The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

If you really want to know what’s happening on any film or TV set, the last people you should ask are the executives. We know nothing of value. We may have a pretty good fix on where the budget is, but we have no idea who’s sleeping with whom. Film and TV sets are emotionally overwrought places where people form intense bonds for short periods of time. Very conducive to creativity and having affairs. Terrible for sustaining actual grown up relationships. If you really want to know who’s forming intense bonds, having affairs and sleeping around, go ask “the pretties” – hair and makeup or, alternately, wardrobe. These are the people on any movie set who really know what’s happening to whom and why. If it’s dirty laundry you want, you’ve come to the right place!

When Things Get “Intimate”

“Hurry up and wait” perfectly sums up life on a film or TV set. Lots of mad rushing about, lots of sitting around waiting. That equals time to talk, gossip, shoot the shit and confess even. One of the wardrobe department’s jobs on any set is to do actual dirty laundry. Whether people know it or not, their dirty laundry tells on them.

In today’s episode of the podcast, we welcome Randall Thropp. Listeners to season one of the How Not To Make A Movie Podcast remember Randall’s stories about Crypt. He also worked on the Bordello reshoots when we returned to Los Angeles.

As you’ll hear (and see), Randall tells a lot of great stories. We’ll talk about a mutual mentor, the under-appreciated documentary filmmaker Greg Shuker (he pretty much invented cinema verite single handedly). And, we’ll talk about “Who’s Afraid Of Baby Jane” (Randall worked on the remake)... “The Strip”... “Tony & Tina’s Wedding”... “The Brady Bunch” movies and “The Shining” (Mick Garris’s remake). Also, we’ll talk about Randall’s work with the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Museum. It’s awesome – and well worth a visit, maybe even several!.

And we will talk actual dirty laundry.

This episode picks up where E4 left off. And then it gets even more epic. Listening to episode 3 is not mandatory. It wouldn’t hurt, but this one stands on its own. It’s a big episode in more ways than one. It covers a lot of incredible territory from the making of classic feature films “48 Hrs” and “Die Hard” to “Commando” to “Streetfighter”. Steve de Souza has a story (or two or three).

If you’re a fan of the movie “Die Hard”, this episode is going to make you smile. For starters, Steve takes us way behind the scenes on the making of this classic movie. “Die Hard” is a bona fide classic. The National Film Registry selected “Die Hard” (along with 824 other films) “for preservation because of their cultural, historical or aesthetic significance”. If you had told Steve – or anyone involved in making “Die Hard” – that people would even remember it 30 years later, they’d have been thrilled. More to the point, if you had told them that “Die Hard” would be some peoples’ go-to Christmas movie? They’d have wondered what you were smoking. It wouldn’t even be legal now.

Is “Die Hard” A Christmas Movie?

Steve’s erudite, fully researched (he’s got bells and whistles!), mini-presentation compares “Die Hard” to “White Christmas” and asks the question “which one is the real Christmas movie?”

That part of the podcast would be worth the price of admission (if we charged any).

Dads From The Crypt

In keeping with its epic status, the interview also features our friend JASON STEIN (of Dads From The Crypt) joining the interview firing squad. With Jason aboard, we talk about Steve writing and directing “Streetfighter” and working with actor Raul Julia on his last feature film (before succumbing to stomach cancer in 1994). We’ll also talk about Steve’s work on “Tales From The Crypt”.

Crypt fans and aficionados consider Steve’s episode – “Carrion Death” – among the very best episodes ever. Jason has questions.

Finally, Steve will fill us in on what he’s working on now. Since he got here, Steve’s been one of the busiest people in all of Show Biz. He never stopped.

It’s EPIC!

Among the cast of characters in this episode: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Kyle McLachlan, Sheena-Queen-of-the-Jungle and even ELON MUSK! Working at the peak of the entertainment industry can put a person in contact with almost anyone.

As we said – an epic episode with an epic guest. If you love movies and moviemaking, this is both a treat and a master class. We repeat what we said: Steve de Souza has a story.

In this episode of “The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast”, we sit down with a master storyteller: writer/director/producer Steve de Souza. You may not know Steve’s name, but you definitely know his work: 48 Hrs, Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Commando, Streetfighter, Judge Dredd, Beverly Hills Cop 2. Steve practically invented the modern action picture. He’s one of a handful of writers in the “Two Billion Dollars Club”. Those are writers whose collective work has brought in over two billion bucks. Steve’s made a lot of people a lot of money telling a lot of stories. Funny thing is? You’ll never hear another story like Steve’s. Steve de Souza has a story all right!

The Crypt Angle

Gil and I first met Steve when he wrote and directed an episode of “Tales From The Crypt” during our first season on the show. In “Carrion Death”, Kyle Maclachlan plays a murderous bank robber who’s on the run after a heist goes bad. He tries to escape a relentless motorcycle cop who chases him across the desert. It’s pretty much a one-man show; Kyle’s very good. For Steve, it was one more highlight in a career filled with them.

