Latest / Between Screenings / Why Digger’s Twist Turned a Fun Movie Into a Furious Disaster plus reviews and film news.

Transcript

Why Digger’s Twist Turned a Fun Movie Into a Furious Disaster plus reviews and film news. · Between Screenings

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome back to Between Screenings, your regular dose of film chat with myself and Tom Percival.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: How are you, Tom?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very well, Neil.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: How are you this fine evening?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Good, very slightly orangey in my room today.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Always good to match up.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you're also drying laundry on the uh door behind you or something.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I am indeed.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Never let it be said that the life of uh an entertainment journalist isn't glitzery and glamorous at all times.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I've seen a few films since we last spoke.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: What have you seen?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so I have seen Digger and the Love Hypothesis.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I believe we're both gonna we both have a lot of thoughts on Digger.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll say I'll put a pin in Digger for now.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And instead I will tell you a little bit about the Love Hypothesis, which you may or may not know started as Raylo uh fanfiction.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh which is so very specifically, yes, it was fanfiction written about the character, the Star Wars characters, Ray and Kylo Wren.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Someone wrote it as fanfiction.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: It got picked up by a publishing company.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: They turned it into another book.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, now it's the newest Amazon Prime movie.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's basically you pretty pretty standard um rom com type fair.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: You've got the main character, Olive.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she's working at a university, she's a biomedic, she's studying medicine, and she's got this dream to cure uh pancreatic cancer.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there's another student at the university um called who everyone calls Dr.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Evil.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I know.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's very, very strange.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and eventually, would you believe it?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: This these two, for reasons that are too complicated to explain here, they have to pretend that they're dating and they fall in love.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is a mix-up in the third act, and sure enough, by the end, they are back together.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um about nothing again.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, basically.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's essentially, you know, the same story we've been telling for the uh since rom-coms were first invented.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, like it's one of those films where it's really hard to dislike this movie because it knows exactly what it is.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's not trying to reinvent the wheel, it's just trying to, you know, it's just trying to be fun for an hour and 40 minutes or however or however long it is.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I thought everyone was pretty good in it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: You've got Lily Reinhart, you've got Tom Bateman, who is Daisy Re Ridley's real life husband as yet another weird sort of Star Wars paradigm.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, like it's one of those films that you you put on on an evening uh in an evening and you sort of check what's happening on Instagram, you know, how's my last tweet doing?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you've not really missed much because you've seen this movie about 18 times before.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um as I say, I didn't hate it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say I loved it.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: There is apparently a sequel book, so you know, maybe this is the start of a wider franchise.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, pretty harmless bum fluff, I would say.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um is this a cinematic release or a straight to streaming Amazon thing?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I'm it got a big premiere here in London, it like in Leicester Square, because I was going to interview Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirror.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's just me dropping some names.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's on Amazon Prime Tell it.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, it's already on Amazon Prime.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but I wandered into the junket for this by accident.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they were treating it like it was a big movie, even if it didn't actually get a theatrical release.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um It's one I would skip past on uh any streaming app, I have a feeling.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I think you and your lovely lady wife would have a great time with this.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: A great 112 minutes.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like something she can watch when I go out for the evening.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's probably what's gonna happen.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: How about you though, Neil though?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Have you seen anything better?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, I'm gonna have to see the Resident Evil movie that you've not seen.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, which is shocking, Tom.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: No, I mean you've not gone to see Resident Evil, considering you're the horror fan.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's just so this movie came out, like the press screening for this was on a night when Em and I were traveling.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it also like everyone tells me it's really, really good, but it's sort of one of those films that just doesn't feel particularly essential.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I felt like obsession and backrooms I had to see.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas Resident Evil, the people who've seen it have told me, oh, it's really good for a Resident Evil movie, which is a very, very, very low bar.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, what did you make of it now?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'd say I went to see it purely because it is a Zachary Creature movie.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh if it had if he had not been directing, there's not a chance I would have gone to see a Resident Evil movie.