Lights, Camera, Fantasy!

Movie directors are accustomed to having two hours to create a mood and explore plots. When we challenged eight of our favorite film helmsmen to do the same thing—with their erotic fantasies—on a single page of our anniversary issue, none shrank from the task. Of course it didn't hurt that we also gave them big budgets and complete casting approval. Considering the results, we're already hoping for a sequel.

Spike Lee(Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 25th Hour) "The inspiration for this photo comes from an image from the film She's Gottg have it, with influence and help from the famous photographer David Levinthal and his giant Polaroid, A picture says a thousand words, so let's leave it at that."

McG(Charlie's Angels) "My fantosy storted in high school. When I graduated I was five-foot-two, with an orange Afro, and had gone on a total of one date. I had friends who got girls, but I had to settle for a Walter Mitty dream life. Pam Anderson is the embodiment of every boy's dreams, and since I know her now she was gracious enough to make this dream come true. It's like a John Hughes movie in which these guys hear about this incredible woman and gather all their nickels and dimes. When they get to her cowboy-kinky playground, the good-looking ringleader misbehaves, and she ties him up. Then it's a question of who will be the lucky man to benefit from her feminine wiles. Since I'm pulling the strings here, and Adam Brody is on The O.C., the TV show I'm producing, he gets selected. Lucky guy."

Kevin Smith(Chasing Amy, Dogma) "My two greatest passions are my wife, Jen, and comic books. Hence this take on the classic superhero—mortal paramour relationship taken to the next, rarely seen level. After a day of thwarting supervillains' attempts at world domination, our hero pays a rooftop visit to his favorite metropolitan-newspaper reporter to give her the scoop. After years of flirtation, suddenly their longing gets the better of them. Let's just hope for her sake that he's not always faster than a speeding bullet. That Jen plays the reporter has a sentimental significance, because we met when she did a story on me for USA Today. She was beautiful, brainy and Lois Lane–y. Small wonder that, given my predilection for comics, this visual actually ran through my head during our interview. Considering my level of geekiness, it's a wonder I landed a wife at all."

George Tillman JR.(Soul Food, Men of Honor) "Growing up in Chicago, I used to ride the El trains and the CTA buses. On the city's predominantly black South Side I would notice women going to and from work. Some wore suits; some were dressed casually. All were beautiful in their own way. As I looked at these beautiful black women, I felt that their facial expressions were as much a part of their uniforms as their clothes were. They projected what they had to be to the world: businesswoman, waitress, wife, college student. I always wondered what they were like in their true, private selves. So in a sense, when I'm undressing these women with my eyes, I'm not only looking at the beauty of their bodies but also the beauty of their souls."

Brett Ratner(Rush Hour, The Family Man, Red Dragon) "On a Tuesday afternoon in the fall of 1982 I played hooky and snuck onto the set of Brian De Palma's Scarface. It was the most important day of my young life. My eyes were mesmerized by what they were seeing. To watch Michelle Pfeiffer come down that elevator was magical, and De Palma coaxed the grace of that electric moment. His molding of a simple entrance was the hook that showed me that a director's vision is the core of what film is all about. Without it you have mediocrity, and with it you touch the meteoric. I realized then that visions could become fantasies. That afternoon, as a 13-year-old boy, I knew that there was only one yellow brick road to take. I didn't want to be the new AI Pacino; I wanted to be the man who creates the vision—the director."

Mike Figgis(Leaving Las Vegas, Cold Creek Manor) "I was flattered to make a contribution to Playboy's 50th anniversary issue but also nervous. It's like being asked to write a book review for The New Yorker. I looked at many photos in back ... issues—because in the past, of course, I read only the articles. But this was work, goddamn it. After an exhaustive search I found my muses (musi?), Marketa and Natalia. We went shopping for lingerie. 'I look better naked,' sighed Marketa as she squeezed into a corset. 'It's a close call,' I said diplomatically. After the shoot I took them to dinner, anxious to be spotted. But the strange thing is, you go to dinner with Marketa and Natalia and no one notices you. I could bullshit about the photo itself, but the truth is ... it's two beautiful women in lingerie lying on a bed. Dream on, Figgis. Thanks, Hef!"

Michael Bay(Armageddon, Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor) "I've held a camera since the age of 13. I love to take artful, exotic, voyeuristic photos. Here I tried to explore the graphic lines and curves of these women's bodies. I think the simplicity gives them an erotic feel. I just wish I had told my 13-year-old friends I would one day shoot for Playboy."

Neil Labute(Your Friends & Neighbors, The Shape of Things) "I wanted to do something that was a throwback to the different era in which Playboy started. I loved the notion of taking the classic image of Marilyn Monroe shot a couple of years before she even became who we remember her as and doing a direct homage. To take another woman who is vividly her own person but can capture the essence of what Marilyn was. What I'm saying in a nutshell is that, as much as the world has changed in an era of supersonic travel and instant information, our fantasies haven't changed all that much. In today's permissive society it's still really erotic when they don't give us everything. There's still art, and artifice, to it. That's why I think this magazine has been able to continue and flourish."

See the Classic 1978 Film Directors' Erotic Fantasies Pictorial. Featoring Fellini and Antonioni. at cyber.playboy.com.