An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn (1998) is a Hollywood satire you can watch online on iFILM. The setup is a hall-of-mirrors gag: a director named Alan Smithee — the pseudonym real directors used when they wanted their names off a disaster — can't hide because Alan Smithee is his actual name. So when producers gut his expensive action picture, he steals the reels.

Presented as a mockumentary, the film intersperses fake behind-the-scenes footage with Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jackie Chan playing fictionalized versions of themselves. Eric Idle co-wrote the script and takes the lead role. The real director, Arthur Hiller, hated the cut so much he demanded the Alan Smithee credit himself — making the premise accidentally true.

The film picked up several Razzie Awards and became a textbook example of a Hollywood production devouring itself. Pick it up as a curiosity piece rather than a comedy. Stream Burn, Hollywood, Burn (1998) online on iFILM.