the real media and lots, just green washing. what's now on the i am nice, sean milan, and you're watching hollywood. best film directors. i'd like to think of myself as a craftsman. you know, like that. i'm a sure person across the perfect chair. that's my goal for me. pre production is how you win the game before the game starts. first, dad met him. it was scary cuz i remember i was sitting with kathy and the assistance like goose parcels in the oliver and, and i was like, oh my god. he was only 22 when he directed his 1st movie, praying with anger, which he followed with a family future wide awake and a chief great success as a rider on stuart little after that, he directed a string of international successes with sy fi thriller. as mike's unbreakable, starring bruce willis and samuel jackson signs with mel gibson, the village star,

and you'll keen phoenix, lady in the water with paul's jamante and the happening with mark wahlberg. he was also no stranger to the fantasy genre directing huge blockbusters like the last air vendor. and after what he may always be best remembered for introducing that little boy who saw the people in the 6th sense the we're actually, you know where we are. and now is my office you on a farm i, i live in pennsylvania just outside philadelphia and i think it used to be a kind of um, the hurdle to get over that. i don't live in, in hollywood, but then pretty quickly it became an asset in that it's informed to my writing and it made it 1st and i'm very quiet over here and you know,

generally the doors close and i right, right. every day i come in and i write for 6 months, and then in the barn where the cows used to be r r a is a theater, and a and i post facility. so that's where we added all the movies and we screened them and we have previews there. and you know, it's very much like i prefer, you know, like to think of myself as a craftsman. you know, like that all mesh person, the crass the perfect chair. that's my goal and we both do our work in a bar. in retrospect, i guess i was maniacally driven as a kid. i don't remember a single reading moment where i wasn't trying to become that we'll just keep champion or the ping pong champion, or the spelling bee champion, or the number one of the class this to drive to that or a tennis player. you know, when it's, i'm tournament or this, or that, you know, and i guess i,

there was this weird kind of desire to be excellent at something. and what was really interesting was i was doing feel making on the sides because i loved it and didn't apply this kind of maniacal drive to that. it was something that i just loved doing. and then i looked up at like 15 and i go out of and this is all i do is make movies. maybe i should think about doing this for a living. and then i read spike leads, but it was like a really profound moment. i've actually told spike this, but it was a profound amount and we were at the airport a, j, f, k. and so i went in the bookstore and on the carousel was like 8 blocks, but one of them was spike leaves. she's got to have it and making of that movie. and i just did this moment when i was thinking this got i, i spent a lot of time making little movies. you know, this is something i'm interested in. and then i read that book, which for me was a pivotal moment and gave me permission to make movies because up until that point, i thought that was something that's

a magic drive of people that out in some magic land called los angeles. and, you know, didn't seem like it was a feasible thing, but spike didn't know anybody either and spices went to school for a movie making and became a filmmaker and as well, i can go to this place and why you and learn filmmaking. so literally, as soon as i finish the book, i'd like to my parents, i'm like, this is what i'm going to do. the wide awake was my, my 2nd movie technically, but really was my 1st us the movie and was really the 1st movie done with a studio. and i got that by submitting a screenplay to all the studios. and 2 of them were interested in making it. and nearer max of the time was kind of the, you know, the arch way. the young filmmakers came and the new filmmakers came. and they saw

my movie that i shot in india and thought it was pretty good. i remember driving home how happy i was, you know, it was literally, you know, it's like that's the shape. seeing rate, every song the radio was perfect and i was singing and on the way back and i was making a movie for me or max and it was very sad. i was $23.00 at that time the connection, the, i believe, you know, the, the under failure of the 1st 2 movies, i gave me a sense of nothing to lose. the next time out to the camera. her to go, i went away and i wrote the screenplay. now we skipped the like

a step which is after wide awake i, i wrote a screenplay called labor of love which became like this phenomenon. script in height with everybody wanted to buy it. and i, they bought it and then they fired me off as director as soon as they bought it. and it was a real tragic moment for me in my life at that time. so the next script i wrote, i, i swore i was going to write it and if, if they don't guarantee that i'm directing it, i'm not selling it to anybody. i was not bluffing. i was ready to not make this movie. so i called maintenance, and i said i wanted to have a new screen play. i'm going to send it to you on sunday. i went to auction it off on monday and i want you to tell everybody it's $1000000.00 minimum that and guarantee directing. made is a great actually they called up everybody and said, nice guy, this needs to be in play. it's selling on monday. you have to make yourself available. it's $1000000.00 opening that minimum bed and he's guaranteed to direct and they said, well what's it about? and he goes, i don't know,

