Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on this Parkapper episode of
Speaker 1: Magical Rewind. We've got one of the OG's friend of
Speaker 1: the show knows where a lot of the bodies are buried.
Speaker 2: Help to write.
Speaker 1: Basically most of the movies that we love, we say
Speaker 1: his name all the time. I mean, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about smart House, We're gonna be talking about true Confessions,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about I can't even i can't
Speaker 1: even have a proof point xenon.
Speaker 2: I'm not even.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let him tell us his resume from now on.
Speaker 1: It's like every time, because it's insane. He's the man
Speaker 1: who put the words into people's mouths in movie after
Speaker 1: movie after movie.
Speaker 2: Please help us. Welcome once again Stu Creeker.
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back Shirt.
Speaker 3: Yes, love this shat.
Speaker 1: Oh that is amazing. Well, thank you for joining us
Speaker 1: once again.
Speaker 4: So happy to see you guys.
Speaker 1: Because we have Yeah, and we've now watched a whole
Speaker 1: bunch more of the films that you've written.
Speaker 2: So many more.
Speaker 1: It feels like every week we're saying either Stu Kreeger
Speaker 1: or Paul Hoan just over and over and over again.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 2: So I mean we just Sabrina.
Speaker 1: Should we just jump right in because we know we
Speaker 1: want to. We want to get to as many as
Speaker 1: we can while we have you here.
Speaker 5: Full disclosure. The only one I haven't watched in the
Speaker 5: recent past just proof Point. So if I'm a little
Speaker 5: fuzzy on that, I've had every intention of doing it
Speaker 5: this week and just life got too busy.
Speaker 2: I understand. So we'd like to start with poof Point.
Speaker 1: No, I'm kidding, well, well, we would love to start
Speaker 1: so one of the fan favorites, which we knew even
Speaker 1: before going in, and one that even I'd heard of
Speaker 1: before starting this podcast, because again I'm the old guy,
Speaker 1: so I'm going back and trying to learn, but it
Speaker 1: was in the zeitgeist. We want to start with Smart House, Yes,
Speaker 1: which we recapped and which we both really enjoyed.
Speaker 2: So, I mean, I don't even know where to jump in.
Speaker 2: First of all, how did you first hear about this
Speaker 2: project and how did it take off?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So my relationship with Disney Channel, as you guys know,
Speaker 5: started with Xenon and I had done two films before
Speaker 5: the dcoms were a thing for them, so they knew me,
Speaker 5: they knew my work. I did the parent Trap two
Speaker 5: and the Freaky Friday remake that was Shelley Long and
Speaker 5: Gebby Hoffman. So they knew me, they knew my work.
Speaker 5: That's how I got in the door for Xenon. Then
Speaker 5: we'll get to that, yeah. But then with Smart House,
Speaker 5: it was a project already in development. There had been
Speaker 5: a bunch of drafts, and kind of what happened for
Speaker 5: me with all the projects I did for them is
Speaker 5: either I was the only writer or the last writer,
Speaker 5: and the feather in the cap being the last strat
Speaker 5: is it means you gave them the draft that they
Speaker 5: could greenlight and get into production on. So with Smart House,
Speaker 5: it was basically when it came to me, it was
Speaker 5: we loved the premise, we love the setup, we love
Speaker 5: a lot of the mechanics of it. We don't feel
Speaker 5: that yet has the heart, and that's something you seem
Speaker 5: to do really well for us. So can you kind
Speaker 5: of go back and reconfigure the relationships, reconfigure some of
Speaker 5: the underlying issues of it. And one of the things
Speaker 5: that kind of shocked the heck out of me when
Speaker 5: I went back and watched it is some of the
Speaker 5: real talk between the father and son kind of blew
Speaker 5: me away in a way that I didn't fully remember it,
Speaker 5: and I was kind of amazed that Disney let me
Speaker 5: get away with it and didn't kind of pull it
Speaker 5: back and tone it down. And so that's something I'm
Speaker 5: very proud of. But I also think it's part of
Speaker 5: why the film has resonated the way it has, because
Speaker 5: so much of them, especially now that I'm on social media,
Speaker 5: I see all that thread of oh my god, what
Speaker 5: this meant to me as a kid, or I had
Speaker 5: lost my mom, or seeing this relationship or all those
Speaker 5: beautiful things I now get to see that I didn't
Speaker 5: really know in the time or have been such a
Speaker 5: rewarding part of the smart House experience.
Speaker 1: Well, that's one of the things that we talked about
Speaker 1: that really resonated with us was the was the quiet
Speaker 1: moments in the movie, because so often in dcoms you'll
Speaker 1: get some decoms that have great directors, great casts. I
Speaker 1: keep bashing this movie. I don't mean to continue bashing
Speaker 1: this movie, but we keep going with Dad Napped and
Speaker 1: where it's just there's no real quiet moments. It doesn't
Speaker 1: make a whole lot of sense. It's just very let's
Speaker 1: it's a good excuse to get cover kids with slime,
Speaker 1: and again there's a place for that in the Disney
Speaker 1: Channel obviously, sure. But yeah, the thing we loved about
Speaker 1: Smart House was those moments of it was real. I mean,
Speaker 1: in my yes, the house was was robotic and it
Speaker 1: had all the cool kind of Disney effects, but then
Speaker 1: you had these moments of you know, we we this
Speaker 1: kid not wanting to replace his mom, not wanting his
Speaker 1: dad to move on, not wanting you know, wanting the
Speaker 1: family to just be there, and it was just such
Speaker 1: another layer of the film. Was that all you what
Speaker 1: was any of that there when you got the original
Speaker 1: script or was all of that kind of something that
Speaker 1: you did?
Speaker 5: Most of it was me, I mean again humble brag, Sure, no,
Speaker 5: of course, but there was the a whole idea of
Speaker 5: like using pat and the whole montage of the fifties
Speaker 5: mom and I loved all the parody sitcoms that they
Speaker 5: did with my three.
Speaker 4: Moms or whatever. Yeah, but you know, all of that.
Speaker 5: I loved how they executed the vision. But that idea
Speaker 5: of trying to learn what a mom was from that,
Speaker 5: you know, those sitcoms of the fifties, that was all
Speaker 5: stuff that I brought to it, and then out of
Speaker 5: that sprang me but what's a real mom?
Speaker 4: What does a mom really mean?
Speaker 5: And like I said, the moment that kind of blew
Speaker 5: me away was when Kevin Kilner whirls on Ryan and says,
Speaker 5: you're not the only one who lost somebody?
Speaker 4: Yes, And it was like, dude, damn.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 6: I remember rewatching it going whoa ye, Like I mean,
Speaker 6: because how real is that moment? And I'm sure, like
Speaker 6: you said that the people, that is probably a moment
Speaker 6: that really stuck with kids because Disney didn't always tap
Speaker 6: into that they you know, it wasn't a fluff moment.
Speaker 6: It was straight to the point, very real, and something
Speaker 6: that kids needed to hear too, you know, because parents
Speaker 6: had a hard time talking that directly to kids as well,
Speaker 6: you know, and that and navigating a very hard and
Speaker 6: sensitive subject like another parent dying. This was just such
Speaker 6: a great moment for it to be so real, for
Speaker 6: the parent to not just worrying about the kid's emotion.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we touched on it last time, but
Speaker 5: I was saying that, you know, in my entire experience
Speaker 5: with the Disney Channel, my personal mandate was I'm not going.
