0:04

Hey. So. I. Have

0:06

a thing sent in by an

0:08

alert listener. Which. Might.

0:11

Be. Vandalism. Food. Vandalise.

0:13

Oh thou, that's now or

0:15

it might be. A

0:18

deeply inept food heist. You know,

0:20

we haven't even touched food vandalism.

0:22

I bet there's a lot There

0:24

are probably like you know, smear.

0:27

I guess any time someone's house

0:29

gets egg that food vandalise as

0:31

food vandalise s Ariana Grande a

0:33

look and all those donuts. Those

0:35

food vandalism. I

0:38

have no idea you've got like you

0:40

didn't hear about that. I vaguely it

0:42

crossed like my desk. By.

0:45

Blake. Was it really? Ariana Grande?

0:47

Eight? Really? For real? In. The

0:49

era of cell phones decided it would

0:51

be a good idea to lick a

0:54

bunch of doughnuts. That. She wasn't

0:56

gonna buy so I think I saw

0:58

that video and did not connect it

1:00

with Ariana Grande day. I thought it

1:02

was just dumb in in college kid

1:05

licking donuts and thinking it was silly

1:07

new, not super wrong. Okay,

1:09

okay and then like there were copy cats

1:11

in, there are people who would film themselves

1:13

going in and like taking the lid off

1:16

of ice cream in a girl yeah, store

1:18

and licking. I know that whole face started,

1:20

she can't that off. I. Don't know

1:22

if she kicked it off or if she was just a part

1:24

of it. I'm. On can we

1:26

go back? Very influential person So let's

1:28

give her credit grabbing ice cream cones

1:30

by the I stream instead. That was

1:33

a much better pray cause you to

1:35

paid for the ice cream already. Ah

1:37

and yeah, Well. Yeah.

1:40

Food. Vandalism. Now that we've set out

1:42

to wait, wait is food annals and

1:44

vandals. And to food Or vandalism using

1:47

food Because I was imagining it's vandalism

1:49

using using food. But you're talking about

1:51

vandalism upon the food? Yes, well. At.

1:54

This scale of this article.

1:56

It's both. A.

1:58

Gang. Before we

2:00

get a little me ask you a

2:02

question Isaac our mutual friends Vp of

2:04

Gray Development here. He

2:06

has a dream to someday lick of and

2:09

go. To. Lick of Van Gogh.

2:11

Yes it's a long day stuck

2:13

in my head because then he's

2:15

an artist. He thinks the paint

2:17

looks so sits and I interesting

2:19

on as and go because he's

2:21

you know what is a painter?

2:23

it's and he's always been like

2:25

my secret dream is to someday

2:27

like a Van Gogh and the

2:29

replay I'll be banned from every

2:31

art museum Is the Van Gogh

2:33

become food. If he liquid

2:35

it's if he licks it. Yeah, and

2:37

I know and is that ensued vandalism

2:39

other than go licked a lot of

2:41

things that I don't know that they

2:43

counted for the reddit. I

2:47

thought we discussed freezing yet everything.

2:49

I mean. That would

2:51

the holds hook up. Or

2:55

at Los Area Food or here we

2:57

go. Yeah this happened in Spain, Spain.

3:00

I like mean a rebate on the

3:02

widow. The. Safer twenty

3:04

One winery. Or. As

3:06

Hayward said, the settling Twenty One One

3:09

or England's right. Somebody.

3:11

Sneaked in. And

3:13

the big that's where they connect

3:15

your the wire of be caught

3:17

during the day for meant the

3:19

wine death. They just opened the

3:21

novels. And so

3:24

braid sixty thousand liters.

3:27

Of. Mine. Onto. The

3:29

floor scan to be worth a lot. estimated

3:31

at over two and a half million dollars

3:33

worth of last wine to do said sixty

3:35

and I thought to hear a thousand euros

3:38

and then know. Sixty thousand

3:40

liters? Yes, So. Potentially.

