This movie takes us on such an adventure, but when the concept came to you, was there a particular moment or a scene that made you go, "This is a film that the world needs to see"?

One of the things that I loved about it was I love the characters, but, but the thing that really made me feel like I, I desperately wanna see this movie is the counterpoint of, of dinosaurs in our world, in our familiar neighborhoods, in our backyards, uh, in our parks, in our streets.

There was something ...

I do this stupid thing where I, I'll draw a circle, then I'll shade it like a sphere, and I'll put a shadow down, but then I'll add like a little, you know, figure either next to it or o- And all of a sudden, when you have that relative scale and the connection, this little s- stupid sphere suddenly weirdly feel ...

You, you feel something.

And it's because there's like-

Mm

... felt familiar.

What was the moment reading David's script when you realized the mystery wasn't the reason you wanted to make this film?

Well, what I loved about the script from the very beginning was that I saw there was a, a, a family, and each one of these characters was dealing with something.

They each had some kind of struggle, some kind of secret that they were wrestling with, and through the insanity of what they go through, uh, they get to expose, share, grapple with, and deal with these, these issues.

And so it really is a family story that was compelling and made me wanna to keep reading, made me wanna see the story, you know, o- on screen.

Uh, but then it went into this kind of wonderful genre direction.

So what I loved was the combination of these people, these specific characters, and, and what intrigued me about them combined with something that was so in, you know, u- unlikely and impossible and, and crazy, and that to me was the sort of special cocktail of, of what David created.

Yeah, yeah.

You, you, your, your, your camera is sometimes, like, incredibly steady and very s- and it just, and, and you, it forces the audience to, like, stop and look, and sometimes I can be a little bit sort of ADD and, and sort of, you know, kind of wanting to s- jump around.

I mean, that's what it is for me.

No, totally.

I mean, a- as producer, my job is always just to support whatever it is that the director, uh, what, what they feel is, is most important.

You know, what, what is the thing that this, this movie wants to be? Which is so, you know, lucky to have gotten to work with David on this because, you know, you came in with such a clear sense of what this movie was gonna be, the tone of the movie, the story, who the characters were.

And while, you know, things, like always do, you know, adjusted a bit here and there, some of the specifics of some of the characters, you know, uh, uh, uh, changed a, a bit here and there.

And obviously then you cast the movie and then you, you know, David worked to figure out how do we adjust things w- w- where necessary for these actors.

But the, the core, the heart of the movie was never in question.

But, but that would, that would be the, the easiest one for me to recall.

Mm-hmm.

And Damon and Carlton who ran Lost, uh, Carlton Cuse, those guys came up with everything that followed.

I went off and did a movie.

Those guys were busting their ass on that show for six years.

So my point is that you can have ideas, but it's like driving in the fog, like you sort of...

The closer you get to the destination, the more detail you see and the more you realize, "Oh, you know what? Let's take this road," that you couldn't have even seen back there.

So it kind of evolves as you go.

Yeah.

Oh, terrific.

Shooting that video was one of the most fun and surreal experiences I've ever had in my life.

What I remember is I had to go to an AFI event immediately after, and in fact, I had to go before we finished shooting, so I couldn't be walking with you guys at the end when the explosion happened, uh, which is the biggest regret of my life.

(laughs)

Um, anyway, it was the most fun, and, uh, it was absolutely hilarious.

And putting my hand up and doing the Paul Shaffer during the solo was, uh...