DEADLINE: This prequel was an easier sell, but because WarnerMedia put its entire 2021 slate as day-and-date on HBO Max, you are back on HBO. How did that feel?
CHASE: I don't think, frankly that I would've taken the job if I knew it was going to be a day-and-date release. I think it's awful.
DEADLINE: It is kind of ironic that here you make a theatrical film based on the iconic HBO series, and it's coming out day-and-date on something with HBO in the title. What did you feel when that edict came down?
CHASE: Extremely angry, and I still am. I mean, I don't know how much you go into this, you know, like…okay. If I was…one of those guys, if one of those executives was sitting here and I was to start pissing and moaning about it, they'd say, you know, there's 17 other movies that have the same problem. What could we do? Covid! Well, I know, but those 16 other movies didn't start out as a television show. They don't have to shed that television image before you get people to the theater. But we do. And that's where we're at. People should go see it in a theater. It was designed to be a movie. It was…it's beautiful as a movie. I never thought that it would be back on HBO. Never.
DEADLINE: You really could have walked away from this?
CHASE: Yeah…I mean, well, I say that…okay. I could've walked away, yes, but there was a part of that story where my partner Lawrence was saying come on, let's get to work. Let's do something, do something, do something. It'll be good for you. Now, do you walk away from that? I don't know.