My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 28 - VARIETY’S JUSTIN KROLL

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

Robbie is joined in the basement this week by Justin Kroll, a film reporter for Variety, and a longtime friend of Barstool Sports! Having just broken the story that Jonah Hill is in talks to star opposite Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves' Batman film, Justin divulges a bit more into the details of how that's all been going down, teases what character casting announcements could be on the horizon, and dishes a ton of knowledge on what it's like to be in his industry. From execs and agents calling him pissed off, to his deep hatred of ‘Avengers: Infinity War', they covered it all. Follow Justin on Twitter… -@krolljvarYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. The interview I conducted with Justin Kroll, which is coming up a little later in the show, he is a variety film reporter and an awesome dude, a friend of the program, a friend of Barstool Sports for a long time, so look out for that. But the interview with him was conducted before all of this news broke, so we didn't touch on it. I'll touch on it right up here at the front. Both stories have to do with our guy Kevin Feige. Both stories prove just how fucking awesome this guy Kevin Feige is. I know everyone always gives me shit. Robbie, you're a Disney shill. Robbie, you're a Marvel shill. I don't know, they're one and the same really at this point, aren't they?

You're a Kevin Feige shill. Can this guy do anything that pisses you off? Can this guy do anything that you don't love? The answer to that is apparently no. Firstly, Kevin Feige was announced to be developing a new Star Wars film for Lucasfilm and Disney this week, which is crazy news considering during the whole Sony-Marvel-Disney debacle, it was said that Kevin Feige, you know, didn't even have time for Spider-Man because he was too consumed in the MCU. You would imagine he is too consumed in the MCU to do anything outside of that. Maybe not Spider-Man, but obviously something, a major franchise like Star Wars. Apparently not.

I would imagine Kathleen Kennedy and everyone at Lucasfilm, everyone at Disney, just backed a dump truck full of money onto his front lawn and unloaded it. So he's doing a Star Wars movie. We have no details as to what the Star Wars movie entails. I think it was actually Bob Iger who said, we're going into this new era of Star Wars storytelling, and we want Kevin Feige to be a part of that. Makes you think it's got to be some sort of interconnected, you know, universe era of storytelling, right? I mean, I don't want to jump to any conclusions. Maybe Feige, it's been his dream to do a Star Wars movie since he was a little kid and he wants to do one and get it over with. Maybe that's the

case. I don't think he would be brought in just to do one movie. It was said that he has a name in mind already, someone that he wants to work with for this Star Wars movie. Brie Larson has wanted to be in a Star Wars movie for years, and she has been tweeting about it nonstop. She even tweeted about it, I think, twice since Kevin Feige got this gig. She said, like, did anyone say Star Wars? And it was a picture of her at Galaxy's Edge with C-3PO. And Chris Evans even tweeted. He said he wants in. And Kevin Feige also could reunite with maybe Samuel L Jackson for a little Mace Windu action would be kind of sick if he gets some sort of entrance again like he's you know Darth Vader in Rogue One like it's a dark hallway and the purple blade ignites be kind of fucking sick all right the second Kevin Feige news story

Kevin Feige and everyone at Marvel Studios and everyone at Sony Pictures have mended the fences to bring us more Spider-Man. That's right, Spider-Man's back in the MCU. It is so, so relieving to have Spider-Man back in the MCU. I just watched Far From Home again this weekend. I didn't want to watch it since I saw it in theaters because I was like, why would I set myself up for heartbreak? Why would I watch this entire movie that sets up everything? You know, Peter Parker becoming the next Tony Stark, Peter and MJ's whole relationship, the Sinister Six continuing to build. There's obviously that massive cliffhanger at the end, which I won't even say. If you haven't seen Far From Home yet, it's available on digital now. Go

check it out. It's awesome. I watched it this weekend with Trent because I was just in the mood again. I was just excited. We will get a continuation of this amazing story that they're telling. So I'm stoked about that. Obviously, we've said from the beginning, they have to come to a conclusion. There's just too much money on the table for them not to come to an agreement here. But it went on for a while there where we got nervous. You guys were writing in every other week for me and Clemon.

