Whit Stillman Quotes

I wanted to just be a filmmaker, and I thought I wanted to do all the aspects, and it seemed like as a producer was the best way to do it, because I could have... You never have control on a movie, but you have as much control as you can.

I think the toughest thing is to describe what a producer does because they basically do everything. They follow a project from the start through the rest of its life and, along the way, are a part of every single aspect of its growth. It's tremendously enriching, though, because you get to know and live with the movie in its entirety.

Studios are an assembly line. They can be a very good assembly line. As a producer, you concentrate on one project at a time. As an executive, you're in charge of a slate.

I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.

As an actor, I was often shielded from the big-picture decisions. But as a producer, I experience all the conversations where there's pushback or a difference of opinion.

In any film business, if you're trying to get your next film made, you would never say, 'Oh, my last film was a cult film.' I'd say, 'Oh, great, well I hope this one isn't!' I always say to Johnny Knoxville, 'How do you do it? You sort of do the same thing we did, except you made millions, and I made hundreds.'

When I successfully bring the Mamas & the Papas movie to fruition, I hope that people will say, 'She's also a producer.'

Ever since my first film, I had more producers than scripts. And I've realised that a certain project requires a certain kind of producer for it to be made well.

Nobody ever starts out to make a mediocre, commercial film. You always think it's going to be something. And then, once you're done with your shooting, you have no control. You're just done, as an actor.

Market forces impose certain rules before a film can actually get made.

Over the years, many producers have come and gone, and screenplays were written and abandoned. It's the Hollywood process. It's hard to get things done.

Scripts don't get movies made.

Each one of my movies becomes easier to get off the ground.

I vicariously lived the life of an independent producer from the time I was 4 years old.

There was no studio involved when we made 'Stargate.' It was financed through Le Studio Canal+ in France and, after the film was finished, it was sold to MGM. When the film was a success, MGM decided to do a television series based on the movie.

Shooting films in Britain is always difficult, because we've never got enough money to make them.

As a producer, you're there from the inception of the concept to the delivery of it. It just takes so much energy.

Ultimately, I am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer.

I get involved with projects based on three parameters - the script, the actors involved and the director.

When you do a low budget movie, you get a little over-ambitious.

Unless you're the director on the movie, or putting up the money for the movie, you really don't have a lot of control.

I became producer so that I could work with persons like him and to rock the world of Hong Kong Cinema a bit.

Getting movies developed doesn't do me any good as a producer. It only does me good to get movies made.

Major differences in projects happen due to budget, director's styles, and genre of script, not industry.

I keep saying this, but the most important part of directing is casting, and the rest of it is pretty easy.