Gilbert Adler Talks Producing Horror (Thirteen Ghosts, Ghost Ship & Constantine)

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You can run, but you can't hide from the Class Horrorcast.
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Haunting you from the Emerald Isle, your host Aaron Doyle
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takes you on a journey to the depths of horror.
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With exclusive interviews, horror news, reviews and more. Tickets please.
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You are about to enter the Theatre of the Mad.
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Enjoy the show.
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It's been a while.
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How are you doing man? Welcome to the show. It's
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a pleasure to have you on.
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Thanks very much for having me.
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It's, you've been another one of those, those guests for
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me that has been kind of sitting on a list
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of people that I'm like, I really want to talk
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to this person, but I'm not sure if it, it
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seems so unattainable in one way.
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Only because we're 6,000 miles apart. Otherwise, look at us.
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We're talking and hearing it, hearing it, hearing it's happening.
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Let me, let me introduce you to somebody who might
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want to, you might want to ask a question to
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or about, I don't know if you can see him.
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Can you see that? Yeah. And the tales from the
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crypt pinball machine behind him. So I share an office
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with the crypt.
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That's, that's cool. That's cool. I'm assuming I'm probably going
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backwards here and how I would ask questions, but do
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you have or keep a lot of things throughout the years?
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Have you kept like props and different things? Yeah.
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You know, it's funny. I I've been accumulating stuff all
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my career and I had it in a warehouse and
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that I rented in Los Angeles that, you know, was
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there for like 10 years. And finally we decided let's
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move it. I live in Canada in Vancouver now. And
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so we decided to move it up to Vancouver and
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it just came up. And so I've got boxes in
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a warehouse now up here, but I also have a
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lot of boxes in my house. And it's like, you know,
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my wife and I are like, Oh God, what have
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we done to ourselves? But as I, as we open
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these boxes and the Crypt Keeper, as you saw, and
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the pinball machine were down in LA as well. So
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they came up, but we're opening boxes and we're finding
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stuff from my career that I haven't even thought about
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for a long time. I used to, with Tales from
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the Crypt and with, uh, Freddy's Nightmares, with each script
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that we would do, I would have the cast sign
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the cover sheet, have the director sign the cover sheet,
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and I would just keep copies. And so I have
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all of these, uh, signatures and autographs of the stars
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that were in the movies that we made and the
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TV shows. And just now starting to think about maybe
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it's time to let them go. Maybe put them up
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for auction or sell them.
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You know, it's funny. I had Bill Malone on the show.
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Oh, yeah.
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A few years ago. And he told some of the
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stories of how he got some of the props and
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some of the things he has or has had in
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his house that maybe he's since let go of. But like,
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the idea of like people would just throw that stuff
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in a garbage can or it would just in like
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thrown away. Yeah. And now to see like the weight
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that holds for fans, for collectors and things like the,
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the price that some people are willing to pay to
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have some of this stuff.
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Yeah. Well, it's unbelievable. I mean, when we were starting
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out and doing it originally, nobody even thought about that.
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Believe me, if the studios thought that they had some value,
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they wouldn't have allowed any of us to keep anything.
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But they never knew, and we never knew. And with Bill,
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who's a great friend of ours and love him dearly,
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I mean, he sold Robbie the Robot for a ton
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of money. I mean, it was just when I first
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found out about it, I was like, what? I had
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to call him and say, is this a lie? Is
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this made up or did you really sell it for
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$ 5 million? And he said, no, I found a collector
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He was really interested in Robbie and, you know, he
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made me an offer and I said, huh? So we
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don't know what we're sitting on because I have props
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from Superman Returns. I have, you know, Weta. We made
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a deal with Peter Jackson's company, Weta, in New Zealand
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to do a half a dozen marquettes of different phrases
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of Superman. And I have and we each got Brian
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and I each got a full set. And at the
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time they made 500 copies and they sold them for $ 500.
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And I have the original set in the original box
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and they've never been opened. And I felt like, my God,
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they must be worth something.
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They must be worth a lot of money.
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So anybody listening that would like to buy some of
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this stuff, please get a hold of Aaron. Now, is
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your name Aaron or Aaron?
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Because I've been asked this several times and for a
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long time, I kind of was like, I don't know.
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Everybody calls me Aaron, but technically speaking, you are right.
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Iran yeah because even I have the how I actually
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yes and I have the little in Irish we call
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it a fada over the second day which is technically
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makes the name Iran but I don't think I've ever
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been called that and I don't know if that was
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the intention I don't know if my parents even realised
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it was just to be different but yeah you know
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it's funny right I actually had I can't remember who
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I had on the show and we spoke something about
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collections and things like that and I mentioned that I
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had something that I got many years ago. And somebody
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reached out to me and like, obviously this is on
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a way different scale, but like offered me five figures
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for something. And I was like, what in God's name?
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And then I kind of like, I would consider myself
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somewhat of a collector, but obviously my financial situation caps
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how far that can go. But like some people are
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really willing to go to any length to have certain
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things certain products certain props there's a guy he's become
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big recently on on youtube i think he's called drowned
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boy productions or something like that and he's pretty young
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i want to say early 20s and i think he's
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amassed the biggest collection of scream franchise memorabilia and screen
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use props costumes and things that even now the cast,
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I heard Jamie Kennedy tell a story on his podcast
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where he said he actually reached out to the kid
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to buy back some of his costumes.
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What's the guy's name?
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Drowned boy productions, I think is his title.
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Right? Well, drowned boy productions. If you're listening to this,
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you may want to contact me and talk to me
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about some of the stuff I have. You know, I'll
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tell you a funny story. Recently, my wife was in
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Cedars in Los Angeles and, uh, She's fine. She's doing okay.
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But she was hospitalized for about a week. And we
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first went through an emergency and spent the day there.
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And finally, they admitted her. And when we got her
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upstairs to this makeshift room, because they have so many patients,
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they couldn't handle everybody. And we went into this room.
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And the nurse, he was about a 40-year-old man. And
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he asked my wife her name and her birthday to
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make sure who she is supposed to be. And then
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he looks and he goes, and who are you? And
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I said, I'm her husband. And he goes, are you
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Gilbert Adler? And I said, yes. And he said, can
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I ask you a question? I said, yeah. Figured he
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was going to ask me about her health or her
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vitamins or what. And he said, you're the writer, producer,
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director of television and film, aren't you? I recognize you.
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I've seen you interviewed. And I looked at him and
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I said, is that a problem? I mean, do you
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not like me? And he said, no, just the opposite.
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So we started chatting a little bit. And he knew
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a lot of my work, you know, both horror and
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the other stuff and the dramatic stuff and the comedy stuff.
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And I said to him, well, you know, I have
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in my wallet, I think I only have one of them.
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You know, from Superman Returns, I had a card which
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had my information on one side. On the other side,
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it has the S in red with the blue background.
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And I took it out and showed it to him
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and he just went nuts. And he said, oh, my God.
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I said, I don't I only have this one with me.
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I have more at home. But for some reason, I
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only have one in my wallet. He goes, well, can
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I Xerox it? I said, yeah, sure. And he Xeroxed it,
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and he said, can I ask you to sign it?
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So I said, of course. So I said to my
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good friend, so-and-so, you know, I hope you enjoy this
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little token, and thanks for taking such good care of
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my wife. This guy was nuts. The other nurse, a woman, says,
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wait a minute, Superman– Superman's my favorite character. What did
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you have to do with Superman? I said, well, I
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made the movie Superman Returns. She said, what? So now
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I have two nurses. They have no interest in attending
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to my wife. They just want to talk to me
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about making movies and television. So it's really quite unbelievable,
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you know, how the fan base for this kind of
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stuff is growing and growing not only in number, but
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in age. I mean, where I used to see People
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in those days my age only interested in that kind
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of stuff. Now I see people, you know, that are
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20 and 60 that are interested in it.
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You know, you've had such a long career up to
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this point. Has that only happened in the last 10,
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15 years? Like to the point where now you're getting
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approached by like people like myself, podcast shows, people stopping
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on the streets. Like you said, like even giving somebody
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a little business card signed is like, i can kind
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of relate to his feeling in a way that like
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it would be like wow this is like you don't
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understand what this is to me yeah has that just
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grown like the the modern era we're in now do
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you think i.
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Think it's grown more and more in this same trip
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to los angeles i mean this is kind of a
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funny story i don't even know why i'm telling this
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to you but but kind of funny. So up here
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in Vancouver, where we're living now, you know, it's a
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quiet life. Nobody really knows who I am or cares,
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which is fine with me. Go down to Los Angeles
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and leave my wife in the hospital. And it's like
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107 degrees out. It's hot as hell. It's like a
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back to the hotel. And I realized I got to
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get something to eat. So I go, oh, geez. So
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I go into this restaurant. I get a table for one.
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I order one little Chinese dish. And in the back room,
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I'm hearing a lot of noise and people are singing
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happy birthday and everybody in the restaurant saying happy birthday.
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And I turn around and I just look at them
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and I go back to my meal. I finish the meal.
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I pay the bill. I get up to leave. And
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as I get up to leave, a woman who probably
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like about 60 years old, 55 years old. I see
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she's coming out of the room where the party is.
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And she goes, oh my God, is that you? Is
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that Gil Adler? And I look up and I'm like, huh?
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And I have no idea who this woman is. And
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she comes running over to me and gives me a
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hug and a kiss. And she goes, you don't know
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who I am, do you? And I said, yeah, help
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me out a little bit. Just give me a clue.
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And she said, no, I don't expect you to remember.
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I worked for you on Tales from the Crypt and
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some of your movies. And I never caught her name.
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And I was so tired. And I just, I just
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took my, I paid the bill. And I said, well,
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thanks for, great seeing you. Take care. And I, and
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I left, went to the hotel, right? Go to sleep,
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get up the next morning. And the hotel was sold out.
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So I had to change hotels. So at 6.30 in
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the morning, I call for an Uber. Guy comes and
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picks me up. Puts the luggage in the trunk. I'm
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sitting in a car. He's taking me like a two
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mile ride to the other hotel. And he says to me,
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can I ask you a question? I said, sure. He goes,
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where are you from? I always like to know who
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gets in my car. And I said, well, originally in
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New York. And then I lived here for 30 years
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and now I live in Vancouver. And he goes, oh,
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you lived here. Can I ask what you did? And
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I said, yeah, I make, I still do. I make
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television and motion pictures. I write, produce and direct. And
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of course that always begs the question, Oh, anything I
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would have heard of or know of? And I said, maybe.
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And I start telling him. And he almost drives off
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the road. We get to the hotel. He not only
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takes the bags out of the trunk for me, but
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he now carries them into the hotel. And I go, no,
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you have to do that. I can handle this. This
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is great. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
247
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No, no, no, no.
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I can't believe you were in my car. This made
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my day. I can't believe you were in my Uber.
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And in within a 24 hour period of me being
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back in L.A., it was like very good, great ego boost.
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00:12:52.669 --> 00:12:54.769
Of course, up here we walk, you know, we walk
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00:12:54.809 --> 00:12:57.899
the streets and probably the fishermen, the local fishermen has
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more notoriety than I do up here.
255
00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:02.399
It's funny because you talk about it with such kind
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of like enthusiasm and, you know, you see other people
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over years and years, they kind of become, I don't
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know if it's like burnt out or they just kind of.
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I don't know, maybe don't have the love for it anymore.
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Is it because you still have the love for what
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you do that makes that like, how does that feel
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00:13:18.570 --> 00:13:20.789
as a, you know, we always ask the very face
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value question, but like as a person, like to sit back,
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you know, when you get back to your hotel room
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or whatever, or you're sitting on your own, having your meal,
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like to actually think about that, like the way that
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holds for the other person and like how they react
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00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:36.299
to being like, wow, like some of your work changed
269
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my life or got me through patches and things like that.
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How does that actually feel?
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Very grateful. You know, I've always enjoyed what I do.
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I'm very lucky that I was able to make a
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living doing what I was doing and do it for
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a long time. And so I've always been very grateful
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about that. And when people come up and ask about
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some of the work or have a comment about it
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or recognize me, which is, you know, I'm not a star.
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I'm not a I'm not in front of the camera
279
00:14:02.750 --> 00:14:06.830
kind of guy. It's always very gratifying. And so. I
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really enjoy the interaction between me and that person or
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00:14:10.889 --> 00:14:13.879
people talking about what it is that they liked or
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what it is that they didn't like even and how
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00:14:16.779 --> 00:14:17.399
it affected them.
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Do you find that nowadays, and maybe this is just me,
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00:14:21.779 --> 00:14:23.539
but I feel like there's not, I'm not saying a
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00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:26.539
complete shift, but a lot of times now I see
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00:14:26.730 --> 00:14:30.610
people behind the scenes are probably nearly more sought after
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00:14:30.629 --> 00:14:33.889
than the actual people in front of the cameras. Like
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00:14:33.990 --> 00:14:37.350
everybody clamors now to find out How was it made?
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00:14:37.429 --> 00:14:39.200
What was it like on set? What were some of
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00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:42.200
the stories of production? How did this work? How did
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00:14:42.220 --> 00:14:45.059
that work? That seems to be becoming more and more
293
00:14:45.139 --> 00:14:48.919
and more of a big deal to people than maybe, oh,
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you know, I got a picture with Tom Cruise.
295
00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:55.149
You know, I think that's true, although I've noticed that
296
00:14:56.409 --> 00:14:59.850
early in my career, I guess I never thought about that.
297
00:15:00.029 --> 00:15:03.129
I never thought about anybody recognizing me or even caring
298
00:15:03.169 --> 00:15:05.710
what I do. I was just so into the work
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and so into trying to make it good and making
300
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it so that people really enjoyed it that you never
301
00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:14.600
really think about that. And then as it starts happening
302
00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:17.059
and you go to some of these festivals that I
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00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:19.639
go to or that I speak at or the universities
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00:15:19.659 --> 00:15:22.429
that I speak at, and you realize that they know
305
00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:25.730
more about your life than you do. And it's quite
306
00:15:25.769 --> 00:15:29.629
gratifying to know that they're that interested and that they've
307
00:15:29.649 --> 00:15:32.210
done the research. I mean, I get asked questions that
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00:15:32.250 --> 00:15:34.649
sometimes I have to say, How did you find out
309
00:15:34.889 --> 00:15:37.500
to even ask that question? I mean, nobody knew about
310
00:15:37.509 --> 00:15:42.100
that argument or that fight or this discussion that I
311
00:15:42.139 --> 00:15:45.580
had with this actor or that director or whatever. How
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00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:48.220
could you possibly have found out about that? And it
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00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.750
always gets a big laugh and they never really give
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00:15:50.789 --> 00:15:54.470
me an answer. But it's really, I find it very
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00:15:54.509 --> 00:15:57.889
gratifying because it just feels like it's a stamp of
316
00:15:57.950 --> 00:16:01.009
approval of what I've spent my life trying to do.
317
00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:07.690
Yeah, and I feel like that... It's funny you say
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00:16:07.730 --> 00:16:10.210
that because as you're saying that, you're talking about like,
319
00:16:10.429 --> 00:16:13.250
you know, how kind of fanatical and research people do.
320
00:16:13.289 --> 00:16:17.250
And I'm like flicking through pages and pages and pages
321
00:16:17.269 --> 00:16:20.669
of things. And you're right, that is so true. If
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00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:22.740
we can go back to the beginning for a second.
323
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When or why did you decide that this was what
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00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:30.659
you wanted to do? This was going to be your
325
00:16:30.700 --> 00:16:33.850
life's work? Because it seems like Obviously, now everybody will ask,
326
00:16:33.870 --> 00:16:35.830
you know, what's it like to be in Hollywood? What's
327
00:16:35.870 --> 00:16:37.870
it like to be? But if we go all the
328
00:16:37.909 --> 00:16:40.909
way back before all of that came and, you know,
329
00:16:41.029 --> 00:16:43.710
I suppose you could have no concept of how far
330
00:16:43.769 --> 00:16:47.289
this could actually all go. Where does that decision happen?
331
00:16:49.009 --> 00:16:52.330
Totally have no idea. And I'll explain that a little
332
00:16:52.350 --> 00:16:56.110
bit later to you. But I'm a kid from Yonkers,
333
00:16:56.169 --> 00:16:59.190
New York, which is a suburb outside of New York City.
334
00:16:59.470 --> 00:17:00.789
My aunt and uncle actually lived there.
335
00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:02.500
Pardon me?
336
00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:04.559
My aunt and uncle actually live in Yonkers.
337
00:17:05.700 --> 00:17:05.920
Now?
338
00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:06.440
Yeah.
339
00:17:07.529 --> 00:17:07.789
Where?
340
00:17:08.170 --> 00:17:12.789
Yeah, in a little place just off of Central Avenue
341
00:17:12.829 --> 00:17:13.490
in Westchester.
342
00:17:15.569 --> 00:17:18.230
You know, after the show, we'll have to get together again.
343
00:17:18.589 --> 00:17:19.789
I'd like to know where exactly.
344
00:17:19.950 --> 00:17:20.569
That's crazy.