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: I've not seen any of the other Resident Evil movies.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: My only connection with the Resident Evil franchise is playing it on the original PlayStation when you would walk around, go through a door, and then sit watching an animation of a door opening for about five minutes while the rest of the game loaded.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's there there's no door, there's no like long door openings while game loads in this film.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Boo.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um it I think some of the fans of Resident Evil games got a bit annoyed because it doesn't follow any of the storylines of the games.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um it is kind of its own thing, it's kind of the the the idea of Resident Evil.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of I liked it.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's just you're you're following one the one character throughout the film.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um you're just following him as he sort of goes about his day, um and um things go wrong.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um and zombies horrible monsters start attacking him, and that's kind of that's kind of it, really.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it's quite funny.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: There's some quite funny moments early on when he meets his first sort of zombified woman.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um I kind of off my head just thought it was a zombie film, but it's not.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: It they're like weird mutant creature zombies um going on in it, and it soon hap soon happens that they they you know, they need there's some exposition-y bits in a car which explain what's really going on and how the the the main character has to then try and help get rid of all the zombies.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um and Austin Abrams is great in it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like his he's very real, he reacts in exactly the way we would, down to like high-pitch screaming like a girl, uh, when he's running away from stuff and um just generally looking terrified.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's an hour and a half.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: It was an hour and a half fun romp in the cinema with lots of silliness, some really good um kind of set piece um horror sets and stuff, with like the maternity ward, particularly in the hospital that's been infected by this virus or whatever it is that these creatures have all turned into as pretty cool, with a huge sort of balloon of blood exploding.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: If you like, I I would say don't think of it as a Resident Evil film, just think of it as a sort of zombie end of the world creature feature, and you'll have a lot of fun with it.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the criticism I've seen online and from people I know who've seen it has been, well, it Jetsons a lot of like the gate the stuff from the games, like in terms of the actual characters, like Leon, Chris, Claire, or there's no one like that in it.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally just the guy essentially running through Raccoon City while he's being chased by all sorts of grimbleys with tentacles coming out of places where tentacles shouldn't come out of.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: But kind of the homage to the game is kind of the way it's shot.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of shot in a lot of the shots are like the game, like you're following just one character, which is how I remember the game being.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: You're just one character trying to figure out what's going on.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a moment in the trailer, at least, where he's walking down this road and you can see zombies, I think, stood on the side of the building, and all of a sudden the camera sweeps around, and you can see zombies stood on the other side of the building.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's exactly what you do in a game.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You'd move the camera with your controller to see what see what's going on around you.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm very like, as I said, I really want to I want to see it.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it just felt slightly it it there wasn't enough in there for me to get to go and see it.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact that you, of all people, liked it, someone who isn't the biggest fan of horror, has piqued my interest even more.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, I mean, I I'd say not the biggest fan of horror, but uh some of my the some of my bet the best films I've seen in the last couple of years have probably been, you know, you've got your obsessions, your backrooms, your sinners, your um weapons last year.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's I think the genre is expanding beyond your pure sort of jump scare um gore porn, which is good.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we could get we could get into Neil, whether that's your own biases or whether the genre has been expanding for years now, and whether your preconceived notions are just you experiencing more horror movies, or maybe even, you know, prestige people who uh critics acknowledging the horror genre a bit more.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but that's a that's a conversation for another podcast.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: That is a conversation for another day.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've also seen a film called Cycle of Love, which is a documentary by the Oscar-winning documentarian Orlando von Sidel.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um he won the Oscar for White Hats, which was about the sort of like emergency responders in Syria.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so it's his new documentary.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I was lucky enough to host the QA for this at home.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I had what I would say, Tom, is one of my finest moments in a QA where I sat down, I was very worried about saying the director's name correct.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: He'd nip to the loo and I was like sat there going, What are you doing?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: But there's QA's about start.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: So he sort of runs in as the as the credits finish, and I introduce um him and the film, and my brain just goes, Nope, there's no information in here, and I forgot the name of the film.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Which was which was not my finest moment as a QA host, forgetting the name of the film.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's to be fair, I had one day's notice that I was doing this Q ⁇ A, but it was also written on a piece of paper in front of me.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a real nightmare scenario stuff, that nail.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, can't remember the name of the movie that you're talking about.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've done Q ⁇ A's where I've forgotten the name of the people in doing the QA plenty of times, but but never the name of the film.