Marc Forster

Some filmmakers arrive at their chosen profession by a childhood or college life spent in the study of classic movies; for others, it takes only one film. Director Marc Forster was part of the latter camp; after seeing his first movie - Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" (1979) - he became fixated on the idea of becoming a director. After studying cinema at New York University in the early 1990s, he launched his career with the indie drama "Everything Put Together" (2000), which netted him the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. His follow-ups - 2001's "Monster's Ball" and 2004's "Finding Neverland" (2004) - established him as a director of powerful and emotionally complex dramas. But he struggled to maintain critical acclaim with subsequent efforts like "Stay" (2005), "Stranger than Fiction" (2006) and "The Kite Runner" (2007). In 2008, he made a complete about-face and tackled "Quantum of Solace," the second James Bond feature to star Daniel Craig as 007. Though it too garnered mixed reviews, Forster's choice of projects suggested that the versatility he showed in his early films might only be the tip of his talents as a director.