3020: Hot Frosty

Rod and Karen are joined by podcaster and movie writer Russell Hainline to discuss his hit movie "Hot Frosty." They also discuss his journey from critic to film writer, on-set experiences with the cast, getting into the Christmas movie ecosystem, and independent films vs huge studios.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, I listened to The Black Guy You Tips podcast
because Rod and Caroing or hout Hey. Welcome to another
episode of The Black Guy Who Tells podcast. I'm your host,
Rod joined is always on my cost and we are
live on a very special Tuesday. All right, this is

(00:22):
a this is a big time moment right now. It
is long time coming. Today we have a guest. It's
been a while since he's been on the show, but
he is a friend of the show. He's a podcaster.
Though he does sports podcast. You wouldn't. You might not
know that by some of his other proclivities that are

(00:44):
blowing up right now, but I know he does the
crazy cast. You know, I think this one hurts to
have him on. I think I'm realizing now, you know,
as a Duke fan, it's you know, it's been a while.
He's like, it's been a while since you have me,
and I'm like, why is that now? I'm thinking it's
coming to me. But he also I bumped into him

(01:06):
back in the day on message boards s O HH
and whatnot, and he was doing the Long and Late
Movie Show, which is a podcast. There was a movie
review podcast and I used to listen to it all
the time, I thought it was very good. I was
on a couple of times very fun. They had games,
So you know, I'm a day one. But now he's
gone from reviewing movies, criticizing movies to writing movies. It's

(01:30):
my man, Russell haynline. What's going on?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Bro? Rod Caarn so glad to be here. Thank you
so much for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I'm glad you could make it, dude. I know you
hella busy right now, Bro, I mean when do you
when do you have time between writing Christmas movies to
even hop on a podcast or watch duke games.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
It's hard, It's really hard. You make time. It requires
standing up late at night generally, you know, just working,
working in an hour here, an hour there. I still
try to see as many movies as I can, but
that's really hard now too. I saw the other day
somebody somebody said, you know, gainful employment kills cinephiles, you know, like,

(02:16):
and I kind of feel that way. I'm so behind
on the things I really want to watch. I'm I'm
hopeful that when I finish working on the thing that
I'm currently working on, that I'll just have a few
days to just like lock down hatch up on all
the movies, you know, get get back with it. And
luckily Duke basketball has only got a couple of games
between now in January, so you know, it's kind of

(02:37):
it's final exam season for them, right, It's it's slowing
down a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about how much you
are able to even keep up with movies now, because
I do see, you know, we follow each other on
social and I see like you'll do like a letterbox
review whatnot every once in a while, and I'm like, Okay,
he's still kind of watching stuff. But I just can't
imagine writing this many movies and having time to really review.

(03:03):
And you're like hardcore, Like you're not just like a, oh,
I go to the movies every Thursday. You're like, I
needed to watch the re release of Big Time in
Little China at the Man's Theater because that, and like
you're you're out there living the life in like the
Hollywood world, So like, how how are you keeping up?

Speaker 2 (03:25):
First of all, Big Trouble in Little China. That's a tank,
you know, But how do I have time for it? Man?
I genuinely have no idea. It's it really does take
having a complete lack of friends and other hobbies. I

(03:45):
luckily my friends out here all also really like movies.
So you know, my buddy Colby, who's a great screenwriter
as well. He did Spaceman with Adam Sandler earlier this year,
and he's got one with Andrew Stanton next year, who
directed Wally and John Harder and some really good stuff.
We love going to the movies, man, It's so it's
good to sort of double up some of the things

(04:07):
that we can accomplish. He's definitely one of the guys
who knows when the rep theater stuff when when like
the re releases in seventy millimeter whatever come out. He
usually has his finger on the pulse of stuff like
that keeps me honest. And it's you know, if you
live in LA and you're not going to see Lawrence
of Arabia on like a huge screen, like why are

(04:30):
you living in LA? Like move somewhere else. It'd be
cheaper somewhere else. You know, Like I've got to justify
being here by going out and doing stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
You know, Oh is it was? It a big requirement
when you were dating, Like whoever I'm dating has to
be into movies, like I'm in a movie or is
it one of those things where it's like, actually, the
less you're into this, no better. Maybe the better the
less weird you'll think I am.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, Emily knew right away. I believe maybe I've told
this story on this pot guess before, but since it's
been a minute, you know, the night I met her,
I knew I really really liked her. I wanted her
to come out with me. The next night. I was like,
let's let's go get a nice seafood dinner tomorrow, Like,
let's go. I'm not being cool about this, and she said, oh,

(05:16):
you know, great, I can. I can meet you at
six if that works. And I was recording long and
late movie show that night until six. There was no
way I was gonna make it. And so I was
faced with, you know, that decision that everybody faces in
a relationship, and I was faced with it right away.
Do I pretend to be cool or do I let
her know exactly who I am right away so that

(05:38):
then if she if she's not into that, then you
know it's not gonna work out anyway, you know. So
I said, I'm sorry, I can't. I've got to record
a podcast to my internet friends until six, you know,
can we go do a nice seafood dinner at seven?
And she was completely unfazed. She was like, yeah, that
sounds good. So I was like, okay, we might we
have a live one here.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
This is good.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
And that was somewhere that was still weird.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
To say, like it was at Internet flow.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Now, like that everyone has a podcap online. Yeah, and
everyone has a podcast, and everyone's constantly talking about relationships.
Uh none of us wants to know, but like, yeah,
now it's different. But back then, it was like, what
the fuck do you mean Internet friends? Are you a
serial killer?

Speaker 4 (06:20):
What is a podcast?

Speaker 3 (06:21):
You know, we were around at the phase when you
say podcast.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I was just like, it's like the radio.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's what I used to tell my family.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Some of them.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
I still tell them that because I'm like, I'm not
even going to explain to you it's the radio.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, yeah that. This was twenty ten, right, This was
a while ago now, and so you know I had that,
and then I also I think at that point I
might have had two point one seconds to Madness with
k Bad and uh with our boy Bob maybe who
dropped off after like the first season. Because he's always

(06:51):
too busy. But yeah, it was weird being a podcaster
when podcasting was something that nobody really knew, but it did.
Then ultimately it allowed me to meet a lot of
cool people because the people who were podcasting and the
people like it was a smaller community at the time.

(07:12):
And then a lot of the people that I've met
in college basketball circles, for instance, they told me they
listened to two point one seconds some Madness because it
was one of like we literally started it because there
was not a college basketball podcast that we liked. There
were like two, and we weren't crazy about either of them,
So who are like, why don't we do our own thing?
You know? And same kind of thing with doing the

(07:33):
movie show. You know, we thought that that was something
that would be fun and we were going to the
movies anyway, and it would allow us to talk to
some cool people and you know, give us again circling
back to what we were already talking about, an excuse
to see friends and to make new friends and to
hang out with people, a great way to socialize. So
I'm really really grateful, even though I don't do any

(07:55):
event anymore except for the Crazy Cast, which We mostly
just do live after Duke games, so I was already
watching the dude game anyway. I don't have to schedule
additional at that point.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
It's almost like therapy, you know, like win or lose,
Like I just need someone to talk to this ship,
like we are, like I'm not gonna do it, but
we we're Hornets fans and so like literally, if it
was easy, like if I could just get in my
car and go live. I do a podcast every time

(08:25):
I watch a game to be like, guys, what the fuck?
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Ye?

Speaker 1 (08:29):
What that was trying to figure it out.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
But there we go again.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Guys, you're not even believe that someone got injured.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
All right.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, it's funny too because bo is weirdly a grown
ass man, you know, like I feel like on the sly.
You know, it's just he's a grown man with grown
man responsibility. Right in my head, we're still talking ship
on message boards about movies and uh, video games and
fucking pop culture and in sports, and and then like

(09:02):
you said, it's like, yeah, well do this podcast thing.
I don't have any kids, you know, it's just me
and Karen. We're just figuring this shit out. And and
then with Bo's like, oh yeah, that's right. You got
a grown as your grown ass man. You got two kids,
you got a job, you're married. What what am I
doing with my life? I maybe I step it up.
Let me ask you this though, like going from reviewing

(09:24):
movies on Long and Late to writing movies because you've
always you've always never made a secret you want to
get in the movie writing you wanted to like like uh.
And one of my favorite things about you is that
we both share a love of the quasi bad movie,
you know what I mean? Like, I like the Tornado fire.

