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Talking Pictures

33 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 months ago -

TALKING PICTURES is an interview series in which filmmaker and film journalist Christian Genzel talks to the people behind some of his favorite movies.

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Episodes

#35: “Nobody Said: Wow, We’re Doing Something Revolutionary Here”: Ron Bonk on his Early Found-Footage Film STRAWBERRY ESTATES

October 22, 2023 08:57 - 57.9 MB

Today’s guest is Ron Bonk, best known as the owner of the New York-based underground production and distribution company SRS Cinema. Ron started out as a filmmaker in the shot-on-video world of the 1990’s, writing and directing low-budget genre films like CITY OF THE VAMPIRES and THE VICIOUS SWEET. He went on to direct several independent horror films like CLAY, MS. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or the tongue-in-cheek HOUSE SHARK. With SRS Cinema, he’s produced and distributed numerous other films with...

#35: “It’s Good to Be Ahead of Your Time, But Not a Decade”: Director Dean Alioto on Pioneering Found Footage Film UFO ABDUCTION

October 22, 2023 08:42 - 79.5 MB

Today’s guest is Dean Alioto, writer and director of the groundbreaking found footage horror film UFO ABDUCTION, which also became known as THE MCPHERSON TAPE. The film tells the story of a family whose house is surrounded by alien creatures one night, and while the panicked people inside the house become more and more frightened and try to deal with the situation, a family members records the entire event with a 1980’s-style home video camera. Dean made the film on a shoestring budget in 19...

#34: “It’s very easy for me to scare myself”: Director Ted Nicolaou on THE ST. FRANCISVILLE EXPERIMENT

October 21, 2023 10:24 - 58.4 MB

Today’s guest is Ted Nicolaou, best known for his many collaborations with producer Charles Band, including the popular SUBSPECIES series. Ted started out as a sound recordist on Tobe Hooper’s cult classic THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and then went into editing, working on films like ROAR, TRANCERS and GHOULIES. As a director, and ofentimes as a writer, too, he made films like the offbeat horror comedy TERRORVISION, charming fantasy movies for children like DRAGONWORLD or LEAPIN’ LEPRECHAUNS...

#33: “We Didn’t Think Anyone Would Watch 1½ Hours of Crappy Video of Running Around in the Woods”: Stefan Avalos on Found Footage Precursor THE LAST BROADCAST

October 21, 2023 10:23 - 93.3 MB

Today’s guest is Stefan Avalos, who was once profiled by Wired magazine as “one of the twenty five people helping to reinvent entertainment”. Together with Lance Weiler, he wrote, produced, directed and starred in the found footage thriller THE LAST BROADCAST, a film which they also shot, edited and scored themselves – and which became the first feature film that was released digitally in commercial cinemas in 1998. The film is a true crime documentary about the two hosts of a cable access s...

#32: “In 1999, There’s a Lot of Things People Don’t Know About”: Brian Leslie on Producing the BLAIR WITCH Follow-up THE BLACK DOOR

October 21, 2023 09:54 - 79.3 MB

Today’s guest is Brian Leslie, producer of the found footage horror film THE BLACK DOOR, which came out in 2001 on the heels of the success of the genre-defining THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. THE BLACK DOOR was directed by Kit Wong, and Brian Leslie was brought on board by his production partner Lucas Lowe. Lowe, best known as the director of martial arts action films like KING OF THE KICKBOXERS and AMERICAN SHAOLIN, had worked with Brian on a horror/mystery anthology series which was originally ...

#31: “I Don’t Need Cute” – Director Carl Schultz on THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES

August 05, 2023 10:30 - 50.9 MB

Today’s guest is director Carl Schultz, and our conversation revolves around his work on the TV series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, or THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES, as it’s later been retitled. This lavishly produced early 90’s show, a spin-off of the popular Indiana Jones movies, follows the adventures of Indy as a boy, played by Corey Carrier, and as a young man, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, encountering numerous famous historical figures and events. Carl directed severa...

