One hit wonder movie directors

YHS, etc. ... "Your Hyperbolic Servant"

 

I don't know where Spike Jonze fits on this thread, but the guy is brilliant so he's always worth talking about. I think everyone of my Top 5 videos of all time were conceived by him.

Movies? Being John Malkovich was revolutionary. Adaptation was a bit lost.

 

Wrong friend.

 

Not so much a one hit wonder, but Mimi Leder did two blockbusters in the late 1990s with The Peacemaker and Deep Impact, then did Pay it Forward and hasn't done a feature since.

 

this thread should be called "One Hit wonder movie directors: A tribute to M. Night Shyamalan"

seriously...how was his name not mentioned within 5 seconds of the first post (unless it was and i just missed it)....

 

Cimino is the only name on this list. All the others did some films before/after their breakthrough film, but none had the spectacular fall of Cimino. After the Deer Hunter he was hailed as the greatest director, better than Coppola, Lumet, etc. Then he flamed out in a thermonuclear blast with Heaven's Gate, there hasn't been anything like his career suicide. He not only ended his career, he bankrupted the entire studio (United Artists) out of existence.

 

Sixth Sense: Budget -- $55 mil; Gross -- $293 mil (Net profit: $238 mil)
Unbreakable: B -- $75 mil; G -- $95 mil (Net profit: $10 mil)
Signs: B -- $72 mil; G -- $228 mil (Net profit: $158 mil)
The Village: B -- $71 mil; G -- 114 mil (Net profit: $43 mil)
Lady in the Water: B -- $75 mil; G -- $42 mil (Net loss: $33 mil)

With five movies, he has made $416 million dollars for his studios, and that includes 'Lady in the Water' which was doomed from the start after his acrimonious split from Disney.

Three of the five made more than $100 mil at the box office.

I thought all of them were entertaining, with the low point being 'The Village' and the high point being 'Unbreakable.' The man is a talented filmmaker and helluva storyteller if you ask me.

But that debatable point aside, there's no way he can be considered a one-hit wonder.

 

Hopper also did Colors. Don't know if that qualifies as a hit, but it wasn't the worst movie I ever saw.

What about Noah Baumbach, who did Kicking and Screaming? The 1995 one with Eric Stoltz and Parker Posey, not the soccer movie with Will Ferrell. He hasn't directed anything of note since then, though he did co-write The Life Aquatic.

And Hanson also did Wonderboys.

 

i guess it depends on how you measure success. Plenty of bands (for example) have continued to make enjoyable, even profitable albums after their breakthrough hit, but it doesn't mean they ever came out with anything as wildly popular as the song they are most known for.

I think he's made decent, enjoyable movies after sixth sense, but considering the hype surrounding him after that film, i think it's safe to say he hasn't directed anything even close to as popular since. I think people have generally felt let down by him and i would argue that many people see his films in the theater hoping that it will entertain them the way sixth sense did (which could be why his box office numbers are pretty decent)

 

Not quite a one-hit wonder, but someone I felt sure would be able to continue producing entertaining "small" movies -- Bill Forsyth.

Did Gregory's Girl and Local Hero; Comfort & Joy was pretty good, too. Not a good movie in the 23 years since then. Not a movie at all since 1999.

 

The biggest problem I have with Fight Club is that too many stupid people misinterpret the entire point of the novel based on the film, which means, too me, that the film failed in its most important mission. I guess maybe it's unfair to blame a piece of art for the majority's simplistic interpretation of a complex, ambiguous message, but as Jones pointed out, it's become sort of the go-to flick for people who get boners over the violence and yet make no attempt to connect that violence to the rejection of consumer culture. The fact that you can't buy Fight Club t-shirts and a Fight Club video game is both ironic and tragic at the same time.

 

I'll nominate Alex Cox. "Repo Man" was great, and I'm not just saying that as someone who's seen it 20 times and owns the soundtrack. Maybe he was a two-hit wonder if you count "Sid and Nancy," which I don't. But his film after that gives an idea where his career headed -- "Straight to Hell."