We were answering the questions on how to deal with this in the Marvel universe, how to deal with this in the Sony universe, what's going to happen to Tom Hardy's Venom now. I don't know. Was he part of the deal? Is he coming over to the MCU as well? Because I know Sony really wanted to push that. They wanted to push their own universe and maybe take Tom Holland's Spider-Man to kick that off as well. I'm not really sure, but those were the two major, major news stories

of the week. Let me actually wait. Before I go any further, let me just make sure that everyone that's listening to my podcast right now is completely safe in doing so. Because on average, a burglary happens once every 23 seconds in this country. That's the United States. And 83% of burglars admitted that they specifically look to see if there's an alarm on the house or building that they're robbing. So why wouldn't you want one there? 20 out of every 1,000 households were burglarized in 2017. And what's crazy is only one in five homes have home security. Maybe because most companies don't really make it easy. It's confusing.

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I am joined now by a very special guest, a friend of Barstool for a long time. It's kind of becoming a running theme with My Mom's Basement. I'm just reaching out to all of these people that have been friends of Barstool forever. I'm like, hey, why don't you come on? Why don't you talk about whatever you want to talk about on My Mom's Basement? We got Justin Kroll, a film reporter from Variety here. What's up, dude? It's good to be on. I gotta be honest. I feel like Fights and Kevin and all the Life Camera Barstool guys are gonna be pretty pissed off at me that I jumped out here first before one of their pods. We were texting about it last night. I said big time cuckolded, as Millmore would say.

It was reported yesterday, or at least yesterday as of the recording date, September 24th, that Jonah Hill was in talks to play either the Penguin or the Riddler maybe in the Robert Pattinson Batman movie. Justin, I'm going to let you take it away. It was your report. Why don't you tell us a little more about that? either the penguin or the riddler maybe in the robert pattinson batman movie justin i'm gonna let you take it away it was your report why don't you tell us a little more about that so um yeah jonah's um the funny thing is so jonah's had this offer for about a month and but the interesting thing is i think since like june matt reeves has kind of wanted him in this film in some way um it was like him and then he actually wanted Mahershala for Commissioner Gordon. Mahershala got Blade, and so they kind of went back to the well on that. But Jonah was still someone they were looking at for a role in this film,

and the Riddler was the one they kind of were specific on. As of late, you know, for a month, people were like, I don't think he's going to do it. And the big thing was I tweeted this yesterday. He was asking for a ridiculous amount of money. I said I had heard 10. It could could have been more it could have been less but it was certainly a lot more than what rob pattinson is getting which i don't think is more than three or four um just because he'll do multiple of these films and be able to renegotiate but like an idea you know jonah just being like well i'm not auditioning. You want me.

I'm going to ask for the money. But it sounds as if he started engaging again last week. And the new bargaining point is, well, I don't know about the Riddler. I kind of like the Penguin. So, you know, honestly, I don't think they wanted this out here because the negotiations are still kind of sensitive. But at the same time, I do like because jonah hasn't said no because the studio still really wants him and matt reeves specifically i think um i think something will happen but it will be interesting what they come to a conclusion on what role he

ends up playing and um and also the money should be interesting as well because i don't think he'll have i mean he could become back you never know in the in these comic book world but i think this would be a one-off, too. Very interesting. And everything out of this movie interests me. As a Batman fan specifically, it sounds like Matt Reeves is very much concocting this kind of crazy Batman story with a bunch of rogues. We heard rumors of Andy Serkis months ago. We heard rumors now of Jonah Hill.

It's cast. It's Commissioner Gordon. Jeffrey Wright will be playing Commissioner Gordon. He's awesome. Yeah, he's, I mean, he seems so obvious now because I got to be honest, tracking the Batman, I've been doing, I've been on this film. I mean, going back, I originally broke that Affleck was not directing this film and that Reeves would. And that was like January, I think of like either 2018 or 2017. So it's been a long trek. And, you know, when I had heard about, you know, Matt Reeves wanting a person of color for the Commissioner Gordon role

and the Catwoman role, you know, now that I think about Jeffrey, it just seems like such an obvious choice because he almost has like a kind of Gary Oldman feel to look at him, like kind of an older mentor type feel. So it seems so obvious. I mean, Mahershala obviously come at like given the year he's having would have been cool. But at the same time, you know, Jeffrey's older and has more of like that. I always feel like outside of Ben McKenzie, like that role has always been someone that needs to be like much older than the Batman. Yeah. And I love that choice, too,

because in the hunger games too that's the only movie that i really know him from so i'm going to keep bringing it up but he is kind of that mentor he's he's the brilliant you know the tech guy and he's teaching katniss through this whole thing and as soon as i thought back to that i was like okay yeah that's that's perfect matt reeves definitely knows what he's doing with this you don't watch westworld no i don't watch westworld i should i probably should i should. I'm a nerd, so. If you watch that, it would make a lot of sense because of how he plays this kind of, like, scientist, older, you know, super intellectual. I like – it will be – I'm very curious how he – but, like, James Bond, too. He has, like, that coolness to him as Felix, this guy, operative that works with Bond.

