“A pleased audience member is a pleased audience member, whether they’re in New York or Mumbai.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“In the modern world, there’s a real genuine fear of loss of individuality, and I think the undead speak to that. I also think the idea of the dead coming back to life, and this unstoppable foe that just keeps coming and coming but rather slowly just chases you, is a real primal fear.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Tolkien was influenced by South Africa when he was writing ‘Lord of the Rings.’ It’s really epic scenery.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Pompeii was an incredibly corrupt city. Pompeii was the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“No one rocks a heavy machine gun like Michelle Rodriguez.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“For ‘Monster Hunter,’ we needed insane landscapes.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I think ‘Lost’ didn’t invent the flashback, obviously. It’s been a cinematic tool. It’s been around almost as long as cinema has.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“The attraction of watching a movie called ‘Alien vs. Predator’ is you’re anticipating – and the movie has to deliver – battle scenes and fight scenes between the two creatures.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When I was a kid, every field trip was to some Roman fort because it was cheap and free.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’m a big 3-D convert.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“TV is something that me and my wife watch a lot.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I started in television in the U.K., and I’ve always wanted to get back into TV.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“One of my favorite countries in the world is Japan, and I’ve spent a huge amount of time there.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When you make people a lot of money, it gives you leverage in Hollywood.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“A modern audience is capable of processing just so much information because they’re used to visual media that’s on overload.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“You can’t just shoot your way out of every scenario in ‘Resident Evil’ games. You have to use your intelligence.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“What I love about ‘Monster Hunter’ is the incredibly beautiful, immersive world they’ve created. It’s on the level of, like, a ‘Star Wars’ movie in terms of world creation.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“The ‘Monster Hunter’ world includes these huge deserts that make the Gobi Desert look like a sandbox, and they have ships that sail through the sand.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“DVD ushered in this era when you had to have additional footage, deleted scenes, things like that. There was no call for that back when we were just doing VHS cassettes and LaserDiscs.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“We are definitely modernizing ‘The Three Musketeers’ without compromising the fun of shooting a period piece. But in our film, corsets and feathered hats don’t take center stage. Our version is rich in eye-popping action, romance, and adventure.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“There’s another game that Capcom, who make ‘Resident Evil,’ have created called ‘Monster Hunter,’ which is these amazing, amazing creatures in these fantastical realms, I’m very excited about that.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“My grandfather, who brought me up, was a coal miner. I visited the mines with him. I remember it vividly. It was horrible. I’m glad I didn’t go into the family business.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I think for the disaster to work and the drama to work, you really need to feel like you’re really in that world.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When I first came to Hollywood to make ‘Mortal Kombat’ back in the day, there was this rule that female-led action movies don’t work and American studios didn’t want to make them.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’m staying in my wheelhouse, not making any romantic comedies in a hurry.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’m a gamer, and I became obsessed with ‘Resident Evil.’ I played the first two games back to back. It took me, like, 10 days. I disappeared from view. Stayed in my apartment. Didn’t return anyone’s calls. After 10 days, I emerged with 10 days’ worth of stubble and kind of bloodshot eyes going, ‘I love this! We have to turn it into a movie.’”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I had played ‘Mortal Kombat’ back I arcades in London, and I loved it. I came to the movies as a genuine fan of the intellectual property, and I think that counts for a lot.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Franchises need to evolve or die.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“You are only as good as the movie you make. I really believe that.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When ‘Mortal Kombat’ came out, I was living in an apartment in the Venice Canals in L.A. I didn’t get paid a huge amount of money, so I had a nice apartment, but I couldn’t afford to have it furnished. It was kind of like Robert De Niro’s apartment in ‘Heat’: It looked like I was ready to walk away from it in ten seconds, because there was nothing.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“My first movie that came out – ‘Shopping,’ a British movie starring Jude Law and Sadie Frost – there were certain journalists in the U.K. who just eviscerated that movie.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When you watch movies in Britain, the reaction when people hate a movie is… they just politely get up and leave at the end. And when they love a movie… they just politely get up and leave at the end.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve always felt that there’s a lot of similarity between doing a comedy and doing a scary movie because jokes and scares are all about timing. If you give the punch line too early or too late, the joke falls flat. And it’s the same with a scare.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’m a huge, huge fan of Blu-ray. I think the picture and the sound quality is just such a massive improvement, and I think for movies like ‘Event Horizon,’ where the image is a key part of that film, and also the sound, as well, in any scary movie is an important element.