102: Road Trip to the Land of the Horse People

The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million kilowatts of power. Provide more cooling in the containment chamber. To your stations, we have a movie meltdown.

It's a machine, it doesn't get scared. What's up, and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I am Brian. I'm Marlena. I'm Greg.

And we are currently on the road again. We are currently in a vehicle heading down 64. We're going to go to Scarefest this weekend and record our episode up there and along the way, if you will, so. That is the plan. This is our Scarefest coverage.

So, I guess we will do a basic geek activities. It's been a little while since we've all sort of, or at least even us, have been in the same room here. So, let's run down some basic stuff. I haven't, a lot of what I've done is preparing for this, so I haven't watched tons. I did watch Wreck, which, has anybody seen, Marlene, have you seen it?

It's kind of what I expected. I mean, I'd heard a lot about it and just never gotten around to it. So I knew what I was in for going in. I think the biggest thing I got from it is the fact that it's not so much a movie. Especially, I mean, because I knew it's, I mean, it's first-person camera.

It's all kind of, you know, the found footage idea. So it's definitely very Cloverfield-like. But to me, I was expecting more of like, Cloverfield has a pretty good, normal story still. I mean, it's still pretty cohesive and plays like a pretty standard plot, even though it's done in that, you know, Verite style. This, I mean, the first half of it starts out like that, but then as you go on, it really, like, the last half hour or more.

Is just like a ride, basically. I mean, it's like there is very little story anymore. You're just riding along with the camera and, and there's some awesome shots in there. So, I mean, it's still, the whole thing is still a good experience, but I think I was just expecting more of a movie kind of idea. And it's, it's, it's, you know, it's a lot more of just straightforward, you know, like it starts off, you know, someone doing like news footage kind of coverage.

So it plays, you know, the first half of the place sort of like that. And then everything, you know, starts to go off the rails. And then by the end, it's just, yeah, You lose all sense of, like, plot, and it's just run for your damn life. So, again, it's very effective at that. I do give them credit for putting together, visually, a pretty amazing movie.

I've heard hit and miss stuff on the second one, so I don't know. I might have to check out the second one. And the remake, I've heard, is pretty cool. The American remake is, from what I heard, pretty close to the exact same setup. So, again, might have to watch that one, too.

So. That's about the only other thing I watched was the. And this was, again, one of those that was just sort of on, and I didn't plan on watching it, and then I. It was one of those, and... Marlena, how many of the Harry Potter movies have you seen?

None. I thought you at least owned the first couple. Yeah, but I never got through it. Well, see, that's how I. Was, because I remember watching one or two of them with you and sleeping through them, which I guess we both fell asleep at that point.

So, yeah, I had not really... For the longest time, I hadn't seen any of them. I'd sort of started watching the first one several times and went to sleep. I thought I'd pretty much made it through the first one eventually, years later. And I thought I'd watched the second one, but as I went into it, I hadn't even seen it.

I'd seen, like, the first 20 minutes of the second one, and I must have gone to sleep. So they were playing them on one of the cable stations, and, you know, with Harry Potter, there's not a lot to cut out. So at least I didn't have to worry about it being a badly edited version. So I ended up kind of watching the first two of them, And here's what I have to say. I mean, as much as we keep, like, bitching about them trying to, you know, we're always so nostalgic for, oh, man, they don't make stuff like the Never a New Story.

They don't make stuff like the Dark Crystal. I finally realized that's what these are. Like, they really are this generation's version of that because they're, I mean, that's what we always say about those because when they make crappy movies now, they're just crappy. Whereas, you know, those movies were well-made. The Harry Potter stuff is so well-made.

And I kind of knew that, but I'd never just sat down and watched it. But by the time you get to, like, the big finale of that second movie, I'm like, this is pretty epic. And, I mean, this is pretty decent special effects, especially for the years ago when that. One was made. And, I mean, like, it's a pretty decent adventure story.

It's actually got real actors in it. I mean, everything about it is pretty... I mean, not that this is news to anybody, but it's funny that, you know, because we were always... kind of making that complaint that they don't make good stories for kids anymore that are not, you know, stupid, dumbed-down stuff. These are pretty hardcore stories. There's a lot of violence in them, and as you get further in the series, I know they start killing people off.

So, I mean, I finally came to that conclusion that, yeah, what we're always complaining about is out there. It's at least the Harry Potter. There's probably a few others. But, yeah, I just, that was kind of interesting that I finally realized that, This is that generation's never-ending story in Dark Crystal. Sure.

I've seen them all. I'll admit it. I'll come out of the closet. Well, you also have kids. Well, you know, my kids haven't seen any of them.

That wasn't him? No, no, no, no. I had the opportunity at a job that I could listen to things nonstop, and I listened to all the books with Stephen Fry reading them. Oh, that's kind of cool. Which was...

If you ever get the chance on a long trip, or if you have a job where you can sit down with headphones, it was a treat, and it was a fantastic, better than reading or movies could ever portray. I think he did a fantastic job at it, and then turned around and watched all the movies afterwards, and yeah, I'll admit it, I'm a geek. I loved them. I think they're as good as anything that I grew up with, and if I were a pre-teen now, I would probably be going nuts over the whole thing. I think they're that good.

Especially in the laters. Yeah, because they bring in more... Especially the movies, they bring in darker directors. By the third one, they start bringing in real. I mean, Columbus did a good job on the first couple, but he was just sort of setting up the rules in the universe, and then they handed him.

Off to people that wanted to do more. And that's kind of what's cool with these, is because it's such a long series, they really do give it a chance for the characters to grow and get older with the audience which does give it a an excuse to be kind of darker as it goes along yeah i. It it becomes it becomes extremely dark by and and by the end of the deathly hollows i'm i'm excited about that i think it's going to be a a really good i don't like that they're necessarily making it into two films but doesn't surprise me a bit actually yeah Well, it doesn't surprise me, but I don't necessarily like it. I mean, it is nice that you're going to be able to get the full story by watching two, but you know that it's still done for money.

Oh, yeah. Because the other films could have been made... The past one that was released last year, there was so much that was missing from it, and they focused more on the teenage love aspect with all the kids... than the fantastic adventure story that also went on during the movie. And I think they really lost some with it. Since they're selling out now and making two movies, why couldn't they make two movies for the last one?

That's kind of what I thought. I was like, I don't know why they haven't broken this up and made it even longer a series. Because, I mean. They've got the built-in audience. They've got all the actors signed on except the ones that keep kicking off.

So it's like... Well, the. Actors are getting too old. That's the problem, I think. Kind of.

But, I mean, if they were on top of it and they were cranking them out, I mean, they could go ahead and shoot most of the footage for, like, the storyline. Right. And then hang on to those last ones and just start adding in special effects. And the longer they wait on those, the special effects get better and better over the years. So it's like. they really should have just started shooting all the footage for the last couple books, you know, these last few years, and just sit on them, and like, again, if they're worried about making money, just keep putting out another movie every, you know, six months or a year, and again, it's, I can see them, that being a goal just to make money with that, but at the same time, I feel like if there's a better story there, if you end up telling a better story by breaking it up into two movies, I'm fine with that.

It's like I would rather have a better story than one that's hacked up and crammed into an hour and a half or two hours than just break it up and make it three or four hours and have a better arc to the story. And granted, they'll get a hell of a lot of extra money out of it. I wouldn't mind. If it's good, I say make it. That's how I've always been.

If you can, I think they proved that with The Lord of the Rings. If it's good enough, people will see it, people will watch it, and you can make a ton of money off it. And those are ridiculously long. I mean, if you look at the uncut versions, by the time you put all of it back together, I mean, it's a day's worth of watching a movie. But it worked, and, you know, people loved it, and it told the story as close as you can get on those kind of books.

So, yeah, I mean, they did a good job with that, and I think that's probably what they could have done with Harry Potter, and I don't know why they waited until this last book when they realized, oh. God, we're running out of books. Right, right. I don't know, they really should have thought ahead on that. There definitely is enough material that you can make two movies out of the last one, but again, I say, why not do it with them all?

Well, I heard that with the third one, like from right off the bat, as soon as Columbus left, they started condensing that third book down, and people were like, oh, they missed all these subplots and stuff going on, and I'm just like, From that point on, I was like, why don't you guys spread this out and just do the story right? And in the meantime, you'll make a hell of a lot of money. But they're going to do that anyway, so I don't worry about that. That money is built in at this point, so. You know what.

I always thought is really strange about the whole Harry Potter franchise? Most people bitch about movie versus book, movie versus book. And, like, with the Harry Potter movie and book, people don't really do that. They're kind of, like, one thing. Like, they go to...

They are, like, hand in hand. Like, I don't hear as many people complaining about, like, it wasn't, like, the book at all. You know, like. No, I do, but only with super hardcore. Like, the people that are into it will, like, curse the movies.

Like. And what's funny is the worst place that I heard that was at the Harry and the Potter show. And yes, I'm dork enough to have been to a Harry and the Potter show. What's funny is I'd been to three Harry and the Potter shows before I'd ever read a book. I've still not read a book.

Or seen any of the movies. But I'd seen them play three different times. Live because I thought it was such a ridiculous idea that I was like, oh shit, I have to see this. And the thing is, they were good. And then I was like, what's funny is by the first time, they were in front of a bookstore out by the sidewalk, and there were like 20 people there.

By the second time, they were in like, well, pretty good. They were in like the teen club kind of thing, but there was a huge crowd. I mean, that was the one that you were saying, like people were sitting on the floor because they were about to pass out. It was freaking hot because there were so many kids packed in that place. But they were like, already people were freaking out for them at that point.

By the third show I saw of them, They had an auditorium that would house most good-sized label-based bands, and they were like the fucking Beatles. Pre-teen girls were screaming and losing their damn minds for these dorky guys. And I was just like, you guys are on to something. And I don't know if they're still putting stuff out. I have not seen them touring lately, but I was like, holy shit, you guys are on to something here.

Wow. Because, yeah, girls lost their damn minds. But what was funny, and that was my point, is that at those shows, especially like that third one, there was. A very anti-movie vibe. Like, they were on stage being like.

Screw those movies. It's all about the book, man. And the crowd was cheering. And they were like, we love the books. Reading's awesome.

I mean, it was funny. As much as I don't read and I make fun of reading all the time. How do you make fun of reading? Because I don't like them books. I'll make fun of reading because I want to.

Because I'm a movie dork and I'd rather watch a movie. I'm a dork. But I still read. I can't read. It's not funny.

But what's funny is that it was one of those, even for somebody who makes fun of people who read, nerds, it was so awesome in a way, just as, you know, what basic level of humanity I have, that saw all these kids that excited about reading. I was like, once again, I was like, you've got to give these guys credit and, you know, the J.K. Rawlings and everybody for, like, totally... inciting an entire generation of kids to learn how to read you know i'm just like to be involved in reading to be fucking excited about reading it's like that's kind of amazing really so i you know and i was dork enough to go to a rock show about reading so yeah i mean you gotta you gotta give them credit everybody involved in that they really kind of stepped up and delivered on all of those fronts books movies.

Rock bands you name it it was all pretty damned amazing. Oh, Lord. I have, not to hijack the discussion, but since we're already on Harry Potter, I have to share this moment. Uh-oh. I went and saw the last Harry Potter film last summer. when it was released in the Dollar Theater.

I wasn't going to pay full price. And I went alone because I'm that much of a dork. My wife, though she's read all the Harry Potter films, she's not going to go see it. She's a real nerd. She's a real nerd.

She does, she really, she reads... Book reader. Ten books to one movie she reads. So it was a very empty theater at one of the Dollar Theaters that's now closed. And there were two... large african-american women that sat right in front of me and gave me this gave me the space the the seat the um the gay seat you know to see between.

We're not together i mean we're together but we're not. Together they probably needed this and i'm not saying this to make fun of them in any way because these turned out to be my best friends for the next two hours they they gave me the seat in between they probably needed the seat but that's that's beside the point um They knew these books backwards and forwards. Wow. Every single bit about it. And commented along with the movie.

Oh, wow. Almost as good as any Mystery Science Theater show episode ever. Like, Ron, you better not be eating that candy. Hermione's going to be mad at you. And just that, you know, they knew everything that was going to happen.

And I was crying. I was laughing so hard. They knew it was a performance to them. But. That's worth a dollar right there.

It was worth a dollar. And I almost said, next time you go to the movie theater, I'm coming with you. That's how good they were. They were like, don't worry, Harry Potter, Dumbledore's told him to. And it just...

You know, they were, again, they were retching it up on purpose. Making it over the top. And I just had a ball with these two ladies. And again, I knew the stories very well. They knew... better than i did that was for sure.

Ladies don't get the wrong idea but here's my number i want to go see another movie with you again in the future. To be out there i think they were from clarksville indiana and they were uh they were a riot they um i would pay their way into the movie that's how good they were so uh but. Anyway we should get them and do like a commentary track and they could if. You can track them down that would be awesome. So, yeah, it was one of the best experiences I'd ever had in a movie theater.

Oh, any other Harry Potter tales? Not that I can recall. Oh, well. A Harry Potter episode. Yeah, really.

We launched into a Harry Potter thing there, which I didn't see coming, and I still haven't seen anything past the second movie. But now, I mean, especially since they're coming to the end, I can round out the series and actually watch them all, so that'll be kind of. Interesting, but... Yeah, that was the bulk of mine. Was that and getting ready to head up here today.

