Films To Be Buried With with Brett GoldsteinJames Wan • Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein #311
LOOK OUT! It’s only Films To Be Buried With!
Join your host Brett Goldstein as he talks life, death, love and the universe with the excellent and prolific filmmaker JAMES WAN!
A long-time-coming type episode featuring a lovely chat with the excellent maker of extremely scary movies! This episode rates low on scares though, you might be happy to know, and what it swerves on the scare-scale it more than makes up for in good time convo. In this one it's interesting to hear so much from the person who forms such a big piece of the puzzle of modern horror, and get a real insight into what it takes to create the movies AND make huge blockbusters too. Several sides of the coins that we don't always get to see or hear from. Oh and creepy dolls! So please, take a comfy seat or indeed adopt a lying position while enjoying this fabulous episode.
Look out. It's only films to be buried with. Hello, and welcome to films to be buried with. My name is Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer, a director, a roady, and I love films. As John Lennon once said, count your age by your friends, not years. Count your life by smiles not tears. Count your rocky movies by learning Roman numerals. Every week I'm invite a special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get them to discuss their life through the films that men the most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins and but Ruffin, Mark Frost, Sharon Stone, and even Dead Bambles. But this week it is the excellent writer, producer and director James Wine. Head over to the patron at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you get an extra twenty minutes of chat with James. He tells a secret. We talk about the makings of some of these films. We talk beginnings and endings. You also get the whole episode uncut and add free and as a video. Check it out over at patreon dot com Forward slash Brett Goldsteam James one is an amazing director, a producer. You know him as part of the team who created Saw. He went on to make the Conjuring films, the the Insidious movies, the two Aquaman films, Malignant, Furious seven, you name it, he's done it. We recorded this on Zoom last week. He was brilliant and I really think you're going to love this chat. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy episode three hundred and eleven of Films to be Buried With. Hello, and welcome to Films to be Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein, and I am joined today by a writer, a producer, a creator, a director, a horror fanatic and action hero, a legend, an incredible visionary, an insidious, a conjurer, a furious man, a aquaman, a lost city, a tea cuppa. He's malignant, he's lovable, and he's here. He's right in front of me. Please, welcome to the show. It's the brilliant James Rue.
I'm like, whre's this guy?
Where is he?
I gotta turn around and check him out. Sounds pretty incredible.
He's right here.
Thank you.
It is very nice to meet you. James. This is the first time we've met. I am a huge fan of your work. Congratulations on everything you have achieved thus far.
Thank you, Thank you for having me. This is very exciting you made.
If I may say, I like an awful lot of what you've done. But when people ask me like favorite horror movies, I often cite the Conjuring Part two because I think Conjuring Part two is a masterpiece of there are different types of horror films. By a horror film that's like a ghost train ride that is fucking flawless and perfect, I go Conjuring two. I love it so much.
Oh, thank you.
It's funny when people ask me, you know, which of my work do I like the most. I mean, obviously I generally say, oh, you know, Conjuring one, just because of what Conjuring one did, But I actually think more my most complete work that I've done from my perspective, is Conjuring two. So Conjuring two in that respect is probably my favorite as well.
And the idea there's so many. It's like two hours quarter and it's like every five minutes, five ten minutes, you have an idea. It's just filled with such great ideas, and I to this day think one of the greatest ideas is how you shot the little girl becoming the old man and we just stay far in back. She's out to focus, and when she's out to focus, she speaks like that old man. It's such a clever, fucking creepy it's so brilliant, such a good idea. Anyway, well done, well Dak.
Thank you, thank you. Yeah.
I mean that little scene was just me wanting ask the audience to be with Patrick, right with Patrick Wilson's character, ed Warren's perspective, and just kind of see how it plays out, because you know, he turned his head to talk to a little girl and uh, and then we can't see what he's seeing and we can only feel what he's seeing. And so that's why I wanted to play out of focus.
It's brilliant. It's so brilliant. And you started, I mean, you've you've you've built an empire off Saw. You started with Saul, right, is it you forgive me if I've got it? If it's you or Lee, or is it you who were not well and had an experience that inspired Saw.
I think that story is Lee's story, So I don't know if it's a story that he made up.
I always it's a great story.
You cannot trust these writers. They like to make things up. Sometimes they're belly sorious. No, I actually think I know Lee did pull something from his own personal experience. He was kind of going through a bit of a physical difficulty at the time when we were writing Saw and and Yeah, and it found a lot of that into Jigsaw's philosophy in the first script. So so yeah, we tried to kind of bring a lot of our own personal things into the films we make, even though our movies on the surface look like, you know, just traditional popcorn movie. But but you know, you've got to make it personal in some ways otherwise the film I just I think they don't work if you don't, you know, bring something personal to it.
