Actors make good movies and actors make bad movies. It’s just the law of averages and part of the game. However, sometimes an actor shows up in a movie so repugnant that it becomes a detriment to their career or ruins it entirely. One day you’re winning the Oscar for Best Picture, the next you’re taking home some Razzies.

Come with us as we break down 32 movies that ruined an actor’s career and what made them so bad. The perennial A-listers who ran out of steam and up-and-comers whose rise to fame was cut short on this list are wild, to say the least.

The Love Guru (Mike Myers)

Mike Myers had a stellar career on Saturday Night Live and was one of the funniest movie stars of the latter part of the 20th century thanks to ‘90s comedy movies like Wayne’s World and Austin Powers franchises, but the 2000s weren’t as kind to the comedian. After a string of duds, Myers starred in 2008’s The Love Guru, a “comedy” so bad, so tasteless, and so unfunny that Myers never really rebounded outside of voice roles.

Showgirls (Elizabeth Berkley)

Elizabeth Berkley seemed like a star on the rise after ending her run on Saved by the Bell in the early ‘90s, but that all came crashing down after taking the lead role in Paul Verhoeven’s erotic drama, Showgirls. Sure, the movie about a young drifter finding her place in Las Vegas’ showgirl scene is considered a cult classic years later, but there’s a reason we didn’t see too much of Berkley on the big screen after this one.

Batman & Robin (Alicia Silverstone)

Alicia Silverstone was one of the “it” girls of ‘90s cinema thanks to iconic performances in the likes of Clueless, The Crush, and all those Aerosmith videos, so it only seemed natural for her to land one of the lead roles in Batman & Robin. Unfortunately for Silverstone, and everyone else involved, the movie was abysmal and resulted in a complete reboot of the franchise, one that wouldn’t arrive until Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins debuted nearly a decade later.

The Master Of Disguise (Dana Carvey)

Both before and after his SNL run, Dana Carvey appeared in classics like This Is Spinal Tap and Wayne’s World. That success would run dry with the 2002 release of The Master of Disguise, a movie that showcased Carvey’s zany characters, but not much else. 

Rollerball (Chris Klein)

Remember when Chris Klein seemed like a star in the making after great performances in Election and American Pie? Well, that was all ruined with the 2002 release of Rollerball, a remake of a better and more cohesive ‘70s movie of the same name. 

Norbit (Eddie Murphy)

Some of Eddie Murphy’s best movies were those where he played multiple characters, but Norbit is no Coming to America or The Nutty Professor. This 2007 comedy saw Murphy play an unhappily married couple and was received so poorly that people are still not convinced it didn't cost him an Oscar for his Dreamgirls performance.

Superman Returns (Brandon Routh)

It’s not like Brandon Routh never acted again after playing the titular hero in Superman Returns, but it’s safe to say his career never reached great heights after the 2006 movie either. He was great as Todd Ingram in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but Routh hasn’t had a remarkable go of it after having such a grand start.

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (Ahmed Best)

It’s not Ahmed Best’s fault Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace was so bad. It’s not Ahmed Best’s fault Jar Jar Binks has become one of the most detested characters in the galaxy far, far away. And it’s not Ahmed Best’s fault his career was ruined by the 1999 prequel film. 

In The Cut (Meg Ryan)

Meg Ryan was coming off a string of appearing in some of the best romantic comedies of all time when she took on a more dramatic role in the 2003 thriller, In the Cut. But for some reason, Jane Campion’s thriller about a woman getting wrapped up in a series of murders just didn’t work.

Battlefield Earth (John Travolta)

Battlefield Earth, with all of its Dutch angles, terrible lines, and over-the-top performances was so bad that it canceled out all the goodwill John Travolta earned with Pulp Fiction not even a decade earlier.

Soul Man (C. Thomas Howell)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Outsiders, and  Red Dawn all made C. Thomas Howell one of the brightest young Hollywood stars in the early-to-mid ‘80s, but then came Soul Man, a movie in which he wore blackface. Howell’s been in scores of movies since, but most are direct-to-video or bargain bin material.

Son Of The Mask (Jamie Kennedy)

A sequel no one wanted, Son of the Mask brought in Jamie Kennedy to try and recapture the energy of Jim Carrey more than a decade earlier. Despite his best efforts, the Malibu’s Most Wanted and Scream star just couldn’t do it (maybe the script is to blame), and he never really rebounded. 

Sahara (Matthew McConaughey)

Though not Matthew McConaughey’s worst movie, Sahara is far from being his best. Released nearly a decade before the Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective star won all kinds of awards during the peak of the “McConaissance,” this 2005 dud was one of the straws that broke the camel’s back.

Abduction (Taylor Lautner)

Remember when Taylor Lautner seemed like one of the biggest stars on the planet and then abruptly disappeared? Well, we probably have Abduction, his 2011 action thriller to blame for that. Though he would have a few movies after the Twilight saga ended the next year, but Grown Ups 2 and The Ridiculous 6 finished off what Abduction started.

John Carter (Taylor Kitsch)

John Carter was supposed to be the biggest movie and Taylor Kitsch was going to become the biggest action star, but neither happened after this 2012 box office disaster happened. The Friday Night Lights star would show up some more on the small screen in the years that followed with True Detective Season 2 and the bonkers Waco limited series.

The Godfather Part III (Sofia Coppola)

Before becoming one of the big filmmakers of her time and crafting movies like Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and Priscilla, Sofia Coppola began as an actress, appearing in many films by her father, Francis Ford Coppola. But that acting career pretty much came to an end following the release of The Godfather Part III, in which she replaced Winona Ryder and was then torn apart by critics.

Josie And The Pussycats (Rachael Leigh Cook)

In the late ‘90s, Rachael Leigh Cook became a massive star thanks to her take on Laney Boggs in She’s All That. But then came the 2001 adaptation of Josie and the Pussycats, a movie so bad that no one was safe from its fallout outside of Rosario Dawson and Parker Posey.

The Postman (Kevin Costner)

Kevin Costner was on top of the world when he decided to direct and star in The Postman. But unlike Dances with Wolves, which earned him multiple Oscars and a ton of praise, this 1997 sci-fi epic didn’t impress anyone and set the actor back a bit. He’s since rebounded, but it’s not hard to imagine “what if” in this case.

After Earth (Jaden Smith)

With memorable performances in The Pursuit of Happyness and The Karate Kid, Jaden Smith seemed like the next second-generation star to take over Hollywood. But then came After Earth, a forgettable (at best) sci-fi thriller alongside his dad, Will Smith. 

Pinocchio (Roberto Benigni)

For a while there, it seemed like Roberto Benigni couldn’t do anything wrong as both an actor and filmmaker. Well, that all changed with his 2002 adaptation of Pinocchio, specifically the English dub, which earned a stunning 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. He’s only appeared in a handful of movies since, including the 2019 adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s classic tale.

The Passion Of The Christ (Jim Caviezel)

Though he’ll always be recognizable thanks to his portrayal of Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Jim Caviezel’s career was never the same after this historic film. He’s still making movies, but not on the same level as The Thin Red Line, The Rock, or G.I. Jane, though his run on Person of Interest was impressive.

Cutthroat Island (Matthew Modine)

A few years before the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise took the pirate genre to new heights, Matthew Modine starred in 1995’s Cutthroat Island, a movie that would prove to be detrimental to his career for years to come. Modine would later find success again after working on shows like Weeds and Stranger Things, but it would take many years to get there.

Catwoman (Halle Berry)

Halle Berry was an Oscar-winning actress when she took on the lead role in Catwoman, which is often considered one of the worst superhero movies of all time. And while it would take a few years for the stink to wash off, Berry did have some fun with the experience and even accepted her own Razzy.

The Lone Ranger (Johnny Depp)

The Lone Ranger somehow received an Oscar nomination, which doesn’t make sense considering it stopped Armie Hammer from becoming a massive action star and cooled off Johnny Depp’s incredible box office run. Aside from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Depp hasn’t had a whole lot of success since.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Sean Connery)

Sean Connery famously retired from acting after appearing in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is a shame because the late James Bond actor’s swan song was out of tune and off-key, to say the least. This abysmal book-to-screen adaptation of one of the best graphic novels of the 20th century is often forgotten 20-plus years after its release, and it’s probably for the better.

Welcome To Mooseport (Gene Hackman)

Gene Hackman has had one of the best careers in Hollywood history, but that all came to an end after the release of Welcome to Mooseport. Hackman, who seems to be living a quiet and reclusive life these days, hasn’t been on screen since this 2004 comedy starring Ray Romano. Though not the worst movie ever made, this box office and critical dud didn’t do anyone any favors.

Howard The Duck (Lea Thompson)

An ‘80s movie that has not stood the test of time, Howard the Duck is one of those comic book movies that came out before Hollywood figured things out when it came to the genre. Though Robin Williams jumped ship and salvaged his career, Lea Thompson wasn’t as lucky and went through a tough stage before finally rebounding.

Freddy Got Fingered (Tom Green)

Freddy Got Fingered was never supposed to be a good movie, but Tom Green’s bonkers big-screen gross-fest was enough to turn people off to the idea of the MTV personality and prankster ever getting a large sum of cash ever again. Those who have seen it know why, and those who haven’t should be warned.

Chairman Of The Board (Carrot Top)

Carrot Top is still making the rounds as a prop comedian, but the eccentric showman has not been given the lead role in a movie since the disaster of Chairman of the Board. Forgettable even by ‘90s standards, this movie was made for an audience of one: its star.

Boat Trip (Cuba Gooding Jr.)

Cuba Gooding Jr. in the ‘90s: Boyz n the Hood, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets. Cuba Gooding Jr. in the 2000s: Rat Race, Snow Dogs, Boat Trip. That last film was tasteless, awkward, and just about killed the Oscar winner’s career.

Corky Ramano (Chris Katan)

Though not everyone from SNL can become a Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, or Bill Murray, it at least seemed like Chris Katan would find some success outside of Studio 8H. However, he had to go make Corky Ramano, which is probably the worst comedy to come from the group.

The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)

The Great Dictator is a great movie, and perhaps one of the best of Charlie Chaplin’s career. However, it now has a legacy of poking fun at Adolf Hitler during a time in which the Nazi leader was systematically exterminating tens of millions of innocent souls across the Atlantic.

SPOILERS are ahead for Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, now streaming with a Max subscription and available to rent and buy on digital platforms. 

After 2022’s Elvis movie had Austin Butler transforming into the King of Rock and Roll for Baz Luhrmann’s acclaimed film and blockbuster, it felt like Priscilla came out of nowhere. Why was another actor playing Elvis Presley so soon? What else is there to tell? But Sofia Coppola’s movie isn’t another movie about the rise and fall of Elvis necessarily. Instead, it takes a close look at the life of his wife, Priscilla Presley, and it’s not only one of the best movies of 2023, starring Cailee Spaeny’s incredible breakthrough performance, but one of the most amazing biopics that should be on everyone’s must-see list. 

Following Max recently striking a deal with A24, Priscilla has become one of the latest films from the studio to be on the streaming platform. So if you’re just tuning into the movie and are curious about how the ending of Prscilla fits into the larger timeline of the Presleys' lives, let’s dive into what the emotional finale of the movie means and what happened next. 

The Ending Of Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla 

At the end of Priscilla, a 27-year-old Priscilla Presley tells Elvis Presley (who was 37 at the time) that she wants a divorce and leaves Graceland after living there for a decade and initially meeting the star when she was just 14. The final scene sees Priscilla driving off to the tune of Dolly Parton singing “I Will Always Love You” as she says goodbye to a chapter of her life that continues to define the celebrity. 

Priscilla is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, and the film was executive produced by Priscilla Presley as well. Thus, the ending mirrors the ending of the memoir in terms of wrapping things up when her relationship with Elvis officially ended. As the movie (and Priscilla’s accounts) allege, she left the rockstar after her husband had multiple affairs with other women, took part in drug abuse and reportedly raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room just a year before their separation. 

The Significance Of ‘I Will Always Love You’ At The End Of Priscilla 

While Priscilla features Jacob Elordi’s Elvis Presley throughout the film, not a single song from the legend’s catalog is heard in the 2023 movie. This is because the Sofia Coppola movie did not receive rights to use his music and was made on the small budget of $20 million. In fact, the Elvis Presley Estate has allegedly slammed Priscilla for looking like a “college movie,” along with calling Coppola’s direction “horrible.” 

While big Elvis songs are not in Priscilla, Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” actually holds a major significance as the final song of the feature due to the story behind it. While Whitney Houston is famously the vocalist behind the hit song, Dolly Parton wrote it and recorded it initially in 1973 (the same year of the Presley’s divorce). When Elvis Presley showed interest in recording the song himself, Parton was excited until Colonel Tom Parker shared that it was standard for songwriters to sign over half the publishing rights to songs Elvis recorded. Parton decided to refuse the terms and recalls crying “all night” over the decision, but ultimately she was happy with it when she stuck to her guns and the residuals from Houston’s version helped her make enough money to “buy Graceland,” per Wide Open Country. 

Thus, “I Will Always Love You” not only is a perfect song tonally as Priscilla Presley drives away from the only man she’s only been with, but as a symbol of the resistance to Elvis both Priscilla and Dolly had to stand up to regarding the legendary rock star. 

Priscilla Presley Had An Affair Of Her Own As Well 

In Priscilla, it’s only hinted at, but when Priscilla Presley left Elvis Presley, she had been embroiled in her own affair outside of her marriage with karate instructor Mike Stone. Presley wrote about the affair and why she left the King in Elvis & Me, saying this: 

After Priscilla drove away from Graceland, she went to live with Mike Stone, whom she had met the year before at one of Elvis’ shows backstage, and he later started giving her karate lessons. Not long after their separation became official, Priscilla has alleged that Elvis thought about hiring a contract killer to murder Stone, but didn’t follow through. The couple finalized their divorce on October 9, 1973 and agreed on shared custody of their daughter Lisa Marie, who died a year ago at the age of 54 after suffering a cardiac episode.  

What Else Happened After Priscilla Left Elvis? 

