Our good friend Brandon Routh is one of those “thoughtful actors”. Some, by contrast, are more intuitive. They let their guts and gut instincts guide them and their creative choices. In most cases, their life choices, too. But, that’s another conversation for another day and another podcast. I’ve no doubt that had Brandon become anything else – a doctor, a teacher, a businessperson – he’d have been just as thoughtful. But he’s a storyteller by trade. Being “thoughtful” is part of the gig. Maybe that’s why he’s so good at it. An Excellent Superman It’s why Brandon made and still […]

Today we’re talking about criticism – and why REAL movie critics really do matter. Here’s the thing about criticism. If you can’t take it, you have no business being in show business. Show business is all about getting and taking criticism. There WILL Be Criticism! From the moment you put any sort of creative idea on the table – whether in the form of a pitch or a script or a concept package – whether it’s the people you’re working with or the people you’re trying to sell it to – there will be criticism. First thing? You cannot take […]

Don’t ya just hate it when soap gets in your eyes? Nothing burns quite like it. Today, we’re going to talk about ACTING – but a very specific kind of acting. The kind they do in SOAP OPERAS like THE GUIDING LIGHT, GENERAL HOSPITAL, ALL MY CHILDREN, AS THE WORLD TURNS. Or like in the one soap opera aimed at people like me, DARK SHADOWS. It really is a particular kind of acting. And it requires a particular skill set to pull it off. Not every actor can. They get self conscious about it. Or they judge it. More fool […]

It turns out starting The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast set a lot of things in motion and opened a lot of damned doors. The most exciting of those newly opened doors is the opportunity to tell some mind-blowing stories in this medium that I have truly come to love. So, I started a little podcasting company. Costard & Touchstone Productions. The first C&T original production is a podcast called “The Donor: A DNA Horror Story“. I really and truly hope that you’ll check it out. If you’re a fan of Tales From The Crypt – or horror […]

How to write like a genius… sounds easy enough! And the way our guest CHARLES FLEISCHER writes, he makes writing like a genius seem easy. Spoiler alert: it’s not. You probably know Charlie as the voice of ROGER RABBIT. He’s also in the TALES FROM THE CRYPT feature film DEMON KNIGHT and a kajillion other movies and TV shows. Or, you may know Charlie as a stand up. Or an artist. or from his scientific work (he’s published actual scientific papers and done extensive research on MOLEEDS). But, you probably don’t know Charlie as a writer of short stories. Charlie […]

If you’re a regular listener to this podcast – or, if you catch us regularly on our YouTube channel – and, by the way, we’ll never turn down a “like” there – you know that we’ve always got our finger on the movie and TV business’s pulse. Cos we always want to know. Is it alive? Is it dead? Is it dying? Between the pandemic and then the WGA and SAG strikes – on top of the financial impact of the streaming wars on everyone but Netflix and Disney – the movie and TV business in Los Angeles at least […]

How can you not love movies? I grew up a movie lover. Movies – and the people who make them and appear in them – have shaped my life and the directions my life’s taken. Hell, one of the greatest joys of working on TALES FROM THE CRYPT was getting to work with some of the very people whose movies I adored. Like MALCOLM MCDOWELL, TOM HANKS, BUCK HENRY, KIRK DOUGLASS, BOB ZEMECKIS, JOHN FRANKENHEIMER, MICHAEL J FOX and WALTER HILL to name but a very few. I really do love movies! There are some – if I haven’t seen […]

One of the things we care about deeply here at the How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast is the future of movies and the MOVIE BUSINESS. Spoiler alert: it’s not in a very good way right this second. Nonetheless the next wave of filmmakers – like Leah N. H. Philpott and Jacob Leighton Burns, our guests in this episode – are looking for the swell that will bring them in – and bring them success in this insane business. The kid of hockey legend Ed Philpott, Leah’s from Newfoundland, Canada. She went from being a quiet kid to a […]

Join Gil and I as we catch up! In fact, this episode’s pretty much Gil and I just shootin’ the shit. But, to be perfectly honest, it’s some pretty interesting shit we shot! As you’ll hear, Gil is working on some extremely compelling projects. In The Beginning… When we started this podcast – three years and a hundred twenty-five plus episodes ago – we wanted to tell the story of how making a dumb little horror movie – Bordello Of Blood – wrecked not just a great creative partnership, but a friendship. As we’ve told it here, we weren’t even […]

We’ve met a lot of talented film makers over the years. My friend ART SEVADA has made some remarkable shorts. His first was nominated at the CANNES FILM FESTIVAL! Art grew up outside of YEREVAN, ARMENIA as the Soviet Union wound down. Since moving to America (when he was a teenager), Art’s made movies, music, art and all sorts of artfully designed products. He really is a style meister! As I’ve detailed on this podcast, part of my story was a two decades-long writer’s block. I had convinced myself I had no more stories to tell. That was a crazy […]