Quantum Recast: Your Favorite Films, Recast In Different Years
We are a time-traveling film podcast that journeys through time to take classic films, blockbusters and cult favorites, to recast them in different years!
Quantum Recast: Your Favorite Films, Recast In Different Years
Rebel Without a Cause - 2014: A Modern Dreamcast for the James Dean Classic (feat. Justin Jayne)
What if "Rebel Without a Cause" was recast in 2014?
Nick welcomes friend, filmmaker, and movie enthusiast Justin Jayne (@justin__jayne) onto the show to recast the iconic James Dean film on one of our Dreamcast minisodes! Bringing his deep-seated knowledge from the Oklahoma City film scene to the fore, together they talk the industry's ins and outs, 48-hour films, and Justin's upcoming short film, "Ultraviolet."
After an interview with Justin discussing his upcoming film and the Oklahoma film scene, his trip to a certain French film fest, and a possible Brie Larson sighting, Nick and Justin dissect the timeless narrative of "Rebel Without a Cause," pondering the film's influence on youth culture and intergenerational discord, bringing it forward to 2014 in the Boomer vs Millennial/Gen Z culture wars.
You can find more of Justin's work on his website at justinjayne.com, and you can keep up with his short film, Ultraviolet on Instagram at @uv.film
TIMECODES
(00:00:30) Welcome/Introducing Justin Jayne
(00:24:13) Critic Stats - Rebel Without a Cause
(00:29:11) 2014: How does the movie change?
(00:32:21) 30 Seconds or Less Casting
Main Cast:
(00:41:21) Buzz
(00:45:21) Carol Stark
(00:48:47) Frank Stark
(00:55:13) Plato
(01:00:18) Judy
(01:05:54) Jim Stark
(01:11:27) Final Cast
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Tapbio
Hosts:
Cory Williams (@thelionfire)
Nick Growall (@nickgrowall)
Co-Hosts (Season 5):
Aly Dale (@alydale55)
Ash Hurry (@filmexplorationah)
Cass Elliott (@take5cass)
Terran Sherwood (@terransherwood)
Voice of the Time Machine:
Kristi Rothrock (@letzshake)
Editing by:
Nick Growall
Featured Music:
"Quantum Recast Theme" - Cory Williams
"Charmer" - Coat...
2014 you read too many comic books.
Speaker 2:Welcome to quantum recast, or as we call these, mini. So it's a quantum dream cast, cuz it's a little looser with the rules. We don't quite have quite the murderers row of things you have to go through, loops you have to jump into. But welcome to the show. It's Nick. Corey is not on this episode, but I am joined by my friend Justin Jane. How are you today, sir? I'm good. I'm not Corey, not Corey, but we're gonna have a good time anyway. So if you, corey, stands hang with us.
Speaker 2:But anyway, if you're familiar or unfamiliar with the show, we take movies and recast them in different years. What that means is we take a movie that you love and we take it forwards or backwards in time and drop it in a brand new year or era and try to recast it with characters or actors that are irrelevant to that time period. So again, my name is Nick. Justin is with me today. So, justin, before we jump into the movie obviously everyone listening at home if you clicked on it, you clicked on thing called rebel without a cause in 2014. But before we get into that, justin, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where'd you grow up at? What? What's your tie to?
Speaker 1:movies. My name is Justin Jane, as we've discussed, I am from Oklahoma. I was born in Edmond, oklahoma, which is a suburb just outside of Oklahoma City, grew up there, went to University of Oklahoma for school, graduated which is uncommon for a lot of film people. I got a degree and Now I am working in the film industry in Oklahoma City, primarily as an assistant director, but I do work as a grip here and there, and you know like it's. It's one of those things where you work in this industry long enough. You kind of end up doing whatever. A lot of hats.
Speaker 2:Yes, many hats, many hats the job you can and build network and make some friends yeah absolutely. Um. So you went to school. When did you graduate from? Oh you, I graduated in May of 2022, 2022, okay, so some of so. You obviously cut your teeth a lot in the OU daily work as well. Some podcast stuff on top of it, and then it looks like. Per your coursework you got to do some short films and stuff as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my first like real film gig was during the pandemic. I worked on a like Thriller horror short like kind of just above or not short thriller horror feature like just above the like lifetime kind of Brand. It's not a life type thing but it has similar trappings to some of those lifetime thrillers.
Speaker 1:But that I worked on that Like for two weeks in 2020 and then I was like, oh, I really like this and it was a grueling shoot. It was like nine overnight shoots like 6 pm To 6 am. Okay, if it hadn't been COVID, I would have probably flunked my classes that semester because I was like barely Barely able to turn in homework on time and like. But all my professors were very forgiving because it was remote work and everybody was still kind of figuring out what you know.
Speaker 2:What we were doing. Yeah, yeah, this was like eight months after COVID and I also feel like that's good for them to allow you to Go do something like that because, a it's getting you experience, b it's helping you network, c it's attached to your program itself, yeah, so for them to be like, no, you can't go do that, yeah, but I think it also.
Speaker 2:I think once everybody goes through that, it really separates whether you enjoy doing this kind of work or you don't, because once you go through one of those kind of shoot, you really know if, like you, love it or you don't there are good sets and there are bad sets, but they're all sets like it's not really gonna be.
Speaker 1:Like you know, if you've done some filled jobs and you're like, oh, I didn't really enjoy that, but maybe the next one, like, probably not the next one.
Speaker 2:It's probably just not your cup of tea which is totally fine.
Speaker 1:It's it's Interesting and sometimes difficult industry so with a lot of short films.
Speaker 2:I've noticed that was on your website, justin Jane calm. For those you've interested, you have a lot of writing and director credits, do you? And I believe, going through that list and up, you also had a Is it 24 hour or 48 hour film 48 hour film.
Speaker 1:That was my first 48. I just worked in as a co-writer on that. My friend Jordan Martin directed it, I co-wrote it with my friend Jordan Wilson and it was produced by Ben Richardson. So like we all kind of formulated the story together and then they went and started prepping the set that we would be shooting at.
