10 Completely Unexpected Films By Famous Directors

2. Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans - Werner Herzog's Nicolas Cage-Starring Cop Procedural

There are few directors quite as 'out there' as Werner Herzog, a man who once saved Joaquin Phoenix from a car crash before running away, who ate his own shoe because he lost a bet, who continued an interview with Mark Kermode despite being shot. Herzog's films reflect such eccentricity; they're almost invariably about some form of madness, or about extreme personalities doing odd things.

On paper, Herzog's 2010 movie Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans seemed like everything the director had avoided throughout his career. Starring Nicolas Cage, a Hollywood actor who of late had just been acting for the paycheck, and based on an existing cinematic property, making it a sequel/reboot of sorts, Port Of Call New Orleans was written like a slightly higher-quality episode of a TV cop drama.

Of course, Herzog managed to sneak in some of his own offbeat personality (singing iguanas and breakdancing corpses feature), and allow Cage a brief vacation from himself so he could give an engagingly madcap performance, his best in years.