| |
| J.J. Abrams |
J.J. Abrams is also a well-known writer, also responsible for television and motion-picture dramas such as LOST and Cloverfield. He specializes in stories with an unexpected angle or perspective.
|
|
Star Trek
Mission Impossible III |
| John Carpenter |
Well known for horror films and groundbreaking special-effects.
|
Ghosts of Mars
Vampires
Escape from L.A
In the Mouth of Madness
Village of the Damned
They Live
Prince of Darkness
Big Trouble in Little China
Starman
Christine
The Thing
Escape from New York
The Fog
Halloween
Assault on Precinct 13
Dark Star |
| James Cameron |
James Cameron directed Terminator 2, which is a pretty damn good film. Famous for outlandish special effects and unbelievable budgets.
|
Avatar
Titanic 
True Lies
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Abyss
Aliens
The Terminator |
| Joel and Ethan Coen |
Brilliant crime-based dramas with fascinating characters, themes of greed and an ace comic thread.
|
Burn After Reading
No Country for Old Men
Paris, I Love You
The Ladykillers
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Big Lebowski
Fargo
The Hudsucker Proxy
Barton Fink
Miller's Crossing
Raising Arizona
Blood Simple |
| David Cronenberg |
An ace at bringing ugly and difficult-to-visualize scenes to the big screen.
|
A History of Violence
Camera
eXistenZ
Crash
M. Butterfly
Naked Lunch
Dead Ringers
The Fly
The Dead Zone
Videodrome
Scanners |
| Cameron Crowe |
Champion of fun romantic comedies and drama.
|
Elizabethtown
Vanilla Sky
Almost Famous
Jerry Maguire
Singles
Say Anything |
| Brian De Palma |
Master of stylized action movies.
|
|
The Black Dahlia
Femme Fatale
Mission to Mars
Snake Eyes
Mission: Impossible
Carlito's Way
Raising Cain
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Casualties of War
The Untouchables
Body Double
Scarface
Blow Out
Dressed to Kill
Carrie
The Wedding Party
Sisters
|
| Bobby and Peter Farrelly |
Some directors refuse to put fart jokes in their movies. The Farrelly brothers are not those directors.
|
The Three Stooges
Walter the Farting Dog
The Heartbreak Kid
Fever Pitch
Stuck on You
Shallow Hal
Me, Myself & Irene
There's Something About Mary
Kingpin
Dumb & Dumber |
| Mel Gibson |
Mel Gibson, like all successful directors has proven that his own vision and ideas are good enough to believe in.
He is not afraid of taking large financial risks. May have made $200 million dollars on a single movie.
|
|
Apocalypto
The Passion of the Christ
Braveheart
The Man Without a Face
|
|
|
| Alfred Hitchcock |
Master of Suspense. His movies seem to hold their entertainment and monetary value for many decades.
|
|
Frenzy
The Birds
Psycho
North by Northwest
Vertigo
The Wrong Man
The Man Who Knew Too Much
To Catch a Thief
Rear Window
Dial M for Murder
Notorious
Spellbound
Shadow of a Doubt
Rebecca
Sabotage
The 39 Steps
|
| Ron Howard |
Ron Howard is responsible for a string of commercial and culturally successful movies.
I've seen most of his movies. I think most Americans have seen most of his movies.
|
|
Angels & Demons
Frost/Nixon
The Da Vinci Code
Cinderella Man
The Missing
A Beautiful Mind
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Edtv
Ransom
Apollo 13
Far and Away
Backdraft
Parenthood
Willow
Gung Ho
Cocoon
Splash
|
| John Hughes |
John Hughes made eight really good movies. He defined and changed American life in the eighties.
He is like George Lucas without ILM.
|
|
Curly Sue
Uncle Buck
She's Having a Baby
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Weird Science
The Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles |
| Peter Jackson |
Peter Jackson is the guy who did the Lord of the Rings movies. As if you could forget. He probably lives in fear that he will never again get to do something as epic.
|
|
The Lovely Bones
King Kong
LOTR: The Return of the King 
LOTR: The Two Towers
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Frighteners
Heavenly Creatures
Dead Alive
|
| Spike Jonze |
Spike Jonze specializes in filming the unfilmable.
