My whole life I had been taught to read and study to seek understanding in knowledge of history of cultures.
The thing with film and theater is that you always know the story so you can play certain cues in each scene with the knowledge that you know where the story's going to end and how it's going to go. But on television nobody knows what's going to happen even the writers.
The truth is often terrifying which I think is one of the motifs of Larry and Andrew's cinema. The cost of knowledge is an important theme. In the second and third films they explore the consequences of Neo's choice to know the truth. It's a beautiful beautiful story.
When I came to the CIA in the mid-'90s our graduating class of case officers was unbelievably low. Now after years of rebuilding our training programs and putting our best efforts to recruit the most talented men and women we are graduating more clandestine officers than at any time in the history of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Someday we'll learn the whole story of why George W. Bush brushed off that intelligence briefing of Aug. 6 2001 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' But surely a big distraction was the major speech he was readying for delivery on Aug. 9 his first prime-time address to the nation.
It takes great skill to tell a compelling story in under 60 seconds. These five directors have mastered the format using their talent craft and imagination to provide us with some of the most innovative filmmaking out there today.
There's no environment. Use your imagination. There's no fourth wall whether it's the first time you've told this story about her life or the sixth time.
If there is a book that the script came from you have to read it you have to see what you can get out of it: mood back story and things that may not even be in the film. They kick off your imagination and broaden the character I think.
I don't know if Jim was a major part of that or not. He is one of a small group of real storytellers. He has enormous imagination and ability to write. I'm glad he's coming back. It's going to be good for the show.
Although Bill Finger literally typed the scripts in the early days he wrote the scripts from ideas that we mutually collaborated on. Many of the unique concepts and story twists also came from my own fertile imagination.