Are we losing interesting directors to blockbuster films?

Directors who’ve made maybe one interesting, successful small film soon get snapped up by the system.

But at what cost to the industry?

Then theres Gareth Edwards.

We suspect his computer wasnt a bad one, mind.

All three stories had happy endings.

Everyone, especially us, won.

But times have changed.

As such, we wind forward to the present day.

Webb has made three movies to date, two of themSpider-Manfeatures.

Edwards second film wasGodzilla, his third will be 2016sStar Warsspin-off movie.

And Trevorrows sophomore effort is 2016sJurassic World.

Theyve each jumped from proportionately smaller projects, to proportionately much larger ones, without the stepping stones in-between.

Warner Bros had the often brilliant Richard Donner on speed dial for much of the 80s and 90s.

Looking through this summers blockbusters alone?

James Gunn is going from the ultra-economicalSuperto the ultra-expensiveGuardians Of The Galaxy.

Theres no old guard, per se, nor a regularly list of names on speed dial.

Theres a genuine effort to seek out newer talents.

In the case of the films themselves, its generally been a good thing.

Its the hardest thing Ive ever had to do times a thousand.

To take a stab at give it a voice.

Compare that to the subtle nudges that Edwards deployed throughoutMonsters.

At the very least, theyre going to send over a few notes.

Potentially tons of them.

At the very least, youd assume a studio could collaborate more closely with a less experienced director.

But still: the quality of blockbuster films seems consistently quite good at the moment.

And that wasnt always so.

Its easy to overlook that.

Well, theres the hardly insignificant matter of opportunity cost.

Brian De Palma apparently once lamented that whenStar Warshit big, America lost one of its most interesting directors.

The George Lucas who madeTHX 1138andAmerican Graffitiwas gone, and every film Lucas directed afterwards was aStar Warsmovie.

Could the same happen here?

That directors are having to jump from $1m to $100m because theres rarely anything in between.

Duncan Jones getting to makeSource Codeoff the back ofMoonwas the exception to a growing norm.

Interestingly, one or two directors are managing to dial things back a little.

George Lucas himself is said to be making experimental smaller films now.

Marc Webb was linked with comedy spy thrillerCold Comfort.