MovieMaker (MovieMaker Magazine)

Damien Leone is the director of four films that star the mugging, murdering Art the Clown — All Hallows Eve and Terrifer, Terrifier 2 and the new Terrifier 3. Even if you've never seen his films, you've probably read about them, because of the hype that surrounds the walkouts and episodes that inevitably accompany screenings.

We talk about making a $250,000 movie that earns $15 million, the Terrifer 3 scene inspired by American Psycho, and creating the best slasher villain since Freddy Krueger. And we discuss being named after The Omen's Antichrist.

In the first episode of MovieMaker Interviews, "Dolemite Is My Name" screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski tell us how they went from college roommates to masters of the biopic. They walk us through their writing process, from research to cards to first draft, then get into specifics about "Ed Wood," "The People vs. Larry Flynt," "Man on the Moon," "Big Eyes," "The People vs. O.J. Simpson," and finally "Dolemite Is My Name." Jokes are told. Mel Brooks calls. And we learn the "Dolemite" line that came indirectly from Dave Chappelle.

Here are some highlights, with timestamps:

1:12: Interview begins.

1:48: Scott and Larry praise the genre films of Herschell Gordon Lewis.

2:35: Shout out to Los Angeles' Nuart and New Beverly theaters.

3:22: How Larry started gaming Scott from the first day they met.

4:19: Scott explains his and Larry's obsession with "indie genre cult movies."

8:20: Who types, and who sits on the couch.

12:06: Scott and Larry explain the importance of funny voices in their process.

13:50: Rights.

14:13: Diving into "Ed Wood."

14:50: Meeting Larry Flynt.

15:30: Working with Margaret Keane on "Big Eyes."

15:58: Being journalists to research Andy Kaufman for "Man on the Moon."

17:30: How "People v. OJ Simpson" was unique

21:30: How Dave Chappelle contributed a scene to "Dolemite Is My Name"

24:57: Mel Brooks calls

27:30: A fantastic Village People story

30:18: Scott and Larry's advice to screenwriters

34:30: The crossover between Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" and "Dolemite Is My Name"

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This week, two interviews we love: The first is with "Queen & Slim" star Daniel Kaluuya, and the second with "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" writers Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, as well as Tom Junod, whose Esquire profile of Mister Rogers is a major influence on the film.

In "Queen & Slim," which is in theaters Wednesday, Nov. 27, Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith play a couple on a first date who are racially profiled on a traffic stop that quickly escalates into a national call for justice. He talks with us about how "Get Out" led him to "Queen & Slim," what made the role both relatable and unusual, how he's handling the Scorsese v. Marvel discussion, and why he's going from "Black Panther" to a film about real-life Black Panther activist Fred Hampton.

In "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," which is in theaters Friday, Nov. 22, Tom Hanks plays "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" host Fred Hampton, who tries to heal a troubled journalist named Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys). Harpster, Fitzerman-Blue and Junod talk about how much of Vogel's life is based on Junod's. They also talk about what Mister Rogers wanted, how boys and girls are taught to deal with emotions, and a certain urban myth about Mister Rogers being a sniper or Navy SEAL. (To be 100 percent clear: He wasn't.)

Thanks to the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, where we conducted both interviews. If you like us, check out the latest issue of MovieMaker Magazine, which has "as told to" accounts from Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue, as well as "Queen & Slim" writer Lena Waithe and director Melina Matsoukas.

Here are some highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:15: Daniel Kaluuya interview begins. Audio is dodgy for a few seconds. It gets better at...

2:14: Audio issue fixed. Enjoy Daniel Kaluuya's awesome British accent in all its glory.

3:30: Why he knew he wanted to play Slim.

4:54: Why "Queen & Slim" is more "Thelma & Louise" than "Bonnie & Clyde."

10:01: He weighs in on the supposed fight between cinema and the Marvel Universe

13:40: He discusses the upcoming film "Jesus Was My Homeboy," in which he'll play Black Panther activist Fred Hampton.

16:05: Interview with "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" screenwriters Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, and Tom Junod, whose Esquire article "Can You Say... Hero?" helped inspire the film.

17:15: Let's talk about anger.

21: How much is Mathew Rhys' "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" character, Esquire journalist Lloyd Vogel, based on Esquire journalist Tom Junod?

26:20: Would Fred Rogers be disillusioned by the world today?

26:40: About that Navy SEAL thing

28:50: How Noah discovered Mister Rogers was "a warlock who speaks toddler."

30: At one point Mister Rogers estate said there will "never ever be a Mister Rogers movie."

34:10: Where the Mister Rogers sniper urban myth came from.

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Writer-director Annabelle Attanasio's debut feature film "Mickey and the Bear" stars Camila Morrone as an 18-year-old helping care for her father (James Badge Dale), a veteran coping with PTSD. In this episode, Attanasio talks about crafting an elegant, efficient script that skips exposition and lets the actors really act.

Morrone and Dale also talk about the importance of persistence in being a professional actor, and Attanasio talks about her own acting on the CBS drama "Bull" helped shape her "Mickey and the Bear" script.

If you like this episode, you'll probably also like the stories at MovieMaker.com.

Here are some highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:45: Interview begins

2:30: Some nice words about Gen Z and a brutal attack on Generation X

3:30: Annabelle Attanasio explains where the idea for "Mickey and the Bear" originated

4:39: Camila Morrone self-taped her audition in her kitchen

6:05: James Badge Dale, Morrone and Attanasio discuss what it means to succeed as an actor

8:30: Attanasio discusses why she wrote a "quite spare" script without needless exposition

12: The most difficult scene in the film

15:45: How the film addresses the treatment of veterans and the opioid crisis

16:45: How their parents impacted them

21: Respect to "The Young Girls of Rochefort"

22:15: Let's talk about a casting mystery

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Hotel Mumbai, the feature debut from Australian writer-director Anthony Maras, deserved more attention when it premiered in the United States earlier this year. Now that the film has premiered in the most important country on its release calendar, India, we spoke to Maras about the horrific attacks that inspired Hotel Mumbai and the heroism of the real people involved.

Maras' story is essential listening for anyone making their first film. Many surprises that seemed likely to doom the project turned out to be its salvation. He talks about how he won it back from The Weinstein Co. after the Harvey Weinstein story emerged, the injury that delayed shooting, and other hurdles. But he never loses sight of the real focus on the tragedy, its victims and its survivors.

Hotel Mumbai is now streaming on Hulu.If you enjoy this interview, please check out similar interviews and features at MovieMaker.com.

Here's a breakdown of our talk, with timestamps:

1:45: Anthony Maras discusses the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, and how he decided to make Hotel Mumbai.

4:45: Maras talks about the altruism of the people targeted in the attacks. "You had kitchen staff from the Taj Hotel who were literally stuffing pots and pans and baking trays down their shirts. These were to act as bullet -proof vests as they were shielding their guests from gunfire."

8:20: How Dog Day Afternoon influenced Hotel Mumbai.

10:45: How the filmmakers made decisions about how to portray the terrorists in the film.

20:30: How Maras and co-writer John Collee researched the film, and why Dev Patel was determined to make Hotel Mumbai.

23:00: Hotel Mumbai was initially a Weinstein Co. release. The first Hotel Mumbai test screening was on the same day as the first New York Times story about Harvey Weinstein. That led to a fight to get the film back.

24:50: Why moviemakers should have good lawyers.

25:25: How an on-set accident ended up rescuing the film.

40:55: The importance of listening.

42:35: Maras' oddest job on the road to becoming a moviemaker.

43:00: An impromptu toast to UC Santa Barbara, America's finest university.

49:45: Five Things Anthony Maras has learned as a moviemaker.

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Margot Robbie, our first guest, is earning accolades galore for her role in "Bombshell" as Kayla, a Fox News employee whose TV ambitions draw the attention of the predatory Roger Ailes. She talks with us about playing a character with whom she has almost noting in common, and how she used social media to understand her.

We also talk about one of the most underrated parts of her acting, how she balances acting and producing, and that story that she slapped Leonardo Di Caprio during her "Wolf of Wall Street" audition. If you're a rising actor, should you hit your prospective co-stars? She has some advice.

Margot Robbie also talks about how she used to work at Subway.

Our second guest, Charles Randolph, talks about how his religious upbringing -- including a plot to take Bibles behind the Iron Curtain -- informed his script for "Bombshell." He talks about why he likes writing conservative characters, the intense research he did for "Bombshell," and his upcoming scripts about John D. Rockefeller and Hulk Hogan v. Gawker.

Please subscribe to MovieMaker interviews, check out MovieMaker.com, and be sure to check out the next issue of MovieMaker Magazine, featuring a look at Margot Robbie's Lucky Chap Productions and their upcoming slate of female-focused films, from "Birds of Prey" to "Promising Young Woman" to "Barbie."

