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Fistful of Fingers · The Director's Chair Network

• 0:00 [Music] 0:11 Welcome one and all to the All the Right Moves, a limited series from the 0:17 Director's Chair Podcast Network about the filmography of Edgar Wright. I'm your host, Trucker Andy, and with me 0:25 today is the founder of the Director's Chair Network, Ryan Rebulk. And Ryan, thank you for being here today. 0:32 Dude, an absolute pleasure to be on, and I just got to say, I'm so excited you're tackling this and uh being a part of the 0:38 network. Thank you so much, Andy. Yeah, we were having a lot of fun talking about the films of Michael Man, 0:44 specifically Collateral. Yeah. Over on uh your channel. and I offand 0:51 made a comment that I wanted to talk about Edgar Wright and you were uh nice 0:57 enough to allow me to do that. So, here we are. Well, and I appreciate that. In fact, if anyone's listening to this, this is my 1:03 little plug here. You want to be like Andy and you think there's a director that you want to tackle and added to the network because that's what happened. It 1:10 was a natural like, oh, I like Edward Edgar Wright. I want to do his films. I'm like, are you serious? And we talked offline. You were. So, if you're 1:16 listening to this and there's a director you want to tackle and add to the network, please contact myself or Ry. We'd love to have you on. There is there 1:21 is no limit to the directors that we'll cover. Yeah. And I I thought this was a perfect 1:27 fit because the the catalog is not two. I was willing to commit to the amount of 1:33 films that Edgar Wright has made and a lot of them are beloved to me. But this 1:40 one, we have to start at the beginning. And I had never heard of this. And when 1:46 I went to look at where to start, I found this and I went and watched it. 1:52 And I have a lot of thoughts about it. I know you have watched it as well. 1:59 Um, this is 1995's Fist Full of Fingers, which I, again, I 2:06 had no idea this even existed. And I think maybe I know why it doesn't come up in a lot of conversation, but uh have 2:14 you heard of this before I no talked about it? No, I I I thought Sha of the Dead was his 2:21 first film. I like film proper. Maybe it is. If you want to argue this, you could say Fistful of Fingers might be like his 2:27 lost long demo tape that's resurfaced after he's become a big- time director. But I yeah, I look forward to talking 2:33 about it's an important demo tape, though. It's a it it is a one worth investigating. 2:39 Exactly. This seems to be a a resume builder that this is what a lot 2:47 of director the way that Ryan Reynolds made that little Deadpool short uh to 2:52 convince studios that of what the movie would end up becoming. This is Edgar 2:57 Wright's uh proof of concept or proof of knowledge to show case to producers or 3:06 collaborators that he knows how to pace a film. He knows how to block a shot. He 3:13 knows how to write and edit and all of these things. The only problem I feel 3:20 like is that it is a an amate it's it's amateur hour basically from front to 3:26 back is how and I had to keep telling myself watching this. It's like what are 3:32 people looking at this and going this kid's got got gumption and and uh 3:41 like promise that and what what am I seeing here on this screen that made 3:47 somebody a producer decide to take a chance on Edgar Wright? Well, I don't know if I can answer that per se because 3:54 now we're retroactively looking at it as someone who is a very accomplished director and has directed some of my 4:00 favorite films of all time. Uh, of course, Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I mean, those are just his trilogy uh of 4:06 films. What's it called? The Cornet, what's it called again? The the Cornetto trilogy. Yeah, that's right. It makes no sense 4:12 other than he it's the same two actors, but I don't know how they exactly tie together. I'm not an Edgar Wright like 4:18 nerd though. Shan the Dead when it came out it blew me away and I can't wait to hear people's thoughts on it when you 4:23 cover it. But I'm excited to cover this early demo film per se like you. I was 4:29 like what are we watching here? It's a YouTube link. I found the YouTube video cuz I when you said we're doing this 4:34 film I thought is there a way I can rent this film? Can I Luckily somebody put it up on YouTube? I don't know if you had 4:39 another place to find it. Like what how are you going to watch it? That I was concerned about that when we 4:45 decided we were going to do this. I I started going to Amazon Prime and Netflix and it's unfindable, but luckily 4:54 maybe a a fan is hosting it somewhere on YouTube and that's exactly how I 4:59 can't buy it. Yeah. Nor should you. Okay. Well, you sounds like and I'm not 5:04 trying to be like, oh, this is an amazing film. Okay. Take off take off how it I don't know how should I 5:10 actually ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I did. 5 minutes in, I was like, what are we watching here? This does look like obviously what it 5:16 looks like. It's a VHS tape. It's filmed in 1995, which was 30 years ago. But I 5:22 have to say, I'm impressed with 20-year-old Edgar putting this together with his teenage friends. And I laughed 5:31 out loud at parts. I'm not I truly thought some of the gags were quite I 5:36 was almost jealous that a 20-year-old could come up with some very funny stuff. And granted, he's he's my age. 5:42 He's a year older than me. So, we we come from the same school of film, comedy, MontiPython, Naked Gun. So, this 5:49 guy is obviously a Montipython Naked Gun uh fan. You you nailed it. That that was one of 5:55 the things that was in my notes as well. And just to back up just a little bit, 6:00 if you're watching this episode one of this limited series, the the director's 6:05 chair is more of a discussion. We we're approaching this with the uh presumption 6:12 that you've gone to YouTube and watched this already. So, this isn't a a channel 6:18 where we're going to explain the plot of Fingers to you, even though we will talk about specific things in the movie. So, 6:24 if you're watching this now and you haven't watched it, just go find it for free on YouTube and then come back and 6:29 you're going to have a better understanding of what we're talking about here. But it's very interesting to 6:35 me that it's most fledgling directors I would say cut their teeth with lowbudget 6:42 horror and that is not what right and a lot of these people that I 6:50 feel like are sister or like spiritual successors or contemporaries of Edgar 6:58 Wright do operate in in that genre. People like Robert Rodriguez I feel like 7:05 is a onetoone comparison to maybe Edgar Wright's the way he cultivated his 7:13 career and okay but well Robert Rodriguez made El 7:18 mariachi and then and then that he I I read his 7:24 autobiography and he subjected himself to medical trials 7:30 where he was sequestered to in a room and taking experimental 7:36 drugs and being tested whether he was placebo or not while he was sequestered 7:42 doing these medical trials to get money to make his movie. That's how he wrote 7:48 El Mariachi. Oh wow. Is the story of Robert Rodriguez who and 7:54 unfortunately I feel like Robert Rodriguez went on to make a slew of shitty shitty movies. How dare you? Spy 8:01 Kids 2. Spy Kids 3 was Stallone, Shark Boy, and Lava Girl, anyone? 