Speaker 4: To do a dumb dad.
Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, really, you know we talked about that troph
Speaker 5: Dad's an idiot and yep, pually incompetent, and so that
Speaker 5: was one thing again in this movie that was really
Speaker 5: important to me that he be a fully dimensional character
Speaker 5: as well, and that he have a point of view
Speaker 5: and he'd be able to you know, be kind and
Speaker 5: loving and be all those things but still push back
Speaker 5: about I've got my needs too. Yeah, you know, seeing
Speaker 5: it in retrospect, that is one thing I'm very proud of.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, what was it like working with LeVar Burton? Was
Speaker 1: were you did you get to collab with him at all?
Speaker 2: Or yeah?
Speaker 6: I was not.
Speaker 5: I mean kind of what my m with most of
Speaker 5: the decons was I would be around for the table,
Speaker 5: read around for some rehearsals, around a couple of days
Speaker 5: of shooting, and then dip out because like again I
Speaker 5: think we touched on this about my aversion to being
Speaker 5: on set.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 5: Uh. LaVar was amazing. I mean he was just he
Speaker 5: so got it. The couple of meetings we had we
Speaker 5: were very very much on the same page. And then
Speaker 5: I had one wonderful day that I've talked to my
Speaker 5: students about so often, because I say, you will never
Speaker 5: get over the first day you get to be on
Speaker 5: the set of something that you envisioned in your head
Speaker 5: and you're going type type talk.
Speaker 4: You know, there's screens over here, and there's Kitsen over here.
Speaker 4: And then did it.
Speaker 5: And when I got to the set for the first time,
Speaker 5: he said, you want to come see in the Smart
Speaker 5: House and I was like, yeah, I do. I have
Speaker 5: my my daughter would have been probably like eight or
Speaker 5: nine years old. I had her with me and we
Speaker 5: were going from room to room and sitting in the
Speaker 5: big chair and you know, seeing the screen to doing
Speaker 5: all that, and LeVar was so wonderful about I want
Speaker 5: to make sure you see every nook and cranny, not
Speaker 5: just where we're shooting today, because it's all constructed on
Speaker 5: a couple of sound stages out and see me Valley.
Speaker 4: So getting to do that was wonderful.
Speaker 5: And like I said that, we were very very much
Speaker 5: in sync of what the movie was, and I loved
Speaker 5: how he executed it and what his vision was. But
Speaker 5: there was no kind of tug of war or conflict
Speaker 5: with any of that.
Speaker 4: Nice's really cool.
Speaker 6: Were you really happy with all of the inventions of
Speaker 6: the smart House, Like, was there anything when you went
Speaker 6: up they could have done that better? Or was it
Speaker 6: just like, yes, they totally did it just as I wanted.
Speaker 4: No, they dailed it.
Speaker 5: I think for me the moment was when I saw
Speaker 5: the dailies of the big arm coming out and grabbing
Speaker 5: the newspaper.
Speaker 4: Yes again, you.
Speaker 5: Know, you're always very aware of their budgets and what
Speaker 5: they're going to be able to do and not do.
Speaker 5: And with that, I thought all of the effects really worked,
Speaker 5: and all the big screen stuff and yeah.
Speaker 6: I think the only one we picked apart was with
Speaker 6: the Oranges and we're like, how is she getting the
Speaker 6: produce under the You gotta remember it's a Disney movie.
Speaker 3: Sparkle and pixie dust on some of this stuff. Of course?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 1: Was it a big win when you found out that
Speaker 1: Katie Siegal was going to be playing the role.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, How did she.
Speaker 3: Get involved in it?
Speaker 4: I do not remember.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm assuming because it was not a decision
Speaker 5: I was involved in it initially that it was just
Speaker 5: the casting people going hey, let's try right, And then
Speaker 5: I got the word she's.
Speaker 4: In and it was like, guess she is.
Speaker 5: That's cool, And she actually was working the day that
Speaker 5: we visited the set, so I got to read her
Speaker 5: and she was in the full Patrick Galea and I
Speaker 5: have a picture somewhere of being in her with the
Speaker 5: apron and the hole smash.
Speaker 2: Oh that's great, that's amazing, very fun.
Speaker 3: Then.
Speaker 1: So one of the other things we notice is that,
Speaker 1: of course it's Disney. They love their synergy, so they
Speaker 1: had there's the scene with Bewitched the group popping up.
Speaker 1: Is that something where they come to you and say, hey,
Speaker 1: this band has to be in there some way, or
Speaker 1: is it just righte a pop band and.
Speaker 2: We'll get somebody to come in and be the pop band.
Speaker 2: How does that work?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's really the second choice. Okay, okay, construct the
Speaker 5: scene so there is a band involved.
Speaker 2: And then they just go and try to find a band.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: I always wondered if they came in, like we're trying
Speaker 1: to release, trying to get this band out, make it Bewitched,
Speaker 1: But no, they just say make it a pop band and.
Speaker 3: Go from that they whoever they can get to.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Sometimes, like with cow Bells, Allie and A J were
Speaker 5: already attached when I got involved in that project.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Times it work the other way of you know, we're
Speaker 5: doing a movie for them, right it it's fini laar
Speaker 5: as you can be with what their stick is and
Speaker 5: kind of you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, wait, should we stay on cow I want to jump?
Speaker 2: Do we jump around?
Speaker 1: No? Let's stay on cow Bell's Let's stay We talked
Speaker 1: a little cow Bells last time. So curiously, again, in
Speaker 1: the writing process, is this something to where already script
Speaker 1: exists and it's like, hey, Stu, can.
Speaker 2: You can you can you stew this cow Bells script up?
Speaker 2: Or is this?
Speaker 4: It was?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: So curiously, when you have to do something like that
Speaker 1: and you know that you've got Ali and Aj who
Speaker 1: are already attached, is where when then you take a
Speaker 1: script like that? Is it then okay, I've really got
Speaker 1: to add more to the characters that they have, or
Speaker 1: is it more I've got to really focus on just
Speaker 1: making Ali and Aj the star that Disney wants them
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 4: It was really a little bit of both.
Speaker 5: I mean I was not terribly terribly familiar with them
Speaker 5: before I came to the projects. So then I did
Speaker 5: my due diligence and saw I could see it, saw
Speaker 5: the dynamic between them. But then it was also I
Speaker 5: don't think we talked about this last time. Stopped me
Speaker 5: if we did, but but there was. It was post
Speaker 5: nine to eleven. And my thing with all of these
Speaker 5: movies was always I want to do any kind of
Speaker 5: research I can so that I have a base of knowledge.
Speaker 5: It's coming from a reality thing. How does a dairy work?
Speaker 5: How does that whole process of the pasteurization and anything
Speaker 5: they might be involved?
Speaker 4: And happened.
Speaker 5: So I was nosing around and trying to get a
Speaker 5: dairy that I could tour, and I got one lined up.
Speaker 5: Nine to eleven happened. They came back and they said,
Speaker 5: one of the things that we're now paranoid about is
Speaker 5: somebody getting in and poisoning the milk supply, because that
Speaker 5: would be another terrorist. We're sorry, no outsiders can come.
Speaker 5: We can't get to clearance. We have to cancel the tour.
Speaker 5: You cannot come. So I said, okay, you know, I understand,
Speaker 5: I'm disappointed, but is there anybody I could talk to?
