Special Report: Littermates (2026)

Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime. People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

Turn it off. . . . . . I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry this happened to you.

I'm sorry this. Happened to you. Welcome to The Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White. This episode, I'm talking with co-directors Scott Tinkham and Michael Wollison. about Littermates, a strange, funny, post-apocalyptic tale shot in the English countryside with a hulking vintage Panavision zoom lens and a cast of longtime friends.

Littermates plays Fantastic Fest before rolling out to Alamo Drafthouse theaters nationwide. Visit littermatesfilm.com for more information and to find out where the movie is playing near you. I had a great time talking with Scott and Michael, And I hope you have a great time listening. Enjoy. Let's talk about you and how you guys know each other.

I'm very curious. How long have you been working together? We've been working together since we were pretty much infants, it feels like. We went to film school and started in like 2019, 2018 we met each other. Or 2017, I think, actually.

2017, yeah. Yeah, we went to the same film school and I think within months, we just started working on each other's projects there. And it's kind of like history ever since. We collaborated with our other friends, Al and Joey. Al was an EP on us.

And then Joey starred in it as Liam. And then Haley as well went to our film school and EP'd this. But yeah, it's kind of all where it started was that little film school thing. How do you guys decide who's going to be doing what on each project? We both have our leanings, or at least we have so far.

So I've always leaned more camera side, and Scott's always leaned more into writing. And I think we complement each other in that way, so it was kind of a natural bonding in terms of the involvement for this project in particular. But there are also things Scott directs that I shoot and there are things that I direct and Scott produces. So it's just, we kind of just help each other out. And then on things like this, we'll come together and use our strengths to make the full picture, I guess.

It's just where things naturally settled. Where did the idea for Littermates come from? Oh, it really evolved so much over time. It was, we had these constraints around this location in England, these three actors that we love to work with, And Michael, like you said, Michael and I's specific little specialties as filmmakers, like mine being writing and Michael's being DPing. And we just came together to do this directing thing together.

But it was really based around everything we had, which was all of those. And creating the story was just like throwing shit at a wall until we started to find the themes that we wanted to play with, started to find the tone that we wanted to play with, which is such a strange tone, and the humor that we wanted to live in. And it was just like a six-month, seven-month process of writing that script and getting it to a place that we were all excited about to get our asses out to the English countryside and shoot it. Yeah. Where did the English, the English manner come from?

Uh, a good friend lent their house, uh, their wonderful house to us for that. Uh, when we saw it for the first time, we're like, we have to, we have to shoot something here. I love the whole idea of like this kind of post-apocalyptic vague post-apocalypse and the you know, it could be zombies. It might not be, it could be the rapture. It might not be.

I know you've got experience with that one, Michael, with one of your films. So it's like, all right, what's been going on, but it plays out in such a different way. You know, it's, it, it feels a little like the quiet earth. It's the start. And then it kind of goes off in its own direction.

And I just really appreciated that. Great pole right there. Jester song is a deep cut. Impressive. Yeah.

You were talking about the actors and these actors are just fantastic. And I'm so curious how much you helped them find their characters versus how much they found the characters themselves. I think it definitely shows that Scott wrote the film for these people. So when you watch the film, you know that like Liam is a character. Joey had been doing for us.

We, Scott and I lived with Joey for eight years in LA and we, uh, we, Joey's like the class clown. He's just like a goofball. And he would just do the character of Liam all the time as like one of his many that he do. And so like that was written for him. And, you know, Kaylee being, you know, a bit more of, I mean, Kaylee's also a bit of a goofball sometimes, but like, you know, being more of the like, you know, a little more focused type of person.

And then Ollie just being this kind of enigmatic person is who he is. So, Like they definitely brought themselves to the role. Uh, but it was kind of a, it was kind of a handshake. Like Scott wrote it for them and then they brought themselves to it and they all, you know, they all elevated it and added, uh, even more than. We could have thought of for it.

But, uh, but yeah, it was, it was a good marriage of, of the two. Everybody had their very specific specialties as creatives and, And it all just really came together so cohesively on this one in the strangest ways. Joey having this really crazy talent of putting on characters that are completely different than him as a person. Acting like a 14-year-old boy is one of his many talents. It's very strange.

