Who's Toast, and How Did It Happen?

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Which venerated directors who made their bones in the '70s and '80s have more or less become dead meat in terms of landing hired-gun film gigs or getting their pet projects financed?

To hear it from Variety's Anne Thompson, five victims of this MIA syndrome are Lawrence Kasdan (Grand Canyon), Joe Dante (Gremlins), Phil Kaufman (The Right Stuff), Jim McBride (The Big Easy) and Robert Towne (Pre, Personal Best).

The above-named directors were "once reliable makers of modest studio hits, enjoying both popular and critical success," Thompson notes. "But they're rarely tapped for new film projects. And they often hit a brick wall in trying to mount their own passion projects."

Wells to HE Readers: which other former toast-of-the-town directors have been put out to pasture (or have decided it's better to opt out than be put out)?

"The heart of the problem is Hollywood's 'What have you done for me lately?' mindset," Thompson writes. "If more than one studio decides that a filmmaker is too old, expensive, difficult, uncommercial or irrelevant, it becomes harder and harder to get a job. The offers stop coming.

"Part of the problem is that studios -- and their specialty divisions -- prefer close, cordial relationships with cooperative helmers. Final cut is an issue. Name someone who may not be hip, commercially minded or tuned into younger viewers, and execs' eyes glaze over.

"Many directors try to assemble indie passion projects on the assumption that they'd better love something if they're not going to get paid. But when faced with the harsh reality of the numbers on the indie side, they balk.

"'Are they willing to financially or deal-wise start over?' asks Picturehouse's Bob Berney. 'It's also hard to connect with the people who will let you do it.'

"Many studio directors are marooned within Hollywood's powerful class snobbery about working in television or cable or Indiewood.

"When they aren't being paid top dollar for scripts-for-hire, Towne and Kasdan are pitching arcane movies that nobody, studio or independent, wants to make.

"One director's agent suggests that career rehab requires acting like a young director again: 'You can't sit on your high horse and make a movie. Everybody's got to be entrepreneurial.'"

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 3, 2008 at 5:15 PM

comment #1

RandyWilliams_Canada says ...

I would add John Landis and William Friedkin to that list as a starter.

Posted by RandyWilliams_Canada at October 3, 2008 6:00 PM

comment #2

scooterzz says ...

peter bogdanovich....hubris with a capitol 'H'...and he completely cops to it.....
but that first book and those early 70's movies were a real treat.....

Posted by scooterzz at October 3, 2008 6:01 PM

comment #3

crsryan says ...

I just heard from Joe Dante last week and he's doing quite well and is very busy, from what I can tell. He was on hiatus from filming that horror movie The Hole and he's got that Moriarty script to shoot next, I think.

He's the kind of director who could suddenly hit with a new genre project tomorrow and it would be like he's never been gone, so I wouldn't put him in the toast category.

Posted by crsryan at October 3, 2008 6:09 PM

comment #4

va says ...

I would also add Walter Hill, John Badham, and John Milius to the list - John Badham has been doing TV, Hill has made a couple of TV westerns, and was in on Deadwood, and Milius is working on HBO's Rome --- is this were old directors go instead of rest homes? At least they're working - haven't seen anything from Landis and Friedkin!

Posted by va at October 3, 2008 6:13 PM

comment #5

jimjonesiii says ...

michael cimino. paul brickman. fred dekker.

Posted by jimjonesiii at October 3, 2008 6:13 PM

comment #6

va says ...

uh-oh - jimjones has done it! Mentioned "he who shall not be named" in a thread.....this thread has just gone from 50 comment potential to over 100

Posted by va at October 3, 2008 6:21 PM

comment #7

erniesouchak says ...

I think DePalma is pretty much in this category.

Posted by erniesouchak at October 3, 2008 6:24 PM

comment #8

Drew says ...

Dante had terrible studio experiences, as did many of the guys from the generation of filmmakers. If you're not Spielberg, basically, there is a whole generation of development people lined up to treat you like shit, no matter what films you have on your resume.

