The Cars That Ate Paris

148 people live in the township of podcast and every one of them is a murderer.

“Where exactly is podcast? What kind of people live there?”

What are they trying to hide? Why do cars mean so much to them? What are these cars? They're the cars that ate podcast. So, the town's podcast, but the people are also podcasts at the end of the day.

Why? I mean, what I just said? Yeah, do wrong. I, in fact, kept the word people. No, but it's the cars that ate podcast. I guess instead of Paris. Yeah. The only word I was something out was Paris. Good job. Thank you.

Damn it. All right. What's clean is hell. I, all right, I'm, and I should have fucking logic, please be my logic, say, or tight. I said actually, yeah, where we just started recording.

I showed a very late today's recording session. And I checked with your girlfriend different. This has been a short introduction to the show. I just didn't. What is happening?

“Well, that's what I'm saying. We need to, just provide some context that I was quite late”

and that I am shaming myself currently at this moment. Shame on me. God, Steve McQueen must be here. Shame on you. He made a film called Shame. Yes. Oh, wait a second. Knock, knock, knock, ding, don't. Oh, no. Who could it be?

It's Michael Fassbender's giant flasad penis, and he's here to shame you, Ben. Hey, shame. Wow. I almost had fame. This is his penis. Can I do mine? I was trying to do like, you know, kind of cheat-flat thing. Can I do mine, pressure off it? Yeah, go ahead.

These are such outdated jokes. Fast-bender dick jokes, Jesus. 2026, guys. This is how we started new mini-series. It's great. So yes, we're kicking off a new mini-series. David noted me. And I'm sorry. I wasn't noting you, right? I took cock me doing the intro.

Oh, I love it. Ben James himself. We all do impressions of fast-benders penis. Just the sound. Well, I mean, what else is there to do in impressions? And this is why we're not going to video.

This is why, listen up venture capital. I know you all want to see David's impression of the whale poster. You do. But we believe me. Oh, fuck. Can I take a picture fast enough? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. That's too late. Fuck. Did you get it? No.

Okay. My phone was front facing. Fuck. I got it. Why was your phone front? I don't know. Ben slept in. Okay. Well, I want to say a few things, but first I want you to just introduce this podcast right away. Well, that's so kind of you to suggest.

You're a dear friend and I'm sure you would never ever try to run me off the road and take the intro.

Just think it's just because it's a new mini-series.

“Yeah, that's why we're starting off strong. We're starting off so strong.”

I'm wearing all of my clothes backwards. Ben has shoes on his hands and gloves on his feet. He's got. It's quite cold outside. So he's wearing a beanie on his butt. And long johns on his head. It's quite a sight to see my friends. Yeah, my face is coming out of like the little backport hole. Yep. Yep. It's really good. And once again, this is why we're not going to video because it's

theater of the mind. What's the podcast called? The podcast is called blank check with Griffin and David. Thank you. It's a very professional podcast. It is rigid. It is formal. It of course is according to time magazine. One of the 100 greatest podcasts all the time. Do you think they'll listen to this and we're sending it? Yeah, take us off. And you know what? You're out of pretty tight ship. We do.

And I'm not actually certain what a tight ship is. I'm going to say. I want to look around. I say. Yep. I push back and let me tell you why. I ship can both be tight and riddled with holes. We are doing two separate things. We're recording an episode that was originally I think scheduled. Sometimes in like October, November. The first time it was bumped. It was bumped because I had had my like third dental surgery in 12 months. Yes. You bumped it then. Yes. Then it was scheduled

for a couple days ago. You bumped it again. Ben and I had just flown back from LA the night before. You agreed to the scheduling of it. When you knew you were traveling. I found the missing. Here's another thing I do. I book travel and I'm like, yeah, I'll take a six A. I said this is a bad idea.

But I always think that tomorrow is the first day of me being the most high-functioning

slept in. Yeah. So I really feel like this episode. Yeah. No, I don't think clapping at this. I was doing

“their best Ben their slanders. Oh God. This has been the episode that felt impossible for a little while.”

Yeah. Which is dumb because it's like a guest free episode about a rather sort of small short movie. But that's just the beginning of thing. It's easy to just spike it over the next week's problem. Yeah. Well, again, this is a mindset I don't share. But okay. All right. So there's my little

shame. That's my shame fingers been pointed and wagged. And what can I show you for a second? Yeah,

go ahead. It's time for me to introduce the podcast. It's called blank check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. Sorry, I'm David. It's podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby.

“We are finally kicking off our mini series on the great Peter Weir. One of your favorite film makers,”

one of your pet projects. I would say more a pet project than a favorite filmmaker. Obviously he is a filmmaker. I like a lot and he's made a lot of movies I've made. He's made a lot of movies that you

have made that I've made. But he I have long just also looked at him as like a perfect blank check,

perfect blank check candidate because of the variety of movies he made. Like you like kind of the genre. You love an app sampler platter direct. I love a genre hopper. You're just bloyles. You're only I love a poo poo platter. I feel like this is the ones you love to push. Can I ask you now that Weir is happening. Who is your next someone else asked me this question and I couldn't tell them the answer someone asked me that they're like okay you got Weir over the line that's like that was been your

and I was like I don't know. I do you I mean like I feel like I have in my head who I thought you would say is it Tony Scott time? Oh that would be good. But he's the opposite. He's the opposite. He could not

shake his inherent right you know. Like I feel like the griff pics are usually a person who does

one distinctive thing so fucking well that I love and can't get from anyone else. Like a puppet man. Excuse me. Sorry, Jim Henson. That means I'm here to be comprised of two puppet men. One of whom eventually put the puppets down. But the ones I've the ones I've pushed over the line up until now as well or like Lynn Ramsey. That's Tim Burton certainly. Yes. Like okay so when we did the you know we did our March Madness tournament a few years ago where we each got this is a good disguise. Yeah. So the guys in my region.

Yeah, let's see how many of them got done. Three of them. Okay. We've done Peter Weir. It's happening now Jane Campion and Danny Boyle. Right. Those were three guys on my my list. Give me your other five. Karen Kusama. Who you know was an eighth seed and she's making another movie I hear you know we could do

“her someday. Yeah, she might be on the bracket this year. Yeah, remember. No, because she beat Peter Weir.”

Remember. All right. Weird. Weird. The art. And by the way we're going to make it weird. This whole mini series. The archers, Paul and press brother, blank check. Weird. Again. Yep. David you're unhappy right now. But think about how happy you're going to be when those bumper sticker sales come in. They better come in. Hi. Keep like that better come in. We are really are we charging $400 per bumper stick up. What's our plan here? Yeah. Premium. Do catch do a catch for

as too many times on podcast. Create bumper sticker question mark profit. Ben and I covered in flop sweat. They're really premium. Look how shiny we still a hollow towel and press burger. You'd love to do them some day. That's a share dream for you. Exactly. That's not quite a thing in the mess. One car. Why? Probably the closest answer I have to pick your question. Steve McQueen. I'm kind of a disinterested in Steve McQueen right now. I haven't loved the last couple

of sounds. Mike Lee, maybe my true answer. But you know, I have to lift a big filmography, a guy who you know, me challenging movies. My big ish film. My bad. My big takeaway from Burton is if I'm pushing my guys up the hill tight series. Right. Yeah. Burton really asked a lot. I'm like double up the keyton's lin brams these five. Okay. Wait. Is that the rest of you? Did you do it? Okay. Who it was on yours? Yeah. Yes, please. Yes. Very awesome. A little question. And I said, please,

like a gentleman. Thank you. That's a big thing in my house right now. So thank you. Your

It feels like there's been been some backsliding from the boss, baby. Yes, for my daughter. Yes. Well, to be fair, time is money. I know, but maybe she doesn't need to. As she's almost five point at her water bottle and go empty. Maybe she could say, please, can you get me some water, something along those lines? That's kind of funny. And I go like, what was that? And she goes, it's empty. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. I wasn't asking for meaning. I was asking for maybe a

different way of different tone. That is how the boss, baby, would act that that's some swimming with shark's shit. Your, your guys. So some, as with, you know, some of your guys, we've now done. We've now done Martin Brest. We've now done Lynn Ramsey and we've now done Buster Keaton. You're remaining guys that you had on your ear. Well, that this is like an even balance. It is. Yes, this is the job we do, right? This is the job we do.

They people think they passed for the podcast. No, no. They passed for the schedule.

“You had Terrence Malik. I think also a bit of a shared one for us. Yeah, I'd love to do.”

And one that we've come close to, we've, let's do it sometime. We've been in one of my spreadsheets. Where's my Jesus movie Terry? That's the real thing. Where's my Jesus? He's making a Jesus movie. And making it for 10 years. That was like, oh, principle photography wrapped. February. February. February. 20, 20. Oh, shit. It is the last completed unreleased film shot entirely in the before times. He's been tinker in a way, and it ever since.

Because the guy doesn't really do research. Presumably he has shot no post-COVID footage. No, I think he's just he's just in the edit for finding his rhythms. But I just love that there's one movie that is still from before times that we haven't seen. And so maybe that will be the moment for Terry. You've, we've also got 70's

all, but of course, long a pet product for you, Casavetti's similar. Joe Dante, who you're always in this

“liminal thing, I think, again, a guy we both kind of want to do, what we're just like,”

could he just make another movie, probably transparently hate his, you don't like, reset film. And I don't want to end on it. And then Preston surges another, I say, sure. Yeah, a fun exciting one. Yeah. Ben, by the way, of your guys, we have only done one this year. Yeah, he did. He worked with John Carpenter. A very strong contender. Yeah, that was number one. When we put the bracket together, we were immediately like, Carpenter probably takes this. Yeah,

Ben's Ben's winning. The other picks. I don't know if they're at the top of the list. David a sword, I feel is never going to hurt him out. We're kind of doing him piece. We, yes, do major league. Can I do major league on Patreon? Can I see if I can guess the other ones if I can remember correctly on him? Okay. So, so David S. Ward Carpenter, Ernest Dickerson, I remember vividly being in there. Yes, correct. Ben, I'll be serious. Yes. Yeah. Harmony Quran, I assume. Of course.

Harmony Quran. Spike, like, Jones. Yeah, Spike Jones. And the guy where I'm kind of like, can he make one more thing? Like, it's, you know, it would be that sort of feels like it would be nice. At this point, we'd probably have to combine Spike Jones and Charlie Kaufman. Sure, but that's kind of fun. Yeah, it's kind of fun, but Spike's just been working too and frequently. Yeah. I feel like

you dropped Link later the last second or was he on there? Link later was not on. Okay. Yeah.

Mike Judge was correct. Correct. Okay. The other one, I do not, did not remember the Ben

“Pick this guy. One more. There's one more. Now. Oh, Danny David. Oh, how do you remember that”

when I didn't remember that was a Ben guy? I remember anything Ben has ever done. Oh, there you go. Thanks. I mean, and Devito, I would say out of the whole bunch feels like the one that would be something we could do eventually as a like a palette cleanser between it's funny series. It's it's a nice little like four movie short little series. I would love to do it as as as as a shorty as friend of my life. Friend of the show, past and future guests are Rubin said,

Danny Devito short series for a short man. Yeah. And then there's some good stuff in the guest region.

