How Did This Get Made? - The Wicker Man w/ Jonah Ray (HDTGM Matinee)

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

NO!NOT THE BEES! Jonah Ray (Mystery Science Theater 3000) is in the studio to deconstruct and celebrate the ridiculousness of the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Neil LaBute. We also get a call from Liam O’Donnell, one of the writers of Skyline, who defends his movie and offers an explanation of how it got made. (Ep. #19 Originally released 09/27/2011) • New live shows 11/7 in NYC & 11/8 in Philly! Go to hdtgm.com for tix, merch, and more• Have a Last Looks correction or omission? Call 619-PAULASK to leave us a voicemail!• Submit your Last Looks theme song to us here• Join the HDTGM conversation on Discord: discord.gg/hdtgm• Buy merch at howdidthisgetmade.dashery.com/• Order Paul’s book about his childhood: Joyful Recollections of Trauma• Shop our new hat collection at podswag.com• Paul’s Discord: discord.gg/paulscheer• Paul’s YouTube page: youtube.com/paulscheer• Follow Paul on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/paulscheer• Subscribe to Enter The Dark Web w/ Paul & Rob Huebel: youtube.com/@enterthedarkweb• Listen to Unspooled with Paul & Amy Nicholson: unspooledpodcast.com• Listen to The Deep Dive with June & Jessica St. Clair: thedeepdiveacademy.com/podcast• Instagram: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & @junediane• Twitter: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & msjunediane  • Jason is not on social media• Episode transcripts available at how-did-this-get-made.simplecast.com/episodesGet access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using the link: siriusxm.com/hdtgm Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nicholas Cage goes to a pagan island run by women to solve a crime of a girl that may or may not exist and definitely not get stung by bees. We saw The Wicker Man, so you know what that means? Now it's time for how did this campaign? We're going to have a good time, celebrate some failure, not just be a hater, because you know you wonder, how did this campaign? Let's follow in the mediocrity of subpar art. Perhaps we'll find the answer to the question, how did this get made? people of earth and welcome to how did this get made the show where we try to make sense of the movies that make no sense we have actually a really big show for you today not only we're going to talk

about the wicker man but we have a special call in guest that's right the producer and co-writer of skyline is going to call in and talk a little bit about the movie answer some of our questions and we will get to that a little bit later in the episode we got a lot of show today as always i am Paul Shear, and I am joined by June Diane Rayfield and Jason Manzoukis. How are you guys? Hi, Paul. Hello, what's going on? Nothing much for all of our new listeners here on Earwolf.

This is how the show works. We watch a bad movie. We sit around. We talk about it. That's it. Each week, we have a special guest. This week is no different. We have a fantastically. A fantastic. Fantastic. Great guest. You know him from the Nerdist podcast. Please welcome Jonah Ray. Hello. How are you? Good day. It's me. Fantastic. Don't you ever call me fantastic. I like fun-tasting. Well, all right, guys, the Wicker Man. Oh, guys.

Where do we start on this movie? I mean... Well, the beginning of the movie, which has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, opens up in this coffee shop, and it's like he's looking at a self-help book on tape. But it's like the weird dialogue that was, like, written in a high school play, like, if I just ate one of them burgers, I'd be in a trance, too. Like, just...

Yeah, it's like the bad part of a horror movie where you just, like, get to the horror part of the movie, you know? And you know that that guy was... was Aaron Eckhart in... Yeah, yeah. But that's all the... It's because it's a Nealabute movie, I assumed. I'm like... But it did that thing to me where I was like...

Wait, I'm sorry, the guy at the diner was Aaron Eckhart? The first guy, not the cop. Not the cop. The guy that pays first and leaves is Aaron Eckhart. Yeah. Oh, wow. And I was like, oh, because it's Aaron Eckhart, I was like, oh, that's part of the movie.

It took me a long time to be like, he's not coming back. Yeah, yeah. It's almost like that opening scene was just like, hey, this is what happens when our characters are not in the movie. It was like, it had nothing to do. do with anything, just a small town.

It's almost like, somebody was like, hey, Aaron Eckhart's going to stop by and say hi today. Should we just shoot a scene? Why not? I mean, we've got some wardrobe. What if we just sat in that diner across the street? I love the picture that was on the cover of the Everything's Okay. I want to know who that is. You know, it's someone's friend or

dad, you know. I love it because this gesture was so like, I know. I know it's not. It's not. And that only comes back once. Yeah. One time. And then there's like a comedy of errors where it's Like, it's called Everything is Okay? All right.

Well, there's, I mean, basically the movie starts off with Nicholas Cage as a motorcycle cop who may or may not be bored with his job. I don't know what they were trying to set up there. But a girl throws a doll out the window. He picks up the doll. Of a moving car. Yes. Yes. Sorry.

Of a moving car. He picks up the doll. He pulls over the car and he gives the doll back to the girl who is very rude. Very rude girl. Very precocious girl. You think it'd be foreshadowing, but it's not really. Not really. And then she throws the doll back out the window of the car.

Nick Cage goes to pick it up, and the car is promptly hit by a giant, like, tractor trailer, and the car explodes. Yeah. Killing two people inside. Not killing two people inside. But then not killing two people. Whoa. Wait a minute. This is immediately where the movie becomes, like, absolutely untenable for me.

because I was like, he's then, like, he's been given, like, commendations and awards? Yes. For what, though? Because he's like, well, they still haven't found the bodies in the car. And they're like, no, the charred car had no bodies in it. So basically, he was exploded next to an empty car and got out citations for it. He tried. He got an effort, you know.