Dante's ahead of the curve on this, though. He's gone back to the indie world, and I think it'll serve him well. Yes, I am indeed working with him on a film that shoots this spring, and yes, it's a take-no-prisoners horror film, which he hasn't done in a while. I consider myself lucky to have a guy with the smarts and the directorial chops that Joe has working on my script, and I personally think calling any of these guys "washed up" is a sign of just how little this industry values experience and genuine skill.

Posted by Drew at October 3, 2008 6:25 PM

comment #9

lesterg says ...

I don't think anyone's career is truly dead until they are, but for sake of argument:

- John McTiernan hasn't directed a film in five years. All or nearly all of the upcoming projects listed on his IMDB page are dead or near-dead.
- Ron Underwood (although he's doing fine as a television director now)
- John Badham (also: doing well in television)
- Peter Hyams
- Michael Ritchie and Paul Mazursky haven't worked in ten years, although both are in their 70's.

Close: Martin Brest, Ron Shelton. Ivan Reitman's directing career is just about over, but he's doing fine as a producer.

Posted by lesterg at October 3, 2008 6:32 PM

comment #10

jimjonesiii says ...

Its a shame Michael Ritchie s hasnt direct a movie since he died in 2001.

Posted by jimjonesiii at October 3, 2008 6:46 PM

comment #11

MilkMan says ...

Michael Ritchie hasn't worked in ten years because he's dead.

Posted by MilkMan at October 3, 2008 6:47 PM

comment #12

MickTravis says ...

I'm constantly amazed by the fall of Neil Labute.

He came out of the gate so strong with "In the Company of Men," then tried to one-up the bile with "Your Friends and Neighbors" and ever since then has been in steady decline:

Nurse Betty, Possession, Wicker Man, Lakeview Terrace. A nice quadruple bill at a theater in hell.

"The Shape of Things" was a nice try but felt like a minor groove.

At least he's still doing decent work on the stage.

Posted by MickTravis at October 3, 2008 6:48 PM

comment #13

Jason says ...

Tobe Hooper is certainly out in the cold.

Posted by Jason at October 3, 2008 6:55 PM

comment #14

lesterg says ...

"Its a shame Michael Ritchie s hasnt direct a movie since he died in 2001."

Oops.

Posted by lesterg at October 3, 2008 6:58 PM

comment #15

MickTravis says ...

He's just lazy. It certainly didn't slow down Tupac.

Posted by MickTravis at October 3, 2008 7:00 PM

comment #16

Howlingman says ...

John Carpenter.

Posted by Howlingman at October 3, 2008 7:10 PM

comment #17

corey3rd says ...

Isn't John McTiernan doing research for "Oz: The Movie?"

Landis at least has kept busy with two good documentaries and the Showtime Masters of Horror series.

Posted by corey3rd at October 3, 2008 7:17 PM

comment #18

Chapman Carruthers says ...

Peter Israelson. A brilliant first effort and then nothing. It's a damn shame.

I kid, I kid.

Posted by Chapman Carruthers at October 3, 2008 7:27 PM

comment #19

Caustic712 says ...

Alan Parker. Ron Shelton. Phil Alden Robinson. Rowdy Herrington (although we'll always have the Double Deuce). And although The Guardian is only two years old, it's an Ashton Kutcher movie... so I'm saying Andrew Davis as well.

Posted by Caustic712 at October 3, 2008 7:39 PM

comment #20

Hallick says ...

Having seen Nurse Betty again a couple of weeks ago, it's creakier, but DAMMMMMN - there is one hell of a great Morgan Freeman performance in that movie! I'd forgotten about Crispin Glover's presence too.

Posted by Hallick at October 3, 2008 7:42 PM

comment #21

Marcello says ...

I love Michael Ritchie! Can't believe he's gone. Who next? Hal Ashby?

I'm going to go rent "Smile" right now...

Posted by Marcello at October 3, 2008 7:48 PM

comment #22

hiviper says ...

I guess you could include Harold Ramis - his last great movie was Analyze This (almost 10 yrs ago) and he did classics like Groundhog Day, Caddyshack and Vacation.