Also, music videos.
|
Where the Wild Things Are
Adaptation
Being John Malkovich |
| Stanley Kubrick |
Stanley Kubrick would be the master of suspense if we hadn't already given that title to Hitchcock. He made very good, epic movies.
|
|
Eyes Wide Shut
Full Metal Jacket
The Shining
A Clockwork Orange
2001: A Space Odyssey
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Lolita
Spartacus
Paths of Glory
|
| Ang Lee |
Born in Taiwan. He is a good bet for a Best Picture Oscar in the next five years.
|
|
Taking Woodstock
Brokeback Mountain
Hulk
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Ice Storm
Sense and Sensibility
Eat Drink Man Woman
|
| Spike Lee |
Spike Lee's movies feature epic and well-wrtten characters and (always?) deal with race relations.
|
|
Miracle at St. Anna
Inside Man
She Hate Me
25th Hour
The Original Kings of Comedy
Summer of Sam
Clockers
Crooklyn
Malcolm X
Jungle Fever
Mo' Better Blues
Do the Right Thing
School Daze
She's Gotta Have It
|
| George Lucas |
George Lucas is probably the most well-rounded movie-maker on this list. He founded at least five entertainment companies and loves to be on the cutting edge of technology.
|
Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones
Star Wars I - The Phantom Menace
Star Wars
American Graffiti
THX 1138 |
| Sidney Lumet |
Sindey Lumet is known for political and judical thrillers.
|
|
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Running on Empty
The Verdict
Deathtrap
The Wiz
Network
Dog Day Afternoon
Murder on the Orient Express
Serpico
The Pawnbroker
Long Day's Journey Into Night |
| Leo McCarey |
Leo McCarey directed about 110 films.
|
|
An Affair to Remember
The Bells of St. Mary's
Going My Way
The Awful Truth
Make Way for Tomorrow
Duck Soup |
| Michael Moore |
Michael Moore is probably the most famous living documentary filmmaker. He has more experience getting behind the scenes than Borat.
|
|
Sicko
Fahrenheit 9/11
Bowling for Columbine
Canadian Bacon
Roger & Me
|
| Mike Nichols |
Mike Nichols directed a bunch of different movies which you have heard of.
|
|
Charlie Wilson's War
Closer
Primary Colors
The Birdcage
Wolf
Regarding Henry
Postcards from the Edge
Working Girl
Biloxi Blues
Silkwood
Carnal Knowledge
Catch-22
The Graduate
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
|
| Roman Polanski |
Roman Polanski has had an infamous and terrible life story featuring Nazis, the Mansons and statutory rape.
|
|
Oliver Twist
The Pianist
The Ninth Gate
Pirates
Tess
Chinatown
Rosemary's Baby
|
| Sam Raimi |
I know Sam Raimi because of Evil Dead and Spider-Man.
He strikes me as a guy who would be happy making $100,000 films as long as he kept getting to make them.
|
|
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man
The Gift
For Love of the Game
A Simple Plan
The Quick and the Dead
Army of Darkness
Darkman
Evil Dead II
The Evil Dead
|
| Guy Ritchie |
An English director who excels at Crime Caper action and an interwoven storyline.
|
|
Sherlock Holmes
RocknRolla
Revolver
Swept Away
Snatch
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The Hard Case
|
|
|
| George Romero |
George Romero is the king of Zombie movies.
|
|
Land of the Dead
Monkey Shines
Day of the Dead
Creepshow
Dawn of the Dead
The Crazies
Night of the Living Dead |
| Martin Scorsese |
Martin Scorsese can celebrate his very solid and steady body of successful films.
|
|
The Departed
The Aviator
Gangs of New York
Casino
Cape Fear
Goodfellas
New York Stories
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Color of Money
After Hours
Raging Bull
Taxi Driver
|
| M. Night Shyamalan |
 May someday escape his reputation for a twist ending.
