Collider Connected

While you might not know producer John Davis’ name, I promise you’ve seen his work. As the Founder & Chairman of Davis Entertainment, he’s produced over 100 feature film and television projects in his career and his movies have collectively grossed more than $5 billion worldwide. You can check out his full resume over on IMDB. With his latest film, Jungle Cruise, now playing in theaters and available on Disney+ with Premiere Access, I recently landed an extended interview with Davis and John Fox, President of Production at Davis Entertainment, to talk about making the film.

During the wide-ranging interview, they shared some great stories about making Jungle Cruise, how they landed Dwayne Johnson, and balancing the nods to the ride with a great story. But the best thing they shared was what it was like to visit the secret Disney vault in Burbank with Dwayne Johnson and Sean Bailey (the president of production at Walt Disney Studios) in preparation for making Jungle Cruise. I’ve heard about the secret vault many times but very few people get inside.

In addition, Davis and Fox talked about talked about how the movie industry has changed during Davis’ career, how the industry has shifted to an IP driven model over movie stars, having studios that aren’t as willing to take risks, how Davis been trying to make Tricksters in the Madhouse (based on the true story of the Minneapolis Lakers playing the Harlem Globetrotters in 1948) for thirty years, how they’re shooting a movie using The Mandalorian technology, and more.

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With Old now playing in theaters, I recently landed an extended interview with writer-director M. Night Shyamalan about the making of his latest film and career. During the wide-ranging and very fun conversation, Shyamalan talked about his favorite movies, collecting first edition Hitchcock posters, what he’s learned during his career that he wishes he knew early on, why working with lower budgets has been his secret sauce, what happened with his Labor of Love script that was originally going to star Bruce Willis, how The Sixth Sense changed during the writing process, why Spilt has so many deleted scenes, the way he directs on set, meeting with Steven Spielberg to write the fourth Indiana Jones movie, and more. Of course, we also talked about the making of Old, how he charted the age of every actor for every scene, how he came up with the Old ending, and more. If you haven’t seen the trailers, Old is about a family on a tropical holiday that discover the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly. The film was inspired by the French graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. Old stars Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Alex Wolff, Rufus Sewell, Thomasin McKenzie, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abbey Lee, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, Eliza Scanlen, Emun Elliott, and Kathleen Chalfant.

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With director Abel Ferrara’s Siberia now playing in select theaters and available On Demand, I recently landed an extended interview with Willem Dafoe to talk about his extensive career. Even though I had thirty minutes to talk with the fantastic actor, it would be impossible to cover even a fraction of his amazing resume. So going in I decided to use some of the time to talk about his film work, and the rest of the conversation about other subjects like why he never directed, or when he felt like he made it as an actor and could pay rent just from acting.

4:07

However, before going any further, the reason I got to speak with him was his new movie Siberia. If you haven’t seen the trailer, I’d watch that first. As you can probably gleam from the footage, the movie is not easy to explain because Dafoe and Ferrara designed the film to make the audience think, and they leave many of the things that happen up to the viewer to decipher. What I’ll say is if you want to check out something a bit more enigmatic that doesn’t follow the typical narrative structure, check this film out because it’s not like most movies and Dafoe delivers a great performance.

4:07

During the interview Dafoe talks about what it was like working on Heaven’s Gate so early in his career, how he adopted a greyhound rescue, how the business has changed since he started in the industry, auditioning for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, why he loves Robert Eggers’ work and what he’s excited for people to see in The Northman, making Nightmare Alley with Guillermo del Toro, David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, and a lot more.

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Dave Bautista is one of the most interesting actors working today. In this 30-minute interview, the wrestler-turned-movie-star dives deep into his career, including Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy, Army of the Dead, Dune, and more.

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If you’re a fan of screen-printed posters, you probably know the name Tyler Stout. That’s because over the past two decades, Stout has designed tons of extremely cool posters for bands, movies, and also released numerous art prints. In addition, he has also pushed in to designing stickers, sneakers, socks, and even wood posters. For a look at his extensive work, I’d suggest visiting ExpressoBeans or Stout’s website.

With his latest work, an awesome poster for John Carpenter’s Halloween, going on sale later this week via Grey Matter Art, I recently conducted an exclusive interview about his career. During the wide-ranging conversation, Stout talked about his early work and how it was never meant to last, how the Halloween poster happened, how he’s working on a Mad Max: Fury Road poster, why no one is releasing metal posters right now, what he does with his original drawings, how many posters he tends to keep, timed editions versus limited runs, if he prefers the regular to the variant, why he doesn’t like to sell full sets of his handbills, if he ever made a Jurassic Park poster, why it took a year to get the Captain America: Civil War poster approved, and more. Moreover, as a big fan of Stout’s work, I asked what we need to do to get a Galaxy Quest or a Hot Fuzz poster, other Marvel posters, and other fan-type questions.