#30: “It Made Me Read THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka”: Actor Sean Patrick Flanery on THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES

August 05, 2023 10:14 - 31.4 MB

Today’s guest is actor Sean Patrick Flanery, and our conversation revolves around his work on the TV series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, later re-titled as THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES– a lavishly produced spin-off of the popular Indiana Jones movies which ran from 1992 to 1996, following the adventures of Indy as a boy, played by Corey Carrier, and as a young man, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, encountering numerous famous historical figures and events. Sean appeared in the...

#29: “We Need the Indiana Jones Character”, Says Novelist Max McCoy

June 24, 2023 16:02 - 52.9 MB

Just like in our last episode, today’s guest is not a filmmaker but a novelist. In our last episode, I spoke to Rob MacGregor who wrote several Indiana Jones novels at the beginning of the Nineties – this time, I’m talking to writer Max McCoy who continued the series from 1995 to 1999 with four original Indiana Jones stories, starting with INDIANA JONES AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE and continuing with INDIANA JONES AND THE DINOSAUR EGGS, THE HOLLOW EARTH and THE SECRET OF THE SPHINX. Before h...

#28: Mythology and Spirituality: Rob MacGregor on his Indiana Jones Novels

June 24, 2023 15:52 - 53.9 MB

Today’s guest is not a filmmaker – but his best-known work is closely connected to one of the most popular movie series of all time. It is novelist Rob MacGregor, who wrote the novelization of Steven Spielberg’s third Indiana Jones movie, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE – and then went on to write six more original Indy adventures shortly afterwards, starting with INDIANA JONES AND THE PERIL AT DELPHI in 1991 and then continuing with DANCE OF THE GIANTS, THE SEVEN VEILS, THE GENESIS DELUG...

#27: “Nothing Would Ever Top the Ark of the Covenant”: Screenwriter Menno Meyjes on INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

June 24, 2023 10:55 - 40.8 MB

Today’s guest is screenwriter and director Menno Meyjes, best known for his collaboration with Steven Spielberg in the 80’s. Menno was born in the Netherlands but moved to the United States in 1972 to study at the San Francisco Art Institute. After writing a script for one of the best-known episodes of Spielberg’s AMAZING STORIES TV series – “The Mission”, starring a young Kevin Costner and directed by Spielberg himself – Menno received an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of Alice...

#26: CRITTERS, CREEPERS & Other Impossible Projects: A Conversation with Producer Barry Opper

May 20, 2023 11:00 - 88.1 MB

Today’s guest is Barry Opper, best known as the producer of the CRITTERS series, the tongue-in-cheek sci-fi horror series about furry little creatures from outer space creating havoc here on Earth. Barry started out, together with his business partner Rupert Harvey, as the producer of Aaron Lipstadt’s 1982 sci-fi cult film ANDROID, which was made in collaboration with Roger Corman and starred Klaus Kinski and Barry’s brother Don, who also wrote the screenplay. Barry and Rupert went on to pro...

Talking Pictures #25: Aaron Lipstadt, Director of ANDROID

May 20, 2023 10:06 - 63.3 MB

Today’s guest is Aaron Lipstadt, best known from the mid-80’s onwards as a director on popular TV shows like MIAMI VICE, QUANTUM LEAP, LAW & ORDER, CROSSING JORDAN, THE 4400, BOSCH or ELEMENTARY. As a producer/director, he also worked on shows like THE MARSHAL, THE DIVISION, MEDIUM and GRIMM. In our interview, however, we go back to the beginning of Aaron’s career – to an independent little science-fiction gem called ANDROID, which came out in 1982 and was compared by film critic Roger Ebert...

Talking Pictures #22: Nicholas Meyer, Writer of THE SEVEN PER-CENT SOLUTION

November 05, 2022 09:05 - 82.1 MB

Today’s guest is the amazing writer and director Nicholas Meyer. While Meyer is probably best known as the writer and director of the beloved sci-fi sequels STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN and STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY and also as the director of the sci-fi adventure TIME AFTER TIME and the devastating nuclear disaster TV movie THE DAY AFTER, our conversation revolves around his Sherlock Holmes stories. In 1974, Meyer published the bestselling novel THE SEVEN PER-CENT SOLUTION, ...

