Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in
Speaker 1: which we speak with some of the brightest minds working
Speaker 1: in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with variety.
Speaker 1: Ryan Khalil and Blake Griffin are well known as professional
Speaker 1: athletes in the NFL and NBA, respectively, but they're also
Speaker 1: making a name for themselves off the field as partners
Speaker 1: of their own production company here in Hollywood. Today on
Speaker 1: the Strictly Business podcast, the two way threats behind Mortal
Speaker 1: Media are here to talk about finding success in a
Speaker 1: whole new arena. Right after the break, and we're back
Speaker 1: with Blake Griffin, he is still with the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: going into his fifteenth year in the league, and Ryan Khalil,
Speaker 1: who in enjoyed a thirteen year career mostly with the
Speaker 1: NFL's Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 2: Together, they've produced.
Speaker 1: A whole bunch of TV shows and movies, most recently
Speaker 1: including a reboot of the movie White Men Can't Jump
Speaker 1: for Hulu and the series Hello Tomorrow for Apple TV.
Speaker 2: Plus.
Speaker 3: Thanks for coming in, guys, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks for having us. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: First off, Mortal Media, explain that name? Where did that come?
Speaker 1: From you guys are immortal athletes' what's that about?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 3: I think you know, I think it's rare for athletes
Speaker 3: to have long careers, and Blake and I, as long
Speaker 3: as we've known each other, we always knew that going
Speaker 3: into this business, and so I think for us it
Speaker 3: was pretty apparent that recognizing our mortality in the game
Speaker 3: of football and basketball was a good reminder for how
Speaker 3: rare and how special those experiences and those careers were
Speaker 3: and are and still are.
Speaker 2: So made the most sense for us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the beauty of sports is you know, when
Speaker 4: your career ends, you're still somewhat young, so that mortality
Speaker 4: in a certain field doesn't necessarily mean the mortality for
Speaker 4: your future. So early on we always talked about having
Speaker 4: having our second life after our sports and I love
Speaker 4: the name. I think it makes sense. But people we
Speaker 4: always get that question. But it's also kind of fun
Speaker 4: being able to answer it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: The big difference between you guys, of course, is Blake
Speaker 1: you are still in the game, Ryan retired. Is there
Speaker 1: a difference there when it comes to operating a business
Speaker 1: like this. I mean, Blake, you're in the off season
Speaker 1: right now, but you know NBA will be coming up
Speaker 1: in what October and summer league's going on right now.
Speaker 1: So is there a difference in how you do your thing?
Speaker 4: Yeah, very different. I mean when we first started, we
Speaker 4: were obviously both playing, but the off seasons sort of
Speaker 4: offset each other. So it was kind of nice, like
Speaker 4: one of us was a little bit off and then
Speaker 4: the other one was off. So now, you know, really
Speaker 4: with our schedule, it feels like we play every other day.
Speaker 4: So it's been great since Ryan retired that he's just
Speaker 4: he's just been there and he's been sort of like
Speaker 4: leading the ship that way, And for me, I just
Speaker 4: try to find times here and there. You know, sometimes
Speaker 4: it might be a game day, you might have thirty
Speaker 4: minutes for a call, but you get a lot done
Speaker 4: on the road, or you get a lot done on
Speaker 4: off days.
Speaker 3: I'm also really sensitive of his schedule too, almost to
Speaker 3: a fault where he's like, no, it's fine, don't worry
Speaker 3: about it. But I'll be like, don't bother blake with
Speaker 3: that during the playoffs right now, I don't he can.
Speaker 3: We can deal with that on Monday, and and so
Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's tough when you're deep in the season. Obviously,
Speaker 3: off season makes it a lot easier to work on
Speaker 3: things and develop. But also this business is it's a
Speaker 3: lot of hurry up and wait, So you are getting
Speaker 3: into things and then it takes a long time to bake,
Speaker 3: and you're waiting on a lot of stuff. So it
Speaker 3: makes it easier in that respect to you know, if
Speaker 3: you can find windows where you're hustling really hard, there's
Speaker 3: also a lull that gives you the ability to take
Speaker 3: a breather and step away, And so I think it
Speaker 3: ends up working out.