If you’re a fan of Stout’s work, I’m extremely confident you’ll enjoy this conversation.

Timecodes:

• If he could do any poster what would he love to do?

• 1:25 - How long does it take for him to do a poster?

• 2:20 – How he’s been working on a Mad Max: Fury Road poster for a long time.

• 4:05 – What’s the fastest poster he’s done and which took the longest? Why it took a year to get the Captain America: Civil War poster done.

• 5:25 – What does he do with his original drawings?

• 7:05 – How did the Halloween poster happen and was he nervous to do the poster after so many people have made cool Halloween posters?

• 8:15 – Does he usually prefer the regular edition or the variant?

• 10:10 – What was he hoping to sell on the timed edition Terminator poster versus what they actually sold?

• 11:45 – How do they decide when to do a timed edition?

• 13:30 – Have they ever discussed doing another variant of an older poster?

• 16:05 – Why have metal posters slowed down?

• 18:10 – Are wood posters easier to make?

• 19:05 – How many posters does he save for himself?

• 22:20 – How many of Big Trouble in Little China variants does he have?

• 23:20 – How many Robocop metal posters does he have?

• 25:05 – Does he have stuff that people don’t even know exist?

• 26:35 – Briefly shows off his Avengers: Age of Ultron metal poster.

• 27:00 – Why the same films get posters done when there are so many great films that have never been made.

• 29:25 – Does he have a lot of posters that have been killed for whatever reason?

• 30:45 – Has he ever done a Jurassic Park poster?

• 32:45 – How his early posters were made on very thin paper and were never made to last this long.

• 35:15 – Has he framed his older posters to make them last?

• 37:10 – Is he surprised at the success of his wood posters?

• 39:30 – How long does it take to make the wood prints?

• 30:25 - Why he likes working with pallet wood.

• 41:40 – Has he thought about selling full sets of the handbills?

• 43:50 – What does he wish people knew?

• 46:00 – Does he pay attention to what people are saying in his Facebook group or online?

• 48:15 – What was it like selling the sneakers and socks?

• 50:25 – How he’s thought about making toys.

• 51:30 – How Grey Matter Art is shipping 100% of the Halloween posters which is a first for Stout.

• 52:20 – Will be sell Halloween AP’s?

• 53:05 – What do I need to do to get a Galaxy Quest poster?

• 54:15 – How much is he working on right now?

• 55:37 – Will he be doing any other Marvel posters?

• 57:00 – What do we need to do to get a Hot Fuzz poster?

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With City of Lies now playing in select theaters and available on Digital and On Demand, I recently conducted an extended interview with director Brad Furman about the making of the film. Based on the book LAbyrinth, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Randall Sullivan, City of Lies attempts to pull the curtain back on the murder of iconic rap artist Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G.

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If you’re a comic book fan, you know Frank Miller’s name. Over the course of his decades-spanning career, Miller’s work on Daredevil, Elektra, Batman (especially The Dark Knight Returns), Wolverine, Sin City, 300, and too many other things to mention here have influenced countless people around the world and brought in tons of new readers to the medium. In addition, it wasn’t just Miller’s hard-boiled storytelling that inspired readers, he’s also a brilliant artist and inker whose unique style has helped bring mainstream acclaim to comic books. You really can’t overestimate Miller’s influence on comic books.

As the co-creator and writer of The Walking Dead, Invincible, Outcast, and Oblivion Song, Robert Kirkman has had a terrific run thus far. Not only did his fantastic Invincible animated series just premiere on Amazon Prime Video, for over ten years, AMC's The Walking Dead has been one of the highest-rated shows on television, and the enormously popular series has launched a few spinoffs (Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond), with more stories launching soon.

So who better than Miller and Kirkman to team up in the inaugural installment of a new, exclusive series called Collider Connections, in which two people from the same industry have a free-flowing conversation about their careers without a moderator.

During the 20-minute discussion, you’ll get to see two people that clearly respect each other’s work having fun. Topics touched on include Batman, how they each tackle story, The Walking Dead, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jack Kirby, Dave Gibbons, Daredevil, Elektra, Hollywood, Robocop 2, Sin City, The Spirit, Hard Boiled, and more.

Trust me, if you are a comic book fan, you’re going to really enjoy this conversation.

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It’s not every day you get to speak with someone that has influenced hundreds of millions of people on a planet, but it happened a few days ago when I spoke with William Shatner for our latest episode of Collider Connected. During the extended interview, Shatner shared some amazing stories about his entire career ranging from his time on Broadway in the 50’s, to being on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958, to his recent partnership with Storyfile which will allow future generations to have conversations with him (he recorded with Storyfile for five days to make this happen).