Talking Pictures #20: Allan Warnick, Supporting Actor in CHINATOWN

October 30, 2022 12:37 - 82.2 MB

This is the second part of our CHINATOWN series where we discuss the making of Roman Polanski’s 1974 masterpiece, and today’s guest is character actor Allan Warnick. CHINATOWN is Allan’s best-known role, and if you’ve seen the film, you remember Allan from the perfect and very funny scene in the Hall of Records where he plays the stuck-up clerk who tells Jack Nicholson that “This is not a lending library”. Allan worked on several other films during the era, starting with Dennis Hopper’s EASY...

Talking Pictures #19: Hawk Koch, Assistant Director of CHINATOWN

October 22, 2022 08:43 - 64 MB

Our third season starts with three interviews where we discuss the making of one of the most revered New Hollywood classics, Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN, originally released in 1974 and now considered to be one of the best American movies of all time. Today’s episode features my conversation with Hawk Koch, who worked on CHINATOWN as an assistant director and had previously worked with Polanski as a dialogue coach on ROSEMARY’S BABY in 1968. Hawk Koch is the son of Hollywood producer Howard K...

Talking Pictures #18: John Ottman, Director of URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT

October 30, 2021 09:54 - 70.7 MB

For today’s episode, I had the honor and pleasure of talking to John Ottman, best known as the editor and composer of several X-MEN films – X-MEN 2, DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and APOCALYPSE – and of other Bryan Singer movies like THE USUAL SUSPECTS, VALKYRIE and SUPERMAN RETURNS. In 2019, he won an Academy Award for editing the Queen biopic BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. He’s also scored numerous other well-known films like THE NICE GUYS, HOUSE OF WAX, GOTHIKA, UNKNOWN and NON-STOP. Our conversation, however,...

Talking Pictures #17: Jamie Blanks, Director of URBAN LEGEND

October 30, 2021 09:52 - 78.3 MB

Today’s guest is Australian horror movie director and genre aficionado Jamie Blanks. Jamie made a name for himself with his 1998 feature film debut URBAN LEGEND, a neo-slasher movie that came out in the wake of Wes Craven’s SCREAM movies and which told the story of a madman whose killings are based on popular urban legends. With a great cast of people like Alicia Witt, Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson, Robert Englund and Brad Dourif and a keen sense of style, the film became a hit which spawned tw...

Talking Pictures #16: Jan de Bont, Director of TWISTER

September 18, 2021 08:50 - 78.8 MB

Filmmaker Jan de Bont became famous as one of the most creative and exciting cinematographers of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. He started out in the Netherlands where he worked on Wim Verstappen’s controversial film BLUE MOVIE and quickly became known for his collaborations with director Paul Verhoeven on movies like TURKISH DELIGHT, KEETJE TIPPEL and THE FOURTH MAN. He continued working with Verhoeven in America on FLESH & BLOOD and BASIC INSTINCT and became a sought-after DP for blockbusters l...

Talking Pictures #15: Steve Beck, Director of THIR13TEN GHOSTS and GHOST SHIP

August 07, 2021 10:47 - 54.2 MB

Filmmaker Steve Beck created two notable horror movies in the early 2000’s: THIRTEEN GHOSTS, which came out in 2001, and GHOST SHIP, which followed in 2002 – both of them produced by Robert Zemeckis, Joel Silver and Gilbert Adler for their company Dark Castle Entertainment. THIRTEEN GHOSTS was a remake of William Castle’s B-movie classic by the same name from 1960, whereas GHOST SHIP was an original story. Both movies are effective ghost stories starring several recognizable actors like F. M...

