'Straight Outta Compton' director F. Gary Gray speaks out

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- While reflecting on the early days of N.W.A, F. Gary Gray, the director of "Straight Outta Compton," says he doesn't think the group members had any idea how influential they would one day become.

"That was the beauty of it, they were just being honest about their environment and having fun. They were really young, and it just happened," Gray said.

N.W.A's success and subsequent high-profile split seemed to make the story ripe from a big-screen retelling.

Gray says it took several tries to launch the film, and more importantly, to get it right.

"A lot of times when you make these types of movies they're old and gray, or gone, and these guys are still relevant. Also, it's a controversial movie, it's not necessarily mainstream, and it takes a lot to kind of mount this type of movie," he said.

Gray is proud of the final product, but he admits watching the film brought up many different emotions.

"It makes me feel a combination of things, definitely sad that we're still telling the story, and we're still kind of complaining about things that should be history. But it's encouraging that we can tell the story, and so that people can feel the impact from a different perspective and see it from a different perspective, and maybe some change will happen because of that," Gray said.

The film blew away industry expectations over the weekend with a $60.2 million debut.

Gray hasn't made an official announcement, but did tell The Hollywood Reporter that he's spending a lot of time looking up at the sky right now. He's heavily researching a science-fiction movie.