i learned from this interesting interview/”random roles” with illeana douglas on the onion’s av-club that martin scorsese was originally slated to direct schindler’s list while spielberg was supposed to direct the remake of cape fear. i have to say i can’t imagine what either would have looked like, but i’m pretty sure one would have been better and the other worse.
now i’m trying to come up with other incongruous directorial switcheroos (both directors have to be famous and interesting in their own right, and the films have to be notable as well, and roughly from the same time-period).
john waters, annie hall/woody allen, pink flamingos
werner herzog, tootsie/sydney pollack, fitzcarraldo
pasolini, harold and maude/ hal ashby,salo
john hughes, natural born killers/oliver stone, ferris bueller’s day off