The Genesis Of A Jewmaican

In this, part one of our interview with Steve, he’ll tell his own genesis story including why he refers to himself as a proud “Jewmaican”. You and I may have family histories, Steve has a family saga that includes a pirate. Did we mention that Steve de Souza has a story?

We’ll follow Steve from the moment he realized he wanted to be a movie maker to the moment he began to achieve it. He epitomizes the “anything can happen” nature of show business like few others. There’s no better illustration than Steve’s first week in LA. He went from zero to sixty in record time. It’s a hell of a story!

Before he became one of the screenwriting gods, Steve conquered television. He wrote for The Gemini Man, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, V, Super Carrier and Knight Rider. TV taught Steve to be quick and good. And how to tell all kinds of stories.

So, settle in for Part One of a real treat as Steve de Souza tells his story.

In this episode of “The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast: Horror Stories From The Movie Making Trenches”, we sit down with one of the biggest casting directors in the business, Victoria Burrows. Or, as we prefer to put it, we go “Casting About With Victoria Burrows”.

In season one of “The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, we spent a long, long, long time talking about casting. If you remember (or, if you don’t), casting was among our most significant failures while making “Bordello Of Blood”. That is, how we cast our three leads. Or, rather, how our executive producer Joel Silver cast our three leads. Joel was our boss. He had final cut. Though we had three terrific actors in mind, Joel had ideas of his own and that’s where we went.

To be honest, “Bordello Of Blood” was never going to be a horror classic (or even a semi-classic like “Demon Knight” is). But, had we cast the movie the way Gil Adler (the movie’s director), Victoria Burrows (our casting director) and I (its co-writer and producer) originally imagined, it absolutely would have been better.

As “Bordello of Blood” demonstrates, cast your movie or TV show wrong and you’re doomed.

Headshots

As Victoria tells it, the day she realized she wanted to be a casting director was the day she found herself. Casting is (most of) her life. Animal rescue also is very important to Vic; she talks about that passion (and what listeners can do to help support this very worthy cause). She also talks about softball.

For years (before the pandemic), Victoria hosted a yearly pickup softball game/birthday party at Rancho Park in West LA. Six, seven, eight hundred people showed up every year including lots of celebrities. Here’s a blog post written by one of the event’s attendees.

Hopefully, while we’re casting about with Victoria Burrows, you’ll get to know her, too. Hanging with Vic is always a pleasure!

Doing this podcast has been the ultimate unexpected journey. It all started when when the Dads From The Crypt interviewed me for an episode of their podcast. The moment Jason Stein – one of the dads – told me the group’s franchise – reviewing Crypt episodes and giving parenting advice – they had me. And I thoroughly enjoyed the interview. When Jason asked if I’d be interested in sitting for another interview – about “Bordello of Blood” – I told him: “Jason, the story of Bordello’s tortured making is bigger than just one interview. Why, it’s a whole podcast unto itself!” And that’s how it started – this ultimate unexpected journey. Nine months later, the world has changed – entirely for the positive!

That’s the most delicious irony! Making Bordello Of Blood changed my life entirely in negative ways. That making a podcast about Bordello would have the opposite effect? Man, who is writing this insanity?

Long Live The Fediverse!

Speaking of bonkers – how bonkers is it that Elon Musk is murdering Twitter? The good news is that he turned us all onto the fediverse. It’s really the fediverse and Mastodon that I’m thinking about as I republish Season One, Episode One of this podcast – the one that started it all.

There are eerie parallels between Elon Musk wrecking Twitter and Joel Silver carelessly wrecking the second Tales From The Crypt feature film. It’s very uncomfortable when circumstances beyond your control take over your life and happiness. Ultimately, Gil and I were powerless to save ourselves or our movie just as most Twitter users are powerless to save Twitter.

But, whereas Twitter will not have a happy ending, Gil and I are having one. We owe it all to this podcast.

Thank You Clark Collis & EW!

A couple of things we want to mention here. First – a huge thank you to to our audience. We’re nothing without ya! We also want to thank entertainment journalist Clark Collis and Entertainment Weekly. Clark interviewed Gil and I and then published a review of our podcast. He said some very kind things about it including that we’re “The Best Film Podcast of 2022”.

Thank you, Clark Collis, for the very kind words.

The Live Table Read For Charity

One last thing. On Saturday, December 17, 2022 at noon pacific time, we’re holding A LIVE TABLE READ FOR CHARITY. We’ll be reading the script for “Dead Easy”. Lost for all these years, this is the script we took with us to New Orleans. it’s also the script we took home with us after Joel told the production to come home from New Orleans because Universal Pictures (our studio) was pulling the plug.

The charity in question is the Motion Picture Home – a fabulous facility that takes care of film people in need. Your donation receipt will be your ticket to the reading. Please check back here or at our Patreon page for details.

So much has changed since we started doing this podcast! For one thing, Gil and I are working together again – on a project we’re very excited about. We’re having a blast writing it and can’t wait to put it out there into the world. A monster in search of love.

Some things never change. And some unexpected journeys are worth whatever it takes to travel them.