Everybody needs a good mechanic, am I right? Someone who understands what you have and what you might could do with it. Alas, not all mechanics are created equal. For a decade or so, I had a GREAT mechanic. Well, he wasn’t actually a mechanic, he was my agent. His name is Nick Mechanic but, most people called him just “Mechanic”. Willie Mo, Parts 1 & 2 For a long time, I was repped by the iconic William Morris Agency

Join us as we revisit a perfect example of How NEVER To Make A Movie, perhaps the worst dirty movie ever, CALIGULA (Roger Ebert certainly thought it was and who are we to argue?). How did this immortal fiasco happen? Didn’t all those famous actors like JOHN GIELGUD, PETER O’TOOLE, HELEN MIRREN and especially MALCOLM MCDOWELL know what they were signing onto? Why did the movie’s author, GORE VIDAL, take his name off the movie entirely (when it was supposed to be called “Gore Vidal’s...

The CRYPT KEEPER – the iconic host of HBO’S iconic TALES FROM THE CRYPT TV series – was just an animatronic puppet of course. But he completely represented everything about the show. He was and is the show’s “franchise”. But, if there was a “real” Crypt Keeper – a kind of Ground Zero for everything Tales From The Crypt –  it was EC COMICS publisher WILLIAM M. GAINES (Bill Gaines – who also created MAD MAGAZINE). In creating the Crypt Keeper (he only exists in the show; he appears nowhere...

Let’s revisit our friend “The Reluctant Vampire”. MALCOLM MCDOWELL. When I was a kid, just beginning to acquire a “taste for cinema”, one of the first movies that gave me that taste was STANLEY KUBRICK’s “A CLOCKWORK ORANGE”. But, there was another Malcolm McDowell movie that struck me even more round about the same time: Lindsey Anderson’s “IF” (that’s the old “If“, not the new “If”).

This very definitely is a “special episode” of the How NOT to Make A Movie Podcast. In the TV business, calling things “Special” has a long, rich history. “Special Episodes” are usually “relationship” episodes tied to family. Well, that’s exactly how we feel here at The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast – about our new SISTER PODCAST – THE DONOR: A MODERN HORROR...

We talk a lot here about ACTORS and ROLES. How to cast certain roles and how to play them. When the role in question is a SUPERHERO (or a super hero), it changes the equation for actor and whoever’s hiring them. Some actors – like BRANDON ROUTH – seem almost fated to play certain roles – in Brandon’s case SUPERMAN. As a kid, he dreamed about playing Superman – while growing up in IOWA – in the MID-WEST – in the middle of the corn belt. You know, just like Clark Kent and Superman. When...

Ever been haunted by a movie? “Tales From The Crypt Presents Dead Easy” is a movie that, to this day, still haunts us. The Harlequin character we created for “Dead Easy” had ‘franchise!” written all over him! He had “Great Movie!” written all over him, too. “Dead Easy” is the movie we should have made instead of “Bordello Of Blood”. It was the movie we started to make. Hell, we spent six weeks in New Orleans prepping the movie, scouting locations and setting up shop. Then Universal...

We first met comedian and podcast host Ken Reid when he invited us onto his podcast, the terrific TV GUIDANCE COUNSELOR. In addition to being a big “TALES FROM THE CRYPT” fan, Ted is a BOSTON-BASED STAND UP and a fantastic STORYTELLER. His approach to comedy is via story rather than jokes. That, I suspect, is where our minds all come together. Ken also has a great sense of the absurd! That also is where our minds come together. Gil and I have done a fair number of podcasts… we talk to people...

There are cultural icons and then there’s BARBIE. GRETA GERWIG and MARGOT ROBBIE’S movie is a brilliant reconsideration of that icon. But, a storyteller you’ve probably never heard-of helped shape our whole perception of that icon. Before there was Gerwig and Robbie, ANDREW GALLERANI was BARBIE’S BFF. From 1988 – 2015 (that’s 27 years!), Andrew directed most of the Barbie ads seen around the world. There was a patch in between where he directed for Barbie’s competition – BRATZ among others –...

The last thing you’d ever think – if you read my friend TOM SULLIVAN’S bio – is that he’s blind. In fact, Tom is one of America’s most famous blind people. He’s written and produced movies & TV shows, sung THE NATIONAL ANTHEM at THE SUPER BOWL, and written more than a dozen books including IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT I HEAR and LEADING LADY. Tom wrote Leading Lady with his dear friend BETTY WHITE. When he’s not SKIING or PLAYING GOLF or RUNNING MARATHONS, Tom’s uplifting people as one of...

Even among iconic TV characters from the 1960’s, few remain as iconic as LURCH from THE ADDAMS FAMILY. As often happens when a particular actor fills a particular role, TED CASSIDY became synonymous with his creature. A little overly synonymous from Ted’s perspective. Today’s guest – Ted’s son SEAN CASSIDY (the “Son Of Lurch“) – reminds us that his dad was way, way more than just Lurch. Ted Cassidy appeared in lots of feature films (playing in many what he called “Seize him!” roles where he –...

It sounded like a GREAT IDEA! In many ways, it was a great idea: take HBO’s iconic “TALES FROM THE CRYPT” to LONDON for its very last season! The great? We got to hire actors like EWAN MCGREGOR and DANIEL CRAIG and STEVE COOGAN and ELIZABETH MCGOVERN. And we got to shoot in the coolest locations – actual CASTLES and other CREEPY PLACES. But, there were big-assed problems in taking our LA-produced show to ENGLAND – where, frankly, they do things differently! For starters, they drive on the...

