By Thomas Chau

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Recently, I had the great pleasure of chatting with Brad Silberling, the writer and director of "Moonlight Mile," opening in limited release this weekend and expanding wide in October.

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Holly Hunter, Brad wrote "Moonlight Mile" inspired by actual events in his life. Brad was dating TV actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989 when tragically, she was murdered by a stalker outside her home.

As a result of her death, Brad and Rebecca's family fought for privacy rights in California. Brad moved on with his life, and went on to direct TV shows and pilots before heading into film. His two big-screen credits, "Casper" and "City of Angels," combined to total a box-office earnings of over $500 million worldwide.

Click here to listen to our interview with Brad Silberling of "Moonlight Mile" (RealPlayer Required)

Regarding “Moonlight Mile,” how much of this movie is autobiographical?

You said that you specifically wrote the two parts for Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon. Why did you want them to play these characters?

In Susan’s case, the character of JoJo Floss, that character is the closest to somebody in life that I knew and was basing her character on my girlfriend’s mother [along with] her spirit, her wit, her tone, her course of nature quality so that was easy. To take someone in a movie and base it on real life, that was Susan, without a doubt.

In Dustin’s case, it was more of a case of wanting to find a guy who would break your heart while trying so hard to keep running fast enough to stay ahead of the wrecking ball. I find Dustin most interesting when he’s playing characters that are a bit broken and a bit chipped, and frankly, who are underdogs and that’s really the man that I’ve seen [Ben] Floss.

What about Jake Gyllenhaal? He used to be Hollywood’s best kept secret…

(Laughs) He was. All it takes is a couple of good parts and suddenly, you go from being a secret to the “it” guy, which is what we’re watching happening with Jake, which is really wonderful. To me, it’s really simple: He’s alone in his age and his peer group because he has the relaxation, the trust on screen, and the abilities of somebody 20 years older than his age. He has an incredibly expressive set of eyes and face that allow him to be like a silent film actor, which, for the first hour of the film, is vital because the character is armed with so very few words. He’s so busy with everybody checking in with what everybody needs him to be. You can tell vast numbers of stories with a face like his.

Were there any other choices for Jake’s role or were you set on bringing him into the movie?

I was when I met him. The frustrating thing was that I wrote the first draft of the movie in 1993 and put it away. When I decided in 1998 after “City of Angels” that this was what I was going to do next, I first thought about rewriting it just to come back to the script. But after that, I was very much at a loss because I knew the character was going to be very reflective of a lot of parts of myself and I didn’t know who that was out there. It was very confusing. And then somebody pointed me to Jake’s way and once I met him, it was eerie. It was like meeting the younger brother that I never had.

After “Casper” and “City of Angels,” why did you decide to go back to this movie?

Put it this way, it’s funny: I’ve been waiting to do it. Even after “Casper,” I still wasn’t convinced that I had the stripes to go to it from a studio standpoint. In the end, my first two movie made a half a billion dollars worldwide but people were still scared to spend $20 million dollars on it because it’s an unusual film. A boundary buster.

I imagine it must have been a very difficult time when this tragedy happened. Why did you feel the need to pour your emotions into a film?

Well, in the end, I think the only reason we create art is to try to express ourselves. Other people may have their reasons but for me, if I feel like I have anything worthy of communicating, it’s what comes from me emotionally. Your life is forever altered if you lose somebody violently whom you loved. To not address this in my work would mean that I was just going off and becoming a traffic cop.

As a result of Rebecca’s death, I understand that there were a lot of laws put into place in California for celebrity privacy?

Well beyond celebrity privacy, actually, for any individual. The first thing we went to work on was trying to button up everybody’s DMV records because, effectively, her life was stolen away for $5 dollars. A private detective was able to go to the DMV, as anybody could, and purchase her information. So that was the first step which not only was to benefit celebrities but also try to protect every individual out there.

And as I understand it, you told Holly Hunter to talk to Marcia Clark, who prosecuted Rebecca’s stalker?

Yeah I basically asked Marcia to spend just a little bit of time with Holly because I was obviously patterning a lot of spirit in Holly’s character after Marcia, who was extraordinary and I never forgot her skill and personality. So Holly hooked up with Marcia and it was fantastic experience. She gave a very clear picture of what this woman could be and she felt the respect for the character.

While doing the movie, did it bring back bad memories?

The funny thing is that the expectation would be that it was completely emotionally draining. It’s the opposite. It was the same experience as writing the screenplay. If you get to bring your life with you, it’s not to say that you don’t shed tears because things can be really moving, but it’s just the opposite. I think that if I went off and directed “Aliens” for two years in London, I’d be depressed as hell because I wouldn’t have a life connection to it.

It was wonderful because it was just great actors who came out of a sense of care. These were moments I chose to write because these were moments that I found that were actually very life fulfilling. That’s where the humor from the film comes from. It comes from what was actually came out of the hardest situation possible. Those are the enjoyable things to bring to the screen for a filmmaker. They’re just pleasurable.

"Moonlight Mile" opens in limited release today, and expands wider in October.

Click here to listen to our interview with Brad Silberling of "Moonlight Mile" (RealPlayer Required)