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, luckily I styled it out and it ended up being a really, really good QA.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: So um and Orlando Orlando forgave me and said it kind of disarmed people and made it a non non-pretentious QA, which was which was good.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So he said that he said my QA style was good, but you know, maybe remember the name of the film in future.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bold new technique in film QA's.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the name of your movie.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, not ideal, but it was called The Cycle of Love.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the name of the film.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was it was called The Cycle of Love, and I did it, I I enjoyed it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a documentary um based on a true story of a uh Indian guy in the uh sort of eighties who fell in love with a Swedish girl uh in India when she was travelling.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: He fell in love with her and they got they had a sort of romance while she was there.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: They made this decision that she was gonna come back in August uh to see him again, but she never came.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And he was like, Well, this is the woman I'm meant to be with.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: So he decides to cycle from India to Sweden to see her again.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um I won't do too many spoilers about the film, but it's it is a documentary.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: There's a the it's based on a book by the by the man who who did the journey, which I think is how a man cycled from India to Sweden for love on a bicycle.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Or like the name of the book is Matt.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Long.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um but it's obviously they've got no archive footage.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: So they've got no archive footage of his journey.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: They've got hardly any photos of the two of them together back then.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so how do you go about making a documentary?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: So the way Orlando tackled this was he kind of recreates the journey with actors.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um so it's sort of recreation and then some modern day stuff interviewing the the the man who did the the bike ride and the lady who was in um Sweden interviewing her in Switzerland and interviewing him in in India, sort of interviewing the two of them and um mixes that in with this this footage of the journey, which is a recreation.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: But what's quite cool is the recreation they actually then stop and a lot of what he did on the way, he was a street artist, and a lot of the way he paid his way across sort of on his journey was to to do street drawings for people, and um he was very good at getting people to open up and have conversations.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: So they actually what they did on the journey was they stopped and just chatted to people um and had these conversations and then sort of documented those.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not like a scripted journey.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: They followed the journey with actors, but the the journey wasn't really scripted, they were chatting to real people about real event about how their lives are now, and what was quite amazing was how that didn't feel like it was outside the period.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: So they're having all these conversations with people now, today, and it felt like those conversations were kind of could have been taking place back in the 80s.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that was quite cool.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, there's a lot in there about the sort of cast structure in India, which is not great.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I learned a lot I learned a bit about that.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, it was a really it was a really lovely little documentary, very heartfelt, um packed audience for it.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's still in cinemas now, so if people want to check it out, The Cycle of Love, I've remembered the name now.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, I'd definitely say check it out.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's quite a again, because they kind of recreated that journey from India to to Sweden, it's quite a cinematic documentary.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it is worth going and checking it out um in the cinema if you can before it heads wherever it's gonna head on streaming.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds really interesting.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was I hadn't considered like how how do you go about making a documentary when you have no archive footage.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sounds good.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they do a good job, and it's like the talking heads aren't like people sat in a room doing a talking head.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It is very it's very well constructed.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um and yeah, it's really I wouldn't be surprised if it also gets turned into a narrative at some point, because I think there's a lot of story there that people would get behind in a straight narrative as well.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds very much like it's like set up for that type of thing.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um Well, we spoke about films that we liked, even though you didn't like the sound of love hypothesis.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sir.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Should we talk about the film that we both hated?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't actually know if you hated it.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think like I cause I think hate's probably too strong a word for me, but uh digger Alejandro uh inner ineritus digger.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: What did what did you make of it, Neil?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I saw it last Friday uh on on release day.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: I went to to my local uh cinema to watch it.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I was quite excited for it.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: I know I had read the reviews and I knew it was I I I kind of tried to put the the reviews out of my mind and just go in and experience it and for myself and it's kind of I've been thinking about it since then.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think that the word that best describes my feeling for the for the film is it it kind of made me angry um that it wasn't better.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: I just think it it could have been so much better than it was, and I just felt really let down by it.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because I was I was up for it.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: I was up for it.