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Speaker 1: All right, welcome everybody. You have a good friend of mine,

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new friend of mine, Yvonne Gautier. He is a writer, director, producer.

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He's worked on the several projects for several decades. He

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is a French filmmaker who spent a good bit of

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time in la and is now working on his own

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independent projects. And we're going to be talking about the

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history of film, his influences, what he likes, what he

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doesn't like, how he got to where he is, and Yvonne,

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how are you today.

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Speaker 2: I'm good, Thank you, thanks for doing this. I really

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appreciate it. And the first thing I want to say is,

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I know I have a pretty sick French accent and

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I can't get rid of it. So if there are

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moments where if you don't understand stuff that you know,

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tell me. I don't mind repeating. I'm used to I'm

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used to it.

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Speaker 1: I have a good friend who's on my discord and

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he's also sounds just like you, by the way, so

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I'm used to the accent, so I don't think it'll

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be a problem. But all right, evon, so let's talk

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about first of all, what got you interested in film?

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What were some of the first films that really piqued

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your interest to make you say I want to do that.

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That's going to be my life goal is to make

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films where their books. Was it specific directors, let's talk

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about influences.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it really feels like it started when

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I was a teenager and I started to watch a

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lot of movies, like mostly commercial movies, but my parents

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at the time, I was living in a small town

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in the east of France, not far from Germany, and

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then my parents were running like a sceney club and

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they were playing other movies, not only like the Disney

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or the super main stream stuff. And then I was

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open really early to like different kind of movies, not

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only big American movies, but French. French movie is after

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house stuff from different countries. And then I really remember

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enjoying the experience so much that you know, it was

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like almost a revelation, you know, like, Okay, that's how

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you know what movies can make you feel. It was

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unique to me, and I thought, yeah, that's that's awesome.

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At the time, I wasn't sure that's what I wanted

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to do, because because you know, being born and raising

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very in the in the countryside, almost in a very

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small town. It's not really like the careers that people

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are going to pursue, and so but I was lucky

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that my parents said, Okay, if that's what you would

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like to do, maybe let's explore that. And then that's

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that's how it studied. And then when I was like,

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I don't know, fifteen sixteen, it's like I was so

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much into that, that's that's what I wanted to do.

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And then I started to you know, play with super

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hid camera us at the time and see what could

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be done.

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Speaker 1: Did you go to film school or did you just

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do it all on your own?

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Speaker 2: So I started because we don't come from monet. So

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then I still moved to Paris to go to because

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I mean, the ways of to get in the system

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in France, and I don't want to get into politics

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too early, but basically, I mean, we had no idea

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of where to start, you know, so we looked into

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how to how to how to get into the industry

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and then there were mostly two two ways in France

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to get there, which was the science the the at

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the time, it was called the lead deck. It was

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like the big film school that was very very ultra

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selective for the happy few part of the families and

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all of that, or there was the sciences, the scientific

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side of it more to become a technician, and and

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so I tried to to to to pass the test

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to to to go there because the other one it

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was clear that I wouldn't ever be picked because at

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the time I had no idea. But you know, I

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clearly didn't feed the profile that they were looking for

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in these big schools. So the science, the science part

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of filmmaking I was I was interested in. I mean

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i've i've really felt like I wanted to direct and

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do everything. But I said, okay, if I I tried

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to get into these other more more technical driven schools,

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and I kind of failed. So I tried to go

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to like the universities and to learn more math and

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physics and stuff. But I just like I tried, but

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that's that wasn't what I wanted to achieve.

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Speaker 1: When you when you speak of the profile that they wanted,

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what exactly how would you characterize that?

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean funny enough, through like some different relationships.

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Once I was selected to be part of a trip

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to the USA actually back in eighty nine to go

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visit some film school with a group of film students

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that were all part of this big school, like the

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Famous I think it was at the time they changed

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the name from me Deck to Famous and I ended

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up through like a relationship. It's a long story, but

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make it short, and I ended up going to a

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trip to the USA with a group of these guys,

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these people from this school, so I was able to

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actually meet the people from the school. And then I realized,

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you know, later on that you know, a lot of

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them were part of family who were already in the

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business or the the LGBT.

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Speaker 1: Yea more of a political alignment that was necessary to

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be to.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, and I could I could realize right away

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that I wasn't in on the same page at all

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with with this group of people, you know, and I

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was kind of an outcast within that group because I

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was the only one or maybe we were two or

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three that were not part of that school within that group,

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and I was completely ostracized, but on the side because

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at the time I loved you know, like I still

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loved like commercial movies and look, Bason was big in

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France at the time, and I was, you know, like

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he did like the Last Battle like his first movie,

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and then he did The Subway, which was like, oh

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I loved Subway. And then for them it was like garbage,

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you know, like they were on Tieu looke Bason. They

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were all about super After I was filmmaking it was

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super leftists. But I didn't have the worlds to understand

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that at the time. I was like not even twenty,

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you know, so and that. But that trip was interesting

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to come to the US for the first time for me,

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and then to to to see you know, we visited

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like you know, I think it was usc and all

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of that. That was that was interesting. But also I

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really it was my first encounteract with people from the

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industry and that we're designed on most of these people

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actually that we're doing that group, they're all like very

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established French directors. Now it's funny because I know I

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know them, you know, but.

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Speaker 1: But well, look, Bason is an interesting character with you know,

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the films that he started with, and then I think

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in the in the US most people just know firstly

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of La Femnikida and then you have the more Hollywood

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commercial stuff that he you know that he did throughout

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the nineties and the two thousands and so was that

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kind of a model of what you were thinking, Okay,

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I want to break into the Hollywood domain and then god.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no totally, I mean based on I mean,

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first I was a huge fan of you know, big

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American movies and Steven Spielberg of course, but you know,

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Sergiolione in Italy. That was a huge inspiration to me,

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you know, coming I come from Italy as well. My

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grandfather was Italian, so always felt some connection with with

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with Sergiolione and you know, like the European version of

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American filmmaking in some way, you know, so that was

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a big inspiration. So but yeah, I was very much

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into commercial movies, but commercial with a twist, you know,

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like interesting commercial movies, not just like the big, big,

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stupid stuff. And so where were we at?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I understand that because I think most

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of like most of the films that I've focused on

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were a lot of the commercial films that you know,

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when I wrote the essays and whatnot that I've that

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I found to be to some degree interesting with different elements,

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even if the films were not that great, there's always

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usually some interesting elements at least, but you know, it's

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very different in the US than it is I think,

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you know, probably from what you're used to, because you know,

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when we were talking, you said, why do people like

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some of these action films and these action heroes. I

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don't understand, And and you know, in the US, it's

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more so about the experience, the you know, elements that

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would probably be looked down upon in the art house sphere.

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It's not very it's not very sophisticated. It's not it's

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not really seen as art. It's more of a you know,

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a baser sort of experience. I think for a lot

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of US film goers, because we just don't have that

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you know, depth and sophistication of understanding the arts that

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probably a lot of people in Europe are probably still

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taught that to some degree, although now it's all probably

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just totally leftist. Does that make sense what I'm saying,

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It just doesn't translate into people don't think of it

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as art. They think of it as like a commercial almost.

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Speaker 2: I would say. And it's funny with my wife, we

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laugh about that, but we say that, you know, culture

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is part of the culture. In France and pretty much everywhere,

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you know, you have like film festivals, everywhere you have

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lots of lots of galleries. I mean, you can really

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discover a lot of things. When in America, I mean

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you have like big cities with a lot of that,

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but outside of that, you don't you don't have too

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much and it's not really part of the culture, you know,

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I mean just the American culture part of the culture,

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but the outside culture is not really part. When in

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France it's such a I mean in Europe in general,

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I guess you have more of a culture, cultural thing

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that's going on, like that's part of of of the people,

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you know, but that that's that's that's a big difference,

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I would say. But after that it's you know, it's

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good and it's bad. You know, you have the good

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side on the bad side, you know, because then people

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start to lose their starts, start to lose their culture,

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if I may say that, because they are so within

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a cultural thing that at the end, you know, it's

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like who who who are they who? And then as

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a you know, as a French person, at the end

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of the day, you you you end up with a

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with a president Macron who says French culture doesn't exist,

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you know, and he actually said that, you know, which

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is crazy exactly.

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Speaker 1: I mean he's just a full on you know, counter

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initiation and version bulshetic revolutionary with with that character. I mean,

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it's so it's so extreme. Okay, So you end up

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When did you end up in the US in the

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LA scene and what was your initial experience there?

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Speaker 2: I mean the first, you know, I wanted to make movies.

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I moved to Paris, and then in Paris I studied

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like a small French film school just for one year

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just to learn the basis. It was a very inexpensive

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private school, that's all we could afford. And then after

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that I created a production company in France and I

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became like very proactive, producing lots of different kind of content,

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mostly short films at the time. And this production company

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I worked with lots of different directors. I was directing

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a lot of them, but I was also producing for

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other directors. I always liked that part of filmmaking as well,

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and I was able to produce also lots of music videos.

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I connected with with independent rock bands and we did

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a lot of a lot of music videos for bands

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that are big now in France, actually rock, alternative rock bands,

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really cool bands and I worked with them closely for

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a while and then until I was able to put

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together my first feature film that you discovered Lesa and yeah,

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that was.

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Speaker 1: That was really interesting. And I know this might be

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a really dumb question for you, but for the sake

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of this audience, a lot of people who won't necessarily

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know a lot of the stuff because we we've had

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a lot of growth in the last year on the

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YouTube channel, so we had a lot of people that

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will be new to some of these things. Could you

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describe the difference between the role of a director in

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the film versus the role of say andle Aliens. You

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were the producer, so what exactly was the distinction there

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that you were mainly involved in.

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Speaker 2: Lliena. I was, actually yeah, I was the producer, but

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I also directed the movie. Yeah I was. I was.

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I directed that one. That was my technically my first

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feature film as a as a director.

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Speaker 1: I apologize I watched it, but then the IMDb just

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lists you as a as a producer, but maybe it's

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a pure producer and director.

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Speaker 2: I was just looking at they keep on changing the presentation,

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and now you don't really know what you're looking at,

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but you know, I I because I'm probably still that

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producer first then as director, so then probably that's why.

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I don't know, but yeah, that's that's my that's my

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first feature film as a as a director, producer, and

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many more, many more jobs. Because it was like a

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super low budget we're still shot in thirty five mini

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matter because at the time, that's all, I mean, that's all,

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that's what was available to make movies and that was

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so the movie looked. I think the movie looks pretty good.

255
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That was shot, Yeah, it was. It was really hard

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to to make that movie. I did not enjoy the

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the process.

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Speaker 1: Well, it turned out really well. I thought that was

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a It was a really interesting film. It didn't go

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in the direction that I expected. I like the you know,

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we're sort of getting into the psyche of this garbage man,

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this sort of alien alienated, out, outcast character. And then

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I won't spoil it, but you know, perhaps he's associating.

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Perhaps there's these you know, repressed you know, angst against

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society and whatnot. But I mean again, so what what

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exactly is the difference between Because you have a lot

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of producing credits and then you have directing credits, could

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you just for the sake of my audience who might

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be new to explain the difference between when you're a

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director versus the producer.

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Speaker 2: And also the meaning of producer and director is also

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a little different in France and in and in the US.

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That's what I learned the hardaway a thirty when I

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first moved to the US. That's another another story metag

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that later. But basically, in France, the director is kind

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of the the captain of the ship, is the one

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who's making all the decisions, and he's he's making his movie.

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When in America, the director most of the time, he

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doesn't really make his movie, makes the producers movies. So

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so in in France the director is by law, actually

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he's you cannot take away his director Scott. For example,

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in France, when in America the director, the director Scott

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is you know, I mean, it's very rare that the

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director Scott is released just big director. They can reford to.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is when we hear about somebody having final

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cut right, like Tarantino gets final cut right.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, final cuts. That's that's that's customary for every director

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in France or by law, So which is which is

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great and actually great and not great because the director

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could be his own worst enemy at some point, and

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it's good that that he has a good relationship with

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a producer who can because in Frances if a producer

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wants to fire a director, because he cannot fire the director.

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So if the director becomes nuts and then he wants

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to do this or that, then you know, then you're

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stuck with whatever the director will give you. So that's

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a problem. But at the same time, in the US

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the opposite. You know, like the director can can he

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have his movie taken away from him? And then you

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know that happened to me as.

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Speaker 1: Well, so.

302
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Speaker 2: I know that I learned that, so you know. So,

303
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But the director, basically, on set, it's a very different

304
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configuration because the director Ronsett is the guy who's there,

305
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you know, calling all the shots theoretically, and he is

306
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the one who decides the way he wants to shoot stuff,

307
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is the one who picks all the technicians he wants

308
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to work with, is the one who's really makes the

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movie the way he wants it to be. He picks

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the music, he does everything. The producer is mostly the

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guy who's putting together that's that's for France. In France,

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the director, the producer is managing to put the money

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together so the movie can happen. And in France it's

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usually not his money, you know, he works with the

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I mean, producers don't put their own money in the

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movies most of the time, you know, which either in

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the US or in France. In France it never happens. Actually,

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but because you have a rohole system find the TV.

