Throughout his career, Leonardo DiCaprio has done a brilliant job of leveraging his fame and success to work alongside some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan. Now, One Battle After Another will see DiCaprio finally united with Paul Thomas Anderson, another huge name to add to the list.
DiCaprio’s filmography is an extremely varied and diverse one, and he’s never been afraid to step outside his comfort zone in order to work alongside his favorite directors. DiCaprio has collaborated with Scorsese more frequently than any other director, but he’s always searching for the next opportunity to learn from other talented voices in the industry.
Based on DiCaprio’s work, there are a few major directors he could benefit from collaborating with. Their projects would be exciting opportunities for both creatives, and could yield some incredible results.
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh is one of the few directors who’s just as successful today as he was thirty years ago; he’s been among the leading voices in the crime/thriller genres for several decades, and it’s very surprising that he’s never crossed paths with DiCaprio before. After working with actors like Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and George Clooney, DiCaprio feels like a natural next step.
It’s possible that DiCaprio could have missed his ideal window to work alongside Soderbergh, as the actor seems more concerned with making heavy, prestige dramas today than the energetic, pulpy thrillers of the 2000s that are more commonly associated with Soderbergh’s filmography. Still, there’s no doubt in my mind that this would still be an electric pairing.
Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson’s quirky brand of comedy is very different from the roles that DiCaprio traditionally gravitates towards, but that’s exactly why he’d be so entertaining in this world. DiCaprio has already proved that he’s not afraid of leaning into more sarcastic, offbeat characters in Don’t Look Up and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, so this would be no different.
Anderson has been making some of his best movies in recent years, with The Phoenician Scheme and The French Dispatch putting the filmmaker’s true creativity on display. These movies have also featured unexpectedly funny performances from acclaimed dramatic actors like Frances McDormand and Tom Hanks, so DiCaprio would be in great company.
Lynne Ramsay
Although it’s hard to criticize the career choices that DiCaprio has made in recent years, it’s worth noting that the actor hasn’t worked with a female director since the ’90s. Given his immense status and huge talent, this is very surprising. Lynne Ramsay is one of the leading female voices in the industry today, and it would be very satisfying to see the two come together.
After working alongside actors like Jennifer Lawrence, Joaquin Phoenix, and Robert Pattinson, it’s clear that Ramsay is no stranger to directing some of Hollywood’s biggest names — and yet, she’s still not quite a household name herself. Working with DiCaprio would be a major step forward that could bring some serious traction to her next project.
Denis Villeneuve
Denis Villeneuve is arguably one of this century’s most talented sci-fi directors, and that’s a genre that DiCaprio has been notably absent from over the years. He worked alongside Christopher Nolan on Inception, but other than that, science fiction is a major gap in his filmography. Working with Villeneuve would be a very exciting way of rectifying that.
Since Villeneuve is currently busy with Dune: Part Three and the upcoming James Bond 26, it could be a while before this collaboration can feasibly come to fruition, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. Villeneuve has a habit of making intelligible, accessible sci-fi that doesn’t just cater towards fans of the genre, so a mainstream star like DiCaprio would make sense.
Kathryn Bigelow
Although DiCaprio is typically willing to work across genres, there’s been one thread that’s connected most of his recent projects: they’re all driven by politics. Don’t Look Up is a thinly veiled allegory for the climate crisis, Killers of the Flower Moon tackles historical capitalist imperialism, and One Battle After Another examines extremist politics and conspiracy theories.
Kathryn Bigelow’s movies feel like a very natural fit for DiCaprio’s current filmography. Her stories are just as firmly rooted in the real world, tackling the most pressing political issues and deconstructing them through a very naturalistic lens. DiCaprio’s work as a climate activist would also give a strong metatextual advantage to a potential collaboration between them.
Throughout his career, DiCaprio has always been vocal about his political beliefs and social activism, which potentially explains why his most recent projects have all been motivated by deeper sociopolitical subtexts. Bigelow’s films tend to be more overt in their real-world commentary, so a real-life political voice like DiCaprio would be very helpful.
Terrence Malick
One of the main reasons that DiCaprio’s career has flourished so effortlessly over the years is his ability to choose projects that are both entertaining for general audiences and, sometimes, deeply spiritual stories with underlying messages about humanity. This has shone through his collaborations with Scorsese, and it’s also something Terrence Malick is known for.
Malick’s movies are frequently praised for their ability to take rich, layered ideas and present them in ways that everybody can understand. It’s the same talent that DiCaprio has gravitated towards in movies like The Revenant, Killers of the Flower Moon, and now One Battle After Another. He would be a natural fit for Malick’s filmography.
Although he’s not that well-known among general audiences, Malick has also worked with several of DiCaprio’s contemporaries over the years, including Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Sean Penn. It’s certainly not too outlandish to assume that DiCaprio would want to join this group, particularly considering the direction his career is heading.
Nicolas Winding Refn
Nicolas Winding Refn may be an outside pick for DiCaprio’s next collaborator, but it’s one that has so much unmistakable potential. The director is known for his bold, stylized methods of filmmaking that can often polarize audiences, typically valuing the way a narrative makes the viewer feel over the traditional conventions of storytelling.
While DiCaprio and Refn’s careers have never professionally crossed paths, it’s easy to imagine that they’d work together very effectively. DiCaprio has always wanted to push the boundaries of his filmography, tackling some seriously demanding roles in The Revenant or Revolutionary Road, and there’s no doubt that Refn would continue to challenge him.
David Fincher
David Fincher is one of the most high-profile directors working today, and it’s truthfully shocking that he’s never worked with Leonardo DiCaprio before. There are so many mutual connections between the pair; they’ve both worked with the same actors on several occasions, including Brad Pitt and Mark Ruffalo, but somehow their paths have never crossed.
Fincher’s movies are exactly the right blend of gritty character work and absorbing storytelling that DiCaprio found himself drawn to throughout the early 2000s, with movies like Catch Me If You Can or The Departed neatly falling into the same category. Their careers have also been on a similar trajectory, starting out in the late ’90s and continuing to rise throughout the decades.