After the events of Priscilla, Elvis' ex-wife would go on to live a successful life of her own, and she's still alive, set to turn 79 in May. Once she was no longer with Elvis Presley in Graceland, she started her new life by opening a clothing store with her friend that became successful. Following Presley’s death in 1977 at the age of 42, she became the president of Elvis Presley Enterprises and helped make Graceland the major tourist attraction it is today. 

Priscilla Presley also pursued acting in her own right, such as in Dallas and The Naked Gun movies, and was considered for iconic roles like as one of the Charlie’s Angels leads and as a Bond girl in A View To Kill. She never married again, but had another major relationship with Brazilian screenwriter Marco Garibaldi from 1984 to 2006. They have a 36-year-old son together named Navarone Garibaldi.

The Presley women continue to thrive in the spotlight too, considering Priscilla Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, has become a Hollywood star as of late in projects including Amazon’s Daisy Jones and the Six. While Priscilla doesn’t cover all of the details of Priscilla Presley’s life, it certainly pulled back the curtain about Elvis Presley’s home life in a way that the Austin Butler movie doesn’t. 

The directors on this list are among the greatest in the history of cinema, with films that are considered the best of all time; films that will never be forgotten. What about those movies they brought all their tremendous talents to, but which aren’t remembered as well? Here is our list of great movies, by great directors, that don’t get talked about enough these days. 

The Frighteners - Peter Jackson

The Frighteners is such a great movie, and it’s criminally underrated. No, it's not as sprawling or overwhelming as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, but it has all the heart and more. Michael J. Fox leads as a con man/exorcist who can see and interact with ghosts. The Frightners is really funny, well-paced, and delightful. 

The King Of Comedy - Martin Scorsese 

When you think of Martin Scorsese, “comedy” is not usually the first word that pops into your head, but The King Of Comedy is really a pretty great movie, and while it’s technically a comedy, it’s really dark. Goodfellas has some comedy in it, like Joe Pesci acting like a clown… but a true (dark) comedy? This Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis-led film stands alone in Scorsese’s canon. 

Peggy Sue Got Married - Francis Ford Coppola

Peggy Sue Got Married is a deceptively simple film. Unlike Francis Ford Coppola’s more-talked-about epics like The Godfather films and Apocalypse Now, this film, starring Nicolas Cage and Kathleen Turner, is smaller, but that doesn’t mean it’s lesser. It’s a weird time-travel tale, but at its heart, it’s really a love story, and while it's not Coppola’s best work, it’s well worth a watch and should be talked about more often. 

Jackie Brown - Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Taratino has famously said that his next movie, his 10th, could be his last. Whether that holds true or not remains to be seen, but it’s a safe bet Jackie Brown will still be his least talked about.

Strange Days - Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow’s won Oscars (for The Hurt Locker) and she’s directed cult classics (Point Break). Strange Days is certainly closer to the latter. In it, Bigelow dabbles in science fiction, a rarity for her, but it’s unsurprising, as Strange Days was written by her then-husband James Cameron. It doesn’t have the iconic quotes that Point Break has, nor is it as white-knuckle as The Hurt Locker, but it is a great time capsule to filmmaking in the mid-90s and well worth remembering. 

Amistad - Steven Spielberg

Wedged between The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan in Steven Spielberg’s filmography, is Amistad. It’s easy to understand why this powerful historical drama revolving around a landmark court case regarding the slave trade is overlooked, but it shouldn’t be. It’s a moving story, told expertly as only Spielberg can, with a monster cast including Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, and Djimon Hounsou, among many others. 

Clockers - Spike Lee

Let’s be clear here, Clockers is not Spike Lee’s finest work. It doesn’t reach the heights of movies like Do The Right Thing or Malcolm X, but it's still a really good movie. It gets lost in Lee’s stellar filmography, which is understandable. It’s also a testament to just how good Lee’s career has been. 

Talk Radio - Oliver Stone

Talk Radio has everything you expect from an Oliver Stone movie. Its pacing and storytelling are perfect, it’s a fascinating and terrifying story that pulls from the real-world events of a murdered radio show host. It also has a healthy dose of conspiracy, as any great Stone film does. 

The Bling Ring - Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring is a meta-tastic heist film that is not only a ton of fun to watch with celebrity cameos and great acting performances, but it also touches on some of the emerging trends that exploded in the years after the movie came out, notably influencer culture. It’s too often overlooked in Coppola’s stellar filmography. 

The Game - David Fincher

David Fincher is a master, and his filmography is full of great movies, like Se7en and Fight Club. The movie he made between those two classic is The Game with Sean Penn and Michael Douglas. Understandably, it’s overshadowed, but it’s an amazing film that is every bit as good as those two more talked-about movies. Even when people watch Fincher’s whole body of work, The Game gets overlooked and it shouldn’t. 

Casualties Of War - Brian De Palma

Casualties of War was released in 1989, which was the tail end of a slew of excellent Vietnam War movies released in the late ‘80s, like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Hamburger Hill. Despite earning well-deserved praise from critics, the Brian De Palma film bombed, and as such, it's unfortunately one of the director’s least talked about movies when it should be one of the most. 

Matchstick Men - Ridley Scott

Usually, when movie fans talk about Ridley Scott, it’s his sprawling historical epics like Gladiator or Napoleon that dominate the conversation, along with sci-fi classics like Alien and Blade Runner. Matchstick Men is a smaller movie, a dark comedy about a con man with a myriad of personal problems played by Nicolas Cage. It’s a wonderful performance by Cage, and despite not performing well at the box office, it’s been well-reviewed over the years.

Inherent Vice - Paul Thomas Anderson

Inherent Vice from Paul Thomas Anderson is a complicated movie, based on a complicated book by Thomas Pinchon. It’s easy to understand why it’s not as talked about as some of Anderson’s other movies, like There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights, but it’s every bit as good as those, featuring great acting performances and wonderful cinematography. 

Out Of Sight - Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderberg is known for stylish filming techniques with snappy dialog and interesting plot twists. It’s all right there in Out Of Sight, but the movie still gets overlooked. It was Soderbergh’s first big-budget film, and maybe that’s why it doesn’t get talked about enough. It was also his first collaboration with George Clooney, which makes it even more confounding that it’s not more popular. 

Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick

It’s hard to really argue that any of Stanley Kubrick’s films are not talked about enough, but Barry Lyndon comes the closest here. It’s most revered for its cinematography, but it’s also a wonderful story. While it doesn’t have the panache of A Clockwork Orange or the scope of 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s still a Kubrick film and it’s one of the best ever made. 

Stardust - Matthew Vaughn

Matthew Vaughn has quietly put together one of the finest resumes in Hollywood. The Kingsman movies are a hot franchise, he’s dabbled in Marvel, and may have inspired the choice of Daniel Craig as James Bond after directing him in Layer Cake. Stardust seems to get lost in the shuffle, but it’s maybe, low key, his best film. 

Ryan's Daughter - David Lean

David Lean is rightfully most remembered for three films, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago. Lost in the discussion of those films is Ryan’s Daughter, a retelling of Madame Bovary set at the end of World War I. It was the last film Lean directed for 14 years and we can only wonder what he might have done had he not semi-retired. 

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson has developed one of the most distinct styles in film history, which translates brilliantly to animation, as well. Anderson’s first foray into the genre was Fantastic Mr. Fox, starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Bill Murray, among others. While it may never outshine his live-action classics, it should be discussed more as one of his best works. 

Bound - The Wachowskis

The DNA of the Wachowskis is very evident in Bound, their first movie. It was made on a shoestring budget, so it doesn’t have the over-the-top effects of The Matrix series, but you can see where they were headed in their filmmaking. 

Intolerable Cruelty - Coen Brothers

When you have a filmography like the Coen Brothers, inevitably, some of the movies won’t get talked about as much as others. Intolerable Cruelty is one of those that gets lost in the mix, behind movies like The Big Lebowski and others that are among the best movies of the ‘90s and beyond. 

Insomnia - Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is among the most beloved directors of the 21st century, creating what feels like independent films, but with monster budgets. That DNA was on display early in his career with Insomnia, which has everything you’d expect from a Nolan movie, but with less than half the budget of Oppenheimer. 

The Fan - Tony Scott

There are few better action directors in Hollywood history than Tony Scott. Most remembered today for classics like Top Gun, and Days of Thunder, The Fan should be talked about more. It’s not a perfect movie, but De Niro’s performance is terrifying (in a great way) as a baseball fan obsessed with Wesley Snipes' character. It’s action horror, and it’s great. 

Vincent And Theo - Robert Altman

Robert Altman had one of the most up-and-down careers in Hollywood history. After a string of successes in the ‘80s, his career was almost sunk by Popeye. It took years for him to rebound, but he did with Vincent & Theo. That led to a career revival, but it’s hardly remembered anymore, overshadowed by his early and later films. 

She's Having A Baby - John Hughes

One of the biggest reasons John Hughes is so loved by people who came of age in the ‘80s and ‘90s was his ability to write and direct genuine teenage characters. That extended to a young married couple starting their lives together in She’s Having A Baby. It’s not as quotable as some of Hughes’ other movies, but it’s still sharply written and a fun watch. 

Only The Lonely - Chris Columbus

Chris Columbus has some directed some huge films in his career, most notably Home Alone and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone. He's also got movies like Mrs. Doubtfire and Adventures in Babysitting on his resume. One film that is not talked about enough is Only The Lonely starring John Candy as a man looking for a wife, but dealing with a controlling mother. 

Beowulf - Robert Zemeckis

Generations of high schoolers have been confounded and frustrated by Beowulf. Some love the old English classic, but many hate it. It takes a bold director to take it on as a movie. Robert Zemeckis makes it work, and work well. Still, given the material, it’s not a surprise it’s not talked about as much as Zemeckis’ more popular movies like Back to the Future. 

Great Expectations - Alfonso Cuaron

Director Alfonso Cuaron has made some of the best movies of the last 20 years, including Roma, Gravity, and Y tu mamá también. One of his films that doesn’t get talked about much anymore is 1998’s Great Expectations starring Gwenyth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. It’s a bold modernization of the classic Dickens novel that can be polarizing, but still worth talking about more.

Ed Wood - Tim Burton

Of all the movies Tim Burton has made, it’s unsurprising that Ed Wood is one of his least discussed. It’s a love letter to legendary B-Movie director Ed Wood, and despite being filled to the brim with great performances, it's not as popular as many of Burton’s other works. 

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil - Clint Eastwood

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is not exactly the kind of film you might expect from Clint Eastwood, but you should. Some of his best work is when he strays away from the tough guy movies he’s so well known for and this is a great one, starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacey. 

Away We Go - Sam Mendes

Sam Mendes is best known for movies that cover heavy topics, movies like American Beauty, 1917, and Road to Perdition. That's probably the reason 2009's Away We Go with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph isn't talked about as much, but it's a sweet movie about a couple dealing with major changes in their life and how to handle them. 

Sleepers - Barry Levinson

Sleepers is a dark, dark film. It's also really, really good. With an all-star cast that includes Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, and many more, it's surprising it doesn't get talked about as much as some of director Barry Levinson's other work, but given the subject matter, it can be a very hard watch.  

High Anxiety - Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks is a living legend and his filmography is filled with some of the most quotable movies of all time. One that doesn't get quoted much, or even talked about much, is High Anxiety. It was, believe it or not, the first time Mel Brooks also played the lead in one of his movies, so that alone should garner more attention. 

Great directors usually have long filmographies, so it's only natural that some of their finest work would be talked about less than their most groundbreaking or biggest films. That said, many movies should be talked about as much as those classics, but aren't. Here's to that changing now! 

Year after year, the legacy of Elvis Presley grows. Usually, it’s aided by a Hollywood project that shines a brighter light on the legendary singer’s life and career, which causes more reflection on what he accomplished, and the circumstances that influenced his meteoric rise and eventual demise. Baz Luhrmann started the recent dissection of Presley’s career with his Oscar-nominated 2022 film, which took a physical toll on Austin Butler, who played the man. And this season, Sofia Coppola is coming at the Elvis mythology from the perspective of Priscilla Presley in her critically acclaimed Priscilla, currently available in theaters and doing well at the box office. Critics have been raving specifically about Cailee Spaeny’s breakthrough performance in the title role, but there was one scene in particular I really wanted to hear her thoughts on. 

This isn’t really getting into spoilers, but the Priscilla scene that hit me the hardest – by design of the film – is the final shot of the movie. For the bulk of Sofia Coppola’s drama, we are seeing how Elvis’s love has limited Priscilla, and kept her tucked away at Graceland while he piloted through his career. The way he described it to this teenage girl is that he needed to go out and be “Elvis,” but when he got home, he wanted to be real… with her. But that prevented her from living the life she’d choose to live. 

In the final scene, Priscilla (Spaeny) comes to terms with the fact that she has to leave Elvis (Jacob Elordi), for her own health and sanity. And Coppola chooses to conclude the film with a heartbreaking rendition of Dolly Parton’s song “I Will Always Love You,” released in 1974. The lyrics line up so beautifully with how we are led to believe that Priscilla Presley felt – for even though she was leaving Elvis she always would be emotionally connected to him – that the song drop kicks the emotion of the sequence right into our guts. And what Spaeny told us, she had Parton’s song playing on set that day, and it helped more than she expected. The Priscilla star told CinemaBlend: 

The fact that Cailee Spaeny shot that unforgettable sequence on the second day of production is mind blowing. Her Priscilla has to sell years of experience felt opposite Jacob Elordi’s Elvis Presley, and the idea that she had to process that level of memory without having the grace of spending weeks or months in character makes the conclusion that much more remarkable. And now, imagining her watching this scene while sitting next to Priscilla Presley herself makes me nervous! 

There has been a lot of fan conversation around Priscilla, some of it having to do with the inevitable Elordi versus Butler interpretations of The King, and some of it having to do with the Presley estate’s reaction to Sofia Coppola’s movie. As with anything, we suggest you view the film for yourself and make up your mind. Then use our guide to upcoming A24 movies to see what else the studio has coming to theaters.

Considering how hard it is to make one very good movie, it's a serious accomplishment to make more than ten. There are actually more than this list even encompasses, but to keep it manageable, I limited it to English-speaking films. Huge names like Otto Preminger and Akira Kurosawa, for example, certainly qualify but aren't here. Here are the names of the directors with at least 10 great movies. 

