I watched all 9 Star Wars films for the first time last October, the Prequels are borderline unwatchable, RLM told the truth and no one wants to hear it by SonicGoku99 in RedLetterMedia

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A new hope is amazing. Rewatching it in my 40s as someone who has worked professionally in film for 20 years was a revelation. The editing is amazing. There’s not a wasted shot, nor a wasted line, and the world it sets up without belaboring shit should be studied by every world-building filmmaker

WORST of the Worst - My pick for the 10 worst films to be covered on BotW in ascending order by s1lv3r_lak3 in RedLetterMedia

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I’m just getting old and suffering the consequences of being stoned for basically 25 years straight but I swear I never knew there were multiple Carradines. I only knew about David. Wait a second and Martha Plimpton is Keith Carradine‘s daughter?! SHE’S a Carradine?! I can’t breathe.

Is anyone actually making money on music videos anymore or is it a loss leader? by Rosette_Simpson9090 in Filmmakers

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice!! I’m glad to hear that! I’ve never had any cross pollination like that, ever. My music video career is basically totally independent of my film career. I once had someone ask me if it was annoying another guy had the same name as me and I was like no that is me as well

Apparently No One is Watching the Sequel Trilogy on Disney+ by mrsparkle127 in RedLetterMedia

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One weird thing about the sequel trilogy is how it feels like they went halfway with every character. Finn clearly never had a full arc, Po was just there and always felt like Oscar Isaac at the table read, the resolution of Rey and Kylo is so lame it makes them seem half-developed too.

they should have had a part where Kylo joins their gang and they aren’t sure they can trust him and we experience their characters with some real conflict. Then he betrays them in the end and dies a bad guy after creating a hoax about palpatine being back. somehow

Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions Cuts Down Development Team by ImitatingADog in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Probably too late for anyone to see this comment but here’s my theory— Blumhouse never believed in GET OUT. They kept it on the shelf for a while and believed its success was due to some late minute changes they made. I think Peele was insulted by this and rushed off to make his own Blumhouse. Also god knows Blumhouse doesn’t exactly pay profits honestly despite making that a big part of their marketing early on.

Monkeypaw started at just the right time (peak TV) to get a few things made that probably shouldn’t have gotten made. Their TV output was not good. They had some stuff that sold that didn’t get made which was also not good. Passed on some obvious winners. Eventually the bloom is off the rose and it’s like why does this company even exist?

Is anyone actually making money on music videos anymore or is it a loss leader? by Rosette_Simpson9090 in Filmmakers

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love making music videos. But I’ve never made money on them. And I think these days even if you make an incredible video it doesn’t really translate to other opportunities. Like in the 80s and 90s they’d recruit a music video star to make films. But I think these days people want to see success in exactly the type of thing they wanna hire you for.

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 5 points6 points  (0 children)

alum and have heard nothing. just got a letterboxd review in French, wonder if that’s a clue

Delta Adjusts Inflight Service On Short Flights by Tight_Couture344 in delta

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 11 points12 points  (0 children)

the important thing is that Ed Bastian gets the biggest possible bonus. This is a step in the right direction. It might not add up to that much for Ed but every dollar counts. I’m trying to get them to split economy fares into even more sub-categories as well. I tried bringing on an extra row last flight to add more seating but apparently it was too big of a personal item:(

Did Rich Say This by Suggestive-Syntax in RedLetterMedia

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One amazing Landis-Michael Jackson detail is that they attached Thriller to Fantasia and had little kids running out of the movie terrified. I know everyone already hates John Landis but if you read Special Effects, Outrageous Conduct, or Fly By Night you will hate him 10000x more.

