One for Them, One for Me: 7 Directors Who Step In and Out of the Mainstream

Despite the fact that it sounds like a total waste of talent, Darren Aronofsky is all but locked to helm the sequel to the X-Men prequel, X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2. The silver lining here is that if the movie does well, Aronofsky might gain more money and creative control for challenging, personal projects down the line. Many directors have tried the approach of taking a larger movie in order to finance or even get the green light for more daring fare, but the results have been mixed. Movieline takes a look at at some of the most notable cases after the jump.

The Director: Ang Lee

For Them: The Hulk

For Him: Brokeback Mountain, Lust Caution

The Result: Mixed. Though I still say that The Hulk had some of the most jaw-dropping aesthetics and editing I've ever seen in a comic book movie, it bombed and pretty much ensured that major studios weren't going to help Lee tackle an even more challenging project. But Lee didn't need their blessing! Brokeback Mountain killed it at the box office and the Oscars despite it's subtle approach and subject matter. That said, his NC-17 Chinese film about heterosexual passion, Lust, Caution, was met with lukewarm reception in the U.S. And then there was Taking Woodstock, which most have forgotten.

The Director: Christopher Nolan

For Them: Batman Begins, The Dark Night

For Him: The Prestige, Inception

The Result: Are you kidding? Nolan pretty much owns Hollywood right now and probably just inspired a whole new generation of self-proclaimed mavericks to try and follow in his footsteps. Inception doesn't seem like such a gamble now that it's made so much money, but spending that much on a challenging, original concept with a mind-f**k trailer seemed like a huge gamble before its release. His underrated magician revenge tale The Prestige didn't bank as much, but again showed how he can use his cache to make unique films that other directors probably couldn't get a green light for.

The Director: Gus Van Sant

For Them: Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester

For Him: Elephant, Last Days, Gerry

For Who? Psycho

The Result: Mixed. After the Oscars, Van Sant could do whatever he wanted and...He chose that shot for shot remake of Psycho. It's kind of a hilarious, audacious choice, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea. After that, he explored populism even more with Finding Forester. Rough. However, Elephant, Gerry, and Last Days, while sometimes uneven, were some of the most challenging, artful American films of the decade. He seems to have stumbled onto the middle-ground now, appealing to cinephiles and more casual moviegoers alike with films like Milk and the upcoming Restless.

The Director: Sam Raimi

For Them: The Spiderman Franchise

For Him: Drag Me to Hell

The Result: Success. After making two of the most fun, successful comic book movies to date (and yes, one of the most disappointing), he went back to his roots with the modest, slapstick horror film Drag Me to Hell and showed he could still make audiences recoil and laugh with the best of them.

The Director: Guillermo del Torro

For Them: Blade 2

For Him: Hellboy Franchise, Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone

The Result: Success. Del Torro said he took Blade 2 so that the studio would let him make Hellboy. They let him not only make Hellboy, but also a sequel. And in between those, he made smaller genre-meets prestige films like Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone, which were also extremely well-received. His name is now a huge audience-draw and he's involved in some capacity with about a billion projects right now.

The Director: Steven Soderbergh

For Them: Ocean's 11, Ocean's 12, Ocean's 13, The Informant

For Him: Che, The Girlfriend Experience, Bubble, Everything is Going Fine

The Result: Success. Sure, his independent output is sometimes hit or miss, and yes, Ocean's 12 just seemed like a stylish European vacation video with bankable stars and almost no script, but no one is quite as nimble and prolific about stepping in and out of the mainstream as Soderbergh. He's making films on almost every scale about all sorts of different subjects, experimenting stylistically, taking risks, and making good money. In other words, living the dream.

The Director: David Lynch

For Them: Dune

For Him: Almost everything else besides commercials.

The Result: Successful with commercials, not so much with studios. While it still contains some fascinating imagery, David Lynch's big-budget adaptation of the Frank Herbert's beloved Sci-Fi novel was seen as an incoherent flop upon release. From then, Lynch stayed more or less in his comfort zone besides when he clashed with ABC over the second season of Twin Peaks and the rejected pilot for Mulholland Drive. He branched out to direct the G-rated Straight Story for Disney, but that was still a smaller film with modest expectations and nothing compared to Dune. Now, he insists on shooting digital to keep costs down and even released Inland Empire himself. That said he'll still make films for companies like Dior, and has directed numerous other commercials over the years.