Posted by hiviper at October 3, 2008 7:49 PM

comment #23

Jack Price says ...

"Maybe I'm going to get nauseated and never do another movie," Stone says. "Because they're so hard to do! This was so tough, in terms of getting it together, rushing, getting all these people to work for so little in the hope there'd be a profit. I won't say I'm box office poison, because I'm not, but..." He seems tired. The movie industry, he explains, "is fucked. Really fucked." -- Oliver Stone

This list only seems to verify that most people who dream of directing for a living seldom carry the same level of enthusiasm on the way out. In fact, the glory is all but tapped out.

Posted by Jack Price at October 3, 2008 8:01 PM

comment #24

Bocephus says ...

I watched Gremlins 2 last weekend, brilliant film, I miss Joe Dante so much.

I really liked Tobe Hooper's "The Apartment Complex." I saw it late one night and I'm pretty sure I was under the influence of something, but I think the man has some more great films left in him. If Carruth can make Primer for $7,000, Hooper can have another Texas Chainsaw Massacre in him.

Posted by Bocephus at October 3, 2008 8:25 PM

comment #25

BurmaShave says ...

lesterg, don't be too embarassed, I was about to do the same thing with James Bridges.

Posted by BurmaShave at October 3, 2008 8:27 PM

comment #26

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Phil Alden Robinson is the first name that really belongs with the others.

Ron Shelton pigeon-holed himself with more and more forgetable sports movies. John McTiernan was never a mid-sized film director and blew his THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR success on ROLLERBALL.

Also, John Carpenter who blew this seven year build up to the A-list:
1978 HALLOWEEN
1979 ELVIS
1980 THE FOG
1981 ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
1982 THE THING
1983 CHRISTINE
1984 STARMAN

He then stumbles with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (stumbles because it wasn't a hit) and then makes a string of mostly forgettable, mostly mediocre mostly horror movies (except for the giant financial bomb MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN).

Peter Hyams just did that so-dumb-it-lowers-your-IQ-just-for-watching-it A SOUND OF THUNDER, which I think set a record for fastest to air on non-premium cable.

Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie at October 3, 2008 8:33 PM

comment #27

MilkMan says ...

Steve de Jarnatt was good out of the blocks.
So was Keith Gordon.

Posted by MilkMan at October 3, 2008 8:35 PM

comment #28

NotImpressedYet says ...

I remember looking up Keith Gordon after seeing Waking The Dead when it first came out - it's a great film, by the way - and being surprised to learn that he played Rodney Dangerfield's son in Back to School. Looks like he's in TV now. Dexter's a pretty good series, so God bless.

Posted by NotImpressedYet at October 3, 2008 8:43 PM

comment #29

frankbooth says ...

John Dahl was being hyped as the next big thing for a while. What was the last thing he did? Was it that army rescue movie set in the Philipines?

Maybe he's not applicable, since he never exactly "made it." But that's all I got right now.

Posted by frankbooth at October 3, 2008 8:47 PM

comment #30

frankbooth says ...

Keith Gordon will always be the kid from Dressed to Kill to me.

Posted by frankbooth at October 3, 2008 8:50 PM

comment #31

Gordie Lachance says ...

I'm going to say Richard Donner, and to a much lesser extent (because he was never that prolific) Martin Brest, who directed 3 good/great films in a row (Going In Style, Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run) only to end his career 5 years ago with Gigli.

Posted by Gordie Lachance at October 3, 2008 8:57 PM

comment #32

Chapman Carruthers says ...

Waking the Dead is a fantastic film. I had reservations going into it because of the terrible film translation of an earlier Scott Spencer novel (Endless Love -- a movie that should have been spectacular but was nearly unwatchable). But WTD turned out exquisitely. Billy Crudup is at his best, the love story is intense, and the final scene always gets me, no matter how many times I see it.

Posted by Chapman Carruthers at October 3, 2008 9:00 PM

comment #33

hiviper says ...

and what's up with Adrian Lyne?
Big hit with Unfaithful in '02 (plus of course all his other work) - and he disappears?

