Author: A L Katz

• November 28, 2023

  S2E65 Shooting Stars

  When it comes to SHOOTING STARS, few still photographers have shot as many (on so many movie sets) as DAVID JAMES – maybe the most successful SET PHOTOGRAPHER of all time. Stars like TOM CRUISE and directors like STEVEN SPIELBERG and J. J. ABRAMS love working with David because he understands how to tell (and…
• November 21, 2023

  S2E64 On Making “Valkyrie”

  For the first time ever, Gil and I talk about Gil’s last big studio movie, VALKYRIE starring TOM CRUISE and directed by BRYAN SINGER. Bryan asked Gil to produce Valkyrie for him after Gil produced SUPERMAN RETURNS which Bryan also directed. Making Valkyrie changed Gil’s life. That is, it changed the direction his life took.…
• November 14, 2023

  S2E63 Still Superman

  When we left BRANDON ROUTH, back in S2E62, SUPERMAN RETURNS had just opened to great reviews and respectable numbers, but not respectable enough for WARNER BROS to continue the SUPERMAN REBOOT. They cancelled the next two movies. It’s devastating seeing your future vanish in front of you. But, in time, Brandon found his feet again.…
• November 7, 2023

  S2E62: “He’s Super, Man!”

  BRANDON ROUTH was fated to play SUPERMAN. As a kid, he dreamed about playing the MAN OF STEEL. When he got to LA (from Iowa) – and learned WARNER BROS planned a reboot – equal parts hustle, circumstance and luck got him not just an audition, but the role itself in SUPERMAN RETURNS. Since then,…
• October 30, 2023

  S2E61 “Killer Klown Konfidential”

  Happy Halloween, Everyone!!! It’s a Killer Klown Konfidential all right, as two of the three CHIODO BROTHERS sit in for a special HALLOWEEN EPISODE! The CHIODO BROTHERS, Stephen, Edward and Charles are MONSTER MAKERS and sculptors. They’re stop motion animators, puppeteers and moviemakers, too. Their work on projects like MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON,…
• October 24, 2023

  S2E60 Critical Mass

  Like us, KRISTEN LOPEZ is passionate about movies (she’s a huuuuuge VERONICA LAKE fan). She’s passionate about the MOVIE BUSINESS, too. An ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST, she’s been THE WRAP’s FILM EDITOR since 2022. She created and co-hosts a great podcast called TICKLISH BUSINESS and wrote “BUT HAVE YOU READ THE BOOK: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired…
• October 17, 2023

  S2E59 Music Man

  Among Hollywood producers, CHRIS BOARDMAN is famous for being one of those very rare musicians who can write literally anything. Over his extraordinary career, he has written literally everything. His orchestrating/composing credits include THE COLOR PURPLE, THE WIZ, DIE HARD, LETHAL WEAPON, WATERWORLD, OUTBREAK, TOMMY BOY, PAYBACK, SPY KIDS and BORDELLO OF BLOOD. Chris has…
• October 10, 2023

  S2E58: (Production) Designer Genes

  Quick! What do TOM CRUISE, FREDDY KRUEGER, DAMIEN (from “THE OMEN”), THE OSCARS and Progressive’s MOTAUR have in common? PATRICK LUMB was their PRODUCTION DESIGNER. Not only is Patrick a remarkable, innovative production designer, he’s a great STORYTELLER, too. And, this episode features some amazing stories from the sets of VALKYRIE, 2006’s THE OMEN and…
• October 3, 2023

  S2E57 Un-Conventional Horror

  Experience the fun as TALES FROM THE CRYPT takes over HORRORCON LA. We brought some friends along with us: one of our favorite actors SHERRIE ROSE, makeup special effects maestro TODD MASTERS and TV producer extraordinaire ED TAPIA (back then, Ed was the best assistant any producer ever had!). And meet THE CHIODO BROTHERS! I…
• September 26, 2023

  S2E56: “From HAIR To Eternity”

  PAUL ABASCAL went from being a super talented, highly sought-after movie set HAIR STYLIST (he was MEL GIBSON and SLY STALLONE’S hair guy!) to being a super talented MOVIE AND TV DIRECTOR whose very first dramatic directing credit was the “Oil’s Well That Ends Well” episode of “TALES FROM THE CRYPT”. Paul saw hair architecturally.…
• September 19, 2023

  S2E55 Scares & Scores

  Would scary movies be as scary without scary scores? Of course not! Our guest NICK PIKE has composed scores for tons of movies and TV shows but SCORING HORROR has always been a sweet spot. Nick wrote the theme for FREDDY’S NIGHTMARES: THE NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET TV SERIES, ten episodes of HBO’s TALES FROM…
• September 12, 2023

  S2E55: It’s A Crypt Keeper Spook-tacular!

