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. We talk movies all the time.
Jim:All the time.
T.C.:In particular, we complain about the choices made in the films that we've seen that exist because some corporate hack cobbled together some mandated buzzwords and audience approved scores about characters and and and and more with more hubris than those shills, we know that we could do a better job even with the demands and restrictions that clearly must be placed on poor bastards stuck in the position of writing such scripts. We will be your screenwriters for this episode. I am T. C. De Witt, and joining me as always is my cohost, Jim face fancy Burzelic.
T.C.:Hello, Jim. How are you?
Jim:Good. How are you?
T.C.:Good. Your your beard's looking looking nice today. Yeah.
Jim:As You know, staying inside is good for it.
T.C.:Yeah. It's gets it's becoming full. Yeah. I feel like you could run your hands through it and actually style it a little bit. Yeah.
T.C.:There there it is. The the people sense it. They can hear you styling your beard right now. Yep. I I You should
Jim:good audio.
T.C.:I do not have a it's ASMR. Just get in there
Jim:and rub your beard.
T.C.:I do not have as as strong of a beard right now. My my quarantine beard beard corn beard? Corn Corn beard. Corn beard. That's a different kind of beard.
T.C.:It's not as lush because I've been trimming it. But so if we met if we met at a at an intersection, you would have the right of way because you have you have the fuller beard.
Jim:I'd have beard priority.
T.C.:Yeah. Beard that's beard law. Everyone knows that. Yeah. If if you didn't know that, you know it now.
T.C.:Yeah. The the the fuller beard has the right of way. Yeah. How how are you handling this this new world we live in?
Jim:You know, fine.
T.C.:Sounds like you're doing better than some.
Jim:Yeah. One one day at a time. Right.
T.C.:I I am endlessly fascinated by tragedies or or or situations such as this that there there's usually two types of results, at least in the circles that I I participate in. And it's either really heated political debates where no one's gonna change anyone's mind Mhmm. Or, like, really great comedy and memes and, like, people losing their marbles and and just trying to laugh at at what's going on. Sure. And I've appreciated a lot of the the funny stuff that's coming out of out of this weird time where people are stuck inside.
Jim:Yeah. Yeah. There's there's there's been some some good stuff coming out.
T.C.:I I don't know if I've said this to you. I don't think I've said this to you yet, but something that I've complained about for ages is that there's too much good television.
Jim:Sure. Yeah.
T.C.:Well, television has ceased television. Series and content, well, everyone has ceased production. So now is the time to catch up. If you Yep. Like, guys, I will finally finish The Wire.
T.C.:I'm I'm gonna catch up here. Did you guys know how good The Wire is? I had no idea.
Jim:I wanna talk about it.
T.C.:So there is there is that silver lining there, you know, in addition to, like, the water being cleaner and the and the air quality being better. Climate change isn't real, Jim, is that's what I'm trying to say here. And that's the direction this episode's gonna go in. Great. Yeah.
T.C.:It's nice to see people utilizing this time to to try things, to be more creative or learn something or learn about the people in their lives.
Jim:Sure. And that's a very creative and productive use of of the time. I, as you just said, am just watching TV.
T.C.:There's also that. I don't want anyone to feel bad if they are not creating in this time. It is okay to just be aware. Like, one of my sisters is having a really hard time with this. She has three kids.
T.C.:She's hasn't left her house in, like, a month now, and she's just like, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. I'm like, welcome to my life. So it's it is no one needs my permission to tell them they're gonna be okay, but anyone who's using this time creatively, good for them. If you can't bring yourself to do anything, that's fine too. I I will say I miss being in the same room as
Jim:you. Sure. Yeah. It it brings it brings a different dynamic.
T.C.:But not not gonna stop us from giving the folks what they demand, which is
Jim:Yeah.
T.C.:Demands of demands on us to then record and brainstorm ideas for what could or could not be better movies
Jim:than what it is. Imagine movies. Yeah.
T.C.:It's as though studios make demands of it.
Jim:Yes.
T.C.:The studio demands us. Yes. That's that's a that's a knockoff podcast that someone's gonna start. It'll be Tim Burzelic and JC Dewitt. Yep.
T.C.:But in the spirit of what the world is going through right now, we have we have a demand that
Jim:Well, that's good because my my, improving and and response has been really terrible so far today. It's so, yep. Yep. You know, no
T.C.:one noticed until you pointed it out.
Jim:Yeah. Well, no. I know.
T.C.:But I had to point I it
Jim:had to think out of you're like, oh, let's see how good of a cohost Jim is.
T.C.:It's usual.
Jim:I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you right now. Terrible. It's terrible. I am terrible.
T.C.:Rethinking their whole life. Yeah. And I'm I'm just
Jim:taking And I'm doing the I'm doing the completely wrong thing. I'm telling them that I'm terrible, so now that's all they're gonna see.
T.C.:That's all they're and I'm gonna take this this Good god. Sound bite. I'm gonna take this sound bite and put it at the very front of the episode before the music. It's just
Jim:Even better.
T.C.:Kinda what kinda co host is Jim? Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Actually,
Jim:that that that could actually be a lot of fun. No. I'm
T.C.:not gonna do that.
Jim:That's a that's a ridiculously terrible cold open to the point that
T.C.:Oh, it I like that. Cold. That is ice cold for me to do something like that too. Cold blooded. Cold blooded.
T.C.:Well, in the in the vein of of the world we live in now, we have a demand that will ask us to discuss even further the the worldwide outbreak pandemic that we're dealing with right now. So let's let's look at our demand. Before we get that, let me just say for for new listeners, our success, be it as it might be, I swear to god, I need to, like, rewrite this script as either podcasters or screenwriters has given us a lovely growing collection of demands from studios literally all over the world, and those studios are you, the listeners, who have submitted your requests to us. You can resubmit at studiodemandsit.com. You can hit us up on Twitter.
T.C.:You can hit us up privately. Make your demand for a movie or a TV series, whatever you'd like. And and and we do a a couple varieties. If it's a movie that already exists that you wonder what we would have done differently, those are are very fun to do. If it's a movie that you think should exist, give us the restrictions that we may have, and and those are always a fun challenge as well.
T.C.:And oftentimes, we get something of what this topic is today. I don't know if we've had a topic like this quite yet. This is this sort of feels like the video game episode, like, up with a successful video game movie, and that was all all our restrictions were. Come up with a versus movie where that was it. Just can't be superheroes.
T.C.:Go. Mhmm. But yeah. So you can send us your demands and name your studio, and thank you to everyone who has been submitting. We have this is this is how the show thrives, so continue to do so.
T.C.:So, Jim, what do I have for you today? What do we have for the listeners today? This comes from Foxy Roxy Studios. In this new era of global pandemic, films involving sicknesses and quarantines and outbreaks and contagions, they have been around for decades, but they are going to have to change now that we've experienced this worldwide pandemic, which is very true. The studio demands a pandemic film.
T.C.:The first demand is that we choose a period piece such as Typhoid Mary, and it or if possible, what would a pandemic film look like after COVID nineteen? So there it is, Jim. We have to we I I think I think we should we should hone in on this Typhoid Mary give because I am well aware that she's probably not talking about the Marvel character and probably talking about the historical Typhoid Mary Yeah. Which I know by name and name alone.
Jim:Sure.
T.C.:So you're you're you may have to educate me on what the heck
Jim:Typhoid Mary is all about. So Typhoid Mary was a real person. She Was
T.C.:her name Typhoid?