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The big the thing is in France, the television stations

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are actually financing the movies. So that's why. That's why

321
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even though there are movies, you always feel like there's

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a French there's a TV movie element to a lot

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of French films unless they are art house, you know,

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but otherwise if they're kind of commercial because they're always

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design for.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, right, So I guess there's a pro and

327
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a con to the relationship to the state, right yeah, yeah, yeah,

328
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no exactly, since since the state tends to be kind

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of you know, left socialists obviously, do they tend to

330
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also step into the films or do they censor the art?

331
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Are they pretty good being off hands on the art?

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Speaker 2: What the biggest issue is that there's self censorship, you know,

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So for directors they know that if they want to

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make a movie happen, they have to talk, they have

335
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to to turn into a walk world and start start

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writing in the in that realm, you know. Other Wise

337
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these movies don't don't get made, you know. The only

338
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the only movies that are not work that get made.

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Then they are made outside the system because in the system,

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you know, you have to you need to fit into

341
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the exactly the rules. So that's that's the big downside

342
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actually of the French system. You know, all the movies,

343
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they're all like kind of but it's like Hollywood, you know,

344
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it's like a big propaganda machine at some point. So

345
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the system found a way to impose, to impose the

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way they want the movies to be. And that's the

347
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same in the US that it is in France. From

348
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with different tools, but the results is the same.

349
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Speaker 1: So you produce a bunch of indirect French films and

350
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then you end up in Los Angeles and then is

351
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it I Am Wrath. That's the first sort of Hollywood

352
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production that you get involved in.

353
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Speaker 2: No. When I first moved to the US was in

354
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two thousand and five. I I got picked up to

355
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do a movie that went very wrong. So it's a

356
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pretty long story, so I don't I don't necessarily want

357
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to get to mention into it. And and also it's

358
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it's a film i'd rather people not see anyway, So okay,

359
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which I mean, my name is technically not in the

360
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credits because I I I actually signed a movie. You

361
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know that name Alan Smithy.

362
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the pseudonym that everybody uses.

363
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Speaker 2: So I actually signed my first movie in the US

364
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with the name Alan Smithy.

365
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Speaker 1: And was that show was that Show Girls?

366
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Speaker 2: I know, I wish I wish it was show Girl?

367
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But so and then and then after that movie, I

368
00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:56,240
was supposed to do another Actually did l A I

369
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Hate You before?

370
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Speaker 1: I am right?

371
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Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay, yeah, so so and I shot another

372
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piece of a movie actually that helped that led to

373
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LA I Hate You so because I moved in two

374
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thousand and five, two thousand and six in the US,

375
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and then I started shooting that other movie that was

376
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called An American Hero that was a I shot pieces

377
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,279
of it that have a few good scenes, and that

378
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:28,039
was a really really unique concept. I was able to

379
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gather a little money from friends to make this, and

380
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then I was thinking, oh, it's gonna look super cool.

381
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When people are gonna see that, they're gonna pay for

382
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the rest of the movie. But then that did not

383
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happen like that. They say, oh, yeah, we'll pay, but

384
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not for that movie. We'll pay for another one. And

385
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that's how That's how La I H you got made.

386
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Speaker 1: So that was the first sort of that was your baby,

387
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,359
right you came to La. You finally got that made,

388
00:22:53,839 --> 00:22:55,960
and you know, we had to see that. You premiered

389
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,960
that when we were with you in Mississippi at your

390
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:03,720
film festival there your when you premiered your most recent film,

391
00:23:03,799 --> 00:23:07,839
Vampire Project, and that was really, uh, it was it

392
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:09,680
was a wild acid trip. I thought that was a

393
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,279
really fascinating way to kind of tie in these different

394
00:23:13,279 --> 00:23:18,319
people's timelines into this sort of culminating you know, sort

395
00:23:18,319 --> 00:23:22,759
of uh, you know, unexplainable phenomena, the sort of the

396
00:23:23,319 --> 00:23:26,880
mysterious that invades this realm out of nowhere. And it's

397
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,079
like you think that initially that's these four people sort

398
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:32,880
of moral dilemmas that they're caught up in, and then

399
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,799
it kind of goes off into perhaps the demonic, perhaps

400
00:23:36,319 --> 00:23:38,559
something else. I won't give away too much because people

401
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:41,519
might want to go see it, but talk Let's talk

402
00:23:41,559 --> 00:23:44,279
about some of the influences on LA I Hate You

403
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:49,119
because did You? Was this partly spawned out of your

404
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:53,599
immediate dislike for Hollywood in the industry there or being

405
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:54,920
just based on the title.

406
00:23:56,240 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 2: So, so what happened is I was supposed to make

407
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:05,000
another movie. I mean, it's interesting in Hollywood. A lot

408
00:24:05,039 --> 00:24:09,000
of movies get made because another movie fell apart, So

409
00:24:09,079 --> 00:24:12,559
then that movie gets made. And so what happened is

410
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,039
I was I worked for a little while with a

411
00:24:15,079 --> 00:24:19,960
producer on a project that was a really really cool script.

412
00:24:20,039 --> 00:24:22,279
I didn't write that script. It was called Motel at

413
00:24:22,319 --> 00:24:25,519
the time. That turned into an actual movie letter on

414
00:24:25,559 --> 00:24:29,000
a big movie with Robert de Niro, But I was

415
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:32,200
supposed to direct that movie. It was written by James Russo,

416
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:38,279
and that movie ended up falling apart. It was a

417
00:24:38,319 --> 00:24:42,160
billionaire we wanted to finance that movie, and then he

418
00:24:42,279 --> 00:24:45,240
wanted to have Generey Rener to be the lead, and

419
00:24:45,279 --> 00:24:48,400
then he was ready to pay for Jeremy Renner. And

420
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,839
that's the year where Jeremy Rener was nomde it for

421
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:56,240
an Oscar. So that was probably like two thousand and nine.

422
00:24:56,839 --> 00:25:03,640
I think, and and and we said, it's not gonna happen.

423
00:25:03,759 --> 00:25:06,480
Jeremyha is gonna be nominated for an Oscar. He's not

424
00:25:06,519 --> 00:25:11,079
gonna do a little movie, you know, He's gonna be

425
00:25:11,079 --> 00:25:15,440
on big stuff. And so the billionaire guy decided to

426
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,079
just drop that project. But then the producer who was

427
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,359
friend with the billionaire, said, hey, maybe we can sell

428
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,640
him to do a small movie, you know, like it

429
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:28,000
gives us, like a a a few thousand bucks. Then

430
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:31,359
we'll figure something out. And then then that's how that's

431
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,960
how I had to pitch him something like almost instantly.

432
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:38,599
I remember we were having a drink a bit depressed

433
00:25:38,599 --> 00:25:40,519
that the other movie was not gonna go. And then

434
00:25:41,839 --> 00:25:45,920
and then I pitched him the concept of La I

435
00:25:46,039 --> 00:25:49,480
h You just a bit out of nowhere. And funny enough,

436
00:25:49,599 --> 00:25:51,839
it says at the beginning that it's based on true events,

437
00:25:51,839 --> 00:25:54,640
and it's actually real that that most of the you know,

438
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:59,759
it's a three story concept, and the three stories a

439
00:26:00,039 --> 00:26:04,440
kind of based on real stuff, and so and and

440
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:08,319
and it's actually based on the people. We knew this

441
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:13,000
producer and I we knew the couple, and and his

442
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:17,720
girlfriend was a handicapped and then and then a friend

443
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,559
of his say, hey, you should get rid of your

444
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:22,200
girlfriend because she's gonna be a nightmare to deal with

445
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,640
for the rest of your life. And that was I thought, Yeah,

446
00:26:25,799 --> 00:26:28,200
that's a funny story. We should turn that into a movie.

447
00:26:28,599 --> 00:26:30,559
And then I got the idea of the guy who

448
00:26:30,559 --> 00:26:33,160
wants to cheat on his wife and then things go wrong.

449
00:26:33,799 --> 00:26:36,400
And then the third story is also stories we heard

450
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,039
in Hollywood, like hey, and it's funny because it ties

451
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,200
to a lot of that happening in La I Hate You.

452
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:42,799
Speaker 1: It's kind of.

453
00:26:44,759 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 2: Reminiscent of the Epstein uh power.

454
00:26:51,079 --> 00:26:52,759
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, yeah, you've got you've got the

455
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,200
sequence where it's tying into these organized crime networks and

456
00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:00,680
there's you know, shut type parties going on, and so yeah,

457
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:02,039
that's exactly what I was going to say.

458
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 2: And we and we already had that in there, and

459
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:06,720
I had no you know, I mean, it was like

460
00:27:06,799 --> 00:27:08,839
in two thousand and nine that we wrote that script.

461
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:15,839
So and and it's funny that there was already like

462
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:20,880
the the whole structure of Hollywood, you know, that was

463
00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:23,000
that was in the movie as well. So, and then

464
00:27:23,039 --> 00:27:25,119
we got the idea of these three stories. And then

465
00:27:25,599 --> 00:27:29,359
the the producer wanted me to work with this other

466
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,599
guy who's actually playing the role in the his own

467
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:34,720
role pretty much of the girl with the girl that's

468
00:27:34,759 --> 00:27:39,960
on the cap, and and he we started to write

469
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,319
that together. I gave him like some some notes he

470
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,720
started to write, and then I wasn't, you know, super happy.

471
00:27:45,759 --> 00:27:47,440
So at the end I ended up, like you know,

472
00:27:47,559 --> 00:27:51,920
real rewriting pretty much everything with him, and and then

473
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:53,599
we made the movie for almost no money.

474
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:59,319
Speaker 1: You know, did did it turn out basically fully the

475
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:01,880
way you and that whether the things that you you

476
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,640
felt like didn't come together or is it pretty much

477
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:06,279
the way you wanted it?

478
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:12,200
Speaker 2: Yea, that's a good question. I never really, I never

479
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:16,359
really see things exactly like that, because I know that

480
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,359
the movie, the final version of the movie is final

481
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,240
when it's done, you know. So I know there are

482
00:28:23,279 --> 00:28:25,559
some director like Hitchcock they say, oh yeah, the old

483
00:28:25,559 --> 00:28:27,960
movies in my head and then you just have to

484
00:28:28,039 --> 00:28:30,599
shoot it and put it together. But it's already made

485
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:32,839
in my head. No, I don't really work like that.

486
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:38,759
I like to to to get inspired by the people

487
00:28:38,839 --> 00:28:41,920
I meet and see how things are gonna turn. I

488
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,880
don't have like preconceived because especially when you work on

489
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:48,480
a low budgets. You know, what's the point of picturing

490
00:28:48,559 --> 00:28:50,960
imagining a movie that you will not be able to

491
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:55,279
make anyway. So so that's why I work with with

492
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:58,839
what with what I have. And and in that movie,

493
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,240
I mean, I had la If there, I knew tons

494
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,359
of people, We had access to lots of locations, and

495
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:06,720
so that's that's the beauty of being in la is

496
00:29:06,759 --> 00:29:09,920
that you have all these locations that are easy on

497
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:11,880
the low budget. And it was at the beginning of

498
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:16,119
these new cameras that were at like the Dsler cameras

499
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,000
we shot. I think we were probably the first people

500
00:29:19,039 --> 00:29:22,079
to shoot a movie with the canon seventy at the time,

501
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:28,359
and so that was that was the freedom. We shot

502
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:33,279
that movie with two of these seventies or one. I

503
00:29:33,279 --> 00:29:34,920
think we just had one most of the most of

504
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:35,640
the time, I think.

505
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: And you managed to you managed to get Malcolm McDowell

506
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,559
in there as well, who plays an interesting villainous role.

507
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,279
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, we got an amazing cast.

508
00:29:44,279 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: At the end.

509
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 2: I'm very I mean tour is to answer your question, Yeah,

510
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:49,480
I'm very I'm very pleased with the movie for sure.

511
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:54,400
As I mentioned to you, I think considering the budget,

512
00:29:54,559 --> 00:30:00,079
considering the the way the way it was conceived. Everything

513
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,680
was written very very quickly because it was kind of

514
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:04,480
a challenge, Hey, we need to get that movie done

515
00:30:04,559 --> 00:30:08,640
quickly if we wanted to happen, and so it was.

