"In the case of Assault on Precinct 13, I was approached by a backer with a certain amount of money, and he said, let's make a picture that we can sell. And I wanted to make a Western, very badly, because I love Westerns. So I thought, 'I'm going to make a modern-day Western, and I'm going to transpose the Indians attacking the fort. I'm going to use youth gangs.
I'm a great Howard Hawks fan. But the point is…
"Aye. David Foster decided he wanted to do a remake of The Fog, and Rupert Wainright directed it. They didn't listen to me, and had their own story, and by that point I didn't want to say anything. I collected a check, and it was #1 at the box office."
Source: 2016 interview by Justin Beahm
"'We are doing this movie whether you are with us or not, you can't stop us,' is what I was told. 'You can either get on board and help us, or get out of the way.' I came on board as producer, and wrote the script.
On that particular script, I wrote most of that by myself. That was a painful script because I didn't feel like I had any story. And the only thing I could think to do…
"Not that we need another serial killer movie, but, I don't know what I'd bring new to it. Seven was a really good script. Really good. Highly improbable killer, but the acting was terrific. And the directing's terrific. They did a great job with that. When I read the script, I thought, 'hmmm, is anybody going to buy this?' In my hands, it would have been a comedy. [laughs]
Seven and Silence of the Lambs are cop movies, essentially. They're…
