Biography

[on Color of Night (1994)] I did learn a tremendous life lesson, and that was the true meaning of a final cut. It's the one they make in your chest for the bypass.

[on his long layoff after The Stunt Man (1980)] I got hooked on a project called Air America, and I actually spent five years on it, researching in Southeast Asia and writing the screenplay. It was the best screenplay I've ever written, including The Stunt Man (1980), I believe. Sean Connery committed to it, and we were looking for the second leading man and had a lot of good possibilities. I went to Southeast Asia and scouted locations and put together a production that was almost bulletproof. I remember the head of one of the Asian air forces had offered to bomb any country I wanted so I could get it on film. [Laughs.] I thought that was reasonable cooperation.

[on Hells Angels on Wheels (1967)] I wasn't very fond of the script, so I improvised a lot. I had been very loyal to the written word before that, considering it some kind of sacred duty, not realizing that there are three films: the one you write, the one you shoot, and the one you cut. And they better all be different, or you've made no contribution.

[on The Stunt Man (1980)] It was probably the best-reviewed picture in decades, which after 10 years of rejection for me was an enormous gift.

[on the decade-long struggle to get financing for The Stunt Man (1980)] They couldn't figure out if it was a comedy, a drama, if it was a social satire, if it was an action adventure...and, of course, the answer was, 'Yes, it's all those things.' But that isn't a satisfactory answer to a studio executive.