Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini #151: Movies about Movies with screenwriter Michael H. Weber

Episode Date: February 15, 2018

This week: "The Bad and the Beautiful"! Lorenzo Semple Jr.! In praise of "Silent Movie"! Gilbert changes the subject (repeatedly)! And "Ed Wood" inspires "The Disaster Artist"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Bet365, we don't do ordinary. We believe that every sport should be epic. Every goal, every game, every point, every play. From the moments that are remembered forever to the ones you've already forgotten. Whether it's a game-winning goal in the final seconds of overtime or a shot-on goal in the first period. So whatever the sport, whatever the moment,

it's never ordinary. At Bet365. Must be 19 or older. Ontario only. Please pay responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit's never ordinary. At bet 365. Must be 19 or older. Ontario only. Please pay responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca. That's the sound of unaged whiskey transforming into Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around 1860, Nearest Green taught Jack Daniel how to filter whiskey through charcoal for a smoother taste, one drop at a time.

This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. For God's sake. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and this is another edition of Gilbert and Frank's amazing, colossal obsessions with our special guest. Oh, boy.

Mickey Wiggly. Mickey Wiggly. This has now become a runner. You know, as one of the seven people who pays for Stitcher Premium, I figured that you guys get a list. I thought you guys have a list of all seven of us. But I guess not. I've been meaning to tell you your card expired.

One of seven people who pay for it. There's at least 17. Yeah. Michael Weber is here with us. Recently nominated, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Michael Weber. And we're thrilled. Thank you so much. Thank you.

That he's here to actually get to the premise that he came in with last week. But we spent so much time on his good stories and Gilbert finding new ways to mispronounce his name. What was that one? Mickey Weaver? I think Mickey Wiggly is my favorite. Mickey Wiggly. They're a supermarket in Driving Miss Daisy. They go to the Mickey Wiggly.

Wiggly Wiggly. That's going to be my porn name from now on. Michael was not only kind enough to reach out to me and tell me that he loved the show, which was a thrill, and a thrill to know that younger people are listening to the show. People younger than 80 dig this show. Of course, he's a bit of a throwback. He's a bit

of a retro guy, a lover of Hollywood history. No, I will say I'm one of those people. Some people have traffic or weather on, the weather channel at home or news, and I keep TCM on all day. I love the podcast. I'm such a big fan. I'm one of those people. Some people have traffic or weather on the Weather Channel at home or news. And I keep TCM on all day. I love the podcast. I'm such a big fan.

You're one of us. I feel like one of you guys. And even when you guys talk about something I haven't seen, I'm like, oh, I have to track that down. So it's, I love it. So it's an honor to be here. Well, you flatter us greatly and you're here. And as I was saying, Gilbert, he was also kind enough to come up, come with his own premise. Yes.

So. So The Disaster Artist is a movie about a movie. It's a movie about the two friends who made the movie The Room. And for people who weren't listening last week, you are nominated as the writer of The Disaster Artist. Yes. Scott Neustadter, my friend and writing partner. He and I co-wrote The Disaster Artist, starring James Franco and Dave Franco and Seth Rogen and Ari Greiner and Paul Scheer, who was a guest. We love Paul.

And we have some great little cameos in it, too. Judd Apatow's in it. Sharon Stone. Megan Mullally. Megan Mullally. Yeah. Bob Odenkirk. We love Bob.

So, yeah, we had a lot of cool little cameos in it, and we're super proud of the movie. So, yeah, we had a lot of cool little cameos in it, and we're super proud of the movie. And I think anyone who is a fan of old movies and especially movies about movies will enjoy The Disaster Artist. And you do not need to have seen The Room. You can kind of watch them in any order. I had not seen The Room, as I pointed out last week. So that brings us to the premise, which is movies about movies, which we decided to talk about. And you're a movie buff like us, and we were talking about some before we even turned the mics on. Yeah.

You know what I find weird? It's like in show business, if the characters aren't in show business in the production and they're in a boring nine-to-five position, then they're in a boring nine to five position then they're in advertising there's a lot of that in the 60s yeah yeah because you know they they realize they don't know shit about outside of show people who write these things don't know how to write characters who aren't in show business so they just shove them in advertising. I feel like it goes in waves. So in the early 2000s, and Scott and I are guilty of this, every male protagonist was an architect.