(09:46):
Tornado seven is like when those movies come out. I
know Karen won't go see it with me, and I
know none of my film critics fake friends want to
watch it. But I'd be like, Russ, did you see
this ship?

Speaker 2 (09:59):
And you equal? The last last time we did a
show might have been when Into the Storm came out.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
It might have been.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Time I was here.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
That's when the special effects people are like, this is
our time.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
That cracked their knuckles. They've been like, let's.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Go Into the Storm, Hurricane Heist. Like these kind of
movies that are just kind of like what most people
would consider bullshit. I'm like, my man Rushwood watches with
me and we're gonna have a good time. So what
is it like going from movie reviewer critic to writer

(10:35):
and then you know, having to deal with well, actually,
before we even get to deal with criticism, having to
see what it's like making the sausage from the inside
and how it turns out versus like what you thought
going in.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, first of all, I'm so glad you brought up
that and gave me an excuse to dropping Into the
Storm reference. I was looking at some of my old
like social media posts recently, and I saw a series
of Donkin Reeves posts and they were like the two
sort of like Hillbillies and Into the Storm that were
so jazz, you know everything, and we're getting into trouble. Yeah,

(11:11):
the like super like ignorant redneck like dudes who were
chasing the storm.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
So good, so good. You need that character in these movies.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
In terms of seeing how the sausage gets made, it has.
I don't know if it's just this or this in
a combination of old age, but it softened to me
for sure. Right. I feel a lot more inclined when
I watch a movie to be mindful of what my
response is especially given Like so here's I know, we'll

(11:43):
talk about criticism in a minute, but when you know,
a sum of the reviews came out, thank you. When
some of the reviews came out for Hot Frosty, you know,
there were lines that critics that really loved the movie
cited that I didn't write right. And then there were

(12:04):
also lines by the people who really really hated the
movie that I didn't write. You know, So when you're writing,
you're at the bottom of the totem pole. You know,
the actors will do some improving. Some of that stuff
will make it into the movie. Some of it is
really good. Let's be clear, these are very talented people
making these movies and they're so so good. So the
actors add things. Directors add things, you know obviously in

(12:27):
the cut. You know, producers will ask that some things
get added later into the mix, you know, via some
some you know, some dubbing later. So it's made me
less inclined to go like the writing sucks, or the
directing was bad, or the or the acting was bad. Right,

(12:49):
the actors don't control what the editor and the director
and the producers choose to include within you know the thing.
They're just out there trying their best, and they might
have some really good stuff that doesn't make it into
the movie, and then there's a take in there and
they're watching it going, what the hell, why didn't they
use take three? I I killed it on take three,
you know. So it's so so collaborative. So I think

(13:12):
it has made me kinder in that respect. It also
makes me far far more in tune with when something
doesn't work in a movie. I can see the studio
notes as I'm watching the movie, all right, I can
see where, you know, one of the things that always
drives me nuts and movies especially this takes place in
like fantasies and sci fi's mostly where they do the

(13:34):
opening narration where they're like, you know, long Borderlands just
did this. When the Borderlands movie came out, they were like,
long ago, there was a planet called the Global Glorp,
and there was the Magic Cup of Sweater Town and
you know whatever, and there's all this stuff, and then
five minutes into the movie the character is going, well,

(13:54):
I'm from the planet Global Glorp and there's the Magic
Cup of Sweater to It's like whoa wait a minute.
We just heard this five minutes ago, and you can
tell that some suit was like, I don't think people
are going to understand what's going on unless they hear
it twice. Yes, right, which is the audience is smart.
The audience does not need that. So I see notes
all the time.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Now.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
I'm far more inclined. When I see a movie that
I don't like and I write about it on letterbox
or whatever, I'm like, I can I can see the
interference here. Madam Webb was was a great example of this,
like did it work? No, but does it very clearly
reek of lots and lots of tinkering after the fact. Absolutely,

(14:34):
So you know it has made me kinder in that respect.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
I think absolutely. First of all, it's hell of funny
that two message where guys we got IMDb pages ten
years or whatever the fuck. That's crazy. But when I
was writing for Game Theory, it really gave me a huge,
a hugely different perspective on the process and what I'm

(15:02):
critical of and what goes into making something. There's things
I wrote that I thought were brilliant. Killed in the
Room does all the stuff, and then like maybe the
act out doesn't work. Maybe some suit just gets very
uptight about at the last second. There's stuff that's funny

(15:26):
as hell to me. But I also get why we
can't do it right. Like I remember once we're writing
about Tiger Woods and the Masters and uh, and I
wrote a line that, uh, the Augusta Club has get.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
In trouble now, don't get in trouble, right.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
I mean it's not it's not game theory, so we
can say it here. But I was like, Augusta, uh
has a history of racism, it only has nine black members,
and Condoleeza Rice and and everybody was like, we can't
say that, you know, like just like the room like
erupted and laughter and is immediately like you take that out.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Which totally totally get.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Like a lot of stuff people laugh and somebody go
absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
That was a joke I had about like a Wayne's
Brother or something like one of the Wayne's Brother's movies.
But the one of the Wayn's brothers is friends with
one of the other people in the So it's like,
that's funny. Take that out, you know what I mean.
Like it's just so like stuff like that where you're like, man,

(16:34):
maybe this would have been a ten out of ten
funny film, but now it's eight out of ten in
my head. And then also there's just just the other
part of it, taking your ego out. Sometimes people actually
just have funnier things. And one of the things I
was able to do and I and I weren't, I'm
gonna throw it back to you and ask if you
were able to do it. Being on set when something's

(16:55):
being made as a writer is so much more illuminating
because as you get to see what people add to
your work that actually makes it better than what you
could have imagined. Because being a writer's a little bit
being a control free It's like robot move a say here,
do this, do this line, make this face in your head.

(17:15):
That's because you have to be that way to write.
But then when you get there and it's like Craig Robinson,
who's who's fucking Craig Robinson pretty much knows what funny is.
And you're like, well, I thought maybe this, And he's like,
what if I pull out my keyboard and play a
song right here? You're like, oh, fuck, yes, no, please
do that. I fuck what I said. So did you

(17:36):
ever have those experiences when you're on this. Did you
get to be on set and did it, you know,
broaden your horizons that way?

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, I mean Craig. Getting Craig on was a real joy. Obviously.
It was definitely the one thing that you know, when
he was circling it, I had heard, you know, we
would like to have a point in here where he
sings in places his keyboard. I was like, all right, great,
and so I think I literally put into the script

(18:05):
character enters and Sheriff Hunter is playing on the keyboard
and singing a song that he made up, you know,
And I didn't bother doing anything. I'm not gonna write
something funnier or catchier than Craig in that scenario. So
it was just like, let me, you know, set the
pins up, hand him the ball, and then you know
he can go right.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
And I love that. I love that. Yea, sometimes people
can be like uptight about that, but I love that
he's a good sport and that it's like, yes, of
course I'm Craig Robinson. I know how to play a
keyboard and I know how to sing. I would love
to make something up for this part of the movie
that that's so dope, because you know, having been on set.
I've experienced the opposite, where it's just like, hey man,

(18:48):
you're a comedian and you always say this, and they're like, listen,
unless you're gonna write the joke. It's like, oh fuck,
never mind, never mind, let me go back to my
fucking room and get on the get on the top
of the script.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah. It also when you're on set, you realize how
much of it is like them putting their ass out there,
like it's their face, it's their name. So often if
the movie doesn't work, they're the face associated with the movie.
Like people will talk shit about me online if they
don't like it. They'll be like the writer sucks or whatever.
And they always say the writer sucks if they don't

