Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick's striking style was a fantastic fit for adapting and directing the film version of Anthony Burgess's insane-o book A Clockwork Orange. However, Kubrick would have failed a reading quiz if he read this book in high school…because he didn't finish it before writing his screenplay.

Okay, we're poking fun at our pal Stanley, but the fact is that Kubrick read the American version of Anthony Burgess's novel, which didn't include the book's final chapter. His screenplay sticks close to the book and also omits the British version of the book's happy ending.

A Clockwork Orange was so shocking, it was censored and received an X-rating in the U.S. and eventually was banned in the U.K. at Kubrick's request. Kubrick wasn't deterred from making controversial, sexually explicit films, though. He would later make Eyes Wide Shut before his death in 1999, which was censored in the United States.