Jim:No. No. Like, I mean,
T.C.:was really really unfortunate that they already had a disease named Lou Gehrig's, and then he got it. Like, it was like, why'd you name your kid Lou Gehrig when there's a disease already?
Jim:Right. That's just asking for it. Yeah. Sorry. So Typhoid Mary lived at the the dawn of the twentieth century.
Jim:And I'm I'm trying to I have the Wikipedia page up here because I I had a little bit of previous note notice that this was gonna be a topic. But I I wanna see how much I can remember off the top of my head.
T.C.:Okay.
Jim:So she she was working for for, like, different families and stuff. She would be like a help. She would be the cook or the maid or the caretaker kind of thing in these big homes. And people would get typhoid. Like like, everyone would get typhoid, and then she would lose her job, and she'd go get a new job, and everyone would get typhoid.
Jim:Well, I'm seeing a
T.C.:I'm looking at your resume here for, thank you for applying for this this job at twentieth Century McDonald's. I've noticed that Typhoid comes up a lot in your resume. Do you think that's a that is just a coincidence, or is this something what hold on a minute. Let me oh, I see at the top your name is Typhoid Mary. I'm sorry.
T.C.:That's my fault. Please please get out of my office.
Jim:Please please call me miss Mary.
T.C.:Miss miss please. Typhoid Mary is my mom.
Jim:Only friends call me Typhoid. Sorry.
T.C.:So so so she clearly had this decision.
Jim:And they they they they figured out, oh, it's you. You're the one with the typhoid. And the thing is she had it. Right? She wasn't, like, poison.
Jim:She didn't, like, have it in vials and was like, I'm gonna get these families. No. She just had it. So then the things she would touch would get infected with typhoid. And so they're like, well, we don't know what to because the so she didn't exhibit any symptoms.
Jim:Right? It is just Good. The she she would just she just had it.
T.C.:This is too real, Jim.
Jim:And, like, they had no way of curing her, so they they quarantined her. And and it was like an indefinite quarantine. They would just they would stick her out on I forget if it's an island or just like a Typhoid island? Yeah. It was something like that.
T.C.:We have an island actually for this. We called it Typhoid Island for this very very instance.
Jim:Oh, well, there you go.
T.C.:We're gonna
Jim:And and that's where she went to live. And she escaped. And then, right, went back to working as a maid. Right? Because you gotta make a living.
T.C.:I you know, I'm looking I'm looking at your resume right here. There's a real gap. There's a couple gap months here where you weren't working. Were you just unemployed at the at the time?
Jim:I was, I was on an island.
T.C.:Oh, a little vacay. That's that's very cool.
Jim:Okay. Let's see. What was the island? An island getaway.
T.C.:What was the island?
Jim:How did go? Little little island. No. I
T.C.:no. Did it have a did it have a name?
Jim:No. No. It did not.
T.C.:Okay. Alright. That's fine. Now please please continue.
Jim:It was named it was named after me. It's my it's my island.
T.C.:Mary Island. Mary Island. Look it up.
Jim:Then they so then they they caught her again, and I think after that, she was she was there for for the rest of her life. Is let's look let I'm gonna look that I'm gonna look over here real quick. Yeah. Yeah. For the rest of her life, the second quarantine, she was.
T.C.:Wow. Well, I can see why I can see why she was suggested as someone who broke quarantine, was not exhibiting symptoms of an illness, and just wanted to go back to work no matter what anyone told her.
Jim:It's a
T.C.:little on the nose, FoxyRoxy Studios. Thank you for selecting, of all things, Typhoid Mary. Oh. Do think there's gonna be, like, a COVID Mary out there somewhere?
Jim:I mean, there's probably a whole bunch. I mean, yeah. Right? Because they there are one of the things about the coronavirus is people don't exit some people don't exhibit any of the the symptoms, or it just takes a long time for it to exhibit, and you can spread it before then. That that's one of the big problems we're having right now.
T.C.:Jeez. We just need an island to send them all to. What's Australia doing?
Jim:They're they're trying to get rid of their coronavirus as well.
T.C.:Isn't there a garbage island in the Pacific we could just send all these people to? I'm Well,
Jim:it's it's called the it's called the garbage patch. And as fun as it would be to think that it's an island of garbage, it's not yet that coalesced. It can't actually hold stuff
T.C.:on it. Alright. It's it's just a Someday, Jim. Someday.
Jim:Just like a net of garbage.
T.C.:Lex Luther had it right. Real estate's the land's the only thing they're not making more of. Yep. We showed him. Keep drinking your plastic bottles.
Jim:I mean, the Dutch the Dutch made more land. Maybe with the with dams. That's it.
T.C.:Oh, yeah.
Jim:The Dykes and the and sorry. This is a really dumb bed. So Typhoid Mary, she Yeah. Yeah. Had a disease.
Jim:It was it was bad. It's okay. So Told a bunch of people. Oh, and, the thing I was gonna say, that happened so so, like, her lifetime happened during she she was quarantined the second time during another pandemic, during the the Spanish flu.
T.C.:Okay.
Jim:Which is what this which is what COVID is being compared to. Mhmm. A lot.
T.C.:Yeah. Yeah.
Jim:Now the Spanish flu that interesting as well.
T.C.:Sorry sorry to be like, we're we're just the more you know here. Yeah. I'm right. The Spanish flu did not Spanish clue. It was it was Typhoid Mary in the library with with the virus.
T.C.:Spanish flu did not come from Spain. Is that correct?
Jim:That is correct.
T.C.:That's correct. So just a little fun fact for you folks out there.
Jim:If I if I heard correctly, it came from a military base in Kansas. What?
T.C.:Yeah. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Okay.
Jim:That that could be wrong. I I've I've learned that a a number of my facts So today are the whole Typhoid Mary thing could be wrong. She might be a a mutant who poisons people and and has plots against good guy mutants. I I don't know.
T.C.:That's that's sound it it's either one or
Jim:the other. Either one. Know even less about the Marvel Typhoid Mary character than I do the real life Typhoid Mary.
T.C.:She was in the Wolverine, the the Japanese one, the second Wolverine film. Wasn't that her? The the poison y one? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
T.C.:I believe that was Typhoid Marionette.
Jim:I'm the poison y one.
T.C.:Yeah. Poison y one. It's very unfortunate I talk like this. I was destined.
Jim:It's it's what poison does to vocal cords.
T.C.:That's right. So the the question here is, like, this is very timely of a topic. I'm sure there's been Typhoid Mary in cinema before, but we're we're asking to to to create one now. Is this this feels like a a a like a a Keira Knightley vehicle, like like a
Jim:Sure. It could be.
T.C.:Donna, like, early twentieth century.
Jim:So That's pretty good casting. She she was Irish.
T.C.:There you go. So
Jim:the this feels like This is what I sound like when I'm reading.
T.C.:This this feels like an Oscar Beatty type film, period piece, lots of costume like, the the the corsets and and, like, that era. That's why I picked Keira Knightley because every time she makes a movie, gets nominated for best costumes.
Jim:Well, so the first thing that occurs to me is well, I guess you can make it a couple different ways. You can focus on Mary herself, which it sounds like that's sort of what you're currently thinking.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:And right. So then it'd be more of a drama about a woman not understanding what's happening to her and trying to live her life despite go away. Sorry. I have a Roomba trying to trying to attack me here.