Oh, yes. And then in this decade, it seems like every workplace job works for a magazine. Like some kind of magazine or online magazine. Like it's like some kind of magazine or online magazine. I find women are lucky in movies and TV because they can either work for a publishing house, have their own catering company. Wedding planner. A wedding planner. Yeah, there's a lot of that. Absolutely.

Yeah. And let me see there. I know there's another one. So movies about movies. Yes. And you brought a list. I brought a list, and I'm going to start. Oh, and they could be in fashion.

Right. That was the other thing. There's that. And you are guilty of it, because I just realized Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character in 500 Days of Summer is, in fact, an architect. Is an aspiring architect. An aspiring architect. We are guilty. But we did that before How I Met Your Mother did that.

Okay, gotcha. Yeah. Okay. So what did you come up with in terms of movies about movies? I'm curious. I'm going to start with some of the Mount Rushmore of the movies about movies because a few of them were really the touchstones for the disaster artists. And those three would be Sunset Boulevard,

Ed Wood, and Boogie Nights. And those three movies are kind of the DNA of the disaster artists and I think are all-time great movies about movies. I mean, look, Sunset Boulevard is one of the greatest movies of all time. Three great ones to pick. It's, you know, Ed Wood is maybe my favorite movie

of the 90s. I recently met Scott and Larry for the first time. And I got to tell them that Ed Wood was so influential to us with the Disaster Artist. And they were so nice to Scott, my Scott and I. So I really, I start with those three. And Sunset Boulevard also, the weirdest meet cutecute in movie history. Yes. He's dodging a debt and pulls into the driveway,

and she thinks he's the coroner for her monkey. Yes. And, okay, now wait. Now you've walked into a trap. Jackie the Joke Man and I had a long discussion that allegedly rich women back then, according to the story, had trained chimpanzees. You know this? No, but I can guess where it's going. To perform cunnilingus on them.

And so in the movie, she's, you know, mourning her. Her lover. Her chimp. Yeah. Because it's her lover. Supposedly, Wilder gave her that direction. Yeah. She's fucking the chimp, yeah. Yeah. Because it's her lover. Supposedly, Wilder gave her that direction. Yeah, and Wilder. She's fucking the chimp.

Yeah, yeah. Wilder said, remember, you're fucking the chimpanzee. There you go. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you a little known fact about the movie. That's not a little known fact. Oh, even less known. Even less known than that.

That's well known. I can top that. In all the reviews, they say, based on rich women getting their pussies eaten by monkeys. The dead chimpanzee that was in the coffin is the grandfather of the funky monkey you acted with. He set you up. He set you up. Well, those are three great ones to pick. I also have to say, my favorite scene in Ed Wood is the Orson Welles scene.

Yes. Which I guess did not happen. They invented that. And I love that by maurice lamarche doing the voice of orson welles and and it's uh um denofrio denofrio yeah yeah that was um that that they had those allowances allowed us also with disaster artists we tried to stay as close to the true story as possible and then obviously you have to truncate certain things and sort of make certain creative choices but But I just I love Ed Wood. Your movie feels to me the closest thing to Ed Wood because it's also about it's about a crazy dreamer.

It's not just a movie about moviemaking. It's about a bad filmmaker who doesn't know he's a bad filmmaker with a lot of passion and a lot of sincerity. And what they lack in talent they make up for in gumption and sort of blind faith in their own talents. It's a similar soul. There's a movie similar to Ed Wood, which is Bowfinger with Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy. That's a funny one. That's on my list here. I wrote that one down.

Yeah, love that movie. That's a funny movie about movie making. Yeah, there was a time where we actually, when we were talking about the disaster artists and trying to crack the version of it, for a while we kicked around a version that mostly focused on, or we at least had a conversation about a version that would be just production hijinks like Bowfinger. And we kind of thought, no, it's more interesting if we start the story years earlier and see the formation of the friendship of these two guys, Tommy and Greg, and the way that Hollywood says no to them for years. And then they sort of decide, you know

what, we're going to make our own movie. So we talked about Bowfinger and then realized that, no, it's actually much more like Ed Wood and Boogie Nights to an extent. How so like Boogie Nights? Well, you know, Boogie Nights, it's really the formation of a family. It's really like a family comes together among that group of people who believe in each other when no one believes in them.

