7 Movies Finished by a Second Director: From 'Justice League' to 'Spartacus'

Hollywood is a people business. Yesterday, the industry was reminded of that when Warner Bros. and DC Studios announced that Steven Soderbergh will help director Matt Reeves wrap up production on "Batman: Part II," as Reeves deals with a family issue. Just to be clear, I'm not leaving 'Batman: Part 2' […]

Of course, this is not the first time in the history of popular cinema that an outside director steps in to get a project across the finish line. However, few other switches were made with friendship, collaboration and support, as is the case with Soderbergh and Reeves. Regardless of big budgets, off-camera scandals, or personal disputes, Hollywood has no shortage of studios scrambling to replace their executives when disaster strikes.

Here is a list of seven instances in cinema history where a film had to be finished by a second director.

Star Kirk Douglas, whose company Breanna Films produced Spartacus, was the man behind the shots of the gladiatorial classic as far as the director was concerned. After two weeks of filming, Douglas got the studio's approval to replace veteran Western director Anthony Mann, saying that Mann had lost control and was letting Peter Ustinoff direct his own scenes.

Douglas brought in Stanley Kubrick, who had directed him in Paths of Honor, and the film ended up winning four Academy Awards as well as a Golden Globe for Best Drama. "Spartacus" was Universal Pictures' top-grossing film until "Airport" 10 years later.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was a few months into production when director Bryan Singer was unable to return to the set after the Thanksgiving holiday. The studio temporarily halted production due to Singer's "health issue" - it was later revealed that her mother was ill - but reports surfaced of Singer's unreliability on set, verbal abuse and her alleged feud with Star owner Rami Malik.

Dexter Fletcher, who had previously joined the project, was brought in to replace Singer and finish the final third of the film. Although uncredited in promotional materials, Singer received only director credit in line with DGA guidelines, and Fletcher was credited as executive producer. This film became the highest-grossing musical biographical film until the release of "Michael" and won four Oscars in addition to being nominated for Best Picture.

"Justice League" is one of the most famous recent examples of director change. In 2017, Zack Snyder left the film during post-production to grieve with his family after his daughter died. Joss Whedon, who directed Marvel's blockbuster The Avengers five years earlier, came in and made sweeping changes to the film. Accusations of misconduct followed, and the understandable outrage of Snyder fans eventually led to the release of "The Snyder Cut" of 2021's "Justice League," which clocked in at over four hours.

During a recent sit-down with Variety, Snyder said he's never seen Whedon's version of Justice League. The difficulty he and his family had when it came out: "I've never seen it. It was when the movie came out that was a low point for me because the cumulative effect was so crazy. Not only did I lose my daughter, but they released this version of the movie that I had nothing to do with and my name is in the movie that I I didn't make it."

Veteran director John Frankenheimer was brought in, though tensions continued, with both Brando and Frankenheimer clashing with Kilmer. Fired employees of the film later reported that Stanley returned to the set dressed as a dog and played a different role in the film from which he was fired. The film failed and was nominated for the Razi Awards.

In 1977, father-and-son producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind made the bold choice to shoot "Superman" and "Superman II" at the same time, much to the chagrin of director Richard Donner. Tensions rose to the point where they decided to stop production on the sequel and focus on getting the first "Superman" in the can. "Superman II" was mostly over at that point. After the first film was released in 1978, Donner suffered a pink slip and was replaced by Richard Lester, who remade most of Superman II so he could be credited as director.

In 1978, famed Variety columnist Armie Orchard met producer Pierre Spangler at a Christmas party. The French producer told Archard that despite the tensions over the first Superman film, he was looking forward to working with Donner. Archard then followed Donner up and told him that he was shooting the sequel with Spangler: "If he's in it, I'm not."

Brenda Chapman spent six years developing and writing the screenplay for Brave, based on her relationship with her daughter and featuring Pixar's first female protagonist. Chapman became Pixar's first female director, but was replaced by Mark Andrews due to "creative differences" with Jon Lester.

"I think it's a really sad state of affairs," Chapman told the Los Angeles Times. "We're in the 21st century, and there are very few stories for girls that are told from a female perspective." "Brave" eventually won the Oscar for best animated feature, and Chapman and Andrews were recognized as co-directors of this animation.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors of this year's box office sci-fi blockbuster The Hail Mary Project, were originally slated to direct Solo: A Star Wars Story. After a lengthy casting process, filming began in January 2017, and in June 2017, Lord and Miller exited. Lucas cited "creative differences" as the reason for the departure, and Ron Howard was announced as a replacement for most of the footage that had already been filmed. It was later reported that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy clashed with Lord and Miller over the tone and shooting style of what they considered to be an ironclad script.

The production budget behind all of this behind-the-scenes drama was around $275 million. The film grossed only $392 million worldwide and was a huge bombshell for Disney and Lucasfilm.