Blank Check with Griffin & David - March Madness 2018 Recap - Round 1

Episode Date: March 15, 2018

Griffin and David unleashed a March Madness bracket pitting directors against one another. The filmmaker deemed the champion will decide a future mini series coming in the fall. In a *spot on* drivetime sports talk radio style, the hosts walk through the recent match-ups and discuss all the drama! To get in on the daily action goto https://twitter.com/blankcheckpod and vote!

uh hello there blankies uh hello there uh blank check listeners this is griff the grip newman uh this is david dog sims yeah of course it is david we're doing sports announcers oh boy we listen to so much drive time radio you can tell yeah clearly my favorite type of content Yeah, of course it is. David. We're doing sports announcers. Oh, boy. We listen to so much drive time radio, you can tell. Yeah, clearly my favorite type of content to consume. We love to spoof it accurately. Should we start over? No, here we go.

In fact, I think this is the new format of the show, just FYI. This is a little bonus mini-sode. As you know, we are well in the throes of March Madness right now. Our crazy, totally mad bananas bracket tournament to decide which director we are covering in the fall.

People have been tweeting at us angrily about the choices we made. The takes are hot. In seeding this tournament. That's fun. So we're just going to do a little recap. Yeah, I want to just talk about this is something I am desperate to do

and I'm making a very sleepy Griffin do it with me. I'm so tired I'm probably going to fall asleep in the middle of this episode. I want to talk about some of the matchups that have already happened. Twists and turns. What's coming up.

And let's just run it down. Number one, we started out with and this is to decide who we talk about on Blank Check, the director we talk about. So it down. Number one, we started out with, and this is to decide who we talk about on Blank Check, the director we talk about. So it's not best director,

just who you're going to have most fun listening to us talk about. And doesn't mean that if someone fares poorly in this, we'll never cover them. Doesn't mean someone fares well in this. It moves them up. No.

It just means whoever wins is definitely getting done. And right. And the seeding doesn't mean we think one's better than the other. It's more just who we thought fans would gravitate towards. Most likely to vote for. We've usually been right. But sometimes we bounce, baby.

So number one was David Fincher, who we seeded first. Can we just talk about something very topical? Because this is one of the few times we're recording episodes months in advance. And this is an episode that's actually going to come out. No, more important than that Pitbull comes aboard STX's Ugly Dolls film as voice cast and to pen perform original song

what do you think 200 opening weekend 300 Black Panther in the dust I also think like Mary J. Blige just became the first person to get nominated for acting and singing and writing the song in one year. And now, immediately, she's going to be trumped.

No pun intended. Ugly Dolls. Do you know who's directing that film? Fincher? Robert Rodriguez. Is directing a fully animated adaptation of Ugly Dolls, a good set of aesthetics with no backstory. Are those dolls the little bug eyes? Not Funko Pops. No, I bug eyes? Not Funko Pops.

No, I know they're not Funko Pops. They have sort of like funny eyes, don't they? They're kind of like monster-y kind of. They look like monsters and characters. And the whole joke was that they sort of were intentionally poorly stitched. Anyway, Great Doll is going to be a great film. Pitbull's going to kill it. He's one of our finest.

Ben, should we call it there? Yes. First matchup. Bob Fosse. Cabaret. All That Jazz. there yes first match up bob fossey cabaret all that jazz versus david fincher that guy you've heard of who's made movies like fight club and seven and the social network and weirdly can't seem to get anything off the ground right now yeah who weirdly seems indecisive and like is but also he was like i don't think i can get films made anymore, not the types of films I want, the budget levels I want. So he made this hard turn into TV

and then all his TV projects got fucking shut down. He had three things set up at HBO and they fucking put the kibosh on all of them. Now he's got Mindhunters and Netflix. Okay. And he's sort of waiting in the wings to try to do this World War Z sequel that's now gotten pushed back

because Brad Pitt's going to do the Tarantino movie. Which sounds, and also because Brad Bitt's, I think, going through some shit. Brad Bitt. Brad Bitt. I thought this was a pro-Pitts. Nope. So, you know, Fincher ran away with it.

