WEBVTT
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You are listening to the IFH podcast
Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:14.839
podcasts, just go to IFH podcast
network dot com. You know, even
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00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:23.600
with the green Light, we've we've
chaotically gone between different storylines, and yet
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what we've remained true to is I
don't want to look at at it as
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a sequel. I want to look
at it as an John Wick chapter two.
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Because what the Faster Furious did so
well is after the third one is
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they weren't sequels anymore. They were
chapters. And I think those are the
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best. Those are the best franchises
to have broadcasting from a dark, windowless
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room in Hollywood when we really should
be working on that next draft. It's
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00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:52.880
the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you
the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching
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you how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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Welcome to a special crossover edition of
the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. Now.
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Today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof script
Coverage. Now. Unlike other script coverage
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services, Bulletproof script Coverage actually focuses
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head on over to cover my screenplay
dot com. Now, guys, today
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we have a special crossover edition of
the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I have today
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on the show Derek Colstad, who
is the creator and screenwriter of the amazing
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John Wick. Now. This episode
originally aired on the Make Your Movie podcast
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hosted by Dave Bullis, which is
part of the Indie Film Hustle podcast network,
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and I had to bring this episode
to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Tribe because it
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is pretty remarkable. If you want
to know how Derek was able to create
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this insanely wonderful world that John Wick
lives in and how he was able to
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get the project up off the ground, and how Kiano got involved in the
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whole ball of wax. This episode
is for you, so enjoy this special
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crossover episode without any further ado.
Here is Derek Colstad. Joining me today
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is Derek Colstead. Derek is a
screenwriter of John Wick and the upcoming John
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Wick. To Derek, how are
you doing today, Sarah doo, I'm
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tired. I can't remember last time
I had a weekend. But those are
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good problems to have, so so
Jared, just to get started, could
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you give us a little bit about
your background. Yeah, I grew up
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in Matdis, Wisconsin. Uh,
you know, I'm forty one this year.
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And when I was a little kid
in the early eighties, that's when
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the VHS moon happened, and uh, you know, people ask me how
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I got into this, and you
know a lot of people don't remember.
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But like in line at Shop Kill
or wherever you shopped, you would have
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a bargain been of VHS tapes and
my mom would would purchase them. And
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we didn't have cable, we can
afford it. And on Sundays, especially
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Sunday nights, PBS would actually show
like the conversation and the Godfather that kind
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of stuffed and so I snacked downstairs, and my love of movies, you
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know, just began there. And
uh, it's really interesting that I was,
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uh, you know, growing up
Matdis Wisconsin. You have a very
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red family, very conservative, but
very supportive, like I didn't lie.
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I remember coming home from hem to
a theater and they asked me what I
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had seen. And I had seen
Robocap, which any other kid would have
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gotten into some serious trouble about,
but in reality, they looked at each
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other after I told him and just
said, hey, you know, we
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should probably support him in this.
And so, you know, being a
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Midwestern kid, though, the idea
of getting into film was a dream.
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And so when I went to college, it was for business, but I
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kept writing and became I worked for
Dale Carnegie in Chicago. And what got
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me out here is my little brother
called and he's asked me how I was
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doing, and I broke down and
started crying. And I'm not an emotional
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guy. And the realization was I
had to come out here to see if
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I was going to fail. It
wasn't a matter of success, you know.
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And so I had my little golf
TDI, and half the back seat
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was taken up by a large fucking
Dell computer and a CR Team monitor.
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I drove out here, you know, and I was fifteen years ago,
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and apparently fifteen years was an overnight
success. So that's a little bit of
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my background. Man. And that
was a great movie to pick, by
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the way. Oh dude, dude, Yeah, you know the other favorite
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story I tell almost everyone I meet. I was allowed to see, you
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know, Raise a Lost Dark,
but Temple of Doom was too demony,
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you know. Uh So my parents
went and saw it and I got back
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and I was so excited, and
I had my dad sit down and tell
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me that the movie right from the
beginning, and it was awesome. I
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saw three years later, I realized
my dad had fallen asleep in the movie
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and just made up a story.
It's still my favorite, man, that's
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absolutely did you actually when you saw
the movie, for one, when you
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finally sold the whole movie, did
you go with a minute? This is
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nothing like what my dad said?
Well, I could. It was funny
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because I could tell the point where
he fell asleep. You know. It
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was the opening sequence in Japan,
which is you know, just legendary and
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then you have that kind of slow
junpt between the first and second act and
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my dad my dad's and the tories
for falling asleep in movies, most notably
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animated ones, and so I mean
some of the stories we all share.
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We the movie would start and I'd
hear from the end of the hour,
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oh it's animated. Thirty seconds later
you heard him snoring. So good guy.
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But still yeah, my dad fell
asleep at Star Wars episode one,
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and he had like afterward, somebody
asked HI about the movie and he was
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like, I had no, I
don't even remember anything, so you know,
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you know, So Derek, when
you say you know you were you
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were in college for business, did
you actually graduate with a degree in business?
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I did. I did, And
I went got business administration, and
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then a miner in English, well
a lot of miners, because let's be
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honest, it's pretty easy at a
bunch of miners. And then I went
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and worked for the family company back
in Maizomin in Wisconsin, which is Wickholmes,
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which was a construction company. And
then I moved to Chicago. And
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during this time I was still writing, but I wasn't I was writing short
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stories and screenplays I wasn't really sending
them off. I wasn't reading books about
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screenwriting. It's just in college I
suffered from insomnia and the only thing that
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could actually get me to sleep is
putting my dreams down on page, you
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know. And it wasn't until that
phone call from my brother where it's like,
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fuck it, I gotta trying.
You know. So when you were
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writing, were you focusing on screenplays
or do you actually you'll focus on just
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writing, like you know, short
stories, long stories, or anything anything
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in particular. You know, I
have a huge respect for people who write
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novels simply because you know, in
a screenplay it's like fat and exterior interior.
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It's one sentence, and you read
a great novel and it's like,
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holy crap. They're spending time to
just craft the world. And what I'm
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trying to do is tell a good
story that fits in ninety minutes, you
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know. And so what I loved
about screenwriting, what I still love aout
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screenwriting is I'm notoriously fast, but
more importantly, I can move from one
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story the next, and that's why
I like short stories as well. In
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fact, you know, when I
was a kid, I was the guy
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who was teased at sleepovers because everything
scared me, and so as a you
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know, as a temperament to that, I got into reading Stephen King.
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And Stephen King short stories to this
day, you know, are a massive
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influence. And I still, you
know, I have them all behind me
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on my bookshelf. I mean that
that's glory. Dude. I can't.
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I want to do what he can
do in the short form, but he's
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the master. Oh. Absolutely,
did you have his book on writing?
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I do. It's one of the
few books on writing that I've read.
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So, uh, what other books
on writing do you do you recommend?
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You know? Not many? My
thing is like just right, you know,
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I remember someone I don't know what
the book was. Again, I'm
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I'm more of a writer nowadays than
a reader. But someone told me once
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about the ten thousand hour rule.
I don't know if you've heard of that.
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And in reality, like I look
at the stuff that I wrote,
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even like four years ago, and
it pales in the commarison how I'm writing
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now simply because I've been doing it
for so long that it's not writing and
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rewriting especially, that's where the skill
comes in. It becomes like an algorithm.
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Like it becomes something outside of the
English language. Like you if you
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make one change on page three,
you know the ripple effect. But you
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know what to look for and to
get to that stage, you just need
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to do it. So you know, people are always like, get the
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bad screenplay out of you. In
reality, it's like your first screenplay is
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terrible, and then you keep writing
and writing and writing and rewriting, and
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at a certain point you find your
stride. Not saying that everyone will become
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a writer, but you get better
over time. And the other thing too,
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is especially when I talk to college
because nowadays I watched the films of
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my grandparents and my parents. A
lot of people haven't watched the films of
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their parents nowadays. Like I'm very
fluent in film, but a lot of
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people nowadays when you hear they haven't
seen Casablanca or The Godfathers, you know,
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you name them, like you looking
around my office, like Butch Cassidy
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or freaking pulp Fiction or Miller's Crossing, which is arguing best film, my
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best my favorite film. Watching right
man, listen, we'll be right back
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after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show. What's
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that movie called Castle, what fucker. No, you know, it's funny.
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I heard Robert McKee whenever he does
one of his seminars, and you
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know, I don't know if you've
read story by him, but he always
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shows Casa Blanca like day two or
three or whatever, and he says,
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anybody in here truly never seen this
before. More and more people are raising
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their hands, and you know he's
like, well, well we're gonna spend
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the next ten hours on this movie. So uh. You know, you
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get comforts funny too, because you
know, you hear when people do their
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top ten lists of films and you
find yourself almost rolling your eyes, like
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of course, Citizen Kane. But
then you put it in and you watch
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it and at minute thirty a minute
five, like, god damn it,
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that's good, you know. And
even if you're you know, I know
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a lot of people who won't watch
black and white films, which astounds me,
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you know, and yet you watch, like, for instance, It's
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a Wonderful Life. Everyone's like,
oh, that's a smarmy piece of Hollywood
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crap. It's an incredibly dark drama. I mean, he's killing himself.
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I mean stuff like that. And
when I encourage people to watch film.
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It's like, dude, ask your
grandfather, ask your mom and dad,
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like what their favorite movie movies wants
because even though you know the timing of
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movies has changed. You look at
the bloom House horror movies compared to those
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in the sixties and seventies, they're
sprinting. You know. Rosemary's Baby is
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really extremely slow. It's genius,
but it's slow. But you have to
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watch it at least once to respect
what was going on. Like Lawrence and
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Arabia, you have to see once. I'm not going to watch it again.
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It's long, but you have to
see it once, you know,
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just to know that everything on screen
is real. They really shot that in
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too. Respect that and learn from
him. Yeah, and very true.
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I remember in one of my film
studies class in college. By the way,
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I have a degree in business administration
too, and I write, so
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you and I are very similar already. So I gotta admit though the PA
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degree is kind of bullshit, but
you know we got it. Oh,
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every day in my life, I
tell everyone, now it's bullshit. I
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sit here and go like when I
still when I'm paying my student loan payments,
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I'm like, what the hell did
I learn. Yeah. But I
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think the big thing about college though, is it really doesn't matter, like,
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uh, you know what your degree
is, you learn to learn.
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And I think you know, when
people don't go to college and come out
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here, great. If you do
go to college to come out here,
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great, But having a college degree
gets you into the mail room. You
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know, unless you know someone,
you still need to have that. Sadly
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and a true a lot of the
root of the positions that I see too,
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for like anything, if you want
to work at the studio or you
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know, like for instance, comedy, I just put a philadine application to
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work there, and they all want
a bachelor's degree, Like that's a minimum
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requirement you have to be bachelor's in
something. You look at guys like,
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you know, Kevin Smith and Tarantino, they are a flash not a flashing.
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Pant's wrong saying they. I mean
they're one a billion. I mean,
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these guys are incredibly talented forces of
nature, and yet they're one of
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a kind. You know, very
few of us are. You need to
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actually have that degree in your belt
to get into the industry, even when
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it comes to but when it comes
to like screenwriting or acting, they don't
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care. You know, good as
good. Yeah, very true, and
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especially too because, uh, you
know, Tarantino he just took a I
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mean, from what I've heard,
he just took got like a two day
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film course to get an understanding.
And when he wrote Reservoir Dogs, that's
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where he met Terry Gilliam, and
Terry Gillham really said him, you know,
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this is what you have to do. And then when he finally got
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around and making Reservoir Dogs, he
was like prime and ready. I mean,
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haven't Terry Gilliam sort of mentor you. I mean that was just like,
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you know, one genius showing another
genius the way. Oh yeah,
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yeah. Well, and I remember
reading an article with Jango about Jango unchanged
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and he said the line that only
Tarantino can say, and it was I
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had to teach myself how to make
a Western. No one else can say
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that. I mean, Tarantino is
a guy who devours film, devours movies
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and has a respect for the shitty
ones as well, which he should.
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I mean, you can you can
pile shit on Roger Corman, flex and
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the stuff that you know a lot
of these Trauma has done, and yet
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you watch it like I kind of
get it. I kind of get it,
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and yet Tarantino loves it and he
applies it, which is huge respect
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there. Yeah, I always heard
Orson Wells two loved I don't know there's
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true not, but he loved to
have film parties at his house and he
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would show like these odd movies and
people would be like, what the hell
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are you watching Orson? And he
was like, no, this is this
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is just something unique. And they
didn't know if he was like, you
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know, making a joke of everybody
or uses as just you know, playing
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is practical joke and everybody, or
if he was dead serious. Well,
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and that's what I loved though about
where we are techno technologically. You know,
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when you think back that when I
was in college, you know,
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twenty twenty two years ago, I
didn't have an email yet, there's no
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cell phone, and the only foreign
movies that the video places had with the
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douci Ones like, of course it's
good, the one the Academy more that
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kind of stuff. But then as
time progresses and I remember being living in
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Chicago and the video place down the
way it had a large Asian section,
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and suddenly you're introduced to Cholee un
Fat and Jet Lead and you're like,
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holy shit, Wow, did I
not know about this crap? You know?
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And now you know, with Amazon
and everything else, like I can
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see movies like The Man from Nowhere. I can see movies like uh I
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saw The Devil, these ones that
back in the day I might have stumbled
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across on cable, but now you're
like, okay, I get it.
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Yeah, And it's very It's very
true too, because I remember going to
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the video stores and you know,
just having to like look at different covers
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and stuff like that, and I
remember this one of the first time I
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discovered We've never heard of and it's
like, you know, holy crap,
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this is freaking awesome. Man.
Yeah. Well, it's kind of funny
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when you think back in the day, everything like in Madison was the video
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station and you'd go in and I
still have a couple of horror titles just
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kind of emblazoned on my brain because
of a whole how horrific the DHS box
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looked. And you end up finally
seeing a movie you're like, oh,
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my friends and I used to have
this like little game we used to play
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where whoever could find the weirdest box
art that's what we like they had.
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They would have different deals, like
I think it was it was five movies
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for five nights or whatever and for
five dollars. And what we do is
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we'd find like them the craziest,
like box Art and whoever could find the
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crazies, that's one of the ones
we would definitely rent and then and stuff
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like that. Well, it's funny
about that is we used to do the
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whole like who can pick out the
worst movie? Right? And so you
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get two or three movies with worst
movies? Is they're boring? You know,
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you've never I mean, the worst
movies that are fun to watch are
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actually fun to watch. When you
do that, let's find the worst,
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you're gonna be going. You're just
be looking at your your watch going,
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oh god, it's still going,
what was the worst movie you've ever seen?
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By doing that, let's see,
I would argue that man Squito is
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up there. Um, and uh, they're kind of I think the worst
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movies I've seen tend to be the
Friday night premieres on sci Fi. And
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yet what sci Fi did is they
embraced it. You know, like Sharknado,
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I get it. You know,
you're totally making fun of the ship
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you were trying to, you know, give us years ago. Um,
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I'll say this that I've only walked
out of two movies. The first one
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is The Road Dwellville, which was
with Dana Carvey and a smooth characters back
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in the day. Do you remember
that one? Yeah, Matthew McConaughey was
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in at uh and I fear who
the I fear who the person was.
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But yeah, I remember rode Wellville. It was just it was all.
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And then the second one was Sliver
with Sharon Stone because it was like the
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psycho sexual thriller that nothing happened and
every time they had sucked, she like
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cried. And after about twenty minutes, I'm like, yeah, I probably
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missed the sunshine right now, Anthony
Hopkins, he was in Roode Wellville.
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That's that's right, that's right.
You know you know that movie was actually
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based off of Kellogg. Yeah,
I know that guy. I mean the
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movie is crazy, but that that
life story is even crazier. Still,
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I was really close to walk out
of freaking Episode one though. Yeah,
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I remember. Episode one didn't leave
much of an impressional me either, And
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part of the reason I stayed is. You know, everyone I was with
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was a massive Star Wars fan,
so they had like the rose tinted spectacles
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on. But I was just kind
of like, going, this whole thing
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is a cut scene of a PlayStation
game. When I was when I first
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sold I, you know, I
I forget how what I was. I
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was like, you know, something's
missing here, and I didn't at that
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point in time my brain, I
didn't haven't, I didn't wasn't into film
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like I am now, you know, but something was was inside was telling
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me because I never felt this way
about the original three, Like the original
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three like I'll just watch and like
I'm entertained from beginning to end Episode one,
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I was kind of like, what's
going on? Who's doing? Who's
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this guy again? Also, it's
like the plot is the is like a
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political trade organization treaty thing, and
you're like, wait, this is what
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we're after? Well, you know
that everyone becomes a cynic at some point
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because I remember seeing Return of the
Jedi in the theater with with my family,
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a bunch of friends, and I
was the guy. I was one
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of those guys who was a growing
number leaving going I think I hate the
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e walks. Yeah, I don't
really, I haven't got to that point
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yet where I hate the e walks, but now will with age. I
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don't know why it just happens.
Well, Harrison Ford hated him right away.
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Yeah, he called him the teddy
bear picnic. You're at college were
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we're you know, you got your
degree, your short writing. You're writing
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in your in your spare time.
We'll be right back after a word from
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our sponsor, and now back to
the show. And you know, so
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where is it that you started to
say, like, you know, should
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I write screenplays? Was before your
brother called called you? Or was it
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after your brother in college? It
was actually in high school. We want
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my family went on an Alaska cruise. We you know, we saved up
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for this thing. And I wrote
my first screenplay because I loved movies on
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in Longhand on a yellow notepad and
came back and at the time, you
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know, we we have word perfect
and I built up a template and I
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wrote it and gave it to my
mom, who she gave me back my
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first notes and they were brutal,
and yet looking back and reading that first
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screenplay and seeing her notes, she
was actually being very kind. I think
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it was just I was. I
wanted to emulate what I loved, you
312
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know, and I loved and I
still love movies, you know, and
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short stories and movies were what I
do, but I just won't wouldn't show
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anybody, you know, in fact, for a couple of years, the
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cousins. You know, I come
from a large extent of family. When
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I got someone's name for Christmas,
I would write them four or five stories
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and kind of bind it together.
And that was my gift, and I
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just I enjoyed doing it. You
know. It was never it was never
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work. And even now, like
I would argue that your first draft at
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anything isn't work. That's fun.
It's the work is the rewrite and making
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fifteen people happy and keeping it an
afloat, you know. But to answer
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your question, man, I just
I watched so many movies and it gave
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me so much joy. I wanted
to emulate that. So, you know,
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you know, you moved. I'm
sorry feedback there, Um, So
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I moved in to LA and then
you you start writing again? Uh you
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know, so like what was your
first you know, professional screenplay that you
327
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would call it? You know that
that you actually were using a sort of
328
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like a take your foot in the
door, so to speak. And it's
329
00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:22.839
funny. The first time to get
my foot in the door was called The
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Wayfarer, and it was it was
a sci fi thriller in the vein of
331
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matrix by way that's shining, let's
call it. And uh, my two
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leads were African American, and I
got on a bunch of movies. I
333
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mean, I got a bunch of
meetings. And they were surprised because I'm
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a six foot two, white dude
with red hair. You know, they
335
00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:47.319
thought I was something else. But
I was wanted to see uh, Denzel
336
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Washington and uh, who's Murta I
can't remember his name right now from dad's
337
00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:55.160
Danny Glover. Yeah, I wanted
them. I wanted them paired up,
338
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you know. So I got a
lot of meetings, and uh, you
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00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:04.079
know what happens is I was used
to the you know, the professional world.
340
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But you move out here and you
get involved in the industry, it
341
00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:14.839
was different and it was hard,
and I just kind of I stepped away
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for a bit and then I stepped
back and I did a couple of you
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know, what would you call them, direct to DVD or VOD movies was
344
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the package and one was one of
the Chamber, and they were hard simply
345
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because you look at you look at
the package. They had like twelve days
346
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to shoot, and you have very
little money, and you have people who
347
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don't care because they pocketed their paycheck
and other people who did care because it
348
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was a movie, you know,
in this movie they were part of.
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And so after after those two I
was close to quitting again because to pay
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the bills. Even with those I
was doing a lot of nonprofit stuff like
351
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doing videos and websites for NGOs and
like. And it wasn't until I read
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00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:06.759
this wrote the screenplay called Acolyte aka
simple Man. That Sonya, who's we
353
00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:11.400
lovingly refer to as a script bitch
because she's the first line of defense for
354
00:24:11.559 --> 00:24:15.720
quality, she read it and she
said, I think you should try again.
355
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And a buddy of mine, Mike
Callahan, who was a producer on
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those two titles I mentioned, introduced
me to Mike Goldberg and Josh Adler,
357
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who are a new wave at the
time, and they saved me. You
358
00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:33.920
know, everyone in their life at
some point has individuals who saved them professionally,
359
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:37.920
and those two saved me. And
they brought me to where I'm today,
360
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So you know, just to diggle
deeper into the script. Derek,
361
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.799
when you were right now, you
you told me you don't you didn't see
362
00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:48.279
a lot of screenwriting books. I
don't know if you if you had read
363
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:52.519
them at that point, but you
did you subscribe to any sort of of
364
00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.319
you know, template, whether it's
you know, I don't know if you
365
00:24:56.359 --> 00:25:00.440
read so I Sidfield screenplay or Save
the Cap I play Snyder. I didn't
366
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:03.200
say that the cat. I did
really say the cat. That was great.
367
00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:07.119
I haven't rant anything by said Field. But I think my big thing
368
00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:11.720
is when I was a little kid, I was my whole family were ravenous
369
00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:15.480
readers. You know, I would
I would probably read when I was in
370
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:19.799
grade school, I read a book
a day just because you know, I
371
00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:25.519
loved I loved reading, and I've
always been imaginative. But when you read
372
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and see where other people's stories go, it's awesome. And my favorite authors
373
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at the time were Alista McClain,
you know, and uh Dashel Hammett and
374
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Tom Clancy. And then when I
was in high school it was Ship who
375
00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:48.599
wrote the Firm That was um crap
Grisham. Yeah, it's right, it's
376
00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:51.599
all my bookshelf behind me. I
could have just turned around. But a
377
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:55.039
lot of like especially with Aliston McClain, Uh, you know, he rowing
378
00:25:55.079 --> 00:25:59.000
a guns and a barone. And
what I loved about his stuff is if
379
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:04.160
you look at for instance, uh
once the movie Ronan did it Best is?
380
00:26:04.839 --> 00:26:08.240
You know, at one point Max
Says asked the question do I know
381
00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:11.640
you? By way of the German
or something like that. It's never addressed
382
00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:17.599
again, but by just by having
that one line, the world kind of
383
00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:21.880
expands a little like a Boo boo
a little bit bigger. And Alsta McClaine
384
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:26.640
and hitch Back especially, they would
have these lines that made their movies seem
385
00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:30.359
bigger and more complex than they were
when in reality they were very simple.