(19:20):
like it. But more than anything, people will drag actors
like it would be so so cruel to actors. Yeah,
so I am very cognizant of that now, having been
on a few sets at this point. But Craig and
Joe and honestly everybody, more than anything else I got.
I'm thinking of one scene in particular, where it's a

(19:42):
line that I really liked, where they're outside the diner
they see the snowman is inside and Craig sort of
with his in his very CSI Miami kind of vibe,
goes Hello stranger, and then Joe's character ed goes, hey,
you're gonna need to speak up. I don't think they
can hear you through the glass, right like reading it,
reading it as earnest, you know, I just I love

(20:05):
nothing more than a character who's kind of deluded and
then having somebody who's a sidekick who is just so
sweet natured and takes everything very literally. That's always a
dynamic I think is really funny. And so I got
to watch that scene and they did it maybe eight
times with in one. You know, they didn't call cut
or anything, and they just had Joe over and over

(20:26):
and over again. Do it slightly different every time, you know,
have Craig say Hello stranger, slightly different every time. And
they figured, oh, we'll find the one that we like later.
The joke is still the joke from the script. The
wording might be a little different, The intention in terms
of how I visualized it, visualized it being played might
be a little different, but the spirit of the thing remains,

(20:48):
and more than anything else, it's a best joke wins
and it's a are is everybody on the same page
and in the same movie and committed to sort of
the tone that we wanted here. Were Yes, we're we're
self aware a bit, but we're never self aware to
the point where it keeps the emotion, uh and the

(21:10):
you know, reality of the characters completely at arm's length.
We didn't want to do a Sharknado thing here. We
wanted to do something where we really cared about the characters.
And Craig and Joe both obviously from Office Brooklyn nine
nine and all the things they've done, they're so so
good at telling something that getting to something truthful with

(21:31):
a character that is very larger than life and very silly.
That's so we were really blessed to get the tip
of that. We're blessed to get everybody.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
That is so fun because I remember was too. We
had remember when John Morant got into that bullshit and
he had the gun and and he was at the
strip club. I remember, I remember, uh that we were
doing that on Game Theory. And so they have this
they have what they call side but it's basically just video.

(21:59):
So they play video and then when you come out
of it, you come back to the host, right the
host is now the person on screen, and every time
you come out of video you need to have like
a joke there. It's just that's just how it works.
So we had pitched all these jokes and I had
this joke that it just kept killing in the room
in the writer's room. So this is me doing the

(22:19):
act out, not both and so and we come out
of the side and it's you know, if you remember
the video, he's holding this little ass gun up and
dancing the club. And I was like, if we come
back from the side, come out of the side, come
back to boat and Bowl's just going pew with the
little gun. But Bow can't do that kind of silly.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
Like that's so you have to commit.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, he has a basic voice, a serious demeanor and
like while it like and like he killed it the
first read, so it killed the and it was like
that's the joke, like, don't even look at anything else.
But then we get to like the second read to
take it. Each time we got a little less and
so it as Russid being on the same page, way

(23:04):
more important than the ego of like it needs to
be my joke, it needs to be something that works.
There's a way where you get that joke in there
and yeah, your ego say it, but then it doesn't
land on the screen and it just becomes everyone's failure,
Craig failure, your failure, the movie failure, the director's failure,
as opposed to being like, let's just roll with what works.

(23:26):
So like, kudos to you for even seeing that. Now,
how many movies have you got to be on the
set for it? Because I'm looking at your IMDb? Okay,
you missed the Christmas over here. You got like, at
least you have Web of Liized twenty eighteen. Then you
have a Mary Measure, the Santa Summit, Hot Frosty, Three
Wives of Men, and a Boy Christmas under the Lights,

(23:47):
and you got another movie coming out, the Santa Class,
which I believe comes out this weekend. So you're mister Christmas.
Now have you got to be on the set for
each of these?

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Like?

Speaker 1 (23:56):
What's that process?

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Like some of them are? This was my third set,
I think Hot Frosty. I was on set for Hot Frosty,
I was on set for a Mary Measure, I was
on set for Santa Class. Santa Summit shot in Winnipeg
in February, and a Flying from LA to Winnipeg is expensive,
and b it was zero degrees when they were shooting it.
I thought it would be you know, maybe I had

(24:19):
I'd have something else going on at that time, you know.
And then three wivesman Christmas under the lights. It was
just a busy year, so I wasn't able to get
to everything, unfortunately, because I love nothing more than being
on set. I absolutely love it. Learn you learn so much.
I do think that it's useful in terms of getting

(24:40):
to know the talent, getting to know the producers, the directors.
Showing them that you're not overly precious, I think is
a huge thing. Again, there are some writers that producers
and directors will probably work with that might gum up
the works or take too long, or really fight back
over things that don't really require it. Sometimes things do

(25:00):
need a conversation, but generally speaking, there are very few
things where you have to be like, no, it is
my way or the highway. You are wrong and I
am right now. I've gone to bad a couple times
like that, but very infrequently. And so the more that
people will get to see me and get to know
who I am and get to know, oh, he works

(25:22):
efficiently he's not overly precious. He's got really good dialogue,
he's got a great sense of structure, he loves coming
up with jokes, you know, on the set, he's good
with the talent. The talent knows him and trusts him.
Then hopefully, the more I can do that, the more
I can be included in the process, the more I
can just sit in on meetings where decisions that end

(25:43):
up in the final movie that maybe I don't think work,
then I could at least say, hey, what if we
tried it this way instead. Now they might still choose
to do it that way, that's completely fine, but then
at least I know, okay, well, you know it's different
when you watch a movie and you're like, wait a minute,
why exactly was this the decision that was made? And again,

(26:05):
I've been incredibly unfortunate. I've been incredibly fortunate. Yeah, I've
been incredibly fortunate that I have had very very few
of those, are there? They tend to be very small
and nitpicky things and not big things.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
And also with that stuff like one being on the
set was a big part of the writers strike because
they were telling writers at the time like, hey, we're
filming all this stuff, especially streaming stuff. You don't need
to be onset for this, like we'll figure it out. Well, hell,
we'll get AI on the case. It's like one, it's

(26:38):
not even just a quality at that point. I need
to be there to fucking learn. Like what if I
have aspirations of being a director? What if I want
to know what a fucking producer does? It helps me
to write, to know what the difference between a line producer,
what the fucking camera people do, what the film producer does?
You know, the muscle of coming up with new stuff
on the fly in while you're film is a completely

(27:01):
different muscle than sitting in a room typing some ship.
So like, there's so much you can only learn on set,
and it's very important to be there. I'm glad you've
had good experiences. And it's also interesting too with the
uh with with all that, because my favorite thing, and
it's a secret favorite thing, Okay, Like I don't think
I've ever told anybody this, but I think it's I

(27:23):
think it's secretly every writer's favorite thing. It's when you're like,
this is the funny thing or the good thing, and
this is how it should be, and then you get
like overruled, and then they do it the other way
and it fucking isn't good, and you're like, may may
we give it one shot of man way. You can't
be gloating though, you can't be like touchdown Den, you

(27:43):
gotta be like, okay, we try it. And the reason
you gotta be humble is because you definitely are gonna
have some unfunny and good ship too. It's like like
no one's clean like you. You gonna have an idea.
You're like, this is it and that shit is not
gonna hit and it's gonna be like, well, that was
my lesson for today. But it does feel good when
you have because I'm I'm like you two and that

(28:05):
I'm gonna go along to get along person in that
I'm not trying to make everything a fight. I'm not
in control. Free if you think you have a better
idea or I did an add on to it, let's
do that ship, you know what I mean? Like, I'm
not here to look better.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
We look better if somebody has a better idea, we
look better.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
No one, no one at home know so so whatever's
best is best, but it is good whenever it's like honey,
y'all thought that ship was better than mine. Anyway, y'all
want to try the way it was written one time. Now.
The other thing, too, is now that you've seen how

(28:42):
it turns out, you getting reviews in comments, A lot
of a lot of stuff with Hot Frosty is just
kind of like either love it in spite of itself
or like genuinely love it or the like. It's almost
like I'm supposed to hate this, but I can't stop
talking about this because I feel like the Christmas romance

(29:05):
movie has a bad It's almost like the sci fi
movie where it's like shark versus alligator or whatever, Like
it's it's that it's sharknait or it's like you're not
supposed to like these, right, We're not supposed Just like
there's a certain type of person that this is their shit, yes,
and they're gonna they're gonna watch them all every Christmas.
But Dore's a this Hot Frosty I feel like has
gone beyond just the like just the insular bubble of

(29:29):
like these this is certain people's ship and it's all
they watch. This is pop culture now. People, my friends
who don't watch this shit are like like, hey, man,
you heard this hot Frosty movie. I'm like my friend
wrote that, like, I'm like, this is becoming a big deal.
So now you're getting reviews, You're getting the likes dislikes.

