Alan Smithee was "
born" in 1967, after the real
director of the movie
Death of a Gunfighter refused to let his own name show up before/after the movie. Since they could not release the
movie without a director they came up with the name Alan Smithee, which sounded so normal that it could actually be a person, but which was written in a way that made it almost impossible for someone to actually have that as his name.
A director has to appeal to
Directors Guild of America (DGA) to have his own name removed from the screen. DGA has many rules for this, where the most important one is that a
director can replace his own name with Alan Smithee if the movie has been changed (by
editors or the
studio) into something the
director did not intend. Another rule is that the director is not allowed to tell anyone why he wants to disown the film.
In 1997 the secret behind Alan Smithee was revealed, so DGA decided to stop using the name.
In 1998,
Tony Kaye was the director of
American History X.
Edward Norton, who played the main part in the film, was not satisfied with it, and demanded to be in the cutting room after the shooting was over. The movie turned out quite differently that
Tony Kaye wanted to, so he decided to disown the film. He appealed to DGA, and the reply was that he could do so, but without the use of Alan Smithee
¹.
Tony Kaye then had to come up with a new name, but his best shot was
Humpty Dumpty, which rejected. Therefore,
Tony Kaye was put on the screen.
¹
The reason for this is quite obvious: If they used Alan Smithee, they might as well go out in the media stating "This film sucks"
Alan Smithee has also been called:
- Alan Smithee Jr.
- Allan Smithee
- Allen Smithee