Six Films Made After Their Creator’s Death

By Matt Prigge
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Dec. 8, 2009

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Game of Death (1978): When Marilyn Monroe died early into filming Something’s Got To Give, the already-troubled production was scrapped; a semi-coherent reconstruction surfaced 30 years later. Bruce Lee wasnt’t so lucky. What little he had filmed for this actioner pre-death was padded out to feature length via desperate measures, most notoriously the use of Lee stand-ins. Indeed, there arose a whole cottage industry of ersatz Lee films, starring people like “Bruce Li.”

 

  

 

She’s So Lovely (1997): John Cassavetes’ son Nick has made a career directing the overtly manipulative films his father rebelled against, from The Notebook to My Sister’s Keeper . But for his second feature he dusted off one of his pop’s unproduced scripts, although he directed it in his usual anti-Cassavetian way.

 

 

 

 

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001): People carped that Steven Spielberg tried to ape Stanley Kubrick with this resurrection of a Kubrick film that languished in Development Hell until his death. However, Kubrick himself had once offered Spielberg the job, claiming it was closer to his sensibility. And, imperfect as the results are, he was right.

 

 

  

 

Heaven (2002): Having crafted the 10-film Decalogue andthe Three Colors trilogy, Krzysztof Kieslowski died making his next film cycle, named Heaven, Hell and Purgatory . He only got as far as writing the first, which wound up directed by Run Lola Run ’s Tom Tykwer. Alas, it’s too precious by half, needing either another draft or Kieslowski’s more graceful hands. Still, it’s far superior to the films of Hell (2005) and Purgatory (retitled Hope ), both of which barely dented the fest circuit.

 

 

 

Serious Moonlight (2009): Perhaps had she not been murdered, Adrienne Shelly would have directed this hostage comedy. But surely she wouldn’t have cast Meg Ryan.

 

 

 

 

The Illusionist (2009): Sylvain Chomet’s animated resurrection of Jacques Tati, by way of one of the comic’s unfilmed scripts, has yet to debut, but more Tati, even fake Tati, is beyond welcome. ■

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