The Must-See Movies of Summer 2024 with Fandango's Erik Davis; Jamey Johnson: A Song for Heroes

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, I talk with country star Jamie Johnson
about his brand new song, hisfirst in nearly a decade plus. We
talk with Eric Davis from Fandango allabout the biggest summer movies coming out this
year. Let's go Welcome to popCulture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from my Heart

(00:21):
Radio your pop culture news, views, reviews, and celebrity interviews on Fall,
the movies, TV music, andPomp Culture U Crab Weekly. Here's
Kyle McMahon. Nanna, what's up. Welcome the pop Culture Weekly with Kyle
McMahon. I of course am KyleMcMahon, and I thank you for hanging

(00:43):
out with me and you know,rapping about pop culture this week. This
episode, I have two cool thingsgoing on. I speak with Jamie Johnson,
country music songwriter, singer who hehasn't released a single in like a
decade believe his last single was twentyfifteen, so nine years ago, and

(01:10):
he is releasing one now that you'relistening. He has released one called twenty
one Guns and it is a tributeto the men and women that we have
lost that were in our armed forces. You know, it's referring to the
twenty one gun salute. Jamie himselfwas in the Armed Forces. He was

(01:33):
a United States Marine for four yearsand kind of began playing country music in
bars while he was, you know, in the Marines, which is pretty
cool. So I talk with Jamieabout that. He's going to be performing
at the twenty twenty four National MemorialDay Concert on PBS, which I will
be there live from. We'll havea special episode with the performers there coming

(01:59):
out in just a few days,so it's the next episode that's coming out.
I'll be talking with the performers andby the way, some of the
performers Joe Montaigne and Gary Sinise whoalways as always hosts, you know,
the National Memorial Day Concert from BreakingBad Brian Kranston and I've talked to Cynthia
before. But Cynthia Arivo, whoof course has been in so many great

(02:21):
things, but will be in oris in Wicked, which comes out this
fall. It's going to be ahuge movie musical. And jennam Alone is
performing, and Patina Miller. There'sso many great artists and talent that will
be performing for the National Memorial DayConcert, which you can watch live on

(02:45):
Sunday, night on your local PBSstation, or you can watch on demand
for the following two weeks and onFacebook and YouTube and all the good stuff.
So be sure to you know,keep in touch with me through social
I'll see my updates from rehearsals forNational Memorial Day Concert and my interviews with

(03:05):
the talent. Also, I talkonce again with managing editor at Fandango,
Eric Davis, and we talk themost anticipated movies of summer twenty twenty four.
So I'm really excited to get intothat. Let's start with my interview
with Jamie Johnson discussing his career andhis first single in nine years. Here

(03:31):
he is Jamie Johnson. I wantto welcome Jamie Johnson to iHeartRadio's Pop Culture
Weekly. We are discussing twenty oneGuns, which he will be premiering at
National Memorial Day Concert on PBS.But for a moment, I'd like to
go back Jamie, if you don'tmind. First of all, thank you

(03:53):
for your service. You know servedin the US Marines. I come from
a military family myself, and uh, and you know I can't thank you
enough for for your service. Sothank you for that. Oh hell,
I was proud I got to doit. I have a lot of friends
in the Marines. Marines are sucha great, you know, great branch,

(04:15):
all of our branches obviously, butI have a special spot for the
Marines. So for you, uh, you when you were in the military,
that's kind of when you started performing, right, you were thinking Montgomery
or something and kind of started performingat bars. Is that accurate? Well,
in a way, I started singingin front of crowds in church,

(04:40):
and that was at a really youngage, and so performing goes back with
me all the way, wows asearly as I can remember grabbing a guitar
and getting up with my dad andmy sister and you know, singing gospel
songs in church. But yeah,when I was when I was in the

(05:02):
Marines, I started kind of,I don't know, I'd gook book a
bar, gig somewhere, you know, twenty years old, nineteen twenty years
old, booking wherever I could getto. It was. It's one of
those things that kind of bonded meto a lot of the Marines I was

(05:25):
serving with. Was you know,the fact that we could take my guitar
somewhere. You know what. Wewent into Laughlin, Nevada, and set
up and played some somewhere. Butwe would just be out in the damn
desert and throw a hat upside down, collect tips or play stump the band

(05:48):
or whatever, you know, andhave these guys you know, well you
know this song, No, youknow, but it was it was fun.
I had a great time and ittaught me a lot about me music.
It taught me an awful lot aboutthe kind of music other people like.

(06:08):
People will people will get deep withyou on their music. Yeah.
Yeah, music is uh, youknow, definitely a unifier that that transcends
language and creed and zip codes,and you know, it's it's pretty incredible
for you. You know, didthat shape you? Did that shape your

(06:30):
songwriting at all in those kind offormative years. No, well, everything
has to You only get the oneperspective, you know, so you use
everything in that perspective for songwriting.There's not an aspect of my life that's
been walled off or safe from mysongwriter, uh, which is not always

(06:57):
a good thing, you know.Being an introvert, it's sometimes cringe worthy
for me to look at the thingsthat I put in detail in songs and
think, why have I let thisguy have control of the vessel ratting us
all out, and it's been youknow, it's it's I would imagine that

(07:21):
it is therapeutic for you. It'sit's something that I assume needs to come
out in some form. And youknow, this is a safe I mean,
besides the fact that it could goto millions and millions of people,
but it's a safe way to getthat out. I would I would imagine,

(07:42):
well, it's been safe so far. Yeah, you know, if
you're if you're a songwriter, it'ssomething you have to do. They're coming
when they're coming. For me.For the longest time, I just didn't.
I didn't record him. I wrotesomething good. My first phone call

(08:05):
was going to be to send itto Willie or or George Straight or somebody
that I knew might appreciate it.You know, it's I'm sorry, no,
go ahead, go ahead. It'sinteresting that you say that, because
you know I was I was goingto lead in. This is a great
lead into, you know, fromafter the Marines, you uh, from
my understanding, moved to Nashville andjumped into that world. But you were