And they're kind of outsiders, but they find strength among each other. And it felt like that DNA is the bond between Tommy and Greg, is that they're, you know, almost like brothers in a way. Sure. You lead me to a question. When you're writing a screenplay like that and you know what your subject matter is, will you sit Tommy and Greg, is that they're almost like brothers in a way. Sure. You lead me to a question.

When you're writing a screenplay like that and you know what your subject matter is, will you sit down and say, let's get movies in this genre and watch them either to inform us or to tell us what not to do because it's been done? Always, always. Scott and I will do a mini film festival

before we start any project. And we re-watched Sunset Boulevard. We re-watched Ed Wood and Boogie Nights. We even we rewatched sunset Boulevard. We rewatched Edward and boogie nights. We even rewatched the talented Mr. Ripley, which is not a movie about a movie, but the, the sort of the nature of people pretending to be something they're not.

Yeah. And that sort of the, the, the relationship dynamics, they're being a little twisted. That's great. That informs you, but we always try to have a little mini film festival.

And I'll say the cool thing is we had never met James Franco or Seth Rogen going into this process. We were sent the book that those guys controlled. And we had our little mini film festival. And we went in to meet those guys. And inside of five minutes, Franco and Rogen were talking about Sunset Boulevard, Ed Wood and Boogie Nights. And we thought, okay, they see this the same way we do. That's great. And I just got a flashback of another movie within a movie.

This was a terrible one. And it was a Boris Karloff film called Frankenstein 1960. Whoa. I don't know that picture. Me either. Frankenstein 1960. Okay. And they're filming a horror movie.

Frankenstein 1960. And they're filming a horror movie. And they always do this. They'll have something happen. And you're going, ooh, what is this? It's so strange. And then they go, cut. And, you know, and then you see it. And it so happens they're filming it in Castle Frankenstein.

I have to see this. They, of course, know nothing about. How do I not know this picture? It's a bad film. Wow. I have to look that up, too. What were the other ones on your list? Singing in the Rain, of course.

Of course. Of course. Yes. So as a pair of movies that are interesting to watch, The Bad and the Beautiful. Which I watched last night in prep for this. And Two Weeks in Another Town, because they're both Vincent Minnelli, and they're both scripted by Charles Schnee, who also wrote Red River, who's an all-time great screenwriter. Oh, I got another one in my head. He's having a seizure.

How would you know? Yeah, how would I know? That one, something in Maine. Oh, State in Maine. State in Maine. The Mammoth. The Mammoth, yeah. Really fun movie.

Yeah, that's a fun movie. Yeah, that's an underrated film, actually. Philip Seymour Hoffman's in it. Yeah. Alec Baldwin. William Macy. Yeah. Sarah Jessica Parker.

Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. Sarah, Jessica Parker. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. At Miele, our partner is the planet. Our appliances use less water and energy and are tested to last for 20 years of use. That's the ultimate form of sustainability.

I'm Nelson Fresco, president of Miele Canada. From now until June 30th, every Mila dishwasher purchased supports the planting and preservation of Canadian forests through the Mila Forest Initiative. Join us in making an impact today for a better tomorrow. Visit mila.ca to learn more. What if we told you you're already off to a great start with so many ways to squeeze the most out of summer right here? From our largest shrimp skewers ever to a Vietnamese-inspired dish ready in minutes, PC makes any culinary adventure an on-budget breeze.

And now back to the show. It's fun how these are just hitting you like acid flashbacks. Gil, do you remember The Bad and the Beautiful and Two Weeks in Another Town? Not as well. So what's interesting is... Not as well as I remember Frankenstein 1960. Or the theme to Greetings. Which awakes in my mind another Boris Karloff that's respected.

