We were supposed to be getting Tom Cruise for Christmas. That was the plan anyway, as Now Playing Podcast had circled a December release date for the latest Mission Impossible film. Release dates don’t always stick. In the case of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, the Christopher McQuarrie-directed sequel was scheduled to open Dec. 25, but was moved up nearly five months to July 31.
This is the reason Stuart in LA keeps two schedules – one in Excel and one in his head. The Now Playing Podcast host has been overseeing the show’s calendar for years, arranging and rearranging release dates for its many retrospectives, bonus shows, and the occasional one-and-done flop (Green Lantern, Cowboys and Aliens).
With Now Playing’s Mission Impossible Retrospective Series set to begin on Tuesday, Stuart took a few minutes to chat about the show’s calendar and the ongoing Hollywood shuffle.
Q: What happened with Rogue Nation’s release date?
“My personal belief is that Paramount needed to beat Bond to the screen; 007 taking on Blofeld in November’s Spectre made Rogue Nation look like small potatoes in December. Once it was clear that Bourne 5 wasn’t going to be ready until summer 2016, Cruise pounced on the open July release date. [Rogue Nation] will be on DVD by the time Bond is in theaters. Honestly, our calendar is so full in the second half of the year that we probably wouldn’t have had room to cover Mission Impossible if it had kept its original release date.”
Now Playing Podcast has already announced that its long-awaited Star Wars retrospective will arrive in the later half of the year, and just last week news broke that Now Playing’s 2015 Fall Donation Series would cover the entire Quentin Tarantino catalog, leading up to the release of the director’s The Hateful Eight.
Q: How did you end up in charge of the NPP schedule?
“I actually really enjoy lists. I make a list for everything; what I’m going to do this week, restaurants I want to try, release dates for movies I want to see, albums I want to hear, upcoming concerts, etc. It’s my way of pretending I am in control of a chaotic world, I guess. Doing the NPP schedule is just a logical extension of the way I run my life.”
Q: Because you live and work in Los Angeles, do you have an “inside track” on release dates?
“How I wish that were true! It would be great if the marketing departments from these studios leaked me their release plans early. No, I read it in the trade magazines like everyone else. Box Office Mojo is a great site.”
Q: What’s the craziest last-minute schedule shuffle you’ve had to make?
“A week before we were going to release Blade Runner Universal moved The Adjustment Bureau out of July 2010 and into Valentine’s Day 2011. So we literally had no shows to release. The only things we had in the can were the 8 other Philip K. Dick podcasts. We ended up filling the hole with really random things: the X-Files two-fer, Scott Pilgrim, The Lost Boys trilogy. Back then we also took a few weeks off between series’. That’s something we’d never do now.”
Q: How far ahead is the calendar planned?
“The calendar is set for the rest of the year. I have some very good ideas about what 2016 will look like, and I’m aware of all the continuations to franchises we’ve started coming back in 2017 and beyond. But I try not to get too attached to any plans because they are sandcastles on a very turbulent beach. One release change and it is all gone.”
Much of that future planning involves Now Playing’s Stephen King Retrospective Series, which began with the Carrie reboot in 2013. The hosts plan to review every King adaptation that has made it to the screen, but the end date is still unclear.
Q: How far ahead does the Stephen King retrospective go?
“It has been our hope to tie Stephen King back to another theatrical adaptation at some point. We were all set to sync up the NPP calendar with the release date of It. But now that Cary Fukunaga has walked away from that project, I have no idea when we’ll get to It. That said, it’s nice to have a series that can be broken up into small parts. King allows me to spackle any holes that appear in the calendar. Like, if they suddenly decide to yank Star Wars out of December, there will still be a Shawshank Redemption.”
Now Playing Podcast releases new episodes every Tuesday on its main feed. The 2015 Spring Donation Series – covering the Indiana Jones, WestWorld, Goonies, and Jurassic Park films – runs through July 31.
June 22, 2015
Posted by
Jason Latham |
Uncategorized | Blade Runner, Carrie, cowboys and aliens, Green Lantern, Indiana Jones, it, jurassic park, jurassic world, mission impossible, mission impossible rogue nation, Now Playing Podcast, philip k. dick, Quentin Tarantino, Scott Pilgrim, Star Wars, star wars the force awakens, Stephen King, the adjustment bureau, the goonies, the hateful eight, the lost boys, tom cruise, Venganza Media, westworld, x-files |
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In exactly 40 days I turn 40 years old.