So, Marlena, would you like to go next? Yes. Well, I have had a pretty crazy couple of weeks. I've had some movie watching, not a whole lot. But a couple of Sundays ago, I did get to see David Sedaris.

Yeah, you sucked, by the way. I know. Yeah. He was hilarious, as usual. And this was definitely the most enjoyable experience of watching David Sedaris because I didn't have to stand outside in the sweltering heat for two hours.

That was the time I saw him. With, like, a crowd of hippies. And, yeah, it was funny. It was the only time it wasn't free. I had to pay $ 45, but, you know, whatever.

He's still good. He's worth it. Yeah, he's worth it. I just didn't have $ 45. I know.

I know. But it was amazing. He's always hilarious. Hilarious. Yeah.

See, I've watched a. Couple of movies I'm not too proud of. Get Him to the Greek with Jonas Hill and Russell Brand. That looked terrible. I've actually heard people say it was okay, but I thought the trailer looked terrible.

It's a typical comedy. It had its funny parts like any of those stupid... You know, it's like any dumbass, lowbrow Adam Sandler movie or... any movie like that has its parts that are just hilarious you know it's not yeah it's cheap it's like cheap shots you know it's not like intelligent like Wes Anderson humor or you know it's nothing like that but you know I definitely laughed Russell Brand is definitely an idiot that's what I've said for you I don't know how he landed Katy Perry but she's definitely an idiot too yeah but she's so pretty she's. Still retarded yeah I mean that in the best possible way I don't mean that in a special way I mean she's just not right. Yeah yeah as in not as in ill-fated she's literally not not in the mental.

As in her in her personality. Wise yeah yeah but um uh what else did I watch oh oh there's a lot of movies I like to start watching movies and then fall asleep I do this all the time. I started to watch Sometimes They Come Back, which I think I remember that from when I was a kid because, like, my mom and my stepdad went through this, like, weird phase where they were obsessed with Stephen King. I guess every, like, adult did, but, uh, yeah, they were, like, obsessed with Stephen King and also the Warlock movies. I remember this from when I was younger.

And, uh. You wait till next week because Julian Sands is there. Yeah. Awesome. But, I should get his autograph from my mom.

You should. She'd be like, what the fuck? Who? Who? I don't remember those movies.

Get her a copy of the movie to go with it. Reminder. I'm sure. My mom smokes a lot of weed. Her memory is shot.

I can't say that's news to me, but you outed her. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but I lost my train of thought there.

She must have smoked weed when she was pregnant with me. That would explain things. It would explain a lot. You fell asleep watching. Sometimes they come back, yeah.

And there was one movie. Oh, I watched Machete in completion. I actually didn't fall asleep during that one, which was strange, because I was laying in bed and ready to fall asleep. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

It was ridiculous and over the top, and it was very much a Robert Rodriguez movie, which made me extremely happy. And you'll get to see Danny Trejo. I know. I love Danny Trejo. Yay.

There's not a mob of them. I know. There will be. We'll still be able to see him. I don't know that we'll get anywhere near him.

Yeah. I won't get to touch him. I won't get to touch his long, silky hair. You might if you ask. Please.

Please, Danny Trejo. Let me touch your hair. Just once. Besides being a female. Yeah, because if I ask girls that, they usually don't.

They're like, uh.... Uh. No. Awesome. I don't know if I talked about this or not.

I don't know if this has been since the last time, but I also saw Dracula. Did I get to talk about that? I think it was sold out last time. Yeah. I've been trying to see it for, like, the whole month of October.

And it's, like, almost impossible to get two seats together and not pay, like, a billion dollars. But I went with my mom, and we ended up not getting seats together. But I was in the very front row. You appreciated that. I really did.

I really did. But I was in the front row, and it was amazing. I mean, like, the sets rose out of the floor, and, like, all the actors were over the top, especially Renfield. He was amazing. He was so over the top and just hilarious.

He stole the whole show, actually. But Dracula, I mean, he had amazing abs. And he... And I liked his portrayal of Dracula quite a bit. I mean, he was like a Romanian gypsy kind of Dracula, which I would imagine Dracula would have been.

Not like this, like, over-the-top Transylvanian fake accent. You know, it was, like, really authentic. You know, it wasn't... I mean, not like Dracula was real, but... It was real.

He was, yeah. Vlad! Yeah, yeah. But it was just... Everyone was amazing.

I mean. The actors were so talented. The sets, like I said, they rose out of the floor. And it was just, like, really small. I mean, the space was, like, the size of a living room.

And for them to do everything that they did, like, in such a small space was just, it just blew my mind. It was crazy. And, oh, let's see. What else? What else have I done?

Oh, funny story. So I had a seizure and broke my tooth. That is a funny. Story. Man, I wish I could have.

Had a seizure. Well, that's not the funny part. That part sucked. But so my tooth broke off and I couldn't find it. And a couple of days later, it like apparently it went through the inside of my lip and stayed there for a couple of days and then came out.

The top of my lip. So I had to pull a piece of my tooth out of my lip with a pair of tweezers. It was really gross. And I was just, like, shocked. It was, like, one of those, like, what the fuck moments.

Like, it was, like, it was, like, something from, like, Hostel. It was just, it was gross. But very hilarious in retrospect. When Jeff Goldblum first realizes that he's starting to shit. Yeah.

What's this? Yeah. It was, it really was, like, one of those moments. Like, no one ever wants to pull a piece of their tooth from their lip days after they film. Like broke it which.

It's fixed by the way i'm not running around like a hillbilly so yeah broken in half tooth that's so cool i know it is badass. You can't i know as long as you tell people you got it in a fight i. Know and not like i just fell and started crappie flopping on the floor. And that's not near as cool i know i know It's a shame. I really was like, man, I wonder if I can get a gold tooth.

I actually thought about that. I'm not going to lie. I was just like, because the night before I saw a guy with a gold tooth and I kept thinking like, whoa, that guy's pretty cool. We might disown you from the show. I don't know.

A gold tooth might be a reason to be booted. Off the show. No, I mean, it was. He was just like this weird, like, really jittery, like, cracked out, like, tiny little white guy and he had a gold tooth and I was like, whoa, I like this guy. Maybe you can get your name spelled out on your grill.

How about that? Oh, that'd be awesome. That's a lot of teeth. I know. You've got a long name.

You're in trouble. I know. You're going to have to smile a lot. Actually, I don't have as many teeth as most people because when I got braces, they removed my front teeth for some, not my very front teeth, but like teeth in the front. So every time I go, when I was at the dentist, they're like, what happened to you?

Why don't you have as many teeth? What happened? And I was like, oh, the dentist took.... I was like, well, the dentist took them out? And they're like, what dentist would take out your front teeth?

And I was like, the university dentist? And they're like, oh, okay. This wasn't in a concentration camp. I know, I know. Yeah.

Well, it was cheaper there. I mean, you know. It was cheaper there. It's like, we needed some space. Yeah.

They're like, let's just do this the easy way. That's okay. It's not noticeable. No one looks at me and they're like, what the fuck? You're missing teeth.

I've never had anyone do that. You just like to weird out dentists. I know. We are in Kentucky. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Yeah, people are missing teeth all over in Kentucky. I mean, it's so. And I mean, like, I have a full grill. It's just, if you're counting and you know the names of the teeth, I'm just missing certain ones.

You're hiding the ones you're missing. It's not a huge deal. Oh, this just reminds me of something I watched. So speaking of the Sedaris's and teeth, Amy Sedaris came out with a new book this week. So I was watching a bunch of Amy Sedaris videos.

And I watched her on this one. She was like on Yo Gabba Gabba. I don't know if anyone's familiar with that show. That show is so fucking weird. Why wouldn't she be on that show?

Are you kidding me? Flaming Lips were on there this week. Like, the weirdest band. Like, popular bands. And, like, the first time I ever saw it, I was just flipping through channels and Elijah Wood was on there.

And I was like, what? What's going on? The show confuses the hell out of me. Like, I don't understand. I feel like it's the show that people who do a lot of drugs would be really into.

And also children. It's kind of weird. Now the Teletubbies is not so cool. Yeah. But, I mean, like, Yo Gabba Gabba is way cooler than Teletubbies.

Teletubbies was just stupid. Yeah, there was nothing to it. Except for drugs and kids. Yeah, I know. Yeah.

But she was on there as a tooth fairy, and it gave me nightmares. It was just weird. It was very weird. Oh, yes, and I'm sure everyone in the world did, because I got, like, 50 billion text messages and messages. From, did you watch The Walking Dead?

Oh, my God, did you watch The Walking Dead? Apparently. I did watch it. Yeah, I watched The Walking Dead. It was awesome.

It is. I kind of am worried. This is a concern that everyone has. They're like, how far is this going to go? Like, Is it going to drop off after a couple of episodes?

I think it scales back a little bit. From what I've heard, it's following the comics pretty close. Because actually they're doing it pretty tight too. They've got seasons worth of stuff if they follow. Because what's going on in that first hour and a half is like the first 15 pages.

That's how close they're following it. But basically they're... From what I hear, by where the second one and third one pick up, they actually move into one location. It's more of a smaller scale, so I think they really are going to be able. It's not going.

To be as crazy big budget as it was this first time, especially with, you know, you had your big-name director, where I think he's signing off now and going to hand it over to other people. So I think he claimed the big showy win with the giant cityscapes and the wasteland and all that. For that first episode. From there, I think it's going to be one location, smaller scale, tight-knit group of people, and you're going to be dealing more with that. Probably more the relationship stuff, which is what you really want, is a well-fleshed-out relationship thing.

So, I think, from what I've heard, that's where it's going. But, that's yet to be seen. Oh, and that reminds me, I don't know how I forgot this, I guess just because the two kind of clash in my mind, because I watched them on the same day. But, uh, I watched The Crazies. Yeah.

Which was pretty good. Um. It was kind of like a... It was weird. It was like an apocalyptic, almost zombie movie, but not quite.

Because, I mean, the people weren't really zombies. They were still human. They were just like... Crazy. Crazy, yeah.

Yeah, which hints the title, The Crazies. Like an outbreak movie thrown together with a zombie movie. Yeah, and I really like that mashup. I mean, I don't know. I just kind of like the hopelessness of the situation.

They're just like, We're fucked, but let's keep going anyway. I just thought that was a very uplifting, positive message. I guess. Yeah. If you can take one from it.

Yeah. I mean, not that it. Well, I'm not gonna spoil that or anything. One thing that bothered me about The Crazies, the same thing that bothers me about the show Justified, is that Timothy Oliphant, I love him. He's a great actor.

I really believe so, especially in that role. But when he walks like he's a redneck, He walks like he's constipated. He has trouble walking. He tries to be pigeon-toed or something. I don't know what.

And they do a lot of walking in the crazies. And it really drove me nuts by the end of the movie. So that's my one take on it. He's really trying hard to be. It really is.

His method acting walking. I appreciate his delivery. I appreciate... him as an actor, but I really wish he'd get a walking coach or something. Or an enema. Maybe he has a problem.

I don't know. Maybe it's a legitimate medical concern. So, yeah, that's all I have to say about the craziness. Was that the end of it? Oh, well, I just wanted to share this.

You can put this in, file this under Marlena Moment or what. So I had a dream the other night that I was hanging out with Luke Wilson. And it was, like, a really, like, vivid dream. And it was, like, one of those dreams that you wake up and you're like, did that really happen? Which, obviously, no, I didn't actually hang out with Luke Wilson.

But it was weird. We were, like, shopping together. Like, I don't know if he was my boyfriend or not, which is disturbing. Because, ew. Ew.

But in my defense, he had a beard. It covered up his freakish face. You do like him with it. I do love him with the beard. Only in, like.

He's only been in, like, one movie with. A beard, so. But he was cool in that movie, and he wore, like, sweatbands and, like, tennis outfit, which was hilarious, so. That's what sold you. Yep.

Yeah. And I'm surprised I didn't see more people dressed up like him for Halloween. Like, I kind of expected that, you know, like. Because nobody would get it. Right.

Well, that's what I love. I mean, like, I think that is brilliant when people. like I didn't see so many Halloween costumes that were like inspired from movies I love like obscure things like I did see one guy which I had not a huge fan of Jim Carrey and definitely not a fan of like Ace Ventura but he was dressed up like I guess like uh there's one point in the Ace Ventura movies where he's wearing a tutu and my friend was like oh my god and she was like so excited and She was like, I'm pretty sure she was giving that guy her number, and her boyfriend is, like, standing there like. What the fuck? It was very funny. Yeah.

Yeah. That movie's got its moments. It's dumb as fuck. We all know that, but it's got funny moments. I've never seen it, so I didn't get it.

Yeah, the second one's terrible. Yeah. But no one got my costume, but that's okay. Do you want to ID your costume? I was the black Dahlia, so basically I was just, like, me with curly hair and.

Like, the Dahlia mouth thing. I didn't go, like, full-on, like, dead and, like, rotting or anything like that, but just enough. I did see pictures. It did turn out pretty cool, actually. Only one person got it, but, you know, I was in a bar in Indiana, so it's not really full of the smartest people, so it's okay.

It's a very niche costume. You'd have to really know the storyline pretty well to get that. Yeah, okay. But, you know, A good costume, but yeah, definitely something that you're going to have to be in the know to recognize it. And it puts a little more work into it than my Dracula t-shirt that I was wearing on Halloween.

That's as far as I went, so I can't talk. I think that's pretty much it for me. Moving on, Greg. Okay. Me.