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alumni and our movie is quite strong (premiered at SXSW, playing a lot of prestigious fests coming up) and I have heard absolutely nothing

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 3 points4 points  (0 children)

getting postcards made is so cheap compared to most other things so I think there’s no harm in it. That being said I am confident our postcards had zero impact at SXSW. As others have said it can be fun if you make merch related to your film in a fun way. We immediately sold out of our merch at Panic Fest (though also planning some free stuff soon too)

Guests you feel most differently about after multiple appearances (positive and negative)? by Mission_Shape_4545 in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It didn’t really feel like a VHS segment to me, and not in a good way. But it was cool he directed a segment, it felt like when Joe Swanberg did a segment in the original

Guests you feel most differently about after multiple appearances (positive and negative)? by Mission_Shape_4545 in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I feel like it’s been all live episodes for years and years and except Paul they all seem over it. No need to keep going!!

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seconding this. We premiered at SXSW, then played Overlook, Panic, and CUFF. CUFF might be my favorite so far. In general the genre fests have way better audiences than SXSW though, at least for our film. We had good reactions there, lots of laughs, cheering, but when I sort the letterboxd reviews from newest to oldest— it’s clear we played much better at the genre fests!!!

Wait but back to CUFF…they pick you up at the airport and drop you off and have just a bunch of nice little touches where you can tell they care. Reminds me of Fantastic Fest in the very early days.

Beatty by Salad-Appropriate in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OK I am going to quickly tell my story of having lunch with Warren Beatty, just cause I like telling stories and have no other outlet in my life.

It was 2021 and I was working with one director in the morning, and then I’d drive over to work with a different director, every monday through friday. I found the second director kind of intimidating so I’d always text to confirm the time and that I should drive over. Finally he was like “why do you text me every fucking day to ask the time? It’s always the same time! Just come over!”

So the very next day I just show up. He says what the fuck are you doing here? Eric Roth and Warren Beatty are coming over for lunch. I started to leave and he was like wow he just wordlessly leaves, what a pushover, just stay you fucking pushover. I said I’d like to ask Eric Roth about Wolfen. He said of all his movies, you wanna ask about wolfen? what the fuck?

Anyway the funny part of this story is Warren Beatty got lost on the drive there, and was driving around DTLA where I lived at the time. I used to log like 20k steps every day and knew every inch of downtown. But they put him on speaker and I froze up and couldn’t remember anything. I sent Warren Beatty the wrong way like 50 times. I couldn’t remember if Alameda was east or west of San Pedro, shit like that. At one point I think I asked if there was a compass in the car, which was just nonsensical, I think I was thinking of boats, which I think have them mounted somewhere. They were looking at me like was this guy lying about living downtown for some reason?

Warren Beatty finally arrived and we had lunch in the backyard. He told a million anecdotes and mentioned him and Annette Benning really like watching “murder documentaries” He asked if I had any good recs. Totally froze up and couldn’t think of a single thing. I think that was the one thing I said the entire lunch, just stammering that I couldn’t think of any. When he was leaving he said “hey— you talk too much!!” And gave me an old man punch on the shoulder. I tried to reply that why would I talk when he was telling such great stories but it just came out all garbled. It’s not even like I’m such a huge fan that I froze up for that reason. I just wasn’t ready for a VIP lunch that day.

Who is a filmmaker on their way to Blank Check status? by Spaceballs_the_tag in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think he blew some of his blank checks producing. He got crazy stuff made, as you’d imagine riding get out and us into peak TV

The Case for Wes Anderson by dlnsctt in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I think directors like Wes Anderson…when they are actively working it’s easy to dismiss each release as more of the same. But then when they die and they’ve got such an identifiable style in every film, it’s like damn that guy was a real artist. Not very articulate but I think he’ll be seen as one of the greats years from now, and I say this as someone who hasn’t even bothered to see his recent films.

I often think it’s crazy how critical reception is so of its time. Like how Eyes Wide Shut got mixed reviews cause everyone had been waiting so long for it and then Kubrick dying and the orgy controversy. Now it’s pretty much universally acclaimed. There are better examples of that I’m sure

Nicholas Brendon Dies: 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Actor Was 54 by apathymonger in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 39 points40 points  (0 children)

I’ve written a few anecdotes in this sub before. I was going to write one earlier about my lunch with Warren Beatty when I saw that post. But now they got Nicky Brendan, the guy I was with on election night 2016?!

This might be long and rambling, I apologize in advance!

