Following Films Podcast

An evening of magic and theater written in under 24 Hours. The night before the show, one lucky audience member will be selected to have their life story written for the big stage. Meaning this musical could be written about you. Today I had 2018 New York Television Festival Best Actor in a Comedy winners Isaac Himmelman and Ryan Harrington to discuss 24 Hour Musical as well as their award-winning tv pilot for Brooklyn Moving Company. For more information about the 24 Hour Musical at the People's Improv Theatre go to https://thepit-nyc.com/ We had some minor sound issues on this episode, I did my best to clean it up and think the end result is completely listenable but just wanted to give you a heads up in case you notice the sound getting a bit funky from time to time. I did my best

After a run-in with the cops at a punk show goes sideways, Chelsea and her pals flee the city in search of a place to lay low. Running to the security of Chelsea's old, abandoned family cabin in the woods, they fall under the watchful eye of an overzealous park ranger who holds a secret from Chelsea's past. Today my guest is Jenn Wexler, the writer, and director behind THE RANGER. A film that offers a modern take on survivalist horror that both celebrates and subverts the genre’s tropes—with equal parts humor, glitter and gore. THE RANGER opens in NYC August 17th and L.A. September 7th!

If you’re a fan of standup comedy, Comics Watching Comics is a must watch. A contest show that takes intermediate standup comedians who are competing to win a spot on a showcase at Gotham Comedy Club in NYC. These comedians will be judged by other tenured comics; serving as panelists and judges, offering jokes and advice. My guest today is the creator and star of COMICS WATCHING COMICS, Kevin Gootee.

Actor Barlow Jacobs is best known for his work on A GHOST STORY, THE MASTER, and SHOTGUN STORIES. I had him on the podcast to discuss those films as well as his upcoming film THE OLD MAN & THE GUN, a film that marks his third collaboration with director David Lowery.

In ALL SQUARE John (Michael Kelly) is a small town bookie having a hard time collecting on outstanding debts. After a one night stand with an ex-girlfriend, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with her 12-year old son, Brian, and develops a plan to recoup the money owed to him by taking bets on Brian’s Youth League Baseball games. The film also stars Josh Lucas, Tom Everett Scott, and Yeardley Smith. I had Yeardley on the show to discuss her work on ALL SQUARE as both a producer and star, we also discuss her role as Lisa Simpson in THE SIMPSONS, and her work in films like MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN, and AS GOOD AS IT GETS. ALL SQUARE will be having its premiere at this years SXSW, for dates and showtimes go to https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/films/119595

Isabel Oliver Marcus was the “redheaded mystery girl” in the Season 2 opener of THIS IS US and as such received a lot of attention for her character and the mystery connection to Jack’s death. The music on today's episode is from a synth-based musician who goes by the name Simon Psychosis, you can find more of his work at https://simonpsychosis.bandcamp.com. Editorial Note: The first couple minutes of the audio from my interview with Isabel were corrupted so the conversation starts midstream where Isabel is talking about what the auditioning process was like for THIS IS US.

Paul Cameron, ASC has worked on some of the most visually groundbreaking feature films of the past decade. He is best known for his work on Pirates of The Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Man on Fire, Collateral, Gone in 60 Seconds, Total Recall, and The Last Supper. He also shot the pilot of the critically acclaimed HBO’s series Westworld. I had Paul on the show to discuss his latest film The Commuter, starring Liam Neeson that's playing in theatres now.

Former meat-eating college football player Santino Panico goes on a journey to rediscover the athlete within--this time, as a vegan. As he meets with vegetarian and vegan elite competitors, this story about food and sport expands to confront the social norms and far-reaching impacts of food choices. Today my guest on the podcast is the director of FROM THE GROUND UP Santino Panico The film is currently available for pre order on iTunes http://apple.co/2BKioaY And will be released on Jan 9th Today’s episode of Following Films is brought to you by The Movie Makers Podcast. Each week Sean and Bill create a movie from scratch with no prep beforehand. They have been professionals in the entertainment industry for over 10 years and are joined each Tuesday by a friend or colleague in the industry to help build the hypothetical tale. The joy of listening to The Movie Makers podcast is in the sense of discovery, you are given the opportunity to eavesdrop on two friends creating something completely new. You c