i haven't read it. and they're like, as bullshit, they just didn't believe it and they didn't believe it. they, you will be kind goes now i'm ready yet. any guys. and they got any made. everybody get available. so then we went out on monday, monday if i flew out and i got a suite at the 4 seasons which i could not afford away from me. a baby and a bed started coming in at like 2 hours after the 1st screenplay was delivered and one's duty after another, a bit against each other. and at dinner at dinnertime, at 6 pm, we sell them for $3000000.00. and you know, when from i was living in my living in my parents guest room and, and that it was an amazing experience. amazing, amazing spaces. and again, i don't remember the to the thrill of the, of the money as much as the opportunity to make it properly. and that everyone was going to hopefully let me, let me make this, you know, in a real way. and i was,

i felt this time i felt ready like i was, i was ready. i sold that when i was 202522 at 2625. and i just felt i felt like i was ready to direct ways before 100 percent. i was a writer who is learning how to direct this time. i felt like a writer director. i'm ready at that point, my mentality. what was strange about the success of that movie? i didn't believe it. so i just kept my head down and i was immediately writing, unbreakable, like i was an on it. i was an 6 inches in the theaters for so long that we were in pre production on break. about $0.06 was still in the theaters in the same year that i'm breakable came out in that same year. so it was in the same your, i to movies in the movie theaters. and so i was in deep reproduction. i remember having the lead preproduction to go to some award ceremony or something for the movie. it was, it was just all very on top of that,

i felt like someone was going to, it didn't happen to me so much as a kid that the movies failed and that was on the precipice of having that thing. and it was, you know, i, i didn't trust the field at all, which is a really healthy thing to, to, to, to have as a point of view. so i just put my head and i was like before they decide that i shouldn't be in this, in this club anymore. i'm gonna make another movie for you. she was getting at least one more movie before they kick me out. and so i put my head down and, and, and made unbreakable action. what ended up happening, i think. and over the last 67 years is i started to leave making movies for young males, adult males. and it started to move towards teen girls because i was raising golf. i had 3 girls and their interests were important to me. and so things like the last there been, there was, it was a cartoon that they loved and related to them was

a very empowering to it had a lead girl. and i, you can see my movies generally moving towards kind of young females in the last 67 years because of, of being a parent of, of, of the children. so last year been, it was absolutely for my kids to make a family movie for them. the from the pre production is how you in how you win the game before the game starts. and i need to, 1st of all, because i right, my movies they have to, i can feel that when it's when they're still a problem or when i'm trying to figure it out later, i don't have the answer. so when i can get peace on the screen, play that's fees. number one, which doesn't always happen if you get close, but you don't. but if you're lucky enough to feel peace, then the 2nd phase would be the crew in casting and story boarding, that group of 3. and i've really come to believe or that for me it's almost like

being pregnant. you want to be in the right mindset. whoever feels please. thanks. i think i got to as well as the star in 6 sense because kathy kennedy and frank marshall asked him, i have they flew, i met with them. i felt that movie was shooting and they, they asked me to read the screenplay and they told him about me and he read the screen by and then he saw wide awake. and then he agreed to do the move in. then we met and i was scared to death. the 1st time i met him. we're very close now and but the 1st day i met him. it was scary cuz i remember i was sitting with kathy and the assistance like goose parcels in the oliver and, and i was like, oh my god. and then she, she was like, she must be never too cuz she was like,

tell me what you're going to say. don't let's, let's role play and i'm like i and, and then i didn't know what to do. oh, you know. and then the elevator goes doing and then he gets off and he comes in the room says hi kathy. i think frank, my think frank was as well as that. i had frank and then he comes around the table to me and you know, whatever i was going to say or do, went out the window because he gave me a hug. and when he gave me the high get really he had already had a relationship with me based on the screen plan, the movie he saw. and he was super gracious to allow that to be his opinion of me. and so he just mediately became friends and he took an incredible stance of i believe in you or whatever you say goes and nobody mess with them. and so he was like my protective umbrella for the making of the movie. i see that on the list 8. 0 you did it. how did you get a real cat? let's go to the videos. we always very normal casting process. and 6 ends, we just checked out kids from both coasts and they ended up being like 3 finalists