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Alan Cumming and "Two Popes" screenwriter Anthony McCarten are our guests this week.

We talk with Cumming -- whose Twitter profile describes him as a "Scottish elf trapped inside middle-aged man's body" -- about dancing, DJing, mentoring young moviemakers, and his role in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. He tells us about the visual sex joke that Kubrick asked him to do again and again, and about what it's like to be Alan Cumming, witty and outgoing star, and Alan Cumming, real person.

Then we talk with McCarten about how his Catholic upbringing informed "Two Popes," his mixed emotions surrounding ABBA's "Dancing Queen," and what you need to know when you start writing your script. He also talks about how the stories of two pontiffs with very different world-views reflects the political situation in the United States today.

Holiday shopping? We invite you to visit moviemaker.com/subscriptions and use secret code XMASMM to get nice discounts on MovieMaker Magazine subscriptions.

Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:15: Alan Cumming interview begins.

4:04: "I've chosen to do something waaay outside my comfort zone."

4:45: A few words about cabaret bar Club Cumming.

5:34: "I think I've understood from way way long ago how important fun is as a component in your life... especially when you do things that are very dark. And a lot of my work is very dark."

7:00: Don't be the kind of DJ who refuses to dance.

11:00: "I think of myself as a character... I think there's me, and then there's Alan Cumming. And Alan Cumming goes out and is like, 'Hello everybody, hi! Yes, I'm here! That's right. Thanks so much!"

12:30: Let's talk about the 20th anniversary of Eyes Wide Shut and what he learned working with Stanley Kubrick.

13:05: "It's a huge thing in my career, even though it's like maybe four minutes."

15:55: "There's a saying, which is, you can go as big as you like, as you want as long as you mean it."

17:08: Anthony McCarten interview begins, as he explains how he used humor to humanize Two Popes.

18:40: The Vatican's response to Two Popes.

19:19: "We built our own Sistine Chapel."

24:00: "There's very very little tolerance or listening to the other side. ... Sometimes the talking should stop and we should listen a little more."

31:50: ABBA's "Dancing Queen": "I was kind of traumatized by that song."

37:20: Anthony McCarten talks about his script for Bohemian Rhapsody.

41:00: His advice for screenwriters.

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Clemency is one of the last films to be released in 2019, and it's one of the best films of 2019. This week we talk to the film's director, Chinonye Chukwu, and the film's stars, Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge.

You know all the cliches of death-row movies: the cruel warden, the Jesus imagery, the lawyers who clear their client at the last second. Clemency knows them too, and subverts them in favor of a nuanced and honest look at the fundamental problem with the death penalty. It doesn't preach. It doesn't need to.

Woodard plays a warden completely different from every other we've seen on film, and Hodge plays a condemned man who makes us feel every agonizing moment of his countdown. But please skip the Hodge interview, which comes last, if you haven't yet seen "Clemency." The film is in theaters December 27.

Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:15: Alfre Woodard interview begins

1:27: She explains why so many wardens come from the fields of mental health or social work.

4:15: "Every time we do it, it puts a stain on our soul as a culture, as a nation. Especially a nation where we call ourselves a nation of faith. ... It's a breach for everybody."

8:25: Alfre Woodard on meeting death row inmates in her research for the film: "It was the most humbling experience I've ever had in my life."

11:01: "You just have to kiss yourself up to God. Anything can happen."

15:48: Chinonye Chukwu interview begins.

16:30: "Regardless of innocence or guilt, do we as a society have a right to kill?"

18:03: "I don't need to justify his humanity. ... I really tasked myself to craft a narrative where we don't really know if this person's innocent or guilty and we don't know very much about his past. We are just staying with him in the present."

20:15: Why she chose to cast black actors as both the warden and the inmate: "I thought that if the warden is white and the person on death row is black, then the racial dynamics become the narrative, and not an interrogation of the prison space and the practice of capital punishment and the system of incarceration."

20:50: How she captured the feeling of the prison.

23:38: We talk about witnessing an actual execution.

30:00: We discuss the Golden Globes not nominating any female filmmakers in the best directing categories.

31:45: "We all should support the films that don't get supported by these structures and entities."

33:32: "We have to be willing to use our privileges and access for those who aren't as privileged. And sometimes it is sacrifice but that's what we have to do sometimes in order to move forward."

34:00: CLEMENCY SPOILERS FOLLOW.

35:00: Aldis Hodge interview begins.

35:35: "It's not about him committing a crime. It's about us as a society feeling justified to commit a crime that we shroud in the identity of true justice."

41:02: Audio quality improves thanks to a microphone switch. Thanks for your patience.

42:38: "I want art to be part of the progressive conversation."

45:00: We talk about Aldis Hodge's watchmaking, and why he's pursuing it.

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The Lighthouse was one of Willem Dafoe's biggest acting challenges: Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are onscreen for almost every second of Robert Eggers' film, shot in harsh weather on a barely hospitable stretch of the North Atlantic. But Dafoe says in our interview that he delighted in the challenge of having nowhere to hide.

Then we talk with Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, whose film The Mustang is one of the most underrated of 2019. The Mustang stars Matthias Schoenaerts as a Nevada prison inmate whose life is changed when he joins a program to train wild horses. Among other things, she talks about why "cinema is to be seen in cinema."

Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:25: Willem Dafoe interview begins with him explaining how he was cast in The Lighthouse.

3:30: How our feelings about Dafoe's The Lighthouse character, Thomas Wake, change during the film: "You see his various strategies to dominate or ameliorate or find some sort of… peace or sense of security."

7:00: How to play a potentially unlikeable character: "In order to not have them be a cartoon or not have them be just a mouthpiece to express a point of view or explain something, to really represent them, you have to take their side."

10:28: "You know, the challenges are the blessings."

12:50: We make Willem Dafoe laugh, by asking him what he's learned.

15:40: How Willem Dafoe has fun.

18:00: Check out MovieMaker.com/Subscriptions and use offer code XMASMM.

19:10: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre interview begins.

19:45: She tells us why prison movies are so compelling.

23:00: "The man sees through the eyes of the animal how aggressive he is, and the animal teaches him patience, respect and trust."

30:20: Did being French help her see the American criminal justice system more clearly for The Mustang?

34:55: "We need to preserve cinema. Cinema should be seen in cinema, not on a laptop or in a plane or an iPhone which is even more terrifying."

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Director Destin Daniel Cretton had no choice but to make sure Just Mercy, his Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx death row drama, was very accurate: Cretton says Bryan Stevenson, who inspired the film, "was constantly keeping us in check in the best way."

Stevenson's memoir, Just Mercy, describes his efforts to save Walter McMillian, a man who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1988. Jordan plays Stevenson, and Foxx plays McMillian.

1:36: Destin Daniel Cretton interview begins.

2:10: How Bryan Stevenson's memoir, Just Mercy, affected him

3:10: How Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx got involved

3:44: How working with at-risk kids helped lead to a career in Hollywood

5:40: How he met Ryan Coogler, and Coogler quickly connected him with Michael B. Jordan: "He put me on hold and when he reconnected me, Michael B. Jordan was on the line."

7:00: How Jamie Foxx joined Just Mercy.

8:30: The moment when he knew the movie was working.

10:30: Why he stuck close to the facts.

We had to stick close to the facts because Bryan Stevenson was working closely with us every step of the way and making sure that we were telling a story that would resonate not only with an audience but would resonate with lawyers who are doing this type of work, that would resonate with people on death row who are going through this process, and would resonate with the clients and the people who are in this story, some of which are still alive, or their relatives are still alive. Bryan cared deeply about all of that, and was constantly keeping us in check in the best way.

Accuracy was definitely important so that when they watch this movie, people can understand what it really takes. This isn't a made-up version of what it takes to prove somebody's innocence. This is the long process that is in place right now in our system."

We talked with Cretton about Just Mercy, how working with at-risk youth shared his whole Hollywood career, and his upcoming Marvel movie, Shang-Chi.

Here are highlights, with timestamps:

1:36: Destin Daniel Cretton interview begins.

2:10: How Bryan Stevenson's memoir, Just Mercy, affected him

3:10: How Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx got involved

3:44: How working with at-risk kids helped lead to a career in Hollywood.

5:40: How he met Ryan Coogler, and Coogler quickly connected him with Michael B. Jordan: "He put me on hold and when he reconnected me, Michael B. Jordan was on the line."

7:00: How Jamie Foxx joined Just Mercy.

8:30: The moment when he knew the movie was working.

10:30: Why he stuck close to the facts.

12:30: What Bryan Stevenson has in common with Mr. Rogers.

13:40: "I can't deny that we didn't go far and wide searching for that flaw."

15:30: Let's talk about the death penalty.

18:00: How often the government gets it wrong.

