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I thought, If I could bring these characters [Wonder Boys] to life and lead the audience to react the same way I did, this could be a really special picture. Then I read Michael's [Chabon] novel and got even more enthusiastic about it.

Curtis Hanson

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Curtis Hanson
Age: 71 †
Born: 1945
Born: March 24
Died: 2016
Died: September 20
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Reno
Nevada
Curtis Lee Hanson
Audience
Picture
Read
Characters
Thought
Lead
Character
Novel
Even
Boys
Really
Bring
Enthusiastic
Way
Special
React
Life
Wonder
Michael

More quotes by Curtis Hanson

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First of all, Sam Fuller left a group of extraordinary movies that are unique, that are Fuller-esque, as one might say, which makes them stand apart from any other director's films.
Curtis Hanson
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As ridiculous as it is for anybody who knows how movies are made, there were people who actually wrote in reviews that this picture [Bad Influence] had been put out to capitalize on the scandal. Which, of course, would have been impossible.
Curtis Hanson
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So the city [Pittsburgh] was faced with that question of What to do now? because it can't turn back the clock and be what it once was. So thematically, it seemed like the perfect location for the movie. And then, it's a matter of how we get that feeling into the picture and make it a part of [Michael] Chabon's story.
Curtis Hanson
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Put simply, there are many people who want to make movies and very few opportunities for them to do it.
Curtis Hanson
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When I first went to Pittsburgh, I had never been there before, and we hadn't even decided to shoot there yet. I just went to see the location of Michael Chabon's novel. Once there, I became aware that Pittsburgh is a wonder boy, in the narrow sense of the term, just as the human characters are.
Curtis Hanson
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Consequently, their school [film-school ] was the school of life, and it was very much reflected in their work.
Curtis Hanson
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So it's discouraging and, yet, when you make a movie like Wonder Boys, in a sense it's its own reward, because it does move people, it gets great reviews, and it becomes part of that library of movies that exist out there. As time goes by, it will find its audience.
Curtis Hanson
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I don't think of the marketplace as teen-oriented or teen-dominated. I think of it as dominated by high-concept, in marketing especially.
Curtis Hanson
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Whereas to write, all you need is paper and an idea, so I felt that writing might be my stepping stone.
Curtis Hanson
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I stopped doing that [photojournalism] and wrote some screenplays on speculation, because even though I wanted to direct, to direct you need a lot of money. Even for a cheap movie, you need film stock and equipment and actors.
Curtis Hanson
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In L.A. Confidential, it was great to surprise the audience with Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe - two Australian actors that they didn't know at all - and let people discover them through the course of the film.
Curtis Hanson
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I had written the script a few years earlier for Paramount, then later got hired with Sam [Fuller] to write an entirely new script that he was going to direct. And that was one of the great thrills of my professional life.
Curtis Hanson
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I didn't look at it as a transition so much, because I never intended to have a career as a journalist, writing about people who make movies.
Curtis Hanson
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I wrote a couple of scripts on spec that didn't get made but got some attention, and I then got offers to write professionally.
Curtis Hanson
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Consequently, it's so gratifying to then make a picture that's successful and gives you leverage to have better circumstances than you've ever had, before the next time out.
Curtis Hanson
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Here [in Wonder Boys] I had this group of characters where you didn't know which were the important ones or what direction they were heading.
Curtis Hanson
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What you care about [movie] is whether it's moving you, or whether you're caught up in it.
Curtis Hanson
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I grew up as a reader as well as a movie-lover, so many of the novelists I admired - and so many of the great filmmakers I loved - were self-taught.
Curtis Hanson
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We're not used to seeing movies, especially with physical action, when it isn't the man who comes in to save the day.
Curtis Hanson
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Bad Influence, which is an early movie of mine that I'm very fond of. It was an unhappy experience when that picture got released, because it coincided with that ridiculous Rob Lowe videotape scandal.
Curtis Hanson