An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (stylized on-screen as Burn Hollywood Burn) is a 1997 American mockumentary film directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Eric Idle as a director unfortunately named Alan Smithee, a traditional pseudonym used in Hollywood for directors disowning a project. The film follows Smithee as he steals the negatives to his latest film and goes on the run.

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Arthur Hiller (as Alan Smithee)
Written by	Joe Eszterhas
Produced by	Ben Myron
Starring	Ryan O'Neal Coolio Chuck D Eric Idle Sylvester Stallone Whoopi Goldberg Jackie Chan
Cinematography	Reynaldo Villalobos
Edited by	L. James Langlois
Music by	Chuck D Joel Diamond Gary G-Wiz
Production companies	Hollywood Pictures Cinergi Pictures
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures (North America/South America) Cinergi Productions (International)
Release dates	October 1997 (1997-10) (Mill Valley) February 27, 1998 (1998-02-27) (United States)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million[citation needed]
Box office	$59,921[1]

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn was universally panned by critics and tanked at the box office. It "won" five awards (including Worst Picture) at the 19th Golden Raspberry Awards. The film's creation set off a chain of events which led the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit in 2000 after its use for decades when an American director disavowed a film.[2] The plot, about a director attempting to disown a film, ironically described the film's own production; Hiller requested that his name be removed after witnessing the final cut, and he is credited as Alan Smithee. Burn Hollywood Burn was also the final production of Cinergi Pictures, which closed on the day of the film's American release.

Plot

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Director 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 (he also received a co-nomination for the Worst Screen Couple award, since An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn was nominated for "any two people appearing together onscreen"; although 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. In his autobiography, Hollywood Animal, Eszterhas claims that Hiller still sat in the editing room with him to make certain suggestions.^{[citation needed]} In his entry on An Alan Smithee Film: 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".[3]

Reception

Box office

The film had an estimated budget of $10 million and grossed at least $52,850, as it was released in only 19 theaters.[1]

Critical response

Film critic Roger Ebert, reviewing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn a score of zero stars, his lowest possible rating. The film was not merely bad but "incompetent", Ebert wrote, and also seemingly represented a lapse of judgment for Eszterhas who "is sometimes a good writer".[4] In 2005 Ebert included it on his list of most hated films.[5]

The film holds a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 3.3/10. The site's critical consensus calls it "A witless Hollywood satire whose hammy, obvious jokes are neither funny nor insightful of the movie business."[6] Eric Idle himself said in various interviews meant to promote the film that "this is rather dreadful".^{[citation needed]}

Accolades

References

External links

• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn at IMDb
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn at the TCM Movie Database
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn at AllMovie
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn at the American Film Institute Catalog

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