Completely agree, and they And that's the thing with your with your conjuring films. Conjuring films are really emotional as well. They're quite they're very moving, and they're fucking scaring their great rights, but you really love them as a couple and you care about their well being and the you're very good at all that. Can I ask you what when I'm looking at your CV. It's so fascinating to me, and I'm wondering why you choose. What is it that makes you go, Okay, I'm going to do Furious seven or Aquaman or like. Like, clearly you love horror, that was your thing, But to branch out into these other areas, what's the thing that motivates me go, that's the thing I'm excited about. I want to do that. Yeah.
You know. One of the things I generally like to kind of point out is, you know, I'm a huge horror fans obviously, but at the end of the day, I'm actually, you know, I'm just a film fan. I love movies of all kinds. I definitely gravitate towards horror. It's a genre that I love growing up, but I enjoy all kinds of movies, and I really I guess, you know, I'm kind of charting my career and trying to be kind of a little bit methodical with the movies I pick. You know, I wanted to make sure that people see me as a filmmaker and not just a horror filmmaker, and so that was important for me. Just the opportunity to sort of branch out do other kind of things. I mean, I love fantasy movies, I love sci fi, I love actions. So I definitely wanted to kind of broaden my filmmaking horizon and you know and sort of like exercise my director muscles in other genres and uh and so it was important for me to not be fully type cast.
Yeah, yeah, and done. How was it, if you can talk about it? I don't know. My question is sort of, how is it when you moved into massive you know, Furious Severs, fucking massive Aquaman and massive films, right, big egos. I'm sure big studios you're having to navigate and politics? How was all that? And did you was that the thing you'd learned to navigate or was it always? Was it much trickier? Was it the same but bigger?
Yeah? Listen, you know, like by the time it got to the big film, so you know, I wasn't a first time director or a second time director, so I kind of, you know, knew, you know, it was somewhat familiar quite well already with the mechanition of making movies in Hollywood, So I kind of, you know, I know, all the politics and all the bullshit and crap that goes along in Hollywood, And I always said that the creative part of filmmaking is always a small portion compared to all the other rubbish that you have to navigate through, you know. So definitely, you know, jumping onto a big, big film with furious Server and a film that is always already so established, right, so you're coming into someone's playground that other people have made very successful, and you know, and I kind of saw my job as someone you know, who is coming in here, try to bring my own tape to it, but at the same time knowing that I have to play within this sandbox that everyone has created. So I was respectful of that, and I kind of went in there with that mindset, knowing that, you know, if the movie works, you know, it's going to be good for me in the long term.
So so I'm gonna come in and play.
And on top of that, I'm actually a fan of the franchise, right, so it wasn't hard for me to kind of want to play with the characters and go in there and come up with some of these big, crazy action set pieces.
So so that was fun.
I try to look at it from a fun perspective, but boy, making the movie was definitely very, very difficult. It was a crash course into you know, into that big budget roller filmmaking.
I read it, I read it interview you where you said you said something like, it's always fucking hard every single film, and if you're not completely broken by the end of it, you weren't doing it right. Yeah.
Yeah, you're definitely you know, like usually finish a shoot, you know, falling really ill, and if you don't sort of get get sick by the end, then you're not quite doing it right.
No.
The other thing I will add to that is just the fact that I always say this as well.
Making movies at the end of the day, regardless of the genre or the size of the film, the actual process is basically the same. You know, like you're there to tell the best story you can tell, you know, create the best kind of action set pieces. So set pieces you can whether it's in the action genre or it's creating a scary set piece. You know, they all have g on rhythm and sort of like methodical process to them, and it's kind of knowing how to kind of like play with that. Obviously, a big budget movie means that you know, you have much bigger toys to play with but the you have a lot more cooks in the kitchen, and you have a lot more people you have to try and please and navi get that around. So a lot of you know, a lot of the job that comes down to going, Okay, how can I make these people feel good?
But at the same time make the fucking movie that I want. Because I would say Fury seven is the only movie I've ever done as a director for High.
I'm not a director for High.
I don't think I don't think I can ever go back to being a director for High. It was the first film that I knew I had to do just so that I can take that, you know, big step into the big league.
And so I was willing to, you know, kind of find that compromise.
God, that's fascinating. Can you tell me maybe again if you don't know this fight Furious seven giving you a director to High? What percentage of the finished product are you like, that's the film I wanted to make versus the film they wanted to make. You know what I mean? Like, are you like eighty percent that's the that's my movie? Or will you don't go.
