WEBVTT - Written by Stu Krieger… 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:17.360 Thank you everybody so much for joining us on our 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.840 Park Copper episode where we are going to be speaking 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.319 to Disney Royalty. And again, if you haven't heard this 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.680 name before, you're not familiar with the name of Stu Krieger, 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:32.040 you are absolutely familiar with the projects that this man 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.040 has been responsible for. We're talking Smart House, the Xenon Movies, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:41.080 Phantom of the Megaplex, cow Bells, True Confessions, Land Before Time, 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.360 Gotta Kick It Up. I mean it's he's worked with 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.240 Polly Shore, He's worked with Steven Spielberg, Kathleen. It's one 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.479 name after another. So I don't think you'd be speaking 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.400 out of turn by saying d coms would not be 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.480 what they are without this man. 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.680 Absolutely, and we are so honored to have them here. 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:08.880 So absolute, please help us welcome Stu Kreeger. Hello, We're 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.039 so good. Thank you so much for joining us. 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:15.920 This is we say your name almost every week, so 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:17.400 is great. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.200 It's incredibly exciting and very flattering. Thank you. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.119 I imagine that when you heard that, if you heard 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.040 that there was a podcast re you know, going over 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.920 and rewatching all the d coms, you would be getting. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.200 A call from us, hopefully to speak with you. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:34.280 Yes, suspected, I might. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.080 I think the biggest thing right now is you know, 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.040 for us, we love doing the interview part of this. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.640 We've had a chance to talk to a lot of actors. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.280 We haven't had a chance to have legends like you 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.840 that we're there from the start of these kinds of 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.600 franchises Xenon, I mean just all of the different franchises 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:57.680 that you've been a part of. To be at the 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.680 start of the process, so we have to hear what 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.560 you know, how is your process and how does that 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.400 make you feel as you look back at these projects find. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.760 Of the most incredible thing. And it's so funny because 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.799 I've currently been a professor since two thousand and six 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.280 at U SEE Riverside, and in my class that i'm teaching, 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:19.440 one of the two classes I'm teaching this quarter is 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.639 called the Filmmaker's Life, and that class is designed to 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.239 bring in panels of industry guests each week talking about 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:27.920 their lives, their experiences, how they got their start, how 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.480 they got their first job. And one of the things 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.800 in the first session we had on Tuesday, Yeah, Tuesday, 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.280 was it's kind of me introducing myself in my life 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.919 and my career to them all, and I said, when 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.160 I was in the middle of it, show business is 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.640 designed and you can both attest to this. When you 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.200 are in it, you are never a success because it's 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.680 always about what's next, What happened to that thing you 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.560 were working on? Way did that fall apart? Whatever? You know, 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.119 you're always scrambling. And then when I started teaching full 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.760 time in two thousand and six, the kids I was 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:00.320 teaching were the generation that grew up on my mood movies. 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.240 And suddenly, not exaggerating, at least four or five times 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.160 a quarter some student would stick his or her head 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.360 into my office and go, hi, I just wanted to 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.320 tell you, dude, you wrote my childhood. Yes, And when 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.040 you're hearing that and suddenly like wow, really. And then 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.000 the other insane thing that's happened in the last year 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.680 is I had a book come out in May that's 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.320 a family comedy novel. And when the publishers first signed me, 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.760 they said, we really feel like the people that grew 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:31.720 up on your movies are now the audience for this 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.960 book because they're, you know, young adults raising their own family. 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:37.520 You need to be on social media, and I said 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.840 that will not happen. Ultimately, at their insistence, what I 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.280 ended up doing is hiring a former grad student to 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.600 run it, curate it, tell me what to do, what 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.600 I need to shoot, and suddenly we now have forty 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:56.440 seven thousand followers. She's easy again. Ninety nine percent of 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.880 the comments are about I can't believe how much these 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.160 movies have resonated, They've stayed with me now I'm sharing 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.480 them with my own children, and how much fun it is. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.440 And then the other thing that that kind of forced 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.120 me to do after a couple of interviews was actually 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.080 go back and watch them. Because I was doing these 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.880 interviews where people would say so about this scene at Smarthause, 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:17.760 and I would go, I love you, but I haven't 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.200 watched it in twenty years. And I would make the 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.440 sun Set Boulevard analogy and say, you know, I'm not 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:26.200 Norma Desmond sitting home in a turban watching my movies 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.720 over and over again. But if you're going to be 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:31.800 asking me these questions, I got to watch them. So 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:32.480 I happened. 