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Interview with Flint Dille · The Recess Bell

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, So I interviewed Flint Dilly, who's a writer
0:04
Speaker 1: on many A TV shows and a game designer who
0:07
Speaker 1: worked on countless games, and we talked for a very
0:10
Speaker 1: long time. It was an hour and forty five minutes.
0:14
Speaker 2: Now.
0:14
Speaker 1: I enjoyed listening to that entire conversation because I just
0:18
Speaker 1: listened to it again. But I've edited down so I
0:21
Speaker 1: could play it on the radio, and I'm going to
0:23
Speaker 1: podcast it as well. I am also going to be
0:26
Speaker 1: uploading the entire conversation if you just search WHPC interviews,
0:30
Speaker 1: I will have the full interview there. But it's about
0:34
Speaker 1: things that I don't think the average person would really understand,
0:37
Speaker 1: you know, intricate details about a television show, The Transformers
0:40
Speaker 1: and Gi Joe, and you know, various different things that
0:43
Speaker 1: I just don't know will play well with certain people.
0:46
Speaker 1: So I have to pick and choose what questions I
0:48
Speaker 1: need to ask him in I might interject here and
0:51
Speaker 1: there in the future, like right now, and talk about
0:55
Speaker 1: things leading up to questions, just so it makes sense
0:59
Speaker 1: you understand. Good, I'm here talking with Flint Dilly, writer
1:05
Speaker 1: for iconic shows g I Joe in Humanoids and The Transformers.
1:09
Speaker 1: He also helped write my absolute favorite movie of all time, Transformers,
1:13
Speaker 1: the movie Flint. It is such an honor getting to
1:16
Speaker 1: talk with you. How is it going, dude?
1:18
Speaker 2: Oh good, good, Well, with that kind of intro, I
1:21
Speaker 2: can't possibly live.
1:22
Speaker 3: Up to it.
1:24
Speaker 1: Do you think part of the reason why Transformers has
1:28
Speaker 1: stood the test of time is because it's generational, Like,
1:32
Speaker 1: you know, you probably talk to people that are grandparents
1:36
Speaker 1: and then they're showing their kids, and then their kids
1:38
Speaker 1: are showing their kids. And you know, I just saw
1:41
Speaker 1: in theaters they released the first four episodes of the series,
1:46
Speaker 1: and I noticed in that theater there where people my age.
1:49
Speaker 1: I'm in my mid thirties that grew up with the show.
1:51
Speaker 1: But then there are people ten years older, fifteen years older,
1:54
Speaker 1: but then there's five year old kids there. It's something
1:56
Speaker 1: that I feel like, you know, is going to go
1:59
Speaker 1: on forever. It seemingly has no end.
2:02
Speaker 2: This is the fortieth anniversary, okay, and so that means
2:06
Speaker 2: really you figure out generations about seventeen years, right, That
2:10
Speaker 2: means it's well into being a third generation property, meaning
2:15
Speaker 2: the kids that were you know, we're watching in the
2:17
Speaker 2: afternoon are now the parents. You know, the parents are
2:24
Speaker 2: now the grandparents and and you know, and you know
2:28
Speaker 2: the kid the you know, the kids are the kids,
2:31
Speaker 2: you know, I mean you know the grandchildren now are
2:33
Speaker 2: the kids that are watching this stuff. And what's funny
2:37
Speaker 2: about it is it doesn't date. I mean just things
2:39
Speaker 2: about the world changed in that. You know, people never yeah,
2:44
Speaker 2: I mean you know when I was like, I mean
2:46
Speaker 2: the world was just starting when I was in my twenties,
2:49
Speaker 2: the world of you would always be able to watch it.
2:51
Speaker 2: You'd buy the VHS tape right then later the DVD.
2:56
Speaker 2: But before that, I mean, any old show, you'd have
2:58
Speaker 2: to see it on reruns exactly, run at three o'clock
3:01
Speaker 2: in the morning. And then when cable came out and
3:03
Speaker 2: you had it on cable. You know, we had a
3:05
Speaker 2: one channel that ran reruns that was WGN in Chicago,
3:09
Speaker 2: but that's rare.
3:11
Speaker 1: I mean, same thing with movies. You would have to
3:13
Speaker 1: think as well. I mean unless it was re released.
