Movies trivia | 100 facts about film directors (part 5)

A film director is someone who controls a film’s artistic and dramatic aspects by visualizing how the script will be actually on screen.

So, the film director is very important about a movie, and this is why one of the most important categories in the Oscar Awards is the directors. So, let’s find out more about some of the most famous!

1. Leigh Whannell was born on January 17, 1977
2. He is an Australian screenwriter, actor, film producer, and film director
3. He is best known for writing films directed by his friend James Wan
4. Including Saw (2004), Dead Silence (2007), Insidious (2010), and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
5. Whannell made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
6. He has since directed two more films, Upgrade (2018) and The Invisible Man (2020)
7. Whannell and Wan are the creators of the Saw franchise
8. Whannell wrote the first installment
9. He co-wrote the second and third instalments
10. He was producer or executive producer for all the films
11. He appeared as the Adam Stanheight character in four of the instalments
12. He was also the writer of the Saw video game (2009)
13. And co-writer of the 2014 film Cooties
14. Whannell was born in Melbourne, Australia
15. He believes that he inherited his love of storytelling from his mother
16. And his fondness of filmmaking from his father, who was a cameraman in the television industry
17. Whannell is currently working on a reboot of Escape From New York
18. He has expressed interest in writing and directing a sequel to Upgrade
19. Cathy Yan is a Chinese-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer
20. Her films include the comedy-drama film Dead Pigs (2018) and Birds of Prey (2020)
21. Birds of Prey is the eighth installment of the DC Extended Universe
22. Yan was born in China
23. She was raised in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C
24. She moved to Hong Kong when she was 14 years old
25. She received her BA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2008
26. She graduated with an MBA in general management from New York University Stern School of Business
27. And an MFA in producing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program in 2016
28. Yan worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing before turning to filmmaking
29. After writing and directing several short films, Yan made her feature debut with Dead Pigs (2018)
30. The film was inspired by the 2013 Huangpu River dead pigs incident
31. In this incident 16,000 dead pigs were found floating down the Huangpu River
32. Funded by Chinese investors, Yan shot the dark comedy in Shanghai with a bilingual crew then completed the film in New York
33. “Sixth Generation” filmmaker Jia Zhangke executive produced it
34. Dead Pigs premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
35. It won a Special Jury Award for ensemble acting
36. In April 2018, Yan was selected to direct the Harley Quinn DC Extended Universe superhero film Birds of Prey
37. The film is based on the comic of the same name
38. The film was released on February 7, 2020 with positive reviews
39. Margot Robbie starred and co-produced
40. Christina Hodson wrote the script
41. Yan was the second woman and the first Asian woman to direct a DC film
42. Or any US superhero film
43. As of January 2020, Yan is working on the Sour Hearts film for A2.
44. Her full name is Greta Celeste Gerwig
45. She was born on August 4, 1983
46. She is an American actress and filmmaker
47. She first garnered attention after working on and appearing in several mumblecore films
48. Between 2006 and 2009, she appeared in a number of films by Joe Swanberg
49. Some of which she co-wrote or co-directed
50. These include Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007) and Nights and Weekends (2008)
51. Since the early 2010s, Gerwig has collaborated with her partner Noah Baumbach on several films
52. Including Greenberg (2010), Frances Ha (2012), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination, and Mistress America (2015)
53. She has also appeared in the films Damsels in Distress (2011), To Rome with Love (2012), Maggie’s Plan (2015), Jackie (2016), and 20th Century Women (2016)
54. Gerwig’s solo directorial ventures were the coming-of-age films Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019)
55. For the former, she received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay
56. She is a native of Sacramento, California
57. Gerwig is the daughter of Christine, an OB-GYN nurse
58. And Gordon Gerwig, who worked for a credit union on small business loans
59. She is close to her parents and they make an appearance in Frances Ha as her character’s parents
60. She has an older brother, a landscape architect
61. And sister, a manager at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
62. She has German, Irish, and English ancestry
63. She was raised a Unitarian Universalist
64. She attended St. Francis High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Sacramento
65. She has described herself as having been “an intense child”
66. She showed an early interest in dance
67. She had intended to complete a degree in musical theatre in New York
68. She ended up graduating from Barnard College with a degree in English and philosophy
69. Outside class, she performed in the Columbia University Varsity Show with Kate McKinnon
70. Gerwig will collaborate with Baumbach in co-writing and potentially directing a live-action Barbie film
71. In the film, Margot Robbie will star in the title role
72. Gerwig’s films tend to be based on her own experiences
73. In a behind-the-scenes video on the set of Lady Bird she said, “I tend to start with things from my own life, then pretty quickly they spin out into their own orbit”
74. Gerwig presses her actors to incorporate their personalities into their performances as well
75. And says of her writing and directing, “it’s all about actors.”
76. In addition, she allows little line improvisation and the script is followed fairly closely
77. Her works have common themes: the growth and emotional maturation of the leading woman, and relationships among family members, friends, and significant others, with a special interest in female dynamics
78. Characters are reportedly never villainized, and all are sympathetic
79. She tends to imbue her films with a unique and specific deadpan sense of humor
80. Visually they also carry a very specific atmosphere
81. Simultaneously having the warmth of looking back on something in memory and displaying things as they are, stripped of any sort of showiness
82. Gerwig moved to New York City at 19 to attend Barnard College
83. She lives in Brooklyn with filmmaker Noah Baumbach
84. They are partners since late 2011
85. In March 2019, it was announced Gerwig had given birth to their son Harold
86. Gerwig had become the fifth woman in history to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director
87. Quentin Tarantino was born March 27, in 1963!
88. He has a middle name and it’s Jerome!
89. He has Cherokee, Irish and Italian ancestry.
90. Inglourious Basterds was written by him in between of Jackie Brown and Kill Bill! So he was writing three plays at once!
91. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee!
92. He dropped out of school when he was 16, and after dropping out of school he started to train at James Best Theatre Company but he left that too after 2 years!
93. He played one of a group of Elvis impersonators in “Sophia’s Wedding: Part 1”!
94. He worked at Video Archives and he started developing even more interest in movies!
95. He believes that gun violence in movies has nothing to do in reality!
96. He has said that he wants to retire when he is 60!
97. Quentin Tarantino is a person that has being targeted a lot because of the way he directs! Especially when it comes to the language he uses in his movies and the way he promote violence!
98. Quentin Tarantino has an IQ of 160!
99. He has played small, roles in some of the movies he has directed!
100. He does not like brand placements in films. That’s why he creates his own and replaces them

Read more: Movies trivia | 100 facts about famous directors (part 4)