Hello, and welcome to the Studio Demands It, an exercise in creative thinking where we will challenge ourselves to conceptualize, pitch, and craft a film based on the stipulations of a hypothetical Hollywood overlord. I am GC DeWitt, and joining me as always is my cohost, Jim Jacob Jingleheimer Burzelik. Hello, Jim. Hello. That's a great name.
Jim:That's name that's my I messed up the joke right there. Dang it. Start out, that's my name too.
T.C.:Yep. So you wanna do it again?
Jim:Whenever we go out, the people always shout.
T.C.:There goes Jim. Jacob Jingleheimer Yeah. Burzelic. Yep. What are we doing here?
T.C.:We are Jim and I talk movies all the time in particular. We complain about the choices made in blockbusters, and of course, as any good nerd does, we automatically assume that we can do better. Right?
Jim:It's it's a perfectly valid assumption.
T.C.:It's a I mean, who doesn't like like assuming they'll do better than the million dollar movie, but Well, I mean, they're wrong,
Jim:but we're we're right.
T.C.:We're right. And even the demands and restrictions that were clearly placed on a on a production we know we could do better. I'm a writer. You're a writer. I'm a director.
T.C.:You're a director. We're both filmmakers. So, yeah. We are not without our experience. How you doing, Jim?
Jim:I'm doing well. How are you?
T.C.:I'm good. I'm good. I I feel good about our we've we've gone a few episodes now.
Jim:We have. And This is just this old hat now. Yep. Hat. Here we are at the top of Hollywood.
T.C.:Yep. Just looking over it all, making judgment, passing judgment on all. Unfortunately, we haven't reached a point yet where enough people have heard us to to, you know, take us off the podcast
Jim:It's true.
T.C.:To then That's true. Just let us run out. Yeah. That's
Jim:get on hey. Hey, folks. Get on that.
T.C.:Did I don't know if you watch SNL at all, but, I mean, as of this recording, there's an episode that did the the potties. It was a podcast award show. No.
Jim:I did not see that one.
T.C.:Like, every year, 2,000,000,000 new podcasts hit the airways, and these are the awards that I don't Uh-oh. Probably not true.
Jim:No. That's that's fine. We'll be at the top of that heap too.
T.C.:Yeah. You know what I mean? That's so so what we're gonna do is we have this laundry list of I've made a list. Jim has made a list of of studio demands. It's a draw from the hat scenario here.
T.C.:I don't know what we're going into on this one. Jim is the studio today. He's gonna throw out the studio demands.
Jim:I'm I'm nodding like you can see that.
T.C.:Jim, nodding does not work in audio unless you
Jim:say what doing. You know what? I'm gonna innovate the nod Mhmm. In audio.
T.C.:Can you do, like, get your beard near it? Oh, Yeah. That's an audible nod. That's an audible nod, ladies and gentlemen. Okay.
T.C.:So I'm so what do we let's just kinda recap here because we we have had a few episodes so far. We got some some pretty good feedback from some of the
Jim:Oh, yeah?
T.C.:Some of
Jim:the listeners.
T.C.:Alright. We had Die Hard. Had Duck Universe. Here we did. Expendables.
T.C.:A lot of fun.
Jim:That was that was a lot of fun.
T.C.:Almost the shortest episode just based strictly on your immediate reaction to it. Yeah. Done. What I find fun is is because I edit the episodes, listening to them again and being like, oh, we should have expanded on that there or, like, just, like, continuing to think about the ideas after the fact. So
Jim:I would I would love to do that.
T.C.:Like, just return? Yeah. Like, or or going back to the
Jim:Return to the studio? Would that
T.C.:That's the sequel series.
Jim:The studio demands it again.
T.C.:Well, you know what? Maybe
Jim:maybe Studiogeddon.
T.C.:Maybe if we ever take a hiatus, that'll be
Jim:Oh, just do something like
T.C.:someone else to come in to take our spot, and they have to redo an episode that we've Oh,
Jim:that's kind of fun.
T.C.:Be like so the studio demanded this x movie, and now you Jim and TC are on break. I'm speaking third person, which is very rude. And then you guys gotta do it. You know what? Comments.
T.C.:If you if you like that idea, you know, throw your hat into the ring. Maybe we'll even bring you on. You know, we'll make it a whole thing. You gotta be a devout listener, though.
Jim:Get get those hopes up.
T.C.:Yeah. You're gonna build up all your hopes just to dash
Jim:them. Yep.
T.C.:Which is the Hollywood way.
Jim:It really is.
T.C.:Yeah. So, like
Jim:They they do that to to build character and make sure that only only the very best survive.
T.C.:You know, I don't understand what building character means. All I know is it's that what it's what Calvin's dad always used to say to him when it was something he didn't wanna do. Yeah. Builds character.
Jim:Build yeah. Yeah. Well, you know well, I mostly know it as gaining XP.
T.C.:That's Okay.
Jim:So leveling up, that's what it means to me.
T.C.:Very good.
Jim:What context that that is, I don't know what I'm getting bonuses in, but I'm getting them.
T.C.:You're kidding. I approve. Okay. So speaking of building hopes up only to dash them, oftentimes, I will hear about a movie getting made, and I'll be like, that sounds great, and then it comes out and I'm like, So I'm gonna have to go out on a limb and just assume, and maybe you have, maybe you haven't, maybe you've picked something that the studio demands today that will be one of those films that I saw that I thought, why? Maybe.
T.C.:You dumb dumbs.
Jim:I I actually, I did see one like that, and I pivoted. I was like, nah. That's too too pat to go to go that direction. I wanted to pick something new, something that we we wouldn't have seen. Mhmm.
Jim:So Okay. Let's try. So if anything, I guess, it could be a fallback if necessary.
T.C.:Okay. That that's the funny thing is that because we alternate like this, I I don't wanna pick something following you that's too close to what we just did. So, like, last last couple episodes, there was a one that I was really looking forward to doing, but then you picked the dark universe, and I'm like, oh, shoot. I'll have to save this one for another time because it'd it'd be a bad back to back.
Jim:Yeah. I I was thinking about that, like, well, the way we did dark universe now, like, we can't go and do, like, well, how would you do the Invisible Man? Right? And they're like, well, we I would do it like this because we said we would, and it would be awesome.
T.C.:Well, there's the Invisible Man franchise.
Jim:That's true. That's that's true. Or or, you know, it could be a part of the studio demanding, no, not like that. Do it different.
T.C.:We disagree with everything you've said, and now you must redo it, which we did have talked about as well. There will be future episodes where we will readdress some of the things we missed or some of the things that you folks listening have tweeted and commented at us. But that's down the road. Now, the studio is standing before me, sitting before me in a weird suit. Don't know why you wore this.
Jim:It's a really weird suit. Well, because I'm in the studio today.
T.C.:Okay. And I did not dress in costume, but you chose to.
Jim:Yeah. It's well, it's important to dress for the job you
T.C.:It's
Jim:want. Want. Anyway, so I'm here today.
T.C.:Okay, studio.
Jim:I really wanna throw money at a remake Mhmm. Of Cannonball Run.
T.C.:The Burt Reynolds Yeah. Car race move. Okay. Yeah. You know what?
T.C.:Okay.
Jim:You're a filmmaker. Okay. Make me a cannonball run. I want to throw money at.
T.C.:This is you hit was this the one you jokingly said you hadn't seen in a long time? You don't know if
Jim:it good idea? Yes. It was.
T.C.:I wanna say this. First of all, I told you to go for it.
Jim:Yes.
T.C.:Because there are plenty of studios out there that'll make demands of a film they have no concept of.
Jim:That's
T.C.:true. Mean, the best example of it
Jim:Spider Man should fight a polar bear in the fortress of Superman.
T.C.:No. No. You're right.
Jim:Who did I say?
T.C.:No. Spider Man.
Jim:You're right. Spider Man. I said Spider Man. That's yeah. Because the studio would never make a mistake.
T.C.:Nope. You're right. Spider Man should fight a bullet. Oh, no. Oh, god.
T.C.:Give me your nerd card.
Jim:I kinda
T.C.:Give me your nerd card.
Jim:Here here here it is.
T.C.:You wanna see Spider Man fight?
Jim:I kinda wanna build that movie now. Like, let's justify why Spider Man and a polar bear are in the fortress of solitude. Like, Superman's not home. I gotta get this polar bear out before he gets
T.C.:back. Okay. For the listeners, you've picked you've picked a rather old property here. Okay. So let's please, for our listeners' sake.
T.C.:Sure. Please recap Cannonball Run. Tell me what Cannonball Run is, and don't just say Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise.
Jim:Well, that is honestly what I had mostly remembered. Is Sally Field in No. Sally Field is What is not
T.C.:Oh, that's Smoking the Bandit.
Jim:Yeah. That's what I that was the one that I was gonna go that I was originally thinking Mhmm. And that I was gonna do, but then I'm like, actually, looking at Cannonball Run and how it was put together, I actually think that a studio now might have a really good time making that movie. Mhmm. I would I I think it was their intent with a movie like Rat Race, which we've discussed in the past, which was not.
Jim:No. It did not live up to being a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world
T.C.:Even close.
Jim:Or cannonball run.
T.C.:No. Not at all.
Jim:Which are both similar concepts.
