Curtis Hanson Quotes
-
When I'm casting a picture, I think who I'd like to see in it if I was sitting in a theater. Who would surprise me?
→ -
There are many people who want to make movies and very few opportunities for them to do it. I had a checkered early career with a lot of very unhappy experiences where pictures got taken away, re-cut, re-titled... all the nightmares one hears about. Consequently, it's so gratifying to then make a picture that's successful and gives you leverage to have better circumstances than you've ever had, before the next time out.
→ -
What I try to do is give each actor an environment in which they can do their best work.
→ -
In terms of talking with my collaborators as they came onboard - Jeannine Oppewall, our production designer, Dante Spinotti, our cinematographer, and so forth - I said to them, "Let's pretend that this is a place like Honolulu. Let's ignore the fact that all these other movies have been made here for decades and try to come at it with a fresh eye, as if it were an exotic city that people aren't that familiar with. And let's present our own view of it, create a world that's unique to this movie [L.A Confidential].
→ -
I make that distinction only because I came to it strictly as someone who was just a lover of storytellers and cinematic storytellers.
→ -
Having done several of them and also loving other kinds of movies, I'm also tougher on suspense stories in terms of finding one that really excites and surprises me.
→ -
Initially, it connected with me when I was a kid, seeing a lot of movies while growing up in Los Angeles. And Sam's [Fuller] pictures are an expression of such a distinct voice that he was one of those filmmakers who made me aware that there was, in fact, a real presence behind the camera that was telling the story, as opposed to actors just presenting it.
→ -
My very first professional writing credit was on a movie called The Dunwich Horror, and Roger Corman was the executive producer.
→ -
When I first went to Pittsburgh, I had never been there before, and we hadn't even decided to shoot there yet. I just went to see the location of Michael Chabon's novel. Once there, I became aware that Pittsburgh is a "wonder boy," in the narrow sense of the term, just as the human characters are.
→ -
I had written the script a few years earlier for Paramount, then later got hired with Sam [Fuller] to write an entirely new script that he was going to direct. And that was one of the great thrills of my professional life.
→ -
I was never a critic. I was a journalist and wrote about filmmakers, but I didn't review movies per se. I make that distinction only because I came to it strictly as someone who was just a lover of storytellers and cinematic storytellers. And I still am. I'm still a great movie fan, and I ,that love of movies is very much alive in me. I approach the movies I make as a movie-lover as much as a movie-maker.
→ -
I approach the movies I make as a movie-lover as much as a movie-maker.
→ -
I'm still a great movie fan, and I guess that's the answer to your question.
→ -
There was a long period of time when Sam Fuller had a lot of projects fall through and had a lot of difficulties getting a project off the ground. And I was able to observe him during that period, and see his incredible resiliency and courage as he faced this difficulty and just kept working.
→ -
I very much had wanted to do a picture with more humor than what I had been allowed to do earlier, which is what attracted me to Wonder Boys so much. I found it funny in a very serious way, which is the best kind of comedy.
→ -
I had the great fortune to actually become friends with Sam [Fuller] and ultimately collaborate with him on White Dog, which we wrote together.
→ -
First of all, Sam Fuller left a group of extraordinary movies that are unique, that are "Fuller-esque," as one might say, which makes them stand apart from any other director's films.
→ -
What you care about [movie] is whether it's moving you, or whether you're caught up in it.
→ -
Most scripts are so linear and simplistic in their plotline.
→ -
I love suspense movies, because in a sense they're the most dreamlike of any genre, and I'm sure I'll make another one.
→ -
It was also a new role for me as a writer, because I wanted to just be there to serve Sam. I recognized that this picture would be "a Sam Fuller movie," and I was just trying, in whatever way I could, to help him get what he wanted.
→ -
I didn't look at it as a transition so much, because I never intended to have a career as a journalist, writing about people who make movies.
→ -
I grew up as a reader as well as a movie-lover, so many of the novelists I admired - and so many of the great filmmakers I loved - were self-taught.
→ -
On a personal note, a legacy he left me, aside from being a friend who was important to me on many levels, was that the decades I knew Sam [Fuller] happened to be the decades that were his least happy professionally.
→ -
I don't think of the marketplace as teen-oriented or teen-dominated. I think of it as dominated by high-concept, in marketing especially.
→ -
I look for characters that interest me, and a story that keeps me involved and makes me want to know what happens next.
→ -
Rob Lowe, who I thought was really good in the movie [ Bad Influence], had his performance overshadowed by this sort of tabloid approach to him and the movie.
→ -
Whereas to write, all you need is paper and an idea, so I felt that writing might be my stepping stone.
→ -
It was just a wonderful experience, one for the memory book for sure. The sad thing about it was that the picture came under this absurd cloud of controversy. Here was a movie based on the central theme that racism is something that is taught, and it's illustrated by this story of a dog and the efforts of humans to re-train it after it had been trained to go after black people. And it created this ridiculous controversy and wound up being the last Hollywood movie that Sam [Fuller] made.
→ -
I stopped doing that [photojournalism] and wrote some screenplays on speculation, because even though I wanted to direct, to direct you need a lot of money. Even for a cheap movie, you need film stock and equipment and actors.
→
Related Authors
-
Russell Crowe Actor -
Kevin Spacey Actor -
Eminem Rapper -
Leven Rambin Film actress -
Brian Helgeland Screenwriter -
David Strathairn Actor -
Shirley MacLaine Film actress -
Abigail Spencer Film actress -
Brittany Murphy Film actress -
James Ellroy Crime writer -
Michael Apted Director -
James Cromwell Film actor -
Gerard Butler Actor -
Jonny Weston Film actor -
Toni Collette Actress -
Michael Douglas Actor -
Mekhi Phifer Actor -
Guy Pearce Actor -
Kim Basinger Actress -
Rebecca De Mornay Film actress
Popular Topics
- Heaven And Dogs
- Black Music
- Publicists
- Political Enemies
- Snowdrops
- Poetry Reading
- Australian Films
- Sense Of Accomplishment
- Omnipotent
- Future Of America
- Fellow Travelers
- Art Director
- Art World
- Power Relationships
- Presidents Day
- Halloween And Friends
- Home Place
- Creative Work
- Family Connections
- Intelligent Conversation