The other day the venerable Cole Abaius reported on a rumor that Matt Damon was no longer going to be making his directorial debut on an upcoming project about a sales executive who has his life changed when he travels to a small town. The reason Damon was backing off the project was said to be “script issues,” but this sounded absurd because Damon is a co-writer on the film and he still intends on starring in it. So how could he possibly have issues with the script that would preclude him from directing?

It was just reported yesterday that director Wayne Kramer was exiting Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming starring vehicle Headshot, and already there is word of who might step in to take his place. As far as his falling out with the film’s original director Wayne Kramer, Stallone says, “Initially, Mr. Kramer was hired to direct a dark comedy. However, his vision was much darker and exceptionally more violent than how the project was originally conceived. It was decided that it would be better for everyone to move on and consequently Mr. Kramer was dismissed by producers earlier this week. There were no volatile clashes, it was simply a professional parting of the ways.” So, who does Stallone think has what it takes to fulfill his more comedic vision for the project? One of the top names being considered, and the one Stallone seems to want, is veteran director Walter Hill. Stallone says, “I completely respect Walter’s incredible body of work and hopefully this legendary director will become attached to the project.” I can’t fault that sort of logic. If you want to make a funny film, what better way than going out and getting the guy who made Brewster’s Millions? I have to say that I am a little disappointed to hear the reason for Kramer’s dismissal, however. While Hill has made one of the most beloved action comedies of all time with 48. Hours, I think Stallone is forgetting what his own track record with the comedy genre is. Has Stallone [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Headshot was going to be the first movie that Sylvester Stallone starred in without directing himself in quite some time. When the project was announced a couple months ago it was said to be stemming from a script written by Alessandro Camon, that it would star Stallone, but someone else would direct. That someone else turned out to be Wayne Kramer, director of The Cooler and Running Scared. But that’s now off after Kramer and Stallone have reportedly clashed over the direction of the film, and Kramer has decided to leave the project to make something he wrote himself instead. There have been stories about Stallone being hard to work with going around Hollywood ever since there has been a Sylvester Stallone in Hollywood. I remember once hearing his brother Frank Stallone tell an anecdote about how Sylvester hates Renny Harlin because when they worked together on Cliffhanger, Harlin did whatever Stallone wanted and ostensibly directed the film as his puppet, but when Stallone hired him to make Driven, he went off on his own in the editing room and made his own choices. The nerve of the man! Most of the commentary on Kramer leaving Headshot presupposes that Stallone may just bite the bullet and end up directing himself, but I imagine it’s just as likely that he’ll find someone younger and less headstrong than Kramer, and then simply direct the movie through them. When the chips were down and his career needed a serious resurgence, Stallone sat in [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Entertainment Weekly has posted a list of the 25 Greatest Working Directors, and as usual the selections include a few head scratchers. Part of the problem may be that the guidelines are fairly non-existent. How many great films does a director need to make? What percentage of their films have to be considered great? Why are 22 of the 25 “greatest” directors white males? EW’s only explanation/definition of the category is as follows: “As the Oscars approach to honor excellence from the past year, we’re counting down the most talented, in-demand filmmakers behind the camera today.” So basically… they have to be living directors. But here’s a quick sampling of the living directors who didn’t make the list… David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuaron, Steven Soderbergh, Ridley Scott, Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, Kim Ji-woon, Ang Lee, Michael Mann, Mel Gibson, Sion Sono, Kiyoshi Kurasawa, Takashi Miike, Jacques Audiard, Jason Reitman, Ed Zwick. Read on to see who beat out all these losers…

What’s better than a good list? A bad list, obviously. And Entertainment Weekly is once again happy to oblige with their ranking of the “50 Greatest Active Film Directors.”

Check out some awe-inspiring photographs featuring some of the best and brightest in the business. Actors pair up with their directors to show exactly what (this year’s) Oscars are made of.