Random List: The Most Exciting Directors Working Today

About ten years ago I was thinking about writing a book based on the next wave of super talented directors that were working at the time. People like Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson and David O’Russell, there seemed to be a new generation who had come from an MTV or video rental addiction background and a new movement was seemingly occurring akin to what happened in the 70’s with the movie brats (Spielberg, Lucas, De Palma, Coppola and Scorsese). Alas it was not to be and day job and general laziness got in the way. Now I have a blog and retribution is at hand, for below instead of writing a long winded and waffling book I have compiled a brief list of the the most interesting directors working right now.

Agree, Disagree? Feel free to add comments or people I may have missed at the end….

Duncan Jones

Previous: Moon, Upcoming: Source Code, Mute

The artist formerly known as Zowie Bowie blasted into space with the cult smash Moon in 2009. Since then he has been hard at work prepping his follow up movies. Body swap thriller Source Code and Blade Runner esque Mute. Jones seems to love science fiction and looks keen to keep making smart, intelligent pieces of film that make you question the very nature of your own existence. Would love to see him get a career making performance out of Jake Gyllenhaal the way he did with Sam Rockwell in Moon. I’m pretty certain that one day Jones will be on a par with Ridley Scott or James Cameron in terms of the budgets he controls and the talent he attracts to his projects.

Rian Johnson

Previous: Brick, The Brothers Bloom. Upcoming: Looper

In 2006 Brick burst on to the scene and heralded the arrival of a major new talent. Brick was everything high school movies are not supposed to be, intelligent, darkly funny and hard boiled like the best noir should be. It was an incredible film and remains one of the best debuts of the last ten years. Rian Johnson followed up Brick with The Brothers Bloom, another genre bender. Bloom took the con movie and blended it with a sweet romantic screwball comedy, you were never quite sure if what you were watching was really taking place or not. Bloom wasn't always successful but when it worked it was incredible and was really well written. Sadly it was kind of mishandled from a marketing stand point and remains underseen. Johnsons next film is a time travel thriller starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt called Looper. It involves time travelling killers from the future. Hopefully Johnson is smart enough to avoid the inevitable comparisons to Timecop. Johnson could be the next Steven Soderbergh.

Adam Green

Previous: The Hatchet films, Frozen. Upcoming: ??

Truth be told, I find Hatchet kind of overrated. Its very gory and has an interesting setting but its nothing we haven’t seen before. Haven't seen the sequel yet but I suspect its more of the same. Hatchet 2 has been pulled from US cinemas after less than a week due depending on who you speak to either conflicts with the MPAA or the fact it just wasn't making money, . The reason Adam Green is on this list is because of Frozen. Possibly one of my favorite films of 2010, Frozen was an awe inspiring exercise in suspense and minimalist chills. Armed with an awesome script and great actors, Green could one day make an out and out horror masterpiece.

Joe Lynch

Previous: Wrong Turn 2. Upcoming: Knights of Badassdom

Adam Green’s pal Joe Lynch has had a similar career so far. Lynch took a straight to DVD sequel to a mid level horror film from 2003 and made it better than the original. Wrong Turn 2 was ten times better than the first movie and was made for ten times less. Lynch did not return for Wrong Turn 3 and set off on his own projects. Currently filming Knights of Badassdom which involves some live action role players who accidentally conjure up a demon from hell. It stars hot young things Ryan Kwanten and Summer Glau so should break out of the straight to DVD ghetto and lead Lynch to bigger and better things. The Weinstein brothers need to hand over the keys to Dimension films to Adam Green and Joe Lynch and let them run wild.

Gareth Edwards

Previous: Monsters. Upcoming: Untitled Robot Project

Another director, another of my favorite films of 2010 so far. Monsters is an incredible movie, made for peanuts and with far more emotion and scope than any blockbuster this year. British director Gareth Edwards achieved a lot with very little and Monsters is fast becoming a genre favorite to all those who have seen it. Edwards has teased in interviews that his next movie (produced by Timur Bekmembatov) will take place in a robot dominated future and is based on an idea he has had for years. I don't know about you but before taking on an ambitious project with a huge budget I would much prefer if Edwards made a couple of more low budget movies to really establish himself. We all remember what happened to Richard Kelly after Donnie Darko.