We thought he would. Fincher won 72 to 28%. I appreciated some people sticking up for Fosse. I just thought Fosse was going to do. I mean, look. Fossey took a beating. We thought he would. Fincher won 72 to 28%. I appreciated some people sticking up for Fossey. I just thought Fossey was going to do some sly, sensual moves to find his way. Star 80 is the kind of movie we would love to talk about on this show. One of my favorite films. But, I mean, he was always doomed. So, Fincher's through.

Okay, matchup two. This was closer. Caron. Alfonso Caron. Yeah. Versus Robert Altman. Just his 1970s movies. That was the...

Because he made 13 films between 1970 and 1980. I mean, right. In 11 years because he wanted to sneak Popeye in there. Yeah. And health, maybe.

Altman won 51% to 49%. I want to see if I can get the exact vote. It was straight up 50-50 for most of that 24-hour period because Andrew's posting these at 10 o'clock. Yeah.

One poll ends, new poll goes up. Following day, 10 p.m. I mean... And it was 50-50. You were pulling for Altman. It was straight up 50-50. He's my guy. This is the 16-17 seed matchup, too.

So it was going to be close. I've never seen him do a jazz set. I mean, he's my guy. I think I voted for Altman. I'd love to do Caron. He is a good blank check. He might have another blank check in him that'll make him even better. That's the question.

You know what I mean? He's got this new movie coming out. Hopefully coming out this fall. Altman pulled through. Altman pulled through. He's going to face Fincher. Yeah. What do you think is going to happen?

Here's what I'm starting to sense. Okay. I'm starting to sense the listeners metastasizing and becoming agents of chaos. And pointedly wanting bug nuts things to happen. Yeah, they want weird shit to win. They want us to talk about Buffalo Bill and the Indians. Right. It's like a weird bit. Right.

I also think a lot of our friends, past and future past future guests yeah they are campaigning for the underdogs in film twitter keep on making these big pleas of like you don't want griffin and david to talk about big movies you want to talk about weird movies yes and banging the drum and getting people to vote who don't even listen to our show or know what we're talking about and just going like yeah i mean i like robert holtman i'll click on that name. That's the thing. It's Twitter polls, but they're pretty straightforward. But then when Ehrlich tweets that out, then people just start responding to it

with no skin in the game. That will come up later. I'm starting to feel like Altman might win for that reason. You really want that to happen, though. Yeah, and I also feel like if he can topple Fincher, then he might be unstoppable. That's the thing. I think that's going to be the real crossroads but let's talk about the following matchup uh gore verbinski versus john singleton verbinski ran away with it he ran away with 69

to 31 i mean it's unfortunate there was only one black director in our bracket so here's the thing uh not a lot of black directors get blank checks thank you some of the ones we wanted to we would think about like spike lee or lee daniels people like that don't fit into the time frame that we have for this time slot too short because now he's just fucking shifted the tv he was still making movies i was thinking about it there's not like every movie is wild i agree the butler is the calm movie i know yeah i would love to do lee daniels i kind of think robin just have to be like... Robin Williams plays Eisenhower in The Butler. John Cusack plays Richard Nixon! And that's his, like, prestige Oscar movie.

You know who's really good in that movie, I think? Who? Alan Rickman. Well, anyway, Lee Daniels wasn't even on this bad. Because I think if we're going to put him in there, since it's only four films, we'd just be like, fuck it, we're doing Lee Daniels. So, yeah, we'll do him sometime. Spike Lee we left off because it was too long he's made a gazillion we capped it at filmographies that would take under four months to cover right um singleton singleton's got a

fascinating career and obviously we do a fast and furious movie if we do like honestly we were like on the verge about whether or not to include him because we knew he had no chance like it was certainly not embarrassing the director of three Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Ringo. Verbinski slammed through. But then when people like were suggesting us like why not do Tim's story, it's like Tim's story's made big movies but they suck and he doesn't have a voice.

Like we don't want to cover him. Yeah. No offense Tim's story but I'm sorry Taxi's the weirdest movie you made. Shitty that this industry has not allowed very many black filmmakers to have illustrious careers where they get to express their voice with a level of creativity. All right, all right, all right.

