[SPEAKER_03]: Hello everyone, welcome to slash film weekly.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Wednesday, April 15th, 2026.
[SPEAKER_03]: On today's episode of the show, we're going to be talking about the latest film and TV news.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll have a conversation about the new movie phases of death and present an interview with the filmmakers behind that movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we'll talk about monarch legacy of monsters season two and present an interview with some of the folks behind that show, including Kurt Russell.
[SPEAKER_03]: My name is Ben Pearson, I'm an editor at slashfilm.com and let's get right into the news here.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a new Long Legs movie in the works.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is something that I definitely did not foresee.
[SPEAKER_03]: Long Legs was a hugely successful horror film.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe it's the highest grossing independent film in the past 10 years.
[SPEAKER_03]: and that came out a couple of years ago, neon really set that movie, and now, as good perkins, the writer and director, is working on a new Long Legs film that stars Nicholas Cage, but interestingly, neon is not involved this time around.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Paramount Pictures has kind of bought the rights to distribute this story.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's pretty much all we know about this film, at this point, except we know that it's not a sequel, but something, quote, set in the Long Legs universe, end quote.
[SPEAKER_03]: not entirely sure what that means, but we know cages coming back and this will be the first sequel or I guess second film in a franchise from Osgood Perkins.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, definitely a notable story there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Next up, Superman, Man of Tomorrow, which is the follow-up film to Superman, obviously we're having like super girl that's coming out this summer and then clay face will be out.
[SPEAKER_03]: These are DC universe movies that are coming out after a James gun Superman, but
[SPEAKER_03]: Man of tomorrow is the name of the follow-up film.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's been described as like a follow-up and not explicitly a sequel, but it follows Lex Luther and Superman kind of teaming up to fight against Brainiac, who is a major villain in the DC universe.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've talked about all that on the podcast before, but what we have not talked about.
[SPEAKER_03]: is that Adria Arhona has been cast as someone mysterious in this new film Man of Tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Hollywood Reporter says she's been cast in an undisclosed role and there's been a lot of speculation about this.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's been some talk that she might be playing this character named Maxima who is an alien warrior character.
[SPEAKER_03]: She rules over this other planet and she lusts after Superman because he's incredibly strong and she thinks that he might be the only
[SPEAKER_03]: And so there's kind of like a Batman catwoman like sexual tension dynamic going on between those characters in the comics and various adaptations and things like that in the past.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's been some talk that maybe she's playing not character.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's also been some rumors that maybe she's secretly been cast as the new version of Wonder Woman, which would be incredible casting and a really cool move, I think.
[SPEAKER_03]: And James Gunn has worked with Arona at least once before on the Belko experiment, a film he produced back in 2017.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, I think this would make a lot of the fandom very happy to see Adrian Arona as Wonder Woman, but we'll have to see what they reveal.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're holding their cards pretty close to the best on this one.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we'll probably learn more about that later on.
[SPEAKER_03]: are now taking over and directing a metal gear solid movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that is an interesting little update on that franchise, a guy named Jordan Vote Roberts who was the director of Kong Skull Island, had spent years working on a metal gear solid film developing it, publishing a lot of concept art and things like that online.
[SPEAKER_03]: It seems his version of the project has fallen apart, but LaPovsky and Stein have stepped in, and they are going to be working on this new movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they have a deal at Sony Pictures now, and they're also going to be working on that animated venom film that we talked about not too long ago.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, like a big step forward for them and their careers that previously directed like some lower budget stuff, but final destination floodlines really put them on the map in a big way.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm excited to see them get bigger opportunities.
[SPEAKER_03]: And hopefully we'll be able to turn Metal Gear Solid into a movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a franchise that the video game franchise that has been around for many, many, many years.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's been talk of a Metal Gear Solid movie for probably as long as I've been working in this industry.
[SPEAKER_03]: So quite some time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Next up, Extraction 3 is happening at Netflix, and Chris Hemsworth is coming back to return.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sam Hargrave, the director of the first two movies, is also coming back to direct.
[SPEAKER_03]: Idris Elba is returning.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe he was introduced in the second film briefly.
[SPEAKER_03]: He might have been in the first one as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't remember because they're streaming movies, and they leave my brain instantly after watching them.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's not entirely true.
[SPEAKER_03]: There are some set pieces from the Extraction Franchise, that I remember.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a big,
[SPEAKER_03]: extended oneer that takes place partially on the train in the second one that was pretty impressive, but yeah, in any case, extraction three is happening, not surprising at all because the first two films are incredibly popular on Netflix among their most watched original movies for sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, yeah, it only makes sense to bring back the continuing adventures of Tyler Rake for Christmas worth characters name in that franchise.
[SPEAKER_03]: Speaking of Sam Hargrave, after Extraction 3 films this summer, I believe production is slew to start this summer.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to be working on a new movie called It Had to Be You, which is written by Eliza Jane Brzeer and is based on her novel of the same name and this movie will follow two contract killers, each with a hit out on the other, who must fight their growing attraction as they face off in an epic game of lust and murder across Western Europe.
[SPEAKER_03]: So basically it kind of sounds like a Western European version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith a little bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, curious to see what Hargrave can bring to that project.
[SPEAKER_03]: Speaking of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we've found out recently that my Erskine and Donald Glover are apparently coming back to reprise their roles in Mr. and Mrs. Smith season two, the show for Amazon Prime video, to what extent they're going to be coming back is unclear according to that
[SPEAKER_03]: But that show, I believe, was put on an indefinite hold last year, and now seems to be back up and running.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's exciting news for people who enjoyed the first season of that show.
[SPEAKER_03]: We know that Mark Edelstein, who was one of the main characters in Anora, is going to be playing a new John in season two, while Talia Reiter, who was the...
[SPEAKER_03]: a cousin character in a 2020 movie called Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which is a pretty harrowing film about teenage abortion, but a very good movie is going to be playing the new Jane in this season of the show, so that's pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then my ears can end down to the globe are going to be both executive producing season two as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sophie Thatcher was originally in negotiations to play the new Jane, but that ended up falling apart because she has a commitment to start in the final season of Yellow Jackets.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Tallya Ryder ended up getting that role.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then Francesca Sloan, I believe, was the person who was supposed to be the showrunner for season two.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then
[SPEAKER_03]: She ended up getting a deal with HBO and then Anna O'Young Munch, who's worked on beef and severance, has now taken over as the showrunner writer and executive producer of Season 2.
[SPEAKER_03]: So lots of updates on Mr. and Mr. Smith, Season 2.
[SPEAKER_03]: I really enjoyed that first season, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Next up, I'm just going to run through a couple kind of headline items and you can read more about these at the links that I'll drop in the show notes if you're interested.
[SPEAKER_03]: Peter Dinklage is joining Alien Earth Season 2 on FX.
[SPEAKER_03]: I did not watch the first season.
[SPEAKER_03]: I saw the first episode and was like, this isn't really for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: I heard kind of mix things about the show overall, but maybe people will be interested in checking out now that Peter Dinklage is coming on board.
[SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, Cameron Diaz is going to be teeming up with Clea Duval.
