Joe Lynch (2015)

Dude you don't even KNOW. After Comic-Con there was this palpable sense of excitement surrounding the release of KoB and then...well...we know how that turned out. So seeing EVERLY cross the finish line on VOD, then theaters and now DVD is AMAzing (see what I did there?). And the best? Seeing this F'd up movie AT AN ACTUAL DRIVE IN. Bucket list for sure. So yeah, so nice to be hitting the final lap to the finish line!

I used to make music video "remixes" using movies I loved with music I was listening to at the time. So I became VERY skilled at the art of the "Record Pause" button. My favorite was remixing the end train car chase in MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME with A Tribe Called Quest's "Scenario" which was AMAZING. But that skill helped me get interested in editing and was a valuable filmmaking skill.

Im working on that, actually. Green's always been very forward thinking when it comes to this stuff, I just haven't had the chance to pull it off, but seeing how successful he's been with it, I guess its the best way to have that intimate relationship with fans.

In terms of HOLLISTON...nothing I can give away just yet ;).

Thanks for checking out the podcast! It's a labor of love and great therapy too. Can't believe we made it to 100!

Ha! Yeah, gotta love the Blood Spooge story, really struck a nerve it seems!

Aside from a STAR WARS movie? Easy. Stephen King. I would give up that fat baby in that picture right there to do a Stephen King story. So many to choose from, but if I had to pick, it would be The Dark Tower series, IT, the short story LUNCH AT THE GOTHAM CAFE, even FROM A BUICK 8 or hell, I'd adapt ON WRITING if given the chance! ...and I LOVE the short story he did with Joe Hill, THROTTLE, which would to me be sating two loves; those two writers AND the movie DUEL. So doing a King movie is on my bucket list.

One of the new joys of Cinema is being reintroduced to films I loved as a kid by showing them to my son(s). Remy Plissken is 6 so he's now at the age where we can actually talk about movies, not how they just wash over him like they have in the past. My wife and I are both very aware of elements like violence and their impact on kids, but we're looser with the nude stuff (hell, the kid's looked at boobies for the first 2-3 years of his life as "Lunch" so who cares?) When he was very young Bri and I would be up with him all night as he was teething and feeding and we popped in CADDYSHACK...and the kid was GLUED. Since then we've watched that and MEATBALLS on a steady loop, when he's not watching everything Pixar and STAR WARS. Shockingly he hans't disliked much yet...Im holding off on APOCALYPSE NOW and ALPHAVILLE till he's a LITTLE older. But I think you just have to be careful of the time you show them movies. But its the BEST when you watch movies like STAR WARS or BAD NEWS BEARS or movies we grew up with through their eyes, you remember the magic of movies again. Its amazing.

DUDE, Sophie's Choice right here. My kid's middle name is Plissken but honestly, for sheer re-watchability, I'd go BIG TROUBLE. It's just so much fucking fun. Jack Burton is my spirit animal.

Because the character is trapped in the room, I wanted the audience to be STUCK with her, to feel the sense of desperation, the tension of "who's coming through that door next?" and the claustrophobia of her surroundings to envelop the audience too. It's a bit "Dogma 95" where Lars and co. had "rules" which limited them in certain respects with the storytelling narrative but in other ways it was freeing. Having this rule (which my DP Steve and I called "Dawgma 13" (say that with a Brooklyn accent for maximum impact) forced us as filmmakers also to keep the viewer interested while the movie unfolded, which led to some cool ways to shoot action you might not expect. So it was both for thematic reasons and for technical reasons we thought this was a cool idea, very much like Linklater's TAPE (but with more guns).

Damn. That's tough.
Here's a few:
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
DIE HARD
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
ROAD WARRIOR
WALL-E
SMOKE

...Im gonna have to come back to this, too many in my opinion!

Pigly Wigly because its the only one I can remember the name of at the present time. Plus that pig face is so cute! Oh man, now I miss Laura...DAMMIT! Thanks!

Green - Iron Man ; Joe - Black Widow; Rifkin - Bruce Banner & Sullivan - The Hulk

THE DRAWING OF THE THREE. Ive read it more than any other.

