Hello faithful readers! We’re ready to take on another great year of school coverage and entertainment reviews, with a brand new staff as well.

Now that that’s out of the way, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at film directors and their interesting histories. I’ve done articles about this sort of things in the past, but here we’ll be taking a look at outcasts and oddballs within directors filmography.

6. George Miller (Known for: Mad Max films, Twilight Zone movie,Strangest Films: Babe 2, Happy Feet 1 & 2)

George Miller is best known for the gritty post apocalypse of the Mad Max films. His early short films also feature a similar style, and after he completed the original Mad Max trilogy, he made horror comedy The Witches of Eastwick as well as a great segment segment in the Twilight Zone movie.

Doesn’t seem like much of departure, really, right? After this he made a run of 4 movies that seemed very out of character: Lorenzo’s Oil (a sentimental drama) Babe 2 (talking pig movie that’s actually surprisingly dark) and the first 2 Happy Feet movies. While these movies aren’t bad necessarily, they just feel out of place considering his early work. But if it’s his passion to make kids movies, that’s great.

5. Micheal Mann (Known For: Heat, Last of the Mohicans. Black Sheep Movie: The Keep)

The director behind crime thrillers such as The Heat, Manhunter and the TV series Miami Vice, as well as historical dramas like The Last of the Mohicans. Earlier in his career, however, Mann made (pun not intended) his only horror movie, The Keep. I first came across this movie from it’s kickin soundtrack and became interested in it afterwards, The movie, about a group of Nazis being caught in an ancient stronghold, having released a demon. The studio meddled with the movie, and Mann said he disliked the final product. Most people seem to agree that while it has great atmosphere and music, it’s definitely flawed. He never directed another horror movie after that.

4. James Cameron (Known For: The Terminator 1 & 2, Aliens, Titanic, Avatar. The Oddball: Piranha Two: The Spawning

James Cameron’s films are known for their big budgets and underwater action. He’s also notable for making great sequels, such as Terminator 2 and Aliens. Not many people know, however, that his first film was a movie called Piranha Part Two: The Spawning.  The sequel to the first Piranha movie, (a cheap rip-off/parody of Jaws) the movie was filmed in swimming pools and features flying piranhas. Cameron co-directed the movie with Ovidio G. Assonitis, but here is much debate over who deserves the full credit.

After completing the film, Cameron had a dream on the night of the premiere about a metallic exoskeleton emerging from a blaze of fire… inspiring him to make The Terminator, his gateway to success. Cameron has disowned the film, most likely out of embarrassment, but it’s a little inspiring to know that the director of a flying piranha movie would go on to make the 2 highest grossing films of all time.

3. David Lynch

If there’s one thing that David Lynch is known for, it’s being flat out weird. His movies are surreal, strange, and hard to understand. But David Lynch’s weirdest film is weird because…well, it’s not strange at all. 1999’s Straight Story, is a very normal, but compelling, movie about an old guy going to visit his ill brother in a tractor.

So by making a very normal movie, David Lynch created the strangest movie of his career.

2. Gus Van Sant

Gus Van Sant’s career is riddled with many highs and lows. From great Independent features like Drugstore Cowboy & My Own Private Idaho, to the mainstream hit of Good Will Hunting, all the way to the sentimental drek of Finding Forrester. But nothing as critically hated as his remake of the Hitchcock’s influential horror classic Psycho. And not just a reboot, or a retelling the same basic movie, but a SHOT FOR SHOT REMAKE of a unanimously loved movie.

Which begs the question: why make the exact same movie as something that already exists? What’s the point of watching the exact same movie? Their are really only a few minor differences, the most major being the remake is in color, but that’s it. Unless you HATE black and white movies, there’s no reason to watch the remake.

1. Bob Clark

Oh god. What the heck happened to this guy? Canadian Director Bob Clark started his major Hollywood career with Black Christmas, thought to be the first slasher film. Inspiring Halloween, Friday the 13th, Scream, and countless others, the film was incredibly influential. In addition, he also directed raunchy comedy Porky’s which is both loved and hated. But his most popular, and perhaps best, movie is holiday classic A Christmas Story, played endlessly on TV during December. After making an undisputed classic, Clark made Rhinestone, a high profile flop starring Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton. After making a follow up to A Christmas Story, It Runs In the Family, Clark took a detour into TV work, before making a return to theatrical films: Baby Geniuses. An awful, awful, awful, awful movie that is also oddly creepy and inappropriate, Baby Geniuses is almost unimaginably bad. A few years later, he made a sequel, which is placed at Number 2 on IMDB’s Worst Movies List.

His last movie before his death was Karate Dog, another TV movie. Truly a sad tale. But his 2 classic Christmas movies are remembered and loved today, so not everything was for the worst.