3:43

Of food heist if they were is really

3:45

bad and were like. I

3:47

forgot the buckets. Don't

3:50

Stop. After the first one.

3:53

If you forgot the bucket. Like.

3:56

One guess what kind of heist unless

3:58

it was your job is a. The

4:00

team of experts and your job is to

4:02

open all the valves are high and then.

4:05

Reggie. Supposed to run in with

4:07

with the buckets and then he didn't

4:09

run in with the buckets. How are

4:11

you going to get sixty thousand liters

4:13

out in buckets? Then. Well.

4:17

You have to have a lot of

4:19

Mckinsey were as a lot of bucket

4:21

full gym I possibly some ten gallon

4:24

sets. I'm not and

4:26

even race that one with the

4:28

reason why system. I think you're

4:30

postulation. I think your

4:32

thoughts regarding it may be being

4:35

incompetent, these is a little farfetched,

4:37

it is a pretty far fetched

4:39

yes they. Pretty. Much certain

4:42

that this is sabotaged, they have no

4:44

idea yet who netted? Well, at least

4:46

at the time that this article was

4:48

written they didn't know who didn't have

4:50

this articles from. Oh. Monday

4:52

so need a very recent and

4:55

they might have a suspect they

4:57

might not without. Okay. Now.

4:59

So there you go. And.

5:02

Like I said, at that scale, you

5:04

are destroying the wine and potentially destroying

5:06

a large portion of the winery because

5:08

you've soaked it. And sixty. Thousand.

5:11

Gallons of alcohol. The.

5:13

Champagnes. It's

5:18

not champagne sell yeah my work but but

5:20

that the animal You know who. We

5:22

like to add a band and right

5:24

Sam, Sam. Now pretty

5:26

good, pretty good hygiene. Let's

5:29

see mine. Yeah I'm in. The whiners

5:32

is just too obvious liners now it

5:34

only count of they were like protesting

5:36

something by this is just being a

5:38

pain now I'm yeah, I'm. Their.

5:41

Name should be about C's instead

5:43

and then just connoisseurs will connect

5:45

it with wine. Intellectually.

5:48

I'm sure that's exactly what will

5:51

happen gas. Yeah,

5:53

so there you go. I like this

5:56

new branch. Of to the

5:58

Heisman whom potential lore food. Same.

6:01

Yeah, Cannon continues to expand. Guess

6:03

though, it is not what I

6:05

thought I thought. We. Would be

6:07

hearing about someone who you know

6:09

smash potatoes do smash hit or

6:11

up a wall air but now

6:13

the suggests. Were. Ruining a bunch

6:15

of wine because. For. Whatever

6:18

reason. So the wine wasn't stolen.

6:20

Yes, or at least wasn't taken

6:22

from them. So no Food Heist

6:24

prison for this. Guess mail impose

6:26

that in food heist prison. They

6:28

are just boiling mad at him.

6:31

For. Wasting. We're wasting all the

6:33

food. Yeah, their food. I.

6:35

Mean this my moods Herbert War that

6:37

we're talking about. Yeah city. I like

6:39

the anarchist of the food heist world

6:42

the as my joker burn it down

6:44

Nobody cares. Yeah. Yeah. They definitely

6:46

hate this person. Yeah, for they're wasting

6:48

of wine and m he had so

6:50

much easier. To. Just as if

6:53

you don't need, it's always easier to

6:55

break your knees like. Forty.

6:57

Thousand buckets, Then I

6:59

mean, what do you even doing? right?

7:03

Of truth the ice masters who gets

7:05

as forty thousand pockets and now Buckingham

7:07

when later the in up ah those

7:09

guys that stole like two million pounds

7:11

of butter as yeah they're thinking no

7:13

one has a work ethic anymore The

7:16

out. And. Wales

7:18

this economy. Acts

7:22

as if I know if I just

7:24

kept make a dumb jokes one of

7:26

them it gets ists of so so

7:28

what you're saying is the the food

7:30

heist experts because it's a bad economy.

