Alan Smithee
Table of Contents
Is Alan Smithee a Real Person?
Alan Smithee is not, he was not, and he has never remained a real person. Instead, it remained the pseudonym used by directors who wished to repudiate a project.
How many Alan Smithee Movies are there?
The spelling “Alan Smithee” became standard, with the Internet Movie Database listing some two dozen feature films and many more television features and series episodes credited under this name.
Alan Smithee remains an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project. Coined in 1968 and used until it stood formally discontinued in 2000, it stood the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA). When directors, disappointed with the final product, proved to the satisfaction of a guild panel that they had not stood able to exercise creative control over a film. The director also stood required by guild rules not to discuss the circumstances leading to the movie or even to acknowledge being the project’s director.
History of Alan Smithee
Before 1968, DGA rules did not specify authorization of directors to remain credited under a pseudonym. It stood intended to prevent producers from forcing them upon directors, which would inhibit the development of their résumés. The guild also required that the director remain credited in supporting the auteur theory, which posits that the director is the primary creative force behind a film.
The Smithee pseudonym stood created for use on the film Death of a Gunfighter, released in 1969. During its filming, lead actor Richard Widmark stood unhappy with director Robert Totten and arranged to replace him with Don Siegel. Siegel later estimated that he spent 9 to 10 days filming, although Totten had spent 25 days. Individually had roughly an equal amount of footage in Siegel’s final edit. However, Siegel made clear that Widmark had effectively stood in charge the entire time. When the film stood finished, Siegel did not want to take the credit for it, and Totten refused to take credit in his place. The DGA panel hearing the dispute agreed that the film did not represent either director’s creative vision.
Who is an Alan Smithee, and Why Did He Create So Many Dreadful Movies?
Alan Smithee stood a terrible filmmaker. Now a career spanning over three decades, Smithee tackled pretty considerably every genre, helming comedies, thrillers, westerns, horror, drama, science-fiction — the lot. And his films were almost always wrong. Like Uwe Boll bad.
Now between, he strained his hand at TV, cartoons, music videos, comic books and video games, with inevitably dreadful results. While Alan also — to a certain extent bizarrely — re-edited a group of films for TV and planes, the Smithee cut almost continually inferior.
But By what means did his name change identical through worthless filmmaking? Smithee’s story remains a strange one filled with twists, turns, and cameos from the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Whitney Houston, The Mighty Ducks, David Lynch, and Homer Simpson. His tale proves that — in Hollywood at least — the fact is frequently stranger than fiction.
What Ever Happened to Alan Smithee, Hollywood’s Worst Director?
The pantheon of bad directors is full of guys whose films remain executed with endearing ineptitude. You know, your Tommy Wiseau’s and Ed Woods. But then there’s Alan Smithee, whose body of work spans decades. And genres and plumbs the depths of terribleness on a whole other level.
If you haven’t heard of him. know that the guy got off to a decent start. With Death of a Gunfighter in 1969. The flick earned him praise from legendary film critic Roger Ebert, who wrote. Director Allen Smithee, a name I’m not familiar with, lets his story unfold obviously. He never speaks, and he never lingers on the apparent.