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I think if you’re watching ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ I don’t know whether you need to buy the Blu-ray of a comedy or something like that. But if you’re watching ‘Event Horizon,’ ‘Death Race,’ ‘Alien vs. Predator’ I mean, I think these movies are definitely enhanced by the Blu-ray experience.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve always – from my very first film, ‘Shopping,’ which was Jude Law and Sadie Frost, I mean, I’ve always liked strong women characters in films.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve always seen my movies in particular as being an immersive experience. I mean, with the technology at my disposal, I’ve always tried to make them as immersive an experience as possible.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Apocalyptic movies tend to thrive when people are concerned about the state of the world.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I think when people think of Pompeii, they think it was just destroyed by the volcano. Yes, it was the eruption of the volcano that eventually caused the pyroclastic surge that swept over Pompeii and destroyed it for good. But also, they had to face the effects of a very extreme earthquake and a tidal wave that swept in from the Bay of Naples.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“One of the things that struck me when I was a kid and I was learning about Pompeii was these figures that were frozen in the moments of their death. It is very powerful imagery, and it is very emotional and very evocative.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I grew up in the north of England, in New Castle, which is where Hadrian’s Wall starts on the east coast of England and then goes across to the west.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve been obsessed with Romans since I was a child.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Being British, you see a lot of Australian movies and TV shows.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I don’t think it would be possible for me to respect people like Ridley Scott or James Cameron more than I already do. They’re gods of filmmaking.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“True 3D is, you have to kind of originate the images in three dimensions.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I really believe that, as filmmakers, we have a duty, which is, if we’re asking people to pay a premium price for a 3D ticket, we have a duty to deliver a premium product.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“3D is obviously not as suited to drama and romantic comedies. But for what I do, I felt that 3D was a very, very appropriate technology.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“The idea of being able to polish something for nine months – it’s the perfect way to hone your film.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’m a big gamer.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve always seen myself as a global filmmaker.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“’Pompeii’ is definitely a passion project for me.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“’Pompeii’ is kind of a lifelong obsession for me.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I can’t remember who said, ‘No film is completed, just abandoned,’ but I think most filmmakers will tell you that they could endlessly fiddle with their films for the next couple of decades, you know, changing things, altering things.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I really believe, especially with 3D, you kind of have to approach it as this holistic thing. You have to kind of mount a 3D movie; you can’t just add 3D as a kind of a special sauce sprinkled on top of a dish afterwards to give you an extra 20-percent in theater grosses, which I think is the way a lot of studios perceive it.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I love ‘Death Race.’ It’s one of my favorite films.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I started doing commercials in 2008 right after we released ‘Death Race,’ and the reason was that I spent two years prepping Death Race and building all these custom rigs to shoot cars in the most dynamic and exciting way.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“The way it works in commercials is they come to you with the script, and then you do the visual, you do the storyboards, and you give your vision of it, but it’s very much their baby. You just kind of put your polish and sheen on it and your interpretation of it, but it’s very much the agency’s idea.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When you’re writing, it’s a very solitary job. It’s you and your word processor and a cup of tea.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When I made my first film, ‘Shopping,’ the reviews were incredibly snooty. They said things like, ‘Jude Law is too pretty for the role,’ and that’s why I don’t respect the British press. That kind of small-minded thing doesn’t consider what people like.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I don’t read reviews anymore.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I don’t make films for critics, and I’m not particularly interested in what they have to say, and they don’t have a bearing on my audiences.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“People see my films, and they cheer and they clap, and they are the kind of movies I like to see myself.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“When I started working as a writer-director, that’s when he became Paul Thomas Anderson and I became Paul W.S. Anderson. Neither of us can write and direct an American movie under the name Paul Anderson.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Honestly, I don’t think anyone confuses me with Wes Anderson. He’s in his own terrific universe, but not the kind anyone would mistake for mine.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I love 3D, and I’m very upset about the way it’s being treated and thrown away by Hollywood in this kind of horrible grab for the money with all these bad 3D movies and terrible 3D conversions.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“If you’re going to ask people to pay a premium price, you have to deliver a premium product. Not enough 3D movies have delivered on that promise. People got tired of it, and that’s why they started to turn their back on 3D.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“’Pompeii’ will be PG-13. I think it has to have a level of violence and death in it because you’ve got a volcano exploding. But it will be another PG-13 movie.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Every time I go to Japan and meet Capcom, it is like going to see the Umbrella Corporation. You ask them things, and they won’t give you a straight answer about anything.