10 Promising & Big-Name Directors Who Turned To The Small Screen

The mid-90s saw the rise of the independent film market through Miramax and Harvey Weinstein, who avidly picked up anyone with a potentially groundbreaking new cinematic voice. That the Weinstein era produced some truly toxic people - from the man himself to an entire generation of lecherous males in the film industry. None were more insidious, however, than Neil LaBute.

On his face, LaBute appeared to be a harmless filmmaker - a young Mormon from Kansas who attended Brigham Young University. His first major film, In the Company of Men, not only helped launch the career of Aaron Eckhart but appeared to be a biting satire of just how repugnant alpha male behaviour can be.

His follow up, Your Friends and Neighbours, seemed like more of the same, and it appeared LaBute had the market cornered on awful people behaving terribly toward one another in cringe comedy.

Then came The Shape of Things, and a recurring theme started to take shape. Critics started to take notice - these films were less about people doing awful things, more about women doing awful things.

His career pretty much sank after The Wicker Man and the racially touchy Lakeview Terrace (Unlawful Entry with a black person). He quickly ran to the smaller screen, creating Billy and Bilie and Van Helsing while handling episodes of Billions.

In addition, he was the showrunner for Netflix's The I-Land, a terrible Lost clone that was viciously torn apart by critics upon debut. And you guessed it, the women on all of these shows are thoroughly unpleasant.