Hi BJ! I mentioned this before but when it comes to violence, since he's been watching STAR WARS since he was like 1 1/2 (please don't take us away Child services...) the level of violence in that movie has been kind of a comparison for other movies to consider. Boobs? As long as it's not porn (shocking I know) we're much more lax with that stuff because we should never censor the beauty of the human body. In terms of MY movies? OOF. I think I'll start him off with my segment of CHILLERAMA since he's in it so he might get a kick out of it (Or hate me forever) and since that one, while extremely violent, is in the Joe Dante vein of fun violence, and I think the ending is kinda sweet. He might like KoB but I wonder if he'll just ask me editing questions and horror stories from the set. Then WT2...EVERLY I'll wait till he's 30.

Oh man, congrats on getting going on the short! Don't let actor drop outs phase you...happens ALL the time and to the best of 'em in Hollywood. I'd say depending on what kind of actor you're looking for, the inter webs is the best way to put feelers out, but also any drama schools in town, colleges, theater groups, etc. But also look under your nose...you might have a friend who has a hidden Brando inside him/her (that came out WAY wrong, but you get the point). Break many legs on the shoot!!!

Hey man! Thanks for the kind wishes! Yeah Im shocked W Virginia didn't put an APB out on my head but that was intentional to at least create a sense of family with WT2 and also not have EVERYONE like that.
In terms of screenwriting? The best school is READING scripts! I learned more about structure, pacing and format from reading scripts like FARGO, PULP FICTION, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, etc etc. Most of those are available in bookstores or online, but try to read movies you know REALLY well; this way you can compare what's on the page to what's on screen which helps show the process more. The more you read scripts the more you get the feel for it. But if you needed something more formal , I loved ON DIRECTING FILM by David Mamet. Really breaks it down in a cool way. Best of luck on the script!

Hey thanks! Im really proud of WT2, especially that it even got made under the studio's nose AND it still does great! If I was to change ANYTHING, aside from having a few more takes here or a better day of weather there, it would be the beginning. Now, NO OFFENSE to my girl Kim Caldwell who (literally) killed it, but my original idea was to bring back The DUSH, Eliza Dushku, which was ACTUALLY being discussed when I got the job but at the las minute she bailed. The idea was that she was going to PLAY HERSELF as the celeb in this reality show, The Apocalypse, and of course, get split down the middle in the opening scene by Three Finger. It was a definite Meta moment and my way of saying "This aint the original WRONG TURN!" This was in good ole' 2007 when "Meta" wasn't as cool to do I guess and while the studio was game (why not? It got her back for a cameo) she wasn't into it. I just think that would have been a hell of a misdirect right out of the gate. But hey, that's me nitpicking. All Hail WT2!

You would think right? But having it happen to me, I quickly found out that a LOT can change. In KoB for example, let's say we have 3-4 takes of Steve Zahn & Ryan Kwanten talking. I picked the 4th take of Steve and the 3rd take of Ryan, where both were to me on-point and hitting all the beats. That's the assembly of my decisions in the post room affecting the scene. In the version I did not cut, and Im not being exact here, but they chose the 1st take of Zahn and the 4th take of Kwanten. Why? Well, I wish I could tell you, but choices like that are what make movies work even on the smallest level. So while you might not think there's much to work with, everything is highly manipulatable and can many times make or break a moment dramatically or even a joke's timing. THAT's my biggest fault of the current cut of KoB; its not just that they took out the original ending and chintz'd on the VFX; its compromising a lot of dramatic and comedic moments with the actors by using different takes and styles of editing. But again, who am I to judge? People really dig the movie and Im thrilled its getting a fan base. But to me, the director should at least be in the edit to keep the integrity of the acting that she or he worked with on set with the actors. The actors trust the director (hopefully) so its their necks on the line too.

Hey thanks! Ok what am I watching....DAREDEVIL is a dream for me, they got Hell's Kitchen right! Im also obsessed with this awesome romantic horror movie called SPRING, which I found haunting. Listening: While I wait for the new Faith No More album to drop I've been constantly playing the latest Fartbarf album and the IT FOLLOWS soundtrack which is great for writing F'd up shit. Reading? I don't really get time to READ books but I've been doing audio books for close to 20 years now! I just finished ROBOPOCALYPSE (which NEEDS to be a long form TV series event, not just a movie) and started Ron Pearlman's autobiography. That guy is the shit.

