Alan Smithee

proper noun

An official pseudonym used by film directors wishing to disown a project.

Meanings

proper noun

alternative Allen Smithee

  1. 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
APA

Alan Smithee. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Alan%20Smithee

MLA

“Alan Smithee.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Alan%20Smithee. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

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.