MTV Movies Blog › four christmases

The two feature films director Debra Granik has made are markedly similar in many ways. There's "Winter's Bone," a likely Oscar contender this year, that follows a 17-year-old Ozark Mountain girl who has to track down her meth-dealing father to protect the lives of her depressed mother and her siblings. And then there's "Down to the Bone," released in 2004, that follows a working class, cocaine-using mother of two who checks into rehab and has to try to resist the temptations of drugs and deal with an affair she's having with her nurse.

So when The Los Angeles Times reported that Granik's next planned film is a reboot of "Pippi Longstocking" (pictured), were were just a wee bit surprised. But as the Times goes on to point out, the transition makes perfect sense. Longstocking is one of "fiction's original tomboys," and the choice to make a film about her continues Granik's streak of creating strong female heroines who rise above the tropes of typical Hollywood roles for women.

Still, Granik isn't the first director to follow up one film with another that's drastically different in both tone and theme. After the jump, see five other directors who've done just that -- to varying results.

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Tags 500 days of summer, Cop Out, darren aronofsky, Debra Granik, four christmases, kevin smith, lord of the rings, Marc Webb, Pippi Longstocking, red state, Seth Gordon, spider-man, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The Lovely Bones, The Wolverine, winter's bone