Tom Allen and Tim Rice with Oliver Stone at Tulio Ristorante in Seattle

“Maybe it's because I've been that close to genius that I so respect it," says Al Stump of his association with Ty Cobb in Ron Shelton's brilliant but sadly overlooked new film, Cobb.

Having met both Shelton and Oliver Stone recently, I think I have some idea of what Stump was talking about. A genius is more often made than born. Whether the subject is a great baseball player or a great moviemaker, that quality we perceive as genius is often a natural byproduct of an unshakable belief in oneself. ‘Genius’ is what we call a person who has the kind of drive that allows him to stick with something long enough to excel at it. Like Al Stump, I have immense respect for people who make that happen.

There is an undeniable nobility in being true to oneself, damn the consequences, and Ron Shelton admires and respects Cobb for that reason. Cobb could only have been made by an artist who refused to compromise his vision, John Cassavetes was that kind of artist. So was Orson Welles, who once said "Never give them control over your tools. Make the movies you want to make. On your own. And be free."

Oliver Stone is also such an artist. Through the years he's done it his way, and he's been both lauded and reviled for it. In December at the Cairo Film Festival, Egyptian director Mohamed Khan summed up the feelings of many when he said of Natural Born Killers: "The film is highly distinguished. But it is vile." In this issue Stone tells us how he feels about some of the attacks that have been leveled against him and his movies.

Regular MM readers will notice several changes with this issue, the most obvious being the all-coated stock interior. It isn't that we're so enamored with shiny paper, but our new account reps assure us that certain advertisers are. We've also switched to a regular bimonthly publishing schedule to help accommodate our reps. Of course, this will not affect the number of issues due on current subscriptions. Another change is the absence of Jeff Schwager's "Freeze Frame" column, which had been with us since issue #1. We'll miss Jeff's concise writing and unique, curmudgeonly industry perspective. Thanks again, Jeff.

Since our distribution tripled this issue, I know many of you are reading MovieMaker for the first time. What do you like about the magazine? What do you think we can improve on? We'd really like to hear what you think.

Next issue we'll have interviews with Hal Hartley and James Cameron, and as we go to press we're working on lining up Jackie Chan and Atom Egoyan. We also have features planned on interactive media, alternative film festivals and plenty of other surprises. Hope you enjoy #12.