So, like, I'm very – I like that casting quite a bit, actually. So I think they're off to a good start. Definitely. I would agree with that. And you mentioned that you've been tracking this film for a very long time, going way back to even when Ben Affleck was still attached to, I guess, star and director originally. I don't know if you know anything about this, but how do I ask this question? Basically, is the movie that Ben Affleck originally meant to put out still, are there remnants of it in Matt Reeves' Batman?

Or is it like he's like, nope, we're throwing that out and we're starting new? Honestly, I don't think we'll ever know until we see this film and like Affleck says. Like they're so close to the chest and what they want to do. I've always heard that like both of and what they want to do i've always heard that like both of them kind of wanted to do like a film noir detective type story in a way and they're going to take various elements from all these sorts of batman comics but in a way we really won't know what like it's like you know the schneider cut is such a joke these days but like i'm wondering if we'll get like the afflat cut type thing down the road

about like what he wanted but i mean i trust matt he's so they certainly give him i mean it's been amazing how much time they're getting him to work out the story write the script like you know he's such a person who has attention to detail like just look at his the planet of the apes films he worked on in cloverfield and other things. You know, I really do trust him, but I don't think we'll ever really know if there is any change at all or if it's completely a throwaway script. But honestly, I think even Ben at this point

wants to move on. So I don't even think he would let us know once this film comes out if it's a major change from Indirection. And do we know if this is related at all to the DC, you know, connected universe, the DCEU, or is that still up in the air? I think it's over with. I think if you look at what they're trying to do right now, I think they just realized how tough it is to do the universe. I think everybody is i think feige makes it look so easy at marvel that like once they've seen how much of a debacle it was for them on justice league and how they

handle all this they have a real good pipeline going on right now i think aquaman being a success um it really gets them excited and now the new suicide squad while they'll still have certain remnants i don't think like you'll see a Pattinson end up in there the way Affleck ended up in the last suicide squad. So I think for now they're just going to keep it separate worlds. So, I mean, that could change as these, once these films start doing things, but like, you know, already Wonder Woman and Aquaman are going to be different than this Batman

film. So I think for now the connected stuff and Aquaman are going to be different than this Batman film. So I think for now, the connected stuff is something they're going to table and see how these things come together going forward. I'm glad. It's obviously not a hot take, but the DCEU did not live up to what we all wanted it to be. And I would love for DC, I mean, I'm DC, you know, at heart, DC, I go over Marvel when it comes to the comic books. So I just want them to take a step back, take a deep breath, and focus on just making good movies. Honestly, I'm just all about just give me some good movies. I don't need the connected, like, I love, like, one of my favorite films from a couple years ago was Logan.

And it's obviously not connected to either, really, because it was part of the Fox thing. But, like, just give me more, like, you know, I'm seeing Joker on Saturday. I'm super excited for that and the new take, but like, I am on the record for hating infinity war, but I loved end game. So I just like, you can't like, you know, I just think Shusha Hara, Kevin Shusha Hara and some of those Warner brothers execs got so under pressure of creating this with that DC library that they got in and over their head.

And you just can't do that when you're dealing with these things. And universes are an interesting idea. And if they're done right, they can be awesome the way the Marvel was. But if they're not handled super carefully, you're going to run into problems. Especially if the films start like Batman vs. The Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Totally. And Suicide Squad. It's just a train wreck. It's a snowball effect in a way.

