When you do someone's life story, which I've never done, it weighs on you. You feel an added responsibility to get it right.

There are a lot of films that are drug dramas, and we didn't want to tell Scarface again.

So no matter what I do, on any level there's always some Jonathanism that's in my blood which I'm very proud of and have no problem with.

Like a Pearl Harbor, they're going into their opening weekend knowing that they spent $110 million making this movie. That pressure must be enormous.

The older I get the more I realize there's no real good guys or real bad guys, and I'm curious about how the good guys got good and how the bad guys got bad.

That's why I'm really trying to produce my own stuff. This film was so good, because I produced it myself, and developed it, and made it with New Line, which is a smaller studio, so I was in control of a lot of stuff that I wasn't in control of for my other films.

You know, I think everything I do cinematically for the rest of my life will probably have some direct route back to Jonathan. But I love him to death. He's like my best friend and my big brother.

What I think happens today is that a lot of filmmakers look at other films that are retro pieces, like L.A. Confidential, and say, oh, that's period. We didn't want to do the stereotypical stuff.

Uma is beautiful because she's traditionally knockout beautiful and accessible and funny and charming. She's a regular chick. She'll sit down at a bar and chat with you.