Posted by hiviper at October 3, 2008 9:02 PM

comment #34

Undercover Brother says ...

Landis was always the greatest disappointment for me. His career follows a path that goes straight from Mt. Olympus down into the pits of Hell.

The Classics 77-83: Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House, Blues Brothers, Werewolf in London and Trading Places.

The Okay 85-88: Into the Night, Three Amigos, Spies Like Us, Coming to America

The Bottom of the Barrel 91-98: Oscar, Innocent Blood, Beverly Hills Cop III, The Stupids, Blues 2000

What this post really shows us is that staying at the top of the directorial game is almost impossible. It's a young mans game and missteps are often not allowed. In 10 or 15 or 20 years, on some other blog, someone will be asking, "Why didn't Spike Jonze make more films?" "Why is David Fincher making Spider Man 7?" "It's too bad Del Toro lost his mind making those Hobbit flicks." "Weren't the Coens killed by that deranged midwestener who hated the fact that he didn't understand their films?"

Posted by Undercover Brother at October 3, 2008 9:05 PM

comment #35

Chapman Carruthers says ...

The Meet Joe Black/ Gigli combo platter should send Martin Brest to the very outer limits of Hollywood purgatory, holding a number similar in size to the one Beetle Juice has when he's sitting next to the head shrinking voodoo artist in the final minutes of the movie.

But, no discussion about Brest is complete without mentioning Scent of a Woman.

Posted by Chapman Carruthers at October 3, 2008 9:05 PM

comment #36

BurmaShave says ...

Also does anyone know what the hell James Glickenhaus is up to? I understand he doesn't qualify but MCBAIN and SHAKEDOWN are two of the strangest action movies I've ever seen.

Posted by BurmaShave at October 3, 2008 9:19 PM

comment #37

BurmaShave says ...

PS let's not forget John Landis murdered two kids and somebody's father with a helicopter.

Posted by BurmaShave at October 3, 2008 9:23 PM

comment #38

Marcello says ...

Curtis Hanson
Cameron Crowe
Spike Lee...

No wait, that's the answer to this question five years from now!

Posted by Marcello at October 3, 2008 9:25 PM

comment #39

moviemaniac2002 says ...

I miss Dante more than all of them...always got
a kick out of Miluis's muy macho craziness...it's
interesting that the studios not only discarded the
wild cards among the 70's and 80's directors, they exiled the corporate effieciency experts
(like John Badham) as well. And who have the
studios replaced them with....a whole slew of
self-aggrandizing British upper-class twits (for
the Oscar-bait films) ADD-afflicted music-video
morons, and a motley assortment of Europeans whose studio efforts will be eviscerated by the
very people who hired them.

Posted by moviemaniac2002 at October 3, 2008 9:49 PM

comment #40

K. Bowen says ...

There's always everyone's favorite film discussion thread, "What ever happened to Whit Stillman?" But that seems more like a self-exile thaanything else. And last I read, he's apparently moving forward on a thing or two.

Posted by K. Bowen at October 3, 2008 10:24 PM

comment #41

scooterzz says ...

and who could forget john landis' eulogy at vic morrow's funeral...'tragedy strikes in an instant but film is immortal'.......
murdering fuck-wit........

Posted by scooterzz at October 3, 2008 10:28 PM

comment #42

tfresca says ...

Why is Landis the sacrificial lamb when it comes to deaths on a set. I seem to read about a poor stuntman dying making a movie every year and nobody makes a peep about it.

Posted by tfresca at October 3, 2008 10:38 PM

comment #43

LexG says ...

HUGH HUDSON. (Got his start with that Brit-trained ad man MTV crew with Ridley, Tony, Lyne, and Parker, hit it out of the park with Chariots and Greystoke, delivered the AWESOME and impossible to find LOST ANGELS... then some middling upper-crust efforts in the early aughts.)