3:15
Speaker 1: You know, King Kong would get re released every twenty
3:17
Speaker 1: five years or so, but you're only going to see
3:19
Speaker 1: it if it's on television. There wasn't really you know,
3:21
Speaker 1: home movie like format till the late seventies, early eighties, so.
3:26
Speaker 2: Exactly I mean what you had the interim stopgap, and
3:30
Speaker 2: it was a very important thing, and that was revival theaters.
3:33
Speaker 2: They still have them, and you know, and that was
3:37
Speaker 2: where you could go see old movies. You know, it's
3:40
Speaker 2: like oh two film new ours tonight, you know, Doublin
3:43
Speaker 2: devineh you know, in the Big Sleep. And so like
3:49
Speaker 2: when I was in film school and then you had
3:51
Speaker 2: you had film festivals. They would usually be themed one
3:55
Speaker 2: way or the other, but you know, it would be
3:56
Speaker 2: like you know, chroswa all night long, you know, and yeah,
4:00
Speaker 2: when you're in film school twenty two years old, that
4:03
Speaker 2: seems like a really good idea.
4:04
Speaker 3: So yeah, there you are.
4:08
Speaker 1: Is there something that you would have changed with you
4:11
Speaker 1: with your work on Transformers? I mean, the Elephant in
4:15
Speaker 1: the Room is obviously some of the backlash that took
4:18
Speaker 1: place with that movie, and like I said, it is
4:20
Speaker 1: my favorite movie. But we all know, you know, the
4:23
Speaker 1: killing of hop themis prime was definitely a bold strategy.
4:26
Speaker 1: And I don't know where you stand on if that
4:30
Speaker 1: was a good decision or not. Is there something that
4:33
Speaker 1: looking back, you know, close to forty years from now,
4:35
Speaker 1: you just say, I wish I had a Mulligan on that,
4:37
Speaker 1: and I'd like to make it the fact.
4:39
Speaker 2: Of the matter is, we wouldn't be talking about this
4:41
Speaker 2: stuff now if we hadn't killed opt on this Prime.
4:44
Speaker 2: That that was a defining moment when everybody realized how
4:47
Speaker 2: much they loved that character and how set they were
4:49
Speaker 2: that he was dead. Okay, you don't kill him, and
4:52
Speaker 2: you know, and he just gets kind of forgotten when
4:55
Speaker 2: you permanently embed the trauma and people of him dying.
4:58
Speaker 3: Davy Krakatt was the same way when I was a kid.
5:01
Speaker 1: Prime.
5:01
Speaker 4: You can't die, do not grieve.
5:07
Speaker 3: Soon I shall be one with the matrix.
5:15
Speaker 1: I just want to piggyback, go back to rather the
5:19
Speaker 1: discussion of killing off Optimist Prime, but rather bringing him back.
5:23
Speaker 1: Do you agree with that decision or would you rather
5:26
Speaker 1: have kept him dead?
5:28
Speaker 3: Well, I know, I don't keep him dead.
5:31
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, you know, the decision to me
5:35
Speaker 2: is yeah, a little more nuanced than that. I mean,
5:38
Speaker 2: but well, I mean all right, let me start here,
5:42
Speaker 2: and people have heard me interviewed before not getting some runs.
5:45
Speaker 3: But the.
5:49
Speaker 2: Was what was interesting about that is the entire reason
5:52
Speaker 2: they had to bring him. I mean, there were huge
5:55
Speaker 2: consequences of from killing Optimist Prime. Now, what anybody who
6:01
Speaker 2: thinks about it for a minute and a half knows
6:03
Speaker 2: is we didn't just go out and arbitrarily kill Optimus Prime.
6:06
Speaker 2: We kill them off because part of our job was
6:09
Speaker 2: to kill off the entire eighty you know, eighty five
6:13
Speaker 2: product line and you know, for the eighty six product line, right,
6:16
Speaker 2: And that was you know that, I mean, and what
6:18
Speaker 2: we didn't there was no mandate to kill off the
6:21
Speaker 2: whole thing. But the question looming under you know, and
6:26
Speaker 2: I think actually explicitly asked, but nevertheless that you know,
6:31
Speaker 2: the question from silence was, you know, what's what's different
6:35
Speaker 2: about why would you do a movie of a TV
6:37
Speaker 2: show that's currently running?
6:39
Speaker 3: What's different?