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'd seen the trailer, I was up for the silliness, I was up for the sort of heightened sort of nonsense performance from from Tom Cruise, the over-the-top-ness of the whole thing.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of was like, cool, let's go and watch a film that's just not scared, to be over the top, to be in your face, to be quirky, um, and to just be a to be bold.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then about half an hour into the film, something happens which just pissed me off.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, Well, you bottled it.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: You absolutely bottled it.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that's my my my sort of main feeling of the film is I think it absolutely bottled it.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: A lot like yourself, I was really excited for this.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the trailer and I was like, excellent.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Tom Cruise is back doing some weird stuff, and I'm here for it.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: He looks like he's trying, he's not relying on throwing himself off a m off a mountain on a motorbike, you know, or running down the side of a plane.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like he is doing some actual acting.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's doing it dressed as an old man.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, yeah, can't wait.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I during the first 10 minutes, I thought we are in for a treat here.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because it opens with one of the weirdest scene sequences I've seen in a film in so long.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: You've got this like elderly man in bed with what's very clearly a puppet cat that's peed all down him, and he's feeding the cat tuna from what can only be described as a coke fingernail.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like he's like spooning it into the into the cat's mouth.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely gross.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then you treated to this scene of like him going about his day and you know, him threatening uh the vet who's given him a bad prognosis on his cat.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, yeah, this is exactly what I wanted this to be.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: It felt grotesque, it felt really arch.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like it wanted you to be repulsed watching this man.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get into the stuff which is in the trailer, so I don't mind mentioning it, you know, about the accident in gr in the Arctic and how Digger has essentially doomed the world with his greed.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then the president gets involved and he's like, What are you gonna do about this digger played by John Goodman?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Yes, this is ticking all the boxes for me.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having such a good time.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get the much spoken about twist, which you know, I and I was just like, Oh, because every it screeches to a halt.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: Warn everyone that from now on we're gonna go spoilers.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: So if you don't if that's all you want to know about Digger, you can fast forward to us talking about something else.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh skip this bit or stop this bit and go and see the film first.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um if you've not heard what the twist is, we're we're gonna go into it now because it kind of needs addressing for those who have seen the film um or don't care and just want to know and and and and carry on.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: But that from now on, this is very spoilerific.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if if you if you're planning to see the film, you haven't seen it yet, I would suggest you maybe come back to this once you've seen it.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: So yes.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because that's you find out it's a theatre show.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a th yeah.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's for me, it was akin to it was all a dream.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's really irritating because from then on, like it well, first of all, it just comes to an absolute halt.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: You are really you are I was quite invested in what is going to happen, and then the it all of a sudden the brakes were put onto it while we then get this other plot going on where Tom Cruise is an actor played called what Curtis is it, who is playing Digger in the future because this is sort of like a historical play.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh I was just really quite annoyed because I never thought that the digger narrative got back on track after that because we can't.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the problem is that the biggest thing is.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: You don't it's very difficult to care after the fact it's revealed that this isn't happening to anyone.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: This has already happened, maybe.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: But I think I think I think you're misremembering how the film plays out.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because I don't think we find out, uh I could be wrong, but I don't think we find out at that moment that this is a play based on real historical events.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: No, we're not.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because within the world of the film, no, we don't.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: Which is even worse.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I just think, oh, he's he's in a play.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it's all just fictitious, even in the world that we're in, this is fictitious.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: And why do I care now anymore?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Neil, of course you should care because there's the fascinating subplot of will Curtis's daughter who's on a flight, will her plane land?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the worst subplot.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: One of the lowest stakes I've ever seen in my life.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's resolved by him by um uh Jesse Blemon's character at the end, just go, yeah, she's fine.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah I I I was thinking about why I didn't like this movie.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, like I I have a real aversion to pr uh pretense in my in in films, and especially when I find that it undermines the narrative that the film is trying to say.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think in the beginning, the film is sort of setting itself up as, you know, a polemic about climate change and sort of like, you know, oh, uh, you know, rich people are ruining the planet.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Which, okay, it's not the most original, but I was kind of looking forward to, you know, as we were saying, a grotesque sort of view on that from the perspective of the man who who is ruining the world and just doesn't give a shit, basically.