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It’s worth nothing that Warner did not fire Hirschbiegel from the production, nor was he all that upset with the Wachowski’s involvement. “They came up with some surprisingly smart suggestions,” said Hirschbiegel. “Some of their suggestions pissed me off because the pages were just better than what I had shot.” He also mentioned that despite his offer, the Wachowski’s declined to take any credit - though it was worrying when Silver said of the reshoots, “The Wachowski’s always help us,” which makes one wonder just how many films they’ve actually worked on in an uncredited role.

The reshoots didn’t take place till January 2007, enough time for its star Daniel Craig to go film and promote Casino Royale. Hirschbiegel was asked to come back, but was unavailable, having to leave due to a family illness. So in came V For Vendetta’s James McTeigue (also uncredited), directing for a few weeks. Craig seemed unfazed, saying, “The only reason to go back and reshoot is to get the film right.”

The Wachowski’s had scripted a scene where Carol and her son escape in a Jaguar that just so happens to have a number of infected people clinging upon it. The filming of this scene had the car actually being towed. The stunt driver lost control when turning, with Kidman’s Jaguar crashing sideways into a lamppost. Her and her co-star Jackson Bond were thankfully both wearing seatbelts and didn’t suffer any serious injury. It was just a matter of hours before the footage of the crash appeared online.

According to someone on the IMDb forums named "BuddySystemLA" (who claims to have worked on the film and viewed Hirschbiegel’s original cut of Kajganich’s untampered script), it’s believed that Warner (and test audiences) weren’t too keen on Hirschbiegel’s more ambiguous conclusion. A lot of what he says, particularly in regards to reusing footage that Hirschbiegel shot, appears to ring true. From his description, apparently the original ending had Carol and her son Oliver meet up with a group of survivors at a pharmacy store. When Carol explains that her son is immune and a possible cure for the infection, they band together, agreeing to help her reach the top of a building where a helicopter will come to collect them. However, the trip proves perilous as many survivors become infected and Oliver himself is attacked and becomes unconscious. While Carol and Oliver make it to the helicopter, it is left unanswered if Oliver survives and if they do cure the infection.

The Invasion had a production budget of $80 million (the extra few weeks of filming meant another $10 million added to the budget). Nicole Kidman was reportedly paid $17 million for her role. It opened in the US on August 17, 2007, with Warner booking the film into just over 2,700 venues. It managed to rank at #5 in the US top ten with a dreadful opening weekend of $5.9 million. As a comparison, this was the same weekend that the R-rated Superbad reached #1 with a take of $33 million. Warner had gone all out to get the film rewritten and reshot, but apparently when it came to promoting the film, they just didn’t seem to care anymore. It finished its run with a domestic gross of just $15 million. Add in international grosses of $25 million, and the final total of $40 million overall made it one of the biggest flops of the last decade. Oh dear.

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