The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Edgar Wright

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

Filmmaker Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) joins Andy Richter to discuss his new film “The Running Man,” their favorite 1970s TV shows, the process of adapting Stephen King’s book for the screen, how his feelings have evolved about his micro-budget directorial debut (a Western spoof), and much more.Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Tell us your favorite dinner party story (about anything!) - leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen to "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the three questions. I'm your host, Andy Richter, and today I'm talking to the director Edgar Wright. He's a visionary filmmaker whose work includes Sean of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim versus the world, baby driver, and more. His new movie, The Running Man, is out this week, November 14th. Here's my conversation with Edgar Wright. I really do try. I really do try hard to get better each week and to improve on what I've done before. I was doing it most for myself, but now I got all these fucking people behind me. I'm like, I can't half-ass it now. You know, I have to try as hard as I can

because all these people are putting so much work and to be a nice form to me. It's funny, the UK one, I don't know if you've read or sort of been plagued by a scandal all the time. And it's funny because it's such a sort of a, like, upbeat family show. Oh, absolutely. But then there's sort of so much kind of like, you know, because the BBC keep coming under fire for, like, various scandals. And it's like, there's always people having affairs.

It's called The Curse of Strictly. Oh, wow. Yeah, that people are always having affairs with their kind of like mentors. That's happened a couple times here. Yeah. And then also, like, a whole bullying scandal. There was, like, an actress who dropped out and then sort of, like, came out that, like, her, like, sort of dancer was, like, bullying her. And it turned into a whole fucking thing.

And lots of people have left the show because they, you know, but they're going out on Saturday night with, like, a, you know, awesome. You know, like, it's a family mainstream show. Yeah, yeah. The tabloids are so, like, you know, after it of, like, backstage drama strictly. It's, you know, it's, there's, there have been similar sort of controversies. And there are a couple of, like, happily married. dance pro with their celebrity partner. There are a couple of those that have happened.

But the dancers all seem to have dated each other in like a round robin sort of fashion. I mean, everybody on that show is like, well, yeah, they dated that one and I dated this one. But it's very like, when you're around, it's a very like people, beautiful, like beautiful athletes, like, beautiful gazelles that are touching each other all day.

So it's like, it's just like there's, you know, it's like, all right, yeah, I see. I can see how that could lead to, you know, hanky, panky, okay. Well, let's talk about what you're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about you. And I got to see, I got to see Running Man. Oh, you saw it? Yeah, yeah. And it's really great.

Oh, thank you. It's really great. It's more, it's on a more serious kind of tip than. than the Schwarzenegger one was for sure. Yeah, well, I mean, it's more faithful to the book. Is that what the purpose? You know, is that what you were going for? Well, yeah.

I mean, actually, as a teenager, I had read the book before I saw the 987 film. Because I probably started reading Stephen Kingwicks when I was like 12 or 13. Yeah, yeah. And that film, when it came out in 1988, I would have been 14 and it was an 18 certificate. So I definitely didn't see it in the cinema.

But by the time I saw it on VHS a couple of years later, I had read the book. And the book is drastically different and much closer to what we did. So I kind of watched the Schwarzenegger one. And even though I enjoyed it, I was like, huh. It was probably the first time I ever watched something is a, like, you know, a young film and book fan and realize that two things can be completely different. Oh, really? That was the one.

Well, I mean, it was like, you know, it was, I'd read the book and liked the book and then saw the film and realized it was, completely different. Right. You know, the only thing that's even vaguely the same in the book is the idea of just being on the game show set itself.

Right. Everything else, like, who he is. And they shoot you out of tube. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not in the book either. That was probably the one nod that we had. Oh, it was. Yeah, yeah.

I was glad at that. Because that, when I think of the running man, I think of Richard Dawson. Yeah. And then I also think that tube from when I saw that movie. When did that one come out? 987.

87 yes see I was a teenager yeah and and it was uh that was like so like that that captivated me being shot out of a tunnel you know in it like and then Arnold Schwarzenegger just the noises that he makes when he's under duress is so good um no no that's I mean the any real like nods to the the original that we made is we thought like about the the lift and the idea of having the dancers on the show. Because in the original film, the, you know, dancers on the show are choreographed

by Paula Abdul. And I kind of thought, well, we should do a little hat tip to Paula Abdul in this way. But other than that, it's like completely different. It also seems to be, too, like, I don't remember this sort of split society aspect in the Schwarzenegger one.

Because in your version of it, the rich people live in one part of town, that is an armed camp. Yeah. And then the poor people live in shit. And I imagine that was from the book, too. Yeah, I mean, what's crazy is the book is, I mean, the book was published in 1982 under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. Oh, okay.

But it was written in 1972, which I only found out the other day, actually. I was doing an interview with Stephen King, and he mentioned that it was written in 72. Yeah. And, you know, like, couldn't find a publisher at the time. but it's alarming how prescient it is. Also, the other thing is worth pointing out is that the book was set in 2025

for real. Oh, wow. The cover of the original paperback says, the log line is, welcome to the year 2025, where the best men don't run for president, they run for their lives. Oh, wow. The running mad, Richard Beckman. Like, wow, okay.

So it's kind of wild to actually have this film out in the year 2025 in the last six weeks. Yeah, yeah. What brought you to the movie? Was it your idea? Were you the one that was pushing a remake? Well, I, because I had liked the, I loved the book when I was a teenager, and it was still

really vivid, it was very vivid to me. And of course, even before I thought I was going to be a film director, you know, or, you know, knew that that's what I was going to, what I wanted to do. Obviously, you visualize a book in your head when you read it. Yeah. And so it stayed with me. And then when I did start making films, I always knew that, like, oh, there's a whole other movie in that book.

There's a whole other, you know, most people didn't even know. I don't think most people knew that the Stephen King wrote the, the short singer film was based on a Stephen King book. Yeah. They suddenly didn't promote it like that at the time. So I always felt that there was another movie in that source material. Yeah, yeah. And then I did even look into the rights about 15 years ago, but it was complicated and not

available. And then, you know, over the years in interviews, that's one of those questions. you get asked, is like, if you could remake any movie, what would you remake? And I definitely said the running man in more than one interview. And then one of the producers, Simon Kimberg, like four years ago, emailed me and said, is it true you have an interest in adapting the running man? And I said, yes, he said, well, you know, we now have the rights, you know, so let's talk. Yeah, wow. Cut to four years later. Wow. Wow. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, it was amazing.

