10 Completely Unexpected Films By Famous Directors

Because Clint Eastwood's films can't all be cowboy movies.

By Brogan Morris /

Some famous moviemakers - think the likes of Steven Soderbergh and John Boorman - have throughout their careers prided themselves on exploring a plethora of genres and styles. Those are the types of director it's virtually impossible to pin down.

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But they're rare - most filmmakers, including the great ones, have a tried and tested formula that leaves fans knowing more or less what to expect. Just look at Wes Anderson - he hasn't ventured outside of whimsical, high-stylised comedy yet, and there are no signs he intends to leave his comfort zone any time soon.

However, there are other directors, who, though fairly consistent in their choices of project, every so often like to go off-roading and do something entirely different.

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Here are ten completely unexpected films from famous directors you wrongly thought you had pegged.

10. Hugo - Martin Scorsese's 3D Kids' Film

Martin Scorsese is known as the director of gangster movies, which is unfair - of the 23 features he's made, only five have explicitly been about gangsterism. His reputation as a purveyor of violence is earned, though; from low-level mob movie Mean Streets, through boxing drama Raging Bull and religious fable The Last Temptation Of Christ, all the way up to his latest, Silence, Marty hasn't held back on spilling the claret, whatever the genre.

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He's a man who's only ever made movies with an adult audience in mind. Except for that time he did Hugo, a 3D extravaganza and G-rated fantasy about a boy who lives in a clock, has a broken automaton for company, and who befriends cinematic legend George Melies after bumping into him in a French toy shop.

Hugo's a major departure for Scorsese - anyone coming to the film fresh would have no idea the filmmaker behind Taxi Driver had it in him to make something so warm, friendly and colourful - but there are still hints as to the author, particularly in the film's passion for cinematic history.

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