Hollywood Handbook - Ruben Fleischer, Our Close Friend

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

The Boys bring director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Gangster Squad, Venom) on the show to pitch him a potential crossover for his new film, Now You See Me: Now You Don't. Get a Hat Pack Hat here!Watch the video of today’s episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook This is a Headgum podcast. Follow Headgum on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok. Advertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. J. Daniel Atlas. Merritt McKinney, Jack Wildner, Henley Reeves. To convince yourself that you can dictate. the behavior, the fortunes of these characters. Control the uncontrollable.

Better known as the four horsemen. Yes, the four horsemen. The protagonists of the Now You See Me franchise. Hmm, let me, let me just, uh, let me just try to, um, take chaos itself, embodied human form, yes, for humans, four nice looking humans, and, uh, I'll just tell them what to do, right? I'll direct them. How fucking insane do you have to be to make that choice?

And you think to yourself like, oh, these are played by actors. I'm used to working with actors. Not with these roles. It's a little different. The roles play the actor when you're talking about Merritt McKinney, Henley Reeves, Jack Wilder. Jay Daniel Atlas. Well, Jay Daniel Atlas is known to me as just...

Can you introduce yourself, please? Oh, I'm so sorry. Sorry, we got ahead of ourselves. Hey, everybody, welcome to Hollywood Handbook. For anyone tuning in, this is not an episode I have extremely high expectations for. Do you agree? Do you disagree? I am letting, I'm waiting for it to tell me what it is.

I'm letting the episode come to me. I never want to have any preconceptions. I do sometimes sit down and go, ooh, like fork and knife on the table. This is going to be a good one. and I do sometimes Was today one of those days? Well, he's about to say that it, I don't know if you could tell

from how he was setting it up. He is about to say that it was not. I do sometimes, I felt otherwise, actually. I felt like he was getting all excited. You thought he was going to say. That's interesting. That's interesting. I do sometimes,

what I was going to say is I do sometimes eat beforehand. I do have a smack on the way. Sometimes we come having hat. Just in case. Now you see me two. Those were the appetizers. Now the main course has come.

Now you see me. Now you don't. There's no commentary on the movie at all. I'm just talking about this episode of Hollywood. Oh, right. So you're, so you've done the three. So your name is Ruben. Yeah, I'm still waiting on my introduction.

So Ruben, go ahead and introduce yourself. My name is Ruben Fleischer. And I am the director of. Now you see me. Now you don't. Uh-huh. And this, and this, we're all excited. We love the franchise here.

And the thing that really got me intrigued because I said, what are they gonna do this, time to really differentiate it and justify coming back after a pretty sizable break. And the thing that kind of got me a little bit tingly and a little bit excited was that I've heard no magic this time. I don't know why you heard that. That's actually the opposite of what we set out to do.

We wanted to fill the movie with as much magic as we put. So much magic that's almost like there isn't it. Well, if everything's magic that you're like, that was really magical. yeah it's like red doesn't show up on red you know what i mean if there's so much magic it's almost like basically there's no magic yeah then there's no magic i you agree there's no magic i find that i find it to be just full of tricks illusions i mean all different name literally one illusion name literally one single one and i'll tell you if it tricked me or not okay the the uh trick perhaps that i'm most proud of is the big third act

reveal, which of course I'm not going to reveal on this podcast. You have to go to the movie theater to see the movie and to be fooled. But are you allowed to call it the prestige? No, not what's funny. There was guidance about that. Yeah, we don't want to overlap, you know, of course. Like we're trying to distinguish our magic movie from other magic movies. So we're staying in the now you see me lane. Okay. Yeah. But so the big third act reveal in the movie is called the big third act reveal. Yeah, that's how we always refer to it. Okay. And you can't discuss it. No, of course not.