7:32

Have. Been reduced to destroying instead of stealing

7:35

because the economy is that. I'm saying

7:37

that dogs they were injured looking out

7:39

at everyone else and they're saying oh,

7:41

just food vandalism, not heist. Nobody

7:43

wants to work anymore that's oh okay.

7:45

that's like does the zoo merce and

7:47

as millennia s like the boomer food

7:49

I saw your second my day. We

7:51

would have taken all that wide and

7:54

we would have sold it to a

7:56

hotel. Set.

8:00

I'd I'm just thinking of someone who's like

8:02

an expert in food highs being like were

8:04

jobs. Can I get there like sorry we

8:06

don't we don't have anything even. still you

8:08

can have to go to vandalism the lights

8:10

that pay so much worse by system. Only

8:13

job you can get if you go to

8:15

a fancy restaurant and you order wine and

8:17

a legit out in like one of those

8:19

white plastic five gallon buckets. You.

8:21

Know that they're buying black market once. I.

8:24

Had a good meal actually. this week I

8:26

got to go the tree removes up at

8:28

Sundance mood then. When. You went

8:30

to Vaulters less negative alters last night. Then

8:32

I was very jealous. Am. So.

8:35

I've had had a foodie week. I

8:37

have not eaten. Today.

8:40

Then I did a two piece of

8:42

bread gives his bread outside. We will

8:45

make sure that you get some food

8:47

some time of the tonight I have

8:49

found and I suspect this is part

8:51

of the whole depression things I don't

8:54

eat when I'm alone anymore. Eating.

8:57

Is a purely social activity for me. Which.

8:59

Is weird cause I used to

9:01

just devour everything I could see

9:03

that does sound like a depression

9:06

thing math so. Okay,

9:08

there you go. I did

9:10

have a cherry line made today, but there's not

9:12

a lot of protein and minerals in those. Now.

9:16

I was thinking your beer coming and when.

9:19

You're heading towards Santa Claus territory. Should

9:21

I grow it out all the way

9:23

till Christmas, I bet you could. Santa.

9:26

I went to Lt We

9:28

last weekend. Which. Is

9:31

our local little regional

9:33

con and. They.

9:35

No one point when and to use the

9:37

hotel restroom and I realized looking in the

9:39

mirror and one of the weird old guys

9:42

at the com. Like. I

9:44

went to that con when I

9:46

was eighteen freshman year of college.

9:49

I've been going to that com forever, but now I'm one

9:51

of the weird old guys. And

9:53

it's interesting because year younger than me. But.

9:55

I don't think I'm one of the weirdo

9:58

guys yet. Well, you haven't Raised. My.

10:00

Son yet now and I didn't have

10:02

depression. That kind of came ahead in

10:04

the last couple of years. Bill Weems

10:06

vs. having a beard and not having

10:09

a beard and having a beard again.

10:11

That's true now. I had that big

10:13

meeting yesterday with all the officers and

10:15

I looked around and I realized a

10:17

Scar and I are the grey ones

10:19

and Scar and I are the ones

10:21

with adult children. Yes! And then I

10:23

realized wait, Becky also has an adult

10:26

child and see looks. Young.

10:28

As the day is long and I was

10:30

very offended well. I mean, you'd

10:32

have to really compare. Pete.

10:35

Her. Husband and have a lox. That's true.

10:37

They do road always order raid and she's

10:39

now. I don't have adult children at. Namm.

10:43

A year and a half away, them. Noble

10:45

turn eighteen and about a year and a

10:47

half so. Not. Bad. He.

10:50

Is playing the indie with his

10:52

friends J Am. Sam

10:55

scan. Nice batch friends who are rolling

10:57

up new characters. And love it!

10:59

So. What do we love? It's gonna

11:01

actually talk about. Okay gathering twenty minutes

11:03

last? here's my. Idea.