Next matchup, Del Toro, Guillermo, recent Oscar winner. I mean, I think this poll went up 24 hours after he won. Even less. Versus Baz Luhrmann, who I was pulling pulling for i mean he that's a blank checky dude uh very true he got thumped yeah he did which uh it was 37 to 63 for del toro i mean del toro's someone we've talked about from the beginning yeah he's made a lot of crazy movies yeah he'd be good he'd be fun we'd have a good. He'd be fun. We'd have a good time. We'd have a grand old time. We'd have a fucking movie.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. What's his new movie? Oh, he's not directing it. What is it? What do you mean? Pacific Rim Outpacing. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. You like the robots, but there'd be one Pacific Rim movie. Fucking big. Do you know what the tagline is for Rampage? Somebody be listening? Yes. The tagline for Rampage is

big meets bigger. Hell? hell wait what's that yeah so verbinski versus the tagline for shape of water was wet meets wetter verbinski versus del toro who do you think pulls that out i feel like there's this weird drum beat for verbinski yeah people have been like begging him for us to do him for years. People like the guys and Karen Han is like waging a one woman fucking Russia campaign.

I wonder why she's never talked about liking Verbinski films before. Karen Han and Stefanski are going to be the guests on every fucking episode of that miniseries. I feel like

the people like that who have weird blank check filmographies but aren't discussed by the masses through that prism. It check filmographies but aren't discussed by the masses it's classic subject matter for our podcast people want to hear us talk about trying to contextualize those careers yeah all right next we got peter jackson versus hal ashby goodbye hal ashby yeah that was mean he actually did okay he got 38 of the vote better than i thought i think

partly there's just a lot of fatigue with the hobbits i think some people just they just don't want us to do peter jackson but other people really want us to do peter yeah i think that ashby votes were more votes against jackson which maybe some people yeah want to hear us talk one of my favorite guys uh the fucking landlord such a good movie um next and then all right so this is all right this is the first one that really got me okay this one bugged me john mcternan yeah versus george miller uh-huh uh mcternan did quite well 43 to 57 yeah but you know there were people who were like john mcternan like why would we do that you know um die hard guy what excuse me and it's like take a look at the filmography folks okay so we start out with nomads is the first film uh that sounds

right right that's one of those episodes that four people listens to then it's followed up by die hard and predator boom boom uh hits right okay then he goes hunt for red october great movie boom um new york times culture editor gilbert cruz was like he better win i wanted to you know i would have liked to see montana like he's shooting october lines at me. Right, okay. It's a good movie. And then... Medicine Man. What? Sean Connery.

What? He's in the rainforest. With Lorraine Bracco? Three defining action pictures of a generation. And then... And he's like, Connery, let me, let me hitch my wagon to you. Follows him into the jungle. Starts doling out medicine.

Okay, now maybe he's going to get back to an obvious one, right? What does he make next? Medicine Man. No, I'm saying after Medicine Man.

Last Action Hero. One of the blankiest. I mean, the biggest blank check movie in the world. For everyone involved. And then he makes, Schwarzenegger's cashing,

McTiernan's cashing, Shane Black's cashing. And then he makes Die Hard with a Vengeance. Schwarzenegger's cashing McTiernan's cashing Shane Black's cashing and then he makes Die Hard with a Vengeance F. Murray Abraham's cashing and then he takes a break for a little bit then he makes

The 13th Warrior which is a weird ass movie and one of the most unsuccessful weirdly expensive movies of all time it cost like 130 million dollars

it's about like medieval cannibals and then The Thomas Crown Affair which as Griffin would say Thomas Crown Affair is before 13th Warrior same year I don't know whatever Thomas Crown Affair and then the Thomas Crown Affair which as Griffin would say is before 13th Warrior.

Same year. I don't know. Whatever. Yeah. Thomas Crown Affair. And then the Rollerball remake which is an underrated blank check. Been so into this. Remember it was going to be

10 minutes long and then Basic which my brother DM me being like can't wait for that Basic episode. And I was like you can't?

Basic stands out there and then he makes a really interesting career decision which is going to it. We've covered people Basic stands out there. And then he makes a really interesting career decision. Jail. Going to it. We've covered people who get put in movie jail.

