And welcome to another edition of The Movie Crypt. I'm Adam Green. I'm Joe Lynch. We are recording this episode way back on the day right after Christmas. It's December 26, 2024. And this needs a pretty big intro. Really? Yes. Wait, wait. Mom, are you listening to this? Listen, this is the only part. Mom. Mom, take your headphone out. This is the only part you have to listen to. Just listen to this part. It's going to be great. Here we go. No pressure.
I still had housekeeping. All right. Well, whatever. Well, okay. Oh, okay. Nevermind. No, no, no. Go do mom. Stop. No, stop listening. Darren's mother. Is in town for the holidays. Stop listening. Okay, she's not listening, so go do your thing. Okay, she's not listening? No, not listening. Well, all right, this is kind of anticlimactic. She was watching Serbian film when we interrupted her. I know. Well, in last week's episode, Mary had said...
She made a comment about, oh, because I'm afraid of taxes. And I was like, wow, my brother helps people with taxes. They're not like a sponsor, but I should be a good brother and be talking about what he does. Especially because for those of you in our Slumber Party Massacre tier, you'll notice...
our streams look a ton better. That was because my brother is starting a podcast and he's like, just so I know how to use this stuff, I'm going to get you one of whatever I get. We've gone from SD to a whopping 720p. We've gone from VHS. to technically 4K. LaserDisc. But anyway, if... the IRS is turning your life into a nightmare, or especially if you own a small business, or even if you're like, uh,
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Sounds like a commercial. That was really good. I did really well. You know what? I might be texting him right now. Well, he's certainly helped me because I don't understand any of it. And because I'm like, oh, this is going to be running in March. It's like everyone's like freaking out. April 15th, right? Yeah. So just text taxhorror, T-A-X-H-O-R-R-O-R to 33777. It feels like we should have said this was sponsored by. No, don't do that. Yeah, that's true. It's not a sponsor.
It's helping a friend out. Okay. Our guest this week, we've been saying this for a long time. Oh, he's going to be coming back on. He's going to be coming back on. Now, as you guys know, this is episode 614 in the. God, at this point, just about 12 years that we've been doing this show every week. We've only had a handful of guests ever come back a second time. And usually because it's been many years and there's all this stuff. But this guest, this is... Technically, his fourth
standalone episode, right? But he also was in our Violence in Cinema Roundtable, which came out in June of 22. So really, it's five episodes. So technically, we owe him one of those SNL... Yeah, Jack... Jacket? Yeah. We have a washcloth. That would be great. If enough of you guys sign up for Patreon, we'll be able to get Darren a jacket. But his first appearance on this podcast was episode 34, which I believe was a two-parter.
Because it was like three and a half hours or something. Or maybe we just did that for Classic Crypt. I think that was Classic Crypt. Okay, but that was January of 2014. And that, as you've heard us say many times, was the episode that changed this podcast.
Because the first 10 episodes, it was just really about promoting season two of Holliston. We were just going to do 10 weeks of this and end it. But then because we were having other filmmakers on and stuff, the conversations were becoming super real about what it's really like. But then Bowsman came on in episode 34 and we would always warn people, hey, so a lot of industry people listen to this. So, you know, don't be too honest.
Nope. Didn't give a shit. Was so honest. And then we start getting calls from other people like, Hey, I got a story. I want to come on. I want, I got to talk about this. I want to come on. So his first one was episode 34 in 2014. Then episode 229. in October of 2017, then episode 413 in 2021, and then that roundtable that I mentioned in 2022. But it's basically like every three to four years. Are we also counting the live commentary? Well, that's what I was going to say too. We did come...
to Saw 2. We did a commentary for Abattoir. And Spiral. And Spiral for Yorkethon. So you're basically... I should have a cot in here. And I can use my washcloth over there in the cot. You get the jacket and the washcloth. Oh my god, I'm very excited. You're more useful than Arwen, who is technically the third host of the show. Where is he? This is the first time I've been...
Come today. This makes me really sad. My wife was off work today, so she didn't want to get out of bed. I got it. I got it. Anyway, please welcome back to the movie crypt. Darren Lynn bows. Mom, be excited. Mom, clap. Mom. She can't hear you. My mom is not close. She's so over it. She's so over the bullshit. All right. So it's been a while. I think the last time I'm trying to remember, I think the last time you were on was probably the live.
Commentary for Spiral during your work-a-thon. But before that, I think you had just done your second immersive theatrical experience for a Halloween thing. To set this up, because there's a bunch of stuff to talk about, but it was like kind of peak pandemic. The vaccines were just starting to roll out, but it was only for like... hospital workers and elderly people at the time and everybody else had to wait. And I get a call from our mutual friend, Spooky Dan.
Hey, you know, Christian, and he's got this thing, and there's this producer in the UK that wants to talk to you. It's this movie. It's shooting in Egypt. I'm like, Egypt? Holy shit. Okay, well, yeah, whatever. I'll talk to the guy. Super nice guy. But it just seemed super suspect, mainly because good things don't tend to just happen to me. And then in rolls Darren and taking Adam sloppy seconds. Wait, wait, wait. But the condition was he's like, listen, he's like.
It's at least a $10 million movie, maybe more, like whatever it's going to need. And it's being made by a sheik. And you need to go meet with him face to face. He won't do Zoom. And you got to go now. And I'm like, this sounds like such a fucking scam. It's like that part in Goodfellas where Robert De Niro's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just go down that alleyway. That's what it felt like. And I'm like, this is way too good to be true.
Egypt. Jesus Christ. I'm like, well, listen, the vaccines are just rolling out by like next week or the week after I'll be able to get one of those shots. I just don't want to be in fucking Egypt and get really sick. Okay. Like, so can I just wait? No. You got to go now. I'm like, look, I'll talk to him on Zoom right this second. I'm like, I just can't. No, no, you got to go. And you can't wear a mask when you meet him. I'm like, this is, I don't know. And so I talked to him.
Mom and my dad and I'm like this this isn't real right there like your whole industry isn't fucking real, but I wouldn't do this. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know. And then before I could even really like make a decision, I talked to you. You're like, Hey, I'm going to Egypt. I swoop in and take it. Yeah. Well, you know what? My mom, who is my conciliary talking about Goodfellas, she's over here. You should have talked to him.
my mom. And she would have said, fuck Darren, get on a plane and go. That's the difference. That's the difference. But then I'm watching on Instagram and you're like in front of the pyramids and you're here and you're there and you're working with Jeremy Irons. And I'm like, fuck. Like, it was real, but ish. Of course, there's always a story. There's always an ish. There's always an ish. Yeah, that was crazy.
I mean, listen, I, one of the consistent things and now I'm, so if I would have done the first podcast and when was it? 2014 you said? Yeah. So, so 10 years ago. Um, so now I'm in my forties. Uh, there has been no difference in the. Every single film was a struggle. I don't think I've ever felt like I've been on comfortable ground. So I think that...
