August 31, 2025 • 39 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly spelunk into the business end of showbiz. This week: what does a filmmaker, cancelled for sexual assault, do to stay working? Ask Bryan Singer! He apparently moved to Israel to make propaganda films with Jon Voight.
Also, the latest numbers from the box office (go see Weapons), and the latest from Joe's Letterboxd account. Will Smith is desperate for attention, and needs the help of AI to make him seem more popular with the kids than he really is.
And... Disney and Universal unite like Voltron to take down AI companies trying to use their IPs as AI source material.
Also, the latest numbers from the box office (go see Weapons), and the latest from Joe's Letterboxd account. Will Smith is desperate for attention, and needs the help of AI to make him seem more popular with the kids than he really is.
And... Disney and Universal unite like Voltron to take down AI companies trying to use their IPs as AI source material.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbank, across the street promo
meaners and it's at that serves beer.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Joe Westblanti Live from Hollywood. As the man said, we
are coming to you live this week from Burbank and
Sam is with me. Sam, you've been you've been away
for a while.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, football season has hit and I get called in
by the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah. Now, everybody knows the priority I have over here
at k EIB. They steal my engineer, producer and they
just lead me blowing to the win. I don't know
what they think is going to happen, but usually I
make something out of it. And football season is always
rough for this show because we're always preempted by games.
(00:59):
But I've been looking at the schedule and it looks
like we're not preempted by any games.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah no, right now, but they just take that.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But the instead they just take my engineer.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah yeah. Well, and then once you know, the basketball
season gets into swing, that's usually when it's rough, because
then you'll have like the Clippers being pushed over and
then we just have to go podcast only.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Right, They'll push over the clippers and the evil Matt
money Smith will take over my allotted time.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
He is so weak, especially when he ride those waves.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, I haven't seen him in the water, but you
have to get out. You have to get out really
early to see Matt money Smith in the water. He
gets up there a lot earlier than me. Okay, what
we're going to do right now? We're going to start
with some crazy news. I guess it's crazy only if
you're paying attention to Brian Singer. Brian Singer, the director,
(01:53):
canceled for some sexual assault allegations that were never proved
and were just you know, his lifestyle. I think he
was He was canceled because of his lifestyle. He got
sued like a bunch of people did. Like we've talked
about this before, and a lot of it was connected
to this old network, the Digital Entertainment Network, where I
(02:16):
worked and produced a TV series for them. And you
should have met you should have been there, Sam in
those days. It was like it was the first internet network.
It was before Netflix. There were wild parties, wow, And
Brian Singer was at him and I had a series,
(02:37):
not just a series that I wrote, created and produced.
I was the star of the series. Sam Really, I
was the Roseanne bar of this network. Mine was the
only show that was a real show on that network too.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
With the network party, you carried that much weight with
the network, Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I did. I had. I had the only half hour
like a regularly, a regular program. Because when I pitched
my show to them, I said, here's the show. It's
a punk rock saved by the Belt, and they go, great,
we love it, putting it on the schedule twenty six episodes.
Then I started, you know, handing in the scripts and
(03:22):
they're like, we love it. It's great. And then when
they said we have almost no notes, I go, okay,
there's a problem here, because usually you're destroyed by notes.
But they let they gave me some free rein. The
episodes were turning out good. But then they were kind
of mad. They're like, when we were buying a punk show,
we thought there was going to be like, you know,
(03:43):
chains and knives and violence. I go, no, no, no, no.
This is a bunch of do gooders that are trying
to run a punk club, and that's what it was.
But a couple of those people when it started to
go down and the dot thing went down, these guys
also had They had so many young boy employees and
(04:08):
it was kind of a gay operation and they were
having these parties. So I think when people of these
kids started finding out they were kids, they were eighteen nineteen.
When they started finding out that there wasn't any like
the thing was going down and their jobs were going
to be lost, they started like manufacturing like sexual assault
(04:28):
claims against the owners and get money that way. And
I can say this because everything went to court, nobody
uh no proof of wrongdoing. Was it gross? Maybe? I
don't know. Were Brian Singer's wild parties that he had
outside of this organization gross? Yeah, they checked IDs I heard.
(04:52):
I mean, it all came out in this litigation. They
checked IDs, people had wristbands and made sure they were
over eighteen. But it's still I mean, let's face it, Sam,
premarital sex is gross. You know, babies don't come out
of it and it makes the baby Jesus cry. So
I can't condone it. But it wasn't something you send
(05:13):
someone to jail for unless you're gonna send every TV
producer virtually in the history of television and every film
person director that had parties where they tried to get
girls to sleep with them. It's kind of what these
people do. Seems like that's what tech industry or music
industry everything.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, no, it seems like that's what we're doing now
for the most part, is rooting out all the people
who had all of those big, dirty, salacious, debaucherist parties,
and now they're the ones who are gonna pay the bill.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, I think there's a difference between us pointing out
these people and saying, you know, that was immoral behavior
to try to seduce young people, and they and there's
a power or imbalance that we all know, and so
they think they might get a job if they compromise
their moral integrity. We can point that out as wrong.
(06:09):
But if the person is over eighteen and that's their
mo and they want to break into show business and
they do this stuff, and then when they get it,
it doesn't go the way they want, and then they
sue people for assault and say, well I did it,
but I was raped. That's a whole different thing. And
(06:30):
that's kind of what happened to Brian Singer. Although I
got to say I don't condone what he did, but
great director, you might like the X Men or The
Usual Suspects. That's where he broke out as a young.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
That is one of my favorite films for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Right and then then he did Behaming Rhapsody and things
that kind of unraveled right around there on twenty eighteen.
But the news I have about him right now is
he made a secret film. He made a secret film
with like Dolph Lungren. The past several years, he's been,
(07:13):
you know, living outside of Hollywood, primarily in Israel, and
you want to get into that, just kidding, and it's there.
He has now secretly directed a new independent film. Don't
have a title yet, but it's a father son's story
starring veteran actor John Voight. So he got John Voight
to sign on and it's set during the Israeli occupation
(07:36):
of Lebanon in the seventies or the eighties. Well that's controversial,
isn't it Very not a big budget studio, And he
was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody actually, and he lost his
job after that on the film read sonya, I mean,
he just was gone. So he's been without an agent
in hollywoody all dropped him and somehow someone said I
(07:58):
got money, I got Brian Singer. I got John Voight.
Let me ask you, Sam, how's this movie gonna do?
Is it gonna be banished? Or are people gonna welcome him
back and say, well, you know there was no convictions.
Maybe we were harsh on with the new climate. Right now,
what do you think will happen?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I don't think it's gonna go very far, but you know,
the celeb power of John Voight may carry him in
certain circles.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I think it will come down to the writing. If
this is a well written movie. John vod is a
class actor. You might remember him in the greatest movie
ever made, Deliverance.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I really liked him in Enemy of the State and
Me the State.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Is that Blanquin Eddy two album?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I'm not sure, but I know that that was. Another
person who was pretty much canceled was Will Smith. But
he I think he's canceling himself at this point with
what he's doing.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Did you see what's going on with Will Smith this week?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Time.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Let's see do we have time? I think we no,
Let's save it for the next break.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, save a break, We'll come back. We'll save it
for the break and then we'll we'll we'll go a
little further on this, we'll wrap it up. But what
do you think is is this Brian singer thing gonna work?
We'll it get distribution. I guess that's the main question.