Targets. Yes. Oh. But not about filmmaking. Yeah, but he plays. That's true. Oh, yeah. He plays basically Boris Karloff.

He plays an aging star. So it's a little bit reflective in that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What were the other ones you were just referring to? Oh, I was going to say, the really cool thing about Two Weeks in Another Town is Kirk Douglas plays an actor down on his luck. And there's a scene where Edward G. Robinson, they're watching clips of Kirk Douglas' character from years earlier, before he sort of went to a sanitarium for a

little bit and had some problems. And the clips they watch are from The Bad and the Beautiful. Oh, wow. So basically The Bad and the Beautiful exists in the cinematic universe. That's right. I knew that. Of two weeks in another town. I knew that, but I've not seen the second one. See, here's something that always drives me nuts in movies and i'm happy enough even though i was just basically a recognizable extra in the comedian uh i was gilbert gottfried in the comedian so this is a world where Gilbert Gottfried exists, but Robert De Niro does not.

But we kind of talked about that with George. Yes. We had George Shapiro on, and we were talking about Man on the Moon, and Gilbert can't get over the fact that the whole taxi cast is there, but Danny DeVito's playing George Shapiro. There's no Louis De Palma. So there's no Danny DeVito in that universe. Do you want to live in the universe where there's no De Niro?

Do you feel like you would have gotten better parts over the years? Absolutely. You would have been in Awakenings for sure. Absolutely. That would have been you and Robin Williams and Gilbert Godfrey in Awakenings. Yes, and he would have been stalking Wesley Snipes in The Fan. Yes. Totally.

But back to The Bad and the Beautiful. But it is. Oh. I mean, I just. And it doesn't have to do with movie making. But it has to do with Robert De Niro. Okay, good. In The Intern.

Yes. Okay, good. In The Intern. Yes. Anne Hathaway says to him, why can't men be more like Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford? And I'm thinking, okay, so this is a world where Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford are around,

but there's also no rapid-tune. So a movie that has that issue in spades is The Player. Yes. Because The Player is an all-star cast. It's spooky. But they're talking about movies constantly, but none of those people, Whoopi Goldberg. Right, I love that. Burt Reynolds is Burt Reynolds. Right.

Whoopi Goldberg is a cop. Right. So some people exist as themselves and some people exist not as. It's very confusing. By the way, another good movie about movies. The Player. You know, I'll say I enjoy that movie, but I enjoy the Hollywood parts of it more than the murder mystery parts of it. Me too.

Me too. But it's one of Altman's best. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Oh, so also on my list, a movie I love that I feel like should have been talked about more on this podcast over the years. Uh-oh. Silent Movie.

Oh, yes. I don't think we've ever talked about it. I don't think so either. We talked about Silent Movie? Funny movie. It's crazy. We could get Rudy DeLuca in here. Oh, wow. And have a real conversation about Silent Movie.

Think about this. Mel Brooks made Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles in 1974. The same year, he made both of those movies. He could do anything he wants after that, and he does Silent Movie, which is so brilliant and crazy and different and weird, and the performances are incredible., Burt Reynolds playing himself yet again. Yes. In the shower. And Anne Bancroft. Anne Bancroft. Playing herself. Burt Reynolds in the shower and there's six sets of hands. Yes, I remember.

And James Caan plays himself. He does. Yes. And Marcel Marceau has the only line in the movie. Yes. Great. Do you remember? No.

Yes. They ask him to be in the movie and it's just no. We should talk more about silent movie. We'll get Rudy DeLuca, who's one of the co-writers of that, on the show, and we'll have a silent movie conversation. And Barry Levinson also co-wrote that movie. He did. That's right.

But we had Barry. Yeah. Next time. And I was in a failed pilot. And now Gilbert will veer off the theme again. Is that the particular ADD you have? Doctor, he can't stay on the, he can't stay on format. It's very specific.

It was directed and created by Barry Levinson. Yeah, the one with Reiser. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. He spent the entire Barry. Did you listen to the Barry Levinson episode?