386
00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:33.720
You know. Um, you take
John Wick. I mean, it's it's
387
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.680
a revenge story, but he's not. You know, I'll let people argue
388
00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:41.359
about it, but it's more than
just the dog, you know. And
389
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.359
I think the best movies are that
it's more than just the sled, you
390
00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:48.440
know, Rosebut it's more than just
the ring. It's more than it's it's
391
00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:55.599
it's just it hints at a larger
purpose. And I think by not answering
392
00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:57.680
what that larger purpose is. That's
where the movies I love coming to play.
393
00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:03.519
Yeah, and I know exactly what
you mean. You know in John
394
00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:06.960
Wick, you know it is more
than when they when they whatever happens to
395
00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:08.759
the Dog. I don't know if
anyone who hasn't watched it yet, you
396
00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:11.880
probably should stop now and watch it
and then come back because I am going
397
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.880
to be talking a little. I
do want to delve in deeper than the
398
00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.920
movie. But yeah, I agree
with you wholeheartedly, and you know it
399
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:22.920
is interesting. I always am fascinated
when I ever, you know, talk
400
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.960
to an accomplish screenwriter like yourself,
Derek, who what they've read and what
401
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:33.599
methodologies they subscribe to. Because some
people swear by Save the Cat, and
402
00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:36.640
I've had others here on the podcast
who say, don't ever even read it,
403
00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:40.000
keep it away from you at all
costs. Well, you know,
404
00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:45.079
everyone functions differently, everyone learns differently. Um, I don't know, Like
405
00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:48.839
people ask me like, where did
these ideas come from? And to be
406
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:52.079
honest, I don't know a lot
of it is. Uh, you know
407
00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:55.319
what I've read, and who you
are and where you are and where you
408
00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:59.119
see and how you see it suddenly
comes into play. Um. But what
409
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.480
I tell everyone is, as soon
as you've finished a screenplay, write the
410
00:28:02.519 --> 00:28:06.759
first page in the next one,
because it's kind of like you have to
411
00:28:06.839 --> 00:28:11.200
keep that flame stoked or else.
A lot of for me personally, and
412
00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:15.079
I've talked to other writers, is
when I finish the screenplay, it's kind
413
00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:18.039
of depressing, you know, because
you've been with this story and now that's
414
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:22.920
done. You're like shit, you
know you were crafty in this world and
415
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:26.160
now you hand it off. You
have to start the next one or else.
416
00:28:26.279 --> 00:28:29.440
You know. For some of us, you know you know this when
417
00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:33.599
you talk to writers, I understand
a great deal why people turn to the
418
00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:37.519
bottle, or turn to the needle, or turn elsewhere. Because when you
419
00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:38.720
get to the end of that novel, when you get the end of that
420
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:44.920
screen player, even a short story, you feel very alone anybody. If
421
00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:48.559
you keep it going, you feel
very alive. So, Derek, I
422
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.680
want to ask you, are you
a part of a writers group of any
423
00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:53.119
kind? I mean meaning like,
do you have like a group of that
424
00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:56.599
you meet with me once a month
is to exchange, you know, whatever
425
00:28:56.599 --> 00:29:03.319
you're working on. Actually, I
don't you know Sonia is very She comes
426
00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:08.000
from a house of readers as well, and so between her and Josh and
427
00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:11.519
Mike, they tend to be my
readers. And but what I am a
428
00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:17.519
part of his. You know,
a guy named screenwriter named Matt Altman invited
429
00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:21.960
me to his screenwriter forum on Facebook
and I can't remember who. I think
430
00:29:21.960 --> 00:29:26.519
it was Josh inviting me anyway.
And what's really cool about that is,
431
00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:30.759
at first I don't want to do
it until until after the first week I
432
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.200
realized it's just a bunch of people
encouraging each other. And I think that's
433
00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:38.079
incredibly important, you know, to
have that group of people that when you
434
00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:41.200
have a question to ask, they're
excited to answer because you were excited to
435
00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:47.559
answer them. And I love it. Yeah, I'm a part of our
436
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:52.920
justist grip right now. We start
about two years ago when it was we
437
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:57.480
all A friend of mine got inspired
because we were watching the Oscars and Karantino
438
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:02.759
gave a speech about Jango and it
just sort of hit me like a lightning
439
00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:03.519
bolt, and I was like,
holy crap, why don't I just that
440
00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:06.759
story of writers group with some of
the people that I know in the area
441
00:30:06.799 --> 00:30:08.400
who I trust, and just see
what goes from there. You know.
442
00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:14.079
Yeah, well, and that's the
thing though, it's like you, I'd
443
00:30:14.119 --> 00:30:17.720
argue, almost in every capacity,
you can't be a solitary person, even
444
00:30:17.720 --> 00:30:22.759
though I'm happiest alone. I'm happiest
alone with my computer and no music on,
445
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:26.400
and just I love that. And
yet I know if I stay within
446
00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:32.440
that bell jar, I'll get worse
because I have to have those outward influences
447
00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:36.359
to make what I do better.
And you know, for those who write,
448
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:40.640
i'd argue, you know, seek
out, even on Facebook or any
449
00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:44.279
other sites, or even locally,
people who think like you, because a
450
00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:45.759
lot of things that you worry about
they do too, and that's important to
451
00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:56.160
actually connect on. We'll be right
back after a word from our sponsor and
452
00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:00.680
now back to the show. Yeah, it's very very very good point.
453
00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:06.480
And uh so you know, as
you know, we talked about writers groups
454
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:08.519
and everything like that. You know. Um, a little later, I
455
00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:12.079
wanted to ask you another question.
Sorry sorry for the bad segue, but
456
00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:17.200
I have a note in fun of
me I want to ask you so after
457
00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:21.039
afterwards. But you know, as
we're writing, you know, I I
458
00:31:21.319 --> 00:31:23.720
you you know, you had the
mayfares, you know, and then you
459
00:31:23.960 --> 00:31:26.680
I assume now once you were done
that you started your next project. So
460
00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:33.559
what was your next pocket after that? I don't know, because he's Here's
461
00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:36.880
the thing is, I write.
I write a lot, and I write
462
00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:40.960
fast, you know, and but
a lot of times too, And you
463
00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:42.240
might have been the same place,
like a lot of times are write the
464
00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:45.359
story to get it on my head. Uh it might not be good,
465
00:31:45.640 --> 00:31:48.559
you know, but at the same
time, like, uh, it's haunting
466
00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:52.319
me that it's still in there.
I think if I think of stories as
467
00:31:52.359 --> 00:31:55.680
people in line at the bank,
you know, if it's fifteen deep,
468
00:31:55.680 --> 00:31:56.960
you're pissed, but if it's three
deep, you're fine, you know.
469
00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:01.160
So I try to get those twelve
out of the way. But I would
470
00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:06.920
argue that acolyte, which is,
you know, making the rounds again.
471
00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:12.480
That one got me on the radar. And it was John Wick that that
472
00:32:12.519 --> 00:32:16.440
made me may be able to say
that I'm a professional screenwriter now. And
473
00:32:16.519 --> 00:32:21.160
you know, it was really fun
about the John Wick process was I had
474
00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:25.200
written it and it was originally entitled
Scorn, and the character was in his
475
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:28.960
early seventies. Because again I loved
the movie Rown, and I thought,
476
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.839
how cool would it be to grab
like Comally Jones or a you know,
477
00:32:32.920 --> 00:32:37.079
you know, just an older actor
and do an action piece that made sense
478
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:42.319
because you know, I just wanted
to see that the dog was like fifteen
479
00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:46.039
years old, that the wife had
passed years ago. So my my agent
480
00:32:46.039 --> 00:32:49.440
at the time, Charlie Ferraro,
who I love, you know, but
481
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:52.200
over at Uta, he called me
after the screenplay and went out and he's
482
00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:55.759
like, We've got like three or
four offers, and I'm not going to
483
00:32:55.799 --> 00:32:59.720
tell you the numbers, but I
really think we should take the lowest one
484
00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:02.400
because they want to make it now. And you know, you've got a
485
00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:07.240
great agent who is looking at the
long game. You know, it's more
486
00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:12.440
important for me to get an okay
pay day in a mad movie than a
487
00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:15.160
million dollars a no male movie,
you know. And so they set it
488
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:19.599
up with Basil Wanic over at thunder
Road, and you know, we developed
489
00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:22.880
it back and forth for a while, and then he went out to directors
490
00:33:23.079 --> 00:33:28.119
and on a Friday afternoon at like
one o'clock, Keanu Reeves called Basil and
491
00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:30.799
he's like, hey, man,
I heard about this screenplay. I really
492
00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:32.920
like to read it. Could you
send it over? So they careered it
493
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:37.680
over and at four thirty, Kiana
Reeves called back and he said, I
494
00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:40.599
want to do it now. Basil
called me again. Man, I grew
495
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:44.359
up with a guy, and I
was. I was. I was excited,
496
00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:46.359
you know, because this is a
very violent movie and I'd love to
497
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:50.759
see him do this again. And
the first time I went over his house,
498
00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:54.400
I walked past his den and on
his desk, I shit, you
499
00:33:54.519 --> 00:34:00.799
not, were like two hundred screenplays. This guy's hobby is reading screenplays,
500
00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:02.960
And in that moment it was probably
the most humbling I've ever known, going,
501
00:34:04.279 --> 00:34:06.359
holy shit, I was one of
those. He picked it, you
502
00:34:06.400 --> 00:34:08.559
know. So that's how John One
came about. And honestly, the title
503
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:12.719
came about because Keno would not refer
to it as Scorn. He'd always refer
504
00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:17.519
to the project as John Wick and
it's stuck. You know. By the
505
00:34:17.559 --> 00:34:21.239
way, did you actually get to
meet kianam Oh? Yeah? Yeah,
506
00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:27.079
yeah. I mean, Kanu is
a incredibly bright cat. I mean,
507
00:34:27.880 --> 00:34:30.719
you know, you know, you
sit down with anyone and their first two
508
00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:32.440
notes you're like, yeah, no
shit. He got to his third note,
509
00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:35.599
I was like, damn it,
that's better than what I had in
510
00:34:35.639 --> 00:34:38.800
mind, you know, and so
he was. We spent a ton of
511
00:34:38.840 --> 00:34:44.719
time together on every character and every
scene outside of him his own, and
512
00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:49.480
he is equally responsible for what's up
on that screen. I mean, Chad,
513
00:34:49.599 --> 00:34:52.880
Dave, Basil Erica, I mean, this is an awesome production crew,
514
00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:57.559
but at his heart and soul,
it's Kano, because Kano loves the
515
00:34:57.639 --> 00:35:00.599
character. And I can't you know, honestly, I'm not panting. You
516
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.480
can ask for around and you probably
heard stories, but he's a genuine dude
517
00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:07.280
and he's uh you know. For
instance, when we shot in New York,
518
00:35:07.400 --> 00:35:10.079
he got to know all the guys
at the coffee shop because he would
519
00:35:10.119 --> 00:35:14.239
join them for their smoke breaks and
I was last day. It was like
520
00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:17.239
saying goodbye to your best friends at
camp. And you don't see that a
521
00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:22.480
lot with especially guys of his caliber. Yeah, I've always heard that he
522
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:28.000
is an absolutely awesome guy. Oh
yeah yeah. And in fact, you
523
00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:31.159
know, my thing, my most
surreal story, like something like I'm a
524
00:35:31.239 --> 00:35:37.920
nice guy, but I like being
alone. He everyone knows his address out
525
00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:42.760
here. You know, the little
little uh buses that go by with tourists.
526
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:45.119
They stopped by his house and you
know, all that kind of stuff.
527
00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:49.000
My fare was one day we were
working on John Wick. His doorbell
528
00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:53.199
rang and he's got a little you
know, uh you know, he's like,
529
00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:57.559
who's there? And this woman says
him and names so and so from
530
00:35:57.719 --> 00:36:00.119
Boise, Idaho or something. Huge
fan of heres. I just want to
531
00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:04.559
hand me the picture and he's like
okay, So, you know, goes
532
00:36:04.599 --> 00:36:08.199
outside and hangs out with this teenage
girl in her family for like five minutes
533
00:36:08.199 --> 00:36:12.760
taking pictures and then comes back in
like who does that? That's it's unbelievable.
534
00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:15.519
It's awesome. But that's the kind
of guy he is. Yeah,
535
00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:17.880
that is absolutely hilarious. I mean, I don't know, you know,
536
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:22.679
if this is true or not,
but I saw that apparently he gave his
537
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:25.320
Matrix two and three money away to
the special effects guys. I don't know
538
00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:28.760
if that's true or not, but
it is true. And the other thing
539
00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:34.559
that I thought was really cool is
because you know, Chad was his stunt
540
00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:38.840
double in the Matrix. He Kiano
hired. Who's the guy that makes the
541
00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:45.039
custom bikes motorcycles, the Jesse James. Now I'm sorry about Yeah, it
542
00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:46.119
was Jesse James. For a while, it wasn't. It was because I
543
00:36:46.119 --> 00:36:50.880
think I think it's Jesse James.
But like Keanu As, not only did
544
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:54.480
he give away his bonus money,
he had everyone on the stunt team made
545
00:36:55.159 --> 00:37:00.559
customized motorcycles that were delivered by Jesse
James, and uh, it's just stuff
546
00:37:00.599 --> 00:37:04.480
like that where you know, he
didn't have to do that. And yeah,
547
00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:08.440
you could argue that he's a multi
millionaire whatever, but again he's just
548
00:37:08.599 --> 00:37:14.159
he's a unique and generous, you
know, a generous man, and that's
549
00:37:14.360 --> 00:37:16.079
that's absolutely awesome. And you know, for him to get into the John
550
00:37:16.119 --> 00:37:21.159
Wood character, you know, when
you finally saw the movie and you finally
551
00:37:21.199 --> 00:37:22.719
you know, sold everything playing out, you know what we what were your
552
00:37:22.760 --> 00:37:27.000
initial thoughts when you finally saw his
finished product. That's a great question,
553
00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:30.280
because we when we saw the Friends
and Family, you know that, like
554
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:36.360
the first cut in the movie,
I had no idea. I because when
555
00:37:36.360 --> 00:37:38.119
you get to a point in rewriting, you're not seeing words anymore. You're
556
00:37:38.159 --> 00:37:40.679
just seeing kind of numbers. I
don't know if that makes sense. And
557
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:45.159
so when we saw it, I
remember looking at over it at Sonia first
558
00:37:45.239 --> 00:37:49.000
going was it good? Like I
didn't hate it? I didn't, I
559
00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:52.840
didn't know, and she was and
she by her expression, I knew it
560
00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:57.599
was, you know. And this
the moment that hit it home for me
561
00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:01.400
is when we did our initial screening
at the Dome out here at the Arc
562
00:38:01.480 --> 00:38:07.239
Light, we're doing a Q and
A afterwards, and the seven I don't
563
00:38:07.239 --> 00:38:08.039
know, at seven hundred seats,
I don't know, it was a pretty
564
00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:12.440
big for him. But I,
you know, I showed up and I
565
00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:15.079
didn't watch the movie because at that
point you'd seen it so many times.
566
00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:17.159
But I scanned the audience to find
the people who didn't want to be there,
567
00:38:17.880 --> 00:38:22.480
and at about minute twenty, everyone
would had his huge grin. And
568
00:38:23.599 --> 00:38:28.679
you know, my favorite movie and
experience in my life, and I tell
569
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:30.920
it to almost everyone I meet,
is when The Raid came out. Have
570
00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:34.800
you seen the Raid? Absolutely?
Okay, when the Raid came out.
571
00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.360
I loved the trailer and I loved
Meranto, which I think that's the name
572
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:43.159
movement the movie he made. Before
that, we walk into the theater with
573
00:38:43.239 --> 00:38:45.519
the arc Light here in past in
it it's a smaller theater, like one
574
00:38:45.599 --> 00:38:47.800
hundred and thirty seats or even maybe
even less, And if you looked at
575
00:38:47.800 --> 00:38:52.760
the audience, it was every sex, every age, every color, every
576
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:55.760
Creed. It was weird, you
know, it was like a serial killer's
577
00:38:55.800 --> 00:38:59.719
daydream. It was bizarre. Like
if you ask people what are they here
578
00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:02.119
to see? You don't know.
But we sat down. It was sold
579
00:39:02.119 --> 00:39:07.800
out, and when the reverse door
guillotine happened, I leaned forward in my
580
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:10.599
seat and looked around like you did
when you're twelve years old. At the
581
00:39:10.719 --> 00:39:14.719
end of the eye was a seventy
year old Korea man who's doing the same
582
00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:16.599
thing, and he pointed at me
in mouth. Did you see that?
583
00:39:17.679 --> 00:39:22.039
Oh? And when I watched people
watching John Wick, especially during that house
584
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:25.880
invasion, and to see a guy
who's sixty eight years old lead for as
585
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:30.920
chair and look around, that made
my That made my life man, you
586
00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:34.639
know, because that's that's that's why
I wanted to bring out of Peopoint.
587
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:37.920
So what I want to bring out
people now? You know, Yeah,
588
00:39:37.480 --> 00:39:40.280
it is phenomenal way that that you
know, movies can bring people together like
589
00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:45.039
that. Well, especially what I
loved about, you know, the John
590
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:50.199
Wick process or even the release was
the number of older people or you know,
591
00:39:50.519 --> 00:39:52.320
again you know, action movie.
But it's got a huge female fan
592
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:58.239
base just because you know a lot
of people will say, uh, you'll
593
00:39:58.280 --> 00:40:00.639
you'll hear the term grounded, which
means cheap, elevated, which means good.
594
00:40:01.159 --> 00:40:04.519
You know, it's like I want
to make an elevated horror, like
595
00:40:04.559 --> 00:40:07.159
we want to make a good horror
or a good action piece. And what
596
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:13.079
I loved about the John Wick process
is from the original speck of the bones
597
00:40:13.079 --> 00:40:15.119
and the muscle mass remained the same. It was just the skin in the
598
00:40:15.119 --> 00:40:20.800
hair that was massaged in by everyone
involved. And again thunder Road and the
599
00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:27.400
directors and Kiano and al Lionsgate,
they just we'll be right back after a
600
00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:36.079
word from our sponsor, and now
back to the show. At any point
601
00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:40.559
any production, everyone hates everybody because
you're just tired. And yet when we
602
00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:45.159
did that Q and A following that, you just saw the joy in going.
603
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:47.159
You know, it's it's a major
miracle to have a movie made.
604
00:40:47.639 --> 00:40:52.920
It's even more so to have it
be anything good or let alone critical and
605
00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:57.320
financial success. So I use the
term a lot like I'm humbled, and
606
00:40:57.400 --> 00:41:00.400
I am you know, because you
know, you look at all the other
607
00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:05.000
stuff I have on my platter.
It's it's horrifying because you're like, can
608
00:41:05.079 --> 00:41:08.480
I can I can I do what
I just did. We'll see And speaking
609
00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:12.599
of that, you know I saw
John Wick two was just announced. Yeah,
610
00:41:12.679 --> 00:41:15.960
yeah, In fact, I mean, Kiana's got the latest draft of
611
00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:20.360
script and we're gonna be talking about
this Sunday. Um, he loves it.
612
00:41:20.400 --> 00:41:22.760
I mean the body counts is probably
three times bigger. And um,
613
00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:27.119
what I love about Kiano two is
you look at a guy who is he
614
00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:31.159
fifty fifty one, I don't remember, but he wants to do He hates
615
00:41:31.199 --> 00:41:35.679
when people refer to what he does
as stunts because it's not. It's him
616
00:41:36.199 --> 00:41:39.960
and he's really doing this stuff.
And when you look at that movie and
617
00:41:40.079 --> 00:41:45.840
try to copy what he does,
I can't. Twelve years younger than him,
618
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:49.199
It's like I can't do that.
And yet he beat the shit out
619
00:41:49.199 --> 00:41:52.239
of himself and he did it with
a grin, and he is kind of
620
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:58.880
like, you know, he sees
that I love that man's workout it and
621
00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:01.000
that you know that that's also and
that's indicative. Everything I've always heard about
622
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:04.760
Kiano was that he is, uh, you know, a guy that's willing
623
00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:07.320
to go the extra mile, you
know. And so when so I want
624
00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:12.760
to ask you, is Derek,
is how from what point did you start
625
00:42:12.840 --> 00:42:15.559
working on John Wick two. Did
you know that? I mean did they?
626
00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:19.039
Did they immediately green light it and
say get to work on it,
627
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:22.239
Derek, Or did you start working
on it already? No? I mean
628
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:25.800
I hadn't started working on it,
um because when you start, when you
629
00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:30.199
get a movie in production, your
life is reread hell, and it's just
630
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:32.920
it's it's continual. And what I
learned too is when I was out in
631
00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:37.280
New York on the shoot, it
was hard for me to do anything else
632
00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:42.079
because every ten minutes, even though
you're doing very minimal labor, you have
633
00:42:42.079 --> 00:42:44.239
someone coming in and asking, Hey, what's the nurse's name? You know,
634
00:42:44.239 --> 00:42:45.880
in the hospital, Like I,
who gives a shit? But you
635
00:42:45.920 --> 00:42:49.880
know, they came to me for
that. I spent I spent about five
636
00:42:49.880 --> 00:42:53.840
weeks just playing Civilization five on my
laptop because I couldn't. I couldn't work
637
00:42:53.840 --> 00:42:58.679
on anything else, you know.
And yet um, you know, for
638
00:42:58.719 --> 00:43:01.159
a couple of days every week Keiana
would come back, we'd have lunch,
639
00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:06.679
and we'd lunch with about in mind
named Todd, who you know, he
640
00:43:07.159 --> 00:43:12.079
does um, all the the what
we call it, all the artwork,
641
00:43:12.159 --> 00:43:15.519
you know, all that kind of
stuff. And Keana one day asked me,
642
00:43:15.639 --> 00:43:19.079
is like, so, you know, where do you see John going
643
00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:22.199
next? You know, how many
do you see in your head? And
644
00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:24.320
I looked him and I was like, I got seven. I got seven
645
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:29.639
of him and he laughed and I
pitched him two and three and four and
646
00:43:29.719 --> 00:43:31.679
you could see him kind of not
grow pale, but go, okay,
647
00:43:31.760 --> 00:43:35.800
let's just focus on the next one, all right, um? And so
648
00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:40.000
I didn't start it. And to
be honest, it's even in you know,
649
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:49.280
even with the green Light, we've
we've chaotically gone between different storylines,
650
00:43:49.800 --> 00:43:53.400
and yet what we've remained true too
is I don't want to look at at
651
00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:55.840
it as a sequel. I want
to look at it as an you know,
652
00:43:55.960 --> 00:44:00.280
John Wick chapter two, because what
the Faster Furious did so well is
653
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:05.360
after the third one is they weren't
sequels anymore. They were chapters. And
654
00:44:05.400 --> 00:44:07.880
I think those are the best,
Those are the best franchises to have,
655
00:44:07.159 --> 00:44:10.159
you know, I would, you
know, Empire strikes Back, it's not
656
00:44:10.159 --> 00:44:14.719
a sequel, it's a chapter.