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:34.960 That's the thing We've noticed that we make sure we're 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:36.080 watching every movie twice. 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:37.360 We're looking at every kind of thing. 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.359 But so Sabrina said something interesting at the beginning, which is, 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.400 we do we get to speak to people who went 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.480 through the process of actually filming you know, the characters 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:48.400 and and you know what it was like to shoot 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:49.720 the movie, how much it meant to them, that kind 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:51.960 of thing, which is wonderful to talk about. But we've 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.480 yet to have the conversation of how did the movie 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:58.120 get made in the first place? So what we're the 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:01.320 I mean because again, the we did you're just a 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.279 few of your credits at the beginning when you're talking 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:05.640 about some of the biggest one Xenon, Smart House, going 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:07.520 to the Map, got to kick it up. All these 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.040 kind of movies were the majority of them? Were any 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.560 of them? Were these your ideas that you went in 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.880 and pitched? Was it Disney calling you saying we're doing 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:18.600 this new franchise, we'd like you to write it. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:20.520 How did the entire process start? 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.440 Well, the humble brag I will start the answer with 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.240 was when they held a party celebrating the first fifty 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.160 d coms. Gary Marsha was at that point the head 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.039 of the network got up and he said, we have 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.080 to acknowledge the fact that ten of these fifty movies 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:40.640 were written by one guy. You know this guy. Wow. 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.000 So part of the relationship began because I had done 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.320 both Parent Trapped two with Haley Mills playing that character 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.719 grown up, and the iteration of Freaky Friday that was 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.960 Gabby Hoffman and Shelley Long. I had done those both 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:56.880 for the Wonderful World of Disney, so I was a 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.279 known entity there. And the first entree into the Dcome 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.600 world that I got is that they called and Xenon 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.160 was a very very thin little picture book, a kid's 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.640 picture book called Xenon Girl of the first twenty first Century. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.280 And kind of the main elements that have remained from 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.560 that picture book to the franchise was she was a 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.080 kid living on the space station with a crush on 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.040 a rock star named Protozoa and a friend named Nebula. 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.719 That's kind of the point. And another story that I 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.000 just told in Glass on Tuesday, because it's exactly what 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.680 you're asking was I said to the students, when you 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.680 get these kinds of meetings, do your research, do your 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.040 due diligence. Know who you're going to meet with, know 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.039 what they do. And so when I got called into 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.520 that first meeting, is it was at the production company 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.680 of Suzanne to Pass and Suzanne Cooston, who were the 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.600 producers of Xenon, and their head of development said, I'm 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.800 going to be incredibly candid with you. We have had 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.840 eighteen writers come in before you. Nobody's nailed it yet. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.280 What is it you know? What would be your approach 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:01.840 to adapting this book? And the other thing I had 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:03.680 done prior to the meeting is I said, if this 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.479 is a new franchise, are any of them done yet? 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:08.159 Is there anything I could take a look at to 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.360 get a sense of what it is you're going for? 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.200 And at that point Under Wraps was the only one 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.040 that had been shot and it was still in post production. 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:17.880 So they said, we can send you a rough cut, 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.440 not color corrected, not anything, just the rough cut, and 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.240 I go, cool, I just want to see, you know, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.320 the wheelhouse of what you're trying to do. Watched that, 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.080 we read the book, went into them and I said, 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.040 Xenon is Eloise at the Plaza on the Space Station. 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.640 And if you know that emblematic kid's book from the fifties, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.520 it was a kid living at the Plaza Hotel in 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.560 New York, creating mischief and wreaking havoc and getting into 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.360 places she shouldn't be. And I said, it's Eloise at 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:45.880 the plaza on the space station, and they went, you're hired. 