Archives: Episode
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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”. Most critics agree: Clockwork is one of the hundred best movies ever made. Malcolm’s portrayal of Alex is iconic. So are the stories from behind the scenes. Kubrick wasn’t known for being…
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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…
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S2E30: “Joel-A-Palooza”
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 stories. We’ll re-tell some of…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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S2E23: “Bordello – 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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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S2E19: “Rust Makes Our Heads Explode”
Nobody should ever die on a film or TV set. No one should ever get injured either but physical things happen (stunts, for instance). Injuries should should be rare. Death should be a complete stranger. With hundreds of hours of produced film and TV content under our belts, Gil Adler and I had the exact…
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S2E18: “Who’s The Boss?”
Film sets are a fascinating place to work. They definitely reflect the nature of the people working on them – especially at the top. But who’s really in charge of any set? Who’s the boss? Most sets are like bee hives. And, while everyone thinks the director is queen bee, on the set itself, it’s…
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S2E17: “Castle Of Horror”
The movie biz attracts all kinds. The horror biz attracts the most unusual among the movie biz. And those who succeed in the horror biz? They’re a truly special breed. The House On Haunted Hill… The Tingler… 13 Ghosts… These were all competently made horror movies. What made them noteworthy and keeps them noteworthy is…
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S2E16: Car Ride To Hell
Welcome to our first new episode of 2023! We’re dropping a Joel Silver story we’ve been threatening to tell since we started this podcast last year. The Car Ride To Hell! How do we know it ended up in Hell? Well, for starters, Donald Trump makes an appearance – two actually! Here’s the setting. As…
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S2E15: “Best Bits”
For a lot of people, 2022 was an outright annus horribilus. One to forget. That wasn’t the case for us here at the How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast. For starters, we came into being this year. That was a good thing (all things considered). We found a growing audience – that’s been even…
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Bonus Episode: “Is “Die Hard” A Christmas Movie?
Tis the season to ask this essential question: Is “Die Hard” a Christmas movie?
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S2E14: “Post Mortem” (Featuring Chelsea Rebecca & Jason Stein)
The body’s on the slab now. Let’s do the post mortem. This past Saturday, our little Podcast held a benefit for the Motion Picture Home – the MPTF. They’re a great organization that takes care of film folk in need. We performed a live table read of “Dead Easy“. That’s the “Crypt” film we never…
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S2E13: “(James) Bonding With Peter Iliff”
Peter Iliff‘s passion for movies started with James Bond. He was six and his dad took him to see “Goldfinger” on the day it opened. They watched it twice. Now, it may seem strange – a dad taking his six year old to see a Bond film – but, strangely, something happened there in that…
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S2E12: “Buried Bodies”
A great Hollywood assistant is someone who knows where all the bodies are buried because THEY helped bury em.
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S2E11: “An Unexpected Journey”
Doing this podcast has been the ultimate unexpected journey. It all started when when the Dads From The Crypt interviewed me for an episode of their podcast. The moment Jason Stein – one of the dads – told me the group’s franchise – reviewing Crypt episodes and giving parenting advice – they had me. And…
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S2E10: “Hanging Out W Alan & Gil”
Pull up a chair (if you’re not already sitting)! Gil & Alan are sitting down for a hang out!
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Can You Believe Taye Diggs???
The short answer is YES! You absolutely can believe Taye Diggs and that’s the whole point of this episode! We ask the question “What makes an actor ‘believable’?” And, the actor we’re using for demonstration purposes in this episode is the terrific Taye Diggs who, it just so happens, Gil (Adler) has cast twice. The…
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S2E8: Bill Sadler Is A Really Nice Guy
This conversation feels like a pair of comfortable slippers. It’s that warm and familiar.
