HiT 314: Stephen Colbert Can't Really Believe What He Just Said ... Right?

This week on the Hollywood in Toto Podcast, host Christian Toto dives into two disturbing stories shaking up the cultural landscape. First, we expose how a late-night TV mainstay shamelessly twists the truth—proving just how far the mainstream media will go to push a narrative. Then, we unpack a jaw-dropping example of far-left extremism, revealing why appeasing radical ideologues is a dangerous, losing game for Hollywood and beyond.

Next, we shift gears with an exclusive interview featuring film producer John Shepherd. He joins the show to discuss his latest project, Sarah’s Oil — hitting theaters nationwide November 7. The film tells the true, uplifting story of a young Black girl who transforms discarded land into something truly life-changing. John shares behind-the-scenes insights, the film’s creative journey, and the powerful message driving this inspirational drama.

If you crave honest Hollywood commentary, fearless cultural criticism, and inspiring stories of creativity and faith, this episode of Hollywood in Toto is not to be missed.🎧 Listen now for a smart, truth-driven take on entertainment, culture, and the courage to tell real stories.

Subscribe to HiT's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodinToto 

Read Hollywood in Toto - https://www.hollywoodintoto.com

Lend a hand: Leave a tip! https://hollywood-in-toto.ck.page/products/hollywood-in-toto-tip-jar

Follow me on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto

Read: "Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul" https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost/dp/1637580991

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week in the Hollywood and Total Podcast. Well, Stephen
Colbert is lying again, but this lie might get him
ready for the padded room. You gotta trust me on
this one. And we talked to producer John Shepherd about
his new film, Sarah's Oil. It's based on an incredible
true story and I'm embarrassed I never heard about it
until this film came along. But we get to fix

(00:21):
that right now.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Welcome to the Hollywood and Toto Podcast. Entertainment news and
reviews without the whook, Hollywood narrative, free speech, free expression,
Now that's entertainment, and here's your host, Award winning film
critic Christian Toto.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
You know, we're living in crazy times. And it's not
a term I use loosely. It's just crazy for sure.
You know, I've spent days delta into this whole Tucker
Carlson Nick Fuente's affair. Turns out Tucker's got a crush
on his man child friend.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Dear lord, he has lost his models.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I've spent days celebrating conservatives who have actually called out
Tucker Carlson on his Nick Fuentes fetish. It is abysmal,
it is disgusting, it is embarrassing and it's shocking, and
it's out there for everyone to see. And I'm not
going to get too bogged down in that story here
and now doing it a lot on social media, for sure,
but it really is a sign of the times and

(01:30):
a really tragic sign of the times period. And why
more conservatives aren't speaking out about it and against Tucker Carlson,
I have no idea. It's a very disappointing situation for sure.
How do we make it make sense? And then there
are the liars, And again, lyaring is a tough term.
It's something I don't like to use loosely, but sometimes

(01:51):
you just can't help yourself. And when a Stephen Colbert
comes along, it said something so absurd you can't help
but say you're lying. And he's lying. Now, of course,
Stephen Colbert is in the news once more. He just
give an interview to GQ magazine, talked about a variety
of topics, including the fact, by the way, which isn't
getting a lot of attention, that he's not blaming his

(02:13):
show's cancelation on President Trump. He understands the context, but
he's not really going there. A I guess you could
say good for him, because there's no real proof that
that's going on. But it certainly wasn't easy for him
to say because all his fans are saying, oh my gosh,
Trump canceled you. It's the end of democracy, it's the
end of filling the blank. But something else he said

(02:36):
in the interview just struck me. His laugh out loud, funny,
and in Colbert's defense, he hasn't made me laugh for
quite some time. Well, he was talking about politics and
his political positioning, and he said, you know what, people
may assume some things about me, but I'm more conservative
than most people realize. Now, at this point, the GQ

(02:59):
interviewers should have done spit take or some sort of what,
some sort of crazy reaction, But from the best I
can tell, there was no reaction, or he was allowed
to continue with the interview instead of saying, like any
journalist should excuse me, mister Colbert, what conservative views, what
conservative positions? And if you have any, why are they
not a parent in any capacity on your late night show?