11:05

Okay and if this fails it's not

11:07

gonna see Becky. Walked in to see

11:09

her does talking saying nice things about

11:11

or. If. It fails. It will

11:13

not be the first time that we have had

11:16

a topic that fails. Now now I'm but I

11:18

have been thinking lately because you can look at.

11:20

You. Know we had this huge boom

11:22

of superhero movies were rising. Every single

11:25

big ticket movie was a superhero movie

11:27

for my mom. Fifteen years. And.

11:30

Hollywood has gone through cycles like that before.

11:32

Yep! In the eighties we had

11:34

the Big Muscle Easy Action Hero, Stallone

11:36

and Schwartzenegger era. Right before that we

11:38

had a huge musical era where everything

11:41

had songs in. It's before that there

11:43

were a solid ten years where every

11:45

big movie that came out was a

11:47

western. Yeah to the point that to

11:49

get Star Trek made you nod. Mary

11:51

had to college. A Wagon

11:54

Ranger The stars? Yeah, him. And

11:56

so I've been wondering to myself.

11:58

Yeah, what's next? And I

12:00

don't know if there's any way to

12:02

predict that. So I yeah, I mean

12:04

the what's next? I don't think I'm

12:06

equipped to do so, either. I think

12:08

the superhero boom. Was one

12:11

of these things that in hindsight was

12:13

kind of inevitable. Er because

12:15

you'll notice that least I'll noticed.

12:17

I've noticed we didn't get a

12:19

really big space opera boom after

12:22

Star Wars movie and that not

12:24

for lack of trying. Yeah, it's

12:26

because the special effects. Unless you

12:28

were, I'll am. Starting

12:30

out work too cheap looking

12:32

and too bad in order

12:34

to. Actually create that fantasy.

12:37

Yeah, and so we did get like

12:39

a whole bunch of like cheap knockoffs.

12:41

the whole bunch of expensive not offs,

12:43

and even things like Lynch's Dune where

12:45

everyone's like will suffice the next big

12:47

thing. But Mignon wouldn't. Make.

12:49

It work because they didn't have

12:51

the special effects yet. We saw

12:54

attempts it's were Battlestar Galactica came

12:56

from. We didn't see a

12:58

big new wave of it, yes, but

13:00

we did see a lot like Star

13:02

Wars, The Godfather, and Jaws that are

13:05

credited with starting the kind of boom

13:07

of the Tadpole blockbuster And what we

13:09

did see as they went to things

13:11

that they could make with their current

13:13

special effects budgets and some of those

13:15

were definitely side by right. Words: You're

13:17

talking Space Opera. See you? Ended up

13:19

with a lot of sorts. Nigger movies

13:21

were science fiction and things like that

13:24

and so you end up with the

13:26

muscles. The Guys: John. Ross as You

13:28

Combats. We also saw the Boom

13:30

of Horror and pretty of the/alex

13:33

because the special effects didn't need

13:35

to be amazing yeah or could

13:37

be really subdue liberties and eighty

13:39

the Lasher Boom is absolutely another

13:42

one of these. Yeah, And I

13:44

think the superhero and was kind

13:46

of inevitable because once the special

13:48

effects talking really like the Cg

13:51

and things like that caught up

13:53

to the imagination. it's like most

13:55

superhero stories are portal fantasies. meanings

13:57

you're in a start in the real world

13:59

and And then you're going to transition to

14:02

a fantastical, and it's not a whole world,

14:04

but normal character gets superpowers and you're led

14:06

easily into the fantasy world. It's a very

14:09

easy way. Easy is the wrong term, I would

14:11

say. Lord of the Rings is a bit of

14:13

one as well, right? Because you start in the

14:15

Shire and then transition out. You start with the

14:17

familiar and go to the strange. And superheroes just

14:19

a perfect way. By the end of the superhero

14:22

genre, we had a whole bunch of Star Wars.

