Our X-MEN mini-series continues as we analyze the conclusion to the first trilogy of films, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand.

Anticipation was high for the follow-up to the acclaimed X2, but with Bryan Singer leaving the franchise to direct Superman Returns, leaving Fox to find a new director in a hurry. When that director ultimately left as well, they were forced to hire Brett Ratner at the last possible moment. In addition to director woes, the shooting script was leaked and reviewed poorly online, with complaints leveled against the film’s multiple storylines including its handling of the fan favorite Dark Phoenix storyline, and its mistreatment of many of its characters. Basically, 2006 was not a great time to be an X-Men fan.

Joining Nick and Scott to talk about what went wrong and why is podcasters and X3 defender, Norman Mitchell (Lord of the Rings Minute).

CONTENT WARNING: This episode features frank discussions about some of the allegations of abusive behavior against Brett Ratner, through the testimony of his victims. While there are many allegations against Ratner, we focused on the events leading to and surrounding the making of this particular film.

Send us your X-MEN-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter, get access to the “Franchise Potential” podcast, and help us reach 100 patrons to start a main feed Bonus Feature podcast!

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Edited by Scott Tofte

Our X-MEN mini-series continues as we take a look 2003’s sequel, X2!

By the summer of 2003, the blockbuster landscape had been drastically changed with the release of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man the previous year. Moviegoers wanted comic book movies, and they were using their wallets to let studios know in the form of a $100mil opening weekend (an unthinkable financial success in the early 2000s). So, after three years of build-up, expectations were high for the sequel to X-Men, and somehow X2 managed to exceed all of them with an ambitious sequel that was bigger and better than its predecessor.

Joining Nick and Scott to talk about allegorical homophobia, the Patriot Act, and that scene in the White House (you know the one) are actors, podcasters, and siblings, Billy & Dagny McCartney (Poptimist).

CONTENT WARNING: This episode features frank discussions about some of the allegations against Bryan Singer, et al. through the testimony of their victims and public records. While there are many allegations against Singer, we focused on the events leading to and surrounding the making of this particular film.

Send us your X-MEN-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter, get access to the “Franchise Potential” podcast, and help us reach 100 patrons to start a main feed Bonus Feature podcast!

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Edited by Adam Sheehan

Hot Mutant Summer begins with the launch of a new mini-series about the X-MEN franchise! And we’re starting with 20th Century Fox’s first entry in the series, 2000’s X-Men.

In the Summer of 2000, most people thought the comic book movie was dead thanks to a run of flops and failures through the mid to late 90s. So when X-Men was due to be released in theaters that June, no one really knew what to expect. The movie they got, however, would redefine what a comic book movie was capable of being, and change the cinema landscape… forever?

Joining Nick and Scott to talk about the origin of the comic book movie boom is X-Men fan and YouTube Wizard, Wally Weilbaecher.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode features frank discussions about some of the allegations against Bryan Singer, et al. through the testimony of their victims and public records. While there are many allegations against Singer, we focused on the events leading to and surrounding the making of this particular film.

Send us your X-MEN-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter, get access to the “Franchise Potential” podcast, and help us reach 100 patrons to start a main feed Bonus Feature podcast!

Follow us on TWITTER to vote for future mini-series!

Join the Dueling Genre Discord Server: https://discord.gg/rngwTkz8yw

Edited by Scott Tofte

It’s a Betweenisode!

First, we wrap up the Scream franchise with our thoughts on the new film opening next year, and the horror genre in general.

Then, Nick & Scott announce their franchise picks for the following genres:

The nominations in each genre will go head to head in Twitter polls released daily for 24hrs starting TODAY (6/18) and continuing daily until a winning franchise is decided to become our next Franchisography mini-series.

Follow us on TWITTER to vote in the franchise polls!

Franchise Potential: Super Mario Bros (1993) episode now available on PATREON!

Join the Dueling Genre Discord Server: https://discord.gg/rngwTkz8yw

Send us your X-MEN-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Our SCREAM mini-series concludes as we take a look at the lega-sequel and attempted franchise re-starter, 2011’s Scream 4!

Released 11 years after the original trilogy capper, Scream 4 was meant to be a return to form for the series after the lukewarm reception of the third entry, and a fresh start for writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven after the disaster of Cursed. Meant to be the start of a new trilogy of Scream films that would follow a new generation of protagonists, things, unfortunately, did not go exactly as planned. While ultimately a massive improvement over the third film, Scream 4 still suffered from reshoots that changed the ending and intention for the film, taking the original gutsy concept that could have continued in future sequels, and instead, turning it into just a “pretty good sequel.”

