Richard Burton had been filming for two weeks when he was fired. Production company Woodfall Films in their press release said it was "for being unpunctual and unprofessional". However, it has been suggested that, whilst Burton had unarguably been difficult, Tony Richardson's real reason for firing him (at a time when he was the highest-paid, and perhaps most famous, film actor in the world) was to gain publicity, both for his film (which was, as expected, a major box-office failure) and himself. There have been other instances of someone very famous being fired from a film as a publicity tool or power play by producers - for example, producer David Merrick sacked Marlon Brando from the cast of "Child's Play", Merrick's first cinema production, soon after Brando's legendary success in "The Godfather", whilst another new producer, Martin Ransohoff, fired three-time Oscar-winning director William Wyler from "The Americanisation of Emily" to replace him with a newcomer from television, Arthur Hiller.