(03:19):
Seems like a good forum. But that's just what Colbert
does now. He just lies straight up. We all have
to swallow it. We all have to say, Okay, I
guess he's pretty conservative. Another reason why he's doing it
is obvious his political views, which are aggressively to the left,
are more powerful if they're told from a nonpartisan or

(03:40):
sort of politically balanced point of view. I hope my
coming here today is evidence enough that you can trust me.
If Bill Maher says something, for example, you know he's liberal,
but he often speaks to truth no matter where the
ideological fault lines are at in a given point, so
his stuff lands hot harder than usual. And if it's

(04:01):
like a Sean Hannity, then you know everything he says
is going to be right leaning, and you kind of
just take it for a grainess salt sometimes sadly, just
the way that culture goes. So he's saying it for
a specific reason. But of course all you have to
do is say, excuse me, is to cold bet, can
you point to a monologue over the last decade that
has been conservative that has revealed your conservative leanings? He can't,

(04:23):
because he can't. But that's just the way our culture goes.
It's a sign of the dishonesty that's going on. It's
a sign of media bias run wild, and it's just
you know, we just can't hold people accountable for much anything.
And again it's not a big deal, but certainly stuck
in my craw And also it exposes to the rot
that's going on in journalism right now, which is profound.

(04:45):
I don't know if CBS News can recover. I don't
know if Barry Wise can change things, but God bless her,
and I just hope she does well.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
I'm good luck with that.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
But I'll also want to mention another story, which again
isn't a very minor story, but I think it speaks
to the cultural moment we're in right now. It involves
the actress Chris Chena with Now, she's kind of a
big Broadway star. She's done movies and TV shows as well,
so I think people know her less there from the stage,
but very talented actress obviously, And after the assassination, the
murder of Charlie Kirk, she put out a message. I'm

(05:15):
going to paraphrase it just because there's no reason to
get word for word, because you get the gist, basically saying, listen,
I didn't agree with a lot of what he said,
but this is a very tragic story. I feel for
his family, I feel for his wife and the kids.
Just a basic human response to a tragic situation. Pretty simple, right, Well, No,
a lot of people who are following her attacked her

(05:36):
on social media. You can't humanize him, you know the drill.
I don't even have to explain it. The far far left,
which can be ghoulish for sure, savaged her, and then
she came out with a quasi retraction or an explanation,
which again is absurd. If you're human, you have a
human reaction to tragedy, to someone being killed in the

(05:57):
prime of his life. That's just how it goes. If
aoc axennik Ocasio Cortez was gunned down in the street,
even though I disagree with everything she says, I would
be heartbroken by it because she's a young woman who
didn't deserve to die. That's simple. But I think what
she said afterwards, and I mean Kristin chenow with in
a way, made it worse. She talked about the blowback

(06:20):
that she received and she said it nearly broke her,
nearly broke her. Now there's two things here that are important. One,
she should have told everyone who complained about her to
pound sand, plain and simple, and if she needs those followers.
Then what kind of a career does she have anyway,
And she doesn't need those followers, and she has a
wonderful career. But two, we're at a point right now

(06:42):
where we have to genuflect to the crazies. We have
to understand them, we have to sympathize them. We can't
chase them away. In a sense, that's what's going on
with the conservative movement with Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson.
There's this sense that we can't lose the tar Tucker
Carlson audience, or then Nick Fuente's audience. We need everyone

(07:03):
on board now. Listen. Politically speaking, I am a big
tent guy. I love the fact that Trump has expanded
the base. They brought in democrats like Tulsa Gabbertt and
RFK Junior. That's a good thing, but those are saying
people with interesting ideas. Nick Fuent's is a monster, plain
and simple. And when you're Tucker Carlson and you come
out and say, well, here's my pal, Nick Fuente's. We're

(07:27):
gonna yuck it up for a while. I'm gonna softball
interview him. And then when he says, oh yeah, I'm
a big Stalin fan, I say we're gonna circle back
to that and never circle back to that. Well, shame
on you, Shame on Tucker Carlson, and shame on my
fellow conservatives who can't rise up and denounce him for
the I don't even know how to describe him. But
what he's become, it's not conservative. It's not kind, it's

(07:50):
not good, it's not honest, it's not pure. It's vile
and disgusting. It's not at the Nick Quente's level. But
when you launder his views, as Ben Shapiro aptly said,
you're getting pretty close. So just two seemingly unrelated Hollywood stories. Again,
both signs of the times, not good signs, not at all.

