Happy Sad Confused - Elijah Wood, Vol. II

Episode Date: May 2, 2019

Elijah Wood is still a young man but he's lived a few distinct acts already as a successful child actor, the face of global franchise, and in recent years a successful genre producer and actor. He joins Josh on "Happy Sad Confused" this week to talk about all of it including his latest film, "Come to Daddy"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today on Happy, Sad Confused, Elijah Wood on producing Lord of the Rings memories and his latest film, Come to Daddy. Hey, guys, I'm Josh Harrow. It's welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Today, the one and only, Mr. Elijah Wood. It is not his Happy, Sad, Confused, debut, but it virtually is. I had a brief chat with him. years back at Sundance. It was him and Melanie Winsky. But that was a short one. This is all Elijah all the time. Cover a lot of territory with this guy who is just one of the nicest guys

in the business. I've known him for quite a while. He was actually one of the very first actors to subject themselves to my crazy after-hours shenanigans, one of my sketches. It was probably the third or fourth one we ever did and he played a demented crazy version of himself and he was amazing and ever since then has always been super kind to me and uh and and i love him because he's like a lot of you guys listening like myself a true film nerd and i say that in the nicest possible way he uh he just uh lives and breathe movies he has a production company spectrovision that produces a lot and his sensibilities are unique and kind of weird and off-kilter. And I definitely appreciate that.

He's been producing and starring in really cool stuff, especially in the last decade, kind of using his powers for good, especially ever since, you know, the phenomenon that was the Lord of the Rings trilogy. You know, being at the center of something like that, being that kind of centerpiece of a global franchise gives you a bit of clout. And I feel like he's used that for good. So this was a great chat with him. Elijah's got a lot going on. He was in New York for the debut of his new film, Come to Daddy. It debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. He didn't produce this one, but it is definitely kind of along the lines of what I was talking about. It's a dark and weird kind of horror thriller film. I don't want to reveal too much about it. We get into kind of the setup a little bit

in the conversation. But suffice it to say, Elijah plays a young man who goes to visit his father, who he's estranged from. He's not seen him for many, many years. And the visit doesn't go so well. So a lot of twists and turns in this one. Well, worth checking out. If you're here in New York and you're listening to this, I think there might even be another screening or two of Come to Daddy at the Tribeca Film Festival. If you don't have a chance to see it here right now. I'm sure this is one of those that will hit the festival circuit and we'll hopefully get distribution very soon. So look out for that. Look out for Come to Daddy. But this was a good opportunity to talk to Elijah about a great many things. Of course, you can't have a conversation

with him without talking a bit about War of the Rings, some really interesting recollections about that one. And also just geeking out about stuff he's into right now, films that he's produced recently, like Mandy with Nicholas Cage, and stuff that he's just excited to see. as a film fan, as a horror fan especially. So this was great, a great conversation that I think you guys are going to dig. Otherwise, in the universe right now, I mean, it's hard to mention,

I guess there are two things that are dominating the pop culture landscape right now. It's all Game of Thrones, and it's all Avengers Endgame. On the Avengers endgame front, I will tease that we've got a pretty special podcast coming up for you guys next week. We're going to debut a little bit earlier than usual.

on the happy, say, I confused schedule. Usually I debut episodes on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. But the embargo on this conversation is up on Monday. So bright and early Monday, in your feeds, you will see a spoiler conversation with Joe and Anthony Russo about Avengers Endgame. This is a conversation that from beginning to end is all spoilers. It answers a lot of the questions that you have about Avengers End game.

there's a lot of amazing information in this one. These guys have been so great to talk to over the years and to have the opportunity to dive deep into this record-breaking phenomenon with them was a real treat. I taped it the other day and it will be, as I said, it will be up on Monday, bright and early, check it out. I think you guys will dig it, but only listen, of course, if you've already seen Avengers Endgame,

but I'm guessing if you're like me, you probably have. So, yeah, that's what's going on. And other than that, I guess, just the usual reminder. Review, rate, and subscribe to happy second few. Spread the good word. And I hope you guys enjoy this conversation with one of the good guys out there,

Mr. Elijah Wood. Should we have a conversation? We were already having one. Let's have the conversation. We're having the conversation right now. Are we having the conversation right now? Oh, you weren't told that we're having the conversation. Not the conversation.

There's a lot to talk about, Elijah. It really is. We are, I'm sweating. That's just because it's 95 degrees in here, so I apologize for that. That's all right. But it's good to have you here, buddy. It's nice to be on your podcast. It's the first time.

We did a kind of like a brief one once in Sundance, you and Melanie, but it's shocking to me that we've never had you properly in here. But a belated welcome. Thank you. Congrats on your new film. Come to Daddy. Thank you. Have you seen it? I have seen it.

I enjoyed. We're going to get into that. You had your premiere last night. Yeah, we did. Okay. First of all, doing the math, I realize we're coming up next year, of course, is the fifth anniversary

of the last witch hunter. So we should just get into that stuff right now. We absolutely did. That's right. The fifth anniversary. This is a film that will, like the think pieces will come out. Oh, you know it.

It was ahead of its time. It was, people couldn't comprehend it. And I think, yeah, it's one of those things that later, upon reflection, people will kind of go, oh, fuck, they were, that was way more profound than I thought. Yeah, it's like the Matrix kind of

for 2014. Definitely. I did, I moderated, I don't know if you remember. You even if you were Vin a bunch. Yeah. Yeah. What was your, what was your Vin experience? I mean, he's a pleasant guy.

He's an eccentric guy. Totally, totally pleasant, very friendly to everybody. Yeah. He's a fascinating individual. Did you get closer with Vin or Michael Kane on that one? Michael was only with us for a week. And so I actually only did. I think it was like a day of working with him.

