I grew up with a lot of fairy tales. And they had an essence of darkness to them.

I mean, you know, sometimes, yeah, you wish for something and you don't get quite what you wish for. But you get something bigger and better.

I think it's possible to make a blockbuster that is actually emotional. They don't need to be mutually exclusive.

I think that 'Halo' is a hard property because they don't need to make a film. They make far more money out of the games so why risk?

I think you can get away with being a bit more political in science fiction.

I went to America with a very specific idea of what I wanted to do.

I'm influenced by a lot of filmmakers; I like English filmmakers because I feel a kin to them.

Our story is a 'once upon a time', but it's not a 'happy ever after'.

To me, casting is all about finding a character within the actor off the screen as much as on the screen.

Trying to ground everything in reality was the most important thing to me.

We just did the best we could with quite a limited budget, to be honest, and had a lot of success.

I read every screenplay that was being sent to the other directors. None were being sent to me, but I was reading what others were choosing and what the best writers were writing.

So when it was my turn to start developing projects, I knew the writers I wanted to work with, and I had met every head of studio, every executive and a lot of producers. I started finding things, little crumbs off other people's tables that I would make my own.

Well, I wasn't just kind of standing in a queue at McDonald's and someone sat down and said, 'You're the director of a $100 million Hollywood movie.' I've been working in commercials for ten years.

Nothing succeeds like reports of success.