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[Music]

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you got to feel that that that flush of

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of inspiration around an idea and

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sometimes it's the

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themes sometimes it's the freshness of

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the of the presentation combined with

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some traditional familiar themes

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splashes example of basically a 30s

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romantic comedy it makes all the boy

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meet girl boy loses girl boy gets girl

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back you know all the obstacles you know

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they're they're there right out of the

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screw ball comedies which I always

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adored but you you know even there in

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the 80s when we made Splash it was

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already too tired to do it in a literal

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way yet adding the the you know the the

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fantasy element of her being a mermaid

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it it made all of that okay so it sort

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of the traditional idea the sort of the

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sort of quaint idea was suddenly fresh

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visual funnier and and more interesting

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along the way I also came up with this

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other theme that love is not

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perfect and I I actually got um you know

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John Candy character to say that line

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and it became you know really important

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to me that it was the idea that you you

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know you're going to have that

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initial um Rush of romance and

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excitement and then you may discover

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there's some complications there's some

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problems there's some you know and and

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yet what are you going to do with that

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love is that going to be the thing that

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chases you away or are you going to

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accept it um and um so uh that became a

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secondary theme that I became very

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passionate about

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[Music]

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with Cinderella Man there were a number

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of things that I liked about it it

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wasn't really the boxing even though I

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love sports um and my dad had memories

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of of uh Cinderella Man James bradoock

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and what he meant uh during the

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Depression you know as a kind of a hero

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but I was most interested in finding a

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way to convey to Modern audiences what

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the abject Poverty of the depression

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meant on the population I thought it was

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particularly interesting that this story

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was about that kind of poverty poverty

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that you now mostly see in urban areas

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generally people of color and that here

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was a story about you know um an Irish

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you know Caucasian All-American family

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that was going through that kind of

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suffering winding up in a kind of a

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ghetto and struggling to get out of it

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so I I always wanted to do something

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about the depression um an era that

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shaped my parents life lives I'd always

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been fascinated by it in high school I

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made a documentary um about the

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depression instead of doing a written

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school project I got to make a movie and

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got an A too you know that's why I was

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involved in it and yet the real center

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of it was this amazing true story of of

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James bradoock and it carried a

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narrative that you couldn't ignore but I

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was always a little bit concerned that

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it was sort of a familiar narrative you

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know was it too familiar year well I did

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my research I put together uh reals of

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boxing scenes going back to uh Wallace

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beer as the champ in like 1930 31 um of

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course Raging Bull but also Jim Brock's

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footage and um and uh you know and and

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and everything that we could find and um

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um began analyzing how we were going to

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shoot it and so forth and then I came

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across on the real a Popeye

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cartoon the popey cartoon was about

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boxing well I thought this was kind of

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funny I always loved Popeye I watch it

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it's our

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storyline papey is down and out he wants

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to challenge Brutus Brutus is the champ

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Brutus claims he's going to kill

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him olive oil is beside ourselves please

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don't fight poey poey comes back

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eats some spinach and lo and behold

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carries the day I thought it's our whole

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it's our whole plot when was this when

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was this cartoon

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made it was made like the same year

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James bradock fought it was either about

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Jim bradock or you know or that boxing

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Arc was already a cliche they were

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already making

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satires uh out of this plot line uh so

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that definitely threw me and it worried

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me but it reminded me both to make the

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boxing as visceral and intense as

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possible it encouraged me to make each

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fight be about Jim bradic his State of

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Mind where he was in his quest to feed

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his family and it made me work even

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harder through the research to make sure

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that the Depression era elements of the

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story really did resonate with audiences

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and we did Elevate Beyond being you know

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a boxing story with a basic plot

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line cocoon was a project um the first

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time in my career where I came across a

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a screenplay that had a green light they

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wanted to make the movie they just

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needed a director I inherited a

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screenplay that I thought was very

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promising as an idea but didn't deliver

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fully on a humanistic level and uh um I

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was very attracted to something my wife

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had told me she my wife Cheryl has a

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degree in Psychology she spent a lot of

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time focusing on geriatrics and worked

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in senior senior citizen homes and one

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of the things that she said to me was

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you know what you could say with this

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script something I observed and that is

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that we never really get out of high

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school we never really lose those simple

