Speaker 1: Warning, Today's episode contains spoilers for Mad Max Fury Road,
Speaker 1: which is almost a ten year old movie and it's
Speaker 1: prequel Furiosa.
Speaker 2: Hello, my name.
Speaker 1: Is Jason Koncepsion and on Mesday Night and welcome back
Speaker 1: dex Revision, the podcast where we dive deep into your
Speaker 1: favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture. Coming to you
Speaker 1: from My Heart podcast where we're bringing you two episodes
Speaker 1: a week, every Tuesday and every Thursday.
Speaker 3: In today's episode, in the previously on, We've got so
Speaker 3: much news. There's a new elder ring DLC and I
Speaker 3: know Jason's excited about it. Greg Cappollo, he's been all
Speaker 3: year that he's going to be joining Marvel. Everyone thought
Speaker 3: they got pranked, but no, it's happening. We'll tell you
Speaker 3: on what series. There's an end credible clip from The
Speaker 3: Acolyte which we will touch on Craven the Hunter. It's
Speaker 3: getting moved to December, but don't worry this this news
Speaker 3: bite is actually more hilarious than expected thanks to Sony Execs.
Speaker 3: In the airlock, we will be discussing Furiosa, It's strange
Speaker 3: path to the big screen and what we think about it.
Speaker 3: In the omnibus, Jason will be digging deep into the
Speaker 3: troubled production of Fury Road and Charlie s then's just
Speaker 3: awful time filming it. And in the back matter, we're
Speaker 3: gonna have a quick chat about the evolution of the
Speaker 3: summer blockbuster and how it's changing.
Speaker 2: But first news, first up.
Speaker 1: In the previously on elden Ring, fans, Soulsborn, fans, get ready.
Speaker 1: The Urentree DLC is about a month out. There's a
Speaker 1: trailer out there, folks, and I'm ready to be very
Speaker 1: frustrated again. This is a game that took over my
Speaker 1: life for a large chunk of its release window, and folks,
Speaker 1: I think it might happen again. Story trailer was dropped
Speaker 1: on a couple days ago yesterday. We're filming this on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: May twenty. Second came out yesterday, Rosie. Your thoughts and
Speaker 1: will you be playing The ur Tree DLC?
Speaker 2: I will?
Speaker 3: Finally, this is my reason to play. I'm finally catching
Speaker 3: up on the fantasy games that I have failed. Boulders
Speaker 3: Gate is finally happening, much to the happiness of all
Speaker 3: of my friends, and this will be my reason to
Speaker 3: play elder Ring. Literally, I was so obsessed with Diablo
Speaker 3: for last year that like every other game just went
Speaker 3: out the window. So this will be this will be
Speaker 3: good for me. I'm very excited. It looks very scary
Speaker 3: and fantastical, and I love to have like a giant
Speaker 3: sword and stuff. So I'm sure i'll be I'm sure
Speaker 3: i'll be very frustrated, and I'll probably get through like
Speaker 3: thirteen percent of the game. But I have a lot
Speaker 3: of fun playing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, lots of Tanta, hints at the expansion of some war,
Speaker 1: new relationships for potentially MICHAELA, seven new characters, what looks
Speaker 1: to be a new portion of the map.
Speaker 2: Very very excited.
Speaker 1: DLC comes out June twenty first, stay tuned because it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna be very very bad for my ability to work.
Speaker 3: You will hear a lot about it on the podcast You.
Speaker 2: Will up next Rosie teas did.
Speaker 1: Greg Boolo returns to Marvel for a new Wolverine series
Speaker 1: with Jonathan Hickman. Woo.
Speaker 3: The crowd goes mad. So all year Greg Coppolo had
Speaker 3: been like teasing a little bit and it kind of
Speaker 3: hinted at Wolverine, and then they announced the new Wolverine
Speaker 3: team and he wasn't on it, and everyone was like, oh,
Speaker 3: we got pranked by our comic book uncle, but no.
Speaker 3: Greg Coppolo has finally revealed, thanks to an exclusive at Polygon,
Speaker 3: that he will be drawing Wolverine in a limited series
Speaker 3: with Jonathan Hickman that promises to pit Wolverine against a
Speaker 3: cardurra of foes who will turn his world upside down.
Speaker 3: He's beaten, he's been bloodied, and Logan only has one
Speaker 3: thought on his mind. Revenge. The cover is extremely nice, easy,
Speaker 3: He's standing in the mouth of like a t Rex.
Speaker 3: The logo is great. Capolo told Polygon. I finally returned
Speaker 3: home to Marvel, and I'm ready to raise some hell.
Speaker 3: And who better to do that with than the hitman Hickman.
Speaker 3: I love that. I don't know if there's ever been
Speaker 3: a name before, but it's the most great Capilo thing
Speaker 3: of all time. I love it to celebrate Marvel has
Speaker 3: removed the fences and let us off our leash so
Speaker 3: that we can bring the most vicious and punishing Wolverine
Speaker 3: story possible to fans this summer. I hope they're prepared. Okay,
Speaker 3: this is also the thing our Discord users were really
Speaker 3: excited about, is this is going to be another one
Speaker 3: of the Red Band comics where that will be poly
Speaker 3: bagged and there'll be a version that will be like
Speaker 3: an R rated like extra Blood, Extra Gore, and that's
Speaker 3: been really popular recently. I think it's during the Blood
Speaker 3: Hunt rain. There's been a lot of Discord users who've
Speaker 3: loved that. So yeah, I think this is great. I
Speaker 3: love Gregor, Greg Copulo and Paul mcfallan. I that like
Speaker 3: my comic book dads. I just love you, So I'm excited.
Speaker 3: I also, I think the Hickman collab is really interesting
Speaker 3: because that means this isn't just gonna be some nineiest throwback.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 1: It struck me as like not the creative team that
Speaker 1: one would immediately expect, especially if you're thinking Hickman, you're
Speaker 1: certainly not thinking Capulo.