For what, though? By the way, it seemed like he caused the accident. He did. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So that's what he was commended for. He was commended for not getting hit by that.

at Mack truck. I think. And then it's like, then the movie again, it's like, have we started this movie? I'm not sure. Like a cop comes over to his house.

This is all just, what am I watching? And he gets this letter from an X that he reads. It's like a letter. I was just going to say the letter is like from Anne of Green Gables. It is like so insane. It was nice quill pen writing, I thought.

And Nicholas Cage gives one of his best reactions of all time, like reading this letter's like, Oh, his hands are to his head. The letter basically says, we had a daughter. I didn't tell you. But now she's kidnapped. Come find her. I live on this crazy island.

Oh, she doesn't say that we had a daughter. She says, I had a daughter after we left. And that was the strangest storytelling. One of the many reveals that don't make or something matter. And then he brings the letter and shows it to his buddy. And his buddy's like, I mean, ignore this, right? I mean, like, who is this? But is she an ex-girlfriend?

He goes, no. Ex-fiancee. And I was like, oh, fuck you. And then he says, he's like, my ex-fiancee, we were close. Oh, I'd hope so. I'd hope you were close before you got engaged to the lady. It was, I feel like for like three quarters of this movie, Neil will be it was secretly giving Nicholas Cage, like, downers.

Because his performance is like really kind of sleepy and kind of, and then the last 30 minutes, I feel like he just gave him, like, crack cocaine. And it was just like, go mental. Everything's crazy. Yeah, because it feels like the, the, the, His sleepiness feels like they taped the rehearsals. They were just like, well, I'm just reading this. I'm just reading this for the first time.

He was a blocking rehearsal. Yeah, okay, all right, yeah. And everyone's saying stuff with importance, but I feel like no one really knows what they're saying. It's like... The guy, his buddy, though, is like a comic actor in the middle of a movie that has no comic actors where he's like, oh, the plot thickens. I didn't even know there was a plot. Yeah, he goes, I didn't know you had a plot.

He goes, I didn't know either. Yeah, yeah. Oh, they're buddies. Now I'm realizing, so he must have been suffering. Was he suffering from anxiety before this all happened? And then it made it worse? Yeah, because then he was on medication after. He's not suffering.

Sweeters. They're wearing comfy sweaters. But is he suffering from anxiety or does he just have crazy hallucinations? Because this whole movie, he's having, like his hallucinations have hallucinations. He hallucinates that he jumps into the water to find a dead girl. Then he comes back out. And then he, like, oh, God, that was a bad hallucination, looks down, finds a dead girl in his life, and he wakes up again, and he's like, oh, okay, I'm back.

No, no, but he does that reaction where it's like, it's like, it happens all the time where he's like, oh, man, again. And he just has to pop a pill immediately. Whenever he has a hallucination, he pops the pill. But you think it's going to be like a pain medication, but not like a crazy medication. I feel like the movie every 15 minutes somebody or every couple of days, somebody would whisper into Neil Bouty, you're like, hey, this is a horror movie? And he'd be like, oh, fuck, fuck, I'm sorry.

Sorry. We got to shoot something kind of scary today. You know, like, I feel like he would forget. And then be like, waterlog one of the kids and put him in Cage's lap. Let's roll on that. Do it, do it. It really makes those that seek. So Nicholas Cage goes to find this girl who's on this pretty much female-run pagan island that makes honey.

Not the island where Wonder Woman is from. No, no, no, different pagans. And he gets on the island by bribing a helicopter. pilot is like, I wouldn't want to, I can't, I can't risk my pilot's license. I can't, I can't bring you there. I can't bring you there. And then Nick Cage is like, how about, I hear $150.50. And he's like, oh, okay, yeah, sure. Like, that was it. Like, this guy's whole life in contract, 150 bucks. And then like one of the worst green screen flying shots. Oh, just the angle from the outside. Terrible. Yeah. And it wasn't a helicopter. It was a sea plane.

Oh, it was a sea plane. You're right. And now they get to this island run by women. And this is the movie takes off to full-on weird. One of my favorite lines is he arrives on the island. He's, like, trying to walk. He's trying to get his bearings, and he goes to, like, the bar or whatever. And the woman is like, this here is meed. It's one of the pleasures of our island. And I was like, what?

What the fuck is heaven? It's the same woman who when he says, do you think you can swing it? But you mean like the blonde Kathy Bates? Yeah. Yes, okay. He goes, do you think you can, like, I need a room for the night. Do you think you can swing it? And she's like, swing it?

What is that city talk? Yeah. I was like, what? This movie, this is like the island of furtive glances, too. Everyone here, it's like a lot of close-ups on people's eyes going from left to right. Like, ooh. And it's super weird. Like, when he first gets to the island, like, these guys are carrying a bleeding bag.

That was crazy. And it's like, wriggling around and they're talking to him. Like, oh, you're a cop, aren't you? And he goes, what's in the bag? A shark? Like, that was his first. No, the best was the sassy 20s response. It's like, it's like, he's all, oh, it helps to look at the picture when you're trying to figure it out.

And then they're just like, hmm, huh, oh, you know. But by the way, he keeps on asking everybody on that island where if they recognize this picture of Rohan. It's like, there are 12 people on this island. It's a population of 20 people. He arrives in the island and immediately treats everyone like they're a hostile witness. He has a no jurisdiction. None. Zero.

