Top 60 Dean Devlin Quotes

Most young American actors feel like teenagers.

The great thing about adventure, when told correctly, is it is one of the few genres that everybody in the family can watch together.

‘Independence Day,’ ever since we did it, there’s been enormous pressure to follow it up.

Kurt Russell is the guy you know. He’s not something out of a weight-lifting magazine or a cartoon character. The closest thing to him would have been Steve McQueen.

That’s one of the best things about the RED ONE – I can use all the best lenses that have been used in film forever.

When I tried to get ‘Stargate’ made, I took it to every studio in Hollywood and every studio said, ‘Sci-fi is dead. It’s a dead genre. No one wants to see science fiction anymore.’ And I had to go and raise the money independently to make that movie.

I know I screwed up my ‘Godzilla.’

I think we have a culture that creates heroes and then needs to knock them down, and then you have to see what the third act brings.

There was no studio involved when we made ‘Stargate.’ It was financed through Le Studio Canal+ in France and, after the film was finished, it was sold to MGM. When the film was a success, MGM decided to do a television series based on the movie.

When I first came to Oregon, the annual amount spent on production was $1 million to $1.5 million. By the time ‘Leverage’ was done, there had been over $100 million in production that year.

We have to produce a high-quality show, but we have less and less time and money to do it. If you are using the tapeless approach to save money, you will.

We’ve always had a simple philosophy in casting. We don’t care if somebody’s a big star or a little star. We just want the best possible actor for the part.

Stories about travelers coming into town and doing good have been part of our storytelling since the Bible.

I hope to make the most expensive movie in history at some point!

I don’t think these weather conditions are going to get better on their own.

‘Librarians’ is surprisingly touching in a lot of ways where it’s not expected.

The movie business is not something that can come from the brain. It really comes from the soul and the heart.

We all want our children to be terrific, but you can’t force a child into being what you want it to be.

In the ’70s, you didn’t know who was going to survive in a disaster film.

Portland is a two-hour flight from L.A. It has wonderful talent, and it hasn’t been shot to death. I’m all in favor of it becoming a serious player in the industry.

It’s always hard to watch something you create be put in somebody else’s hands.

Television is like speed chess, as you have no time and no money. It is like trying to play Grandmaster chess with a 20 minute timer. The rewards are great, though, as it moves faster and you get to see the finished results much quicker.

I think if we did ‘Stargate’ right, the fans would like it, and we could do something really good. But if we screw it up, they’ll reject it. As they should.

We are cannibalizing our audience by only giving them regurgitated material. Every movie is either a remake, a sequel, based on something else. Based on a former television series. Based on a successful videogame.

I think there’s a lot of factors that go into the whole awards thing. I’ve never been that big a fan of it.

I think that I do about 85% of what I used to do on my computer now on my iPad.

We’re making high-budget movies with a low-budget attitude.

The scale of ‘Independence Day’ is much more than ‘Stargate.’

I haven’t had the egomaniac star yet in any of my films. It’s always been a pleasure.

I love what they do with ‘Doctor Who,’ where they have the series, and then they do a big Christmas movie special.

Usually when you’re doing a season one, you’re trying to find the show.

Everybody already knows what Godzilla is.

We have to put people on pedestals; otherwise, there’s no one to knock off pedestals.

We intellectualize it, and we rationalize it, but it’s really about a love of movies, and I think whether you’re making an art film or you’re making a genre film, if you don’t really love that movie you are trying to make, you’ll be able to tell.

I’m a huge Trekkie.

Following a pre-cellphone world of children on an adventure is incredibly appealing for me. These are the kinds of movies I fell in love with and made me want to be a filmmaker in the first place.

I like to make popcorn movies. It’s my passion. I love the genre.

I always wish I had another shot at it. But, listen, ‘Godzilla’ is something that I grew up loving. We worked hard to go make one. We kind of blew it. I think everyone gets one.

Of all the projects I’ve ever done, ‘Stargate’ is the only one from the beginning intended to be a trilogy. We always wanted to do parts two and three, but the thinking was they didn’t want to do anything other than the TV series.

It’s fun to watch a show that you can watch with any member of your family, and you’re going to laugh, and you’re going to be moved, and you’re going to have fun, rather than this dark, brooding, cold, ‘purely procedural show.’

Paramount Pictures is a perfect partner for Electric Entertainment, with the most stable group of executives in Hollywood and unparalleled global promotion and distribution reach.

I don’t think you can figure this stuff out. If you could figure all this stuff out, then all the great filmmakers would come out of Yale and Harvard. It’s not an intellectual process.

In tough times, we all hope for knights in shining armor, or the cavalry, to show up and effect change.

‘Leverage’ is meant to be based in Boston. But in one episode we’re in New York, then another in Chicago, Florida, and Eastern Europe.

There’s a real difference now in what you can get out of film and the rise of digital platforms.

Just to be back in the world of ‘The Librarian’ again was such a joy.

When you convince sci-fi fans you’ve done something cool, you get them in huge numbers.

I don’t think of myself as a former actor. I think of myself as a reformed actor.

There’s a lot of superhero stuff out there and a lot of cop stuff out there. What we have very little of anymore is adventure.

There are three things that I’m addicted to when it comes to entertainment. In no particular order, One, I’m addicted to the cheer moment. ‘Librarians’ has plenty of them. Next, I feel that life is hard, and I want my entertainment fun, and ‘Librarians’ is fun as a Christmas party. And third, I like to be moved.

I just make the movies I want to see. I’ve always been that way.

‘The Book of Love’ is the kind of James L. Brooks mainstream movie that the majors are ignoring.

If you were around when ‘Them!’ or ‘Tarantula’ came out, those effects were as good as you had ever seen.

The Titanic hit the iceberg not because they could not see it coming but because they could not change direction.

I like to get emotional when I watch my entertainment.

In movies, we’ve run out of ideas for bad guys. We end up with politically incorrect villains, like Arab terrorists or Latin drug dealers or corrupt politicians. Well, aliens are the best film villains since the Nazis. You don’t have to worry about offending anyone.

A lot of sci-fi shows are very cold, too concerned with hardware.

These audiences are so damn smart, way smarter than the studios give them credit for.

I think when real life interrupts fantasy, it’s always shocking.

As for ‘Independence Day,’ we never intended to do any films in that series beyond the first one.