T.C.:So the that that's the pandemic everyone wanted. No one wanted a pain the the apocalypse everyone wanted was robots, but no.
Jim:The room
T.C.:was like, when is it my turn?
Jim:I my roommates named the Roomba DJ Roomba. I wanted to name it Skynet.
T.C.:DJ Roomba from Parks and Rec. Yeah.
Jim:Yeah. DJ Roomba. Typhoid Mary. Right. So so it could be this this story about this woman who doesn't, right, doesn't understand or wants to go along with what's happening to her.
Jim:I I I guess the the story, it kinda it sounds similar to a little bit is the story of Medusa, which
T.C.:isn't Like
Jim:isn't it's it's not the greatest comparison because the story of Medusa is actually about a jealous goddess who curses her. Mhmm. And then she's
T.C.:a a Snake hair lady.
Jim:She's she's
T.C.:snake hair lady. Right?
Jim:Snake hair lady. Yeah.
T.C.:And if you look at her, you turn a stone.
Jim:Yeah. Because because she was so beautiful and Hera was like, no. No. None of that. No one gets to be that beautiful.
Jim:And she cursed her.
T.C.:Well, with the so you're saying there's some there's some parallels?
Jim:Because Medusa was then exiled.
T.C.:Gotcha. Okay. Would you okay. So let me let me let me conceptualize here. Since we're we're we've got this this character, this Typhoid Mary character, we got this historical, situation doing a a Jane Austen style period piece with Keira Knightley starring it and basically just telling the story of the actual events and give a little sexiness here and there.
T.C.:Or we go the route of, like, Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter, and you do And you're you're taking
Jim:make it make it, like, supernatural?
T.C.:Yeah. Like like, she was cursed by the gods to be this this disease ridden woman who feels compelled to just continue to work. Like, her her curse is to to not understand she has it. Because the I mean, the Greeks had a lot of, like, cautionary tales or or characters of this where it's like like Sisyphus constantly pushing the rack up the hill only to have it rolled down and have to do it the next day. Mhmm.
T.C.:So being compelled to constantly push this burden. Now you said the Medusa myth.
Jim:This is
T.C.:is it Cassandra who spoke the truth and no one believed her? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jim:So I guess I we could we could probably get a feature out of that. The the the the drama of of not believing she's the cause, and she just wants to help people and work and and be a be a good citizen. There's there's no she she doesn't feel bad. How can she be the one causing causing these
T.C.:these outbreaks? I would add a character for I I I would the a second plot the b story of this would be some sort of doctor of the era trying to investigate this outbreak, trying to figure out who's patient zero or who's the one
Jim:who's I spreading was gonna say that would be the other way to make the movie entirely Mhmm. Is Mary herself is not a protagonist. It is investigators trying to find out what's happening here and make it almost like a so, right, it's not really a a it's it's not like like Jack the Ripper where, like, oh, we gotta catch the the person who's causing this. They wanna catch the person who's, quote unquote, causing it, but she doesn't know she's doing it.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:So I think the investigation would be like a realistic, toned down, the thing. Right? They they they have they have the suspects. Right? They're like, who is it?
Jim:It's someone here,
T.C.:and
Jim:none of them are copying to it. None of them are showing sickness. Who is it? I would
T.C.:I'm gonna lean away from that because that that seems to like, the scale of that seems a bit smaller, but more I would say more like silence of the lambs are seven. Like a 20 like, early twentieth century serial killer. It's not a killer, but treat it like a serial killer film. People love
Jim:Okay.
T.C.:True clack true crime fiction. People freaking love that stuff. So there's a huge market for an investigation style film. Set at twentieth century, great costumes, great looks, great like, a great era for production design. And and you with silence of the lambs, you know Buffalo Bill the whole time.
T.C.:You know who the bad guy is. Sure. And you're watching Clarisse with the help of Hannibal Lecter try to catch this guy. So seeing seeing Typhoid Mary existing with all the information we have about the historically accurate biopic essentially of what she did. Meanwhile, you have Zodiac would be another example of the David Fincher movie with Jake Gyllenhaal trying to find the Zodiac killer Mhmm.
T.C.:Of of the investigator, like Clarice Starling trying to find like, a medical investigator of the twentieth century early twentieth century trying to find who is patient zero and, like, getting close and and maybe they can they can track the disease themselves. So there's a ticking clock ticking clock element to it. That's Yeah.
Jim:That's not bad.
T.C.:I I think with that, you're looking at something far more exciting. Like, there's there's Sure. There's a lot of modern suspense investigation film tropes that you can put into this setting.
Jim:Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Cool. I'm in.
Jim:Done.
T.C.:Well well well, you you seem to be you seem to have more thoughts about the the going one or the other as opposed to,
Jim:like No. No. That was just what I was initially thinking. I was hoping that you would you would synthesize them. I did.
Jim:Did. Sync.
T.C.:I think that that feels like a movie that would do well. It it checks off a lot of boxes of of of similar films, the investigation, the I I think selling it like a Jack the Ripper, Silence of the Lambs with Typhoid Mary. Like, there's your your basically, your log line, your elevator pitch.
Jim:So the the only again, the only problem there is right. Right. Mary, Typhoid Mary, she wasn't malevolent. She wasn't doing these things to hurt people. She she wasn't purposely infecting people.
T.C.:That's that's fair. And so so not painting her as a villain would be important. Because with the sounds of lambs, seven, zodiac, like, that's a villain. That's someone that is a crazy person murderer that they're trying to stop. Yeah.
T.C.:I feel could add to the thriller elements of the audience knowing you are sick and you are like, before she was quarantined quarantined the first time, was she aware that she was infecting people?
Jim:Let's find Because
T.C.:the sort of the turning point in the movie would be, like, did you see Gone Girl?
Jim:I did not.
T.C.:Okay. So I I want I for those who may have seen it will know what I'm talking about. For those who may not, I'll I'll speak in generalities. There's a point in the movie where it looks like the movie's about to end, and there's a whole second half of the movie that suddenly happens. And it's like, what?
T.C.:And I feel like with this investigation Typhoid Mary story
Jim:Okay.
T.C.:The first half could be trying to catch this person who doesn't know what they're doing, and then she escapes the island and gets back at it again, maybe? And now it's a now it's like, now we know who the bad guy is. She's doing it on purpose. Let's go get her. Maybe?
Jim:I don't know. What do you what do you got? So I'm looking looking at the, at the actual history here. Just this one paragraph. The so there was a a guy named George Soper who, oh, one of the families one of the families that had been infected hired a typhoid researcher.
Jim:Yeah. Here we go. Named George Soper. Alright.
T.C.:He
Jim:published his stuff, did did all these all these things. The paragraph that I jumped to that I like the sound of is when Soper approached Mallon, that that was her last name, Mary Mallon. Mhmm. About her possible role in spreading typhoid, she adamantly rejected his request for urine and stool samples, even coming after him with a meat cleaver.
T.C.:Oh my god, dude. This is exciting. This is she's like, no.
Jim:No. Because she refused to give samples, he decided to compile a five year history of Mallon's employment. Soper found that of the eight families that hired Mallon as a cook, members of seven claimed to have contracted typhoid fever. On his next visit, took another doctor with him, but again was turned away. During the later encounter when Melon was hospitalized, he told her he would write a book and give her all the royalties.