T.C.:It makes me say when I hear people who like rat race. Like like, that's the pinnacle of their concept of that concept. Yeah. Like, in their head, oh, rat race is the best they could have done that. And it's like, no, it's not.
T.C.:I mean, I guess if that's how you see it, woah. Something crashed there.
Jim:Let's ignore that. Okay. So the first summary
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:On IMDb for Cannonball Run Mhmm. Is a wide variety of eccentric competitors participate in a wild and illegal cross country road race. However, the eccentric entrance will do anything to win the road race, including low down dirty tricks. Oh.
T.C.:So it's just
Jim:okay. So I think an important thing to note, I think it'd be a part of what the studio demands.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:Right? So the cast was most notably Burt Reynolds, Dom Deluise. Mhmm. But other there were there were a whole lot of of people worth noting.
T.C.:This is the seventies.
Jim:The rat pack was in it.
T.C.:And it
Jim:was I know. Was early eighties.
T.C.:Early eighties.
Jim:Right. There's is people that were popular in the in the late seventies were basically all in it because that that's how that was. The pack.
T.C.:The pack like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin rat Yep.
Jim:And they they were all in it. Dean Martin, Sammy Davis.
T.C.:Okay. Well
Jim:Oh, I think I think this was actually the first movie I saw Jackie Chan in.
T.C.:Really? Yeah. Jackie Chan's in this movie? Yep. In the original catalog?
Jim:Yes. He's Subaru driver number one.
T.C.:That sounds racist. He couldn't be driving a Ford or a Charger? Nothing? No?
Jim:No. Had to be Subaru.
T.C.:Oh, boy. I I have not seen Cannonball Run since, like, a WGN Saturday morning, like, maybe half watching them while I'm eating my my Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms Yeah. Combined.
Jim:But here here, let me let me go down. So it's not the entire Rat Pack.
T.C.:Okay.
Jim:But but, like, it's it's gonna be celebrities like Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis junior, Jack Elam. I think that's how you say his name. Yeah. That's right. Adrian Barbeau, Terry Bradshaw, Jackie Chan.
Jim:Wow. Convey. I don't actually know Bert Convey. Think he's recognizable from then. Jamie Farr, Peter Fonda.
T.C.:God. None of these have any pop cultural significance anymore. No. At least in, like, the the hardline. Wait.
T.C.:So what
Jim:Terry Bradshaw. Right? He still does ESPN Yeah.
T.C.:But as you're still looking at, like Yeah. Your dad would recognize some kind of thing. Yeah. Because even we this was dated for us.
Jim:Yeah. Yeah. And so I was I was two.
T.C.:I was one. Yeah. So so the studio is demanding a Cannonball run. First and foremost, we just need to determine well, I don't know, first and foremost, but I'm gonna say first and foremost, who's our cast? Because if we're if that was the late seventies, early eighties, like, all star cast they could get and I don't know.
T.C.:Maybe that's not an all star cast. Maybe that's a bunch of, like
Jim:It's definitely it's definitely names names of note. Like like, again, we're we're gonna crap on it a whole lot, but I think Rat Race, in that regard, was similar. There were a whole bunch of recognizable fate. Right? Like Sith here.
Jim:It wasn't even oh, now I'm gonna forget his name. It it was it was the character mister Bean.
T.C.:Right. Right. Roan
Jim:Atkinson. Yeah. It wasn't it it was it was Roan Atkinson, but it I I actually don't remember if that he was actually the character mister Bean or if he was just playing a character who was super similar to mister Bean. And then, like, Seth Green at the time was was rocketing upward, and I really don't remember anyone Oh, you go. That's right.
Jim:That's yeah.
T.C.:That's that that that Rat Race came out, what, late like, maybe '99? Like, maybe in there? But, like, okay. So if that was the cast then Mhmm. Cannonball Run's the cast now.
T.C.:We're looking at a Cannonball Run remake here. So and we've got the plot. It's a race across the country, no holds bar. So you're hitting on a good thing here. I think you're hitting on something that the studio that the the audience are proving they want, which is Fast Cars and stunts and colorful characters.
T.C.:Fast and Furious is one of the top five grossing franchises ever.
Jim:But to do oh, that's actually a really fun angle. Right? Like a Fast and Furious comedy.
T.C.:Exactly. That's what I was going for. And and not like the the sorry. I was just thinking of Tyrese trying to be the funny guy in the Fast and the Furious franchise. It made me wanna oh, I was like, he's not.
Jim:Yeah. No. Not not one one comedic sidekick, one one comedy relief character does not a comedy make.
T.C.:When when discussing Tyrese's comedy relief, please throw quotes up, please. Can you finger quote that? Thank you.
Jim:Here it was. Audible quotes.
T.C.:Thank you. All these you're designers in this Yeah. In that respect.
Jim:I want the credit for that.
T.C.:Yeah. We are looking at a straight up the idea is a a laugh out loud, raucous comedy, Fast and the Furious. Like, okay. This isn't
Jim:I still think the concept makes sense. Cannonball Run. Yeah. Yeah. Sticking with that was participate in a wild illegal cross country race.
Jim:Right? So I don't I don't know if we like, the whole the whole concept here, what this all leans on is it's going to be which is a challenge for for this time because while movies well, especially tentpole blockbusters can make lots of money Mhmm. And there are still Hollywood Stars. They're not the way they used to be. I I think we we once had a discussion about who who's bankable.
Jim:Right? Like Strictly on their name. Yeah. Yeah. On name alone, like, could say the name and people will go see them.
Jim:Mhmm. That list has gotten smaller over the decades. So in '81, that list was pretty huge.
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:Roger Moore, right, coming off of a Bond movie Mhmm. Is gonna is gonna put seats gonna put seats in butts. Yeah. That's a bad way
T.C.:to do just you're gonna pull the cheeks and just shove it right up in there. I I don't know. Whereas
Jim:nowadays, like, even really big like, we would start naming stars, and when you go look at the numbers, those names alone don't actually bring people don't bring people in.
T.C.:So the trick here then would be because there's there's okay. You could you could throw this at a troop. This could be Seth Green or Seth Green. Seth Rogen and the gang. You could get a this is the end.
T.C.:You got Dan McBride, James Franco, Jay Bureshell. Like, bring in the bring in that gang, and they're the cannonball run. You know?
Jim:Have I like this. Yeah. That's one of the racing groups.
T.C.:Okay. Yes.
Jim:One one or two.
T.C.:You're you see where I'm going with that? Yeah. Because now the problem with, Anchorman two, the problem with Zoolander two, the problem with a lot of these high concept comedies that come out is they're just like, cameo. Cameo. Yeah.
T.C.:I've yes. It's great to see Jerry Lewis drive by in ten seconds and it's a mad, mad, mad world. Or that the three stooges are standing there as the firemen on the tarmac at the airplane. That's it. Like, you just pass by them.
T.C.:And and those moments for the air they came out with going back to
Jim:Mhmm.
T.C.:To Mad, Mad World, they are a oh. And then that's it.
Jim:It's true. Back when cameos were were surprises. Yeah. But now now
T.C.:Now everyone has to make it a thing. Like, I've
Jim:Maybe because we're such movie wonks, is is it maybe we're just jaded towards cameos?
T.C.:No. Because they they stopped the movie now for cameos.
Jim:For us. For us. People still like like Stan Lee.
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:Right? Rest in peace. Rest in peace. I I Us nerds, Us movie nerds, Us comic book nerds, maybe not all of us, maybe just you and me Mhmm. Have complained.
Jim:Like, love seeing Stan Lee. Great guy. Deserves deserves all all the all that all the odds. However, every time he'd appear in in one of these Marvel movies after the first, what, three?
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:It was like, where's the Stan Lee scene?
T.C.:It's already Stan Lee.
Jim:Yeah. And then when it happens, it's like, well, okay. Now I'm not paying attention to the movie. It's found it's it's the Where's Waldo of it. Right?
Jim:Just waiting for
T.C.:Stan the Man to show up.
Jim:Yeah. Not you're not looking at other things. So I I don't I may let's I I'm gonna put that to the audience. What do you guys I just wanna I'd curious. Poll, write like tangent poll.
Jim:Do you think cameos are overplayed? Are are they are they out of out of date? Are they now cliche and and gauche, or are they still chic and cool?
T.C.:I yes. I yes. Throw that to the listeners. Hit up the comments or tweet at us for for your response. I think because Cannonball Run, I don't I don't have, like, a very clear I have a better memory of of Rat Race and Man World in terms but it's it's very much the same concept of a star studded adventure race across the country style movie.
T.C.:If we're gonna play let's get back to the cast here and talk about, like, Seth Green oh god. Seth Shogan. You know what? Seth Green's in this movie too. Like, we gotta put him in.
Jim:Yeah. Yep. I'm gonna use this little interruption to to make a clarification. I think cameos, whether they are in there or not Mhmm. I think that is aside from how we're going to cast this.
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:I I think we can have them or not. They're gonna be names that are are unimportant to how we get this movie sold. Right? Like Yeah. You don't sell Robin Hood men of or King
T.C.:King Prince
Jim:of Thieves? I don't I what what type of whatever. You don't sell Robin Hood Prince of Thieves on Sean Connery appearing at the end.
T.C.:Right. That's just a little added bonus. Right? You sell it on Costner being involved. Yeah.