8:07 Oh, that was a that was a love letter to his children. That was their story. Okay. Well, save it for them because I I 8:14 hate those movies. Whereas Edgar Wright went on to make movies. I like just 8:19 about all of them in one way or another. So, he's got a pretty good track record. I mean, we are This is the premier 8:25 episode, so to speak. So, I don't mind if you know I'm not going to give my thoughts and feelings cuz people are going to cover it. But if you just look at his filmography, it's a pretty good 8:33 run of films. Uh, I mean, the Hot Fuzz, of course, Sean of the Dead, The World's 8:38 End, and then he then they're like, "Hey, dude, you're a pretty fun filmmaker. Do you want to dabble in Ant-Man?" Though he only wrote it, but 8:44 the idea that they tagged him for that. Of course, Baby Driver, I feel like he 8:49 he doesn't take like he takes his time to do films, which I think it shows on the screen in the script. What do you 8:55 think? Agreed. And let's not forget Scott Pilgrim, which is arguably one of my 9:02 all-time maybe top three favorite films. Just okay. That speaks to my soul on so many 9:08 levels. And um I don't know how I'm going to be able to talk about it in only one episode when we get around to 9:15 Scott Pilgrim. This is instead of it being a horror film where a lot of people seem to get their feet wet, this 9:22 is a parody of spaghetti westerns, right? Allah Sergio Leon and like Clint 9:30 Eastwood style films, but well, it really is a Clint Eastwood parody at the end. This is there's no 9:37 bones about it. This is alternate universe Clint Eastwood, right? And if it's Sergio Leon meets the 9:45 Looney Tunes, it meets Bugs Bunny. You know, it's funny they bring up Looney Tunes. There was a couple scenes like, "Oh my 9:51 gosh." Obviously, again, we're the same age. He was raised in Looney Tunes. So, this he editor and I I think if we were 9:56 to sit down and have a conversation about our growing up years watching TV and we'd have so much ven diagram of 10:02 what we enjoyed because there was there was definitely Bugs Bunny type behavior in this. Right. So you mentioned Monty Python, 10:10 you mentioned Naked Gun, Zucker brothers type of things. No, Brooks. Yeah, these things are right. And that's 10:17 that's really where I struggled with watching this and I had to keep 10:22 reminding myself that it was So you struggled. I got to I got to interview you a little bit. So you str 10:27 See, that's where I embraced it. Yeah. Well, that that's that's why I 10:33 gave it so much of a pass. But I wouldn't not to skip to the end, but I 10:39 can't see myself ever watching this ever again. Okay, that's okay. Well, yeah. I don't 10:45 know if I'm gonna punch in the YouTube address. Yeah. And watch this again. I'm glad I did, 10:51 though. I'm glad I did cuz now I can say that I'm one of the few fans of Mr. Wright that I've said I've seen his 10:58 first official film. I'm curious though, and you know better than me because you're going to talk about space I think at the end, but why the big break 11:04 between this student film of sorts and then how did he get Shawn of the Dead because it seems that 11:10 movie is so well done and it it almost feels like someone who's been doing movies for 20 years, right, 11:16 is Shawn of the Dead. So, how did he get from 1995 to 2004 in that? 11:21 It's because of Spaced. Okay, which is why we have to talk about space and we will 11:27 once we get through the slog that was fistful of fingers. 11:34 Nice day. Say that again. Nice day. Once more for the cheap seats. Nice day. 11:42 I I know you're being like you're such a nice guy. You're to give people the benefit of the doubt and I just 11:49 I don't know if that's it. I Okay, I'll say this. There was some really good gags that I guess I envisioned. Okay, 11:56 I'm going to pretend I I was a multi-millionaire producer and it's 1995. I've got money to burn and I'm 12:03 let's say at this time I'm 50 years old and I'm watching this in 1995. I see this young kid and he gives me this 12:09 film. I kid you not, I would have said I want to see this film done proper with 12:14 proper film. Give me the right horses. Give me all the things. And that's the 12:20 thing is I get it. The quality is the home video quality. I I I watched it for 12:26 the gags. I thought this should have been on the big screen. There's some legitimate gags in this film that are funnier than your naked gun films. That 12:33 is some some of it's funnier than your Monty P. I kid you not. I actually genuinely laughed out loud. I thought, "Oh, that's clever. That's too clever 12:39 for teenagers." I I had that thought as well, but mine was more when it comes to 12:46 the humor of the film and there it is joked dense, but my reaction to a lot of 12:52 it was, "Oh, that's funny. I get it." And not actually laughing, which is if 12:58 you tell a joke and somebody goes, "That's funny." And that instead of actually laughing, that that's a 13:03 different version of humor. That's more like my wife being polite when I tell a joke as opposed to somebody actually 13:10 thinking what I said was funny, which was the the way that I digested a lot of 13:17 this humor. And but to to what you were saying about let's take this let's make 13:24 let's go from Evil Dead to Evil Dead 2. Yeah, I guess that's what it is. Yeah, sure. Let's go from El Mariachi to Desperado 13:31 with this. Let's do it with all the right equipment, all better writing, 13:37 better editing, and better a better cast because I didn't like the lead. I liked 13:43 I thought the the villain and the and the hero should have switched. But that 13:48 was more like a good a good villain a good movie needs a good villain. So 13:53 maybe they just like a Katon Nicholson Batman kind of dynamic 14:00 where the strength of the movie was in the the the antagonist. 