Video interview: John Sayles
John Sayles is one of the most interesting creative talents around today. He’s a screenwriter, director, actor, novelist, and essayist. His film credits cover an enormous range of genres, styles, and material including Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), City of Hope (1991), Passion Fish (1992), Lone Star (1996), Sunshine State (2002), and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008). That list does not include some movies, such as Piranha (1978) and Alligator (1980), he wrote to cover him while he went off to make his indie films. If you’re not that familiar with Sayles’ movies, I highly recommend The Brother from Another Planet, Matewan, and Lone Star.
This short interview took place during the Glasgow Film Festival this year for the premiere of his newest original movie Honeydripper (2007). Sayles talks about the importance of film festivals and at the end recounts a most interesting story about a script he wrote that laid the groundwork for a little Spielberg movie called E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Yga1eXplE