Speaker 1: So I think I always start these Park Copper episodes
Speaker 1: by saying we have a very special episode, which makes
Speaker 1: it sound like it's in eighty sitcom that always does
Speaker 1: the very special episodes. But because all these episodes are
Speaker 1: very special, and man, do we have one today for.
Speaker 2: It just so lucky to get the coolest ones. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is just yeah, this is big, this is big.
Speaker 1: We're lucky to get anybody, is how I look at it.
Speaker 1: We're lucky to get anybody. But with some of the
Speaker 1: people we've gotten, it's amazing. And we often hear people saying, oh,
Speaker 1: I really like the ones where we talk to the
Speaker 1: actors because you get that point of view. I've heard
Speaker 1: a lot of people saying, oh, I like when you
Speaker 1: talk to the writers. But when we get somebody like
Speaker 1: we have today who's helped to kind of craft the
Speaker 1: world a little bit, I mean, has been responsible or
Speaker 1: or you know, one of the people most directly responsible
Speaker 1: for some of the biggest names in the entire history
Speaker 1: of decoms.
Speaker 3: I mean that's not Haryperberly. I mean literally.
Speaker 2: Literally has worked with so many I mean, if there's
Speaker 2: ten of them, this guy's worked with nine of them.
Speaker 2: He is seriously, he is literally just I mean he
Speaker 2: gets and what I love and you'll see when you
Speaker 2: meet him.
Speaker 4: Well, he's so humble and so just. He loves what
Speaker 4: he does. He loves it. He absolutely enjoys every aspect
Speaker 4: so well.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to get the dish on certain movies like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know Luck of the Irish. Oh yeah, jump
Speaker 1: in Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's what redd and weep? Oh do we
Speaker 3: mention the entire Zombies franchise and.
Speaker 4: Still going pretty much has not slowed down.
Speaker 1: And then there was another one I'm missing that nobody
Speaker 1: watched some other something about the cats or girls.
Speaker 3: I chet a girls one World as well.
Speaker 4: One. Yeah, few people did watch that one.
Speaker 1: Your old friend is joining us today, so I'm like, one,
Speaker 1: I love these because I'll ask a couple questions, but
Speaker 1: I'm going to sit back and watch two old friends talk.
Speaker 3: I can't wait. So this is going to be so cool,
Speaker 3: So everybody, please please please.
Speaker 1: A big welcome for one of the coolest guests we've
Speaker 1: ever had, Director Paul Howan.
Speaker 3: Hi, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good, Thank you so much for joining us. Sabrina
Speaker 1: has been singing your praises since we started this podcast.
Speaker 5: More than kind.
Speaker 2: Well, as I was texting back and forth with you,
Speaker 2: I had no idea.
Speaker 4: I mean, cause I guess I just.
Speaker 2: Kind of have a few years right of when I
Speaker 2: was part of the channel of what I was involved
Speaker 2: in and got some of the names of the dcoms
Speaker 2: you did prior, but had no idea all of that.
Speaker 4: I mean, your list is just ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Well, you have worked with every major star I swear
Speaker 2: from the channel in one of these movies, and a
Speaker 2: lot of times, I'm sure it's amazing for you to
Speaker 2: watch them after because you kind of start like you're
Speaker 2: there when they're starting these huge careers that they end
Speaker 2: up having. So I mean, and anyone that we have got,
Speaker 2: we've gotten to do quite a bit of zombies of
Speaker 2: those actors who've got to talk to them.
Speaker 4: We talked to Corbyn Blue.
Speaker 2: I mean, everyone just praises how fun you are to
Speaker 2: be on set with, how awesome of a director you are,
Speaker 2: and just your vision is something that they talk about
Speaker 2: every single time, which I love because I walked on
Speaker 2: a few of the sets of The Cheetah Girls One World,
Speaker 2: and it was like, how did he see this like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, it's giant, it's amazing.
Speaker 4: Okay, so good.
Speaker 2: So anyways, thank you so much for gracing us with
Speaker 2: your presence.
Speaker 6: Paul, Wow, thank you for that movie, because that was
Speaker 6: the first movie I think that I dealt with kids
Speaker 6: that were a little bit older.
Speaker 5: So we could go to the after hours hotel.
Speaker 6: Oh yes, Oh, I can't wait to hear those and
Speaker 6: commiserate over.
Speaker 4: Our It was different.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I remember drinking warm or lukewarm, at
Speaker 2: least vodka sodas as well.
Speaker 4: You and I were drinking.
Speaker 2: Because then you don't drink ice and you don't have
Speaker 2: ice in your drinks.
Speaker 4: So it's just like it couldn't do it very many.
Speaker 2: It just was I don't know. The life we had
Speaker 2: there was absolutely wild.
Speaker 5: And you guys were tough. I mean, you were there.
Speaker 6: It was not an easy shooting experience, at least what
Speaker 6: I recall. No, I showed up day in and day out,
Speaker 6: and I remember when the guy's hair caught on fire
Speaker 6: and you walked up to me and went, Paul, I'm
Speaker 6: going to go blind with the.
Speaker 1: Okay, wait a minute, we got all right, so we've
Speaker 1: got let's start at the beginning. Because I want to
Speaker 1: get to obviously, we've got to end with guys hair
Speaker 1: on fire. Right, How did you get into this side
Speaker 1: of the industry? I mean, had you worked for Disney
Speaker 1: at the start of your career or can you take
Speaker 1: us back to the beginning.
Speaker 5: I think the very beginning.
Speaker 6: I was working on a show called Well, you know,
Speaker 6: I was just a PA and I wanted I had
Speaker 6: gone to school to be a director, but you know,
Speaker 6: you get out and you kind of like, I got
Speaker 6: to learn to make coffee and make sanwiches correctly, right,
Speaker 6: and so, and I when I finally got good at that,
Speaker 6: I got on this show called Kids Incorporated, and I
Speaker 6: was an ad and I moved my way up to
Speaker 6: directing a few of them. And then that gentleman Tommy Lynch,
Speaker 6: who I owe a lot to, did a show called
Speaker 6: The Secret World of Alex Mack, which was a single
Speaker 6: cameras show at Nickelodeon. And so I I was haunting
Speaker 6: Nickelodeon for a while and doing those single cameras shows,
Speaker 6: and Disney was just starting and they wanted to do
Speaker 6: similar type shows. So when Rich Ross and a whole
Speaker 6: bunch of people that were at Nickelodeon moved over to Disney.
Speaker 6: I you know, got moved over to Disney too, and
Speaker 6: did a lot of those single camera Disney shows like
Speaker 6: Shias Show and Stevens and.
Speaker 5: Anyway, a whole bunch of them.
Speaker 6: And then they wanted to do these movies and they
Speaker 6: needed somebody who knew how to work with kids on
Speaker 6: these movies and bring them in on time and budget.
Speaker 6: And I think the first movie I did was Lucky
Speaker 6: the Irish and Now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ryan Merriman turning into to Now. We rated it high.
Speaker 1: You know, we rate all our movies. We rated it high.
Speaker 1: We thought it was a little odd that the thing
Speaker 1: they were having trouble telling him was that he was Irish. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they finally sat him down and say, yes, son, in fact,
Speaker 1: you're Irish.
Speaker 4: Why a secret? Why is it so horrible?
Speaker 6: Tell him that he was eleprechn which I got a
Speaker 6: different type of Irish. Right.
Speaker 1: It's so funny that you're you're bringing back names for
Speaker 1: my past because I was original. I was an old
Speaker 1: school Nickelodeon kid back in the eighties, and Rich Ross
Speaker 1: was was very important in my early career. When I
Speaker 1: mean I got slimed up on the original You can't
Speaker 1: do that on television set.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so the the old school Nickelodeon then moving to
Speaker 1: Disney is very similar. But you I mean, some of
Speaker 1: the best shows on both networks. If you're talking kids
Speaker 1: in court, it just seems like wherever you are the
Speaker 1: future stars of all of Hollywood Army.
