My Real Daddy / Live-Action Films

• The Bourne Series: One may argue that the Bourne series has two dads with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass. With The Bourne Identity, Liman gave the film a unique style, but it was Greengrass who would flesh it out in its sequels The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, with Liman still involved as executive producer, garnering even greater acclaim. But when Greengrass turned down the offer to direct The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon left with him, saying he wouldn't do any more movies without him, and Liman left too. This is part of why Legacy hasn't been as well-received as its predecessors. Though it should be noted that Tony Gilroy wrote all four films (and directed Legacy). It seems to go both ways, too: though Greengrass returned to direct the fifth film, Jason Bourne with Matt Damon coming back, this time around Gilroy was not involved at all, and it likewise was also not as well-received as the first three films.
• Although every one of the Carry On films was produced by Peter Rogers and directed by Gerald Thomas, and the core cast remained largely unchanged throughout the series' run, it was scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell whom most fans regard as having really made the films what they were. The early, Norman Hudis-scripted films (up to and including Carry On Cruising) are regarded as middling, while the films made after Rothwell retired due to ill health (from Carry On Behind onward) are viewed as downright terrible.^note It didn't help that Rothwell's departure coincided with those of long-running cast members Sid James, Hattie Jacques, and Barbara Windsor.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice introduced us to Wonder Woman, who is shown to be a jaded immortal worn down by years of humanity's ugliness. Her solo film showed her as a Broken Bird who, in spite of all she saw, still had enough idealism to use the Power of Love against her brother Ares. The direction Patty Jenkins took Wonder Woman would lead to her film being the first critically acclaimed entry of the DC Extended Universe and turn the character into more of a household name who is now as popular, if not more so, than Batman and Superman. That being said, she later took flak for where she was going with Wonder Woman 1984.
  • Aquaman. When Justice League first introduced Aquaman, he was depicted as a gruff, cynical loner and Sour Supporter who only joined the team after being pressured by Mera. In James Wan's Aquaman, he was changed into a down-to-earth Reluctant Hero with a compelling personal journey of finding acceptance by the Atlanteans while also having Hidden Depths to complement his macho personality. These changes made Aquaman more relatable and less of a one-note "surfer dude" as seen in Justice League. Public perception-wise, Wan also successfully reconstructed the character and his mythos enough to win over many who still thought he was a useless superhero.
  • In spite of all the above criticism aimed at Snyder, Zack Snyder's Justice League ended up much better received than the 2017 theatrical cut (in which he had no input in the final product), with a vastly improved team dynamic compared to Joss Whedon's version (and much better received characterization for the heroes in it as well). Also, quite ironically, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman got more praise for this film than with Wonder Woman 1984.
• While neither Justin Lin nor Chris Morgan were involved with The Fast and the Furious franchise until the later installments, both are credited as the real masterminds for the series. Their work on the movies gradually turned the series from a fairly mundane racing and crime drama series of films to an over-the-top series of action movies relying on the rules of both Fun and Cool, focusing on the entire character ensemble with "family" being one of the core themes and having a greater sense of continuity. This retooled approach wound up being a hit with both critics and audiences and transformed the movies into a billion-dollar franchise.
• Subtly invoked in The Founder, a biopic about Ray Kroc and the founding of McDonald's. Despite its title, the film makes it fairly clear that Ray Kroc wasn't the founder of McDonald's—but he did successfully turn it into a global franchise, effectively molding it into the company that it is today. Director John Lee Hancock lampshaded this in an interview with CBS:
  Ben Tracy: The title of the movie... You’re being a little cheeky.
  Hancock: It's intentionally misleading, I would say, yeah. What's your definition of a founder? Is it someone who has the idea, or someone who expands the idea?