Like Woody Allen, M. Night Shyamalan obviously doesn't want to make the same kind of movies that other people are capeable of making.
|
|
The Last Airbender
The Happening
Lady in the Water
The Village
Signs
Unbreakable
The Sixth Sense
|
| Zack Snyder |
Executive producers love Zack Snyder. He has been very successful at translating stylized works onto the big screen.
|
|
Watchmen
300
Dawn of the Dead
|
| Steven Soderbergh |
The Colorist.
Broke onto the big time with Sex, Lies and Videotape. Now known for Traffic and the Ocean's Eleven franchise.
|
|
The Girlfriend Experience
Che: Part Two
Che: Part One
Ocean's Thirteen
The Good German
Ocean's Twelve
Ocean's Eleven
Traffic
Erin Brockovich
The Limey
Kafka
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
|
| Steven Speilberg |
Regarded as the best director.
Invented the summer blockbuster with Jaws.
Has never done a mob movie.
|
|
Lincoln
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Munich
War of the Worlds
The Terminal
Catch Me If You Can
Minority Report
Artificial Intelligence: AI
Saving Private Ryan
Amistad
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
Jurassic Park
Hook
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Empire of the Sun
The Color Purple
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Twilight Zone: The Movie
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Raiders of the Lost Ark
1941
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Jaws
Duel |
| Oliver Stone |
Oliver Stone is the King of Historical Dramas. He has pretty much made a movie about everything that happened in the 60s.
|
|
W.
World Trade Center
Alexander
Any Given Sunday
U Turn
Nixon
Natural Born Killers
Heaven & Earth
JFK
The Doors
Born on the Fourth of July
Talk Radio
Wall Street
Platoon
Salvador
|
| Quentin Tarantino |
Quentin Tarantino emerged as the director who had the nerve to put calculated violence and disturbing events on film.
|
|
Inglourious Basterds
Death Proof
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Jackie Brown
Four Rooms
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
|
| Ridley Scott |
Ridley Scott is an absolutely dependable action-heavy hit-maker. Even the worst of his movies is worth your money.
I'd love to see him do a Terminator movie.
|
|
Robin Hood
Body of Lies
American Gangster
A Good Year
Kingdom of Heaven
Matchstick Men
Black Hawk Down
Hannibal
Gladiator
G.I. Jane
1492: Conquest of Paradise
Thelma & Louise
Black Rain
Legend
Blade Runner
Alien
The Duellists
|
| Gus Van Sant |
Creates experience movies often involving one main title character.
|
|
Milk
Paranoid Park
Paris, I Love You
Last Days
Elephant
Gerry
Finding Forrester
Psycho
Good Will Hunting
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
My Own Private Idaho
Drugstore Cowboy
|
| Andy and Larry Wachowski |
The Matrix directors.
Masters of the fight sequence.
|
|
Speed Racer
The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix
Bound |
| Peter Weir |
Australian Director with a history of characters in a foreign setting.
|
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
The Truman Show
Fearless
Green Card
Dead Poets Society
The Mosquito Coast
Witness
The Year of Living Dangerously
Gallipoli |
| Billy Wilder |
Billy Wilder probably won more Oscars than anyone else on this list (6).
Made comedies and dramas.
|
|
The Apartment
Some Like It Hot
Witness for the Prosecution
The Seven Year Itch
Stalag 17
Ace in the Hole
Sunset Blvd.
The Lost Weekend
Double Indemnity
Five Graves to Cairo |
| John Woo |
John Woo is the face of Hong Kong action movies and was the first to survive a move to Hollywood production.
When in doubt: shootout.
|
|
Paycheck
Windtalkers
Mission: Impossible II
Face/Off
Broken Arrow
Hard Target
Hard-Boiled
The Killer
A Better Tomorrow II
A Better Tomorrow
|
| Robert Zemeckis |
Among the best at fully integrating cutting edge effects in a movie, is becoming the superstar of modern 3-D films.
|
|
A Christmas Carol
Beowulf
The Polar Express
Cast Away
What Lies Beneath
Contact
Forrest Gump
Death Becomes Her
Back to the Future Part III
Back to the Future Part II
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Back to the Future
Romancing the Stone
Used Cars
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
|
|
|