Speaker 7: Well, I don't know if it's me, but I'll take
Speaker 7: I did my part and and you know, I definitely
Speaker 7: was a teacher and I think and helped those I think,
Speaker 7: you know, everybody has it comes to the table with
Speaker 7: a certain amount of talent that I can't really teach.
Speaker 5: But I can go, hey, here's where this is the
Speaker 5: aspect where you're awesome and you go with this because
Speaker 5: this is your star power right here.
Speaker 6: So I think that was And of course there's technical
Speaker 6: things which I learned along the way.
Speaker 5: And I'm a big kid, I'm old, but I'm still.
Speaker 1: I feel the same way I always tell Sabrina, I
Speaker 1: live my life by the rule that there's a very
Speaker 1: big difference between childish and childlike.
Speaker 3: Yes, So okay, so then when you moved then to.
Speaker 1: Disney from Nickelodeon, did you notice a big difference in
Speaker 1: production style between the two different networks.
Speaker 6: I think the one thing which I really loved about
Speaker 6: Disney is that it's a little bit more girl focused.
Speaker 6: And when I say girl focused, I think it's just
Speaker 6: a more of a gentle hearted type. Like I think
Speaker 6: girls are a little bit more sophisticated at that age.
Speaker 5: As far as story goes.
Speaker 6: And being empathetic to characters and and so for me,
Speaker 6: like for Nickelodeon, there's like, you know, big gags and
Speaker 6: sweat and slime and you know, and all this kind
Speaker 6: of stuff. But really for something to be successful on
Speaker 6: the channel, it has to be sort of appealing to
Speaker 6: the heart. Like I always talk about the suffering soul, right,
Speaker 6: Like these lead characters are not They're going through I
Speaker 6: Am an aspirational journey, but they're not really enjoying themselves
Speaker 6: on the way. Like there's struggles and there's conflicts and
Speaker 6: how do I you know, how do I.
Speaker 5: Be who I really am and what my father wants
Speaker 5: me to be?
Speaker 6: Or you know, I part of this group musical group,
Speaker 6: but somebody else wants me and should I be part
Speaker 6: of that?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 6: So how do I navigate life? I think is something
Speaker 6: that Disney does well. I'm not sure that there are
Speaker 6: shows on Nickelodeon that touch on that, but I don't
Speaker 6: think that's their primary focus. It's comedy and and right
Speaker 6: hop and gags and things like that, you know, which
Speaker 6: I've done a lot of and I get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's got its place.
Speaker 2: It is one thing we say over and over again
Speaker 2: as we're watching this movie is that Disney knows how
Speaker 2: to put across a storyline and a message like no
Speaker 2: one else we've seen, especially when it's gearing towards this
Speaker 2: age demo. So even if you know, maybe Will and
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily relate to it, we can relate to
Speaker 2: it on where the character is because it's such a
Speaker 2: good message. You know, even if it's not the greatest
Speaker 2: movie that's been made, it really is a good message
Speaker 2: behind it. And you know, we we love that about Disney.
Speaker 2: And you know, I really, honestly, I feel like I
Speaker 2: watched Nickelodeon. But now that I've done all this, like
Speaker 2: everything about Nickelodeon has blown out of my head and
Speaker 2: it's deep dark, deep dark closet that I just don't
Speaker 2: even really remember except for you know, a few of
Speaker 2: the shows. But again I remember them just being really funny,
Speaker 2: Like I'm just like laughing the whole time. I don't
Speaker 2: remember a lot of messaging happening on Nickelodeon, so that
Speaker 2: makes a lot of sense. Okay, So I got to
Speaker 2: ask you, though, we're talking about Luck of the Irish,
Speaker 2: and I know just from the time on the channel,
Speaker 2: how hard it is to get the budgets to like,
Speaker 2: you know, like, do you an you want me to Yeah,
Speaker 2: you want me to pull this off, but you want
Speaker 2: me to pull this off with how much?
Speaker 4: How did you do it?
Speaker 2: Because I don't think at that point Luck of the
Speaker 2: Irish had big budgets quite yet.
Speaker 5: Up to that point did not?
Speaker 4: Right, how do you make that woman so tiny?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 2: How did you do it with the budget that you
Speaker 2: guys were given? I mean, and it looked great everything
Speaker 2: that we saw in the movie.
Speaker 4: The whole top, Yeah, the whole sure, for sure.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I think just in general, that's something that I'm really
Speaker 6: good at as far as saying, Okay, it's going to
Speaker 6: cost us this amount to do this, Is this really
Speaker 6: worth it?
Speaker 5: Or would we rather not spend it on this?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 6: So if you look at the basketball sequence, for example,
Speaker 6: you know, the camera's awfully high.
Speaker 5: And you don't really see a lot.
Speaker 6: Of crowd right, so because there's not a lot because
Speaker 6: in the beginning days Disney was very focused and and
Speaker 6: not it kind of went wayward as.
Speaker 5: As it went along a little bit more, but it
Speaker 5: was like, how are we going to do that?
Speaker 6: You get this many extra you get this package of
Speaker 6: toys and that's all you get, and and how are
Speaker 6: we gonna you know, you know, do this and I
Speaker 6: don't want to get it onto cheater girls. But I mean,
Speaker 6: you know, it's the same thing where I got off
Speaker 6: the plane and was looking at Udaipor and went like, holy,
Speaker 6: where is a Disney Channel movie in this place? You know,
Speaker 6: because it was like a sob laden's like compound.
Speaker 3: Wait to see this one. I haven't so I'm watching
Speaker 3: it order. I haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 4: It won't look like but I'm just.
Speaker 3: Saying I haven't seen I haven't.
Speaker 1: I've seen Cheatahirls one, and we're kind of watching as
Speaker 1: we go because again I'm a little too old for
Speaker 1: some of the dcoms. But uh, well, that's the one
Speaker 1: thing I've noticed is that if if something is a
Speaker 1: good project. Again, I think this shows a difference between
Speaker 1: Nickelodeon and Disney, and I thin here one hundred percent right,
Speaker 1: Nickelodeon and its content has its place, and it's a wonderful,
Speaker 1: wonderful little niche that it has. That being said, the
Speaker 1: thing that's wonderful about a well done movie, no matter
Speaker 1: what age it's for, is there's always somebody to root
Speaker 1: for or someone you can see yourself in. So now
Speaker 1: that I'm older, I can identify more with the parent characters,
Speaker 1: the adult characters, and I think that's a fun way
Speaker 1: of going.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, when they hand you one.
Speaker 1: Of these dcom scripts, I mean again, I know there's
Speaker 1: a very big difference between say A read it and
Speaker 1: weep and a Zombies. Is the first thing that's going
Speaker 1: through your mind, okay, casting it properly, or is the
Speaker 1: first thing that's going through your mind budgeting it properly?
Speaker 5: Neither?
Speaker 6: I think the first thing that's going through my mind
Speaker 6: is Okay, who's the lead? Hopefully it's clear what's the story,
Speaker 6: what's at stake, and are we dramatizing that story the
Speaker 6: best we possibly can, Because you know, I can throw
Speaker 6: a lot of bells and whistles at things, fire and
Speaker 6: whatever effects. But if I'm not like, if you're not,
Speaker 6: you don't keep watching these movies because of oh wow, there.
Speaker 5: Was a big explosion.
Speaker 6: It's just not It's not why you watch it because
Speaker 6: you're engaged in that character and.
Speaker 5: You want to know.
Speaker 6: So I'm looking at the script and I'm going, Okay,
Speaker 6: how oh this is what this person is going through?
Speaker 6: Are we doing the best situations to highlight.
Speaker 5: The journey that this person is going to?
Speaker 6: And I just think if you have kids and you
Speaker 6: watch them watch these movies, they all they do is
Speaker 6: look at the character's eyes and what's going on inside
Speaker 6: their head as the movie's going on. You just look
Speaker 6: at all these kids. I think, you know, I watched
Speaker 6: my own kids as they were growing up, watching them.
