FILM: The New 2012 Directors and Screenwriters to Watch Out For

Every year some lucky bastard's screenplay gets greenlit and previously ignored auteurs finally get to translate their visions to the screen. Below you'll discover not only the directors and writers who made their big debut in 2012, but also what high-profile projects they already have lined up.

Tracy Letts | Killer Joe, writer
Where does one go after adapting their fried chicken blow job scene for the big screen? Well, I'm not sure what you would do, but Letts has already adapted another one of his plays, the dramedy August: Osage County. You might of heard of it. It's about a family that overcomes certain differences when their alcoholic patriarch goes missing. If you haven't heard of it yet, you will soon, because it has quite the star-studded cast: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch ("Sherlock"), Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney, and Abigail Breslin. Here's hoping no poultry is defiled in the making of this one.
 
Josh Trank | Chronicle, director and co-writer
The same way Marc Webb's clever storytelling methods in (500) Days of Summer caught the eye of The Amazing Spider-Man producers, Trank has impressed Hollywood with his ingenuity in filming an awesome sci-fi action film with a meager budget. It's rumored that he'll direct the Spider-man spinoff Venom, but there's no set date as of yet. It's more likely that the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot that he's been tapped to write and direct will hit theaters first.

Max Landis | Chronicle, co-writer
The writer's next project, the action comedy Good Time Gang, has yet to secure a director or a release date, but it already has two leading men, Mark Wahlberg and Jonah Hill. It'll follow party-happy mercenaries who decide to take on a serious case involving a terrorist, only to find their mission complicated when they discover one of them is related to the target.

Lynne Ramsay | We Need to Talk About Kevin, director and co-writer
After delving into the mind of a teenage sociopath, she's signed on for the western Jane Got a Gun, starring Natalie Portman, Michael Fassbender, and Joel Edgerton. In it, a woman asks her ex-lover for help in order to save her outlaw husband from a gang out to kill him. 

Matt Drake | Project X, co-writer
While it may seem like there wasn't much to his film, organizing that level of chaos is actually quite impressive. This year, we'll get to see him strut his stuff solo with the action rom-com The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, starring Shia Labeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale), Rupert Grint, and Aubrey Plaza ("Parks and Recreation"). It's about a guy who withstands beating after beating to woo a mobster's girlfriend. Match.com really must be coming up dry these days.

Dan & Kevin Hageman | Hotel Transylvania, co-writers
These boys were one of many writers who contributed to this monster mash of an animated film. Currently, Warner Bros. is shooting the latest project they collaborated on, the animated adventure Lego: The Piece of Resistance. It's being co-directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the guys behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street, and Chris McKay, who does the "Robot Chicken" series. The story is about an ordinary Lego mini-figure, who is mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, and is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil Lego tyrant from gluing the universe together. Voicing the little guys are Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett ("Arrested Development"), Chris Pratt ("Parks and Recreation"), Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation"), and Alison Brie ("Community").