Speaker 1:For those who don't know what a 48 hour film is basically like Friday night, it's always over a weekend, and like Friday evening you pull a genre, a mandatory prop, a mandatory character, name and occupation and A line of dialogue that you have to use verbatim. This is like an international competition like they have. Cities all over the world will like elect to do it. There's only one in Oklahoma City, there's not one in Tulsa, but people from Tulsa can come down and compete. But all that to say, you draw your your mandatory things on Friday evening and then you have, from that point, 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a film with a maximum length of seven minutes. And so the general like structure of it is writing Friday night, sending out your script and your call sheet very late that evening, shooting all day Saturday and editing all day Sunday, turning it in at you know, like if you draw 7 pm On Friday, turning in by 6 59 on.
Speaker 2:Sunday 59 yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:You just have to hit submit. It doesn't have to be completely uploaded by the time to do it. But there are a lot of fun and especially if you were like if somebody who's interested in the process, filmmaking or like you haven't really had those Opportunities to work on, you know, like student shorts and stuff, they're a great like trial by fire kind of thing, because you're forced to like really work quickly and adapt and Like you can do a 48 hour film by yourself.
Speaker 1:But it's a lot harder if you don't have you know people who can help you out.
Speaker 2:So sure. At my small college we did a 24-hour film festival, yeah, and that that was very, very bare bones in terms of sets and location. You kind of work with what you got, but it's. It is a very fun but also tiring process, but it's. It's an interesting one for sure to like just see how quickly something can form and shape itself, and that very small amount of time. Now, the highlight of that is that this short film got you got to take it over to France, correct, yes and a very roundabout way.
Speaker 1:So the official 48. There's like several other like timed film competitions, but the official 48 hour film project has a partnership with a festival called film of Palooza and they alternate where they are every year. Our year was in Los Angeles and so all of the winners from every city and Sometimes the second place, will go to film of Palooza where they'll be met with like a board of like international judges and then the top 10 to 12 to 15. I think I don't think it's a set number every year, but the top 15 ish films will get selected to go to the short film corner in the Cannes Film Festival and that's the like official Cannes Film Festival. But it is like it's an interesting thing because you can't say that you're at Cannes because you're not selected by Cannes. You're selected by the short film corner, okay, and it's like a partnership that they have, but it is at the same time as the actual Cannes Film Festival.
Speaker 1:So last summer, 2023, I got to go. It was like a once in a lifetime opportunity. So I was like I'm gonna do it and our whole producing and writing staff went and we Watched our film, which was great, but I also got to see several of the films that are like just now coming out and getting nominated, like I got to. I got to see Anatomy of a Fall at Cannes, which was amazing because I was. It was a really interesting experience because I see these films in May and Then I'm waiting for them to come out and, like October and November to talk about them.
Speaker 1:But Anatomy of a Fall and May December were two of my favorite films from the festival and they ended up being my top two films from last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also Weirdly like ended up on the red carpet for the premiere of perfect days, which is the Vim Vendors, like Japanese film Okay, it's just now coming out but I was like walking to go find my seat and I like it was in the the Palais, like the main Like red carpet premiere venue and you have to walk up the red carpet to get into the building but there's like a plebeian entrance and then there's like a VIP entrance and so I was going through the like plebeian entrance and I looked to my left and I was like that woman looked familiar and then I walked up the red carpet stairs like went, found a seat and then I'm sitting down and they had, like on the theater screen, a live Video of all the celebrities outside and the woman who looked familiar to me that I saw was Brie Larson.
Speaker 1:She was one of the judges and I had just been like five feet away from her, totally not recognized. I've been like, oh, she looks kind of, but it's one of those things like you see somebody like on a screen long enough. Yeah like a weird thing to see them like next to you in reality. Yeah, she was the only celebrity sighting I had, but it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:That is cool. Yeah, I think that's. It's a weird thing to like you see somebody on TV or on a big screen and to see them as a human being, right out in the wild. Right, it's a very, it's a very strange.
Speaker 1:You don't imagine them to be shorter than you because they're on a 100 foot screen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not the only one, that is would assumes everyone's like six foot five.
Speaker 2:Watch on screens, yeah, Watching some of your shorts and stuff leading up to our episode today. You know I was trying to just take notice. Maybe some things I've noticed that a thorough line with yours, it seems like with writing like you really enjoy. Some of them are a little on the quirky side, like have some fun with it, where it's like a couple is trying to bury their roommates dead body, but with there's also always like a little sliver of some edge or darkness going on too. Do you think that that? What do you think about that when, when you're kind of balancing those two?
Speaker 1:I mean, it's not really a conscious decision. I think I'm kind of attracted to a certain kind of media. I tend to like release, add things and really like kind of I don't want to say contemplative, because sometimes those can be boring but, like you know, like one of my favorite movies of all time is prisoners, which I think is like a really like.
Speaker 1:I think that ending of that movie is really beautiful, but it's also really dark and so this is not me having like a Riverdale, like I'm a weirdo monologue, but it's just like I tend to Find like a certain beauty and like sad or darker kind of things, and so it's not necessarily a conscious like I'm gonna have a certain dark edge to this thing. It's more just like that's the kind of thing that I'm drawn to, so that's the kind of thing that I like to write for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, filmmakers like yeah, we tend to we try not to overtly or like I'm gonna write this about this and it's gonna be about like my family or my struggle or something. But I think that those are all influences that right, as well as the type of movies we watch. Right and I think, with people that watch a lot of movies whether you're a cinephile or you're just a big movie fan it's nice to have a change up.
Speaker 2:And you know, we have so many Marvel movies or those types where it's like everybody lives happily ever after, and so when you get those kind of things like the mist or something, or like prisoners, where it's like that's dark, I'm sad, like it's a refresher, and I think you need those type of movies just so that those other type of movies aren't just so like Expectations already you're like I already know what's gonna happen, Like it helps to reset the whole caliber of film. I think yeah yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think, yeah, if you are a writer, it's hard to not have those like use those personal experiences in some way, shape or form, like, even if it's not, you know, like we'll talk about it in a little bit, but my, the current film that I'm working on is a vampire film. I've never encountered a vampire you know like it's not.
