15 Movie Writers Turned Directors

David Mamet

Writer To Director: Mamet is pretty handy with a pen, having written plays and books, as well as screenplays, throughout his career. Given his stage background, it's not surprising that Mamet is a dab hand with dialogue, one of his most famous film writing jobs being Glengarry Glen Ross .

His directing career (almost always from his own scripts) encompasses a variety of genres: thriller ( The Spanish Prisoner , Heist ), comedy ( State and Main ) and martial arts drama ( Redbelt ). Despite all these credits, Mamet remains best-known for his words rather than his moving pictures.

Don't Quit The Day Job? Mamet's direction has always produced interesting results, and thankfully he's maintained the day job anyway.

Steve Zaillian

Writer To Director: Steve Zaillian's modest filmography is packed with big hitters: Awakenings , Schindler's List (which scored him an Academy Award), Gangs of New York and American Gangster . He's also been tapped to pen David Fincher's The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo .

Zaillian's sporadic spells behind the camera have never produced anything truly special, from chess drama Searching for Bobby Fischer , turgid, Travolta-starring courtroom thriller A Civil Action , and political bore All the King's Men .

Don't Quit The Day Job? Zaillian is best off sticking to what he does best.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writer To Director: Mankiewicz had an illustrious directing and producing career, but started out as a screenwriter in 30s Hollywood. The prolific scribe's early credits included Manhattan Melodrama (the flick that Depp's John Dillinger catches in Public Enemies ) and a version of Alice in Wonderland .

Mankiewicz's real success stories came when he was on double duty as a writer-director though: he performed both duties on All About Eve , Guys and Dolls and The Quiet American .

Don't Quit The Day Job? Mankiewicz proved he had equal talents in both fields of filmmaking.

Federico Fellini

Writer To Director: The Italian maestro first set foot on the film ladder as writer, scribbling film gags as well as radio sketches, before graduating onto screenplays in the early 40s. It wasn't until Lights of Variety in 1950 that Fellini called action on a film set.

Though Fellini continued to write throughout his career, he found fame and renown as a director, particularly with celebrated classics such as La Dolce Vita , 8 1/2 , Roma and Casanova .

Don't Quit The Day Job? Fellini's success as a director makes it easy to forget that he started out in the scripting trade (and often penned his own projects).

Alan Ball

Writer To Director: Alan Ball triumphed extremely early in his screenwriting career: he was awarded an Oscar for his American Beauty script (his first to be filmed).

He has since found considerable success directing and producing (as well as writing) for the small screen, overseeing the likes of Six Feet Under and True Blood .

The only film that Ball has directed to date, Towelhead , was weighed down with heavy subject matter and was greeted with mixed reviews.

Don't Quit The Day Job? Ball seems to have found his niche on the small screen.