6:40
Speaker 2: And what's different is you have to do different things
6:43
Speaker 2: in it, you know, to justify you know, why it
6:46
Speaker 2: would be a movie. And so one of those things is,
6:49
Speaker 2: well you can have major you know events, you know,
6:52
Speaker 2: like you know, a major character dying. That a even
6:56
Speaker 2: with the rather lack standards of program practice as standards
7:00
Speaker 2: we uh, you know, was a killing somebody, especially a
7:04
Speaker 2: main character. Yeah, so you know, killing off Optimist Prime,
7:07
Speaker 2: I mean, it was incredibly It's one of those I
7:11
Speaker 2: mean you know, a pompous way to talk about transformers.
7:13
Speaker 2: But Noa's It's true. It was one of those, as
7:17
Speaker 2: you've said, impactful moments in all of TV, so certainly
7:22
Speaker 2: in all the cartoons.
7:23
Speaker 1: I mean I see it to this day. You know,
7:25
Speaker 1: Prime Day just passed and I see memes, you know, saying,
7:28
Speaker 1: you know, don't forget why we celebrate Prime Day, and
7:31
Speaker 1: it's like an image of the death of Optimist Prime,
7:33
Speaker 1: like it is still talked.
7:35
Speaker 2: About it just for a minute, you know, let's talk
7:38
Speaker 2: about Nelson Chen as a filmmaker.
7:40
Speaker 3: People do enough.
7:42
Speaker 2: How how brilliant do you have to do to figure
7:45
Speaker 2: out a way by changing from color to black and
7:48
Speaker 2: white to show the death of a robot? Yeah, okay,
7:52
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I mean, you know, we're we
7:54
Speaker 2: all take it for granted, but you know, he actually
7:56
Speaker 2: had that as a creative problem, and what a what
8:00
Speaker 2: a brilliant solution he had, And yeah, I have frankly,
8:04
Speaker 2: wouldn't change a thing, you know. Now that having been said,
8:07
Speaker 2: when when all of this happened and the story came
8:11
Speaker 2: to us that a you know, twelve era, an eight
8:15
Speaker 2: year old kid went to the movie and saw Optimus
8:19
Speaker 2: Prime die and locked himself in a bathroom and wouldn't
8:22
Speaker 2: come out for a week. Okay, I'm totally buying the story,
8:25
Speaker 2: right because I didn't have any kids then.
8:27
Speaker 3: But the point is is we all believe that story.
8:30
Speaker 2: And you know, as I said, I can justify my
8:33
Speaker 2: believing because I'd never been a parent, and I never
8:36
Speaker 2: I probably had that flicker across my mind, you know,
8:39
Speaker 2: once or twice in that moment of like, wait a second,
8:43
Speaker 2: parents let the kids sit there in a bathroom for
8:45
Speaker 2: a week.
8:46
Speaker 3: I mean, that's not even possible.
8:48
Speaker 1: But do you think without that that backlash, he would
8:51
Speaker 1: not have been brought back.
8:52
Speaker 4: I'm assuming there were no plans.
8:54
Speaker 2: Okay, to the best of my knowledge, there were before
8:57
Speaker 2: the backlash, there were no plans to bring him back,
8:59
Speaker 2: because I mean there was no there was never any
9:02
Speaker 2: sense of looking back.
9:04
Speaker 3: Heroes never die.
9:06
Speaker 4: I Optimist Prime can never be conquered against.
9:10
Speaker 3: The surprise return of Optimist Prime coming soon to The Transformers.
9:16
Speaker 4: Hey guys, it's modern justin.
9:18
Speaker 1: I'm back and we're talking with Flint Dilly, writer for
9:21
Speaker 1: The Transformers, GI Joe and Youmanoid's visionaries and worked on
9:25
Speaker 1: many of different movies and video games, throughout his career,
9:28
Speaker 1: and we were just talking about working with Steven Spielberg
9:32
Speaker 1: because Flint Dilly worked on the original premise for Tiny Tuons,
9:36
Speaker 1: which became a huge hit on Fox Kids, and it
9:38
Speaker 1: was a Steven Spielberg production, and that led to another
9:42
Speaker 1: job he got with Steven Spielberg. So I'm gonna give
9:44
Speaker 1: it back to past Justin and then he's gonna talk.
