Jon Mann: From Borrowing A Stephen King Story for a Dollar to Academy Recognition

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Cheers! Cheers! Cheers! Welcome to the afternoon
pint.
I'm Mike Dobin.
Matt Conrad.
I'm John Mann.
John Mann.
Okay, John.
Tell us your story.
How did you find us here at thisbird today?

SPEAKER_02 (00:14):
Yeah, well, um, how far back would you like me to
go?

SPEAKER_00 (00:19):
He stumbled in and we were just like, hey, you.
You look like someone who wantsto record something.
You look mildly successful.
Come sit down with us.

SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
No, we're really happy you're here.
John, we know and we know whoyou are.
Uh you're you uh you directfilms.
Uh you've been in the filmindustry for how long?
Uh lucky 13 years now.
Yeah, and I guess a high level,there's something that really
struck Matt and I's interest wasthe Stephen King uh venture that
you've done.
This this film that Matt and Iboth got a chance to watch
before interviewing you.

(00:48):
Yeah.
Uh can you just tell us a littlebit about that project?

SPEAKER_02 (00:50):
Yeah, of course.
So um, I mean, the elevatorpitch for Popsy as a story, uh,
it was written in 1993, or whoknows when it was written.
It was published in 1993 in acollection of short stories
called Nightmares andDreamscapes by Stephen King.
And uh Stephen, Mr.
King did this really cool thingwhere he created this Dollar
Baby program, he called it,where he would, since 1977,

(01:15):
would offer up to license hisshort stories for a dollar to
up-and-coming filmmakers.
So um, I had heard about thisfor a long time.
I always thought that it waslike a urban legend, too good to
be true, kind of thing.
And in 2018, I for whateverreason decided to apply.
It was on this really creepy oldwebsite, like honestly sounded

(01:39):
like looked like the beginningof a Stephen King short story,
like you stumble upon thiscreepy website kind of thing.
Um and I applied, I wrote ascript, applied, they took it,
they loved it.
I had to send them an Americandollar by mail before I got my
contract.
Yeah, in 2018, we made the filmin my hometown of Fredericton,

(02:00):
New Brunswick.
And uh, I guess the reason I'msitting here today is because
the Academy Museum of MotionPictures um has decided to spend
an evening in Novembercelebrating the 47-year history
of the program, celebratingStephen King and his sort of
gifts, his uh cinematicuniverse, and they chose uh six

(02:20):
of the shorts that were made inthe Dollar Baby program over
those 47 years, and uh my littlePopsy, the little train that
could, got in.

SPEAKER_00 (02:28):
Congratulations, man.

SPEAKER_01 (02:30):
Popsy's a huge homage on two uh Stephen King
movies.
There's a lot of Stephen Kinglore in there.
Yes.
So I I mean we won't give it allaway, but I think it's really
cool.
How could people watch this orwhen when can they watch it?

SPEAKER_02 (02:40):
Yeah, so there is um interesting lore about the
Dollar Baby program, is thatthey're very strict on how they
can be shown.
Like, I am not allowed to make acent off of this film.

SPEAKER_03 (02:52):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (02:53):
So it's funny because when the Academy asked
me, like, okay, like what isyour fee for the film, and I was
like, just send me a dollar,kind of full circle moment.
I've now made my money back onthat movie.
Right.
Um so it did a festival run in2018.
It uh premiered at Fin here,which is now Atlantic
International Film Festival.

(03:14):
Uh it did the festival run at abunch of cool little horror film
festivals, and then really it umkickstarted my career in a major
way, like being part of thatprogram.
And then the that project itselfkind of laid dormant for a while
because of the contract that Isigned.
It can't be seen um outside ofany sanctioned Stephen King

(03:36):
events.
So up until after the festivalrun originally, there was a
Stephen King festival in PrinceGeorge, BC in 2023 that it was a
part of.

SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
So you can go show it there.

SPEAKER_02 (03:47):
Yep, I was able to show it there.
Um, and then it screened atsomething called King Con last
year in Vegas, which was a bigStephen King convention.
Okay.
It got asked to come back there.
And then, of course, now if youguys are in LA on November 19th,
I'd love to have you out to theI'd love to be there.

SPEAKER_00 (04:05):
I would love to be in LA on November 19th.

SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
No, I I can't say it.
That's my tell.
Yeah, I can't say I'll be therethat day, but man, I wish I
could.
That's awesome.
If there's any listeners thatwant to sponsor our trip out
there, we will give you a hugeshout out.
Yeah, we're talking to you, uhStephen Kingfest.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, we'll need more than adollar.
Yeah.
We will more than a dollar.
That's amazing, though.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
So, I mean, so So but just back to the program,
though.
Like, why can do can you speak alittle bit on like why this
thing was created?

SPEAKER_02 (04:33):
Yeah, so I don't know why King decided to create
the program other than like kindof the democratic process of
sharing his stories.
I suppose I can't think I don'tknow of any other writers or
screenwriters or artists who sograciously will share their work

(04:57):
with young filmmakers, youngartists to be able to make their
own spin um for no other reasonother than to kind of give them
a leg up and um that's that's acool concept.

SPEAKER_00 (05:11):
That's all I ever heard, like anything that I
could find on it.
Like I didn't know it was calledDollar Baby until you sent it
over to me.
I did hear like years ago thatStephen King basic I heard it as
Stephen King would sell hismovies off for a dollar, um, and
I thought like you could justbuy them because my what I heard
from it was that it was his wayof giving back to the you know

(05:31):
the industry that was likecreatives and stuff like that.
Reading more a little bitrecently, it my information was
only half correct.
Uh you can't make money off ofit, and uh uh he still owns all
the rights to everything.

SPEAKER_02 (05:45):
Yeah, yeah.
So the way it works, like I'mnot the only person who has made
Popsy as a dollar baby, but Iowned it for the year.
I owned it for 2018, and I had365 days to do that.
So it's almost like a lease onthe rights.
Exactly.
Yeah, it's like a it's it's likea like an option window almost.
And um, so yeah, there wereother variations of popsy that

(06:09):
were made, which I like studiedvehemently about like what I
liked, what I didn't like, whatI thought I could do better,
what I thought I couldn't pulloff, so I didn't want to even
attempt to cross that line kindof thing, keep it very like pulp
fiction, punk rock-esque.
Um, and where was I going withthat?

(06:32):
Yeah, okay, sorry.
So speaking of like what Iwanted to change, what I did
change from the original shortstory is that um in the short
story, so basically Popsy isabout a guy who abducts a child
outside of a mall and turns outin the long run that this kid is
not just a child kind of thing.
Book came out in 1993.

(06:53):
I don't think there's any likespoiler alerts here.
Um his grandfather ends up beinga vampire or a vampire-like
creature, and he keeps saying,like, my popsy's gonna be really
mad at you, my pops is gonna bereally mad at you.
Um, and then enter popsy,credits roll kind of thing.
And um in the original shortstory, there's this whole like

(07:16):
backstory of why the guy has toabduct a child, and it's all
about like he has gambling debtsto this Eastern European crime
boss.

SPEAKER_00 (07:26):
Oh, really?
Yeah, so I totally got pedovibes from so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (07:30):
So I thought I didn't realize how big of a risk
it was until I met like I knew Iwas a Stephen King fan, but then
when I entered that universe offans after making Popsy, it was
like blew my hair back as far asthe fandom.
Um fandom is probably like asafe way of putting it.
Like, this is the guy who wrotemisery based off of an
experience of his fans beingmiserable?

(07:55):
As yeah, as uh passionate asthey are, I guess is the best
way to put it.
Um so yeah, I removed all that.
And it's like a 14-page story orsomething like that, and my
short really enters on aboutpage four or five because I
didn't want us to have any kindof empathy for the guy.
I just didn't think that itwould translate well.

(08:17):
It works in the story, but Ididn't think it would work on
the screen.
Yeah, um turns out that itworked, I guess.
Like he I think it was great.
Yeah, I I've heard that itworked, people have asked me
about it, and the simple answeris just like I didn't want to
burn any screen time in a shortthat I could, and why give that

(08:37):
guy any kind of empathy in anine-minute horror, you know?

SPEAKER_00 (08:41):
Yeah, I I honestly I think you nailed it.
I really enjoyed it.
Um it was uh I I like I thinkwhat I liked about it is that
you didn't tell too much.
Sometimes in horror, people telltoo much.

unknown (08:56):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (08:56):
I find it rude, right?

SPEAKER_02 (08:58):
Yeah, it can be.
Yeah, I've made some othershorts.
Like I made one called Missyright around the same time or
just before.

SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
Yeah, I watched that.

SPEAKER_02 (09:07):
And it's like quite ambiguous about what goes on at
the end, and I've gottenquestions about that too, where
I always just think like I havea whole bunch of questions about
this short.
If you want to move into that,I'd love to.
I would love to.
Let's talk about Missy.
So, what's the what's the pointof Missy kind of?
So, Missy um is kind of uh it'sa one-man, uh it's basically
like a same guy who does Popsy.

(09:27):
Yeah, Rob Ramsey, really, reallygood friend of mine.
Met him at Acadia.
We were in the same residence atAcadia.
Um while the rest of us werekind of going home to like work
for the city for the summer.
Rob would go and do a Disneyshow for the summer.
Like he's been acting, he was intheater.
Um, this is how small the worldis.
His my or our residentassistant, our RA, Rob, is now

(09:52):
married too, and they live inToronto with two kids, and um
just a small little Odis kind ofstory.
But yeah, so Rob in Missy playsa guy named Man.
Um you don't really know if it'slike post-apocalyptical or
what's going on with this guy,and then one day a mannequin
floats up on the river whilehe's scavenging, and through his

(10:16):
like love and loneliness forthis mannequin, he starts to
reveal stuff about previously inhis life, a past life.
I have an answer because I wroteit, but I haven't super shared
it, it doesn't matter.
Like, I just like when people Ialways think about when I'm
writing something like whatwould a film major write an

(10:38):
essay on this movie, like whatwould they pick up on?
And I'm always like supercurious about that because I'm
such a film nerd and lovewriting film essays and watching
film essays on YouTube, and sothat's where the ambig ambiguity
comes from, really, with Missy.

SPEAKER_00 (10:53):
Yeah, I I um it went in a direction that I wasn't
really anticipating.
I mean, uh at first I wasn'treally quite sure what I was
watching in terms of like, isthis like suspense thriller or
like what, right?
Um, you know, because he's doinga lot of things by himself,
right?
Playing baseball and all thisother stuff, right?

(11:14):
Um But then yeah, some thingsobviously started to go off the
rails a little bit uh as thefilm went on and everything.
But I uh yeah, like I from whatI gathered from it, either, as
you said, like something wentdown, because I mean it there
appears to be no heat in hishouse, because you can see the

(11:34):
breath.
So it's either apost-apocalyptic or something
may have happened, whatever,because there's no like power,
electricity, they have firesgoing.
He was really concerned aboutthe fire going out, like it
absolutely couldn't go out.
Uh he got mad at his mannequinwife because the fire almost
went out, and he got mad and waslike, You could you have to wake
me up if that happens, and allthis stuff, right?

