Year of the Writer-Director

Touching somewhat upon the previous entry, The Los Angeles Times declares 2007 is the "Year of the Writer-Director".

Consider Mike White, the droll, white-haired scribe behind The Good Girl and School of Rock, who says he used to be a "really bad backseat driver" on the sets of the movies he wrote. "You're completely stressed in each situation trying to figure out how to manipulate everyone into doing what you want them to do." But directing -- that's a charm, says White. "You can actually say what you want."

White just helmed his first film -- Year of the Dog, the tale of a woman (Molly Shannon) who really, no, really, loves animals. In fact, he joins a bumper crop of brand-name writers making directorial debuts in 2007. They include Oscar nominees Scott Frank (Out of Sight) and Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich), John August (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Oscar winner Alan Ball (American Beauty), Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction), Tony Gilroy (the Bourne movies), Robin Swicord (Little Women) and perhaps the most singular screenwriter of his generation, Charlie Kaufman, an Oscar winner for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.