From the outset, I conceived Star Wars as a series of six films, or two trilogies.
The way I'm doing it is I'm trying to think to myself, "Okay, I have the name Superman, and he's going to be a guy that deserves the name 'Superman.' I'm trying to forget about Krypton, about The Daily Planet what would I do if I was thinking it up?" I can do it any way at all..I can make him an Eskimo midget who's toothless and blind... I can do anything. It's difficult .
Nothing really compares to the original 'Law & Order.'
Coming up with a good idea, with an insight into the way the world works that is really new and that you really believe in, is a deeply satisfying experience.
That so called "original sin" does not know any racial discrimination.
You want an idea that not many other people are working on, and it's okay if it doesn't sound big at first.
The original Mickey Mouse Club, established in the '30s, was designed to attract children to movie theaters.
The original reality show.
I conceived the original 'Deus Ex' and was the project director on the game.
Three years into getting 'The Witch' financed, I was hanging out with my brother and he was like, 'I'm working on this script. It's a ghost story in a lighthouse.' I thought, 'Damn, that's a really good idea, I wish I'd had it.'
When you meet a director who wants to remake a movie, you have to ask, does he or she have an interesting vision and idea, something that intrigues you - is there a reason why we should do this?
'House of Wax' is a remake, but 'House of Wax' is very different. It's like a background concept, but it's a completely different story.
While choosing shows, I look at stories and the concept, and that has to be different.
You know, I hate to borrow Apple's tag, but think different. Really. From the very beginning. I didn't know what the fast-food rules were. I got my training at the Culinary Institute Of America, and then I opened up a fast food place according to fine dining rules.
The whole process of writing a novel is having this great, beautiful idea and then spoiling it.
May I say that I approve of a piece that tries to remake the entire puzzle?
In fact, when I come up with an idea for a parody I try to resist the urge to Google the idea to see if someone has done it already because the answer is almost always, "Yes, of course they have, they've thought of it!"
But I don't know. Pee-wee just kind of popped out one day, pretty much fully fleshed-out and fully formed.
For me, what makes a dope concept is it's a fresh idea, something that I've never heard before.
The best reaction to a paradox is to invent a genuinely new and deep idea.
My take on 'Lucifer' was pretty much laid down by Tom Kapinos when he wrote the original pilot script for it. I remember reading it for the first time, and I was about four or five pages in, thinking this is so funny, and I know how I would want to do this if I was going to do it.
From its inception by Michael Bennett, 'Dreamgirls' has always been an epic story with an ensemble cast. I didn't change that. The screen version remains, really, a group story.
The more I draw and write, the more I realise that accidents are a necessary part of any creative act, much more so than logic or wisdom. Sometimes a mistake is the only way of arriving at an original concept, and the history of successful inventions is full of mishaps, serendipity and unintended results.
You just want to find a story that grabs you and that you've never seen before, but somehow you can't imagine it not existing. It's like a good book. What makes a good book is hard to say. I don't know. I just look for something that grabs me. I don't have a way of looking for a project, and I don't know many people that do. It's just year to year, and what's going around and what's there.
Far From Home was also my idea from a magazine I'd seen.