9:48
Speaker 1: And then if I marry my mom, then my dad
9:52
Speaker 1: won't be born and I won't and Doc Brown and
9:57
Speaker 1: back to you Justin. What was what was that like working,
10:03
Speaker 1: you know, Steven Spielberg production.
10:07
Speaker 3: Oh that was great.
10:08
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I wrote like five you know,
10:11
Speaker 2: I wrote Tiny Tuons when it was a movie.
10:13
Speaker 3: Now it's not a show.
10:14
Speaker 2: And then one day Stephen came in and said I
10:17
Speaker 2: got good news and bad news, and I said, okay,
10:21
Speaker 2: the bad news. The bad news is that I mean,
10:25
Speaker 2: I don't remember. This is exactly the way the conversation
10:27
Speaker 2: went that. It's the way that played for me. The
10:30
Speaker 2: bad moon news is we're not making Tiny Tunes the
10:32
Speaker 2: movie because I got to make it as a Warner
10:36
Speaker 2: Brothers a.
10:36
Speaker 3: Show, and we're going to do it as a show.
10:40
Speaker 2: What's good news, And he said, I got another movie
10:42
Speaker 2: for you, and that ended up being Fible Goes Well,
10:47
Speaker 2: and working with Stephen was great, But that was another
10:49
Speaker 2: time I got to work with you know, just legendary,
10:52
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you know, think about who was
10:54
Speaker 2: in that movie.
10:55
Speaker 3: I mean, you had John Cleees, you had Jimmy Stewart.
10:59
Speaker 2: I mean, Jimmy stud Yeah, I mean Stephen showed up
11:02
Speaker 2: for the recording on Jimmy Stewart. And and to tell,
11:05
Speaker 2: the thing that's great about Steven Spielberg is that he
11:08
Speaker 2: really just loves this, that loves the business. I mean
11:11
Speaker 2: there's nothing you know, I mean, imagine how cynical and
11:15
Speaker 2: jaded he could be. And certainly when I was working
11:17
Speaker 2: with him, I never saw that, you know he I
11:20
Speaker 2: mean he just he walked in recording Jimmy Stewart and
11:23
Speaker 2: he looks and he says.
11:24
Speaker 3: You believe that's Steven Spewert.
11:27
Speaker 2: I don't believe you're here much less him. Yeah, that
11:31
Speaker 2: was the last thing he ever did. That's Transformers was
11:33
Speaker 2: the last thing or small really well, yeah, Jimmy Stewart
11:36
Speaker 2: didn't much like he apparently, I mean the story I.
11:39
Speaker 3: Was told he didn't tell me the story.
11:41
Speaker 2: Just what I was told was that he you know,
11:44
Speaker 2: I didn't like the way he'd aged, but he had
11:48
Speaker 2: this other problem that is, imagine this, his grandchildren didn't
11:52
Speaker 2: know who he was. Okay, you know, Grant, they know,
11:56
Speaker 2: you know, they're here. Grandpa is a famous actor. They
11:58
Speaker 2: have never seen him in anything. So Stephen said, hey,
12:00
Speaker 2: would you come to well, I mean, what really happened
12:04
Speaker 2: was the role that Jimmy Stewart played was you know
12:08
Speaker 2: Jimmy Stewart is right.
12:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course this is an actor.
12:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well he was played was originally written for
12:16
Speaker 2: Robin Williams.
12:17
Speaker 3: Really Robin Williams.
12:19
Speaker 2: Okay, you do not get further ends of the human
12:23
Speaker 2: Gay Elvin than Jimmy Stewart and Robin Williams. And so
12:27
Speaker 2: you know, I can'mera was the same day or like
12:29
Speaker 2: right afterwards. But you know, Stephen said, okay, yeah, I
12:33
Speaker 2: found a replacement for Robin Williams. I said, great, and
12:35
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, okay, it's going to be some Saturday Live
12:39
Speaker 2: and Jimmy Stewart Stewart, okay. And so I sat there
12:49
Speaker 2: and watched all these old Jimmy Stewart movies, you know,
12:52
Speaker 2: like Winchester seventy eight and things like that, trying to
12:54
Speaker 2: figure out, okay, how am I, How am I going.
12:57
Speaker 3: To capture that voice? And it was actually it was
13:00
Speaker 3: actually pretty easy.