Yeah. Because their checks start bouncing too much and they can't get projects off the ground. This is a guy who literally wiretapped phones. Yeah. Got brought down in the Anthony Pelicano case in which everyone was getting pulled in front of the court, right? All of Hollywood's being put under trial as part of their connections to this guy. He's the one guy who ends up serving like fucking six years

in the clink. Poor Johnny. Now he's out, he's doing commercials. Anyway, he lost to George Miller who made Mad Max Fury Road, so I guess... Big pig in the city. I mean, a couple big Gonzo movies. Jackson Miller is

a weird one for one it's too oceanic you know you got a New Zealander versus an Australian couple trilogies I don't know who

wins that I don't either I genuinely don't know who wins that I don't either there's gonna be a nail buyer and then Spielberg

Breast okay so this is the first shocker so this is when things start to become transcendent and I feel like this is our fans are basically like, all right, maybe we should not just vote for who the most obvious candidate is.

This is when they start to organize. And I also feel like this is when I start to feel seen. Yes. It's like you're not voting for Spielberg. You're voting for the guy that will produce the best podcast, which is Martin Brest, one of the least sexy options on paper. voting for Spielberg, you're voting for the guy that will produce the best podcast, which is Martin Brest, one of the least sexy options on paper.

I mean, he made Beverly Hills Cop. A dude who most people don't know by name, though. You have to be like... He made Midnight Run. Yeah. Yeah, he made Gigli.

Sense of a Woman. Hoo-ha! He made Meet Joe Black, which is three hours long. Right, and then he just fucking goes off the grid. Well, he made Gigli. After Gigli, though, I'm saying, people tried to... And then he just fucking goes off the grid. Well, I made Gigli.

Gigli, though, I'm saying. I don't think he went off the grid. People try to do pieces on him and he refuses to speak now publicly. He beat Steven Spielberg. Entertainment journalists have been trying to write the What Happened to Martin Breastpiece and they go, you can't find them.

You can't get a line on this guy. He beat Steven Spielberg unbelievable who has directed films that we would cover such as Jaws and E.T. but literally the director who is

most recognizable by name versus a guy whose filmography you have to list before people know who you're talking about outside of insane

film circles but I do think I think also you know we have talked about Spielberg already so maybe yeah so breast beat him

52-48 unbelievable okay so this is the sort of weird part of the bracket because then his opponent in the next round is sofia coppola who beat danny boyle 56 to 44 yeah that was close too yeah i was kind of cool with either of them now this is another drum beat which you like her movies better than me i think i think i probably do yeah yeah yeah yeah because i heard someone saying like why would they cover her? I don't want to hear them rag on her. And it's like, I'm a pretty big fan. We did see The Bling Ring very early in our friendship together.

That was the second time we ever hung out. Yeah, that's right. And I think Somewhere is a masterpiece. I like Somewhere. I think it's a great movie. Yeah. But I do think there's definitely a push to get another female director miniseries on tap. And I'll say this.

If a female director doesn't win this bracket, certainly I think one of the people we've listed in this competition is a prime candidate to get covered soon. For sure. But I could certainly see listenership rallying behind one to try to push them through. I think Coppola could defeat Martin Brest. Brest was obviously a soft winner. Well, but there's another one coming up who I think might have a bit of a miracle run. Well, so the next matchup was Paul Thomas Anderson, Don Bluth.

Now, Paul Thomas Anderson won this matchup, but he won it 53 to 47. This is... This was pretty fun. This also got the most votes. This is madness this is war Don Bluth

the director of he was our first seed or Fincher was first seed yeah he's the second seed Don Bluth is the 31st seed I felt bad putting Don Bluth against Paul Thomas Anderson

I thought it was kind of funny and I went this is going to be embarrassing he's only going to get six votes we hadn't thought of Don Bluth

our friend Joe Reed pitched it to us we went that's a pretty interesting idea. Oh, that's interesting. Then we looked at his filmography and we were like, put it on.

That's definitely going on. We just like the aesthetics of including him. He has no chance. He put up a good fight. He did. He almost beat him. And here's a nice

end result of March Madness. Now we know that's a viable miniseries. Bluth might happen, guys. Doesn't mean we're covering it next, but means we know there's a viable miniseries. Bluth might happen, guys. Doesn't mean we're covering it next, but means we know there's a listenership out there. Secret of podcasting.

Podcast in Central Park. Pebble in the Park, yeah. Podcast in the Penguin. Next, his opponent, Terry Gilliam, a classic, you know, blank check director, right?