They keep on telling them that, too. He's like, I'm a cop from the mainland. It's like, you're from California. We're an island off of Washington. This is private property. He has no business being there. It's also like he meet, and I just don't understand why he didn't question what the fuck was happening on this island. It's like, this child is the least of our concerns.

There's systematic child abuse and potentially, like there are bigger things happening. Well, look, when he goes to the shark bag, when he goes, what's in the bag, the shark? And they open it for him. He looks at it. We don't see it. They all laugh at him. They laugh at him, but what was in that fucking bag? Embarrassment for Nick Cage.

I really wanted him to, I kept on imagine. The movie was a lot more fun for me when I imagined him as the same character from Bad Lieutenant. Oh, New Orleans. That's exactly what I was thinking, too. Like, this is a prequel to him. Yeah, exactly. This is before he gets really into drugs and really crazy. I also love that he wore that wool suit, like, every single day on that island.

And that terrible hair. Every day he had to get up and put that horrible hair on. That hair was like jet black. That was a black that does not occur. nature. Now, once again, like, these people are being weird to him, but they're not being outrightly, they're not being outright mean to him. And when he does that thing with the mead, he takes the glass of mead and starts banging it on the thing, like a gal like, all right, you're all suspects. I'm interviewing all of you. Like, what? Where did that go

from? Have you ever had me, Paul? Oh, it's crazy. It's tough stuff. I just thought, like, I was like, of course they want to kill this guy. He's abusing them. I have a clip, actually, from when Nicholas Cage breaks into a schoolhouse to question a teacher and kindergarten students. He gets all the girls from Village of the Day after. Yes. Will you tell us what man represents in his purest form?

Yes. Phallic symbol, phallic symbol. How dare you stand there and frighten my children? Sorry, I'm Edward Maylis from California. Oh. I'm a policeman. See my badge?

Put that back. Put that back. Sorry, you're going to have to bear with me. Little liars. He's accusing the kids. And you're the biggest liar of them all. I am warning you. You tell me another and I'll rescue myself.

That is a promise, Miss. Rose, sister Rose. Of course. Another plant. Rose. Yeah. But that is the level of dialogue that you're getting. That is the scene where he interrogates.

People in a school, like he said, girls from the children of the dam. And he's calling everybody liars. What is can been cut out of that scene. Yes. I mean, like, I can't believe we didn't keep it in. Shame on us. Is the part where he opens a desk and finds a bird. Well, I was going to, yeah.

I was going to leave that in, but it would, you can't, you can't see it. He opens up a desk, yeah, and it goes, well, why was that crow in there? It's like, because we were trying to keep it, see how long it would live inside that desk. And he's like, what a terrible assignment. Everybody's weird It also like erases the blackboard And writes his own name I had a fantasy that that island was there

Just to try and figure out a theorem Like a mathematical theorem That was going to solve world hunger And they almost had it He's like hold on He just erases all the work Well like he writes nothing important Just his name

And then like he goes and gets the They say no they never heard this girl They never heard this girl And then he gets the class registry And he sees her name It was beautifully written. Yeah, beautifully written. And it's just crossed out with one line.

Well, wait, can I ask you guys a question? Because there was something I was not tracking in this movie. For a while, I felt like they were saying she had already been killed the year prior, and that's why the harvest was so bad. And then it was that she was going to be killed now because the harvest was so bad. Somebody explained that to me? I think that there's a rebirth and birth thing. Didn't they have that whole thing where they're like, of death, the celebration of death and rebirth.

Yeah. So maybe she was killed and then rebirth, but then they have to kill her again because the harvest is bad. I don't know. I couldn't figure out because I was like, at a certain point, I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. She's dead already. Yeah. So he's searching for a dead girl. Yeah.

Cool. Okay. And then, nope. She's not dead. Why? Well, who knows? And the mother's just like, that's not her grave. And he's like, okay, I guess I believe you now.

Rowan? Rowan. Also, that red sweater, that red sweater showed up in like five different things. He's always a different condition. Well, he definitely is having these hallucinations. but then the hallucinations turned out not to be hallucinations because they are real. Like, he is finding the red sweater all over the place.

Like, he is seeing this girl. And, I mean, the whole, the island is terrible about hiding clues, by the way, too. If they wanted to cover up that this girl was here, when the guy comes to the island, just hide that, hide all the clues. There's a lot of brush. You can put over things. Basically, everywhere he went,

he was like, I've got to find a picture. Oh, here it is. Like, nothing was ever hitting. And I guess that, I mean, like, without spoiling the end of the movie, Spoiler alert to kill him. That being said, like, I'm assuming, like, that's the point of it. They want him to find these clues. They want to put him through the next time.

That was the whole movie. That was the whole thing, though. But to what end? Who fucking knows? Why are we going through all this trouble? Just to burn him in the Wicker Man, which, spoiler alert. But, I mean, that's basically the end. They burn him alive in the Wicterman.

They go, you came here to be burned. It's part of, yeah. And you realize, like, like, hit the last, you know, 10 years of his life. all set up for this moment, which is crazy. I mean, first of all, I want, I want to go back to one other thing, too, which is about 25 minutes into the movie. They do black and white flashbacks to the first 25 minutes of the movie. Like, literally, they have a five-minute sequence that relives the first 10 minutes of the film. It's like that crappy friend. It's like,

remember when we were at that party? It was great, man. We were just sitting here. Yeah, man. It was great. It was good time. I love that there's the shit in this movie where Nick Cage, it's lost at its worst. When something obvious happens that you should just ask a definitive question about and you simply don't, it's like he's talking to Molly Parker in the school, right?