Yeah, I'll never know those. We've done none of them. I'll just don't Jackie Chan,

Joe Johnston, Kelly Reikert, Gorobinsky. Of course. That's five. And then the other three would have been. I'm trying to remember who we asked Yoshida picked. Oh, wait, did someone pick Wolfgang Peterson? Richard Lawson did Richard Lawson did. Yoshida picked. Huh. Tell me. I'm Blankin. Coran. Who's a big Yoshida favorite. And then JD amount of pick Jack that he of course. Obviously. Don't. Haven't done any of those.

Don't put those. Don't put those. Oh, it's fine. Peter weir is finally happening. Peter weir is finally happening. And what is the title of this mini series? Griffin. The title of the mini series is

this is his first film. And yet Padnik. Excuse me. Picknik at hanging cast happens.

Kind of like a relevant of this. It does. That's true. We've got to put that on this episode. He doesn't begin developing this after a picnic. When he is finished the script for this movie and is prepping it based off his short film work. That's right. And we can delve into all of that. But today on Padnik at hanging cast, we are, of course, discussing his first theatrical film. And so cars that ate Paris can say owner of one of the best titles in the history of film.

It's a good title. And it's a more literal title than you'd think with the title like that.

“Here is my history with this movie. I'm a movie obsessed teenager. Can you believe it?”

We need some like, you know, fucking ass Woody Allen music over this, right? Yeah, some like your girls. Yeah, some ass Woody Allen music. Like a clarinet played V of thought. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a child in New York. I love the movies. You know, again, I can't do it. The digital set top box takes over for cable. Okay. Sure. Yeah. So now there's kind of Tvoesque device. This is what you're referring to. Yes.

And there's now also the ability to like scroll through the digital guide. The guide. Yeah. And so what I do every day when I come home from school is I check out the next week of TCM programming. Very very very good little cinephile. Thank you because I'm getting activated. And I'm like, what's the furthest I can go ahead and the schedule and mark to record anything that

“feels like a good watch. And I'm going like, oh, paper, moon. Uh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Oh, this, oh,”

that, right? And then I'm like the cars that ate Paris. I'm the mum. I see that title. I hit record. Family dinner. I go to my parents. I didn't like her here. I did hit record Joseph. I go to my family dinner table. And I say to my parents, I just found like the movie with the weirdest title of all time on TCM. You're not going to believe it. It's called the cars that ate Paris. I guess they're playing some weird junkie like genre movie. That must be what this is.

And my parents are true. But then my parents were like, that's Peter Wear's debut film. Oh, they knew. And I'm like Peter Wear the director of mastering commander with that point. I just think of as like Tony awardsee. Sure, you probably knew him for depots true. And show that commander. I'm like, this is like a sophisticated grown-up director who makes like popular films that are smart and literate. And so then I go, oh, the title must be metaphorical. Right. Right. Right. Why you say the

cars ate Paris. Right. This isn't going to be like a Roger Corman movie. I'll watch it and it will be about like a divorce. And for whatever reason, that's the title. And then I watch it. And I'm like, oh, it is actually about a town called Paris. It's not Paris France. It's a fictional Paris in Australia. And a town where cars kind of eat up every time. So you watch this is a teenager,

right. Correct. Because I didn't. I did. I'd never seen it until Mad Max Fury Road came out,

which has the spiky cars. And people were like, oh, as you might know, that is an homage to fellow Australian new wave, you know, you know, Pierre Peter Weir and his first film. And I was like, oh, you know, right. I guess I've heard, you know, like, when I was a teen when I was in college, I famously did a course of New Zealand cinema. And I had dug deep into that. But I've never really dug into either way to ask music. Well, except he's from Australia and I fucked up the whole

“thing. I just should have said ask Peter Jackson music. Also, what is Peter Jackson music sound?”

Like, how are you? You're you're lost. I'm not going to help you. Go on with your story. I'm going to open the dossier, actually. I was going to say. Yeah. But so I didn't watch until then.

And I think I sort of checked it off them. I mean, I could go right. Never seen Peter Weir.

When we covered George Miller, it was a pre-JJ era. A much lighter, easier era for us were right. J.J. A researcher who sucks me. He's hate. He sucks. Yeah. He's great. We love. He's like the ass. What are you telling music? Man, I was going to say, look, J.J. is done. The podcast, a great service with his research. And when we did George Miller, we didn't have his help. Right. We just make our lives a lot more difficult because we have

the added burden of needing to fire him every day. There's a lot of paperwork. It's so people understand our HR department is is like literally on fire trying to process the firing and rehiring every other day. Well, it's just a durable that Ben has. That's

great for the durable. He's building like a mess. But it's not good for us. Because then we have to

“hire an assistant to the durable. I said, tape the papers back together and file them.”

In theory, we just bid. We should fire the durable. The durable is kind of the bottleneck. No, we can't fire the durable. The durable is in the union. The intricate system we've disclosed, friend of his and it's like a whole interpersonal mess. I was going to say JJ. Yeah. It's the kind of context we probably would have had JJ worked on the show in the

George Miller era. But George Miller, like basically fully sights this movie as the thing

inspiring him to make Matt Matt. Right. Because when he makes Matt Max, it's because he was out there doing like kind of DIY ambulance worker, whatever, peace and together a little bit of motley making this movie over the course of months. But it's both seeing Peter Weir and being like fuck, this guy's from Australia. He just went out and made this right. I can do this to me. Right. There's the sort of like kind of Richard Lincleiter slacker style activation that happened

for a lot of young American filmmakers in the 90s. But also he sees like spiky cars and he's like fuck what he's built room and entire movie at it. But that's the thing because of the

Matt Max connection and because of the Aussie new way, Vossie, Exploitation. I was like,

right. So this is going to be like a gnarly car movie about fucking gangs and shit. They'll be mad Maxie. And then it's not quite that. It's an oddy thought. It's an odd little sort of social comedy. I like it a lot with a bit of car, you know, antics, a bit. Quite quite a bit. I mean, it's not all of the amount. It's it's like the core of the movie. It has way more like fussy Australian guys than like Matt Matt Max does. I see. Although

they're both have a suspense, of course. I joke that you think of and talk about Australia, the continent as if it is really the world of Mad Max at all times. But in reality, I feel like this movie is what you think Australia is like. You're like, there's crazy, spiky, crash and cars sometimes. Not all this time. Sometimes.

“Well, and also I think I have, I we talk about this a little bit on the next episode because we just”

recorded that one. I was raised in England and I like, I think I have like the their prejudices you guys relax. Towards Australia, coded into me in a way that surprises me sometimes. Does that make sense? You know England is so derisive of all like former British colonies or like, you know, whatever. Vassal states in a way that like he's a little shocking sometimes. It's the one time you activate like grandpa who fought in Vietnam mode and you're like the fuck is this? This thing I

were this comment. The thing I remember was my father who was a very like tolerant and liberal man. Disdain for the Welsh. I shouldn't laugh because it's not like he was like racist because of course the Welsh. It's a very tiny nation of people, you know, attached to England that are very, obviously, you know, they're very, very similar in many ways. But he had this like little kind of like, oh, they're so silly. You know, where I was just like, what did they ever do to you?

You've never like had a bad experience with Welsh people and he was clearly just from his

childhood. Like it had been like, you know, drilled into him like, oh, the Welsh are very silly.

“You know, one of my favorite bits and Austin Powers. Yes. I mean, that says that's what it's making”

Toronto. There are two things I truly hate. People are her intolerant of other races and cultures and the Dutch. I'd 100% what he's making fun of. Just that thing of just like also it's like, you're English. You don't get to have this opinion. You know, like you need to sit down. But that's why I'm saying this movie feels closer to your perception of the Australians because it's like sometimes they're wearing a mayor sash and being like, we run a prop or

town. And then it's a normal town when nothing would have to swastik us in it and like, I got ropes pulling it off. I'm going to open the dossier. Please do. But I see you not seen this before. No. And did you like this? I did. It feels like a bad word. It's weird. It's kind of weird energy. It's got like a weird pace to it that, again, doesn't suggest exploitation movie exactly. Right. So little weird. Boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy. Um, so Peter Lindsay, we will interesting. Lindsay,

we are like from Freaks and Geeks. Yeah, JJ's rehired. That's the kind of shit we wouldn't have found out on her own. His middle name seems to be from his father. That his father was Lindsay Weir as well. So his father was this kind of like disaffected Michigan teenager in like an army jacket. That's interesting. Yeah. Lindsay Weir. Um, was born 1944, uh, Sydney, Australia, the capital.

I apologize to all listeners. If I fuck up Australian pronunciations, I believe canberra,

which I'm sure I'm saying wrong right now is one of those classic like shibilith words for Australian accents. You know, like a billet words? You know, like a shibilith is like, um, uh, for fuck's sake. I know I have to explain this. It's from the Bible. It's like a password that you would say to prove your faith. It's like, uh, what's the English bastards where he holds up? Like, if you say Canberra

“wrong, which I think I am continually, it's like one of those words that you say a little different.”

I think it's pronounced kathulu. Anyway, uh, his dad is a real estate agent, served in Australian, for the Australian Army in Beaufort, too, as an air raid warden, but obviously Weir is born in 44, so at the end of the war, both sides of family are from Scotland from the United Kingdom, mostly, but they were Australian through and through. They were not like backwards looking. They were fourth generation immigrants, so, you know, they're very deeply Australian. He remembers

at a certain point trying to dig through his family history just out of interest, and was kind of astonished that like they didn't have records on where they came from, where all this and he feels like this is an Australian phenomenon. He's like, I've asked a lot to Australian, what records they have, and it's kind of like, no, they left their past like tabula rasa. We left, where we came from, records are gone. We left our myths behind. He says,

“"It helps me understand why many of our films are period films, why Australian audiences are”

so drawn to them because of this need for myth. We don't have lineage to be novice about." Right? Like, it's like kind of, we're rebooting. All interesting. Move around throughout his childhood, mostly in the Sydney area. It seems they settled in a place called Valkvaklus, Eastern, Suburb of Sydney, so his dad was a real estate agent again, so they would keep like flipping houses. He's kind of a house flipper. No television, pre-TV,

kind of generation, so he says he grew up on the streets, bouncing balls around and, I don't know, the gang of kids running about and jumping on trams and exploring caves. It sounds pretty fine. The lung gang. Yeah. Goonies asked childhood. Yeah, seriously. Yeah. They lived at the top of a little hill.

There was a big suspension bridge. He says he was always in the water. He was snorkeling. He was fishing.

He would watch the ships go out. So, a lot of year upbringing happened. When by water, of course, for Griffin it was fifth happened, you know? Yes. The Wild Waves of Fifth Avenue. I also obviously never watched TV as a child. No, yeah, you weren't. Yeah, you weren't big TV kid. He liked parents owned one and I said, no thank you. Here's something he might have shared with you. He loved comic books. Okay. We love the Phantom.

All right. Our famous, you know, the Purple Cloud Hero of Hope adventure. He loved Scrooge McDuck. Well, the Karl Barks books. I guess so. I mean, it feels like he would have been too old for those,

“but whatever, whoever was right in Scrooge back then, maybe Karl Barks was. I think so. And if”

you're not. Yeah. Um, any love to pictures. You love to go see the pictures. He loved to go see the talkie pictures. Westerns, the cereals, you know, all that stuff. Can we throw out our buddy, Sean Fantasy past him future guests coming up on this very many series. Yeah, was in New York. We went to bar with him. We got drinks at a hollow nickel. Yeah, we did. That's right. And they have big screen projector. Yeah. And they were doing a Hope series.

