J.J. Abrams (Lost, MI 3, Cloverfield) rifs on his creative origins and motivations in this highly entertaining TED talk. It’s a lot of fun, he’s a great speaker.

He also makes some interesting comments about what makes movies compelling. In doing so he says something to the effect that: “When people make sequels … they rip of the wrong thing.”

I couldn’t agree more. Pretty much every time I’ve been disappointed by a sequel (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 anyone?) is because they made a sequel to the wrong parts of a movie I loved.