14:24

So Guardians of the Galaxy and all the cosmic

14:26

stuff. So it's kind of interesting that what they tried

14:28

to do in the early 80s, they

14:31

could only do once they had

14:33

special effects. And they had all that stuff. And they could

14:35

lead the audience into it

14:38

with that kind of portal. Because

14:41

we had kind of a

14:43

little before, in fact several years before

14:46

the superheroes started, we had Fifth Element.

14:49

But then we didn't really get all

14:51

the space operas until Jupiter Ascending

14:53

and whatever the terrible French

14:55

one was. Valerian in the

14:57

city. Valerian. Yeah. Out

15:00

of a thousand, whatever. And yeah. I think the

15:02

problem is. We did eventually get to those. We did, but

15:04

they didn't take off because they didn't have a seed

15:08

film that really exploded for everyone

15:10

to copy. Remember that seed film

15:12

to work. You will

15:14

find good sci-fi space operas all the

15:16

way through. But

15:18

the seed one was Star Wars and then we

15:20

got the big boom falling and they all flopped.

15:23

Same thing happened with fantasy films. Lord

15:26

of the Rings was a big seed property. Everyone

15:28

tried to copy it, but the

15:30

only successful one was the first

15:32

Narnia movie, I would say. Or

15:35

actually Pirates of the Caribbean is probably

15:37

in that same. Yeah.

15:40

I mean those are. I think we do have

15:42

to call that. The problem is the

15:44

first one's not an epic fantasy, but two and three

15:46

are. But the first one's the

15:48

strong one and it's more of a straight up. I

15:51

mean it is, it has epic fantasy. Pirates and it

15:53

has undead in it. You have this seed movie of

15:55

Lord of the Rings and then no one can replicate

15:57

it. They bought a whole bunch of YA properties. I

16:00

think that was personally a mistake. We got Aragon,

16:02

that's when we got the first Lightning Thief or

16:04

whatever that was called. And yeah, it was because...

16:06

There were a whole bunch of them. It was

16:08

because they were making those movies at

16:11

the same time that the YA Dystopia

16:13

boom was huge. Yeah. And so people

16:15

said, well, everyone loves Hunger Games and

16:17

everyone loves Lord of the Rings. Let's

16:20

buy Aragon. And it just

16:22

didn't work out. I think that for a long

16:24

time during this period, I'm like, they

16:27

learned the wrong lesson. What people

16:29

were waiting for in Lord of the

16:31

Rings as a seed film was to

16:34

see the great epic

16:36

fantasies for

16:38

a more mature audience. It doesn't have to be Game

16:40

of Thrones, but Game of Thrones is the only one

16:43

that really managed to land in that

16:45

patch other than Pirates of the Caribbean. And both

16:47

of those are not YA properties.

16:49

And I think part of the problem is,

16:51

is all the YA properties, they

16:53

were misfiring a little bit. And

16:55

they were getting that older demographic that wanted to

16:58

see Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.

17:00

Yeah. And I mean, I

17:02

know they tried some really good ones, but they

17:04

also just weren't able to make a

17:06

lot of good ones. Yeah. You know what

17:08

I mean? Like the Golden Compass is an amazing book,

17:11

but the film is a bit of a disaster. Have

17:14

we talked about Golden Compass? I don't think we have. I

17:17

read the whole series, did not

17:19

like the movie at all. Haven't watched

17:21

the TV series yet. I haven't

17:23

watched it either. I have a theory on

17:26

the film though. It's one of these things that like

17:29

the film should have worked.

17:33

The casting is excellent. The

17:35

people, as I imagine in the book, came

17:37

to life on the screen. They tried

17:39

really hard to stay true to the lore and

17:41

the narrative of the book. And

17:44

the visuals were stunning. And

17:46

the movie was boring. And

17:49

it's just one of those things where translating

17:51

the book to a film, staying

17:53

true, it didn't work for whatever reason. It's

17:55

one of those case studies where I'm

17:57

like, what? I can't even really figure it out. out

18:00

what went wrong in trying to stay so true

18:02

and do such a good job to

18:04

make a film so bad? I don't know.

