# What movie took the longest to make? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237 "2000-12-06T02:08:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/1 "2000-12-06T02:08:15Z")
That’s the whole question in the subject heading. Does anyone have any idea? ---
**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/2 "2000-12-06T02:12:53Z")
I’d hazard a guess at something like the re-hashed version of Star Wars. That took 20+ years from the original script to the first screening. But in terms of the greatest number of man hours- no idea. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/3 "2000-12-06T02:21:30Z")
That has to depend on when you consider the making of the movie “starts”. When the first word of the screenplay is typed? When the screenplay is first bought? The first day of pre-production? The first day of shooting? And when does the film “end”? When post-production ends? When the film finally is distributed (regardless of how long it’s been on the shelf)? When any material is restored for “Special Editions” or “Director’s Cuts”? Sorry, the question’s a little too vague and open-ended. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/4 "2000-12-06T03:22:00Z")
I think you wanted to know what movie took the longest to put together and shoot. Eyes Wide Shut, the 1999 release from Stanley Kubrick holds that title. It took over 400 days to shook, and is only 2 1/2 hours long. An average movie takes anywhere from 80-110 days to shoot, so you can only imagine that one. Here follow this link if you want to see more about this movie: [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120663](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120663) ---
**Author:** ![Nessy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f04885/32.png) [@Nessy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nessy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/5 "2000-12-06T03:27:59Z")
My understanding on the date of its release was that **Waterworld** was the longest in production, and that the cost overruns gave it enough bad press to kill opening day momentum, since newspapers were calling it a “financial flop”. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/6 "2000-12-06T03:29:55Z")
I was thinking _Hoop Dreams_. Didn’t the documentarians follow those guys around for, like, four years or so? Of course, this may be beyond the boundaries of the OP. But I’ll post it FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/7 "2000-12-06T03:46:57Z")
[“42: Forty Two Up” (1998)](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0164312) Michael Apted (who also directed “The World Is Not Enough”) has been interviewing the same group of people every seven years since they were seven years old. That makes this installment 35 years in the making. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/8 "2000-12-06T04:02:50Z")
Wasn’t some of the art in ‘The Little Mermaid’ done in the 40s? ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/9 "2000-12-06T05:50:31Z")
Memory at work here–according to an article in the Wall Street Journal at least 2 years ago “A Confederacy of Dunces” (based on the book by John K. Toole) has been making the rounds (and endless rewrites) in Hollywood since the late '70’s. At one point John Blushi accepted the role as the main character. A decade later John Candy agreed to play the role. If that film ever comes out in your or my lifetime we might have some kind of record. For a single (standard, not every X number of years film) I recall it took Charlie Chaplin around 3 years to do “City Lights.” And the film spanned a greater gap than just years. By the time “City Lights” was released (1931)most theaters had been wired for sound, making this the last great Silent Film of the era. ---
**Author:** ![Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henry)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/10 "2000-12-06T15:32:22Z")
I seem to recall that Othello by Orson Wells holds the record. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/11 "2000-12-06T17:04:01Z")
Lars Von Trier (_Zentropa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark_) began shooting _Dimension_ in 1992 at the rate of three minutes per year. He expects to complete it in 2024. He’s made arrangements for a successor to finish the project in case anything happens to him. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/12 "2000-12-06T17:11:46Z")
Regarding _42 Up_: I don’t think it qualifies here. It’s one of five movies in a series (it follows \*7 Up, 14 Up, 21 Up, 28 Up, \*and of course _35 Up_). Each of these documentaries was released seven years after its predecessor, but none of them took the full intervening seven years to make: the subjects were left to their own devices in between times, and then simply followed-up on every seven years. None of the individual films took an inordinate amount of time to complete. (Also, a minor point, Apted was not, as I understand, the primary director of 7 up: Paul Almond was.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/13 "2000-12-06T17:28:42Z")
The Indian film _Mughal-e Azam_, directed by K. Asif, took ten years to shoot. The heroine Madhubala visibly ages over the course of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/14 "2000-12-06T19:26:21Z")
I am sure someone knows more about this than I do, but I understand that Star Trek: The Motion Picture was in production in one form or another for something like 4 or 5 years… they started “filming” effects and such for a new series that was aborted and instead the production moved to focus on the “movie”, and used some of the earlier produced scenes in the final film. As well, I believe that it was also horribly expensive as a film if they include the expenses for the new “series” in the cost of the picture, which it should since thats what it ended up being. Or, am I totally talking out of my ass here? Some trekkies should know this… ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/15 "2000-12-06T19:41:54Z")
I read the OP to mean, not as a gimmick or something (like filming 3 minutes a year or whatever). _Cleopatra_ seemed to be in production forever, as did _Apocalypse Now_. _Eyes Wide Shut_ would also be a contender. I use “in production” to mean actual work being done on a film, not while rights are being held or negotiated, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/16 "2000-12-06T20:12:17Z")
Stanley Kubrick had a project in the works where he was filming a child (I think it was the boy from _Jurassic Park_) every six weeks or so. The plan, such as it can be ascertained, was to film several time-lapse sequences of the child growing to adulthood. At the end of ten years or so, the sequences would have been only a few seconds or minutes long. Kubrick was serious enough about it to buy up all of the film stock he was going to need for the sequences in advance, to maintain film consistency. I think the working title of the film was _A.I._ ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/17 "2000-12-06T20:26:27Z")
I don’t know the details of the project, but the hubristic Steven Spielberg has taken it upon his narrow shoulders to complete _A.I._ I expect an abomination. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/18 "2000-12-06T20:38:02Z")
Oops, I think I might be mistaken somewhat. It appears as if [Steven Spielberg has taken over the film](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0212720), and it is currently in production. I don’t see Joseph Mazzelo listed in the credits, but if the sequences that Kubrick began are used, I suppose you might be able to say that this film was in production for seven or eight years. If you want to count sitting in the can because it sucked so bad that nobody wanted to touch it, the Rev. Moon-financed [Inchon](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0084132) might be a candidate. [This site claims it took five years to make](http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/namibia/538/m-8a.html), but I remember reading that filming began in 1974, and then it sat in the can for years before it was released to universal ridicule in 1982. Some folks seemed to not like Sir Laurence Olivier’s accent as General MacArthur… ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/19 "2000-12-06T20:39:55Z")
Um, yeah. What lissener said. ---
**Author:** ![ren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@ren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ren)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-took-the-longest-to-make/44237/20 "2000-12-06T22:13:22Z")
The Russian film “Khroustaliov, My Car!” which screened last year took about 10 years to shoot, due to budget limitations.