There's never eighty percent?
And on the best of days, I would say maybe with you or seven about maybe forty five to fifty, which is pretty done, pretty good generally speaking. Yeah, especially for me, you know, with like the vision that I had for it. I remember hearing Peter Jackson saying, even on the lot of the rings, you know, what he wanted percentage wise, was so small compared to what you would think it would be. He's like, you know, I only achieved like fifty percent of what he wanted. So yeah, you know, it's not a shocking thing to hear that from directors.
Yeah, amazing, And so tell me if you can. What's this teacup? What's teacup? You've got coming up?
Teacup is a new series that we're producing, an Atomic Monster with Peacock, based on Robert Kayman's book called Stinger. And it's written and you know, show run by Ian mckilloch for Peacock, and uh, you.
Know, it's cool.
It's a sort of a big world invasion story. It's an alien kind of type horror story. But but the way Ian has approached it is, you know, he calls it an epic keyhole storytelling, which is, you know, you're telling a big story, but you're really only focusing on a very small group of people on a farm and within their world. You're you're sort off, You're telling a small slice of a big, bigger story, not unlike what Shamalan did with Signs.
Yeah great, I love.
Yeah, it's kind of in that spirit.
Yeah. Cool.
So it's a very grounded sci fi series that we've got coming out that I'm excited for.
That's cool. And you're doing Sylum's Lot, Salem's Lot, Salem is that always it? Salem's Lot?
Yes, Yeah, We've got Salem's Lot coming out soon.
I know a lot of people have been waiting for that, and uh, it's coming out on Maxim hopefully hopefully somewhere around Halloween or leading up to Halloween.
Which would be extremely appropriate.
And I think people, I think people would be pleasantly surprised because I think Gary Doberman did a really great job adapting this novel from Stephen King.
James. I'd forgotten to tell you something. Fuck fuck, I should have told you at the beginning. It's mad that I didn't tell you that.
Fuck.
I'll just say wow, fuck it, I'll just say tell me now, I say it. You've died, You're dead, You've died, You're dead.
Okay, it sounds like one of my movies. Okay, god wait wait am I? Am I supposed to do this as a ghost?
Is that?
Yeah, you're a ghost. Now you're a guyst Ah, Okay, you're already doing it. You're already a guys. That's the trick.
So am I speaking about all this stuff in the past tense?
Oh yeah? Okay, Well you personally, you have to tell me how you died. You get to choose how you died. Oh my god, and I figure of all the people on this podcast, you've thought about this?
You know, I have not thought about this. Despite what people think.
Of me, and because the kind of films I make, I'm actually not a very morbid person. In reality.
I love scary movies, I love scary stories and collections, but I don't necessarily.
Have the first Can I ask you? How many people have said that they would love to die very old in their sleep?
A lot of people. But I always have to ask, well, what is it that killed them? Because I don't buy that you just die in your sleep. Something happened.
Okay, I will add to that, I would like to die in my sleep, very very old, hopefully old and happy and content and uh and maybe at the very last moment, Freddy Krueger shows up, Freddy Freddy shows up, and then he'd be like, you know, maybe it's not as horrific as victims. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this is the nicer Freddy versions. This is the Freddie ways. It's and play video games with me or we just smoke pot.
All right, I like this. That's a great death. So do you so, do you worry about death? You don't?
Sorry, that sounds more like John Carpenter than Freddy Krueger. Sorry do I am I few foo of death?
Do you worry about death?
I mean, I guess I worry as much as the next person.
You know, when you're younger, you don't give a shit about that, right you think when you're much younger, you think you're immortal, that you you live forever, or that you know that death is still decades and decades away. Obviously, as you get older, it becomes more, you know, it comes to the forefront a lot more. I guess I do think about it a bit more, in the sense that you know, I try to take better care of myself and I used to, you know, I try to eat better. I try to you know, see my doctors on a more on a more regular basis. I try to exercise more, so you know, you become more aware, right, I do the thing that I didn't do as much when I was in my thirties, and when I was in my thirties, I didn't do as much as what I.
Didn't do in my in my twenties. So I don't know. I think I think, you know, it is something, whether you like it or not.
Mortality is legit and it's always looming around the corner.
Do you think anything happens after you day? Do you think there's enough to life?
You know, growing up in an Asian sort of culture, you know where we are somewhat quite superstitious. And also, you know, this is very interesting just religion wise. My father's side of the family a very Christian, but my mom's side of the family Buddhist. So like I kind of grew up with sort of two sets of thinking, and I kind of see the best of both worlds. Yeah, and and so you know, I'm somewhere kind of in the middle. I'm NotI the you know there in terms of how I.