Talking Pictures #14: Bert I. Gordon, Director of THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN

July 24, 2021 05:39 - 27.8 MB

Our latest episode features a very special interview with a legendary filmmaker who put his own unique stamp on horror movies. His initials are B.I.G., and size is also one of the major themes of his movies which featured giant lizards, giant grasshoppers, giant cats, giant spiders, giant rats, giant ducks and yes, even giant teenagers. I’ve had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Bert I. Gordon, who, starting in the Fifties, created many beloved B movies like THE CYCLOPS, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MA...

Talking Pictures #13: Zak Penn, Screenwriter of READY PLAYER ONE

June 05, 2021 08:26 - 84.1 MB

Today’s guest is Zak Penn, best known as a screenwriter on several big-budget superhero movies like X-MEN 2, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, THE INCREDIBLE HULK and THE AVENGERS. Zak also wrote the 1993 comedy LAST ACTION HERO starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he directed a wonderful mockumentary called INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS, in which he, together with German director Werner Herzog, ventures out to find the Loch Ness monster. My conversation with Zak focuses on his work on Steven Spielberg’s 2018 s...

Talking Pictures #12: Jeremy Pikser, Co-Writer of BULWORTH

December 20, 2020 11:59 - 83.3 MB

Today’s guest is screenwriter Jeremy Pikser, best known as the co-writer of Warren Beatty’s political satire BULWORTH for which they got both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe nomination. In BULWORTH, a senator decides to end his life and spend his last few days telling the truth wherever he goes during his re-election campaign – which, naturally, completely disrupts the world of politics. Jeremy talks about the genesis of the movie, which came out in 1998, during Bill Clinton’s 2nd term, ...

Talking Pictures #11: Joshua Michael Stern, Director/Writer of SWING VOTE

October 20, 2020 09:22 - 75 MB

Today’s guest is director and screenwriter Joshua Michael Stern, best known for his 2013 biopic of Steve Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher, and his 2016 TV series GRAVES starring Nick Nolte as a former president of the United States. In our conversation, we focus on Stern’s 2008 movie SWING VOTE which stars Kevin Costner as a working-class man who suddenly finds himself in a very curious position: through several circumstances, the outcome of the current presidential election will depend on his v...

Talking Pictures #10: Jackie Kong, Director of BLOOD DINER

October 10, 2020 08:45 - 88.3 MB

Today’s guest is cult filmmaker Jackie Kong, best known for her outrageous horror comedy BLOOD DINER – the charming story of two homicidal brothers who dig up their uncle’s corpse and follow the instructions from his undead brain to kill a large number of people so that they can use the body parts to resurrect the ancient Lumerian goddess Sheetar. The film, which came out in 1987, is now well-regarded as an underground cult movie which has seen quite a few successful revival screenings in th...

Talking Pictures #9: Charlie Haas, Screenwriter of MATINEE

October 03, 2020 07:38 - 71.9 MB

Today’s guest is screenwriter Charlie Haas, best known for his work with cult filmmaker Joe Dante. Our conversation focuses on their movie MATINEE, released in 1993 – a love letter to the horror films of the 50’s and 60’s set during the Cuban Missile Crisis: John Goodman plays Lawrence Woolsey, a producer not unlike William Castle, who comes to Key West, Florida, to promote his new monster movie MANT! – half man, half ant, all terror! The story is told from the perspective of a young boy who...

Talking Pictures #8: Midge Costin, Director of MAKING WAVES

August 16, 2020 15:48 - 61.6 MB

Today’s guest is sound editor-turned-filmmaker Midge Costin. Midge worked as a sound and dialogue editor on some of the biggest films of the Nineties – ARMAGEDDON, CON AIR, THE ROCK, BROKEN ARROW, CRIMSON TIDE – but also on films like CRY-BABY, LEAP OF FAITH or SWING KIDS. She later became a teacher at the University of Southern California – and most recently, she created a brilliant documentary called MAKING WAVES – THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND which I became aware of when she ran a very succ...

