Wishlist interviewees?


Keeping it exclusively to Hollywood directors:

Brian de Palma
M Night Shyamalan
Sam Raimi
Paul Verhoeven
James Cameron
John Boorman
John McTiernan
Richard Linklater
George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
Martin Scorsese
Alfonso Cuaron
Michael Bay
JJ Abrams
Terry Gilliam
George A. Romero
Wes Craven
David Cronenberg
Bryan Singer
Paul W.S. Anderson
James Grey
Sofia Coppola
Spike Jonze
George Miller
Kevin Smith
Edgar Wright
Gus Van Sant
Peter Jackson
Clint Eastwood
Michael Cimino
David Fincher
Steven Soderbergh

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RIP Craven.

Another one: Kathryn Bigelow.

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I'd love to see most of those on your list interviewed. Unfortunately Wes Craven has passed since you compiled the list, but he has gotten around to interviewing Miller.

A few I'll add:

Roger Corman- This one needs no explanation. No single individual has had a greater impact on the modern-day film industry than Mr. Corman.

William Friedkin- He'd be worth hearing if he'd only made The French Connection and The Exorcist, but on top of that he has the taboo-breaking The Boys in the Band and cult films like Sorcerer and To Live and Die in L.A.

Tobe Hooper- Not a consistent filmmaker at all (then again neither are Carpenter and Coppola), but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist, Salem's Lot, and his three movies for Cannon in the '80s makes him interesting enough to warrant an episode. Plus I'd think Rodriguez would want to interview him since he's also a Texas filmmaker whose low-budget, independent film got the world talking, albeit nearly two decades later.

Abel Ferrara- He probably merges the worlds of arthouse and grindhouse better than any director this side of Tarantino. There would be a lot to talk about, from his early exploitation classics like The Driller Killer and Ms. 45 to his critical breakthrough with films like King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, The Funeral, and The Addiction, how his own addictions caused a downturn in his career and his current work that is no less controversial.

Richard Donner- The Omen, Superman I and II, The Goonies, Ladyhawke, all the Lethal Weapon movies. I think I've made my case.

John Woo- His Hong Kong work revolutionized action cinema and he made some pretty cool blockbusters here in the U.S. as well. It would be interesting to hear from him how Hollywood differed from Hong Kong and why he chose to go back.

Mel Gibson- Say what you will about the man himself, but I'd put Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ, and Apocalypto up against any other director's work from the same period.

John Milius- He's been facing some major health problems in recent years and at one point was unable to speak so I'm not sure an interview is even possible. On top of that, he's probably known more as a writer than a director. But Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn are classics of '80s popular cinema, while Big Wednesday, Dillinger and The Wind and the Lion all have plenty of admirers.

Paul Schrader- Like Milius, he's better known for his writing than his directing but if one looked closely at his directorial work it would be tough to argue against him. Hardcore, American Gigolo, Affliction and Auto Focus are all usually well-regarded. Cat People is something of a minor cult classic among horror aficionados. And Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters would easily be near the top of my personal "Best '80s Films" list.

Walter Hill- His '70s and '80s work speaks for itself. Hard Times, The Driver, The Warriors, The Long Riders, Southern Comfort, 48 Hours and Streets of Fire.

Jack Hill- One of the best '70s-era exploitation directors.

Oliver Stone- While I'm not typically a fan of his sermonizing, his early works had a wonderful visual style and a great sense of pace.

John Landis- Very few directors have proven to be so adept in both the comedy and horror genres and at one time he really was mentioned in the same breath as Spielberg and Lucas.

Dario Argento- The best living giallo director and nothing he's done in the past few decades has changed that.

Jerry Lewis- No, I'm not joking. He was a technical innovator as a director, creating several techniques that are still in use in some form today. He taught Spielberg and Lucas at USC and, as for the content of his films, much of it was certainly influential in the comedy field.

Mel Brooks- Speaking of influential comedy directors...

James Wan- Probably the most successful horror director of this generation and one who actually takes pride in his work as opposed to most in this era of endless remakes and piss-poor found footage. His horror movies are really quite diverse from one another and he's also stepped outside of the genre on occasion with Death Sentence and Furious 7. I think he'd be interesting to hear from.

