You know something has really stuck in Tim's head when he's drawn what the character looks like. Weird Girl and Elsa actually switched places, at one point. I may be mis-remembering it, but the original design for Weird Girl was actually Elsa, but then it became Winona Ryder's character, and the new Weird Girl was just fantastic with those giant wide eyes.

I've always written towards movies that take place across two worlds. Most of the movies that I've worked on take place in two worlds, or sometimes three worlds, where you have a normal world and a fantasy world that mix and overlap. I never shy away from the series stuff in the real world. Big Fish is about mortality.

Big Fish was the first movie that we worked on together, and I had already written it. We had another director, but that director didn't do it. So, it was just a Hail Mary to Tim, and Tim said that he wanted to do it and I was like, "That's fantastic!" But, there wasn't a lot of collaboration because he knew what he wanted to do and just did it. There were very minor changes for Big Fish.

Preacher is a great frustration because I thought it was done, and then it got put in the press notes for the [Frankenweenie] junket and everyone started asking about it again. Preacher could be filmed, at any point. It's sort of ready to go, but it's lacking a green light. At some point, that green light might come, but it may never come. So, I have to allow for the fact that I've done everything I can, and whatever happens with it, happens with it.

Like Frankenweenie is a story about a boy and his dog, Big Fish is the story of a father and his son, and all those conversations you can't have. It's universal, in a way that can go from one medium to another medium. That's been the funnest, figuring out what we can do in a Broadway show that's unique and special.

I knew that Weird Girl was going to be kind of amazing. The secret truth of Weird Girl is that I put her in there originally because I needed some way to set the boys' names.

I just always remember myself as the teenager with questions about movies and screenwriting. I would hope that there was somebody out there who would answer those questions, and so, if I can take a few minutes to do it, I will. It's not threatening for us. We're not being stalked, so it's easier.