Feel about religion, necessarily, but I do think that there's something after life, I you know, just like I believe that their other life form outside of this planet. Right, we live in such a big galaxy slash universe that we cannot be the only thing. And so if you look at it from that perspective, I like to think that there's something that works on a you know, on a very metaphysical or supernatural plane that we don't understand today, but you know, hopefully when we move on, we'll get to visit those places.
Have you ever seen a guyst Have you ever had a guist experience?
No?
No. And the reason why that that took me a while to say is, you know, I feel like I've had like one or two kind of small experiences, but never anything big enough for me to go that was a ghost, right?
Can you tell me one of the move ones, you know, Like, you know, like I.
Remember one time staying at a hotel and it's a very old hotel, and I remember just kind.
Of like opening my eyes and in the middle of the room, I think I see an apparition, but I can't quite tell, you know, like it's blurry. I just walking up and uh, and I think it's that the lights are shadow so I turn the light on and there's nothing there. And you know that's about the extent of anything, so natural life experience.
I take it. Well, listen, there's a heaven. Both your mother and your father are right. There's a heaven, and you're going to be reincarnated. But in the meantime, you come to heaven and they're very excited to see you, and it's Heaven's filled with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing?
Oh, my goodness, I have a lot of favorite earthly things I love. I enjoy books, comic books, I enjoy collectibles, toys, video games. I want to make sure these things are still up there for me to play with.
Okay, So heaven it is like a comic books. It's like a fucking incredible comic.
Book and that's gone by Kevin Smith.
Yeah, and it's got books and DVD. It's fucking to be fair, it's fucking great, and it's got toys and it's got comic books. You're going to love it. And everyone wants to talk to you big fans, but they want to ask you about your life through film. And the first thing they ask you is, what is the first film you remember seeing, James Ryne.
The first film I remember seeing would have to be Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I saw that film when I was seven in theaters. I think it was a rerun really, because.
No one came out a long time, because you're.
H h exactly.
I'm not.
I'm not like eighty or ninety years old. Yeah, but that is the first movie I remember seeing in the theaters, and I remember how magical I thought it was.
Yeah, were you with family? Who do you remember you were with?
I was, yeah, with your mom and dad and my siblings.
And did you find it scary because it's quite scary, right.
Yeah, you know when she became the Witch, that was pretty scary, you know, and the fact that she kind of got as well dark. It's pretty dark.
All the Disney stuff are dark, as we know, but you know, but they're all based on all fairy tales, right, and fairy tales tend to be pretty pretty dark.
Yeah. What's the what's the film that made you cry the most? And are you a cryer? Do you cray ezily?
I try not to show it.
Yes, I get emotional in films.
I think that that's a wild off movies because I believe in the power of you know, pulling at your heart strings and uh and manipulating you to feel a certain way. And that's what the medium of movies do. Cinema do so well.
And I am a sucker for that. Jezus.
A lot of movies have made me cry, but not that I would admit to it. But if I have to pick one, I want to pick something that is I'm gonna pick something that's not typical, not like your Titanic or whatever.
Right, I'm sure a lot of people have said I would say maybe.
And this is actually also one of my favorite films is The Boy who Could Fly from the eighties. Ah, do you know if you remember that The Boy was like yeah, directed by Nick Castle.
It's a great movie. It's about this great movie.
Yeah.
No one talks about this film ever. This girl moves into the house with a family and the next door boy, you know it is this troubled boy. His parents died when he was young and I think a plane crash and ever since then he believes.
That he can fly. And this girl becomes friends with him, and it's but the sort of like the love story together. It's such a beautiful movie. I definitely want to bring this from you. It's a great film. Yes, I want to bring this to people's radar more. And it had a very sad ending. So yeah, the ending was very sad.
And I cried on that is it an American film? Or is it it is? It's American? Yeah, oh, man, I love that film. You're so I forgot about it. It's the sort of me and my sister would rent that quite a lot. I love that film. Oh really, yeah, good shout.
Fred Green played the kid's uncle. Yes, yeah, he was Herman Munster.
Yeah that's right, I have answer it. And Fred Savage is in't it? Is that right? Yeah?
Fred Savage played the girls young young brother.
Yeah, little brother.
Yeah.
Fred Savage was so young in.
That great shot. Yes, I tell my sister that's very exciting. That's really giving me. Thank you. What about now? This is the big one for you. What's the film that scared you the most?
Well, I'm definitely I would say I'm going to pinpoint to the film that had a huge impact on me growing up when I was a kid. I would say the movie that s gied me the most growing up as a kid was Portergeist.