Speaker 5: And the guy I got on the phone said, now,
Speaker 5: why were you coming initially? Because I really can't tell
Speaker 5: you anything. And I said, well, I'm working on a
Speaker 5: movie for Disney for the Disney Channel, Oh you are
Speaker 5: suddenly I'm dropping threadits And he goes, well, I really
Speaker 5: can't tell you anything, but what kind of questions did
Speaker 5: you have if I could?
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 5: I ended up on the phone with him for almost
Speaker 5: an hour, and every time he would say, Okay, I
Speaker 5: can't really tell you that, but if I didn't tell you,
Speaker 5: this would be the answer.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 2: So they tried to help as much as was possible.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 5: So I ultimately did not physically get to go, but
Speaker 5: he was really really helpful in terms. I just had
Speaker 5: a whole page of questions and he told me without
Speaker 5: telling me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now.
Speaker 1: And so from a writing standpoint, you again, you're Disney
Speaker 1: Channels usually has a pretty specific tone.
Speaker 2: We've noticed.
Speaker 1: The thing that's funny is that we've noticed that that
Speaker 1: tone has changed over time. We're watching movies now, like
Speaker 1: prom Pact or zombies or anything. And while there are
Speaker 1: certain tropes that they kind of hit, no matter what,
Speaker 1: they've definitely gotten more adult than they were in say
Speaker 1: the mid nineties or even the late nineties. Was there
Speaker 1: something that you tried to hit in every film you
Speaker 1: did where it's kind of it became almost your signature
Speaker 1: of you could tell this is a stue project because
Speaker 1: this happened in every film he did.
Speaker 3: Is there a.
Speaker 1: Certain almost I don't want to use the word easter egg,
Speaker 1: but certain stew thing you would do For every script
Speaker 1: that you wrote, there's usually.
Speaker 5: Some homage to previous Disney movies or Disney lore. It
Speaker 5: was very, very funny because when I did Parent Trap
Speaker 5: two for them, I was I think we talked about
Speaker 5: this also a bit, just a giant, insane Hailey Mills
Speaker 5: fan and so like out of my mind that I
Speaker 5: was going to get to write a movie for her
Speaker 5: and meet her to the point we are still friends.
Speaker 5: I did that with eighty six. I just got an
Speaker 5: email from her last week because I wrote her on
Speaker 5: her birthday in April and she was given the update
Speaker 5: on the kids and the grandkids and all.
Speaker 4: That was amazing.
Speaker 5: But the really funny thing was so because I was
Speaker 5: such a fanatic, all of the characters in that movie
Speaker 5: are named for other roles that she played in her
Speaker 5: early Disney movies. Really her boss is Walter Elias because
Speaker 5: Walt's middle name was Elias. And then when we met,
Speaker 5: I said something about it and she goes, what And
Speaker 5: I said, Mary Grant was your character in The Castaways.
Speaker 4: Nikki Ferris was your character some in Moonsclarers.
Speaker 5: And she goes, oh my god, I didn't even realize
Speaker 5: that she.
Speaker 4: Had forgotten it.
Speaker 5: But almost every single character in that movie is named
Speaker 5: for roles she had played in previous Disney movies.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: So you did that along. Also within your d coms
Speaker 3: that you read.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there would be little drops of something that was
Speaker 4: some other.
Speaker 3: But you got to give us some of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's your favorite one's.
Speaker 3: Or smart house that you remember?
Speaker 5: Oh man, I have to really think back because it
Speaker 5: was always something that was, you know, again related to this,
Speaker 5: but an homage backwards.
Speaker 4: So I'll have to think about that one. Okay.
Speaker 2: I think I'm so curious to know what they.
Speaker 6: Are, especially if you can think of one that we
Speaker 6: haven't seen yet so we can like look for I think, Oh,
Speaker 6: I think that's great.
Speaker 4: I can't come with it on the spot, I'll email
Speaker 4: you after.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's that's all we need. That's all we need.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's let's go to True Confessions. Now.
Speaker 1: This is one of the few movies that we talked
Speaker 1: about that was based on a novel going in so
Speaker 1: it was written in the form of a diary. How
Speaker 1: how does that change the way you approach a script
Speaker 1: when a it's from existing ip not just an existing script,
Speaker 1: but a book and then also a book in a
Speaker 1: completely different form. How do you tackle writing a script
Speaker 1: for something like that.
Speaker 5: A couple of different things connected with that, which was
Speaker 5: really interesting backstory. At that point, I had done at
Speaker 5: least five movies for them and a producer that I
Speaker 5: had worked with on other things, and ultimately True Confessions
Speaker 5: was the first one, and then we did something for
Speaker 5: ABC Family. Oh Going Too The Map is the other
Speaker 5: one that she produced. But with this, she came to
Speaker 5: me with the book and she said, I think this
Speaker 5: would make an incredible dcom I know you have a
Speaker 5: relationship with them. Do you want to go in together
Speaker 5: and pitch it? And when I approached the executives about
Speaker 5: coming in, they said, just so you know, there have
Speaker 5: been two other sets of writers that have brought us
Speaker 5: this book that we passed on it. We're only going
Speaker 5: to take the meeting because of our relationship with you.
Speaker 5: Come in and tell us your take. And so pressure
Speaker 5: was on, Yeah, you know, we've already passed twice. But
Speaker 5: and then when Jennammemma and I went in with the book,
Speaker 5: I had already kind of conceived that again, we got
Speaker 5: to take what was a diary and make it active,
Speaker 5: make it visual, make it physical, maget all those things.
Speaker 5: So the idea of doing of law, which was a
Speaker 5: fairly new thing at that point, that Truth's going to
Speaker 5: do this as a video diary and we're actually going
Speaker 5: to get to see the process rather than somebody sitting
Speaker 5: at a desk writing. That was something that really appealed
Speaker 5: to them.
Speaker 4: And then it was.
Speaker 5: Kind of the that coupled with we know you, we
Speaker 5: know what you're capable of, let's go so wow, the
Speaker 5: leap of faith that you know, Like I said, they
Speaker 5: had enough trust in me at that point that we're
Speaker 5: willing to make the lead.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, because again if they've said no twice, then
Speaker 1: it's just all based on you.
Speaker 2: I have to imagine, should you in.
Speaker 6: Any sense talk about having shyl A bof A is like?
Speaker 6: Was that you're like, kind of this would be a
Speaker 6: great we see this being such a great role for him.
Speaker 3: Did you bring up him at all? That was not me.
Speaker 5: They came back to me, but came back fairly quickly
Speaker 5: because the thing with true true is the thing that
Speaker 5: I did have done the least drafts of in my
Speaker 5: entire career anywhere, you know, Disney and beyond. Because what
Speaker 5: happened was fairly quickly. They came back and somebody, you know,
Speaker 5: and again I don't know if it was Gary Rshe
Speaker 5: who initially put Shia to the project, but they said,
Speaker 5: we want Shia in this role. And we've got this
Speaker 5: tiny little window between even Stephens seasons, right, you know,
Speaker 5: we need the script quickly and then we need to
Speaker 5: be going quickly because there's where our window of opportunity is.
Speaker 5: So from you know, first type type to production was
Speaker 5: three drafts and and then we were on the set,
Speaker 5: So I mean, all that happened really fast. And then
Speaker 5: the other incredible thing was I was in typical form.
Speaker 5: I was up there for the table read, for the
Speaker 5: week of rehearsals, for the first couple.
Speaker 4: Of days of shooting. I bailed and came home.
