“For ‘Believe Me,’ our goal was simply to craft a darkly comedic, contemporary interpretation of a classic fable — in this case, ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf.’ In doing so, we made a clear distinction between the conventions of a fable versus those of a fairy tale — so no imaginary magical world or overt good-versus-evil conflict (both hallmarks of the fairy tale), and a clear ‘moral truth’ conveyed by the story (and explicitly stated at the end). For example, during production we ended up changing the initially scripted ‘Once upon a time’ opening — even though we knew audiences would likely be expecting it — as that wording is characteristic of fairy tales, not fables. And while we did put a humorous twist on the tale’s moral lesson, we did not set out to make an explicitly political film — though it was frequently interpreted as such. From the moment our actors read the script, up through the viewer reactions to the finished film, people noted explicit connections to the unfortunate current political climate — one in which flagrant lying is rewarded, even celebrated. So I suppose the moral of this story might be that whatever the intentions of the screenwriter (in this case, the extraordinarily talented Barry Gribble), or the creative guidance of the director, the ultimate interpretation of the finished work inevitably rests with the audience.”