Yeah. So I didn't get close to him with him at all, but he was super lovely and very sweet. But yeah, Vin, fuck. Did he ever play D&D with Vin? No. I remember we talked about those things. Yeah, we talked about, he's a big Tolkien fan,

like that's super nerd. Yeah. Which is totally fascinating. You knew a lot about like the Simerillian. Yeah. He was like, talk to Peter. Like, I think he wanted, there was a specific character

that he wanted to play from the Simerreliam. I'm always fascinated by like, Yeah, look, you and I, they can peg from a mile away, like, okay, those guys would be into that stuff. Sure. But it's like, it's the, it's the VINs, it's the, I'm buddies with Joe Mangonello. It's like, he has a dungeon in his house. Does he, what? He's a dungeon in his house, and he plays a weekly dungeon and Dragons game.

Whoa, man. That's amazing. He's, like, invited me to it, and I'm, like, frankly intimidated because I've heard him talk about, like, D&D and Star Wars, and he puts me to shame. Whoa. That I would. Well, I'm not. super surprised because he's also got that cool like nerdy clothing line. Yeah, he's got

death saves. He's got his street wear. Yeah, yeah, his streetwear line. So yeah, that's not a, that's not a giant leap from there. No, no, he's living in the life. But yeah, his own dungeon, that's pretty, that's elaborate. It was going to be Was it a basement that he converted? Yeah, I'm hoping I'm not speaking out of school, but it was, you know,

he's married to Sophia Vergara, and I think it was going to be her Pilates studio, and he convinced Sophia. No, no, no, you can go to a Pilates studio. This is the dungeon. This clearly has dead bodies in it. Does that where he plays D&D? Yeah.

That's amazing. Yeah. So, okay, let's talk a little, come to Daddy. So you had your premiere last night. Yes. How to go? It was great. Do you get excited, nervous about these things?

You've done so many different kinds of premieres over your life? Yeah. The degree that I get excited or nervous, certainly excited every time. Nerves depends on the film. I actually weirdly get more nervous for things that I've produced. than things that I'm in, which doesn't necessarily speak to any, I don't love those things any less, the things that I'm in, or have any less ownership over them.

But there's something about producing something from the ground up and putting it out there, it feels a little bit more naked and a little bit more is at stake. Yeah, you're judging not only like my performance, but my being, like my literally like. It's this thing that you, along with a lot of other people, have helped foster into the existence. So I get a little bit more nervous for those screenings.

But yeah, I was excited. You know, with Come to Daddy, I'd seen it before. I'd already loved the film. And I think more than anything, I was just excited to see how an audience would react. Because it's a dark comedy. It is, it has very unexpected twists and turns. Yep.

That are very violent at times and occasionally disturbing and weird and it just subverts expectation at every step of the way and it's very much an audience movie in that regard so I'm just super excited to sit down and just see how people would react which was awesome you alluded to this so we can't we don't want to go too much into specifics

because there are some major twist and turns in this one unfortunately like yeah once you get into act two it gets super spoilery but I will say act one hooked me like it's a great like opening it's a great conceit which is basically this kind of fractured relationship, a young man who is kind of a douchebag, kind of, uh, that's accurate. Yeah.

Um, who, yeah, you have this, like, amazing kind of like little mini monologue that really defines the character in the first like 20 minutes. That is the moment, actually, in the film where he expresses his true self or his doucheery, the sort of artifice of that character, everything you, you imagine by looking at him. Yeah. From his ridiculous sense of fashion. and his crazy bull cut and his mustache and hat, everything you think about looking at him

that sort of judging a book by its cover, he expresses in that scene. Right. It's pretty funny. And yes, visiting, kind of out of his element, seeing his dad after a long time apart. What else do we want to tease? Yeah, I mean, it's basically like, you know, so it's this guy who we learn

has lived a relatively cushy life. We find out that he's, you know, lived a life of privilege in Beverly Hills. a DJ maybe of some note he claims to be. It's got a limited edition phone. He's got a letter from his father, who he's been estranged from since he was five years of age. So he's very, very little recollection or memory of his father.

And so that's the conceit. It's like 30 years go by and you get a letter from your dad that you have no relationship with. And what do you do? You travel to go see him. What's going to happen? What are the expectations? Are you going to be met open arms?

Is it a resurrection of, are you picking up from where you left off? Like, what is that? Right. And so that's the concede of the movie and what sort of sets the journey off for Norville, the character. Suffice it to say, it doesn't. It doesn't go so great. It doesn't go so great.

And I was shocked to kind of ask, and the more I read about this, so this is a feature directing debut, though, this is a gentleman who has a lot of experience, obviously, as a producer that you know. You did Greasy Strangler, for those that have seen that crazy piece of work. Yeah. So that should give you a little hint. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Did you see that at Sundance? I never seen it, man. I'm so... Dude, it's fine. You know, you'll see it. But, you know, I'm going to get to as the conversation progresses, another one I feel so guilty that I took so long to get to, but I finally took the opportunity since I knew you were coming in.

I never saw Mandy last year. So I finally, I watched it last night. Awesome. So thank you for that. We'll get to that. Okay, that's amazing. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, cool.

Amazing. So, yeah, Anne has been a producer in film for a number of years. That's how we met. I mean, I met him in this sort of genre world in Austin, Texas. Right. Through Tim League, Alamo Draft House Fantastic Fest. They're dear friends. And, yeah, I mean, he produced Housebound, ABC's The Death,

one and two, a longtime genre film producer, and then, yeah, we worked together on Gracie Strangler. And then this thing came about by way of his own personal experience. Which is, I was alluding to the, yeah, so that's, I don't even know if we want to talk specifically about that because it kind of almost gives some stuff away. But yes, there is a very personal story at the heart of this that inspired this insanity. We are talking about it, so it's cool. His father dropped dead a number of years ago, and his father's partner at the time determined that a good thing to do would be to sit in at home with the body in the home, almost like sitting Shiva, sort of, you know. know, as a means of mourning and paying tribute to this man.