In addition, Shatner talked about his life long love affair with animals and horses, why he owes Star Trek: Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green an apology, how David E. Kelley cast him as "Denny Crane" after seeing him in a Priceline commercial, what it was like winning two Emmy’s for the role, what it was like being Christopher Plummer’s understudy on Henry V, directing T.J. Hooker, Star Trek, his fantastic album with Ben Folds, and all the various projects he’s been working on during the pandemic.

However, before going any further, the reason Shatner was doing interviews was to promote his new movie opening this weekend, Senior Moment. In the film, he plays a retired NASA test pilot living in Palm Springs whose life changes when he loses his license. Forced to take public transportation, he meets his polar opposite Caroline (Jean Smart) and learns to navigate love and life again. Senior Moment also stars Christopher Lloyd, Esai Morales, Katrina Bowden and Carlos Miranda.

Check out what Shatner had to say in the player above and below is everything we talked about. If you’re a fan of Shatner’s, or just want to hear some great stories, you’re going to really enjoy this conversation.

William Shatner:

• Has he been vaccinated yet?

• What has he been during the past year while he’s been trapped at home?

• Talks about Storyfile and how future generations will be able to have a conversation with him. Took him 5 days to record his answers.

• His album with Ben Folds has a song called “It hasn’t happened yet.” I asked him if its happened.

• In the song there is a line “at my age I need serenity. I need peace.” Has he gotten it yet?

• For the young viewers that have never seen your work, what is the first thing or things that he’d like them to watch?

• What does it mean to have influenced so many people on our planet?

• When did he realize he wanted to act?

• What did his parents say when he told them he wanted to act for a living?

• Did his family come see him on Broadway after telling him not to act for a living?

• How he was Christopher Plummer’s understudy on Henry V and shares a great story about what happened the night he had to go on.

• What it was like getting roles in the 50s and 60s (he did a lot of television episodes).

• What was it like being on an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958.

• Shares a story about the night he opened his one man show on Broadway and what happened because of food poisoning.

• What was it about Senior Moment that made him want to get involved?

• I jokingly ask if he did the movie because the production said they would give him the classic Porsche he drove in the movie.

• What was it like working with Christopher Lloyd?

• Did he have flashbacks to playing Denny Crane in the courtroom scene?

• Did he improvise on the film?

• Did he take home and props or costumes from the things he’s worked on?

• What was it like directing episodes of T.J. Hooker and shooting episodic television?

• What did he think of Galaxy Quest?

• How he’s ever watched Star Trek.

• Why he owes Star Trek: Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green an apology.

• Is it true David E. Kelley cast him as Denny Crane after seeing him in a Priceline commercial?

• What did it mean winning two Emmy’s for playing Denny Crane and did he think he was going to win?

• His support for animals.

• When did he fall in love with horses?

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Lucy Lawless has thrived in the sci-fi, fantasy and action genres for years now with a slew of standout titles to her name including Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica and Spartacus. But even with all that experience, her latest feature, The Spine of Night, still feels like a wholly unique, one-of-a-kind production that takes her craft into new territory.

The movie is an ultra-violent epic told through hand-drawn rotoscope animation. The tale spans eras highlighting those who come together to stop a sinister force wielding a devastating amount of dark magic. The Spine of Night does have an anthology feel to it, but there is one especially prominent character significantly contributing to both the heart and the framework of the film, and that’s Lawless as Tzod, a shamaness with experience harnessing such power who watches as it falls into the wrong hands.

Check out this episode of Collider Connected to hear all about how Whoopi Goldberg inspired Lawless at a young age, what it was like making her way from Hercules and the Amazon Women to Xena, committing to The Spine of Night and so much more!

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Kaitlyn Dever's been adding titles to her filmography for quite a while now, but the one that had my jaw on the floor was her work in Destin Daniel Cretton's Short Term 12. I'll never forget seeing that film for the very first time and getting utterly overwhelmed by that wave of certainty that Dever would go on to do big things. From there, it was one impressive title after the next - Justified, Detroit and Beautiful Boy, just to name a few. Dever isn't just solidifying herself as one of the most talented stars of her generation, but she's also highlighting the fact that she's got an eye for powerful projects in the process.

I was lucky enough to talk to Dever about her 2019 release Booksmart quite a few times over the course of that movie's run, and calling that experience a pleasure would be an understatement. Not only is Dever and the folks behind that film an utter joy to spend time with, but it's also a film that's making a positive impact as a highly entertaining comedy with thematic heft that makes it emboldening and inspiring.

Then we got Dever's Netflix series Unbelievable in September of 2019, further cementing it as a landmark year for the actor. Not only did she score Critics' Choice and Golden Globe nominations for her performance, but Unbelievable is also a show that could truly make a difference by raising awareness of the effects of sexual assault.

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