Of course. Of course. He spent the episode abusing him. I remember. And Rudy DeLuca worked. That's in the top three you abusing the guest episodes along with Matthew Broderick. Matthew Broderick. Matthew Broderick was in that chair,

and he walks in here. The guy's a sport. He's taking time off from a play. First thing I said to him was that I thought that Ferris Bueller was a piece of shit. Yeah, he listens. He's listened to every show. Hilarious. I watched Bad and the Beautiful last night, and I love the actors.

Ned Glass turns up. Oh, wow. In the Bad and the Beautiful. Paul Douglas, Leo G. Carroll, and Kathleen Freeman. Oh, wow. Are all in there. Love Kathleen Freeman. That movie's aged well. I actually think that movie holds up.

It's a melodrama, which is... But the emotional manipulation feels very fresh in terms of producers and directors and people. That feels to me like you could see that now. There are a couple of strange things, though. Gloria Graham wins an Oscar. She's in the movie about seven minutes. That's weird. That's weird.

And Douglas, I love him. A little bit of overacting. A little scenery chewing, if I may be so bold. But on the other hand, nobody plays a prick like Kirk Douglas. And I think one of Gilbert's favorites is Ace in the Hole. Oh, yes. Which we've discussed. Yeah, it was released as Ace in the Hole and also The Big Carnival.

Yeah. It had two different titles. And remade poorly as a movie called Mad City with John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman. But, yeah, that movie, I mean, well, also a Wilder film. And it was like, it was so like, I mean, it basically was so honest about how press works and how the news media works. Yeah, there's another movie about manipulation, like Bad and the Beautiful. So I have seen the Bad and the Beautiful now several times. I have not seen Two Weeks in Another Town.

The Bad and the Beautiful is— They work as a companion piece? They do. The Bad and the Beautiful is better. Okay. Actually, much better, I think. Okay. But I'd be curious what other people think and anyone listening,

but I find the Bad and the Beautiful to be superior. Another film on my list that I'd love to bring up because it's one of those that isn't talked about enough. Do you want to shame us for not talking about this one? No, no, no, no, no. It's my pleasure. And you better hurry up because I'll think of something that has nothing

to do with I'll go, I had this uncle who liked grape juice a lot. I don't see how that's not relevant. Go ahead, Michael, before he has another fit. The Stuntman. Yes.

Peter O'Toole from 1980. That is a nutty movie. It's Richard Rush who directed Freebie and the Bean. Yeah, Richard Rush. And it a nutty movie. It's Richard Rush who directed Freebie and the Bean. Yeah, Richard Rush. And it is, it's a strange movie. The second shot of the film is a dog licking its genitals.

It is a weird, there's a, Peter O'Toole, you want to talk about like a scenery chewing? Yeah, that one. Peter O'Toole is, there's a scene where he is,

he's giving a lecture to, I don't remember if it's a producer or maybe the writer, and he's chewing gum and he ends the speech, remember if it's a producer or maybe the writer, and he's chewing gum and he ends the speech. They're next to a horse, a real horse. He takes the gum out of his mouth and sticks it on the horse. That is an insane film.

Yeah, Steve Ralsbeck. Ralsbeck, who played Manson on television. By the way, it's hard to watch him in anything and not think of Manson. It's always sort of like... Because he was such a convincing Charles Manson. Yeah. Have you seen The Stuntman recently? Not recently. Oh God, it's hard to watch him in anything and not think of Manson. Because he was such a convincing Charles Manson. Have you seen The Stuntman recently? Not recently. Oh, God, it's wonderful.

Alan Garfield's in it. Alex Rocco's in it. Another guy that it's hard to see in anything else because he's Mo Green. So you keep waiting for him to be like, oh, yes. He's always Mo Green. And he's playing like a hard ass in this who shows up on set to lecture them that, like, you better be done shooting in a few days or it's your ass. And it's like they feel like deleted scenes of him just doing Mo Green.

Yeah, I'm going to tell you. By the way, I guess we missed out on him. We were killing ourselves. As soon as we started this show, he passed away. But I'll tell our listeners, see The Stuntman because it's terrific. It's actually streaming on Shout TV's website for free. And see Freebie and the Bean. Yeah, yeah.