18:20: A quick shoutout to Clemency, and how Cretton captured the atmosphere of a Southern prison in the 1980s.

21:54: The advice he got from Brie Larson and Michael B. Jordan about joining the Marvel Universe.

If you like this episode, you would like MovieMaker.com.

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Before the age of 30, Rishi Rajani rose to become president of Lena Waithe's Hillman Grad Productions, the company that brought you Queen & Slim and BET's Boomerang and Twenties, among other projects.

In this episode, he talks about how Hillman Grad wants to help other people break into Hollywood—especially underrepresented creators who want to make protest art. He also talks about how he worked his way up from the mailroom, and why, in 2020, the mailroom still matters.

Because Rajani climbed the rungs himself, he knows how hard it is—and he has a bold idea for how to end the problem of rich kids getting all the best Hollywood internships and other opportunities.

Look for our full profile of Ranjani in the upcoming issue of MovieMaker Magazine, which also profiles LuckyChap Entertainment, the company founded by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara.

Here are highlights from our interview with Rishi Rajani, with timestamps:

1:50: Rishi Rajani interview begins.

2:00: We talk about The 40-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank's debut film, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

3:45: Rishi Rajani talks about his job interview with Lena Waithe.

4:00: "Bringing other people up... has really been the core mandate of everything we do."

5:40: How an unsuccessful collaboration ultimately got Rajani his job.

9:30: "If you're truly going to be supporting younger voices, you have to get their stuff made."

11:30: His Malawi-born father's love of American Westerns.

15:50: Let's talk about overcoming nepotism.

19:00: The rich-intern problem, and how Hillman Grad wants to fix it.

21:00: How high you have to score on The Black List to draw Hillman Grad's attention.

31:30: Let's talk about Queen & Slim.

34:00: His advice for people who want to produce movies.

36:35: Why working your way up from the mailroom is no joke.

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Three Christs director Jon Avnet has one of the most impressive IMDb pages in Hollywood: He produced films from Risky Business to Black Swan, and has worked with everyone from Tom Cruise to Joan Didion. He's also faced a lot of rejection — and figured out how to get past it.

Three Christs, which Avnet co-wrote as well as directed, stars Richard Gere as a psychologist in the 1950s trying to treat three schizophrenic men who all believe themselves to be Jesus Christ. They’re played by Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins and Bradley Whitford.

In the new MovieMaker Interviews podcast, Avnet talks about why he wanted to get the mostly true story to the screen, and what he learned in the process. He also gives an amazing crash course on Hollywood perseverance, and gives inside accounts of projects from Risky Business to FX's Justified to Up Close and Personal, the film he directed that starred Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer and was written by John Gregory Dunne and Didion.

And he tells us about his gift for getting people who shut him down professionally to change their minds.

As we spoke Avnet was hard at work on Four Good Days, a film he’s producing that is directed by Rodrigo Garcia. It stars Mila Kunis as a woman dealing with addiction, and Glenn Close as her mother, who is trying to help her. It premieres this Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival.

Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

2:00: Interview begins, with a discussion of Three Christs.

5:20: Here's how much Jon Avnet likes research.

13:30: Working with Joan Didion and John Griffin Dunne on Up Close and Personal.

23:30: Let's talk about Tom Cruise's Risky Business underwear slide.

26:55: A few words about perseverance: "Most people who do what I do deal with rejection all the time."

28:00: "Don't say no — say maybe."

31:55: Dealing with critics: "You got to make the movie. They didn't."

36:30: "Jump in the steam of life and maybe you'll go down the river a little bit."

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Promising Young Woman stars Carey Mulligan as a young woman who goes to nightclubs and acts too drunk to stand. When nice guys take her home, they realize she isn't as helpless as she seems — and that they aren't very nice. That's just scratching the surface of the wickedly funny, brilliant Sundance debut for writer-director Emerald Fennell, who tells us she designed the film to feel like a great first date gone terrible awry.

Fennell is an actress and novelist as well as a screenwriter-director -- she plays Camilla on The Crown -- and you know Mulligan from films like Never Let Me Go, Shame, The Great Gatsby and Suffragette. They talk with us about the confectionary look of the film, how they first met, and why films directed by women overcome a level of quality control that films directed by men sometimes don't.

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Christina Hodson, writer of Birds of Prey and Bumblebee, talks to us about what makes the Clockwork Orange-influenced girl gang movie tick. She also talks about the Lucky Exports Pitch Program (LEPP) in which she and Margot Robbie's Lucky Chap Entertainment helped six female writers break into the action genre.

She also talks about mapping out fight scenes with some help from YouTube and True Romance, and says absolutely nothing about the possibility of a Wonder Woman-Harley Quinn crossover.

Here are some highlights, with timestamps:

2:00: Interview begins with fond memories of carsickness.

2:34: How Hodson and Robbie set out to tell a different kind of comic-book story.

3:45: Let's compare Harley Quinn and Heath Ledger's Joker.

5:45: The benefits of collaboration.

7:00: How the Lucky Exports Pitch Program works.

9:50: The charms of Bumblebee.

12:00: How much does Birds of Prey fit into the DC Universe?

14:30: "No comment"

16:10: Why are female directors better represented in comic-book movies — this year — than in movies overall?

19:00: "I love writing action and I love writing specificity in action. To me, you can tell so much about a character by the way they fight."

26:00: Callbacks!

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"Horse Girl," now in theaters and on Netflix, stars Alison Brie as a young woman who loves horses.That's as much as we can tell you without ruining the film, which Brie and director Jeff Baena co-wrote. Spoilers follow.

The film, which premiered at Sundance last week, isn't what it at first appears to be. Baena doesn't care about genre or classification. What he and Brie do care about is committing completely to the perspective of their main character, Sarah, as she begins to question her perception of reality — and wonders if she's severely mentally ill, or one of the only people on earth who understands a dark truth.

Here are highlights of the episode, with time stamps:

2:00: Alison Brie and Jeff Baena interview begins.

2:45: How the film suffered from skepticism and misunderstandings, and how the Duplass brothers helped make it a reality.

3:40: How much did Jeff Baena and Alison Brie want the film to be open to interpretation?

4:20: Alison Brie: "We certainly designed it so that upon multiple viewings people might pick up a little bit more of what we feel like is the through-line to the story."

5:30: "A major crux of the film is how terrible it can be to not be able to trust your own mind."

7:10: A tech issue arises and is handled in a humorous fashion.

10:30: "I feel like genre's kind of like the bumpers at a bowling alley..."

12:28: What is a horse girl, exactly?

14:50: Your host is scared of horses.

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Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler says when he first released images of Sonic — and fans savaged them online — he wallowed through “a good hour of feeling sorry for myself.”

But only one hour. Then he got back to work, and made changes that led to a massive hit.

He says in the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast that Sony and Paramount, the film’s distributor, quickly agreed that they needed to make the fans happy.

“The fact that the message was so clear really made our job kind of easy. There almost was no debate: We need to fix this. We need fans to love this and be in our corner. So it actually ended up being really simple, if a little challenging at the time,” Fowler said.

Fowler also talked to us about his openness to a Sonic the Hedgehog sequel, potentially expanding Sonic into a cinematic Segaverse, and what he learned from Deadpool director Tim Miller, who was Fowler’s boss at Blur Studio before Fowler spun off into making Sonic.

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Paul Scheer is one of the best people on screen (Black Monday! The Disaster Artist!) and in podcasting (Unspooled! How Did This Get Made?)

This week, he talks us through this crazy situation we're all in — and about how talking and a sense of humor will keep us sane. He's hosting a live episode of Unspooled with Amy Nicholson on Monday night at 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 ET on Earwolf's YouTube channel, and also a group watch of Showtime's Black Monday on Sunday at 10/9c. Follow him for details at @paulscheer.

He's also texting (this not to a paid thing) a nightly watch list with people who send “picks” to 917-877-0657.

I'm @timamolloy. I'm the editor of MovieMaker.com. Visit us!

Finally: This is the trailer for the amazing Flooded With Love for the Kid by Zack Oberzan. Thank you Juan Carlos Montoya for showing it to me.

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If you're getting through our global quarantine by playing video games, you're in good company: Alexandre Amancio, the former Ubisoft artistic director who headed up on Assassin's Creed: Revealations and Assassin's Creed: Unity, has been playing with fans online.

Amancio spoke to us for the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast, where he talked about his new company, Reflector Entertainment, and telling stories across platforms. He also told us that fans have hit him up on Twitter to play Assassin's Creed, and that he's obliged. He's also engaged with a few about their Assassin's Creed fan theories.

Here's a breakdown of the episode, with timestamps:

3:15: Interview with Alexandre Amancio begins

4:15: How video games help people get out of their heads during lockdown. "It's a way to travel outside of your home even if you are confined."