[SPEAKER_03]: the director to work on a sequel to Troop Beverly Hills, which is a movie that I know BJ Klangelow, who is often on this podcast, really loves.
[SPEAKER_03]: I never saw this film that came out in the 80s.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a big cult comedy and I just it passed me over when I was a kid and I have not gotten around to it.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, interesting combination of people there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Over, I think 2000 people now have signed an open letter, basically opposing Paramount's merger with Warner Bros.
[SPEAKER_03]: Discovery.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know exactly what's impact this will have, but a lot of big-name people Denise Villeneuve, David Fincher, Damon Lindeloff, Jason Bateman, JJ Abrams, Tiffany Haddish, like a huge number of major, major stars.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is not just like some little campaign.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is like a lot of big people putting their name on this thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: are opposing this at the highest level.
[SPEAKER_03]: And again, I'm not sure governmentally what can be done here if this is basically like a done deal, but it definitely seems like people are at least putting up a fight, which I appreciate.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we'll continue to track that story as that happens because that's gonna be one of the biggest stories in Hollywood history, frankly, when or if that happens or when or if it doesn't happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I would love for the latter option to unfold.
[SPEAKER_03]: In the meantime, it is cinema con once again, slash film is not covering it on the ground this year, but we're watching from afar and Tom Rothman, who's the chairman over at Sony Pictures, is telling theaters to enforce the longer theatrical windows, get rid of those terrible ads in front of movies at the theater, offer cheaper tickets and things like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's rare that I find myself
[SPEAKER_03]: a guy like Tom Rothman who has a pretty notorious history in the early 2000s of making some pretty questionable decisions when he was running Fox, but I got a kind of agree with them on these.
[SPEAKER_03]: So especially the ads thing, man, love a god.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, AMC and these other theater chains, please stop it with excessive ads.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're already in the theater.
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't need to see five minutes of how great AMC is.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've already gotten us in the theater.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're there.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've paid the money just show us the movie for God's sake.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, sorry, anyway, so as you would expect there have been a bunch of announcements that have come out of CinemaCon.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think last night was the Warner Brothers panel we'll get to that in just a second.
[SPEAKER_03]: But before that, studio canal announced that there's gonna be a fourth pattington film.
[SPEAKER_03]: They said there's gonna be an escape from New York remake which, again, has been another one of those movies that has gone through so many different presentations and
[SPEAKER_03]: I think Dwayne the Rock Johnson was involved in one version at one point.
[SPEAKER_03]: Gerard Butler, I remember was involved at one point.
[SPEAKER_03]: Lynn Wiseman, the director, was involved at one point, but all of those seem to have fallen away.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're, I guess, taking a new approach to this.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we'll see if that version of Escape from New York ever comes to pass.
[SPEAKER_03]: The original so good.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you've never seen the original Escape from New York, starring Kurt Russell, hey,
[SPEAKER_03]: guest of this episode of the podcast, please go seek that out.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just an incredible film.
[SPEAKER_03]: So shout out to John Carpenter for that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, other news from SentimentCon, there's going to be an r-rated animated adaptation of the Bloodborne video game coming from Sony.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I've never played those games.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think
[SPEAKER_03]: I've heard Jacob talk about playing those games, so I'll have to get his take and see what he thinks about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, that's got to be huge news for fans of that franchise because I think that one's been around for several years.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe a decade plus at this point.
[SPEAKER_03]: So more video game movies, again, not surprising if you check out what's trending in Hollywood in terms of like,
[SPEAKER_03]: looking for new IP or IP that's new to Hollywood in terms of being exploited.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Warner Brothers during their presentation last night announced that the Lord of the Rings The Hunt for Gollum has found some of its cast members.
[SPEAKER_03]: We knew that Andy Circus of course would be coming back to play Gollum and Elijah Wood would be returning as Frodo Baggins and Ian McKellen, Sir Ian McKellen is going to be coming back
[SPEAKER_03]: And there had been some rumors that Leo Woodall, who played a role in the White Lotus season 2, might be playing a young version of Aragorn in this movie, but according to this announcement last night, he's actually going to be playing a character named Halvard, who is a character close to Aragorn, but not actually Aragorn himself.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that Jamie Dornin is going to be playing
[SPEAKER_03]: a young Erdogan, he's going to be playing Strider, so that is kind of cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm definitely more interested in seeing Jamie Dorn and play a younger version of that character than I am, Leo Woodall.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, no offense to Woodall, he just seems...
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, maybe a little bit more elf-like or something like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm not entirely sure of his character's origin here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Speaking of elves, Lee Pace is coming back as an elf-king named Therenduel.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry, I'm probably butcher that name.
[SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, you can read more about this at the link in the show notes if you want to check that out.
[SPEAKER_03]: just a couple more things here from the Warner Bros. panel last night.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Sean Baker's new movie, the director of Anora, he is going to be working on a new film called Tiamo and that is going to be the first picture that is going to be released under Warner Bros. new specialty label called Clockwork.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is, I believe, run by Christian Parks, who was a guy who had up his hand in what was going on at neon over the past few years.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he left that company recently to start this new independent label at Warner Brothers.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's exciting news.
[SPEAKER_03]: And definitely really exciting to see what Sean Baker does next after having such a huge multi-oscar winning experience with Anora.
[SPEAKER_03]: So
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe that's going to be coming out in theaters next year, so stay tuned for that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then last thing here is Warner Brothers announced a bunch of release dates.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm going to run through a few of the main ones.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Ocean's Prequel is coming out on June 25th, 2027, Bradley Cooper is on board as a writer and director and star of that movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's starring opposite Margot Robbie.
[SPEAKER_03]: a new evil dead film called Evil Dead Wrath is going to be released on April 7th of 2028.
[SPEAKER_03]: We know that final destination 7 is going to be coming out on May 12th of 2028.
[SPEAKER_03]: Zach Craigers filmed the flood is coming out on August 11th, 2028, which is exciting news.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had heard originally that the flood was passed over by multiple studios.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think including Netflix because it's budget was too high, but it sounds like he's found a home for that project here.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the next month, so in September of 2018.
[SPEAKER_03]: the Gladys film, the upcoming prequel to weapons is gonna be coming out.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Zach Crager is gonna be serving as a writer on that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I talked about that last week and now we're, I mean, there's no way in hell that he's actually gonna direct that movie because it's coming out a month after the flood.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that is like pretty definitive proof that he's gonna find some or he and vertical entertainment and the folks at Warner Brothers are gonna find
[SPEAKER_03]: another person to direct that movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that'll be really curious to see who steps in he's writing and producing that film.
[SPEAKER_03]: So just to see who takes on that directing role is definitely going to be like one of the biggest question marks that I have going forward.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then Boz Lerman is going to be releasing a new movie in the kind of Thanksgiving corridor of 2028 based on the story of Joan of Arc.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's that as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, that is all the movie news and TV news that I have for you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure we'll do a little bit of cleanup from the back half of Senn MacCon next week on the show.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, stay tuned for that and as always, stay tuned to slashfilm.com for covering a lot of the stuff in real time.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm joined now by slashfilm editor and chief film critic Chris Manjolesta.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_03]: Chris, we're here to talk about faces of death.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have to say before we begin, part of this movie is set in Jacksonville, Florida, which is very close to where I live, but it claims that there are basements in Jacksonville, which I'm fairly certain is not true, because Florida is a swamp land and isn't really equipped for basements.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this film receives zero stars, Chris.