Speaker 2: But I think that's what's so exciting about it, even.
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm not even thinking Hickman for Wolverine,
Speaker 1: Like that's not It seems like such a smaller palette
Speaker 1: than what you expect of Hickman's, certainly Hickman's work recently,
Speaker 1: so that I'm really excited to see where it goes
Speaker 1: with this because Hickman it's just a weirdo.
Speaker 3: Just way, so I like this could be really this
Speaker 3: could be one of those mini series that people are
Speaker 3: reading in trades for like decades, and it's always fun
Speaker 3: when you're around when those are coming out in single issues.
Speaker 1: Up next, a new exclusive clip from The Acolyte has
Speaker 1: been released, showing.
Speaker 2: More of the action style, the very like.
Speaker 1: Hong Kong ish John Wick ish action style that seems
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be a hallmark of this series, which
Speaker 1: we'll release on June fourth on Disney.
Speaker 2: Plus your thoughts about this clip.
Speaker 3: I mean, it looks so good. I'm so happy for
Speaker 3: Amandlas Stemberg because I feel like you must be so
Speaker 3: stoked to take this role because the action choreography is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: And something I think is really interesting here is we
Speaker 3: see Lee Jung Jay his character Master Soul, and he's
Speaker 3: fighting May. But the thing is we're seeing a Jedi
Speaker 3: here who are more composed and powerful than we've ever seen.
Speaker 3: He is not scared at all. He is doing matrix
Speaker 3: level like bullet time avoidance. And I think the casting
Speaker 3: of carrying this movie as Indira is because this is
Speaker 3: going to have a lot of that matrix Hollywood Hong
Speaker 3: Kong combo kind of style because as she fights him,
Speaker 3: you know, and he says, you're fighting me without a weapon,
Speaker 3: like why, And I think that we're really going to
Speaker 3: get to see this kind of force fighting. I'm really excited.
Speaker 2: I think that it's air you're breathing right now.
Speaker 3: I also love, I really love Leslie Hedlund, and I
Speaker 3: think that whatever we think this show is gonna be,
Speaker 3: She's gonna make something completely different because Russian Doll is
Speaker 3: legit like one of the weirdest best shows I've ever
Speaker 3: seen if you haven't watched it on Netflix now. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I just think it looks amazing and I can't wait
Speaker 3: to do it. I'm actually going to be doing the
Speaker 3: junket for the show tomorrow for IGN, so I hopefully
Speaker 3: will be coming back with some insight into the show.
Speaker 3: But yeah, can't wait. Looks great.
Speaker 1: Next up, disappointing frustrating news for fans of a Russian
Speaker 1: dirt bear who kills rare animals, Craven the Hunter has
Speaker 1: been pushed back for a third.
Speaker 3: Time Friday, December.
Speaker 2: That's in good luck fosts this.
Speaker 1: The original release date was January twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 1: then it was pushback, push back to October twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: then August twenty twenty four, and now December twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: This is almost two years after the original release date.
Speaker 2: They're spinning it. They're spinning it as positive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Producertok said, quote Craven moved to Christmas because we're
Speaker 1: excited about it, and Christmas is the best release period
Speaker 1: there is when you get people with time to go
Speaker 1: back to the movies over and over again. That was
Speaker 1: a real reflection of how the studio felt about the movie.
Speaker 1: We're really excited. But that's a great move that reflects
Speaker 1: just the feeling about the movie. We wanted to delay
Speaker 1: it for a third time. It just shows how excited
Speaker 1: we are about it.
Speaker 3: I feel like this is either secretly like a fantastic
Speaker 3: movie unlikely, or this is like a Cats level miss mistake,
Speaker 3: because because if you recall fans of Cats and the
Speaker 3: Star Wars universe, they decided Universal decided to open Cats
Speaker 3: against Star Wars at Christmas because they were like, it's counterprogramming.
Speaker 3: It didn't work. I'm guessing they've moved it to Christmas
Speaker 3: because there's they're probably scared of Deadpool Depool comes out
Speaker 3: in July depul Wolverine, so that will have long legs.
Speaker 3: And they're moving it to Christmas because I don't know
Speaker 3: what the big Christmas releases are this year because that's
Speaker 3: like a different world away. But I think this is
Speaker 3: hilarious and I love the idea that they think people
Speaker 3: are going to go and see it time and time again.
Speaker 3: Was this because once again they were surprised that Madam
Speaker 3: Webb became the number one Netflix movie and they were like, oh,
Speaker 3: maybe we should release it again like morebeus. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but this is hilarious and I love it.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Finally exciting vague x Men use.
Speaker 1: According to Deadline, the X Men movie is gaining momentum
Speaker 1: over at the studio that houses the MCU quote following
Speaker 1: the success of its animated series x N ninety seven
Speaker 1: Marvel Studios.
Speaker 2: It's now ramping things.
Speaker 1: Up on its live action X Men movie with Hunger Games,
Speaker 1: The Ballad of Songwords at Snakes scribe Michael Leslie in
Speaker 1: negotiations to pen the movie. So this is what I
Speaker 1: love about Listen. I read the entire article because anything
Speaker 1: that says X Men movie, I'm gonna read that. Said,
Speaker 1: the news here is that the project has quote gain
Speaker 1: momentum because a screenwriter has almost agreed to do it,
Speaker 1: literally has not quite yet agreed to do it, but
Speaker 1: may soon.
Speaker 2: Nevertheless, we are excited.
Speaker 3: Yes we want an x Men movie. Will this guy
Speaker 3: be the guy who writes it? Who knows that the
Speaker 3: last of five screenwriters? But you know what, that was
Speaker 3: a time when the MCU couldn't even make it an
Speaker 3: x Men movie, So I'm taking it as a win.
