The mark of a good film for me is not how it holds up technically to a Kane or a Rear Window, but rather that someone really believed in it, was passionate about it, and ultimately cared a great deal about the project.

That’s why people like Welles, Kubrick and Hitchcock are the legends that they are. They were intensely invested in their work on every single level. Most directors don’t do that because being a director is a really difficult job.

Kubrick is actually a good example of this, because he did so many adaptations of books. Lolita, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining are all extremely different from the books on which they are based. Who knows how much of a fan Kubrick was. What ultimately mattered was that he understood the material well enough to translate its essence onto the screen and that he was moved enough by the original material to be passionate about his projects.

In short: you don’t need to be a fan to do source material justice, you just need to give a shit.

It does bother me when a director proclaims to be a fan just for the publicity and then delivers a sloppy film.

A die hard fan of Transformers would obviously want a director who appreciates the complex relationship between Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave and will put it on the screen. Clearly, Michael Bay couldn’t care less about that but he did know how to make a successful film about robots beating eachother up. It doesn’t stop the film from being good, it just stops it from being a 100% faithful to the source material movie.

I don’t think the fact that the guy has never seen baywatch matters at all. You could watch 20 minutes or just the opening sequence and get the show.

IMHO the question is NOT motivation. You keep arguing whether fandom leads to motivation. I don’t think the question is motivation, the question is decision making. You want a guy that’s not gonna crap on the history. You want a guy that respects the myth and enhances it, instead of selling out and making superman have a son.

do i think you have to be a hardcore fan? hell to the no. In fact, a hardcore fan may have a harder time bringing the genre from comic book to film by trying to keep every single element that may or may not translate to the big screen.

Am I more comfortable with a good director that also happens to be a fan, yep. Cause he knows how to make a MOVIE and how to respect the years of source material.

A good director is a good director, that doesnt change because he is or isn’t a fan.