Speaker 1: So take me back to the origin story of Mortal Media.
Speaker 1: When did you guys start up? How did you guys
Speaker 1: meet up?
Speaker 3: Blake and I know each other through mutual friends for
Speaker 3: some time, and then we both had a mutual relationship
Speaker 3: and Thomas Toll, who founded Legendary Pictures.
Speaker 2: Sure, and.
Speaker 3: You know, we had both been respectably hustling around town
Speaker 3: trying to network, meet up with people really understand the
Speaker 3: business and be sponges in the offseason, and Thomas didn't
Speaker 3: know we were friends and sort of suggested, Hey, I've
Speaker 3: met with a lot of athletes who liked the idea
Speaker 3: of the movie business, but more so putting their name
Speaker 3: on a poster and you and Blake are one of
Speaker 3: the few that really talk about it with a real
Speaker 3: passion and.
Speaker 2: Wanting it to be a follow up career.
Speaker 3: And he goes, you know, I think it would be
Speaker 3: interesting if you guys did it together. And so I
Speaker 3: called Blake and we were both laughing the fact that
Speaker 3: we didn't know each other. We're pursuing that, And so
Speaker 3: we got together, had dinner and really talked about what
Speaker 3: it could be, what it would look like, how we
Speaker 3: would do it differently. You know, our biggest thing was
Speaker 3: the athlete stigma, sort of what Thomas had suggested most
Speaker 3: athletes want to do in this in this industry. So
Speaker 3: we talked a lot about how can we pursue it
Speaker 3: in a way where we can do it under the radar,
Speaker 3: put our head down, not not have it be a
Speaker 3: vanity project for us, and and really do it in
Speaker 3: a sincere way. And and so that's what we did.
Speaker 3: We we we started in our respective off seasons really
Speaker 3: just going to different places, interning, meeting with different folks,
Speaker 3: finding mentors, and really trying to hone in how.
Speaker 2: We could sort of.
Speaker 3: Catch up on a lot of inexperience but also find
Speaker 3: ways in which we could innovate or make a big splash.
Speaker 1: But wait, how does this star athlete intern? Because that,
Speaker 1: to me, that's TV show by the way, in and
Speaker 1: of itself. How do you intern?
Speaker 3: Well, it's easier for me, I just look like a
Speaker 3: really big intern. For him, it's a little bit harder.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a much more recognizable name and face.
Speaker 3: But he's done it. I know you did it with
Speaker 3: Funnier Yeah, yeah, I don't know. It's mine was like
Speaker 3: a crash course internship. I think it was two weeks long.
Speaker 3: But I like grew up in that kind of era
Speaker 3: when Funnier Die sort of took off and they were
Speaker 3: making unbelievable videos and I think I had shot something
Speaker 3: with them before and we just started talking about how
Speaker 3: much I love comedy and all that, and they said,
Speaker 3: why don't you come by? And it's funny now because
Speaker 3: I'll run into people who are like, hey, you know,
Speaker 3: we were in the same intern class on your Die
Speaker 3: and they're you know, working in comedy, the Riders whatever,
Speaker 3: so we've we've kind of got different passions there. But
Speaker 3: I don't know, it just it's for me just sort
Speaker 3: of started with every time I wanted to do it,
Speaker 3: or I had to do a commercial or whatever it was.
Speaker 3: I always wanted to be funny, and so after a
Speaker 3: first round of commercials that I did with a car company, Kia,
Speaker 3: I asked if I could like sit in while we
Speaker 3: wrote or while the ad agency wrote, and then sort
Speaker 3: of gained more and more creative control. And that was
Speaker 3: kind of what interest got me interested in this.
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting about you, Blake, and I remember those
Speaker 1: Kia commercials. Is you've always been I think you've obviously
Speaker 1: you've got an interest in producing and the creative side,
Speaker 1: but you're kind of a performer. You've done stand up
Speaker 1: a lot. Has that faded for you over time? Are
Speaker 1: you still interested in that stuff too?