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve always tried to do camera moves that I felt were immersive. So I think, as a filmmaker, my style of filmmaking is very well-suited to 3-D anyway, so it’s not like I’m having to change a huge amount of the way I shoot to work in 3-D.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I saw ‘Spacehunter 3-D.’ It gave me a headache.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“It’s very rare, in a movie franchise, where you have the same creative team behind the camera and in front of the camera, pretty much, for the entire growth of the franchise.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“One of the strengths of the ‘Resident Evil’ game franchise is that they keep changing it up.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“If you make just hardcore horror, there’s a limited audience for that. Whereas if it’s horror mixed with action, I think you kinda broaden your potential fanbase.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Movies are not an art form where you get to kind of sit in your art gallery and paint, you know? You don’t do that. You’re spending a lot of somebody else’s money.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I think, quite often, filmmakers kind of think so much about what the franchise will be and sometimes can neglect to put their efforts into the movie that they are actually making.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I always refer to the first ‘Resident Evil’ movie as ‘the little movie that could’ because, at the time, it was kind of unfashionable to do video game movies.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“If you work with any new technology, you have to expect that it’s going to be a little problematic.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“’Death Race’ was a very modern action movie, and it used all of those modern action techniques with lots of hand-held camera, lots of punchy zooms, and lots of quick movements and quick cuts.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve had that recurring dream since I was a child, and a lot of people have different versions of that same dream, where you’re running away from something, and it’s going kind of slowly, but it’s catching up with you, and it will not stop, and you cannot get away from it. Those dreams are manifested in different ways, but most people have them.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I grew up in England, and at the time, cinema was very heavy arthouse cinema, and there was no one making movies that were designed to be in multiplexes.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Growing up, I wanted to make the kind of movies that would play in a multiplex, and those were the kinds of movies I ended up making.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“A pivotal moment for me as a filmmaker was when I saw ‘Total Recall,’ the Arnold Schwarzenegger version, which was the first movie I saw in America.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I think one of the joys of disaster movies is not knowing who’s going to live and who’s going to die.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Having made a real 3D movie, you realize that, right from the production design, you’re designing sets that complement the 3D. You’re designing interactive elements, like rain or smoke – all this particulate matter in the air enhances the 3D. But if you’re shooting in 2D, you don’t know about that.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Pompeii is taught at schools in England, and, for a young boy, the combination of the Roman Empire and a volcano was irresistible.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“’AVP’ is not trying to be ‘Alien’ or ‘Aliens,’ and it’s not trying to be ‘Predator.’ Those are genius movies.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“If you work with a subject matter beloved by a hardcore fan base, then there’s going to be a huge amount of discussion of what you’ve got wrong or right. In some ways, you can never please overly obsessive fans; it’s just impossible. That doesn’t mean to say they’re not going to go to the movie and thoroughly enjoy it.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I very much see ‘Resident Evil’ as my franchise that I kicked, screaming, into life.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I guess it seemed like a natural thing to set ‘AvP’ in the world of the Alien, rather than the world of the Predator. I always liked the idea of it being on earth.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“’Aliens’ was a brilliant movie, but you still wanted to see the Alien come to Earth.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’m definitely of a generation that’s very influenced by videogames.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I guess the way I shoot things is slightly influenced by the way videogames are cut and shot.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“If you’re going to make a horror movie, it doesn’t get any better than ‘Alien,’ and if you’re going to make an action movie, it really doesn’t get any better than ‘Aliens.’”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“’Predator,’ you know, was John McTiernan absolutely at the top of his game.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“Sleep is a outmoded concept. It’s best not to think about sleep.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I think ‘Death Race 2000’ is a classic, but it’s a classic from the 1970s, and I think it’s a particular kind of drive-in-exploitation movie satire masterpiece, and it was very much a movie of its time.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“You can film the most exciting car chase and the most exciting stunts, but if you don’t care about the person inside the car, and you don’t care about their predicament, you’re not really going to care about the action, either.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I’ve always seen myself as a populist filmmaker.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“I was the first generation of filmmakers where videogames were a serious part of my life. I regard them as just as valid as books or plays in terms of an intellectual property.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
“It’s an unwritten rule that when you move to California and you’re an English person, you have to drive a convertible, and you have to bank with Wells Fargo because they have a stage coach on their bank card.”
― Paul W. S. Anderson
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