Joining Nick and Scott to talk about the tumultuous journey that Scream 4 took to arrive on screen, is film critic and fellow podcaster Kate Sánchez (But Why Tho?).

Send us your SCREAM-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter, get access to the “Franchise Potential” podcast, and help us reach 100 patrons to start a main feed Bonus Feature podcast!

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Edited by Adam Sheehan

Our SCREAM mini-series continues with an extracurricular look at the 2005 werewolf film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, Cursed!

After missing out on participating in Scream 3, Kevin Williamson wanted to write something new that he and director Wes Craven could collaborate on again, but instead of a slasher film, they settled on a werewolf creature feature. Enter: Cursed! And boy, was it! After (literally) years of rewrites, reshoots, redesigns, and recuts, the movie was finally released in theaters to a tepid response and promptly flopped at the box office.

What was the original intention for Cursed, and what the hell happened to it? We get to the bottom of it in our first BONUS FEATURE.

No guests this week, just vibes!

Send us your SCREAM-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter, get access to the “Franchise Potential” podcast, and help us reach 100 patrons for more “Bonus Feature” episodes like this one!

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Edited by Scott Tofte

Our SCREAM mini-series continues, as we take a look at the attempted trilogy capper, 2000’s Scream 3!

After making two films practically back to back, the cast and crew wanted a break to work on other projects, causing a mess of contradicting availabilities for a third film. This combined with a series of tragedies resulted in series writer Kevin Williamson’s script being thrown out for the concluding chapter of his original trilogy, and new writer Ehren Kruger stepping in to write a script for the third film in six weeks. The result is a campy, comedic, and madcap sequel that doesn’t feel like it belongs in the same world as the previous two films, doing practically every character a disservice in the process. Scream 3 is kind of a mess, but at least the story of how it came to be is interesting!

Joining Nick and Scott to talk about retcons, bonus killers, and hijinx aplenty is fellow podcaster Niall McGowan (BatMinute).

Send us your SCREAM-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter, get access to the “Franchise Potential” podcast, and help us reach 100 patrons to start our main feed “Bonus Feature” podcast!

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Edited by Adam Sheehan

Our SCREAM mini-series continues, as we take a look at 1997’s sequel, Scream 2!

After the massive success of the first film, a sequel was a foregone conclusion but no one knew just how quickly it would manifest. Released less than a year after the original film, Scream 2 is a sequel that has no business working as well as it does. Between script leaks, heightened set security, and on-the-fly rewrites for reshoots that changed the identity and motives of the killers, somehow the sequel still manages to stick the landing and become one of the best horror sequels of all time.

Joining Nick and Scott to talk about all of the things that can go wrong (and right!) in twelve short months, is voice actor and fellow podcaster Chris O’Connor (Geek By Night, True Believers).

Send us your SCREAM-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter, get access to the “Franchise Potential” podcast, and help us reach 100 patrons to start a main feed bonus show!

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Edited by Scott Tofte

We’re starting a new mini-series and it’s a SCREAM, baby! And we’re starting in 1996 with the meta-horror hit that started it all, Wes Craven’s Scream.

When writer Kevin Williamson wrote a spec script titled “Scary Movie” over three days in Palm Springs, he had no idea the level at which the eventual film would change the horror landscape forever, he just wanted to write a slasher film. Enter: a successful producer with a brand new genre-focused production company looking for a screenplay that could redefine horror for a new generation; a famous horror director in the midst of a slump on the search for a film that could revitalize his career; and a former child star on an upswing ready to turn down the lead role in favor of creating an iconic performance in 13 minutes of screentime. And that’s just the beginning…

Joining Nick and Scott to talk about the legendary Hollywood story of how this movie came to be and discuss why it still holds up, is podcaster Bryan Green (Theme Park This).

Send us your SCREAM-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter to vote for our next mini-series and help us start a main feed bonus show!

Follow us on TWITTER to vote in future first round match-ups!

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Join Nick & Scott for the first ever Franchisography Betweenisode!

First, we go through our mailbag to discuss the MIB-related memories, questions, and hypotheticals sent to us by our listeners.

Then, Nick & Scott announce their franchise picks for the following genres:

The nominations in each genre will go head to head in Twitter polls released daily for 24hrs starting TODAY (5/7) through Wednesday (5/12). The finalist of each round will then be put into a final poll for Patreon, where our supporters there will vote to decide the winning franchise that will become our next Franchisography mini-series.

Follow us on TWITTER to vote in the first round match-ups!

Become a Premier Tier PATREON supporter to vote in the finals!

Join the Dueling Genre DISCORD to discuss the latest results! 

Send us your SCREAM-related memories, questions, or feelings and we’ll read them in the next Betweenisode! [email protected]