Biography

The one thing that makes this business so interesting is you can dig for five years (or more). And it's frustrating when you have the feeling of no forward motion. Then one day you find that ten-ounce nugget of gold and it makes the previous years of searching evaporate and disappear...That's what happens when you find the right screenplay.

When I was a teenager my sister burst in the door and said they were shooting a movie down the street where we lived. It was a picture called Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970). I ran down there and saw all these guys wearing shorts and sandals and they had hair down to their waist -- this was an era when you couldn't get a job if you had long hair. So I approached them and the film crew was very nice to me, gave me food and I watched everybody work. I was completely mesmerized by the process and stayed there until the sun came up.

I did two pictures in a row for Francis Ford Coppola right after One from the Heart (1981), which, in the early 1980s, cost over thirty million dollars to make. It was a complete disaster for the company and Francis had to liquidate assets just to keep the Studio going... But he wouldn't let go of the Unforgiven (1992) screenplay. He really believed in it. Eventually Clint (Eastwood), who knew about the project, asked for a copy of the script and within a week Malpaso purchased the rights. Clint then proceeded to shelve the project with intent to make it at a later date... Because he felt, as an actor, he wanted to age into the character of William Munny, and he'd make the movie when it felt right.

I enjoy reading Frank Darabont scripts because every period, every comma, every hyphen ... they all mean something in his writing.

Now you see the term 'Line Producer', and I'm really against it... Thirty years ago you hardly heard the term associate producer or executive and co-executive - there was a producer ... that was it.