Speaker 6: I've seen it a hundred times. We're all focused on oh,
Speaker 6: wardrobe and hair and makeup and steps, and I mean,
Speaker 6: you know, Disney is like on it forever. I'm like,
Speaker 6: what's going on in the face of this kid, in
Speaker 6: this kid's eyes and all the techniques that I do.
Speaker 5: I'm focusing on what are you thinking about? Now? What
Speaker 5: are you afraid of? Who are you as a person?
Speaker 6: Because these kids, they see you getting hurt and they
Speaker 6: they want you to they root for you and that's
Speaker 6: why they and they keep watching because they get to
Speaker 6: the end and it's ninety minutes. Not a long period
Speaker 6: of time, but boy, a movie that doesn't have that
Speaker 6: ninety minutes can seem like an eternity, and it canad
Speaker 6: We've gone through the eternity before.
Speaker 1: Yes, we know that, we know what that drudge can
Speaker 1: be like, it can be pretty uh pretty grooel yeah.
Speaker 6: Yes, So so you want the music and you want
Speaker 6: the heart and then after that, you know, writers love
Speaker 6: to write crazy things and then it's kind of like, oh,
Speaker 6: this is cool.
Speaker 5: I think we can make this look good. I don't
Speaker 5: think we can make this look good, you know.
Speaker 6: You know, I don't think a lot of the stuff
Speaker 6: we did with Ryan was you know, raising other people
Speaker 6: on apple boxes and there was really a low budget
Speaker 6: kind of making his clothes bigger, kind of the legs
Speaker 6: off of or raising the dresser up and he's like
Speaker 6: below it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: So there's a lot of little tricks that are in
Speaker 6: that movie.
Speaker 3: That the giant seatbelt. Then you make a giant seat belt.
Speaker 6: We made a giant shoe, you know, we did a
Speaker 6: we a giant metal you know, things that were sort
Speaker 6: of old school that you would have been done before
Speaker 6: visual effects. We you know, we did there, But really
Speaker 6: what's great about that movie is just Ryan and those
Speaker 6: those kids, you know, they they they just committed and
Speaker 6: and they were funny. And So there's one movie where
Speaker 6: that I watched that I definitely don't have a sense
Speaker 6: of me, which I think is a big, a big
Speaker 6: thing to happen in a movie.
Speaker 5: When it gets to the point where.
Speaker 6: You're like, oh, I don't remember that, or or I'm
Speaker 6: engaged in something that I didn't really remember, you know,
Speaker 6: or was part of, then you really know that the
Speaker 6: movie has sort of taken on a life of its own,
Speaker 6: and it's not just you know, you say this line,
Speaker 6: look here, do this or whatever.
Speaker 2: At what point or what movie I guess once you
Speaker 2: started getting into because it seems like they just started.
Speaker 4: You went from there to I think it was.
Speaker 2: Read It and Weep was shortly after that, and then
Speaker 2: you've got you know, Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff and jump
Speaker 2: in all these different ones. At what point were you going, man,
Speaker 2: like I am the go to guy for Disney, like
Speaker 2: I am shooting, I am doing all of these movies.
Speaker 6: Maybe like last year, I think there's a lot of
Speaker 6: I think there's a lot of times where people go, oh,
Speaker 6: don't you want to do this or don't you want
Speaker 6: to do that?
Speaker 5: But the thing I love.
Speaker 6: Is working and making movies and trying things and trying
Speaker 6: to make it the best that's possible. And I've never
Speaker 6: been All of those movies have drama to.
Speaker 5: Them, you know that. You know, there's not a movie
Speaker 5: that doesn't have a story.
Speaker 6: Of behind the scenes craziness. Sometimes it's with the network,
Speaker 6: sometimes it's cash related, all the it's not really often
Speaker 6: cast related, but you know, there's always and I'm just
Speaker 6: very passionate about the project. And I think for a
Speaker 6: while it was like, oh, I can't do it with
Speaker 6: these guys anymore. And then finally I realized, like, you
Speaker 6: know what, I'm fricking lucky, Like I like, I make
Speaker 6: a movie and now it's I'm still hanging in there, miraculously.
Speaker 5: I don't really know how.
Speaker 6: But it's just I get to make a movie sometimes
Speaker 6: two a year, and I really get to shape this
Speaker 6: thing and it's completely satisfied. At the time, it's like
Speaker 6: horrifying and there's like, oh my god, this is this
Speaker 6: is going to be a disaster and what am I
Speaker 6: going to do? And fighting with you know, I mean
Speaker 6: Gary marsh and I had many like arguments, although I
Speaker 6: respect the.
Speaker 5: Man, sure anyone, but of course there was like.
Speaker 6: Arguments of this sometimes that this might be the last
Speaker 6: movie I'm ever gonna do ridiculous over this up drama.
Speaker 6: But then somehow you end up waking up and you go, well,
Speaker 6: you know, I had a career, and I think I
Speaker 6: would not have traded I know that I would not
Speaker 6: have traded it for for anything, because you can do whatever.
Speaker 6: You know, some Harry Potter movie or whatever. I mean,
Speaker 6: that's pretty famous.
Speaker 5: But and you do.
Speaker 6: There four of them in the life of that that
Speaker 6: you know you have and I've done you know, over
Speaker 6: twenty I think at this point, and I think I
Speaker 6: always feel like I'm going to do it better next time,
Speaker 6: or I this was bad and I'm going to make
Speaker 6: sure that I don't fall into that trap again.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that's the sign of that TRR artist, never
Speaker 1: never being, never being happy.
Speaker 6: I just I just want to be better and do better.
Speaker 6: And you know, now I'm they've changed everybody.
Speaker 5: At the channel. Basically there's nobody that's nobody, you.
Speaker 6: Know, and and you know, I'm going, well, you know,
Speaker 6: we tried that once before.
Speaker 5: Here's what happened.
Speaker 6: And you know, and I'm trying to like gently lead
Speaker 6: them to you know, you think you want that, but
Speaker 6: let me tell you.
Speaker 5: Really because we tried it. We tried a lot of things.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm curious, were you ever over your career,
Speaker 1: and again we've talked about the films you've done. Were
Speaker 1: you ever handed a script for a dcom and you're like, no,
Speaker 1: not doing it, not going to do this one, don't
Speaker 1: like it, not going to happen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, twice.
Speaker 6: Well once I was like the first time I didn't.
Speaker 6: That second, well whatever, the movie with that girl, the
Speaker 6: space girl what was her name, xenon Non, Yeah, the
Speaker 6: one that she goes to the moon and she's floating
Speaker 6: on I just read it and I was like, I
Speaker 6: can't do it. And then there was a monster truck
Speaker 6: movie that they had that I was moving along with it,
Speaker 6: but I could not get them. You know, the message
Speaker 6: seemed to me in the script.
Speaker 5: To be.
Speaker 6: If you learn how to hold if you're a girl,
Speaker 6: a Southern girl, and you learn how to hold a
Speaker 6: fork and wear a nice dress and get a guy,
Speaker 6: you will be a great monster truck driver, and I
Speaker 6: guess I could not.
Speaker 5: I have nothing, No, of course I could not do it.
Speaker 1: We heard that it was a possible sequel to Motocross, right,
Speaker 1: was that?
Speaker 2: Was that?
Speaker 3: The one?
Speaker 5: Something like that was it was a monster truck movie.
Speaker 6: They had bought it and and you know, we had
Speaker 6: we were gonna shoot it in Louisiana, and it was
Speaker 6: all really interesting to me, like the situation. But I
Speaker 6: really wanted it to be like the movie, you know,
Speaker 6: where she's a cop and she doesn't.
Speaker 3: It's mister geniality.
Speaker 6: Yes, I really wanted to shape it to be that, and.
Speaker 5: It just was not happening.
