12.Full-Tilt Boogie(1997)
1996’sFrom Dusk Till Dawnby director Robert Rodriguez was Quentin Tarantino’s first (paid) screenplay. It marked the beginning of his auteur influence on cinema—that is, his obsession with crime, bloody action sequences, and tense dialogue.
It may not be his finest work, butFrom Dusk Till Dawnhas earned its reputation as a cult classic among horror fans.
And soFull-Tilt Boogiedocuments the behind-the-scenes production of this gratuitous vampire flick, where the non-union status of the film was protested.
Related:The Best Movies About Vampires, Ranked
11.Making The Shining(1980)
Stanley Kubrick is a director known for his demanding ambition, who stopped at nothing to achieve his darkly grand imagination on every single film he ever made.
His 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classicThe Shiningbecame an immediate milestone of the auteur’s filmography—even if King himself hated it.
It’s widely known trivia that Kubrick called for 127 takes of the staircase scene inThe Shining, such was the extent he’d often go. It even led to lead actress Shelley Duvall suffering at the hands of Kubrick’s vision with nervous breakdowns and health issues.
InMaking The Shining, Kubrick’s daughter explores all of this as a documentary short. Ideal for some bite-sized film knowledge!
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10.Under Pressure: Making ‘The Abyss’(1993)
Any film that involves a lot of water is going to be a nightmare to execute, especially before technology was as advanced as it is now! James Cameron has never been afraid of an aquatic challenge, though, as we saw with his infamous disaster epicTitanic.
ForThe Abyss, Cameron had to fill an old power plant with 7.5 million gallons of water for his crew to submerge themselves in.
These long underwater days left cast members on the brink of mental breakdowns, which Ed W. Marsh dives into (no pun intended) in this 60-minute documentary.
Related:The Greatest Sci-Fi Movie Directors and Filmmakers, Ranked
9.Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood(2001)
Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor was known for her long list of health problems, injuries, and hospital visits. In 1961, she barely survived a bout of pneumonia while filmingCleopatra.
This was especially annoying for 20th Century Fox, who had just dished out a $1 million salary to her (an amount that no actor had ever made before). Everything about Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1963 historical epic was big—too big to manage.
Not only did production costs nearly bankrupt the studio, but scandalous news about the film’s celebrity cast splashed newspapers. But any publicity is good publicity, right? That’s what Kevin Burns and Brent Zacky show us in this documentary, anyway.
Related:The Most Expensive Movies Ever Made (And Why They Cost So Much)
8.The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys(1996)
Terry Gilliam is familiar with production adversity, as you might’ve seen in his makings ofThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote,Brazil, andThe Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
Luckily, his sci-fi flick12 Monkeyswasn’t too arduous by comparison, as Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe show us. InThe Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys, we see an obsessive Gilliam channeling his lead man’s performances into perfection.
We get nearly 135 hours of behind-the-scenes footage neatly condensed into a humorous observational documentary that feels just as crazy as12 Monkeysitself was.
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7.Burden of Dreams(1982)
The 1982 epicFitzcarraldohad a notoriously hellish production. Eccentric director Werner Herzog and chaotic star Klaus Kinski proved difficult to keep up with, as Les Blank (director ofBurden of Dreams) came to realize.
Blank is unafraid to show Herzog’s flaws, who controversially used indigenous extras and refused to film with model ships. Under his direction, there were two plane crashes, several serious injuries among crew, and real guns were waved around.
MakingFitzcarraldoreally was a burden for everyone involved… more of a nightmare than a dream.
Related:Infamous Movies With the Worst Film Production Stories
6.The Beast Within: The Making of Alien(2003)
1979’sAlien, directed by Ridley Scott, is one of the most iconic films ever made, mostly for the way it changed the face of sci-fi.
InThe Beast Within, Charles de Lauzirika gives us an exhaustive look into the making ofAlien…so exhaustive that this documentary runs even longer than the (already-long) movie itself!
Perfect for film buffs and horror fans, this documentary features exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes clips, diving into the details of its revolutionary special effects.
Ridley Scott’s classic is given rigorous examination, and for this reason,The Beast Withinis mainly for hardcore fans.
Related:The Best Sci-Fi Movie Scenes of All Time, Ranked
5.Jodorowsky’s Dune(2013)
Jodorowsky’s Duneis one of two documentaries on this list that looks into the failed making of a movie.
Alejandro Jodorowsky had intended to extravagantly adapt Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novelDunein the mid-1970s. However, lapsed film rights, insufficient funding, and a 14-hour screenplay meant the film was lost after two years of development.
Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, and Pink Floyd were set to make Jodorowsky’sDunea one-of-a-kind piece of art cinema, which Frank Pavich guides us through in his documentary.
The remnants were later purchased by Dino de Laurentiis for David Lynch’s (unfavored) 1984 adaptation.
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4.The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness(2013)
Hayao Miyazaki’s animated world is beloved by children and adults alike. Film critics, cinephiles, and mainstream viewers can all agree that the awe, wisdom, and creativity in Studio Ghibli’s vast array of animated works is nothing short of magical.
Mami Sunada celebrates this in her 2013 documentary as she takes us through the madness of Miyazaki’s dreamy world.
Filmed over the course of two years,The Kingdom of Dreams and Madnessgives us a peek into Miyazaki’s personal life, political opinions, and productions of his two filmsThe Wind RisesandThe Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
Related:The Most Iconic Studio Ghibli Characters, Ranked
3.Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner(2007)
Horrible production stories are solid gold for documentary filmmakers. 1982’sBlade Runnerwas another one of those legendary movies that were pure torture to make.
Charles de Lauzirika’s three-and-a-half hour documentaryDangerous Days: Making Blade Runnerchronicles the ups and downs of Ridley Scott’s dystopian sci-fi, using lost and never-before-seen footage to add new dimension to the story.
The cast and crew were practically at each other’s necks during production, so it’s a miracleBlade Runnerever got made at all.
Related:The Best 4K HDR Movies That Are Drop-Dead Gorgeous
2.Lost in La Mancha(2002)
The second movie-that-never-was on this list is Terry Gilliam’sThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote. (Well, actually, that’s not quite true. Gilliam eventually managed to make and release the film in 2018, starring Adam Driver as Johnny Depp’s replacement.)
But at the time of this documentary, Gilliam’s doomed project had yet to exist. Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe honor Gilliam’s noble and determined attempt to bring the 17th century Spanish tale to life.
InLost in La Mancha, we see how extreme weather conditions, blown budgets, and actor injuries put Gilliam to the test. Twenty-nine years later, we now have the finished movie. Nowthat’sdedication.
Related:Movies That Were Cursed (With Tragic Cast and Crew Incidents)
1.Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse(1991)
1979’sApocalypse Nowis just as famous for its gritty, masterful filmmaking as it is for its cursed production history.
Director Francis Ford Coppola threatened to kill himself on multiple occasions from the sheer stress of making this Vietnam War epic.
He had mortgaged his house for the project, only to be bombarded by bad weather, troubling actors, and 200 hours of footage.
Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, and wife Eleanor Coppola direct this famous behind-the-scenes making-of documentary, the title of which is derived from Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novellaHeart of Darkness.
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