(11:55):
So a little bit of that.
But then I was also like, okay,maybe that's it, or maybe he's
just in hiding because maybe hedid something real messed up to
his wife in his previous life orwhatever.
And because he does at the endstarts to lose it kind of thing,
right?
Like really lose it with her orit or whatever.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (12:13):
I I like to think of that movie as like you kind of
start to see things in threes inthat movie where I think there's
three scenes of him choppingwood, and it's like the first
one he's completely alone, andthen before the next one, he
finds her, the mannequin.
Then she's up in the window inthe next wood cutting scene, and
then the third wood cuttingscene, she's standing next to

(12:34):
him with a head on, andwhatever.

SPEAKER_00 (12:39):
So one thing that you threw me for a loop a little
bit there, where I thought itmight have gone in like a true
like horror direction, was whenhe when she was in the window
and he was chopping the wood,there was a point where like you
could see her in the back of thewindow, and then he walks in
front.
And I was almost anticipatinghim like moving and then her

(13:00):
being gone.
That would have been great.
Yeah, like it I was like, I waslike, okay, like the the
mannequin's gonna bedisappeared, like to have
disappeared, right?
But even still, like at onepoint I almost thought that
maybe that was the case, andmaybe I just missed it, because
like there was a part where hemoves back and you couldn't see
it, but I'm like, uh, maybe he'sstill still perfectly in front
of it.
Either way.
So I was you had me guessingthrough this whole thing.

(13:22):
Yeah, that's good.
That's great.

SPEAKER_02 (13:23):
Um and yeah, what we were trying to do is like
layering those in threes to seehim start, and then there's the
baseball scene, and then she'spitching to him because now she
has arms now.

SPEAKER_03 (13:34):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (13:35):
And uh what we were trying to establish was just
like this guy is stuck in aroutine, regardless, and how she
kind of threw his routine alittle bit off, and then he gets
pissed at her about the firebecause that would have really
thrown his routine off.
And um my takeaway from thatmovie is that he's in like a
purgatory, that he can't escapeunless he gets out of this

(13:58):
routine.
Okay, because then of course thebig like she comes in from the
water in the beginning, that'show he finds her originally, and
then at the end, it's very clearthat he put her in the water,
and whether that means that hehurt her in a previous life, I
don't know, and now he's likeatoning for his sins or
whatever, but he just can't seemto get out of this.

(14:20):
He's not learning anything, andI love movies that do that.
That like the main characterdidn't learn a thing from
beginning to end.

SPEAKER_00 (14:28):
I I I can see how you're getting the purgatory
thing because the whole thingwas filmed in a very like gray
screen.

SPEAKER_01 (14:34):
And like I think a lot of people That's just New
Brunswick in November.

SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
That's fair, basically.
So you didn't have to doanything there, okay.
Great.
But I production value.
Yeah.
But I was just kind of thinking,like, you know, a lot of
purgatory is always viewed inthat light, that grayish light
where everything it's not blackand white, but it like almost is
kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 (14:55):
Yeah, and then there's it's almost like a sepia
tone kind of thing.
And then really, it's cool thatyou mentioned the color because
the only two colors that we everpunched up were the fire and the
lake.
Yeah.
So fire and water became like alittle bit of a like she comes
from water, but fire is keepinghim alive, and she's made out of
wood, but he's obsessed with thefire, and like clearly makes a

(15:18):
choice for his own survivalversus hers.
And yeah, that was just a coolmovie.
And then uh CBC picked that upfor distribution in 2019, so it
was on Gem for a few years, andit's funny, like we were talking
earlier about how um you can'tmake money off of your dollar
baby, but what that programdoes, and I'm forever forever

(15:40):
thankful and grateful, is thatlike I've kind of made money
off.
Building block, yeah.
It's like such a great careerstarter, and someone else that I
am very um like thankful for inmy career is Bell Five TV, who
they gave me a show called PubCrawl in 2020 during COVID that

(16:01):
we did two seasons of.
Saw that that looked quiteinteresting.

SPEAKER_01 (16:04):
Yeah, yeah, and it's like that's up more up my alley.
So, so like go go go in at PubCrawl for a minute.
So, what was the inception ofthat show?
How did that start?

SPEAKER_02 (16:11):
Yeah, so pub crawl honestly began.
I got an email um from someonein New Brunswick saying it was
COVID Bell Five is looking forshows, they're thinking
community, but trying to moveaway from that a little bit.
And of course, I work with Robso much.
Rob was on a show called BlueMountain State for three
seasons, like a big big footballshow on Spike TV.

(16:34):
Cool.
So Rob has that kind of afollowing um of those like bro
down college football guys.
And uh, so and of course, meliving in Halifax, Rob's in
Toronto, going to all these barshere and the history in them,
and then going through COVID andhow nostalgic people were for
the before times, even if wewere only like three months into

(16:57):
it.
So I pitched Bell this show,like it's a history show, but
it's called Pub Crawl, and it'shosted by Rob Ramsey.
Nice.
Uh what do you think?
And then um, yeah, so we wentthrough and basically we told
what we thought was gonna be thehistory of Halifax through the
lens of the bars andrestaurants, um, turned into

(17:17):
like told the history of likethe eastern seaboard and like
got into like cool the traderoutes between here and the
Caribbean and the UK and Africaand what that meant for like
cocktail history in Halifax andwhat it meant for um like booze
in the military and the historyof that.

SPEAKER_01 (17:36):
Can you still watch the show or is it?

SPEAKER_02 (17:37):
Yeah, it should still be on Bell Five.
Still on Bell Five?
It should be, I believe.
It was a five-year window thatwe had with them, so it'd be
coming up pretty close.

SPEAKER_00 (17:46):
Yeah, I remember when you first reached out, I do
remember looking that up andseeing that, and uh thought,
wow, that is like a dream ofmine.

SPEAKER_02 (17:56):
It's probably the greatest job I've ever had.

SPEAKER_00 (17:57):
Uh honestly, yeah.
You get to travel around todifferent cool pubs and bars and
stuff like that, drink beer, andthen learn about them.

SPEAKER_02 (18:03):
It was awesome, and it's like what you guys were
saying earlier about like no badguests.
It's like there were no badbars.
Like every day was just so muchfun and got to know so many
people in that um like thatcommunity, the pub community
around here, whether it was likeowners, managers, whoever, and
like so proud to support now.

(18:26):
I love being able to likerecommend restaurants from that
show that I truly like believein because I've seen the people
behind it, and um man, they knowtheir stuff.
Like uh Chef Bryan at the pressgang.
That guy, oh yeah, you want totalk history with that look with
like a character.
Really?
Chef Bryan, Brian Corkery at thepress gang.

SPEAKER_01 (18:48):
We could see if we get him on a future episode.
I think that would be prettyentertaining.
Do it in a heartbeat.
Yeah, that would be super fun.
I mean, we're we're here, we'rehere at uh Oli Ban, which is one
of my favorite restaurants.
So, yeah, two shows in a rowhere because we did a double
recording here today.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (19:02):
But uh press gang would be very much, again, like
uh in my in my top five offavorite restaurants in this
city currently.
Oh, it's the best.
This is one, Oli Ban, and thepress gang is press gang's
fantastic, yes.
And I mean like the history ofthe building.
It looks like a dungeon inthere.
Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 (19:18):
All right, we gotta get to the press gang here in uh
soon enough.
If we have I don't know how manyepisodes we have left in this
season to cover.
I think we pretty much we'llwe're done.
But we'll or if not this year,early next year.
We should get that one on thelist.
That'd be cool, man.

SPEAKER_00 (19:29):
Yeah, we definitely, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Um, so yeah, I mean it it itmust be just kind of really
great to be able to kind of goaround and create and I mean I
just I love here, right?
I love it here.
So I mean like to be able to goand display the things that you
love about your home or whereyou live and all that stuff, and
then uh in a cool way, like aninterest like it's interesting

(19:51):
and cool.
Yeah.
It's you know, no offense tolike people who like you know
things that I find boring orwhatever, but like sometimes you
know you have documentaries ordocuseries about really boring
things.
But beers like what like what?
What bores you?
I don't know what bores you.
What bores you?
What bores me?

SPEAKER_01 (20:09):
Well, like what what would what would be a boring
documentary?
I'm just kind of curious.

SPEAKER_00 (20:12):
Uh okay.
The thing that everyone likes.
Serial killers.
Okay.
Don't care.

SPEAKER_01 (20:16):
Yeah, I don't care about those either.
Don't care.
Now you're probably you probablylike the serial killers, because
I mean, I mean, there was thisthere was the quote of Ted Bundy
at the beginning of your thinguh Yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_02 (20:27):
I love that.
And like Stephen King has quoteslike that too.
I believe like the quote at thebeginning of Popsy is uh there's
no way to tell you can't you cannever point out who the
psychopaths are.

SPEAKER_01 (20:40):
Stereotypes or whatever of a psychopath because
there are none, right?
They're just psychopaths.
And I thought it was prettycool.

SPEAKER_02 (20:46):
Actually, a really cool quote.
I'm really proud of how like yousee the quote and then his name
is revealed of who said it.
That always kind of gets peoplelike you kind of grab them
immediately, and then of course,with Popsy, you don't know who
the bad guy is throughout, oryou think you know who the bad
guy is, but um, and I love stufflike that.

SPEAKER_01 (21:07):
I love not knowing that stuff, but yeah, as far as
you like the dramas, like thelike Matt was just saying, like
the real killer.

SPEAKER_02 (21:14):
Um I would say like I was raised on Scream and I
know what you did last summerand Halloween.
So I I gravitate I'd say, yeah.
Yeah, I gravitate more towardsthat stuff.
I do find that um I don't wantto say anything wrong unless
Netflix comes calling for me todirect anything, but uh they
they certainly have a format.

(21:35):
It's almost always the boyfriendor the husband.
Yeah, and yeah, it I just findlike they're starting to become
almost parodies of themselves.
Yeah, absolutely.
I agree.
Once a year, there's typicallyone that grabs everybody for the
right reason.

SPEAKER_01 (21:51):
Well, the one the most recent that grabbed them
was that one, um, gosh, EdGlain.

SPEAKER_00 (21:56):
Ed Glain and then I couldn't watch it.

SPEAKER_01 (21:59):
My partner, she watched it, and I had to leave
the room.
I just not I just didn't likethe vibe.
Wasn't my style.

SPEAKER_02 (22:04):
That's not a doc though, that's like the new or
drama.
Charlie, what's his name?
The British guy plays him?
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:11):
Charlie that's not a documentary yet.

SPEAKER_02 (22:12):
Yeah, and he's a great actor.
Yeah, I'm looking forward tothat one.
I'm down with that stuff.
It's it's the it's the true docstuff.

SPEAKER_01 (22:18):
You don't like the true doc where like the reveal
could have been given four hoursago?