Speaker 6: You know, we're getting it, and the executive at the time,
Speaker 6: we're not getting it. And finally I just I also
Speaker 6: thought that it was way too dangerous and they weren't
Speaker 6: going to you know, like with these giant trucks are
Speaker 6: like going to probably me. They finally shut it down
Speaker 6: and I went home.
Speaker 1: Well, that leads to a good question, then, which is
Speaker 1: you said that maybe sometimes the writers don't get it,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's a creative process all the way through,
Speaker 1: but as the director, especially one as respected as you
Speaker 1: are at the channel.
Speaker 3: Now, how much input do you have to the script
Speaker 3: in the story.
Speaker 6: I think I have a lot of input, And there's arguments,
Speaker 6: and writers love their little vignettes and their things, and
Speaker 6: but what I love is how somebody's talking to somebody
Speaker 6: and how they're interacting and with how they're feeling vulnerable
Speaker 6: and things like that that are in the script. And
Speaker 6: and so I'm always like, we need to do this,
Speaker 6: and we need to hold this back a.
Speaker 5: Little bit, and you know, so so it's I you know,
Speaker 5: a lot of you wish was you know, I.
Speaker 6: Basically took that script and I cut and pasted it.
Speaker 6: I put in blank pages and said, we need a
Speaker 6: scene that's this, And you know, and the writers, you know,
Speaker 6: they asked for more money to do it.
Speaker 5: But they did it, and and then you know, I'm
Speaker 5: proud of the way those that they turn out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I know it probably changes film to film,
Speaker 2: But what do you feel like your typical timeline is
Speaker 2: before you actually hit hit the ground running with actually filming,
Speaker 2: like going out to set and doing it. How much time,
Speaker 2: like I mean, for writers for you to be able
Speaker 2: to go through and cess out changes that you see
Speaker 2: things that you need to be done to the script.
Speaker 2: How much time is that process before you go? And again,
Speaker 2: I know it's changes, but what's like kind of a normal,
Speaker 2: a normal.
Speaker 4: Timeline that you get brought onto the project.
Speaker 6: There's like an eight like it's all sort of set.
Speaker 6: There's the director portion of it, which is all sort
Speaker 6: of set by the DGA, which is I think eight weeks,
Speaker 6: and then shooting is you know, they give you it's
Speaker 6: like it used to be only twenty five days, and
Speaker 6: then I think they started to realize that it's ridiculous
Speaker 6: that we're just putting this lid on this, so that
Speaker 6: went longer. So I think we're up to thirty one
Speaker 6: or thirty four days on Zombies, and then there's four
Speaker 6: weeks of editing, and then there's you know, there's posts
Speaker 6: and effects. But now these movies are becoming so big
Speaker 6: that it's I get hired as an executive producer first,
Speaker 6: and then we get to work on the script.
Speaker 5: So by the.
Speaker 6: Time the you know that was beginning whatever eight weeks starts,
Speaker 6: you're already pretty much deep into the line is kind
Speaker 6: of blurred nowadays, and you know, the Zombies thing, I'm
Speaker 6: still after I'm done with you, I have looping still
Speaker 6: to be done, and every Monday and Thursday and Fridays
Speaker 6: I have the effects to review.
Speaker 5: So the things go on now for it.
Speaker 6: You know, used to be like six months of your
Speaker 6: life and you're done. Now it's kind of like a
Speaker 6: year of your life. Almost two and you're done.
Speaker 1: Jesus. I want to get to Zombies obviously because of
Speaker 1: everything that has become with that franchise.
Speaker 3: But what was the first musical that you did?
Speaker 1: And was the musical something that you had any experience in,
Speaker 1: because now it seems like you're one of the go
Speaker 1: to for the big lavish productions. Is this something that
Speaker 1: you had experience with before? Or were you kind of
Speaker 1: thrown into the deep end with the camp Rock movie.
Speaker 6: No, I wasn't. I well, I love musicals like as I.
Speaker 6: I wouldn't be in this business if it wasn't for
Speaker 6: a girlfriend I had in eighth grade took me to
Speaker 6: a play Two Gentlemen of Verona the musical, and I
Speaker 6: was just like, oh my God, like what is this?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: I just so to me. I thought it's the coolest.
Speaker 6: Like I thought, oh, I'll be an electrical engineer or
Speaker 6: some stupid job that I was probably going to.
Speaker 5: Be unhappy with.
Speaker 6: And then I saw a musical and I thought, oh,
Speaker 6: this is I want to do this. I've never seen
Speaker 6: anything like this before. And my parents were doctors and
Speaker 6: in the medical profession, so I had like nothing, wow.
Speaker 5: They I don't think they ever took me to a
Speaker 5: musical at all.
Speaker 4: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 5: So they were not big theater people.
Speaker 6: And so the first thing I did was I did
Speaker 6: Jump In, which had some dance and it was more stunty,
Speaker 6: but it had some It was kind of a hip
Speaker 6: poppy kind of movie.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And then then the the first musical I did was
Speaker 6: actually Cheetah Girls.
Speaker 5: They yes, that was wow. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was.
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 6: Well I'm sure it was Cheetah Girls because they were
Speaker 6: a little like, I don't know, you know about is
Speaker 6: you're gonna be able to do it? And then I
Speaker 6: did that that boat song you know where you were
Speaker 6: in the Swans on the Fountains, I can't wait, And
Speaker 6: Michael was like was running around showing like the cut
Speaker 6: to look how great this is going to be.
Speaker 2: And that wasn't even like a crazy I mean performance,
Speaker 2: it was a performance routine, but that was more theatrical
Speaker 2: and like telling the story of what our characters were
Speaker 2: going through.
Speaker 4: Versus being like like cheatah love, I love me some
Speaker 4: cheata love, I can't wait.
Speaker 2: Will loves the movies like Step Up and stuff. When
Speaker 2: he sees when he.
Speaker 4: Sees it's me if you can't he's good love. Oh
Speaker 4: it's good. It's a battle. It's a battle for.
Speaker 5: A long it's a long battle, so long, it's a
Speaker 5: long song.
Speaker 2: It was so this is like the stuff that I
Speaker 2: was kind of telling Will about working with you and
Speaker 2: showing up to set. Of course, everything we went to
Speaker 2: in India was just so big was there. Everything was
Speaker 2: so grand and such a huge scale. We were filming
Speaker 2: at palaces and you know, it was just it was
Speaker 2: it was unreal. And so we're walking up this big
Speaker 2: step these this big driveway because it was too steep
Speaker 2: I think for like even really cars to go up.
Speaker 4: So we walked up.
Speaker 2: It and came across those well I don't even know
Speaker 2: what they're called, but they were like the pole like
Speaker 2: the yes, and it was the dancers were practicing in it,
Speaker 2: and the lighting and the background.
Speaker 4: Behind the dancers.
Speaker 2: We were just like, holy cow, like this looked like
Speaker 2: me walking up it looked like a feature film set.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 2: That was so amazing, and then you know, we have
Speaker 2: our dance and it was it was so fun and.
Speaker 4: The whole movement of the camera. Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 4: I really loved all of our musicals. Well, that's I.
Speaker 1: Mean, that's a good question then, is how I mean,
Speaker 1: do you have to approach shooting a musical differently than
Speaker 1: you approach shooting a film that is it musically inclined
Speaker 1: or is it just kind of the same process just
Speaker 1: on a different scale.
Speaker 6: You know, it's it's it's almost the same process. Some
Speaker 6: parts are a little bit easier, in some.
Speaker 5: Parts are a little harder. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 6: You know, the great thing is that you have a
Speaker 6: choreographer and so you know I can go. So for me,
Speaker 6: it's like wow, when they'd be great, here's a budget
Speaker 6: and you can imagine what a dance might be like here,
Speaker 6: and then you end up working with the choreographer who
Speaker 6: who lays it out basically and rehearses with the cast.
Speaker 6: So for me, in that sense, it's just like oh wow, yeah,
Speaker 6: and you just look at it.
Speaker 5: I don't have to do all the blocking and write
Speaker 5: us on this line.