(08:30):
were you looking to become a songwriter? Was that your goal or did you
want to be a performer as well. Oh, I was already a songwriter
when I moved to Nashville. II don't know how many songs I had
written at that time, but Ibet it was close to five hundred.
Wow. And uh, none ofthem had ever been co written. I

(08:56):
always wrote by myself. I didn'tknow really anything about co w right.
You know, it seems that itwasn't even a foreign concept. It was
just something I'd never thought thought about. We're going to write a song two
of us. How are we goingto do that? It only goes in

(09:16):
one direction, the way your mindtells it to go. So co writing
became like a It felt like ateam sport when I first started off.
You know, you have to learnan awful lot about uh when to be
quiet when you're co writing. Uh, there's anything I say and can move

(09:39):
it in a direction that's against wheresomebody else is trying to go, and
that's not that's not conducive for agood song writing if people can't agree.
So it's a it's an art,you know, it's a it's a team,
team event. At that point,Yeah, songwriting was not something I

(10:05):
came to Nashville for. I cameto Nashville, because Hank Williams came to
Nashville, because the ipery is inNashville, because the entire music industry was
in Nashville. And I knew Iwas supposed to be a part of it.
Wow. And just like I knewI was going to be a marine

(10:28):
when when I was little, Iknew I was going to be a part
of the grand old lobbry in someform. And I knew I was going
to be a part of the musicindustry in Nashville. You know, I
didn't really think about it until theother day somebody asked me how long I've
been in my studio now, whichdoesn't seem like a long time. I

(10:54):
realized I moved into this studio intwenty ten. I'm at right now,
and we've been there for fourteen yearsalready. In this spot, which is
Chad Akin's old office. It's theit's the office in the RCA building that

(11:15):
Chad Atkins used to decide the fatesof young artists. And uh, it's
it feels good to me to knowthat this was the office of a musician.
This is in the first time musichas been resonating off the walls in
this room and Old Chester seems happywith it. Good for now. I

(11:39):
love that. And when you came, you know, you ended up relatively
quickly. I mean, and Isay that, you know, knowing that
you had years of blood, sweatand tears in it. But you know
you ended up writing Honky Tonk Badunkadunk, which is still an iconic song that
had to be huge for you.I would imagine, uh, the Badonka

(12:05):
don't. Yeah, it was,but I mean, like especially you know
personally, I mean, you know, you you come to to Nashville and
uh, you know, you're lookingto to make your mark and then you
have this iconic song that that youwrite that still today is iconic. You

(12:26):
know what was that like for you? We were all young and uh at
that point had not had a successin our career, me and Randy has
Dallas Davison, and uh, weknew we had a a gigantic song,

(12:50):
you know. It was. Itwas everything that U that people needed put
on just a for a three minutemindless Diddy, This one I'll do.
I was proud of. I gotto make my kid dance. You know,
she was a year old and diapersat the time. And when that

(13:13):
song would come on, she justfelt something different in it and got a
wiggle in her button, you know, in a diaper. It was a
blessing, you know, it was. It took us thirty minutes to write.
We spent most of that time happeningand uh and from the time that

(13:39):
that song came out, Yeah,my life changed drastically. I went from
being a general contractor to being amusician. Wow, is that when you
realize I'm here? I made it? Well? It was. It was
the starting line, I think,and what a gigantic way to start.

(14:05):
Yeah, it was the starting lineof the race and and and there were
all kinds of steps that led upto you know, getting getting there,
but uh, yeah, it was. It was definitely, uh, a
turning point for sure. Then youknow, you ended up releasing a couple
of albums that I believe your secondone, uh, that Lonesome Song,

(14:33):
which still today is you know,praised and renowned for, especially the songwriting.
You know, when you get ayet another achievement like that, you
know, do you feel is thatwhen you're like, you know, I'm

(14:58):
very just curious because you've had somany highs in your career. You know,
eleven time nominated Grammy nominated artists.You know, when is it that
you're like, I am this iswhat I what I'm supposed to be doing
and I'm doing it now? Youknow? Was it with that album?
Do you ever feel that way?Was it with but Donka? Don't you

(15:22):
know? When do you uh?When do you say? Wow? You
know? I'm This is what Idreamed about when I was little. Well,
the version of the music industry thatI found wasn't wasn't what I expected,
especially after after the outlaw movement.I thought that Nashville would be a

(15:48):
little more free than these ideas,you know that they come from all over
the place. Oh and what Ifound when I first started off was everything
was locked down, you know,and it was all kind of dictated how

(16:12):
what how things would go? Youknow, had seen So here's here's the
difference. There's producers you can workwith. Like for me, I had
a great producer, Buddy Cannon.One of Buddy's secrets is how he sets

(16:33):
a mood for a room for themusicians because all of these musicians have worked
with him before and they when hestarts a session off and it just feels
a certain way. I mean,he lets players play what they imagine,
and if that needs a little dialingin, he can chime in and offer

(16:56):
up suggestions. Most of the timewith Buddy he doesn't. Most of the
time he would chime in with asomething is distracting or listen to this,
are you sure you want that togo that way? And then there's producers
out there that are very rigid andvery demanding. It's got to go exactly

(17:17):
like this right here, right now, and then these parts have to be
laid out just so. And they'remore like a orchestra conductor in the way
that they have the overall plan andthey're going to dictate that out as they
go. The music business that thatI started off in was very orchestral and
demanding and everything had to be done, you know, And I wasn't expecting

(17:41):
that. I would have thought thatby now they figured out that micro managing
the piss out of people is agreat way to put out crappy music.
But they did it that way anyway, and I tried to I try my
best to navigate through those kinds ofwater, and I felt like I had,

(18:07):
you know, Loansome wasn't the firsttime I started doing things the way
I wanted them done. It wasjust the way that worked, you know,
after we put out another project.But it was also it worked that
way because I had changed through thatwhole experience too. Uh. You know

(18:33):
that there there was a lot ofme that was in the way of some
of the early projects. I canbe a smart aspect, but like a
like a bad dog, I canbe in the way to Is that why
you started your own label eventually?Well, I started my own label to

