Now and then, hammily copied retired film director (2,5)

'film director' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'now and then hammily copied retired' is the wordplay.
'now and then' means one should take alternating letters (letters taken on a regular basis, now and then).
'copied' becomes 'aped' ('ape' can be a synonym of 'copy').
'retired' says the letters should be written backwards.
The alternate letters of 'hammily' are 'aml'.
'aml'+'aped'='amlaped'
'amlaped' written backwards gives 'DE PALMA'.

Can you help me to learn more?