18:06

That would be one where we

18:08

need like Patrick Willems to analyze rather

18:11

than us. Yeah, because for a while

18:13

I'm like, well, you must not be

18:15

able to translate a book straight to

18:17

a film and have it work. But

18:19

Dune, as we were talking about before

18:21

we started filming, I mean, it's not

18:24

a one-to-one translation, but it's as close.

18:26

It's a pretty faithful one. It's as

18:28

close as Golden Compass is. And

18:31

it's great. It's really watchable.

18:33

And it's so obviously

18:37

you can do it. You can take

18:39

it and go one-to-one essentially and make

18:41

a great film. Yeah. And I don't

18:43

know enough about film to know if

18:46

that's something, did the script fall down?

18:49

Did the directing fall down? Did

18:51

the editing fall down? I

18:53

think it's at least partially the script. Because

18:55

when I was watching Golden Compass and analyzing

18:58

it, having read the book, they were so

19:00

true to the story that

19:02

they wanted to make sure all the information

19:05

got to… And so you watch that again,

19:07

there's just a lot of people standing around

19:10

giving you information. And

19:12

scenes that are dynamic in the book,

19:14

they didn't have time for. And

19:16

it's actually faster to just have two people

19:18

explain the same things you learn from the

19:21

scene. This is the show versus tell, but

19:24

it almost always takes more time to

19:26

show than to tell. And so

19:28

rather than cut the scene, they trimmed

19:30

it and had people explain what happened.

19:33

And then got the information across that

19:35

way. And for all of the massive

19:37

liberties that the Lord of the Rings

19:39

movies take with the books, one

19:42

thing that they were doing while

19:44

trimming down the long stuff and

19:46

cutting out things they couldn't include,

19:49

they were also adding drama constantly,

19:52

extra character conflicts, extra points of

19:54

drama to make it as exciting

19:57

and as compelling as they could.

19:59

Right. Well, and scenes to

20:01

show like they would cut

20:03

five big chunks in this might be easier

20:05

talking because some of those chunks can be

20:07

kind of long and then you can take

20:09

those and construct a scene that does the

20:11

legwork of some of those scenes. I

20:14

always point out one of my favorite changes

20:17

is the scene where Sam gets sent away

20:19

by Frodo and comes back. And this is

20:21

my favorite change I think in all of

20:23

the Lord of the Rings films and it's

20:26

very contentious back in the 2000s people hated

20:28

this change. And it's my favorite because not

20:31

having read three books worth of material

20:33

of those traveling together, it's

20:36

hard for you to get the same

20:38

sense of Sam's loyalty in

20:40

the film that you can in the books, particularly at

20:42

that point where you've seen him grumbling

20:45

and complaining. And

20:47

there's a danger that the film audience would

20:49

start to say, why is Sam even here?

20:52

And so you construct a scene that

20:54

some people think is against encounter to

20:57

the personalities of characters that Frodo would

20:59

send Sam away and Sam would go.

21:01

But this scene by him returning

21:04

and saving Frodo the way he

21:06

does like that whole thing works

21:09

so well to prove Sam's loyalty is

21:11

his superpower that it replaces chapters and

21:13

chapters and chapters in the books. And

21:15

you could have instead replaced that with

21:17

a conversation where Sam is like, Mr.

