The Last Of The Mohicans (1992)
The Director: Michael Mann
The Surprise: Nobody expected the go-to guy for sleek, ultra-modern crime stories ( Thief , Manhunter , Miami Vice ) to dive into a wormhole for a lush period adventure.
Is It Really So Strange? The themes of honour and man(n)hood remain consistent, and if anything this upped his game. Later contemporary-set films, notably Heat , look like attempts to make stories that will stand the test of time as well as James Fenimore Cooper's tale, while Mann has shown a greater willingness to tackle other historical eras in Ali and Public Enemies .
The Spirit Of St. Louis (1957)
The Director: Billy Wilder
The Surprise: Having gone into direction to protect the wry, acidic tone of his screenplays - apparent in Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard - Wilder confounded expectations with a straightforward, Jimmy Stewart-starring biopic of Charles Lindbergh.
Is It Really So Strange? Wilder was friends with Lindbergh and obviously knew a lot more about the man than the sanitised portrayal in the film; however, as he later told Cameron Crowe, he was restricted to covering the events of Lindbergh's pioneering transatlantic flight.
Thor (2011)
The Director: Kenneth Branagh
The Surprise: "The new Olivier" followed his hero's example by making big-screen versions of Henry V and Hamlet … but we don't remember Sir Laurence ever making a superhero movie about an alien, hammer-wielding god.
Is It Really So Strange? Not really: the salty dialogue and Anthony Hopkins' scenery-threatening thespian give Asgard a quasi-Shakespearean vibe.
The Bridges Of Madison County (1995)
The Director: Clint Eastwood
The Surprise: He carved his name into Hollywood legend by being incomparably tough, yet here is Clint Eastwood (as actor and director) making a weepie about an affair with Meryl Streep.
Is It Really So Strange? To be fair, Eastwood has always had a flexible attitude to material, whether directing jazz biopic Bird or hanging out with orang-utan Clyde. Once he'd won his Oscar for Unforgiven , there was always the possibility of this kind of nomination-magnet (and sure enough, Streep secured her ubiquitous nod).
Water For Elephants (2011)
The Director: Francis Lawrence
The Surprise: Promos director Lawrence was fast-tracked to blockbusters with the fantastical action of Constantine and I Am Legend . So it was something of a shock when he took on this circus-based R-Pattz drama.
Is It Really So Strange? Time will tell. For now, Lawrence has returned to blockbusters with the final three Hunger Games films… although his increased experience of working with actors seems to have honed his ability to make Catching Fire more than just an action movie.
The Flower Of My Secret (1995)
The Director: Pedro Almodovar
The Surprise: The ultra-camp agent provocateur who made Matador and Law Of Desire drops the chaos for a meditative, melancholy character study about a romance writer. Was Pedro growing up?
Is It Really So Strange? This proved a major watershed in Almodovar's artistic development, giving him the confidence to delve deeper into characterisation even while the melodramatic plots remained as excessive as ever.
The Wrestler (2008)
The Director: Darren Aronofsky
The Surprise: Aronofsky was one of the most cutting-edge of indie directors when he switched from the fragmented, paranoid mosaics of Pi , Requiem For A Dream and The Fountain for a docudrama-style character study of Mickey Rourke's titular fighter.
Is It Really So Strange? Aronofsky wanted to make this for years, so it's clearly from the heart. Useful context comes from Black Swan - another tale of artistic obsession but closer in style to Aronofsky's earlier films.
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
The Director: Mike Leigh
The Surprise: The British auteur stepped outside of 'Leigh's World' - his improvised take on the Bleak Moments and High Hopes of contemporary life - for his first period drama, the true account of how Gilbert and Sullivan made The Mikado .
Is It Really So Strange? It's basically a Leigh film transposed into the past, and (perhaps) an allegory for the "we're in it together" vibe of one of his films. He has since returned to historical ventures with Vera Drake and the forthcoming biopic, Turner .
Straw Dogs (1972)
The Director: Sam Peckinpah
The Surprise: Peckinpah: he's the guy who makes Westerns, right? Well, yes, until the failure of The Ballad Of Cable Hogue limited his options so much he had to travel to Britain to make a contemporary thriller about a newcomer's battle with locals.
Is It Really So Strange? It all clicked into focus when people saw the film. Playing up to his rep as a bad boy, Peckinpah outdid the violence of The Wild Bunch and sealed his rep as an action director.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)
The Director: David Fincher
The Surprise: A modern-day master of gloom, Fincher specialised in the darkest corners of the human psyche, so it really was curious when he made this epic, magic-realist romance about a guy who ages in reverse.
Is It Really So Strange? As Oscar botherers go, this is as leftfield as they come, and the FX challenge alone appealed to the tech-geek in Fincher. It's also worth nothing he agreed to direct this because it brought back memories of his late father, so the melancholy is characteristic of the director.