345
00:17:22.150 --> 00:17:25.029
My dad had a floor covering store for his whole
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00:17:25.049 --> 00:17:28.859
life with his brother in Yonkers. And I was supposed
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00:17:28.900 --> 00:17:30.700
to take over the floor covering store, which I didn't
348
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:35.400
want to do. And I went to school and I
349
00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.339
studied something I had no interest in doing because my
350
00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:42.180
sister got married and she married an accountant and he
351
00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:44.339
got a job right away. And my family said, well,
352
00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:45.759
if you're not going to take the store over, you've
353
00:17:45.779 --> 00:17:48.240
got to become an accountant because then you'll always get
354
00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:52.259
a job. So I hated that. I played the piano.
355
00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:54.339
I played the drums. That's all I wanted to do.
356
00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:57.619
And when I first started out, that's really all I
357
00:17:57.940 --> 00:18:00.000
wanted to do. I wanted to play the piano. I
358
00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:03.569
wanted to write music. And that was my life. And
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00:18:03.609 --> 00:18:06.309
in high school, that's really what it was. And then college,
360
00:18:06.349 --> 00:18:08.869
it shifted because I studied something I hated so much.
361
00:18:09.970 --> 00:18:12.819
And then, you know, when I got out of college, I,
362
00:18:14.390 --> 00:18:17.509
you know, I wanted to produce plays. And, you know,
363
00:18:17.529 --> 00:18:20.430
I went and did a season or two, I think
364
00:18:20.470 --> 00:18:24.950
a season at Hampstead Theatre Club in London. Michael Rudman
365
00:18:24.970 --> 00:18:27.509
was running Hampstead Theatre Club at the time. And we
366
00:18:27.529 --> 00:18:30.660
put a play on over there. And then it came back.
367
00:18:30.829 --> 00:18:33.789
And of course, plays, you know, Broadway, off-Broadway, you can't
368
00:18:33.809 --> 00:18:37.730
make much money. But I produced a play that I
369
00:18:37.789 --> 00:18:41.890
found at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival called El Grande de Coca-Cola.
370
00:18:43.089 --> 00:18:46.329
And we produced it in New York for almost no money.
371
00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:51.160
And it became an incredibly huge hit. And, you know,
372
00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:54.119
in those days, Joe Papp and Bernie Gersten were running
373
00:18:54.140 --> 00:18:57.559
the Shakespeare Festival and Jules Irving was running Lincoln Center.
374
00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:00.000
And I knew both, all three of them and I
375
00:19:00.019 --> 00:19:01.880
was always bugging them for a job and they would
376
00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:05.279
always say, you're going to scare everybody in the organization
377
00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:08.759
because you want to produce and you're going to produce someday. But,
378
00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:11.420
you know, you'll just take over the group and everyone
379
00:19:11.460 --> 00:19:13.869
will be frightened. And I would say, you just don't
380
00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:16.569
want to hire me. You don't like me. Just tell
381
00:19:16.609 --> 00:19:18.130
me you don't like me and I'll go away. And
382
00:19:18.150 --> 00:19:22.390
they go, no. So I was constantly looking to do that.
383
00:19:22.430 --> 00:19:24.910
And then and then, you know, I raised a tiny
384
00:19:24.950 --> 00:19:29.710
bit of money in Switzerland and to develop screenplays from
385
00:19:29.789 --> 00:19:32.490
playwrights on and off Broadway that I'd been working with.
386
00:19:33.809 --> 00:19:38.470
And so that was the beginning. And I did a
387
00:19:38.490 --> 00:19:41.490
couple of these small plays for next to no money.
388
00:19:43.190 --> 00:19:47.390
And then somebody was also raising money to develop screenplays
389
00:19:47.430 --> 00:19:51.109
and they sold one. and to a company an English
390
00:19:51.150 --> 00:19:54.900
company called Entertainment Events run by a man named Lawrence
391
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:58.519
Vanger and they said they were going to direct it
392
00:19:58.539 --> 00:20:01.180
and they were going to produce it but the company
393
00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:03.440
didn't want them to do both would I come and
394
00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:05.619
produce it it was a half a million dollar movie
395
00:20:06.420 --> 00:20:08.059
and I said yes and so I went to Los
396
00:20:08.140 --> 00:20:11.809
Angeles and our partners were Playboy International. So I had
397
00:20:11.829 --> 00:20:14.349
an office at the Playboy Mansion, not the mansion, their
398
00:20:14.609 --> 00:20:18.009
offices on Sunset Boulevard. And I made this little movie
399
00:20:18.029 --> 00:20:22.779
for half a million dollars. And from that, I got
400
00:20:22.819 --> 00:20:25.819
another movie from the same company. And that next movie
401
00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:28.660
I made in Vancouver, where I met my wife years later.
402
00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:31.400
And that was a million and a half dollar budget.
403
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:34.170
So they actually paid me a little bit more money too.
404
00:20:34.529 --> 00:20:36.109
And that's how it sort of started. And you know,
405
00:20:37.309 --> 00:20:39.549
the thing that I tell people when I speak at universities,
406
00:20:39.609 --> 00:20:43.329
especially as I say, I spent a lot of time
407
00:20:43.829 --> 00:20:45.849
very early on in my career trying to figure out
408
00:20:46.410 --> 00:20:50.720
why would anybody hire me? There's no reason to hire me.
409
00:20:50.779 --> 00:20:54.099
I have no background. You know, my family was in
410
00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:56.480
floor covering, had nothing to do with the entertainment industry,
411
00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:00.569
had no connections, no nothing. And I said, you know,
412
00:21:00.589 --> 00:21:03.049
the only thing that's going to make me different and
413
00:21:03.170 --> 00:21:07.660
unique is if I can make a project that look
414
00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:10.740
great for less money than anyone else. So how do
415
00:21:10.769 --> 00:21:13.789
you do that? I would tell people, if you give me,
416
00:21:14.009 --> 00:21:16.470
if I have a dollar, I don't want to spend
417
00:21:16.509 --> 00:21:20.589
a dollar. I want to have a dollar 10 worth
418
00:21:20.650 --> 00:21:25.019
of product on the screen. That's my, that's in my head.
419
00:21:25.559 --> 00:21:27.819
And how do I do that? So that makes me,
420
00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:30.279
if I can do it, you know, in a very
421
00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:32.960
different class than everybody else. And that's really what happened.
422
00:21:33.779 --> 00:21:37.680
I started doing these little movies and then A man
423
00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:41.680
named Chris Albrecht, who became head of HBO, was an
424
00:21:41.740 --> 00:21:45.420
agent at ICM in those days. And then when he
425
00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:48.460
went to HBO, he asked me, he had a show
426
00:21:48.819 --> 00:21:52.220
called Vietnam War Stories that was playing in, they were
427
00:21:52.259 --> 00:21:55.289
recording it in Savannah, Georgia. And he said, we've shot
428
00:21:55.380 --> 00:21:58.009
four days. We only have two days in the can.
429
00:21:58.029 --> 00:22:00.289
I need you to go there and take it over.
430
00:22:00.869 --> 00:22:04.569
Don't go over budget. Finish the show. Would you do that?
431
00:22:04.789 --> 00:22:06.829
We'll pay you X amount. And I said, you know,
432
00:22:06.869 --> 00:22:09.230
for Chris, yeah, of course. And I went there and
433
00:22:09.309 --> 00:22:13.130
he hadn't told the management there that they were being replaced.
434
00:22:13.170 --> 00:22:15.539
So when I got there, it was really awkward. But
435
00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:18.319
that's a whole other story. But I finished the series
436
00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:21.500
and it won, in those days, Ace Awards, which are
437
00:22:21.660 --> 00:22:24.559
equivalent to like an Emmy. And all of a sudden,
438
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:27.509
you know, I became a guy who could look at
439
00:22:27.769 --> 00:22:30.970
a project and figure out how to make it and
440
00:22:30.990 --> 00:22:33.589
make it really look good and compete with bigger projects
441
00:22:33.609 --> 00:22:38.420
and but spend less money. And so, you know, when
442
00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:40.640
tales from the crypt in their first season or two,
443
00:22:42.089 --> 00:22:45.670
they went a million dollars over budget and Chris canceled
444
00:22:45.690 --> 00:22:47.710
the show, even though it was a big hit. And
445
00:22:47.730 --> 00:22:50.950
he was, he was the chairman of HBO. And so
446
00:22:51.589 --> 00:22:55.349
he called Joel Silver and Bob Zemeckis and Dick Donner
447
00:22:55.809 --> 00:22:58.869
and Walter Hill and said, look, we're canceling the show.
448
00:23:00.450 --> 00:23:03.009
You owe us a million dollars, and you're not going
449
00:23:03.029 --> 00:23:04.950
to pay the million dollars. You've told us that already.
450
00:23:05.009 --> 00:23:08.579
So the only way I would renew the show is
451
00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:11.019
if you make up that million dollars in the season.
452
00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:15.940
And we're only making 10 episodes, so that's $ 100, 000 an episode.
453
00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:17.559
I don't know how you could possibly do it because
454
00:23:17.579 --> 00:23:21.069
the budgets aren't very big. And Chris said, well, you
455
00:23:21.109 --> 00:23:23.329
should talk to this guy and see what he thinks.
456
00:23:24.390 --> 00:23:27.819
And so I met with the partners. And I looked
457
00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:29.599
at their shows and I said, you know, I have
458
00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:32.420
three problems with the show. And if you agree with
459
00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.059
what I have to say, then maybe there's something to
460
00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:38.500
talk about. But if you don't agree, then I'm the
461
00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:41.700
wrong guy. Don't even consider me. And I said, the
462
00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:44.660
problem is with the Cryptkeeper, you know, you have him
463
00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:48.680
dressed in a shroud. He's very darkly lit. He's not
464
00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:52.420
a very friendly character. He's not very accessible. And I
465
00:23:52.460 --> 00:23:54.460
think that's a big mistake. I think the Cryptkeeper has
466
00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:58.140
got to be a character that introduces the show. and
467
00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:01.119
gets us out of the show and basically tells you
468
00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:02.599
at the end, it's okay. You don't have to look
469
00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:05.039
under the bed. You can go to sleep. Don't be frightened.
470
00:24:05.539 --> 00:24:08.500
We were just having some fun. So I said, you know,
471
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:10.160
if you wanted to do that and I would like
472
00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:13.349
to make him a chiropractor, a dentist, I would make
473
00:24:13.380 --> 00:24:15.789
him a beetle. I would, wherever I could think of,
474
00:24:16.630 --> 00:24:18.109
I would like to do. And that I think would
475
00:24:18.130 --> 00:24:21.009
give him a personality and give him fun. And I
476
00:24:21.029 --> 00:24:23.769
think merchandising wise, that would be a very good thing
477
00:24:23.809 --> 00:24:27.220
to do. The second thing is that these comic books
478
00:24:27.259 --> 00:24:29.940
written by William Gaines and his dad from the 1950s,
479
00:24:31.569 --> 00:24:33.609
they're great comic books, but when you read the first
480
00:24:33.650 --> 00:24:36.349
two panels, you know the whole show. You know what
481
00:24:36.369 --> 00:24:38.710
the comic book's going to be. That's fine for a
482
00:24:38.750 --> 00:24:41.349
comic book, but it's not fine for a TV series.
483
00:24:42.049 --> 00:24:44.769
So I would glean something from the comic book, a title,
484
00:24:45.509 --> 00:24:48.730
an image, an event that happens, and then I would
485
00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:51.640
throw everything else out, and I would want to rewrite
486
00:24:51.700 --> 00:24:55.750
it so that it's sexy, funny, scary. And that would
487
00:24:55.769 --> 00:24:57.609
be what I would do with the scripts. I wouldn't
488
00:24:57.670 --> 00:24:59.789
take a comic book and just write it as a script.
489
00:24:59.890 --> 00:25:02.630
I think that's a huge mistake. And the third thing
490
00:25:02.730 --> 00:25:07.049
is I would go after stars. So I'm looking at
491
00:25:07.089 --> 00:25:08.750
these four guys and they're looking at me like I'm
492
00:25:08.789 --> 00:25:11.269
from Mars and they go, well, Gil, you can't do
493
00:25:11.309 --> 00:25:14.299
any of that. First of all, the comic books are
494
00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:18.000
controlled by us and William Gaines. And, you know, he's
495
00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:20.079
not going to want to change anything. And I said,
496
00:25:20.359 --> 00:25:22.799
he hasn't even heard what I have to change to.
497
00:25:23.589 --> 00:25:25.250
I suspect he's going to love what I want to
498
00:25:25.289 --> 00:25:28.990
do because it's going to make the storytelling, I think,
499
00:25:29.089 --> 00:25:33.089
much better and give the audience much more satisfaction. So
500
00:25:33.509 --> 00:25:35.779
if that's a problem, let me take that up with
501
00:25:35.819 --> 00:25:39.299
William Gaines directly and see if he says no, fine.
502
00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.900
That's number one. Number two, the Crypt Keeper, that's just
503
00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:48.089
a choice. And my gut tells me that will change everything.
504
00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:52.009
And thirdly, I'm not asking you for more money for
505
00:25:52.049 --> 00:25:55.250
the stars. I'm saying I would go and offer them
506
00:25:56.150 --> 00:25:59.950
scale plus 10 like you're offering now, but because it's
507
00:25:59.990 --> 00:26:03.450
in town and it's five days of shooting, and if
508
00:26:03.589 --> 00:26:07.529
I took an actor who did drama and I made
509
00:26:07.569 --> 00:26:11.910
them comedic, or I took an actor who did comedy
510
00:26:12.069 --> 00:26:15.369
and made them dramatic, it would stretch them and give
511
00:26:15.410 --> 00:26:17.789
them an opportunity to do stuff that they haven't done.
512
00:26:17.809 --> 00:26:20.880
And I think that would be attractive for them to do.
513
00:26:20.970 --> 00:26:24.190
And it's only five days. You know, they threw me
514
00:26:24.230 --> 00:26:27.430
out of the office, said I was an idiot. And
515
00:26:27.450 --> 00:26:30.410
a couple of days later, I get a call from
516
00:26:30.450 --> 00:26:32.859
them and saying, listen, you know, we'd like you to
517
00:26:32.900 --> 00:26:34.910
do this. We really would like you to do it.
518
00:26:35.740 --> 00:26:36.559
And that's how it started.
519
00:26:39.240 --> 00:26:41.059
Do you think, like for want of a better term,
520
00:26:41.900 --> 00:26:45.880
like having the balls to actually say and speak out
521
00:26:46.019 --> 00:26:48.500
what you think in your actual opinion and what you
522
00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:51.940
believe you can do, does that have a lot to
523
00:26:51.980 --> 00:26:54.589
do with I don't want to say success, but like
524
00:26:54.930 --> 00:26:59.130
even having the ability to get into a situation to succeed.
525
00:26:59.849 --> 00:27:02.450
I think it has a lot to do with being
526
00:27:02.490 --> 00:27:05.410
true to yourself because I could have gone into that
527
00:27:05.490 --> 00:27:07.819
office and I could have told them whatever they wanted
528
00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:10.680
to hear to get the job. But then I'd have
529
00:27:10.700 --> 00:27:12.460
to live with that. And I don't know if I
530
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.619
could live with that because if I really didn't believe
531
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:18.289
what I told them and I was doing something, you know,
532
00:27:18.619 --> 00:27:21.529
diametrically opposed to what I thought was the better solution.
533
00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:25.759
I don't know if I could deal with that personally.
534
00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:28.859
So I would rather not get the job if you
535
00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:31.400
didn't believe what I thought I could do and what
536
00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:34.259
I wanted to do. And it's subjective. I mean, you
537
00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:35.859
could have been right. I could have been wrong. I
538
00:27:35.880 --> 00:27:38.339
could have been right. You could have been wrong. Who knows?
539
00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:40.400
You don't know until it's too late because it's after
540
00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:43.869
the fact. But I think part of what you have
541
00:27:43.900 --> 00:27:46.009
to be in this business is just true to yourself
542
00:27:46.930 --> 00:27:49.710
and not try to second guess what the audience might
543
00:27:49.750 --> 00:27:51.410
like in a year from now or two years from
544
00:27:51.430 --> 00:27:54.019
now or three years from now. but just what you
545
00:27:54.059 --> 00:27:57.859
like and what you think an audience will like. And
546
00:27:57.900 --> 00:27:58.759
it's very personal.
547
00:28:00.630 --> 00:28:03.470
Where does that come from for you personally? Like, you know,
548
00:28:03.490 --> 00:28:07.809
you mentioned growing up and like your family are so
549
00:28:07.849 --> 00:28:11.609
far removed from where you wanted to go or end up.
550
00:28:12.569 --> 00:28:16.400
Where do you get that kind of that drive, that
551
00:28:16.500 --> 00:28:18.940
energy and that, I don't know if you call it
552
00:28:18.980 --> 00:28:21.519
self-belief or whatever drive, to be true to yourself. Cause
553
00:28:21.559 --> 00:28:24.269
I feel like even nowadays people are so afraid to
554
00:28:24.769 --> 00:28:27.269
say what it is they believe in or what they
555
00:28:27.730 --> 00:28:30.190
are passionate about or what they believe. They just kind
556
00:28:30.230 --> 00:28:32.769
of sit there and like you said, I'll say all
557
00:28:32.809 --> 00:28:35.410
the right things to not upset the balance and just
558
00:28:35.450 --> 00:28:37.650
kind of do my own.
