Alan Smithee is an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project. Coined by the Directors Guild of America in 1968 and used until it was largely discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by DGA members when directors, dissatisfied with the final product, proved to the satisfaction of a guild panel that they had not been able to exercise creative control over a film. The director was also required by guild rules not to discuss the circumstances leading to the movie or even to acknowledge being the project's director. The Alan Smithee credit has also been adopted for direction credit disputes in television, music videos and other media.
Showgirls is a 1995 erotic drama film directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Joe Eszterhas, starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, and Gina Ravera. An ambitious young woman hitches a ride to Vegas to pursue her dreams of being a professional dancer and showgirl.
Arthur Hiller, was a Canadian television and film director with over 33 films to his credit during a 50-year career. He began his career directing television in Canada and later in the U.S. By the late 1950s, he was directing films, most often comedies, but also dramas and romantic subjects, such as in Love Story (1970), which was nominated for seven Oscars.
Demolition Man is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla in his directorial debut. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, and Nigel Hawthorne. Stallone plays John Spartan, a risk-taking police officer with a reputation for causing destruction while carrying out his work. After a failed attempt to rescue hostages from evil crime lord Simon Phoenix (Snipes), they are both sentenced to be cryogenically frozen in 1996. In 2032 Phoenix escapes and the authorities awaken Spartan to help capture him. The story makes allusions to many other works including Aldous Huxley's 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World and H. G. Wells's The Sleeper Awakes.
F.I.S.T. is a 1978 American action crime drama film produced and directed by Norman Jewison and starring Sylvester Stallone. Stallone plays a Cleveland warehouse worker who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional "Federation of Inter-State Truckers" (F.I.S.T.). The film is loosely based on the Teamsters Union and their former President Jimmy Hoffa. The screenplay was by Joe Eszterhas and Stallone, from a story by Eszterhas.
József Antal Eszterhás, credited as Joe Eszterhas, is a Hungarian-American writer. Born in Hungary, he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. After an early career as a journalist and editor, he entered the film industry. His first screenwriting credit was for the film F.I.S.T. (1978). He co-wrote the script for Flashdance, which became one of the highest-grossing films of 1983, and set off a lucrative and prolific run for his career. By the early 1990s, he was known as the highest-paid writer in Hollywood, and noted for his work in the erotic thriller genre. He was paid a then-record $3 million for his script Love Hurts, which was produced as Basic Instinct (1992), and following its success, news outlets reported he earned seven-figure salaries solely on the basis of two-to-four page outlines.
Death of a Gunfighter is a 1969 American Western film directed by Robert Totten and Don Siegel. It stars Richard Widmark and Lena Horne. and features an original score by Oliver Nelson. The theme of the film is the "passing" of the West, the clash between a traditional character and the politics and demands of modern society. The film direction is credited to Allen Smithee, a pseudonym that has subsequently been used by directors who do not wish to be credited for their film.
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is a 1992 American buddy cop action comedy directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Sylvester Stallone and Estelle Getty. The film was released in the United States on February 21, 1992. The film received highly negative reviews upon release but grossed $70.6 million worldwide.
Judge Dredd is a 1995 American science fiction action film based on the 2000 AD comics character of the same name. It is directed by Danny Cannon and stars Sylvester Stallone as the eponymous Judge Dredd, a law enforcement officer in the crime-ridden futuristic metropolis of Mega-City One. Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Jürgen Prochnow, and Max von Sydow appear in supporting roles. It was filmed entirely at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom, and released by Buena Vista Pictures on June 30, 1995.
Driven is a 2001 American action sports film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote and produced. It centers on a young racing driver's effort to win the CART FedEx Championship Series auto racing championship. Prior to production, Stallone was seen at many Formula One races, but he was unable to procure enough information about the category due to the secrecy with which teams protect their cars, so he decided to base the film on CART.
A fake Shemp is a type of body double who appears in a film to replace another actor or person, usually when the original actor has died or is otherwise unable or unwilling to reprise their role. Their appearance is disguised using methods such as heavy make-up, filming from the back, dubbing in audio and splicing in past footage from the original actor's previous work, using a sound-alike voice actor, or using partial shots of the actor.
Cinergi Pictures Inc. was an American independent film production company founded by Andrew G. Vajna in 1989, after he had sold his interest in his first production company, Carolco International Pictures. The company had a number of major hit films, most notably Tombstone, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Evita. However, the majority of their films lost money. A string of box office bombs – including Super Mario Bros., Renaissance Man, Color of Night, Judge Dredd and Burn Hollywood Burn – ultimately did the company in, and it was dissolved in 1998. Cinergi Pictures' library is now owned by Disney.
Jade is a 1995 American erotic thriller film written by Joe Eszterhas, produced by Robert Evans, directed by William Friedkin, and starring David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Crenna, and Michael Biehn. The original music score was composed by James Horner based on a song composed by Loreena McKennitt. The film was marketed with the tagline "Some fantasies go too far."
One Night Stand is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Mike Figgis. The film stars Wesley Snipes, Nastassja Kinski, Kyle MacLachlan, Ming-Na Wen and Robert Downey Jr. The first draft of the screenplay was written by Joe Eszterhas, who had his name removed from the project following Figgis's rewrite.
Dick Richards is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Known as a storyteller and an "actor’s director", Richards worked with Robert Mitchum, Gene Hackman, Martin Sheen, Blythe Danner, Catherine Deneuve, Alan Arkin, Wilford Brimley, and many others.
Ringmaster is a 1998 American comedy film starring Jerry Springer as a fictional version of himself named Jerry Farrelly, host of a show similar to his own called Jerry.
Frank Michael Howson was an Australian theatre and film director, screenwriter, and singer. He directed Flynn (1996) on the early life of Errol Flynn and Hunting (1991). Howson, with Peter Boyle, helped establish Boulevard Films which produced thirteen films from Boulevard of Broken Dreams (1988) to Flynn; besides producing for Boulevard Films, Howson often wrote scripts and directed.
Ben Myron is a film producer. His sixteen credits range from low-budget independent films to big-budget studio films.
The Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst film screenplay of the past year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, including each screenplay's author(s).
The Razzie Award for Worst Original Song was an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst song written for a film in the previous year. The following is a list of recipients and nominees of that award, along with the film for which they were nominated.
