0:03

You're listening to Facing Evil, a production

0:06

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0:08

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0:11

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0:13

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0:15

iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV. This

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podcast contains subject matter which may

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not be suitable for everyone. Listener

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discretion is advised. Aloha

0:27

everyone, Welcome back to Facing

0:29

Evil. I'm Rasha Paccarrero and

0:32

I'm evet Genteel. Today

0:34

I am so excited to bring you a

0:36

special conversation with two

0:39

incredible filmmakers, Will Merrick

0:42

and Nick Johnson. That's right,

0:45

they are the co directors for the new

0:47

movie Missing, starring Nia

0:49

long Storm, Read, joaquim

0:52

Dale, Meida and many more. It's

0:54

a wild, edge of your

0:57

seat thriller with so many twist

0:59

and turns you will not see

1:01

them coming, I promise you. We had

1:03

the absolute pleasure and honor

1:05

of getting to see the movie early and

1:08

we got invited to speak with the phenomenal

1:10

directors of the film. In fact, I

1:13

even got to attend the premiere

1:15

in San Francisco, which was amazing.

1:18

But anyway, we loved

1:21

this movie and we loved even

1:23

more talking with Will and Nick. Absolutely,

1:27

and before we dive right into it,

1:29

you should know that the official

1:32

Blu Ray release of Missing is out today

1:34

March twenty eighth. It features

1:37

so much bonus content, including Easter

1:39

eggs which I personally love, deleted

1:41

scenes, and so much more. So

1:44

go to the store, order it

1:47

online, grab it off a shelf,

1:49

or you can even find the movie digitally and

1:51

without further ado. Let's meet

1:54

Will Merrick and Nick Johnson. Hey,

1:58

thank you, that's awesome to be here.

2:00

Oh my god. And I also have to give a shout out

2:02

to Katie at Sony Pictures

2:05

because she's the one who sent

2:07

Russian and I an email saying, hey,

2:09

you know, would you guys be interested in going to

2:11

the screening or the premiere in LA

2:14

And we were like, oh my god, we'd love to go, but

2:16

we're not going to be able to make it to LA.

2:18

And she goes, well, there's one in San Francisco,

2:21

and I'm like, that's perfect. So

2:23

I actually went to the Alamo Drafthouse

2:25

to watch your movie, which was it's

2:28

an epic theater in the Mission

2:30

district, but to watch your film

2:32

on the big screen was fantastic.

2:35

So we have to give a shout out to Katie. Thank

2:37

you, Katie, thank

2:40

you. Yes, I know, And I

2:42

got to watch it on my

2:44

iPhone because I was flying to San

2:46

Francisco to join my sister.

2:49

But then that was like the day, the day that Missing

2:51

premiered was the day that like the FAA like shut

2:53

everything down for a few hours, so

2:56

I couldn't fly, right, I couldn't fly

2:58

from Portland San Francisco.

3:01

But it was almost kind of yeah, but it

3:03

was almost kind of epic that I got to watch it.

3:05

I put it on my ring light, I flipped

3:07

it over, and I just watched the

3:10

movie is good everywhere. It's good in

3:12

the theater because it's good to react with people,

3:14

but it's kind of cool at home too because it's

3:16

on computers, so it feels voyeuristic.

3:20

I guess, yeah, yeah, first

3:22

you're like okay, computers,

3:25

like on the screen, like am I gonna

3:27

be into this? So fascinating,

3:30

Like you didn't stop just

3:32

waiting for what's to happen next. So

3:34

that's definitely always been like the we joke

3:37

that like at every step of the way, even

3:39

even us, we had that reaction when a niche

3:41

first pitched us the idea for searching. It's

3:44

just like, how can this be good? But

3:46

I think that's I think. I think that's the

3:48

fun of it, is that like we

3:50

are taking something that inherently shouldn't

3:53

be entertaining, like a Google translation

3:56

shouldn't be entertaining, or going through Google accounts

3:58

should not be entertaining,

4:01

but we're trying to turn it into big cinematic

4:03

set pieces. So yeah, I think I

4:05

think that's that's the fun of it. So thank you

4:08

and for going to the Almo draft US.