T.C.:So right. So I having the the racing duo, having, like, comedy teams involved in this, and also something that I'm I know you've pulled Cannonball Run here, but I have to use Mad World. That was
Jim:a I I just wanna comment. Like, we we're basically gonna end up mostly referencing essentially three movies, Cannonball Run, Mad Mad World, and Rat Race. Right. There's actually a slew of them out there. There there's a whole bunch.
Jim:I remember seeing several when I was younger that don't have stars.
T.C.:Oh. Right? Just
Jim:And there there's even a Cannonball Run two. So there's there's lots there's lots of this this concept isn't isn't new or or even rarely done. So But What what
T.C.:what we're trying to do here is create we have the premise. We just have a crazy race, no holds bar. Mhmm. We had now just now we just pluck in the the the characters. Right?
T.C.:So if you have Seth Rogen and James Franco in a car together, right, maybe their radio guys, Danny McBride, boom. There's your those three guys can just do their thing.
Jim:Danny McBride is one of the cops, if not the cop, chasing Well,
T.C.:here's the thing. I get I'll I'll give you another car. K. Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.
Jim:Oh, that's fun.
T.C.:Yeah. Get because now you have another comedy duo doing something completely different. And you know who might be the right guy to direct this?
Jim:Who's that?
T.C.:Edgar Wright. He's proven himself to to to chase cars with Baby Driver. Yep. He has proven himself an ability to maintain different styles of comedic talent because if you look at Scott Pilgrim versus the World. Sure.
T.C.:He was able to reign in Michael Sarra
Jim:and Whole bunch of That
T.C.:guy. Yeah. Yep. So you have Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick in there. So he's proven himself capable of an American cast Yeah.
T.C.:Versus Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which have and World's End, the Cornetto gang. Right? Mhmm. Plus it's like Right.
Jim:That is unnecessary. Anything
T.C.:no. This is your phone's agreeing with me.
Jim:Well, the train, you know, that helps too.
T.C.:I'm I would I would love to see someone like Edgar Wright maintain this. Has the capabilities of of controlling a high concept comedy like this. Mhmm. And on the other hand, to see him team up with some someone like Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg if they were to be involved in the writing processes. Like, those are two big comedy powerhouses currently working in in operating in the comedy spectrum today.
T.C.:Yeah. Okay. Where's Will Ferrell fitting here? Because if you had that, now you're looking involving John C. Reilly or Adam McKay and like Yep.
T.C.:Do I we I mentioned Zoolander earlier. Do we want Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in a car? Right? And then we're not even delving into proper territory here because you have like Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph and get Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in a car. Make them the two cops.
T.C.:Like, there's the possibilities of of just filling this this high concept with the right duos and teams Yeah. And just letting them do their thing. Edited correctly, directed correctly, there's a chance for, like, absolute 100% comedy gold here.
Jim:Sure. I I agree. I think in general, we did that. But I think what the studio the studio loves all of this, but they're not sold because they're they're they're in for all this, but what they want is who is the Burt Reynolds and Don Belouise.
T.C.:You're yeah. Who who's you're right. Who is who is the is it I've already I've said, you know, Seth Rogen and James Franco. Are they I don't think they're at a level of I don't I don't even think you could call Will Ferrell and Johnson. You
Jim:could do a type a type of movie. I I don't know if it's necessarily the the one we're thinking of, but I think you you could get a cannonball run out of James Franco as the Burt Reynolds
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:And Seth Rogen as the Dom DeLuise.
T.C.:Actually, got you one better. I know I know them I know oh, I know. Chris Hemsworth. Chris Hemsworth fits the fits the handsome leading man that Burt Reynolds was in his era, and Chris Hemsworth is definitively good at comedy at this point. There's no doubt about it.
Jim:Okay.
T.C.:I I oh god. You know who else needs to be in that thought too?
Jim:Bad. That's not oh, and Oh, because And he wore a mustache pretty well in Bad Times at the El Royale. Yeah.
T.C.:The thing is that, like oh, god. I'm just you just start jotting down notes here. Chris Hemsworth in this role I I wanna see okay. I got it. Okay.
T.C.:Oh. Oh. Cannibal Run, the way it was was presented was was Burt Reynolds a comedian of his era? I know Dom Deleuise was, but was Burt Reynolds considered a comedian? I don't know I don't know his career well enough to determine was that his shtick or was that out of character for him?
Jim:It was neither. Okay. He was just he was a leading man.
T.C.:He okay.
Jim:Right? So because he was in he was in Cannonball Run, Smokey the Bandit without trying to look up the order that these movies came up. But then at the same time, he was, oh, crap. No. I can't remember.
Jim:He was he was like this this badass action hero in a movie where he used nothing but knives. Oh.
T.C.:Like, it was Okay.
Jim:Pretty intense.
T.C.:So so alright. So then I think I think we're on to someone with Chris Hemsworth here. And then I don't know who to team up team him up with just yet. But Mhmm. Then then I would be interested in seeing filling this out with definitively comedians.
T.C.:Right? I like the idea of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost being thrown in there, but they've proven themselves capable of a little bit of of dramatic turn as well. I don't want this to turn into some, like, serious
Jim:movie ever. No.
T.C.:But having someone like John Hamm, who is very much a dramatic actor, first and foremost, but the dude in comedy. Yeah. He's hilarious. Yeah. Yeah.
T.C.:So who who else out there could be teamed up with Chris Hemsworth to be that Dom Del Luis? Like, if you if I I think if we threw the money at Chris Hemsworth, this is his it would make a new franchise for Chris here.
Jim:I I think it would be
T.C.:Okay. I just thought
Jim:interesting to see Bobby Moynihan.
T.C.:Okay. Not where I was gonna go. Not where I was gonna go. Oh, did you see saving Gunther? No.
T.C.:It's Taron Killam's movie. It's got Schwarzenegger in it. It's about the hitmen and
Jim:No. No. I wanted to see that.
T.C.:Bobby Moynihan's in that as well and he's he's quite funny. I actually think okay. We have to think like a studio here. It's not Bobby Moy. You can't sell a movie on Bobby freaking Moynihan.
T.C.:You know who you team up Chris Hemsworth to make him give his Dom DeLuise level sidekick? Kevin Hart.
Jim:Hart. Yeah. Oh.
T.C.:Yeah. Little little wacky Kevin Hart. Well, no. Scrappy little Kevin.
Jim:That that's oh god. That is how you oh, that's how you sell it. Yep. My only my only concern there is is that you're you're gonna you're gonna have too much not not fighting. I don't think the actors will fight.
T.C.:Mhmm. Just the I don't know. Like Is that too much ego? Is that what you're thinking? Because I don't think so.
T.C.:I we haven't listed anyone that that strikes me as someone who's a diva in the sense of
Jim:I think here's why I don't think Kevin Hart fits the bill. Mhmm. Kevin Hart's great, but Kevin Hart definitely plays and and and he's I'm sure he's he's capable of doing many other things. There's that one movie coming out really soon. It's a drama.
Jim:Looks amazing. It looks phenomenal.
T.C.:Oh, Cranston's in it. Yeah. Yes. Yep. May already be out when this airs.
Jim:You don't know? I really shouldn't do that, but I keep doing it. We'll see if I can go an episode without dating it.
T.C.:We know when this was recorded now.
Jim:But he he generally plays the put upon man. Mhmm. And Dom DeLuise can can play that, has played that, but that really wasn't his if I'm remembering right, wasn't really his role. Mhmm. It was they were they were kind of a duo, and Bert was the doer.
Jim:Mhmm. And Dom was the the kinda the the guy who who made it like, the brains almost, the guy who kinda made it happen
T.C.:Right.
Jim:While Bert Reynolds pulled the trigger kinda stuff. I might be getting that all wrong. Just
T.C.:But, hey. You know what? The studio won't know, so you're fine. No. Cannonball run.
T.C.:That was a thing. Right? Make it happen. Who's gonna be the Cannonball? Burt.
T.C.:Burt's Cannonball. Burt and Ernie.
Jim:Yeah. But I I think yeah. I think Dom Della's played a little more of, like, a con man kinda kinda thing. And and I maybe this would be the one where Kevin Hart shows that he can do that. Maybe I haven't seen the one where he can do that, but he's just might
T.C.:not be the movie for it. This might be a movie definite like, for pigeonhole, like typecasting. Yeah. The cast of the type. The cops chasing it.
T.C.:Who did you you said Danny McBride would be a
Jim:good Yeah.
T.C.:Cop chasing. I don't think so.
Jim:Think I I in the initial pitch, when it was just that group of guys
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:You were to say who's chasing who's chasing Seth Rogen and James Franco, it's Danny McPride.
T.C.:I I think in terms of of where we are in Hollywood today, what the studio would ask for, and what I would personally rather see, I'd rather see, like, just if she had to be used, Melissa McCarthy as a cop as opposed to one of the smart smart mouth chase being chased, like one of the runners.
Jim:That's fun. I
T.C.:love miss Melissa McCarthy. I love Melissa McCarthy when she's under control. When they let her cut loose and they don't edit, like, Ghostbusters was a problem because they didn't have a strong enough script, and Paul Feig just let them do whatever they want. That didn't work. If they hit she's that was a very capable cast.