I hate to confess this but nothing about WRONG TURN 2 scared me; not the cannibalism, not the incest, not the general "FUCKED UP YO!" nature of it. Maybe that's because I had on SALO or CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST on a loop as a kid? (I kid). I guess I was seeing it from a different angle and my goal with that one was to make the sequel a little more fun, which was the sugar to make the medicine go down. When we first showed my cut to Fox, they HATED it. They said "What is this??" I said "Well, this movie is ALIENS if the first WRONG TURN was ALIEN. This one is the fun, fucked up roller coaster ride with more action and some laughs where the first one is dark and uncompromising..." and you know what? Not one change. So its all about context. The only thing that's taken me out of my comfort zone was ALL in EVERLY; Sexual assault, the loss of children, animal violence...but let me say that that dog in EVERLY (which was named Banzai a a tribute to my dog who died while I was shooting it) DESERVED to get blown up, he was an asshole who was trying to hurt that poor little girl! So With EVERLY I was battling a lot of things out of my comfort zone. By comparison, WT2 was a walk in the park!

I LOVE short films, love watching and making them. I try to do one before every feature to get my groove on before I tackle something bigger, and there's many times less at stake. Plus, I love Anthologies, as CHILLERAMA (kinda) shows. I would do another again easily but of course it would have to have the right angle. But bring it on! We need ore of these.

This is Joe. I have no cats. Do you hate me now?

That's a really good example, good call.

EASY.
MAD MAD: FURY ROAD. 300%. Most anticipated movie of the last 5 years for me. Miller is a F'n GOD.

Big Kahuna Burger. It LOOKS like Sam's eating a Double Double in that close up, so every time I go to In N Out I dream Im about to get shot by Jules and Vincent and that's my last meal. Mmmmm...double double...

Pretty intense. She doesn't suffer fools, and usually being the biggest fool on set (on purpose) I knew I need to bring my A game. But when the cameras rolled, so did she and the proofs in the puddin'.

That's why the best part of the writing process is the RE-writing process. I know this is old hat but I always do a "Vomit Draft" where I put ALL OF IT down, every idea, stupid or not. Then I walk away from it for a bit and try to be objective again. Then when I rewrite if it doesn't flow on the page, I lose or revise it. When you're writing how ever many pages a day, you're lost a little in the reading element; so its best to put it all down, go have a coke and a smile, and come back to it with fresh eyes. You'd be surprised how many ideas you thought might be stupid end up in the finish script.

Start shooting your stories, don't wait for the phone to ring. If inspiration strikes, tell the story no matter what you have. I WISH I was a kid now with an iPhone and FCP/Premiere at my fingertips! So hurry up and go shoot, I need to know when the premiere is!

Rely on your 1st AD, he is there for you (or at least till the end of the day when the producers are telling him-to you-to HTFU). Also I like keeping a fun set so I will likely play music, keep things light. Finally, don't be a screamer. Those who think that screaming and kicking shit to get their way is not going to get respect of the crew. I try to NOT scream so that the rare times I do justifiably have to lose my cool a bit, everyone shuts the fuck up and listens. Oh...and know your crew's names! From the top down, even down to the drivers. You say "Hey Bill" or "Good morning Shelia" to people who think they are insignifigant members of the crew, everyone feels important and you'll have a happy, productive crew who will help you get your shots.

...DUDE.

We had an actor who was notoriously late to set so we pushed call time for just that actor so THEY thought they were late but they actually were showing up right on time! Pretty slick...

"Sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burnin' and if we're not back by dawn....call the president" - Jack Burton.

I'm not deft enough to sling arrows like HAWKEYE, and way too good looking to be THOR. Captain America was another choice but I'm a much better redhead.

Thanks man! I wish you loved it so much the "shit" in that version would fall out of its asshole! But again, the movie isn't mine anymore, it's (the royal) "yours". Its just a shame that the version the writers, actors and many of the crew were collectively making wasn't there in the final product. But you never know...

"Pain is temporary. Film is forever." Actually, no, film is NOT forever. Digital is like what, 10 years? Shit. Well, that went terribly, huh?

