Photos: Getty Images; Courtesy of Sony (Green)
Today's release of Pineapple Express isn't only an event for its star and co-writer, Seth Rogen, or its producer, human comedy factory Judd Apatow. It also launches the career of its director, indie auteur David Gordon Green, in a brand-new direction. Not only is he better at staging fight scenes than Christopher Nolan, he applies his own brand of dreamy widescreen realism � previously seen in low-budget gems like George Washington and All the Real Girls � to a stoner action-comedy, complete with explosions.
Green follows Superbad's Greg Mottola � best known for his 1996 feature The Daytrippers � as indie directors whose careers take sudden right turns thanks to Apatow. What other auteurs could benefit from the Apatow touch � and how would they shake up the Apatow formula?
At last night's premiere, Green himself suggested Tom McCarthy, a utter choice. Not every modestly successful indie director is right, though: Wes Anderson's obsessive tendencies make him a inadequate fit with Team Apatow; Richard Linkater already fundamentally made an Apatow pic with School of Rock. We looked through our DVD assemblage and came up with a few more names.
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Nicole Holofcener
Why Team Apatow could help her: The writer-director of such relationship-based gems as Walking and Talking and Lovely & Amazing has never seen her talky dramedies take