And Will Smith kind of stepped in it this week,
(09:22):
so we'll talk about that too. Joe Sclante Live from Hollywood.
Let's check the traffic. Joe Scolante Live from Hollywood. By Hollywood.
You means Burbank. I assume you're playing bumper music samba.
The system is so said messed up. I can't hear anything.
Did that work for you?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah? No, it sounded good on my end, so we
should Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
All right, I'm not pumped up on my awesome bumper music.
By the way, you can still go to Spotify and
there is a list a playlist of all my bumper music,
so it's a pro tip. Okay. So Brian Singers doing
this father Son move The Secret Movie in Israel with
John Voight, so crazy. But you gotta think it's about
(10:06):
the Israeli occupation. This is interesting. It's about the Israeli
occupation of Lebanon in the seventies and eighties. Now, if
you're coming into a movie and you're making a movie
about Israel occupying something. I mean, what are you doing saying, hey,
this was a heroic occupation of this sovereign territory. I mean,
(10:30):
is that the angle you think?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I think, so, hey, we're occupying so benevolent, benevolently.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
We're heroes, We're hero occupiers and this is our story,
ladies and gentlemen. Mister John Voight, you got to think
that that's maybe the angle, because if Brian Singer was
living in Israel, then he gets John and John Voyt
(11:01):
is kind of like a a conservative actor. He's kind
of a conservative activist. I don't know if he's like
a evangelical Zionist or whatever. But when you put the
two and two together, you kind of think it's a
pro Israel movie or a uh and uh and uh
(11:23):
what do you call it? Uh? Just an apology or
a or a whitewashing or is it are they going
to reveal things that we didn't know? So it's kind
of weird, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, but it could come up come across as being propaganda.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It could be yes, propaganda. Is it propaganda?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah? Who knows?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Wow, it sounds like they're making propaganda.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right, It seems it could.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Be because if you're Brian Singer and no one will
hire you in Hollywood, but you have the Israeli you're
living in Israel, maybe the Israeli government or the the
Aligarcs or whatever they have over there, are saying, hey,
let's get to we get we're we're suffering today. People
(12:16):
don't like we need an image reboot. What if we
hire this amazing director and then we take this Oscar
winning actor. I think he went an Oscar for Coming
Home the Best. He's an Oscar winner. Take these two things.
(12:36):
We'll clean up the reputation on this occupation of Lebanon.
And you know what, I don't know a lot about
the occupation of Lebanon, but uh, you know, I can
kind of I can kind of guess it wasn't very pleasant.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Occupations usually are very pleasant. Occupations usually are not very pleasant.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Now seems about the most unpleasant since World War Two?
So I gotta say, wow, what's going on here? So
I mean that's why this is big news because I mean,
not only is he doing this, he was canceled, but
what's he doing? What's what the what's the good? Where's
(13:20):
this gonna go and then you know what, you know,
what's going on to in the like the conservative media,
they are kind of dividing over Israel, Like there are
the Tucker Carlson's on the one side and then there's
the Ben Shapiro's on the other side, and they kind
of hate each other. Where does John Voight fit in
here with his accused Beudo file director? I mean, this
(13:48):
is where's this going? Because when it comes out, it's
kind of like more people have to choose sides, like,
you know, are you into this current occupation or you're not?
And they're that's where they're dividing over Israel, these the conservatives.
I guess there's a lot of that maybe in the
on the other side too.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah. So people are like that's complicated, too complicated for
this show, but wow, yeah it can happen.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah. It just kind of points back to the thing
that I think you and I have talked about a
couple of times, the idea that people tend to adopt
problems that aren't necessarily.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Theirs by by meaning like so Brian Singer and John
Voweet are going to go in and save the Israeli
government's reputation on some occupation that that isn't their problem,
that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
No, more like the audience how you're saying the division
amongst the conservatives about it. It's a lot of people
don't necessarily have a horse in the game. But with
the way the political climate is, it forces people to
be polarized. Take one side or the other, and.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, you better take one. Yeah like it when they
kind of divide like this, like people have to really
start using their brains. Yeah, are you gonna like are
you going to if you look at your Republican legislatures,
I mean they're pouring money into Israel. Now, if you
got the other people on the like the Tucker Carlson's
and they're saying, hey, shouldn't there shouldn't be one penny
(15:21):
pay to those people now where now you have to
start thinking on your own which which start look at
it and make up your own mind instead of just
listening to whatever, uh you know, Fox News tells you
to do or whatever. So I find that fascinating. Uh
And this is more more, uh more of it. And
(15:43):
then then I and then there's the well they like
the evangelicals. I'm a Catholic, So I can kind of
kind of come in here and say, like, uh, if
the evangelicals have a like a weird like they have
a to me, it's weird, it's heretical. They have a
belief that Israel must do certain things for their the
(16:06):
manifestation of their religion to be fulfilled, and the Catholics
don't have the same thing. So the Catholics are like,
you know, we have our thing, and no one knows
the hour or the day or the time when this
all ends. But some of those evangelicals believe they do,
and or at least they have a they're gonna they
(16:26):
have to protect Israel and they have to make sure
Israel succeeds for their religious thing to take place. And
so as a as a Catholic, I look at this
and go like, Okay, how much is that gonna cost
me as a taxpayer two to make sure they're heretical
(16:48):
religious manifestations are are realized. And then it kind of
comes down to kind of comes down to who's gonna
pay for it? Yeah, I know Sam is ready to
pay for it. He's allocated a lot of his salary
to pay for that. But I'm not so sure, Sam,
(17:13):
do you think I should hedge my bet? I don't know.
It's kind of I mean, I got into this Brian
Singer thing just because I've I've met him and I've
hung out with him at these parties for the Digital
Entertainment Network and he was wonderful person, great director of
Usual Suspects and all that stuff, the X Men. He's
a talent, you know, and then he got railroaded and wrong.
(17:33):
So I'm like, wow, he's I feel like, you know,
I want to follow the story. And then as I'm
digging more into it and I'm talking to you, that's
why I'm glad to have you back, so I can
like bounce these ideas off you. Where's this movie going. Yeah,
that's why it's a little more fascinating than I first thought.
(17:54):
And John Voyd I've met him too, not at the
same party, but many times. John Voyd I met is
such a class act and a talent, and he's one
of the only conservatives, open conservatives that has not been canceled,
and he does not like he defies the stereotype that
(18:16):
if you are a conservative in Hollywood, you will not
get work, and people say they'll blacklist you. Then when
people say that, other people point to John vod say,
look at him. He's on a special Donald Trump committee too,
you know, save Hollywood or something. Still getting work. I
(18:36):
don't know, maybe maybe not after this, but it's just
gonna be fascinating. So we'll follow that and we'll follow
it until the wheels come off. Okay, Stam, let's go
to a break again and come back with some box
office news that's a little more close to home and
talk about the movies that I saw and you saw
over the weekend, because we just that's what we do
(18:58):
right here. Joey Scalante Live from Hollywood. Okay, well you
are back, Joe. Let's go on Today Live from Hollywood.
We're here every Sunday from five to seven on AM
eleven fifty KiB Okay, let's go to the box office
and we're gonna concentrate it in the Cinemax Office of America.
(19:24):
Sam and the results from the this past weekend, Labor
Day weekend. And here's a fun fact. The Labor Day weekend,
the Monday, the extra Monday, usually doesn't add much to
the movie box office. It's not a big thing like
the Thanksgiving weekend, where there's these extra days, maybe even
(19:46):
the Memorial Day weekend, because you're starting summer off and
people are going to the movies on Sunday and Monday.