Speaker 5: And then the last week of production is when nine
Speaker 5: to eleven happened. They were in Toronto and the cast
Speaker 5: and crew ended up having to drive back across the
Speaker 5: country because there were no planes in.
Speaker 4: The air for a month.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and they realized, you know, we ain't getting home
Speaker 5: any time soon.
Speaker 4: Waiting for a flight.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they all had to do across country caravan drive
Speaker 5: back to LN.
Speaker 1: Now does the US has change it all when it's
Speaker 1: based on another author's book or do you still have
Speaker 1: carte blanche?
Speaker 2: I mean, how does that work?
Speaker 1: Does the original author have any kind of say in
Speaker 1: where the script goes or no?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So basically is.
Speaker 5: That they have the right to say, I'm not selling
Speaker 5: the rights to the book, right, but once the rights
Speaker 5: have been sold, have at it. And you know, being
Speaker 5: a writer, being somebody who's published two novels, I am
Speaker 5: very respectful of the source material, but ultimately you have
Speaker 5: to look at it as that's not filmic, or that
Speaker 5: doesn't make visually or how you know, you kind of
Speaker 5: have to give yourself permission to Now I have to
Speaker 5: take the essence of and the underlying heart of the
Speaker 5: material and hang under as much of it as it can,
Speaker 5: but it has to make sense filmically. And you know,
Speaker 5: this is a very different medium than has different demands
Speaker 5: and that's where my fidelity now.
Speaker 4: Has to be sure.
Speaker 3: And this was a project that you collaborated with Paul
Speaker 3: hoan On.
Speaker 4: Yes, and I.
Speaker 6: Was able to work with Paul with one of the
Speaker 6: Cheetah Girls movies. We love him, We've had him on
Speaker 6: the podcast. He's amazing, you know, legend at Disney Channel,
Speaker 6: just as you are. So it's awesome that you guys
Speaker 6: are now joining forces. And wow, did it just work
Speaker 6: on every aspect because this movie was absolutely one of
Speaker 6: my favorites to.
Speaker 2: Watch me too, great movie.
Speaker 3: But can you tell me about.
Speaker 6: The process of working with Paul because I know he
Speaker 6: really loves to like dive in and include everyone, and
Speaker 6: you know Rework and Rework, So I mean you might
Speaker 6: have just had to get up to a certain point.
Speaker 6: But how was it working with him as he then
Speaker 6: jumped into his role.
Speaker 5: Instant love affair and again we are still friends, you know,
Speaker 5: as you guys know. I don't know if you know
Speaker 5: this part of it, but three weeks from now I
Speaker 5: will be retiring, so I know. But I've had I've
Speaker 5: done since I've been there for nineteen years, a class
Speaker 5: called the Filmmaker's Life where I teach every other year
Speaker 5: and I bring in people from Hollywood to talk about
Speaker 5: their lives, their experiences, their careers, how they got their start,
Speaker 5: and Paul has done that class for me at least
Speaker 5: three or four times over the cool and we're still
Speaker 5: in touch on a regular basis, have lunch when we can.
Speaker 5: So really it was one of the greatest collaborations of
Speaker 5: my career in terms of just came.
Speaker 4: In the room and yeah, we get each other.
Speaker 5: I like you, you like me. You know, my wives
Speaker 5: met our kids, Matt, we hung out together. I mean,
Speaker 5: we really had a wonderful relationship and still do. But
Speaker 5: he was somebody who just same waveling, get it, got
Speaker 5: it good, let's go.
Speaker 1: There are some some creative people that you just instantly
Speaker 1: have a shorthand with where it's just it's like, oh, okay, brother, sister, instantly,
Speaker 1: that's good, let's go.
Speaker 5: I was gonna say there was a couple of times
Speaker 5: during production after I was back in LA where he
Speaker 5: would call and say, you know, we're shooting this thing tonight.
Speaker 5: I just went through it and wouldn't be possible if
Speaker 5: we shifted this to that Or there was one time
Speaker 5: where the location fell out and I forget where they
Speaker 5: were originally going to be, but we got to move
Speaker 5: it to a different place. Can you rewrite the scene tonight?
Speaker 5: To make it more accommodating the new location. Hey buddy,
Speaker 5: I'll have.
Speaker 6: It in an hour.
Speaker 4: Here you go. And you know, so like phone in
Speaker 4: facts days, so i'd have to stick up my fax machine.
Speaker 3: Machine.
Speaker 6: Oh man, if you had the bad paper, it really
Speaker 6: but it was the best.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was it was still magic, Like how did I
Speaker 2: get this thing? This is incredible?
Speaker 1: Did you find that having to write for a character
Speaker 1: with an intellectual disability? Do you have to approach that
Speaker 1: differently than you do any other character when you're writing
Speaker 1: for Disney?
Speaker 5: Yeah, and very much Again for me, it's important whenever
Speaker 5: the subject matter, whatever the people, the characters, there has
Speaker 5: to be an authenticity to it. So Janna and I
Speaker 5: went and we went to it. It was like a
Speaker 5: residence home for folks with various degrees of mental disabilities
Speaker 5: and handicaps and stuff. So we went and spent a
Speaker 5: day with them. And I found people that were as
Speaker 5: close to what Shi's disability was and sat at the
Speaker 5: table and talked to them and talked to their life
Speaker 5: experience and do you mind if I'm Johnny notes while
Speaker 5: we're talking kind of thing, and really navigated that as
Speaker 5: carefully as I could, and so between what was in
Speaker 5: the book, which was based on the author's life experience, Yeah,
Speaker 5: and the day we got to spend, you know, with
Speaker 5: folks with similar disabilities were really informative. And then the
Speaker 5: other blessing with this project was because I knew it
Speaker 5: was shy and knew what he was capable of. There
Speaker 5: were things that I pushed in a direction of I
Speaker 5: know he can do this. I'm worried about, you know,
Speaker 5: is it going to come off as disrespectfuler in any
Speaker 5: way inauthentic? And I trusted he would get there, and
Speaker 5: of course he did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did a wonderful I mean he was great,
Speaker 2: He really was.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Did you get a chance to interact with him?
Speaker 5: For the week I was up there, We went out
Speaker 5: to dinner a couple of times. I was you know,
Speaker 5: like I said, I was there for the table raading
Speaker 5: rehearsals and hanging around. And then they did a premiere
Speaker 5: on the Disney back Loot. When the movie was done,
Speaker 5: I got to see him again there and cool, great,
Speaker 5: I mean he was really very funny, very energetic, very engaged,
Speaker 5: just lovely and another one that you know. For the premiere,
Speaker 5: I took my kids and he came over and I
Speaker 5: introduced them and he was smoothing with them, and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, especially as a child actor, he was arguably
Speaker 1: one of the best to ever do it. I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's not hyperbole ever, He's truly one of the
Speaker 1: best child actors that's ever existed. Obviously, his adult life,
Speaker 1: the acting is still there. He's had his problems, as
Speaker 1: people can. But from an acting standpoint, I mean, you
Speaker 1: watch him at sixteen and almost every other actor at sixteen,
Speaker 1: and you just go, oh, they're working on completely different levels.
Speaker 1: So yeah, quite he really took that role and made
Speaker 1: it very special. But now we're going to come to
Speaker 1: the one that you said you knew the most about.
Speaker 1: Backwards Forward, Sideways remember everything about it.
Speaker 2: Let's talk poof point. So it's a time.
