Episode 98 – 'To Be or Not to Be' & Ernst Lubitsch

First declared as Europe’s answer to D.W. Griffith, later (after emigrating to Hollywood) credited as the creator of the modern musical and, as Jean Renoir said, the creator of modern Hollywood, Ernst Lubitsch was also one of the first celebrity directors. And while the “Lubitsch touch” started as a piece of marketing, its influence is still felt over 100 years later. On today’s episode I’m joined by writer/director/author Nicholas Meyer, no stranger himself to classy, erudite wit, to discuss Lubitsch’s fiercely felt jab at Hitler and his abandoned birthplace. On this episode, we talk:

• how is it that Lubitsch’s 100 year old movies are more adult and modern than many current Hollywood movies;

• why is someone who never took a writers’ credit known for some of Hollywood’s best post-talkies writing;

• and the brilliance of the “heist” in the Lubitsch-produced, Frank Borzage-directed Desire.

Also:

• how the Mel Brooks-produced remake, along with the popular Shop Around the Corner remake You Got Mail, are as good of illustrations to be found of the “Lubitsch touch”;

• why many modern viewers come to Lubitsch through filmmakers he’s influenced, from Billy Wilder to Wes Anderson;

• and which famous French filmmaker told Meyer that To Be or Not to Be was his favorite film.

Nicholas Meyer is a director and Oscar-nominated screenwriter. He’s written over 11 books, including his Sherlock Holmes novels, the most recent of which is The Return of the Pharaoh, from the Reminiscences of John H.Watson, M.D.  His films as director include Time After Time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Day After, and Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country. He lives in Santa Monica, California; more information can be found at his website.

To Be or Not to Be is streaming on both Max and the Criterion Channel, and is available on Blu-ray from Criterion.

Episode 96 – 'Convergence Culture' w/ Author Henry Jenkins

Hollywood and Wall Street have obvious reasons to be obsessed with I.P. (Intellectual Property) because its consistently proven moneymaking abilities. But, how does it actually enrich the storytelling experience? In 2008, Henry Jenkins was asking these questions in his book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. I’m joined on this episode by Rehman Nizar Ali, as we discuss:

• The Matrix (a trilogy at the point of the book’s publication) as the ideal model of transmedia;

• how the “mothership” transmedia model has dominated;

• what the abandonment of Star Wars canon means for — up to this point — the most sophisticated canon.

Also:

• There are still more James Bond movies than MCU movies;

• the super-hero genre, fatigued or not, as one of empowerment;

• what video game to film adaptation has the best potential to work;

• and Fredric Wertham’s resurgent reputation.

Henry Jenkins is a professor at the University of Southern California; previously, he was the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He is the author and/or editor of twenty books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture, From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Culture, and By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism. He also co-hosts How Do You Like It So Far?, a podcast about popular culture in a changing world. More can be found on his blog.

Rehman Nizar Ali is co-editor of recent films for Terrence Malick including A Hidden Life, Song to Song, and Voyage of Time. Other works include commercials for Facebook, Google, Guerlain, and most recently the museum video installation Dioses y Maquinas! You can also find him at his website.

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide is published by NYU Press, and is available online or brick and mortar bookstores.

Episode 91 – 'Red Carpet' w/ Author Erich Schwartzel

Though it had been widely predicted to happen sometime later this decade, China managed to surpass North America during the pandemic 2020 — during the first year of decade — in domestic box-office. A big part of that was the fact that China had built more movie theaters than North America. On this episode, we discuss:

• whether I say something in this interview that disqualifies me from ever working for a studio movie that needs China’s box office;

• the definition of “dumb money” investors, and how this applies to the China’s access to the American moviemaking process

• why did a movie like Wolf Warrior 2, the first movie in the worldwide top-ten, get completely ignored domestically in America?

• what contribution the Russo Bros., famously of the Marvel Avenger movies, added to Wolf Warrior 2?