T.C.:And Melissa McCarthy is Oscar buzz around her these days. Right? So to see her in the cop role, I I would love to see her play something other than just to I I was just saying play to people's strengths, but don't just let her BS, like, just bullshit her way through insulting people and yelling and doing her shtick. I wanna see something a little more like, team her up with Idris Elba. Those are the two casts.
Jim:Well, actually, what I oh, that's not bad. But what I was gonna say was your earlier suggestion, I'd put John Hamm.
T.C.:John Hamm and Melissa McCarthy are the two casts. Yeah. Well, that's what that's why I've said Idris, like, someone who's, like, dramatic actor, like
Jim:Yeah. Yeah. Well, has Idris done any comedy?
T.C.:I mean, Finding Dory, he was one of the the seals. So he's he's I think he is capable of having some fun. The Losers is a little more of a it's an action adventure comic book movie, but he has little he's having a little fun in there. But just because of how intimidating he is just by his mere presence, as well as how handsome he is. Yeah.
T.C.:To have those two I just imagining Idris Elba and Melissa McCarthy as the law chasing down all these schmucks. Yeah. There's I think that that alone is right for comedy right there. Oh, yeah. I well, I actually, now we're delving into territory here that's a problem for this movie.
T.C.:The budget. How do you afford all these actors? What's the selling point to get all these people signed on board at? What would have to be about scale if we're gonna blow this out with, like, a huge cast? Well,
Jim:I we we haven't really put boundaries on it. I think I think we need four teams four teams running the race.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:And then really just, I I think, the one the the one set of cops Yeah. Chasing. And then there will be other cops. They just will be Fired. Not yeah.
Jim:They they they won't be named characters, like like named actors.
T.C.:And and getting the and filling the road with small bit parts. And this would be I'm thinking more like a director as opposed to just trying to pitch to a studio, but maintaining those cameos to something on the level of Charlton Heston's cameo in Wayne's world, where it's like, have a cameo, have it be significant, but don't stop the movie dead in its tracks. Look at the first the first rumble scene in Anchorman one. Sure. Probably, like, what?
T.C.:What? Like, it it's it's fun. And then look at the comparison that Anchorman two where it's like, oh, look who it is now. Look who it is now. Like that or the difference between Zoolander one, where you have cameos, and Zoolander two, where it's like stop the movie to the point, like, look who it is.
T.C.:There's it's a fine line with to go back to our discussion on cameos. I think having the four teams, having the law, have your sell this movie with this cast, and then sprinkle in all these fun cameos of people.
Jim:Like Okay. Okay. So I think four teams Mhmm. Four teams is is enough to to weave through this story. The idea of it being an illegal race.
Jim:So whatever the McGuffin that they're after is, it's basically four groups of criminals. Okay. Different types. Right? So are Chris Hemsworth and Kevin Hart, I guess.
T.C.:You're gonna
Jim:I I think that's the I think I I'm still I'm not sold, but For
T.C.:for now, we got Hemsworth and Hemsworth I don't know. I guess that's the post I
Jim:can can show you the mic. I I want a chubby guy. I want a chubby guy.
T.C.:Who's a who's a chubby chubby guy?
Jim:A chubby chubby guy.
T.C.:Who's a chubby chubby guy? Hemsworth and Herb, you can see the poster.
Jim:Yeah. Can see that poster.
T.C.:They're back to back. No. They're back to back, but you just see the top of Kevin Hart's head. Well, no. It's it's It's all Hemsworth's chest.
T.C.:Just the top of his head from, like, maybe the bridge of his nose up. It says Hemsworth and Hart.
Jim:No. No. You're you you have way more stars than this. This needs to be like an older post. So you'd have them standing back to back.
Jim:You'd see them just fine, but they'd be standing, like, in a in a circle, like like like, there'd be a circle, so you don't see their legs. Yeah. And then there'd be little scenes of everyone else, like, the the the the Rogan crew on a car bursting through a barn or something. Over over on this side, the the the Elba and and McCarthy are are setting up a roadblock and, like, McCarthy has a big old shotgun or something.
T.C.:That's And Elba has a tiny little handgun. Right? Little late little lady. Yeah. But here's the thing.
T.C.:You're that's the whole that's the final poster. The teaser posters are all the team ups. Oh. Right? So you can walk down a hall and you see Hemsworth and Hearth, Elba and McCarthy Okay.
T.C.:You know, Peg and Frost, like Sure. Or this. And it's a whole series of posters to help suck. Okay. It's four teams, so we got So four teams.
Jim:So you have you have Hemsworth and Hart as our as our as our plucky main characters. They're pretty much con men.
T.C.:Yep. That's this is Bert Reynolds
Jim:and This is pretty much what they do. Yeah. You have Rogan Franco. I think Rogan Franco, Danny McBride. Who else who else in that group?
Jim:Evan
T.C.:Well, Evan Gober is the writer. But
Jim:No. No. What what's the Jay Bershow. Thank you. Jay.
Jim:Oh, jeez.
T.C.:Come on, Jim. How could you not remember me?
Jim:Jay Bershow. Remembered him. I just didn't remember his name.
T.C.:Oh, man.
Jim:She's Come on. Craig and whoever else we can shove in there, they're basically
T.C.:Like Craig Robinson?
Jim:Yeah.
T.C.:They're in a van.
Jim:Basically, I'm just imagining the the cast of This Is The End. Oh, yeah. Van. That would actually work. But what they are is they're basically a petty crime crew.
Jim:Mhmm. They do hold ups, burglaries, things like that. They're they're, you know, where they
T.C.:they're really cramped.
Jim:Crowbar a crowbar and a flashlight. That's their that's their bread and butter
T.C.:of crime. They're the misdemeanors.
Jim:Yeah. So so the the yeah. They're they're the ones they're the low level criminals who have stumbled their way into a possible payday, and so that's why they're in on this. Uh-huh. The third crew is a mob crew, and that's that's the one.
Jim:So if you're not gonna give me John Hamm as a cop Yeah. That's the crew John Hamm is on. I don't know who else is in that crew.
T.C.:Can we get Omar from The Wire? Sure. Because he's proven himself as county. What's the actor's name? I'm totally just blanking right now.
T.C.:The audience is yelling at me. Yeah. I'm thinking of Community. He he was very funny on this.
Jim:I still have to see that show, but I did see that clip where he's like, Legos.
T.C.:Yeah. Because he was in prison. Yeah. And he got out and he was like yeah. So a mob crew.
T.C.:Right? Yeah. That what you're saying? Yeah.
Jim:Yeah. So so they they have the whole whole Mob shtick.
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:I don't know who for the fourth one.
T.C.:Okay. Well, lately, we have females in here, man.
Jim:So Women can be a part of any of these crews.
T.C.:It's true. I'm sorry.
Jim:Just because I forgot to name them doesn't mean that they can't be there.
T.C.:I I'd love to see in terms of, like
Jim:Frankly, in fact, if you were to make one of the teams a lady crew, that is actually worse than me leaving names off and just I
T.C.:may asshole. Yeah.
Jim:Assuming them.
T.C.:So I thinking in terms of like who are some of like the funniest females working right now that the studio might eyeball. I mean, sure, like, yeah, there's like Amy Schumer, but I think more like I think Maya Rudolph is one of the funniest working comedians right I would love to see like some of the lesser SNL girls get a breakout. So if you had like Kate McKinnon and like Melissa Villasenor, lesser sorry, Kate McKinnon is a freaking star on a on a trajectory like Will Ferrell. But like Melissa Villasenor and Cecily Strong, like some of those Sure. Some of those like possible breakout comedic roles or comedic actresses.
T.C.:Yeah. What what's their are are they like
Jim:I just I'd yeah. I was just trying to to archetype the the the crime the crime type. So you have the con men. You have the
T.C.:First timers. The They could be first timers. That that fourth crew is like, hey, I found out about a thing. Really? Okay.
T.C.:I guess this is what we're doing now.
Jim:Oh, like
T.C.:So they're really terrible.
Jim:Like people who don't even realize they're they're in on some big illegal scheme.
T.C.:Yeah. Yeah. Like, maybe one in the one in the car knows and is constantly hiding it from the other. Well, like, are you sure this is legal? It's legal.
T.C.:It's all part of the thing. It was I found it online.
Jim:So it's like it's like a a a rogue bachelorette party?
T.C.:Like, just one of them. Oh, man.
Jim:And then what once they get they once they start realizing maybe this isn't the right thing
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:At least one of them is like, no. We're in too deep. We're finishing this.
T.C.:Tiffany Haddish could be totally perfect for that. I'm thinking of like girls night or girls nights and there was the Scarlet Johansson one that came out like Simon the So like, yeah, Tiffany Haddish getting in here. She's freaking hilarious. Just let her be the one like, no, we're doing this. We are doing this.
T.C.:Okay. Sorry to do this. I'm gonna take a quick
Jim:break here.
T.C.:Let's take a quick break here. We'll kinda, like, gather our thoughts. Sure. Here's a quick ad. Yeah.
T.C.:I'm just gonna throw it to the ad right now. Go. Go, Ed. Go.
Commercial:Hello. I'm Max. And I'm Jordan. And I'm here to talk to you about the Top Hat Balloon Show. It's a great show.
