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00:00I still am not jaded at all.
00:03I'm always hopeful.
00:04Yeah.
00:05You know, so I sort of operate on that, through that lens.
00:08You know, that's how hard movies get made, is you have to be hopeful and passionate.
00:13I mean, I look for subjects that turn me on because there's some relevancy and that potentially
00:20could have a heartbeat that reaches people.
00:30Why are you so tired?
00:31All your generation, everyone in your generation, you're so tired.
00:34Of course I'm so sorry.
00:36Perfect.
00:37Exemplar.
00:38What are you scared of?
00:39Scared of saying the wrong thing or offending someone?
00:42When did offending someone become the preeminent cardinal sin?
00:47I mean, I don't have a date exactly, but maybe it's around the same time your generation
00:53started making sweeping generalizations about ours.
00:56Are you scared that we're gonna think less of you if it isn't perfect?
00:59Whatever shame you have around your self-expression, it is false.
01:06Welcome to Behind the Lens, and I'm gonna say a very special Behind the Lens today, because
01:11I have two of the true movers and shakers in Hollywood, in movies, whatever you want
01:18to call it, going back many years, and in fact exactly what their company imagined 40 years,
01:24celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.
01:26This is Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.
01:28Welcome to Behind the Lens.
01:29Thanks.
01:30Okay.
01:31Thanks for having us.
01:32Well, I could have read all of the movies you guys have done.
01:35Please do.
01:36Okay.
01:37Let's do it.
01:38Willow, Parenthood, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Oscar winner.
01:42Yeah.
01:43Backdraft, Friday Night Lights, Da Vinci Code, The Grinch, Rush.
01:48Oh my God.
01:49Nutty Professor.
01:50Eight Mile.
01:51Eight Mile.
01:52Eight Mile, 13 Lives, currently coming out.
01:55American Gangster, How to Rob a Bank.
01:57How to Rob a Bank is new.
01:59Yeah, it's new.
02:00After the Hunt, Julia Roberts is another big one, just premiered at Venice, all that good
02:05stuff.
02:06And Eden, which is Ron's, which was at the Toronto Film Festival.
02:12Stellar cast.
02:13Right.
02:14Unbelievable cast.
02:15I mean, hot.
02:16Worth watching for a lot of reasons.
02:19And then in television, of course, all those same titles.
02:23Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, Arrested Development, 24, and on and on.
02:28Not to mention.
02:29Empire.
02:30Empire.
02:31Don't chop it.
02:32God.
02:33Empire.
02:34Most reason.
02:35Meteoric.
02:36Actually, I have pages and pages and pages of imagination.
02:38But we get the idea now.
02:39You get the idea.
02:40We get the idea.
02:41Okay.
02:42So it's 40 years.
02:43Okay.
02:44This is longer than anybody's ever been married in Hollywood.
02:47Or even alive.
02:48A lot.
02:49I mean, how do you, the real question is how do you do it?
02:53How do you keep this partnership going?
02:55Because this is such a creative business, it changes every day.
02:59But you guys are, you know, stable here.
03:02I think we operate on the same axioms as we, in the ones that we started, basically.
03:10Yeah.
03:11We have similar taste.
03:14It's not, we don't always pick the exact same project as one another.
03:19But we have quality alignment.
03:22Yeah.
03:23So what he thinks is good in a movie of ours or a movie in others, I often think is good,
03:30too.
03:31So quality.
03:32Trust.
03:33Transparency.
03:34And work ethic.
03:36Wow.
03:37And work ethic's really important.
03:39So if I think six hours a day is hard work, he's not going to be happy about that.
03:46The other thing is that, you know, you say 40 years, how do you keep it going?
03:51The business is changing all the time.
03:53Yeah.
03:54I mean, yeah.
03:55It's been a lot of years.
03:56There's never been a time when we could be on autopilot or felt like we should.
03:59So I think in a way, as Brian says, we operate on the same principles.
04:04It's because we have to.
04:06We're competitive with ourselves, each other, not competitive with each other, but we want
04:13to excel on behalf of the audience, on behalf of the potential of the idea.
04:16And to do that, you've got to keep reading the landscape.
04:19You're not going to succeed all the time the way you dream.
04:22You will.
04:23Yeah.
