8 Directors Who Ended A Long Hiatus With A Great Comeback Movie

Films are such huge productions and directors often take a few years between projects, but sometimes filmmakers take extended breaks between movies only to come back with a masterpiece. Often, when directors take a long time off, it can show in the work that they haven’t been flexing their filmmaking muscles. After 20 years of mostly producing, George Lucas had trouble returning to the director’s chair for the Star Wars prequels, making it all the more impressive when a filmmaker can return better than ever.

These filmmakers either planned to retire or had difficulties finding support for their newest project, thus forcing them to take a break from directing. However, they had stories they were passionate to tell, as these films were willed into existence. Many of these movies are the director’s final film, while others are an exciting new chapter in their filmography.

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8 Michael Mann – Ferrari

8-Year Break

Michael Mann spent most of the eight years following the financial disaster of his action film Blackhat trying to get Ferrari made. The filmmaker’s status among film scholars had only grown in the years since his last film. However, he still had difficulty getting the funding for a dour biopic about the lasting effects of grief, and one of the most horrific disasters in the history of racing. Thankfully, last year Ferrari finally made it to the big screen, and while it isn’t blowing the doors off the box office or the awards shows, it is still a modern masterpiece by a legendary filmmaker.

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7 Stanley Kubrick – Eyes Wide Shut

12-Year Break

As Stanley Kubrick got older, he took more time off between projects, and his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, came 12 years after Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick was a perfectionist and by the end of his career, he was taking however long he felt on each project. The production of Eyes Wide Shut was 400 days alone and still holds the record for the longest shot of a Hollywood movie ever. Kubrick’s patience was well worth it, however, as Eyes Wide Shut is a highlight of his filmography, as well as 90s cinema. A darkly funny fable of infidelity and power, this is still Kubrick’s most underrated film.

6 George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road

4-Year Break (17 Since Last Live-Action Film)

When Mad Max: Fury Road raced its way to theaters it had only been four years since director George Miller’s last film, Happy Feet Two. However, it had been 17 years since the Australian filmmaker had made a live-action film, Babe: Pig in the City, and 30 years since his last action movie, Mad Max: Beyond Thunder Dome. Miller had spent three decades making boundary-pushing children’s films, but the entire time was trying to get his fourth Mad Max movie off the ground. When he finally got to complete his vision, the result was one of the best action movies ever made and a symphony of violence and fury.

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5 Sergio Leone – Once Upon A Time In America

13-year Break

Mostly known for his spaghetti westerns, Sergio Leone took a 13-year break before his final film, Once Upon a Time in America. Instead of his typical Wild West setting, Leon made one of the great American crime films about early 20th-century Manhattan. Despite its reputation being almost ruined by a terrible theatrical cut, the director’s cut of Once Upon a Time in America has stood the test of time and is arguably Leon’s greatest achievement as a filmmaker.

4 Jacques Tati – PlayTime

9-Year Break

French comedian and filmmaker Jacques Tati was a one-of-a-kind stylist, being able to craft detailed and unique worlds with very little dialogue. Tati is a lot like the French Charlie Chaplin as he wrote, directed, and starred in his films, often playing the character of Monsieur Hulot. However, after 1958’s My Uncle, it was nine years until Tati released his masterpiece PlayTimme. A two-and-a-half-hour comedy epic, PlayTime is still a masterclass in visual comedy, world-building, and filmmaking. PlayTime has everything Tati excelled at and will forever be the work he is remembered most for.

3 Jonathan Glazer – The Zone Of Interest

10-Year Break

A decade after Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer has finally returned to filmmaking with The Zone of Interest, a haunting film about a German family building the perfect life directly next door to Auschwitz. Choosing not to show any of the horrors on the other side of the wall, Glazer makes the most effective works of Holocaust art by showing the mundanity of evil. The Zone of Interest is not for the faint of heart, but it is one of the best movies of the year and a bold take on its subject.

2 Elaine May – Ishtar

11-Year Break

Comedian and filmmaker Elaine May has only made four films, but each one is a thoughtful and funny exploration of relationships and how broken people interact with the world. After fighting with the studio over the final cut of Mikey and Nicky, May took an 11-year hiatus from filmmaking, only to come out with one of the biggest flops of all time. Ishtar is a film that was completely misunderstood upon release, as it found its audience years later. A ridiculous comedy about male friendship, show business, and American imperialism, Ishtar is so dumb that it is brilliant.

1 Terrence Malick – The Thin Red Line

20-year Break

Badlands and Days of Heaven are two of the most influential films to come out of the 70s, but after their release, director Terrence Malick completely disappeared from Hollywood. Malick is a very private man, and there is no precise answer to what he did for the 20 years following Days of Heaven, but in 1998 he made a triumphant return with The Thin Red Line. A war movie more focused on the existential and environmental toll of war, The Thin Red Line is the greatest war film ever made, and a quintessential film for Malick, who has become more prolific in the following years.