You know, most sequels are remakes of
657
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:16.480
the first one, and with this
one, you want it to be unique
658
00:44:16.480 --> 00:44:21.039
but familiar, you know. Yeah, And that's that's a great way to
659
00:44:21.079 --> 00:44:24.119
put the two different chapters. Yeah, I mean, and that's why you
660
00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:28.159
can't help but respect about the Fast
and the Furious movies, even if you
661
00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:30.960
don't like them. Each one got
better, you know at a certain point.
662
00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:35.360
And you know, people ask me
what I watch and like, I
663
00:44:35.440 --> 00:44:37.519
gotta be honest, I haven't seen
it, yes, but you know I'm
664
00:44:37.519 --> 00:44:40.280
gonna love mad Max. I mean, I've been watching that trailer every day
665
00:44:42.559 --> 00:44:47.360
on a deafening TV screen with my
arms out wide, grinning because that's what
666
00:44:47.400 --> 00:44:52.360
I want to do. You know. Yeah, everyone I know who who
667
00:44:52.480 --> 00:44:54.440
was seen as loved it. I
haven't seen it yet either. Yeah,
668
00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:59.119
did you did you see Fast?
If you're a seven, I'm really behind
669
00:44:59.119 --> 00:45:00.920
on everything, aroun And you know
what I've I've learned too, is when
670
00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:06.559
you when you write like this or
you get to this, you know degree
671
00:45:06.559 --> 00:45:08.760
of success. I would argue,
I don't I don't like going to the
672
00:45:08.760 --> 00:45:14.079
theater um simply because I'm alone most
of the time, and when you sit
673
00:45:14.119 --> 00:45:16.280
down with a bunch of strangers,
it's a bit of anxiety, and you're
674
00:45:16.280 --> 00:45:21.039
watching a movie, and when you
find yourself not liking it, you're suddenly
675
00:45:21.519 --> 00:45:23.159
reminded that people don't like what you
do. It's weird, you know,
676
00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:27.639
I like it's it's weird. I
mean, I love movies, man,
677
00:45:27.719 --> 00:45:31.559
but I like him. Now I'm
the privacy mail on the home. I
678
00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:36.079
did he teach his own you know, And sometimes I told you what you're
679
00:45:36.119 --> 00:45:38.360
saying because I sometimes just like to
watch movies in my own home too.
680
00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:42.239
Um. That's why. Like when
It Follows was coming out and they were
681
00:45:42.239 --> 00:45:44.239
like, oh, by the way, we're going to VOD the same day
682
00:45:44.280 --> 00:45:46.079
as theater. I was like,
oh good, I can just stay home
683
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:50.239
now, order a pizza, and
I can watch It Follows at home.
684
00:45:50.280 --> 00:45:52.800
And then they pulled it out to
POD. So I ended up, you
685
00:45:52.840 --> 00:45:54.920
know, because it did better in
theaters and they expect that it was going
686
00:45:54.960 --> 00:46:00.400
to do. So now I've pulled
up Netflix and what was why to something
687
00:46:00.440 --> 00:46:04.000
else? Well, it's like the
event movies, I you know, I'll
688
00:46:04.039 --> 00:46:06.519
go see in the theater. And
to be honest, my favorite movies to
689
00:46:06.519 --> 00:46:09.239
see in the theater are the ones
that are aimed directly at kids, because
690
00:46:09.719 --> 00:46:15.280
you know, the cynicism really hasn't
sunk in. And to go watch like,
691
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.039
you know, anything but Pisar,
you know, or a lot of
692
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:22.199
Disney stuff and to look across.
And you know when we saw the movie
693
00:46:22.239 --> 00:46:27.480
Frozen, it was a couple of
weeks out and the little kids in front
694
00:46:27.480 --> 00:46:30.159
of us were singing along to every
song. And in that moment, like
695
00:46:30.199 --> 00:46:34.880
you could be an irritated old manner, you can go like that's movie magic.
696
00:46:34.960 --> 00:46:37.440
You know, these little kids love
the movie so much they're singing along,
697
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:40.159
and you know, in this day, that was all. I just
698
00:46:40.199 --> 00:46:44.760
love that memory. And you know
that's what movies do. They help,
699
00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:47.119
They give those memories. Yeah,
and I mean you think of the movies
700
00:46:47.159 --> 00:46:51.000
that make you cry. I was
a little kid. I mean I wept
701
00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:55.199
it Freaking Fox and the Hound.
You know, I wept it when Et
702
00:46:55.559 --> 00:46:59.239
came back to life. You know, the days get older and older,
703
00:46:59.280 --> 00:47:01.840
it's always it changes, like what
affects you. I think the last movie
704
00:47:01.960 --> 00:47:07.000
I cried in was Big Fish.
Of all movies, Like I was dating
705
00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:09.360
Sony at the time, and it's
you know, any kind of father's son
706
00:47:09.639 --> 00:47:14.599
by you know, any story gets
me. And when he tells his father
707
00:47:14.639 --> 00:47:17.480
at the Endnister's breaking down. I
was a blubbering mess and it's like you
708
00:47:17.599 --> 00:47:23.320
got me, man. Congratulation,
Yeah, that man what's the last movie
709
00:47:23.360 --> 00:47:30.519
that made you cry that made me
cry? Yeah, I'm not even sure.
710
00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:35.679
Yeah, um, that's a good
question. I have to think about
711
00:47:35.679 --> 00:47:40.199
that. Derek, my favorite wash
I went to go see Wally and h
712
00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:45.039
I would argue at the beginning of
Wally is one of the best in cinema
713
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:50.280
because it just showed you true loneliness. And as a writer, you'll you
714
00:47:50.599 --> 00:47:53.920
you know that you you tap into
loneliness. And I at the end of
715
00:47:53.920 --> 00:47:58.519
the Island, my buddy jac it's
there's a quiet movie that I just hear.
716
00:47:58.760 --> 00:48:00.960
I hear him quite tears his eyes, like, God, damn it,
717
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:06.239
Pixar, you got me again.
They are phenomenal at that. But
718
00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:10.199
they respect the process. Man.
They take their time. Yes, there's
719
00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:15.639
so many good points about pixere that, like of what they do with their
720
00:48:15.639 --> 00:48:20.639
stories and how how they structure them
and the characters and the and everything you
721
00:48:20.679 --> 00:48:22.559
know, And it's just that's why
there's so many I mean, if you
722
00:48:22.599 --> 00:48:25.480
go like speed of screenwrinning books,
if you go like look online, there's
723
00:48:25.480 --> 00:48:29.239
so many screenwrinning books now about like
do I get the Pixar a way whatever?
724
00:48:29.320 --> 00:48:31.320
You know what I mean, because
you know they are the guys you
725
00:48:31.400 --> 00:48:36.400
want to emulate. But also,
you know, I think the best filmmakers
726
00:48:36.440 --> 00:48:38.960
love love their characters. You know, in the Pixar movies, you can
727
00:48:38.960 --> 00:48:42.559
tell that they love their characters,
even the bad guys, you know,
728
00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:46.400
and I think that's important. I
mean, what's been great in developing John
729
00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:50.760
Wick two is we love John Wick, you know. I mean he was
730
00:48:50.800 --> 00:48:52.719
the Bobby Yaga, he was the
devil, and there may be a bit
731
00:48:52.760 --> 00:48:58.880
of that still inside of him,
but there's something about that you love,
732
00:48:59.079 --> 00:49:02.119
you know. And the best movies
are either the ones where everyone hated each
733
00:49:02.119 --> 00:49:07.719
other on the set or loved each
other. Yeah, and I heard there's
734
00:49:07.719 --> 00:49:10.320
a lot of frictional mad max it
so oh yeah, Well did you read
735
00:49:10.360 --> 00:49:14.920
that article with Tom Hardy Hardy saying
as soon as he saw the movie,
736
00:49:14.960 --> 00:49:19.199
he apologized to George. Yeah,
yeah, that's that's what I saw.
737
00:49:19.719 --> 00:49:22.079
And then I saw apparently like at
the con Film vessel they were like he
738
00:49:22.119 --> 00:49:25.760
apologized for some of his behavior or
something, or apparently something there's some friction
739
00:49:25.800 --> 00:49:30.119
about something. Well, you know, and that's a thing about the industry
740
00:49:30.159 --> 00:49:35.360
that a lot of people don't understand
until you're really here, is you can
741
00:49:35.639 --> 00:49:40.559
we can bemoan the fact that stars
can be odd people who are assholes at
742
00:49:40.599 --> 00:49:45.480
from time to time. But I
do not envy their position. I mean,
743
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:51.079
especially when you see it firsthand how
people treat them, and I would
744
00:49:51.280 --> 00:49:54.239
I can never live in that kind
of world. You know, did you
745
00:49:54.639 --> 00:49:59.440
Did you ever see anyone never to
like try to treat Kano bed No,
746
00:49:59.519 --> 00:50:01.400
it's not a of treating him bad, but it's it's a matter of going,
747
00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:06.840
hey, I recognize you from all
of your movies. You're buddies now,
748
00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:10.480
you know. But like when he's
having dinner and just having people come
749
00:50:10.559 --> 00:50:16.239
up and you know, continuously come
up to him, I don't. I
750
00:50:16.239 --> 00:50:20.360
don't get that. You know,
New York is different, and I'd argue
751
00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:23.519
various sections of Hollywood are different simply
because they're used to it and it's a
752
00:50:23.519 --> 00:50:28.000
different culture. But when you have, you know, people from the Midwest
753
00:50:28.039 --> 00:50:30.440
where I come from, you have
two kinds. The kind comes up to
754
00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:34.239
kanagas, hey, I love your
work, and then move on. And
755
00:50:34.280 --> 00:50:36.840
then it's the or the hey I
love your work. We're friends. Now,
756
00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:45.599
right, we'll be right back after
a word from our sponsor and now
757
00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:52.480
back to the show. So do
you have a lot of friends in the
758
00:50:52.480 --> 00:50:53.639
Midwest calling you now and being like, hey, Derek, you sold a
759
00:50:53.639 --> 00:50:59.679
screenplay. I have a screenplay idea
too, you know, not really,
760
00:51:00.159 --> 00:51:05.960
because I'd argue one of the greatest
things about the Midwest is you're instilled with
761
00:51:06.039 --> 00:51:08.199
a work ethic. But more importantly, it's like, one of my best
762
00:51:08.280 --> 00:51:14.000
friends out here is Austin O'Brien.
He played the little kid in Last Action
763
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:15.199
Hero, you know, was Law
Moran and all that kind of stuff,
764
00:51:15.719 --> 00:51:21.079
and he's a very successful photographer now
and he was kind of stressed one day
765
00:51:21.119 --> 00:51:22.440
when he was going to meet my
cousin who was a big fan of his,
766
00:51:23.440 --> 00:51:28.239
and my cousin Joanna came to a
party. She walked up to him,
767
00:51:28.360 --> 00:51:30.000
shook his hand and said, hey, I really love your movies,
768
00:51:30.119 --> 00:51:34.320
and they went to the kitchen to
start cooking something. I don't know.
769
00:51:34.800 --> 00:51:37.320
That's what I grew up with,
and I think that's awesome. But every
770
00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:40.639
now and then you have people come
out of the woodwork, of course,
771
00:51:42.079 --> 00:51:45.320
and that's what kind of nice Facebook
as you can ignore him, and yet
772
00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:49.800
at the same time, like the
reality is, no one helped me,
773
00:51:50.159 --> 00:51:53.000
you know, And what I mean
by that is of course, people help
774
00:51:53.079 --> 00:51:55.960
me. But when it came to
this getting into the industry and the screenwriting,
775
00:51:57.480 --> 00:52:01.199
it was years of incredibly hard work
and work for free to get to
776
00:52:01.199 --> 00:52:06.599
this point. And yet I kind
of wonder would I be the same guy
777
00:52:06.679 --> 00:52:10.400
had the success happen at age thirty
than forty. I hope so. And
778
00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:15.079
so a lot of times when students
reach out to me or people reach out
779
00:52:15.119 --> 00:52:19.119
to me, those conversations tend to
be very healthy because they're grounded. You
780
00:52:19.159 --> 00:52:22.360
know, I'm a screenwriter, man, The crazies don't come to me.
781
00:52:22.880 --> 00:52:25.480
And sometimes, Derek, you have
annoying people they ask to be on a
782
00:52:25.519 --> 00:52:32.000
podcast. You know what what I
love about podcasts, though, is this
783
00:52:32.119 --> 00:52:37.400
medium has given so many people like
yourselves an opportunity that didn't exist ten years
784
00:52:37.400 --> 00:52:40.199
ago. You know, I love
that, And I mean, who knows
785
00:52:40.199 --> 00:52:45.159
what the next generation's gonna you know
face as well, but you have the
786
00:52:45.199 --> 00:52:47.559
opportunity to be and create and manage
your own brand. And how cool is
787
00:52:47.599 --> 00:52:52.400
that? Yeah? Absolutely, you
know, and I think the next generation
788
00:52:52.480 --> 00:52:55.719
is going to be robots are just
gonna a're gonna call you and they're gonna
789
00:52:55.719 --> 00:52:59.880
interview you, and then you know, just whoever's around and be listening to
790
00:52:59.920 --> 00:53:01.559
it. Um. But see,
that's what I like about podcasters, though,
791
00:53:01.679 --> 00:53:06.599
is you're not You're not a cynical
bunch. I mean, you're doing
792
00:53:06.599 --> 00:53:09.360
what you love. Uh. You
know, it's one thing doing an interview
793
00:53:09.360 --> 00:53:14.719
for the international press. It's another
another thing doing this because we're we're fanboys
794
00:53:14.840 --> 00:53:19.280
to a certain degree of films themselves. You know. I'm I have not
795
00:53:19.360 --> 00:53:22.400
seen the most movies any any person
I know, Yet when I see a
796
00:53:22.400 --> 00:53:27.519
fellow person who loves a certain movie, like you know, I asked last
797
00:53:27.599 --> 00:53:30.639
night on Facebook, like what movies
you watch when you're down or drunk or
798
00:53:30.880 --> 00:53:34.840
you know, alone, And my
response was like, I've seen Captain of
799
00:53:34.840 --> 00:53:37.880
the Woods and Evil Dead to too
many times to count. And yet when
800
00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:43.800
people hear that, you can kind
of see the amen. Brother. Yeah,
801
00:53:43.840 --> 00:53:46.880
it's it's just so interesting, you
know. Um. I remember this,
802
00:53:46.880 --> 00:53:50.800
this this anecdote the Kane Hotter.
I don't know if Kane Hotter is,
803
00:53:50.840 --> 00:53:54.480
but he was Jason thirteenth from seven
on, and he once they actually
804
00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:58.400
were talking to him once and they
said who was the best actor you've ever
805
00:53:58.440 --> 00:54:04.280
worked with? And his response was
Charlie Cholice thereon and he said he was
806
00:54:04.360 --> 00:54:08.719
just absolutely phenomenal monster and he said
that she just blew everyone away and he's
807
00:54:08.800 --> 00:54:12.000
never worked someone. You know,
it's just it's it was. She was
808
00:54:12.039 --> 00:54:15.360
just beyond you know what he was
used to, you know what I mean.
809
00:54:15.639 --> 00:54:19.000
Yeah, that's what A friend of
mine who saw Curry Road was just
810
00:54:19.039 --> 00:54:24.599
like The Thrones amazing because she's looking
in the rear view mirror and acting and
811
00:54:24.639 --> 00:54:30.519
you kind of like, I can't
do that, like to to have volumes
812
00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:36.719
of backstory in a look, it's
huge, you know, Yeah, absolutely,
813
00:54:36.800 --> 00:54:38.000
I mean that's why you know,
I think the movie does work.
814
00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:40.119
I mean, I haven't seen it. I'm just hearing. I'm the stand
815
00:54:40.280 --> 00:54:44.199
works behind him as one. But
you know, I mean you've got Tom
816
00:54:44.239 --> 00:54:47.119
Hardy who's phenomenal, and you have
her, who I think is absolutely phenomenal.
817
00:54:47.159 --> 00:54:50.880
I loved her and Prometheus. I
don't know if you saw Prometheus.
818
00:54:51.079 --> 00:54:53.079
Yeah, I wasn't the biggest fan
of that one, man. I loved
819
00:54:53.119 --> 00:54:58.719
her though, Yeah, she was. You know, I just have a
820
00:54:58.760 --> 00:55:01.679
big soft spot for that movie.
I know it has falls, like everyone
821
00:55:01.760 --> 00:55:05.440
has. That's the thing is everyone
has those movies that connect to you on
822
00:55:05.480 --> 00:55:08.159
a certain capacity. So there are
very There are very few movies I will
823
00:55:08.199 --> 00:55:14.320
refer to as horrendous or terrible simply
because you're connected with them on a certain
824
00:55:14.440 --> 00:55:16.800
level. I mean, I have
movies that are indefensible, but I love
825
00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:22.320
them because they they amuse me in
a way that only that could movie could
826
00:55:22.360 --> 00:55:27.480
you know? Yeh yeah, I
totally totally understand. So you know,
827
00:55:27.559 --> 00:55:30.079
there we were talking about an hour. Now, I know you have you
828
00:55:30.079 --> 00:55:32.280
know, I don't want to take
too much of your time, so you
829
00:55:32.280 --> 00:55:37.159
know, I have one question or
actually two questions that came in from the
830
00:55:37.159 --> 00:55:40.760
fans, if you don't mind.
Uh um. The first question I actually
831
00:55:42.599 --> 00:55:46.679
I briefly referred to earlier was about
what the question is. I'm just going
832
00:55:46.760 --> 00:55:51.000
to paraphrase this is, you know, with a lot of talk in the
833
00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:54.599
industry about script consultants, where do
you feel that they fit into the whole
834
00:55:55.039 --> 00:56:00.159
screamining process. You know, it's
hard from me because I'm Sony is my
835
00:56:00.199 --> 00:56:06.400
script consultant, you know, and
so between her and Josh Adler's my manager.
836
00:56:07.519 --> 00:56:10.719
You know, that's that's where I've
gotten. But I would argue that,
837
00:56:12.719 --> 00:56:15.960
you know, my dad used to
say the phrase that when you bring
838
00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:21.719
in someone to do a job and
you're getting a quote, get five quotes
839
00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:25.079
you throughout the biggest one, throughout
the lowest one. And with script consulting
840
00:56:25.280 --> 00:56:29.239
is if you look at the numbers, if it makes sense for you,
841
00:56:29.400 --> 00:56:32.840
great and a lot of times,
especially nowadays, you can find some good
842
00:56:32.840 --> 00:56:39.280
ones that all you need is to
hear back both that criticism and encouragement make
843
00:56:39.320 --> 00:56:42.559
you better. You know. I
would argue that a lot of us have
844
00:56:42.840 --> 00:56:47.159
people who serve the script consultation capacity
in some respect. But for the pros,
845
00:56:47.480 --> 00:56:51.639
they're reading tons of scripts. They
know that, they know, they
846
00:56:51.639 --> 00:56:54.519
know it's selling, they know it's
not And I think, even though I
847
00:56:54.519 --> 00:56:59.199
haven't done it before, I can
see the value in it. Just don't
848
00:56:59.239 --> 00:57:04.920
spend in you know, an ungodly
amount, you know, so in your
849
00:57:04.960 --> 00:57:07.119
opinion, you know what's like,
do you think there should be like a
850
00:57:07.119 --> 00:57:08.480
calp of like one hundred dollars,
a thousand dollars or something like that.
851
00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:12.920
Well, you know, you can't
really say a figure because who is it?
852
00:57:13.079 --> 00:57:15.119
You know? Um, you know, at a certain point, like
853
00:57:15.199 --> 00:57:21.800
if you buy a luxury ice cream
container for eight dollars, you're like,
854
00:57:21.800 --> 00:57:23.760
oh sweet, would you buy it
for eighty? Fuck? It's ice cream.
855
00:57:23.840 --> 00:57:27.280
At a certain point, what is
it that you're buying? You know?
856
00:57:28.760 --> 00:57:30.519
Very true? Uh, you're just
as a As a funny side note,
857
00:57:30.559 --> 00:57:36.159
I actually just saw in I think
it was Abu Dhabi or um Uh
858
00:57:36.199 --> 00:57:38.840
somewhere in the Middle East they actually
have ice cream. Now that's like a
859
00:57:38.920 --> 00:57:46.199
thousand dollars an ounce. What's in
it? Gold flakes, dot diamonds and
860
00:57:46.519 --> 00:57:52.000
um caviare and something else. But
it's but it's like the way they make
861
00:57:52.039 --> 00:57:54.239
it is they it's all freeze dried, right, so they make it literally
862
00:57:54.280 --> 00:57:57.880
they make it right in front of
you from scratch, everything from scratch.
863
00:57:58.079 --> 00:58:00.760
It's not not not the diamonds of
course, but like the ice cream.
864
00:58:00.800 --> 00:58:02.920
And then what they do is they
put it into this they mix it up
865
00:58:02.920 --> 00:58:07.599
with everything, and then they top
it with gold flakes. I don't know
866
00:58:07.639 --> 00:58:12.760
who told me this years ago.
They're like it was when the Trump Hotel
867
00:58:12.800 --> 00:58:15.239
I think was serving up this eight
hundred dollars hamburger, you know, and
868
00:58:15.320 --> 00:58:21.079
he said, if I ever found
myself wondering about that burger and ordering it,
869
00:58:21.320 --> 00:58:23.079
I should just give that money away. And I think that's the truth
870
00:58:23.079 --> 00:58:28.280
for most of life. Like if
I buy myself wanting to buy a Bentley.
871
00:58:28.559 --> 00:58:31.800
I should give that money away if
I had it, So, yeah,
872
00:58:31.800 --> 00:58:36.400
I know what you mean, although
I would say I probably would buy
873
00:58:36.440 --> 00:58:43.280
it Bentley. You know it's funny. Um. Joe Esterhaus once said that
874
00:58:44.039 --> 00:58:46.400
there's a there's a great way if
you ever stuck on a screenplay. He
875
00:58:46.440 --> 00:58:52.639
has found the perfect way to get
unstuck and cure writer's block. And he
876
00:58:52.719 --> 00:58:55.800
said, what you do is you
go down to find your local um exotic
877
00:58:55.880 --> 00:59:00.480
car dealer and you either get like
a Lamborghini or Ferrari. And he took
878
00:59:00.480 --> 00:59:01.559
it off for the weekend and he
said, well, by the time you
879
00:59:01.599 --> 00:59:05.599
get back, you're going to do
anything in your power to make sure you
880
00:59:05.599 --> 00:59:10.119
can buy one so you could drive
that again. I like that. Uh
881
00:59:10.199 --> 00:59:14.000
yeah, and uh, I'm actually
trying to get him on the podcast.
