Even in a manuscript form, 'The Girl on the Train' sort of leapt off the pages as a contemporary suspense drama-slash-thriller. It has all the mechanics of a thriller, but at the heart of it was a great character study.
— Marc Platt
'Defying Gravity' is a big, theatrical, grand gesture. In film, how do you match that?
Some of the metaphors you find in 'Wicked' - how those in power can exploit fear in others to maintain their power - I think, as Jews, we've seen that historically on more than one occasion.
The theme of 'A Christmas Story' is that you can count on Christmas - that everybody has a Christmas story. Everybody has that time in the holiday season that they remember.
I do love being amongst creative people and facilitating that and being inspired by people. I get very bored with just competence and require inspiration all around me.
There's certain people you want to see in comedies; there's certain people you just want to see in dramas. Not that there aren't individuals who do both, but it's not everyone.
I have a certain kind of a taste for what will make a good movie or a good play or theater.
Good direction is often based on the ability to communicate.
One of my skills is knowing, 'This is where I'm needed, and this is how I'm needed and where I'm going to be in control and where I'm going to cede control and why.'
I'm lucky that I get to do the bigger movies and the smaller movies.
I always believe that a good story will find its audience and that it will attract different kinds of elements of creative people who will make it more compelling.
The financial side of Broadway is the easy part. Plenty of people want to put money in a Broadway show. The challenging part is finding the material that excites me enough to spend a couple of years of my life devoted to it.
Adaptations, especially movie musicals, are really hard to do.
Hollywood is what I do. It's not who I am.
I'm very competitive, and I want to be very successful, but at the end of the day, films to me are still films. I want them to be good, and I'll work the hardest, but at night, I go home to my life and my family, and that's where my heart lies.
Many actors in films are willing to go to Broadway, and screenwriters are writing plays. It's almost commonplace.
There were 100 intellectual reasons not to pursue 'Wicked.' There were times where it was very challenging, where the mind said, 'This is maybe too challenging,' but the heart willed it. The heart willed it to succeed.
I don't think anyone can ever predict a phenomenon. It's not something you can bank on.
I think too many people in Hollywood perhaps fail to make a distinction between the political side of Israel and the notion of the country. And they can be separate things.
The notion of someone who is fitting in or trying to become part of a larger family... It's hard to separate that from my own Jewish roots.
When a writer gets a second chance to look back on something, it's a great opportunity to say, 'Hey, this is really good, but we can do it even better.'
I do love storytelling.
Stephen Sondheim is calculus for actors. The words are witty and brilliant and profound but complicated.
I appreciate actors who work very hard to get at the truth of the character they're playing. That speaks to me, and I try to protect that process because I value the focus and intention behind it.
With 'Shinobi,' we hope to make a film that honors the essence of the games.
I'm a very hands-on producer.
I want my projects to be great, of course. The talent has to come from a diverse pool. Because that's the world we live in.
Navigating the studio system has its own challenges, and, as a producer, you want to be astute and clever.
The themes and ideas embedded in 'Into the Woods' always spoke to me.
In any adaptation, the challenge is to take the essence of the original source of the material, be faithful to it to a point, but to also recognize that you're telling a story in a very different medium. It has to exist on its own, and it has to offer something unique to that experience.
I love getting up in the morning. I love coming to my office. I love going to movie sets. It's really what every parent wishes for their kid - to do what makes them happy.
TV has the unique opportunity to take musicals, live events, so it has that feeling and excitement and spontaneity, but still has a camera between you and what you are watching.
The film world is always looking for great source material, and Broadway has traditionally and historically been a place to go.
I do remember feeling, 'I don't ever want to feel impotent in terms of what I can control in a business in which you can have very little control.' And that motivated me to go to law school - that, and my parents saying, 'Go to law school before you do anything.'
Watching familiar characters take unexpected turns is very appealing.
If we members of the Jewish community don't support the Jewish organizations, nobody else will.
What makes 'A Christmas Story' universal, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, is that you recognize that family... It's ultimately about a family being glued together for the holiday season.
One of the secrets of 'A Christmas Story' is that it's a relatable story. They feel like our family.
James McAvoy is not an action star.
Producers should have the courage of their convictions. See your project through to its fruition. Seek help and be generous enough to take on collaborators and not be territorial as you're learning.
I always appreciate hard work, and every actor has a different process. I appreciate focus.
It was just the DNA of my family. Giving back didn't feel like an entitlement; it was an obligation.
My personal challenge is always balance. My life has a lot of compartments to it, and I care about each of them deeply. So I wake up each day thinking, 'How am I going to balance today?'
As a producer, when you get to work with a filmmaker who is joyful about making films, you want to do it again and again.
As a producer, it's your job to bang on the table and convince studio heads why great movies should be made.
I saw 'Into the Woods' maybe 26 times in various incarnations. I'm very familiar with it.
'A Christmas Carol' and 'It's a Wonderful Life,' are movies we love with magic in them.
I was always interested in storytelling, particularly in theater and film. I liked creative things. My mom and dad are wonderful people, but both are tone deaf, so I don't know where the gene came from.
Winning an Oscar attracts the attention of directors and other actors and creates a boost in salary, particularly for someone like Halle Berry. For an established star like Denzel Washington, the benefits are less tangible.
I loved being a film executive. But something was always missing for me. I always had the feeling that I was looking over my shoulder - what's going on on Broadway?