(18:57):
minimize the hot and back and forthbetween the other ones that was starting to
starting to look like it was gonnabe a norm. And plus, if
you if you're gonna put anything outand you're not signed to a label,
you kind of have to create alabel name because that's that's the way that
the the the industry is set up. Uh. So I created a record

(19:22):
label off of my off of thename of my publishing company at the time.
So we go by Big Gas Records, and Uh, I think that's
gonna be my label for the restof the movie. I think I'm just
gonna hold on right there, andI may u, I may partner up
with other uh labels as I go, and may try to do some some

(19:45):
different things. But every everything Irecord from now on, it's gonna it's
gonna be on my own label.I love that. And now you know
you uh, you've you're putting outthis song, twenty one guns. That
is a beautiful, uh tribute inso many ways, and you're going to

(20:06):
be performing it, you know,nationally, live on television nationally for the
first time. From my understanding,you've you've played it, uh, you
know at some of your shows andstuff over the last couple of years,
but this is the big debut.This song is so powerful. What what
is? Where did that come from? For you? When I was a

(20:30):
young marine, I served at thosefuneral and even even one or two where
I was I was one of theguys pulling the trigger. Oh, and
it always impacts you know. Thosewould have been for marines that I didn't
know, for families that I didn'tknow, and uh and later on I'm

(20:56):
staying in there as a friend mto a marine that's passed away, and
then that happened over and over andover again, and it impacts you to
know that this is somebody who endedtheir life at a young age, uh

(21:19):
and sacrifice that for their country thatthat's gonna impact you. The more of
these funerals I attended, the moreI started kind of empathizing not just with

(21:40):
the loss of the family, butbut listening to how people uh expressed their
grief and that that's one of thesentiments UH that came through was I don't

(22:02):
need anybody to tell me that youwere a hero. I've known that your
whole life. Well, same withme. I met these guys when they
were gone. I knew what theywere then. So it's an acceptance of

(22:23):
the of the honor of the twentyone gun salute. UH, but it's
also like a family kind of claimingtheir own. Yeah, I love it.
At the beginning of it saying,you know, we'd love to take
you back home, but there thereain't no place like this there. Yeah

(22:49):
you you uh performing it? Youknow the West lawn of the US Capital
or you know, Memorial Old Day. Have you thought about and I hope
I'm not I hope if you haven't, I hope I'm not adding to any
And you know stress or anxiety towardsit, But have you thought about the

(23:11):
weight of that, you know,being in Washington, d C. Performing
this incredible song, on Memorial Day. Yeah, Uh, I don't put
that kind of weight on them,but I do understand that that there's there's
probably somebody out there that that needsto hear this, and uh And in

(23:34):
that regard, I'm not there forme. I'm there to deliver a song
and that's it. So there's notthere's not a lot of pressure, you
know. I hope I don't messit up sometimes. Oh, but but
yeah, I'm not there for me. That's that's incredible. Finally, what

(24:00):
does Memorial Day mean to you?You know, marine songwriter, American?
What does Memorial they mean for you? It's a it's a time we've set
aside as a country two remember welland appreciate and give gratitude to the people

(24:23):
who have lost their lives in supportof this country, in service of our
country. There's a difference between thatand Veterans Day. Veterans Day is for
anybody who served. This is forpeople who you know, Memorial Day is

(24:45):
for people who have lost limbs,lost their lives and service people who without
them, there probably wouldn't be inAmerica today. It should be heavy.

(25:08):
We're here for a reason, man, you know, we're here because at
least in our own lives because thegreatest generation back in the nineteen forties was
able to defeat Adolf Hitler. Thatcame out of at a loss of an

(25:30):
astonishing loss of life by the timethat war was over with. So this
is our way of remembering ours oneswho fought the good fight, the good
guys. I love that, JamieJohnson, Thank you so much. Twenty
one cons out everywhere, including thefree iHeartRadio app. And we will see

(25:52):
you PBS's National Memorial Day concert.Thank you so much for speaking with me.
Sure it was enjoyable. Thanks,Yes, I'll see you at rehearsals.
Jamie Johnson. What an awesome talent, incredible songwriter. He's had a
pretty amazing career with the different peoplethat he's wrote, written with and for,

(26:15):
and interesting career as a songwriter andperformer himself. We're going to take
a quick break. Pay the bills. I will be back in sixty Thanks
for sticking with me, all right, Thanks for hanging out with me while
we paid the bills. Our advertisersare what are able who are able to
keep the show going and interview amazingtalent and talk all things movies, music,

(26:40):
TV, streaming technology, all thepop culture stuff with you. So
all right, next up, onceagain, Managing editor of Fandango, Eric
Davis is back on This time weare discussing the most anticipated films of the

(27:00):
Summer twenty twenty four movie season.So there's a lot of good ones coming
out and I can't wait to talkwith Eric and see what his picks are,
as well as the survey that Fandangodid, which you can find on
fandango dot com to see what themost voted for the most voted for most

(27:21):
anticipated movies of Summer twenty twenty four. So here we go, Eric Davis.
All right, iHeartRadio pop Culture Weekly. Once again, I am joined
by Fandango's Eric Davis, who Ialways love chatting with. Today we are
talking about the most anticipated Summer moviesurvey from Fandango, which I am excited

(27:45):
about. There's a lot, inmy opinion, a lot of great films
coming out this summer. How areyou, Eric, doing good? You
know what. I'm getting ready forsummer and I think this is one of
my favorite times of year because there'sa lot of big movies on the way,
and I think people don't realize likethe extent of the movies that are

(28:08):
coming over the next three months,and so you know, that's what's so
great about these like most anticipated surveysand and because it kind of lets you
know, oh, yeah, Iforgot that movie was coming up. That's
what a lot of people have beensaying to me over the last couple of
days. It's like, oh,I forgot that that movie was coming in
July. So it's always a greattime to not just see what audiences are