14:06 Yeah, the lead I kind of agree. I I like Squinty and Okay, this is Do we want to 14:11 talk about the controversial psychic subject? Yeah, we I mean we can bring it up, but 14:17 it remember this is 1995, not 2025. Okay. Why? I'm not going to be an 14:22 apologist and that's not my intent and I'm not going to say yes. Of course, yes. Yes, folks. White people don't put 14:28 on brown face paint and become a different nationality. Like, we know that. We Let's get that out in the open. We understand that you don't do that. 14:35 Um, but what I will say is they did it on like it was so obvious. They they had 14:41 this young actor. The gag was he he was only painted brown 14:48 from his neck up. The rest of his body was white. Yeah. 14:53 Sorry. I think that's part of the gag because they you Here's the thing. They're gagging. What was Hey, look. 15:00 This was before Tropic Thunder. So, I I think they should get a not they should get a pass the same way Robert Downey got a pass because they're m This was 15:06 pre-tropic thunder. Uh, this is where I give Edar some real credit here for some originality because they are making fun 15:13 of a time when actors did put on darker makeup to become Native Americans in 15:21 western films. This was a real thing. And then other nationalities, it was it was so common that nobody batted an eye. 15:27 Okay, we have an American actor playing an East Indian, you know, person. We have was that Jerry Lewis playing the a 15:34 Chinese person or whatever it was like David Keredine and kung fu right so but that's what they were doing 15:40 that was the commentary is like here we have a very obvious white person with putting on the uh cliche Native American 15:48 voice and then throughout the film throughout the film he has the it's the 15:54 classic like mystic ability. Yeah. Sorry, I there was a scene where 16:00 uh they're having the big shootout at the end and there's a sign that says like caution loose rubble and he starts 16:07 doing the uh the war cry with his mouth in hand. Totally. Yes. Inappropriate. 16:14 The idea that he's going to make the rocks fall like he's one with nature but nothing fell. The whole world shook but 16:20 no rocks fell. 16:27 [Music] 16:44 This is I see you're laughing. I was watching this thinking this is actually 16:50 is it it's very high brow and c but that's the commentary is we are this is 16:56 wholly inappropriate to the sense but this is what films do did like native Americans were one with 17:01 earth and they had this like and they are always so calm and they come in the last moment they're kind of guiding the 17:08 poor stupid white man through the wilderness and that but I don't know I thought that was pretty smart com again 17:14 from somebody like Edgar who I guess watched unforgiven given and the and the these movies and Dances with Wolves and 17:20 and they took the mick out of it with this commentary. Sure. And we have to remember that this 17:25 is 1995 England. There's not Native Americans in England for a 20some Edgar 17:32 Wright to cast in this film. So you you it also leans into that sort of version 17:39 of the joke. So but if they did it today if they did it today, yes, they would Yeah, that's the thing. would then cast somebody who was 17:46 actually a Native American taking the mick out of stupid white people doing 17:51 this with their roles, making them seem mystical and you know all that stuff. So you you could do this film today, but 17:57 you'd have to cast obviously appropriately, right? And and there it's a lot of 18:03 cleverness that goes into well our lack of budget. What are we going to do? Let's parody the horses from Monty 18:10 Python and a lot of the signage and the Bugs Bunny stuff. And one of the things 18:15 when you said this is it's almost too clever that when the horse runs goes off 18:21 the cliff and it says edge of cliff and then it pans to the right and it says edge of frame. It's like that's it's a 18:29 movie making joke that's almost too clever to be in this movie. But that that was maybe one of my favorite jokes. 18:37 And I knew they were going to do the Monti. I knew it. I said, "Oh, they're going to go on a horse. They're going to do something nod to Montipython." And I 18:43 will give this showcases Edgar's ability as a filmmaker. So, even though they're they're running with the like the 18:49 horses, they're in a horse costume and the characters or the actors are running. I squinted my eyes a little bit. Hear me out. I like I kind of like 18:56 blurred my vision to watch their angling or Edgar's angling of the 19:01 horse riding chase with him and squinty eye uh was actually really well done. He 19:06 had a at an early age he has a knack for direction and setting up the frame. What do you think of it? So even though 19:12 they're it's a funny horse chase. I actually en again envisioned real horses here and it's like he actually has a 19:19 knack for doing this. I really hope he reinvestigates this film. That would be interesting if he did. 19:24 Maybe I wonder how what he thinks of this if cuz I'm sure when he talks about 19:32 recommending things from I mean maybe he never does but if somebody was like his uh a relative that doesn't know anything 19:39 about him and they're like well where should we start with your catalog he's never going to say this but I so I 19:46 wonder if he does romanticize the the production of this film as a young man 19:53 and like what he would would do different now if he to make it better when he 20:00 watches this because he he wants it to be Blazing Saddles. And yeah, 20:05 there's another movie called Hundreds of Beavers that came out uh in 2024 that is 20:14 virtually silent and virtually all green screen except for the actors who are in 20:21 like mascot costumes as beavers. And it's it's really 20:28 insanely good. And when I when I watched this, it reminded me of that. but not as 20:35 good. So that that is and that's a problem. That's my fault for assigning 20:42 um expectations to something that I shouldn't. So, and I'm also going to say 20:48 this that might chase a lot of people that are watching this away if you're a fan of Monty Python. I never was. I I I 20:56 don't. Okay. Well, that's it's not my thing. And uh so a lot of 21:02 the the gags where I was just like, "Oh, this reminds me of Monty Python, something