5:24: How Assassin's Creed fans have contacted him to play.

9:30: Rethinking the idea of storytelling.

13:50: Let's talk about Kodak.

21:00: Let's talk about Dr. Mario vs. Assassin's Creed

29:00: How his company, Reflector, is building a "new, realistic world."

31:30: What we can all learn from John Wick.

33:00: How to build a world: "You can't decide to do something because you've done market research. ... That always yields something that lacks soul."

40:00: How Alexandre Amancio partnered with the founder of Cirque de Soleil.

42:30: How bilingualism fuels creative thinking.

You can read Alexandre Amancio discussing his Storyworld concept in the latest issue of MovieMaker Magazine, available this month. You can subscribe here.

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We Summon the Darkness and My Friend Dahmer, two of prolific director Marc Meyers latest films, unfurl almost opposite takes on serial killers. Dahmer is a sober, anti-sensationalist exploration of how a confused teen became a reviled cannibal. Darkness turns a Satanic Panic-era killing spree into a headbangers' ball of dark comedy.

Meyers, as you can probably guess, has a lot of range.

We Summon the Darkness opens with three young women (Alexandra Daddario, Maddie Hasson and Amy Forsyth) road-tripping to a metal show in Indiana in the 1980s. The radio mentions a string of Satanic murders, they meet three boys in the metal show parking lot, and things happen. Johnny Knoxville turns up as the voice of the religious right.

We're keeping things deliberately vague, and this episode contains no significant spoilers.

You're probably wondering if we also talk about Jeffrey Dahmer, the Midwestern murderer who kept victims' body parts in his freezer. We sure do.

Here are highlight of the interview, with timestamps:

3:00: Interview with Marc Meyers begins

5:20: We talk about the short documentary "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," one of the influences on We Summon the Darkness.

10:00: The Satanic Panic "did feel really real at the time."

10:45: Guns N Roses are to Slayer as alcohol is to heroin?

13:00: Writing and directing vs. writing.

15:00: Marc Meyers on proving My Friend Dahmer wasn't just another serial killer movie: "We had to almost make the movie to prove it as a concept."

16:30: Are kids less mean than they were in the 1970s and '80s?

22:00: How teenage Jeffrey Dahmer went wrong.

23:20: A very subtle spoiler about We Summon the Darkness.

23:50: Very subtle spoiler ends.

24:45: How things are going with our big, not-by-choice video-on-demand experiment.

28:00: Will COVID-19 recalibrate what we consider dramatic?

30:00: Shout out to Richard Linklater.

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When Rachel Mason was growing up in West Hollywood in the 1980s, her parents, Karen and Barry Mason, went to work each day at a bookstore — but not any bookstore. It was Circus of Books, which became an iconic LGBTQ location by selling erotica, magazines and sex toys at a time when homophobia ran rampant. At one point, her parents became targets of a Reagan Administration hellbent on locking people up over porn. They're the subject of her fascinating new documentary, Circus of Books.

In this episode, she talks about her nice, normal parents, meeting Larry Flynt, and how Ryan Murphy became an executive producer of Circus of Books, which is now streaming on Netflix.

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Extraction is the best action movie of the year.

Granted, it's a weird year. But even in a normal one, it's hard to imagine a more impressive sequence that the 12-minute, seemingly continuous shot in Extraction in which Chris Hemsworth leads a young boy through unbelievable carnage, unbelievably quickly, doing stunts that would be impressive even with lots of editing and fixes in post.

The reason that sequence is possible is our guest today, Sam Hargrave, who makes his directorial debut with Extraction. He came to directing by way of being a stuntman, working his way through the Marvel Universe, where he doubled for Chris Evans as Captain America, created some of the MCU's best fight sequences, and impressed the Russo Brothers enough that they offered him Extraction.

I also ask him some things I've always wondered, like: How do you become a stuntman? And can Chris Hemsworth, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron fight in real life?

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We're in the golden age of online film festivals: For the first time, movie lovers can watch brand-new, lovingly curated films from the comfort of home, without having to look for parking, stand in line, or beg for tickets.

Are we looking for the bright side in a sad situation? Well, yeah. But if you're going to watch — or host — an online film festival, you'll want to be conscious of these online film festival dos and don'ts.

Festivals are doing their best to make the viewing experience as great as possible, but our guests on the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast have learned a little bit about what works and what doesn't.

They are Wendy Eidson of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, one of the first to go online this year; Melanie Addington of the Oxford Film Festival, which is presenting new films weekly, and Michael Cain of EarthxFilm, which just wrapped.

We hope you enjoy the episode, and come away with some good ideas about how to support independent film, and film festivals.

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The late screenwriter Blake Snyder famously originated a concept called Save the Cat to describe the moment when a film's protagonist wins viewers over — when he or she saves a cat, for example. The creators of the new horror film 1BR are well-aware of the Save the Cat concept, and rejected it in almost every way possible.

If you've seen the trailer for 1BR, (and if not, a minor spoiler ensues) you know that it's about a young woman named Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) who moves into a new apartment complex with extremely strict rules. She sneaks in a cat, in defiance of a no-pet policy, and the punishment is harsh — for Sarah and the cat. From there, things spin out, as they often do when neighbors band together in pursuit of utopia.

1BR writer-director David Marmor and producer Alok Mishra join us for the latest MovieMaker Interviews to talk about, among other things, why they rejected Save the Cat so strongly. Here's an insane story Alok wrote for MovieMaker.com about how the film overcame fire, a late-night truck theft, and many other obstacles.

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Blood Quantum, from writer-director Jeff Barnaby, is a crackling zombie set on tribal land — where indigenous people are immune from whatever is turning white people into zombies.

It works as a straight-ahead, cheerfully grisly horror movie, or as a meditation on colonialism and capitalism. In this episode, Jeff discusses his influences, from Evil Dead to Night of the Living Dead, and how he used and reversed traditional zombie movie tropes. (He also points out some symbolism in Robocop you might have missed.)

And he explains the concept of Blood Quantum, which the U.S. government created in an effort to limit tribal membership. Barnaby explains that it was a "long-term erasure policy" designed to erase indigenous people from society.

"The idea behind it is, less Indians, less treaties to honor," he explained.

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Today our guest is Kyle MacLachlan, one of our favorite actors ever. He's one of the stars of Capone, in which Tom Hardy plays legendary gangster Alphone Capone, rendered almost helpless by the syphilis that racked his body and brain in his later years.

Much has been made of how supposedly weird Capone is, with its extended fantasy sequences, courtesy of writer-director Josh Trank. But in terms of Kyle MacLachlan movies, this one's pretty straightforward. He's a master at playing committed, decent good guys surrounded by decadence and mystery. Which is why it's so fun to see him as compromised characters like the one he plays in Capone.

We had a nice chat about the film, his career from Dune to Twin Peaks, and what he talks about with his friend David Lynch.

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"At the Drive-In," the new documentary from our guest Alexander Monelli, is about a band of movie lovers who saved a local drive-in.

At the start of the story, the Mahoning Drive-In theater in Leighton, Pennsylvania, is dying because it can't afford a new $50,000 digital projector. Then a group of young movie lovers sweep in and start showing classic movies — often while dressed as their favorite characters — and the parking lot starts drawing more and more cars.

One of them belongs to Mark Nelson, our other guest, who drives more than six hours every weekend to get to the Mahoning from his home in New Hampshire.

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Becky stars Lulu Wilson as a 13-year-old battling neo-Nazi prison escapees led by a very awful guy plays by Kevin James. It's not for everyone. We talked with directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion about what kinds of conversations you need to have when your lead actor is a child surrounded by cinematic gore.

If you like this episode, or even if you don't, consider giving to these charities.

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With You Don't Nomi, filmmaker Jeffrey McHale uses thoughtful voiceover and deft editing to take Showgirls seriously. Is Paul Verhoeven's 1995 bomb, starring a very committed Elizabeth Berkley as aspiring topless dancer Nomi Malone, truly as bad as critics claimed at the time? Or is it a misunderstood satire? Or both?

Whatever the case may be, McHale shows how Showgirls belongs now to its audience — who embrace it for its camp, its wildness, and an LGBTQ message that many have found after the fact. He's made a documentary about Showgirls that is superior to Showgirls itself, but has empathy and respect for everyone involved, especially Berkley.

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Babyteeth, the new film from Shannon Murphy, sneaks up on you.

The film follows Milla, a seriously ill teenager played by Eliza Scanlen, who falls for a small-time drug dealer and pill poppr named Moses — played by Toby Wallace, who perfectly captures the too-beautiful-for-this world charisma of so many addicts with a gravitational pull on those around them. Milla's parents are played by the excellent Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn.

Babyteeth is based on a play by Rita Kalnejais, who also wrote the script.