I mean, even on the way over here, my mom says, when are you going to get your next job? I just got off a job, literally. Like days ago. Yeah. That's the beast, right? It is. The monster. But we're trying to change the title to Mindfuck, which I'm pushing for, but no one wants that. that because they're like you'll never get posters up but it's not gonna be called monster but right now it's called monster but
And even coming off that movie with, again, a two-time nominated actor and Lauren Lavera, who I'm absolutely, she is a star. Forget Terrifier. She's amazing in Terrifier. Like her just acting performance is just, she is a huge star. So coming off this movie, I'm still like, I don't know if I'm going to work again. I don't know if I'm going to work again. And I think that when...
When the Egypt thing came up, I was still on. I'd just gotten off another project. I was like, I don't know if I'm going to work again. I'm doing it. And so, yeah, I took it thinking that, you know, you never know if it's going to be your last movie. And it. I did a movie, my worst film of all my films, 11, 11, 11.
The behind the scenes was more ever more interesting than the movie and the same thing with cello. The behind the scenes of what was going on and is still going on today, four years, three years after I made the movie is more interesting because it's.
Getting any movie made is a fucking struggle, and the struggle continues today, years and years and years after the movie's made. The movie still isn't finished. There's still no edit of the movie that was the director's cut of the movie. It's still not been mixed or color corrected or visual affected.
Somehow it got released in theaters after work. That's what he was saying. He's like, it was in theaters. I thought it wasn't done. Oh my God. Last Christmas I was on AMC. I'm going, the fuck is cello doing on here? I said the same thing. So, uh, I'm going to jump to the end and then I can fill you in. Mom, some little respect, please. My mom just cracked open a beer and she's over there drinking tall boy. It's already 1020 in the morning, man. The look that you just got shot.
I know. So I'll start at the end and then I'll go backwards. This is one of those like, man, if I can only tell you what happened to me just before. You're probably wondering how I got it. The experience of making it could not have been more insane and magical and cool. and the only time in my career that I was never really told no. It was always sure. Oh, you want a crane in the middle of the desert? Let's just fly one in on a private plane and parachute it out to you.
There was never a moment where we were ever really told anything because it was the first time they had ever made a movie. And so it started in Egypt. We were supposed to shoot it in Egypt. And Egypt was a very dangerous place to shoot at the time. There was a huge conflict going on between.
the military and the police. And there was people you had to pay off that ran certain zones. And then there were threats of all this crap. We had to have private security. We have national security. It became too cumbersome to shoot there. So they said, hey, we're going to move us to somewhere much, much safer. And I was like, great. Where are we going?
And I was like, are we going to go to the Arizona desert? Like, no, we're going to go to Saudi Arabia. And I was like, fuck, no, I'm not going to Saudi Arabia. And they're like, no, no, no, it'll be great. I was like, I'm not going to Saudi Arabia. And they said, just go for 24 hours and see. And I went there and it was magical. I loved it. And it was.
What was crazy is before going and after going, I always have BBC on in my room whenever I'm shooting, that or CNN. It was just anti, anti, anti-Saudi. And this is right around the time Khashoggi happened. So, of course, it's all anti. Obviously, we're in the middle of the pandemic and there was a big thing at that point about Saudi not doing some gas deal. So it was just negative, negative, negative. So when I go there, I'm expecting to see what I'm hearing on the news on.
This was not that at all. I was like, you're there in the middle of a renaissance because for the first time, Sharia law is gone. The military, they have something called the religious police that go around and they basically will measure the hijab and make sure that it's the right the right length. They make sure.
that there is no music being played. Music was not allowed. Theaters were not allowed. Content was not allowed. Now that was all done away with five years ago, one year before the pandemic started. So imagine if you've lived under this regime for decades and then all of a sudden they lift it and say, you know what?
Go ahead and have Jay-Z playing in the lobbies of hotels. Go ahead and have women driving. You know what? Let's build some AMC movie theaters. So when you go there, there's excitement in the air because people are wearing Western attire and they're listening to music and there's movie theaters.
And it was this excitement in the air. So when I get there, the first thing I'm kind of blown away with this, I was like, oh my God, there is outside of my hotel room an Earth Cafe with the exact same menu as the Earth Cafe here, minus they didn't have any pork products, but that was the only thing.
There is a Starbucks. It was beautiful and the people were so nice and kind and it felt modern. I'm so glad you said that because there is a thing, especially where we live in Western culture, where the only stuff... that is shown to us is always screaming militant people with rocket launchers on horses. And I'll tell you, that's not the way people really are. No, and I'll tell you that I don't know the word.
I mean, yeah, I guess I can say I had a lot of misconceived racism on what it was going to be like to be there. And I say racism because I had this idea in my head. And I was like, this is what it is because that's what they show you on TV. And it was so the opposite of that. And it made me disgusted in myself. And I'll give you the example that I had. It was very early on there.
I was in a hotel lobby and there was a woman in a hijab and she had a traditional covered head to toe. Only her eyes were showing. And I heard a familiar sound. And I realized what I was listening to was Peppa Pig. And she was showing Peppa to her little girl. And her little girl had...
the phone. And I realized that just, just weeks earlier, I was doing the same thing with my daughter in Los Angeles. And I realized that at that moment, we all want the same thing. We want safety of our family. We want comfort. We want these, we're all the same. Um, and so, you know,
And within like days of me arriving in Saudi Arabia, I fell in love with the place. I thought it was great. I thought the people were friendly. It was nice. And it wasn't like we were being driven from place to place. Like, don't look over here. Like, no, we would take Ubers. It was beautiful. It was great. And then...
Here comes the ish part. Yeah, the ish part. Now that ish part, I couldn't, that would be, that would be, if you do a Yorkie-thon and devote it entirely, how long do you guys stay awake in Yorkie-thon? It used to be 48 hours, then... We both had health scares from it. And then it went down to 20, like basically 24 hours. We break it up over the weekend now.
But we didn't do one this December because, well, at the time this airs, I'm away shooting. So we're going to probably do it in the summer. Well, if you ever do a 48-hour one, I can get through Chapter 1 of Cello. So I'm going to give you the very big cliff notes of this.
So we get there. It was great. It was beautiful. And I was like, okay, screw it. I want to shoot here. This is amazing. And the guy who is the kind of mastermind, his name is His Excellency Turkey Ella Shake. Did you have to say that every time? I got to the point that. i could call him uh sup no you'd have you'd always have to it was it was respecting he was like a prince but not his excellency is is how you refer to him um
But he would be like the only way to describe him is he is Quentin Tarantino of the region of the Saudi region. He is animated and lively, knows everything about every single movie. And he has. You go to his house and this is where I'm going to get killed. You go to his house and you have to go through gunmen and like tanks and like you have to go through this thing. And I'm expecting like this, you know, you go into this compound.