  JOHN KASSIR – the voice of THE CRYPT KEEPER – discusses the Crypt Keeper’s birthing process. It took FOUR PEOPLE to turn the CK from a great puppet into an iconic character. Are there Crypt Keeper segments the CK’s creators like best? Are there any they hate? There ae no secrets in this Crypt! With…
• September 5, 2023

  S2E53: It’s FAN APPRECIATION Day!!!

  Here at The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, we really and truly appreciate our fans. But, also, we appreciate how the fan experience has changed since we started making movies and TV shows back in the stone age. There used to be a lot more distance between us – what we now call…
• August 29, 2023

  S2E52 Grim Reaper V Crypt Keeper

  Welcome to the fright of the century – The Grim Reaper v The Crypt Keeper. It’s not at all unusual for writers and directors to forge long creative bonds with certain actors. Scorsese and De Niro… Hitchcock and James Stewart… Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson.  At Tales From The Crypt, we fell in love with…
• August 22, 2023

  S2E51: “Return To The Castle Of Horror”

  Welcome to our return visit to the Castle Of Horror! Movie producer, director, writer and actor William Castle was one of the very first film makers who saw their own brand – understood what it was – and then bent movie-making toward themselves. Like Alfred Hitchcock – some critics called Castle a poor man’s Hitchcock…
• August 15, 2023

  S2E50 Crypt Salutes William Friedkin

  It’s not unusual for long-running TV shows – like HBO’s “Tales From The Crypt” was – to develop a family-like feeling among its regular crew. At Crypt, that feeling got magnified by Crypt’s whole “lightning in a bottle” mystique. As we’ve talked about here at The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, Crypt really…
• August 8, 2023

  S2E49 Chicken Thing Attacks!

  Todd Holland directed one of the best “Tales From The Crypt” episodes – “Top Billing” – about a struggling actor (played by Jon Lovitz) who thinks he’s auditioning for the lead in “Hamlet” at a small theater tucked away in an alley. He’s actually auditioning for the role of “Yorick – the skull”! This is…
• August 1, 2023

  S2E48 Crypt Keeper Confidential

  Odds are you’re here, reading this because you love “Tales From The Crypt” and its iconic Crypt Keeper character. We don’t blame you.; we love both of them, too! We started this season (some 48 episodes ago) with a conversation that had never been had before about how exactly The Crypt Keeper came to be.…
• July 31, 2023

  RIP Paul Reubens

  We never had the chance to work with Paul Reubens – whose character Pee Wee Herman charmed the hell out of us – but, we sure wish we had. Paul died Sunday night after a six year long (private) battle with cancer. Though we didn’t get to work with Paul, we got to work with…
• July 25, 2023

  S2E47: The Name Game

  Run for your lives! The world is over-run with Alan Katz’s – and Allan Katz’s and Allen Katz’s! That’s what it feels like anyway (to the Alan Katz who hosts this podcast and writes these posts!). In this episode of The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, Alan Katz finally has a conversation he’s…
• July 18, 2023

  S2E46: Crypt We Love/Crypt We Hate

  Over the course of 5 seasons, Gil & Alan produced 69 episodes of “Tales From The Crypt”. That’s out of 93 episodes total over its full 7 year run. While we’ve said many times that doing Crypt was like catching lightning in a bottle, not every day was fun. And while we take pride in…
• July 16, 2023

  S2 Bonus Episode: Killer Talent/Talented Killer

  We “met” Francisco Lacerda – a very, very talented Portuguese-American moviemaker – at this year’s Chattanooga Film Festival. That is, we met a short Francisco made called “They call it… Red Cemetery“. Red Cemetery is both an homage to Sergio Leone and his brand of exploitation moviemaking and a statement of moviemaking talent all by…
• July 11, 2023

  S2E45 Make Em Laugh

  Conventional wisdom says comedy is hard. It is for some people. Hell, for some people (the ones without a sense of humor – not everyone has one, ya know!), comedy is downright impossible. For the rest of us though, comedy isn’t all that hard. And it gets easier the more honest we are. Phyllis Katz…
• July 4, 2023

  S2E44: “Hot Shots”

  Want to have a  G R E A T weekend? Spend it being feted by the incredible folks (led by Chris Dortch) at the Chattanooga Film Festival. Nothing beats good people treating you like a couple of hot shots. We hope we gave half as good as we got! The Chattanooga Film Festival (named one…
• June 27, 2023

  S2E43: “Lightning In A Bottle”

  That should be “Lighting In A Bottle – At the Chattanooga Film Festival“. That’s where we just spent the weekend – being feted (not fetid) because of “Tales From The Crypt“, “Bordello Of Blood” and this, our “How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast“. So, before we start, thank you, Chattanooga Film Festival & Chattanooga…
• June 22, 2023

  Join Us At The Chattanooga Film Festival!