• Officially speaking, the Friday the 13th franchise was created by Victor Miller, the writer of the first movie, who is given a "Based on Characters Created By..." credit in all of its sequels. However, Miller did not have any involvement with those sequels, and thus, he didn't create the series' most famous attribute - Jason Voorhees as the invincible killer wearing a hockey mask - as Jason wasn't the villain until the second film. Furthermore, Miller wrote the original's script under hire for Sean S. Cunningham, its producer-director who conceived of the title and concept, and thus he couldn't even really be said to be the true creator of that movie. If anyone could be claimed as the real creative leader of the series, it'd be either Steve Miner — both a co-producer of the first film and producer-director of the first two sequels, and thus the guy who gave us killer-Jason and his iconic costume — or Frank Mancuso Jr., who produced all of the sequels at Paramount. And when discussing who the best writer and/or director on the series was, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives writer-director Tom McLoughlin is the generally the person who most fans point to, as Jason Lives is not only often considered the best film in the series, along with rescuing the franchise after the terrible reception of the previous sequel, but the "Zombie Jason" idea it introduced would set the direction for the remainder of the original series, before its eventual Continuity Reboot. Tellingly, McLoughlin was the person whom the creators of Friday the 13th: The Game turned to when they wanted to flesh out Jason's backstory.
• In The Golden Age of Hollywood, a number of iconic screen actors and their personas largely depended on Star-Making Role from particular film-makers:
  • Cary Grant made many films in The '30s, often in a variety of roles, such as a cockney con-man in Sylvia Scarlett by George Cukor (where he uses his real accent) but film historians note that the iconic image of Grant, as an elegant, classy, charismatic gentleman who can be a comic and dramatic lead, really began with director Leo McCarey and his film The Awful Truth. McCarey who had a startling resemblance to Grant, actually had Grant imitate his fashion and dressing style to better convey his performance which at the time was Playing Against Type but in time became Typecasting.
  • The actor Marion Morrison was renamed John Wayne by Raoul Walsh whose film The Big Trail was intended to launch him but failed instead. Wayne then spent the rest of The '30s in minor parts before John Ford gave him his break in Stagecoach. But film historians largely credit Howard Hawks and his film Red River for codifying Wayne's familiar screen image as a manly Deadpan Snarker action hero who was also a Bruiser with a Soft Center. Indeed John Ford was famously noted to have remarked after seeing Red River, "I didn't know that son of a bitch can act", and Ford after that indeed cast Wayne in a more nuanced and mythical manner in films like The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
• While Ian Fleming created James Bond, his version was far closer to being a Villain Protagonist than even the darkest movie versions. Terence Young was really the creator of the suave Sean Connery Bond we all love. His instruction to Sean was to imitate him. Also the James Bond Theme. The authorship has been disputed for years with composer John Barry arguing in court Monty Norman's claim of authorship and ultimately losing before he died. Monty Norman definitely did come up with the melody, borrowing it from "Good Sign, Bad Sign" a song he wrote for the musical "A House for Mr Biswas" but Barry's orchestration, with its electric guitar intro and big brassy sound, was what made it popular.
  • Lewis Gilbert, director of You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker, is also well regarded by the fanbase for introducing Sequel Escalation and Rule of Cool to the series, and being the codifier of many of the common tropes associated with the Bond film series. This included casting Donald Pleasence as the most widely recognized version of Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld, complete with Bald of Evil and Dueling Scar. He was also fond of large sets and lairs for the villains, such as a Volcano Lair in YOLT, an Underwater Base in TSWLM, and a Space Base in Moonraker, brought to life by Ken Adam. As for Bond, a variety of cool gadgets were introduced, including the foldable gyrocopter in YOLT, submarine car in TSWLM, and finally bringing Bond to a battle in outer space in Moonraker.
• As far as the Harry Potter films series goes, director Alfonso Cuarón is generally considered to be this by fans. While Cuaron only directed one film — Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — it's generally considered to be where the franchise came into its own, becoming much darker and more dramatic than the first two films, which are generally considered slightly too juvenile in retrospect. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell also has a decent reputation among fans, it's just that his work wasn't as series-defining as Cuaron's.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • While there wasn't exactly a dark, empty void where a Thor fanbase should be, the character's popularity in the MCU skyrocketed with Thor: Ragnarok at the hands of Taika Waititi. Waititi encouraged Chris Hemsworth to improvise more, which led to a revamp of the character from a Fish out of Water Boisterous Bruiser to a lovable goofball of an Iron Woobie Guile Hero who can now match wits with Loki himself. Not only is Ragnarok the highest scored film of the Thor trilogy and more quotable than its predecessors, but Thor's characterization in it continued into Avengers: Infinity War.
  • Whilst Captain America: The First Avenger, directed by Joe Johnston, was relatively well-received, it was Joe and Anthony Russo that helped increase the character's fanbase significantly with The Winter Soldier and Civil War, both of which are considered top contenders for the best film in the MCU. Additionally, once Joss Whedon declined to direct Avengers: Infinity War after the behind-the-scenes drama on Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Russos were the frontrunners to direct Infinity War and Endgame, resulting in two Avengers movies that had more drama and depth than either the first film or the aforementioned Age of Ultron.