Probably the most entertaining thing that I watched was the documentary the wild and wonderful whites of west virginia you know it's. So weird like i started watching that a couple weeks ago and like 10 friends of mine have posted how they watched that the wild and wonderful whites. Like i don't know why is it like recently out or did it just come on netflix or something. Yeah well yeah it did just come on netflix it was out um this past year in the uh the film uh you know convention circuit and things like that yeah You know, it won a lot of awards and got a lot of press because of that. Yeah, it's...

If you've not... If you've ever seen the PBS specials on Jesco White, the dancing outlaw, it's not just him, but it's his entire family. Which is even more scary. Right. The documentarians spent an entire year with the family.

Oh, God. And. Every single one of these people is, again, if you know Jessica White, who is, I think the most popular video of him is, you know, a woman, if you don't learn to fry them eggs better, I'm going to kill you. That guy. He's the most sane and most rational individual in this family.

That's right. And, yeah, these people are what the people in, you know, West Virginia coal mining are. uh, consider to be the bad ones, the outlaws, the troublemakers in Boone County. Once again, that's bad. Yeah. And they are, they are bad.

I mean, they are, you know, every drug you can think of, every crime you can think of, that's this family. Um, but a lot of things happen throughout the course of the, of the film. And, uh, actually comes together very well it's sad really by the end of it you realize wow they really are kind of stuck in the way they're raising and you can see the cycle of children just continuing in this family and it's it starts out funny and it kind of ends up sad when you really get to know these people it's a good story all documentaries that are well made really tell you something about yourselves and people and yeah um i i just think they did a fantastic job it's actually produced by uh johnny knoxville's company so and i think they started out thinking hey we'll this is gonna be funny right and i think it probably turned into something a lot more serious than they thought so it's it's well done it's worth it's worth seeing And it has a lot of Hank 3 in it as well.

So you can have fun with that. I'm not sure if I'm sold on that, but all right. All right. Have either of you ever seen Searching for the. Wrong Eye of Jesus?

No. No, isn't that the one? No, that was, uh, JD Wilkes from the legendary track checkers did seven signs because searching for the wrong eye, Jesus pissed him off so much. That's right. Okay.

I knew it was connected to him. Yeah. But, uh, no, it was like a, it kind of reminded me, I mean, I, I, and watch pretty much every video he's ever been in, but. I still haven't seen The Wild and. Wonderful Whites yet, but it's like Searching for the Wrong Eye Jesus is like this fake southern documentary about like, just weird southern people I don't know I think about that whenever someone brings up like Jessica White for some reason I need to go back and rewatch it because I remember it being like really amazing visually it was just kind of weird because it was like it read like a documentary and that's what it was supposed to feel like but it was fake which is so.

It's like the hills yeah it was like the hills the hills for rednecks. Yeah it was like the hills for rednecks that might be good. Oh man that's frightening mhm Let's see. Next, in preparation for this weekend, because I'm not the biggest horror student, put it that way, I watched Creepshow. Awesome.

I saw it, you know, that... middle school-aged as a kid, because back then I was into trying to find all those, because it's cool to watch that kind of stuff when you're that age. Definitely. Yeah, one thing that I noticed about it is the animation, especially in the beginning and the cut-betweens between the scenes, really holds up very well. And that's probably the transitions from scene to scene and the. The skeleton, you know, or whatever you want to call him, host, if you will.

Yeah, kind of like, yeah, Crypt Keeper. The Crypt Keeper of that series. Right. It was really good. I really enjoyed those parts.

The father-son interactions at the beginning, especially at the beginning, the interaction was... I remember a lot better than when I first saw it. Now, the... Each of the vignettes... I'm not ever sold on vignette-style movies.

It's kind of like, well, this is like a TV show that we just pieced together. Some of them are. Some of them are. And this is not to say that there aren't some really good stories in it. I'm not going to...

But like the Stephen King. I'm sorry. That was the story of him and the meteor... It's been you. Since I've seen it, so, yeah, I need to go back and re-watch it because it's been.

A long time. He's really, really bad. Well, he's just a bad actor. I mean, he's always been a bad actor. The meteorite falls to Earth.

And the green fur. Yeah, all over him. That was. That was like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone, like a really bad episode. And I'm not talking the original Twilight Zone, I'm talking about the later ones.

The 80s and 90s versions. See, I watched that within the last year, but then I watched Tales from the Crypt afterwards, which is just like, I have them all really confusing my mind, like I don't watch this much. And that one isn't their, is it Crypt Show that there's the thing in the box thing? Under the stairs. Yeah.

And like eats that guy's wife. Okay. Yeah. And that one little vignette takes so long. It's such a long one.

And you're like, okay, we get it. Move on. It wasn't that good of a story. Right. Right.

Right. I mean, I like the one with the cockroaches. I thought that one was about one of the creepiest. That one's classic, yeah. One of the creepiest ones, you know.

And even the one with Ted Danson and Leslie Nielsen with the at the beach thing. up to your neck thing that one that one was pretty good that again i i think you obviously look at it different when you know when you're older or when times pass and stuff like that i thought that one was a pretty well-written story written story but the thing that gets me now is i can't take leslie nielsen seriously in a serious role. Yeah i have not been able to almost his entire career. Like by the time he, I went back and watched him in old movies where he was trying to be serious. I was already so familiar with them from like airplane and stuff that I was already like, this is weird. You know, it's like when I watch forbidden planet, I can't take him seriously.

I'm just like, I know you're younger, but you're still Leslie Nielsen and you still don't read serious to me ever. And he's supposed to be evil in this one. You know, just a horrible person. And, and, he plays it almost over the top the same way he does his straight man funny guy yeah and it just you can't um you can't it it's not as creepy as it should be because of who he is so and then ted dancing i could care less if he dies so that's. That's not creepy poor ted nobody cares about ted dancing anymore i'm sorry ted.

But i you know I can't. And here's the problem, like, since I watched Creepshow and the Tales from the Crypt so close together, is that the one that had Demi Moore and Jeffrey Tambor? Nope. That's in Tales from the Crypt, yeah. See, I am confused.

Yeah. If you have a problem with those little, like, broken up story ones, I would say you probably haven't seen Trick or Treat that just came out this past year. No, I haven't. I would say watch that one, because that one, it, it one ups it, it finds a way to take all these separate little stories. And make them kind of intertwined in a way that's really impressive.

By the time you're done, you're like, wow, the, the screenwriting on this is way more impressive than just broken up little stories. Good. I give them credit for structure cause it's, it's impressive. Good. And, uh, this was actually sport sparked more by my wife.

Um, but, You know, I saw that the Scarefest had some of the people from the, you know, the paranormal side of it. So she's like, well, why don't you, you know, why don't we watch that paranormal state part of that? Just to see what it was like. So we watched like eight episodes of that, which there are only 20 minutes a piece to watch. Yeah.

Um, because I normally don't get into that whole... I don't either. That whole, uh, ghost hunting thing. I avoid their tables at these shows. Right.

Most shows don't have it like this. This one is broken up into horror, you know, horror actors. Right. And, like, actual real paranormal people who. believe everything they're selling, and I'm not sure I believe 100% of what they're selling, so I stay away from those tables, because they want to sell you pictures of your aura and shit like that. Well, yeah.

I want a picture of my aura. Well, you can get it at several places at this one. I already saw it the other day. It's there. So, I think the thing that bothers me about those shows is they're created for television, so.

And they've spent a lot of money getting them to the place and interviewing people and setting everything up so that if it's not there, they're going to have to find some way to create it. And, you know, so it feels more like the real world or the hills than it does an actual investigation. Because a true paranormal investigation should be really fucking boring for most of the show. Well, and that's the other thing is they also, you're with the same people every episode, so they have to become characters. Yes.

And you have to, especially on the worst ones, is when they have to vamp it up, and they're like, the one that Misty hates, they're just like, come on, ghost! And he's like challenging them, and he wants to be a ridiculous over-the-top character. Yes. Like, really, if you were following around normal, everyday. Investigators, you would go to sleep immediately.

Right. And not just Marlene and I do. You would actually go to sleep because. It would be the most boring bullshit of, you know, day-to-day activities and paperwork and, you know, I mean, hooking up machines. And, I mean, it would be the most boring shit ever.

So they can't actually show you what it was really like. I will say that about this one is they are at least respectful to the dead or whatever's going on. And they don't. you know, challenge like some of the other ones. Like, come on, do the, you know. I'll kick your ass, ghost.

Any of those tools, any of those tools, they need to get a life. And you may see some of them today. Oh, I know. And I'll probably laugh at them. And then I did see that Chip Coffey, one of the mediums, was going to be here.

And he's on that show. But I saw that he was there Friday and Saturday only. So I telepathically sent a message to him to say, no, you need to stay in town. So we'll see if he really is. If he got your message.

If he really got my message. Yeah, I take things with a grain of salt. Not that I don't believe. I just think putting it on television is the wrong place because it's just not. Well, and especially in that format where you have to.

Right. Right. You're going to have to be like, what was that noise? Did you hear that? You know, I mean, you've got to do that the whole episode because otherwise nothing happens, more than likely.

Right. You know what TV show I really do like along that same line? A haunting. Like, I DVR all those episodes. I've seen every one.

I just don't watch many of them. And, again, I just don't watch much TV, so I think I've missed which ones are the good ones and which ones. Because there are some decent ones. I've seen clips from stuff that actually looks like it's interesting, and I've seen clips from stuff that's just crap. So I think I haven't paid enough attention to break them up at this point into the better stuff.

Well, a haunting isn't like paranormal investigation. It's like a story that someone has brought to them about a haunting that they experienced. That's way more interesting. Yeah, I can get behind that. Because just general ghost stories are kind of cool.

It's when they try to make it a documentary version that you lose a lot, usually. I still think Robert Stack should do every spooky TV show. Because that man could read me green eggs and ham and I'd be scared. I actually have a ghost stories compiled thing of Unsolved Mysteries in the trunk of my car here. Too bad we don't have.

A DVD player in the television because we would so be. Watching that right now. I think it's going to be harder for him to continue doing the voiceover work now. But I mean, really, if he was hooked up with all these paranormal people, he should still be able. To deliver new episodes to me.

I used to watch that with my grandma every night, and I lived next door, and I would be so scared after I watched it. She'd have to walk. Me to my door. It was so funny. Several times I've had paranormal investigators in the top apartment of my house.

It's just, like, they sit in the dark for hours, and then you see, like, a red light flash or, like, a light flash, and then you hear this, like, buzzing sound or something, like, from some of their equipment. It's so ridiculous. I'm just like, wow, you guys really need to get to life. Like, I live here, and. Like, nothing ever happens.

Nothing happens. It's an old building. Of course it's... Well, I mean, like, weird stuff has definitely happened, but in the course of me living there for several years, like, a handful of. Weird things have happened.

Like, it's not going to happen in a night because you, like. And probably the same kind of stuff that happens to somebody in a house that was, you know, built 20 years ago. Yeah. You know, it's like. shit just happens you know it's it's life and you turn around and be like how did that get there oh well and you go on with your damn day. No definitely much weirder things like that have happened like once i was talking to my neighbor in the downstairs hallway and the light above us just started violently shaking like there was someone physically shaking it like that was pretty that was the weirdest thing.

That's ever happened. Oh man so was that it for your week as well Yeah, we're here. We're actually coming into the city here in Lexington where they're having Scarefest. So, I guess we will take a break here and be back inside the event to continue on with our coverage of Scarefest. Are you. scared to walk through the hallways?

Are you worried that the spiders run away? Are you petrified of being petrified? Are we going to have to save the school again? We've got to. Save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk.

We've got to save the school from that unseen horror. We've got to save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk. We've got to save the school again. Taking out all the. Kids It even took out Miss Norris Paid up the film in Collins Camera And petrified.

Our friend Hermione Granger We got to save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk. Got to save the school from that unseen horror. We've got to save the school. Submit it, folks. Yes, that's all it takes to our refreshment counter in the lobby.

There you'll find popcorn and an assortment of popular candy bars to please every taste. Try one of these delicious candy bars. Big Time, Butternut, Milkshake, Payday, Taught with Hollywood's super-rich coating of. The kind you like best. They taste wonderful.

They're delicious. They're nutritious. Get one at our confection counter in the lobby now. Ladies and gentlemen, George Kosana, the sheriff from Night of the Living Dead. All right, we're here with George.

Just wanted to see just kind of basics. Were you originally involved in acting before you got into George Romero projects? In around 1960, George Romero and Russell Striner formed a corporation called the Latent Image Studios. We all worked there in a variety of capacities. It was a commercial production house.

We did films, travelogues, documentaries, historical films, industrial films, promotional films, political campaigns, television commercials for products like beer and Calgon, things like that. And every once in a while we'd even get paid. And over the years, we finally saved enough money to buy a 35mm camera. So we said, well, we have the people, we know what to do, we know how to do it, we have the equipment to do it with, let's make a movie. So we formed Image 10 Productions, Inc., and made Night of the Living Dead.

I was the production manager, I crewed on it, and I played the sheriff in it. What did you think when you first saw the story? It was kind of different from most movies at that point. I was more interested in what I had to do than analyzing the written word on the page. Any stories from the set during shooting of stuff that you guys had to do?

There's a number of them. I don't have time to tell them all. But we did things that were. Ridiculously lucky in a way. As an example, I found a beat-up Chevy truck that was junked in a small town called Elizabeth, Pennsylvania.