That was another movie I saw in theaters and I think I was eight years old when I saw that.
I can't believe my parents put me to the theaters to see Porter Guys.
Well it was a PG, right, it was a PG.
Yeah it was but craiky. It was scary as hell.
It was terrifying and seriously it made me terrified of clowned and dolls.
And that's what up to today.
When people ask me how come your movies have so many creepy dolls in them, I can say it's because of Porter Guys. I can literally point it, pinpoint it back to Porter Guys where my obsession slash fetish came from. That's a great yeah, Potter Guys, Toby, Trees and Spielberg.
Yes there scared of trees as well.
Yeah, the tree was scary, but it was the clown. It was the clown and uh and the the the psychic medium woman.
Oh yeah, Rubinstein, Yeah, she was terrifying.
What is the film that you love? But critically it's not acclaimed, most people don't really like it, but you love it unconditionally.
You know, I can.
Almost say that about every single movie that I love. Are not loved by critics. So like any movie I can just pull from the sky right now that I love panned by critics, and uh, you.
Know, those are the films that I love.
I don't necessarily like the movies that most critics love necessarily, I mean, unless it's the classic. But like right now, just the other night, this is the example, because I just watched this the other night. Is Wolfman the twenty ten remake of Wolfman, the one with Benicio del Toro.
Yes, who made that?
Joe Johnston directed it, The twenty ten Wolfman with Benicccio playing Wolfman.
I love that film. I'm a big fan of the old school universal monsters.
So like I love it anytime they you know, they reinvent trying to bring out a new one, right, And that's just among many.
Did you have anything to do with the Invisible Men.
Lee's Invisible Man?
Yeah?
I was, like, you know, Lee was making that when I was knee deep on Aquaman.
Do you watch each other's stuff and give notes on that, you know?
Yeah? Like sometimes what Lee and I like to do.
I mean we're very busy now obviously kind of like in our own career with what we're doing, but but we love to just get together and just like we let to throw ideas at each other. And Lee had a little cameo Lee when now had a little cameo in Aquaman, the first Acoman for me.
And you know, so he came down to.
Australia, visited me on the Gold Coast and we were just hanging out and he was telling me, you know, his ideas for Invisible Man and like what he was gonna do, and we were just like, I was just having fun geeking with him like we used to in the old days. Uh.
That's what Lee and I love to do whenever we can catch up.
That's very sweet. So what is the film that you did love but you have watched it recently and for some reason you don't like it anymore, probably because you've changed.
That's a very good question.
I always don't want to say a name a movie just because I feel bad. But I don't know, maybe just one off the top of my head that I kind of I thought of when I was younger. I love American Ninja and that doesn't necessarily quite hold up today, but socially I still love American Ninja.
Come on, Michael, still yeah into the concept. That's good.
I love the concept, and you know, I cannot wait for someone to remake American Ninja.
That'd be awesome, could be you, Yes.
Tell me this. What is the film that means the most to you? Not necessarily the film itself is good, but the experience you had around seeing it will always make it special to you.
James White, I would say Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle two. The second one secret is the secret of the use, secret of these. Yeah. The reason why the film means a lot to me is because it's literally the last movie I saw with my father in a movie theater and before he passed, so that you know, has a lot of sort of holes, a lot of significance and you know, emotional significance for me.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh man, Can I ask you a difficult question. Did you did you know it was going to be the last?
Like?
Was he ill? Was it?
Like?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
My father was kind of sick for a couple of years there, you know, getting gill from cancer and uh yeah, and that's you know, that was one of the few movies that we could actually go out and watch together.
Did he enjoy it?
I don't know. I was pretty young. I think I was about twelve, and I enjoyed it, you know, just like because he hasn't been to the movies. He doesn't go to the movies that often anymore, as on a dog, So I think, you know, I think it was fun just to experience that again for him.
Yeah, that's lovely. What about relate to? What's the film you most relate to?
You know, I don't know that one.
I gotta be honest, I've never kind of sat down and can I go this movie is very much me, So I might have to skip that one.
You don't know that one right off the top of my head.
You're allowed to skip it. People often struggle with that one, which is interesting and I won't.
Really what as people say, what's a what are some movies that people have pointed out.
It's often films about like childhood, about growing up, like a coming of age story where people like I really relate to that.
You know, I don't necessarily have one movie, but I would say definitely just the movies from the eighties and early nineties in general, eighties and nineties, just because that's pretty that's the era that I grew up in, you know, like the early nineties and stuff.