  • Much of how the cosmic side of the MCU worked, looked and felt can be attributed to James Gunn and his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy films after previous sneak peeks in the first two Thor films. In some cases, it's suggested that his films' Bathos-mixed irreverent humor (often scored by period-specific pop music) changed the entirety of the franchise thanks to following directors wanting to emulate him, making Gunn the Real Daddy of the MCU itself. This is evidenced by the aforementioned Taika Waititi admitting that Guardians was a major influence on Ragnarok. Furthermore, nobody in Hollywood wanted to take over the director's chair for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after Gunn's initial firing as it was sacrilegious for anyone to take over the series that Gunn helped define, which subsequently lead to his rehiring.
  • Black Widow was introduced in Iron Man 2 by Jon Favreau, but her role was mostly in a supporting capacity and whatever personality we could glean marked her as The Stoic and overly professional, not to mention quite the Ms. Fanservice. Joss Whedon expanded her character in The Avengers, giving her a Platonic Life-Partners friendship with Hawkeye, one of the wittiest senses of humor in the franchise, and a skill in quick-thinking that granted her almost complete control of any situation she found herself in, resulting in acts like her outsmarting Loki much to his confusion. Later installments in the MCU expanded on Whedon's portrayal of her as the character who "pretends [she] knows everything" and while Whedon's reputation and his credit as her Real Daddy has soured over the years thanks to a Broken Base surrounding a subplot in Avengers: Age of Ultron, her current characterization can easily be traced back to the first Avengers film.
• For Mission: Impossible Film Series:
  • J. J. Abrams is considered this by far. The first film, while for the most part well-liked is divisive for fans of the original show and the second falls under a case of Sequelitis for many. Abrams took over, first as director and co-writer for the third film and as producer for the subsequent sequels, and the following entries introduced major set pieces while also mixing in some character development, focused on the team's entire ensemble while Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt remained the central character, signified why later installments dropped their numbering, introduced signature characters to the series such as Benji Dunn, William Brandt, and Ilsa Faust, while before Hunt and Luther Stickell were the only recurring characters in the series, and featured several affectionate nods to the show, most notably reintroducing recurring organization the Syndicate as the main antagonists of the films, all of which successfully transformed the franchise into the mega-hit it is with critics and audiences.
  • Christopher McQuarrie, who directed and wrote the fifth and sixth films in the series, has begun sharing this status. While the previous two films in the series were considered good, Rogue Nation and Fallout were seen as even better. It was under his work where the introduction of the aforementioned fan favorite Ilsa Faust occurred and the Syndicate, only mentioned in previous movies, took center stage as the Big Bad, allowing for a greater sense of continuity between his two films.
• While the three Saw films made with the involvement of series creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell generally remain the best-received in the series, Kevin Greutert, who edited the first five films and directed Saw VI and Saw X, is often afforded this status by fans, with VI and especially X considered the best of the post-Wan/Whannell sequels, and Greutert's work in the editing room on the earlier entries often seen as key to their effectiveness. He admittedly also directed the worst-received entry in the series, Saw 3D, but most fans tend to cut him some slack for that one, seeing how he was thrown into the job at the last minute, in less-than-ideal circumstances.
• Star Trek:
  • Nicholas Meyer's work on the second, fourth and sixth movies; he's credited with defining the original series movie era, with his overall tone and atmosphere on display anytime that time period is shown in the subsequent TV shows.
  • To a lesser extent this applies to Harve Bennett, who produced the second through fifth films. After the Troubled Production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture resulted in that film being produced way over-budget and led to Gene Roddenberry getting kicked upstairs, Bennett took over the film series, hired Meyer to direct the second film and proved that a Star Trek film could be made much more economically. He's not held in quite the same esteem as Meyer, however, due to the third and fifth films — made without Meyer's involvement — being So Okay, It's Average and a critical and commercial disaster respectively.