(29:51):
How is it affecting you? Does any of his stick?
Does a good stick? Does a bad stick? Are you
able to laugh at the bad?

Speaker 5 (29:57):
Like?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
What is what goes on with the review?

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah? It's complicated, right, you know, doing Hallmark movies primarily
up to this point, the people who write about Hallmark
movies or whatever are generally fans of Hallmark movies, right,
you know, And I feel pretty confident that I can
make a really good and distinctive and interesting Hallmark movie,

(30:23):
Like I know Mary in the comments said, you know,
I love a big city boss woman going home for
the holidays and falling in love with the Christmas tree
lot owner. You know. You know, I think I'm very
fortunate that I came into Hallmark when they started really
expanding what a Hallmark movie could be. So for the
last like three years, the sandbox has gotten a lot bigger,

(30:44):
or maybe the sandbox is the same, but I can
stretch my leg like way outside of it, like this
one that's coming up on Saturday. Santa Class. It's about
a school for shopping mall Santa's. It's a very sort
of when I was writing, and I was thinking a
lot of like eighties camp movies, you know that sort
of thing where it's the misfit Santa Crue versus the

(31:05):
you know, the sort of rich kid, super perfect Santa
Cruz in a competition, and our misfits happen upon the
real Santa who has amnesia and doesn't remember who he is.
So how do you remind Santa who he is? He
can't just tell somebody they're Santa, then they won't believe you, right,
So how do you jog the memory? How can this
Santa be used to win this competition? How Like? This

(31:28):
is the sort of thing that three years ago in Hallmark,
probably more like five years ago just simply would not fly.
Ye right, It would definitely have needed. Yeah, they would
have needed the big city boss woman going home for
the holidays and falling in love with the Christmas tree owner.
Absolutely right. So now that they're looking to really expand
what that is, they're a little more aware, they're a

(31:48):
little more cognizant of the tropes and trying to avoid
them when possible. So they'll just tell me, you know,
it's got to have a lot of Christmas. They got
a kiss at the end, but you know, beyond that,
go with God and have a good time, right, Like,
let's just it's got to be TVG you know, but
like let's have as much fun with it as we can.
So to answer your question about the criticism for Hallmark writers,

(32:14):
I do think that my movies work really well. I've
been very fortunate with the talent that's been attached and
the producers, the execs, they've all understood on going for
they agree, they've progressed it, and it's all worked really nice.
This Netflix thing, I knew was going to be the
first one that was going to reach further just because
it's Netflix, and Netflix is so much bigger. It is

(32:34):
so much bigger, so much more reach, And I was scared.
I was definitely scared. I knew how to handle negative
reviews from Hallmark. Like, you know, my movies are definitely
different than some of the old school Hallmark things. Maybe
it's just not your bread and butter. I think it's
very easy when you see a negative review where clearly
it's just not what that person's into great say no

(32:56):
more right, You're totally entitled to that. And generally speaking,
Hallmark writers aren't very mean and vindictive when writing about
the movies. People when writing about Netflix movies, will be
mean and vindictive. They will definitely go there, which is
very interesting. So I wasn't sure how to handle it.
I was very fortunate that many of the reviews from

(33:16):
the critics were very, very nice. They got it, they
understood what we were going for. We were going for
something that was a little more I love like movies
from the thirties and forties. You know, screwball comedies, old
school romance. You know you're Frank Kapri, your Preston Sturge,
is your Ernst Lubitsch. I mean, like, these are people

(33:36):
that I look to all the time. We were definitely
going for that degree of sweetness and sincerity in it,
and I knew there would be people who who wanted
like just the one where he's super hot and has
sex with everybody or whatever, Like we just we weren't
gonna do that. We were gonna make him super hot,
but we didn't know. We didn't want to go like
the romance novel porno version of the thing didn't We

(34:01):
didn't want to do something where we're winking at the
camera the whole time, being like, how dumb is this premise?
Isn't this so stupid? You know, we're trying to use
a very silly premise because my taste also runs very
silly as it comes to comedy. We're trying to use
that to then get to something earnest. I think one
of the reviews, the review from The Guardian, I don't

(34:22):
remember who said this, but they said it's sincerely stupid,
but it goes about it sincerely yes, And I was like, yes,
that's what That's exactly what I'm going for. That's a
perfect description of what I love. You know.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
I was talking with a friend who watched the movie,
and he's a comedian, so he's like roasting the movie
but also, you know, like get you is that thing
where like you can tell that he enjoyed watching it
and he but he also is roasting the shit out
of it, right and and so I'm listening to him

(34:56):
and I'm like, all right, well, this is gonna blow
your mind. That's my buddy who wrote that. And he's like, what,
I have so many questions to ask him and stuff.
I was like, but you know what I said, knowing
knowing Russ, the mirth in your voice, the smile on
your face even as you're roasting and you're asking these
you know, he's asking these questions like why does he

(35:18):
have underwear on? If you just discover what clothes are whatever,
I was like, that ship would make that would make
Russ laugh, Like I don't think I don't think Russ
would take it to this, like my art how daddy,
Like I think Russ's like, it's kind of goofy, but
like I wanted, I want you to feel kind of goofy.
What it reminded me of. I don't even know if
you watch this show, but it's like probably my favorite show.

(35:41):
It kind of reminds me of American Dad. And I
mean that in the best way, because I have a
lot of reverence for American Dad and that it can
be silly, but there's like a core and a smartness
to the silliness of it, Like the Pretty Woman montage,
like I was fucking dying because like it was I
don't know, Like it's it's at Craig Robinson's who's in

(36:05):
American Dad and plays like a detective that's based off
of far As Whitaker's Detective on the Shield, so like it. Yeah,
it was given like a type of synergy that made
me be like, noah, man, I'm into this silly shit,
and this is not my genre of movie, Like, this
is not something I necessarily would like watch. So it

(36:26):
was it was like nah, and it wasn't even that
you wrote it. It was literally like everybody's talking about it.
I think I gotta watch it. Everybody been talking about it,
like bird Box, like I don't want to be out
the fucking look was like you.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
See hot Crossty. I'm like, hell was a hot Crowsty?

Speaker 1 (36:40):
When you send out the memes, I need to know
what the fuck the memes mean, you know. Yeah, I
was calling the CEO shooter dude hot shooty because I
was like, you know this, like appearently.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
I know, I know, dude, that was crazy. I've seen
all sorts of comments about that. Dude, that is wild.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
That's wild.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
I had. I had nothing to do with that.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Let the record show you didn't write that.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
That is not that's not viral marketing for a Hot
Frosty sequel. That's not nothing to do with me.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah, that's wow. That must like that, like, thank god
we didn't have the Internet when Ted Buddy Bundy was
out here. I didn't like seeing real time less for
a killer is kind of weird. It's like, oh, whoa,
this is live. Do you guys know that we can
see this? But no, man, it's been fun.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Nobody care. This is this is what kills me. And
this is what I think. This ties really nicely into
what I think is important about the movie. Uh, not
important important in trying to make a movie, right. Uh.
So much of discourse today online or even in real
life is so like legled with like thick steaming piles

(37:52):
of irony, and every single thing is like removed emotionally
from what the gag is or what the thing is.
Certainly that those videos on like Cinema sins or like
you know, honest trailers or whatever, where when they would
watch the movie trailers and be like, let's not watch

(38:14):
it to like get lost in a story. Let's instead
try to find things that we can like crack on,
you know, instead of like just giving your heart over
to a thing. I think that when when trying to
make Hot Frosty, I really wanted it to be the
sort of thing where, yes, the title is evocative and
it'll get you to and it'll get you to watch it.