I bought it for $ 50. And Gary Striner, Russ's younger brother, who was also our sound engineer, told that I'd Steered the beat-up truck. We towed it to the house in Evans City. And when we were unhooking it, another truck came down the road that was the exact same truck in perfect condition in use. So we stopped him.

Said, we want to rent your truck. He thought we were nuts. When we told him what we were doing and how much we would pay him, he agreed. So we used his truck for every scene where the truck had to move. And we use the beat-up truck to blow it up.

Wow. And have you just been kind of amazed at the way it's, the longevity that it's had over the years? I am well pleased with that. I hope it continues, and I hope we reap some rewards and benefits from it. Yeah.

As of late, that has not been the case. Yeah, I guess licensing issues and all that. Well, to begin with, the distributor, the Walter Reed Organization of Continental Films, Misappropriated the funds. Yeah. All right.

That's putting it politely. And we've spent years in court. We've proven it in court. But not what's left now is like having a piece of a used soup bone after you've made soup. Nice.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Are you looking for a way to connect with people who like the things that you like? Whether it's music, movies, TV, or whatever you're into, head on over to the palover.com forums. Yes, but forums and message boards are elitist and archaic.

Well, yeah, maybe if you're an asshole. Palover.com is home to all your favorite podcasts. So why not head over there now? Start talking about all the things you want to talk about. That's palaver.com.

P-A-L-A-V-E-R dot com. And now we talk to actor John Amplis, best known for his lead role in Martin, and has worked with George Romero on several of his other films over the years. We're here with John Amplis. How early did you get into acting? I got into acting when I was 10 years old.

My uncle was involved in community theater and I got a role in a play. A tent. So, it's been that long. From there you moved into school plays. As a teenager I went to the Playhouse School in Pittsburgh and then I was in the Army for a while for three years and then I went to college for theater at Point Park, and in fact, my senior year of college is where George saw me do a play and then cast me as Martin.

That's what I was going to ask, how you got involved. So he just saw you on the stage? He saw me on the stage, went away, and I think he had an older character in mind initially and rewrote it and called me two months later and offered me the role. Interesting. And since then, I've done, you know, from Martin through Dark Half, I've done six films with George.

Dawn of the Dead, you wore, like, a lot of different hats, it seemed like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. I helped casting, and I certainly helped cast a lot of zombies that came in, which was not very difficult because a lot of fans and a lot of friends wanted to be involved. And so, you know, we set them up in. lined them up in chairs, gray makeup, slapped them on, gave them a costume, and away they went. Some of them became rather kind of, got themselves into the forefront.

You know. Became the favorites. Yes, became the favorites, and then, you know, they sometimes are out on the circuit, you know. How about Midnight? Midnight.

Midnight was with John Russo. I was already back in Pittsburgh doing. I was doing a gala, actually, Playhouse's 50th anniversary in a play called A Life in the Theater. And shooting for Midnight just started. Midnight was very nice to work with.

And. Again, though, I've only seen it maybe one time. I ran into Jack recently, and he gave me some posters. So I have to go back and look at Midnight again. That's kind of what we wanted to do.

I know a lot of folks that have mentioned it to me, and they really like it. They seem to like it. And you've actually had both of them direct you. You've had George and John. So what's the difference, I guess, as directing styles?

Um. He's right next to us. I'm not sure I can make a comment on that. Just if they do things differently? Well, of course they do.

Of course they do. I mean, but George is the man. So I'll leave it at that. You can't argue that one. And then as far as, are you still teaching and directing?

I do. I teach and direct, and I'm the Associate Artistic Director of the Playhouse Repertory Company, our professional company. And I'm currently auditioning for a conservatory play with our students called The Time of Your Life. And so that's what I'll be doing Tuesday night through the weekend when I get back. Go into rehearsals in about a week and a half.

Is there anything in the future you wanted to promote or anything, any upcoming stuff? Well, everything I do at the Playhouse is always up for promotion. So the Time of Your Life will open in January in Pittsburgh at the Playhouse, and that's. Probably the best thing. I'm going to be in Calgary at.

A convention in June. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but that's my next... convention circuit part. Does the Playhouse have a website? Yeah, Playhouse has a website. They're working on a website.

Friends of mine are working on a website personally for me. It's not up, but there are some things on it. It's www.johnampliss.com. Thank you for talking with us today. It's my pleasure.

They called him Machete. This is Danny Trejo, a.k.a. Machete. And you're checking. Out Movie Meltdown.

You better keep checking it out or. I'll come looking for you. And I got machetes. I soon realized. They just fucked with the wrong Mexican.

Machete. This place is noisy, but they don't mind it To see them now, well, I'm reminded Of a time I showed my feelings Far below this same glass ceiling On a clear. Night, childish bliss Hot to be in love like this Once upon a time I was. Under the food court moon In love Alright. So we're at the break point here.

We're off at the food court of the center here having a leisurely lunch of Subway sandwiches and french toast sticks and bad jalapeno poppers yeah yeah from what i've heard i didn't I steered clear of it I don't know I had. An accidental smorgasbord but it was only because everything I got was so damn disgusting and I had to go buy something else I spent like 80 bucks at this fucking food court and didn't eat any of it. Because it was gross you got scammed I did. I'm sitting here with two drinks in front of me and like three different wrappers from three. Different restaurants there's only one store she didn't go to get food at yeah Mr.

Khan's Mr. Khan's Chinese food I think you need to make room for an egg. Roll I think so At least Fortune Cookie will wrap all this up now. It is fried vegetables. There you go.

That makes it totally different. I do like fried vegetables. I should have just gone there. So, what is our take on the show so far? It's pretty spaced out.

It's your standard thrown-together horror convention, which I've seen many, many of. Yeah, I like it just because it's not overwhelming at this point. It is sort of a break to not have one. That's... Not horror hell, that's for sure.

It's not, like, continually swarmed by people, which I'm assuming they probably don't like that, but to me it's sort of nice to not have to deal with that, but. I don't know. Like, we were talking about Harry Christian's zombie earlier and how we see him more than we see most members of our family. And I'm starting to feel like that about half the people here. I'm like, why don't we just be friends because we see you all the fucking time?

Well, at least there are a few that wave to me now. I kind of like that. Joel said hi when I went by. I was like, hey, he knows me only from the show. That's kind of awesome.

Once again, we have show family now. That's actually kind of cool. Yeah. There's a lot of paranormal investigators here. Yeah.

A lot. Yeah. I don't think it takes much to be one, so I think. Well, you were going to get a vest. Yeah, they do have the official ghost hunting vests.

I guess if you're going to be a ghost hunter, you have to have a vest. If you have one of these khaki vests with pockets, it makes you a ghost hunter. Really, that's the only criteria. If your dad has a fly fishing vest. I was going to say, or.

A crocodile hunter. Ghost hunter or crocodile hunter. Same difference, really. They're both scary, right? I mean, same difference.

Yeah. Yeah. I want to see an episode of Ghost Hunters where they're trying to find the ghost of Steve. Steve Herman. That would be awesome.

And he only comes to. Haunt them because he's pissed that they're jacking his style. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of ghostly crikey.

And then someone's holding a turtle over your head as it's shitting on you. That's all I remember from that show. Him holding things over his wife's head and letting it shit on him. Yeah, that and him occasionally getting bit by whatever it was. It usually wasn't a crocodile.

It was always a snake. The snake that spit venom in his face. Yeah, it always went horribly wrong. And then eventually it really went horribly wrong. Poor Steve.

I mean, everyone's like, when he died, everyone's like, really? It took this long? Yeah, I mean, how many seasons was that show around? I mean, who would have guessed it would have made it past the first one? Right.

Well, and that it wasn't something that. Yeah, it wasn't a crocodile. A crocodile. It wasn't a poisonous snake. It was kind of a lame animal.

Right. Now I'm going to piss off the sea urchin. Was it. Angry letters from stingrays. Stingrays across the world.

Was it a jellyfish? It was a stingray. I think it was a stingray. It was a stingray, and yeah, now we're going to get angry letters from a stingray. No, it wasn't a stingray.

It was a manta ray. It was somebody calling us out for. Total nerd style stingray. Actually, it was a. I do have a Steve Irwin action figure.

We all should, really. I do miss the guy. He was pretty damn awesome. He was always entertaining. He was kind of educational, but really that was overwhelmed by the, oh my God, he's going to get killed aspect of the show.

His wife was always awkward. Well, I mean, wouldn't you be if you had to put up with. Him all day? That's funny because I watched Strange Wilderness last night, and I barely watched it because I was doing other things, but it was on TV. There's a lot of bleeping, but just the only part that I really caught was the part that they're doing.

They're trying to narrate these animal shows, and they just make up facts. He's like, bears, they were named after a baseball team in Chicago. He's like, it's the other way around. That works. I don't know if that's funny or not, but we'll see.

It's questionable. I won't see the movie based on that. Yeah, like most of these comedies, it's questionable whether they're funny or not. Right. Oh.

So about the convention itself. I really like the concrete floors. This isn't part of the convention. This is the food court. I really like the food court.

And concrete floors. Concrete floors are awesome. We came all the way to Lexington for A & W and concrete floors. I've gone places for less. Okay.

There you go. Keep that in mind, ladies and gentlemen. At any given moment, Marlena could show up at your door. And she's not expecting much. So are you excited about anything else?

Are you ready to get back in there and do something? Um. I don't know what it would be. I don't need my aura red. No.

That's right over here. You want your palm red? Yeah, I spent like 80 bucks on the food court, though, which I haven't even paid my rent. It's like, what, this is excellent. Or better yet, when I misheard you and I thought you wanted to get your pong read.

Right. Which then, we came up with two options. Number one, I thought we should go with the Telstar video pong, and the person would watch you play pong for like five minutes, and then based on that would tell you about your life. Or then Greg was going with the ping pong option, which is you would actually have to play a game of ping pong, and then they would read the ball after you were done. We're not really sure which one they go with.

We could go ask them, but I think they'll just tell me to get the fuck out. I think if you read the ball, then you could like sell them the ball to have something tangible with them to take. Five bucks, you get to take this ping pong ball. Sell a one dollar ping pong ball for five bucks. It's quite a sales pitch.

I think we've got something here. Oh, man. So we should head back in there and go get our ping pong balls? Or. I just want to play Telstar Pong.

That's all I want to play. Yeah, why don't they... Yeah. Ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm going to get that for my Wii.

Yeah, they should have that. They should have that for Wii. They probably do. I don't pay attention to Wii. I'm sure they do.

All right. I guess we should get back in there and go annoy more people. Yep. More than one time a day. See the marmoset about to see.

Come along with me. Let the good times play. And I say to my witchy. Ooh, witchy so true. Ooh, witchy.

Let me know that I'm the one for you. Oh, hi, everybody. It's me, Tommy Wiseau from The Room. And me, Nicholas Cage from Ghost Rider. And we're here to talk to you about something very important.

Isn't that right, Nicholas? Oh, that's right. Bill and Chris have been telling you about OTC Live for a long time. But there's no better time than now. To join into the show live.

That's right, Nick. Every Sunday night at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, you can see the show live. But how can you think of anything better to do on a Sunday night? Bill and Chris will talk about very exciting topics such as music, movies, and pretty much anything else that revolves around pop culture.

Plus, they'll answer very important questions. Like, how is your sex life? And other important questions such as, how to get burned. So check in every Sunday night at 6 p.m. At www.tv.outsidethecinema.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, George the Animal Steel. You played for years like a... You kind of played down your intelligence as a wrestler over the years, but it was interesting to find out that you have a master's degree, you've been a teacher for years. Do people usually kind of get the wrong idea about you? People go to my website and it just blows them away, the whole story.

I mean, the learning disability, the fact that I couldn't read or write going through high school, that I got a master's degree from... I played ball at Michigan State, I... Taught school for 25 years with a learning disability. But all that has come back in a different way. I got very sick with Crohn's.

That's when I retired from wrestling. Actually, when I did the movie Ed Wood, my head is all swollen, which made me look like Tor a little bit. And that was another gift. It all turned out, all this led me to the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's all been a blessing for me.

My website, georgiannalsteel.com, it's got that whole story in there. Very cool. We will definitely send people there. Is there any projects or anything coming up you want to tell people about? No, my project is sitting back on the beach and enjoying life.

That's a good project, actually. So now another entry in our series on filmmakers. This time, John Russo. Probably best known as co-writer of the classic Night of the Living Dead, he's also a director in his own right, a well-respected author, a producer, and even an actor when need be. So it's time to focus on John Russo.

What was your introduction to movies when you were young? Well, the very first movie I ever saw, I think, was the old Buffalo Bill movie. It was made in 1939. That was. You know, that was already an old movie when I was a kid, but the babysitter took a whole...

She got paid to take a whole bunch of us kids down to see a movie, and that's the. One we saw. The next movie that I ever saw, I believe, or maybe even first, was the old Phantom of the Opera. My uncle was at my house, and he said, I'll. Take you to a movie.

So we go down to the movie. And I see Phantom of the Opera, and I have terrible nightmares now and then after that. But I still liked the horror films, and as I got older, I saw every. Movie that came into town. We had three movie.

Theaters in West Baltimore and town, and the movies changed twice a week. A lot of times they were double features, and I just waited for them to change, and I saw every movie because it was like 14 cents to go to the movie. Which was cheap even then. Then you turned 12 years old and jumped up to 50 cents. That was tough.