  We are beyond honored that the Chattanooga Film Festival wants to honor “Tales From The Crypt”, “Bordello Of Blood” and this very podcast – “The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast” at this year’s festival which starts THIS WEEKEND and runs from June 23 – June 29. The opening weekend – the 23 –…
• June 20, 2023

  S2E42: “Writing Superman”

  Kevin J. Anderson is a writing superman. He’s actually written Superman, too – Kevin wrote the novels “The Last Days Of Krypton” and “Enemies & Allies“. Kevin’s also written books in the Star Wars world, the X-Files world and, perhaps most famously, together with Brian Herbert, the Dune world. In fact, Kevin is incredibly successful.…
• June 13, 2023

  S2E41: “The Juice”

  Director Ernest Dickerson is The Juice! Our friend Ernest Dickerson is both a first rate director of photography and a first rate director. He shot all of Spike Lee‘s early movies – everything from Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop (Spike’s film school dissertation) and “She’s Gotta Have It” to “School Daze” and “Jungle Fever” to “Do The…
• June 6, 2023

  S2E40 “Caligula: How NOT To Make A (Porno) Movie”

  One of our big themes on this podcast is what happens when talented movie makers lose their minds… or their taste… or control over their movies. You get a “Bordello of Blood” when big name, talented people make a movie none of them really wants to make. Plus an insane producer. Caligula had the opposite…
• May 30, 2023

  S2E39 Crypt And Crypt Again

  In this episode, we’ll be singing “Chattanooga Choo Choo” because this year’s Chattanooga Film Festival is going to be singing “Tales From The Crypt”, “Bordello of Blood” and “The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast“! Gil and Alan will be IN Chattanooga from June 23 – 25 as part of this year’s live events.…
• May 23, 2023

  S2E38: “I Shot The Crypt Keeper”

  Consider this a Tales From The Crypt reunion show! Rick Bota went aboard Crypt season three – same as Gil and Alan. Over the years, Rick was director of photography on twenty episodes (including some of the best including William Friedkin’s “On A Dead Man’s Chest”) and the first Crypt feature film “Demon Knight“. But,…
• May 16, 2023

  S2E37: The Primus Directive

  In the Star Trek universe, there’s the Prime Directive. In the acting universe, there’s the Primus Directive! Barry Primus can do it all: write, direct, act, sing and dance. He came up through the New York theater world where huge talents like Anna Sokolow, Jerome Robbins and Jose Quintero took a young Barry under their…
• May 9, 2023

  S2E36: It’s FORBIDDEN!

  Bill Malone fell in love with Robby The Robot the moment Robby entered the classic sci fi movie “Forbidden Planet“. Characters like Robby and the Creature From The Black Lagoon completely captivated Bill. They piqued something deep inside him. Like a lot of burgeoning movie-makers, Bill spent time with a super 8 movie camera as…
• May 2, 2023

  S2E35: “John Harrison’s Best Friends Are Zombies”

  You might not know John Harrison’s name (though you should!). John’s written, directed, produced or written the score for some pretty big projects including Dinosaur, Creepshow (and Creepshow 2), Tales From The Darkside, the original Day Of The Dead and the 2000 TV version of Dune. John cut his movie-making teeth working for horror maestro…
• April 25, 2023

  S2E34: Roger Nygard Knows Practically Everything

  Filmmaker, video editor and documentarian Roger Nygard knows practically everything important that there is to know. Seriously, It all started with “Trekkies”, Roger’s first documentary. With “Trekkies”, his celebration of “Star Trek” fans, Roger created the fan documentary. What made it easy was that Roger himself was a fan of the series. And a fan…
• April 18, 2023

  S2E33: “Malcolm McDowell Sings In The Rain”

  For a film buff, Malcolm McDowell is a kind of movie god. He played Alex Delarge, “hero” of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “Clockwork Orange”. Critics pretty much agree that Clockwork is one of the one hundred best movies ever made. Malcolm’s portrayal of Alex is iconic. So are the stories from behind the scenes. Kubrick wasn’t…
• April 11, 2023

  S2E32: “THAT Guy”

  This week’s guest on the podcast is a world famous character actor who works all over the world in TV, film and video games from Thailand to South Africa to Berlin to Israel to good ol’ Los Angeles. Mark Ivanir works everywhere in between, too. Movies! TV! Video Games! Among Mark’s feature films – Schindler’s…
• April 4, 2023

