Richard Kelly’s issue is that he has these big ideas he can’t seem to contain within the scope of a film. Donnie Darko had the book passages that explain the elements of time travel, only accessible online at the time of the film’s release (they were later featured in Kelly’s Director’s cut release). Southland Tales had further world building elements in a graphic novel series. I think he either needs a really good producer who can reign in his ideas, or he needs to make a streaming series where he can really develop his ideas in one concise medium.
Yup. He's overflowing with creativity, but you can only have so much complexity in a 2-3 hour long movie. But just as much, I think he's looking for creative control which he might not fully get at this point unless he self-finances, which I'm not sure is in the cards for him. I wish he'd give up some modicum of control in order to secure funding to get something most of the way he wanted it. It would, at least, help secure another project. But if they remain unsaleable, it's going to be a rough road for him.
@@Syntopikon That's why I wish he could find a producer he trusts, who could help guide his hand, and make something that makes sense contained within one film, at least. It's either that or pursue a streaming series, which he could also lose a lot of control of quickly. I'm not even sure if that would be something that would interest Kelly, but he deserves another shot. Donnie Darko still has some cult goodwill he could exploit!
I remember listening to his commentary on the DVD, and realizing the story he was trying to tell had almost nothing to do with what I enjoyed about Donnie Darko. It blew my mind.
I think the producers helped keep Richard Kelly’s idea on track to make a working movie. I think the directors cut ruins it with every change that was made. The theatrical cut genuinely changed my life and is one of my favorite movies of all time. But for the most part yes I agree with you.
@@iTalkALotDontListen it took me years to realize the theatrical cut was really the best version of the film. I only had the director’s cut for a long time.
Saying that Miller "hasn't directed a solo project since" is a little disingenuous considering he has had a huge success on streaming by creating and showrunning the anthology series "Love, Death and Robots" for Netflix
@@Geronimo_Jehoshaphat Fincher is an executive producer on the show but Tim Miller created it and has been showrunner since the first season and to this day. He also directed and wrote multiple episodes. Namely Ice Age, The Drowned Giant and Swarm. Hell, Fincher himself only directed one episode from the show, the episode "Bad Travelling."
@@Geronimo_JehoshaphatI'm not saying Miller is a good director. He has certainly had more misses than hits. (Blur video game commercials notwithstanding. Seriously the Old Republic ads still hit HARD) But I am pointing out that he has had success outside of feature filmmaking.
I think of what the director of Donnie Darko did was culture bubbling up so vividly that SOMEONE had to make it and he did, lighting in the bottle even if it meant he never made another movie. It's a perfect movie, as a little kid it scares you. A few years later as an adolescent it comforts and indulges you. When you revisit it as an adult later, it gives you nostalgia.
It's funny how many classic films were total bombs when they first came out. "What do you mean 'The Night of the Hunter' wasn't an instant classic? Were people back then really stupid?"
Lol yup. It's kind of wild, but also interesting to see how the definition of what an excellent movie is changes over time. There have been so many of these rediscovered classics that only get interest decades onward.
The thing is, something had to be there. Something had to tell audiences who gave it a chance "Wow, I love this." Look at Blade Runner, Sweet Smell of Success, Chimes at Midnight, The Exorcist III, Freaks, all of which were underappreciated in first run. Something had to be there to hook some people for its rediscovery later.
Honorable mentions: - Herk Harvey with CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962). While he may have made 400 industrial shorts for Centron (a few which got riffed on the original MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000), CARNIVAL (financed on a shoestring using money saved on the side from the shorts) was his only narrative feature, and one that would have a huge cult following and influence on many films to follow, including George A. Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD six years later. Rene Leroux with FANTASTIC PLANET (1973): an animator who made several avant-garde animated shorts before hitting the big time with FANTASTIC PLANET, one of the best animated classics and sci-fi films, and the first animated feature to win a special prize at Cannes. Sadly, his next two features, largely hampered by small budgets, failed to recapture the magic.