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David Dobkins got back to his roots for Netflix's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, in which Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams play an Icelandic musical duo who dream of winning Europe's continent-wide annual music competition.

Dobkins got his first directing job on the video for Tupac Shakur's video for "I Get Around," and went on to shoot the Ridley Scott-produced Clay Pigeons, his debut film. From there, he worked with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan on Shanghai Knights before scoring a massive hit with Wedding Crashers.

Eurovision reunites him with McAdams, who plays Sigrit, one-half of the group Fire Saga. Dobkins said he had one rule when he signed on to Eurovision: "The music's gotta be great."

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Werner Herzog has directed more than 70 films, but Family Romance LLC is the first he's directed in Japanese, a language he doesn't speak.

The film is about a real-life Japanese company, Family Romance LLC, that rents out fathers and other loved ones to families in need.

Herzog himself was fatherless from a very young age, but he says that isn't what attracted him to Family Romance LLC. In fact, he says, he and his brother appreciated not having a father.

He also tells fathers how to talk with their children, tells moms how to get their sons to get rid of their motorcycles, and endorses this viral video.

If you like this one, share it with someone in your family, real or imaginary.

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Joe and Anthony Russo are the hosts of Russo Brothers Pizza Fillm School — and the directors of Avengers: Endgame, the biggest movie ever.

The Russo Brothers talk to us this episode about how the 1980 cult film Flash Gordon helped inspire them through a tough time for their hometown, Cleveland,. They also talk about how the film's very unconventional middle section made an impression that informed the cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War.

The Russos also discuss their new ABGO production, Relic, and their efforts to helped underrepresented people break into film.

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Gina Prince-Bythewood broke through as a director 20 years ago with Love & Basketball, which us returning to drive-ins this summer. But she'd always wanted to make an action movie, and finally did it with Netflix's The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron as the leader of a band of warriors trying to do good in the modern world. Spoiler alert: They're hundreds of years old.

We talk about how Hollywood is all about overcoming no, and how working with one Marvel team — Cloak & Dagger — may lead her to another — the Black Cat and Silver Sable.

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The Rental, the directorial debut from actor Dave Franco, is about two couples who find a beautiful vacation rental that isn't as idyllic as it seems. There's a very engrossing build in the script, when things get almost impossibly suspenseful, and one of the reasons it's so effective is because of Dan Stevens and Sheila Vand, our guests today. They bring a grounded, can't-look-away dynamic to the film.

Vand (Argo, A Girl Walks Home at Night, Triple Frontier) and Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast, Eurovision Song Contest) also talk about the racial dynamics of The Rental, surveillance, and bro culture, among other subjects. And they talk about their interest in becoming directors themselves,

The Rental also stars Alison Brie and Jeremy Allen White, and it's now in select theaters and drive-ins, and on demand.

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Daryl Davis is a Black musician who befriends white supremacists to try to get them to give up their old ways. He's led more than 200 to renounce racism, and more than 50 Klansmen have surrendered their robes to him.

Years ago, he was playing piano in a Maryland truck stop when a man who turned out to be a Klansman said Davis was the first Black man he'd ever heard who could play like Jerry Lee Lewis. Davis corrected him, asking:

"Where do you think Jerry Lee Lewis learned to play?"

He's been educating racist ever since.

Davis has gotten criticism for engaging with racists. but in this podcast, he explains to writer Greg Gilman that one of his goals is to prevent lone-wolf attacks, like the one carried out by Dylan Roof in a South Carolina church in 2015.

Davis is the focus of Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America, a documentary by Matthew Orenstein now playing on Amazon Prime. You can read Greg's profile of him here.

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Before the Fire director Charlie Buhler and writer-star Jenna Lyng Adams didn't have millions of dollars for their sci-fi drama, but they did have access to a few things they knew could be very cinematic — planes, Humvees, a farm, and a house that needed burning down.

In the purest DIY, indie filmmaking fashion, they reverse-engineered Adams' script, using what they had.

And ended up predicting COVID-19.

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Spree director and co-writer Eugene Kotlyarenko says there's thing we all have in common: "We wake up in the morning, and we kind of look at our phones first thing to see if we got any notifications, any sort of news that could be pertinent to how much people care about us, right? It’s the perfect sort of like narcissism-like reflection machine. And it gives us dopamine hits we need to make us feel loved.”

Spree examines the extreme lengths some of us will go to in search of that love — while mocking lead character Kurt (Joe Keery) for his attempts to impose his narrative on everyone around him, especially a successful comedian named Jessie (Sasheer Zamata.)

We also talk about critics getting it wrong, Paul Verhoeven, and lone-wolf shooters with dumb manifestos.

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Chemical Hearts star and executive producer Lili Reinhart and writer-director Richard Tanne set out to make a quiet, meaningful high school film that isn't bubbly or past for short attention spans. The result is a teenage love story for introverts.

In the film, based on a novel by Krystal Sutherland, a high school senior named Henry (played by Austin Abrams) is assigned to edit the school paper with a new student named Grace (Reinhart), who walks with a cane, dresses in typically male clothing, and doesn't like to talk about her past. They gain each other's trust slowly, in silences as much as through words.

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Fugitive Dreams, the new film from Jason Neulander, is an allegorical road movie that follows two homeless people across a timeless American landscape. It touches on mental health, addiction — and love.

Primarily black and white, the film is intended as a kind of Waiting for Godot. A large section of it takes place on board a train, and we talked with Neulander about all the challenges that that entailed.

The film, which stars April Matthis, Robbie Tann, Scott Shepherd, O-Lan Jones and David Patrick Kelly, just premiered at Montreal's Fantasia Fest.

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Charlie Kaufman's new film I'm Thinking of Ending Things returns to two of his most familiar subjects: the struggle to communicate clearly, and the failures of memory.

"Obviously, we live in memory, and it's essential to our sense of self — to our understanding of the world and our understanding of ourselves — and it is elusive and it is inaccurate," he says.

But Kaufman explains how inaccuracies in memory can help us create new ideas.

The writer of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, who wrote and directed Synecdoche, New York and Anomalisa, also explains why he doesn't have a writing routine, and discusses his directorial decisions on I'm Thinking of Ending Things.

He also talks, at length, about the value of long walks, while carrying a notebook, and walking in Los Angeles vs. New York.

Charlie Kaufman and managing editor Caleb Hammond also discuss the last time they fell down.

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Climate of the Hunter director Mickey Reece never considered a move to Hollywood. A musician-turned-indie filmmaker, he started making at least two low-budget films a year, on average, with a cadre of friends from around Oklahoma City.

"I'm just hanging out with people who are into the same things as me," he says. "It's like playing in a band."

Reece has a wonderful way with understatement. His hangouts have produced a catalogue of films now gaining attention from revered film festivals like Fantasia Fest, Fantastic Fest, and Nashville — as well as TIFF Midnight Madness.

ce has done everything outside of the Hollywood system since starting as a filmmaker in 2008, he hasn't encountered anyone along the way to reject him. Family responsibilities kept him in Oklahoma City, so he never considered a move to Los Angeles or New York. Instead, he relies on a loyal, talented cadre of actors, none of them big names, who gather together to make movies on a shoestring. They showed their movies at music venues, then at the Oklahoma Contemporary.

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Boys State, the compulsively watchable new documentary from Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, follows four boys who run for governor in a mock-government program sponsored by the American Legion.

Their competition comes to resemble a real political race thanks to sometimes disingenuous candidates, dubious internet memes, and even impeachment talk.

Guest host Eric Steuer talks with McBaine and Moss about how the conservative Texas boys surprised them, and how a new generation of boys is coming to change the white, Republican 1950s look of Boys State. Among the surprises they discovered: The boys of Boys State often reject political parties outright, and win power through empathy, not alpha-male strong-arm tactics.

Boys State is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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Years ago, filmmaker Alan Bailey's friend Charlotte married an airline pilot. She died, tragically, and Alan thought it would be a good idea to make a documentary about "Christian," the widowed pilot, searching for love on Tinder.

That movie turned into the new documentary DTF. Because Christian had no intention of finding love.

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Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, writers and directors Antebellum, left luxury advertising years ago to focus on films that can make a difference. Antebellum, they explain, is intended to move not just audiences, but voters.

The film, starring Janelle Monae, is one of many politically and historically aware projects they have in the works. We can't tell you much of anything about the film without some major spoilers, but as the trailer shows, it merges images of modern life with the horrors of slavery.

They talk this episode about why we still need movies about slavery, and why Antebellum isn't to be confused with Octavia Butler's Kindred.

And I can't tell you how many times I've erased and re-recorded that line because I'm so uncomfortab

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Film critic Glenn Kenny went to see a struggling Martin Scorsese at his New York office around Christmas 1989, and found him working on a new, tabloid TV-inspired gangster movie about a mobster named Henry Hill. The film, of course, became Goodfellas, one of the greatest movies of all time.