And then you go down the staircase and then it's dude with a big hookah and like a big screen TV. And he's like, what's up, my friend? Come in. And there's like Pulp Fiction on. And there's like James Wan's, what's the Annabelle dolls all around? He's got a Billy doll. He has got.
like Mecca toys everywhere. And he like, he is the head of entertainment and all of Saudi Arabia, but he's a kid and he knows every movie. And so within, within a minute of me being there, he was amazing. And like I was, he was. referencing really obscure moments and really obscure films. And I felt the same when you sit with Quentin Tarantino and you talk like this guy knows everything about it. So I thought I was in good hands. Um,
And then no, it sounds like an Albert Brooks movie. I know it's, uh, okay. So it, all this is going, it was going very well. Um, we shot. About six weeks in Saudi Arabia and then we moved to Prague and we shot another two or three weeks in Prague
And everything seemed to be going very, very well. Was that a creative choice? Yeah. So what he wanted to do was he wanted to basically expose that Saudi Arabia was not the conception that everyone had of it. That it was not just... oil rigs everywhere and it was not you know he wanted to show Saudi uh is this kind of big
He wanted to make a Saudi-based film that was worldly, that was big. And it looks like that. Just the drone shots of the area, and it's beautiful. Thank you. So it was a great experience, and he wanted to... So one of the first mandates that we had was that we wanted to ensure that if you wanted it to feel like a bigger film, we had to make it, I was going to approach it with Western.
And that came with the way it dressed, the score that we were going to use, everything. And he embraced it all. There was no restrictions per se in what we could or couldn't do. I had one that I would not make it. I would not.
lean into any religious thing meaning i would not make it about islam i would not make it necessarily about christianity we'd never say the word devil we couldn't do that which is smart though because it makes the movie for a much broader audience it does and then we said the other thing was i would not I didn't want to do anything that I felt uncomfortable.
Personally, meaning that I didn't feel comfortable putting people in hijabs because that's not something I understand. And I said, I don't want to be disrespectful. So I'm only going to approach it if this movie is being shot in the United States. And they agreed to that. We agreed on no nudity. That was it. And they were great. It was a very easy shoot. And you realize that his excellency was... Did you have any crew...
that you had already worked with before, or was this an entire... Because you used Maxime. I used Maxime, who was the original DP on Abattoir before we pushed, and we lost him. Oh, I didn't know that. He didn't end up doing Abattoir. We pushed, and we lost him. Um, but Maxim and I've been, you know, been friends for years and it was, he's, he's amazing. So it was our first time and Joe Beshara did the score. Um,
So, no. But I did make it with these two producers, Lee Nelson and David Tisch. So when I got the job, I said one requirement was I have to bring my producer over. I want someone. And that was the best thing I could have done. I would have died literally and figuratively if I did not have an American producer with me. So...
Everything the shoot-wise was great. It was everything that happened from the moment we wrapped that it kind of derailed horribly. So the thing about Saudi Arabia is this guy, His Excellency, is a... He's one of the top people there. And I would say in the top five, if you were to Google top most influential or powerful people, he's not part of the royal family. But he is the – I'm trying to think how you would relate him to something. There's no even – A Kardashian. More. He would be...
He's more than that. I'll think of someone in a minute who we compare him to. But we get back, and while we were shooting the movie, he wanted to create this city. He had this vision for a city, and he was going to call it... uh, Riyadh season. And if you ever Google Riyadh season, it is the most insane, crazy. Um, it's the size when I was there, there was, okay, first off when I was there, there was nothing.
In the course of the six weeks of us being in Saudi shooting it, he built an entire city that was bigger than Epcot, Disneyland, Disney World, and Universal Studios, both Orlando and California combined as a mecca of all entertainment.
in this one place. And what he wanted to do is bring everyone from the country, the biggest and best of everyone to this place. So like right now, like this week, Martin Lawrence is there doing a comedy set. When I was there, when I left, Eminem and Kanye went to perform there.
Uh, it is, it is, he basically has created these zones and it will be like, um, rap and rap the rap zone. And it's all the biggest rappers in the world. He had the rock and roll zone, the biggest rock and roll people, the magic zone. It was the biggest magicians in the world. And he flies them in on private jets and he creates this Mecca to show people that Saudi is going to be this entertainment thing of the world. When I got to go to it, I was so...
dumbstruck and awestruck because it didn't exist six weeks earlier. And in six weeks, You have a city with rides and roller coasters and amphitheaters and light shows. And it took trams to get from point A to point B. And every morning we'd guard the set, we would see it being built. And it was 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It was done by the time we left. And that is the mentality there that things should be done like that. There's no, you don't wait. It's, you do it and you work around the clock, but that's not the way Hollywood works. It's not the way the entertainment industry works. Most, I would say 80% of the crew did not come from Saudi. They came from Lebanon, US, Toronto, New York. They were flown in. So when you're dealing, let's just say Jeremy Irons, for example.
Um, on something like Jeremy irons for him, it would be, you pick up the phone, you call, you say, I need you here tomorrow. Here's what I'm paying you. That's not how it works. Do you go to an agent? You go to the manager. He has to read it. He has to take time. He's got to have notes. He's got to come back. That could take three weeks, four weeks. That's a process. Yeah. Yeah. So when things would start taking time.
They were like, what do you mean it takes time? We built five cities in the time that's taking you. What do you mean it takes time? We're like, listen, you're dealing with the DGA. You can't, you have to get a signatory. What do you mean a signatory? Tell them, well, do we need it tomorrow? Well, you're not going to get it tomorrow, guys. It's going to take you this time. No, tell them no.
And you can't tell a deep note. Now you're also dealing with a different culture because you're in Saudi Arabia and this is in United States and you're like, tell them whatever. And you're like, what does DJ like sag? You think sad gives a fuck what they say? No, they give zero fucks. And so what happened was as the course of the production happened,
they felt they were being kind of lied to or disrespected because of the time things would take to get answers. Which is understandable, man. If it's your first time dealing with that. Oh my God, it is. Yeah. Because it's ridiculous how long things take here. I'm going to go back to the Tarantino analogy here. He is Quentin Tarantino, and he is probably the most...
There's an aura about the guy. Like when you're around Quentin, you feel there's an aura of cool about him. When you're around his excellency, there's an aura of cool. This guy's a badass and he knows it. You know it. Everyone knows it gets a badass.
But he's insulated. And it's part of the culture is that he's insulated by rings of people that protect him. The first people might be a financial people. The second group of people are security people. The third group of people are business people. So you have all these circles around him.
While I was in Saudi making the movie, I was in his circle of three people. That was it. It was just three of us. By the time I went back to Prague, now I had two circles to get around. And then it was four circles to get around.
Then I stopped dealing with him and I started dealing with the circles of people. And our producers started dealing with the circles of people. Why do you think there was that shift? It's just like with celebrities, though. You might become friends with, just for lack of a better word, who's someone who's not with us anymore? So no one takes this Michael Jackson, right?
