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This weekend is the last major one of the summer movie season, and it’s kind of a doozy. Targeted at, mostly, women in their twenties and above, we have Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts. I would be interested, but then I see that Ryan Murphy (the co-creator of Glee) is the director, and away I go. Then, we’ve got The Expendables, a testosterone-y action movie starring, co-written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. The movie co-stars Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, and have you fallen asleep yet? Because I have. Yes, I’m a dude; yes, I like action movies. But I cannot stress how little interest I have in this movie. So what else is there? Why, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, of course! If you’re a reader of Box Offie Prophets, you know we’re fans, and the excitement is palpable.

The movie is based on a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, and has been brought to the screen by director Edgar Wright, the same guy behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This is his first major film without Simon Pegg as the lead, but I’m sold on Wright’s name. Hopefully, he’ll get huge in the States and become a well-respected British director, like the names on this week’s A-List. We’re looking at British directors who got big in the States. A few notable names - Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, and Alfred Hitchcock - are not on the list, mostly because they’re too obvious and I talk about them a lot anyway (well, the latter two). Let’s focus on directors who are big, but not household name big. Maybe Edgar Wright can get this big, and soon. He deserves it.

Paul Greengrass

Some studios will do anything to please people. It seems more than unlikely that Paul Greengrass could have ever gotten United 93 made. This film was a strict, accurate, sobering, and undramatic retelling of the events on Flight 93 from United Airlines, which was one of the planes that crashed on September 11, 2001, the difference being that the plane crashed in the middle of Pennsylvania, thanks to some quick thinking on the part of passengers who realized that terrorists were taking over the plane and chose to do something about it. The events of 9/11 will always be part of our collective souls, and aren’t easy to rehash, even in documentary-style. So why did United 93 get made, and distributed by Universal Studios? Paul Greengrass. Why keep Paul Greengrass happy? Jason Bourne. Yes, United 93 being made is probably solely thanks to the Bourne franchise.

The first film was directed by Doug Liman, but Greengrass, known for his jittery filming style, came on board for the second and third films in the trilogy, and ended up being heaped with lavish praise from critics and audiences alike. People thrilled to the you-are-there, in-your-face camerawork, the daring chases, the breathless action; Greengrass had found an outlet for his filmmaking style that wouldn’t attract small audiences, like with his 2002 drama (that you should watch), Bloody Sunday, another historical retelling of another truly haunting and violent day in history. Greengrass’s latest film, Green Zone, was a critical and commercial failure, but his name has been bandied about for a number of big projects, so don’t assume this director’s going anywhere. He can still name his price; if he could get United 93 made, he can get anything made.

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