Dean Devlin Quotes

“In tough times, we all hope for knights in shining armor, or the cavalry, to show up and effect change.”

― Dean Devlin

“Portland has all the accoutrements of a big city, but the heart and soul of it is a small town, so that creates an intimacy in a large environment.”

― Dean Devlin

“I’ve always lived by this philosophy, when it comes to conspiracies, never to attribute to deviousness that which can be explained by incompetence.”

― Dean Devlin

“We had an amazing experience shooting the first season of ‘Leverage’ with such a talented cast and crew and with the full support of TNT behind us.”

― Dean Devlin

“There are three things that I’m addicted to when it comes to entertainment. In no particular order, One, I’m addicted to the cheer moment. ‘Librarians’ has plenty of them. Next, I feel that life is hard, and I want my entertainment fun, and ‘Librarians’ is fun as a Christmas party. And third, I like to be moved.”

― Dean Devlin

“The Titanic hit the iceberg not because they could not see it coming but because they could not change direction.”

― Dean Devlin

“’Independence Day,’ ever since we did it, there’s been enormous pressure to follow it up.”

― Dean Devlin

“As for ‘Independence Day,’ we never intended to do any films in that series beyond the first one.”

― Dean Devlin

“Many years ago, I was actually hired to write the sequel to ‘Independence Day.’ And I wrote a sequel. And they paid me a boatload of money to go write this thing. And after I wrote it, I read it and I gave them back the money and I said, ‘Look, this is an okay movie I just wrote. But it’s not worthy of the sequel to ‘Independence Day.’”

― Dean Devlin

“The scale of ‘Independence Day’ is much more than ‘Stargate.’”

― Dean Devlin

“Everybody already knows what Godzilla is.”

― Dean Devlin

“Filmmaking is a real democracy – it’s up to the audience to vote with their tickets.”

― Dean Devlin

“These audiences are so damn smart, way smarter than the studios give them credit for.”

― Dean Devlin

“When you look at our Godzilla, you won’t feel any nostalgia.”

― Dean Devlin

“I know I screwed up my ‘Godzilla.’”

― Dean Devlin

“I hope to make the most expensive movie in history at some point!”

― Dean Devlin

“The movie business is not something that can come from the brain. It really comes from the soul and the heart.”

― Dean Devlin

“I just make the movies I want to see. I’ve always been that way.”

― Dean Devlin

“We always want our leaders to be great leaders.”

― Dean Devlin

“’The Book of Love’ is the kind of James L. Brooks mainstream movie that the majors are ignoring.”

― Dean Devlin

“’Stargate’ has always had this empty hole. When we made the first one, we always intended on doing part two and three, and we were prevented for years. And our hope is that we can get another chance at ‘Stargate’ and tell the entire story we wanted to tell.”

― Dean Devlin

“I would love it if the whole ‘Godzilla’ franchise was revitalized for a new generation.”

― Dean Devlin

“We have to put people on pedestals; otherwise, there’s no one to knock off pedestals.”

― Dean Devlin

“There was no studio involved when we made ‘Stargate.’ It was financed through Le Studio Canal+ in France and, after the film was finished, it was sold to MGM. When the film was a success, MGM decided to do a television series based on the movie.”

― Dean Devlin

“When I tried to get ‘Stargate’ made, I took it to every studio in Hollywood and every studio said, ‘Sci-fi is dead. It’s a dead genre. No one wants to see science fiction anymore.’ And I had to go and raise the money independently to make that movie.”

― Dean Devlin

“I can tell you as a fact that if you’d asked anyone in Hollywood one year before ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ had come out, they’d have told you the pirate movie was a dead genre. And it’s not that it’s a dead genre. If you make a bad pirate movie, no one will want to see it. If you make a good one, everyone will want to see it.”

― Dean Devlin

“We are cannibalizing our audience by only giving them regurgitated material. Every movie is either a remake, a sequel, based on something else. Based on a former television series. Based on a successful videogame.”

― Dean Devlin

“Television is like speed chess, as you have no time and no money. It is like trying to play Grandmaster chess with a 20 minute timer. The rewards are great, though, as it moves faster and you get to see the finished results much quicker.”

― Dean Devlin

“Paramount Pictures is a perfect partner for Electric Entertainment, with the most stable group of executives in Hollywood and unparalleled global promotion and distribution reach.”

― Dean Devlin

“I think if we did ‘Stargate’ right, the fans would like it, and we could do something really good. But if we screw it up, they’ll reject it. As they should.”

― Dean Devlin

“The advantage of the Genesis is that it’s a rock-solid camera, made by a company with an enormous history and a huge support base. Plus, it’s very good in low light using all the Panavision lenses. The downside is that you’re recording on tape.”