[SPEAKER_03]: I work failure from top to bottom.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, dare they disrespect Florida like that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, indeed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so I actually have never seen the original faces of death.
[SPEAKER_03]: You being the horror guy that I that I know you to be and the little scamp of a child That I'm sure you were I'm guessing you've probably saw that movie pretty young, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually have not seen I said this in my review of the new film so
[SPEAKER_02]: I was obviously well aware of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was, you know, I was a horror kid and I grew up in the golden age of the video store.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was well aware of faces of death and I've seen a few segments of it, but I never sat to the whole thing and for a very few degrees.
[SPEAKER_02]: So
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you know this band, I'm sure most listeners know this, but the majority of faces of death, the original is fake, it's stage, just not actually real, even though it purports to be like actual footage of people being killed and dying, it's mostly, I would say like 90% maybe even more.
[SPEAKER_02]: fake.
[SPEAKER_02]: However, there is real footage of animal death in the film.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like there's a part where they go to like a slaughterhouse.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like an actual slaughterhouse.
[SPEAKER_02]: And for that reason alone, I've avoided watching this because I've touched on this before, but like I have no trouble when humans are killed in movies like fake or otherwise, but if an animal is getting hurt in a movie, even if it's fake or in this case real, I do not want to see that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just, I'm a big
[SPEAKER_02]: Animal fan and I just have a very, you know, I'm not a squeamish person except when it comes to animals.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm very immersed to seeing animals get hurt.
[SPEAKER_02]: So because of that, I've just avoided ever seeing the original face of dad.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had no plans to, you know, ever watch it for that specific reason.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was actually wondering, because this is the first time that I've encountered, even clips from Faces of Death was watching them pop up in this new movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was actually wondering if this was like, if the experience of watching the original was the ground zero moment for you that caused you to like really have that kind of like, traumatized reaction to seeing animals like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm glad that you've avoided the movie for that reason because, yeah, even just like some of the little hints and stuff that we get in this film, it doesn't really seem very pleasant.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will also point out, though, that the one animal death that they do reference in the new movie, the infamous monkey brain eating scene, that actually was staged.
[SPEAKER_02]: They actually did not kill a real monkey, it was all like in the original, it was staged, they didn't actually kill a monkey, eat his brains, but there is real animal death in the film, that's just not one of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's good.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't realize that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: So with all of that kind of preamble out of the way, this phase of death movie is not really a remake per se, but it incorporates elements of that original into a new story here.
[SPEAKER_03]: So what did you think about this movie overall?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, I ended up liking this a lot more than I expect.
[SPEAKER_02]: I gave it a good review on slashfilm.com.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's much smarter than you might expect.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, but I wanted to do this sort of expecting.
[SPEAKER_02]: something shlockier and something cheesier.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the team who made this, it's uh, Esa Maisie and Daniel Gold Harbor, and I apologize if I have I've just announced either their name.
[SPEAKER_02]: They all, they previously worked on, um, they worked on a few films together, but one they worked on before this is,
[SPEAKER_02]: uh, how to blow up a pipeline, which is this really excellent indeed thriller and you can tell like they are interested in trying to do something interesting with this material and so they actually approached this in a semi-serious way and uh, the the end result is much better than you might expect.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it kind of run that of steam in the the last like 20 or 30 minutes, but
[SPEAKER_02]: It tries really, it makes a valiant attempt to make something
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, genuinely disturbing and reflective of, you know, how we live now, you know, it's the thing about face to death, the original face to death is there was a time when, you know, footage of death was this taboo thing and I guess it is still sort of taboo, but it was very hard to find that was sort of like the whole appeal that you had to go read this video and a lot of video stories wouldn't carry it and.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, but now, you know, we all have cell phones, we all have social media and death gets broadcast on there all the time, like every day, be it, you know, scenes from wars or like actual homicides happening, like I don't know if you remember this, but do you remember like a few years ago there was like,
[SPEAKER_02]: his guy shot like a reporter and like a reporter and someone else like and filmed it and uploaded it to Twitter like I actually saw the footage as it got uploaded without realizing what it was and I was like oh my god I was like genuinely traumatized by this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like Jesus.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was probably like before I started wearing my slash film so but it was so it was ahead of me like probably 10 years ago or so but like
[SPEAKER_02]: really like an actual execution that some guy uploaded while he was doing it to Twitter and like that's like are you actually going to play the interview that I did or you're going to
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, yeah, we'll play it at the end of this conversation.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so we touch on this, when I interviewed the filmmakers, we touch on this, but it's not so much that, like, we're desensitized to it now.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's more than it's just like, we can't escape it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like our everyday life now, our everyday activity, our everyday lives are like,
[SPEAKER_02]: just forced to consume images of death and violence, whether we like it or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the movie, this movie is kind of like dissecting that and what that means.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's also trying to be genuinely unnerving, like the the killer in the film that like Daker Montgomery from Stranger Things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I really like his performance because he's really
[SPEAKER_02]: really going for it man.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's really playing this like upsetting off-pointing guy and they actually told me during the interview that he improvised a lot of the like the quirks that the character has like he's got like this like OCD thing going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I kind of rambling here about the bottom line is movie is much better than it is that you're right to be.
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess what I'm trying to say.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, there's so much to dig into there.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I thought a lot about like, yes, obviously, you know, we're seeing like a live streamed images of genocide on social media accounts and have been for years at this point.
[SPEAKER_03]: So like that kind of stuff, but also just thinking about, you know, when I was sort of coming at the age and like,
[SPEAKER_03]: Abu Graib and all of that and how kind of like traumatizing that stuff was and seeing like beheadings and all of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean that that all of that stuff is sort of post the original faces of death.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we've like graduated or I guess devolved is a better way to put it as a culture in terms of the stuff that we're seeing and being desensitized too.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I do think this movie is trying to grapple with that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe at the expense of being a fun entertaining movie,
[SPEAKER_03]: In some ways, I think like maybe the film is a little bit more, and almost like on that seesaw, tips a little bit more in the direction of like wanting to say something instead of making like a thrilling or scary horror movie because
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I know you've talked a lot about how, like, you're personally desensitized to horror films that don't get scared too often.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not nearly as much as you are, but I was not scared once in this movie or even really thrilled very much.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was engaged with the ideas that the movie was
[SPEAKER_03]: grappling with, but even like the set pieces and stuff, I was never like, oh my god, like this is, you know, heart pumping or whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was just more like it was more of an intellectual exercise for me than, you know, like something that I kind of like lost myself in the action of the movie, so to speak.