4:10

That's so cool. It was a really unique

4:12

premiere and it's amazing to hear that you you went.

4:15

Did you see that live live stream

4:17

of US and Nia and Storm all? We

4:20

did? My husband Gino and I stayed after

4:22

and listen to, yeah, the live stream

4:25

and saw you guys there with Nia's

4:27

you know, Nia long and Storm

4:29

read. I mean it was it was epic, like so

4:32

epic. Yeah,

4:34

on facing Evil, Like we always like to ask

4:36

all of our guests like what

4:38

led you to this career? Like

4:41

how did you get to this particular journey?

4:43

And I guess I'll start with you Nick first?

4:45

Why don't you tell us? Yes? So

4:47

I think, um, like all of

4:50

us that work on worked

4:52

on this movie. Um in

4:54

particular me will save

4:56

a Niche and Natalie, our producers. I

4:58

grew up loving just watching movies

5:00

and also watching a lot of behind the scenes, you

5:02

know. I remember watching the Pirates of the Caribbean

5:05

Blu Ray feature making

5:07

of and being like, Oh, that's so cool. And so

5:10

I started making movies with my cousins

5:12

and then my friends. When

5:14

I was in middle school and

5:17

then in high school, I had a lot of really

5:19

great teachers that taught film

5:21

in class, not just like lazy, like I don't

5:23

want to do anything today, so I'll put on a movie, but taught

5:25

film ass as almost like you would a great

5:28

novel. And so you know, I

5:30

was turned on too like bas Lerman and Cohen

5:32

Brothers and started to appreciate film

5:34

more as like an art form. And I think that combination

5:37

of like big budget blockbuster

5:39

storytelling of Pirates of the Caribbean mixed with appreciating

5:42

like the auteurs of the Cohen Brothers and Paul

5:45

Thomas Anderson, I think is kind of

5:47

what led me then to USC and ultimately

5:49

to work with everyone I think a very

5:51

similar story. I mean, we all have this kind

5:53

of path where we became obsessed. As little kids,

5:56

me and my sister made videos where we would fight

5:58

like we were in Star Wars or something all

6:01

over like the YNCA or

6:04

something. And I think I

6:06

just realized early on that that when my

6:08

family watched them, they'd all be like having a

6:10

great time, like watching this thing we put

6:12

together. And then I got in theater

6:14

in high school and recruited all those kids

6:16

to be in stuff, and at the cast

6:19

party we would show the stuff we made,

6:21

and I think just watching everybody react

6:24

and having good time watching these things made me obsessed

6:26

with creating movies

6:28

and you know, just any kind

6:30

of cinematic form. And then USC

6:33

worked out and became LA and the

6:35

rest was history. It's it's fun to just do

6:37

what I was obsessed with as a teenager still

6:39

as an adult. And did you guys go to

6:41

school together? You have what?

6:44

We never met? Yeah, exactly

6:46

we So. Will's two years younger

6:48

than I am, and our path was

6:50

kind of strange because I was in

6:52

the same year as a niche

6:55

who directed the first movie, and

6:58

I kind of was like a DP at the time. I

7:00

didn't really edit much at USC. And

7:02

then when I graduated, I kind of started

7:05

editing more trailers and

7:07

then my friends movies like will

7:09

if you want to tell your side of that path.

7:13

I became an editor quickly at USC because I'm

7:15

from like a small town in North Carolina.

7:17

So I mastered the editing because that

7:20

was the only way I could make something good.

7:22

It turned into it invaluable

7:24

skill when I went to college. And then

7:27

Die and Zev needed an

7:30

editor for a sort of like

7:32

a Google spec commercial they were doing while I was

7:34

still an undergrad, and an

7:36

editing professor recommended me, and

7:40

I guess they liked working with me because then they brought

7:42

me back for the movie we did Searching,

7:44

which this movie is a spiritual successor too.

7:47

And and then Nick and I met at a

7:49

coffee being halfway between our houses,

7:52

and we talked for about twenty minutes, and

7:54

then we worked together for the next ten years. And

7:56

it's been great. So it's been ten years,

7:58

so that not quite and I guess

8:02

six years, yeah, six years going

8:05

on a decade, yeah, yeah.