559
00:28:37.690 --> 00:28:40.869
Well, I think it goes back to one word and
560
00:28:40.890 --> 00:28:44.049
you just used it, passion. If you don't have the passion,
561
00:28:45.369 --> 00:28:46.309
I don't believe you can do it.
562
00:28:47.150 --> 00:28:47.490
I can't.
563
00:28:48.579 --> 00:28:51.069
I know I can't. I have to have the passion.
564
00:28:51.309 --> 00:28:53.650
I mean, the only reason I'm active today and still
565
00:28:53.690 --> 00:28:56.609
interested in making motion pictures on television and have a
566
00:28:56.630 --> 00:28:59.309
bunch of writers writing for me right now is because
567
00:28:59.349 --> 00:29:03.119
of that passion. I really don't think it's anything else. And,
568
00:29:03.619 --> 00:29:07.019
you know, I had tried by taking these accounting courses
569
00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:11.119
in college. You know, I realized I was studying something
570
00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:15.059
I hated. I hated it. And yet I continued with
571
00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:17.420
it because I didn't want to disappoint my dad and
572
00:29:17.880 --> 00:29:21.130
my family. And yet when it all was finished and
573
00:29:21.170 --> 00:29:24.640
said and done, I couldn't continue. You know, I couldn't
574
00:29:24.660 --> 00:29:28.140
get a job. I was offered big jobs from big
575
00:29:28.180 --> 00:29:33.049
accounting firms in Manhattan. And I actually accepted one and
576
00:29:33.069 --> 00:29:36.490
then started throwing up and couldn't sleep. And finally, two
577
00:29:36.509 --> 00:29:38.710
weeks later, I wrote them a letter saying, I'm really sorry,
578
00:29:38.769 --> 00:29:42.380
I can't take the job. And I think the hardest
579
00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:47.099
day of my life was telling my dad what I
580
00:29:47.140 --> 00:29:50.079
had done. I had accepted the job, which he was
581
00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:52.619
really excited about, and then telling him 10 days later,
582
00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:55.430
I'm not doing that. I can't do it. I just
583
00:29:55.450 --> 00:29:59.160
can't do it. From that experience, I sort of felt like,
584
00:29:59.700 --> 00:30:01.289
why am I going to tell them what they want
585
00:30:01.309 --> 00:30:03.690
to hear if it's going to put me in that
586
00:30:03.750 --> 00:30:07.329
same place, only in a different environment? So I'm not
587
00:30:07.390 --> 00:30:10.250
talking about taxes. I'm not talking about accounting. But I'm
588
00:30:10.289 --> 00:30:14.589
talking now about character and relationship and emotion of characters.
589
00:30:15.390 --> 00:30:18.970
So I think it's the passion. And I tell students
590
00:30:18.990 --> 00:30:21.839
all the time, if you don't have the passion or
591
00:30:21.859 --> 00:30:23.779
you can think of something else that could make you
592
00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:27.599
happy that you could do, do it. Because it's a
593
00:30:27.640 --> 00:30:32.299
painful business. At best, it's a painful business. And so
594
00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:35.839
it's not something that I think you can want to
595
00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:37.700
be a star. I think you want to have to
596
00:30:37.740 --> 00:30:40.069
be an actor. My wife and I were just talking
597
00:30:40.089 --> 00:30:43.009
about this morning how a lot of people today go, oh,
598
00:30:43.049 --> 00:30:47.170
I really want to be a star. And they forget
599
00:30:47.390 --> 00:30:49.549
the true meaning of what it is to be a star,
600
00:30:49.670 --> 00:30:54.529
is to be a great actor. And if you bypass
601
00:30:54.569 --> 00:30:57.970
that or don't understand that, I think you're in for
602
00:30:58.009 --> 00:31:02.380
a difficult life and I don't want that. I mean,
603
00:31:02.420 --> 00:31:05.180
and I wouldn't recommend it for anybody. And so I would,
604
00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:10.119
I tell young people, if you have the passion, it's painful,
605
00:31:11.140 --> 00:31:13.450
but you got to do it. I couldn't think of
606
00:31:13.509 --> 00:31:15.670
anything else to do when I was younger. I just,
607
00:31:16.150 --> 00:31:19.250
if I could have thought of something else that would
608
00:31:19.289 --> 00:31:21.269
have made me happy, I probably would have tried it.
609
00:31:22.230 --> 00:31:23.390
I just couldn't think of anything else.
610
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:27.380
When you talk about that and talk about like how
611
00:31:27.420 --> 00:31:30.480
painful it can be. And I, to a, on a
612
00:31:30.549 --> 00:31:34.910
different level, kind of I'm experiencing that right now in
613
00:31:34.950 --> 00:31:38.750
like early, like 34 years of age and kind of
614
00:31:38.809 --> 00:31:40.890
now finally understanding what people meant. You know, if you,
615
00:31:40.990 --> 00:31:42.609
if you want to try and live your dream or
616
00:31:42.650 --> 00:31:46.380
your passion, you're going to work harder than you've ever
617
00:31:46.619 --> 00:31:49.079
imagined that you would have worked in your corporate job
618
00:31:49.140 --> 00:31:51.299
or wherever, you know, I used to think that old
619
00:31:51.380 --> 00:31:54.369
life was tough. And now sometimes like I kind of
620
00:31:54.450 --> 00:31:57.210
rethink and go, wow, I did not expect this to
621
00:31:57.230 --> 00:32:02.150
be so tough so often. But again, it's what you
622
00:32:02.190 --> 00:32:05.589
just said resonated so much. I genuinely physically can't picture
623
00:32:05.630 --> 00:32:09.470
myself doing something else or going back to that old
624
00:32:09.630 --> 00:32:12.670
life anymore. I would do anything rather than be there.
625
00:32:14.519 --> 00:32:17.079
You know, on the subject of pain, I feel like
626
00:32:17.099 --> 00:32:20.019
a lot of people nowadays, you know, minor inconvenience and
627
00:32:20.039 --> 00:32:23.109
just kind of, oh, I'm frustrated. That's it. I've done
628
00:32:23.150 --> 00:32:25.309
it for six months. I don't have a million followers.
629
00:32:25.450 --> 00:32:29.329
I'm not a famous whatever. I haven't made 10 movies. Oh,
630
00:32:29.529 --> 00:32:33.509
I'm finished. For you, how do you have such a
631
00:32:33.569 --> 00:32:36.369
long career? And then I'm assuming go through lots of
632
00:32:37.069 --> 00:32:43.049
personal trials and tribulations, heartbreaks and things, and not just completely...
633
00:32:43.250 --> 00:32:46.549
I'm assuming you're already overwhelmed with work, but then obviously
634
00:32:46.569 --> 00:32:48.150
you go through things in your life that can be
635
00:32:48.210 --> 00:32:56.019
extremely painful and trying to keep yourself... pushing forward and
636
00:32:56.059 --> 00:32:58.579
what's the question as in like you know how did
637
00:32:58.619 --> 00:33:00.589
you navigate that i guess you know a lot of
638
00:33:00.609 --> 00:33:04.190
people now they look for guidance on like when something
639
00:33:04.210 --> 00:33:06.710
like that happens it just derails everything and they just
640
00:33:06.750 --> 00:33:08.769
kind of veer off and everything just.
641
00:33:08.630 --> 00:33:12.170
Gets well i think i think two things one one
642
00:33:12.230 --> 00:33:15.349
is internal and you got to keep questioning yourself and
643
00:33:15.410 --> 00:33:18.269
asking yourself if this is the right thing to do
644
00:33:18.349 --> 00:33:20.190
and if you really want to keep doing it and
645
00:33:20.470 --> 00:33:23.059
or is there something else you can do And also
646
00:33:23.140 --> 00:33:25.880
the people around you. I've been very fortunate. I've got
647
00:33:25.900 --> 00:33:29.519
a great marriage. I've got a great wife. You know,
648
00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:32.420
we've been married. I tell people we're newlyweds. We've only
649
00:33:32.440 --> 00:33:35.650
been married 35 years. But that's how it feels to me.
650
00:33:35.829 --> 00:33:39.410
It feels like we're newlyweds. And she's always been there
651
00:33:40.069 --> 00:33:42.710
through the good stuff, but more importantly, through the tough
652
00:33:42.730 --> 00:33:47.289
stuff and the frustrating stuff and the stuff that's painful.
653
00:33:48.089 --> 00:33:49.990
And that means a lot. You know, if you can
654
00:33:50.029 --> 00:33:53.309
share it with somebody like that, then that makes a
655
00:33:53.309 --> 00:33:56.609
big difference. It just makes a big difference. And it
656
00:33:56.650 --> 00:34:01.329
gives you an opportunity to express and get out any
657
00:34:01.369 --> 00:34:05.339
venom or any frustration you have because this happened with
658
00:34:05.380 --> 00:34:09.840
that guy or this person or whatever. So I think
659
00:34:09.880 --> 00:34:11.920
it's both things. I think one is internal and one
660
00:34:11.960 --> 00:34:12.519
is external.
661
00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:17.019
You mentioned Tales from the Crypt and you go into
662
00:34:17.059 --> 00:34:20.239
this meeting and you tell the guys what you tell them.
663
00:34:21.420 --> 00:34:24.239
And then when things kind of come back around and
664
00:34:24.260 --> 00:34:25.840
you say, you know, we really want you to do this,
665
00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:28.639
is there a, and I suppose similar with something like
666
00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:33.989
a huge IP, with something like Freddy Krueger, is there anxieties?
667
00:34:34.070 --> 00:34:38.170
Is there internal dialogue being like, whoa, shit, I, okay,
668
00:34:38.210 --> 00:34:40.130
I've got to actually, now I've got to make this
669
00:34:40.190 --> 00:34:43.429
happen exactly like I said I would. Does that happen
670
00:34:43.710 --> 00:34:45.690
or do you find yourself, you just, you know, you
671
00:34:45.710 --> 00:34:46.760
get into the work and that's it?
672
00:34:47.429 --> 00:34:49.469
You get into it, you get into the work and
673
00:34:49.510 --> 00:34:51.860
that's it. But, Before you get into the work and
674
00:34:51.900 --> 00:34:54.539
that's it, there is a moment when you go, I
675
00:34:54.780 --> 00:34:58.059
could be the guy that screws up this franchise. Freddy
676
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:00.960
Krueger is pretty popular, and I'm going to try to
677
00:35:00.980 --> 00:35:03.659
do it on television. And if I screw this up,
678
00:35:04.659 --> 00:35:06.119
there are going to be a lot of people mad
679
00:35:06.179 --> 00:35:09.739
at me, not only internally from the business and who
680
00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:14.559
own the IP, but fans. So, yeah, that sure does
681
00:35:14.599 --> 00:35:17.579
cross your mind. And, you know, I made a movie
682
00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:21.820
called Constantine with Keanu Reeves, right? based on a successful
683
00:35:21.980 --> 00:35:26.320
comic book. Now, when we hired Keanu, the character in
684
00:35:26.340 --> 00:35:29.139
the comic books is a blonde guy. And we had
685
00:35:29.420 --> 00:35:31.719
hired Keanu, you know, he's a dark haired guy. And
686
00:35:31.739 --> 00:35:34.239
we got, when we made the announcement for Keanu, we
687
00:35:34.260 --> 00:35:37.099
got so many people complaining to us. Oh, how could
688
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:39.789
you do that? He's not blonde. And I was like, what?
689
00:35:41.869 --> 00:35:44.190
It's not the color of his hair. It's the quality
690
00:35:44.250 --> 00:35:48.630
of his soul that we're dealing with here. And For
691
00:35:48.670 --> 00:35:51.090
a while, everybody was mad at us for doing that.
692
00:35:51.150 --> 00:35:52.610
And then as soon as we put out the first
693
00:35:53.150 --> 00:35:57.610
exposure of Keanu as Constantine, boom, the fan base grasped
694
00:35:57.650 --> 00:36:00.690
it and loved it. A lot of it has to
695
00:36:00.730 --> 00:36:04.210
just be true to what you believe is the right
696
00:36:04.230 --> 00:36:07.849
thing to do. And that's hard. It really is hard
697
00:36:07.889 --> 00:36:10.469
because a lot of times you're very much alone.
698
00:36:12.469 --> 00:36:14.699
Yeah, and having that conviction to kind of stick with it,
699
00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:16.679
I feel like that's something people struggle with a lot.
700
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:19.130
especially a lot of younger people nowadays, they kind of,
701
00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:21.900
they will say one thing and if they get the
702
00:36:22.219 --> 00:36:26.619
wrong reaction, they'll kind of backtrack and go, well, maybe this,
703
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:27.969
that and the other and just kind of sit on
704
00:36:28.010 --> 00:36:28.800
the fence all the time.
705
00:36:30.289 --> 00:36:32.170
Well, I think we all go through that. I mean,
706
00:36:33.449 --> 00:36:36.510
it's not an easy conversation to have with yourself about,
707
00:36:36.530 --> 00:36:39.889
are they right? Am I wrong? Should I try it
708
00:36:39.949 --> 00:36:41.789
this way? Maybe I should do it their way. I mean,
709
00:36:42.130 --> 00:36:44.530
I think we all go through that. I'm not denying
710
00:36:44.570 --> 00:36:46.329
that or saying, oh no, I know better than you
711
00:36:46.780 --> 00:36:49.800
And I'm doing it this way. You go through that questioning.
712
00:36:51.380 --> 00:36:54.619
If you're sincere to yourself and your passion, you go
713
00:36:54.659 --> 00:36:59.690
through that. And it's just a question of believing. I
714
00:36:59.730 --> 00:37:02.289
believe this is the best way to do it. That's
715
00:37:02.349 --> 00:37:05.690
what I'm going to do. You know, if you don't
716
00:37:05.710 --> 00:37:06.829
like it, fire me.
717
00:37:08.610 --> 00:37:12.179
How does it feel now with a lot of the projects,
718
00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:15.039
a lot of the movies you've worked on, TV shows?
719
00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:17.860
that they've seemed to as popular as they were at
720
00:37:17.900 --> 00:37:22.219
the time. Like I would say a good 80, 90%
721
00:37:22.219 --> 00:37:26.480
of your work has since constantly built a more and
722
00:37:26.530 --> 00:37:29.550
more and more and more cult following as the years
723
00:37:29.590 --> 00:37:32.449
go on and they're getting rediscovered by younger audiences and
724
00:37:32.489 --> 00:37:36.289
younger audiences and younger audiences. How gratifying is that, I suppose?
725
00:37:36.349 --> 00:37:39.570
And is that just a kind of a proof of,
726
00:37:40.449 --> 00:37:42.179
I guess what you were saying all along that some
727
00:37:42.199 --> 00:37:44.860
of this stuff is, is actually timeless. It worked then
728
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:47.900
and it still works now, 20, 30 years later.
729
00:37:49.179 --> 00:37:51.400
Well, the only answer I can give you, it's crazy.
730
00:37:52.059 --> 00:37:56.300
It's just mind boggling to me that stuff I made,
731
00:37:56.500 --> 00:38:01.139
you know, 30 years ago is as popular now, not
732
00:38:01.179 --> 00:38:03.300
only with the people who we made it for 30
733
00:38:03.300 --> 00:38:05.619
years ago, but for their kids and their grandkids. So
734
00:38:05.639 --> 00:38:08.579
maybe not their grandkids yet, but their kids. So yeah,
735
00:38:08.599 --> 00:38:11.980
it's very gratifying. to know that something that you labored
736
00:38:12.360 --> 00:38:17.119
so much on and sometimes was painful to do, that
737
00:38:17.280 --> 00:38:19.800
it still resonates with people in terms of the quality
738
00:38:19.820 --> 00:38:22.119
of the work and the emotion that you were able
739
00:38:22.179 --> 00:38:26.820
to instill in them by what you instilled in your characters.
740
00:38:26.840 --> 00:38:30.460
Because to me, it always comes down with these projects
741
00:38:30.500 --> 00:38:33.659
to emotion. I talk a lot when I talk about
742
00:38:33.719 --> 00:38:37.960
writing about emotionality of character and that the emotionality of
743
00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:42.150
character is really what the scene is going to be about.
744
00:38:42.809 --> 00:38:45.449
Whatever that scene is, it's going to come down to
745
00:38:45.530 --> 00:38:48.690
what is that emotionality of character? Is the audience going
746
00:38:48.710 --> 00:38:53.360
to feel anything about good or bad, right or wrong?
747
00:38:53.659 --> 00:38:56.179
Are they going to feel anything about that character? And
748
00:38:56.539 --> 00:38:59.059
what they feel, is that what you want them to feel?