Commercial:It's a sketch comedy show that comes out every week. Hilarious things happen in it. You can find us on YouTube or iTunes or on our website at topthatballoonshow.com. We have a website.
Jim:Hi there. I'm David.
Comemrcial:And I'm Kate.
Jim:And we're the hosts of another Zelda podcast.
Comemrcial:There are so many good podcasts out there and some of them in particular concern the Legend of Zelda.
Jim:That's right, Kate. And we are another one of them. We that is actually the name of our show, another Zelda podcast.
Comemrcial:And in our show in particular, we talk about some of our favorite dungeons, characters, boss battles. We have top 10 lists.
Jim:Yeah. We do deep dives on game design and production aspects of the different Zelda games.
Comemrcial:And we talk about our own experiences. We do some review episodes, talk about our challenges, our struggles, and our victories.
Jim:That's right. You know, really just almost anything that has to do with Zelda. We like to talk about it. A new episode comes out every other Friday, and you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and YouTube.
Comemrcial:And you can also check out our episodes on our website, anotherZeldapodcast.com.
Jim:That's right. Alright. We will see you there.
Comemrcial:Okay. Bye.
Jim:Good job, Ed.
T.C.:Good job, Ed. Okay. So we we we've we've taken a break here. Welcome back. You guys, you know, you just were gone for a few seconds.
Jim:Been gone for.
T.C.:Ever about the same time. Oh, yeah. No, actually. I didn't expect this idea to go the distance right now. But I the possibilities of these team ups, the possibilities of of giving the studio this very what we're doing is we're trying to defy what is currently happening.
T.C.:We've talked about this already in this episode. You can't sell a movie on movie stars anymore. But Yeah. That's what we're literally trying to do Mhmm. Is fill a theater with with names.
T.C.:Yeah. You love these people. They're all together. Come check them out. Yeah.
T.C.:And I and I wonder if something like
Jim:Like, actually, I just I just thought of a name I would want to put in there somehow.
T.C.:Okay. Well, hold that thought.
Jim:Okay. Oh, yeah.
T.C.:Hold it.
Jim:Sorry. Sorry.
T.C.:That's alright. I got
Jim:so excited.
T.C.:What I I wonder if movies that rely so heavily on those cameos that they aren't even surprising anymore might do better if you just blew the whole wand and said, yeah, all these people are in this movie. Come see them. Mhmm. Right? Like Zoolander two, so I keep going back to that, but it was one of the more recent failures of comedies of this of ensemble types.
T.C.:It was a huge failure. But then go back all the way to 02/2008, and you have something like Tropic Thunder, which Mhmm. Was a very big success. Granted, we're talking a pre Marvel Cinematic Universe era of film, but a post Dark Knight. No.
T.C.:Not post Dark Knight. Around the time of the Dark Knight. So I wonder if if we will be able to sell this film by saying there's all the people in it. Yeah. Right?
T.C.:Because a lot of times, you mentioned the bad times at the
Jim:El Royale.
T.C.:El Royale. I was drawn in by the concept or the look of the film, but even just seeing the names across the poster of bridges
Jim:and Right. So so there's still some of that draw. That that also was like, was like, really? How are they getting all these all of these people in this movie, and why is it not getting more buzz?
T.C.:Yeah. Do you know what? And it
Jim:was it was good. I I kind of see why it didn't get more buzz, but I I did enjoy it. I wish it had gotten more hey. Go see Bedtime of Tale Royale.
T.C.:It's probably streaming at this point.
Jim:Yeah. So it's super easy at this point.
T.C.:You wanna get another name on this list? I I wanna talk about directors again. Because I I threw Edgar Wright out there as a possibility. I think he would be a phenomenal option for this Sure. Because I think he's he absolutely has proven himself capable of of this.
T.C.:Right? But what does the studio want? Does the studio want to take a risk on Edgar Wright, who isn't necessarily a bankable director? He's not he's not a bankable director by name alone.
Jim:So I think
T.C.:I okay.
Jim:This is where the studio saves money.
T.C.:Get a get a less than director. Okay.
Jim:That that's not so important.
T.C.:You wouldn't go with
Jim:I'd be willing to, but I'm I'd
T.C.:Well, here
Jim:If if
T.C.:There's nothing
Jim:you can't get a a cool awesome director, it's no skin off this studio's nose.
T.C.:Yeah. Let the actor but I think a director would be crucial in making this a success.
Jim:You you do need the right director, yeah, to to wrangle what's gonna be happening.
T.C.:And that's what I was warned the studio about is, like, no. Don't don't go with Paul Feig. He's I know he banks on Flash in the pan comedies like Spy and the Boss. But you want legs on this thing, give it to someone who knows how to execute this. If you wanna go a different direction with what type of movie this is, you get Quentin Tarantino, but I don't think I mean, because this is even Sure.
T.C.:His era. He would wanna do
Jim:something like this.
T.C.:Oh. But we're talking about it completely. Could you do Tarantino but with the cast we've discussed? That would be the challenge, and I don't think the studio would take a risk on something like that. But then again, they are willing to give him Star Trek.
Jim:So God. I don't know what kind of world we're living in anymore.
T.C.:Up is down. Left is right. Cats and dogs living together. Math is terrible. You wanted to throw another throw a Yeah.
T.C.:I just person to catch.
Jim:Well, really, all this is is it's just sort of opening the doors of just naming people who are popular in some way right now and be like, oh, yeah. That'd be fun. But Nick Offerman. Right?
T.C.:Oh, yeah. I like Nick Offerman. Yeah.
Jim:He he well, just he seems like the type he's built for a movie like this.
T.C.:Mhmm. Like to have him in some key role or or just Well,
Jim:not not just as a cameo, I guess, is is what I'm saying.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:That that was it. That was all I wanted to say. I didn't we
T.C.:didn't need to Nick Offerman's name. Yes.
Jim:We didn't need to dwell on it.
T.C.:You know, there's also a possibility of looking at someone who, like, it was f Gary Gary Gray who did Fast and Furious eight. He's got Widows. He's done more dramatic turns, but he's proven capable of action Mhmm. And adventure type films. Like, did Fast and
Jim:the
T.C.:Furious seven or Fate of the Furious. He did the eighth one. Looking at a director like that, comes comes out he would bring in a different type of cast, a different type of of feel. So we're we're certainly I'm certainly at least conceptualize this in a director I'd love to see in this role Mhmm. Who I could see executing it like his other films, which is why I keep going back to Edgar Wright.
T.C.:Yeah. And we are drawing from a particular Now group of comedians as well.
Jim:Yeah. With with Edgar Wright, my only concern is this movie is gonna be much bigger, broader strokes. Mhmm. Whereas Edgar Wright's stuff he's he has he has scenes that are definitely like that, but his stories and even the way he chooses to film film them is a lot more personal.
T.C.:You're right. Yeah. Okay. I see what you're saying. His his scripts are real tight, and this would have even though I bashed the find it in the edit style of comedy Mhmm.
T.C.:That's why I'm saying we need someone to rein it in. It's a it's a balance here. Because if it's too locked down, you don't give the freedom to the the actors to do what they do. Yeah. Right?
T.C.:But if it's too loosey goosey like Judd Apatow, who I think all his movies are about thirty minutes longer than they should be
Jim:Sure.
T.C.:Because he can't rein it in. There's gotta be there's gotta be a balance there.
Jim:Okay. Well, two things. First, I think the absolute perfect director for a movie like this is a little known guy, Jim Berzelik.
T.C.:Mhmm. I think he'd
Jim:I think he'd be great.
T.C.:His name is your name?
Jim:Yeah. Oh. Really? I never noticed. I I should find out if we know each other.
Jim:Maybe. Dang it. That was such a fun thing. I forgot my other point.
T.C.:We're talking to
Jim:different person. Dang it. You need to take cut and then cut back when I think of the idea. Open with a jingle hammer.
T.C.:I did. This is this is what we call a callback. Thank you. Thank you, peanut gallery.
Jim:I I totally missed it because I'm trying to remember my other point.
T.C.:I threw you off.
Jim:Yeah. I I'm sorry. I I thought I was being so quippy and funny, but referencing myself. And why did I do that?
T.C.:I don't
Jim:know. But this is all staying here. Oh, I remember. I remember. It it I think I think you can even go with a director that that lets it go off the rails a little bit.
Jim:Mhmm. Not not as in, like not not crazy, but I think ad libbing is fun. And even if there's a whole bunch, I think what then ends up becoming important, and now we're getting even further out out of my wheelhouse of names I can throw out there to reference. But I think you'd the editor would be important.
T.C.:Oh, certainly. I and I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to give name an editor for you to And to lend it. But yeah. It's.
Jim:So I think that's where sort of the named directors like Tarantino, Edgar Wright. The problem with or obstacle. Let's say the obstacle with going with them is the way that they create scenes, they're kind of already editing. Right. And I think with a movie like this, you're gonna want more of those improv scenes.
Jim:You're gonna kinda want the you're gonna want that comedy to breathe. Yeah. And so you can't go with someone who has already created the blueprint for the the shots.
T.C.:I I think they're
Jim:No. That that's not the right blueprint. You you understand what I mean? Audience audience, just psychically know what I'm what I mean.