Speaker 1: Up next, we let the winds take us to the
Speaker 1: Wasteland woo as we step out of the airline to
Speaker 1: talk about furios.
Speaker 3: Set in the eighteen years leading up to George Miller's
Speaker 3: groundbreaking Fury Road. Furiosa tells the tale of the titular
Speaker 3: would be Imperator from her days as a kidnapped child
Speaker 3: in the wasteland, living under the wrathful eye of the
Speaker 3: evil Dementus, played with much screen chewing a plum by
Speaker 3: Chris EM's shoeing chew shoeing, chewing chewing all the way
Speaker 3: to the literal events of Fury Road. It's a wild
Speaker 3: wide through the wasteland that showcases the gorilla filmmaking skills
Speaker 3: of Miller and the acting chops of his cast. Furiosa
Speaker 3: had an intriguing path to the screen, originating as a
Speaker 3: screenplay that was actually finished before Fury Road was even made,
Speaker 3: then given to the cast and crew as a way
Speaker 3: to build out the world. At one point the screenplay
Speaker 3: was going to be an anime series. You might have
Speaker 3: seen the leaked images from that. And actually one of
Speaker 3: the things that I learned, I spoke to George Miller
Speaker 3: at screening at the Imax, said cause, and he actually
Speaker 3: said that there was one thing that made it from
Speaker 3: the anime, which is the Teddy Bear that Dementus wears
Speaker 3: on his chest. That was like the one thing that
Speaker 3: had been that had made it through from the anime version.
Speaker 3: And eventually it was made into a big screen movie,
Speaker 3: you know, coming out nine years after Fury Road, and
Speaker 3: that is the form that we will be getting it
Speaker 3: in wide release weekend. Jason, what did you think of
Speaker 3: the movie?
Speaker 1: I thought it was an exciting and very much in
Speaker 1: the world sequel prequel to Mad Max Fury Road. It
Speaker 1: felt almost more akin to the first two Road Warrior
Speaker 1: movies than Furiosa in a lot of ways, in terms
Speaker 1: of the action, in terms of the scope, in terms
Speaker 1: of the way it dealt with its characters. But if
Speaker 1: you love listen, if you love Eroding, all the furios, because.
Speaker 2: It was all there.
Speaker 1: They're incredible action, the weird stakes, the like funny slapstick
Speaker 1: like almost Charlie Chaplin esque moments that happened, and just like.
Speaker 2: Action that you're like, I don't know how he did this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't believe that fifty people didn't die making
Speaker 1: this movie.
Speaker 2: It was just like it blows up.
Speaker 3: I feels like that. Yeah, it's it's completely wild. I
Speaker 3: find it. As soon as it started, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 3: this man does not care if this movie is successful.
Speaker 3: Like it starts with like a chapter break, and then
Speaker 3: like a weird like Jodarowski esque like spinning scene with
Speaker 3: like an old man doing like narration. It's like unbelievably weird,
Speaker 3: and that really won me over, And yeah, I enjoyed
Speaker 3: it thoroughly. I just thought, I think the thing I
Speaker 3: like the most about it was it felt like there
Speaker 3: wasn't any kind of care for the rules of like
Speaker 3: franchise filmmaking. It didn't feel like you'd seen a prequel
Speaker 3: and you had to make it like another prequel. It
Speaker 3: didn't feel like he was particularly worried about making it accessible.
Speaker 3: It didn't feel like he was like, Oh, I wonder
Speaker 3: if people who like Fury Road are gonna like this
Speaker 3: because Fury Road is set over like three days. In
Speaker 3: this movie is set over eighteen years, and it's just
Speaker 3: pacing wise, like completely different kettle offish, Like you have
Speaker 3: an your Taylor Joy is only in the movie for
Speaker 3: like half the movie.
Speaker 2: She is up for an hour.
Speaker 3: She doesn't show up for at least an hour. You
Speaker 3: have a liar Brown who plays young Furiosa, who's so
Speaker 3: fantastic and who gets to really grow and showcase the
Speaker 3: journey Furiosa goes on. It's also incredibly gory. I'm sure
Speaker 3: that Fury Road was. I've seen it so many times,
Speaker 3: but I think that action kind of took focus. But
Speaker 3: people are getting like torn apart in this movie, Like
Speaker 3: it's it's gruesome. I'm I'm wondering if it will be
Speaker 3: the blockbuster hit Warner Brothers wants it to be. I
Speaker 3: want it to be that, but I do think it's
Speaker 3: incredibly weird for like a Hollywood blockbuster.
Speaker 1: I mean, I suspect it will be certainly the at
Speaker 1: the screening, Eye was at the reception and you you know,
Speaker 1: so would be careful with these things.
Speaker 2: Was electric.
Speaker 1: People were cheering film. I do think, you know, summer
Speaker 1: is the time for action, and this is like a
Speaker 1: Walt Wall not quite as walts Wall as Fury Road,
Speaker 1: but a Walt Wall action movie. And I think the
Speaker 1: other interesting thing to me, which will I think be
Speaker 1: really interesting to fans of the series, is this film
Speaker 1: does more to establish the lore and the context for
Speaker 1: the Wasteland then almost I need to go back and
Speaker 1: watch all of the movies in the series, but basically
Speaker 1: more than any other film in this series, you learn
Speaker 1: about the different citadels of the of the Wasteland, the
Speaker 1: different fortresses wait to each other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how we got to this place? And that was
Speaker 3: another thing that shocked me where I was kind of
Speaker 3: like WHOA, Like you really, I think he sees this
Speaker 3: movie as a chance to build out this world that
Speaker 3: he's been telling stories in for like fifty years, because
Speaker 3: you're right, I feel like tonally this is actually closer
Speaker 3: to the older Mad Max movies, but also it does
Speaker 3: build out the law in a way that we've never
Speaker 3: seen before. Like you learn so much, Joelle, just before
Speaker 3: we were we came on and side recording was saying
Speaker 3: to me her biggest takeaway was like, it adds so
Speaker 3: much context and impact to Fury Road that when you
Speaker 3: watch Fury Road again, you're gonna be like, oh, fuck,
Speaker 3: like now I know these things, which I think is
Speaker 3: huge because a lot of times a sequel can actually
Speaker 3: a prequel can actually weaken the impact of the original movie.