It's going to be hard to stop the damage from occurring. So I'm not going to let you get off the hook for that Infinity War comment you made. We're going to touch on that a little later. But I do want to touch on something that you spoke about a little earlier on. You said that you didn't think that they wanted all, they wanted all of this, that I guess whoever's working on the Batman didn't want all of this Jonah Hill stuff out there with the negotiations. How often as a film reporter do you put something out there that you know is going to, like, piss people off? That has to be the juggle of the job. I mean, I got to be honest, I prefer not. I'm on a daily basis i'm i mean i'll just roll through some stuff right now i'm

like i have stories that are holding because deals aren't far enough along like jonah where it's like they just had a meeting or they've you know they're like that you know the the negotiations go away my whole thing i want to accomplish is that when i write something it ends up on the screen yeah i i broke the news. Joaquin was going to be the Joker. I knew about that for about a month, but I was, I didn't want to move forward with it until I had someone telling me, Hey, he wants to do this. And the studio's game for it. You can now say in talks, the deal wasn't done when I broke that, but that was under an impression from certain sources where like, this really

isn't going to ruffle feathers. If you forward with this Pattinson was a little different because of people chasing because of certain people trying to leaking and that while that you know it definitely broke before people wanted to because he did kind of still have to audition though that was kind of just a formality and Matt Reeves and studio were pretty much as they were his top choice um that was a situation I would have hoped kind of wanted to handle it differently, but it is what it is. I'd say nine times out of 10, I'm working with the studio. I'm getting sign off from like studio sources reps and we're like,

cause it's, it's, it's a weird game where you're like dealing with publicists, you're dealing with agents and execs, a lot of cooks in the kitchen. And, and you know, I'm tracking on a daily basis 25 to 35 things a day i just don't have the time to deal with a pissed off person calling to complain about how the story was handled how it came out early and in all honesty i was waiting for that phone call yesterday i thought someone from jonah's team was going to call and bitch and i didn't really want to deal with it um luckily i didn't because like it seemed like you know they just wanted to also when it comes Luckily, I didn't because, like, it seemed like, you know, they just wanted it.

Also, when it comes to these super secret stuff like Nolan, DC, Star Wars, a lot of the reps for the clients, they just want to keep their hands out of it because they don't want to get in trouble. But I would say normally, like, you know, I have three things coming today and they're all going to be like signed off from everybody. They're not DC related, but they're stuff sizable enough where like it'll make it somewhat of a ripple. But like, you know, I'm out. I'm trying not to get in those situations. I just don't have the time in my day to deal with that crap. Of course, I would imagine you want to avoid that. And I think the whole world of reporting on film is very interesting,

especially like your realm of it, where you're not necessarily spoiling anything. You're just saying, hey, this guy's going to get cast in this or this, you know, Matrix four years ago, you had that scoop, all stuff like that. I love just kind of the announcement stuff. What made you want to go into that?

I mean, honestly, I kind of fell into it. I went to Michigan State, studied film and journalism. I was like EW, like I grew up Entertainment Weekly, like loved biking and that was like the coolest job Like, I grew up Entertainment Weekly. Like, loved, like, thinking that was, like, the coolest job. It took me coming to L.A. and, like, you know, I kind of, like, enjoyed the, like, business side of it.

So I came over to Variety. I started there in 2008 and then turned, and I did various jobs there. And then, you know, the recession kind of led to a lot of reporters being, people being let go. And I got a job where it of led to a lot of reporters being people being let go. And I got a job where I involved talking to a lot of like up and coming managers and agents. And, you know, they would occasionally leak things. And one of the first things that got leaked was Emma or Emma Stone up for the female lead.

We thought it was Mary Jane at the time and then it being Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man. And that really like kind of that, I love the thrill of it. I'm very competitive. You know, if you watch me on Twitter, I'm very combative with my, you know, rivals. I'm not going to be, like, Rappaport and Schefter and talk in the background about what's going on. Like, they were clearly doing the other night. I'm definitely going to, gonna like call people out i i in all honesty if it got if it didn't get like personal i'd probably go to dms and not like throw out snake emojis like what the fuck that was on espn um but um yeah so i i that

you know once the funny thing was is variety was kind of getting um the crap kicked out of them by deadline hollywood when mike fleming left there and uh you know when i came in and i had that young vigor and then we hired a couple other reporters i uh you know we started going head to head and then um and then a couple years ago it was me on my own doing a lot of it um and i've kind of like taken the helm and the nice thing is is uh it seems you know the good thing is is like my boss just trusts that i'm covering she's not like on my ass asking what i'm on i'm just like like i'm my own boss and i'm always like i was mad how the jonah hill thing would happen and yesterday and everybody in variety was just happy about the traffic it's bringing it so like no one really knew like i'm the one that's gonna like

