Alan Smithee

[birds squawking] [object thuds] [birds screeching] [gentle music]

Our B movie today is The Birds 2: Land's End from 1994, directed by Alan Smithee, AKA Rick Rosenthal.

[gentle music] I can't believe you picked this place.

I mean, nobody even lives out here.

[laughs]

I think most people understand that.

Alan Smithee.

Alan Smithee, for those who don't know, is, uh, what, industry convention if a director takes their name off the film, they say it's directed by Alan Smithee.

This is gonna be one of my favorite months in a while, I think.

You may be the first person I've heard that is actually excited to hear the name Alan Smithee.

Yeah.

Well, I love the stories behind it.

I love watching something that at least comes with a preconception of, uh, of something like an Alan Smithee film, where it's like, oh, it's either, like, turmoil on the set, or there's, you know, something so terrible about it that the director [laughs] had to wash their hands clean of it.

That intrigues me to no end.

I think for someone to put blood, sweat, and tears into something and then be like, "I don't even want my name on this," like it...

Um, and I almost, like, wanna divert us, like, deep into what you were saying, because I have questions and thoughts and all of that.

Big Paul

... well, the movie we're talking about, written by Alan Smithee- [laughs]

Smithee

... uh, is a movie called The Horror Show, or if you will, House 3: The Horror Show.

Well, this is the same.

So this person who wrote it is Alan Warner.

That's a pseudonym for Alan Smithee.

Oh.

Yeah?

He has yet to apply for Alan Smithee protection.

Phew.

So I think even though he wants nothing to do with this-

So, uh, this is, the story was actually written by this Kevin Yagher dude, uh, who has only directed one film, I think, and it's Hellraiser: Bloodline.

But then, uh, he pulled the whole Alan Smithee thing where after it was re-edited he had the film de-credited and assigned to that name so that he wouldn't have to bear responsibility for it, um, which I, I think you've mentioned on an earlier, like a, a long time ago, right, we talked about Alan Smithee.

Yes.

We've talked about Alan Smithee before.

I probably mentioned that in my solo episode on Patreon where I went through the whole Hellraiser franchise too.

Oh.

But yeah, he directed two episodes of the original Tales from the Crypt TV series, and then yeah, the only feature length film he did is Hellraiser: Bloodline.

I think the story there was Miramax demanded that new scenes be shot, um, and he kind of refused to do that, and he felt like the changes they made diverged too strongly from his, his vision, so that was why he was granted the Alan Smithee pseudonym.

[laughs]

We're doing a month of Alan Smithee films.

Uh, if you don't know who Alan Smithee is, tune into our first episode to find out all about it.

Uh, special guest lined up.

We have Caitlyn from the Plug It Up podcast, and we're gonna be talking the Burt Reynolds...

I apologize.

First, I said that Paul W. S. Anderson directed Hellraiser 4 under Alan Smithee.

It's not true.

Oh.

He, he had done a, a lot of the effects for the Hellraiser movies, and then he ended up directing one.

It was Hellraiser 4, and he hated it so much.

Alan Smithee.

Um, that was the only big correction.