Talking Pictures #7: John Orloff, Screenwriter of ANONYMOUS

May 23, 2020 09:31 - 75.5 MB

Today’s guest is John Orloff, the screenwriter of Roland Emmerich’s ANONYMOUS – a complex and fascinating historical drama about the theory that William Shakespeare may not be the author of the works of William Shakespeare. Instead, the movie claims that the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, wrote famous plays like HAMLET and ROMEO AND JULIET, and that through complex political scheming he wasn’t able to receive credit for them, but instead a hapless young actor, William Shakespeare, served as...

Talking Pictures #6: Kevin Droney, Screenwriter of MORTAL KOMBAT and WING COMMANDER

January 01, 2020 12:01 - 88.1 MB

Today’s guest is screenwriter Kevin Droney – who adapted not one but two computer games for the big screen back in the Nineties: MORTAL KOMBAT and WING COMMANDER. MORTAL KOMBAT, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and based on the fighting game series that was known for its ultra-violence, was released in 1995 and was a huge success, spending three weeks at the number one spot of the U.S. box office. Unfortunately, WING COMMANDER, released in 1999, was not as successful – in fact, it was a failur...

Talking Pictures #5: Steven E. de Souza, Writer/Director of STREET FIGHTER

January 01, 2020 11:59 - 132 MB

As part of our series on video game adaptations, I spoke to Steven E. de Souza, writer and director of STREET FIGHTER. After SUPER MARIO BROS. and DOUBLE DRAGON, STREET FIGHTER was the third video game adaptation to be released in the Nineties, and unlike its predecessors, it actually turned a healthy profit. In our interview, Steven talks about several of the problems that plagued the production of STREET FIGHTER – like co-star Raul Julia’s failing health, which meant that the shooting sche...

Talking Pictures #4: Jim Yukich, Director of DOUBLE DRAGON

January 01, 2020 11:58 - 61 MB

As part of our focus on the video game adaptations of the Nineties, I spoke to Jim Yukich, director of DOUBLE DRAGON – an adaptation of the popular beat’em up video game series. The movie came out in November 1994, one and a half years after SUPER MARIO BROS. and just a few weeks before Steven de Souza’s STREET FIGHTER movie, so it’s actually the second video game movie to be released – and just like SUPER MARIO BROS., it was a commercial and critical failure, even though the film is much be...

Talking Pictures #3: Rocky Morton, Director of SUPER MARIO BROS. and Creator of MAX HEADROOM

January 01, 2020 11:57 - 86.8 MB

For today’s episode, I spoke to British director Rocky Morton – the co-director, together with his then-wife Annabel Jankel, of the infamous SUPER MARIO BROS. movie. Released in 1993, this very first video game adaptation was plagued by endless rewrites and heavy studio meddling, so it became almost a cautionary tale – even though the film has a lot more to offer than its reputation would suggest. Before SUPER MARIO BROS., Rocky and Annabel were also the creators of MAX HEADROOM, the world’s...

Talking Pictures #2: Mark W. Travis, Director of GOING UNDER

August 09, 2016 17:35 - 48 MB

Back in the Nineties, I came across a comedy on German television starring Bill Pullman that was called U-BOOT ACADEMY – a film that seemed to be in the same vein as the POLICE ACADEMY movies, with lovably goofy characters and a delightfully silly kind of humor. Even though Michael Winslow had a small part in it, the film actually didn’t have anything to do with the ACADEMY series, as I later found out – its original title was GOING UNDER. Regardless of its connection or lack thereof to the ...

Talking Pictures #1: Howard Ziehm, Creator of FLESH GORDON

May 15, 2016 08:09 - 94.6 MB

In February 1994, a film that was shown late at night on TV caught my attention: FLESH GORDON MEETS THE COSMIC CHEERLEADERS. It was labelled “flop of the day” by my TV guide, but that never stopped me from checking out movies that looked different and interesting. The film turned out to be one of the craziest comedies ever made – a SF spoof with no shortage of dirty jokes, inspired silliness, weird monsters and … yes, penis- and breast-shaped spaceships. Certainly not a film for everybody, b...