T.C.:I think that there there is the right director for this then. And we've I mean, we literally, like, started the whole conversation with it, which is the the this is the end crew is the is probably the one to to make this because they've proven themselves. And they also did a sausage party and Yeah. You're looking at the Pineapple Express.
Jim:Well, honestly, I I I swear, as we do this more of this podcast, I will get better at these names.
T.C.:But Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen directed This Is The End, and they was a high they were able to craft the script as it needed to be as well as letting the cast go off and do their thing. There's a a a substantial amount of improvisation in This Is The End. There's no doubt about that watching it that they were just cutting loose. But at the same time, that is one of the most well constructed comedies of the past decade. Sure.
T.C.:And they I became a fan of Seth Rogen because of that movie. Anyone who listened to my previous podcast would know I was I hated the guy. Up until that movie came, was like, oh, Appetell was the problem because this guy's Seth Rogen is amazing. Go ahead. I
Jim:was gonna you you mentioned Anchorman earlier, so Adam McKay.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:But then I realized I think who I want to to direct it.
T.C.:Okay.
Jim:I'm gonna get his I'm gonna brute I'm gonna butcher his name. Yeah. Let me look at I I
T.C.:need to look at it. Nolan.
Jim:Yeah. No way. No Nolan.
T.C.:Nolan. It's
Jim:I'd even looking at it. I'm I'm so sorry, Jay. Jade chan chan chan. Get it? Chandrasekar.
T.C.:Oh. Oh, Chandrasekar. God. Super Troopers.
Jim:Yeah. I want I want him to direct it.
T.C.:Well, you know what? You he is It's Thorny from Super Troopers.
Jim:Yes. Yes.
T.C.:Yes. He actually is a quite quite a good choice for this. I would okay. So now we're we're delving in territory that I'm not particularly comfortable with, but I'll let you Okay. You're the studio.
T.C.:I've already said Seth Rogen and Evan Kolberg being the right choice for this. Now you've gone to Thorny from Mhmm. From Super Troopers. We are trying to remake Cannibal Run here. We're trying to touch touch a modern audience.
T.C.:Is this a pot comedy? Is that what No. Is that where we've gone with this? No. Okay.
T.C.:Because
Jim:You you you know, I well
T.C.:because that's the Super Troopers MO.
Jim:Here's another here's another interesting thing about the dynamic we've created here. The other reason that I wanted to define the crews that we not not not just dwell on who's going to play them, but the type of crew there was because each group Mhmm. Sets a different dynamic for their scenes.
T.C.:Okay. A different style of comedy even.
Jim:Yeah. Okay. So there could be pot comedy with that with that one car. With that
T.C.:The Rogan Franco van. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then you have your your more witty, dry British humor if if we manage to get Sure.
T.C.:Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. Okay. I see what you're saying.
Jim:Yeah. So so you can you can do you can do different types of comedy with that and then and then have the scenes play off of each other and
T.C.:He so Thorny, we'll just keep calling that for your is is the right director for this because honestly, one of the best of his library films so he has Super Troopers, Club Dread, Slammin' Salmon, Beerfest, Super Troopers two, and Dukes of Hazard.
Jim:Yep. And Well, and at least one, but I'm pretty sure a number of episodes of Arrested Development.
T.C.:Arrested Development and Community.
Jim:Oh, there you go.
T.C.:Yeah. Which you, again, have no I I oh. So he's he's a very capable director. He's very very capable of of directing comedy. Deuce of Hazard is actually quite a good movie.
T.C.:If it's not one of like, it's not I'm not claiming it as one of the best comedies ever made, but he executed something that especially in this day and age where you just remake old school stuff and Sure. Like, put a modern spin on it. And the movie's over a decade old at this point. But he did he did have meta references into it, like, they're driving the General Lee, which they don't know has the freaking Yeah. Leg on the top of it, and people are flicking them off.
T.C.:And they're like, what's going on here? Then they look and like, oh, yeah. This flag does not represent us. Like, they're able to reference that. He recreates the mother of god scene.
Jim:Oh, nice.
T.C.:You know, if he direct directs it, there's no reason we can't see a cameo from the troopers.
Jim:Oh, they they would be.
T.C.:Well oh oh, like, the literally
Jim:The troopers themselves? Literally, Bernie
T.C.:and Mac or or Farber. Like
Jim:Why not?
T.C.:Yeah. I don't I wouldn't want this to become a a broken lizard film. No. Like, I don't think you can even sell sell a movie with them and with their names in the credit, to tell you the truth. And that's proven by how much You're
Jim:prob probably right.
T.C.:They are a cult team. I love those guys. Yeah. This is not a blockbuster group. But he is a very capable director, so well well well picked.
T.C.:I think if you couldn't afford
Jim:I'm I'm doing a victory move
T.C.:right now. You'll have to figure out the how to do that audibly.
Jim:I was just gonna be hitting the mic.
T.C.:So so what else? What is the studio is the studio getting what they want out of this? That's the that's the question I have for you I
Jim:think so. I think this with what we we've been pretty loose about what happens in the movie.
T.C.:Right. Well, and I think that the the premise alone, what we're asking here, what you've created here in terms of just letting these these comedic teams just cut loose, the premise is not exactly all that important. Yeah. We have the premise. They get in the they have to race from a to b to get a thing.
Jim:And are being chased by the law. The law.
T.C.:Yeah. And I I'm trying to think of other current comedies in the past, like, five, six years that
Jim:Here's just does does this work as as a scene? So as just a a concept
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:The cops, I I I guess they they might actually be state troopers at the point because the the race is going across
T.C.:Right. Across
Jim:state lines and stuff. The the cops are Idris Elba and John Hamm.
T.C.:Okay. Not Melissa McCarthy.
Jim:And then because it's it's across states and it's this big crime thing
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:The FBI comes in, and Melissa McCarthy is the FBI agent who's basically now taking charge from these two, like, hard edge, super handsome cops. And they they keep having to kowtow to this this FBI agent who
T.C.:does Melissa McCarthy.
Jim:Melissa McCarthy antics.
T.C.:Who's just doing her thing.
Jim:Does does does that work?
T.C.:It does work. And it and and to see those two, like, I'm just, like, concept seeing where we can go with this now where they both have, like, a crush on her. Sure. And she wasn't she has no interest in them whatsoever, which I think would be
Jim:Like a reversal of
T.C.:Like, think, like, it'd be easy to be like, oh, she's attracted to the big, strong, beautiful, handsome Idris Elba, sexiest man alive, and, you know, touching his arm when she talks to him, as opposed to him, like, putting himself upon her or, like no. No. No. Because not not, like, force himself, but maybe loses his nerve around her all the time. I'm just thinking the comedic potential of Idris Elba of all people not being able to talk to freaking Melissa McCarthy.
Jim:Sure.
T.C.:Because she's just this, like, powerhouse FBI. He's like, oh, Christ. She's so beautiful. And then Janna Ham's like, really? Her?
T.C.:I don't see it. Oh, look at her. Oh my god. You talk to her. I can't talk to her.
T.C.:So he's out to prove, like, prove himself to her. I don't know.
Jim:Okay.
T.C.:Creating we're creating premise here. Yeah. I said, well, actually, let's delve in there. What's the what's the end game here? Because if you look at something like Cannonball Run, Rat Race, it's a mad mad mad mad world.
T.C.:It starts with four teams. It ends with 12 teams. Like,
Jim:more people
T.C.:get involved, more people, the word gets out. Mhmm.
Jim:I don't know. That's that's what kinda why I pitched it as just McGuffin.
T.C.:Right. Get them in the car. Let them run. Yeah. Hour and a half of of wackiness.
T.C.:Oh, god.
Jim:Dude So based on based on the on what we've pitched already Yeah. It's some sort of mob sting where it turns out the the MacGuffin, the the the cash box, the the the valuable thing, whatever Mhmm. Is either on the move or very far away, and so the mob needs to get that. Mhmm. Our plucky con men characters are tangentially involved, so that's how they know about it.
Jim:So they get the go ahead. The the the Strongbar crew Mhmm. Having worked with these conmen before, they know that, hey, if we follow them, money will surely turn up. So that's how they get involved. And then our rogue bachelorette crew would probably get involved very early on after that.
Jim:I'm I'm not sure.
T.C.:I okay. So a a couple things here. First off, if we have our van crew, our this is the end of hot smoking crew, there could be an animated sequence of one of them tripping balls and turn it into a animated version of what we're seeing, Wacky Racers, because Wacky Racers is the animated candy I
Jim:love Wacky Racers and just want that to be its own movie. There there was an insurance company once made an ad with a bunch of live action Oh, that's a Wacky Racers. Yeah. And it's the greatest thing
T.C.:ever. Maybe we'll throw it in the count in the comments here below so you can check that out.
Jim:Love it.
T.C.:The I think the our main characters are Burt Reynolds are are our Burt Reynolds
Jim:Hemsworth and Hart.
T.C.:It's our Hemsworth Hemsworth and Hart being the protagonist of this essentially, the heroes were were following through the whole thing. I think there's something in the innocent tag along, not even really supposed to be there, sweet bachelorette bachelorette Mhmm. Group. Having one girl in there who's the one that's like, she's nice, she's sweet. I think of it's a mad mad mad mad world.
