Random Movies That Were More Than Likely Ghost-Directed (12 items)

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  (#4) Rambo: First Blood Part II

  • Sylvester Stallone, Charles Napier, Richard Crenna, Steven Berkoff, Julia Nickson-Soul, Martin Kove, George Cheung, Dana Lee, Voyo Goric, Baoan Coleman, Don Collins, Christopher Grant

  Credited Director: George Cosmatos

  Rumored Director: Sylvester Stallone

  George Cosmatos may not have directed Rambo: First Blood Part II, as he's credited as having done. Though Stallone isn't listed as the film's director, there's evidence he ghost-directing the second installment in the Rambo franchise, in which he also starred. Stallone officially has nine directing credits on his resume, including four Rocky films, so it's not beyond belief he called all the shots on Rambo: First Blood Part II, as Kurt Russell claimed in an interview about Tombstone.
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  (#10) The Thing from Another World

  • James Arness, Paul Frees, George Fenneman, Kenneth Tobey, Eduard Franz, John Dierkes, Margaret Sheridan, Douglas Spencer, Robert Cornthwaite, Robert Bray, Robert Nichols, Dewey Martin, William Edwin Self, James R. Young, Sally Creighton

  Credited Director: Christian Nyby

  Rumored Director: Howard Hawks

  Howard Hawks produced black and white horror classic The Thing From Another World, on which John Carpenter's '82 classic is based, though how much say the film's credited director Christian Nyby had remains disputed. 

  Nyby edited several of Hawks's most acclaimed pictures: To Have and Have Not, Red River, The Big Sleep. The rumor is Hawks directed The Thing and gave Nyby credit as a way of thanking him for saving Red River, which was reportedly mishandled by its original editor. This claim is corroborated in Variety critic Todd McCarthy's Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, which claims Nyby had a minimal role in directing The Thing.

  However, several actors in The Thing From Another World claim otherwise. George Fenneman said of Nyby's role in the picture, "Chris got a bad deal... I was there every morning, so was Chris. Sometimes Hawks was late and Chris in the meantime was making the show go. Hawks would once in a while direct, if he had an idea, but it was Chris' show."

  That sentiment is also felt by Robert Cornthwaite, who played Dr. Carrington in the movie. "It sickens me, some of the things that have been said. Chris always deferred to Hawks, as well he should. Hawks was giving him the break, after all, though he had done much fine work for Hawks and had his confidence... Maybe because he did defer to him, people misinterpreted it."
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  (#1) Poltergeist

  • Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke, Zelda Rubinstein, Beatrice Straight, James Karen, Dominique Dunne, Lou Perryman, Dirk Blocker, Richard Lawson, Allan Graf, Sonny Landham, Michael McManus, Oliver Robins, Virginia Kiser, Joey Walsh, Robert Broyles, William Vail, Helen Baron, Martin Casella, Noel Conlon, Clair E. Leucart, Jeffrey Bannister, Craig Simmons, Phil Stone

  Credited Director: Tobe Hooper

  Rumored Director: Steven Spielberg

  Poltergeiest was a massive hit, raking in almost $80 million and spawning two sequels and a television series. Steven Spielberg was a red-hot director in the early 1980s, with Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark under his belt. The director came up with the story and co-wrote the screenplay for Poltergeist, then signed on to produce. By many accounts, Spielberg really wanted to direct the haunted house thriller, as well.

  So why did Spielberg hand the film to Tobe Hopper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)? As it turns out, he was under contract with Universal Pictures in 1982, preparing to direct ET. Therefore, his contract prohibited him from directing any other movie.

  When Spielberg was questioned by a reporter about Hooper's role in the supernatural movie, he said: "Tobe isn't... a take-charge sort of guy. If a question was asked and an answer wasn't immediately forthcoming, I'd jump in and say what we could do. Tobe would nod agreement, and that become the process of collaboration."

  According to a 1982 issue of FANGORIA, many crewmembers who worked on the film said Spielberg was very active on the set, so much so he should have been given a co-director credit. During a 1982 interview with the L.A. Times, Spielberg said he "designed" the movie with storyboards, was actively involved in all of the camera setups, and set the shot designs. He was even literally hands-on for one shot, in which, during a nightmare sequence, a paranoramal investigator pulls the flesh from his face; it is Spielberg's hands doing the ripping. The Director's Guild of America stepped in to investigate the movie's authorship following Spielberg's remarks, but it remains credited solely to Hooper.
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  (#12) A Night at the Roxbury