Who's the teacher? Then he walks down the hill and sees Molly Parker again because apparently there's twins everywhere on this island. Oh yeah. He sees Molly Parker again. Oh, maybe the little girl was a twin.

I was two of them. There was a bunch of twins. Oh, I didn't like them at all. They weren't any good. Anyway, so he sees Molly Parker again. And then he goes, hey, wait, didn't I just talk to you? And she's like, no. And he's like, all right.

Yeah. Boop-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. And I'm like, wait, you are literally the worst police officer. You're a police detective and you are doing the worst job. Well, he's a-he's a bike cop. That's true. Well, he's also not putting anything together. I mean, because you're right.

There were twins everywhere he went. All he saw were twins. So, yeah, he's not, there's nothing connected. There's also, like, Francis Conroy, talks to Francis Conroy in her house. She's the doctor and photographer. And then two girls in beekeeper outfits show up and, like, escort her away. And I'm like, scary beekeeper out. Scary masts.

Old-timey beekeeper. And instead of following the people, he breaks into her house. I was like hiding behind the bush and running over to it. The worst. Yeah. I also, the back of the scene with the bar when he's like yelling at everybody. And then the bee goes and like he slams the mug down on the bee and kills it. She's like, why would you do that?

I really like, when I first saw the movie, I was like, they're all bees in human form. Oh, this is going to be great. Debbie, no, no. I did love, though, during the End Harvest Festival when they were all in their costumes getting ready to kill the Wicker Man that there were two little girls dressed up as bees. Oh, those, yeah, no, my girlfriend, Deanna,

which is, like, we have to be those bees for Halloween. That's with them. It's like all these elaborate, weird, like, carnival costumes and then just, like, store-bought key costumes. Two, like, Blind Melon. Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean, the whole idea, too, that, I mean, this is the whole rub of the story.

is that Nicholas Cage is allergic to bees. And he's going to an island where their main output is honey and bees. I like the shot of him putting, like he has his gun in and then he gets like the little bee allergen stuff. He has an epipen with him.

And his epipen by the way is giant. Like he has like a metal box with two, like it was like a comical size box of epipus. Like all right. Well I feel like they made so many like wickedly obvious moves to be like And here is his bee medicine. You better have this. But he also doesn't travel with his bee medicine.

No. The bee medicine stays in the hotel. He does travel. He does travel. He does travel. And that's what they want. That was the craziest moment. The morning that he woke up in that hotel lodge place,

he looks downstairs over the banister, and those two fucking creepy twins start talking in unison. And his response is, who moved my everything okay days? Like, that is. He was really worried about who took his. And why did this? they take his audio book. Why did they take him?

Why did they take him? Take his gun. Take his gun away from him. Well, maybe that would make him feel safer. One of the best moments, though, is toward the end when Sister Rose is, I think she purchased him on our bicycle. Yeah. He gets so mad at her and he wants that bike.

He's like, get off the bike. He pulls a gun at a woman. He pulls a gun on her to take her bike. Step away from the bicycle. My favorite one was a callback to Con Air. Step away from the bunny rabbit. Oh, my God. That's amazing.

One of my favorite things is anytime Nicholas Cage was anywhere and heard a sound, he would think it was his daughter. So, like, Rowan? Rowan? He's just like... Who he has no connection.

He's on a fucking island with trees and birds and animals. And, I mean, also, he loves to get information but cut people off at the same time. He's like, just tell me what I need to know. It's like, okay, well, listen. Okay, where's the thing? I'll tell you.

Now, we all go over here. Okay, shut off. Where do you go? Like, he's always gutting them off in the middle of what there's like. I love the bike riding. Every time he was on a bike, me and Deanna would just crack out. He's not like an old school bike and he don't even see

when he originally gets the bike. No, he just shows he shows up on a bike. Can we also talk about his love interest who looks like Fiona Apple? Yeah. And they met 10 years ago, which means that she was like in her early 20. If not younger. She's a child. And Nicholas Cage

is just, you look, oh, 10 years ago, like they met and she they have the most Awkward kissing. Okay, that was so upsetting. That was so upsetting. There was that. It's like Mormons, Mormon making out, just, mwah.

Yeah. There was also him being like, what happened? You know, like, he wants to talk about how she left him at the altar or whatever. Her daughter is missing. Like, there are things that are more important right now than her giving you an excuse as to why she left. What about the tongueless men? Yeah. Oh.

Yeah, there were so many other bigger things going on on this island. but like and he was only concerned with the very basis of like why are you calling some backup I mean first of all he doesn't have a phone that works which is uh well I didn't get reception man yeah they don't get reception I'm sure pray but um this is uh this is uh one of the scenes he finds um the doll that was thrown out the window earlier in the movie uh he digs through a grave and then finds that doll again but the face is slightly burnt off of it and also he thinks at this point the girl was burned to death maybe maybe right so she was burned with the doll She will or she will be burned to death because Molly Parker is like, she'll burn to death.