04:24But you've got to believe in the sort of power of story and the excitement around collaborations
04:31that mean a lot.
04:32And Imagine allows us that opportunity and keeps allowing it, but it always stays fresh
04:37because it's always a new hill to climb.
04:40Yeah.
04:41That's so interesting.
04:42How did you guys get together?
04:43Was it on Night Shift?
04:44Was that the first thing?
04:45That was the first movie together.
04:47That was before Imagine, though.
04:49Oh, yes.
04:50That created Imagine by about five years.
04:52Yeah.
04:53We met each other on the Paramount lot, where I didn't know Ron at all.
04:57He didn't know me.
04:59Well, I knew of Ron.
05:01And I was a TV producer, a very young TV producer.
05:06And I realized, actually, Lou Wasserman said, the only way you're going to be worthy of being
05:13in my room office is if you have something of value.
05:16Yeah.
05:17And so I realized I have to start writing things.
05:20So I started writing story after story.
05:23And I worked on a script that became Splash and had the idea of Night Shift.
05:29And so I presented to Ron, who I really wanted to work with, even though he hadn't directed
05:34a big theatrical film.
05:36I mean, you could just tell he'd be good at it.
05:39Yeah.
05:40And his work ethic was extraordinary.
05:44And he'd been interested in film for quite a long time.
05:47And I presented the ideas.
05:49And I wanted him to do the Splash movie, the romantic comedy.
05:52Yeah.
05:53But he had been on Happy Days for a long time.
05:55And you could poke in on this.
05:57But I think he wanted to do an R-rated film.
05:59I like the R-rated comedy.
06:00Yeah.
06:01The comedy was really in then, you know, Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis.
06:05Right.
06:06And, you know, I sort of wanted to compete coming off of TV comedy, which was the Andy
06:12Griffith Show, and Happy Days for, you know, 17 out of those 20 years, from 1960 to 1980.
06:18Yeah.
06:19And that I, you know, I wanted to sort of prove those chops.
06:22So, you know, I did things like, really radical things, like I grew a mustache.
06:25He said, I'm older than you think.
06:29I'm older too.
06:30Well, you've got to get rid of the Opie, you know, image.
06:34Had to try to do that.
06:35Yeah.
06:36And Night Shift was a great experience.
06:39Yeah.
06:40Scary, because it was our first studio feature.
06:42I'd worked with Roger Corman.
06:43Yeah.
06:44I had produced and directed TV movies for NBC during the hiatuses from Happy Days.
06:50But this was the major leagues.
06:51Yeah.
06:52And Brian's idea is what got us there, you know, and his ability to produce and get it
06:57done.
06:58And we did it.
06:59And it was a great experience.
07:00And then he had Splash and needed a lot of work.
07:04But the same writers who had done Night Shift, Gans and Mandel, came on and did a great rewrite
07:10on Splash.
07:11And that was such an uphill battle to get that movie made.
07:15But he was, he was on like, I mean, he was just on fire as a producer and got that movie
07:22made.
07:23It was another great experience.
07:24That one turned out to be a top 10 movie that year.
07:26Yeah.
07:27Also nominated for a couple of Oscars in various categories, including script.
07:31And we were off and running.
07:34We weren't formally partners, but we'd gone through two sort of, you know, gauntlets in
07:39a way.
07:40And we'd arrived at a great place together and had a lot of fun doing it and a lot of
07:45success doing it.
07:46And so there was a friendship first and also a recognition that, you know, we could really
07:52get things done.
07:53Yeah.
07:54You really do a lot of, beyond movies that Ron directs, obviously, and everything, you're
07:59working with great filmmakers.
08:02Yes.
08:03From Clint Eastwood to Ridley Scott to you name it, you guys.
08:06Coen Brothers.
08:07Coen Brothers.
08:08I love them.
08:09Yeah, Coen Brothers.
08:10I liked all the ones you brought up.
08:11I mean, all of these.
08:12The Doors, Oliver.
08:13Oliver Stone.
08:14Yeah.
08:15Oliver Stone.
08:16Yeah.
08:17All these great filmmakers.
08:18You know, how do you do that?
08:20How do you convince them that you're the guys that should produce their work?
08:26Well, he didn't really produce them for that reason.
08:30I kind of stay out of the way of it.
08:33Yeah.