Also:

• the Eastern ethos and religious philosophies that are being applied to Chinese big-budget productions like The Wandering Earth,

• alongside what the Asian crossover effect of K-Pop, Parasite, and Squid Game;

• the difference between Russia’s successful mid-50s film production/censorship from China’s current state-based film distribution.

Erich Schwartzel covers the film industry in the Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau. He joined the Journal in 2013 and has written dozens of front-page stories on life and business in Hollywood, specializing in features where commerce meets culture. His work can be found here.

Episode 90 – Whatever Happened to George Lucas's Post-Retirement Experimental Films?

George Lucas has been talking retirement since 1977. Weary of the mainstream cinema he helped to create, he began saying in interviews that he was planning on getting back to the cinema of his college days, the avant-garde “tone poems” of his U.S.C. short films, or his of his first feature, THX-1138 — even before he returned to feature directing in the 2000s, with the Star Wars prequels. Now, that Lucas has all but officially retired — not having directed a feature in 17 years — I’m joined on this episode by Dale Pollock, Lucas’s first biographer, to discuss whatever happened to these post-retirement promises. We discuss:

• Steve Silberman’s 2005 Wired article, “Life After Darth,” which voiced all these questions, the year of Lucas’s retirement;

• what were the exact circumstances of Lucas opening up his life to Pollock as a biographer during the filming of Return of the Jedi;

• does Lucas deserve his reputation as a tin-eared regurgitator of poppy pulp tropes;

• is he not only one of the greatest editors of all-time, or — easily — one of the greatest filmmakers of all-time?

Also:

• the abbreviated career of his first wife and early collaborator, Marcia Lucas;

• why the critical reception of the Star Wars prequels guaranteed Lucas would never return to film directing;

• is Lucas making — maybe even stockpiling, these movies, unseen;

• and is he setting up these experiments to be released after his death?

Dale Pollock is a journalist, film producer, professor, and festival programmer. Along with writing the biography Skywalking: The Life and Times of George Lucas, he’s also written for Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Times, Life, People, and Esquire. He’s executive producer 13 films, including A Midnight Clear and Blaze, taught at both USC and the University of North Carolina School of Arts in Winston-Salem, and ran the RiverRun International Film Festival. More can be found at his website.

Episode 89 – 'Blood, Sweat & Chrome' w/ Author Kyle Buchanan

Hiatus over! When Mad Max: Fury Road came out in 2015, a 30-year gap since Beyond Thunderdome, its breathless and near-universal reception as — already — one of the greatest movies of the decade and — already — one of the greatest action movies of all-time, automatically erased the two-decade lead-up to the film’s execution and completion, erasing previous versions and false starts. Yet, once the final studio greenlight came, that only began the film’s arduous production. On this episode, Kyle Buchanan talks the oral history book he’s written about that epic production, thusly untold and way more epic than previously thought — all leading towards the triumph as one of the best action movies of all time. We discuss:

• the silent-movie, low-dialogue inspiration for whole production;

• the extremely thorough pre-production, where even cameramen were given extensive audition processes;

• what would Mel Gibson in Fury Road really have felt like?

• or the in-sequence shooting schedule which focused the million-dollar production on, ostensibly, seconds-long inserts.

Also:

• how the shoot was bolstered by a crew-member and long-time Max fan named “Toast”;

• the intensive storyboarding/writing process,

• Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy’s (pre-known, pre-excerpted) on-set tension,

• and how the next Mad Max film, Furiosa, was implanted and planned from this film, starring Chris Hemsworth as a previous-revealed villain.

Kyle Buchanan is a pop culture reporter and serves as the Projectionist, the awards season columnist for the New York Times. Prior, he was a senior editor at Vulture, New York Magazine's entertainment website, where he covered the movie industry. A native of Southern California, he lives in Los Angeles. Blood, Sweat & Chrome is his first book.

