I believe that improvisation is really just a directorial tool. It's a writing tool. It's not so much that the actors get to say whatever they want, whatever pops into their head. It's an opportunity to write the last draft of the screenplay as you're working on it.

Ivan Reitman

Categorized in : Believe Opportunity Writing

I think Junior is certainly a science fiction premise as is Twins, as is Dave, beyond Ghostbusters.

Ivan Reitman

juniors fiction thinking

My sense is, I think it's okay for directors to do movies that speak to other work in their career.

Ivan Reitman

movie careers thinking

Movies either work or they don't work and they're either funny or they're not and we work very hard. To achieve that kind of work is really kind of delicate stitching.

Ivan Reitman

movie achieve kind

We watch movies about all sorts of things that we don't know anything about, but we do get caught up in the human drama.

Ivan Reitman

caught drama watches

I never like to do parodies. I never do. It's just not my style of comedy.

Ivan Reitman

parody comedy style

A good actor is someone who knows how to take the part and make it real and make it honest and be effective in it. If it's in a funny movie and, as long as they are cast in an appropriate way, humor will come from it.

Ivan Reitman

humor real long

My first student film was Orientation, which was basically the set-up for Animal House. There are a couple of scenes that we later borrowed in some form.

Ivan Reitman

couple house animal

I believe that improvisation is really just a directorial tool. It's a writing tool.

Ivan Reitman

tools writing believe

Then my first film was something called Cannibal Girls, which sounds like a horror movie but was actually kind of a goofy comedy with horror elements. Like a horror spoof.

Ivan Reitman

elements girl firsts

We got some devastating reviews on Animal House at the start.

Ivan Reitman

reviews house animal

I don't think there will be another Ghostbusters. I think we're all too old to do it. I think we've done it a couple times and there is not that much to get out of it, to do that would be fresh in it.

Ivan Reitman

couple would-be thinking

I've always believed in populating my films with characters who we like, who we have some warmth for, who have warmth for each other, who we would like to hang out with, who we emulate in one way or another. It's not that they all get along, or that there aren't bad people or people we make fun of. But at the core, there's a kind of sweetness.

Ivan Reitman

fun character people

I'm not sure I agree with the thesis, because I think that even though something grotesque or gross has been part of film since way back, what we accept or what we can get away with on the screen is broader now.

Ivan Reitman

film way thinking

I always see things that I can improve. But frankly with Stripes, I'm surprised at how effective it is, even today, and how vibrant that movie is and how juicy the performances all are.

Ivan Reitman

juicy stripes today

I always thought that Bill Murray was one of the great actors that I've worked with. And I've worked with all kinds of people who are known primarily for their dramatic work.

Ivan Reitman

bills actors people

There's been an amazing backlash for the last decade in America: political correctness. In many ways, I think that, while we've been remarkably violent in our media, there's been a real schizophrenia. In private, on the Internet, and on public-affairs shows or talk radio, we're way more explicit than we've ever been. But traditional Hollywood has been much more frightened than it ever was in the '70s about presenting things that could be perceived as politically incorrect.

Ivan Reitman

media real thinking

I don't think my sense of humor has changed at all; I was born with this, for better or for worse.

Ivan Reitman

born humor thinking

I remember when first, Stripes, and then Animal House came out - which I was really proud of, even though it was kind of loose and quite raucous - there were imitative movies that were not quite as good.

Ivan Reitman

stripes house animal

Also watching a movie on DVD is different than watching it in the theater.

Ivan Reitman

dvds theater different

I think if people want to see pure sex in the movie, they have the Internet and the extraordinary things are available.

Ivan Reitman

sex people thinking