T.C.:There's the Sid Caesar's wife is just she's she's just long she's just okay, husband, whatever you say. And she just doesn't really care to be involved. Her mother-in-law is freaking Ethel Merman and she she's the one who finds the big w in the end. She finds the money and she has that moment of, like, oh my gosh, I could I could just take it and go and everything will be fine. And it's this really sweet, innocent moment before everything unravels into the third, like, finale.
T.C.:I think there's someone in our group here could be the sweet, innocent, gidded it. Like, the one who, like, honestly of this 12 person, fifteen, twenty person cast that I would be watching going, like, yeah, that's the one who in the end should should get it. The of all these people who deserve to get the the big money prize in the end, it's probably this this nice character right here. Where everyone else is a bad guy or a jerk or a con man and even though, yes, our Reynolds and Deluise are are Hemsworth and Hart are our leads. Mhmm.
T.C.:I think there's something in in having that the one genuine character in here who's like, I hope she gets
Jim:it. Okay.
T.C.:Yeah. Just throw it
Jim:out there
T.C.:as a as a plot thread that I would like to see.
Jim:Sure.
T.C.:Sure. You see the gears turning over there?
Jim:I I was I'm I'm just trying to think more names to drop, I guess.
T.C.:This song
Jim:And I'm I'm having a tonight, I'm just not with remembering names. This sucks.
T.C.:It's alright. This is also one of those scenarios where you can set this up for a sequel. I'm not saying set it up for a sequel, but like after all is said and done Yeah. Having, you know, the people arrested, people go to the hospital, everyone's been bang, boom, ran, thrown around. Right?
T.C.:Mhmm. And then having, like, sitting on the hood of the car, this like, somehow the car has survived this whole trip in Hemsworth and Hart and like like, oh, man. We did it. You know, it was adventure, friendship, you know. It's like
Jim:Oh, that's good dialogue
T.C.:right there. Thank you. You're welcome, man. I am a writer. And having that having that moment of and then, you know, let's let's bring in the sweet innocent one who Mhmm.
T.C.:Almost gets it in the end and doesn't and having that maybe, like, she's the one who has the connection with with those two in the end to be like, you know, I did find this other little tip to another race. Oh. And then send them off into the credits by driving away.
Jim:I think that that that's that's that's a nice runny. What if in the end
T.C.:Just figured out another direction.
Jim:Obvious I don't know how to necessarily pull it off, but I like the idea of the con men conning everyone so that they get away with it. Right? Like and so then they walk through the the chaos, like you said.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:And then one of them looks in the bag, and it turns out they don't have it. Mhmm. Cut to the sweet and innocent one walking out the chaos on the other side.
T.C.:And she
Jim:hits it.
T.C.:Oh, I love it.
Jim:And she
T.C.:gets away with it. And, like, even even, like, maybe the whole movie, she just wants to get through this bachelorette weekend.
Jim:Just doesn't wanna be there.
T.C.:Get back to her husband. Sure. Like or
Jim:She she's the she's the the bachelorette?
T.C.:Yeah. Yeah. This whole week I didn't even wanna do this. I just wanted a sweet weekend, like, a B and B. I wanted to go up to a B and B And just like yeah.
T.C.:Getting back to her loved one, you know. It doesn't have to be a husband. It could be a wife waiting for her at home. Sure. Yeah.
T.C.:I actually figured out who might be the right writing directing team to do this.
Jim:Who's that?
T.C.:Chris Miller and Phil Lord. Twenty one Jump Street. Claudia with Chance Meatballs.
Jim:Yeah. That's
T.C.:Lego Movie. They have proven time and time again at taking a premise for a film that a studio demanded that by no means should work and have made gold, gold, gold. Should LEGO Movie have been So what
Jim:you're saying what you're saying is we're them except they did it and we're just literally talking?
T.C.:Yes. Yeah. Great. Great. Took should the Lego movie have been good?
T.C.:No. No. And it was. It was
Jim:so good.
T.C.:Should Cloudy and the Chance of Meatballs have been as good as it was? No. And it was. And 21 and 22, there's no way that should have been good. Yeah.
T.C.:And they are. So if there's anyone who's this is it's them. And then Yeah. I mean That's true. But I I I one would say, well, then that means Channing and Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill should be the duo in the car, but I don't wanna see that.
T.C.:I I'm all for Hemsworth and Hart. That's my selling point. That's your pay for those two. Everyone else can follow. Yeah.
T.C.:Lord and Miller, I think, are the the right duo for this. Now that now that And they they would I think this is exactly the sort of thing that they would do. Mhmm. So okay. Studio, are you pleased?
Jim:I think so. Yeah. I green light this. I I money it. You money it.
Jim:I money it.
T.C.:You money it. What what
Jim:Here money, go make. Thank you.
T.C.:Are there any other angles we're not considering here? Anything else that we haven't covered? Because we can certainly keep going. I'm not trying to end the episode here, but I am curious what haven't we covered here? Because oh, okay.
T.C.:Actually, I'm gonna throw I'm gonna put this out here.
Jim:Well, we didn't do, like, looking at the at Cannonball Run, just quickly going over the, like, the cast and the the premise. It has a lot of the this like, Farrah Fawcett obviously plays the the the bombshell. Mhmm. What what am I what am I trying to say? The the the role?
T.C.:The female lead? The the love interest?
Jim:Yeah. We we didn't talk about that at all. We could just kinda corral that into that fourth group. That might just be the easiest way of doing it. Maybe even the sweet one, whoever that is Mhmm.
Jim:Is her. Maybe she's not the the fiancee getting married. Maybe it's someone else from the bachelorette party who catches the eye of or or maybe maybe that's what the conflict is, catches the eye of Wright Hemsworth. Mhmm. And so he's pursuing, but she's not available.
Jim:Mhmm. And you could even get comedy from that because her fiance is not a Hemsworth.
T.C.:It's it's someone dumpy.
Jim:Yep. He's a pretty decent guy. Jim Berzelik.
T.C.:Oh, yeah. That's your name. That's your name too.
Jim:Yeah. I mentioned him earlier. He's a good director.
T.C.:Oh, that's me.
Jim:So I'm I'm really I'm gonna have to find out Are there Like, if we're related.
T.C.:There's, like, three Hemsworths. There's also three Jim Berzeliks? Is that what you're saying? There's you and then the director of Brazil and then the the actor one?
Jim:Or Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And we're all different people.
T.C.:Wow. I mean, whenever you go out
Jim:Jim Burzelic too. They they shout it. They do. Okay. It's really obnoxious that it's shouted.
T.C.:Every single time. Yeah. Like they come in real quiet. Okay.
Jim:Yeah. Just like this is great this is a great joke.
T.C.:Here's a challenge. Oh, back here. Back here. Back here. Here's a challenge.
T.C.:Something that Rat Race has proven to be a problem with. Something that Cannonball Run is a problem is is that is problematic about Cannonball Run Mhmm. Is those are dated. And this this movie on its surface just by how we're casting it, how we're conceptualizing it Sure. Is there a way to prevent this from being a dated film?
T.C.:Could you I I know this is this is not something that you can do. You can't set out to do this, but the studio is asking us to somehow create a comedy classic. You can't do that. You can't set out and be like, we're gonna create a comedy classic.
Jim:That's something in this the premise of this entire podcast we haven't really discussed.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:For the most part, the spirit of what the studio wants out of a movie is to make money now. Yes. It isn't to make a classic.
T.C.:That is true.
Jim:We wanna make classics. Wanna make movies problem. We wanna make movies that are remembered twenty years from now. I like to think of it as I wanna make a movie that'll make money twenty years from now. Mhmm.
Jim:But it's I want it to to be a story that is worth watching again.
T.C.:There there comes what this whole whole thing is about. When a when a movie comes out, when we what basically this whole podcast has come around to is like, you made a movie. You've you've you've got what you wanted out of it, and you milked it for the money you could at the time. Had you made a better movie, you could have made more money. Yeah.
T.C.:Don't don't, cut corners just to to capitalize on the it in the moment. Think think long term and create something. But there's there's the balance right there because when you have someone who sets out to make a good movie, to genuinely pour their love and heart and and tender love and care into it. You get Scott Pilgrim versus the World. It makes zero money.
T.C.:It's a cult hit. Yeah. Studios don't wanna make cult hits.
Jim:No. Super Troopers is a
T.C.:cult hit. It has made nothing. Super Troopers two made even less than nothing. So they that's that's what we're battling here. Can we make something that will make money?
T.C.:I think we have something here, Cannonball Run
Jim:I think so.
T.C.:As a reboot, with this cast, with, I mean, some semblance of this cast.
Jim:I'd I'd we we really kinda mentioned it and then moved on, but I mostly because I think we agreed and then we moved on to cast. But Mhmm. I think one of the things that gives it staying power, that gives it that beyond the the people we've cast is definitely having there there need to be what is the words tonight? Big scenes.
T.C.:Set pieces.
Jim:Yeah. We the the the set pieces, end up being the car chases. Because it's very much a car driven movie. It doesn't have to remain in the cars all the time. We could have locations like I'm imagining for for whatever I I imagine the the cross the threshold point for the bachelorette party.
Jim:Mhmm. They think they're on some fun scavenger hunt is and I imagine it sort of being this this follow the leader type thing where one group is trying to lose another group by going through a really rowdy biker bar. Okay. Right? Like, and I don't know what kind of antics you get up into get up to in there.