Speaker 1:And it's a predominantly like female-centered story and everything. So it's. It's largely not my own experiences, but if you, you know, I'm sure if you sat there with a fine tooth comb, you could find like, oh, this is why he pulled this thing and you know that kind of thing for sure.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about that. So in the last six months we are like a couple months ago we shot ultraviolet. I was lucky enough to get to come on, sit and join you for that one. But just give me a little quick rundown because I don't want to dive too far into it and give too much away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my it's currently in post-production, but my most recent short film is called ultraviolet. It's a a short film about a girl who matches on a dating app with a guy and it's pretty clearly. It's pretty clearly demonstrated that he's a vampire, but we don't know if she's caught on to that fact. So it's kind of a like Showing the audience your hand without showing the character your hand, kind of a thing. It was a lot of fun to write. I wrote the film like the first draft of the film right after watching 1980s vampire movie called near dark.
Speaker 1:I was kind of struck by the idea that ended up being the ending of this short film, okay, and so that is something that I'm kind of trying to keep under wraps, so it's hard to talk about a short, without talking about yes, the coolest thing in the short, but I kind of wrote everything around this conceit that I had and then, on consecutive drafts, ended up like Going back more and more to try and like figure out who these characters were and how they had ended up there, so now this film.
Speaker 2:What the short film you shot it. It was crowdfunded. I believe and then also everyone on set. As far as I know they didn't, it was everybody kind of work pro bono. Is that correct? Can you give me a talk a little bit about that process?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we had to sort of like we had certain people on crew who were paid, kind of, to be there with their gear and like our caterer was paid but he Like anybody who was paid anything was given gave me a very severely discounted rate, which was great. I think that there's a lot of Spirit towards independent film in Oklahoma City and, like Goodwill it's. It's a really fascinating thing to witness. But just like I've worked on enough projects where either I've been unpaid or it's been kind of just like a you know, you do this for the love of it kind of thing that you can see. You know, like we I've worked on several of those shoots with like IOTC level crew members who Are willing to work for free because they believe in the person who's doing it or they believe in the, the idea of the film, yeah, and so that is kind of that was really the, the magic of getting so many people to come out and work for me, as it was.
Speaker 1:Just, you know, like I Threw a lot of names out there. I reached out to a lot of people that I worked with before. I got a lot of knows, but I got a lot of yeses and you know, you obviously don't begrudge the people who can't afford to work for free, but anybody who could afford to work for free or offer resources or whatever, you know like there's a lot of people who went into that film who deserve the credit they get because it's just, you know, they're Val, they're volunteering their time, they're volunteering, you know, maybe, resources or equipment that they have, and so it was very exciting to see that many people come together, because cell mates the last film I did before that one was a crew of like Maximum 10 people, oh wow. And there was one day that it was just me and the cinematographer on set, like I was directing this actor and holding a boom.
Speaker 2:Over his head.
Speaker 1:And I knew that I never wanted to experience that again as a director, because it's really hard to direct when you are also recording sound. But so this was just kind of me trying to like have enough of a crew to Get by, and then more and more people would ask me like hey, I saw you're doing this. I can't contribute to the fundraiser, but I can come help on the film, and so that was another way that, like people just wanted to help out, yeah, and that kind of leans into a little bit about just the kind of the culture, the film culture that's gone on in Oklahoma City and just the state itself.
Speaker 2:You know, I think back, you know when we were kids, you know back in the day, like the idea of a Shooting a film out here or be having any type of like career based in Oklahoma was just unrealistic.
Speaker 2:You know it was always like, well, have to probably move to LA, and how do you, how do you make connections? And now and that's kind of why I even stayed in the areas, because it's just become more like between here and Dallas there's, there's work now Mm-hmm, but I love the idea, having worked on a few projects up here, that there is this like great community and what do you think that is that? Does that come from? Like this colleges themselves, or A mixture of that with, like the film bit, a world kind of coming to us now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it is sort of like a perfect storm of situations because like there's two or three big colleges in Oklahoma City that all in the Oklahoma City metro area that all kind of facilitate film careers and film programs but they all do things well and they all do things poorly.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, a majority of the people that I've worked with in Oklahoma film are either like industry vets who have been doing lifetime movies here for 20 years you know, like that was a lot of what we got. If we get a, you know a twister every now and then or you know some an Augustos H County, yeah, but for a long time it was like the bread and butter was lifetime movies and little things. And so there's people who have been here, who have worked on those forever and they're just doing it because they love film and because they're artists. And then there's people sort of my peers, who are, all you know, mid to late 20s and they also love film. But they are also, you know, like very determined to make things work here.
Speaker 1:And, like you know, there's a some people get into this industry in Oklahoma and then they end up moving to LA or Atlanta or New York City or wherever.
Speaker 1:But a lot of the really good ones will stay here because the work is consistent enough that you can make a living out of it, it's cheaper and you do have that freedom to then when you are wanting to do your own project, you can pull from your pool of resources and you don't have to necessarily follow the model that is in, you know, like those bigger film hubs.
Speaker 1:But I do think that, like between Killers of the Flower Moon last year, there's a movie called the Line that should be coming out, but it premiered at Tribeca and I've heard really good things about that, and then Twisters, which comes out this summer. I do think we're gonna start to see a lot more big productions shift over here, especially if they're wanting to do location shooting. Oklahoma has a lot of versatility in its favor and so it's kind of, you know, like a perfect storm for me graduating in 2022, because I got out right when all of these things were coming to Oklahoma and it's been really cool to see, and I'm hoping that it stays consistent. I think it is just based on the work that I've been getting and the work that I've been hearing about coming down the pipeline.