― Dean Devlin

“That’s one of the best things about the RED ONE – I can use all the best lenses that have been used in film forever.”

― Dean Devlin

“That transcends everything – skipping the transfer of dailies is a game-changer.”

― Dean Devlin

“’Leverage’ is meant to be based in Boston. But in one episode we’re in New York, then another in Chicago, Florida, and Eastern Europe.”

― Dean Devlin

“There are amazing behind-the-scenes technicians in Portland who didn’t want to raise their families in L.A.”

― Dean Devlin

“Portland is a two-hour flight from L.A. It has wonderful talent, and it hasn’t been shot to death. I’m all in favor of it becoming a serious player in the industry.”

― Dean Devlin

“Kurt Russell is the guy you know. He’s not something out of a weight-lifting magazine or a cartoon character. The closest thing to him would have been Steve McQueen.”

― Dean Devlin

“Most young American actors feel like teenagers.”

― Dean Devlin

“We make movies that crack us up and hope that they crack up other people, too.”

― Dean Devlin

“I don’t think these weather conditions are going to get better on their own.”

― Dean Devlin

“We used to call them the storm of the century but now we’re seeing what happens if we don’t act fast enough – and real human beings are suffering because of that.”

― Dean Devlin

“The days of family entertainment seem to have left us.”

― Dean Devlin

“I think when real life interrupts fantasy, it’s always shocking.”

― Dean Devlin

“In the ’70s, you didn’t know who was going to survive in a disaster film.”

― Dean Devlin

“In the ’80s, all the movies became predictable.”

― Dean Devlin

“’Stargate’ was more a fantasy.”

― Dean Devlin

“In Portland, there are so many trained artists and technicians, there’s an enormous talent base. And it’s not like second-stringers.”

― Dean Devlin

“It’s fun to watch a show that you can watch with any member of your family, and you’re going to laugh, and you’re going to be moved, and you’re going to have fun, rather than this dark, brooding, cold, ‘purely procedural show.’”

― Dean Devlin

“We’ve always had a simple philosophy in casting. We don’t care if somebody’s a big star or a little star. We just want the best possible actor for the part.”

― Dean Devlin

“We’re so specialized now in our entertainment. It’s nice to do a show where you’re really circling back to this idea of, ‘Couldn’t there be a show the whole family can watch together?’”

― Dean Devlin

“Following a pre-cellphone world of children on an adventure is incredibly appealing for me. These are the kinds of movies I fell in love with and made me want to be a filmmaker in the first place.”

― Dean Devlin

“I love what they do with ‘Doctor Who,’ where they have the series, and then they do a big Christmas movie special.”

― Dean Devlin

“There’s a lot of superhero stuff out there and a lot of cop stuff out there. What we have very little of anymore is adventure.”

― Dean Devlin

“The great thing about adventure, when told correctly, is it is one of the few genres that everybody in the family can watch together.”

― Dean Devlin

“I always wish I had another shot at it. But, listen, ‘Godzilla’ is something that I grew up loving. We worked hard to go make one. We kind of blew it. I think everyone gets one.”

― Dean Devlin

“I like to get emotional when I watch my entertainment.”

― Dean Devlin

“’Librarians’ is surprisingly touching in a lot of ways where it’s not expected.”

― Dean Devlin

“I think there’s a lot of factors that go into the whole awards thing. I’ve never been that big a fan of it.”

― Dean Devlin

“The budget on cable television is dramatically less than network television.”

― Dean Devlin

“It was somewhere in doing the last season of ‘Leverage’ that John Rogers and I became confident that we had developed an all-new production technique where we could put more on the screen with very little money. So we started to get more comfortable with the idea of trying to tackle ‘The Librarians.’”

― Dean Devlin

“John Rogers has an encyclopedic mind. Having John as our showrunner is the gift that keeps on giving. He knows more trivial information than anyone I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

― Dean Devlin

“Usually when you’re doing a season one, you’re trying to find the show.”

― Dean Devlin

“We all want our children to be terrific, but you can’t force a child into being what you want it to be.”

― Dean Devlin

“There’s no doubt in the world that I am the biggest ‘Doctor Who’ fan.”

― Dean Devlin

“We’re often accused of trying to manipulate opinion or that we’re trying to elevate society. I think that the greatest thing we can do is to give you a vacation.”

― Dean Devlin

“I think we have a culture that creates heroes and then needs to knock them down, and then you have to see what the third act brings.”

― Dean Devlin

“It’s always hard to watch something you create be put in somebody else’s hands.”