[SPEAKER_03]: So how did you think about that distinction?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I agree.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mentioned this a little bit in my review, but like, um,
[SPEAKER_02]: it's the movie is so like the filmmakers are so all in on trying to make this genuinely upsetting and reflective of our current times that the movie feels like it it's hard to like get a read on what the movie wants to really be because
[SPEAKER_02]: On one level, it's like, oh, this is a slasher movie, this is a horror movie, but it's not like, you know, fried of the 13th, where you're sort of like entertained by the kills and you're sort of, like, rooting for them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, the murders in this film and the aftermath of the murders are genuinely unpleasant.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, you could argue like, well, that it should be like that, because real murders are unpleasant.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's like a fine line you have to walk and you're
[SPEAKER_02]: a movie is pop entertainment like even a movie with a thesis statement is still you know a piece of pop art and where do you draw the line between like this is entertaining and this is just so wrapped up and in saying something that kind of loses sight of being entertaining and
[SPEAKER_02]: It's tricky, man, because I'm not saying it has to be a fun rump, because there are plenty of great classic horror movies that aren't really fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: Henry Portrait of the serial killer is one of the iconic horror movie, and that's probably one of the most unpleasant movies ever made.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you don't have to make your movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: fun, but I do feel like they're trying to sort of have their cake and eat it to here where they're trying to make this, this, you know, pop art horror movie, but they're also trying to make it nasty and I'm not sure they're entirely successful, but I do think they're more successful than like a lesser film making team would have been.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think the artistry in the movie, like almost offsets that lack of fun because I do think the messages that they're trying to get across come across very well in our conveyed very well.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like without getting into to me spoilers, I don't think I'm going to really spoil the movie or anything by saying this.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there's a scene where a character tries to go to the police at one point and get the cops involved and the killer is able to
[SPEAKER_03]: basically manipulate the police into not believing the victim of this situation.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that is just such a relatable feeling right now, like trying to get somebody in power to do something, anything, and they just like actively refuse, you know?
[SPEAKER_03]: So there, there are some sort of primal aspects that I feel like this movie does a good job of tapping into,
[SPEAKER_03]: woman who works at like a moderation site on the internet or the like the moderation department of a popular app on the internet.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the other prong in the movie is the serial killer trying to recreate these murder scenes from the original faces of death in an effort to live stream it and gain popularity that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: But before we get to your interview Chris, is there anything else about this movie that you want to highlight?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I wanted to go back to the the the top angle.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've actually been seeing this a lot in horror movies recently.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I kind of like it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I kind of like that we've gotten to that point where there's there's a scene barbarian where something very similar happens where the main Virginia campus character escapes like the basement and she like goes and gets the cops.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the cops are like so bored and they're the most unhelpful cops imaginable.
[SPEAKER_02]: reflection of where we are now, too, where, like, you know, 10, 20 years ago, you couldn't really, you could do that, but for the most part, movies were like, you know, cops are there to help you, and now we're at this point where it's like, especially in horror movies, like, where cops are just like, portrayed as utterly useless and, in effectual, and like, they literally have like a killer in front of them, and they're just not smart enough to do anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like, that really is a reflection
[SPEAKER_02]: of real life, they're countless examples of cops who are called to the scene of what will become a crime scene and they're just completely blue it because they're not, you know, they're just, they're human, like, I don't know what to say, like an anti-copyright, but like cops are human and they're not superheroes and I kind of like when movies remind us that they're just like, they're flawed and useless, just like everyone else.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but yeah, I guess my other thought of this, I want to say is like Charlie XCX isn't this movie for like 10 seconds That I found that really distracting.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't like dislike her or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just like
[SPEAKER_02]: I was expecting her to have like a much bigger part and she's in like two scenes one scene she's like smoking pot and asks for a sandwich and then another scene she's like laughing about something on the internet and then she's never seen again I was like why why is she in this movie like what it was just a very strange bit of casting right there
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it almost seemed like she did it as a favor to the filmmakers or something, or she was like friends with one of the other cast members or something like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: A very, very bizarre appearance by her.
[SPEAKER_03]: I noticed that there was, so there I mentioned this sort of moderation facility that the main character works at and by the way, if you've not seen the film, American sweatshop that came out in 2025 that starred Lily Reinhardt, I thought that was a better movie about somebody who works at a place like that and has to
[SPEAKER_03]: deal with this onslaught of horrific imagery that is posted online all day and then figure out what's real, what's fake and like goes on the sort of like a discovery mission, almost like a detective story to try to track down the
[SPEAKER_03]: viability or realism of one of the clips that she stumbles across.
[SPEAKER_03]: So check out American Swatchup, if you haven't seen that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, one of the main character in this movie is looking through these clips.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we see several scenes of her going through the technical interface that she works with and allowing these posts to stay online or reporting them or flagging them.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there were a couple of different times where she flags a video of somebody
[SPEAKER_03]: medication that used to kind of like offset a fentanyl overdose and then also she flags one that is like somebody doing like a sex ed thing with condoms on a banana and she flags those as being like sexually explicit or something and then she allows a lot of videos through that are like people injuring themselves in like pretty serious ways and then like
[SPEAKER_03]: things that are kind of like borderline like did somebody actually die here and she just kind of like is like in this blaze mode of just like letting that stuff through and I thought that was like a pretty subtle way for these filmmakers to comment on what we take seriously and what we are really worried about as a society right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know if you caught that or if I'm reading too much into that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I definitely picked up a lot of thought that was a neat little way of doing
[SPEAKER_02]: She goes to her boss, and she's like, I think these might be murders, and he's like, Alan, through, because DIY horror is hot right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he doesn't really care if it's real or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's just, he's carrying about clicks.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I do think that's sort of like wrapped up in the whole thesis statement of the movie that like,
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got to give the people what they want and what we want is terrible.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're just slowly backsliding into oblivion and yeah and another thing I want to say is like to while we're recommending movies like this, you want to see.
[SPEAKER_02]: I also want to just give a shout out to Red Rooms, which is a movie came out, I think last year, two years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah, really great Canadian horror movie, which is what deals with very similar topics of like online
[SPEAKER_02]: nasty footage.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a much better movie than this, but if you, you know, I really recommend everyone seeking that out.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that would be excellent.
[SPEAKER_02]: Definitely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, here is Chris's conversation with Esamezay and Daniel Goldhaber.
[SPEAKER_03]: They co-wrote the movie together and Daniel directed it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So here is that chat.
[SPEAKER_02]: For both of you, what was what if any connection to the original phase of the dance did you have?
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like most people were aware of it, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I wasn't aware of it that we that I knew of.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think Danny was either, um, we were kind of approached, uh, to make this film.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we went out and watched the original, uh, the funny thing was we realized that we actually had seen parts of faces of death before, um, but we had seen it online, kind of these little clips or little bits of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for us realizing that faces of death had kind of like, has this second life online.
[SPEAKER_01]: was really compelling to us actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we did have a familiarity and we were kind of excited to dig in along those lines.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, and I think...
[SPEAKER_10]: I think for me, it's also indicative of just the way that our relationship to these kinds of island images has changed and developed over the last, you know, 30 years, 40 years where what used to be one of the hardest things is, it was hard to get a hold of this cape, you know, it wasn't on the normal video shelves, it, it, it, it, it.
