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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Dr. Jones prepares to introduce villain Mola Ram to Kali.
Twice a year, Now Playing Podcast holds a pledge drive, offering bonus shows as a “thank you” to listeners who support independent podcasting. This spring, hosts Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob will be reviewing the Indiana Jones films and “Goonies” for Silver Level donors, and the “Westworld” and “Jurassic Park” series’ from novelist Michael Crichton at the Gold Level.
Jakob: Indiana Jones has been requested by many, many listeners for a while. It’s always exciting getting to talk about iconic films; to get into the technical side that makes them more than just a “cool” movie, but true historic cinema.
Arnie: It’s been discussed as long as we’ve been doing Retrospective Series’. I always vetoed it, not wanting to end on a lousy film — and one I’d reviewed in the early days of Now Playing to boot.
Stuart: Lucas and Ford would tease the possibility of an Indy 5, but I never believed it was imminent.
Jakob: We found a way to end [the retrospective] — not on Crystal Skull — but on another Spielberg production about hidden treasure and booby traps that will hopefully wrap this series up more positively.
Stuart: It had been so long since I’d seen most of the Indy movies, I really was looking forward to re-experiencing it through adult eyes.
Arnie: I haven’t seen Crystal Skull since theaters–and never wanted to again!
Jakob: I do have a story for the podcast about meeting someone who had only seen Crystal Skull, which brought a unique perspective.
Stuart: [Arnie and Jakob] say they could quote every line from Raiders. I only remembered it in fragments… how did that monkey eating the poison date tie in with melting Nazis? I was excited to have a loved series on the docket.
Yul Brenner as the Gunslinger in “Westworld.”
The inclusion of Michael Crichton’s “Westworld” and “Futureworld” for Gold Level donors comes as HBO prepares to debut a JJ Abrams and Jonah Nolan series adaptation of the films, which tell the now-familiar story of chaos at a futuristic theme park. “Westworld” was released in 1973, while the sequel arrived three years later. The concept was also adapted into a 1980 television series, “Beyond Westworld.”
Stuart: They seemed like the right films to add to the four Jurassic Park’s to make it Gold Level.
Arnie: That was Stuart’s esoteric pick, but it makes sense as a tie-in to Jurassic Park. Both are theme parks run amok, brought to us by Michael Crichton.
Stuart: I don’t think I ever read a review of Jurassic Park in 1993 that didn’t mention Crichton’s Westworld as an influence.
Jakob: They’re not films I’m familiar with, but that’s one of the joys of Now Playing — getting the opportunity to watch movies that haven’t hit your radar.
The park is open.
Although “Jurassic Park” remains the most successful adaptation of a Crichton novel, there have been more than one dozen films based off his work. Crichton has also received writing credits for numerous screenplays, including 1996’s “Twister.” However, Now Playing’s Spring Donation Series may be the only time films based on his novels are reviewed on the show.
Arnie: Given that we’re doing Jurassic Park as a donation series I think we can rule out a full Crichton retrospective. It would be unfair to put “All Crichton other than Jurassic” on the main feed while Jurassic Park is locked in the vault. I don’t see Rising Sun and The 13th Warrior as big draws for a future donation drive.
Stuart: I agree with Arnie that it’s no longer a possibility as a franchise. But who’s to say a one-off of Twister or Congo might not appear when you least expect it.
Jakob: The only way I’m going to watch Twister again is if we do a “really stupid natural disaster movies” retrospective, with the likes of Volcano, Dante’s Peak, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012. And I don’t see that happening. So, no, I’m not interested.
The first episode in the Spring 2015 pledge drive — “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — will be released to donors on April 17. Details can be found on the Now Playing Podcast website.
April 4, 2015
Posted by
Jason Latham |
News, Now Playing Podcast, Podcasts | futureworld, Indiana Jones, indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull, jurassic park, michael crichton, Now Playing Podcast, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Venganza Media, westworld |
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