And he's great. And you guys get along great. But now all of a sudden the lawyer, because you're doing business together, won't let you get to him. You've got to deal with him. And then you've got the manager. And then you've got the agent. And then you've got the like. Well, I'll tell you. So while I was in Saudi, this was again my own. misconceptions of the country I demanded to stay in the most secure place I could stay because I was terrified
And so I ended up saying what's called the DQ, which is the diplomatic quarter. And the diplomatic quarter is its own government law. It's its own rule because you're with all the embassies. So instead of it being overseen by the Riyadh police or the Saudi police, it's overseen by its own thing. You have to go through tanks. You have to go through guys with machine guns. But when you go in there, it's the American consulate. It's the Canadian consulate. They have their own grocery stores.
If I would go back there, I'd stay within Riyadh itself because that to me... um, was, I was so insulated from the real world, but he lived there as well. He lived, are they, his offices were there. Um, so I was always around him. I was always there in that circle. When I left, he has a million businesses. This, this idea of him.
him doing music or movies is one. He is building everything entertainment wise in Saudi and Saudi is a huge place. So he's building the sports facilities. He's building the gymnasiums. He's building the movie theaters. he's building Riyadh season, this huge complex. So I am one decimal point of what this guy is doing. So, so when I leave, he's onto other things. This is the thing as a filmmaker I'll never have again, and it's the hardest thing for me to try to explain to other filmmakers.
Money doesn't matter to them. There is no such thing as a concern over money. So when I was shooting in Aula, which is the middle of this desert, and I said, I want a drone, or I want to, at that point, Maxime wanted this huge technocrane to go over this sand dune. It was flown in from Paris overnight on a private plane. They don't care. So when you are talking about things taking time, they want to throw money at it, but that's not going to necessarily get you what you want.
So he got what he wanted, which is he wanted this Arabic movie with the biggest Arabic stars, and he wanted to release it in Saudi, and that's what he wanted. He got that. So when the movie... gets what he wants and we're like, well, okay, now we need to finish it. We need to do the color. We need to do the sound. We need to get the score. We need to get the visual effects. We need to do this, this, and this. He, there's no financial upside to him because for him,
It was released in Saudi, which we found out after the fact, a work print. OK, so I'm going to I'm going to skip the years of shit and go to the end of it was. I get a phone call after I leave Saudi, and I had done my director's cut of the movie, but we were waiting to do everything else. Did you finally get a signatory? Yeah, we were signatory with the DJ. Sorry, just to back up.
So when you would finish a cut, now typically all of us have been through this many, many times now. You finish what is considered the director's cut, but that's not the way. audiences should think of it. Cause the director's cut is basically how far you can get the movie in the time they give you until they get to step in and start giving their opinions. But you, as opposed to sending a link of it.
and having them get on, like, a Zoom and give you notes. You went over with me. I flew there two more times. And again, which is smart, though, because then you're there with him to explain. I'm with him, and now I circumvent the circles that I'm sitting with him. Every time you're with him, he's amazing. He's the nicest, coolest, humble, creative dude in the world. So I go there two times and show the movie.
He's excited and he's happy and I'm excited and I'm happy. And then we go back to America and we get brick walled and they make a release date up. And it was I'm normally the way it works is once a movie is locked, you still have six months. You have you have fully you have sound design, you have visual effects, you have scoring, mixing, all of that QC.
Once they agreed on the edit, they wanted to release it three weeks later. Oh my God. And that was the first thing that I started to, that was where all the red flags started to really go up because.
We weren't able to have the communication with them and say, wait, you can't do it like this. Well, they now built 10 cities since I've been gone. So what do you mean you can't? This is one piece of IP. This is a 90 minute film. Of course you can do it. And what stage of the movie was it at that point? I had finished a cut.
that I was quasi happy with, um, with no visual effects. So there's a fair amount of visual effects in this. Yeah. So the way that, um, I will, there were two cuts in the movie. There was a cut that was a, um, Arabic cut and then what's going to be a international cut.
We finished the Arabic cut and, um, you know, this is airing a little bit of dirty laundry, but fuck it. I'm on the movie crypt. I gotta, I gotta air that dirty shit. Did you shoot things both ways? Like in English? No, it was all done in Arabic. Um, but what we did do.
there was a lot of celebrities in the Arab region, and I mean Tom Cruise celebrities of their region, that were put in the movie that had no point to be there. And they were literally... I would be told this guy has to be on screen for a minute and a half playing what's called an obe or an oob.
And I'm like, dude, it's a horror movie, and I'm trying to build pacing, and I have to cut to this dude playing. He's like, no, he's like the Kenny G of over here, or the Michael Jackson of over here. So... He knew that these people would be adored in the cinema there, but we wouldn't give it two fucks about who that was. So we agreed that we were going to finish the Arabic cut and then we were going to do the international cut of the movie.
So we had signed off on the Arabic cut, and then we were going to cut 22 minutes out for the American cut, which got rid of all that stuff. We'd started that cut, and we see that there is a release date for the movie in Saudi. But we're like, wait, we've got the cup. We still have to mix it. We have to do the visual effects.
Joe Beshara had sent a temp score, which was all his music. It's all his original music, but it wasn't finessed. It wasn't mixed. The 5.1 wasn't in there, but there's a release date. And now I get a plane ticket to go to Saudi to present the movie. But I know that company three is doing everything and they don't have companies. They don't have anything. So what are they showing over there?
they were showing a quick time output of a QC print for the editor to make sure there were, was there a fucking watermark on it? So no, there was no watermark. It was done to make sure that was a technical QC print to make sure that there was nothing that should not be in the images. Like I'll give you an.
example and now when we shut down a lot of the streets we had red tape that had to be put down and and that was still we had to paint that out that was all still in there um so when i finally get This thing that I'm going back to Saudi, I had no idea what they were showing. I had no clue what they were showing.
It was the biggest premiere that I've ever seen in my life. The photos that you posted was incredible. They took over. It took place in this Riyadh place I was talking to you about, Riyadh season place. They had drones in the sky. light shows they had hundreds of like dead celloist playing as you walk down the red carpet it was insane and um every every celebrity of the region was there and uh
I do interviews that I have no idea because there's no translator at that point. I don't even know what I'm saying. And the movie starts. And, um, I heard a temp track that we didn't know. And, uh, I see that I'm looking at raw footage. There's no LUT. There's nothing. I'm watching it and I'm like, I look over to Lee and I said, what the fuck is this? And Lee leaves the theater and he starts texting company three.
And says, did you give, no, we haven't given them anything. And we realized it was a, it was the QC print that nothing. And that's the only movie that's ever been released anywhere. So this all happens. And I'm getting emotional thinking about this. I have to leave the theater. This is like the worst nightmare situation. We're at kindergarten where it gets to, and it's going to go. It gets much worse. So I see it.
And, you know, first off, I always hate when I come off sounding like woe is me. First off, I was taken very good care of. I was paid a lot of money. They were great. So don't this comes from the artist side of me that I see something that I was very proud of shooting it and knew what it was going to be.
