When writer Michael Patrick King signed on to adapt Sex and the City into a TV series back in 1998, we're willing to bet the farm he never imagined the success he and everyone involved in the popular HBO series would go on to enjoy. After a massively popular six year run as a TV series, the fan outcry for a Sex and the City movie began almost immediately following the finale. Now, four years after the series ended its run, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis are back for a reunion, this time on the big screen in Sex and the City: The Movie, which opens Friday, May 30.

At the film's recent press junket in New York City, Sex and the City movie director and writer, Michael Patrick King, sat down with the press and opened up about going from the small-screen to the big screen, how he approached the story, the tone of the film as compared to the TV series, how he incorporated sex into the movie, and his thoughts on working with Sarah Jessica Parker.

Michael Patrick King on transitioning from television to make the first movie:

"The interesting thing about that dilemma, it’s like another label - now you’re a film maker versus a director in TV. But there is a little bit of a difference in that. You know, I directed a lot of those television episodes and when it came to the fact that the canvas was going to be so much bigger. Like the first thing I thought was it just can’t be two heads talking, you just can’t cut back and forth between a head and a head in a movie, it’s just not going to happen. I first approached it from the writing point of view, which is: I’m going to tell a more of a sweeping story. I wanted it to span more time and I knew that the pictures and the images are going to be bigger. So just the one image of them leaving the library, I mean the size of that shot would never have been done on our television show. And I can just imagine what that shot is going to look like in a phone in about three years, those three little dots walking down the stairs. I think that the interesting thing was the amount, the attention to the detail in the filmmaking, the color, the light, the ability to actually concentrate on how to move the camera, and not worrying about leaving the set to go write ten more episodes that we had to do the next couple of weeks. So for me it was just a really beautiful evolution, which is what I tried to do with the whole anyway - was to keep evolving everything a little bit past where it was."

King on the various script changes:

"It’s a very simple story. The first thing that happened after we finished the series, there was a flurry of excitement - ‘We’re gonna do a movie. We’re gonna do a movie and what was the story?’ And I never wrote a script because it never really got to contract phase for anyone. It was just a theory, and I think that the money people were floating the ideas around - ‘What would happen, etc.?’ So I came up with the story and, because my evolution as a writer is always to do something different than I’ve done, the first thing I came up with was sort of a story where they deconstructed as a group. The four girls split apart because we’d been together for six years. The new energy to me was like, ‘Okay, what if they all separate and what are their lives like separate?’ So it was a little bit more of a caper and a completely different story. And then when it didn’t get made it went away - and thank God it didn’t get made because this is a much stronger moment because now my impulse was a reunion and it’s at the right time for audience because there’s actually been a hole where the girls haven’t been, so there’s a need to see them. There’s been water under the bridge in a great way and I always knew that this [was the way to go], and it’s a whole new script. I mean, Sarah Jessica called me up and said 'movie' and we both agreed it has to be a new story, what do you think? So of course I always knew the big story left untold was literally the big story. Would Carrie and Big get married? What would that be if they did? What wouldn’t it be? And I knew I was doing a summer movie and I thought romantic comedies, a lot are always built around a wedding. But Carrie Bradshaw is such a complicated character, it’s got to be a complicated story. So I started with that."

On DVD bonus features:

"There was a lot filmed. But here’s the exciting thing for me: New Line always knew that there was going to be a big movie because it’s four female leads and that never happens. Usually it’s one female lead and her sidekick at Starbucks and as soon as you get long, you cut that scene. So I had four ladies that all had big stories so everybody knew it was going to be big. I mean, thank God it was New Line because they’re the people that did Lord of the Rings, they like big stories. But when I did film a lot - this thing we’re releasing is my director’s cut. I am happy this is what I would’ve cut, this is the stuff I wanted in. And there’s a couple of extra bonuses which we cut that will be on the DVD, which are fun little moments. You get to see Halloween at Charlotte’s house and fun stuff."

On the tone he wanted to set for the film:

"I think my whole palette for writing this was the difference between 35 and 40 and what things you sort of let go of as you evolve into these older characters. So when you’re 35, you have inappropriate sex with all the wrong men, you're drunk, you’re running around New York, and that’s already in the world. You can see that. All you have to do is put on the DVDs, they still exist, they’re 34, 35, and 36-year-olds and they’re making all sorts of inappropriate things. So why do that when it’s already there? Then I thought sex, sexy, it’s the sane thing and I wanted sex in the movie and yet they’re all in committed relationships. So it was a real puzzle, how do you get sex in the movie beyond their love interests? So I explored some sex. I explored Steve and Miranda’s sex life. I explored Samantha’s sex life. It was fun to explore all of that and there’s nudity in it and sex in the series was always comic anyway, it as never sexual. No one ever put in an episode of Sex and the City as an aphrodisiac. If you could have sex after one of our episodes, you have a very strong sex drive. These were almost cautionary tales. Every time something went wrong, it was embarrassing and they muddled on. I always knew I wanted the sex to be comic, so I found ways in the Samantha storyline to show sex everywhere, but where she thought it should be."

King on the speed of getting the movie completed:

"It’s crazy. We started in September, we filmed in late September, and here it is May and it’s post. Everything, pre-production, post-production was very aggressive, but we all worked together so we had a good work ethic. The girls never went in the wrong direction. I said action they were perfect, I said cut."

Michael Patrick King on Sarah Jessica Parker:

"She’s the anchor. Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker, the series wouldn’t have ever existed if it wasn’t for her. First of all, she was the big "get," she was the catch. She had never done a television series as an adult. It was a very big deal to get her. She was the diamond that we fashioned the crown around. And for me as a writer, she’s everything you’d ever want. Some moments, she’s absolutely ordinary. Then the next moment she’s a major superstar, visually, and she understands everything about acting. But I can never see her acting. When I sat down to write Carrie Bradshaw’s movie role, I knew I had somebody who could play anything I wrote. So I really took full advantage because her journey is quite dramatic. I mean it’s a big symphony of acting, but you don’t see an instrument. You don’t see her playing it. My experience is the camera is right on her. It’s almost as if you’re seeing someone live in front of the camera instead of perform. At the same time, I never saw the producer when I was looking through the lens as the director, and she’s very much a producer. It was interesting. We both let go of those parts when we were doing our other parts."