08:34I'm around if I can be useful.
08:36Yeah.
08:37Because they're all producers themselves.
08:38But he was so self-aware.
08:39He said, they're not going to want to, you know, they're likely not to want to direct
08:45a film for you, Brian, you're passionate about if I'm a producer.
08:49And so that worked for me perfectly.
08:52And so I was able to sort of singularly have my own identity within the relationship.
08:58And Ron was hugely supportive of that.
09:00And that's how I would get them.
09:03And, you know, I would do it the same way I got him or got movies made.
09:07It's like, it's just physics, you know.
09:10And as far as the project, you have to have a project that you deeply believe in.
09:15Yeah.
09:16So you're willing to every day hear no.
09:19Right.
09:20Because each one of them is full of that, is full of rejection and cones on the road that
09:26you have to, you know, navigate.
09:29So, and I got along with Clint really well once I was working with him.
09:34Right.
09:35And I got to work with him twice.
09:36Yeah.
09:37And with the Angelina Jolie and also Leo movie.
09:40And then the Coen brothers I'd known, I got to know, I got to know them just because I respected them so much.
09:48Then with these scripts, I had reason to actually say, guys, you want to try this?
09:53The other thing is, I don't think Imagine ever got labeled as a place where you did X or Y kind of movie.
10:02No.
10:03It was definitely, you look at this stuff here.
10:05It's for actors and directors who want to do good stories and interesting stories.
10:09And, you know, we've always advocated for that.
10:13Yeah.
10:14We didn't want to fall into formulas.
10:15We didn't want to repeat ourselves over and over again and sort of be branded in that sort of way beyond quality.
10:21Yeah.
10:22It's so interesting too.
10:24It's so difficult now to get movies made.
10:27I don't have to tell you that.
10:29And you're at the top of the chain here.
10:32But just getting independent films, I just reviewed a movie today.
10:36It just premiered in Venice.
10:38And I counted up the number of producer credits they have on it.
10:42And I'm not making this up.
10:4462 executive producers, 14 produced by credits, to get a movie directed by Gus Van Sant made.
10:54Oh, my God.
10:56I know which one that is.
10:58Oh, my God.
10:59That's crazy.
11:01And each person goes, it's my film.
11:03I know two separate producers and they go, I produced a movie and that's why I'm here in Venice.
11:10But I didn't realize there were 60 of them.
11:12Oh, my God.
11:13You know, it's just like, is it getting out of control?
11:16Have we lost the idea of who's a producer now?
11:19Well, even in those situations, yes, there may be a lot of people credited, but the people working on the film know who's producing it.
11:26Yeah.
11:27They know who's really in the trenches.
11:28They know who's really getting...
11:29Because they see them.
11:30Getting things made, you know, by actually making, getting this distribution deal, getting the money together, getting the actors to say yes, putting it all together.
11:40And so there may be a lot of people who get a credit, but everyone involved will tell you who the couple of people, could be even as many as two or three, who are really impact players.
11:51And that role is the most misunderstood role in the entire business.
11:58And it is so vitally important.
12:00Almost every...there are a few great movies where you could say, okay, an auteur understood it, had a command of the medium and that idea and did something remarkable.
12:11But that is so much in the minority.
12:15The reality is there's almost always a really fine producer who made it possible for that group to come together, including the director, and get that story made.
12:27Yeah.
12:28It's certainly changed from the time you started as an actor.
12:31I had you on Arsenio once when I was working on Arsenio.
12:34Yeah.
12:35And I go like, I'm going to find some...I'm not going to run Happy Days or anything, but I'm going to find...so I found a movie called The Journey, which wasn't...
12:44Yeah.
12:45It's my very first job ever.
12:46Oh, my gosh.
12:47I know.
12:48I found...and so Arsenio put it up and goes, look at this face there.
12:511958.
12:5218.
12:53You know, Neil Brenner and Deborah Carr.
12:55Yeah.
12:56I mean, there you are.
12:57Fresh off of The King and I.
12:59I mean, how many people have this kind of longevity?
13:03He's a miracle.
13:06It's amazing.
13:08And I remember you said, where'd you get that?
13:10And I sent it to you because at that time it wasn't out.
13:12Yes.
13:13You couldn't find it, yeah.
13:15I still love it.
13:16It's still fascinating.