(28:30):
most looking forward to, but thento also just get educated right on what's
coming. Yeah, and for alot of people not like us, you
know, their exposure potentially could beoh, seeing a ad at the Super
Bowl or something, and then youkind of forget about it for a few
months until you know, here weare in the end of May and kicking

(28:53):
off summer movie season, and likeyou, like you said, you know,
people might be, oh, shoot, I forgot about that. I
saw that on the Super Bowl fourmonths ago, five months ago or whatever,
and oh now it's finally coming outor whatever, you know, without
a doubt. Yeah. I wasat a baseball game for my son the
other day and a mom leaned overand she goes, is there really a
new quiet Place movie coming out thissummer, and I was like, yes,

(29:15):
there is comes out June twenty eighth. Actually, so yeah, I
think there's just a lot of youknow, a lot of people are just
now sitting down and saying, Okay, let me see what is coming out
this summer, and they're realizing thatthere's a lot of cool movies. Yes,
and for of course, for thestormy days which we will get in
the summer, where you know,there's stormy nights where you can't get out

(29:41):
to the theater or whatever. Wehave a lot of those in my area
and you're not your two hours away, but where you know, we get
the tornado warnings and all the timethere's Fandango at home, so you can
catch up on all the films fromthe winter and spring as well. Yeah,
without a doubt, you know.And and then a lot of those
films that come out the summer sortof come towards the tail end of summer,

(30:03):
they come home. So we askpeople not only what films are you
anticipating coming to theaters, but thenalso which films do you want to own
when when they do come home?And so it's this is a really the
first half of summer, you're gettinga lot of like those big April and
May releases coming home, and thenyou know, towards the end of in
August and then maybe even into September, some of those bigger summer movies are

(30:27):
coming home too. So so yeah, I mean, no matter where you
want to watch films or what experienceyou're looking for this summer, I would
say, Fandango has got you coveredawesome. Uh And let me ask you
just before we hop into this megalopolis, Yes helped me out? Is that
how you say yes? For Coppolaepic? Yes. It debuted at cons

(30:55):
this this past week pretty from whatI saw, pretty polarizing. People were
like, it's either a genius andamazing or whatever, or it's you know,
overly done and bombastic and all thatstuff. What are your thoughts on
the film, especially the breaking thefourth wall aspect of it. Yeah,
I personally haven't seen the film yet, so I'm if someone's listening and they

(31:19):
can show it to me, pleasedo. But yeah, I mean I've
been reading some of the reviews.I am also someone, especially when it's
a new Francis Sport Coppola film.Yeah, I don't want to know too
much. Like I watched the teaser, I kind of saw some of what
people were saying about it, butI want to go in clean, you
know. And I think we arestill waiting to a certain degree to find

(31:41):
out how we're going to be ableto watch this film. Imax has said
that they will definitely be screening it, so it will be coming to an
Imax theater, and then beyond that, I think we're still waiting to hear.
But I love it. I lovethe fact that, you know,
a film make er, you know, a visionary like Francis Ford Coppola,

(32:02):
can just pour everything he's got intoa film like this, you know,
and and yeah, let it bepolarizing, you know. I mean some
of the best films ever made arepolarizing films. And I think especially in
this day and age where yes,we do see a lot of franchises and
remakes and sequels, which without adoubt people are anticipating we have a ton

(32:23):
of them coming this summer. Butthen I think there's also should be room
for films like Megalopolis to exist andto sort of, you know, drive
interest and for you to watch andsit with and maybe watch multiple times and
kind of lose yourself and in whatkind of wild vision Coppola is trying to

(32:44):
tell, you know, And Ithink he is a legend. Yeah,
and while he's here and making films, you know, similar to Martin Scorsese
as well. And I think ChristopherNolan is on that path too, and
James Cameron and just you know,seeing anything that these guys make think is
rewarding for if you're a film fan. Absolutely awesome. So the most Anticipated

(33:07):
Summer Movie Survey. I was excitedto see the results of this. Where
do you want to dive in?There's so much good stuff. I mean,
you know, Dead Poo and Wolverine. I think, you know,
if you want to look at likean overarching kind of theme for this survey,
and we broke it down into abunch of different areas. You know.

(33:30):
Earlier a couple of months ago,we did a most anticipated Summer Movies
just flat top ten. What arethe topic? I think you and I
talked about that. Yeah, yeah, we talked about that. Dead Pool
and Wolverine led that. But thencoming into sort of official official summer,
we wanted to break it down,you know, and ask people most anticipated
Imax movies, Action movies, comedymovies, art house movies, like really

(33:52):
kind of break down some of thissummer slate. Get more films out there
in front of people, and seewhat audiences are innticipating. And I think
if there is a big theme,it was Deadpool and Wolverine just really dominating
these lists. It led you know, most anticipated Imax movies, action movies,

(34:12):
and comedy movies, which I think, you know, just goes to
show you that I think this isprobably the biggest Marvel Studios movie, you
know, maybe since Black Panther,Wikonda, Forever, Spider Man, No
Way Home. You know, Iwould even put it on that level of
Avengers Infinity Warren Endgame in terms ofjust anticipation. Tickets just went on sale

(34:37):
this week and it already broke firstday ticket sales on fandango the record for
twenty twenty four. It broke thefirst day ticket sales record on Fandango for
first twenty four hours for Deadpool moviefor the franchise, So I mean,
it's just showing an incredible amount ofanticipation. We also released the first big
video interview, Big Ticket Interview onfandom Angle with Hugh Jackman and Bryan Reynolds

(35:01):
and director Sean Levy, and it'slike our highest performing interview in its first
twenty four hours ever. Wow.Angle. So it just goes to show
you that bringing, as Ryan Reynoldswould say, ketchup and mustard together for
the first time on the big screen, I think is something that not only
have fans wanted to see, especiallyif you're a fan of comic book,

(35:22):
but I also think, like justfor Marvel, it just shows you,
like, look, there's still alot of love and energy and excitement for
the films a Marvel Studios is puttingout. Absolutely, that's my most anticipated
film for the summer, potentially probablythe year. To be honest, I'm
a huge MCU fan. I loveHugh Jackman as Wolverene, and I love