[SPEAKER_10]: and these were not easy images to see.
[SPEAKER_10]: They were not commonplace.
[SPEAKER_10]: And now they're images that are being done to everyone's pocket around the world, 24-7, and some of the largest corporations on the planet sell ad space.
[SPEAKER_10]: And that feels like a technic shift in our relationship to balance imagery, our relationship to images in general.
[SPEAKER_10]: And it's really scary.
[SPEAKER_10]: And I think that that felt like a very, very fruitful
[SPEAKER_10]: you know, I think idea to build a horror film around.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I actually leads into, I want one of the questions I'm going to ask is that, and I guess it's kind of like a bleak depressing question, but um, like, are we have we become sort of like decent sizes because as you said, like part of the reason face the death of the original was so taboo was it was rare, it was like we don't see, even though a lot of it was fake, we don't see video of death all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now we live in this world where.
[SPEAKER_02]: you can go on Twitter and see like death all the time and it's it's jarring and I'm just wondering like like how do you approach this sort of story with that and like again I know that's like a kind of bleak question you're making like a horrible part of that you want to have be entertaining but it is like a sort of heavy sort of topic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, that is one of the points where we're trying to make here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think it's so much that we've become desensitized to these images.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that our baseline level of anxiety and trauma has actually just leveled up, you know, because we are served this content, even when we're not seeking it out, even when I'm scrolling my phone and.
[SPEAKER_01]: In that context is also extremely jarring because at least in the 70s or 80s if I was seeking out faces of death, I kind of knew I was seeking something out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I can be on Instagram or TikTok, you know, looking at a picture of my friend, looking at a funny video and then all of a sudden, whoa, there's a dead body and then I'm scrolling and I'm seeing the next thing and I think it's that kind of disjointed context in which we're fed these images.
[SPEAKER_01]: that it's become normalized, but I don't think that we're necessarily not feeling the impact of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we're just used to feeling this constant barrage of kind of like violence and anxiety.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So obviously, the original business doesn't really have a story or a plot.
[SPEAKER_02]: metal examiner introducing a bunch of clips.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you guys kind of had to like start from scratch.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm wondering was that like daunting or was that sort of like free or you could sort of like almost do whatever you want like where they're sitting like bulls in place that you had to stick to or was it sort of like we could just do whatever we want here because there's not really a story to remake.
[SPEAKER_10]: For us, it was not really even a remake or, you know, reimagining it was really just it's a movie about faces of death.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's it's a kind of, you know, 80s inspired slasher movie about a slasher who has been inspired by faces of death.
[SPEAKER_10]: You know, and I think that that
[SPEAKER_10]: For us, it was just cool to, I think, have the opportunity to work with this kind of like iconic piece of media and integrated into a new story.
[SPEAKER_10]: Like, I think it just felt like such an exciting, it just opened up such a world of possibilities from a filmmaking standpoint.
[SPEAKER_10]: You know, kind of seeing these, you know, these images, these recreations of these images.
[SPEAKER_10]: feeling all these different textures of VHS on a TV screen or this DSLR footage on a monitor and and then going and shooting these visions Margos having of Arthur's remakes and 35 millimeter and feeling like the kind of echoes of these kind of traumatizing images from the original faces felt through a movie like that was just more than anything like very, very fruitful and exciting from that filmmaking standpoint.
[SPEAKER_02]: Were there any other than face to death, obviously?
[SPEAKER_02]: Were there any other like horror movies or movies in general that you sort of like drew on?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, this connection is there or not, but I know there's a lot of like red tape in the movie and immediately maybe think of Paul's the Kurosawa horror movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, I don't know if I was like a direct reference to that around just like seeing things start there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But are there any things that like particularly inspired you when you were making?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because the movie is very much about sort of like
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, there's even a character in the film who loves watching, uh, you know, like Schlockey Harbour movie and so like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm just wondering like, did anything like that inspired when you were like putting this together?
[SPEAKER_10]: There were a lot.
[SPEAKER_10]: I mean, um, like, I think,
[SPEAKER_10]: not to go through everything.
[SPEAKER_10]: But our number one inspiration was definitely Peter Bargain of which is targets.
[SPEAKER_10]: And one of the reasons that targets for such an inspiration is you have this kind of similar bifurcated structure.
[SPEAKER_10]: Like you have kind of predator and prey and you're watching them kind of gradually circling each other getting closer and closer to one another.
[SPEAKER_10]: And it's also, I think, one of the best evocations of this like alienated violence that can kind of explode out of the American suburban landscape.
[SPEAKER_10]: And we also love the kind of way that targets integrates this footage from an older movie directly into itself.
[SPEAKER_10]: And we're again, you see the kind of echoes of these representations of violence and how the kind of influence people, you know, from other generations, you know, blow out, blow up the conversation, all three of those were also like I think, you know, some of our initial inspirations just in terms of
[SPEAKER_10]: being movies about looking, like trying to kind of like, like, examine the veracity of images.
[SPEAKER_10]: Um, and we were also really inspired by like, you know, some of the more, you know, bone crunching and kind of evil feeling, you know, slasher movies, like Henry Porch to the serial killer, the maniac movies.
[SPEAKER_10]: Um,
[SPEAKER_10]: you know, I think all were films that feel like they kind of dig into like a serial killer's pathology in a way that's like very authentic, and also like really gets into your skin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you talk a little bit more about that?
[SPEAKER_02]: We're not getting a spoiler.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you talk a little bit more about that psychology?
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the things I thought was kind of interesting is how the killer has a version to blow out.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought I was really interesting little touch because you don't.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't see that that much and I do like where you were like trying to find ways to make him more like three dimensional.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't want to be like a generic slasher like right looking for something deeper there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean some of that stuff came directly from Daker himself, which was really interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a really fun process working with him because he really dug into the character and said, you know, these are the these are the things that I would bring to to Arthur.
[SPEAKER_01]: So some of his like.
[SPEAKER_01]: his obsessive compulsiveness, some of his like obsession with different textures and how they feel on his body down to like the costume that Daker was actually wearing on set.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of those were choices that he made himself, you know, in conversation with us, but those were absolutely details that he brought to the character that we thought made it a lot stronger.
[SPEAKER_02]: Good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's really all I got.
[SPEAKER_02]: I really dug the movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a big fan of how to blow a pipeline.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, I think that movie is fantastic.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I really hope it's too.
[SPEAKER_02]: And thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you so much, man.
[SPEAKER_10]: We didn't fall in your stuff for a long time.
[SPEAKER_10]: So that means a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for talking the time to do this.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, good one.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, before we get into this next section, I wanted to say that we recorded this conversation several weeks ago and it was originally going to be timed to the premiere of monarch legacy of monsters season two.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when I listened to the interviews, I realized that there was at least one pretty big spoiler for something that happened in episode seven.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I decided to hold them until now when episode seven is available for everybody to see.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you're not fully caught up with monarch season two and you care about this kind of thing, maybe skip ahead once the
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, here's the second.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm joined now by slash film staff writers, Jeremy Mithai.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks for having me.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Bill Brea.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hello, hello.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're here to talk about season two of Monarch Legacy of Monsters, which has premiered on Apple TV.