And so good idea, in theory, except a lot of his brothers and sisters, like, left because they had things to do and they had jobs. So he was predominantly alone in the house for five days with his father, who had been embalmed and brought back in a casket in the living room. And through that experience, there were various visitors that he knew, but then a number of people who he'd never met who knew his father from a time that he'd never heard about

in regards to his father's past. He starts hearing stories about his dad, nickname for his dad that he'd never heard, and this sort of past that had eluded him. Incredibly cathartic, emotional experience, he's a better person to tell that story, but ultimately out of that, he had this idea of a nugget

for what that could be expressed in regards to a film, and it sort of kicked him in the ass because he had started making short films and then he moved into producing where he was like, fuck, I need to get off my ass and direct something. This is the story to tell

because it's personal. I want to do this as a tribute to my father. So he reached out to Toby Harvard who was the co-writer on The Greasy Strangler and he was like, this is the kind of structure idea that I have for this movie. Is this interesting to you?

Toby was on fire for it. Three weeks go by, he comes back with a draft and that was sort of the beginning of the process of, It's probably the best of all possible worlds. Because, yeah, so it's like a feature directing debut, but it's obviously a guy that knows his way around a film set

and how to make stuff like this. Absolutely. So you get the excitement of a first project with some experience actually, too. Yeah, he understands the process. It's interesting. So it's interesting in looking, my sense is like the stuff that you've chosen to do, especially acting-wise,

a lot of producing too. A lot of it's come from relationships, like friendships, relationships, the Austin community. Does it feel like that's just been a natural progression for you? It's just the way you like to operate as opposed to getting like a blind submission from your agents. It's just organic.

Yeah. It just has happened that way. It's not, which isn't to say that I don't still get things in any kind of traditional form. I definitely do through representation. But just through those relationships of spending time, I'm in Austin at Fantastic Fest. A lot of stuff has come out of that, you know. But they've, they always start from genuine relationships first, and then out of that

friendship comes, you know, a, a realization of a kind of creative common ground, I think, which is, which is, yeah, that's the big leap for any decision. We all love the same shit. Right. So it's like, well, why don't we do some shit together? Yeah. Basically. Yeah. And that's kind of how, you know, Grand Piano came about.

That's how open windows came about with Nacho. And then ultimately this, too. It's just a logical leap from, you know, ants sending me the script for Greasy Strangler and saying, do you want to get on board this fucking crazy ship and make this movie? And I was like, yes. From that to, well, we've already worked together once.

Let's maybe try and just kind of thing together. So how long have you been in Austin now? When did you move? I'm there half the time. Roughly. It's like every three months. but I guess it was like five years ago. I've been going there for so many years.

So it's sort of felt like a home away from home for longer, but in terms of actually having roots there, probably five years. And when you say splitting the time, are you talking about like... Between Los Angeles. Yeah, yeah. So there wasn't a point like, where you fell out of love... Was it falling out of love with L.A. or falling in love with Austin or a little bit of a combination?

No, it was falling in love with Austin, I think. And there was a period of time when I first found a place to live because it took me like three years to find a place because I was taking my time it wasn't essential like I wasn't motivated to move right away so it was like I could take my time but initially I thought well I'm going to make this my home base that was the intention sure and the reality of that was it just wasn't realistic yeah there's so much of my life is in Los Angeles I've started a company there right they're all based there um my friends family you know, they're all in loss.

Well, my family is in Austin now. Oh, really? Consequently, since I actually got the house in Austin, everyone has moved to Austin. You're the sun they revolve around. No one else is in... They found the barbecue and Elijah was there. Which is kind of amazing. Yeah, my brother lived there

first. Okay. He lived there for five years working for a video game company and then moved away for work and then moved back. When did you start going first for like Fantastic Fest and stuff like that? Initially, it was southwest. Yeah. I was going. Um, my first time to Austin was in, I think it was the summer of either 96 or 97 when we were

working, 97, uh, working on the faculty. Of course, Robert. Yeah. So that was the first time to Austin, fell in love with it then. And then I went years after that, I would go to the, the music side of South by Southwest, just to go see bands. Sure, sure. Because it was a lot easier then to get into shows than it is now.

Yeah. It was kind of an amazing period in the, in the sort of late 90s, early 2000s, where it was pretty easy to get, like, good credentials, not super expensive, and you could pretty much get into anything. That's similar to kind of what... The crazy lines weren't really a thing. Yeah. And you could... My brother and I, we'd get a schedule,

and we would, like, earmark all this stuff we'd want to see, and we'd see everything. There was nothing we'd miss. So that was another... Comic-Con, same way, in a different way. On the movie side, people always complained in the last five years about Comic-Con, and it's true. I mean, I've been going the last 12 years. And even by that, even my first year,

so it had obviously was huge, but It's definitely a time. And it's gotten bigger since I've gone there too. Because I think we went for rings in 2001. Yeah. And it was big, but not what it is now. I mean, there weren't paparazzi there then. You know what I mean?

Like, it wasn't as much of a celebrity industry thing as it's become. It's funny. But all that stuff, you know. Once people find out about it. Where there's money to be made. Totally. How many members of the Friday Night Lights cast are you friendly with in Austin? I just imagine you and Taylor Kitch just hang it.

Do you not know any of them? No. It's not as small town as I thought it was. It's pretty small, but I don't know any other actors there really. Really? Okay. Yeah, yeah. I know a lot of people in, like, the film community, but it's all people at, like, the Alamo.

Like, my friends are, people at Mondo, Alamo, you know, Fantastic Fest, and then, you know, the community around that rather than, like, yeah, the actors. or creative people that are from there or who work there. I shockingly, again, I've never been to Fantastic Fest for some of this are.

