LAFF 2014: Director Says to Be Popular, Make Films About 'Vera Farmiga's Dad's Nose Hairs' — hollywoodreporter.com

Directors Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry), Debra Granik (Winter's Bone) and Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine) shared the secrets of making popular films with integrity intact at a Los Angeles Film Festival panel at Luxe City Center Hotel on June 15. When a member of the packed audience -- mostly filmmakers, as proven by a show of hands -- asked how to make a film that appeals to his father, who just wants a fun movie he doesn't have to think deeply about, Granik said, "[A genre film] is a Trojan horse, and inside a shell that may look more familiar and mainstream, a thriller or high-stakes adventure, you are detonating something that would not cross your dad's radar, something unexpected, original, so your dad would be like, 'What? Who knew?'"

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