516
00:30:09,119 --> 00:30:11,240
It was just a lot of fun. I really enjoyed

517
00:30:11,359 --> 00:30:14,279
the whole process, shooting everywhere on the freedom of these

518
00:30:14,319 --> 00:30:17,119
small cameras, and we were able to get like a

519
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:21,000
special permit to shoot like with a dsseetter because at

520
00:30:21,039 --> 00:30:23,839
the time, people were not used to seeing people shooting

521
00:30:23,839 --> 00:30:27,000
an actual movie, so so you could have like it's

522
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,039
like a photo shoot pretty much. So we were like

523
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:35,240
very little equipment, and the actors had fun. And I

524
00:30:35,279 --> 00:30:38,079
think I think the movie on that pretty well considering,

525
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,559
you know, the how it started. And I'm very pleased

526
00:30:42,599 --> 00:30:46,000
with the movie because it's it looks like it looks

527
00:30:46,039 --> 00:30:51,440
like me in some way, you know, like it's you know,

528
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:53,960
when I talk about my movies, I know they are

529
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,880
not necessarily great, but at least they are unique. You know,

530
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,359
it's not like a copy of thousands of other films

531
00:31:00,359 --> 00:31:04,960
that people have seen way better, you know, five times.

532
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 1: No, they're definitely they're definitely unique. I mean, you know,

533
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,119
The Aliens was was interesting it's not about aliens for

534
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,279
those that are curious. And then you know, I Hate

535
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,240
La I Hate You was was very unique vampire project,

536
00:31:17,319 --> 00:31:22,680
very unique. What were some of the influences specifically when

537
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:23,880
you made La I Hate You?

538
00:31:28,279 --> 00:31:32,519
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't really think of that really when

539
00:31:32,519 --> 00:31:35,680
I when I make a movie, I just don't. I mean,

540
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:39,480
it was probably more visible when I did Leslie the Outcasts.

541
00:31:39,599 --> 00:31:42,079
You know, I can tell all when I did I mean,

542
00:31:42,079 --> 00:31:46,759
there was like clearly influences from the time. You know,

543
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:48,880
the movie was shot in the late nineties, so it

544
00:31:49,079 --> 00:31:52,160
was a post I would say, it's a post seven movie.

545
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,400
So you know, everybody was trying to do like his

546
00:31:55,519 --> 00:31:59,319
own version of seven in some way because that was

547
00:31:59,359 --> 00:32:03,319
like a movie that was like a landmark and so

548
00:32:04,039 --> 00:32:07,480
I guess. And I was hanging out with a lot

549
00:32:07,519 --> 00:32:10,640
of other French directors that were also all like huge

550
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:18,519
fans of David of Finisher, and it was very It

551
00:32:18,519 --> 00:32:20,400
was a bit of a group thing. So that's why

552
00:32:20,839 --> 00:32:22,680
that's why the movie is a bit part of a

553
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,599
group thing, like putting rock music in the movie. We

554
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,079
have a rock band. I don't know. I was kind

555
00:32:28,119 --> 00:32:30,039
of part of a group of people and then it

556
00:32:30,079 --> 00:32:32,759
feels like this movie is not it's it's kind of

557
00:32:32,799 --> 00:32:35,160
who I was at the time, I guess, you know,

558
00:32:35,359 --> 00:32:40,759
but I Hate You was is really more even though

559
00:32:40,759 --> 00:32:42,880
it's also an old movie now it was shot in

560
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:47,799
twenty ten or twenty nine, twenty ten, but it feels

561
00:32:47,799 --> 00:32:50,200
like it's still me. You know, I still see myself

562
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:52,599
in that movie when I see Outcast. First of all,

563
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:57,839
I haven't seen it in a long time, but it

564
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:02,000
felt like I wanted, probably too much to be part

565
00:33:02,039 --> 00:33:05,559
of something that wasn't necessarily me. When la I h you,

566
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,559
I just like emancipated, I thought, Okay, I don't really,

567
00:33:08,759 --> 00:33:11,440
I'm not trying to to do anything else than other

568
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:13,799
people would do. I just do my own thing. But

569
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:16,720
of course, I mean I love lots of director, and

570
00:33:16,759 --> 00:33:21,480
I'm sure you can see some David Lynch elements to it.

571
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:25,519
Some I actually borrowed a couple of things from Gasparoa.

572
00:33:26,839 --> 00:33:30,720
Uh that you know is a is A I like.

573
00:33:30,799 --> 00:33:33,160
I used to know him a long time ago, and

574
00:33:33,799 --> 00:33:38,039
especially I think his first movie is a masterpiece. I

575
00:33:38,079 --> 00:33:42,440
stand Alone and this guy is I think he's very talented.

576
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:47,000
And that was someone that you know, I bought a

577
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,400
couple of tricks. I would say that I use in

578
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:56,759
in in l A, I h you so, but not

579
00:33:56,759 --> 00:33:59,319
not really like in fruance. I'm trying to do to

580
00:33:59,319 --> 00:34:02,160
to to metate these guys.

581
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 1: You know, it's I.

582
00:34:03,559 --> 00:34:06,759
Speaker 2: Did my own thing, and and and also very importantly,

583
00:34:06,839 --> 00:34:09,440
I'm an I'm an editor, So I cut a lot

584
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:14,159
of movies for other directors, and so you know, when

585
00:34:14,159 --> 00:34:16,840
you cut the movie, that's where you really shape it.

586
00:34:17,079 --> 00:34:20,599
Then that's when a lot of the creativity comes from

587
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:26,719
the editing. I think. So Robbie works on his own movies,

588
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:28,320
would I would assume. I don't know if he works

589
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:32,159
with other editors, but I don't know. He does the

590
00:34:32,199 --> 00:34:35,760
same design of his own used to the sound, but

591
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:38,599
the sound and I've done that as well. I hate you.

592
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:42,039
I did pretty much everything like post prodiction in terms

593
00:34:42,039 --> 00:34:44,400
of post production. That's the first movie where I actually

594
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,039
did like one hundred percent of the post prodiction myself

595
00:34:47,079 --> 00:34:47,599
pretty much.

596
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,039
Speaker 1: So then how was that one received at the time?

597
00:34:52,079 --> 00:34:56,559
Did it get play sort of locally around LA it

598
00:34:56,599 --> 00:34:58,840
was an art house film or what? How was the

599
00:34:58,880 --> 00:34:59,519
reception of that?

600
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 2: Uh? It was? The thing is the producer I was

601
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:11,039
working with was mostly evolving within a group of of

602
00:35:11,599 --> 00:35:15,840
producers who are mostly involved in B movies I would say,

603
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:21,280
B B action stuff, And that's kind of the group

604
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:25,559
I kind of connected with in LA as well. So

605
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,039
that means when you're part of that group, you're gonna

606
00:35:29,079 --> 00:35:34,760
have to to work with the people connected to that

607
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:39,079
group means the sales company's distribution, et cetera. So which

608
00:35:39,119 --> 00:35:41,440
means that the movie and we had a lot of

609
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:43,079
we had a bit of a fall out at the

610
00:35:43,119 --> 00:35:45,440
time with the producer. And the producer is actually playing

611
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:47,519
the red one of the lead roles of the movie

612
00:35:47,679 --> 00:35:51,559
is playing the lead guy of the first story, the

613
00:35:51,599 --> 00:35:57,760
guy who goes to children his wife, and so that's

614
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:00,360
that guy. We had a bit of afore after the

615
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:03,400
movie because he was the only producer of the movie,

616
00:36:04,079 --> 00:36:07,239
I mean, financed by that billionaire, but but he was

617
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:09,519
like the one in charge really and he was able

618
00:36:09,559 --> 00:36:11,280
to call all the shots. And then at some point

619
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,519
we we were actually on the short list to be

620
00:36:16,039 --> 00:36:19,119
in slam Dance, I think, but then they realized that

621
00:36:19,159 --> 00:36:22,199
I made another movie before, so then it couldn't be

622
00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:23,559
in the selection anymore.

623
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:29,000
Speaker 1: I mean, you mean you had had another film at Sundance.

624
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:33,840
Speaker 2: No, because my because slam slam Dance.

625
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:36,679
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I thought you said slam Dance.

626
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:40,519
Speaker 2: You slam Dance, which is an offshoot of of sun

627
00:36:40,599 --> 00:36:45,159
Dance that that you take place at the same same location,

628
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,719
and that's still a very that's still on a real festival.

629
00:36:50,519 --> 00:36:53,679
And they wanted to play l A I Hate You,

630
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:59,039
but they only play first feature films for directors. I

631
00:36:59,039 --> 00:37:01,360
mean to to summarize is because they're more complicated. But

632
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:03,679
basically they wanted to play the movie, but then at

633
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:05,199
the end of the day they could not play it.

634
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,239
So that would have helped a lot. Same thing with

635
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:11,000
Lessen was in the short film in one of the

636
00:37:11,039 --> 00:37:14,480
competitions in Can. It was in the in the in

637
00:37:14,519 --> 00:37:19,800
the short list in one of the competitions in Can,

638
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,760
but at the critics week but it was not. So

639
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:27,519
it's almost like I'm sucond but so I didn't get

640
00:37:27,559 --> 00:37:31,440
to the bigger festivals. And then when you don't get

641
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:35,280
to the bigger festivals, it's kind of it's painful because

642
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:38,559
after that the movie is val the value of the

643
00:37:38,599 --> 00:37:43,519
movie and the way people regard the movies. Then then

644
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,679
you know there was pretty much nothing. That's the that's

645
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:51,519
the hardcore reality of the film festivals. Basically, if you're

646
00:37:51,559 --> 00:37:53,719
not in one of the major festivals, then it's kind

647
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:55,719
of pointless. You know, you can have all the of

648
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,960
the awards you want in all the festivals. If you're

649
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,119
not in one of the happy few festivals that are

650
00:38:02,119 --> 00:38:07,519
extremely political, then then your movies wors nothing pretty.

651
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:13,199
Speaker 3: Much, which is also true for most of the movies

652
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,239
that are in Sudance by the way, just to be fair,

653
00:38:16,039 --> 00:38:19,559
like most of the movies that are in Sundance, they

654
00:38:19,639 --> 00:38:24,280
are they will never be distributed, they will never be

655
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:26,960
seen anywhere, or they'll do other festival ones.

656
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,800
Speaker 2: But these movies will make no money. And that's the

657
00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:34,239
harsh reality of independent filmmaking. Most of the of the

658
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:38,199
films that get made don't make any money at all.

659
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:42,480
That's just the reality of filmmaking. So it's it's not

660
00:38:42,559 --> 00:38:45,559
a business where you make money. Actually.

661
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:49,760
Speaker 1: So after this, you is this when you begin to

662
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,880
work on some more of the more commercial action products

663
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:55,559
like I Am Wrath. How did that come about?

664
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,639
Speaker 2: So? I Am Wrath was kind of a follow up

665
00:38:59,679 --> 00:39:02,280
after I Hate You because I still had some producers

666
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,119
wanted to work with me after LA I Hate you

667
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:07,039
the movie. So to answer quickly to your question about

668
00:39:07,079 --> 00:39:12,400
the distribution, the movie was distributed pretty much. It was

669
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,360
released pretty much everywhere, but from you know, from like

670
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:21,159
as a B movie, like with a pretty awful post.

671
00:39:21,599 --> 00:39:23,679
They tried to sell it as a B movie.

672
00:39:24,119 --> 00:39:26,559
Speaker 1: I remember you saying, this was kind of something that

673
00:39:26,639 --> 00:39:29,119
you put a lot of your you know, writing and

674
00:39:29,159 --> 00:39:31,519
your time into and it ended up getting changed into

675
00:39:31,559 --> 00:39:33,719
something that's not really what you wanted. Is that right?

676
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,400
Speaker 2: That's where I am wrath? Yeah, I am Rath. That's

677
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:41,920
what happened with I Am Wrath. So I had an

678
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:49,000
idea and because I was busy working on other movies

679
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,039
in post production, because to make a living, you know,

680
00:39:51,119 --> 00:39:54,519
I do post prediction and movies, and so I had

681
00:39:54,519 --> 00:39:59,000
a good concept and I call it a good friend

682
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,840
of mine who was one of the lead actors in

683
00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:06,079
in La I Hate You as well, and I pitched

684
00:40:06,119 --> 00:40:09,480
him the project. I gave him the whole structure and

685
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,119
then and then he loved it and he wrote a

686
00:40:13,159 --> 00:40:17,239
pretty good script out of that, and that script very

687
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:20,039
we we wanted to make it originally with Michael Bean

688
00:40:20,119 --> 00:40:24,360
because we knew him. And then it was you know,

689
00:40:24,519 --> 00:40:27,599
like someone that we could easily have. And then and

690
00:40:27,639 --> 00:40:31,599
then we pitched it to a few companies and then

691
00:40:31,639 --> 00:40:33,760
they say, oh, Michael Ben, why don't you go with

692
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,320
a bigger name. I mean, because this is a great script,

693
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,599
this is gonna do great and because it was a

694
00:40:39,639 --> 00:40:42,920
great concept originally, better than what it turned out to be.

695
00:40:45,519 --> 00:40:49,400
And uh, and so we we actually and I was

696
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:54,079
attached to direct the movie originally, and so that's why

697
00:40:54,159 --> 00:40:56,559
I wanted to make it smaller because as soon as

698
00:40:56,559 --> 00:41:00,400
you get bigger names, then that's when let the game begin.

699
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:04,199
Then and then that's when everybody wants a piece of it.

