If you think about it, episodic filmmaking has not been something that people have really done.
I've never taken a job on anything I didn't want to do.
I'm trained to button scenes and round things off, and I get rewarded for doing that.
I worked for a lot of directors.
I wanted to try before I got too old to try to do a big movie and I'd been looking for something to do that was interesting enough to spend those two years of my life on.
I used to be, when I was young, I used to be extremely regular and very organized.
I think what I've recognized over the years is that I'm very, very bingey, extremely bingey when it comes to writing.
I spend a lot of time in a sort of free state when I'm writing in the beginning and sketching.
I prefer writing originals.
I never really like it when other writers talk about coming in behind people and rewriting.
I like movies that pop, that have a little bit of candy on, that freedom to have a little bit of extra fun, but are rooted in real behaviour. Rooted in cause and effect, never violating reality.
I like knowing where I am in action sequences if I'm supposed to.
I like emotions, but I really don't like sentimentality, and I don't like when things break their spell.
I have written a bunch of scripts that have not gotten produced, much more so early in my career than later.
I don't remember writing anything until I wrote my college application.
I don't like to be crazy on different levels all of the time.
I can't imagine directing from someone else's script.
Fear changes everything. We're animals, and when we get afraid we act like animals. I'm not exempt from that.
Everyone I know who used to be in the intelligence community is moving into the corporate world.
Different people work different ways.
Developing films with directors, developing films with actors, is a poor percentage play for a screenwriter.
Corporations are like countries now, there's a king, there are serfs, there's a court, basically everything but moats. They're feudal societies, and there are good ones and bad ones.
Ambiguity depletes as your budget rises.
A reversal is just anything that's a surprise. It's a way of keeping the audience interested.
I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence?