Speaker 1: Travel movie that first aired on September fourteenth, two thousand
Speaker 1: and one. Do you remember kind of what it was
Speaker 1: like having a movie coming out so close to nine
Speaker 1: to eleven?
Speaker 2: I mean, what was what was that like?
Speaker 4: It really was.
Speaker 5: I mean, we were all still so in shell shock
Speaker 5: of what world do we now in habit that I
Speaker 5: think everybody was clinging for anything that was a little
Speaker 5: bit positive and a little bit you know, take your
Speaker 5: mind off it for a couple hours. So sure, aspect
Speaker 5: of it was very positive, But at the same time,
Speaker 5: it was just that surreal life goes on and these
Speaker 5: things are happening. But it didn't have the same kind
Speaker 5: of celebratory launch that some of the other ones did.
Speaker 5: So I'm ninety nine percent sure there wasn't a screening
Speaker 5: Brasina on Smart House, True Confessions we had on the
Speaker 5: back lot with castin krew and did all that.
Speaker 4: I don't remember any.
Speaker 5: Event connected the Proof Point because of the timing of
Speaker 5: all of that.
Speaker 1: Sure, was this also a script that you you came
Speaker 1: in last or were you first on this one? You
Speaker 1: came in last on this one, So I have a question,
Speaker 1: So I'm just full disclosure. Poof Point was not my
Speaker 1: favorite of the of the films we've seen. Have you
Speaker 1: ever gotten a project and you don't have to say
Speaker 1: the name of it, but have you ever gotten a project?
Speaker 1: And kind of said, I'll do what I can, but
Speaker 1: I don't know how much can be done with this one.
Speaker 5: Yes, And there was also I mean there was one
Speaker 5: for them and then a couple outside of them for
Speaker 5: my career where I would get it and just go,
Speaker 5: I can't make this better.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I was secure enough.
Speaker 5: And working enough that when I genuinely felt that, it
Speaker 5: was like, I respectfully decline, you know, even getting involved
Speaker 5: because I can't make it better. And I'm not somebody
Speaker 5: that's going to do the money grab and give you
Speaker 5: a half a job. It's like, if I'm doing it,
Speaker 5: I'm doing it because I believe that I can put
Speaker 5: it across the finish line. And so there was one
Speaker 5: in particular for them where I just went good luck, right,
Speaker 5: And like I said, a couple outside things, there was
Speaker 5: one project, if I could digress for just a second,
Speaker 5: least a project. And they called and they said, we
Speaker 5: bought the rights to this for a million dollars. We
Speaker 5: think it needs a page one rewrite. Will you take
Speaker 5: a crack at it? So already I'm like, you paid
Speaker 5: a million dollars for what? Now?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: And then I'm reading the script and it is about
Speaker 5: a kid who becomes like an eight or nine year
Speaker 5: old who becomes a Hollywood agent.
Speaker 4: Okay, And it was like, what.
Speaker 5: About this would appeal to anybody in the universe? Why
Speaker 5: is this a thing to begin and why did you
Speaker 5: pay a million dollars more. It's not funny, it's not cute.
Speaker 5: If he's the best kid agent in the world, I
Speaker 5: hate this kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, kids won't want to watch it, Adults won't want
Speaker 1: to watch it.
Speaker 2: Who did you buy this for?
Speaker 3: At an age? Are not going?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: One day?
Speaker 2: I don't even a power agent. Oh did they ever
Speaker 2: shoot it?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: Oh my god?
Speaker 5: And they had paid a million dollars for the specscript.
Speaker 5: And that was when I finished reading it and I
Speaker 5: called my agent and I said.
Speaker 4: I can't do this. There's no version of this where
Speaker 4: anybody in the world would want to see this.
Speaker 5: And I called them back and I said, you know you, guys,
Speaker 5: I just don't get it. I don't get the best
Speaker 5: version of this is.
Speaker 4: I don't get it. Good luck to you. Yeah, never
Speaker 4: heard about it again.
Speaker 1: Did the movie that that you kind of the same
Speaker 1: thing happened for Disney?
Speaker 2: Did they make that movie without you? Or did they
Speaker 2: not make that.
Speaker 4: Movie without you? Ever got made?
Speaker 2: Okay, we don't even don't.
Speaker 6: Even need a t if we pull in our number
Speaker 6: one Hail Mary and he says, ah, we probably.
Speaker 2: Can't do that.
Speaker 5: And it's really interesting because I honestly wish I had
Speaker 5: had the opportunity need to see poof Point before we spoke,
Speaker 5: because I feel the same way it is when I list,
Speaker 5: you know, for you've seen some of the social media stuff.
Speaker 5: When I get asked to name your top five Disney
Speaker 5: movies that you wrote, it ain't ever there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I think I think one of the
Speaker 6: biggest things that's that stands out about poof Point, especially
Speaker 6: when you have something like Smart House, is those like
Speaker 6: supposed to be really cool gadgets and they're scientists, and
Speaker 6: and the way that things happen, what was done on set.
Speaker 6: It wasn't the set that that you had for Smart House.
Speaker 3: That wasn't that didn't.
Speaker 2: Factor to it what she's trying.
Speaker 6: To say, Yes, thank you, thank you. It just wasn't
Speaker 6: that caliber. So it's like when you're going into that
Speaker 6: fantasy land and the set just doesn't It was not
Speaker 6: it was the set was hard to like because it
Speaker 6: was so big and that you were seeing it and
Speaker 6: it was everywhere, and they were trying to make you
Speaker 6: believe certain things that just like it was the production
Speaker 6: and you just.
Speaker 1: It was also the some great actors doing some really
Speaker 1: terrible fake guitar playing.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's one of the things that really stuck out
Speaker 2: to US's like.
Speaker 1: Wow, they're not even faking guitar playing very well, you know,
Speaker 1: they know how to do it. So from your past
Speaker 1: growing up, And we might have touched on this a
Speaker 1: little bit last time, but xenon Smart House poof point,
Speaker 1: there seems to be almost an underlying sci fi fantasy
Speaker 1: kind of vibe to a lot of the stuff you do.
Speaker 2: Were you a sci fi fantasy fan growing up?
Speaker 4: Not at all?
Speaker 2: Really, I think I.
Speaker 3: Remember this actually from the last time.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm asking again because I'm shocked, really because you
Speaker 1: wanted to be so chic, all fantasy writers, all fantasy
Speaker 1: backer not really nothing growing up.
Speaker 5: No, it's really interesting because you know I've talked about
Speaker 5: part of my love of the Disney movies of my
Speaker 5: era were the reason that I felt like I was
Speaker 5: the right person to be in the dcom Go To Guy.
Speaker 5: But all of those were like, you know, the opposent
Speaker 5: minded Professor, Swiss Family, Robinson, parent Trap. Those were the
Speaker 5: things that were really my you know, bread and bones
Speaker 5: in terms of every you know, Disney was on the
Speaker 5: seven year reissue cycle when you didn't have DVDs and
Speaker 5: the rest of it, and any opportunity to see those movies.
Speaker 4: I was always there. And when they would run on.
Speaker 5: The Wonderful World of Disney, Yeah, Front Rose Center, I
Speaker 5: was there. But so much of like the adventure, fantasy
Speaker 5: play of things I Swiss Family Robinson and then the
Speaker 5: fantasy of the parent Trap coupled with my crush on
Speaker 5: Hayley besides you know, all of those things. That was
Speaker 5: really my go to much more than I wasn't a
Speaker 5: Star Trek fan.