And was there, like, was there a chance, like, did you know that this was sort of, going to plot out in sequence with your other projects like this was going to happen after last night in Soho or was there a time when it was kind of no actually I mean I think the first email I had about it was probably literally four years ago when I was like promoting that movie so it was like it was it's very rare that something that you really want to do yeah lands in your inbox not just something that you really want to do but something you've actually actively thought about before yeah yeah that's kind of weird like kismit that kind of that happened so Was that the last four?

I mean, I know you did the Sparks documentary, which was that was previously as well. Oh, that was previously as well. Yeah, so was it was there four years then between? Well, I was working on that and a couple, developing a couple of other things, but also, you know, there's the big, you know, kind of like the strikes in 23. Yeah, yeah. Like the, which affected, you know, the UK as well, like sort of a sag strike and WGA strike. So it was mostly like a sort of, you know, like a down year in terms of production. Oh, I didn't, I didn't feel that.

at all. I was just sitting in Pasadena sweating. Yeah, so I was working on that and a couple of other projects. And I must admit, I thought, because I worked on it with the writer Michael McCall, who I worked on Scott Pilgrin with as well. And I, it's funny, part of me in my head, and maybe this is the glass half empty part of me, when I was reading, you know, like the first script, we worked on the treatment together and then Michael wrote the first draft. And I thought, well, this is great, but this is never going to happen. It's too wild. It's too big.

It's R-rated. Like, they're never going to let me make this. Yeah, yeah. And it's really bleak. Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty bleak. I mean, of course, good conquers evil and all that. But I mean, but it's like, it's not, it's not, you know, the Schwarzenegger one is like poppy in, you know, in comparison. and because this one kind of has like heavy dystopian vibes to it

because of the source material. Yeah, yeah. And also I think it's, you know, I wanted it to be like, I wanted you to feel the stakes and the, you got to feel the desperation of why he goes on the show. Because in the, in the United States, everyone, he's framed, you know, and then, you know, he's, but in this one, he goes on the show willingly. Yeah. You know, he's going to the network building.

they have a number of cruel game shows where they exploit the ports and the sort of like various game shows and he's willing to he wants to be on one of the other ones like he wants to get on the treadmill show and risk injury rather than death right right but of course

circumstances lead him to be the prime candidate for the running man but yeah I mean I also was a kind of sort of movie that I missed as well like the sort of sci-fi action dystopia Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, I mean, I had it, I mean, but I had it, it was, it was such an amazing thing to come together as, as fast as it did.

Yeah. For such a, it's also, I've never made a movie that's been completed so close to release. Oh, really? We, we only just started filming it like a year ago. Wow. Because it's complicated. It's a very complicated movie. It's a lot of moving parts.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we finished filming at the end of March. So we only started editing proper in April, knowing that we had a November 2025 release date. So it was all kind of like hands on deck. Lights of fire under you. Yeah. But, you know, I'm really like, I'm really happy and proud of it and stuff. I mean, I sort of was doing the junk kit this week at the four seasons and I was looking at the poster in between doing interviews. And I started to dissociate and I was thinking, oh, yeah, this is, I made this. It's coming out.

Like, it's just sort of, like, you know, and I'm. amazing thing. I don't want to make it sound like it was a like a walk in the park. It was really like a difficult film to make. But amazing cast, great crew. Glenn is such a great person to work with. And he's in every single scene of the film. He sure is. Yeah. And, you know, his energy was off the charts. He wanted to kind of just do his absolute best. And, you know, it was, but it did feel like, it felt like sort of going on the game yourself. I mean, you know, it probably has like sort of like, And it's, and also, like, it's funny, obviously you're doing Dancing with the Stars. It's like, there's obviously a lot about reality TV in the time as well.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And the machinations behind the scenes and just manipulating it and creating a narrative for like Ben Richards, you know. For having it being written in 1972, it's pretty prescient for, you know, for what, you know, it's like black mirror, 40, 50 years before black mirror, you know. Yeah. And also, yeah. Obviously, you know, there'd be documentaries and there'd be, obviously, sports on TV, but not that specific type of reality show. Yeah.

Or not those kind of, like, cruel, physical game shows in quite that way. Yeah. So it's alarmingly prescient, you know? Like, I can't even, well, I mean, I can't even think, like, in 1972 what cruel game shows there even were, like, or exploited. Not in that vein. Yeah, yeah. Now there's, like, sort of things that, like, are as near as damn it except the murder, you know? Right, right, right.

Well, yeah, they dump bugs on people or they knock them into pits of goo, you know, with giant paddles and stuff. But, yeah, it is, it's just interesting to me. Was there something, did you just kind of, was the story just kind of a thrill ride that you really enjoyed? Or was there something thematically that you connected to that made you want to make this particular movie? I really liked in, I mean, there's obviously there are themes in the movie that are so sort of timely to right now. And some of that is a coincidence. Obviously, when we started working on the script, you know, in maybe like early 22, you know, the idea of like deep fakes and sort of AI and kind of like the sort of, you know, post-truth that was all out there. And there's a scene in the book where Ben Richards makes a tape.

He has to make tapes that are going to be put on the show. And they've re-edited his tape. So he says something that he didn't say. Right. That's a scene in the 1972. book that he wrote, but it wasn't published, but it's just audio, correct? No, it was video.

Oh, it's video in the book. But it's kind of like, you know, alarming. I mean, so, you know, there's essentially a version of a deep fake in that book written more than 50 years ago, which is wild. Yeah, it is. And obviously, this is something which is now part of our daily lives in the news and social media and everywhere. So I guess there were themes in it that became more and more relevant

by the second as we're making it. But the other thing I really liked about the book, which I wanted to do in the film, which isn't in the 987 one, is that you're just with Ben Richards the entire way. Like, there's not a scene without him. The book is all from his perspective, and the film is all for him his perspective.

So you don't cut to scenes back at the network building. You don't cut to what his wife and child are up to. You stay with him and you only have the information that he does as he's on this deadly game. So the whole idea was to make it a really, you know, experiential like you feel like you're on the game with him and hopefully make it more exciting and intense because of that yeah did you feel that Andy I did I did you want to remake. Like, I, I am dying, and I like the original, but I am dying for they live to be

remade. That's another one that's sort of, like, sort of, like, way ahead of its time. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, that, I think that, you know, obviously the poster with Obey, like, sort of took on a whole life of its own. Absolutely. Yeah. I just want, and nothing against Rowdy, Rowdy Piper. But I think that if there was a they live first of all too the effects could be better even even though i would want them probably still still be practical but um just an actor that isn't roddy piper well it definitely i mean this is again i like i love that movie and i love john calm too and i'm not a knock on raddy ronipipar but when you watch it you're thinking so i guess kirk russell was busy right exactly exactly he's got this kurt russell haircut and everything and now

Russell's got a kid that's doing Kurt Russell, you know, young Kurt Russell stuff. So that would be good. Is there any other, like, is there a list of them that you have in your back pocket? I mean, not really. I mean, this one was like something that I was exciting to me because I knew that the book was widely different from the film.

