Justin Bartha Quotes

Making 'Coraline' was one of the great filmmaking experiences of my life.

Directing is not on my agenda, but writing is. I want to write everything from action, superhero films to quiet dramas, smaller films.

I just want the opportunity to continue to do great films, play great characters and work with great people.

The way the films look will never entertain an audience alone. It has to be in the service of a good story with great characters.

I enjoy working on a movie that lets your imagination run wild, it's great to be a part of and watch.

What's so cool about movies is once you're done with the movie, you put it away and come up with a whole new different idea with different characters and a different world. But in TV, you build these characters, and you build this world, and then you're there for however long you do the show.

Stargate by far is the top of the pile when it comes to Sci-Fi. The quality is great. They have really good writers, production design, lighting, wardrobe.

A good script and perfect casting, that's 90 percent of the work.

'Smurfs' just seemed like a great way to represent a young father to be, guy in a marriage, work in conflict, and I was really interested in the technical CG side of things. I'd never done a movie that I thought would be so physical and yet so precise. So I was intrigued by all of that.

When I made 'Real Steel,' the director actually had the robots in the monitor, so he knew where everything was. So technically, there's been advancements. But at the end of the day, movies are about story and characters, so all the other stuff is great, but unless you have those two elements, then you've got nothing.

Initially, I got into the business to do drama. I never really thought I would be doing sci-fi films.

I'd love to have done 'John Carter.' I'd love to work for the Disney Corporation.

I want to go wherever there's great work. I'm a huge fan of film primarily. But you can get a great TV show and get attached to it. Making a great film is forever, though, so I always want to be part of film. It's my first love.

I lose tons of stuff on the cutting room floor. For Scary Movie 3, for example, we had a lot of Matrix spoofs, a Hulk scene, and some of that stuff just doesn't hold up - it's too much plot, audiences just didn't want to hear about it.

The best shows are always the ones that are very, very low-concept and just about great characters.

I've always been a fiction filmmaker and I've been heading in the direction of fiction filmmaking, doing documentaries along the way.

We think we've got great stories and characters that will lend themselves to great standalone experiences, and that's the way we're focusing on it.

Look at the movies of the sixties and seventies. They were making a different kind of movie then. Would 'Network' ever be made now? No. Would 'Kramer vs. Kramer' ever be made now? No. Would 'Tootsie' ever be made now? Probably not. Robert Altman films? Never.

With action films, it's great if it's not just driven by action, but by a good story and interesting characters, as well. Though, there's nothin' like kicking butt!

The great thing about films is that you have access to this whole world of experts who teach you the skills your character's supposed to have.

Cable television stations in America are now producing such smart, in-depth, non-formula, character-based dramas. Film has turned more and more into big action or cartoons.

There are so many elements that make a good film. You need a great director who's driving it.

With every movie, I try to do something different, whether it's action, comedy or drama.

'Unforgiven' is probably an example of a script that I liked right away but thought, 'This is great, but I'd like to do this when I'm older.' So I stuck it in the drawer for ten years and then took it out.

What I notice about people who are gifted in filmmaking is that they're great thinkers. They engage with big ideas and they engage with people.