265: A Peter Weller Moment

Hi, I'm Richard Keel, Jaws from the James Bond movies, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. It's showtime. 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.

What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Marlena. And we are coming to you live via digital recording from the River City Festival of Films. And we will now go ahead and bring in our co-host or...

Host for this festival, however, you guys can introduce yourselves and tell people about the festival itself. I'm Wesley Johnson. I'm the vendor coordinator, and I tell people where to sit. That he does, and he tells them well. I'm PJ Starks, and I am the creator slash event facilitator of the festival.

All right. So I guess what initially brought this together? Well, this is year three, and originally we were just– I guess the process, the genesis, if you will, was so many other local areas have film festivals much smaller than this. And I thought that was fantastic that some of these areas had that. But I was like, why doesn't Owensboro have a festival?

So then I kind of took it upon myself. I've been doing independent film work for a little over six years now. And I said, hey, I'm just going to put a festival together and we'll see what happens. And year one happened at the mall. And it was probably the size of the space that's just our hallway here.

So it's pretty incredible that we've gone from that to now over 40,000 square feet and 36 vendors and year two fell completely on its face. So when we went into this year, I said, we've got to have, you know, some celebrity guests and, you know, really, really take it to the next level in order to, you know, well, put butts in seats. So that's what it comes down to really. Here we are. Yeah.

And we've had well over, I'd say at this point, well over a thousand people and now Peter's here and, Sir Moe is here, and Dave Shuffet from KET just arrived, so it's pretty incredible so far. That's Peter Weller, to be more specific. Your friend Peter, you know. Yeah, yeah. Peter Weller, a.k.a.

RoboCop, Sons of Anarchy. Me and Peter go way back. I just call him Peter. I just met him, so we'll pretend I said Mr. Weller.

Mr. Weller. My name is Cop, RoboCop. Oh, man. Well, I guess usually we'll do our little intro in the beginning with our geek activities, and we just kind of talk about stuff we've seen or stuff like that.

Have you guys seen any films lately other than the ones here? Or you can plug the ones here. I actually saw the Robocop remake, and it was surprisingly good. Really? Yeah, reimagining whatever.

It was much more cerebral. I guess it had to be since it was PG-13, but I enjoyed it. It was well acted. The effects are good. Samuel L.

Jackson was hilarious. He was like an uber conservative Fox News type reporter. He was pretty funny. But yeah, I liked it. Interesting.

What about you, PJ? I have a far less interesting answer. I've been so busy with this, and I also had to do a film series at the library that went for six weeks, so I was working on that. So I really haven't watched too many films lately, except for the films... of course, that were here at the festival. And they're all fantastic, and you should come check them out.

Because I'm supposed to say that, right? Well, that's what I fall into all the time. It's like, you run a movie show, you think I'd know, but I spend so much time planning this and editing this that I'll make it through a movie a week, maybe two if I'm lucky. So I try to think of the last thing I've seen. I saw the Spectacular Now.

Have you seen that? I've heard the name. I don't think I'm fully aware of it. I really liked it. It's a higher-end indie film, but it's kind of one of those high school kid kind of stories, but it takes a different approach.

It's not the super cool high school kids. It's not the dorky kids. It's like those kids in the middle, and it's like the kid that's. Kind of popular but not going anywhere kind of thing, and then the girl that nobody really pays attention to. But is kind of awesome, and it kind of takes a look at that, and And they're not, like, our main character is far from a perfect character.

But he's not villainized either. It's a very honest kind of thing where it's, like, kids kind of making mistakes and being stupid and, like, still trying to, like, figure out where they're going in life. Sometimes those go wrong and I don't like them at all, but this one was just really well made. Who's in it? I think that's the thing.

I don't know either of the leads from anything else, but they're both really good. I think that girl's starting to. Get more work now, the female lead in it. But, yeah, most of the cast is just kind of up-and-coming actors. What was yours?

I watched the movie Munchie. This shouldn't surprise fans of Marlena. I have fans? I don't have fans. Oh, I'm pretty sure I've heard from them.

Write in if you love Marlena. You have your own segment. Nobody else has a moment. Dom DeLuise was the voice of Munchie. He looked like a garbage pill kid kind of puppet.

It was the best thing I've ever seen in my whole life. It was kind of a 90s answer to Gremlins. Yeah, it really was. There were a lot of those. I think Jennifer Love Hewitt was in it, but I haven't confirmed that because I've been too lazy to get on Internet Movie Database to confirm.

It is a lot of trouble. Yeah. It didn't involve marijuana at all. No. No.

No, I was just really tired. No, no, no. Oh, the movie. I'm sure the making of it. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm sure the movie involved lots. I'm sure the movie did, for sure. There's no way that that movie could have been made without lots and lots of heavy drug use. Yeah, so I watched that.

That was amazing. Highly recommend it. I mean, he makes a pizza fly, and then this stereotypical Italian guy chases him down the street with a cleaver. Everything you could ever want in a movie, basically. I've also been attending this French film series.

So some of those movies have been really awesome. The last one I watched was called The Minister. I thought that was incredibly boring and horrible. I don't usually have such a visceral reaction to movies. It was just really boring.

And I was tired and I was grumpy and I was hungry. That might be what it is. But the first one I watched was a French movie called Police. Which. I actually hated that movie.

Like, I hate that movie so much. It's just, like, a lot of really touchy subjects. And I don't think they handled it very well. It's supposed to be, like, a positive movie that shows, like, the child protection unit of, like, Paris at a positive light. No.