Speaker 6: And do this, and because if you saw me dance,
Speaker 6: you would, you know, still be better than me.
Speaker 2: We had a fantastic choreographer. We had Fatima who had
Speaker 2: worked with Black Eyed Pete. I mean she's worked with
Speaker 2: just everyone Big and Missy Elli, everyone, everyone, So her
Speaker 2: and the sets she's always been on for these giant
Speaker 2: movie videos or music videos are huge. So her eyes,
Speaker 2: like she knows exactly when she's choreographing what she's wanting.
Speaker 4: She films.
Speaker 2: It brings I mean, you came into rehearsal to see everything,
Speaker 2: which not always happens when you have, you know, a director,
Speaker 2: like they don't always come in right at the rehearsal time.
Speaker 2: They kind of just see the films, and you wanted
Speaker 2: to see exactly how we were interacting.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 2: It was such a fun experience in such a crazy everything.
Speaker 6: She was the most uncommunicative person that I think I've
Speaker 6: ever worked with, but I totally got it like I
Speaker 6: would she would, you know, she'd show me the dance
Speaker 6: and then she pushed me over here and and I
Speaker 6: think Bamboo, remember he was the ad, said to me
Speaker 6: at one point, do.
Speaker 5: You have any idea like what we're going to do.
Speaker 6: When we get on this, nobody else had seen everything,
Speaker 6: and I go, oh, yeah, it's gonna be fine. It's there,
Speaker 6: she's going to do this and it's this and you know,
Speaker 6: don't you know, don't worry, and then you know, and
Speaker 6: then then it was, you know, I think she had
Speaker 6: ideas and I did those.
Speaker 5: And then when I felt like there was we needed
Speaker 5: a little more pop or.
Speaker 6: Something, then you know, I'd going, Okay, let's just do
Speaker 6: this and this is gonna, you know, help this situation.
Speaker 6: So I, you know, I she's amazing and I think
Speaker 6: she was an amazing person and to work with, and
Speaker 6: I don't know, it's just sort of a relief kind
Speaker 6: of to have somebody to walk. There's a large part
Speaker 6: of the movie is taking care for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so do you I mean then do you prefer
Speaker 3: doing musicals over non musicals?
Speaker 5: Uh? I do. I love it, And I just think,
Speaker 5: you know, it sets to me.
Speaker 6: You know, when something's happening, you know, you can't talk
Speaker 6: about it anymore.
Speaker 5: You have to sing about it.
Speaker 6: That's what usually this is, and that's kind of in
Speaker 6: my realm, right, you know, when when the drama is happening,
Speaker 6: and it's too much and you can't there's nothing else
Speaker 6: you can say.
Speaker 5: You got to sing about it, right, So I think that's.
Speaker 1: And speaking of the resurgence, have you been following in
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings at all and what's been going on?
Speaker 6: Which was very weird because I remember sitting there on
Speaker 6: the set and they were coming in and there's just
Speaker 6: a march into camp and I told Rosario, I go, dude,
Speaker 6: we gotta they gotta they can't.
Speaker 5: Just come in here like walking.
Speaker 6: We got to come up with some stomp like something
Speaker 6: or other. And he's like, okay, okay, give me a minute.
Speaker 6: And then you know they did it.
Speaker 4: So that was like basically.
Speaker 6: Basically only it was like a thing and just and
Speaker 6: you know, they all pulled it off.
Speaker 5: And the Jonas brothers were very intense on not dancing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that was their life because they saw
Speaker 3: the first camp rock.
Speaker 5: Yeah hit their sticks, which I thought.
Speaker 3: Okay, that'll work.
Speaker 1: Okay, So now we've got to get in to zombies
Speaker 1: because this has become a phenomenon, I mean, absolutely huge,
Speaker 1: and and you know, in all fairness is I'm surprised
Speaker 1: Tona did not lead with this. For me, musicals where
Speaker 1: people just break into song and dance out of nowhere
Speaker 1: were never my favorite thing. I'm always the guy going,
Speaker 1: did you get together early in rehearse?
Speaker 3: How did you know to break into dance?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Never really got it? He can't let me let it go.
Speaker 3: And then we started watching These and Descendants. Okay, those
Speaker 3: gray it was nice with the.
Speaker 1: High school music, and then we got to Zombies one
Speaker 1: and I loved it, and I did.
Speaker 3: I loved everything.
Speaker 1: It was such a clever story, a world I'd never
Speaker 1: seen before, the music work, the romance work, the acting work.
Speaker 3: And so I'm curious not only how.
Speaker 1: That project came across your desk, obviously the way that
Speaker 1: they normally do, but is this one of those things
Speaker 1: by this point where you know what something's going to
Speaker 1: be when it's handed to you.
Speaker 3: I mean, could you tell what this was going to become?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 6: And so you know, there was another director that was
Speaker 6: on that at the very beginning and had shot or
Speaker 6: I think thirteen days or something like that, and in
Speaker 6: those thirteen days he had managed to be ten days
Speaker 6: over budget, like they just kept you know, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 6: you know, it's I was with my friend and I'm
Speaker 6: helping him do an adu and I'm just like this,
Speaker 6: And I go to get tacos and I leave my
Speaker 6: phone and I come back and there's this long chain
Speaker 6: of panic text from from the network saying what are
Speaker 6: you doing?
Speaker 5: Can you call me? You know, bah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 5: My agent then called. They were all like they're all
Speaker 5: looking for you. Like it was just like this panic
Speaker 5: of one hour. When I was eating cocke, you know, I.
Speaker 6: Look at my phone and I go, oh God, I
Speaker 6: gotta I have to take this call and what are
Speaker 6: you doing? And I said I'm nothing, and they go,
Speaker 6: can you would you be interested in we're having problems
Speaker 6: on this set. Would you be interested in in? Could
Speaker 6: you fly to Toronto tomorrow start shooting, meet the cast
Speaker 6: on Sunday, and start shooting on Monday.
Speaker 5: And I was like, uh, okay.
Speaker 6: And so they had a script and they had shot
Speaker 6: some scene. So I looked at all the scenes and
Speaker 6: I thought, uh, this looks kind of interesting.
Speaker 5: It was a little weird to me, you.
Speaker 6: Know, because there was a lot of pink and blue,
Speaker 6: and there's a lot of jazz hands and the acting
Speaker 6: was way like over the top.
Speaker 5: In my offensibility you know, and I was, you.
Speaker 6: Know, and then I tried to figure out, well, am
Speaker 6: I going to be there with the other director?
Speaker 5: No, no, he's going to be gone, So okay.
Speaker 6: So I came there and basically the entire time that
Speaker 6: I was there on that first thing, but the script
Speaker 6: had all pages were all like mixed up, and there
Speaker 6: were ideas like we're going to take out these three
Speaker 6: scenes and move all these three scenes together, but they
Speaker 6: were just shifted and he was keeping the script from
Speaker 6: the channel.
Speaker 5: And they had Chris.
Speaker 6: Scott, who was the choreographer who you know, I totally
Speaker 6: admire and who's done Wicked and and you know, he
Speaker 6: was good friends with this director. So I came into
Speaker 6: this situation, which I have to say, it was completely
Speaker 6: There was a lot of the cast it was like
Speaker 6: what's happening?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: And then I just showed up on Monday and basically
Speaker 6: just took it a day at a time and basically
Speaker 6: just sort of prepped and try to put together what
Speaker 6: he had.
Speaker 5: Shot, what had been planned to be shot.
Speaker 6: I tried to There's all issues with the kids because
Speaker 6: they were showing up and not working, and you know,
Speaker 6: to me, I just tried to make it put all
Speaker 6: I could into it. But I did show it too.
Speaker 6: I showed the rough cut to my son, who at
Speaker 6: the time was young, like he's seven or eight and
Speaker 6: a boy, right, and he watched it and put his
Speaker 6: hoodie over his head and oh, Dad.
Speaker 5: Gotta take it. You got to take your name off this.
Speaker 1: Movie, the first Alan Smith in the history of.