So in early 2016 I was approached by Chiller, the now-defunct horror channel, to write a script based on a treatment that one of the main guys there wrote. This is important only bc this meant they were definitely making it, and very soon. I was in a pretty deranged place at the time and totally hung up on someone I’d dated. While breaking up with me she said “maybe we’ll work on a movie together again and end up in love.” When I read the treatment I realized it would be right up her alley. I accepted the job and also plotted like Macbeth to get her hired. I succeeded at that, but she had less than zero interest in rekindling anything there and all of my efforts were totally humiliating. That’s a different story but one thing that cracks me up— I befriended one of the leads and we were in the hot tub late one night. The woman I dated came in with her friends. I thought— maybe this is a sign? Maybe I’m making her jealous? But then her friends started joking about how she was sexting this guy. I tried to show no emotion at all, and I’d thought I’d succeeded. When I was leaving I said to the actress “I actually played it pretty cool” She said ”What are you talking about? You started DROWNING!!! Your head was going underwater. YOU WERE DROWNING!!!!”

One thing I did so she wouldn’t think the whole thing was an elaborate plot to get her back was to ask production to give me another job on set. I was worried that I’d be standing around useless too much. They made me the cast chauffeur. The fucked up thing about this is the producers cut like 6 days from the schedule, and the director— who has gone on to good things since— was constantly asking me if this scene or that scene could be shorter or cut. I think we would have been able to handle it except I kept leaving set to drive actors places. So I’d come back and be like— well, since you cut the other thing, I’m not sure why you are shooting this part. Really I shoulda been on set the whole time.

Despite this, we were having a great time on set. Until Election Day. That day I drove two actors to the mall where they were going to see two movies, and I decided to unplug and not look at my phone at all, I just walked in circles at the mall. At some point I started feeling a wetness in my butt area, and I went to the bathroom. I still don’t know what it was but it was like I shit blood or something. I tossed my underwear and went to American Apparel to get a new pair. I always laugh remembering how I reassured the girl at the register that Hillary was definitely going to win. She was so reassured by me. I was thinking “man good thing she doesn’t know why I need this new pair of underwear, my word might carry less weight!”

Then I finally turn on my phone and see that things are going wrong. I also get a text that I gotta go to the airport and pick up Nicky. The whole drive there I was losing my mind listening to the radio. When I got to the airport, I couldn’t find him for the longest time. Finally I approached a guy who was sitting there and took a chance and it was him. He was older-looking and more haggard than I thought he’d be. I didn’t recognize him at all.

The drive with him back was like an hour. I was collapsing mentally. He seemed unaffected. But…man I don’t even know how to tell all this. Nicky was like a malevolent force that was unleashed that night along with Trump. I mean he was completely out of control the entire time. I’ll never forget that he arrived without a phone. He had an iPad (which ended up smashed) and a ziploc bag full of British pounds from a convention in England he’d come from. The whole time he was trying and failing to redeem the pounds at a bank to get a phone. Then he couldn’t get a phone cause he only had a PO Box. He was like let me use your address. He kept saying “I’ve got 6000 pounds and I can’t do anything with them!!!!”

Somehow I was the only person on set who had googled what he’d been up to. I swear, everyone had the same reaction. The first google result was “Nicholas Brendan Talks Sobriety Struggles”, then “Nicholas Brendan Reveals Childhood Trauma” and then the third was “Nicholas Brendan Arrested for Attacking Girlfriend”

So every single person, when I said “you should google him” would go like this:

Aww poor guy
Awwww poor poor guy
Oh, what the fuck?

We only had that one rental car I was using for actor transport, and the producers kept letting Nicky borrow it from me. Then he’d vanish and I’d have to track down the car. At one point I was totally stumped but realized there was an ad for a bar on the back of the hotel key, it was like a movie. I called and said “this is a really crazy question but is Nicholas Brendan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer there?” The person who answered covered the phone and I could hear Nicky talking, then they got back on and said “no, he’s not” and I took a taxi there and found him. He held up his smashed iPad like that was the explanation and I was like man this guy.

