Cecil B. Demented

Cecil B. Demented is a 2000 American black comedy film written and directed by John Waters. The film stars Melanie Griffith as a snobby A-list Hollywood actress who is kidnapped by a band of terrorist filmmakers; they force her to star in their underground film. Stephen Dorff stars as the eponymous character and leader of the group, with Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Michael Shannon and Maggie Gyllenhaal co-starring as the rest of his gang of filmmakers. Each of the filmmakers in the film bears tattoos of various independent directors' names, including Otto Preminger, Kenneth Anger, Sam Peckinpah, David Lynch, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Spike Lee, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pedro Almodóvar and Andy Warhol.

The title of the film (also the name of Dorff's character) alludes to legendary director Cecil B. DeMille. The film is loosely based on the 1974 kidnapping of Patricia Hearst; Hearst has a cameo role. As with all of Waters' films, it was shot in Baltimore, Maryland. The film was given a limited release in North American cinemas on August 11, 2000. It was released to home media through Artisan, and later, Lionsgate Home Entertainment in the United States.