Writing in a lot of ways feels more like excavation than construction. It feels like you're uncovering this thing bit by bit, discovering what it is, instead of constructing it upwards. Rian Johnson More Quotes by Rian Johnson More Quotes From Rian Johnson If you make something interesting, inevitably not everybody is going to like it. Rian Johnson something-interesting ifs interesting I do think that I'm a big believer in having an idea or having ideas and just tucking them away in the back of your brain. Even if you aren't consciously thinking of them, I think they simmer. You're working on them, even if you don't know you're working on them, and I think having something in your head for a while is a valuable thing. Rian Johnson brain ideas thinking I mean, the first “Back to the Future” is kind of a perfect script, I think. In terms of handling time travel the best, it depends on your definition. To me, that means it effectively uses it in the story. Rian Johnson perfect mean thinking Writing sucks. I think it's terrible. Writing is not fun, and don't trust anyone who claims to enjoy it. Liars! Rian Johnson liars writing fun You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it. Rian Johnson fool want writing Hopefully with each thing that you do you're learning something, you're growing, and you're pushing yourself a little harder in some way or another. So I think you'd be in real trouble if each new thing that you create didn't feel like 'Oh, wow. I feel like I'm doing something a little different this time. Rian Johnson different real thinking I do love science fiction, but it's not really a genre unto itself; it always seems to merge with another genre. With the few movies I've done, I've ended up playing with genre in some way or another, so any genre that's made to mix with others is like candy to me. It allows you to use big, mythic situations to talk about ordinary things. Rian Johnson use ordinary fiction Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open. Rian Johnson moments eye listening I feel like people want to be surprised when they get out of the movies. They want something thrown at them they didn't expect. They want stuff that reminds them of the feelings that you get when you're watching art house movies but with the fun of like a big summer movie. That's the goal, I guess. Rian Johnson summer fun art I just don't think CGI is up to manipulating the human face yet. I feel like you can get away with it with aliens or monsters or something that's intentionally foreign, but I have yet to see anything digital to do with the human face that doesn't just look ridiculous. Rian Johnson monsters looks thinking Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it's the most serious time of your life. Rian Johnson adults world school You come out of each movie just thinking, "God, if we can fool them into letting us make just one more, we can get it right." Rian Johnson just-one fool thinking Unlike some of the time-travel movies I love, like 'Primer' or '12 Monkeys,' 'Looper' is not about time travel. It's about this situation that time travel creates and the people dealing with that situation. So narratively, the big challenge was to have time travel get out of the way. Rian Johnson monkeys challenges people Then I saw it. I saw a mom who would die for her son. A man who would kill for his wife. A boy, angry and alone. Laid out in front of him, the bad path. I saw it. And the path was a circle. Round and round. So I changed it. Rian Johnson mom boys son Even if I had $200 million, I’m very wary of overusing CGI. I think it’s a great tool and it can be used really effectively, but I feel like it does tend to be overused and especially in sci-fi stuff. Rian Johnson tools doe thinking I'm a sci-fi fan, and I guess you have to let go of some of that at some point, and realize that as long as you're focused on telling a story that you care about, at the end of the day, that's what really matters, even to hard-core sci-fi fans. Rian Johnson the-end-of-the-day letting-go long Back before 'Brick,' I wrote a short film that I never ended up shooting: hit men in the present who work for a mob in the future who send their victims back in time. A guy is sent his future self, he lets him run, and the whole short was them chasing each other across the city. That sat in a drawer for 10 years until after I made 'Brothers Bloom. Rian Johnson brother running men You never want to make a "message movie," but you always want to be talking about something that you care about. Rian Johnson care want talking All my favorite movies are somebody else's least favorite movie. Rian Johnson my-favorite It's best if I stay out of future plans and let time go on. Rian Johnson if-i-stay future-plans goes-on