And because you had a connection to it as a teenager too, probably. And I think for me, the best remakes are ones that do something completely different. Like David Cronenberg's The Fly. is a great example, because it's completely different to the 1950s one, but I enjoy both of them. The ones that I don't care for as much, not naming any names, when you're doing a remake and it's just beat for beat, the original, I always feel that those ones just feel a bit like karaoke. Yeah. And then also, as if you're old enough to have seen the original

at the cinema, you're just really aware that, like, what am I doing? I'm watching the same film 30 years later. Yeah, yeah. I've definitely had that feeling. Yeah, when you're at home, it doesn't feel like such an investment, you know? No, I won't say which film, but I definitely felt that after, like, one reboot, I was like, what am I doing with my life? I saw this film in 1996, you know? Yeah. Well, those are the kind of movies, too, and I don't know if it's about my mind or what,

but there are things that I put on and, you know, just like, because there's nothing I love more when I'm watching TV by myself at night. than like some kind of 80s, you know, 70s, 80s, 90s genre action, you know, fuel, where you can tell the entire thing is fueled by cocaine. And just those kind of movies, I still really love them. But there's so many of them that I'll go like, oh, I'll tune in for this, like some Jean-Claude Bonda movie. And it takes me 10 minutes to go, oh, I've seen this. Like, you know, I just, for some reason, I'm not constantly, but very frequently go, oh, here's

something, that sounds interesting and I watch it and I'm just like, oh shit, I saw this. I don't smoke dope anymore, so that might be part of it. I may have been seeing them while I was high and then they, you know, they never stuck, but, you know. I think some of those films to me are like very vivid because I have just a memory of watching them late night on TV. Yeah. Turned down slightly so that my parents wouldn't know that I was staying up until 2 in the morning. Yeah. Like watching.

Were they played with commercials in the UK? It depends what channel it would be on. The BBC one and two would have no commercials, but if it was on ITV or Channel 4, it would. It would. And then if you, you know, I know if you used to do that thing where you used to sort of tape it off the TV and pause it for the commercials. Yes. Yes, absolutely. But then it would never be perfect.

No. You'd be recording Halloween and then get some. kind of like cut away to like, you know. Hairspray. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. That's a different version of the movie. At what point, I mean, you grew up in.

Honestly, I preferred Halloween with the shampoo commercials in it. Gives you a break. Yeah, no. Yeah, some movies like the commercials are almost sort of like a, you know, not necessarily comic relief, but just like attention relief, you know. I remember like when I got a bootleg copy of the Star Wars holiday. special, which of course was like, you know, sort of

like, it's never been officially released. It's like a variety show and they're dancing Chewbacca and stuff like that. But the VHS that I got was obviously like on the tape off of American TV. And what was far more entertaining than the Star Wars Holiday Special was the 1978 commercials in between.

I love those. It was just like fascinating. There was like the fascinating artifact itself, these like fruit of the limb commercials and stuff. I, it's like, that's old content there's there there used to be a radio show i love old radio plays i love like old time radio especially like the spooky scary you know the closed book or you know suspense and they sometimes they'll run the old commercials with those and there's a series called that i grew up with that was

still on in the 60s and 70s and 80s called cbs radio theater and it played on in chicago it played on the news channel every it was a half hour show and it played at 1030 and it was like all these new york broadway people like jerry orbach and you know i can't remember victor bologna like all the you hear all these voices you know or you know and you're like holy shit that's you know um elaine stritch in a radio show you know and and it's all you know murders and stuff like that but they there's there's an archive of those and it's all They did the Chicago feed, so it's all the radio ads from my childhood, like from when I was 10, like 8, 9, 10, and I'm hearing, you know, jingles that, like, are in my head that are, like, deeply in the recesses of my head. They're like, oh, my God, I haven't heard that in 40 years, you know.

I love that in Quentin Tarantina's once upon time in Hollywood that they had all the radio jingles. Yeah. Because I think they found some ham radio guy who just recorded hours and hours and hours of 60s radio. So not only do they have the songs, but they have, you know, the DJ talking, all the continuity stuff, which is the stuff that people don't keep. Right, exactly. And then all the radio ads and stuff. The fact that they even had all that stuff is amazing.

Yeah, that's really great. Were you like one of those kids that would rather watch TV than go outside? I mean, look at me. I say that, I say, I said that hopefully so that I could find kinship with you because... You know what's funny? I think actually that a big part of, and this is something that I think in a pre-entenet age and a streaming age, I think people, young people don't quite understand, is that when you were like, when I was growing up, but obviously, you know, sometimes you would read a book,

but like with TV, you would watch TV and films on TV because it was on. Yes. Now, obviously, you have all that choice between, like, the internet and YouTube and all of the streamers, you could watch anything you want and you could stop it if you don't like it. But, you know, when you're watching the TV, you would just watch things because they were on. And so you would watch a lot of things that you probably wouldn't watch by choice. Of course. And then there were so many films within that that I would watch just because there's a film on. And also when, you know, because I, you know, I was born in 1974.

There were so many TV shows I would, like, suffer through because I wanted to get to the thing that was afterwards. Yeah. But you wouldn't, like, think that kind of turn on the TV. Turn it off or go outside or, like, read a book in between. But I kind of thought about the shows that really, like, I would be a chore to get through until something more fun was on. Yeah. And two that used to bore the shit out of me as a kid would be the Walton's and Little House on a Prairie. You just be like, oh, fucking I have to watch that.

And it's not, the thing is what's hilarious is you wouldn't think, like, I'll go and do something. else why the Walton's is on. You were thinking, oh, I have to watch the Walton's. Yes, yes, yes. Or like Western shows where, or shows where the theme tune and the opening credits is so much more fun than the actual show. Like Bonanza. Yeah.

