You're listening to Hello Movies, a podcast to get you off the couch and into the theater. I'm Lana Gay. Coming up, we talked to Jake Kasdan, the director of Jumanji: The Next Level.
Where's the jungle? This is a whole new thing. Nobody told us we had to do a whole new thing.
We get a closeup look at the star- studded movie Bombshell, about the scandal around Roger Ailes at Fox News.
Someone has to speak up. Someone has to get masked.
Plus we've got Star Wars trivia, a look at why people go to the movies on Christmas and a chat with Tanner Zipchen of the Cineplex Pre Show about upcoming movies.
Make it short and spicy and if the main character is a girl, make sure she's married by the end.
It's time to do a little listening before watching. Let's get started.
We have some issues here. The game is busted.
It was a game. I'm not it. I'm going to be it.
Welcome to Jumanji.
The next movie in the Jumanji franchise, Jumanji: The Next Level, hits theaters December 13. The movie reunites stars Dwayne " The Rock" Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black and Kevin Hart and then mixes things up by adding Awkwafina, Danny Glover and Danny DeVito. It's co- written and directed by Jake Kasdan who sat down with Cineplex Magazine's Ingrid Randoja to talk about the movie.
Hi Jake. Thanks so much for taking time to talk to us.
Yeah, good to be here.
First of all, I really loved the first film. I thought it was so much fun. It felt like Breakfast Club meets Romancing the Stone.
Oh, that's a great ... I love that. That's right in the zone of the things we were going for us. That's great to hear.
Awesome, and so tell me, you're coming up with an idea for a sequel. How do you top that or what do you think? What do I need to bring to make the second movie work and have that same energy as the first film?
We wanted to make sure that we weren't just repeating ourselves. We really wanted to make sure that it could stand up and be its own thing, that we weren't just duplicating and we wanted to expand their world a little bit and bring in some new people. And that was the road that led us to the characters that are
played by Danny DeVito and Danny Glover. And the thought of introducing them into our story was really what led us all up and got us excited.
The beauty of the film is you have the actors playing against type because they have teenagers that are stuck in their body. So that's so awesomely fun for actors because they get to do opposite of what they are. It must have been fun to direct that and to trust them to go over there. Tell me a bit about that.
Yeah, that that part of it is a blast and is really the central idea in these movies to me. And the big idea with one has to do with the movie stars playing these characters that are completely against their ordinary personas. And I happened, luckily, to find just the perfect cast
for that on the first movie. And they've extended that in new directions that are just as much fun and just as much fun to direct in this one as they were in the first one.
What the hell is this? Would you look at me? Now I haven't looked like this since-
Never. You look like this never.
I think my eyes are a different color.
All of you is a different color.
So what did Danny and Awkwafina, the two Danny's and Awkwafina bring to the energy or the chemistry on set?
They were all three just wonderful additions. But in terms of the actual filming that was infused with this incredible new energy by having these two legendary guys that I've loved and looked up to my entire career, two of my absolute all time favorites with DeVito and Glover, completely transformative in terms of what that was like for me,
for the crew that I worked with. And then Awkwafina on the other side of it was really just this seamless, perfect addition to this group that the other four, they've become quite close over the course of these two movies and the chemistry that you see and what they put out to the world is absolutely genuine and exactly
what they're like. So they really have a great time together and Awkwafina just hopped right into that with total confidence and she is just fantastic. I loved working with her.
One of the interesting things about this movie is you go out of the jungle, you've got different vistas, right? There's different places that you go. Where were some of the places that you shot?
Yes, that was an exciting part of a sequel. But this idea that the game is busted, that everything's going to be different now manifests in a couple of different ways. And one of them is that everybody's playing different characters than they were in the first movie. And the other is that the effect of busting the game has broken down walls and now we're seeing parts of Jumanji that
we never knew even existed. So we returned to Hawaii and the jungles that we spent most of the first movie in. We were outside of Calgary, in the Kananaskis, the absolutely spectacular mountain range where a lot of people have gone to shoot. We were in New Mexico in the desert and then we were in far Southern California, near the border of Mexico in the Glamis Dunes. We really go a lot of cool places in this movie.
Is there a one scene that was really challenging to shoot where you said, " Oh boy, I hope we get through this. I hope we all survive this"?
Yeah, there was a moment up in Kananaskis where we were shooting a quite central scene at the end of the movie. Someone says, " Just keep doing what you're doing but you should know that there's a storm coming and there will be 40 to 50 mile per hour winds and blizzard within a couple of hours. We're not sure when."