Martin Scorsese

It's no surprise that Martin Scorsese would be on this list. A director that will surely go down in history as one of the greatest of all time with films like Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Gangs of New York, Cape Fear, Casino, Raging Bull, The Color of Money, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Cape Fear, Mean Streets, and Killers of the Flower Moon, plus so many more. 

Steven Spielberg

Another no-brainer for this list is Steven Spielberg.  Spielberg's best films move at a pace and with a professionalism that is unparalleled in the industry. Just listing off the names of his movies, Jaws, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Color Purple, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, Catch Me If You Can, Empire of the Sun... the list goes on and on. 

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is a relative newcomer to this list, as he works so methodically, that he's only directed 11 films in his career. Of course, all are excellent, and he's a master across genres with superhero films like the Dark Night Trilogy, historical films like Oppenheimer and Dunkirk, and his mind-bending, time-twisting signature films like Tenet, Inception, and Memento.

Jane Campion

There is, admittedly, a dearth of female directors on this list. Thankfully, that is changing as directors like Jane Campion break boundaries both on screen and within the movie industry. The Kiwi director has won two Academy Awards, including best director for Power of the Dog, and best screenplay for The Piano, which she also directed. She's also won a slew of awards for movies like Sweetie, Holy Smoke! and others. 

Quentin Tarantino

Technically, since Quentin Tarantino considers Kill Bill to be one film, he's only made nine to this point. For the purposes of this list, however, I'm counting it as two, because he certainly deserves to be here. All of his movies, from Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Tarantino never really misses. It's remarkable. 

Alfred Hitchcock

There is no bigger giant in the history of cinema than the great Alfred Hitchcock. With more than 50 directing credits to his name, most of them classics, his influence on film cannot be understated. Psycho, Rear Window, The Birds, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train, Rebecca, Vertigo...the list of great movies directed by Hitchcock is almost endless. 

Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson is another director who rarely, if ever, misses. His string of great movies, from Bottle Rocket to Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Moonrise Kingdom, and on doesn't even get into his animated works, like Isle of Dogs, and my favorite of his, Fantastic Mr. Fox.  

Stanley Kubrick

Very few directors loom larger than Stanley Kubrick. Film buffs don't just watch his films, they memorize them, as do his fellow directors. With a resume of movies like 2001, Dr. Strangelove, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining, it's not hard to see why he tops so many "Best of" lists. 

Few directors have the number of cultural touchstones that Robert Zemeckis is responsible for. Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Romancing The Stone, Cast Away, and Death Becomes Her are some of the most beloved movies in history, and they are just scratching the surface of his career. 

John Ford

John Ford may be mostly remembered for his early epic Westerns, like The Searchers, but he was an incredibly diverse director who won an astonishing four Academy Awards for Best Director, for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952). He was also a war hero. A true national treasure. 

Kathryn Bigelow

It's confounding that it took a woman so long to win a Best Directing Oscar, but it wasn't until Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurt Locker in 2010 that it happened. Bigelow was already responsible for some serious bangers, like Strange Days and Point Break, but breaking that glass ceiling is her most important accomplishment. 

Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick has made exactly ten films in his career, despite making his debut in 1973. He took a 20-year hiatus after his first couple, then periodically took long breaks after that, until cranking four in five years in recent times. All are interesting and worthwhile, and a few are all-time greats like The Thin Red Line, Tree Of Life, and Badlands 

The Coen Brothers

There is no way to separate Joel and Ethan Coen. For many years early in their careers, Joel was credited as the director, and Ethan as the producer of their many excellent movies, but they're undoubtedly viewed as a team when it comes to their films. The body of work speaks for itself. The Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men, Fargo, Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Barton Fink, Blood Simple, True Grit, Burn After Reading, The Hudsucker Proxy, etc... It's some of the sharpest writing and most unique directing in cinema history. 

Tony Scott

A true master of the action film genre, Tony Scott directed some of the biggest hits of the '80s and '90s. We're talking monster hits like Top Gun, Days of Thunder, The Last Boy Scout, Crimson Tide, and Beverly Hills Cop II. He also directed one of the biggest cult films of the era, True Romance. He was versatile and stylish and his movies are incredibly rewatchable. 

John Singleton

Okay, in full disclosure, I'm fudging a little here. John Singleton only made nine films in his career, but had he not died at such a young age (51), there is no doubt he'd have made this list. From his powerhouse debut, Boyz n the Hood to his final film in 2011, Abduction, Singleton always had something interesting to say. 

Ridley Scott

Like his brother Tony, Ridley Scott is a chameleon-like director. He can do huge war epics like Napoleon and Gladiator, sci-fi like Alien and Blade Runner, horror like Hannibal, and, of course, one of the greatest buddy flicks of all time, Thelma & Louise. His movies are some of the most appreciated movies in history. 

David Fincher

Thankfully for all of us, David Fincher didn't quite directing after his experience on his first film, Alien 3. He went on to produce hit after hit, like Se7en, Fight Club, The Game, The Social Network, Zodiac, Gone Girl, and many others. Like Steven Spielberg, his movies always move at a great pace and they are never dull and that's a real attribute. 

Mel Brooks

When you talk about comedy in the 20th century, you have to start with the great Mel Brooks. He completely invented his own style of absurdist humor and every time he made a movie, no matter the subject, you knew it was going to be hilarious. Who can argue with classics like Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, The Silent Movie, The Producer, or Young Frankenstein? Mel Brooks is a legend.

Peter Jackson

Across six epic films in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, Peter Jackson cemented his place in movie history. But don't sleep on his earlier films like The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures. When you add in his documentary works like The Beatles: Get Back and They Shall Not Grow Old you have the makings of an all-time great. 

Spike Lee

When talking about groundbreaking filmmakers, Spike Lee is among the most important. Not just because he broke so many barriers by being a Black director in an industry that made it hard for Black people to participate for so long, but because his style was just so darn unique. There was nothing like Do The Right Thing, or School Daze when he exploded on the scene in the late '80s and early '90s. Lee has never slowed down either.  

Francis Ford Coppola

If Francis Ford Coppola had only made three films in his career, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now, he'd be near the top of any best director list. But he's never rested on his laurels, directing other really good movies like The Outsiders, The Conversation, Tucker: A Man and His Dream, Peggy Sue Got Married, and The Rainmaker among others. He always made them his way and even stopped for a time when the industry wouldn't allow him to. 

David Lynch

There is no one like David Lynch. His mind just operates differently from the rest of us mere mortals. It shows in his films, all of which are distinctly his. Movies like Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Dune, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, and Mulholland Drive. There is nothing like a David Lynch film. Plus, his weather reports on LA public radio are now legendary too. 

Oliver Stone

Olive Stone is fearless. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he's never been afraid to tell you exactly how he feels. In movies like Platoon, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers, and basically anything else he directed, there is no subtly, just honesty, as Stone sees it. 

Sofia Coppola

This is another little fudge on the list. Sofia Coppola hasn't quite made ten movies yet, but she continues to put great film after great film. The Virgin Suicides, Lost In Translation, Marie Antoinette, and Priscilla are all examples of just how good she can be and no doubt will continue to put out great movies in the future. 

David Lean

Like Francis Ford Coppola, if David Lean had only directed three films–Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge On the River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago, he'd be one of the best ever. His career was hardly just those classics though. Great Expectations in 1946 began his greatness and it ended almost 40 years later with A Passage to India in 1984. A remarkable career for a remarkable director. 

Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner has made some of the most quotable and funniest movies of all time, with When Harry Met Sally, This Is Spinal Tap, and The Princess Bride. He's also made some of the greatest dramas of all time, like A Few Good Men and Ghosts of Mississippi. He even snuck a horror classic in his resume, with Misery.  

Woody Allen

It's impossible for most of us to watch a Woody Allen film these days and not feel at least conflicted if not totally repulsed by the director. It would be disturbing if you didn't connect the art with the artist, especially given how personal his films are. Still, it's hard to deny just how many incredible films the troubled Allen made over his long career, and for that, he's reluctantly on this list. 

Tim Burton

One of the most interesting and unique directors of the last several decades has to be Tim Burton. He makes oddballs into heroes in movies like Edward Scissorhands, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and Beetlejuice. He dives into animation and even conquered the superhero genre with Batman decades before DC and Marvel superheroes were everywhere on the big screen.

Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh walks the fine line between indie filmmaker with movies like Kafka and Che, and mainstream with the Oceans movies, Magic Mike, and Erin Brockovich. It's a rare ability that Soderberg has mastered and doesn't seem to be daunted by either. 

Clint Eastwood

A giant in Hollywood for decades, Clint Eastwood is not only one of the best actors of all time, but his directing skills are phenomenal. Whether it's his early westerns like The Outlaw Josey Wales, his war films like Heartbreak Ridge and Flags of Our Fathers, or his dramas like The Bridges Of Madison County, you can always count on Eastwood to deliver, as he has over and over. 

Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry's movies aren't everyone's cup of tea, but no one can deny his achievements. With the Madea series, Perry took independent filmmaking to a whole new level, churning out budget-conscious hit after hit. All are produced in-house with Perry taking on virtually every aspect of the production. You simply can't ignore that level of success. 

Danny Boyle

Trainspotting, The Beach,  28 Days Weeks,  Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours... do I need to go on? How about Steve Jobs, T2 Trainspotting, and Yesterday? Plus he directed the opening ceremonies of an Olympic Games. Is there anything Danny Boyle can't do? The director is a marvel and his movies are some of the most loved movies of the last few decades. 

This list is only a sample of the many directors who have made more than ten great films, but the list needs to grow. We need more women. We need more African American representation, and we need more LQBTQ+ representation. Hollywood is working on that, and that means this list will only grow and grow. 

Austin Butler stunned audiences as Elvis Presley in 2022’s biopic Elvis, which garnered eight Academy Award nominations, and now we're getting the story from a different perspective. Priscilla, which stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley and Jacob Elordi as the King of Rock, gets its wide release on November 3. Critics have had a chance to screen the film that was written and directed by Sofia Coppola, and they are raving about the lead actress’ performance.

Priscilla was well-received at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, earning a seven-minute standing ovation. It is an adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me, and with A24 being the studio that’s distributing the film, expectations are pretty high for the story of a 14-year-old girl who fell in love with the much-older cultural icon. Will this be another great movie from A24? Let’s see what the critics have to say before you hit the theater this weekend.

Aisha Harris of NPR praises the leading actress and the way that Sofia Coppola’s script immerses its audience in the perspective of its subject as a young girl, noting: 

Mary Siroky of Consequence grades it an A-, calling the movie “an exercise in anxiety,” as the director proves to be an expert at communicating the devastation of being a young woman who feels trapped. The result is the audience constantly bracing for something terrible to happen, which the critic says does occur but also doesn’t. In Siroky’s words: 

Lauren Coates of AV Club lauds Cailee Spaeny’s breakout performance as Priscilla Presley, and says Jacob Elordi being super tall adds an effective physical aspect to his shining portrayal of Elvis. The critic gives the film a B+, writing: 

Kevin Nguyen of The Verge also has nothing but positive things to say about Cailee Spaeny in her “delicate, though not fragile” performance. But while the critic calls this Sofia Coppola’s strongest work in over a decade, Nguyen is left wanting. He explains: 

Several critics noted how truly opposite Sofia Coppola’s story is from Baz Luhrmann’s offering of Elvis last year, and the AP’s Jake Coyle agrees with the above assessment that the second half doesn't hit as hard as it should. Still, Coyle rates Priscilla 3 stars out of 4 and writes: 

The critics seem to be impressed overall, save for a few quibbles, and those positive reactions extend beyond just the handful above. Priscilla has garnered a Rotten Tomatoes score of 86% Fresh from just under 150 ratings as of this writing. If you are excited to get Priscilla Presley’s side of the story, you can do so now, with the film hitting the big screen on November 3, and be sure to check out our 2023 Movie Schedule and see what else is coming soon from A24. 

Priscilla is the latest buzzy A24 movie to make headlines. The Sofia Coppola film offers a fresh perspective on the romance between Priscilla and Elvis Presley. It is told from Priscilla’s point of view and stars Cailee Spaeny in the title role alongside Jacob Elordi's Elvis. It is somewhat of a star-making performance for the actress, who has yet to have such a high-profile film role, and she is getting lots of praise for her portrayal. However, even though she's wonderful in the film, the performer originally felt awkward about watching the movie at the Venice Film Festival premiere, and she felt it was “surreal” watching the movie alongside the real Priscilla Presley. 

For the 25-year-old actress, the release of Priscilla is a big moment, as she is portraying an incredibly recognizable, American pop culture figure. Initially, though, the actress didn’t intend to watch the movie, due to her own nervousness. However, Coppola convinced her to attend the full screening at the Venice Film Festival, so she didn't miss such a major moment in her career. Spaeny told the THR:

Even though it may have been strange for Cailee Spaeny, I’m sure she’s glad she didn’t miss the moment. Priscilla was inspired by Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me, and the author was also involved with the film to ensure the movie was as true to her perspective as possible. Therefore, Presley was also invited to the Venice premiere alongside the cast, who was able to promote the film due to A24’s interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA. 

While it was meaningful to have Presley there to watch the film, taking in the movie alongside the subject of the film was another source of nervousness for Spaeny. She said: 

While it may have been a strange experience to view the film in such a high-pressure situation, the outcome made it all worth it. Priscilla seeks to understand the life and emotional struggle of Priscilla Presley through her tumultuous relationship with Elvis. Knowing that the subject felt seen through the portrayal by Spaeny is an otherworldly compliment. The film is getting wonderful reviews for both the actress's and Elordi’s performances, but the Mare of Easttown alum seems to have already gotten the best review from the best possible source. 

Priscilla may be a critical darling, and loved by Priscilla Presley herself, but the movie isn’t sitting well with everyone. The Elvis Presley Estate has condemned the film, favoring a more gentle approach and lauding the portrayal of the rock star in 2022’s Elvis. 

However, Priscilla Presley’s support of the movie has made many fans feel as though the new project is an authentic and honest perspective of the controversial relationship at the center of the film. For context, Elvis was 24 when he began his romance with Priscilla Beaulieu, who was 14 at the time. These complexities are some of the most compelling elements of Priscilla, and Spaeny and Elordi portray them so delicately on screen. It’s a marvel to watch, and thankfully the actress was able to see the result for herself.  

