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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey, John, thanks for joining me. Hey, thank

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Speaker 1: Michael Victor having me in the audience. John er Win,

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Speaker 1: director of the hit film Young Washington, which Sean Tollywood

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Speaker 1: by finishing third over the fourth of July weekend. John,

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Speaker 1: describe your emotions when you realize that audiences were embracing

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Speaker 1: Young Washington and then as you watched her to become

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Speaker 1: a box office hit. I'm so grateful for the audience,

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Speaker 1: but you know it, felk Wait, You're gonna have to

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Speaker 1: stop using the word shocked, because the Middle American audience

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Speaker 1: is uh as our voice had been heard once again,

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Speaker 1: if he'll put it that way. And I'm just very

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Speaker 1: very rateful to everyone in Ghost and See movies. It's

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Speaker 1: why we get to make them, and also incredibly grateful

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Speaker 1: in that, you know, the laugh things that I've done

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Speaker 1: are the story that I've been dreaming of the longest

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Speaker 1: and I've been dreaming of doing the story of Paved

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Speaker 1: since I was sixteen years old, and I've been dreaming

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Speaker 1: of doing the story Washington for over a decade. And

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Speaker 1: I just really fell in love with the story of

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Speaker 1: the revolution and Washington specifically, and if I just really

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Speaker 1: was awt Druck by the party of our nation's birth,

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Speaker 1: you know, and our origin story. And I was filled

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Speaker 1: with such odd wonder and hope and stroopship you now

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Speaker 1: and so I think, you know, to be able to

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Speaker 1: tell those stories being just an honor. It's a privilege

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Speaker 1: of lifetime. And my hope is that the movie will

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Speaker 1: be for others you know what happened to me, which

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Speaker 1: is just a spark of turiofity that will be in

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Speaker 1: people's journey. You know that the film should pub me

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Speaker 1: the end of the journey. My hope within at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the journey of learning about our nation again

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Speaker 1: and learning why we're here. I think so many of

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Speaker 1: the problems that we're having something the fact that we

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Speaker 1: don't know our origin story. One thing that stood out

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Speaker 1: to me, John was how Washington pushes back against the

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Speaker 1: colonial class system. It almost feels like a preview of

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Speaker 1: the America's rejection of royalty and class. Was it that

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Speaker 1: intentional in the film? Yeah, I mean that you really

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Speaker 1: do sate this moment where, you know, with his character

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Speaker 1: realized is just how unfair the world is, and so

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Speaker 1: hekes had to make a better one. And America really

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Speaker 1: is that place where anyone from anywhere should be able

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Speaker 1: to do anything. I mean, that's the idea, and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't always the case, you know, it was not a

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Speaker 1: fair system, and so I think I think it's just

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Speaker 1: it's very interesting to see that it was in this

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Speaker 1: chapter of his life where he would deny it intrigue

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Speaker 1: and he just wanted a world to be based off merit.

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Speaker 1: And that's the world that we created in America. And

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Speaker 1: you see that frustration in the young lack of was Washington.

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Speaker 1: That's absolutely accurate to his character at the time. There

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Speaker 1: was just you know, he was raising against an unfair world.

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Speaker 1: The film has earned praise for its historical accuracy. How

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Speaker 1: much research went into making sure that you got the

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Speaker 1: d tells right. Years of research went in, if you know,

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Speaker 1: I had a good fortune of just getting obsessed with

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Speaker 1: the story, but not in order to make a song out.

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Speaker 1: I just legitimately just loved the story and loved this

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Speaker 1: period of history, and so I read oh Man probably

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Speaker 1: thirty books, you know, over the course of several years,

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Speaker 1: and just really researched the time period for my felt

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Speaker 1: and I had incredible co writers and then also we

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Speaker 1: had incredible historians. Consoled on the project. In fact, there's

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Speaker 1: a YouTube video that Angel put out first time I've

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Speaker 1: ever been able to do something like this, where I

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Speaker 1: sat down for an hour with several of the historians

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Speaker 1: and consultants that were as obsessed with Washington as I

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Speaker 1: am and had written many great books on the issue.

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Speaker 1: And it was a fascinating It's a fascinating discussion, and

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Speaker 1: we got to discuss like, here are the things that

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Speaker 1: you decide when you adapt the true story, and here

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Speaker 1: are the changes you make, and here's the compression of time,

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Speaker 1: and you know, characters that you have to composit together

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Speaker 1: and all these things. And yet I've often I heard

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Speaker 1: her or Can say, you know, when you're doing a movie,

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Speaker 1: you're not trying to take the photograph. You're trying to

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Speaker 1: paint an accurate portrait of the character. And that really

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Speaker 1: was the question. So my hope is that anyone that

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Speaker 1: sees it understands that the movie was done with incredible

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Speaker 1: care and passion for Washington themselves and for our country.