  S2E31: “Who’s The Boss, Part 2”

  A bunch of episodes back (Season Two, Episode 18), we asked “Who’s really the boss on any movie or TV set?” One of the answers: why, it’s the first assistant director, of course! On a TV set, that’s pretty true. There, the first AD works for the producers. On a movie set, by contrast, the…
• March 28, 2023

  S2E30: “Joel-A-Palooza”

  Joel Silver a/k/a “The Pajamanator” There are movie producers and then there’s Joel Silver. Hollywood’s famous for its larger-than-life personalities. Joel is larger than larger-than-life. Working for Joel can be challenging. Rewarding, too, but challenging especially. There’s not much margin for error but plenty for terror. In Season One, we told lots of great Joel…
• March 21, 2023

  S2E29: “The Director’s Director”

  You might not know the name Elliot Silverstein but you should. He directed a couple of very big movies (Cat Ballou and A Man Called Horse). He also helped invent TV directing back in the 1950’s and 1960’s (directing Naked City, Have Gun Will Travel and The Twilight Zone. Elliot was always an artist’s rights…
• March 15, 2023

  S2E28: “Crypt In London”

  

  For it’s last season, HBO sent “Tales From The Crypt” to London. It was an amazing adventure. How could it not be? But (if we’re honest – and that is our stock in trade here) the Crypt team didn’t go to London strictly to refresh the franchise (which needed it, frankly). Crossing the pond helped…
• March 7, 2023

  S2E27: “A Taste Of Sherrie”

  One of the great things about doing “Tales From The Crypt” was the actors we got to work with. Kirk Douglass, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael J Fox, Isabella Rossellini, Daniel Craig among many, many others. We also got to work with an actor named Sherrie Rose. Hell, we liked working with Sherrie so much…
• February 28, 2023

  S2E26: “Tobe Or Not Tobe – A Tribute To Our Friend Tobe Hooper

  There’s no data to back this up, but most of the people making horror movies – like horror movie fans – are some of the nicest people on the planet. Our friend Tobe Hooper (along with his writing partner Kim Henkel) created one of the most iconic horror characters of all time: Leatherface from The…
• February 21, 2023

  S2E25: “TV Or Not TV”

  Sam Egan’s been writing TV shows (and the occasional feature film) for fifty plus years. His first big break was writing and producing the show “Quincy ME” with Jack Klugman. TV was very different back then. How we watched it was different. Strange but true: there used to be only three broadcast networks putting out…
• February 15, 2023

  S2E24: “Bordello Schmear, Part 2”

  This episode/post is a continuation of S2E23 – Bordello of Blood: The Whole Schmear. I guess that makes this “the rest of the schmear”. Spoiler alert: this story has a happy ending. At its core, our podcast is the story of a creative relationship. How making a dumb horror movie destroyed that relationship. And how…
• February 15, 2023

  S2E23: “Bordello Of Blood – The Whole Schmear (Part 1)”

  Spoiler alert: this story has a happy ending. At its core, our podcast is the story of a creative relationship. How making a dumb horror movie destroyed that relationship. And how doing a podcast about making that dumb horror movie healed the wounds and reignited the relationship. That’s after not speaking to each other for…
• February 8, 2023

  S2E22: “Let’s Get Lit!”

  Ross Emery is both a director of photography and a cinematographer (we’ll discuss the differences). He and Gil worked together on two features – “Superman Returns” and “Valkyrie“. – both times as second unit director of photography. That’s another difference we’ll discuss during the podcast – the one between a “first unit” and a “second…
• February 6, 2023

  S2 Bonus Episode – Our Visit To CreepIE-Con

  Welcome to a special, bonus episode of the How Not To Make A Movie Podcast: Alan & Jason visit the CreepIE-Con horror convention! This past weekend was the Creepie-con horror convention in Ontario just outside Los Angeles. It’s not one of the big horror conventions, but being as it’s here in Southern California, it still…
• January 31, 2023

  S2E21: Mike Vosburg Is Drawn To The Dark Side

  If you’ve ever seen an episode of Tales From The Crypt, you’ve enjoyed the work of artist and comic book creator Mike Vosburg. When you sit and talk to Mike – aka Voz – you can’t help thinking “Wow, what a terrific person!” And then you look at his comic book art and you can’t…
• January 25, 2023

  S2E20: “Charlie Fleischer Is In ‘Toon’ With The Universe”

  If you don’t know Charlie Flesicher’s name, you know his voice. He’s the voice of Roger Rabbit. He’s appeared – in human form – on TV and in movies since the 70’s. We worked with Charlie on “Demon Knight” – the first “Tales From The Crypt” branded horror movie. He plays Wally Enfield. It’s been…