Oh my gosh.
That was the moment where you think, " Are we going to get through this?" And then it won't be blue sky again for a week. So we sort of powered through and got it. That was a moment where we wondered whether we would make it and the movie gods smiled on us and we did. The actors rose to it and we just got what we needed and got down and about five seconds later the storm hit.
Oh wow, that's amazing. Do you think you learned about directing watching your dad? I know you were on Big Chill and Silverado as a little kid when he was making those movies, Lawrence Kasdan, but did you watch him and did you say, " I want to do this"? When did that hit for you?
Yes, absolutely. He's the dominant mentor and teacher in my life and career and we're very, very close then and still. And when I was a little kid I got to see what it was like to make movies and that obviously made a huge impression.
What do you want audiences or viewers to feel when they walk out of seeing The Next Level?
I feel like the next level is a continuation of what we started in the first one. But I am happy to report at the end of this journey as it's about to blast off another world that I really do feel like we made a different movie than the first one. It's a big ride and you laugh a lot, and I think you'll love the people that you get to know along the way.
That's great. That's exactly what kind of movie I want to go see.
Well, good. I've got one for you.
Thanks so much, Jake. I'm a big fan of your movies and your dad's movies.
Thank you. And I'll pass it on to him too.
Help me, Obi- Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.
Let's make some connections here. Jake Kasdan's dad, Lawrence, is an Oscar- winning screenwriter who co- wrote four Star Wars movies. The final chapter in the epic Star Wars movie saga is about to hit theaters. So let's take a look back all the way to the 1970s to the movie nobody thought would be a hit. In fact, the British crew working on Star Wars thought it was just
a kiddie movie. But George Lucas always knew he had something special. That said, his original script was massively different from what we saw on screen. It was a whole lot longer too. When he realized he couldn't make a movie that went on for so many hours, he took the first third of it out and made that his
movie. The next two thirds would become the sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There were a lot of other changes Lucas made along the way, which brings us to today's trivia question. I'm going to give you four fun facts about creating the very first Star Wars movie. Three are true and one is pure science fiction. Use the Force to see if you could figure out which one. One, Han Solo was going to
have green skin and gills. Two, Chewbacca's voice was to be provided by John Travolta. Three, the dark side of the Force was called the Bogan. Four, Jodie Foster was going to play Princess Leia. We'll give you the answer in a bit.
I want to convince you that I belong on air, Mr. Ailes. I think I'd be freaking phenomenal on your network.
I could pluck you out and move you to the front of the line. But I need to know that you're loyal. I need you to find a way to prove it.
Another big movie coming out this week is Bombshell. It's about the sexual harassment scandals at Fox News that brought down Roger Ailes. To talk about it we have film writer at Sasha Stone. She's written for Variety and the Hollywood Reporter and she's the founder and editor of the website Awards Daily. Hi Sasha.
Hey.
Can you first tell us the story behind the film Bombshell?
Yeah, so Bombshell is produced by Charlize Theron who also plays Megyn Kelly in the movie in an incredibly transformative performance. People won't even recognize her. When I see pictures of her, I think I'm looking at Megyn Kelly and I get them confused. So she wanted to tell the story of what she considers to be a film about the Me Too era, but not necessarily told from the
left. It's the idea that the sexual harassment and the culture of harassment and the protest against it can also exist in a conservative environment. That's the thrust of the film. So it's Charlize Theron, it's Margot Robbie and it's Nicole Kidman, and then a huge cast of cameos playing all the people you recognize on Fox News, like Geraldo
Rivera. As you're watching it, you'll see all the different people that you recognize with actors dressed up to play them.
I was going to say because Director Jay Roach, he's part of the project and he's known for comedic franchises like Austin Powers and Meet the Parents, but also political films like Trumbo and Recount. So this is a serious subject matter, but it sounds like there are some comedic elements to the film.
Yeah, if you've ever seen Recount, it's very similar to that. It starts out pretty funny, like Charlize Theron breaks the fourth wall and speaks right to you and it moves really quickly, but then of course it starts to get more and more serious. And by the end, it's become a very serious film about these women who felt victimized by Roger Ailes and by the entire Fox News establishment.
The attitude off camera was even worse. You're a man hater, learn to get along with the boys. You're sexy but you're too much work. I have a whole list.
Will other women come forward?
It's interesting because you mentioned Charlize Theron breaking the fourth wall and it feels like the way they're telling this story, which obviously is a very hefty story and talking about scandal and assault. It's interesting the actual way that they have written the screenplay version of this story.
