This movie works, but it's pure luck.

So we got there at 6 a.m. We'd be shooting by 6:45. We wouldn't break for lunch, we'd just pass food around all day. And we would just rock and roll 'til 4, then Matty Libatique, our great cinematographer, would say, 'Outta light, guys' - and that was it.

This pretty young blonde girl was screaming at her boyfriend because he text-messaged her that they were going away for the weekend - and he had just told her he couldn't see her that weekend. He had text messaged the wrong girlfriend!

I don't want to tell your story because you're a insensitive, self-centered moron. I've told a lot of stories about young people, and I always feel there's hope.

I purposely did "8mm" because it was as far from a summer movie as you could get.

When I was doing "8mm", my agents called me and said, "There's this hot script by Larry Cohen, and there's a bidding war for it. Fox is in the lead and if they get it, they want to do it with Mel Gibson and they want you to direct it."