Taika Quotes & Sayings

I've always been a relaxed person on set, but I think the main thing is I think about it from an editing point of view way more than I did before. — Taika Waititi

The films I like to watch are when they make it relatable to human audiences. — Taika Waititi

I want to do weird things and big budget things and no budget things. I don't have a five-year plan. — Taika Waititi

I never wanted to be a filmmaker. I still, sometimes, think I got sidetracked by this, like this is a tangent. My main thing was painting; I was just going to do that. — Taika Waititi

I've become more like water, I'm more relaxed and I'll say, "Okay, let's just completely change it and do it that way." — Taika Waititi

This was only Taika Watiti fourth film [Hunt for the Wilderpeople], but I think he brings a very original way of looking at stuff and I think if you look at Boy, for instance, which is a beautiful film, that was his second feature, and it's heartbreakingly sad, but it's also simultaneously very funny. There are not many people who can do that. — Sam Neill

This particular one was very, very heartwarming and is the relationship of an older man and a young boy that are essentially on the run. And so yeah, as I say, Barry Crump wrote a lot of books and this one got into the hands of Taika Watiti who then writing the screenplay decided to really vamp up if that's the word, or ramp up and modernize certain phrases - getting in the humor. So he added a lot of a real comedy perspective onto it which is what I think the story needed anyway, especially for it to turn into a film. And it worked. — Rhys Darby

I've loved comics since I was a kid, collected them, I've always dreamed of being involved in comics. — Taika Waititi

Because I was familiar with Taika's Watiti work and there's a very subversive, funny streak amongst all of them. I don't think he turned [Hunt for the Wilderpeople] into a sort of drama, there's too much dark material underneath it for it to be a comedy; it wasn't designed to be a comedy. I think it's a comedy ... I think it's a drama that's funny; which is different. — Sam Neill

To make filmmaking interesting to me, I want to keep learning things. — Taika Waititi

When you're actually making a film, it's just people on your back all the time wanting stuff and you're constantly having to it deal with them. It's probably the most time consuming of all the arts, but I do love it because it is a great mix of visual art and music and writing. — Taika Waititi

A big part of the humor is in identifying with the tragic elements of the film. The New Zealand sense of humor is very dark. Our films are usually very dark and it's always someone being killed. Usually a child. — Taika Waititi

Hitler rounded up all of the vampires in Europe. — Taika Waititi

I hate the modern day the kids live in. I don't think it's very cool. Everyone's interconnected. — Taika Waititi

Short film: you can be poetic and you don't have to answer anything. You can make whatever you want. You have creative freedom with short film. — Taika Waititi

A feature film is an expansion of budget, stress, story, hours, time, workload, everything. — Taika Waititi

Everything changes once you start trying to market the film. Part of you feels like everything is slipping away from you. For me, I don't want people going to the theater thinking it's going to be a laugh-a-minute comedy, like a Will Ferrell film or something. Because it's not. — Taika Waititi

If you're tracking with a character that's running off a thing and diving off, I would leave the camera there and not follow them down, because cameras don't do that. The audience understands that. I'll definitely bring that understanding of keeping things a bit more grounded. — Taika Waititi

I'm really not trying to do everything that comes to mind because that's when it can be dangerous. For instance, I believe as much as possible, how your camera moves and flies around should be limited to the physics of how you could do it in real life. — Taika Waititi

There are lots of parts of filmmaking that I don't like. At the end of the day, especially on features, the film turns into a commodity. You have to play this entirely new game I'm very uncomfortable with. — Taika Waititi

Sometimes there are really happy mistakes. — Taika Waititi

Sundance felt like a natural fit. I love coming here, and I do think that this festival suits my films rather than most of the festivals I've been to. I'm not going to Cannes, you know. — Taika Waititi

I constantly remind myself that there are terrible movies out there. I try to watch them, some of them, to give myself an understanding of what not to do. — Taika Waititi

There were definitely Nazis who saw the error of their ways. — Taika Waititi

He [Taika Watiti] worked on this screenplay for a couple of years and just getting it right and the result is there. He's made really close to a perfect film [Hunt for the Wilderpeople] ... Perfect as you can be. — Rhys Darby

I'm used to working with restrictions and that's when you come up with the more creative stuff. — Taika Waititi

With a feature film you're dealing with so much more money and you've got to be very aware of the fact that you're really working with an audience. You've got to have a relationship with the audience. Play with them and show them things you want them to see. — Taika Waititi

What Taika [Watiti] still bring to it [Hunt for the Wilderpeople], it really sums up what life is like in New Zealand, or what our sensibilities, our sense of humor, how we come together, how easy it would be, feels like. You know, we have a small population and so you know the bizarreness of the police getting involved in this manhunt, how the men ... And then eventually, the army all get intwines. — Rhys Darby

I like to find comedy or something interesting to look at with whatever I'm working on. — Taika Waititi

Also with that money comes the idea, "Let your imagination run wild." Which I think is a very dangerous thing. I think it's dangerous because you can get into pretty wacky territory. There are things that are too crazy. — Taika Waititi