Patty Jenkins
Much like Ava Duvernay, Patty Jenkins moved from a low budget drama to a multi-million dollar film production, by way of awards nominations and a high profile Oscar win associated with her movie. In Jenkins’ case, she went from directing Charlize Theron to an Best Actress Oscar in 2003’s Monster, to delivering one of the highest-grossing films of 2017, with Wonder Woman.
Monster saw Patty Jenkins use a budget of less than $10 million to tell the biographical tale of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, ultimately earning $60.4 million in box office, and taking the festival and awards circuit by storm. Over the next 12 years, Jenkins honed her skills further, with a mixture of television series directing and the helming of two television movies. Warner Bros, then provided her with a budget of $149 million to deliver the first ever live-action feature film to star Wonder Woman – and it earned $821.9 million in its theatrical run.
Jenkins’ talent for telling female-centric stories makes her an ideal pick for a Star Wars Anthology movie, which tend to be more focused on the exploits of a single person, rather than an entire Rebel fleet.
Mira Nair
Granted, award winning filmmaker Mira Nair has never handled a budget over $40 million, nor have her films ever spun spectacular box office gold in the way that the work of Ava DuVernay and Patty Jenkins has since 2001’s Monsoon Wedding made $34.5 million against a budget of $1.2 million – but Mira Nair has been directing movies for 39 years, and she brings with her a global perspective, with an eye for detail, character and political intrigue. Her box office record simply makes her the wild card.
The films of Mira Nair have encompassed a wide range of themes – including the issues associated with the Indian tradition of arranged marriage (Monsoon Wedding), the social issues associated with the colonial era of the British Empire (Vanity Fair), immigration (The Namesake), feminism in early aviation (Amelia), the cultural politics of the post-9/11 world (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), and the social and economic barriers that exist in sport (Queen Of Katwe).
With the launch of Star Wars Anthology films and the planning of various spinoff series, there’s scope for something different from that which audiences have come to expect from the franchise – and Mira Nair is a great candidate to create that. She could undoubtedly deliver a tale that has a smaller, more political scope – such as a thriller set in the galactic senate, for example.