Jim:You can get up to some you could do some, like, Pee Wee Herman level stuff, where it's just a crazy dance. Or
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:But like or or or it could be I I I don't even but I I see that as, like, being across the threshold moment for for that group of characters Mhmm. Where maybe the the one who who then is, like, all in, she's like, no. We're doing this thing. Right? Like, that's where
T.C.:You're doing it. You're doing it. We're all doing it. Yeah. Tiffany Haddish again.
T.C.:I can just imagine her demanding that of the team of girls.
Jim:Yeah. So so, like, you can you could have scenes like that, but I I I think the the quality of this movie is going to live live and die. That that's that's maybe a little too Yeah. Hyperbolic, but that's what it's gonna be about.
T.C.:On those set pieces.
Jim:Yeah. It's gonna be how memorable they are, how cool they are, and then how the the actors are able to
T.C.:Execute them. I think you're that's there therein lies the balance. So we can we can give the studio the cast. We can give them the premise. We can give them the namesake.
T.C.:We get the marketing. We we got the posters conceptualized out. But what makes this go the distance? What what the hope here would be is to appease the studio with all those things while also creating something that could be potentially a comedic classic, one that you'd wanna go back to. And you're right.
T.C.:It is those set pieces. And I and I think you you mentioned it. It's not just Cannonball Run or Rat Race or Mad World. There are plenty of movies like this that you can draw from. You even just said Pee wee.
T.C.:Pee wee is an excellent excellent road movie. Mhmm. Looking at a movie like Road Trip, if you wanna go to someone like Sure. That's not Jay Roach. Jay Jay Roach did the Austin Powers movies.
T.C.:Todd Phillips. Todd Phillips did Old School and the Hangover trilogy, and he did Road
Jim:Trip. Sure.
T.C.:So he he's capable of high concept comedies, moving moving to set piece after set piece. And actually, to tell you truth, if you wanna go road trip old school hangover that the the original hangover, that's an amazing rated r trilogy comedy, r rated comedy trilogy. Mhmm. And that's all Todd Phillips. So and those all have memorable set pieces in them.
T.C.:Mhmm. So, yeah, finding finding a way to just create cool high concepts for each of the the the teams to move through. Mhmm. And even going so far as, like, moving the characters through the pieces or through the places, and then we get to go back to those places when the cops catch up to each spot. Yeah.
T.C.:So then there's an opportunity to have, you know, a second use of the set pieces with a different team there or Yeah. And then
Jim:and then how those teams interact when they cross paths.
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:Whether it be any one of the four or one of the four crossing with the cops. Mhmm. That's right.
T.C.:Oh, man. The the chemistry of this is
Jim:I love that. Ensemble, ensemble cast.
T.C.:I did not think I'd want something like this. This you saying Cannibal Run, I was like, oh god. Are we gonna be able to talk about this longer?
Jim:We're gonna talk for five minutes.
T.C.:But this goes to a much bigger picture, and and we can kinda we can move to wrapping it up here. And it's the state of comedies in film now. Mhmm. And a lot of of comedies that come out now are there and gone. Did you even remember The Boss was a movie?
T.C.:Do you remember Spy starring Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham? And yeah.
Jim:Because they I heard it was funny. It was I heard
T.C.:I heard Statham is spectacular. That's yeah. Game Night
Jim:with Jason Bates. Saw that. It was I really enjoyed it. It was really
T.C.:well done. That that movie movie. Is so good that it was directed with an Edgar Wright style to it, but it wasn't Edgar Wright. Like, the the transitions in the scenes is it was taken more seriously than it probably should have been. And and there goes back to that thing of, like, did someone care too much?
T.C.:Because I don't think that movie made a whole lot of box office success.
Jim:Well, because of my passion for for it. I don't think so. I don't think I don't think they cared too much.
T.C.:So I don't know where I was going with that. It's just the state of comedies. The state of comedies
Jim:because even all the like I said, oh, the movie, like, it's gonna depend on on the the set pieces and the the action scenes. All of these movies do. Right? We we we bag on rat race, but it was the same thing if we were to watch it again because we remember almost nothing about it. It I can guarantee you we can find the scenes where, like, this is this is what's gonna be memorable.
Jim:This is gonna be amazing. Like, honestly, it was a super lame joke in the movie, but the thing that's probably most memorable to me about it is that Seth Green's brother gets his tongue pierced. So it's super funny. Well, you can't talk no more because
T.C.:you got his tongue pierced. You remembered. Yep. You remembered it.
Jim:Yep.
T.C.:Yeah. So I the state of comedy as it is, it's so comedy is so subjective. It's so difficult to to what I think is funny is not gonna be what the next person thinks is funny. So it's hard to throw a wide net over comedy and and expect to get a huge return on it. Sure.
T.C.:And and
Jim:Oh, okay. I see. I see. Yeah. So so that that so the comedy angle is a hard sell.
Jim:I think this is definitely a comedy. Mhmm. So I think, yeah, you need to play up the the Fast and Furious element. You play up the action, and you play up the the intrigue of the of the of our main characters swindling the other swindlers. Right.
Jim:Right? So it's a little bit Ocean's 11, more more of an Oceans Two Mhmm. And and a little bit of a Fast and Furious
T.C.:Yeah.
Jim:And a little bit of a Mad Mad World. Cool.
T.C.:Well, I'm sold. I I would watch something like this, and then and if anyone listening wants us to write it, Jim I know a great writer, director, actor.
Jim:What's what's his name?
T.C.:Jim Jacob Jingleheimer Brezelic, I think is
Jim:Hey, that's my name too.
T.C.:What are the chances? Okay, Jim. Well, is there any other final thoughts you have before wrap up in it? This was fun. This was a good pick because I Okay.
T.C.:Good. I'll say it again. I didn't think we'd get the distance on this. Yeah. And that's gonna be a challenge every time we throw a concept out there.
Jim:It really is.
T.C.:Because here's the thing. So we're we're wrapping up here, then I wanna make I want this to be clear to the the listeners here. I have no preconceived all I know is you're gonna throw a topic at me, and all we have to do is hope we can talk about it.
Jim:Yeah. And I don't know
T.C.:how much thinking you do beforehand, but whenever I think of the topic I'm gonna do Yeah. I try not to think about it because I want it to be that spontaneous nature.
Jim:I had this earlier today, and I and I was like, well, I need to look it up to to find out some things, but don't think too hard about it. And so I'd I'd I'd thought I did everything I could to think about other things. And, really, when I'm trying to think of topics, that's the hardest thing. It's just just don't do another superhero movie. Just don't do another horror movie.
Jim:Just don't Well, we're gonna have to. We're going yes. We will.
T.C.:Just not back to back. Yes. Well, I I would love to hear what the listeners have to say about Cannonball Run. Yeah. 2,000 whatever, 2,000 2020 at this point.
T.C.:Cannonball Run, a return to that, what did we miss? What did what didn't we take into consideration? More importantly, what team what comedians, what matchups would you love to see in this premise? Because we certainly were missing I mean, sure, someone might say, oh, don't do Hemsworth and Hart, do get The Rock and Kevin Hart in there. Those guys are great together.
T.C.:But I think that we we certainly missed something in there. You know, where where's Kate McKinnon fit in this? Sure. Should should Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly being here?
T.C.:We didn't even mention Jonah Hill earlier, but he's he's an auteur now. No? Okay. So yeah, I'm curious to to think I think we have absolutely come up with a better movie than what we'll probably get when they make Cannonball That's very presumptuous of us, but hey, this is our show.
Jim:It's true.
T.C.:So, yeah. Let's let's throw some social stuff out there. Like, subscribe. A huge shout out to Six Media for giving us this platform, so go check out everything Six Five Media has been creating. There was a commercial for them during this episode.
T.C.:So, Jim, where can people find you? On the Twitter?
Jim:I'm still trying to I I have one somewhere.
T.C.:Somewhere. Yeah.
Jim:Consider it consider that a a scavenger hunt. Find my Twitter.
T.C.:Is that the MacGuffin? Because that does not the studio doesn't like. I demand
Jim:you to That's a terrible MacGuffin. Get me
T.C.:Jim Burzalek's Twitter. Which Jim Burzalek? There's five of them. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at t c's big head. And, yeah.
T.C.:So again, comment below wherever you might be listening to this. Shoot us some ideas that we we that you'd like to hear us talk about in the future. At this point, we've done enough episodes that if you have an idea for a studio demands it, if you'd like to demand something from us as a creative thinking exercise for an episode, tweet at us, comment at us, drop drop into our DMs, which I hear is a this what all the kids are doing.
Jim:So it's not because I'm old, it's because I'm nerdy. DM really it means dungeon master to So I'm very confused by what you
T.C.:just said. Okay. Well, Jim, thank you for for doing this. Absolutely. Thank you.
T.C.:So, yeah, you gotta work on that Twitter. That's good. Yeah. Trying to That's that's it for this episode. We will be back next time with another challenge to improve the world of cinema.
T.C.:I'm TCD, t c d wits. What's my name?
Jim:Those are your initials. I'm TC. And I'm JB.
T.C.:And this is That's it.
Jim:S That's t t s I. I. So s s d I?
T.C.:That's a
Jim:t s t s d I. The end.