Speaker 2:What are your plans for Ultraviolet when it comes out? When are you hoping to release? Are you doing some festival runs with it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're currently in post-production. We're pretty much at picture luck, just kind of like at the nitpicking stage Of the, you know like final picture edit, and then we're gonna go to sound color, all of that kind of thing. The goal is festivals. We unfortunately missed a deadline for a pretty big Oklahoma City festival, so I'm gonna figure out what that looks like. But with my last film, cellmates, it was in festivals for about a year and then I just put it on my website. I don't really understand the point of like making people pay to see a short film. You know, it just seems like a good way to have like a sample of your work available to the public. So anywhere from 12 to 18 months, just with how festivals are spaced out, and then, once it's done, you know, releasing it on my website.
Speaker 1:Releasing it to the ocean of the internet. Yes, letting it be what it shall be, unless some studio decides they like the concept and they want to do it. They want to buy their rights to it.
Speaker 2:Now talking about Ultraviolet. When we talked about getting you on the show, I asked what some of your inspirations were for and you gave me a pretty solid list of movies here. You know you mentioned Near Dark. I tried to watch it. It's only on criteria.
Speaker 1:It's a hard one to find.
Speaker 2:I literally on the way up here was. I went to like a local DVD game store and was like, do you have this? And they're like, no, we don't.
Speaker 1:I'm like it's okay yeah if you can ever get your hands on a copy of Near Dark criteria, you don't put it into their streaming channel every now and then You're ever just like at a bargain bin or garage sale or whatever and you see Near Dark like even if you've never seen the movie, even if you don't like the movie buy it because, like it might be worth something.
Speaker 2:It might be worth something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm wearing a Lost Boys t-shirt right now. It came out the same year as the Lost Boys.
Speaker 2:That's wild to think about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot lower budget than the Lost Boys but it's a different concept. But like I think both of those films kind of helped me because like I feel like the popular imagination of the vampire is like this Victorian, very suave, you know, like Dracula, for sure.
Speaker 1:And the Lost Boys is like kind of punky vampires and Near Dark is like white trash vampires. They are literally introduced in like a blacked out RV. They're all wearing like one of them has cowboy boots with like razor sharp spurs and they're all in like leather and like really like kind of redneck hickey, which is just a great aesthetic for vampires.
Speaker 1:And so it was a movie that kind of helped me reimagine like what a vampire could be and like what that kind of and bones and all was another one. It's not about vampires, but it's, you know, kind of related to genre work for sure.
Speaker 2:Listing off a few of the others, then they may not be obviously tied to vampires per se, but you've got like Billy 8th grade, the Bo Burnham movie, the bird with crystal plumage Promising young woman it follows, as I can definitely see that influence in there, as well as cat people, parasite and Suspiria, one that you you brought up on there that I hadn't mentioned yet, but is the title of our episode, rebel Without a Cause.
Speaker 2:It just jumped out to me because I was like this is a classic thing. We don't get to do a lot of classic movies on our podcast, so this felt like a good opportunity because people are generally aware of the movie itself. They know about James Dean, that the mythology of it all, classic Hollywood and all that. So I felt like it would be a fun thing to deep dive. It was a connected but still somewhat different from ultraviolet and some of the other movies listed here, but I think it'd be fun to recast it and reimagine it a little bit. So if you tuned in, you stayed in this long thank you so much.
Speaker 2:But I loved getting to deep dive with Justin a little bit about our film world out here in Oklahoma City. But this is probably what you're here for and this is the deep dive. So we're gonna do it. But to recast it, we got to talk about the movie first. So Rebel Without a Cause for those of you that are uninitiated, it was released on October 27th 1955, directed by Nicholas Ray you might know him from some movies they live by night in a lonely place, johnny Guitar, to name a few. It was written by Stuart Stern and Irving Shulman. The title is adapted actually from the psychologist Robert M Lindler's 1944 book Rebel Without a Cause the Hypnoanalysis of Criminal Psychopath. The film itself does not make any references to the book in any way. I think they just saw a title went.
Speaker 1:That's cool, let's use that which it is a cool title. It is a cool title. I'm also gonna say. None of the characters in this film are very rebellious. Not really, they're really just kind of greasers, which is fine but, like James Dean, is branded as this rebel, but he's kind of just a sad kid in a sad situation, for sure.
Speaker 2:And I was trying to do just some very quick research into the. You know this is one of the first, probably notable movies that deals with teenagers. I would say and it's in that point in time because you know, before this kids are probably all like they work like adults do. We finally got some like laws in place to protect kids and stuff. So now you reach this point where, especially in California, we've got these like middle class and upper class people that are well off enough that the kids don't, the parents don't all have to work, the kids don't all have to work, they can have a maid.
Speaker 2:That can come into the house and so you, you, you finally run into this group of this demographic of individuals that are kind of lost in a way, and it's interesting to kind of finally get to see that. You know it's. The film is an attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, is what what they call it, and you know it critiques parental style, exports the differences and conflicts between generations. In this film's case, it was the inner Belem generation versus the silent generation. So it's this class of generations basically is to summarize it in simple terms, and I think moving it to 2014 is great because you're also we're we're in a period where there's always, there's always that way, but I feel like, in particular right now, especially 2014 on, there's a clash between the boomer generation and our millennial Gen Z cultures. For sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah but some quick critical stats about it. Yes, we'll have a useless critic stats for you run down real quick. Imdb gives us a 7.6 from users. Rotten tomatoes you got a 93% critical score and an 88% fan score. Metacritic gives it at 89 from the critics and a 7.5 from followers. Again, I don't know why they sell weird.
Speaker 2:We're always like scratching our heads with that, but letterbox, you know the voice of the people 3.8, which is pretty solid numbers for letterbox. I looked up our scores. We both gave it a 3.5, which I feel is pretty fitting for this movie, I think. I think it's hard to judge a movie that it has such an iconic status, but to really, because I the first time I watched it was on a plane and so this is not a good plane, not a good plane movie.
