Legendary action director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) is our guest this week to talk about the latest chapter of his Strangers reboot trilogy, his collaboration with Steven Spielberg early in his career, and how much of an impact Jaws has had on many of his films, including his own killer shark flick Deep Blue Sea.

We talk color theory, visual storytelling, how and when you can lose an audience, and what can be learned from watching Spielberg's films.

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Did you know that Steven Spielberg produced the classic '80s cult film Three O'Clock High? Well, we didn't either, until our guest, writer/director Kevin Lewis (Willy's Wonderland, Pig Hill) came to the show wanting to discuss it.

It's a simple story about a high school dweeb (Casey Siemaszko) challenged to a fight by the new kid in school (Richard Tyson) and the chaos that ensues as he tries every trick he can to get out of the ass-whoopin' heading his way.

Spielberg took his name off of the movie before release, but was instrumental in bringing it to life. We talk about that decision, guess as to why he had the change of heart, and break down some of the wildest aspects of this mostly hidden gem of '80s filmmaking.

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TV Mastermind Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) makes his feature directorial debut with Dust Bunny starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, and newcomer Sophie Sloan.

On the surface this film has nothing to do with Steven Spielberg, but it turns out that it was originally developed as an episode of the Amazing Stories reboot and Spielberg himself gave notes on the script that survived to this feature version.

Fuller talks all about that creative collaboration as well as his relationship with Spielberg's work and even gives us some of his patented "queer readings" of some unlikely contenders from Spielberg's filmography that spoke to his own queer coming of age.

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Steven Spielberg tried his hand at a Twilight Zone-ish series in 1985 that didn't exactly set the ratings world on fire, but would prove to be formative for a whole generation of imaginative kids.

Amazing Stories brought in a combination of seasoned pros like Scorsese and Clint Eastwood and exciting, young talent, including today's guest, writer and filmmaker Mick Garris.

Mick became famous for his Stephen King adaptations like The Stand and The Shining mini-series, but it was Steven Spielberg who gave him his first shot, first writing a few episodes on the first season of Amazing Stories, and then acting as head writer overseeing all the scripts coming in before eventually giving him a chance at directing an episode in Season 2.

Mick makes his first appearance on The Spiel talking about his time on Amazing Stories, collaborating with Spielberg, and writing for people like Martin Scorsese and Joe Dante.

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Emmy Winning writer (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) and very funny standup comedian (People Pleaser) Josh Gondelman returns to The Spiel to talk about a film that most people probably forgot was produced by Steven Spielberg: 2010's True Grit starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Hailee Steinfeld in her first major role.

Based on the Charles Portis novel, previously adapted as a starring vehicle for John Wayne, True Grit is about a young girl who hires a drunk and haggard Marshall to hunt down the man who killed her father.

The Coen Bros wrote and directed this incredibly entertaining and highly quotable flick and Vespe and Gondelman delight in going back through the story, finding their favorite moments, and figuring out why the movie is so damn good, even if Spielberg had almost nothing to do with it.

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Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger, I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore) joins Vespe to talk about one of the most impactful films of Steven Spielberg's career, Twilight Zone: The Movie.

They dip into the tragedy, of course, but there's more to this anthology than the controversy. This film brings together some of the best filmmakers of the era in John Landis, Joe Dante, Spielberg, and George Miller and they're all given room to go as bonkers as they want to as storytellers.

While not totally successful, it remains a highly entertaining film and a juicy conversation starter for movie nerds.

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Aaron Sagers is not only a pop culture journalist, he's also a well-known paranormal investigator. He's the founder of ParanormalPopCulture.com and you've seen him on-camera for Travel Channel's Paranormal Paparazzi and Paranormal Caught on Camera, and Netflix's 28 Days Haunted.

In short, he knows a lot about movies and the spiritual world, so he was the natural choice to come in and talk about Poltergeist, written and produced by Steven Spielberg.

We focus on the portrayal of the paranormal in Poltergeist, see what cases it might have borrowed from, what famous paranormal investigators it very well might have taken influence from, and try to figure out exactly what the hell The Beast is in the context of that first movie.

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Steven Spielberg's documentarian Laurent Bouzereau returns to The Spiel to discuss Vespe's favorite movie, Jaws, and his great new deep dive documentary made in conjunction with Amblin and Nat Geo called Jaws @ 50.

There's a lot to talk about in terms of the legacy of Jaws, the impact it had for good and ill on both the film industry and the fishing industry, as well as where it fits into the lexicon of cinema greats 50 years after release.

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Legendary film producer, director, and documentarian Frank Marshall is my guest on the show today to talk about his working relationship with Steven Spielberg, a creative partnership that goes back to Raiders of the Lost Ark and continues on to this day.

Marshall co-founded Amblin with Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy. We talk about what necessitated Spielberg creating his own production company, how they split up their duties to produce some of the best geeky flicks of the '80s, and eventually get to the new entry into the Jurassic franchise, Jurassic World Rebirth, which opens in theaters July 2nd.

This chat covers a ton of ground, from Peter Bogdanovich to Robert Zemeckis, killer spiders to hungry dinosaurs, and even how a plate of pasta helped convince Spielberg he should call this guy to help produce Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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Frequent Steven Spielberg collaborator David Koepp is our guest this week. Koepp is the screenwriter behind Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of the Worlds, and Spielberg's upcoming UFO/UAP flick as well as the director of the criminally underrated Stir of Echoes.

Koepp also penned the script for the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth, which hits cinemas July 2nd. We talk about his work in the Jurassic realm, the Spielberg phone call that got him back into the franchise for the new movie, and the childhood inspirations that fed into some of the new film's biggest and most thrilling set pieces.

We also talk about his other work with Spielberg, going back to adapting the very first Jurassic Park from Michael Crichton's original book and even a little about breaking into the industry with the B-movie classic I Come In Peace (aka Dark Angel).

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