Other Titles • An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn • An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn • An Alan Smithee Film (1997) • Burn Hollywood Burn
Synopses for An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997)
1.
Subtitled An Alan Smithee Film (referring to a long-standing pseudonym for a director who disowns a film), this 1998 satire is notable chiefly for having the same thing happen in real life, as director Arthur Hiller (Love Story) took his name off the picture after clashing with screenwriter and producer Joe Eszterhas (Showgirls, Basic Instinct). The plot of Eszterhas's farce has to do with a filmmaker who really is named Alan Smithee, played by Eric Idle (Monty Python's The Meaning of Life). After signing on to direct a big-budget blockbuster at the behest of a sleazy producer (Ryan O'Neal), Smithee realizes he has lost control of the film and decides to remove his name and publicly destroy the project. Along the way he encounters a host of celebrities in cameos, including the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Sylvester Stallone, Jackie Chan, and rappers Chuck D and Coolio, all of whom become involved in Smithee's doomed film. Meant as an insider's take on the machinations of Hollywood from one of its most prominent screenwriters, Burn Hollywood Burn is a cheerfully over-the-top send-up of modern moviemaking and the equally outlandish characters involved. --Robert Lane
2.
A beleaguered film editor steps away from the Steenbeck for what should be his smashing directorial debut, but the set becomes a battlefield between his pushy producer and the studio suits. As the production spirals out of control, the director considers changing his credit to "Alan Smithee"--but, unfortunately, that's actually his name! So what's he to do but steal the negatives, polarizing all of Tinseltown with the scandal? Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas's ostensibly comic poison pen letter to the industry, so bitter it compelled this film's own director to adopt the "Alan Smithee" pseudonym.
3.
Director Alan Smithee comes to Hollywood to make a movie. Due to a variety of factors, he decides to disown it and direct it under a pseudonym. Unfortunately, the Director's Guild requires that if a director disowns a movie in this fashion, he *must* use the official Director's Guild pseudonym...which happens to be Alan Smithee.
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
<>
Movie Database
In Theaters