The theme tune is amazing. Yeah. The opening credits with the map burning, amazing. Like, so exciting. This show is so boring. So boring. And so weird and so, like, absent of female. anything and just like a bunch of weird men living together and like one of them wears black all

the time and you know and and then like I and also a lot of those uncomfortable I would watch about little Joe but there's lots of weird stuff in that show I think about that a lot in terms of the shows that I would just kind of like suffer through because the high chaperow yeah yeah like lots of shows where it felt like they were going up and down the same valley all the time there There were shows, like there was a show called The Rifleman. Did you ever see The Rifleman? I know what it is. It's Chuck Connors, right?

It was Chuck Connors. And he was, I don't even know if he was a lawman or if he just was a badass that, where there was people fucking around every week that needed to be straightened out. But instead of a revolver, he had a short-barreled rifle with a big, you know, whatever you call it, the bottom thing that you put your fingers. I can't think of what that's called. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's like the talking action.

Yeah, but it's, there's a word for what it is. Your fingers go into it. Exactly what you mean, yeah. And he, so he would shoot from the hip and fire. And that was in the, that was all I watched it for, was just that he shot this cool gun. And that, you know, and again, I was the same way. I would watch, because here in the States,

there were two bands, VHF and UHF. I don't know if you had that in the UK. Well, like A&M, A.M. VHF was two. through 13 and had much better reception and then 13 through I don't know like the 60s yeah was UHF and it was it was all the weird like religious channels or all the Korean language programming or um but that was where the really weird rerun stuff was and that was what I would watch because I'd come home every day and there was like Brady Bunch Partridge family um you know please don't

The Daisies, all these old, like, family sitcoms that I never considered, like you said, not watching because I felt like, well, I don't know, for me, my, in looking back on it, I feel like it was like, I didn't want to be rude, you know, like, this is being presented. This is for me, you know, same thing with like Saturday morning cartoons. Oh, yeah. Saturday morning cartoons, like, I got to, you know, this is somebody went to the trouble to program this little section of TV just for me and I'd wake up early

just to go watch what at that time tour like really shitty really shitty cartoons your name Sam I want to I want to well like the the wacky races Wacky Races Penelope Pitstop yes Benelli Pitstop

looking back at them now yeah the one the Darsely and Muttley the shark that was actually not too bad but that character but like the shark that is basically just curly from the three stooges. Oh yeah. That rings about. I can't remember what it's some jabber jaw. Thank you.

And then and because my my kids, I have older kids and a five year old now, but they have, you know, I would, they've watched all of those. And I'm just like, it's shocking to me. The only one I hold space for is Scooby-Doo. I still have a soft spot for Scooby-Doo. Just because as a little kid, I love scary shit. And my kids love scary shit. And I get to kind of, you know, you know, relive, mildly scary shit with them again, you know. And Scooby-Doo, my daughter could watch it all day, you know, over and over and over. Also, you know, yeah, I mean, no, I love Scooby-Doo as well. But Scrappy-Doo, fuck that guy.

But Scooby-Doo is great, you know. My friend had a joke about that, David Williams. He had a joke about, like he's talking about, you guys. Before Scrappy-Doo, Scooby-Doo was a very urgent show, a very serious show. And when they brought Scrappy Doe on, it's almost like the whole thing was written for children. That's great. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And of course, my daughter's like, I want to watch the one with the little Scooby-Doo. I'm like, oh. Well, there's a small, there's another. No, I mean, she means Scrappy. But the thing is, she's five and a half and she thinks it's funny. All of the shows had their own Scrappy Doe. Like, remember the late 70s Godzilla cartoon? Yes.

And it had fucking Godzilla. A little baby. Yeah, yeah. The Scrappy Doe do of the Godzilla world. Yeah. Like, you know, like, oh, yeah, there was used to be so much of that. But I think also what's funny about those shows is that you'd kind of like sit through them, even though they were, I guess they were syndicated and you'd end up watching just

the same episodes over and ever again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, that's also too, like, that's very, I mean, having had children, that's how kids learn. Kids, they, their kids are about repetition. It's somehow like, it's just, I don't know, laying down wiring in your brain. or something. They just, they're just kind of naturally do it, you know. So when do you think that you This is the first interview this, this, this, um, this week where Penelopee Pistob has come up.

But Scooby-Doo, probably a few times. Scooby-Doo every time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every time, absolutely. Can't you tell my loves it grows? Oh, God, because now I'm thinking, too, like the, did you have the banana splits? Oh, of course. And all those weird, little. little serials that were in there. You know, like, there was like the one with like,

oh, oh, Chango, and then there were just these weird different little live action, like one is, you know, in the jungle. And then there's another one that's, I don't remember them exactly, but it's so many of these shows, I think, sort of, again, like the opening sequence is so much more exciting than the shows. Like the other one that I, like, I remember vividly. I like the show in the cartoon.

but the Pink Panther show had such an exciting theme song and the only credits with the pink sports car which then never appears in the actual show. No. But I could, you know, those lyrics are burnt into my brain. Yeah. He really is a groovy cat

and he's a gentleman of scholar. He's an acrobat. You know what? I don't think we had lyrics to our pink panther. It was a... It was a Henry Mancini theme. Think of all the animals you've ever heard about rhinoceros and tigers cats and mink.

There are lots of funny animals in all the world, but have you ever seen a panther that is pink? Never. Think, a panther that is positively pink. Wow. Well, here he is the pink panther. Have you ever seen a panther so pink? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He really is a groovy cat, and he's a gentleman, a scholar. He's an acrobat. He's in the pink, pink panther, the rinketing panther, and it's as plain as your nose that he's the one and only truly original. Panther Pink Panther from head to toe So the answer to your question is No, I didn't go out and play sports Oh, I just

I just revealed myself way too much See for me it's here he comes Here comes speed racer He's a demon on wheels Weirdly Speed Racer didn't play in the I don't remember that one Yeah yeah So when that film came out

It kind of meant nothing to me Because I never saw Speed Racer as a kid I did see Battle of the Planets though Do you remember that one? That was kind of like Is that with the Slee Stacks It was the Japanese It was like, it was G-Force

and it was kind of rebranded as Battle of the Planets after Star Wars came out. No. It's pretty cool. I don't know that one. I like that one. But Channel 44 in Chicago had a bunch of Japanese ones like Johnny Soko and his giant robot.