SPEAKER_02 (22:22):
Those are the ones that I'm like, these are these
are all starting to feel prettysimilar.

SPEAKER_01 (22:26):
And like I never mind reading stuff like that
short form.
Like like Rolling Stone used towrite really good articles that
I used to read back in the day,and I remember ones like there
was ones where I'd alwaysimagine a movie in my head.
There's one that it still therewas a movie that I ever make,
there's one called like ThomasSweat Burns Down Washington.
Okay.
And he's just freakingpyromaniac.
And he works at a KFC place as afry cook, and late at night he

(22:49):
just burns down buildings.
And they couldn't catch thisdude forever.
This whole show.
But no, but it's more though,his name was Thomas Sweat.
Like it just like everythingabout it just seemed like so,
and like the cops were on tohim, but he would just he'd also
be like a bit of a like a uh afan of fires, so he'd be
watching his own fire, thepolice be coming up to him.

(23:10):
No way, and then they neverbusted him for years, and then
he was writing letters out ofjail, and like so like shit like
that, like yeah, like I lovethat amazes me, but the serial
killers I don't like when itgets gross.
I like horror movies.

SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
Like, I love horror movies, like I'm a horror guy,
yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (23:25):
Me too.
Yeah, some, yeah.
Like one of my my favoritedirector, I think, of all time
is David Fincher.
Like, I'm fascinated by whathe's been able to do.
And like whether it's likeseven, which was not based on a
true story, as far as myknowledge, and then but he also
did Zodiac, which is like inlike one of the I think that

(23:46):
movie was so far ahead of itstime.
Like we should rewatch that.
It's been such a long time.
I only ever saw one of themovies.
It is a masterpiece.
Yeah, it's unbelievable.
Um those movies blow my mind,but when it's like, you know, I
find it kind of glorifies it alittle bit when it's like uh the
boyfriend in college killed hisgirlfriend's whatever.

(24:07):
Yeah.
It's like uh kind of there'senough horror in the world that
you don't need the I I startedwatching like the I remember the
Boston Marathon documentary onNetflix.
Yeah.
And my sister was living inBoston at the time, and
obviously Marathon Monday islike a massive it's a holiday.
Yeah.
And um I was watching it, and itwas like this poor guy in a

(24:32):
wheelchair without his legstelling his story, and it's like
I don't need this.
I that manhunt was wild.
Like they caught the guy in theboat in the backyard and all
that.
It's like I was just watchingit, it's like I I know this.
I already know this.
Like, why am I I don't know,didn't do it for me.

SPEAKER_01 (24:49):
I I I find for me it's more of when I mean the one
that you said that you'relooking forward to seeing, and
no disrespect to the arc uhactor Put Charlie Putnam.
Is it Charlie sorry, my name'sArrow?
Putnam, maybe?
I think it's an H.
Yeah.
We should get this right beforethis goes out.
Yeah, no respect to the actor inthe show.
I think he's great.
Uh, but uh I feel like as soonas we start empathizing with

(25:12):
Cheryl Killers, it's just kindof like a guy like a no, I don't
really want to empathize.

SPEAKER_02 (25:18):
Yeah, so that series is called Monster.
Yeah.
It's like the egg gain series.
I watched the one before that.
Dahmer?
Dahmer, I watched that one.
So that one came under a lot oflike heat.
I didn't like that one.
Because they made Dahmer hot.

SPEAKER_01 (25:31):
They made him commons like, yeah, they had a
bit of a like easy.

SPEAKER_02 (25:35):
Totally wasn't.
He totally wasn't.
Like he was like the scariestdude.
Not a cool guy.
On a good day.
Yeah, and then yeah, I'm andthen there was one a few years
ago with Zach Efron and LilyCollins about uh Ted Bundy.

SPEAKER_01 (25:48):
Ted Bundy's a bit of an anomaly because he was a he
was a charismatic, kind of agood looking guy.
Yeah, yeah.
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so it's a bit of a toughone there.
But I mean, I say all that, andhypocritically I I've enjoyed
Dexter.
And I mean, I I've watched allthe Dexter shows, and I think
the thing I always loved aboutDexter was the moral compass
that his father instowed on himso he don't kill.

SPEAKER_00 (26:07):
But that's what I think what made it different,
though.
Yeah.
Like that was the thing.

SPEAKER_02 (26:10):
Which is a great premise for a show.
Yeah.
That's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 (26:13):
It's a fascinating premise.
It's like, hey, we have a guywho kills people, but he only
kills the bad people.

SPEAKER_02 (26:18):
And his dad recognized it, like his dad
knew, yeah, and put him down apath.

SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
That's the thing, right?
So it was like, I actually thinkthat that was a fantastic
premise of a show.
I think it went too long.
Oh, yeah.
But I think it was a fantasticpremise.

SPEAKER_02 (26:30):
Really dropped the ball.
Was it season four?
Season four was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (26:35):
That was great.
I like that one.

SPEAKER_02 (26:36):
Oh, that's where I didn't like that one.

SPEAKER_00 (26:39):
See, after that, after that season, I didn't like
it.
I kind of I liked John Lithgow,and I liked how that season
ended.
It ended how his story started.
Dexter's story started.
So I was like, oh, this is acool, like, full circle moment.

SPEAKER_02 (26:55):
Maybe I'm mixing up.
Maybe that was the last it wasprobably 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 (26:58):
He was a Trinity Killer in that uh that season,
Lithgow, right?
Yeah, I think that was TrinityKiller.
And that's the last good season,I thought, too.
Until they came back with itthere this year, and they
actually I've heard it'samazing.
The new one is amazing.
It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 (27:11):
I'll tell you, it's one of the best shows I've seen
this year.
So what I will say is like, soI've watched a lot of your stuff
over the last week.

SPEAKER_01 (27:16):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (27:17):
Uh, and I think the thing that I have enjoyed the
most was the shortest thing thatyou did, that you sent me at
least, was Sweetie.
Yeah, awesome.
Yeah.
Man, I liked that so much.
I watched it.

SPEAKER_01 (27:30):
I watched some of them, and he's like, You didn't
watch Sweetie?
And I'm like, No, I missed thatone now.

SPEAKER_00 (27:35):
That's awesome.
But it it was so good.
I watched it last night, I thinkI watched it five times.
And I actually five times.
I watched it.
Well, it's only three minuteslong.

SPEAKER_02 (27:44):
If that.

SPEAKER_00 (27:44):
If that, right?
Well, I mean, the whole thing isthree minutes long, kind of
thing, like with credits and socan people watch this one on
YouTube?

SPEAKER_02 (27:50):
So this one's currently on its festival run.
Like it premiered at Atlantic amonth ago.
Okay.
So it's gone to a few, I thinkit's gone to eight festivals
since then.
Like it's on a bit of a heaterright now, and that's um I'm a
writer-producer on it, and uhTaylor Olson uh directed it, and
Taylor we caught up with Taylorat the Red Carpet got to do a

(28:11):
little interview.

SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
Nice guy.
I love his other project too,hey Halifax.

SPEAKER_02 (28:15):
Oh, with Bob Mann.
And Bob Mann is the lead inSweetie.
Yes, oh gosh, okay, small, smallcommunity.
And also, no relation, Bob Mannand I.
Yeah, we tell people what'sgoing on.

SPEAKER_01 (28:25):
You know what I thought about that too, yeah.
Because I knew I met Bob when hewas doing stand-up five years
ago at least, or longer.
Yeah, yeah.
Love Bob.
Love Taylor.

SPEAKER_00 (28:34):
On my like fifth run of this, I made my wife came
into the room and I was like,hey, you gotta see this.
And I made her sit and watch it,and she would be like at the
end, she was just like, she wasjust like, but what did you just
show me?
She was like, Is this a previewfor something?
And I was like, uh, maybe.
I was like, I don't know.
I was I was talking to the guy,and he was like, you know, maybe

(28:55):
it's a bigger project.
I hope it's a bigger project.

SPEAKER_02 (28:58):
Thank you.
Yeah, so it's funny.
I was at uh film festival onSunday.
It played at Halifax, like H EDouble Hawkstick Halifax.
Um and it played it was a funnyformat.
It was they were doing one shortand then one feature.
Oh, yeah, that's weird.
It was pretty cool, and thenthey had a shorts program, but

(29:20):
every feature they showed, theyplayed one short before.
And of course, the audiencedidn't know who I was, and I was
just sitting in the back row,like enjoying a propeller,
watching Sweetie, and um to do aQA after.
And as soon as the creditsrolled, somebody asked if it was
a trailer, like it is thatshort.

(29:41):
And the story behind it was I'vehad that idea, like that nucleus
of an idea for years, and it wastruly one of those things where
it's like this will take me fiveminutes, so I'm not gonna do it.
And then once you get the it'slike a I don't think we
explained the idea, Jens.

SPEAKER_01 (29:56):
Like, uh what's the idea?

SPEAKER_00 (29:57):
I didn't know if I really wanted like give it a

SPEAKER_01 (30:00):
No, I don't want to give it away.
It's W when could people seethis?
Um Like on YouTube or wherever.

SPEAKER_02 (30:07):
It won't well, I mean, after it does its festival
run, it'll be available forsure.
Like we'll throw it upsomewhere.
But um it is basically a littlegirl comes in to wake up her dad
in the middle of the night tosay that there's a monster under
her bed.

SPEAKER_01 (30:22):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (30:22):
And that's that's just the premise.
That's really all you need toknow, I guess.
And uh I said the idea out loudto Taylor once.
I was like, but I don't want todress like I would just like to
write it and move it along.
And he was like, We were workingon something else, and he was
like, We're not going to lunchuntil you write that.

(30:44):
So took the 20 minutes that itlike the first version, which
was probably terrible.
Yeah.
Wrote it, gave it to Taylor.
We went back and forth with it alittle bit.
First version was like bunk andterrible, and then Bob came in
and helped out punch it up abit.
Um, and then we filmed it inJanuary, and then Taylor and I

(31:07):
started to talk about it.
Like, I think that we do have abigger thing here, and that's
almost just like what you seenow in the short, when that
would get you to the openingcredits, and then the rest of
the movie would start.
So now Taylor and I have writtenlike an 88-page feature that
we're super stoked about.

(31:28):
Um, I don't know if you guysknow the movie like Let the
Right One In.
It's Swedish.
Originally it was Swedish, andthen the Americans made a
butchered version of it.

SPEAKER_01 (31:37):
Um What was the butchered version?
I might have seen that.

SPEAKER_02 (31:41):
Remember?
Like it was even it was evenlike a butchered title of Let
the Right One In.
It was like Let Me In orsomething.
Oh Let Me In.
Yes, the vampire.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Little girl who's a vampire.
Yes, it's okay.
Yeah.
So I've never like I don't eventhink I made it through the
American version, but onlybecause I'm obsessed with the
Swedish original, and it's likea young girl who is a vampire

(32:03):
falls in love with a little boyin her apartment complex.
Yeah.
And all the while the town, thissmall town in Sweden, thinks
that there's like a murderer onthe loose.
Oh, okay.
But it's so good, it's so great.
And so literally one day, Taylorcame over to my apartment.
We watched Let the Right One In.