We walk in bed. I mean, I think they didn't announce it or anything. No, but we walk in their plane Dick Tracy. Yeah. Cool. In the time that we're there, nerding out about the door key. We were there for a world. Yeah. And my girlfriend was like, how many drinks did you guys have? And I was like, two, two. And then we took the book for a chat at the table for an additional three hours after our second beer. And we're just like, have you ever looked at the box office weekend?

It was, it's just true, incomprehensible. But um, in the time we're there, they play Dick Tracy, they go straight into the rocketeer and then into the Phantom. Yeah. Well, as we were leaving the Phantom was really just starting to pop off. But we're like, this is the fucking I was like, is the shadow next. Sorry. We pitch in in chronological order. I know. So if if you work at the hollow nickel and you were programming that, well, the bartender did when I

when I closed out said, hey, man, love the cast. Oh, wow. And he snapped and pointed his finger at me.

Wow. And I had never heard anyone say it. A postrophe C.A.S. T before.

Oh, like drop the pod. It's cleaner. He just went, love the cast. And I was like, does it look like my arm is broken? And I made him repeat it four times because I didn't understand what he was saying,

David, what is episode? Don't act so surprised because it's a familiar friend. Okay.

“This episode's brought to you by movie. Y'all. Just kidding. Constable. No, no, no. We love”

them. A global film company of champions, great cinema. I connect directors, emerging our

terms. Always something you do discover with movie. Each and every film hands selected.

So you can explore the best of cinema. Nothing more to say, I guess. There's a new film coming to theaters. Yeah. Movie theaters February 13th. The first Nigerian film ever in official competition again. That's pretty wild. This is a film by Akinola Davis called My Father's Shadow is baffed and nominated. Poetic, tender portrait of a father's son bond framed within the political landscape of 1993 Lagos in Nigeria. It is about a father and

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the movie puts movies in theaters before ultimately ending up on their wonderful platform.

Dang right. I'm just looking at some of the stuff they got right now. Dima, I love of course.

“Yeah. An important watch and necessary watch for any blanky uh, Lagraza, Lagrazia, the”

new Palace Orangey movie, which I missed in theaters. Good moment to catch up with it. The great shall we dance? Oh, the classic. The original. Oh, my goodness. That's fun. Like a restoration. Yeah. And look, they got a collection called Heart Throb, Nicholas Cage. It's young dreamy painting. Well, still dreaming to me. Hey, you're very open-hearted. Anyway, to stream the best of cinema, you can try movie free for 30 days at movie.com/bankscheck. That's Mubi.com/bankscheck.

For a moment, the great cinema for free. And then go see my father, Shadow and Peters. Please, thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Thank you very kind. [Music] Peter, we are loved comic books. It's part you pick up the film. Oh, yeah. And you love the pictures. Yeah. And you like, you know, America movies. He's like Tamar horror films. He just

simply remembers seeing the great French film The Witches of Fear. One of the greats. Did he watch a lot of Australian cinema? Not really. He says. He mentions movies like

“Bush Christmas and Jeddah. But I think like, this is point to, you know, fat low period. Yeah,”

there's not a ton of Australian cinema. Maybe for him to even touch on. He loves Jacques Taty. Right. And that actually suggested what his earlier interest was, which is performing. He wanted to tell stories, but like, you know, by performing them. And then he liked to plan this sort of elaborate games. He would play like war games with his friends. The he would kind of set up. He was very creative. He talks about how he felt like he explored enough kind of

areas leading up to landing on film directing that helped him understand different aspects of it. That he worked in place. He was doing sketch comedy. He was doing all these different things that ended up feeding into filmmaking. He went sort of all boys boarding school or she didn't really like, he could do it about a year at the University of Sydney and dropped out. You know, he was sort of into the student life, but it seems like he wasn't that into, you know, whatever. Frickly work. Yeah,

exactly. He had did have a cool experience with some professor who was teaching about William Blake.

And he like took a poem apart in front of them. And he was like, he was basically like deconstructing

William Blake poem and Peter forgot really mad. And I was like, I love this poem. Like, I hate how he's like dismembering it to like show us the technique. And he's basically like, that's depot society. Like, I put that right at depot society. Like, I dismembering it, like, like, taking a party structure or a style ripping it. Who knows? I mean, there's no mention of a durable, but who knows call that a call. He leaves college. He goes into real estate. The family

Europe once to go just check it out. You know, and gets on a ship. I mean, back then,

“I think traveling by air from Australia was basically impossible because it was so fucking far.”

Right. You had to stop to refuel so many times. So you would travel by boat. You would get on a boat that would go for weeks to get you to, you know, wherever you're going. My grandmother talks about this all the time. She is in her midnight. Yes. Right. Excuse me. Early 30s. Maybe started to listen. But she is like, I don't know why you take all these expensive flights. It's so nice to go on a boat. I went on a boat to Australia. And it's great. You just go to the

docks with a suitcase and you wave it a man. And you give them just whatever one of you have in your pocket. And they give you a room. And she just thinks that's the thing we could. Unfortunately, I think that truly doesn't. I think there's only one passenger liner left, which is the Queen Mary, which goes from New York to London, you know, whatever. Like not even New York. It's like South Hampton to New York or whatever. But that's the only ship that remains the cruise ship that remains.

That's like we go from one place to another. All of the cruise ships are like, you know,

“we go to a bunch of vacationing. We take it back and then we take your home. Right. No, I think she”

went on the Queen Mary once and most of the time. She'd just like wave down the King Kong ship. She brings this up all the time. Good for her. She would. It's fun. I mean, it's like you're able to do up at a time machine. So he arrives in England. And it's a cool time for England, because it's the mid 60s, flower, power, and time Vietnam swing in London. You know, he meets some cool guys like Austin Powers. Cool. No, I'm definitely a bad luck position. Yeah. Misses Kensington.

Right. They're right. They're the earlier Kensington. It's right. You know, quite groovy. So he has fun, but then he says at a certain point, he just runs out of money. And he decides to come back to Australia in 1966 with his wife to be. What? He has a fiance, humble Wendy States. Okay.

Who he's still married to? That very long running marriage. That's impressive. And basically,

they, you know, they sort of wrestle with it, but they decide the way he puts it is. We decided we could deal with the shortcomings of Australia. My guess is it's just like Australia is a less like cos button place back then. Again, just because like this fucking far away. And there's not jet travel. This is as much. Well, we're also talking about a guy who's like the tip of the spear in the Australian new wave, which wasn't just, oh, here's like a new wave of voices in Australian cinema. It was basically

“here's Australian cinema starting up again. A little bit, I think. You know, so like he,”

there's not really a culture supporting the thing he does yet. So he comes back and tries to do some TV works, starts writing letters and shit. So it's working for Australia's channel 7. And does like sort of news stuff, I guess for them, working in the release says you kind of like worked as a stage hand. Then he makes a tiny little short film.

Basically gets his hand on a camera that he can use on the weekends, right? Film called Count

Vim's last exercise. Don't know much about it. Do you? No. No, the do I. Great, moving on. He, it got him a promotion. He gets a job directing film sequences for a variety show called The Mavis Bramston Show, a sketch comedy show. I'm sure it was subtle stuff. I have no idea. Then he produces a second little reverend short film called The Life and Flight of Reverend Reverend Buckshot, which is the story of a burger turned Christian evangelist. It has not been widely screened, but it won him a young

filmmaker award. And so he leaves channel 7. He has no idea where his career is heading. He doesn't have like a grand plan. It's another job in sort of like government film unit doing documentary filmmaking to some of that. I mean, it's a real 10,000 hours thing of like, you know, he's really working with very little sort of money and like sort of semi-professional stuff and just like slowly like building his craft and all that. Make some little documentary

movies. Makes a comedy television film called Man on a Green Bite. Jesus. What David, are you angry that he paid his dues? That's so angry. No, it's just so impatient. You're really long, doesn't it? Start making features already. It gets asked to direct a segment in an apology. Tell the film called Three To Go. This is actually called Michael. I've seen this because it is on

the, uh, there is a French Blu-ray of cars that a Paris and the plumber that is, I think the only

there, uh, have not seen the full anthology, but it's like three different portraits of

“the young person in Australia at the time. And Michael is interesting because it's kind of a bit of,”

it's, it's a little analogous to, uh, ambling. And because it's about a kind of a countercultural guy, it's about a guy who can't hang with the counterculture. Right. He's trying to be a cool 60s hippie, but it isn't, is it better? He's a rich kid, right, who feels like he should be engaged with the sort of, like, politically and judgeable as an angel? Yes. He changed smokes. He's a little unconventional. This guy hasn't shaved in two days. So this film wins in Australian film

Institute of War for Best Film. Can I finish my observation about this again quickly? Because I took the time to watch out. Of course, uh, ambling, you know, it's like a very short kind of, like, poppy, funny, stylish, almost music video where the reveal of Spielberg. Yes, the Spielberg. The reveal. Oh, dialogue. That this guy's, like, a door can oppose her, right? And it's very much like, I can't do this, even though the girl wants to sleep with him. He, like, runs off in the

guitar cases empty. And it feels very telling of Spielberg being like, I'm a kid, like, playing pretend. Michael does not feel autobiographical. Michael feels, uh, a kind of satirical of a type of, uh, someone who does a, does a dowliance with performative politics. Right. Okay. It starts off kind of, like, doki drama style, uh, a lot of, like, news, real footage and sort of music, rock music, and whatever. And then it goes into this guy trying to go to, like, meetings and protests and things,

like that, and he just, like, it, it feels interestingly kind of critical of people who don't

“actually give a shit. For a guy who I think retains a sociopolitical interest throughout all of his films.”

He does. Yeah. So the film does pretty well. And so he gets some money to make another film, which some sort of, argue is his debut. It's a 50 minute film. It's home to home's Dale. Yes. This is what gets him both the juice to make cars. They do Paris, but also gets him on the radar to be offered, pick and get hanging rock. So it's the real calling card. Um, home sales 50 minutes, as I said, uh, it's about the staff of a hunting lodge that's kind of like torturing their guests.