. and i went and met with the 3 finalists. and haley, joel osment was one of them. and when he came in and sat with me and he did the scenes, i just didn't even want to make a movie. and i called the counselor address, i didn't want, i don't wanna make a movie unless it's disc kit. yeah. he did. she broke or we can see that's where she standing next to my window. i knew it for lightning. it is lightning when it hit man. um and i remember it like to this day i made fun of everybody that was on like when the producers and things like that where like am not sure about this kid and like a get and things dad. so i show the tape of to it's everybody and they're like, wow, this kid's amazing. so it was very,

very lucky. the right kid at the right time locked in got it to do the type of cell making that i do on that scale would require 5 years to do that movie. that's the trip. and those to makers that do that, whether it's peter jackson, when he did it with the rings, or even for example, i'll find with gravity all that time that was taken on those movies. i can see that working for years 5 years or to do it. but to do it in a compressed timeframe of 2 and a half years to 3 years, which is what these movies are. it's, it's scary and you're just keeping up and just physically, a lot of stuff. and there are a lot of filmmakers that love that kind of stimulation, you know, spielberg and michael bag and all those guys and cameron, i'm the king of the stimuli. i don't have the intellect that they have for those things. and so it's, it's a very scary time and i'm always pulling it back to minimalism,

which is probably you advised for those movies because i'm always kind of making it as simple as can be. the now gibson is a is a, is a, a jokester he, he'll tell he does weird invitations, but the, i guess the funniest thing that happened was one of the funny thing. there was a lot of funny things, but one was my wife and her girlfriends came to the set of signs. and he said, let's play gag. you know, there's a dog in the movie and as a dog bone there says while we're talking, let's just pick up the dog ball and start eating the dog foot pin. the dog food was actually just regular food and we had dropped off but they didn't know that. so he's talking with the girls and he picks up the bowl and my walk in and i am mallor

talking and with the girls that came her girlfriends and their giggling and all that stuff. and then they pick the ball and doesn't mention he's just talking and he starts eating out of the ball and they're like, and they're walking and starts eating as of all. and they're like, they're so like offended to why they like, what do they doing? but i'm like, what i'm crazy to, i'm crazy like now. i hardly any dog food. i don't make a particular protein very well. it makes my bones very low intensity, very easy to break. so sam jackson is out of the problem. he knows very funny guy and he's very kind of he'll make funny a lot and a we would do a little as seen and i'm breakable and he's in the wheelchair and he did, he did the scene and i came over and i forget what i said to him that was harsh. i said something like, you didn't, you weren't, you didn't, you didn't bring it so that was not sure what that was for you. you're going to need to, you're going to need to bring it right now,

because this is the end of the movie. and you had the end of the movie you're, it's, it's, this is about everything. why you did all this, this character. why, why the care to did all this? and he stared at me and was like, i use in his eyes. and he's like using, i'm gonna bring it for you. and, and it was like the stand off. and we just stared at each other and nobody said anything after that for a 2nd. and i was like, it's probably better just to roll cameron, see what happens because i definitely provoked them and we will cameras. and he gave this incredibly poignant performance that's at the end of unbreakable, this kind of, you know, thing about wanting to be a villain and how it least is somebody important the, the know, the, know, the, i'm not

a mistake. the, it all makes sense. comic you know, you can tell we are going to be the exact opposite and so funny and witty. but inside him is all this called your emotion. and instead of provoking something, i saw him on the the street the other day in los angeles. we were driving and he pulled up next to me and he was like, what are you gonna put me in another movie? and i was like, yeah, that's how he talks about a delta the, my mom i said, the going to los angeles at any time, was going to like oz from me. it was a big deal. this is where they lived, you know, steven spielberg lives somewhere there, you know, is like a big deal. and so that when i went out to, to go take some meetings, you know, i got an age and this,

the agents that come out and takes the meetings. and i stayed with a families, family, friend and, and you know, you saying and a guest room and i was terrified and i rented a car was, you know, the classic, you rented a big white car and i was so nervous. um, every at that i locked my keys in my car 3 times. um is on that same trip to los angeles. i mean, i was terrified. i was absolutely terrified. luckily one was at the mcdonald's. so that was good. so i didn't have to deal with too much of the embarrassment, but the worst one was i went to visit an executive at universal, you know, and on dr. automate yet everything ment. lot, you know, i drive into the guard booth at the that the gardens as you come in see, and you say hi, i'm nice online, you know, i'm like, whatever 2122 years of this is awesome. you know, being able to say, you know, and executives waiting for me, but i'm so nervous and the guy says, you know where to go, you turn rather stay to be and you do this. so i do all that a find this needs like she's in bungalow, blah, blah, blah. so do that is that i park in front of the bundle i,

i'm not sure i know where i am, and of course i have passed ambling at the time. i mean this is, i was out of my mind a little bit feeling like a fraud, and i get the car and i stand. i'm like, i'm not sure i know where i am. and then the exact lady's like hi, how are you? i are you are you night now like us close the door and i come in and like great, great. and she's like what? come on it. and i'm like okay, and i go to cabinet. good. now the doors lock the car is running. and so just remember that the, the meta of this, which is, i'm meeting this lady to let me direct the movie. she's supposed to give me millions of dollars to put in my responsibility. you know is kid and she sees me like to do warranties like did you, did you lock your keys in the car and i'm like, yes she goes but it's running. i'm like yes, it's running and it's locked. and she's like, oh my goodness and i'm like, i'm so sorry. and then she's like, well let me call maintenance so they had to call. she's on the phone there. her assistance on the phone. yes. yes. and then doing all the same conversations 4

