OldBoy

Sure, there are many great directors, with great resumes. Scorsese, Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tarantino, Woo, Ang Lee, Chan-wook Park, Eastwood, Wes Anderson, Kubrick, etc. Those are some of my favorite directors, but most, not all their movies, share very similar traits or visual style. Of course due to longtime cinematographers or editors that only work their movies usually. Like, you know a Tarantino movie. You know a Spielberg movie. Even Kubrick has similar tones and visual style not to mention heavy characters and story with themes. In total, imo, not a lot of diversity in portfolios in terms of something just totally different and unique for them. And yes, they have them. Spielberg with Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. Scorsese with Hugo.

Anyway, one Director, among those aforementioned favorites has really surprised me in terms of different, unique on many outings. Sometimes I forget it was him who directed.

Sir Ridley Scott. I’ve been coming across his catalog as of late with Thelma and Louise, Hannibal. I forget he did those. That’s what I mean by going out of normal style as we all know his Alien movies, Blade Runner. But he’s also done so many more totally different movies that I didn’t even know he did. Black Rain, White Squall for instances. I love those movies. He’s tackled Exodus, Robin Hood, Body of Lies, Gladiator, of course. Also, All the Money in the World, The Martian, Blackhawk Down. Amazing movies and so different and unusual considering what he’s most known for. Matchstick Men, one of the great con movies with Rockwell and Cage. So diverse.

Who do you think goes out of their comfort zone, perhaps, and makes many movies very unique?

E Unit

Ah, diversity...

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I dunno, too many to pick from. You provided a lot of them.

Mondo Kane

Howard Hawks should likely be credited as the first:

Scarface
Bringing Up Baby
Rio Bravo
The Thing
Sergeant York
The Big Sleep

OldBoy

I provided great directors with great movies, but I wouldn’t necessarily say most their movies are unique in total. Spielberg with 4 Indy movies, 1 apparently on way. Very kid friendly movies, 2 Jurassic Parks, and Jaws. Of course much more, but not a lot of diversity.

OldBoy

It says he was uncredited for Thing From Another World. Why would that be? Love the movie, but had no idea.

Mabuse

inri222

Variety is not necessarily a good thing, sometimes it's just done for a paycheck. Most of Ridley Scott's filmography is bad to mediocre, not necessarily because of the direction, but because of the writing.

As Akira Kurosawa once said:

‘With a good script a good director can produce a masterpiece; with the same script a mediocre director can make a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can’t possibly make a good film.'

GoldenJCJ

CharlieK

It seems like Steven Soderbergh is trying to do at least one movie from every genre imaginable.

Hokeyboy

Robert Wise

brainee

Robert Wise is a director whose diversity has always been striking to me. It's not just that he's done high level work in a different genres ... but his movies are so different from each other it's hard to believe they're all by the same guy. He starts off his career with Val Lewton in the 40s (Curse of the Cat People, The Body Snatcher) and made some really good film noir thrillers and dramas in the late 40s/early 50s. He made an all-time great sci-fi in The Day the Earth Stood Still and an all-time great horror with The Haunting. Sandwiched around The Haunting were West Side Story and The Sound of Music. He did war movies (The Sand Pebbles was probably his best), westerns, dramas, comedies, romances, and historical epics. Even in the 70s when his career was winding down and there were more disappointments, the diversity of movies like The Andromeda Strain (cerebral sci-fi), The Hindenburg (historical disaster epic), Audrey Rose (horror), and Star Trek: The Motion Picture is impressive. And he squeezed in a romantic drama starring Peter Fonda in that decade too.

brainee

Damn you ... while I'll typing out this long response you beat me to the punch with a single name post

OldBoy

Bad to medicocre? C’mon. He’s solid.

E Unit

story

I would agree with all of these names mentioned so far, especially Steven Soderbergh and Steven Spielberg.

I'll also mention:

Danny Boyle (127 Hours, Trainspotting, Millions, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, Yesterday) - I like how he uses his specific style in vastly different stories.
George Lucas (THX-1138, American Graffiti, Star Wars, Phantom Menace) - These movies all have a very different and have very different styles, too.
George Miller (Mad Max, Lorenzo's Oil, The Witches of Eastwick, Happy Feet, Babe: Pig in the City, Mad Max Fury Road) - Different genres, live action and animation, way different audiences!
Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima) - Just so many different movies, and directs himself well.
John Frankenheimer ((Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, The Iceman Cometh, Andersonville, Ronin) - Yes, all dramas, but all very different in tone and, I think, style.

Troy Stiffler

devilshalo

Might get flamed for this but, Brett Ratner - Rush Hour, Family Man, X-Men: Last Stand, Red Dragon

inri222

It's all subjective.

Alien, Blade Runner and The Duellists are his best films. Everything else doesn't even come close.

Prometheus, Covenant, Exodus, Robin Hood, 1492, White Squall, A Good Year, Hannibal, Body of Lies are a joke IMO.

Coral

This was the answer I was going to give.
I only like a few of his films, but I give the man credit for challenging himself.

Mabuse

Troy Stiffler

Crocker Jarmen

Thinking over Joel Schumacher's career, I've been impressed with how often many different genres he worked in: Comedies, DC Cab, Horror, The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Gritty Thrillers, 8MM, Number 23, Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical, Phantom of the Opera, Romantic Tear Jerkers, Dying Young, Superhero Movies, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Quirky Oscar-Bait, Flawless.

But I know he's not popular (perhaps not undeserved), but I've enjoyed almost all his movies I've seen (nothing after Flawless).

So to name a director more respected, I'll go with Billy Wilder who did everything from noir, to light comedies, to romance, to gothic horror.

William Fuld

Michael Curtiz

Hazel Motes

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Jonathan Demme yet.

Caged Heat
Crazy Mama
Melvin & Howard
Stop Making Sense
Something Wild
Swimming to Cambodia
The Silence of the Lambs
Philadelphia
Rachel Getting Married
A Master Builder

If it wasn't factually provable you wouldn't believe it was the same guy who made all those films.

DWilson

Christian Nyby was the credited director, and he had his own career thereafter (almost entirely in episodic Television). Hawks actually directing the film is a theory, much like Spielberg actually directing "Poltergeist" instead of credited director Tobe Hooper.