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh, that that's kind of that's interesting.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: But when you in when you start the the reason why they do this theatrical thing, and actually, I thought I was too stupid to understand what the movie was trying to say.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I I was there was another person from work at the screening I was at, and I went up to them afterwards and I said, Can I just ask you what the theatre stuff was about?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because this guy really enjoyed the film, and he said, Oh, actually, what it is is like it's a comment on uh artifice and the way the wealthy can manipulate their histories long after you know the initial events.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, yeah, that's sort of what I've got, I got from it.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I just didn't enjoy that.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now I've seen loads of people saying, Oh, this film doesn't want you to like it.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, fine.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in that case, then it succeeds, I guess, because I really didn't like it.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it it it was nowhere near as funny as it needed to be.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like there was there are some really good performances.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think Tom Cruise is is is actually really good as digger.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's just all the stuff with Curtis.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like, I don't care.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't care.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um, you know, I don't and it's just such a frustrating film.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because it's as you as I've said, it just comes across as massively pretentious.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like it thinks it's cleverer than it is, and it's just not.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not entertaining enough to justify the smugness that this movie exit.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Genuinely, when the reveal comes that it's a play, like I j I was genuinely close to just I I was so pissed off.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: I nearly just left the cinema.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: I nearly just went, you know what, I can't be fucking assed, I'm leaving.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: I just don't, I just this you've annoyed me so much.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just think if that I was if it just like you say, I wanted to the I was I was kind of in then.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: They'd sold me.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, why are people slagging this off so much?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: This is fun.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is set up something bad, like this, this is set up to be a really good film.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to see what happens, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh my god, it's a play.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: What and like you say, it just it then it loses all the energy's up here because he's having this, he's the president's at his house, you just had a really funny scene with the president and everyone arranged at his house, and then the energy just plummets, and you're just like, Oh.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then it kind of goes back into the play as if it's real again.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like I just I was just so frustrated after that point, and I just think it got Riz Ahmed was great in it.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I thought Riz Ahmed's performance was really good in it.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, like the best I've seen him in a in a while.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think he's been really good recently in uh both in this and in um the Finessean scheme.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: The Amazon TV services.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, okay.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: I j I just think generally, I just was so annoyed.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I just think I think if you took that out and you recut the film, you remade that film without the um theatre stuff, I think you'd have a much better movie.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I I mean, listen, I would agree because I found I I and I know I'm getting hung up on it, but once they reveal the theatre, I was like, well, how does any of this work?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because we were seeing so much of sort of Digger's life and the world.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, how is this happening in the theatre that we keep on seeing?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think you are right.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think I did misremember it that it is ultimately revealed that what we are seeing has happened.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, like, and that uh Jesse Plyman's character is Digger's grandson.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, who is making a play about his grand is it his grandson or his uncle?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember now.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's his uncle.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's his uncle.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's his uncle, yeah.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I was, but I was by that point, I was just like, oh, great, okay, I guess.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't enough of that was not a big enough twist to redeem it.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's the problem.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: No, it wasn't.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: It needed a much more exciting reveal at the end there to make me go, oh, okay, now it all makes sense.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I've I'll forgive you making me think it was shit for the last hour.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And normally, like, you know, when you see like you you've been to early screenings, you watch a movie and you come out of there and you don't read, you know, you might talk to people very briefly, but you don't get like masses of time to have a conversation.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the next day, I was called on to review this for the paper, and I was like, oh God, am I gonna get this massively wrong?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is everyone gonna, you know, like say this is a masterpiece and Tom's just a tooth thicko supreme who doesn't understand it?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so gratifying when everyone was like, no, what is what is this?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what is this piece of crap?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's not just critics who hate it, of course, because it it has Capital B bombed.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, it it opened fifth in the domestic box office.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: Fifth.