Speaker 2:But the second time you really get to sit down and kind of analyze it a little bit. And that's usually what happens when I walk. The first time you're really just taking it in and the second time.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, what's what's being said here? What's really going on? To wrap up, the critic stuff Roger Ebert we always talk about him. He gave it four stars. Now this is a retro review four out of four. It's hard again, like we said, it's hard to rate a film that's older. But he does comment a lot on how the film is not aged. Well, he says deems performance seems more like a markdown brand-o than the birth of an important talent. But rebel without a cause was enormously influential at its time, a milestone in the creation of the new idea about young people. He has a really random quote where he says if he had the guts to knock mom cold once, then maybe she'd be happy and she'd stop picking on him. That is a wild phrase to say.
Speaker 1:That's a wild thing to say.
Speaker 2:I was like even, even from Roger Ebert. I'm like what are you? What are we talking about? It? Only he beat up his mom, right. I don't know if he I can't remember if he's talking about him or he's talking about the dad. I'm like either way, yeah, not good, not good, yeah. But what are your thoughts, just in general, about the movie? I guess yeah.
Speaker 1:So I watched this for the first time in high school when I realized I wanted to go into film and was kind of brushing up on, you know, the quote-unquote classics. Yeah, I wanted to know why. Everybody loved James Dean and I do think, like on a rewatch, especially this movie has nothing, if not for James Dean, like it could have just been kind of a dime, a dozen a movie, but I think James Dean does elevate it. It feels sometimes like he's in a completely different movie than everybody else.
Speaker 1:Like the famous you're tearing me apart scene kind of comes out of nowhere. He kind of just starts screaming and you're like, okay, everybody else is on a completely different page.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everyone else is like in that classic Hollywood style and then James Dean comes in with his very methods, like naturalistic vibe, and you're like, yeah, what?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's a. I think it's a good movie. I think there's some really great moments in it. Yeah, unfortunately, the thing that really takes me out of it is that there's two not one, but two children that die in this movie. Yes, like teenagers that die in this movie, and the first one is like almost instantly forgotten about. Like he dies in a fiery car crash falling off of a cliff and and his girlfriend is immediately glomming on to James Dean.
Speaker 2:She has no, like morning period, she's just like oh, you're James Dean, she was totally. She was flirting with him, like and, but she was using him to make a buzz, jealous obviously. But then like this, like, well, he's gone. Well, I guess I'm gonna go with you now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. It's a very like jarring thing to watch in this day and age. And then the ending is pretty brutal, and then You've pointed this out in your letterbox review, the. The final message of the film is not this child died and it's a direct result of like systemic and societal failures. It's oh, jim got a girlfriend.
Speaker 2:It's end, the music's kind of like this bitter sweet kind of thing and but he's like, hey, this is, this is my, this is my girl now. And the parents like have this moment, they the doting, like I look like, oh, he has a girl now and like ten feet from them they're made is crying over this poor young boy. Yeah, it's just been murdered by the police In front of them like we're just gonna completely gloss over that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a, it's it's, so, that's like. Those are some of the things that I think has an age dwell. It also just starts really slow. The first like 20 minutes are in a police station hopping between the characters and it's kind of a cool like setup, but it just takes way too long to get actual plot for sure, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean in terms of plot, there's it's more day in the life, I feel like it really until the car accident. There's not a lot of like momentum pushing it forward and it. You kind of know that the facts I read about it is. You know, when production began they considered it a B movie project. But once they started realizing James Dean was a rising star and they saw the dailies, they went back and even changed it to cinemascope color format yeah, so they like they would reshot a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2:There was a lot of stuff that was left on the table on the cutting room floor.
Speaker 1:I wonder. I feel like it might have been a better Movie if it'd been cut a little bit differently probably I mean, we're saying this about an editor who is surely long dead, long into the grave, yeah it is. It's an iconic movie, but it is a little weird, pacing wise, and it's.
Speaker 2:It's hard for us too, especially in a modern context. It's always harder to watch those movies because they have a different pacing, there's a different style to it, but I still feel like, like you said, there's a lot, plenty of moments, and obviously the James Dean performance that helps elevate it and make it stand the test of time and be something noteworthy to talk about. Yeah, which is why we're here. Yeah, but before we get into casting this movie itself, we just really want to quickly touch on. We really get to 2014. So what do you think are some of the things that might change, or maybe some things that were that will be highlighted, maybe more, in a 2014 version for sure.
Speaker 1:Diversity this is a pretty white movie and I think that, like, I mean, I don't sell Maneo. I don't know if he's Latinx or Italian, but they kind of make him out to be a little bit more of a minority in the role. And then the only other person of color is his caretaker, who doesn't even have a name she is literally listed, according to IMDB, as Crawford family made.
Speaker 2:Yeah, marietta Cantiche, she's, she's, she's prominent enough. Yeah, she should have a name.
Speaker 1:She gets like a few, like you know, like scenes that are just her and Salmoneo, but yeah, she doesn't even get a name, which is a pretty crazy thing when, like you know, I mean I guess Judy's parents don't get names either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just Judy's father, Judy's mother, I don't. I that's what they were listed on IMDB. I don't know if they actually had cast names or not.
Speaker 1:But so I think that's definitely one area where it changes. I think, like you said, sort of 2014 would have been kind of the cusp of this generational divide but like the, the boomer, millennial, zillennial kind of Divide is definitely like starting to rear its head. I think 2016 is obviously where that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was about to say that but you see trappings of it in 2014, and so I think that that would be something that would be a little bit more reflected. I Also just think that, like you know, some of the roles in this movie are a little bit Smaller than they probably should be. Like, a lot of the people in our 30 seconds or less category are there not because they're not Good actors or anything, but because, like, they have one or two lines in the entire movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the movie is a little imbalanced, like characters come and, come and go a lot and like the detective Ray Framick, he shows up the beginning and you think like okay, they're gonna have this kind of fatherly bond and stuff, and then he doesn't show up to the end and they barely interact with each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like goon. Like Dennis Hopper plays goon, he has, I think, two lines in the entire movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah that you know, with our 30 seconds or less it's always like these are noteworthy characters, they play a part in the role, or like they are something memorable. Obviously, dennis Hopper is a big time actor, but this movie he is that, he's pretty much background.