It's very strange, but he's so good at it. I wanted him to do SNL for so long, but Maybe it's still on the table. I don't know. What were some of the biggest challenges of making this movie? The giant camera that we used, the 20 or like, I don't know, like probably a 60, 70 pound camera we had.

Yeah. Cause we got a sweet deal at a Panavision in the UK. Shout out Jake Kuhn for getting that for us. At Sophia Panavision too. She was your big help.

It was, It was the lens, actually. The camera itself was shot on a Lexa Mini, so the camera itself was pretty compact, but the lens was this giant Panavision zoom lens, and we shot the entire film on it. We didn't need to switch lenses ever, so it was just carrying around this behemoth constantly, and there was a lot of handheld stuff, too, so it was a lot of. And the tripod. And the tripod was...

Oh my god. The tripod somehow was twice the weight of the camera so made by nasa i think they actually shot the shining on this tripod it was like that's that's what they told us it was this giant like metal just it was so yeah i mean like the like the physical terrain i think was probably the hardest part of the shoot. It was a physical physical everybody was helping with everything it was like actors were helping moving the tripod. Cause it took like 15 people to move the fucking tripod. It was crazy.

Yeah. And then a lot of it, as you saw, it was, it was handheld. So Michael was like operating. And I think you've got like chronic back issues from this shoot. Like actually I'll never be the same.

No, no. Yeah. It was strenuous physical shoot. Like, I don't know if you could tell from the movie, but like we, we, There's a lot of movement involved in this movie. A lot of different locations.

But it seems like it was worth it. Oh, my God, yeah. I would do it all again a hundred times. Yeah. Yeah.

Have you guys seen. This with an audience yet? A couple of times. Yeah. We were at a couple of film festivals, um, a couple in the UK and I think the UK audience is fun because they recognize the setting.

Uh, so to them, it's not necessarily as, as, as like awe inspiring, but then we watched it in LA with an audience. And, uh, I think it's, it definitely plays, uh, well with an audience because it's, it's a, it's a strange, like not really sure how to feel kind of movie. And I think people enjoy that, that, that experience as a collective. Yeah. Like little pockets of people in the front may laugh at something that like a little tick that Liam has, or like something that all he says, or like people will catch the apron.

All he wears an apron and it says queen of the kitchen and, Some people will catch that and find it funny. Some people might not find that funny at all. So it's really interesting to hear how everybody feeds off of each other in the theater. It's a delight to be a part of for this film. Is there a good place for people to keep up with the movie and find out where it's going to be playing near them?

Littermatesfilm.com just launched our website. Trailer will be coming out I believe tomorrow. And then I think Our Instagram is littermatesfilm as well. So I think news and all that good stuff will be on those. And then what are you two guys up to?

Just supporting the film, going out to different festivals and things? Yeah, we're headed to Fantastic Fest this weekend. And then after that, we're doing Alamo for this. So it's going nationwide. Really excited about that.

And then we just got done with my new short film that... It's in post right now and we're racing it through post for the Southwest Southwest deadline. So see about that. Wish us luck. And Michael's got a film in post right now as well.

And then we got a feature next year and we're keeping busy. Well guys, I loved litter mates. It was such a delight and really can't thank you enough for making this one. It was terrific. Mike.

Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Well guys, good luck with the rest of these today. I know you got a lot. No, we're excited.

We're excited. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks, Mike. If you leave me now You'll take away the biggest part of me Ooh, no, baby, please don't go. And if you leave me now You'll take away the very heart of.

Me Ooh, no, baby, please don't go Ooh, girl, I just. Want you to stay. How could we let it slip away? We've come too. Far to leave it all behind.

How could we end it all this way? How could we let it slip away? We've come too far to leave it all behind. How could we end it? When tomorrow comes.

And we'll both regret The things we said today If you leave me now You'll take away the biggest part of me Ooh, now baby please don't run Ooh, girl, just got to have you by my side Ooh, baby, please don't go Ooh, mama, I just got to have your love in me