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Andrew Adamson
The Blockbuster: The wintry fantasy based on the first of C.S. Lewis’ much-loved childhood classic, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe was a worldwide smash with a $745 million global haul.
Shared Elements: The wartime conditions experienced by the children in each movie finds them transported, via literature and a wardrobe, into fantastical worlds within their imaginations.
Catherine Hardwicke
The Blockbuster: The first Twilight introduced the world to the porcelain charms of vamp Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and the object of his forbidden desire, sullen teen, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart.)
Shared Elements: The main female characters receive (unwanted) attention from pale, scrawny males.
Bill Condon
The Blockbuster: The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn: Parts 1 and 2. The teen-vamp epic double-parter that drew to a close the traumatic pubescent experiences of moody teen, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart.)
Shared Elements: The subject matter, target audience and shooting style couldn’t be more polarised, however, each of Condon’s efforts were adapted from books.
Stephen Sommers
The Blockbuster: A family-friendly reboot, The Mummy raided Universal’s back catalogue and revamped its swaddled villain for this enjoyable old-school adventure which netted $415 million worldwide.
Shared Elements: The reanimated dead appear to Odd as warnings, and the reanimated Imhotep appears to try and kill everyone in The Mummy .
Joel Schumacher
The Blockbuster: The one where the caped superheroes had nipple protecters, Batman & Robin was Warner Bros’s final stab at the Batman franchise, dropping Val Kilmer and roping in George Clooney for what Schumacher himself dubbed “a cartoon.”
Shared Elements: The heroes share a common interest in wandering into dark places where there’s a good chance they’ll lose a limb or their life.
Alfonso Cuaron
The Blockbuster: The third entry in the series, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban merged the brighter, sunnier aspects of the first two films, steering the magical goings-on toward darker waters as another person adds Harry to his kill list.
Shared Elements: Unexpected familial revelations form central twists in the plots of both.
Martin Brest
The Blockbuster: Beverly Hills Cop , the movie that transported comedian Eddie Murphy from the stages of the stand-up circuit to affluent Beverly Hills as loudmouth cop, Axel Foley. Determined to hunt his friend’s killer, the Detroit detective’s wisecracking nature kickstarted the buddy-cop genre.
Shared Elements: Shy, retiring sidekicks dragged into a whole host of manic ideas by the far more adventurous heroes.
William Friedkin
The Blockbuster: The 1973 horror smash that had audiences vomiting in the aisles, and priests called in to soothe the panicking masses, The Exorcist proved that an 18 certificate has bugger all sway on the box office when you’ve got a possessed pre-teen mouthing off like a sailor.
Shared Elements: The characters you least expect to be responsible for the violent incidents in each film are both the culprits. Sneaky.
George Roy Hill
The Blockbuster: The Redford and Newman western classic, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid bagged the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for its kinda real-life depiction of two outlaws heading to the greener, more criminal-friendly pastures of Bolivia.
Shared Elements: The quick-witted Butch shares a verbal tenacity with Billy, who like Cassidy quite enjoys traveling.
William Wyler
The Blockbuster: Historical epic, Ben-Hur , chronicling the life of a Jewish prince (Charlton Heston) who is forced into slavery only to plot his revenge, was at the time the most expensive movie ever produced. The gamble paid off - Ben-Hur bagged 11 Academy Awards.
Shared Elements: The leads in both films are punished for circumstances beyond their control; Ben-Hur and his family are imprisoned for the roof tile incident, and Martha and Karen are ostracised based on the rantings of a schoolgirl.
John G. Avildsen
The Blockbuster: The movie that put Sylvester Stallone on the map, boxing drama Rocky had the heart, the brawn and the brains to become one of the biggest hits of 1976. Winning the Best Picture Oscar, it also landed Avildsen the Best Director statuette.
Shared Elements: Rocky ’s Talia Shire and Slow Dancing ’s Anne Ditchburn both received Golden Globe nominations.
Ivan Reitman
The Blockbuster: The Ghostbusters turned being a science nerd into a truly cool profession, with two geeks, one joker and Winston bringing the ass whuppin’ to ghosts and demons before Paranormal Activity ’s Toby was out of nappies.
Shared Elements: Sigourney Weaver appears in both; in Ghostbusters she portrays Venkman’s love interest Dana Barrett and in Dave she’s the fake President’s wife, Ellen.
Mike Newell
The Blockbuster: Taking the chalice (or should we say goblet?) from Alfonso Cuaron, Newell continued the Potter saga with Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire , his entry into the canon. Highlights include the Quidditch World Cup and a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson.
Shared Elements: The unattainable love of a woman features heavily in both.
Chris Columbus
The Blockbuster: The first two entries into the Harry Potter series, Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber Of Secrets , kickstarted Potter mania sending the entire globe into hysteria over the child wizard’s dalliances with all things magic.
Shared Elements: Ah, the perils of unrequited love flare up in both, with the Harry-Hermione-Ron love triangle making its debut and... well, the title of I Love You, Beth Cooper suggests the same.
Sam Raimi
The Blockbuster: The first Spider-Man film series, Raimi’s adaptations of the Marvel comic fave netted a cool $2.5 billion at the box office, and paved the way for a surge of superhero trilogies.
Shared Elements: Sam Raimi’s 1973 Oldsmobile Delta car pops up in all three Spider-Man flicks, during Uncle Ben’s death scene in the first and the third, and outside Peter’s house in the second. It appears throughout most of Drag Me To Hell as heroine Christine’s car.
Michael Bay
The Blockbuster: Autobots, Decepticons, Shia LaBeouf attracting women out of his league: it’s the Transformers trilogy. One the biggest and brashest summer franchises, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t get the story because, oooh explosions.
Shared Elements: The stars of the blockbuster transform from cars into battling robots. The stars of the latter transform from scrawny dweebs into beefcake criminals.
Ridley Scott
The Blockbuster: Black Hawk Down was Scott’s take on the Battle Of Mogadishu during the 1993 Somalian conflict. Following a brigade of U.S. soldiers attempting to capture a warlord, it took certain historical liberties to benefit the plot but still raked in $173 million worldwide.
Shared Elements: As thematically different as they may seem, the score for each film was composed by Scott’s go-to music man, Hans Zimmer.
Steven Spielberg
The Blockbuster: Spielberg’s ambitious disaster remake of War Of The Worlds pitted Tom Cruise’s everyman against swarms of extraterrestrials attempting to fly their flag on Earth.
Shared Elements: Everyone knows War Of The Worlds was based on the classic H.G. Wells novel... but did you know Munich is also an adaptation?
Peter Jackson
The Blockbuster: The Middle-Earth trilogy based on J.R. Hartley’s... wait, no J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy series, The Lord Of The Rings busted blocks and transformed millions across the globe into fully-fledged fans of Frodo and co.
Shared Elements: Jackson’s partner Fran Walsh and long-term collaborator Phillippa Boyens produced The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and co-penned the script for The Lovely Bones .
Joss Whedon
The Blockbuster: Marvel’s superhero behemoth, The Avengers . The lynchpin for their entire cinematic universe raked in a colossal box office haul and satisfied the comic aficionados to boot.
Shared Elements: Actress Jillian Morgese, whose scant appearance as a doomed waitress in The Avengers won over Whedon who went on to cast her as Hero in Much Ado .