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say I'm so interested. It was something really
Speaker 4: fun to do. From time to time, I would do
Speaker 4: a TV show or a movie here and there, and
Speaker 4: then I did stand up. I've loved stand up since
Speaker 4: I was a kid. And got presented with the opportunity
Speaker 4: to go to Just for Last festival in Montreal and
Speaker 4: hosts a show called Midnight Surprise where the audience doesn't
Speaker 4: know who the the meetings that are coming up, but
Speaker 4: they just know that I'm hosting it, and I said yes,
Speaker 4: thinging like, oh, I just got to go up and
Speaker 4: you know, thank you guys for coming, blah blah blah,
Speaker 4: and I committed to it and they were like, all right,
Speaker 4: so we just need like eight to ten minutes up
Speaker 4: top from you. And I was like, oh, okay, all right,
Speaker 4: So I got to go like write all this stand up.
Speaker 4: But a long time before that, I think after my
Speaker 4: rookie year, i'd met a comedian a good friend of mine,
Speaker 4: Neil Brennan, and he encouraged me to just start writing
Speaker 4: down thoughts and like writing down maybe they're not jokes yet,
Speaker 4: but their thoughts that I thought were funny and could eventually,
Speaker 4: you know, put those together. So I have this whole
Speaker 4: notes folder on my phone of just like random thoughts.
Speaker 4: Some work out, some don't. So I just like went
Speaker 4: to work, wrote about ten minutes and I did it
Speaker 4: like six nights in a row, just for last But
Speaker 4: that's not something I'm gonna do in the future or forever.
Speaker 4: It was just a really cool experience, sort of like
Speaker 4: an internship, where you go into something that's completely new
Speaker 4: to you and you walk away and you feel like
Speaker 4: you have a new tool under your belt. So I've
Speaker 4: leaned on some of those experiences throughout my life, honestly
Speaker 4: since I've since I've done that.
Speaker 1: See, I would imagine the athlete producer is a double
Speaker 1: edged sword. On the one hand, you guys being athletes,
Speaker 1: it's going to open a lot of doors people want
Speaker 1: to meet you. On the other hand, I wonder if
Speaker 1: you're going to be taken seriously do you encounter that?
Speaker 4: That was something we talked about, you know, when we
Speaker 4: first started talking about starting this company. Was the reason
Speaker 4: we didn't want to just announce right away that we
Speaker 4: started production company. We wanted to just go meet with people.
Speaker 4: We wanted to make the phone call to try to
Speaker 4: get a meeting with them, and then our whole like
Speaker 4: goal and it probably was like some sort of our
Speaker 4: weird competitiveness that we have athletes where you want to
Speaker 4: show people that this is something you really like and
Speaker 4: something you are passionate about, not just wanting to slap
Speaker 4: your name on.
Speaker 3: I think for a lot of athletes or people of
Speaker 3: recognition like Blake, you know, there is sort of an
Speaker 3: expectation that that person might make some kind of appearance
Speaker 3: in the thing to help give it notoriety or at
Speaker 3: least at the very least, you know, whether it's social
Speaker 3: media or they're using their following to help amplify whatever
Speaker 3: that project is. And so for us, we really tried
Speaker 3: to do the work and explore and develop things that
Speaker 3: would be separate from that expectation and make that pretty
Speaker 3: transparent early on, and so I think we knew it
Speaker 3: was going to take some time. So yeah, I think
Speaker 3: at the top there is a stigma that we were
Speaker 3: kind of fighting. But then I think the more we
Speaker 3: were showing the work we were putting out, and you know,
Speaker 3: being a producer is a lot like being a GM
Speaker 3: we're sort of putting all the pieces together. The more
Speaker 3: we were able to show the studios or the networks
Speaker 3: that we had, the you know, we had the ability
Speaker 3: to do that and to put those things together, the
Speaker 3: more serious we were being taken. And obviously, over time
Speaker 3: you naturally build relationships and there's more trust involved, and
Speaker 3: so it makes it easier and easier. And so we
Speaker 3: knew the long game was we were going to be
Speaker 3: like rookies again, and we were going to be hustling
Speaker 3: and grinding, and while we were trying to get away
Speaker 3: from the athlete stigma. I also feel like we leaned
Speaker 3: into it in the sense of, you know, we wanted
Speaker 3: to show we had great work ethic. We wanted to
Speaker 3: show we had resiliency, especially in a town that sort
Speaker 3: of rejects you a ton. So we have the experience
Speaker 3: of failing time and time again and getting back on
Speaker 3: the horse and smiling and getting back into the fray.