Speaker 4: I wasn't okay, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 1: There was that the fantasy adventure, I guess is the
Speaker 1: way you're saying, like the Swiss Family Robinson, the way
Speaker 1: they did that, it's essentially it's adventure Land at Disneyland
Speaker 1: as opposed to Tomorrowland at Disneyland, which which really had
Speaker 1: more of the vibe of kind of the earlier Disney
Speaker 1: lifestyle for lack of a better term, it was that
Speaker 1: kind of occasionally it would be almost something chitty chitty
Speaker 1: bang bang, but other than that, it was really that
Speaker 1: kind of family Swiss Family Robinson kinds.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and if you really look at my over it's
Speaker 5: families at the center of all of them. Yeah, And
Speaker 5: you know, and that's the thing that I know, that's
Speaker 5: the thing I'm most comfortable with. As I've talked about
Speaker 5: with you know, my son is four years older than
Speaker 5: my daughter, and if you watch the evolution of my movies,
Speaker 5: it's almost always an older brother with a younger sister.
Speaker 5: That was the stuff we talked about before of opening
Speaker 5: the door and listening to them and you know, closing
Speaker 5: it and going back to writing. But so the big
Speaker 5: the through line for me was always those Disney movies
Speaker 5: that I grew up, and there was an element of
Speaker 5: wish fulfillment. There was always the kid empowerment because they
Speaker 5: had the opportunity to whether it was getting the parents
Speaker 5: back together and man parent trap or you know, building
Speaker 5: this incredible treehouse and racing your ostrich in Swiss family Robinson. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, all of those things had a wish fulfillment
Speaker 5: coupled with the family at the center or of it. Yeah,
Speaker 5: if you watch you know, my cannon of Disney movies,
Speaker 5: that's almost central to all of them as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Curiously, what of your canon, which one was the most
Speaker 1: difficult for you to write?
Speaker 4: Mhm, oh, good question.
Speaker 5: Proof Point had its issues in terms of because there
Speaker 5: was I wasn't as connected to the whole situation and
Speaker 5: set up and all the rest of it, So that
Speaker 5: was a little bit of a challenge. True Confessions was
Speaker 5: the hardest in terms of.
Speaker 4: I really want to get this right.
Speaker 5: Right, there's a there's a way where you can jump
Speaker 5: the shark in a really uncomfortable you know, whether it's
Speaker 5: condescending or not respecting the ability of the disabled, you know,
Speaker 5: whatever those things are. It's just much more of a
Speaker 5: minefield of really, I want to get this right. I
Speaker 5: want to you know, be fair to the characters, to
Speaker 5: the really sure. I think that was more like I
Speaker 5: really felt, reason.
Speaker 6: You have a hard time with that dad because that
Speaker 6: dad was a jerk.
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean.
Speaker 6: And I know how you normally are with dads and
Speaker 6: eventually it comes together and you and it's all circle around.
Speaker 6: But like hard, Yeah, was that hard for you to
Speaker 6: to like go there as far as letting him take
Speaker 6: that character to be really you know, I mean he
Speaker 6: really struggled, Yeah, and he really struggled with how his emotions,
Speaker 6: which I think is real. And I said that over
Speaker 6: and over again while we rewatched it. I think this
Speaker 6: is such a it has to be hard for every
Speaker 6: single person in that house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to handle.
Speaker 6: And I think it's like real that the dad who
Speaker 6: has this high power job and then also this and
Speaker 6: you know, but was that hard for you, because I
Speaker 6: know the dad was such a huge thing for you
Speaker 6: with the characters all.
Speaker 2: He wasn't a dumb dad, but he.
Speaker 3: Wasn't a dumb dad, but he was. He really struggled,
Speaker 3: He really struggled.
Speaker 5: I am carefully calibrating my response, and I'm thinking, I mean,
Speaker 5: because it actually was based on someone we know who
Speaker 5: had a kid with a disability that just could not
Speaker 5: accept it, could not come to terms with it.
Speaker 4: It really rocked his world in a way. And as
Speaker 4: I was calibrating by answer, it's like, he's never going
Speaker 4: to hear the podcast. I'm good.
Speaker 2: Fans too, but I don't.
Speaker 5: But he was somebody that I observed trying to come
Speaker 5: to terms with his own son and he still really hasn't.
Speaker 5: I mean, the sun is now in his forties and
Speaker 5: it's still a day to day issue in terms of reconcile.
Speaker 4: Wow, that relationship hard, so hard.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So again, it wasn't difficult in the sense that
Speaker 5: I felt a fidelity to this is hard and and
Speaker 5: and not everybody gets up to speed immediately, and not
Speaker 5: everybody gets you know, gets to terms with it. And
Speaker 5: so again to make it it's just.
Speaker 4: You just adapt, you just go. It's all you know,
Speaker 4: you go with it. That's what life is.
Speaker 5: Didn't feel to anybody in nea great And so as
Speaker 5: long as there was some glimmer of evolution, as long
Speaker 5: as there was some you know, opening in that window
Speaker 5: for him before the movie was over, I was okay
Speaker 5: with taking that journey.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I thought, I mean it was it made
Speaker 6: it so much again, so many of those choices just
Speaker 6: made the situation without ever going through anything like that,
Speaker 6: seem like wow, Like just my level of empathy just
Speaker 6: kept building because it was like, oh man, there's this
Speaker 6: extra layer that you don't think about, and it was
Speaker 6: just I mean, it just feels like it just did
Speaker 6: the job perfectly.
Speaker 3: That movie was just like so good, so good.
Speaker 5: And one of the things that's you know, so gratifying
Speaker 5: again with the social media presence of the last couple
Speaker 5: of years is people saying my dad and I watched
Speaker 5: that movie together, and I have a handicapped brother, and
Speaker 5: I had never seen a character like that portrayed on
Speaker 5: screen before, and then every time it was on my
Speaker 5: dad I would go back and watch it again and
Speaker 5: we would cry together and we would you know, it
Speaker 5: was so meaningful to us, and thank you and you
Speaker 5: know those kinds of responses, which how can it get
Speaker 5: better than that?
Speaker 2: That's amazing, incredible.
Speaker 1: And finally, we need to talk a little bit this
Speaker 1: time about the shirt you're wearing about this Xenon, which
Speaker 1: you said might be the favorite one that you made
Speaker 1: for the channel, but we've also heard since that it
Speaker 1: was first thought of as a TV show.
Speaker 5: No, it's really funny because I just did an event
Speaker 5: two weeks ago that was the most wonderful because it
Speaker 5: was a room full of just Disney Channel geeks and I.
Speaker 3: Saw the clip. I saved it.
Speaker 4: I saved it. There you go.
Speaker 5: And it was so much fun because what they did
Speaker 5: is they screened the movie first and then I did
Speaker 5: a Q and A afterwards. But all through the movie they
Speaker 5: were yelling at the screen and they were talking back
Speaker 5: every time.
Speaker 2: It was like Rocky Horror Picture Show, but for Xenon.
Speaker 5: One hundred and like the first time she makes Google
Speaker 5: eyes at Greg across the room and they're all O.
Speaker 4: It was really fun.
Speaker 5: And then they were all singing Jim Zim zoom at
Speaker 5: the end and everybody dumpling and clapping and singing along.