No. Nope. They laugh about things that just aren't funny. And, I mean, I'm kind of, like, the queen of laughing about things that aren't funny. But this movie took it too far.

Yeah. And it was just, it made me real angry. And that's all, yeah, that's pretty much what happened. The full spectrum of your interests. Munchie and French families.

Highbrow, lowbrow. I'm a, as far as TV goes, I'm trying to catch up on Sherlock. I missed all that season. And also Justified. I have a soft spot in my heart for anything involving Kentucky crime.

Like, we had at the library, James Higdon. I don't know if you guys know him. He lives up in Louisville. He wrote the Cornbread Mafia book. And I think the second...

Maybe second or third season of Justified was loosely inspired by that. Ever since I read that book, I've been on Kentucky True Crime. That's my thing. But yeah, Justified's great. It's the only show, I believe, on the air that has accurate Kentucky accents.

And I'm sure you can tell from my slight draw that I'm not from. A big city in Kentucky. I always appreciate people who go out of their way to make accurate accents. The Closer, that Kyra Sedgwick show, that kills me every time I hear it. I know she's from Georgia, but no one talks like that.

Well, and that's impressive because they don't even shoot that anywhere around here. Like, it's all in L.A., I think, isn't it? I think originally they were doing it in Pittsburgh, but then they moved it out to L.A. And it's a fairly, you know, accurate representation. I think sometimes it looks a little, you know, off or whatever.

But, you know, everybody on there, I think, acts really well. It's a great show. It's a great modern-day Western. And the latest season is pretty crazy. Not so much as the last season, but it's definitely worth watching.

I think they're ending it after the next season. Yeah. Kind of going out on a high note. I think they've all kind of learned that. You get a good couple of seasons and then.

Don't want to do the lost thing. If you beat it to death, everybody just gets unhappy about it. Yeah, for sure. So what do you think? I'm halfway through this thing.

I'm still absorbing. I'm still soaking it all in. Like I said last year, it went from a 12-hour event... where we had maybe 100 people show up and now it's a seven-hour event and we've already had at least i'd say at least 12 to 1500 people come through here. So it did get to 100 second year at least at least okay and that's including all the staff and uh the filmmakers and the two or three filmmakers that showed up and myself. That's a little trick with library statistics.

You always count the staff and the people who are presenting. That's right. That's what we do with Unscripted. You guys come to me and you're like, we had about 52 people, and I'm like, no, I counted 64 with staff and everything. The cardboard cutouts we had.

Behind the scenes on the business here. Bella was here, Edward. You guys are big fans of the Twilight series at the library. Oh, yeah, I love it. You didn't want to go into that on your geek activities.

Says the man who pulled Breaking Dawn out of the DVD player. Oh, shut up. My wife. I was like, hey, guys. The last thing I was watching.

There you go. One of the last things I watched, Olympus Has Fallen. I watched about 20 minutes of it, and then I had to go to bed. That's a lot of Channing Tatum, right? No, that's White House down.

That's Olympus Has Fallen Part 2. Oh, right. Everyone, the president is Morgan Freeman, right? He really is, isn't he? Aren't we getting elected now?

He becomes the president. No spoilers. Oh, I'm sorry. It's a complex plot. He becomes the president, but I won't tell you how.

You'll have to watch and find out. He uses his God powers. I will say, though, that Gerard Butler does not take his shirt off at any point during that movie. He normally does, but Law-Abiding Citizen, if you want to see his glutes and his back and everything, that's what you want to watch. That is what's selling these movies.

Hey, you made a joke I laughed at. Hey, thanks. We appreciate your support. Well, you know, I try. But anyway, going back to your original question, I'm feeling really good about this.

Anytime I go into an event, I hope for the best, but I expect the absolute worst. That's become my take on all of mine. And I would say right now this is probably, like after last year, there was nowhere left to go. We were already at the bottom. Yeah.

So there's nowhere left to go but up. And I'd say we definitely went up in droves. Definitely. So I'm feeling really good about this whole thing. I'm really close to your face right now, so I hope I don't have bad breath.

That's okay. I'm used to it. Oh, he is. But, yeah, so I hope it continues. Now that I've talked about it, everybody's just going to leave for some reason.

Yeah. They're like, oh, never mind. And Peter Weller's going to throw his hands up and be like, why did I come all the way to Owensboro? Kentucky. Are you trying to convince him to leave?

Yes. He didn't know he was in Kentucky. Yes. He knows now. Unless it's Owensboro, New York.

Is there an Owensboro, New York? I don't know. There might be. We can make one. We should.

Yeah, we've got a good lineup of films. I don't know if you guys are going to get a chance. I know it's kind of hard when you're working in a booth to actually get to see something. It's usually what happens. But, yeah, it's a lot of good, mostly produced in Kentucky, right?

Yes. They're all local regional films. There's some from the Indiana area. The area? Because it's just an area.

It's not an entire state, but an area. But Evansville, Indiana area. But, yeah, we have filmmakers from all over. Some of the filmmakers here don't actually have... have film screening, but they're here to support and be a part of this epic event. I can say that now because people actually showed up.

People showed. I didn't want to say that before today, but now I can say it. Set yourself up to fail. Yeah, it is funny. I've seen several.

People that I know from other film vesting conventions, so it's at least. Putting you in the running. Yes, thank you. You're moving into the whole little family of these things now. And we've got some, uh, great artists here too.

