(Chad and I) grew up making movies with my home camera. I got ambitious in high school and made this two-hour movie just on video. He came and helped me out with that.

I think it's an enormous roll of the dice for AOL Time Warner. The two movies were developed independently. The 'Lord of the Rings' was in development for some time. As that was happening, Warner Brothers won the Harry Potter movie, and because that was such a hot property they wanted to move ahead as quickly as possible.

(The sequel) would span its own time period. You wouldn't have to see the first one to get it.

He had the same passion for this that I do. He was up to the challenge to do something different on a grander scale.

I wanted this film to be a movie I'd go see on a weekend with my friends. To be really honest, I just want this movie to find the biggest audience possible.

They said the action was cool and the effects were cool. But they also said the reason they chose it was because they liked the story. That was nice of them to say.