Speaker 2: And we also.
Speaker 3: We're very competitive, and that we love when agents or
Speaker 3: studios would tell us you can ever get that done.
Speaker 3: That's never going to happen, you know, hang tight, dumb jocks,
Speaker 3: that's let the grown ups do this, and so we
Speaker 3: always we just love that so much, and it just
Speaker 3: it really gave us. You know, you hear athletes talk
Speaker 3: about it using their hater juice or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: But we we had a form of that that we
Speaker 3: were like, Okay, we'll prove you wrong.
Speaker 2: We'll show you this is how you can do it.
Speaker 3: And so and that also gave us the ability to
Speaker 3: really think outside the box because we had a lot
Speaker 3: of people say, well, this is how it's done, and
Speaker 3: we'd ask questions like, well, why is that, and nobody
Speaker 3: would have a great answer. It's just well, this is
Speaker 3: just how it's always been done. So we thought, okay,
Speaker 3: well we'll lean into the fact that we're outsiders and
Speaker 3: we can play dumb and act like we didn't know
Speaker 3: that you couldn't do it that way or you could
Speaker 3: do it this way.
Speaker 2: And so we were we were able to have success
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 3: And then the more we met with mentors or people
Speaker 3: that we really looked up to and we got to
Speaker 3: hear their stories, the more we started figuring out, well,
Speaker 3: a lot of these people who were really successful were
Speaker 3: mavericks or they sort of went against the grain or
Speaker 3: didn't do things the way it's traditionally done. And so
Speaker 3: we've continued to kind of think that way, although it's
Speaker 3: harder now that we have some we have some things
Speaker 3: made under our belt to play dumb, you know, because
Speaker 3: we've been in it for a minute now. But we're
Speaker 3: continuing to find ways to think differently and you know,
Speaker 3: make a splash where nobody else is.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think keeping that like mindset to is super important.
Speaker 4: You know, you when you start out, you don't know much.
Speaker 4: And then just in our six years or so, we've learned,
Speaker 4: we've learned some and like Ryan said, we've tried to
Speaker 4: put our head down and show our work ethic, and
Speaker 4: you almost get to the point where you sort of
Speaker 4: know sort of the unwritten rules, you know, how things work.
Speaker 4: And so I had a thought the other day where
Speaker 4: it was kind of like, man, I wish I wish
Speaker 4: I didn't know now what I didn't know then, you know,
Speaker 4: because you have to just keep reminding yourself to like
Speaker 4: keep that same mindset of like make the call. Like
Speaker 4: you maybe you're supposed to go do this like hierarchy
Speaker 4: and call this person, but sometimes if you want to
Speaker 4: get something done, you're passionate about something, you make the
Speaker 4: call and you have to We have to make those decisions,
Speaker 4: you know, in real time what's what's right and what's
Speaker 4: quote unquote wrong. But I think throughout our career, I
Speaker 4: hope we keep your mind it's ourselves of like the beginning,
Speaker 4: you know, and we just put our heads down and
Speaker 4: went to work.
Speaker 1: You know, it's almost now something of a cliche in
Speaker 1: terms of the producer athlete. You know Lebron James, Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: you know, your your old Clipper running buddy, Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: You know, do you guys ever compare notes? Is there
Speaker 1: something to be or is it when you think when
Speaker 1: you talk about mentors, is it people who aren't even
Speaker 1: in the game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say people outside of the game. You know,
Speaker 4: everybody has their own style, everybody has their own way
Speaker 4: of going about going about this. But you're so right,
Speaker 4: there's now when people are always like, what are you
Speaker 4: going to do after basketball? I'm always kind of like, like,
Speaker 4: I gotta say, like a started production company just because
Speaker 4: people roll their eyes at you. I'm super proud out
Speaker 4: of the fact that we did. But it's the same thing.
