Welcome to The Open Slate! Ever sat through the credits and wondered what a stand-in stands on? Or whether the Base PA plays baseball? In this series, we sit down with working film industry professionals from across the departments for unvarnished, honest, practical conversations about how and why they joined the movie business, how they contribute day-to-day to the creation of cinema, and how they maintain their careers in a high-pressure, highly sought after field.

Episode 5 explores someone who didn’t attend Leeds Met University, but is, as chance would have it, from Leeds (Leeds Leeds) - Lev Watach , a Cast Assistant, Cast Coordinator, and Assistant Director whose credits list boasts adventures with Indiana Jones and Han Solo among major productions for some of the biggest studios in the world. Patrick accompanies Lev on a tour through his career, from the early days cooped up in a cinema projection room, a brave move to Vancouver in search of a big break, via hand doubling Benedict Cumberbatch, on his way to becoming one of the most trusted cast assistants in the country.

Special Mentions:

www.unorthodoxroasters.co.uk

https://www.youtube.com/@ValVerdeBroadcasting

Head over to our Teemill store for merchandise, movie shirts, art prints, stickers, totes and more. If you’d like to support the podcast, a review or a quick rating on your platform of choice is the best way you can help us get the word out and keep the conversations flowing. 

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

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Do not adjust your calendars - Matt and Devlin have jumped the gun by six months with this Halfway to HalloRe’ewind double bill - a very special episode where we pitch to horror film agnostic Patrick two tenuously connected 1980s slashers in the Canuxploitation sequel-in-name-only Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II and the Spanish-American co-produced mayhem of Pieces. 

In Devlin’s choice Hello Mary Lou, the vengeful spirit of a would-be 1950s Prom Queen escapes containment in then-modern-day 1987 Hamilton High, seeking a vessel through which to ruthlessly reclaim her position atop the social totem pole, and seek out the jilted boyfriend who was responsible for her fiery public death - now the high school principal played by Canadian icon Michael Ironside. Pairing Nightmare on Elm Street-esque, phantasmagoric practical effects, Catholic sexual repression, and teen high melodrama, this film came relatively late in the slasher cycle, and emerged as a cineliterate magpie of the decade’s tropes.

Matt’s pick Pieces sees a chainsaw-wielding maniac seek out pretty women to carve up and reconstruct into a corpsey jigsaw on a college campus in a suitably sleazy example of the relatively early days of the slasher subgenre. A mysterious madman, ludicrous giallo-aping death scenes, buckets of gore, and foxy undercover tennis detectives mark a wild cult classic from the video nasty era.

Judge Patrick (residing) assesses the films’ merits and the pleas of the panel, as Devlin and Matt make their case to get fresh eyes on some springtime slashing.

Head to rewindmoviecast.com for an introductory essay by Matt! And as always, merchandise and movie shirts, hoodies, totes and more are available at devlindoesdrawing.teemill.com, including our new Slasher Tropes Bingo artwork.

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Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? We delve into the murky, rain-soaked neon streets of 2019 Los Angeles for Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 sci-fi slow burner Blade Runner.

Retired replicant hunter Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is pulled back into duty when four illegal synthetic humanoids are reported to be loose in the sprawling, polluted megalopolis. Led by the enigmatic Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the creations seem to have developed an emotional range that their kind was never built for, and seek fundamental answers from the genius founder of the company that made them. Questions also plague the downtrodden Deckard as he falls for the tragic, beautiful replicant Rachael, and the true nature of his brutal task becomes murkier than ever.

An infamous flop on release, saddled with studio-mandated edits and voiceover narration, the film’s reputation was salvaged by a 10 year anniversary recut that cemented its place as a visually resplendent, influential work of importance. But questions raised during its release by a mixed, occasionally hostile critical community, continue to swirl around the film, as even the primary creatives express conflicting opinions about the answers. Join Gali, Devlin and Matt as they set down their noodles and take on the case.

Thanks to listener James for the suggestion! If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at [email protected]. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com. For specially designed merchandise, movie shirts, posters, and our famous Bingo Trope Totes and a poster based on this week’s episode cover image, head to DevlinDoesDrawing on Teemill. 

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LATE RETURN FEE: Rewind dips into the archive for a classic episode from 2020 - one of the very first featuring the whole four-piece panel!

NO BLADES. NO BOWS. LEAVE YER WEAPONS ‘ERE. We’re off to Sherwood Forest with the bemulleted, Nottingham-by-way-of-Burbank-accented Robin of Locksley, as he returns from The Crusades with a taste for swashbuckling justice in the 1991 mega-smash Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Accompanied by the capable and noble Moor Azeem (Morgan Freeman), Kevin Costner’s Robin romances the radiant Maid Marion, robs the rich, and rebels against the reprehensible Sheriff of Nottingham (an uproariously pantomime-pitch Alan Rickman) with the assistance of a band of tree-dwelling local folk.