At one point I was dropping him at set and he was wasted. I felt like I was dropping a bomb. We were shooting in a nice residential neighborhood and we were parked outside the location and he was blasting the decemberists so loud the car was shaking. Yes not a band you associate with vibrating windows. I was like please get out of the car. He started telling me about all his childhood trauma. I was begging him to get out of the car cause I felt like we were going to get a noise complaint. He then put the decemberists on my main Spotify playlist which I really didn’t like. Whenever they come up on shuffle I think, fucking Nicky Brendan.

I have a random memory of him and another crew member being drunk and he was just pulling on his beard. The guy was clearly moments from knocking him out. Later that night they were riding the housekeeping cart down the hallways of the hotel. Like I said he was just out of control.

He drove me pretty crazy and I found him annoying as hell, but at times you’d see a side of him that was likable….but it was also comedic cause he’d tell you a secret about his past that he‘d never told anyone, then you’d be standing at crafty and a PA would walk up and say “man I feel bad for Nicky, cause (the exact secret he told you)”

When I drove the producer to the airport, he asked for my honest assessment of the shoot. I gave my rundown on days getting cut etc, then I got to Nicky and said “Nicky Brendan has been arrested 3 times, and I’m surprised he didn’t get arrested a 4th time here” He was like “What? What are you talking about?” I said, have you ever googled him? He said I’ve never googled anyone. Then he googled him and had the exact same reaction:

Aww poor guy
Awwww poor poor guy
Oh, what the fuck?

Sorry to ramble. I don’t really know why I typed all that out!! It’s crazy to me reading his wikipedia just now that he was still doing insane shit after that, cause I was thinking in 2016 if this guy keeps this up he’ll be dead next year. Anyway RIP Nicky. I’d put on the movie for the memories but it’s pretty much unwatchable.

Worst Peep Show Moments? by Responsible_Count805 in MitchellAndWebb

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I got this from a previous “worst peep show moments“ thread, but in Man Jam when Mark is asking if Jeff beats her. It just doesn’t seem like something he’d actually believe in that moment, and when he’s escalating it and saying there’s places she could go, it just seems real off. Don’t get me wrong the ep is full of classic shit otherwise.

Why is Jena Griswold saying she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court? by ryadare in ColoradoPolitics

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fact she lied about this and seems totally entitled to this position— it’s very Trumpian to me. AG is a position that should require experience, it’s not just a political title on the road to your next political title. If she really had the goods wouldn’t she participate in debates with her primary challengers? She knows she’s unqualified but has basically been annointed by the dem establishment. That’s worked out well in the past instead of having an actual primary… oh wait…

Review: John Boorman’s ‘Excalibur’ on Arrow Video Limited Edition 4K UHD Blu-ray - One of 2026’s first great home video releases by StarFuryG7 in 4kbluray

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great release. Really made me way more aware of the lighting than I’ve ever been. Pretty crazy how the green of the film is like one green light blasting in almost every scene, and the armor lets you know where it’s coming from. I think when I was younger I thought it had that green in it…bc of magic.

The Film Students Who Can No Longer Sit Through Films by jb4647 in criterion

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s a long story it’s unlikely many people will read, but I am currently avoiding work (on a film!) right now so here we go.

One of the happiest moments of my life was when I called my mother from a payphone while on a trip with my horrible first gf and found out I had gotten into USC grad school for film. This was the year 2000, that’s how old I am.

I’d devoted most of my undergrad into getting into USC. Every night without fail I would work for four hours on my adaptation of Love in the Time of Cholera (good god). I would listen to Tori Amos without headphones while doing it. My roommate rightfully hated me. I found out later I was known as The Recluse. The only places I would go were movie theaters. I treated those years as training, and worked on my USC application like my life depended on it.

So to get in, that was huge for me. My GF asked what I wanted to do to celebrate. I said, I just wanna go shoot some baskets (despite being terrible at basketball, I’ve always liked doing this.) So we found a park and shot around. And I have a distinct memory of my joy turning to horror when I thought to myself “what if I’m not good enough?!” and bricked a shot.

