I tell people if I want to make a film I just go make it so you can make yours.

I come from a time when pop music was the coin of the cultural realm and in a certain way was the only coin of the realm movies didn't matter as much, and not TV - it was all about pop music. In the era when I started - which was the early '60s - it was all about singles leading to albums.

If you mentioned Hanna-Barbera to people, they said, Oh yeah, Flintstone, Yogi, Scooby-Doo, Jetsons, and that was pretty much it. We have characters with very high recognition factors and great films, but no organized plans for really making the most of them and increasing their value.

I really like dating stories, like in Betty and Veronica comics I like David Lynch and H.P. Lovecraft for the dark gut-wrenching stuff, and I'm inspired by Miyazaki's films for the subtle heart-warming moments, as well as the moments that blew up my imagination.

Up until the time Turner Broadcasting bought Hanna-Barbera, it was essentially an independent studio whose planning cycle had to be nine months. You got a pickup in January, and you put it on the air in September. That's been the cycle.