8:08

Rounding up, I love the dynamic

8:10

that the two of you have because I feel like just

8:13

watching Missing and knowing

8:15

your involvement in Searching and the path

8:18

that you both were on at USC and everything you've just

8:20

shared with us, you almost seem like you are

8:22

siblings and you become family doing

8:24

this right. Absolutely. Yeah.

8:27

Somebody came to us one

8:29

of the shoot days and said, I've never worked with twins

8:31

before. We

8:34

were like, oh wow, not just siblings,

8:36

twins. To be fair to them,

8:38

we had masks on because it was during

8:41

COVID, so it did so us were

8:43

obscured. So you know it's

8:45

plausible that we're siblings. Yeah for sure.

8:47

Yeah. Yeah, Well, for our listeners

8:49

that can't see you right now like we can, you're

8:51

both very very handsome young

8:54

men, but you definitely look related. For

8:56

sure. I can see why they would

8:58

make the mistake when you spend

9:00

I think a lot of time with someone as we

9:03

have, like we just for the last six years

9:05

really have been I've seen each other almost

9:07

every day and in rooms just going

9:09

to stir crazy. We've developed like a secondhand

9:12

language I think with each other that is sibling

9:15

esque. Yeah. When we were in the trenches

9:17

trying to finish missing and I was like looked out the window,

9:19

I was like, do you ever feel that all this just world

9:22

is just so just like and

9:24

it was like, I know exactly what you mean. I

9:30

already know. Yeah,

9:55

this is the question that I really want to ask. So there

9:57

was Searching, was it Searching Run?

9:59

Then Missing? Yeah? Is

10:01

it a trilogy or is it

10:03

not? Not really? Not really?

10:06

Yeah, So I would say Run

10:09

Run is not in the same format,

10:11

and I would say Missing

10:14

was always developed as like a sequel to

10:16

Searching. That's how we thought of it. We call it

10:18

searching too. For the longest time,

10:21

we knew that we wanted it to work operate

10:23

on its own, but we had

10:25

always kind of seen it as like the standalone

10:28

sequel to Searching. Run doesn't

10:31

really share any similarities to

10:33

either too, other than we have

10:36

like an obsession with Easter eggs and

10:38

like constant like these threadlines,

10:40

and so they do exist in the

10:42

same universe seven a niche

10:45

cinematic universe, whatever that is. When

10:48

you watch Missing, you're looking at a world

10:50

where the events of Run actually did take

10:52

place, but as movies they're not

10:54

related. Gotcha, But I you

10:57

know, one of the things that I noticed, like the

10:59

mother in each film

11:02

is like the star so to

11:04

speak. You know, everything is surrounded by that.

11:06

Is that a personal choice by a

11:09

niche or by you guys, can you share

11:11

a little bit about that. I mean, all

11:13

three movies do really have family kind

11:15

of at their core, and that

11:17

was present. I mean, Searching was all

11:19

about family, and to us that

11:21

was as much a core part

11:23

of the story as being

11:26

told on computer screens. It has to be about

11:28

family and how sort of your

11:30

connection with family is still

11:33

central to your life even with technology.

11:35

And so that was given to us in the treatment

11:37

by a Niche and Sev for this

11:40

movie. So they came up with that, but we wouldn't

11:42

have done it any different ourselves if we could

11:44

have, Like if you ever meet Sev

11:47

or a Niche, like, family

11:50

is such a massive part of their lives.

11:52

They love their families so much and

11:55

they've got really strong ties

11:58

with their families and their siblings. Just

12:00

knowing the films that a Niche made

12:03

at USC they were they always had this

12:05

tremendous heart to them. So I think

12:07

that's something that a Niche has always been

12:09

interested in and wanted to do.

12:12

So I think that's how that's made its way

12:14

into the core of these movies. I

12:16

think the part that really resonated with

12:18

me and Nick as well. I know, because we've

12:20

talked about. It is just the idea that this

12:22

movie kind of reflects how when you're growing up

12:24

you learn to understand who your parents are as

12:27

people in a deeper way. When

12:29

you're a kid, they're just your parent, and then when you grow

12:31

up, you'd see them as a more nuanced

12:33

person. And it was really cool that in

12:35

the story from its inception

12:37

here, that's kind of at the core of the mystery.