700
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,800
Speaker 1: And that's where the interesting Yeah, yeah.

701
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,079
Speaker 2: No, that's where when you get And then they say,

702
00:41:10,119 --> 00:41:11,960
why don't you get Nick age? And then we had

703
00:41:12,039 --> 00:41:17,199
Nick vale Longa producing the movie, so with me directing,

704
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:20,760
porl Slon writing the script based on on the on

705
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,360
the story I gave him, and then uh, and so

706
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:27,679
we had a good combo. Nick Valelonga is he won

707
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:31,480
the Oscar for green Book. You know, he wrote green Book,

708
00:41:31,519 --> 00:41:35,280
he produced green Book, and he's a he's a good

709
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:39,199
friend and so he was that was way before green

710
00:41:39,199 --> 00:41:43,360
Book though, So we had that project I am os

711
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:46,079
and then he Nick directed the movie a while ago

712
00:41:46,159 --> 00:41:50,519
with Nick Cage, so he said, and some some salespeople say, he,

713
00:41:50,519 --> 00:41:52,480
why don't you get Nick Age to make the movie?

714
00:41:52,519 --> 00:41:55,159
And then Nicole's Cage and then they say, oh yeah,

715
00:41:55,519 --> 00:41:58,440
So we met with Cage and then he said, yeah,

716
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:00,679
I wanted and that was that was when Cage had

717
00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:03,880
some money issues at the time, so it was pretty

718
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:07,039
quick to say oh yeah, I'll do it. But he

719
00:42:07,079 --> 00:42:09,440
loved it. I mean, he said, yeah, the script is awesome,

720
00:42:09,519 --> 00:42:14,800
let's do it. I won't change anything, won't change the line.

721
00:42:15,599 --> 00:42:20,519
And then and then, as you know, as it often happens,

722
00:42:20,559 --> 00:42:24,639
that's when we got the financing pretty quickly. Everything was

723
00:42:24,679 --> 00:42:27,719
ready to go. And then that's when some distributors they

724
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:32,840
saw the The Juicy thing, and then they started to

725
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,199
want to get rid of the French director. They wanted

726
00:42:36,199 --> 00:42:39,960
the commercial director to do the movie. So they started

727
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:45,559
to put pressure a Nick to to to change the director.

728
00:42:47,079 --> 00:42:48,119
Speaker 1: And I wasn't.

729
00:42:48,599 --> 00:42:51,920
Speaker 2: I didn't want to, but at some point, you know,

730
00:42:52,079 --> 00:42:53,760
they say, yeah, but if we don't do that, then

731
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:56,719
there's no movie. Blah blah blah, the whole the whole thing.

732
00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:02,519
And so I said uh, and they said, oh yeah,

733
00:43:02,519 --> 00:43:06,119
you're gonna have a producer credit and you'll be handling

734
00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:09,880
the to be handling editing, et cetera, et cetera. And

735
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:14,239
then and then it became I mean, I could get

736
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:16,159
into all the details, but it's gonna be a very

737
00:43:16,519 --> 00:43:19,400
it's it's it's a little long and painful. It's fun though,

738
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:25,400
but but but to make it short, they said okay,

739
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:28,079
because they wanted the distributors wanted to bring like a

740
00:43:28,159 --> 00:43:31,760
cheap b big great director, and Cage said no, if

741
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:33,840
I if I'm gonna make that movie, I want a

742
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:42,239
big name director. So Cage cold William Friedkin freaking it

743
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:45,760
said okay, I'll do it. And then that was great.

744
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:47,639
So then I kind of was happy. You know, I said, Okay,

745
00:43:47,639 --> 00:43:50,079
I'm not directing, but if it's if it's free Kin

746
00:43:50,199 --> 00:43:52,679
is gonna direct it, then I'm fine. I'm fine with it.

747
00:43:53,519 --> 00:43:56,880
So then we moved forward with that. The movie was

748
00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:03,039
actually announced with Freakin directing with knick Age uh the

749
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:10,719
the Toronto Festival. I think uh and and uh and

750
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:18,280
I think there's been some some conflict between but because

751
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:23,519
Frickin wanted to rewrite the script and Cage wanted wanted

752
00:44:23,599 --> 00:44:29,079
to to to change stuff. But then they both didn't agree.

753
00:44:29,119 --> 00:44:32,239
I think so my understanding because at that point I

754
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,000
wasn't too much into all the details. I heard, you know,

755
00:44:35,079 --> 00:44:38,440
from different sources of the people what was going on.

756
00:44:38,559 --> 00:44:42,079
But my understanding is that there was a fallout. They

757
00:44:42,119 --> 00:44:45,119
didn't agree on the direction. So Cage said, Okay, I'm

758
00:44:45,119 --> 00:44:48,400
going to direct the movie. And Cage was wanted to

759
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,199
direct the movie. High up my buddy Paul to to

760
00:44:52,199 --> 00:44:54,679
to rewrite the script or Sloan who who wrote the

761
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:59,039
original script based on the story I gave him, and

762
00:44:59,039 --> 00:45:05,719
on that movie and Cage, I think in the rewrote

763
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:08,960
the script which I never read, that was very different

764
00:45:09,039 --> 00:45:13,159
from the original. And uh, and then I think the

765
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,039
distributor said, hey, but that's not the movie we want

766
00:45:16,079 --> 00:45:19,639
to make. It's the night's different. And so everything fell apart,

767
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,920
like it happens all the time in Hollywood. And then

768
00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,239
so how did it get to be John Travolta and

769
00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:31,039
not Nicholas. Yeah. Later on Nick hooked up with in You.

770
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:35,400
I think Nick very longa knew through maybe with Paul

771
00:45:35,440 --> 00:45:40,159
as well. The new Chuck Russell, the director you know,

772
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:44,079
who was like a big studio director, And Chack said Okay,

773
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:49,440
I want to do that movie. And then how how

774
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:53,440
it came to be Travolta, I think, oh yeah, I

775
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:57,199
think I remember that at that point we talked to

776
00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:01,320
that producer Michael Manderson went up being the final producer

777
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:05,360
of the movie, and and Michael had wanted to make

778
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:07,519
a movie with Travalta, and he had all the money

779
00:46:07,599 --> 00:46:10,679
to make offers and and then and then his sense.

780
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:15,559
But I remember that there's been a pretty major rewrite

781
00:46:15,559 --> 00:46:18,960
in the meantime when Mandelson took over the project, and

782
00:46:19,039 --> 00:46:21,480
he said, oh, yeah, because it's just so, it's just

783
00:46:21,519 --> 00:46:25,840
so John Wick at the time. And then because the

784
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:27,719
whole story I don't know. I mean you you've seen

785
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:33,280
probably the movie the way it was released, and and

786
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:37,519
the character is an average guy. His wife gets killed.

787
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:41,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he's a former agent of some kind.

788
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:45,880
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, But it makes no sense because in the

789
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:51,840
in the original story, it was more like, uh that wish,

790
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:55,280
like a normal guy whose his wife is getting killed

791
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:57,239
and he has to take matter in his own hands

792
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:03,000
and and on meets kind of meets kind of falling down.

793
00:47:03,039 --> 00:47:05,440
That's kind of how I was pitching it at the time.

794
00:47:05,559 --> 00:47:07,760
You know. So you have the guy who gets into

795
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,039
a revenge spree, but then he gets caught into his

796
00:47:10,119 --> 00:47:16,119
own craziness and and he can't stop. So that was

797
00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:19,920
very different. And then and then when Manderson got involved,

798
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:22,800
he just saw John Wick and he thought, what if

799
00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:26,039
the guy Remember I always remember that moment, you know,

800
00:47:26,079 --> 00:47:29,920
because what if the guy is uh is an ex

801
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:30,480
C I A.

802
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,639
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, if he was a CIA assassin killer,

803
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:39,800
wouldn't he have dealt with the thugs right away? Yeah?

804
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:43,400
Speaker 2: And then the stakes, Yeah, everything falls apart because to me,

805
00:47:43,519 --> 00:47:45,159
it's like, if the guy is an x C I

806
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:47,440
A and then he breaks the wall to get the gun,

807
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:49,679
and then how difficult is it going to be for

808
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:53,159
him to go kill like a junkie? You know, nothing,

809
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:57,800
nothing makes it makes makes much sense in that in

810
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:00,239
that new version. But I mean I saw I saw

811
00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:04,119
the movie, and I mean, it's it's a it's kind

812
00:48:04,119 --> 00:48:07,320
of fun, you know, there's some fun stuff. And then

813
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:12,920
so I ended up with an executive producer credit. I

814
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:15,840
wasn't it's funny because I met with the director at

815
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:18,840
some point to potentially be the editor of the movie.

816
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:24,360
And that was kind of awkward. And that was also

817
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:27,440
a very very very weird meeting with Chuck Ross all

818
00:48:27,559 --> 00:48:30,639
very funny but I mean nice guy, you know, and

819
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:32,760
they did their thing and now it's a different movie.

820
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,400
And it felt weird because you know, it's like you

821
00:48:35,519 --> 00:48:37,400
come up with like a baby, you know, and then

822
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:39,840
it's like, you know it's not even born, that it's

823
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:41,280
been raised by someone else.

824
00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:41,599
Speaker 1: You know.

825
00:48:41,679 --> 00:48:44,440
Speaker 2: That's kind of how it felt because I feel I

826
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:48,679
feel it was a really strong concept originally, which I

827
00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:51,559
won't get into all the details, but it was a really,

828
00:48:51,559 --> 00:48:54,519
really good concept. And I may actually use that concept

829
00:48:54,599 --> 00:48:57,360
again because there's nothing of it that remains really in

830
00:48:57,360 --> 00:49:00,199
the final version of the movie, so they missed there

831
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:04,679
was a few original elements that kind of disappeared.

832
00:49:05,199 --> 00:49:07,920
Speaker 1: What was your experience of a meeting, I think you

833
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:10,039
said at dinner with Nick Cage? What what was that like?

834
00:49:10,079 --> 00:49:12,159
How did you what was your sense of him as

835
00:49:12,199 --> 00:49:12,599
a person.

836
00:49:14,119 --> 00:49:16,800
Speaker 2: It was a very very sweet man. I really like,

837
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:19,320
I really liked him, you know, we had a it

838
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,840
was a bit of a surreal place. We met him

839
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:28,199
in that resort in the desert hot spring, so it's

840
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,559
a very odd place. I think that's why they shot

841
00:49:30,599 --> 00:49:34,360
the movie The player. It's like this this place where

842
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:37,559
people get into like a mud mud bath.

843
00:49:38,079 --> 00:49:40,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been to Hot Spring since we stayed at

844
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:42,199
a resort similar to that. I don't know if it

845
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:43,800
was the same one that was the one that.

846
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:50,039
Speaker 2: So it was. It was odd, it was funny, it

847
00:49:50,199 --> 00:49:52,480
was a good, good meeting, you know. It was he

848
00:49:52,599 --> 00:49:55,039
was nice, very friendly, I think, I mean, I think

849
00:49:55,039 --> 00:49:58,519
it's a really nice guy. It didn't seem it didn't

850
00:49:58,559 --> 00:50:02,400
seem like the the crazy guy that you would imagine

851
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:06,199
at first when you see his movies. You know, he's

852
00:50:06,199 --> 00:50:09,320
a very he's actually I think he's a very normal guy. Actually,

853
00:50:10,079 --> 00:50:12,719
I mean normal as normal as it can be when you're.

854
00:50:12,559 --> 00:50:15,639
Speaker 1: In this sure, you know, did you do you think

855
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:17,559
how would it have turned out if it had been

856
00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:20,320
kind of during if it had turned out when it

857
00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:21,679
was in the nick cage phase.

858
00:50:22,599 --> 00:50:25,039
Speaker 2: Well, I mean the version I had in mind would

859
00:50:25,079 --> 00:50:27,480
have been awesome. Ready, it would have been it would

860
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:31,559
have been this which meets falling Down. That's a movie.

861
00:50:31,599 --> 00:50:34,400
I would want to see that version that was made.

862
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:36,159
It's like, yeah, I saw it, you know, but it's

863
00:50:36,199 --> 00:50:38,519
like I don't really I don't really care much about

864
00:50:38,679 --> 00:50:40,559
what's going on in the movie. I don't know what

865
00:50:40,599 --> 00:50:44,920
was experienced watching it. So do you want to what

866
00:50:45,199 --> 00:50:47,480
what did you think of the movie?

867
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,039
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think like you said, and I

868
00:50:51,119 --> 00:50:53,400
kind of picked up on that right away, was you know,

869
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,320
some of the story doesn't make sense given you know

870
00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:59,519
the character's background, so it's sort of like why is

871
00:50:59,559 --> 00:51:02,840
the acting this way at the very beginning. But I

872
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:04,960
mean I get what you're saying about the concept too.

