In Part 1, published this past Monday, we reviewed the experiences that have dogged some foreign directors in their bid for success within the American film industry. With many pitfalls along the way, the basic difficulties round out to: failure to develop a storyline to communicate with the American public, tough oversight by their American bosses, being replaced by more experienced directors, lack of critical support on the release of follow-up films -- and the crucial kicker -- lower than successful box office numbers.

Now we explore further: Judging by the experiences of these filmmakers as each attempted an American debut, what trends are revealed and what’s ahead for them?

The filmmakers had a lack of original material. With the exception of the Pang brothers, all were given films based on previously existing properties. There were two remakes, a video game adaptation, and a novel that had been previously adapted to the screen three times.

The films all took a critical drubbing. Part of this is because they were genre pictures which critics traditionally sharpen their claws on. But there was also the attitude that the directors, as Hollywood “outsiders,” should bring something different to film. This argument might have held a little more water if their foreign works weren’t so heavily influenced by American genre pictures in the first place.

There was a palpable loss of creative control to producers and studio executives. Hirschbiegel and the Pang brothers were removed from their films while Aja worked under a producer who directed the film he was remaking. The resulting film played very much like the original, albeit with much better production values. Whether it was a conscious choice of Aja to adhere so closely to the original movie or it was at the behest of Craven is unknown.

All the films, with two exceptions, The Hills Have Eyes and The Grudge, did poor-to-modest business. This could be from a lack of quality due to struggles over creative control, over-saturation of the market with horror films, or poor marketing. It turns into a game of pick your poison.

So, what’s next for these directors?
Alexandre Aja has produced the horror film, P2 and is directing another remake of a cult horror favorite, Piranha. The Pang brothers have taken the Takashi Shimizu road to American success. They are in post-production on a remake of their own 1999 thriller, Bangkok Dangerous. Shimizu has returned to Japan where he has worked on a TV miniseries and an anthology film. While the announcement was recently made that The Grudge 3 will be made; he will not be at the helm. Christophe Gans and Oliver Hirschbiegel have no announced projects coming up.

In the next few months, three major films directed by Hollywood first-timers will be released.
Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov has Wanted, an action-thriller based on a comic book. Veteran French director, Michael Haneke remade his own controversial thriller Funny Games for Warner Independent Pictures. And finally, the French team of Xavier Palud and David Moreau has The Eye, a remake of the Pang brother’s film. In a bitterly ironic twist, like the Pangs, a new director replaced them in post-production.

Everyone knows the American studio system is a tricky minefield for seasoned veterans to navigate, so it’s obviously even more difficult for a newcomer. Whether they were discussed in this article or not, filmmakers new to America do have directors they can look up to who have come from abroad and have had long-time success in Hollywood.

The third part of this report will show how those directors managed to navigate the hazards to successfully expand their directing careers.