• 27:50
  unknown: Eight.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: Behind Verity, which also didn't do great.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Behind Resident Evil in its like third week, behind week.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Behind Brad Pitt and a dog in its second week.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um it just yeah, absolutely tanked.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, 20 million worldwide is is a bomb and a half.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: 7 million 7 mil in the US is yeah, it's bad.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, amazingly, I don't amazingly it's got 72% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if they're paying bots to to do this or what, but supposedly 72% Rotten Toms from the audience.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna guess that's because it has so few people have seen it that the people who have seen it are saying, like, yeah, no, it's great.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, based on five 12 people.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Normally, after the first weekend of release on Rotten Tomatoes, you wouldn't have 500 plus verified rankings for an audience score.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um What do you think it's gonna do to Tommy C's chances at the Oscars this year?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have I I've heard whispers that he was hoping that this was gonna be sort of his year.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: I th I think we can all see that he was hoping that this would be the um the Oscarbate for him.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's difficult to know what the Academy are gonna do because there's been films like this before where everyone's said it stunk the place up and no one's liked it, and then it's gone and got a short list for best picture at the Academy Awards.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: See, I think I think my prediction, because I think you can have you can either stink the place out critically, or you can have a bad box office.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can't have both because and I think that that will scupper his chances of getting it getting the award.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely think he'll be nominated.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think there's just a little bit too much Academy catnip involved in this with the prosthetics, the meta text, you know, the meta-narrative, all of that.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's in a it's in a re two as well.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like I kind of feel like he'll get the nom because people like Tom Cruise as well.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I do think that that we forget that that's going to be a massive factor in what if if he announces you know he's going for awards with it, you know, he's going to like people are going to be like, oh Tom's a good laugh.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: For if you ignore the Scientology, Tom's a great guy.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just I don't see him winning, like, just based on the box office and the critical reaction.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be very surprised if he I can't see him winning for it.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think maybe a nomination.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: I can't see I'd be surprised if Digger got a best pick nomination, but again, I wouldn't be unsurprised either.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: I just they do weird things sometimes, the Academy.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I am telling you what I'm not surprised about.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not surprised that this didn't play play Venice.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: And not because Venice didn't uh Venice wouldn't program it, because Venice would 100% have programmed this if it had been offered to them, that would have been in the festival.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: But I think the studio knew we cannot have word of mouth this ear that early before the release being negative.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because it would have it would have it would have gone down.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I my guess is it would have gone down badly.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: And they my guess is they knew that it was gonna not do great.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, I you couldn't have had you couldn't because when did reviews didn't come out mad like a long time before the film came out, didn't they?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I I saw it on Thursday.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: I saw it on the Thursday, and I think it'll came No, sorry.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: I saw it on the Tuesday, reviews came out during these, during the press screening.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's me that means that they are trying to keep it put the lid on reviews, basically, and then the next day the wave of like critical disdain washed over.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I will say as I think what I think something that probably means you're right about Venice is the marketing switched very quickly from because they were playing up what's the twist.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was sort of the marketing thing.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is a twist.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a musical?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is it what is it?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then it very quickly became critics hated it.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, critics hate this movie, but are you gonna listen to critics and like them using um people from from Twitter, sorry, X, using people from X's quotes to describe it.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that became quickly became sort of like the how they were gonna uh gonna promote the film, which is just yeah, it always makes me it always raises an eyebrow, I'm gonna be honest.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: I would have been so so much happier if it had been a musical.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, so would I.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I like a musical, and you know, you think you that but Warners are terrified of musicals, aren't they?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: After Mother and uh was Joker a musical?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even remember now.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Joker.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Mother Mary.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, Mother No, not Mother Mary, eh?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Joker.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, Joker.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Joker 2 was a musical, wasn't it?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Mother Mary was supposedly sort of a musical as well, and that was an absolute stinker as well.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Another another steamer from Warner Brothers.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: God, it was boring.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um not one of Anne Hathaway's best this year.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: Are you guys going to see Verita?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is always it does always make me laugh.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I really want to see Verity because it's giving me um oh my god, Twilight Zone sort of strange tales, beef bumps vibes in terms of like there's very clearly like this camp gothic thriller which is gonna have some ridiculous twist where it turns out the husband is a killer, you know, or something daft like that.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, but uh I I will say I have I have friends who have seen Verity and tell me that it is not worth your um the price of admission to be unfortunately.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently, yes, I quite like the look of it.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: I I I think I think the problem is it doesn't lean enough into the camp of its own making.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um it needs to be, I think apparently it needs to be a bit more fun and silly.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I I it's I do think again it's there's a pointed decision by the marketing team, because I was invited to the press screening of this, but they scheduled the multimedia for it for the same night that celebrity traitors began.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Which is, I mean, if you don't if you don't want people to turn up to your press screening, schedule something for when a better television show that everyone wants to watch is on.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, that is one way of doing it.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um I saw a trailer while I was in for digger, which I found interesting.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: So Johnny Depp's big comeback.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um Ebenezer.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, Ebenezer.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm interested in this because it's directed by Ty West.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: I can't quite understand.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: I can't quite understand why he's doing it.