Speaker 4: So the question you just asked came up that night
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but what the evolution was was it was based
Speaker 5: on the kid's book that I think I told you
Speaker 5: last time that I pitched Eloise at the Plausa on
Speaker 5: the space station. Yeah, that's why I got the job,
Speaker 5: wrote the movie. The movie was a huge success for them,
Speaker 5: to the point of again got a brag. But when
Speaker 5: they had a party celebrating the first hundred movies, Garry
Speaker 5: Marsh got up at the beginning of it and he said,
Speaker 5: when people talk to me about dcoms, most people assume
Speaker 5: it's about high school musical and he said, it's actually not.
Speaker 5: The two movies I get asked about the most are
Speaker 5: Xenon and Smart House.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you do, thank you very much.
Speaker 5: So anyway, because it did so well, the sequel was
Speaker 5: ordered pretty quickly. We did this equal then the third
Speaker 5: movie was supposed to be a feature film. Okay, and
Speaker 5: again part of the reason that that movie is not
Speaker 5: great directly to your point, Sabrina, about poof point, if
Speaker 5: you look at Z three it looks like a feature
Speaker 5: film shot on a Disney Channel budget, and so a
Speaker 5: lot of the effects are really cheesy. It was really
Speaker 5: they were down in South Africa and they're on the
Speaker 5: beach one night and there's like this you know, uh
Speaker 5: windstorm basically, and like the sand is hitting them in
Speaker 5: the face and they're trying to get.
Speaker 3: The like crew guys with buckets of sand.
Speaker 5: The wind going and they didn't have enough time or
Speaker 5: you know, budget to postpone or whatever. But it really
Speaker 5: looks like a feature shot on a Disney Channel budget
Speaker 5: because it was conceived as a feature. It was supposed
Speaker 5: to be a collaboration between at the time Hollywood Pictures,
Speaker 5: which was a Disney Division feature and the Channel, and
Speaker 5: they got into a turf war pissing contest over who
Speaker 5: had the ultimate buck stops here with the script thing,
Speaker 5: and they became this huge tug of war and Disney
Speaker 5: Channel was it's our property, we developed it, we get
Speaker 5: the final say, and they're like, but we're the Feature Division.
Speaker 4: We get the.
Speaker 5: Final say, and eventually they went, we're going to agree
Speaker 5: to disagree, take a movie and go home, and point
Speaker 5: it was like, well, we're this committed, We're making it
Speaker 5: as a Disney Channel movie, but we don't have enough
Speaker 5: time to do a full on rewrite.
Speaker 2: Oh no, so was it ever going to be a
Speaker 2: television show? And they were talking about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So all.
Speaker 5: That happened, and then I don't know the timing. Somewhere
Speaker 5: within the next couple of months, I got a call
Speaker 5: from Suzanne to Pass and Suzanne Costin, who were the
Speaker 5: producers of the three movies, and they said, we have
Speaker 5: great news. We've been picked up to series. You're the
Speaker 5: one of the executive producers and head writer of the show.
Speaker 5: We've got I forget if the initial order was twelve
Speaker 5: episodes and whatever it was, but we have an order
Speaker 5: for this many episodes of the show. Come on in
Speaker 5: tomorrow morning for a production meeting so we could start
Speaker 5: to talk about because we had pitched here's how it
Speaker 5: would play out as a series, and the idea is
Speaker 5: going to be that Xena was sent down to Earth
Speaker 5: to run a space camp to train the kids who
Speaker 5: are going to be going to space, and part of
Speaker 5: that was so it was much more sustainable on a
Speaker 5: series budget to not have to face all the time
Speaker 5: and do it all. Yeah, so we sold that that's
Speaker 5: what they bought. That's what we're doing. Come in Friday
Speaker 5: morning for a production meeting. Before I ever got to
Speaker 5: the production meeting, I got a call and said the
Speaker 5: series has been canceled.
Speaker 4: And it's like, wait, what happened?
Speaker 5: We were excited yesterday and this is Yeah, when I'm
Speaker 5: always talking to my students about you never get to
Speaker 5: be happy in show business.
Speaker 2: But anyway you can play a happy character.
Speaker 4: That's about it.
Speaker 5: Because they were in the Disney Channel cheap, they did
Speaker 5: not have any kind of holding deal with Kirsten Sheet
Speaker 5: in the interim signed a contract with General Hospital for
Speaker 5: she has now been for twenty years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's still there. It's like she's done eight thousand episodes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but she had sorry, the General Hospital contract, and
Speaker 5: they said we could recast, but she's so identified with
Speaker 5: the role and people so love her in the role.
Speaker 4: We're not going to recast. We're not going to do it.
Speaker 4: We're scrubbing the series.
Speaker 2: And that was it. Oh no, oh no, oh, that's
Speaker 2: the worst.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So if they had had a holding deal, if they
Speaker 5: had had a second position deal, if they had a.
Speaker 6: Yeah, all things that they I'm sure learned lessons of
Speaker 6: because when we talked to people about Hannah Montana. You
Speaker 6: know a lot of them that the hard part was
Speaker 6: not Hannah Montana in the movie, it was what was
Speaker 6: the movie we did that was a TV show that
Speaker 6: they turned into a movie. Disney ended up having to
Speaker 6: they for whatever reason, had to get a whole new
Speaker 6: writing crew, and some of the actors had a hard
Speaker 6: time with that because.
Speaker 2: They're, oh, no, that was that was Hannah Montana. Was
Speaker 2: that Hannah don't you remember?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the writers from Hannah Montana didn't then write
Speaker 1: the movie from Hannah Montana, which is why they were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that didn't seem to really have.
Speaker 3: The same vibe with the Wizards.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, maybe it was also Wizards that it was
Speaker 1: two Wizards was.
Speaker 6: A different team that made it a movie, And it
Speaker 6: was like the heart and the essence of what had
Speaker 6: been built, you know, and with you with that franchise
Speaker 6: is gone because it's not the same people that were
Speaker 6: doing it. So the characters were missing a lot that
Speaker 6: the actors could feel it, you know, the producers or
Speaker 6: whoever else was around that didn't get replaced, like that's
Speaker 6: such a big deal and and it is almost worth
Speaker 6: like taking the I would say budget cut any weather
Speaker 6: it doesn't look as good, but like the heart and
Speaker 6: the essence has to be there. You cannot just like
Speaker 6: throw away characters and things that matter within the franchise
Speaker 6: and the brand that's being built each I can't.
Speaker 5: I would give you the underline to that. I always
Speaker 5: have to like start it. Am I gonna get in
Speaker 5: trouble it? What do I care?
Speaker 4: Movie party?
Speaker 5: The head of development came up to me and he said,
Speaker 5: oh my god, I'm so glad you're here tonight. We're
Speaker 5: trying to reboot Xenon. And so this was, you know,
Speaker 5: a decade beyond the third movie, maybe even longer, but
Speaker 5: we're trying to reboot the franchise. I'm so happy you're here.
Speaker 5: Do you have any ideas We've met with a bunch
Speaker 5: of writers and not working so far.
Speaker 4: Will you come in and pitch us something?
Speaker 5: So it was I can date it because it was
Speaker 5: this time that Creed was just coming out, and I said,
Speaker 5: what you have to do is a legacy movie, because
Speaker 5: they what their idea was to have a new kid
Speaker 5: playing Xenon, and I said, don't do that, but do
Speaker 5: the legacy handoff movie like Creed did with Rocky to Creed,
Speaker 5: where Xenon's now the teacher on the space station. She's
Speaker 5: got to deal with a kid who's the mirror image
Speaker 5: of her at that age. Suddenly she's in the commander
Speaker 5: playing authority role, trying to deal with this rap Skellion
Speaker 5: that's her younger self. And then if that works, you
Speaker 5: can take that character and give her as many movies
Speaker 5: as you want. Need that transition legacy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hand the Torch movie. Yeah, you pass the Torch movie.