Speaker 3: But I do you feel like here they work equally
Speaker 3: well as separate entities, but when you put them together,
Speaker 3: you are getting an emotional core and a contextual kind
Speaker 3: of landscape that does add to both versions, and it
Speaker 3: was fun. It's I think as well. He's not afraid
Speaker 3: to just introduce a new character or introduce an old
Speaker 3: character and not do the kind of mcuification of like a, oh,
Speaker 3: it's a cameo, or or oh, here's an explanation of
Speaker 3: who this character is. He's like, no, here's just like
Speaker 3: a scary, terrifying character. Do you remember them from Fury Road.
Speaker 3: If not, here's a reason to be terrified, you know.
Speaker 3: And I like the way he doesn't He trusts the audience.
Speaker 1: If you loved Rictus Rectus from Man Max Fury Road,
Speaker 1: guess what you get to meet his brother scabrous scrotus.
Speaker 3: Oh he's the worst. I'm a hate.
Speaker 1: And that overall kind of subtext of like big dumb dudes,
Speaker 1: big dumb dudes and all the dumb shit they do
Speaker 1: that is still here in as trenchet as ever in Furiosa.
Speaker 2: I mean going.
Speaker 1: I was watching The Road Warrior before Furious, and then
Speaker 1: I watched some a Thunderdome and you know, I guess
Speaker 1: when I was younger, it just went over my head,
Speaker 1: like these the commentaries on like the big muscly dumb guy,
Speaker 1: Like that's one of George Miller's absolute favorite, like pincushions
Speaker 1: is the big dumb guy with the microphone.
Speaker 2: He loves.
Speaker 1: He loves to make that guy look scary and ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's no one better.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I also, really, I just love the fact and
Speaker 3: obviously this is context outside of the movie, but it
Speaker 3: still just blows my mind that the man who made
Speaker 3: this movie is like the man who made Babe or
Speaker 3: the man who made Fury Round is the man who
Speaker 3: made Happy Feet Like that to me is and I
Speaker 3: love the nature of his filmmaking. And I also like
Speaker 3: the fact that his radical kind of filmmaking can have
Speaker 3: an impact on people in real life. Because the guy
Speaker 3: who played the Farma in A Babe, he became a
Speaker 3: vegan after being Babe, after making Babe, and then became
Speaker 3: like a very quite radical direct action environmental activist. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, would that have happened if Babe had been
Speaker 3: directed by anyone else? I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's George Miller's funny impact on that
Speaker 3: kid's movie.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny speaking of Miller. I mean we
Speaker 1: were talking before we start recording. You were noting the
Speaker 1: kind of gentle, urbane grandpa, like very very intelligent grandpa
Speaker 1: vibe that George Miller puts out. He strikes me as
Speaker 1: someone like like if you didn't know who he was
Speaker 1: and someone said, oh, that used to be be like
Speaker 1: the ambassador to Spain, you'd be like, Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: And the juxtaposition of his very gentle, very keenly intelligent
Speaker 1: persona with this, like with these films that have the
Speaker 1: energy of just like a little kid like crashing toys together, like.
Speaker 3: This is like cramy gorilla filmmaking.
Speaker 1: It's like crazy to me because like that's really the
Speaker 1: energy of these movies Furiosa and Mad Max, fur Your
Speaker 1: Road and to a different extent, the previous Road Warrior
Speaker 1: Mad Max movies is like part of what's great about
Speaker 1: them is it's just that feeling of when you first
Speaker 1: got action figures as a kid. Yeah, and you just
Speaker 1: started throwing them on.
Speaker 2: The ground or throwing.
Speaker 1: Them against the wall and putting them in the microwave
Speaker 1: or whatever it was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like you got a Bobby and you're like, you know,
Speaker 3: trying it the Bobby. What if the Bobby took drugs?
Speaker 3: Like you know, You're like, you'll okay, You're like, what
Speaker 3: if I cut all the Bobby's hair off? That's Furiosa,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: And it's it's so weird to square that with every
Speaker 1: interview I've ever seen of George Miller, where he's just
Speaker 1: a very very laid back, smart, well dressed normal dude. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: do you want to do a box office prediction? Furiosa
Speaker 1: opening weekend will do?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Okay? I So I'm going to go on the optimistic
Speaker 3: side because I do feel like in this place where
Speaker 3: we are right now, I think Firosa in the US,
Speaker 3: I think it will open to like forty five mil.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's about on track with I believe that's what
Speaker 1: uh Fury Road did.
Speaker 2: I like that'd be.
Speaker 3: I think it's Look, it's R rated. I know in
Speaker 3: America that's kind of a weird thing because you can
Speaker 3: take kids to go and see an R.
Speaker 2: Here's let me let me just stop there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, kids can get an R movies exactly, but they
Speaker 1: do you know, the people that work at the movie theaters.
Speaker 1: It's not like the TSA, you know what.
Speaker 3: I mean exactly, But you can just get any adults
Speaker 3: to buy a ticket. And I just need to tell you.
Speaker 3: In England you don't understand how much you guys, how
Speaker 3: lucky you are. They will literally like make you take
Speaker 3: your passport to prove that you can go to an
Speaker 3: eighteen movie, which is the equivalent of an rated movie.