873
00:51:05,079 --> 00:51:07,840
That and I picked up on Michael Douglas falling down

874
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:11,639
element maybe maybe a little bit of a Liam Niesen

875
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:13,960
kind of you know, revenge kind of story or something

876
00:51:14,039 --> 00:51:16,920
like that, or getting mel Gibson payback kind of story.

877
00:51:17,039 --> 00:51:19,440
So I mean, I like those kind of stories. I

878
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:23,079
thought it wasn't absolutely terrible film, but I can see

879
00:51:23,199 --> 00:51:23,559
it's fun.

880
00:51:23,599 --> 00:51:25,920
Speaker 2: I mean, I kind of enjoy what they did. It's

881
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:27,639
just different, you know, just something not.

882
00:51:27,719 --> 00:51:29,360
Speaker 1: What you had.

883
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 2: I would have never I would have never written that script,

884
00:51:32,559 --> 00:51:36,159
you know, but I you know, it's I think I

885
00:51:36,199 --> 00:51:39,880
think I'm ultimately it's it's ironic and it happens a

886
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:42,639
lot in Hollywood. Is that I got credit like story

887
00:51:42,679 --> 00:51:47,119
buy and and and you know that that was pretty

888
00:51:47,159 --> 00:51:50,119
much nothing from the from that was that was unique.

889
00:51:50,119 --> 00:51:53,440
You know, you just have the ciche that everybody has seen,

890
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:57,079
but there was some uniqueness to it that that's not

891
00:51:57,199 --> 00:51:59,400
there at all. And I thought that's what I was bringing.

892
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:01,840
But then but that's fine. I mean, you know, that's

893
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:05,480
how you would movies get made, and that's that's the

894
00:52:05,519 --> 00:52:08,039
most important part, is that the movies get made, you know.

895
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:12,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, so what about We watched Running with the

896
00:52:12,400 --> 00:52:16,519
Double as well, and that was an interesting film, kind

897
00:52:16,519 --> 00:52:19,760
of an interesting twist at the end. I won't go away,

898
00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:23,760
but you've got sort of a drug heist, organized crime

899
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:29,079
story here with Nick Cage. You've got Laurence Fishburne. Uh

900
00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:32,559
and and they kind of have this, you know, squaring

901
00:52:32,599 --> 00:52:34,880
off at the end and they're on a mountain. And

902
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:36,960
I won't go into all that, but I thought I

903
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:40,480
thought that was it was enjoyable. There were some good,

904
00:52:40,519 --> 00:52:43,920
good aspects of this film as well. And you were

905
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:45,559
co producer on That's all.

906
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:52,159
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, so the way it happened is that's that's

907
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:58,039
another one of these credits that that that doesn't necessarily

908
00:52:58,159 --> 00:53:03,719
reflect the way things happened. I was originally hired by

909
00:53:04,039 --> 00:53:09,920
the same producer as I am Rath actually, which I

910
00:53:11,039 --> 00:53:13,440
mean I say all that I like. I like Michael

911
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:19,000
is a is an interesting producer, you know, trying to

912
00:53:19,039 --> 00:53:24,000
make unique movies in his own way. So I I

913
00:53:24,119 --> 00:53:29,400
recognized that, and on that movie, I met with the

914
00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:34,239
with the director to originally edit the movie. I was

915
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:36,840
the editor of the movie. I was hired as the

916
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:42,280
editor of the movie, and I was also post supervising

917
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:45,599
on top of that. So that means it was a

918
00:53:45,639 --> 00:53:49,119
little technical because the movie was shot in mostly in Columbia,

919
00:53:49,119 --> 00:53:52,840
actually a new New Mexico and Colombia, and so there

920
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:56,480
was a lot of coordination to organize everything. And because

921
00:53:56,519 --> 00:54:01,280
I arrived kind of the whole production was already kind

922
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:04,599
of in place. I mean, they hadn't started shooting yet,

923
00:54:04,639 --> 00:54:11,440
but I I got Yeah, I met with the director.

924
00:54:11,559 --> 00:54:14,360
He got along. Great guy by the way, Jason Cabell.

925
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:23,119
Great director. Who's who's whose ex Navy seal And that's

926
00:54:23,159 --> 00:54:24,559
also very Hollywood. You know.

927
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,000
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I detected probably he had heard

928
00:54:28,159 --> 00:54:33,280
or experienced some of these kinds of events or something

929
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:34,280
that probably went into this.

930
00:54:34,519 --> 00:54:37,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of the story is actually based

931
00:54:37,320 --> 00:54:41,079
on real stuff that he witnessed as the Navy seal.

932
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:44,800
So it's all based on on real stuff. And but

933
00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:51,360
he's a he's a force of nature, this director. Because

934
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:55,440
he was offered many times as well to to not

935
00:54:55,599 --> 00:54:58,599
direct the movie because he wrote the script. But he

936
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:02,639
had he just had directed like a small, small, super

937
00:55:02,679 --> 00:55:08,199
small indie movie about veterans, so he didn't really have like,

938
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:11,239
you know, strong credits to do a nick age movie.

939
00:55:11,239 --> 00:55:13,840
And not only knick age, but you have like Lawrence Fishburne.

940
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:20,840
What's her name, the actress in every single TV series

941
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:21,320
right now?

942
00:55:22,159 --> 00:55:23,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you're talking about her name?

943
00:55:25,559 --> 00:55:33,199
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you have was it Adam Adam Levy? I

944
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:38,400
think is that his first name? Yeah, you have nationally

945
00:55:39,440 --> 00:55:41,719
you have. I mean, he got like an ensemble cast

946
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:45,440
that's kind of amazing and uh and he was able

947
00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:47,920
to go convince every single one of them, you know,

948
00:55:48,159 --> 00:55:50,679
and then he was able to stay on board as

949
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:53,960
the director. But as the editor of the movie, I

950
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,599
had a little I had a more pressure in a

951
00:55:57,639 --> 00:56:03,039
way that I was more of a filmmaker technically than

952
00:56:03,039 --> 00:56:06,519
the than the director. So you know, my goal was

953
00:56:06,559 --> 00:56:12,000
really to to to together all this footage and try

954
00:56:12,039 --> 00:56:16,400
to create this this whole universe out of all these

955
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:21,000
little vignettes put together, so choosing, you know, the music carefully,

956
00:56:21,639 --> 00:56:25,880
and I also worked on adding some maps to to

957
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:29,079
explain what's happening, because there's a lot to there's a

958
00:56:29,079 --> 00:56:32,320
lot happening in this movie. But it's a I really

959
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:34,400
I think it's a I think it's a it's a

960
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:38,760
great film. And the same thing, the script was more

961
00:56:40,159 --> 00:56:44,400
complex they I cut. So what happened is that I

962
00:56:44,440 --> 00:56:46,280
cut the movie and then at some point I was

963
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:50,239
hired to work on another movie. And then I had

964
00:56:50,239 --> 00:56:52,280
a hiatus and this other movie, so I had time

965
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:55,920
to come technically finish Running with the Devil. But the

966
00:56:56,599 --> 00:56:59,480
producer was not happy that I was going to start

967
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:03,800
another movie, so he decided, with the help of another

968
00:57:03,880 --> 00:57:08,159
guy who probably didn't like me to do so much,

969
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:12,840
they decided to hire another editor who literally stole my

970
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:15,480
my credit because I at that point I got like,

971
00:57:15,599 --> 00:57:19,800
you know, a better version of the movie actually, And

972
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:23,920
then when I left the director, he kind of left

973
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:28,239
the other editor to kind of take over and reach

974
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:32,480
op the movie. And I think what happened, and I

975
00:57:32,519 --> 00:57:39,119
think it's a mistake, is that because of the nature

976
00:57:39,199 --> 00:57:43,320
of the movie, the way it follows the cocaine from

977
00:57:43,440 --> 00:57:46,519
the time it's made until it gets in circulation and

978
00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:47,840
it shows.

979
00:57:47,519 --> 00:57:49,400
Speaker 1: How it works, right.

980
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:52,119
Speaker 2: It's a it's a it's a great film for that,

981
00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:55,400
you know, and to really understand how things work. But

982
00:57:55,519 --> 00:57:58,480
because of the nature of things, you don't have like

983
00:57:58,559 --> 00:58:02,800
one protagonist, you know, and the antagonist you have like

984
00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:03,119
a bunch.

985
00:58:03,239 --> 00:58:06,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot of characters. Yeah, it was. I

986
00:58:06,599 --> 00:58:08,519
can imagine that was difficult to edit together.

987
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:12,920
Speaker 2: And because of that nature, the movie is kind of

988
00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:16,760
slow paced because there's a lot going on, but every

989
00:58:16,760 --> 00:58:19,119
time you have to re engage within a mini story,

990
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:21,760
that's gonna take you to the next story. So it

991
00:58:21,840 --> 00:58:24,840
was it felt it felt kind of slow paced, but

992
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:27,840
there's nothing you can do, you know, as you you

993
00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:32,519
can cut the movie in forty five minutes and then

994
00:58:32,719 --> 00:58:36,400
you're still gonna feel kind of slow, slow ish because

995
00:58:36,400 --> 00:58:39,679
of the way it's built. And so that and the

996
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:42,239
and they thought, because they felt the movie was probably

997
00:58:42,239 --> 00:58:44,400
too slow, so they decided to chop it, to chop

998
00:58:44,480 --> 00:58:46,519
it to make it shorter. But in the process, I

999
00:58:46,559 --> 00:58:49,239
think they kind of lost a bit of of the

1000
00:58:49,840 --> 00:58:52,000
soul of the movie in the way. I think there

1001
00:58:52,119 --> 00:58:57,280
is a cut that we had before it was re

1002
00:58:57,280 --> 00:58:59,599
re chopped a little bit, you know. I mean they

1003
00:59:00,039 --> 00:59:02,960
they didn't change much, but they really shortened some moments.

1004
00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:07,320
And I think that you're you're missing a bit more

1005
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:09,320
of the point because you were spending a little more

1006
00:59:09,360 --> 00:59:11,920
time with that family, with the kids at the beginning.

1007
00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:18,679
How how how the whole the farmer, yeah, the the

1008
00:59:18,760 --> 00:59:23,440
farmer on how they how you feel for you? You

1009
00:59:23,519 --> 00:59:25,800
need a little more time to feel for all these people.

1010
00:59:25,920 --> 00:59:27,880
So everything makes sense at the end of why this

1011
00:59:28,039 --> 00:59:32,239
is happening, because everybody is benefiting from it one way

1012
00:59:32,280 --> 00:59:35,199
or not, not all for bad reasons, you know.

1013
00:59:35,199 --> 00:59:38,119
Speaker 1: Right exactly. I think the complexity is what made it

1014
00:59:38,159 --> 00:59:42,239
a little more interesting in terms of the moral issues. Now,

1015
00:59:42,280 --> 00:59:45,440
you also worked with Jean Claude van dam So could

1016
00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:46,960
you tell us a little bit about that or what

1017
00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:49,039
what that experience was like. I think everybody would love

1018
00:59:49,039 --> 00:59:52,000
to hear a little bit about whatever you're able to tell.

1019
00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:57,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Well, I mean Jean Claude is a is

1020
00:59:57,679 --> 01:00:01,960
a great guy and we had fun, yeah for a while.

1021
01:00:02,039 --> 01:00:05,559
So that was a movie called Kill All almost ten

1022
01:00:05,639 --> 01:00:13,599
years ago that it was shot in uh and yeah,

1023
01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:17,880
you know it's it's what can I say? I mean,

1024
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:24,199
Jean Claude is very involved in editing. He loves the

1025
01:00:24,320 --> 01:00:27,559
editing process of a movie. And then we had a

1026
01:00:27,559 --> 01:00:32,159
little bit of a conflict at some point because the

1027
01:00:33,440 --> 01:00:39,480
studio Sony, they need a movie delivered and they need

1028
01:00:39,480 --> 01:00:44,280
it quickly. And once Jean Claud gets involved in the

1029
01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:47,480
whole editing process, you know, I mean, as an editor,

1030
01:00:49,320 --> 01:00:50,920
I cut the movie. I don't like to have someone

1031
01:00:50,960 --> 01:00:52,599
who tells me, hey, you need to cut here, you

1032
01:00:52,639 --> 01:00:55,119
need to do this to do that. So that's why

1033
01:00:55,599 --> 01:00:58,239
it's everything with Jank Claud was like, oh, but I

1034
01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:00,880
want you to cut here and and go back a

1035
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:04,000
couple of frames, and then that's not the way I

1036
01:01:04,039 --> 01:01:07,360
can work. So then we hired another editor to work

1037
01:01:07,360 --> 01:01:10,360
with him on specific scenes for the action stuff.

1038
01:01:10,400 --> 01:01:15,400
Speaker 1: Mostly what was your role in that was just as

1039
01:01:15,519 --> 01:01:16,920
editor or what are he's staying with you for a

1040
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:18,239
little while? I was.

1041
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:25,800
Speaker 2: I was editing, post supervising, you know, being very involved

1042
01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:28,960
in the role. And on one more time, it was

1043
01:01:29,679 --> 01:01:32,599
once again it was the first time director as well.