That milestone is not one without heft. If the actuarial tables for American males are to be believed, I’m likely at least halfway through my time on this planet. Each day I am probably closer to my death than to my birth. Now is the time to start measuring life by the things I’ll never do instead of the things I could do. It’s a time to reflect on what has been and determine what will be for the rest of my days.
The usual things come to mind when I ponder my life thus far: My loving, supportive, smart, and funny wife, Marjorie. My long-time best friend, Stuart. My godparents, who helped raise me and taught me to be analytical. My sister, who exposed me to literature and deconstructionist themes. My father, who gave me a cynical view, a strange sense of humor, and a love of classical music.
But what all these people have in common is a strong memory of watching films together; sitting in a dimly lit cinema, absorbed by the images on the screen.
Marjorie and I have seen so many films together that I doubt I could compile a comprehensive list. but a few stand out. Our first film as a married couple, watched in a midnight release on our honeymoon, was Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. The projector broke. We sat for 3 hours past the planned midnight start time before the movie began. I can still sing that New Orleans’ theater’s jingle for popcorn and candy, which played on a loop the entire time.
Another memorable movie trip was to see Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset. It was a limited release so we had to drive 4 hours each way just to watch the film, and I was so tired on the return trip we had to get a hotel.
I remember Ocean’s 11 — a movie with such a strong feel-good vibe that it saved our Sunday. We walked into the theater in the most sour of moods, and left extremely happy.
I remember watching Fight Club on video. Marjorie was tired so she went to sleep, and the next day all I could talk about was how she had to see that film–the first movie that I felt she and I had to share as a couple versus being able to experience on my own.
Stuart and I have seen films together since 1982. I remember going with him to see E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Return of the Jedi. Many more movies followed, but there are standouts. Charlie Sheen’s The Wraith, which we saw hoping for horror but got car races and heavy metal instead. We hated it at the time, but I later came to love this film for what it was (and the Sherilyn Fenn waterfall scene). We saw The Gate the weekend it opened, and bemoaned our choice for days. Not all the movies we watched were terrible — I first saw The Godfather trilogy in Stuart’s Chicago apartment, and he introduced me to Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner as part of a film noir marathon we had together as teens.
For years Stuart and I had a standing Christmas night movie appointment. He was in town to spend the holiday with family, and so a dinner of Chinese food and a movie viewing was had. Jackie Brown was the most memorable of those Christmas viewings, and we had wildly different reactions to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction follow-up.
But from European Vacation to Jaws 3-D to The Devil’s Rejects, Explorers, JFK, The Lawnmower Man and hundreds more, Stuart and I are still going to movies together.
My sister Susan took me to see my first R-rated film, Beverly Hills Cop. She also exposed me to many movies I’d have not seen in my youth without her influence, including Ghostbusters and Lady and the Tramp. She is much older than I, so our movie time together has been sparse, but always memorable, including E.T., Return of the Jedi, and Bridget Jones’ Diary. (Though she staunchly refused to join me for a Hellraiser marathon.)
Yes, throughout the years my romantic, familial, and friend relationships have all involved, and in some ways been shaped by, movies. Sometimes there is no quicker way to look into a person’s soul than to ask what films they cherish. So it seems appropriate that to celebrate my 40th birthday I look back at 40 years of cinema.
Each day, from now until my birthday on September 12th, I will post an article looking back at the one film from each year of my life that impacted me most. This may not be my favorite film, it may not even be a film I like, but the one that had the longest-lasting impact on me and helped shape my view of the world.
I hope you’ll join me each day as I reflect on my lifetime of cinema.
August 3, 2014
Posted by
Arnie C |
40-Year-Old Critic, Movies, Now Playing Podcast, Podcasts | 40-Year-Old Critic, aging, Apocalypse Now, Arnie, Arnie Carvalho, Attack of the Clones, Before Sunset, Beverly Hills Cop, Blade Runner, Bridget Jones' Diary, death, E.T., European Vacation, Explorers, Fight Club, Film, Ghostbusters, Hellraiser, Jackie Brown, Jaws, Jaws 3-D, JFK, Lady and the Tramp, Marjorie, Movies, Now Playing Podcast, Ocean's 11, Podcasts, Pulp Fiction, Return of the Jedi, Richard Linklater, Star Wars, Stuart, Stuart in LA, Susan, The Devil's Rejects, The Gate, The Godfather, The Lawnmower Man, The Wraith |
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