And he was like, what did you say? And she said, she'll, she, she burns to death. I, uh, er. And she's all pulling at her collar. Yeah, like really, like really obvious. She's right behind me. I'm sorry to backtrack. Can someone explain to me the wordplay of the day of tomorrow?

Oh, I wrote that down. I don't know. I don't understand that. He was like, what happens the day after tomorrow? It's like, oh, in two days? Yeah, nothing. No, no, I mean, tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow.

Like, it was like there was some weird assworth. And then take me with you? Oh, yeah. Lily Sobieski. All right, well, this is a clip of him trying to get some information about the burnt doll from his girlfriend. This is where the movie became amazing. Yeah, at this point, it kicks in here in the third act where it goes bonkers. Here you go.

How to get burned? How did it get burned? How to get burned? I don't know. Kill me! Can we just play it again? Just because I need to hear this. How did it get burned?

How did it burn? How did it burn? I don't know. Tell me. Wait a second. Is he talking to the Fiona Applewoman? Oh, my God, I forgot about that. Who do you don't know where she's coming from the entire time?

The entire time you're like, is she just really bad at covering up the conspiracy? Is she happy that he's going to die? You have no idea. No idea. My favorite part is when he gets, he's interrogating someone and they're doing gardening and some bugs fly into his face so he's like asking her questions and a bug flies into his eyes like oh

that's foreshadowing I love that it's the middle of the day he finally was talking to Ellen Burstyn who runs the place right? Yes yeah and looking beautiful radiant until she's wearing like football faces I was like her with her

is she like cheering on like like fucking Utah or something like what is happening I was like the cheerleader from Miami Dolphins there I was gonna say it was kind of like a brave heart Because she says from a bunch of people, they may never take our lives, well, they'll never take our honey.

Anyway, he's talking to Ellen Burst and he's like, so do I have your permission to dig up the grave? And she's like, well, I think I already gave it to you, right? It's the middle of the afternoon. And he's like, well, okay, got to dig up that grave. Guess I'll do it in the middle of the night. Yeah, yeah, near the creepy cemetery.

Literally goes and digs up a child. Like, you're a police officer. Like, there's a worse time to gather evidence. Yeah, well, I said to June. I said, like, I felt this whole movie was, like, they shot it in order, and then they edited it way out of order. It's like, when did he get the bike?

Why is it night? How many days has he been here? Like, is it night already? Like, what is he doing to pass this time during this? How he was planning on enforcing, should he figure out this crime? Like, what was the plan beyond, like, figuring it out? That's true. He could not enforce anything.

No, no power. But when does, I guess my biggest question still is, what is a hallucination and what is not a hallucination? Because he gets stung by bees. He runs into this, like, beep field. And he's like, oh, bees! And he starts running and he runs deeper into the bee field, gets more stings. He passes out and he wakes up with only one bee sting on him. Oh, wait a minute.

And then Francis Conroy is like, we did it the old-fashioned way. And I was like, what is that? Yeah, you know, tell me what that is. So interested in that. And then he walks around the house and he opens up all these weird doors. Oh, the beard. And there's a woman with a bee beard. And then a guy in a bed with like bee stings all over his face.

And the eye missing. Yeah, and I was wondering. And then he walks by Ellen Burstyn's room and doesn't. go in. No. And he's trying to find her. And Ellen Burstyn is in a bed that's like a shining light and she's like sitting in this beautiful.

She's the queen bee. Yeah. It's, oh, let's be honest. So the movie is, the queen big. Guys, the movie uses a metaphor. I love that. The movie is pretty gorgeous though. It's like if you're not paying attention, it seems like a capable, really well shot

movie. Yeah, the sounds of, like the locations was all. It's all very, I want to go there, wherever that is. Yeah, we'll see a beautiful. I thought it's Summer Isle. Disney's Summer Isle. Summer Isle. I did think that one of the cool moments in the movie that I did enjoy actually is when he's getting stung by the bees and is like racing through the bee fields and then it pulls out into like an overhead shot.

And the trails that walk through that area are all honeycomb. That was like. So like the whole field looks like a honeycomb. I thought that was neat. Wait, so I'm sorry. Did we ever find out what the old fashioned way was to? No. My theory on it was that.

You guys watched the unrated cut. I didn't. My theory was that he, that she transferred. all of his bee stings to that guy in the room who had all the bee stings because he had no bee stings on him like he was getting stung in the face and he like two minutes later he's totally fine I don't get it guys

I wish I did I really wish I did guys I think there's something there but you just got to be real dumb so now third act kicks in and it's amazing like he's having a full on melt end he gets into like a karate fight with Lulisobeski like literally kicking her in the gut and she flies back

into a wall with the weirdest longest passout scene where she just keeps her going By the way, what was her end game Because she seemed to want out No, she didn't. That's the end scene. It was all a trick, but why? Who fucking knows?

