Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The great thing about adventure, when told correctly, is it is one of the few genres that everybody in the family can watch together.
'Leverage' is meant to be based in Boston. But in one episode we're in New York, then another in Chicago, Florida, and Eastern Europe.
Spielberg is our hero. For him to make a nod to 'Godzilla' just before we make our movie is like getting the king to acknowledge you at dinner.
Had the car companies continued to do generation two, generation three, generation four of the EV-1, we'd be looking at a spectacular car today.
I've always lived by this philosophy, when it comes to conspiracies, never to attribute to deviousness that which can be explained by incompetence.
Portland has all the accoutrements of a big city, but the heart and soul of it is a small town, so that creates an intimacy in a large environment.
We had an amazing experience shooting the first season of 'Leverage' with such a talented cast and crew and with the full support of TNT behind us.
'The Outpost' is an exciting fantasy with a strong female lead that will capture the imagination of fans of both 'Game of Thrones' and 'Wonder Woman.'
We have to produce a high-quality show, but we have less and less time and money to do it. If you are using the tapeless approach to save money, you will.
I think if we did 'Stargate' right, the fans would like it, and we could do something really good. But if we screw it up, they'll reject it. As they should.
We've always had a simple philosophy in casting. We don't care if somebody's a big star or a little star. We just want the best possible actor for the part.
We're often accused of trying to manipulate opinion or that we're trying to elevate society. I think that the greatest thing we can do is to give you a vacation.
We used to call them the storm of the century but now we're seeing what happens if we don't act fast enough - and real human beings are suffering because of that.
Portland is a two-hour flight from L.A. It has wonderful talent, and it hasn't been shot to death. I'm all in favor of it becoming a serious player in the industry.
Kurt Russell is the guy you know. He's not something out of a weight-lifting magazine or a cartoon character. The closest thing to him would have been Steve McQueen.
The truth is, we were sick of, every time we finished a movie, having to start all over again from nothing, going to a studio, pitching an idea, setting up a new office.
I always wish I had another shot at it. But, listen, 'Godzilla' is something that I grew up loving. We worked hard to go make one. We kind of blew it. I think everyone gets one.
Paramount Pictures is a perfect partner for Electric Entertainment, with the most stable group of executives in Hollywood and unparalleled global promotion and distribution reach.
John Rogers has an encyclopedic mind. Having John as our showrunner is the gift that keeps on giving. He knows more trivial information than anyone I've ever met in my entire life.
I don't think you can figure this stuff out. If you could figure all this stuff out, then all the great filmmakers would come out of Yale and Harvard. It's not an intellectual process.
We're so specialized now in our entertainment. It's nice to do a show where you're really circling back to this idea of, 'Couldn't there be a show the whole family can watch together?'
When I first came to Oregon, the annual amount spent on production was $1 million to $1.5 million. By the time 'Leverage' was done, there had been over $100 million in production that year.
Following a pre-cellphone world of children on an adventure is incredibly appealing for me. These are the kinds of movies I fell in love with and made me want to be a filmmaker in the first place.
We're going to come back to Oregon, whether it's with another show, or a pilot, or a movie. We love working up there. I think it's got one of the most amazing talent pools of any state in the union.
With 'The Librarians,' we want to be a smart, fun, crazy, genre show, but we also want to be something that people of all ages can watch and enjoy. That, to me, does seem to be increasingly harder to find.
We are cannibalizing our audience by only giving them regurgitated material. Every movie is either a remake, a sequel, based on something else. Based on a former television series. Based on a successful videogame.
It's fun to watch a show that you can watch with any member of your family, and you're going to laugh, and you're going to be moved, and you're going to have fun, rather than this dark, brooding, cold, 'purely procedural show.'
Of all the projects I've ever done, 'Stargate' is the only one from the beginning intended to be a trilogy. We always wanted to do parts two and three, but the thinking was they didn't want to do anything other than the TV series.
Television is like speed chess, as you have no time and no money. It is like trying to play Grandmaster chess with a 20 minute timer. The rewards are great, though, as it moves faster and you get to see the finished results much quicker.
The advantage of the Genesis is that it's a rock-solid camera, made by a company with an enormous history and a huge support base. Plus, it's very good in low light using all the Panavision lenses. The downside is that you're recording on tape.
There was no studio involved when we made 'Stargate.' It was financed through Le Studio Canal+ in France and, after the film was finished, it was sold to MGM. When the film was a success, MGM decided to do a television series based on the movie.
We intellectualize it, and we rationalize it, but it's really about a love of movies, and I think whether you're making an art film or you're making a genre film, if you don't really love that movie you are trying to make, you'll be able to tell.
When I tried to get 'Stargate' made, I took it to every studio in Hollywood and every studio said, 'Sci-fi is dead. It's a dead genre. No one wants to see science fiction anymore.' And I had to go and raise the money independently to make that movie.
'Stargate' has always had this empty hole. When we made the first one, we always intended on doing part two and three, and we were prevented for years. And our hope is that we can get another chance at 'Stargate' and tell the entire story we wanted to tell.
We did the original 'Stargate' as an independent movie. It was a surprise success. Shortly before the movie came out, the financiers who were frightened the movie might not do well sold the film to MGM. When the film came out, it was a hit and spawned TV shows.
In movies, we've run out of ideas for bad guys. We end up with politically incorrect villains, like Arab terrorists or Latin drug dealers or corrupt politicians. Well, aliens are the best film villains since the Nazis. You don't have to worry about offending anyone.
It was somewhere in doing the last season of 'Leverage' that John Rogers and I became confident that we had developed an all-new production technique where we could put more on the screen with very little money. So we started to get more comfortable with the idea of trying to tackle 'The Librarians.'
The real trick to these movies and making the big action sequences work - and I've forgotten this sometimes and screwed it up - the characters really have to be humanized. Because you can have the greatest special effects in the world, but if you don't care about the people in those effects, there's no impact.
There are three things that I'm addicted to when it comes to entertainment. In no particular order, One, I'm addicted to the cheer moment. 'Librarians' has plenty of them. Next, I feel that life is hard, and I want my entertainment fun, and 'Librarians' is fun as a Christmas party. And third, I like to be moved.
The great thing about adventure, when told correctly, is it is one of the few genres that everybody in the family can watch together. Our television has become so targeted, it's so specific that there's literally nothing else on television that grandparents are watching with their grandkids, and they're both entertained.
I can tell you as a fact that if you'd asked anyone in Hollywood one year before 'Pirates of the Caribbean' had come out, they'd have told you the pirate movie was a dead genre. And it's not that it's a dead genre. If you make a bad pirate movie, no one will want to see it. If you make a good one, everyone will want to see it.
We took over with 'Leverage' three warehouses, and now four with 'The Librarians,' and turned them into proper sound stages with sound doors and all the lights. We now have control of four real, proper-sized sound stages. The problem is they're dark and empty half of the year because there aren't enough productions coming into Oregon.
Many years ago, I was actually hired to write the sequel to 'Independence Day.' And I wrote a sequel. And they paid me a boatload of money to go write this thing. And after I wrote it, I read it and I gave them back the money and I said, 'Look, this is an okay movie I just wrote. But it's not worthy of the sequel to 'Independence Day.'