(35:46):
that they were able to do this, and I'm excited to see how it
all meshes into the MCU. Youknow what I mean. You know,
I mean, there's so many thingsI'm excited for that with the film that
I just can't wait to see it, and I can't wait to see it
on a big screen. You know. There's there's you, and I do

(36:07):
a lot of screeners or screenings whereit's you know other people like us,
and and but there's something about abig sold out theater for an MCU film
event, films like that where youknow, people are dressing up and people
are cheering at the you know,I'm looking forward to that. I really
can't wait for it without a doubt, you know. And a lot of

(36:29):
people were saying that last summer withBarbenheimer, like people were dressing up as
Zoppenheimer as Barbie and going to themovies, and you know, in our
interview, Hugh Jackman actually says that, you know, the head of Fox
at the time when the first Deadpoolcame out, told him go just go
to a movie theater and see whatpeople are written with this Deadpool, Like,
see what it's about. So hesays he went to a nine pm

(36:50):
screening in Times Square the weekend Deadpoolcame out. He was in disguise,
he had a hat on. Hesat on the stairs because it was so
sold out, and he had neverexperienced anything like that before, just like
the yelling and the screaming and thelaughing and you know, and and that
moment, he says, is whatultimately I think convinced him to do this
film. Years later, and justin terms of seeing how the audience comes

(37:16):
together for a character and for afranchise. And so it's also making history.
It's Marvel Studios first R rated movie, It's the first Deadpool MCU movie,
so you know, there's history onthe line too here as well.
And I think all of that,that entire recipe just comes together for this
perfect storm of a blockbuster arriving thisJuly. Yeah, I can't wait,

(37:39):
and I can't wait to see thethe reactions to it, the fan reactions.
I'm excited to follow the box office. There's just you know, so
much to look forward to surrounding Deadpool, Deadpool and surrounding Deadpool and Wolverine.
So yeah, I'm really looking forwardto that. And as you said,

(38:02):
it's kind of dominated everything, youknow with the survey. It's just such
a huge film. What what overallhave you seen? Have you seen any
themes overall with the results in thesurvey, I mean, obviously besides that
Pool and Wolverine, Like, arewe are we seeing big budget actions or
is it kind of everywhere or Ithink it's a little bit of everything,

(38:27):
you know, Like I'm looking atour most anticipated IMAX movies and This is
the first time that we ever askedpeople which movies are you most looking forward
to seeing in imax theories, AndI think it's an important conversation to have
because I think like imax and premiumlarge formats, I don't think they've ever
been as popular as they are rightnow. You know, people want when
they go to the movies, especiallyto see a big summer blockbuster, they

(38:52):
want to see it, like theywant that experience to be heightened, you
know, as max as you cango. I'm leaving the house to go
see know Furiosa. I want tosee it on the biggest screen with the
craziest sound. And I think,like I've always been like that, but
it's great to see that general audiencesare now saying, you know what,
these these experiences mean more to me. And so we did that that survey,

(39:16):
and I mean what we saw,you know, I think franchises,
franchises, returning franchises always a bigtheme around summer. Every time we get
to summer, people are like,there's just just a bunch of franchises.
It's like, well, that's everysummer, yeahranchise, and that's what you're
going and seeing. Yeah, right, that's what the summer season is and

(39:37):
look, and there's a bunch ofstuff in between, and we have like
art house movies and we could talkabout those, but you know, I
think, you know, for thebiggest stuff, it's returning franchises and looking
at the IMAX. Deadpool Wolverine isnumber one, of course, but then
you have like Twisters at them twoseql to a nineteen ninety six movie,

(39:58):
which Twister, which I think isto see that as high as it is,
just goes to show you that thereare some of these like random nineties
movies that actually like still have aton of interest in people wanting to see
that return. I think it's Iwatched some footage of this at CinemaCon.
It's you know, Universal promising itto be like the most immersive summer blockbuster

(40:22):
experience that you have. So that'sat number two. There's a new alien
movie, Alien Romneys. That's that'son this list as well, furiosa Mad
Max Saga which comes out Memorial Dayweekend, and then Quiet Place Day one.
So you look at what's interesting aboutthese five for most anticipated IMAX is,

(40:43):
Yeah, you have your comic bookmovie, and then you have your
Tornado movie. And then you haveyour Mad Max action movie. Then you
have two horror movies in there too, you know, and it just goes
to show you, like how peopledon't just want to watch action movies in
IMAX. They want to watch likescary movies too. And I think Quiet
Place Day one and Alien Romulus Looklook awesome, both of those films.

(41:07):
Yeah, yeah, I you know, looking at this list. So I
remember when I was a kid,my mom the first DVD that I ever
had, my mom bought me,and she had no idea what she was
buying. Really, she just youknow, knew I was a movie buff,
and so there was this thing calledDVD that had come out. So

(41:28):
she, her and I went tothis store and bought a DVD player.
There were only a few films thatwere out on DVD, and one of
them was Twist Her And and Ijust remember, and i'd seen it in
the theater. I just remember likethe emotion that I had as a kid
seeing that movie where it was like, oh my gosh, this could happen.