And just a lot of the ambulance movies and the stuff that Steven Spielberg made. You know, that's pretty much my generation. You know, I grew up, you know, hang out with France. We ride our bicycles everywhere where, We stay out late till and our parents don't really you know, I don't worry that much as long as you come home in time for dinner. So you know, those movies are the ones that I think I relate to the most.
Yeah, yeah, I get that. What is the sexiest film of all time?
Oh golly, there's so many, so many sexy movies.
Correct, Thank you, James. Yeah. I've had people on this podcast say I don't really get that question, and I'm like, what were we talking about?
Oh my god, No, that's an easy question.
That's an easy it's too easy that I have too many movies to pick from, and I'm not going to pick one movie necessarily.
I'm going to pick from this group of movies. I would say the old school Hammer horror films. Those were the sexiest movies for me. Does any of the Hammer movies, you know, whether they have Ingrid Pitt or not. Oh, Carolyn Monroe.
Or Medelene Smith, just any of those movies were like, you know, like they're so beautiful, like they're off a different time period, and uh, there's just like this quality about them that we don't see anymore. And I love those movies.
You could absolutely have that. There is this sub category to this question. Troubling boner is worrying why don't found a browsing that you weren't sure if you should?
Oh, okay, because that's because that's a pretty outfit question. So I'm going to give you a somewhat out there answer. I'm going to have to say, the old nineteen thirties Metropolis movie, and why is that sexy? Because of that freaking sexy robo?
Yep, the sexy robot that is our perfect Yes, that's a hot robot.
Yeah, I guess I got to think for hot probs.
You like dolls, you like hot robots. That's a really hot robot. There's nothing I'm impressed by the answer. But don't be troubled by your ba I think that is objectively. Objectively, that's a hot robot.
Do not be tribal by the fact that I find inanimate thing sexy.
Yes, that's a metallic woman.
That's very wrong.
Tell me this, what is objectively the greatest film of all type might not be your favorite, but it's what you think is the best of cinema.
Yeah, this is where I have to kind of step back a little bit and give you the kind of answer that you probably get very often. I think Jaws is one of the greatest films ever, if not at the top. And I think a lot of people agree with me, you know, Jaws.
Yeah, it's just it's brilliant.
It's brilliant at every level, the filmmaking, the actors, the script, the execution, just everything about it is just sublime, incredibly well put together, you know. So, yeah, that is one for me personally. I mean I have others as well, but you know, this is a good one.
I think. Do you know what I love about seventy Spielberg films? I love it in Close Encounters and I love it in Jaws, this sense of I'm always curious as to how much was scripted and how much wasn't. There was always a really good sense in the family scenes in both films where it feels slightly improvised and it's sort of rough. Yeah, people talk over each other and it feels so real. Yes, family feels very, very real, and that they live together and that this is dinner and this is you know what I mean. Like there's a real kind of rough quality to it that I don't think you see so often in later stuff. It maybe becomes sort of cleaner, you know what I mean. But I like that it feels very real that family.
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree.
It's funny that you pinpoint that aspect because that is a very classic Spielbergian aesthetic, which is everyone talking on top of each other, right, and then you're like, you're trying to listen, so much is going on, but then someone will say one thing that will cut through all that noise, and that is that becomes the meaning of that scene, and that's incredible.
It's not easy to do.
It's actually very it's a very tricky miss on scene to try and pour together. And that's what I do love about, you know, the older, earlier Spielberg stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't know your take on this because it upsets me. Close Encounters one of my favorite spielbergs. Spielberg said that he wouldn't make that now since he's had children, because he can't live with the fact that he leaves his family at the end to go in the spaceship. But to me, that's what's so interesting about that film. That's what makes that film like so unusual and sort of powerful and like re bound to man with an overwhelming obsession that can't be nothing will stop it. And I'm always like, no, but that's what's good about it. That's what makes it.
Like, well, I mean, what I love about that respond from Stephen is the fact that it speaks to the bigger world of how the movies that we make as filmmakers really reflect a period of the time of our lives, right, And I think that is kind of cool. I mean what it means is we grow as human being. We're not stuck on this just one singular mindset. And Stephen looks at that and go, you know, like, you know, it's later and it's not this movie that he would have made when he was back in his twenties or whatever, right, And I feel the same way as well, Like can I make a Saw type movie today? I don't know, you know, so I do think the movies that you make reflects the period of time that your life is in or going through. Yeah, it's like a diary, isn't it?
Yeah, it is. It is.
It's a bit like a diary.
What is it that has changed in you in terms of that makes you think that about? So is it like like you tell me? Is it like what's changed me? Like? I couldn't do the nasty bits anymore? Like? What is it?
