10 Directors Who Removed Their Names From Their Films

Up until 1968, the Directors Guild of America forbade any filmmakers embarrassed by what they’d unleashed onto the world from hiding behind a pseudonym. But that all changed when Robert Totten and Don Siegel—both of whom had lent their talents to western Death of a Gunfighter—were so determined to avoid tarnishing their filmographies that they successfully protested against the organization’s ruling. And so the name Alan Smithee was born.

Since then, the moniker (and several equivalents) has been retroactively applied to the Burt Reynolds flick Fade In, used on more than two dozen feature films, and has even been adopted by directors deeply unsatisfied with their contributions to the small screen. Meanwhile, celebrated auteurs William Friedkin (The Guardian), David Lynch (Dune), and Michael Mann (Heat) have all relied on the practice to distance themselves from certain edits in which they had no involvement. Here’s a look at the most high-profile directors to have scrubbed their names from a film’s original release. 

1. Walter Hill
2. Noah Baumbach
3. Dennis Hopper
4. Kiefer Sutherland
5. Arthur Hiller
6. Kevin Yagher
7. David O. Russell
8. Rick Rosenthal
9. Stuart Rosenberg
10. William Lustig

Walter Hill

Definitely not to be confused with the same-named Colin Firth weepie that came out in 2021, the notorious turn-of-the-millennium flop Supernova (2000) went through three directors before finally landing in theaters. Unsurprisingly, not one wanted any recognition for their work, which explains why Thomas Lee—a name suspiciously without an IMDB page—appears on the credits. 

Walter Hill (The Warriors, 48 Hrs) was the man who shot the bulk of the sci-fi tale, which centers on a search-and-rescue mission in 22nd-century deep space. But Hill was continually hampered by budget constraints (hence the comically unconvincing android) and some baffling behind-the-scenes decisions (test audiences were shown the film without any special effects). Hill became so disillusioned with the project that he walked away and refused to come back. Jack Sholder and the legendary Francis Ford Coppola were later brought on board to salvage the wreckage.

Noah Baumbach

Before becoming the master of the dysfunctional family drama, a young Noah Baumbach roped in numerous celebrity friends to make a Gen X comedy centered on a trilogy of Brooklyn parties across the course of a year. Proving you should never mix business with pleasure, however, the result wasn’t even worthy of a single celebration, let alone three. 

Starring Justine Bateman, Peter Bogdanovich, and Baumbach himself, 1997’s Highball was shot in less than a week, and it shows. But in fairness, the filmmaker never wanted the low-budget film to see the light of day. He abandoned the project after running out of time and money and demanded his name be scrubbed from the DVD release that emerged five years later. As a result, the entirely fictional Ernie Fusco was named as the man in the director’s chair.

Dennis Hopper

Witness protection thriller Catchfire is one of the lesser entries in Jodie Foster’s filmography, and she no doubt regrets ever signing up for the project in the first place. The Oscar winner reportedly clashed so hard with its leading man/director, Dennis Hopper, that she successfully warned off Meryl Streep, a friend who he wanted to cast in his next project, from ever working with him in the future. 

Hopper himself wasn’t exactly enamored with the studio edit that flopped at the box office in 1990. He adopted the famous Alan Smithee pseudonym and refused to promote the movie. However, his name did end up on a director’s cut of the cult favorite that was released two years later. This version of the film had an additional 18 minutes of running time and a different ending; Hopper rechristened it Backtrack. 

Kiefer Sutherland

Two years after making his directorial debut with 1997’s Truth or Consequences, N.M, Kiefer Sutherland once again pulled double duty in a slightly less hyperviolent affair. Woman Wanted, the story of a love triangle that develops between a warring father and son and their new housekeeper, initially showed promise: It boasted an impressive cast, including Oscar winner Holly Hunter and Emmy winner Michael Moriarty, and picked up a gong at the short-lived Sundance alternative Slamdunk Film Festival. But Sutherland himself wasn’t quite as appreciative of the finished product and became the last person of the 20th century to hide his work under the guise of Smithee. 