1044
01:01:33,239 --> 01:01:35,199
So then when it's a first time director, then you

1045
01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:39,159
get a little more let's say, the producers are relying

1046
01:01:39,159 --> 01:01:43,440
a little more on you to deliver the movie because

1047
01:01:43,519 --> 01:01:46,800
the director is his first movie as a director, and

1048
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:48,960
so that means he's going to miss some stuff. And

1049
01:01:49,000 --> 01:01:51,639
then technically, as the editor, you know better what needs

1050
01:01:51,679 --> 01:01:53,119
to be done. You know, let's put it like that.

1051
01:01:54,159 --> 01:01:56,920
And so, I mean, I had fun working on that

1052
01:01:57,000 --> 01:01:59,079
movie with the Dior. We got along very well with

1053
01:01:59,280 --> 01:02:02,920
the director and he trusted me, and so that makes

1054
01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:06,760
it faster. And then Jean Claude did his don't cut

1055
01:02:07,280 --> 01:02:13,559
of the movie, and he wanted to he wanted his

1056
01:02:13,639 --> 01:02:15,519
son was in the movie, and he wanted his son

1057
01:02:15,599 --> 01:02:19,599
to be more in the movie than he was than

1058
01:02:19,679 --> 01:02:21,599
the part that he had. So then he decided to

1059
01:02:21,679 --> 01:02:25,280
cut to cut a lot of the other scenes out

1060
01:02:25,360 --> 01:02:27,320
of the movies so then his son would be a

1061
01:02:27,360 --> 01:02:30,480
little more proportionally in the movie. So that's kind of

1062
01:02:30,519 --> 01:02:33,559
what happened. Then the movie was too short, so that

1063
01:02:33,719 --> 01:02:36,519
was one of the one of the things we had

1064
01:02:36,559 --> 01:02:40,639
to deal with. But I mean, it ended up, it

1065
01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:43,320
ended up fine, you know, I mean, but the speed

1066
01:02:43,519 --> 01:02:46,639
was we had to go quickly to deliver the movie

1067
01:02:46,679 --> 01:02:49,880
because Sonny, you know, the studios they have like their slot,

1068
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:51,880
they know the movie has to be released at that date,

1069
01:02:52,920 --> 01:02:54,679
and so you need to deliver on That was a

1070
01:02:54,679 --> 01:02:58,360
lot of pressure. So the movie was like a little

1071
01:02:58,719 --> 01:03:00,400
rushed in the at the end, I think.

1072
01:03:00,480 --> 01:03:03,960
Speaker 1: But and then you worked with Robert de Niro and

1073
01:03:03,960 --> 01:03:06,519
Morgan Freeman on Comeback Trail? Is that right?

1074
01:03:07,119 --> 01:03:11,480
Speaker 2: Yeah? Comeback Trail? So on Morgan Freeman, Yeah, I worked

1075
01:03:11,519 --> 01:03:15,000
with on several I worked on four movies with Morgan Freeman.

1076
01:03:17,480 --> 01:03:21,440
On the Comeback Trail. I wasn't on set on that one.

1077
01:03:21,559 --> 01:03:24,639
I wasn't supposed to be involved in that movie. Originally.

1078
01:03:25,079 --> 01:03:30,000
I just did the film The Poison Rows with George Gallo,

1079
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:34,400
the great, great guy, great friend. I love George, and

1080
01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:42,280
that movie was kind of intense, and and then he

1081
01:03:42,400 --> 01:03:49,360
wanted to do Comback Trail. And for the post production

1082
01:03:50,519 --> 01:03:53,880
side of it was big because it there was a

1083
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:57,840
lot of the FX period movie. It was a big movie.

1084
01:03:57,880 --> 01:03:59,679
And then the budget they had at the time to

1085
01:03:59,719 --> 01:04:03,960
do and they wanted me to to handle that, and

1086
01:04:04,000 --> 01:04:06,679
I said, I don't think that's gonna work. And then

1087
01:04:06,840 --> 01:04:09,800
I and after a Poison Rose, I kind of needed

1088
01:04:09,840 --> 01:04:13,639
a break, so I didn't. I kind of passed on it,

1089
01:04:14,159 --> 01:04:18,320
and they made the movie. They made the movie, and

1090
01:04:18,360 --> 01:04:23,400
then they went through a lot of budget issues at

1091
01:04:23,400 --> 01:04:27,719
the end of the day they they came for. I

1092
01:04:27,760 --> 01:04:33,239
think I ended up helping them finalizing the movie, but

1093
01:04:33,400 --> 01:04:36,400
it was in the middle of COVID. The finalizing of

1094
01:04:36,440 --> 01:04:41,079
the movie was in twenty twenty, and that's when things

1095
01:04:41,119 --> 01:04:49,519
became very complicated and the budgets and what happened is

1096
01:04:49,559 --> 01:04:52,920
that the distributor because this movie just got officially released,

1097
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:56,880
just like last year. I think in the US it

1098
01:04:56,960 --> 01:05:01,239
was released on the foreign mark.

1099
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:13,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, you cut out just for a second your back,

1100
01:05:13,320 --> 01:05:16,639
go ahead, So it was released on foreign markets. You said, yeah,

1101
01:05:16,639 --> 01:05:16,760
it was.

1102
01:05:16,880 --> 01:05:19,280
Speaker 2: It was released in a foreign market. And I helped

1103
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:23,719
them at the time finalizing sounds on mix all of

1104
01:05:23,760 --> 01:05:28,320
that to to And actually I did the past of

1105
01:05:28,480 --> 01:05:31,119
editing on that version, and I was kind of proud

1106
01:05:31,199 --> 01:05:36,400
because I actually, how can I put that nicely? I

1107
01:05:36,480 --> 01:05:42,079
kind of de walke the movie that's funny, Yeah, because

1108
01:05:42,079 --> 01:05:44,800
because there was a lot of very walk elements in

1109
01:05:44,840 --> 01:05:50,920
this movie that I wasn't too crazy about and and

1110
01:05:50,960 --> 01:05:54,599
I suggested to the because walk is not funny. I

1111
01:05:54,599 --> 01:05:56,400
think it's a comedy, you know, And I think all

1112
01:05:56,400 --> 01:05:58,760
these walk stuff, I think it kind of kills the comedy.

1113
01:05:59,599 --> 01:06:05,039
And only enough My understanding is that the Nero was

1114
01:06:05,280 --> 01:06:10,639
kind of pushing for the same changes as well, and

1115
01:06:10,719 --> 01:06:16,079
so so then I did that it will pass removing

1116
01:06:16,239 --> 01:06:20,440
like you know, I don't know. At some point, you

1117
01:06:20,440 --> 01:06:22,760
have one of the characters that comes out as a

1118
01:06:23,119 --> 01:06:27,199
lesbian out of nowhere, like what's going on here? And

1119
01:06:28,559 --> 01:06:30,840
there was some other stuff, like several stuff in the

1120
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:33,719
movie like that, and I kind of trimmed and the

1121
01:06:34,480 --> 01:06:37,599
movie was a little more concise, and I think it

1122
01:06:37,719 --> 01:06:41,960
was I think that version was great, and that that's

1123
01:06:41,559 --> 01:06:46,119
the version that was mostly released, I think. But also

1124
01:06:46,280 --> 01:06:50,679
and also there's a distributor that was taking over the

1125
01:06:50,679 --> 01:06:54,800
movie for the US, but that was kind of a Christian.

1126
01:06:56,639 --> 01:07:00,960
That's a funny story actually, but that that's that was

1127
01:07:01,000 --> 01:07:07,519
kind of a Christian distributor that raised money from from Christians,

1128
01:07:07,559 --> 01:07:11,519
I think. And and and the movie was starting the

1129
01:07:12,559 --> 01:07:15,440
with a scene with a fake trailer of a movie

1130
01:07:15,519 --> 01:07:20,360
called like Killer Nuns or something something like that, and

1131
01:07:20,400 --> 01:07:24,119
it's like a fake parody of nuns and not decapitating

1132
01:07:24,199 --> 01:07:28,159
people or left and right. So the movie was starting

1133
01:07:28,199 --> 01:07:30,920
like that, and the story was that the character of

1134
01:07:30,960 --> 01:07:36,599
the Nero in the movie was was, you know, suffering

1135
01:07:36,679 --> 01:07:40,480
from the failure of that movie and then the h

1136
01:07:41,400 --> 01:07:44,960
it's kind of a have you seen have you seen

1137
01:07:44,960 --> 01:07:45,360
the movie?

1138
01:07:45,480 --> 01:07:47,239
Speaker 1: That's the one I've not gotten to yet. It's the

1139
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:49,880
next one I want to watch, but we've seen around.

1140
01:07:50,800 --> 01:07:53,440
Speaker 2: It was a fun It's a remake actually of a

1141
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:56,719
small movie from the eighties, and it's a it's a

1142
01:07:56,760 --> 01:07:59,800
fun it's a fun movie. I mean, there was a

1143
01:08:00,199 --> 01:08:04,360
there was a lot of potential, but you know, maybe

1144
01:08:04,400 --> 01:08:09,599
the movie was was made with you know, that's one

1145
01:08:09,639 --> 01:08:11,880
of these movies where you have a huge cast that

1146
01:08:11,960 --> 01:08:14,280
goes to fortune and then at the end of the

1147
01:08:14,360 --> 01:08:17,199
day there's not enough to really make the movie that

1148
01:08:17,239 --> 01:08:20,119
you're supposed to make. I think the movie felt maybe

1149
01:08:20,119 --> 01:08:24,479
a little bit from that, but I mean there's a

1150
01:08:24,479 --> 01:08:27,920
there's a lot of funny stuff in it. It's a yeah,

1151
01:08:28,039 --> 01:08:28,800
looking forward to that now.

1152
01:08:28,880 --> 01:08:34,119
Speaker 1: Most recently you've done Vampire Project with Kevin Sorbo, and yeah,

1153
01:08:34,239 --> 01:08:37,199
you invited us to your to your event. We get

1154
01:08:37,199 --> 01:08:38,960
to meet Kevin Sorbo and that was a lot of fun.

1155
01:08:39,000 --> 01:08:43,239
And appreciate you putting Ester Hollywood in the background of

1156
01:08:43,279 --> 01:08:45,680
the the scene there at the beginning. And I had

1157
01:08:45,680 --> 01:08:47,960
a lot of fun with the Vampire project. So this

1158
01:08:48,039 --> 01:08:51,119
is another one of your own babies that you gave

1159
01:08:51,159 --> 01:08:53,760
birth to. Yeah, tell us a little bit about that

1160
01:08:53,800 --> 01:08:55,680
and then we'll talk about where people can watch that,

1161
01:08:55,800 --> 01:08:57,000
and then what you have coming next.

1162
01:08:58,159 --> 01:09:03,760
Speaker 2: So the so, so we were at the stage where

1163
01:09:05,359 --> 01:09:11,239
Hollywood COVID started to hit Hollywood. I got lucky because

1164
01:09:11,279 --> 01:09:15,159
there was a lot of work in post production, finishing,

1165
01:09:15,239 --> 01:09:19,640
helping people finish their movies, and George was able to

1166
01:09:19,720 --> 01:09:24,039
do to sign another movie with Morgan Freeman, Ruby Rose

1167
01:09:24,159 --> 01:09:27,319
that that was made like in like one of the

1168
01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:30,399
very very very few movies that actually got the green

1169
01:09:30,520 --> 01:09:34,239
light to be shot during COVID, before vaccinations and all

1170
01:09:34,239 --> 01:09:37,520
of that. That was that was not a lot of fun,

1171
01:09:38,359 --> 01:09:44,520
a lot of pressure, and that that movie that was

1172
01:09:44,560 --> 01:09:49,000
another Morgan Freeman b movie that you know, I mean,

1173
01:09:49,039 --> 01:09:52,319
the movie was has been destroyed by the reviews. And

1174
01:09:52,359 --> 01:09:58,479
then after that, my wife and I my wife works

1175
01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:01,439
with me. You you met Jane, you know, and we

1176
01:10:01,479 --> 01:10:04,000
put together that festival and she worked with me also

1177
01:10:05,159 --> 01:10:12,000
producing all of these movies. And then we decided to

1178
01:10:12,079 --> 01:10:15,119
leave LA because LA during the time of COVID was

1179
01:10:15,119 --> 01:10:19,800
so crazy that it was like unsustainable. So we left

1180
01:10:19,920 --> 01:10:24,439
and ended up in Mississippi where we actually worked on

1181
01:10:24,479 --> 01:10:27,680
a movie, another movie with Morgan Freeman here. That's kind

1182
01:10:27,680 --> 01:10:30,760
of what it took us here. It's kind of by coincidence.