And I look at it and I just start getting sad. And I leave to go in the lobby. And as I'm in the lobby, people start walking out of the movie and I'm hearing yelling. And I don't know what's being said. And then I see one of our handlers, basically, which is one of their PR people.
telling me to stop and he's trying to listen what they're saying and I hear him get on the phone and he's yelling and now I'm in a lobby full of yelling people and I don't know what's going on and the movie's not finished no no movie's still playing and I would say by the very end I would say 50 people walked out
No, listen, I've been 11-11. I've had a lot of people walk out of my movies in the past. This was a whole other level of walking out. And it was, there was so many things that was so bad. They weren't walking out because of the technical thing, in all fairness.
They were walking out because of the disrespect of doing violent things. Remember, this is a brand new thing to Saudi. They've had American movies over there, but this was a Saudi-based film. It was done in all the—it's all in Arabic. I mean, Jeremy Irons and Tobin Bell speaking.
english but it's all in arabic and now these these kind of people that that this is only year five of this are coming out being like i decapitate a person in while the arabic prayer is going on i mean it's it's um there are some things in there that that were did not go over well But that's not what everyone was really mad about. I think they were more disgusted in the violence. But it was in Arabic, which I did not realize. Obviously, I've shot things in Japan. I've shot things in Thailand.
But with Saudi, there is a dialect and there is an accent. We had people from Iraq. We had all these Lebanon actors, all these people that all were Arabic, but they all have different accents and they have different versions of words. He told a story, the story was about a traditional...
Arabic family and this thing happens to them, but none of them were Arabic and their accents were wrong. And so the lead actor who is this, this, by the way, a phenomenal, phenomenal actor. I would work with him again tomorrow. Um, his accent wasn't quite right. And here is this first big produced in home by this huge personality.
And the technical accents were wrong. And that's what was upsetting them. That it was disrespectful. Why did you have an American filmmaker come do this story on this traditional thing and their accents are wrong?
Now, that's something as a director, I don't know. I'm going off the people around me. If you don't speak Arabic and all of those different dialects, you wouldn't know the difference. Now, some of that, that actor knew that some of the things he said wasn't right, but we never got to the ADR stage. So the whole thing, normally in a movie, you do ADR. So that should have been caught in.
QC. In this movie, there were multiple QCs. There was the American QC, there was the Saudi QC, and that QC is done by translator to listen to the movie. That never got there. We never did any of that. So now this movie's screening to thousands of people, and this is happening. That was the last time we ever spoke to them. So we leave. I did not see him or his team when I was there that time. It was a very quick in and out.
So now all of a sudden it's out over there and it's on streaming over there. And we start getting phone calls from American companies that wanted to release it. We had sent links out of my director's cut, the American director's cut, not what you guys have, not what was thrown over there. And we get calls from XYZ and some other things. And they were like, listen, this is a really quirky, weird film. We think we can do something with it.
But we didn't have the rights. We're not the signatory on it as them. They did not return a call. They did not call anyone back. They gave us something like seven days to finish the movie, to have the ADR done, the mixing done, the sound design done, the Joe's score done. Were they expecting it all to be done here?
Yeah. They just said, you guys have seven days to finish it. And it was like the ring. Um, so, so, um, that's when you pass it on to someone else. That's why you showed it to us. I know you get, you guys have to curse. Uh, so, so, okay, wait, so this gets better. So, um,
I am very close with his excellency and I have his number. And that's not a lot of people know his number. And I start reaching out to him. And he immediately responds back to me. And it says, this is the first time hearing about this. I'm going to get into this.
I get the first scary phone call. Do not call his excellency again. And it's from the circles. And I kept getting pushed further and further and further and further back in the circles. And the thing is there that he is such a powerful guy and such an amazing creative that. Everyone wants to be in his circle. They all want to be there. And this started to get fucked up from the moment we left on all the other people that were supposed to be controlling it.
They are so used to doing things in a very timely manner that when things weren't done in a timely manner, they were all scared. And so it kept getting pushed further and further out. Now we're a year after the movie. And what do you mean it's not done? What do you mean we're not this or this or this? And so we stopped not getting calls. Calls didn't get returned to us. Let's cut to a year later. I see a trailer on the internet, cello coming to theaters. And I said, what? What the fuck?
And the trailer is one of the worst trailers I've ever, and I've made some really bad trailers. It was terrible. I'm looking at it, and I'm like, what the fuck am I looking at? I think my mom called and said, Darren, I want you to change your last name. We're embarrassed for what we're seeing out here. Is that why your name's not on the version we saw?
Uh, maybe, uh, I don't even know. I honestly, I have not looked at it since I've left Saudi. I took the link that was the last link that was sent to them. So I don't know even what version you saw of it, but did you notice there was no direct, but there was an assistant to Mr. So funny. Okay. So, um, okay. I don't think Bashara had a credit either. Nope. Okay. So, okay. Well, probably cause it's not his music. Okay. So anyway, um, I'm like, what the, what the fuck is this? So.
I see a name of the person that is putting out the movie. It's an MMA fighter. It's a fighter. It's a, it's a dude that was a like, um, an actor in the 80s that was in Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, and he just opened up a new production company. And he's releasing the movie. And I look, what else has this guy released? Nothing. And so I leave a message at his company.
Don't get a phone call back. No, we're three weeks away from the release in America. Oh, my God. Okay, we call Company 3. Company 3, we've had no contact with anyone. They have all the masters, so only they have this, okay? Company 3, no, we haven't given anything.
Joe, if you, Joe's like, no, dude, no one's got my five, one stems. So now two weeks away. And now I have my lawyer start calling this guy. It's an American guy, right? Have him start calling. Finally, we get a, we get a zoom call set with this guy. I get on the Zoom call with him and I go, hey, my name is Darren. It's nice. And he stops me. And Lee Nelson, my producer, is on the call. And he goes, I'll talk. And he starts telling me what he's going to do to release this movie.
And I was like, I'm the director. And he's like, I talk. And he kept saying, I talk. I'm talking. Oh, my God. And so I end up, it was the most disrespect I've ever felt on a call. I hang up on the phone. I hang up on the Zoom call. That was the last time I spoke to him. I finally get...
This guy had hired a company, it's called like Four Walling, I guess, to put the movie out and it was in a thousand, listen to this, this is gonna make you really mad. They took out a Times Square ad for one entire day that every billboard in Times Square was cello. Every billboard. So I'm getting pictures from people and I'm like, this is awesome, but this is terrible. It's on Times Square. That's the billboard. Holy shit.
So I finally get a hold of the company that that guy hired to put it out, and I called DGA, and I said, can I stop this? Is there a way for me? And I couldn't because I don't have Final Cut. I'm not the signatory. I get DJ involved and my lawyer involved to say, I need to see what's being released. I get a quick time, four days before the movie. And I see it's the same version that was shown in Saudi without Joe's score, without the color correction, without the visual effects.
with the wrong pronunciations of words, the 25 minute longer version, not the US version. And I said, this is not the right version of the movie. You cannot put this out. You cannot put this out.
