Meanings
alternative Allen Smithee
- An official pseudonym used by film directors wishing to disown a project.
1 more example
I then watched the Alan Smithee cut, which made a great deal more narrative sense (to a Dune virgin such as myself) than the theatrical version, but was unsatisfying in other ways. Later, reading [David] Lynch's various drafts of the script gave me what may be the purest form of the film in existence, allowing visual imagination and a recollection of the filmed version(s) to combine into an immensely satisfying experience.
2014, David Hughes, “Dune (1984)”, in The Complete Lynch, Ebury Press, →ISBN
Origin
Coined by American trade union Directors Guild of America in 1968, modified from the originally proposed Al Smith to avoid confusion with real people's names.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Alan Smithee. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Alan%20Smithee
“Alan Smithee.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Alan%20Smithee. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Alan Smithee,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Alan%20Smithee.
Source: Alan Smithee on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.