(38:35):
But I wanted people right away to realize, oh, this
is the sort of thing where if you emotionally invest or,
if you're open to emotional investment, rather than just being like, well,
I'm just gonna snark on it the whole time. If
you want to snark on it, there's space for that.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
But like, I really appreciated how many people watched the
movie and the review, the review that you may mentioned
at the beginning, people said, you know, I went into
this not expecting to like it, and why was it
actually good? It had no business being this good. A
hot frosty movie should not be this good, right, Like
that kind of reviewed always tickles me. I love that

(39:14):
because that's that that shows that they went into it
ready to irony watch and instead ended up having a
sincere reaction to the movie, and that that means the
world to me. So yeah, absolutely, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
It is funny too, because like on his face man,
as a concept, it feels like a pitch for like
an S and L sketch that's gonna be three minutes,
you know, like like on his like if you're like,
what if Frosty Snowman was like hot, It's like what.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
But genuinely, whenever I would tell people about it, I
would do my best norm voice. I'd be like, he's
Frosty a snowman, but then he's a super hot dude.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
And like all the women less than in After I'm
in the Town, shout out to the Katie, the woman
from Eastbound and Down. I love her. I loved her
in Eastbounding Down, and I loved her in this. My
favorite thing is, uh when like when they're like doing
the build up of like, oh, man, what's going on

(40:21):
with this like this guy, you think like, oh, they
got to keep coming up with lives for the town,
and she's just like, yeah, he's like a snowman. Remember
the high Snowman came to life? Boom all right the
next scene you know what I mean, Like I died
when what she said it's just delivered so perfectly.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah. I really love the idea, and I think a
lot of people again picked up on some of the
things I was trying to, like, you know, sneak into
the movie a little bit, but like this is a
movie about uh, you know, the value of having a
community that is supportive, and it's a bit of a
fantasy in that respect, but like it's the sort of

(40:59):
thing where if if everybody in a community was really
invested in trying to lift each other up, and somebody
came in and said some like super outlandis shit to you,
and you were like, well, I've never known them to
lie before. Oh okay, then sure, great, Like I will
believe in magic because you believe in this thing, and thus, okay, yeah,

(41:24):
I guess I can piece that together. Sounds good right,
like it is? It is. It played comedically to some
extent too, Yes, absolutely, but again it toes that nice
line between it's it's very silly and it's very sincere.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
So talking to my friend through text today, I thought
I was funny because man, actually I'm gonna read the
exact day I wrote. But it was so funny because
I was like joking but not joking. I said, Yeah,
I said, in the time of Trump, a movie about

(41:56):
a community coming together to stop the over policing of
an immigrant. I thought you'd be on board. But maybe
it's a little too woke for you.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
But.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Like that is gone woke. The Frosty woke.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
But I'm like, that is what happened. He has no fingerprints,
he's not here legally, and the community come together. They
try to get together to you know, help him out.
So like that is that is funny. Karen also wrote
a review of it in Our In the chat in
the text which she said, hot Frosty was as hot
as the hot and bothered mom say he was smoking.

(42:34):
He was smoking. Surprise it took him he was so
smoking high. I'm surprised it took him so long to
melt with with all that heat being talked his way.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
These women, these women in this mood, they apparently should
the men in town have been offended like a gem
where they needed to go work out because a roof
full of lines had never seen abs before in that
town they were going in.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
Yeah, what caught me was the bear first lady.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Her husband couldn't see.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
And yeah, it was like, we acts that description, but
I don't think our description.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
We couldn't use her description.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
She was like, I bet you gang.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
She was like we better investigate.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
She was investigate. Yeah, and then Joe says, later they said, oh,
did ethel get a look at him? She was and
they were like, yeah, but we needed a description of
his face. Yes, yeah, that that line's in the script.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
I mean a lot of my favorite a lot of
my favorite bits. That what I'm going to treat to
write for Joel Trulia. Oh my god, what an incredible actor. Yeah,
the ladies in the town. You know, But I feel like,
I don't know, maybe this is just me. Right when
I was growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, you know, there

(43:49):
were people who were in shape, right, Like, there were
there were dudes. I'm sure there were dudes like on
the football team or whatever that was like, but when
I went to church or when I went wherever, there
were never dudes where like where like you can tell
like they were like professional actor looking, like you need
it in a movie. You gotta have everybody's good looking

(44:11):
in a movie, period, right, and then you gotta have
somebody that's the best looking of good looking people in
a movie. You know, it takes it to the next tier,
you know, uh likely, Like how.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Much of that comes into Like when you're writing it
and you're thinking of a demo, are you thinking, like, listen,
we gotta have a dude that women of a certain
like moms who watch these movies want to see some
fucking eye cans, like they why it came, like, we
don't have a movie if this motherfucker ain't like it

(44:42):
is what it is at this point.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
So yeah, and women out of number one viewers. I hate.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
I hate to break it to y'all. This is like
women is like the demo that you're aiming for.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
So it's like, if you miss that, that show audious women.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
The women I know who love this movie have a
thing in common, which is they do things. Does motherfucker
is hot? Like they accept the premise of the movie,
which is you know what I mean, it's kind of crowdy.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Yeah, you know. I was less concerned about finding a
guy that hot, because again it's Hollywood. They'll they'll find
a super hot dude. I was more concerned about finding
somebody who who was sweet, you know, who was able
to give themselves over to the thing so completely and
so willingly. And it's the hardest role by by a

(45:30):
landslide in the movie. And so to get somebody like
Dustin who took it so seriously and like this is
such a maybe this is a bit of like me
overblowing a thing by the way, my headphones keep pushing
my hat around. I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
In Khan did the duke off the screen, which I'm fine.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
We're gonna leave the hat off. I'm just gonna keep messing.
But but Dustin man, he approached it with this with
the seriousness of like you know, like a buster eating
or like you know, thinking about, well, how do I
move at any moment, how how do I respond? Like
taking the challenge of being so new to the world

(46:08):
incredibly seriously. And the thing that I think ends up
attracting the women even more than just his abs is
like the type of dude that he is. Right, he
doesn't have to be asked to do housework for her.
He's just doing it because it's a nice thing to do.
He's very natured. He is not burdened with the world.

(46:32):
He's not burdened by the things. He wasn't trained by
men over the course of his life to behave a
certain way. He instead comes into the world, sees somebody
helping others and goes, oh, that that seems good. I
get that. Yeah, I will also do that, right, So
I don't think it's a coincidence. In fact, I know
it's not a coincidence because I wrote the damn thing
that people lust after him, true, but what really connects

(46:57):
people to him is the sweetness of him. And you know,
I think it's mel who says at the end, like,
you know, a man that's sweet just has to be magic.
Like it's hard to envision somebody who behaves that behave.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
L's is so much different than you know, romance, you
know what I mean. So like, yeah, you could have
had a hot dude that just didn't nail the sweetness
of it. And I agree, it's not just hard one.
It's hard to write because you have to like I
need this character to be naive, sweet, simple, But at

(47:35):
the same time, like I like, for the story to
move certain ship, they just gotta know what happens, so
like uh, like it's rady g he can't be walking
around with his dick out like for real, no, you
know what I mean. So so like when he passed
the overall things on or whatever, and he has he
able to take him off to change clothes and he's
got underwear and the knee, it's like, of course, like

(47:55):
what the fuck kind of movies is? So he's smart
enough to know to put the underwear on.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
He so liked even on zip that.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Far, not that far the top, you can see the top.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I didn't. I didn't even realize the very draws.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
I appreciate him, Uh, he would have changed the whole movie. Abs.
But also like he has to have abs but act
like no man who has ever had ABS is acted.
You know, there's no with that many abs that is
that sweet. And he has to be like dumb in
a way that is endearing. It's just so funking. It's