Night of the Hunter is one of those movies from back when I'd be up late, flicking through to find something other than informercials to watch. It captured me right away and the villain genuinely scared me, yet had me entranced. Phenomenal acting.
Yup. Genuinely one of the best villains ever, too. It makes me wish Laughton had directed more movies - especially horror movies where there's some genuine dread.
Tim Miller isn't a full length movie director though, he's been working in the game industry for decades, he co-founded Blur Studios which specializes in CGI and VFX and worked on many games and their work includes titles in franchises like: GTA, Quake, Midnight Club, Batman Arkham, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Halo, Call of Duty etc. The fact that he's been brought for Deadpool was purely thanks to his credits on the biggest games in the industry, which translated to the test footage which felt more like a videogame cutscene than a scene cut from a movie.
Kelly should try the shaymalayan approuch to a return. Do a movie on a small budget, try to sell to some stream service. Nowadays a lot of streaming services help to fund a movie, but i think he got cold feet after southland tales.
I think Southland Tales and The Box both did a number on his self confidence, but I hope he does as you say: small budget. I think a studio like A24 or Neon should try to work with him. It might mean he takes a salary cut, but after 15 years without a movie, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm sure the guy is boiling over with ideas, he just needs an avenue to get them out.
Richard Kelly is such a tragic tale. I love Donnie Darko but I really did not understand Southland Tales. But there’s a clear level of creativity there, even if it was very confusing to me at times. He had so much potential but nobody wants to give him the chance. For as much praise as A24 gets for “going outside the box” they should really give a redeeming chance to someone as outside of it as him.
Yup. He kind of reminds me of Paul Thomas Anderson and Guillermo del Toro in that regard:a creative director who will make something interesting that will find a dedicated audience, even if it doesn't make money off the bat. Like PTA got a $100 million budget for his next movie. I doubt it makes it back, but it's still interesting because the guy always delivers great work.
@@Syntopikon both of them definitely seem to have deeper ties in the industry than Kelly, being very beloved by actors and producers alike, as well as their own more successful peers. Also, for as weird as they can get, both directors have movies that seem easier to sell on a concept basis. I have no idea how you sell Southland Tales, but Shape of Water doesn’t seem that hard of a sell
I love Southland Tales but feel it has a limited potential audience. It is impossible to understand just by watching the movie. You have to read the comic book which details all the events that happened before the movie. And I mean really read it and understand it. It took me at least 3 weeks, making my own notes. Then when I watched the film I felt able to appreciate it for the incredible piece of work it undoubtedly is, but most people will, very understandably, not be prepared to do that amount of homework to understand a movie.
Charles Laughton directed other movies, but those movies were shelved by the studios for various reasons. He starred in and directed a version of _I, Claudius_ that was never released and was lost when there was a fire in the vault where it was stored.
I just want to say that you have created an exceptional channel. I've learned so much. Interesting, entertaining, and well constructed videos. Thank you!
‘An Elephant Sitting Still’ deserves a mention! Supposedly the production took such a major toll on the director, Bo Hu, he ended up taking his own life not long after filming wrapped. And you could feel hear his cry for help in every inch of the frame. Seriously one of the most heartbreaking films ever made!!
It’s probably worth mentioning Hu Bo here too, a young director who took his life shortly after finishing his final cut of his only feature film, An Elephant Sitting Still. It’s currently one of the highest rated movies on Letterboxd.
The lack of Troy Duffy of Boondock Saints fame is egregious since he's my poster boy for this phenomenon. I remember knowing what a monster Harvey Weinstein could be from the documentary about how Troy's greed sabotaged all his opportunities.
@@Syntopikon the first was good if not troubled behind the scenes from my FIL who worked on it a bit. Says a lot coming from him & his stories of what a shit show the first XMen movies were to work on because of Singer’s behavior. He’s got a high bar. The second one was a mess that’s only redeemable part was Clifton Collins. Still the documentary about Troy & Harvey is utterly fascinating.
