2. John Boorman
John Boorman is the definition of an "up and down director", given his early career success with Deliverance giving him two Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Picture. How do you follow up such greatness? Apparently by directing the risible Sean Connery-starring sci-fi mess Zardoz, and the horror sequel that nobody wanted, The Exorcist 2: The Heretic. However, fear not, Boorman returned to form with Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, and then Hope and Glory, the latter of which would earn him Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. In the interceding two and a half decades, he's been maddenningly inconsistent, with each hit being accompanied by a flop. Given that his last two films (In My Country and The Tiger's Tail) were terrible, one hopes that his next film, Queen and Country, might be a return to form.