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Petty basic feelings I thought that as

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they get younger that some of those some

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of those problems might reemerge and

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they might you might be able to to

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relate to them even better as they go

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through their their sort of Fountain of

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Youth um moment and that became a

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central theme that I thought was fresher

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more entertaining more surprising and

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could connect

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audiences um with u you know with these

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senior citizens in a in a in a more

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revealing and Rel able

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[Music]

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way Apollo 13 was a true story that I

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didn't know very much about and I had no

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notion really of how

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complicated um the the uh the the rescue

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and survival story was and I became um

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really challenged and inspired by the

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truth of the story and the Cinematic

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possibilities of really taking the

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audience on an Apollo Mission really

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letting the audience understand what it

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was like to be there I love movies that

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transport you in that way and um I took

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a very journalistic approach to it uh

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and and my my motto was just show it so

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I wanted to take people on that

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experience that was a a little bit less

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thematic and a little bit more

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cinematic um in terms of you know the

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the elements that's excited me the most

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as I went deeper and deeper into the

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project I began to connect with the

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emotional thematics uh on a much deeper

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level and I think that identifying that

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largely through the research um was is

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is um is is probably what gave the movie

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an extra dimension of um of of impact

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and and maybe surprised audiences in in

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ways I I know it surprised me as it as I

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kept sort of discovering it in this

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[Music]

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story A Beautiful

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Mind that

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screenplay was well well down the road

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was already excellent when I read it it

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would existed at imagine it was a

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project that Brian graser had had nursed

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along and developed carefully uh along

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with Karen hila and other people that

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imagine and uh AA Goldman script was

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already very strong I was inspired

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by

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both the emotional journey of the couple

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even more than than John Nash I thought

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it was a romantic story I thought that

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it was a a story of love triumphing in

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some ways and I also felt that it was

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brilliant the way um AKA goldsman forced

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the audience to believe in those

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characters of the of the hallucinations

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and then pull the rug out from under the

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audience and therefore um not only not

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only is it a great twist but it leaves

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you understanding how real those

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hallucinations can be for somebody uh

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who is um you know live living with

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schizophrenia and I I thought it was

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just a powerful fresh and very

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informative um um both

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intellectually um and emotionally and

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you know that's a that was a powerful

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combination that just knocked me out

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with the

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screenplay Rush was a very

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interesting Journey for me it was a spec

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script written by Peter Morgan he had

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written Frost Nixon I'd very much

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enjoyed

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directing that and collaborating with

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Peter Morgan um and Peter told me this

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story of these these two

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Rivals and I was immediately taken by it

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I had loved the Larry Bird Magic Johnson

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documentary which was you know about

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basketball Rivals I'm a Bas I'm an NBA

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fan and I thought that was a u terrific

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film directed by Ezra Edelman and and I

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immedi

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equated this um with that except it had

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this visceral component of Formula 1

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racing so I I felt like that um it it

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revealed a lot

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about

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pride and the need to Define yourself as

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a champion and and the willingness to

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risk everything and the cost of that

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Journey uh and um I I connected with it

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on that level and it it was immediately

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a movie that I wanted to see and the

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screenplay was already very strong but

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it just kept getting stronger the more

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research we did and the more Peter

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Morgan uh and I continued to to discuss

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it and um and it was a real thrill that

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was a tremendous challenge

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logistically because um uh it was not a

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studio movie uh and and and yet we had

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to deliver on what I felt was a promise

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of of um you know speed and Formula 1

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racing uh which has been seen you know

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and done very well in the past but I

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needed to borrow from what I learned

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doing the fires in

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Backdraft and the boxing matches in

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Cinderella Man and the interviews

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between David Frost and Richard Nixon

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where made a conscious decision to Let

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each set piece reflect the characters in

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a different way

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psychologically allow the audience to

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sort of feel it sense it through the

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characters in a way that was um uh

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viscerally a little bit a little bit

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specific and with the races in rush I

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wanted them to reflect the psyche of

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either nikila or James Hunt depending on

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which of of the two characters we were

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focusing on because it was a a true

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two-hander it wasn't about one character

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or the other it was about a couple it

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was about a rivalry and the way that

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rivalry uh you know influenced their

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lives for forever pushed them to you

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know the heights that they realized