I don't enjoy." Okay. Well, no, no, I I appreciate and 21:09 then I think the listener would appreciate your your angle and that's fine. That's your journey as a as a 21:16 comedian and or comedy movie stylings. Uh I I was raised on Python. So that's 21:24 my kind of humor. Absolutely. That British humor. It's it's absolutely ridiculous. And I I kind of like the 21:30 ridiculousness of the naked gun of the Montipython. It like it should it shouldn't be funny and that's what it's 21:36 funny. And I don't know why that makes me laugh cuz it's like I get the joke. I like I see why you did that joke, but 21:42 it's so bad. It's good, but it's also very clever. Like I there's so many jokes. I got halfway through the film 21:48 like I should have started writing things down. Uh because there's like Oh, remember that joke? Remember that joke? There's one that stuck out to me that 21:54 was really good when uh what's it oh the Native America's name is running R running sore I love his ex-girlfriend's 22:01 name was the Yanks with fist good god it's Yanks with a fist you know 22:07 her I've been out with her that's terrible see 22:14 well because that's a play on words for the uh dances wolves was stands with fists that's the joke it's okay anyway 22:22 So, uh, when he's being taught how to shoot shoot shoot a gun, and he's doing practice, and we see him quick drawing, 22:30 he's missing the, uh, the props that they're putting up, like it's a watermelon head or whatever it is. And then we see him like he draw, you see 22:36 the the watermelon explode. Oh, he's improved. And the guy with no name says, "Well, that's, you know, you got to go a 22:43 little bit further back next." 22:49 And again. Fast enough. 22:55 Good one. Now just a little further away. You see 23:01 now he's standing right next to the watermelon as he like the idea that he was right there when he blew up the watermelon. I love those clever little 23:07 gangs who were led to believe his viewer. Oh, he's getting better at his aim. But no, we find out later he was literally standing right next to the 23:14 watermelon. That it's stupid. Why is that funny? But it is. is I found myself constantly surprised by 23:21 obvious humor working so well. Maybe it's just been a long time since I've seen that kind of slapstick comedy that 23:28 I enjoyed growing up with. Sure. And I'm a big fan of Looney Tunes and 23:34 Sure. Fair enough. Did you happen to see the new Naked Gun? I I I heard that you went uh about it. 23:41 Is it good? It is there. Okay. I I look forward to it then because I love the Naked Gun films. 23:46 I mean, say what you want about OJ, but he was really funny in those films. It's true because he really killed that role. 23:55 Yes. I I OJ's beloved, you know, that's why 24:01 that's why things took out for OJ the way they did because he here in Buffalo, 24:06 upstate New York. All right. Yeah. I like to believe that OJ covered for his son, that his son 24:12 committed the murders and OJ took the fall for him. That's that's the narrative I go with to to so I can still 24:18 watch the naked gun, right? And if you enjoy that type of 24:23 humor, if you enjoy Monty Python and you enjoy Looney Tunes, you will find value 24:28 in this film and a lot and obviously a lot of people did see the potential and 24:34 the value in it and that and that's great, right? Otherwise, we wouldn't have shot in the Dead, we wouldn't have Hot Fuzz. So the this is it's definitely 24:44 cuz this is another thing that I realized why this is findable. Why maybe 24:50 people cuz when Space came out for two seasons and then Shaun of the Dead 24:56 exploded in popularity then you're people are anxiously awaiting uh hot fuzz and in the meantime 25:04 what is there what is there to find other than after I've watched Space 25:10 twice or three times and watched Shawn of the Dead 10 times, what's left except this when the when that was the only 25:16 other thing as an Edgar Wright fan to go and find. I'm sure a lot of people saw 25:22 this and so it was nice to have in the catalog for that reason. There's just 25:28 one more thing to maybe as a a hidden track in the filmography of Edgar 25:34 Wright. You can go see him at his roots and how he got 25:40 how he cut his teeth in making films. How did he do you know how he connected 25:46 with Simon Peg? Hm. I have to I don't mean to put you on the spot, but 25:51 I I don't know that specifically except that Simon Peg I mean this is probably a 25:58 good time to start talking about spaced because this is 26:04 the Edgar Wright players is uh where the the pedigree of spaced versus Shauna of 26:12 the Dead. Um, I I I'll just say as as let's wrap up 26:18 our thoughts about Fistful of Fingers and then we should probably start talking about space at this point 26:24 because um that's really where the popularity 26:30 and of Edgar Wright starts. It's certainly not with this, but I did I 26:36 just to talk about the end of the film a little bit. Sure. They do a reference to Once Upon a 26:43 Time in the West and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And when they started 26:49 bringing up those movies, I was like, "Oh yeah, those are cool movies. I should go watch those." Um, so you could 26:55 see the influence of the westerns there. You could see the influence of Monty Python and where Edgar gets all of his 27:03 comedic sensibilities and he's very funny. He's very clever and you that's 27:09 really what shines through with fist full of fingers. Okay, I'll also add regarding the end 27:15 sequels because they're talking about how the final shootout between Butch Cassie and Sun get like how that ended 27:22 and they had these characters come in with the faces of of the actors and from that film and they got shot within this 27:28 film. But what it showed me is Edgar Wright comes from the school of and you 27:33 could almost argue this was he wrote andor created this 27:39 around the same time Pul Fiction was released in '94. Now this was released in '95. But I dare say I I I think this 27:47 movie would exist without Quent Tarantino ever existing. I want to make this clear. I'm I'm 99% sure that this 27:52 was an independent thought thought exercise and creation of Edgar independent of on the other side of the 27:58 pond with QT and his journey with his he's another independent filmmaker who 28:03 loves movies and his love of movies showcases in his films where you have that fourth wall dialogue about films 28:09 and movies and the screen franchise is also not that like I'm I love horror 28:15 films I'm making a horror film about my love of horror films and now that's Edgar doing this And that's what makes 28:21 Edar a pioneer is he is breaking that fourth wall throughout this whole film 28:28 talking about what makes these other films so great but he of course parodies it and that's his love letter is through 28:37 humor is you can tell that he truly loves spaghetti westerns that he loves the Clint Eastwood films. You can't 28:43 parody something that you don't enjoy. It's not making fun of like mocking oh 28:48 stupid western tropes. The idea is is he's seen so many of these films that 28:54 that's his love letter to the films with his humor and clever writing you know from all these jokes and gags or things 29:00 that he's enjoyed. So he's incorporating and I'll give him credit too for taking that town or sorry an area of England. 