(48:33):
one of the reasons I think Channon Tatum is a
great actor is because he can do ship like that
where you're like, fuck, man, he's nailing this dumb guy ship. No,
because because like there's like a there's a level of
like funny dumb that everyone's like, and then there's a
level of dumb. It's like this guy is a fucking annoying.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
I wrote the name at some point I mentioned early
on in the process, like we need we need a
Channing hat them type, Like we need somebody like young
Channing Tatum who can who can do exactly what it
is that that he brings to the table. You're exactly right,
because Kathy's attraction to him has nothing to do with lust.
She has seen his abs and his body in very

(49:15):
full glory for the most part, and is not really shopping.
She's not impressed, right, like, that's she's she's a bit
wary of having somebody around who will be bothering her,
you know. And it's only through his actions that she
finds that he is, you know, worthy of her affection,

(49:36):
right and brings sort of the L word back onto
the table when it was when it was so far
off the table. It has nothing to do with like, man,
I really want to bang the snowman, you know, has
nothing to do with that at all, and has everything
to do with with his behavior and his That's what

(49:56):
the neighbors are, for sure, the neighbors. The neighbors can
lust from a fall. The people who know him love absolutely.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
I do. It is kind of a role reversal, but
I kind of do love that. The like older married
like townswomen are all like, goddamn, you know, I just
kind of like like, it's not a constant drone, it's
not annoying. It doesn't ever get to like some like man,
you can't even focus on the movie thing. But like
their acknowledging, like Buddy's pretty hot. No, and he's a stranger,

(50:24):
he's new here in town. What's going on with Yes?

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Especially the first woman with the car, how she was
just driving and she crashed.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
Yeah, and he was like, can I help you with
the car? She was like you Shurekhan baby.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
I was like, oh, they they did. They did a
lot of alternate lines for that scene, some of which
definitely were not able to make.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
Somebody said absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yeah, somebody said, we we do. We do ultimately have
a rating that we'd like to accomplish here. Yeah, I
named I named the lady who drove the car after
my grandmother, who is ninety seven, you know. Yeah, and
she saw the movie and she was absolutely tickled. And
all of her friends in that group are named after

(51:12):
like women in my family, my grandmother's and my great aunts.
So yeah, that's That's just another way that I find
in terms of writing these movies, that it helps you
connect to them personally, Like you've got to connect personally
otherwise why is why is the audience gonna care if
you don't care? So I always end up writing characters
with like my friend's names or my family members' names,

(51:35):
the people who own the thrift shop. Melan theo like
that's my mom and dad, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah, Like Karen has a conspiracy theory, I do.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Okay, I can't. I can't. I think I know what
you're gonna say, and I'm excited to hear it.

Speaker 5 (51:50):
Yes, my my conspiracy theory is that the two people
in the shop they gave her to scarf. I think
that dude is a snowman too. That's my theory because.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
That's how she knew because she wasn't tripping the whole movie.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
Like she wasn't.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
She seemed like she has seen this. Listen, you need
to listen.

Speaker 4 (52:14):
It's magical.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
You need to stop and get with that snowman.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
And they and they seem kind of laid back, you know.

Speaker 5 (52:22):
They was like, hey, it's okay, Yes, it's okay, keep
my shoes.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
I'm there's some brother in love here. What's happening?

Speaker 3 (52:30):
You know?

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Once you go snow you don't need no mo.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Put that in the movie. That's I'm gonna put that
in the sequel. Look. One of the things I really
like about any small town is the degree to which
some people will choose to go unbothered, you know, like
some some people it's like, you know, come come on,

(52:57):
buy for breakfast, let's let's just hang out. It's good
to see you kids. What's going on. It's like wha
wait a minute, hold on, you know, like some people
are just so unbothered period, because life is simpler.

Speaker 6 (53:09):
As a writer and movie wise, I'm surprised how rare
it is for somebody to kind of because you know,
you write yourself into a puzzle and then you try
to write yourself out.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
This is writing, That's what it is. Well, it's so
obvious sometimes where it's like, oh, what if everyone was
just cool? It's just like it's the last It doesn't
matter how many fucking movies I watch. By the way,
it always blows my mind because in real life people
are not cool is what I found for the master
jory of my life. So it's always a plot twist

(53:43):
that will work on me. It's like, yeah, but what
if the whole town was like actually, like not that
hung up about it, Like it was a kind of
in your head that everyone was gonna be up in
the arms about it. But in real life most people
don't give a fuck. And I was like, oh, Yeah, right,
that's a great yes, and it is heartwarming and it
does work and it does make it feel like a
community at the end, Like it really did work on me.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
At the same time, I'm like, it's fucking obvious. I
would have never thought of that.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
I also think, once you have the sheriff, be somebody
who you know. At some point in the draft process,
this line got cut. But you know, he basically like
they accuse him of, like you know, learning how to
police from Sylvester Stallone movies and CSI. I am right,
this is he is the best. The best way to

(54:32):
bring out the worst in him is to show that
everybody else is great, yes, and like and nobody needs
him to police anything. Yes, And obviously this is like
a lesson that some police probably should learn. You know,
you you don't always need to be like tripping so

(54:55):
hard on some of these things. But he says he
writes a ticket for the mayor when he was dropping
off like gifts to the children's hospital. Yeah, he was
in the loading You can't park in the loading zone. Yeah,
I mean there, but but you know what I love.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
I also thought he was sweet, like by the like
like Craig never plays it so bad that you're like
this sheriff is a villain in the movie who's just
look he plays it like a member of the community
who just he went a little He's a little over zealous,
but at the end of the day, he thought, I'm

(55:32):
doing this to protect the community. So so like I
never truly like lose like he's obviously a hard ass,
but I never lose like the connection of like, man,
this guy is ever deemable. They gotta get him out
of the community. It's like, okay, buddy, you took your
job a little too serious. Take it down a notch,
you know.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Craig on set and this is this is him going
way too far and being nice to me about it.
But he called he called me Shakespeare when he would
see me, because he was like his character. He felt
was very like Shakespearean had these big ambitions and takes
things way too far. And I mean, I would be

(56:11):
inclined to believe that there are probably a large number
of police officers in this country who believe, maybe convince themselves,
who believe that what they are doing is for the betterman,
like for the greater good right, and it doesn't matter
how bad, what they what they are doing is they

(56:33):
justify it to themselves. They're not like doing going like,
oh I'm gonna go be bad today. No, They're like, no,
the things that I am doing are for a good reason.
Right now, that's a very very scary thing for people
to think when they have power, because when you have
power and you think, well, my version of reality is

(56:54):
the correct one, and my version of justice is the
correct one, then it leads to all sorts of terrible things, right,
And like, look, this is a silly movie at the
end of the day. But I do think that people
who sort of wrote about this is also a movie
that you know, reflects some things that people might be

(57:16):
seeing from law enforcement. Yes, I don't think that's an accident.
I think that that's something that was like online he sees.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
And also, like you know, these movies are about magic
and magic. You know, like this is a magical This
is Frosty the snow Man, but he's high. So when
you're like, like when he's fingerprinting him is like no fingerprints,
He's an agent of the You're just like yes, because
like not not the TV too serious, but that is
what happens when you have the unexplainable in the hands

(57:50):
of like power, right, like, it can't be, it can't
be this non malicious solution. It's this motherfucker's terrorist we
got like.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Yeah, always looking for something like that.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Yes, it is why. It's why you look at a
small town and go, y'all have three home v's, a
tank and riot gear. Like I don't think. I don't
think coming through right.

Speaker 4 (58:18):
Not for the three hundred people that live here. May
I'm not target.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
I think Spring Valley, Wyoming is okay. I don't think.
I don't think the revolution popping off to night you got.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Me, not not from the people, maybe from the police,
right right, you know, the craig even says the sheriff
is like, hell, they might even do a podcast about this.
He's already got like how he's gonna get famous off
of like catching some criminal, right, like yes, the second
something happens, like he is immediately going to, oh my god,

(58:51):
like this is gonna be great for me.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
And how how long does it take you from like inception,
like you come on died there you start writing a movie.
Obviously you got your notes, you got your draft, she
got your back and forth. Then if it gets you
know Greenlit accepted whatever they're gonna film it, because I'm
sure you know rejection is a big part of his business.
I'm sure you've had some shit that was just like

(59:15):
everything looked like it was gonna go, and it's not
gonna go for whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
But yep.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
So when it is a completely successful venture from start
to finish, how long does it take you to would
you say from start to we've wrapped on the movie
the movie is out?

