Films of famous directors that they consider mistakes (9 photos)

Not everyone knows how to admit their mistakes. It’s much easier to be offended, make excuses, or simply make a scandal about being an unrecognized genius that no one understands. It would seem that such a reaction should be expected from creative people, but let’s not inflate this stereotype. In this post you will see the names of truly great directors who openly regret making some of their films. And what’s surprising is that we often review and love many of these paintings! But, as they say, no one will criticize you as much as you do. Therefore, a truly talented director does not need critics, because he himself admits and dismantles the mistake into atoms... even if it is not a mistake at all. Spoiler: there will be a lot of letters. Take heart.

Martin Scorsese regrets making Shutter Island (2010)





While promoting Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese admitted that his director's Oscar for The Departed (2006) inspired him to make another "frothy studio effort," as he put it. That was “Shutter Island,” which he regrets wasting time on, since Martin was much more interested in his long-term project “Silence” (Scorsese worked on it for 25 years!), which was eventually released only in 2016.

It turns out that Scorsese's waste of time is one of the best detective thrillers of the 21st century.

David Lynch regrets making Dune (1984)



David Lynch and the producers tried to cram that story, which nowadays can barely fit into three films, into 2 hours and 17 minutes. Moreover, the latter had the right to final editing. Lynch did not like the final version of the film so much that he renounced it forever and never again in his career agreed to hand over the editing to the producers, for the sake of this he lowered the budget of the projects and his own salary.

I probably shouldn't have made this picture, but I saw a lot of possibilities for things I liked that could be done here.

By the way, many film buffs and Lynch fans consider 1984's Dune a misunderstood and simply unfinished masterpiece. If David had made the film at a time when “no one was telling him to,” then we would have seen one of Lynch’s best films. But, alas, the producers turned out to be stronger.

David Fincher regrets making The Game (1997)





Agree, if you watched this film, you most likely liked it. Or even really liked it. But Fincher has his own standards, and in a 2014 interview, the director admitted that he and the screenwriters failed the third act of the film, considering the given pace to be a saving cover for this hole. He noted that his wife Sian Chaffin, who produced The Game, was right to point out this flaw even then.

When asked which film he didn’t think he was comfortable directing (journalists sometimes ask this), Fincher chose “The Game.” Although the main dark spot in the director’s filmography is considered the third part of “Alien,” his debut film, which was mercilessly distorted by the producers. Fincher probably doesn’t consider him one of his own at all, so he doesn’t even remember him.

Stanley Kubrick regretted the film Fear and Lust (1952)



The legendary director called his film debut a “clumsy amateur exercise,” disliked it very much, and at one point even tried to collect and destroy all its copies so that no one would see “Fear and Lust” again. At some point the film was considered lost, but that was not the case!

In the 1990s, while Kubrick was still alive, the film was found, immediately received the status of a discovered classic gem and was again shown to the general public. Kubrick again tried to convince the public that the film was not worth anyone's time, but where could it be when people suddenly received “another Kubrick film” unplanned.

Michael Bay regrets directing Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)



And not only him, but also the previous part “Transformers: Age of Extinction” (2014).

As the director admitted, Steven Spielberg himself advised him to finish with three films, with which Bay generally agreed. But the studio bosses are not! They begged the director to make a fourth part, since the third one collected more than a billion dollars. Okay, but it's definitely the last one, Michael said. And then boom! And the fourth part again collected billions at the box office. What are you going to doLet's do it! I had to work on the fifth, although from an artistic point of view the series jumped into the abyss already with the threequel.

Apparently, Bay worked on the “sad but delicious” principle, realizing that he was very stuck on this project. While acknowledging all the criticism, Bay said he should have stopped, but aside from the box office success, Transformers was truly fun to work on.

Steven Soderbergh regrets making the film "Che" (2008)



The director answered with a confident “Yes!” to a direct question whether he regrets making this biopic (consisting of two parts) about the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara.

It was such an intense four or five months. You know, for a year after we finished filming, I still woke up in the morning thinking, “Thank God I'm not making this movie.”

Ridley Scott regrets directing Alien: Covenant (2017) instead of Blade Runner 2



It just so happened that in 2017, two sequels to Ridley Scott’s classic masterpieces were released, but he was only able to direct one of them himself.

I shouldn't have made that decision. But I had to. I should have made Blade Runner 2.

Instead, Denis Villeneuve took over the “running”, who also recently admitted that he sometimes wakes up at night with the thought: “Why did I film this?” - however, not because he is ashamed of the result, but because of the incredible complexity of the project and some attempt on someone else’s universe, which he promised himself not to do again. And after that he started working on Dune (ha ha).

Roland Emmerich regrets directing Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)



The director admitted that he “should have just said no” and left the project after Will Smith decided not to star in the sequel, choosing “Suicide Squad” (he, of course, made a mistake here too). Without the main character of the first part, Emmerich had to “put together another script” as quickly as possible, which could not but affect the quality of the film.

Francis Ford Coppola regrets making sequels to The Godfather (1972)



Yes, Coppola initially believed that the story should end with one film, in addition, the director planned to switch and try something new after the crime drama.

But! Due to its incredible box office success and numerous awards, Paramount Pictures made the director an offer he couldn't refuse (he actually quoted this quote from the film in an interview). Coppola jokingly told the management an absolutely incredible amount of his own fee for filming the sequel, and they suddenly immediately agreed.

Thus, one of the best sequels and films of all time turned out to be primarily a commercially motivated project. Coppola himself admits that he was not particularly interested in it and regrets that he filmed both the second and third parts.