Speaker 5: Exactly, and now you know whatever other gas the new
Speaker 5: scene is. You know, now Noble's running with the torch,
Speaker 5: whatever it is. So that's what I pitched, and the
Speaker 5: two executives in the room were like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: that's wonderful. Great, we'll get back to you. They took
Speaker 5: their boss for whatever reason, they passed, So again I'm out.
Speaker 4: It's good, God bless you.
Speaker 2: My life is fine because go do your thing.
Speaker 5: Maybe six months later, the original producers to Pass and
Speaker 5: Coston call me and they say, as you know, they're
Speaker 5: trying to reboot the franchise. They hired this husband and
Speaker 5: wife team. They have a script that we're really really
Speaker 5: unhappy with. Would you off the record read it for
Speaker 5: us and give us any thoughts.
Speaker 4: That you have.
Speaker 5: Xenon was a clinically depressed thirteen year old. They were
Speaker 5: going to do just a complete remake, not a reboot
Speaker 5: in anyway. But now the Xenon character was passively depressed
Speaker 5: because you'd be living in space too long and deprived
Speaker 5: of all And I read the script and I called
Speaker 5: them and I said, are.
Speaker 4: You kidding me?
Speaker 2: Is this a joke?
Speaker 5: There is not one thing about this that has any
Speaker 5: of the energy and the spirit the love. But you
Speaker 5: know whatever, there is no Xenon in the script at all.
Speaker 5: And they go, well, you know, we didn't really think
Speaker 5: so either, but what would you do? And I said
Speaker 5: I would dip out figure. Yeah, yeah, good luck to you.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: And it's not what they did.
Speaker 4: That's what I did. I don't know what they did,
Speaker 4: but it never happened.
Speaker 1: Oh man, well, oh god, well, hey, everybody takes it
Speaker 1: a different route.
Speaker 2: I guess clinically depressed Zeno. It's called Xenon. Okay. So finally,
Speaker 2: two quick questions.
Speaker 1: One, did you know that NASA used SETAs laptis in
Speaker 1: an Instagram post?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: Yes, apparently they did. So you're like.
Speaker 4: Katy Perry Thinger, No, it wouldn't have been with it.
Speaker 1: No, I think it's well before well before that. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the NASA has used CI slipedus.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 1: It's been to space apparently in Instagram. And the second
Speaker 1: thing I'd like to ask is will you come back again?
Speaker 1: Because we've now we still have Xen on the Zequel
Speaker 1: Z three and Freaking Friday and Phantom.
Speaker 2: In the Megaplex.
Speaker 4: Oh, definitely to watch.
Speaker 1: So when we do those four, will you come back
Speaker 1: for another interview? Please?
Speaker 4: It's okay, good with you guys.
Speaker 2: Are you looking forward to retiring?
Speaker 5: It's funny I have quoted to several people. There is
Speaker 5: a line into the woods from Little Red Riding, Who's
Speaker 5: when she encounters the wolf, she says, I'm excited and scared.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 5: That's exactly what's happening with the impending retirement. There's a
Speaker 5: lot of things I want to do, a lot of
Speaker 5: things I'm looking forward to. But I have worked for
Speaker 5: fifty one straight years. A lot of my identity, a
Speaker 5: lot of my big fat ego is all tied into.
Speaker 2: Well, you're still gonna write though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Actually, a couple of different book projects and a possible
Speaker 5: subject idea that's floating about.
Speaker 2: Okay, so very cool.
Speaker 5: Definitely be doing that and we can talk more about
Speaker 5: that next time.
Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, Well, thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 1: again and giving us all the all the awesome stories
Speaker 1: about how all these amazing movies were made and they
Speaker 1: couldn't have been done without you, so Stu.
Speaker 3: Thank you so many of them.
Speaker 2: We do talk to you, we do.
Speaker 4: Like I said, just always a pleasure with you guys.
Speaker 4: So I so appreciate it.
Speaker 2: And we'll see you next time.
Speaker 4: All right, thank you, Stu, Bye bye.
Speaker 2: Oh god.
Speaker 1: I love the stories that he tells and the things
Speaker 1: that he's like. I probably shouldn't say this, but ask
Speaker 1: for it.
Speaker 3: I'm just well, yeah, he got to lose. Like it's
Speaker 3: just like, you know, awesome, It's true.
Speaker 6: It's some point you do have to like not always
Speaker 6: sugarcoat what the industry does and how how things work,
Speaker 6: how things, how things get built, how things get taken down,
Speaker 6: how things get pulled, you know, how it is. That's
Speaker 6: just the reality of the business and and how people.
Speaker 1: There's a there's also a lot of times when people
Speaker 1: wanted to find the quote next big hot thing, and
Speaker 1: so to do that, they'll get rid of the thing
Speaker 1: that's worked the entire time to get them there. It's
Speaker 1: like the equivalent of you know, you've you've you've played
Speaker 1: a certain way. Now you're halftime at the super Bowl
Speaker 1: and you're gonna change everything you're gonna do and you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to win. It's like, yeah, right, you've got
Speaker 1: you doing yeah exactly. So uh oh man, what a
Speaker 1: great interview. Thank you so much against Stu for joining us,
Speaker 1: and thank you because I know he's going to join
Speaker 1: us again.
Speaker 3: We've got we've watched so many of his and we
Speaker 3: still so.
Speaker 2: Many him and Paul. We could just have the two
Speaker 2: of them on. We should just sit back and should
Speaker 2: just be magical rewind with Paul Ho and Stu Krieger,
Speaker 2: and that would be true.
Speaker 3: And I love it.
Speaker 6: Like I said, I watched I came up on my
Speaker 6: feed of him at this this event that he went
Speaker 6: to recently, and he's just like the cutest guy. And
Speaker 6: if they asked him, where does Lapitas come from?
Speaker 3: And it's just so like you.
Speaker 6: Could tell, especially with that franchise because he built it
Speaker 6: from the ground up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is like he it's his baby. He loves it,
Speaker 3: he is in it. He loves wearing the shirts, he
Speaker 3: loves repping it. You know, it's great, It's awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great.
Speaker 1: What a writer, what a guy, what a respect Hey,
Speaker 1: if you're a decom person, he's responsible for a lot
Speaker 1: of your favorite lines. I can tell you that right now.
Speaker 1: So thank you everybody so much for joining us. Join
Speaker 1: us next time over on the other feed where we're
Speaker 1: doing a little movie called Cheetah Girls too, or in France,
Speaker 1: Cheatah Girls is what I think.
Speaker 3: It was called. We were in Spain, so.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it would have been Cheata Girl's Dose then,
Speaker 1: which is great.
Speaker 2: But I'm saying in France.
Speaker 1: It was Cheatah Girls, that's just the way it was.
Speaker 1: In Germany it was Cheetah Girl's Spy. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: This is me being able to count to ten in
Speaker 1: several languages. But yes, join us over there, and thank
Speaker 1: you again, Stu.
Speaker 2: What an interview, and we will see you next time.
Speaker 2: Bye bye m