24 hours before the movie was to be released, it was all going through DCP. They said, we're going to fix it. We're going to put your version out. And I said, my version has not been, there's no QC, there's no visual, it's not done. And they said, well, you can put this version out or you can put your director's cut version out.
And we sent them my director's cut version. It still was not, nothing was done on it, but I'm like, I can't stop it at this point. It's a freight train. I cannot stop it. Oh my God. I show up, my wife, trying to be very sweet, says, I've called everyone, we're going to go see it at this theater. I show up to the theater and it's Joe Beshara and like 25 other people, Brian Collins and my wife and everyone.
And it starts and it is worse than their version or my version. It was the work print version that was sent to Joe Beshara as a quick time that was neither version that I sent or they sent.
Um, and it was screened in like a thousand screens. I think our per screen average was like 18 cents or something. They did not spend a single dollar on P there was no P and a, there was no trailers, nothing like that. I don't know. My mom went and saw it in Kansas city and she was the only one in the theater. Uh...
And that was the last time I spoke to them. And so the movie has never been, I don't have the right version of the movie. Uh, and the thing which is so sad about it is, is that the version, the American version, that version I'm very proud of. I'm very like what we were able to do in these shooting in places.
no one shot and the actors in it the storyline that his excellency created it was all fantastic from a technical standpoint i'm like holy shit we did something really cool here i feel like you had such a good crew like it looks so competently oh my god it's it's well the thing i'm also proud of is the relationship I had with his excellence during that time because what he said is that...
Entertainment can be a conduit to change. We can show people that we're not who they think we are. And so one of the first things he allowed was one of the females to be this lead. That would never have happened before. He allowed her to wear the Western clothes, all of this. So we thought this was this huge, great, big thing.
that was going to happen. And that was a year or two years ago. Now I've not spoken to them since. I've been trying to get the rights to the movie now for a year and a half. to at least finish it and say, if nothing else, can you put it on just iTunes and let me put my version up there? But you can't just pick up a phone and call them. It is so much red tape. It is so much, it's so insulated, the circle.
I loved my experience being there. It was one of the greatest, coolest like travel experiences, the country, the people. All the people I worked with there was amazing. But the buffoonery that took place from the moment I left to today is a level. And I only it's which makes it hard is I don't know who the villain is here. I don't know who to point the finger at and say, you fucked me. Normally, I can do that. I can. point at somebody and I can say it's this guy. I can't do that because
The circle is so big that you're always ping ponged around and you never know. So I don't even know if his excellency knows the story of what happened. I don't know if he realizes where this whole thing went, but. it was a missed opportunity. Now it's two years have passed since the movie was put out over there. Um, and that, that moment that we could have had now, since I've left there, um, there's a hundred movies shooting over there.
There's 100 movies with A-list celebrities over there shooting. There's 100 American filmmakers over there. I was posed to be the guy that brought it there. But because that was the first time they had made a movie like this, they weren't aware of the...
The way it works, the way that the entertainment works, how long it takes. So you had to deal with the growing pains. Yeah, and it was sad because, again, I think the villainous story is me when you ask any of them because here is this guy that... he had the audacity to tell me that it takes five weeks for them to do sound. It takes three weeks to schedule the ADR in 18 different countries. I know, but to them with that, that basically they can build a city overnight.
and they can change the country overnight because they did. They changed that country. From the first time I went to the last time, it's like a different place. It's a utopia now. It is beautiful, and it is... And the first time I went there, it was not like that. How quickly they were able to elicit change. But they're still, they brought in Western.
crew to make this movie and all we know how to do is the western way of making a movie so it was i am sad and broken of what could have been with this relationship with this literally brilliant man to be ostracized with the producers on this side, left with this thing that is still undone. I think that to me is the hardest thing.
At least with 1111, it was finished. It was done. And I can say that turd was done and there it is. Cello is not done. And it's this thing that I hope at some point they allow it to be finished. And they allow it to be properly mixed in the sound design and the colors and the QC and the ADR and all that. But I don't know. So that is the Cliff Notes version of cello.
When you go back to, when was the last time you got to watch it? I've not looked at it since Saudi, since I left. That premiere. Not even when you screened it at, what was it, Burbank? I left. I left. I mean, understandable. Because it's humiliating. And I think that my hardest thing as a filmmaker, you know, here comes the therapy drop, is...
I wish I didn't care. I wish that I could write it off and say it's a paycheck, but nothing's a paycheck. Even if it is a paycheck, it's personal. Even if it starts that way, because you're like, oh great, I have work. eventually it becomes, you just become invested in it. You become invested because you're not, I'm not rolling the dice with me. I'm rolling with every single person that went to Saudi with me.
to His Excellency, who I care about deeply, to all of these actors from Kuwait and Lebanon. And we had people from Egypt and Africa and all of these people. that all felt that they were doing something unique and cool and special. And there was such excitement in the air and the crew. And it feels like my failure, not theirs, because I am the marquee name. It is. We have the saw director. We have Darren Bousman coming. I was on the paper every single day there.
it feels like my failure because I was unable to finish what I started. And so for years, and I remember the shame of sitting in that theater, and I remember I was sitting, I could see Brian Collins and Spooky Dan. And I could see the shifting in the seat uncomfortably when I cut to a 20 minute ukulele fucking solo for no goddamn reason.
And I'm looking at them and I see Laura and Laura, I think, fell asleep because she was so ashamed. And it was just like, why have I cut to this? Like, I remember I had to cut to a location and stay on it for 30 seconds when nothing happened because they wanted that shot to be seen.
I would never do that. And that was never supposed to be seen by anyone. And I remember just sitting there and I walked outside of the theater and I was like, I don't, I never want to see this movie again. And that was the last time. So. I'm not sure what version of it you guys had or what was even sent to you. It was, it was two hours long. So yeah. So ours, no, that would have been the Saudi version. That would have been the, the Arabic version. Um, but, um,
You know, the thing which makes it even harder is I wish there was a villain I could point to because then I could at least internalize it and visualize it. But the experience was so amazing being there. The people, the crew, the everyone that I interacted with. When I left, it became this just vortex, a black hole of no one responding, no answers.
unrealistic deadlines for different email addresses all the time that we didn't know who we were talking to and you couldn't just pick up the phone. I remember like right now you ask for signatory. Like this is a stupid, well, not a stupid thing. As a DGA director, pension and health is a big thing for me.
Um, they didn't, they're the, the, whoever the signatory person was. And there was like, like any movie, there are shell companies. There's the main company and there's companies and companies. They never paid into that. So then I lost my insurance. Um, and I then couldn't they, couldn't you go back to them and.
