Claire Danes Quotes

On 'Platoon' I was offered in 1984 a very tiny part that Ivan Kane would go on to play. Then the financing fell out, and the film was scuttled for two years.

In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.

When I tried to get 'Stargate' made, I took it to every studio in Hollywood and every studio said, 'Sci-fi is dead. It's a dead genre. No one wants to see science fiction anymore.' And I had to go and raise the money independently to make that movie.

Isn't that the definition of a star? Someone who can get a film made?

Nowadays, to get a movie greenlit, you have to make an incredible effort.

Normally with film, it's normal for the screenwriter to never be seen again after finishing until the premiere.

I've been in the game long enough to know what elements you have to package together to get a movie into production.

I've never done a studio movie, let alone worked for a network. Every one of my films has been independently financed.

Coming from the industry and maintaining contacts with producers and directors, I am very well aware that costs associated with movie production are a major factor in determining where films get made.

Big studio comedies are such a headache.

The financing of my films has always been international.

I shot a movie with Nicole Kidman that I got cut out of - it was crap anyways.

When you're a filmmaker you're part of a very expensive art form.

The traditional Hollywood system is pretty rigid, but the film scene in, say, South Africa is booming with a lot of possibilities. If you have the cameras and reasonable capital, you can put your film in theatres next to 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' A great example of that was Kagiso Lediga's film 'Blitz Patrole.'

My dad had a company, and there were various films that hadn't gone into production that I'm trying to nurture.

The first time I did a big American film, I was surprised by all the different financiers who came to the set and told the director what to do.

I want to write a studio movie, but probably one that's for me to be in.

With 'The Last Picture Show,' Peter Bogdanovich brought the script to the company that made it. They liked it, and they gave him the money he needed to make the film. He cast it with the actors that he thought were right for the parts. Now, it's the reverse.

The film business has changed hugely. You seem to spend about 30 per cent of the time producing the films and 70 per cent talking about it.

I'm telling you, man, after I did 'Land of the Dead,' which Mark Canton produced, Universal picked it up, and I had to use stars. I didn't think I needed stars - Dennis Hopper was in it. I loved him. We hung out. I loved him, but his cigar budget was more than we paid for the entire budget of 'Night of the Living Dead.'

'The Blind Side' took forever to get it out of 20th Century Fox in turnaround. It was one of three different movies I was involved with then. 'The Blind Side' just happened to be the one that got made.

Fifty-million-dollar movies gobble up the medium movies. A lot of people aren't working in Hollywood because of this.

It used to be the case that studio executives like Robert Evans, Darryl Zanuck, and David Selznick would put aside money for what they wanted to be great movies regardless of whether they would perform well with the box office.

I really wanted 'NH10' to be made, and being associated with it eased the entire process.

It's great to make strong, powerful films, but in terms of people wanting to finance them, it's also very difficult.