But Labor Day most people a lot have to go
to school and work after Labor Day, so they are
not going to the movies. So this is not a
great Labor Day for movies this year. But you know
(20:07):
there are some new ones. And Sam, did you see
any of this week?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
No, I've been more or less netflixing it. I've been
watching The Last Airbender to show the both the animated
and the live action show that they have on Netflix.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You're lucky you're not looking for a girlfriend, because you're
not going to get one with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Oh no, she is enthralled with this show.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Okay, well you're lucky you have that girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay. Well, while you theater kids were watching that, I
went to I went to the movies on Tuesday and
saw the film Weapons.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Oh yeah, that one was a number one for the
last couple of weeks. How was it?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, number one Warner Brothers horror film Weapons, directed by
Zach Craiger, known for the twenty twenty two hit Barbarian,
The film earned about ten million in its fourth week
of release this weekend. It's domestic now stands at approximately
one hundred and thirty two million. That's a lot of
money for a horror film, because we all know horror
(21:17):
films don't cost that much to make, but this one,
it's a high budget horror film. Second place is Universal's
fiftieth anniversary release of the nineteen seventy five film Jaws,
directed by Steven Spielberg, known for countless classics including Jurassic Arc.
But what about that turd that he made about his
(21:37):
own upbringing. Let's just give it. Give the pass on
that one. I forgot the name of it too. So
isn't that crazy eight point one million for a re release?
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Wow? Yeah, that's a little surprising that people actually still
had the interest after it being out in the public
for so long.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Well, also, I just watched it on some like, you know,
some pretty good print of it on a streaming service,
because they are celebrating it on these streaming services. Also,
so that's why I didn't go. I was gonna I
would like to see it in the big theater, on
the big screen, but I had just seen it on
one of the streamers. The highest charting new release is
(22:17):
the crime thriller Caught Stealing, which I'm going to see
after we sign off tonight. That's directed by Darren Aronofsky,
who is known for films like The Black Swan. Third
place was seven point eight million, coming in at number four.
Freaky or Friday. That's a Disney movie, and I would
(22:40):
say doesn't cost much to make very successful, unlike all
those big flops they've been having lately. But when they
have a flop, I think they make it up, you know,
in stuffed animals, if nothing else. Freak Your Friday kind
of relatively unknown director Nisha Ganatra, known mostly for the
(23:01):
film Late Night, which is like some twenty twenty two
workplace comedy. I don't know if you remember this. I
didn't see it. It's had like Emma Thompson in it,
and I just didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Either, and I didn't see Freaky You Friday. I had
a choice tonight, Freak Your Friday with my wife or
Cuch Stealing. We're gonna go see Kutch Steeling and I'm
in Big Bear, so I got to go to like
the Village theater. No, you can't choose your own seats.
They don't recline. But you know, I try to support
(23:36):
this theater because this theater actually did fold last year
and then some family bought it and brought it back.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
That's good. I'm glad that the theaters, and you know,
the smaller towns like that like Big Bear, are getting
the love and attention that they deserve.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Now what did Okay? So you didn't you didn't see Weapons? No, okay,
Weapons is a it's a thriller and a horror film,
but it's not the like my wife won't go to
see like the demonic horror films. I think the last
one I took her to was The Conjuring, And probably
(24:15):
because she's Catholic and she's you know, attending church, you know,
several times a week, she's praying every day and then
and then you just don't need some Hollywood version of
the devil himself, you know, sinking into your brain. And
she takes movies to heart and has nightmares about them
that same night. So I don't have that problem. I
(24:36):
do like to see the demonic horror films, but I
don't see many of them because you know, she won't
go with me and weapons. Is not one of those
interesting You didn't see it yet, did you?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
No? I have not.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's well worth it. Great movie. The centers around. Everybody
knows this. I'm not giving anything away. Seventeen kids disappear
from the same classroom in the middle of the night.
Why where'd they go.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
And why are they in a classroom in the middle
of the night.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Well they weren't. I mean they're from the same classroom
in the day, okay, but every day after school they
go home and then in their beds they all woke
up at the same time and started running away out
the door. Now you can see them right out the door.
Because it's a modern movie, everybody has a ring camera.
(25:34):
So you got Josh Brolin, who I went to summer
camp with, by the way, not that he remembers. He's
running around. He's gonna try to solve this problem and
uh he uh eventually does. Now you you watch this thing,
it's like a zombie movie. You know what's gonna happen.
We already know where to look to find out where
(25:55):
these kids went or who knows something. It doesn't matter.
The movie is so good. You know what's gonna happen,
and there's the acting is top shelf, and the special
effects wonderful, and there's a lot of laughs, maam excellent.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
That's the thing. A good horror film also has elements
of comedy. It has to nowadays.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yes, so this is one of those, and I couldn't
recommend it more. And it's kind of like this one
and Eddington my two favorite movies that I've seen recently.
Did you see Eddington?
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I did not what was edited Eddington?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
About Eddington's another Pedro Pascal movie where it's a COVID movie.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Oh yes, yes, I think we talked about this one.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, yeah, there it's COVID and the there's a sheriff
who thinks she shouldn't wear a mask, and then there's
a guy running from mayor who thinks you should wear
a mask, and there's and then you know, they just
kind of a lot of weird stuff happens. And I
saw it like a month ago, so I don't remember
any of it. That's why I have my letterbox account.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
That really comes in handy for those moments. Yeah. No,
the letterbox account comes in handy for those moments in particular,
where you you know, you went and saw a movie
you just can't remember any details, and it's good to
just keep a journal of it as you go.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Well, when I uh look at my letterbox account, like
I'm I'm gonna sign into it right now, and I
look at my diary and I look at it and
I scroll down and I got every single movie that
I've seen in a theater. And then if I watched
a whole movie on Netflix, I'll put it in there. Also.
I look at it and I'm just amazed. I'll pick
(27:48):
out a movie in there. I'm like, what is this movie?
The Phonetian scheme? I don't remember that?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Oh, yeah, I remember that one. I saw that one.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Wes Anderson. Yeah, I look go Roulette here on on
on my letterbox. Conclave, Yeah, I saw a Conclave. I
got it half a star, better Man, four and a
half stars. That was where Robbie Williams is a monkey.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Is that the sound that the the the app makes
when you go through it?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It's internal? Oh, Nickel Boys, excellent movie. Actually I remember
that because I saw twice uh soundtrack to a Coup Desta.
I mean, what is that? I watched this? Oh, it's
a masterpiece of a documentary fusing jazz greats and the
struggle for independence in the Congo Who How do you
(28:49):
remember it?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, you might want to see that. Well. Actually, if
if any of the stuff sounds fun to you, all
you gotta do is go to my letterbox account and
look at my diary. Alice doesn't live here anymore. That's
an example of an old movie. I rewatched nineteen seventy
four film. I gave it four and a half stars.
Chris Christofferson and Ellen Burston saw in the theaters. And
(29:13):
I was a little kid when I used to pick
out all the movies for my parents to see. Snow White,
the New One. How many stars do you think? I
gave that one?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Two?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Close? I gave it three, not as bad as people thought.
So you can also see did I like him or not?
How about Nicholas Cage's latest film, The Surfer. I mean
it's called The Surfer, it's got Nicholas Cage in it.