882
00:59:14.039 --> 00:59:16.760
By the way, um might be
a little little Is he still writing or
883
00:59:17.400 --> 00:59:21.440
I know he kind of had a
big blow up the industry kind of took
884
00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:24.280
a took some time off. Oh
he's still writing, okay, sweet and
885
00:59:24.440 --> 00:59:29.280
uh because his last work was actually
a book. It's an e book called
886
00:59:29.360 --> 00:59:35.840
Heaven and Mel and it's all about
working with Mel Gibson. Nice and uh.
887
00:59:36.159 --> 00:59:39.159
The other question that came in Derek
was how do I go about getting
888
00:59:39.159 --> 00:59:45.880
a screenplay mentor good? Question?
Man um, if I look at my
889
00:59:46.039 --> 00:59:52.599
own life, find someone in your
life who reads, you know uh and
890
00:59:52.719 --> 00:59:59.599
reads voraciously simply because when you read, you you know what's good, you
891
00:59:59.599 --> 01:00:04.079
know what's you know it works and
you know. The other thing, too,
892
01:00:04.199 --> 01:00:07.280
is my thing about screenwriting, especially
the industry I said at the beginning,
893
01:00:07.400 --> 01:00:10.920
is you have to be here.
I know you can hate LA and
894
01:00:12.280 --> 01:00:15.280
hate New York you, but you
have to be here. You could,
895
01:00:15.519 --> 01:00:20.400
honestly you move to LA right now, jump online and find a group of
896
01:00:20.440 --> 01:00:22.639
people who will read your screenplay in
four to eight hours because they're trying to
897
01:00:22.679 --> 01:00:25.800
do the same thing. And it's
kind of like the brotherhood of the script.
898
01:00:27.079 --> 01:00:30.719
And you know that's the best.
If you really want to see if
899
01:00:30.760 --> 01:00:35.159
you can fail on this movie,
here, you know we'll be right back
900
01:00:35.280 --> 01:00:43.800
after a word from our sponsor and
now back to the show. But if
901
01:00:43.800 --> 01:00:47.599
you don't and you want advice,
seek out the people who love the medium.
902
01:00:49.119 --> 01:00:52.440
And it's amazing too. The other
thing too is you'll know if you
903
01:00:52.440 --> 01:00:54.960
have a good script when you have
your friends sit around and read it out
904
01:00:55.000 --> 01:01:00.920
loud, because it's amazing, especially
with comedy, something that intimates the shit
905
01:01:00.079 --> 01:01:06.400
out of me, where it's funny
to you, it's funny on the page,
906
01:01:06.400 --> 01:01:08.320
and when it's spoken out loud,
it's just like gravel, you know.
907
01:01:08.920 --> 01:01:15.119
And uh, that's what i'd say. That's a very good point,
908
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:16.039
by the way, Derek, just
to sort of add onto that, did
909
01:01:16.039 --> 01:01:20.719
you see the Blacklist has its own
podcast now where they're actually reading some like
910
01:01:20.800 --> 01:01:23.320
unproduced screenplays. Really, Yeah,
that's a really cool idea, man.
911
01:01:23.679 --> 01:01:29.480
Yeah. The first one they did
was Balls Out. I haven't read that
912
01:01:29.519 --> 01:01:31.760
one. I've heard of it.
Somebody once told me about it, and
913
01:01:31.760 --> 01:01:37.599
then I heard Craig Mason mentioned it
again. Um, Craig Mason, you
914
01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:39.039
know who he is, right,
Yeah, Okay, So like he mentioned
915
01:01:39.079 --> 01:01:40.920
it and I looked it up and
I was like, wow, it's easy
916
01:01:42.000 --> 01:01:46.360
to find, and apparently it's been
circling around Hollywood for years but nobody actually
917
01:01:46.360 --> 01:01:51.159
wants to make it. But everyone's
like this is fucking hilarious ha ha,
918
01:01:51.480 --> 01:01:54.199
and they just pass it on and
and it's been like why the hell.
919
01:01:54.280 --> 01:01:59.880
So apparently it does get like pretty
outrageous and stuff. So I'm actually gonna
920
01:02:00.159 --> 01:02:01.599
one of these days. But I've
read the first twenty pages and I thought
921
01:02:01.639 --> 01:02:05.880
it was hilarious. Like, have
you read the screenplay Passengers? No?
922
01:02:05.960 --> 01:02:08.679
I haven't, dude, that's that's
one right now. I think I think
923
01:02:08.719 --> 01:02:12.559
Chris Pratt's attached. I don't know
who do the female leader is right now?
924
01:02:13.079 --> 01:02:15.840
Um, that's one that every exact
I talked to is like, that's
925
01:02:15.880 --> 01:02:19.960
the best screenplay I've read in five
years, but we passed on it.
926
01:02:20.440 --> 01:02:22.920
And the realities of this business are
It's like, let's say you read a
927
01:02:22.960 --> 01:02:27.559
screenplay and it's your favorite ever,
but you're like, that's one hundred and
928
01:02:27.599 --> 01:02:34.719
twenty million dollar h you know,
pgt R rated sci fi thriller. That's
929
01:02:34.840 --> 01:02:38.159
unique. You know, it's not
based on anything. You know, you've
930
01:02:38.159 --> 01:02:43.480
got shareholders. Man, it's it's
a huge risk. So when people pass
931
01:02:43.559 --> 01:02:45.760
on certain stuff, like I've talked
to a number of peop who passed on
932
01:02:45.840 --> 01:02:50.039
Gravity, you're like wow, and
then you realize, oh, yeah,
933
01:02:50.079 --> 01:02:52.199
if you hadn't seen the visuals and
we're reading, I get it, you
934
01:02:52.239 --> 01:02:58.159
know. And yet every now and
then, especially being in aspiring ready like
935
01:02:58.159 --> 01:03:00.599
yourself, oh fuck that you were
a writer, you know, is when
936
01:03:00.599 --> 01:03:05.760
you go to the theater and you're
like, you get twelve minutes into a
937
01:03:05.800 --> 01:03:07.679
movie, like, how is this
made? And a lot of times even
938
01:03:07.679 --> 01:03:13.760
the people involved like, I don't
know happen? Yeah, there's a there's
939
01:03:13.760 --> 01:03:17.280
another podcast to uh how did this
get made? And um I love that?
940
01:03:17.639 --> 01:03:22.000
Oh yeah, And I first I
was like what the hell? But
941
01:03:22.159 --> 01:03:24.280
um but yeah, yeah, I
know exactly what you mean. You know,
942
01:03:24.360 --> 01:03:27.480
they they even mentioned, you know, what the hell happened here?
943
01:03:27.760 --> 01:03:30.599
But you know it's funny there.
Remember Land of the Loss when that came
944
01:03:30.599 --> 01:03:34.679
out with Will Ferrell. Yeah,
that that studio they booked, they booked
945
01:03:34.679 --> 01:03:37.639
so much on that, and then
what happened was when it failed, everyone
946
01:03:37.800 --> 01:03:42.360
got fired. Yeah. And that's
the kind of thing though that you can't
947
01:03:42.519 --> 01:03:45.239
you feel for certain people involved,
because I remember talking to the producers of
948
01:03:45.920 --> 01:03:52.639
Jonah Hecks and uh, they you
know, this was after the fact that
949
01:03:52.679 --> 01:03:54.679
they were like Derek, the screenplay
was fun, it was, it was
950
01:03:54.719 --> 01:04:00.079
a blast. The table reads were
great. Three weeks before shooting, they
951
01:04:00.159 --> 01:04:02.000
carved off like fifteen million dollars or
a budget. We thought we'd be fine,
952
01:04:02.360 --> 01:04:05.119
and then when we started seeing dailies, we were like, what happened.
953
01:04:06.199 --> 01:04:10.079
It's just again, it's a miracle
when you get a good movie,
954
01:04:10.239 --> 01:04:14.960
and it's simply because you know,
it's it begins and ends with a script.
955
01:04:15.039 --> 01:04:19.320
Sure, but at certain points people
step in and the script gets muddied
956
01:04:19.559 --> 01:04:26.000
and things happen, you know,
And often you've seen a bad movie that's
957
01:04:26.039 --> 01:04:29.480
only bad when it hits the second
act. You know, that's more often
958
01:04:29.519 --> 01:04:32.639
than not. Yeah, very true. U. Yeah, something I've always
959
01:04:32.639 --> 01:04:39.719
heard is the second act is where
movies go to die. Yeah. Yeah,
960
01:04:39.760 --> 01:04:45.519
I mean I would argue that the
movies I write the I mean I
961
01:04:45.639 --> 01:04:47.960
love just action, I love thrillers, I love scihi. The work is
962
01:04:47.960 --> 01:04:53.039
an act two. I mean act
one you come up with you when you're
963
01:04:53.039 --> 01:04:56.159
out for a walk or you're you're
having a meal. Act three is just
964
01:04:56.320 --> 01:05:00.519
fun because you can finish the fucker. But act two that's where the writing
965
01:05:00.559 --> 01:05:04.320
comes in. Man, And when
you start receiving notes, all your notes
966
01:05:04.400 --> 01:05:11.079
or an act too, not one
or three. Uh so you know,
967
01:05:11.159 --> 01:05:14.360
Derek enclosing, Uh you know,
I mean we could talk all day,
968
01:05:14.559 --> 01:05:15.800
you and I I could tell we
have you know, we have we have
969
01:05:15.840 --> 01:05:19.280
the same taste of movies. We've
got We're both give a show when the
970
01:05:19.280 --> 01:05:23.840
next film comes out. Man,
okay, definitely, because you were both
971
01:05:23.880 --> 01:05:27.239
have degrees in business, we both
do writing, we both have red hair.
972
01:05:27.880 --> 01:05:32.519
Um losing my shit, man my
uh but thank you for that writer
973
01:05:32.639 --> 01:05:36.320
coming by the way. Yeah,
so's the thing. It's like I always
974
01:05:36.360 --> 01:05:41.360
have to stop myself because it's kind
of a Kiana said about he doesn't do
975
01:05:41.639 --> 01:05:45.000
he doesn't do stunts. He's really
doing it. And so when I talk
976
01:05:45.039 --> 01:05:47.719
to people, it's like, you're
not to say you're an aspiring screenwriter means
977
01:05:47.719 --> 01:05:50.599
you want to be a screen writer
who's being paid. But to be a
978
01:05:50.599 --> 01:05:54.000
writer is to be a writer.
And as soon as you have one person
979
01:05:54.079 --> 01:05:59.199
read it, you've affected their entire
life. And I think it's it's a
980
01:05:59.280 --> 01:06:03.199
difficult career, and yet it's it's
a fun one. And I'm not saying
981
01:06:03.239 --> 01:06:06.480
John Wick is going to be out
there changing people's lives. But I want
982
01:06:06.559 --> 01:06:11.599
being new movies that like Predator die
Hard for instance, where you're at you're
983
01:06:11.639 --> 01:06:14.960
at a hotel one night, it's
eleven o'clock, you're tired. You turn
984
01:06:15.039 --> 01:06:16.400
on the TV. It's halfway through
Predator, and you're like, fucking I
985
01:06:16.400 --> 01:06:19.599
gotta watch it. Those are the
movies I love. I mean, I
986
01:06:19.599 --> 01:06:24.159
remember when I when I beyond the
commercials for John Wick. I was on
987
01:06:24.159 --> 01:06:26.920
Facebook one day and a friend of
mine, who's kind of a hard guy
988
01:06:26.920 --> 01:06:29.960
to please with movies, actually was
like, John Wick and you know,
989
01:06:30.039 --> 01:06:32.400
dot dot dot the ellipsis and he
wrote, that was pretty fucking good.
990
01:06:33.880 --> 01:06:36.599
See that's the best. That's what
I want, you know. And in
991
01:06:36.639 --> 01:06:41.599
fact, I had people on Facebook
who were like in their late seventies,
992
01:06:41.639 --> 01:06:45.519
early eighties, friends of my grandmother
who hadn't seen an R rated movie since
993
01:06:45.679 --> 01:06:48.519
maybe The Godfather. They want to
see it to support me, and they're
994
01:06:48.559 --> 01:06:54.719
just like, I really enjoyed that. He because I mean, there's a
995
01:06:54.800 --> 01:06:56.960
couple of things in John Wick.
Like I said, people, if you're
996
01:06:56.960 --> 01:06:59.280
listening to this, told you job
was going to dig into it, but
997
01:06:59.440 --> 01:07:00.519
just you know, real quick,
I know, you know you have to
998
01:07:00.559 --> 01:07:02.719
go. But when when John Wick, you know, was going through the
999
01:07:02.840 --> 01:07:06.239
nightclub and he's all action scene and
we're falling the whole time, and it's
1000
01:07:06.280 --> 01:07:11.679
just everything about that which just all
came together beautifully, and I was like
1001
01:07:11.679 --> 01:07:14.320
and I was like, damn,
that's a really good action scene right there.
1002
01:07:14.840 --> 01:07:17.360
Yeah, And what's fun is you
know, Chad and Dave their background
1003
01:07:17.519 --> 01:07:20.840
is, you know, is stunt
direction and that kind of stuff. But
1004
01:07:20.880 --> 01:07:25.559
what I loved about working with them
and what I love about working with them
1005
01:07:25.599 --> 01:07:30.199
now is a lot of the action
beats I wrote into the script are on
1006
01:07:30.239 --> 01:07:33.079
the screen. Like to see that
John shoots that guy's foot and he leans
1007
01:07:33.079 --> 01:07:35.000
forward and shoots his head. I'm
like, that was in the screenplay,
1008
01:07:35.400 --> 01:07:39.599
and so I know for a lot
of like the Marvel movies are the bigger
1009
01:07:39.639 --> 01:07:44.480
properties. They say, John Wick
fights fifteen guys, like in the script.
1010
01:07:44.800 --> 01:07:49.519
They gave me the opportunity to help
them along the action action wise.
1011
01:07:49.559 --> 01:07:57.360
And what I love about their directing
style is there's no quick cuts. They're
1012
01:07:57.400 --> 01:08:00.599
doing all of these moves. They're
landing all of these blows, and it's
1013
01:08:00.760 --> 01:08:02.199
it's kind of like an ode to
the Kung Fu I grew up with,
1014
01:08:02.320 --> 01:08:05.239
you know, and we had fun
with it then and weren't gonna have a
1015
01:08:05.280 --> 01:08:11.320
blast with it in the next Is
there a rough date for the release date
1016
01:08:11.320 --> 01:08:15.239
for the next one? Not?
Not not really, lions Gate really wants
1017
01:08:15.280 --> 01:08:18.920
one. Uh, They're they're talking
with various people and can right now so
1018
01:08:18.960 --> 01:08:23.399
we could shoot in the fall or
we could shoot in the spring. Um,
1019
01:08:23.800 --> 01:08:27.960
the Lions Gates has been very very
generous. I mean it's very rare
1020
01:08:28.399 --> 01:08:30.960
to be in a place where you
have a green Let movie, you know,
1021
01:08:30.520 --> 01:08:34.159
and it's green Let and they're like
the sooner the better, and yet
1022
01:08:34.359 --> 01:08:39.880
they want to massage this into a
franchise. And Kano, who's you know,
1023
01:08:39.960 --> 01:08:43.319
implicit in all of this, is
very careful to do so as well.
1024
01:08:44.279 --> 01:08:46.319
And that's absolutely phenomenal. And you, Derek, I want to say
1025
01:08:46.319 --> 01:08:50.439
congratulations on all your success you've you
know, you've definitely earned it, and
1026
01:08:50.560 --> 01:08:54.119
you know I wish you nothing but
the best with you know, John Wick
1027
01:08:54.159 --> 01:08:57.479
two and hopefully John Wick three and
uh, you know all the other future
1028
01:08:57.479 --> 01:08:59.840
products you have due. Thanks a
lot, man. I enjoy talking to
1029
01:09:00.399 --> 01:09:02.560
Oh I believe it my pleasure man, anytime I can get talking about like
1030
01:09:02.600 --> 01:09:09.520
movies, like anyone who's seen Man
Squito or or or or Killed Dozer or
1031
01:09:09.640 --> 01:09:13.560
future? Do you see Rubber?
Yes? I did see Rubber. Yes.
1032
01:09:14.920 --> 01:09:16.800
You know, if you ever really
want to punish yourself and it goes
1033
01:09:16.840 --> 01:09:19.800
for finaloe you, Derek. For
anyone listening, if you want to see
1034
01:09:19.800 --> 01:09:24.319
the worst film that I've ever seen, I know exactly what it is.
1035
01:09:24.359 --> 01:09:30.600
And it's called Nuki. What Nuki, It's n u Kie and it's a
1036
01:09:30.640 --> 01:09:35.560
movie about two aliens at crash land
in Africa, and it is it was
1037
01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:40.319
supposed to be like a kids movie, like a rip off of ET and
1038
01:09:40.800 --> 01:09:45.159
it is so odd and bad and
boring and dead. It's it's it's it's
1039
01:09:45.199 --> 01:09:47.960
hailed. As you know, they
usually have the worst movies ever made.
1040
01:09:48.439 --> 01:09:53.399
Uh, they usually put Plan nine
on, but Plan nine's actually entertaining this.
1041
01:09:53.399 --> 01:09:56.920
This is just bad. So so
if you ever an I'll link to
1042
01:09:56.960 --> 01:09:59.800
it in the show notes too,
if everybody who actually wants to venture out
1043
01:09:59.840 --> 01:10:02.359
to seen Uki. But it is
absolutely barned on the worst movie I've ever
1044
01:10:02.399 --> 01:10:08.079
seen in my life. We'll be
right back after a word from our sponsor,
1045
01:10:11.680 --> 01:10:16.960
and now back to the show.
Have you seen Martyrs? Martyrs?
1046
01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:20.159
No, that is one of the
most disturbing horror movies I've ever seen,
1047
01:10:20.279 --> 01:10:25.159
So okay, I'll make I'm making
a note of that. That and uh,
1048
01:10:25.319 --> 01:10:28.479
three Extremes is awesome. Yeah,
I have seen extremes. Three extremes.
1049
01:10:28.800 --> 01:10:31.880
Yeah, and I could go for
hours, man, Yeah, seriously,
1050
01:10:31.880 --> 01:10:34.920
I mean we could always be talking. I mean that's uh, that's
1051
01:10:34.960 --> 01:10:39.800
what helps me to find you know, find somebody like yourself and who just
1052
01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:43.359
seen all these random movies that I've
seen. Uh, and I'm gonna check
1053
01:10:43.359 --> 01:10:45.880
out that movie cast up blank you
mentioned. I don't know I've Hey,
1054
01:10:45.880 --> 01:10:49.520
when you're out, man, give
me a shot, dude, we'll do
1055
01:10:49.680 --> 01:10:57.640
Derek and oh Derek where we'll find
you out online nowhere. I don't do
1056
01:10:57.680 --> 01:11:02.760
Twitter or anything, Okay, So
I just I'm just a private guy.
1057
01:11:02.800 --> 01:11:08.279
Man cool and uh, you know, everybody can find me at Dave Bullis
1058
01:11:08.319 --> 01:11:11.319
dot com. Uh, you can, you can find you can find me.
1059
01:11:11.359 --> 01:11:14.479
I'm a I try to be private, but I watch social stuff going
1060
01:11:14.520 --> 01:11:17.960
on. You know what I meant, chattels um. But actually, Derek,
1061
01:11:17.960 --> 01:11:20.920
I want to say thanks again for
coming on and h please anytime I
1062
01:11:20.960 --> 01:11:24.039
want to come back, just let
me know. Sure. Thank good looking
1063
01:11:24.079 --> 01:11:29.159
on man. Like I said,
that was an awesome, awesome interview Derek.
1064
01:11:29.439 --> 01:11:30.560
I'm a huge fan of Derek and
I'm a huge fan of the John
1065
01:11:30.600 --> 01:11:34.960
Wick franchise. So if you do
want to get more episodes, buy Dave
1066
01:11:35.039 --> 01:11:41.119
Bullis on the Make Your Movie podcast. Just head over to I f H
1067
01:11:41.520 --> 01:11:46.880
podcast Network dot com and check out
all of the other amazing podcasts that we
1068
01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:53.560
have in the network that is focused
on filmmaking, film history and analysis,
1069
01:11:53.800 --> 01:11:58.520
and screenwriting. Thanks again for listening
guys, As always, keep on writing
1070
01:11:58.720 --> 01:12:01.560
no matter what. Talk to you
soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof
1071
01:12:01.600 --> 01:12:05.279
Screenwriting podcasts at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.
1
00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:08.800
You are listening to the IFH podcast
Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
2
00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:14.839
podcasts, just go to IFH podcast
network dot com. You know, even
3
00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:23.600
with the green Light, we've we've
chaotically gone between different storylines, and yet
4
00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:28.280
what we've remained true to is I
don't want to look at at it as
5
00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:31.359
a sequel. I want to look
at it as an John Wick chapter two.
6
00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:36.240
Because what the Faster Furious did so
well is after the third one is
7
00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:39.320
they weren't sequels anymore. They were
chapters. And I think those are the
8
00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:43.560
best. Those are the best franchises
to have broadcasting from a dark, windowless
9
00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:47.359
room in Hollywood when we really should
be working on that next draft. It's
10
00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:52.880
the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you
the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching
11
00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:57.640
you how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
12
00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:03.519
Welcome to a special crossover edition of
the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. Now.
13
00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:10.680
Today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof script
Coverage. Now. Unlike other script coverage
14
00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:15.239
services, Bulletproof script Coverage actually focuses
on the kind of project you are.
15
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In the goals of the project you
are, so we actually break it down
16
00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.840
by three categories, micro budget,
indie film, market, and studio film.
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00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:26.000
There's no reason to get coverage from
a reader that used to reading temp
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bowl movies when your movie is going
to be done for one hundred thousand dollars,
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and we wanted to focus on that. At Bulletproof Script Coverage, our
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readers have worked with Marvel Studios,
CIA, WM, NBC, HBO,
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Disney, Scott Free, Warner Brothers, The Blacklist, and many many more.
