32 Fascinating Facts About Film Directors You’ll Find Interesting

Jonathan Lynn, the director of My Cousin Vinny (1992) has a law degree from Cambridge and that film is highly regarded in the legal community for its realistic depiction of courtroom procedure and trial strategy.

Shawshank Redemption’s director and writer Frank Darabont was offered $2.5 million from Rob Reiner to let him write and direct it and cast Tom Cruise as Andy and Harrison Ford as Red. Darabont refused, saying that this was his “chance to do something really great.”

George Miller, who was an M.D. at that time, was inspired to make Mad Max (1979) when he witnessed fights break out during a gas shortage in Australia. He assumed in the future nations would not implement the infrastructure for renewable energy until it was too late and this could lead to a dystopia.

Director Stanley Kubrick, known for his endless takes and long production schedules, obsessed for months over the proper response to a fan letter from the great director Akira Kurosawa. Following many unsent drafts over several months, Kurosawa died before Kubrick could reply.

In 1987, director John Landis was acquitted on 3 counts of involuntary manslaughter after actor Vic Morrow and two children aged 6 and 7 were decapitated on the set of The Twilight Zone movie in 1982.

When making ‘The Incredibles’, director Brad Bird intentionally used artists who were likely to either quit or be fired from Pixar; because he believed only they could create everything that he needed.

Director of “The Princess Bride,” Rob Reiner, had the screenplay writer change the last scene from the fairytale characters riding off happily ever after to the grandfather and grandson coming together through the experience of reading the story.

Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception, among other films does not use a cell phone or an e-mail because he’s just “not interested”, it gives him “time to think”, and he also prohibits them on the set of a movie.

When Quentin Tarantino invited John Travolta to come by his apartment to discuss playing Vincent in Pulp Fiction, Travolta had interesting news: it was the exact same apartment that he rented while getting his start in Hollywood.

George Lucas told a collaborator that his plan for the ending of Return of the Jedi was to have Luke become the new Darth Vader and destroy the Rebel Fleet. The collaborator liked the idea. Lucas told him he’d only been joking.