Thomas Lee on AllMovie

Thomas Lee, for all intents and purposes, is the directorial credit successor of the infamous and often-used pseudonym Alan Smithee. In 2000, Thomas Lee was first credited with the film Supernova, which, while far from being the worst movie of the year, was nonetheless a 70-million-dollar critical and financial disaster. The Directors Guild of America unofficially decided the credit of Thomas Lee would replace Alan Smithee -- presumably as a result of intense lobbying from MGM, the studio responsible for Supernova -- so as to not burden new films with the negative connotations the Smithee credit brought with it.