I love games, and I feel they've been sold short shrift in films so far.
You could make a film out of just about anything so long as there is a clear vision about the story.
Be it a video game, comic book, or cheque book, the question always is, 'What story do you have to tell?'
I am absolutely of the videogames generation, starting on the Atari and Commodore 64 and the Amiga.
I'm a gamer at heart and always have been. I'm also a filmmaker.
I played lots of games, and I was a fan of gaming, so I was always looking for new games. I was also a science fiction and fantasy fan, growing up, in games and books and movies.
As a filmmaker, the only way that I understand how to make a film is holistically.
For me, 'Blade Runner' is the best science-fiction film ever made.
Toshiro Mifune was such an elegant hero, and there's something really empathetic about him.
I was christened Duncan Zowie Jones.
Bowie is my dad's stage name, so I was never, ever called Zowie Bowie. The tabloids liked that because it rhymed.
My parents did call me Zowie now and then, but then, realising that it drew too much attention, they called me 'Joe'. Then, later, I sort-of co-opted my own name back.
I was a sensitive boy.
When I was at graduate school, you wouldn't have recognised me. I was so different - and not a nice person: a grumpy, surly, upset, confused, lost person.
My dad and I used to shoot little one-stop animations on an old 8mm film camera when I was no more than 7 or 8, and when he was away at work, I would keep shooting nonsensical, short animated films using 'Star Wars' figures or Smurfs - depended what the narrative was.
Growing up, I was on film sets occasionally, when my dad was acting, so I got to run around and do odd jobs on films like 'Labyrinth' and others... I seemed destined to make films.
I got some funky scholarships to play soccer and did well in my SATs, so I went off to college and then grad school but found that that wasn't me. My family, relieved I seemed to have come to my senses, were happy to let me go to film school.
I took an incredibly roundabout route getting into feature films.
I saw the drawbacks of fame as a kid. It wasn't for me.
You only get one shot to do a first feature.
