So Many Questions

I have a lot of people ask me: What was the first movie you remember seeing in theaters? That’s easy. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. How about that for an interesting concept: There is this ooze, and it leaked on these 4 turtles and a rat that somehow already knew jujitsu, and it made them grow to human size, then the rat taught the turtles how to fight, and they constantly kicked the ass of this guy who loved to wear shards of metal. You think Marijuana was involved in that creation? Who cares…when I was six, those fuckers were so badass. I dressed up as Leonardo for Halloween four years in a row. I know, I know, four years. I could have been a different turtle each time. But Leo was the assumed leader of the bunch, and blue is my favorite color.

Anyways, I think a better question to ask your favorite director when you see him eating lunch at The Palm is: What movie made you realize that film was art? If you’re going to interrupt his meal, you might as well go for the gold. Find out his core influence. Who gives a shit that my mom took me to see TMNT for my sixth birthday. It wasn’t because of that movie that I am where I am today. I was six. It was because I continued watching tons of movies throughout my life until I got to Donnie Darko. That’s when I realized that I wanted to make movies. I don’t really care to get specific, that movie just knocked me on my ass the first time I saw it. Every director has “that” movie and it’s different for each one of us.

“That” movie is usually different from our favorite movie. At least mine is. My favorite movie is always changing, but I constantly juggle it around with the same five or six movies that I’ve once been quoted saying was my favorite. You have to be careful what you say when you’re asked that. Every time I’m out with someone new, I inevitably ask out of curiosity what his or her favorite movie is. I was out on a date once, and the poor girl said her favorite flick of all time was Harry and the Hendersons. I didn’t know what to say. I took her home right after dinner, and haven’t talked to her since. It’s not like she was missing a limb, or had bad breath; she merely had shitty taste in movies. What a nerdy form of shallowness I have. I guess it’s a good thing I’m in therapy.

AJ

Movie Magic

I swear I’m like a little kid when it comes to watching movies. I still love going to the movies, watching them at home, and reading about them at work. It never gets old to me and I never want it to. I was scared that the magic of viewing movies would go away when I first moved out here and started working as a PA on sets. When most people are around all the drama, stress, and other bullshit that goes into making a film, they tend to think of only that when they are watching the movie. I worked my way up from production assistant and eventually started directing. I’ve had a few disagreeing moments with people on my sets that turned into small fights. But, because of those fights we pushed harder to get the shots, resolve our differences, and make a brilliant movie that we all believed in.

Believing in a movie is everything to me. Studio X makes anywhere from 8 to 12 movies a year, and I only direct one of them. I get first pick from the scripts as they come in and always pick the one I believe in the most. People often assume that I pick the one that’s going to bring in the most money, but that’s not the case. At this stage in the game I don’t care about that. I’m CEO and Co-Chairman of this place; I’ll see money from all the films no matter how little I’m involved.

In an effort to remain anonymous, I can’t really say which movies I have picked in the past years versus the scripts I’ve passed down to up-and-coming directors. I usually pass on comedies, unless it’s something extremely clever like Little Miss Sunshine, or Stranger Than Fiction. I also always pass on comic book movies. Those things will effortlessly make their money back from the books already existing fan base, and I don’t want to be held accountable for their virginity any more than I have to. Chick Flicks and Romantic Comedies are also a no go. I can’t involve myself with a film that will only work depending on how bad the audience actually wants to see those two actors having sex.

That leaves everything in-between for me. I like things that are different. So I will pick a script that could either suck really badly in the hands of someone who didn’t know what they were doing, or be total genius if crafted by someone who cared about it and believed it could be great. That’s how I got where I am today. I take a stack of papers with words on them, and turn it into a visual masterpiece that everyone can appreciate. That’s weird that I said that, I just received an email from Friend and the subject title was “Visual Masterpeice.” However, I’m sure it’s just another forwarded video clip from pornbloopers.com.

AJ