Film Courage: Phil, how much do you worry about your ideas being stolen?
Phil Hawkins, Filmmaker: I don’t really worry about them to be honest. I’m probably contradicting myself by not revealing an idea I said earlier when you ask me a question but that’s because I feel like they’re not ready to be heard yet. I think it can hold people back and maybe I’ll eat my words and maybe I’m being naive but I think this idea that someone’s going to read your script, steal it and then write their own thing is kind of a bit absurd because it’s like if they liked it enough to want to steal it, why would they start again? It’s like at worst they would be off and you would never hear from them again and then they would go and make the film they want to be for X amount of dollars whatever that is. But this idea that the big corporations or studios are apt to steal ideas and not let us in or not help us, I think is not very productive. I think it stops people. Again it’s the whole thing about putting yourself out there right? How are people going to know you’ve got that great script if you don’t share it? You can protect it, it’s very easy to copyright things and you put it in an envelope and post it yourself, all that kind of stuff that people say you can do. From everyone I’ve met, all the execs, development people, studio heads and things like that that want to make film, they just genuinely want to meet talented people right? Because talented filmmakers and writers are going to make great movies and make…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Phil Hawkins is an award-winning commercials and features director. He’s directed hundreds of television ads globally and made five feature films released by Sony Pictures, Lionsgate and Netflix. Most recently he’s written and directed Star Wars: Origins, a film shot location in the Sahara Desert that’s taken 3 years to make combining his love of Star Wars and Indiana Jones in a unique re-telling of the beginnings of the saga.
CONNECT WITH PHIL HAWKINS
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