Jim:She angrily rejected his proposal and locked herself in the bathroom until he left.
T.C.:Oh my god. This thing's writing itself, Jim. We already have an investigator. We have our what's his name? George Stoper?
Jim:Soper, s o p e r.
T.C.:What what is Taron Egerton doing? Let's we'll put him. He's hot off his Golden Globe. Taron Egerton, Cure Nightly Vehicle, Typhoid Mary. Just call it
Jim:I mean, now this is this is set in New York. Oh, it's okay. Yeah. Why did I place? I don't know.
Jim:I just Well, because because she I mean, she's Irish. She is from Ireland. She's an immigrant.
T.C.:So he's an Irish cop in New York. That's never happened before. What? I'm gonna get you, Mary. You can't get away with this much longer.
T.C.:You'll never get me.
Jim:No. He's he's not a cop. He's not he's he's not an Irish cop. You know you know what? No.
Jim:This is this is Hollywood. Yeah. We're gonna we're gonna do all this. Yeah. All this happens, and she's all like, I don't care if I'm spreading it.
Jim:I gotta cook for people.
T.C.:I just need to make food. Okay. So he he gets to do a a early twentieth century Brooklyn accent, and she gets to do an Irish accent. Yep. She she meat cleaver.
T.C.:Come on, Jim. That that's the trailer right there.
Jim:Yeah. Well, when I saw that, I'm like, oh, okay. There's our action scene.
T.C.:That no. That's the teaser trailer. Because, you know, some of my favorite trailers are see where they just play a scene from the movie. So it's just them facing each other and him asking her questions. Like, do you think do you know about did you realize this?
T.C.:Did you
Jim:Give me your poop. Give me pee.
T.C.:I need
Jim:you to know that one.
T.C.:She yeah. That that tension of her not wanting like, them conversing and then her so get out. Get out of here. Get and grabbing the the meat cleaver and be like, alright. Alright.
T.C.:And then she just.
Jim:Oh, so yeah. No. I'd I'd cut it together with with, like, a whole bunch of, like, bits of interviews with hit him with, like, dying people and then Mhmm. A whole bunch of, but who? But how?
Jim:And things like that. And then it would cut to, like, him, like, speaking with someone in a foyer, about, wanting to talk to some to to someone working there. And then just from down this dark hall, you hear, get out. And the two people turn, and she comes running out of the dark with a meat cleaner. Oh, man.
Jim:You're going And, like, that's where
T.C.:that's where it starts.
Jim:Well, it's a trailer. Right? Gotta get people into the theater. They they get in. They they find out it's it's just a
T.C.:That was a trailer shot.
Jim:It's a drama. Yeah. Came for the meat cleaver. Where's the meat cleaver? Where's the meat
T.C.:cleaver scene? Of course, it's from a dream sequence. Unbelievable. Five stars. Give her the Golden Globe.
T.C.:This is awesome. That's feels like all the elements for an Oscar Beatty film, like and a timely film based on a lot of the similarities between what she refused to do or what she did and what people are going through now. So Typhoid Mary. Yeah. Now is is there is there a any I I we've So
Jim:here's here's a really silly idea. Mhmm. Now most Oscar Beatty type movies don't really have sequels. Oh, no. But if we may if we made this right
T.C.:godfather one and two, lord lord of the rings trilogy, please continue. The king's speech two.
Jim:The speechening. The feature.
T.C.:The king's speech too would not be someone with a stutter. It'd be someone with a lisp.
Jim:Yeah. There you go. Queen
T.C.:Elizabeth hath asked me to speak to all of you.
Jim:Someone get me Jeffrey Rush. So this movie ends with her getting quarantined. The sequel The c I'm saying if you wanted to build it for a sequel, so then the sequel is Mary's escaped.
T.C.:Mary's revenge typhoid the revenge typhoid. Revenge a typhoid Mary.
Jim:You could call it that. Yeah.
T.C.:They don't make movies and call them that anymore. Not not movies that are taken any with any sort of legitimacy. Yeah. But if if this were the like, a an exploitation movie from, like, thirty years ago, yeah, then the Revenge of Typhoid Mary would be on the marquee of the the Fox Theater. Revenge of typhoid Mary.
T.C.:And then the butcher, the cleavage It's typhoid season. I don't know. Have you had your inoculation? It's a movie to die from.
Jim:From I like that. Oh, that's that's horrible. I like it. But so then, yeah, so then the sequel could be hunting her down after she has left quarantine. Let's was I forget.
Jim:I thought she escaped.
T.C.:It you know, whether she did escape or not, we're writing it like she escaped.
Jim:I think that
T.C.:that that I mentioned Gone Girl is a movie where you feel like the movie's reaching a climax.
Jim:So Okay. So the New York state commissioner of health decided that disease carriers should no longer be kept in isolation and that Mallon should be freed if she agreed to stop working as a cook and take reasonable steps to prevent transmitting typhoid to others. Well, Then she agreed, and then she changed from a cook to a laundress.
T.C.:A la I'm gonna it wasn't that bad enough that you were feeding people, Mary. Now you're touching their clothes. Mhmm. Well, I'm glad that the the leaders of New York have gotten a little better over over this sort of thing in the in the current day and age.
Jim:And it was an island. She was she was isolated on North Brother Island.
T.C.:I'm sure it has a different name after she lived there. So I'm wondering, is there is there anything in pursuing the the Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter?
Jim:Oh, absolutely. That's that's way more my wheelhouse. Turning her into, like, a full on, like, mustache twirling villain. She's She has a mustache now.
T.C.:She has a mustache history.
Jim:Well, yeah. And I mean, what else is she gonna twirl?
T.C.:Her her pigtails.
Jim:Oh, there you go. She oh, she has pages.
T.C.:She's pigtail twirling villainous. So so it can it what do you think about it still being twentieth century, still setting it in the period?
Jim:Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
T.C.:But she's cursed by Hera just like the Medusa myth.
Jim:Oh, doing doing a curse thing?
T.C.:Yeah. Sure. I mean, really, if if we're gonna have someone like James Wan do this, it would be a ghost curse.
Jim:Sure. Well, really, well, because she's from Ireland, we gotta lean into that. Right? So really what it is is she's got some sort of banshee curse.
T.C.:A ban a banshee's curse. Yeah. I I curse you like a banshee. Just ate one bad potato.
Jim:Yep. That's that's all it takes.
T.C.:It's cool. It's cool.
Jim:Everyone knows that. The potato is is the deadliest of the tubers.
T.C.:The the deadliest of root vegetables.
Jim:That's why we eat so many of them. What's what's happening?
T.C.:Our our Irish niche is is coming out. Yeah. Well,
Jim:I Yeah. You could totally you could totally do
T.C.:You know who you know who stars in this one, though, since we have Cure Knightley doing the prestigious one? Mila Jokovich stars in this version.
Jim:Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
T.C.:She's the she's the the action the action horror Typhoid Mary.
Jim:Mhmm. And there's a a team there's a team of researchers and doctors and That she can
T.C.:paranormal paranormal, like, psychologist of the early twentieth century.
Jim:Oh, yeah. Well and, like, whatever she's she's she is spreading typhoid, but at the same time, she also has the ability, like, when, to cause typhoid to basically accelerate. Right? So she can, like she touches, one of them, and they, yeah, they they break out and as if they had typhoid for months.
T.C.:And and you know what right there. The the the lead investigator, like, the leader of the team is Orlando Bloom.