(08:21):
When you hear the story about Sarah Rector, you think,
why haven't we seen a movie about it? A dozen
movies about it. It's just a remarkable tale. Now, Sarah E.
Rector was a young black girl in the early nineteen
hundreds and through a situation, a series of events, she
was given land in Oklahoma. Now, the land, at first,
Blush was seemingly worthless. I mean as worthless as land

(08:43):
could be. This land always has value, but it wasn't fertile,
it didn't seem like it had a lot of potential.
But this little girl had a thought, or at least
an inspiration that, hey, this could be oil rich Land.
What if that were the case, What if they gave
me something really valuable to find out? And of course,
when she did find out there was oil, and she

(09:05):
became a millionaire. It's an incredible true story, and it's
the kind of story you think, my gosh, this is
perfect for the silver screen, but we haven't seen it
until this weekend. The movie Sarah's Oil, and it's inspired
by the real Sarah's story. There are some creative licenses
taken here, and it's perfectly normal and perfectly reasonable, just
what Hollywood does. But it is inspirational. It is really heartwarming,

(09:27):
and there's some really darker themes here about racism, about abuse,
about some of the terrible things going on in the
early part of the twentieth century in America. It's all there.
It's a fascinating story. Here's a quick look at Sarah's Oil.
My name's Sarah Rector. The state gave me one hundred

(09:49):
and sixty acres on account of my ancestors, and there's.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
All on well, how do you know that God gave the.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yours to hear? Do you hear it?

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Blue?

Speaker 1 (10:00):
There's oceans down there, body.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
But.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
I got all on my land and I'm looking for
a partner to help me.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Drill it out.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Berts and Byron Smith at your service.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I look for oil and I drilled for it.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
I was singing fifty to fifty.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
We should have our lawyers and me that's my lawyer.
The Texas handshake, there ain't nothing more binding.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
We're in Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
It goes double for ohies.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Hey, if we go Yode, what's the damage? This might
be the end of the road.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
You give him so easy?

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Well, she guess she gonna do the right thing. We
shook hands. You may have to speak to it.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
I don't know what to say.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
God, I'll give you the words.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
We need money. I'm a yr, but how are we
gonna get him hike?

Speaker 1 (10:50):
I'm sair BRIT's business pregnant. Has birt properly presented our
proposition map? You said, y'all need to put it in
your one thousand dollars? We need two thousand, amy Nea
Today the director here is Cyrus no Rasta, who's a
terrific filmmaker. He's done The Stoning of Sarah M Infidel,
and of course he did The Path to nine to
eleven as well. That was a really powerful, haunting mini

(11:11):
series that came out after the nine to eleven attacks
that were so powerful and so interesting and so provocative
that ABC buried it and it's stayed buried all this time.
It's a tragic story that doesn't get a lot of
attention outside of conservative circles. But anyway, Cyrus is a
very talented filmmaker, which he shows again here. But this
time I got a chance to talk to the film's producer,

(11:33):
John Sheppard. Now, Shepherd has produced films like The Stoning
of Sarah M, Machine Gun, Preacher, and more, and here
he talks about how this film came to be, some
of the changes they've made, and just a little bit
more about the background with Sarah and her remarkable story.
So I hope you enjoyed my conversation with John Shepherd,
a talented producer and someone who's given us a tale

(11:54):
that deserves the big screen treatment. And of course, Sarah's
Oil is available right now at theaters nationwide. Do check
it out, and of course, first listen to our interview. Well, John,
thank you for joining the show. You know, as a
veteran producer, you hear about Sarah Rector's story, and my
first things think would be, gosh, this is a movie

(12:15):
we've got to make as a movie, but I know
the process is complicated. There were sort of twists and
turns along the way when you first were in contact
with the story. What was your initial reaction and what
were the trepidations you may have had initially? Sure, Well, I.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Was looking for a story. I love telling stories about
the American dream and people becoming incredible odds and adversity
and underdogs, and of course I thought it was going
to be a more contemporary story that I'd come up
with for a bunch of businessmen that had said, why
aren't there great stories about American entrepreneurs anymore? And then
my business partner sometimes director friend, Cyrus Narasas said, well,