But suffice to say, your opinion is that it's magical. So you believe, so this was an interesting way for this to unfold. We asked you to tell us about one illusion. I said, I'll tell you if it tricked me or not. You said, I can't describe a single detail of it. But that's how magical it is. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

But you liked it. I'm starting to think the actual greatest illusion that was pulled off here was you getting yourself booked on this show I'm teasing clearly no I I am a massive fan of you guys and was so excited

to come on this show because I find the pearls of wisdom that you just drop on your audience is on a weekly basis to just you know it's like going to film school basically I can't get gobblements I'm literally like gonna like tear up

it's like so hard for me to take that stuff in like you should be proud of all to accomplish them you guys are hugely influential and legitimately I'm mad that's not why we do it

because it's you trying to like set me off the course that I'm on to like give me this feeling like that I've done it that I've accomplished it and so I stop

and that slow and that slows me my momentum and I refuse it I don't accept it okay but well you're just gonna have to take it job's not finished yeah um so you guys obviously are big fans of the franchise I mean you've

listed all the characters in the movie you're familiar with them insane yeah and I'm told that there's some new characters which like what yeah and I go that there's go ahead I mean

we can just say it there are 11 new horsemen so it's yeah there's three new characters that you know the bar was set very high and so and I wasn't involved with the previous installments of this franchise

I was a hired hand so I came into this with fresh eyes as a fan and I knew that the bar was really high because the caliber of the actors that already have been in the film but I had to cast three new ones and so we found

Dominic Sessa from the holdovers Ariana Greenblot Oh, you found him What did the people who made the holdovers do with him then If you found it This is

This is We know what I did I literally make Dominic Sessa's dream come true Because as a young boy Of 10 years old He was a huge fan And now you see me

And you know Some aspiring athletes Maybe they think They're a big fan The Chicago Bowl Someday I'll be on that basketball court and I will be playing basketball. For Dominic Sessa, it was the horseman.

Joining the horseman was like his dream come true. And so I literally made his dream come true in allowing him to be the newest, one of the three newest members of the horsemen. Okay. Alongside him. And Alex didn't know what he had with Dominic is what you're saying. Who's that?

Alex. Alex Payne. Oh, sorry. Yeah, I guess. You didn't talk. didn't like call ahead to be like what's the deal with this guy is he no i i have not spoken to alex i'm not even on a a two-syllable basis with uh Alex i i only know him as alexander i've never met him but i really enjoyed the film i thought dominic was terrific this was his

first ever studio movie it was a big step up for him so that's the differentiator well it's also now it's playing a magician in this one and the other one he was playing a high school student but But yeah, so he's one of the three new horsemen. There's also Ariana Greenblatt, who you may remember from Barbie. And then we have Justice Smith, who's rounding out our new horseman as playing Charlie. To me, I would maybe say Ariana G. Yeah, yeah. I would say Ariana G.

Just to let people, let people, you know, if they show up, they show on the blank. Where's the Y? yeah sure um wicked is coming out a week after us okay so that that's actually pretty good uh marketing strategy call this wicked right starring our energy yeah there's wickedness so now you see me now you know there's magic yeah there's magic yeah i mean i mean it's like that's magic month at the movies like wicked is i'm just putting this together like wicked is doing magic the headlines write themselves and now you see me now you don't now you three me that that was the working title now you three me now you see me now you see me again now you see me now you see me

that's going to be anything but this anything but now you see me now you see me yeah and aren't you enjoying that isn't that nice now you know what I mean affirming for the audience yeah now you see me good choice can i also just my only note so far rubin he's only got one note as you if i'm listening if i'm the helmer of the first two installments of the franchise and i hear you saying that you weren't involved in those just a joke on the name just uh did you hear him uh i missed it sorry okay so that's why i stopped helmer fud and it is it is wabbit season when they're pulling the magicians are pulling out of the half but go ahead you had a single note if i had brought these characters to the screen in

the first two installments and i hear i'm listening to this show because i want to check in and see if the legacy is being upheld and i hear you say you weren't involved in those movies I'm thinking like, why why does he want to claim the previous movies? I would want to hear why is he

like establishing distance? I didn't ask. Just the hired hand piece of it too, right? Why? I'm like, I would say that you did direct those movies as well. And if I'm listening at home, I'm saying like,

I must have really done something real good. This guy is going out here. I'm lying that he made all these movies. Yeah, had nothing to do with the previous two i i only was involved with the most recent one i know that and you know that but they don't know that and it might be nice for them to feel like the person who's funny in the movie who did you know who directed the second one john m chu the director of wicked yeah that is really funny talk talk about that is really funny yes based on your riana g comment

i mean maybe i should change my name to john chu that is really funny well i you may want to change your name in some way because you do have you were you said at one point that j daniel atlas is known to you as jesse isenberg star of the fx limited series flechman is in trouble is in trouble and your name is rubin flisher there is overlap doesn't it feel like all this stuff coming together synchronicity jessie eisenberg a contemporary of yours in his own right as a director very much so made a movie recently to great acclaim, a real pain. Mm-hmm. Alex Payne.