get mad at like like screaming myself towards that So that it's an interesting thing, but, um, honestly, I love the challenges. I love, you know, I think my wife would like, if I could take a break a little bit, I was, we were in Miami on our baby moon, like two weeks ago, and I still was trying to break stories and check emails and get well with her. So we'll see how I do on uh paternity leave when i'm gone for three weeks if i can go three weeks without looking at my email but um yeah i just i love the challenge i love you know each day is something new um you know there's there's stuff i have to deal with in my job that i'm not the biggest fan of from time to time the me too stuff was pretty tough because i was like investigating some people i had worked with over the years that was good but i'm not really dealing with that much anymore um but yeah i mean this is this is

cool shit like i think the best part of my job is some of the stuff that i can't report on sometimes i can't put in the story or it just makes us it's like those little like fun stories you hear that you can then like tell on stuff like this or like um talk about how a story comes together so yeah that it's i've uh i've enjoyed it over the years more and more and i haven't it hasn't gotten old enough for sure and i think your reputation speaks for itself i mean you have had so many gigantic uh stories broken in the last few years around the office we'll just say like when you tweet incoming we'll look at each other be like oh crowbar make sure you're uh make sure you're paying attention we got a crowbar coming in i want to ask you what your favorite uh what your

favorite scoops that you've actually broken are like that you could look back and hang your hat on like the joaquin one is obviously a great one the matrix 4 one is such a great one like these massive ones that when you look back you know history will look back on it's's like Justin Kroll was the first person to ever say matrix four was a go. Yeah. I mean the incoming, I started doing that year just to touch on that. Like I just saw that as a way to brand myself. Like, you know, we're not, I'm not covering the white house. This isn't at the end of the day, this is, I'm covering stuff that entertains people. So I figured why not have some fun with it. it um and the incoming is it's fun from a branding builds builds my own brand build social media um i i've uh the story i love

hearing is um i did an incoming once and it was taking a while for my team i said a big one's coming and it's taking a while for my team to get the story up and i remember you and jeffy little bitchy about how long i was and i think i mean i don't know if he told you this but i think uh kfc jumped in my dms and he just was like can i ask what it is uh the fuck with the guys i'm like yeah it's like christopher nolan uh news oh i remember this yeah he happened to go what if like i did a um a meme of the joker from dark knight like here we go and i believe he was like what if it's nolan news and like two minutes later it was like john david washington starring in the new chris nolan film and i don't know what you guys reaction was but i assume you're

like how did you guess that um he told you guys right that yeah yeah yeah i think later he did yes he's like nah just d just DM them. Okay. Okay. Um, I mean, I don't want to be, you know, there's various ones, like from a traffic standpoint, um, the matrix and, and Rob Pattinson as Batman. I remember Rob Pattinson as Batman is the white elephant for me. Like it's like that. And James Bond in my profession, those are so hard to break. Wow. Yeah.

True. You know, it's the secrecy behind them, the way to track them. So Pattinson was a big one. And from a traffic standpoint, it was my biggest exclusive ever. Um, did like 1.5 million, uh, views, but the, the matrix is, um, and then the matrix is a couple of months later. I mean, compared to Barstool Traffic, I'm sure it's smaller, but The Matrix was $1.8 million and still going, and that was a massive one. Because I just don't think anybody ever took it seriously, and now I think within the next week or two, we'll have young Morpheus and young Neo news coming up. Because I know Lena's meeting with people quite aggressively because they want to shoot that in February so I mean this year alone those two are pretty big I mean even Joaquin last year that was a big one um just because I don't think anybody took it seriously

um and now here we are that that came together super fast too because they had he signed on I think they were shooting in April he he signed in april they were shooting by september um actually this one you like this one i just didn't get enough covered i think because it broke kind of later and people didn't catch on to it but i was the one that broke the news on the marvel limited series and that was a fun one because it involved the disney plus of it all all these actors returning to play themselves like Loki and, you know, Anthony Mackie returning for Falcon and then like how involved

Feige was and how much they were willing to spend on these things. I think now that that was such a big thing at Comic-Con and D23 like, looking back at it like from a scope standpoint, that could be even bigger. Yeah, definitely. I didn't realize you had that. The weird thing is like like first of all broke like later in the day so it'd probably been like nine o'clock at night for you when it broke and the other thing was is like how kind of like

easy kind of came together because i just feel i felt like it was going to be a lot of pushback and um a person close to the situation was pretty much signed off on all of it so that was a that was a good one i mean you know i broke driver is in star wars it was the first casting for a star wars film in years um holy shit i didn't know that either given the secrecy on that one that was a a big i mean the one that like that one that really got people started taking me seriously was Jen Lawrence and Hunger Games. Just because I had written four stories about the way they were managing the casting, who they were looking at. It was super stressful. And I just remember it was a Friday night.