(32:24):
We went back and forth on whatwe thought the long version of
Sweetie could be, and uh we havethat now.
So we've been speaking withdistributors, and it's looking
good.
Knock on wood that uh we'll beable to collaborate on that one.

SPEAKER_00 (32:39):
The the quality's really good.
I again another thing thatbothers me about um horror is
that it can look campy, right?
And uh, you know, the big revealat the end, I'll call it, uh,
wasn't it looked good.

SPEAKER_02 (32:53):
Awesome.
Yeah, it was good.
Shout out to uh our makeupartist L Monster L Munster.
That's their name?
Yep.
Cool name.
Yep, great handle.
Monsters.
Monsters, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (33:04):
Like the MU.

SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
MUN, yeah, right on.
Yeah.
So yeah, so I mean, yeah, Ihopefully that gets done.
I guarantee you I'll be longenough to watch it.

SPEAKER_02 (33:13):
Yeah, I'm I'm excited about that one.
Like, I love the way that theshort came out, and I love what
we've been able to do with thefeature of the script.
So I think that it's like theway that we were talking about
Missy earlier, about trying tojust like yes, it's a horror,
but like elevating it a littlebit, making people think a
little bit, and not in like aoh, it's a psychological horror

(33:35):
kind of way, but in a like thismight be some like real life
questions are happening in thishorror.
So, how does a little girl andher doppelganger monster like
figure out the world togetherafter the Bob Man's not around
anymore?
Kind of thing, you know?

SPEAKER_00 (33:55):
So um well, if you if you need any podcasters in
it, you know where to go.
100%.
We have some.

SPEAKER_01 (34:00):
We've chased the conspiracy, no podcast uh
narrative in the background.

SPEAKER_02 (34:05):
That's what left the right one in was missing, is
they needed that like conspiracytheory podcast.

SPEAKER_01 (34:09):
Yeah, welcome to Bro Zone, and we'll tell you what's
happening here in the in thestreets of Dartmouth this week.
Yeah, exactly.
But uh, but uh what's the umwhat was I gonna say?
Yeah, I mean something I justlike to ask, man.
Like, like, I mean, what aresome of your uh uh most favorite
recent pictures that you'veseen?
Because I'm like you, I alwayswant to see the next great

(34:30):
movie, and sometimes you knowit's hard with there's just such
an abundance of choice now.
Yeah, most of the time I spendmore time scrolling than I do
watching.
I'm sure there's a lot of peoplelike that.

SPEAKER_02 (34:39):
Yeah, I I try and go to a movie a week um in
theaters.
If I don't, I start to get antsyand cranky, and I feel really
guilty, weirdly.
Um one movie that blew me awaythis year, and I swear this is
not a Stephen King plug at all,but Life of Chuck blew me away.
And I know that it's a prettydivisive movie.

(35:01):
It's not a Stephen King.
A lot of people have been sayinglike it's not a Stephen King
movie, but if you've read enoughof his books, it totally is.
Like it's that movie wasphenomenal.
Um I saw a pretty forgettablemovie on the weekend that I
won't name.

(35:21):
Uh I love Sinners.
Sinners blew me away.
Sinners was you like that, eh?
Yeah, I love Sinners.
Oh, the movie.

SPEAKER_00 (35:27):
I was saying Sam the Shell.
Yeah.
So I was like, I like that too,but yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (35:32):
Um what else have I seen this year that oh I saw uh
oh well one battle after anotherwas phenomenal.
Good show, yeah.
I haven't seen it yet.
I really do want to watch thatone.
Like leaving the theater withthree of my buddies on a
Saturday afternoon with like avery diverse, let's say, like,

(35:56):
spectrum of like I see a movie aweek, one of the guys, the last
movie he saw in theaters wasOppenheimer.
Another guy couldn't tell youthe last movie he saw in
theater, and then another buddyof mine who sees everything.

SPEAKER_01 (36:10):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (36:11):
Um, and we were all like left with our jaws on the
floor, being like, there'snothing wrong you could say
about that.

SPEAKER_01 (36:18):
And it sucks because that movie didn't do very well.
I heard of it.

SPEAKER_02 (36:21):
Financially, no.
Not financially, is what I mean.
No, which is wild.

SPEAKER_01 (36:24):
Um yeah, I can't speak to that other than well,
it's a weird year for movies,because even like the the
superhero genre is not doing asgood this year, and that's
something that's been, you know,really, you know, the dominant
force in for what over a decade,really.

SPEAKER_02 (36:38):
Uh, you know, another one, like I find it
funny because it's all like it'ssuch a machine of PR and
marketing and publicity.
Like, I saw the smashing machinewith The Rock, and he is
incredible in it.

SPEAKER_00 (36:53):
So it's a good movie.

SPEAKER_02 (36:54):
It is.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (36:55):
Oh, some people are saying, like, this could be his
Oscar nomination.
Okay, which you'd never think.

SPEAKER_02 (36:59):
Like, it's the role, it's perfect for the role.
Like, he's perfect, and uh EmilyBlunt's incredible in it.
She's awesome.
Um, but all the stories you hearabout are like, this will be The
Rock's lowest opening weekend.
It's like, yeah, because he doesmovies like Jamanji.
Like those are his openingweekend.
Like, this is an A24 by one ofthe Safety brothers.

(37:22):
Like, but it's by far.
I don't even want to say it'shis best role, as if I'm
comparing it to any of his otherroles.

SPEAKER_01 (37:29):
It's just a different is a walk on the Yeah,
it wouldn't be shocked.

SPEAKER_02 (37:32):
If he's nominated, it wouldn't shock me.
That's good.
I hope he does get nominated.

SPEAKER_01 (37:35):
Because reward uh reward taking that brave step
and getting into something alittle bit uh more demanding of
yourself, right?
Pretty vulnerable.
We're demanding it a differentway.
I'm sure all these movies arepretty demanding physically now.

SPEAKER_00 (37:47):
It was an interesting thing that I saw.
I was watching some videos onYouTube, I think, uh, this week.
And it was an interesting thingthat got asked, and that is why
wrestlers aren't in the screenactors kill.
And I thought that was aninteresting question, because I
mean, essentially, shocker toanyone listening, wrestling's
not real.

SPEAKER_02 (38:06):
What I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 (38:09):
Stone Cold's still real, though.
I mean, don't get me wrong, theythey get hurt and they're
athletic people and all that,but everything's prescripted,
they are acting and all thatstuff.
And some of them, The Rock wasone, but apparently Batista was
another one that actually earlyon hired acting coaches.
Cool.
And so there was a question thatwas put up there, why are
wrestlers not in the screen,like the Screen Actors Guild?

(38:31):
And I thought that was that wasinteresting because it's kind of
like Vince McMahon?
Well, I mean, Vince McCoy.
Vince McMahon was a big unionbuster.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (38:41):
100%.

SPEAKER_00 (38:41):
Uh Jesse Ventura actually tried in the 90s to get
a wrestling uh union and theylike busted him.
So I mean, it the thought waslike maybe someday, because now
Vince McMahon is in the shadows,yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (38:55):
Kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 (38:56):
Yeah.
So here's an interesting thingthat I don't know if it applies
to the wrestling, the wrestlers,but um professional wrestlers.
But so when Rob, who is like aproud Actra member, when he did
um pub crawl, he we did not haveto go through Actra because

(39:17):
technically Rob is playinghimself.
He's not playing a character,he's host.

SPEAKER_00 (39:23):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (39:23):
But even even that language, it's like Rob Ramsey
as Rob Ramsey is not acharacter.
Rob Ramsay as host or Rob Ramseyas narrator, like those are
different things.

SPEAKER_00 (39:34):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (39:35):
And the way that it was explained to me is that if
I'm in the if I'm an actra andI'm stopped on the street by
Katie Kelly at CTV and they askme my opinion, I can't say like,
oh no, I'm in the union.
You gotta pay me.
Because I'm not playing acharacter.
I'm playing myself.
So I'm sure Vince McMahon beinga union buster does not shock me

(39:58):
in the slightest.
Um, but I'm sure that maybethere is some logic to that
argument that he I don't know.
But it's hard to say, like Ithink Goldberg wasn't playing a
character.
You know what I mean?
Or like I know what you'resaying.

SPEAKER_00 (40:14):
Well, there no, but there is there's actually some
things to that.
I mean, like uh uh thelegalities of like Vince being
able to own the names and andnot owning the names.
That was a thing, right?
So the IP and all that kind ofstuff.
So like the the like uh HulkHogan, actually Hulk is like
it's owned by Disney, becausethat's like they own like the

(40:35):
trademark Hulk.
So but uh so that's anexception, but you know, like
the Undertaker is owned by theWWE.
So if for some reason MarkCallaway went somewhere else, he
couldn't be called theUndertaker.
The character is owned by WWE.
He could be called MarkCallaway, he was Mark Call
Callus before when he was in WCWand before he became the

(40:55):
Undertaker.
To the point where the UltimateWarrior changed his name legally
to the Warrior, so he could becalled the Warrior after getting
fired from WWF.

SPEAKER_02 (41:07):
No way.
Yeah, he was a bit of awhistleblower too, wasn't he, of
the WWF?

SPEAKER_00 (41:11):
Or am I thinking of uh not not his name is uh Jim,
but he no, he was nuts.
The guy with the sock on hishand?
Oh, that's uh McFoley.

SPEAKER_02 (41:20):
That's what I'm thinking of.

SPEAKER_00 (41:22):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, no, uh the ultimatewarrior was uh lunatic, uh
basically, yeah.
But you know, every wrestlingchild is a fan of it.

SPEAKER_02 (41:31):
I it's it's funny, like being in like it's like I
said, like it's an industry andit's such a machine, and you
start to learn the business sideof it, and there are so many
reasons why you can't do things.
There are so many reasons whythings have to be done a certain
way.
None of that shocks me, butcoming back to the movie uh The

(41:54):
Smashing Machine, which was likeUFC, early days of UFC.
Um bit different, but trendsthose same lines of these guys
just being taken advantage of sobadly.

SPEAKER_01 (42:06):
Early days when there was no rules kind of deal.

SPEAKER_02 (42:08):
Uh yeah, they they touch on that in like halfway
through the movie, they announcenew rules, and that includes
like no eye gouging, no fishhooking, no binding.

SPEAKER_01 (42:19):
Did you watch like the old UFCs when you were a
kid?

SPEAKER_00 (42:22):
Like, do you remember that would have been
like I watched one end of thembefore?

SPEAKER_01 (42:26):
So when we were younger, I don't know how old
you were, but uh I mean so wewere gett getting them on VHS,
we were bringing them home.
We were watching them andwatching them over and over
again.
There'd be like a sumo wrestlerversus like a little tiny guy.
You'd just watch the wildestfights, and there was really no
rules or regulations.
It was just it was just the wildwest.
Yeah.
It was um unbelievable that itwas allowed to be on TV.