13:17The reality is it hasn't changed all that much.
13:20It's still storytelling.
13:21It's still scene building.
13:22It's still moment to moment.
13:24Tech makes it easier in many, many ways.
13:27I think the whole thing is, you know, it's much more exciting in terms of getting filmmakers'
13:33sort of vision actually onto the screen.
13:35Yeah.
13:36And I think there are fewer compromises in that way.
13:40And sure, markets shift.
13:42What's popular, the distribution patterns, all these things shift around.
13:47But the work of cinema, of telling a story that's going to, you know, be presented to audiences,
13:54is, you know, it remains pretty much unchanged with, you know, tastes shift.
13:59And you have to stay with that.
14:01It's where Brian's, you know, great as a partner because he's so plugged into the zeitgeist.
14:06It always has been out of his sheer curiosity and interest.
14:09But it affects things, you know.
14:12I know that about you.
14:13You call people up.
14:15You say, I'd just like to have lunch.
14:17I'd like to do something.
14:18Maybe people you don't know.
14:19You've done this your whole life.
14:20Whoa, it's always people I don't know, actually.
14:22Yeah.
14:23First off, it was everyone in Hollywood, all filmmaking.
14:26When I was 24, 23, I was calling somebody new every single day without failure.
14:33Yeah.
14:34That was principally making the business happen.
14:36That's how I met Jules Stein, who was the founder of MCA, and Lew Wasserman, Mel Brooks,
14:44I can name.
14:45I mean, anyone that was actually principally getting something made or meaningful in that
14:52process, I met.
14:54And then once I got my career going, I would only, I still do this to this day, these curiosity
14:59conversations, but they're never people in our business at all.
15:03Yeah.
15:04And it's only people like physicists and people like that or, you know, Nobel laureates and,
15:10you know, there's, it would just only be that.
15:13And that...
15:14People I don't know.
15:15And that helps you in the business you're in.
15:18It does, because I often just get one nuance from a two or three hour conversation with
15:25somebody.
15:26And that one nuance, I'm able to transport it into more than a scene usually, it's often
15:33a character or an important dimension.
15:36Like, in the movie, I don't want to go through every movie, but in the movie A Beautiful Mind,
15:43there was a woman I met who survived torture in Chile.
15:47Yeah.
15:48And she lived in another narrative, another alternate universe.
15:52And then we thought, that's exactly what a schizophrenic does, is live in multiple.
15:57And so the story never was contemplated that, the movie.
16:02Right.
16:03And so it was only because of meeting her that was helpful to that.
16:07That's so interesting.
16:08You know, there's one other thing when you think about the company and how it stays vital
16:12and shifts and moves as it has and continues to evolve.
16:16It's about collaborations.
16:18It's about variety.
16:19But, you know, the other thing is it's also about the gatekeepers.
16:23Yeah.
16:24Because we actually like these people.
16:26We actually don't mind having a conversation, a creative conversation or a business conversation,
16:31with an executive.
16:32Right.
16:33Most of them are smart.
16:34And, you know, and if you have credibility, you don't have to just yes them all the time.
16:40It can be a real collaboration.
16:43And over the years, we've had some really important relationships that have added up.
16:50And it's kind of easy to make new friends and be excited.
16:55And, by the way, it's also easier to say no to executives about ideas when they know
17:00that you're more than willing to say yes.
17:02Oh.
17:03You know, I mean, it's an open conversation.
17:05Yeah.
17:06That's it.
17:07I mean, you had relationships with all these major executives and people that have supported you,
17:12Universal forever.
17:13Forever.
17:14I mean, so many movies.
17:15They were spectacular, yeah.
17:16Yeah.
17:17Still are.
17:18When Ron Meyer and all of them, Luke Wasserman.
17:20Donna and everybody.
17:21And now Donna Langley, yeah.
17:22Donna Langley's fantastic.
17:23Worked on so many of my movies.
17:25And yours, too.
17:26Of course.
17:27Both of ours.
17:28And now Amazon, MGM, and also Netflix.
17:32Courtney Valente, she's amazing.
17:34Her whole team crew.
17:35Rappaport and company.
17:36Yeah, great.
17:37So you have a new movie that you've produced with Luca Guadagino.
17:41Yeah.
17:42Yes.