Jim:No. No. No. He's our he's our hero character. No.
Jim:My my newest, the leader has to be our Van Helsing type.
T.C.:So like an like an older like Yeah.
Jim:I wanna cast because I know I wanna cast him in everything now. Jared something. The the guy from he was in Chernobyl. Oh, and Harris. Harris.
Jim:Yeah. Jared Jared Harris. Yeah.
T.C.:Yeah. From he was also in Mad Men. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
T.C.:That's perfect.
Jim:So he's he's the he's the old man. He's he's followed from England. He knows about these banshee curses. Her. Right?
Jim:Because because he's English, and he's all like, I'm gonna crush these Irish monsters. Oh, that sounds terrible.
T.C.:Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Jim:I I I Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not.
T.C.:Oh, man. He's some sort of paranormal hunter. Yeah. He's got his young team of so okay. So Orlando Bloom plays the New York cop who's just investigating these deaths, not even aware that they're related to a freaking banshee curse.
T.C.:And then Jared Harris shows up and is like, it's a banshee curse. And he's like, what? I don't believe in the paranormal. Well, you're in a whole new world now, son.
Jim:Yeah. Oh, oh, they have to get a medium because mediums were big at the time.
T.C.:I am.
Jim:Yeah. Cool. Three. We got three three people there.
T.C.:You know?
Jim:One of them so yeah. This I I don't yeah. We can You we can do a whole bunch. Yeah.
T.C.:It this feels like a a movie we would have a lot of fun writing, but it also feels like a Max Landis script, and I don't say that complimentary.
Jim:Oh. Oh, no. Oh, because I kinda wanna write it.
T.C.:Well, we would just write it better than him.
Jim:Oh, okay. Sounds sounds good.
T.C.:Yeah. I I would I would I I feel like that would be a a whole episode unto itself if we get Max Landis on here to conceptualize a Typhoid Mary action Well, horror let's let's take a, like, break here for a moment. We'll hear let's let's let's let's rally because I feel like we we nailed down some, like, really cool Typhoid Mary ideas. If not the the serious silence of the lamb periods piece style movie that, Keira Knightley would star in or the schlocky Milajokovic one, which what more can we say? Let's take a break here when we come back.
T.C.:I wanna discuss just quarantine films in general and see what where does cinema go from here. So, if if you were cool with that, let's take a quick break here and hear from Six Five Media, our our beautiful host for that I'm trailing off. It's already played. The commercial started.
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T.C.:And I'm Kate.
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T.C.:Okay. Bye.
Jim:Okay. So Pandemic movies.
T.C.:Pandemic movies, quarantine movies.
Jim:So now now is where we just, like, read a bullet bullet list of of movies. Right?
T.C.:Get a buzz
Jim:Like, just just name name movies. Oh, yeah. I saw that movie.
T.C.:Well, then
Jim:I'll do it. I'll do that for three hours.
T.C.:Right when all this, shelter at home, isolation, and all this, like, really started happening. I know Netflix reported that Contagion and Outbreak were, like, the most streamed movies Mhmm. Which is just a just proof that people are gluttons for punishment.
Jim:Sort of. I'd like I relate to that. Like, I like, I'd I've I've spoken with some people who are like, uh-uh, oh, I don't wanna I don't wanna watch a thing like that. It's too close to home. Mhmm.
Jim:But for myself, I actually it it gives me sort of a it grounds me. I don't know I don't know how or or why, but, like Mhmm. Talking about things that are like that make make me feel better. Maybe that means I am also a
T.C.:A gluttonfuck.
Jim:Masochist. But yeah. I I I don't know. It just Yeah.
T.C.:I get it. I I think that art can help relieve a lot of anxiety. Yeah. I know leading up to elections sometimes, I like to watch movies such as, like, the movie election with Reese Witherspoon, or I'll watch something like v for Vendetta, which has a very politically slanted message to it. Sure.
T.C.:Or or when dealing with certain crises. Yeah. For me, I I am someone who will like to lose myself in a film, lose myself into a TV show that has parallels to what's going on. I mean, The Handmaid's Tale says a lot like, the success of The Handsmaid Tale says a lot about the the most recent movement in America post the two thousand sixteen election and a lot of the Me Too movement and the the the women, the women marches. Like, peep as much as it is funny to laugh at people sitting down to indulge in outbreak and contagion and be like, but you're living it.
T.C.:Why would you want to? It seems to be pretty normal that people people do that. Yeah. But it's a it's a fair point to think about. Can you do like, in the future, doing another outbreak film, doing another and we're going to get them, because this is such a worldwide thing now.
T.C.:Do you you have to acknowledge it. It's like Yeah. After after September 11 and the falling of the two towers, to to not have the city skyline have those that very iconic double towers silhouette now, there there it's necessary to, at least soon after it, to acknowledge the nonexistence of of the towers or to to be more patriotic because especially with your movie set in New York, it it's just a reaction to this massive event. You can't Yeah. There there are certain world events and and situations that happen that that change cinema.
T.C.:And whether it's a world event or or even just affecting how you look at certain actors, whether it's an iconic role they play or something that happened in their personal life that then changes your perception of it. I've I have mentioned two Kevin Spacey movies in this episode alone, and in the back of my head, I always have a moment of like with with that said, core contagion, pandemic, outbreak movies moving forward is there's gonna have to be some sort of acknowledgment of this, of what we're going through now. Right? Yeah. Like, you can't ignore it.
T.C.:Right? Like, even even I feel like zombies movies to a point now are gonna have to even just offhandedly think about, like, oh, this is this is was this COVID again? Like, having a line of dialogue like that in, oh, man. This is you thought COVID was bad. You thought coronavirus was bad.
T.C.:People are eating eating flesh out there. Right? Yeah. Well,
Jim:I mean, I sorry. We we we had a a discussion earlier off before the episode about the the state and future of indie film. And so that that's what immediately comes to mind. Like, I don't know if we'll see that movie now. But for for for that's because the the death the death of of, small films as opposed to, just someone making it.
Jim:Right? Like Right. You're absolutely right. I think someone will make a COVID zombie movie, assuming that someone can still make a a a small b movie.
T.C.:And and have it see the light of day.
Jim:Yeah. Yeah.
T.C.:Right. You're right. There there's there's probably already people working on. On it it's it's fascinating to me. I mentioned earlier people being so creative in this this this time period.
T.C.:How many people have come to me with the exact same idea? Like, hey. You know, I was thinking with with with everything that's going on, maybe maybe we could do this. And I'm like, that's a great idea. You should do that.
T.C.:And then someone else coming to me, I was thinking we should do this. And it's like, yeah. You should you should go do that. And then, like, going on Facebook and, oh, look. Someone already did that.
T.C.:There's a there's definitely a being isolated, the cosmic consciousness is really, really vast right now. Yeah. But that's not to say I I say this with every every story is gonna be told differently by the person telling it. Like Sure. I always say, we all know the story of the three little pigs, and we all tell it differently.
T.C.:We all it all it's gonna have all the same stuff in it, but it's gonna be different coming out of my mouth than yours. Sure. So so as a zombie COVID movie, I think I think more likely than that I do think that's very likely. Mhmm. I think there's gonna be more of a likelihood of conspiracy films stay in your house.
T.C.:So Stay stay in your house so that the black hats, the, the cloak and dagger stuff can happen more openly.
