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While some aspire to be great filmmakers, there is a clear distinction being the director and the writer. This can be seen as early as film school, with the prevailing stereotypes being the arrogant visionary and the neurotic screenwriter being diametrically opposed.
However, sometimes in the movie business, lines can get blurred. Showing off their range of talents, some writers choose to step back behind the camera for certain projects. Yet, in a bid to prove themselves or because they become enamored with the work of another, it’s not always with their own scripts.
10 ‘The Day After’ (1983)
Regarded as one of the best and most stirring made-for-television films of the 1980s, The Day After is a nuclear apocalyptic nightmare that reflected the New Cold War angst of contemporaries such as Threads and Testament. Written by Edward Hume, the film was directed by Nicholas Meyer, who up to that point was mostly regarded as a novelist and screenwriter.
A prominent screenwriter throughout the 70s, Meyer would gain an Academy Award nomination for The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, which he would follow up with his stunning directorial debut, the science fiction caper Time After Time. While his previous works highlighted his bountiful creativity, The Day After, where he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing, shows off Meyer’s prowess behind the camera.
9 ‘Street Kings’ (2008)
If audiences weren’t otherwise informed, they would be forgiven to think that Street Kings was another gritty crime film from the mind of David Ayer. While they would be right when it comes to the visual style, Street Kings was actually conceptualized in the late 1990s by famed crime novelist James Ellroy.
The brains behind the cop films Training Day and Dark Blue, Street Kings was right in Ayer’s wheelhouse. Unfortunately, although succeeding at the box office, it flopped among critics. Since, Ayer has continued an accomplished career as a writer and director, gaining notoriety for the action thriller End of Watch and the DC Comics franchise film Suicide Squad.
8 ‘The Human Stain’ (2003)
Painfully underrated, Robert Benton is one of the foremost, and oft-forgotten faces that defined New Hollywood. Initially a screenwriter, Benton would garner acclaim for penning the landmark Bonnie and Clyde, as well as co-writing What’s Up, Doc? Benton would follow with writing and directing a string of excellent films during the 1970s, including Bad Company, The Late Show, and the Oscar-winning Kramer vs Kramer.
Benton’s career would wane through the 80s, and he would direct numerous novel adaptations later in his career, including Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. One of Roth’s seminal works, the 2003 film was written by the aforementioned Nicholas Meyer. Suffering from tragic miscasting and plodding melodrama, the movie would be Benton’s penultimate.
7 ‘Gold’ (2016)
One of the best films in Steven Soderbergh’s renowned filmography, Traffic exceeds due to its inspired direction, top-tier acting, and a complex script courtesy of Stephen Gaghan. Surrounding the illegal drug trade business using an ambitious, multi-storyline plot, Gaghan would earn the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work.
Gaghan would later amass claim for the similarly structured and star-studded Syriana in 2005, which he also directed. Gaghan would then take 11 years off before directing Gold, from a script by Patrick Massett and John Zinman. Alas, the film was a commercial and critical failure.
6 ‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’ (2010)
Before an Oscar-winning director, Oliver Stone cut his teeth as a screenwriter, penning the acclaimed prison drama Midnight Express and the iconic crime epic Scarface. One of the top directors of the 1980s, Stone’s films were often reflections of the time they were released, and perhaps no film was more indicative of its time than 1987’s Wall Street.
Co-written and directed by Stone, Wall Street was a portrait of 80s Reaganism and financial excess that dominated the decade. However, its 2010 sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, had no script involvement from Stone, who was originally not even going to direct the project. Set in the wake of the financial crisis, the film saw Michael Douglas reprise his famous role as Gordon Gecko to only mixed reviews.
5 ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ (1972)
Ranked 91st on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs list, The Heartbreak Kid was just another successful comedy for its writer, Neil Simon, but was a seminal work for its director, Elaine May. Known for her momentous comedy pairing with Mike Nichols, May became one of the 1970s most acclaimed filmmakers through films A New Leaf and Mikey and Nicky.
However, after studio meddling tampered with her movies, May took time off from directing. Instead, she continued to work mostly as a prominent script doctor and playwright. Marking her sole strictly directing venture, The Heartbreak Kid calls attention to May’s talent behind the camera.
4 ‘Conspiracy’ (2001)
A television writer early in his career, Frank Pierson would later find tremendous success in cinema, first by co-writing the pioneering anti-authoritarian prison drama Cool Hand Luke. Succeeding that, Pierson would earn a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Dog Day Afternoon, widely regarded as one of the best movies of the 1970s.
Later in his career, Pierson would focus on his directing efforts, becoming one of the leading TV movie directors around. Mostly biographical films and docudramas, Pierson’s best-known works are Citizen Cohn, Truman, and Conspiracy, about a group of Nazi officers discussing implementing the last phase of the Holocaust. Written by Loring Mandel, the film was critically acclaimed, winning 2 Emmys and a Golden Globe.
3 ‘Rain Man’ (1988)
It’s funny that although he started out as a screenwriter, most of Barry Levinson’s directing efforts have come at the hands of other people’s scripts. For the most part, his writing-directing endeavors have been his semi-autobiographical Baltimore tetralogy. However, Levinson’s exclusively directing efforts have brought upon some classics, including Rain Man.
The film won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for Levinson as well as Best Original Screenplay for Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow. In addition to Rain Man, some of Levinson’s best-known films, such as The Natural and Good Morning Vietnam, were written by other people. While it’s a shame a brilliant writer such as Levinson doesn’t compose many of his movies, it has led to some undeniable triumphs.
2 ‘What Women Want’ (2000)
Widely known for her work within the rom-com genre, Nancy Meyers grew to prominence in the 1980s and 90s, co-writing movies like Baby Boom and Father of the Bride, both starring Diane Keaton. Following her directorial debut The Parent Trap, every film directed by Meyers grossed at least $100 million, with her most financially fertile being What Women Want.
Surprisingly, What Women Want is the only movie in Meyers’s career to be written by someone other than herself. The film, written by a trio of Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa, and Diane Drake, follows a similar thematic blueprint to the rest of Meyers’s filmography. Incorporating a fantasy element absent in Meyers’s other films, the film was remade in 2019 under the title What Men Want.
1 ‘Auto Focus’ (2002)
“A poet of male sexual pathology”, Paul Schrader’s work of repressed men confronting a liberated world has made him one of the most cherished screenwriters of his era. Schrader may be best known for his ‘man in a room’ films, as well as his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, primarily penning Taxi Driver. A phenomenal filmmaker in his own right, many of Schrader’s best films, such as Light Sleeper and First Reformed, are flaming explorations of desire with the soul of a Bressonian tragedy.
Although he didn’t write it, Auto Focus, a biography of the life of TV star Bob Crane, is one of Schrader’s best. Exploring the double life of Crane as the family man star of Hogan’s Heroes by day and a sex addict by night, the movie taps into the restrained salaciousness that penetrates many of Schrader’s pictures. Exceptionally acted with a glossy finish, Auto Focus is a marvelous exploration of slimy facades.
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