I know, I know. I feel like I have that reaction every time. It's so good, man. What's your fate, what's the, what's the ultimate? I'm on the board now. What's the old, okay, I'll be there. What's the ultimate Fantastic Fest memory? What's like the pinnacle, like, moment?

You've done a bunch of them, I assume by now. What's like the, what stands out when you think Fantastic Fest? Um, oh, man. Wow. A lot of nights of karaoke at the highball. I don't know, memories that stand out are like Nacho Vigolando years back in like 2013, 2014, that he was a real fixture of the festival.

So now just, you know, these are, he loves the festival, but it just comes down to like availability. Sure. But yeah, those first years, like meeting Nacho, hanging out with him, meeting Eugenio Mira, I think at one point I got picked up and thrown onto the ground by Nacho. I think we were doing like, it was fantastic feud, which is basically like a quiz show

about horror movies. Right. And you're encouraged to drink and it was pretty ruckus. And I think he picked me up and threw me on the ground and there actually had been like a beer bottle that had broken.

So everybody was like, oh, fuck. I almost like fell on a bunch of broken glass. So that stands out. What a sad out would be. my first Fantastic Fest tattoo because they give tattoos at the festival. I've got four of them, I think. Yeah.

Okay, this is random. But I noticed you shot this film in Vancouver, but I noticed there's a New Zealand's connection. So it's a co-production between New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada. But yeah, we shot on Vancouver Island kind of in a remote corner of Vancouver Island called Tofino, which is also

like the surfing capital of Canada apparently. Vancouver's beautiful. I'm sure you've shot a bunch there by now. Shot a lot in Vancouver proper, yeah. Vancouver is beautiful. BC is really beautiful. Vancouver, the city is a little, it's just tough.

Is it? I've only been, I think, twice maybe. It's a great city. It's just, it's overrun with production. Got it. There's just a lot of production there. So it's a little, it can be a little intense. So on the New Zealand side, is your name like, is it like, are you like the Tom Cruise of New Zealand when they see your like name on a call sheet or something like they're like yeah

we're gonna we're gonna fund that fucking thing extra five million dollars like are there statues of you no definitely not I have no idea yeah I don't know have you do you go back with any regularity no I haven't not in a long time it's been like five or six years I think too long like it's been one of the longer periods actually since I've been there so how long all and all were you there for for rings yeah principal photography was 16 months months. Okay. So all three films shot. Continuous? Are you talking to? Well, so we started in oct- we started principal photography in October of 99 and we wrapped December of 2000 and we had two hiatuses. Got it. So a Christmas break, the first Christmas break, I think was a month. And

then I think we had one, maybe another. So there were these little mini breaks throughout which would help them in post-production planning kind of everyone gets a breather because it's a really long shoot. It's funny because now as I'm thinking about as you describe it it's kind of like become the norm.

That kind of like set this Hollywood tent pole template in terms of like now every studio like comic movie etc. builds in these like reshoots like this additional photography. That's interesting. Yeah, it's true. You know? Yeah. Star Wars has certainly

followed suit with that. All the Marvel movies do that Yeah, right, yeah. That was, yeah, it was a surprise to us because that was not at all what we had anticipated. So, yeah, we wrapped, and we thought genuinely that we'd wrapped and that we wouldn't be coming back. I think a few of them were like, we're coming back. But we didn't know.

And then it was a couple months later, like after we went back for Christmas, they were like, I think we're going to come back for some pickups. Got it. And then we were like, oh, shit, we're coming back for like a month and a half, two months. Oh, we're doing this every time. So then it just became, which was,

Fantastic, because we were like, oh, we'll just keep this going. Yeah. Because none of us wanted it to end, you know. So we had such a good time. Is it, is it a part of your daily life, would always be a part of your daily life that rings comes up? Like, is there a day that can go by where someone does a reference rings to you? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's good. Yeah. That's healthy. No, it's very healthy. Yeah, because I, well, I mean, there's days where I'm not in the mix. Right. You're not out and about and whatever, yeah.

Yeah. But even like in my neighborhood, walking around, going to the market, whatever. rings doesn't necessarily come up. But it is ubiquitous and frequent enough to just to the point where it's just kind of Yeah.

It's almost white noise a little bit. It's so familiar. It's so baked into my DNA at this point that yeah, I'm just used to it. I'm curious if you'll indulge me a little bit on the beginning process of making those films because the funny thing, as I was thinking

about it is like it's hard to fathom especially for like kids of these days, but like nowadays, everything's genre. Everything, it rules the universe. Like, and... Fantasy was not a thing at the time. It wasn't. It was a huge gamble, an insane gamble for

for new one or whatever to like put up that kind of money. And on Peter, Peter had not had done the frighteners. That wasn't a... That was the biggest thing he'd done. Yeah. That was the only studio movie I think that he'd done. I think so, right? Yeah.

So I guess my question is like, was there uncertainty those first couple months on set, like, did you feel like no? Not at all. Really? Not at all. It's wild, man. It's kind of crazy to take myself back to that time, because I remember I remember being on the set

of the faculty, and Harry Knowles at the time because Anna Cool News was a big deal. She was on the set a lot. He had told me that Peter Jackson's making the Lord of the Rings. And I remember thinking, oh, right, that makes total sense.

What? But it did. It made sense. I'd seen Peter's films. I'd seen Heavenly Creatures was a favorite of mine at the time. Loved the Frighteners. And it was, it instantly clicked where I was like, of course, his handle on drama and fantasy and blending those things together, he's perfect for this. But to your point, yeah, there was no precedence.

really I mean there's certainly he had done things that I think had indicated that he could work within that milieu but to your point there was no precedence for that in the industry right we weren't living in a time in which a giant trilogies were in a fantasy franchise

could work so that was a risk but having said that like it all I think I'd even like I went to I went to K&B do you know what KMB is you know

who Greg Nicotero is. Yes. So Greg Nicotero is the N of the K&B. It's the special effects house. Got it. And they did all of the life casting for Weta for people who were in the states, basically. So like Sean Aston and I both got our feet molded there and all that sort of stuff. And they were telling us, because they were in direct communication with Richard Taylor and the whole team at Weta and knew about everything that they were doing back in New Zealand.