Jim:Sure. Sure. The the the suppression of our rights Yeah. As as as manufactured by the oligarchs and Right. Crypto fascists.
T.C.:Now if if I'm remembering v for Vendetta correctly, it was a disease that led to a firmer like, a more control by the government.
Jim:The the movie? I believe that is the that's how what they changed it to in the movie. In in the original comic book, it was a nuclear bomb, and Alan Moore didn't know or or just he didn't have the the research available about the effects of radiation at the time. Right. Right.
T.C.:But the Yeah. The the movie, it's a disease that's led to more control by the government to control the spread, and they and the government used that to push forward their agendas about like, the movie captured and imprisoned LGBTQ people. That's Yeah. That is the story she's that that Evie is receiving on the toilet paper Mhmm. Rolls is the story of a woman who is in love with another woman who is taken away because she has the disease.
T.C.:Mhmm. And there's there's certainly that fear in these current times that that, you know, the the suppression of or, like, the pushing forward of agendas because we're all distracted by by the the virus. Mhmm. The enemy we can't point at. Yeah.
T.C.:And I think that's more likely to come out of of this in terms of, like, the type of films. Sure. I I
Jim:You're you're I I do have, one one film that actually I I learned another fact today, via someone else doing a whole bunch of research and then putting it on Twitter and then someone else sharing it on Facebook.
T.C.:That's making you an expert. Good job.
Jim:That that's how it works. Clearly, I could do my own research where I do want to pursue this, film more. But, apparently
T.C.:Every every good argument ends with someone yelling, do the research yourself.
Jim:There was a a during the Spanish flu, which, again, many people are already make making parallels to, there was back then a group. They called themselves the anti mask league, and there were pro mass protests in specifically San Francisco, to not wear masks in in in the city. And it caused the outbreak to swell and to last longer in where they were. And what that makes me want to do is I would actually like to make a movie that is two stories at the same time that are like almost identical. And it would cut between, it would cut back and forth between, the COVID pandemic.
Jim:We'd follow characters that are doing certain things. And then it would flash back to the Spanish fluid, flash back to 1918. And, the exact same things would be happening. We'd be following characters that are doing almost the exact same things as our characters in, 2020.
T.C.:So going back and forth between present day and and then the past. That's Yeah. That's a yeah. There there would certainly be something there. Whereas, like, our Typhoid Mary parallels would just be there for people to go, wow.
T.C.:That is very similar to what's happening today. Yeah. You're offering a presentation of
Jim:you know, I I Well, because it's it's even Typhoid Mary was was sort of a a an isolated incident. Yeah. She ended up killing 51 people. But it was she was the carrier and where she went is where the disease went. And and it's sort of this there's there's literally a face.
Jim:There's a name you can put on what was happening there. With this, it's like the movie Contagion or Outbreaker or actually even Outbreak cheats because they say, oh, the monkey. If we get monkey monkey Yeah. Yeah. Everything will be okay.
Jim:With, the Spanish flu and with COVID, it's just it's this
T.C.:It's invisible.
Jim:It's You It's the status we yeah. It's invisible that we just have to last through. And Could
T.C.:could taking that premise of going between COVID and the Spanish flu, what about not just Spanish flu? See the events in present day happening chronologically, telling the story of following a person or a group of people surviving through a week in isolation or a month through isolation, but constantly flashing to Spanish flu, the black plague, other other outbreaks throughout history. So, like, I'll point to American Gods. In the novel American Gods, there's interstitial chapters that just tell a folklore of an ancient or an of of an older world tale of of some figure like a banshee or like a leprechaun. I don't know why I picked two Irish people, but just roll with it.
T.C.:So to have okay. Not a movie. A a miniseries where each
Jim:A miniseries, you could do it. You could you could do that. If not a mini if you just did it in a a film, you're gonna get Cloud Atlas.
T.C.:Well, that's literally where my head
Jim:would have gone. That's literally what would have said.
T.C.:But in a miniseries, to say that each episode is is your the the the consistent story, the through series line is about surviving a present day, a contemporary worldwide outbreak. Each episode focuses maybe on a different character, but also a different old previous pandemic. Sure. And and, you know, do five five, six, seven seven episodes of this. Let HBO Jared Harris stars in it.
T.C.:He's our he's our medical professional that's that HBO can produce. He's the he's the main character getting us through the the main plot.
Jim:I suddenly what that one. I feel like I'm remembering was there a TV show about an immortal doctor, or was he a vampire?
T.C.:Oh, New Amsterdam.
Jim:There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. That that that just popped into my head.
T.C.:It's It was one of the one of the shows that suffered cancellation due to the writers' strike of two thousand seven. Ah. The last the last great pandemic. Yeah. The yeah.
T.C.:The the at in at least in Hollywood terms, this industry being being affected Yeah. In in a very specific way.
Jim:By people wanting to be paid better.
T.C.:Yeah. The last great Hollywood pandemic, the writers' story. So that and there would be a whole episode about that. That's the that's
Jim:Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. The reason that came to mind is because you're talking about these flashbacks, and then I so I'm imagining Jared Harris is the doctor in every single one of them.
T.C.:Oh, so so now you you once again taken a a grounded reality.
Jim:I can't help it. I I got I need I need the I need that weirdness.
T.C.:I you know, there's a there's a place for weirdness in this world. The weirder, the better, I say.
Jim:It's in my heart.
T.C.:But, yeah, touching going kinda pivoting back over to zombies, like, thinking about Walking Dead being a success that it is somehow inexplicably still going as a success. Do does it reach a point like, we people didn't get tired of zombies. We keep getting zombies. But now that we have experienced and we are experiencing this era, this time period, and we had already discussed about people watching Contagion and Outbreak, Is this really something people are gonna wanna indulge in, or is it, like No. No.
T.C.:No. I don't
Jim:think this is gonna I don't think I think people will they'll they'll get a little of it. I think I think the comparison for the fallout of media, like like, how much media are we gonna get about this event? A part of it does does, depend on how long this lasts. But I think it is likely comparable to '9 eleven.
T.C.:Yeah. Like, writing United '93 and the World Trade Center movie starring Nicolas Cage so soon after, It felt a little exploitive. It felt a little it felt too soon. Alternatively, they were making World War two movies during World War two, but that was more it was more propaganda, bolster American pride, bolster morale. Sure.
T.C.:So I get I get that. But, yeah, yeah, having having a a breakout an outbreak production, like, soon as, like, Hollywood can go back to normal and start producing again to, like, immediately put into place something about this. I don't think people want don't think people are gonna want it.
Jim:No. Correct. Yeah. Right. Like, World War two, the reason it worked in World War two is because people were hungry to know what was happening.
Jim:Right. Because it was happening over there. It was not happening here in The States. Oh, yeah. And so I think I think that that was that was why there was a demand for it.
T.C.:Mhmm.
Jim:The the propaganda angle as well. Whereas I I I don't think people are going to be hungry for pandemic, stuff.
T.C.:And and I I agree.
Jim:And They're they're they're they'll want it sort of as a like like I said, sort of as strangely as a coping tool?
T.C.:Certainly. And it goes back to to just our discussion of creating a Typhoid Mary movie. It it isn't so on the nose. It isn't literally about COVID Yeah. Or the coronavirus.