I think they made it for, like, a few thousand dollars. It was an unhappy, like, process, everyone was stressed out and tired and hungry and all this shit. Uh, but he says it probably kind of fed the story in a good way. Like that they were all just like in this decaying estate. Like at each other's throats. He says, uh, it's his closest thing to like a hitchcock movie. Like it's like a, you know,

“weird little black comedy. You can watch on YouTube. I think it's quite good as well. It is interesting”

that his early work and this kind of stops at cars that he Paris is more kind of like heightened comedic satirical. It's not straight up comedy and it's dark and there's still some grounding, but there's a sort of stylization to these movies and tone. Yeah. After this, he goes on another trip. He wants to visit both, um, he, L.A., you know, he goes to America and London, uh, visits like film studio, you know, trying, he's trying to get more info, more skills, more whatever,

exposure to big stuff. He goes to London. He works at L.A., street studios on Ken Russell's movie, The Boyfriend, The Twiggy Movie. Yes. God bless Twiggy. We love Twiggy. Um, he, uh, meets Alfred Hitchcock, who's making frenzy, normal movie. Oh, and Alfred Hitchcock, normal guy. But it's like

frenzy is amazing, interesting movie, but it's like Hitchcock being like, well, it's like the 70s

and he's like, I can, I can just kind of be out in the open with what a fucking freak I am. Nothing has to be coded anymore. And he makes it. Everyone's like, whoa, dude. He's like, oh, I got caught. Oh, go back to coding. It's just so funny that he was like the king of like, the visual met a thing. It's like a little bit. Yeah. That's right. And then he, like, he's Brian DePaulman. He's like, oh, I can tell people what I like. That jerk gets off on

fucking strangling ladies and people are like, Rolex. Sorry. Do you know what's one of my favorite bits of all time? The, um, the great Steve Martin going to put on a show tonight. SNL opening monologue. Do you don't talk about the song? Yes, I do. Yes. In the 90s, where it's like, I've decided I'm going to care again. Yeah. It's maybe the best SNL hold open, like non-political cold open ever. But all the cast members come out one by one are inspired by the fact that Steve

about how he's not going to get drunk and everything. And then Phil Hartman comes out and he's like,

“week after week, I put on these wigs and these make up. But tonight, I'm going to let the real”

Phil Hartman shine through. And Steve Martin goes, that's not good idea. Phil and goes all right. It's funny. Pretty funny. I like it. I don't know. Makes me laugh. Uh, so he works on these movies. Okay. That'll keep me to his cock. I don't fucking know. You do not. In the dossier. It's right in front of you. It's an informative trip for him. It's great for him to meet people like, you know, Hitchcock, even though he's just like, but how do you do? And he's just like, you know, but nonetheless,

like Peter weir is like, this is this immense for me, I want to make movies. To be fair, Hitchcock was attempting to answer the question, but he had a full roast turkey in his mouth. Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma. Um, the man like to eat food. He's a big boy. Uh, got awesome. That's not just he was big. It's the stories are that he would have like fucking four dinners in a row. He would raise that's the famous thing where you would have to make like multi-course dinner. Right.

And then when the waiter would come at the end, he'd go, let's do it again. Yeah, just run that back. Maybe all the courses again. He'd go back to salad. You know, maybe people should do that more. Do kind of all like we climb the mountain than we descend, you know, start and end with salad. I mean, our version, our contemporary version is the bang bang. Yeah, but the bang bang is just, that's just like, that's like people being like, I'm awful, but I found a word that, so now it,

now it's okay. I got a burger and then I got fried chicken and I'm like, well, that doesn't sound like good idea, but he was a classic bang bang. Yeah. No, but then again, I did a bang bang recently. I did it. So, you know, so, you know, I did a comedy bang bang recently. Well, I've listened to it. It's in the feed, though. It's it. I'll say this. Reddit is calling it Anne Episodes. I had a great season. He's already ruled it out as a

contender for the best. Maybe one day. I did it, but yeah, I went to the village cafe, which is a place in in South Brooklyn, you know, at Asur by Johnny Food, right? Got some lamb skewers, some rice. I was like this rocks, but I know it's so deep in Brooklyn.

I was like, you know, there's just pizza place I've been mean to go to, and like, I'm never here.

And I went and got a slice of pizza when he could have put it in there, but he got a nail me to the cross.

“No, that's why they, that's why they killed Jesus too many bang bang bang bang. So,”

why they killed Jesse Jay as well. Well, he, bang bang. Oh, this song, right bang bang, what happened to her? They, they killed her on the left. You're right. Six months in London, he says he wrote the outline for the cars that he Paris, the treatment for the last wave, and the treatment for the plumber, which these are all movie scenes. I love like it's a kind of creatively fertile moment for him. Yeah. Yeah. It shows to him. Yes, I am a director. I'm not,

I don't want to perform. I don't want to write, you know, he likes to mention that for him. It also shifts him away from comedy, because a lot of the early stuff he'd done was a lot more

and you know, he had openly, he did a whip this at you. I'm joking. I would never do that.

I would only throw something at David early. Which famously last time you threw a wall through the wall and I needed him to be quiet. You still haven't gotten your credit card back from you. Wait a second. He also, one, one reason he says he moves away from comedy is when he's in London. He sees Monty Python, and he's like, these guys are pretty fucking good. I'm not going to do anything remotely approaching this. It's also funny to imagine seeing

Monty Python and TV and being like, oh fuck. So they did it. They got to catch comedy on TV. Guess that's no longer an option. Sure. They're the ones who get to do that. He returns to Australia. And in fact, Graham Bond, who's an old collaborator of his said, I'm about to do something called

“the anti jack show. I mean, truly, I'm frying not to speak. I think it sounds very good.”

And of course, the show where men have their hands taped to their thighs and couldn't jack off. I don't know what the anti jack show would have been, but something they had done on the radio some time. Yeah. And he's like, we got to work with him, but it's so order. And Peter, we're like, I'm out, man. Like, I don't, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do sketch comedy. I want to concentrate on film. So he turns down what sounds like a fairly guaranteed

thing. He makes one more documentary for the Commonwealth Film Unit, this sort of government group he was working for, which is called whatever happened to Green Valley, uh, which is about an area like a working class area where people have been moved out of the city and to stay provided housing. So he does a little documentary. Cars that ate Paris though. Let's get to that. The idea came while he's traveling through Europe. He's driving through France. He comes to a little section

of road. There's a barricade. There's a heavy mess. There's two frightening-looking characters behind

whatever, like they look official. And they stopped the car, directed down a detour, and they

“go down this fucked up detour. And then like, as Peter's driving, he's like, do his wife like,”

why did we accept that? You know, like, we just kind of went along with what they told us to do, but like, why? Like, they barely presented anything to credentials or anything like that. You know, they didn't ask for the permit. They didn't tell us why we were, you know, not allowed to go down this road. And he just starts like inventing the crazy, you know, conclusion

of that, right? He's like, what? Yeah, that makes it if it's basically like a town is doing that

for like a nefarious reason. Right. The sort of like core hook to this movie if there is one is a town that is somehow benefiting financially and structurally from people crashing their cars. Yes. It doesn't totally make sense. No. That is the idea. It's not, it's not a literal sort of like you. And what if, you know, you wanted to kill people, but you knew you would get in trouble if you

“went around shooting them with a gun, because you could get caught. But what if you just basically”

made them all have car accidents? Then it's just like, well, they had a car accident, not our fault. And then there are like, you know, corpses that can be experimented on, there are junked cars

that can be rebuilt, like basically the whole bike's kind of societal structure of this town is built

around the things they're able to pull from the wreckage of the cars. So when it's damage, yes, one inspiration is going to come with me built around. But it's also not just like, oh, they make people crash cars so they can steal their wallet. If they wanted to do that, they would make David upset. No, but yes, there's this whole complicated system of all the different things they extract from the cars and how it feeds. There's this lore that this would happen in Cornwall and

the British coast like long ago that they would like have light houses and then they would move them or turn them off to have ships wreck on the coast and they would go like loot the ships. Right. It's the same idea. It's a weird kind of scavengy priority thing. He writes out these like

what he calls short stories, but they're basically treatments. They're intended to be

turned into movies. He would record the scripts onto tapes, do all the voices and sound effects. Funny to think about because again, I do think a Peter Weir is a serious guy. I was watching, you know, some special features yesterday. You came into the office. Yeah, not a deadly serious, but like, you know, he's like, he makes these like prestigey movies. He seems very smart and like sophisticated. I got this interview up on the big screen. We look at each other and we're both like, I find him very

relaxing. He is relaxing. He's got a very calm tone. But he seems very like just kind of like straight, focused, blunt. So it's sort of hard for him to imagine him like doing two bits into a

“type recorder. But that's apparently what he was doing. Yeah. And so that's how he's kind of”

processing this story. He thinks it's going to be more of a comedy as it develops. It's like gets darker and darker. You feel him pivoting within this movie. Like starting it out thinking that he's primarily going to be a comedy filmmaker and finding some other voice along the way. He takes it to Keith Gowan, old friend. They work on it together. They take it to a third writer called Pierce Davis who'd worked on Homestale. And they all, you know, they're the three

credited writers. You know, they all kind of build the script up together. He calls it eventually a thriller with an underlying social comment on capitalist-way life and motor cars and how we place this importance on them in our society. But above all, I want to make an entertaining story. Okay. Australian film production. It's hit a low point, Griffin, in the decades following World War II. Australian Prime Minister in the 1970 John Gorton, let me look up to see a good guy

or bad guy. He pioneers the Australia Australian film development corporation to try and start making like home-ground movies again, government subsidized and this is sort of the beginning of what's hit all the Aussie new way. Basically slow down to nothing. There's a really deep sense of to kick start the industry back into gear. Yeah. Seems like he was kind of kind of a center-right guy. Okay. I don't know. Sorry. I can't really get it. That's quite a look. He does. What was his opinion

on beef teller? That's the only position I've ever seen. He's a group of companies. Everyone was pro. Yeah. Right. That goes away later. I mean, his five. His five is beef teller. He's a bulldog. Yeah. He's got a bulldog kind of look. So they, they're the Australian film development corporation. Best of about 125,000 Aussie bucks. The total budget was about 200 grand. Small budget. But, you know, it's, you know, they get to make a movie. They made a movie. They didn't

lot from, uh, Hal and Jim McElroy specifically, uh, who work with him on the next couple of movies. How they learned a lot from how hard it was to pitch this movie, both in getting money and getting an audience. That it's like, it's hard to explain. It's not really focused on a specific thing. And that's, you know, and in a big way, like, not, you have to make a movie with a poster

of mine first. But a little bit, like, they want something that will sell and it will matter to people.

They shoot it in New South Wales about 250 miles from Sydney, you know, to, you know, a more sort of obscure or backwater part of the country at Gasson or, you know, they, and they, they make the film. I think we're going to discuss the film now. The lead actor in a Terry Camelieri. It is his debut film. Sure. It's Napoleon. Damn it. Sorry. I've got to take it for me. Do you recognize this? Did you clock this Ben? No. The lead guy in this movie. Yeah. Is the man who delivered what might have

been the finest supporting performance in film in 1989? Napoleon Bonaparte in Bill and Ted's excellent

“adventure. Nice. The only thing I remember is when he's, um, piggybacked. Oh, oh, no. Well-”

wing. Yes. And he missed it. And he goes like, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, like he's like, that I remember that being really. I'm not exaggerating that performance is he's very fun.

Top to bottom fire. It is unbelievable. He is the water slide pushing past kids to go down first,

not to not to spoil way ahead, but he is the guy in the bathroom in the Truman Show. Big time. Like, you know how the Truman Show has all the viewers that we keep cutting to. He's the bathtub guy. He's got an incredibly distinctive look. It is us. We're to see him in this movie because it is. One of those guys where you're like, he's supposed to be sort of an every man in this one. But also, you're like, wasn't he born 45 and you're like seeing him in like three and you're like,

we're almost there. David. Right. Right. Right. I am correct. That's your name. It's time to take a break from your school or work routine, but stay consistent. That's the tough balance. We should have school routine. Take me back to school, baby. Well, you have a stage of

“you've got to get kids to school. That's true. That is a school route. All right. Well, can I take a break?”