Because they've been, to some degree or another, in pre-production. for Lord of the Rings for the better part of a couple of years like they'd been planning this for a long time there's a really cool pitch video that I think

might be on one of the DVDs that Peter did to show how he could make hobbits look small the whole force perspective thing like they did all of these practical effects in camera to show

whoever was going to ultimately fit the bill for this that they were capable and that this cottage industry or this small industry down in New Zealand could take this thing on board. And so then I was talking to the folks at K&B and they were like, oh man,

way do you see like the costumes, the swords that they're making, they've got a, you know, a swordsmith that's making everything for real from scratch. And so my mind was kind of spinning at the scale of it and the fact that they had all this already underway. So getting out to New Zealand and then seeing that all for the first time myself, it was like, oh, Yeah, you, for you, we are in unbelievable hands. Oh my God. This wasn't applied by non-operation. They had been working on this for years.

They were, yeah. Totally. So there was never getting out there, especially getting to New Zealand, seeing the costume department, going to Weta, seeing the feet, putting the feet on in the ears and the wig, and all of that stuff for the first time, there was not a doubt in our minds that we, this was going to be not the success. No, you can't predict that, or the officers, that any of that, but that we were going to make something special.

That was very, very clear. What about were you around for, and like many years have now gone by, so hopefully it's fine to talk about this a little bit, but like, it's crazy that Vigo was not cast initially. I know. Yeah,

it was shooting with Stuart Townsend. So were you shooting with Stewart? And was that like a... We rehearsed with Stewart. Okay. Yeah, so we did about two months of rehearsal period. It was a two-month period of like rehearsal, dialect lessons for all of us.

Sword training. Sword training with Bob. oh what's his last name he he was also the star was the famous star wars like yeah i know exactly you're talking about bob anderson i believe that sounds right yeah he was the the coordinator on the original trilogy right yeah yeah um so yeah sword fighting lessons horseback for the folks that were doing that basically all of this training yeah and then working out sequences so you know like that whole sequence at weathertop with um eragon we were rehearsing that with um i'm pretty sure we rehearsed some of that with steward so there was rehearsals with him got

it did you have any sense that like this felt a little offer that peter had lack of confidence that it was just we were really surprised yeah we were surprised um that's that kind of thing is really hard it just is you know we we all took it hard because for two months in addition to all of those things that we were doing individually to prepare but we were doing it together we really as a team. Yeah. And, you know, we were looking ahead at what was going to be the next year and a half of our lives of going through something together. And when you're kind of two months into that, yeah. You're a galvanized group. You're doing everything together, spending your free time

together, and you're working towards this thing. So it was, it was really jarring to lose a member of the family. But that being said, Vigo came in and so quickly jumped and rose to the occasion that it was astonishing. Like, it was almost, I mean, his journey was almost like that of the reluctant king of Aragorn. Totally. How fucking crazy is that? But he jumps into this thing and takes on a responsibility that's bigger than him with such

gusto. And I think he shot within, it was within a week and a half to two weeks when he arrived. That he shot. That's insane. Well, there aren't many Vigo Mourinsons. They're not. In the wake of rings here, so one of the interesting things I've noted, like, in looking at all your work in the many years since, is not a lot of studio films.

Like you, so, except for obviously Last Witch Hunter, which is the pinnacle of your work. Maybe there's a lesson there. Maybe I've answered my own question. But is that conscious? Is it just like, again, you're going sort of where the material is? It's going where the material is. I mean, if there were, look, I can't make any illusions that I could just simply write my own path. I can't.

I can't. And I don't know that I, even after Lord of the Rings that I could have, had I, could I have hustled more after that? I've thought about that in recent years. Like, I've never looked at my life or career strategically. I've always looked at it really organically and reacted to what seems interesting. and, you know, filmmakers that I want to work with and, you know, becoming friends with people and wanting to work with them

and being excited about their ideas. So those became the paths that I would follow increasingly as I got older. Could I have been, after Lord of the Rings, one to try and capitalize on that? Maybe. Right. Maybe.

Would I have been happy doing that? That I don't know. I can't really answer that question because it's an unknowable thing. But I do know that I ultimately followed a path that was fulfilling to me. You know it's ironic and you probably blanched this kind of

even bring this up but like because there have been jokes for years about like mistaking Radcliffe for you and vice versa. Yeah, you know, I've gotten to know Dan over the years too but it strikes me that like you guys have both like you kind of both approached it whether consciously or not very similarly. Yeah. Like he does he

has followed his muse and he's done theater and he's done weird shit and it's like there's no like there's nothing left that there's The only thing to prove is to prove to interest himself. He doesn't have to prove, like he's been on the biggest stage. You've been on the biggest stage in the industry. Right.

So that's like the best place to be and to have that at such a young age. Super fortunate. I mean, you've had, I would argue, like, three acts already in your career and you're a young man. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? I do, yeah. It's wild to think of it that way. Yeah.

Yeah. So, and one of them, I mean, you know, we alluded a little bit to the producing side. So that's really, obviously, exponentially grown in recent years. So, and you've been doing it now long enough that you've seen, like, major changes in the industry, like, even in the time that you've been doing it. Yeah. So talk to me about where you guys are at right now in terms of, like, how you approach things differently maybe than when you were starting out. It's interesting. Yeah.

