11 Cinematographers Who Became Great Directors

4) Jan de Bont

For me at least, the remainder of entries in this list of cinematographers turned directors were relatively obscure, having heard of most of them mainly in passing or from the odd movie that was released well before my time. The first among these is Jan de Bont, the Dutch filmmaker who got his start collaborating with fellow Dutchman and better known director Paul Verhoeven on some low budget films. Verhoeven would go on to direct Robocop, and de Bont served as the cinematographer on All the Right Moves, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, and Basic Instinct before getting his chance at directing.

As a director, de Bont had brief success in the 90s, releasing back to back hits with Speed in 1994 and Twister in 1996. That success was short-lived, however. He went on to write and direct the universally panned sequel to Speed, and followed that with a remake of The Haunting, both of which earned him Razzie nominations. Add to that the sequel of Tomb Raider and his directing résumé is ultimately not as impressive as the films he has photographed. He does deserve bonus points for serving as a producer on Minority Report, though.

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