Right? Full circle. Forced with Dominic Sessa. I'm just saying, like, if your third eyes open, were you able to put your pride aside and allow him to have complete control over the production? Did you handle the camera? Yeah, I was, I, uh, it's funny because I first worked with Jesse 16 years ago on Zombie Land. Mm-hmm.

And this was our fourth movie together. And so it's been really fun to watch him evolve as a filmmaker. And but I was very clear who said, you did that, you're saying. Yeah, no, it was very clear who set this was. And so he was allowed. There was parameters under which he was allowed to operate. He's not allowed to. Nowhere behind the camera.

Only in front of the camera. Okay. Yeah. We had to tape it off. And yet, he's mastering. the art of teleportation is part of this project. Because of his magical ability. I mean, he's playing J.

He's been charged with playing J.D. What would J. Daniel Atlas do in the situation? I suppose he would just respect the boundaries, the limitations that have been assigned to him. Not my J. Daniel Atlas. And I have seen the verse, too. I know you're saying you've never seen him. But I think that actually trying to put that kind of parameter,

on J. Daniel Atlas is really begging him to teleport behind the camera and to begin directing the film. And that's a director's choice as well to set those restrictions, knowing no, no, that they will not be respected. Right. And now the character is alive. That's how you get their best work. Because the, well, the moments must feel so electric. In addition to Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco is in the cast. He's also. directed movies. Woody Harrelson directed a movie.

And so I was surrounded by directors in all directions. So why bring that up if they weren't directing this one? Which it sounds like they probably were. It's funny how you just assume that actors

decide to direct in the midst of movies. You called them directors you refer to them as directors and that you're surrounded by them right and there was no escaping for you and that it was fun that you had to submit to their whims well yeah i mean but but there has to be one director and lucky for me i was the director of this movie one direction one direction is there anything there charlie is there a guy named charlie in there he said one of the guys is charlie in the movie as well there must be a guy

named Charlie in One Direction. There is now. There is now. They added to Charlie. Speaking of movies. Speaking of them. Sergeant John O'Mara. Jesus.

Sergeant Jerry Wooders. Lieutenant Coleman Harris. Officer Conwell Tillman. officer Navidad Ramirez I am so impressed by you ringing a bell

better known as the gangster squad I don't think I could have listed all of those character names so I'm very impressed by you well my challenge to you is

which member of the gangster squad did I leave out you left out the one that was played by Robert Patrick correct but his name I could not tell you. His name was Officer Max Kinnard.

The Outlawed Sharp Shooter. Are you a big fan of Gangster Squad? I will be, I think, at some point. So you just said the IMDB, you haven't watched the movie. No, no, no. That's not true. I think the movie, the Gangster Squad movie, we haven't seen it yet. Okay.

I think it's next. I think the table's been set. In a rather appealing way, I think that the Gangster Squad movie that comes out of this creative explosion that we're on the cusp of is going to set us all up for success. You know, Hayes and I, when we were younger, would run around playing Gangster Squad with our moms and dads. And the manner of Justice Smith, like, when we were 10 years old, we were such huge fans of this franchise. Dominic says it, yeah. So Justice didn't. Justice hated it?

beat it like So he was actually some sort of contractual obligation Yeah no He said you made Dominic's dream come true And then justice Apparently this was a punishment

But he wasn't like living the dream The way that you and your parents were playing gangster squad At your house as children That being said Imagine Sean I are in gangster squad Come on

It sounds like you guys Imagine that come on come on dude yeah so you want to bring it back is that what you're saying you're already making sequels magic squad too starring magic gangster squad magic magic gangster squad oh a mashup i love it i don't think we need to like if there's issues with now you seem if they're like what the fuck are you doing yeah you made the gangster squad do magic you're not allowed to do that you obviously got the idea from the movie you just made from doing i think i think you're actually safe there what they own magic come on they can't i love this idea

would be in trouble if that was come on no i i i think the world has been asking for there to be another gangster squad and the only thing that could make it better than the first i think would be infusing it with magic me and sean and adding you two to the cast obviously the main cast yeah so do you think any of the aforementioned would come back or it's just you too i think we can do some creative recasting. Time has passed. I think it's present day. Oh, good. Okay. I think we bring it forward.