How many stars did that get?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
It's Nicholas Cage. That's an automatic three?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
One?
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Oh no, all right.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Enough of this vivolity. Are we as a time for
a Breakdad?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I forgot question for a break?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
All right? Joey Ascalante live from how went back after
this traffic? Yeah, Joe Escalante by from Hollywood. Yes, I'm back,
(30:20):
And it's our final segment of this hour of the show.
And let's get right to the stories, because I had
quite a few. But I also didn't didn't. I forgot
to mention Denise, not Denise, Julia Gardner in Weapons and
she's one of the greatest actresses of our time. I
would say, so, Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, you can't
(30:47):
go wrong. I've met both of them. Guarantee, neither of
them will remember me from Adam, but you know they
allow me their careers. Okay, in the Bad Actors, I
think that's a good name for this segment, Bad Actors.
Denise Richards had to file a restraining order against her
estranged husband. You know, for what, that's just sellaciousness?
Speaker 3 (31:15):
What did she do?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
What happened the latest and most serious escalation in their divorce,
which was initiated earlier in the year. A court hearing
is scheduled for next month, where a judge will hear
arguments from both sides and decide whether to make the
temporary order a more permanent one. Her husband's name is
Vipers Aaron Phiper's that's a crazy name. Fipers has not
(31:40):
yet publicly responded to the allegations made in the court documents.
You know Denise Richards, she used to be a bond girl.
Oh yeah, she was in a couple of films Starstit Troopers.
You might remember her.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Wasn't she married to Charlie Sheen for a.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Bit married to Charlie Sheen. So she should get a
medal for that two thousand and two to two thousand
and six. Oh but I'm having a little trouble right now.
And uh, let's see what I got. I got a
couple other stories. Oh, there's a new streaming service, okay
(32:11):
called Do you know about this one? It's called Fox
one or something.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
No, I have not heard about this.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
This is a sports it's kind of a a sport.
Fox one is Fox Corporation's new direct to consumer streaming service.
Unlike the massive kitchen sink platforms like Disney Plus or
Max where you know they got everything all movie newes,
Fox one is designed to be a leaner, more focused service.
(32:41):
Its primary purpose is to give people who have canceled
cable TV a way to access Fox's core live and
next day programming and that you have everything from FS one,
the Fox Sports one on there. You have the main
Fox broadcast channel on there, and uh, there's a bunch
of other's supposed to be a bunch of other sports
stuff for the sports focused Cord Cutter nineteen ninety nine
(33:07):
a month, very.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
High, right, that's a little pricey.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Now, Apple TV Plus or whatever it's called. They just
raise their price. Everyone's raising their prices because the new
direction of streaming is profitability, not trying to just cut
prices and get a bunch of scripts. They're going for
profitability rather than just bulk subscription strategies. Yeah, so that's
(33:38):
the So everyone's going to pay more for their streaming
in the future. That's pretty much the where that's going.
And everyone's got a everyone has a decision to make.
Now we were talking about Will Smith. Why is Will Smith?
Matt People are mad at what Will Smith because he
(33:59):
reallys video and it's just full of AI people in
the audience, so it's trying to make it look like
he's popular. I mean, it's one thing to me, I
think it's forgivable if you like have a football stadium
and you need to use AI to generate a ninety
thousand people in the audience instead of paying ninety thousand extras.
(34:20):
I think that's forgivable, right, even for people that are
anti AI.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
I could see that being forgivable. And as long as
Will Smith is also.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
AI, yes, exactly, and he didn't get paid. Yeah, Well,
Will Smith is like rapping and you know, he's doing
this thing and then and the audience just can't get
enough of him. They're enthralled. There's so many of them, Sam.
The problem is they're not real. Yeah, they're phony, and
people are mad about that. Now. I know a little
(34:50):
bit about this because I created an AI Instagram thing
a couple of weeks ago, and it was this girl
named a Carrie from the call center and she was
a call center girl and she was announcing that Joe
(35:11):
Scalantian or Fitzgerald are doing tours at the Punk Rock Museum,
and I, you know, I just I made her like
a kind of an LGBTQ plus a person with a
blue mohawk, and you know, I wanted to make her look,
you know, like a typical punk person that would have
a call center job. And some people in the our
community got really mad because they didn't concentrate on how
(35:33):
funny and how racist it was, and instead all they
could think about is their blind allegiance to the anti
AI mob. And that's a real thing on the internet.
So you gotta be careful what you do with AI.
And I don't care because I'm I have nothing to lose.
I just I'll put out as much AI as I
want and I have fun with it. And if you
(35:53):
want to see what I'm talking about, it's on the
joe escal or the Joey Escalante Instagram or on the
vandals Facebook page. I think it's only on the vandals
Instagram and the Vandals Facebook page. Carry from the call center,
I encourage you to look at that and let me
know if you think it's offensive or not. I think
it's funny.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I will have to take a look at this and
I will give you my feedback.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah, please give your feedback and let me know if
you want more. Carrie from the call center. Yeah, how
much time we got left in this stellar radio program.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
We have let's see, we're creeping up on it. We
got about three minutes.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Okay. The only other thing I have, which is kind
of interesting that people in the AI category two is.
It's a landmark legal move. Disney and Universal filed a
joint copyright infringement lawsuit against AI image generator mid Journey. Now,
if you know mid Journey, it's what most people use,
or most people I know use to create fake pictures
(36:53):
and fake videos using AI. And that's where you get
like a bunch of images of people with six fingers,
is what I think they're most known for. But they've trained.
So this is Disney and Universal. These are two competitors
and they're joining together. They say, we're going to go
after these people because they're training these AI platforms using
(37:15):
billions of images, including the studio's most iconic copyrighted characters
from Mickey Mouse to Yoda to Shrek to the Minions,
and the studios claim the platform is being used to
create unauthorized derivative works that dilute their brands and violate
their intellectual property on a massive scale. Now, on the
one hand, yes, these things are looking at everything because
(37:38):
if you want to and for in order for an
AI program to we're gonna has to look at everything.
Now that's the lot. So it's got to look at everything.
You don't want an AI program that only looks at
things that it has permission to look at. That's a
useless nothing AI program and they know it. But what
are they doing. They're trying to get money out of them.
Same way the VCRs companies paid money to the studios
(38:01):
because they knew that a lot of people were committing
copyright fringes infringements in the nineteen seventies. So they went
to court and they came back and the court said, okay, Sony,
with your Beta Max, you got to pay some money
to the studios because we know they're losing money on
your Beta Max. So they just came up with the
formula and they paid them a little money. So that's
what these guys are trying to do, because we all
know you can't make an AI program without these looking
(38:23):
at the stuff. Does it make it a derivative work?
I don't know. That would be for court to decide
whether what they if they've really used something and if
anyone would know, you know. Yeah, So the Disney and
Universal is saying, well, we just don't want to let
you train on them. That way, we will know you're
not allowed to train using our images for your large
language models or whatever you're using to do your stuff,
(38:47):
and we all know that's not gonna work. That's not practical.
