THC: Some people might try to label this a drug movie.

DA: I was never interested in making a drug movie. A lot of people were saying "Why are you making a drug movie?" and I say "It's not a drug movie." What makes this film interesting for me to tell was the Sara Goldfarb story, this counterpoint that says here is a traditional drug story of Harry, Tyrone, and Marion that we've seen before, but the Sara story we've never seen before. What it shows us is that anything can be a drug; it doesn't have to be heroin. It could be TV, it could be coffee, it could be alcohol, it could be hope. It could be love. Because, ultimately the film is about the lengths people go to escape their reality. And when you escape your reality, you create a hole in your present, and you'll use anything to feed that present. And as you keep feeding the hole, well for example the hole in Harry's arm gets larger and larger until it devours him.

THC: How would you describe your personal vision as a filmmaker?

DA: I want to make films that communicate to a lot of people. I grew up on Hollywood movies, and I love them. So I think there is a way to work on that scale and be true to yourself through your artistic vision. The biggest crime I think in movie making is when you bore an audience, and I really don't want to do that. I want to keep the thrills coming as much as possible. I really enjoy entertaining people, it's great thrill when you scare an audience, or you make them laugh or cry. The worst insult for example was when some people found parts of Pi boring and that hurt a lot. For Requiem the people that hate it, really hate it, and the people that love it, really love it. People are having panic attacks and shaking when they walk out. For me, that's what always excited me most about film. When I went to see movies that just fucking blew my mind.

THC: Are you working on the next Batman?

DA: Nothing is set, but I'm working on a screenplay, it looks like I'll be working on a screenplay with Frank Miller, who wrote the Dark Knight Returns, we'll see what happens. But we haven't started working on it, we haven't even started thinking about it, the deal's not done. Right now I'm also working on an original new science-fiction film. I've been working on it for ten months, it's untitled, and I'm going to push everything forward, and see what comes out first.