News recently broke that acclaimed Old Boy director Park Chan-Wook shot his new thirty minute horror film on an iPhone. The film, Paranmanjang, had a $130,000 budget and will be released in nine cinemas nationwide. Yep, welcome to 2011! Sure, Chan-Wook is a solid filmmaker and it may be interesting to see how he handles an iPhone movie, but all the same I'd prefer that great filmmakers not get in the habit of shooting movies on cell phones. But since trends seem to operate independent of my opinion, it's always good to take a look at the silver lining. With that in mind, here are nine major filmmakers who might actually benefit from making their next film on an iPhone.
9. David Lynch - The video quality is probably better than the digital Sony PD-150 Lynch used to shoot Inland Empire, and even if it's not, I wouldn't think that Lynch could make a three hour movie on an iPhone. If he wants to keep embracing the DIY ethos, this choice might reign things in a bit and produce something brilliant.
8. Matt Reeves - Reeves is a good filmmaker and all things being equal, he probably shouldn't make a movie on an iPhone. But...is anyone else still a little annoyed that the "handicam" they shot Cloverfield with cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? Come on, Matt! Let's see you shoot the sequel on something we can afford!
7. Takashi Miike - The prolific director of Audition and Ichi the Killer makes so many movies every year (three last year alone), that he might as well throw a cell phone one in for good measure. And given that he filmed one of his most interesting movies, Visitor Q, on a low-grade digital camera, there's the potential that he'd make some sort of iPhone masterpiece.
6. Michael Bay - I'd prefer that James Cameron keep working on new ways to blow our minds with 3-D, so I'm choosing the other iconic big-budget filmmaker for this spot. Yes, it would presumably spare us from another boring Transformers flick, but I'm also genuinely curious to see what Bay would come up with. Before this giant robots thing, he made some fun, stylish action movies and I'd like to see what happens when he loses some of his toys. That said, if Chan-Wook spent $130,000 on his iPhone movie, Bay would probably find a way to spend something like $50 million.
5. Tim Burton - Alice in Wonderland totally eschewed wit, character and heart for splashy visuals, so maybe going indie would allow Tim Burton to explore some of these classic aspects that made his earlier films work. Plus if we have to watch a movie shot on a damn iPhone, it'd be nice if it had Johnny Depp, which Burton's likely would.
4. Lars von Trier - This guy loves rules! Some of his best work including The Idiots and Dogville came as a result of rules that he set for himself. Hell, he even let a robot randomly choose shots for his office comedy Boss of it All. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he made his best film since The Dancer in the Dark on an iPhone.
3. Baz Luhrmann - I'd honestly rather see him shoot The Great Gatsby on an iPhone than with garish 3-D excess. If that project falls apart, he can leave the list.
2. Gareth Edwards - The director of the nifty indie sensation Monsters clearly knows his way around visual effects and making the most out of minimal equipment. Making his next movie on an iPhone would ensure that his clever narrative skills and scrappy resourcefulness don't get swallowed by a totally useless-sounding Godzilla remake.
1. Paul Thomas Anderson - Honestly, if Anderson would just make another movie I'd be happy. He can shoot it on iPod Nano or a Super 8 camera for all I care.