There's a gym. My gym was, we were in like a high rise and my gym is below it. And I had two phones. I used to have a BlackBerry and an iPhone. And, um, and I, my, one of my buddies was a trainer at the gym. So I knew people at the gym. It had to have been like seven o'clock at night and I would put my phones on the counter.

Um, and I was doing some kind of exercise and like the BlackBerry went off. And if that goes off, that's like the bat signal that's like sorry gold bat phone um and the guy it was on vibrate so the guy at the desk didn't realize he's like crow your phone's going off and i was like yeah just answer it um and he answers it and he's like yo we're not on the phone and he must have thought it was like a booty call like today and brent like this person happened to be close to someone in the Hunger Games element. And I slammed the thing, I grabbed the phone and they were like, yeah, Fleming's going to try posting something early.

You should, you should probably rush up and do something. So I ran upstairs. One of my colleagues was still there, and we ended up breaking that news. And, like, five minutes later, Deadline had something. But I think – and that really caught the eye of, like, a lot of people at the time. So that – if we're going to go all the way back, that was a cool one. Yeah, I think those are those are like the ones that stick out the most um it is weird that this year between matrix and patterns and those two have both

happened within like four months of each other but um yeah i would say that's kind of like my rush more there's probably other ones like honestly i hate i don't want to like downplay it but the jonah hill at all probably won't even be my biggest scoop this month. So talk that shit champ. I'm not trying to, yeah, I'm not trying to talk, but it's just, that's how much it changes. Like I actually think the Catwoman role will be a bigger deal given the names I've heard involved with that one. So, so yeah, if that comes up, I break that. I think that will like really get people like intrigued.

Um, cause there's definitely going in an interesting direction with that role. Well, I'm definitely going to be looking out for that. And now we have to talk about infinity war. You mentioned before you hate infinity war, you love end game and you just owe it to the people. We've talked about this, uh, off air a little bit, but I think you owe it to the listeners. Just let them know why you hate infinity war as a guy that's very respected in the movie industry the guy whose opinions on movies i respect very much this is just a crazy thing to say what how did that get

started like oh kevin was like um the game of thrones episode came out and he wrote the blog about you can hate something even if other people like it or something like that yeah i think uh it was that that long night in the dark episode everyone i love that episode that's the best part of this conversation um i don't know man i the thing with infinity war was it just felt like when i first saw like watching the theater it felt more and more about like hey look at look at us we can get all these actors in one scene together. And it's like, you know, you had Thor in one galaxy and Downey and Holland in another galaxy. And then they're all fighting in Wakanda. And like, I just, it,

like it felt like messy. It felt like all over the place. I, I felt like this, the universe thing was kind of like, where Endgame, it's like a cool, the times thing I thought was really cool. The comedy was better. The store, like the loss, like,

you know, especially with Renner. Like I, you know, it felt, Infinity Will felt too comic book-y and almost too like, it was like a celebrity orgy at times. Where Endgame,

it was like, like the, the, you know, why, you know why you know i kind of wish they could have combined the two it's impossible to do that when you think about the amount of hours in there um yeah i just it was more of like end game end game was more on the rails and kept and and made more sense and it was fun to follow um where infinity war felt a lot messier i I would say.

Honestly, you know, there was a thing this weekend, like Ed Astro, I wasn't the biggest fan of. I think I began hating that film more because of the lingo, like masterpiece that was being thrown around with Infinity War. It's like Infinity War, like Black Panther, I liked, but I didn't love the way people were just like in awe of that film. Probably because films like The Dark night and Logan to me are

just, and what Joker I hope is going to be like the real, like grounded, like plays so much better sometimes. Cause at the end of the day, like he's one of my favorite movies. I feel like in so many of these films, when those are used as like,

you know, like they help in building that story and world a little bit. I appreciate it. But like, you know, like, um, uh, they help in building that story and world a little bit. Yeah. I appreciate it. But like, you know, Ragnarok I thought was one of my favorite Marvel films in years. And I had not liked any of the Thor films up until that point. So, um, what Taika did with Thor is amazing. Yeah. And I, you know, and, um, I'm very curious, you know, speaking of infinity war, I'm very curious now to see what the Russos do post-Marvel world. I always think it's a challenge. I think Hemsworth is, I think some of these actors have shown, like, just because you were in the biggest movie of all time doesn't mean people are going to show up for your non-Marvel thing.

