“What I think happens today is that a lot of filmmakers look at other films that …” — Ted Demme

There are a lot of films that are drug dramas, and we didn't want to tell Scarface again.

I was influenced by European movies, old Fellini, old Kurosawa - any sort of foreign film.

I felt that as long as we were being honest, and that we didn't bend the truth to accomplish another goal, to be entertaining or to be a happy ending, I was confident that we'd be able to tell the story the way it happened.

I tried to stick to my game plan, which was always being aware of what my A story was - the love story between a father and his son, and that son and his daughter.