To mark its 30th anniversary, Kenney just released the excellent Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas. Treat yourself to it right here.

In this episode, Kenny quickly wins us over with a reference to the classic SNL sketch "The Chris Farley Show," then shares stories of the tough spot Scorsese was in as he made Goodfellas; the gangster who connects Goodfellas, The Godfather and Green Book; and talking with Scorsese again a few days after The Irishman's Oscars shutout. Also, the Tom Cruise and Madonna idea.

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Action Park was a northern New Jersey water park, open from the 1970s through 1990s, where many kids had their first kiss, their first beer, their first taste of adventure. But as Class Action Park directors Chris Scott and Seth Porges tell interviewer Eric Steuer, it was also a place where dangerous, poorly designed rides and waterslides resulted in many kids being injured, and even caused a few deaths.

When people over 40 say kids today could never do the things they did "when we were growing up," one of the reasons for that is places like Action Park—a wonderland of danger that also became a wonderland for personal injury attorneys.

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Director Jenny Popplewell made a strong decision for her Netflix documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door: She didn't care about the killer. She didn't want to understand how Chris Watts' mind worked, or explain his rationale for the atrocious crime he committed: murdering his wife, Shanann Watts, and their two young daughters, Bella and CeCe.

Eschewing interviews and re-enactments, Popplewell's documentary only uses pre-existing footage, such as police body cams, security cameras, and especially Shanann Watts' own videos. She meticulously recorded her family's life, and her family allowed Popplewell to share footage recovered from her laptop and phone so that she can share her own story through the film.

American Murder: The Family Next Door is about Shanann Watts and the life she fought for, not the man who ended it.

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Gregory Kallenberg says COVID-19 has forever changed indie filmmaking — in some ways for the better. The founder and executive director of the Louisiana Film Prize, which is in the process of awarding $25,000 to the best short film shot this year in Louisiana, says filmmakers have gotten more personal than ever before.

He also talks about his Austin roots, how a documentary led him to Louisiana, and how the idea for the Louisiana Film Prize is expanding.

You can watch this year's entries — and vote — here.

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Radha Blank is the writer, director and star of The 40-Year-OId version, about a struggling playwright who is determined to make it by age 40 — and does. But as a rapper.

Under the name RadhaMUSprime, she raps bluntly about aging, sexuality, and her back pain. The film is a throwback to the '90s rap videos of Digable Planets, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest, among others, as well as the classic New York black-and-white indie films Blank grew up with. The film, executive produced by Lena Waithe, is now streaming on Netflix.

Here's her article about how and when to write for the new issue of MovieMaker Magazine.

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Yellow Rose, from director Diane Paragas, is about a Filipina girl who fell in love with country music while growing up in Texas. But her dreams of music stardom come under threat when her mother, who is undocumented, is taken in the night by an ICE raid.

Like her protagonist, Paragas grew up Filipina-American in Texas. To tell the story of Rose Garcia (played by Eva Noblezada), she relied on her firsthand experience and research that included visits to ICE detention facilities.

She shot the film amid the Trump Administration's policy of separating families at the border. And as timely as her film is, she tells host Eric Steuer that she's had the idea for Yellow Rose for 15 years.

Yellow Rose is in theaters now.

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Brandon Cronenberg looked to real life horror — from data mining to election meddling — to inspire the sci-fi/horror hybrid Possessor. Andrea Riseborough stars as Tasya Vos, a woman who carries out assassinations by taking control of other people's bodies using brain-implant technology.

Cronenberg talks to Eric Steuer about how his team used practical effects because skin and blood are particularly difficult to achieve realistically through CGI. He also talks about the real-life scientist who carried out experiments similar to those in Possessor.

And he explains how at one point Christopher Abbott plays Andrea Riseborough's character playing him.

If you like this episode, please subscribe and review us, and follow @EricSteuer and @MovieMakerMag.

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Jim Cummings is the writer director and star of The Wolf of Snow Hollow, in which a small mountain town is hit by a series of killings that seem like the work of a wolf. Or is it a werewolf?

The film stars Cummings as a deputy in meltdown, and Robert Forster plays the head of the department in one of his final roles. Cummings talks about how he broke into DIY indie filmmaking, how he mines real-life public freakouts for laughs, and the movies that Forster recommend to an unsuspecting co-star before his death last year.

Watch StudioFest's Demystified Jim Cummings Q&A here about how to stop making excuses, and start making your film.

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Radium Girls, co-directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler and starring Joey King, is based on the true story of a group of young female factory workers in the 1920s who worked with radium — which was seen at the time as an almost miraculous element.

But the women soon began developing mysterious, terrible illnesses.

After a medical mystery — that included a misdiagnosis of syphilis for some of the victims — the women banded together to fight for their health, safety and rights.

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12 Hour Shift writer-director Brea Grant (Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Dexter) set her horror comedy in the late '90s because she wanted to portray a time when people spoke their minds a little more — and were more susceptible to urban legends.

The film follows a gruff Arkansas nurse (Angela Bettis) with a tidy side hustle as an organ harvester. But one night, things start to go wrong, cops start sniffing around, and loyalties are tested. Y2K lurks in the near future.

She talks with us about her Masters in American studies, bookmarks, and whether nurses think her characters are too rude.

Here's her podcast, Reading Glasses.

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Ashland, Oregon is a small-town film mecca that draws Hollywood expats with its mix of a thriving film scene, proximity to big cities, and sprawling wide open spaces.

This year, Southern Oregon's Ashland Independent Film Festival has persevered and innovated through not only a pandemic, but fires that have destroyed homes and blackened acreage surrounding a beautiful town in the foothills of two mountain ranges.

AIFF artistic director Richard Herskowitz told us about what's its like to live in Ashland now, and how the festival has made positive changes that will outlast this tough year.

You can also watch videos from the festival on its YouTube channel, and learn more on the Ashland Independent Film Festival website.

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His House, the bold new Netflix horror film from writer-director Remi Weekes, is a very scary haunted house story that is also a moving and empathetic story about immigration.

It stars Wunmi Mosaku and Ṣhop-pe Dìrísù as a couple who flee war in South Sudan, and make a harrowing escape to the UK. But there, they encounter new horrors.

Weekes also talks about debuting at Sundance and the short films that helped him hone his craft as a filmmaker. He co-founded Tell No One, a production company that emphasized experimentation and always trying to create something new.

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Amy Seimetz’s second feature film, She Dies Tomorrow, is about a young woman named Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) who holds the inescapable certainty that she will die in one day. When she confides in her friend Jane (Jane Adams), the prophecy begins to spread, igniting a chain reaction of existential dread.

Seimetz knew she wanted to bring her characteristic "dark sense of humor" to the film, and bend genre conventions. That meant shooting it in chunks, and funding it herself.

"I didn't want to have to answer questions about what it was going to be," she says. "I was the only person that I was answering to."

She Dies Tomorrow is now available on demand.

You can email your host, Eric Steuer, at eric@moviemaker.com with feedback and guests you'd love to hear.

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Let Him Go , the new film from Thomas Bezucha, stars Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as George and Margaret, a couple who travel from Montana to North Dakota to retrieve their grandson from a notorious family called the Weboys.

Bezucha talks about how he came across the source material of the film, how this film feels a little bit to him like a sequel to Costner's The Bodyguard, and why he never considered working with CGI fire.

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The Half of It director Alice Wu says her Netflix hit — imagine an '80s teen comedy with a gay Chinese-American girl as the hero — came from her college relationship with a straight guy.

"In best friendships, there is kind of a romance in it," she says. Her effort to understand the complicated feelings around that dynamic were the first seeds of the film.

Wu, who enrolled in MIT at age 16, talks about growing up in the Bay Area before it was a tech Mecca, red states and blue states, and the years she spent attending a Mormon church even though she wasn't Mormon. She also explains why she didn't set the film in the past.

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The Cucalorus Film Festival, out of Wilmington, North Carolina (home of David Lynch's Blue Velvet!) is a film festival that loves inclusion — but not competition.

In this episode, chief instigating officer Dan Brawley and host and curator Aaron Hillis talk about the origins of the festival, how to get into it, and how to watch some fantastically weird movies from Hillis' secret vault, for free.

You can watch Wednesday, Nov. 18's Secret Convulsions screening here.

And Sunday, Nov. 22's Secret Convulsions screening here.

Plus: Listen to Dan Delgado's The Industry podcast for more on Jamaa Fanaka and Cannon Films.

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Actors Michael Shannon and Jacob Alexander join us to talk about Echo Boomers, a new heist movie about a gang of millennials who lash out at the system by breaking into super rich people's houses and stealing expensive art.