Brett Gray from up in Lexington. He's, uh, does a lot of like HR Geiger sort of stuff. Uh, there's a lot of good black and white drawings. Uh, we've got some authors, uh, and, uh, we got a guy over there with the bukus of Buckaroo Banzai, uh, props and such. We were wondering if Peter Weller was going to freak out when he saw the aliens and start shooting at them or something.

He still might. I think he carries a laser. We will find out soon enough. I would hope he carries a laser. Yeah.

But yeah, there's just, it's kind of nice just to get the whole, uh, nerd perspective with the vendors and, uh, That was part of my job, and telling them where to set. I'm kind of proud of how this is all turning out, too. But yeah, there's a surprising amount of movie production places around these parts, and Madisonville of all places, too. You find weird little pockets that kind of... And they create their own little weird communities.

We've seen that with ours back home too. The big biting pig people. Didn't the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy, wasn't him their latest one? Yes, Bill Johnson from Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. Nice.

Yeah, so it's getting out. See, I don't know. I'm not a horror guy. Like gore and stuff, this is really not my bag. House MD makes me squeamish.

How about House the Second Story? I haven't seen that one. Is that like a sequel to the house TV show or something? No, it is. Well, yes.

We'll just say it is for you. So I don't have to go into too much explanation. I mean, I have to turn my head. It was before Hugh Laurie's time. Right.

Mom just holds the poster board above the TV during those parts for me now. How about Hasu? Are you familiar with that? I don't know that one. That's the Japanese house.

I recommend that one. Possibly the greatest filmmaking. Was that a remake? No, no, no. It uses every.

Style of filmmaking ever in one movie. It's amazing. It really is. That's my recommendation. I do like the Asian horror where you don't have to actually see people getting dismembered or something.

Well, we don't do those anymore. I'm sorry. No. I prefer seeing people getting dismembered. And you're not even talking about movies.

No. We all have to have hobbies. That's right. I'm a gore hound myself, so I like story, too, on occasion. If you mix the two together.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm just a wuss. You are a wimp. You're like, oh, The Grudge is a good horror movie. It's so scary.

I don't know. That noise, you know. The noise is a little disturbing. That guttural kind of. I can't do it.

I usually get. We don't want to have to clean up his urine off the floor. Right, right. You already had to do that. There's someone that comes around and does that.

Yeah, the guy with the vacuum cleaner. I don't know if my insurance plan will cover that. We were wondering about the guy with the vacuum cleaner earlier. Is he just kind of pacing the floor? he's a low rent ghostbuster i don't think that's what we thought he came in the room i was like uh another ghostbuster at a convention but no he has a vacuum this is passing you know we weren't able to get uh bill murray so we went. With uh the low rent ghostbuster he would come here but only as a ghost that's.

True you know busting makes it feel good no bill murray oh so rest in peace yeah yeah i was pretty bummed out about that but uh I should have dedicated something to them at the film festival. Actually, there is a local branch of the Ghostbusters here in the area, like the Western Kentucky Ghostbusters. It's spread like a disease, the Ghostbusters. Yeah, but it was funny. I contacted them.

They said, oh, we would love to do that. And I said, okay, great. Can I get some contact information? And then crickets came. So they would love to not do it, I guess.

So were they not here? Because there was a car outside that had the Ghostbuster. Was there? There was one when we pulled in. Because I assumed I would see Ghostbusters.

Was it Low Rent? The Low Rent Ghostbuster? Kind of. I think it was like a PT Cruiser. I think it was.

It said Ectum 1 on the... It's a Ford Windstar. Yes. It's not the actual slime. It's like the juice box version of the slime.

It's like the Ecto Cooler. That's all they could get. I miss those. I think every geek does. I don't think they knew what they had until it was gone.

And the Ghostbusters cereal, if anybody remembers that. Definitely. It was a limited run, I believe. Almost as good as the C-3PO's. Because that was pretty epic, too.

I think I remember C-3PO's, but I didn't realize Ghostbusters had a cereal. I was probably too scared of it. I seriously have a very vivid memory from my childhood. We were in Owensboro. This is when I lived in Greenville.

My family, we were traveling back. The tire blew, and somebody came to change the tire or whatever, but we went. Maybe it was a more serious problem than a tire blowing. I don't know. But the point of the story is the fact we had to go to a relative's house.

They came and picked us up. Ghostbusters was on the television, and I was hiding behind my mom, peeking around. I think it was within the past five years that I saw Ghostbusters for the first time. Are you on anxiety medication or anything like that? I have some, but I haven't been taking it.

I mean, I'm on a low dose of Prozac, but that's a whole other story. It makes you happy. It involves those dead bodies. Well, you know, I like to see people get dismembered. I'm a little better than I used to be.

The really weird part is you were really mostly scared of Dan Aykroyd. Yeah. Which I can't blame you. Canadian accent. Which film are we talking about?

Is it still Ghostbusters? It's more or less the Crystal Skull podcast. I thought maybe you were talking about Loser. Canadians. Well, people are leaving.

So apparently it's a jinx. You've chased them off. Oh, really? Maybe they're going to the screenings. There you go.

You know what? That's exactly what is happening with us. Thank you for correcting me. People are running to see the screenings. All right, well.

Unless we want to get back into something important like Twilight Talk. I mean, you know. That's true. I guess we can wrap up for this part, and we'll wander back later and see what's going on. I appreciate you having me on.