Like, Red Sea Diving Resort is, like, was the Chris Evans follow-up. No one even talks about that. Men in Black and some of these 12 Strong, it just shows how tough it is. I mean, Downey said he was going to quit Tony Stark like eight years ago. Yeah. And now there's a rumor he might be back in Black Widow.

The guy can't quit it. He can't quit that paycheck either. And that's because when he did The Judge, which is his only film he's done since like iron man 2 i feel like it's on flop um so i think people get complacent um so that's why i'm curious about the russo's doing cherry with um which is that the adaptation of that book with tom holland um and i really hope it succeeds because i i while i love the marvel stuff and Star Wars and all that, I do like original stuff.

You know, Uncut Gems I'm seeing next Tuesday. I'm so pumped for that movie and, you know, I feel like a good balance goes a long way with this stuff. When we get too much of one thing, it gets watered down a little bit and I hope by the time Batman comes out, we're not at that point.

I hope so. Yeah, that was... I was i was just gonna say i hope so too don't you get worried a little bit like don't you get nervous that like even as a fanboy like you seem to be someone that likes stuff other than marvel and star wars too though yeah. I go all over the place because I'm super into like, you know, I'm super into like weird movies too. Like Jeff D. Lowe will get me on weird movies. Ken Jack will be like, Oh, you got to check out this indie flick or whatever. And I've always been that way, but I want to ask you just as a movie fan, uh, and I do respect your opinion on infinity war and I respect you actually putting it out there because you will get hate for that. Um, But I just like that somebody out there doesn't like it.

You're the first person that I've ever talked to that doesn't actually like that movie. Well, the funny thing is, our critic headed on his top five worst films of that year. So I'm one of the two people. Now, before I get you out of here, I do just want to ask you,

as a movie fan, what are you looking forward to for the rest of the year? Joker, I think, has got to be uh up there quite i think i'm i'm super excited i'm excited because i think if this film crushes like why i think it will that there was always a plan to do more of these they were going to do a division of these kind of like grounded origin story types of maybe like the Riddler or like, uh, just, uh, or like a suicide squad character or something like that. So like, I'm very curious how this comes together. Um, I mentioned uncut gems too from the safety brothers go watch that trailer.

I know I saw the trailer early and I almost teased the Francesa stuff to see how you guys react. Um, I'm glad I didn't because it sounds like that went over big time in the office so it did everyone is here everyone is losing their minds over mike fucking francesa in an adam sandler movie being like that's the worst bet i've ever heard well he's playing a fictional character the funny thing is garnett and the weekend are in that plane themselves so it's very all over the place um i think um that roger arielstone bombshell that jay roach is doing um which is really about the women who exposed him

with charlize and margot robbie and nicole kidman i've heard awesome things about that um so i'm looking forward to that uh dr strange or dr sleep sorry um spoke the shining based on the shining sequel from step King with McGregor. I'm pretty excited about that one just because they're going for it. Yeah, Ewan McGregor is getting like Oscar buzz for that one, right? A little bit. I think they're I don't know if he's going to run up like run for it, though. Like I think Warner Brothers is going to be busy with them. Like I think the thing with when it comes to awards campaigns and studios want to like

focus they spend money on these things and like their talent wants to see like the campaigns and the trade papers and all things so i think like joaquin's gonna get a lot of that love from warner brothers but if if dr sleep does play well i think uh at the very least his team is going to want um some sort of campaign. So we'll see. But yeah, I'd expect Warner Brothers to put all their, all their chickens in a basket with Joker right now,

given like just, just the reviews early on. So, and how could you not, especially with like an actor, the, the level of Joaquin playing a character, the level of the Joker and everyone saying it collided the way everyone wanted it to,

I guess you have to. Yeah, you don't want to risk losing out on that one. I think Irishman, obviously, is going to get people excited for really good things. Three-and-a-half-hour runtime is rough, though. It is, but, like, I mean, Wolf of Wall Street's three hours. But, like, if it's Scorsese and you enjoy it, it's like Endgame.

