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Pariah said:
When you said "critically acclaimed," I actually assumed that you meant directors that I personally like. I s'pose I was confused because you're not the type to like something just cuz' the Academy said so.



...?

Let me re-explain my position here:

You criticized Nolan for recasting actors, calling him "unoriginal" and implying that it was whorish behavior on his part. I feel that yours was a silly, petty criticism, and I went about showing it to you by asking you to name any director who didn't exhibit similar behavior. I made the qualification of a "critically acclaimed" director because, as I explained already, I didn't want you to cite some obscure director I'd never heard of. My liking them didn't matter. The Academy liking them certainly doesn't matter. You mentioned Fincher earlier. I'd consider him to be a critically acclaimed director(and one that's recasted actors). He's yet to be nominated by the Academy, for anything.

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He didn't actually discover Bale for Batman Begins; the fans were actually shouting for Bale before he was made the director. Even if he didn't want him, he'd still have to cast him. I honestly do not believe that he would have casted Bale for Prestige if BB did poorly. So, in any case, the "future" is now.



I don't think Nolan had to cast him because the fans said so. Maybe because the studio said so...

I have no idea what Nolan would have done if Batman flopped. It's an odd hypothetical, because the movie had so many great pieces. I think the fate of the movie was decided by how well Nolan and Bale work well together.

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I'll conceed that Anderson and Smith probably aren't whoring in this case, although I still have my doubts. When I think of actors being reused for Anderson, I'm thinking more of Bill Murray than the Wilson Brothers (but I did include them). Him, along with just about all of Smith's regular casting, are notorious cult labels. For example: Everyone knows Affleck can't act, but it's because his personality was so merged with Smith's primary fanbase that the audience could enjoy his inclusion in both J&SBSB and Dogma (not me of course). It's because he carried the esoteric Smithian charm that the movies he and Smith do together don't end up in smoke like Gili.

Murray is in the same vein as Affleck in that rite (except he can actually act), especially taking into mind that he has his own trademark deadpan personality that helps make Anderson's movies the most recognizable in terms of atmosphere.



I'm not a huge fan of Kevin Smith or Wes Anderson, personally. That being said, I don't know many self-respecting directors that would cast someone just to cash in their popularity. Murray and Affleck are well-known, yes, but can't that just be incidental? Smith likes Affleck(for whatever reason), and Anderson likes Murray(for very clear reasons). That their mere presence will help sell tickets is a bonus.

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In any event, I still find the inclusion of the same actor(s) in two or more consecutive movies to be unoriginal.



Why does the actor matter? Shouldn't it be the role, the story, etc?

Afterall, the job of the actor is to be somebody else. If a director uses the same actor in a same kind of role, or in a different role but the same kind of story, then I think you might have a legitimate argument. I don't know how much you know about the Prestige, but I assure you, Batman and Alfred Borden are different.

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Fincher has proven himself an individual that doesn't need a consistent A list actor like Pitt to sell or make good movies.



When hasn't he used A list actors? Why should that even matter?

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Nolan's history is....Well I think one of the problems is that he doesn't have much history. He's given us one epic movie, one good movie (I refuse to see BB, but for the sake of argument, I'll run along with the status quo here and title it as "good"), and crap.



I thought Insomnia was fine. Flawed, and definitely a bit more "Hollywood" than the original, but fine. Memento was fantastic, Following I liked a lot, and Batman was one of the best comic adaptations I've ever seen.

So, that's four Nolan movies, to Fincher's five. Personally, I liked Memento more than Fight Club or Seven, but all three are among my all-time faves. I liked both Following and Batman more than Alien 3 or Panic Room, and perhaps more than the Game, though I think that's an extremely underrated film.

The point is, neither has an extremely long list of credits. Nolan came from indy roots. Fincher worked up from music videos. Thus, Fincher has more commercial movies to his name, but the quality of Nolan's work is just as high, in my opinion.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.