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Speaker 1: Do you see this film, John as one that everyone

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Speaker 1: can embrace the left and the right in our nation. Look,

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Speaker 1: I think this movie is a love letter to America.

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Speaker 1: That's why we made it, and we are all co

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Speaker 1: owners and co authors of the American experiment, and it

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Speaker 1: is still an experiment to this day. And one of

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Speaker 1: a word that was actually a truck out of the

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Speaker 1: decoration of the Independence was the word subject and it

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Speaker 1: was replaced for the word citizens. And that's such a concept.

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Speaker 1: You know, this is all of ours all, we all

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Speaker 1: own it together. And you know the fact that we

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Speaker 1: get to disagree and argue is one of the things

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Speaker 1: that makes America unique. And so even the fact that

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Speaker 1: we have a party system as Austraightia that can be

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Speaker 1: is one of the things that makes us unique because

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Speaker 1: we're able to disagree because we're all holders of the

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Speaker 1: company together. It's government of the people. And so one

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Speaker 1: of my hopes if the movie was just that it

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Speaker 1: couldn't create a place where we could celebrate the nation together.

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Speaker 1: It's imperfect, but it's still worth believing in, and it's

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Speaker 1: still a conflant quest to form a more perfect unit.

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Speaker 1: And and I believe that this is a movie for everyone.

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Speaker 1: Wors Washington is in the first founding father of America,

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Speaker 1: for every American and Battay, I hope the movie is

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Speaker 1: received and that will permit our heart making it to

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Speaker 1: create a reason for all of us to celebrate together.

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Speaker 1: You've announced the new film seventeen seventy six. That's it's

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Speaker 1: it's being written right now. Would you call it a

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Speaker 1: direct sequel to young Washington or kind of Will it

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Speaker 1: broaden the focus to America's founding and other key figures

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Speaker 1: or do you even know? Yeah, well it certainly that

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Speaker 1: is another chapter in which Washington is the central figure.

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Speaker 1: Now it's a different decades later, so it would be

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Speaker 1: a different cast. But it is the next great chapter

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Speaker 1: in his life that I want to tell, and it

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Speaker 1: will also broaden into an ensemble. So while he is

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Speaker 1: the Iron Man that avengers universe, the characters to me

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Speaker 1: by the time you get the seventy six and it's mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, the largest amphibiously ever simbled in the history

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Speaker 1: of the world, with heshing mercenaries, was sent to crush

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Speaker 1: our rebellion, and that unstoppable forest hit an immovable object

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Speaker 1: that was Washington. And so I've wanted to tell that story,

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Speaker 1: and it's an incredible story. So you envision this, it's

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Speaker 1: becoming a larger series of patriotic films. In other words,

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Speaker 1: you have like third, fourth, fifth, chapter down the road

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Speaker 1: in your mind all free. There's so many stories that

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Speaker 1: are great. I mean there really are. Like the faunthing

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Speaker 1: of America is incredible. So while I'm taking it one

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Speaker 1: project at a time, the goal with doing Young Washington

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Speaker 1: on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was to allow

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Speaker 1: for America's story to be told again. I just think

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Speaker 1: the origin story of America need to be told again.

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Speaker 1: It's a torch passed down from generation to generation. So

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Speaker 1: my hope is that there's more films than television shows

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Speaker 1: I want to make on the subject matter. I hope

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Speaker 1: that other filmmakers will see the success of Washington and

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Speaker 1: there'll be other films in this category. But yeah, we

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Speaker 1: we just begun to fight and for the audience, and

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Speaker 1: just I'm so grateful for you, know what we sent

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Speaker 1: for so many years, and you've been so helpful to

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Speaker 1: us and getting a word out that your movie ticket

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Speaker 1: really is your vote. And once again we have spoken

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Speaker 1: with what matters to us. And so my hope is

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Speaker 1: that this will be the beginning of kind of reintroducing

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Speaker 1: America to itself through film entertainment. And I hope people

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Speaker 1: love the movie. I mean, we wanted to make an

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Speaker 1: action film that is meant for multiple generations, and it

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Speaker 1: really is. I've always considered it like Pride and Bridges

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Speaker 1: needs the Revenant, and it's exciting, hopefully, and it's entertaining.

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Speaker 1: But in my opinion, you can't help but be proud

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Speaker 1: of our country and those that founded it. You know,

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Speaker 1: win the credits roll on this movie, and I think

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Speaker 1: that there's several other stories that would have that same reaction.

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Speaker 2: If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave a

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Speaker 2: five star review. That's how we help more people just

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Speaker 2: like you find the show. A big thanks to the

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Speaker 2: team at life Audio for their partnership with us on

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Speaker 2: the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you

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Speaker 2: will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.

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Speaker 1: See you next time,