10 Directors Who Removed Their Names From Their Films

Some walked off the set. Others tried to bury the film forever. One director even made a whole movie about the fake name Hollywood uses when a director quits—and THAT movie was so bad he used the fake name himself.

Supernova (2000)

Walter Hill

Supernova, the 2000 sci-fi trainwreck, is the kind of movie that shows just how bad things can get behind the scenes. First off, don't confuse it with that Colin Firth drama from a couple years ago—this Supernova is famous for all the wrong reasons. It bounced between three directors before it finally crawled into theaters, and nobody wanted their name attached. That's why you see "Thomas Lee" credited as director, which, surprise, isn't even a real person—just a fake name because nobody would claim it.

Walter Hill, who did The Warriors and 48 hours, shot most of the film. He had to deal with a busted budget from the start. The android effects look ridiculous, and the producers kept making calls that make zero sense—like showing test audiences an unfinished cut with no special effects. Hill just got sick of the whole mess, walked away, and wouldn't come back. The studio dragged in Jack Sholder and even Francis Ford Coppola to try and fix what was left, but at that point, there wasn't anything left to save.

Highball (1997)

Noah Baumbach

Long before Noah Baumbach became "that guy" for family drama, he rounded up a bunch of friends—including Justine Bateman, Peter Bogdanovich, and himself—to shoot a Gen X comedy called Highball. The whole movie is basically three Brooklyn parties over a year, shot in less than a week, and it shows. Nobody had any money, nobody had time, and Baumbach basically lost all interest once filming was done.

He wanted the project buried. But five years later, a DVD release popped up anyway, with Baumbach's name nowhere in sight. Instead, they credited it to "Ernie Fusco"—another made-up director. Baumbach never wanted Highball out in the world, and honestly, it's easy to see why.

Catchfire (1990)

Dennis Hopper

Catchfire is a witness protection thriller from 1990, but most people remember it for the drama behind the camera more than anything onscreen. Dennis Hopper directed and starred, Jodie Foster was the lead, and it was a mess from the start. Foster and Hopper clashed so hard that she actually convinced Meryl Streep—who Hopper wanted for his next movie—to never work with him. That tells you everything.

The studio version bombed, and Hopper didn't even want his name on it. He used the classic Alan Smithee pseudonym and refused to promote the film. But he did go back later and put together his own director's cut, calling it Backtrack, adding 18 more minutes and a new ending. That version picked up a little cult interest, but for Jodie Foster, it's still one of the films she'd probably erase from her résumé if she could.

Woman Wanted (1999)

Kiefer Sutherland

By 1999, Kiefer Sutherland was already two movies into his directing career. After the hyperviolent Truth or Consequences, N.M., he tried something quieter with Woman Wanted—a love triangle drama with Oscar-winner Holly Hunter and Michael Moriarty. On paper, it looked promising: solid cast, some early festival love (it even won at the Slamdunk Film Festival, which tried to be Sundance's edgier cousin). But once Sutherland saw the final cut, he wanted nothing to do with it. The end result left him so unimpressed, he took his name off the project, hiding behind the old Alan Smithee label. That made him literally the last filmmaker of the 20th century to use the credit.

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997)

Arthur Hiller

Just two years earlier, the whole Smithee game basically got roasted by Hollywood itself. Arthur Hiller made a mockumentary called An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn—a movie about a director so desperate to hide from a disaster that he tries to use the Alan Smithee name, only to discover his own name is Alan Smithee. Eric Idle starred as the unlucky filmmaker. The irony is that the production itself went so far off the rails that Arthur Hiller pulled the real-life Smithee move, taking his own name off the movie. The film crawled into theaters, made less than $60,000, and critics annihilated it. The Razzies handed it five awards, including Worst Picture. That was enough for the Directors Guild—they shut down the Smithee credit for good after that. Decades of hiding in plain sight, finished by a movie that was supposed to be in on the joke.

Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)

Kevin Yagher

A few years earlier, the Smithee name popped up in a place nobody expected: the horror sequel Hellraiser Bloodline. This was the fourth film in the franchise, and the production turned into a mess. Kevin Yagher, known more for his special effects work, was hired to direct. He had a big, weird vision for Pinhead in space—a storyline that was already risky. Then Miramax got nervous after early screenings. They wanted more Pinhead, a "happier" ending, and less of the bleak, nihilistic tone Yagher had planned. After battling endless studio notes, Yagher walked away, done with directing. Joe Chappelle was brought in to patch things together, but nobody wanted their name on what came out. So once again, Alan Smithee took the blame for a film that just never had a chance.

Accidental Love (2015)

David O. Russell

Accidental Love has to be one of the most cursed productions of the 2000s. The movie started out as Nailed, back when quirky rom-coms were actually making money. Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal signed on, David O. Russell was directing—on paper, this was the kind of thing that should have been an easy win. Instead, the whole thing fell apart. The production stopped and started so many times—fourteen separate shutdowns—nobody knew if it would ever finish. Russell eventually walked off, not because of "creative differences," but over a pay dispute between his two producers and Capitol Films. After that, the movie just sat on a shelf for five years, unfinished and unwanted.

It only saw the light of day when a new studio came in and rushed it out in 2015, desperate to cash in on Russell's American Hustle Oscar run. They even forced him to use the fake name Stephen Greene in the credits. As you'd expect, the movie bombed with both audiences and critics. It's hard to imagine any other outcome after that mess.

The Birds II: Land's End (1994)

Rick Rosenthal

Remaking a Hitchcock classic is always a terrible idea, and The Birds II: Land's End is a perfect example of how wrong it can go. Rick Rosenthal, who already had a couple of Halloween sequels under his belt, tried to put his own spin on things. They even got Tippi Hedren back, but not as her iconic character—just in a random side role. She regretted it almost immediately and later called the entire production a "horrible experience." Rosenthal must've felt the same, because when the dust settled, he had his name swapped out for Alan Smithee, the classic sign of a director wanting nothing to do with their own movie.

Let's Get Harry (1986)

Stuart Rosenberg

Let's Get Harry was a pretty standard ‘80s action-adventure—at least, that's how it started. Mark Harmon, who would later become a household name, was only supposed to show up at the end as the kidnapped engineer. But then People magazine named him Sexiest Man Alive, and suddenly, the producers wanted more Harmon. They ordered new scenes just to bump up his screen time and rewrote the movie around him being kidnapped by a Colombian drug lord. Stuart Rosenberg, the director, was so frustrated with the changes that he had his name taken off the film. Another one credited to Alan Smithee, all because of some last-minute, star-driven studio meddling.

Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence (1993)

William Lustig

The Maniac Cop franchise already had a cult following, but by the third film, everything went off the rails. William Lustig had directed the first two movies without much trouble. Then a Japanese distributor started interfering with part three. They demanded Robert Davi come back as the lead—even though Lustig's script was built around a Black detective. Lustig fought back, cutting every scene with the new lead and ending up with less than an hour of usable footage. He bailed on the project, and a producer finished it. That's why Maniac Cop III is padded out with filler that makes no sense, and why "Alan Smithee" is in the credits when the movie finally limped into release. The series never recovered.