so James, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us.  

after directing one of your owns scripts with the decade,

how was it to hand boxes over to rene?

thanks for having me ...

it was a welcomed change.  the decade was a great experience 

but it took a lot out of me physically and emotionally.

it was nice to write a script that i knew was on par for 

what Rene and i were wanting to tell...

we talked about alternating directing on projects so obviously 

it was his turn, but i don't think it became real for him 

until i submitted the casting breakdown w/ his name on it 

as the director.

it was a cool day.

as far as on the set, the actors went to Rene for their direction, 

but when they were really stuck they knew they could come to me 

w/ questions about the dialogue or about the project as a whole

nice tie by the way ...

thanks, it was a gift from your previous production

designer, amanda.  or a. willa as you say...

where did the idea from boxes come from?  from what i hear

some of these things really happened...

boxes came from a lot of places ... 

the boxes that rene and i often feel trapped in the 

reality of life outside the box

a want to alert people to their condition in the box 

as well as a certain film that was released on 

october 15th by a certain director named david fincher

you're right knute, a lot of the stories in boxes are true.... 

and you know who you are if you're in this film ...

so knute

any plans to join us full time on the west coast?

stock options are a hard thing to say no too, you know what

i mean?  plus i can’t take all those fake names...

lets talk a little about Fight Club.  how did it influence

you, and why did it only do $35M in the US?

i know what you mean ...

the fake names are tough and there's other fake stuff too, word .

fight club is a huge influence its sad that people were scared away 

by the alleged violence .. hmm one person dies, two gunshots are fired

compare that to the much loved saving private ryan people are just too 

scared but david fincher is not scared and neither is coyote arm films

we'll talk about coyote arm in a minute, but back to boxes... 

do you have any favorite scenes or images in the film?

i always enjoy the opening sequence which is roughly 4 minutes all 

done in one take i think the shots of everyone looking in the mirror 

is something that everyone can relate to and the 5 and 8 sequence 

at the continental is very true to life

tell us about the showing on IFC... 

how do you think this will affect your future pictures?

the premiere on IFC is opening a lot of doors for us, the film and our

future projects.  IFC has been fantastic as far as promoting our film 

and we recently got invited to speak on a panel for the 

IFP North Meet Your Maker festival in minneapolis.  

i've heard a lot of great things about that little midwestern town.

this also will be a calling card for future coyote arm films 

as we have the standard of what people will expect from us and 

the level that we need to exceed on our next few projects.

long story long, IFC has been a true blessing for all of our hard work.

thanks for taking the time james.

september 1, 2000