Hello! And welcome to Auteur Watch, where we profile all film directors great and small, and kinda gather some examples of what they're up to and get right back to ya! This week, Gary Fleder. Now I'm sure there's a lot of you out there who may be asking, "What's a Gary Fleder?" Well, if you just give me a chance to talk... Hmm! Good question, though. What is a Gary Fleder? Well, he's not quite Todd Solondz, and he's not quite Brett Ratner. No, I guess he falls somewhere in between. I guess you could say he's a hard working guy, like Steven Seagal said of one of the poor shlubs making one of his crappy movies, one who WASN'T Andrew Davis. Yeah, I guess you could say Gary Fleder is in Andrew Davis territory. Well, better that than Ron Underwood territory. Man, I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
Where was I? Oh yeah, back to the Fled-man. As usual, I tend to wander too far afield, WAY more than six hyperlink degrees of separation. Basically, he's on the right career track; not successful enough to justify a full-time cinematic career, but not hacky enough to get stuck in TV fulltime. He's back with The Express soon to come out. Hard to say if the market has piqued on these PG sports movies; McG certainly thinks so. Maybe Fleder will fare better.
Welp, The G-man hasn't had much of a career yet, so we really can't fairly apply the Favorite Decade test to him. He probably would say the nascent 90s, when things were new and exciting; he made it through his Tarantino phase intact enough, was part of a franchise ... Hey! A franchise is a franchise, even if Ashley Judd's involved... and then, on to some exciting cable work that was PRACTICALLY good enough to be in the theater. But if he knows what's good for him, and his agent will no doubt confirm this, he will surely say that the much busier 2000s are clearly his favorite decade. An aborted theater release that's close to crossing the cult threshold, probably because of Philip K. Dick's involvement; I swear, Dick must be the most adapted sci-fi guy by now! Second only to ... Asimov? Jules Verne? Who cares. The main thing is, he survived, and he'll even do the DVD commentary just to show there's no hard feelings. Besides, it's still more interesting than Don't Say A Word, or The Game 2 as it's known in the biz. And then, a John Grisham adaptation, usually good for any director's career. Unfortunately, Runaway Jury also serves as a pre-Katrina travelogue of New Orleans. At least in my mind. And you know what? Sure, he could've been a bigshot at this point and continued on the cinema track, but no! Back to TV. That's his choice, and I applaud him for it. Not everyone can do that, you know.
Or can they? Is there the pressure to pick a side? I actually don't know. He's not in Spielberg Amazing Stories territory, of course, but then again who is? Oh, but enough from me. Whatever you choose, here's to you, Gary Fleder. Keep up the good work, and don't bogart the Elswit! I almost forgot.
P.S. Just got a call from Ron Underwood's agent asking for an apology. I apologize; I meant to say Rod Daniel. Man, that guy could screw up an episode of Scrubs.
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