You can see Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley in Priscilla, which is currently playing in theaters nationwide. For more information on other Oscar-worthy films heading to cinemas in the near future, check out CinemaBlend’s 2023 movie schedule.

Sofia Coppola is undeniably a filmmaker with a distinct and unique style. Her acclaimed body of work, including films such as Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and The Virgin Suicides, has consistently captivated audiences with her mesmerizing storytelling. I eagerly await her forthcoming A24 flick, Priscilla, but an unmade project holds my interest too. Before the recent Disney remake, the Godfather Part III performer had delved deeply into a live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid. In a recent interview, she revealed why she decided to step away from the Universal Pictures project. 

Sitting down to chat with Rolling Stone, Sofia opened up about her brief involvement with an adaption of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale for Universal Pictures. When asked about the breaking point that led her to exit the project, she candidly revealed:

Coppola's distinctive filmmaking is marked by its focus on intimate, character-driven narratives that often delve into themes of loneliness, alienation, and the human condition. Her films possess a unique allure that transcends demographic boundaries. However, it's evident that her artistic vision, especially in the case of The Little Mermaid, hasn’t always aligned with the commercial considerations typically associated with Hollywood blockbusters. This is a challenge she has encountered more than once. She elaborates on this point:

The Little Mermaid might be a beloved classic fairytale, but the On the Rocks director clearly felt that her creative instincts were out of sync with the project’s direction. As the live-action film stopped at Universal and Disney began its own take on the story with director Rob Marshall, Coppola moved on to another well-known story as she is the director of Priscilla, the film about Priscilla Presley's relationship with Elvis.

Last year marked a significant one for the “King of Rock-and-Roll.” Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis was a massive hit, even earning a 2023 Oscar nomination for Austin Butler, and Elvis’s presence on the big screen is far from over. Moviegoers can anticipate the release of Priscilla, another film centered around Elvis, which is slated for the 2023 movie release schedule. 

However, this forthcoming project might not be joining the ranks of best music biopics, because it will be anything but a straightforward biography of the Jailhouse Rock singer. Coppola specifically delves into the early controversial romance between Elvis and Priscilla, who was only 14 at the time of their meeting. While the musician’s estate reportedly disapproves of the Oscar-winning director’s upcoming endeavor, Priscilla Presley, who is an executive producer on the A24 film, holds a more positive perspective, saying, “It feels like a college movie.”

Sofia Coppola might not have been able to be a part of Little Mermaid’s world, but I’m so happy she brought Priscilla Presley’s story to the big screen, because it looks incredible. Priscilla releases in theaters on November 3. 

You can also get a more theatrical look at the late musician’s life by revisiting 2022’s Elvis, which is available on streaming for anyone with a Max subscription. Or catch up on Disney’s The Little Mermaid reboot with a Disney+ subscription. 

Many incredible movies created by women are available to watch now, and today, we will discuss the game-changers. Throughout the history of cinema, many notable films have come out that have changed the course of history. From the best fantasy films to the best horror films to so many others – I could talk about them for hours. 

However, today, we will focus on a specific group of fantastic women who have directed game-changing movies. Barbie was released in 2023, directed by Greta Gerwig, and along with this blockbuster, we’re going to go down the list and talk about 12 films that have changed lives forever, some older and some new.

Barbie (2023, Greta Gerwig)

First up on the list is Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig. If you haven’t seen Barbie yet, I’m unsure what you’re doing because it’s been everywhere the last few months. The film follows Barbie as she enters the real world when she realizes she needs to make the girl playing with her happy again for her to remain a normal Barbie. 

The movie received stellar reviews and became the highest-grossing movie ever directed by a woman, with over $1 billion documented at the box office, it broke major records at Warner Bros. Now, I’m pretty sure everyone wants to be a Barbie. Me included. 

Wonder Woman (2017, Patty Jenkins)

Wonder Woman was released in 2017. The first movie follows the story of Diana Prince, a female warrior known as an Amazon who takes on the role of Wonder Woman when the Amazonian's lives are threatened by outside forces that might be caused by Ares, the Amazonian’s long-time enemy, and who just might be causing World War I.

Wonder Woman is not only one of the few female-centric superhero movies, but it was the first superhero movie directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. She returned to direct the second film, but it’s unclear if Wonder Woman 3 will happen since the shakeup at DC with James Gunn. Right now, it’s not in the works, but who knows what will happen. 

While the third installment might be in question, there's no denying the power of 2017's Wonder Woman. 

The Hurt Locker (2008, Kathryn Bigelow)

Kathryn Bigelow directed The Hurt Locker. It was an intense and gritty war movie that detailed the journey of an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, from their time in combat to how it affected them afterward and their PTSD. 

With The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director in 2009. Since then, there have been two other winners – Chloé Zhao (who we will talk about next) and Jane Campion, who directed 2021's The Power of the Dog. Even so, Bigelow was the first ever to win, and that in itself is a huge accomplishment. 

Nomadland (2020, Chloé Zhao)

Nomadland tells the story of a widow who travels around the United States in her van, living her life as a nomad. Chloé Zhao directed the movie, and she was the second woman ever to win Best Director at the Academy Awards.

This film is impressive for so many reasons, but for me, it’s always been the fantastic cinematography that stands out as a true highlight. Zhao put in some tremendous work when making this 2021 Best Picture winner and it shows through its gorgeous imagery and wonderful performance from Frances McDormand.

American Psycho (2000, Mary Harron)

Directed by Mary Harron, American Psycho was a satirical psychological horror film starring Christian Bale. It told the story of an investment banker who spent his nights as a serial killer while keeping it hidden from his everyday life of working in NYC. 

Harron created a classic with American Psycho. Not only is Bale’s performance considered one of the best in horror, but the story itself is full of hilarious black comedy that looks at themes such as yuppie culture, capitalism, and the need to consume the best of everything. There are also some awesome American Psycho behind-the-scenes facts you should check out too that make the movie even better.

Lady Bird (2019, Greta Gerwig)

Of course, I’m putting Lady Bird on here. Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut was a solid coming-of-age movie that detailed the life of a young girl trying to live her life, and her complicated relationship with her mother. 

I love this movie. I have for a long time. Gerwig delivered something so raw and perfect with Lady Bird that I find it hard to discover another coming-of-age film close to its greatness. It perfectly details the transition of becoming a young woman and the complex feelings that arise with not only our family but within ourselves. 

The Woman King (2022, Gina Prince-Bythewood) 

The Woman King was released in 2022 and was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The movie is based on a real group of warrior women in Africa called the Agojie that existed between the 17th and 19th centuries, and mainly follows a general as she trains the next generation of warriors against their enemies. 

This film was a snub at the Academy Awards, and it deserved much more recognition. The Woman King cast is stunning, but Viola Davis was the big star. And Prince-Bythewood brought an incredible historical-action film that showed badass women refusing to back down in the face of their enemies. I love it. 

The Babadook (2014, Jennifer Kent) 

Arguably, The Babadook, directed by Jennifer Kent, began a trend of psychological horror movies taking over at the box office years later, such as Ari Aster’s Midsommar or Hereditary. The film tells the story of a single mother dealing with her son seeing a humanoid monster in their home, but it soon turns their lives upside down. 

The movie is just utter perfection in terms of horror. Truthfully, it’s one of the best horror movies of the last 20 years, and I would re-watch it again. Kent built suspense in such a way that now, it’s imitated in many other psychological horror movies that have been released. 

The Farewell (2019, Lulu Wang)

Released in 2019 and directed by Lulu Wang, The Farewell follows the story of a Chinese American family who discovers that their grandma does not have long to live. So, they decide to schedule a family gathering for everyone to celebrate her one last time, instead of telling the older woman of her fate. 

The Farewell is one of those movies that comes once in a lifetime where everything fits perfectly. The film accurately depicts the lives of Asian culture. It features a stellar leading Asian cast, and it highlights Awkwafina's talents as a dramatic actor. She’s going to be in a new movie called Quiz Lady soon, but in my mind, this movie is her best so far.

Marie Antoinette (2006, Sofia Coppola)

Sofia Coppola has been making some headlines for her new film, Priscilla, which will be released later in 2023, but my favorite of hers has always been Marie Antoinette. Released in 2006, the film depicts the life of the famous Queen of France, especially in the years leading up to the French Revolution. 

Not only did the movie win the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, but Coppola gave audiences a movie that had some of the best cinematography for a period piece. Marie Antoinette was a visual spectacle for the eye.

Clueless (1995, Amy Heckerling)

Clueless, directed by Amy Heckerling, was a coming-of-age teen comedy that was loosely based on the Jane Austen novel Emma and took place in Beverly Hills. The movie follows a teenager who decides to start doing more good deeds, but in doing so, she starts to learn more about herself and how much she can change too.

The film has been labeled as one of the most epic teen films ever. You can’t meet someone nowadays who doesn’t at least know a few quotes from the movie. Not to mention, Heckerling also gave audiences a great take on Emma in a hilarious, modern way. 

Women Talking (2022, Sarah Polley)

Lastly, we have Women Talking. The movie, directed by Sarah Polley, is based on the 2018 novel of the same name, and it follows the story of a group of Mennonite women who discuss their future when they find out that the men of their colony have a history of sexually assaulting their women. 

The movie was not only nominated for Best Picture but won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sarah Polley, who wrote and directed it. The film talks about some serious topics, and it is considered one of the best movies of 2022. It's also pretty funny that Polley's daughter played a prank on her mother, saying that the Academy was asking for her Oscar back -- thankfully, Polley still has her win for this incredible film.

There are so many other notable films that you should watch that women directed, but these are just some that come to mind for me. If you haven’t seen any of them, check them out. 

I’ve always known that Jacob Elordi is tall. It was obvious in The Kissing Booth and it’s clear in Euphoria. However, when he showed up at the Venice Film Festival for the premiere of the film Priscilla, and he stood next to Cailee Spaeny (who plays Priscilla Presley), the director Sofia Coppola and Priscilla Presley herself, I was gobsmacked by the height difference. It turns out, the internet was too. 

While many actors can’t promote their films right now because of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Priscilla’s cast was able to attend the Venice Film Festival because they have an interim agreement with the actor’s union. This meant Jacob Elordi, who plays Elvis Presley, and Cailee Spaeny, who plays the titular Priscilla Presley were able to walk the red carpet with the woman the movie is based on and its director, Sofia Coppola. As the four walked the carpet in Italy, it was hard not to take notice of the actor towering over the three women, take a look:

Like many fans, this height difference was jarring to me, but I also love it. I think @nataliaionica had the same thought I did as they posted on X:

He’s so tall, and it’s hard not to think about that when he's standing next to his co-star and collaborators. 

Immediately after seeing this image, I took to Google to figure out exactly how tall the Euphoria star is. The answer is 6’ 5” which is on par with how tall some point guards are in the NBA. @thairito was on a similar wavelength as they posted about how the actor could have been a basketball player instead:

@itgirlenergy was also flummoxed by the height difference and Elordi as they posted:

He kind of is a giant, especially standing next to the three women who also walked the carpet for Priscilla. While these ladies aren’t tall, they are wearing heels. For example, Priscilla Presley is 5’ 4” but she’s wearing high heels, and Elordi still towers over her. 

While we’re all freaking out over how tall Jacob Elordi is, let’s remember that Elvis Presley was 6’ 0”, so it makes sense that a tall actor was cast as the King. Not only is the Saltburn star a fantastic performer, he’s also got the height. 

Along with being excited about his performance in Priscilla, fans truly can’t get over how these photos showed off his tallness. @ladiebird noted this as she posted:

Exquisite feels like a great word to describe Jacob Elordi and these red-carpet photos. Everyone looked incredible, and this reaction that his height caused has made the social media discourse around this movie quite fun. For example, @ZoeRoseBryant posted this hilarious tweet when she saw the images:

Other highlights from users on X commenting on Jacob Elordi’s height include:

• why do i always forget jacob is so tall. this was a jumpscare -@moonsongxcherry 
• i never realized jacob elordi was so tall -@harrisupercut 
• HOW TALL IS JACOB ELORDI JESUS -@arlenesdaydream 

Overall, this discourse surrounding Jacob Elordi and how tall he is is really fun, and it’s clear that there’s a lot of love for him and the cast of Priscilla out there. Luckily, we’ll get to see this movie, as well as his and Cailee Spaeny performances soon, because Coppola’s project is on the 2023 film schedule for an October 27 premiere. 

While we wait for this biopic about Priscilla Presley to hit theaters, you can check out the other movies A24 is releasing this year and continue to admire the wonderfully tall and talented Jacob Elordi in these incredible red-carpet photos.  

It appears that Elvis Presley's time on the big screen isn’t over yet, although the next project set to focus on The King won't be another straight-up biopic. Sofia Coppola has an Elvis movie of her own in the works that will focus on the early romance between Elvis and Priscilla Presley. The musician's estate has apparently slammed the Oscar-winning director’s upcoming project, but Priscilla Presley herself had a more positive take on it.

Based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, Sofia Coppola’s A24 film Priscilla is from the point of view of the actress during the early stages of her marriage with Elvis Presley. This biographical film will offer a different take on the Presleys than what audiences saw in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, which had Tom Hanks in a rare “villain” role and centered on that character's business relationship with “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” This new project sounds far more interested in digging into the romance than the road to fame and fortune, with Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi starring. But as TMZ reports, the movie managed to set off the Grammy Award winner’s estate, which one official commenting on Coppola's “horrible” writing and directing. In the rep's words:

It’s clear that Elvis Presley’s estate has a different vision for what Elvis’ life in Graceland should look like on the big screen compared to the Marie Antoinette director. Each of Sofia Coppola's movies tends to offer viewers the female gaze of larger-than-life figures and unconventional relationships. Coppola has said to Vogue that Priscilla will be told from the point of view of Priscilla Presley, with Elvis and his professional career being more of a subplot. Coppola will share a supposedly authentic glimpse into how the female lead of her movie went through womanhood growing up in Graceland — considering she married the “Hound Dog” musician when she was just fourteen — similar to seeing the dauphine of France’s upbringing in Marie Antoinette.

