Every director's dream is to make a movie with no setbacks or unforeseen problems. But it's just that – a dream – and it never, ever happens. Movies are extremely complex, and a lot of different people come into play when making one. When making movies, you have to plan for the unpredictable, the inevitable mishaps, accidents, injuries and failures that are just part and parcel of making a movie. Even when you've got millions of dollars at your disposal, things are bound to go wrong. All you can do is try to minimize the damage these problems cause, and get on with things as best you can. Most people, however, are willing to work within their set schedule and work hard to make things go smoothly. However, big stars often think they have the clout to do whatever they want.

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Actors are often the cause of these delays and setbacks. While it may be through no fault of their own, actors have a tendency to go on unexpected downward spirals, threatening to take the whole movie down with them. Sometimes actors suffer terrible injuries on set, forcing delays for several months. Sometimes actors argue with directors and refuse to do what they're told. And sometimes actors just drop out of the movie entirely, leaving the entire crew hanging. Here are 20 diva celebs who nearly ended the movies they agreed to star in and caused numerous delays.

Johnny Depp – Pirates Of The Caribbean 5

Johnny Depp has become synonymous with the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and for good reason. His acting and his personality is what keeps people returning to the cinemas, sequel after sequel. The latest instalment is Dead Men Tell No Tales, and although it was filmed at a very turbulent time in Johnny Depp's life, he still delivered that same charm we've become so accustomed to.

But behind the scenes, production must have been incredibly frustrated with this actor's behavior. You may remember when Johnny Depp released a public video apologizing for illegally bringing his dogs into Australia when the movie was being shot. He also injured his hand, further delaying shooting. And to top it all off, there are reports of him continuously showing up late to set.

Benedict Cumberbatch – Dr. Strange

One of the biggest hits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date was the recent film, Dr. Strange. Benedict Cumberbatch of course starred in the titular role, and in hindsight we can't quite picture any other actor playing Dr. Strange. Of course, there was some controversy surrounding this casting because the comic book character is originally of Asian heritage, but most can agree that he did a great job.

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As crucial as Cumberbatch was to this amazing movie, the producers almost didn't get their man. Filming was delayed considerably to allow Cumberbatch to finish up other movies before taking on the role. On this, the actor commented, "If you can't jump on board when the ride's going past, that's usually it. So the hugest compliment they paid me was to come back to me. It motivated me to try to fulfill their faith in me."

Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes 3

Another huge success story is the new Sherlock Holmes series, starring none other than Robert Downey Jr. in the leading role. Jude Law also plays a brilliant Watson, and many other talented actors are a part of this amazing franchise. There have been two Sherlock Holmes movies as of yet, and we're still eagerly awaiting the release of the third instalment.

So what's the delay? Apparently, it's all down to Robert Downey Jr. himself. According to his iron-clad contract with Marvel, the actor is still tied down to a few more films through contract obligations before he can even think about working on any other projects. We're sure that Robert Downey Jr. would love to take on the role of Sherlock once again, but right now he's stuck playing Iron Man. And so we wait...

Tom Cruise – Mission Impossible 6

Tom Cruise is famous for many things, and doing his own stunts is one of them. Throughout almost all of his films, the fact that Tom Cruise doesn't need a stuntman has  become part of the prestige and image that the actor has created for himself. And one film series in which he gets to do some really wild stunts is the stunning Mission Impossible series.

But sometimes, doing your own stunts can be a huge risk. That's exactly what Tom Cruise realized recently when filming the unreleased Mission Impossible 6. This film has been delayed for months while Cruise recovers from a nasty ankle injury while filming a dangerous stunt. A video has been released showing Cruise jumping from one roof to the next, and unfortunately he fell awkwardly on his ankle.

Dylan O'Brien - Maze Runner 3

Another massive film franchise that has gained tons of popularity in recent years is the Maze Runner series. This movie caught a lot of people off guard, and with a few sequels released, everyone is hooked. Countless fans are waiting to see what happens next in the latest installment, Maze Runner: Death Cure. Well, the movie has finally been released, but why the long wait?

Filming was delayed because the movie's lead actor, Dylan O'Brien, suffered serious injuries while on set, and the entire production had been put on hold indefinitely while he recovered. This was all the way back in March of 2016, and the movie is only just releasing now. That should give you an idea of how long these delays were. Dylan O'Brien was hit by a car while on set in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Rock – Fast And Furious 9

Another film series that is almost too big for words is the Fast & Furious franchise. The original movie was a classic, and it spawned countless sequels and spin-offs that keep getting crazier and crazier. The cast continues to add new faces, and unfortunately we've said goodbye to some absolute legends over the course of this long movie series.