17:43Who is the nicest guy.
17:44He keeps inviting me to his house in Italy.
17:47What are you telling me?
17:48I don't know.
17:49You should go.
17:50I should.
17:51You should.
17:52You'll be a great host.
17:53You'll be an amazing host.
17:54Yeah.
17:55Good food, good revenue.
17:56Yeah.
17:57He's so great.
17:58I can't wait to see it, actually, after The Hunt.
18:00Yes.
18:01Yeah.
18:02And that's very contemporary and very flipped from the headlines.
18:06Very.
18:07After The Hunt is a thriller set in today's world on the Yale campus.
18:14Yeah.
18:15And it's really just about how false accusations can and will destroy somebody.
18:21Yeah.
18:22And I don't want to give away the movie, but it stars Julie Roberts, Andrew Garfield,
18:26Aya Ibrey, Chloe Savignon, and many other great actors.
18:30Amazing.
18:31I didn't hear she was talking about it.
18:32She was so excited to be in it.
18:33Oh.
18:34Oh.
18:35Yeah.
18:36She's great.
18:37She's fantastic.
18:38Yeah.
18:39And how did that come about?
18:41That came about because we have two amazing film executives.
18:46Yeah.
18:47Alan Mandelbaum and Jeb Brody.
18:50Ah.
18:51And Jeb would be senior to Alan, but Alan Mandelbaum knows all the writers and what they're
18:58working on.
18:59And often they're not known.
19:04And he knew this particular writer, Nora Garrett.
19:08And once the script materialized, she wrote it on spec, we had an advantage to get it because
19:16it was very popular, you know, a big bidding war because she had a belief in Alan because
19:22he believed in her at that time.
19:24So that came from Alan and then Jeb also worked on it a lot.
19:28Yeah.
19:29And so it would be an example of how I helped get it made.
19:32Yeah.
19:33Yeah.
19:34But they really worked on it day to day.
19:38So, yeah.
19:39We have a number, I don't know, how many films do we have going right now?
19:42We have about five or six movies right now.
19:44Well, I have, they've provided me with a list.
19:47It goes on forever.
19:48This is just stuff you're doing right now.
19:51I mean, you mentioned How to Rob a Bank.
19:53That is David Leitch directing that.
19:56Yeah.
19:57Fantastic.
19:58It's so hip.
19:59Yeah.
20:00Is it?
20:01Okay.
20:02Well, Zoe Kravitz.
20:04There's Nick Holtz.
20:06Nick Holtz.
20:07Oh, yeah.
20:08Pete Davidson.
20:09Anna Swee is in it, who was in Star of Shogun.
20:14Oh, wow.
20:15Yeah.
20:16John C. Reilly is in it.
20:17Amazing cast.
20:18We have amazing cast.
20:19Yeah.
20:20And that was shot, just wrapped in Pittsburgh.
20:23Just in Pittsburgh.
20:24Yeah.
20:25Okay.
20:26So, Whale Fall is filming.
20:28And that's wrapping this week.
20:30Yeah.
20:31And that's about a guy that gets swallowed by a whale.
20:32Yes.
20:33I'm in line.
20:34I can't wait.
20:35I love the content.
20:36That's all you have to tell me.
20:37So cinematic.
20:38It's such an original idea.
20:40Yeah.
20:41And very plausible.
20:42And it's made with all the sort of science fact of what would go, what it would be like to be inside a whale.
20:49From an excellent novel.
20:50Yeah.
20:51And Josh Brolin is in it.
20:52Right.
20:53And he's amazing.
20:54So it's, yeah.
20:57That's a cool one.
20:58Very, very good.
20:59This one I actually know about because I recently interviewed Pete Berg, but the Mosquito Bowl.
21:03Mosquito Bowl.
21:04He was talking.
21:05He was excited about this.
21:06Super excited.
21:07It's turning out great.
21:09We're about a month into shooting in Australia.
21:12Yeah.
21:13And so I'll go there and it all works out to do in a week or so.
21:17Are you going to bring back Friday Night Lights?
21:19Yes.
21:20Yeah.
21:21With Jason Kadams, the original writer.
21:23With Jason Kadams, the original writer of Friday Night Lights.
21:26And Pete Berg, who really created it, he's going to direct it and he's brilliant.