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So if you need your screenplay or
TV script covered by professional readers,
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head on over to cover my screenplay
dot com. Now, guys, today
24
00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:59.840
we have a special crossover edition of
the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I have today
25
00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:07.799
on the show Derek Colstad, who
is the creator and screenwriter of the amazing
26
00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:15.000
John Wick. Now. This episode
originally aired on the Make Your Movie podcast
27
00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:21.599
hosted by Dave Bullis, which is
part of the Indie Film Hustle podcast network,
28
00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:27.599
and I had to bring this episode
to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Tribe because it
29
00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:31.199
is pretty remarkable. If you want
to know how Derek was able to create
30
00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:36.800
this insanely wonderful world that John Wick
lives in and how he was able to
31
00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:39.280
get the project up off the ground, and how Kiano got involved in the
32
00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:45.240
whole ball of wax. This episode
is for you, so enjoy this special
33
00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:52.360
crossover episode without any further ado.
Here is Derek Colstad. Joining me today
34
00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:57.280
is Derek Colstead. Derek is a
screenwriter of John Wick and the upcoming John
35
00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:00.240
Wick. To Derek, how are
you doing today, Sarah doo, I'm
36
00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:01.400
tired. I can't remember last time
I had a weekend. But those are
37
00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:06.680
good problems to have, so so
Jared, just to get started, could
38
00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:08.960
you give us a little bit about
your background. Yeah, I grew up
39
00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:15.400
in Matdis, Wisconsin. Uh,
you know, I'm forty one this year.
40
00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:16.800
And when I was a little kid
in the early eighties, that's when
41
00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:21.800
the VHS moon happened, and uh, you know, people ask me how
42
00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:23.800
I got into this, and you
know a lot of people don't remember.
43
00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:28.840
But like in line at Shop Kill
or wherever you shopped, you would have
44
00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:34.439
a bargain been of VHS tapes and
my mom would would purchase them. And
45
00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.000
we didn't have cable, we can
afford it. And on Sundays, especially
46
00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:42.199
Sunday nights, PBS would actually show
like the conversation and the Godfather that kind
47
00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:46.400
of stuffed and so I snacked downstairs, and my love of movies, you
48
00:03:46.439 --> 00:03:50.360
know, just began there. And
uh, it's really interesting that I was,
49
00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.000
uh, you know, growing up
Matdis Wisconsin. You have a very
50
00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:58.240
red family, very conservative, but
very supportive, like I didn't lie.
51
00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:00.400
I remember coming home from hem to
a theater and they asked me what I
52
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:04.120
had seen. And I had seen
Robocap, which any other kid would have
53
00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:09.319
gotten into some serious trouble about,
but in reality, they looked at each
54
00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:14.120
other after I told him and just
said, hey, you know, we
55
00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:17.120
should probably support him in this.
And so, you know, being a
56
00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.319
Midwestern kid, though, the idea
of getting into film was a dream.
57
00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:23.839
And so when I went to college, it was for business, but I
58
00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:29.839
kept writing and became I worked for
Dale Carnegie in Chicago. And what got
59
00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:31.800
me out here is my little brother
called and he's asked me how I was
60
00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:35.439
doing, and I broke down and
started crying. And I'm not an emotional
61
00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:39.680
guy. And the realization was I
had to come out here to see if
62
00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:41.920
I was going to fail. It
wasn't a matter of success, you know.
63
00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:46.079
And so I had my little golf
TDI, and half the back seat
64
00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:49.720
was taken up by a large fucking
Dell computer and a CR Team monitor.
65
00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:54.040
I drove out here, you know, and I was fifteen years ago,
66
00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:58.399
and apparently fifteen years was an overnight
success. So that's a little bit of
67
00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:01.240
my background. Man. And that
was a great movie to pick, by
68
00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:04.920
the way. Oh dude, dude, Yeah, you know the other favorite
69
00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:10.279
story I tell almost everyone I meet. I was allowed to see, you
70
00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:13.720
know, Raise a Lost Dark,
but Temple of Doom was too demony,
71
00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:15.879
you know. Uh So my parents
went and saw it and I got back
72
00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:18.839
and I was so excited, and
I had my dad sit down and tell
73
00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:23.279
me that the movie right from the
beginning, and it was awesome. I
74
00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:25.959
saw three years later, I realized
my dad had fallen asleep in the movie
75
00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:31.240
and just made up a story.
It's still my favorite, man, that's
76
00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:34.600
absolutely did you actually when you saw
the movie, for one, when you
77
00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:38.120
finally sold the whole movie, did
you go with a minute? This is
78
00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:40.879
nothing like what my dad said?
Well, I could. It was funny
79
00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:43.720
because I could tell the point where
he fell asleep. You know. It
80
00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:46.720
was the opening sequence in Japan,
which is you know, just legendary and
81
00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.480
then you have that kind of slow
junpt between the first and second act and
82
00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:55.680
my dad my dad's and the tories
for falling asleep in movies, most notably
83
00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:59.800
animated ones, and so I mean
some of the stories we all share.
84
00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:02.240
We the movie would start and I'd
hear from the end of the hour,
85
00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:08.319
oh it's animated. Thirty seconds later
you heard him snoring. So good guy.
86
00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:15.439
But still yeah, my dad fell
asleep at Star Wars episode one,
87
00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:17.519
and he had like afterward, somebody
asked HI about the movie and he was
88
00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:25.160
like, I had no, I
don't even remember anything, so you know,
89
00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:28.360
you know, So Derek, when
you say you know you were you
90
00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:31.600
were in college for business, did
you actually graduate with a degree in business?
91
00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:36.240
I did. I did, And
I went got business administration, and
92
00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:40.360
then a miner in English, well
a lot of miners, because let's be
93
00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:43.519
honest, it's pretty easy at a
bunch of miners. And then I went
94
00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:46.240
and worked for the family company back
in Maizomin in Wisconsin, which is Wickholmes,
95
00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:50.639
which was a construction company. And
then I moved to Chicago. And
96
00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:57.480
during this time I was still writing, but I wasn't I was writing short
97
00:06:57.480 --> 00:07:00.079
stories and screenplays I wasn't really sending
them off. I wasn't reading books about
98
00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:04.439
screenwriting. It's just in college I
suffered from insomnia and the only thing that
99
00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:08.279
could actually get me to sleep is
putting my dreams down on page, you
100
00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:12.600
know. And it wasn't until that
phone call from my brother where it's like,
101
00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:15.720
fuck it, I gotta trying.
You know. So when you were
102
00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:19.560
writing, were you focusing on screenplays
or do you actually you'll focus on just
103
00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:23.279
writing, like you know, short
stories, long stories, or anything anything
104
00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:27.439
in particular. You know, I
have a huge respect for people who write
105
00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:31.319
novels simply because you know, in
a screenplay it's like fat and exterior interior.
106
00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.800
It's one sentence, and you read
a great novel and it's like,
107
00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:40.199
holy crap. They're spending time to
just craft the world. And what I'm
108
00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:43.240
trying to do is tell a good
story that fits in ninety minutes, you
109
00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:46.680
know. And so what I loved
about screenwriting, what I still love aout
110
00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:50.319
screenwriting is I'm notoriously fast, but
more importantly, I can move from one
111
00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:54.160
story the next, and that's why
I like short stories as well. In
112
00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:55.600
fact, you know, when I
was a kid, I was the guy
113
00:07:55.600 --> 00:08:00.920
who was teased at sleepovers because everything
scared me, and so as a you
114
00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:03.639
know, as a temperament to that, I got into reading Stephen King.
115
00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:09.319
And Stephen King short stories to this
day, you know, are a massive
116
00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:11.319
influence. And I still, you
know, I have them all behind me
117
00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:15.519
on my bookshelf. I mean that
that's glory. Dude. I can't.
118
00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:18.600
I want to do what he can
do in the short form, but he's
119
00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.680
the master. Oh. Absolutely,
did you have his book on writing?
120
00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.319
I do. It's one of the
few books on writing that I've read.
121
00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:31.519
So, uh, what other books
on writing do you do you recommend?
122
00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:39.720
You know? Not many? My
thing is like just right, you know,
123
00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:43.440
I remember someone I don't know what
the book was. Again, I'm
124
00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:46.399
I'm more of a writer nowadays than
a reader. But someone told me once
125
00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:48.559
about the ten thousand hour rule.
I don't know if you've heard of that.
126
00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.519
And in reality, like I look
at the stuff that I wrote,
127
00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:56.799
even like four years ago, and
it pales in the commarison how I'm writing
128
00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:01.320
now simply because I've been doing it
for so long that it's not writing and
129
00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.960
rewriting especially, that's where the skill
comes in. It becomes like an algorithm.
130
00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:09.639
Like it becomes something outside of the
English language. Like you if you
131
00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:13.000
make one change on page three,
you know the ripple effect. But you
132
00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:16.039
know what to look for and to
get to that stage, you just need
133
00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.519
to do it. So you know, people are always like, get the
134
00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:22.360
bad screenplay out of you. In
reality, it's like your first screenplay is
135
00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:24.559
terrible, and then you keep writing
and writing and writing and rewriting, and
136
00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:28.600
at a certain point you find your
stride. Not saying that everyone will become
137
00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:33.559
a writer, but you get better
over time. And the other thing too,
138
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:39.240
is especially when I talk to college
because nowadays I watched the films of
139
00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:43.519
my grandparents and my parents. A
lot of people haven't watched the films of
140
00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:48.120
their parents nowadays. Like I'm very
fluent in film, but a lot of
141
00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:52.240
people nowadays when you hear they haven't
seen Casablanca or The Godfathers, you know,
142
00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:56.759
you name them, like you looking
around my office, like Butch Cassidy
143
00:09:56.840 --> 00:10:00.759
or freaking pulp Fiction or Miller's Crossing, which is arguing best film, my
144
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best my favorite film. Watching right
man, listen, we'll be right back
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after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show. What's
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that movie called Castle, what fucker. No, you know, it's funny.
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I heard Robert McKee whenever he does
one of his seminars, and you
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know, I don't know if you've
read story by him, but he always
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shows Casa Blanca like day two or
three or whatever, and he says,
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anybody in here truly never seen this
before. More and more people are raising
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their hands, and you know he's
like, well, well we're gonna spend
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the next ten hours on this movie. So uh. You know, you
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get comforts funny too, because you
know, you hear when people do their
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top ten lists of films and you
find yourself almost rolling your eyes, like
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of course, Citizen Kane. But
then you put it in and you watch
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it and at minute thirty a minute
five, like, god damn it,
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that's good, you know. And
even if you're you know, I know
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a lot of people who won't watch
black and white films, which astounds me,
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you know, and yet you watch, like, for instance, It's
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a Wonderful Life. Everyone's like,
oh, that's a smarmy piece of Hollywood
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crap. It's an incredibly dark drama. I mean, he's killing himself.
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I mean stuff like that. And
when I encourage people to watch film.
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It's like, dude, ask your
grandfather, ask your mom and dad,
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like what their favorite movie movies wants
because even though you know the timing of
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movies has changed. You look at
the bloom House horror movies compared to those
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in the sixties and seventies, they're
sprinting. You know. Rosemary's Baby is
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really extremely slow. It's genius,
but it's slow. But you have to
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watch it at least once to respect
what was going on. Like Lawrence and
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Arabia, you have to see once. I'm not going to watch it again.
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It's long, but you have to
see it once, you know,
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just to know that everything on screen
is real. They really shot that in
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too. Respect that and learn from
him. Yeah, and very true.
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I remember in one of my film
studies class in college. By the way,
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I have a degree in business administration
too, and I write, so
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you and I are very similar already. So I gotta admit though the PA
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degree is kind of bullshit, but
you know we got it. Oh,
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every day in my life, I
tell everyone, now it's bullshit. I
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sit here and go like when I
still when I'm paying my student loan payments,
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I'm like, what the hell did
I learn. Yeah. But I
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think the big thing about college though, is it really doesn't matter, like,
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uh, you know what your degree
is, you learn to learn.
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And I think you know, when
people don't go to college and come out
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here, great. If you do
go to college to come out here,
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great, But having a college degree
gets you into the mail room. You
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know, unless you know someone,
you still need to have that. Sadly
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and a true a lot of the
root of the positions that I see too,
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for like anything, if you want
to work at the studio or you
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know, like for instance, comedy, I just put a philadine application to
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work there, and they all want
a bachelor's degree, Like that's a minimum
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requirement you have to be bachelor's in
something. You look at guys like,
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you know, Kevin Smith and Tarantino, they are a flash not a flashing.
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Pant's wrong saying they. I mean
they're one a billion. I mean,
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these guys are incredibly talented forces of
nature, and yet they're one of
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a kind. You know, very
few of us are. You need to
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actually have that degree in your belt
to get into the industry, even when
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it comes to but when it comes
to like screenwriting or acting, they don't
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care. You know, good as
good. Yeah, very true, and
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especially too because, uh, you
know, Tarantino he just took a I
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mean, from what I've heard,
he just took got like a two day
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film course to get an understanding.
And when he wrote Reservoir Dogs, that's
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where he met Terry Gilliam, and
Terry Gillham really said him, you know,
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this is what you have to do. And then when he finally got
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around and making Reservoir Dogs, he
was like prime and ready. I mean,
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haven't Terry Gilliam sort of mentor you. I mean that was just like,
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you know, one genius showing another
genius the way. Oh yeah,
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yeah. Well, and I remember
reading an article with Jango about Jango unchanged
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and he said the line that only
Tarantino can say, and it was I
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had to teach myself how to make
a Western. No one else can say
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that. I mean, Tarantino is
a guy who devours film, devours movies
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and has a respect for the shitty
ones as well, which he should.
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I mean, you can you can
pile shit on Roger Corman, flex and
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the stuff that you know a lot
of these Trauma has done, and yet
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you watch it like I kind of
get it. I kind of get it,
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and yet Tarantino loves it and he
applies it, which is huge respect
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there. Yeah, I always heard
Orson Wells two loved I don't know there's
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true not, but he loved to
have film parties at his house and he
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would show like these odd movies and
people would be like, what the hell
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are you watching Orson? And he
was like, no, this is this
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is just something unique. And they
didn't know if he was like, you
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know, making a joke of everybody
or uses as just you know, playing
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is practical joke and everybody, or
if he was dead serious. Well,
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and that's what I loved though about
where we are techno technologically. You know,
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when you think back that when I
was in college, you know,
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twenty twenty two years ago, I
didn't have an email yet, there's no
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cell phone, and the only foreign
movies that the video places had with the
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douci Ones like, of course it's
good, the one the Academy more that
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kind of stuff. But then as
time progresses and I remember being living in
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Chicago and the video place down the
way it had a large Asian section,
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and suddenly you're introduced to Cholee un
Fat and Jet Lead and you're like,
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holy shit, Wow, did I
not know about this crap? You know?
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And now you know, with Amazon
and everything else, like I can
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see movies like The Man from Nowhere. I can see movies like uh I
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saw The Devil, these ones that
back in the day I might have stumbled
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across on cable, but now you're
like, okay, I get it.
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Yeah, And it's very It's very
true too, because I remember going to
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the video stores and you know,
just having to like look at different covers
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and stuff like that, and I
remember this one of the first time I
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discovered We've never heard of and it's
like, you know, holy crap,
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this is freaking awesome. Man.
Yeah. Well, it's kind of funny
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when you think back in the day, everything like in Madison was the video
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station and you'd go in and I
still have a couple of horror titles just
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kind of emblazoned on my brain because
of a whole how horrific the DHS box
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looked. And you end up finally
seeing a movie you're like, oh,
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my friends and I used to have
this like little game we used to play
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where whoever could find the weirdest box
art that's what we like they had.
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They would have different deals, like
I think it was it was five movies
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for five nights or whatever and for
five dollars. And what we do is
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we'd find like them the craziest,
like box Art and whoever could find the
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crazies, that's one of the ones
we would definitely rent and then and stuff
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like that. Well, it's funny
about that is we used to do the
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whole like who can pick out the
worst movie? Right? And so you
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get two or three movies with worst
movies? Is they're boring? You know,
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you've never I mean, the worst
movies that are fun to watch are
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actually fun to watch. When you
do that, let's find the worst,
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you're gonna be going. You're just
be looking at your your watch going,
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oh god, it's still going,
what was the worst movie you've ever seen?
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By doing that, let's see,
I would argue that man Squito is
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up there. Um, and uh, they're kind of I think the worst
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movies I've seen tend to be the
Friday night premieres on sci Fi. And
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yet what sci Fi did is they
embraced it. You know, like Sharknado,
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I get it. You know,
you're totally making fun of the ship
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you were trying to, you know, give us years ago. Um,
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I'll say this that I've only walked
out of two movies. The first one
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is The Road Dwellville, which was
with Dana Carvey and a smooth characters back
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in the day. Do you remember
that one? Yeah, Matthew McConaughey was
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in at uh and I fear who
the I fear who the person was.
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But yeah, I remember rode Wellville. It was just it was all.
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And then the second one was Sliver
with Sharon Stone because it was like the
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psycho sexual thriller that nothing happened and
every time they had sucked, she like
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cried. And after about twenty minutes, I'm like, yeah, I probably
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missed the sunshine right now, Anthony
Hopkins, he was in Roode Wellville.
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That's that's right, that's right.
You know you know that movie was actually
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based off of Kellogg. Yeah,
I know that guy. I mean the
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movie is crazy, but that that
life story is even crazier. Still,
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I was really close to walk out
of freaking Episode one though. Yeah,
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I remember. Episode one didn't leave
much of an impressional me either, And
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part of the reason I stayed is. You know, everyone I was with
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was a massive Star Wars fan,
so they had like the rose tinted spectacles
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on. But I was just kind
of like, going, this whole thing
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is a cut scene of a PlayStation
game. When I was when I first
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sold I, you know, I
I forget how what I was. I
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was like, you know, something's
missing here, and I didn't at that
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point in time my brain, I
didn't haven't, I didn't wasn't into film
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like I am now, you know, but something was was inside was telling
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me because I never felt this way
about the original three, Like the original
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three like I'll just watch and like
I'm entertained from beginning to end Episode one,
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I was kind of like, what's
going on? Who's doing? Who's
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this guy again? Also, it's
like the plot is the is like a
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political trade organization treaty thing, and
you're like, wait, this is what
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we're after? Well, you know
that everyone becomes a cynic at some point
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because I remember seeing Return of the
Jedi in the theater with with my family,
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a bunch of friends, and I
was the guy. I was one
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of those guys who was a growing
number leaving going I think I hate the
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e walks. Yeah, I don't
really, I haven't got to that point
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yet where I hate the e walks, but now will with age. I
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don't know why it just happens.
Well, Harrison Ford hated him right away.
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Yeah, he called him the teddy
bear picnic. You're at college were
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we're you know, you got your
degree, your short writing. You're writing
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in your in your spare time.
We'll be right back after a word from
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our sponsor, and now back to
the show. And you know, so
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where is it that you started to
say, like, you know, should
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I write screenplays? Was before your
brother called called you? Or was it
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after your brother in college? It
was actually in high school. We want
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my family went on an Alaska cruise. We you know, we saved up
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for this thing. And I wrote
my first screenplay because I loved movies on
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in Longhand on a yellow notepad and
came back and at the time, you
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know, we we have word perfect
and I built up a template and I
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wrote it and gave it to my
mom, who she gave me back my
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first notes and they were brutal,
and yet looking back and reading that first
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screenplay and seeing her notes, she
was actually being very kind. I think
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it was just I was. I
wanted to emulate what I loved, you
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know, and I loved and I
still love movies, you know, and
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short stories and movies were what I
do, but I just won't wouldn't show
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anybody, you know, in fact, for a couple of years, the
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cousins. You know, I come
from a large extent of family. When
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I got someone's name for Christmas,
I would write them four or five stories
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and kind of bind it together.
And that was my gift, and I
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just I enjoyed doing it. You
know. It was never it was never
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work. And even now, like
I would argue that your first draft at
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anything isn't work. That's fun.
It's the work is the rewrite and making
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fifteen people happy and keeping it an
afloat, you know. But to answer
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your question, man, I just
I watched so many movies and it gave
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me so much joy. I wanted
to emulate that. So, you know,
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you know, you moved. I'm
sorry feedback there, Um, So
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I moved in to LA and then
you you start writing again? Uh you
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know, so like what was your
first you know, professional screenplay that you
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would call it? You know that
that you actually were using a sort of
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like a take your foot in the
door, so to speak. And it's
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funny. The first time to get
my foot in the door was called The
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Wayfarer, and it was it was
a sci fi thriller in the vein of
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matrix by way that's shining, let's
call it. And uh, my two
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leads were African American, and I
got on a bunch of movies. I
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mean, I got a bunch of
meetings. And they were surprised because I'm
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a six foot two, white dude
with red hair. You know, they
335
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thought I was something else. But
I was wanted to see uh, Denzel
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Washington and uh, who's Murta I
can't remember his name right now from dad's
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Danny Glover. Yeah, I wanted
them. I wanted them paired up,
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you know. So I got a
lot of meetings, and uh, you
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know what happens is I was used
to the you know, the professional world.
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But you move out here and you
get involved in the industry, it
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was different and it was hard,
and I just kind of I stepped away
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for a bit and then I stepped
back and I did a couple of you
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know, what would you call them, direct to DVD or VOD movies was
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the package and one was one of
the Chamber, and they were hard simply
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because you look at you look at
the package. They had like twelve days
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to shoot, and you have very
little money, and you have people who
347
00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:41.839
don't care because they pocketed their paycheck
and other people who did care because it
348
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:44.839
was a movie, you know,
in this movie they were part of.
349
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:49.799
And so after after those two I
was close to quitting again because to pay
350
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:53.880
the bills. Even with those I
was doing a lot of nonprofit stuff like
351
00:23:55.039 --> 00:24:00.279
doing videos and websites for NGOs and
like. And it wasn't until I read
352
00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:06.759
this wrote the screenplay called Acolyte aka
simple Man. That Sonya, who's we
353
00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:11.400
lovingly refer to as a script bitch
because she's the first line of defense for
354
00:24:11.559 --> 00:24:15.720
quality, she read it and she
said, I think you should try again.
355
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:18.279
And a buddy of mine, Mike
Callahan, who was a producer on
356
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:23.839
those two titles I mentioned, introduced
me to Mike Goldberg and Josh Adler,
357
00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:29.319
who are a new wave at the
time, and they saved me. You
358
00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:33.920
know, everyone in their life at
some point has individuals who saved them professionally,
359
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:37.920
and those two saved me. And
they brought me to where I'm today,
360
00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:41.160
So you know, just to diggle
deeper into the script. Derek,
361
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.799
when you were right now, you
you told me you don't you didn't see
362
00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:48.279
a lot of screenwriting books. I
don't know if you if you had read
363
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:52.519
them at that point, but you
did you subscribe to any sort of of
364
00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.319
you know, template, whether it's
you know, I don't know if you
365
00:24:56.359 --> 00:25:00.440
read so I Sidfield screenplay or Save
the Cap I play Snyder. I didn't
366
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:03.200
say that the cat. I did
really say the cat. That was great.
