He also directed the late Paul Walker in the Hurricane Katrina dramaHoursa few years back.

So, these are busy times for the writer/producer.

Eric Heisserer:Sure.

Theres really nothing to keep it going or sustain it for at least 90 minutes.

What better way to represent that then the monster that only exists in the dark?

What was the original short?

Was that a scene from the feature and its expanded or just the idea?

It goes back and forth.

you better figure out characters and story and all of that.

And David came along with the package where he was going to direct the feature?

Yes, that was the plan.

How did that work out?

Sure, especially since this is his first time directing an American feature.

You know a movie is healthy when everyone involved is trying to make the same version of the movie.

Here, we had a very parallel sense of where we were going.

Is this the first feature youre producing as well or the first youre officially producing?

Yes, this is the first one Im officially a producer on.

I was also an executive producer on a sci-fi movie thats coming out.

What was involved with that role?

Often as a writer, youre not even on set when theyre making the movie.

You finish the script, turn it in and it goes off and becomes its own thing.

In this case, you could be more involved, so were you on set the whole time?

If I wasnt off in my home office writing pages for the following day.

I think it worked out better.

Producer needs this and we should do something else.

James doesnt do little one off boo moments that are just by themselves, very rarely.

That was a good methodology to keep in the back of our minds as we worked through it.

That was a matter of just fortuitous timing.

Theres a lot of luck involved in me getting a swing atElm Street.

Social medias going to bite everyone in the butts somedayI know that from experience.

I was at South by Southwest when your movieHoursdebuted there.

Are you gearing to do more directing even though youre so busy as a writer?

Sometimes more, depending on the size of the project.

I just have to find the project that I want to be monogamous for that long.

I was just doing it on spec.

Yeah, and small worldIm co-writingVan Helsingfor Universal with Jon Spaihts who wrotePassengers.

You two must have a lot of interesting stories to share, so have you worked with him before?

This is our first time, but we talk about passion projects a lot together.

Van Helsingis interesting because the name has been around since Bram Stoker wroteDracula.

Do you have to just ignore those previous versions and do something new?

Right, theres really no relation between that movie and ours.

Were building something brand new and were really excited about it.

Are you still involved with developing a movie based on Neil GaimansSandman?

Did you go back and read the entire run to prepare?

I guess you must be into comics at least a little having written some stuff for Dark Horse.

Was that comics connection something that went hand in hand with your work as a screenwriter?

Ive already been a comic fan since I was a kid, so this seemed like a natural progression.

I mean, its a tough call.

As a comic book, you have fewer doorways you have to go through.

So many other people get involved on the filmmaking side of things.

Lights Outopens in North America on Friday, July 22. you could read our reviewhere.