Speaker 3: So it is like the TSA. But like so it
Speaker 3: could be there could be that you know, families that
Speaker 3: go into this. I will never forget go to a
Speaker 3: twentieth anniversary screening. I think it was of Scream or
Speaker 3: like some kind of anniversary screening, and the kid the
Speaker 3: whole cinema in Torrance. Here in California, it was just
Speaker 3: like families, and there were like four year olds in
Speaker 3: there who were like.
Speaker 2: Yeay, ghost face, you know.
Speaker 3: So, so I think that there is a generational thing
Speaker 3: where this could And I think if that's the case,
Speaker 3: if people so if Fury Roads kind of become that
Speaker 3: like family action movie, the way that The Walking Dead
Speaker 3: became a family TV show, we could be looking more
Speaker 3: like a sixty mil opening, kind of like blowing up,
Speaker 3: like word of mouth. But I think because it's a
Speaker 3: little bit weird, because it's R rated, because we're in
Speaker 3: this kind of cooler period. I thought the Full I
Speaker 3: thought four Guy was gonna make so much money. I
Speaker 3: thought it was the most accessible, easy to watch, much good,
Speaker 3: easy to sell movie. But you know what, it didn't happen.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna I'm gonna play it safe. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: say about forty five.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna go on the slightly lower side. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say forty mm hm. And I too, I hope
Speaker 1: it's a hit. Up Next, we're gonna talk more about
Speaker 1: the Wasteland and George Miller's vision in the Omnibus.
Speaker 3: Welcome to another edition of the Omnibus, where law, analysis
Speaker 3: and understanding come together. Today, Jason digs into the very
Speaker 3: troubled production of Fury Road and the horrors that Charlie's
Speaker 3: Theron the Star had to put up with to make
Speaker 3: that classic movie.
Speaker 1: In the summer of twenty fifteen, after over twenty years
Speaker 1: of ideation, production and various hurdles, George Miller's Mad Max
Speaker 1: Fury Road debuted in theaters, instantly becoming an action movie classic.
Speaker 1: Among the many, many, many fascinating details of the film's
Speaker 1: tourvirtuous path through production, it's the onset antagonism between its
Speaker 1: stars Tom Hardy and Trumps Theron that has become kind
Speaker 1: of like legendary Hollywood lore. The short version, they really
Speaker 1: didn't get along at all, and tensions escalated to the
Speaker 1: point where Thron has said she felt unsafe on set. Now,
Speaker 1: for those who love Mad Max, love Fury Road, love
Speaker 1: the Mad Max universe, I highly recommend Kyle Buchanan's Blood, Sweat,
Speaker 1: and Chrome book came out in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: It's an oral history of.
Speaker 1: Mad Max Fury Road, and I use it a lot
Speaker 1: as a resource for this essay. I also use the
Speaker 1: Mad Max Furior behind the Scenes documentary, which you can
Speaker 1: find on Warner Brothers YouTube. But that book is really
Speaker 1: great and gives you a really firm, an engrossing understanding
Speaker 1: of just how difficult it was to make this movie
Speaker 1: and how difficult it was for the act There's specifically,
Speaker 1: we didn't have a script, Thron says in the book.
Speaker 1: We had pictures, and I think that's just part of
Speaker 1: the problem.
Speaker 2: The other part of the problem why.
Speaker 1: It was so difficult for the actors is you know,
Speaker 1: if you've seen Fury Road, you know it's basically all action,
Speaker 1: a continuous chase scene, which is what George Miller first
Speaker 1: envisioned when he first got the idea for the movie
Speaker 1: back in the mid eighties, and it's a movie with
Speaker 1: minimal dialogue. By the time principal photography commenced in Namibia
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, Miller had by that point spent decades
Speaker 1: visualizing and perfecting each sequence in his mind through the
Speaker 1: use of an over thirty four hundred panel storyboard that
Speaker 1: took up a room. However, understanding the full scope of
Speaker 1: the vision for the crew, for the camera people, for
Speaker 1: the actors was really a challenge, especially in our form
Speaker 1: like move making, which is by necessity very collaborative. Miller's process, however,
Speaker 1: often left actors puzzled about their characters, about their motivations,
Speaker 1: about what they were doing, the relevance to the story. Okay,
Speaker 1: why is that? Here's a quote from camera operator A. J.
Speaker 1: Johnson to kind of give you a window into it.
Speaker 1: He'd call action and then okay, cut and the actor
Speaker 1: would be like, hang on, what can we keep on
Speaker 1: going for a bit and George would say, no, no, I
Speaker 1: don't need that bit. Set dresser Tate van Oodshorn is
Speaker 1: quoted in Blood, Sweat, and Chromis saying that Miller was
Speaker 1: shooting six days a week, twelve to fourteen hour days
Speaker 1: to achieve twenty four to thirty seconds of usable footage
Speaker 1: per day. So usually when you film a scene, let's
Speaker 1: say we were making a movie about Rosie and I
Speaker 1: doing X Ravis right, we'd shoot like a master coverage shot,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, one camera set up so that
Speaker 1: it gets both of us and we'll record the podcast,
Speaker 1: we read our lines, and then there'd be a second
Speaker 1: and third setup for Rosie's close up and my close
Speaker 1: up respectively. Right, And going through the scene three or
Speaker 1: more times would give Rosie an idea of like, okay,
Speaker 1: I know who I'm playing, I know what we're talking about,
Speaker 1: I know how this fits in the overall story. With George,
Speaker 1: because there were so many moving parts and dozens of
Speaker 1: stunt people, cars that have to be rolling, he would
Speaker 1: shoot things that would be like, Okay, an explosion just
Speaker 1: happened to your right, look to your right.
Speaker 2: Cut.
Speaker 1: Okay, now there's a guy that just jumped on the truck.
Speaker 1: You look up and see him.
Speaker 2: Cut. How do you figure out who your character is?
Speaker 1: What is my character feeling? Where does this scene exist
Speaker 1: in the movie? I have no idea, And so that
Speaker 1: was very confusing for the actors and made it very complicated.