Speaker 6: I go, oh, come on, man, you know, like, but
Speaker 6: you know, a lot of the things that are appealing
Speaker 6: to boys in that movie, like.
Speaker 5: The zombieing out and a lot of the effects and
Speaker 5: the world. You know, I don't know. I saw like
Speaker 5: what it could be, and I thought it.
Speaker 6: Was they did something you know, where they just hadn't
Speaker 6: done in other movies where they just they chose a
Speaker 6: color palette, like it or not. You know, it had rules,
Speaker 6: and the world had a definite I could see what
Speaker 6: that world could look like. And they created a world
Speaker 6: of zombies and they had the great mythology to it.
Speaker 6: And so, you know, for me, it was, okay, how
Speaker 6: can we just give this some scope because I think
Speaker 6: at the beginning it just didn't. It had a lot
Speaker 6: of those ideas, but they were like a corner of
Speaker 6: a room, you know, And and so I think what
Speaker 6: we tried to do is really like sort of blow
Speaker 6: out the world and try to just give it scope
Speaker 6: and you know it. There was a moment like the
Speaker 6: comedy was just so interesting and just weird. I like, Trevor,
Speaker 6: I remember, maybe we should just try You need to
Speaker 6: just take it down a notch.
Speaker 5: And let's let's see. You know, you did it for
Speaker 5: me like one take and I go, yeah, just keep
Speaker 5: doing what you're doing.
Speaker 4: Take us to the day.
Speaker 2: How much anxiety did you have when he said, no, Paul,
Speaker 2: I have to be the one that jumps through that
Speaker 2: giant poster.
Speaker 4: It has to be me.
Speaker 2: How well as a director, no, you're not going to
Speaker 2: just like injure yourself.
Speaker 4: Well, we've got so many days left of shooting.
Speaker 2: Look, but it was so good, so well, like well,
Speaker 2: I was fastly.
Speaker 6: Sort of surprised by things that I don't know that
Speaker 6: I necessarily would have gone okay, Because I walked into
Speaker 6: this room that had this big, huge like runway that
Speaker 6: was built like it was thirty yards long, and.
Speaker 5: Two things of this poster that they had printed which
Speaker 5: were huge.
Speaker 6: And boxes set up for to crash into it, and
Speaker 6: I was like, what the hell is this this is
Speaker 6: literally spent all this money just for him to run
Speaker 6: through this post. The whole thing to me was and
Speaker 6: it was a visual effects thing, right because he didn't
Speaker 6: actually jump through.
Speaker 5: He jumped through the size of a thing that was
Speaker 5: his head.
Speaker 6: But then it had to be put on to where
Speaker 6: the poster was actually hanging.
Speaker 5: Oh couldn't. You couldn't actually build it, you know the way, So.
Speaker 4: You definitely mean that. We got to interview him, and honestly,
Speaker 4: I don't know how.
Speaker 2: Long it's lasted, but he absolutely loved and is so
Speaker 2: proud and like that was his favorite thing that he
Speaker 2: did on that first movie, hands down.
Speaker 4: That was it.
Speaker 2: He was like, that was the most amazing thing. I
Speaker 2: cannot believe I convinced.
Speaker 4: Paul to actually let me do it because.
Speaker 2: There was somebody hired to do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he convinced him, Like, no, no, that's got to
Speaker 4: be me.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker 5: I believe it.
Speaker 4: I feel like I couldn't convince you to do anything.
Speaker 4: You were like, are you sure? Like yeah, I got this,
Speaker 4: You're like all right?
Speaker 2: Or he is.
Speaker 5: Either just an incredibly talented guy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And.
Speaker 6: There's always like it's not just that that he does
Speaker 6: that I think it's crazy. It's all the other stuff,
Speaker 6: the tumbling and the flipping, and then you just ask him, oh,
Speaker 6: you need to make an entrance here can you do
Speaker 6: like some back layover thing and then ended with the
Speaker 6: jazz hands.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the movie comes out, it's a smash hit.
Speaker 1: It becomes kind of one of their big tent pole
Speaker 1: franchises for the for the channel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what can we expect from the new one?
Speaker 5: Well, what can I say about? Definitely handoff to some
Speaker 5: younger talent.
Speaker 3: Okay, we've heard, We've heard that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we we have new monsters that we have God,
Speaker 6: I don't know if what I can say, like the
Speaker 6: Super Trouble your Penama.
Speaker 1: The is the the chip the chip in your neck
Speaker 1: from Disney is going to explode?
Speaker 3: Yes, I know.
Speaker 6: We have vampires and we have day Walkers. We have
Speaker 6: two fantastically talented kids. One Frea who's in it is
Speaker 6: She's she's very unexperienced and wonderful and he hasn't done nothing.
Speaker 5: She is a trooper.
Speaker 6: And then Malachi who's on he was on stuck in
Speaker 6: the middle, and I think on the Villains of Valley
Speaker 6: Square that right, also talented, and you know, it's it's
Speaker 6: you know, the idea is we're just trying to grow
Speaker 6: it and I think it's a handoff to sort of
Speaker 6: a new generation of bombies fans.
Speaker 5: And it's a new world. It's a world of vampires
Speaker 5: and day walkers. You know.
Speaker 6: Day walkers control the power of the sun and vampires
Speaker 6: control the power of the wind.
Speaker 5: So they have this elemental thing about and we shot
Speaker 5: it in Zealand.
Speaker 2: Yes, that is so rad.
Speaker 4: I feel like Disney hasn't gone to New Zealand And forever.
Speaker 5: Since Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoffs.
Speaker 4: Really, so you've now gone twice.
Speaker 5: I've gone three times.
Speaker 4: Three times. Where's the third one?
Speaker 5: That was you wish?
Speaker 6: Okay, Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff, and then it was this
Speaker 6: one I tried to get back sooner for because I
Speaker 6: thought zombies. It seems like the right place for zombies
Speaker 6: because it has a little different of a world already.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's a lot of.
Speaker 6: So so I really pushed to go back there, and
Speaker 6: it's changed a lot. But it's a great place to shoot.
Speaker 6: We had a great crew and I think you'll love it.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: It compared to shooting in a vegetarian village, as you
Speaker 2: did in India.
Speaker 4: Do you remember when we went.
Speaker 5: To that the vegetarian village? Wasn't everything vegetarian?
Speaker 4: Didn't we No, there was chicken, chicken, Oh, you're.
Speaker 5: Right, I think we had chicken screws.
Speaker 2: It was when we stayed at that Prince's palace, remember
Speaker 2: he had Oh yeah, I gotta tell a little this story.
Speaker 4: You don't see any of this part in the movie
Speaker 4: at all.
Speaker 2: But we walked into the Prince's palace that we're staying at.
Speaker 2: We're literally staying at this place, and one of the
Speaker 2: rooms was his hunting room, and I just like remember,
Speaker 2: I was like like they were everywhere.
Speaker 5: He had a table.
Speaker 2: Like giant hunts, not not small, not not even buffalo like,
Speaker 2: these things were giantormous. And he had a table that
Speaker 2: was sat on like on animals, like feet, like hoofs
Speaker 2: of different Okay, so we had already had kind of
Speaker 2: different things that would happen with catering.
Speaker 4: The food did not sit well with me anyway.
Speaker 2: So now we now we don't even get to have chicken,
Speaker 2: which was fine sous basically eating peanut butter and apples
Speaker 2: at that point. But we were walking around and this
Speaker 2: place was so it was so such a cool experience.
Speaker 4: It was different. It made some of the things with
Speaker 4: production hard. But the village hadn't had anyone like us around.
Speaker 4: So it's me, Keeli and Adrian walking around and we
Speaker 4: might as well have been purple, pink and blue.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 2: They had never seen someone with blonde hair before. They
Speaker 2: had never seen someone look like Kiley, like our whole
Speaker 2: you know, our whole crew that was from the States
Speaker 2: that was there. The filming for me was just eye
Speaker 2: opening of Wow, we're really going to be in a
Speaker 2: world for Disney that they haven't gone to before, and
Speaker 2: this is going to hopefully open the eyes and you know,
Speaker 2: Disney will hopefully expand here and all this stuff.
