What we definitely agree with Walter on is that filmmaking is teamwork. It's one of the only arts that is truly based in the work of a team. Anyway, Werner he told us a lot of practical things. How to hang a hammock. He'd circle a map and give us a notebook with directions to get to certain places that were out of the way. He told us to drink the river water and not use purifications tactics that only "New Age assholes" used. He said that if we saw piranhas, we should jump in and swim with them. We did all of this. We took his word as gospel.

Fitzcarraldo is a mad dreamer. He's willing to sacrifice everything in order to make his vision of an opera house. That metaphor of pulling the boat over the mountain is so integral to anyone making any creative effort. It's that universal Sisyphean struggle.

It was Herzog, the man himself. He was so welcoming and kind and not at all the persona you'd seen in a magazine, or in "Burden of Dreams" for that matter. I'd shot the behind-the-scenes for "Bad Lieutenant." It was a very normal production. Nothing like "Burden of Dreams."

It's organic. It's like a river. One stream comes in and it meets another stream and becomes the Amazon.

Fitzcarraldo is that metonymic character that's unwilling to give up on his dreams. Meeting Walter was the point in which all of these dreams coalesced into a very real person with a very real story.

Malick is so far on the other side of the spectrum in terms of his character. Malick is a complete recluse, and not at all driven by ego or championing who he is as an individual. It's all about the art. Whereas Herzog is constantly placing himself into the engine. Malick is such a gentle poet.

The biggest lesson we took was when Werner [Herzog] said in a meeting with us that the mother of all challenges is to get your film seen in theater. To finally share this film has been so gratifying. The way audiences have responded, too.