12:40

Without giving anything away, I

12:42

was so struck by the relationship

12:45

between Nia's character

12:47

and Storm's character and

12:50

between other family characters

12:53

in the film, and I could not stop

12:55

crying. I was crying because I got triggered

12:59

in bad ways and in good ways, and I think

13:01

that's where the two of you were going with

13:03

it, and you were given this beautiful,

13:06

beautiful platform, and I have to just thank

13:08

you because I'm the scaredy cat. I'm

13:10

the one that can't watch it, Like my

13:13

sister watched it first since I missed

13:15

the screening, and I saw it the next day and I'm like, can I

13:17

handle it? Am I gonna be able to handle it? She's like, You're

13:19

okay, but you're going to be triggered, Like

13:21

what did it take you went from being editors

13:24

together on Searching. How

13:26

did that conversation go where

13:28

they were like, all right, we want you to direct

13:31

Missing. It was quite a leap. It took a leap

13:33

of faith, I think on Seven and Niche

13:35

and Natalie's part, on Sony's

13:37

part as well, and on all the actors

13:40

part, because again we

13:42

didn't have any real directorial

13:45

experience to point to or draw on.

13:48

I think the good thing was that because

13:50

Searching was such a

13:53

post heavy movie and we

13:55

were brought on before there was even a script. Really

13:57

there was just a treatment, so we were used

13:59

to kind of developing and

14:02

workshopping, kind of pseudo

14:04

helping write something like this, and

14:07

we had developed the language from the very beginning,

14:09

so the visual language, So

14:11

Will and I were very confident that we could

14:14

do this again. We knew exactly how

14:16

to make it, and I think that gave everyone

14:18

else the confidence that these guys know how to do this.

14:20

And then I think when it came time

14:23

to actually to write it,

14:25

we had previous experience dealing

14:28

with Seven A Niche, and they knew how we thought.

14:30

They knew like our notes on story

14:33

and how we thought about story and structure and characters,

14:35

so they were confident we had the ability

14:38

to do that, and we had actually been hired

14:40

to do something for Paramount

14:43

before this actually as as writers,

14:46

and so Will and I had already done

14:48

that and had demonstrated that we had the

14:50

ability to carry a project

14:53

to fruition or a script, and

14:55

so that also, I think gave everyone the confidence

14:57

that we could do that. So yeah, I was definitely

15:00

leap for us personally, But I think as we

15:02

got going, we started to become a little bit more confident,

15:04

like, no, like, we know exactly how to make this,

15:07

to the point where by the time we got

15:09

to set, we knew exactly the shots

15:11

that we needed and it felt kind

15:13

of natural to just to be doing that

15:16

are organic. You know, when

15:18

I went to the screening here in San Francisco,

15:20

and I stayed afterwards, you know, for the Q and

15:22

A, and I remember and Nio was

15:24

saying, like, you're gonna do what? Like,

15:27

how are we going to shoot this? You know, Poornia

15:31

really had to trust us, right, But

15:34

she did, she really did,

15:36

and she was so you know,

15:38

gratefully like surprise and

15:41

how it turned out, and like she said, it was the best

15:43

one of the best experiences of her life.

15:46

How do you feel about her saying

15:48

that, you know, Nia long like my all

15:50

time favorite love Jones, Like, come on,

15:52

she's a lleed legend, right. Yes,

15:54

it's crazy that we crossed paths

15:57

with her. Is it's so interesting

15:59

to think of all. She was one of the

16:01

later people that we cast, and I

16:03

just love so much that she's in this movie

16:06

because she's just the perfect person

16:08

to play Storm's mom for one thing, and

16:10

just you just got to watch the movie you'll see why.

16:13

Yeah. The thing about Nia is um.