29:06 I there was there was there were legit moments where I allowed myself to be in the West. Like he was able to really 29:15 tell a story or or a setting in England and make it at times seem like I'm 29:22 having a story in the Old West. And I think that just again now with his the way he is now, he's gonna do Running Man 29:28 coming out. I can only imagine with the budget that he has now, the kind of stuff he can pull. So, I'm really excited to see what he can do in this 29:35 bag of tricks with almost an unlimited budget and crew and and camera work and stuff. Yeah, I I guess I have a I don't 29:43 know. I I this movie endeared me. I legit was I enjoyed it much more than I 29:49 thought I was going to enjoy it. And I truly laughed. I was ready to say, "Oh, this is going to be self-indulgent. Look at me. I'm going to be a film guy." You 29:56 know, but I was like, "Oh, yeah. He he has a vision and a love of film." 30:01 Oh, back to the Butch Cassidy is what I'm getting at. He's talking about the film within the film that Quentyn does. 30:07 And so, it's the same idea of you can tell he loves film and that shows in his 30:13 film making. I think that's the key. He is like, I want to make a good film because I like films and I want people to like films. So, I think yeah, I I'm 30:20 I'm becoming a bigger fan of Edgar just because of a fistful of fingers. That's fantastic. 30:26 And you're right, the these are the category of contemporaries that are 30:33 lovers of film. We talk about Grindhouse and why his short for the trailer for 30:41 don't is included in that along with Eli Roth and right Rob Zombie to a lesser degree. But uh 30:48 these guys are Robert Rodriguez, Quinton Tarantino, right? all a lot of I this is 30:54 the kind of stuff I loved watching when I was a kid and this is this Fistful of 31:00 Fingers is definitely a a kid make to making a movie because 31:06 he's compelled to make movies because he loves movies so much and these are the 31:11 things that have influenced him and what and the type of film that he would want to see. He's making something that that 31:19 he wants to see on the screen. So that's and that's the value of a fist full of 31:24 fingers is the potential and the passion and uh the writing these these charming 31:32 little things that prompted everybody to take note of what Edgar Wright had to offer. So 31:38 awesome. All right. So tell me tell me about space. I mean and I should have I'm surprised I never watched this cuz a 31:44 I love Star Trek. I love science fiction and I love comedy, but I wholly missed 31:49 this series. That's uh clear because it's not about 31:55 outer space. Oh, I thought it was. Yeah. Right. Tim and Daisy are on the outs 32:00 with their respective significant others. Meeting by chance in a coffee shop. They bond over their similar 32:05 circumstances and the wantads with a lack of opportunities professionally, romantically, and financially. 32:20 They hatch a thre's company style plot to rent a flat pretending to be a 32:25 professional couple with neighbors and friends like Mike, Twist, and Brian. It's all Tim and Daisy can do to keep up 32:32 the charade and stay one step ahead of suspicious land lady Marsha. Whether it's botched house warming parties or 32:39 will they won't they awkwardness. Quirky Daisy and Sardonic Tim have no choice but to become unlikely friends. 32:47 I'm an idiot. It's fine. But the first thing I would say is if you're enjoying early Edgar 32:54 Wright and you're enjoying all of these films that he's done that are seemingly 33:00 um is it a western? Yeah. like almost categorically all good 33:08 with some critical exceptions. I enjoy virtually all of the movies and Spaced 33:15 is a beloved British sitcom that a lot of the things 33:22 we've already talked about why like like what makes Edgar Wright's voice as a 33:28 creator and an artist are on display in spaced spaced being the it's called that 33:36 I believe because yeah in England they call apartments flats and Oh, you know, 33:42 there there's different terminology. I I could be wrong about this, but spaced is like there they're sharing an apartment 33:49 because the the concept for the show, um, if we're just 33:56 talking about the the series overall, you have Tim, who is played by Simon 34:01 Peg, okay, and Daisy, who is played by Jessica Hines. And a lot of people that you will 34:10 end up seeing go on to be in Shaun of the Dead and some of the other specifically Nick Frost and Edgar, 34:16 right? Or Simon Peg. Yeah. You know, these guys are it spaced is basically those movies done 34:24 half an hour at a time for two seasons. I thought, you know what's funny? I I'm such an idiot. 34:30 No, you're not. You haven't seen it. I haven't seen it, but for some reason, because I I just always associated Simon 34:35 Peg, his love with sci-fi, of course, being in the Star Trek films, I just thought for some reason, well, I did if 34:40 you asked me 10 minutes ago, I thought it was a like group of characters in space, and it was sort of like, 34:48 well, I'm telling you, I I can't recommend it enough. This is really a beloved series. It a lot of 34:54 people are all about it. And if you like that style of comedy that it's Shaun of 35:00 the Dead, you if you just take the zombie the zombie apocalypse out of Shaun of the Dead, 35:05 right? I got you. A lot of beats in that movie that are straight taken right out of space. 