In 1926 he was offered a position as director with Famous Players-Lasky and, over a two-year period, turned out ten films, five of which ("Born to the West", "Forlorn River", "Man of the Forest", "The Mysterious Rider" and "The Vanishing Pioneer") were based on the series of popular western fiction novels by Zane Grey and starred Famous Players' reigning western hero, Jack Holt. There were two additional Zane Grey adaptations, "Drums of the Desert" (starring Warner Baxter) and "Nevada", while an eighth western, 1927's "Arizona Bound", Waters' sole sagebrush saga not based on Zane Grey, starred Gary Cooper in his first leading role. Although he did not direct Cooper's second starring western, "The Last Outlaw", the new star's third lead western, "Nevada", was once again assigned to Waters, along with another Cooper vehicle, the French Foreign Legion epic, "Beau Sabreur", a sequel to Famous Players' biggest hit of 1926, "Beau Geste", which starred Ronald Colman.