And many others. Hopefully Robert or someone at the network checks these boards from time to time, although he probably wouldn't have time to do much else if he tried to interview everybody we've suggested.

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A few more I thought of:

Wolfgang Petersen- Das Boot, The Neverending Story, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, etc.

Andrew Davis- Anyone who is able to pull good acting performances out of Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal deserves to be heard from. Plus The Fugitive.

Ivan Reitman- Brilliant comedy director who helped shape Bill Murray's early career with Meatballs, Stripes and Ghostbusters and helped prove that Arnold could handle more than action with Twins.

Frank Darabont- He directed the top film on IMDb and developed one of the top shows currently on television. In addition to that, he's responsible for The Green Mile and the (in my opinion) slightly underrated The Majestic.

Joe Dante- His highly entertaining solo debut Piranha remains the best of all the Jaws rip-offs, The Howling is a classic slice of '80s horror, and films like Gremlins, Explorers, The 'Burbs, and Innerspace cemented his reputation as one the most inventive popular directors of the era.

Antoine Fuqua- He's established a reputation as one of the go-to action directors of this era while avoiding being pigeonholed as a stereotypical "black director" and avoiding the major film franchises of recent years.

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I agree with every one of your choices. You are my kind of cinephile. Inspired choice with Jerry Lewis, who was mentioned, and referenced, in Four Rooms (you probably already know this).

What about Stallone? Some champion Paradise Alley a lot, including famous people like Leos Carax and Rob Zombie. He hasn't transitioned to director as great as Eastwood did, but maybe he has some cool stories and advice for the show.

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I think Stallone would be cool, but I do think he's a better writer than a director and also a very underrated actor.

Something else I think would be cool is if one episode featured another director interviewing Rodriguez. Tarantino would be the obvious choice, but I'm not sure he's the best choice. There certainly isn't much about Four Rooms, From Dusk Till Dawn and Planet Terror he isn't intimately familiar with and he was there for at least some of Desperado and Sin City. Maybe somebody with more genuine curiosity about Rodriguez's films would be better.

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I agree on that. Rodriguez has cut tooth and nail on the film industry for more than 2 decades. My first choice was Tarantino, but maybe someone else can do the job?

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After considering it, I think that Kevin Smith would be a good pick. He hosts a ton of podcasts, has a reality TV show, and has acted quite a bit so he isn't camera-shy and could definitely handle hosting duties. But that's not the only reason he'd work well. Their careers as feature directors began in similar ways, with both El Mariachi and Clerks being very low budget, completely independent films (coincidentally both also constitute the first in a trilogy, or will once Clerks 3 happens). Both began their careers at roughly the same time and were part of an era in the '90s when Hollywood began to once again take notice of independent-minded writer-directors (see also: Tarantino, P.T. Anderson, Richard Linklater, the Coen Brothers, etc). And, like Rodriguez, Kevin is also an editor (he's edited all of his features to date except Mallrats), while Tarantino isn't. I'm not sure how well they know one another (if at all), but they both seem pretty laid-back and there are enough similarities that I believe they can build up a rapport pretty quickly.

But they are also very different directors. Smith has never directed an action film, while Rodriguez has never directed an outright comedy. Both of them have experience with horror, but very different subgenres of it. And as a big comic book fan who has said he would never direct a comic book movie himself, Smith would ask all of the right questions about the Sin City films and working with Frank Miller as a co-director. Where Tarantino would ask something like, "Hey, do you remember when we did ______?," I think Smith would ask "How did you do ________?"

EDIT: They've met. https://youtube.com/watch?v=8AAhifzHN24

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Hmm, I can see it, especially with their link on Comic Books.

And I was going to mention that exact video!

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Stallone is gonna be next! lol
I would love Spielberg, i mean CMON! the guy is a legend, i will have to be a two part episode again of course

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I don't want to sound like I'm opposed to having Spielberg on the show, because if he were on I'd certainly watch and enjoy it. And if Rodriguez gets the opportunity to interview him, he'd be a fool not to take it. With that said, I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about the idea if this were a regularly scheduled weekly series. Presently we aren't even getting a new episode each month.

