Peter Jackson

Somehow this guy made Meet the Feebles and Braindead and then secured $93,000,000 and 2 years of filming time to make a super-epic super-serious fantasy trilogy. We should all take this as a lesson for... something. Sleeze and splatter is not the worst on a CV after all.

Event though Lord of the Rings totally eclipses everything else the guy has done, it is worthwhile checking out what projects he can get funding for after such a mega-monster hit.