My brain does like the idea of hosting a late-night show. My brain does like the idea of maybe having a show about me. So, I often pitch ideas and work on scripts and do that just because I may not be right about how I feel, so why not just do this, and if it happens and I got my own show, well maybe I would really end up falling in love with it.
Sometimes if a script is based on a book, that's what you should do: represent the book.
The scripts for Marco Polo are absolutely, positively fantastic. The challenge of making that show in China has proved to be as formidable as we feared. It's not like making a movie in China where, once you load up and you leave, you're gone. We have to be able to come back and capture something that's going to feel like a major feature film, on a television budget, and do it, hopefully season after season, so we are taking more time than the producers thought.
I was well aware of that when I heard they were remaking 'Total Recall. ' My first reaction was: 'Ewww, really okay?' And the director said you should really look at it, the script is good. I had already done a remake. I had just finished 'Fright Night. ' When I heard about that being remade, I had a whole ego thing. . . remake?. 'That is so uncool! I loved the original, I can't possibly do that'.
If I want to kiss, I shall kiss. If I am told that a lovemaking scene is integral to the script, I will consider it.
I love working that way, and that's sort of the way that Mark, Jay, and I have been working for years, where we start with scripts that are really solid and well-written. But once we get into the scene and we start doing the work, we definitely loosen things up.
I would always rather do a mediocre script with a great filmmaker than a great script with a mediocre filmmaker.
I'd like to think that I have a plan, but you can't really pick what scripts you're going to get or what movie is going to come along.
I don't consciously seek out Australian projects. I put them on the same table as all the other scripts and I wouldn't ever do a film just because it's been shot at home.
When Tim asked me to do Frankenweenie, he had his original sketches from before he did the short, of what Sparky looked like, and he drew Victor and some of the other crucial people. The remarkable thing about working with Tim is that, once he's read a script, he sketches out everybody else.
Some reviewer might be out there saying, obviously Edge of Darkness didn't come off because of the script, blah blah blah, but everybody has read the script, except the journalist attacking it.
The script for 'In Good Company' was the first one I ever showed my dad.
A lot of times, the script is the thing they care about least.
I've been involved with some huge studio projects that have been bloody awesome. It all starts with a great script, doesn't it?
Anyone can write. But comedy, you've got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.
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.
I have pictures from work that I'm sending to my family. I send them scripts that I'm working on so they can be excited and know what's up with me.
Once you read the script, it's the only way it can be.
When I do a horror or a fantasy film it all boils down to something in the script that surprises me. It could be a big thing or a small moment. If it's there I'll do it.
I read a lot of scripts. Most of 'em go to other actors.