You start out with scripts pre-written, with no specific actor in mind, so you’ve got to build a character on top of that foundation. It’s not just lifting words off the page, it’s constructing a history around them as well.
Stephen Moyer is probably the most gracious, gifted actor that I’ve met. He’s really intelligent. He has a real sensitivity to his character, to scenes, to scripts.
Earlier, if I gave three to four flops continuously, I survived because there was not much competition. But now the scenario has changed and it’s always better to choose good scripts.
Unfortunately, the back log for writing for ‘Walking Dead’ is pretty backed up! Usually, we wouldn’t see the scripts until the week before – or sometimes even the week of.
The scripts that I’ve been getting are of epic proportion. People want me to lead the big armies.
Marketing is such a key issue; in fact, the marketing department is often involved in the approval of scripts now.
I choose films based on scripts.
I find that most of my scripts have a lot more scenes than most films, so the average movie might have 100 scenes, my average script has 300 scenes.
I worked in script development, many years ago, and read a lot of scripts. Between that and the scripts I’ve read as an actor, and I’m a writer as well, I think I have a pretty good sense about whether the bones of a story are there and whether the structure is intact.
When I’m not acting, I’m writing, building an inventory of scripts. Even if they sit on the shelf, I just keep stacking them up.
The kind of scripts I have read for web shows have been outstanding.
One of the funniest things about Mr. Kaufman is that all of his filmed scripts – ‘Being John Malkovich,’ ‘Human Nature,’ ‘Adaptation’ and now ‘Sunshine’ – sound like titles from REM’s ‘Reckoning.’
When you’re shooting a network television show it inevitably starts airing a few episodes in, and depending on the ratings and the response from the public, you find yourself tweaking your performance or the scripts go in a different direction.
My scripts are possibly too talkative. Sometimes I watch a scene I’ve written, and occasionally I think, ‘Oh, for God’s sake, shut up.’
I’m absolutely open to scripts written by someone else.
I have to tell you that we never had any scripts. Jean-Luc never wrote a script in his life. He would write the dialogue that morning before shooting.
There’s a bookstore in New York where you could buy scripts, and I got addicted to them because they were easy, quick reads… and the pictures were so vivid.
As a director, my job is to protect. I protect scripts, actors, cameramen, designers.
I always wanted to do a sci-fi movie, but most sci-fi scripts are either about saving the planet or fighting aliens.
I find that dialogue is bad in most scripts. I just think there are very few writers that can capture the natural way people talk.
The running thread of my career has been different scripts.
I get sent horror scripts every week and most of them are putrid. A lot of people think it’s an easy medium but it’s not. Not if you want to make ones that last.
A lot of times, scripts are written so the character is all one way. Even with ‘Bringing Out the Dead,’ the character was written a little more generic.
If I have to choose between a Bollywood film and Pakistan film, it may sound cliched, but I will go with the script first. And if both the scripts are equally good, then I will choose a Pakistan film.
In TV, you don’t know everything. The writers only give you scripts before you shoot the episodes. They keep you on your nerve.
I think on our first two movies we weren’t really writing for anybody else above us and that’s not to say that movies aren’t ours in the way we want them to be in terms of the scripts.
When I create a TV show, it’s so that I can write it. I’m not an empire builder; my writing staff is usually a combination of two kinds of people – experts in the world the show is set in, and young writers who will not be unhappy if they’re not writing scripts.
The truth is, there are probably eight more ‘Snow White’ scripts floating around out there. And once one ‘Snow White’ script got hot, other people started pulling out their ‘Snow White’ scripts.
I give preference to scripts and of course, the importance of my role in the storyline. Still I am not after hero roles. I take such roles only when I find the scripts exciting.
I don’t have a stack of scripts.
I go by the script and the director. Decisions about signing on the dotted line are mine. Of course, mom and dad listen to the scripts but I think I’m a better judge.
I am always open to working with debutant directors, as they bring a new perspective to a script. That motivates me and helps me choose unique scripts.
For the moment, whenever I read, it is normally scripts. You start a book and then you think, ‘I should be reading these five scripts.’
The first time that somebody handed me a sheet of paper with a promo on it, it was like a ‘throw up in your mouth’ kind of moment. And it’s not, like, their fault, you know? It’s not the writers’ fault. But if was my world, there would be no written promos; there’d be no scripts.
Am I getting better at making choices? Well, I think I might be getting better at reading scripts.
Sometimes you can feel the gears shifting in scripts, like really trying to make something work that feels sweaty for whatever reason. I really enjoy reading material that just flows – it’s definitely a skill to make something feel effortless.
I was unusual looking – I didn’t have the look of that time. If you look at ‘Lucas’ – and, basically, my first five or six movies – the characters are not described in the scripts as attractive people.
Good scripts are difficult to come by in the industry, especially if you are an outsider.
But most scripts are terrible. Most projects are bad, that’s just kind of the way it is. And I’m not really attracted to those.
Don’t allow old traditions to become permanent mental scripts for managing your life in the present. Reason: you will not be able to transform yourself to think differently and be better as you grow with age and maturity.
If you have a movie coming out, and people are talking about you, the amount of scripts will build.
I feel that I don’t have to wait around for good scripts anymore, that I can get things moving more quickly. I can ring up directors I like and say I’m keen to work with them, which is pretty great.