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One of the most recent additions to this series was Fast Five, a film that welcomed The Rock to the set in a brand new role. Tyrese's feud with The Rock is now legendary, and he's criticized him constantly on social media after working with him on this series. But now Tyrese claims that the next instalment in the series, Fast And Furious 9, is being delayed due to The Rock himself making the movie "all about him." The actor posted recently, saying: "Congratulations to @TheRock and your brother in law a.k.a. 7 bucks producing partner @hhgarcia41 for making the Fast and the Furious franchise about YOU."

Nicole Kidman – Moulin Rouge

You might have noticed that all of the names we've mentioned so far have been men. While there are certainly examples of women causing delays on set, it seems that the most famous examples come from male actors. What does this say about the "male ego" compared to the female? Who knows. One woman who did cause a delay in filming was Nicole Kidman on the set of Moulin Rouge.

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She didn't cause any problems through disobedience or arguing though – it was actually through a nasty injury. She fell down a flight of stairs during a musical number and badly injured her knee, putting her out of commission for 3 months and delaying the film in the process. In addition, she also broke her rib after trying to tie a corset too tightly!

Matt Damon – Jason Bourne

One movie that portrayed action and espionage in a completely new way was The Bourne Identity, starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. People loved this movie so much that sequels were inevitable, and today the franchise spans five epic films, four of which starring Matt Damon, and one of which, The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner.

So what was the deal with switching the lead actor midway through the series? A lot of people were confused about this. According to rumors, Matt Damon refused to come back as the lead unless the producers got Paul Greengrass, the original director of the series, to return once again. When the producers finally caved into Damon's demands, Greengrass was rehired and so Damon jumped back on board. This was at a point when the fifth movie was partway through production, so everything was delayed as production went back to square one.

Bruce Willis – Death Wish

Bruce Willis has long had a fearsome reputation as an action movie star, and he's starred in countless shoot 'em ups in his long and illustrious career. Death Wish was one of his most recent films, and this one stars Willis as a normal man who gets pushed too far. He ends up taking the law into his own hands, enacting vengeance on the people who crossed him and his family.

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The film is out right now, and it's getting a mixed reception. Some say it glorifies white males going on shooting rampages. Who knows. What we do know is that the movie was originally slated for a 2017 release. So why the delay? Well, apparently the movie wanted both the director and Bruce Willis to help promote the movie, and they were too busy with other projects. So they pushed the release date back to allow Bruce Willis to do interviews and such.

Brad Pitt – The Fountain

You may have trouble remember Brad Pitt's performance in The Fountain. That's because he was never in it. Instead, the role went to Hugh Jackman, and Brad Pitt backed out. The film's director and producers had already spent millions building this film around Brad Pitt, and when he abruptly left just two weeks before the movie was set to start filming, huge delays were inevitable.

Darren Aronofsky, the film's director, explained, "We started working on The Fountain in 1999. We had spent $18m – and then the lead actor quit. The only reason the film was happening was because of Brad. I think creatively we grew apart. By the time it was ready to go, he wasn't ready to go – and so it fell apart."

Dieter Laser – The Human Centipede 3

The Human Centipede horror franchise definitely isn't for everyone, but there's no doubt that this has become on of the most successful movie series in the genre. The basic premise of the film is too gross to go into detail, but Dieter Laser has remained a constant figure in this franchise right from the beginning. But when The Human Centipede 3 was being filmed, huge delays resulted from Dieter's feud with the director, Tom Six. They later got ever their differences, and the film was released.

An official statement released at the height of this argument read: "Because of the success of The Human Centipede, it seems that Mr. Dieter Laser’s ego has grown to laughably big proportions," Six wrote in a news release. "First signing the contract and rating the Human Centipede 3 script as fantastic and then demanding his own unacceptable script changes and now refusing to play the part only seven weeks prior to shooting. Six Entertainment Co. will start legal action against Dieter Laser."

Marlon Brando – Mutiny On The Bounty

Marlon Brando is something of a legend in the acting world. He is largely considered one of the best that ever lived. But those who know him and have worked with him paint a slightly different picture of him than the glamorous story so many of us are familiar with. There's no doubt that he had a stellar career, but he's also been responsible for all kinds of drama on set.

Lewis Milestone, the film's director, claims that the actor was responsible for the loss of hours upon hours of labor, as well as $6 million dollars in budget costs. All because the actor was "sulking on set," and refusing to work with the crew. He put earplugs in so he couldn't hear the director telling him what to do, argued over every scene, wanted to rewrite the script, and even wanted to shoot his own version of the film's ending. Obviously, this led to huge delays.

Kevin Costner – Waterworld

Sadly, Waterworld was a film that did not live up to its expectations. The film's budget soared to insane levels, as you might expect from a movie shot almost entirely on water. It was a post-apocalyptic nightmare, both on and off the big screen. There are so many stories of mishaps and problems surrounding this film... In the end, the movie was destroyed by critics, adding insult to injury.

But one person definitely did not help make life easier on set was the lead actor, Kevin Costner. While he certainly wasn't the only person to blame for the movie's disastrous production, the fact that he constantly argued with the director didn't help things either. Delays happened because Costner wanted to reshoot certain things, and sometimes script rewrites were necessary.