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's Ty West, the director of Pearl and Maxine and some some cracking films.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um why?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Why is he doing and it's called Ebenezer, and I thought it was going to be sort of a different take, but from the trailer, it it's just a Christmas carol again, but it's a it looks a bit more sort of horror adjacent a Christmas carol, so a bit darker and and grimier.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when they announced this, I thought that this was like, you know how um the characters that have entered into public domain now always get horror movies, so you get like a terrible Winnie the Pooh like slasher movie.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh, this is what Johnny Depp's been reduced to now.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can't get a real studio movie, so he's making like you know, bottom of the barrel DVD fodder from yesterday.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, this is a real film.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Ty West is in it, Rupert Grint is in it, Andrea Risberg's in it, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Ian McKellen, like actual people are doing this film.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: And again, like you, I thought, oh, you know, I because I thought the tagline was something like before he was Scrooge, he was Ebenezer, and I wasn't doing an origins.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: But but as Carl pointed out when I was talking to him about the origin story is in a Christmas carol, because the ghost of Christmas passed is his origin story, so yeah, but you know, like maybe you also had another thing that the ghost didn't show me.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it I'll be honest, I'm not here for Johnny Depp for the for Johnny Depp's redemption arc.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be watching this film, it's not something that particularly interests me.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, especially like when I watched the trailer and it was it looked like they were leaning more into sort of like, like you say, the horror and sort of trying to play it up as a dark comedy, you know, making him more like the Madhatter, you know, like the Mad Hatter and Edward Scissorhands, that sort of like weirdo energy that brings to things.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, this isn't it, this isn't what we want.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it also really reminded me of that terrible Jim Carey Christmas Carol from a few years ago.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes that is just the CGI one that's absolutely atrocious.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why do we need another Christmas carol?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think is a Christmas carol the most adapted novel in history.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_02: I seem to remember watched Spirited in my house at Christmas for years, so we we we skipped over Spirited for a little while because we were like, oh, we just can't be bothered with another version of Christmas Carol.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm sorry, everybody.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: The Muppets made a Muppets Christmas Carol.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need to do it again.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: The film is perfect.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we actually quite enjoyed Spirited, it was a different take on it.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't um it was basically a Christmas carol, but a uh a slightly new take with some silly songs and Ryan Reynolds being snarky Ryan Reynolds.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: So if you like a bit of snarky Ryan Reynolds and a bit of Will Farrell being Will Farrell, then you'll enjoy it.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we kind of I kind of realized okay, I I enjoyed that.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I just unless it's the Muppets Christmas Carol, I've got no interest.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is exactly how I I mean one of my favourite Christmas movies is Scrooged, which, you know, is a again a Christmas Carol movie.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the best Christmas Carol movie ever made is a Muppets Christmas Carol, and it is Won't never be beaten.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's never going to it's never going to be beaten.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's the ultimate adaptation.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's fantastic in every single way.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: The songs are memorable, the performances are memorable, the sets are great.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: It just does everything you want a movie to do.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm so uninterested in this.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's God.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I yeah, I won't I won't be in a rush to watch this.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: I can't lie.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what I am excited for, Neil, which starts in just two days?
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: London Film Festival.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, LFF's coming around.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: We've already done a bit of a preview of LF.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't anything particular you're excited about?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yes and no.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's uh it's a very confusing time of year for me right now because I'm getting we're getting invited to a load of award screenings and stuff.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I get confused with LFF because all the talent is here for them, for it anyway.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you end up so on Saturday, for example, I was at an event with Willem Defoe and having some lovely cream cakes uh with the Green Goblin.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh but in terms of actual movies, I think I'm very I'm very excited for Wildwood, which we've already spoken about because I blew your mind the other day by telling you that it's uh it's essentially uh operated by the Nike Trainer Company.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then there's the there's the opening movie as well with Andrew Scott, which I do know.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I I do know a few people have seen them and have said is very good, if a little, as you might expect, pretentious.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um pretentious as all beings.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's an Andrew Scott movie, so you know, I'll go see that man do basically anything.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean I'm excited for Artificial is great.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think Artificial looks like it will be great.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: La Bola Negra, I would advise anyone to go and see LaBola Negra.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think we've talked about this before, but obviously I saw that in Cannes and it was great.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I'd love to go and see Bunker, the other one from Penelope Cruise.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: We kind of done an LFF, my sort of can stuff playing it LFF review previously, so go back and listen to that.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: We have indeed.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's a few other ones like I I think we both said I love boosters, looks great.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, there's loads of stuff.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you're if you're in London or you can get yourself to London for the weekends, then um it's definitely worth going um and seeing.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: The one I'd really like to see is your mother, your mother, your mother.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that looks really good.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Neil.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: I may come down.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: I've got unfortunately.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've gonna get to some of the screenings at home.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: We get some of the screenings at home.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've got an invite to ink today, so hopefully hoping to make the screening of ink at home as part of LFS.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: I've got I've got an ink screening as well.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I will I will try and get to some stuff.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, if you if you're if you're in London this weekend, then it's definitely worth or not this weekend, if you're in in London from the 7th to the 18th of um October, then it's definitely worth trying to get along and and check out some screenings.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: And as we discussed before, they nicked my tab tagline, and it is you know, everyone's invited, um, which was I put on our trailers years ago and then BFI stole.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's scandalous.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we should take this to the BFI.