Speaker 1:I don't know if he ever gets like a close-up. Yeah, I was trying to find an image of him for my casting.
Speaker 2:It's hard to spot him, but like we threw him on here as like a representative of like the gang itself as, like it's literally he's listed as goon.
Speaker 2:But yeah, we'll dive right in here into 30 seconds or less. But to just kind of talk about what you're talking about before we get in, I do think, yeah, we're gonna. I think the the class and race Themes will definitely be more prominent in a 2014 version. I think the things that we talked about with those scenes, like I think they will be touched on more and they'll become a little more brought to the forefront, as I think they should be, if you really want to balance out this movie, like the original was obviously very much about James Dean's performance and about teenage. You know problems and yeah, but I think like you can balance that out and really have a solid across-the-board movie If you really highlight some of those things as well.
Speaker 2:But we're gonna jump in 30 seconds or less. We don't want to spend too much time For you guys to spend too much time away from a life, but we love that you're listening to us here. But 30 seconds or less, we're just gonna in the mini so versions we just kind of both just run off our list real quick and just have a quick discussion before we get into the main cast. But our list? Here we have goon, who's played by Dennis Hopper, judy's mother and father, who played by William Hopper, no relation and Rochelle Hudson, ray Frimmick, who the detective, who's played by Edward Platt, and Crawford family made, played by Marietta Canty. They are all known for many different of those classical kind of movies and TV shows. Judy's mother, rochelle Hudson, actually is born in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2:That's a very fun fact it's a fun, very fun fact it all ties together.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:But I'll go ahead and go first, just so we can kind of get things started for the goon. I was just having fun with it. I. I picked a very this is against me completely 100% but I picked Colson Baker. You might know him as MGK, I Know. I just it. Just it weirdly worked in my head. I was like you know, you want somebody that's a goon that's gonna be in the back here, like I kind of want to beat him up. This is actually the first year he has a credit and beyond the lights and so I was like this kind of works, like I want I want my goon to be somebody you don't really like and I could see him in the final scenes running through the mansion and stuff causing Problems and chaos. But that was definitely who I had listed there you know, weirdly, I think that works.
Speaker 1:We're, we know he can play a dirtbag.
Speaker 2:Yes, For Judy's mother. I picked Mary Louise Parker.
Speaker 2:Yes, people know her from weeds. She just finishes that in 2012. She goes on to be in the blacklist TV show feed me and then some movies called behaving badly and Jamesy boy this year. But I think that she can have that very lovely mother. She, the mother, doesn't have a lot to do, but she's she kind of there to combat the daughter, who, again, I think, escapes me. But Judy Natalie Woods character yeah, cuz it's the whole dynamic of I hate you. I love my father. It's that hole. What am I thinking? Open dies complex. Yeah, it's that whole thing going on. Yeah, judy's father. I put Luke Perry.
Speaker 1:Luke Perry, beverly Hills, 90210 fame.
Speaker 2:I thought you know having an aged heartthrob. It helps with the idea that she's you know fall has this weird kind of love for him, and so for him to like finally strike back against her in a very violent way. Yeah, we'll definitely play against his type just a little bit, and I think you'll have fun. For lack of a better term with it For Ray Frennick, I'm giving you Tony Todd.
Speaker 1:Choice. Great, I was trying.
Speaker 2:You know, I had Ray. Liotta was on the table and I was like that he's always playing a cop. Yeah, I think pulling Tony Todd out of like the horror genre, letting him kind of play against type like and he has an imposing presence about him.
Speaker 1:Ray Liotta also just has kind of an untrustworthiness. Yeah, I'm waiting for him to like yeah. Put some drugs on him or something they were like not not like stand up for him at the end.
Speaker 2:But yeah, tony, I thought Tony Todd, we have a lot of fun here. He's doing just some TV shows and some lesser known movies. Most notable was bravest warriors, a TV show where he's playing the voice of Aeon Worm. So okay, sure like sure, but to wrap mine up, for the craffer family name, I went more. I so instead of African-american community, I went into the Hispanic community or Latinx community and I picked Constance Marie Most people will know her from the George Lopez show.
Speaker 2:Yeah so I wanted someone that had kind of motherly vibes, you know, and, but, and. Because I think that that's, in my opinion, we can dive into it once we get yours as well, I felt like that was more of an updated version. You're getting a lot of immigrants coming into America and they're trying to pick these jobs that people don't want to do, and I think that that's something that would definitely be in an upper-class kind of LA.
Speaker 1:I think that's a really smart pick and also, yeah, weird that this movie is set in LA and has like no Latin representation. Yeah, for sure, except for maybe some. I didn't do the research on what ethnicity he was, but I think he's Italian.
Speaker 2:We'll do some quick half-hastly, yeah, but but that's who I've got, so tell me. Tell me who you've got for sure.
Speaker 1:So I have as my goon. I have and this is kind of a weird pick, but I was thinking Somebody who would go on to be a bigger named actor like Dennis Hopper, and I picked Aaron Taylor Johnson. Okay, this is kick-ass era, aaron.
Speaker 2:Taylor Johnson, so he's like still a little bulked but, he's not quite the like the bullet train like you know, icon that he is right now Is this this is pre-date. I'm assuming it pre dates age of Ultron, where he's playing Quicksilver.
Speaker 1:So this year he is in the Captain America post credits as Quicksilver, which I don't think should interfere with the schedule too much.
Speaker 2:He's also in Godzilla. Yeah, the weird year where he played both sibling and lover. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, I think he is a good pick and he also has that like physical intimidation that a role like goon needs. For Judy's mom I have Carla Gugino.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're playing my heart.
Speaker 1:You might know her, as Is it silk specter from watch.
Speaker 2:Yes, so expect her from watch.
Speaker 1:She's in Gerald's game.
Speaker 2:I don't remember her character's name.