(41:50):
You know, we get like Iwas just saying, we get tornado
with warnings, you know, frequentlyin the winter, and so it was
almost like, oh, this iswhat would happen, you know, and
it's scary and it's exciting and it'sthrilling and all that. And then for
Twisters to be coming out twenty whatever, thirty years later or something, I'm
bet at math. I don't know. Anyway, a couple of decades later,

(42:12):
I'm like, that's another one ofmy most anticipated films because I'm like,
you know, it's that nostalgia factor, it's that oh, it's even
bigger and better now it's not justTwister but Twisters. And then you know,
you have the the obviously the hugeadvancement in CGI that I'm looking forward
to seeing it kind of updated,if you will. And I don't even

(42:35):
think Twister. I think the effectsfor Twister still hold amazingly up today.
But I'm excited to see what theydo with that. So there's a lot
of exciting things in that IMAX andyou know, talking talking to you now,
I'm like, you know what,I'm gonna buy my ticket for that
in IMAX because why, you know, why wouldn't I It's it's actually all

(42:57):
five of these are the perfect films, And i'max this summer, you know,
I love that. Yeah, No, that's a no brainer, you
know. And I think also onething that people forget about twisters and and
the original Twister. Uh. Andin watching the trailer with my kids,
like they reminded me, you know, like these are real people that go
do this like that, go andgo and drive into into tornadoes and you

(43:21):
know, get the data that helps, you know, ultimately and hopefully save
communities future communities from these these storms. And so you know, I think
that there is this yes, thiscould really happen, and it does really
happen, and you know there andit's and it's a very it's tragic when
when these tornadoes sweep through cities.And so I think there's a certain personal

(43:44):
connection that a lot of audiences haveto the topic. And then yes,
you have that advancement of the effects. These movies are known to sort of
be at the forefront of what wecan do with with technology. Uh.
And then yeah, and then there'sthis educational part of it where it's just
like these are real people, theseare real like heroes that go in and
do this, And so I thinkthat's you know, like there are no

(44:07):
real X men, like there area few, really, I don't know,
hasn't been revealed yet they told usthere, but like these are real,
like I think, you know kindof heroes too that go and do
this stuff. And so I thinkall of that, I think is what
attracts audiences to a film like Twisters. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward

(44:28):
to it. What about you know, I'm a huge horror fan. What
about on the horror front? DidI see that? You guys did?
That was part of the survey.What are you seeing with that? I
think what we well, what weare seeing is we're seeing a lot of
uh, the Alien and Quiet Place, Day one, Big Ones. Also

(44:52):
Maxine, which is the trilogy forTy West. That was X and Pearl
and uh and now Maxine is thethird one. Uh me a goth stars
and uh this one takes place inlike the eighties and what I what I've
been really loving about this series andMaxine also leads most Anticipated Art House Movie

(45:16):
survey as well. What I loveabout these films is that, you know,
ty West kind of not not onlydoes he set these these horror films
in different periods, but he alsoshoots it as if it was a horror
film that was made in that period. You know, like X, I
love X. You know, hekind of shoots it like like it was

(45:37):
set in the seventies, you know, tak you know, I kind of
got Texas chainsaw mascer vibes from thefrom the movie. Uh. And now
you know with with Maxine, he'sgoing to kind of I feel like it's
going to feel like an eighties horrormovie. Yeah, And so that one
looks really good. Uh. AlienRomulus what I love about this new alien

(45:58):
movie. And some people have beenlike, really doing another Alien I'm like,
no, but this one you kindof want to pay attention to because
a it's set between the first Alienand the Second Aliens that yeah, it's
in between those two movies. Andit's directed by a guy named FEddi Alvarez
who did Evil Dead Rise. He'sone of my favorite horror filmmakers, along

(46:19):
with the guy's Radio Silence. Ilove them too because they make like very
accessible horror movies, but they goa bit harder than your normal horror movies,
and I think that's a really difficultthing to do. And I've seen
some you know, extra footage ofAlien Rodmuels. I haven't seen the film
yet, but it's exactly that.You know, it's like this is crazy.

(46:43):
I'm on the edge of my seat. It's a bit harder than I
was expecting, gory wise, butit's really great stuff. And so I
think, I think he's gonna knockthis film out of the park. I
think it's gonna be a really greatfilm. And and you know, and
so that one big and then QuietPlace Day one. A lot of people

(47:04):
are don't realize that this isn't necessarilya sequel to Quiet Place Part two.
Emily Blunt, you know, JohnKuzitski, those characters aren't in this one.
This one's set in New York Cityon the first day that the monsters
arrive. So it's like a spinoff of those first two movies, expands
the universe bit and it kind ofgives you a different setting for Quiet Place,

(47:28):
which I think is pretty cool beingfrom New York City and seeing how
how it's gonna look. So,you know, those three films very much
dominating horror at the moment. Also, m Night Shyamalan has a new film
called Trap that's coming out, andhis daughter, Shanna Shaia Milan has a

(47:49):
film called The Watchers, also onthe list, based on a book that's
coming out. I think I thinkit's this has got the first time,
the first summer that a father anda daughter have movies, horror movies coming
out, like that's cool, youknow, in the same summer. So
I think it's really Shia Milan isall over the play and his other daughter
is the superstar music performer in Trap. Yeah. Yeah, I love them,

(48:16):
his his daughter. You know,I've met both both of his daughters
as well. For the Servant coveragethat I did, and she actually,
I believe wrote and directed at leasta few episodes of Servant, uh and
she and so I was really excitedwhen I saw those. I mean,
I'm obsessed with Servant, but whenI saw the what she did with Servant,

(48:38):
particularly with the directing, I wasjust like, I cannot wait for
her feature film, you know.And uh, and here we are,
and you know, I love thatnow we have two of two Shamalan's that
that I can look forward to theirfilms, you know what I mean.
Yeah, And it's great. Andboth of them look so different, you

(49:00):
know, the Watchers. It isbased on a book. I haven't read
the book, so I'm not asfamiliar with the story, but it looks
freaky. Dakota Fanning stars as awoman who gets like trapped in a cabin
which seems like where there's like monstersoutside and there's all these rules about going
out of the cabin and how doesshe get back to where she came from?
So it kind of feels really freakyand cool and wild. And then

(49:22):
Trap, Trap I'm kind of obsessedwith because it's almost like like a lot
of people look at m Night Shayamalan, They're like, what's the twist in
his movie? And I look atTrap and I watch that trailer and I'm
like, he kind of gives youthe twist in the trailer, you know.
Josh Hartnett takes his daughter to tolike a sold out rock show and
she's all excited, but then herealizes that there's cops everywhere, and he

(49:44):
goes and asks a guy what's happeningand he's like, oh no, this
is a whole. This is asetup to catch a serial killer. And
Josh Hartnett is the serial killer.So I like, just that setup is
so interesting to me. So it'sjust like, so are we rooting for
the serial right? Like What's likeit's almost like he's giving you like,

