Pop Culture Bracketology: Film, Populist Pros Directors Region

With March Madness upon us, WEEKEND has gone a little bracket crazy. Over the next month, our staff will debate, discuss and argue their way through three 64-team pop culture-centric brackets to determine the best TV series on the air, the best active film director and the best music act of the moment. We will now post the pairings and starting next Monday, March 15, we'll begin weeding out the pretenders and celebrating the contenders. Posts will be updated accordingly.

For our film bracket, we are trying to figure out the best active, working director. The four regions are as follows: Veterans, Newbies(ish), Indie Darlings and Populist Pros. Below are the pairings in the Populist Pros Region. Other pairings can be found in the right sidebar.

1. James Cameron ("Avatar") vs.
16. Guy Ritchie ("RocknRolla," "Sherlock Homes")

8. Ron Howard ("Frost/Nixon," "Angels & Demons") vs.
9. Mel Gibson ("Apocalypto")

5. Peter Jackson ("King Kong," "The Lovely Bones") vs.
12. Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker")

4. Tim Burton ("Sweeny Todd," "Alice in Wonderland") vs.
13. M. Night Shyamalan ("Lady in Water," "The Happening")

6. Robert Zemickis ("Beowulf," "A Christmas Carol") vs.
11. Andrew Stanton ("WALL-E")

3. Ridley Scott ("American Gangster," "Body of Lies") vs.
14. Robert Rodriquez ("Planet Terror," "Shorts")

7. Frank Darabont ("The Mist") vs.
10. Sam Rami ("Spider-Man," "Drag Me to Hell")

2. Christopher Nolan ("The Prestige," "The Dark Knight") vs.
15. Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale," "Edge of Darkness")