Posted by LexG at October 3, 2008 10:41 PM

comment #44

scooterzz says ...

and this is the trouble with time....do some homework, tfresca...read farber's book...look up an article or two...landis was no sacrificial lamb (although frank marshall got off pretty easy because of speilberg).....
this wasn't 'a poor stuntman dying'...this was a tweeked director breaking the law and getting away with it.....

Posted by scooterzz at October 3, 2008 10:50 PM

comment #45

theultimatebiu says ...

John Landis was very sahdy...but there have been several accidents and I believe a death on the latest James Bond movie. Some directors are just reckless I suppose.

Posted by theultimatebiu at October 3, 2008 11:30 PM

comment #46

huntermdaniels says ...

how has no one referenced TERRY GILLIAM.

Posted by huntermdaniels at October 4, 2008 12:31 AM

comment #47

D.Z. says ...

Speaking of the title...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081004/ap_on_re_us/oj_simpson

Posted by D.Z. at October 4, 2008 12:39 AM

comment #48

TVMCCA says ...

Surprised Barry Levinson's not on the list--unless WHAT JUST HAPPENED? may have a shot at finding a devoted audience.

Fascinating that Anne Thompson would include Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman since they made commercial projects their last times at bat. One would think the Hollywood system would give them another chance, though DREAMCATCHERS and TWISTED weren't hits.

Posted by TVMCCA at October 4, 2008 1:20 AM

comment #49

TVMCCA says ...

At least they're working - haven't seen anything from Landis and Friedkin!

Friedkin did the arthouse BUG last year with Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon and Landis did the Don Rickles documentary that just won Emmys last week.

Posted by TVMCCA at October 4, 2008 1:23 AM

comment #50

scooterzz says ...

ok...slightly off topic...i just watched the abc pilot 'life on mars' and (after a slightly slow start) was chuckling over the 70's director refs and kietel's presence....movie buffs will love it...not sure it's gonna live....(the 'mean street' stuff is great)...

Posted by scooterzz at October 4, 2008 1:26 AM

comment #51

The Winchester says ...

I'd like to put Ivan Reitman and Andrew Bergman on this list.

"Also does anyone know what the hell James Glickenhaus is up to? I understand he doesn't qualify but MCBAIN and SHAKEDOWN are two of the strangest action movies I've ever seen."

Burma, in complete agreement. The image of Sam Elliott grabbing onto some landing gear of a plane as it takes off, firing two shots from his ridiculous weapon, and taking down the plane, well... sometimes there's a man....

Posted by The Winchester at October 4, 2008 2:27 AM

comment #52

guylodge says ...

Uh, when was Philip Kaufman ever "a reliable maker of modest studio hits?" Was it round about the time he made "The Right Stuff?" "The Unbearable Lightness of Being?" The public lapped up "Henry and June," didn't they? Ditto "Quills."

The awfulness of "Twisted" notwithstanding, I don't think he's finished as an arthouse director. I'm excited for his Nicholas Ray project.

Posted by guylodge at October 4, 2008 4:08 AM

comment #53

actionman says ...

Friedkin may not get any offers any more but damn, I watched The French Connection last night for like the 20th time. That movie is fucking perfect. So sweet.

And if Robert Towne can continue to get films like Ask the Dust made, I am all for that. What a great, obscenely underrated film that is.

Posted by actionman at October 4, 2008 7:51 AM

comment #54

Josh Massey says ...

Keith Gordon will always be the director of A Midnight Clear to me. That film wrecks me.

Also, Wells is going to have a field day. Looks like that Beverly Hills dog movie is headed to a $25+ million weekend.

Posted by Josh Massey at October 4, 2008 8:01 AM

comment #55

actionman says ...

Also, Thompson labels Demme's Manchurian remake a "clunker." That film was hardly a clunker.

Posted by actionman at October 4, 2008 8:05 AM

comment #56

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

huntermdaniels - Terry Gilliam is a whole 'nother thread. There's a certain middle-class, very good but not great aspect to the other directors that one never would apply to Gilliam. Or put it this way, you can imagine the other's trying to make Gilliam's films but you just can't think of Gilliam making theirs.