To upset the patriarchy? I don't understand, man. It made no sense. And then the best part of the movie, in my opinion, is after he cold cocks another woman, he steals her bear costume. Oh, yeah. He puts on a bear costume to get in a processional

of other people. That's where the bee costumes were. He's in a bear costume He's the only bear though He's the only bear because he's stealing the mother bear Sister Beach Sister Beach's Which is a great conversation they have

Oh I can't fit in the bear guys I'm gonna have to get some bear guys That is so crazy Because that is one of the only scenes in the movie In which we're watching people That aren't Nicholas Cage And it stuck out like you almost never have scenes That don't feature him in it

Right because that would be misleading But there is one scene where Sister Beach and the other woman are talking and it's all about how Sister Beach can't fit in the bear costume anymore and it's really big and blah blah blah and then oh here's Nicholas Cage who misses the conversation

I was like this is absolute insanity that this is what they're doing it's so crazy I mean but he's even in when he's in that bear costume you can see his face you can clearly see it's not Sister Beach but he then when he runs into Fiona Apple lifts the mask up to be like

even though we're walking in public with everybody else around Threatening Island, I'm going to show you my face so you know, hey, it's me. I thought I told you to stay at the house. And she's like, I had to come because we're about to kill you, you maniac. And, and, and, by the way, I found this out today looking on Wikipedia. Who were two actors in the movie, they were bar patrons? Did you see it?

Oh, no. Did you, or? James Franco? Yes. Yeah. And someone else. And Jason Ritter, right? Jason Ritter.

Yeah. Did you not see that? I did not see that. I did not. I totally missed it. Where were they? I looked on Wikipedia, too. And I think it was a deleted scene.

I saw, wait, it was in my movie. When Lili Sobieski and Fiona goes to a bar afterwards, yeah, see, that's what happens. I read that and I was waiting for it. Wait, so we didn't see this. This is so weird because I didn't see the bees scene. Oh, wow, there's two cuts of this movie out there. All right, so, wait, what happened?

The end of the movie, okay, he saw it, I just wrote out of it. Okay, so at the end of the movie, right, they kill Nicholas Cage and the Wicker man. Yes. He's like, ah! And also another reason. My legs are broken. Yeah, that's the thing. The legs, did they break his legs in your version?

I didn't see it. You just hear him, ADR line. That's the thing. Oh, my legs! Yeah, in the unrated version, they break his legs violently. With a mallet. Oh, really? They hobble him like Kathy Bates.

Okay. So they burn him in the Wicker Man, and then it cuts to six months later. Okay, there's a tag. This is six months later. And it's a bar scene, and it's James Franco and Jason Ritter. And they're like, oh, man, this sucks. Yeah, man. They're looking around.

It's all like, yuppies. whatever. And then one of them catch a sight of a hot girl walk by and they're like, come on, let's go. Yeah, bro. And they walk over and it's Lili Sobieski and Fiona Appler sitting there. And they just instantaneously sit down and they're like, thank God you guys are here. We thought this place was all lawyers and stuff. And they're like, hey. And then the guys are like, instantly the girls are like DTF. Jersey Shore. The girls are DTF. And the conversation they have is absolute insanity. Whoa.

James Franco pairs up with Lee Lee. So basically it turns out they're going to do to these two guys what they did to Nicholas Cage. Right, right. These guys are also,

they're the next wicker man. These guys also inexplicably just graduated from the police academy. So they also prey on policemen for some reason.

They'll have the drive to like be, I can come by myself and go and help out. But why two this time? Why too? They had a really bad harvest. They needed to set it up

years in advance. You never know what's going to happen. That's true. 10 years, it's a decade long class. Yeah, exactly. Wow. So they got to hang out with them and then get pregnant by them. Yep. And then get married to them.

Almost get married. Bale, and then other girls come and join the force as well. Wow. That's pretty crazy. Because, you know, that was a reveal of him, too. Yeah. That the female cop was the one of the other. Yeah.

The weird, like, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. Who came in to visit him to give him the letter. Yeah. She gave him the letter. She had a lot of weird looks. If you watch that series, she just has it like a little.

She's kind of, she's kind of. walks away. The effort that these women have gone to to just get honey. I mean like the effort they've gone to for their harvest is, I mean like millions of dollars were spent on this. Like the women had to get a job as a police woman.

Send them to the mainland. And also in a very specific, not even off the shore of Washington, D.C. No. California. Yeah. Far away. Well, Jason, you missed the part that we saw, which I actually do have a clip of. So can we play that clip of this is the torture scene that happens? So this was not in the

This wasn't in the cut that you saw now. He is getting his legs broken by mallet in this. You can't see it, but you can see it. You bitch it! This is murder! Murder! You'll all be guilty! Oh, my God.

And you're doing it for nothing! Killing me won't bring back your goddamn, honey! What is it? What is it? They're putting a bee thing on it, then. What is that? What is that? No, not the bees.

Oh, no, not the bees. I love my eyes! Eyes! Ah! Ah! The drone must die! The drone must die! So that is why he is burning.

If I knew I was going to be killed, and the first thing I felt was bees, I think I'd be actually kind of relieved. Yeah, like, oh, this will kill me before I burn. But then they do, they revive them. And then they just... Oh, really? Yeah, they revive him.

She shows up, the lady who did the old fashion way, shows up with one of his things where they call EpiPest. And then like goes up and she's like, okay, we'll do it your way this time. What? You know, oh my God. And they make them alive so they can burn him alive.

Now, holy shit, that's insane. None of that was in the cut I saw. How about the fact that at the end of the movie it is dedicated to Johnny Ramon? Oh yeah. Yes. How fucking weird is that? I forgot about that.

All right. Now it's time for a second. Second opinion. Here are some reviews from Amazon from people who like the movie. I can't believe the negative reviews. So what? He punched three females. It was required. Get over it.

Put yourself into his situation. He's trapped in a cult and discovering he can't escape. So you feminist groups need to chill out and stop bashing this film. Yeah. Feminist groups really were against his movie. Spooky Chick wrote, I love it. Oh my God.