It is and there's a documentary floating around about Roger Ailes and if you've watched that you get, that has a lot more information that I don't think that they felt like they could put in the movie, but it gives you good background information about some of the stuff
that the women were going through. But really, this is a movie about Megyn Kelly's arc from going from someone who was faithful to Fox News who really ... all these women really just wanted to be journalists. They weren't in it to be celebrities. They actually believed that they were doing the kind of work that a journalist would do.
And so Roger Ailes, he made it a deal with each of them as they came in and Megyn Kelly was one of them early on in her career. And the idea was you do what I want you to do and you do what I want you to do with other men or else, not only are you fired, but I'll ruin your career.
Horrible.
Yeah, and when you watch the Roger Ailes documentary, you'll see a lot of the women who turned him down whose careers were ruined because of that. They're not in this movie Bombshell, but they're out there. And so this is like a success story. It's a story about female strength in the workplace. It's a story about people who are reluctant to come forward because they, Megyn Kelly says
throughout, I'm not a feminist. This isn't my fight. But
her career is threatened. And the same with Margot, who's the only one who's shown at the time to be coaxed into a sexual predicament with Roger Ailes because she's the young one and the other two have already, he's already moved through them and moved on, but she's the new one coming in and so it's actually her case that ignites this whole thing because they start to see
that it's happening to other women and it won't stop until they stop it.
Fox News star and Gretchen Carlson dropped a major bombshell today.
What is she doing?
This could kill Fox News.
What did you like the most about this movie?
Well, I liked the performances, especially Charlize Theron, and by the way, she's really tall. She's like six feet tall or even taller than that. And so her performance as Megyn Kelly is so studied. It's one of those incredible performances where an actor sometimes disappears into the role and you see that a lot with men. You don't see
it a lot with women. And this is the second time that she's done it because she did it with Monster where she completely transformed herself and she won an Oscar for that. But I think what I liked about it was that it managed her to talk about the Me Too movement and show the power of a lot of women coming together and backing each other up.
It's been great to talk to you. Thank you for taking the time. We appreciate it.
Sure, no problem. I hope you like the movie.
Earlier in the podcast, we gave you four facts about George Lucas's original plans for the first Star Wars movie, but only three were true. Did you guess which one wasn't? Here they are again. One, Han Solo was going to have green skin and gills. Two, Chewbacca's voice was to be provided by John Travolta. Three, the dark side
of the Force was called the Bogan. Four, Jodie Foster was going to play Princess Leia. First, Han Solo was going to have green skin and gills. Originally, he was a tall, green, noseless alien. Also, Luke was going to be a 60- year- old general or maybe a dwarf.
Also, his name was Luke Starkiller. Mark Hamill actually said, " I'm Luke Starkiller here to rescue you," to Princess Leia in that scene where they first meet and they had to dub over that dialogue after they changed his name. Jodie Foster as Princess Leia? Sure. They offered it to her, but she was already booked on two Disney movies
and didn't have the time. PS, she's fine with it and yes, the dark side of the Force was originally called the Bogan. The light side, the Ashla, and thankfully that was changed. So no, Chewbacca's voice was never going to be provided by John Travolta. Sound designer Ben Burtt chose a combination of bears with a dash of walrus
dog and lion thrown in for Chewie's voice. He toured marine land to get inspired and saw a walrus stranded at the bottom of a pool that had been emptied for cleaning. When it moaned, he knew he found just what he'd been missing. A tall, fuzzy star was born. Bonus fact, the studio was concerned about Chewbacca's nudity and
wanted him to wear short. Okay, Star Wars fans, go see the final chapter in the Skywalker saga on December 20th. I'm betting some of you even have your tickets already. If you don't, head on over to cineplex. com to get them. ( singing)
Oh boy.
Do you like to go to the movies on Christmas Day? If you do, you're not alone. Turns out Christmas Day is one of the busiest days of the year at movie theaters. One reason, there isn't a whole lot of other stuff open, so if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's something fun to do while everything else is closed.