Speaker 4: And it just felt like when we were.
Speaker 5: Doing something India Disney Channel.
Speaker 3: So that yeah, yes, geez it, synergy Disney.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 4: It was awesome. It was fun because things just weird
Speaker 4: stuff kept happening.
Speaker 5: Stories could just do it.
Speaker 4: I know they asked me for stories. I'm like, I
Speaker 4: don't think I can tell.
Speaker 6: Any like, but that place, for example, I was like
Speaker 6: dusting off a file folder in my office and we
Speaker 6: had to move out of food I pour for and
Speaker 6: I picked up these pictures of this that location that
Speaker 6: were like in the bottom of a drawer in the desk,
Speaker 6: and I hadn't seen them, and.
Speaker 5: I go, what what is this place? Like, why aren't
Speaker 5: we shooting here?
Speaker 8: Look at this, look at this like courtyard, and and
Speaker 8: you know, the production designer came, you know, I'm coming
Speaker 8: over to see right now and hung up the phone,
Speaker 8: and I was like, like, people wanted to shoot there,
Speaker 8: but there were some politics, yeah, and they couldn't shoot there,
Speaker 8: and so I don't know, we we had to relocate
Speaker 8: and we made it work. And it was like this
Speaker 8: whole long sequence of you guys driving to get there.
Speaker 8: And so as we were driving the whole cast going
Speaker 8: to this location.
Speaker 6: I remember we had this elephant because when you walked
Speaker 6: around there, you saw these things that were amazing, Like
Speaker 6: you really saw women was sorry's carrying thatch on their head.
Speaker 4: And a giant bowl of like cement blocks. Like the
Speaker 4: women were just hardcore.
Speaker 5: They worked on the road.
Speaker 6: They did everything they they and the men sat around
Speaker 6: and smoked and sat at these like checkpoints and pulled
Speaker 6: the arm of.
Speaker 5: The gate up beautiful by for god knows like what
Speaker 5: that job is.
Speaker 6: But anyway, and so on our way there, and I
Speaker 6: don't know if you were there.
Speaker 5: I know you guys were in the car, and we
Speaker 5: did a lot of the driving thing, but.
Speaker 6: We were shooting the points of view, and we had
Speaker 6: this elephant that we that walked like fifteen miles to
Speaker 6: get there.
Speaker 5: And as we were.
Speaker 6: Shooting at this little location that I had perfectly sought out, like, okay,
Speaker 6: if we look this way, this is where the women
Speaker 6: on the sticks, and over here the goats can come,
Speaker 6: and over here the elephant can walk, you know. And
Speaker 6: as we're setting up for this carefully, suddenly over the mountains,
Speaker 6: like two thousand people and I am not exaggerating come.
Speaker 5: Over to watch what's going on down below in this valley.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm like and B like going, tell me what
Speaker 6: do you want to shoot? And I'll like clear them away?
Speaker 6: And I go, it's impossible, this sun setting. We can't
Speaker 6: do anything. So I get in.
Speaker 5: I say, get in the car. So we get in
Speaker 5: the car and I sit on the hood.
Speaker 6: With the camera on my shoulder, and we start to
Speaker 6: drive down the highway and I'm on the foot of
Speaker 6: the car waiting to make a left turn just to
Speaker 6: get off of the highway into the cause I'm figuring like,
Speaker 6: if I just get anywhere, I'm going to see all
Speaker 6: this stuff and it's going to be fine.
Speaker 5: And I go, we turn off the road.
Speaker 6: Right as we turn off the road, I see this
Speaker 6: goat herder with his goat coming down.
Speaker 5: I go, what's roll? And my GANI comes out of
Speaker 5: the car and rolls and.
Speaker 6: I'm literally like filming this thing as like ghosts come down.
Speaker 6: And then we drive by and like, oh look there's
Speaker 6: a woman working in the field. Oh look there's some
Speaker 6: un stacking bricks on the thing. You know.
Speaker 5: Just me like twenty minutes that the sun was like setting,
Speaker 5: you know. And I got back in the car.
Speaker 6: And Donnie like the DB's like, now that's fricking filmmaking.
Speaker 1: Oh well, we are going to have to do an
Speaker 1: entire episode about the Cheetah girls. But for the end
Speaker 1: of this one, if you don't mind, I'm going to
Speaker 1: throw two questions that you're not gonna like to answer,
Speaker 1: because I know they're going to be very difficult, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw out there anyway. I'm gonna put you
Speaker 1: on the spot. The first one is what's your favorite
Speaker 1: d com that you shot?
Speaker 5: Oh my god, I don't think I can. I don't
Speaker 5: even think I can. I can't even answer.
Speaker 6: That because they're also they also want It's like asking like,
Speaker 6: which child is your favorite child?
Speaker 1: But I've been told parents really all do have a
Speaker 1: favorite child, they just don't say it out loud, right,
Speaker 1: I'd be closer.
Speaker 2: How about this, Since you did have kids that did
Speaker 2: grow up obviously watching them because you were a part
Speaker 2: of a lot of them, is there one that your
Speaker 2: kid that was their favorite that you just couldn't seem
Speaker 2: to get away?
Speaker 6: I would think there, let It Shine is one that
Speaker 6: they are huge fans of. And then I would say
Speaker 6: Lucky the Irish. Those are the two.
Speaker 1: Luck of the Irish keeps is at the top of
Speaker 1: most people's It's like, really at the top of a
Speaker 1: lot of.
Speaker 4: People, it really is. And it still plays a lot.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, like it's such a little simple thing too.
Speaker 3: People loved it.
Speaker 1: And then the last question, and again putting you on
Speaker 1: the spot. I won't say favorite because favorite's difficult when
Speaker 1: it comes to talking about people. But what actor did
Speaker 1: you work with that the second you saw him or
Speaker 1: her on screen you.
Speaker 3: Knew this person was going to be a superstar.
Speaker 4: Oh I hope I know this one for you, not me.
Speaker 6: You already you were already doesn't wow that I knew
Speaker 6: they were going to be a superstar. I don't, well, Shia,
Speaker 6: I knew.
Speaker 3: I was wondering if you were going to say Shia.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think because I remember Gary called me
Speaker 6: and said, what do you think about this kid? I go,
Speaker 6: I think he's freaking awesome. I think you we should
Speaker 6: do something with him, for sure, you know, I don't gosh,
Speaker 6: I don't know, Sabrina, who what.
Speaker 5: Were you gonna?
Speaker 4: I would think it would be Milo.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Milo's pretty, he's he stole that movie.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's phenomenal.
Speaker 2: I mean, and it's the second he gets on camera
Speaker 2: that you're like, whoa, Yeah, well, I'm.
Speaker 5: Glad you had that of Milo and I were not always.
Speaker 1: Like okay, fair enough, fair enough, some of the greatest relationships.
Speaker 5: I mean, my god, he's awesome and he's super talented.
Speaker 6: Like I'm not taking anything away from that, but he
Speaker 6: had never done a movie or anything, yeah at all?
Speaker 2: Yeah, or he just seems like a leading man and
Speaker 2: he can dance and sing, I mean, and he's great
Speaker 2: at it. I think he's one of the best that
Speaker 2: the channels seen in that aspect. So, I mean he
Speaker 2: was really great. Again this is and I know I
Speaker 2: didn't say it yet, but Will told you is. I
Speaker 2: loved the movie so much that first one. I haven't
Speaker 2: seen the second one. I had never seen the first one, right,
Speaker 2: I loved it so much, And I was like, Will.
Speaker 4: If he does like this movie, I swear god I did.
Speaker 3: I loved it. I thought it was great, super entertaining.
Speaker 4: You made him a fan of musicals, Paul. Something I
Speaker 4: thought you did it would never happen.