(12:49):
there is a story about a little girl at the
turn of the century named Sarah Rector, one of the
first black millionaires, and she was eleven years old by
the way. Well, that hooked me right away because it
was like, how do I not know this story and
how did it come out? And how could she only
be eleven? And that's usually the mark of a good

(13:10):
story when it starts generating. I want to dig, I
want to learn, And that's one of the hopes with
the film is people will not only know her name,
but also want to know more about her.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Now, once you hear that story and you do that digging,
you find out more into that. I guess parts of
her life we don't know as much about them, and
some we do. What were some of the more amazing aspects?
I mean, the story itself is incredible, obviously, but I mean,
you keep digging, keep digging. There's so many intriguing subplots here,
so many elements of her life story, and what happened,
What did you find that was the most surprising or confounding,

(13:42):
most amazing would get you know, obviously we don't want
to spoil the whole movie, but just give one or
two examples of just that.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I think what was most surprising to me with first
of all that this was a real historical figure that
lived in Oklahoma, that she was given inherited one hundred
and sixty acres with worthless land, and it was unsuitable
for farming, but it was to me a metaphor for
how each of us has been given real estate in life,

(14:10):
a gift, and it's not really what the world says
is worth, or even what you think it's worth. It's
really about realizing it is a gift and what you
do with it is what matters, whether it's bigger. And
she took what she was given and through faith, through family,
through community, through her own tenacity, hit the biggest gusher

(14:35):
in Oklahoma history. But it's so much more than that.
It's her journey of not being denied her dream. And
I think, to me, that's the reason to tell the stories.
It's inspirational, it's hopeful. It's a reminder to myself that,
you know, I've got gifts, talents. The only sin is
not to use them to discount, to let somebody try

(14:56):
and steal, kill, or destroy it. And that's so many
dreams are shattered in Hollywood. Here's Here's My Dream realized
as a movie, but her dream more importantly realized as
a message to the world that anything is possible.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, you know, one of the things that struck me
by the film is the the racism of the era.
I mean, we can know that intellectually deceit on the
screen is very powerful and upsetting and of settling too.
Even our kind of quasi hero here played by Zachary Levi,
has elements to that within him. Talk about getting that
element because I think it's it's obviously in critically important

(15:30):
to the story and also to among the obstacles he
has to overcome. But just as a storyteller, I think
that there was a nice balance of showing it, not
over dramatic, dramatizing it, just just maybe just dig into
that a little bit, because I'm it's so curious to me.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
It was important for us in telling the story to
be authentic and to be real and to represent the
period without you know, over simplifying it or in any
way exploiting it. It was really what are some of
the obstacles that she encountered. Everybody has obstacles in life.
Those were the obstacles of the time. But as much

(16:09):
as there was opposition, there were also different things that
came along in her path that she was able to
either change someone's perception or impact their perception or get help.
So she was definitely had her own agency. I mean,
this is a story about a little girl who again
won't take no for an answer. But you know, it

(16:32):
also made me realize that family plays a critical role,
her mom, her dad, her friends, people circumstances. But we
also didn't want to soft pedal or in any way
downplay the fact that there was incredible resistance to a
little girl of eleven years old having this sort of

(16:53):
access to you know, untold potential wealth and riches. We
know some of the sad stories of the time, but
this was an inspirational one of one that actually, if
you read more about Sarah after watching the movie, see
she became a benefactor, a philanthropist who gave back because
so much had been given her. That's of stories I

(17:13):
want to tell, and that's one of the reasons I
thought it was an important time, but it's relevant for
today now.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
When you're making this film, you deal with historians, you
do the research. I understand you also reached out to
her extended family, and she's no longer live obviously, but
I guess in a way that's a wealth of information,
but it's also it makes the balancing act harder to
make sure that you get her story as accurate as possible.
I know there are creative license issues here, as well,

(17:40):
But you're kind of capturing the essence of what she
went through. Does that make it more challenging? Does it
make it easier to have all that flooding of information?
Where do you kind of come down on that.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
As a storyteller, anytime you tell a true story, you increase. Yeah,
the challenges because so be people that say, well, that's
not what happened or this what we did was very
little is known about Sarah from the time. Even the
newspapers at the time published a picture they said, well,
this is Sarah Rector and it wasn't. It was just
like people. So we went to Tanya Bolden, who wrote

