Casting the right actor for the right part is some unspoken thing between the two of you to communicate.

I carve stone. I've got hammers and chisels and I carve from sandstone. I just did a big mural of birds and trees.

I became obsessed with the true stuff, and that led to shaping 'The Way Back' screenplay somewhat toward a minimalist style, to avoid free-hanging moments, and to hold the music back, so it would never lead you to an emotion, and to try to make the emotions as real as I could.

National film industries tend to move in cycles. In Australia right now, we're on a high, a feeling of potential, which as yet shows no sign of flagging. But the word "industry" is misleading. A small national cinema has no industry in the Hollywood sense.

The best conversation with Stanley Kubrick is a silent one: you sit in a theatre and watch his films and you learn so much.

In 'The Way Back' survivors were all ordinary people, and that's the whole point, that's who I felt these people should be, and they shouldn't be that hero that stands out.

You can mix in certain sensitivities as a filmmaker.