21:19

Frodo, you know that I'm the most

21:21

loyal person that ever and you're a

21:23

member of this time. I will never

21:25

leave you. Well, and that scene

21:28

also gives us the shorthand

21:31

for Gollum is insidious and

21:33

manipulative. Yep. And Frodo is so corrupted

21:35

by the ring, he can't think straight

21:37

anymore. Yep. And you get those all

21:40

showing rather than telling and compressed

21:42

and short. It's just

21:45

a brilliant example

21:47

of how to take what

21:49

is in a book and make something new

21:51

that works on the screen to convey the

21:54

same information. And it's so powerful. One of

21:56

my very favorite moments. And so, yeah, I

21:58

Think that that's part of it. The problem with

22:00

Golden Compass is it just didn't. Have those

22:02

things which is a real shame because

22:04

again the visual design of the casting

22:07

testing us so good. And you can

22:09

tell the people making this film read

22:11

and enjoyed the book and we're trying

22:13

hard and we've all done something where

22:15

we sit down to write something and

22:17

it doesn't work and I can see

22:19

that happening on the screen and my

22:21

heart goes out to them. Rights: There

22:23

are some time some people make something

22:25

and it seems so opposites to the

22:27

concept of the original that my heart

22:29

does not go out to them shall

22:31

we? Say lights I now I haven't

22:34

been able to bring myself our to

22:36

last us now rings of power. I

22:40

wouldn't say that, and Rings of Power is not at

22:42

opposite thing, But out yeah I would say that on

22:44

something like halo. The. Hill a television

22:46

show Where It Slide Us. Clearly

22:49

had very little if any love for

22:51

the source material for a vibe set

22:54

the games gives and we're trying to

22:56

tell a completely different story with the

22:58

one license they had access to exactly

23:01

and not to say something, might enjoy

23:03

that story. it might be well told,

23:05

minutes less minds. But. It's

23:07

not Halo. Yeah, I hear that season two

23:09

might be better. I haven't watched any of

23:12

it because they can't bring myself to be.

23:15

So what's next? I think

23:17

part of the issue is

23:19

that we could be at

23:21

the end. Of the blockbuster

23:23

era. That started with Jaws,

23:25

The Godfather, and Star Wars right?

23:28

Which is a big deal. We

23:30

don't know yet, but we could

23:32

be there and that's a shakeup.

23:34

We haven't seen Hollywood. For.

23:37

Fifty years and the

23:39

fact that major blockbusters

23:42

with tent actors and

23:44

ten franchises that gets

23:47

a decent critical reception

23:49

or flopping. Is.

23:52

a very big deal for hollywood and

23:54

so what's next is i think scarier

23:56

than it used to be yeah and

23:59

you know If we're seeing the end

24:01

of the blockbuster era, it

24:03

is more because of technology

24:05

and viewing patterns than

24:07

any artistic merit of the movies

24:10

that come out. I

24:12

do think that the superhero era really

24:15

took blockbusters to their

24:17

apex, right? Yeah. Like,

24:19

here's the thing and everything is going to

24:21

cost $200 million now or more, $400 in

24:24

a lot of cases. I remember when

24:26

Waterworld came out and it crossed $200 million

24:28

and was at the time the most expensive

24:31

movie ever made and everyone lost their minds

24:33

and today that's small change. Well

24:35

the other thing that they did is, so

24:39

I say this fully aware that I am

24:41

part of one of these, right? These connected

24:43

universes are a potential house

24:45

of cards. Yeah. Because

24:48

one of the problems that I've been

24:50

very aware of in the Cosmere that

24:52

I want to be very careful about

24:55

is when people

24:57

stop following it, getting

25:00

back into it is really

25:02

hard. For instance, if you skip

25:04

five James Bond movies and then you decide

25:06

to go see one, you're not lost. Yeah.

25:09

You don't have a problem at all. But if you skip five

25:12

MCU movies, you're not going to go

25:14

see the New Avengers movie, which is

25:16

their kind of linchpin where they expect

25:18

to make their money back having spent

25:20

a lot of money setting up these

25:22

characters. And that

25:25

can be a house of cards. In spite of that,

25:28

I think that if I were

25:30

to predict what's next, it's what we can

25:32

already see growing and what we've had for

25:34

10 years, which is long form storytelling. Well,

25:37

I think that that's, but is that at its

25:39

apex? I don't think it is. I

25:41

think they're continuing to come out. I think, for

25:44

example, I watched The English

25:47

on Amazon with Emily Blunt and Chaske

25:49

Spencer. It's only five episodes and

25:52

they're an hour long. And I realized, oh, this isn't a

25:54

TV show. This is a mini series like we used to

25:56

have on TV when I was a kid. And

25:58

if what we see now is the rise of

26:00

the miniseries. I would love that. A

26:02

story that is too big for a

26:05

movie and too small for a

26:07

show and so you're just going

26:09

to give us four, five,

26:11

six hours of really well done

26:13

long form content. It

26:16

seems like that might be the sweet spot

26:18

that we haven't hit yet. So here's the

26:20

problem though, they're going to have to stop

26:22

writing those like network television shows. This

26:25

is the problem with Rings of Power.

