I read the script for Wonder Boys, and I said that was almost perfect, it was so classy, cool and funny. It's a really specific thing. We stuck to it, it turned out good and a lot of people liked it.
Content is now the most import factor that decides a film's success at the box office, so we as filmmakers are all trying different stories.
I don't think the failure of one film means the end of your career.
'Cabaret' was the most commercial success that I've been involved in.
After all those years in Asia, I don't have to do promotion anymore. We just release a Jackie Chan movie and - Boom! - people go.
I still remember 1997 when I made the movie 'Storm Riders;' that moment, a lot of American producers want to hire me to make movies in the States.
'Forrest Gump' was great, it was fabulous. It lasted much longer than anybody thought, and brought me a degree of attention that no human being on the face of the planet deserves.
You could say that Iron Man was a second-tier character, and it turned out very successfully. I simply think it's down to the movie itself, and whether people enjoy the movie, are involved in the movie, and that it entertains them. From that point of view, the movie has to stand alone.
My fourth movie, 'PKP2,' is my biggest release and biggest success.
When something is not liked by people, you cannot make it run, however big actor or producer you may be. The audience has to make it a hit. The power is in the hands of the public.
You can't ignore the system and the power you acquire as an actor if you're in films that are successful.
I've had movies bomb with terrible reviews, I've had movies make a lot of money with terrible reviews, I've had movies get good reviews and make money. And I like it best when the movies do well and the reviewers like them.
Ninety per cent of my movies were hits.
No one in Hollywood really knows what a good idea is before a movie hits the screens. We only know if it's a good idea after it's done.
People will say a movie bombed at the box office but I couldn't care less.
Leo couldn't deliver Mr. Martin Scorsese his Oscar with 'The Aviator', but I will go on record to say I will do so in 'The Departed'.
If the script is not good, the film will not work.
One thing I always heard from the begining when I talked about this being a movie - was that the rule is that animated movies don't work unless they're Disney movies for kids. Unless they're family movies.
I am sure 'Shakti' will set the screens on fire.
I certainly wouldn't mind if 'Jurassic Park' turns out to be commercially successful, and somebody says, 'Hey, you were in a box-office hit, and if you want to do another movie, we'll give you five million dollars to make it.'
They thought in terms of: whatever you had that started you at the box office, this was it.
I wrote myself a check for ten million dollars for acting services rendered and dated it Thanksgiving 1995. I put it in my wallet and it deteriorated. And then, just before Thanksgiving 1995, I found out I was going to make ten million dollars for Dumb & Dumber. I put that check in the casket with my father because it was our dream together.
If you have 50 years in the business, you can probably count on only five good movies.
You can have a great script, or a great director and a bad script, and get a great movie. Nothing really guarantees anything.
Being involved in 'The Hobbit' has been a huge boost for me. It's really put me on the map and helped me be taken more seriously as an actor.
