Alan Smithee

Director

April 8, 1969 (30 years)

† January 1, 2000

Biography

Alan Smithee (also Allen Smithee) was an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project, coined in 1968. Until its use was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) when a director dissatisfied with the final product proved to the satisfaction of a guild panel that he or she had not been able to exercise creative control over a film. The director was also required by guild rules not to discuss the circ…

Filmography

7.0

The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

6.5

Twilight Zone: The Movie

An anthology film presenting remakes of three episodes from the "Twilight Zone" TV series—"Kick the Can", "It's a Good Life" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"—and one original story, "Time Out."

6.0

Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls is an American prime time soap opera which aired for 14 episodes on ABC from September 23, 1984 to December 25, 1984. Set in New York's fashion industry, the show centered around top modeling agency owner Racine, her conflicts with the family of cosmetics tycoon Grant Harper, and the careers of two teenage models. The series was based on a 1982 TV movie of the same name.

7.7

McClain's Law

Ex-cop McClain, working on fishing boats after injury retirement, returns to work when his boat partner is killed. Despite opposition from homicide chief, he is reinstated, solves case, stays on despite tensions over his methods.

6.2

Death of a Gunfighter

In the turn-of-the century Texas town of Cottonwood Springs, marshal Frank Patch is an old-style lawman in a town determined to become modern. When he kills drunken Luke Mills in self-defense, the town leaders decide it's time for a change. That ask for Patch's resignation, but he refuses on the basis that the town, on hiring him, had promised him the job for as long as he wanted it. Afraid for the town's future and even more afraid of the fact that Marshal Patch knows all the town's dark secrets, the city fathers decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the unwanted lawman.

4.5

Solar Crisis

A huge solar flare is predicted to fry the Earth. Astronauts aboard the spaceship Helios must go to the Sun to drop a bomb equipped with an Artificial Intelligence and a Japanese pilot at the right time so the flare will point somewhere else.

5.3

Hellraiser: Bloodline

Three generations of the same family deal with the consequences of unleashing the forces of hell.

3.9

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn

Filmmaker Alan Smithee finds himself the unwilling puppet of a potentially bad big budget action film, for which he proceeds to steal the reels, and leaves the cast and crew in a frenzy.

5.5

Fatal Charm

Valerie's prosecutor mom is trying to put away Adam, an alleged serial killer on trial for murdering six women. But he's so charming that the teenage Valerie just can't believe he really did it, and soon they begin sending each other letters. Adam is caught up in a jailbreak and ends up on the run.

3.8

Sub Down

When a nuclear attack submarine crashes on the floor of the Artic ocean, it's up to a pair of research scientists to save the entire crew before time and oxygen run out.

5.7

Woman Wanted

After the death of his wife, Richard hires a recently divorced housekeeper, Emma. Soon finding himself falling for her, his emotionally destructive son, Wendell, also grows attached to Emma, threatening to tear apart the family's already hostile relationship.

5.7

City in Fear

A psycho-on-the-loose story, about a burned-out newspaper columnist and his circulation-hungry publisher who wants him to turn the killer into Page One news.

5.2

Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence

A priest practicing the Voodoo arts resurrects Matt Cordell, who takes his badge and returns from the dead...again...to do his bidding.

7.1

Call Of The Wild

A young boy heads off to the Yukon after hearing tales about the Gold Rush, and he forms an unwavering friendship with a heroic Alsatian dog called Buck.

6.2

Let's Get Harry

Harry Burck has been kidnapped by South American terrorists, and when the US Government refuses to intervene, Harry's friends decide to take matters into their own hands!

7.0

Fun and Games

A divorcee decides to fight back after her hopes of gaining a promotion are dashed by her rejection of the advances of her boss, and it is only after he actually attacks her that her company and her union take notice.

4.2

Fade In

A sophisticated Hollywood film editor, on location for a film she is working on, falls for a local cowboy who is hired to work on the film.

5.2

The Owl

After the violent murder of his family, a man becomes a vigilante dispensing his own kind of justice to people in need. ["The Owl" originally aired on CBS as a 48-minute pilot for a series that was not picked up. It was later expanded to an 84-minute telefilm for international markets by incorporating deleted scenes and lengthy montage sequences. Director Tom Holland had his name removed from the longer version.]

5.8

I Love N.Y.

Photographer Mario Cotone is hired to cover a big N.Y. actor. When his pretty daughter Nicole Yeats (N.Y.) and Mario fall in love, this angers her father and hurts Mario's work which further infuriates his boss. Will love prevail?

5.1

River Made to Drown In

Thaddeus Mackenzie, a wealthy lawyer, learns that he is dying and decides to sell all of his property and visit his old friend Allen Hayden. Allen is a struggling artist with a passion for life who once survived by working the streets, but now is romantically involved with Eva, a wealthy European gallery owner living in L.A. Thaddeus implores Allen to find Jamie, a young street hustler that Thaddeus had once tried to rescue. Allen returns to the streets to face the dark corners of his past where he must choose between what he left behind and the uncertainty that lies ahead.