16:15

If you've ever met Nia or seeing her

16:17

an interview, she has a motherly warmth

16:20

to her, like she in some ways

16:22

I remember her talking to me about like something

16:24

in my life, like she felt like a mom

16:26

to me and will sometimes you know Um,

16:29

And she had that relationship with Storm

16:31

off camera as well. I think she

16:33

sees Storm as being

16:35

like a young version of her almost in a weird way,

16:37

like she can see you know, when Nia

16:40

started, I think she was she

16:42

was like pretty young when she was she was starting

16:45

out, so she has a lot of experience

16:47

there. One thing that a lot of our actors

16:50

have described, and I know John Joe described

16:52

this on Searching, is that everyone

16:54

has to like relearn their jobs. Everyone

16:57

is relearning how to act. Like when

16:59

you are just sitting in front of a screen

17:01

and looking around, and in a Nia's

17:04

case, you know, there would be times where there'd

17:06

just be one camera, like she said,

17:08

like fifteen twenty feet away, and

17:11

it's like, wait a minute, where's my coverage? Where am I looking

17:13

at? What's my eyeline? It's

17:15

almost like you're blocking a stage play

17:17

or something. And then you're just asking

17:19

everyone, the actors, the studio

17:22

execs who are at video Village. You're asking

17:24

everyone, Hey, it's gonna look kind of weird

17:27

at video Village, and she's gonna be this big wide

17:29

that trust us, Like, please just trust us

17:32

when we're gonna be creating coverage and cutting

17:34

in and it's gonna look okay. And

17:36

I think like that took a lot

17:39

of risk on all of our actor's parts, especially someone

17:41

as established and experiences

17:44

Nia. But one of the

17:46

most rewarding things was

17:49

when she first saw the movie and she like liked

17:51

it. It was such a relief because it was like,

17:53

thank you, thank you for trusting

17:55

us, And I'm so glad we pulled

17:57

it off because we

18:00

were asking a lot of them I think, yeah,

18:22

just have to ask you guys, like, with

18:25

all the technology, does this

18:27

stuff really work? Is it going to solve

18:29

cases that it has? I

18:32

think a couple of times

18:35

we're sort of morally agnostic about

18:37

technology. I guess where we're kind of

18:39

in all of its power, but

18:41

we don't know if it's good or bad. Yeah.

18:43

I think what makes this end Searching

18:46

cool is is we really wanted to

18:48

commit to the idea that this could really happen. Like

18:50

it's we're past nineties kind of hacker

18:53

beat beat boop boop kind of computer movies,

18:55

and we're where the cool

18:57

thing is everything in this movie.

19:00

There might be a couple little

19:02

less important moments in this movie where where

19:05

we stretch, like how easy it would be

19:07

to guess somebody's password, for instance, but

19:10

not by much. It's all it

19:12

all could happen. Yeah. Yeah.

19:14

Also, when you make a

19:17

a movie that takes place entirely on

19:19

devices technology, Whereas

19:21

in the nineties, technology was a plot

19:23

device or just a way

19:26

to get from point A to point B. In our

19:28

movie, technology is our set.

19:30

It's where the movie takes place, and so you

19:33

owe the audience a higher degree

19:35

of versimilitude and I

19:37

think when we were writing the

19:40

movie, it was always

19:42

about Okay, let me pull up my Google

19:44

account and see how I would actually do this

19:47

if I was in this situation. For the most

19:49

part, we really tried to not bend

19:51

those rules and try to keep it really grounded.

19:53

So I know, like also, when we were writing

19:55

the movie, we were listening to true crime podcasts.

19:58

We were listening to a lot of real cases

20:00

and researching real cases and seeing how

20:03

in a modern day things are

20:05

solved, and so we wanted

20:07

to always be respectful to like

20:10

those victims and never really like

20:12

incite them in the movie or anything. We don't want

20:14

to like draw any more attention to those families.

