At that point, the movie was called Wild Force. Everything fell apart, eventually - our financing completely fell apart - and we were never able to make that film.
I like making films about different cultures. I'm interested in things that I've never encountered before. I try to put myself in the audience's position.
When you're making a film all by yourself, that requires you to have quite a bit of a point of view in order for anything to get done.
If I were to do a musical, I think I would rather make a film musical.
You always worry about films when you hear about them making decisions after announcements are made.
I enjoy the details. I enjoy coming up with ideas for improving the script, changing scenes and deciding what locations and wardrobe should be - the process of making a film.
Whether it's making a film or raising my children, personally I'm striving to do the right things and to learn.
I'm not a big guy anyway. I'm only, what, 150 pounds? I was 190 for 'Batman,' 179 for 'Warrior.' Films make you look big.
When I started my filmmaking journey 17 years ago, I honestly didn't know what a documentary film was.
When I'm making a film, I'm obsessive about what I do, and I get totally into it. That's all I'm eating, breathing, living at that moment.
I'm someone who has a singular goal in making films: I want to tell a story. There are certain stories that I want to tell.
I thought about going to NYU film school - that was this ideal to me. But I didn't make any kind of grades in high school.
'The Dice Man' is an anti-establishment cult novel, and you don't normally make studio films from such dark comedy material.
I don't have a desire to make films that have cardboard cut-out or Hollywood stand-in replicas of humans. I need the real deal.
Showtime has given new, young filmmakers - black, white, across the board - an opportunity to make films, as well as actors who want to cross over into directing.
There's something about taking a film from concept to script, through production, and then to see the final thing happening in the edit phase. It's almost like a miracle in the making.
When I make a film, I'm not doing it purely for political reasons. If I just wanted to do that, I'd run for office.
It costs so much to make films. With a novel, you can write the whole thing on a ream of paper from Staples for $4.
Val Kilmer gave my husband, David Mamet, a Randall knife as a gift when the two of them were making the film 'Spartan.'
Peter Chelsom and Edgar Wright are totally different directors and worlds apart, but both really accomplished directors who are certain of how they want to make a film.
It helps being from somewhere other than Hollywood, not having grown up with that sense of film-making. I really wasn't exposed to that as a young woman.