(42:48):
It felt like illegal watchingit.
Well, it was.
Yeah.
It was like well, I guess it wassomewhat illegal.
In a lot of states it was.
Yeah.
Most states it was.
Yeah.
We could do it in Vegas becausethere was only a handful.

SPEAKER_00 (42:58):
Like they had it at like Atlantic City.
Yeah, this movie's all in Japan.

SPEAKER_02 (43:01):
Oh, yeah.
Like the tournaments thatSmashing Machine is going to is
all in Japan.

SPEAKER_01 (43:05):
They're all 100% in Japan.
Hey, cool.

SPEAKER_02 (43:07):
At the that was the circuit he was on.
Oh, yeah or what the moviechose.
I gotta see.
It's good.
It's a good movie.

SPEAKER_01 (43:14):
You want to do it like a thumbs up, thumbs down
game?

SPEAKER_02 (43:17):
Sure.
Um two thumbs up or one thumbup?
Just one thumb up.
Julius Caesar.
Well, Julius Caesar.
Weapons.
Thumbs up.
Is it good?
Yeah, I love it.
I want to see it.
Loved it.

SPEAKER_01 (43:29):
Um uh did you see the Superman movie this year?

SPEAKER_02 (43:32):
No.
Okay.
Not yet.
Not for any reason.
I had a lot of things.
I gave it a thumb up.

SPEAKER_01 (43:36):
I'll give it a thumb up.
I like it.
I heard that.
I watched it and it was it wasreally good, really fun, really
friendly.
It gave you a warm, fuzzyfeeling about Superman again.
I'm not like too dark andbrooding.

SPEAKER_02 (43:46):
It was kind of nice.
The new Superman, whoever playshim.
Yeah, I've seen him on the presstour, and he seems like the real
deal.
Yeah, very likable.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (43:56):
But I like, I liked all I like Zack Snyder's kind of
spin on it too.
I like them both.
I like the dark stuff.
Yeah.
After all the dark stuff,though, it was nice to see a
little bit of let's make thisfor kids again, you know?
Bright blue, bright red, brightyellow.
So it's good, it was a goodmovie.
Um, what else?
Matt, think uh there's a newconjuring out.
Have you seen that?
Nope.
Nope, me neither.
I haven't seen it.
Um what other song wasterrifying?

(44:18):
Sinners a thumb up.
That's a 2025.

SPEAKER_02 (44:20):
Yep, that's a big thumbs up.

SPEAKER_01 (44:22):
I guess uh what's your favorite movie of 2025?
You say you go every week, and Imean that's amazing to me.
I wish I could go do that.

SPEAKER_00 (44:28):
Yeah.
Used to do that every time, butthen you have kids.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (44:32):
Yeah, I've escaped that so far.
Yeah.
Um favorite movie of 2025?
Uh, it's probably yeah, it's onebattle after another.
One battle after another.
And before that, it was Life ofChuck.
I remember the good ones.
It's like when people ask you,like, what's your favorite
concert?
Or it's more so when people askyou what's the worst concert

(44:53):
you've ever been to, it's hardto remember because you don't
remember it.
So I'm sorry if I keep repeatingthe same movies that I liked
this year.

SPEAKER_00 (45:02):
No, no, it's all good.
What's your uh speaking since wetalked about Superman
everything, so what's your takeon the Superman uh superhero
movies?
Are they uh do you have aScorsese approach or do you A
little bit?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (45:12):
I understand it's it is like movies are a democracy
in the sense that like peoplewill vote with their wallets,
and as long as movies keepmaking money, they're gonna keep
pumping out the same movies.
Um unless you get these likeoriginal stories, but um I mean,

(45:34):
well, even you brought upweapons, it did so well,
shockingly, that now there'sgonna be a prequel called
Weapon.
And it's like, that's great.
People seem to want it.
I enjoyed the movie.
Let's make another weapons, youknow what I mean?
So like I understand that Ithink he called them like a
theme park.
Or he's like, they're uh they'rean amusement park or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 (45:57):
I don't know what's wrong with that concept though,
too.
Like, what he doesn't what hedidn't like about it.
I I mean, I I don't know.
I I know what he's saying, but Imean I love them.
So it's it's you know, they'reoriginal stories, they're
written in a comic book, andthey're just making the movie.
It's like taking a book andmaking it right.
So I enjoy them.
I like the characters behindthem, some of my favorite

(46:18):
villains, like Thanos is one ofmy favorite villains of all
time.
Like probably I would say Thanosand Darth Vader are probably my
two favorite villains of alltime.
Um so I love them, but Iunderstand like his point was
that the actors aren't what likearen't they don't matter.

(46:38):
Okay.
I disagree with him, but he hispoint was that the actors don't
matter.
It's the characters.
The characters are everything.
That being said, I think that ifhe sat and watched them and saw
what like Robert Downey Jr.
did with Iron Man Dr.
I don't agree with that.
I think he's wrong becausethere's just an Iron Man, Robert

(46:59):
Downey Jr.

SPEAKER_01 (47:00):
He changed the game.
He made that franchise.
Well, Iron Man didn't feel likea superhero movie.
It just it seemed like a moviewhere a guy was put in a bad
situation to find a wild way toget out of it.
And um that one had a prettyterrible villain.
That was like the only thingabout the Iron Man movie that
wasn't great.
They were all great villains.
Great actor, but not a greatvillain, right?

(47:21):
Bad villains, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 (47:22):
I think where Marvel kind of went wrong.
Listen to me talking about whereMarvel went wrong.
Let's hear it.
But when it started to become,they had the spin-offs on Disney
Plus.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
And if you miss season one ofthis show, then you can't figure
out the next movie.
You're right about that.

SPEAKER_00 (47:42):
And then Kevin Foggy said that that's where they went
wrong.

SPEAKER_02 (47:45):
Yeah, and I think that it also it that's where it
like metastasized, but it gotbad five movies previous, where
it's like if you didn't see thisSpider-Man sequel, then you
won't understand Black Widow orwhatever.
Right.
Like all that to say, too, likeBlack Panther was so dope.

(48:07):
That movie was so sick.
Um same guy who did Sinners,Kugler, like yeah, there were
there were good things.
Oh, there's some art.
It kept people I went to tons ofhigh points.
I went to an early screening ofEndgame.
Was that the big like one thing?
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (48:27):
That was the finale.
That was very much a superheromovie.
One movie before that, InfinityWar.
I, and you guys might think I'mnuts for this, but I actually
think that should have beennominated as like one of the
best pictures.
It's a great movie.
Could have been.
I like it.
The bad guy wins at the end,right?
They left you hanging.

SPEAKER_02 (48:45):
So that was part one of two.
Correct.
Part one, phenomenal.
Right?
And you know what's crazy?
I was like a fair weather Marvelguy.
I thought it was over, and I waslike, oh my god, Marvel just
pulled off the biggest heistever.
The bad guy won, and now it'sover.
Yep.
And then it was like to becontinued, and I was like, oh

(49:07):
shit, that would have been sogreat if they had just like
ended it with the snap andSpider-Man turns into dust.

SPEAKER_01 (49:13):
Left you hanging for a couple of years.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, they could they could havedone that.

SPEAKER_00 (49:18):
I I actually don't disagree with you there.
I think like that could havebeen that would have been a
cinema where that would havebeen phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 (49:25):
Like, even if they did do that sequel, it's kind of
like they started sorry, theystart they started mapping out
their next like 10 years, andyou're like, and we got a blade
14 coming in 2029, and you'relike, what?

SPEAKER_02 (49:37):
I think like something that I like I would
never call myself a gamer.
Like I played Grand Theft Autoand FIFA and Red Dead.
Right.
And I'm not a big online guy, soI remember playing Red Dead 2
and like playing story mode andbeating it, and like that story
is phenomenal.
It is, and then I went, turnedmy Xbox on, it was like, you

(50:00):
have a like an update.
And then all of a sudden thestory mode wasn't over, and
there was more for me to do, andso I'd finish that, and then
there'd be another update threeweeks later, and the story mode
just kept going.
And it's like, well, what am Iwhat there's no end in sight,
like, and that's how I feelabout Marvel movies, is that it
they it never doesn't work out,and they're just gonna keep

(50:23):
making them.
So there is like a cathar,cathartic moment missing from
Marvel movies, I think.

SPEAKER_00 (50:31):
No, that's fair.
Yeah, I don't I don't I don'targue that point.
I just I hope they keep makingthem because I enjoy them so
much.
Sure.
Star Wars is going down thatroad too.
Star Wars is very much goingdown that road, and I love Star
Wars, sorry.
Um, but that being said, I thinkI hope, I hope that they, you
know, these these you know largeuh companies like film industry

(50:52):
companies that are pumping outthese blockbusters.
I hope the fact that they'remaking like you know billions
and profits and all this stuff,that they are they should, in
theory, turn around and investin smaller stuff and more
original stuff in our stuff.

SPEAKER_01 (51:09):
Maybe, but you know what I'd like a dollar superhero
program.
No, you know what, you know whatI mean?
Spider-Man would like to dothat.

SPEAKER_00 (51:14):
I'd like a dollar baby program, but truly give it
up.
Like, actually let you guys makemoney on it.
And say, like, listen, we'vemade we're lined our pockets
with millions of dollars.
Here's a little bit of charity.
We're gonna sell you the rightsto this for a buck, and you know
what?
You can make money on it.
Go for it.
It do whatever you can with it,kind of thing.
That'd be cool, right?

SPEAKER_02 (51:34):
I think that'd be sick.
Yeah, cool.
Or I guess the model is now oflike I'm sure that like the
billion-dollar companies wouldlove to buy IP for a dollar and
not spend 50 million on I don'teven know if that's the number,
but like we were talking aboutLife of Chuck or The Long Run,
which just in theaters, anotherStephen King movie.

(51:57):
Um Marathon Man's coming up.

SPEAKER_01 (52:00):
Yeah, they're doing redoing the running man, yeah,
yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (52:03):
The running man, sorry, not marathon man.
No, yeah.
Um, and it's the long walk, notthe long run.
My bad.
Um, yeah, anyway, as soon asmoney gets involved, which I
think is what is so cool aboutthe Dollar Baby program and how
it was just like this perfectcocktail of being able able to

(52:24):
offer short stories tofilmmakers who are still in the
like short film position oftheir careers for a dollar.
Um it it does become charity inthat sense.
But also, like Shaw Shank was anovella, so like that wasn't a
feature, and there have beenother short films of his that
have or short stories of histhat have been turned into

(52:46):
features, so well I mean it'sall at the right price.

SPEAKER_00 (52:49):
And Shaw Shank was Shaw Shank's one of the best
movies ever.

SPEAKER_02 (52:52):
So yeah, periods.