Which is also worth seeing if we're talking about Richard Rush. Now, does this count? This counts as a show business movie. Not necessarily a movie making one, but The Patsy with Jerry Lewis. Oh. And it was

all about them finding this nobody. Yeah, it counts. It's a movie about show business, but it's not really so much a movie about movie making, is it? Yeah. Yeah, Jerry Lewis is kind of like a bellhop or whatever. And these guys get together and say, we're going to make him into a star. I guess it counts. I guess it counts.

That was good. You came up with one off the top of your head that was on theme. That had to do. You're showing improvement. By the way, that's a little Bowfinger-y. Because Bowfinger is like making a guy into a star who doesn't. It's kind of the same vibe. I wonder if Bowfinger was channeling that movie a little bit.

Oh, it may have been. I want to mention three. Yeah, you have some on your list. We'll go back to your list. Oh, and before I forget. What? Sophie's Choice? That uncle who liked Jell-O?

Something that has nothing to do with what we're talking about. But when I was talking about that pilot I did with Paul Reiser, we had on Mr. Skin. Yeah, we had Mr. Skin on there. Well, you know. And I remember my favorite of the bad puns they do on that website. They were talking about a nude scene that Helen Hunt did in the movie. And they said, looking at Helen Hunt naked will definitely give you a riser.

Unbelievable. What were we talking about? Doesn't matter. Come on, he wants to play this for his parents. Okay. I have three that reference... Miggly wiggly. We're going to have to have you back sometime soon.

I'm going to mention three that have connections to previous podcast guests. Oh. The first one being S.O.B. Oh. Blake Edwards. Wonderful black comedy about Hollywood. Yeah. Stuart Margolin.

I've never seen it. Stuart Margolin. I think we spent the entire Stuart Margolin episode mispronouncing his name and he was too gracious to correct us. You should see SOB.

I'll see it. It's more mean-spirited and over-the-top than it is funny, but very effective. Cool. With an all-star cast. Joe Tante's matinee.

I've seen it. John Goodman, right? Yes. Oh, where he's supposed to be like William Castle. Based on William Castle, the great showman. And The Big Picture with our friend Michael McKean, which Christopher Guest directed. Very funny. Which is about a student filmmaker.

Wait, is that the Kevin Bacon? Yes. Yes, that movie's great. Terrific movie. Yeah, nobody talks about it. Yeah, no one does. And they should talk about it, and our listeners should see the big picture. The big picture's great.

So those were the three I came up with off the top of my head that involve podcast guests. Any others that you love? I came up with... Oh, and Purple Rose of Cairo, which is not really about movie making, is it? It's about the movie magic. It's about the movie magic. And then Purple Rose of Cairo was also similar to a Buster Keaton. Yeah, Sherlock Jr.

Sherlock Jr. Yeah, definitely channeling that. Barton Fink. Oh, Sherlock Jr. Sherlock Jr. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely channeling that. Barton Fink. I wrote it. Oh, my God. I wrote it down. Yes, yes. Speaking of John Goodman.

Sullivan's Travels. Wrote it down. Yes. We're thinking alike. Eight and a Half, Day for Night. Of course. There's certainly some foreign films. Of course, those.

Contempt. Yes, that's the Godard picture. I've never seen it. It's with Bridgette Bardot. Okay, I'll put that on my list. I do like Godard. Stardust Memories, does that count? Yes, I wrote that down.

And I once jerked off to Bridgette Bardot. Only once? That is germane. A few times. I wish I didn't want to. Does this kind of sound like a typical episode? Definitely. You see how when you're listening at home and you say, boy, that went in the gutter fast.

Now you're witnessing it firsthand in 3D. When you're listening at home, you'd like to think you'd have more control. There's no control. No, there's no control. There's none. Now, welcome to my world. What else you got on there? Swimming with Sharks.

Oh, that's a good one. Oh, yes. Kevin Spacey. Kevin Spacey. Yeah. We can't talk about that. We can't talk about that, but that is a crazy movie, which I guess it was supposedly based on working for Joel Gr...

Scott Rudin. Scott Rudin. Scott Rudin. Joel Silver. Joel Silver. Sorry, Joel Silver. Yeah. Which that movie is intense.

