It's an unwritten rule that when you move to California and you're an English person, you have to drive a convertible, and you have to bank with Wells Fargo because they have a stage coach on their bank card.
— Paul W. S. Anderson
You can film the most exciting car chase and the most exciting stunts, but if you don't care about the person inside the car, and you don't care about their predicament, you're not really going to care about the action, either.
'Predator,' you know, was John McTiernan absolutely at the top of his game.
I'm definitely of a generation that's very influenced by videogames.
I very much see 'Resident Evil' as my franchise that I kicked, screaming, into life.
Pompeii is taught at schools in England, and, for a young boy, the combination of the Roman Empire and a volcano was irresistible.
A pivotal moment for me as a filmmaker was when I saw 'Total Recall,' the Arnold Schwarzenegger version, which was the first movie I saw in America.
In the modern world, there's a real genuine fear of loss of individuality, and I think the undead speak to that. I also think the idea of the dead coming back to life, and this unstoppable foe that just keeps coming and coming but rather slowly just chases you, is a real primal fear.
If you work with any new technology, you have to expect that it's going to be a little problematic.
I think, quite often, filmmakers kind of think so much about what the franchise will be and sometimes can neglect to put their efforts into the movie that they are actually making.
One of the strengths of the 'Resident Evil' game franchise is that they keep changing it up.
I'm a big 3-D convert.
Pompeii was an incredibly corrupt city. Pompeii was the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire.
I love 3D, and I'm very upset about the way it's being treated and thrown away by Hollywood in this kind of horrible grab for the money with all these bad 3D movies and terrible 3D conversions.
People see my films, and they cheer and they clap, and they are the kind of movies I like to see myself.
When I made my first film, 'Shopping,' the reviews were incredibly snooty. They said things like, 'Jude Law is too pretty for the role,' and that's why I don't respect the British press. That kind of small-minded thing doesn't consider what people like.
I started doing commercials in 2008 right after we released 'Death Race,' and the reason was that I spent two years prepping Death Race and building all these custom rigs to shoot cars in the most dynamic and exciting way.
I was the first generation of filmmakers where videogames were a serious part of my life. I regard them as just as valid as books or plays in terms of an intellectual property.
I think 'Death Race 2000' is a classic, but it's a classic from the 1970s, and I think it's a particular kind of drive-in-exploitation movie satire masterpiece, and it was very much a movie of its time.
If you're going to make a horror movie, it doesn't get any better than 'Alien,' and if you're going to make an action movie, it really doesn't get any better than 'Aliens.'
'Aliens' was a brilliant movie, but you still wanted to see the Alien come to Earth.
If you work with a subject matter beloved by a hardcore fan base, then there's going to be a huge amount of discussion of what you've got wrong or right. In some ways, you can never please overly obsessive fans; it's just impossible. That doesn't mean to say they're not going to go to the movie and thoroughly enjoy it.
Having made a real 3D movie, you realize that, right from the production design, you're designing sets that complement the 3D. You're designing interactive elements, like rain or smoke - all this particulate matter in the air enhances the 3D. But if you're shooting in 2D, you don't know about that.
Growing up, I wanted to make the kind of movies that would play in a multiplex, and those were the kinds of movies I ended up making.
I've had that recurring dream since I was a child, and a lot of people have different versions of that same dream, where you're running away from something, and it's going kind of slowly, but it's catching up with you, and it will not stop, and you cannot get away from it. Those dreams are manifested in different ways, but most people have them.
I always refer to the first 'Resident Evil' movie as 'the little movie that could' because, at the time, it was kind of unfashionable to do video game movies.
Movies are not an art form where you get to kind of sit in your art gallery and paint, you know? You don't do that. You're spending a lot of somebody else's money.
It's very rare, in a movie franchise, where you have the same creative team behind the camera and in front of the camera, pretty much, for the entire growth of the franchise.
I've always tried to do camera moves that I felt were immersive. So I think, as a filmmaker, my style of filmmaking is very well-suited to 3-D anyway, so it's not like I'm having to change a huge amount of the way I shoot to work in 3-D.
'Pompeii' will be PG-13. I think it has to have a level of violence and death in it because you've got a volcano exploding. But it will be another PG-13 movie.
Honestly, I don't think anyone confuses me with Wes Anderson. He's in his own terrific universe, but not the kind anyone would mistake for mine.
I don't make films for critics, and I'm not particularly interested in what they have to say, and they don't have a bearing on my audiences.
When you're writing, it's a very solitary job. It's you and your word processor and a cup of tea.
I love 'Death Race.' It's one of my favorite films.
I've always seen myself as a populist filmmaker.
Sleep is a outmoded concept. It's best not to think about sleep.
I guess the way I shoot things is slightly influenced by the way videogames are cut and shot.
I guess it seemed like a natural thing to set 'AvP' in the world of the Alien, rather than the world of the Predator. I always liked the idea of it being on earth.
'AVP' is not trying to be 'Alien' or 'Aliens,' and it's not trying to be 'Predator.' Those are genius movies.
I think one of the joys of disaster movies is not knowing who's going to live and who's going to die.
I grew up in England, and at the time, cinema was very heavy arthouse cinema, and there was no one making movies that were designed to be in multiplexes.
'Death Race' was a very modern action movie, and it used all of those modern action techniques with lots of hand-held camera, lots of punchy zooms, and lots of quick movements and quick cuts.
No one rocks a heavy machine gun like Michelle Rodriguez.
If you make just hardcore horror, there's a limited audience for that. Whereas if it's horror mixed with action, I think you kinda broaden your potential fanbase.
I saw 'Spacehunter 3-D.' It gave me a headache.
Every time I go to Japan and meet Capcom, it is like going to see the Umbrella Corporation. You ask them things, and they won't give you a straight answer about anything.
If you're going to ask people to pay a premium price, you have to deliver a premium product. Not enough 3D movies have delivered on that promise. People got tired of it, and that's why they started to turn their back on 3D.
When I started working as a writer-director, that's when he became Paul Thomas Anderson and I became Paul W.S. Anderson. Neither of us can write and direct an American movie under the name Paul Anderson.
I don't read reviews anymore.
The way it works in commercials is they come to you with the script, and then you do the visual, you do the storyboards, and you give your vision of it, but it's very much their baby. You just kind of put your polish and sheen on it and your interpretation of it, but it's very much the agency's idea.
