Question: First off, I loved how passionate you were on the DVD, you really seem to enjoy your work.

Catherine Hardwicke: Was that me? Or maybe an animated version of me? We had a lot of fun making that movie.

Question: What were the differences between co-writing Thirteen and using Stacey Peralta's script in Lords of Dogtown?

Catherine: I did do a little on the script, Stacey and I have been friends for years and he recommended me for the job. When I took the job I immediately went to interview Stacey, Jay Adams in Hawaii and Tony Alva, as many of the Z-boys and girls I could, to see what other things I might want to layer into the story. So I did shape it somewhat, most directors do it. You get involved with the people and try to dig into the authentic stories.

Question: What was the switch from production designer to director like?

Catherine: Production designer is kind of an unsung hero on a movie. You work really hard. You're building all these sets in sometimes like five different states. You'll have 200 people working for you and you've got to deliver on schedule and on budget. You learn how to organize a crew and how to create a vision. I worked with a lot of great directors, Cameron Crowe, David O. Russell, Richard Linklater. It all just helps me.

Question: Lords of Dogtown seems to be about passion…

Catherine These kids have a passion for life, they are on the streets creating something no one had ever done before. When they skated a pool no one had ever done that before. No one had done a front side air before Tony Alva.

When I did the movie Thirteen no one had done a movie with a 13 year-old girl and had her star in it. That was a challenge for me, trying to make a skateboard movie that reached you on a deeper level. For me I'm always looking for an interesting story like that, or things that are going on in the world that are scary. How do I make it better, or how to illuminate a corner of our lives?

Question: Innovation is a big passion for you then…

Catherine: Yeah I was the production designer for Three Kings, I thought David [Russell] did such innovative things with that. How do you get people to feel more, to connect more with a film?

Question: Beach Boys songs?

Catherine: Exactly!

Question:: Do you skate now?

Catherine: I surf, I snowboard, but my skating is not so good. I can get on a board but I'm not going to brag about it. Lance Mountain got our skateboarding shots, he's intuitive, and he can get in a pool and skate behind these guys. He's skated for so long he knows where they are going to go and how to capture that real rush on camera.

Question: What's next for you?

Catherine: I'm working on a cult classic, a book called "The Monkey Wrench Gang". This is a book written by Edward Abbey, he was a crazy funny eccentric man that lived in the American southwest around Moab, Utah and then he felt developers and industry encroaching on it so he formed this band of pranksters to try and draw attention to the environment. This book is really funny. Pearl Jam's pirate radio station was named "Monkey Wrench", there's this huge fan club all over the world.

Guys like Robert Redford, Sean Penn, Dennis Hopper, all these guys have been very interested in trying to get this movie made now we hope we're going to actually do it here at Sony. It's a comedy, a crazy action. We are getting a draft from William Goldman (Princess Bride, All the President's Men, Misery, Maverick), that came in from New York today. Then we'll make the formal offers. We have a lot of cool people really excited about it.

Lords of Dogtown comes out on DVD in both an Unrated and Rated version on September 27th. You can also get the movie for the Sony PSP. ~ Laremy Legel