
Colin Farrell may possess a questionable taste in material, but he's generally aces when it comes to picking directors to work with. Just look at some of the names he's managed to rack up during the course of his decade-long stint in movie stardom: Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, Oliver Stone, Woody Allen, Neil Jordan, Terry Gilliam, Robert Towne and Terrence freakin' Malick. Granted, not all of these films turned out for the best, but that's an impressive collection of filmmakers to have on anyone's résumé. (Of course, there are a few Joel Schumachers and Len Wisemans in the bunch, but everyone makes mistakes now and then.) In addition to A-list directors, Farrell has teamed up with some promising up-and-comers, whether it's Martin McDonagh (who cast him in both In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths), John Crowley (who made the underrated 2003 crime comedy, Intermission) or, now, Niels Arden Oplev, a Danish director making his American feature debut with Dead Man Down, a solid, eminently watchable thriller that has the misfortune of going up against Oz the Great and Powerful this weekend.

Few collaborators have seemed better matched than the minds behind Prometheus, writer Damon Lindelof and director Ridley Scott. After all, both men are big picture guys who enjoy building worlds that viewers can lose themselves in for two hours or six seasons. In movies like Blade Runner, Legend and even the otherwise lackluster Robin Hood, Scott paints on a giant canvas, transporting audiences to the past, the future or a fantasy realm. Meanwhile, throughout the run of Lost (particularly in its early seasons), Lindelof and his co-executive producer Carlton Cuse successfully created an environment where mysteries and secrets seemed lurked around every corner and down every hatch. So unleashing these two on a tentpole sci-fi blockbuster, with an apparently limitless amount of resources and money at their disposal, sounds like a recipe for an enormous spectacle of epic proportions -- one of those films that's simply bigger than life. [Warning: Spoilers Ahead]