Ryan
Coogler & Michael B. Jordan
Filmmaker Ryan Coogler broke big at Sundance in 2013 with his
Jury and Audience Award-winning debut feature ‘Fruitvale Station’, and he’s
stuck with leading man Michael B. Jordan ever since. Coogler followed up that
heartwrenching drama with 2015’s crowd-pleasing Rocky spin-off ‘Creed’, which
starred Jordan as Rocky’s competitor Apollo Creed’s son Adonis. For his third
feature, the director joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe to helm 2018’s
‘Black Panther’, which earned raves from critics, broke box-office records,
and, of course, featured a standout performance from its villain, Michael B.
Jordan.
Steven Spielberg & Tom Hanks
As two of the biggest, most beloved names in Hollywood, it only
seems right that Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks would make a great team — and
do they ever make a great team. Spielberg has directed Hanks in five projects
to date, starting with 1998’s WWII drama ‘Saving Private Ryan’, for which
Spielberg won an Oscar for Best Director and Hanks picked up his fourth
nomination, followed by 2002’s ‘Catch Me if You Can’, 2004’s ‘The Terminal’,
and 2015’s ‘Bridge of Spies’. That’s not to mention the two Hanks starrers
Spielberg has produced, the three war documentaries they’ve collaborated on, or
the two WWII miniseries they co-produced, ‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘The Pacific’.
Most recently, Hanks starred in Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers drama ‘The Post’,
which earned Spielberg another Best Picture nomination.
Sofia Coppola & Kirsten Dunst
Having appeared in three out of Sofia Coppola’s six theatrical
features, Kirsten Dunst is the director’s go-to lonely girl amid a filmography
devoted to lonely girls. The pair’s first collaboration was Coppola’s debut,
1999’s ‘The Virgin Suicides’, followed by 2006’s candy-coated, pop-soundtracked
biopic ‘Marie Antoinette’, which was famously booed at Cannes but has recently
been reappraised as a major work. Even if critics hadn’t come around a decade
after the fact, however, Coppola still got the last laugh: In 2017, she became
the second woman ever to win Cannes’ Best Director prize for her third project
with Dunst, Southern gothic ‘The Beguiled’.
Steven Soderbergh & Channing Tatum
What other director could turn his actor’s tale about his past
as a stripper into not only one of the best films of 2012, but also a box
office success? ‘Magic Mike’ earned over $113.7 million on a budget of only $7
million. Side Effects and Haywire didn’t exactly reach Magic heights, but still
garnered positive critical reception. Though Soderbergh announced his
retirement from feature filmmaking in 2013, he just couldn’t stay away: He made
his return to the big screen in the summer of 2017 with ‘Logan Lucky’, starring
— who else? — Tatum.
Kathryn Bigelow & Mark Boal
Award-winning war correspondent-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal
and director Kathryn Bigelow are a team bonded by Oscar gold — whether or not
they were also romantically involved is beside the point. Few modern duos have
been skilled (and bold) enough to tackle contemporary war so unflinchingly.
Boal and Bigelow have done it twice with 2008’s ‘The Hurt Locker’ and 2012’s
‘Zero Dark Thirty’; their third collaboration, a dramatization of Detroit’s
1967 12th Street Riot entitled ‘Detroit’, hit theaters in 2017.
David O. Russell & Jennifer Lawrence
While all of David O. Russell’s last three films — 2012’s
‘Silver Linings Playbook’, 2013’s ‘American Hustle’, and 2015’s ‘Joy’ — have
been criticized for the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as a character at least 10
years her senior, the Academy doesn’t seem to mind the age discrepancy:
Lawrence has been nominated for an Oscar for each of her collaborations with
Russell, winning for ‘Silver Linings’, and Russell has collected four nods
between them. After three movies together over four years, the indie filmmaker
and his leading lady have no plans of stopping anytime soon. “David and I will
never, ever, ever, ever not do movies together,” said Lawrence in 2015. “We
were made for each other.”
Pedro Almodóvar & Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz has said that the first time she saw Pedro
Almodóvar’s‘Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!’ “was the day I decided to be an actress.” It’s
all too appropriate that she would eventually become the muse of the man who
originally inspired her. Cruz first appeared in one of Almodóvar’s films with a
small role in 1997’s ‘Live Flesh’; the pair’s later collaborations would
include 1999’s All About ‘My Mother’, 2009’s ‘Broken Embraces’, and 2006’s
‘Volver’, for which Cruz received her first Oscar nomination. When she finally
took home the gold two years later for Woody Allen’s ‘Vicky Cristina
Barcelona’, Cruz thanked Almodóvar, “for having made me part of so many of his
adventures.” Here’s to many more.
