I also got to know Roger Corman a bit while we were on location in Mendocino. And then, subsequently, a woman who also worked on The Dunwich Horror named Tamara Asseyev and I teamed up and co-produced a picture that I wrote and directed, called Sweet Kill, that Roger Corman's then-new company distributed.

My very first professional writing credit was on a movie called The Dunwich Horror, and Roger Corman was the executive producer.

I was never a critic.

When I'm casting a picture, I think who I'd like to see in it if I was sitting in a theater. Who would surprise me?

So the city [Pittsburgh] was faced with that question of "What to do now?" because it can't turn back the clock and be what it once was. So thematically, it seemed like the perfect location for the movie. And then, it's a matter of how we get that feeling into the picture and make it a part of [Michael] Chabon's story.

I wrote a couple of scripts on spec that didn't get made but got some attention, and I then got offers to write professionally.

I make that distinction only because I came to it strictly as someone who was just a lover of storytellers and cinematic storytellers.