If you do, you've probably wrapped up your celebrations by the middle of the day and now everybody's going a little stir crazy. I get it. One of my personal Christmas Day favorites was watching La La Land, which I thought was just a perfect holiday movie. Now, back in 1947, Paramount Pictures took a big risk and decided to
open a non- Christmas movie on Christmas Day. It was the Road to Rio starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope as two out- of- work musicians named Scott and Hotlips. The risk paid off. It was a huge box office success and even nabbed itself an Oscar nomination for best
score. A new tradition was born. Since then, studios had been releasing all kinds of movies around the holidays, hoping to grab those Christmas crowds and make a play for Oscar nominations before the end of the year. So we wanted to know what movies have you gone to see on Christmas? Maddie told us she and her family went to see Lord of the Rings on Christmas Day. Each of the three movies, three years in a row.
Legend tells of a ring, created by an ancient evil, that gave it's wearer the power to enslave the world.
Christmas- y. Elisa said her family has a running joke about how depressing the movies are that they see on Christmas, like Les Miserables and Sweeney Todd. " Really heartwarming uplifting stories," she says. And MA told us about a study in contrast. One year, she went to see Vice about former vice president Dick Cheney. MA describes it as being
about a man with no soul or heart. Perhaps not the best thematic choice for Christmas, but the year before that her family went for something a little more on point, the Post, about the Washington Post's attempts to publish classified documents revealing US involvement in the Vietnam War. " That was a good movie for a holiday," she says, " People
behaving honorably." But you know what those two movies have in common, they were both about true life events, but more importantly, they both scored themselves some major Oscar nominations. The Post was up for best actress and best picture and Vice was nominated in eight categories, including all the big ones. Ask anyone who works at a movie theater and they'll tell you that Christmas is a magical time
of year. People come with their families and perhaps to take a break from them. Either way, it gets you out of the house and doing something fun. If you want to join in on the Christmas movie fun, you've got tons of choices and to talk about a few of them, here's Tanner Zipchen, host of the Cineplex Pre Show. Hey Tanner.
Oh. Oh, I've just arrived. Hi Lana.
Nice to see you. Do you go to the movies on Christmas Day?
Well, the thing is, I never leave the theater as you know, so do I go to the movies on Christmas? I mean, I just happen to be there because I'm always there so yes.
I do enjoy going on Christmas Day. It's actually a newer tradition for me.
Really?
Yeah. My mom and I started going a few years ago and it's really nice. Also, there's no stress really. Once you're there, you just hang out. We eat popcorn.
A good reason to get away from the family that comes into town. Like I just got to run out and get a couple of things.
For two-and- a- half hours.
Exactly.
Depending on the movie. Well, let's talk about some movies that are hitting theaters on Christmas Day. I like the new version of Little Women. Greta Gerwig directing this one.
Yeah, a bit of a reunion too with Saoirse Ronan. In Greta's last film, Lady Bird, Saoirse was the star of that. She's back in this, along with Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, a huge cast, Odenkirk, Bob Odenkirk, Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep.
Meryl.
Legendary Meryl Streep. Now this of course is not a new thing on the big screen. This is the eighth time that we've seen this story told for the big screen, the first time with this cast, which is very exciting. And of course, we're seeing a little bit of a time jump here because this film jumps back and forth in time. So we're seeing different versions of the
sisters' lives through adulthood, which is cool. But yeah, everyone's excited about the cast here. Especially all those Chalamet fans.
Do they have a name?
Chalamites.
The Chalamites, all right. And for a completely different vibe, there's 1917, co- written and directed Sam Mendes.
You have a brother in the second battalion.
Yes, sir.
They're walking into a trap.
Yeah, actually based on a story or a story fragment that Sam's grandfather told him about a messenger during the war and he was so inspired by that story. They ended up writing this film based on that. But yeah, it's set around World War I, two British soldiers at the height of the war and they've got to deliver a message warning of an ambush and cross into enemy
territory. And with this comes some amazing massive scenes, these long one- shots. Practical effects are absolutely incredible in this. A great cast too, like Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch in there and critics so far are loving it. One of the highest rated films we've seen lately and some are even saying it could be better than Dunkirk.
Well.
That's a tall ... I mean, come on, Chris Nolan. That's a tall order but we'll have to see.
Indeed. Well, thanks so much, Tanner.
Thank you.
And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for joining us for our very last episode of 2019. Happy holidays and happy new year to all. If you have comments or questions about anything you heard on the podcast, let us know at hellomovies@ cineplex. com. Hello Movies is brought to you by Cineplex Entertainment. Laurie Ulster is the writer of our podcast. Colton Eddy is our producer. [ Philip Zivkov 00:22: 48]
is our sound designer and mixer. Our series consultant is Jeff Ulster and our executive producer is Catherine Jheon. I'm Lana Gay. Thanks for listening and see you at the movies.