This weekend, a distinctly refined documentary about China's economic influence on Bordeaux wines comes to theaters, entitled "Red Obsession". With such classy subject matter, one would assume that directors Warwick Ross and David Roach have a history of making high-brow movies. But a cursory look at their filmographies reveals something surprising. Their only other production credits are three slapstick comedies starring a Carrot Top-esque comedian named Yahoo Serious. The line between "Young Einstein" and "Red Obsession" is not exactly a thin one, and you have to wonder how Ross and Roach made such a drastic career shift. (You can find out about that in our interview with Ross here).
In the spirit of "Red Obsession", we would like to take a look at some other movies that were made by people you'd least expect.
Since they aren't movies I can't include them on the proper list, but it's still worth noting. "Glee", the colorful and cheery musical series, was created by Ryan Murphy - the same man behind the deeply demented "American Horror Story". Though both shows share the fact that they are as subtle as a sledgehammer, they could not be any more different content-wise. "Glee" uses adaptations of famous songs to emphasize the story lines and personal issues of high school teens. "American Horror Story: Asylum" was about aliens, Nazi doctors, demonic possession, matriarchal rape, and some run-of-the-mill murder to round things out. Personally, I'd love to see these become one show.
Robert Rodriguez has made some badass movies. His "Mariachi Trilogy" ("El Mariachi", "Desperado", "Once Upon A Time in Mexico") is highly regarded for its creativity and draws comparisons to Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy" ("A Fistful of Dollars", "For A Few Dollars More", "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"). He made "Sin City", the heavily stylized adaptation of Frank Miller's heavily violent graphic novels. In that movie, Bruce Willis rips off a child molester's genitals with his bare hands.
But Rodriguez also has an interesting claim to fame: he has directed all four "Spy Kids" movies since 2001. The "Spy Kids" films are family-friendly fare about the children of secret agents becoming spies to save their parents. They're, light, goofy movies that were actually really well received by critics in the first two installments (and were panned in the latter two). But they're so out of place in a resume that includes "Planet Terror" and "Machete".
1994 was the year that the world sat up and took notice of Quentin Tarantino. He made a strong debut in '92 with "Reservoir Dogs", and his writing ability was put on display in '93's "True Romance". But "Pulp Fiction" in '94 was what cemented Tarantino as the next great filmmaker. Thank goodness he never asked for his name to be out on another movie he worked on in '94: "It's Pat".
"It's Pat" was an adaptation of an SNL skit featuring a character - Pat - of indeterminate gender. That joke works on a marginal level in four minute skit form, but someone decided that it would work as a 77-minute movie. It didn't, and now "It's Pat" is remembered as one of the worst films of all time. Tarantino was not the main writer, but did touch up the script as a favor for his friend Julia Sweeney, who plays the eponymous Pat.
Mel Brooks is responsible for some of the greatest comedies of all time. "Blazing Saddles" is a monument of Hollywood cinema, with it's hilarious approach to exposing racism in the old West. He also gave us classics such as "Young Frankenstein", "Spaceballs", and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights". Brooks mastered the art of parody, which has been sadly lost in recent years.
In the midst of Brooks' comedic peak, he also acted as executive producer of the rip-roaring comedy..."The Elephant Man"? Wait, that's not funny. "The Elephant Man" was based on the life of Joseph Merrick, a man born with severe bodily disfigurement that lived as a sideshow freak in Victorian-era England. The subject was so serious that Brooks opted to not have his name run in the credits, so as not to confuse people in the theaters into thinking the film was meant to be funny.
"Three Men and a Baby" is the wacky story about three bachelors - played by Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson - that find themselves as impromptu fathers when one's illegitimate baby is left on the doorstep. "Three Men and a Baby" was the highest grossing film of 1987, and went on to spur a persistent-but-debunked rumor about a ghost visible in one scene.
Also, it was directed by Leonard Nimoy. Yes, THAT Leonard Nimoy. After playing Spock on "Star Trek" for 21 years, Nimoy took his pointy ears off and stepped behind the camera for this 80s romp. Nimoy can't go a day without being asked about Spock and "Star Trek", but I can't help but wonder if any fans ever come up to him and ask about the on-set chemistry of his leads in "Three Men and a Baby".
Most recently, you may know Zack Snyder as the director of massively disappointing Superman movie, "Man of Steel". When Snyder first came into the public eye, it was for his surprisingly well-made "Dawn of the Dead" remake and the uniquely stylized "300". He then followed those with the disappointing "Watchmen", and the unforgivably reprehensible "Sucker Punch". All of these movies showed Snyder had an eye for action, and wasn't afraid to get too violent or shy away from sex.
And somewhere in the middle, he directed an animated movie about owls. "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga-Hoole" was a movie that you didn't see back in 2010, about two warring factions of owls. Unless you have a child with an odd interest in the nocturnal birds, you probably didn't see much reason to catch "Legend of the Guardians". The film bombed domestically, but was a surprise hit overseas.
French filmmaker Luc Besson is pretty hit and miss, with the ratio skewing toward miss. Though he did write the awesome "Taken" and the excellent "Leon: The Professional", he's also made a whole lot of crap. Besson is a huge proponent of style over substance, and it shows in his action-heavy, brainless movies. People claim to like "The Fifth Element", but I think it's more of an ironic affection because of how utterly absurd it is. He also wrote all three "Transporter" movies, which were basically just a reason for Jason Statham to kick things. He's also got a new movie coming out this weekend called "The Family", about Robert DeNiro needing a paycheck.
Despite being prolific in churning out interchangeable action movies, Besson somehow found time to write FOUR children's books, and then adapt them into animated feature films. Besson made three movies out of his own series, "Arthur and the Invisibles", "Arthur and the Revenge of Maltalizard", and "Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds". As is typical with Besson, the movies earned weak reviews. Yet they still stand out as an odd component of Besson's oeuvre.
This isn't quite as hard to believe as the others, because Whedon is a damn good writer and "Toy Story" is a damn good movie. This is less of an "I can't believe he wrote that" and more of an "I can't believe I didn't know he wrote that". OK he didn't write the whole thing from the beginning, but he was brought in as script doctor late in the process. By 1995, Whedon had a couple writing credits under his belt from "Roseanne" and "Parenthood". His first feature film, "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", was not received well, but it was generally understood that the fault was with the director (Fran Kuzui) and not Whedon's writing.
As "Toy Story's" script went through a number of changes, Whedon was brought on to have a go at smoothing things out. Not much is known about how much of the final script was Whedon's doing, but allegedly the character of Rex the Dinosaur was completely his idea. His work must have been notable enough, as Whedon was listed as one of the seven writers nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Pixar's debut film.
Are you surprised about any of these? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter at @StageBuddy