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AG1.com/check. David. Yes. Watch this. Watch this. Can tell me what's going on. I'm trying to hit home.

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first box. New subscribers. Only berries by plan. That is HelloFresh.com/check10fm10fm. All right. So, of course, they pair. So, yeah, how do we describe this film? It's a, it's a, start on the head of the movie. Although apparently there's a US cup that's 74 minutes, but the hell is that? That must be just like,

“trying to get all of it, you know, the U.B. is all action. I think that this was an early new line of release.”

They retitled it the cars that eat people. It was several years later. Yes. And they specifically sold it as a thriller. Right. It's like a thought. It's going on in this town. Right. The poster has so much information. Yes. But there are many posters. David and I were just going through this that we both become as David put it when I walked into the office on time, presumably. You're for 15 minutes. Like, I was on time. You're not one to raise your eyebrows today. That's a long going to set. I guess who can raise his eyebrows.

Yeah. David's allowed to. Boom. His eyebrows just hit the ceiling. Yeah. My eyebrows are permearies, but I would say. David said, I've gotten your sickness. And I said, what do you mean? We both now obsessively methodically choose the posters for every log on letterboxed because letterboxed gives you a default poster graphic, but very often it's not a true poster. No, it's a poster with all the words removed and all the title building. It's sort of like an iTunes poster. It's not a

theatrical one sheet, but then do you upload your own image? No, other people upload them. We

“haven't quite gotten to the stage of uploading our own. I believe you can if you truly. You absolutely”

can. And sometimes I look and these options aren't great. Do I do I go hunting? But the poster should this move you're wildly different? Some of them are very informational. That very long tagline I read. Some of them are super graphic. The new line one, the cars that he people is like a car eating a guy. Like depicting things that don't happen in a movie. But I feel like it's the spiky car. The spiky car is the big thing. Yeah, which is so fucking cool. It's very, very,

because it's a car, but it's covered in spikes. Yes, that is kind of the thing it has going on. The movie opens with like a kind of like picturesque drive, a happy couple, and then you watch them get into like a big wreck. And you immediately see the way the town gets to work and extracting them. And the vehicle, the wreckage. But the town doesn't call our sabotage. It seems

it's either? I think it's all, I mean, you're right that like it seems accidental. But like we do learn that, you know, this is their whole toy, right? Right. So it doesn't know. I read it as not that there's like something supernatural going on, but that they have perhaps just put shit all over the roads or something. Yeah, twisty turns, like they're rigging it in a way that it's sort of like

“a skill or course. They're closing roads, I guess, so that you have to go on the bad roads,”

maybe. There's just pruning nails about. Yes. Yeah, maybe they are. Look, this is a good movie,

but it also is like a first film and feels like a first film. And it's one of those things where

I wonder if you talked to Peter where he'd be like, yeah, I watched the cut and realized we didn't explain that. Truly no idea. Don't know what his like, you know, I mean, I think if he wanted this movie, like, I remember us seeing a bucrubanzai at Nighthawk, a movie we both like a lot. I like that movie a lot, but that movie is more extreme than this one in terms of like you're like, oh, they just didn't know how to make a movie for this. Right. Right. And a lot of times we'll

make a couple of first films on this show. They're varying levels of like fluency. And like Peter where there's absolutely someone who already at this point knows how to put images together, it knows how to work with actors. But like you hear these stories of like first time film makers

to them, what's the cut of their movie? And they're like, oh, I didn't explain that at all.

Now I understand story telling, you know, bucrubanzai, which is a unique object. Anyone can agree, is also just right, a specific scenario where you're like, it's like someone trying to make a movie sort of five times more ambitious than cars in a Paris in terms of the storyteller, just in terms of like, there's aliens. There's government, you know, government,

“secret societies. There's musical sequences. There's the, where you're just like,”

guys, this is a lot to put on your plate and movie one complex visual pattern. Yes, right. This sort of like reveal of the true forms of the aliens. There's moments. Oh, yeah, just the looks. I mean, a rolled up, yeah, horse jacket. Yeah, the rolled up, but on a sports jacket. Cowboys, the whole concept bucrubanzai has of like, he's sort of an intergalactic secret agent and yes, the coolest band in the world. What's his band? Well,

it has three saxophones. You know what I mean? He's also a surgeon. Yeah, and it's like the, I love the idea of course piling it on, but then they're like, and he's got the coolest band in the world. His band has three saxophones. And you're like, that doesn't sound cool. And they're like, does this look cool? And I'm like, yes, it does. Actually, it's the coolest shit I've ever seen. That is a true, the 50 years ahead of its time movie where you're just like, now the culture is

caught up to a point where you're like, here's the pitch. It's like, it's the eighth movie. It's like we're just diving into the middle. Me buckroobanzai, but you're doing more. It's funny that he's everything at the same time. I cannot imagine how insane that movie felt upon release. You know, I know like friends of ours, like, like, Hodgman have talked about it. Like, being the weird kid at school and seeing it and being like, I get this.

This is like a transmission from a future I want. Right. Yeah, everyone else is angry. Yes, I got it. Yeah, this has a little bit of that energy where you're like, but you know,

there are first films that are like the first album syndrome thing of like someone's been waiting

to make a movie. They're holding it. They've got all their bangers. And they know like there's a very specific story they want to tell. And then their first movies that feel like a drafts folder. And a little bit like you're still in film school in this sense where you're like, I got a bunch

“of ideas I want to try out. You know, very interesting. And I think this movie is fairly cohesive,”

but it's also inscrutable at times. It's cohesive in that it has a, you know, it has a good narrative engine, which is this guy gets trapped in this town. Right. After you see this original crash, you see this guy in his brother driving. They get a similar crash. His brother dies, he survives wakes up in the hospital. And it's him basically learning the fucked up thing about this town. This town sort of bringing him in closer. And then weighing, do I participate in the fucked

up thing about this town? It's a little. Right. Like in my wrong, no, you're right. The narrative engine of it is like twilight zoney where it's like you wake up in an accident. Something weird has happened. It's a normal town that's inviting you in. And then you start to realize how many weird things are going on beneath the surface. It's just the weird things that happen are like varying levels of abstract. But do you think he's aware all along or when, when does the character figure

out what this town is really up to? It's kind of when he starts working at the hospital. Maybe he starts to feel like, right? Like, like, it's sort of there, right? It's unclear. Yeah. I like Terry

performance. It's another thing that you feel like you make one movie and then learn a big lesson

“from it, which is he's a really passive character. He's really quiet and he kind of goes with the flow.”

You know, he's sort of like in a trance with the whole thing. There's not a lot of him like getting seduced by the town. Nor is there him being suspicious and like putting up his guard. So you don't feel like he's trying to solve a mystery and you also don't feel like there's a clear sense of this guy that's getting corrupted. It does just sort of feel like he's sleepwalking through the whole situation and told things get very scary at the end. It is not a movie, right? That's heavy on action

until the big climax, right? No, but there are crashes throughout. Yeah. Yes. And they are

sightingly constructed. You can see it's sparking Miller not just, oh, look, someone shot a car in Australia.

There's a language to the car crashes. That is very visceral. Part of the thing he has to overcome is like he's now scared of driving. So he can't escape because he doesn't want to get back in a car because he was in a car car. He reveals also that he hits someone. Right. He's got like trauma. I think he says he killed an old man. So very traumatic experience. It's not really that just what happened all the time. Oh, like, I do think this is part of what I like about this movie.

“Is it does feel like it's textually engaging with how scary cars are? Oh, that's what you like.”

Because you're like, I don't trust them cars. They've all got spikes to be. Right. But also that he's just like, I shouldn't have this man a power in my hands, which is the reason I don't drive. It's the number one reason I don't drive. The, like, my psychological anxiety about the act of driving is secondary to I don't trust myself to do it correctly and not cause damage. I love driving. It's so fun. It's a rock. It's a rock. It's a rock. It depends. It's all yours.

Because my thing with driving is like, I don't, you know, I think cars are bad for society. I don't like the way that cities are built for cars. The way the country depends on cars. I don't like that. I don't like that. I have eyes on them. Very pro mass transit. Very pro. We need less cars. And we're like, but if I'm driving a car, I'm like, beep, beep for the next exactly. I'm like, here we go. Good child. Like, I mean, guys, I don't like being in traffic. But I don't hate that much.

I also just need to remind you guys that I grew up in New York City. The mean streets of Granite, Philish. My father was like pot committed to having a car in the city and driving, which is a terrible experience. Yeah. I mean, I'm, yeah, I'm having a car in Manhattan that actually want to use. That is dumb. And he was, you might be really surprised to hear this and incredibly anxious driver. Well, it's myr with stories, right? It was, yeah, it's, it's the opening

scene where San Luis just been melting down. We came to for a car watch that scene. Right. Yes. Since that movie came out. Yeah. But it's like the entire car became an extension of his tense body and every part of it was stressful to him. Like being a traffic with this time, you've got some fucking hang up. It's just your dad was stressed out as you were kid all the time. Yeah, buddy. But how does this relate to milk and eggs? No, you like milk? No, I don't.

Yeah, right, milk and eggs. Is your dad yelling about eggs? No, eggs. I just think are gross and all of you are in scene. I'm just trying to see if there's like a child. I told you the milk thing, right? I just didn't this on dirty laundry at SF sketch fest. The dropout show. Thank you for having me where you had to get people to guess who's dirty secret was who's I loved the bottle. Much like your daughter. I tapped the table. I'd go empty. Right? Yeah. And I wouldn't drop the

bottle because I was such a creature to comfort. And my parents were like, you are too old. You got to drop this. It is a classic moment to come. So you got a wean. And they were doing anything to wean me. And I was just I was I was immovable on this issue. And one day I woke up. And there was a class of milk on the table. And I was like the fuck is this? And they were like, this is milk. And I was like, I'm sorry, no worries. But you made a mistake. Milk actually comes in a bottle. This is a cup of

some shit. I've never seen before in my life. Milk has a nipple at the top. And they were like,

“no, this is what milk is now. And I was like, oh, cool. I'm never drinking milk. And how old are you?”

I was like five. You were still drinking from a bottle. This is the point. And my parents were like, enough is enough. And I was like, yeah, I'm not drinking milk. And they're like, okay, you're five. Let's see how that goes. And I haven't had milk in over three decades. I would say by the time you're five, you certainly do not need to be drinking milk anymore. It's a personal choice at that point.