13:01
Speaker 2: But we had one line we didn't want to give
13:04
Speaker 2: up from the movie that was extremely complex. You know,
13:07
Speaker 2: it's a dog eat Dog, you know, and you know,
13:10
Speaker 2: Caddy Cat and a Dog Eat Dog world.
13:12
Speaker 3: Or something complicated one we're in love with, and.
13:17
Speaker 2: We're thinking, there's that there's no way Jimmy Stewart is
13:19
Speaker 2: going to be able to do this line, you know,
13:21
Speaker 2: I mean because he you know, he had a very stuttery,
13:23
Speaker 2: slow delivery, and you know, and and when he were
13:26
Speaker 2: in the recording booth. So we're in the recording booth,
13:29
Speaker 2: the real Jimmy Stewart's there, and Steven's there, and Steven's
13:32
Speaker 2: sister's there, and you know, I'm just sitting there. I
13:35
Speaker 2: think that was about it. That wasn't like, you know,
13:37
Speaker 2: the engineers and Jimmy Stewart's I like, just the longest
13:45
Speaker 2: line anybody's ever given you. Uh yeah, okay, so you know,
13:54
Speaker 2: just do a take and I think, you know, I'm
13:55
Speaker 2: sure what Steven was thinking, certainly what I was thinking,
13:58
Speaker 2: was we'll do a bunch of takes and we'll glo
13:59
Speaker 2: them together. There he nailed it in one take perfect
14:03
Speaker 2: and we didn't need uh you know, you know, I said,
14:05
Speaker 2: I don't we need safety. Now we're good and and
14:08
Speaker 2: that was that way, and we're kind of looking at
14:11
Speaker 2: each other and it's one of those things where you
14:12
Speaker 2: learned that's why Jimmy Stewart, he was.
14:15
Speaker 3: That good, you know, and and you know.
14:19
Speaker 2: You see these legendary characters and that you know they
14:22
Speaker 2: didn't it's not some accident. He really was just that
14:27
Speaker 2: good that he can nail an extremely complex line that
14:30
Speaker 2: probably would have had, you know, Robin Williams time died,
14:34
Speaker 2: you know, on first take, but that he had the
14:37
Speaker 2: humor to don't you know, I mean, it was you know,
14:44
Speaker 2: it was it was fine. That was that was that
14:46
Speaker 2: was an educational on it.
14:47
Speaker 1: You find out a lot of actors actually, you know,
14:51
Speaker 1: take on childlike Rolder or cartoon Rolleder or I remember
14:56
Speaker 1: ral Julia. He took on the role of Bison in
15:00
Speaker 1: Street Fighter Movie because his kids were a big fans
15:02
Speaker 1: of the video game.
15:03
Speaker 2: So it's kids and grandkids. And also, yeah, you're not
15:09
Speaker 2: you're not asking for a lifelong commitment. When you're asking
15:12
Speaker 2: something to be in you know, it's not like, hey,
15:14
Speaker 2: you know you're going to be going to Bungadunga for
15:17
Speaker 2: you know, a year and a half, you know, I mean,
15:19
Speaker 2: you know some people you I mean like I was
15:21
Speaker 2: not president when we recorded John Cleave because I think
15:23
Speaker 2: he was recorded in England, and uh, I think I
15:28
Speaker 2: was there for Eric Idle, but I'm not. I would
15:30
Speaker 2: not testify to that. You know, after a while, it
15:33
Speaker 2: just got blurry because it's so many people, so short
15:37
Speaker 2: a period of time, and so much to think about.
15:41
Speaker 2: But yeah, an animated film that you know, they go
15:43
Speaker 2: into recording studio and record it and they're done. It's
15:46
Speaker 2: you know, and so you know that's another reason why
15:49
Speaker 2: it's it's appealing to a lot of actors and it
15:52
Speaker 2: stretches them to an audience that they didn't otherwise have.
15:57
Speaker 1: Well, let's do a rapid fire flint to this interview.
16:00
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw out some questions for you. Favorite movie
16:04
Speaker 1: of all time?
16:06
Speaker 2: It comes in two categories. You know, I can't separate out.
16:09
Speaker 2: You know, they remember I'm kind of old school for movies,
16:12
Speaker 2: is all right? Favorite movie of all most influential of
16:15
Speaker 2: all time that changed my life and is why I
16:17
Speaker 2: went into this business. Has written all over, especially like
16:21
Speaker 2: the Joe and Transformer stuff I did, Goldfinger, Goldfinger.