Yeah. Versus Nancy Meyers. People were like, Nancy Meyers? She makes boring movies boring dad movies wolf in sheep's clothing nancy myers is gonna be a fucking heavyweight in this competition for one thing someone i think uh john uh one listener of the show was like look at her budgets yes you know like look how much these go up talk about a blank check it's complicated 85 million

dollar budget it's expensive the holiday is listed as an 80 million dollar budget i have heard from very reliable sources that movie cost well over 100 million dollars wow and 25 million was spent solely on cgi what was jack black a cgi creation i don't want to spoil what the reasons behind those costs were because I hope we get to discuss it on an episode. I think Nancy Meyers might be in it to win it. That would be very exciting. But she has a heavyweight opponent in Paul Thomas Anderson, so we're going to need to defend her from the film.

I mean, this is a real test of metal here, you know? But she might just... If she claims that scalp, then look out. I mean, right? She's a real Cinderella. It's a perfect six film. She's the 18th seed. Yeah, no, it's actually, it would suit us very well, actually.

And they're all big movies. I know. All right. Next was Joe Dante versus Nora Ephron. Yeah, so Joe versus the volcano. Exactly. That's what we called this matchup. Now, Dante is sort of your pet project in here.

If Michael Mann is mine, I think, then Dante is yours. Dante's one of my guys yeah dante's your guy you you campaigned for him he did it he did it he beat nora i felt a little bad nora is a great blank check candidate he beat her 51 to 49 yeah very close very close um but you know admit like their movies like the witch that are like sort of low-key crazy which was it would be incredible to talk about that's an insane film as his is Lucky Numbers. Yes. I definitely put my thumb on the scale because I've been laying track for Dante for years, just constantly saying how much I'd like to cover him.

Just to be clear, we unfortunately cannot decide who we do miniseries about. It seems we've lost the ability. Out of our hands. A few people have tweeted me being like, you know, if you really want to do a director, you could just do him. And I was like, yeah, unfortunately not. yeah unfortunately other than the next three miniseries that we picked before the one correct that is actually chosen good point the winner of this is going to be covered in september yes uh so dante's gonna face off against sam ramey that's

we're time of recording it's not quite done yet but ramey's gonna and the question is will this be dante's peak? Raimi's going to beat Beatty. Right? Raimi's going to beat Beatty. All right. So just a few other things to look forward to. Which is a shame.

Because as you said, Dick Tracy may be the second best comic book movie of all time. Damn right. Behind? Spider-Man 2. That's the problem. Therein lies the road. Good tweet by me. Yep.

Raimi's fun. Who do you think Raimi Dante? They're similar. Pulpy guys. Who are your pulps? That's a tough one, actually. I don't know. Because they're playing a similar beat. They are.

That's interesting. And then one of them will probably face either PTA or Nancy Meyers. Raimi's got bigger films. He's got a trilogy. But I feel like people are more maybe personally invested in Dante at this point. People are very hyped up about us doing our Gremlins 2 episode. Yeah, well, because it's one of the finest American films. That's right.

So now coming up, we've got Wes Anderson versus Elaine May. Uh-huh. I wonder who's going to win that one. Come on, guys. Ishtar. Elaine May, the shortest filmography we've ever even considered. I guess tied with Lee Daniels. We've talked about it forever.

Four films, but it ends with Ishtar. One of the biggest check bounces in history. And then we have an incredibly cruel matchup. Michael Mann versus Terrence Malick. There's going to be some yelling. And cruel just because they keep on talking shit about each other in the press. They're so mean. Notoriously press shy Terrence Malick.

At the weigh-in, the things he was saying. And he's been going on every talk show. Because he wouldn't take off his straw hat, you know, even though he was shirtless from that one press photo that's what I always think of because he refuses to be photographed alright so I have no idea who wins man Malick

Terry the butcher Malick Ben you're pulling for Malick you've always wanted us to do a Malick series I love Malick I want man there I like Malick though but I like Michael Mann's movies a lot too Michael Mann is a classic blank check director. It's like so cool. They're like,

Michael, Michael, just, just make us, it's, it's a small action movie. Can you just like Tom Cruise's and he's like, yeah,

yeah. It's going to take eight months to film is going to cost $800 million. Also, I'm filming it on home video camera. They're like, but no, no, no, it's too late. It's too late.