749
00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:02.800
Because if it's not what you want them to feel, whoops,
750
00:39:03.039 --> 00:39:05.090
I think maybe we made a mistake. We've got to
751
00:39:05.119 --> 00:39:07.769
redo that, re-look at that. But if it is what
752
00:39:07.809 --> 00:39:11.269
you want them to feel, then that's good. Then you
753
00:39:11.289 --> 00:39:15.440
can keep going. So yes, it's very gratifying to know
754
00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:18.659
that so many people, I mean, look, I'm in a
755
00:39:18.699 --> 00:39:21.059
hospital with my wife and the nurse looks at me
756
00:39:21.079 --> 00:39:23.909
and says, are you Gilbert Adler? And I'm like, what's this?
757
00:39:24.929 --> 00:39:28.250
Very gratifying to see, to have that. And it happens
758
00:39:28.530 --> 00:39:31.309
more often actually in the last 10 years or so
759
00:39:31.809 --> 00:39:33.650
than before. You know, my wife used to always kid me.
760
00:39:33.690 --> 00:39:35.269
We used to travel all over the world, making these
761
00:39:35.309 --> 00:39:38.199
movies and television. We've been in Europe, we've been in Australia,
762
00:39:38.219 --> 00:39:41.000
we've been in New Zealand. And, you know, and I
763
00:39:41.039 --> 00:39:43.360
would always kid her and say, look, this is our
764
00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:46.039
first time in Australia. I don't know anybody in Australia.
765
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:48.900
Nobody's going to come up and say hello because she's
766
00:39:49.300 --> 00:39:51.980
she's convinced that whatever town we're in, some I know
767
00:39:52.019 --> 00:39:54.199
somebody and they're going to come up and say hello.
768
00:39:54.659 --> 00:39:57.210
And so we're in Australia. I just finished shooting in
769
00:39:57.389 --> 00:40:00.849
the Gold Coast. We're now in Sydney. I don't know
770
00:40:00.909 --> 00:40:03.550
anybody in Sydney. The Gold Coast is an hour plane
771
00:40:03.590 --> 00:40:06.610
ride away. And so we're walking along the streets in
772
00:40:06.670 --> 00:40:10.159
Sydney and we're having this chat about don't worry about it.
773
00:40:10.199 --> 00:40:13.639
Nobody knows me. And a car goes by and voice
774
00:40:13.719 --> 00:40:17.199
yells out, hey, Adler, Adler, is that you? And I'm
775
00:40:17.219 --> 00:40:19.199
looking at the car going, what the hell is, who
776
00:40:19.280 --> 00:40:21.440
is that? And it turned, the car turns around and
777
00:40:21.460 --> 00:40:23.760
comes back. And it was one of my crew guys
778
00:40:24.079 --> 00:40:26.159
who I just finished working with up in the Gold Coast.
779
00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:30.780
But we did what just proved her point that wherever
780
00:40:30.820 --> 00:40:34.460
we go, we seem to run into people that we know.
781
00:40:34.679 --> 00:40:37.019
And it's quite amazing. I had said to you earlier,
782
00:40:37.059 --> 00:40:40.929
I wanted to get back to something that you don't
783
00:40:40.989 --> 00:40:43.650
realize when you start out in this business and you
784
00:40:43.670 --> 00:40:47.159
probably don't even realize it when it's happening. Um, But
785
00:40:47.360 --> 00:40:53.050
the opportunities are boundless with some of the projects. You know,
786
00:40:53.070 --> 00:40:57.170
while I was shooting Valkyrie, we needed a desert for
787
00:40:57.190 --> 00:40:59.869
the opening sequence. And so Brian De Palma, who I'd
788
00:40:59.889 --> 00:41:02.590
made a movie with, was a friend at the time.
789
00:41:02.630 --> 00:41:05.110
And he said, I just made a movie in Jordan.
790
00:41:05.449 --> 00:41:08.050
And they had Ratiwam, where they shot Lawrence of Arabia.
791
00:41:08.090 --> 00:41:10.860
That's the biggest desert in the world. You should go
792
00:41:10.889 --> 00:41:12.480
to Jordan. And I said, yeah, well, I don't know
793
00:41:12.500 --> 00:41:14.159
if I want to go to Jordan. We're in Berlin
794
00:41:14.179 --> 00:41:16.780
and we're shooting. And two days later, I get a
795
00:41:16.800 --> 00:41:21.900
call from the King's office, King Abdullah's office. And they said,
796
00:41:21.920 --> 00:41:24.239
you know, we're understanding you're thinking of making a movie.
797
00:41:24.719 --> 00:41:26.300
We'd like you to come down here for a couple
798
00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:30.599
of days. So I go down there. I fly from
799
00:41:31.059 --> 00:41:36.619
Germany to Amman, Jordan. I spend two nights as their
800
00:41:36.679 --> 00:41:41.769
guest at the palace and talking about making, you know,
801
00:41:41.789 --> 00:41:44.789
going to Radyouam. And the next day, a helicopter picks
802
00:41:44.829 --> 00:41:47.369
me up at the palace, and we go down to Radywan.
803
00:41:47.409 --> 00:41:50.969
We get into cars, and they're showing me around the desert.
804
00:41:51.070 --> 00:41:53.210
And all I can think of is, do you guys
805
00:41:53.230 --> 00:41:56.590
know how to get back? Because there are no landmarks here.
806
00:41:56.630 --> 00:41:59.369
It's desert, and it's sand, and it's mountains, and it's...
807
00:42:00.050 --> 00:42:02.630
I think I'm lost. I'm totally lost. I mean, if
808
00:42:02.650 --> 00:42:06.489
you drop me off now, I'm done. I'm dead. You know,
809
00:42:06.530 --> 00:42:10.489
that was an amazing experience. And I became quite friendly
810
00:42:10.530 --> 00:42:14.519
with the king and Prince Ali. And who would have
811
00:42:14.559 --> 00:42:19.420
ever thought that, you know, this guy, a Jew from
812
00:42:19.480 --> 00:42:22.500
New York, you know, would be spending two nights at
813
00:42:22.519 --> 00:42:25.760
the palace. While I was there, I had to go
814
00:42:25.780 --> 00:42:27.699
to the men's room and I said to the, I
815
00:42:27.739 --> 00:42:30.019
said to Prince Ali, can you, can you show me
816
00:42:30.039 --> 00:42:31.980
where the bathroom is? And he said, oh yeah, yeah, no,
817
00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:34.539
just go down the hallway here. And the second door
818
00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:37.440
on the left is your room. So there's a bathroom
819
00:42:37.460 --> 00:42:39.780
in there. And I go down to this room and
820
00:42:39.800 --> 00:42:43.349
the room, you know, is huge. And there's a bathroom there.
821
00:42:43.550 --> 00:42:45.909
And all I could think of was if my mom
822
00:42:45.949 --> 00:42:49.909
was alive, I would call her from the palace saying,
823
00:42:49.969 --> 00:42:54.219
guess where I am? You know, you don't realize the
824
00:42:54.260 --> 00:42:56.219
kinds of people that you're going to meet or run
825
00:42:56.280 --> 00:43:01.579
into or have relationships with while you're doing this. Because
826
00:43:01.619 --> 00:43:05.019
it's so, you're so internalized in terms of, you know, okay,
827
00:43:05.139 --> 00:43:06.619
I've got to make it look a certain way. And
828
00:43:06.659 --> 00:43:08.880
I've got to make sure we capture this, that or
829
00:43:08.920 --> 00:43:12.389
the other. And you don't realize that. this grander and
830
00:43:12.429 --> 00:43:13.269
this bigger picture.
831
00:43:16.369 --> 00:43:18.010
It is a big part of it as well. Like
832
00:43:18.070 --> 00:43:22.030
being open to that stuff. I feel like sometimes people are,
833
00:43:22.050 --> 00:43:25.530
don't want to say closed off, but maybe, maybe too nervous,
834
00:43:25.610 --> 00:43:28.670
maybe too anxious, too worried about like, Oh, you know,
835
00:43:28.690 --> 00:43:30.860
I don't want to put myself out there too much,
836
00:43:30.909 --> 00:43:33.260
but like from all the conversations I had and just
837
00:43:33.340 --> 00:43:35.420
even listening to some of the stuff you've said already
838
00:43:35.940 --> 00:43:40.059
and just in, in a very minuscule form, um, anything
839
00:43:40.079 --> 00:43:42.559
that's ever happened in my life up until this point
840
00:43:42.579 --> 00:43:45.239
that I thought would or could never happen has happened
841
00:43:45.300 --> 00:43:50.460
from a conversation with somebody that has somehow grown into
842
00:43:50.500 --> 00:43:52.440
some sort of relationship and I'm like, I would have
843
00:43:52.500 --> 00:43:56.530
never expected, like even something simple like this to be
844
00:43:57.230 --> 00:44:01.590
able to sit here and be to a degree financially
845
00:44:01.670 --> 00:44:04.530
free that I can do this because I choose to
846
00:44:05.050 --> 00:44:07.409
and be able to talk to you. If I had
847
00:44:07.469 --> 00:44:09.840
told my teenage self that I would have been like,
848
00:44:09.860 --> 00:44:13.219
that's so far away removed from, that's like the stuff
849
00:44:13.280 --> 00:44:14.199
I watch on the screen.
850
00:44:15.150 --> 00:44:17.050
Yeah, but you don't think about it. It just sort
851
00:44:17.090 --> 00:44:20.110
of happened. I mean, I'll give you another example, maybe
852
00:44:20.190 --> 00:44:25.949
more appropriate, especially today. Tim Curry died yesterday. And, you know,
853
00:44:25.989 --> 00:44:28.280
Tim Curry did an episode of Tales from the Crypt
854
00:44:28.360 --> 00:44:31.760
that I wrote, produced, and directed called Death of Some Salesmen.
855
00:44:32.300 --> 00:44:35.260
Unlike Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, we had Death
856
00:44:35.300 --> 00:44:39.949
of Some Salesmen. Now, I wrote that script with Alan Katz,
857
00:44:40.110 --> 00:44:43.190
and I was going to direct it. And I wanted
858
00:44:43.309 --> 00:44:45.750
the actor, and we had decided, you know, one of
859
00:44:45.789 --> 00:44:48.630
my favorite movies is Kind Hearts and Coronets with Alec Guinness,
860
00:44:48.650 --> 00:44:51.610
where he played seven different characters. Well, Tales from the Crypt,
861
00:44:51.650 --> 00:44:55.559
we never had one actor play more than one character.
862
00:44:56.099 --> 00:44:58.039
And so we said, wouldn't this be interesting if we
863
00:44:58.079 --> 00:45:01.639
could get one actor to play like three characters? And
864
00:45:01.679 --> 00:45:04.840
so we wrote this silly script where we wanted to
865
00:45:04.860 --> 00:45:08.679
have one actor play Ma and play Paa and play
866
00:45:08.820 --> 00:45:14.079
the deformed daughter Winona. And I had seen Rocky Horror
867
00:45:14.219 --> 00:45:17.920
in London when it first opened and loved Tim Curry
868
00:45:18.079 --> 00:45:21.300
and said, he's just such a nutcase. He might actually
869
00:45:21.360 --> 00:45:24.969
understand this script and he might do it. And so
870
00:45:24.989 --> 00:45:28.110
I called up his manager and she said, oh, I'm
871
00:45:28.130 --> 00:45:30.400
really sorry. You know, he's not going to do it.
872
00:45:31.369 --> 00:45:34.750
He goes to Carnivale in Brazil every winter. You want
873
00:45:34.769 --> 00:45:37.170
to do this right in the middle of Carnivale. He's
874
00:45:37.230 --> 00:45:39.389
never going to say yes. And I said, okay, I
875
00:45:39.409 --> 00:45:42.000
appreciate that. Thank you very much. I said, but can
876
00:45:42.019 --> 00:45:43.719
I ask you if I could, if you could do
877
00:45:43.739 --> 00:45:47.300
me a favor, you know, I'm a big fan and
878
00:45:47.320 --> 00:45:49.380
I would love to meet him. So I want to
879
00:45:49.400 --> 00:45:52.179
take him to lunch. I promise you, I won't pitch
880
00:45:52.239 --> 00:45:54.710
the show. I won't try to sell him on doing it,
881
00:45:55.500 --> 00:45:58.289
but I really would just love to meet him. And
882
00:45:58.369 --> 00:46:01.230
so she set up this lunch and I met him
883
00:46:01.250 --> 00:46:04.539
in a restaurant in Venice and on Venice beach called
884
00:46:04.599 --> 00:46:08.639
Chaya Brasserie in Los Angeles. And I thought, you know,
885
00:46:08.659 --> 00:46:10.679
we'll have lunch. It'll be an hour and you know,
886
00:46:10.699 --> 00:46:13.710
I'll go back. And we sat there for like three
887
00:46:13.730 --> 00:46:17.929
and a half hours just talking. And I, you know,
888
00:46:17.949 --> 00:46:21.650
he kept asking me questions about there's not this episode,
889
00:46:21.710 --> 00:46:23.469
but Tales from the Crypt, the show, how do we
890
00:46:23.510 --> 00:46:26.539
do it? And how do we get the quality that
891
00:46:26.579 --> 00:46:28.639
we get and all that kind of, and at the
892
00:46:28.699 --> 00:46:30.780
end of the three and a half hours, he looked
893
00:46:30.840 --> 00:46:34.250
at me and he said, well, I'm going to say
894
00:46:34.289 --> 00:46:37.070
something to you that's going to cause me a lot
895
00:46:37.110 --> 00:46:41.590
of problems. I want to do the show. And I said, no,
896
00:46:41.630 --> 00:46:43.590
you can't do the show. And he said, what do
897
00:46:43.610 --> 00:46:47.510
you mean? I said, I promised your management that I
898
00:46:47.550 --> 00:46:49.239
wasn't going to pitch you the show, which I didn't.
899
00:46:49.980 --> 00:46:51.699
And I wasn't going to try to convince you to
900
00:46:51.739 --> 00:46:54.480
do the show, which I didn't. And so if I
901
00:46:54.519 --> 00:46:56.500
go back to your manager now, she's going to be
902
00:46:56.599 --> 00:46:59.099
really pissed at me. And he laughed and he said,
903
00:46:59.119 --> 00:47:01.239
don't worry about that. I'll tell her it was all me.
904
00:47:02.420 --> 00:47:05.019
And that I convinced you that I should do the show.
905
00:47:05.079 --> 00:47:06.480
And I said, do you really want to do it?
906
00:47:06.619 --> 00:47:08.219
And he said, oh, yeah. I mean, this is a
907
00:47:08.260 --> 00:47:10.639
great opportunity to play three different parts. And to hear
908
00:47:10.679 --> 00:47:13.380
you talk about how you want to direct it, I
909
00:47:13.460 --> 00:47:16.210
just can't wait to get my teeth into the material.
910
00:47:17.150 --> 00:47:19.389
And so that's how Tim did the show. When we
911
00:47:19.429 --> 00:47:23.050
got to the stages, you know, when I direct, I'm
912
00:47:23.090 --> 00:47:25.530
always frightened to death because I'm always figuring if I
913
00:47:25.570 --> 00:47:28.329
think of a shot, there's a better shot. And also
914
00:47:28.349 --> 00:47:30.570
I'm worried about time and about how much money we're
915
00:47:30.590 --> 00:47:33.760
spending and will I make the day's work and all that.
916
00:47:34.679 --> 00:47:37.219
And we had the best time. Tim and I just
917
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:40.639
created those three characters. What was written on the page
918
00:47:40.659 --> 00:47:43.679
was one thing, but what we created in the shooting
919
00:47:43.739 --> 00:47:46.619
of it was something else. And it was a memory
920
00:47:46.659 --> 00:47:50.480
that I have that stays with me and will stay
921
00:47:50.500 --> 00:47:53.460
with me my entire life, that working with Tim was
922
00:47:53.500 --> 00:47:56.039
like one of the most special things in my life.
923
00:47:56.820 --> 00:48:01.139
And we remained friends after that. In fact, many years
924
00:48:01.260 --> 00:48:05.900
actually later, they have a Broadway party at this, I
925
00:48:06.440 --> 00:48:09.059
forgot the name of the place. Anyway, they have this
926
00:48:09.099 --> 00:48:11.800
Broadway party the night of the Tony Awards in Los Angeles.
927
00:48:12.179 --> 00:48:14.420
And they have a live feed from New York. So
928
00:48:14.460 --> 00:48:16.739
you see it actually when it's happening in New York.
929
00:48:17.389 --> 00:48:20.050
And it's a dinner party. It's at the Skirball Center
930
00:48:20.190 --> 00:48:23.449
in Los Angeles. And I got a call one day
931
00:48:23.489 --> 00:48:26.650
from Tim's manager saying, you know, this was after he
932
00:48:26.690 --> 00:48:31.690
had the stroke. And he was in a wheelchair. And
933
00:48:31.769 --> 00:48:35.230
he was kind of weak. And she said, you know,
934
00:48:35.889 --> 00:48:40.110
every year they have this party for the Tony Awards
935
00:48:40.150 --> 00:48:43.989
and they always honor somebody who's a Broadway person who
936
00:48:44.030 --> 00:48:46.130
happens to be in Los Angeles. And this year they're
937
00:48:46.170 --> 00:48:51.030
honoring Tim Curry. And they asked him, you know, who
938
00:48:51.050 --> 00:48:54.269
does he want to invite? And he said, I really
939
00:48:54.309 --> 00:48:57.610
want Gil Adler and his wife, Jeannie, to sit with
940
00:48:57.659 --> 00:49:00.320
me at my table. And they said, so will you
941
00:49:00.360 --> 00:49:02.440
be in L.A. and or could you be in L.A.