(18:14):
a terrific book called Searching for Sarah Rector. It seemed
to be the most authoritative, definitive She talked to the
family source material on Sarah. Of course, we did other
research as well, but we didn't involve the family. We
weren't trying to tell her whole life or make a documentary.
It is inspired by We do take creative license, but

(18:35):
we wanted to catch, as you said, the essence of
who she was. The most rewarding and risky moment was
when we actually sat down and showed it to them
for the first time, and they had no idea what
we were going to tell, how much we were going
to show, and whether we got any of it right
at all. And they at the end to a t said, wow,
you really captured the spirit of our great aunt and

(18:56):
that was so inspiring, hopeful, and look, the film is
a poor representation, I'm sure of the actual Sarahrector. And yet,
just like all of us are poor representations of our ancestors,
there are some really good things that come through that
we thought we got right, and we hope that that
will inspire the next generation. And I think the family

(19:16):
also has gotten one hundred percent behind it because they recognize, yeah,
it's not a documentary, but boy, you nailed who she.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Is and what she's did. I know in your background
you were an actor for a while, did some films.
Now I imagine producing is your full time cake. It's
a lot of work onto itself. I was curious why
you made that pivot, and I imagine things have gone
so well for you. I imagine it was the right call.
But I just real quickly, can you share that that
transition that's you know, I think when you're working in

(19:45):
a Hollywood as an actor, you think, oh my gosh,
I've made it, even if I'm not Brad Pitt. But
you decided to go in a different direction. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Well, when I realized I wasn't going to be Brad Pitt,
I was always having to ask permission to do my job.
Please put me in a film? Will you please let
me say these lines?

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
The only way to really control one's destiny a little
bit like Sarah Rectors, is to say I have a dream,
and I want to give myself permission, and I want
to create opportunities for others to do their job. And
so I've realized at some point I was going to
have to raise the money, or find the intellectual property,
or or get the director and actors together, that why

(20:24):
couldn't I do that? And thank goodness I had a
mom like Sarah had family that said you can why
can't you?

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Why not you?

Speaker 3 (20:32):
And gosh we.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
Got Russell Wilson from the New York Giants and his
wife Saara involved. They have a production company called why
not You? Because his dad had always told him why
not you? Why can't you be in an NFL quarterback?
And I think that's the message. That's why I.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Became a producer.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Why not you?

Speaker 3 (20:50):
I mean, why are you waiting on somebody else to
give you permission to use the gifts God has given you?
And that's what Sarah learns, and that's what Sarah teaches
in this movie you. Why can't you be the next whatever?

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah? Yeah, you know, when you think about certain roles
in a Hollywood screenwriter, director, actor, we know what they are.
We can see them, even the craftsman behind the scenes
to make everything possible. When you think about producer, I
think for a lot of people they don't quite grasp it.
They don't I mean, and I'm sure you wear many
many hats, but tell us a little bit about what
it's like to be a producer that people wouldn't expect.
Maybe something with glamorous or just maybe something that you

(21:26):
take on that maybe other producers don't.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
You know, from my perspective of a producers, anything but glamorous.
In fact, you're a problem solver all day long. And
we had nothing but problems in Oklahoma. We had tornadoes,
we had ticks, we had thunderstorms, we had incredible excessive heat,
and every day I'd come to set just praying and hoping,
what's going to go wrong. How can I fix it?

(21:49):
My kids used to come to set with me before
they realized we just stand around and watch other people
work all day. Around eleven o'clock in the morning, they said, Dad,
can we go back to the hotel? And I said, producer,
I'm the most important person. I'm the first here in
the morning, I'm the last leave. Nothing happens without me.
And they said, Dad, you don't do anything. Okay, let's

(22:11):
go back to the hotel. And a lot of people.
If you're a good producer, don't see what you do
because hopefully the planning, the prep, what's done below surface,
building the root structure, is what causes things to grow
or become a movie. But yeah, it was one of
the hardest films I've ever done. But I think sometimes
resistance is in direct proportion to the impact something can have.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
That's my purpose areas oil And this was all shot
out Oklahoma, correct.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Incredibly, all shot in Oklahoma, out in the middle of
oil fields and weeds and ticks, and we built cabins
in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
It's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
We had a great time, but boy.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Was it hot. Yeah, we're going in a curious time
in Hollywood and you've been around for decades now doing
different projects. You know, there are so many different platforms.
Obviously streaming is coming up strong. The box office goes
from hits to missus's. It feels very volatile. And you know,
when you're making films which are often unique, it's original stories.