[SPEAKER_03]: Unfortunately, I tapped out after two or three episodes of season one.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I've not seen any of season two yet, but I believe Bill and Jeremy have seen most if not all of the new season.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Bill, I think you might have liked season two a little bit more of the two of you.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I want to go to you first.
[SPEAKER_03]: What did you think about the new batch of episodes that you saw?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I think they're pretty solid.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't think that, I mean, this show was always reminded me of the sort of Halcyon days and for myself as a sci-fi genre fan, over a fan monster fan of, you know, the 90s and 2000s.
[SPEAKER_08]: This show that would be, you know, not necessarily the flagship show, not necessarily as great as let's say a lost or a battle start galactica, but something along the lines of, you know,
[SPEAKER_08]: sort of the maybe the midsies and the ex files or you know something like VR5 or you know something kind of low key that still had a lot going forward had had some really you know pretty compelling characters even though you know there was some walkie characterizations here and there.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you know, it feels like that sort of equivalent for the streaming era for me in terms of like it's it was never going to be a show where it's like you have to see it right away it's the most amazing and I think that's nice to have shows like this you know because we are you know still kind of in that weird sort of post peak TV era of you know everything has to be the most amazing thing ever or has to suck you know and I think that
[SPEAKER_08]: It's nice to have a good mid in the way that Monarch is because it does feel tied into the movies, the most diverse movies, in a way that feels honest and not either clueling like some of the worst tie-in shows for Star Wars or MCU, but it also stays well away from because it's set in the earlier sort of time period from where this movies are currently in their timeline.
[SPEAKER_08]: So it feels like it can do its own thing without having to sort of be boxed in, even though ironically it kind of is in the sense that it's set in the past, you know, so it doesn't have to, but it doesn't feel constrained by that.
[SPEAKER_08]: It doesn't feel like, oh, we have to set up, you know, the winter soldier, because the winter soldier is coming out next week or something, you know, it feels like, oh, we can just do our own kind of, you know,
[SPEAKER_08]: story about this paramilitary is not right.
[SPEAKER_08]: I guess fact-finding or scientific organization that, you know, occasionally has to fight a monster or at least right away from one.
[SPEAKER_08]: And yeah, I think it, this season really proves the versatility of the show.
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, it does kind of meander a little bit in the middle, which I think is a sin that most streaming seasons have, you know, I, even
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, bigger shows like Stranger Things or something, you'll have like a second act sort of lump or slump or something.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: But I think that as strong as the beginning of the season is, I think it ends even stronger in a way that impressed me.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I really appreciate it, you know, just spending time with these actors and these characters and getting enough monster, you know, quotient in my diet here too to make me happy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jeremy, what'd you think about it?
[SPEAKER_07]: It's funny.
[SPEAKER_07]: Listen to Bill talk about both seasons of Monarch like that.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm thinking back to how much I enjoyed season one and it's pretty much exactly the way he described it.
[SPEAKER_07]: I know a lot of people criticize the first season for kind of maybe dragging its feet a little bit or focusing more on humans than the actual monsters I play and like I kind of get that.
[SPEAKER_07]: But I never wanted to this show thinking was gonna be exclusively about Godzilla and Kong.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's more about kind of the people, I guess literally living in the shadow of these titans
[SPEAKER_07]: building this organization monarch from scratch and like cutting through bureaucracy and like kind of fighting off the military trying to use this for their own and so like basically what the movies have been doing just on a Apple TV plus scale, I guess.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I always loved like the split timelines of it all have definitely enjoyed like the 1950s storyline a little more than a present day one.
[SPEAKER_07]: So like everything that season wanted so well with getting that balance, right?
[SPEAKER_07]: I feel like season two kind of kind of tip the skills a little too much in favor of like it's it's such a weak criticism and I have like I kind of wrestle with this in my review for slash on but like focusing too much on the characters as opposed to the spectacle of it all which like you should be um I would like to think that goes against everything I stand for it's like a credit in like a viewer but like in this case I feel like
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, there is kind of like a middle brand where like this is a show called Monarch Legacy of Monsters and if you're not going to focus as much on the monsters as you are on these individuals like at the very least make the characters somewhat more engaging than I guess they are.
[SPEAKER_07]: Like the kind, I guess, I don't want to talk too much far ahead in terms of spoilers and all that.
[SPEAKER_07]: But towards the end of the season, it doesn't really redeem itself in a way for me that to kind of like, let me, what the earlier mistakes kind of slide for me.
[SPEAKER_07]: So that's kind of where I'm at, just a little disappointing, which has some future data, I guess.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, Bill, the trailers for this season really seemed to lean on the Godzilla of it all, the giant creature stuff this time around.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think the show was rejuvenated by that or maybe suffered because of it or something else entirely?
[SPEAKER_08]: I think yes and no, I think it's nice that they are taking the license, the creative license that they have in terms of introducing other titans, then the marquee names that we've all come to know and love
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, I think that might be a little bit of a byproduct of cinematic universe finagling in terms of like, well, you know, this movie already kind of established what Godzilla was, you know, during this period, so we can't, you know, debut from that too much and, you know, we can't debut from where comms supposed to be too much and all that.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think the impressive thing about the series is that both Godzilla and Kong make appearances during the season, and it doesn't feel either shoehorned or so extraneously stretched crudually that it's like, okay, well, you know.
[SPEAKER_08]: Are we just going to wake up and it's all a dream because there's no way the con could have been in, you know, trying to, you know, and then go back to school and there's something that doesn't happen.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm trying to use an example of something that could happen.
[SPEAKER_08]: So I think that, you know, it's nice that they essentially create, you know, their new Titan to use in the show and this season primarily and is it the most interesting Titan ever, you know, no, but it's cool.
[SPEAKER_08]: You know, to Jeremy's points, I definitely understand them, uh, and it is a, it is a, it is a balance that it is something that a series like this was always going to kind of have a struggle with, which is, you know, to do what the movies do on a smaller scale, but try and satisfy those fans still at the same time, but also do it's own thing at the same time and, you know, it is, you know, there's a lot of cooks and there's a lot of masters to serve and I think that any situation like that, you're not going to end up pleasing, you know, everybody of course, but
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I do appreciate that I think and it's little mid range or mid level aims comparatively because it still has a scale to it as a series and I think that compared to like an average genre series on network television or even streaming, it's clear they spend money on this, you know, so which is nice.
[SPEAKER_08]: But yeah, I think that even so I think that we're still talking about something that's not aiming for the moon, it's just sort of aiming for the sky and I think that it generally hits that aim.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Jeremy, I want to go to you kind of reading between the lines or if I'm understanding what you're saying correctly, it sounds like you were not like super thrilled with what they did with the human characters in this season.
[SPEAKER_03]: But is there a performance or a character moment from the early episodes or anything that stood out to you at all?
[SPEAKER_07]: I definitely continued enjoy just the Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell show of it all.
[SPEAKER_07]: The three actors playing the same characters split between decades of the timeline.