Yeah. Have you ever seen that one? No, I think that one might have been before my time, but Battle of the Planets was a similar thing. It was like a rebranded Japanese cartoon. Yeah, there were different Japanese cartoons that we, well, and then Speed Racer was one too. And then we had one.

for a very short time that I thought I imagined, which was a wrestler who had a tiger's head. He didn't wear a tiger mask. He had the literal head of a tiger. And I thought

I'd imagined it, and then we were on vacation in Mexico, and it was on in Mexico. That rings a bell to me. I can picture it. You've got the internet open. Tiger mask. Did that when it's called? Yeah, yeah. There you go. But it didn't, it never, it was not a mask. He had it, tiger, yeah, a tiger face.

And then it was just like, and then what was amazing too in seeing it again on Mexican television is it was like long stretches of wrestling matches. Just blow by blow animation wrestling matches, you know, just kids had so much more time and so much more attention span then. I think the other thing as well going back to films in a similar way. And I know other sort of directors of a similar age feel this way is that you would also kind of suffer through like a mediocre film for one great bit. And I don't think anybody would really do that now. You would kind of like, because you can kind of watch anything, just kind of switch off. Right.

But there used to be like movies where you say, oh, that movie's not so good, but there's this one great bit. Yeah. And I feel like that's something that is maybe like a loss. It's like looking for truffles. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And I feel like that's something that there's so many films that I kind of,

that I remain very dear to me that maybe if people just watch them now, they would wonder what I see in it. But like it's, it hits different. It's different when you're watching it like at 11.30 at night. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, sort of that something like sort of like very strange is unfolding. And then maybe when you actually get to the de Noon, it's like, oh, wow. Oh, that's cool.

Yeah, yeah. Like most people wouldn't make it past minute five. Yeah, yeah. No, there's movies that I watch just for production design. Like the Vin Diesel one with the blind guy. Oh, pitch black. Yeah, yeah. But not the pitch black.

The one that's like, Riddick, Chronicles of Riddick. Very fancy title for that film. Yeah, and just like all that shit of where like giant daggers with like old sort of like Roman god faces are like their death. machines and they all have these like Geigerie kind of outfits like I watch that every time it's on just it's a shitty movie but I just love the production

design so much I like the rare Vindies of film also starring Judy Dench that's right that's right that's right yes I like the idea as I said so what do we do for the pitch black seeker we got to get like the silver dollar let's get Judy Dench in here as well come on

what's the Venn diagram I'm a Vin Diesel and Judy Dench fans. What's in the middle of that? He probably called her, you know, after he got the second, the sequel, like, Judy, I got something for you. When did you really start to seriously think, like, that was what you were going to do for a living? And was there a moment? Like, was there, like, a movie that you watched?

Because, I mean, I had moments where I was like, I think I may do something in this industry for a living. Yes. But also, like, I actually, a. show about a movie. I was always like, my parents would like, you know, they weren't, they were art teachers and artists and, you know, both very creative and they got me and my brother interested in movies from a very young age. Like, we go to see, it would be like kind of instead of a babysitter, we'd get kind of like dumped at the cinema. Yes, yes. You know, but

when I was, and so I knew I wanted to do something in film, but I didn't know what it was. And also, I didn't know how. It wasn't like it was something that at that time that there was an obvious entry level to working in film. Yeah, yeah. Even like, you know, not as many like film courses back in those days either. But I do remember that on British TV on Channel 4 in the sort of like, maybe like about 88, you know, Jonathan Ross, do you know who he is like the sort of chat show host?

Yes, yes. He had a show on Channel 4, which is a network channel. Like back then, it was only like four channels. Yeah. There was called The Incredibly Strange Film Show, and it was a series of profiles on sort of different Maverick filmmakers. Oh, wow. Now, this is on mainstream TV. Yeah, yeah.

So it was a 14-year-old watching, like, an hour on Russ Meyer, or John Waters, or George Romero, or Jackie Chan, or was, or Herschel Gordon Lewis was just, like, mind-blowing to me. And then the one that really kind of- I want to see that now, you can get it all on YouTube. YouTube actually. They're all on YouTube. What's it called? The incredibly strange film show. Wow. Okay. But one episode was about Sam Ramey. And I was sort of aware of the Evil Dead. Maybe I hadn't actually seen it at that point. And maybe I'd seen Evil Dead too, actually. But either way, the documentary was about him. And obviously, he was an independent filmmaker who started making like Super A shorts with his friends. Yeah, yeah. Kind of goofy Three Stooges kind of things. Comedy gore, I think. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, like, sort of, and splastic, as they called it.

Oh, really? Is that what it was going? Oh, nice. And just seeing that, and at this time, my parents had actually, because me and my brother were interested in filmmaking, they'd got us like a Super 8 camera that was like a double birthday, double Christmas present. Yeah, yeah. You know that with your brothers where it's like, okay, this is your Christmas present,

and your birthday present, between the two of you. So it's like four different presents. gifts in one. Right, right. And is this a film camera or a video camera? Like a Super 8 camera. Like a secondhand Super 8 camera. Okay. But then it was around the same time that I saw this like documentary about Sam Ramey and saw their like goofy

school like shorts that they made on Super 8 and that this is a guy that then made the Evil Dead and Evil 2. And it was very much the light bulb moment of like that's what I'm going to do. Oh really? And I think even the next day at school I said to did you see that incredibly strange film show

about the Evil Dead director? And he goes, said, I'm going to do that. Wow. You know, and that was, so it was weirdly, it was beyond like a movie. It was like the story of, like, somebody making a movie. And maybe it was also because he was from outside Hollywood. Right. He's in Michigan making stuff in the woods.

But it was definitely like the, the light bulb moment of like, that's what I have to do. And then I think, because also growing up in like, I grew up in like the West Country, this is, again, you always have to say pre-internet. You understand this. Yes, yes. It's not like my local news agent, like, had site and sound magazine or films on filming. It's not even that the public library had kind of many books about movie making.

Or Fangoria, you know. Well, you'd have to order that. Yeah, yeah. There was a magazine called Starburst, which was kind of the UK version of Fangoria. But mainly, like, you would learn about films just by watching them. There wasn't, to me, at least, access-wise at that time, a lot of information about who made them and how they made them. where these directors are from. But then, you know, then as I was in my late teens,

I became aware of more and more stories of independent filmmakers. And then after Sam Ramey, it's like Peter Jackson is in, like, New Zealand making these gory kind of low-budget films, like, on the weekend. Yeah. You know, Robert Rodriguez is, like, funding his kind of, like, independent films by having, like, medical experiments, you know, to kind of raise money for El Mariachi. And so I just start to kind of like, you know, hear these stories. And it was around the time I went to sort of art college.