An 11 year old girl searches for a missing rare book from her grandmother's (Holland Taylor) library and tries to understand why her family is fractured the way it is during a memorable summer at an isolated New Mexico adobe. While her mother (Kelly Lynch), like astronaut Michael Collins, goes to the dark side of the moon for a leukemia treatment, Ella must journey on her own to the strange moon of her grandmother's world. Ella's father, (Sean Patrick Flanery) orbits his daughter, as Ella befriends Miguel and Rosie to find acceptance of her mother's fate. Emotional connections are reshaped, and the music of Patrick Neil Doyle helps tell this unusual story. Today I had the chance to speak with Kelly Lynch about her role in KEPLER'S DREAM. We also discuss the documentary film THE OILER HOUSE, the architecture of John Lautner and Richard Neutra, how an early trauma propelled Kelly into her acting career, MAGIC CITY, MR. MERCEDES, THE JACKET, DRUGSTORE COWBOY, and of course how Mitch Glazer is more of a ladies m

With the daily breaking news about mogul Harvey Weinstein and the growing charges of sexual harassment that has now permeated his life and the nation as a whole, this film is even more important. WHAT HAUNTS US tells the real story behind a town whose silence lead to the suicides of a disturbing number of victims. This film is a cautionary tale for parents and their children and a horrifying example of what happens when one stays quiet about sexual abuse/molestation. WHAT HAUNTS US tells the story about the 1997 class of Porter Gaud High School in Charleston, South Carolina that graduated 49 boys. Within the last 35 years, six of these boys committed suicide. Filmmaker Tolmach graduated from Porter Gaud, and now she digs deep with this film in discovering the dark secrets that have lingered and haunted this community that she so loves. The six boys that committed suicide featured in the film didn't have to die if they would have spoken out and not remained quiet about what had happened to them. However, th

He was Obama before Obama, Maynard Holbrook Jackson became the first black Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia in 1973 and this film is an exploration into a man who had dreams and ambitions to be a public servant for his people seeing that it was the next logical step in the journey that had been started by Dr. King, and so many others who had blazed the trail during the years of horrific segregation. Maynard interviews include President Bill Clinton, Al Sharpton, Vernon Jordan, Ambassador Andrew Young, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Jesse Jackson, former Atlanta Mayor’s Sam Massel and Shirley Franklin, and current Mayor Kasim Reed to name a few. Today my guest is the director of Maynard, an Academy Award nominee, Emmy winner and 4 time Peabody Award, Sam Pollard. On this episode, we discuss his film, how the current administration has empowered the radical right, and the likelihood of Mr. Pollard directing a rom-com.

SLEEPWALKER is the latest film from director Elliott Lester. Troubled by bouts of sleepwalking and disturbing nightmares, graduate student Sarah Foster goes to her university's sleep research center for help. When she wakes up after her first night of being monitored, the world she lives in seems to have changed in subtle, Twilight-Zone-esque ways. In fact, every time she goes to sleep now, she wakes up in a slightly different version of her world. With the help of sleep researcher Dr. Scott White, she tries to work her way back to the reality she started in. But when they finally succeed, it’s revealed that Sarah’s world is not what she thought at all. Today my guest is one of the stars SLEEPWALKER, Richard Armitage. Tonight we talk about his work on that film as well as his work as Thorin Oakenshiled in The Hobbit Films, as John Proctor in The Crucible, and his upcoming films, OCEANS 8 and the Julie Delpy directed film MY ZOE. Sleepwalker is Now Available on Digital HD and On Demand

Today our guest on the Following Films is Michael Price. He is a writer and producer, best known for his Emmy and Writers Guild award-winning work on The Simpsons. Price is a writer and co-executive producer of the ABC series Teacher's Pet. He served as a script consultant on The Simpsons Movie and wrote the acclaimed Lego Star Wars special, Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace. He works at Lucasfilm writing and producing Lego Star Wars Franchise. Other television shows he has written for include What About Joan?, The PJs, Teen Angel, Homeboys in Outer Space, The Newz and One Minute to Air. Price co-wrote and co-produced the Bill Burr Netflix series F Is for Family in 2015 on. The show is an Animated sitcom that draws from Burr's standup and the absurdness of political correctness and is currently running its second season. He grew up in South Plainfield, New Jersey, and attended Montclair State University, where he earned a B.A. degree in Theatre Arts, and Tulane University, where he earned a Master of Fine

THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN is an upcoming film directed by actress Lea Thompson and stars her daughters, Madelyn Deutch (who also wrote the screenplay) and Zoey Deutch.   I had Lea on the Show today to discuss her film, the beauty of creating art with your children, how the protracted process of giving birth is like making an indie film, and the type of film Woody Allen would make if he were a 20-year-old girl.   THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN will be having its world premiere at the LAFF on June 16th at 9PM. For more information go to https://www.filmindependent.org/la-film-festival/

Filmmaker Jim Hemphill started as a critic, writing for Film Quarterly, the Chicago Reader, and Cinefantastique, among other publications, while attending the film school at USC. After graduation, he found work as a script reader for directors David Fincher and Ron Shelton before moving on to direct his feature debut, the award-winning horror film "Bad Reputation." His second movie, "The Trouble with the Truth," received a theatrical release in late 2012 and garnered positive reviews from Roger Ebert, The Los Angeles Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Village Voice, among others. In addition to his filmmaking endeavors, Hemphill hosts a podcast series on the website for American Cinematographer magazine and serves as a programming consultant at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles. You can check out BAD REPUTATION on Amazon Prime here: https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Reputation-Angelique-Hennessy/dp/B06VWKMG4V

Richard J. Bosner produced the politically-charged true story Fruitvale Station starring Octavia Spencer and Michael B. Jordan which received the Sundance Film Festival U.S. Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category and the Sundance Audience Award, U.S. Dramatic, presented by Acura along with 44 nominations/wins during the 2013 Awards Season. Bosner recently produced Other People, a 2016 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Chris Kelly and is a semi-autobiographical look at Kelly's family. The film stars Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Bradley Whitford, Maude Apatow, Madisen Beaty, John Early, Zach Woods, J.J. Totah and June Squibb.The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2016

Toby Oliver ACS is an award-winning cinematographer whose career extends from his native Australia to the United States and internationally. Toby now resides in Los Angeles and has forged a remarkable and varied range of credits on feature films, documentaries and television. In the United States Toby shot Jordan Peele's racially-charged thriller horror 'Get Out' in Alabama in early 2016 with Allison Williams and Daniel Kaluuya. 'Get Out' went on to score a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and rank #1 at the US Box Office on it's opening weekend in February 2017. Previously Toby has lensed the Blumhouse Productions' thriller 'The Darkness' (aka 6 Miranda Drive) for director Greg Mclean, starring Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell; and in New York he shot the indie fantasy drama 'Wildling' for Maven Pictures and director Fritz Bohm with Liv Tyler, Bel Powley and Brad Dourif. He continued his documentary cinematography work shooting the indie doc 'Roller Dreams' in and around Los Angeles' Venice Beach, and also perfor

Daniel Farrands was born on September 3, 1969 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Amityville: The Awakening (2017), The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995).

On this episode I'm joined by actress Terry Walters. We discuss her work on LA LA LAND, SANTA CLARITA DIET and FACETIMING WITH MOMMY. We also chat about the bizarre methods of the MPAA, raising boys and the cruel nature of the auditioning process.

Forty years ago this November, one of the most innovative horror movies in Hollywood history hit theaters and set the box office on fire. Based on a then up-and-coming writer named Stephen King, Carrie crystallized all the agonies of adolescence into the story of a shy, sheltered girl with telekinetic powers. Director Brian De Palma had been working in the independent field since the 1960s, but this film was his first box office hit and put him on the map as one of the major auteurs of the New Hollywood. De Palma filled the cast with many talented young actors making their first important features, including John Travolta, Nancy Allen, Amy Irving, William Katt, P.J. Soles, and Betty Buckley. For the leading role, he chose relative newcomer Sissy Spacek, who received her first Oscar nomination for the film, and to play her religious fanatic mother, De Palma cast Piper Laurie in her first film since The Hustler 15 years earlier. (She received her second Oscar nomination for her performance.) Today's my guest i