SPEAKER_00 (52:54):
Yeah, yeah.
It's a top ten greatest film.
Yeah, so I mean, uh, there'ssome things like that that are
pretty great.
But but the so the dollarprogram has uh Dollar Babies
ended.
I read that it was because notbecause they still that the
program was over necessary, butsomeone retired, and basically
that person was the one runningthe program.

SPEAKER_02 (53:13):
Yeah, literally, it was Steven's Stephen King's
wife, Tabitha.
Okay, her sister.
Oh, okay.
Ran the program.
Alright.
Wow.
And she wanted to retire, andthen it was just like that was
great while it lasted.
And I find that that is such alike Bangor Maine East Coast
thing.
Have you ever been to his house?

(53:35):
Uh yeah, a couple summers ago, Iwas driving.
My sister lives in Connecticut.

SPEAKER_00 (53:39):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (53:39):
And I was driving home and I was like, today's the
day.
Gotta go.

SPEAKER_00 (53:43):
Yeah, I went there two summers ago.

SPEAKER_02 (53:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (53:45):
I was really disappointed when I read that he
actually doesn't live thereanymore and it's just a museum.
Yeah.
So I was kind of like, ah, allright.

SPEAKER_02 (53:52):
Yeah, he's uh Yeah, I heard recently he's closer to
Boston, and that's why he's atso many Red Sox games.
New Sox fan.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (54:01):
Have you ever stayed at the uh Algonquin?

SPEAKER_02 (54:03):
Oh yeah, St.
Stephen.
Yeah.
St.
Andrews, rather.
The St.
Andrews.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (54:07):
So cool.

SPEAKER_02 (54:08):
Yeah, stayed there.

SPEAKER_00 (54:09):
That's where he stayed when he wrote The Shiny.
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (54:11):
That's the rumor.
Yeah, like I heard a rumor.

SPEAKER_00 (54:14):
That's what the hotel claimed.

SPEAKER_02 (54:15):
Yeah, which is it's like it was something crazy.
Like he booked out like a wingof the hotel for eight weeks,
and then four months later theshining came out.
Like it was something like hewent on a binge in the east
wing.
That's creepy.

SPEAKER_00 (54:30):
And it's a haunted, like you can go on haunted
tours.
There's a haunted like tourthing.
And the what bride that threwherself out the window.

SPEAKER_02 (54:38):
Yeah, there's a whole that's a that's that's a
and also like the overlook looksexactly like the Algonquin.
It does, yeah.
So yeah.
So that's definitely some truthto that.

SPEAKER_00 (54:47):
Crazy, crazy.
Now, the other thing that wewere talking about, giving back,
I don't know if this is givingback.
I'd be curious to see what youropinion on is.
Do you know like what ReeseReese Witherspoon's program is?
With her book club?
Yeah.
Yeah, I've heard it's ingeniousas a business woman.

SPEAKER_02 (55:01):
Yeah, it is.
I've heard it in in a very likeoh, that's an executive producer
kind of thing.
Like, but I wouldn't be able tospeak to it if you could.

SPEAKER_00 (55:10):
I mean, I have a very high level of it, but
basically the idea is that ReeseWitherspoon has a book club that
obviously, if she puts if sheit's almost like the Oprah book
club, if she puts you on herbook club, often you're a
bestseller tomorrow.
Boom.
Yeah, you're like the next day.
It's like it's like performingat the Super Bowl.
Oh, yeah.
So you become instant famous,you become a best-selling author
in the United States, not inCanada, right?

(55:31):
Kind of thing, right?
It's so it's big.
But to do that, you give up yourmovie rights to her.

SPEAKER_02 (55:39):
Yeah, so if you look at like Wild, she made the movie
Wild.
Yeah.
Uh they made Big Little Lies,which was incredible, the TV
series.
Um but you make no money off themovie?

SPEAKER_00 (55:51):
Oh, I'm sure no, I'm sure she she pro I would hope
she pays them.

SPEAKER_02 (55:55):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (55:55):
But she's gotta be back for it.
Cool.
But they talk about like what asmart move for her, because now
she's getting people giving herscripts and she just keep
banging out movies.

SPEAKER_02 (56:08):
Yeah, or just like someone who enjoys reading and
then understands how filmmakingworks.

unknown (56:15):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (56:16):
It's a win-win.
That is that's good.
That's like not necessarilycomparable, but that is like in
the same conversation of likewriters.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 (56:26):
I I still look at it, I yeah, I still look at it
as her give her way of givingback.
Yeah.
Because she's making like, don'tget me wrong, like I would love
for Taylor Swift to come andsay, like, the afternoon pine is
the best podcast I've ever heardin my entire life.
And then all of a sudden, he'sjust saying that now for the
transcript.

SPEAKER_01 (56:41):
He's just trying to get that like statement in
there.
It's like the algorithm'salgorithm, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (56:45):
But uh it but seriously, like she but she's
someone who like you know cansay something, right?
And all of a sudden it's likeboom, there you go.
She's doing that, she'sessentially making authors
instant famous.

SPEAKER_02 (56:56):
And what they would make on book sales, it would be
worth shaking hands with ReeseWitherspoon to say you can have
the rights to the movie for abuck or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 (57:07):
We're watching the morning show right now with
Reed.
That's a Reese Witherspoon.
Great show.

SPEAKER_02 (57:10):
Seeing that first season or two.
I thought it was so genius thatit's uh Marty Short and Steve
Carell are the two bad guys inthat show.
Like, the best casting ever.
Like the two most likable guysin Hollywood.

SPEAKER_01 (57:28):
I mean, that's the whole reason I watched it.
I was like, oh man, SteveCarell's gonna be great.
That's like totally upside downof what I thought it was gonna
be, but really well done.
Yeah, Apple.
Did you see the fox catcherthough?
Uh uh no, never saw it.
Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 (57:40):
Nominated Oscar Nom.
Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_00 (57:43):
For Steve.
Talk about, like again, like notsee it coming, kind of playing
like the weirdo kind of thing,right?
Okay.
True story.

SPEAKER_02 (57:50):
True story, too.
Yeah.
What was that family's name?
They're big, like they were likeuh uh Rose not Roosevelt, but
like that type of family, likeuh like built America.
Yeah, I don't remember butPennsylvania, like a steel
family or something inPennsylvania.
And he was just obsessed withwrestling and he went crazy.

SPEAKER_01 (58:11):
Yeah.
Okay.
I never saw that.

SPEAKER_00 (58:14):
Must watch.

SPEAKER_01 (58:15):
Yeah, okay, cool.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (58:17):
If anyone ever doubts like Steve Krell's acting
ability, like watch that andyou're like, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (58:21):
Channing Tatum as well.
Channing Tatum was the wrestler.
Yeah, and uh the Hulk, um, MarkRuffalo.
Ruffalo, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (58:29):
Yeah, I thought you were talking about Hulk Hogan.
I was like, he's in it.
I'd be like, that'd be crazy.

SPEAKER_02 (58:34):
And then uh, I believe it's the same director,
I forget his name, but he alsodid Moneyball.

SPEAKER_00 (58:39):
Yeah, which I loved as well.

SPEAKER_02 (58:40):
Moneyball was phenomenal.
One of the better sports moviesever.
Top three.
Behind Sandlot and Friday NightLights.
That's my top three sportsmovies.
Sandlot.

SPEAKER_00 (58:51):
Oh, that's a good pick, man.
Remember the Titans is onethat's up there?

SPEAKER_02 (58:54):
Got me.

SPEAKER_01 (58:55):
For sure.

SPEAKER_00 (58:55):
I watch it like I probably at least once every two
years.

SPEAKER_01 (58:58):
Mighty Ducks 2.

SPEAKER_00 (59:00):
Oh Mighty Ducks 2, one of the rare sequels that is
better than the original.
That's okay.
That's an okay movie.
Mighty Ducks, hot take.
Mighty Ducks might actually it'snostalgically great.
Otherwise, terrifying.
So bad.
These guys would do a podcast.

(59:20):
I picked it apart.
I was watching it.
I saw that recently.
And like they were funny.
It's so well at one point, likeAdam Banks is on the bench
cheering on Adam Banks on abreakaway.
And he goes right hand, lefthand between shots.
It's actually insane.
And like they talk about likehow how bad it is that Gordon
Bombay.

SPEAKER_01 (59:38):
He's on the bench cheering himself and the same
thing.
With his helmet off.

SPEAKER_00 (59:41):
With his helmet off and everything, yeah.
And then they talk about thisother part where it's like a
Gordon Bombay scored likesomething like it was something
stupid, like 400 goals.
I can't remember what it is, but400 goals in like 16 games or
something.
Whatever.
It's like in 60 games in aseason or something.
So it's like he would have hadto have scored something like
one goal every freaking.
In two minutes of every game.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:01):
Physically impossible.
Physically impossible.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:03):
And then the last game of the year in the
championship in a shootout, hemisses one shot and then just
decides hangs him up.
Nah.
Oh my god.
Not for me anymore.
No.
I don't want to play in the NHL.
This one shot I missed.
Like real bad plot.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:19):
It's funny in D2.
I had heard about this before,like years ago.
If you look in the stands, it'scardboard cutouts.
Oh, really?
Oh, geez.
Just like awesome.
Oh man.
So great.
And uh, yeah, my uhbrother-in-law is from
Minnesota.
Nice.
And he has friends who wereextras as kids in the original,

(01:00:39):
because they were his likefriends who played hockey
growing up.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:42):
So they're like on the opposing teams and also
going back, like as a kid, youwere like, you know, you had
your kid mindset, and you'relike, yeah, Charlie Conway, he's
like, yeah.
Now as an adult, you watch thatand you're like, shut up,
Charlie.
Like he was like, Why can't webeat Team USA Ducks?
And it's like, because you'replaying on the national team,
dumbass.
Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:02):
Yeah.
It's actually, and then if youwant to get into D3, the JV team
beating the varsity team.
Right.
When in what world ever in D1hockey would that ever happen?

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:14):
So nostalgically, I love them, but like honestly,
when you go back and watch themas adults, you're like, oh my
god, no, this is why kids arestupid.
I'll say this.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:22):
Sandlot holds up.
Sandlot does hold up.
Phenomenal movies.
It is, it's definitely the moviethat I've seen the most in my
life.
Really?
Like, okay.
Used to watch it.
We used to go to the cottage andwe'd stop at Blockbuster on the
way.
You'd have just like TheSandlot, Carrie, The Omen, all

(01:01:42):
these crazy 80s horror movies.
And then during the day, I wouldjust like sit and watch Sandlot
every summer, all summer, andthen watch it as an adult,
probably every time.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:54):
He doesn't rewatch movies very often.
So what would you say is themovie that you've re like
watched the most?