STORIES are a lot like BURIED BODIES – especially if you’re the one who buried them. Just like with a body, you can bury a story. Sometimes – in time – we forget about them. Meanwhile, there they sit. But, whereas bodies rot into nothing while buried, stories often gain heft and weight – and even significance. Some stories, just like ghosts, seem to rise from the dead and haunt people! That’s the idea behind this episode. Except for the haunting people part. Gil and I both have buried bodies...

With a warm tip of the hat to the BBC’s wonderful, long-running classic show “Desert Island Discs“, we offer you the 5X2. Here’s the premise: you’re a passenger on a cool, futuristic spacecraft hurtling toward the far reaches of the cosmos. Your ride is first rate. It’s comfortable as can be. The food’s great! Almost everything has been done to make this journey painless. There’s only one problem: they ran out of money and memory when they got to the entertainment system. All there’s room for...

On the one hand, this episode is a SEQUEL – to our first chat with ETHAN REIFF and CY VORIS, the long-time screenwriting team who wrote TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT. The horror audience now considers Demon Knight a CLASSIC. In our sequel, we’ll talk about why there’s never been a sequel to Demon Knight. From the moment it opened, its audience has been crying out for one! In this episode, we’ll talk about why it hasn’t happened. Yet. For the first time ever, we’ll talk about the...

We first met JACKIE GEORGE when we took over running TALES FROM THE CRYPT. Jackie worked for WARNER BROTHERS and SILVER PICTURES at the time (on movies like DIE HARD, RICHIE RICH and DEMOLITION MAN). That means she worked for our old boss JOEL SILVER.  That took considerable balls. Hollywood sized balls. Jackie was Joel’s executive. Before that, she was a super-talented production coordinator. When you meet Jackie, she and Joel seem an unlikely pairing. He’s an over-the-top, over-bearing,...

COMIC BOOKS have propelled many a film and TV career. Hell, various SPIDERMAN movies have kept various movie studios alive. DC COMICS was a pillar at WARNER BROS. The MARVEL UNIVERSE has made billions for DISNEY. And where the hell would we be if WILLIAM F. GAINES hadn’t taken over running EC COMICS from his dad in the late 1950’s. EC published titles like VAULT OF HORROR, THE HAUNT OF FEAR and TALES FROM THE CRYPT. I confess to being a COMIC BOOK NERD with a stack of EC comics under the...

Thirty years ago, in 1994, alongside my creative partner at the time Gil Adler, I co-produced the now CLASSIC horror movie “TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT”. The movie opened on Friday, January 13, 1995. As often happens in the movie biz, as producers, we fired the original writers – CY VORIS, ETHAN REIFF & MARK BISHOP from the project. Unceremoniously. Thirty years later, Cy and Ethan will at long last get a little payback. In fact, they’ll finally get to fire back at us...

Next year, in January, horror movie fans will celebrate the 30th ANIVERSARY of the movie TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT. The movie succeeded because it had a great script by CY VORIS and ETHAN REIFF (who also wrote KUNG FU PANDA). ERNEST DICKERSON brought both remarkable skills as a director and cinematographer, and a deep down love of horror movies.  This podcast has focused on the second Crypt feature BORDELLO OF BLOOD. But there are a few UNTOLD STORIES about the first Crypt...

We could also call this one “Rust Bust Discussed” since that’s what we’re going to do – update our earlier talk about New Mexico indicting actor/producer Alec Baldwin on manslaughter charges. ALEC BALDWIN, you recall, held the 1880’s prop gun on the set of independent western film “RUST” on October 1, 2012. When the PROP GUN fired during a rehearsal – it had a real bullet inside of it – it killed the film’s DP HALYNA HUTCHINS and wounded director Joel Souza – both on the other side of the...

Long before she became an adjunct lecturer at BROWN UNIVERSITY in its Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, my friend CONNIE CRAWFORD did something for which I envied her intensely. In 1978, She appeared on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. She acted in sketches and everything! She was one of five finalists in the “Anyone Can Host SNL” contest they held during season 3. BUCK HENRY hosted. Connie tells some great stories about that experience. Hell, Connie tells a lot of great stories! We...

In this episode, we’re doing our own version of the BBC’s classic show “DESERT ISLAND DISCS“. On that show, guests are invited to answer the question, if you were marooned on a desert island and could take five pieces of music and two books, what would they be (and neither book can be Shakespeare or the Bible)? Because we’re movie makers, we’ve swapped the music for movies and music for the books. So, the question is: “what are your 5 FAVORITE MOVIES and your 2 FAVORITE SONGS?” Funny thing?...

In this one, I go back to college as Gil and I sit down with BRETT GOLDSTEIN, my freshman semester roommate at VASSAR COLLEGE. This Brett is the American CASTING DIRECTOR and TALENT MANAGER, not the English actor. Brett won an EMMY AWARD casting HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET. He also cast feature films like DONNIE BRASCO, GI JANE and POOTIE TANG! Whatever made us bad roommates then doesn’t seem to bother us now! Could it be we’ve all grown up? The Vassar Drama Department As we go back to...

This episode is a continuation of S3E1, Starting Over, Part 1. It’s kinda weird, but we feel like we’ve been waiting for 2024 all our lives! And now that it’s here, we’re excited about “Starting Over”! On the one hand, by “starting over”, we mean going back to the very beginning (as Maria sings in The Sound Of Music, it’s “the very best place to start”). Back to how it was when Gil and I started making “Tales From The Crypt” together. We were just hitting our creative stride together. We...

It’s kinda weird, but we feel like we’ve been waiting for 2024 all our lives! And now that it’s here, we’re excited about “Starting Over”! On the one hand, by “starting over”, we mean going back to the very beginning (as Maria sings in The Sound Of Music, it’s “the very best place to start”). Back to how it was when Gil and I started making “Tales From The Crypt” together. We were just hitting our creative stride. We soared doing Crypt and we saw it as the launching pad to the next phase of...