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Stardust Memories (1980)
Lights! Camera! Action! Sandy Bates (Woody Allen) reminisces as he attends a retrospective of his work.
Trouble On Set: Women troubles, of course. But mainly it's the annoyance of fans who keep telling Sandy they prefer his "early, funny" films.
Chances Of An Oscar: Yes, but "I would trade that Oscar for one more second of life."
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
Lights! Camera! Action! Mike (Mos Def) and Jerry (Jack Black) become an amateur remake squad when Jerry accidentally erases all of the VHS tapes at rental store Be Kind Rewind.
Trouble On Set: They have no money, no crew and no copyright, but they still manage to create 'sweded' versions of Ghostbusters , Rush Hour 2 and many others.
Chances Of An Oscar: They're more likely to get sued by the studios.
Shadow Of The Vampire (2000)
Lights! Camera! Action! German director F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) films his take on Dracula - Nosferatu - starring the unusual Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe).
Trouble On Set: Schreck isn't acting - he's actually a vampire, hired to enhance the film's realism.
Chances Of An Oscar: There weren't any Oscars when Nosferatu was released in 1922, although Murnau's Sunrise would become the big winner at the first Academy Awards.
Bowfinger (1999)
Lights! Camera! Action! Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) gets funding to make sci-fi thriller Chubby Rain on condition he cast action star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy).
Trouble On Set: The catch? Ramsey won't agree to be in the film, so Bowfinger shoots the film without his knowledge, using hidden cameras and dorky lookalike Jiff (also Murphy).
Chances Of An Oscar: For a no-hoper like Bowfinger, it's enough he got Chubby Rain in the can.
The Aviator (2004)
Lights! Camera! Action! Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) spares no expense trying to make WWI flying drama Hell's Angels as realistic as possible.
Trouble On Set: By the time he's waiting for the clouds to part, Hughes is the only one mad enough to do the aerial stunts he needs.
Chances Of An Oscar: It wins Best Cinematography. Worth waiting for those clouds to disappear, then.
A Cock And Bull Story (2006)
Lights! Camera! Action! They said classic comic novel Tristram Shandy was unfilmable. But stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have different ideas.
Trouble On Set: While Mark the director (Jeremy Northam) figures out how to adapt the famously laidback story, Coogan and Brydon was busy becoming real-life versions of their baudy, bickering characters.
Chances Of An Oscar: A tricky film to market, especially after the director cuts the expensively staged battle scene because "it isn't funny."
Gods And Monsters (1998)
Lights! Camera! Action! The elderly director James Whale (Ian McKellen) recounts his glory days as a horror director to gardener Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser).
Trouble On Set: In comparison to his tormented private life, Whale's shooting of classics like The Bride Of Frankenstein went without a hitch.
Chances Of An Oscar: Since Whale worked exclusively in genres outside of Hollywood's notion of quality, he was criminally looked over.
Man Bites Dog (1992)
Lights! Camera! Action! A documentary crew films a 'fly on the wall' study of serial killer Ben (Benoit Poelvoorde).
Trouble On Set: The crew becomes increasingly complicit in Ben's crimes, until he encourages them to join in with the rape of his latest victim.
Chances Of An Oscar: It's doubtful the police would allow the footage out of the evidence locker.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
Lights! Camera! Action! Heather Langenkamp, star of the original A Nightmare On Elm Street , is targeted by Freddy Krueger.
Trouble On Set: Any horror star's worst nightmare - a fictional character that has lost all sense of which is the fantasy, and which is the reality.
Chances Of An Oscar: Had it been subtitled and directed by Fellini, it'd stand a good chance. With Craven calling for more blood... probably not.
Matinee (1993)
Lights! Camera! Action! In the Florida Keys, 1962, showboating filmmaker Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) attends the premiere of horror sensation Mant!
Trouble On Set: Woolsey's seat-shaking gimmick Rumble-rama is nothing compared to the real-life threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Chances Of An Oscar: Sadly, Mant! (Half-Man! Half-Ant! All Terror!) isn't the kind of movie to woo the Academy.