367
00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:07.119
I haven't rant anything by said Field. But I think my big thing
368
00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:11.720
is when I was a little kid, I was my whole family were ravenous
369
00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:15.480
readers. You know, I would
I would probably read when I was in
370
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:19.799
grade school, I read a book
a day just because you know, I
371
00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:25.519
loved I loved reading, and I've
always been imaginative. But when you read
372
00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:30.160
and see where other people's stories go, it's awesome. And my favorite authors
373
00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:34.839
at the time were Alista McClain,
you know, and uh Dashel Hammett and
374
00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:41.240
Tom Clancy. And then when I
was in high school it was Ship who
375
00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:48.599
wrote the Firm That was um crap
Grisham. Yeah, it's right, it's
376
00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:51.599
all my bookshelf behind me. I
could have just turned around. But a
377
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:55.039
lot of like especially with Aliston McClain, Uh, you know, he rowing
378
00:25:55.079 --> 00:25:59.000
a guns and a barone. And
what I loved about his stuff is if
379
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:04.160
you look at for instance, uh
once the movie Ronan did it Best is?
380
00:26:04.839 --> 00:26:08.240
You know, at one point Max
Says asked the question do I know
381
00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:11.640
you? By way of the German
or something like that. It's never addressed
382
00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:17.599
again, but by just by having
that one line, the world kind of
383
00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:21.880
expands a little like a Boo boo
a little bit bigger. And Alsta McClaine
384
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:26.640
and hitch Back especially, they would
have these lines that made their movies seem
385
00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:30.359
bigger and more complex than they were
when in reality they were very simple.
386
00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:33.720
You know. Um, you take
John Wick. I mean, it's it's
387
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.680
a revenge story, but he's not. You know, I'll let people argue
388
00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:41.359
about it, but it's more than
just the dog, you know. And
389
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.359
I think the best movies are that
it's more than just the sled, you
390
00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:48.440
know, Rosebut it's more than just
the ring. It's more than it's it's
391
00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:55.599
it's just it hints at a larger
purpose. And I think by not answering
392
00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:57.680
what that larger purpose is. That's
where the movies I love coming to play.
393
00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:03.519
Yeah, and I know exactly what
you mean. You know in John
394
00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:06.960
Wick, you know it is more
than when they when they whatever happens to
395
00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:08.759
the Dog. I don't know if
anyone who hasn't watched it yet, you
396
00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:11.880
probably should stop now and watch it
and then come back because I am going
397
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.880
to be talking a little. I
do want to delve in deeper than the
398
00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.920
movie. But yeah, I agree
with you wholeheartedly, and you know it
399
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:22.920
is interesting. I always am fascinated
when I ever, you know, talk
400
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.960
to an accomplish screenwriter like yourself,
Derek, who what they've read and what
401
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:33.599
methodologies they subscribe to. Because some
people swear by Save the Cat, and
402
00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:36.640
I've had others here on the podcast
who say, don't ever even read it,
403
00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:40.000
keep it away from you at all
costs. Well, you know,
404
00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:45.079
everyone functions differently, everyone learns differently. Um, I don't know, Like
405
00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:48.839
people ask me like, where did
these ideas come from? And to be
406
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:52.079
honest, I don't know a lot
of it is. Uh, you know
407
00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:55.319
what I've read, and who you
are and where you are and where you
408
00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:59.119
see and how you see it suddenly
comes into play. Um. But what
409
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.480
I tell everyone is, as soon
as you've finished a screenplay, write the
410
00:28:02.519 --> 00:28:06.759
first page in the next one,
because it's kind of like you have to
411
00:28:06.839 --> 00:28:11.200
keep that flame stoked or else.
A lot of for me personally, and
412
00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:15.079
I've talked to other writers, is
when I finish the screenplay, it's kind
413
00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:18.039
of depressing, you know, because
you've been with this story and now that's
414
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:22.920
done. You're like shit, you
know you were crafty in this world and
415
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:26.160
now you hand it off. You
have to start the next one or else.
416
00:28:26.279 --> 00:28:29.440
You know. For some of us, you know you know this when
417
00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:33.599
you talk to writers, I understand
a great deal why people turn to the
418
00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:37.519
bottle, or turn to the needle, or turn elsewhere. Because when you
419
00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:38.720
get to the end of that novel, when you get the end of that
420
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:44.920
screen player, even a short story, you feel very alone anybody. If
421
00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:48.559
you keep it going, you feel
very alive. So, Derek, I
422
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.680
want to ask you, are you
a part of a writers group of any
423
00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:53.119
kind? I mean meaning like,
do you have like a group of that
424
00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:56.599
you meet with me once a month
is to exchange, you know, whatever
425
00:28:56.599 --> 00:29:03.319
you're working on. Actually, I
don't you know Sonia is very She comes
426
00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:08.000
from a house of readers as well, and so between her and Josh and
427
00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:11.519
Mike, they tend to be my
readers. And but what I am a
428
00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:17.519
part of his. You know,
a guy named screenwriter named Matt Altman invited
429
00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:21.960
me to his screenwriter forum on Facebook
and I can't remember who. I think
430
00:29:21.960 --> 00:29:26.519
it was Josh inviting me anyway.
And what's really cool about that is,
431
00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:30.759
at first I don't want to do
it until until after the first week I
432
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.200
realized it's just a bunch of people
encouraging each other. And I think that's
433
00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:38.079
incredibly important, you know, to
have that group of people that when you
434
00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:41.200
have a question to ask, they're
excited to answer because you were excited to
435
00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:47.559
answer them. And I love it. Yeah, I'm a part of our
436
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:52.920
justist grip right now. We start
about two years ago when it was we
437
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:57.480
all A friend of mine got inspired
because we were watching the Oscars and Karantino
438
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:02.759
gave a speech about Jango and it
just sort of hit me like a lightning
439
00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:03.519
bolt, and I was like,
holy crap, why don't I just that
440
00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:06.759
story of writers group with some of
the people that I know in the area
441
00:30:06.799 --> 00:30:08.400
who I trust, and just see
what goes from there. You know.
442
00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:14.079
Yeah, well, and that's the
thing though, it's like you, I'd
443
00:30:14.119 --> 00:30:17.720
argue, almost in every capacity,
you can't be a solitary person, even
444
00:30:17.720 --> 00:30:22.759
though I'm happiest alone. I'm happiest
alone with my computer and no music on,
445
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:26.400
and just I love that. And
yet I know if I stay within
446
00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:32.440
that bell jar, I'll get worse
because I have to have those outward influences
447
00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:36.359
to make what I do better.
And you know, for those who write,
448
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:40.640
i'd argue, you know, seek
out, even on Facebook or any
449
00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:44.279
other sites, or even locally,
people who think like you, because a
450
00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:45.759
lot of things that you worry about
they do too, and that's important to
451
00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:56.160
actually connect on. We'll be right
back after a word from our sponsor and
452
00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:00.680
now back to the show. Yeah, it's very very very good point.
453
00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:06.480
And uh so you know, as
you know, we talked about writers groups
454
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:08.519
and everything like that. You know. Um, a little later, I
455
00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:12.079
wanted to ask you another question.
Sorry sorry for the bad segue, but
456
00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:17.200
I have a note in fun of
me I want to ask you so after
457
00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:21.039
afterwards. But you know, as
we're writing, you know, I I
458
00:31:21.319 --> 00:31:23.720
you you know, you had the
mayfares, you know, and then you
459
00:31:23.960 --> 00:31:26.680
I assume now once you were done
that you started your next project. So
460
00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:33.559
what was your next pocket after that? I don't know, because he's Here's
461
00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:36.880
the thing is, I write.
I write a lot, and I write
462
00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:40.960
fast, you know, and but
a lot of times too, And you
463
00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:42.240
might have been the same place,
like a lot of times are write the
464
00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:45.359
story to get it on my head. Uh it might not be good,
465
00:31:45.640 --> 00:31:48.559
you know, but at the same
time, like, uh, it's haunting
466
00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:52.319
me that it's still in there.
I think if I think of stories as
467
00:31:52.359 --> 00:31:55.680
people in line at the bank,
you know, if it's fifteen deep,
468
00:31:55.680 --> 00:31:56.960
you're pissed, but if it's three
deep, you're fine, you know.
469
00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:01.160
So I try to get those twelve
out of the way. But I would
470
00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:06.920
argue that acolyte, which is,
you know, making the rounds again.
471
00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:12.480
That one got me on the radar. And it was John Wick that that
472
00:32:12.519 --> 00:32:16.440
made me may be able to say
that I'm a professional screenwriter now. And
473
00:32:16.519 --> 00:32:21.160
you know, it was really fun
about the John Wick process was I had
474
00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:25.200
written it and it was originally entitled
Scorn, and the character was in his
475
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:28.960
early seventies. Because again I loved
the movie Rown, and I thought,
476
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.839
how cool would it be to grab
like Comally Jones or a you know,
477
00:32:32.920 --> 00:32:37.079
you know, just an older actor
and do an action piece that made sense
478
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:42.319
because you know, I just wanted
to see that the dog was like fifteen
479
00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:46.039
years old, that the wife had
passed years ago. So my my agent
480
00:32:46.039 --> 00:32:49.440
at the time, Charlie Ferraro,
who I love, you know, but
481
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:52.200
over at Uta, he called me
after the screenplay and went out and he's
482
00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:55.759
like, We've got like three or
four offers, and I'm not going to
483
00:32:55.799 --> 00:32:59.720
tell you the numbers, but I
really think we should take the lowest one
484
00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:02.400
because they want to make it now. And you know, you've got a
485
00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:07.240
great agent who is looking at the
long game. You know, it's more
486
00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:12.440
important for me to get an okay
pay day in a mad movie than a
487
00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:15.160
million dollars a no male movie,
you know. And so they set it
488
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:19.599
up with Basil Wanic over at thunder
Road, and you know, we developed
489
00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:22.880
it back and forth for a while, and then he went out to directors
490
00:33:23.079 --> 00:33:28.119
and on a Friday afternoon at like
one o'clock, Keanu Reeves called Basil and
491
00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:30.799
he's like, hey, man,
I heard about this screenplay. I really
492
00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:32.920
like to read it. Could you
send it over? So they careered it
493
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:37.680
over and at four thirty, Kiana
Reeves called back and he said, I
494
00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:40.599
want to do it now. Basil
called me again. Man, I grew
495
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:44.359
up with a guy, and I
was. I was. I was excited,
496
00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:46.359
you know, because this is a
very violent movie and I'd love to
497
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:50.759
see him do this again. And
the first time I went over his house,
498
00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:54.400
I walked past his den and on
his desk, I shit, you
499
00:33:54.519 --> 00:34:00.799
not, were like two hundred screenplays. This guy's hobby is reading screenplays,
500
00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:02.960
And in that moment it was probably
the most humbling I've ever known, going,
501
00:34:04.279 --> 00:34:06.359
holy shit, I was one of
those. He picked it, you
502
00:34:06.400 --> 00:34:08.559
know. So that's how John One
came about. And honestly, the title
503
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:12.719
came about because Keno would not refer
to it as Scorn. He'd always refer
504
00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:17.519
to the project as John Wick and
it's stuck. You know. By the
505
00:34:17.559 --> 00:34:21.239
way, did you actually get to
meet kianam Oh? Yeah? Yeah,
506
00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:27.079
yeah. I mean, Kanu is
a incredibly bright cat. I mean,
507
00:34:27.880 --> 00:34:30.719
you know, you know, you
sit down with anyone and their first two
508
00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:32.440
notes you're like, yeah, no
shit. He got to his third note,
509
00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:35.599
I was like, damn it,
that's better than what I had in
510
00:34:35.639 --> 00:34:38.800
mind, you know, and so
he was. We spent a ton of
511
00:34:38.840 --> 00:34:44.719
time together on every character and every
scene outside of him his own, and
512
00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:49.480
he is equally responsible for what's up
on that screen. I mean, Chad,
513
00:34:49.599 --> 00:34:52.880
Dave, Basil Erica, I mean, this is an awesome production crew,
514
00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:57.559
but at his heart and soul,
it's Kano, because Kano loves the
515
00:34:57.639 --> 00:35:00.599
character. And I can't you know, honestly, I'm not panting. You
516
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.480
can ask for around and you probably
heard stories, but he's a genuine dude
517
00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:07.280
and he's uh you know. For
instance, when we shot in New York,
518
00:35:07.400 --> 00:35:10.079
he got to know all the guys
at the coffee shop because he would
519
00:35:10.119 --> 00:35:14.239
join them for their smoke breaks and
I was last day. It was like
520
00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:17.239
saying goodbye to your best friends at
camp. And you don't see that a
521
00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:22.480
lot with especially guys of his caliber. Yeah, I've always heard that he
522
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:28.000
is an absolutely awesome guy. Oh
yeah yeah. And in fact, you
523
00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:31.159
know, my thing, my most
surreal story, like something like I'm a
524
00:35:31.239 --> 00:35:37.920
nice guy, but I like being
alone. He everyone knows his address out
525
00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:42.760
here. You know, the little
little uh buses that go by with tourists.
526
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:45.119
They stopped by his house and you
know, all that kind of stuff.
527
00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:49.000
My fare was one day we were
working on John Wick. His doorbell
528
00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:53.199
rang and he's got a little you
know, uh you know, he's like,
529
00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:57.559
who's there? And this woman says
him and names so and so from
530
00:35:57.719 --> 00:36:00.119
Boise, Idaho or something. Huge
fan of heres. I just want to
531
00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:04.559
hand me the picture and he's like
okay, So, you know, goes
532
00:36:04.599 --> 00:36:08.199
outside and hangs out with this teenage
girl in her family for like five minutes
533
00:36:08.199 --> 00:36:12.760
taking pictures and then comes back in
like who does that? That's it's unbelievable.
534
00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:15.519
It's awesome. But that's the kind
of guy he is. Yeah,
535
00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:17.880
that is absolutely hilarious. I mean, I don't know, you know,
536
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:22.679
if this is true or not,
but I saw that apparently he gave his
537
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:25.320
Matrix two and three money away to
the special effects guys. I don't know
538
00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:28.760
if that's true or not, but
it is true. And the other thing
539
00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:34.559
that I thought was really cool is
because you know, Chad was his stunt
540
00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:38.840
double in the Matrix. He Kiano
hired. Who's the guy that makes the
541
00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:45.039
custom bikes motorcycles, the Jesse James. Now I'm sorry about Yeah, it
542
00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:46.119
was Jesse James. For a while, it wasn't. It was because I
543
00:36:46.119 --> 00:36:50.880
think I think it's Jesse James.
But like Keanu As, not only did
544
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:54.480
he give away his bonus money,
he had everyone on the stunt team made
545
00:36:55.159 --> 00:37:00.559
customized motorcycles that were delivered by Jesse
James, and uh, it's just stuff
546
00:37:00.599 --> 00:37:04.480
like that where you know, he
didn't have to do that. And yeah,
547
00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:08.440
you could argue that he's a multi
millionaire whatever, but again he's just
548
00:37:08.599 --> 00:37:14.159
he's a unique and generous, you
know, a generous man, and that's
549
00:37:14.360 --> 00:37:16.079
that's absolutely awesome. And you know, for him to get into the John
550
00:37:16.119 --> 00:37:21.159
Wood character, you know, when
you finally saw the movie and you finally
551
00:37:21.199 --> 00:37:22.719
you know, sold everything playing out, you know what we what were your
552
00:37:22.760 --> 00:37:27.000
initial thoughts when you finally saw his
finished product. That's a great question,
553
00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:30.280
because we when we saw the Friends
and Family, you know that, like
554
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:36.360
the first cut in the movie,
I had no idea. I because when
555
00:37:36.360 --> 00:37:38.119
you get to a point in rewriting, you're not seeing words anymore. You're
556
00:37:38.159 --> 00:37:40.679
just seeing kind of numbers. I
don't know if that makes sense. And
557
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:45.159
so when we saw it, I
remember looking at over it at Sonia first
558
00:37:45.239 --> 00:37:49.000
going was it good? Like I
didn't hate it? I didn't, I
559
00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:52.840
didn't know, and she was and
she by her expression, I knew it
560
00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:57.599
was, you know. And this
the moment that hit it home for me
561
00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:01.400
is when we did our initial screening
at the Dome out here at the Arc
562
00:38:01.480 --> 00:38:07.239
Light, we're doing a Q and
A afterwards, and the seven I don't
563
00:38:07.239 --> 00:38:08.039
know, at seven hundred seats,
I don't know, it was a pretty
564
00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:12.440
big for him. But I,
you know, I showed up and I
565
00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:15.079
didn't watch the movie because at that
point you'd seen it so many times.
566
00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:17.159
But I scanned the audience to find
the people who didn't want to be there,
567
00:38:17.880 --> 00:38:22.480
and at about minute twenty, everyone
would had his huge grin. And
568
00:38:23.599 --> 00:38:28.679
you know, my favorite movie and
experience in my life, and I tell
569
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:30.920
it to almost everyone I meet,
is when The Raid came out. Have
570
00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:34.800
you seen the Raid? Absolutely?
Okay, when the Raid came out.
571
00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.360
I loved the trailer and I loved
Meranto, which I think that's the name
572
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:43.159
movement the movie he made. Before
that, we walk into the theater with
573
00:38:43.239 --> 00:38:45.519
the arc Light here in past in
it it's a smaller theater, like one
574
00:38:45.599 --> 00:38:47.800
hundred and thirty seats or even maybe
even less, And if you looked at
575
00:38:47.800 --> 00:38:52.760
the audience, it was every sex, every age, every color, every
576
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:55.760
Creed. It was weird, you
know, it was like a serial killer's
577
00:38:55.800 --> 00:38:59.719
daydream. It was bizarre. Like
if you ask people what are they here
578
00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:02.119
to see? You don't know.
But we sat down. It was sold
579
00:39:02.119 --> 00:39:07.800
out, and when the reverse door
guillotine happened, I leaned forward in my
580
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:10.599
seat and looked around like you did
when you're twelve years old. At the
581
00:39:10.719 --> 00:39:14.719
end of the eye was a seventy
year old Korea man who's doing the same
582
00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:16.599
thing, and he pointed at me
in mouth. Did you see that?
583
00:39:17.679 --> 00:39:22.039
Oh? And when I watched people
watching John Wick, especially during that house
584
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:25.880
invasion, and to see a guy
who's sixty eight years old lead for as
585
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:30.920
chair and look around, that made
my That made my life man, you
586
00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:34.639
know, because that's that's that's why
I wanted to bring out of Peopoint.
587
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:37.920
So what I want to bring out
people now? You know, Yeah,
588
00:39:37.480 --> 00:39:40.280
it is phenomenal way that that you
know, movies can bring people together like
589
00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:45.039
that. Well, especially what I
loved about, you know, the John
590
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:50.199
Wick process or even the release was
the number of older people or you know,
591
00:39:50.519 --> 00:39:52.320
again you know, action movie.
But it's got a huge female fan
592
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:58.239
base just because you know a lot
of people will say, uh, you'll
593
00:39:58.280 --> 00:40:00.639
you'll hear the term grounded, which
means cheap, elevated, which means good.
594
00:40:01.159 --> 00:40:04.519
You know, it's like I want
to make an elevated horror, like
595
00:40:04.559 --> 00:40:07.159
we want to make a good horror
or a good action piece. And what
596
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:13.079
I loved about the John Wick process
is from the original speck of the bones
597
00:40:13.079 --> 00:40:15.119
and the muscle mass remained the same. It was just the skin in the
598
00:40:15.119 --> 00:40:20.800
hair that was massaged in by everyone
involved. And again thunder Road and the
599
00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:27.400
directors and Kiano and al Lionsgate,
they just we'll be right back after a
600
00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:36.079
word from our sponsor, and now
back to the show. At any point
601
00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:40.559
any production, everyone hates everybody because
you're just tired. And yet when we
602
00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:45.159
did that Q and A following that, you just saw the joy in going.
603
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:47.159
You know, it's it's a major
miracle to have a movie made.
604
00:40:47.639 --> 00:40:52.920
It's even more so to have it
be anything good or let alone critical and
605
00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:57.320
financial success. So I use the
term a lot like I'm humbled, and
606
00:40:57.400 --> 00:41:00.400
I am you know, because you
know, you look at all the other
607
00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:05.000
stuff I have on my platter.
It's it's horrifying because you're like, can
608
00:41:05.079 --> 00:41:08.480
I can I can I do what
I just did. We'll see And speaking
609
00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:12.599
of that, you know I saw
John Wick two was just announced. Yeah,
610
00:41:12.679 --> 00:41:15.960
yeah, In fact, I mean, Kiana's got the latest draft of
611
00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:20.360
script and we're gonna be talking about
this Sunday. Um, he loves it.
612
00:41:20.400 --> 00:41:22.760
I mean the body counts is probably
three times bigger. And um,
613
00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:27.119
what I love about Kiano two is
you look at a guy who is he
614
00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:31.159
fifty fifty one, I don't remember, but he wants to do He hates
615
00:41:31.199 --> 00:41:35.679
when people refer to what he does
as stunts because it's not. It's him
616
00:41:36.199 --> 00:41:39.960
and he's really doing this stuff.
And when you look at that movie and
617
00:41:40.079 --> 00:41:45.840
try to copy what he does,
I can't. Twelve years younger than him,
618
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:49.199
It's like I can't do that.
And yet he beat the shit out
619
00:41:49.199 --> 00:41:52.239
of himself and he did it with
a grin, and he is kind of
620
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:58.880
like, you know, he sees
that I love that man's workout it and
621
00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:01.000
that you know that that's also and
that's indicative. Everything I've always heard about
622
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:04.760
Kiano was that he is, uh, you know, a guy that's willing
623
00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:07.320
to go the extra mile, you
know. And so when so I want
624
00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:12.760
to ask you, is Derek,
is how from what point did you start
625
00:42:12.840 --> 00:42:15.559
working on John Wick two. Did
you know that? I mean did they?
626
00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:19.039
Did they immediately green light it and
say get to work on it,
627
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:22.239
Derek, Or did you start working
on it already? No? I mean
628
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:25.800
I hadn't started working on it,
um because when you start, when you
629
00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:30.199
get a movie in production, your
life is reread hell, and it's just
630
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:32.920
it's it's continual. And what I
learned too is when I was out in
631
00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:37.280
New York on the shoot, it
was hard for me to do anything else
632
00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:42.079
because every ten minutes, even though
you're doing very minimal labor, you have
633
00:42:42.079 --> 00:42:44.239
someone coming in and asking, Hey, what's the nurse's name? You know,
634
00:42:44.239 --> 00:42:45.880
in the hospital, Like I,
who gives a shit? But you
635
00:42:45.920 --> 00:42:49.880
know, they came to me for
that. I spent I spent about five
636
00:42:49.880 --> 00:42:53.840
weeks just playing Civilization five on my
laptop because I couldn't. I couldn't work
637
00:42:53.840 --> 00:42:58.679
on anything else, you know.