While I'm not lucky enough to be a mother. myself, I dream of birthing children. So this type of story really hit all small windows of just the sad lives. Did she like this movie? Because she hasn't had children. She goes, you can really feel the agony of this woman's lost daughter, especially if you're a parent. Or have, or if you have extensive child care experience.

Like me. Wow. This is an advertisement. Wait, so this is Rebecca de Mornay from. And then the final one, I like this one. This is a guy agrees with you, Jenna. I like the settings. I like the colors.

The acting was excellent. The plot confusing. The end gross. Four stars. What? Am Hartman. Wow. He's coming from a different angle with this.

Oh, my gosh. Now, you may think, what does Nicholas Cage think about this movie? And let's let him explain. He has a hoarse voice, but you can hear it. There is a mischievous mind at work on the wicker man, you know? Yeah. You know what I mean? But, and I finally kind of said, yeah, I might have.

known that that movie was meant to be absurd, you know, but saying that now after the fact is okay, but to say it before the fact is not, you know, because like you've got to let the movie have its own life, you know, you have to let the audience have its own connection and bash it or not bashed or love it, whatever they want to do with it, that's up to the audience. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty Peggy Sue. That's the Peggy Sue voice he had and who, uh, Peggy Sue got married. He is full-blood. He is like, One second away from Gary Beasley.

Oh, my gosh. Well, we have a very special segment here on the show today. Two weeks ago, we reviewed, or two episodes ago, we reviewed the movie Skyline. We were contacted on Twitter by the writer and producer of Skyline, Liam O'Donnell. So we're going to go to the phone to him right now to talk to him about Skyline. Please welcome Liam O'Donnell. Hello. How are you?

I'm good. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm a long-time fan of human jazz. giant. I was followed Paul on Twitter. I saw it come up and dreaded it for two weeks, but ended up actually enjoying all the things you guys had to say about the movie and got a real kick out of it. Did you take issue with anything that we said? Were we mean? Did you feel like we were mean? No, I didn't feel like it was mean. I thought it was like one of the, there was a couple, I like that you guys at least acknowledged that it was done with this kind

of independent spirit and that there was a, there was like a lot of cool things about the world, but it just didn't really come together the way you wanted, which is kind of, I think, how we feel about it, too. So it was at the end of the day, I kind of, you know, I see all the criticisms. So correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like you put this whole project together fairly quickly kind of outside the traditional studio system. Yeah, we really just kind of did it on our own. And it's kind of like, we had like a three to five page treatment and like some artwork and people were already like gave us like we already got like investments for like 800 grand like go do it because it was all going to be set in uh in gregg's greg's apartment so there was

really like and it was so low budget so i think it was one of those things where you got like such early success off of like minimal amount of figuring things all the way through like you guys even said you're making fun of phazon's quote about like yeah they wrote in a month like we literally did write it in a month there was there was a point where we were going to just do improv, and we're like, yeah, maybe we should write something down. So we wrote a draft in a month and then kind of rewrote it in another month, and then it was like already cast and ready to go. And so, yeah, I think it was just one of those situations of being so frustrated with development

and how long it takes to get something done. And then being like, we have the cameras, we have this visual effects facility, we have this setting, you know, we've got talent signed up, let's just go, go, go. And there was really no reason to go so quickly other than our own kind of like, you know, ambition and naivete about how difficult it was going to be. I didn't know what Donald Faison did. Was he a movie star? No, no. He was a visual effects guy.

But he was a bit. Yeah, you're right. He's a visual effects guy. He's actually based on... I just won a hundred dollars. He's based on you? He's based on Greg Strauss, one of the directors. And you're saying that that was Greg Strauss's apartment you guys shot it in?

Yeah, it was his apartment. It's his Ferrari. and uh wow and it's his automatic blinds yeah it is uh it is kind of attitude my other my co-writer uh Joshua cordes like it's kind of when he came out here like 10 years ago it was kind of the wild west days of visual effects and they were there was like you know all these kind of young nerds with all this money but you know that gets translated into like uh cooler stars with money yeah that was the real old story. Okay. And then my other question that we were talking about in the movie

was how did they, there was a kind of a question of the cheating, right? Because in the beginning of the movie, like they... Yeah, you guys, yeah, you guys totally ripped apart this like, this whole thing that got cut. It was a whole different location and like

a dancing scene at a nightclub. Wait, we missed dancing? Yes. How dare you cut out dancing, Liam? How dare you? So they exactly cut around it and you guys are like, how did they warp upstairs and people are in the bathroom and it's one of those things where you're like you know just hands over your eyes in the editing bay but uh yeah so there that that whole part's a bit of a mess okay so that was just just cutting for time i imagine you're cutting for time you cut a

whole scene where there was like a more conflict between them before that fight and uh and yeah and it made sense you you actually saw phazon kind of uh pair off with the the younger girl Crystal Reed was the actress and going to the bathroom and as far as the camera, she was established as it was actually her camera and all this stuff got cut. You're answering all

of our questions. Answering all of our questions. It was actually her camera. It wasn't the New York guy's camera because she was supposed to be kind of a young photo girl who worked for him and the visual effects all on the editing room floor. But it's very

astute viewers that you guys are. Now, is there, is there a potential for the sequel? Because I feel like it's set up so clearly for a sequel. It was successful at the box office, wasn't it? Yeah, I mean, it was, it was disappointing, but it ended up making around 80 million worldwide. It's amazing. China and Japan, but domestic, yeah, it was just, it was obviously would have been a little more because, you know, when you're doing an independent like this, you sell all the foreign and you don't make anything else? Oh, that sucks.

