You’ve likely seen it before - a director known for a certain set of trademarks, or for a certain genre, makes a film that no one ever expected them to make. Whenever and wherever this occurs, the results are sure to be eye-catching. And, in these cases, successes can be as interesting as failures. For this list, we want to take a look at seven directors who stepped (or leapt) outside of their comfort zones, and produced films that were different - for better or for worse - from their previous work. Let’s get started.

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7 David Lynch - Dune (1984)

     Universal Pictures

As strange, surreal, and unsettling as David Lynch’s films tend to be, his 1984 adaptation of Dune is perhaps his oddest work to date. If his name was not included in the credits, and if you didn’t recognize his favorite actors in the cast, you might have thought it was helmed by someone else entirely. This is partly because Lynch did not have final cut privileges for this film, and because he himself wishes he hadn’t made it (via Salon). Whether you like the film or not, Lynch was out of his element, directing such a grandiose, big-budget project as Dune. Sometimes, stepping outside of your comfort zone can backfire.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

6 George Miller - Happy Feet (2006)

     Village Roadshow Pictures

Yes, the mastermind behind Mad Max, the high-octane dystopian action franchise, directed an animated film about a tap-dancing penguin. Happy Feet released in 2006 to widespread critical acclaim, winning the award for Best Animated Feature at that year’s Academy Awards; but that doesn’t make it any less surprising that George Miller led, produced, and co-wrote it. Gone are the explosive live action stunts of his previous films, replaced here with a relatively low-stakes, family-friendly musical adventure. Now, he had stepped out of his comfort zone once before this film by directing Babe: Pig in the City in 1998. But Happy Feet was by far the more successful project, and so we highlight it here to show how versatile George Miller is as a director.

5 Takashi Miike - The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)

     Shochiku

It might seem rather strange to say that a director as eccentric as Takashi Miike even has a comfort zone. But if he does, The Happiness of the Katakuris is the closest he’s come to leaving it. While he typically traffics in grotesque horror and wildly bloody action, this is a musical-comedy with some sprinklings of horror mixed in for good measure. Though difficult to classify under any one genre, The Happiness of the Katakuris stands apart from the rest of Miike’s filmography. Unsuspecting viewers may be surprised when greeted with bizarre song-and-dance sequences and sporadic uses of claymation.

4 Denis Villeneuve - Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

     Warner Bros.

Blade Runner 2049 was a massive undertaking for French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. You can imagine the stress of helming the sequel to the original 1982 Blade Runner, which is a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the most revered films ever made. Somehow, Villeneuve carried it off, setting the stage for his later success with Dune. One could argue that he had already stepped out of his comfort zone by making Arrival, an ambitious sci-fi drama that differed from his earlier, more grounded work. But Arrival pales in comparison to the massive scale and high stakes of Blade Runner 2049’s production. Put simply, it was a step Villeneuve had to take to prove himself ready to bring the Dune franchise back to the silver screen. And what a step it must have been.

3 Robert Eggers - The Northman (2022)

The Northman came after a series of small-scale, intimate films by acclaimed director Robert Eggers. His first two features, The Witch and The Lighthouse, take place in one general location and span only a short amount of time. The Northman, in comparison, stands out as a sweeping epic, complete with generational conflicts, diverse locales, and visions of the coming future. It leaps across time, telling the lifelong revenge story of the legendary viking Amleth, who - as he repeats to himself throughout the film - must avenge his father, save his mother, and kill the traitorous Fjölnir. Though a change of pace for Eggers, he made The Northman work - although, per Variety, it did not perform particularly well at the box office.

2 Joel Coen - The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

     Apple Studios

The Tragedy of Macbeth represents a change of pace for Joel Coen for two reasons. First, it’s a rare instance of Joel directing a film without his brother Ethan (the two are known as a directorial duo, and have worked together throughout their careers). Second, it’s a Shakespeare adaptation, played fairly straight, shot in black-and-white, and lacking the trademark comedy of his other work. Of course, with a cast rounded out by Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, and Brendan Gleeson, it was bound to turn out well - and it did. Still, it’s a surprising film for Joel Coen to make, and one that proves him to be capable of directing films that don’t quite fit within his wheelhouse.

1 Sam Raimi - Spider-Man (2002)

     Sony

Before taking on Spider-Man in the early 2000s, Sam Raimi was a master of cult horror. He was the father of the classic Evil Dead franchise, and had dabbled in a number of other genres throughout the ’80s and ’90s. But even though he directed an ultraviolent superhero movie called Darkman in 1999, nothing could have prepared him for the mammoth task of bringing Marvel’s Spider-Man to the big screen. Despite his modest origins, Raimi raised the franchise to new heights, and his Toby Maguire-led Spider-Man trilogy is still a favorite among comic book fans.