Speaker 4: It's the oh, another athlete startup production company. So I
Speaker 4: sort of give him like the quick, like one minute,
Speaker 4: thirty second spiel of like how we started and the
Speaker 4: way we approached it. But for the most part, we've
Speaker 4: met so many great people, especially early on and now
Speaker 4: with more, more and more projects we get under our belt,
Speaker 4: more people, the more people we have in our rolodex
Speaker 4: and are able to lean on, and people if you
Speaker 4: show that you're passionate about it and you care, people
Speaker 4: are very willing to help. And that's been a huge
Speaker 4: help for us.
Speaker 3: For me.
Speaker 1: After the break more with Ryan Khalil and Blake Griffin
Speaker 1: and we're back with Blake Griffin and Ryan Khalil, guys.
Speaker 1: I think people would be shocked at just the sheer
Speaker 1: volume of projects that you guys have gone in TV
Speaker 1: and movies, and so I want to walk through a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff, starting with the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: I believe earlier this year you signed a find first
Speaker 1: Look deal with Sony, which I think obviously was probably
Speaker 1: a big deal for you. Uh how does that change
Speaker 1: the game for Mortal Media.
Speaker 3: I think it gives us. It gives us a willing
Speaker 3: partner in a studio that's aligned with us creatively and
Speaker 3: allows us to have a shorthand and sort of get
Speaker 3: quicker through the development process and maybe also at production
Speaker 3: just because we're there on a lot and we're with
Speaker 3: a ton of really talented, smart people who like the
Speaker 3: stuff that we're cooking up, so, you know, versus free
Speaker 3: agents where you're sort of rustle your run around town,
Speaker 3: you're you know, you do the gauntlet, you're trying to
Speaker 3: find a home for something. So I think that will
Speaker 3: be that will be a huge bonus for us. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: the timing of the deal is right in the middle
Speaker 3: of a writers' strike, so that's been tough. But it's
Speaker 3: given us an opportunity to refocus on a lot of
Speaker 3: our unscripted things, and obviously sports unscripted is an obvious
Speaker 3: path for us given our backgrounds, and that's been both
Speaker 3: fun and also challenging because there's a huge market for it,
Speaker 3: but there's also a really crowded market, and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of stuff that's been done already and a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff that's trying to be done. So, you know,
Speaker 3: it starts with us finding something that we're really excited about,
Speaker 3: whether it's a story or a series that we want
Speaker 3: to we want to tell. But then there's a new
Speaker 3: challenge of finding a way that it hasn't been done yet,
Speaker 3: or finding a way that might be as interesting too,
Speaker 3: you know, to an audience that it.
Speaker 2: Is to us.
Speaker 1: Anything you could talk about yet.
Speaker 2: No, nothing yet.
Speaker 3: I mean there's a there's a couple of projects, you know,
Speaker 3: we just got there. So it's only been a few
Speaker 3: more Yeah, it's only been a few months. But we
Speaker 3: have about four or five projects that we're really excited
Speaker 3: about and that we're working on, and yeah, we'll have
Speaker 3: more on that soon.
Speaker 1: And of course, you guys brought white men can't jump
Speaker 1: the reboot to Hulu. You know, a classic sports movie.
Speaker 1: What was it like to get that?
Speaker 2: IP?
Speaker 1: I would imagine it wasn't easy.
