I think – I don’t know, maybe it’s nostalgia. But the choice, losing the choice to be able to use film is going to be – it’s gone. It’s going to be gone.
I worked with Jack Nitzsche for ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ and we’d booked a symphony orchestra. He dismissed them and came with a little man who poured water into glasses of different sizes to make a glass harmonica. And most of the music for the film was that – with some Indian flutes and some drums.
Trying to make a feature film yourself with no money is the best film school you can do.
Julia Roberts most definitely would play me in the film of my life. Not just because of the hair but because she has all sides to her personality come through in films that I could just imagine her playing my crazy self so well.
I don’t think you should feel about a film. You should feel about a woman, not a movie. You can’t kiss a movie.
As a fan, when I hear that a film is going to be turned into a television show, I do go to that place immediately of, ‘Is it going to be any good? Is it going to be a waste of time? Why are they doing it?’ It’s ’12 Monkeys,’ and ’12 Monkeys’ is awesome, so I wanted to be a part of it and work on it.
‘Harjeeta’ is a film based on the inspiring story of a sportsman, grappling with life’s struggles, and surviving against all odds and managing to end the nation’s 15-year-old drought in the Junior Championship by lifting the coveted trophy.
Tim also has enough confidence so that it always looks like a Tim Burton film, but it really is collaborative. You’re allowed to do it your way but of course he’s always going to choose his way.
When you’re doing a single-camera show, it’s more buying into a level of reality. I think a sitcom, a four-camera show, doesn’t require that so much. I think with a film show, you just need the characters to grow.
The secret is not to make a film that causes something like Virginia Tech to happen. The secret is to make a film that stops it happening.
But the action film genre is gonna have to come up with some new bad guys.
A good film demands its own score, and if you are a musician, your conscience will never allow you to do something mediocre for a good film.
Each performance and each film is what it is. It’s right and belongs within that moment. You look at it and try to make it fit your particular part of your character and your particular film.
The first thing I put down on paper is a storyboard, like a film director.
If you film a little boy going to school, the big event in that boy’s day and all the classmates’ and teachers’ day is you being there filming, not the school.
Between the ages of 18 and 20, I made three hour-long films. One was a superhero film called ‘Carbolic Soap.’ One was a cop film called ‘Dead Right.’ And the other was called ‘A Fistful Of Fingers.’
Theatre is an actor’s medium. An actor has little control over a film. Which is why most actors who have done theatre, and then come to films find the former more creatively satisfying.
Jammu and Kashmir has a scenic beauty and I feel that the film industry rather than going abroad in countries like Switzerland and Australia, should visit Kashmir – which is the only Heaven on Earth for the shoots.
I mark a script like an exam, and I try not to do anything under 50 per cent. Similarly with the part. And also film is a peculiar thing, parts don’t necessarily read in script form anything like as well as they can do when it comes to materialising.
All the traditional models for doing things are collapsing; from music to publishing to film, and it’s a wide open door for people who are creative to do what they need to do without having institutions block their art.
I haven’t directed a film since ‘Appaloosa,’ and I’ve been looking for something because I love the directing thing.
Every great film should seem new every time you see it.
Variety is very, very good. Going from medium to medium, if you get the chance to do it, from theater to television to film, which are all distinctly different, keeps me sharp.
I didn’t leave bodybuilding until I felt that I had gone as far as I could go. It will be the same with my film career. When I feel the time is right, I will then consider public service. I feel that the highest honor comes from serving people and your country.
I love ghosts. I’ve actually seen a couple of spirits in my life and almost every single night, till today, I try and watch a scary film.
Every film is a comeback, no matter what I did the last time.
The fact that I’ve lived this long is not really an achievement. Time passes; we age… it’s natural. This is why it annoys me when a person watches a movie and tells me that it was ‘time pass.’ Would time not have passed if he hadn’t watched the film?
I enjoy editing when I’m directing, but when someone else is directing, that’s their film to cut.
‘Podaa Podi’ is a film that sees Simbu and Varalakshmi in three phases of life. Thus this film of course takes more time to wrap than usual flicks. The film is entirely being shot in London and we require to shoot it only during a particular season as the script demands it.
Growing up, I didn’t have many comics, but I grew to love these characters through their film and television universes. I’ve been geeking out about these superheroes ever since I could tie a towel around my neck like a cape and jump off my grandmother’s porch.
As for me, it is interesting to play a role that is not human; it is nice to be all powerful without fancy action scenes. But, it is not funny to play God, even on film. You don’t speak much and just smile beatifically.
‘Arrival’ talks very little about language and how to precisely dissect a foreign language. It’s more a film on intuition and communication by intuition, the language of intuition.
I never thought of becoming a director. When I was twelve, the passage from silent film to the talkies had an impact on me – I still watch silent films.
Albert Grossman called my office and spoke with my partner Richard Leacock and asked if we’d be interested in making a film with his client, Bob Dylan.
I informed Malayalam filmmakers that I can do a film for free if the role excites me.
Well, whether it’s on film or on TV, you don’t want to throw too many curves at your audio and video guys.
There is no nepotism in the Hindi film industry.
Nowadays, there are seven music directors in one film. I had never heard of such a thing before. If one of our old music directors was told to share a score with others, he would have left the assignment.
On Saturday afternoons, there was a film, of course, and then we did about four shows between the films. And I would do a tap dance, a little military tap.
Only the film industry can make you an overnight success. Unlike other jobs where you have to work your way up, here you can reach dizzying heights of fame instantly.
A film has its own life and takes its own time.
Actors are hard to photograph because they never want to reveal who they are. You don’t know if you’re getting a character from a Chekhov play or a Polanski film. It depends what mood they’re in.
If you’re not bruised up, then you’re not doing an action film in a real way.
When you finish a film, you never want to see it again.
We shot ‘Breaking Bad’ on film; we capture ‘Better Call Saul’ digitally. In the shooting of ‘Breaking Bad,’ we would have this steady, handheld, cinema verite sort of look, so we purposely went the opposite way with ‘Better Call Saul’ – locked in the cameras and made the movements smoother and more mechanical.
One of the fine moments in 1940s film is no longer than a blink: Bogart, as he crosses the street from one bookstore to another, looks up at a sign.
What is a commercial film? I think every film is commercial, as every film makes money.
I think theater is very much my natural home. But the truth is that the older I’ve got, and the more I’ve written film and television, I find it incredibly hard to write theater.
Undoubtedly, there are a number of well-developed, mainly female, stars helping Miss Taylor to hold the film industry together: Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, etc. But such an insistence on cheesecake smells of bankruptcy.
My fascination with letting images repeat and repeat – or in film’s case ‘run on’ – manifests my belief that we spend much of our lives seeing without observing.
When I’m writing film music, I feel like I’m more a filmmaker than a composer. It’s more about what the film needs. I’m basically part of the team that’s creating a film, and the music is a very important part, but it’s just one part of many.
I think actors are very obsessed about looking different and behaving differently, but all people need is just a different film. They don’t want a different you; they want a different story.
It is a conscious choice to go for content-driven scripts because that is the key for any film to work. There are no two ways about it, and I have always been attracted to great content.
There was an interesting article in Los Angeles Magazine about women directors. A woman director makes one bad independent film and her career is over. Guys tend to get an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
I don’t plan or schedule my career thinking first I will play a common man, then a police officer, then a superhero. I love good scripts, and I don’t care if I play the main part in it or not. I want to be a part of good films. That’s my dream… ‘Jacobinte Swargarajyam’ was that film for me.