I know this is a different sort of case than you're talking about here, but I recently stumbled across Bill Sherwood's 1986 movie Parting Glances and was really impressed with it. It starts out seeming like a slightly above average slice-of-life/romantic comedy, but gets much more emotionally complex as it goes due to the AIDs crisis going on around the characters, and even has some really creative surreal sequences. When I looked the director up on letterboxd, hoping to watch more of his films, I found out this was his only feature because he himself got really sick and died afterwards from complications from AIDs. Miracle Mile is a favorite of mine, and the director of that, Steve De Jarnatt, is usually a writer, so while he directed a couple other movies besides MM, that was his only real directorial passion project, and it shows. I also really like the 1989 sci fi horror flick Nightwish, although I doubt it seems like anything special to most people, and his only other feature directing job is notoriously difficult to find a copy of (The Census Taker, which has a soundtrack by the Residents, so fans of the band tend to seek it out, but it has long been OOP), so it's all I've seen from him. Not sure what the story is with him, though. I think he just does more writing as well.
As much as Edward norton is a fantastic actor everything I've heard about him on set makes him sound aggravating to work with. So qs someone whose had to deal with difficult coworkers, it just makes me happy to know that because of a multi movie contract he signed he was forced to work on Italian job even though he really didn't want to do that movie. I feel like that's karma. He probably made everyone miserable on set but at least he was miserable too
Yup. Similar to James Cameron, several actors had issues with his dictatorial style but respected him as a direction. I don’t think he often worked with the same actor twice.
Tony K and Edward Norton fought over the proposed ending of American History X. K’s original ending has Norton returning to his ways and curb stomps a man again. Norton did not want this, and his buzz coming off of Primal Fear made New Line stand with Norton.
Josh Trank's Chronicle is one of the more underrated films and on this list and it falls into the same Category next to Akira and Carrie where the trope of "What would teenagers really be like with Superpowers?" Into "What would happen if a Potential School Shooter gained Superpowers?" But his behavior on Fan4stic and his Project with Tom Hardy about a Brain dead and defacating Al Capone proved he mightve been a one trick pony. Plus him getting dropped from the Boba Fett Project showed he wasnt exactly missing out on anything big seeing as what happened to that.
Yeah, it's pretty disappointing. I'm hoping that he takes an example from Shyamalan: work on indie films. Shyamalan tried to go the big budget route but found it wasn't for him. That might be the case for Trank, too.
Ridley Scott I would put more in the category of directors that had a lucky long lasting career. I say that because even though he's had the success of Alien, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, The Martian, and Blade Runner (even though that still bombed heavily when it first came out, and an accidental screening of the workprint cut at a festival helped bring it back to life), people also forget that he also made G.I. Jane, Hannibal, A Good Year, Robin Hood, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Napoleon, House of Gucci, and worst of all The Counselor. He always seems to strike back with a sudden banger after being in a slump of having made 2 or 3 really bad ones. Same could be said for M. Night Shyamalan, although that's with more box office success than critical. Spielberg and Scorsese have much better track records in comparison.
Counselor is legit best thing he ever made. It's plodding, meandering slab of distilled nihilism for nihilism sake. An arthouse wankfest with top tier actors and Cameron Diaz outacting everyone and I love every second of it
The Duellists, Black Hawk Down, The Gangster, The Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut, All the Money in the World, Body of Lies and The Last Duel are good too, some of them are excelent tbh. Even Prometheus is a solid 6 or 7.
I think that's part of the reason I respect Scott so much, though. The guy just constantly puts out work, some of it lands, some of it doesn't. But the ones that do land - especially movies like Alien and Blade Runner - land so well, they change the game. He's always working on something interesting and not afraid to cross genre's. Plus, how he fixed up All the Money in the World in less than 2 weeks? Masterwork. Spielberg and Scorsese do have better track records, but I feel Scott is the more interesting filmmaker. That's disputable, though, and if I slept on it I might have a different opinion.