942
00:49:02.599 --> 00:49:04.920
and would you do that? I said, of course, I'd
943
00:49:04.940 --> 00:49:07.199
be my pleasure and we would love to. And so
944
00:49:07.219 --> 00:49:11.389
we went to this event. And, you know, it wasn't
945
00:49:11.429 --> 00:49:13.909
the Tim Curry that I worked with that was nutty
946
00:49:14.050 --> 00:49:17.289
as I am and crazy and willing to try whatever
947
00:49:17.329 --> 00:49:19.969
it is that we thought of. It was a very quiet.
948
00:49:20.719 --> 00:49:26.320
fellow whose voice was very, very low. In one respect,
949
00:49:26.380 --> 00:49:29.010
it was heartbreaking to see him in this condition. In
950
00:49:29.090 --> 00:49:31.889
the other respect, it was great to be with him
951
00:49:32.010 --> 00:49:36.650
and spend time with him. I never forgot working with him.
952
00:49:37.869 --> 00:49:41.420
That was a very special situation that Had I not asked,
953
00:49:41.539 --> 00:49:43.239
can I just have lunch with him because I'm a
954
00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:47.750
big fan, never would have happened. And so a lot
955
00:49:47.769 --> 00:49:50.630
of times you run into situations and you don't know
956
00:49:50.889 --> 00:49:53.150
where you're going to wind up. If anyone would have
957
00:49:53.170 --> 00:49:56.929
said to me at the beginning of my career, you know,
958
00:49:56.949 --> 00:50:00.300
you're going to call the king of Jordan and the
959
00:50:00.360 --> 00:50:03.820
prince of Jordan and then the king of Mohammed of
960
00:50:04.280 --> 00:50:08.059
Morocco and other people like that friends, I would go,
961
00:50:08.159 --> 00:50:08.960
what are you, out of your mind?
962
00:50:11.090 --> 00:50:13.860
Yeah, it's funny, isn't it, how, is it only in,
963
00:50:13.860 --> 00:50:15.969
I don't want to say recent years, but is it
964
00:50:16.010 --> 00:50:18.159
only after the fact that you actually can take note
965
00:50:18.199 --> 00:50:21.320
of that? Because, like, you've been operating on such a
966
00:50:21.940 --> 00:50:25.619
seriously high level for so long. Is it always, at
967
00:50:25.639 --> 00:50:27.360
least from the outside, it seems to be always the
968
00:50:27.420 --> 00:50:30.699
next thing. It's like, whoa, the next project and what's
969
00:50:30.719 --> 00:50:32.860
coming next, next, next, next. Is it only, like, since
970
00:50:32.880 --> 00:50:35.119
you've tried to, like, go, okay, let me have a
971
00:50:35.139 --> 00:50:37.860
look at the bigger picture that you can actually take
972
00:50:37.880 --> 00:50:39.199
stock and appreciate that?
973
00:50:40.460 --> 00:50:43.539
More so now than before. But even when it was happening,
974
00:50:43.739 --> 00:50:46.179
I mean, when I was at the palace in Jordan,
975
00:50:47.670 --> 00:50:50.809
I was so chuffed that I was there. You know,
976
00:50:50.829 --> 00:50:53.989
I would look around and go, I can't believe I'm
977
00:50:54.389 --> 00:50:58.320
sitting here with these guys and having dinner and talking
978
00:50:58.340 --> 00:51:01.619
about their kids. And it was pretty amazing. And, you know,
979
00:51:01.679 --> 00:51:03.800
all I could think about was here's this kid from
980
00:51:03.840 --> 00:51:09.469
Yonkers who's in the palace. It's like. It's pretty hard
981
00:51:09.750 --> 00:51:11.349
to imagine that stuff, you know?
982
00:51:13.309 --> 00:51:15.710
And I know I will as well, but I know
983
00:51:15.849 --> 00:51:20.860
the audience will have me on a spike if I
984
00:51:20.900 --> 00:51:24.000
don't ask about Dark Castle and a little bit about that.
985
00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:28.519
Something that a lot of us, myself included, I would
986
00:51:28.559 --> 00:51:32.420
say I'm a massive champion for some of that stuff
987
00:51:32.440 --> 00:51:34.659
that you guys put together. And I know there's so
988
00:51:34.699 --> 00:51:36.960
many people out there who hold some of those movies
989
00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:41.159
so fondly. And it seems to be only, again, getting
990
00:51:41.699 --> 00:51:43.860
more and more of a following, more and more people
991
00:51:44.760 --> 00:51:49.420
rediscovering it, discovering it for the first time. That initial idea, though,
992
00:51:49.679 --> 00:51:54.079
it seems so wild now, because I guess now, you know,
993
00:51:54.500 --> 00:51:56.159
it kind of seems like, oh yeah, well, it's so obvious,
994
00:51:56.179 --> 00:51:59.429
like they were, they've all stuck around, they've all still
995
00:51:59.449 --> 00:52:01.780
got such a life and such a cult fan base.
996
00:52:02.369 --> 00:52:04.969
But at the time, the concept of what you guys
997
00:52:04.989 --> 00:52:09.099
were trying to do, what does that, you know, those
998
00:52:09.159 --> 00:52:11.139
initial talks look like?
999
00:52:11.159 --> 00:52:16.980
It probably goes back to, you know, when we were
1000
00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:19.860
doing Tales from the Crypt and we always wanted Bob
1001
00:52:19.880 --> 00:52:23.630
Zemeckis to direct an episode and HBO would always, I
1002
00:52:23.639 --> 00:52:26.409
would always finagle them to give me an extra episode
1003
00:52:26.969 --> 00:52:30.650
because somehow every season I would tell them Bob's not
1004
00:52:30.690 --> 00:52:33.550
available until the week after we were supposed to end.
1005
00:52:34.289 --> 00:52:37.159
So unless you give us another episode, I can't get
1006
00:52:37.199 --> 00:52:39.820
Bob Zemeckis. And they would say, Oh, okay, well let's
1007
00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:42.159
get Bob Zemeckis. And I would go over to, and
1008
00:52:42.179 --> 00:52:45.300
Bob would always say to me, I want to do
1009
00:52:45.340 --> 00:52:48.059
something different. So you and Alan Cass have to come
1010
00:52:48.099 --> 00:52:49.739
up with something different. I'm not just going to do
1011
00:52:49.800 --> 00:52:52.980
another episode. And that's kind of what made me think of,
1012
00:52:53.099 --> 00:52:55.719
I want to do something different when I direct. And
1013
00:52:55.760 --> 00:52:57.880
I came up, we came up with this three character
1014
00:52:58.019 --> 00:53:01.260
Alec Guinness kind of show, Death of Some Salesmen, because
1015
00:53:01.309 --> 00:53:03.630
no one had ever done that on Tales. And so
1016
00:53:04.389 --> 00:53:07.280
we would, uh, get together with Bob, who's just the
1017
00:53:07.320 --> 00:53:12.239
best collaborator in the world, and talk about stuff. Talk
1018
00:53:12.260 --> 00:53:15.110
about what you liked as a kid. When growing up,
1019
00:53:15.150 --> 00:53:17.570
what did you watch? And what did it mean to you?
1020
00:53:17.610 --> 00:53:21.210
And why is that important to you? And from that,
1021
00:53:21.269 --> 00:53:24.869
we would come up with ideas for Tales from the Crypt.
1022
00:53:24.889 --> 00:53:28.469
The one he directed called You Murderer, for example, happened
1023
00:53:28.530 --> 00:53:32.849
over chocolate chip cookies and deli sandwiches from Arts Deli
1024
00:53:32.889 --> 00:53:37.880
in LA in his office at Universal. where he said
1025
00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:39.940
that to me. What did you like as a kid?
1026
00:53:39.960 --> 00:53:42.920
And we started talking about that, and we said Humphrey
1027
00:53:42.940 --> 00:53:46.869
Bogart was just the best. I mean, I loved Humphrey Bogart.
1028
00:53:46.929 --> 00:53:50.130
I don't know why, I just loved Humphrey Bogart. And
1029
00:53:50.170 --> 00:53:53.150
then we started talking, and he said, well, how about
1030
00:53:53.170 --> 00:53:55.929
if you could work with him? And I said, yeah,
1031
00:53:55.949 --> 00:53:57.679
I would have loved that. And he goes, no, no, now.
1032
00:53:58.940 --> 00:54:00.480
And I still didn't get what he was going after.
1033
00:54:00.500 --> 00:54:04.280
And then he started to explain to me Well, we
1034
00:54:04.320 --> 00:54:07.599
could buy clips from the studios and we could put
1035
00:54:07.619 --> 00:54:10.340
them into a show. But you and Alan have to
1036
00:54:10.380 --> 00:54:14.820
write a subjective camera, which we haven't done before. And
1037
00:54:15.039 --> 00:54:18.739
we could use clips of Humphrey Bogart. And then we
1038
00:54:18.780 --> 00:54:22.260
got John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini to be in the
1039
00:54:22.300 --> 00:54:27.050
cast and a lookalike for Humphrey Bogart. And we made
1040
00:54:27.090 --> 00:54:29.650
this show called You Murderer, which was very different and
1041
00:54:29.690 --> 00:54:33.170
very special. And so that's sort of what happens when
1042
00:54:33.190 --> 00:54:35.289
you When we would get together with Bob, it was
1043
00:54:35.969 --> 00:54:39.510
incredibly creative. And he keeps it so open. You can
1044
00:54:39.550 --> 00:54:42.739
say anything and it's not foolish. And he won't look
1045
00:54:42.760 --> 00:54:44.380
at you like you're an idiot, even though what you
1046
00:54:44.400 --> 00:54:48.219
just said, you think you said something that's totally idiotic.
1047
00:54:49.059 --> 00:54:53.039
And so when you work like that and nothing is
1048
00:54:53.219 --> 00:54:57.199
out of the question to talk about, it's very freeing
1049
00:54:57.800 --> 00:55:01.650
and enables you to really think outside the box and
1050
00:55:01.670 --> 00:55:05.510
think about things that probably are not good. Probably nine
1051
00:55:05.550 --> 00:55:07.730
times out of 10 are stupid and you're never going
1052
00:55:07.750 --> 00:55:10.239
to get to do them. But maybe, maybe just once
1053
00:55:10.920 --> 00:55:12.920
Alan will say something or I'll say something and then
1054
00:55:12.960 --> 00:55:15.139
Bob will go, no, but what about that? Or then
1055
00:55:15.820 --> 00:55:18.760
I'll say, or Alan will say, what about this? And
1056
00:55:18.780 --> 00:55:20.239
all of a sudden now we're on a, on a
1057
00:55:20.280 --> 00:55:22.960
course of like, Whoa, this is a very kind of
1058
00:55:22.980 --> 00:55:29.090
cool idea. We loved, you know, William Castle was just
1059
00:55:29.250 --> 00:55:33.079
a special filmmaker and he, When I look back at
1060
00:55:33.139 --> 00:55:37.800
his movies, I laugh because they're so terrible in the
1061
00:55:37.860 --> 00:55:40.849
sense of quality. I mean, if you look at something,
1062
00:55:41.329 --> 00:55:43.869
one of my favorites was The Tingler, which we never remade.
1063
00:55:43.929 --> 00:55:45.650
We were going to remake it, but we never got there.
1064
00:55:46.250 --> 00:55:49.389
And you look at The Tingler, and when he throws
1065
00:55:49.449 --> 00:55:52.510
The Tingler in front of the camera, and basically that's
1066
00:55:52.550 --> 00:55:55.139
what someone is doing off camera. They're throwing this thing.
1067
00:55:55.860 --> 00:56:00.400
It looks like something that it's not supposed to look like.
1068
00:56:01.190 --> 00:56:02.650
And you look at it and go, how did they
1069
00:56:02.690 --> 00:56:06.239
get away with that? And so when we, when we
1070
00:56:06.280 --> 00:56:08.219
started doing these, we said, well, what happens if we
1071
00:56:08.260 --> 00:56:12.719
took the William Castle library and made them quality, made
1072
00:56:12.760 --> 00:56:16.179
them tales from the crypt quality? What would happen today?
1073
00:56:16.199 --> 00:56:19.760
I mean, we don't have seats that we can vibrate
1074
00:56:19.800 --> 00:56:22.050
that the audience is going to get into and all
1075
00:56:22.090 --> 00:56:24.230
that kind of stuff where the smell of vision, but
1076
00:56:24.269 --> 00:56:27.610
we could do stuff that might make an audience really
1077
00:56:27.670 --> 00:56:30.440
excited to see these movies. And so that's kind of
1078
00:56:30.480 --> 00:56:34.039
what started it. And then, you know, they became quite successful.
1079
00:56:35.420 --> 00:56:38.300
What do you think it is about them that they've
1080
00:56:38.340 --> 00:56:42.090
become such a comfort for so many people and they've
1081
00:56:42.150 --> 00:56:47.750
resonated so much? Like even for myself, those, some of
1082
00:56:47.789 --> 00:56:51.309
those movies are like my, some people take it when
1083
00:56:51.550 --> 00:56:53.599
I say comfort movie as an insult. But when I
1084
00:56:53.639 --> 00:56:57.699
say comfort movie, I mean a movie that has dragged
1085
00:56:57.760 --> 00:57:00.780
me out of the depths of something that I can
1086
00:57:00.840 --> 00:57:03.900
go to on my shelf of very few movies of like,
1087
00:57:04.500 --> 00:57:06.639
no matter what's going on in life, I can escape
1088
00:57:06.659 --> 00:57:10.539
to that world and everything is okay for 90 minutes
1089
00:57:10.619 --> 00:57:12.860
or two hours. What do you think it is though,
1090
00:57:13.059 --> 00:57:16.260
that holds them up so well or has, and I
1091
00:57:16.300 --> 00:57:18.150
think they've gained strength, I guess.
1092
00:57:19.429 --> 00:57:22.150
I think two things mainly. One is, first of all,
1093
00:57:22.670 --> 00:57:25.449
when you're making a scary movie, you got to scare people.
1094
00:57:26.150 --> 00:57:27.829
I can't tell you how many friends of mine have
1095
00:57:27.849 --> 00:57:30.239
made movies that, and asked me to look at them
1096
00:57:30.780 --> 00:57:32.679
when they're in the editing room. And you know, my
1097
00:57:32.719 --> 00:57:35.179
first reaction is, okay, tell me where you scared people.
1098
00:57:35.780 --> 00:57:38.260
Cause I don't see it now. I'm jaded. I made
1099
00:57:38.280 --> 00:57:40.719
a lot of these things. I take that into account,
1100
00:57:40.760 --> 00:57:43.780
but still you got to scare people. That's what they
1101
00:57:43.800 --> 00:57:46.369
came for. They want to be scared. So that's number one.
1102
00:57:46.570 --> 00:57:49.250
Number two, I think it's, it goes back to what
1103
00:57:49.269 --> 00:57:52.429
I was talking about earlier that, that the characters, if
1104
00:57:52.630 --> 00:57:56.349
the emotionality of character, if you glean something from one
1105
00:57:56.369 --> 00:57:58.449
of these characters or more than one of these characters,
1106
00:57:59.030 --> 00:58:01.849
that you as an audience can relate to in some way,
1107
00:58:02.889 --> 00:58:05.309
not even in the same way that the character in
1108
00:58:05.329 --> 00:58:08.210
the movie relates to the character in the movie, but
1109
00:58:08.269 --> 00:58:11.989
somehow in your life, you can glean something. Then I
1110
00:58:12.030 --> 00:58:13.969
think it has a different meaning to you as an
1111
00:58:14.050 --> 00:58:17.380
audience member. And I think that's really what we're after
1112
00:58:17.780 --> 00:58:22.460
as filmmakers. That's really when you hit the jackpot. If
1113
00:58:22.519 --> 00:58:27.320
it resonates with an actor, with an audience, as an actor,
1114
00:58:27.969 --> 00:58:30.369
I think you've succeeded. And as a writer and a
1115
00:58:30.389 --> 00:58:34.099
producer and a director, that's the icing on the cake.
1116
00:58:34.360 --> 00:58:36.400
That's what I want to get to. And that's what
1117
00:58:36.420 --> 00:58:39.159
I want to get to on everything I do. That
1118
00:58:39.340 --> 00:58:44.179
the relationship between my characters and the audience is special.
1119
00:58:45.409 --> 00:58:47.949
In whatever way is special to them. It could be scary.
1120
00:58:47.969 --> 00:58:49.489
It could be funny. It could, whatever.