They've dissolved all those companies. So then even worse than that is that the way that it works with residuals is we had offers from streamers. A lot of streamers made us offers based on the original director, the American director's cut that I sent out. So people understand what Darren's saying about the dissolving things? Because I get asked this all the time. It's like, well, if you own whatever percentage of Hatchet and all the sequels and the merchandise and all that stuff.
can't you just have a lawyer go after you have a contract have a lawyer yeah well whatever the llc was that was made for like the first movie that was dissolved the second the movie was was done and then a lot of these distributors especially foreign they get the movie they put it out and now they change the name of the distribution company or they merge with another one or they get bought out by this one like the paper trail of trying to chase this stuff
and everyone's always going to try to say, oh, it didn't make any money. Then why are there so many of them? Well, I was going to say, it's hard when it's in your own backyard already. So imagine, you know, if it's a normal movie like Monster I just made. I know the people involved and it's still hard.
This is dealing with an Egypt company that became a Saudi company that became another company that, you know, you're an 18-hour flight away from them. So to get answers quickly is almost impossible. The entire regime change, much like it would happen in Lionsgate, Adam, when I think you were a part of this all as well, when the Pete Block left and everyone else came in. You know, there was this handful of movies from Midnight Meat Train to Repo.
That was out with the old regime and with the new. That happened while we were in Prague. So the company, the main company that made it over there. And when I have to separate, His Excellency is not the company. His Excellency is an individual who is like his idea. He's not the company. never he he's his own thing there was numerous companies involved the all those companies one of them dissolved completely the company's no longer there the other company replaced everyone in it so
And cello becomes this bastardized thing that no one wants to take credit for because, well, we didn't make it. Those people are all gone. Why are we going to spend a dollar? We already made our money back in Saudi Arabia, and it's not about money to us. We don't care about that.
thing, the other way I make money is it's like, um, it's a portfolio as a director. I know that if the movie goes to streaming, I make residuals and I still make residuals for movies that I made 20 years ago. I still get residuals from mother's day or 11, 11, 11, or the barons. Um,
And I always make the most money on the first week or two that a movie comes out because that's when they pay the most money. And it will usually go to a high-end streamer and then it goes to lower-end streamers and then it goes to whatever. So on something like Cello, I should be making checks right now every month.
on that well it never was that only works on certain countries so I don't make any money at all on the Saudi or the Arabic deals it only makes money Europe UK I get foreign levies or when it goes to America well it's never been released um the four walling thing there was never accounting done for that and so
we've had all these offers, but I don't make that. So I'm not only not making the money, the pension and health, and I lost my insurance. I also didn't make money on the residuals that should have been coming in. So then I don't work for three and a half years. So for three and a half years, uh, what this income that I counted on I spent you know a year and a half making cello all goes away overnight and so
That is the broad what the fuck happened to cello. And with the embarrassment, talking to going back to the movie theater, and I'm sitting watching all these horror people in there, they don't know this story. I mean, you're going to hear, you guys just heard 20 minutes of the story now, but... For two and a half years, I go to Christmas dinner with Laura's family.
And they don't know that story. They just know whatever happened in that movie you made. Oh, yeah, we saw it up in San Luis Obispo. Ooh, it was a turd. It was a stinker. Because they don't hear the story. Spooky Dan doesn't hear the story. He heard it now. He's listening to this. But he thinks, that's my movie. That's Darren's movie.
Did he cut to a string player for 10 minutes out of nowhere? Why did he focus on a building for nothing? That becomes the story. And I have to stand by it. And I have to. And for years I said nothing. I just was like, yeah, we're waiting. But it's hard because...
then that is a check mark on your thing about when I get brought up for another movie, whatever happened to cello, Darren? And you can't explain to somebody. Let me sit down and explain to you. You don't have that hour. You have 30 seconds. What happened to cello? I remember getting a text from Jeremy Irons.
maybe half a year ago, a year ago. And he's like, I've made five movies since this came out that have all come out. And it's like, how do I respond to Jeremy Irons? Who was awesome. He was great. What do I say to him about that? Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm a dickhead. That didn't, didn't work. Um, but he must know by now. He does.
And I think that I've stayed really close to the cast on that. And, uh, but it's, it's the, it's the entertainment industry at large. It is that is a director. You're fighting to be noticed. You're fighting to be, it takes years and years and years and years to get a movie up monster took three and a half years. to get up. And then it happens. But during that three and a half years to get it up, there will be another year and a half.
of me shooting it and then the editing it and then going out there. So it takes five, six years. And then you get 20 seconds to explain to someone what happened to your movie without all the stories of, yeah, this happened. So to me, that was the hardest thing about cello was the embarrassment.
If my mom's seen the movie by herself in an empty theater not a single other person around that that the The my mom was said something about it looked very playing the colors like not she didn't have the word to say it was raw you were looking at rec 709 she didn't have the verbiage to say that and I have to live with all these people that are Darren Bousman fans go out and see the movie to support me
And that's what they see. And I'm not there to give a commentary and say this is what happened. I can't even do a director's commentary on the thing because there's no DVD out of it.
Um, so it's, uh, it's just one of those things that like, here's my 18th film now and I'm still dealing with shit that I dealt with 10 years ago. The first time we came on a podcast and talked about stuff. I don't know if it ever gets better. I don't know if it ever goes away. It's just different battles. It's just different. Different things. And you never know until it's out. Because even if the production goes smoothly like yours did. Yeah.
And then you're in editing and you're doing your thing and it's like, all right, I think we're picture locked. Now let's do the next steps. And then all of a sudden, no, no, no next steps. It's done. Wait, no, it isn't. You can't show people that. No, it's done. Or how many times.
You've made a movie independently and it gets acquired by whoever that distributor is going to be. And then eventually there has to be that reality check of, well, listen, we're going to put it out, but we're not marketing it. We don't do that. You can do that if you want to. Well, I'll say, you know, one of the things I heard Guillermo de Toro say something at one point.
and it's always stuck with me, is that he was talking about the difference between doing like a $300 million movie or doing a $20 million movie or a $100,000 movie. And he said an audience at the end of the day doesn't care what the budget was. They cared, did the movie work? Do I like the movie?
Um, and so knowing that, that maybe the week before that Brian Collins went and saw fucking transformers 87 and now he goes and sees this movie, he's judging it. Did I have a good time? Did I like the movie? He's not thinking about. well, did Darren mix it? Is this Joe Beshara's sound in here? That doesn't matter to him. He's paid for money to go see a movie and that's what he's looking at. So now the next time Darren Bowes' movie comes out,
Do you take the risk to get a babysitter, to take an Uber, to drive, to park in an AMC, to go see that thing? Or you're like, dude, do you see what happened last time? No, I'm good. I'm going to wait until it comes on my iPhone. That to me is the hardest thing. And that's what I went into a huge, where I went back into doing immersive. So, you know, after, after cello, it was such a dichotomy of feeling. It was a weird thing is that it was the best filming experience I've ever had.
