Richard D. Zanuck Quotes

Hollywood movies are run on fear and they don't want to make bold choices. They, generally, speaking want to keep things status quo. That's not really interesting for me.

I think a lot of Hollywood is in retreat right now trying to figure out how to make money and make the safest bets.

When you have films like 'Bourne' that succeed, not only does it beget sequels, but it begets people taking chances.

There are some films that you know will do well. Then there are others which have good stories that ought to be told. But because they are slightly risky, not everybody is willing to take that up. But I think it is important to take risks because at the end of the day, you want to explore new genres and new characters.

Generally, drama films are made with stars - I broke the rule unknowingly.

The bravery and pioneering of early Hollywood was absolutely incredible.

When I first started out and would go on pitch meetings, there was always this kind of eye-roll that would come with pitching a horror movie when you were dealing with the studios. Unless it was viewed as a cheap product that could turn a lot of profit, there wasn't a lot of interest in making it good.

I don't want to just make the safe, easy commercial films.

In Telugu filmdom, audiences like to see their hero dance, fight and play a larger-than-life character. It's precisely why most of our commercial films do extremely well and get remade too.

The film industry is run by multinational media conglomerates and they have their perspective on what they need from their product. That's why we live in an era where you see reboots and sequels and remakes and prequels, all these old presents are re-wrapped and offered up as new gifts.

Only three or four thrillers are made in Hindi cinema in a year. There is a fascination for crime genre but producers think thrillers don't have that much of a market or will not get picked up for satellite rights.

Hollywood is a world where the only thing that gets green-lit is something that made money the last year.

Sometimes, films that you do with a lot of care and look good at the time of signing may not work out for some reason or other.

I make one film in three years, if I go wrong it will take me another three years to prove myself.

What has helped me is my success in commercial cinema. It has given me a platform for others to cast me in their films. If I did not have the commercial success, then I wouldn't be able to do the smaller films.

I did Kushi Kushiga,' the remake of Chronic Bachelor;' Kalyana Ramudu,' which is the remake of Kalyanaraman;' and also Software Ganda' in Kannada, the remake of My Boss.'

There was a time when a studio executive would really love something and have no proof at all that it would work and just do it because they believed in it. That's how 'Star Wars' happened.

Bollywood goes through these phases. Whatever makes money is quickly lapped up by all. They all want to play safe.

Every actor, director, and producer want all their films to do well. So you choose the role carefully, listen to the script, and work hard. But there is no way of predicting whether it will be a hit or a flop.

Business people want things to be safe but that's rubbish to me. In music nothing should be safe.

When I see good films not doing well, irrespective of my role being appreciated or not, I have a problem because then the producer who has made a loss will never believe in investing in good cinema.

I have some ideas for things nobody's done before, and some are ideas bigger than me that I might be able to pull off, maybe.

Nobody does remakes for the sake of it. As for me, I have not hard and fast rules with respect to remakes.

I just want my films to work. The hit or flop verdict really affects me. I seriously analyse what went wrong if a film turns out to be a dud!

Nobody wants to take a risk with scripts that push the envelope.