Michael Bassett

Previous: Deathwatch, Wilderness, Solomon Kane. Upcoming: The Unblinking Eye, Silent Hill 2

Michael Bassett has slowly but surely been building a solid resume. Starting with the low budget effectiveness of Deathwatch and Wilderness he then moved on to the epic Solomon Kane which still has not got a release date stateside and is becoming a cult hit on DVD in the UK. Solomon Kane showed that Bassett could work with a bigger budget and provide stylish fantasy thrills to compete with the A Listers. Has now been handed the sequel to the underrated Silent Hill, so hopefully this will provide him with more opportunity to showcase his eye for the visually stunning and also get him more mainstream work.

 Matthew Vaughan

Previous: Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick Ass. Upcoming: X-Men First Class

Matthew Vaughan cut his teeth as a producer on Guy Richie’s early work before launching a career of his own with Layer Cake, a complex London gangster tale which still remains somewhat underrated. He moved on to team up with screenwriter and Mrs. Jonathan Ross, Jane Goldman and since then its been nothing but quality. Stardust is an outstanding Sunday afternoon fantasy film and Kick Ass is one of the films of 2010 and also one of the best comic based films of the last decade. Vaughan may not have the visual sensibility that many on this list have, but he is able to work with good actors and get solid results with good writers. Has now been handed the X-Men franchise which he bailed on back in 2005 and hopefully will be given enough freedom to make the film that he wants to make. Should the X-men prequel be successful then Vaughan will probably go into the Christopher Nolan level of creative freedom and get to make even more controversial and less mainstream films than Kick Ass.

Edgar Wright

Previous: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim. Upcoming: Ant-Man, Them.

Edgar Wright is now to film geeks what Sam Raimi was to them in the late 80’s/early 90’s. A director whose work is so unique and offbeat that it has devoted followers worldwide who can quote the dialogue to each other and know what ‘You’ve got red on you’ means. Starting off with the cult post pub Friday night series Spaced on channel 4, Wright moved on to the massive cult hit Shaun of the Dead and stayed working with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for the follow up Hot Fuzz. This year he released the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World which sadly did not make as big a splash as hoped. Scott Pilgrim is fast becoming a massive cult hit though with midnight screenings popping up all over. It will probably be huge on DVD and Blu-Ray and is so well regarded by fans and critics alike that Wright will have no problem getting more work. Has been linked to Marvel comics second (or third) tier hero Ant-Man for a long time and has been writing the script with pal Joe Cornish as well as the script for Spielberg’s motion captured Tintin movie. Also on IMDB has something lined up called ‘Them’ about a woman's quest to unmask the secret rulers of the world. Interesting….

The Spierig Brothers

Previous: Undead, Daybreakers. Upcoming: The Power of the Dark Crystal, Captain Blood.

The Spierig Brothers first film was the slightly underwhelming Undead which clearly had ambition but just didn’t follow through on some of the ideas to make a coherent whole. Still it was a good first feature. They followed this some years later with Daybreakers, a visually stunning and original take on the vampire mythos. Sadly despite an awesome trailer Daybreakers failed to make a huge dent in the box office in early 2010. It is rapidly becoming a genre favorite though and we may some day be speaking about the Spierig brothers in the same breath as The Waschowski’s and The Coen Brothers. They have a sequel to The Dark Crystal coming up as well as a proposed sci-fi re-envisioning of pirate tale Captain Blood.

Johnny To

Previous: Fulltime Killer, Exiled, Election, Vengeance. Upcoming: Life without principle.