21:32You know, he's very brilliant and tremendous.
21:35Why is the time right to bring that back?
21:38The values of it.
21:39I mean, I think people, look, the world is kind of a mess, but it'd be great to, you know,
21:46find a way to centralize people's soul or spirit.
21:50And that's best served, you know, it's best served on the, you know, with Brotherhoods.
21:58Yeah.
21:59And the Brotherhood there, and incidentally, he's making another movie about Brotherhood,
22:04which is Mosquito Bowl.
22:07Uh-huh.
22:08But the values of the television series were so strong.
22:15Yeah.
22:16And it had sex appeal.
22:17And the football games were competitive and it mattered.
22:21And we found a great town in Texas that the new Friday Night Lights TV series will be.
22:27Wow.
22:28Anyway.
22:29There you go.
22:30Spaceballs 2?
22:31Is Mel involved?
22:32Yeah.
22:33Yeah.
22:3499 years old, he's in it.
22:36Oh my God.
22:37He's in it.
22:38He's funny.
22:39Yogurt.
22:40Yeah.
22:41Oh my God.
22:42My dad is driving that one in many ways as a producer and also, you know, one of the stars.
22:47And Jeff Brody works on that.
22:49Wow.
22:50I mean, this is all over.
22:51And then in television you've got all kinds of The Burbs, which is, I guess, based on the
22:55movie.
22:56Siegfried and Roy.
22:57Yeah.
22:58Well, The Burbs was originally starred Tom Hanks in that movie.
23:01Right.
23:02And now is Kiki Palmer.
23:03Oh, God.
23:04She's great.
23:05Who's amazing.
23:06She's so good that when we were looking to find the lead in Spaceballs, they said,
23:11you've got to go to Kiki.
23:12And they already loved her and so that worked out really well.
23:15That's so cool.
23:16And The Gringo Hunters and Wild Things.
23:19Yeah.
23:20Yeah.
23:21Wild Things, I think, is really exciting.
23:22It's about Siegfried and Roy.
23:25And it's about, really, it's also the landscape of the complete shift of Las Vegas from, you
23:34know, the gangster culture that ran it.
23:38Yeah.
23:39And the 300 to 400 room hotels to more of a family experience, which you can see today,
23:46with the 6,000 to 8,000 room hotels.
23:50Right.
23:51And just controlled by different power dynamics than it did before.
23:55And there's something, Ron, that I love about your business, because I think when I first
24:00talked to you about 8 Days a Week, the documentary, I think it was your first venture into that.
24:06Yeah.
24:07And you said, I really want to go into documentaries.
24:09Now you're doing one every week, month, whatever.
24:13I mean, this is a list of just 2,025.
24:15You just did Avedon, which I never bothered to tell you, it is so good.
24:20Oh, I'm glad you liked it.
24:21I loved it.
24:22Well, it's not finished yet.
24:24So he's seeing our first solid costume.
24:27I gave it to a few people.
24:29This is Richard Avedon.
24:30Okay.
24:31Yeah.
24:32Wow.
24:33And also doing one about the individuals who survived the Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam and what
24:38that experience was like.
24:40Through the lens of Charlie Plum.
24:41And you won Emmys last year for Jim Henson.
24:43Yeah.
24:44And I'm loving it.
24:46It's really great.
24:47I think it's informing my scripted work in interesting ways.
24:51And there's a nice kind of conversation back and forth between the two mediums that is creatively,
24:58you know, really, really stimulating for me.
25:01And working with Jab and Alan on, you know, a handful of projects.
25:05There's one that's about to go.
25:06I just can't quite say today.
25:08Yeah, don't do that.
25:10No, I won't.
25:11Is that another documentary?
25:12No, this would be a feature film.
25:14That's what I was going to ask you.
25:15That is going, but I can't say.
25:17He doesn't like to say things that aren't actually shooting.
25:20Oh, okay.
25:21Well, for levels of accuracy.
25:24But, well, you know, you just, I recently reviewed, because I missed it in Toronto.
25:31I missed Eaton in Toronto last year.
25:33And then it took a year.
25:35Talk about that.
25:36Because, you know, it's gone through an independent distributor.
25:40Vertical distributed it.
25:41Yeah.
25:42Made as an indie.