George Clooney & Grant Heslov
According to Hollywood lore, Heslovmet Clooney in 1982 and lent
him $200 to buy his first set of headshots. More than three decades later,
they’re one of the most prolific producing teams in Tinseltown. ‘Good Night’,
and ‘Good Luck’ earned them a Best Picture nomination in 2005, but it wasn’t
till 2012’s ‘Argo’ that they brought home the coveted prize. With more than a
dozen joint projects under their belts — including recent titles ‘Our Brand Is
Crisis’ and ‘Money Monster’ — Clooney and Heslov most recently joined forces on
2017’s Clooney-directed ‘Suburbicon’.
Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson
Wes Anderson’s clique of collaborators is full of distinctive
and impressive names, but the one who shares his identity most with the indie
auteur is Owen Wilson. After meeting and rooming together at the University of
Texas at Austin, Anderson and Wilson teamed up to write ‘Bottle Rocket’, which
would be the debut film for each of them. Since then, the pair has co-written
1998’s ‘Rushmore’ and 2001’s ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’, and Wilson has appeared in
seven of Anderson’s nine feature projects.
Martin Scorsese & Leonardo DiCaprio
In a way, they saved each other. DiCaprio invigorated ‘Gangs of
New York’, ‘The Aviator’, and ‘The Departed’ with a vibrant, masculine rage
that hadn’t been present in Scorsese’s work for years. Meanwhile, Scorsese
rescued DiCaprio from heartthrob prison and guided him into challenging,
dangerous roles. After taking a break from collaboration following 2010’s
twisty thriller ‘Shutter Island’, the two reunited for ‘The Wolf of Wall
Street’ — a champagne-soaked dramedy that granted the Internet its most
precious gif(t) of 2013. As of 2018, the prolific pair have three projects in
the works: ‘The Devil in the White City’, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, and
‘Roosevelt’, a Teddy Roosevelt biopic.
Michael Fassbender & Steve McQueen
Despite a less than cordial initial meeting, McQueen has proven
a time-and-again knack for encouraging Fassbender to expose himself — both
physically and emotionally. A hunger-striking prisoner in ‘Hunger’, a
struggling sex addict in Shame, and a sadistic plantation owner in ‘12 Years a
Slave’ have all earned the actor critical acclaim thanks to McQueen’s
unflinching guidance.
Joe Wright & Keira Knightley
Director Joe Wright and actress Keira Knightley sure make period
dramas look pretty. From the naturalistic take on ‘Pride & Prejudice’ to
the emotionally devastating ‘Atonement’ to the lavish ‘Anna Karenina’, the duo
have continued to work together to breathe life into screen adaptations of
noted literature. And it often pays off — Pride scored Knightley her first
Oscar nod and both ‘Pride& Prejudice’and ‘Atonement’ scored Golden Globes
nominations for Knightley. Wright secured his first Golden Globes nod for
‘Atonement’.
Johnny Depp & Tim Burton
Burton and Depp have that elusively successful Hollywood
“marriage.” After 23 years as a professional duo, beginning in 1990 with Edward
Scissorhands the actor-director pair has gone on to work together in a total of
eight of Burton’s eccentric, gothic-style films. The list continues with d
Wood’ (1994), ‘Sleepy Hollow’ (1999), ‘Charlie’ and ‘The Chocolate Factory’
(2005), ‘Corpse Bride’ (2005), ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’
(2007), ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (2010), and ‘Dark Shadows’ (2012). Although they
speak as if they share a secret abstract language, and their slightly
perplexing fondness for each other may feel foreign to fans, at the end of the
day it can be watered down to friendship. Depp said in 2007:”With Tim, I just
don’t want to let him down. Because, you know, he’s a brother. He’s my family.”
Russell Crowe & Ridley Scott
Fiery, imperious, stubborn, talented, and competitive — just a
few some traits by Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, a pair who seem plucked from
another time…perhaps the ancient days of hallowed manhood on collaborations
including ‘Gladiator’, the 2000 film that brought them together and won five
Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe) and their fifth and
final collaboration on 2010’s ‘Robin Hood’. Between those two bookends, they
racked up another couple of Oscar nods and some indisputable movie magic. If
these two know anything, it’s that sometimes you have to stick to your guns —
or swords, as it were.
BazLuhrmann& Catherine Martin
Some of the most fabulous images ever captured on screen were
dreamed up by this married filmmaking team. ‘Strictly Ballroom’, ‘Romeo +
Juliet’, ‘Moulin Rouge!’, ‘Australia’, and ‘The Great Gatsby’ were operatic
fantasies set in alternate realities that only they could create. He’s the
writer-director-producer. She’s the production and costume designer. Together
they’re extraordinary — and have collected four Oscars and three additional
nods between them.
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Agencies
