The best 'making-of' documentaries as extras (1 Viewer)

(Apologies if this has been said and done before...I couldn't find any such topic is a search)

Reading on The Bits that there has been footage vetoed by Fox from the 'Making of Alien3' documentary got me wondering...

What are the best behind-the-scenes / making-of documentaries on DVD, and also which films would you most like to see honest documentaries about?

My choices: Episode I's 'The Beginning' and 'The Hamster Factor' on the 12 Monkeys disc. Worth repeat viewings on their own. I also quite liked the ones on Basic Instinct and RoboCop as they were quite frank about the problems faced and overcome.

Ones I'd love to see: The real story of Superman II (hmm, as if this would ever get done!), one about the making of Titanic and a good one about how Tim Burton's Batman came together after its long gestation period and the casting contoversy etc.

I would also like to see more fact-based docus on discs of historical stories - it's nice that Seabiscuit will have some real life footage.

What do others think?

Most of the "inside" documentaries on the Bond series are very good.

(they even did "inside Octopussy")

A Very British Psycho (on Peeping Tom) and Naked Making Lunch are the best two I've seen. Incidentally (but not coincidentally) they're both directed by the superb Chris Rodley.

Cleopatra: The Film that Changed Hollywood

The Making of Rushmore (Rushmore Criterion)
The Making of The Blues Brothers

And some good anime extras:
Akira Production Report (2-Disc SE)
The Making of Fruits Basket
Club Escaflowne

Two early great ones:

1) Under Pressure (The Abyss)
2) The Battle of Brazil.

For TV, the documentary on 24 Season 2 was fairly good.

The Making of The Thing
Lost in La Mancha

The best I've seen is Magnolia Diary from the Magnolia DVD.

I second Magnolia Diary, The Beginning and The Battle of Brazil.

Of course you have the exellent Lord of the Rings Appendices, and pretty much everything by Laurent Bouzereau.

The documentary on the Ben-Hur DVD is unbelievably good. It covers the whole history of the story, including the original movie version from the '20s and the original theatrical production from the late 1800s. Lots of really fascinating stories and details.

No doubt the most exhaustive documentary on a film is the making of The Frighteners found on the Signature Series laserdisc.

A four and a half hour look at the making of the film including nearly an hour spent on the storyboarding process.

Other excellent documentaries:

The Making of Shogun

Indiana Jones: Making The Trilogy

George Stevens: Filmmakers Who Knew Him

The Sound of Music: From Fact To Phenonmenom

National Geographic's Beyond The Movie: Pearl Harbor

The Battle Over Citizen Kane

Sam Pekinpah: Man of Iron

The ones I like the best are...

- The Thing
- Apollo 13
- Dante's peak
- The Phantom Menace
- The Abyss
- Fellowship Of The Ring
- The Two Towers

I second Cleopatra and put in Behind the Planet of the Apes.

Most of these have been mentioned, but they are all truly great.

All the James Bond docs
LOTR: EE Appendices
The Abyss: Under Pressure

One of the ones I enjoy the most is the Jaws documentary. I would love to see the complete two hour version that came on the laser disc.

Some great ones already mentioned (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and Magnolia). A few that haven't:

Halloween (25th Anniversary) - If only for the fact that we learn that Michael Myers' mask is actually a William Shatner mask with a few alterations...
Russian Ark - Pretty amazing seeing the behind the scenes of this 90 minute single take movie. It must have made it even more complicated to have someone filming the actual filming...
The Stunt Man - I'm not as fond of this movie as some here are and the companion disc is pretty chesse-ily done, but it's also very informative on the process of making and getting a movie released. The director's ego is front and centre, but that makes it all the more fun.

Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmaker's Apocalyse on Apocalypse Now

Already mentionned: Hamster Factor and Lost In La Mancha... Hmmmm do I see something in common?

Vincent

Mark Kermode's documentary The Fear Of God: 25 Years Of The Exorcist is excellent.

The documentary on To Kill a Mockingbird is the best I've seen.

I really enjoyed the documentary on Amadeus.

I love the LOTR Documentaries yet I don't care for the movies themselves. I also enjoyed the Episode I doc, and the battle over Citizen Kane.