16:24
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest. I'm not gonna give a pompous answer.
16:26
Speaker 2: Then there are movies that are important that you know,
16:29
Speaker 2: change your life in other ways. That's I mean, you know,
16:33
Speaker 2: you can make an excellent argument The Godfather's the bestment
16:35
Speaker 2: movie anybody's ever made.
16:37
Speaker 3: Nothing that's even close. Way up there.
16:42
Speaker 2: You know, Apocalypse Now is way up there, Clockwork, Orange
16:47
Speaker 2: Star Wars great as The Lost Ark is, you know,
16:50
Speaker 2: probably my favorite of the Lucas Spielberg movies.
16:54
Speaker 1: Favorite musical act of all time? Band or solo artists.
16:58
Speaker 2: Well, you got to leave the Beatles out of this,
16:59
Speaker 2: because I mean they're the most important, and you know,
17:01
Speaker 2: they just are. But okay, so if we leave the
17:03
Speaker 2: Beatles out of it, yeah, I mean, you know, I've
17:07
Speaker 2: seen the Rolling Stones. I didn't see him this time,
17:09
Speaker 2: but I've seen him in every era of my life,
17:12
Speaker 2: you know, from seventy two on, you know, like waiting
17:15
Speaker 2: in line, you know, almost getting fired from my high
17:18
Speaker 2: school job. Yeah, the who the way up there once again,
17:22
Speaker 2: pretty predictable, you know, demographic things. I like a lot
17:26
Speaker 2: of Prague, which ranges all the way from Jethrotal to
17:30
Speaker 2: you know to yes, h.
17:34
Speaker 3: Favorite.
17:35
Speaker 2: But you know there are people like I was just
17:36
Speaker 2: listening to Fleetwood Mac this morning and it's going yeah, yeah,
17:40
Speaker 2: you know Tusk, and I was Wow, It's that's just
17:42
Speaker 2: brilliant stuff I mean, but yeah, yeah, pretty predictable that stuff.
17:48
Speaker 2: I mean, my morning playlist is mostly classical. It's just
17:50
Speaker 2: because you know, you don't want a bunch of aggressive
17:52
Speaker 2: lyrics when I'm writing or sometimes you know, soundtracks. But yeah,
17:57
Speaker 2: favorite act all time. Leave the Beatles out of this,
18:03
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones probably if I had to had to go,
18:06
Speaker 2: if I had to pick one. But who is way
18:08
Speaker 2: up there.
18:08
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see. I know they're doing four Beatle movies.
18:13
Speaker 1: It's I think Sam Mendes is directing it. So he's
18:16
Speaker 1: doing like a solo Ringo movie, Lennon movie, McCartney movie,
18:19
Speaker 1: and Harrison movie. And I think they're all coming on.
18:22
Speaker 4: The same year, which is wow. Yeah, I'm excited for that.
18:26
Speaker 2: I'm doing I don't know what you said, did you
18:28
Speaker 2: see uh get Back?
18:31
Speaker 3: Yeah?
18:32
Speaker 2: Apple, Yeah, Okay, so I'm watching it with my daughter,
18:36
Speaker 2: who's a pretty hardline Swift. I mean, she's you know,
18:38
Speaker 2: she's twenty three now, yeh, yeah, you know, And it
18:42
Speaker 2: was fascinating watching it with her because the way you know,
18:47
Speaker 2: the Peter Jackson had had upresident, you know, there was
18:52
Speaker 2: no distance between you and them. You know, she's looking
18:55
Speaker 2: at Paul McCartney and you're not looking through the you
18:57
Speaker 2: know this, you know, seventies looking cinema or anything like that.
19:00
Speaker 2: It looked, you know, and and I think I think
19:05
Speaker 2: I think she just looked at this and realized, Man,
19:07
Speaker 2: those schedus are amazing, and you know, and then there's
19:10
Speaker 2: an interview lator with Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney who
19:12
Speaker 2: were interviewing each other, and she was saying, when you
19:15
Speaker 2: stood up from that piano at the end of Get Back,
19:18
Speaker 2: you were twenty seven years old.
