Tim Miller

Pop quiz: You're a bigwig movie producer and you have a brand-new comic book adaptation to film. This one's risky, though; the main character's mouth is dirtier than a subway train and, in his own words, he looks like "a testicle with teeth." This cult property could blow up into a massively successful franchise, or it could blow up like the Hindenburg. Who do you hire to steer this highly combustible celluloid ship?

If you're the folks at 20th Century Fox, you hire Tim Miller: a guy who has never directed a movie before.

Before directing Deadpool, Miller was most well known for his work in animation and visual effects. He served as the visual effects supervisor on well-known video games, including Mass Effect 2, and created spectacular sequences for a handful of films, including the stunning title sequence for 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Miller's roots in eye-catching images show in Deadpool—and not just because it, too, has an extremely memorable opening credits sequence (although that certainly doesn't hurt). Miller keeps the film clipping along at a brisk pace, and he keeps the blood and guts flying with a satisfying splat.

Deadpool isn't like other superhero movies, so it makes sense to fill the director's chair with fresh meat—and a fresh perspective. As a character, Deadpool's attitude isn't at all reverential when it comes to the comic book genre, either, giving newbie Miller free reign to shatter stereotypes and subvert the well-worn tradition of superhero movies. While he doesn't leave all of the genre's tropes behind—there's still a damsel in distress, there's still a big showdown with the villain—Miller's background in visual effects gives Deadpool a crisp, original feel that honors its source material's highly visual nature and gives Deadpool free reign to skewer everything and everyone else. Sometimes literally.