Not so much Wes, but definitely me. Well, tell people where to find it if they want to go look for it in the future. If you're able to make it today, it's the Owensboro Convention Center in Owensboro, Kentucky. I think it's a little late. Right.

It's not live. Oh, it's not live? I didn't realize that. Well, you're obviously not going to be. Able to make it.

For a future reference. For a future reference, you can go to rivercityfestivaloffilms.com. And we're definitely going to be doing it again next year because it went so well this year. That's cool. So, yeah, keep checking that out.

We'll be updating regularly. Maybe not immediately, but as... As it comes around. And, yeah, so definitely check us out. And, you know, I'll be excited to have an even bigger turnout next year than what we had this year, which was still extremely impressive.

Build on it. Just build on it. I'll plug the library because we are doing a lot of film stuff. If you're in the Owensboro area, PJ is unscripted, as he's mentioned. And this summer we're going to do kind of obscure cult film series thing.

We're still working out the details of that. You can check out dcplibrary.org. And you can also follow me on Twitter because I want to talk about myself. Excuse me. Twitter.com slash WesTheHero.

PJ, are you on Twitter? I am not. But Wes also has scaredofghostbusters.edu if you want to check that out. It's just a picture of my wet bed sheets. I don't think you're going to get any hits on that, really.

Well, wait, no, it is the Internet. He's trying to sell them on eBay now, and somebody's got a fetish. Somebody will be hitting that now. Sorry about that. Yeah, if you want to hit that, you know, just call me.

It's all downhill from here once you start talking about wet bed sheets. Right. Well, I think you just pitched something else when you said, if you want to hit that, you know, get a hold of me. I was hoping no one would notice except the ladies. You're standing really close to me, so I was the first one to notice.

I was just picturing you in a blonde wig. Sorry. You guys can make that off the mic. That's okay. Whatever plans you need to make.

Sitting at this table has me like eye to butt level. I've looked at every single buddy's butt today. Just throwing that out there. Speaking of fetishes. Looked at everybody's butt.

That's what I've done all day. I've just analyzed everyone's butt. I want you to walk by and drop my keys and bend over real slow to get them. I should develop a rating system. Just throw stuff out on the floor and let people pick it up.

Oh, could you get that for me? And I'll be like seven. I have two holes in the back of my pants today because I'm very professional. But it's concealing. Don't be too scared.

My Ghostbuster wallet. Ghostbuster wallet. He just peed a little bit. A little bit. Just adds to what was already there.

Get that guy with the vacuum. Hopefully it's a shop vac. Excuse me, low-ranked Ghostbusters? Can you just put that down my pants? Again, we moved into a different area, but there's a market for that as well.

Oh, yeah. Wait, is this an M-rated podcast? We are extra R-rated. Okay, cool. We use all kinds of horrible language.

I think it says explicit on the site. Oh, it always says explicit. I was a listener. I was instrumental in bringing you guys in, so I'm definitely a fan of M-squared. That's all I can call it.

If you can get a logo going for that and get us some sponsors. Hey, I'll fire up Microsoft Paint when I get back home. Awesome. We'll see what we can do. And then find us some sponsors, and we're all set.

Maybe Microsoft Paint is going to do this, but I am going to have to go try to figure out what's going on. But I appreciate you having me on. And I'm sure we're friends on Facebook now, so it's official. That's really, it doesn't matter unless we're friends on Facebook. I know.

Unless you're friends on Facebook, friendships don't really matter. That's true. And then sometimes they hold your friendship hostage. I love everybody when they put out the post of, yeah, I'm going to be deleting a lot of people, so if you're seeing this, good for you. Yeah.

Or get a hold of me if you think we're actually friends and I'll keep you. And I'm like, wow, this is what friendship has become? You know, it's funny because you see the post from those people. It's like you haven't seen them since high school. You haven't spoken to them.

They friend request you. Yeah. And then you talk just about as much now on Facebook as you have in the last, you know, 10 years or whatever, depending on how old you are. And then suddenly they're like, yeah, I'm going to probably get rid of a lot of people I haven't talked to in a while. And I'm like, why did you.

Friend request me? Yeah, why friend request? I didn't want to talk to you anyway. Yeah. If you're seeing this post, your check cleared.

So don't worry. I'm like, before you defriend me, go like this page I have. Ah, the workings of Facebook right there. John Maynard's beard's looking really nice. I know.

He's manned up. Have you guys seen Nearly Dead? It was shot in Louisville. It's a zombie movie set in a rest home. It's pretty hilarious.

Has it screened yet today? I think it has. Let's find out. 110, yes. What's the guy's name?

Project Death Pack just showed. After School Special is next. Is it Sonny Burnett, the older guy from Louisville that's in every movie that's shot in Louisville? Probably. He was in Pilgrim's Song.

He was the principal. He's a principal character in that, so you get to see a bunch of older folks battling zombies. Is it? If you get a chance to watch it, you should definitely check it out. He's probably selling copies of it.

I don't know. But, yeah. Good stuff. All right. I guess we will go wander around.

Yeah, yeah. Bother other people at the tables. Yeah, you should check out some of the art. Like, Brett's so cool. You'll like our pizza pies made from a famous Italian recipe.

They're waiting for you right now at the concession stand. Enjoy tempting food at its best. Gage Dobson is the new kid in the neighborhood. His mom's in love with a jerk. I'm going to be your new father whether you like it or not.