[SPEAKER_07]: And it works just as well on season two as it ever did in season one like that's really what Boosted a lot of my enjoyment with this show and they're really going to kind of got me on board with it and just you know Maybe want to stick with it So I'm just be curious then about where exactly you kind of like trailed off with this show in season one because like if it wasn't for the rustles I feel like This would have had a much much you know, it's kind of a gimmick sure But I feel like it would it would have had a hard much harder time kind of grabbing my attention and holding me
[SPEAKER_07]: while we were waiting for the monster action kit in.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I didn't even get to Kurt Russell in season one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's how early I pulled the report.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, anytime you get to see Kurt Russell and White Russell hanging out on screen, it definitely seems like it's worth dipping into.
[SPEAKER_03]: So maybe I'll just skip season one and kind of check out some of season two as things go along here, but
[SPEAKER_03]: Bill, we should probably get to your interviews.
[SPEAKER_03]: You had a chance to speak with a bunch of different groupings of people.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think first up, we should go to your conversation with Anna Soye, Kirstie Clemens, and Ren Wattabe, is there anything you wanted to say in terms of setup for this conversation?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I think you'll hear it, but generally as much as we're talking about the human characters and how they're served in the season, and again, I don't want to say that I completely disagree with Jeremy's criticism, because I do agree with them to a point for sure.
[SPEAKER_08]: But certainly there's a lot of changes that these characters do undergo internally as well as externally and I sort of wanted to ask them about that without spoiling anything.
[SPEAKER_08]: And yeah, they all had some interesting things to say, especially, Kiersey when it comes to, you know, this is a very globe-trotting show as well as, so they're physically moving around as well as, you know, emotionally or, or, you know, allegiance.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, here's Bill's chat with Anna Kersy and Ren.
[SPEAKER_08]: All of your characters go through these huge transformations these season, which is so cool to see.
[SPEAKER_08]: Anna Kate begins this season as a fairly overwhelmed woman, and ends it by, from dancing purposes, having to sort of superpower in her connection to Tynex.
[SPEAKER_08]: What was the most excited about her most advocated for in her evolution?
[SPEAKER_04]: I was just excited to see her come into her own and really make her own bull choices because in season one, it was a lot of running away and hiding and I wanted her to feel more, I guess, confident in herself and now that she's met Kiko, I was like, she would want to be like her, it's literally like her role model.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so it was really fun to be able to play a stronger,
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, it's so great.
[SPEAKER_08]: Kirstie, Maze, morals, worldview, goals, really seem rock steady this season, which is impressive for a character who keeps switching sides extensively.
[SPEAKER_08]: How did you maintain that true North for her bouncer between Monarch and Apex and all that?
[SPEAKER_06]: I had a notebook.
[SPEAKER_06]: I quite literally just tried to map out.
[SPEAKER_06]: I just, I had to remind myself often, where am I right now?
[SPEAKER_06]: Who am I with?
[SPEAKER_06]: And what do I believe in this moment?
[SPEAKER_06]: What do I know, because she's playing catch up these two years that she's missed and things are moving quickly.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so every time she learns new information, her value is shift and because it's a load of information.
[SPEAKER_06]: And that doesn't usually happen for people, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: You have a whole experience, not just a single conversation, that makes
[SPEAKER_06]: You shift in that way so often, but that's the work there in this massive show.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh yeah, Renett, it really does feel like Antara also comes into his own this season, you know, spurred on by his relationship with his father and the loss of his father is seducing by Isabelle.
[SPEAKER_08]: What excited or even challenged you the most about that turn, how did that evolve?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, it wasn't.
[SPEAKER_05]: that challenge.
[SPEAKER_05]: I actually prefer that there is a arc within the character and that's what I got to do this season is a show a different side but embarking on a new path and I find that more interesting because I'm the same way too.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh yeah, and just finally for all of you, you all came into the season veterans are working with the VFX, you know, relating to the titans and everything.
[SPEAKER_08]: So was handling all those scenes with titanx and its large and small forms easier or hard just as hard because it's new.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a scene.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think you start to get the hang of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: And this season we were lucky that
[SPEAKER_04]: Aside from Titan X, we had Sean and from the stunt team in a blue suit and kind of pretending to be one of the monsters or a couple monsters that I can't remember, but yeah, we were able to react off of her.
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, that was really, really helpful.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, thank you guys so much for speaking to me and Brad's on the show again.
[SPEAKER_03]: You also had a chance to talk to Tori Tunnel, who is the showrunner, I think, of the series, right?
[SPEAKER_08]: No, actually she's one of the executive producers.
[SPEAKER_08]: She, I guess, is sort of the biggest liaison for the show with legendary pictures.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she's kind of, you know, yeah, this, the producer, Guru, for the show, even though I think the showrunner itself is Chris Black.
[SPEAKER_03]: OK, gotcha, gotcha.
[SPEAKER_03]: OK, cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, well, here's Bill's conversation with Tori Tunnel.
[SPEAKER_08]: I was watching the season.
[SPEAKER_08]: I wouldn't be able to begin to know how to wrangle so many moving parts that are in this series.
[SPEAKER_08]: So many actors, VFX, but especially so many locations in this season that Mark has this season, including Skull Island, which really feels like we're revisiting the Skull Island of the 2017 movie.
[SPEAKER_08]: How did you even tackle this?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a lot and when you put it all like that, I feel exhausted all over again, but it truly is one of the things when you're making something like this is you have an incredible team and you have a team where everyone has different expertise and you know and also as you're putting that team together and you're all heading the same direction, it does become
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is something that, you know, we knew from the outset that we feel like part of recipe is that globe-training adventure.
[SPEAKER_00]: We knew from the outset the fact that we really do feel like we owe that theatrical level monsters that, you know, we're not cutting corners and that they have to deliver.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we also know that we're a TV show and that gives us the room and the freedom that movies don't have to really dive deep into these character stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: and really get more intimate and really dive into all of the stories of why we are the way we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let the monsters be with the metaphor for that, a mirror for that, and also sort of the inevitable consequence that we create.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the existential threat that I've always, I think, enchanted humans about the stories of monsters throughout time.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_08]: I love that the way you put that, how involved are you with casting because I love the addition of Amber Mithutter this season.
[SPEAKER_08]: She's such a great addition.
[SPEAKER_08]: I know you worked with her, I know became which I also loved.
[SPEAKER_08]: Was that prayer relationship just a coincidence or were you instrumental in getting her on the show this season?
[SPEAKER_00]: We thought we'd worked with our Nova Cain, and we thought that she was so incredible, and so we absolutely did recommend that she be looked at by our showrunner and director, and everyone also saw that what we saw, and we love casting is always part of the recipe of the feel of the show, and it's something that we, as the non-running producer, really takes seriously and have a very close relationship with our casting director,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's at our, to make sure that it all feels of a piece, but also that you're able to give different conflections of who we are as humans to keep it interesting, like what are those, who are those, those, those, those both actors that can bring a storyline that can really conflict and sort of shake up some of the dynamics that we already have, keep people on their toes, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, and, um,
[SPEAKER_08]: One thing that I'm interested in is also the ambition of this show compared to, I mean, I don't know if the relationship with legendary has changed over the seasons, but do you have to avoid certain topics in a similar fashion to like the Marvel Universe, or are you still pretty much given free reign to play around?