Guys like Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron, etc. absolutely made film history, but everybody knows who they are. Books will be written about them and their films will be studied and analyzed long after they (and we) are gone. There's no shortage of information out there on their filmmaking techniques or the behind-the-scenes stories of their films. I understand that TV is about ratings and you can't have on obscure directors each time, but if you can have on a director who is slightly underappreciated vs. one who has been at the very forefront of the public consciousness for three or four decades now, go for the former.

Of those mentioned so far, the ones I'd like to see Rodriguez most actively persue are Corman, Eastwood, Friedkin, Lewis, Brooks, Boorman, Donner, and Jack Hill. All of them are in their 80s, so if he has any plans of having them on he should try to get it done now while they're still with us and (as far as I know) still of sound mind and good health. And I suspect that Eastwood, in particular, would draw the strongest ratings for the show to date if properly advertised. Even stronger than the Tarantino episodes or the upcoming Stallone episode.

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Pretty much agree here.

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Some that have been missed (granted, some are outside Hollywood, but would certainly make interesting interviewees):

Ridley Scott
Peter Weir
Ang Lee
Tim Burton
Paul Thomas Anderson
Danny Boyle
Darren Aronofsky
Lloyd Kaufman
Stuart Gordon
Don Coscarelli
Neill Blomkamp
Alex Proyas
Luc Besson
Russell Mulcahy
Tom Holland
Ernest Dickerson
Chuck Russell
Clive Barker
The Wachowski Siblings
Jonathan Demme
Zack Snyder
Duncan Jones
Gareth Evans
John G. Avildsen
John Boorman
Vincenzo Natali
David Twohy
Joe Johnston
Renny Harlin
Adrian Lyne
Alexandre Aja
Takashi Miiike
Chan-wook Park

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Great list there.

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John Waters would make a great interview. Having to transition from midnight movies to more main stream. Also, John Waters always has great stories to tell.

1 out of 10 people understand binary...
the other half don't

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Great choice! Waters is always entertaining. I also think it would be cool to get some directors who have spent much or all of their careers directing animated films (John Lasseter and Brad Bird come to mind) as well as a few documentary filmmakers.

I think it's important to note that (some) directors do not just make live-action, scripted, feature films. If they get Spielberg, they should ask about his television work. Not just Duel, but the episodes of Columbo and Marcus Welby M.D. Obviously television episodes, and especially episodes of procedural shows like the ones Spielberg directed, must be pretty much uniform with the other episodes stylistically, so I think it would be interesting to hear how a young director would be able to create enough of an impression to then be allowed to helm a TV movie (probably the finest TV movie ever made to this day) and from there become a major film director and a household name.

Basically, I think it's important to talk about as many directorial experiences as possible. Animation (Tim Burton), TV episodes, documentaries (Scorsese), music videos (Landis), short films, commercials (Romero), etc. I think it would be interesting to hear how one does (or doesn't) put his own personal stamp on each format and the differences between that format and feature filmmaking. It would also serve as a reminder to aspiring filmmakers that all of the greats started somewhere and usually somewhere rather ignoble; Spielberg didn't start with Jaws or even Duel and, despite his IMDb page, Romero didn't start with Night of the Living Dead.

Anyway, another name I'll add to my initial list: Bernardo Bertolucci. I've always appreciated what I'd seen of his work (Novecento, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, The Dreamers) on some level but I wasn't a huge fan and never really sought his films out. But recently I happened upon The Conformist, which is a masterpiece and one of the greatest films of the '70s (my personal favorite decade of cinema) and I think that film alone warrants him a spot on the show.

I don't recall if he's been mentioned yet, but during the Tarantino episode Rodriguez casually mentioned that Peter Bogdanovich was one of his favorite filmmakers, which I found a bit surprising. Bogdanovich is certainly an underappreciated director and one who- like Milius, Friedkin, or Schrader- probably could have done a lot more if given the right opportunities. He'd make for a great interview.

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