Brad Pitt – World War Z

Another hugely successful movie in recent years was World War Z, a zombie thriller of a very different type than we're used to. This movie is brimming with political commentary, and Brad Pitt ambitiously starred in the movie as the lead, and also produced it partly through his own production company, Plan B films. As successful as this movie was, it became infamous for the behind the scenes drama.

Since Brad Pitt was producing the film, he often felt like he needed to take the reins out of the hands of the film's director, artistically speaking. This led to inevitable conflicts and arguments between the two men, to the point where they refused to speak to each other. They would give each other notes through third parties. Add in the fact that there were countless script rewrites, and you have a recipe for some pretty major delays.

Martin Sheen – Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is considered to be one of the best films ever made, and to say that it was a "labor of love" for legendary director Francis Ford Coppola would be a massive understatement. The director himself frequently admits that making this movie almost completely destroyed him, both financially and spiritually. Right from the get go, this film was plagued with a ludicrous number of problems and setbacks.

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When Martin Sheen was brought in to replace Harvey Keitel as the lead, the film was already extremely behind schedule. And because of Martin Sheen's terrible health problems and recent tragedies in his personal life, these delays would only continue. At this point in his life, Martin Sheen was a terrible alcoholic, and suffering immense emotional pain. Somehow, Coppola actually managed to make this work for the character, The opening scene, during which Sheen was genuinely inebriated and having a very real emotional breakdown, remains one of the most haunting moments in cinema.

Val Kilmer And Marlon Brando – The Island Of Dr. Moreau

Marlon Brando's terrible and destructive behavior on set is so infamous that we really need to include him in this article more than once. Although there are countless examples of his questionable actions on a movie set, one of the most stunning comes from the 90s films, The Island Of Dr. Moreau. This movie was troubled with all kinds of difficulties, including ghosts, hurricanes, tarantulas, you name it. There are too many to list here, but it's worth researching.

It's important to note that when Brando was about to film this movie, his 25-year-old daughter had recently hung herself. So it's understandable that he was not in the right frame of mind. But the fact that Brando constantly suggested strange ideas and additions to the script meant constant delays. And there was also the inevitable fact that Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando were constantly arguing.

Klaus Kinski – Fitzcarraldo

If you're interested in movies that were completely and ridiculously hard to make, you probably know all about Fitzcarraldo. Like Apocalypse Now, this film was set deep in the jungle, was plagued with delays and setbacks, and had a lead actor drop out midway through filming. In addition, there was also a documentary made about how hard it was to make.

But one of the most infamous problems with this movie was the relationship between the lead actor, Klaus Kinski, and the film's director, Werner Herzog. It got so bad that the two were allegedly plotting to take each other's lives. As the story goes, one extra actually offered to "take care of" Kinski for the director, but Herzog refused, knowing that would lead to too many reshoots.

Harrison Ford – American Graffiti

When Harrison Ford appeared in George Lucas' debut film, American Graffiti, he was far from the famous, successful actor and celebrity he is today. In fact, he was just a carpenter, and starred in a very minor role. Harrison Ford played a menacing street racer who ends up drag racing with one of the lead actors in the climax of the movie. It took him years before he would rise to star status.

The movie was wrought with all kinds of problems, including fires, reshoots and yes, legal issues. Harrison Ford himself was arrested after getting into a fight outside a bar while the film was being shot. Although his arrest probably didn't cause too many delays (him being a minor character and all) it probably added to the countless problems that were already piling up around then rookie director George Lucas.

Marlon Brando – The Egyptian

Marlon Brando makes this list yet again with another inclusion, although this was a film that he never even starred in. The Egyptian was a movie pretty much designed around Marlon Brando, much in the same way as the previously mentioned The Fountain was designed around Brad Pitt. And just like Pitt, Brando dropped out of the project at the last minute.

Movie stars... They're all the same! This abrupt withdrawal from the leading man obviously led to huge setbacks as a new lead actor had to be cast, the script had to be rewritten slightly, and numerous other changes needed to be made. But one has to wonder, in light of Brando's reputation, might they have dodged a bullet by casting someone else?

Marilyn Monroe – Don't Bother To Knock

Marilyn Monroe is one of the few women in cinema with a bad reputation when it comes to working on set. She was undeniably one of the most iconic and memorable women in the last century, but beneath it all she had severe emotional issues that led to troubles and setbacks on the set of her films. One notable example was Don't Bother To Knock. 

Richard Widmark, who worked with her on the movie, once said, "I liked Marilyn, but she was God awful to work with. Impossible, really. She would hide in her dressing room and refuse to come out. Then, when she finally would show up, she was a nervous wreck. It was all a result of fear. She was insecure about so many things and was obviously self-destructive. She was a wounded bird from the beginning."

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Sources: people.com, variety.com