Rian Johnson
Rian Johnson
Rian Craig Johnsonis an American writer, producer, director, and voice actor. He won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with his debut feature film, Brick...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth17 December 1973
CountryUnited States of America
thinking ideas brain
I do think that I'm a big believer in having an idea or having ideas and just tucking them away in the back of your brain. Even if you aren't consciously thinking of them, I think they simmer. You're working on them, even if you don't know you're working on them, and I think having something in your head for a while is a valuable thing.
writing want fool
You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it.
ghetto thinking get-better
I bristle a little when the argument for film gets put into the nostalgia ghetto. Film is still the highest quality and best-looking image capture medium available. I don't think it always will be. The digital image will get better, and it will eventually surpass the quality of the film image, but it isn't there yet.
interesting ifs something-interesting
If you make something interesting, inevitably not everybody is going to like it.
people challenges monkeys
Unlike some of the time-travel movies I love, like 'Primer' or '12 Monkeys,' 'Looper' is not about time travel. It's about this situation that time travel creates and the people dealing with that situation. So narratively, the big challenge was to have time travel get out of the way.
thinking fool just-one
You come out of each movie just thinking, "God, if we can fool them into letting us make just one more, we can get it right."
running brother men
Back before 'Brick,' I wrote a short film that I never ended up shooting: hit men in the present who work for a mob in the future who send their victims back in time. A guy is sent his future self, he lets him run, and the whole short was them chasing each other across the city. That sat in a drawer for 10 years until after I made 'Brothers Bloom.
notebook writing years
If I spend a year and a half writing a script, the first year will be outlining in notebooks. It's just the way I work, definitely not necessarily the best way.
scripts bricks
With 'Brick,' I wrote the script when I was 23 and didn't make the movie until I was 30.
dirty kind belgrade
Belgrade has kind of a Dublinesque, dear-dirty charm.
grandmother way sound
In almost the same way you know what your grandmother looks and sounds like, you know what Bruce Willis looks and sounds like.
kids piano like-you
Showing your movie to an audience... it's like your kid doing a piano recital. 'Just let it not fail. Please.
wise thinking stories
Storytelling wise, you've gotta take it as far as you can possibly take it with each individual movie. If you're holding out something for a sequel or some cliff-hanger, that's not how I think of a satisfying story.
people bricks boards
The critical reaction to 'Bloom' has been similar to 'Brick.' There are people on board with it and people who are not.