Episode 86 – 'All of the Marvels' w/ Author Douglas Wolk

In his magnificent second book on comics, the great critic Douglas Wolk has synthesized 60 years of continuous storytelling from Marvel Comics authors and declared it, collectively and thusly, the longest, greatest, most sustained narrative in human history — longer than any daily soap opera, Remembrance of Things Past, or the Mahābhārata. From its origins, written and drawn by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby, multiple creators have expanded and expounded its creation to synthesize multiple genres — action, super-hero, horror — to a hybrid-genre that would, ultimately, take over movies. On this episode, I’m joined with Ted Haycraft as we discuss with Wolk:

• Wolk’s origins as a comic reader, from his first comics to his career working for a direct market store during his college years;

• how the Marvel Universe story works its magic through broad collaboration and improvisation,

• especially in a story that will never end or begins, nor is intended to ever end.

Also:

• Which Marvel characters merited chapters in early drafts that didn’t make it to the final draft;

• why the hardest Marvel character for Wolk to read was the Punisher;

• where the extra-Marvel universes of IP licenses like Conan or G.I. Joe, newuniversal, or 2099 played into his comprehensive reading;

• and why his son and the next generation’s ethos or justice was the integral inspiration to the entire project.

Douglas Wolk has been a National Arts Journalism Fellow at Columbia University and a Fellow in the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program, who has written about comics and music for magazines, newspapers and web sites including Time, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Believer, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Slate and Pitchfork. His books include Reading Comics and 33 1/3: Live at the Apollo. He currently teaches at Portland State University and hosts the podcast Voice of Latveria. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Wolk’s All of the Marvels is available online and at book-and-mortar booksellers everywhere.

Episode 78 – Jamie Kirkpatrick / 'Open Range'

Working from home, Jamie Kirkpatrick edited a solid, tight Western script that was proposed to him as “a Wal-Mart movie,” only to realize from the dailies that it was actually turning into a great movie. Months later, after successful reviews from the Venice Film Festival, writer-director Potsy Ponciroli’s Western is in theaters and one of the year’s best movies. In particular, one of the influences for the movie discussed between editor and director was Kevin Costner’s underrated, last directorial outing, Open Range, and in particular its messy gunfight finale. On this episode, joined by Ted Haycraft, we discuss:

• The wide list of Westerns Kirkpatrick studied while editing, from Blazing Saddles to Pale Rider;

• two editors shop talk, particularly about editing a film remotely frame-by-frame on software that lags significantly;

• then they talk shop more, particularly about Kirkpatrick’s short editing schedule for Old Henry;

• and then, somehow, they talk more editorial shop.

Also:

• Kevin Costner’s tiny directorial trilogy of lengthy, cinematically-informed films, which talk back to film history;

• why certain perfectly-great film’s Oscar success hurts them in posterity, when they won over other beloved films (Dances With Wolves v. GoodFellas);

• how many bullets are actually in a movie six-shooter, at least from an editor’s standpoint;

• and also: more editors’ shop talk.

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a New York-based editor and filmmaker. His feature editing credits include Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Ed Burns’ The Groomsmen, My Friend Dahmer, We Summon the Darkness, and Critical Thinking.

Open Range is available digitally to rent or buy.

Old Henry is currently playing in select theaters.

Episode 77 – @ScottPropAndRoll

During the pandemic, Austin-based prop master and art director Scott A. Reeder started messing around on TikTok, combining short but entertaining behind-the-scenes tidbits — alongside dad jokes. One-point-five million followers later, this work-based lark has turned into a phenomenon. On this episode, I’m joined by Jacob Gay, a former Evansville native who works with Scott on the CW’s current Walker reboot. The three of us discuss:

• How his daughter prompted Scott, who’d always been shy about telling jokes, to make his first post;

• Scott’s work on both generations of TV’s Walker;

• and how his brilliant paper/rock/scissors Good, the Bad, and the Ugly parody was overshadowed by a breakthrough walking-home-from-the-bar joke.

Also:

• How Reeder translated his professional craftsman expertise into a social network following;

• why social networks are becoming promotional to working, below the line crew members;

• and the nuts and bolts of monetizing a social media from a side-gig into a main income stream.