1121
00:58:52.289 --> 00:58:56.360
You know, House on Haunted Hill comes out and It's
1122
00:58:56.380 --> 00:58:59.110
a huge success and I guess it's proof of what
1123
00:58:59.139 --> 00:59:01.889
you guys had, the concept of what you guys were
1124
00:59:01.909 --> 00:59:04.570
pushing for. And then you mentioned The Tingler, I know
1125
00:59:04.590 --> 00:59:06.989
that one comes up a lot online. People mentioned that
1126
00:59:07.289 --> 00:59:09.829
that had been floated around as a potential movie that
1127
00:59:09.849 --> 00:59:15.199
never got made. I had also, Bill kind of alluded to,
1128
00:59:15.219 --> 00:59:18.199
there was talks of a sequel to House that I
1129
00:59:18.219 --> 00:59:22.079
know the sequel came afterwards, but in that initial stages
1130
00:59:22.820 --> 00:59:26.420
and other movies were mentioned. And I guess the question
1131
00:59:26.440 --> 00:59:29.650
is like, what, What happens or what stops some of
1132
00:59:29.690 --> 00:59:32.409
those things? Like if you guys have proven the success
1133
00:59:32.469 --> 00:59:35.409
of the model, why do some of these things then
1134
00:59:35.510 --> 00:59:37.369
go away in place of others?
1135
00:59:39.610 --> 00:59:42.179
Uh, well, some of them didn't really go away. I mean,
1136
00:59:42.199 --> 00:59:48.940
I stopped doing Dark Castle because Warner Brothers in their
1137
00:59:48.980 --> 00:59:52.059
infinite wisdom thought I was capable of doing bigger and
1138
00:59:52.099 --> 00:59:56.730
better stuff and started offering me bigger movies and Joel, especially.
1139
00:59:57.690 --> 01:00:00.130
was very upset with me and didn't like it. I mean,
1140
01:00:00.250 --> 01:00:04.079
we had a career together for like 13 or 15 years.
1141
01:00:04.099 --> 01:00:06.360
We made a lot of television, a lot of movies.
1142
01:00:07.280 --> 01:00:10.039
And when he heard that Warner Brothers was interested in
1143
01:00:10.079 --> 01:00:15.539
me making bigger movies and he was, he got really
1144
01:00:15.579 --> 01:00:18.199
crazy and pissed off and we had a terrible argument
1145
01:00:18.280 --> 01:00:22.369
and it sort of like ended badly. But it ended
1146
01:00:22.409 --> 01:00:25.250
badly because I saw an opportunity for me to grow.
1147
01:00:26.710 --> 01:00:28.989
And he wasn't interested in that. He didn't care about that.
1148
01:00:29.369 --> 01:00:32.829
He just wanted what he wanted. And so I took
1149
01:00:32.869 --> 01:00:35.630
the opportunity with Warner Brothers. And he said to me,
1150
01:00:36.409 --> 01:00:39.190
Warner Brothers will listen to me. I'll tell them not
1151
01:00:39.230 --> 01:00:43.280
to use you and they'll throw you away. And that
1152
01:00:43.300 --> 01:00:47.460
didn't happen. But again, it's that passion. I really felt like, well,
1153
01:00:47.480 --> 01:00:50.099
this is an opportunity for me to do bigger and
1154
01:00:50.139 --> 01:00:52.920
better things. And they offered me Constantine and they offered
1155
01:00:52.980 --> 01:00:55.500
me They offered me four pictures at the time, and
1156
01:00:55.739 --> 01:00:59.539
I said yes to two of them. One was Constantine,
1157
01:01:00.219 --> 01:01:03.360
and the other one was a script that they gave
1158
01:01:03.420 --> 01:01:09.840
me called Standby. I think it was Standby. And I
1159
01:01:09.900 --> 01:01:14.110
was like, what's Standby? And they said, you know, Standby.
1160
01:01:14.130 --> 01:01:18.070
I went, no, I don't know Standby. And they said, well,
1161
01:01:18.090 --> 01:01:22.989
that's what we're calling the new Superman movie. And I said, what? Superman?
1162
01:01:23.010 --> 01:01:24.780
You want me to do Superman? I'm not doing that.
1163
01:01:25.570 --> 01:01:27.179
And they said, why? I said, you've been trying to
1164
01:01:27.219 --> 01:01:30.800
make this movie for 10 years and you'll just never
1165
01:01:30.860 --> 01:01:33.590
make it. And I'll tell you why you'll never make it.
1166
01:01:34.760 --> 01:01:39.659
Because you can't decide who should be Superman. And that's
1167
01:01:39.699 --> 01:01:42.760
a conversation that I would like to be a part
1168
01:01:42.800 --> 01:01:45.659
of if I were the producer. And I probably would
1169
01:01:45.699 --> 01:01:49.019
be a part of that conversation. But ultimately, with the
1170
01:01:49.059 --> 01:01:50.980
kind of money you'd have to invest in a movie
1171
01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:54.500
like that, It's going to be your decision. And it'd
1172
01:01:54.519 --> 01:01:56.940
be foolish of me to think otherwise, because with that
1173
01:01:56.980 --> 01:01:58.679
kind of money riding at it, you should have that
1174
01:01:59.599 --> 01:02:03.460
decision making. But I don't feel comfortable that you're going
1175
01:02:03.480 --> 01:02:06.320
to do it. So I'll wind up working for a
1176
01:02:06.340 --> 01:02:10.239
year or two, or maybe even longer. I mean, you'll
1177
01:02:10.260 --> 01:02:13.719
pay me, but we won't make a movie. And if
1178
01:02:13.800 --> 01:02:16.429
I waste two or three years of my career, I'm
1179
01:02:16.449 --> 01:02:21.360
going to feel awful. And I said, thanks very much.
1180
01:02:21.599 --> 01:02:23.449
And I got to get back to the set on Constantine.
1181
01:02:24.010 --> 01:02:26.610
So the next day I got a call and they
1182
01:02:26.869 --> 01:02:30.090
called me in again and they said, so if we
1183
01:02:30.130 --> 01:02:33.230
wanted to figure this out with you, what would you require?
1184
01:02:33.250 --> 01:02:35.889
And I was like, well, what I require? Holy crap.
1185
01:02:36.360 --> 01:02:38.420
I would like to have some say in who could
1186
01:02:38.460 --> 01:02:41.500
be Superman knowing full well, that's going to be your
1187
01:02:41.599 --> 01:02:46.840
ultimate decision. But, and they said, okay. And so we
1188
01:02:46.860 --> 01:02:49.199
figured out a way that made it interesting for me.
1189
01:02:50.300 --> 01:02:54.889
I started working on the script with, uh, Oh God,
1190
01:02:54.909 --> 01:02:57.469
what's his name? Oh, he started his own company. It'll
1191
01:02:57.510 --> 01:03:00.010
come to me. And, uh, and then he, he got
1192
01:03:00.050 --> 01:03:07.690
into some sexual problems and was fired and it'll come
1193
01:03:07.730 --> 01:03:11.760
to us. And then they brought in, uh, McGee. And
1194
01:03:11.800 --> 01:03:13.880
so I was working with McGee for about a year.
1195
01:03:14.900 --> 01:03:16.659
And then McGee one night says to me, you know,
1196
01:03:16.719 --> 01:03:19.500
I can't fly. We're supposed to make this in Australia.
1197
01:03:20.409 --> 01:03:22.289
I don't fly. And I go, what do you mean
1198
01:03:22.309 --> 01:03:25.739
you don't fly? Oh, I'm afraid of flying. And I said, well,
1199
01:03:25.760 --> 01:03:27.320
did you tell this to Warner brothers?
1200
01:03:27.579 --> 01:03:27.739
No.
1201
01:03:28.480 --> 01:03:32.119
I thought maybe you could tell them. I said, you
1202
01:03:32.159 --> 01:03:35.840
want me to tell them you can't fly to Australia. Anyway,
1203
01:03:36.039 --> 01:03:38.730
that didn't last very long. And he was then fired.
1204
01:03:39.929 --> 01:03:42.750
And then they said to me, you know, we, at
1205
01:03:42.789 --> 01:03:44.869
the time I was talking to Fox about going over
1206
01:03:44.909 --> 01:03:47.849
there to make a movie. And of course, Hollywood is
1207
01:03:47.889 --> 01:03:50.679
so small. Everybody knows everything. So the, the, Guys from
1208
01:03:50.699 --> 01:03:52.239
Warner Brothers called me and they said, we know you're
1209
01:03:52.260 --> 01:03:54.739
talking to Fox. We don't want you to go to Fox.
1210
01:03:55.480 --> 01:03:58.489
We're going to replace McG in the next 48 hours.
1211
01:03:59.349 --> 01:04:01.730
We can't tell you who it is, but we will
1212
01:04:01.949 --> 01:04:06.590
by tomorrow night. I said, OK. And that's when they
1213
01:04:06.610 --> 01:04:11.239
called me up and they said, Brian Singer. And we
1214
01:04:11.300 --> 01:04:13.260
ultimately made Superman Returns with Brian.
1215
01:04:17.969 --> 01:04:20.030
That's got to be like a, like to kind of
1216
01:04:20.090 --> 01:04:22.650
know that they're working on that project for so long.
1217
01:04:22.690 --> 01:04:25.010
It's such a huge IP, like it's Superman. Like, I
1218
01:04:25.030 --> 01:04:27.110
don't think there's anybody on the planet that probably doesn't
1219
01:04:27.130 --> 01:04:30.650
know what Superman or who Superman is. And I suppose
1220
01:04:30.670 --> 01:04:33.610
through that whole process, the whole time, is there something
1221
01:04:33.630 --> 01:04:35.130
in the back of your head, like being like, this
1222
01:04:35.150 --> 01:04:37.349
is not going to happen or at a certain point,
1223
01:04:37.650 --> 01:04:40.570
does it become obvious on a way this, like we're
1224
01:04:40.699 --> 01:04:42.780
actually doing this now, this is going to be something
1225
01:04:42.800 --> 01:04:44.260
that we're going to be able to realize.
1226
01:04:44.280 --> 01:04:44.380
Yeah.
1227
01:04:45.630 --> 01:04:48.449
Well, I kept asking about that because I said, I
1228
01:04:48.489 --> 01:04:50.849
can't waste two years of my life and do nothing.
1229
01:04:51.130 --> 01:04:53.090
You'll pay me and that's all great and good. I
1230
01:04:53.110 --> 01:04:55.360
can live. But if we go two years and I
1231
01:04:55.400 --> 01:04:57.920
don't make, you know, you tell me we're done, I'm
1232
01:04:59.400 --> 01:05:03.000
going to feel terrible. I can't live with myself like that. So,
1233
01:05:03.179 --> 01:05:04.579
you know, you might as well tell me now and
1234
01:05:04.719 --> 01:05:07.000
you get somebody else and I'll do something else either
1235
01:05:07.019 --> 01:05:09.739
for you or for someplace else. And they kept saying, no,
1236
01:05:09.780 --> 01:05:11.260
we really want to make this. We really want to
1237
01:05:11.300 --> 01:05:14.070
make this. And so You know, every step of the way,
1238
01:05:14.090 --> 01:05:18.070
I must say, they were very inclusive of me. And
1239
01:05:18.090 --> 01:05:22.489
I felt very honored that they did that with me.
1240
01:05:23.250 --> 01:05:27.840
And we finally got there. But, yeah, you're always questioning it.
1241
01:05:27.860 --> 01:05:30.369
I mean, even when you– it's funny. I used to–
1242
01:05:30.840 --> 01:05:34.099
when we would start a movie and the director would
1243
01:05:34.119 --> 01:05:36.039
say action on the very first shot of the very
1244
01:05:36.079 --> 01:05:39.730
first day, he would say action. I would immediately say–
1245
01:05:39.820 --> 01:05:40.960
and I would tell him I'm going to do this.
1246
01:05:41.420 --> 01:05:44.309
I would immediately say cut. And I would say, OK,
1247
01:05:44.429 --> 01:05:46.969
I'm going over to the camera. I want the cameraman
1248
01:05:46.989 --> 01:05:48.909
to open up the gate. I want to see that
1249
01:05:48.929 --> 01:05:51.480
there's film in the gate. And only then will I
1250
01:05:51.539 --> 01:05:55.719
know that I'm making a movie. And, you know, I
1251
01:05:55.739 --> 01:05:58.920
did that in the early years. Then they'd stop using film.
1252
01:06:00.199 --> 01:06:03.050
Everything was digital. You never know when you're making a movie.
1253
01:06:03.070 --> 01:06:04.690
You never know if you're going to be making the movie.
1254
01:06:04.809 --> 01:06:07.449
Even if you shot half the movie, you don't know
1255
01:06:07.510 --> 01:06:10.809
if you're going to finish it. Something happens. Somebody passes away.
1256
01:06:11.670 --> 01:06:15.300
God knows what. change in management. So you're always kind
1257
01:06:15.340 --> 01:06:19.340
of looking over your shoulder, wondering if this is going
1258
01:06:19.360 --> 01:06:22.090
to happen. Occasionally you realize, wait a second, this is,
1259
01:06:22.610 --> 01:06:26.210
you know, I'm making Constantine with Keanu. This is going
1260
01:06:26.230 --> 01:06:29.130
to happen. Rachel's in it. Yeah, we're going to make this.
1261
01:06:29.150 --> 01:06:32.550
This is going to happen. Or, you know, Superman, they've
1262
01:06:32.610 --> 01:06:36.769
invested so much money into it. It would be hard
1263
01:06:37.190 --> 01:06:37.949
to change things.
1264
01:06:40.300 --> 01:06:42.380
You know, you talk about having interactions with people who
1265
01:06:42.420 --> 01:06:45.360
know you or know your work. Have you had any
1266
01:06:45.400 --> 01:06:49.059
like crazy, I don't mean crazy as in violent writing,
1267
01:06:49.099 --> 01:06:51.760
but like what's the, I don't know, wildest thing that
1268
01:06:51.800 --> 01:06:54.980
someone said to you or shown you that they have either,
1269
01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:57.920
you know, maybe something they've collected or whatever it might be.
1270
01:06:58.480 --> 01:07:03.309
And is it more on the like Superman or Constantine
1271
01:07:03.369 --> 01:07:06.809
comic book side or are the horror fans maybe a
1272
01:07:06.829 --> 01:07:09.429
bit more hardcore and like really into what they're into?
1273
01:07:11.269 --> 01:07:14.429
Well, Superman meant a lot to me. I mean, I
1274
01:07:14.469 --> 01:07:17.130
was a big fan as a kid watching the TV show.
1275
01:07:17.969 --> 01:07:20.289
So when they asked me to do Superman, I walked
1276
01:07:20.329 --> 01:07:23.059
around on cloud nine for like probably three or four
1277
01:07:23.079 --> 01:07:25.320
days just going, am I really going to do this?
1278
01:07:25.739 --> 01:07:27.079
Are they going to let me do this? I can't
1279
01:07:27.119 --> 01:07:31.119
believe it. But I think to answer your question, it
1280
01:07:31.139 --> 01:07:33.619
really goes back to Tales from the Crypt and Bill Gaines.
1281
01:07:34.679 --> 01:07:36.849
Because Bill Gaines and his dad, as I said earlier,
1282
01:07:36.889 --> 01:07:38.710
created these comic books.
1283
01:07:38.550 --> 01:07:38.760
In the 50s.
1284
01:07:40.210 --> 01:07:42.550
And, you know, and I said, and I meant what
1285
01:07:42.590 --> 01:07:44.199
I said to the studio. And I said, I want
1286
01:07:44.219 --> 01:07:48.079
to meet with Bill Gaines. And he needs to like
1287
01:07:48.139 --> 01:07:51.159
the show. Otherwise, I won't do it. He has to
1288
01:07:51.199 --> 01:07:53.340
like it because he created this. I'm not going to
1289
01:07:53.619 --> 01:07:56.900
step on him by creating something different that he hates.
1290
01:07:58.000 --> 01:07:59.760
And so I went to Bill and I said, look,
1291
01:07:59.800 --> 01:08:01.469
this is what we're going to do. We're going to
1292
01:08:01.510 --> 01:08:05.769
write scripts. Before I send them to HBO, before I
1293
01:08:05.809 --> 01:08:08.210
send them to my partners, I'm going to send them
1294
01:08:08.250 --> 01:08:11.219
to you. And it's really simple. If you hate it,
1295
01:08:12.070 --> 01:08:14.349
you got to tell me and I'm going to change it.
1296
01:08:14.949 --> 01:08:17.090
I'm not going to argue with you. I'm not going
1297
01:08:17.109 --> 01:08:19.909
to try to convince you otherwise. I'm going to just
1298
01:08:19.970 --> 01:08:24.119
change it. It's that important to me that you're 100
1299
01:08:24.119 --> 01:08:27.539
percent in love with this show. And, you know, he
1300
01:08:27.579 --> 01:08:30.560
sort of looked at me like, yeah, typical Hollywood bullshit.
1301
01:08:31.380 --> 01:08:33.880
And I said, you know, and test me because I'm
1302
01:08:33.899 --> 01:08:35.579
going to give you a script and I want I
1303
01:08:35.619 --> 01:08:37.880
really want to know what you think. So the first
1304
01:08:37.909 --> 01:08:39.960
couple of scripts, he gave us notes. He gave us
1305
01:08:40.199 --> 01:08:43.300
rather extensive notes about this, that, and the other. And
1306
01:08:43.720 --> 01:08:46.079
I would tell him why we changed this from the
1307
01:08:46.119 --> 01:08:49.720
comic book and what this meant to the character, et cetera.