T.C.:Right? It's it's a smart movie watcher is gonna go, oh, I know why this movie exists because it's parallel to what happened in reality, much like any good genre fiction, especially sci fi. Whereas a maybe a less I don't wanna say a less intelligent, that sounds rude. A less someone who's less of a cinephile might just see it because it's a cool Keira Knightley period piece, and they might not connect all the dots to go, oh, this exists as a commentary on current events. Right?
Jim:Sure. And Well, and and and as as as a movie, I not all movies have to speak to their contemporary time. It it could also a a Typhoid Mary movie would also should also could also stand on its own outside of reference to now. The and
T.C.:and therein lies another part of what we've talked about today, which all these people making being very creative and making things. We've dated our episodes of this show just by discussing it as much as we've we have. Yeah. The the best content I've seen is stuff that I can enjoy because of the circumstances, but also look at and go, that will still be great down the road. Sure.
T.C.:I've I've you know, a little self plug here. The I've been working on a short film during this time that we are we're going out of our way to we're crafting it under the restrictions of we can't all film in the same place at the same time, and we're working with those restrictions. And we're telling a story that sort of involves isolation, but our goal is to craft something that doesn't feel like it was made during this time and can exist outside of this time. Nice. So so that's that's been a fun creative challenge there.
T.C.:And again, the best as I said, the best content I've seen is stuff that I look at and go, that's gonna be that's very funny and clever now, and it'll just be just as funny and clever down the road. Sure. As opposed to people who are like, well, day seven of the COVID quarantine. Here's my joke. It's like, you know, that, know, oh, boy.
T.C.:That sure
Jim:is that sure is funny today.
T.C.:Yeah. We we would be fools, Jim. Fools to to to be so specific about the exact era that we're living. This isn't this isn't title dropping a movie that's gonna come out in four months or ever at this point. No.
T.C.:No. We would we would be so silly to do something so specific. That you know what? Fine. I'm gonna hat trick it.
T.C.:I'm gonna hat trick it right here, Jim. Yeah. And and and
Jim:We go just do we just do it so much it brings it back around?
T.C.:I I have to I have to say That would be like releasing a Superman Returns retrospective and discussing Kevin Spacey the day before he got outed for everything he did. Yeah. What a fool would do that. There we go. Three Kevin Spaceys in one episode.
T.C.:You're welcome. What a monster. Yeah. Yeah.
Jim:The answer is you, T.C. The answer is you. And
T.C.:I'm that fool.
Jim:Go go see T. C. YouTube video. It's go do it.
T.C.:My Superman Returns It was me all along, Jim. Maybe the jokes we made in quarantine are the friends we made along the way. Wait. No, wait. I said that wrong.
T.C.:When there were two sets of footprints, it was us walking together. When there was one set of footprints, you you had to go into self isolation and Yeah. Were not allowed to walk with me anymore. That's what I was trying to say.
Jim:Sometimes, don't we all just have to quarantine? I'm I
T.C.:so so does in the discussion of, like, what are films going to do now because of this very specific time that has happened, I do think films are gonna change. I think even just remotely, in order to succeed in discussing outbreak movies that involve zombies or some unseen virus or whatnot, It's gonna have this is now such a worldwide event. It's so this isn't like SARS. Right? This is something this is bigger than that ever was.
T.C.:And Mhmm. And so that it's now a reference point that's going to it it's weird now when I see people shake hands on TV shows. Like, when I see a group of seven people in a room on a like, when all the friends are together
Jim:When people hug?
T.C.:Friends. And I'm like, guys, six feet. Six feet.
Jim:What are
T.C.:you doing here? You're gonna get you're gonna get put on Typhoid Island. You keep Yeah. Hugging each other like that. What's wrong with you?
Jim:But what what I
T.C.:don't know. Do you have any what what is do you have any other thoughts regarding this this era and how this might affect this type of storytelling? Right? Like, I'm I'm actually, just because I I
Jim:I You know what? Actually, no. I think I think there will so after this, I think that there'll be movies, not movies that are about the quarantine or the pandemic as topics. Like, it there there won't be like, there I mean, there might be like movies like Outbreak and COVID and and, Contagion. But I think I think, you are right.
Jim:There will be movies that are just set in this period. They're they're they'll use this as the hook. Right? It's not going to be about, oh, we were quarantined all along. Right?
Jim:We're going to see stuff like a bank robbery movie. Like Oh, man. Everyone's quarantined right now. Now's the time to rob the bank. Sure.
Jim:Sure. We're gonna see we're gonna see stuff like that. We're right? We're gonna see stuff set during this, but not necessarily about it.
T.C.:Right. Right. I it's it's interesting. I was just think I said this the other day. The the biggest movie of all time, Endgame Mhmm.
T.C.:Has this has the streets being empty because of the snap. Yeah. The blip, whatever whichever way you wanna call it. And and having gone out, into the nights, like, I'll go I'll go do a run at 04:00 in the morning, and it's the streets are empty. Or I will be in in transit between point a and point b, and I'm doing the speed limit at rush hour, which I've joked about before.
T.C.:It feels like half the world is missing. Yeah. And so it's it's interesting to me that Endgame came out a year ago before all this happened, And yet there are elements of it, like watching Paul Rudd walk down the street, like, where is everyone? And a kid on a bike is like, get away from me. Yeah.
T.C.:Yeah. What did what did did they know that we didn't? Yeah.
Jim:Oh, so the difference between the Marvel universe and this in their universe, it was just the blip. People just disappeared in ash the way they did. In our universe, when he snapped, he created COVID. That's dark. It's dark.
Jim:I apologize. I'm I will
T.C.:Thanos.
Jim:I I will stop Cruel and unusual. Turning real life death and sickness into a comic book joke.
T.C.:I'm just gonna let you flounder for a bit now as you
Jim:continue to. That's fine. Well so okay. So, like, I actually I actually tend to like things like that as well, the the fictionalization of some things. I I know some people some people very much don't like it.
Jim:They call it, like, romanticizing these terrible things. Right. I don't know. I don't I don't I don't know if I agree with that term, but
T.C.:Well Right. It's Like
Jim:like, having having there be a terrible monster that spread the black plague. Mhmm. Maybe it's because it's centuries ago, and so people are okay with that, but it's just as insensitive.
T.C.:Yes. It is. You are correct. And and yeah. I don't know.
T.C.:I I the the sci fi element of this, mentioning v and forgetting until I mentioned it that it had a virus is what the the the reason the world changed in v. The looking at Star Trek and how they V for Vendetta.
Jim:Sorry. For a moment, I went to the TV show Well, the TV TV. Lizard aliens. Sorry.
T.C.:That is a that is something titled v v for Vendetta. Sorry. But the like, Star Trek being the that World War three happened and wiped out a good portion of of the population of the planet and the recovery of that. A lot of sci fi has has to do with that. A lot of science fiction deals with some catastrophic events and the results after it.
Jim:Well, so yeah. So sometimes sometimes it's predictive. Right? Like, some people really like science fiction that deals with, like, oh, what if this thing happened or what if this was developed? And some science fiction is allegorical.
Jim:It's it's so like an alien invasion that killed half the population is is actually just a metaphor for World War two.
T.C.:Yeah. Oh, certainly. And Japan, after the the bombs fell, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cinema was built upon the results of radioactivity. Yeah. The results of the wiping out of their people.
T.C.:Yeah. And and you you can still see the effects of that in Japanese cinema to this day.
Jim:Sure.