We were kids. The one failure. When we were kids, the predominant thinking was bump your kids

filled with milk. Yeah, every celebrity at the fucking mustache. Now you are very much told like, do not do that because then your kids won't eat food. Why am I tiny? You as your parents are tiny. Also, and all goes back to my dad. He's the tinyest person I've ever seen. He's partly playing the rock johns. He's not a huge guy himself. Well, now it's funny to imagine my dad doing doing the rock johns. It is funny to imagine. What if they announced rampage two,

but we're placing Dwayne the rock Johnson with Peter Newman. I'm into it. Yeah. So what happens in the cars that they pair. So our main character, as you say, it's our

third play by Terry Kim. Himmallery. The mayor is sort of taking him under his way. The mayor's

“named Len Kelly's played by John Million, who's like, I think a sort of legendary at the time,”

like Australian character actor guy had done lots of theater, did, you know, British stuff as well. He's a rock at all, Dundee. He is in crocodile. He is in crocodile, Dundee. But he's also he's in Billy Bud. He's in the longest. In fact, crocodile Dundee, too, I think is basically his last performance. He's like the buddy. He's like the buddy. He's like the buddy. Walk about. Like he's in most of the iconic Australian movies. Oh, right. He's the dad and walk about,

which is not an important role because they'd die and tremendous amount of TV. Yes. He's playing like a fucking cartoon idea of an old timey mayor. Like Tom Pat holding on to like his like jacket lapels. Big sash. That's his mayor. He's pretty funny. He's funny. Yeah. But he's he's got a wife and two daughters who Arthur finds out are not actually his that they are shoulder and that they adopted

“from wreckages. Okay. Yes. That's right. Yeah. It's all part of the sort of weird scavenging that they're doing.”

One of the daughters has a scar. You can see that the mom insists she hide. That was clearly caused by an accident. Like however they got her. And then yeah, they give him the hospital job. Can we not like you can work at the hospital? It's kind of like Doc Hollywood. Yeah. It's exactly like Doc Hollywood. You know, the movie Doc Hollywood. Michael J. Fox is a big shot past exturgent or what, you know, he's a good doctor. Yeah. From Hollywood. And then he's driving his hot

rod, right somewhere. And he crashes it. And it's I mean, it's also the premise of cars. He crashes it in like a small town and he like wrecks some fence or gazebo or whatever the fuck. And they're like they're sentence. You're sentences. It's right. You got to work off your your debt by being a local doctor. And he's like, what I mean, I'm kind of a big shot of Michael J. Fox over here. I got sunglasses. And then he falls in love with the small town. He loves this one and said they're like,

okay, you can work here. You can kind of get your strength back. You can, you know, wait to be

“ready to drive a car again. That's why he's in the worst town. Right. And the movie Cars Ben is”

about kind of a hot shot car who's a race car. He's driving too fast. He wrecks a fence in a town. He does and the cars are like, you gotta stay here. And he's like, what? I hate this. Why? And then he comes to love the town. And the cars don't eat Paris, but they do eat food. Yeah. So the town, of course, is called Paris. That's why it's called that. It's just very funny. And it's a thing we find in America as well. Where you'll, I mean, Paris, Texas. Well, New York is, is littered with it where

they would just be like, well, we need names for these towns. Let's just name it after famous old cities. Yeah. Paris, helped. That's a person's name. That's true. Yeah. But she's American. What are my favorite examples of this is in Pennsylvania. There's a town called Jersey Shore. That's really funny. And so you'd see this road sign like Jersey Shore 50 miles or whatever. Do you feel like you've gone through a warm hole like that? That's crazy. Didn't we push so far away? Right.

I just want to call out one of the vehicle wreckage scavengers, kind of the main one in the film. Charlie is played by the actor Bruce Spence. And I don't know if you put this together, but he was the gyrocopter pilot in the road warrior. So that's one of our oldest bits. Because you said that to me. I guess when we were talking matrix matrix or was it star? No, star was episode three on me

done. Yeah. But then I bring it up again in matrix revolution. But the first time you brought it

out to me, I was kind of like, okay. But then, of course, we have basically covered every iconic film that the unusual looking man, great actor, Bruce Spence has been in, but from one Griffin, we have

but we have a Bruce Spence movie on the calendar again later this year. That's right. We do. We do. But there's one guy. One, he's the voice of the mouth of Sauron in the extended edition of Return of the King. Which one we cover Peter Jackson? We have to do the extended. Right. We do,

“although I think they are, it is very worthy of debate whether the extended editions are better.”

I think that's like debate, but we have to do them. We do, but it's going to be an interesting bridge to cross because like they're they're different. And it's interesting to consider the difference. And then you're going to have to do two cuts of every episode. I mean, I think the problem is that the Hobbits also have extended editions. Yeah. And no one's really out there being like,

those are all so good. Has anyone never heard anyone say they're really worth what? I believe they

exist because they were like, we'll just do what we did with Lord of the Rings, right? Well, people have extended edition. What if Peter Jackson put out compressed editions of the Hobbits? I compressed it into what fucking movie. That might win people over. I know it's been said a thousand times. And I have no new observations. It is one of the craziest things that ever happened. It's like three giant books, three movies. And it was hard to whittle the books down.

And they were like, you're ready to adapt the Hobbit? And he's like, yeah, three movies. And you're like, you know how it is like a third the length of Lord of the Rings books. And he's like, it's going to have to be three movies. That didn't even went from two to three. We got two. We got smog. Smog. Smog? Yeah. You mean we got him, you mean we shot him. Yeah. We hope that we got one of the finest performances. Mocat performances. Maybe it's fine. It is

the funniest shit of all time. I've watched that. You always say this on the show. I mean you both

do. You're like, I watched that once a year. Like, that thing. I just watched the behind the scenes of. Come back. The most interesting. The mocap scene. But my favorite thing is all the people at wet are were like, yeah, I mean, it wasn't usable. They do say like, we did our best, but it's not, it's not like the dragon's face is this. Well, it's just like they were like, look, golem is like, he's a Hobbit, but he's got the basic anatomy of a human being, right? He's like a

weird, like zombie Hobbit. He's got arms and legs in a head and like eyes and notes and mouth and a right place. You can transfer those tracking dots. And you're like, bend it, come or bad, get on his tummy and you're like, well, his mouth is 15 feet long. He doesn't have arms. He's a dragon. His legs are tiny. I mean, and you know, you're like, you've been to the prince for

“that data into the model we got. No, no, they told me to drag it. Right. He was like, so mocap, right?”

And they were like, um, I think just like he was apparently so enamored with the idea of what

any circus had done that he was like, I've always wanted to do mocap. And they were like,

cool. And just let him do that. And we're like, uh, it was helpful to like, we could reference it. We could look at it. I mean, they used the audio. Yeah, they did. And I'm sure that the audio compared to what you could have captured if he was just standing in a cool collection. No question. No question. And he's superior. No question. He, um, he does the necromancer as well. Like he, he plays multiple, like mocap parts in those Hobbit movies. Right. Much like he played

Dormamu and Dr. Strange. Where is a big head? Yeah. What's Dormamu up to these days? I'm sure we'll find out. I'm sure he'll pop up in Avengers Doomsday. Be like, I'm still here. Dormamu will return to Avengers. I'm even better. Dormamu rocks. That Dormamu is cool. Yeah. So the cards that

“they Paris, what happens in this film? What are, you know, like, what, what do we need to fill in?”

Respents is rad as hell in this. And it's important because it's like George Miller sees this. Yeah. And it's like I want this guy's, his responses in Mad Maxes 1 and 2, right? Yes. He plays different characters. Yes. Yes. But no, but there's like 100% of straight line to George Miller seeing this being like, oh my god. No, he's in 2 and 3. I always, okay. He's not in one. George Miller had to feel like he had built up his bones enough to be able to ask the great Bruce

fans. The other film's Bruce Vences in just a shot him out. So the whole thing with him is that he's like, is he seven feet? He's not quite that, but he's really tall. He's got one of the ones got this elongated head. Yes. That like, just is so interesting. He's got this sort of big mouth. And he plays, like, as I said, the mouth of Sarah and he plays the trainman in the matrix

He's also, he's in Dark City. He's in a adventurer when nature calls. Yes. That I cannot remember.

He's, uh, in the good PJ Hogan Peter Pan. Right. He was in apparently a pirate to the

“Caribbean. Demental no tails. Can't say, I remember that one. Uh, I haven't seen that one.”

Mayor Dicks. God's of Egypt. He's of course an eye friend can stand up. Apparently he's in the chronicles of the Narnia, the voice of the Dawn Treader, which I will be watching. He'll get into me in the Narnia project this year. Yes. I'm reading all the books. Yeah. Uh, and he's the voice of Chaman finding me, though. And he's done a zillion TV shows and stuff and he's just an interesting guy. Yeah. He fucking rules. And you should have been excited the first time I brought

him off. Never got no over it. It's taken you out of your ears. You acted like, what the fuck

are you talking? It gives a shit. He's a legend. He's a bit of a legend. Yeah. He is. Thank you. And he's good in this. He plays one of the freak guys in the city. Yeah. Guess what? Good casting. He collects Jaguar. Um, the metal. The, um, the statements. Yeah. Yes. I love how for the, the gang, the young people gang. Their cars are all covered in graffiti. I'll fucked up. They look like they're, they could be in a roller derby. Jericho. Absolutely. Yes. But I mean, wait. Do you mean like a

destruction derby? Yeah. Although there's another word for it, which is Jim Kana. Yes. Jim, which is like an Australian motor sport. It's the sport of driving as fast as you possibly can. And it's, it's an evolution of them, a history of doing the same thing with horses. And it's not that it's like specifically like destruction derby. It's that you're just like, you just go as fast as you can,

“whatever happens happens. And then at some point, I think that evolves into like, oh, wouldn't”

be cool if we just tried to wreck as much shit as possible and made it a little safer? It's just wild that there was a sport that's just like how fast can this horse go? And then they create cars and they're like, I mean, obviously, let's just push it to the limit. Really fun. But what I want to say is the design of the young people gang, they all wear car emblems. Right. They've pulled from the various cars that that have been. And what would your group been? What would my car be? Or I don't know.

Yeah. Or if you could have done any hood ornament. If I could design any hornet, hood ornament, hood ornament. I guess I would just do a pig or a big bone or a big bone or a big bone. But yeah, no. Also, like if you were going to steal a hood ornament and have it be. And I

never hold on. Just want to put that right on the record. It never happened. You know, do you

yeah, do you want to jack? Or do you want a little beamer shield? I'm trying to think of like what the hood ornaments are. Yeah. I'm like a swan. I mean, there are a lot of the group's

“prize just because you don't know anything. And you're like, that's fancy. I think it is pretty”

fancy, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. It is. I found one of a bug's bunny holica shotgun. That would be mine. But I, I just mentioned it because I, I think it's so visually striking and feels very prodo Mad Max. Yeah. I don't admittedly know enough about Australian culture in the 1970s. And what this movie is coming out of to completely parse what I think we are is working through. But it does feel like there is a through line in all of his movies of this sort of like

clash of cultures that is varying conversation with the weird short history of Australia. As you said, David, that it's like a hard reset town of people just landing there, like pushing the adjacent side and being like, this is ours now. And we're going to try to like model it off of other successful colonialist societies. And so this idea of they're being this town where they're just like, yes, we know how to be a town. This is a town where town things happen. And then there's

this weird shit going on. Right. Right. Like those of you may have. It is this town that is like only in conversation with itself and hostile to the rest of the world. But also the town is at odds with itself. There is this kind of ongoing war between the older and the younger citizens of the town and the younger citizens feel more chaotic. They want to be crazy. And the older citizens just want to have like a nice fancy town where they can have fancy parties, etc, etc. But everyone's doing

the crazy fucked up thing. Yeah. Only disagreement is that what people are like, let people die rummaged their bodies and their wreckages. And then have a very nice dinner because it's all the whole movie is building to this like party that they are doing this weird pasty, should like a fancy

what I think that's a little bit of what was happening in Australia in the 70s at the time and what his early film seemed to be commenting on is this idea of like much like in America, there is like a new wave of politically engaged, motivated, kind of like boundary pushing young people who are questioning the structures around them. You know, sometimes you push boundaries

“and sometimes you miss. Yeah, that's what the movie is about. This movie is really about getting”

fired from SNL. If you, if you watch it really closely, he was a sketch comedian. These young people though are also part of the murders. Yeah, they're guilty. They're just people. That's what I find this is what the old people to me are pretending they're civilized that young people really commentary. The commentary is that everyone's doing the exact same thing and they're having a philosophical disagreement about like being hedoness and owning the chaos versus like trying to put

errors on top of it, which I think is like very in line with like, constantly taking over a country, pushing the indigenous people aside and then being like, and we are society of manners, we're now going to build nice houses and rules of like proper etiquette. And this is a moment where I think like younger Australians or sort of carving out their own identity and being like,

“why are we fucking doing these like impressions of like old British people from 200 euros ago?”