1183
01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:35,800
But we like it and we sold. We sold our

1184
01:10:35,800 --> 01:10:39,159
house in Los Angeles, had a bit of money, bought

1185
01:10:39,159 --> 01:10:43,560
something here, beautiful place in nature like you can see,

1186
01:10:44,239 --> 01:10:47,880
and we enjoyed here. And then we said, okay, we

1187
01:10:47,960 --> 01:10:52,760
have this project. Because during the early stages of COVID,

1188
01:10:54,000 --> 01:10:58,199
a lot of people wanted to make small movies, very contained.

1189
01:10:59,600 --> 01:11:00,079
Speaker 1: And then and.

1190
01:11:01,920 --> 01:11:05,920
Speaker 2: Then that's what happened. That's how the Vampire project was born.

1191
01:11:06,439 --> 01:11:10,640
Like I had this producer I knew who works also

1192
01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:15,199
with that same Michael Manderson. We were talking about and

1193
01:11:16,039 --> 01:11:18,159
they said, oh, yeah, if you have an idea for

1194
01:11:18,239 --> 01:11:21,800
a small movie that could be shot. I was still

1195
01:11:21,840 --> 01:11:25,640
in LA who were just in the process of getting

1196
01:11:25,680 --> 01:11:28,520
to move but we were still there, and he said, Hey,

1197
01:11:28,560 --> 01:11:31,439
if you have a small movie that could be made

1198
01:11:31,640 --> 01:11:34,359
for you know, little money under the radar because no

1199
01:11:34,520 --> 01:11:38,880
unions because of all the COVID rules, et cetera. You know,

1200
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:42,199
maybe Michael can can finance that. You know, I don't know.

1201
01:11:42,239 --> 01:11:45,640
One hundred two hundred thousand dollars or whatever to make

1202
01:11:45,640 --> 01:11:49,119
a small movie. And then I just had written like

1203
01:11:49,159 --> 01:11:53,520
another movie called Creepy Camper. That's an actual movie that

1204
01:11:53,560 --> 01:12:01,159
I wrote. And then Michael says, no, I'm not too

1205
01:12:01,239 --> 01:12:06,800
much interested in that one, but come, you know, let's talk.

1206
01:12:06,920 --> 01:12:10,000
I have I have some ideas maybe to make a

1207
01:12:10,079 --> 01:12:15,479
vampire movie. And then he takes us to visit some

1208
01:12:15,560 --> 01:12:18,520
properties of his that he just purchased in the Hollywood area,

1209
01:12:19,279 --> 01:12:23,039
like abandoned properties, and it takes us my wife and I.

1210
01:12:23,079 --> 01:12:25,640
He said, yeah, bring bring Jane in New Jane, of course.

1211
01:12:26,399 --> 01:12:29,279
And he said, yeah, bring Jane. Then let's go see

1212
01:12:29,319 --> 01:12:33,399
these houses because they could be a great place to

1213
01:12:33,399 --> 01:12:37,079
to shoot home or small horror movies. And so we

1214
01:12:37,199 --> 01:12:39,479
go visit the places. It was kind of a bit

1215
01:12:39,520 --> 01:12:45,439
of a surreal moment, you know. And then after that

1216
01:12:45,680 --> 01:12:48,439
we visit these couple of houses. He said, yeah, if

1217
01:12:48,479 --> 01:12:52,279
you have an idea like maybe a vampire movie. And

1218
01:12:52,319 --> 01:12:57,520
then I start to think of the of the project

1219
01:12:57,520 --> 01:13:02,840
to write based on this houses and trying to to

1220
01:13:02,840 --> 01:13:04,880
to come up with an idea. And I had that

1221
01:13:05,039 --> 01:13:10,560
idea that it would be funny to shoot the story

1222
01:13:10,680 --> 01:13:14,119
of a writer who's meeting with a producer who wants

1223
01:13:14,159 --> 01:13:15,600
to make a movie.

1224
01:13:15,680 --> 01:13:16,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it gets super mad.

1225
01:13:17,239 --> 01:13:20,239
Speaker 2: Yeah so so yeah, and then and then that's why

1226
01:13:20,279 --> 01:13:23,560
I wrote. I wrote the script of Vampire Project, which

1227
01:13:23,600 --> 01:13:27,199
is exactly that. So so basically a big chunk of

1228
01:13:27,239 --> 01:13:31,960
what's happening in the Vampire Project is actually based on

1229
01:13:32,600 --> 01:13:37,199
my experience working with Michael and another guy who works

1230
01:13:37,239 --> 01:13:41,760
with him, and how and I had that idea come

1231
01:13:41,760 --> 01:13:43,600
out of nowhere. And then I started to write that,

1232
01:13:43,640 --> 01:13:45,319
and I wrote the entire script like in just a

1233
01:13:45,359 --> 01:13:48,039
few days, actually, like in five days. I wrote the

1234
01:13:48,079 --> 01:13:52,800
first draft and it didn't change that much actually, and

1235
01:13:52,840 --> 01:13:56,720
then and then I submitted it to them, and that

1236
01:13:57,000 --> 01:13:59,479
was odd because that was kind of what we just

1237
01:14:00,479 --> 01:14:02,600
you know, went through. But then it was a really

1238
01:14:02,640 --> 01:14:06,560
a movie about the conflict between a producer who wants

1239
01:14:06,600 --> 01:14:08,359
to make a movie on the on the writer who

1240
01:14:08,399 --> 01:14:13,640
wants to make another movie. And and and I actually

1241
01:14:13,960 --> 01:14:17,960
kept on nourishing the script with the continuation of the

1242
01:14:18,039 --> 01:14:23,840
relationship with the with the with the producer. You haven't

1243
01:14:24,159 --> 01:14:26,479
they passed on it. They didn't, they didn't get it

1244
01:14:26,560 --> 01:14:31,039
at all. I Mean, it's like, to me, there's a

1245
01:14:31,119 --> 01:14:32,520
David Lynchell element to it.

1246
01:14:33,840 --> 01:14:35,479
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a lot of fun I loved I

1247
01:14:35,520 --> 01:14:39,399
loved watching and it was funny and it was you

1248
01:14:39,399 --> 01:14:42,079
there's some symbolism spiritual warfare going on. So I thought

1249
01:14:42,119 --> 01:14:42,760
that was interesting.

1250
01:14:43,399 --> 01:14:46,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there was only so it was also an

1251
01:14:46,359 --> 01:14:50,800
opportunity to talk about the COVID and and and how

1252
01:14:50,960 --> 01:14:56,199
it was affecting creative creation and how the work mined

1253
01:14:56,680 --> 01:15:00,960
as well, you know, like they always want to, you know, producers.

1254
01:15:01,279 --> 01:15:03,960
I kind of mixed other experience with other producers, you

1255
01:15:04,000 --> 01:15:05,960
know who say, hey, yeah, you need to put like

1256
01:15:06,000 --> 01:15:08,560
a transgender in the movie. You need to do this.

1257
01:15:08,680 --> 01:15:10,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, pokespun.

1258
01:15:11,439 --> 01:15:16,279
Speaker 2: That the allegory of the vampire started to make complete sense,

1259
01:15:16,479 --> 01:15:18,960
you know, like what is the vampire in Hollywood?

1260
01:15:19,000 --> 01:15:24,319
Speaker 1: You know how vampires exactly? Hollywood vampires. Now the next project,

1261
01:15:24,319 --> 01:15:25,760
and I'll have a link below by the way where

1262
01:15:25,760 --> 01:15:29,399
people can watch that online if they want to click

1263
01:15:29,439 --> 01:15:31,640
over and check it out. But you have a new

1264
01:15:31,680 --> 01:15:34,399
project coming that I have printed out. I can't I

1265
01:15:34,439 --> 01:15:36,359
can't say what it is. What can you say about

1266
01:15:36,399 --> 01:15:36,960
that anything?

1267
01:15:38,479 --> 01:15:41,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's also that's a that's a that's

1268
01:15:41,319 --> 01:15:44,279
a project I really love. It's really like one of

1269
01:15:44,319 --> 01:15:49,439
these movies. Also that that's kind of a very original

1270
01:15:49,520 --> 01:15:53,279
and yet is very much based on all the gen

1271
01:15:53,680 --> 01:15:58,239
genre movies we like, so on this very real role.

1272
01:15:58,359 --> 01:16:02,680
It all takes place in all place like where we

1273
01:16:02,720 --> 01:16:06,800
are in a church, because in the meantime, you know,

1274
01:16:06,960 --> 01:16:12,560
leaving leaving La, which was like leaving the demons of La,

1275
01:16:13,039 --> 01:16:18,119
was taking us closer to God. And then I really

1276
01:16:18,159 --> 01:16:23,880
felt like and also and also this script is also

1277
01:16:24,159 --> 01:16:30,760
like an offshoot of another script that was bigger, that

1278
01:16:30,960 --> 01:16:34,159
was supposed to be made, and that almost got made

1279
01:16:34,239 --> 01:16:37,840
like ten times, and every time there was something, so

1280
01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:40,199
I wrote like a different version and a different version

1281
01:16:40,199 --> 01:16:43,399
of a different version, and that ended up being that

1282
01:16:43,399 --> 01:16:46,680
that new script that's called All Sceners, that's part of

1283
01:16:47,560 --> 01:16:52,079
over two movies. Now All Sceners go to Hell, and

1284
01:16:52,399 --> 01:16:59,159
it's a it's a conceptual movie. The diptych, I could

1285
01:16:59,199 --> 01:17:02,720
call it, you know, because you have two there's two

1286
01:17:02,760 --> 01:17:05,479
pieces of the same movie because it's used to be

1287
01:17:05,600 --> 01:17:08,159
one movie and that had to split into two movies.

1288
01:17:08,520 --> 01:17:13,319
But I think the new version is great, especially the first.

1289
01:17:14,239 --> 01:17:17,000
The first one takes place in it's it's kind of

1290
01:17:17,000 --> 01:17:20,479
a hostage situation in the church. It's kind of a fun,

1291
01:17:23,760 --> 01:17:28,960
fun I would say there's some Coin Brothers a little

1292
01:17:29,000 --> 01:17:30,359
bit like Fargo.

1293
01:17:30,279 --> 01:17:35,439
Speaker 1: Esque small vibe for sure, but with also.

1294
01:17:35,319 --> 01:17:39,680
Speaker 2: Like a little more action driven with some guy richie elements,

1295
01:17:39,760 --> 01:17:43,159
which is also always fun. So it's definitely a fun movie.

1296
01:17:43,520 --> 01:17:48,840
That's that's very mainstream. And yet there's always you know,

1297
01:17:48,880 --> 01:17:53,960
it's always complicated to to and it's it's the beauty

1298
01:17:54,000 --> 01:17:56,239
of it is that it's a pretty simple movie to make.

1299
01:17:56,359 --> 01:18:00,239
So that's why that's why now we're we're aiming at

1300
01:18:00,399 --> 01:18:05,800
making it like small and and and the more I

1301
01:18:05,840 --> 01:18:08,159
think about it, the more I'm trying to stay away

1302
01:18:09,199 --> 01:18:14,560
from the whole Hollywood system, which I mean I know

1303
01:18:14,640 --> 01:18:17,399
that system very well, especially the independent side of it,

1304
01:18:18,319 --> 01:18:22,359
where you know the final how the financing works, and

1305
01:18:22,119 --> 01:18:25,720
and this, I think this is getting more and more

1306
01:18:25,760 --> 01:18:29,479
and more difficult using the you know, like in the

1307
01:18:29,800 --> 01:18:33,600
B action genre, getting the names. All these names are

1308
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:35,960
getting too old now to be in action movies, you know,

1309
01:18:36,079 --> 01:18:38,600
like you're talking about Van Dam Dolph Gren. I mean,

1310
01:18:38,760 --> 01:18:44,159
I worked with Longgren, with Steven Siegall with on movies

1311
01:18:44,199 --> 01:18:48,279
with these guys, but now it's getting they're all too old.