Speaker 1:She's absolutely great in that and. Gerald's game is a lot of the reason that I picked her. Okay, I think, in 2014 this role is updated to be a little bit more, like you know, have lines and right have a little bit more dimension. Personality and so I wanted to pick like a strong actress who had some range and could play like kind of that mother who's a little bit more hands-off, but has this husband that she has to deal with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you haven't seen her in the house, fall the house of us. Sure, that came out last year. That is like her, like Showcasing all of her, because she's playing multiple roles.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't. I've. I've seen all of them up to that point. To that, yeah, I won't spoil too much for you, yeah definitely when you get some downtime.
Speaker 2:Yes go binge, watch that whatever you need, because she's great Okay.
Speaker 1:Similar vein, but just because he was kind of popping off in this time for Judy's dad I have Kyle Chandler okay, yeah known as America's coach.
Speaker 2:Friday night lights.
Speaker 1:He was also in super eight and he was the FBI agent and Wolf of.
Speaker 2:Wall Street.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you've seen him in something like he. It's impossible to avoid him. He's like kind of a perfect actor In a weird way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you didn't be a jerk.
Speaker 1:You need to be like a lovable dad or like leading man type yeah, but just especially with some of the lines the dad has. I was like, I think, kyle Chandler. Yeah really like take this role and play it either in like I care too much or I care too much kind of way for sure. And then Ray Frimmick. This role could literally be any character actor from the mid 2010s.
Speaker 2:You're correct.
Speaker 1:Kind of just like you show up, you make a meal out of your role and you're in like two or three scenes in the entire movie, I picked John Hamm. Okay because I love John Hamm. But, I also think taking somebody who is kind of at their peak popularity, putting them in all of the marketing material and then only Like two scenes.
Speaker 2:So you're taking notes from the Godzilla movie. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was a very 2014 thing to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like look, we've got the guy from our movie yeah. He's in million dollar arm this year and one of the best episodes of Black Mirror by Christmas Okay so unfortunately, we're taking him out of those two now I will say that we are flexible in the role, so we're not necessarily taking him out, we're just adding two. So we're okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I missed Karla Gugino was in a movie called match. I only bring this up because it has Patrick Stewart and Matthew Lillard in it. Oh, and it's got like a 67%, like a generally good rating. Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:So anyway, I love finding movies that you're like I didn't know about this, but this seems like something. Oh, what a watch. Yeah, no, very cool.
Speaker 1:And then for the Crawford family made, who would surely get a name in this version, I have Jada Pinkett Smith. I attacked it from a similar angle. As you like a motherly figure, she wasn't really doing a lot in 2014. There's literally a gap in her IMDB resume and I was kind of. I wanted to keep it as a Black character because I did feel like the movie needed that representation yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel like this role in an updated thing would be like you know, in 2014 I don't really know people had to live in maids. It would be more like I either went like distant family member who's come to stay or like a hospice you know like somebody who's has a reason to be at the house.
Speaker 2:It's more of a job.
Speaker 1:It's not there like life, it's not the whole existence, right and so I think that this is a person who has like taken up the mantle for Play-doh because nobody else is there to step up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so yeah no, I think that's good logic. I think that's probably the hardest role, one of the hardest roles, the cast of this because, like we talked about the updating of the character and of the time and so but and I yeah I think that it's a good point to you really need a strong person in that spot to really show the diversity.
Speaker 2:That has become a part of America's always been there, but now in film, like we need to prop that up a little bit more and become, after many years of White people dominating. Yeah, you learn very quickly on this podcast like that. The further you go back, the harder it is to find a lot of prominent actors just because they weren't names at that time.
Speaker 2:Right for sure. No, yeah, I think we've done pretty solid. 30 seconds or less, round for sure. I think we're doing pretty, pretty solid, yeah, so yeah. So let's just dive right into the main cast here. We've got six names so we won't take up too much of your time here, but we've got Buzz Gunnerson, the bully. He's the one that challenges Jim to the race and dies unexpectedly. Spoilers we're not a spoiler free podcast. Carol Stark, who is Jim's mother. She's just kind of very a Overwhelming presence to the father and Jim always wants him to stand up to her. Frank, obviously the father. Playtoe Crawford Salmoneau, who is Sicilian, by the way okay so yes, but he's just kind of a.
Speaker 2:He just comes from broken family. Father abandoned him. You've got Judy play by Natalie Wood. We've talked a little bit of length about her and of course, james Dean's role, jim Stark. So we'll start the bottom work our way up very quickly. I'll let you go first as the as the guest, but give me your buzz.
Speaker 1:So I was trying to think of, like the. The character of buzz is kind of he's a heel for the first bit of the movie, yeah, and then right before his untimely death, he kind of starts to form this bond with. Jim like he realizes that Jim's not a bad guy. Yeah and he's kind of like.
Speaker 1:There's basically a point where he's like because of society, I have to be addicted right and so I was trying to think of who could fill that role and I had, like, the two biggest white boys of 2014, where Ansel Elgort and will polter and I went with will polter, okay, and so I think he has, because he was in Narnia as kind of a bully character like I think he could do that. He's also. This is before he gets really like yoked.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was gonna say this is where the Millers Will polter, and so yeah, he's from where the Millers maze runner and Adam Warlock in Guardians. He was in the maze runner in 2014. Okay so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, he's very much like this great character actor. Recently, yeah, we saw him as Adam Warlock and he got yoked. You're like oh, I didn't know, I didn't know you had this in you but yeah, he's a great character actor for sure. The Cumber snatch or whatever that was on Netflix. Mixed Benedict Cumberbatch with it, but he did great in that he helped like guide you through it as you were watching and choosing your options. But, yeah, I think he definitely has the capability to play like the bully that learned like respected rival.
Speaker 1:Basically which is it.
Speaker 2:They do a good job playing with that and it's become a bit of a cliche in films sometimes. But it also adds to the tragedy of the story because it's right when he's like you know, you're not so bad you know I kind of like you, like share a cigarette as they like.
