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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
The Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Here

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weekday Afternoons on the Drive, Las
Monio is with us. He's a writer

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and director. He's got a new
release out called mob Land. It is

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out now, starring John Travolta.
Nick. The main character is no Chili

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Palmer or Vince Vega. Is he? He is not? He is not

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in this one. So this Uh, I don't know that a lot of

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people realized that John Travolta is still
making movies, that we haven't seen him

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in a while. No, I
think he took a little time off there

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some you know, personal life gets
in the way, and you know,

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his career is still chugging along,
and he's doing well, and he's choosing

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the right sorry, the right roles. I think I'd like to think at

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least from right. Well. This
story takes place in deep in the heart

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of Dixie, where a small town
is struggling with the rise and addiction.

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So it's timely and an intrepid sheriff, John Travolta, is trying to keep

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things in check as best he can. But then a frenetic family man,

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uh Shiloh Fernandez, robs a pill
mill and starts a whole line of events

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that starts to Domino. That's that's
a that's pretty fair. That's that's that's

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the basics. Yep. So this
is uh, I mean deep in the

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heart of Dixie. What are we
talking about here? What state? Uh

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takes place in northern Alabama as in
Huntsville, a rab muscle shoals. That's

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that's pretty much it. It's a
trinity, uh, Trinity County right up

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in there. Okay. And uh
So if for you, the the love

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of this genre all started with Reservoir
Dogs. Yeah, that's what I that's

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what I blame for this. All
it was, you know, being in

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my friend's basement getting the getting the
VHS copy of Rosword Dogs and having my

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mind blown that that movies can look
like this, the movies can be this,

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and and that that set off a
whole chain of events. Talking about

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mob Land, it's Nicolas Mazio who's
with us. He is the writer and

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director. And what inspired this story
for you? You know, it was

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I'm a I'm a car guy,
m gearhead. I was in northern Alabama

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shooting a photo series of drag racers, kind of backyard builders, and I

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just fell in love with the environment, with the landscape, with the demographics,

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and I just figured, I,
you know, I had to set

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a film there. And then from
there on the dark side of my of

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my writing took over, and I
came up with the heist and just all

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the the rest of the story,
and I just wanted to get to that

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location and that that's that's kind of
what inspired the whole thing was cars the

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New Orleans and mafia enters the picture, which we don't have to reach very

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far to see to see what the
New Orleans Mafia has been up to.

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No, absolutely not. And uh, you know, and incomes Clayton played

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by Stephen Dorff, so he uh, he comes in and starts cleaning up

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and taking care of business mob land. John Travolta stars in it. It's

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out now. Is the town where
this takes place a real town or is

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it just ficus fictitious? No?
I wanted to I wanted to stay a

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little ambiguous because it's not so much
about the town as it is just the

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the situations. But you were exactly
right with Hansville, Decatur right up in

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there, the little, uh,
the small towns outside of those towns.

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It's definitely uh what uh what we
pay homage to up there? Yeah,

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that's I've I spent some time up
in there, and uh, it's it

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reminds me very much. You know, northern Georgia, northern Alabama, northern

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Mississippi, all of that together along
that Tennessee Valley is very distinct, and

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I don't see a lot of movies
made that, aren't you know, backwoods

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hick type movies. Yeah. You
know, I grew up both my parents

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born and raised in Mississippi. I'm
not unfamiliar with the South. I definitely

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didn't want to be a you know, a Hollywood story kind of exploiting the

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South or you know, this podunk
rednecks. It's it's you know, I

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wanted to make sure that we are
honest to the people, to the locations,

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and I think we did that with
this. Well, that's one of

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the things that I think. And
I haven't seen this yet, but just

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by the looks of the trailer and
the looks of some of the publicity stills.

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Travolta, who is you know,
very Italian, very New York,

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but he seems to have gotten into
this role very well and looks like one

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of the law enforcement officers you'd see
in a town like that. These are

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regular people who do most of the
working and slaving and living and dying.

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Yeah, I mean, I figured, if if the Magios can settle in

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rural Mississippi, you know, coming
in through Ellis Island and going down to

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Mississippi, I figured a Travolta maybe
just as home down there as well.

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But yeah, he uh, he
he loved the role. He settled in

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really nicely. He he knew the
character. We talked a lot about it

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beforehand, and he came in ready
and I think he uh, you know,

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I think he nailed it. As
far as Sheriff Boat is concerned.

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Well, and he's had so much
happen in his life, what with the

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pandemic and the various tragedies, his
son, his wife, and he seems

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to be aging well into his roles. Yo, he is. I think

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he's uh, he's he's getting to
a place where, not to say he

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hasn't before, but he's choosing his
roles carefully. He's really getting into Uh.

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I would hazard a guest that he
probably doesn't need the money and he's

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he's really uh, only taking roles
right now. That they really speak to

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him, and he was very excited
to play Bodie. He was very uh,

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he was all in with it.
Uh. And it was really fun

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to see somebody like that. I
mean, let's call it a I mean

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what it is. He's a movie
star and seeing him uh, you know,

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to vote that much time, effort, energy, passion loved into this

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role, even on a small budget
film like this, was really really inspiring

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to see. Well. And I
don't see him doing a lot of where

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he is the the You don't see
him being a law enforcement officer that often.

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No, I can't really think of
another one where he did. I

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haven't seen his whole catalog of works. Uh No, but he uh,

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he's played the bad guy recently,
you know, especially with Gaudy and a

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couple others. He's he's kind of
worked himself into those roles. But no,

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he I don't think we have seen
him like that, and he's a

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I think he was perfect for this. The empathy that he plays, the

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sensitivity, but also that that kind
of toughness, that that that real uh

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toughness that a lot of those older
southerns than him and have. I think

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he embodied that extremely well. Oh
yeah, Yeah. Did he have to

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work on the accent? Uh?
You know, he says, he says

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he did. But somebody like that, I think I probably could have said

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this thing anywhere and he would have
showed up prepared with pretty minimal effort,

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not to minimize anything, you know, he did to prepare, but his

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accent. Again, having grown up
around the South for so long, I'm

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pretty sensitive to that. And I
think anyone who watches this will you know,

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heyman doorf shiloh, everybody. I
think they put it enough effort in

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that I don't think you're you're going
to question too much. Well, the

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movie is called It's Nicholas Maggio and
it's mob Land. It's out now with

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John Travolta, and it's everywhere you
get your movies. We'll look forward to

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it. It'll be a great weekend
view this weekend. Nicolas Maggio, thank

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you for joining us, Thank you
so much for having me. Thanks for

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listening to Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to

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listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons
from five to seven and Ihearts Media Presentation