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.160 And the reason you were hired is eighteen writers before 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.240 you came in and said it's They said it was 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.640 a variation over and over again of its nine O 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.120 two one Oho meet Star Trek. Disney Channel would not 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.360 do nine two Disney gentlemen, not do Star Trek. No, 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.040 thank you. And you came in and said, Eloi's at 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.640 applause of this on the space station. That's who we are, 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:12.080 that's what we do. Boom, let's go wow wow. That 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:16.200 was initial foot in the door. And then really it 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:18.600 was just a series of meetings to begin with a 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.120 pitching the story, fleshing out of the story, deciding the 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.520 arc of how we would expand it. The whole plot 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.640 of Lots and Windom and the missing earring being the 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.880 code to the meltdown, and all of those plot machinations 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.240 were stuff that I just kept evolving with them, and 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:35.680 how about if we do this and how about that 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:41.000 turn to passing. Houstin known as the Suzannes, were wonderful 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.160 to work with. They were really story savvy. Michael Healy, 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:46.840 who was the head of movies for most of my 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:51.480 tenure there, was also really really good at knowing their audience, 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:53.600 knowing what it was they were aiming for. And then 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:55.560 the thing that I will say, and I think it's 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.160 why I was able to ultimately do twelve movies with them, 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.720 was that they were really really good about allowing my 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.960 creative freedom. And one of my lines in the Sand 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.280 was I said, I am a father of two who 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.600 my wife can go away for the whole weekend and 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.240 when she comes home and the kids aren't dead, there's 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.160 nobody missing, the top is not off, the washing machine 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.600 with a tons across the floor, and the blender. So 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.400 I said, the only thing I will never do in 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.520 a movie for you is I will not portray a 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.240 stupid dad. I want to be showing that fathers are 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.600 as competent as moms, and so that is something you 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.600 cannot ever expect me to do in any of the 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.400 films I do with you. A couple of times I 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.679 had to fight for that. Wouldn't it be funny if 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.839 dad fell down the stairs? No, it wouldn't be fun 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:45.720 So that was kind of my line in the sand 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:47.959 and something that I was happy that I was able 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.280 to maintain the integrity of through all the films I 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:51.600 did with them. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.600 Now, was it normally Disney coming to you and saying, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.760 here's the idea we have, or were any of the 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:58.040 films your idea? 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:58.720 That you pitched? 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.840 Most of them? It was interesting because in the heyday, 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.280 they were doing a movie a month. Yeah, So I 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.160 also think part of the reason I was as employed 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.840 as I was was I was also somebody if they 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:12.599 said we need the script in three weeks, it's like, 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:14.120 you'll have it in three weeks. I can do that. 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.360 So my other point of pride is that of all 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.320 the movies I did with them, I was either the 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.160 last writer or the only writer. So you know, as 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.120 you guys will know, the last writer means you're the 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.319 one who got the draft Greenland to go into production. 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.280 And so some of them, like smart House, had already 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.079 been in development for more than a year. They were 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.720 at the point where like the basic structure of this, 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:39.880 the premise of it, the idea of what the smart 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.800 House is, we really like, we don't feel the humanity 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.679 is there yet. And they said to me, that's something 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.080 you do really well go back and kind of reinvent 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.560 the characters and reinvent the emotional plot of the movie. 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.240 And one of the things I was kind of struck 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.480 by and again when I went back to watch it 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.560 after not having seen it for a couple of decades, 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.360 was there's kind of a really hard emotional truth in 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.880 that movie that I had forgotten was there. And for example, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.320 it's the scene when Ryan Merriman and Kevin Kilner end 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.600 up in his Ryan's being a brat in front of 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.439 the girl that the scientists that dad has a crush on, 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.400 and he storms out and the father comes up and 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:20.160 they have this hard to heart about you know, you're 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.280 going to replace mom. She's mom doesn't deserve to be replaced, 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.800 and the father yells at him, You're not the only 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.760 one who lost somebody, and it says like the real 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:33.600 talk moment between them when I went Dan Sun, you know, 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:36.319 and I was kind of I was proud of myself, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:38.320 but I was even more proud of Disney that they 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.319 allowed us to go into some of these real spaces 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.520 that I think are a lot of the reason why 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.720 these movies have resonated and sustained over the decades. That 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.400 they have because those things, you know, the truth of 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.720 that resonates no matter what generation it is. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:53.720 It does well. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.880 Speaking of true moments, one of the last films that 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:01.959 we watched covered and absolutely love was Going to the mat. 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:07.320 He loved that movie. Either one of us had seen 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:07.880 it before. 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.319 Oh nice, and it was amazing. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.960 It was incredible, And we got to talk to Andy 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.440 a little bit about what it was like to you know, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.600 portray the character and to shoot the film. But what 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.200 was it like getting to write I mean, it was 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.800 such an interesting story because at its heart it's a 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.800 Disney sports story, but at the same time. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.320 It's so much more than that. So can you talk 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.720 a little bit about how you approached writing that script. 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.839 Yeah, that was another script that was in process when 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.000 I came aboard, and I would say probably all of 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:43.000 the movies that I was brought into that were already 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.440 in process. It was about that emotional pass, you know, 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.880 kind of we're locked into the premise, we're locked into 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.960 some of these signposts of the movie, but here's what's missing. 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.640 And so the very first thing I did was Tom 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.800 Sullivan is a writer actor who is blind and did 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.360 wrestle as a young person. So the producer, and I 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.520 set up a meeting with Tom and spent the afternoon 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.880 with him, and that was so incredibly helpful to just 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:08.920 you know, I don't want to mess it up. I 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.800 don't want to fake it. And then the other thing 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.000 about doing due diligence is I had a nephew who 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.480 was a wrestler and both high school and college, and 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.160 I called him and I said, I got some technical questions, 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.120 how about this? How about that? Side note? To this day, 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:26.320 I thought I was doing him a big favorite. I 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.240 wrote a character with his name into it, who was 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:33.120 one of the ancillary wrestlers, and then when the movie aired, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.040 he goes, dude, I knew my name was in it. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.160 So I had all my friends gathered together to watch 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:42.960 the movie. My character got pinned. I couldn't want And 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:47.040 to this day, however, many years later, every time we're 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:48.960 together in person, at some point it hit me in 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.800 the shoulder and go, yeah, that, my god, get bimmed. 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:54.120 Now. 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:56.679 One of the other things we hear sometimes is that 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:58.640 sometimes the writers are on the set when things are 0:13:58.640 --> 0:13:59.080 being shot. 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:01.520 Sometimes they aren't you there when most of these films 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:02.240 are being done. 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:07.040 I'm a really funny and somewhat you neque writer in 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:11.520 terms of I absolutely hate being on the set. I 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.480 think it's so intrusive, and then like, there's no way 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:16.920 not to be in the way when you are a 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.600 writer on set. And so the thing that I did 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:24.480 with almost all of them except Z three shot in 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.720 South Africa and Z two shot on New Zealand, and 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:29.880 they weren't about to fly me over for the those. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.760 But other than that Toronto, Vancouver, La, Salt Lake City, 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:35.520 what I would do is I would go for the 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:39.680 week before when we did the table read rehearsals, hearing 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.360 it out loud, seeing if there was any problems, work 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.400 on the script while I was there with the actors, 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.080 with the director, with everybody, and then usually stay for 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:48.960 the first three or four days of shooting and then 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.640 peace out. If you need me, I'm at home. Yeah. 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:54.960 All of my writer friends would always say to me, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:56.640 at some point, you're going to have to direct because 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.680 they're going to mangle your work, and they're like, no, 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.560 know what, I'm perfectly happy being home with my family. 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.240 Once upon a time, click click click here, you go 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:08.960 make it and call me when it's done. Oh wow, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.400 one of the great stories. Does that point is when 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.240 we were doing poof Point that shot in Salt Lake City, 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.280 and Neil Israel, who directed it, was a friend of mine, 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:20.720 and I did exactly what I just described, you guys. 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.520 I was there for all the rehearsals at table Read, 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.160 and then the first or second day on set they 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.960 were shooting in a diner and the juke box was 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.040 pushed in the corner, and I again doing everything I 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:31.720 could to be out of the way. So I was 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.160 sitting up on the juke box with my legs crossed, 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.240 just observing, and I thought I was being so subtle. 