5. Steven Spielberg
I have to admit: I'm not much of a Steven Spielberg fan. I've found most of his films to be boring, and I think he's fairly overrated. My taste aside, though, I definitely respect his oeuvre, and he obviously knows how to direct a movie. His life story isn't nearly as amazing as some of my other choices, but there's one time period in particular that would make for a very special film, and that's during the making of Jaws. At the time Spielberg was still very young, and Jaws was meant to be a much smaller film - a modest 3.5 million dollar budget and a simple 55 day shoot. Much to the dismay of the cast and crew (the film was nicknamed "Flaws"), Spielberg was a perfectionist, and had to get every detail right. At the end of shooting, the cost was $9 million, and they had gone 104 days over schedule. Yes, the 55 day shoot became a 159 day shoot. That's never good. Because of all this, Spielberg thought his career was over - it probably would have been had the film not smashed at the box office, becoming (then) the highest-grossing film at the time.