I wrote a couple of scripts on spec that didn't get made but got some attention, and I then got offers to write professionally.

I didn't look at it as a transition so much, because I never intended to have a career as a journalist, writing about people who make movies.

Roger [Corman] didn't actually hire me, though. I was hired by AIP [American International Pictures], the studio that made the picture, which was Sam Arkoff and Jim Nicholson. It was a great learning experience for me, because not only did I work on the script, but they hired me back to go on location when they were making the movie, to write new scenes and so forth.

I had written the script a few years earlier for Paramount, then later got hired with Sam [Fuller] to write an entirely new script that he was going to direct. And that was one of the great thrills of my professional life.

Whereas to write, all you need is paper and an idea, so I felt that writing might be my stepping stone.