I mean, we started, at the time we started, we started because, you know, part of it was a reaction to, I mean, I wanted to get into producing films. And then I met Josh and Daniel, my producing partners, on a number. other thing that Daniel was writing, Josh was going to direct, and I was going to be in. It was like a road comedy thing. And then out of that, we forged genuine friendship and realized that we had a shared mutual love of horror and genre. I've been thinking about starting a production company, mainly because I wanted to support filmmakers and the kinds of stories that I wanted to see and be a part of that creative

process from the ground up. And then we kind of latched on to horror. We realized that we had the shared mutual love of the genre. and it was at a time in which that wasn't really consistently being made in the US. Like there were great examples that were exceptions to the rule

outside of like, because a lot of the stuff back then were the sauce sequels were movies that were a little bit more relying in their exploitable elements and less on character and story. And the stuff that we loved I mean everything from

the Val Luton movies from you know way back to the golden age, I think, of horror of the 1970s, things like Rosemary's Baby and the Exorcist, or The Thing, Halloween, and so on. And then the stuff that we were loving at the time that we were connecting on were films like, let the right one in, the orphanage, martyrs, like these films that like the 1970s and films and era's prior took their subject matters seriously. And in some ways, you could almost remove the exploitable horror elements and still have a compelling story.

And it didn't feel like there was a home for that yet. At the time, Blumhouse was around. There was stuff that they were making. But it wasn't the Renaissance that we're currently in. And so we just started looking for A, we didn't have no idea

what we were doing. We had no idea how to run a company. We were just like, we're starting a company. But what we did know is like we have a lot of friends in the industry. We know a lot of people that we like and there's a lot of people that we like that we can reach out to.

Why don't we just reach out to people in the creative community, both people we know and don't, and just ask him if they have a creative or like a passion project in the horror space that no one wants to touch. And invariably, they did,

and it was always awesome. So that's kind of how we built out our initial slate. And then over the years, there's been this kind of groundswell of other unbelievable companies with A-24 and Blumhouse expanding and doing a lot more

in the horror space and supporting really great filmmakers. And so now there's this unbelievable genre fucking renaissance where everyone's doing genre and it's really super exciting. By the way you mentioned... Where it's bleating, you know, the thing that we noticed too when we first went to Sundance, we were so lucky

to get Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Cooties our first movies out of the gate into Sundance at the same time. But we started noticing that the midnight movies were dipping, we're moving out of the midnight section into the regular section and you're like now that's a game changer because now these movies are being accepted on a level that they're not relegated to that one space which is super cool when i was looking up

some some you know recent chats you've done just to see what you know what you've been talking about i did enjoy a couple years back you explaining what kudis was about to larry king that was like that that felt like a moment oh my god i did didn't i not only that what did i say what did i explain here's the better part of that conversation was his reaction no it wasn't that it wasn't about kudis it was about you and you're the nicest human being on the planet and that you can't be an asshole, explaining to him that it was William Peter Blatty that wrote The Exorcist when Larry tried to correct you. Did he say that it was Friedkin?

No, he said someone else. I don't know who he said. Wow. Yeah. It was definitely Blatty. He was. I know. I'm with you.

I'm like, yeah. Anyway. Oh, yeah. So all, well, there's a lot to say on the producing side, but I do want to mention, because I'm the last to the party of Mandy Oh, no, it's so great Yeah, and I mean

I've long, like you I'm sure, been obsessed with Nick Cage Oh yeah And we just made another movie then I heard this with Richard Stanley Who has not directed a movie Since Moreau Yeah, I'm well, yeah

I assume you watch that talk about Oh my God, the film is incredible Yeah And so sad and I know traumatic and what happened So for the I mean super shorthand Richard Stanley He made two genre films

that were cult classics at the time hardware and dust devil He was then hired by a studio To make an adaptation of Island of Dr. Murrow And he fell out with the studio The studio lacked faith in him as a director I think part of that has to do with his lack of relationship with Val Kimmer

Right Studio instead of standing by and supporting backed off and he was fired from the movie Unceremoniously And he developed all of the visual style of that Like oh man Like the amount of work that he did

To establish what that film was going to be And he had so many great ideas too That didn't come to fruition So he's back thanks to you guys Some 20 years later That's so crazy With an HP Lovecraft adaptation Sold

Sold by time's over Yeah I'm excited So you presumably And you worked with Nick A few years back right Yeah, on a movie called the... Sort of, yeah. So I worked at them on a movie

called The Trust. We spent a lot of time on set just talking about movies, which was incredible. And that was a dream come true to me. I've been a fan of his for so long. He is such an icon. He's one of the few actors that I've worked with,

and I've been so lucky to work with the extraordinary people, but he's one of the few people where I had frequent out-of-body experiences working opposite him where I'd be like in the middle of a scene thinking, oh fuck, that's Nicholas Cage. And he just said that in that way. That was so Nicholas. Oh my God

But what was so wonderful Beyond working with him Was being able to sit and just shoot the shit And recognize that he Loves movies And loves to watch new movies And be exposed to new Exciting Filmmakers and genre stuff

So I'd recommend things to him And at the time we were kind of Privately on the Spectrevision side We were talking about him Like could he be good for Mandy Fuck, that would be amazing And so I was like You should check out

this movie called Beyond the Black Rainbow from Panos Cosmodos. He's like, cool, I'll go check it out. So he watches it and loves it. He's like, it gave me nightmares. I was like, well, there's this movie called Mandy. Would you be interested? And so that did start our sort of creative working relationship, which has just been so rewarding and lovely for both us.

And I think he's happy with it because he keeps working with us, which is really, really lovely. Yeah, he might be, I was thinking in recent months because, you know, people have asked the stock question, like, who haven't you talked to? I mean, I've talked to Nick before. but I've never had him on the podcast. He'd be somebody that I'd love to have it for an extended conversation. He must be amazing. Awesome.

So, yeah. So you've never directed, which is kind of shocking to me. What's up with that? I need to do it. I think part of it is that, thanks. I think part of it is just that I haven't put that hat on to go, all right, now I'm going to hunker down and find something to direct.