20:17

But I think we were definitely

20:19

aware that this stuff, that technology is

20:21

used and used that as inspiration as

20:24

well sometimes. And it's cool because June

20:26

is eighteen years old and she's like better

20:29

than the than the police in some way, is it, yeah,

20:33

because of this yeah, yeah, yeah. And

20:35

Storm is such an incredible actress. I we

20:37

haven't had the opportunity, you know, to work

20:39

with her or meet her yet, but we're really

20:42

close to Chris Pine, who played her father,

20:45

and that was just as plausible

20:47

to me you know, Chris being her dad,

20:49

as Nia being you know, her

20:51

mom, and it just im one

20:54

degree away from Nia long and Storm

20:57

thank you. You know, my sister

20:59

and I or both you know, huge

21:02

movie buffs and love the

21:04

history of it and we love being

21:06

on set. I would love to know, Well, let's

21:09

start with you, and then I'd love to know, Nick, what

21:11

was your absolute favorite part about

21:13

being on set? I know that you only you

21:15

know you were filming for what like twenty some days

21:17

and then editing for two

21:19

three years, But I want to know what was

21:22

that most magical moment like on

21:24

set for you. I think my favorite

21:26

part about being on set

21:28

was just after working

21:32

so much to just get any little project

21:34

off the ground, as when we were kind

21:36

of beginning to try to make movies, and

21:39

seeing how hard all that was, just to show

21:41

up and see all these people who were so great

21:44

at their jobs and see this whole kind of

21:46

machine come into place to make

21:48

something happen, and seeing everybody work toward the same

21:50

goal, it was honestly kind of overwhelming.

21:53

At first. It was like, what are we

21:55

doing directing this thing with all these

21:57

trailers and stuff pulled up?

22:00

But it was just really cool to just work

22:02

with all the people. Really, I

22:04

think my favorite part on set

22:06

was probably seeing the

22:09

actors bringing nuance

22:12

and life to the characters, because I

22:14

think we had been writing alone

22:16

in isolation during the pandemic in our

22:18

own respective houses for so long, and

22:21

then we had cut an animatic of the

22:23

movie which was just me and Will like performing

22:26

very poorly all the line,

22:28

and it just had no life to it at

22:31

all. And then all

22:33

of a sudden, coming on set and seeing

22:35

Nia our Storm or Joachim who

22:38

plays Hobby come in and breathe life

22:40

into these roles, and all of a sudden

22:42

you realize some of those things

22:45

that you had written actually do have like

22:47

a lot of humanity to them or emotion

22:49

underneath that we had just kind of

22:51

become a numb too while

22:54

writing. I think that was one of the coolest things,

22:56

was to see all of that stuff come to life. Yeah.

22:59

Joachim, Oh my god, he was

23:01

my heart. I mean everyone kind

23:03

of has seen him in something, you know,

23:05

I Will and I Will and I were really

23:07

familiar with him from I

23:10

Love twenty four growing up me too, so

23:13

he was in twenty four, but he's

23:15

in Desperado. I mean, he's just he's had

23:17

such an incredible career. He trained with

23:19

Lee Strasburg, He's trained with

23:21

Stella Adler. He is a legend.

23:24

He's just been around for so long, and

23:26

it was really incredible to

23:29

get to know him and see how he works. He

23:31

is a truly phenomenal, world

23:33

class actor. I hope that, like

23:36

I want to continue seeing him and stuff and roles

23:38

that aren't just like the bad guy that he

23:40

seems to always be. He's

23:42

such a sweetheart in real life. He

23:45

was perfect for the role and I

23:47

have such deep admiration for him

23:49

as an actor as like a craftsman, and

23:51

I love him in Storm, how they interact

23:54

and you know, oh my god, you

23:57

know, the two of them, they're never

23:59

in the same scene physic right, They

24:01

weren't in the same room ever

24:04

when we were shooting. And one

24:07

really great thing that that Joachim and

24:09

Storm wanted to do was be there for each other

24:11

when they were doing their scenes. So Joakim,

24:13

you know, came to La to read

24:16

with her during her scenes, and then

24:18

likewise, Storm called in when

24:20

we were shooting in Colombia to perform

24:22

all of her scenes with him. And and that's

24:24

why that works it's because they were able to see

24:26

each other, see how they're going to act, and

24:28

then real chemistry. Yeah, we're very gracious

24:31

as actors, you know, basically donate

24:33

their time and make sure you know,

24:35

they had a scene partner. I don't think it

24:37

would have worked without that. What would

24:39

you tell like young writers

24:42

and directors that are coming up

24:44

that are you know, pounding the pavement

24:46

wanting to get their their script,

24:49

you know, scene or what advice

24:51

would would both of you give, you

24:53

know, I think you really have to love

24:56

the act of doing it. Yes, I

24:58

think one of my favorite film akers, David

25:00

Lynch, Oh Dad

25:03

met him personally, personal hero

25:05

of mine. His song is

25:07

the theme song for our previous

25:09

podcast, Root of Evil. We both loved

25:12

him. I love his music, I love

25:14

everything he does. But he always talks about like the

25:16

act of like doing of like he just loves

25:18

doing, loves making things. And I

25:21

always think about that spirit of just

25:23

making things that if

25:25

you love it enough, then all the

25:28

work that you have to put in to make it, because

25:30

you have to put in a lot of work to make it in this industry.