Write it ALL down and plan on rewriting...a LOT.

Thanks! Get ready for 100 more!

Thanks so much Bubba! I ALWAYS listen to music when Im writing or doing anything creative. I grew up with movies in my heart and on my mind as a baby so I thought real life had music scores! I usually listen to movie scores like THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, SCHINDLER'S LIST, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (among other Carpenter faves) & of course most of Bear McCreary's scores like BSG. Lately when I was prepping and shooting EVERLY I got WAY into dubstep (stop laughing, its also awesome to edit to) so I was listening almost exclusively to Excision which is just like Transformers farting but I loved it. That's where the dub-esque moment in EVERLY pops up! But yeah I love music, from scores to needle drops and it always informs my work, which is why you hear things like "My Blue Heaven" playing during the Sex Zombie orgy scene in CHILLERAMA.

PS: I have a few things cooking but right now we're casting our new Sci-Fi thriller SWITCH CULTURE, which is insane (as you'd expect probably). There's a few other things too but don't want to jinx it!

I think in this day and age you can be a mogul ANYWHERE as long as you produce content and product that can match that of the usual creative outlets like NY, LA, Chicago, London, etc. I think its important to be in LA mainly so you can do the dog-and-pony show and network, but since you can distribute your wares at the push of a button, why not do it from anywhere? Rodriguez created an empire in Austin, why not where you are? Good luck!

Depends on which kind you mean...the literal snakes or "Hollywood" snakes? The only thing she was afraid of on our set was that cage...

No worries! Thanks for stopping by!

No accident is "funny", and our crew took every "gag" and stunt VERY seriously so no injuries occurred, which could have happened a lot. So Im hoping/guessing you meant "Happy Accidents"? If so, EVERY day was a discovery of a happy accident, which is when something you don't expect happens and ends up enriching the movie. One of my favorite little ones is when the Blood Elevator scene happens, the blood shooting out of the doors was SO big (because our SFX guy, who we named "Take 3 Toske" because he'd get the gag right on the 3rd take without fail) that it blew out one of the lights in the hallway at JUST the right moment to elicit a laugh from the audience. It's those strange little things that you THINK was planned but don't let the filmmakers fool ya!

HORROR MOVIE: THE BLOB (but some other asshole got it)
SUPER HERO MOVIE: A Punisher TV show spin-off from DAREDEVIL.
Dream Film: A love story about my Mom and Dad, who were divorced late in life but came together when he was sick. Just really sweet.

Funny I just answered that! I have so many fave King novels; one of the most personal to me is CHRISTINE, which I read when I was 8. My family's house in Long Island was robbed while we were out during the day, coming home to an empty house....save for ONE thing the robbers left: a copy of King's CHRISTINE hardcover. So while My mom is on the phone to the cops, I sat on the floor and began to devour that book. It kinda changed my life. I'd LOVE to remake that movie actually, even though I love Carpenters version. Its hard to pick anything that's been done. Im a "Constant Reader" so I read everything he does the second it comes out. If I had my druthers (and a higher IMDB score) Id be breaking down doors to cast Kurt Russell as the cop in MR. MERCEDES.

Wow, man that's tough. I could talk about any particular movie for HOURS, mostly to just find other peoples interpretation of particular works. If I had to pick one movie at this moment? Hmm. I really want to dig deeper on NIGHTCRAWLER, which I really liked but still scratch my head over the ending. Any chance I can get to talk ANY movies is good but lately that's one I keep bringing up.

ACTUALLY: I'd say Cronenberg's VIDEODROME or CRASH. Most times I can debate Cronenberg for hours but those are my two favorite ones.

I miss having a home for HOLLISTON, that's for sure!

After Yale and I worked on the script, it was our producer Luke who asked if I could do a "fake trailer" or "ripomatic" to let readers know what kind of movie we were making tonally and stylistically. So I cut a fake trailer using clips from everything from BARTON FINK, THE PROFESSIONAL, BARAKA, SAFE HOUSE, SONATINE, etc where I used specific moments to make it feel like an original trailer. Luke then sent THAT out and if people were enticed, then they read the script. That's how it got in front of enough execs and producers to get it on the Black List in 2010. So even before I went in the room to discuss the script, they had a visual idea of what I was going for. Then I would go in and say "It's one room! We can shoot this anywhere, even Tim Buk Tu!" Didn't think they'd actually send me halfway around the world to shoot it! So advice: When they ask where you want to shoot...say Maui.

