Budgets spiraling out of control; cast and crew on the verge of collapse; sets destroyed: Just a few of the catastrophes to afflict the ill-fated productions in CNN’s List of Top 10 movie shoots from hell.

From “Cleopatra” to “Apocalypse Now,” these infamous productions have all been struck by extreme weather, tragedy, illness and sometimes death.

Amazingly, despite the setbacks, these shoots didn’t always result in failure. Some of these films are cinematic gems — although this list has its fair share of flops as well.

Classic examples on the line-up include:

-  ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (Michael Cimino, 1980) , a disastrous Western that nearly brought down United Artists, the studio founded by Charlie Chaplin. Given free rein, Cimino overspent massively and the original budget of $8 million ballooned to a whopping $36 million. 

- ‘Fitzcarraldo’ (Werner Herzog, 1982)
A a shoot that remains one of the most dangerous of all time, made notorious when director Herzog forced cast and crew haul a steamship over a mountain to tell the story of an music fanatic who wants to build an opera house in jungle. 

-  ’Twilight Zone: The Movie’ (John Landis, 1983)
- a special-effects explosion caused a helicopter to lose control during a Vietnam War scene killing lead actor Vic Morrow and child actors Renee Chen and My-ca Dinh Le were killed when the helicopter crashed on them. 

-  ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ (Terry Gilliam, unfinished)
 Lead actor Jean Rochefort fell ill, and if that wasn’t calamitous enough, a flash flood washed away the entire set in northern Spain. 

- ‘The Crow’ (Alex Proyas, 1994) 
 lead Brandon Lee died on set shot by a misloaded prop gun. The untimely death of Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee who suffered a bizarre death of his own, added an eerie dimension to the already dark film about a man who comes back from the dead. 

and

-  ‘Three Kings’ (David O. Russell, 1999) which became a set of comical errors, when Director David O. Russell and actor George Clooney came to blows after Clooney stepped in following Russell’s apparent abuse of an extra. 

It’s quite a list of what-not-to-do as a film director and a fantastic insight into the mishaps that happen on EVERY film shoot. I would know, I’ve had a few of my own set backs including two of my principal cameras failing while out in the sticks of India without a repair shop in sight!  

Excerpted from: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/09/top10.worst.shoots/index.html