He's not doing so well at his new school. Unless your grades improve enough, I may have to fail you. And his overactive imagination is getting him nothing but trouble. Suspension. Life's not looking so great for Gage.

I wish I was dead. To be or not to be? Arriba! Until. Who said that?

Me, I did, pal. I'm your new friend. I help. I dazzle. I make better.

Roger Corman and New Horizons Home Video bring you the family fantasy adventure, Munchies. The all-star sequel to the video blockbuster, Munchies. Now, Munchies come to school to help Gage with a few class projects. Like getting back at. Their school bully.

Geronimo. Helping Gage improve his grades. I think we can do better than that. Thank you, bunny cakes. And making a fool out of the principal.

I'm hot. One large pepperoni pizza coming up. But when Munchie tries to get rid of Gage's evil stepfather, things start to get a little out of hand. I have something I'd like to say to you. No!

This is a lesson in spontaneous combustion. He's been out to sabotage this entire evening. That's ridiculous. You should never ask for anything unless you really want it. No!

So join Munchy and his friends as they soar away on a magical fantasy adventure starring Lonnie Anderson. You give whatever it is back to Gage. Andrew Stevens. I'm gonna rest it. Artie Johnson.

Could you introduce him to me? Jamie McKinnon. Okay, you got me. Where are the cameras? And Dom DeLuise as the voice of Munchy.

Hey, sometimes you gotta help people in spite of themselves. Magical. Hey kids, it's Brian. So you're listening to this episode, and it sounds pretty good, right? That's because we're using our new mics from the Doo-Wop Shop.

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So again, that is doo-wop.com. Go there. They'll have whatever you need. They certainly did with us for the mic. So yeah, go to doo-wop.com and check it out.

Thank you. So what are we talking about now. Can I pretend like I'm at the Oscars and I analyze people's fashion? Do you have a title for your runway critique? Nope.

Marlena's runway critique? Yep. All right. Go to town. Those look like very comfortable shoes that that woman is wearing.

Orthopedic, perhaps? Yes. Hey, I wear orthopedic shoes. Don't knock it. They're very cute, too.

And you're proud of them. They're very cute. Look at these. And you have 47 pair of orthopedic shoes. No, I only have four.

She has a shoe problem. I get lots of compliments on my orthopedic shoes specifically. From old ladies. No. Well, yes.

But also young people. Every grandma you run into. I like the back of that lady's shirt. It's like a little bow thing. She's got a little bow thing going on.

It's really cute. Actually, I think she has her shirt on backwards, though. I'm just going to throw that out there. Pretty sure her shirt's on backwards. Since we've mentioned the fact that you have such a fan base, and the one thing they love the most is a Marlena moment, you were kind of telling me earlier, could you share with them, since we saw the guy with the vacuum cleaner story?

My ghost story? No, the vacuum cleaner story. Oh, okay. And now it's time for a Marlena moment. Okay, so a couple of years ago, my friend Amanda was driving down the street with one of her friends, This didn't happen to me.

It doesn't matter. It's only a story that I would hear from you. That's a Marlena moment. Okay. So she's driving down the street with her friend, and they see, like, this brand-new carpet shampoo on the side of the road.

And they're like, oh, cool. Well, even if there's something wrong with it, maybe we know someone that can fix it. So let's take it. So they put it in the van, and they get it home and realize it's filled with blood. And then they found out that it's because a teenager had shot himself, and his parents bought the carpet shampooer to, like, clean up all of his blood, and then just put it on the curb because they're like, we don't want this.

That's not really a keepsake you want. Yeah, like a memento of your dead child. No, no one really wants that. Put that carpet cleaner on the mantle. Yeah.

Next to his urn. Yeah. That's not cool at all. Yeah. That's a.

That's a mild Marlena moment. That's a side Marlena moment. I once told a friend about that, and he almost drew a picture of that and made it his album cover. I was like, I don't really think people would get it. No, it would be quite a story involved.

Hey, I think it would make a good horror movie, though, somehow. I don't know how, but it would. Do you need to go into your ghost story now? I'm really tired of telling my ghost story. But I think I have Poltergeist.

Or a poltergeist. Oh, hot damn hobo. I think it's connected to hot damn hobo. Oh, you guys have to go old school to get to that. I mean, hot damn hobo was like two years ago.

No, it's new. It's new. It's still happening. What I'm saying, like to get the base story for the hot damn hobo, you got to go back to like Christmas two years ago. Yeah.

Okay. I'll do that. So a few years ago at my old house, I would wake up in the morning and find hot damn bottles in the alley that weren't there the night before, like lots of hot damn bottles. And if you know what hot damn is, it's a cinnamon liquor that That if you drink a. Lot of, you should probably die.

And may. Yeah. And so that happened for years while I lived there. And like a year and a half ago, I moved into a new house. And just like within the last month or two, I started finding hot damn bottles in the alley again.

And like I live probably about a mile away from my last house, so it's kind of weird. But. It is weird. One morning I woke up, and in the alley, there are seven empty hot damn bottles that weren't there the night before. Seven.

Who could drink seven bottles of hot damn? And people are like, well, maybe it's a group of teenagers, or maybe it's more than one person. I'm like, I don't think it is. I don't think that it is. If you had enough money to buy seven bottles of hot damn, wouldn't you just put it all together and buy one good booze?

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how the pricing goes on hot damn. I think hot damn is just their jam. They're like, oh, hot damn, this is my jam.

And they mean it. They mean it. That's our new Marlena-themed T-shirt that's coming up. Please send funding so we can make a Marlena T-shirt. I've seen that.