He's like that kind of a guy. On the other hand, he's like your weird gambler uncle who comes and he's like, I just need a little money. And then two weeks later

he's like, all right, the mob, I'm in deep with the mob. On the other hand, Malik's blank check is he makes Days of Heaven after he spends

a year filming what was supposed to be like a four month shoot and then spends two years editing, shows it to the head of Paramount, the lights come up, tears in his eyes, he goes, that's the greatest film I've ever seen and he turns to his assistant and he says, as long as I'm alive

Terrence Malick will be on our payroll and Terrence Malick didn't make a movie for 20 years because Paramount gave him an annual stipend. How much? Because of how touched the head was. He said, we must repay this man. Here's his fucking Guggenheim grant. That's bananas.

Yeah. And people were just like, he's never going to make a movie again. And then he comes back and makes Night of Cups, a.k.a. live action BoJack Horseman. Good call. I mean, there are films in between, but I really want to talk cups. Okay. I'm in my cups. Talking cups.

Yeah, you're in your cups for cups. I'm in my cups. All right. Next up is what hopefully will be a real David and Goliath matchup. Michael Bay versus Amy Heckerling. Now, we sort of ginned this one up. We want you to destroy Michael Bay. I want you.

We just seeded and then shook it out based on the way the algorithm matches it up. And I said, let's flip here because I believe it was supposed to be Michael Bay versus Martin Brest. Yes. And Amy Heckerling versus Spielberg. Yes. And I said, I think Brest. I think Heckerling has a little bit of a better shot. I said, I think Brest is going to lose either way.

Yeah. I was wrong. You were. But I also said, I think Heckerling is going to be steamrolled by Spielberg. I think there will be a political vote if she's up against Michael Bay. It's a little more of a question. And I want to help her. You're talking about two sides, really, of a coin there.

Right. Of the Hollywood coin. Allows you to talk about one of your favorite movies of all time. Clueless. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. We get back in the Cameron Crowe fold. There's some Look Who's Talking movies in there. Two.

There's a vacation. There's a vacation. There's a weird movie about comedy vampires. Vamps. There's Loser with Jason Biggs. Throwing that L on the forehead. Shape of an L on the forehead. But then there's also Michael Bay.

Please don't make me talk about five Transformers movies. I would be happy either way. Then the final one, Darren Aronofsky versus Luke Besson. I mean we we seeded aronofsky kind of high people asked for him a lot how are you pronouncing his name aronofsky aronofsky what was i doing i was doing aronofsky and i'm the tired one i think i might be hungry aronofsky versus the scarf versus the beret. Who will win the baguette or the matzah?

Which has more of a five-day beard growth. They both kind of have like sort of furry faces. Merlot versus Manischewitz. I don't. I want Besson to win. I want Besson to win that one. And to be clear, the qualifier we're putting around

Besson is we're only covering the films that have gotten US releases. Yes. Which means we're not covering the films that you don't know exist. Exactly. That was always our concern

was do we do all three Arthur and the Minimoys movies? Nope. We're only doing the one that came out in the United States. Alright, so we're going to do one more of these

I think to recap the final results. I mean, this was a great episode. Or maybe right when, maybe right before the final results, Ben. Maybe right after. Yeah, we'll figure it out. I mean, this was a great episode. Or maybe right before the final results, Ben. Maybe right after. Yeah, we'll figure it out.

I think in about two weeks, we'll have another recap. Keep voting. Just follow. It's twitter.com slash blankcheckpod. Stir up some shit. You know, Ange posts the matchups every night at 10.

They go for a day. You gotta vote. Make your case. You know, start tweeting. Make your case. Signal boosting. start tweeting. Make your case. Signal boosting. Your guys. Pick your guys and your gals and fight for them. Your guys. Who are they? Who are

your guys? If you saw them at the comedy store, what kind of set would they do? And would they tell you about their intention to do that kind of set? This has been Blank Check. thanks for listening everybody no spin zone and this is what was my name griff the butcher newman lightning griff newman downtown griffy noom saying take it to the hoop oh this is uh david Dogg saying rack attack.

It's me. Was that good, babe? You were poking me. Okay, are we done? Yeah, we're done.