Speaker 1: It was also a very conf using and frustrating for
Speaker 1: the camera operators as well, because you could never feel
Speaker 1: like you were getting a rhythm. Another thing about actor
Speaker 1: is before we dive into the specifics, just to kind
Speaker 1: of defend them a little bit, or defend Tom a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know, it's a very naked and vulnerable process.
Speaker 1: You're doing something that if you could step back and
Speaker 1: watch yourself doing, it's fucking ridiculous. Like there's all these
Speaker 1: people around and you're like screaming and crying and doing
Speaker 1: a thing that doesn't exist that. You know, maybe you're
Speaker 1: acting to a tennis ball or whatever, and to do
Speaker 1: that you just have to be like naked to emotion.
Speaker 1: And I think there's no way for it to not
Speaker 1: creep into the rest of your workday, your life, your dreams,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Okay, so Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy was originally
Speaker 1: cast three years before shooting started. That's a pretty long window. Originally,
Speaker 1: Miller envision Mel Gibson reprising his role as Max. Then
Speaker 1: the first kind of furtive attempt at filming the movie
Speaker 1: was halted by nine to eleven and the kind of
Speaker 1: global financial crash that happened after that. Then Mel had
Speaker 1: to exit when it turned out he was a really,
Speaker 1: really terrible human being. Which side note, George puts it
Speaker 1: in very diplomatic terms in the Mad Max behind the
Speaker 1: Scenes documentary on YouTube. I think he says something to
Speaker 1: the effect of, then Mel had his personal problems. He's
Speaker 1: a very interesting way to put it. So when production
Speaker 1: years later eventually started up again, Miller settled on a young,
Speaker 1: not yet well known.
Speaker 2: Actor named Tom Hardy.
Speaker 1: Now fast forward three years, filming has started, and in
Speaker 1: that time Tom Hardy has become a star it was
Speaker 1: an inception and his bane in the Dark Knight. And
Speaker 1: on the one hand, this is great, we have a
Speaker 1: star in our movie. On the other hand, now Hardy's
Speaker 1: reps and the studio are like, hey.
Speaker 2: Why does this guy not speak?
Speaker 1: We've got this guy who's a draw and he doesn't
Speaker 1: say anything. And also Tom is confused about like what
Speaker 1: he's doing in any given moment and doesn't know who
Speaker 1: he is. Tom Hardy notably is a very method type
Speaker 1: actor who wants to live in the role, and he
Speaker 1: didn't feel like there was enough there to dive into
Speaker 1: to live with. So another screenwriter, Kelly Marcel, who had
Speaker 1: previously worked with Hardy on Bronson, was brought into how
Speaker 1: both Hardy and Thorn understand their roles better, and this
Speaker 1: usually took the form in just kind of improvs as
Speaker 1: their character that would never be in the movie, that
Speaker 1: would never happen, but just so they could try and
Speaker 1: inhabit the character more. Next, we come to the clash
Speaker 1: between Hardy and thro On. Maybe there's a world in which,
Speaker 1: no matter the circumstances, they would have clashed anyway. They
Speaker 1: have very very different approaches to acting, and everyone in Blood,
Speaker 1: Sweat and Chrome notes that they are very for people
Speaker 1: with very different takes on their craft. That said, the
Speaker 1: shoot was not ideal. The Namibian desert was very challenging,
Speaker 1: not just that the temperatures, but in the pace. Forty
Speaker 1: days were cut off the shooting schedule from one forty
Speaker 1: to one hundred, so they were under a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of pressure. Also, security on the set was a problem.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of break ins, burglaries, muggings of
Speaker 1: crew members, etc.
Speaker 2: Charlie's was a new mom there's.
Speaker 1: A lot of stress already built in.
Speaker 2: To the process.
Speaker 1: Now, according to those who were on set in the
Speaker 1: book Tension between Heart and Thron, it was there basically
Speaker 1: from the beginning. Ricky Schomberg, who was a member of
Speaker 1: the camera crew, observed that quote Tom is very provocative,
Speaker 1: Charlie's isn't, and it was a clash. Fight coordinator Richard
Speaker 1: Norton noted Tom would want justification for every bit of choreography,
Speaker 1: not just in the actual action, but in the pre
Speaker 1: setup of the action. Charlie's, on the other hand, had
Speaker 1: a straightforward desire. I want to kill him. Jay Houston Yang,
Speaker 1: who's part of the marketing department and would see. Dailies
Speaker 1: noted that quote. It was clear that those two people
Speaker 1: hated each other. Hardy's frequent tardiness amplified this. He was
Speaker 1: often hours late to set, with people just standing around
Speaker 1: and then na maybe in desert, waiting for him. There
Speaker 1: is one day that is particularly detailed and talked about
Speaker 1: in Blood, Sweat and Chrome, where Charlie's apparently had just
Speaker 1: had enough of waiting for Tom. She's in full hair
Speaker 1: and makeup. Call time eight am. She goes and sits
Speaker 1: in the war rig and is waiting there for hours.
Speaker 2: Crew is coming up to her and saying, do you
Speaker 2: want to take a break, Do you want to go
Speaker 2: to the bathroom? Do you need anything? You you want to
Speaker 2: And she's like.
Speaker 1: No, no, She's making a point of it, like calling out,
Speaker 1: like I'm here, ready to go, where's Tom Hardy?
Speaker 2: Three hours past?
Speaker 1: Tom Hardy kind of just casually saunters across the sands
Speaker 1: up to the war rig, and by all accounts, Charlie's
Speaker 1: blows up on him, calls him to the carpet, saying,
Speaker 1: you know, how could this is so disrespectful? You should
Speaker 1: be fined. You're making all these people stand around and
Speaker 1: wait for you. Tom apparently reacted very aggressively to this,
Speaker 1: and Charlie's quoted as saying it kind of came to
Speaker 1: blows between me and Tom, which I mean, if you
Speaker 1: take that at face value, they essentially physically came together
Speaker 1: and fought, perhaps, and after this, thron apparently felt unsafe.
