10 Great Directors Who Keep Making Terrible Movies

Okay, this one is harder to defend than a lot of names on this list. Because good God has James Franco more than proven that he can make a bad film if he puts his mind to it. Many might even argue that, according to the law of averages at least, it’s actually easier to claim Franco is a bad director who made a good film and not the other way around. But what a good film 2017’s The Disaster Artist is.

The would-be auteur seemed to end his brutal cold streak of directorial flops with (ironically) this tragic-comic Tommy Wiseau biopic.

The film saw Franco disregard the pretensions of his critically maligned literary adaptations in favour of a simple and surprisingly poignant story of one demented director and his vision.

But then came Zeroville and Future World to dispel any notions of a turnaround for Franco’s directing career. And now film fans are left with the tragic certainty that the man can make a great, moving, funny, and inventive film. He’s just choosing not to.