"In addition to that, I had worked on tons of movies in almost every position possible. I felt comfortable with the way the story is told," Hancock said. "I became conversant with the tech side of it and knew the emotional side from the writing and character standpoint, and from my theater background."

When The Blind Side opened last November, it earned back its full production budget on opening weekend, an almost unknown feat in this economy. "And the second weekend, [the box office] went up 20%, which is an unbelievable thing. It's been surprise after surprise," John said during a recent interview.

At the Oscars® with New Friends

Hancock found himself sitting in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood for this year's Oscar® Awards, watching Sandra Bullock take the stage and the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture. "It's kind of other worldly, because you kind of never think when you're taking on projects that they could be nomination-worthy. "

Sitting behind Hancock at the Oscar® Awards were Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the family whose story Hancock told in his film. "They are amazing, fun, wonderful people," Hancock said about the Tuohys. "The cherry on top [about making the movie] is the friendship I have with the Tuohys. They'll be lifelong friends. You'll never have a better time than hanging out with the Tuohys."

Hancock set ground rules early on. He didn't want to portray just the positive side of the Tuohy family, but to give a realistic picture of their life. "There's a responsibility and obligation when you take on telling a true story, but that said, we were both really fortunate," he said.

"They were fortunate they came across someone who thought they had a story worth telling. And I got lucky because they left me alone, and I mean that in the best possible way.

"They said, 'We trust you," and that's a hard thing to do when someone is putting your life out there. They're going to be exposed across the world."


Movies are a Director's Signature

Hancock is familiar with telling true stories. The Rookie, the first film he directed, was also based on a true story. "The Rookie was probably the lowest budget studio movie Disney did, and they gave me a shot to direct it.

"When you direct a movie, that's more of your signature than writing. The Rookie is me, and A Perfect World is me. Though I wasn't crazy about how Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil turned out, I adored the book and was pretty proud of the script. But you put them [scripts] out there and see," Hancock stated.

Eastwood has a reputation for not re-writing scripts he directs because he believes the director should make the film the producers paid for. "What I respect about Clint," Hancock said, "is that when he responds to the script, he doesn't feel the need to mess with it. I think a lot of directors and studios feel the need to mess with it."

Your Script Is a Blueprint

But re-writing once you're in production is a normal part of the process. "You're always going to piddle with it," Hancock said. "Every time you read a scene, there might be a little thing you want to do with it. When you have a script and it's going to get made, all of a sudden there's a deadline. At some point, you know you're going to shoot a scene and you can't re-write it any more.

"You learn a lot from shooting the first week. You've learned something about the actors playing the characters. You've learned strengths and possible weaknesses. You've learned what works for you camera-wise. I think it would be kind of stupid not to make adjustments that you know will serve the movie well in the second week.

"The re-writing I did on The Blind Side," Hancock recalled, "was mostly location changes. This scene isn't going to take place on the playground but at the Laundromat. You're also on the fly listening to words come out of the actors' mouths. You might have them change a word or say it in a different manner. You're constantly adjusting and letting it become what it wants to be.

"A script is not a movie. It's a blueprint for a building. If you start to build it and realize there's no restroom on the first floor, that's a real flaw. So you need to build one. You can't say 'The blueprint doesn't call for one, so we're not going to have one.'"

Did he expect to have an Academy Award®-nominated film? That was one of the surprises for Hancock. "You just want to make movies that you want to make, that are worth the time you want to spend on them," said Hancock. "For this to have been received the way it has is really, really great, and I have a big smile on my face."

As Executive Editor of ChristianCinema.com, Angela writes and edits articles and movie reviews, interviews filmmakers, and searches for new films to add to the ChristianCinema.com catalog. A primary focus is interviewing today's filmmakers to get to know the person behind the camera and gain an inside look at the process of making movies. Angela also writes the ChristianMovieNews blog, an ongoing dialogue about faith and film.