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After the screening, Stone elaborated on the project and shared his pessimistic outlook on the movie business.
How did you decide to approach this as a documentary versus a feature?Its a complicated one.
The book inspired me.
It was reviewed in theTimesby Richard Rhodes, and it was in the middle of all of this confusion.
If you dont understand the world around you, you’re able to feel ignorant and lost.
The whole search for meaning, search for truth, is crucial.
To me, energy is the most important subject because energy makes the world go.
So what is it?
And how does it work?
People can be very confusing when they talk about forms of energy.
Wind, sun, hydropower, geothermal all of them are good.
Nuclear, certainly, was at the back of everyones mind, but we forgot about it.
To me, there was a lie about the presidency.
Which one?Kennedy.
My movies explore that.
So there was a motivation there.
But that wasnt the original motive.
I didnt realize there had been a nuclear fraud in the 1970s with this movement to stop it.
That was not the issue.
It was about,How does it work?The book was very clear.
There would have been a few accidents.
Thats the price you pay to develop an industry.
Every industry has setbacks.
The chemical industry constantly.
You saw thetrain wreck in Ohio.
Thats the nature of it.
But we became averse to any kind of accident.
We have to take risks to get anywhere the world was built on risk.
That really bothers me.
I was thinking about Kubrick andDr.
As a filmmaker, why take the documentary approach?
Why not process this in a narrative?I tried, I tried, I tried.
I asked Josh [Goldstein] to write me a nuclear fiction story.
And he tried, he really did.
But it was a ridiculous movie.
It was just another film that would have come and gone.
You thought his script was ridiculous?I dont know if he got to the script stage.
It was more like a treatment.
Hed never written anything like that.
But I couldnt save it.
Normally I come in and work on a script, but I couldnt save this thing.
I mean, a female scientist tries to save the worldkind of story isnt going to work.
This is bigger than that.
Theres no way to deal with this that way.
No way?Eh, I dont want to.
Maybe someone could take this and be inspired by it.
If you come up with an idea, send it to me.
Didnt you rewriteNatural Born Killers?This is tough stuff to dramatize.
Actor issues?Well, money!
It shouldnt work that way.
In the old days it never did, and they made a great business that way.
You have to make movies with stories.
But now the actors come first.
Youre an Oscar-winning director.
There have been changes since the 90s now, its more difficult.
The advertising and the marketing keep going up and up and up.
Before, you made the movie first, then you worried about how to sell it.
How did you fund this movie?All private.
Fernando, some of his friends.
Its not big money anyway.
Whats the budget like?About two and a half million.
How long did it take?About two and a half years.
What are you anticipating in terms of the reaction?Im not expecting anything.
Youre in Washington; you understand the crosscurrents.
How does anybody get attention on anything?
The world is so fast moving.
Were a tiny little blip.
But I think its one of the most important things if not the most important thing.
We should get past politics, get past ideologies, bring together countries, and we can solve it.
Theres no one movie that has an idea and can really be that original right now.
Weve done so many good movies.
Look at the history of movies; we havent even seen half or a third of whats out there.
I watch a lot of old movies, and Im just astounded.
Why redo it all?
Unless you make the bows and you paint it a bit brighter, but its all that money wasted.
If we didnt make more movies right now we could probably live off of what we have.
Lets fix the world first.
Youre so optimistic about human innovation.Yeah, have to be.
But not when it comes to art.Thats true.
What was the Best Picture?Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Okay, I guess thats original.
I havent seen that idea.
Youre kind of bumming me out.I dont mean to.
But Im not interested in identity politics.
Diversity and inclusion?I sawCamelotthe other day in New York.
It was, [disapproving guttural sound].
It was the inclusion version.
It was such a great play when I saw it with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet.
But they changed it.
They watered it down.
So it tastes like gruel.
I wish him well.
He put his own money up, too.
Wonderful, I love that.
Im looking forward to it.
But its very hard to make movies.
But you consider it a wasteful effort.Its a huge effort.
In a perfect world, what would be the reaction to this documentary?Theyd start building again!
Theyd throw out theNRC, which is a joke.
It should be like the FDA, which allows new drugs.
Id like to have a little nuclear power plant in my house.
Would you live next to a nuclear reactor?Of course I would!
What are you talking about?
Its the safest thing in the world.
Id take refuge there in a war.
Where you fear things is where you go.
