The Hollywood Reporter just published a story that highlights a current trend in Hollywood — hiring first time dudes to direct big budget flicks. That doesn’t feel like news to me, but again here is another story about directors and a trend in the business, and there is NOT A SINGLE WOMAN’S name mentioned.

Women are shut out of the big budget directing business en masse. Studios won’t trust women directors who have made features before with a significant budgets, but will trust a guy who has just made a short and/or a commercial?

The article talks about the $170 million that Carl Rinsch is getting from Universal to direct Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin. Rinsch has directed a short and a Heineken commercial but no features.

And he’s not the only one: Joseph Kosinski just got $200 million to direct Tron: Legacy for Disney, and Rupert Sanders will have $100 million-plus to use to direct Snow White and the Huntsman (Universal). Were any women even interviewed for these jobs?

The story reports that shorts, commercials and of course You Tube have become the latest places where Hollywood is finding its latest directing talent. Here’s one quote from the piece:

A visionary director can simply send a link to his short to someone in the industry, and everyone’s seen it within an hour.

I love how they assume that a visionary director is male.

I know there are women directors making great shorts. I know there are women directors making great commercials. The one thing this piece illustrates is that women need to figure out how to get their shorts and you tube videos to go viral. There is no predicting what will go viral, but if a video is going from agent to agent and getting noticed, you are well on your way.
Why the Studios Are Trusting Untested Directors for Major Jobs (Hollywood Reporter)