Yeah, really. So, that was the question. I just like seeing how people get introduced into it. Phantom of the Opera possibly scarred you for life. But I never.

Thought that I'd be making movies. Like most people thought, movies were made in Hollywood. I didn't even realize until later... that movies were being made in New York and New Jersey, and even the great train robbery, I think, was made somewhere in Pennsylvania. Yeah. So, and movies, one of the Perils of Pauline movies was made in Pittsburgh.

Yeah. In fact, Pittsburgh, a lot of people don't know this, the very first Nickelodeon was in Pittsburgh. And there's a plaque on one of the downtown buildings that shows. Where it was. I think it was Harris, J.P.

Harris Company or something. So. Anyway, when I got hooked up with George Romero and Russ Streiner, we all met when we were 18 years old, and George came to Pittsburgh from New York to go to college in Pittsburgh. And then George was the one that said, we can make movies. And that became a driving ambition to someday make a feature film, and we had to do a lot of struggling until we got to the point where we.

Could do it. And then we made Night of the Living Dead. And then, I mean, before that, the idea of Zombie was... kind of up in the air and very different. What was your first exposure to the term and then what was a zombie? Well, I think it might have been the title didn't stick.

In my head, but I think it might have been The Walking Dead or I Live With A Zombie or something like that. And I probably saw. It with my uncle or maybe some other kids and they never impressed me. I loved the Bela. Lugosi movies and even the Frankenstein movies, but I thought zombies...

The way I say it is zombies weren't heavyweight fright material like werewolves or zombies are because they didn't do anything. They stumbled around, sometimes grabbed somebody, threw them against the wall, sometimes tried to choke somebody. Just not too impressive. But when we made them flesh eaters. That's what did the trick.

Now, we kind of combined some of the, without thinking it out that way, combined some of the elements of the vampire genre with the zombie genre, and it just took off. It just struck a very atavistic chord in people. You know, you don't want to be one. You don't want to die and not die. It's a fate worse than death and all that kind of thing.

And then, did you, I mean, it, at this point, has become almost a set of rules. Did you keep some sort of idea of what the basics of the zombie mythology were at that point. Or was it just sort of winging it? Well, we had to come up with what the zombies would be and how they would be. We kind of invented those zombies, you know, what they would be as we went along.

For instance, when I played the zombie who gets the tire iron in the head, I figured that... Some amount of rigor mortis would remain, probably a considerable amount. So I just stretched my face out of shape and moved like I couldn't hardly make my muscles work, and that's what I did. So they aren't even my teeth. I took some vampire.

I wanted to give my face a subtly different look, so I took some vampire teeth, plastic teeth, and cut the fangs off. And more of those. And then, like I said, I twisted my face all shaped so badly that I used to get headaches after I was done doing the thing. Method acting. Yeah.

Since then, it seems like people have really come up with a lot of social commentary in the original one. Was it something that you were really trying to make a statement on, or was it sort of something that came about as time went on? We weren't trying to make any social commentary. What we were trying to do was to make a very realistic movie so that once you accepted the premise that the dead would come back and would become flesh eaters, then we wanted everything that happened to be logical. We wanted the people to behave like real people would if such a thing actually happened.

We didn't want holes in the logic. We didn't want cardboard characters. We wanted real people and so on. So as it turns. Out and again we didn't think of it this way but.

After the fact. It kind of dawned on me that Night of the Living. Dead is sort of like Stagecoach with zombies instead of Indians you know it's the classic thing of human beings faced with an incomprehensible jeopardy and how are they going to survive it or are they are they going to work together or are there weaknesses and they're ego problems and everything else going to destroy them so you know one uh i mean african queen is almost the same. Kind of thing so it's the it's. The human condition you know the human spirit is we have a drive to survive obviously or we wouldn't have and are we going to survive and overcome any particular situation?

It is interesting. It's become one of the most, you know, basic plot lines since then. So it's good to see kind of these roots and westerns and other stuff that you guys were drawing from. John Carpenter did Attack on Precinct 16, and I called it... Night of the Living Attack on Precinct 13.

He just modeled it right after Night of the Living Dead. At one point he admitted that. But yeah, it seems like so many movies have kind of taken a pretty direct takeoff of that plot line. So yeah, it's kind of cool. I was going to ask some of your other directing efforts as you went on too and got into that.

Is that something you planned on going into later? Well, once you want to be a filmmaker, you know, I mean, I became a really good cameraman. I shot a lot of the stuff that's on the television in Night of the Living Dead, because I would shoot 16mm. Most of the time, I would be assistant cameraman to George when we were shooting 35, and we traveled around, we got the pickup shots, we did all kinds of things, but other times, he'd be shooting 35, Russ would be helping him, and I would be shooting with the 16mm Eclair camera, which I loved, and I would get footage for the scenes that were on. The television interesting so that sort of led to it um i was i was looking back at some of the other projects um i haven't found a version of it but uh i have seen the trailer for the booby hatch yeah how did that come about uh.

That was in the days of the sex revolution you had people like we had porn stars and in the madams of uh houses of prostitution. You had people like Linda Lovelace and what's her name? Famous Madam. And they were giving. Love advice and sex advice to people in national magazines.

And I said, well, here's. A girl who screws dogs and people are learning about how to conduct their sex life from her. Wow. And so I came into Russell's office one morning when we had New American Films, our company at the time, and I said, you know, I'd like, if there are companies that make dildos and vibrators and other exotic sex products, more exotic sex products than that, then there must be product testers. And I'd like to make a movie about the product testers and how their lives are all screwed up in different.

Ways and they can't figure out why their lives are screwed up. Well, Rudy Ritchie, our partner at the time, just said, laugh so hard he fell on the floor and then we started doing that film we started writing it and made it if we would have had money it would have been a terrific film it's a Woody Allen type sex comedy and parts of it are as good as whatever things that Woody Allen did. But you know with the lack. Of money I wanted to create an entire super sexed up society where people are going on a bus to work and crowded bus and On the hills above the city, there are huge billboards for various sex products and so on and so on. We didn't have the money to do that.

We made the film. For $ 20, 000. Yeah, that's amazing. I'm not counting the blow-ups. It started out, it was doing $ 8, 000 a screen back.

In the 70s. Then we ran all the theaters that would play it. So, still people get a kick out of it. Oh, and then. As far as writing Return of the Living Dead, what did you set out to do with that one that was kind of different from the original timeout?

Well, we wrote a straight horror actual sequel in the same vein of Night of the Living Dead. We just wanted to take the story forward. And I think I like toying with religious themes and being a little ironic. With it and. I just thought that if the dead ever came back to life and if the phenomenon was ever quelled, especially with people not knowing exactly how it was quelled, it's like the Black Plague.

Nobody knew it went away, but why did it go away and when's it going to come back? So I thought there. Would be people who believed that it was going to happen again and they'd want to keep taking measures against it. And so. there might be religious cults that sprung up where people thought the dead should be spiked. And so that straight horror version opens with the funeral of a child, and the farmer whose father of that child has handed a spike and has to drive it.

Into his own child's head. And then the bus wrecks and other people are in. Danger, and they set out to spike those, and then the sheriff stops them, and so now. It's right for those people to come back, so. that was the rationale bring them back and then now what can you do to take it in a different direction than Night of the Living Dead so we opened it up with the raiding party and because there would be people taking advantage of such a crisis of looting and raping and so. On and there would be good.

Guys too trying to stop them and stop the plague and zombie so that was the whole idea of Return of the Living Dead and And then we finally had to sell the screenplay because nobody would finance it. Frank Sinatra was going to finance it, and we went out to Las Vegas to close the deal, and his mother's plane went down to the mountains, and she was killed, and so the deal didn't go through. And we sold the script for a lot of money, but lost control of the project, and then Orion pictures said straight horror is dead, don't make straight horror, they hark down a balance and turn it. Into comedy, and that's, you know, so the script got pretty fast. Yeah, that changed from, you know, yeah.

Which he did a good job. Yeah. It's a good movie. Yeah. I guess you'd mentioned a lot of your writing, which do you find more fulfilling, your writing or the directing end of it?

Well, they're different animals, you know, when I'm in a cubicle for a while writing, then I want to do something more social and more interactive like a movie is, but The advantage of books is you do it your way. My editors don't mess with my stuff. They might have suggestions, but they're mine. They're my things. But when you do a movie, it's a collaborative process.

And if you have financiers or producers or studios or whatever that tell you that metal. and. Don't really know their ass from a hole in the ground, then you're going to have a botched-up movie. That's happened too. But then the director always gets blamed. Yeah, as always.

The other side of that is the director gets credit, which is not always true either. The writer deserves a hell of a lot of credit because nothing would happen without the writer's idea. It kills me when I say, oh, so-and-so's vision. The director's vision. Is this one.

Oh, bullshit. If he didn't write it, it wasn't his vision. It was the writer's. He's interpreting. Executing.

Yeah. Did you have any new projects you wanted to tell people about? Well, a lot of people know that probably that we are, it looks like, going to do Escape of the Living Dead, which is back to the roots again. And I'm supposed to direct that in January or February starting in Los Angeles. So, I'm waiting to see if that actually goes through.

It is financed. They have, well, we're told they paid the first installment, so they sound serious about it. So we'll see if they follow through. All right. Is there any place, like online, people should go to check out what you've got coming or more?

IMDB has information. Okay. You know, when it does start, it'll be heavily publicized, and they probably won't have to hunt to find it. Probably not. Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you. We want to thank John for taking time to talk to us. And kind of in the process, I've become sort of interested in some of his other directorial projects. So as a heads up to you playing the movie Meltdown Home Game, I would definitely try to get a hold of some of his older films. Certainly Midnight and Heartstopper, a.k.a.

Dark Craving. We're probably going to be talking about both of those in the near future. So just a heads up to try to get a hold of copies of those if you'd like to... Watch along and join us for upcoming discussions on the movies. They should have known better when they came into town.

Every sign pointed to what could happen there. Every indication told them to leave. Now, the wise guys in the bar, the preacher's warning, and the sheriff who made hate a way of life. Go, get out of town. We don't want your kind here.

But they stayed. They stayed, and it became too late to leave. too late as the clock approached midnight midnight now the book from the co-author of night of the living dead comes to life on the screen don't miss john russo's midnight. It's part of your problem, you know. You haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.

And now, on with the show. My future. Told. Your future. Are you recording me now? sure about needing my future told.

Yes i like gypsies i can't help. It's gonna happen. I know i don't want to have to wait to find out what's gonna i don't want it to actually have to happen before i know it's gonna happen. But whether you give them 20 bucks or not your future will happen. But see remember that one time that your friend read my future she was wrong.

Oh whatever she makes stuff up she did just. Make I didn't appreciate that none. I gave her five bucks. She's a charlatan. She is, actually.

She was a snake oil salesman. It's okay. I tell her that all the time. You call her a dirty gypsy snake oil salesman? I don't know if I've used that term exactly, but I probably tell her she's on crack quite regularly.

Because she is. Oh, all right. So we are now back in the vehicle, wrapping up the trip home here after... Hanging out with the fabulous horror peoples. You guys are pretty excited.

They are the horror peoples. Danny Trejo almost shoulder checked me. I told you, you should have shoved him. Be like, what dude? Get out of the way.

You should have totally started shit. There's a restaurant called Yummy Yummy Asian Cuisine. That we just passed by? Yeah. Nice.

We almost need to eat there. I don't know if you can follow up those wonderful jalapeno poppers. Check out this old Model T right there. This dude's like 100. It was his original car.

He's fucking. Old. All right, let's see. We'll have some other fun wrap-up stuff. So would you guys like to discuss Mr.

Hand? There's a magician. I'm doing the motion right now, but you guys can't see. Basically, look like a tool and stick your hand out. That's what this guy was doing.

He's magic. He's magic. Oh, God. And this fucking knee pad, guys. There are these douches that just slid around on knee pads.

And, like, there's this one. I don't know what he was supposed to be, some type of retarded clown. But he, like, got in my face, and I was like, yep, you're really scary. And a douche bag. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I wish I don't. I wish I had been, like, more on it, because when he slid up to me, I should have. Just kicked him in his balls. That would have been pretty awesome.

I still want somebody. To just, like. I learned him a lesson there. Clock him as soon as they get up in their face. Just knock the motherfucker out.

And were they paid participants, or were they just douchebags that. Wanted to do that? Who were those douchebags that wanted to do that? I don't know. I can never tell with some of these shows, because.

Who would pay those guys? Come on. I wouldn't, but. I don't know. They bring some weird people in at some shows, and.

If they got paid to be there, somebody got paid. And it was us for having to look at them. A booth of some sort. Right. Because they were trying to sell T-shirts or whatever.

I don't know. Yeah, somebody needs to beat their ass. Or worse, what you threatened, Marlene. What? What you threatened for that one guy.

That I hope he gets raped. That's for Amazon. Yeah, it's a distribution center. Holy shit. That makes sense.

That's why it doesn't take very long to get to. Oh, a Coca-Cola plant. It's all futuristic. Does that room spin? No.

I've always said that it looks like it's a UFO, though. It does launch into space. Yeah. Coca-Cola is from outer space. I think we're on to it.

Oh, yeah, here's the big-ass ladders right up here. I think it's ladders. It's a big-ass something for. Big-ass fans. Big-ass fans, that's what it is.

I'm sorry. That's awesome. And there's a place up here that we'll pass in just a little... It was a restaurant bar called Fat Ponies. Oh, nice.