And I think part of it came from somewhere in the, back to my mind thinking, well, it's just going to hit me. Like, kind of what happened with Ant on this wasn't that he had a burning desire to get back to directing. He did a little bit, but not really. It was that, because otherwise he would have been looking at reading material and thinking,

oh, maybe I'll direct this thing. It was that a profound thing happened in his life that he felt like it was a story he needed to tell. So I just assumed that at some point, something would kind of hit me and go, well, this is the thing I need to tell. This is probably

act four we alluded to the first three acts this is act four will be yeah i i i want to put some time and energy into it because honestly i i fully fantasize about a time in which that's all i do yeah i just love filmmaking and i've already kind of dipped my toe in so many different aspects of the process i think it would be very enjoyable for me to to be a part of it in that regard to uh what do you excited for this year in film what's uh what's the top of your list the joker Come on, that looks, it looks far fucking better than it should. It does. It really looks amazing.

I have such high expectations for what that will be. That film looks incredible. I cannot wait for the lighthouse. I'm a huge fan of The Witch, and I think Eggers is going to continue to be an extraordinary filmmaker. And I just can't wait to see everything that he does. So just seeing that image that A24 put out, I was like, fuck, yes. Patinson has got one of the coolest fucking careers of all time. I have such admiration for him because he's another one of these dudes that's just

he leaves an insane franchise and decides I'm going to do what I want to do and work with crazy incredible people and challenge myself and like jump off the deep end and it's exhilarating. And he so like I mean good time fuck me man. But I mean to see how. far he's come, not only just the material, but frankly, his ability as an actor, too, that too, because he has stretched and grown in extraordinary ways. I mean, even if you look at, and he'll admit to this. I mean, I interviewed him a thousand times from the Twilight. Oh, I'm sure.

I honestly think I'd probably talk to him more than any other human being. I swear to God. And he was always so self-deprecating and like, and knew he just, he didn't have, didn't, hadn't earn the stature that he had in the industry. And, and, and even when he did Cosmopolis, the first Cronenberg collaboration. That was the first step into the weird direction he took. And I would say he, like, I don't think he would,

I don't think he was, like, amazing in that one, but at least he, like, he took the dive and he started to learn. I don't know that it's an amazing movie either. That's true. That's true. Not one of my favorites.

No. Is Cronenberg must be on the list. My God, you need to be in a cron. He needs to work more, first of all. Would love to work with Cronenberg. He hasn't made anything in a bit. No. It's been a second.

What about, I noticed you tweeted, and I'm also excited about the new Ariaster. Oh, dude. Midsummer. Right. Yeah. Also, Hereditary is incredible. My introduction to Ariaster, as far as his work, because he's made a bunch of shorts.

What's the short? I haven't seen any of them. I've seen Herrits. Look up his shorts. Okay. There's one about a family that is extremely disturbing that you need to see. It's great.

And I can't remember the name of it. Yeah. Midsummer looks great. Do any... Dude, once upon a time in Hollywood. This is going to be a crazy year. The Irishman's coming out this year. I mean, yeah.

There's a lot of anticipated anticipated films. Where are you at with, do any of the Marvel or DC stuff do anything for you? I just don't follow it. I didn't grow up reading Marvel comics, so I don't have a pre-existing way in.

So there are movies that I can take on their own. The first Iron Man's great. Love the Guardians of the Galaxy films. I've only seen the first one, so that one. Yeah. I loved what Tyca did with Thor Ragnarok. Yeah, yeah. That movie is fucking awesome and funny and weird

But I don't have So I've not seen Infinity War Yeah that was the last one As we speak today Is Endgame's about to take over the universe It already is That's all that anyone's talking about on Twitter

It's like insane But now I feel like All right I've missed something Right So I need to go back and watch Infinity War Because I need to understand People are losing their goddamn mind over end game Have you seen it?

I have seen it Is it great? It's very good I will say it's very good And I'm, these movies aren't really for me. I also see, I mean, I'm cynical because I don't have a relationship to the comics. I think if I did, I'd feel very different, clearly. Because I'd go, I'd see all of the connective tissue and the Easter eggs and the things that mean something, details that are missed on people like me.

But from my standpoint, I just, I'm cynical and I see a machine. Yeah. I just see the gross stuff, which is there. It's a machine. But I also can appreciate, you know, from people who are super passionate. about it. I mean, I've actually talked to Kevin Smith, for instance, about this. What Kevin Feige is doing is actually unprecedented and kind of amazing. All of these movies that share a universe and there's connective tissue between all of them. It's never been done before and he's closing it out after 22 some odd movies. I'm impressed. Like, whether or not I can stomach all of them or if it's for me doesn't really matter. That's an extraordinary thing. thing and I appreciate that. And I'm going to catch up because apparently

I missed out on Infinity War and I need to see N-Gay. Well, I felt the same. On a different note, like I felt obligated to binge Game of Thrones the last two months because I just felt like I didn't want to be out of it for the last So you're all caught up? I'm all cut up. Oh, man. That you aren't. Oh, fuck yeah.

Yeah. I mean, yeah. You can have your Marvel have my Game of Grones. And Star Wars still do anything for you? Oh, fuck yeah. Okay, good. Big time. That new trailer is incredible. I know. Rise of Skywalker,

a lot of questions. I loved Last Jedi. Me too. I thought what Ryan did was so extraordinary. I could have no patience for the haters of that one. That's a load of bullshit. Like what that franchise needed, especially after Force Awakens,

and I love Force Awakens, but what it needed was someone to go, all right, you're in comfortable ground, now I'm going to be bold and take big swings and take risks. It's in a, I mean, and tell a really compelling, interesting story with new characters, and that's what he did.