Every time I walk my dog, my dog poops, like, right by where the bottles are. And I'm like, oh, hot damn, this is my jam. Because it's just so relevant. I mean, it's relevant. But, okay, but it's by my neighbor's shed.

And hot damn hobo, whoever he is, maybe he's a person, maybe he's a ghost or a monster. He or she. He or she. Or a bit paranormal activity that he is. I don't know.

I don't know what hot damn hobo is. I kind of want to know, but then again, I don't want to find out and ruin the fun. Because, like, what if it's just, like, this totally normal person? That would be lame. If he's going to be a hobo, he better have, like, one arm.

And a bindle. Yeah, exactly. A bindle at least. It's really hard to tie a bindle with one arm. He uses his feet.

He probably does. He's extra interesting. Yeah, so there's, like, the back of my neighbor's shed. It's, like, made of paneling. And it's been pulled apart and I guess he gets in there when it's really cold and he sleeps.

Yeah, so now there's like 22 hot damn bottles in the alley. And a bunch of dog poop because like I said, it's where my dog poops. Okay, if we put these stories together, maybe your dog is the hot damn hobo. Have you ever seen her. Sneak out there?

I don't think my dog breaks out to the liquor store and buys hot damn and. Then drinks it in the alley. She might. She's a peculiar dog. But you know, here's the thing because I'm like, This is a perfect place for Hot Damn Hobo to live because he could just poop there and no one would know that it's hot dog poop.

They'd blame it all on your dog. Yeah. I think that's what happens because sometimes there's poop piles that my dog didn't put there. So I think he poops there too. As long as you're cool with that.

But yeah, then weird stuff started happening in my house and I thought I had like a cat burglar or something like that. But I don't. Because I mean I checked my house and I was there and then my lights just started going off. Like the switches started going off by themselves. So I think maybe I'm insane.

Maybe. Here's the theories I've come up with. Hot damn hobo is real and he's very sneaky. He's, like, a very sneaky human who's, like, okay, like, I love Roger Miller, but that song, Trailers for Sailor Rent, really freaks me out because he talks about, like, every lock that isn't locked when no one's around. And I just think of, like, some hobo tramp, like, sneaky breaking into people's houses and just, like, eating their chip, like, one chip out of the bag and, like, peeing in their toilet.

Like, I think about that. I think of. think about Roger Miller every time I come home and something's amiss. So that's one theory. The weird things in my house are in some way connected to Hot Damn Hobo because he's a human who's very sneaky and very good at picking locks. He breaks into my house and moves things around.

Theory two, poltergeist, which is like not really ghosts but like psychic activity or something like that. You do have a TV. Theory three, I have a couple of TVs. Theory three is that it's a ghost. And I feel like I had a fourth theory, but I forgot.

Oh, fourth theory is that I'm experiencing some weird Tyler Durden thing, and I'm the hot damn hobo, and this stuff isn't really happening. I'm just losing my marbles and imagining that this stuff is happening. Spoiler alert for your life. Yeah. Yeah.

You don't want to ruin it when you're chasing yourself down. Well, no, Jessica was there and experienced some weird things, so she has confirmed that they're real because I was, like, really starting to worry. At any point, do you fight with meatloaf in a parking lot? No. Can we arrange that somehow?

I would love to. People would pay good money. Hey, there used to be this guy at Golden Corral that looked just like meatloaf. Does that count? We did see a meatloaf tribute act once.

Yeah. Misty and I went and saw him. He was pretty impressive, by the way. You went to see him? Oh, on purpose.

On purpose. His brother is an Elvis impersonator. Oh, okay. And he's a meatloaf impersonator. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

What a family they have. That makes sense. But, yeah, so I don't know. I don't really know what's going on. Like if it's a poltergeist, hobo.

Mental disorder. Mental disorder or ghost. But it's one of those things. Yep, that's what's been happening in my life. That's what's happened.

I have a friend now who only, like, the only text messages he ever sends me anymore, it's like a long boo. Boo! That's just what he sends me in text messages. And if I'm like, if I mention anything, he's like, well, maybe the ghost can cook you dinner or something like that. And I'm like, I didn't think it was a ghost, Brian.

I thought it was poltergeist, and that's different. Ugh. Well, maybe ghosts have just learned how to text now. Yeah, maybe. Or poltergeists are living in electronic units.

And also, here's a new theory. Maybe I'm a ghost. You are spoiling this thing all over. I don't know. But I'm not.

I mean, this is. Marlena was a ghost all along. I'm making a joke, and this is funny, but, like, Seriously weird things have been happening at my house. This might be the last time we ever hear from you. Yeah.

I might die under mysterious circumstances or something. You'll get sucked into the TV. I've seen it. I only watch TV on my computer. Your house is not cleansed.

I only watch TV on my computer anymore. And I really only watch Parks and Recreation lately. Other than I watched Munchie last night. But if it's going to suck me into one of those things, that'd be really weird. You'll be Leslie Knope's new best friend that'd be cool she needs one.

Now why is Rashida Jensen on the show I haven't watched any of the new episodes she and Rob Lowe took off to have a magic baby to have their weird baby oh no don't ruin it for me I haven't seen it I'm still watching season 5 I'm watching it on Netflix god. Had they not blown it on the TV commercial, I wouldn't really know either. I don't watch TV. This is your problem. The TV will keep away the spirits.