Hey CubeDude! So glad to hear the show helps you out! When Ive had some dark, tough times, podcasts like Nerdist & Maron always helped me big time and glad we could do the same! Honestly, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to work "above the line" (director, writer, producer, DP) its good to to be in LA or NY so you can be in the thick of the biz and be on stand by so to speak. If it's "Below the line" (AD,various crew, some local cast) then maybe migrate to a bigger location like Atlanta, Louisiana and/or New Mexico where productions are thriving. All depends on your ambition!

my pleasure!

I'm having a steamy affair with TV right now, there's just so much great stuff out there. Currently I'm LOVING DAREDEVIL and LOUIE is the kind of next-level shit Ill be showing my kids when they're older (i.e. 2 years). Loved BETTER CALL SAUL, love GoT of course. Really dug LAST MAN ON EARTH for a bit but lost interest (or just too much to watch). Oh, BLOODLINE snuck up on me. Holy shit! But DAREDEVIL is my current crush.

Hey! Please, wax away, my jalopy is pretty dull at the moment! ;)
To answer your question, I always do a treatment; it helps me figure out the basic story and because I started writing in prose form as a kid (in my half hearted attempt to be Stephen King, Skip & Spector or Clive Barker) its more natural for me to tell it more like a bedtime/campfire story. Plus a treatment is easy to interject as you go as I usually do a version with everything and then edit and add at will till I know all the dots are connected. Once you know your beginnings, middles and ends, at least for me, its a lot easier to start adding it as a script, including dialogue. As for planning...well as they say, "60% of a movie is in pre-production", which is a very fair percentage....maybe 50% if we're being honest here. Prepping any shoot is integral so things are on-set, people are on-point and know the task at hand, etc. But you ALSO need to know that while you can prep incessantly and think you got shit locked down...it NEVER goes like that. You have to be open to collaboration, compromise and the art of the "Happy Accident". Once you can balance the two, you're in Cinema Zen.

My parents. My Dad inspired my ambition and passion (he was a small time car customizer who made a major impact on the car biz with his designs so it showed the little guy CAN make a big impact) and my Mom for never giving up, whenever shit gets tough. Without their inspiration and support, I'd probably be cleaning toilets. Some would say I still do with my movies!

We had Jason on MOVIE CRYPT and he's an amazing guy...and YES I want an 80's set BOOGIE NIGHTS type movie about the WWF (pre-"E"). As for me? I would love nothing more than to see Terry Gilliam's long-aborted version of WATCHMEN. If he had then what Snyder had for his version...oh man!

LOST THEMES? Hell yes! I want to do music videos for every one of them!

You kinda NEED to block off 2-3 hours after watching VIDEODROME just to do a post-screening discussion. SO good and still so relevant almost 35 years later!

100% just trying to find something that truly scares me. Writing something now that might do the trick. But while I've veered away a little from the genre (then again if you see EVERLY some might say I never left entirely) I'll always want to play in the blood and bumps in the night. Just has to be the right story for the right time.

When WT2 hit, there was some discussion of me doing the 3rd. My good friend Dave Parker and I were spitballing ideas and we had this one where it was like ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 in a way: Three Finger is captured by a local sheriff and taken to a small lockup and the rest of the family (who survived earlier installments & some new folk) head there to break him out. Might have been a little too strange and ambitious for Fox as they just wanted to do more of the same (but this time, lets cut the first victim in 3's! WOO!). At the time I would have loved to go back to the woods but Declan took over and the rest is history.
Funny story about that first victim: When I passed on the script they eventually sent, they DID ask me to play the victim who gets cut in 3's! I asked them why and they said "Because you're Joe Lynch". Um...who cares? But funny how I was gonna be the gimmick stunt casting in the 3rd one. Ah, memories...

Of course! Copies of EVERLY will be available at Dark Dels!! Please come out and say hi!

Easy! Squirtle of course! I mean, that name tho.