1308
01:08:50.699 --> 01:08:54.229
And not in a confrontational way or I'm right, you're wrong,
1309
01:08:54.250 --> 01:08:56.949
but just this is what the thinking was. And if
1310
01:08:56.989 --> 01:08:59.970
you can accept that thinking, great. If you can't accept
1311
01:09:00.100 --> 01:09:02.739
that thinking, that's great too. I'm going to change it.
1312
01:09:04.079 --> 01:09:06.420
And so after the first couple of episodes that we
1313
01:09:06.460 --> 01:09:12.039
did that, he would just, I love it. I love it. Oh,
1314
01:09:12.060 --> 01:09:14.319
I had this one thought. Maybe you could think about
1315
01:09:14.359 --> 01:09:18.449
doing that. And I'll go, done. Changed. We just changed it.
1316
01:09:19.689 --> 01:09:23.770
And so it was crucial that Bill Gaines loved the show.
1317
01:09:24.609 --> 01:09:27.319
And one day, you know, while Dick Donah was shooting
1318
01:09:27.439 --> 01:09:29.680
Lethal 3, I think it was, Lethal Weapon 3 on
1319
01:09:29.720 --> 01:09:32.260
the Warner's lot, Joel calls me and he goes, you
1320
01:09:32.300 --> 01:09:34.180
got to come over to his trailer. We're having lunch.
1321
01:09:34.220 --> 01:09:36.640
Bill Gaines is flying in and we're going to have
1322
01:09:36.680 --> 01:09:43.779
lunch together. And I'm thinking, something's up. I wonder if
1323
01:09:43.810 --> 01:09:48.210
they're going to fire me. Something's not right. I don't know.
1324
01:09:48.659 --> 01:09:50.560
I don't trust these guys. So I go to lunch
1325
01:09:51.039 --> 01:09:53.920
and we're having lunch. And all of a sudden, Joel
1326
01:09:53.939 --> 01:09:56.590
looks at Bill Gaines and he goes, so Bill, if
1327
01:09:56.600 --> 01:09:59.090
you really don't like what Gil's doing, tell me and
1328
01:09:59.109 --> 01:10:02.229
we'll fire him. And I'm thinking, OK, here it comes.
1329
01:10:02.449 --> 01:10:05.670
I'm going to get fired. And Bill looks at Joel
1330
01:10:05.710 --> 01:10:08.520
and goes, are you crazy? You should sign him to
1331
01:10:08.560 --> 01:10:11.560
a life contract. He's the only guy in Hollywood I
1332
01:10:11.619 --> 01:10:14.220
trust to do what he says he's going to do,
1333
01:10:14.539 --> 01:10:17.840
because everything I've asked for in the scripts is have happened.
1334
01:10:18.060 --> 01:10:20.659
And he's explained to me why he couldn't do what
1335
01:10:20.699 --> 01:10:24.119
he couldn't do and made total sense to me. You know,
1336
01:10:24.159 --> 01:10:26.680
that meant the world to me. That meant more to
1337
01:10:26.720 --> 01:10:32.560
me than pretty much anything else. Because if he can't
1338
01:10:33.970 --> 01:10:37.489
be faithful to the creators and the creation of what
1339
01:10:37.590 --> 01:10:40.869
they actually made, then what the hell are you doing?
1340
01:10:42.250 --> 01:10:45.529
Do something else. Do a different topic. Do a different show.
1341
01:10:46.050 --> 01:10:49.470
Call it water mills over the edge. Why are we
1342
01:10:49.489 --> 01:10:51.850
calling it Tales from the Crypt unless we're taking advantage
1343
01:10:52.409 --> 01:10:57.210
and mining the goodness of what they created? So, yeah,
1344
01:10:57.250 --> 01:10:59.069
that meant a lot to me. And, you know, we
1345
01:10:59.109 --> 01:11:02.829
remain really good friends with Bill until his death. In fact,
1346
01:11:02.850 --> 01:11:06.289
my wife and I were flying to New York and Annie,
1347
01:11:06.329 --> 01:11:09.170
his wife, called us and she said, I got to
1348
01:11:09.189 --> 01:11:10.710
tell you something. And I said, well, we're going to
1349
01:11:10.750 --> 01:11:12.670
see you tomorrow night for dinner. Let's talk then. And
1350
01:11:12.710 --> 01:11:14.770
she said, no, no, we're not having dinner tomorrow night.
1351
01:11:15.640 --> 01:11:21.039
Bill just passed away and blew our minds. And we
1352
01:11:21.060 --> 01:11:23.819
saw Randy when we came to New York. But, you know,
1353
01:11:23.840 --> 01:11:25.680
Bill was that kind of guy. He was just a
1354
01:11:25.779 --> 01:11:28.460
real special character. And he was a character. He was
1355
01:11:28.479 --> 01:11:32.479
this long, lanky guy with long white hair. And, you know,
1356
01:11:32.550 --> 01:11:34.189
we would always say, well, let's, I would say, let's,
1357
01:11:34.270 --> 01:11:36.170
we're going to take you to someplace really nice. And
1358
01:11:36.189 --> 01:11:38.069
he would go, no, when you come to New York,
1359
01:11:38.449 --> 01:11:41.390
we always go to Jackson Hole's for hamburgers. And when
1360
01:11:41.449 --> 01:11:43.869
I come to Los Angeles, we go to Musso Frank's.
1361
01:11:44.340 --> 01:11:46.180
I don't think of any other restaurants. Those are the
1362
01:11:46.220 --> 01:11:49.090
only two restaurants we go to. But that meant a
1363
01:11:49.130 --> 01:11:51.409
lot to me that he loved the show as much
1364
01:11:51.470 --> 01:11:51.869
as he did.
1365
01:11:53.449 --> 01:11:59.479
And, you know, to go back to, you know, like how,
1366
01:11:59.649 --> 01:12:01.420
I suppose how well revered a lot of this stuff
1367
01:12:01.460 --> 01:12:03.779
is from an audience standpoint, because I think it shines through.
1368
01:12:03.819 --> 01:12:08.119
I think people, I think even subconsciously people who are
1369
01:12:08.199 --> 01:12:10.739
into stuff, but maybe are not as into it and,
1370
01:12:10.770 --> 01:12:14.010
you know, research it and, somewhat obsessed over it and
1371
01:12:14.029 --> 01:12:15.989
they want to find out all the interesting you know
1372
01:12:16.090 --> 01:12:19.270
all the little details i definitely think there's a degree
1373
01:12:19.470 --> 01:12:24.310
of people have a pretty good like kind of bullshit
1374
01:12:24.380 --> 01:12:27.689
meter for things that were done with care and passion
1375
01:12:27.729 --> 01:12:32.000
and genuine like good energy versus oh yeah you know
1376
01:12:32.039 --> 01:12:34.560
we're gonna make tales from the crypt show just because
1377
01:12:34.739 --> 01:12:36.359
we feel like that's a kind of a hot ip
1378
01:12:36.420 --> 01:12:39.640
or let's make another superman because why not it's superman
1379
01:12:39.699 --> 01:12:42.090
let's just make it anyway I think people can really
1380
01:12:42.229 --> 01:12:44.489
feel that come through the screen or even when they
1381
01:12:44.529 --> 01:12:48.029
see interviews or they see people talk about it, you
1382
01:12:48.050 --> 01:12:50.090
can kind of tell when it's been done from a
1383
01:12:50.130 --> 01:12:53.029
good place or when it's been done from like a, well,
1384
01:12:53.069 --> 01:12:55.470
you know what? This makes X amount of zeros. Let's
1385
01:12:55.510 --> 01:12:56.729
just go ahead and do that.
1386
01:12:58.069 --> 01:13:00.109
Yeah, I would hope so. I really would hope so
1387
01:13:00.149 --> 01:13:02.510
because I don't know any other way to do it.
1388
01:13:03.229 --> 01:13:05.670
Maybe if I knew another way of doing it, I
1389
01:13:05.710 --> 01:13:07.729
would do it or I'd be more successful than I
1390
01:13:08.010 --> 01:13:10.859
have been. But, I can't think of any other way
1391
01:13:10.899 --> 01:13:13.300
to do it. If I'm not passionate about what I'm doing,
1392
01:13:14.340 --> 01:13:17.720
I can't do it. I just can't do it. Whether
1393
01:13:17.760 --> 01:13:21.010
it be accounting 100 years ago or something that somebody
1394
01:13:21.050 --> 01:13:24.529
shows me now, I can't do it. The fact that
1395
01:13:24.789 --> 01:13:28.989
perhaps it comes across in the final product is very
1396
01:13:29.029 --> 01:13:30.529
gratifying to me if that's true.
1397
01:13:31.630 --> 01:13:33.140
One or two more things before I let you go.
1398
01:13:34.039 --> 01:13:40.050
I asked about some crazy fan interactions or Has anyone ever,
1399
01:13:40.710 --> 01:13:42.569
I don't know, shown you something that they have from
1400
01:13:42.609 --> 01:13:45.050
a movie you made or whatever that's just completely blown
1401
01:13:45.090 --> 01:13:47.210
your mind? Is there anything that comes to mind? Have
1402
01:13:47.250 --> 01:13:49.149
you ever had an experience like that?
1403
01:13:49.989 --> 01:13:52.979
Well, you know, we did a 30th or 25th anniversary
1404
01:13:53.260 --> 01:13:57.220
of either Bordello of Blood or Demon Knight up here
1405
01:13:57.239 --> 01:14:00.439
in Vancouver. And I got a call from this place
1406
01:14:00.460 --> 01:14:03.659
called the Rio Theater. And they said, we would like
1407
01:14:03.680 --> 01:14:06.939
you to come to the screening and talk afterwards about
1408
01:14:07.170 --> 01:14:10.020
making the movie. And I said, I don't want to
1409
01:14:10.039 --> 01:14:12.140
talk to 25 people. You know, if you're going to
1410
01:14:12.180 --> 01:14:14.439
have 25 people in the audience, I, I don't really
1411
01:14:14.460 --> 01:14:17.590
want to see in a 500 seat theater, 25 people.
1412
01:14:17.600 --> 01:14:19.630
And they said, what are you kidding me? If we
1413
01:14:19.729 --> 01:14:22.130
say that you're going to be there, it'll sell out.
1414
01:14:22.609 --> 01:14:25.109
And I said, no, no, that's bullshit. That's not going
1415
01:14:25.130 --> 01:14:28.890
to happen. And so they said, if, if we should
1416
01:14:28.949 --> 01:14:30.909
show you that that would happen, would you do it?
1417
01:14:31.109 --> 01:14:34.039
And I said, absolutely. And they said, okay, we're going
1418
01:14:34.060 --> 01:14:36.380
to call you in a few days. And so I'm
1419
01:14:36.420 --> 01:14:39.159
looking at the newspapers. I see no ads, no nothing.
1420
01:14:40.069 --> 01:14:41.840
Three days later, they call me and they go, we're
1421
01:14:41.859 --> 01:14:43.960
sold out. And I go, how could you be sold out?
1422
01:14:44.119 --> 01:14:47.420
I haven't even seen anything. And they said, Gil, it's
1423
01:14:47.460 --> 01:14:50.659
not done in the newspapers anymore. It's all online. We
1424
01:14:50.699 --> 01:14:53.109
put a notice out that you would be attending and
1425
01:14:53.149 --> 01:14:55.609
that you would be speaking about the movie after the screening.
1426
01:14:57.310 --> 01:15:01.229
And we just sold out. So I said, really? And
1427
01:15:01.250 --> 01:15:03.909
they said, yeah. And so I said, OK, I'm there.
1428
01:15:04.529 --> 01:15:06.140
I said, but if I get there and there are
1429
01:15:06.220 --> 01:15:09.310
only 25 people in the audience, I'm going home. And
1430
01:15:09.329 --> 01:15:12.310
they said, believe me, it'll be more than that. So
1431
01:15:12.380 --> 01:15:14.920
my wife and I go to the Rio, and I
1432
01:15:14.939 --> 01:15:18.220
parked the car, and I see outside, there's a line outside.
1433
01:15:18.399 --> 01:15:20.779
And I'm looking like, I wonder what else they're showing there.
1434
01:15:20.800 --> 01:15:23.939
Because it was a series of movies. And I thought, gee,
1435
01:15:24.279 --> 01:15:27.229
they must be having somebody really cool there. Maybe we'll
1436
01:15:27.270 --> 01:15:30.609
stay and see. So we go there, and the line
1437
01:15:30.670 --> 01:15:33.789
is for, I think it was Bordello of Blood. And
1438
01:15:33.850 --> 01:15:39.029
I'm like, wow. Okay. And so we go inside and,
1439
01:15:39.970 --> 01:15:41.680
and they said, could you say a few words before
1440
01:15:41.689 --> 01:15:44.319
the movie starts? And I said, yeah, be happy to.
1441
01:15:44.359 --> 01:15:46.760
And I said, listen, I haven't seen this movie since
1442
01:15:46.819 --> 01:15:50.020
I made it 25 years ago. So if, when you
1443
01:15:50.039 --> 01:15:54.000
finish the movie, if you really don't like it, I
1444
01:15:54.039 --> 01:15:57.149
don't have to speak. We can all just go home. Just,
1445
01:15:57.329 --> 01:15:59.810
I understand. It's not one of my highlights of my
1446
01:15:59.850 --> 01:16:02.649
career that making that movie. And they, they sort of,
1447
01:16:02.689 --> 01:16:05.609
you know, laughed and I got off and they screened
1448
01:16:05.630 --> 01:16:09.159
the movie. finished the movie, and I go up and
1449
01:16:09.199 --> 01:16:13.239
start talking. And they allocated like 40 minutes or something
1450
01:16:13.260 --> 01:16:16.380
like that because they were having another screening of another movie.
1451
01:16:16.880 --> 01:16:19.180
And so after I said to them, look, just stop me.
1452
01:16:19.319 --> 01:16:22.520
I'll talk until you guys stop me. And so they said, great.
1453
01:16:22.979 --> 01:16:25.760
So I'm on there, and it feels like it's more
1454
01:16:25.800 --> 01:16:29.140
than 40 minutes. It feels like it's more than an hour.
1455
01:16:29.960 --> 01:16:32.060
And I'm like, geez, what's going on here? And they said, well,
1456
01:16:32.100 --> 01:16:35.239
we canceled the other screening because the reaction to this
1457
01:16:35.279 --> 01:16:39.310
was so great. And, you know, these people had incredible
1458
01:16:39.369 --> 01:16:44.100
questions and insight into how we made the movie. That
1459
01:16:44.109 --> 01:16:46.439
was mind boggling to me. I mean, I just, it's like,
1460
01:16:46.489 --> 01:16:48.539
how do you know this stuff? Where did you find
1461
01:16:48.640 --> 01:16:53.779
out about that particular problem? And it was unbelievable from that.
1462
01:16:53.840 --> 01:16:58.619
We finished the conversation with the audience. I went backstage
1463
01:16:58.659 --> 01:17:02.680
to leave and the guy who orchestrated the whole thing said,
1464
01:17:02.699 --> 01:17:04.039
you know, there are a bunch of people in the,
1465
01:17:04.060 --> 01:17:08.069
in the lobby. And they have various paraphernalia from the movie.
1466
01:17:08.729 --> 01:17:11.399
Would you be willing to sign some of them? And
1467
01:17:11.420 --> 01:17:14.300
I said, of course. I go into the lobby and
1468
01:17:15.060 --> 01:17:16.859
there's a line out the door. It's not a couple
1469
01:17:16.880 --> 01:17:21.939
of people. And they're showing me the show and one
1470
01:17:21.979 --> 01:17:25.210
sheets and pictures. God knows how they got the pictures.
1471
01:17:26.069 --> 01:17:27.970
And I'm signing away for an hour and a half.
1472
01:17:28.010 --> 01:17:31.890
I'm signing away this stuff. And it just blew my
1473
01:17:31.930 --> 01:17:36.180
mind that You know, I was worried that 25 people
1474
01:17:36.319 --> 01:17:38.079
were going to show up and here we had 500
1475
01:17:38.079 --> 01:17:42.659
people and they were all like, they're very enthusiastic. So
1476
01:17:43.180 --> 01:17:45.640
that kind of reaction is very gratifying, you know, and,
1477
01:17:46.199 --> 01:17:48.159
you know, part of me is very gratified and part
1478
01:17:48.180 --> 01:17:50.479
of me says, wants to say, hey guys, get a life,
1479
01:17:50.520 --> 01:17:50.819
will you?
1480
01:17:52.359 --> 01:17:54.239
So when I show you what I'm about to show
1481
01:17:54.279 --> 01:17:58.819
you next is kind of how I feel about this,
1482
01:17:58.880 --> 01:18:01.239
but have you ever been shown any tattoos from anything
1483
01:18:01.279 --> 01:18:05.510
that you've worked on? And this will probably be a
1484
01:18:05.529 --> 01:18:07.550
bit of a more obscure one, is all I would say.
1485
01:18:07.590 --> 01:18:09.109
It's probably not the one you'll like.