25:43Because we were an indie movie, we could actually get a waiver during the strike.
25:47It was an absolute labor of love project that I, you know, wanted to do for a long time.
25:52Noah Pink, the writer, had written a spec script.
25:55Because this was so risky that I never even wanted to take it to a studio and say, you know,
26:00invest money in this.
26:01I wasn't sure.
26:02But we had this spec script.
26:04Actors were responding to it.
26:05Their representatives were responding.
26:07We could suddenly put together this package and go make it as a real labor of love project,
26:13which we did.
26:14It's a story I'd wanted to work, do for 15 years.
26:17Tonally, very different for me.
26:19Very dark.
26:20Very edgy.
26:21Yeah.
26:22A true crime thriller.
26:23I was very proud to get to do it.
26:24We went to Toronto.
26:25You know, it wasn't the bell of the ball at Toronto.
26:27It was mixed views, you know, to be honest.
26:30I mean, I think you like the movie that's starting.
26:33They have 600,000.
26:34They have so many movies there.
26:35It's almost.
26:36Yeah.
26:37I mean, here's what we're seeing about the indie.
26:38And you know more than I do.
26:39But, you know, I mean, even that is becoming more and more challenging for movies to break
26:46out, you know, at the festivals.
26:48We had great screenings.
26:50Continue to.
26:51It always plays well to audiences.
26:53Audiences respond really well to it.
26:55The performances are great.
26:57And, you know, I'm super proud of it.
26:59But it was sort of my foray into that indie world.
27:03It was really good.
27:04I have to tell you.
27:06I've seen it a year later.
27:07I go like, why isn't this out there?
27:09And then I'm looking at it with that cast.
27:11Yeah.
27:12I mean, you know, Anna D'Armas and Sidney Sweeney and Jude Law.
27:16I think it surprises people coming from me.
27:18Yeah.
27:19Some people are a little thrown.
27:20But also, but it's also, it's.
27:22It looks like you're a little thrown.
27:24But it's, the performances are so strong and the ideas are so bold that it's like the
27:32people who dig it really dig it.
27:34Yeah.
27:35And I think, you know, for that reason, it's, you know, it's, it'll have a long tail.
27:39It's very cool.
27:40Now, how many years are you going to stay in business together?
27:44This is 40.
27:45We've always gone, honest to God, we've always just gone along.
27:49And every once in a while we sort of say, okay, there's a new phase.
27:52Are we still doing it?
27:53Okay, we are.
27:54Yeah.
27:55And, and, and, and, you know, and that's the, that we're still, we're still in it.
28:00We're loving it.
28:01We have great team.
28:02Why would we stop?
28:03You know?
28:04Yeah.
28:05I don't know why you, why you would stop.
28:06You, you still sound like the Ron Howard when he was Ronnie Howard.
28:11I'll tell you, we had a meeting because now we have this documentary group.
28:14Yeah.
28:15We had a meeting several years ago with a project and that Martin Scorsese wanted to make.
28:20And so we were at Toronto.
28:22He was getting ready to screen, I think maybe Irishman, a big event and all that.
28:28But he sat with Brian and I because what he really wanted to do is convince us to back
28:32this little documentary that he was dying to make.
28:34And I thought, and now he's up standing.
28:35I know.
28:36You know?
28:37Pitching.
28:38And so excited.
28:39Pitching.
28:40Pitching his brains out.
28:41And I thought, the man loves cinema.
28:43He does.
28:44Oh, he loves.
28:45A five-year-old trying to get his first film off the ground.
28:46And we put money into it.
28:47Yeah.
28:48And we made it and we're proud to make it.
28:50Yeah.
28:51He puts his name on movie.
28:52I just am reviewing one that's in Venice tomorrow called In the Hand of Dante.
28:57And he's in it with this long brain.
29:00Oh, yeah.
29:01I've heard about that.
29:02And everything.
29:03But he also, executive producer.
29:04Yeah.
29:05That's another one with a zillion producers and executive producers.
29:08But Martin Scorsese puts his name on it to help it along.
29:12Well, he's passionate.
29:13He's passionate.
29:14And speaking for both of us, you know, that excitement is there.
29:19Yeah.
29:20And yeah, it's a tough time for studios and platforms to know what to invest in.
29:25It's a tough time to market.
29:26Yeah.