Hard to watch, and yet if you've been in show business long enough, you realize elements of truth. Yeah, anyone who was ever an assistant, that is a hard movie to watch. And then an old musical, Thank Your Lucky Stars, I had on my list. Refresh my memory. I haven't seen it in years. It was directed by David Butler. And it's like Humphrey Bogart's in it. David Butler and it's like Humphrey Bogart's in it

and it's like it's another one of those ones that's like a little bit about the industry but sort of kind of winking at Hollywood a little bit. Do you know this one? This Bogart picture? Thank your lucky stars. It's probably one of those pictures I saw years ago and have no recollection other than

Do it for Michael. You're Bogart in the post office. Oh. Damn. That's it. It's perfect. It's perfect. Now, there's a current, vaguely current film that ends with a movie being made about them, and that's Austin Powers, one of the Austin Powers.

Oh, yeah. Is it the third one? That's the one I didn't see, Goldmember? Yeah, Tom Cruise is Austin Powers. Well, you could mention Tropic Thunder, which is a movie about movie making. Or The Artist. Or The Artist, which I wrote down.

It's very good. Yeah. John Goodman again. Oh, right. Keeps turning up. Yeah. I also wrote down Hail Caesar, which I liked. Oh, my God. John Goodman again. Oh, right. Keeps turning up. Yeah. I also wrote down Hail Caesar, which I liked.

Oh, my God. I don't think anybody else did, but we're movie heads. It was a weird movie because they released it in like January or February. It was like released not at the time of year

when you would release a good movie. It was very strange and it's sort of like a studio dumping. Yeah, they like dumped it early in the year and it was sort of forgotten. It doesn't all hold together, early in the year and it was sort of forgotten it doesn't all hold together but like any coen brothers movie there's

so much richness there's so many good things and hail caesar had scarlett johansson in it here we go i've jerked off more than once too really i couldn't have guessed that. More or less than Bridget Bardot. Oh, listen. Now you're getting into statistics. Okay, can I stump you both then? A movie called Inserts. Wait, I've seen this movie with Richard Dreyfuss. You bet.

And Jessica Harper. Yes. I saw this movie years ago on like an imported DVD from another country. Do you know this picture? Yes. You know, it's about the silent era. Yeah. People who could not make the transition from silence to sound, and they wind up making stag films.

Oh, watch that movie with Dennis Hopper. Oh, Blue Movie? It's where it took place in some, you know, like Mexican town or something. Oh, I know the one you mean. And they said it was the most incoherent thing, you know, surprising for Dennis Hopper. We'll get, we'll have to get the title of that. I know the one you're talking about. God, it was, yeah.

It's the one, it like wrecked his career for a while. Yes, yes. I can't think of the name of it yeah he's like he plays a crazy filmmaker and they said you know basically the drugs ruined any coherent story there i'll throw in a couple more if i may mr weber yes i have two more in my brain too also. Okay, you go first. You're the guest. You'll angrily tweet us and tell us what the Dennis Hopper picture is. Yes.

Guilty by Suspicion is sort of with De Niro playing the blacklisted writer. And the front are both sort of about Hollywood. Yeah, sure. In a way. But then of course you would have Jim Carrey, because he did that movie. Oh, The Majestic.

Yes. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, the Darabont movie. And Trumbo, I guess, if I'm going to include the other ones, Trumbo is about that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I liked Guilty by Suspicion. Me too, me too.

And it's a character based, I think, on Dorothy Commingore, who was in Citizen Kane. Oh, wow. Playing the Susan Cain character who was blacklisted in real life, if I'm not mistaken. Very inside stuff. And Martin Ritt, of course, who made The Front, was famously blacklisted. So were all the

actors in that movie. And I'd like to point out that Walter Bernstein, the writer of The Front, is still with us. And he's almost 100. And we should almost 100. Okay. And we should get him on here. You guys probably should have booked him instead of me. No, no, no. What am I doing here?

I would have booked anyone but you. Thank you. Yes. It's the badge of honor to take abuse. You've been roasted. I've made it. Yes. You've been roasted by Gilbert.

