Whatever it is that makes your movie unique is something you should embrace.
No one knows how much we went through to finish 'Furious 7.'
I hope people will like 'The Conjuring 2' because I think it is a very natural and organic progression of the first movie.
I'm a big fan of suspense and tension filmmaking, and that was my goal with 'The Conjuring.'
I didn't direct any of the 'Saw' sequels, but people thought I did.
I try to keep the number of projects I'm involved in down to one per year.
I think, like most people, we are familiar with Aquaman. We grew up reading or watching this character on the peripheral. I was never so in depth with Aquaman as, let's say, I was with X-Men.
When you conceive the scene, you go, 'That is scary, right?' When you shoot it, a lot of times you're not quite sure. Hopefully what you can shoot is what your conception is.
I've always said if I had to pinpoint what's more important in a scary movie, the soundscape or the visuals, I'd pick the sound.
I think, ultimately, if you create characters that people like and can relate to, your characters are grounded on a human level even if your cars are not.
Making a movie with people of all different ethnicity, all different skin color and different backgrounds, meant that the movie can literally play all around the world. It's not just a blanket whitewash film like most Hollywood films tend to be.
I try to pull my inspirations from everyday life. If I came across a situation that is like, 'Oh, that's going to be scary, that's going to be frightening,' that's when I get inspired, and I put that into my films.
'Death Sentence' really is a throwback to the '70s style revenge drama with moments of action. It's like a contemporary 'Death Wish' with a much more thriller style storyline, but the action scenes I shot very much in the style of '70s films like 'The French Connection.'
When I am making a sequel, it needs to be different from what you have already seen. Yet, it needs to maintain a certain discipline so that people still associate it with the prequel.
I always say it's very difficult when you're tackling something like 'Spider-Man' or 'Batman' that has been done so many times before.
'Fast and Furious' is the only franchise that I've directed that I did not create from scratch. So it definitely was an eye-opening experience for me coming to that world. I had to be respectful of the roles that had been established by the filmmakers before me, and I was cool with that.
People used to always complain that horror films have no stories, that it's all just about kills and stuff like that.
I love Sam Peckinpah.
There's something very cool about that indie spirit that I try to hang on to even now with the bigger films that I'm working on.
I grew up loving X-Men, Spider-Man and Batman. Those are obviously the key big ones, but there's always something kind of cool about Aquaman still, the idea of creating a huge world that is on our planet.
Geoff Johns is super talented, super smart.
I'm a student of cinema in general, not just of one particular genre. So it was very important to me and to my soul to go out and do something different.
Favorite movie of all time? I hate being asked... that's like being asked, 'What's your favorite song?'
I kind of joke that creating franchises is a lot like directing pilot episodes of TV series. You set a look and feel and kind of pass it on.
We think craft is important, and the irony has always been that horror may be disregarded by critics, but often they are the best-made movies you're going to find in terms of craft. You can't scare people if they see the seams.
I'm always excited when I can discover new filmmakers.
The key is to constantly keep the audience surprised. If they feel like something is going to happen, or they think from an educational standpoint that something is about to happen because of all the moving parts, it is your job to break that expectation and show the audience something different.
For me, the sound design and the musical score is a big part of what makes scary movies work.
Critics tend to be very hard on the horror genre.
It's pretty scary to know how quickly time flies.
I have a tendency to overcut my movies.
Ask anyone, and they'll tell you that most of the good horror films made in the U.S. are indie films. You might get 'The Ring' or 'The Others,' but most are independently produced.
The 'Saw' sequels went in a direction I wouldn't have gone in. With 'Insidious 2,' I wanted to push a potential franchise in the direction I thought it should go in.
For me, what usually makes a horror sequence scary is the journey not the destination.
The stuff I'm designing, I want my action scenes to be intense.
I think crafting a new, effective horror movie is not just about when night falls and things get scary. It's about setting a tone and mood that permeates throughout the entire movie. So even during the daytime, things are never quite safe-feeling.
