RUPERT SANDERS

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.

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.

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

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

Once you know the world you know how your character fits into it.

I think what we're trying to do as filmmakers is make a big, gritty, raw, epic movie and within that show things graphically in a way that they haven't been seen in that world before.

I think Kristen is incredibly brave. She played such a good version Bella Swan, people think Kristen Stewart is Bella Swan. She's not, you know? If you meet Kristen, she's wildly kind of giggly and vivacious and rebellious and naughty - all things that Bella Swan isn't.

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

In a way I think why the Ghost story is very relatable to a large audience is that it's kind of a coming of age story and it's a realisation of 'I am what I am - what has happened to me, good or bad, that is the sum of who I am now'.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

I cast very much from the gut, and I think I was very lucky to be able to get... many amazing international... people that I had always really wanted to work with.

You've got pressure making any film, frankly. Whenever you're doing something in the public eye you have to silence it really, you can't read the blogs and take them at face value, you just have to say, 'I'm lucky enough to be in this position, to do this job'.

I don't love balls and sleeping beauties, that kind of thing. I think the great thing about 'Snow White' is those images have scarred me since I was a child with the Queen, the mirror, the taking of the heart, the huntsman and the enchanted forest.

I think whenever you cast someone, someone's going to be critical about it.

In a way I think why the Ghost story is very relatable to a large audience is that it's kind of a coming of age story and it's a realisation of 'I am what I am - what has happened to me, good or bad, that is the sum of who I am now'.

Once you know the world you know how your character fits into it.

I feel very strongly about the legacy of Ghost and I'm the next part of that chapter and hopefully a very long and continuing story through the franchise of Ghost in the Shell which is already a huge universe. So yes, I felt pressure, but you always feel pressure as an artist creatively in any endeavour you do, so you just have to do the best that you can do and then hope that is successful.

To trust so much in our devices and sync everyone's device up - we tell people where we are, what we buy and where we shop, who we talk to - and that goes somewhere. The ghost of information technology out there, and one of the points... of the manga and anime was trusting in technology.

I think what we're trying to do as filmmakers is make a big, gritty, raw, epic movie and within that show things graphically in a way that they haven't been seen in that world before.

To me there's very few actresses who've had twenty years experience who have that cyberpunk aesthetic already baked in. Scarlett Johansson comes from such edgy films from Lost in Translation to Under the Skin - she's got an incredible body of work and the attitude and the toughness of her really is to me, the Major.

I think Kristen is incredibly brave. She played such a good version Bella Swan, people think Kristen Stewart is Bella Swan. She's not, you know? If you meet Kristen, she's wildly kind of giggly and vivacious and rebellious and naughty - all things that Bella Swan isn't.