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Director Jim Sheridan Wanted His Name Removed from 'Dream House'

by Ethan Anderton
October 10, 2011
Source: 24 Frames

With the horror film budgeted at $50 million and only raking in just over $14 million within the first two weeks of its release, it seems clear that not too many people want to shack up with Dream House, the new horror thriller starring Daniel Craig. But when the film's director doesn't want to be associated with the final product, that's when there's a real problem. 24 Frames has the story about director Jim Sheridan who apparently went all the way to the Directors Guild of America in an attempt to have his name removed from the film's credits because he didn't feel the film was representative of his vision. More details below!

The film almost went out with the directing credit of "Alan Smithee", but you probably haven't seen any of his films since that's Hollywood's equivalent of John Doe. Woes between Morgan Creek and Sheridan came when the filmmaker began working outside of David Loucka's screenplay with an improvisational method being used on set. Apparently the test screening for the film was atrocious and resulted in a round of reshoots, and the production company taking control away from Sheridan in the editing room. Later a new series of reshoots were ordered which resulted in Sheridan's effort to remove his name from the film, but the film is still not Sheridan's version that he wanted on the big screen. That's why you didn't see the director doing any publicity for the film either.

To be fair though, Sheridan's directing efforts have been rather disappointing as of late. Despite his early success with films like In the Name of the Father and My Left Foot with Daniel Day-Lewis, most recently Sheridan has helmed disappointments like Brothers with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire, not to mention the Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson led film Get Rich or Die Tryin. Of course, it's always maddening when a production company takes control away from someone specifically hired to direct the film. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and maybe there's nothing that could've saved the film from box office failure. Either way, here's hoping Sheridan can dig himself out of this rut, and get back to the glory days when he had Oscar nominations attached to his work.

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

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