35:13 How did they meet? That's what I don't because it says here the show was Yeah, it says here the show was created by 35:18 Simon, but it is directed by Edgar. So, I wonder how they Okay. Well, they they probably got paired up by a production company and 35:26 the Simon said, "I wrote this concept and the like, let's see who we could 35:32 find to direct it." Oh, here's this guy that has a lot of Moxy and Promise that made this Fist full of fingers film. 35:39 Let's see what he can do with he did like an episode here and there of other things that I'm sure where he proved 35:46 that he could handle directing a whole series before they handed this whole you know showrunning project over to him. So 35:53 he did this episode of that and and a and a music video or something like that proved that he could handle this and 35:59 then they're just like okay let's see what you can do with Simon Peg's project and then they teamed up for the next 15 36:06 years or more. Okay, so it says here I I was going to say I sure wish there was some sort of tool that we could use 36:12 where we I know I I hate googling on the fly, but it's driving me crazy. So I'm 36:17 like how do these two like meet up in the business? So because what they childhood friends No. So in 98, writer 36:23 actress Simon Peg and Jessica were in the early stages of developing their sitcom Space for Channel 4 and they 36:29 thought of asking Wright to direct having fondly remembered him work sorry having fondly remembered working with 36:35 him on the 1996 Paramount comedy Asylum. So they met on the show Asylum. 36:41 Ah okay. So they were so Simon Simon just girl hey this is great who do we think of you 36:46 know we're gonna act and write this but who's gonna who's got the vision for this comedy then? So I guess Edgar, he 36:53 worked on this show called Asylum, which was created by Edgar, Wright, and Simon Peg wrote for that show as well. There 37:00 you go. Okay. Well, that makes sense. Well, we were talked uh in the episode about 37:06 Collateral, how Michael Man enjoyed working with Jamie Fox and Jada Pinket 37:12 with the with Ali or one of a movie that he did right before he made Collateral. And 37:17 then when he decided to put that together, he wanted to work with people that he enjoyed working with. And that's that's how a lot of things get made. 37:24 Well, there at the end of the day, if you get along with somebody and you're like, "Hey, that's the thing why you shouldn't burn bridges, right? Like, 37:30 hey, we're getting along and who could we collaborate with? Who do we trust behind the camera?" So, it's that's 37:35 great. So, good for this is interesting though. So, Edgar does that fistful of fingers and had Simon never existed, 37:42 that's what I that's what I wonder about these things. Edgar is a very visionary guy. He has a great he has a great 37:48 aesthetic behind the camera, but without Simon's writing prowess. 37:55 Yeah. Like what would have happened? That's true because I I have to assume they probably wrote 38:02 Shawn of the Dead together or Simon Peg wrote it. Simon wrote it. That's what I mean. I think Edar is the visionary guy, 38:08 but Simon So like you've got u who's the writer for Elton John, you know, like whatever that you know, like the 38:16 Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, one guy's writing the music, 38:21 the other guy's singing it. Meatloaf. Meatloaf. He's the singer. The other dude's the writer. 38:27 Yeah. So, spaced I think get derives so much of its charm. Well, well, it's very 38:34 formulaic blueprint in the sense that the first one starts with uh the the main 38:40 characters breaking up and goes into kind of a who's the boss. Will they 38:46 won't they? Won't they kind of territory now that they're living together even though 38:52 they're pretending that they're not together? Will they actually end up together? And 38:57 that is a cliche concept and the breakup in the first episode like Rachel on 39:04 Friends running out on her wedding or there's a another show called Happy Endings where two of the main characters 39:10 who they get one of them leaves the other one at the altar and now they're friends. Yeah. So this these this 39:16 classic concept, but where the writing and the the style of the show becomes 39:26 unique is from Simon and Edgar. It there's a lot more. 39:31 Let's say I I don't know this to be true but in 39:37 this came out in 99 spa the series season of spaced and 39:44 in 94 and 95 you get clerks from Kevin 39:49 Smith all rats and I can't help but assume that Edgar a 39:56 younger Edgar Wright saw what Kevin Smith was doing with dialogue and fandm 40:05 as a personality with like the characters from clerks and 40:11 m rats talking about how much they love Star Wars and how much they love comics and if you don't know anything of you 40:17 like what you know and and your pop culture references are your personality 40:23 and almost all that matters to a lot of people that hang out in music stores and hang out in record shops and that it 40:30 just becomes a voice of a generation and that is kind 40:36 of what Simon Peg's voice is in spaced. Okay. 40:42 And a lot of a lot of it is pop culture 40:47 reference dense and I think that people like that. People want to hear, "Oh, I've seen that. I enjoyed it as well. 40:53 I'm cool for liking that." And that is something that I feel like Kevin Smith 40:58 cultivated also as a guy that was bootstrapping making films. And 41:04 I I have to think that Edgar Wright saw that happening and saw what Robert 41:12 Rodriguez was up to and decided that he was going to just I want to be a 41:17 filmmaker. I'm you. That's something that Kevin Smith said in one of he does a lot of those TED talk kind of 41:23 appearances. His sister said to him, um, you know, why aren't you making a movie? 