Jonathan Demme: 'Movie-making is too expensive'

Jonathan Demme has confessed that he is "not comfortable" with the high cost of making movies in Hollywood.

The Silence of the Lambs director revealed that he became aware of the financial pitfalls of film-making after 2004's The Manchurian Candidate underperformed at the box office despite the project's $80 million cost.

"I made a version of Manchurian Candidate that cost a fortune. It was just so much money, and you think of something like Napoleon Dynamite made for under $100,000 and you're like, 'F**k, I want to do that'," Demme explained to PopEater.

"The effort going into making these huge budget Hollywood movies wasn't for me. After The Manchurian Candidate, I had to rest up and get re-acquainted with myself."

Demme added that he hopes to change the process in the future, saying: "To do these high style films now it costs so much to make them and I am not comfortable spending a lot of money on a movie anymore.

"The money is needed in other places. I love the stuff you see on YouTube made by 12-year-olds."

Anthony Hopkins recently expressed his gratitude to Demme for casting him in the role of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.