(23:09):
They're not blockbusters, they're not ips. You know, are you
nervous about the future? Are you optimistic that there's always
room for great original stories?

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Where?

Speaker 1 (23:18):
I mean, does every day you have different thoughts on
the industry. I'm optimistic today and then tomorrow I'm not.
What's how do you kind of look at this landscape?
I mean, it must be very challenging at the least.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
I think I look at the landscape of Hollywood much
like Burke does in our movie. I mean, other people
see anxious and disaster, and he sees prospects. I see
times of change as opportunity. And I think we live
in an exciting time right now where independent filmmakers like
myself can get movies that have previously been really hard

(23:51):
to make, or have elements of faith, or have elements
of you know, just the independent spirit is alive and thriving.
Because when when the circumstances of life and the industry
and the economics and the world is coming at filmmakers
and artists, we either get creative or we die. And
I choose to get creative. And I think that's why

(24:13):
the projects we do attract other interesting, creative people that
are believers in the art, the storytelling, the inspiration. Yes,
we want to make things that are economically responsible, but
we don't have to make them at studio superhero budgets.
I mean, Sarah is a superhero without a cape. We
made it at an indie price, but it has studio quality,

(24:34):
and Amazon NGM was gracious enough to say we love it,
We've tested it, We're going out on two thousand plus theaters.
So to me, it's an exciting time. But yeah, I
wake up every morning anxious and terrified how what will
I do next?

Speaker 1 (24:48):
But that's why I wouldn't trust in life. Excuse who
didn't have a little bit of that, because it seems realistic.
It actually kind of makes you put your best face
forward before I let you go. You know, I don't
know if you can talk about this or how much
is acknowledged, but I was checking out your IMDb page
and I saw a project called The Rescue, which I
believe is with Cyrus and Rasta as well. Is that
something you can talk about It sounded interesting.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, we have Cyrus and I I like to say
as a producer, I have one hundred irons in the freezer.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Every once in a while.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
One gets hot, and The Rescue was another. I get
inspired by true stories, and so anytime you find an
untold true story that is inspirational, I'm in. So that's
one we're working on, you know. I also pitched The
wonder project who we're doing this project with the true
story of how It's a Wonderful life became a movie
that's called The Wonderful Cyrus is off doing another film

(25:40):
with Jim Caviezel right now, who we've worked with on
Stony Astoria M So we're always got something going. We
don't know what will be next, but I would say
we're very encouraged with the climate and landscape of Hollywood
right now. There's never been greater opportunity for independent filmmakers.
But it's a terrifying time for the old models because
a lot of them are broken.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah. Yeah, well, put well, I mean, I think the
word of mouth alone on Sarah's Oil. We'll do a
lot of legwork on the marketing. I guess that's a sweet,
wonderful film and it's so you know, I'm used to
Cyrus' work is often gritty and pulse pounding and dark,
and but this is anything but but obviously sweet and
emotional and uplifting. The film, of course, is Sarah's Oil.

(26:21):
It's coming out in theaters everywhere. November seventh, John, thank
you much for so so much for taking the time
to speak to me talk about this project, and I
look forward to chatting with you again. I love these inspirational,
fact based stories. They matter, They've got a great shelf life,
and they put a bounce in our step. And we
could use a bounce in our step right now.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
Well, we could all do that. Thank you Christian for
your support of the film. Watching the film and yeah,
it create. It's inspiring for you and others to get
a chance to see it. November seventh.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
That's all right, thanks again. Your character actor of the
week is David Morse. Well. Thanks for checking out the
Hollywood in Toto podcast once again. I hope you'll visit
Hollywoodintoto dot com. It is like this show the right
take and entertain news, reviews and commentary, all from a
right leaning perspective. There's plenty of a political content on there,

(27:06):
stuff that people on the left to right in the
middle can enjoy. But of course it is looking at
Hollywood and the culture through a right of center prism,
and we need that now more than ever, as they
often say so. But everyone has a wonderful week. Do
check out Sarah's Oil if you can give it some support.
It's a good film. I think you'll enjoy it. And
of course be could be kind, be strong. Doctor's orders