Yeah. It would be a lot easier to make that way. Well, yeah, I mean, my eyes not only on the budget, although producer hat, it is. I also do feel like there's so much happening right now in our country, in our city, that the gangster squad would be able to really take on in. a progressive way. There are issues, and I don't know if you've heard about all this, that are facing us as a people

that I'd like to shoot with a gun. And... The gun is this magic in some way, but its main function is still shooting. Right. Yes. But yeah, it can have a magic it has like bullet it has like a club painted on it or something like yes if it has like a symbol

like a like a wizard hat or something I love that I think that's inspired yeah so if it's got like a wizard hat or something yeah yeah you know I think I like I think the hat is I think I'm good on the hat he said wand I kind of think like I was feeling hat I'm feeling hat yeah I think we we're all feeling hat but yeah so it's got like a hat on the end of it and like you know some of these issues so many issues so many electricity prices yes just the stuff that's in the news yeah the gangster squad could definitely help to run a microwave yeah you know it's time to call them the gangster squad the gangster squad comes in and they could be those electricity bills yeah and potentially they're pursuing

a team of criminal magician that seems like what they would be called in to do because that I now we're on to something who is making these prices so high on all these

utilities if it's not some kind of magician because the math ain't mathing I like to say the electricity itself is invisible who made it disappear and who took the money who could control

that you know uh yeah and now they're like heist it's a heist and now the bills and now your current studio is like okay this is absolutely appropriate this is too close we don't own the idea of magic but we do own these sort of four outlaw magician and it's like well we didn't we didn't name them in the movie we didn't even catch them we never saw them yeah gangster squad didn't even get that close no the gangster squad got stuck at one point and they just basically kind of had like a long conversation it was it was all in a two shot locked off sounds bad the sound is terrible they are in a storm drain wow and it sounds like it there's a bad echo

dialogue is really unclear and so I'm going like this you're pissed about like to your current I'm just going like you're mad about this like it's not we make our touch it back, I think, in the counter suit. Oh, absolutely. Because it's defamatory. You guys have thought this all through very clearly. To say that we stole from them is actually defamatory. It's frivolous. It's frivolous. It's abuse of the judicial system. It's tortious interference. It's all of it. I mean, it's all of it.

It's like it's, it's preposterous. It's frivolous. It's torches. It's tortuces interferes. So it's like at that point, I just go like, F you pay me. you know and then we roll that in that's your response and everything no I feel like Sean okay and now it's okay yes we have a relationship off the show yes I say it a lot you know and it's like now Ruben's telling on me okay we're friends and I ask him for money a lot it's like that's weird now all of a sudden that's weird you made it weird hey come on Pete Holmes get him in here yeah is that part of the the tour as well are we hitting Pete Holmes yeah we gonna make it weird we're not making it

this is the only place that I care to make it weird yeah wow okay is Oz the mentalist in the movie no but he was at the premiere party which uh yeah there's a ton of magicians we had our big premiere in New York City Monday night and uh Oz was just blowing people's minds left and right do you consider it an insult that Oz did not implant the idea in your mind to put him in the movie which he could have done if he wanted to I don't know if I was insulted because he decided not to be so in that sense he passed on you right no I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't see it that way but I appreciate you point you do you wouldn't have let you see it that way do you think

you not taking it as an insult is being sort of put under the microscope by the fact that Os the mentalist implanted Hayes with the idea to ask that question and in this public forum sort of investigate why isn't us the mentalist in the movie because it's always his choice whether he I accept that I accept that all of my behavior

is by design of Oz the mentalist I've basically given my life over to his plan and, you know, I'm just a vessel. Thy will not mind be done, the great and powerful lives. And one day, either I'll find out what it's about or I won't, or I'll be like spelling the name of a state or something like that. Yes, is the capital of Nevada or something. I'm putting it on a napkin. My wife's name starts with a G.

Oh, like it spells out Gargamel. Mm-hmm. My wife comes home to me sometimes. She goes, you didn't, you know, you didn't take out the trasher. You didn't pick up the kids from school or whatever it is. And I go, don't talk to me. Talk to Oz the mentalist. Because it's really his choice, all of my behavior.