41:29 Well, I don't know where to start. And he's, if you start writing a script, you're a screenwriter. If you start 41:35 making a movie, whether you're successful or not at it or not, that's that's what you're doing. That's who you 41:42 are. That's what I'm a podcaster, not successful. Look at me. I'm 41:47 a podcasting genius. Um, so when somebody's you look at somebody doing 41:54 that, it's inspiring and I feel like that he got a lot of inspiration from 42:01 those kind of creators like Quinton Tarantino and um so on everybody that 42:07 we've discussed up until this point and I should note and it's interesting the two directors that I've done on the 42:12 network so far, Ed Edward Zwick and Michael Man, they both for for the most 42:19 part have written the movies they've directed or their key writers if not Michael Man 42:25 for sure. Uh Edward Zwick was definitely did a few of them but he had a collaboration or he would you know even 42:31 if he didn't get the credit he was a big part in the writing. Mhm. So it's just interesting that that's the 42:36 same with Edgar Wright is Yes. He has written every one of the films that he 42:41 directs he is credited as a writer/cco-riter whether it's with Simon Peg or it seems 42:46 like uh Michael Beall is one of his writing partners cuz him and Michael did 42:51 Scott and Pilgrim and they're doing the Running Man uh for example. So they're they're writing partners with Peg as 42:57 well doing a lot of lot of these films. I just find it interesting that yeah, to Edgar's credit as a director, he's also 43:04 the storyteller, you know, screenplay or or dial. I bet he does the dialogue and stuff like that. He definitely has that 43:09 comedic type ability. Yeah, I I'm going to pay attention to this as we start digging 43:16 further and further into this catalog about who he worked with on specific 43:21 projects because it does seem like people just have uh a certain chemistry 43:27 when they work together that uh is what goes on to make projects successful. 43:34 Rick and Morty comes to mind. Uh Dan Harmon and Justin Royland. 43:39 Thank you. Thank you. Uh Justin Royland has this manic high concept type of 43:47 thought process that leads to a lot of scenarios that allow Dan Harmon's 43:53 writing to shine. like Harmon has a lot of strong 43:59 um like grasp of what the the writing process is and what makes a good story, 44:04 a hero's journey as well as a brilliant sense of humor and a brilliant uh voice 44:11 to to write with. Whereas Royland has this high concept manic energy and when 44:18 you put those two things together it creates you know the you know magic and 44:25 that is probably true of Edgar Wright and Simon Peg and some of these other 44:30 people that you that you've just brought up that he works with. So, I want to keep an eye on the certain projects that 44:36 have those ingredients that add up to successful aggre things or maybe like 44:42 some of the other ones that help get to when we start getting into the the other stuff. Maybe 44:47 I can't wait. I can't wait to get our Oh, no. I keep thinking he directed Ant-Man, didn't I? So, I can't wait to get our first Marvel film on the 44:53 network, but that's not true. He only He only wrote Ant-Man. He didn't direct it. I wonder what the first Marvel film will be on our 44:59 Can you imagine? That would have been so amazing if I mean I Ant-Man did go on to be 45:04 pretty popular. Yeah, it it turned into a a street level 45:12 hero with a different tone. Not godlike powers, but it was more of a caper 45:18 movie. And it was definitely a different thing that probably allowed them to greenlight Guardians of 45:23 the Galaxy. You know, it's like people don't need to know that it's Spider-Man 45:28 and Captain America and all these highle things for this to be a successful movie, right? But I really would have liked to see 45:36 Edgar Wright direct that. I I have to think that a lot of the work that he did on it did 45:44 go on to be included in that movie and be why that was successful. They just 45:51 had some kind of professional falling out where they he just couldn't maybe it 45:56 was scheduling. Maybe it was Yeah. Or he was working on Baby Driver right after. So he might just been busy with cuz that was his next film right 46:02 after writing that. He works on Baby Driver and then Right. It's so fickle that the big 46:08 blockbuster like big studio stuff when contracts come into play and suddenly 46:14 Paul Rudd's not available till this date and Edgar Wright's already committed to Baby Driver. So, he just physically 46:21 can't be there to helm the project because of contract negotiations, but they're they take all of the 46:29 pre-production stuff that he did, pay him for it, but take his name off of it cuz it does seem like an Edgar Wright 46:36 movie when you watch that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He was supposed to You're right. Sorry. He was supposed to direct it. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So, 46:42 Oh, I want Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Well, yeah. It would have been interesting, but I'm kind of, you know, 46:48 it's kind of like it keeps him pure a little bit if that he hasn't done it official, if that makes sense. Like, you 46:54 know what I mean? Like, yeah, a lot of a lot of people it's turned a corner where a lot of people so sick of 47:00 it and it it would be a shame for everybody to think of Edgar Wright the 47:05 way they think of maybe. Sorry, I totally forgot. My apologies. I totally forgot that he was originally 47:10 signed on to direct. That's right. Yeah, because that was another point I wanted to make about space. Do you see at what 47:17 Edgar Wright could do with that show and then you look at the Russo brothers who 47:24 did a lot of their earlier work with the show Community Right. Not to tie everything into Dan Harmon 47:29 again. I was going to say, yeah, the Russo brothers are directing Dan Harmon's writing and then suddenly 47:35 they're quarterbacking all of the most successful Avengers stuff that everybody 47:40 loved. And um so maybe it would have been good for a right to do that, but 47:47 yeah, he'd be directing uh you know, Black Panther 3 or something. Nobody wants 47:53 that. Nobody wants that. I'm glad we're getting I'm actually um I want to kind 47:59 of hear your thoughts before we close on your excitement if any about his covering the running man. 48:04 I I couldn't be more excited. I when I initially heard that they were redoing 48:09 it, I didn't think it was a good idea. And one 48:16 of the things I know about the Schwarzenegger film versus the novel 48:23 which is Stephen King's pen name Bachman. Richard Bachman Richard Bachman. Yeah. 48:28 But is actually Stephen King. I know that there are huge departures from the 48:34 plot of the book to the plot of the film. And I saw the film first not 48:40 knowing any of that. Okay. and I learned about the novel much later. So, I feel like there's a way to 48:49 make another version of that plot in a new way with and I think that 48:56 Glenn Powell, the star of the new movie, is probably one of the more compelling 49:02 leading men that is making films right now. So, yes, I think that is a good 49:07 choice. I think Edgar Wright directing is never a bad choice, right? And I'm I'm very excited for that 49:14 movie. So I agree. I haven't watched the trailer because I'm I'm one of I don't watch trailers. So yeah I don't watch trailers 49:20 unless I'm at the I sit down