The funny thing is I showed my daughter E.T. recently, and she was like, it's Pete's Dragon. It's a boy, who makes friend with a creature, and has to say goodbye at the end. I'd never made that connection!

The only thing I'll say, and I'm sure everyone says this, is stick with it. I'm not shy about telling people about the fact that my dream was to go to USC film school when I was growing up in New Jersey. I got rejected five times. You just keep going, keep going, keep going.

People say 'Scott's [Derrickson] movies are kind of scary, is this a horror movie?' Of course, [Doctor Strange] it's not a horror movie. But what Scott has done so well in the best of his films is have one foot completely in the real world and one foot in this whatever supernatural sub-genre he was playing with.

I don't think it's a mistake to put every great idea into the first movie, because I've always said there won't be a second movie if you go 'we'll hold back these ideas for another one.

I have a notion that there's a Star Wars out there waiting to be made, and I'm not sure it's the next Star Wars. I think it's something else that will be fresh and original.

I was making Marvel Studios movies, Amy Pascal was running Sony. Occasionally, she would share drafts with certain people at the studio and I would read them, and see cuts of the movies. But what I've learned with is that I'm no help whatsoever giving passive comments on other people's projects.

I think those with knowledge of the comics may expect things that will not be happening in the movies. Those who don't know what has happened in the comics will be shocked at what we do.