11. Guy Ritchie
Top 3 films (in my opinion): Snatch, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla
A little back story: Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK in 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a child, he decided that he wanted to make movies. At the age of 15, he dropped out of school. He never went to film school, saying that the work of film students is "boring and unwatchable." In 1995 he got a job as a runner and quickly worked his way up to directing music promos and commercials. The money he made from these commercials and promos was used to fun a 20-minute short called The Hard Case, which was a prequel to his first feature debut Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Lock, Stock... had a hard time getting distribution, until it fell into the hands of Tom Cruise, who then helped get it picked up by Columbia Tristar. It became the third highest grossing British film of all time.
What's next? Ritchie is in pre-production on a sequel to Sherlock Holmes.
10. Sam Raimi
Top 3 films (in my opinion): Drag Me To Hell, Spiderman 2, Army of Darkness
A little back story: Sam Raimi was born in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1959. Before he was ten years old, he was making short films on an 8mm camera with his long-time friends Bruce Campbell and Robert G. Tapert. He was a devoted fan of The Three Stooges, and alot of what him and his friends filmed was slapstick comedy in the spirit of the Stooges. The three of them wrote, directed, and produced a short film called Within The Woods in order to gain interest and funding so they could make their first feature debut The Evil Dead. It was met with mild interest in the states, so they took it to the UK, where it was met with higher praise. It is considered a cult classic by many to this day.
What's next? Raimi has a lot coming up, most notably directing a live action World of Warcraft movie, and a fourth Evil Dead movie.
9. Rob Zombie
Top 3 films (in my opinion): The Devils Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses, Halloween
A little back story: There really isn't much to say about how Rob Zombie got started in film. Basically, he didn't want other people directing his music videos for White Zombie, so he stepped up and did them himself. In 1999, he decided he wanted to move to features and wrote House of 1000 corpses. The movie took 4 years to make, which he made with mostly friends. 'House' had a problem with distribution when Universal dropped it for the fear it would get an NC-17 rating. Eventually it was picked up by Lionsgate.
What's next? It was announced that Zombie would direct a remake of The Blob, but that was over a year ago, and not much news have emerged since.
8. The Coen Brothers
Top 3 films (in my opinion): No Country For Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Fargo
A little back story: Joel and Ethan Coen grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. As children, Joel would mow lawns to save up to buy an 8mm camera. The two brothers would remake movies they had seen on TV with their friend Mark Zimering starring. Their first was a movie called Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go. Joel went to NYU and Ethan went to Princeton where they both graduated. The brothers write, direct and produce all of their own movies. Their first feature length movie was Blood Simple.
What's next? The brothers just finished filming a remake of True Grit, which stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.
7. Kevin Smith
Top 3 films (in my opinion): Clerks, Mallrats, Zack and Miri Make a Porno
A little back story: Kevin Smith is a proud native to New Jersey, where he grew up in Red Bank. In fact, all of his movies up until 'Zack and Miri' either took place in, or were filmed in New Jersey. Smith got funding for his first movie, Clerks by applying for a bunch of different credit cards, which he used to buy the equipment. He filmed it at the Quick Stop, which was a convenient store that Smith worked at, at the time. They would only let him film inside at night after they closed. Smith is quoted as giving himself the role of Silent Bob because he "can't act." The movies cast consists of mostly Smith's friends.
What's next? Smith is finally going to make his first horror film called Red State, which follows the leader of a fundamentalist church who goes to the extreme in Middle America.
6. David Fincher
Top 3 films (in my opinion): Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac
A little back story: David Fincher was born in Denver, Colorado in 1962. When he was 18 years old, he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981 - 1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy in Hollywood. He went on to found Propaganda in 1987 with fellow directors Dominic Sena, Greg Gold and Nigel Dick. Fincher has directed TV commercials for clients that include: Nike, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Heinekin, Pepsi, Levi's, Converse, AT & T, and Chanel. He has directed music videos for: Madonna, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, George Michael, Iggy Pop, The Wallflowers, Billy Idol, Steve Winwood, The Motels and, most recently, A Perfect Circle. His first feature length movie was Alien 3.
What's next? Has a movie about the starting of Facebook called The Social Network (yawn) coming out in October. But, he is starting pre-production on an American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, and Stellan Skarsgard (yay).
5. Martin Scorsese
Top 3 films (in my opinion): The Departed, Shutter Island, Gangs of New York
A little back story: After serious deliberations about entering the priesthood - he entered a seminary in 1956 - Martin Scorsese opted to channel his passions into film. He graduated from NYU as a film major in 1964. Catching the eye of producer Roger Corman with his 1960s student films (including co-editing Woodstock (1970)), Scorsese directed the gritty exploiter Boxcar Bertha (1972). Mean Streets (1973) followed in 1973 and provided the benchmarks for the Scorsese style: New York settings, loners struggling with inner demons, pointed-shoes rock-meets-opera soundtracks and unrelenting cathartic violence.
What's next? Scorsese is currently filming Hugo Cabret, a family / mystery movie set in 1930's Paris.
4. Quentin Tarantino
Top 3 films (in my opinion): Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds
A little back story: Quentin Tarantino dropped out of high school at the age of 15. He attended acting school at the James Best Theatre Company in Toluca Lake, California. Tarantino directed and co-wrote a movie called My Best Friend's Birthday in 1987. The final reel of the film was almost fully destroyed in a lab fire that occurred during editing but its screenplay would form the basis for True Romance. In January of 1992, Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay.
What's next? Tarantino likes to announced a lot of projects all at once, so it's hard to decide what he's actually going to be making next. One of the announced movies is Kill Bill Vol. 3.
3. Zack Snyder
Top 3 films (in my opinion): Watchmen, Dawn of the Dead, 300
A little back story: Not much here about Zack Snyder either. Seeing as how he has only been around since 2004. Snyder went to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Afterwards, he worked as a director and cinematographer for commercials for Audi, BMW, Nike, Reebok and Gatorade. His first feature was the remake of Dawn of the Dead, which is widely considered one of the greatest remakes ever. Snyder is known for his film making style which includes lots of slow-motion and green screen.
What's next? Snyder has a movie coming out in March of 2011 called Sucker Punch, which is about a girl who is sent to an insane asylum. She escapes to a dream world where she battles all sorts of fantasy things such as giant mechs, dragons, and samurai. It looks as awesome as it sounds. Check out the trailer here.
2. Edgar Wright
Top 3 movies (in my opinion): Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz
A little back story: Wright was born in Poole, Dorset, but grew up predominantly in Wells, Somerset, after his family moved there during his childhood. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wright directed many short films, first on a Super-8 camera which was a gift from a family member and later on a Video-8 camcorder won in a competition on the television program Going Live. These films were mostly comedic pastiches of popular genres, such as the super hero-inspired Carbolic Soap and Dirty Harry tribute Dead Right (the latter of which was eventually featured on the DVD release of Hot Fuzz). After graduating from Bournemouth Arts College he made a spoof western, A Fistful of Fingers, which was picked up for a limited theatrical release and broadcast on the British satellite TV channel Sky Movies. The critical success of Spaced (a cult classic TV show directed by Wright) paved the way for Wright and Pegg to move to the big screen with Shaun of the Dead, a zombie comedy which mixed a "Brit flick" romantic comedy style with homages to the horror classics of George A. Romero and Sam Raimi. The film was a great success both critically and financially, and its rooting in American genre cinema helped to make it a transatlantic hit.
What's next? Wright is going to write and direct a live-action film based on the Ant-Man comic book series.
1. Christopher Nolan
Top 3 films (in my opinion): The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento
A little back story: First, let me start off with...who else? Really? Christopher Nolan is a genius mastermind film maker. He has not made a bad movie. He writes and directs everything he does, and it's all fantastic. Anyway, now I'll get to the back story. Born in London in 1970, Christopher Nolan began making films at the age of seven using his father's super 8mm camera and an assortment of male-action figures. He graduated to making films involving real people, and his super 8mm surreal short 'tarantella' was shown on PBS' 'image union' in 1989. Chris studied English Literature at University College London while starting to make 16mm films at the college film society. His short film 'larceny' was shown at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996, and his other 16mm shorts include a three- minute surreal film called 'doodlebug'. In 1998, he filmed is first feature, called Following. The success of Following grabbed attention of studio heads who let him make his next movie, Memento, which put him on the map as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) director of our time.
What's next? Now that Inception is out, Nolan is going to focus on writing and directing the third and final installment of his Batman trilogy.
No comments:
Post a Comment