But while Elvis Presley’s estate may paint a negative view of Priscilla, the icon's ex-wife and foundation founder herself had nothing but positive things to say on Instagram about the A24 drama.

This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Priscilla Presley is all for Sofia Coppola’s take, since it's coming from her own memoir and all. She previously gave some major praise for Baz Luhmann’s take on her ex-husband, saying the film did a great job creatively of providing audiences with a further understanding of this cultural icon’s life journey. Plus, she serves as an executive producer on the project, as revealed by Coppola early on. That said, it doesn't quite sound like she's actually seen the finished product, but still feels comfortable talking it up anyway.

At least this was a battle that Presley was able to calmly resolve compared to the legal dispute over control of Lisa Marie’s trust with her granddaughter Riley Keough. After filing to contest her late daughter’s will in a $35 million petition, there were reports that Keough, who was apparently the sole beneficiary of her mother’s estate, felt “disappointed” in her grandmother for challenging her mother’s will. This dispute over Lisa Marie’s trust has now been settled, who reportedly walked away with a lot of money and was granted her wish to be buried next to her ex-husband at the Graceland estate.

Elvis Presley’s estate may not be all for Sofia Coppola’s interpretation of Elvis and Priscilla’s love story, but it looks like the film's namesake is all about supporting The Bling Ring filmmaker for bringing her memoir of their infamous relationship to life. You can watch the 2023 movie release of Priscilla in October, with a more specific date yet to be announced.

This October, AppleTV+ unveiled On the Rocks, the latest film from writer-director Sofia Coppola. Arriving slightly over 20 years after her feature directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides, her newest movie showcases several returning themes related to emotional searching, familial dysfunction, and upper-class dissatisfaction, all mixed with a couple maturing subjects, including a gentle acceptance of what you can and cannot control. While Coppola's often one to re-explore familiar topics, the established storyteller demonstrates a sense of growth and progression that promises an exciting second half to her filmmaking career.

With that said, let's take this opportunity to look back on her filmography and explore our favorite (and least favorite) Sofia Coppola movies, notably from a career filled with high and low points in equal measure.

Before we jump in, though, we should note that we couldn't find La Traviata, an opera she filmed with Francesa Nesler, which is why it's not included. Also, this list is focused entirely on feature films Sofia Coppola directed.

8. Somewhere (2010)

Sofia Coppola is typically good at capturing the numbing doldrums and acute listlessness that arrive from extravagant or, at least, overly-comfortable living. Her ability to capture displacement and unease with plush lifestyles and picturesque locales shouldn't be dismissed. Yet, Somewhere is a sadly bland, underwhelming father-daughter drama, producing a humdrum celebrity tale that's too distant and disengaging for its own good.

While Elle Fanning provides another dependably good performance as Cleo, the preteen daughter of a newly-famous actor, Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), our lead male performance is lacking charisma and intrigue, something Coppola easily found with her regular collaborators like Kristen Dunst and Bill Murray. This is obviously a personal, soulful exploration for the filmmaker, even when it dives into familiar dramatic territory laced with a thick coat of melancholy irony. But, in the end, Somewhere goes nowhere new for the esteemed writer-director — despite its nice visuals and heartfelt story.

7. The Bling Ring (2013)

The Bling Ring has a loyal fanbase, and it's easy to see why. This polished, richly stylish satirical crime dramedy, inspired by Nancy Jo Sales' 2010 Vanity Fair article, "The Suspects Wore Louboutins," follows a group of fame-obsessed teens who broke into and burglarized the homes of the rich and glamorous to flaunt their accessories. As a bubblegum Robin Hood-esque capper, there's an inviting appeal to the true-life story's luxurious big-screen adaptation, complete with writer-director Sofia Coppola's signature brand of delicious irony mixed with teenage longing.

But while it looks gorgeous, thanks to the late and legendary cinematographer Harris Savides, who passed away before its release, and it boasts a poppy sensibility, grand production design, and a wickedly fun-loving attitude, The Bling Ring lacks the singing sincerity that defines Coppola's other movies. While the young cast is nimble, particularly with Watson having loads of fun, the tone doesn't fully find its balance between scorn and sugary sweetness.

6. A Very Murray Christmas (2015)

Admittedly, Netflix's A Very Murray Christmas is technically a Christmas special, not a movie per se. But the first collaboration between Bill Murray and Sofia Coppola since Lost in Translation's phenomenal success was an event nonetheless, and this special proved to be a fun, if frivolous, collaboration.

Playing a mopey fictional version of himself, Murray frontlines this star-studded streaming exclusive (as the title suggests), which includes cameos from George Clooney, Paul Shaffer, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, Jenny Lewis, and Miley Cyrus, as he enters a gloomy state when a massive snowstorm threatens to cancel his live Christmas event. But the story is a loose thread for Murray to sing songs and play off his idiosyncratic charm. If you're looking for something neat and tidy, look elsewhere. This casual, sophisticated charmer, which Murray co-wrote, is only here to have a good time. And you will, too — if you agree with its groove. Though this Christmas may be too blue for some.

5. The Beguiled (2017)

A restrained, refined retelling of Thomas P. Cullinan's 1966 novel, The Beguiled mixes Sofia Coppola's fixation on isolation and ennui with a lurid, understated, and thrilling presentation, producing a period piece that becomes one of the filmmaker's most accessible, sensationalized works yet.

While it's not as memorable and distinctive as some of Coppola's other works, there's a richness and lavishness to this production that allows the sweltering potboiler plot to become all the more intriguing, even as it plays out in expected fashion. Aided by its starry ensemble, including Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell, along with Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning reteaming with the filmmaker, The Beguiled presents a pointedly more feminine perspective to this already women-driven story, becoming another accomplished win for the moviemaker.

While the revenge aspects seem oddly muted, Sofia Coppola is more invested in the characters' layers, particularly as she once again studies young women caught in an emotional haze of uncertainty and yearning for the outside world they cannot grasp. It's not Coppola's best, but it's also hard to dismiss. It's undeniably... beguiling.

4. On The Rocks (2020)

While often light, Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, her newest film, is also one of her most mature and reflective, going down as smoothly as a well-mixed martini while also leaving a lovely aftertaste. It results in a delicately dry, warmly bittersweet concoction that contemplates aging, ancestry, and acceptance while never sacrificing its entertainment value, becoming a wistful melody filled with heart and humor that provides Bill Murray with another great showcase for his singular star power, while also allowing Rashida Jones and Marlon Wayans to demonstrate their undervalued dramatic talents.

Similar to Somewhere, Coppola's latest father-daughter dramedy uses extravagance and decadence to explore the laissez-faire lives of its well-to-do characters. But where the former was shortsighted by Stephen Dorff's uninvolving performance, Murray's nuanced, tenderly regretful Felix remains a charming, captivating parental figure, while also being reflectively funny and emotionally resonant. It's not Lost in Translation, but it's a lovely reunion.

3. Marie Antoinette (2006)

Though it was initially divisive (notably with a contentious Cannes debut), Sofia Coppola's daring, punk-rock interpretation of Queen Marie Antoinette's short life is full of spunk and attitude, resulting in a sumptuous, scandalous historical account that deliberately doesn't follow the time period too closely, yet it captures the spirit of being young and ravenous, all while having the expectations of the world thrown onto your shoulders.

Featuring one of Kirsten Dunst's best, most vulnerable performances in the title role, Coppola's vivid, energetic filmmaking is among her most inspired and captivating, displaying a beautiful boldness that results in some of her most stunning creative choices and captivating artistic liberties. These aesthetic decisions helped Marie Antoinette discover its cult following.

Splendidly dazzling and posh in its costuming, color scheme, and art direction, while boosting a liberated soul and a wild-at-heart personality to effectively counterbalance against its formal appearances, Coppola's third feature has its cake and eats it too.

2. Lost In Translation (2003)

Inspired by the filmmaker's time in Japan while promoting The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation is the film that, for audiences and critics alike, solidified Sofia Coppola as a premier young talent, while also cementing Bill Murray's status as a dynamic dramatic actor and paving the way for Scarlett Johansson's career ascension.

Once again tackling disassociation, displacement, and alienation, Coppola's more refrained, searching sophomore feature is still filled with the lyrical, enveloping qualities discovered in her previous film. But through Murray's quietly pained, gently yearning performance, as well as the director's growing confidence to defy narrative conventions, Coppola demonstrated exceptional range, along with the poeticism that made Virgin Suicides so haunting.

While not faultless, notably with several critics questioning its depiction of race, Lost in Translation is an immensely poignant feature, filled with pathos and understated character depth, that proved that Coppola's first filmmaking success was no fluke. With Lost in Translation, she kept finding and honing her style to great acclaim.

1. The Virgin Suicides (1999)

While Sofia Coppola continues to become more distinctive and distinguished in her evolving career, there's still a keenly-observed innocence and rapturous sense of disassociation and desolation to her soulful coming-of-age feature directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides, that's hard to top.

From its affecting sense of place, time, and character, to its well-honed look at depression and stewing trauma that's at once divine and devasting, Coppola makes a gorgeously evocative work of nostalgia and introspection, one that's both coated in somber remorse and filled with momentous vibrancy and invigoration. It's a credit to any filmmaker who can find this balance so richly and movingly. To know it comes from a director's debut makes it all-the-more incredible. Few filmmakers reach these heights, let alone during their first swing.

What's so impressive about Virgin Suicides is how much of Coppola's signature style was established from the first frame onward. The disquieting sense of malaise and melancholy painted inside this Jeffrey Eugenides adaptation is profound and poetically painful. The tale of these tragic suicides was an astounding start to her filmmaking career.

What's your favorite Sofia Coppola film? Tell us below!

Sofia Coppola hasn’t made a movie since 2017’s The Beguiled, but she’s back with a modern dramedy this time around. And she’s signed on major talent in Bill Murray and Rashida Jones to boot. The two play a father-daughter duo in the new movie who don’t always get along but who team up to see what Jones’ overly busy husband has been up to.

Also starring Marlon Wayans, Jenny Slate, Jessica Henwick and more, On The Rocks is coming from A24 and is scheduled to hit theaters in October of this year, though we’ll have to wait and see if theaters continue rolling out movies at a quick clip in the months to come. Meanwhile, you can catch the excellent first trailer for the movie, below.

The trailer, while featuring some great verbal back-and-forth from the always-likable Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, is often playful and amusing, though it does have a tinge of sadness behind it. That’s because Murray’s character Felix is convinced his daughter’s husband is cheating and Jones’ Laura even knows her life is in a rut. What follows is a lot of conversation over food and what looks to be a fun road trip in a zippy roadster.

If you’ve been keeping tabs on what Apple or A24 have been up to recently, you may know the two companies have partnered up to produce some original content. The first movie in this partnership just so happens to be On The Rocks, so we’ll have to wait and see if that helps to get some extra eyeballs on the content A24 has been putting out. In fact, the movie will be hitting Apple TV and theaters, so there will be a few different ways to catch it when it comes out.

The movie actually filmed all the way back in June of 2019, but as has happened with a lot of projects lately, it's taking a while for On The Rocks to see its theatrical debut. That will be changing soon, however. The trailer itself simply says "coming soon," which actually seems ominous to me, like the team behind it didn't want to slap a date on in case it needed to change. However, given its simultaneous release on Apple TV I'm probably reading into things. The flick is expected to release this coming October, with a specific day to be listed later.

Meanwhile, as theaters like AMC and Regal begin opening up in the U.S. with new safety precautions, we should be hearing about more and more movies getting official release dates. You can take a look at what the calendar has to offer so far. All that is still subject to change, of course, but we'll keep you updated about everything movies related in this wild time we're living in.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has had a relatively rocky history when it comes to recognizing the efforts of female directors in the industry. Luckily, we can say that some women have been nominated for (and even took home) the Best Director Oscar, and even for films that became Best Picture Oscar winners.

In either instance, the list is still a mere handful in both at the moment. Let’s take a closer look at this rare yet often discussed topic by reviewing the women who have competed and proved victorious in this Oscar category so far.

Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties)

The late Lina Wertmüller had nine feature-length directing credits under her belt, two of which she directed under male pseudonyms, before she became the first woman to be nominated by the Academy for Best Director in 1977. The film was Seven Beauties – the American title given to this World War II-era Italian drama starring Wertmüller’s frequent collaborator Giancarlo Giannini as a prisoner of a German concentration camp with a dark past and seven unattractive sisters that we learn more about through flashbacks.

Seven Beauties was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director, but lost in every category, and Wertmüller, who lost to Rocky director John G. Avildsen was never nominated again. However, in 2020, the then-91-year-old Italian filmmaker became one of the year’s recipients of the traditional honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, alongside David Lynch and Wes Studi.

Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation)

Ten years after The Piano earned Jane Campion a Best Screenplay win (but a Best Director loss – more on that later), history would prove to repeat itself. In 2004, Sofia Coppola (daughter of Oscar-winning The Godfather helmer Francis Ford Coppola) received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, for her sophomore directorial effort, Lost In Translation.

The dark, quasi-romantic comedy – considered one of the best movies of the 2000s – featured an Academy Award-nominated performance by Bill Murray as a fading movie star who strikes up an unlikely friendship with the young neglected wife of an entertainment photographer, played by Scarlett Johansson, while in Tokyo. Coppola lost in the Best Director category that year to Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but accepted Lost in Translation’s sole Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay.

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Anticipation for the 2010 Oscars proved to be an exciting time, especially for the Best Director category with Lee Daniels (the second Black director to receive a nomination, for his historical drama The Butler) and The Hurt Locker helmer Kathryn Bigelow (the fourth woman to be nominated in the category) among the year’s nominees. It would prove to be a night of history in the making once the winner was announced.

While presenting the award, Barbra Streisand made a point of mentioning that this could be the first time the winner for Best Director could be a woman or an African-American before opening the envelope to reveal that, in a category that also included Jason Reitman, Quentin Tarantino, and James Cameron, Bigelow came out on top. For her expert direction of one of the best war movies of its time (which also won in five additional categories, including Best Picture), Bigelow made it possible to say that a woman has won the Oscar for Best Director… for the first time, at least.

Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)

Greta Gerwig’s Academy Award nomination for Best Director in 2018 was a big deal, and not just because she was the fifth woman to earn the nod. Her directorial debut, Lady Bird, received plenty of love at the Golden Globes that year, earning star Saoirse Ronan a lead actress award and being crowned Best Picture in the Musical or Comedy division. However, Gerwig’s sole nomination was Best Screenplay, which Best Director award presenter Natalie Portman famously commented on before listing the “all male nominees,” causing co-presenter Ron Howard to awkwardly chuckle.

The coming-of-age dramatic comedy, chronicling the struggles of a Catholic high school student in early 2000s Sacramento, received five Oscar nominations, none of which it won. However, seeing Gerwig acknowledged by the Academy for directing the highly acclaimed Lady Bird was praised as a wonderful achievement, nonetheless. However, it would also make her snub in 2020 for Little Women and again for Barbie at the 2024 Academy Awards a disappointment in the eyes of many.

Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

The backlash from Gerwig’s directorial snub for Little Women seemed to speak volumes to the Academy based on their choices in the Best Director the following year. For instance, Emerald Fennell’s debut, Promising Young Woman – a darkly comic revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan in her second Oscar-nominated performance – earned five nominations, including Best Director.

The English filmmaker would accept the award for Best Original Screenplay, but did not take home Best Director. However, if it is any consolation, a woman did win Best Director that year.

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)

For the first time ever, two women were simultaneously included among the Best Director nominees in 2021, which also included Lee Isaac Chung for Minari, David Fincher for Mank, and Thomas Vinterburg for Another Round. The other female contender, in addition to Emerald Fennell, was Chloé Zhao for Nomadland, which stars Frances McDormand as a woman who joins a real-life culture of people who travel the country in vans they call their homes.

The drama – which also stars non-celebrities portraying themselves representing their nomadic lifestyle – took home three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress for McDormand (her third), and Best Director for Zhao. In addition to being the second woman to win in the category, she is also the first woman of color to receive the nomination in the first place.

Jane Campion (The Piano, The Power Of The Dog)

Seventeen years after Lina Wertmüller’s revolutionary Best Director nomination, New Zealander Jane Campion became the second woman to receive the honorable nod – one of eight Oscar nominations given to 1993’s The Piano. The harrowing 19th-century drama earned star Holly Hunter (who was up for two different acting categories that same year) and her onscreen daughter, then 11-year-old Anna Paquin, statuettes for their performances. Campion also won for her screenplay but lost Best Director to first-time winner Steven Spielberg for Schindler’s List.

However, in 2021, Campion released a Netflix original Western movie called The Power of the Dog – an adaptation of Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel following the relationship between an intimidating cattle rancher (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and his new sister-in-law’s son (Kodi Smit-McPhee). It became the first film directed by a woman to be nominated for more than 10 Academy Awards but only took home one: Best Director. Thus, Campion – after becoming the first woman to be nominated in said category twice – became the third woman to take home the prize in 2022.  

Justine Triet (Anatomy Of A Fall)

While Barbie helmer Greta Gerwig was not among the nominees for the Best Director Oscar in 2024, it was not a completely male-dominated race. In addition to Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon, Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things, and Jonathan Glaser for The Zone of Interest, Justine Triet was nominated for Anatomy of a Fall.

The French crime drama – starring Best Actress nominee Sandra Hüller as a mother standing trial for her husband’s mysterious death – was recognized in five categories, including Best Original Screenplay Triet and Arthur Harari, which is the only Oscar the film took home. Nolan ended up winning Best Director for Oppenheimer, which also won Best Picture, but seeing a female contender in that race – especially amid Gerwig’s snub – still made it an exciting one.

The Substance (2024)

The CinemaBlend staff's collective pick for the best movie of 2024 has also been hailed as one of the best horror movies in recent memory, The Substance. The story of an aging actor (played by Demi Moore) who takes a black market drug to create a "better version" of herself (played by Margaret Qualley) was the heartbreaking, thought-provoking, outrageous, and often disgusting vision of Coralie Fargeat, who absolutely deserved a Best Director nomination in my eyes.

Luckily, the Academy agreed, and the French filmmaker received a 2025 Academy Award nomination for her innovative and refreshingly hands-on directorial style, in addition to four others for the body horror thriller, including Best Actress for Moore, Best Original Screenplay for Fargeat, and Best Picture. The Substance ended up only taking home a well-deserved Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar for Pierre Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli's incredible work, while Sean Baker was named Best Director for Anora, which also earned Best Picture. Still, Fargeat's nomination marks a milestone for the rarely recognized horror genre.

For now, the record stands with nine women receiving the Best Director nomination (including two nominations total for Campion), and three winners among them. So, it appears that seeing women in this category (and even winning) is becoming a bit more common for the Oscars. Perhaps with more female filmmakers coming onto the scene and an increased rise in acknowledgment of their contributions to cinema, its commonality will only continue to grow.

Remakes have a terrible reputation in Hollywood (a reputation admittedly earned through decades of studio mistakes), but Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled is a great example of how to properly bring back a previously adapted story. Rather than just being a straight re-do of something we've seen before, it makes more sense to use remakes as a means of exploring angles and perceptions that were ignored the previous time around. That's exactly what Coppola has built with her latest film -- and while it's an imperfect product, it is also a well-told tale anchored by a handful of terrific performances.

The Beguiled, based on the book "A Painted Devil" by author Thomas P. Cullinan, was previously made into a movie by director Don Siegel with star Clint Eastwood back in 1971 -- and the big difference with Sofia Coppola's version is that it tells the story predominantly from the perspective of its primarily female ensemble. Set in Virginia during the middle of the American Civil War, the film centers on a seminary for young girls, which has been kept as a residence for the school's headmistress (Nicole Kidman), teacher (Kirsten Dunst) and students (Elle Fanning, Angourie Rice, Oona Laurence, Emma Howard, and Addison Riecke) as the fighting continues.

The on-going war creates enough stress and problems as it is, but things become seriously compounded when young Amy (Laurence) discovers a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell) while she is out picking mushrooms for dinner. She winds up rescuing the man, who identifies himself as Corporal John McBurney, and while Miss Martha (Kidman) permits him to stay in the seminary's music room until he is healed, all of the women are incredibly wary about having a Yankee in the house. Slowly but surely John winds up ingratiating himself with the girls and trying to make them comfortable with him -- but it also has the effect of ramping up an atmosphere of sexual tension, which winds up boiling over in horrific fashion.

Sofia Coppola successfully uses this story to carve out some fantastic character dynamics and atmosphere - while handling a narrative that never quite delivers enough twists and turns. The Beguiled leans heavily on the mess of connections that exist between John and Miss Martha, the chaste schoolteacher Edwina (Dunst), and the eldest student, Alicia (Fanning), but leans primarily on internalized conflict rather than following a Hitchcock-esque plot that radically changes your perception on what's really happening from scene to scene. As such, coming at this movie with expectations of a bit more story and intrigue may be met with disappointment -- even while being treated to some really fantastic character work.

To that end, The Beguiled winds up being a vehicle for some fantastic performers delivering some of the best work we've seen from them in years. It's a project that requires a certain amount of chemistry to exist between every single character, and the marvelous cast delivers through and through. Colin Farrell is certainly given a great deal of heavy lifting, as John has a different kind of relationship with each of the women in the household, but each dynamic is as engaging as the last, and it's what drives the stakes way up as the movie dives into its violent and thrilling third act.

Much like Sofia Coppola's last period piece, Marie Antoinette, the setting of The Beguiled presented opportunity for a special feel -- and the film is truly stunning. It leans into the Southern Gothic motif with gorgeous shadow and natural light-fueled cinematography, but really, every aesthetic choice feels delicate and tactful -- from the incredible estate where the bulk of the story unfolds, to the striking Civil War-era dresses worn by the women during supper. If the phrase "hauntingly beautiful" was ever appropriate anywhere, this is the place.

Those interested in The Beguiled would do themselves a favor avoiding the movie's theatrical trailer -- which is both spoiler-filled and a weird manipulation of the overall tone -- and go into the film with greater expectation of Civil War drama than psychosexual thriller (though it certainly is that in parts). That said, it's a beautiful piece of work, a tremendous actor showcase, and a fine example of how to rework a previously adapted story.

Sofia Coppola's remake of The Beguiled has multiple changes compared to its novel source material and director Don Siegel's 1971 adaptation with Clint Eastwood. Perhaps the most significant is that the story is told from the perspective of the women characters instead of Colin Farrell's Cpl. John McBurney, but there is also a notable change in the ensemble. In the original story, the Virginia-based Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies is also home to a young slave girl named Hattie -- but Coppola's film doesn't include her. I asked the director about this alteration at the Beguiled Los Angeles press day earlier this month, and her explanation was rather straight forward:

Given that The Beguiled is set in the middle of the American Civil War, it would have been historically accurate for the film to have a slave character, but making that decision comes with a lot of baggage, and Sofia Coppola made the choice to not carry it as an element in her movie. It seems she feels that it would have been inappropriate to include the character and not address the incredibly vital issue of slavery -- which simply wasn't a part of the story she wanted to tell.

It's an understandable quandary -- highlighted by the fact that The Beguiled is only 94 minutes long. As it stands, there isn't a great deal of real estate when it comes to establishing the central narrative thrust of the film, which sees some psychosexual tension play out between Colin Farrell's John McBurney and the seminary's headmistress (Nicole Kidman), teacher (Kirsten Dunst), and oldest student (Elle Fanning). There isn't a ton of room available for an important discussion about the horrific events that plagued the nation at that time in American history -- so there was a choice between not including it, short-changing it, or having it potentially de-rail the movie. Sofia Coppola went with option A.

You can watch Sofia Coppola discuss her decision not to feature Hattie in her adaptation of The Beguiled by clicking play on the video below.

The Beguiled, which stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Colin Farrell, Oona Laurence, and Angourie Rice, is now out in limited release and will be going wide this Friday, June 30th.

Two movie studios currently have their own live action Little Mermaid movie in development. There's the Disney version, which is remaking the 1989 animated movie of the same name, and then there's the Universal version, which will be more faithful to the original fairy tale. In 2014, Oscar-winning director Sofia Coppola was hired to helm the latter movie, but by June 2015, she'd dropped out. Now Coppola has attributed her departure from The Little Mermaid to the underwater shoot being too difficult to handle. Coppola explained:

During the "An Evening with Sofia Coppola" event at New York City's Film Society of Lincoln Center earlier this week, Sofia Coppola elaborated (via Indiewire) on her time with The Little Mermaid. While Coppola had previously said that her exit from the Universal feature was due to its scale, this time around she pointed specifically to the daunting task of filming underwater, as the quality of the footage was ultimately not to her liking. Besides Disney's Little Mermaid movie, the only immediate upcoming Hollywood project that faces that same obstacle is Aquaman, so we'll see how director James Wan fares with the DC movie's underwater environment late next year.

But it wasn't just the underwater filming that bothered Sofia Coppola about The Little Mermaid. She also took issue with how the business elements of making the movie were affecting her artistic sensibilities. As she put it:

With the complications of filming underwater and being uncomfortable with businesslike approach, it's understandable that Sofia Coppola decided she didn't want to direct The Little Mermaid anymore. Since leaving the project, Coppola turned her attention to The Beguiled, which is now playing in theaters and has been earning decent reception. No doubt, though, that her experience with The Little Mermaid changed her thought process about getting involved in certain Hollywood blockbusters.

As it stands now, Universal's Little Mermaid is still in the developmental stage. Chloë Grace Moretz was cast to play the eponymous protagonist after Coppola left, but then she exited the project in September 2016. Love Actually director and scribe Richard Curtis was working on the latest screenplay, and Electrick Children's Rebecca Thomas is credited as the new director, but ever since Moretz dropped out, there haven't been any major updates on The Little Mermaid's progress. Once it's been announced when the fairy tale blockbuster is finally moving into production or when it will be released, we'll be sure to let you know.

It's quite common for an actor or actress to change his or her appearance for a movie role. Sometimes this has to do with changing hair color or adding facial hair, or even getting into shape. Occasionally, though, an actor or actress will even have to gain or lose weight for a role. But if you think that if a director asks an actor to lose weight, it's an automatic guarantee it will happen, think again. Recently, Kirsten Dunst revealed that Sofia Coppola asked her to lose weight for her latest role in The Beguiled. Her Answer? Think again. Here's what the longtime actress had to say:

The Beguiled is a southern story that filmed in rural Louisiana. If you know anything about food down South, it's easy to see why eating what she wanted was her priority, and not working to be a skinny Minnie, which she says is a lot harder now that she's out of her teens and twenties. Considering the movie shot in full in 26 days, she probably had plenty of eatin' to do while she was on the set, at least when there was fried chicken around.

There's nothing wrong with getting cut for a movie or even looking thin and pristine, which may have been what Sofia Coppola was hoping for, considering The Beguiled is set during the Civil War when battles were more plentiful than food production. However, Kirsten Dunst told Variety that saying no to going to the effort of losing weight was not a deal breaker for the director, who was "understanding" of her reasoning. It's not the only instance when Coppola had the actress' back, either, as she also helped her through an awkward sex scene with her co-star Colin Farrell.

So many parts are lost if people don't look a particular way for a movie, so it's somewhat refreshing to hear an actress say she is comfortable with her body and wouldn't change it just for one gig. Still, it probably helps that Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst go way back. The two have made several movies together, and Kirsten Dunst definitely had to stuff herself in a corset for one of them, 2005's Marie Antoinette. A bond like that is often unshakeable, and we're happy they are working together again on The Beguiled.

You can catch The Beguiled when it hits theaters on June 23, 2017. In the meantime, you can see what all is coming up during the warm months with our summer movies schedule.

Sex scenes are nothing new in the world of movies. Stories told on film are generally a reflection of the real world, which means that love, sex, and everything that goes along with those ideas will inevitably be portrayed on the silver screen. However, that is not to say that filming a sex scene is a picnic for actors. Kirsten Dunst recently addressed her intense sex scene with Colin Farrell in Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled, and it sounds like she didn't enjoy the process. Dunst explained:

Kirsten Dunst recently opened up to E! about the compromising nature of her sex scene with Colin Farrell in Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled during an appearance at CinemaCon. All in all, it doesn't sound like the most romantic experience for anyone involved. The scene was intense, it took place on the floor of the set, and required her clothes to be ripped off; so yeah, we can't say that we blame her for feeling uncomfortable with the process.