26:28

This is the problem, as much as

26:30

I like it with Ted Lasso, this is

26:33

the problem with Wheel of Time to an

26:35

extent is this idea of

26:37

we aren't embracing the new form. We

26:39

are trying to write a network show

26:41

that just has 12 episodes

26:43

and so the interconnected tissue, the

26:45

long form character arcs, it

26:48

doesn't feel like a 12 hour movie. It

26:50

feels like 12 episodes with

26:52

all the foibles of a 24

26:55

episode season just shorter. Just compressed.

26:58

Well and I do think that

27:00

Game of Thrones has a

27:02

lot to do with how those shows are

27:04

constructed. Rings of Power did not need to

27:06

have 10 separate stories with the cast of

27:09

millions but Game of Thrones was

27:11

successful so of course it did. And again, I

27:14

really do like the whole team working on Wheel

27:16

of Time. I think they've done some great things.

27:18

But one of my big fights with the show

27:20

runner has been, he's like, well this

27:22

is how we do it in television. I'm like,

27:24

but this is how we do it in long

27:27

form storytelling. And what you're

27:29

making should be more like the

27:31

long form storytelling rather than the

27:33

episodic television that is his background.

27:35

That's what he knows how to

27:37

make and I can't

27:39

blame him entirely because you come

27:42

from network television, you learn how to make a show.

27:45

But I think this

27:47

is my big problem with some of the

27:49

streaming shows is this idea. I want them

27:51

to write an entire season and

27:54

I want them to workshop that entire

27:56

season and I want them to get

27:59

those scripts good. and then film that. And

28:02

I don't see that happening a ton. I see

28:04

them sitting down and coming up with a concept

28:06

for the season, sending someone to start writing, someone

28:08

else to start writing, you to start writing, yours

28:11

gets done. You tell them we need you to

28:13

finish your scenes that are taking place in the

28:15

same place as this one because we got to

28:17

have our film date next month. So they will

28:19

film those three scenes from those three episodes written

28:22

by three different people, workshopped a little bit, but

28:24

then you get it back and then you're doing

28:26

like the scripts are never done by the time

28:28

they start filming. That's not how Hollywood

28:31

television works. And that

28:33

really bothers me because I can

28:35

see it in their storytelling. And

28:39

say what you will of a long form book series

28:41

like The Wheel of Time or something, you

28:43

pick up one of those books, Robert Jordan

28:45

had a chance to revise that whole book

28:47

and create a make it exactly what he

28:49

wanted it to be for you rather than

28:51

even if some of the stuff he came

28:53

up with off the cuff while I was

28:55

working on it, he got a chance to

28:57

integrate that all. And so I

28:59

hope you're right. But I hope they're

29:02

also willing to tell stories a little

29:04

bit more like a film. Because

29:07

you usually don't start filming your film until

29:09

your scripts done. I know it happens sometimes.

29:12

Little Donald over here is like, Yeah,

29:14

I've seen that happen. But yeah,

29:17

sorry, I call him Little Donald because I

29:19

know, because you know, you need to call

29:21

him Donald the Younger, not Little Donald because

29:24

he got small. Him first. Yeah. And then

29:26

I went to his wedding reception and I

29:28

met his father. And I was like, Why

29:30

are you my age? Because I'm like, he's

29:32

my friend. He counts as my age. You're

29:34

supposed to be an old man. And that's

29:36

not how it was. Guess what, Dan? Ben,

29:41

you're old.