Speaker 1: She's numerous quotes in Blood Sweating chrumb where she's saying
Speaker 1: she just didn't feel Listen, they have.
Speaker 2: A lot of scenes together.
Speaker 1: A lot of those scenes are antagonistic where they're almost
Speaker 1: fighting in the movie. They have a fight scene in
Speaker 1: the movie they're sitting a foot from each other in
Speaker 1: the cab of a war rig, and Charlie's was saying
Speaker 1: she felt very exposed, very vulnerable. She asked for a
Speaker 1: female producer.
Speaker 2: To come in.
Speaker 1: That was kind of agreed to. But then Miller, who
Speaker 1: has been again shepherding this very very specific vision that
Speaker 1: he understands to the screen over the course of two decades,
Speaker 1: was a little bit like, well, if I led another
Speaker 1: producer on, they're going to try and change my movie.
Speaker 1: He fought it a little bit, and eventually the movie
Speaker 1: got made, of course, and I think everybody came to
Speaker 1: a place where they felt regretful about the ways they.
Speaker 2: Went about it.
Speaker 1: Tom Hardy was a little bit more dismissive, but I said, like,
Speaker 1: I wish I could have handled it better. He notes
Speaker 1: that he was feeling pretty insecure his stepping into the
Speaker 1: shoes of Mel Gibson, an iconic character, and he didn't
Speaker 1: know what he was doing. George Miller is later quoted
Speaker 1: as saying, there are things that I feel disappointment with
Speaker 1: about the process. Looking back, if I had to do
Speaker 1: it again, I would probably have been more mindful.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a learning process.
Speaker 1: And I don't think Charlie Starn will ever work with
Speaker 1: Tom Hardy Agan, and I don't think Georgia.
Speaker 2: Villa will ever worked with Tony again.
Speaker 3: But that was it.
Speaker 1: They hated each other and they actually fought, physically fought,
Speaker 1: crazy crazy movie wild Up.
Speaker 2: Next we talked Blockbusters.
Speaker 3: Yeah, welcome to the back matter section, where, just like
Speaker 3: our favorite comics, we end the show with a little
Speaker 3: bit of insight into something really really cool or important,
Speaker 3: or something that we just feel like you guys would
Speaker 3: probably like to hear us talk about. And today seeing
Speaker 3: as we're talking about Furio, so which is you know,
Speaker 3: really hopefully going to launch the summer blockbuster season. After
Speaker 3: a couple of misfires, we're gonna talk about it. What
Speaker 3: is the summer blockbuster season? How did it start? Well?
Speaker 3: Since the seventies, some has been a really lucrative time
Speaker 3: for studios to release big budget, high concept films with
Speaker 3: a list stars and flashy spectacle.
Speaker 4: Jaws exactly, those are the big Jaws is really seen
Speaker 4: as the beginning of summer blockbuster season, flashy spectacle young
Speaker 4: moviegoers or on break from school, you can make money.
Speaker 3: This season typically runs from March to Labor Day and
Speaker 3: accounts for forty percent of Hollywood's annual box office revenue.
Speaker 3: I would say in the last decade or so, because
Speaker 3: of Marvel, we kind of see it starting in May
Speaker 3: now is usually the first weekend of May what we
Speaker 3: call the free comic book Bay movie. So this year
Speaker 3: it was The Fall Guy, which obviously didn't kind of
Speaker 3: spark off that blockbuster box office that people wanted. But yes,
Speaker 3: like you mentioned stars the Stars, that's the scary Jaws
Speaker 3: in space movie. No Jaws Star Wars. But even like,
Speaker 3: the really interesting thing about some blockbuster season is it
Speaker 3: became so well known and kind of predictable for audiences
Speaker 3: that even smaller films like Clueless and which I love
Speaker 3: like one of my favorite movies, and laya Liar, the
Speaker 3: Jim Carrey movie found like huge audiences and massive paydays. Obviously,
Speaker 3: post you know, two thousand and eight, let's say the
Speaker 3: summer blockbuster has evolved into like a more established IP
Speaker 3: franchise space. Marvel would always release their big movie on
Speaker 3: that first weekend of May to coincide with Free Comic
Speaker 3: Book Day, and since then, you know, with the whole
Speaker 3: conversation of is Hollywood doomed by IP and comic book
Speaker 3: movie fatigue, they've also had the conversation of does summer
Speaker 3: blockbuster season still matter, especially when you know we've had
Speaker 3: releases as February has now become a space where you
Speaker 3: can release a huge blockbuster. That used to be a
Speaker 3: space where they would bury a movie, but after the
Speaker 3: success of Get Out it really opened up the space
Speaker 3: for horror movies. Then obviously we had Black Panther that
Speaker 3: opened then that was just absolutely massive. So I think
Speaker 3: that that the idea of where we can open a
Speaker 3: movie now has broadened distinctly, but still it still has
Speaker 3: a big shadow of a Hollywood the side air of
Speaker 3: the summer blockbuster.
Speaker 2: I think one of the most interesting recent developments which
Speaker 2: you really saw pickup speed over.
Speaker 1: The pandemic was digital releases coming at times right on
Speaker 1: the heels of the theatrical release. Fall Guy, which I
Speaker 1: think we both noted had a little bit of a
Speaker 1: disciplining run in the theaters, is coming to digital two
Speaker 1: weeks after it's run in theaters beginning just two weeks.
Speaker 2: And you know, this has been a thing that.
Speaker 1: Cinema theater chains and companies and owners have complained about
Speaker 1: because obviously that cuts into their bottom line, But I
Speaker 1: think it's it's indicative of how different the business is now.