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S2E7: “Dirty Laundry”
If you really want to know what’s happening on any film or TV set, the last people you should ask are the executives. We know nothing of value. We may have a pretty good fix on where the budget is, but we have no idea who’s sleeping with whom. Film and TV sets are emotionally…
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S2E7: Dirty Laundry
If you really want to know what’s happening on any film or TV set, the last people you should ask are the executives. We know nothing of value. We may have a pretty good fix on where the budget is, but we have no idea who’s sleeping with whom. Film and TV sets are emotionally…
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S2E6: “How NOT To Make A (Monster) Movie”
Welcome to our Halloween podcast – How NOT To Make A (Monster) Movie. One of the masters of movie make up special effects is our very good friend Todd Masters. We’re sure you remember Todd vividly from Season One of The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast. Todd became Tales From The Crypt’s permanent…
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S2E5: Steve de Souza Has Even MORE Of A Story
This episode picks up where E4 left off. And then it gets even more epic. This is a big episode in more ways than one.
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S2E4: “Steve de Souza Has A Story”
In this episode of “The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast”, we sit down with a master storyteller: writer/director/producer Steve de Souza. You may not know Steve’s name, but you definitely know his work: 48 Hrs, Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Commando, Streetfighter, Judge Dredd, Beverly Hills Cop 2. Steve practically invented the modern…
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S2E3: Casting About With Victoria Burrows
In this episode of “The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast: Horror Stories From The Movie Making Trenches”, we sit down with one of the biggest casting directors in the business, Victoria Burrows. Or, as we prefer to put it, we go “Casting About With Victoria Burrows”. In season one of “The How NOT…
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S2E2: “What’s Funny Is…”
Turns out, what’s really funny is the paths we all took to show biz success.
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S2E1: THE Crypt Keeper Interview
In this episode, the four people responsible for creating and producing one of the world’s most iconic characters – “Tales From The Crypt’s” Crypt Keeper – discus how that happened. The cool part? We’ve never had this conversation together. Ever. It’s about time we did.
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Season 2 Promo: The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast
In season two, we expand the franchise. “Horror stories from across the movie-making trenches”. More painful personal stories of movie-making craft turning into crap.
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The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast: Promo #2
“The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast” is an object lesson in what happens when you do things for all the wrong reasons. Spoiler alert: nothing good. It’s the outrageous, true story about what happens when craft turns to crap.
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Episode 10: Can We Talk Sequel?
I’ll close season one as a solo act with a few remaining “horror stories from the show business trenches”. I’ll tell more of those stories in Season 2! In this episode: a makeup special effects near disaster with actor Tim Curry playing three parts; how to tell an Oscar-nominated composer (Michael Kamen) you’re not happy…
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Episode 9: Joel Directs!
As you’ve probably gained from listening to this podcast, working for Joel Silver was an adventure. So, if you like stories about Joel, you’re gonna love this episode. The Joel Silver Fan Club In this one, we tell the story of the time our boss, Joel Silver, directed an episode of HBO’s “Tales From The…
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Episode 8: The Martini
The classic Martini is simple. Elegant. Ice cold gin or vodka with a whisper of vermouth. It’s the perfect end of the day cocktail. This episode will feature another kind of cocktail – a lively conversation wherein the Dads From The Crypt will interview Tales From The Crypt. Dads From The Crypt First, let me…
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Episode 7: Tales About “Tales”
Get a bunch of people together who worked on a project and they’ll have stories. That’s what this one is – backstage stories from “Tales From The Crypt”. How to describe the experience of making “Tales From The Crypt“… It was unique, for starters! Back in the 1990’s when we made Crypt, the feature world…
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Episode 6: “The Cutting Room Floor”
The Cutting Room Floor is legendary in Hollywood. Whole careers have happened there. In fact, there’s a whole weird history in Hollywood of scenes and actors who famously never made “the cut”. Kevin Costner, for instance, was entirely cut out of “The Big Chill“. He plays Alex – the guy who’s funeral all the other…
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Episode 5: “Endings Are Never Pretty”
As the production of “Bordello Of Blood” stumbled toward its climax, we knew we’d leave Vancouver with an unfinished movie in hand. That was ironic because our unfinished movie had finished one relationship (between Sly Stallone and Angie Everhart) and was on its way to finishing another – the decade-long creative one between Alan Katz…