1486
01:18:09.189 --> 01:18:12.489
I'm sure we've seen tattoos of Crypt Keeper and of
1487
01:18:12.529 --> 01:18:14.449
Superman and of Brandon Routh.
1488
01:18:15.090 --> 01:18:18.100
But here's one that's a little bit more obscure. It's
1489
01:18:18.140 --> 01:18:20.039
kind of like, you know, you have to be into
1490
01:18:20.060 --> 01:18:22.619
it to kind of get it. But I dedicated a
1491
01:18:23.619 --> 01:18:25.920
huge portion, I would say, of my arm. I don't
1492
01:18:25.939 --> 01:18:28.729
have very big arms, but a huge portion of what
1493
01:18:28.829 --> 01:18:31.390
arms I do have to something that you worked on.
1494
01:18:36.310 --> 01:18:36.729
Ghost Ship.
1495
01:18:37.569 --> 01:18:40.289
Yes, we have the artwork from Ghost Ship, which is
1496
01:18:40.310 --> 01:18:44.090
very obscure. I actually originally had a plan to have
1497
01:18:44.109 --> 01:18:48.609
House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts and Ghost Ship all
1498
01:18:49.250 --> 01:18:49.649
kind of.
1499
01:18:49.569 --> 01:18:52.560
In the one. But your arm's not big enough. By
1500
01:18:52.579 --> 01:18:54.239
the way, can you send me that arm?
1501
01:18:54.439 --> 01:18:54.819
I can.
1502
01:18:54.899 --> 01:18:57.119
Just chop it off and send it because when I
1503
01:18:57.140 --> 01:18:59.050
sell off some of these things that I'm thinking of
1504
01:18:59.090 --> 01:19:01.149
selling off, we can probably get a lot of money
1505
01:19:01.170 --> 01:19:01.649
for your arm.
1506
01:19:01.970 --> 01:19:06.149
Potentially. Potentially. I guess final thing before I let you
1507
01:19:06.189 --> 01:19:09.989
go then, you know, what is it that I suppose
1508
01:19:10.050 --> 01:19:12.670
keeps you going now. And then what does this whole
1509
01:19:12.729 --> 01:19:16.199
journey meant to you? Like all the other stuff, you know,
1510
01:19:17.079 --> 01:19:18.920
all the cool stuff you've been able to do all that.
1511
01:19:18.939 --> 01:19:21.279
But like when you sit back with your wife or
1512
01:19:21.319 --> 01:19:24.260
when you're in your downtime, like what is this whole
1513
01:19:24.359 --> 01:19:26.560
journey and experience meant? You know, we always talk about
1514
01:19:27.279 --> 01:19:29.949
what us, the audience gets, Oh, you know, your movies
1515
01:19:29.989 --> 01:19:32.069
made me feel like this, or, you know, I was
1516
01:19:32.090 --> 01:19:34.029
going through a hard time or whatever, but we never
1517
01:19:34.090 --> 01:19:37.680
kind of flip the lens and, And ask the people
1518
01:19:37.739 --> 01:19:39.760
that have made these projects, like, how has it been
1519
01:19:39.779 --> 01:19:40.039
for you?
1520
01:19:41.239 --> 01:19:43.100
Good question. You know, I think at the end of
1521
01:19:43.140 --> 01:19:46.100
the day, and when I sit down and sort of
1522
01:19:46.140 --> 01:19:49.920
have a glass of wine or something, it's really about
1523
01:19:49.939 --> 01:19:54.100
the people. It's really about the people I've met and
1524
01:19:54.119 --> 01:19:59.229
I've worked with and I've argued with. And, you know,
1525
01:19:59.250 --> 01:20:02.789
when I think of, well, I talked about Tim Curry
1526
01:20:03.430 --> 01:20:08.079
and Bob Zemeckis and Dick Donner. And even Joel Silver, who,
1527
01:20:08.140 --> 01:20:11.090
you know, our relationship was one of an argument. We
1528
01:20:11.149 --> 01:20:14.770
only argued. We never spoke. My wife would always kid me.
1529
01:20:15.189 --> 01:20:16.909
She would always know when Joel was calling me on
1530
01:20:16.930 --> 01:20:19.229
the phone at home because my decibel level of my
1531
01:20:19.289 --> 01:20:22.890
voice would go up tenfold. And I would even argue
1532
01:20:22.909 --> 01:20:24.829
with Joel. And I would say, you know, Joel, our
1533
01:20:24.869 --> 01:20:27.909
problem is we never talk. We only argue. And he
1534
01:20:27.930 --> 01:20:29.979
would raise his voice even louder. And he'd go, what
1535
01:20:29.989 --> 01:20:32.500
are you talking about? This is us talking. We're not arguing.
1536
01:20:32.520 --> 01:20:34.699
We're talking. And I said, no, we're arguing. So we
1537
01:20:34.739 --> 01:20:37.460
would even argue about whether we were arguing or talking.
1538
01:20:38.300 --> 01:20:40.000
But I think it really comes down to the people.
1539
01:20:40.119 --> 01:20:43.420
I worked with F. Murray Abraham. I worked with so
1540
01:20:43.460 --> 01:20:48.279
many wonderful, talented people. I'll give you a funny story.
1541
01:20:48.770 --> 01:20:50.989
Joel calls me one day and he said, look, Tails
1542
01:20:51.050 --> 01:20:53.510
is doing great. Who do you want in a show?
1543
01:20:53.670 --> 01:20:55.829
Tell me the star because, you know, that's working. You know,
1544
01:20:55.850 --> 01:20:58.590
you got Whoopi Goldberg and she did that for you.
1545
01:20:58.689 --> 01:21:01.609
And she's just a great actress and a great, great buddy.
1546
01:21:01.960 --> 01:21:03.960
And at the time, and who would you like to
1547
01:21:03.979 --> 01:21:07.420
work with? I said, well, I would love to work
1548
01:21:07.479 --> 01:21:13.079
with Liz Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor. And he said, Elizabeth Taylor
1549
01:21:13.279 --> 01:21:17.060
on Tales from the Crypt? I said, yeah. I said,
1550
01:21:18.319 --> 01:21:20.819
I'm going to call you back tomorrow. And I thought, okay,
1551
01:21:20.880 --> 01:21:23.520
that's it. Enough from him. I won't hear from him again.
1552
01:21:23.550 --> 01:21:25.909
The next day he goes, okay, write this down. Here's
1553
01:21:25.949 --> 01:21:29.189
a number. And I write down the number and he goes, tomorrow,
1554
01:21:29.289 --> 01:21:33.250
three o'clock, you call this number. And you'll be speaking
1555
01:21:33.270 --> 01:21:38.229
to Elizabeth and don't call her Liz, only Elizabeth. I said, really?
1556
01:21:38.260 --> 01:21:41.100
He said, yeah, but make sure you do it at
1557
01:21:41.119 --> 01:21:43.479
three o'clock. So the next day, of course, I make
1558
01:21:43.500 --> 01:21:47.880
the call and this little voice gets on. And I said,
1559
01:21:48.380 --> 01:21:52.310
may I speak with Elizabeth Taylor, please? And this voice goes,
1560
01:21:52.890 --> 01:21:56.689
is this Gil? And I went, is this Elizabeth? And
1561
01:21:56.710 --> 01:22:00.310
she goes, it is. And she said, Joel told me
1562
01:22:00.350 --> 01:22:02.470
you wanted to talk to me about doing Tales from
1563
01:22:02.510 --> 01:22:04.859
the Crypt, which I'm so excited about that you want
1564
01:22:04.880 --> 01:22:07.279
to talk to me about it. And I said, well,
1565
01:22:07.300 --> 01:22:09.220
I'd love you to do an episode. Would you like
1566
01:22:09.239 --> 01:22:12.420
to do an episode? She said, yeah. She said, but
1567
01:22:12.439 --> 01:22:15.340
I have one stipulation. I said, oh, what's that? She said,
1568
01:22:15.640 --> 01:22:19.010
you got to kill me. I said, what? She said,
1569
01:22:19.020 --> 01:22:20.630
I've never been killed in a movie. You got to
1570
01:22:20.670 --> 01:22:22.949
kill me. I said, I don't know if I could
1571
01:22:22.989 --> 01:22:25.550
do that, Elizabeth. I killed Elizabeth Taylor. I don't know
1572
01:22:25.569 --> 01:22:27.680
if I could do that. Think about it. See if
1573
01:22:27.699 --> 01:22:30.060
you can come up with an episode for me and
1574
01:22:30.100 --> 01:22:33.439
call me back. And I get off the phone and
1575
01:22:34.380 --> 01:22:36.619
I'm talking to Alan Katz, my writing partner. I'm going,
1576
01:22:37.960 --> 01:22:40.939
can we write something for Elizabeth and kill her? I
1577
01:22:40.960 --> 01:22:42.399
don't know if I can feel good about that. I
1578
01:22:42.399 --> 01:22:45.239
don't know if I could do that. And of course,
1579
01:22:45.479 --> 01:22:47.390
we got busy with our show. She got busy with
1580
01:22:47.430 --> 01:22:50.630
her life and it never happened. But I mean, it
1581
01:22:50.649 --> 01:22:53.529
was an interesting conversation to have out of the blue
1582
01:22:53.750 --> 01:22:56.989
with Elizabeth Taylor. So, you know, it really comes down
1583
01:22:57.029 --> 01:22:59.170
to when I think about my career, I think about,
1584
01:22:59.210 --> 01:23:00.569
you know, when I look at these movies, which I
1585
01:23:00.609 --> 01:23:04.380
don't look at very often, I hadn't seen Bordello in
1586
01:23:04.380 --> 01:23:06.439
25 years. I hadn't seen Damon Knight in 30 years.
1587
01:23:07.239 --> 01:23:09.500
It really comes down to when I watch some of
1588
01:23:09.539 --> 01:23:11.960
these movies, and this is probably why I don't watch them.
1589
01:23:12.300 --> 01:23:14.199
It always comes to me in my mind. It's what
1590
01:23:14.239 --> 01:23:17.680
happened that day. What did we do to get that? Oh,
1591
01:23:17.739 --> 01:23:19.439
I had to go through this. And remember when the
1592
01:23:19.539 --> 01:23:21.600
actor wouldn't come out of the trailer or when the
1593
01:23:21.619 --> 01:23:24.520
guy threw a coffee pot at me or this happened
1594
01:23:24.560 --> 01:23:28.189
or that happened. that's what reflects in my head when
1595
01:23:28.210 --> 01:23:30.390
I'm watching these movies. And that's probably why I don't
1596
01:23:30.430 --> 01:23:34.640
watch them anymore, but it really comes down to these
1597
01:23:34.699 --> 01:23:39.699
people that I've had interaction with that are really quite
1598
01:23:39.779 --> 01:23:41.979
special to me. Yeah. I think, I think it really
1599
01:23:42.000 --> 01:23:44.010
comes down to that. Does that, did I answer your
1600
01:23:44.050 --> 01:23:45.850
question or did I? Yeah, it does.
1601
01:23:45.869 --> 01:23:49.829
Cause I think ultimately it feeds into, I think some
1602
01:23:49.850 --> 01:23:51.930
sort of connection thing. And I think the audience connect
1603
01:23:51.949 --> 01:23:55.210
with the material and, but inadvertently we don't realize we're
1604
01:23:55.229 --> 01:23:58.090
connecting with each other. And I've connected with people like
1605
01:23:58.130 --> 01:24:01.250
yourself who have created these things, but I've also connected
1606
01:24:01.270 --> 01:24:04.260
with other people who are just an audience member. And we,
1607
01:24:04.609 --> 01:24:06.159
I don't know, there's a, I don't really know how
1608
01:24:06.199 --> 01:24:08.600
to explain it, but there's some form of energy. And
1609
01:24:08.640 --> 01:24:11.539
then I can think back to even memories of going
1610
01:24:11.579 --> 01:24:13.199
to see some of these movies.
1611
01:24:12.920 --> 01:24:13.579
For the first time.
1612
01:24:14.539 --> 01:24:14.880
Yeah.
1613
01:24:16.199 --> 01:24:18.899
And I don't know. I wouldn't call the audience members,
1614
01:24:18.979 --> 01:24:21.819
just audience members. I mean, we didn't have just audience
1615
01:24:21.880 --> 01:24:26.390
members in, We have nothing. I mean, they are important
1616
01:24:26.430 --> 01:24:30.840
to us and their reaction to our work is incredibly
1617
01:24:30.880 --> 01:24:33.960
important to us. I take it very seriously when I
1618
01:24:33.979 --> 01:24:36.979
hear a reaction from a member of the audience that
1619
01:24:37.020 --> 01:24:39.220
says they like something or if they didn't like something,
1620
01:24:39.279 --> 01:24:42.539
why they didn't like something. And I need to process that.
1621
01:24:42.579 --> 01:24:44.520
I need to think about that in terms of what
1622
01:24:44.539 --> 01:24:47.640
I'm doing, the next thing I'm doing and how might
1623
01:24:47.680 --> 01:24:49.380
that affect what I'm doing.
1624
01:24:50.800 --> 01:24:52.859
I love that. It's been a pleasure to be able
1625
01:24:52.880 --> 01:24:55.439
to talk to you and chew your ear off for
1626
01:24:55.720 --> 01:24:59.500
the last hour and 25 minutes. I would love to
1627
01:24:59.520 --> 01:25:01.600
stay in touch. I would love to extend the olive
1628
01:25:01.619 --> 01:25:04.300
branch if you ever have anything you want to talk
1629
01:25:04.340 --> 01:25:06.739
about or anything like that or upcoming stuff to come
1630
01:25:06.760 --> 01:25:08.140
back on again and do this again.
1631
01:25:08.199 --> 01:25:11.180
Cool. And, you know, we're doing this in the States
1632
01:25:11.220 --> 01:25:13.899
a bit. We haven't really done this in Europe or
1633
01:25:13.920 --> 01:25:17.829
in England or in Ireland. But, you know, I do
1634
01:25:18.369 --> 01:25:21.989
speak at festivals and I speak at universities. And if
1635
01:25:22.069 --> 01:25:24.170
you know of any place over there that might be
1636
01:25:24.229 --> 01:25:28.680
interested in doing something online or even bringing me over
1637
01:25:28.819 --> 01:25:32.479
and talking about whatever with their students or with, I
1638
01:25:32.500 --> 01:25:35.979
really kind of enjoy doing that. And I think, you know,
1639
01:25:36.039 --> 01:25:38.520
one of the things I'm, which we didn't really talk about,
1640
01:25:38.729 --> 01:25:40.529
was one of the things I'm trying to do now
1641
01:25:41.670 --> 01:25:45.859
is really develop material with just a very few number
1642
01:25:45.890 --> 01:25:49.409
of people of writers. And to me, you know, when
1643
01:25:49.430 --> 01:25:50.869
I think about what do I want to do next,
1644
01:25:51.529 --> 01:25:54.270
what I want to do next is really develop writers
1645
01:25:55.149 --> 01:25:58.210
and try to help young writers get to that next level.
1646
01:25:58.590 --> 01:26:01.350
Because I think it's much more difficult today than even
1647
01:26:01.390 --> 01:26:05.130
when I started out. And so, you know, I work
1648
01:26:05.149 --> 01:26:08.550
with about two or three writers here from LA, but
1649
01:26:08.609 --> 01:26:12.100
I'm up in Canada, and working on material and writing
1650
01:26:12.159 --> 01:26:15.579
and rewriting and giving notes. And I think we're getting
1651
01:26:15.960 --> 01:26:18.939
pretty close to a couple of projects. But I really
1652
01:26:19.000 --> 01:26:21.939
enjoy that process, working with those kinds of people and
1653
01:26:21.979 --> 01:26:26.010
talking about the writing process and what to do about
1654
01:26:26.649 --> 01:26:30.449
creating and how you write and what's important and directing.
1655
01:26:31.670 --> 01:26:33.090
Like I said, I would love to stay in touch.
1656
01:26:34.050 --> 01:26:35.760
I would love to do this again at some point.
1657
01:26:37.520 --> 01:26:38.279
Just let me know when.
1658
01:26:38.619 --> 01:26:41.279
Yeah, it's been a pleasure. For everybody listening to the show,
1659
01:26:41.539 --> 01:26:44.020
I'll put the links to anything relevant. down below in
1660
01:26:44.050 --> 01:26:47.859
the description. We appreciate everyone for listening and yeah, we'll
1661
01:26:47.880 --> 01:26:48.760
see you in the next episode.
1662
01:26:50.569 --> 01:26:50.829
Thank you.
1663
01:27:08.159 --> 01:27:12.199
Thanks for listening to another episode of Class Horrorcast. Stop
1664
01:27:12.260 --> 01:27:19.210
the CHC podcast at classhorrorcast.com, at First Class Horror on Instagram, TikTok,
1665
01:27:19.270 --> 01:27:23.989
and YouTube, or on Twitter at class underscore horror. The
1666
01:27:24.050 --> 01:27:27.529
CHC podcast is hosted and produced by Aaron Doyle and
1667
01:27:27.760 --> 01:27:29.880
is an FCH production.