It was amusing for a while for me, so. It's better than, like, Fat Bitches. That's just what you pick up at the bar. Well, there is the correctional facilities right up here, just. About a mile away.

I don't know that they want anybody knowing that there are fat bitches on your road. Anyway, the convention. You were pretty excited about Diamond Dallas Page. Yeah, I don't know why. I can't explain why I was so excited about that.

He just seemed so happy and excited to be there. He did look happy to be there, I think. He's like, I'm not around these wrestling geeks anymore or something. I don't know. That's, yeah.

Sometimes you have to appreciate the good things. Well, he is, he did appear to be buddy, pretty good buddies with Danny Trejo, so. Yeah. They did, I mean, they were in a movie together. They're co-stars.

Co-stars. That makes them, that makes them buddies for the rest of their life. Uh, they're in Devil's Rejects. Two? Oh.

Is it two? No? Just Devil's? It is part two, kind of, sort of, but But it is just The Devil's Redux. Okay, sorry.

I don't remember Danny Trejo being in Devil's Redux. Yeah, he's the, like, one of the guys they send out after him. Like the bounty hunter kind of guys. Yeah. One of the million movies that Danny Trejo is in.

Yeah, I'm sure that was a stretch for him to play a bounty hunter. Well, sometimes he's a guy in a prison. Right. Sometimes he's a gang member. Right.

Sometimes he's a former gang member. Sometimes he's a reformed gang member. Right. sometimes he's a mystical spiritual. Leader sometimes he's yeah sometimes he's a native American. Sometimes white people don't know the difference they're idiots you know you can fool them into anything.

He could play an Asian dude for all we know. He could we're white he could play white you know we do not you know Danny Trejo we love so much we will let him play any role. We don't care he's a man of many talents. That he is he is a short man short man. That's why they put him next to Danielle They could balance each other out.

He would look really tall. Yeah, but I thought I'd see him with some kind of, like, you know, lift shoes on or something like that. He didn't sell out. He wore normal-sized shoes. Well, what Henry Rollins does, if someone's taller than him, he just tries to headlock them and drag them down to his level.

Which is awesome. Maybe Nick Trejo should do that. Yeah, he usually does. He just cuts you. That's all.

He just cuts your legs off. That's right. And then you fall down, and he steps on you, and he's taller than you. So there, bitch. Take that.

What else did we see while we were there? We didn't get into the hand man too much, but that's okay. We won't need to. Yeah, it's magic. He's a no-name douchebag, so.

Probably not. Probably not. because we'll get people calling us out again that's what we do anything you know that person has green eyes green eyed. People yeah oh god. Green eyed people greet me out either be pick a color. Brown or blue Way to alienate like a third of your audience.

Dumbass. I have green eyes. So do I. I'm not listening to our show anymore. I mean like really like one in three people aren't gingers so I'm really down to by some strange coincidence like one third of our audience happen to have.

Red hair and freckles. You never know. Oh, man. And, I mean, like, I remember, I mean, I was a freckly kid, and, like, I definitely, not so much now, but definitely in. My childhood, I was borderline ginger.

No one ever made fun of me for that, so, I mean. Borderline ginger. Yeah. So you're making up for it now by making fun of all of them. You can't even be a full ginger, borderline ginger.

I know. Like, you, like, sort of got it. Fucking half-blood ginger. I don't have freckles now. That would be gross.

I would get them removed. Yeah, because all people with freckles are gross. That's what Marlene is saying. I didn't say that. Oh, God.

Freckles on your face. Aren't so bad, but body freckles gross me. Out. I'm not. I can't help it.

Everybody has certain things that they're not attracted to. I just saw some sheep. You can have all the body hair you want, but damn it, one of the body freckles. No, seriously. It's off.

Body hair is okay. I mean, I dated a guy with a hairy back and it was gross. Was he George the Animal Skin? Yeah, it was. No.

Yes. Yes, it was. Oh, man. Oh, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, he does seem like somebody's grandpa.

He doesn't seem like a former wrestler. He just seems like, oh, that's granddad. He likes to eat Werther's and wear plaid shirts. And talk on the cell phone. He looked like he was having trouble with that.

Cell phone, didn't he? Yeah, he kind of did. How do these things operate? I used to have a tin can of string. Well, I mean.

I was pretty impressed by the Night of the Living Dead writer, that guy. Yes. He had a little, like, jean shirt that had the pearl snaps. I love shirts with pearl snaps. Oh, yeah.

He's a classy dude. I was like, wow. And then he was talking about how he likes to work out. He's got the zombie workout manual. Yeah.

Coloring book. Which was awesome. It was awesome. That was about the coolest thing I saw. You should go pick yourself up a copy right now.

Oh, wow. What did he say? That he was some kind of fitness champion? I think he was a lifter in high school. Isn't that what he said?

He was like a competitive lifter or something? Man of many talents. Just like Danny Trejo. That's right. All right.

So do we want to do the buzz for the week? Sure. All right. We can roll on into what's the buzz? Groovy.

Ah. Why do these people. Have fences around every one of their trees in their pasture? Horses. Bantha.

So the horses recognize not to run into the fences, so they recognize not to run into the trees. There's bantha roaming the land, and they eat trees. So a horse can see a fence, but. It can't see a tree? I don't...

They're taught to run alongside of the fence, I think. Oh, okay. But, yeah, you only see that in horse country. You don't see that with, like, cows and sheep. Oh, okay.

That's crazy talk if ever I heard. I know. Horse people. Fucking horse people. Fucking horse people.

Are you talking about, like, centaurs? Yeah, fucking centaurs. Fucking centaurs. Fuck those guys. I can't believe they put all of them in the Chronicles of Narnia.

That ruined that movie. All them. What do you mean by that? That's what I mean. Those people.

Those horse people. Come on, grow some legs. Real legs. Way to alienate the entire audience. That's right.

That's right. I want to hear some centaurs writing in telling me how insensitive. So, I was looking through some of those posters at one of the booths, and there was this very explicit centaur love scene illustration. Horsey style? I mean, it wasn't that explicit.

It was just like. What a rip-off. Yeah. I'm going to pay $ 10, damn it. Did it show centaur boobies?

Yeah, it showed centaur boobies. That's what made it slightly explicit. But no horse cock? Yeah. Centaur boobies, but no horse cock.

Ah, damn it. Wasting my time. Man, buddy. It's not a horror poster unless it's got boobies on it. That's true.

You were commenting on that midway through our poster shopping there. Yeah. Well, I don't know that we were shopping. I was. I just didn't have any money.

I was window shop. There were no windows there. Does that count? I guess not. All right.

Hmm. So one of the big rumors making the rounds this week is that, you're going to love this one, Zac Efron has apparently been offered the lead role in Albert Hughes' upcoming live-action adaptation of the popular anime Akira. What? Wow. Weird.

He is that floppy-haired kind of guy, isn't he? That's the thing. I mean, that's going to piss a lot of people off. But at the same time, the more I thought about it, I was like, you know, I mean, he's who you would go with at this point. He's not only the boy of the moment, but he's also the right age.

I mean, like, the other people they were throwing out in the last couple years was Leonardo DiCaprio. And I'm like, how old is that kid? I mean, you can't be playing this little teenage kid anymore. And then they were also throwing out our other new favorite dude. Shia LaBeouf?

No, but at least he's sort of the right age. Oh, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Oh, I would love that. Who is an awesome actor, but again, how old is he? He doesn't look very old.

He doesn't look that old. Again, I've said that's sort of his own downfall at this point is he can't play serious adult actors. No, I think he can because I think he's a strong enough actor that you buy him as a man. I mean, yeah, he is, but to me he still, he can't really play like he hasn't gotten to that point of being playing, like, adult leading man kind of roles. He's, he's trying, and, and I'm, I haven't seen him in, you know, Inception yet, so maybe he's pulling it off, but when I see him in the other stuff, I see him as a good actor, but he can still play, he's at that crossover.

He's not a kid anymore. He can play, like, the, the romantic comedy 20-something guy, but, like, I can't see him wearing a suit and, you know, and pulling off the adult roles. Alright. I think he did a fine job in Inception. I think he works.

My biggest problem with him is their characters were so much like him and Leonardo DiCaprio's, and they're, you know, both youngish, you know, similar kind of actors, honestly. I kind of put them in the same category. That it really wasn't... It was almost like, were these characters overlapping? Yeah.

So. was he really needed kind of thing. Not that he did a bad job, but I think he could pull that off. I think he'd do just fine. I think the Efron thing works maybe, and this is just a gut feeling, that he probably has more Asian crossover acceptance. Probably, yeah.

I think they would be much more familiar with him. Or at least accepting. Accepting, yeah. He kind of looks like an anime character anyway. But Joseph Gordon-Levitt almost looks Asian.

He kind of does. I mean, like, not, like, full-on Asian, but he looks, I mean, like... Just his features. He looks like maybe his grandma was Japanese or something. Like that he could have been.

Yeah. I can see that. But I mean, most characters in anime don't look Asian. I know. Is what's weird.

So it's like, I don't know that they would even want anybody Asian going into this. So. Well, if they did, they should. Just make Jet Li do it. Except he's 100 now.

It would just be funny. It would be hilarious. I think he was driving that Model T back then. So, I don't know. I mean, that's sort of a weird...

Sorry, I didn't know what that was. I was like, did we just kill somebody? I think we just hit someone. Ah, shit. I'd say we could cover it up, but it's on the recording now.

We're fine. We're screwed now. Now if we really get someone, we can't pull it off. I know what you did last podcast. So, I don't know.

I think everybody just gives Efron shit because. He's... Mostly the Disney connection. I think if it wasn't for the stupid high school musical, Disney connection, I think that's still what he's getting so much flack for. But at the same time, I think you can come out of that.

I was thinking back, it's like, look at... Kurt Russell. Kurt Russell started in Disney when he was a teenager. Jodie Foster started with Disney when she was a teenager. So it's like, these are people that kind of used that because it was a good job, and they got their name out there, and then they were also good actors, and they drug themselves out of that, and were like, I'm going to do these big, massive, A-list kind of roles, and they ended up being good actors.

So I think that's, I don't know, it's one of those you can get past that. I don't think that's the kiss of death, really. Right. I'm not upset. if the guy wants to try to become a movie star and break out of that role, go, go for it. You know, they're still, they're giving him such like soft other projects is the problem.

It's like, actually, I still want to see me in Orson Welles. That actually looks cool. That looks like the first thing I'd be interested in seeing of his, but like the Charlie St. Cloud thing, I was like, what is this? I don't even know what the idea is and what little I've heard about it kind of is a weird plot line.

That's not going to sell with a lot of people. And, It's still very family-friendly-like. It's still, like, geared towards, you know, we'll have crossover and the kids can go see it with Grandma. I'm just kind of like, eh, that's not going to pull you out of this. So he really does need to do something that's bigger.

I mean, I think this would be the kind of project that could make him crossover. It would give him, like, that mass appeal that would, you know, he could be that. Speaking of the Shia LaBeouf, I mean, that was what did it for him. He's in fucking Transformers. And now that's what people, they don't remember him as a stupid kid on Nickelodeon, you know?

It's like, he's that. It was Disney Channel, I think it was that. It was Disney Channel. Was that one Disney, too? Yeah, it was.

Well, then there's your perfect example. I mean. He was Disney. He was Disney. He turns up in fucking, you know, Transformers, and now that's the only thing anybody remembers.

Like, oh, that weirdo from the Transformers movies. And now he's in Indiana Jones. And now he's in all these other projects. He's in Wall Street, too. Wall Street, too, yeah.

He was the other go-to, you know, kid that he went for on any new project. So it's like. I don't know. I think it's something that could work for Efron. I think fans are going to be pissed.

I think just name recognition at this point, it's a knee-jerk reaction to go, oh, God, fuck that guy. It's what the cool kids do. It's like you've got to make fun of the clean-cut kid here. You've got to shove him down in the hall because we're all jackasses and that's what we do. But. i don't know i think there's still you know something i think he's unproven in this kind of thing and i would actually like to see him do something that had a little weight behind it and it would actually give him a chance to be a real actor and i don't know this could be it's still very up in the air it could end up not even going to him they're saying it's still uh Let's see, I believe they phrase it as...

One source says Efron is in talks, while the other says it is far from a done deal. So, at this point it could actually go a very different direction. They're just putting it out there and see what the reaction is. Basically, yeah. Just to see how much of an uproar they get out of this.

Which, again, in the geek community, in the anime community, probably a lot. But, you never know. Who else are they going to get? That's going to have mass appeal, young age. Who's the right age that has that kind of.

Because it even wouldn't. Be that bad look-wise. I can see it kind of working on a lot of levels and definitely from the financial end. He's such a recognizable name. He's got such a built-in audience of pre-teens and people that by the time they get this out will be teenagers and will be able to drive themselves to the movies and go see the new Akira movie.

So I don't think it's the worst idea for them financially. Nope. Were you awake back then? Yes. Okay.

Well, it wasn't until you asked me that question. But, yeah, I can't think of anyone else who's better. I mean, it sucks when they cast someone and you're annoyed because you can think of a million people who'd be better. But I can't really think of anyone who would be, like, awesome. Yeah, the only other thing I worry about is the director, Albert Hughes, is talking about the film being PG-13.