Speaker 1: Like normally you'd be like, Okay, leave it, leave Fall
Speaker 1: Guy there, and you hope it builds an audience over time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it would. With fo Guy, it could have
Speaker 3: happened as well, because in its third week of release,
Speaker 3: which is the same time that they're about to launch
Speaker 3: this vod it would It actually only dropped forty percent
Speaker 3: from its first week, which is actually a really good
Speaker 3: hold for any movie. So it feels like that word
Speaker 3: of mouth could have built up. And we've seen with
Speaker 3: movies like Pixars Elemental, which had you know, a real
Speaker 3: it would think it was Pixar's lowest box office release
Speaker 3: since Toy Story, not even adjusted for inflation. But it
Speaker 3: ended up making almost half a billion dollars because it
Speaker 3: stayed in and families took their time and they heard
Speaker 3: it was good from a different family and they went,
Speaker 3: and the word of mouth meant that it was able
Speaker 3: to make a really great box office kind of qum,
Speaker 3: you know. And I think it's a shame that they're
Speaker 3: doing this with full app with a full guy, because
Speaker 3: I thought it was a really great movie. It deserves
Speaker 3: to be seen in the cinema. But I did read
Speaker 3: something really interesting which is apparently now a new Hollywood
Speaker 3: strategy is and this was not the case with four Guy.
Speaker 3: Thought I had an unbelievable huge marketing spend, like we
Speaker 3: saw it everywhere. This was not the case. But with
Speaker 3: some movies, like horror movies. The first omen Taro was
Speaker 3: a recent one. I was reading an interesting article about
Speaker 3: how apparently studios now will do a lower marketing budget
Speaker 3: with the knowledge that if the movie doesn't do well
Speaker 3: at the cinema, they can just immediately put it on
Speaker 3: VOD and get some of their money back. So it's
Speaker 3: almost it's changing so much that they're prepared for it.
Speaker 3: But it's really interesting because obviously it's not the same
Speaker 3: with every movie, so like doing Part two, which made
Speaker 3: a ton of money, that's been two and a half
Speaker 3: months and it's only just about to go on Max.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I find the whole thing really interesting, and
Speaker 3: I do think it's a shame in this particular situation
Speaker 3: that the fall Guy is kind of falling into this trap,
Speaker 3: because I do believe it could have found it and
Speaker 3: it will find its audience. It will be like so
Speaker 3: many movies before it, Scott Pilgrim, a movie that didn't
Speaker 3: make very money much money at the cinema, you know,
Speaker 3: True Roman, and the Quentin Tarantino written, Tony Scott directed movie,
Speaker 3: which is like one of my all time favorite movies.
Speaker 3: Another movie that didn't really make a lot of money
Speaker 3: at the cinema but found a new home on home video.
Speaker 3: So I guess in a way this could be like
Speaker 3: a modern version of that, where people can find a
Speaker 3: new fandom for these movies when they're on VOD and
Speaker 3: the way they used to find it in the video shop.
Speaker 1: Do you think that the age of the sleeper film
Speaker 1: you know, the film that like opens very quietly and
Speaker 1: then builds through essentially word of mouth in the theater.
Speaker 1: Do you think we're just that just doesn't it just
Speaker 1: doesn't exist anymore. We're never gonna see that like by
Speaker 1: big fat Greek wedding type of movie that just opens
Speaker 1: very soft but then grows and grows and grows because
Speaker 1: people are like, Hey, that's a really fun movie.
Speaker 2: Are we gonna gonna see that again?
Speaker 3: I think we will likely see it again, because this
Speaker 3: stuff is all cyclical, and I'm sure that there will
Speaker 3: be some movie that will come out that was a small,
Speaker 3: low budget movie that they're not even really concerned about
Speaker 3: putting it on VOD and it will end up making
Speaker 3: a ton of money. Kind Of honestly, everything ever where
Speaker 3: at all at once was almost that movie. And yeah,
Speaker 3: because because that had the small, staggered release and it
Speaker 3: ended up making a lot of money and becoming this
Speaker 3: huge hit that nobody saw. But I do think it's
Speaker 3: gonna be a lot less likely now. I also think
Speaker 3: this is another sad kind of trend towards the erasure
Speaker 3: of like the mid budget movie. You know, like we
Speaker 3: like Joel pointed out that, you know, the zach Efron
Speaker 3: movie Iron Claw, which everyone who saw it thought was
Speaker 3: going to be like a huge Oscar movie but didn't
Speaker 3: end up being that way. It's had huge success once
Speaker 3: it hit VOD. So I think that we're in this
Speaker 3: space where we're gonna see more mid budget kind of
Speaker 3: drama movies going to VOD going straight to streaming as well.
Speaker 3: Sadly need to see a change in the way cinema
Speaker 3: go are looking at films to kind of see it change,
Speaker 3: but I hope not, because I do think there's so
Speaker 3: many fantastic movies out there, and I would love to
Speaker 3: see more movies getting cinematic releases rather.
Speaker 2: Than less same. That's it for our show.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for more extra vision on Thursday when we're
Speaker 1: hopping into the time capsule to talk about the much
Speaker 1: maligned but actually good, fun, solid movie The Marvels, and
Speaker 1: on Friday dropping a mini bonus episode about Echo on
Speaker 1: Disney Plus.
Speaker 3: I want to say that this is actually very relevant
Speaker 3: because guess what The Marvels is, a movie that didn't
Speaker 3: do well in the cinema has now found an audience
Speaker 3: on Disney Plus. Yeah, look at how we tied that together.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, See you next time.
Speaker 5: Bite x ray Vision is hosted by Jason Gitsubsion and
Speaker 5: Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our
Speaker 5: executive ducers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising
Speaker 5: producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent
Speaker 5: and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 3: Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude. Kenny Goodman
Speaker 3: and Heidi our discord moderator.