That's all I wanted. That's all I wanted. As we run out of time, I'll throw in two more, which Gilbert and I were talking about in the kitchen. We were going over the premise. And because Gilbert is a horror buff, specifically a buff for old horror films, I will throw in Shadow of the Vampire with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe. Yes, yes.

I remember that. Movie's great. It's great. It's great. And nobody saw it. Please see it. About Max Schreck. Right.

About the actual Max Schreck who played Nosferatu. And it's about the relationship between Murnau and Max Schreck. And the other companion piece, the companion film that goes with that, is Gods and Monsters. Oh, that's right. That movie's brilliant. Yeah. So, two. And there they did a great job because I think it was a separate person doing the voice.

job because I think it was a separate person doing the voice when Boris Karloff shows up at a party and they have a guy made up to look exactly like the old Boris Karloff and and the voice is it's not like the typical you know working in Laboratory. It was like his speaking voice. Yes. Two good films. Yeah. Two films about movie history. So let me ask you, this is a podcast, not a movie, but when they inevitably make a movie about this podcast.

George Clooney. You want Clooney to play you? But not direct it. I want Viola Davis to play me. Just because I think she's good. She is good. Yeah. Now, we're going to close with a piece of very obscure trivia.

Maria Semple. Yes. Who wrote the novel that your newest screenplay is based on. Can you talk about it? Because it's on IMDb. Am I mentioning something out of... I just want to say who her father was because it's great trivia.

Oh, I didn't... I don't know this. Her father was Lorenzo Semple Jr., the writer of Three Days of the Condor, the Parallax View, the Drowning Pool, Papillon, and the original pilot

of the Adam West Batman series in 1966. And he's a legend. I have to email her because she is... Do it right now. And the original pilot of the Adam West Batman series in 1966. And he's a legend. I have to email her. Right now. She is. Do it right now. Scott and I adapted her novel, Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

That's coming out later this year. We did the first few drafts and Richard Linklater came in and did the next couple of drafts. So I don't know if they've figured out what the credits will look like and all that stuff. But we loved working with Maria. And that's, I had no idea. How cool is that? She wrote for SNL and Arrested Development, and she's a brilliant writer in her own right. And so we could screech off to the side of the world.

I don't know. For some reason, my favorite line in Papillon is, maybe you'd like to think about starting your own garden. Beautiful. Wait, did Lorenzo Semple Jr. direct the cop movie that, the two cops that are out of control? The super cops. Did he direct super cops? I think he wrote it.

I don't know if he directed it. Because another podcast guest was the star. Ron Liebman. Ron Liebman. Yeah. Lorenzo Semple had this great career. Look him up. He did all kinds of cool stuff. I did not realize that was her dad. That's amazing.

And he was a Batman. He wrote the first Batman episode with the Riddler with Frank Gorshin in 1966. He wrote the pilot script that helped sell the series. So there you go. But I love the parallax view. By the way, you guys have to have Maria on then. We'll get Maria. She's amazing and a great storyteller. Well, how can

Gilbert mangle her name? Can he call her Margaret Samples? I believe in you. You'll pull it off. I knew something Michael Weber didn't know. I pulled it off watching Natalie Portman. More than once.

You can just send me your edits and cuts. And the young Jane Fonda in Barbarella. Well, you haven't seen Our Souls at Night yet. We have a sex scene in that movie.

So Jane and Redford, I don't know, Gilbert, you could do it again now. That woman is still gorgeous and sexy and I don't care what anybody says. She has been turning men on for 50 years. She again now. That woman is still gorgeous and sexy, and I don't care what anybody says. She has been turning men on for 50 years.

She's incredible. Beautiful woman. And I would fuck Robert Redford to this day. I'll let him know. Please don't. Shall we sign off? Mike, this was fun. Thank you guys so much.

You must come back. I'd love to. Ring your lawyer. This has been Gilbert and Frank's amazing, colossal obsessions with our special guest, Mark Whipple. Mark Whipple. Michael Weber, good luck. Next month, I hope you win. Thank you so much.

To our well-deserved, to our listeners, see the disaster artist. We'll see you next time. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Colossal Obsessions.