I probably want to do the nasty bits better?
Okay?
No, I mean just you know.
Saw, for example, was really design as a movie like Lee, and I really specifically designed it as a film for us to kind of break through, cut through all the noises, you know at the time, and you know, obviously you know we are not in that same space anymore. And so those the kind of movies that I choose these days are a little bit different. I think I look for different things that but having said that, they steal things that I still insult. That still means stays with me up to today, and it's relevant in all my work, which is, it doesn't matter what genre I make my movies in. For me, the most important thing is are the characters, Like I care about the characters. I want to create interesting, cool characters that you like and can relate to.
And then if I did my job.
Well, there, I can take those characters and drop them into any kind of genre I want them to be. So, you know, my philosophy with With the Country was I wanted to make a love story drama movie that just so happens to be living in a horror genre.
Yeah, you did it. You fucking did it. What is the film that you could or have? What's the most over and over again?
It's interesting.
I generally don't watch an entire movie over and over again, but I do love going back and watching certain scenes again and again and again, partially because I just don't want to kind of like exhaust the movie. Like I still want to give these movies somewhat still fresh and the memories I have, because the more I watch them some oftimes they kind of deplete a little. But the movies that I love to kind of go back and visit again and again. You know, I love La Confidential. I think that's truly one of the best, one of the best made movies ever. I left the Fugitives. I love in the Line of Fire. So like these three thrillers.
Are the films that I love to visit again and again when I get the chance.
To God that that is three very good choices in the line of five was a fucking amazing Fugitives, amazing and amazing.
Yeah, they all the kind of like adult thrillers that they made in the nineties that they don't really make it. You know, I would love to be able to go back and do those type of movies again today.
Do it?
Do it for us?
I gonna find the right one.
What is the worst film you've ever seen? Don't have to be negative for long?
Oh you know, I'm not like that.
I don't watch a movie and go that's the worst movie I've ever made. I can really compartmentalize. I mean, I can watch what they call s OV. Do you know what are you familiar with?
The subsubgenre of SOV, which literally means shot on video, like you know, back in the nineties when they were shottings cameras. They're just super rough indie movies. And I can watch that and kind of go, Okay, these are what they're supposed to be.
And you know, like I cannot judge this against you know, et or Indiana Jones, right, So it's not like that.
So I am very reticent about picking a worst movie because I don't really have.
One I'm going to let you out of that question, thank you and respect you for it.
Because every movie is great in your own ways. I'm just like every movie is great in the own ways. You never catch.
Me trash another movie or trash another filmmaker.
That is totally against my policy.
Never God bless you, James Ryan. I like that very much.
Filmmaking is so hot, you know, there's no point, there's no point doing that to a fellow filmmaker.
It's just wrong.
Good Man, that was a test that you passed. It is what is the film that made you laugh the most?
You know, there's so many great comedies out there, but for me, it's hard to go past the Leslie Nelson naked gun films, you know, like those naked gun Flying High. I mean, those jokes just come at you, just rapid fire, just one every fifteen seconds or something, and they're hilarious and they're brilliant and they still hold up today, like all the jokes whole today, even if they outdated, but they still cand of work because they actually were so well executed.
And it's a really classically made film. They're very well made. They're really well sort of shocked and put together.
In really well crafted, right, Yeah, yeah, there's so much craft you know, we talk about the craftsmanship in movies like Jaws and you know, like The Godfather and all that, but like we need to apply that simple of mentality to the Flying High movies.
You know that obviously the Airplane movie is a naked gun and all that those movies were so well made. I mean, Top Secret is brilliant? How brilliant top Yeah?
I am always like, I have a huge respect for throwaway gags that must have been a day or more to shoot, where you're like, so much effort went into this one second joke. I'm always so impressed by that.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean, especially when it's all choreographed in one shot and like twenty different things are happening at the same time and everyone has to hit their marks at exactly the same time for all the you know, for all the humor to kind of really land.
Yeah, you're totally right.
They're throwaway when you're watching them, but they were not thrown away when they were making them.
And you know what I'm thinking is just now, like the shot where O. J. Simpson's in the wheel chain and goes down the stairs, and then his body flips up like I don't know how they did that. It's really impressive. It's technically very impressive. One shot.
I think they had dummy at some point and they shot him out with a cannon or something.
I don't know. Yeah, timed with the but it's very impressive stuff.
Do you remember one way?
I think, in top secret way, Peter Cushion has the magnifying glass up to his eye and he's got like a really big eye and he's looking at stuff and then he lowers the magnifying glass and his eyes is too gigantic.