• Star Wars:
  • Even if the name of George Lucas is ubiquitously associated with the franchise, his position as the primary creator of Star Wars has been questioned by some fans of the franchise. A lot of fans argue that the Original Trilogy movies ought to be credited less to Lucas than his collaborators. While Lucas wrote and directed A New Hope by himself, many argue that producer Gary Kurtz ensured "quality control" over the final product^note In actual fact, producer Kurtz negotiated final cut for Lucas at Twentieth Century Fox meaning he was never in position to say anything about the "quality" since that was entirely Lucas' domain. Others also credit George Lucas's wife at the time, Marcia Lucas^note After the initial cut assembled by British editor John Jympson turned out to be absolute crap which some point out is a normal phenomenon for any rough cut in film history, it's called "rough" for a reason. Marcia (an experienced editor who worked on Taxi Driver, among other films) recut the film from scratch and that George couldn't make any suggestions until she and co-editors Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew had assembled a complete edit. Which is more or less normal practice for any editor. Meanwhile, Mark Hamill and Steven Spielberg contend that Lucas was solely responsible for the overall vision and aesthetic of the films (a Space opera B-Movie done on the scale of an Epic Movie with mixes of Japanese Jidaigeki and The Western) and that he had to constantly fight naysayers, producers, and cast and crew who didn't take the film seriously because the subject matter seemed childish to them, as it did to most audiences of Science Fiction B-Movie before Star Wars. In the case of The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas served as producer and writer; while the film was directed by Irvin Kershner, Lucas was entirely and solely responsible for the film's central Plot Twist (Luke, I Am Your Father), as well as deciding on the Han/Leia romance, creating the characters of Yoda and Lando Calrissian, without which it's unlikely that The Empire Strikes Back would be as respected as it is. Lucas was also more hands-on in Return of the Jedi owing to the contentious direction of Richard Marquand.
  • Dave Filoni is highly regarded by the fanbase for expanding and improving on the highly contentious prequels. His series Star Wars: The Clone Wars is beloved even amongst prequel haters for further exploring the mysticism of the Force and deepening and giving more context to the prequel characters, especially Anakin. His work on The Mandalorian was similarly well-regarded for the world-building and characterization of the Mandalorians.
  • Jon Favreau for showrunning The Mandalorian, the Disney-era Star Wars live-action entry that has by far the least amount of Broken Base compared to the films made since the buyout.
  • The commercial success of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy in addition to being important for the Expanded Universe also played a big part in convincing Lucas that interest in Star Wars hadn't died. While little of Zahn's works would ever be directly adapted into the live-action films, the city-planet of Coruscant first debuted in his pages, as well as a few other details which ultimately appeared in Lucas' Special Edition and later the prequels themselves. Thrawn himself would migrate to the Rebels animated series.
• For the X-Men Film Series:
  • Bryan Singer wrote, directed, and produced the first two films and he had this reputation and status for the first three films, returning after a hiatus to direct the well-received X-Men: Days of Future Past. The highly divisive reception of X-Men: The Last Stand, directed by Brett Ratner, was compounded by the fact of not having Singer at the helm.
  • A lot of fans consider Matthew Vaughn to be this for the later X-Men films. He was the director of X-Men: First Class, which was considered the return to form of the franchise and became the first successful film in the series not centered on Wolverine. He also changed the aesthetic of a trilogy that was formerly the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier for Movie Superheroes Wear Black, introduced a much more humorous and sexy style (even those who liked the first X-Men films pointed out that they were rather overly serious with material that really did not work for that), made the costumes and visual design much more brighter and colourful (giving the First Class team a black and lemon yellow ensemble and setting the finale in broad daylight on the beaches of Cuba). When Singer returned to the franchise, with Days of Future Past, he followed Vaughn's aesthetic, and the success of First Class also led studios to green-light more personal and director-driven takes on the series, and even push to the R-rating (Vaughn's film was the first superhero film with a Precision F-Strike), leading to Deadpool (2016) and Logan.
  • Many fans consider James Mangold to be the Honorary Uncle of the X-Men movies and the real daddy of Wolverine. By the 2010s, Wolverine turned into a bit of a joke largely thanks to his static personality and general overexposure in The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Mangold managed to reinvigorate the character with the solo movies The Wolverine and Logan by giving him a character arc of finding reconciliation with his violent past, thereby making Wolverine more interesting and less one-note killing machine. Furthermore, Mangold's movies are also gritty neo-noir thrillers that helped stand out from the other X-Men movies. Subsequently, both movies are widely respected for making the Wolverine relevant again in a way that honors the character's gritty roots.

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