Yeah. And so, but yeah, no, I mean, that's a big enough number that it's possible. It's just trying to figure out how to get something, you know, that tells the kind of more epic story that we're trying to, you know, tackle. When the movie ends, when the movie ends, they're, like, deep inside the skygina, you know, like, I feel like that sets it up perfectly. yeah and it's it's one of those things where like the script like it was originally like okay they just get sucked in and we want to end super bleak and that's it and then like you know your team is like you got to do something at the ending and we we started with like okay how about she just wakes up and there's like a mysterious voice on there and where you know we'll get to that later and then it just kept getting people wanted more and more of what was on the ship and then it ends up being like it's an entire prolog for another movie which is where it all all kind of ended up. Yeah, and his brain was affected,

his brain was affected because he had seen it enough that he became, like, that's how his brain became that hybrid. Yeah, it's just like a, like, like venom, you know, like, you know, bitten by enough snakes and it, you know, the idea was that he had been exposed enough that he was no longer

affected, but yeah. So that's why it ends up being like, it feels like it's the beginning to another act and then it kind of ends, but yeah. But it was a kick ass sending. I mean, it's like it comes, because you don't think that that's going to happen. I mean, there's that great scene at the end where they kind of get sucked up, which is really awesome to look at. And then it just goes on. Yeah, and it really takes a turn there.

I really enjoyed it when I felt like it was really bleak when they ripped, when you guys ripped Eric Balfour's head off. Yeah. I was like, oh, shit. That was so much better before the NPA got it because it was in the wide and we cut to a close up and you really saw his head get ripped off. And I do like, like throwing his limp body into the waist. Is there anything else that was cut out or anything that you couldn't do for the theatrical cut? Yeah, the whole red-brain, blue-brain thing, which is just completely asinine. That is because of the NPA, it was actually like just kind of wet normal brains,

and his brain had kind of the vainy effect on it. And they said, you can't do that. You have to make these brains look sci-fi. So we had to add... Really? Well, but then when they're all glowing blue, how could you tell his part? And someone's bright idea was make it red. So that's one of those things that really pisses me off from the NPA.

And just there was cooler brain ripping shots from David Zais in the garage and stuff like that. They just said it was too, like, prolonged violence, too. Like, I think he might have beat up that the big vagina drone for a longer period of time. Oh, you got to beat up those big vagina guys. Just begging for it. And David Deyes said you wrote the part for him. Did you know him before the film? No, we didn't know him.

We just knew Dexter. Oh, you know what? There is something else that got cut off. Because the whole like pregnant scene from the first act, that was a reshoot because originally they had known they were pregnant, but they weren't sure if they were going to keep it. And that's why Zeyas' character was kind of a, the tension between him and Belfour. He was a little bit of a traditional Catholic. uh okay badass and so they had they had a different scene together at night where he was kind

of uh giving him a little shit and of course the studio when they bought it they didn't want to touch any like abortion thing with the 10 foot pole which i don't necessarily blame them but right so so that all got cut out and uh and that that might have helped explain some of the i think it was a little bit more of a media role for david but yeah we were big fans of dexter and so we wrote on now i see here that you are you're producing a movie right now that's directed by Barry Levinson. What's that? Yeah, that's kind of more that through just kind of us doing the visual effects for it. Oh, okay. Cool. Not really as much of a creative impact, but it is an awesome script and it's going to be really, really creepy. It's kind of the next step of the found

footage movie, kind of making that a little bit more epic. Oh, that's cool. Now what is coming up, what is the thing that you're most excited about that's coming up next for you? What is the movie you're doing that you hope we don't do on this show? I think it's kind of perfect for the show, even if it's successful, because it's a kind of gonzo crazy concept. It's called War of the Ages, and so it's pretty much like Bill Ntene meets 300.

All of the emperors and conquerors from history kind of get brought together into a big epic battle royal. So you're bringing in, this movie sounds amazing. So you're bringing in all, like, famous people from history, to fight each other. It's like Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great, and it's a lot of, you know, big epic battles like that. But it's with its sense of fun.

It's not, but I actually met Keanu Reeves once, and I was telling him about it, and I pitched it as Bill and Ted meets 300. And he put his hands over his head, like the guitar thing, and did, like, excellent in his best school and I was. That's awesome. That is amazing. Liam, thank you so much for calling in and talking to us. Yeah, thank you guys.

Keep up the good work. And, you know, hopefully I'm not on the next one. See you. Bye. Bye. So that is the end of how does this get made. Thank you to everybody. Jonah, thank you so much.

Where can people find you? What do you want to tell people? I go to Jonah Ray.com. They could get at Jonah Ray on Twitter. And they can listen to the Nerdist podcast or watch the soup. All right. Perfect. Anybody else?

Got anything else? At Ms. June, Diane. I am at Paul Shear, Jason. I'm not on Twitter. I'm, uh, I don't know. But, uh, follow Bob Dukas Twitter. Very funny.

I'll plug Bob Dukas Twitter. Also, just a reminder, NTSF SD, SUV is still on Adult Swim. We're in our final episodes here, so check that out. Thursday's at 1215. Thank you very much. Uh, tune in next time. Bye-bye.