And yet um, you know, for
638
00:42:58.719 --> 00:43:01.159
a couple of days every week Keiana
would come back, we'd have lunch,
639
00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:06.679
and we'd lunch with about in mind
named Todd, who you know, he
640
00:43:07.159 --> 00:43:12.079
does um, all the the what
we call it, all the artwork,
641
00:43:12.159 --> 00:43:15.519
you know, all that kind of
stuff. And Keana one day asked me,
642
00:43:15.639 --> 00:43:19.079
is like, so, you know, where do you see John going
643
00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:22.199
next? You know, how many
do you see in your head? And
644
00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:24.320
I looked him and I was like, I got seven. I got seven
645
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:29.639
of him and he laughed and I
pitched him two and three and four and
646
00:43:29.719 --> 00:43:31.679
you could see him kind of not
grow pale, but go, okay,
647
00:43:31.760 --> 00:43:35.800
let's just focus on the next one, all right, um? And so
648
00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:40.000
I didn't start it. And to
be honest, it's even in you know,
649
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:49.280
even with the green Light, we've
we've chaotically gone between different storylines,
650
00:43:49.800 --> 00:43:53.400
and yet what we've remained true too
is I don't want to look at at
651
00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:55.840
it as a sequel. I want
to look at it as an you know,
652
00:43:55.960 --> 00:44:00.280
John Wick chapter two, because what
the Faster Furious did so well is
653
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:05.360
after the third one is they weren't
sequels anymore. They were chapters. And
654
00:44:05.400 --> 00:44:07.880
I think those are the best,
Those are the best franchises to have,
655
00:44:07.159 --> 00:44:10.159
you know, I would, you
know, Empire strikes Back, it's not
656
00:44:10.159 --> 00:44:14.719
a sequel, it's a chapter.
You know, most sequels are remakes of
657
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:16.480
the first one, and with this
one, you want it to be unique
658
00:44:16.480 --> 00:44:21.039
but familiar, you know. Yeah, And that's that's a great way to
659
00:44:21.079 --> 00:44:24.119
put the two different chapters. Yeah, I mean, and that's why you
660
00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:28.159
can't help but respect about the Fast
and the Furious movies, even if you
661
00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:30.960
don't like them. Each one got
better, you know at a certain point.
662
00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:35.360
And you know, people ask me
what I watch and like, I
663
00:44:35.440 --> 00:44:37.519
gotta be honest, I haven't seen
it, yes, but you know I'm
664
00:44:37.519 --> 00:44:40.280
gonna love mad Max. I mean, I've been watching that trailer every day
665
00:44:42.559 --> 00:44:47.360
on a deafening TV screen with my
arms out wide, grinning because that's what
666
00:44:47.400 --> 00:44:52.360
I want to do. You know. Yeah, everyone I know who who
667
00:44:52.480 --> 00:44:54.440
was seen as loved it. I
haven't seen it yet either. Yeah,
668
00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:59.119
did you did you see Fast?
If you're a seven, I'm really behind
669
00:44:59.119 --> 00:45:00.920
on everything, aroun And you know
what I've I've learned too, is when
670
00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:06.559
you when you write like this or
you get to this, you know degree
671
00:45:06.559 --> 00:45:08.760
of success. I would argue,
I don't I don't like going to the
672
00:45:08.760 --> 00:45:14.079
theater um simply because I'm alone most
of the time, and when you sit
673
00:45:14.119 --> 00:45:16.280
down with a bunch of strangers,
it's a bit of anxiety, and you're
674
00:45:16.280 --> 00:45:21.039
watching a movie, and when you
find yourself not liking it, you're suddenly
675
00:45:21.519 --> 00:45:23.159
reminded that people don't like what you
do. It's weird, you know,
676
00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:27.639
I like it's it's weird. I
mean, I love movies, man,
677
00:45:27.719 --> 00:45:31.559
but I like him. Now I'm
the privacy mail on the home. I
678
00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:36.079
did he teach his own you know, And sometimes I told you what you're
679
00:45:36.119 --> 00:45:38.360
saying because I sometimes just like to
watch movies in my own home too.
680
00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:42.239
Um. That's why. Like when
It Follows was coming out and they were
681
00:45:42.239 --> 00:45:44.239
like, oh, by the way, we're going to VOD the same day
682
00:45:44.280 --> 00:45:46.079
as theater. I was like,
oh good, I can just stay home
683
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:50.239
now, order a pizza, and
I can watch It Follows at home.
684
00:45:50.280 --> 00:45:52.800
And then they pulled it out to
POD. So I ended up, you
685
00:45:52.840 --> 00:45:54.920
know, because it did better in
theaters and they expect that it was going
686
00:45:54.960 --> 00:46:00.400
to do. So now I've pulled
up Netflix and what was why to something
687
00:46:00.440 --> 00:46:04.000
else? Well, it's like the
event movies, I you know, I'll
688
00:46:04.039 --> 00:46:06.519
go see in the theater. And
to be honest, my favorite movies to
689
00:46:06.519 --> 00:46:09.239
see in the theater are the ones
that are aimed directly at kids, because
690
00:46:09.719 --> 00:46:15.280
you know, the cynicism really hasn't
sunk in. And to go watch like,
691
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.039
you know, anything but Pisar,
you know, or a lot of
692
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:22.199
Disney stuff and to look across.
And you know when we saw the movie
693
00:46:22.239 --> 00:46:27.480
Frozen, it was a couple of
weeks out and the little kids in front
694
00:46:27.480 --> 00:46:30.159
of us were singing along to every
song. And in that moment, like
695
00:46:30.199 --> 00:46:34.880
you could be an irritated old manner, you can go like that's movie magic.
696
00:46:34.960 --> 00:46:37.440
You know, these little kids love
the movie so much they're singing along,
697
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:40.159
and you know, in this day, that was all. I just
698
00:46:40.199 --> 00:46:44.760
love that memory. And you know
that's what movies do. They help,
699
00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:47.119
They give those memories. Yeah,
and I mean you think of the movies
700
00:46:47.159 --> 00:46:51.000
that make you cry. I was
a little kid. I mean I wept
701
00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:55.199
it Freaking Fox and the Hound.
You know, I wept it when Et
702
00:46:55.559 --> 00:46:59.239
came back to life. You know, the days get older and older,
703
00:46:59.280 --> 00:47:01.840
it's always it changes, like what
affects you. I think the last movie
704
00:47:01.960 --> 00:47:07.000
I cried in was Big Fish.
Of all movies, Like I was dating
705
00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:09.360
Sony at the time, and it's
you know, any kind of father's son
706
00:47:09.639 --> 00:47:14.599
by you know, any story gets
me. And when he tells his father
707
00:47:14.639 --> 00:47:17.480
at the Endnister's breaking down. I
was a blubbering mess and it's like you
708
00:47:17.599 --> 00:47:23.320
got me, man. Congratulation,
Yeah, that man what's the last movie
709
00:47:23.360 --> 00:47:30.519
that made you cry that made me
cry? Yeah, I'm not even sure.
710
00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:35.679
Yeah, um, that's a good
question. I have to think about
711
00:47:35.679 --> 00:47:40.199
that. Derek, my favorite wash
I went to go see Wally and h
712
00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:45.039
I would argue at the beginning of
Wally is one of the best in cinema
713
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:50.280
because it just showed you true loneliness. And as a writer, you'll you
714
00:47:50.599 --> 00:47:53.920
you know that you you tap into
loneliness. And I at the end of
715
00:47:53.920 --> 00:47:58.519
the Island, my buddy jac it's
there's a quiet movie that I just hear.
716
00:47:58.760 --> 00:48:00.960
I hear him quite tears his eyes, like, God, damn it,
717
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:06.239
Pixar, you got me again.
They are phenomenal at that. But
718
00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:10.199
they respect the process. Man.
They take their time. Yes, there's
719
00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:15.639
so many good points about pixere that, like of what they do with their
720
00:48:15.639 --> 00:48:20.639
stories and how how they structure them
and the characters and the and everything you
721
00:48:20.679 --> 00:48:22.559
know, And it's just that's why
there's so many I mean, if you
722
00:48:22.599 --> 00:48:25.480
go like speed of screenwrinning books,
if you go like look online, there's
723
00:48:25.480 --> 00:48:29.239
so many screenwrinning books now about like
do I get the Pixar a way whatever?
724
00:48:29.320 --> 00:48:31.320
You know what I mean, because
you know they are the guys you
725
00:48:31.400 --> 00:48:36.400
want to emulate. But also,
you know, I think the best filmmakers
726
00:48:36.440 --> 00:48:38.960
love love their characters. You know, in the Pixar movies, you can
727
00:48:38.960 --> 00:48:42.559
tell that they love their characters,
even the bad guys, you know,
728
00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:46.400
and I think that's important. I
mean, what's been great in developing John
729
00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:50.760
Wick two is we love John Wick, you know. I mean he was
730
00:48:50.800 --> 00:48:52.719
the Bobby Yaga, he was the
devil, and there may be a bit
731
00:48:52.760 --> 00:48:58.880
of that still inside of him,
but there's something about that you love,
732
00:48:59.079 --> 00:49:02.119
you know. And the best movies
are either the ones where everyone hated each
733
00:49:02.119 --> 00:49:07.719
other on the set or loved each
other. Yeah, and I heard there's
734
00:49:07.719 --> 00:49:10.320
a lot of frictional mad max it
so oh yeah, Well did you read
735
00:49:10.360 --> 00:49:14.920
that article with Tom Hardy Hardy saying
as soon as he saw the movie,
736
00:49:14.960 --> 00:49:19.199
he apologized to George. Yeah,
yeah, that's that's what I saw.
737
00:49:19.719 --> 00:49:22.079
And then I saw apparently like at
the con Film vessel they were like he
738
00:49:22.119 --> 00:49:25.760
apologized for some of his behavior or
something, or apparently something there's some friction
739
00:49:25.800 --> 00:49:30.119
about something. Well, you know, and that's a thing about the industry
740
00:49:30.159 --> 00:49:35.360
that a lot of people don't understand
until you're really here, is you can
741
00:49:35.639 --> 00:49:40.559
we can bemoan the fact that stars
can be odd people who are assholes at
742
00:49:40.599 --> 00:49:45.480
from time to time. But I
do not envy their position. I mean,
743
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:51.079
especially when you see it firsthand how
people treat them, and I would
744
00:49:51.280 --> 00:49:54.239
I can never live in that kind
of world. You know, did you
745
00:49:54.639 --> 00:49:59.440
Did you ever see anyone never to
like try to treat Kano bed No,
746
00:49:59.519 --> 00:50:01.400
it's not a of treating him bad, but it's it's a matter of going,
747
00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:06.840
hey, I recognize you from all
of your movies. You're buddies now,
748
00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:10.480
you know. But like when he's
having dinner and just having people come
749
00:50:10.559 --> 00:50:16.239
up and you know, continuously come
up to him, I don't. I
750
00:50:16.239 --> 00:50:20.360
don't get that. You know,
New York is different, and I'd argue
751
00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:23.519
various sections of Hollywood are different simply
because they're used to it and it's a
752
00:50:23.519 --> 00:50:28.000
different culture. But when you have, you know, people from the Midwest
753
00:50:28.039 --> 00:50:30.440
where I come from, you have
two kinds. The kind comes up to
754
00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:34.239
kanagas, hey, I love your
work, and then move on. And
755
00:50:34.280 --> 00:50:36.840
then it's the or the hey I
love your work. We're friends. Now,
756
00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:45.599
right, we'll be right back after
a word from our sponsor and now
757
00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:52.480
back to the show. So do
you have a lot of friends in the
758
00:50:52.480 --> 00:50:53.639
Midwest calling you now and being like, hey, Derek, you sold a
759
00:50:53.639 --> 00:50:59.679
screenplay. I have a screenplay idea
too, you know, not really,
760
00:51:00.159 --> 00:51:05.960
because I'd argue one of the greatest
things about the Midwest is you're instilled with
761
00:51:06.039 --> 00:51:08.199
a work ethic. But more importantly, it's like, one of my best
762
00:51:08.280 --> 00:51:14.000
friends out here is Austin O'Brien.
He played the little kid in Last Action
763
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:15.199
Hero, you know, was Law
Moran and all that kind of stuff,
764
00:51:15.719 --> 00:51:21.079
and he's a very successful photographer now
and he was kind of stressed one day
765
00:51:21.119 --> 00:51:22.440
when he was going to meet my
cousin who was a big fan of his,
766
00:51:23.440 --> 00:51:28.239
and my cousin Joanna came to a
party. She walked up to him,
767
00:51:28.360 --> 00:51:30.000
shook his hand and said, hey, I really love your movies,
768
00:51:30.119 --> 00:51:34.320
and they went to the kitchen to
start cooking something. I don't know.
769
00:51:34.800 --> 00:51:37.320
That's what I grew up with,
and I think that's awesome. But every
770
00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:40.639
now and then you have people come
out of the woodwork, of course,
771
00:51:42.079 --> 00:51:45.320
and that's what kind of nice Facebook
as you can ignore him, and yet
772
00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:49.800
at the same time, like the
reality is, no one helped me,
773
00:51:50.159 --> 00:51:53.000
you know, And what I mean
by that is of course, people help
774
00:51:53.079 --> 00:51:55.960
me. But when it came to
this getting into the industry and the screenwriting,
775
00:51:57.480 --> 00:52:01.199
it was years of incredibly hard work
and work for free to get to
776
00:52:01.199 --> 00:52:06.599
this point. And yet I kind
of wonder would I be the same guy
777
00:52:06.679 --> 00:52:10.400
had the success happen at age thirty
than forty. I hope so. And
778
00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:15.079
so a lot of times when students
reach out to me or people reach out
779
00:52:15.119 --> 00:52:19.119
to me, those conversations tend to
be very healthy because they're grounded. You
780
00:52:19.159 --> 00:52:22.360
know, I'm a screenwriter, man, The crazies don't come to me.
781
00:52:22.880 --> 00:52:25.480
And sometimes, Derek, you have
annoying people they ask to be on a
782
00:52:25.519 --> 00:52:32.000
podcast. You know what what I
love about podcasts, though, is this
783
00:52:32.119 --> 00:52:37.400
medium has given so many people like
yourselves an opportunity that didn't exist ten years
784
00:52:37.400 --> 00:52:40.199
ago. You know, I love
that, And I mean, who knows
785
00:52:40.199 --> 00:52:45.159
what the next generation's gonna you know
face as well, but you have the
786
00:52:45.199 --> 00:52:47.559
opportunity to be and create and manage
your own brand. And how cool is
787
00:52:47.599 --> 00:52:52.400
that? Yeah? Absolutely, you
know, and I think the next generation
788
00:52:52.480 --> 00:52:55.719
is going to be robots are just
gonna a're gonna call you and they're gonna
789
00:52:55.719 --> 00:52:59.880
interview you, and then you know, just whoever's around and be listening to
790
00:52:59.920 --> 00:53:01.559
it. Um. But see,
that's what I like about podcasters, though,
791
00:53:01.679 --> 00:53:06.599
is you're not You're not a cynical
bunch. I mean, you're doing
792
00:53:06.599 --> 00:53:09.360
what you love. Uh. You
know, it's one thing doing an interview
793
00:53:09.360 --> 00:53:14.719
for the international press. It's another
another thing doing this because we're we're fanboys
794
00:53:14.840 --> 00:53:19.280
to a certain degree of films themselves. You know. I'm I have not
795
00:53:19.360 --> 00:53:22.400
seen the most movies any any person
I know, Yet when I see a
796
00:53:22.400 --> 00:53:27.519
fellow person who loves a certain movie, like you know, I asked last
797
00:53:27.599 --> 00:53:30.639
night on Facebook, like what movies
you watch when you're down or drunk or
798
00:53:30.880 --> 00:53:34.840
you know, alone, And my
response was like, I've seen Captain of
799
00:53:34.840 --> 00:53:37.880
the Woods and Evil Dead to too
many times to count. And yet when
800
00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:43.800
people hear that, you can kind
of see the amen. Brother. Yeah,
801
00:53:43.840 --> 00:53:46.880
it's it's just so interesting, you
know. Um. I remember this,
802
00:53:46.880 --> 00:53:50.800
this this anecdote the Kane Hotter.
I don't know if Kane Hotter is,
803
00:53:50.840 --> 00:53:54.480
but he was Jason thirteenth from seven
on, and he once they actually
804
00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:58.400
were talking to him once and they
said who was the best actor you've ever
805
00:53:58.440 --> 00:54:04.280
worked with? And his response was
Charlie Cholice thereon and he said he was
806
00:54:04.360 --> 00:54:08.719
just absolutely phenomenal monster and he said
that she just blew everyone away and he's
807
00:54:08.800 --> 00:54:12.000
never worked someone. You know,
it's just it's it was. She was
808
00:54:12.039 --> 00:54:15.360
just beyond you know what he was
used to, you know what I mean.
809
00:54:15.639 --> 00:54:19.000
Yeah, that's what A friend of
mine who saw Curry Road was just
810
00:54:19.039 --> 00:54:24.599
like The Thrones amazing because she's looking
in the rear view mirror and acting and
811
00:54:24.639 --> 00:54:30.519
you kind of like, I can't
do that, like to to have volumes
812
00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:36.719
of backstory in a look, it's
huge, you know, Yeah, absolutely,
813
00:54:36.800 --> 00:54:38.000
I mean that's why you know,
I think the movie does work.
814
00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:40.119
I mean, I haven't seen it. I'm just hearing. I'm the stand
815
00:54:40.280 --> 00:54:44.199
works behind him as one. But
you know, I mean you've got Tom
816
00:54:44.239 --> 00:54:47.119
Hardy who's phenomenal, and you have
her, who I think is absolutely phenomenal.
817
00:54:47.159 --> 00:54:50.880
I loved her and Prometheus. I
don't know if you saw Prometheus.
818
00:54:51.079 --> 00:54:53.079
Yeah, I wasn't the biggest fan
of that one, man. I loved
819
00:54:53.119 --> 00:54:58.719
her though, Yeah, she was. You know, I just have a
820
00:54:58.760 --> 00:55:01.679
big soft spot for that movie.
I know it has falls, like everyone
821
00:55:01.760 --> 00:55:05.440
has. That's the thing is everyone
has those movies that connect to you on
822
00:55:05.480 --> 00:55:08.159
a certain capacity. So there are
very There are very few movies I will
823
00:55:08.199 --> 00:55:14.320
refer to as horrendous or terrible simply
because you're connected with them on a certain
824
00:55:14.440 --> 00:55:16.800
level. I mean, I have
movies that are indefensible, but I love
825
00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:22.320
them because they they amuse me in
a way that only that could movie could
826
00:55:22.360 --> 00:55:27.480
you know? Yeh yeah, I
totally totally understand. So you know,
827
00:55:27.559 --> 00:55:30.079
there we were talking about an hour. Now, I know you have you
828
00:55:30.079 --> 00:55:32.280
know, I don't want to take
too much of your time, so you
829
00:55:32.280 --> 00:55:37.159
know, I have one question or
actually two questions that came in from the
830
00:55:37.159 --> 00:55:40.760
fans, if you don't mind.
Uh um. The first question I actually
831
00:55:42.599 --> 00:55:46.679
I briefly referred to earlier was about
what the question is. I'm just going
832
00:55:46.760 --> 00:55:51.000
to paraphrase this is, you know, with a lot of talk in the
833
00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:54.599
industry about script consultants, where do
you feel that they fit into the whole
834
00:55:55.039 --> 00:56:00.159
screamining process. You know, it's
hard from me because I'm Sony is my
835
00:56:00.199 --> 00:56:06.400
script consultant, you know, and
so between her and Josh Adler's my manager.
836
00:56:07.519 --> 00:56:10.719
You know, that's that's where I've
gotten. But I would argue that,
837
00:56:12.719 --> 00:56:15.960
you know, my dad used to
say the phrase that when you bring
838
00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:21.719
in someone to do a job and
you're getting a quote, get five quotes
839
00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:25.079
you throughout the biggest one, throughout
the lowest one. And with script consulting
840
00:56:25.280 --> 00:56:29.239
is if you look at the numbers, if it makes sense for you,
841
00:56:29.400 --> 00:56:32.840
great and a lot of times,
especially nowadays, you can find some good
842
00:56:32.840 --> 00:56:39.280
ones that all you need is to
hear back both that criticism and encouragement make
843
00:56:39.320 --> 00:56:42.559
you better. You know. I
would argue that a lot of us have
844
00:56:42.840 --> 00:56:47.159
people who serve the script consultation capacity
in some respect. But for the pros,
845
00:56:47.480 --> 00:56:51.639
they're reading tons of scripts. They
know that, they know, they
846
00:56:51.639 --> 00:56:54.519
know it's selling, they know it's
not And I think, even though I
847
00:56:54.519 --> 00:56:59.199
haven't done it before, I can
see the value in it. Just don't
848
00:56:59.239 --> 00:57:04.920
spend in you know, an ungodly
amount, you know, so in your
849
00:57:04.960 --> 00:57:07.119
opinion, you know what's like,
do you think there should be like a
850
00:57:07.119 --> 00:57:08.480
calp of like one hundred dollars,
a thousand dollars or something like that.
851
00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:12.920
Well, you know, you can't
really say a figure because who is it?
852
00:57:13.079 --> 00:57:15.119
You know? Um, you know, at a certain point, like
853
00:57:15.199 --> 00:57:21.800
if you buy a luxury ice cream
container for eight dollars, you're like,
854
00:57:21.800 --> 00:57:23.760
oh sweet, would you buy it
for eighty? Fuck? It's ice cream.
855
00:57:23.840 --> 00:57:27.280
At a certain point, what is
it that you're buying? You know?
856
00:57:28.760 --> 00:57:30.519
Very true? Uh, you're just
as a As a funny side note,
857
00:57:30.559 --> 00:57:36.159
I actually just saw in I think
it was Abu Dhabi or um Uh
858
00:57:36.199 --> 00:57:38.840
somewhere in the Middle East they actually
have ice cream. Now that's like a
859
00:57:38.920 --> 00:57:46.199
thousand dollars an ounce. What's in
it? Gold flakes, dot diamonds and
860
00:57:46.519 --> 00:57:52.000
um caviare and something else. But
it's but it's like the way they make
861
00:57:52.039 --> 00:57:54.239
it is they it's all freeze dried, right, so they make it literally
862
00:57:54.280 --> 00:57:57.880
they make it right in front of
you from scratch, everything from scratch.