Speaker 3: You did it.
Speaker 5: Well, especially that one. I would be surprised.
Speaker 6: I would be like, oh, you like all these other
Speaker 6: movies like Hair, and you didn't like watch the like those?
Speaker 3: Now I was.
Speaker 1: I liked West Side Story because I was a huge
Speaker 1: Natalie I had a big crush on Natalie would so
Speaker 1: and so West Side Story I liked.
Speaker 3: And I mean, I guess technically it's a musical.
Speaker 1: Willie Wanka and Chocolate Factory is one of my favorite
Speaker 1: movies of all times.
Speaker 3: So Jeane Wilder can do no wrong.
Speaker 5: In my eyes, you have it in your heart.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 3: I think I just don't have it in my feet.
Speaker 5: Jean Wilder and very similar and west Side story. Zombie
Speaker 5: is one is the same story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we're so stoked to see the second, and
Speaker 2: yeah we can and the whole franchise, because if this
Speaker 2: isn't even the first one, isn't even your favorite, it's like,
Speaker 2: oh god, what is about to hit us?
Speaker 4: Like, oh my gosh, it's going to be so.
Speaker 8: Good, guys, like the other ones.
Speaker 6: I'm sure the two especially, you know, we got to
Speaker 6: start at the beginning and right, it's good. I think
Speaker 6: two is a lot of people's favorite.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, well, last question.
Speaker 1: Has there ever been an idea for a dcom that
Speaker 1: you had that you wanted to do?
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, several of them I had. I just recently
Speaker 6: pitched The Luck of the Irish Too, which I loved,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, god, I just wanted to write anything.
Speaker 3: Looky theirs two would be great.
Speaker 6: So fine, Yeah, but the rules of the channel sort of,
Speaker 6: I did. I have a synchronized swimming movie which I
Speaker 6: thought I saw the Spanish team like on those some
Speaker 6: Olympics like a few years ago, and so we pitched
Speaker 6: the Sink or Swim, And then I had another Mermaid movie,
Speaker 6: which you know, so there's several of them that I
Speaker 6: keep pitching that I want to do and we'll just see.
Speaker 5: I still believe in them.
Speaker 6: But you know, right now the channel is well of
Speaker 6: the channel, it's really Disney branded television.
Speaker 5: They are all going through, you know, changes.
Speaker 3: The whole industry really is going through these changes.
Speaker 6: So yeah, so it's so they need to figure out
Speaker 6: what they want to do. And I don't think this
Speaker 6: is the death of children's programming by any means, but
Speaker 6: it's definitely a reset and a recalibration of of you
Speaker 6: know what, you know, what's the possibilities because that was
Speaker 6: definitely the golden age of programming and I don't think
Speaker 6: that it's over with, but.
Speaker 5: There's hunger for it and we'll just have to see
Speaker 5: how it goes.
Speaker 2: Or I told you, if there's a Grandma cheerleader or
Speaker 2: something needed in the Zombie seven, I'm there's five.
Speaker 4: I don't care whatever one it is, I'm I'm down.
Speaker 2: He's like, I don't think you're ready for grandma stuff yet.
Speaker 5: I know for sure you're not ready for No.
Speaker 1: Definitely, Hey, if you ever need anybody who can either
Speaker 1: sing nor dance, I'm your guy. I'm telling you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us busy.
Speaker 3: This has been so cool.
Speaker 1: I hope you don't mind, but we would love to
Speaker 1: have you back sometime to continue the conversation because there's
Speaker 1: just so much.
Speaker 4: To cover, so many of your movies we haven't seen yet.
Speaker 3: I know, I know, we can't wait, we can't wait long.
Speaker 5: Hopefully after you watch them you go like we were
Speaker 5: totally wrong.
Speaker 1: Wow, we don't need to talk to about Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, welcome, thanks, bye bye. It's just it's one
Speaker 1: after another, one after another, tent pole movie, smaller movie,
Speaker 1: giant movie, media movie. I mean, it's like when you
Speaker 1: can say you've done just just running the DCM gam it,
Speaker 1: when you can say you've done Look of the Irish
Speaker 1: and Zombies, it's like, man and then oh yeah, by
Speaker 1: the way, one of the Cheetahirls movie, it's like, come on, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, and how amazing is it? And I mean, definitely
Speaker 2: would that's hard. We didn't even ask him this question
Speaker 2: about coming into the Cheetah Girls on their third movie
Speaker 2: or Camp Rock on their second movie. How much the
Speaker 2: channel had to have believed in him and been knew
Speaker 2: or even what they especially what they did with zombies
Speaker 2: one knowing Okay, this isn't working out.
Speaker 4: This is the guy. This is the guy that we
Speaker 4: can pull in, not lose all this money and keep
Speaker 4: this production going.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like su Kreeger right where it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of like, we need somebody to write that's your guy.
Speaker 3: We need somebody to direct, that's your guy. Like that's it.
Speaker 1: It seems like they act knew what they had and
Speaker 1: that's the person that I.
Speaker 2: Love knowing just knowing him again, and he touched on
Speaker 2: it a little bit of how he would go in
Speaker 2: there and fight for his how he felt the movies
Speaker 2: would be better and the storylines would be better, and yeah,
Speaker 2: and you know, always with a big heart and everything,
Speaker 2: but like to know that like your director would fight
Speaker 2: for your character that way.
Speaker 4: That's why so many of the actors we've talked to
Speaker 4: already that have worked with him love working with him
Speaker 4: because the level of trust that you have in your director.
Speaker 3: Well, he's an actor's director, you can tell.
Speaker 1: Just for the thing he was saying where it's like,
Speaker 1: now I care more about the relationships and why are
Speaker 1: you what are you afraid of right now?
Speaker 3: What are you thinking right now? That's an actor's director.
Speaker 1: That's that's the director you pray you get on the
Speaker 1: set where yes, I can do the visual stuff and
Speaker 1: I'm very good at the visual stuff, but let's talk
Speaker 1: about your performance and what you're feeling and how that's
Speaker 1: Oh God, you pray for that every day as an act.
Speaker 2: And I think I think one of the interviews we
Speaker 2: had said like they'd.
Speaker 4: Be like, oh no, Paul, I think I could do
Speaker 4: it again. He's like, Nope, you got it. Like you did.
Speaker 2: It's like you're good, and that right there gives you
Speaker 2: confidence of going that far or whatever, you know. And yeah,
Speaker 2: So I loved working with him, and like he said,
Speaker 2: there's just probably too many stories to talk about.
Speaker 3: Oh man.
Speaker 1: It also seems like these are stories where you need
Speaker 1: to go have dinner with them because you probably It's like,
Speaker 1: here's stories we can't really talk about on the pod,
Speaker 1: but here's what happened.
Speaker 4: They're not bad.
Speaker 2: It's just that we're filming a Disney version of India
Speaker 2: pretty much. And the same time our movie came out
Speaker 2: was when slum Dog Millionaire came right, right. But the
Speaker 2: filming process of it was it was pretty tough. You know,
Speaker 2: I imagine coming against quite a bunch of things that
Speaker 2: were just popping up on.
Speaker 1: A daily so man, awesome conversation. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: Paul Holan for joining us. That was really cool and
Speaker 1: I'm you know, absolutely want to have him back on
Speaker 1: the show. And thank you all for joining us to
Speaker 1: get again a little bit of a glimpse behind the
Speaker 1: curtain to see how some of these awesome movies are made.
Speaker 1: We can't wait, so join us next time over on
Speaker 1: the other feed as we talk about I don't even
Speaker 1: know what our next movie is going to be over there?
Speaker 3: Is it is Get a Clue? Next over there? Probably?
Speaker 3: I don't think it is.
Speaker 4: I think that's the next one.
Speaker 1: Lindsey Lohans Get a Clue, which was one so well fun.
Speaker 3: Well we'll talk about it. Yikes. Go back over and
Speaker 3: check us out, and thank you all for joining us.
Speaker 3: We will see you next time. Bye.