I really believe, especially with 3D, you kind of have to approach it as this holistic thing. You have to kind of mount a 3D movie; you can't just add 3D as a kind of a special sauce sprinkled on top of a dish afterwards to give you an extra 20-percent in theater grosses, which I think is the way a lot of studios perceive it.
— Paul W. S. Anderson
'Pompeii' is definitely a passion project for me.
I'm a big gamer.
I really believe that, as filmmakers, we have a duty, which is, if we're asking people to pay a premium price for a 3D ticket, we have a duty to deliver a premium product.
Being British, you see a lot of Australian movies and TV shows.
I grew up in the north of England, in New Castle, which is where Hadrian's Wall starts on the east coast of England and then goes across to the west.
One of the things that struck me when I was a kid and I was learning about Pompeii was these figures that were frozen in the moments of their death. It is very powerful imagery, and it is very emotional and very evocative.
I've always seen my movies in particular as being an immersive experience. I mean, with the technology at my disposal, I've always tried to make them as immersive an experience as possible.
I'm a huge, huge fan of Blu-ray. I think the picture and the sound quality is just such a massive improvement, and I think for movies like 'Event Horizon,' where the image is a key part of that film, and also the sound, as well, in any scary movie is an important element.
My first movie that came out - 'Shopping,' a British movie starring Jude Law and Sadie Frost - there were certain journalists in the U.K. who just eviscerated that movie.
Franchises need to evolve or die.
I'm staying in my wheelhouse, not making any romantic comedies in a hurry.
My grandfather, who brought me up, was a coal miner. I visited the mines with him. I remember it vividly. It was horrible. I'm glad I didn't go into the family business.
DVD ushered in this era when you had to have additional footage, deleted scenes, things like that. There was no call for that back when we were just doing VHS cassettes and LaserDiscs.
You can't just shoot your way out of every scenario in 'Resident Evil' games. You have to use your intelligence.
When you make people a lot of money, it gives you leverage in Hollywood.
I started in television in the U.K., and I've always wanted to get back into TV.
I can't remember who said, 'No film is completed, just abandoned,' but I think most filmmakers will tell you that they could endlessly fiddle with their films for the next couple of decades, you know, changing things, altering things.
A pleased audience member is a pleased audience member, whether they're in New York or Mumbai.
The idea of being able to polish something for nine months - it's the perfect way to hone your film.
True 3D is, you have to kind of originate the images in three dimensions.
I've been obsessed with Romans since I was a child.
Tolkien was influenced by South Africa when he was writing 'Lord of the Rings.' It's really epic scenery.
I think when people think of Pompeii, they think it was just destroyed by the volcano. Yes, it was the eruption of the volcano that eventually caused the pyroclastic surge that swept over Pompeii and destroyed it for good. But also, they had to face the effects of a very extreme earthquake and a tidal wave that swept in from the Bay of Naples.
I've always - from my very first film, 'Shopping,' which was Jude Law and Sadie Frost, I mean, I've always liked strong women characters in films.
I've always felt that there's a lot of similarity between doing a comedy and doing a scary movie because jokes and scares are all about timing. If you give the punch line too early or too late, the joke falls flat. And it's the same with a scare.
When 'Mortal Kombat' came out, I was living in an apartment in the Venice Canals in L.A. I didn't get paid a huge amount of money, so I had a nice apartment, but I couldn't afford to have it furnished. It was kind of like Robert De Niro's apartment in 'Heat': It looked like I was ready to walk away from it in ten seconds, because there was nothing.
I had played 'Mortal Kombat' back I arcades in London, and I loved it. I came to the movies as a genuine fan of the intellectual property, and I think that counts for a lot.
When I first came to Hollywood to make 'Mortal Kombat' back in the day, there was this rule that female-led action movies don't work and American studios didn't want to make them.
There's another game that Capcom, who make 'Resident Evil,' have created called 'Monster Hunter,' which is these amazing, amazing creatures in these fantastical realms, I'm very excited about that.
The 'Monster Hunter' world includes these huge deserts that make the Gobi Desert look like a sandbox, and they have ships that sail through the sand.
A modern audience is capable of processing just so much information because they're used to visual media that's on overload.
I think 'Lost' didn't invent the flashback, obviously. It's been a cinematic tool. It's been around almost as long as cinema has.
TV is something that me and my wife watch a lot.
'Pompeii' is kind of a lifelong obsession for me.
I've always seen myself as a global filmmaker.
3D is obviously not as suited to drama and romantic comedies. But for what I do, I felt that 3D was a very, very appropriate technology.
I don't think it would be possible for me to respect people like Ridley Scott or James Cameron more than I already do. They're gods of filmmaking.
When I was a kid, every field trip was to some Roman fort because it was cheap and free.
For 'Monster Hunter,' we needed insane landscapes.
Apocalyptic movies tend to thrive when people are concerned about the state of the world.
I think if you're watching 'Dumb and Dumber,' I don't know whether you need to buy the Blu-ray of a comedy or something like that. But if you're watching 'Event Horizon,' 'Death Race,' 'Alien vs. Predator' I mean, I think these movies are definitely enhanced by the Blu-ray experience.
When you watch movies in Britain, the reaction when people hate a movie is... they just politely get up and leave at the end. And when they love a movie... they just politely get up and leave at the end.
You are only as good as the movie you make. I really believe that.
I'm a gamer, and I became obsessed with 'Resident Evil.' I played the first two games back to back. It took me, like, 10 days. I disappeared from view. Stayed in my apartment. Didn't return anyone's calls. After 10 days, I emerged with 10 days' worth of stubble and kind of bloodshot eyes going, 'I love this! We have to turn it into a movie.'
I think for the disaster to work and the drama to work, you really need to feel like you're really in that world.
We are definitely modernizing 'The Three Musketeers' without compromising the fun of shooting a period piece. But in our film, corsets and feathered hats don't take center stage. Our version is rich in eye-popping action, romance, and adventure.
What I love about 'Monster Hunter' is the incredibly beautiful, immersive world they've created. It's on the level of, like, a 'Star Wars' movie in terms of world creation.
The attraction of watching a movie called 'Alien vs. Predator' is you're anticipating - and the movie has to deliver - battle scenes and fight scenes between the two creatures.
One of my favorite countries in the world is Japan, and I've spent a huge amount of time there.
