Theyre written about what Im dealing with in my life in a real contemporary sense.

Thats why I feel like these are kind of kissing cousins.

Was this an idea that you had for a long time?

I had the original idea back aroundTake Shelter.

Thats where youre just having fun, at that point.

Youre just dreaming about the kinds of movies that you could make one day.

Thats obviously when I started to define for myself what it meant to be a father.

No, I wanted it to be bigger but I didnt fully take the gloves off.

I think about it a lot.

Obviously, this being your fourth movie, you have some experience getting the money together.

What kind of budget can we pull off for this?

Im also very specific about the casting.

I have to be realistic.

At this point while youre writing, do you just know This is Michael Shannons character?

He had a smaller role inMud…

Yeah, but it was written just as specifically for him.

Those parts were written specifically for him.

And how did you arrive at Joel to partner the two of them together?

I had been such a big fan ofAnimal Kingdomand his performance in it.

You never know because you dont know these actors.

Maybe theyre crazy or you go meet them and theyre total dicks, but thats not happened with Joel.

You just kind of want to be around him.

I thoughtThe Giftwas an extraordinarily powerful film and he co-wroteThe Roverthe guys got some chops.

We did the same thing we did onMud.

I dont really like the idea of child actors.

They seem to get ruined very fast.

They lose whatever makes kids special.

Im not making him an every day kid like the boys inMud.

Its quite the opposite in fact.

His mind literally turns out to an awareness of what hes meant to do.

You need a kid who is kind of otherworldly in that sense and Jaeden fit that bill.

He was extraordinarily easy to work with.

He just had great natural instincts, and he understood the subtext.

There are adult actors that dont understand subtext.

He just got it.

He understood the situation and knew what he needed to do.

Those are the kinds of movies I like.

I think when you look at the movies Im talking about being inspired by.

Thats the look I push for on all my other films.

Movies are fake, and you venture to find antidotes to the fakery.

I think a lot of the movies that I was inspired by did the same thing.

Greg and Colin Strause run that company.

They were just in it to make it look right.

It wasnt just a vendor that you go to.

They make a run at do good work and they seem invested in it.

The majority of the FX are practical, and that developed out of our camera tests.

We were trying to decide whether we should shoot on the Alexa or should we shoot film.

Mainly because we have so much night photography and film really falls apart at night.

it’s crucial that you do a tremendous amount of lighting.

Do we just have a guy standing there with a light?

What are they staring at, what are they interacting with?

That began as a way for the actors opposite to have something to interact with.

Thats what they were doing in these movies that we referenced.

Even the ones they put in were all practical FX basically.

I would say 80 percent of those lens flares you see are naturally created.

Yeah, they helped build the goggle rig.

Its good they still have the manpower and time to do the FX on your movies.

Yeah, I havent bankrupted them yet.

Did you realize Joel would be great for that role while working with him on this?

Where are you on that?

Think youll have it out this year?

Yeah, Im editing.

Are you still able to keep in touch with your Southern roots?

Do you live in L.A. now?

I live in Austin, Texas.

Its not the South.

Sometimes people there say it is, but I dont give them that.

I consider myself a Southerner.

I see it as a necessity.

Things take place in certain places and you have to know these places and write specifically about them.

You love those movies but would you actually want to direct one over your own things?

Thats a hard thing to navigate.

Well see if the stars align.

Obviously I embrace genre.

Its quite the opposite in fact.

I was reading in a recent interview that you really want to make movies people would want to see.

I think theyre worth peoples time.

I dont want to just dabble in obscurity.

I think my problem is that Im not just going to say Yes and that makes it tricky.

Ill say yes to the right thing at the right time with the right people.