But it was really just, it was really like fueled by the real like sort of like touch paper moment was seeing that Sam Ramey documentary. Yeah. And kind of seeing that like, well, I have a Super 8 camera and I have friends at school that I can make silly stuff with. Yeah. Let's go. Did art school in any way dissuade you from doing fun, gory horror action kind of things? Not at all. Not at all.

That's fantastic. I think I was the sort of like, what's, what's Edgar doing? Everybody else was making more avant-garde. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was making really goofy shit. Yeah, that's, I went to film. I think if anything, it made me double down. I went to film school in Chicago and I just, you know, well, I mean, I think I did.

I went through the go to college, start writing stories and they're all just like the bleakest, you know, most depressing shit. went in my short story fiction class but then when i got to film school i was kind and you were watching a lot of art films and stuff because i i started two years in in liberal arts and sciences and then i went to film school for the final two years and pretty much just studied film and um but i always was kind of like well you know like every time it was time to like a class a production class where you kind of had to like think of a you know imagine a movie, just have some parameters as to what it is. And my, you know, people are all, they're like doing, you know, like the underground railroad

or, you know, Amelia Earhart. And I was like, oh, this is a zombie film about, you know, most exactly the same thing. I was kind of like busy making, like, sort of like, my own version of Dirty Harry, you know? Yeah, yeah. You know what's really funny? I did that Sparks documentary and. Which was fantastic. I really loved it.

I really loved it. I didn't need. I knew them a little bit, and I liked them, but I, but this was like, it made, it opened me up to them even more, you know. Yeah, I mean, they're legends. They're such, such weirdos. Like, I just love weirdos, and they are weirdos, you know. Well, also the kind of, you know, they're also just the fact that they're from Los Angeles. Yeah.

Like, most people assumed that they were, like, European. Yeah, yeah. They don't seem, they, you know, they are Los Angeles rock royalty, but they certainly don't seem like it. And I also love that, like, they were, for. They're, you know, what you see. You didn't know anything about them. And then you are introduced, as I was, you know, when they came out as sparks and then find out, oh, they're surfers.

You know, they're like jocks and surfers. It was nuts to me that, to find that out in the movie, was hilarious. Well, another thing in that movie that, to tie into what we were just talking about, is that in the movie, they went to UCLA. Yeah. And Russell was at film school in UCLA. And, you know, they had, they were really great in terms of keeping. all of their archive.

But something that he had was this film that he made at UCLA, which was basically like a goofy spoof version of a Jean-Luc Goddard film, like kind of like a goof on breathless. And when I saw this, I sort of said, I said, I made exactly the same film at art college. Like it's almost identical. Yeah, yeah. Like I did a French New Wave spoof as well. It's like, the two things are like, it's the same thing. Made like, you know, 50 years apart.

Yeah, yeah. probably like 30 years apart in terms of life. But it always is so wild to me because it's like, oh, so I guess this is why we kind of find a kinship. Sure, sure. Because we made exactly the same avant-garde spoof. Yeah. And I, well, and I also think to, too, that like, it's the, you know, it's like you're in

the infancy of your true creative form. And so it's like, yeah, there's going to be some overlap between, you know, similar people doing similar kind of things. And I went to Columbia College in Chicago when there was a rumor, there was a rule, I should say, after that had been set up for in the film Tech One class is what they called it, no suicides, no suicides. Because if you didn't do that, and I saw like the year before when 12 kids in the class, seven suicide stories, you know, just like all these cureless nurse, you know, doing all. all these, like, gothy sort of Susie and the band, she's, uh, tracked, movies. I mean, I remember I felt at art college, because I wasn't on the film course. The film course was actually like a, I was on an audio visual design course, which was like

the equivalent of a foundation course. How come? I mean, well, because this is true. So I, um, I applied to be on the film course and I was 18. So I'd done my A levels, which, you know, and I applied to be on the film course. And I went down to the campus and they said, and the thing is, you had to go on to the course doing what you would like to do. And, of course, everybody wants to be a director,

but they only had so many places to directors. So most people would lie and say they wanted to do something else, but essentially everybody wanted to be a director. But the smart people would strategize and say, oh, I want to be a sound mix, but really I want to be a director. Right, right. Of course, because I was, like, sort of young and naive and cocky, that I sort of said, oh, I want to be a film director.

I've been making all these things at home. I've been by this point doing lots of Super 8 shorts and stuff on video later as well. So they said, oh, you're too young to be a director. You should do the audiovisual design course, like a kind of almost like a foundation course for two years. So I did that. And then I applied again to the film course. And they said the same thing. They said, oh, you should go off and work in the industry and come back in five years.

And at that point, I was like, nah, fuck this. Yeah, yeah. And so actually that summer is when I made my first film with like a zero. budget, like Western. Yeah, yeah. Now, the irony is that years later that film school had included me in their alumni. Of course, of course. Because I got people coming out to me said, oh, I'm doing the film and TV course of

Bournemouth because you did it. I said, I never did that because they wouldn't let me on. I said, oh, that's not what the brochure says. No, no. So I had to get in touch to them and said, and I looked at the brochure and they'd worded it in such a way that it was like a white lie. Right, right. And I said, no, you have to be specific.

about what I did. You can't make it sound like I was on campus. Right, right. Is that I wasn't... Did you ask them to stop? Yeah, I asked to change it. I asked to just make it very specific. I said, like, you can't make it seem like I did the film course. Right, right. And then eventually, I got offered, like, a doctorate, and I went down to do a talk. They invited me down to do a talk, which is the first time I'd been back there. And so I was talking to the students, I said, well, number one, guys, you don't have to do this course.

But I was nice to go and do the talk But it was funny To go and do a talk at the course That wouldn't let me on Yeah yeah Columbia College after I got on television Gave me an alumnus award And I was like

Well when they called I was like Because I didn't graduate I came up short of graduating But I was already working in film Because I'd had an internship With the production company And was already in production

And And I said, yeah, I said, you can give me an alumnus award, but I'm not technically an alumnus. And the woman said, if that were a priority, we would never give away any awards. Wow, yeah. She's like, most of these we give away are people who went here for a year. Yeah, yeah. We're just like, anybody that we can claim, we claim. And besides me, the big ones now are Pat Sejack, the host of Wheel of Fortune.

and but Janusz Kaminsky. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, Janush was, he was there just like a year before me. I had seen him a couple times. But yeah, I love film school. I'm glad that I did. Was he always bathed in Milky White Lights? No, he was not.