25:32

Will and I were doing literally sixteen hour days

25:34

on searching coming home sleeping,

25:37

waking up, going back to the office, and he did

25:39

that for an extended period of time. We were very

25:41

young,

25:43

young on missing.

25:45

We were grinding at the office

25:47

and working literally twenty four to seven. I'd

25:50

come home, I'd log into my computer and

25:52

continue working, and I would be miserable

25:55

if I didn't love doing the

25:58

thing, you know what I mean. I think and I both

26:00

just love making movies. We love

26:02

writing, we love working in after

26:04

effects, you know, we

26:07

love we love the act of doing these

26:09

things. So I think the number one thing is if

26:12

you gotta love to do it, if

26:14

you don't love doing it, If if what you want to

26:16

do is just be a filmmaker

26:18

or go to a premiere, like, you're gonna be

26:20

kind of miserable because you're gonna put in a lot of work

26:22

in the interim to get there. So I

26:25

think that's one major thing. And I think also when

26:27

you're setting out to craft stories

26:30

or tell something, I

26:33

think it really helps out. A screenwriter tell

26:35

me that to use corners of yourself as the

26:37

way you put it, so you're not always making

26:39

a biographical you know, peace

26:41

or whatever. But I think it's really important

26:44

to find little true corners

26:46

of yourself, little things that you can relate to. So, for

26:48

instance, in this movie, Will and I both have sisters,

26:51

and we love our sisters, we love our moms.

26:54

We drew a lot on

26:56

like just how emotionally we feel about

26:58

our sisters and how we serve our sisters

27:00

and our moms interacting with each other. So it's

27:02

important to always find those corners of yourself

27:05

and find those capital t truth

27:07

moments like for instance, a

27:10

Niche, a Niche came up with the voicemails

27:13

beat, which I won't I won't tell

27:15

anyone what happens to

27:17

avoid spoilers, but that's a really emotional

27:19

moment and that came from him just listening to voicemails

27:22

from his mom. So I think audiences

27:24

can tell those things when

27:27

you put something that's really truthful to yourself.

27:29

So if you're starting out writing or whatever,

27:31

I think look for those things that you're

27:33

like, wow, that real feels really true and emotional, like

27:35

how do I put this into a

27:37

into something? Yes, those

27:40

are both great advice. Yeah,

27:42

well, every episode of Facing

27:44

Evil. So we are Hawaiian

27:47

born and raised in Hawaii, and the

27:49

word imua means

27:51

to move onward and upward right

27:54

or but really, especially

27:56

for us doing facing evil, it's about finding the light

27:58

in the dark right, or overcoming or

28:01

healing. I would love to know

28:04

what was the wolf for

28:06

you? And if you don't want to say what it was for

28:08

you, what do you think it would be for your

28:10

audience who hasn't watched

28:13

Missing yet? And again I'm going to say this Till the Cows

28:15

Come Home. You can own it on digital March seventh

28:17

or on Blue Way March twenty eight. We

28:20

were starting to write this movie the week COVID

28:23

hit, and I think trying to

28:25

create the movie through that and doing

28:28

a lot of work without our

28:30

team around that we usually you know, without

28:32

being able to see each other or see all the people we

28:34

were working with, really

28:37

sort of made me at least realize

28:39

how much I need those people around

28:42

me in order to function normally.