So good, it was so brilliant, boy, James One, you have been excellent. Your answers have been brilliant. You have been lovely to talk to. However, when you were very very old and you were lying in bed, you were happy, you were content. You've lived a good life, you had everyone that you loved, You've done all the things you wanted to do. When you were pleasing with yourself, and you lay down for what might be your final sleep, and you drifted into a dream and you looked over and there was Freddy Krueger, and Freddie Krueger was there, and you were like uh oh, Freddie Krueger said, listen, I'm tired myself. Let's just sort of play a game. And you sit down, he hands you simp pot, you both smoke a doobie and you watch a John Carpet to film and then but because of Freddy Krueger, what he gives you is so strong that you od on weed and you die in your sleep. So it's actually quite a nice Yeah that's so bad that.
Yeah, that's kind of fun. Yeah, okay, okay.
So I'm walking, I'm walking past. I got a coffin, you know what I'm like, And I'm like, they were seeing James Won, and I go, yeah, he's upstairs. He just went to bed. And I go, oh shit, well come up. And I'm knock on the door, no answer, and opened it and there you are dead. And because of all the smoke that you've inhaled, your your body's much bigger than I expected. I'm like, oh, we're not going to fit this in the coffin. So I get an axe. I'm chopping you up, chopping up, get you all into little pieces of stuff you in the coffin. I stuff you in, stuff you in, but there's no room in this coffin. Now there's only enough room for me to slip one DVD into the side for you to take across to the other side. And on the other side, it's movie night every night. What film are you taking to show the people of Heaven in the comic book shop in Heaven when it is your movie night? James White go, probably The Crow? Great answer.
I love The Crow. I think, you know, that's a pretty underrated movie. That movie should be up there with the great when they speak of great genre films, great comic book movies.
No one ever really can I talk about that. They'd like it.
But I think that movie is perfect across the board, beautifully acted, beautiful to look at the amazing accomplishment on what was a very low budget and uh and so that's definitely, you know, if I have to pick one, that would be one of them.
And it's also like esthetically, I think it's one of those films that set something that then was copied a million times, but it started with the crowd, Like I think it was quite original. How it the feel of it at the time of it.
The look, the feel, and you know, and you know obviously the music as well. The uh, you know, Alex's Alex Proyes's background in music videos and all that, and he brought a lot of his experience into that film and it's probably the best look in music video movie, if you will. And I think that movie has a lot of residence for me because it's you know, it's in the nineties, It's when I grew up.
And that movie made a huge impact for me.
And I was such a big Brandon Lee fan and uh and to see him make a movie like that that was so unique.
It was really cool. You know, he wasn't just making another martial ut movie.
There was something a lot more to it, and that it was really a romantic movie at heart as well, just like the comic that it was based off. So I would say that is maybe one of them. Do you want to hear maybe another one? I can give you another one.
Yeah.
If if my cro DVD was broken, I was like, oh crap, Okay.
The other movie that I would bring with me is Roman Holiday.
Oh wow, I expected that.
I know you were expecting that. Yes, I love Roman Holiday. I love Audrey Hepburn and especially heading that film. She's incredible in that movie, just so charming, beautiful, beautiful, film.
What a wonder what a wonderful DVD Spring, what's a romantic you are? Thank you so much for doing this day. Please tell everyone what they should be looking out for in the coming months.
Yeah, Bret, thank you so much for this, man, this was really fun. Comic Monster has Teacup coming out very soon on Peacock.
But then we're now.
In the midst of shooting Huber tenth coming.
Teacup coming out October tenth. And we're in the midst of shooting Megan too right now. And I'm gonna be studying shooting Conjuring four, the last Conjuring film, So I really want everyone else to be there when these films come out. It's the end of an era, the end of an era for the Conjuring films.
I love the Conjuring films, and I loved Megan so much. I'm very excited about it. Thank you, thank you, Yes, congratulations, You've been brilliant. Thank you for your time. Fred.
I really appreciate this. This was fun.
Thank you, man. Have a wonderful death. Okay, so that was episode three hundred and eleven. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com. Forward slash breat Gohlsting for the Express Secret chat and videos with James. Go to Apple Podcast, give us a five star rating and write about the film that means the most to you and why it's a lovely thing to it helps numbers. My neighbor Morien loves it and we are very grateful to you. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you're all well. Thank you to James for giving me that time. Thanks to Krubys Pip and Distract some Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Thanks to Ihelp Media and Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network posting it. Thanks to Adam Richison for the graphics and Lisa Laden for the photography. Come join me next week for another brilliant guest. Thank you for listening. That is it for now. In the meantime, have a lovely week, and please, now more than ever, be excellent to each other.
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