I mean, Sam, do you want to live in a
world where AI only looks at things that copyright holders
gave them permission to look at.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I think that would severely limit the scope of what
AI can do to help out with people.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah, right, it might be fair, Yeah, but we can't
really live in that world. So what they're doing is
they're gonna just use all the leverage they have with
the courts and probably and try to get a check
written out to them. You want a license to train
AI models, Well then you're gonna have to pay these
guys and it'll just be like attacks and they'll give
it to starving artists. I'm sure. Nope, they'll give it
(39:28):
to they'll line their pockets with it. So all right,
let's take let's let's get out here. Yeah, I think
our work is done, and we will see you next
Sunday on the Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood program. Until then,
I go to the movies or something. You can go
to a theater and I'll leave you with just a
taste of the greatest song you've ever written.
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbank, across the street promo
meaners and it's at that serves beer.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Joe Westblanti Live from Hollywood. As the man said, we
are coming to you live this week from Burbank and
Sam is with me. Sam, you've been you've been away
for a while.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, football season has hit and I get called in
by the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah. Now, everybody knows the priority I have over here
at k EIB. They steal my engineer, producer and they
just lead me blowing to the win. I don't know
what they think is going to happen, but usually I
make something out of it. And football season is always
rough for this show because we're always preempted by games.
(00:59):
But I've been looking at the schedule and it looks
like we're not preempted by any games.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah no, right now, but they just take that.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But the instead they just take my engineer.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah yeah. Well, and then once you know, the basketball
season gets into swing, that's usually when it's rough, because
then you'll have like the Clippers being pushed over and
then we just have to go podcast only.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Right, They'll push over the clippers and the evil Matt
money Smith will take over my allotted time.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
He is so weak, especially when he ride those waves.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, I haven't seen him in the water, but you
have to get out. You have to get out really
early to see Matt money Smith in the water. He
gets up there a lot earlier than me. Okay, what
we're going to do right now? We're going to start
with some crazy news. I guess it's crazy only if
you're paying attention to Brian Singer. Brian Singer, the director,
(01:53):
canceled for some sexual assault allegations that were never proved
and were just you know, his lifestyle. I think he
was He was canceled because of his lifestyle. He got
sued like a bunch of people did. Like we've talked
about this before, and a lot of it was connected
to this old network, the Digital Entertainment Network, where I
(02:16):
worked and produced a TV series for them. And you
should have met you should have been there, Sam in
those days. It was like it was the first internet network.
It was before Netflix. There were wild parties, wow, And
Brian Singer was at him and I had a series,
(02:37):
not just a series that I wrote, created and produced.
I was the star of the series. Sam Really, I
was the Roseanne bar of this network. Mine was the
only show that was a real show on that network too.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
With the network party, you carried that much weight with
the network, Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I did. I had. I had the only half hour
like a regularly, a regular program. Because when I pitched
my show to them, I said, here's the show. It's
a punk rock saved by the Belt, and they go, great,
we love it, putting it on the schedule twenty six episodes.
Then I started, you know, handing in the scripts and
(03:22):
they're like, we love it. It's great. And then when
they said we have almost no notes, I go, okay,
there's a problem here, because usually you're destroyed by notes.
But they let they gave me some free rein. The
episodes were turning out good. But then they were kind
of mad. They're like, when we were buying a punk show,
we thought there was going to be like, you know,
(03:43):
chains and knives and violence. I go, no, no, no, no.
This is a bunch of do gooders that are trying
to run a punk club, and that's what it was.
But a couple of those people when it started to
go down and the dot thing went down, these guys
also had They had so many young boy employees and
(04:08):
it was kind of a gay operation and they were
having these parties. So I think when people of these
kids started finding out they were kids, they were eighteen nineteen.
When they started finding out that there wasn't any like
the thing was going down and their jobs were going
to be lost, they started like manufacturing like sexual assault
(04:28):
claims against the owners and get money that way. And
I can say this because everything went to court, nobody
uh no proof of wrongdoing. Was it gross? Maybe? I
don't know. Were Brian Singer's wild parties that he had
outside of this organization gross? Yeah, they checked IDs I heard.
(04:52):
I mean, it all came out in this litigation. They
checked IDs, people had wristbands and made sure they were
over eighteen. But it's still I mean, let's face it, Sam,
premarital sex is gross. You know, babies don't come out
of it and it makes the baby Jesus cry. So
I can't condone it. But it wasn't something you send
(05:13):
someone to jail for unless you're gonna send every TV
producer virtually in the history of television and every film
person director that had parties where they tried to get
girls to sleep with them. It's kind of what these
people do. Seems like that's what tech industry or music
industry everything.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, no, it seems like that's what we're doing now
for the most part, is rooting out all the people
who had all of those big, dirty, salacious, debaucherist parties,
and now they're the ones who are gonna pay the bill.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, I think there's a difference between us pointing out
these people and saying, you know, that was immoral behavior
to try to seduce young people, and they and there's
a power or imbalance that we all know, and so
they think they might get a job if they compromise
their moral integrity. We can point that out as wrong.
(06:09):
But if the person is over eighteen and that's their
mo and they want to break into show business and
they do this stuff, and then when they get it,
it doesn't go the way they want, and then they
sue people for assault and say, well I did it,
but I was raped. That's a whole different thing. And
(06:30):
that's kind of what happened to Brian Singer. Although I
got to say I don't condone what he did, but
great director, you might like the X Men or The
Usual Suspects. That's where he broke out as a young.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
That is one of my favorite films for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Right and then then he did Behaming Rhapsody and things
that kind of unraveled right around there on twenty eighteen.
But the news I have about him right now is
he made a secret film. He made a secret film
with like Dolph Lungren. The past several years, he's been,
(07:13):
you know, living outside of Hollywood, primarily in Israel, and
you want to get into that, just kidding, and it's there.
He has now secretly directed a new independent film. Don't
have a title yet, but it's a father son's story
starring veteran actor John Voight. So he got John Voight
to sign on and it's set during the Israeli occupation
(07:36):
of Lebanon in the seventies or the eighties. Well that's controversial,
isn't it Very not a big budget studio, And he
was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody actually, and he lost his
job after that on the film read sonya, I mean,
he just was gone. So he's been without an agent
in hollywoody all dropped him and somehow someone said I
(07:58):
got money, I got Brian Singer. I got John Voight.
Let me ask you, Sam, how's this movie gonna do?
Is it gonna be banished? Or are people gonna welcome him
back and say, well, you know there was no convictions.
Maybe we were harsh on with the new climate. Right now,
what do you think will happen?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I don't think it's gonna go very far, but you know,
the celeb power of John Voight may carry him in
certain circles.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I think it will come down to the writing. If
this is a well written movie. John vod is a
class actor. You might remember him in the greatest movie
ever made, Deliverance.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I really liked him in Enemy of the State and
Me the State.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Is that Blanquin Eddy two album?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I'm not sure, but I know that that was. Another
person who was pretty much canceled was Will Smith. But
he I think he's canceling himself at this point with
what he's doing.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Did you see what's going on with Will Smith this week?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Time.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Let's see do we have time? I think we no,
Let's save it for the next break.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, save a break, We'll come back. We'll save it
for the break and then we'll we'll we'll go a
little further on this, we'll wrap it up. But what
do you think is is this Brian singer thing gonna work?
We'll it get distribution. I guess that's the main question.
And Will Smith kind of stepped in it this week,
(09:22):
so we'll talk about that too. Joe Sclante Live from Hollywood.
Let's check the traffic. Joe Scolante Live from Hollywood. By Hollywood.
You means Burbank. I assume you're playing bumper music samba.
The system is so said messed up. I can't hear anything.
Did that work for you?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah? No, it sounded good on my end, so we
should Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
All right, I'm not pumped up on my awesome bumper music.