19:20
Speaker 3: Now you're eighty, you're still doing it. How do you
19:22
Speaker 3: do he keep going?
19:24
Speaker 2: So, you know, I mean he always talks like, well,
19:28
Speaker 2: I just you know, I had this special tape recorder.
19:30
Speaker 3: No ball, not everybody's Paul McCartney.
19:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's crazy.
19:34
Speaker 1: But anyway, that movie, that documentary is so amazing. I mean,
19:38
Speaker 1: you get to see him, right, I want to say
19:40
Speaker 1: it was it was get back. You see the process
19:43
Speaker 1: of him going through.
19:45
Speaker 3: It's like it was literally get back. Yeah. They're sitting
19:48
Speaker 3: waiting for John to show up because he's late. Yeah,
19:50
Speaker 3: and he's sitting with the bass.
19:52
Speaker 2: He's not writing it on a guitar or piano, on
19:54
Speaker 2: a bass and inside five minutes he's got it done.
19:58
Speaker 2: Or that other scene where I mean, here's what's funny
20:01
Speaker 2: about it. I remember where Glenn Johns is one of
20:04
Speaker 2: the producers. Just around the room. Glenn John's is saying,
20:08
Speaker 2: I could listen to this all day long, and you
20:10
Speaker 2: McCartney's just sitting on the piano playing because you know,
20:13
Speaker 2: they're all arguing about what they're where they're going to
20:15
Speaker 2: do their concert, and he just like it probably had
20:17
Speaker 2: one too many arguments that day and okay, you know,
20:22
Speaker 2: and he said, I listened to it all day long.
20:24
Speaker 2: You start hearing fragments of what would become long and
20:27
Speaker 2: winding road and let it be and stuff like that
20:30
Speaker 2: just creeping into the music.
20:31
Speaker 3: And you realize this guy is just transcendentally brilliant. Yep.
20:36
Speaker 2: I mean to you know, to just be able to
20:39
Speaker 2: do that, you know, and that's a magic skill. It's
20:41
Speaker 2: not even you know, inside the range of human capability possibility.
20:45
Speaker 4: Well, here's a tough question for you. Then, favorite Beatle.
20:50
Speaker 3: Probably if you at.
20:51
Speaker 2: The end of the day, Paul mccartny yah, he's the
20:55
Speaker 2: guy that's stuck around, had done it the whole time.
20:57
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, how do you not love Ringo, who,
21:00
Speaker 2: oddly enough had a lot more hits than you remember
21:02
Speaker 2: I was having after the.
21:03
Speaker 1: Beatles, and he seemed like the one I'd want to
21:06
Speaker 1: actually hang out with based on that documentary. Really not
21:09
Speaker 1: a lot of drama surrounding him, at least in that one.
21:12
Speaker 2: But emotionally kept that band going as long as it
21:15
Speaker 2: did because you know, it was heading towards the train wreck,
21:19
Speaker 2: and you could tell that when they were having a
21:22
Speaker 2: debate when Ringo said, you know, somebody was right or
21:26
Speaker 2: somebody was wrong.
21:26
Speaker 3: They were right or wrong and nobody questioned.
21:28
Speaker 1: Final question for Flint Dilly favorite character to write for?
21:34
Speaker 2: Well, in Transformers, I would have to say certainly starscreat Yeah, okay,
21:39
Speaker 2: in a regular stuff, you know, because I've written pretty
21:43
Speaker 2: much every every certainly every DC character pretty much, you know,
21:47
Speaker 2: all the main Marvel characters.
21:50
Speaker 3: James Bond was a lot of fun.
21:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think especially if Goldfinger is your favorite movie.
21:55
Speaker 2: I mean.
21:57
Speaker 3: That's just kind of shooting fish in a barrel there. Yeah.
22:00
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, yeah, James Bond was a big one, and
22:05
Speaker 2: that was fun to write.
22:09
Speaker 3: Boy.
22:09
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, because I mean, you know,
22:11
Speaker 2: there's some things like you know, the circumstances of writing
22:15
Speaker 2: in certain situations make the project launch. When I was,
22:18
Speaker 2: you know, writing uh Riddick with Ben Diesel, we were
22:21
Speaker 2: basically also solving problems with the whole franchise and the
22:26
Speaker 2: beginning of the movie is was originally our game beginning
22:31
Speaker 2: and Ben came by when I had you mind if
22:33
Speaker 2: you was a we really did go about uh and uh.