What is this shit? I don't know. That's my rate. I think it's a good rein thank you. I'm so tempted to connect it back to what's going on in America right now. Do it. It's very, I don't know, make America great again vibes. You have like the old guard people who are just like, we need to go back to win. They're going on with it because they just have these right, you know, and it benefited me. And then you have like the psychotic people who are extremely online, who are

basically also supporting that, but wanted to go even more extreme. This is my tailored buck

pill. One might call me. Yes, my my take is that those people, whether they're conscious of it or not, what seems to be driving them as a desire to go back to like caveman times, like everyone is just looking backwards and being like fuck, this isn't working, right? And there's like one side that's like, we agree, this isn't working, can we push past this and like fix this? And the other side is just arguing about how far back they want to go. I disagree. I think all those guys

just have our best interest in the heart. Okay, so the networking's good. You think so? Yeah. We should actually do the an ad reads, young persons blood. If you put it into you, we'll make you live forever. Great, right? Yeah. We're we're so happy to be working with our new

sponsors, young persons blood. They're they're scrappy little startup. And here's what they did.

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“It's a non-line mattress joke. Yes, that's what I was funny. The conclusion of this film”

in the big party that I was referring to. Yes, the young people show up with some swastika cars. It is a subtle indication that perhaps think you're not a fan of the most sound like judgment of morals. Yeah, and there's it's called the pioneers ball. It's like they're dumb, you know, fancy dress party or whatever. Everyone goes insane and starts killing each other.

I guess. Right. And Arthur finally gets the guts to go behind the wheels of a car again.

Yeah, I mean, we're not talking about Earth there much because he just kind of walked in the movie. Well, I think they kill each other, but because there's been so much tension that's been building because the young people have continued to kind of fuck with the town keep driving through, honking their horses, the exciting incident for the the final like melee is the young guys damaging this Aboriginal statue. And that is taken as like this great disrespect

and offense by the old people who also clearly do not care about the Aboriginal at all. And then that kind of leads to the all-out more. Yes. Uh, it's exciting stuff. It's cool. It's cheap. I'm not mad about it, but like, you know, it does not have even the braver of Mad Max. Where Mad Max is cheaply made, but because it's like stark empty roads, deserts, you know,

of this, which is like that's the point exactly. I'm I'm designing this entire movie around that

“stuff being as high impact as possible. And I'm marrying it to the simplest plot imaginable,”

which is Guy needs revenge. Guy needs revenge, cause family dead. It's got one of my favorite things.

You find in low budget movies. There's a part where our main character, he finally gets behind the

wheel. And he's being told by the mayor to keep crashing into one of the gang members. And it's done in this way where the the gang member could just get out of the car because he keeps like backing up and then like putting it, you know, it's like a manual and then crashing into him again. And he's just doing the thing of like, no, stop. Oh, please, stop. You can't do this to me. It's a little much of film thing. I also think it's an inexperienced film thing. I have certainly

been on productions where you're like rehearsing the scene and you go like, and it just you can be for a second. Why wouldn't I just get out of the car? And the director we have 10 minutes the director. The director like looks at you with panicked eyes and smiles and goes like,

“I think it's for this shot to work. I think they just won't even the audience is even going to be”

thinking that. And then you screen the movie and the first question everyone has is, why didn't they

open the door? It's a note when I'm talking about these things you recognize only after you've made one fan and watched it back. You know, you can only budget so much time. And you start to get like smart just you have the instincts in you from going through that process of like which things are an audience going to bump against in which things will they not care about. David? Yes. We're both stroking our chance. Okay. And narrowing our eyes and kind of staring off into the

middle distance. Do you know why? I don't. Because we're trying to thoughtfully build a wardrobe. Oh, and we don't mean a piece of furniture. Put that hammer and nail down. We're talking about what goes inside the wardrobe. I'm not talking about a portal Narnia either. I'm talking about the clubs. That's right. You know, you want premium fabrics and you want considered design. You want

every... That makes it look amazing. That's true. And they should be everyday essentials that feel

effortless to wear. Yeah. And dependable. Yeah. You've been to the season changes. They are doing currently in New York. They should be items that you love so much that you would be crestfalling should some snow from Narnia creep in. Oh, yeah. Mr. Tumnus shows up offering you Turkish Delight. I know the queen does that. He's like, can I borrow pants and you're like, what's that going to do to the pants? Right. You have like horse speed, which is a different like shape. Okay. Look.

They've got lightweight cashmere sweaters. I've got a couple of those. They got short sleeve

“Mongolian cashmere polo. I think I might need to get some of those. Uh, linen bottoms, shorts,”

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See chim.com for details and applicable terms. Let me see if there's anything here in the dossier that about the release of the phone. Okay. Right. Okay. A big thing about this movie is sort of suggests. It goes to the account foam festival. It makes quite a splash. Roger Corman is interested. Cars that are Paris. That sounds like the kind of movie I would put out. He sees it. They're sort of talking about

a deal. It falls apart and then very shortly after he hires the Great Paul Bertel and he goes "I have a title for you." Death Race 2000. Great movie. And obviously this movie does not have a ton to do with Death Race 2000 but in much the same way that it sparked Mad Max for George Miller.

“I think Roger Corman saw this and is like, "I could take this and try to recud it into being”

more the kind of movie that I put out." Or make what if I just made a movie or hard person crazy shit. I was making fucking wacky races with guns. Right. But I think this movie sparked him to be like, "Oh, you could do this in live action." So the car's a pair. You know, we're says, "I made this to be released internationally." Like I'm trying to bust out of the authentic alien. You know, bubble. Yeah. A little bit. Filmashon fall 73. It premieres at

74. Probably the Sydney Film Festival opens and theaters was not a big commercial hit but it kind of like, you know, it just starts to play. Then it gets taken to can. What you just described happens. Of Corman gets interested. Backs out of the deal at some point. New line cinema releases it in America in 1976 titled "The Cars That Eat People." And they cut it. They add narration. I think they cut it to the bone. Yeah. We're pretty bummed out by all of that. But picnic is already

moving. Absolutely. Oh my god. Right. At the bottom of this dossier, J.J. has put our old employee in Palenic, Loriana, who's now a lawyer. Like, went to law school. Did like kind of a year of research for us and was like, think it's not really going to law school. Went to law school, graduated past the bar is a lawyer. I mean, love you Nick. Blank check. And the credible stepping stuff. Seriously. I'm actually not sure the kind. I mean, like,

I think he's like, he graduated maybe last year. So he's still doing, you know, he's still early

“and then you have to write him a job reference. We got like emails from the bar. Yeah. Just being”

like, he says he worked for Blank check for the, you know, and I was like, he did. Right. I just had to confirm. You had to respond and be like, they were like, we're just curious. We know there were

you, Moshe. They're living in there. They're doing great. Nick's doing great. But he, he did write a giant

“overview of the Australian sort of new wave in the film industry and all that. But I am not going”

to repeat that. Wow, that would be crazy. Very kind of you. But, um, no, I just think it's an interesting case where he designs this to be a calling card film. But the plan has already gone into movement because of the same short film he, I know, but then to get this made. So it makes two different calling card movies that speak to different skills he had. No, it helps him tremendously. Right. Because it's like, as it seems as it feels like him, you know, pushing off of cars that he

Paris, yes, right. But also I send on the range that now people trust me that I put them on a top bit, believe you're living like the prestige he stuff he's going to do next feels like it's pushing off of picnic. And then when he arrives in Hollywood to make witness, he is a full package. And he makes witness. Whoa, it would, if you made witness, I hang your head in shame. I am a shame to say, I'm ashamed to say I've not made witness even once. I'm going to play the box office game

Griffin. This film came out in America. So this is the new line cut. The card that I suppose so on the 11th of June 1976. So first of all, let's say happy birthday to America. Oh, that's true. It was the bicentennial year. Uh, fun. I'm not seeing it in the top 10 here. America is not in the top 10.

America's always number one at the box office in my opinion. Number one, however, is a movie with wheels

okay. In 1976, is it a, is no, wow, I just had wheels in these guests. I'm like smoking the band at 707. No, that's famously 77, of course, because it's the second high. It's a first and fifth. Behind Ben, what was the highest gross in film of 1979? I thought if there was any Star Wars. There you go. You nailed it. I was right. That's the one you would know. Star Wars was the most successful

“film of that year, but smoking the band, which I recently watched for what I think is the first”

full time. And, uh, Sally Field, Tom, hot stuff. Well, how's she gonna call you if she is there for your number? Okay. And my number is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. The film, this film I'm discussing though, it's not a bird. No, it's a car movie. It has a, it has a vehicle in it. Oh, but it's not, you wouldn't primarily identify it. I know I've seen this film, and I know it mostly for it's sort of memorable title. It's a very interesting sounding movie in that like the

director is interesting. The stars are interesting. And, uh, it's a truly black top. No, that's an awesome movie. Yeah. I mean, that's like a crazy, you know, the stars are interesting. Yeah,

well, so the first star is a comedian. Okay. And as, as with all comedians of yesterday,

nothing weird ever happened with this guy. Oh, actually a bunch of weird shit happened to it. Okay. So is this one of the Sydney Portia Bill Cosby movies? You're right on the second in that the star of this film is Bill Cosby. But no, it's not directed by Sydney Portia. But they also, they did buddy films. I'm not talking about that though. That's, this is why I was talking about it. And I needed you to tell me that it wasn't one of those. No, but Bill Cosby is the star. Can I tell you

“is other two stars. Yeah, Raquel Welch. Uh-huh. And Harvey Kytel. Yeah. This movie is called, do you remember?”

And it's about them running an ambulance service. Yeah. But like an indie ambulance service. I know the poster. Yes. It's got a very memorable title. And let me tell you that Bill Cosby's character is called Mother. And Raquel Welch's character is called Jugs. Interesting. And what is Harvey Kytel's character called? I've given you two of the three words of the title. No speed. Wow. Films called Mother Jugs and said, Oh, of course. There we go. Okay. Yes.

Tell me a long time to put that together. Yes. Uh, I have not seen it. It's directed by Peter Yates who's like, you know, a real director. Uh, and I assume it's a bunch of crazy car antics and stuff like that. Um, but I mostly, I feel like I mostly know it because it's called Mother Jugs. Yes. That's a good title. Fuck is that. Yeah. Uh, so that's number one of the box office. It's crushing. Number two of the box office is the film that will win best picture in 1976. Rocky. Nope.