By the way, you can still go to Spotify and
there is a list a playlist of all my bumper music,
so it's a pro tip. Okay. So Brian Singers doing
this father Son move The Secret Movie in Israel with
John Voight, so crazy. But you gotta think it's about
(10:06):
the Israeli occupation. This is interesting. It's about the Israeli
occupation of Lebanon in the seventies and eighties. Now, if
you're coming into a movie and you're making a movie
about Israel occupying something. I mean, what are you doing saying, hey,
this was a heroic occupation of this sovereign territory. I mean,
(10:30):
is that the angle you think?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I think, so, hey, we're occupying so benevolent, benevolently.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
We're heroes, We're hero occupiers and this is our story,
ladies and gentlemen. Mister John Voight, you got to think
that that's maybe the angle, because if Brian Singer was
living in Israel, then he gets John and John Voyt
(11:01):
is kind of like a a conservative actor. He's kind
of a conservative activist. I don't know if he's like
a evangelical Zionist or whatever. But when you put the
two and two together, you kind of think it's a
pro Israel movie or a uh and uh and uh
(11:23):
what do you call it? Uh? Just an apology or
a or a whitewashing or is it are they going
to reveal things that we didn't know? So it's kind
of weird, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, but it could come up come across as being propaganda.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It could be yes, propaganda. Is it propaganda?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah? Who knows?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Wow, it sounds like they're making propaganda.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right, It seems it could.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Be because if you're Brian Singer and no one will
hire you in Hollywood, but you have the Israeli you're
living in Israel, maybe the Israeli government or the the
Aligarcs or whatever they have over there, are saying, hey,
let's get to we get we're we're suffering today. People
(12:16):
don't like we need an image reboot. What if we
hire this amazing director and then we take this Oscar
winning actor. I think he went an Oscar for Coming
Home the Best. He's an Oscar winner. Take these two things.
(12:36):
We'll clean up the reputation on this occupation of Lebanon.
And you know what, I don't know a lot about
the occupation of Lebanon, but uh, you know, I can
kind of I can kind of guess it wasn't very pleasant.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Occupations usually are very pleasant. Occupations usually are not very pleasant.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Now seems about the most unpleasant since World War Two?
So I gotta say, wow, what's going on here? So
I mean that's why this is big news because I mean,
not only is he doing this, he was canceled, but
what's he doing? What's what the what's the good? Where's
(13:20):
this gonna go and then you know what, you know,
what's going on to in the like the conservative media,
they are kind of dividing over Israel, Like there are
the Tucker Carlson's on the one side and then there's
the Ben Shapiro's on the other side, and they kind
of hate each other. Where does John Voight fit in
here with his accused Beudo file director? I mean, this
(13:48):
is where's this going? Because when it comes out, it's
kind of like more people have to choose sides, like,
you know, are you into this current occupation or you're not?
And they're that's where they're dividing over Israel, these the conservatives.
I guess there's a lot of that maybe in the
on the other side too.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah. So people are like that's complicated, too complicated for
this show, but wow, yeah it can happen.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah. It just kind of points back to the thing
that I think you and I have talked about a
couple of times, the idea that people tend to adopt
problems that aren't necessarily.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Theirs by by meaning like so Brian Singer and John
Voweet are going to go in and save the Israeli
government's reputation on some occupation that that isn't their problem,
that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
No, more like the audience how you're saying the division
amongst the conservatives about it. It's a lot of people
don't necessarily have a horse in the game. But with
the way the political climate is, it forces people to
be polarized. Take one side or the other, and.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, you better take one. Yeah like it when they
kind of divide like this, like people have to really
start using their brains. Yeah, are you gonna like are
you going to if you look at your Republican legislatures,
I mean they're pouring money into Israel. Now, if you
got the other people on the like the Tucker Carlson's
and they're saying, hey, shouldn't there shouldn't be one penny
(15:21):
pay to those people now where now you have to
start thinking on your own which which start look at
it and make up your own mind instead of just
listening to whatever, uh you know, Fox News tells you
to do or whatever. So I find that fascinating. Uh
And this is more more, uh more of it. And
(15:43):
then then I and then there's the well they like
the evangelicals. I'm a Catholic, So I can kind of
kind of come in here and say, like, uh, if
the evangelicals have a like a weird like they have
a to me, it's weird, it's heretical. They have a
belief that Israel must do certain things for their the
(16:06):
manifestation of their religion to be fulfilled, and the Catholics
don't have the same thing. So the Catholics are like,
you know, we have our thing, and no one knows
the hour or the day or the time when this
all ends. But some of those evangelicals believe they do,
and or at least they have a they're gonna they
(16:26):
have to protect Israel and they have to make sure
Israel succeeds for their religious thing to take place. And
so as a as a Catholic, I look at this
and go like, Okay, how much is that gonna cost
me as a taxpayer two to make sure they're heretical
(16:48):
religious manifestations are are realized. And then it kind of
comes down to kind of comes down to who's gonna
pay for it? Yeah, I know Sam is ready to
pay for it. He's allocated a lot of his salary
to pay for that. But I'm not so sure, Sam,
(17:13):
do you think I should hedge my bet? I don't know.
It's kind of I mean, I got into this Brian
Singer thing just because I've I've met him and I've
hung out with him at these parties for the Digital
Entertainment Network and he was wonderful person, great director of
Usual Suspects and all that stuff, the X Men. He's
a talent, you know, and then he got railroaded and wrong.
(17:33):
So I'm like, wow, he's I feel like, you know,
I want to follow the story. And then as I'm
digging more into it and I'm talking to you, that's
why I'm glad to have you back, so I can
like bounce these ideas off you. Where's this movie going. Yeah,
that's why it's a little more fascinating than I first thought.
(17:54):
And John Voyd I've met him too, not at the
same party, but many times. John Voyd I met is
such a class act and a talent, and he's one
of the only conservatives, open conservatives that has not been canceled,
and he does not like he defies the stereotype that
(18:16):
if you are a conservative in Hollywood, you will not
get work, and people say they'll blacklist you. Then when
people say that, other people point to John vod say,
look at him. He's on a special Donald Trump committee too,
you know, save Hollywood or something. Still getting work. I
(18:36):
don't know, maybe maybe not after this, but it's just
gonna be fascinating. So we'll follow that and we'll follow
it until the wheels come off. Okay, Stam, let's go
to a break again and come back with some box
office news that's a little more close to home and
talk about the movies that I saw and you saw
over the weekend, because we just that's what we do
(18:58):
right here. Joey Scalante Live from Hollywood. Okay, well you
are back, Joe. Let's go on Today Live from Hollywood.
We're here every Sunday from five to seven on AM
eleven fifty KiB Okay, let's go to the box office
and we're gonna concentrate it in the Cinemax Office of America.
(19:24):
Sam and the results from the this past weekend, Labor
Day weekend. And here's a fun fact. The Labor Day weekend,
the Monday, the extra Monday, usually doesn't add much to
the movie box office. It's not a big thing like
the Thanksgiving weekend, where there's these extra days, maybe even
(19:46):
the Memorial Day weekend, because you're starting summer off and
people are going to the movies on Sunday and Monday.