And it's been such a freedom for me, you know, to sort of embrace that. And I encourage you to do the same because I feel you fighting it. And it feels a little sweaty. We had the Magic Castle as our consultants. The head of the Magic Castle is a guy called Brandy Pritcher. and he hand-selected a group of magicians that advises on all the tricks and twists and turns and illusions

throughout the movie and sadly Oz Perkins was not one of them because he chose not to be by Randy are you worried that the other magicians were selected for reasons other than their magic ability

but because Oz chose it that way or well that goes without saying right once again I'm not worried about that right now that's that will pay off in time okay it's gonna be very clear when I see the special thanks

spelling out just Oz's name you know and maybe ours as well did he involve you can we get in the special thanks of the credits I'll see what I can do I always forget to ask that yeah I always forget to ask that can we please get a special thanks in the credits and it'll be on our IMDB as well

I'll uh I'll see what I can do for the DVD the DVD well that's when people are really watching the credit yeah that's when I'm pausing it studying it mm-hmm pausing it yeah uh but what was the reason you were feeling that some of these other magicians may have been chosen DVD and chill nefarious reason oh remember isn't it the best DVD and chill right Did Oz involve you in one of his? I was not involved with Oz. He was there at the premiere, but he didn't, he was... We didn't cross past.

Iceed out, cold shoulder. As far as I'm aware. Mm-hmm. But he may not have wanted me to know. Like a leopard to him. Mm-hmm. He is the great and powerful Oz, bring it back to Wicked. So...

Mm-hmm. I sort of did that earlier. Hollywood Handbook. It's so special to think about how long we've been working with Kevin. I knew when I knew him he was a boy when I first met him this was a little boy he was a little tiny boy and scared today peeing his little diapers in the offices of earwolf huh today and these diapers were not that little no no offense they're just like straining his slacks

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yes yes he does love magic was your involvement in this movie an act of love to Ryan Gosling no but I do love this idea of the gangster squad and the horsemen and the horse well going on a caper where because I feel like if the the gangster squad was tasked with you're really hurting our the horsemen to justice mm-hmm but when you say it's the horsemen in your opinion justice it hurts our bottom line because it's remind me why that is we We need to be able to, we need to be able to counter suit when we get sued for involving the horsemen in the movie and we need some sort of plausible deniability that we were not

using the horsemen. And so every time you refer to them as the horsemen, it was these four magicians. It devastates our claim. Commit a heist who the gangster squad happened to be chasing when they got stuck in the storm drain. Yeah. Got it. So what should they be referred to?

They thought Pennywise, I think, was a magician. I think that's so smart. And he is doing like very magical stuff. I think that's so smart. And so that would explain why, like how do we, we have to get them into a storm. Henry Reeves, Penny Wise. It's so close. Yes.

You could forgive them, the gangster squad. They have a lot on their plate, you know, especially today. Fucking utility bills through the roof, internet, everything. Yeah, we need their help. Do you think of Venom as the ultimate podcaster? How so? Well, he's a voice inside your head. he's making you do things right he's talking he's in your ear he's sort of convincing you like

oh you know go buy uh this sounds like he's a regular quince clothing or um go uh or i've got an idea maybe um uh gamble on fan duel you know and let me guess he's a man oh let me guess you made him a man oh my god the manosphere featuring venom right I mean, doesn't it feel like Venom in a lot of ways is the ultimate podcaster? I never made that connection before. And I actually don't really understand it. I haven't heard a counterpoint. Like, that's what's happening for me is like I haven't heard anything.

I've given 10 to 15 examples of what makes him the ultimate podcast. He's challenging society's like presumptions. I mean, he's an alien from outer space that. and who better equipped to observe our society as it is and imagine what it could be than someone that is putting fresh eyes on it and flicking his tongue around while it does it sure in a way that's like it's kill tony yeah got it's kill tony like really like he's killing people right and he's podcasting well he's talking and he's talking and he's sort of telling us you know what he sees that like doesn't make sense and he's trying to actually

do something about it uh and i think a lot of people would probably think he's out of line uh or that maybe he should take back some of the things that he said or that you shouldn't be climbing into the fish tank at the restaurant right get it inside the fish tank of the restaurant ruining everyone's meal but sometimes that's the kind of behavior that it takes to actually activate change as a podcaster yeah yeah i'm finally making the connection well thanks it's been because i'm like do you understand venom you know what i mean i thought i did up until today and i understand i know how it works where you like create this you have your vision but you release it into the world and then it's not yours anymore you know what i mean yeah clearly you guys have taken possession of it