And even in a bit of a different way, I mean, when you go back to Empire, Lucas was still very much like hands on the wheel, but he let a different filmmaker like Kazden directed, and that's why it looks as gorgeous as it does and different as it does. Totally. So I'm excited about the last film.

I'm a little nervous. I know. It's a tough. It's like, talk about JJ's putting a lot of pressure on himself. Talk about sticking the landing, dude. Like, that, you're not closing out. three movies you're closing out nine movies well yeah and he also

I feel like he's like looking a gift horse in the mouth it's like you did it all right JJ you re-launched the franchise and at the end of the day who else would you have come back no yeah they were no they you bring in there's no enough they could have you bring in JJ because he's gonna close it like he's a he'll do it

he'll do it but I'm nervous I'm nervous that he'll undo stuff from Last Jedi that's what I'm afraid of I know I'm afraid that it's going to be like oh all that something I know I know so we'll see Are you going to see the curious about the Tolkien movie? The, uh, yeah, not your thing. The biopics are tough.

They are tough. Yeah. I don't love them most of the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. You've done your time, too. Yeah. I don't know about Tolkien.

I mean, yeah, I've seen the trailer. It's, yeah. That's a tough one. Is that a really interesting story enough to make a film about, I, here's the thing with biopics, too. I often find I'd rather watch the documentary, you know? I don't know that I need to see someone portray the people. I love documentaries. And documentaries can be so much more rich

because you're hearing the stories either from the people or from the people who knew the people or you're being given an incredible overview without having someone try and portray the person. This is one of my stock questions that I enjoy asking on the doc front. Which of your films would have, a making of film would have been the most interesting?

A doc, the making of which of your films would have been the most compelling? what's your heart of darkness oh it'd be fun to see a last witch hunter there's some pretty interesting shenanigans um well they already kind of did make

rings they did like so much a lot of those movies so they're apparently there's a there's yet to be a I'd heard that Peter was going to do like a definitive two hour making of from his perspective thing which would be amazing um

I can't think of anything else that would lend itself to a making of that I... Well, let's put it a good word in with VIN to unlock the vaults. We'll go full circle. He's, uh, he's an avatar. I heard that. I saw it. There was a photo of him on set, right?

There's a video with him. I think he posted it to his Facebook, because doesn't he have the most followers on Facebook of anybody in the world or something? Here's my favorite thing of the, of the, of the, I can't believe we're talking about this. Again, why? It always comes back to VIN. But during that, when I was monitoring your, in your comment, Comic-Con thing with Vin.

It was when Facebook Live had, like, just started, like, the ability to stream live. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was streaming backstage. And I think he missed, he didn't realize that I had, like, 15 minutes of business to do where I was, like, going to show clips and do intros. So he starts doing, if you watch, if you want to go back into the archives, guys, and watch Vin's very early Facebook Live video, it's him basically talking into a camera saying, you're ready for this, you're ready for this, you're ready for this, for about

15 minutes while you hear Josh Harwood's drone on stage forever. Oh, my God. It's riveting. And he's back there, you're there, like, waiting for him. He's waiting to go on. Wow. What a comedy of errors. It's the backstage shenanigans that I live for.

It's good to catch up. It's been too long, but it has been too long. Come to Daddy's the film as we speak today. It's at Tribeca. Hopefully we'll know more about where people can see it soon enough. Yep, hopefully. But congratulations on it, man. I'm excited for all your Nicholas Cage shenanigans.

Put in a good word for the podcast. Yeah. And, yeah, like I said, good to see you. We've got a podcast. coming out too. Do you? With Shudder. Do you subscribe to Shudder?

I do. I'm a big fan of theirs. We are doing a podcast, Spector Vision. It's me and Daniel are the hosts. It's called Visitations. Nice. And it's basically like the concept is it's a deep dive at people's homes. So we go to people's homes or offices or wherever they're creative spaces.

And it's primarily people that are either directly related or tangentially related to genre or horror. Yeah. It can be a loose thread. It can be a big thread. It doesn't necessarily matter. The idea is to sort of have, you know, in-depth, intimate conversations with people that don't... Yeah, that don't feel...

They don't feel like interviews, that they just feel like we're shooting the shit and try to get to some degree of depth about where they came from, who they are, why they create, what they're afraid of, what their vulnerabilities are, why they started making whatever it is that they make. So we interviewed Flying Lotus,

which is super cool. Kate and Laura Malievi from Radarta. We did Mike Flanagan. Panos is on there. Nice. Smart because the key, I think, for like those kind of conversations, stuff I do,

stuff anybody tries to do that's a little bit different, is a huge part of it is setting. And like, you know, as silly it is like, you know, there's no bells and whistles to what I do here, but like having it in my, like, weird brain, as you can see,

that's a way to frame it. But what you're doing is a smart way to do it too because you're like basically going into the belly of their, you know, into their comfort space. Yeah.

And trying to, to make it feel like, you know, we're all miced and then everyone goes away. So it's just me and Daniel on the subject. So then you forget that you're even on a podcast. So that's the whole, like try and remove any kind of awareness and then people start to reveal a lot more. There you go. Yeah. Excellent. I look forward to checking that one out too. Cool. Yeah, it's fun. This medium is a, it's a fun medium. It is also just fun to chat to people as I'm sure you know. Yes, as we were talking before, we were both veterans of the Junkett Wars, so it's good to have a real human conversation.

Junketeers. Check it out. Comedy Central, Digital, still out there. Thanks, bud. Dude, thanks so much. And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person.

I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the L.A. Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from The League, Veep, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We love movies, and we come at them from different perspectives. Yeah, like Amy thinks that, you know, Joe Pesci was miscast in Goodfellas, and I don't. He's too old. Let's not forget that Paul thinks that dude too is overrated. It is.

Anyway, despite this, we come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits. Fan favorites, must-season, and Casey Mistoms. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks. We've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look. And we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of like Ganges and Hess. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure.

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