But Labor Day most people a lot have to go
to school and work after Labor Day, so they are
not going to the movies. So this is not a
great Labor Day for movies this year. But you know
(20:07):
there are some new ones. And Sam, did you see
any of this week?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
No, I've been more or less netflixing it. I've been
watching The Last Airbender to show the both the animated
and the live action show that they have on Netflix.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You're lucky you're not looking for a girlfriend, because you're
not going to get one with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Oh no, she is enthralled with this show.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Okay, well you're lucky you have that girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay. Well, while you theater kids were watching that, I
went to I went to the movies on Tuesday and
saw the film Weapons.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Oh yeah, that one was a number one for the
last couple of weeks. How was it?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, number one Warner Brothers horror film Weapons, directed by
Zach Craiger, known for the twenty twenty two hit Barbarian,
The film earned about ten million in its fourth week
of release this weekend. It's domestic now stands at approximately
one hundred and thirty two million. That's a lot of
money for a horror film, because we all know horror
(21:17):
films don't cost that much to make, but this one,
it's a high budget horror film. Second place is Universal's
fiftieth anniversary release of the nineteen seventy five film Jaws,
directed by Steven Spielberg, known for countless classics including Jurassic Arc.
But what about that turd that he made about his
(21:37):
own upbringing. Let's just give it. Give the pass on
that one. I forgot the name of it too. So
isn't that crazy eight point one million for a re release?
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Wow? Yeah, that's a little surprising that people actually still
had the interest after it being out in the public
for so long.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Well, also, I just watched it on some like, you know,
some pretty good print of it on a streaming service,
because they are celebrating it on these streaming services. Also,
so that's why I didn't go. I was gonna I
would like to see it in the big theater, on
the big screen, but I had just seen it on
one of the streamers. The highest charting new release is
(22:17):
the crime thriller Caught Stealing, which I'm going to see
after we sign off tonight. That's directed by Darren Aronofsky,
who is known for films like The Black Swan. Third
place was seven point eight million, coming in at number four.
Freaky or Friday. That's a Disney movie, and I would
(22:40):
say doesn't cost much to make very successful, unlike all
those big flops they've been having lately. But when they
have a flop, I think they make it up, you know,
in stuffed animals, if nothing else. Freak Your Friday kind
of relatively unknown director Nisha Ganatra, known mostly for the
(23:01):
film Late Night, which is like some twenty twenty two
workplace comedy. I don't know if you remember this. I
didn't see it. It's had like Emma Thompson in it,
and I just didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Either, and I didn't see Freaky You Friday. I had
a choice tonight, Freak Your Friday with my wife or
Cuch Stealing. We're gonna go see Kutch Steeling and I'm
in Big Bear, so I got to go to like
the Village theater. No, you can't choose your own seats.
They don't recline. But you know, I try to support
(23:36):
this theater because this theater actually did fold last year
and then some family bought it and brought it back.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
That's good. I'm glad that the theaters, and you know,
the smaller towns like that like Big Bear, are getting
the love and attention that they deserve.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Now what did Okay? So you didn't you didn't see Weapons? No, okay,
Weapons is a it's a thriller and a horror film,
but it's not the like my wife won't go to
see like the demonic horror films. I think the last
one I took her to was The Conjuring, And probably
(24:15):
because she's Catholic and she's you know, attending church, you know,
several times a week, she's praying every day and then
and then you just don't need some Hollywood version of
the devil himself, you know, sinking into your brain. And
she takes movies to heart and has nightmares about them
that same night. So I don't have that problem. I
(24:36):
do like to see the demonic horror films, but I
don't see many of them because you know, she won't
go with me and weapons. Is not one of those
interesting You didn't see it yet, did you?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
No? I have not.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's well worth it. Great movie. The centers around. Everybody
knows this. I'm not giving anything away. Seventeen kids disappear
from the same classroom in the middle of the night.
Why where'd they go.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
And why are they in a classroom in the middle
of the night.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Well they weren't. I mean they're from the same classroom
in the day, okay, but every day after school they
go home and then in their beds they all woke
up at the same time and started running away out
the door. Now you can see them right out the door.
Because it's a modern movie, everybody has a ring camera.
(25:34):
So you got Josh Brolin, who I went to summer
camp with, by the way, not that he remembers. He's
running around. He's gonna try to solve this problem and
uh he uh eventually does. Now you you watch this thing,
it's like a zombie movie. You know what's gonna happen.
We already know where to look to find out where
(25:55):
these kids went or who knows something. It doesn't matter.
The movie is so good. You know what's gonna happen,
and there's the acting is top shelf, and the special
effects wonderful, and there's a lot of laughs, maam excellent.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
That's the thing. A good horror film also has elements
of comedy. It has to nowadays.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yes, so this is one of those, and I couldn't
recommend it more. And it's kind of like this one
and Eddington my two favorite movies that I've seen recently.
Did you see Eddington?
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I did not what was edited Eddington?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
About Eddington's another Pedro Pascal movie where it's a COVID movie.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Oh yes, yes, I think we talked about this one.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, yeah, there it's COVID and the there's a sheriff
who thinks she shouldn't wear a mask, and then there's
a guy running from mayor who thinks you should wear
a mask, and there's and then you know, they just
kind of a lot of weird stuff happens. And I
saw it like a month ago, so I don't remember
any of it. That's why I have my letterbox account.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
That really comes in handy for those moments. Yeah. No,
the letterbox account comes in handy for those moments in particular,
where you you know, you went and saw a movie
you just can't remember any details, and it's good to
just keep a journal of it as you go.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Well, when I uh look at my letterbox account, like
I'm I'm gonna sign into it right now, and I
look at my diary and I look at it and
I scroll down and I got every single movie that
I've seen in a theater. And then if I watched
a whole movie on Netflix, I'll put it in there. Also.
I look at it and I'm just amazed. I'll pick
(27:48):
out a movie in there. I'm like, what is this movie?
The Phonetian scheme? I don't remember that?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Oh, yeah, I remember that one. I saw that one.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Wes Anderson. Yeah, I look go Roulette here on on
on my letterbox. Conclave, Yeah, I saw a Conclave. I
got it half a star, better Man, four and a
half stars. That was where Robbie Williams is a monkey.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Is that the sound that the the the app makes
when you go through it?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It's internal? Oh, Nickel Boys, excellent movie. Actually I remember
that because I saw twice uh soundtrack to a Coup Desta.
I mean, what is that? I watched this? Oh, it's
a masterpiece of a documentary fusing jazz greats and the
struggle for independence in the Congo Who How do you
(28:49):
remember it?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, you might want to see that. Well. Actually, if
if any of the stuff sounds fun to you, all
you gotta do is go to my letterbox account and
look at my diary. Alice doesn't live here anymore. That's
an example of an old movie. I rewatched nineteen seventy
four film. I gave it four and a half stars.
Chris Christofferson and Ellen Burston saw in the theaters. And
(29:13):
I was a little kid when I used to pick
out all the movies for my parents to see. Snow White,
the New One. How many stars do you think? I
gave that one?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Two?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Close? I gave it three, not as bad as people thought.
So you can also see did I like him or not?
How about Nicholas Cage's latest film, The Surfer. I mean
it's called The Surfer, it's got Nicholas Cage in it.
How many stars did that get?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
It's Nicholas Cage. That's an automatic three?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
One?
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Oh no, all right.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Enough of this vivolity. Are we as a time for
a Breakdad?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I forgot question for a break?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
All right? Joey Ascalante live from how went back after
this traffic? Yeah, Joe Escalante by from Hollywood. Yes, I'm back,
(30:20):
And it's our final segment of this hour of the show.
