Scott Derrickson
I love the comics so much, and I grew up reading Marvel Comics. And Doctor Strange is my favorite comic book character - probably, I think honestly, the only comic book I would feel personally suited to work on.
My interest in the comic goes back a long time, because I grew up reading comics, mostly Marvel Comics, and I always loved 'Doctor Strange' uniquely. It was the presence of the fantastical, the presence of the supernatural that was in it. The idea of magic.
I can't help but view the world mystically. It's how I see it. I'm not a strict materialist. I think there's much more to the world than what we see with our five senses.
We're all capable of being more than we presently are, and the effort that it takes and the will that it takes and sometimes the trauma and tragedy that it takes to force us into that kind of growth is the story of our lives.
In my horror movies, I was always trying to deal with real characters and real character drama played by good actors... Laura Linney, Ethan Hawke, Eric Bana, and Tom Wilkinson, people who don't do horror normally.
Trauma and pain and suffering can be the very thing that dislodges a person from themselves both in awful ways and larger ways that force one to reckon with one's own life.
I came in with a very specific idea about what a Doctor Strange movie should be, which was rooted in the comics, and I thought it should be as weird and as visually ambitious compared to modern comic book movies as the comic was when it showed up in the '60s compared to other comic books at the time.
I certainly hope they let me make another 'Doctor Strange.' I would do it in a second. I love this character. It's been the best filmmaking experience of my career; I work really well with these guys. It was a rewarding, collaborative process that I would do again in a second.
I grew up reading comics - mostly Marvel - Doctor Strange was my favourite comic book and has remained my favourite as an adult. It's the only comic book movie property I've ever gone after. I felt uniquely suited to it.
I wasn't born into a religious home, but I was just not a materialist. I didn't believe the material world was all there was or, even, most of what there was. I always felt that I was part of a reality of which the majority was unseen.
I have friends who are scientists, strict materialists, who don't think science and religion are compatible, but I just think most of us - unless you're a strict atheist materialist, which there aren't many of - most of us believe in something outside the material world. And if you do believe that, I don't know how you're not obsessed with it.
My understanding of religion and science is that they're both arrogant schools of thought, and whether they acknowledge it or not they continually broadcast the idea that they have the world figured out. And what they don't know, they have a theory for which is probably correct. It feels like that shrinks the world, rather than expands it.
People always complain that superhero movies end with a big fight scene where they're tearing up a city, and there's a portal opening up, and they have to close it... I wanted to have a climactic scene that subverted those familiar ideas.
There are some people who shouldn't watch horror films, and I'm all right with that.
'Orthodoxy' is the seminal book of ideas in my life. That book I've read more than any other book. It's the spinal column that leads up to my brain and informs the way I think. Flannery O'Connor is my favorite American writer.
I really love horror novels, horror films, that are pointing at deeper ideas and thematic meaning. It's a way of thinking about films differently; that's what I think I like the most about it. I love the fact that's it's pointing at a more mysterious world - that the world is more of a mysterious place than we tend to let ourselves believe.
I think the first 'Hellraiser' is a work of genius.
In my opinion, the horror genre is a perfect genre for Christians to be involved with. I think the more compelling question is, Why do so many Christians find it odd that a Christian would be working in this genre?
The evil within the fantasy genre tends to be threatening to the heroes within the story, but not to the reader - or not to the viewer, in the case of cinema - and that's why I think it's more palatable and something that is more easily embraced for a lot of people.
I'm not a dispensationalist - I don't believe in the Rapture. I think it's an unbiblical doctrine, and in North American Christianity, at least, it is the teaching that is the root of much of our subculturalism.
'Emily Rose' was based on a real story, and the real girl died, and there were surviving members of the family, so I took the concerns of that very seriously.
In a science fiction film, you're uniquely responsible to pay respect to the science represented in the movie.
Screenplays are the currency of Hollywood.
Work on your writing skills. Realize that Hollywood is an industry built to keep you out, and once you're in, it's designed to cycle you out - so you have to get up every day and work all day long to give Hollywood a reason to let you in, and then to keep you in.
When I was hired to write and direct a movie, my Christian duty suddenly became quite clear: My primary duty as a Christian in Hollywood is to do my job well.
I think that Christians who have an interest in filmmaking need to deepen their love for cinema. To be honest, that's what I think has been missing historically from the Christians who want to succeed in the Hollywood industry.
I think it's difficult to be a Christian anywhere, at least to be a committed Christian - I think that demands a lot from a person no matter their field of work, and certainly working in Hollywood is no exception.
I think that the secular work environment in general is a place that's challenging for Christians to thrive in without getting caught up in materialism or in competitiveness or in things that are really not important.
I think that Hollywood is a very liberal community, and the great thing about that is that it tends to be relatively open to letting people think and believe what they want to think and believe.
There are certainly better writers and directors than me, but I have worked very hard to earn credibility within the business as a quality writer and a good director.
At the end of the day, a "jump scare" scares the audience for the moment. Slow burn horror ideas scare people forever.Collection: Ideas
That's to me what always is compelling about villains. I am much more interested in how they think than in what they even do.Collection: Thinking
I root for all movies, but I especially root for good comic book movies. It's the best, most interesting genre going right now.Collection: Book
I do think there are always ways to create what seem like insurmountable powers, but then suddenly you find their limitations and that's the nature of comic book storytelling - always has been.Collection: Book
Any conqueror in human history has always been ultimately someone who exists purely for the expansion of their own ego, through amounting more.Collection: Ego
There's a whole, that is a whole subgenre within martial arts cinema. The supernatural martial arts movie. Particularly within Asian cinema.Collection: Art
We love bringing verisimilitude to audiences, hopefully having experiences you'll never have.Collection: Audience
I created my own concept art and went in and did a 90-minute presentation that cost me a lot of money.And, the great thing is though, when I got the job, they had to buy all of it from me, because one of the set pieces in the middle of the movie was the scene I wrote, and they needed to own everything because a lot of it ended up being the movie we made, so I got all my money back. I was committed. I was going to outspend every competing director.Collection: Art
If we had one person who could perfectly read minds we could solve a lot of problems in the world in a very short period of time.Collection: Mind
I don't want to be a mind rapist!Collection: Mind
My superpower would be telepathy. And I would by necessity need to use it with discretion, not all the time.Collection: Would Be
I think the Harry Potter movies are proof that audiences love that stuff. They love the idea of magical objects and they like learning the rules of those objects and what they do.Collection: Thinking
Martial arts is the kind of action that does tie in well to the supernatural.Collection: Art
What everyone is always afraid of is the unknown, or the unfamiliar. You got to have a look for a character that is mysterious and menacing, and doesn't quite look like what we've seen before.Collection: Character