29:27Very challenging.
29:28But if you care about an idea, there are ways to get these films made.
29:33And that's the thing now.
29:35You make them.
29:36You share them.
29:37And...
29:38Streaming?
29:39You like streaming?
29:40I'm agnostic.
29:41It's a way of life.
29:42Yeah.
29:43You know, how can I get my story told?
29:45Right.
29:46That's really what drives me.
29:47It's all about content?
29:48Yeah.
29:49Yeah.
29:50And I should say before we go that you have your very first Emmy nomination as an actor.
29:55That's true.
29:56You got a bunch of Emmys, but your first as an actor...
30:00He was so good.
30:01...opposite Martin Scorsese.
30:03Oh, that's right.
30:04Yes.
30:05You're all nominated.
30:06The day of the nominations, I called up Marty and we had a pretty good laugh about that.
30:10We've each tried to cast each other in movies.
30:12There's several.
30:13I tried to cast him as an actor and he once tried to reach out to me to act in something
30:17of his.
30:18And the schedule's never worked, but...
30:20So we definitely had a laugh over that one.
30:22In the studio, well...
30:23It's so fun to do that.
30:24Yeah.
30:25You should go back and reprise it.
30:27You were great.
30:28I haven't been asked, but I would show up if I was.
30:30You know, he's in Venice right now scouting that.
30:32He's got bigger plans now.
30:33He wants to go around the world with this show.
30:36Oh, well.
30:37They do a great job, Seth.
30:39I know.
30:40And for you, you look young too.
30:43You look like this business has not weathered you at all.
30:48It hasn't actually.
30:50I still am not jaded at all.
30:54I'm always hopeful.
30:55Yeah.
30:56You know, so I sort of operate on that through that lens.
31:00That's good.
31:01That's good.
31:02And that's how, you know, that's how hard movies get made is you have to be hopeful
31:06and passionate about...
31:09I mean, I look for subjects that turn me on because there's some relevancy and that potentially
31:18could have a heartbeat that reaches people.
31:22Yeah.
31:23Now, I didn't even go through, I was going to go through this list, tell me about every
31:27movie, but let me tell you, is there one that is so close to your heart that, you know,
31:33stands out?
31:34That we've already made, you mean.
31:35Yeah.
31:36There are a few, but, you know, Apollo 13, this is our 30th anniversary year.
31:42That's right.
31:43That's another one.
31:44Releasing it in IMAX.
31:45And that one holds us such a special place because there's a, the idea, it really, it
31:50worked, it was a great filmmaking experience.
31:53It worked for audiences.
31:55The ideas behind it resonated with people.
31:58And the, and the experience of making it was a real life's adventure.
32:02And it also was a turning point for me personally, because it was the first movie that I made that
32:07was inspired by real events.
32:09Oh.
32:10And, and I was intimidated by that and concerned it would kind of limit my creativity.
32:15And it turns out I, it kind of awakened certain things.
32:18And I've continued to love making movies.
32:21I don't, it won't work that way exclusively.
32:24Yeah.
32:25But I love making movies based on real events.
32:27And I think it also ultimately led me to wanting to do the documentaries as well.
32:31Yeah.
32:32Thirteen Lives, I mean.
32:33Oh, thank you.
32:34It's amazing.
32:35I love telling that story.
32:36You know, those kind of things are just like, come along and you want to do them.
32:40Real life.
32:41It was a very personal one for all of us.
32:43Yeah.
32:44Yeah.
32:45We all put our stories into that movie.
32:47In other words, there was no script.
32:50It was just an idea.
32:52And we all got together, Lowell, Bob Lou, Ron and I.
32:56And I told many of my stories, you know, that would feed into it.
33:01We all told stories that fed into it.
33:03And they, Lowell and Bob Lou, created a narrative and made it funny and made it dramatic.
33:08Wow.
33:09And so it was really a personal, one of the most, that's probably the most personal film
33:12that I've ever worked on.
33:13That's what, that's really interesting.
33:15Full, full circle.
33:16Yeah.
33:17Amazing.
33:18Well, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, thank you for joining us.
33:20Wow.
33:21That's right.
33:22Here's to 40 more.
33:23All right.
33:24All right.
33:25All right.
33:26All right.
33:28All right.
33:30All right.
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