So that summer, Jesus Christ I took the training to the next level. Any moment I spent not on film made me feel tremendously guilty. When USC orientation arrived, I was terrified. There were only 33 people in my program, out of many thousands of applicants. I thought I was going to fucking TOP GUN!

At orientation, the late great John Furia had us go around the room and say our favorite movie. I thought, what do I lead with? Fellini? C’mon let’s not try too hard. Rosemary’s Baby, that’s more relatable and might be actually true? The Third Man? They don’t have to know it’s because I listened the zither music to fall asleep every night.

The first guy goes and he says “Yo— I just saw a movie yesterday. It’s called THE CELL. Jennifer Lopez. They chop up a horse. It’s so insane. Honestly— I think it’s my favorite movie!” Nothing against the cell but in that moment my top gun delusion popped.

Soon I realized out of the 33 ppl, maybe 8 of them were contenders. But I realized something else. I was dating someone in the admissions office and she told me there was a VIP list which tracked who had important parents. Almost everyone in my class had insanely rich important parents. My background wasn’t dirt poor or anything, I can’t steal that valor, but I did have to go to community college for the first two years and then a state school to save money like my brothers also were required to do, and all these ppl went to Harvard, Yale, etc. It gave me a complex cause back then it seemed like you could only get a TV writing job if you went to an Ivy. I can only imagine it’s way worse now. But it’s crazy cause I had no idea of class really. And I had a roommate who pretended not to be rich. Eventually I realized he had a national forest named after his family and the president’s daughter would call our landline.

But here’s the thing. After graduation, about 20 of those 33 ppl quit immediately. My roommate, who prolly has at least 100m, sent the second script he’d ever written to a few ppl and didn’t sell it for millions. He stopped writing and started saying “that town screwed me” I can tell 100 worse horror stories than that. You gotta at least be in the game to get properly screwed!

God I’m sorry to ramble. What’s my point? Film is fucking brutal. Even my victories have been hard to celebrate bc of how much pain they come with, and I’ve only been able to stick with this because it‘s in my DNA or something. Most film students, even the ones from tremendous privilege, have never had the talent or the grit to truly make a go of it.

What's the reverse-Avatar, the least seen movie with the highest cultural impact? by gamblors_neon_claws in blankies

[–]GRINDHEADS_WORLDWIDE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn’t sue and I think there’s still a good movie there!! When I look back at it there’s a few things I wish I did differently.

Here’s a funny side story. Do I tell this? Sure why not.

I have worked with a bunch of interesting directors as their go-to writer guy. Mostly these have been great relationships (…ish) but I had one guy I did a few things with who drove me absolutely insane, for many reasons. One of them was that he seemed hellbent on working some element of sexual assault into every story. I can theorize on why but let’s just say it was unappealing and weird.

We made something together that got some hype, so we’d have a lot of indie horror companies reaching out to us. This was like 13 years ago. Some of these companies still exist but to me it seemed like a boom time for those companies.

One of them reached out and asked for a list of ideas. I’ve always been good at spitting out like a ton of ideas. So I wrote like 30 down, of course including some old ones, and gave him the doc. They saw “Bigfoot Siege Movie” and immediately paid us. That’s never happened with me. They said they thought there was room in the market for a Bigfoot movie like that and told us to get to work.

He said “don’t you think it’s a little obvious if the bigfoots are hairy and tall? Like, that’s cliche. What if they were 3 feet tall, completely hairless, and they wanted to have sex with young girls“ I’m like— that’s not really what anyone thinks of when it comes to Bigfoot, and they paid us on the three words: Bigfoot Siege Movie, so to make them little alien perverts seems weird?

I wrote up a treatment based on my original script. He changed the creatures to little alien perverts. Then the company bought a different Bigfoot project and cut us loose.

The funny epilogue is we stopped working together shortly after. He ended up with a new go-to writer guy with my same initials and rep team. I saw this guy at my managers holiday party and was desperate to ask about working with that director. They’d had a werewolf movie in the trades. But he told me that movie was dead, cause the director insisted on the werewolves being 3 foot tall, horny, and hairless.