"I called [Spielberg] immediately when I had this idea of doing a film about being a kid making movies on Super 8 film, and luckily he said he was interested in working on it with me. I didn’t even realize at the time that one of the reasons I called him so quickly was because that period of time in my life was so profoundly influenced by the movies of that era, many of which were his. By having Steven as a producer on this film, I was able to sort of unabashedly dive in to that pool and say, “Look. This is an Amblin movie.” The feeling is one of infinite possibility, parent-child relationships, child empowerment. They never felt sadistic or dark or overly creepy. There are scary elements in those films, and certainly in Super 8, but the Amblin films always felt like you were in good hands, and that there was a big heart."