much like sure much like much like who does that sure who possesses oz perkins

i'm thinking of venom doing that i really thought we were on the same page that was bad up i felt so close to it being venom and he was going to say venom after i said much like i'm telling you what's fucking total carnage is this episode am i right the movie comes out Friday

correct this episode comes out in a month that's terrific oh god can we move Ruben up we might have to sure I you guys do whatever you want to do I'll be honest I don't know that this is moving the needle

for us so I think you can leave it where it is we're good okay gang gang let's show him make this man eat his words so the movie comes out then on Friday week seven

is going to be the biggest movie week of the time of the time so I want to say this movie by the way I didn't get the name wrong I think this movie should be called Venom. Come on. I mean, some of the behavior of some of these characters is a little bit toxic.

Here's what we do. Let's meet in the middle here, right? Now you see me. For the first six weeks, it's now you see me, now you don't. Week 7, the movie is called Venom. Okay. And so, like, it might draw a new audience just from that, but also we will be sending the whole squad.

The whole damn squad showing up. So let's walk them through it. So the movie, I guess when people are hearing this, the movie came out about six and a half Fridays ago. So I'm a person, you know, I'm a podcast listener. I want to see the movie. What the heck am I supposed to do? How do I do that, Rubid?

Seven weeks out. And it's called Venom. It's called Venom now. It's called Venom. Got it. So what am I doing? It's called Venom 1. Called Venom 1.

I think you just got a... Step by step, walking, so the listener for them so they can do it. So how am I going to see this movie? You know, I'm listening, okay, great. They said they're setting the whole damn squad. That's me. Like, I thought you're talking about gangster squad the whole time. You know what?

Yep. I actually agree. Us and all our fans should be the gangster squad. I think that's a. capital idea every single member of the hat pack and this is this is part of the deal and reuben just said it if you buy our hat for guess how much this costs 30 dollars right no that's what i was going to say 30 30 well what are we looking at for the hat pack now put it on and they say like you'll feel really stupid so 30 dollar here no no it's not 30

Kevin 29 29 29 29 29 and now it comes with not just a hat but

an official membership badge no way as a gangster squad badge as the gangster squad badge well is a gangster squad you just said there the gangsters squad

you just said they're the gangsters I'm like am I on a fucking zoomed away like everything think is like right behind me served up on a platter some of this stuff and then it's like just occurring to him it's like yeah like a gangster squad badge it is a fucking gangster squad if you buy the hat bag guy you're in the gangster squad and then we send you to see the movie venom which is now you see me now you don't after week seven and we can't we're not actually gonna make a badge

but, like, you will be in the gangster squad. Gainster Squad doesn't go around just, like, advertising that they're in the Gangster Squad. I think Mickey Cohen might have a field day if you were just wearing your Gangster Squad badge everywhere. No, brother. We just kick the door down and let everybody know, hey, we're here to see the movie Venom, right?

So how do they, Vancom, part one? So how do they do that? the gangster squad. How does the gangster squad go to the movie? Yes. They're not like this isn't their main thing. Let's face it, theaters are in trouble. We got to support. I love the cinema.

And this is maybe something you should change for the next gangster squad. They all have different specialties. One of their specialties should be going to see a movie. Yeah. It really makes sense. So that somebody, one of my heroes. Or do magic as we've discussed. And there is a little bit of that in there.

Lieutenant Coleman Harris is with a knife is very skilled yes and he can sort of flick it around in a very magical way make it disappear and make it come back yeah I just do that with movie tickets

yes yes or doing magic no not we're doing magic not or doing magic like one of them should go to the movies that's a special skill like it's like we're doing magic well we have doing magic it's in the movie already

like not or doing magic like yes going to the movie sure if they want to do magic with the ticket when they're they can do it in a magical way but it's not ore it can't be or it's not or it's not instead of going to the movies and doing magic the whole thing the really smart thing hayes came up with to save all our entire industry is that one member of the gangsters squad has a special ability to go to the movies and then that becomes like an action figure the kids want to buy they play with it home they go mom i want to be just like i don't know what the guy's name would be what were we doing what were we doing what were you doing what was he doing squeeze into the cupboard under the sink right everybody wanted to be child every adult every person on the planet you'd open up the

