Random Information – Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee, Allen Smithee, Alan Smythee, and Adam Smithee are pseudonyms used between 1968 and 1999 by Hollywood film directors who wanted to be dissociated from a film for which they no longer wanted credit. It was used when the director could prove to the satisfaction of a panel of members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers that the film had been wrested from his or her creative control. The director was also required to keep the reason for the disavowal a secret.
n 1997, the comedy An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, starring Eric Idle, was released, in which a director wants to disown a film but cannot because his real name is Alan Smithee. As a result of the publicity around this movie, and especially around the fact that director Arthur Hiller asked for and got an Alan Smithee credit for it, persuaded the Directors Guild to discontinue the Alan Smithee credit.
Another affair that may have played a role in the discontinuation of the pseudonym had to do with the release of American History X, where director Tony Kaye asked for a Smithee, but did not receive it.
After these issues, the Guild decided to choose a pseudonym for each case separately, rather than re-use a particular pseudonym. The first such example is the “Thomas Lee” credit for director Walter Hill on the 2000 film Supernova.
The change has not ended the practice of using the Smithee pseudonym entirely. For example, the Canadian film Fugitives Run starring David Hasselhoff is credited to Smithee, as are the 2003 films Cowboys Run and River Made to Drown In. As the DGA has no control whatsoever over films produced and directed outside the United States, the practice may continue in Canada and in other countries.
Alan Smithee is an anagram for ‘the alias men’.