The second Kevins Costner & Reynolds collaboration before the ill-fated Waterworld, this epic romp packs in Brian Blessed, Crystal Maze-esque set design, gleaming white arses in waterfalls and more ill-placed Cornish accents than you can shake a big wooden fighting stick at. Join Gali, Devlin, Patrick and Matt as they take to the trees and relive the summer of Bryan Adams. All together now: ”Look in to my eyes…”

Robin Hood: The Man, The Myth, The Legend (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Behind the Scenes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VA2CHj_n0s

Head over to rewindmoviecast.com and don’t forget to check out devlindoesdrawing.teemill.com for Rewind Movie Podcast merchandise, and shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags and more from Devlin’s personal selection of cult favourite films.

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Thank you for listening and if you like the show please press that subscribe button and leave us a little review, MANY THANKS!!!

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“Sharks come and go, Ellen. People have got nothing to do with it.” We’re wrapping up our Jaws series reviews with a spin around the islands for Joseph Sargent’s much-maligned final entry, 1987’s Jaws The Revenge.

Sidestepping the continuity of the bizarre theme park catastrophe Jaws 3-D, a newly re-cast Sean Brody (Mitchell Anderson) has followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Amity Police Department, hanging out with his widowed mother Ellen (Lorraine Gary) following the Chief’s off-screen death by heart attack some years before. But, on a routine boat trip to clear some debris from a dock, Sean is brutally attacked by yet another Great White. A distraught Ellen is comforted by eldest son Mike (Lance Guest), now a marine biologist studying sea snails, who whisks her off post-funeral to the Bahamian home he shares with his artist wife (Karen Young) and young daughter (Judith Barsi) to recover from the trauma. Distraction is provided by a budding romance with shifty English prop plane pilot Hoagie (Michael Caine), until a familiar, toothy menace seems to have traversed the wide ocean seeking out Brody blood. 

This infamous sequel’s reputation as one of the worst in modern cinema precedes it, but our panel of Gali, Devlin and Matt try their best to assess this unique entry into the 80s franchise pantheon on an even keel. The gang talk corporate shenanigans, via comeback queen (and wife of the studio president) Lorraine Gary’s return to the screen after a near-decade hiatus; awful public art projects; questionable deployment of patois; and correct tuck technique for shark-dismembered limbs. Order up some Bahama Mamas and settle in for the conclusion of the increasingly bizarre Brody family saga. 

Head over to rewindmoviecast.com for an introductory essay by Matt, and don’t forget to check out devlindoesdrawing.teemill.com for Rewind Movie Podcast merchandise, and shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags and more from Devlin’s personal selection of cult favourite films.

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

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Oh it's them. The little guys. My little munchkins! We’re strolling back to the Amblin Entertainment heyday with Matthew Robbins’ cute, nostalgic, intergalactic robot heartwarmer *batteries not included.

Elderly corner café owner Frank Riley (frequent Hitchcock collaborator Hume Cronyn) and his flighty, seemingly bewildered wife Faye (Cronyn’s real-life partner Jessica Tandy) struggle on as two of the last remaining tenants in a condemned East Village New York townhouse, rejecting the aggressive tactics of local thug Carlos (Michael Carmine) who is in the pay of the developer who seeks to level this last crumbling vestige of the old neighbourhood in order to build monumental glass skyscrapers. Joined only by a pregnant young woman (Elizabeth Peña), a disheartened artist (Dennis Boutsikaris), and a near-mute former boxing champion-turned-handyman (Frank McRae) they face certain eviction until, suddenly, the damage the building suffered when Carlos and his gang attacked it miraculously seems to fix itself. Faye discovers a pair of mysterious, mischievous ‘miracles’ - improvised flying saucers made of household objects - that may offer a ray of hope for this unlikely cooperative.

Originally a pitch by future Master of Horror creator Mick Garris for Steven Spielberg’s big budget anthology series Amazing Stories, the producer instead developed the project for the theatrical release, enlisting the thematically appropriate Short Circuit creators Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson along with future Simpsons writer/Pixar legend Brad Bird to pen the script. Patrick takes Gali, Devlin and Matt on a comforting trip back to an era of emotionally resonant, feel-good family sci-fi comedy dramas, as the gang talks cute robots, alien fixations, Boomer nostalgia, and the nascent power of the Grey Pound during the post-Cocoon era of the Reagan Eighties.

