10 Directors Who Need To Get Back On The Big Screen

8. John Woo

Technically John Woo hasn't gone missing from the big screen, he has just gone missing from the realms of the Hollywood blockbuster, after making his last English language film - Paycheck - back in 2003, starring, funnily enough, Ben Affleck. Since then Woo has returned to his roots in Asian cinema, directing Red Cliff I and II. But it's key to remember that in a glorious four year period, between 1993 and '97 Woo brought us three action classics: '93 saw him team up with Van Damme in Hard Target, then in '96 he gave us Slater vs. Travolta in Broken Arrow, before he worked with Travolta again a year later, pitting him against Nicolas Cage in Face/Off. Well choreographed fight-sequences and gun battles on a backdrop of suspense make Woo's best work stand out from the norm of the action genre. Directing an action film with enough depth to keep them memorable is a proving a hard task in Hollywood. Woo is a past master of the art and deserves another shot at the big time. The man from Hong Kong needs to return to Tinsel Town and start kicking blockbuster tail again. Yes, his last three attempts were poor, but before his howlers Woo wowed us with his slickly directed, old fashioned action movies.