Speaker 2 (59:32):
It depends in a huge way. I mean hot for us,
he was a spec meaning for people who don't know
listening that I wrote it not knowing I was gonna
get paid, right, I wrote it for myself. I wrote
it because I thought it was a funny idea and
I couldn't get it out of my head, and so
I wanted to write it, and luckily somebody then optioned it.
I forget when they optioned it. It might have been

(59:54):
Spring twenty two, you know, So it took a couple
of years to get here, which where Christmas movies takes.
That's a very very long road for your typical Hallmark movie.
You know, if I if I sell a concept in October,
they might be shooting it in like April or May
the following year. I mean, like we are talking very,
very very now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
That is that an appealing part of it? Because like,
look at the end of the day, especially once I
was writing, getting paid is a big fucking part of it. Like,
like I tell back every fucking thing I ever said
on a podcast about they just did this to get paid, Yes, bitch,
And so does everyone that does any job. Ever, no
one's in it for just free or the love except rich.

(01:00:38):
Only rich people can be like, I'm just this my
vanity project. Well I'm not vain. I need to get jay. So,
like I had never thought about it until It's weird
that it's sad honestly that it took me knowing you
and not this movie, but actually knowing you back in
the day when you used to talk about the Sci
five movies and yeah, and you'd be like, oh, man,

(01:00:59):
I want to write you know, this movie like Squids
Versus Aliens or whatever, And I'd be like, what the
fuck is wrong with Russ? Why does he want to
make those movies? But I didn't know the economy of it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Yes, and now I also love them. It's a good Yeah,
it's two things combining right right, there are movies that
happen very quickly. I've also found very fortunately with these
Hallmark movies, the people that make them aren't jerks there.
They also are not overly precious. And it's like, if
you're a jerk and you're gumming up the works and
they're trying to do this thing from premise to being
in the can in under six months, you don't have

(01:01:31):
time for jerks, like just straight up right. It also
helps that they're basically all shot in Canada, and Canadians
are lovely, you know, So that sort of thing helps
a lot. And I find that very appealing, especially because
I like to work very quickly, like I want it out.
I want it out, like I gotta get it on
the page and then spend some time editing and then

(01:01:52):
figure it out from there. And I love what you
said about you know, I do think getting paid is important.
I think that you know, what's the thing that's coming
out soon is the Mufasa movie, you know, And when
when they announced that Barry Jenkins was doing it, everyone
was like, Oh, this is outrageous, how dare he do it?

(01:02:12):
I was like, what you think, Barry Jenkins doesn't want
a beach house. Dude. You know Barry Jenkins, right, you
think Barry Jenkins doesn't want like he's like, wait, you're
telling me that I could sit in a at home
on zoom probably while they're in the recording booth. Then
people are gonna send me special effects updates. I'll be
sitting here like this for a year or two. People
are working out and then and then they get to

(01:02:34):
put from the Academy Award winning or whatever director of
uh it comes Mufasa Lion King two. It's like, look,
am I in love with the fact that this happens.
And Barry Jenkins isn't doing an original movie, but he's
doing Mufasa as somebody who loves movies. No, I'm not,
but as somebody who makes movies. If he is somebody
now I don't know if he is this person or not.

(01:02:54):
I don't know him. There are people who will do
the old one for them, one for you method right,
it is a lot easier. Something like Moonlight probably does
not pay a lot of money to a director at
the end of the day, and it takes a long
time for movies that are not Hallmark movies or sci
fi movies or whatever. It takes a very good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
This is one of the reasons I don't look This
is one of the reasons I don't participate in the
D versus like Marvel versus DC. I don't even participate
in it because I'm like if you once you're in
the game, you realize it's all synergy, Like they really
can't exist without each other. Like Barry needs some money
to go call Michael B. Jordan and be like, we

(01:03:34):
want to make a fucking passion project that we've been
working on for twenty years about the richest African prince
in the history. No fucking studio wants to do this.
No one wants to give us the budget. But if
we make fucking if we make Black Panther, then we
can make this. And I'm like, yes, and if and
if Black Panther got to get made low key, I

(01:03:57):
want Bury and Michael B. Jordan to make it like
that it's gonna get made, then maybe they'll make a
good one. Sometimes it's shitty sometimes the cash grab but
but like at the same time, like it all kind
of has to flow together. But like I said, once
I needed to be paid, I completely understood the game
in a different way of like, yeah, sometimes you just

(01:04:19):
gotta take the hit, like fuck that, you know, let
me get I think.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
I think people when it comes to that sort of thing,
big studio versus anything, I think people sometimes mistake where
their frustrations lie. Like I think that it's very easy
to get frustrated with talent right when talent, I think,
to what you are saying is completely true, right, Like

(01:04:44):
talent can look at that if they have aspirations of
doing indie work, like Robert Pattinson is such a great
example of this. You know, there are people out there,
Kristin Stewart another great example, who do these big things
and then once they are paid, they realize it's okay,
Now I can help get other things greenlit. I can

(01:05:04):
be the change I want to see people get frustrated
when artists like uh, I don't want to name anybody,
but there are artists who are out there who do
a movie where it feels like it's a one for them,
and then the next thing they announce is also a
one for them, and then the next thing is also
a one for them, and it's like, oh, they just
want to be one of them. They don't they don't
care about they did the indie movies to get in
to be the person making the that And.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
For the record, I respect this day. Once, like I said,
once I got a check. Once I got a check,
I understood, like, because there's some reporters that got like
they got them kind of check bills. I don't, okay,
I never thought I would be. I never made decisions
that was like I need to stay in this fucking sure.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
It's it's consumer it's consumer frustration more than an exact right.
If you consume uh, things that are a little more artistic,
things that are more uh you know, non pre existing IP,
then you are very frustrated when you see artists choose
to go that way. Where I think people should direct
frustration where I think it is merited. When it comes

(01:06:07):
to studios versus indy stuff is to people on the
executive level, right to the people at the very top,
to the people with the money. You're telling me that
nobody has figured out at Marvel that a Blade movie
should be Blade versus a bunch of vampires for ninety minutes,
and that's it. It is the least complicated pitch imaginable. Yeah,

(01:06:29):
and then every time you hear the little morsels in
the news that're like, well they they're giving him like
four buddies. And then there's another like, uh, whoa, whoa wait,
wait a minute, wait, I'm not signing up for Blade
and his buddies. Dude. I want to see Blade with
some cool last weapons killing vampires for ninety minutes. It's
so sick.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
People at like I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Time messed up on that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
I can't wait for the leagues to come out because
I have a conspiracy theory about that that I can't prove.
But I wonder if Mahershla is like this ship need
to be black panther level for the black people, and
because he keeps staying on the film, which is weird
to me, I would have been gone so so like

(01:07:12):
it would be And look, it's only funny to me
because I don't care that much, right, But I'm sure
if I like, if I, if I was, if I
had to care a lot, then I'm sure it wouldn't
be funny at all. But it would be funny if
they were bringing him the script that you're talking about,
where it's like, look, man, just fuck up some vampires. Bro,
it's gonna be You're gonna be cool ast ship. It's
gonna be an hour and a half fucking up vampires.

(01:07:33):
It don't even really need to be bigger than that.
He's like, how is this going to connect with African Americans?
Because if it doesn't uplift my people's I mean, no
Marshall or Marshall, We'll get another director. We'll get another director,
no problem, We'll get Jordan Peel. Well, we got some
talks going. We're gonna figure it out. But that would
be funny me, Yeah, that would be if he was

(01:07:53):
the hang up. Although you know, I don't want to
put that on him, but I do agree with you,
like studio stuff at the top, and that's that. Yeah,
none of us knows, and we'll find out one day
probably if it doesn't, if it ever comes out or
someone leaks it or whatever. But right I keep saying, man,
I can't.