Arthur Hiller

How’s this for irony? In 1997, Arthur Hiller made a mockumentary called An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn that shone the spotlight on the whole Alan Smithee practice. Eric Idle played a disillusioned director who, in an unfortunate turn of events, shares his name with Hollywood’s most used pseudonym. 

But Hiller was so embarrassed by the movie that trickled into cinemas (it made less than $60,000 worldwide), incurred the wrath of critics, and won five awards at the Razzies (including Worst Picture) that he decided to follow in his fictional lead’s footsteps. An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn also later prompted the Directors Guild of America to abandon the fake credit that had been the go-to for shamed filmmakers for more than 30 years. 

Kevin Yagher

The fourth entry in the Hellraiser series, 1996’s Bloodline is also widely regarded as the worst, largely due to its convoluted mythology, wooden performances (including from a young Adam Scott), and eventual descent into formulaic slasher. Little wonder, then, that original director Kevin Yagher decided he wanted nothing to do with the Pinhead-in-space tale. 

In his defense, the cut that made it to theaters was drastically different from his original vision. Miramax, perturbed by an early screening, had demanded Yagher to give its main hellraising Cenobite more screen time and change the nihilistic ending to a happier one. Already exhausted by the film’s turbulent production, the first-time director decided he’d be better off sticking to his special effects technician day job and stepped aside to allow Joe Chappelle to make the changes. Neither party wanted an official credit, however, leaving Smithee to once again take the blame. 

David O. Russell

Originally named Nailed, Accidental Love should have been a guaranteed smash. It was fronted by A-listers Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal, had the type of wild rom-com premise that was all the rage in the late ‘00s, and was helmed by Three Kings director David O. Russell. Yet after two years of stop-start filming (the shoot was reportedly interrupted 14 times!), the latter walked away, and the film gathered dust for another half-decade.

Russell later revealed he’d abandoned ship due to a pay cut dispute involving his two producers and Capitol Films. He was forced to briefly adopt a new moniker when a new studio, wanting to capitalize on the 10-time Oscar-nominated success of his film American Hustle, finally rushed the movie into theaters in 2015. As you’d expect, the film credited to Stephen Greene bombed with audiences and critics alike.

Rick Rosenthal

It takes a brave (or perhaps downright foolish) filmmaker to try and improve on an Alfred Hitchcock classic. And despite previously helming two chapters of the Halloween franchise, Rick Rosenthal soon found out he was no Master of Suspense.

The Birds II: Land’s End did manage to bag the original’s leading lady, Tippi Hedren, albeit in a far less pivotal, entirely different role. Yet she, too, ended up regretting signing up, later describing the 1994 Showtime movie as a “horrible experience.” Rosenthal obviously concurred, disowning the film himself by shifting the blame onto the usual fall guy, Smithee. 

Stuart Rosenberg

Mark Harmon’s pin-up looks were inadvertently to blame for director Stuart Rosenberg taking his name off the 1986 adventure Let’s Get Harry. The NCIS favorite was initially only supposed to appear toward the end of the movie as abducted engineer Harry Burck Jr. But, producers wanted to capitalize on the fact he’d been named as People’s Sexiest Man Alive after the shoot, so they demanded he receive more screen time.

Much to Rosenberg’s ire, Harmon did some additional filming that expanded on how Burck Jr. was kidnapped by a Colombian drug lord in the first place. The cinematic release of Let’s Get Harry, which also co-starred Gary Busey and Robert Duvall, was subsequently credited to good old Smithee.

William Lustig

When it came to the Maniac Cop series, the third time proved to be unlucky for William Lustig. The director had helmed its two previous slashers without any trouble. But thanks to interference from a problematic Japanese distributor during the third film, he essentially became the franchise’s last victim.

The drama started when execs insisted Robert Davi, who had appeared in the previous film, be cast as the leading man; Lustig’s version featured a Black detective. The low-budget horror auteur subsequently cut everything featuring the character from the script, leaving less than an hour of material, and departed the film, at which point a producer took over as director. That’s why Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence is crammed with filler scenes that add nothing to the unhinged narrative, and why Smithee’s name pops up as the credits finally put the sequel out of its misery. 

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