Speaker 4: No, No. We first had a conversation about this twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: I believe it was yoah twenty sixteen. Yeah, and we
Speaker 4: went to we had a general meeting with Kenya Bears,
Speaker 4: who was the producer on White Men Can't Jump, and
Speaker 4: just talked about anything and everything, kind of softly pitched
Speaker 4: in the idea of like what would White Men Can't
Speaker 4: Jump look like today? And I think that was the
Speaker 4: sort of the thing that got him, because you know,
Speaker 4: White Men Can't Jump the original coming out in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety two, this is before the Dream Team of takes
Speaker 4: basketball to a global stage and since then. I'm incredibly biased,
Speaker 4: but I think the NBA has grown more since then
Speaker 4: than any of the major sports, at least globally, and
Speaker 4: becoming so many, so many other countries and people are now,
Speaker 4: you know, on the other side of the world are
Speaker 4: fans of basketball. So and even beyond that, fashion obviously
Speaker 4: ever evolving, and you know the fact that still today
Speaker 4: we're still having the same conversations about race. Things have progressed,
Speaker 4: but things still needed to move forward, and just in
Speaker 4: the title, it gives you a chance to talk about that.
Speaker 4: And it was a long process. You know, we can
Speaker 4: you call this back I think a month later maybe,
Speaker 4: And it was like, hey, I couldn't say this at
Speaker 4: the time, but have a deal at Fox where we're
Speaker 4: gonna do five movies. I want this to be the
Speaker 4: first one, and we're so excited. Go off, get a
Speaker 4: script done, rumblings of a Fox, Disney, Disney takeover a Fox,
Speaker 4: and like, okay, we'll kind of wait. It's like Ryan
Speaker 4: said earlier, it's just a lot of like get this done,
Speaker 4: hurry up, talk about it, get excited. Wait. And then
Speaker 4: that took maybe I don't know, two and a half,
Speaker 4: three years maybe. Then you get on the other side
Speaker 4: and you're like, is this project still going? You don't
Speaker 4: know what exec's going to be assigned to this project.
Speaker 4: And then finally get through that process and rewrites and director,
Speaker 4: and I remember the first day of shooting, I was like, wow, like,
Speaker 4: actually this actually happened. So it was it was a
Speaker 4: long wait, but it was super worth it, and I'm
Speaker 4: glad we got to talk about this the same topic,
Speaker 4: these same topics again, and.
Speaker 1: You guys have another interesting reboot set up at Disney
Speaker 1: in The Rocketeer with David I looo again, how do
Speaker 1: you get your hands on such an interesting, cherished piece
Speaker 1: of ip like that?
Speaker 3: That was all Ryan, Well, you gotta be a fan
Speaker 3: of the property first, and then there has to be
Speaker 3: a good reason to remy I would say, like for
Speaker 3: White Men Can't Jump. I remember initially it was more
Speaker 3: the abstract thought when we talked about recapturing. I don't
Speaker 3: think we ever set out to remake a classic, but
Speaker 3: there was just too much of that that was in
Speaker 3: the spirit of that movie that just made too much sense.
Speaker 3: And I think the same with The Rocketeer, which is
Speaker 3: just recapturing some of the fun of that cult movie
Speaker 3: and then the idea that it was a dormant property
Speaker 3: and the studios are really keen on finding something that
Speaker 3: has a built in audience that can mitigate some of
Speaker 3: the risk of making.
Speaker 2: A big movie like that.
Speaker 3: For us, it was just it was an exciting opportunity
Speaker 3: but also a dunting one. And so I think a
Speaker 3: combination of a take that they liked and just the
Speaker 3: pure sincere fandom of it got them excited and nobody
Speaker 3: was really had their hand up. And so I think,
Speaker 3: you know, part of producing is sort of doing the
Speaker 3: dirty work and trying to find out the politics of
Speaker 3: certain projects or studios and what's happening, what they're looking for,
Speaker 3: uh you know, uh, who's going where, what's involved with
Speaker 3: who's involved with what, And so there's a there's a
Speaker 3: whole ton of there's a there's a lot of groundwork
Speaker 3: that needs to be laid out first in terms of
Speaker 3: setting up what the correct political path is before you
Speaker 3: even get to the idea, because it is such a
Speaker 3: fragile path to get to. And so for us, it
Speaker 3: was recognizing the I P and then finding out what
Speaker 3: was the cleanest path to try to convince the studio
Speaker 3: to let some inexperienced former athletes, current athletes, uh get
Speaker 3: a hand, get their hands on this property and and
Speaker 3: do right by it. And so so yeah, I you know,
Speaker 3: going back to what we were talking about before, the
Speaker 3: athlete of it all, I think it's it's helped us
Speaker 3: get in the doors, but it's still there's still a
Speaker 3: level of talent that has to take place. And so
Speaker 3: and Blake and I are finally are Blake and I
Speaker 3: are constantly trying to figure out where our talents.