1312
01:18:48,319 --> 01:18:52,239
Like the expandables now you know, they are, so so

1313
01:18:52,760 --> 01:18:55,319
there's no one else now that has a name that's

1314
01:18:55,359 --> 01:19:00,800
big enough. So so we have another movie, another project

1315
01:19:00,800 --> 01:19:04,279
with Scott Adkins for example, that's more on the mainstream

1316
01:19:04,359 --> 01:19:06,840
side of it. But to me, the passion is really

1317
01:19:06,840 --> 01:19:10,439
to make relevant movies that that are meaningful, that talk

1318
01:19:10,520 --> 01:19:12,800
to people, that that makes them want to see it

1319
01:19:12,920 --> 01:19:17,479
several times, that makes them cherish the movies, you know,

1320
01:19:17,720 --> 01:19:21,960
like and and and it's becoming rare because most of

1321
01:19:22,000 --> 01:19:24,279
the movies that have the budget to try to make

1322
01:19:24,319 --> 01:19:30,159
something well crafted nowadays, they're all very super woke and

1323
01:19:30,239 --> 01:19:32,359
it and it, and then you see through that and

1324
01:19:32,399 --> 01:19:34,520
then you start watching the movie like, Okay, it's another

1325
01:19:34,560 --> 01:19:37,960
one of those and it's a little depressing. So that

1326
01:19:37,960 --> 01:19:40,399
that's what that's why we decided to create that banner

1327
01:19:40,600 --> 01:19:45,439
Films against the Machines, and the experience of the Vampire

1328
01:19:45,520 --> 01:19:50,560
project was to actually we said, okay, well we're gonna

1329
01:19:50,560 --> 01:19:53,520
find we're gonna do everything on this movie, from from

1330
01:19:53,560 --> 01:19:59,359
writing to to finishing to distribution, because I think the

1331
01:19:59,439 --> 01:20:03,319
model of this distribution for independent movies is becoming really

1332
01:20:03,439 --> 01:20:07,840
rotten because you either do like pretty much like a

1333
01:20:07,880 --> 01:20:12,199
shidy B movie with an old guy who doesn't want

1334
01:20:12,199 --> 01:20:17,439
to be there anymore, and an audience that you know,

1335
01:20:17,600 --> 01:20:20,359
that's getting tired of that too, So you need to

1336
01:20:20,359 --> 01:20:25,840
make these movies overpay actors, and so there's no money

1337
01:20:25,880 --> 01:20:27,680
to make the movie, and you end up making like

1338
01:20:27,760 --> 01:20:33,399
a remake or a reboot of die Hard with with

1339
01:20:34,640 --> 01:20:38,560
one million bucks. So it's gonna be either that independent

1340
01:20:38,640 --> 01:20:42,119
movies or the afth house stuff like eight twenty four

1341
01:20:42,199 --> 01:20:44,760
and all of that. But that's that's for the happy

1342
01:20:44,840 --> 01:20:49,079
few who are willing to push the propaganda and all

1343
01:20:49,119 --> 01:20:52,479
of that, and in the in between, there's almost no

1344
01:20:52,600 --> 01:20:54,560
room to make your own movies. So that's why we

1345
01:20:54,640 --> 01:20:58,319
decided to create our own platform and say, okay, Vampire Projects,

1346
01:20:58,319 --> 01:21:02,239
we have the whole film is there now, and then

1347
01:21:02,279 --> 01:21:04,720
we have we're bringing another catalog because we're not the

1348
01:21:04,800 --> 01:21:08,800
only ones in that situation, so we're bringing other people, like,

1349
01:21:09,399 --> 01:21:15,640
you know, we're partnering with this French guy who's very funny,

1350
01:21:16,199 --> 01:21:19,319
who made like several feature films that are also like

1351
01:21:19,479 --> 01:21:27,560
very anti walk and very very relevant movies, and so

1352
01:21:27,720 --> 01:21:30,399
we're gonna put these movies there. We're gonna put movies

1353
01:21:30,439 --> 01:21:35,920
that are more health conscious as well. Some with religious content.

1354
01:21:36,079 --> 01:21:39,800
Like we have a beautiful movie coming out soon called Eternity. Eternity.

1355
01:21:40,520 --> 01:21:44,840
It's a beautiful movie made by Christians, but not only

1356
01:21:44,880 --> 01:21:50,159
for Christians, because that's that's also another thing about Christian

1357
01:21:50,199 --> 01:21:53,439
movies that are generally just made for Christians, which is

1358
01:21:53,520 --> 01:21:56,720
kind of pointless in some way. So this is a

1359
01:21:56,760 --> 01:22:02,439
beautiful movie. So we're already trying to do something to

1360
01:22:02,439 --> 01:22:06,640
to bring something different and on all sceners. It's also

1361
01:22:06,800 --> 01:22:10,199
like a great entertaining movie with great Christian values in it.

1362
01:22:12,279 --> 01:22:16,000
Speaker 1: And yeah, excellent, I'm looking forward to to it. There

1363
01:22:16,079 --> 01:22:20,279
might be a small role for myself, you might.

1364
01:22:20,239 --> 01:22:23,560
Speaker 2: See me and then when we met and uh, And

1365
01:22:23,600 --> 01:22:26,079
that's funny how it all came together because in the

1366
01:22:26,159 --> 01:22:29,800
Vampire Project, if you look carefully on the on the

1367
01:22:29,920 --> 01:22:35,640
nightstand of the of the the protagonists in because we're

1368
01:22:36,520 --> 01:22:39,760
thinking of what would he read, what would be and

1369
01:22:39,800 --> 01:22:44,239
then and then of course start with the the Bible,

1370
01:22:44,319 --> 01:22:47,439
and then you build on that with lots of different people.

1371
01:22:47,960 --> 01:22:53,199
And and and my brilliant wife, you know she because

1372
01:22:53,239 --> 01:22:58,399
she she's she suggested actually to to to put your

1373
01:22:58,640 --> 01:23:01,399
book in the in the and I read it. I said,

1374
01:23:01,439 --> 01:23:03,760
of course, it makes total sense that it should be there,

1375
01:23:04,159 --> 01:23:08,159
and so that's why esotoric Hollywood is on exottery. Hoallywood

1376
01:23:08,199 --> 01:23:11,079
is a must read. I think everyone everybody should read.

1377
01:23:11,520 --> 01:23:15,279
And we got tons of tons of copies as you

1378
01:23:15,359 --> 01:23:19,039
know that we're we That was everybody of our friends.

1379
01:23:19,119 --> 01:23:23,279
Christmas was one of the I appreciate that. Well.

1380
01:23:23,319 --> 01:23:27,399
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to also w Lucers.

1381
01:23:27,479 --> 01:23:32,159
Speaker 2: So now you're now knowing that that you're also an

1382
01:23:32,199 --> 01:23:36,119
actor on train and everything, and I'm really looking forward

1383
01:23:36,199 --> 01:23:39,479
to to working with you for sure. That's because that's

1384
01:23:39,880 --> 01:23:43,039
how most of the movies I made. It's it's always

1385
01:23:43,039 --> 01:23:45,800
like that, you meet people and then you say, okay

1386
01:23:45,840 --> 01:23:48,520
that that's that's cool. Let's make a movie together. You know.

1387
01:23:48,600 --> 01:23:51,600
That's that's it's it's not just the one guy making

1388
01:23:51,640 --> 01:23:56,760
a movie. It's it's it's an ensemble. It's it's meeting

1389
01:23:56,800 --> 01:23:59,920
people know what the movie is gonna be. You know,

1390
01:24:00,159 --> 01:24:03,159
it's when the movie is finished that that you know

1391
01:24:03,199 --> 01:24:03,760
what it is.

1392
01:24:04,720 --> 01:24:07,479
Speaker 1: Excellent, Well, thank you so much, Yvonne. Great discussion of

1393
01:24:07,600 --> 01:24:11,159
the arts, especially the art of filmmaking. This is probably

1394
01:24:11,199 --> 01:24:14,359
the most unique medium or form of art out there.

1395
01:24:14,479 --> 01:24:18,039
So I really appreciate all of your insights and your story,

1396
01:24:18,600 --> 01:24:20,520
glad that you are out there doing what you're doing,

1397
01:24:20,600 --> 01:24:22,760
kind of being against the woke side of all this.

1398
01:24:22,960 --> 01:24:25,880
So I'll have all the links below and anything else

1399
01:24:25,920 --> 01:24:28,640
that you want to plug or remind us of or

1400
01:24:29,000 --> 01:24:31,159
call our attention to, maybe something that we didn't mention

1401
01:24:31,239 --> 01:24:31,960
in your catalog.

1402
01:24:36,720 --> 01:24:40,520
Speaker 2: Now, I mean, if I mean it's also cool. I

1403
01:24:40,560 --> 01:24:44,199
think I'm taking another just another second. I'm sorry, I've

1404
01:24:44,199 --> 01:24:49,319
been I talk a lot. I know, you know, first

1405
01:24:49,359 --> 01:24:52,319
I love I love, I love what I do, and

1406
01:24:52,960 --> 01:24:55,039
but you know, there are there are a lot of

1407
01:24:55,079 --> 01:24:58,880
people out there who want to make movies and who

1408
01:24:58,920 --> 01:25:04,560
have something to some things to tell, and and my

1409
01:25:04,600 --> 01:25:07,920
wife and I we have that really an expertise on

1410
01:25:09,399 --> 01:25:12,880
the entire business in the US mostly but also we know,

1411
01:25:13,000 --> 01:25:16,640
you know Europe of course, but mostly the US. Independent

1412
01:25:16,920 --> 01:25:19,960
we know, we really understand how it works and we

1413
01:25:20,000 --> 01:25:23,239
can maybe help people because it's time to give back

1414
01:25:23,279 --> 01:25:26,199
as well, and it's it's good to help people who

1415
01:25:26,239 --> 01:25:28,760
would want to make movies who are kind of like minded.

1416
01:25:29,199 --> 01:25:31,880
And these people they must be really really lost right

1417
01:25:31,920 --> 01:25:35,840
now because the industry is changing that crazy. And if

1418
01:25:35,840 --> 01:25:39,720
we could become that anchor in that system that people

1419
01:25:39,800 --> 01:25:44,399
can rely on and say, hey, maybe we can we

1420
01:25:44,439 --> 01:25:49,319
can start something because we know, we understand, we've been

1421
01:25:49,359 --> 01:25:53,760
through everything, you know, in I mean everything, not everything,

1422
01:25:54,039 --> 01:25:58,399
of course, because that's there's so much better, but there's

1423
01:25:59,319 --> 01:26:02,840
if we can help people who are really really interested,

1424
01:26:02,960 --> 01:26:06,159
you know, and and we can really we can really

1425
01:26:06,199 --> 01:26:09,039
help and and potentially work with people who have ideas

1426
01:26:09,159 --> 01:26:10,880
or who have made movies that are made but they

1427
01:26:10,880 --> 01:26:13,319
don't know what to do with it because and then

1428
01:26:13,319 --> 01:26:15,800
maybe the platform can help with that. That's why we

1429
01:26:15,840 --> 01:26:18,640
put together that festival to also bring people from other

1430
01:26:18,720 --> 01:26:25,840
countries that we have the same limitations because the general uh,

1431
01:26:26,159 --> 01:26:33,560
the entire industry is ultra left and and uh and

1432
01:26:33,560 --> 01:26:34,760
and we need to to.

1433
01:26:34,920 --> 01:26:37,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we need people that are making art that's

1434
01:26:37,600 --> 01:26:39,439
not ultra left. That's a key point.

1435
01:26:39,720 --> 01:26:42,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think it's super important that people

1436
01:26:42,600 --> 01:26:44,960
can express themselves and now in the way the way

1437
01:26:44,960 --> 01:26:46,800
it is, there's no way, there's no way. There are

1438
01:26:46,840 --> 01:26:49,720
things you cannot tell. And that's what we try to

1439
01:26:49,720 --> 01:26:52,359
do with a Vampire Project. It's a movie about that. Actually,

1440
01:26:52,399 --> 01:26:55,560
it's a movie about how can you manage to tell

1441
01:26:55,680 --> 01:27:00,520
your stories? You know? In that in that context, so awesome.

1442
01:27:00,600 --> 01:27:03,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, so people people can reach out to you also

1443
01:27:03,600 --> 01:27:05,840
if they're interested and you know who want to make

1444
01:27:05,840 --> 01:27:09,479
films and so forth that aren't you know establishment.

1445
01:27:10,039 --> 01:27:12,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, through Films Against the Machines dot com. They can

1446
01:27:12,920 --> 01:27:13,680
send the you know.

1447
01:27:14,560 --> 01:27:16,399
Speaker 1: All that link. I'll have all that linked below.

1448
01:27:17,520 --> 01:27:20,279
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, thank you so much that absolutely, Van.

1449
01:27:20,319 --> 01:27:22,560
Speaker 1: Was a great conversation. Thank you so much for coming

1450
01:27:22,600 --> 01:27:24,399
on and inviting us to your film festival. We had

1451
01:27:24,399 --> 01:27:25,880
a lot of fun down there, and.

1452
01:27:25,920 --> 01:27:28,800
Speaker 2: We'll have the festival again where we're working on securing

1453
01:27:28,920 --> 01:27:33,279
dates and the movie theater for this six so you're

1454
01:27:33,359 --> 01:27:34,279
you'll have to come again.

1455
01:27:34,479 --> 01:27:38,000
Speaker 1: Absolutely be honored to And I forgot to give a

1456
01:27:38,039 --> 01:27:40,479
talk there too. I don't remember that, but that was

1457
01:27:40,479 --> 01:27:42,359
an awesome Yeah you gave Yeah, you invited me to

1458
01:27:42,359 --> 01:27:43,760
give a talk. We had a good time there and

1459
01:27:44,439 --> 01:27:47,840
talking to Kevin Sorbo too, So thank you guys. If

1460
01:27:47,880 --> 01:27:50,159
you're in the chat, be sure and leave some comments below.

1461
01:27:50,239 --> 01:27:54,840
Be sure to like, share, subscribe and check out Yvonne's film,

1462
01:27:54,920 --> 01:27:58,399
especially Vampire Project. And I will see you next time.