Couldn't you have had another 20 minutes of Endgame? Yeah, I guess so. I guess I just don't think there and you enjoy, like, it's like end game. Like, couldn't you have had another 20 minutes of ending? Yeah, I guess so. I guess I just don't think there will be any like Captain America wielding Mjolnir in the Irishman, you know, I worry that there'll be some, my thing is, is like Pesci's return.

I think if you've grown up with good fellows at casino, like him getting back in the Scorsese realm is going to be a lot of fun. yeah, I think those, those are the ones I'm really on point on. The funny thing is, I got back from vacation and I was just pinging deep. Once Toronto ends, they start screening a lot of these films for trade reporters and people that are outside of awards stuff. So I was already asking about... I usually look at... I actually did the other one Parasite from Bong Joon-ho. I'm saying that name wrong. like asking about, like, I usually look at like, um, I actually did the other one parasite from, um, long to who I'm saying that name wrong,

but I've heard awesome things on that. Ken Jack says it's his number one movie of the year. Did he see it? Okay. Um, I think, and I, it sounds like he's not the only one.

So, uh, I, I'm gonna, I'm very hopeful for that. Um, I honestly, I always like surprises like those,

like, you know, Lions from a couple years ago with Dev Patal really, like, blew me away a little bit. Like, I mean, Star is Born last year. I was shocked at how well done that was. So, you know, those, yeah. You know, and Star Wars. You got to be excited for the big ones.

Excited for seeing how they end that. I'm glad JJ's back in the realm. Though I will say that's one guy I want to see do other stuff other than just the same stuff like all over again. I miss like Super 8 and some of his other things, and I hope the new Warner Brothers deal leads to more stuff. Maybe someone with a cape. We'll see.

That's a cake. Uh, we'll see. Um, that's a hint. Uh, but, um, yeah, that's, um, yeah, those are the big ones right now. Like, and then I'm from a TV and I'm also excited for Watchmen. Um, I read, I studied that book in college and Lyndon Lough, I feel like is such a perfect person to handle that. So yeah a non-tv front i think that's the one thing i am extremely excited for i'm with you there i'm a huge linda loft guy i'm a huge lost guy and i'm huge watchman guy even i even like the zack snyder movie that people shit on but i'm a big fan of it i think the ending with that he went with really like worked in that cinematic realm i think that's one i think that's z Zach's best movie just because of how hard that adaptation is to begin with. And I just think haters are going to hate, like that's the problem sometimes.

And that's the worst part of like social media and some of this stuff. So, but yeah, and I'm sure there'll be haters on the show, but I'm still going to be excited for it. All right, Justin, it was great talking to you today. Thank you for coming on the show. It was nice getting to actually like, you know, divulge and get into this movie stuff. I'll have to have you back on maybe before Rise of Skywalker. That's what I keep saying to all my guests. I'm like, we got to get you back on before Rise of Skywalker

because I know a few weeks before that, I'm just going to want to talk to everyone I know about it. Well, listen, I am grounded. I think my first child due two weeks or three weeks after that film comes out. So we'll be stuck in our house. So, yeah, if you need someone to chat with once that film pops out, I'll be happy to hop on and see what we all think on that front. Amazing.

And congratulations on the child as well. That's awesome. Oh, thanks, man. I got my Saturday for the boys onesie like a week ago, so I'm already excited for all that stuff. Amazing. And tell the people where they could find you on Twitter. I am at Kroll J VAR, K-R-O-L-L-J-V-A-R. I don't give my Instagram out. That's for, that's for, for my friends only.

So I apologize on that front, but yeah, Kroll J VAR and then variety.com for all my stories as well. We're actually going to be starting – one thing to plug, actually. We're ramping up – we just built a new studio in our offices. So a lot more video coming. I'll do more analysis on a lot of these breaking stories that happen. So that will be something fun to look forward to. I think October is when that will really ramp up.

It's kind of a soft open this week, but next, when the Catwoman news breaks, I'll be able to come down and give an analysis, a little background on how it all came together. So something to look forward to on the variety front, I think. Definitely, and if you are a movie fan in the slightest, I think Justin is a must-follow on Twitter. Like we spoke about before, the incoming comes in, the heartbeat starts racing,

you get a nice little story broken. It's awesome. Justin, thank you so much for being here.