Speaker 2: Lie and where tastes lie. I think we have good tastes.
Speaker 3: I think we have an acumen for this that makes
Speaker 3: us good partners. And finding the idea either coming up
Speaker 3: with it in house or collaborating with a writer or
Speaker 3: another producer, and seeing it from start to finish, and
Speaker 3: again just knowing that it's going to be a hard, long,
Speaker 3: uphill battle and staying at it. And so to the
Speaker 3: point a white man can't jump years and years of development.
Speaker 3: And it's a lot of like getting excited, and it's
Speaker 3: kind of like that scene in Swingers where they get
Speaker 3: in the car and they're like Vegas, Baby, Vegas, and
Speaker 3: then it cuts to them like an hour in the
Speaker 3: car and.
Speaker 2: It's kind of Vegas.
Speaker 3: Making movies and TV shows is a lot like that,
Speaker 3: And so you have to really have the ability to
Speaker 3: keep the excitement and energy up on something that you're
Speaker 3: just constantly knocking on the door trying to get over
Speaker 3: the finish line. And so Rocketeer's probably been one of
Speaker 3: our longest ones.
Speaker 4: That was one of the first properties we talked about, yeah,
Speaker 4: when we when we sat down originally to talk about
Speaker 4: starting this company.
Speaker 2: But it's funny.
Speaker 3: We we we came up with a take, obviously being fans,
Speaker 3: and we imbued it with a lot of visuals that
Speaker 3: we thought would really help sell it. And then we
Speaker 3: found a producer. We found a producer that we thought
Speaker 3: would be a really great partner and that Disney like
Speaker 3: that would help sort of bridge the gap of our
Speaker 3: inexperience and having you know, quote unquote an adult on
Speaker 3: the project. And then we pitched it, and then we
Speaker 3: found out that nobody had really been doing anything with it.
Speaker 3: You know, you can you can really make a lot
Speaker 3: of phone calls with insiders either at the studio or agencies,
Speaker 3: and really do a lot of due diligence in finding
Speaker 3: out who's involved with what and where do things lie,
Speaker 3: and then you can really kind of make a calculated
Speaker 3: you can make a calculated sort of gamble on how
Speaker 3: to go about it. And for that one, we really
Speaker 3: kind of want them over with our passion. And then
Speaker 3: it's just been it's been one of those journeys where
Speaker 3: it's it's been good enough for them to keep going,
Speaker 3: but not great to get it over the finish line.
Speaker 3: And so we've we've had ups and downs in the
Speaker 3: development process of it, but it's been it's been really
Speaker 3: it's one of those projects that we we still love
Speaker 3: and we think there's an audience for and we're just
Speaker 3: we're just continuing to chip away at it. And we
Speaker 3: have some news coming up. It's one of those things
Speaker 3: that just won't die.
Speaker 2: It is. It's uh, it's been something.
Speaker 3: That we we've we've really put a lot of heart
Speaker 3: into and so we have some news that hopefully coming
Speaker 3: out of the writer's strike we'll be able to share.
Speaker 3: But yeah, more exciting stuff on that to come.
Speaker 1: Does being producing partners mean you guys have to have
Speaker 1: identical tastes, identical skills or is it about being complimentary somehow?
Speaker 1: And to some degree that question reminds me of like sports,
Speaker 1: where you know, I think about the Celtics and people's
Speaker 1: always talking about Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. How do
Speaker 1: they compliment each other? You know, are they doing the
Speaker 1: same things? That kind of thing?
Speaker 4: I mean, I think like a lot of is like
Speaker 4: any relationship or any team experience, Like there's trust. There's
Speaker 4: a certain amount of trust that's involved. We do align
Speaker 4: in our taste a lot, but there's there could be
Speaker 4: I don't think there's been yet, but there could be
Speaker 4: a time where I'm like, I just I don't get it.