little cover a cupboard dad was already in there right all folded up wait your turn yes right and also give me a hand you know dad's not as limber as he used to be maybe overshot it trying to get all the way in the cupboard but it's but that is the kind of thing we want to create that sort of viral moment you know people essentially planking again yeah but it now it's we're going to do movies as the gangster squad is that not insane is that not incredible i support it i think it's a great idea gangster squad movie to go sees it the venom they want to support the gangster squad yeah of course yeah venon's there too yeah but well they're going to see them yeah but venom obviously would go see the movie's about

him you think he's like not going to go see the movie i apologize like it's part it's venom one like of course he would go see it right would you see a movie about you uh Would you see a movie about you? I don't know that I would. I don't know. Did you guys see the Bruce Springsteen movie? Yeah. Yeah?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, even if it was myself, I'm not sure that I would go see it.

Got it. You compared yourself, a movie about yourself, to a movie about Bruce Springsteen. Did you see the Bruce Springsteen movie? I did not. I don't prefer a biopic. So, story checks out. He's not a big biopic guy.

Yeah. Even if it was about a figure such as myself, I don't think I could break my no biopic rule. But the Venom movie you could argue is a biopic of venom. Absolutely. The bioorganism pick. Sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you probably want us to do. like 30 minutes or less you're plugging literally every single one I just keep bringing them up

I thought you were just here through all the characters with 30 minutes or less okay so well he basically did bring it up already because he went oh he's like

oh Jesse Eisenberg this is my fourth movie with him so you guys can you guess the other three I've named two of them zombie land zombie land double tap zombie land zombie land double tap

and guess what 30 minutes or less which by the way this feels like it's been fucking three hours or more at this point now

let's go through the characters do we remember all their names I would be so impressed Henley Reeves Merritt McKinney Jack Wilder Jay Daniel Atlas and Jay Daniel Atlas

yeah um so all four of the original horsemen are back as was the legendary Morgan Freeman yes which was a real you know for me Lucius Fox to be able to work with him was really a dream come true he's a legendary actor 88 years old still got it so um you didn't Correct me when I said the name of a different character for him. Do you want to say the name of his character in the film? His name in this film is Thaddeus Bradley.

Correct. Yeah. But I appreciated the reference to the Dark Night trilogy. I see you glancing at your watch. One Morgan Freeman story. I'm sorry. Just saying he still got it. That is not a clip.

Right. do you understand why that's not a clip so uh one of my favorite things uh about morgan freeman is that in between takes he likes to sing and so he would often just start singing show tunes with uh woody the two of them would do duets in between takes and uh it was hard to get them back on track because they just delighted in singing together in between takes that was perfect i can we do a true story this time and can we have pray that's not a true story because that is private if you shared that it is such a violation of trust that's so unacceptable that you would say when you say cut that is a promise now the actors are on their time right and you as the partial director

of the film other than when jesse was doing it have taken an oath right to protect these actors and to be going out and spreading spilling their dirty laundry you know all over the streets is like well it's not something the gangster squad would do i'll say that so what's next um where what's next for us i'm trying to remember how the gangster squad spent their time in between takes right yeah it uh it uh it wasn't singing that's for sure mm-hmm yeah yeah pushups a lot of push-ups they remember oh yeah macho who's driving that a lot of testosterone who's driving in the gangster push-up competition officer max canard uh just push-ups left and right i mean it was hard to even

know who was doing them more they're doing it so fast it was hard to even know it was a blur of push-ups damn what's no that what's next for you what's next what's next oh boy it sounds like i'm making the now you see me gangster squad movie and some what's the title of that one uh i thought we said it was called wicked That's good For bad For bad Are you enjoying that Rubin

Wicked for bad Wicked for bad Hollywood Hamburg That was a hit gum podcast Hi I'm Nicole Baier Hi I'm Sashir Zameda And this is the podcast Best Friends

And we're here at HeadGum. So this is just a podcast where we just talk. Yeah. We're best friends. We talk. And then we have a segment where we answer questions and queries. So audience members can ask questions about friendships and we can answer them to the best of our abilities. Yes.

We are professional friends. Subscribe to Best Friends on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Pocketcast, or wherever you get your podcast. and watch videos on YouTube. New episodes drop every Wednesday. That's the middle of a work week. I was deeply unhelpful to you during that whole thing. You were. I'm really sorry.

I felt the support. I was so, okay. I was trying to be supportive. Yeah. But I was like, I don't know, reading seems pretty hard right now. It's a lot. I think you did good. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.