Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker

by Jeff Nathanson | Published February 3, 2007

Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me if You Can

Stay true to the spirit of a film.

[On Catch Me if You Can], we tried to be as accurate as possible, and tried to stay true really, more than anything, just to the spirit of what Frank Abagnale's journey was like. At the end of the day, Steven says right at the beginning of the movie that it is "inspired" by this guy's life, and I think that was smart because, in the end, that's really what we were trying to do.

At least keep those banker's hours.

I write every day. I sort of keep banker's hours and try to be as disciplined as possible. You really don't have a choice. Especially once the elements come aboard, there's just so much work to be done and only so much time. You really have to be disciplined.

Unfounded fears.

I was terrified of being fired every minute [on Catch Me if You Can], because I had never met Steven Spielberg before. The first thing I thought he would do is walk in the room, shake my hand and say "Thank you for doing this. We're going to bring in somebody else now!" [laughing] So it was not only nice that he let me continue writing, but he let me stay on the set and be involved in post-production-he was very inclusive.

Be original.

I think that the key is to not try to copy what you see and to always, always try to write something original.

Think independently.

Clearly, a lot of people think that the movies that Hollywood makes are the only ones that will ever be made, so they go off and write spec scripts that are kind of buddy comedies or whatever. They don't write stories that are personal to them at all, and I think that Catch Me, at least for me, was a way of sort of proving that anybody can walk into any room anytime and have an idea for a movie. And if it comes out well, Hollywood will definitely respond and rally around the material. I hope that more writers will take more chances.

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