Rocky 75. Oh, you know, wait a second. I take it back. Rocky wins best picture in 1976.

Whatever. This film is nominated for best picture. And wins other Oscars. It wins other Oscars.

Rocky year is crazy. The Rocky is like the five nominees are all amazing. Right. Because uh,

taxi drivers and there's tax drivers in there. Tax drivers in there. But that's not this movie. All the president's men is very ago. There we go. The fifth of course is bound for glory. Yes. Possibly the most forgotten but so good movie movie. I like tremendously. How Ashby and famous for early steady cam and all that. It's like the first Hollywood steady cam. We also. That camera smooth as hell. Sure. Yeah. Um, but no, this is all the president's men.

Okay. A terrific picture. Have you ever seen a pen? No. It's, you're just like, why isn't every movie this? A little bit adding it to the list. Yeah. Um, all the president's

“friends. So that's, do you know what it's about back hilariously a summer movie?”

It's about what what if president's boys? What if we couldn't trust the president of the United States of America? Oh, what if crimes were happening? Of course journalists would be able to hold them to account. We'd fix the problem. David, what's next at the box off? So that's number two. Number three at the box off is this week is a western kind of a, you know, kind of a revisionist western. It's not a client. No. It is not. No. It's two major movie stars. Oh, is it the, um,

it's two major movie stars, um, young or old. One of them's on the older end of his career. Uh, but he's had to, you know, in the 70s, he's had his big comeback. Okay. He's one in Oscar recently. Is it a Wayne? Nope. No. No. It's not a Wayne. Not John Wayne. He said a big 70s comeback. Yeah. He's not, he's not like a western actor. Yeah. And then the other guy's young. Uh, younger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Uh, I would say he, he got his, he became a star

a little later, like he's probably in his 30s, but at this point, he's a huge star. At this point, he's a huge star, certainly. Certainly. Uh, it is not a film I've ever seen.

“In 1976. Uh, I think at the time it was, seen, it was like, Missouri, right flop. And like,”

then it, yeah, it became Missouri breaks. It's the film is, uh, Arthur Penn's the Missouri Break, starring Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, and Jack Nicholson. Yeah. You've also got Randy

Quaid, Haridine Stanton for the first. Yeah. Um, it's been a dry set. Uh, good, good joke about how

all those people like to drink. Oh, sure. Right. Right. Um, I don't know. Emily Shumlin's old in episode to record today. We do. Emily Shumlin's old. If you remember, Rufus Suil keeps asking for the title of this movie. And it's like a sign of his dementia. Oh, sure. He's getting old on the beach. Yeah. Just thinking about that recently. No one does it like I'm not. Missouri breaks feels like a film, I own on disc because like radiance put out a gigantic box of it.

I'm not sure if that's true. But even if it isn't, it will be at some point, right? You know, I mean, yes. We're all, I'll look it up. And they'll be like, yeah, this movie is a huge bomb. And I'm like, interesting. $60, you say. Uh, number four of the box office. How you do number? How am I doing there? There. Well, great. Uh, sweet. That's the name? No. Oh,

fourth of the box office is a film I've never heard of. I'm looking it up. It is a crime drama.

Prison drama. It's got a young Tommy Lee Jones in it. I'll tell you that much. Okay. Is it, is he still, of course, looked like a old hound dog? He has looked like an old hound dog since he was born. Is it the Tommy Jones William Devane movie? No. That's, um, rolling thunder. That's the title I was looking for. Uh, no. It's a film editor heard of a director by Michael Miller starring Evett Mimi, uh, the sort of, uh, uh, on Janew, uh, uh, uh,

“and it's got Tommy Lee Jones rubber caridine is a called lock me up. Why don't you?”

That first call. It's called a lock me up by the, in the least surprising news of all time, it was at one point selected by Terrentino for the first Quentin Terrentino film festival. It's like his kind of thing. The film is called Jackson County jail. Oh, sure. Yes. Yep. And it's just one of those movies where I'm like, does Quentin Terrentino scroll, scroll, so yeah, he likes this one. Okay. It has like a drive in movie. You know, uh, and the number five at the

box office, uh, is a film I have heard of but not seen. Um, it is a, another sort of exploitation movie. It's like a rape revenge film, uh, starring, um, Margo Hemingway, not marial. Oh, oh, oh, yes, fuck, because I think this is marials for a movie. I think so. She plays Margo's sister in the film. I believe we talked about this in our star 80 episode normal. That's an episode. I definitely haven't erased from my memory at all. I remember every episode

vividly and I part of that's obviously I re-listened to all of them every night. I cue them up

players. The movie is, is, is it the character's name? No, it's something a girl might wear.

Lipstick. That's right. The film is called Lipstick. And uh, I've never seen it.

“Lamont Johnson movie. Uh, was also quite controversial at the time. I think, because it's a little”

learned. Well, uh, you've also got one flew over the cookers nest, which one best picture of the prior year. So I think it out in June. Yep. You have a film called, and I'm going to guess this film probably wasn't an Oscar into contender. Poor white trash, part two, scum of the earth. Hmm, who's got that IP? Is anyone working on that? Uh, I have no idea what the fuck that is. Wikipedia is like never heard of it. Charles Lawrence Olivier. So I see, it was, it was initially

called scum of the earth, and then it was re-released under the popular title "Poor White trash fart." Great. Uh, anyway, it looks like it's a movie about like Beethoven or something. Uh, and then you've got, new this week, the, uh, the, um, Dario Argento film Deep Red. Oh, yeah, which I recently watched my disc of that. I got a new disc of that one. Congratulations.

Pretty fun movie with David Hemings and those big bushy brows. I've never watched any of his films.

Uh, Argento? No. They're fun. Yeah, you're, you're a good time. You like colors, Ben? Do you like, women getting in bail? I would say, I like colors. Okay. Not a big and pale guy. Well, then you're going to be a, you know, thumbs down on these ones. They come soft. Uh, they, you've still got the extra cyst. Oh, sure. Already hanging out. Yeah. And then you still have

“got a great movie. The bad news bears, a baseball classic. That's what's in the box office when”

that, but I mean, it's, it's a, it's a gnarly box office. It's a lot of fucked up 70s expectations. It's a grimy time. Like as much as you're like, okay, sure, there's also all the presents, man, one full of the cookies and S. But even those are, you know, edgier movies. And those are, those are like disillusioned movies. Totally. And then you're like, okay, and then what was the kind of, like, you know, sort of, silly or fair. And it's like, it's a bunch of like really nasty stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Good times. Like movies, the movies with the one liner. What if a guy got shot? What if a person was bad? Entirely true. What if crimes happened? What if crimes happened? Well, next week. Yeah. Pretty different vibe. Pretty different vibe is approaching, right? We don't have anything in the way. We're going right to picnic and hanging rock. Yes. We, yes. We're doing the vibe shift. We're taking a picnic. James Schoenbron, the great filmmaker returning to the shop.

That's right. Uh, to talk about picking a hanging rock. So, uh, enjoy that. And then of course. Yes, going forward. We've got here. We appear. We are Peter. We are, we're going to take one little break from Mandalorian grow group. But that's not till the end of May. So, we're on the weird train. We're on the weird. We're on the weird. Can we, should we announce our Mandalorian guest? Yes, sure. I'm starring some, you know, future scheduling problem. He's out on the spreadsheet.

Chris get third. Main feed. Star Wars movie. He's back. He's back. And I'm going to promise all

of you that we will spend 40 minutes at the top talking about Spider-Man 2. We're going to stay on top. Yes. Uh, we're, we're, we're bringing Beth in for that episode and Griff is promising to watch all of Disney's live action. The Star Wars TV shows to catch up. I have watched Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yeah, he, he watched that one and weirdly didn't feel motivated to watch a lot more. You know, it's the worst feeling in the world. It's like watch a third Obi-Wan Kenobi episode. Most

“boring shit I've ever seen my life. And then be like, I'm still awake. Do you know what I'm saying?”

Like, how am I not in my old and sleep? My eternal slumber to be fighting in so many so hard, put on the most boring shit. And he once ever made and then still be awake at three clock in the morning. This is the mistake I made. I put on antiques road show last time when I was excited to excited to excited. Obi-Wan has the opposite problem to do Obi-Wan. Yeah, I know. Yeah. It's, it's, it's like eating, it's like eating a turkey Alfred Hitchcock's style.

She anyone question what is next for you? I wish one will you tackle that. I think it is, is it and or season one? I'm going through and we're trying to go in release order. Okay. I think that's right. Yeah, I've ever assumed so. I think it's and or season one, then Mando season three. Because you, sorry. Wait, because like, the idea we're doing live action only live action alone. So you've seen Mando season one into

correct. And then you saw the book above. I opened the book and trust me. I closed it and put it back on the shelf. Uh, yes. So the next thing for you to watch is indoor season one that's happening folks. You can stop haranging me. Uh, and then you're going to make the incredibly foolish decision

a terrible idea. I'll hit a watch man. It is Mando three next. Then it would be Mando three. Then it's

a soaker. Then it's a soaker season one. Uh-huh. As someone who did watch it. Oh, my god. Then the acolyte, you have seen acolyte I've seen. So you don't have to watch that. Yeah. Then skeleton crew.

“Yes. And then and or season two. I think you're young to look. I understand that I'm depriving”

myself of joy and I think you are forcing myself to crawl back through the fucking Shawshank redemption poop tube. But I think it will make it that much more satisfying. The other side when I'm standing in the rain and the Thomas Newman music is my fear. I'm not going to give up.

I'm not going to give up. He's okay. I've never, I never give up. Never surrender. That's from Star Wars,

right? Uh, anyway. Yes. Peter Weir. We're doing it just with a little break from our friends, the Mandalorian and Greg Boo. There you go. Yeah. Uh, thank you all for listening. He's

“remember to rate review and subscribe to the next week for picnic and hanging rock with Jane”

Sean Brown and as always, a child. If it pushed his microwave into scust. Like Chuck with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our associate producer is AJ McKean. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKean and Alan Smithy. Research by JJ Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery and the Great American novel with additional music by Alex Mitchell.

Our work by Joe Bowen, Holly Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is minic. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon blankcheck special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social @blankcheckpod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter checkbook

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Okay, I'm rolling. Well, wait a second. I'm right. Oh, that's a give a shit. That's okay.

But we're ready to go fuck. I don't give a shit. Fuck. This is the first in the minis. I'm happy to shame myself. That's a cold open. No, no, no, no, be a little shame. There should be a little shame on the books. And what was the, it was like a channel for like eyewitness news. Oh, sure. Shame on you.

“Yeah, remember this? They caught in finger graphing. You're not remember that. Oh,”

my guess was a girlfriend. It was like one of those classic things where the local news has some correspondent who like goes to local businesses struggling local businesses and like yells at them because they have like a dirty bathroom. Right. Or it'd be like an old woman would be like the pamphlet said bananas were 15 cents and I went to the store and they charged me 20. And then he goes in with like a camera crazy like he's like you threw at this lady's experience with

getting bananas. Shame on you and then a big cartoon finger. That's really what I want you guys to to burst in with the camera crew and shame me. Big cartoon finger. That's a big cartoon thing.