Brian Taylor

Taylor's career didn't start behind a director's chair — it started behind a camera. He came up as a cinematographer in the early 2000s, developing the physical, almost reckless shooting style that would later become the Neveldine/Taylor signature. By 2004, he and Mark Neveldine had partnered formally, signing with @radical.media to direct commercial work for major brands including Nike and Budweiser (Wikipedia). That commercial grind matters more than it might seem: it's where the duo learned to make things feel expensive and immediate on tight timelines. The feature debut came with Crank in 2006. Jason Statham plays a hitman poisoned with a synthetic drug that'll kill him if his adrenaline drops — and the film commits to that premise with a kind of deranged consistency that's hard not to respect. It wasn't a critical darling, but it built a cult following fast, and the sequel Crank: High Voltage followed in 2009. That same year, Gamer (2009) arrived — a sci-fi action film that, honestly, was probably ten years ahead of conversations about gaming, surveillance, and bodily autonomy, even if it don't always get credit for that now. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011) marked the duo's biggest studio swing, a Marvel property that felt like a Neveldine/Taylor film wearing a superhero costume — which is either a compliment or a warning, depending on your tolerance for Nicolas Cage on fire. Taylor's solo pivot came with Mom and Dad (2017), where Cage returned, this time as a suburbanite dad who wants to murder his children. The horror-comedy format suited Taylor's instincts. Happy! (2017–2019), his Syfy series based on Grant Morrison's graphic novel, ran two seasons and proved he could sustain a world across episodes, not just set pieces. His most recent credit, Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024), keeps him squarely in genre work — which is where he's always been most himself (TMDB, Wikipedia).