There's no better place to do a longform project than HBO. I loved the creative teams I got a chance to work with.
You know, my problem with most screenwriting is it is a blueprint. It's like they're afraid to write the damn thing. And I'm a writer. That's what I do. I want it to be written. I want it to work on the page first and foremost. So when I'm writing the script, I'm not thinking about the viewer watching the movie. I'm thinking about the reader reading the script.
Everyone has an idea that they think would be a great movie. Everyone has a cousin who they think you should work with.
I'll do any kind of movie, as long as it's a good version of it.
Writing is the life blood of everything in Hollywood. Without writers, there are no scripts, no acting work.
I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.
In my experience in series TV, if you have a good crew and a great cast, it's going to be a great group - similar to the theater where it's a bunch of people who are really talented and go to work each day and challenge each other, and if you are lucky enough to get a hit then it's five or six or seven years of this kind of work.
It took five years to get 'Parental Guidance' made, and it was a fight every second.
A lot of times, when I'm approaching pre-production and my job, and trying to research and work on the script and whatnot it's always different.
You never know what to expect when you're a writer visiting a movie set.
When I got the invitation to be part of 'The Ghost' or 'The Ghost Writer,' as it's now known, from Mr. Roman Polanski, my interest level was very piqued. I was very excited and pleased to get such an offer from Mr. Roman Polanski.
Whenever I'm writing a script, I'm scoring myself by playing the right kind of music.
With most good scripts and good shows, they expect the actor to bring some of their ideas to the backstory of the character. It's always a good collaboration between the actor and the writer and the director to try stuff out during the process.
I've never had to pitch a movie to a studio. I usually just let people read the script, then I cast it. I always think pitching is for baseball.
Whether it's TV shows or the films that I've done, it's always a priority for me that the entire script should be good.
Piper reads the scripts, and we email a lot. Most of her comments are on the more technical side, like "This wouldn't happen. This is against the rules." She's been extremely respectful of our taking her story, and then veering left with it and taking it in its own direction. But, I always want her involved because she's the mother of all this.
The film industry sees the writer as fungible: The thinking goes, As long as we have Brad Pitt and all this money, we have a great film! No, you need a writer with voice and an engaging story, or what you have is a bomb.
Consciously picking the right script after a long period of wait helped me grab a perfect film in the rom-com genre.
I don't see a big difference between the job of directing a low-budget movie and the job of directing a big-budget movie.
People complain about Hollywood movies being similar. That goes right down to the fundamental green light process, because the process involves having to compare it to three other movies.
I think television scripts have become really intriguing and well-done. And writers have stopped drawing any actual line between film and television they used to never cross.
I hate to say it as a pejorative term, but I work for the Hollywood system for the most part.
I have a producing partner named Stephen Hamel, and we've been trying to generate material.
I sit every once in a while and I think about plays and films I can do with William Petersen into our eighties. He's the most incredible scene partner I've ever had.
My easiest judgment for a script is 'do I want to keep reading it?'