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Collective director Alexander Nanau joins us to discuss his incredible new documentary about corruption in the wake of a deadly nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania.

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Dear Santa, the new film from Dana Nachman, reveals the secret team of helpers who make children's wishes come true.

When a child sends a letter to 123 Elf Road North Pole, 88888 — or pretty much any address that comes close — the US Postal Service swings into action, gathering the letters and sharing them with an army of helpers who make children's wishes come true. You can become a helper here.

In this episode, Nachman explains how she went from making films about dangerous chemicals and wrongful convictions to Batkid Begins and now Dear Santa — and how she makes sure her moving documentaries never get syrupy.

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Legion M bills itself as the first fan-owned entertainment company, and has invested in beloved films like Colossal and Mandy, as well as the upcoming Archenemy. But how does Legion M work, exactly?

We talk with Legion M co-founders Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison about how you can get involved for zero dollars — or go all in – and the company's strategy to make money and return it to investors.

Who knows? Maybe Joe Manganiello will drive your car in a movie.

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In Archenemy, the new film from Adam Egypt Mortimer (Daniel Isn't Real), Joe Manganiello plays Max Fist, a homeless alcoholic who may also be a former superhero.

When an aspiring reporter names Hamster (Skylan Brooks) seeks out his story, he suddenly becomes invested in our world.

We talk about Egypt, addiction, and how Manganiello narrowly losing out on his chance to play Deathstroke in the Ben Affleck Batman movie helped fire him up for Archenemy.

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Director Jesse Dylan (whose films include How High and the Will Ferrell kids soccer comedy Kicking and Screaming) sets out in his new film Soros to strip away the conspiracy theories and suspicion surrounding billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Dylan, host of the Jesse's Office podcast, also talks about the hardest parts of interviewing Soros, who doesn't like to sit down for questions, and how he conducts interviews in general. And he and host Eric Steuer discuss the nature of truth at a time when it's under constant attack.

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The Glorias, the new Gloria Steinem biopic from Julie Taymor, features Alicia Vikander as the feminist hero in early life, and Julianne Moore in later life. We talked with Taymor about leaving home early, seeing (and learning) from people all over the world, and figuring out how to tell a story that spans decades, but remains urgent.

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Writer/director Tara Miele's new movie, Wander Darkly, stars Sienna Miller and Diego Luna as a couple with a new baby and a rocky relationship. A traumatic car accident sets off a story that ruminates on reality, memory, and how love changes over time. We talked to Miele about the events in her her own life that inspired the screenplay and how she's staying creative in challenging times.

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We talked to the great Errol Morris about his latest documentary, My Psychedelic Love Story. The movie is built around two days' worth of interviews with Joanna Harcourt-Smith, a Swiss woman who dated Timothy Leary in the early '70s and whose life's adventures seemed to include every single interesting person and crazy thing that happened during that era.

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We talk to Scott Barber, co-director of The Orange Years, a great documentary about the rise and enduring influence of Nickelodeon. What started as a local TV project in Columbus, Ohio became an international cultural phenomenon that forever changed the aesthetics and business of kids entertainment. The movie focuses on the story of Geraldine Laybourne, a former teacher who became the key executive and creative visionary behind the network.

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We talk to Hannah Olson about her new documentary, Baby God, which looks at Dr. Quincy Fortier, a fertility specialist who used his own sperm to impregnate patients without their consent or knowledge. The movie is focused on the effects that discovering this information has had on his many biological children.

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A few years ago, filmmakers Charles Beale and Jess Jacklin felt like the film festival circuit wasn't working for them, so they thought about what their perfect festival would look like — and then started it. It's called StudioFest, and it's already released one award-winning film.

As you'll gather, Jess and Charles are incredibly transparent about what they're doing — and they get into a lot of specifics, and numbers, in their web series and podcast Demystified, presented by MovieMaker. You can submit a script or film to StudioFest.com.

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Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent are the husband and wife duo behind Hidden Empire Film Group. The “first generation” moviemaker pair have worked together for 15 years and are entirely self-taught in the directing and producing realms.

Their latest is Fatale, a throwback to the erotic thrillers of the ’80s and ’90s, which stars Hilary Swank as a femme fatale who snares a sports agent played by Michael Ealy in her web. Italian cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Heat, L.A. Confidential) bathes this noir version of Los Angeles in neon blues and violets.

Also in this episode, Taylor describes the huge compliment he got from Dennis Quaid.

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In Pieces of a Woman, Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó and writer Kata Wéber explore their own tragedy, in the hopes that it will make it easier for other couples to heal. The film stars Vanessa Kirby as a woman who suffers a terrible loss, and includes a 24-minute birth scene astonishing in both its empathy and virtuosity.

Mundruczó's explanation of whose point of view we're seeing adds another layer of emotion to a powerful, beautiful film.

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Regina King's One Night in Miami imagines a historic night in 1964 when Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay (who will soon change his name to Muhammad Ali) gather together to celebrate one of Clay's biggest wins. But the gathering doesn't go as everyone expected.

King takes us through her incredible career as an Oscar, Golden Globe, and four-time Emmy winner, with stories about watching films with John Singleton, a Tom Cruise prank on the set of Jerry Maguire, and learning how to play a cop. And she talks about her journey to directing her first feature — and the many breakthrough moments along the way.

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Travon Free is an acclaimed standup comedian who has won Emmys for The Daily Show and Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. But his debut film, Two Distant Strangers, is anything but funny. In a horrific twist on time-loop films like Groundhog Day and Palm Springs, Joey Bada$$ plays a man who keeps being racially profiled and shot by the same police officer. Free wrote the film and co-directs with Martin Desmond Roe.

We talk about the impressive lengths Free went to to get hired on The Daily Show, how he wrote and filmed Two Distant Strangers during the pandemic, and why right now is the best time to start writing.

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Veteran editor, director, and producer Sam Pollard joins us to discuss his new documentary, MLK/FBI, which examines the FBI's relentless surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover hoped to discredit MLK by uncovering and revealing details of the civil rights icon's private life. The surveillance campaign became Hoover's obsessive pursuit.

The movie utilizes a trove of newly declassified documents, as well as a wealth of archival footage—much of which will be new to most viewers.

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Derek DelGaudio and Frank Oz stop by to talk about In & Of Itself, the film adaptation of their much beloved stage show.

Frank Oz is a legendary director, an actor, and the puppeteer who brought to life characters like Yoda, Miss Piggy, and Grover.

Derek DelGaudio is a storyteller, performance artist, and illusionist. He wrote In & Of Itself and has performed it onstage more than 700 times.

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For the third consecutive year, Albuquerque is the No. 1 Big City on MovieMaker's list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker. Nearby Santa Fe is No. 2 on the list of smaller cities and towns.

How is the Land of Enchantment drawing powerhouses like Netflix and NBCUniversal?

Alicia J. Keyes, Cabinet Secretar of New Mexico's Economic Development Department, tells us why they love it — and why you just might love it, too. She knows firsthand, after moving to New Mexico from California.

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Richard Kelly released his debut feature Donnie Darko in 2001 when he was just 25 years old. Five years later he brought an unfinished version of his follow-up, a sprawling sci-fi dark comedy called Southland Tales, to the Cannes Film Festival. It didn't go well. Roger Ebert called it one of the worst screenings in Cannes history.

Sony eventually released the finished cut of Kelly's movie, but barely promoted it and only distributed it to a handful of theaters. Southland Tales bombed and mostly fell out of the public's consciousness.

But over the past few years, the movie began building a new audience and has now become a bonafide cult favorite.

Kelly just released the "Cannes cut" of Southland Tales on Blu-ray—it's the first time this maligned version of the film has been officially released for a wide audience. We talked to Kelly about why he made the choice to release the cut, as well as his plans for the future of the Southland Tales universe.

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Fisher Stevens' career in film has spanned four decades as an actor, writer, producer, and director. His latest movie as a director is Palmer, a very good indie drama in which ex-con Palmer (Justin Timberlake) returns to the small Louisiana town where he grew up and, through a series of events, ends up caring for 7-year-old Sam (Ryder Allen), a boy who is bullied for liking princesses, dresses, and dolls.

You can see Palmer now in select theaters and on Apple TV+.

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The Reckoning, directed by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Game of Thrones) follows a woman named Grace (Charlotte Kirk) who loses her husband during a plague, becomes the target of her landlord's advances, and is accused of witchcraft when she rejects him.

Then things get worse.

Marshall and Kirk talk about whether real-life events motivated them to make a story about a witch hunt, whether they changed anything because of COVID-19, and what it's like to work with someone who is also your partner in life.

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Early in her career, Trina Wyatt launched the Tribeca Film Festival with Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal, and was the festival's Founding Director. She was a film producer and a studio executive before founding Conscious Good, a media company that produces and distributes entertainment aimed at raising people's consciousness. We spoke with Wyatt about CGOOD TV, which is a new streaming platform dedicated to conscious entertainment.

