6. Christopher Nolan
Notable Films: Memento, Inception, The Dark Knight Before I knew who he was I had seen Memento and was blown away. The ability and courage to tell a story in that format is legendary, and it remains a cult favorite today.When Batman Begins came out, followed by The Prestige, I knew that Nolan was special. His work on The Dark Knight trilogy speaks for itself, it rocked the comic book movie genre into a new standard. Nolan decided to focus on character and story rather than flash us with gratuitous CGI. Most laud The Dark Knight Trilogy as being up there as one of the great trilogies in film. The Dark Knight stands as not only one of the greatest superhero films, but one of the greatest films ever made. Aside from Batman, Nolan's stand alone films are each spectacular pieces of film making. Inception won 4 out of 8 Academy Awards, and is 36th highest grossing films list. Inception was embraced by (most) fans and critics alike, and I still hear folks debating the ending three summers later. For what it's worth, six out of his eight movies are on the Top-250 IMDB movie list with The Dark Knight at number 2, Inception at 14, Memento at 36, The Dark Knight Rises at 54, The Prestige at 67, and the lowest ranking being Batman Begins at 105. His forthcoming Interstellar looks to be another great film to add on to his resume of awesome. Nolan puts a lot of time and thought into each film, and its always worth the two or three year wait between movies.