The internet is probably still letting them in. You have to watch bad advertising on television is what keeps the evil spirits away. I don't think that's how it happens. Yeah, I think those are the funniest things, the weirdest things that have happened lately. I mean, I'm just a magnet for strange and hilarious occurrences.

Like when we were walking in, Brian is carrying a Tupperware bin full of T-shirts and some guy, what did he say? Y'all got a pig in a poke. Y'all got a pig in a poke. I don't even know what that means. That's really weird.

I mean, it is a saying, but why he felt the need to say it to me in a parking lot or you in a parking lot or both of us in a parking lot. Is very strange. It's weird. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty mild in the grand scheme of things that happened.

It was still a little random. Yeah. A little odd. I think it might, maybe it's the town that I live in or I don't know. It might just be you.

Might just be me. I think it is me. Yeah. So, I'm hungry. I really want to go to that Dairy Whip place.

Yeah, we did drive by a really cool old school hamburger joint, so we're pretty sure we're going there later. I'm worried that it's going to close, though. It is Saturday, though, so that's probably what people do in this town. You should Google them. I don't even remember what it was called.

They might have internet in this place. I bet they do. We'll flag down one of those two again and be like, hey, I'm sure you know if it closes or not. Of all the cool things in your town. They probably know about that.

Yes. Oh, I got a new puppy. She almost puked on my face the other day. Your stories are charming. I know.

All of them. This is why, I mean, you know, it's like, I feel like I make friends pretty easily. But then I have this problem all the time where I'm like, no one gets me. No, it's not even that. It's just because I can dial it.

I can dial it down. And be, like, almost a regular person. Sometimes. But I don't want to do that. I don't.

It's just not fun. You shouldn't have to. It's, like, hard. That's what we're saying. It's hard.

You shouldn't have to. When you find that right person, they will appreciate you for all your dog-puking stories. I know. Right? Right?

Like, yesterday, I was having this conversation with, like, my new BFF. And I mentioned, like, the Problem Child movie. He goes, I love the Problem Child movie. I was like, it's so underrated. Yeah.

He was like, I listen to the soundtrack all the time. I was like, I'm so glad we're friends. Yeah. You're both weird. I know.

It's awesome. Yeah. And, I mean, oh, yeah. But, yeah, she's a really cute puppy. And she was sleeping, like, right above my face.

And it was, like, 5 in the morning. And I heard her starting to throw up. And I, like, was able to catch it in my hand before it went on my face. That was horrible. Charming to blast.

So charming. All my stories. I'm like a Disney princess. Aren't you? Yeah.

You know what? I think that's why I wear party dresses all the time because I'm like the world's. Most disgusting human being that I have to balance it out. Everywhere you go is a party. Yeah.

Also, my life has been heavily influenced by that Tom Petty song, Last Days with Mary Jane. So every time I get dressed in the morning, I sing to myself, Honey, put on that part. There's a lot of singing in my life. You've seen the video, right? Yeah, I know she dies, or she's already dead.

So you really want somebody to dance around with you while you're dead. Yeah. Well, we had a guy earlier that likes dead bodies, so we can see what we can put together. I just choked on air. Did you catch it in your hand?

I didn't throw up. Yeah, but anyway, back to my story. Which I think I was done with. I don't know. Oh, Lord.

That's a glorious mullet. It's a glory mullet. That's a new thing. That is straight out of To Catch a Yeti. For those of you who have been following along, there were some beauty.

Mullets, eh? Beauty mullet. Fashion mullet. Beauty mullet. Glory mullet.

Should be like a system of writing mullets. Like butts. You can put that with your butt grading. Nice. Yep.

Um. Yeah, so that's what happened to me lately. Yes, this interlude has been your gift from Marlena and myself, because I handed her the mic, so you're welcome from both of us. Sucker. Trailer's for sale already Room's split 50 cents No phone, no pool, no pets Ain't got no cigarette side but two hours.

Of pushin' from Bison. Eight, twelve, four-bedroom. I'm a man of means by no means. King of the road. Third box car, midnight train.

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Tweaked Audio. Sounds better. Hey guys, it's the repeater from Tower of Technobabble, and we're getting ready to do our next show, and I thought it might be cool for you to look behind the scenes. And see how the magic happens. In fact, Conduit is getting Towerbot-ready.

Right now, as we speak. I made it for $ 30, 000 in two days and a night. This is Roger Corman, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. 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. Thank you. All right, Marlena. We're about to go and talk to Peter Weller.

I'm so excited. Yay! We did get a chance to talk to Peter Weller. Thanks to PJ. Wes definitely got us in the door, but PJ went out of his way to at least make sure we got a chance to spend a few minutes with him.

So it is short. I just kind of hit. The big movies or one or two things I thought would be interesting, but it was literally minutes before. He had to go and do the Q & A. The credits were about to roll on the Buckaroo Banzai, so he was just getting ready to walk off.

So It is quick, but we do get a chance to talk to Peter Weller, so that's awesome. So let's go there now and see what Peter has to say. I just kind of wanted to do a touch base on a few. I didn't know if you wanted to talk about anything specific movie-wise. No, you asked me because I'm ready.

All right, all right. Well, I mean, Buckaroo Banzai is pretty amazing. How did that come together? Is it one of those that when you read it, it seemed as outlandish as it came together? No, when I read it, I didn't understand it.