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say that we're always trying to, we want to be working with our future partner who doesn't such an incredible job in creating an incredible franchise as the reason why we're here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that we're always sort of moving and docking and weaving to make sure that we are consistent with the mythology they've already set, consistent with the rules they've already set.
[SPEAKER_00]: One aim to make it feel integrated and help potentially put a seed in that will make it feel like it grows into the movies that have already been established so that all feels like it's of a piece.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I would say that it's truly, it's a delightful puzzle and an opportunity to sort of figure out how we sort of fit within those timelines.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our matching up with the legacy of everything that's been set, not only with legendaries, Montservers, but also with Toho's.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I think you guys do a really great job.
[SPEAKER_08]: It feels so integrated to me.
[SPEAKER_08]: And it feels like an enhancement of the experience really.
[SPEAKER_08]: So thank you.
[SPEAKER_08]: So congratulations on the season, roll on season three.
[SPEAKER_08]: After seeing season two, I'm very excited for more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then arguably we saved, if not the best for last, at least the most famous for last.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the chance to talk to Kurt and Wyatt together.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that must have been pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh yeah, it's a high light of my career so far really, because it just, I've long thought of Kurt Russell as somebody who I always,
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't drink, but I would love to grab a beer with this guy in terms of just hanging out because his precariousness and fourth rightness as a person.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see it in any other interview he does and that was certainly the case for this one.
[SPEAKER_08]: As well as his son, I think his son picked up that same sort of easy-going laid-back vibe without being so laid-back as to be non-committal or uninteresting.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think they're very engaged as people and I think you can tell that from their answers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, here is Bill's conversation with Father and Son, Kurt and White Russell.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's been so great to see both of you work on two sides of the same character.
[SPEAKER_08]: The unequivocal highlight for me this season was seeing your performances joined together, not just in the same episode, but obviously the same scene.
[SPEAKER_08]: For both of you, how did that come about and evolved?
[SPEAKER_08]: Did you have more discussion about the different sides of Lee beforehand?
[SPEAKER_08]: Or was it just lend it right and playing together?
[SPEAKER_11]: That was, there was something I happened in season one at the end that we thought would be cool and when it was filmed, we had, we had done it, we had, we had, you know, liked it and then when they put it together they said that it was just
[SPEAKER_11]: took the show in a whole different direction and you know we couldn't play it that that way that season we're like totally understand but we do want to have some version of that together we thought would be a really interesting fun thing for people to see it's like satiate some of the hunger for
[SPEAKER_11]: you know us together in a certain way.
[SPEAKER_11]: And so they found a really smart, interesting way of being able to do that without I think jumping the shark and that was fun to talk talk about and develop what we're, you know, thinking of that.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, when we don't get to work together so much of the show.
[SPEAKER_09]: Most of our time has spent all of its pre-production and even sometimes post-production, but in the, in the formation of what's taking place that one, we, we were, we focused heavily on that one.
[SPEAKER_08]: And it shows, it's so awesome.
[SPEAKER_08]: And it also feeds to one of the other compelling elements of this season for me.
[SPEAKER_08]: This love triangle between Lee and Kaco and Bill.
[SPEAKER_08]: And it gets so much more complex with all its sci-fi trappings.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why was it getting to lean into these romantic angst more this season?
[SPEAKER_08]: And then Kurt, could you talk a little bit about playing Lee having to work alongside this still young Kaco?
[SPEAKER_11]: I loved it.
[SPEAKER_11]: I loved working with Mari.
[SPEAKER_11]: I loved working with honors, but I really had a great time.
[SPEAKER_11]: finding that part of the character where he is caught in between two worlds, and he really loves this person, but he is also a stand-up enough guy to know that I can't be with you, and that also makes some question his position in this organization.
[SPEAKER_11]: Is he staying here for hers?
[SPEAKER_11]: He's staying here
[SPEAKER_11]: Or should he stay here at all?
[SPEAKER_11]: Are they better without him?
[SPEAKER_11]: And so were that led for Lee?
[SPEAKER_11]: I really enjoyed playing that.
[SPEAKER_09]: I loved taking the culmination of that focus in in terms of that relationship into episode seven because you get to see the agony of both errors of
[SPEAKER_09]: a younger man and an older man experiencing something at the same time that is all about what that how they feel about that and what the difficulty of what they've got to deal with at the same time.
[SPEAKER_09]: I thought that that was for me that really brought in the emotionality of of what that triangle was all about.
[SPEAKER_08]: absolutely.
[SPEAKER_08]: And one of the great things too about this series is that it allows your characters, all of your characters really, to make these questionable decisions, but still come from a place of the heart, from a understanding.
[SPEAKER_08]: Was there anything in the season that you guys both either are fully pushed forward or wanted to pull back from in terms of was it too much like that's not Leah or was it more like let's try and go here sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_11]: It was nice having the the train on the tracks for the second season where you don't have to have that conversation quite as much because it's already been said in motion, and that's what was good about season one.
[SPEAKER_11]: I think you responded to that set up and they enjoyed our.
[SPEAKER_11]: characterization of that person, so that when you get on set for season two for me, particularly, it felt easier, it felt smoother, it felt like I'd already inhabited the character for long enough to know that the choices you're making are going to be the correct choices.
[SPEAKER_11]: It's just about leveling them.
[SPEAKER_11]: So I have it.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, establishing establishing characters is much harder than continuing to play them, but as you continue to play them, it becomes more difficult to establish.
[SPEAKER_09]: new entertaining compelling value to what has been set down the tracks.
[SPEAKER_09]: So it's it's a bit of a double edge sort of either way you look at it, but that's what makes it fun to do.
[SPEAKER_08]: And it makes it really really fun to watch guys.
[SPEAKER_08]: Speaking to me today and congratulations on the show.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Alright guys, before we wrap up here, just where can people find you online?
[SPEAKER_03]: Jeremy and Matthias, let's start with you.
[SPEAKER_07]: I am on the Twitter, actively not participating in the conversation whatsoever, but just return to my articles every now and then you can find me on JeremyMethi.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think the app is slightly different, but if you just look up my name, you should be able to find me and writing on slash from.com as always.
[SPEAKER_07]: We're about you, Bill.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm on most socials at Bill Brea, you know, the loose guys, the exes, the Twitter's, the Instagram's.
[SPEAKER_08]: So yeah, come find me and love to hang out.
[SPEAKER_03]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thanks, Ben.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's going to do it for this episode of the show.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can find more about some of the stories we mentioned at slash film.com.
[SPEAKER_03]: I will link to a bunch of stuff in the show notes as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can subscribe to this show on Apple overcast to Spotify wherever you get your podcasts.
[SPEAKER_03]: Check out patreon.com slash pop culture to hear more from some of the folks you heard on this episode.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't forget to take a minute to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify that really helps us out a lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: Tell your friends about the show anyway you can.
[SPEAKER_03]: We really appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much for listening everyone and we'll talk to you next time.