9. It'd Be A Mess Without Joe Dante
Problem: Joe Dante's films have a unique vision on their own. A man who was raised on 1950's B-Movies, Pop Culture, and Satire; his films have a voice unlike any other. He knows how to bring the scary elements out of a project, but he also excels at making his audience laugh with good old fashioned slapstick and goofball humor. The man has Steven Spielberg and John Landis as his film-making peers, so you can begin to see exactly where he's coming from and why a Gremlins project without him could be an utter disaster.
If They HAVE To...: ...hire someone who knows what they're doing. Off the top of my head, Peter Jackson could nail the screwball tone, Guillermo Del Toro could nail both that AND the creepy, crawly nature of the beast, and Neill Blomkamp could probably make a version that'd get us thinking about the geopolitical position of the American Empire in the Western World. No...sorry, that last one was for a synopsis to Elysium. Still though, these three filmmakers are enough of a name to draw the crowds, but not big enough to sell out. (Sorry Mr. Jackson, but outside of Lord of the Rings, your track record is as spotty as a Dalmatian in an Ink Factory.) One last choice, just for funsies and general weirdness: Gremlins, directed by Terry Gilliam.