what is the director's purpose?

There are two major productions in recent years that I know of. One is the okay 1996 version with Ted Danson and the other is the horrible 2010 Jack Black version. In the first I think that director Charles Sturridge wanted to provide a "user friendly" version for the North American masses, something that an "average" viewer can comprehend without loosing too much thematic substance. The latter version was the recent Jack Black version directed by Rob Letterman. I think the intent here was to serve up a raunchy superficial version that would make an amusing trailer for promotion. After sucking in fans of Jack Black within the first week, the studio could sell the rest in the Walmart bin for $1.99.