Drew Goddard
Drew Goddard
Andrew Brion Hogan Goddard, better known as Drew Goddard, is an American film and television screenwriter, director, and producer. After writing the successful cult film Cloverfield and multiple episodes of TV shows such as Lost, he made his feature film directorial debut with the 2012 horror dark comedy The Cabin in the Woods. In 2015, he penned the film adaption of Andy Weir's book The Martian, for which he won the National Board of Review Award for Best Adapted Screenplay...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth26 February 1975
CountryUnited States of America
We've always idealized youth and then destroyed youth. That has happened since the beginning of time, and I'm fascinated by why we do that.
I tend to fall more into the fun horror genre than the traumatic horror genre. I love the films where you're laughing as much as screaming, but that doesn't mean I don't like the other ones.
I just don't want to make the same old movies. I'm not interested in it. Directing's hard. It takes up a lot of your life, and I'm not that interested in making the same old film.
Clearly, the works of John Carpenter and Sam Raimi are front and center here. Argento is definitely there. But even stuff like the 'Friday the 13th' movies had quite an influence on me growing up.
If you worry too much about anything, you end up making bad movies.
When Carpenter was shooting 'Vampires' in New Mexico when I was living there, I desperately tried to get a job working on that film, and I couldn't. So my first job as a PA was on a CBS movie of the week that was shooting next door, and whenever I could, I would sneak over so I could watch.
Truth is, I don't like movies that are only good once; I tend to dismiss them. I like movies that get better the more you watch them.
As a viewer, I never want any movie ruined for me, no matter what the genre is.
My favorite movies are the ones that are different the second time, or where you're constantly discovering new things. It's not just genre movies, either, and it's not just about twists. I saw 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' four times in the theater before I realized it's a love story. I love that.
The logistics of blood is something that I didn't even understood as a first-time director. Not just actors and make-up, but once a set gets bloody, you don't un-blood it. Once something gets bloody, you either rebuild the set, or you just don't get the shot.
In the 'Buffy' room, it was never about a plot twist, ever. It was always about, 'Tell the story, tell the characters, complicate their lives, make things get worse,' but we never worked backwards from the plot, and it was always a great lesson.
I've been lucky between 'Buffy,' 'Angel,' 'Alias,' and then 'Lost.' The thing they all have in common is that they were all fearless. They were not afraid to be different and try something different. Even if you didn't know that it was going to work, just try to do something new and fresh.
I understand why offices need to have office parties. I understand why offices need to have betting pools. No matter what the job, you need things to foster camaraderie and let off steam.
I guess I'm just the kind of person who likes to do it all. It's fun to put on the writer's hat and go hide by myself with my computer for six months. Then it's fun to come out and put the director hat on and deal with all the things that a director deals with. Then it's fun to just be the producer and, um, not do anything.