Despite Kirsten Dunst's inherent aversion to the sex scene, it's worth pointing out the fact that her protests were acknowledged. Sofia Coppola still shot the scene, but she made a very specific point to run through it as quickly as possible to make sure that Ms. Dunst didn't find herself in a compromising position longer than necessary. Beyond that, Colin Farrell also addressed the uncomfortable nature of the scene, and made sure to acknowledge that he wanted Dunst to have complete control of their dynamic to make sure that she felt as comfortable as possible.

It has become a fairly well-documented fact that sex scenes are some of the most notoriously uncomfortable sequences to film for an actor. While most performers tend to sell the idea that audiences are peeking into an intimate moment between two (or more) people, the fact of the matter is that there's quite a bit going on behind the scenes to make a sex scene pop on camera. Between the presence of sound and lighting people, as well as the awkward breaks between shooting, the process of shooting a love scene isn't exactly an a loving experience in reality.

The Beguiled is the latest in a line of collaborations between the former Mary Jane Watson and Sofia Coppola. The film is a remake of a 1971 film of the same name, and centers on a Civil War soldier who finds himself taken to a boarding school for girls after sustaining wounds in battle. As he recuperates, the women at the school begin to fall for him and fight for his attention -- hence the aggressive sex scene in the film. In addition to Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell, the film's cast also includes Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning.

The Beguiled will make its theatrical debut on June 30.

In the earlier phases of his career, Clint Eastwood was mostly known for his Western pictures, as he took the world by storm with appearances in such films as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and High Plains Drifter. One of his lesser known films from that era, the 1971 drama The Beguiled, is looking to be remade by none other than auteur director, Sophia Copolla. As an added cherry on top, Eastwood's lead role has been filled by the just as charming Colin Farrell, promising a good time with a charismatic lead.

Variety got wind of the plans to remake the Don Siegel directed original, which saw Eastwood playing a soldier on the northern side of the Civil War, and winding up in the crosshairs of some very lonely women at an all-girls school. On board to co-star as some of those women are Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Kirsten Dunst with Sofia Copolla looking to not only direct the film, but also to write its script.

Adapting The Beguiled should be an interesting feat for Copolla's steady pen, as we dug up the trailer for the 1971 original film, and it's definitely seems like a film that she'd be adept at modernizing. Let's just say the story of a man who breaks hearts all around an all-girls school, and ends up suffering physical pain and eventually death at their hands, may need a little sprucing before going before cameras at an unspecified time. See for yourself with the 1971 trailer to The Beguiled, included below.

The Beguiled would be Sofia Copolla's first directorial project since 2013' s The Bling Ring, as well as her first picture working with Colin Farrell. Farrell, on the other hand, has kept his high profile over the years in films like The Lobster and Seven Psychopaths, which has kept his talents fresh with the movie-going public. But what intrigues us is the fact that these two haven't made a film together up until now. Surely with their overlapping skill-sets, you'd think they'd have at least bumped into each other for a short form film. Yet here they are, together at last.

A Colin Farrell remake of a classic Clint Eastwood film doesn't always sound like an idea that'd work, yet dropping him in the middle of The Beguiled makes more sense the more you talk it out. With Farrell as the roguishly handsome trouble maker, and a phenomenal supporting cast that'll go along with it, only to turn the tables in the end, this project is starting to sound like a perfect example of what a remake can do in its best context. We'll be keeping an eye out for this one, and we encourage you to do the same.

There must be something in the air in Hollywood as of late, as departure seems to be the word on the minds of quite a few creative types. First we lost Cary Fukunaka as he departed the It remake; then Henry Cavill left Stratton mere weeks before production was going to start. Now, we've got word that Sofia Coppola has left that world under the sea, as she's departed from the live action remake of The Little Mermaid.

Deadline has the scoop, citing "creative differences" as the main thrust behind the dissolution. This isn't the only director The Little Mermaid has lost during its production cycle, as Anna Karenina director Joe Wright was also once set to bring this film to life. The project, which had set up shop at Universal Pictures as a co-production with Working Title, was supposed to be a "darker" version of the classic fairy tale. Knowing Sofia Coppola's work, this was probably the beginning of the problems that would eventually cause Coppola to split.

With Kelly Marcel and Abi Morgan writing drafts of the script, and Sofia Coppola at the helm, there's a good chance this film may not have stuck with the light and simple route a studio like Universal would want to take in order to compete with the live-action remakes that Disney is currently having a lot of success producing. It’s possible that the studio wanted the Little Mermaid that ends with a wedding on a boat; while Coppola probably had the more traditional, tragic suicide in mind for the big bow.

While the former is the safer idea, and easiest to put into effect, the possibility of a true retelling of The Little Mermaid is too good to pass up. While Coppola may have a bit of a problem making any of her films seem anything other than aloof hipster bait, The Little Mermaid might have been the sort of film that could benefit from such an outlook. It's a lot of speculation, but besides a Funny Or Die short and whatever details may leak out between now and whenever a new director signs on, this is all we really have to go on.

It's sad to see Sofia Coppola's The Little Mermaid get taken down before it had a chance to give Disney a run for its money. However, if you're still interested in seeing a live action revamp in the offing, then you'll be pleased to know that Universal is still very much in the mermaid business at this moment - which means we'll probably hear about a replacement director within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more info.

Who wouldn’t want to work with Bill Murray? And during the holiday season. I’m not sure any other two things in the world could bring that much joy. So naturally, the stars are aligning for what is becoming a totally weird (and totally rad!) Netflix Christmas Special. Miley Cyrus, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and George Clooney are among the celebrity cast, and Clooney recently spilled the beans on just how weird this Christmas party is going to be.

While on the road promoting his upcoming Disney film Tomorrowland, George Clooney stopped by CBS’ Late Show With David Letterman and chatted about a certain Christmas special he’d been filming. He told Letterman:

Let’s just take a moment to visualize the ridiculousness Clooney described. You have Clooney, Oscar-winning actor, sitting on a piano bench as he and Paul Shaffer (Letterman’s band leader/sidekick) pretend to sing in what’s bound to be a hysterical lip-syncing scenario. And then there’s an instance where New York’s Christmastime representatives, The Rockettes, probably dressed as reindeer, pull a sleigh with Clooney and Miley Cyrus aboard. All this under the direction of Lost in Translation collaborators Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray. Damn are we in for a treat.

We already knew this variety special would host a whole slew of sketches and songs, and with Bill Murray heading the project, there’s no doubt some hilarity to ensue. From the sound of it, the special will feature celebrities bringing our favorite Christmas carols to life, from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to “Silent Night” and everything in between. The celebrities added to the show will be playing themselves, or some version of themselves in what Murray describes as a “little movie” with music and texture. This basically sounds like the Hollywood office party we’ve all been dying to see.

We have yet to hear if there is any specific plot carrying this “little movie” and wonder if Bill Murray will be reprising his cynical role as Frank Cross in the 1988 movie Scrooged. Could these celebs be representing the three Christmas Spirits visiting Murray?

News is slowly coming out about the Christmas special, and Paul Shaffer confirmed that it will indeed be coming out this coming winter on Netflix, but with no exact date confirmed quite yet.

While many people would die to have Bill Murray show up at their front door this December for caroling, everyone will just have to make do with the esteemed actor belting out Christmas hits on their televisions instead. (Though it is still entirely possible he’ll inexplicably arrive at someone’s house this holiday season.) Murray has announced he’s going to star in a Christmas special for which he will put his golden pipes to work. I’m guessing “Slimer the Green-Nosed Spectre” won’t be on his karaoke list.

For this project, Murray will be reteaming with Lost in Translation director Sophia Coppola, who will be spearheading the special. As you can imagine from an announcement coming from Murray, there aren’t many details that have been finalized; but then, formulating a plan around “Bill Murray sings ‘Silent Night’” just feels pointless. Here’s how the actor summed it up to Variety.

Variety specials used to be a regular thing on TV, especially during the holiday, but that hasn’t really been the case for a while now. Leave it to someone as enigmatic as Bill Murray to attempt to revitalize the format, and power to Coppola for stepping outside of her comfort zone to put this thing together. Though she’s written some TV in the distant past, this will be her first small screen directorial effort.

“Not sure when it will air,” Coppola told Variety, “but my motivation is to hear him singing my song requests.” Considering the vast array of songs that qualify as Christmas tunes – from part of the Chipmunks catalog to “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” – it will be extremely interesting to see how off-kilter this program will get. We all remember how Murray gets around Christmas time.

Murray recently showcased his vocal talents in Theodore Melfi’s comedy St. Vincent, for which The Weinstein Company paid for the rights to use Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm.” He’ll also be seen in the musically oriented comedy Rock the Kasbah from Barry Levinson. It’s not clear whether the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge will feature any melodic sequences, nor the animated films B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations or The Jungle Book. But the good thing about being a human is you can always pretend that Bill Murray is singing to you.

Be on the lookout for a network pickup and a premiere date for this special coming down your chimney at any point.

Like her or hate her, writer/director Sofia Coppola definitely tends to make films with a very authorial, recognizable voice. Her movies tend to be slow, drawn out stories with characters feeling a certain level of malaise while being photographed with high levels of light. We've seen the director's trademark style in movies like Lost In Translation, Somewhere and The Bling Ring, and we expect to see more of it in her upcoming adaptation of The Little Mermaid. The problem is that some comedians have already beat her to the punch.

Posted on Funny or Die and starring AnnaSophia Robb and Evan Peters, this parody trailer for Sofia Coppola's The Little Mermaid is a perfect aping of the filmmaker's most noticeable trademarks , even down to the fact that the lead is a former child actor. The comedy of the video is best when it more captures the spirit of Coppola's work, but there are also some very recognizable moments from the director's past work. Notice something familiar about Ariel and Eric sitting together on pool loungers?

That's because it's taken directly from the poster for Somewhere:

And how about this whispering at the end?

Taken straight from the ending of Lost in Translation.

(I was actually kind of hoping for a "Hail Hydra")

For those of you waiting for the real thing to arrive, Coppola only signed on to direct her own live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid in March, so the project is likely still very much in the early stages. Caroline Thompson, the writer of Edward Scissorhands is handling the script based on the classic Hans Christian Anderson story, and while we've heard that the movie will be "darker" than previous adaptations, we don't know much about it beyond that. Stay tuned for more details!

"They robbed Paris Hilton. They robbed Lindsay Lohan. What kids would have the balls to do that?" asks Bling Ring star Israel Broussard in the featurette above.

Back in 2008-2009, the celebs who reside in the Hollywood Hills were plagued by a pernicious problem: thieving posers. The press dubbed them the "Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch," and "The Bling Ring." They were a pack of teens who were so obsessed with Los Angeles' celeb culture, luxurious labels, and materialism that it drove them to break into the homes of Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Rachel Bilson, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan. How, you might ask? They tracked their travels through gossip blogs, then googled their addresses. Turns out security in the Hills was shockingly lax. All told, they stole over $3 million in cash, clothes, and accessories from these fashionable LA residents. But it's not their crimes as much as their motivation that intrigued writer-director Sofia Coppola.

Her new comedy The Bling Ring gives this crew new names and tons of swagger as it explores what drove wealthy teens to outrageous crimes. And in the behind-the-scenes clip above, you're offered a look at the Bling Ring as Coppola imagines them. Coppola explains she attempted to understand this story from the Ring's point of view, one that is intoxicated by the possibility of fame that floods every aspect of their lives. The film's most noteworthy name is Emma Watson, playing homeschooled party girl Nicki. Aside from figuring out an L.A. accent, the British ingénue also had to let her own personal fashion rules go to properly play this outspoken exhibitionist. That means super short skirts, visible cleavage, and tramp stamp tattoos. In the words of one the Bling Ring's idols, "That's hot."

The Bling Ring opens in limited release on June 14th. More theaters will follows on June 21st.

Hollywood is a place where dreams come true! And for a batch of besties crazy for couture and glitzy jewelry, their dream was to take what they wanted by any means necessary. For the Bling Ring, this meant tracking the movements of celebs like Audrina Patridge, Rachel Bilson, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox and Paris Hilton, then pilfering their places while these stars were out on the town.

For her follow-up to the critically heralded father-daughter drama Somewhere, writer-director Sofia Coppola spun the true story of these wild and entitled teenagers into a new crime dramedy called Bling Ring. Emma Watson heads up the cast, shedding her Harry Potter good girl image with the help of a tramp stamp tattoo, scandalously short shorts, and plenty of bad girl behavior. Get a look at her in action in Bling Ring's newly revealed teaser:

Even though this teaser clocks in under the minute mark, it deftly displays a kinetic energy and clearly unveils the draw of these crafty crimes. Just imagine sauntering into the homes of the insanely wealthy and making their closets—packed with gorgeous clothes, dazzling jewelry, and unfairly fabulous footwear—your own personal grab bag. It'd be a hell of a ride…at least until the cops catch on.

Personally, I'm curious to see how Coppola will characterize these thieving fashionistas. A long-time member of the Los Angeles elite, she likely knows several of their victims. Could she possibly empathize with their perverted path to the materialistic self-fulfillment, even if they robbed some of her pals? We'll find out when The Bling Ring opens in limited release on June 14th.

The Bling Ring promises to be different than any other movie Sofia Coppola has directed thus far. While it will still a movie about rich people - I guess she doesn't want to stray too far from her bread and butter - it's also a crime caper and should move at a much different pace than Coppola's previous efforts.

The film is based on the true story of a group of rich teens in California who decide to start a heist gang and begin robbing celebrity's houses (including those of Lindsay Lohan and Megan Fox). Though the cast largely consists of newcomers, the movie does star Emma Watson and Leslie Mann and Paris Hilton, Kirsten Dunst and Gavin Rossdale will all be making cameos. We've already seen a couple shots from the set of The Bling Ring, but today comes the first official still.

Posted over at EW, the image features (from left to right), Georgia Rock, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Katie Chang, and Claire Pfister. Check out the image below and full size over at the source.

The film is being distributed by FilmNation Entertainment but doesn't currently have a release date.