(50:04):
this is the twist, and I'mgiving it to you right up front,
and so what is the rest ofthis? So I'm really curious to see
how this movie unfolds. And itdefinitely feels unique in terms of what we've
seen from from m Night. Yeah, And and so that was the one
thing I was going to comment commenton was this is much more I don't

(50:25):
want to say less fantastical, butthis is much more like you could almost
see it happening, you know whatI mean. With something like the Happening
or many of his film signs orwhatever, there's a little bit of you
know, imagination used for the viewerwhere this is like, well, I

(50:46):
got a concerts all the time,and you know there's police there sometimes,
you know what I mean. Likeit's more like like you know what I'm
saying, Hey, look in myreal life, I'm to talking to you
today, and I've been hearing helicoptersoutside my house and and why is that?

(51:06):
Because I happened to live somewhat closeto a guy named Rex Huerman who
is a big serial killer who wascaught on Long Island, New York about
a year ago, and they're searchinghis house as we speak. And so
like, yes, this could bea real situation where there are these real
like kind of serial killers out thereand there are these elaborate sort of traps

(51:30):
to kind of catch them. AndYou're right, this doesn't have that kind
of that mystical like m Night's lastmovie was kind of about the end of
the world and these people shutting upand saying the world is ending, you
know, YadA, YadA, YadA. So there's this is kind of a
real a real you know, feelsmore like one of his more realistic right

(51:51):
films in terms of being a thriller. But yeah, man, I mean
I'm definitely looking at trap and I'mfeeling feeling some some parallels what's happening in
my real neighborhood. Yeah, right, now that's a bit scary. Now.
Comedies, you know, I alwayslove the big you know, I

(52:13):
feel like comedy obviously they can popup anywhere throughout the year, but I
always feel like a lot of thebig comedies, you know, the the
giant, bombastic comedies often come outin the summer. What was the survey
saying about about the summer comedy films? Anticipation? You know, it's funny

(52:37):
we see of the five we havetwo R rated comedies like action comedies.
Deadpool and Wolverine of course leads thelist. Number four is Bad Boys,
Writer or Die. So you havethese both like duo R rated kind of
action comedies, and then they're surroundedby I would say the three biggest family

(52:58):
movies with Pixars, Inside Out Too, which is at number two, Despicable
Me four is at number three,in the Garfield movie is at number five,
and so it's a little bit ofyou know, I feel like and
this is something that I would liketo see, and it's funny. I
was at CinemaCon and I was talkingto AZ's I'm sorry about this because he's

(53:20):
got a big R rated comedy comingout I believe towards the end of the
year about like you know gone,you know, not gone on the days,
but like I don't there's not likea hangover or there. There isn't
like a big R rated party movie, and I feel I miss that,
you know, if there's something missingfrom this summer slate, I feel like

(53:42):
it's it's that sort of R ratedsex comedy that we used to get so
many of back when I'm hopeful thatthey're going to come back and I was
talking to Disease about that and hefeels like they need to come back and
so. But when it comes tothis summer and comedy is a lot of
families are drawn to these three filmsInside Out, Despicable Me, the Garfield

(54:05):
movie. I'm hearing from a lotof moms and dads who are like,
where are the animated movies? Andthey're on the way, you know.
John Krasinski's If just came out recently, and Garfield is coming out from Memorial
Day weekend, and you know,there aren't too bigger I would say animated
kind of hyped franchises than the InsideOut movie and Despicable Me movies. The

(54:28):
minions are more powerful than anything.Yeah, so I am I'm relatively surprised
to see Bad Boys Ride or Dieon the most Anticipated Summer Comedy Survey results

(54:50):
because of the slap heard around theworld. I wasn't sure. I wasn't
sure if you know, if itwas going to be ignored, if if
Will Smith had been uh literally canceled, if the audience cared at you know,
the general audience cared at all.So so that was surprising for me

(55:12):
to see that on there. Uhand It'll be interesting to see how that
plays out at the box office,if it has any you know, effect
whatsoever. But I think a lotof people are going to be watching that
box office to see. You know, this is kind of his big his
first big film since then. SoI'm curious, or is it his first

(55:35):
film. I think he had oneother film come out that the name escapes
me. I think it was itwas it was a streaming film. But
but this, like this, forwithout a doubt, this is his most
commercial film, uh, to comeout since then. But you know,
you've got to remember the Bad Boysfor Life came out, uh you know,

(55:58):
it was a January February twenty twenty, right before the world shut down,
but it was, you know,the most successful Bad Boys movie at
the box office, and it didgo on to be the highest grossing movie
of twenty twenty, albeit an asteriskkind of year. So I think there's
a lot of momentum coming into BadBoys Ride or Die. And look,

(56:19):
I can't speak for audiences everywhere.I can only look at the results of
over two thousand moviegoers and what theyvoted for, and you see this film
prominently placed throughout our most anticipated andso I think that there is a lot
of love for the franchise. Ithink there's a lot of love for the
two for Will and Martin to yeah, very much. I would say alongside

(56:43):
like similar to Ethal Weapon, likethe you know, and those kind of
franchises, And I think there's justa lot of built in love for that
chemistry and watching them together, andso I think that's reflected in this survey
without a doubt. And we dohave a big interview dropping. I think
it's going to be the longest interviewthat you will see with Will Smith and

(57:04):
Martin Lawrence. We talked to themall about the legacy of the franchise and
all that stuff, and you'll beable to watch that on Fandango Awesome.
I'm looking forward to that one.What is your uh well, actually,
before we get into that, thethe more art house films you mentioned,
Maxeine. You know, for thegeneral movie going public, it's all about

(57:30):
the big blockbusters and that sort ofthing. But for especially film lovers and
genre lovers, sometimes the summers aren'tso packed for for those fans. What
are you saying that people are lookingforward to on the art house side the
summer, Well, Maxine, isnumber one on that list. The Bike