• 41:32
  unknown: Yeah.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'll allow it.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's a good tagline.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: The more people I'm yeah, I I I am not competitive.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: The more people get out there and see independent films and go and support film festivals.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care if it's um you know, if it's BFI London or whatever.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: As long as it's not a festival happening at the same time as mine, I'm it's fine.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you know, you and you know which festival is happening at the same time as ours.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you know who we're talking about.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: But even then, so you know, if there's a screening there you want to see, you can split yourself between them.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, don't go to America.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's only a short bus road.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, absolutely not.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right, is that everything we've got for this week, Neil?
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's I think I think we're done for the week.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think um slagging off digger is probably enough.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Poor digger.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean not poor digger, but I think it's I again I want to say, you know, there's some people thinking it'll end up being a cult favourite and all this sort of stuff.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: I just I don't I don't see it.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: I just think I think the theatre thing was too breaking news.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh breaking news The Batman part two production paused as Matt Reeves steps away for personal reasons.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh from deadline production is pausing on the Warner Brothers and DC Studios pick the Batman 2 due to director Matt Reeves stepping away for personal reasons reasons.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: He has uh pausing temporarily while he focuses on a family matter.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_02: Crikey.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder what his new CEO will make of that now.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Now he's working for Skydance.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was just wondering that.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's part of the Paramount Mountain of Entertainment family.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Sky Dance.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Sky Dance now, Tom.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_02: The Sky Dance.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is it Sky is it Sky Dance?
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: The overall company's called Skydance.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be interesting to see what happens there, actually.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: I can't see from the yeah, I can't.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's diff you couldn't see from the sort of he's uh Larry Ellison's put a load of um it's not Larry Ellison, is it?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: What's is that his name?
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's the Ellison family.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's David Ellison.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: No, I think it's David Ellison, isn't it?
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: The guy that's taken over.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, one of the Ellisons.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: He um they've named a load of uh sort of heads of department and stuff, but it'll be interesting to see what happens with the Warner Brothers and Paramount names, because I'm sure I'm assuming he's keeping the Warner Brothers and Paramount's Paramount names.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um Well I can't imagine they get rid of Warner, it just has so much value.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine you get rid of Warner or Paramount names.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I imagine Paramount Plus surely is gonna get merged with HBO Max.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like surely that will be a You've gotta think so because subscribing numbers.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can't be dealing with another like I know this is the very how the sausage is made, but every single like I've had to change so many articles because they change the name of HBO every other month.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's it's HBO, it's HBO Max, it's just Max, it's HBO Max again.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's just HBO.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can't.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: If if it HBO has such a cache, I would just keep it HBO.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like HBO Max, that's the name of the streaming services, and it comes with Paramount.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would just roll Paramount into it and not even mention it comes with Paramount Plus.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'd just roll everyone over.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, entirely, because I just cannot imagine it's that like people's got that many subscribers anyway.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: But no.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, it'd be interesting to see what happens.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: He's promising 30 films a year.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the outgoing uh Warner Brothers um presidents went, well, we've just left you 39 movies, so uh crack on.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they weren't very happy they got the axe.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: But to be fair, they've they've just delivered another dud this year after the bride and um several other duds that they've they've churned out this year.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: Although they have got the Batman 2 and other ones coming, even if they are going to be a bit late.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll see what happens.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: But Neil, I think that is all we have time for.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: It is indeed all we have time for.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right, join us next time.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um probably post-LFF between screenings.