[on the tragic attempted effort to teach a chimpanzee to communicate with humans in 'Project Nim'] There are so many interesting ironies within the film, and language is prime among them.The whole experience was motivated by language, but in the end, Nim didn't need language to communicate at all, and his most enduring human connection was with a person who didn't sign with him - but rather, played with him. And that's the sign that Nim uses until the very end: play.

Actually, I was just offered $500,000 to direct a big-budget horror film. Terrible script. Awful people. I turned it down. A shame, really. I could do with the money after all these years of making indie films - they make you so poor.

I love America, but I've now got two young kids and America has changed so much since 9/11 and Bush. It's beyond Orwellian. The idea in 1984 that if you keep saying you're being attacked then you can get away with anything has come true.

There's another way to look at faith in movies. Instead of mocking religious people or portraying them as hypocrites, you're seeing a more straight-up examination of how hard it is to be righteous. And I don't think we're losing anything in terms of dramatic story-lines.