Big miss on my part 😮💨 I had covered Heaven's Gate in prior videos, so I think I kind of papered over Cimino. But there are a lot of one hit wonder directors out there, so I'll probably include him in one of those future videos.
My biggest concern are other foreign directors that have made great one hit wonders that were screened in Sundance and Cannes, only to never hear from them again. I’ve seen many great Mexican movies and those directors just disappear after.
I wonder if that's just a case of them being more active in their respective country/not being able to break through to the American market? That said, I do seen an encouraging trend of foreign movies breaking through more often. I think Godzilla Minus One was the most significant example, but I'm sure more will follow.
It’s a shame Richard Kelly doesn’t get more work. I didn’t like The Box but Donnie Darko is brilliant and Southland Tales is one of the strangest and funniest films I’ve ever seen.
It seems part of it is an unrelenting desire to make the movie his way and to get it perfect. The guy just doesn't want to compromise. It's admirable, but is also just piling on the years 😮💨
I was expecting Vincentt Gallo to be in this list. Buffallo 66 was a huge sucess but The Brown Bunny was a mess, and he even got on verbal fight with Roger Erbit over it.
@@KasumiKenshirou from what various reports are saying the story itself and the sequences are the same but it was mightily tightened up by taking out dead air and whole lot of Vincent close up being all moody. Makes sense given that Gallo presented a rough cut that probably had everything and the kitchen sink thrown in.
While Trank is far from perfect, I felt like your video just added to the dogpile on him while going very easy on a studio (Fox) that had no vision for F4 themselves, was giving their director mixed messages, requesting last minute changes (cutting whole action scenes, including the best received shot from the trailer), and frankly wasn’t all there as they were preparing to sell, which they would to Disney 2 years later. Also several directors were fired from Star Wars projects around that time due to Kathleen Kennedy’s inability to get along with directors (Lord and Miller, amongst others) and habit of canceling films all together.
"Kathleen Kennedy's inability to get along with directors"-- lmao, so that's why Lord and Miller wasted so much time on 'Solo' that they pissed off the cast? No dude, you're not an insider with info, you're a sad sack who makes up bullshit just to whine about Star Wars.
Michael Cimino comes to mind of a director who after The Deer Hunter and won the Oscar for directing he never captured that level. Heavens Gate was a big flop after the Deer Hunter and that definitely put him from A level to C.
Yeah. I remember when the Box came out. There was a Twilight Zone episode titled similarly with similar concept. It was 30 minutes long and had a great twist ending but felt long even at only 30 minutes. When I finally saw the Box (the movie) it had the same thing as the TV show except expanded the story into nonsense. It was horribly long and boring. There was no point to it as the original was great.
Stephen Norrington, who went down with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Anthony Waller, who showed such promise with Mute Witness, was ruined by An American Werewolf in Paris. Gary Shore, whose career began and ended with Dracula Untold.
I'm one of those that liked An American Werewolf in Paris. I think I watched that before An American Werewolf in London. I specifically recall checking it out on VHS from a library.
Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo 66 is one of my favorite films but it really feels like lightning in a bottle compared to anything else he ever did. The Brown Bunny officially made him a joke largely because of a scene where he supposedly really received fellatio on camera and his arguments with critics only made him look worse. He just seems like a pretty bad person anyway so I don’t mind that he doesn’t really have a career anymore.
TBH I am sorta amused that Deadpool only happened because Ryan Reynold's massive ego was so wounded by Green Lantern's failure and WW's mistreatment in the Origins movie that he made it his personal mission to make a funny DP movie and he, kinda, sorta, succeeded? But he's still Ryan Reynolds of Mint Mobile and that will never ever go away.
The list could also include the Wachowski brothers/sisters. To make one of the best films in history and then fall flat on your face with such force still requires effort.
A different tale but Gerald Butler is a one hit wonder actor. He made 300, and nothing else. Sure some people still talk about Law Abiding Citizen but 300 is his only role people know about
@@Syntopikon Yeah, but what was his character's name in that movie? We all know him King Leonidas (he was good in that film but still, a one hit wonder actor). Good video man!