22:40
Speaker 3: Yeah that was great. Uh you know so that's that
22:44
Speaker 3: was fun for that reason. Uh.
22:48
Speaker 2: Five O was kind of fun, just simply because about
22:51
Speaker 2: as waspy as you can get.
22:52
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm sitting there writing a Jewish mouse move.
22:55
Speaker 2: Uh uh you know that was that was you know,
22:58
Speaker 2: that was stretching to your talents the edge. But I
23:01
Speaker 2: always really love you get issued out. I mean it's just
23:03
Speaker 2: what a great language. Boy, I don't have one. I mean,
23:06
Speaker 2: because you know, some characters, when you get in the
23:08
Speaker 2: right mood, they write themselves. Sometimes your favorite ones to
23:11
Speaker 2: write are ones that are really hard for you and
23:14
Speaker 2: really a stretching out at the edge of your range.
23:16
Speaker 2: When you crack it, you feel great. So I don't know,
23:20
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you know when I was doing
23:22
Speaker 2: when I was doing Tiny Tune is a really looney
23:24
Speaker 2: tune movie. I mean, just the whole idea. You're right,
23:26
Speaker 2: bugs and Daffy. I did a the eighties spider Man,
23:31
Speaker 2: a nineties spider Man show and developed with stan Lee,
23:35
Speaker 2: and every once in a while I swear this happened.
23:37
Speaker 3: Now that you know this may be, you know, you
23:40
Speaker 3: feel free to distrust this.
23:43
Speaker 2: But when we'd be talking about Spider Man, he'd starting
23:46
Speaker 2: about Peter Parker, and he'd sometimes it's say, I the
23:51
Speaker 2: character is so close to him that he thought of him,
23:53
Speaker 2: that it's being him.
23:54
Speaker 4: Wow.
23:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's just cool. You know.
23:57
Speaker 2: I was working with Jack Herbie on concepts. You know,
24:01
Speaker 2: I didn't even know it was Jack Berry at the time.
24:04
Speaker 2: But let's see characters. I mean, there's so many of
24:08
Speaker 2: them there there, and a lot of them are just
24:10
Speaker 2: fun for completely different reasons.
24:12
Speaker 1: All right, well, well, thank you Flint for your time,
24:15
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you. I'll send you, you know,
24:17
Speaker 1: the info about the show and a link to it
24:19
Speaker 1: as well.
24:20
Speaker 3: Fantastic, great, have a good one.
24:22
Speaker 4: Buddy, Thank you so much.
24:23
Speaker 1: But all right, I'm back from the future or the past.
24:29
Speaker 1: Here I am, this is this is current justin recording
24:32
Speaker 1: this post Flint Dilly interview, and that was just so
24:36
Speaker 1: much fun. Again, you could have the whole interview available
24:40
Speaker 1: if he searched w HPC interviews wherever you get podcasts.
24:45
Speaker 1: But getting to talk to a guy like that that's
24:48
Speaker 1: been in the television and movie industry for.
24:51
Speaker 4: Close to fifty years was just such a delight.
24:54
Speaker 1: And he's going to come back on the show in
24:56
Speaker 1: a few months because he's working on a great project
24:59
Speaker 1: with one of my other heroes, Paul Deaney. They got
25:02
Speaker 1: a project coming out called Captain Trademark, which I'm very
25:05
Speaker 1: excited to get to discuss with both of them in
25:08
Speaker 1: just a few weeks. So again, this was such a treat,
25:12
Speaker 1: especially because that Transformers movie from nineteen eighty six, as
25:15
Speaker 1: I mentioned, is my favorite movie of all time and
25:18
Speaker 1: had such an impact on the way I looked at life.
25:21
Speaker 1: It taught me about death, It taught me about storytelling,
25:25
Speaker 1: and you know I like to do voices and just
25:28
Speaker 1: listening to those voice actors. Then the phone drinking, the
25:31
Speaker 1: phone drinking. Why do we have a phone here? There
25:34
Speaker 1: should be no phone in this room. There just shouldn't be.
25:39
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was just such a delight to get
25:41
Speaker 1: to talk with Flint Dilly. So thank you mister Dilly,
25:46
Speaker 1: and thank you for listening to my interview.