Leigh Whannell Quotes

Directors are our teachers, and I'm always craving to work with a great director. They're pretty much the first thing that interests me about a project. Let's put it this way: It'll take me a lot longer to read a script if there's no director attached.

If I'm going to direct a horror movie, I'd have to be the one writing it, because I have to make it personal.

I often wonder why people remake movies. Is there just a lack of imagination out there that they can't come up with an original idea?

The hardest single thing you do is get the bloody screenplay right.

I think being snobby about the kind of storytelling people do, it just irks me. It irks me. And in fact, it's one of the things that drives me to make as many horror movies as I do.

When you're trying to paint a portrait of a very specific world, you're trying to show what makes the world different. So, sometimes it means exaggerating certain kind of aspects, but I don't think it's that important or it's that much of an issue as long as you get an emotional truth across.

The success of the movie industry comes from the story. And the story comes from somebody putting something down on paper.

Every time you work, it's a new film, and generally when you work with auteurs, people that write and direct their films, there's always an originality.

The film industry sees the writer as fungible: The thinking goes, As long as we have Brad Pitt and all this money, we have a great film! No, you need a writer with voice and an engaging story, or what you have is a bomb.

Doing science fiction at a high level is tricky. It's really tricky.

Screenwriting is still a challenge for me. It's more technical than creative. You have to be a very good journeyman plumber and put the proper parts together. Then, if you can still inject a little bit of something worthwhile, you have done as much as can be expected.

The thing about this business is that you always end up finding these amazing stories and these amazing people who make amazing films. I just want to work with good people and keep challenging myself with different kinds of characters.

I did plays in college, and I have half of a play. But I'm kind of stuck. I keep revisiting it so maybe it will move somewhere. There's something about plays where you can feel that sense of artifice at any moment.

Once I've finished a film I just want to get on and make another one.

You're always looking for good scripts and when they're not always forthcoming you go mad.

When I wrote 'Kidulthood,' I didn't even know there was going to be a 'Kidulthood.' I just wanted to test myself to see if I could write a script.

I always claim that the writer has done 90 percent of the director's work.

Certain remakes are great. Carpenter's The Thing is better than the original.

I like Rebecca Miller and her writing. She's a tremendous writer and director.

Siva is one of the best writers in the industry, and 'Srimanthudu' is a great script.

I think it's rare for anyone that a really accomplished, amazing director calls you up and says, 'I want to make a movie around you, and I want it to be this.'

Usually, if you've got a great script, everything falls into place.

Our company, it's, uh, really un-sexy. And I think most people get into Hollywood to be showy. We first of all make horror movies, which people turn their noses up at. Second of all, we make cheap movies, and Hollywood's a lot about ego and money and, 'My movie cost $200m!,' you know?

I find that a lot of directors are attracted to the dark side.

Making movies seemed so impossible as far as getting my ideas funded.