Marlon Brando was NOT the lead in apocalypse now. He's in like 15m of a nearly 3h movie. That's like saying the dude that played Doctor Silberman was the lead in Terminator 3
Honorable Mention of Joel Anderson and his hit Lake Mungo which many people quote as one of the scariest horror movies and after he made this movie he dropped off the map and has jot made a movie since 2008
I was going to argue that it was big flop even though it's a terrific movie, but then I saw the guy stated "one good movie" and Rush would definitely fall into that category. But then, i don't remember: Was Freebie and the Bean horrible?
@@martinsorenson1055 I actually enjoyed F&tB when it came out and even saw it twice in a row. But upon revisiting it a few years ago, I found the comedy lame and the whole drag thing at the end did not age well.
@@Voicedude I remember enjoying it too when it came out. But something was telling me not to revisit it. Maybe that's why. However, The Stuntman is an amazing movie - my favorite Peter O'Toole performance, endlessly quotable, and thrilling.
@@Voicedude For the stunts, the assault on the Hotel De Coronado is my favorite. What ending? The car crashing and him trying to get out? Barbara Hershey not being in the trunk? Her running in slo-motion through the water? Cameron wanting more money?
Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Robert Denieo, Sean Penn and even Al Pacino have all directed features. I wonder why certain other big stars never tried their hand at directing a feature, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Merryl Streep or Harrison Ford. They must have some thoughts on composition, pacing, time, cinematography, etc. I'd love to see dramas directed by Ford and Stree. Leo has shown he's got good Comic timing and might be good at directing a comedy, and Cruise... Do I need to say it? Action!
Is deadpool actually any good? Watched it for the first time recently and it was very paint by numbers action and story with a veneer of “whacky and extreme”.
The first one or the new one? I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it's worth mentioning that I was a fan of Deadpool for years before the movie came out and it delivered exactly what I wanted in a Deadpool movie.
@@ScottAhearnShipbuilder it really should have been marketed as a "what if" leaning into that and John's death from the first teases. Expanded the revelations themes and almost biblical nature of legion and its machines. And implied John lived and won all other timelines. Also Danny should have worked in cyber security or been shown as a intuitive mechanic or something not just a random truck factory employee lol
@@ScottAhearnShipbuilder I'm one of that movie's biggest fans and watch edits from it on here all the time like dark fate what if the storm ends or narvent memory reboot edits of it.
@@user-kc8fv8pf9e No, it sucks. Dark Fate offers nothing new or interesting to the Terminator Franchise and has no right to exist. This sequel is as pointless as the last three Terminator Sequels after T2.
African History Y? The most recent thing I could find was from 2024, so its been 4 years. I think Its in development with some stars attached, but I'm not sure it's in production yet.
Your video is great! But please take this advice... Work on your voice, your pacing, and your annunciation. Learning these skills will serve you well. Best of luck! (I could barely get through 2 seconds this thing without doing a funny impression of you, in case you needed context)
I'd wanna throw Mathieu Kassovitz into the mix. Dude has a mixed filmography, ranging from downright awful, to meh to a decent flick here and there. Oh and also La Haine, which he made at 28 and is one of the greatest films of all time, and arguably the best French movie ever
If you’ve not seen John Adams, I highly recommend it. I think it’s Hoopers best work. But man, Cats did a number on the poor guy. He’s been gone for 5 years now.
@@Syntopikon I’ll try and find John Adams. You’ve piqued my curiousity now. To be fair though I think old days Baz Luhrman would have done better with an adaption of the musical.
I think a lot of it just the fact that we got a Green Lantern movie at all. I would've preferred it being about John Stewart (and everyone was familiar with him thanks to the Justice League cartoon). But GL is, alongside Constantine and The Spectre, probably my favorite DC character. It had plenty of issues, like the CG. And I think going with Hammond + Parallax was a bad idea. His relationship with Sinestro and a break with him should've been the focus.