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
Believe it's never happening. It's never happened.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
I can't. Did you see dad poolver.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
I did see dead I feel if they wanted to
dust off Wesley watch something there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
But look, I still can't believe they let them put
that joke in Deadpool whereas like that movie ain't never
coming out. I was like, oh damn God, damn.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Well, it's the sort of it's the sort of thing
that like this, this sometimes drives me crazy about some
of these sorts of movies. It's such a heavier cake
and eat it too thing, where like there's nothing that
I find like how do I phrase this without getting
myself in trouble. I don't ascribe to a certain level

(01:08:54):
of cynicism that uh that states like, you know, what
we can do here he is we can take all
of the things that we have done wrong, will be like,
oh look we're messing up. The audience will go ha
ha ha, and then we will get the money from
them for doing that. Like there's there's such a there's

(01:09:15):
such a like a corporate like uh thing there like
when they sort of when a corporation like has a
scandal and then like sort of very winkingly like goofs
on it or if somebody like messes up and goes
on SNL and does like a you know, like it's
that sort of thing like does give me. But again
it's it's at a studio level and not a and

(01:09:37):
not a talent level, like get why the talent would
want to do it, But the studio stuff is where
I go.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Here. Here's let me just put this cound of point
out there. As a comic book fan, especially a comic
book fan of Deadpool, that is what dad so like
the comic book is the same, Like it is also saying, hey, Marvel,
be fucking up.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
And here's where.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
Here's our place where we can go as people who
like Marvel and enjoy the ship and we'll watch it.
Here's our place we can go. And sometimes they be
fucking up. It's like a roast, like do those people
really hate Tom Brady? No, but here's the place where
we can be. Like Bill Belichick is dating a high
schooler and we can go, Yeah, that we laughed at it,
but that is true, Like we're not forgetting that you

(01:10:18):
did that shit. But both things work, Like I think,
it just depends on how seriously you take the movies.
I don't live in a world where like these movies
are gonna exist and people want to see them all right,
you know, y'all, y'all fried yourself so they will, cause
we've been frying you for these mistakes. You fried yourselves.
And let me know you're aware of it. Well, I
don't think you can salvage anything twenty movies in. I

(01:10:40):
think this is the courses on it'll continue. It's you know,
it's like diminishing returns, like where they're gonna fix it tomorrow,
they're gonna what They're gonna quit making billion dollar movies
up to the potential making billion dollar movies just out
of the goodness of their fucking heart. No one does that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
So it's.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
For sure it's steering the Titanic. Yeah, and it takes
a long time. If there's an iceberg in front of
you, you can't turn it too late. Yeah, Like otherwise you
are gonna get some of that. Now. Do I think
they are completely capable with the money that they have,
of changing things in a two year span. Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
I definitely think that they watch Will they will they
do it? Is that a bigger question?

Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
I also read Deadpool growing up. I think you're right up.
I mean, I know you're right about the Dead Bool thing.
But for whatever reason, reading it on a page like
a quarter century ago before, like it was this giant corporate,
you know, monolith, like it was a corporation. But there's
something different about like a kid like in his bedroom,
like with like reading the pages and flipping them and

(01:11:43):
you know, putt throwing them under his bed afterwards, versus
like the four hundred million dollar budget movie for the
multi billion dollar like industry. Thing is. I get that
it's in the same spirit, but for whatever reason, it
doesn't translator. Yeah, yeah, the translation between mediums, I think some.

Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
Times, and for me, I guess this is what I
pushed back. I understand your perspective because not you're funny.
You and Roger read a lot of comic books.

Speaker 5 (01:12:12):
I came into the Marvel universe through the movies, like
me personally.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
So this is your comic book under.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
The correct So so I do understand what you're saying.

Speaker 5 (01:12:22):
It doesn't hit for you, but for me, it's like, Okay,
I see y'all fucking up.

Speaker 4 (01:12:29):
Y'all know y'all fucking up.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Tell me the.

Speaker 5 (01:12:31):
Joke in the format that I'm being presented in, because
this is my comic book. This is me putting it,
you know, putting it behind the DVD play or whatever
you want to say.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
And forget about it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:43):
It's not a book form.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
But for me, there's not a clean there's no clean
corporation this big at this point, so like there's no
way they're ever gonna address it, or even when they
don't address it, we still roast them for not addressing
I'm like, they made too much money to be uncriticized,
so it's just gonna true hurt. But here's the thing
I will say, because we got I do have to

(01:13:06):
wrap up. We gotta go in a second. But this
is what happened while I was talk to Ust about movies. Man,
That's why I love talking to The thing I will say, though,
is in my mind as a kid, I wanted this
and I never thought it would happen, even even down
to this part, like I like not like this wasn't
like a thing where like I wanted Avengers, and then

(01:13:26):
I wanted them to stop. I was like, no, I
want I want them to go as far where we're
talking cops and we're talking bullshit, we're talking meta shit
like you know, like silver surfers talking to the space
time continuum and and it's personified. I wanted that weird
shit and I never thought we'd get it, and I
wanted them to spend four hundred million on it. You know,
I wanted I want because I those are things I

(01:13:49):
just didn't think what happened, And so I continually live
in that world where even if I if I got
my dream, part of my dream is that I would
like to write on what of these franchise things like
not even just my own independent idea, which I think
people make a false choice of, like it's only those
two things, Like I have independent ideas that I like

(01:14:09):
to write. But it also it'd be a dream if
they said, hey, we'd like to see what you think
about some of the Star Wars shit. I got ideas,
y'all haven't tried yet, And sometimes it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Works until don't sign off for Star Wars. Ride don't don't.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
Work get me, It won't get me youself, Yeah, yourself, Russ.

Speaker 4 (01:14:25):
I don't want to tell you this.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
We're gonna end the show on this. But I got
signed to a trilogy, guys. I got a trilogy of
Star Wars movies coming out. It's all about Finn. It's
all about Finn coming out two, and it's gonna get made.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
Gods Blade before Blade. I'll tell you what, Russ, I
really want to I really want to do a martial
arts action movie. So I get you on the one
to do, like the multiple things I would love to
IMDb is like Hallmark Christmas at Script Art rated martial
arts movie. You know, Scott Adkins, you know I'm here.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
Points take it into it this Tell everybody what write
your newest movie that's dropping this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
Yeah, so Santa Class Arizon, Hallmark Channel, December fourteenth, It's
at eight pm Eastern. Definitely check it out. Incredible casts,
some fun surprises in there. I've got some other movies
that are going to keep airing on Hallmark this year.
Three Wiserman and a Boy. You should definitely check out
Christmas under the Lights Airson, Hallmark Mystery. That's a bit
more of an old school one. If you want to

(01:15:26):
check that out. I'm sure they'll keep it. Rearing Santa Summit,
which you know, really opened a lot of doors for
me and is one that people really like. I'm very
very fond of it. And then obviously Hot Frosty on Netflix. Man,
keep watching it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:40):
Good job.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
I'm not even gonna lie.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
Maybe we'll get a second one. Let's push let's push
Froust again. Let's go Hotter Frosty calling it Otter frost.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
Yes, and let's get in and guys, let's see what
we can do is start a lot campaign. We gotta
get Russell Hamleer, right, we gotta get them the right blade.
All right? Got this happened, Hey, I would.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
Love that there'd be no bullshit ninety minutes of a vampire.
Vampire's getting killed by mercill of. This would be unbelievable
and it will never happen.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
I'm there day one. Then soon as he gets in
the room, myhearts was like, but what is this gonna
mean to the African American coaches? All right, y'all, that's it.
We gotta go because we gotta take pictures for holiday cars.
Thank you so much, Russ. Make sure y'all check us out.
We're back tomorrow, I guess will be Chris Lambert until then.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
I love you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:16:36):
Oh and don't forget Live show tickets are on sale
the linkers in the show notes see February twenty eighth,
uh Bloomingthal Center for Performing Arts, Peace Last