To me, that's almost like... kind of cutting it a little too... You know, and they're kind of cutting it back to get that crowd. Right. And maybe it is. Maybe it is something that would tie to that Zac Efron thing, because maybe they think they can pull in a much larger crowd if they make it PG-13.

So. Because the original anime is rated R. Right. At least when it got to this country, it was rated R. So. if you're not.

Going to be able to live up to what the other one is, because that's such an iconic property. It's like everybody's going to compare it to the anime version. So, I don't know. It's like you've got so much to live up to with that one. I think if you then kind of softball it and be like, well, we'll cut back and we'll take out, you know, violence and we'll take out language and any of the sexual stuff and now you're going to have this PG-13.

Yeah, what are you going to have, Yu-Gi-Oh then? Yeah, I mean, at what point are you cutting it back to get Speed Racer out. Of it, you know? Yeah, that'd probably be the best comparison. I don't know.

That worries me more than Zac Efron is the PG-13 angle. That they run. Yeah, that's why I wish, if you're going to have something last and going to have something be good, go all out, do it right, do it right the first time, and the money will come. Eventually, the money will come. If it's worth it, yeah.

Right. And those people that would love it will grow up and will see it. And they'll pay probably a lot more money later on down the road when they can develop to love it. Don't just make it suck so that you can make more money now. That's the corporate way.

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but just make it good and the money will come. Yeah, I mean, as we referenced earlier with stuff like those big properties like Lord of the Rings or something, I mean, they could have done a crappy version of that. Right. And probably still made a pretty damn, you know, impressive opening. But in the end, it's like, you've got a good director, you've got somebody who put tons of time in it and all this effort and gave us a good product at the end of it.

So it's like, I think that's the way to. Go, is to look at these properties and see what's, you know, artistically, what's better in the end. And I know studio executives don't always look at that. They look at the bottom line and what's going to make them money and what's going to cost. Less money and less time and.

But, I don't know, at the end, if you're left with a crappy movie, what's the point? And you've also wasted a perfectly good property and a property. That people love. I don't know, it just seems like such a bad idea otherwise. Right.

I think that's what saved, well, somewhat saved the Revenge of the Sith. They went for a PG-13, at least went for a PG-13, instead of a you know pg practically g movie like they did with the first phantom menace phantom menace and a kid's movie and a boring kid's movie right and they made it you know something you know that really showed you the horror and violence of what was going on you know that you would kill younglings and that you would you know that that's what happened that's what should have happened and that's why this guy really is that evil so. Yeah i mean you look that's that's one of those that finally i mean it took him three movies before he stepped it up and went okay let's stop you know dumbing it down and making it okay for everybody to bring the kitties to it's like it's not that kind of story i know you've made money on it being a family feature but it was never really that family friendly it was it was kind of a teenage issue that's when we all you know really kind of came to accept it for what it was and understood everything.

I mean, you like it when you're a kid because there's laser swords and, you know, laser guns and, you know, spaceships and robots and you love all that stuff. But, I mean, there's a lot of other stuff going on that you don't really comprehend until. You're a teenager. So, you know, that's when I think they... It kind of clicks, and there's no point in dumbing it down.

I mean, you should kind of leave a story that's complicated at that level and not try to make it mass appeal so that it totally sucks the life out of everything. Yeah, so if you're listening, producers, just go for the R. Make it a good movie. The tweens will grow up and remember Zac Efron, and they'll buy it, and they'll love it. So I'm fine with Efron.

I'm not fine with the PG-13. Yeah, pretty much. But I'm sure that's how it'll end up. I know, but, you know. What can you do?

So this is when we get to Baz Luhrmann, which I actually like a lot of what he's done. I have not seen, they're saying he's currently casting his next movie after Australia, which is the only one of his I haven't seen, actually. With a series of script readings, the movie is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Oh, okay.

Wow. Interesting. So the classic tale of life during the Roaring Twenties, which they've done adaptations of a couple of times. There's been. a 1949 version with Alan Ladd and Shelley Winters, and the bigger one recently, I guess, or in 74. More recently, yeah.

Yeah, it's the one most people probably know. It's got Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, so that's probably the one. Yeah, that's the one I've seen. Yeah, that's the one I've seen. So, I mean, most people that are familiar with it and too lazy to read the book are probably familiar with that version of the movie.

Right. So, once again, going back to one. Of the key running themes in the news this week, For the roles of Jay Gaspi and Nick Carraway, Lerman is doing the readings with real-life longtime pals Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. You know, if you had me pick two people, they would probably be the first. You know, if he were younger, if he were maybe 10, 15 years ago, I could see Matt Damon.

Yeah. And I know Matt Damon's not that much older than Leonardo DiCaprio, but... But he reads older now. He reads older now. He aged a lot more in his look than either of the other two there.

Right. But I think, yeah, I think they both could pull it off well, and I probably couldn't think of two other actors that would do a worse job. Yeah, I mean... Yeah, a better job, yeah. Again, some of us had issues with Leonardo, but.

With his acting style, but I think he's, I don't know, I think he's actually, it doesn't surprise me that they're giving him this. This is such a major, high-profile kind of a property, especially with Baz directing it, that there's only a handful of people that are in that caliber that are going to get the lead role in this movie, and again. At this point, it's Leonardo. He's your go-to guy for big properties like this, so. It doesn't surprise me.

I mean, it's questionable whether he's going to be able to pull it off, but I don't know. We'll have to see. Doesn't mean I'm going to run out and see it. That's the thing I was going to say. I will see it eventually, but just not run out and see it.

No, that's the thing. I probably will see it. I don't know if it'll be... I don't know. This one's an interesting enough movie and idea that I think I might be up for it.

But just based on Baz Luhrmann, I really... he's over. The top and he's you know he comes up with a lot of crazy stuff but but visually i think he's always impressive every movie i've seen of his i've been impressed with and especially by the you know the second and third ones of his run were like really i mean he really stepped it up and was just like i'm going to show you something impressive it's like he's gonna go out of his way to make sure that it's an experience like everything about it is going to be Almost overwhelming at times how above, you know, how he goes above and beyond what a normal director would do in a normal standard movie. His movies at least, I don't know, I almost feel like I need to watch Australia now.

I was not excited by it, but I can't even imagine him doing that kind of movie, this epic, off in the countryside kind of a storyline. It doesn't fit what I know of him as a director, so. I don't know. Maybe I'll have to go back and watch that. Again, still not really excited about it.

It does not look very impressive. I've heard some bad things on the plot, but whatever. But I think this is a different direction. I think this is something that, you know, especially after seeing him handle that Moulin Rouge period, I think this version of the 20s. falls right into that. I think it's that same sort of world and that same sort of lifestyle that he could tap into and could very easily find his way of doing Great Gatsby.

So I think that's kind of an interesting project for him, I think. They are saying the script readings really weren't for those two. He already kind of had those two in mind. They said it's actually for the Daisy Buchanan version. for which a large group of young actresses are being considered. The first read was actually Rebecca Hall, who was just in the town.

But they're saying the other list of potential Daisies includes, in alphabetical order, Abby Cornish, Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman, Amanda Seyfried, and Michelle Williams. That's everybody in Hollywood. That's your leading lady of that age group. That's everybody. Well, I think Knightley and Portman almost seem like Givens.

Their go-to for that same level of project. I think Scarlett Johansson would be a huge mistake. But she's almost ahead of them on that list anymore. She's getting just about every property. But I just think she'd be a mistake for that move.

I think most people feel that way just because her acting isn't... Just that character. It's not up to the level of some of the others on that list. You know who I think would be the dark horse that I think would do a fantastic job as Michelle Williams from that list. I think she might.

I just don't like her. I think I brought that up recently. I don't know. I've just never been really impressed with her. But again, this is a weird property.

So maybe she'd find her place in this period and maybe she'd be able to work it. I don't know. I just don't like her much as an actress. But again, I'll give everybody a shot in the right role in the right movie. Right.

I think what I've liked with her is she's learned how to be a subtle actress. And maybe I'm giving her more credit than she deserves. I don't know. I'd have to re-look at her. I've never really heard anybody be truly critical of her.

You know what I'm saying? But yeah, I'm not saying that she is... a top notch or anything like that but again I'd give I'd give her the shot is what I'm saying based on past performance especially for that role you. Know she's moving into bigger projects now so I mean she actually may end up becoming more of a lead she disappeared for a while and she kept coming back in smaller roles and smaller movies but lately they've been throwing a lot of stuff around with her name attached to it so she may end up on that level again. Yeah just not Scarlett Johansson. We'll see I still say that's probably their first one to go with just name recognition money-wise.

They think they could bring people in with Scarlett Johansson. I guess it depends how low-cut were the dresses then. I don't remember Mia Farrow being in a plunging neckline. So if they can sell the boobs, they might be casting her. But other than that, if they want to go with acting, you know, whatever.

I'm not going to say that I wouldn't mind looking at her for two hours. Well, I think that's what we call Iron Man 2. Right. Why isn't there less of her acting, more of her jumping around in that outfit? In that outfit, yeah.

That's what most people said. Yeah. Oh, man. But, yeah, that wasn't the only news for Leonardo this week. Okay.

They said he is also, his. Actor's production company has come on board to produce the long-in-development adaptation of Eric Larson's non-fiction book, The Devil in the White City. Huh. And this one, I don't know if you're familiar with the book, but I like the plot line. It's kind of crazy.

I like where they're going with this. It said, in addition to producing, DiCaprio will star as H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the 1893. Chicago World's Fair. The character Holmes designed the World's Fair Hotel, complete with a crematorium and a gas chamber, which he used to lure his victims into murderous traps.

I kind of like this story, as long as they don't get too sawed. Because you could go, if you get into the trap bullshit, I mean, and it's all over, so hopefully they don't, well, we need to tap into that. I mean, hopefully it's more of the crazy character. I like this, like, evil doctor back in, you know, 1893. Right.

So I like that angle of it, if we don't get too, like, weird trap-oriented, that that becomes the entire plot line. But other than that, I kind of liked the. Idea of what's going on in that. That seems. Does Leonardo DiCaprio have to do every period movie?

I think any movie, period. How about that? At this point, if it's a movie, period, you cast Leonardo DiCaprio. That's how it goes. Or Scarlett Johansson.

In addition to reading for The Great Gatsby and starring in The Avengers, Scarlett Johansson is also attached to starring in the science fiction drama called Under the Skin. Johansson will be playing an alien on Earth, disguised as the perfect aesthetic form of a mesmerizing woman. She scours remote highways in desolate scenery, looking to use her greatest weapon to snare human prey, heracious sexuality. I believe we already had this, and it's called Species. As soon as you're reading it, that's exactly what I thought.

Species. So, they finish this up. She is deadly efficient, but over time becomes drawn to and changed by the complexity of life on Earth. With this newfound humanity and weakened alien resolve, she finds herself on a collision course with her own kind. So, now it's like Species meets Starman.

Right. Or E.T. E.T. Or, you know, any of these where all of a sudden you become buddies with the alien and then. You don't want to kill everybody.

I don't know. I don't know. I just need to go home, and then at the end she'll go home, and it'll be a sad goodbye, or whatever. Under the Skin will be directed by John Glazer, who did Sexy Beast, actually, who also co-wrote the script with newcomer Walter Campbell. Under the Skin is aiming to start filming in spring of 2011.

So, as if that wasn't enough, the only thing that Scarlett Johansson won't be starring in is that she has potentially ditched the attachment to star in the adaptation of the mash-up novel of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Oh, but that one sounded like so much fun. And it was going to be cheesy and over the top so you can handle her acting. Right. Yeah.

Now, I don't necessarily need Scarlett Johansson in that one either. But that one, I remember that one sounds like fun. Yeah. I guess there's some making it. There's just somebody else involved now and not Scarlett Johansson.

Right. Which, by the way, did you know Scarlett Johansson is the daughter of David Johansson? Singer? Oh, yeah. No, I didn't know that.

Lead singer of the New York Dolls? Yeah, no. Yeah, that's not true. Oh, okay. But doesn't that sound like something that could be true?

Yeah, well, I was going to be like, oh, that's how she gets her clout, I guess. No, I had no idea. I like when people just... randomly make connections. And that's what brought that one up, because I was like, you know, that's almost age-wise. That could be possible.

Hell, they don't even spell their name the same. I just thought it was funny. So I'm like, if we're going to start weird celebrity rumors that don't even... Like, not even a negative rumor, just, like, wrong. Like, okay, everybody out there, go out and tell people that, you know, be like...

Did you know David Johansson, that guy from the New York Dolls, he's the dad of Scarlett Johansson. Well, you knew that Jon Stewart is actually the nephew of Jimmy Stewart. Is he? Yeah. Wow.

Right. And I didn't know Jimmy Stewart was Jewish, so. Well, what brought it up is I was thinking, because people just randomly do that. Because a couple weeks back when we watched Mystery Team, I'm renting it and I'm standing there and I'm talking. The guy's ringing me up and he looks at it and he's like, oh, yeah, this is funny.

And he actually liked the movie, but he looks at the front of it and it's got Donald Glover on there. He goes, no, it's Danny Glover's son. Yeah. Just because he's black. And I was like, really?

Okay. Because I'm like, I've heard a lot about Donald Glover lately, and I do not remember hearing that. So geek that I am, I immediately went home and checked. He is not Danny Glover's son at all. You should have said, no, dude.

It's Crispin Glover's son. Yes. Isn't he hilarious? Well, they're brothers, you know. Crispin Glover is the half-brother of Donald Glover.

