What Happened to Neil LaBute?

Neil LaBute's directorial debut In the Company of Men, was a critical hit in 1997.  As with any great debut, LaBute's next movies were highly anticipated.  LaBute's next, Your Friends & Neighbors while not gaining quite the same praise was still highly regarded.  Finally came the criminally underrated Nurse Betty with Renee Zellweger at her most charming.  Also featuring Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear was a very funny movie about our need to create fantasies to escape from the harsh realities of our lives.  LaBute continued his string of solid critical hits with Possession and The Shape of Things.

Then about five years ago something happened, LaBute turned Hollywood eschewing his previous independent tastes.  His next feature the horrendous Wicker Man feature Nic Cage at his most insane (see Cage in a bear suit punching a woman).  Then came Lakeview Terrace  in 2008, a terribly generic thriller about inter-racial relationships with Sam Jackson going bonkers on Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington.

Finally last night I was watching Shutter Island and saw a preview starring Chris Rock who is attending his father's funeral.  While the movie hosts a large notable cast and is attempting dark comedy, the trailer fell flat, with a countless list of generic race, sex and midget jokes.  Once one of the beacon's of independent cinema, both a great director and screenwriter, LaBute has now turned out below average Hollywood trite.  I'm not quite sure how this transition happened, but somewhere along the line it seems as if LaBute grew uneasy about his status of a filmmaker and sold his soul.