(57:51):
Riders, which is a stacked castAustin Butler, Jody Comer, Tom Hardy
sort of follows you know, aMotorcycle Crew, and that movie's at number
two. It was supposed to comeout, I believe, last fall,
but it got delayed due to thestrike. It was one of those films

(58:13):
that's just got a really great ensembleand they'd rather sort of wait for that
ensemble to be available to promote thefilm, So that one is at number
two. There's an animated film,cool little animated film called Robot Dreams that's
at number three. My probably mymost anticipated on this list, Kinds of
Kindness, which comes out in June. This is the next film from Yrgo's

(58:37):
Atlanthemos, who did poor things withEmma Stone. Emma Stone comes back and
she's in this film as well.I've heard. It's like a sprawling,
sprawling film almost three hours in length, that follows the three different stories and
the same characters, the same performersare in each story, so that one

(58:59):
looks really cool. And then there'skind of like this under the radar horror
thriller starring Hunter Schaeffer called Cuckoo Cuckoothat's at number five on the list,
So a little bit of a mix. I would say, you're seeing some
kind of you know, under theradar horror mixed in with like some indie

(59:22):
animation mixed in with you know,Awards kind of darlings. I'd love personally,
I'd love to see Megalopolis kind ofdrop into the summer at some point,
but I don't know that could belike a like a you know,
more closer towards the end of theyear. But you know, there's definitely
and it's not just this these five. I always tell people look between the

(59:44):
blockbusters, a lot of those likeSun Dance movies. There's another movie coming
out called DIDI that didn't make theArt House list that but it would be
my I think it's the best comingof age film of the year, comes
out towards the end of July,about a kid kind of coming of age
circa tooth thousand and eight, kindof the MySpace era, you know,

(01:00:04):
the I Am Instant Messenger era,very very familiar error for me in my
youth. So that was it wasa really really great film that's called d
D d I. D I comesout at the end of July. So
there's a lot of these other films, these festival films that will slide in
between these bigger films, And Iwould say look them up, watch trailers.

(01:00:24):
If you're looking for something a bitdifferent that isn't a blockbuster, there's
plenty on the way. Just doa little research, go to Rotten Tomatoes,
see what's out there. And finally, I thought this was cool that
you had most anticipated summer movies toown on digital when available, which you

(01:00:45):
know, we briefly touched on Fandangoat Home at the top of the show.
But and this kind of reflects,you know, what we're seeing in
the in the results of the othercategories, Deadpool and Wolverine at number one,
you know, are these people thatwould be skipping it at the theater?

(01:01:07):
These are just never theater goers orare these kind of boat like a
mix of both, like somebody likeme who then goes and owns it anyway
when it comes to home. Yeah, you know what I see in this
list, I do think these arepeople that are all going to go see
these movies in theaters. But Ithink, you know, when I look
at these movies Deadpool and Wolverine isnumber one, Alien Romulus. Surprisingly,

(01:01:29):
I think number two, Despicable Mefor number three, Furiosa four, Quiet
Places at five. If you lookat what it will all of those films
have in common is that they havesort of a catalog of other films,
you know, And so you know, I would imagine that there'll be bundles
available if you don't have a DespicableMe movie or you don't own one,

(01:01:50):
when Part four comes out at home, you may be able to get a
whole bundle of all four movies.And so I know that that's very attractive
for people, especially the alien movies, like to have that all of those
Alien movies together, all of theQuiet Place movies together, all of the
Deadpool movies together. You know,Quiet Places is a third installment Deadpool and
Wolverine is a third installment. Andso I think what we see here likely

(01:02:15):
you know, driven by you know, fans of these movies, without a
doubt, but also fans of thefranchises and collectors and people who want to
have, you know, have thatentire franchisees to own at home. I
love that. I can't wait foreverything we've talked about. Really, you
know, this is our time.Where where can we read the whole list?

(01:02:38):
Yeah, go, you can goto fandango dot com and you can
see everything. And we actually havesome some other really fun stats that we're
going to be rolling out around fourthof July, so maybe we can meet
up again and talk about that stuff. Absolutely, and and yeah, go
to fandango dot com, follow uson social at fandango, you know where.

(01:03:00):
We're rolling out all kinds of newimages as we speak, from many
of these films, and we'll havesome really big interviews as well before anybody
else has them with some of thecasts for these films. And so you
know, follow out fandango and checkout fandango dot com for your all your
ticketing and watching at home needs.Yeah, the whole shebang. Thank you

(01:03:22):
so much as always, Eric,You know, it's always a pleasure for
me to speak with you about filmsand the industry. And I can't wait
till you're own next time without adoubt, man, And look and start
your summer right. Go see theFuriosa movie. It's awesome. I loved
it. It's a great way tostart the summer. I can't wait.
I will do that. Thank you, all right, Eric Davis from Fandango.

(01:03:46):
Always great talking with him, especiallywith all the great movies coming out
for the summer, lots of goodstuff, as you heard, I'm looking
forward to a bunch of them,and I want to know what you are
looking forward to seeing this summer.Hit me up on socials at KMAC Music
or at CAP Kyle McMahon or atpop Culture Weekly. You know where to
find me on socials. Hit meup, let me know what you're looking

(01:04:10):
forward to, and I just mightfeature you on the show. All right,
that's the show for this episode.I will see you next week.
Actually, i'll see you very shortlyfor the you know, Live from the
National Memorial Day Concert episode in justa few days. So I'll see you
then. I love you. Yeah, thank you for listening to pop Culture

(01:04:30):
Weekly. Here all the latest atpopcultureweekly dot com. Most Anticipated Shummer Movies
of the Shommer twenty twenty four.They're not really showmer movies. I mean
they're movies that come out in theshowmer. Hope, they're not Schummer movies.

(01:04:55):
I mean they could be movies thattake place in the winter or the
hall or the spring. Not Shummermovies are just movies that happen to be
coming out in the Shummer anyway.Here's the Shummer most anticipated movies coming out
with release dates in the summer oftwenty twenty four.

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