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.200 And at one point Neil walks over to me and 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.760 he goes, you hate being here, don't you? And I 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:44.360 go why And he goes, I'm looking at your face 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:46.560 and You're like, look like you'd rather be anywhere else. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.120 And I went, well, I'm you know, I'm basically what 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:51.840 am I here to do? 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:52.960 What am I here for? 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:55.960 Yeah? So I love you well. 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.080 Even though you didn't get a ton of time on 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:00.080 you know, it sounds like you really kind of have 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.360 allowed the directors and the actors to do their work 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.040 after your job, you know, felt good and done. Was 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:08.880 there any of the young actors that. I mean, you 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.160 have so many that have been in your d coms 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.240 or any of them, ones that when either you saw 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.920 the finished product or the part on set that you 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.480 did be a part of, where you walked away and said, wow, 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.440 that that little actor stood out so much. 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:25.080 Was there anyone that. 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:27.400 Realized Actually quite a few. I mean I thought Ryan 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.240 Merriman was an incredible actor always. You know, Raven was 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.520 either twelve or thirteen when we did the first zene 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.000 on and it was very clear where she was going. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.320 One of the lovely things about the whole social media 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:44.360 happening was I did get sometime more than a year 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:46.200 ago now, I got to reach out with a DM 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.280 from Taylor Hanley, who was the star Phantom of the Megaplex. Yeah, 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:50.760 and he was like, hey, buddy, it's so great to 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.160 see on social media how you been. And we had 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.200 been in touch for several years after the movie, but 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.680 then lost touch, and so I got back in touch 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.360 with Taylor, and then one of the things we do is, 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.360 if you remember the movie Mason monologue that Mickey Rooney 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.600 delivers about the magic of the movies and Phantom of 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.640 the Megaplex, Taylor and I did a dramatic reading back 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.600 and forth of that. That's somewhere on the Instagram account. 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.600 Oh that's cool, My gosh, that's so great. 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:16.560 Cool, that's cool. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.000 So you mentioned that you'd go a week before you'd 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.400 be there for some of the rehearsals and the table read. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.600 Was there a project that after the table read or 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.240 rehearsals they were like, no, this needs this needs major 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:37.400 work and you had to go and kind of rewrite 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:38.720 before they shot. 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.359 No, it was part of the beauty of the machine 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.160 of you know, needing to do a movie a month 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:46.240 that by the time they green led it, they were 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.199 really committed to this is the movie we're making. And 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.119 then the other thing that was a benefit for me 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.840 as a writer who didn't want to direct, was because 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.600 of that, ninety nine percent of what was on the 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.800 page ended up on the screen. So there really was 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:01.840 I don't think among the dcoms, I don't think there 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.600 was any of them where were so radically different by 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:06.479 the time the movie was finished the way they end 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.680 up in feature films often being rewritten daily, and they 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.720 didn't really have the time or the budget to be 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.080 doing that. So I think the biggest thing was when 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:21.480 they were shooting the second scene on the Zequal, which 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:24.080 years later I was railing against the chipmunks when they 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.359 had the squeakwall. It was like, I want credit for that. 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:27.320 I did that? 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:28.000 I did that? 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.879 Yeah, totally. But when they were shooting the Zequel, I 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.520 got a call and whatever I forget it was, you know, 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.879 like eighteen hour time difference. And I got a call 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.040 very late in the afternoon saying we're about to shoot 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.280 the climactic song tomorrow. We just got it back from 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.800 the Disney songwriters. They don't get what these movies are 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.040 all about. The melody's great, the lyrics are terrible. Would 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.600 you want to take a crack at them? And I said, yeah, sure, 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:57.200 I'm a songwriter not but I could do that. And 0:18:57.240 --> 0:18:59.600 they said, okay, the only problem is we needed back 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.040 at about six hours because we have to record it. 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.479 We're doing the playback shooting of it tomorrow afternoon. And 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:07.240 once again it was like, all right, that's what you need, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.919 that's what you're yet and bing bing bing banged up 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.200 the Galaxy is ours said it back to them and 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.439 they said, everybody here loves it. We're recording it tonight. 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:15.840 Oh my gosh. 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.880 They shot day and I still get a roy when 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:19.160 the movie. 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:21.960 Wow. 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:28.840