Playing Against Type/Film Directing

• It's hard to believe the Robert Rodriguez from Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, Sin City and Planet Terror is the same Robert Rodriguez from Spy Kids, Shorts, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
  • To be fair, he did those for (and with!) his kids.
• Andrew Davis, known for his action films such as Under Siege and The Fugitive as well as lesser-known action films like Ahnold's Collateral Damage, directed the family film Holes that was Shia LaBeouf's feature film debut, and was based on a childrens' book.
• Chris Weitz. American Pie, About A Boy, The Golden Compass, New Moon...wait! The Golden Compass and New Moon!?
  • His brother Paul, who co-directed the first two films above with Chris, and solely directed American Dreamz and In Good Company, also directed against type with The Vampire's Assistant.
  • Chris's next movie, A Better Life, goes even further against type, being a serious drama about illegal immigrants struggling to survive in LA, with no well-known actors.
• Stanley Kramer was a director best known for dramas regarding social issues (Inherit the Wind, On the Beach, etc.). Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World? Not so much.
• David Lynch, known for directing surreal and nightmarish films, made The Straight Story: the simple and heartwarming story of an old man, who takes a cross-country trip on a tractor lawnmower to visit his brother.
• James Cameron became famous with science fiction films, like Aliens and the Terminator movies. Then, he went on, and made Titanic, a romantic period piece based on real events.
• Bob Clark hit it big with Porky's, and when A Christmas Story came out, many critics couldn't judge it on its own merits due to the former's lingering aftertaste.
  • To be fair, he did direct another Christmas film a decade earlier... only it had more blood and murder.
• Wes Craven joked that he went from "violence" to "violins" when he directed Meryl Streep to an Oscar nomination in Music of the Heart.
• David Fincher, known for disturbing Crapsack World thrillers that border on horror like Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac, directed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a more mainstream life story fantasy and The Social Network, a biopic about the shady origins of Facebook.
• M. Night Shyamalan, well-known as the director for supernatural flicks like The Sixth Sense, directed The Last Airbender, the Live Action Adaptation of the martial-arts cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Woody Allen, better known for comedies set in New York, directed Match Point, a thriller set in and around London. It became his most successful film in years, and he himself called it his best.
  • It's hardly that surprising if you pay attention to his earlier films. The first time he really did this was with Interiors; after nearly ten years of wacky comedies, he suddenly makes a dead-serious Tear Jerker.
    • His most recent film, Midnight in Paris, is a turn towards the fantasy genre. It turned out to be his best reviewed film in a long time.
• Takashi Miike. The Happiness of the Katakuris. Audition. Frigging Yatterman.
  • And now a movie based on Gyakuten Saiban - also known as Ace Attorney.
• Yoshiyuki Tomino is an odd case. Fans who love his darker and more serious works like Zeta Gundam and Space Runaway Ideon (which earned him the nickname "Kill'Em All Tomino") are often shocked or put off by his lighter fare like Gundam ZZ and Xabungle. In this case, Tomino tends to let his current mood affect his writing, and his darker works were done during periods of Creator Breakdown while his lighter shows come during periods where he's doing better. Ever since 1999's Turn a Gundam he seems to have gotten completely over his darker side and acknowledges his flaws, culminating in an Alternate Continuity movie version of Zeta with a happier ending.
• Hideaki Anno. Neon Genesis Evangelion. Cutey Honey.
• Jay Roach, director of the Austin Powers movies and Meet the Parents also directed the TV movie Recount, a political drama about the events of the United States presidential election in 2000.
• Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting, Twenty Eight Days Later, and Sunshine, would make a family friendly film about a child coming across a lot of money called Millions, and would also later direct the less-family-friendly but still child-oriented Slumdog Millionaire.
• Zack Synder, director of ultra-violent thrillers such as Watchmen, Three Hundred, and Sucker Punch directed the family film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.
• George Miller, director of Mad Max, later directed family movies about cute pigs and penguins.
• Ed Zwick, best known for historical war epics and the like (including Glory, The Last Samurai, and Blood Diamond) made his directorial debut with the romantic comedy About Last Night, and takes a break from the Oscar bait with his latest film Love and Other Drugs, a sex comedy about a Viagra salesman.
  • And prior to his epic film work, he was well known for producing television dramedies, most notably Sisters, thirtysomething and My So-Called Life.
• Sergio Leone is probably best known for his spaghetti Westerns, several of which involved actors being cast against type. His last film was Once Upon a Time in America, a story about gangsters.
  • When Sergio Leone finished The Good the Bad And The Ugly, he originally wanted to direct against type by making Once Upon a Time in America, but gave into popular demand and made Once Upon a Time in the West, which was the start of a new trilogy that would end with Once Upon a Time in America.
  • Apparently, Sergio Leone--known for having something of a hard-on for America, or at least American history--had also planned to make a film about the siege of Leningrad during World War II. Sadly, he died before it got very far.
• Roland Emmerich, best known for large-scale disaster movies such as Two Thousand Twelve, Independence Day, and The Day After Tomorrow, tackled Anonymous, a historical mystery-thriller addressing the age-old question: "who wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare"?
  • Possibly Averted Emmerich's films frequently involve major Willing Suspension Of Disbelief
• The Coen Brothers did this right out of the gate, following their claustrophobic Film Noir debut Blood Simple with the wacky and exuberant (if still crime-centered) comedy Raising Arizona.
• Kenneth Branagh, best known for directing adaptations of Shakespeare, directed Thor, a big budget special effects laden movie based on a comic book character.
  • Fridge Brilliance kicks in considering that Branagh movies usually involve lots of hammy performances... perfect for a movie that comes from a comic book created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, creators of entire universes of ham.
• Alfred Hitchcock, known to film history for directing suspense thrillers and crime dramas, often with explicit violence, took some time in 1941 to direct a Screwball Comedy called Mr. and Mrs. Smith (no connection to the Brangelina film) starring Carole Lombard.
• John Landis mainly directed comedies like Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Three Amigos but he has also directed the critically acclaimed horror films An American Werewolf in London and Twilight Zone the Movie.
• Jerry Zucker is most well known for doing comedies like Airplane! and Top Secret but he also directed the critically acclaimed drama film Ghost.
• Not directing, but rather producing: Mel Brooks was a primary producer for both David Lynch's The Elephant Man and David Cronenberg's The Fly. In order to keep anyone from thinking that either of these movies was a comedy, he insisted that he be completely uncredited.
• David R. Ellis the man behind such thrillers as Snakes on a Plane, Final Destination 2, The Final Destination, and Cellular began his career directing the family film Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey II: Lost in San Francisco.
• David Gordon Green was well known for making dramatic films like George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow, and Snow Angels. Then, as his father put it, he went "from the Arthouse to the Outhouse" by making raunchy comedies like Pineapple Express, Your Highness, and The Sitter.
• Ralph Bakshi is known for street-based dramas and comedies with over the top violence, sex, and nudity (Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, and Hey Good Lookin') and fantasy films (Wizards, The Lord of the Rings, and Fire and Ice). But he also directed the realistically grounded drama American Pop, which is more down to earth than his street films and fairly realistic in its portrayal of violence and mild in its sexuality.
• Martin Scorsese: the director of Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas also made Kundun, a historical drama about the Dalai Lama; and Hugo, a PG-rated adventure film. (And let's not forget The Young Victoria - he didn't direct, but he ^[1] produced this film.)
• Shane Acker, the director of the post-apocalyptic animated film 9, is attached to direct an adaptation of Thomas the Tank Engine that is being produced by Peter Jackson. It is due out in theaters in 2014.

1. ↑ and Sarah Ferguson. The Sarah Ferguson