Making a movie is not an easy task, and there are many people involved in the production. However, the one person who has the most important is usually the director. They work with the screenwriters on the movie before starting to shoot. They tell the camera and lighting crews what they want the movie to look like and coach the actors on their performances.
However, there are times that the producers step in and decide the director is not doing what they expected and fire them from the production. This can happen for many reasons, from creative differences with the producers and studio to conflicts with actors during the movie. What is most impressive is when the director leaves the project, and the movie finishes up with someone else at the helm.
Alex Cox - Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (1998)
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a movie about author Hunter S. Thompson, based on a book he wrote about going to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, only to end up in several awkward and crazy circumstances. Johnny Depp starred as Raoul Duke, a version of Thompson.
However, the director's chair was not an easy one to hold. Depp wanted Bruce Robinson as director, but he declined the job. Instead, Alex Cox signed on. However, the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas producers fired Cox for "creative differences" during production, and Monty Python mastermind Terry Gilliam took his place, rewriting the script, and relaunching the production.
Paul Schrader - Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
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When The Exorcist came out in 1973, it was one of the best horror movies of all time. It is still revered today and is the one exorcism movie that all others end up inevitably compared to. However, the sequels were not as revered, and there were actually two different prequels to The Exorcist, released one year apart.
In 2002, John Frankenheimer signed on to direct a prequel, but after he died, Paul Schrader took the job. When Schrader finished the movie, the studio was not happy (per The Independent). They fired him and brought in Renny Harlin to reshoot large parts of it and Exorcist: The Beginning ended up a commercial failure. Ironically, they hired Shrader to come back and direct a different Exorcxist prequel called Dominion in 2005.
Bryan Singer - Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
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Bryan Singer was riding high when he started to work on his Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. Singer had great success early in his career with The Usual Suspects, the X-Men franchise, and Superman Returns. However, sexual abuse allegations rose against him and he ended up removed from many projects, including Bohemian Rhapsody, as detailed by The Hollywood Reporter.
What was most interesting here was that Singer was fired with only two weeks of shooting left on the movie. Because he shot so much of the movie, he received directorial credit anyway over Dexter Fletcher, who finished the movie.
Phil Lord & Chris Miller - Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
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Disney has often pulled the trigger by removing talented directors from movies if the company feels the director's visions don't line up with the franchise. The MCU alone has pulled directors Patty Jenkins, Edgar Wright, and Scott Derrickson from projects - but all before they started filming.
For Star Wars, it was different. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who had incredible success with The LEGO Movie, started work on Solo: A Star Wars Story before Disney decided to fire them when the studio decided the movie didn't line up with its vision (via Looper). Disney then brought in Oscar winner Ron Howard to take over and finish the movie.
Steven Soderbergh - Moneyball (2011)
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Moneyball was a huge success when it hit theaters in 2011. It ended up making several top 10 lists at the end of the year and picked up six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Brad Pitt, and Best Supporting Actor for Jonah Hill. The movie had Pitt play real-life former Oakland A's manager Billy Beane and was based on a book about sabermetrics.
However, the movie could have looked very different. Bennett Miller is the director and led the cast to great performances. However, indie sensation Steven Soderbergh was the original director. When Soderbergh decided to make Moneyball look like a documentary, Sony fired him and hired Miller to take over the movie.
Richard Donner - Superman II (1980)
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The Superman movie situation was one that was so complicated that entire books have been written about it. The first movie was made and scenes were shot simultaneously for a sequel if the first was a success. The first was a major success, but there were several things getting in the way of the already shot sequel.
Marlon Brando never signed off on two movies and his scenes had to come out. Then, producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, fired Richard Donner despite the first movie's success and hired Richard Lester to come in and finish the movie, giving him directorial credit. The Donner Cut was released decades later.
George Cukor - Gone With The Wind (1939)
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While controversial by today's standards, Gone With the Wind remains a landmark of filmmaking and for years was one of the most successful movies ever released into theaters. However, the production was strife with discontent and changes.
As reported by The Atlantic, the original director for the movie was George Cukor. While Cukor later won an Oscar for My Fair Lady, he clashed with producers on Gone With the Wind when it comes to the look of the movie and had a rumored conflict with star Clark Gable as well. The studio fired him and brought in Victor Fleming to finish the movie. Fleming won an Oscar for directing it.
Philip Kaufman - The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
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Clint Eastwood was one of the top stars in western movies in the 1970s and when it came time to make The Outlaw Josey Wales, he was set in his ways. That led to problems when he had a different vision for the movie from director Philip Kaufman.
Kaufman was considered a visionary auteur, and while his style worked on movies like his remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it didn't sit well with Eastwood and the western genre. Eastwood went to the studio and asked them to remove Kaufman, and when they did, Eastwood himself took over as the new director.
Martin Brest - WarGames (1983)
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In 1983, a young Matthew Broderick starred in the movie WarGames, where he portrayed a high school student who accidentally hacked into the government's defense system thinking it was a video game and almost started a World War. The movie is fondly remembered and was a major hit when it was released.
However, it had its struggles in production when Martin Brest turned in footage that had little humor and the tone was off for the genre. According to Brest's biography on AllMovies, the studio fired him and brought in John Badham to finish the filming and he made the changes to fix the movie and turn it into a success. Brest rebounded with Beverly Hills Cop.
Richard Stanley - The Island Of Dr. Moreau (1996)
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In some cases, a studio firing a director will drive a talented filmmaker from the industry. That was the case with the movie The Island of Dr. Moreau. Richard Stanley was the director, but he had his hands full with two actors making his life too hard in Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando.
While adapting the H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi story was never going to be easy, it was Stanley's dream project. It turned into a nightmare when Kilmer caused problems on set and the studio wanted to bring in someone stronger to handle the movie, firing Stanley and hiring John Frankenheimer (per Screen Rant). Stanley didn't direct another movie for 23 years before returning for Color Out of Space.