Johnny To has been making films in Hong Kong for quite some time now but its only been in recent years where his work has started to gain critical attention. Those people who moan about how John Woo lost it or sold out would do well to check out some of To’s most recent work including Exiled and Vengeance. The man brings the stylish and the cool to the gangster tale as well as adding a quirky sense of humor all his own. Lucky for us the man shows no signs of slowing down or selling out any time soon and will continue to make films in Hong Kong over which he has complete control. Although I would like to see him work with an established Hollywood star (Clive Owen or Kurt Russell come to mind) I’m glad he hasn’t taken the Hollywood dollar so far. I await each new film from Johnny To with baited breath.

Jody Hill

Previous: The Foot Fist Way, Observe and Report, Eastbound and Down. Upcoming: LAPI and Eastbound and Down season 2.

Black comedy is never an easy sell and Jody Hill makes comedy as black as night. His debut with his go to guy; Danny McBride The Foot Fist Way was a study of a deeply flawed character and was hilarious as well as sort of disturbing. His follow up Observe and Report was about an out and out delusional psychopath but still made you somehow care for the damaged protagonist. Sadly it was something of a disappointment at the box office. Somehow between these films Hill managed to make a series for HBO with McBride again, Eastbound and Down, again as black as tar and something of a ratings hit. HBO is perhaps the natural home for Hill’s particular brand of comedy. Has something called LAPI with McBride coming up and its the first thing he didn’t write which he is directing. Hopefully Hill hasn’t given up on his own material just yet as its conceivable he could win himself or someone an Oscar some day.

Ji Woon Kim

Previous: A Bittersweet life, The Good The Bad The Weird. Upcoming: I Saw The Devil, Last Stand.

Currently generating great film festival buzz is Korean director Ji Woon Kim’s latest I Saw The Devil. From all accounts its a brutal and exciting ride from a director who is just now coming into his own. Starting off with A Tale of Two Sisters (remade as The Uninvited) and moving on to brutal crime drama A Bittersweet Life, He then made his masterpiece The Good, The Bad, The Weird which in my opinion is the best action film of this century so far. Remember the feeling you had when you first saw Hard Boiled? That's how I felt watching The Good The Bad The Weird. Its something Spielberg used to do so well, Action with practical effects and stuntwork. In my opinion Ji Woon Kim will someday reinvigorate the Hollywood action film from its current nostalgic slumber. Currently in pre production on something called Last Stand with Liam Neeson and produced by Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, could this be the film to reignite American action cinema?

Kazuaki Kiriya

Previous: Casshern, Goemon. Upcoming: ?

I consider myself very fortunate to have seen Kazuaki Kiriya’s Casshern on a big screen. Casshern is so far the first film filmed mainly on green screen stages to blow me away. Okay the plot didn't make a lick of sense but the visuals were like nothing I had ever seen. It was perhaps the biggest leap forward for Japanese cinema since Akira. His follow up Goemon was not quite so impressive but still managed to be better than the very similar Prince of Persia movie we got in summer 2010. What Kiriya comes up with next is anyone's guess but you can bet it will be astounding to look at.

Neill Blomkamp

Previous: District 9. Upcoming: ??

Its fair to say that District 9 was one of the best films of 2009. I still have a hard time believing that something involving Aliens, exploding heads and Robot Exosuits got nominated for a best picture Oscar but sometimes life surprises you. Neill Blomkamp made an astounding science fiction movie full of character and emotion as well as stunning effects and CG characters with soul. If you look up his Halo shorts on YouTube then you can see that Blomkamp clearly has a specific visual style like a sci-fi Paul Greengrass which Jonathan Liebsman seems to have ripped off for the upcoming Battle Los Angeles. We should all mourn the fact that his proposed Halo movie with Peter Jackson producing fell apart as it truly would have been something to see. Surprisingly its all gone quiet on the what comes next side of things, will it be a District 9 sequel or something else? I imagine Blomkamp is not short of studio offers. We will just have to wait and see…

by Chris Holt

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