I've been fortunate. I don't pick scripts. Scripts pick me.
I wrote the script of Patton. I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives this speech. Ultimately, I was fired. When the script was done, they hired another writer and that script was forgotten.
It slightly depends on your perspective, sort of how you look at these things, but when I sit down to write a script, I'm not planning to write a script; I'm planning to make a film, and so I only see the script as being just a step there.
Basically, if you could get a good trailer out of the script, Roger had no objection to you making a really good movie. He liked it if you did. He liked the more cleverness and ingenuity you could bring to it. He just wasn't going to give you any mor...
I'm thinking about directing, but I know it's a lot of work and I appreciate what directors do and I would like to be good at it. The opportunity has presented itself four to five times, and I usually said no because of the script.
I don't want to work just for the sake of working. Generally, if a good script comes in, I read it, and if it appeals to me, it appeals to me. And it doesn't have to be anything - it doesn't have to be the main character; it doesn't have to be a huge...
I don't work for production houses. I only work for good scripts and roles. If you follow my career graph, you will find that I have not given a single flop yet in my career. I am proud of it.
I have been sent three or four scripts for television series, but there wasn't anything I really wanted to do. I want to tell a good story, whether it's a TV show, a movie, whatever. That's really my No. 1 criteria.
To this day, I get rewrite offers where they say: 'We feel this script needs work with character, dialogue, plot and tone,' and when you ask what's left, they say: 'Well, the typing is very good.'
Not all offers I get are exciting and inspiring. I would rather sit at home and not work than jump into mediocrity for the sake of just moving ahead. If it's a good script, I would sacrifice my personal time and grab it.
I certainly learned how to break down a text at Princeton, which helps me break down a script - or at least that's the line I feed my parents when they start wondering where all that good money went.
I'd love to see a good script of one of my books, in these years of animations and comic book sequels, and had so many written over the years, but none quite clicked.
I would always rather do a mediocre script with a great filmmaker than a great script with a mediocre filmmaker.
If you put someone in a room with no script to direct, they're just going to sit there. Writing scripts is the execution for a show. Then the director takes that and hires people. It's like trying to build a house without any bricks. You need the scr...
When I first read the script a few years ago I thought it was one of the best written scripts I had ever read.
Memorizing a playbook is like memorizing a script. When they change the script at the last minute it's like changing a play in a game.
My dad's got a brilliant eye for scripts 'cos he's a literary agent. He and my agent read a load of scripts and filter them.
I get a trickling few scripts that I'm lucky enough that some of them are great. I don't get loads of scripts.
I'm terrible at reading scripts. I love to read, and I hate reading scripts.
On '24,' it says on the front page of your script: 'This script is for the production staff and cast. Please don't show it to anybody else.'
I have a tendency to say yes to a script or no to a script. Not yes based on a rewrite.
