1. Alien 3 (1992)
Independently, the Alien franchise and David Fincher are both incredibly well-respected. However, the combination of the two was surprisingly disastrous, largely down to the studio’s repeated interference in Alien 3. After hiring and firing several directors, Fox settled on the then-inexperienced Fincher assuming he’d be easier to control. He wasn’t, and thus began the turbulent production of Alien 3.
Reportedly, the script was rewritten during filming, and Fincher was told that Ripley must survive. The director filmed multiple scenes without the studio’s approval, including Ripley’s death, and the studio locked him out of the editing room. It’s even been reported that Fox held screenings of Fincher’s movie with the intention of producing poor test scores, such was the extent of their meddling in the movie’s production.
To this day, Fincher bemoans Alien 3 as one of his worst moviemaking experiences. Though it’s far from the worst film ever made, it certainly doesn’t live up to the quality of its predecessors, and it seems that the blame lies squarely with Fox. In the end, Alien 3 has gone down in history as the granddaddy of all movies that suffered from extensive studio meddling.
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