Sometimes things don't work out despite our best efforts. Ed Wood is widely known as the worst director of all time, but the man loved filmmaking -- he always poured his heart and soul into every single failed project. Could the opposite also be true? Can a movie succeed if the very people behind it are doing everything in their power (short of burying the film in the desert or phoning in bomb threats to the theater) to make sure that it fails? Actually, it turns out that even pre-emptive burial and attempted terrorism aren't enough to keep a good flick down. Just take ...

5 Three Kings

Warner Bros. Pictures

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The 1999 comedy-drama Three Kings stars George Clooney, Marky Mark, Ice Cube, and the co-creator of Jackass orchestrating a gold heist during the Iraqi uprising against Saddam Hussein. A contentious setting, to be sure, but the studio had other issues with the movie -- like the budget, the graphic violence, and the strangely light amount of action for an absurdly violent war flick. All the executive input created a very tense atmosphere on set, which of course was being shot by professional egomaniacs in the middle of a real, scorching desert.

One day director David Russell allegedly started assaulting an extra to show the actors how they should bring him down during an action scene. After a substantial directorial mauling, Clooney decided that the director had gone too far and yelled "I'm gonna fuck you up!" at Russell, who then head-butted the actor. Clooney responded by trying to choke Russell with his bare hands, and friggin' nobody standing there holding a camera thought to film what may have been the best fight scene of the movie. It was around that time that the second assistant director, Paul Bernard, quit the production by putting his camera down and walking off the set, presumably to roam the earth like Caine in Kung Fu, assistant-directing for those in need.

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Thankfully, everyone knew better than to fuck with '90s-era Ice Cube.

But all the petty squabbling had to take a back seat to some real-life drama when terrorists attacked a Planet Hollywood restaurant in South Africa, claiming that they were protesting U.S. action in Iraq (and wildly overpriced hamburgers). The studio realized that, holy shit, their wacky Iraq War movie might piss off some Iraqis, seeing as it includes a scene where the Americans retrieve a map from an Iraqi's ass (to say nothing of the movie's rampant use of racial epithets like "dune coon," "sand nigger," "towelhead," and "camel jockey"). Sure, it was all satire, but terrorists are generally not "down" with the subtleties of biting social commentary delivered via American comedy.