and I'll just put on a a a 49:26 YouTube channel that is all trailers and just what's coming out in the fall and I 49:31 just watch all the trailers for like a half hour straight. But that's just me. I can see I know a lot of people don't 49:36 want things to get spoiled for them. Yeah. It's not so much the spoiled person like I not so much the spoiled 49:41 but yeah that like I don't know what the like I haven't seen a naked gun trailer so I don't I actually don't know any 49:46 gags zero. So when I go and see it I don't know one single gag. Uh I just saw 49:52 weapons in the theater recently. Never saw a trailer. Didn't even know what it was about. All I heard is that it was 49:58 good and you should go see it. So I'm like oh I heard it's good. I want to go see it. And I did and it's good. You should go see it. Okay. I do want to see it and I haven't 50:05 seen it yet. I don't really know a whole lot about it, but I have seen the trailer. Yeah. And then same with um uh The 50:11 Running Man. I was like, "Oh, I'm a big of course Arnold fan." This was it came out when I was young. So, I was like, but I I say all this knowing that it was 50:18 I'm a huge Stephen King fan, too. So, I'm betting without seeing the trailer, I'm betting it's more faithful to the 50:24 novel. And I'm also betting when Stephen King wrote the story, he didn't have Arnold 50:29 Schwarzenegger in mind. like that's not that's not that's not the character that he wrote or the physical description. It 50:36 was this huge hulking mass of a man. So Glenn Pal is a great actor, great leading man. And so I'm very curious to 50:42 see uh how it's done and I'm curious and hopeful that it falls closer to the 50:48 source material. So you're not re you're not re This is what I hate when people say, "Oh, they're redo." No, they're not redoing The Running Man. You can almost 50:54 argue they're doing The Running Man maybe proper from the book. Yeah, that that's not a bad uh way to think about 51:01 this new one. I I I think that it's going to be good, but I do have a a 51:06 special place in my heart for the original. Of course, Arnold's always fun. But 51:12 as since we're still talking about Edgar, Wright, you look and maybe this is why he decided to do this and I don't 51:18 know if it's going to be I don't specifically remember 51:23 the how close to the book the movie is, but the the way that Scott Pilgrim has 51:28 the different boss battles with X's and the uh the hitmen of the Schwarzenegger 51:36 running man, all those gimmicks that each of the villains had a fireball 51:41 time. Yeah, that's be fun to watch his version of that. That's right. Yeah. So, it seems like it's right up 51:47 Edgar Wright's alley. Good call. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, there's all these different kind of like levels of a video game almost 51:53 that the characters go through. So, I think Ed Edgar is going to have a fun time visualizing that on the screen, I think. Yeah. 51:58 Yeah. So, we can look forward to that. And if you are watching this now, the 52:04 series is planned so that this limited this limited series of Ed movies is 52:12 going to conclude with the release of The Running Man. So this that will be 52:18 the last movie that we talk about this right after for now. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Until he makes 52:25 another movie. Absolutely. So, I am very excited about this. I very 52:32 glad that you allowed me to you came up with the idea for me to do this and that 52:39 the director's chair network is giving other people a chance to talk about movies that they love. What What other 52:46 uh Why don't you plug some more of those things that people are adding to the channel? I certainly will, Andy, and we did not 52:53 plan on that, but thank you. So, right now what we have on the network is I've completed Edward's Wix 52:59 films, but it was just announced that he's doing a western, which I'm thrilled about. Yeah. So, I'll be covering that. But his 53:04 filmography is completed. I'm almost done. Michael Man, so I'm doing that one right now. Uh John Hughes has been 53:11 covered on the network. It's almost done. That's hosted by Katie. Uh my my other host that's on the network, Craig, 53:17 he has done uh Brian Dealma. Most of his films. The thing with his it's a little bit different, which I kind of like. He 53:22 just keys in on a certain scene with from each film and him and the co-host talk about a big scene from the film. 53:28 Yeah. But they cover that's what they've been doing with Brian. Again, when people come on the show, if you're thinking about coming on the network, I don't 53:33 tell you how to run it. The idea is is you're just focusing on a uh on a director and I do it with in order. I 53:41 think that's how you're doing of the films that they did in order. That's how I'm doing it. I just I want to hit them all. But uh lastly, we have David 53:48 Fincher is coming on the network. That's going to be hosted by a guy named Seco. We have Sam Peekpaw coming on to the 53:54 network that's gonna be hosted by a guy named Scott. And then we have another Scott coming on the network who's Dave 53:59 who's doing David Fincher. So we have the network is growing Andy. Wow. Yeah, that's very exciting. That a 54:06 lot of I I look forward to hearing people's takes on those films and I look 54:11 forward to talking more about Edgar Wright, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the worst of the best. I 54:18 thought maybe when we get to the end of this, we could decide the the worst Edgar Wright film. Maybe we wouldn't 54:25 talk about Fistful of Fingers. We leave that one off of the off of the list just because it's it's not a 54:31 professional production. And I I'll I'll plug my show, All Apologies Podcast, 54:37 where we talk about celebrity apology tours and uh make fun of that. I do that with my my 54:44 brother Joe. And I I will offer the apology that I forced you to watch maybe 54:51 the worst. I legitimately had a good time. No, I do not accept your apology because I had a 54:57 blast watching a fist full of fingers. Go watch it, folks, on YouTube. But I always bring Ryan on for all these 55:02 very divisive and uh conversations. So if you if you want more Ryan on, all apologies. He did Mel Gibson and Marilyn 55:10 Manson. Easy characters. easy character, easy subject matter to talk about. Um, 55:16 so, uh, go check out All Apologies. Go check out Worst of the Best. And if you 55:22 are thinking about missing next week's episode, don't 55:34 [Music]