I still don't understand it, and if you could tell me what it's about, I'd be happy. What did you want to do as far as approaching that character? I mean, he definitely holds that film together. I based him on three people, Adam Ant, Elia Kazan, and Jacques Cousteau. Nice.

I mean, as far as. RoboCop, when you read through that the first time, was the satire already there, or was it straightforward? No, that was already there. It was a brilliant script. And I got a call from my agent, a great guy, Rick Nassita, and said, hey, there's a film about a robot.

Maybe you want to do it, maybe not. Go meet the director, Paul Verhoeven. He's a Dutch guy, so they don't have to tell me who he is. I knew who Paul Verhoeven was. I was a big fan of him.

Read the script. It was brilliant. And just told Paul Verhoeven right up front, I want to do this movie. And I know your movies. You wanted me to test.

I didn't test. And I conned him, and I kind of browbeat him into me doing it. How much of it did you add as far as character-wise? Well, I added a lot with the help of Moni Akin. M-O-N-I-Y-A-K-I-N, who's head of the movement department at Juilliard, who essentially worked all that movement out.

So it was six months of preparation for that thing. And it lowered the voice and all of that stuff. Yeah. In other words, going to do Naked Lunch. That's one of those, I was working with Cronenberg, and then you got to know Burroughs because of that movie, or had you known him before that?

I didn't know Burroughs before. The book was one of my very favorite books, a seminal book of import to me. It's considered by Time Life one of the 10 or 20 most seminal books written in the English language in the 20th century. It's satire. It's Gulliver's Travels.

It's social, heavy, heavy satire. And Cronenberg I was a fan of. And another thing, I browbeat Cronenberg into hiring me. I wrote him a letter and told him I wanted to do it. And.

He met with me and hired me. And Burroughs and I hung out for about two or three months before the film. Thank you. Yeah, man. And like that, he's gone.

All right, so we are rounding things out here at the Film Fest. We've got PJ back. Go ahead and give them the information as far as if they want to seek you out in the future. My name is PJ Starks. Are you talking about my personal information?

You can do all of it, you know. Well, I don't really have a website, but I do have, you can check out my stuff on YouTube, forward slash Verite Cinema Films. That's V-E-R-I-T-E, Cinema Films. And then also, you can go to RiverCityFestivalOfFilms.com, which is the event that you guys were at today. Or you can just look me up on Facebook.

I pretty much accept anybody, but do expect to get about 10 page likes today. once I accept your friend request. That doesn't just go for Facebook, right? You pretty much accept anybody. Is that what you're saying? Pretty much.

If you show up at my house, I'll give you a high five. I'll let you in. I'll make you some cocoa. And then I will ask you to like all my Facebook pages. We're moving into real world now.

We have to like physically like your movie. You're like, look at this. Look at this. You like it? Okay, I like it.

God. I'm going to treat you like you're my mom. And I'm going to say, hey, look at what I did. Which is, you know, I've gotten pretty good at that over the years, saying, hey, look at what I'm doing. So it's working out.

Basically, Facebook is just the refrigerator of the Internet. It's like, hey, look what I did. Put it up on the fridge. Mom goes, that's great. You know, you should make like a different version.

And instead of the wall, you could do the fridge. Just so you know, I just silenced my wife's phone call. So that's how important you guys are to me right now. I'd say we'll keep that between us, but now you're going out into the Internet and millions and millions. Of listeners just heard you.

Especially that guy in Sri Lanka. But anyway. Or Wes, who we'll listen to this later. Which, you know, I'm sure he's just seething because he did not get the backstage pass that you guys got. See, we're in the cool kids club.

And Wes didn't qualify is what we're saying. That's what happens when you wear pretentious scarves. Actually, that is my wife. You're going to get in trouble. We better let you go before you get in trouble.

Thank you. All right. Well, I think that about wraps it up this week. We do want to thank everybody at the River City Festival of Films, specifically Wes, PJ, and I guess we have to thank Peter Weller for at least taking a few. Minutes there to talk to us.

And that was awesome. So it's been a fun day. And we got to eat potato pizza. Yeah, it was good. What was the name of that place?

Feta. Feta. There's an extra little plug for feta there because we liked pizza with mashed potatoes on it. There's a shocker knowing our career. Yeah.

Everyone in Owensboro is really, like, friendly. Like, a level of friendly that I would consider creepy in Louisville. But, I mean, it's a small town thing. Like, I remember once when I was visiting my aunt in Salem, Indiana, every time I'd walk down the street, everyone would wave at me. And I was like, what the fuck is wrong with you people?

That's just what people do in small towns. They're nice. I wasn't either. It was kind of weirding me out. And then I got into it.

It's cool. But yeah, everybody we've met. What are you doing? Oh, you're being nice. Everybody we've talked to today has been really great, I have to say, which is not always the case in some of these events.

So it was fun. So thanks, everyone, for putting it together. It's been a good day. And with that, we will leave you. Otherwise, that about does it.

We will return next week. Same geek time, same geek feed. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where's that music coming from? That TV over there?

Oh. You just thought it was a portal for spirits? Yes, that's what TVs are to me. You didn't know sound came out of them? Spirit portals.

Yeah. God. I know how to operate in the real world, sort of. Only when you dial it back a couple notches. Yeah.

That's probably true. Oh, Lord. I'm going to go find a soda, I think. Because you need more sugar. Did you turn this off like five minutes ago?

I never turned it off. I've really just been rambling. I don't even know what I'm talking about. That's called movie melting. I'm just standing here.

This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios, with the opening music performed by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard!