From Christopher Nolan and Batman Begins"" to Paul Greengrass and ""The Bourne Ultimatum"" to Guillermo del Toro and ""Hellboy,"" once-independent directors are finding success in mainstream film franchises. Coming soon, Jon Favreau's ""Iron Man"" and South African director Gavin Hood's ""X-Men Origins: Wolverine"" will smash, grab and slice into theaters.
I, for one, love it when independent directors make big-budget films. They bring the emotion and brains to a film that might lack if it were made by a bigger director (I'm looking at you, Jerry Bruckheimer.) However, there are still franchises that need independent-filmmaker salvation. So, being the solutions-oriented person that I am, I decided to right a few Hollywood relationships, bringing love to the studios... think of it as Movi-E-Harmony.com.
Paul Verhoeven & ""Halloween 2"":
Verhoeven is a director whose career has pretty much been defined by two things: Sharon Stone's interrogation in ""Basic Instinct"" and watching ""RoboCop"" being blown apart. Although he was once a Hollywood heavyweight, he's been focused lately on independent features, most recently the superior Holocaust drama ""Black Book."" So why ""Halloween 2""? After Rob Zombie took the reboot to good box office receipts, you know there's going to be a sequel. What better director to helm a movie that was all about boobs and blood than a director whose career's been defined by boobs and blood?
James Cameron & ""Spider-Man"":
Long before Sam Raimi took the reigns, James Cameron wrote a treatment for a Spider-Man film, much of which survived to Raimi's film, like Spider-Man's organic web shooters. The film was to be darker and more adult than Raimi's version, more like Tim Burton's ""Batman"" than what the series became. Since Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst seem unlikely to return, Cameron would get a chance to imagine the wall crawler from scratch and create his own definitive vision.
Quentin Tarantino and James Bond:
Years before Eon Productions made a harder-edged Bond in ""Casino Royale,"" QT suggested making a harder-edged Bond in an adaptation of ""Casino Royale,"" (in Eon's defense, it was their idea to give Bond a black tuxedo). Nonetheless, Tarantino is a master of the genre picture, and I, for one, would love to see what he can do. Bond movies change directors every time out anyway - to me, it's a low risk, high reward thing.
Neil Marshall and ""Venom"":
Marvel announced recently that they are making a standalone movie featuring Venom, the alien symbiote played by Topher Grace in ""Spider-Man 3."" Neil Marshall directed the awesome horror film ""The Descent,"" which brought all of the claustrophobia of cave diving with the terror of a monster flick. Venom is a character smothered within his own skin - a great way to channel that claustrophobia and make it personal.
Jason Reitman & ""Arrested Development"":
Fans of Fox's loved-and-lost sitcom have been clamoring for a feature film ever since the Bluths got axed. ""Juno"" director Reitman has experience directing sitcoms (he did an episode of NBC's ""The Office"") and has a great flair for visual and character details, the specialty of ""Arrested."" Plus, should the film's success somehow be able to revive the series, Reitman would hold a special place in the hearts of millions of never-nudes, hot cops and blue men across the country.
I'm glad I could create some great movie pairings. If only I could find a way to get Uwe Boll to direct a ""Casablanca"" remake.
To nominate your director pair for a Movi-E-Harmony mash-up, e-mail Brad at boron@wisc.edu.