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:59):
I for some reason, yeah, yeah.
I think you probably know, butMatrix is probably one of the
ones I've seen more than anytimes.
I I love the first Matrix movie.
I just thought it was done sowell.
It's just so I mean, I know it'snot completely airtight, but
they did such a good job.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:12):
That changed the game for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:14):
It was it was a brilliant, brilliant movie.
Um, that would be one that Iwatched.
I'm rewatching The Godfather 2right now.
I just rewatched The Godfather1.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:23):
That's an annual for me as well.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:25):
Yeah, so I do rewatch, I rewatch some movies,
but they're so few and farbetween.
Um I rewatched the Marvel moviesthrough COVID.
So I got through all of themlike twice, pretty much, I
think.
Sometimes I feel like you know,and I just fall asleep to them.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:39):
You know what I think was genius, and I don't
know if it was planned or not,but the fact that all the Harry
Potter movies include Christmaswas genius.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:49):
See, I never saw any, I only ever saw the first
Harry Potter movie, dude.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:53):
I saw all of them.
They get better, uh theyactually And I'm not a big Harry
Potter guy.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:58):
No, no, no.
I I I didn't, I really despisedit.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:00):
So I never my wife's a huge Harry Potter fan.
Yeah.
And uh so, like, I don't knowwhat it was, like eight years,
seven, yeah, it's nine yearsago, we decided to exchange.
We said, she didn't ever watchStar Wars, and I said, Let's
watch Star Wars, and I'll watchall the Harry Potters.
And we did that.
We took two weeks.
Takes a while, yeah.
Well, we took two weeks.
One week, you know, a film anight.

(01:03:21):
Yeah, and that's what we did.
Like sometime in the winter orsomething like that.
We just like one movie a night.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:26):
I hope that's what they do next with cinema, just
mash movies like that up, StarWars and Harry Potter, and cross
it over.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:33):
Yeah.
Were awful.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:35):
Tough to watch.
Really tough.
That's the best one.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:39):
I actually the whole eight of them, or whatever, nine
of them, or whatever.
Nine of them?
It's eight or nine.
I can't remember.
They did the last book they didin two parts.
Wow.
Right.
I actually think Voldemort's agood bad guy.
I was kind of rooting for him towin.
Because I think Harry Potter's aloser.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:57):
What do you mean by good bad guy?

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:59):
Like, he was a good villain.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:00):
Yeah.
Just like straight up, wellwritten, well, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:03):
Yeah, I like villains, right?
So I where I I'm into villains.
Like a strong villain means I'mprobably gonna like it, right?

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:11):
Like I love, you mentioned Thanos.
Yeah.
Um, for the same reason thatlike Thanos is great, is like
his solution comes from anexperience that he went through
on his own planet, where it'slike, we're gonna run out of
like this is gonna beinhabitable soon.
Therefore, let me help you, kindof thing.

(01:04:31):
Same with like, I always thoughtabout like Bain.
Like Bain, when you hear hisbackstory, you're like, this guy
makes sense.
Yep, I love Tom Hardy, kick hisass, kind of thing.
Like, yeah, I completelyunderstand.
Like, a good you should youshould agree with to you should
agree to a degree with anyvillain, and that's what makes a

(01:04:52):
good villain.
And it's like screenwritingone-on-one is like if you have
conflict, two people are in anargument in a scene, the
audience should agree with bothof them.
Like they should both be right,and that's what makes good
conflict in the movie.
Yeah, so like even that's whatmade Batman like all those
villains were so great, becauseit's like no one knows it's

(01:05:14):
Bruce Wayne, the billionaire,but all the villains are coming
after the billionaires inGotham.
And like that makes that so likeonce you get another layer deep
and realize that you're like, ohmy god.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:28):
What another one that always fascinated me was
like as a kid watchingScooby-Doo, where format of
Scooby-Doo, they have to go tolike a creepy house, it's owned
by a millionaire, there aremonsters and ghouls and
whatever.
And at the end of everyScooby-Doo, they meet the
monster and they take the maskoff, and it's always a person.

(01:05:48):
Yep.
And I was like, that is thewhole point of Scooby-Doo, is
that like monsters are human,period.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:56):
Like, and they have a backstory.
There's generally a reason why.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:01):
I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:02):
There's a reason why theory is deep, right?
There's some deep Scooby-Doostuff.
Deep Scooby-Doo stuff.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:08):
Like, there, like, yeah, and then I I can't, I
don't know how to get morepoetic about it, but it's like
monsters aren't real, but humansare.
And we typically suck and do badthings.
And that's what Scooby-Doo wastrying to tell us the whole
time.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:25):
There's just like when you think of like some of
the great.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:27):
Scooby-Doo philosophy, man.
They should be that should bethe next university course.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:31):
There you go.
Yeah.
Like Green the Green Mile.
Fantastic villains.
Right?
Like you have villains in therethat you were just like, you
truly hated.
Right?
Tom Hardy and the Revenant.
Man, like I left that.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:44):
His backstory though.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:45):
I know, but like I you just left that going, like,
man, I hate that guy.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:48):
Yeah, I know.
Right?
But so good.
Being able to pull that off,like it's like the easiest thing
I think as an actor to pull offwas like, oh, he was middle of
the road road and forgettable.
Or versus like, oh my god, thatperson was so likable, or oh my
god, if I saw that guy in thestreet, I would spit on his

(01:07:09):
shoes.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:10):
Oh my god, yeah.
What's the guy in the There WillBe Blood?
The bad guy?
Paul Dano?
Also played the Riddler.
Oh, Paul Dano.
Like he's he's an actor I st Ithink I still want to fight just
because of this.
He's done such greatperformances.
I'd be like, you're an asshole.
Like if I ever saw him inpublic.
Well, that was like the world.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:26):
I'm not a huge Game of Thrones guy, but the guy who
played King Joffrey.
Yeah, young guy.
Oh yeah, he was super unlucky.
Apparently, so good at the time.
He had to retire hide.
Yeah, because he was gettingbullied all the time.
He just, you know, you do a goodjob when you're getting the same
with the tweets.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:41):
Who's the blonde kid?
Draco?
Draco?
Draco.
From Harry Potter?
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:48):
Yeah, actually, that wasn't the first one, but I know
who you're talking about.
Malfull.
Draco Malfold.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:52):
Draco Malfur.
Yeah, exactly.
Heard the same kind of thingabout him.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, well over our hour,gentlemen.
You want to get into our 10 dumbquestions?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Uh these questions are dumb.
And uh, some of them aren'tdumb.
They're deep.
No dumb questions.
That's what my mom says.
No dumb questions.
Um, all right.
Okay, so question number one.
If Stephen King gave you one ofhis unpublished stories for a

(01:08:18):
dollar, another one, what genrewould you not want it to be?
What genre would you not like todo out of a oh.
Like of a Stephen King story?
I guess I don't really like thatquestion.
Stephen King, let's just say ingeneral, what genres would you
think you'd like to stay awayfrom as a producer or director?

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:36):
Uh like a uh true to form period drama.
Okay.
That'd be tough.
I don't think I'd be very goodat that.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:45):
A lot of research and getting.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:47):
Yeah, just um I'm not good at like directing
actors' mannerisms, and I feellike that would be but I do have
like a way that I think you'd beable to.
I have an idea.
I've never written it, but Ihave an idea of how you could
pull off the uh Halifaxexplosion in a cool three-hour
big Titanic type drama.

(01:09:07):
I like that.
Love story kind of thing.
Uh, but I don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:11):
Okay.
Sterling Tom Green?
Tom Green.
Sure.
Tom Green is Vince Cole.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:18):
Yeah, we'll do a uh we'll do like a period piece
with Tom Green.
I could do that.
Yeah.
Okay.
But I wouldn't be able to dolike a straight up like question
number two.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:30):
So what's scary?
Pitching a room full of filmexecs or walking alone at
midnight through Point PleasantPark.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:40):
I've only ever done one of them.
Um, but I've been in PointPleasant when the sun's starting
to go down and your dog's offleash and you're trying to get
the hell out of there.
But man, the early days ofpitching film execs like at CBC
headquarters in Toronto, andyou're seeing like the Shits
Creek 40-foot posters, andyou're walking in to pitch

(01:10:02):
something that is not ShitsCreek at all, like you are
sweating absolute bullets.
So Point Pleasant scary, butyeah, I'll go film exactly
because that's tough.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:18):
No good answer.
Yeah.
Oh, so so if PubCrawl hadanother season, which Canadian
city would you pick next andwhy?

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:25):
Uh St.
John's.
Uh pretty perfect choice, too.
Yeah.
No, no uh explanation required.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:33):
Yeah.
Question number four.
So, what's the weirdest notethat you've ever gotten from
like a film festival jury orproducer?

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:41):
Yeah, so there was a note that came back.
First season of PubCrawl, we gotno notes at all.
And I relied on the Nova Scotiaarchives quite heavily to get
like old cool videos of Halifaxand photos of Halifax, and
pretty incredible.
Like photos of the Halifax Clubthat we were able to replicate

(01:11:04):
almost exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:05):
Cool.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:06):
And someone gave us the note in season two to not
use the Golden Gate Bridge.
And I was like, that is not theGolden Gate Bridge.
Oh wow.
That is the McDonald Bridge inHalifax.
Weird that that's your firstnote two seasons into this show.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:22):
Yeah.
That's weird.
That's amazing.
Like that'd be another coolmovie.
We talked about that once, theold Halifax Club in a heist with
the uh the underground tunnelsbuilt into it.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:34):
Yeah, so that was a that was an episode on Pub
Crawl, and we saw the tunnels.
Yeah.
It was crazy.
Because for a while, I don'tknow what the plan is, but they
were putting in a restaurant inthe basement.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:42):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:43):
And uh that was gonna be behind the bar was like
the uh tunnel, and they weregonna put like glass over top of
it so it would be a floor thatyou could see down.
Oh, that'd be so cool.
And then COVID.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's gone now.
She's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:58):
My question yours.
Five yourself.
Okay, so thanks.
I do have another answer to thatone.
Oh, sure.
Like if we wanted to choose one.
Well, choose both.
Yeah.
Another one.
Uh I was with Rob Ramsey.
We wrote this pilot togethercalled Wolf Hill, and it won the
National Screen Institute's liketelevision award one year for

(01:12:20):
they took in a bunch of pilotsand Rob and I won, which was
amazing.
And we were pitching someexecutives in Toronto, and we
used a lot of like East Coastcolloquialisms in.
I mean, it was called Wolfville.
It was like a true detective,but set in Wolfville.
And they said that it wasunbelievable.

(01:12:41):
No one would believe that no oneactually talks like that on the
East Coast.
It's like, have you ever been?
And she was like, I've been toMontreal.
Oh boy, yeah.
So we didn't take that notesuper seriously.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:52):
Can you send this episode to her?

SPEAKER_02 (01:12:54):
Yeah, yeah, I'll see if I can dig up who that was.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:58):
Us East Coasters, we're like friggin' rights
tabernacle.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:04):
Uh yeah, so number five over you with.
Oh, yeah, okay.
So you've done horrordocumentaries, um, some pub
history.
You know, which which is theone, you know, if there was a
genre film or a type of movieyou could make or some lane you
could stay in, what do you thinkyou could do secretly forever?
What would you your passion uhjust keep doing again and again?