Also, how did Robert Towne get on that list in the first place? He made all of two films in the 80's, neither of which were lauded and made decent money like the other director's works. Maybe TEQUILA SUNRISE did decent business, but it was hardly praised.

Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie at October 4, 2008 9:04 AM

comment #57

huntermdaniels says ...

True, Gilliam is an auteur in the highest degree. His films are HIS even when he doesn't write them.

Posted by huntermdaniels at October 4, 2008 9:34 AM

comment #58

bryce_david says ...

Can't say that I miss most of the directors mentioned here except for a few, and those few when they were in their prime, like John Carpenter or Tobe Hooper. Most of these directors made commercial films and most of them are, imo, best forgotten. What's next, a thread about the films of Taylor Hackford or David Seltzer?

Posted by bryce_david at October 4, 2008 10:12 AM

comment #59

The Winchester says ...

Taylor Hackford gets to nail Helen Mirren. For that alone, he deserves my ire.

Posted by The Winchester at October 4, 2008 10:48 AM

comment #60

JohnCope says ...

Alan Rudolph? He had one of his biggest commercial/critical successes (though I didn't like it much) in 2002's Secret Lives of Dentists and then disappears.
I would also add Zalman King who, whatever else may be said about him, refined a very distinctive personal vision throughout the 90's and on into the early 00's and then finally tipped over that very fine line into purely solipsistic self indulgence with time wasters like the series 40 Deuce and the godawful Sex Y & Z video collection.

I'm actually more interested in directors who made early great and underrated films and then disappeared for lack of appreciation. Here I would name people like David Marconi (1994's The Harvest), Mark Manos (1991's Liquid Dreams) and Lance Young (1998's Bliss).

Posted by JohnCope at October 4, 2008 10:56 AM

comment #61

tjfar67 says ...

What was the title of the book that covered The Twilight Zone accident?

Posted by tjfar67 at October 4, 2008 11:40 AM

comment #62

George Prager says ...

LexG demands a shout out for mentioning the awesome LOST ANGELS. Ditto Massey for A MIDNIGHT CLEAR.
WAKING THE DEAD is good too.
Who is toast? Let's see...Kevin Smith.

Posted by George Prager at October 4, 2008 11:58 AM

comment #63

TVMCCA says ...

actionman wrote:
Also, Thompson labels Demme's Manchurian remake a "clunker." That film was hardly a clunker.

Part of the problem with the Demme version was that it was too Denzel-centric when Frankenheimer/Axelrod's original gave equal weight to the Marco and Shaw characters.

Posted by TVMCCA at October 4, 2008 12:57 PM

comment #64

TVMCCA says ...

tjfar67 wrote:
What was the title of the book that covered The Twilight Zone accident?

I believe it was OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE.

Posted by TVMCCA at October 4, 2008 12:58 PM

comment #65

Devin Faraci says ...

While the Shelley Long/Bette Midler film OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE is a tragedy, the book is Outrageous Conduct.

Posted by Devin Faraci at October 4, 2008 2:03 PM

comment #66

tjfar67 says ...

"While the Shelley Long/Bette Midler film OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE is a tragedy, the book is Outrageous Conduct."

Thanks

Posted by tjfar67 at October 4, 2008 2:34 PM

comment #67

Hallick says ...

"Who is toast? Let's see...Kevin Smith."

Oh Jesus - He may not be your cup of tea, but he certainly isn't TOAST right now.

Posted by Hallick at October 4, 2008 3:13 PM

comment #68

markj says ...

I did enjoy Carpenter's two indie efforts post-LITTLE CHINA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS and THEY LIVE. And IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS was pretty cool. But he heasn't made a good film in about 14 years. Sad.

Posted by markj at October 5, 2008 2:39 AM

comment #69

madskrilla says ...

Dennis Hopper.

Posted by madskrilla at October 6, 2008 9:22 AM

comment #70

Cadavra says ...

I think it's now safe to add David Zucker to the list.

Posted by Cadavra at October 7, 2008 8:08 PM

comment #71

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comment #72