  • Eva Mendes, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Coolidge, Loni Anderson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Molly Shannon, Chris Kattan, Colin Quinn, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Grieco, Mark McKinney, Dan Hedaya, Lochlyn Munro, Dwayne Hickman, Jim Wise, Meredith Scott Lynn, Gigi Rice, Elisa Donovan, Twink Caplan, Maree Cheatham, Louis E. Rosas, Kristen Dalton, Chad Bannon, Kip King, Deborah Kellner, Christian Mixon, Roy Jenkins, Mary Ann Schmidt, Viveca Paulin, Raquel Gardner, Paulette Braxton, Mary Ann Kellogg, Rachel Galvin, Gina Mari, Trish Ramish, Victor Kobayashi, Yoshio Be, Patrick Ferrell, Richard Francese, Valentin Siroon, Agata Gotova, Betty A. Bridges, Robin Krieger, Christina Eliason, Dorian Spencer, Andrew Marks, Tina Weisinger, Michael M. Horton

  Credited Director: John Fortenberry

  Rumored Director: Amy Heckerling

  On A Night at the Roxbury's IMDb page, Amy Heckerling is listed as an uncredited director. There are rumors the Clueless and Fast Times at Ridgemont High helmer directed a couple of scenes from the Saturday Night Live-sketch-to-film. Heckerling produced the picture, which was written by SNL alums Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan. How much Heckerling actually directed remain unclear - was she stepping in for one scene? Was she serving as a second unit director? 
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  (#9) Waterworld

  • Kevin Costner, Jack Black, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Michael Jeter, Tina Majorino, Kim Coates, Robert Joy, Sab Shimono, Jack Kehler, Robert LaSardo, Leonardo Cimino, Lee Arenberg, Sean Whalen, Rick Aviles, Zakes Mokae, Gerard Murphy, R. D. Call, Greg Goossen, Robert A. Silverman, Chris Douridas, Lanny Flaherty, John Toles-Bey, Neil Giuntoli, Doug Spinuzza, Zitto Kazann, John Fleck, William Preston, John Otrin, Chris Moore, Ari Barak, Hal Douglas, Alexa Jago, Anne Gaybis, Rita Zohar, Chaim Girafi, Michael Haddad, August Neves, Henry Kapono Kaaihue, Paul Bogh, Anthony DeMasters, Willy Petrovic, Luke Ka'ili Jr., Delisa Sexton, Tracy Anderson, Victor Sánchez, Jenny Tallent, David Finnegan

  Credited Director: Kevin Reynolds

  Rumored Director: Kevin Costner

  This is a switcheroo from Dances With Wolves, for which rumor has it Reynolds had a heavy hand in helping Costner direct. This time, Costner, who produced and starred in Waterworld, handed off helming duties to good friend Reynolds. Unfortunately, for all involved, the extremely ambitious idea of producing a major blockbuster on the water ran into a lot of production trouble, including a sinking set and going way over budget. At the time of production, in 1995, it was the most expensive film ever made.

  Towards the end of production, an altercation between Costner and Reynolds resulted in the latter leaving the project. It's unknown whether Reynolds was fired or he left of his own accord. Costner then took over directing, and had a major voice in how the film was edited.

  Many think Waterworld, because it was so expensive to make, was a box office disaster. Although it didn't perform well stateside, it brought in a large international audience. In the end, when factoring in rentals and sales, the film turned a decent profit. Despite the rocky relationship between Costner and Reynolds, the pair worked together again on the 2012 TV Mini-Series Hatfields &McCoys.
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  (#3) Tombstone

  • Val Kilmer, Kurt Russell, Charlton Heston, Billy Bob Thornton, Dana Delany, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, Billy Zane, Jason Priestley, Stephen Lang, Michael Biehn, Thomas Haden Church, John Corbett, Michael Rooker, Powers Boothe, Paula Malcomson, Jon Tenney, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Joanna Pacuła, Robert John Burke, Lisa Collins

  Credited Director: George P. Cosmatos

  Rumored Director: Kurt Russell

  Wyatt Earp-centered drama Tombstone (1993) ran into road bumps as soon as production began. The film's screenwriter, Kevin Jarre, was fired as director early in the production process and replaced by Rambo: First Blood Part II director George Cosmatos. Despite rumors, it took more than a decade for the real on-set boss to emerge.

  During a 2006 interview with True West Magazine, Kurt Russell revealed the story of how he directed the film and why it took so long for the truth to come out:

  "Tombstone is one that’s actually worth talking about—that was the one time I had gone out and got the money. I backed the director; the director got fired, so we brought in a guy to be a ghost director. They wanted me to take over the movie. I said, 'I’ll do it, but I don’t want to put my name on it. I don’t want to be the guy.'"

  Russell went so far as to give Cosmatos a shot list every night for the following day's work, and told him he didn't want any arguments about directorial decisions. According to Russell, this wasn't Cosmatos's first ghost directing job. "I got him from Sly Stallone - called up Sly, said 'I need a guy.' Sly did the same thing with Rambo 2 with George."

  Russell told Cosmatos that he would not reveal the film's secret while George was still alive. Cosmatos passed away in 2005.

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