Scott A. Reeder is a prop master and art director who’s worked in TV and film (Machete, the Friday the 13th remake, Grindhouse, The Leftovers, Friday Night Lights, Panic, and Walker: Texas Ranger), including his work as co-writer/director (Boondoggle). His TIkTok, YouTube, Instagram, and various social media accounts can be found through his Linktr.ee.

Jacob Gay is a production specialist working in the Austin, TX film and television community. Originally from Evansville, IN, he loves comedies, playing the mandolin and watching basketball (go Pacers!). And podcasts, too, obviously.

Episode 76 – 'For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close' w/ Director Heather Ross & Co-Editor George Mandl

Del Close was an early member of the Compass Player (later Second City), an early proponent of “Yes, and” improv method, the “Harold” longform improv format, and an unironic “guru” of almost every major comedy player who came out of Chicago into Saturday Night Live into your favorite comedies of the last 40 years. Yet, why isn’t he known to many, or all, and why do those who did knew him personally describe him as a “madman”? On this episode is Heather Ross, director and co-writer of the new Close documentary For Madmen Only, along with her co-producer and -editor George Mandl, and former Chicago improv student Dustin Levell. We discuss:

• How Ross’s doc work with women in Chicago kept her hearing stories about this “Close guy with a needle hanging out of his arm” who trained all her favorite comedians;

• the closest Close had to an autobiography, the late-’80s pre-Vertigo comic Wasteland, and how its visual narrative contributed to the doc;

• his degree of shock-seeking and self-mythologizing;

• and why Chicago improvers from Mike Myers to Bill Murray have wanted to make a biopic out of Close’s life;

Also:

• the difference between the ‘60s San Franciscan Harold versus the “Teaching” Harold;

• the influence of the book Close’s tri-authored book Truth in Comedy and its profound wisdom, both personally and artistically;

• the ambivalent nature of being a great “guru” and having one’s students surpass in levels of fame;

• and why the 4-20% of genuine good improv is ephemerally like the being around your funniest friends at the lunch table in high school — you had to be there, and it can never be recreated.

Heather Ross is an Emmy-Ward winning documentarian for her film Girls on the the Wall, along with producing on the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are. She also directed several shorts in the “It Gets Better” series of advocacy films.

George Mandl is a film editor based out of Los Angeles. He and his work can be found at his website.

Dustin Levell is a Chicago-based comedy writer, performer, and stage director who trained at Second City and Improv Olympic.

For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close is currently available to rent or buy on VOD. And, also, on Kanopy.

Episode 74 – Mark Yoshikawa / 'After Life'

The kindest, humblest, most talented, best-combo film editor I’ve ever worked with was Mark Yoshikawa. From his humble beginnings assistant-editing for Richard Chew (Star Wars, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), to his rise through the ranks to co-picture editor for Terrence Malick (The New World, Knight of Cups), Yoshikawa’s ascendancy was always measured and earned, learning through the process as he made his way to large studio blockbusters. On this episode, we talk half Mark’s career, half one of his formative films, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life, and Kore-eda’s career. And:

• Mark’s most recent work, Reminiscence, called on skills he developed for Lisa Joy on HBO’s Westworld;

• how that AE ascendancy, from That Thing you Do! to Best In Show taught him the skills to “run the room” and be a calming presence in multiple editing rooms;

• and why his work knowing the footage on Malick’s The New World led to a picture editor promotion.

Also:

• Mark’s formative viewing of After Life at a Los Angeles Little Tokyo festival screening;

• that docu-sensibility of “movies as memory” application of both After Life and Reminiscence, and cinema as a memory as a “story that you tell yourself”;

• and the true work of We-Wei and “avoiding the filmmaker’s hand” in regards to finding pristine performers’s genuine behavior.

Mark Yoshikawa is a film editor best known for his work on The Tree of Life, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2, HBO’s Westworld and the pilot to Succession. His most recently work, Reminiscence, starring Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson, is available in theaters and on HBO Max.

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life is available on VOD and on physical media from Criterion.