Speaker 4: But if he's like I love this, do it, you know,
Speaker 4: like there's no there's no there's no stopping a project
Speaker 4: between the two of us. If we're passionate about something,
Speaker 4: then you know that's that's I think that's how it
Speaker 4: should be, so that there's like a certain level of trust.
Speaker 4: And I mean, I think Ryan's been like since before
Speaker 4: he retired killed it, but since he's retired, it's just
Speaker 4: like been like another level. So that's been cool to see.
Speaker 4: And I told him this a while ago, but like
Speaker 4: it makes me more excited for you know that when
Speaker 4: that time comes to be able to step into something
Speaker 4: and put everything you have into it and keep growing
Speaker 4: the company. But to me, it's just trust. I think,
Speaker 4: just knowing that like I trust his taste, I trust
Speaker 4: how hard he works. I trust that he'll go get
Speaker 4: it done. And and like you said, the idea is
Speaker 4: almost like when you just like you sign with a team,
Speaker 4: the idea is awesome, but then you know, training camp,
Speaker 4: the whole regular season, practice every day, like that's all
Speaker 4: the stuff that like it takes to finally make a
Speaker 4: movie and get to the point that you want to
Speaker 4: get to. So I think from that aspect we're used
Speaker 4: to like, you know, it's just going to be a
Speaker 4: long journey and you just sit down and you get
Speaker 4: after it.
Speaker 1: Now, I read a bizarre Gizmoto story recently about an
Speaker 1: action figure that you guys are I mean, it seems
Speaker 1: like gets backwards the way you guys are approaching this.
Speaker 1: Tell me about this new project where it just seems
Speaker 1: strange to me. Explain.
Speaker 3: I think Blake and I have a lot of similar tastes,
Speaker 3: you know, we we both have an affinity for things
Speaker 3: old and new. There's a there's a project we've been
Speaker 3: working on with Vince Vaughan and Peter Billingsley that we
Speaker 3: can't talk about yet, but we've been working on it
Speaker 3: for a while and it's sort of again our approach
Speaker 3: to kind of thinking outside the traditional path of projects.
Speaker 2: And so there's an idea.
Speaker 3: About eighties specifically the era, the golden era of action
Speaker 3: figures of that time, and so sort of as a
Speaker 3: sneak peek into the larger endeavor, we released a limited
Speaker 3: edition statue of this particular.
Speaker 2: Character named Flint Star Striker.
Speaker 3: It's sort of a cross between Star Wars and he Man,
Speaker 3: and so there's a lot of there's a lot of
Speaker 3: childhood fun, childhood memories that have gone into this project
Speaker 3: from everyone involved. And so yeah, it's I'm I'm such
Speaker 3: a big fan boy, so I I sort of love
Speaker 3: the jj Abrams mystery box approach to things, and so
Speaker 3: we we definitely stole a little bit of that magic
Speaker 3: and in what we're doing with this project.
Speaker 2: And so it's fun.
Speaker 3: It's been fun to see, uh, the buzz around it
Speaker 3: so far and the short time we just put it
Speaker 3: out there, and obviously.
Speaker 2: We'll we'll reveal more as time goes on.
Speaker 3: But I think it's a cool way into a window
Speaker 3: and if you want to wait to sort of find
Speaker 3: out more about it, you can do that, or you know,
Speaker 3: I think those things might be pretty valuable in the future,
Speaker 3: so you might not want to miss out.
Speaker 2: You heard it first.
Speaker 1: Here, Well, I am definitely intrigued and.
Speaker 2: In buying one too, right, Andrew, Oh, yeah, what does
Speaker 2: it cost? Yeah? Oh it's uh, we'll get your discount code.
Speaker 1: Nice, nice, awesome. Well, guys, I mean there's a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff coming out of the Mortal Media shop and uh,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be very interesting to follow what you guys
Speaker 1: have got coming. Thanks for coming on the Strictly Business podcast.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, Appreciate it, Thank you, Thanks for having us.
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