863
00:57:58.079 --> 00:58:00.760
It's not not not the diamonds of
course, but like the ice cream.
864
00:58:00.800 --> 00:58:02.920
And then what they do is they
put it into this they mix it up
865
00:58:02.920 --> 00:58:07.599
with everything, and then they top
it with gold flakes. I don't know
866
00:58:07.639 --> 00:58:12.760
who told me this years ago.
They're like it was when the Trump Hotel
867
00:58:12.800 --> 00:58:15.239
I think was serving up this eight
hundred dollars hamburger, you know, and
868
00:58:15.320 --> 00:58:21.079
he said, if I ever found
myself wondering about that burger and ordering it,
869
00:58:21.320 --> 00:58:23.079
I should just give that money away. And I think that's the truth
870
00:58:23.079 --> 00:58:28.280
for most of life. Like if
I buy myself wanting to buy a Bentley.
871
00:58:28.559 --> 00:58:31.800
I should give that money away if
I had it, So, yeah,
872
00:58:31.800 --> 00:58:36.400
I know what you mean, although
I would say I probably would buy
873
00:58:36.440 --> 00:58:43.280
it Bentley. You know it's funny. Um. Joe Esterhaus once said that
874
00:58:44.039 --> 00:58:46.400
there's a there's a great way if
you ever stuck on a screenplay. He
875
00:58:46.440 --> 00:58:52.639
has found the perfect way to get
unstuck and cure writer's block. And he
876
00:58:52.719 --> 00:58:55.800
said, what you do is you
go down to find your local um exotic
877
00:58:55.880 --> 00:59:00.480
car dealer and you either get like
a Lamborghini or Ferrari. And he took
878
00:59:00.480 --> 00:59:01.559
it off for the weekend and he
said, well, by the time you
879
00:59:01.599 --> 00:59:05.599
get back, you're going to do
anything in your power to make sure you
880
00:59:05.599 --> 00:59:10.119
can buy one so you could drive
that again. I like that. Uh
881
00:59:10.199 --> 00:59:14.000
yeah, and uh, I'm actually
trying to get him on the podcast.
882
00:59:14.039 --> 00:59:16.760
By the way, um might be
a little little Is he still writing or
883
00:59:17.400 --> 00:59:21.440
I know he kind of had a
big blow up the industry kind of took
884
00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:24.280
a took some time off. Oh
he's still writing, okay, sweet and
885
00:59:24.440 --> 00:59:29.280
uh because his last work was actually
a book. It's an e book called
886
00:59:29.360 --> 00:59:35.840
Heaven and Mel and it's all about
working with Mel Gibson. Nice and uh.
887
00:59:36.159 --> 00:59:39.159
The other question that came in Derek
was how do I go about getting
888
00:59:39.159 --> 00:59:45.880
a screenplay mentor good? Question?
Man um, if I look at my
889
00:59:46.039 --> 00:59:52.599
own life, find someone in your
life who reads, you know uh and
890
00:59:52.719 --> 00:59:59.599
reads voraciously simply because when you read, you you know what's good, you
891
00:59:59.599 --> 01:00:04.079
know what's you know it works and
you know. The other thing, too,
892
01:00:04.199 --> 01:00:07.280
is my thing about screenwriting, especially
the industry I said at the beginning,
893
01:00:07.400 --> 01:00:10.920
is you have to be here.
I know you can hate LA and
894
01:00:12.280 --> 01:00:15.280
hate New York you, but you
have to be here. You could,
895
01:00:15.519 --> 01:00:20.400
honestly you move to LA right now, jump online and find a group of
896
01:00:20.440 --> 01:00:22.639
people who will read your screenplay in
four to eight hours because they're trying to
897
01:00:22.679 --> 01:00:25.800
do the same thing. And it's
kind of like the brotherhood of the script.
898
01:00:27.079 --> 01:00:30.719
And you know that's the best.
If you really want to see if
899
01:00:30.760 --> 01:00:35.159
you can fail on this movie,
here, you know we'll be right back
900
01:00:35.280 --> 01:00:43.800
after a word from our sponsor and
now back to the show. But if
901
01:00:43.800 --> 01:00:47.599
you don't and you want advice,
seek out the people who love the medium.
902
01:00:49.119 --> 01:00:52.440
And it's amazing too. The other
thing too is you'll know if you
903
01:00:52.440 --> 01:00:54.960
have a good script when you have
your friends sit around and read it out
904
01:00:55.000 --> 01:01:00.920
loud, because it's amazing, especially
with comedy, something that intimates the shit
905
01:01:00.079 --> 01:01:06.400
out of me, where it's funny
to you, it's funny on the page,
906
01:01:06.400 --> 01:01:08.320
and when it's spoken out loud,
it's just like gravel, you know.
907
01:01:08.920 --> 01:01:15.119
And uh, that's what i'd say. That's a very good point,
908
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:16.039
by the way, Derek, just
to sort of add onto that, did
909
01:01:16.039 --> 01:01:20.719
you see the Blacklist has its own
podcast now where they're actually reading some like
910
01:01:20.800 --> 01:01:23.320
unproduced screenplays. Really, Yeah,
that's a really cool idea, man.
911
01:01:23.679 --> 01:01:29.480
Yeah. The first one they did
was Balls Out. I haven't read that
912
01:01:29.519 --> 01:01:31.760
one. I've heard of it.
Somebody once told me about it, and
913
01:01:31.760 --> 01:01:37.599
then I heard Craig Mason mentioned it
again. Um, Craig Mason, you
914
01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:39.039
know who he is, right,
Yeah, Okay, So like he mentioned
915
01:01:39.079 --> 01:01:40.920
it and I looked it up and
I was like, wow, it's easy
916
01:01:42.000 --> 01:01:46.360
to find, and apparently it's been
circling around Hollywood for years but nobody actually
917
01:01:46.360 --> 01:01:51.159
wants to make it. But everyone's
like this is fucking hilarious ha ha,
918
01:01:51.480 --> 01:01:54.199
and they just pass it on and
and it's been like why the hell.
919
01:01:54.280 --> 01:01:59.880
So apparently it does get like pretty
outrageous and stuff. So I'm actually gonna
920
01:02:00.159 --> 01:02:01.599
one of these days. But I've
read the first twenty pages and I thought
921
01:02:01.639 --> 01:02:05.880
it was hilarious. Like, have
you read the screenplay Passengers? No?
922
01:02:05.960 --> 01:02:08.679
I haven't, dude, that's that's
one right now. I think I think
923
01:02:08.719 --> 01:02:12.559
Chris Pratt's attached. I don't know
who do the female leader is right now?
924
01:02:13.079 --> 01:02:15.840
Um, that's one that every exact
I talked to is like, that's
925
01:02:15.880 --> 01:02:19.960
the best screenplay I've read in five
years, but we passed on it.
926
01:02:20.440 --> 01:02:22.920
And the realities of this business are
It's like, let's say you read a
927
01:02:22.960 --> 01:02:27.559
screenplay and it's your favorite ever,
but you're like, that's one hundred and
928
01:02:27.599 --> 01:02:34.719
twenty million dollar h you know,
pgt R rated sci fi thriller. That's
929
01:02:34.840 --> 01:02:38.159
unique. You know, it's not
based on anything. You know, you've
930
01:02:38.159 --> 01:02:43.480
got shareholders. Man, it's it's
a huge risk. So when people pass
931
01:02:43.559 --> 01:02:45.760
on certain stuff, like I've talked
to a number of peop who passed on
932
01:02:45.840 --> 01:02:50.039
Gravity, you're like wow, and
then you realize, oh, yeah,
933
01:02:50.079 --> 01:02:52.199
if you hadn't seen the visuals and
we're reading, I get it, you
934
01:02:52.239 --> 01:02:58.159
know. And yet every now and
then, especially being in aspiring ready like
935
01:02:58.159 --> 01:03:00.599
yourself, oh fuck that you were
a writer, you know, is when
936
01:03:00.599 --> 01:03:05.760
you go to the theater and you're
like, you get twelve minutes into a
937
01:03:05.800 --> 01:03:07.679
movie, like, how is this
made? And a lot of times even
938
01:03:07.679 --> 01:03:13.760
the people involved like, I don't
know happen? Yeah, there's a there's
939
01:03:13.760 --> 01:03:17.280
another podcast to uh how did this
get made? And um I love that?
940
01:03:17.639 --> 01:03:22.000
Oh yeah, And I first I
was like what the hell? But
941
01:03:22.159 --> 01:03:24.280
um but yeah, yeah, I
know exactly what you mean. You know,
942
01:03:24.360 --> 01:03:27.480
they they even mentioned, you know, what the hell happened here?
943
01:03:27.760 --> 01:03:30.599
But you know it's funny there.
Remember Land of the Loss when that came
944
01:03:30.599 --> 01:03:34.679
out with Will Ferrell. Yeah,
that that studio they booked, they booked
945
01:03:34.679 --> 01:03:37.639
so much on that, and then
what happened was when it failed, everyone
946
01:03:37.800 --> 01:03:42.360
got fired. Yeah. And that's
the kind of thing though that you can't
947
01:03:42.519 --> 01:03:45.239
you feel for certain people involved,
because I remember talking to the producers of
948
01:03:45.920 --> 01:03:52.639
Jonah Hecks and uh, they you
know, this was after the fact that
949
01:03:52.679 --> 01:03:54.679
they were like Derek, the screenplay
was fun, it was, it was
950
01:03:54.719 --> 01:04:00.079
a blast. The table reads were
great. Three weeks before shooting, they
951
01:04:00.159 --> 01:04:02.000
carved off like fifteen million dollars or
a budget. We thought we'd be fine,
952
01:04:02.360 --> 01:04:05.119
and then when we started seeing dailies, we were like, what happened.
953
01:04:06.199 --> 01:04:10.079
It's just again, it's a miracle
when you get a good movie,
954
01:04:10.239 --> 01:04:14.960
and it's simply because you know,
it's it begins and ends with a script.
955
01:04:15.039 --> 01:04:19.320
Sure, but at certain points people
step in and the script gets muddied
956
01:04:19.559 --> 01:04:26.000
and things happen, you know,
And often you've seen a bad movie that's
957
01:04:26.039 --> 01:04:29.480
only bad when it hits the second
act. You know, that's more often
958
01:04:29.519 --> 01:04:32.639
than not. Yeah, very true. U. Yeah, something I've always
959
01:04:32.639 --> 01:04:39.719
heard is the second act is where
movies go to die. Yeah. Yeah,
960
01:04:39.760 --> 01:04:45.519
I mean I would argue that the
movies I write the I mean I
961
01:04:45.639 --> 01:04:47.960
love just action, I love thrillers, I love scihi. The work is
962
01:04:47.960 --> 01:04:53.039
an act two. I mean act
one you come up with you when you're
963
01:04:53.039 --> 01:04:56.159
out for a walk or you're you're
having a meal. Act three is just
964
01:04:56.320 --> 01:05:00.519
fun because you can finish the fucker. But act two that's where the writing
965
01:05:00.559 --> 01:05:04.320
comes in. Man, And when
you start receiving notes, all your notes
966
01:05:04.400 --> 01:05:11.079
or an act too, not one
or three. Uh so you know,
967
01:05:11.159 --> 01:05:14.360
Derek enclosing, Uh you know,
I mean we could talk all day,
968
01:05:14.559 --> 01:05:15.800
you and I I could tell we
have you know, we have we have
969
01:05:15.840 --> 01:05:19.280
the same taste of movies. We've
got We're both give a show when the
970
01:05:19.280 --> 01:05:23.840
next film comes out. Man,
okay, definitely, because you were both
971
01:05:23.880 --> 01:05:27.239
have degrees in business, we both
do writing, we both have red hair.
972
01:05:27.880 --> 01:05:32.519
Um losing my shit, man my
uh but thank you for that writer
973
01:05:32.639 --> 01:05:36.320
coming by the way. Yeah,
so's the thing. It's like I always
974
01:05:36.360 --> 01:05:41.360
have to stop myself because it's kind
of a Kiana said about he doesn't do
975
01:05:41.639 --> 01:05:45.000
he doesn't do stunts. He's really
doing it. And so when I talk
976
01:05:45.039 --> 01:05:47.719
to people, it's like, you're
not to say you're an aspiring screenwriter means
977
01:05:47.719 --> 01:05:50.599
you want to be a screen writer
who's being paid. But to be a
978
01:05:50.599 --> 01:05:54.000
writer is to be a writer.
And as soon as you have one person
979
01:05:54.079 --> 01:05:59.199
read it, you've affected their entire
life. And I think it's it's a
980
01:05:59.280 --> 01:06:03.199
difficult career, and yet it's it's
a fun one. And I'm not saying
981
01:06:03.239 --> 01:06:06.480
John Wick is going to be out
there changing people's lives. But I want
982
01:06:06.559 --> 01:06:11.599
being new movies that like Predator die
Hard for instance, where you're at you're
983
01:06:11.639 --> 01:06:14.960
at a hotel one night, it's
eleven o'clock, you're tired. You turn
984
01:06:15.039 --> 01:06:16.400
on the TV. It's halfway through
Predator, and you're like, fucking I
985
01:06:16.400 --> 01:06:19.599
gotta watch it. Those are the
movies I love. I mean, I
986
01:06:19.599 --> 01:06:24.159
remember when I when I beyond the
commercials for John Wick. I was on
987
01:06:24.159 --> 01:06:26.920
Facebook one day and a friend of
mine, who's kind of a hard guy
988
01:06:26.920 --> 01:06:29.960
to please with movies, actually was
like, John Wick and you know,
989
01:06:30.039 --> 01:06:32.400
dot dot dot the ellipsis and he
wrote, that was pretty fucking good.
990
01:06:33.880 --> 01:06:36.599
See that's the best. That's what
I want, you know. And in
991
01:06:36.639 --> 01:06:41.599
fact, I had people on Facebook
who were like in their late seventies,
992
01:06:41.639 --> 01:06:45.519
early eighties, friends of my grandmother
who hadn't seen an R rated movie since
993
01:06:45.679 --> 01:06:48.519
maybe The Godfather. They want to
see it to support me, and they're
994
01:06:48.559 --> 01:06:54.719
just like, I really enjoyed that. He because I mean, there's a
995
01:06:54.800 --> 01:06:56.960
couple of things in John Wick.
Like I said, people, if you're
996
01:06:56.960 --> 01:06:59.280
listening to this, told you job
was going to dig into it, but
997
01:06:59.440 --> 01:07:00.519
just you know, real quick,
I know, you know you have to
998
01:07:00.559 --> 01:07:02.719
go. But when when John Wick, you know, was going through the
999
01:07:02.840 --> 01:07:06.239
nightclub and he's all action scene and
we're falling the whole time, and it's
1000
01:07:06.280 --> 01:07:11.679
just everything about that which just all
came together beautifully, and I was like
1001
01:07:11.679 --> 01:07:14.320
and I was like, damn,
that's a really good action scene right there.
1002
01:07:14.840 --> 01:07:17.360
Yeah, And what's fun is you
know, Chad and Dave their background
1003
01:07:17.519 --> 01:07:20.840
is, you know, is stunt
direction and that kind of stuff. But
1004
01:07:20.880 --> 01:07:25.559
what I loved about working with them
and what I love about working with them
1005
01:07:25.599 --> 01:07:30.199
now is a lot of the action
beats I wrote into the script are on
1006
01:07:30.239 --> 01:07:33.079
the screen. Like to see that
John shoots that guy's foot and he leans
1007
01:07:33.079 --> 01:07:35.000
forward and shoots his head. I'm
like, that was in the screenplay,
1008
01:07:35.400 --> 01:07:39.599
and so I know for a lot
of like the Marvel movies are the bigger
1009
01:07:39.639 --> 01:07:44.480
properties. They say, John Wick
fights fifteen guys, like in the script.
1010
01:07:44.800 --> 01:07:49.519
They gave me the opportunity to help
them along the action action wise.
1011
01:07:49.559 --> 01:07:57.360
And what I love about their directing
style is there's no quick cuts. They're
1012
01:07:57.400 --> 01:08:00.599
doing all of these moves. They're
landing all of these blows, and it's
1013
01:08:00.760 --> 01:08:02.199
it's kind of like an ode to
the Kung Fu I grew up with,
1014
01:08:02.320 --> 01:08:05.239
you know, and we had fun
with it then and weren't gonna have a
1015
01:08:05.280 --> 01:08:11.320
blast with it in the next Is
there a rough date for the release date
1016
01:08:11.320 --> 01:08:15.239
for the next one? Not?
Not not really, lions Gate really wants
1017
01:08:15.280 --> 01:08:18.920
one. Uh, They're they're talking
with various people and can right now so
1018
01:08:18.960 --> 01:08:23.399
we could shoot in the fall or
we could shoot in the spring. Um,
1019
01:08:23.800 --> 01:08:27.960
the Lions Gates has been very very
generous. I mean it's very rare
1020
01:08:28.399 --> 01:08:30.960
to be in a place where you
have a green Let movie, you know,
1021
01:08:30.520 --> 01:08:34.159
and it's green Let and they're like
the sooner the better, and yet
1022
01:08:34.359 --> 01:08:39.880
they want to massage this into a
franchise. And Kano, who's you know,
1023
01:08:39.960 --> 01:08:43.319
implicit in all of this, is
very careful to do so as well.
1024
01:08:44.279 --> 01:08:46.319
And that's absolutely phenomenal. And you, Derek, I want to say
1025
01:08:46.319 --> 01:08:50.439
congratulations on all your success you've you
know, you've definitely earned it, and
1026
01:08:50.560 --> 01:08:54.119
you know I wish you nothing but
the best with you know, John Wick
1027
01:08:54.159 --> 01:08:57.479
two and hopefully John Wick three and
uh, you know all the other future
1028
01:08:57.479 --> 01:08:59.840
products you have due. Thanks a
lot, man. I enjoy talking to
1029
01:09:00.399 --> 01:09:02.560
Oh I believe it my pleasure man, anytime I can get talking about like
1030
01:09:02.600 --> 01:09:09.520
movies, like anyone who's seen Man
Squito or or or or Killed Dozer or
1031
01:09:09.640 --> 01:09:13.560
future? Do you see Rubber?
Yes? I did see Rubber. Yes.
1032
01:09:14.920 --> 01:09:16.800
You know, if you ever really
want to punish yourself and it goes
1033
01:09:16.840 --> 01:09:19.800
for finaloe you, Derek. For
anyone listening, if you want to see
1034
01:09:19.800 --> 01:09:24.319
the worst film that I've ever seen, I know exactly what it is.
1035
01:09:24.359 --> 01:09:30.600
And it's called Nuki. What Nuki, It's n u Kie and it's a
1036
01:09:30.640 --> 01:09:35.560
movie about two aliens at crash land
in Africa, and it is it was
1037
01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:40.319
supposed to be like a kids movie, like a rip off of ET and
1038
01:09:40.800 --> 01:09:45.159
it is so odd and bad and
boring and dead. It's it's it's it's
1039
01:09:45.199 --> 01:09:47.960
hailed. As you know, they
usually have the worst movies ever made.
1040
01:09:48.439 --> 01:09:53.399
Uh, they usually put Plan nine
on, but Plan nine's actually entertaining this.
1041
01:09:53.399 --> 01:09:56.920
This is just bad. So so
if you ever an I'll link to
1042
01:09:56.960 --> 01:09:59.800
it in the show notes too,
if everybody who actually wants to venture out
1043
01:09:59.840 --> 01:10:02.359
to seen Uki. But it is
absolutely barned on the worst movie I've ever
1044
01:10:02.399 --> 01:10:08.079
seen in my life. We'll be
right back after a word from our sponsor,
1045
01:10:11.680 --> 01:10:16.960
and now back to the show.
Have you seen Martyrs? Martyrs?
1046
01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:20.159
No, that is one of the
most disturbing horror movies I've ever seen,
1047
01:10:20.279 --> 01:10:25.159
So okay, I'll make I'm making
a note of that. That and uh,
1048
01:10:25.319 --> 01:10:28.479
three Extremes is awesome. Yeah,
I have seen extremes. Three extremes.
1049
01:10:28.800 --> 01:10:31.880
Yeah, and I could go for
hours, man, Yeah, seriously,
1050
01:10:31.880 --> 01:10:34.920
I mean we could always be talking. I mean that's uh, that's
1051
01:10:34.960 --> 01:10:39.800
what helps me to find you know, find somebody like yourself and who just
1052
01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:43.359
seen all these random movies that I've
seen. Uh, and I'm gonna check
1053
01:10:43.359 --> 01:10:45.880
out that movie cast up blank you
mentioned. I don't know I've Hey,
1054
01:10:45.880 --> 01:10:49.520
when you're out, man, give
me a shot, dude, we'll do
1055
01:10:49.680 --> 01:10:57.640
Derek and oh Derek where we'll find
you out online nowhere. I don't do
1056
01:10:57.680 --> 01:11:02.760
Twitter or anything, Okay, So
I just I'm just a private guy.
1057
01:11:02.800 --> 01:11:08.279
Man cool and uh, you know, everybody can find me at Dave Bullis
1058
01:11:08.319 --> 01:11:11.319
dot com. Uh, you can, you can find you can find me.
1059
01:11:11.359 --> 01:11:14.479
I'm a I try to be private, but I watch social stuff going
1060
01:11:14.520 --> 01:11:17.960
on. You know what I meant, chattels um. But actually, Derek,
1061
01:11:17.960 --> 01:11:20.920
I want to say thanks again for
coming on and h please anytime I
1062
01:11:20.960 --> 01:11:24.039
want to come back, just let
me know. Sure. Thank good looking
1063
01:11:24.079 --> 01:11:29.159
on man. Like I said,
that was an awesome, awesome interview Derek.
1064
01:11:29.439 --> 01:11:30.560
I'm a huge fan of Derek and
I'm a huge fan of the John
1065
01:11:30.600 --> 01:11:34.960
Wick franchise. So if you do
want to get more episodes, buy Dave
1066
01:11:35.039 --> 01:11:41.119
Bullis on the Make Your Movie podcast. Just head over to I f H
1067
01:11:41.520 --> 01:11:46.880
podcast Network dot com and check out
all of the other amazing podcasts that we
1068
01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:53.560
have in the network that is focused
on filmmaking, film history and analysis,
1069
01:11:53.800 --> 01:11:58.520
and screenwriting. Thanks again for listening
guys, As always, keep on writing
1070
01:11:58.720 --> 01:12:01.560
no matter what. Talk to you
soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof
1071
01:12:01.600 --> 01:12:05.279
Screenwriting podcasts at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.
