An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn

"Burn Hollywood Burn" redirects here. For the song by Public Enemy, see Fear of a Black Planet.
An Alan Smithee Film:
Burn Hollywood, Burn

Promotional poster
Directed by Arthur Hiller
(as Alan Smithee)
Produced by Ben Myron
Written by Joe Eszterhas
Starring
Music by
Cinematography Reynaldo Villalobos
Edited by L. James Langlois
Production
companies
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates
  • February 20, 1998 (1998-02-20)
Running time
 86 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $10 million
Box office $52,850[1]

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood, Burn (the onscreen title is simply Burn Hollywood Burn) is a 1998 American mockumentary comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller (using the Alan Smithee pseudonym), written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Eric Idle as the protagonist, a director unfortunately named Alan Smithee. The film follows Smithee as he steals the negatives to his latest film and goes on the run.

Critically panned, the film "won" five awards (including Worst Picture) at the 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards. The film had an estimated budget of $10 million and grossed at least $52,850, as it was only released in 19 theaters.[1]

The film's creation set off a chain of events, which would lead the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit in 2000. Its plot (about a director attempting to disown a film) eventually, and ironically, described the film's own production; director Hiller requested that his name be removed after witnessing the final cut of the film by the studio.

Plot

A director by the name of Alan Smithee has been allowed to direct Trio, a big-budget action film starring Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg and Jackie Chan. The studio recuts the film, and when Smithee sees the results (which he describes as being "worse than Showgirls"), he wants to disown the film. However, since his name is also the pseudonym used by Hollywood when someone does not want to have their name attached to a bad film, he steals the film and flees, threatening to destroy the film by burning it.

Cast

Cameos as themselves

Production

The film was written (and produced, though he was not credited for it) by Joe Eszterhas, who became the first person to win four Golden Raspberry awards for a single film: Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay and both Worst Supporting Actor and Worst New Star for a brief cameo appearance. (Technically, he also received a co-nomination for the Worst Screen Couple award, since Burn Hollywood Burn was nominated for "any two people appearing together onscreen"; however, the movie did not "win" in this category.) The released film credits the Alan Smithee pseudonym as director because Arthur Hiller, the film's real director, objected to the way Eszterhas recut the film, and as a result, had his name removed. (However, in his autobiography, Hollywood Animal, Eszterhas claims that Hiller still sat in the editing room with him to make certain suggestions.) In his entry on Burn Hollywood Burn for his "My Year of Flops" column in The A.V. Club, pop culture critic Nathan Rabin sarcastically commented that Hiller's decision to use the Alan Smithee credit was "very transparently not a stupid, stupid gimmick to raise interest in a terrible film".[2]

Reception

Film critic Roger Ebert, reviewing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave Burn Hollywood Burn a score of zero stars, his lowest possible rating.[3]

The film currently holds an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes; the aggregator's critical consensus calls it "A witless Hollywood satire whose hammy, obvious jokes are neither funny nor insightful of the movie business."[4] Eric Idle himself said in various interviews meant to promote the film that "this is rather dreadful".

Awards and nominations

Award Subject Nominee Subject
Razzie Award Worst Picture Ben Myron Won
Joe Eszterhas Won
Worst Screenplay Won
Worst New Star Won
Worst Supporting Actor Won
Sylvester Stallone Nominated
Worst Actor Ryan O'Neal Nominated
Worst Original Song "I Wanna Be Mike Ovitz" Won
Worst Screen Couple Any combination of two people playing themselves Nominated
Worst Director Arthur Hiller as Alan Smithee Nominated

See also

References

  1. 1 2 An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn at Box Office Mojo
  2. ↑ Rabin, Nathan. "My Year Of Flops: Inside Hollywood Edition, Case File #109: An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn". The A.V. Club, May 14, 2008. Retrieved November, 2011.
  3. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (review)," Chicago Sun-Times, Friday, February 27, 1998.
  4. ↑ An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn at Rotten Tomatoes

External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Postman		 Razzie Award for Worst Picture
19th Golden Raspberry Awards 		Succeeded by
Wild Wild West
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