And let's get right to the stories, because I had
quite a few. But I also didn't didn't. I forgot
to mention Denise, not Denise, Julia Gardner in Weapons and
she's one of the greatest actresses of our time. I
would say, so, Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, you can't
(30:47):
go wrong. I've met both of them. Guarantee, neither of
them will remember me from Adam, but you know they
allow me their careers. Okay, in the Bad Actors, I
think that's a good name for this segment, Bad Actors.
Denise Richards had to file a restraining order against her
estranged husband. You know, for what, that's just sellaciousness?
Speaker 3 (31:15):
What did she do?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
What happened the latest and most serious escalation in their divorce,
which was initiated earlier in the year. A court hearing
is scheduled for next month, where a judge will hear
arguments from both sides and decide whether to make the
temporary order a more permanent one. Her husband's name is
Vipers Aaron Phiper's that's a crazy name. Fipers has not
(31:40):
yet publicly responded to the allegations made in the court documents.
You know Denise Richards, she used to be a bond girl.
Oh yeah, she was in a couple of films Starstit Troopers.
You might remember her.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Wasn't she married to Charlie Sheen for a.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Bit married to Charlie Sheen. So she should get a
medal for that two thousand and two to two thousand
and six. Oh but I'm having a little trouble right now.
And uh, let's see what I got. I got a
couple other stories. Oh, there's a new streaming service, okay
(32:11):
called Do you know about this one? It's called Fox
one or something.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
No, I have not heard about this.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
This is a sports it's kind of a a sport.
Fox one is Fox Corporation's new direct to consumer streaming service.
Unlike the massive kitchen sink platforms like Disney Plus or
Max where you know they got everything all movie newes,
Fox one is designed to be a leaner, more focused service.
(32:41):
Its primary purpose is to give people who have canceled
cable TV a way to access Fox's core live and
next day programming and that you have everything from FS one,
the Fox Sports one on there. You have the main
Fox broadcast channel on there, and uh, there's a bunch
of other's supposed to be a bunch of other sports
stuff for the sports focused Cord Cutter nineteen ninety nine
(33:07):
a month, very.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
High, right, that's a little pricey.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Now, Apple TV Plus or whatever it's called. They just
raise their price. Everyone's raising their prices because the new
direction of streaming is profitability, not trying to just cut
prices and get a bunch of scripts. They're going for
profitability rather than just bulk subscription strategies. Yeah, so that's
(33:38):
the So everyone's going to pay more for their streaming
in the future. That's pretty much the where that's going.
And everyone's got a everyone has a decision to make.
Now we were talking about Will Smith. Why is Will Smith?
Matt People are mad at what Will Smith because he
(33:59):
reallys video and it's just full of AI people in
the audience, so it's trying to make it look like
he's popular. I mean, it's one thing to me, I
think it's forgivable if you like have a football stadium
and you need to use AI to generate a ninety
thousand people in the audience instead of paying ninety thousand extras.
(34:20):
I think that's forgivable, right, even for people that are
anti AI.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
I could see that being forgivable. And as long as
Will Smith is also.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
AI, yes, exactly, and he didn't get paid. Yeah, Well,
Will Smith is like rapping and you know, he's doing
this thing and then and the audience just can't get
enough of him. They're enthralled. There's so many of them, Sam.
The problem is they're not real. Yeah, they're phony, and
people are mad about that. Now. I know a little
(34:50):
bit about this because I created an AI Instagram thing
a couple of weeks ago, and it was this girl
named a Carrie from the call center and she was
a call center girl and she was announcing that Joe
(35:11):
Scalantian or Fitzgerald are doing tours at the Punk Rock Museum,
and I, you know, I just I made her like
a kind of an LGBTQ plus a person with a
blue mohawk, and you know, I wanted to make her look,
you know, like a typical punk person that would have
a call center job. And some people in the our
community got really mad because they didn't concentrate on how
(35:33):
funny and how racist it was, and instead all they
could think about is their blind allegiance to the anti
AI mob. And that's a real thing on the internet.
So you gotta be careful what you do with AI.
And I don't care because I'm I have nothing to lose.
I just I'll put out as much AI as I
want and I have fun with it. And if you
(35:53):
want to see what I'm talking about, it's on the
joe escal or the Joey Escalante Instagram or on the
vandals Facebook page. I think it's only on the vandals
Instagram and the Vandals Facebook page. Carry from the call center,
I encourage you to look at that and let me
know if you think it's offensive or not. I think
it's funny.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I will have to take a look at this and
I will give you my feedback.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah, please give your feedback and let me know if
you want more. Carrie from the call center. Yeah, how
much time we got left in this stellar radio program.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
We have let's see, we're creeping up on it. We
got about three minutes.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Okay. The only other thing I have, which is kind
of interesting that people in the AI category two is.
It's a landmark legal move. Disney and Universal filed a
joint copyright infringement lawsuit against AI image generator mid Journey. Now,
if you know mid Journey, it's what most people use,
or most people I know use to create fake pictures
(36:53):
and fake videos using AI. And that's where you get
like a bunch of images of people with six fingers,
is what I think they're most known for. But they've trained.
So this is Disney and Universal. These are two competitors
and they're joining together. They say, we're going to go
after these people because they're training these AI platforms using
(37:15):
billions of images, including the studio's most iconic copyrighted characters
from Mickey Mouse to Yoda to Shrek to the Minions,
and the studios claim the platform is being used to
create unauthorized derivative works that dilute their brands and violate
their intellectual property on a massive scale. Now, on the
one hand, yes, these things are looking at everything because
(37:38):
if you want to and for in order for an
AI program to we're gonna has to look at everything.
Now that's the lot. So it's got to look at everything.
You don't want an AI program that only looks at
things that it has permission to look at. That's a
useless nothing AI program and they know it. But what
are they doing. They're trying to get money out of them.
Same way the VCRs companies paid money to the studios
(38:01):
because they knew that a lot of people were committing
copyright fringes infringements in the nineteen seventies. So they went
to court and they came back and the court said, okay, Sony,
with your Beta Max, you got to pay some money
to the studios because we know they're losing money on
your Beta Max. So they just came up with the
formula and they paid them a little money. So that's
what these guys are trying to do, because we all
know you can't make an AI program without these looking
(38:23):
at the stuff. Does it make it a derivative work?
I don't know. That would be for court to decide
whether what they if they've really used something and if
anyone would know, you know. Yeah, So the Disney and
Universal is saying, well, we just don't want to let
you train on them. That way, we will know you're
not allowed to train using our images for your large
language models or whatever you're using to do your stuff,
(38:47):
and we all know that's not gonna work. That's not practical.
I mean, Sam, do you want to live in a
world where AI only looks at things that copyright holders
gave them permission to look at.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I think that would severely limit the scope of what
AI can do to help out with people.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah, right, it might be fair, Yeah, but we can't
really live in that world. So what they're doing is
they're gonna just use all the leverage they have with
the courts and probably and try to get a check
written out to them. You want a license to train
AI models, Well then you're gonna have to pay these
guys and it'll just be like attacks and they'll give
it to starving artists. I'm sure. Nope, they'll give it
(39:28):
to they'll line their pockets with it. So all right,
let's take let's let's get out here. Yeah, I think
our work is done, and we will see you next
Sunday on the Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood program. Until then,
I go to the movies or something. You can go
to a theater and I'll leave you with just a
taste of the greatest song you've ever written.
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