Right. And by another marriage, he's only the half-father of. Danny Gould. So start telling people these things, people. I really, I think we should, yeah, we should really start spreading random celebrity rumors that make no real sense.

Just for fun. Did you know, I went to Scarlett Johansson on some talk shows. She has a turkey that she's had in her freezer for many years, just like Misty. She is trying to be like Misty. She was like, I can't get rid of it.

It's like part of the family. I was like, oh my god, I fucking know someone who has the same problem. She actually said that? Yeah. Oh my god, we need to get footage of this.

We need to YouTube and find this because, yeah, this is an actual story. I think it was David Letterman. Because I carried that turkey around in my freezer for like 10 years. What? That turkey is also part of my family at this point.

She has a turkey she will get rid of? Like a store-bought turkey? Yeah, it's almost 15 years old now. It was a gifted turkey where she worked that first year. I think she started working there for Thanksgiving.

And then it didn't get cooked that year. And then it was in there so long that it became sort of a joke. And then it stayed there for years. And once it's a joke, you can't get rid of it. We can't get rid of it.

And, well, once we gave it a name, it was so funny we gave it a name, that once you give something a name, you can't eat it, and then you can't get rid of it. It's part of your family at that point. You have a pet frozen turkey. So, yeah, and then she moved and didn't have a place to put it, so I had it in my freezer for like eight or ten years. Wow.

And I was pretty attached to him, too. And then when she moved. That's a lot of space taken up by a turkey house. It is. Luckily, I don't have money for real food.

So I don't, you know, ice cubes and ice cream. That's really all that's in my freezer aside from Harold. So then when she moved, she actually had room. So now it's at their house. And he has a, from what I hear, he has a friend that's a burrito that's been in there for about two years now.

You know, you could get Jeff Dunham to do a skit on that. You know, I'm sure you could. We forgot to bring that up. Would you like to go into the Jeff Dunham angle? Well, yeah.

As we were leaving. While we were still there, actually. While we were still there, yeah. Jeff Dunham, his show started right after the convention was over. Lexington is the cutting edge of the world, people.

They had not only a horror convention, but Jeff Dunham the same night. The same night, yeah. Holy shit. I think it would be neat to have to kind of like parlay the paranormal in with uh puppetry and we could have some kind of like paranormal talking or something like that that would be pretty cool but uh i wanted to walk up to jeff dunham and ask him if he could you know shove his hand up one of our asses and see if we could talk. And i told you if he did that you're gonna start talking you may not do a funny bit but you're gonna say you're gonna.

Say something he uh he he was there um Walking around the convention. Jeff Dunham walked right past us. And all the other people had no idea who he was. Yeah, we probably wouldn't have recognized him had we not just been looking at a poster of him like five minutes before when we were at the food court. Right.

We were just commenting on, see, he could be old. Look at him. Look at his face. And then he walked right past us. And he actually looked younger than in the photo.

Yeah, he did. That guy's freaky. He's undead. That's why he was there. Right.

He is the undead. That's why he can also be such a good ventriloquist. Oh, yeah. Because he's evil. Because he's evil.

Pure evil. He's not a ventriloquist. He really actually has reanimated those dolls. Those are little evil minions of his that actually don't go in the case at night. They actually hop around and attack people.

Like Chucky. Oh, yeah. It's scary. That was the horror of the weekend. Jeff Dunham.

Yeah. Especially the hordes of people that were in line when we left. It was lines like. He was a fucking rock star. Yeah, rock star.

Scary. Like the... What's the redneck comedy tour? Oh, God. Blue collar comedy tour?

Like they were showing up or something. Yikes. And I'm afraid it's the same audience. At this point. If it's in Lexington, Kentucky, it's the same audience.

It's the same audience. Man, that guy with the povich coming. Yes. All right. He does like a Muslim voice.

And he does a redneck voice. And he's got an old man. It's funny. That there's comedy. And I think he's got a high opinion.

On a stick. Oh, God. All right, let's get away from Jeff Dunham. Okay. Move on to.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Jeff Dunham podcast. We followed Jeff Dunham. Around in cars. Dunham cast. New podcast.

Welcome to Dunham cast. This week we're going to interview the old man. God. All right. Let's get back to something that will piss more people off.

Okay. The remake of Escape from New York. Why? Well, we brought this up a long time ago, I remember. We brought up the fact that they were going to make...

They were going to do some sort of... It was still questionable whether it was just a reboot and they were continuing on with the story or it was a remake telling that same story. It's still sort of questionable at this point. But. Yeah, they want to do some version and bring back Snake Plissken.

So, the latest person to hypothetically wear the eyepatch, and I'm using that, this is still total buzz, as the title would suggest, so here we go. The next person to have in mind is Jeremy Renner, star of the Hurt Locker. The more I thought about it, I was like, not bad, actually. So do they just keep throwing out ideas until somebody says, not bad. Until somebody's done bitching about it.

Right. You know, the first wave was like, about Keanu. Ah, fuck, no. You know, so until they get somebody to go, eh, I still don't like that you're doing it, but all right, he's not horrible casting. Maybe that's the best you get on something like this.

I suppose. I mean, yeah, okay. I guess if you're going to do it, go ahead. It's, yeah, again, it's still up in the air. It says it is in very early talks to take on the role, now made famous by former Disney star, Kurt Russell.

Kurt Russell. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. The New Line remake is. Being directed by Brett Eisner, who actually did The Crazies, which we brought up earlier as being.

Actually a pretty decent movie. It's all right. I think, yeah, I think those are at least somewhat competent hands to put it into. Again, I worry more what they're doing with it, because they're saying the... The most recent script comes from Alan Loeb, who did Wall Street 2, Money Never Sleeps, which I heard that was the biggest downfall of that movie is the screenplay itself.

Wow. I've heard the performances aren't so bad, but the story is kind of a big mess. So that worries me more than anything. And it is being described as a Plissken origin story merged with the events of Carpenter's 1981 original. That I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with either.

Yeah. I'm like, then we're entering into that Halloween remake territory. It's like, why... So then you. Get a backstory at the beginning, but then the second half of the movie, you're like, oh, here's a rushed version of what I've already seen.

Right. Let's tear apart the whole... Yeah. What's the point? I mean, I would almost be more okay with them just doing an origin story or some sort of prequel idea of just like, let's do a younger version of Plissken and see how he got to be this way or how he got to be such a badass or.

No, not at all. No but if they can sell it they'll do it. I get I mean the only thing I can think is that was a pretty modest budget on that movie there weren't a lot of special effects really so I mean if they really want to go super special effects and do some sort of real futuristic version of the 80s if I remember when it was set or was it 91 I can't remember I think like yeah the cutting cutting edge of technology. 91 1991 I don't know it. Again, if they want to do some weird alternate version of the future that they didn't do and couldn't do back, you know, when they made the original movie, that's the only thing I can see them trying to do differently.

Right. But again, why? I mean, as many people like the way the old one is, why do you want to change it? The one thing that worked in that movie, you know. Why do you want to mess with it?

I'd be fine with the backstory. That's not a problem. See, I think I'd be okay with that. Because he is such an awesome character and Kurt's getting to the point he's not gonna do it anymore I mean I would again we brought this up before I would be interested in seeing like a third one with him as a grizzled old snake Plissken it's like that would be cool too but maybe Kurt's getting too old maybe he doesn't want to do that kind of stuff anymore so I would hate to never do another Plissken movie he's a cool character I would like to see something else with him just do it separate you. Know do a whole completely.

Different story and I don't know that seems like it would make more sense to me but What do we know? Right. Nothing. Oh, man. They do say, and that one has nothing to do with Carpenter, they did also say this week that John Carpenter has announced he will be directing Dark Child, the adaptation of the bad girl mid-90s Maxim Press comic book.

I kind of remember that. I remember the title. I don't think I ever read it, but about a teenage girl with the ability to turn into the monsters of her nightmares. So... Hmm.

I don't know. Again, I'm glad to see Carpenter doing stuff at this point. It's been such a. Lapse there, and the stuff that he's already done hasn't even made it out yet, so it's been so long since we've seen. A full feature from him, let alone one people actually liked.

Well, yeah, there you go. So, yeah, I would like to see him come back and find good properties. This one, I can see why he would like it, but I actually also read that the Writing was, again, the weak point of that. The artwork was kind of okay in that book, but the story was pretty mediocre. So hopefully he'll get somebody else to rewrite it, or he'll do a rewrite on it and give it a better, more solid plot.

I would trust him with a rewrite of most things. I think he has a pretty good idea. When it's his idea, he can do a pretty good job with it. I think so. And you never know.

He could have been spending years getting this ready. you know and maybe he's wanted to do it and needed a a a property and it might you know he may have developed an entire storyline already so. Which yeah that i mean again i i would rather him almost just take the basic idea of that and totally come up with because it I mean, the old John Carpenter was an amazing storyteller. Right. He really knew how to piece a plot together and how to pace it and. How to, you know, build in.

You know, if you have monsters and stuff like that, I can see him being able to work that in right and not just use it cheesily. So, you know, again, I would almost rather see him totally take over the project and run it. As his own. So hopefully that's what happens and they don't just pass it off to another hacky screenwriter. Well, yeah, he can actually take something...

I believe very, that's very simple. Um, doesn't need a intricate plot by any means and make it a full length movie. Anyway, I think he's, he's got that ability that I think he, I think he can just make a tense moment and actually bring stretch out tense moments, pace them correctly and, and fill an entire movie with something that's just a basic plot anyway. So I'm not too concerned about that. He could give you the basic backstory of the character, and then here you go, just wind it up and let it go.

And I think he can handle it pretty well. So I'm not saying that by any means it would write itself, but I think he can handle it. He can easily handle that. Definitely. And I would like to see him do it.

So hopefully that's where it goes with it. And that pretty much rounds out. Scarlett Johansson. With Scarlett Johansson and Leonardo DiCaprio. There you go.

Only if it's a period piece. If it's a period piece with a low-cut shirt. Some sort of special bustier built in. That's, yeah. This is what we're looking for for a green light.

That's what gets a movie made these days. Leonardo DiCaprio and Scarlett Johansson's boobs. Right. That's an Oscar winner there. Yeah, that's...

Phew, and a period piece. Get Kenny Loggins to write the... Sound tracking, you got gold, baby. Highway to the dark, child. Watch out.

Come on. You know, why do people always get so surprised that two miles out. Merging happens? It merges. One mile out, it merges.

A thousand feet, it merges, and yet you're still not there. Oh, well, as we avoid the accident, that pretty much wraps up the buzz this week. So I guess the only other thing to do is... Okay, kids, get out your decoder pins. Dun, dun, dun.

There we go. Somebody did it. It's time for the Movie Meltdown Secret Circle reveal of next week's feature. For you members of the Secret Circle. This week we skipped it because we had some technical issues and some miscommunications along the way.

But, um. Next week will be interesting because, um. Next week, we're going to have a special guest sit in with us for the movie discussion. And on top of that, I've let them pick the movie, and they've picked a movie that I think is going to be pretty damn interesting, especially given where we'll be and the crew that we'll be discussing it with, especially if one of our crew is involved. Next week's movie is going to be When Harry Met Sally.

Oh, wow. Yes. What? Yes. Oh, wow.

Okay. This should be interesting. So, yeah, I'm even going to keep it under wraps on the special guest, and I'm just going to give you a heads up now on the movie. I think it's going to be pretty damn interesting. So, yeah, this should be fun, especially if Misty's involved.

What's next, Sleepless in Seattle? Hopefully, because that one's awesome, too. I like these movies. I don't know what you're talking about. So, yeah, that should be interesting next week.

And it will once again be a road trip episode. So, yeah, prepare yourselves. It's going to be hopefully several special guests sitting in next week. So this should be an interesting show coming up. So strap yourself in.

Wow. Oh, with that, I don't know, music-wise, I think we should go out with a song from David Johansson. Did you know he was Scarlett Johansson's dad? I don't know if you've heard that. Yeah, I did.

She changed her spelling of her last name, but yeah. Because she didn't want that to be her foot in the door. She wanted to earn her way into the A-list with her boobs. And her singing ability. Well, her phenomenal singing voice.

Come on now. Otherwise, that about does it. We won't turn next week. Same gig time, same gig feed. Thanks for listening.

Bye. My lady's asleep. Never mind. I love her a real whole bunch. She does what they're gonna leave her under the table.

That's when I decided to play my hunch. And when I try to tend to kiss her lips, she hollers, look down and say to breathe, don't touch. She says, I'm done with you, daddy. But compared to what she had to do last year To all the times she shed a tear I'll hurry, that's alright Yes, don't even have a fight Because there's nothing on the TV tonight So it's alright. Well, every time that I see her now, I said it, my cold heart starts to thud.

I can't believe that I let my. Own heart fall in on such a push. Well, all I do is I think about her. She says, I'm sorry, Daddy, I don't get that much. She says, I'm in love with.

You, Daddy, but not that much. Oh, yeah. She's not prepared to share her love as such. But compared to what. She had to do last year.

To all the times she. Shed a tear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But every time. That I take her home, she insists.

Oh, daddy, we go home Dutch. I said, I have something else in mind, more like activities and fun at home. She's in love. With you, daddy, but not that much. Oh, yeah.

She's not prepared to share her love as such. Now you're going to. Have to excuse me. I have to get to my tape. This show is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by Brian Renfro, with opening music performed by The Empires.

To help support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com for ways that you can contribute or advertise with us.