It was the most fun I've ever had in an environment in a set. It was the most powerful I felt as a director because I realized I was doing something important in a place that did not have cinema like this. And then for it to all abruptly change within like weeks to go from such a high to such a low in that period of time. And I've been, you know, talking about this movie constantly and like.
promoting it and saying how I was so excited for everyone to see it. And now people go see it in a theater and they see that. And they don't have Joe Bashar there being like, yo, that's not my score, dude. What happened? Like they don't have him there, but they see his name up there and they're like, Joe's talked about it. Once your name is on there, it's like, oh, you've given it your seal of approval. Success has many fathers. Failure has one. And, um, you know, I feel.
bad for Lee Nelson and David Tisch who were, you know, they sacrificed their, you know, a year and a half of their life to be pushing this movie forward. And as producers, they also look like failures in that because they are the American producers. They were the best. It was the best experience all around I've ever had. And then this happens and it's, you know, you might be the only two left to see the last of what cello will.
be and it'll be a legend at this point about the VHS tape a hundred years from now. Hey, I found the director's cut of this thing. London after midnight as like a B side. I know. Um, so that, that was, um, that was, uh, the cello thing. Damn. Yeah. Considering that you shot it, I mean, you've shot many films overseas with different cultures and stuff like that. Was there anything in particular? Because you said, obviously, that the production itself was pretty smooth and had fun.
Was there any difference in terms of what you're used to in terms of their filmic workflow that happened on cello? In the same way that I felt... that I was in the middle of a Renaissance, and I'll never have an experience like I did there because I've always heard this idea of a fish out of water. There's movies made about it. I'm sure you've stepped somewhere where you're like, holy shit, this is a new universe. I felt like I was in a new universe.
Um, because there is an excitement in the air there because it is a world of first happening. And I remember the hotel I stayed at, um, I was sitting in the lobby and they walk around and it's like a custom. They walk around and they have Arabic tea. They pour you or Arabic coffee.
And everyone was always happy and smiling. And this guy kind of, he was a fan of the Saw movies. They got Saw over there, which is crazy. They can now download it and watch it. And he knew who I was. And he walks over and he goes,
And he was smiling. I said, you're always very happy. And he goes, it's great. And he said, it's great to be here now. And he was like, he pointed. I always go back to Jay-Z and Kanye because it was something that, to me, I felt so out of body. I remember that when I was there. The Jay-Z was playing. And he goes...
Five years ago, it was silent in here. No one could talk. You heard nothing. Now we have music. And he's like, now you're here. Now there is an AMC two blocks away. And there was this happiness there. And it was infectious. It was... you felt excited when you were there because they were excited. And, you know, I think that...
They didn't have a, there was no film crew. So everyone was flown in. They flew everyone in from Lebanon, like I said, the United States. And there was a lot of shadowing. So we had these young kids that were shadowing us because he wanted, his excellency really wants to try to. help the artistic world there. So he's having young people follow and watch and see and learn.
um so it was it felt like film school that we were teaching as well as film school again for us to how to relearn how to make a movie because they didn't know and so we're trying to explain to him how how dailies work and what it means that we have to send footage to a lab even though we shot it on digital
What do you mean? It's got to go here. Well, it's got to get sunk. What do you mean? So everything had to be explained to everyone. So it was a lot of firsts there. The crew themselves, though, were fantastic. That we worked with. It was, I think a 70% female crew, which was awesome. Oh, wow.
It was, we represent, it was a photo I posted at one point. This is something else was weird. This, the guy who just did my last movie monster, a guy named Sven, who is a prosthetics guy. Fantastic. He did the first two Deadpools, all of Ryan Reynolds stuff on it. I flew him over to do all the makeup and effects. When we were on Monster, he holds up his phone and he goes, another one taken down.
And he got a, it was, I saw it on his screen and it was, it was a takedown notice on Instagram from the Saudi government. And it says, you are in possession of copyrighted material. This has been removed. And it was a behind the scenes shot of him and I in Saudi. being taken down and so all my posts have been taken down too most of them um saying copyright infringement and there was a picture though of the crew and it says this picture represents 22 countries
And the crew was so international. And what was cool about it was that everyone was bringing something different, meaning that we had some crew from Africa, and they were doing things I never even thought about. We had crew from the Middle East. We had crew from America. And all of these places, they were like, oh, here's how we do it. And so it was cool. It just felt like this.
I can't explain it. It was like, I felt like it was an Epcot. If you go to Epcot, you can go to, you can walk into all the different, that's what it felt like. And it was, it was amazing. We had these special effects guys and stunt guys that came in. that they were flipping car on the busiest street. That was crazy. Oh yeah. Okay. So I'll tell you what was crazy about that was, um,
That was the busiest street in Riyadh. And we had like an hour and 20 minutes to close it down is all we were allowed to. And it was amazing watching these crew members all come together and do this thing. Like I said, it was a surreal high in that.
So the whole experience is different to me I don't think I've yet outside of saw there at a movie that felt the same where every movie feels like film school again and including the one I just got off of it felt completely different than I've ever done before so I guess it keeps it interesting. It's exciting. I feel like he can never feel comfortable on my toes doing anything. There's a shot in the movie.
I think it's close to the beginning where you do a 360 around Jeremy from his hands up to his face. And then he kind of turns. How do you, how do you approach for someone like Jeremy Irons? Who's. been in every fucking movie, right? How do you approach, like, I guess, explaining that moment to him? Do you just say, all right, we're going to 360 around you and stuff like that? Or do you have to kind of...
let him know like what his intention is and then just kind of sneak in that kind of technique. Jeremy Irons was, um, I've been very lucky in my last three movies because the last three movies, the caliber of actor I've got to work with, from starting with Chris Rock and Sam Jackson and Max Minghella, going then into Jeremy Irons, now to Jimon Huntsu onwards.
Jeremy Irons brings a gravitas on set. He steps on and there's just, fuck, man. I mean, outside of his diehard work, outside of his, you know. Scar, man. Scar, Limey King. He is a legend. That particular day, which is awesome. That's one of my favorite stories about him. That was one of our first days shooting in Prague. And the night before that, we were in the desert at 120 degree heat. And you have to wear long sleeve shirts because you burn immediately.
And we had got on a private plane because of course we did because there was no money. Money didn't exist. We were flown to Prague to shoot the next day. And we went from 120 degree heat to freezing. It was freezing cold in Prague. And Jeremy was arriving. It was his first day coming on set. And one of the things I never want actors to do was wait. So I say, I'm ready for them. I want to be ready for them. Jeremy Irons shows up.
and he's in this ridiculous 1700s outfit with a stupid hat, and he looks ridiculous. The costume, just so people understand. Yeah. He didn't just show up in that. You know, he didn't. He basically plays We never say the word devil, but he plays this being that doesn't die. It's a Faustian deal.
He shows up and I hear a call. Jeremy Irons is on set, but we're three hours away from needing him. I was like, oh God, I can't have him hit me right off the bat. Prague's an awesome city. If anyone's ever been there, I love it. And I go, the DP needs an hour and a half before he's ready.
And then I go, there's a bar at the end of the street. I was like, I'm going to go ask if he wants to have a drink with me. So I walk over to Jeremy and he goes, Mr. Bausman, so great to meet you. And I was like, Jeremy, I'm sorry. And so I was like, hey, this is a weird question. You want to go get a drink? And he's like, to hear the rest of this.
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