times. yes, he locked his keys in the car, the car is running. no, the keys are inside, they keep the car was running when he locked the door and they this been constantly retailing my ridiculousness over and over and then so i'm in the meeting and i'm not even thinking about what i'm saying. i'm so this is when this is a disaster. and then finally the janitor breaks into our meeting and is that guy, you're the one that locked the keys in the car while it's running. yep, that's me. i go out and then the jimmy pop it and i take it and she's like, well, it's really nice meeting you everything else is great. the have on my wall here in my office, a bunch of my favorite movies. you know, i the 3 movies i have up here at my desk when i, where i write is the exorcist the godfather. and just, you know, the 3 movies are really kind of a bell for me to, to, to remind myself of what can be achieved in terms of making entertainment. but

without compromising at all the integrity of your voice and your integrity of how you see art. you can kind of trying to listen in this area of, of this tree to like, past 10, you know, you know, i, you know, it's funny i, there's something about the box office of my movies have no correlation at all to how i feel about my movies. to confuse me a little bit actually, and because that's related to cell ability, which is a separate fact or what, so from, from the actual a movie. what the movie is, you know what, how, how sellable is 5 easy pieces today? i don't know if it's a sell a bit of sellable at all. right. but it doesn't mean that the movie itself isn't fantastic or meaningful for me. there's some, there's something about lady in the water that i felt i felt like i was really

close to something super poor. that was as a fan that was dying and watched lighting water every single day in his last days. and i sent him, i heard about him and i sent him a script and i signed it. and he died. holding the script to a lady in the water and when i mean people on plains and stuff like that, it just is there's something religion about that movie and to me as well. cause i was really trying to be pure when making it without regard to protection without regard of selling and without guard genre. i wasn't thinking about any of that. in fact, i let it all go the, you know, i'd say you say about fans and people that have seen my movies and things like that that enjoy the film making. uh that was one set up at a civil. and i was, i was talking with an actor and people started coming up to us and

this ticket accurate the fans. and this actually kept coming up and they were, they were being silly and they didn't really know. and very well. and the people that were coming up to me, they come up and they say something really specific about this movie of that movie and what it meant to their life. and what they thought about what i was saying, or the mentor for this, or the colors of this and what that meant. and it was all about, keep, you know, like every single one over and over and over, kept coming up to me and saying, you know, we hear you, we, we love what you're doing, keep going, keep doing this, keep going, don't give up kind of 5. and he lives over, i mean, goes like, you know, your fans or, you know, there's so you, you mean a lot to them, mine just want to take a picture with me and you mean a lot to them. and it really was touching because for me i, when i went home that day by the my team last year and 2 of them. when i went home that day, i was thinking how lucky i was to have made a career where i can look at it and almost every single idea i,

every single movie it was an idea of mine. had represents either my for jill lity, my ingle, all my questions. and so there's an honest relationship with the audience. that's who i am. you know, the collective thing, vc lady and the order number a couple on signs and $0.06. you're going to get a good sense of who i am and what i, what i think about and what i believe about family and life and what's out there and fears. and so it's, it's been a, you know, an incredibly uncompromised and precious thing to have this relationship with you guys and hope to just honor it and honor and honor it with purity. so thank you very much. i the

so that's the base and the middle. one of the truth of the, in boston of the core is edition from the west african, our insurance team consist left with us. and just the, the in the minutes dw, astonishing breakdown skills. french don't says be boy julia

don francis docs the just by having to yes. or maybe thanks to it is unique style speaks for itself. next on the lympics you're on that in 90 minutes on dw the sometimes it's hard to find what you're looking for. but we've got something for you, this shadows of jumping calculus, these costs and video shed light on the dog is devastating. colonial har is infected by germany across up and he employed to score farms and destroyed lights. what is the legacy of this wide spread races, depression, today?

history. we need to talk about the stories, shadows of german colonialism. a world of free speech, free press, open access to free information for every stop dreaming. next, take action. detail use globally easier for them. 2020, full, and a bunch of any practiced in now. lots dissipates from all over the world to share their solutions and to shape tomorrow to join us and register. now for the d. w. global media for in 2024. the

. this is the w news, one from berlin renewed hope in ukraine after us lawmakers should prove a new package of urgently needed military president to landscape. welcome to the supporting april saint a powerful message to the kremlin. ukrainians are confident the assistance will make a difference on the battlefield. also coming up, pakistan ready to send hundreds of thousands of refugees back to afghanistan. the plan leaves thousands of women fearing for their future under taliban rule the

.