T.C.:Or and and going to alternative history, a lot of sci fi deals deals with that. Like, what if this one thing hadn't happened? Mhmm. Something as simple as to to stay in Japan and discuss their their, film. Kiki's Delivery Service, which is a Hayao Miyazaki film, that setting exists in a world where World War two never happened.
T.C.:And so it's a it's a it's the setting of the movie. It's not something that's ever addressed, through the dialogue or the plot, but the design of the film that Miyazaki conceptualized is what would what would the world look like without World War two ever happening. And it's and and the sort of architecture and cultures that would still exist in that alternative reality. Interesting. Star Trek exists in in is constantly reinventing themselves because it's been around since the sixties.
T.C.:So it's a lot of, like, well, if you watch the old Star Trek, it's this is what the future would have been like if this world these world events hadn't happened. And then you go a little bit further to, like, next generation. It's like, well, we have a we have a few decades more of information. So now this is what the world is like. And and yeah.
T.C.:Yeah. It's a the think science fiction is the is the place
Jim:to explore. They changed the bad guys. In the in the the original, it was the Klingons. Right? They've who were the Russians.
T.C.:The Russians. Yeah.
Jim:And then in the the late eighties, nineties with next generation, it was no longer the Klingons. We were we were friends with them kinda mostly. Mhmm. And now it was rampant capitalists.
T.C.:Yeah. The
Jim:the originally, I believe if I remember it, the Ferengi were supposed to be the, the kind
T.C.:of the the the big bad that they
Jim:kept encountering. They then made other other villains. Right? Like, the The Borg. Yeah.
Jim:The ant but Which are because zombies. It's it's Star Trek zombies.
T.C.:And and the Romulans became a bigger deal on Mhmm. Next Generation as well, which are very militaristic and political enemies. Yeah. But but speaking of Klingons, they the the end of the original series was the fall of the Klingon Empire right out of the the end results of the fall of the USSR.
Jim:Sure.
T.C.:So in in we're kinda move discussing sci fi in general. I think sci fi is the is the I don't know. Not the safest way, the the most interesting way to explore politics and worldwide events and using using the parallels to discuss Typhoid Mary set in the early twentieth century, that's great. There's certainly something to be had there. Setting something now and making it feel or just, like, slightly in the future, like, something like Children of Men or
Jim:Oh, so you're saying, like, do a sci fi version of Typhoid Mary? Like, do something
T.C.:No. No. No. I I'm I'm suggesting that there there is a far flung future story to be told that is about a virus that wiped out, and there have been many of those. I'm just saying, like Sure.
T.C.:Something like a even Serenity. If you look at Firefly Mhmm. And Serenity, that's the the big villains of what the Firefly universe was. Well, we're a a political enemy. And, but the
Jim:The the Reavers were well, I I don't I don't know if I would I would I guess it was kind of panicked. It was, it was gen manufactured. It was more of a it was it was more of like a a cultural manufacture. They they were they were trying to culturally engineer their people with by by gassing them. And then they made and then it went this may sound
T.C.:terribly wrong. Yeah. Look look into, like, Cowboy Bebop is a is a far flung future that shows the results of of our day. We don't like, not necessarily looking at something like Star Trek, which is so futuristic, holograms and space travel and whatnot, but that that it's the future, but it's still maintain like, Blade Runner is an example of it's the future, but it still kinda feels like now. Yeah.
T.C.:I'm I'm sorry. I'm I'm off on a tangent here No. No. It's of, like, of, like, fun sci fi.
Jim:Yeah. I like talking about sci fi. That that's just the the title of this episode should probably be, like, Typhoid Mary or or Contagion, and it's just crossed out. And then he says Sci fi goobering.
T.C.:Well, maybe we can goober off Mike and and wrap this episode up. To to bring it all the way back to this, it's it is genuinely fascinating to hear this Typhoid Mary story, which I've known that name for I can't tell you how long. Sure. I I was aware that it it was around the nineteenth, twentieth century. I thought it was in London.
T.C.:So it was nice to have this, like, a little bit of education in in this episode and finding that this is definitely a movie that could be adapted a story that could be adapted into a pretty exciting film in one way or another. Yeah. So so Foxy Roxy Roxy Studios, you will have to let us know if we we met your demands, if we gave you something, a movie that you would produce and distribute as a studio. And, actually, we really need that right now because the fall of the indie film industry to bring it all the way back to a conversation none of you were a part of. We we kinda need that right now
Jim:to to Watch our movies.
T.C.:To to our creative friends out there, it's gonna be it's it's already a tough life. But yeah. So I I'm I, of course, will now throw it to our listeners and see if we we did in fact craft a film that you are interested in. And maybe this inspired one of our listeners out there to send us a demand for another biopic period piece, World Events, that you're wondering how we would craft it. I I would love to be given some sort of of of demand that that spins the genre of of something that happened in reality.
T.C.:Historical fiction is fun as hell. Historical science fiction, that might be even better. I mean, hell, fireflies, essentially, the results of the civil war done in space. Right?
Jim:Like Sort of.
T.C.:Like, sort of. Yeah. A civil war. But Yeah. Anyhow, so Foxy Roxy Studios, let us know how how we did on that as well as as as as you listeners.
T.C.:So let me let's let's wrap this up. I think that does it for this episode. And and, let us know if you agree or disagree if you think we missed something or whatever. And in order to do that, let me give you the social stuff. You can find us at studiodemandsit.com, or you can send us a demand.
T.C.:We are on Apple Podcasts, Google Play. You can listen directly on our sites. We have, requests. You can submit your request right there, or you can hit us up on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at Studio Demands It. Like, subscribe, and you can review us right in app on Apple Podcasts if you feel like letting us know what you think of the show.
T.C.:It helps us with the algorithm. And, and thank you everyone who's been sharing the show. We've gotten a few tweets recently of, hey. This was recommended to me by so and so. So Oh.
T.C.:Thank you for for spreading the word of of the studio demands. It it also helps us get more demands. And the more we get demands, the longer we can keep having fun like this. So you can find me at t c's big head. Jim, where can people find you?
T.C.:Where where can people hypothetically find you?
Jim:Tupac Waxon on Twitter.
T.C.:Yes. Tupac Waxon on Twitter. Huge shout out to six five Media for giving us this platform. Please go check out everything six five Media is still producing in these very strange times, including another Zelda podcast. There's current there's certainly the back, catalog of Top Hat Balloon Show and as well as our first season all available through six five.
T.C.:So thank you so much to to David and the six five production team who gives us this platform. Jim, you wanna say thank you?
Jim:Thank you.
T.C.:There you go. I'm sorry. I had to force Jim to do that, everyone. He's he's such a child sometimes.
Jim:You're a child.
T.C.:Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. You you go to your room, mister.
Jim:I'm going because I want to, not because that and that's where all my stuff is, not because you told me to.
T.C.:No TV or no movies.
Jim:Can't stop the signal.
T.C.:I will tell your oh, nice. Alright. That does it for this episode. We'll be back again soon for another challenge to improve the world of cinema. I am T.
T.C.:C.
Jim:I'm Jim.
T.C.:And this
Jim:And that how sounded like a closing.
T.C.:This is how we end the episode.
Jim:We do it.
T.C.:Talk over each other.
Jim:This And
T.C.:Jim Jim wrote a song. Jim, go ahead.
Jim:Sing the
T.C.:song for the people as we fade out of here.
Jim:No. I'm not doing that.