satire of the Hollywood world, collecting some of Eszterhas’ personal experiences throughout his career.

Shot like a model, Burn Hollywood! cameos that stand out from the stars like Sylvester Stallone, dude Goldberg, Jackie Chan, Larry King anyone Harvey Weinsteinand he was in the lead Monty Python Eric Idle, as a film director whose full name is Alan Smithee. In fact, the comedy of the movie lies in the problems between Idle’s character and the producer he plays. Ryan O’Nealand the paradox which meant that when Smithee decided not to sign the film he was shooting, he had to have it recorded under his real name, Alan Smithee in his case.

What Joe Eszterhas didn’t take into account was that the “Alan Smithee movie” would eventually become an Alan Smithee movie. I was fed up with the bad atmosphere on set caused in most cases by the director Eszterhas himself. Arthur Hiller He refused and asked that he be signed with the name of the fictitious director. Finally Burn Hollywood! ten nominations razzie awards —The ‘anti-Oscars’ recognizing the worst titles and professionals of the year; it was made with eight and had a box office of about fifty-nine thousand dollars in the United States, which was far from the ten million dollars invested in the film, which resulted in the production company, Cinergi Picturesclosed on the same day of the premiere.

Bye Bye to SMITHEE

Another result of the premiere Burn Hollywood! It was because Alan Smithee’s story had outgrown the general public, so there was no longer any reason to continue running this simulation. As a result, Beginning in 2000, the Directors Guild allowed films to be signed under a pseudonym. no longer necessarily had to be Alan Smithee or his variations, Allen Smithee and Alan Smythee.

Walter Hill was the first to benefit from this new arrangement, which allowed registration. supernova (2000) under the name Thomas Lee and among other directors who have preferred this method in recent years, alec baldwinsigning the movie Shortcut to happiness (2003) under the name Harry Kirkpatrick.

Although the history of Hollywood is long forgotten, twenty years after Smithee’s official disappearance, his figure continues to arouse interest not among movie fans but among genre scholars who have written academic articles about his figure. For example, Productions directed by Allen SmitheeA volume containing texts by different authors compiled by Jeremy Braddock Y Stephen HockA film in which the transcendence of a fictional writer like Smithee in the world of cinema is analyzed according to different approaches. Among them, the idea of ​​the author developed by the philosopher Jacques DerridaSmithee figure Writers persecuted by the Witch Hunt and the Committee on Un-American Activities, or ready of the Marcel Duchamp.