He was not. He was, he was, he was, he, we were across the street from a hotel and my memories of him where he was coming to visit and he would just stand and like watch people get dressed and like yell out the window at the, I'm like, we see you, you know. And that's my, I don't really know I'm that well. Other people, I had friends that were very good friends with him. But that was a, I never saw any of his work, just, just his beeping Tom, his voyeurism.

His very open vocal voyeurism. Well, it makes sense if he eventually became a cinematical talk about. Sure, sure. He was concerned with the lighting. Yeah. Come closer to the window. You're in too much shadow. Do you have a good relationship with all of your old films?

Like, are there any that you kind of look back and you're like, oh, I wish I'd done something different with that? Or they all have aspects that are like that? No, they all have aspects where, you know, I think there's, well, none of them I think is sort of like perfect. There's always something that you want to do with them. But I also think that's the kind of one thing you shouldn't tell anybody about. I have to kind of think...

I'm sorry, I retract the question. But it's, no, no, no, but what I mean is, is there something that you want to... But also, I mean, at the same time, there are some directors who go back and fix those things. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, like... Oh, right, of course. Like, I mean... Remastering.

Yeah, like Star Wars, they keep tinkering with it, and it's just... Just leave it. Yeah, yeah. Like, I'd rather have, like, the sort of the first version. I don't need to kind of have it updated every kind of, like, you know, 10 years. But I guess the one I, like, I don't like as... as much as that my first film is obviously just like very, very imperfect. But like it was, I don't say it's a means to an end.

But like for a long time, I was sort of going to pretend like it didn't exist. Yeah. Because I wasn't that happy with it. And it was that thing where, in a weird way, kind of leading on from the art college thing, we sort of made it as a goof. Yeah, yeah. As in it's like a low budget, no budget Western, shot in kind of the English countryside with my friends and, like, school friends and college.

friends acting in it like no proper actors and like really like a goof almost like a pantomime thing and the thing is is that like and you know it got released at the cinema in the UK and like the distributors sort of took it on and and you know and released it in terms of uh as as a sort of like this this funny zero budget spoof made by like basically like teenagers yeah yeah but of course the thing is that I naively thought that you'd get some kind of like like um you know you get graded on a curve but of course you have to kind of open opposite like proper films of course yeah and i remember the the weekend it came out it came out opposite the james bond film golden eye wow and then it's when it's kind of getting like rated and stuff and then

you know uh you kind of think well shouldn't we get a different star system because like that's a big budget film's like no yeah yeah like even though this is like this silly goof that you made right, right, right. And is it like a lark, an arabesque, you're from the archives, you know, it's like, no, no, no, no. If you want to be a, if you want to make a movie, you have to compete against everybody else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like the special Olympics or something. It's like, this is, this is, you know, this is the, this is the, this is the, this is the cinema, you know, so it's like, so it was, it was, it was, it was, in some respects, it was something where I, um, I felt, when I moved to London to edit it

and in the immediate aftermath of doing it I had this kind of really like sort of low moment where I was like oh my God I just made my first film and I can never take it back and it's like silly and it's like a goof and it's not, it can't be taken seriously and it was like I think around that time

like sort of like the British films that were like it was like around to have a shallow grave and train spotting or coming out and you know my first calling card is like this goofy western Right, right. And so for a long time, I was like a bit ashamed of it. But then also, but it got me my break.

And the thing is, here's what's really crazy is that, you know, and because it was released at the cinema, it got reviewed everywhere. And it was a really weird thing, like, where I was completely broke. I was, like, signing on to, like, the doll, which is all the welfare. Right, right. And I remember going into, like, the news agents to look at the papers. And I felt like kind of like Charlie Bucket or something, looking through. the papers to see if there was like a good review oh that's no that's bad yeah yeah i leave that one

there okay this is good and there was some like there were some good reviews of it there were also like some batteries like empire magazine gave it one star oh wow but then on the flip side time out gave it a good review and then and then all Alexander walker in the evening standard gave it a rave review but got my name wrong like that was like the director's name is wrong and so it was like sort of a mix of like some terrible reviews and like um and what's funny i remember like uh the distributor and i realized it said said maybe you should go and introduce the critic screening now imagine like of course now i know that that would be let's not a good idea right you shouldn't go in and like introduce the film to like the film critic right right but i did i was like 21 years old why not yeah

yeah and i looked like i was 14 and then one of the reviews in one of the major sort of like papers said the young man who introduced the film didn't look old enough to attend it let alone direct it oh my god and that was in the review in the papers now the crazy what the fuck does that have to do with anything some of those people are just like what what are you talking about it's like i always say when the late night with conan o'brien first aired i never knew there were so many different ways to call someone fat when I would read reviews about myself. And I always felt like, okay, how is that germane to the quality of the show? But they got to do it, you know. The crazy thing about it. And I think about this sometimes. I'm obviously very happy with how

my career worked out. And also, that film led to me getting an agent and getting my first TV gig doing comedy. It played and people went to see it. And actually, the first gig that I got was Matt Lucas and David Walliams did this like sketch show on the Paramount Comedy Channel and they hired me because they'd seen the film. Oh, that's great. But here's the crazy thing and I think about this a lot in terms of some sort of sliding doors thing.

And I had not been to Los Angeles at this point and Hollywood was a long, long way away but it got a good review in variety. Like the variety gave the film a good review and even at the end of it said very low budget but enough laughs

to sort of, to single out that right is a name to watch in film. Oh, wow. Now, the thing is, is that in this day and age, you could have gone into like an agency in Los Angeles or so I was saying, hey, I got a good review for my debut in variety. But of course, like, even the idea of buying a plane ticket is beyond me. Of course. So this thing is, I'm completely broke, but, like, I can't even use this thing.

Yeah, yeah. To sort of, and I think about it thinking, what if I'd flown to Los Angeles? in 1995 and had my clipping from Variety and gone into CAA and saying, Hey, guys, the new kid on the block is here. That's me. Variety says, I'm a name to watch. But it's like, I always think of like this alternate reality where I kind of like sort of went there like, you know, like 10 years before I did.

Of course, I regret nothing. But it is a weird thing. Nowadays, like people kind of get big films on the basis of shorts. Yeah. You know, and like sort of, and I obviously think like, well, I didn't really did anything with that. I just had these clippings. And also it's this thing of it's like, you know,

again, in a pre-internet age, it's like the film comes out and I just have a box of clippings. Right, right. But I mean, you know, you, you... Like I said, I regret nothing. Yeah. Well, and also, too, at least, you know, any validation when you're starting out is something.

