By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
The Male Director Challenge: 2000
Continuing from 1999…
There were 11 first-=times studio directors in the Top 50 movies in 2000.
Dominic Sena was one of six first-time studio directors who came to a feature by way of ads or music videos in 2000. Two were Bruckheimer hires, two entered after being part of RSA, the Scott Bros’ ad business, the fifth developed relationships with musicians via music video work, and one had a very specific video that propelled him.
The group…
#14 – Charlie’s Angels – McG – He got hot because of the Sugar Ray video and got off of that.
#22 – Gone in 60 Seconds – Dominic Sena – He directed the acclaimed indie, Kalifornia and remained a top music video and commercial director.
#36 – Road Trip – Todd Phillips – Phillips came to his first feature after making a couple docs. But he did write the film with Scot Armstrong, which he surely used for leverage to get the directing gig.
#37 – Bring It On – Peyton Reed, who had done a bunch of TV and some TV movies for Disney when he got .
#40 – The Cell – Tarsem Singh – Big-time commercial and music video director.
#42 – Coyote Ugly – David McNally – Ads and music videos in the UK, best known for the Bduweiser lobster ad on the Super Bowl in 1999.
#44 – Snow Day – Chris Koch. He did a fair amount of episodic TV before getting this feature.
#45 – Next Friday – Steve Carr – Music video director
#47 – Shanghai Noon – Tom Dey – RSA guy. Had shot on TV episode.
#48 – Romeo Must Die – (The Great) Andrzej Bartkowiak – He was a master cinematographer long before getting the chance to do make a feature.
#49 – Final Destination – James Wong. The X-Files producer/writer for years. Other shows too, including directing an episode, before co-writing the screenplay for this film and directing .
The veteran studio directors in the Top 50 that year were: Howard, Zemeckis, Woo, Scott, Meyers, Petersen, Roach, Singer, Wayans, Zemeckis, Lee, Soderbergh, Soderbergh, Segal, Gosnell, Yakin, Emmerich, Petrie, Shyamalan, Farrellys, Eastwood, Craven, Mostow, Ratner, Verhoeven, Hallstrom, Singleton, Turteltaub, Campbell, Herek, Friedkin, DePalma, Lynn.
(Editor’s Note: Rewritten on June 14, 7p, to match the format of the other entries.)
McG was a first time director.
Oh dear Dave left out Ridley Scott for Gladiator. Oops
No oops — Scott is listed among the veteran studio directors at the end of the article.
I stand corrected.