One thing that's lingered with me for twenty years is that, when I first saw Dark City, I assumed that it was based off of a comic book or a novel.
It took me a while to realize that it was an entirely original film.
It was based off of nothing.
It's odd that it's so rare that such brilliant films simply come out of a person's head just being meant to be a film.
Before he died, Akira Kurosawa once lamented that he wasn't excited about any new filmmakers because nobody reads anymore.
I think that he was mildly pessimistic in his view; but his insight is important.
If you don't read, you can't write. If you can't write (unless you're Gaspar Noé), you can't shoot anything.
It's not about reading so you can find something to adapt. It's about reading so you understand how stories work in their simplest form.
None of us are born in a vacuum. None of us are blank slates who suddenly know how to tell stories. Our originality is, and will always be, a composition of what we've exposed ourselves to.
I'm not trying to diss movies that were adapted from written stories -- far from it. I'm still working on an adaptation of The Wall by Sartre. The Godfather was an adaptation. Mystic River was an adaptation. There Will Be Blood was adapted from a portion of Oil! by Upton Sinclair -- really, most of the best movies ever made came from novels. Some of my favorite movies are Shakespeare plays.
Still, if we don't keep reading, our filmmaking medium is bound to die of attrition.
As Picasso said, "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal."
You can't be a great artist if you have nothing to steal.
Reading is the best way to get there.