28:44

And seeing them slowly come back was one

28:46

good thing, but also just learning to be more

28:49

mindful and appreciative

28:51

of people, and to understand that

28:54

it's always good to appreciate

28:56

what's good about people as

28:59

much as you possible we can, even

29:01

in a stressful situation like

29:03

some of this was getting through with COVID yeah,

29:06

yeah, no, I agree with that wholeheartedly,

29:08

and I think to bring it back to the movie as

29:10

well. Specifically, that is what June's

29:13

journey is is like through all of this. Part

29:16

of the fun of this movie is it's a detective mystery

29:19

where she's looking for her mom, but at the

29:21

same time, there's this other layer of she's

29:23

finding out who her mom is and learning to appreciate

29:26

her for who she is, and learning

29:28

that in the time of darkness

29:30

and in this time of like

29:33

like I've lost my mom and I'm losing you

29:35

know, like a someone I love, you

29:37

actually learn how much you do

29:39

love that person, how much you appreciate them.

29:42

And neither of them will ever ever

29:44

give up. Neither of them would ever will

29:46

ever let the other one go

29:48

as long as they can do something. That's

29:50

the power of the film. That is the power of the film.

29:53

And you know, when I

29:55

left the theater that night, I

29:57

was so emotional, you know,

30:00

for so many different reasons,

30:02

but it was the power

30:04

of staying connected. We

30:07

would love to give you this opportunity,

30:09

of course, again, we know March

30:12

seventh, it's on digital and blue ray on March

30:14

twenty eighth, But what's next for the two of you,

30:16

please tell me you're still working together, and please

30:19

tell our listeners where they can find you,

30:21

and of course fine missing of

30:23

course, Yeah, So Will and I are definitely

30:26

still working together. We hope to work

30:29

together indefinitely going forward.

30:31

And I think we also love working

30:34

with seven Nisha Natalie, and they've got

30:36

some projects going on that we may be a part

30:38

of as well. In terms of missing,

30:41

like you said, you can find it on Blu

30:43

ray and I just want to plug that some some

30:45

blue rays come out where they have like special

30:47

features. These special features we've seen them are

30:49

like really good. Like if I were

30:52

if I were a viewer, like I'd be

30:54

really excited for these special features. That kid in

30:56

me that gets to watch all those like

30:58

behind the scenes this is this is like the

31:01

one where it's really worth checking out. And

31:04

then in terms of where to find us, we're

31:07

both mostly on Instagram. So

31:10

my Instagram's at Underscore

31:12

Nick D. Johnson and Will what's

31:14

your Instagram? And I'm Will dot

31:16

Merrick. Well, for

31:19

me personally, it's just been the

31:22

ultimate honor having you both on facing

31:24

evil. You both are just brilliant,

31:27

like deeply grounded

31:30

human beings. That I know you're going

31:32

to do kill it. You're going to continue to

31:34

kill it. Missing was fantastic on

31:37

every every single level. So I

31:39

can't wait for what's next. So mahalo

31:42

nuila for being here with us.

31:44

Thank you so much. This was like a real

31:46

joy meeting you and

31:49

talking about the movie. Yeah, this

31:51

is really fun. Really appreciate it. Yeah,

31:53

you guys are great. Thank you so much. Well

32:01

that's our show for today. We hope

32:03

you enjoyed this discussion with Will

32:06

Merrick and Nick Johnson, directors

32:08

of the new movie Missing. The

32:11

movie is now available digitally and

32:13

on Blu Ray release out today.

32:16

We always love to hear what you think, so find

32:19

us on social media or email

32:21

us at Facing Evil pod at

32:23

Tenderfoot dot tv. And one

32:26

small request if you haven't already,

32:28

please find us on iTunes and give

32:30

us a good rating and review. If you like

32:32

what we do, your support is

32:34

always cherished. Until

32:37

next time, Loha,

32:54

Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio

32:56

and Tenderfoot TV. The

32:59

show is hosted by Russa Peccarero and

33:01

a Vetchantile. Matt Frederick

33:03

and Alex Williams our executive producers

33:05

on behalf of iHeartRadio with

33:08

producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk,

33:10

Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay our executive

33:13

producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV, alongside

33:16

producer Tracy Kaplan. Our

33:18

researcher is Carolyn Talmidge.

33:21

Original music by Makeup and Vanity

33:23

Set. Find us on social media

33:26

or email us at Facing Evil pot

33:28

at tenderfoot dot tv. For

33:30

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33:33

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