― Dean Devlin

“I haven’t had the egomaniac star yet in any of my films. It’s always been a pleasure.”

― Dean Devlin

“When I first came to Oregon, the annual amount spent on production was $1 million to $1.5 million. By the time ‘Leverage’ was done, there had been over $100 million in production that year.”

― Dean Devlin

“We took over with ‘Leverage’ three warehouses, and now four with ‘The Librarians,’ and turned them into proper sound stages with sound doors and all the lights. We now have control of four real, proper-sized sound stages. The problem is they’re dark and empty half of the year because there aren’t enough productions coming into Oregon.”

― Dean Devlin

“Just to be back in the world of ‘The Librarian’ again was such a joy.”

― Dean Devlin

“There is a renaissance of really great genre entertainment happening. But it’s become incredibly audience-specific.”

― Dean Devlin

“With ‘The Librarians,’ we want to be a smart, fun, crazy, genre show, but we also want to be something that people of all ages can watch and enjoy. That, to me, does seem to be increasingly harder to find.”

― Dean Devlin

“There are an enormous amount of techniques I wanted to beta test in television. You can’t take those risks on a $100 million movie.”

― Dean Devlin

“We did the original ‘Stargate’ as an independent movie. It was a surprise success. Shortly before the movie came out, the financiers who were frightened the movie might not do well sold the film to MGM. When the film came out, it was a hit and spawned TV shows.”

― Dean Devlin

“Of all the projects I’ve ever done, ‘Stargate’ is the only one from the beginning intended to be a trilogy. We always wanted to do parts two and three, but the thinking was they didn’t want to do anything other than the TV series.”

― Dean Devlin

“I don’t think you can figure this stuff out. If you could figure all this stuff out, then all the great filmmakers would come out of Yale and Harvard. It’s not an intellectual process.”

― Dean Devlin

“We intellectualize it, and we rationalize it, but it’s really about a love of movies, and I think whether you’re making an art film or you’re making a genre film, if you don’t really love that movie you are trying to make, you’ll be able to tell.”

― Dean Devlin

“I think that I do about 85% of what I used to do on my computer now on my iPad.”

― Dean Devlin

“We’re making high-budget movies with a low-budget attitude.”

― Dean Devlin

“Had the car companies continued to do generation two, generation three, generation four of the EV-1, we’d be looking at a spectacular car today.”

― Dean Devlin

“I’ve always said that I don’t believe in Santa Claus, but I could make a great movie about him if I set my mind to it.”

― Dean Devlin

“When you convince sci-fi fans you’ve done something cool, you get them in huge numbers.”

― Dean Devlin

“If you were around when ‘Them!’ or ‘Tarantula’ came out, those effects were as good as you had ever seen.”

― Dean Devlin

“We have to produce a high-quality show, but we have less and less time and money to do it. If you are using the tapeless approach to save money, you will.”

― Dean Devlin

“Spielberg is our hero. For him to make a nod to ‘Godzilla’ just before we make our movie is like getting the king to acknowledge you at dinner.”

― Dean Devlin

“The truth is, we were sick of, every time we finished a movie, having to start all over again from nothing, going to a studio, pitching an idea, setting up a new office.”

― Dean Devlin

“I don’t think of myself as a former actor. I think of myself as a reformed actor.”

― Dean Devlin

“In movies, we’ve run out of ideas for bad guys. We end up with politically incorrect villains, like Arab terrorists or Latin drug dealers or corrupt politicians. Well, aliens are the best film villains since the Nazis. You don’t have to worry about offending anyone.”

― Dean Devlin

“The real trick to these movies and making the big action sequences work – and I’ve forgotten this sometimes and screwed it up – the characters really have to be humanized. Because you can have the greatest special effects in the world, but if you don’t care about the people in those effects, there’s no impact.”

― Dean Devlin

“I like to make popcorn movies. It’s my passion. I love the genre.”

― Dean Devlin

“I’m a huge Trekkie.”

― Dean Devlin

“Stories about travelers coming into town and doing good have been part of our storytelling since the Bible.”

― Dean Devlin

“A lot of sci-fi shows are very cold, too concerned with hardware.”

― Dean Devlin

“’The Outpost’ is an exciting fantasy with a strong female lead that will capture the imagination of fans of both ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Wonder Woman.’”

― Dean Devlin

“We don’t over-manage projects like the studios do.”

― Dean Devlin

“There’s a real difference now in what you can get out of film and the rise of digital platforms.”

― Dean Devlin

“We’re going to come back to Oregon, whether it’s with another show, or a pilot, or a movie. We love working up there. I think it’s got one of the most amazing talent pools of any state in the union.”

― Dean Devlin