Head to rewindmoviecast.com for all our previous episodes, blogs, essays and more, and check out our merchandise at our Teemill store, where you can find shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, and poster prints inspired by our favourite cult films, including many we’ve covered here on the podcast (including this one!).

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Proctor, I don’t see a salad bar.” We’ve enlisted in the ker-raziest cop department in Metro City, and are skating through the streets with Tony Hawk and David Spade for the 1987 madcap fourquel Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.

As the surprise comedy hit of 1984, the original Police Academy quickly spawned an annual franchise, with canny producer Paul Maslansky rushing budget-conscious, increasingly family-friendly fare out to the market for the remainder of the decade (and one ill-advised 1990s entry). Film-picker Matt has chosen this pivotal middle entry as his quintessential crystallisation of the oft-maligned series, using this final picture in the Carey Mahoney saga as a lens through which to examine the whole run. We discuss its influences, its relationship to the comedy movie landscape at the time, and its latter-day reputation as a critical punching bag that nevertheless persists as a nostalgic guilty pleasure for a very specific generation of fans.

Why not throw on your icky blue uniform, become one with the gun, mace your armpits, and learn the correct way to eat a donut with Gali, Devlin, Matt, Patrick, Mahoney, Jones, Tackleberry, Hightower, Zed, Sweetchuck, Hooks, Callahan, and dozy old Commandant Lassard as we fire up the proprietary rap theme and hand-dance in our patrol car on our way to a climactic air show spectacular. Jerk!

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Show notes:

Patrick (H) Willems - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCxZ_QdaSQ8

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Funnily Enough, We Never Lose Our Luggage! We’ve snuck a sequel into your stocking this Christmas - Chris Columbus’ 1992 big city follow-up Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. 

After a familiar family blow-up on the eve of a Christmas trip (this time to Florida, where they don’t even have Christmas trees), mischievous Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin) finds himself on the wrong flight, landing in New York City armed with a Talkboy, a wad of cash, and his dad’s credit card. But his toy-shopping, three-scoop-eating, cheese-pizza-limo adventure is disrupted by the appearance of his bungling burglar nemeses Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), precipitating another night of carefully planned festive torture and traumatic head injuries. 

Merry Christmas from your Rewind pals! Be sure to head to rewindmoviecast.com for Devlin’s 73-point nerdy timeline of sequelitis (a timestamped chart of near-identical moments from the original to part 2) if you, like us, are a sicko who would be into that sort of thing. And if you’re swept up in the spirit of generosity, why not head to devlindoesdrawing.teemill.com for some merchandise, and grab yourself a t-shirt, tote, or poster?

Head over to our Teemill store for merchandise, movie shirts, art prints, stickers, totes and more. If you’d like to support the podcast, a review or a quick rating on your platform of choice is the best way you can help us get the word out and keep the conversations flowing. 

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LATE RETURN FEE: Rewind dips into the archives to rerelease a classic episode from 2020 while we take a little winter break. And now's not the time for dick measuring, Stuart! We’re dipping into the Bargain Bin to give Patrick’s favourite Paris-set old-man-on-a-rampage Geriaction touchstone Taken a spin.

Recently retired, non-specific Government tough guy Brian Mills’ (Liam Neeson) worst fears come true as his beloved 32-year-old teenage daughter is kidnapped by literally the first guy she meets on a summer vacation to Europe. Now, he and his particular set of skills are put to the test as he beats people up and that until he finds her.

Gali, Devlin and Matt join Patrick on this U2-following Euro-jaunt through iconic cellphone calls, heavily edited punch ups, and terrible things being said about Albanians, as Brian tears France a new one to rescue his daughter and hunt down the baddies that taken’d her.

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Open Slate! Ever sat through the credits and wondered why there needs to be a Second 2nd Assistant Director? Or what the Best Boy is supposed to be the best at? In this series, we sit down with working film industry professionals from across the departments for unvarnished, honest, practical conversations about how and why they joined the movie business, how they contribute day-to-day to the creation of cinema, and how they maintain their careers in a high-pressure, highly sought after field.

We’re joined by our old friend Luke Selway, whose career as a clapper loader began in earnest while he was still studying alongside us in Leeds - starting out on Yorkshire Television productions like A Touch of Frost, before embarking on a TV and film career that has seen him work alongside some of the leading filmmakers, and on the biggest franchises, in modern cinema. Luke talks us through why he chose the camera department, and how his dedication through the early years of long hours and complicated trousers allowed him to flourish in the industry.

Special Mentions:

www.unorthodoxroasters.co.uk

Head over to our Teemill store for merchandise, movie shirts, art prints, stickers, totes and more. If you’d like to support the podcast, a review or a quick rating on your platform of choice is the best way you can help us get the word out and keep the conversations flowing. 

Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.