Oh, yeah. Because you have nothing to... If you don't have something backing you up, Like, I've always, the notion of, of that people are like, the advice they give to young creative people of, you know, don't worry, don't listen to anybody, just follow your own vision. And I've always been like, no, no, you should, you should listen to people. Like, you should, you should take notes and, and you should learn, like, when people say something's good, like why they're saying it's good and sort of do more of that.

You know, you can't just work in a vacuum. You have to get input, especially in something as collaborative is filmed, No, and also, like, the thing where you asked me about, is there any films I, like, you know, have a different relationship with? And that film, it ended up teaching me everything. Yeah. Because the main thing with that film, not only it being like a goof and not really being like sort of like quite deserving to be like a feature film.

Sure, sure. It was also like not long enough and didn't have enough coverage. So there was no way to pace the movie. Like we basically, like, shot, we had like either. We got the money from like a local newspaper. paper editor who'd seen some of the amateur films I'd done and liked them, and I'd won this competition on the TV with an amateur film. And so, he was willing to invest, like, 10,000 pounds. So we basically shot the entire movie on 10,000 pounds, and then tried to raise, like,

another 10,000 to edit it, which we did. So that the entire movie, like, 75 minutes long, you know, cost like 20,000. Now, the thing is, is the downside to that is that we sort of didn't really have any other footage. So normally you would shoot something. It would be a little longer and then you would tie it up into the best version of itself. The longest version of itself was the only

version of itself. So it was something where I couldn't kind of like edit it. I couldn't make it any faster. I couldn't kind of take out anything I didn't really like. Yeah, yeah. It was what it was. It was a storyboard just put on film. Yeah, yeah. So I think why that has then

changed everything I've done ever since. is that I'm, I'm now, like, editing in my head, I'm making sure I've got enough options and kind of got enough shots to pace things up. And so it has had a direct, like, sort of effect on everything else I've done because I didn't want to be in that position ever again where I couldn't kind of make the film any better.

Yes. Do you know what I mean? Of course. And it was a really, like, hard lesson learned of, like, well, this is what we've committed to film. This is it. Yeah, yeah. And I remember, actually,

I was so, like, disappointed with it myself that I called the financier in a panic. Like, we'd been editing the movie, and I was so, like, wanted to shoot more stuff so we could kind of make it better. Yeah, yeah. And I, and this is, and my, the producer that was on it was so furious at me, because I called the guy who had given us the money, and I, this is something you would never do. I called him and I said, it's, I think it's a disaster. I think it's, like, really bad. And what I was basically getting at was I wanted more money to show more stuff. I said, I think it's really bad.

And like, you know that thing you gave money to do? I did it poorly. Yeah. I have more money to make it better. So that was basically, I mean, listen, I was very naive. Of course, of course. No, I mean, it's 20 years out of that time. It's funny.

It's, you know, I'm. So guess what happened next? And he lives in Somerset. By this point, I'd meet, Somerset is where I grew up. I moved to London to edit the film. And we were editing basically, it's sort of illegally. We were editing at Pimeon Studios, but not legally. There was one of the,

producers that used to work in the post-production department and he basically got us keys to get into this room. Wow, that's fun. So we were like editing in like a broom cupboard and we weren't supposed to be there. So like and the editor that was living in Bournemouth at the time, which was like, you know, like a good like two and a half hour drive away from London, used to sleep in the edit at night and he'd have to go to sleep before the security guard locked up the entire building. Wow. So it was like crazy. We're sort of literally doing something like the esteemed Pinewood Studios, but we're essentially there illegally. That's very romantic, though.

Also, and it's that thing where I was, I'd never been skinnier because it's like, I could, I could basically afford to get the bus fare and the tube fare to get to the studio, but I could not afford lunch. Yeah. I could maybe afford an apple.

So I go into, like, they're making a fucking Bond film and, like, sort of film with Sean Connery on the same lot, and it's like, I'm sort of looking at, you know, like an apple in the canteen, like, with, like, sort of like, you know, the dog in Tom and Jerry looking at a bone.

Anyway, so I, I called the financier, I told him the film was terrible, and he goes, oh, God, that's awful. He goes, well, I'll drive to London to watch it. So when my producer finds out of this, what I've done, he's furious. It's like, why did you do that? Like, sort of this is, you know, he comes to watch the movie in the edit. What do you think he says? What?

Oh, I think it's great. Damn it. Okay. That's the end of that. All right. So he goes, oh, I think it's pretty good. And it was like, that's the end of that. So it's like, so we don't shoot anything else. So that is that.

The one thing, I've told the story before, but it is funny, is like, I think, oh, God, I have to. There was like at least one bit that was so bad, I have to cut it out. But to cut it out meant that it would be like 74 minutes long. And my producer was saying, like, it's neither here and all there. Like, you know, like, it's not even a feature. I was like, can we cut it down to 60 minutes? Like, take 15 minutes out of it.

And he goes, well, that's neither here or there. It's not a short and it's not a feature. Right. So one thing that we did is my, Actually, the best part of the movie is my brother did the opening credits, animated them, and that's really cool. And then the end credits are really, really long. There's like a long end credits with a load of, like, stupid jokes at the end.

And then in the middle, we padded it out with a scene in the dark. Like, he's had this kind of like campfire scene where at the end of the, it's a western side of the cowboy in India's, like, blow out the fire and thinking, well, we could just put a whole scene on black where... Sure, sure. Like two minutes in the dark. and I can cut these other bits out that I don't want and just like, so it's most padded out

like 78 minutes long. Yeah, yeah. Well, Edgar, thank you so much for coming in. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was great spending this time with you. And again, everyone should go see the Running Man. It's a great movie. It's really fun.

It's really fun. And it's, you know, it also, like I say, it's got, it's fun, but it's not a trifle. You know what I mean? Like, there's some substantial. kind of action and stakes in it. So I really liked it a lot. Did it scratch your they live itch?

Did not. You still want it. I'm still one they live. Oh my God. I'm still itching for a... All right. You heard it here first. I'm remaking They Live next.

Yes, please. Thank you. We'll get Wyatt Russell in the lead. All right. Well, thank you. And all of you for listening. And I'll be back next week with more of the three questions. Thank you.

The three questions with Andy, Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia, additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel, executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross, talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddie Ogden, research by Alyssa Graal. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to the three questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people, let us know in the review section.

Can't you tell my loves are growing? Can't you feel it ain't it's showing? Oh, you must be a-knowing. I've got a big, big love. This has been a Team Coco production.