In 2008 and 2009, the Hollywood Hills was plagued by a batch of devious criminals who exploited the celebrity-obsessed Internet culture to track the movements of the rich and famous as a means of knowing when their luxurious homes were ripe for robbery. These crafty crooks reportedly pilfered more than $3 million in cash and flashy belongings from the likes of Audrina Partridge, Rachel Bilson, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox and Paris Hilton. Their outrageous burglaries caused a media sensation once they were caught and revealed to be teenagers. It seemed like something out of a movie, and soon it will be.

Inspired by these bold bandits unconventional quest for riches and fame, Sofia Coppola has made the Hollywood Hills Burglars the focus of her next feature The Bling Ring. True to form, Coppola's cast a few up-and-coming ingénues—including Taissa Farmiga, Katie Chang, Claire Pfister and Georgia Rock—but the biggest star among The Bling Ring girls is Harry Potter's Emma Watson. The graceful Brit who has long played uptight bookworm Hermione Granger seems sure to shake up her image playing celeb-robber Nicki, a California girl with some curious fashion choices.

WWTDD has uncovered some shots from the set of the now-shooting Bling Ring, giving us a first glimpse of Watson gone L.A. party girl. In the first we see what a difference a wig makes. Watson's charming pixie cut is buried under some moody Kristen Stewart-styled locks, then a cute pair of shorts and a bra masquerading as a top are topped off by a leather jacket to give the ensemble a badass flair.

The second snapshot features Watson in repose, which gives us a chance to eye Nicki's seriously tacky heels.

And lastly we get two shots from behind that reveal a massive lower back tattoo peaking out of the top of her Daisy Dukes. From these shots, it's easy to see The Bling Ring will reveal a different side of Watson.

The Bling Ring is now shooting in Los Angeles, California. It's expected to hit theaters in 2013.

Some celebrities trade refinement and elegance at their weddings for a more natural and rustic vibe, but director Sofia Coppola has taken that idea of tradition-laced, home-spun nuptials and pushed it all the way back to the Old World. She's set to marry her longtime boyfriend Thomas Mars of the rock band Phoenix this afternoon in an Italian ceremony described as simple but beautiful by Leonardo Chiruzzi. He just happens to be the mayor of the town Coppola's great-grandfather was born in, and he'll be overseeing the festivities today in Bernalda, a town just off the Gulf of Taranto. It's located on the arch of the boot, for those of you who haven't lived in Italy.

According to the Associated Press, the guest list for the ceremony has not been made public, but Coppola's famous father Francis Ford and his wife of almost fifty years Eleanor are expected to be in attendance, along with aunt Talia Shire and friend Johnny Depp. It's one thing to spend a Saturday at a wedding in Los Angeles, but journeying to small town Italy is a real commitment.

Sofia Coppola was married once before to acclaimed fellow director Spike Jonze, but the union ended in divorce in 2003. She met Thomas Mars when he worked on the soundtrack for her film The Virgin Suicides, but they didn't become romantically involved until nearly five years later. The pair have had two daughters together, Romy and Cosima, and seem to get along great. No word on how the kids feel about the marriage, but one would imagine they're pretty pleased.

Pop Blend would like to send out its congratulations to the pair. May their marriage be as tranquil and pleasant as the location for their wedding.

We’ve seen The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and now Sofia Coppola is gearing up for the release of her fourth feature film, Somewhere, in which she returns to the far more natural and minimalistic style of filmmaking that earned her praise for her first two films.

Stephen Dorff stars as Johnny Marco, a big time actor in between gigs with nothing else to do, but hang out with a pair of exotic dancers, drink, smoke and drive his Ferrari. Johnny is forced to adjust and rearrange his priorities when his ex-wife splits, leaving him with their young daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning).

Somewhere is a film that relies almost entirely on its main character and it seems as though that’s exactly what Coppola intended it to be. As much time as Coppola spent with Dorff developing the character, she also worked closely with her cinematographer, Harris Savides, who was challenged with the task of shooting long yet visually stimulating shots with minimal or no lighting. Somewhere isn’t just any old film that Coppola threw together; it’s something that was meticulously planned and thoughtfully constructed all while maintaining a loose environment in which her cast and crew could expand on her image.

See what Coppola had to say about her experience working in the famous Chateau Marmont, how much of the film is based on her relationship with her father, Francis Ford Coppola and much more in the interview below.

There’s one particular scene with the two blonde dancers and Johnny falls asleep while they’re performing and you just stretch that moment out. What kind of effect were you going for with that?

Sofia Coppola: I was trying to start the movie in his state of mind and his point of view. It should be exciting to have these twins in your room, performing, but it's not the first time; they've probably come every week for months and he's on painkillers. I didn't want it to feel exciting; he's kind of stuck and just really feel like you’re alone with someone in their private moments.

Where did you get the idea for those synchronized strippers?

I don't know [laughs], I just thought like he wouldn't have one pole dancer, he'd have twins and it still wouldn't be exciting. I just made it up, but I feel like you can call room service in a hotel and you can get anything.

Can you talk about the casting of Stephen Dorff?

I just think he's always been a really great actor and we haven't seen him in this kind of role and I just thought he was the right guy for it. I knew him in life and I just think he's very sweet and genuine and I thought it would bring a lot to the part because the character's not that likable so I thought you needed someone sweet.

Is it true that you listen to music when you're writing?

Yeah, I don’t think it’s that far out. I think it's helpful to get yourself in an atmosphere and mood away from the rest of the world. It seems natural to me.

What sort of stuff were you listening to when you wrote this?

What was I listening to? The Brian Ferry song that's in the end of the movie and Phoenix and Sebastien Tellier and instrumental stuff too because I think when it’s writing it's distracting to have too much going on.

Speaking of Phoenix, what’s it like to collaborate with your partner on film scores? Also, how has your perception changed of the band considering your relationship with the lead singer Thomas Mars?

Oh, I always liked their music for a long time and “Tomar” did a song for Virgin Suicides, my first film, and he had a song in Lost in Translation. So, yeah, I always liked their music and when I was trying to figure out the music, I knew it was something they could do because of Tomar, I have similar taste. He gets my sensibility. I thought it would be nice to work together. It was great; I just sent them clips and they would send me music.

Stephen mentioned you had a list of film for him to see. Can you tell us about those?

There was a short film, Paper Moon. In Paper Moon I love the relationship of father-daughter so I asked him to watch that just to kind of see that dynamic because it feels like a buddy movie. And there's a French movie, a Chantal Akerman movie that Harris Savides told me about which is a woman alone in her apartment. It seems like it should be boring because it's these very long takes of her washing her dishes and doing these mundane things, but it's really fascinating because the actress is so great. She's so natural, so it was important for me that when he's alone to really feel that he's not acting.

The classic films about actors and the acting world, did you think about those?

I didn't because I wasn't really thinking it was important that he's an actor, so I wasn't really thinking about that. I felt that I was more interested in the aspect of the father-daughter relationship or just him kind of having an existential crisis. It doesn’t really matter to me that he’s an actor, although I did think it was interesting with all our obsession with celebrity culture to see another side of that, but I didn't want it to be too much about the film industry and too inside. I wanted that to be more in the backdrop.

How do you prepare for a film like this where the dialogue is so sparse and so much is told through the camerawork? Is it very well planned in terms of your storyboard and shot list or do you kind of feel it out as you go along?

It’s clear to me when I write the script and have an idea in my mind of what I want it all to look like, but on the day it’s more intuitive working with the cameraman about how we’re actually going to do it.

Was it necessary for your father to see the finished product? Were you looking for some approval from him or for him to suggest anything?

No, I just showed it to him. I’m working with our family company, so just to include him. I showed him the movie when it was done and I was happy to show my parents like any kid, it’s nice to show your parents.

Did he give you any notes?

No. He just appreciated that I was doing my thing.

When you write these scenes with no dialogue, how do you structure them so that then, you can put in that improvisation?

I just describe it how I see it. There are scenes that are improvised like when they’re playing Guitar Hero and things, but then the other ones are written out. To me, even though there’s not dialogue, it’s clear to me what you’re trying to convey with those moments. The actors can express a lot with a look or a gesture.

Can you tell us about that scene with the masseuse?

That happened to a friend of mine where he was having a massage and the masseuse stripped down. It was just what you see that he takes his clothes off and then he gets dressed again.

Was the masseuse naked during that scene?

Yeah, he took his shorts off. Yeah, he was completely naked.

Was that hard to negotiate?

No, you can find actors up for it [laughs], but we shot it in a way that he could be comfortable.

How did you come to the decision of having the opening scene with Johnny driving around in circles repeatedly?

When I started the script, I thought about this character in a Ferrari and I imagine those guys with these car collections can’t drive them in L.A., so they have to go to some track out in the middle of nowhere, so I was just imagining that. Also, to have a visual metaphor so you know right away who the character is and what his state is and that he’s going in circles.

Did you ride in the Ferrari?

Yeah, I drove it around the track. I wish I kept that car.

When you first meet this character behind the wheel with the cast on, I immediately thought Shia LaBeouf.

Oh, I never thought about that.

Stephen told us you didn’t want to base his character on anyone.

Yeah, I didn’t think of him, but I had a dozen different people in mind when I was writing the character I put little things from different people in there, but it wasn’t based on one person; I wanted him to be his own guy based on folklore.

What was it like to work with the DP, Harris Savides? He tends to do a lot of very stylized work, but this film is very natural and intimate.

I loved working with him because he was really open to this way of approaching the movie of how simply we could tell the story and I didn’t want to be aware of the camera. I wanted to feel like you were alone with this guy, so it was important that the camera doesn’t move when we have these long takes. He was really into this more simple approach.

Is there a secret to the way that he lit the scene that created that intimacy?

There’s no lighting; it’s all natural daylight. He’s so talented and makes it look beautiful and is really up for working with a small amount of equipment and the available light.

What was your father’s reaction to seeing this film? Naturally, a lot of people are speculating about how it could be based on your relationship.

I don’t think that it’s naturally because everybody has parents so if anyone has a parent in a story you would think it’s them? It doesn’t make sense to me at all, but I think people look for any kind of connection. I haven’t talked to him about it. He just liked the movie. All I can say is that my dad’s not like Johnny Marco and my childhood wasn’t like that, but definitely I tried to put in personal memories just to make it real between things that characters could do. I remember him teaching me about craps in a casino and that’s something that was fun that kids don’t usually get to do. So that aspect of the kind of fun, bigger-than-life, father I tried to put in the story.

Did you think about other memories that other people shared with you about their father/daughter relationships?

Just because I just had my daughter, I was thinking about how that changes your perspective and I imagine a guy like that, in that lifestyle, what it would be like. I had just read the book The Descendants, which I’m excited about that movie and I really liked the father/daughters in that story. I was thinking about that in my own life just having become a parent.

Can you talk about Benicio Del Toro’s cameo? It’s such a surprise to see him.

Yeah, I wanted to have a little flavor of what that hotel is like and he’s someone that hangs out there. I didn’t want to have too many cameos and make it too Hollywood, but just to show a kind of surreal moment and I asked him if he would come do it and he was nice to do that for me.

In terms of what that hotel is really like with so much lore around it from Hedy Lamarr checking in and misspelling her name because she had just gotten it, to more recently, Britney Spears smearing her dinner all over her face.

Did she stay there?

She smeared her dinner over her face at the restaurant.

I don’t think I heard that story either.

Yeah, there’s so many. Do you have a favorite?

A friend of mine is working on a documentary of the history of the Chateau over the different eras, which I think will be interesting because there are so many stories.

So do you have a favorite kind of story from the Chateau? Was there any reason your picked 59 to be the room?

No. I had stayed in the room, but it was more for the light and that it overlooked Sunset and Helmut Newton stayed in 49 and he’s a hero of mine and I looked at his photos. But yeah, it’s hard to pick one. I feel like that hotel there is a sort of decadent side to it and I don’t know if people staying there have that in mind. It just feels like it brings out people’s naughtiness. Andre [Balazs], the owner, was saying they tried to make it a safe haven where things could go wrong.

What was the process like to decide exactly how much background information you provide for the audience about Johnny versus how much you hide?

I don’t try to hide anything, but I don’t like to over-explain things. I like to give enough information that you can get an idea of who this guy is and hopefully learn more about him as we go.

How’d you wind up casting Chris Pontius? He’s great in Jackass, but I wouldn’t expect him to be in one of your films.

Yeah, it’s funny, I just knew him from real life and I’ve seen him with my friends’ kids and he’s always really sweet with kids and I figured from Jackass he’d be a good improviser, but I’ve always thought he was funny and I hoped that his real personality would come through and I was really glad.

I think they call the Marmont the “little castle on the hill” and I think in your last film …

Marie Antoinette?

Yeah, there were so many exterior shots of Versailles and not so much in this one. It’s a really interesting building from the outside, but I feel like it’s much more interior what you’re doing.

Yeah, I tried to stay inside.

Why?

I just wanted to be inside his world and he’s kind of claustrophobic and just really in there with him as opposed to something more on the outside.

How did you manage that? I know it’s really hard to get in there.

Oh, how to shoot there? Yeah, I felt lucky there. I’ve known the manager and Andre the owner for many years, since my early 20s, so when I approached them, he read the script and trusted that I would portray it accurately.

Jackass’ Chris Pontius is moving up in the world, at least in the eyes of most straight-laced, elitist types. The thirty-four year old daredevil/ exhibitionist/ personal hero of mine has signed on for Sofia Coppola’s new dramedy Somewhere. I’m all for producing subtle, sophisticated art like Lost In Translation every now and again--you know-- as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of Jackass’ Three, Four, Five, And Six.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Party Boy will play the best friend of Stephen Dorff. What this character’s name might be or how much screen time he might eat up are reasonable questions you might pose, but the answers are still blowing in the wind of Sofia Coppola’s neurons. I can tell you the general plot outline though. Dorff is a debaucherous actor who reexamines his life after his eleven year old daughter stops by his residence at the Chateau Marmont, the same hotel used by John Belushi to OD and Howard Hughes to peep on women. Maybe Pontius will be a loveable, buffoonish neighbor. He seems like Kramer for the MTV Generation.

Somewhere is currently in preproduction; so, don’t expect to see this film before next year.