Drive

Stunt driver by day, getaway driver by night, the nameless hero of Drive lives or dies by his skills behind the wheel. It is appropriate, then, that a car journey should play a key role in the making of this modern classic, one that served as a crucial ice-breaker for its putative director and prospective leading man.

Having made his name in Europe with his hard-hitting trilogy, Viking saga and unconventional biopic , Danish helmer Nicolas Winding Refn was keen to have another stab at Hollywood. (His first attempt, 2003’s , had been such a failure it left him virtually bankrupt.) , a Paul Schrader script about a CIA agent losing his sight, had piqued his interest. Having jetted to LA to work on the project, though, it soon became evident that he and the film’s star had incompatible visions, the latter – Harrison Ford – being reluctant to die at the end as Schrader’s script demanded. (Schrader would go on himself with Nicolas Cage in the lead, only to publicly disown the result after its producers re-edited it.)