SPEAKER_02 (01:13:26):
I think that horror is having such a moment right
now, and I don't mean like thatI'm jumping on the bandwagon
because I've been obsessed withhorror since I was a kid.
I've been making likequasi-horror movies since 2016.
And um not only that, but like Imentioned earlier, like I think
that horror is so like punk rockin the sense that it holds up a

(01:13:47):
mirror to society and like thezeitgeist of the time to be able
to say like this is what'swrong, this is what people won't
say that they're afraid of.
You mentioned like weaponsearlier, that's all about like
school shootings without havingto hammer it on the head.
It doesn't show up as like thisput together thing in a tux that

(01:14:12):
like shows up ready to likerumble basically, and like Yeah,
the monkey was another goodexample of that.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:17):
I saw that recently.

SPEAKER_02 (01:14:18):
Yeah, the other Stephen King one.
Yeah, yeah, phenomenal.
I mean like the twins.
Did a good job of it.
Yeah, yeah.
Great movie.
So I think I I just like thespirit of horror and how there
are so many subgenres of it.
But at the end of the day, it'slike I think that horror speaks
truth to power more than I don'twant to say more than
documentary, but man, it's inthe conversation with

(01:14:40):
documentary of being able tohold a mirror up to society for
sure.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:44):
100%.
That's awesome.
Question number six.
So I was reading it and I'm notsure I understand, so I'm
changing it.

unknown (01:14:49):
Go for it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:49):
So question number six, I'm just gonna ask you
straight up favorite horrormovie of all time?

SPEAKER_02 (01:14:54):
Uh, if you my favorite movie of all time is
Jaws.
Oh, okay.
So if we consider that a horror,some people do, some people call
it like a monster movie, whichto the definition it is.
Um, but if we're setting Jawsaside as it's just like a summer
blockbuster that everybody lovesnowadays, my favorite horror
movie of all time is Scream.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:16):
Scream.

SPEAKER_02 (01:15:16):
Scream, the original 1996.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:18):
Yeah, great movie.
It was pretty iconic that firstone forever.

SPEAKER_01 (01:15:22):
It's the first movie we let uh Gracie, like she's 13,
she's like loves horror movies.
Yeah, that was one of the firstones we let her watch with us,
and then that was she was hookedafter that.
Oh, it's just like horror,horror, horror movies.
That's all we watched afterthat.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:15:35):
Oh, it did the bait and switch with Drew Barrymore
being on the poster.
Like it was Kevin Williamson isa genius as far as I'm
concerned.
He went on to do know what youdid last summer.
He created Dawson's Creek, whichis also crazy.
Like, he's like, well, just takeout the knives.
That guy does it all, honestly.
Yeah, and I believe he's back.

(01:15:57):
There, there's a new screamcoming out, and I think it's
like the first one he's writtenin quite a while.
Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:02):
So I I think that even the last few that came out
were okay.
They were they were fun towatch.
I mean, I enjoy seeing the sameold characters and uh same old
story, even though I know Imean, I don't know, horror
movies I always give a pass forthat stuff, right?
I just love to see that worldkeep going.
Like we saw the new FinalDestination this year.
Once I heard it was incredible.
It is.
Yeah, it is really good.

(01:16:23):
I would love to hear what youthink about it, because I would
actually say it's probably oneof the best movies I saw this
year, too.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:27):
Cool.
And I heard that it like wrapsthe the uh series like pretty
well.

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:32):
Full circle.
Like I even like the I even likethe first one.
Like people are afraid of logtrucks forever because of that.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:37):
Did you see the marketing that they did where
they put there were log trucksin America that they put the
billboard on the back of?
Like Final Destination.
Oh no.
Brutal six, seven.
That's awesome.
Yeah, genius.
Yeah, that's brutal.
Yeah.
When you can like that's what Imean.
It's like talk about like thezeitgeist of like you can either
like hold the mirror up to whatpeople are afraid of or make

(01:17:00):
people realize that they shouldbe afraid of something, and
that's what that movie did tolog trucks.

SPEAKER_01 (01:17:05):
Yeah.
That's true.
Anyway, check that one out.
I don't think you'd bedisappointed.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:09):
Yeah, you know what?
It creeped me out the uh theshard of glass going into the
bar in the trailer.
That was great.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:15):
Question number seven.
Uh, I think that's over to you.

SPEAKER_01 (01:17:18):
Oh, sorry.
I may have my phone.
Here, you just read it there,Jimmy.
Okay, that's fine.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:21):
What's the best advice that you've received that
you've ignored, and you wereglad you did?

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:27):
Oh, that was a roller coaster of a question.
That I'm glad I did.

SPEAKER_01 (01:17:33):
Yeah, you're glad you ignored it.
Advice you ignored in yourlifetime.
Don't make don't go make movies,be an accountant.

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:40):
Yeah, I I oh, here's one.
Um I did my undergrad at Acadiain political science.
I took a history of art course,and I went to the prof to ask
for a letter, like arecommendation letter for my
application to the New York FilmAcademy, and she said that I

(01:18:00):
would never get into filmschool.
Oh.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:03):
There you go.

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:04):
Send her this episode.
We're just sending this episodeto a bunch of people now.
Yeah, okay.
There you go.
Here's your receipts.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:12):
Uh do you want to do number eight?
I don't know what's going onwith my phone, dude.
All right, I'm just gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:16):
I think I forgot my I forgot my face or something.
Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:18):
Okay, question number eight.
If you could remake a movie,what one would you choose and
why?
Oh man.
Heavy hitters.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18:27):
Oh yeah.
Um It's hard because there areso many, like the movies that I
love and respect, I don't wantto touch ever.
Like, no one's gonna makeanother Shining.
I'm sure that they'll try.
The sequel was great.
Dr.
Sleep was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18:45):
Um, I don't want to touch the original scream.
Is Dr.
Sleep a sequel or prequel?
Sorry.
Sequel.
It's a sequel.
It's about uh I'll have to checkthat out.
Um what's his name?
Torrance, the kid is all grownup and it's Ewan McGregor now.
And Shine comes back, and yeah,it's interrupted.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
And he goes back to theoverlook.

(01:19:06):
It's crazy.
Oh yeah.
Um a movie that I would like toremake would be This is so
funny.
There's this movie from 2004 or5 called Wicker Park with Josh
Hartnett.
Okay, and it's based on a Frenchmovie called uh The Apartment,

(01:19:27):
like La Paltma.
And I love that movie, but it isso 2004 like style, yeah, and it
still works, and it's awesome,and it's great, and it's Josh
Hartnett and Matt Lillard, likefrom Scream, Rose Burn, like all
these incredible actors andactresses, and I just think like

(01:19:47):
you could make a really cool2025 love story version of it.
But also, not saying that I wantto, it's a piece of art.
Can it stands up to this day?
My sisters are gonna laugh atthat answer when I just
mentioned it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:04):
Are you in or do you want me to keep reading?

SPEAKER_00 (01:20:05):
I'm in here.
Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:06):
So question number nine.
Do you believe Canadianfilmmakers have a unique sense
of humor or horror compared toHollywood or no?
100%.
You do?
100%.
Can you give me an example?

SPEAKER_02 (01:20:16):
Yeah.
Um growing up, I don't I thinkthat there is something to be
said for Canadian winters thatif you can make a comedy, nobody
can make a like comedic wintermovie like we would be able to.
And I don't think that anybodydoes like snow horror better

(01:20:38):
than Canadians.
Snow horror.
Um snow horror.
Yeah, hashtag that one.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:42):
I never even thought of that before, but that's
awesome.
Shoveling.
Yeah.
Shoveling.

SPEAKER_02 (01:20:46):
Yeah.
It's like I I think that it umgives you an edge for sure.
That people like even like youthink about Stephen King being
in Bangor and me growing up inFredericton, that's only like
202 miles apart.
Not that I've looked updoor-to-door, my place is place.

(01:21:07):
But his snow horror movie takesplace in Colorado.
Like it's not even the mainstory the way that or misery is,
I suppose, a bit too.
But I just think that they itgives you an edge, which also,
in a funny way, makes us alittle bit funnier because you

(01:21:27):
have to be to get through thewinter.
Okay.
Um, yeah, there are charactersup here that I, in one sense, I
would sit next to them at thepub and laugh all night, but
then I would not want to runinto them in a dark alley.
Sure.
20 minutes later, even.

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:45):
Did you want to take question 10?
Because I asked a bunch in arow?

SPEAKER_01 (01:21:48):
It doesn't matter.
Go ahead and ask I there's afloating here.

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:51):
Question number 10 is You're at a bar and someone
says, Tell me why I should watchyour next film.
What's your 30-second pitch?

SPEAKER_02 (01:22:00):
My next film?
Are we talking Sweetie?
Oh, sure.
Sure.
In general?
Yeah.
Um Sweetie.
I would say that I have beenI've had a deep passion for film
since my mom took me to seeJurassic Park in the summer of
1993, which would have clockedme at three and a half years

(01:22:21):
old.
Um and everything that I do nowis devoted to protecting and
loving films and filmmaking.
Um, and I just hope that everyproject that I make, um, you can
see that in the craft of it all,and that's why I would hope
you'd want to watch my nextmovie.

(01:22:43):
Beautiful answer.

SPEAKER_01 (01:22:44):
We'll just do the last call and then we're all
done.
Great.
Yeah, another one a superlong-running guest, but no, this
has been great conversation.
So thank you.
Yeah.
And uh, yeah, so I guess we askevery guest this question.
Um, we just frame it as what'sone piece of advice you were
given in your lifetime?
It could be from anybody thatyou just want to share with us
today.

(01:23:04):
And it can come from any walk oflife, any show.

SPEAKER_02 (01:23:06):
Sure.
First thing that comes to mind,um, I worked with that show
Wolfville that I mentioned wasoptioned by Alan Hawke and his
company Take the Shot up inNewfoundland.
Alan Hawko told me early in mycareer to pay my taxes.
And that is something that isnot like necessarily a sexy
thing, but there are times whereyou get pretty excited about

(01:23:28):
keeping the taxes on certainpaychecks.
Um, pay your taxes for sure.
My dad always instilled in melike if you're gonna work on
something like go all in, umlower your shoulder, never your
head.
That was always a big one that Ilove.
All those old sports analogies,like never let a wind go to your
head or a loss to your heart.

(01:23:49):
That's another good one.

SPEAKER_01 (01:23:50):
Nice.

SPEAKER_02 (01:23:51):
I'd I'd go with that.
And that was uh that was publicenemy who said that.
Never let a wind go to your heador a loss to your heart.
So that's my answer.

SPEAKER_01 (01:23:58):
Great answer, dude.
Cheers.
Thank you very much so much.
Thank you so much.
And we'll uh we want to see haveyou back when that movie's
finished.
Uh the next one.

SPEAKER_03 (01:24:06):
All right, so happy to be a good thing.

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