Connie Nielsen Quotes

We can't tell particularly smart stories if we want to keep our audience big enough to pay for these big spectacle films that we want to do.

The technology is really where all of the changes have taken place, but the fundamentals of a good story being the basis of every good picture, and really the only basis still remains the rule, more so today, I think, because we've unfortunately weaned an audience from birth to kind of mindless movies.

What really makes it fun for an actor is when the script is good.

There are definitely reasons to do certain things, but I like to stick to good director, good actor, good script.

If you're writing a screenplay, you need to be prepared to let go: there's a good chance the words you write aren't going to be the ones that end up on screen.

Promoting a stock is like making a movie. You've got to have stars, props, and a good script.

Sylvester has a great popular sense, as good as any writer I've ever worked with. He knows what audiences want to see, and what they don't want to see.

There has to be the popcorn genre element, or I don't engage the same way. I like action and vehicle design and guns and computer graphics as much as I like allegory. It's a constant balancing game. I want audiences to be on this rollercoaster that fits the Hollywood mould, but I also want them to absorb my observations.

I thought 'The Artist' was a perfect way to find a good balance. The artistic challenge is obvious because the film is black-and-white and its silent, but I did my best to make the movie accessible and easy to watch. I really don't want to make elitist movies. I really try hard to work for the audience. Audiences are smart. They get everything.

As far as I know, if you take your time, write a good script and make a good film, then give the audience time, they will accept it.

The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.

It is important to be financially savvy when you turn producer. As a director, you just need to have a good script in hand.

Yes, I did some rewrites of the show as some of the stuff was not very good and I worked my butt off to make it something that the audience liked and that I could be proud of.

A horrible script 99 percent of the time means a horrible movie. But if you start with a good script, odds are you're going to have a good movie.

When I was in New York, a lot of my friends were studying filmmaking and would bring their scripts to me, as I was a good script doctor. I would read their scripts and make corrections to them for $20 per script and was fascinated by films.

A movie is a certain thing by definition. There's nothing wrong with knocking out a good genre picture.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

With a terrible script you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it's going to translate easily.

Good television people have a sense of what television people relate to.

I believe that there's good content or bad content. You see interviews when somebody interviews a director of a movie that didn't perform well in the box office, and he says, 'The audience didn't understand my movie.' If people didn't go to buy the ticket, then you did the wrong movie.

When you have a good script you're almost in more trouble than when you have a terrible script.

Today films are made to cater to commercial markets created by multiplexes, not for those who enjoy good cinema.

You have to go back to the '30s and '40s to see a film that's any good.

It's possible for me to make a bad movie out of a good script, but I can't make a good movie from a bad script.

If the script is good, the cast and director good, I'll go anywhere.