John Wells Goes from Crunching Numbers to Directing ‘Company Men’

It has only occurred to me, fairly late in the game, that the first-time director of The Company Men and featured in the recent reports (Maria Bello and Craig T. Nelson taking supporting roles and recent set pics spotted from the slashfilm.com crew) is the same John Wells who was an executive producer on so many Killer Film projects. Currently filming in Boston, Wells has managed to assemble a strong cast of feature film vets: Ben Affleck toplines and is backed by Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones. Not to be confused with the other project going by the same name (directed by Raul Inglis and starring Steve Buscemi), this is a tale of the current economic times with Affleck playing a corporate hotshot whose Porsche and six-figure salary vanish after he gets laid off. Costner plays his brother-in-law, a salt-of-the-earth drywall installer who gives him a construction job. Jones plays a senior partner in the firm, a principled man who struggles with the greedy actions of his partners. Bello will play the veep of human resources, who is forced to fire the character played by Affleck. Nelson plays the CEO of the global conglomerate.

This has got me thinking and I haven’t been able to come up with anything on the spot — how many producers do we know that have made the leap from exclusively being known as a producer to being regarded exclusively as a director? Lee Daniels and what will be known as a turning point in his career with Precious suggests that he might spend more time behind the camera rather than financing other people’s projects – other than this current example I’m stumped – who has made the successful transition from number cruncher to filmmaker without really having gone back?