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Wild Indian follows two young cousins on an Ojibwe reservation who suddenly become involved in something terrible.

Thirty years later, one of them (Michael Greyeyes) is living what seems, on the surface, to be a perfect life on the West Coast. The other, Ted-O (Chaske Spencer), finds himself in a very different place.

Wild Indian writer-director Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr. and producer Thomas Mahoney join us to talk about the film's origin, why Corbine doesn't think the film's title is provocative, and how fun it is to watch Jesse Eisenberg in awkward situations.

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Gary Oldman, simply one of the best actors ever, stars in Mank as Herman J. Mankiewicz, the brilliant but alcoholic screenwriter whose achievements include Citizen Kane.

In this interview, Oldman quickly shoots down the notion that he used to deliberately seek out wild roles, and explains how he utilized elements of his own past to play Mank. He also tells us where Citizen Kane ranks among his favorite movies.

If you like this episode, please subscribe, write a review, or ask Charles Foster Kane to write about it in one of his many newspapers.

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Slamdance is a film festival for filmmakers, by filmmakers. In this episode, festival president and co-founder Peter Baxter and festival manager Adele Han Li share some intel on how it chooses films, what it values, and how it's changing.

Rather than retreat in the face of the pandemic, Slamdance — like many other festivals — has seized on the opportunity to innovate. This year one of its biggest additions is a new showcase called Unstoppable that focuses on films by moviemakers with disabilities.

In this episode we also learn about the Slamdance Bible, discuss whether indie filmmaking is harder now than it was in the booming '90s, and hear stories about a young Christopher Nolan — one of many filmmakers Slamdance helped launch.

Slamdance 2021 starts this Friday, and you can get a $10 pass ($5 for students) at Slamdance.com.

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Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby star in Mona Fastvold's The World to Come, about two pioneer women who fall in love. Casey Affleck, who produces and acts in the film, tells the story of how lunches at a "weird restaurant by the airport" helped lead to the creation of the Sundance and Venice film festival darling.

Fastvold also talks about shooting on film in the mountains of Romania, and she and Waterston describe the complex and original way they plotted out Waterston's narration of the film.

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Andre Gower's documentary Wolfman's Got Nards looks at another movie—1987's Goonies-esque kids horror/comedy The Monster Squad—and the vibrant fan community that has developed around it over the years. The Monster Squad (co-written by a young Shane Black) was a bomb upon release, but thanks to video rentals and cable TV, it slowly built a massive following. It eventually became the kind of cult classic that tours internationally, with fans showing up in costume to shout every line of dialogue at the screen.

Gower is uniquely suited to have made this documentary—as a child actor, he was one of The Monster Squad's main stars. His doc looks at the road the movie took to becoming a cult classic, as well as the importance of fan communities and the connections between people with shared pop culture memories.

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Portland Film Festival co-founder Joshua Leake went from accepting an award from Hugh Jackman while on the phone with his mom to co-founding the Portland Film Festival — one of MovieMaker's 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.

We talk about the joys of Portland, how to get into the lovingly curated festival, and some of the great ideas he's borrowed from other festivals to make sure Portland is always filmmaker first. Along the way we talk about pandemic-safe pod viewing, making a theater in a warehouse, Chuck Palahniuk, and much more.

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Amanda Idoko's first two screenplays made The Black List, the highly esteemed annual survey of best unproduced scripts. Her first screenplay was made into the new film Breaking News in Yuba County, which features an ensemble cast that includes Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Regina Hall, Awkwafina, Wanda Sykes and others. Amanda is also known for starting the #showusyourroom social media campaign, which encouraged showrunners and writers' rooms to post photos of their writing staff to show how they are participating in diverse and inclusive hiring.

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David Shields has given hundreds of interviews to promote his 22 books on everything from race to sports to sex to J.D. Salinger to Donald Trump. He's kept a record of every question, and uses those questions in the literary collage of his 23rd book, The Very Last Interview.

Director Nick Toti and screenwriter Rachel Kempf (who are married) set out to turn the book into a movie, and succeeded. "The Very Last Interview" arrived late last year, and is set around Christmas — though the book has nothing to do with the holidays. It's a daring, challenging adaptation, in which Shields endures probing-to-cruel questions that also serve as a searing monologue.

The film questions the motivations of Shields (played by Chris Doubek) and his interviewer (Ashley Spillers), and in this talk we examine the "perverse dialectic" between interviewers and interviewees.

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Florian Zeller's stunning debut film stars Anthony Hopkins as a father with dementia and Olivia Colman as his worried daughter.

Zeller describes the film as a puzzle that can't be solved.

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Coming 2 America director Craig Brewer shot the last day of the joyful comedy on the John Singleton sound stage at Tyler Perry studios — 15 years after Singleton gave him his big break, and made him promise to always "hire some Black people."

Brewer's other films include Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, the new Footloose, and Dolemite Is My Name. We talk with him about '80s movies that might not be green lit today, dodging the potential pitfalls of sequels, and being in the service of African-American culture.

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Most people know Mississippi has great food, music, and tax benefits. But it also offers a wealth of other opportunities to moviemakers, including authenticity, diversity, reasonably priced homes, and the chance to be noticed.

Mississippi Film Office Director Nina Parikh talks with us about the tremendous film community growth in places like Natchez, Mississippi's rich film history, and how she convinced Joel and Ethan Coen to shoot O Brother, Where Art Thou in her state, very early in her career. The story involves pie.

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Adam Wingard is the director of Godzilla vs. Kong, the best Godzilla or Kong movie in quite some time. Here are some highlights with timestamps:

1:40: Adam Wingard rejects the premise of our first question ("Why is Godzilla such a dick?"

3:30: He explains how those ridiculously fun action sequences were planned out.

4:32: "Credibility is not necessarily... in terms of believing this is real, the highest priority. But we didn't want to do things that were so absurd that it would take people out of the movie."

4:48: So, could Godzilla and King Kong fight on an aircraft carrier?

7:10: How tall are Godzilla and Kong?

9:00: "My main focus always was trying to make sure that this movie was as densely entertaining as possible and what that really amounts to is densely filled with monsters."

15:00: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

22:00: Shoutout to Adam Wingard's cat

22:39: The big reveal

24:00: The decision to hint at the big reveal in the trailer

27:49: Adam Wingard's initial reaction to the film streaming on HBO Max

37:15: Face/Off

If you enjoy this you might also enjoy MovieMaker.com.

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Director David Fincher and production designer Don Burt have collaborated since Zodiac. For their latest film, Mank, they talk about the process of deciding what to include and subtract from every scene.

In Mank, that meant re-creating Hearst Castle, the realm of media baron William Randolph Hearst... and the guests Fincher describes as his "captives."

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Hunger Ward, from director Skye Fitzgerald, introduces us to two of the youngest victims of a humanitarian disaster in Yemen, brought on by a Saudi-led coalition and backed by the United States.

The film takes us inside medical facilities where two heroic women struggle daily to rescue innocent children from desperate malnutrition.

You can learn how to get involved — and give directly to the medical facilities — at HungerWard.org.

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Moffie, the outstanding fourth film from South African Director Oliver Hermanus, portrays a teenager (Kai Luke Brummer) who is forced to serve in the South African Army in 1981, during the last days of apartheid.

Though he is white, he is still hated: He's secretly gay, in a time and place where homosexuality is a crime.

We talk with Hermanus about growing up under apartheid, the quietly haunting middle sequence in the film, and how he really wasn't trying to critique Stanley Kubrick or the volleyball scene in Top Gun.

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Yasmin Fedda's harrowing documentary Ayouni tells the stories of two men who were "disappeared" in Syria. When a person is disappeared, they have been forcibly taken by military, police, or militia forces who do not admit to having them. Bassel Khartibal was an open internet activist who was arrested, kept in a secret prison, and ultimately killed. Father Paolo Dall’Oglio is an Italian Jesuit priest who led an interfaith group out of a Syrian monastery and became an activist against oppression—his current whereabouts are unknown. The film follows Noura, Bassel's wife; and Machi, Father Paolo's sister, as they search for answers about their loved ones.

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Youngstown, Ohio was once a booming steel and mining town, but now epitomizes the kind of post-industrial US city dominated by unemployment and poverty. In her new documentary, The Place That Makes Us, director Karla Murthy shows us a new generation of people who have refused to give up on Youngstown and are staying put so they can build a brighter future there. They're rebuilding houses, bringing in business, and cultivating a community of local makers and creators and artists. We talk to Murthy (who is also a journalist and has worked as a correspondent for several PBS newsmagazines) and her husband/creative partner Jad Abumrad (creator and host of Radiolab), who executive produced the film.

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