Speaker 1:Stare off this cliff and then, yeah, I think he could help play that tragedy up a little bit and also might make it more memorable by the end of the movie that he's dead.
Speaker 2:Because really Jim's the only one that is like guys, I watch, I'm like torn up about yeah. And everybody's like don't worry about it, it's fine. But I think that also speaks to that class mentality like just sweep it under the rug, it's no big deal. And I think that's what also kind of led to the logic of my casting. I went with O'Shea Jackson Jr.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah yeah, he gets his actual start and straight out of Compton in a year later, but he has some, a few cameos in a film called Janky promoters in 2009. So, within our rules, right, free game. But I just think, like he has like the capability, like you're gonna lean a little bit into that gang culture a little bit, and that comes out of LA. But I think that it's it's a kind of role where you get to humanize those type of people and like we get to have a little more of a character and bond that's built. So when the tragedy does occur in there, very much like don't worry about, it's no big deal it plays into that even more of like and you're like, no, a life has just ended and you're just trying to act like it's just another Number on the list, you know. So that I think you'll have a lot of fun with it too, like getting to and. And the question I was also thinking is like I guess they have a knife fight still.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know they have a fight with switch blades, but specifically they say no sticking. Yeah, so it's just they're trying to cut each other up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is very, very 50s. Like yeah, what do you want to do? I don't know the modern context of that, like I'm sure they're.
Speaker 1:You don't want to get because you don't want, all right take your shot, just shooting each other point blank with their soft guns, that's that would be the Oklahoma win.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I like that. I like will polter a lot and I think both complement the role very, very well. All right, let's go, and I think this is probably a very important role, in my opinion, of Carol Stark. Tell me who you got for it.
Speaker 1:I have Linda Hamilton.
Speaker 2:Sarah Connor herself.
Speaker 1:Okay, and she's also in Dante's peak. I really only have ever seen. I guess she was also in Stranger Things, the last season oh really, I think, or this new season. I know she came out recently saying that like she regretted being strange, you think because it ruined the show for her but okay. Yeah, she's Sarah Connor. Yeah, but I think that, like the role of Sarah Connor shows, like you know, terminator 2. She's kind of a mess like yeah.
Speaker 1:It's Terminator 1. She's just a normal, like everyday kind of girl next door situation. Then in Terminator 2 she's like you know, she has like.
Speaker 2:PTSD. She's got a lot of problems. She's look around every corner. She's just traumatized by the events of the first movie as well, like the second. That Schwarzenegger walks on screen, she's like falls back. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:So I think that, like seeing some of those kind of that range in her, it makes sense for me to have her be this kind of like overbearing, doting mother and be able to play especially that scene on the staircase, like that's a very tense dramatic. And I feel like taking like a Less popular character actor like her and put it like elevating her to this like really big, meaty, supporting role Could be really great for sure, yeah, I like that choice a lot, and she was in a movie, a TV movie.
Speaker 1:Her only credit for 2014 is a TV movie called Bermuda tentacles.
Speaker 2:So I think she would she's. She's one of those things like you're a sci-fi person.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:That sounds like a sci-fi TV channel movie for sure. If there was one one of those, one of those bargain bin Rentals from like blockbuster that you find be like. This is kind of related to a sharknado, but not nearly as funny. We try to take this seriously. Oh yeah, no. So I went. I was. I was torn between two people. I thought about Vera Feminga. Oh yeah, this is kind of her moment here. I went big. I kind of went big here and I picked Kate Blanchett I.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is big.
Speaker 2:That's very big. So this year she's kind of in just sequel territory. She's doing the last Hobbit movie, how to Train your Dragon 2, monuments Men that came out that year but I just felt like this was another chance. It's a role that she hasn't really done. She plays a lot of strong female lead characters and such. Even Gladrile is like a very powerful woman, but I feel like the Overbearing Mother is something that she because that's what my conservative bear I was like she's kind of played that, especially like Bates Motel and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's literally the Overbearing Mother.
Speaker 2:So I wanted Kate Blanchett on it and I feel like she can really just nail all those scenes effortlessly.
Speaker 1:Well, Nick, you picked maybe two of my favorite actresses from this era for this role so props to you. I love Kate Blanchett.
Speaker 2:Nailed it.
Speaker 1:And I watched Bates Motel as it was coming out.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:And really formed an affection for Vera Farmiga. And now anytime she shows up like she's in the Conjuring movies.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like Carla Gugino for me Anytime, you see an actor or actress that you're like. Oh, now I want to watch that. Just because they could have the smallest role. But you're like, I'm in because they're in, she has like two scenes in origin. But I was so happy every time she showed up, I was like that's Vera Farmiga.
Speaker 1:She's getting work Awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're like rooting for them, like, come on, why does?
Speaker 1:nobody see this, when I see Exactly.
Speaker 2:For sure. No, I love both those choices. I think that's pretty solid and, yeah, it's a very important role because she's one that the other actors bounce off of, like she's going to be very dominant, but the other actors have to have that to calibrate the other performances, I feel like for sure. Speaking of the mother, let's talk about the father, frank Stark, who's played by Jim Backus. Just real quick to run down. One respect the other actors. Carol Stark was played by Ann Doran and then Buzz Gunderson was played by Corey Allen. So yeah, but Frank Stark, jim Backus, voice of Mr Magoo, and then did some other fun TV stuff. He was in Pete's Dragon, gilligan's Island, for 99 episodes. Yes, Wild.
Speaker 1:I grew up watching Gilligan's Island, so when I watched Rebel Without a Cause for the first time I was like, oh, it's this guy. Yeah, yeah, he's a great little Like he's legitimately good in this role.
Speaker 2:He has a kind of pathetic dad energy that he plays really well and it's obviously visually translated in the scene when Jim comes home and he's cleaning up on the floor and he's wearing the apron. And that's going to be an interesting thing to see in 2014, just because, again, we've come to this point where gender roles in the household are no longer just the woman stays home and cleans, the husband goes to work, so it's like now that both have careers and both have different objectives and stuff and it's more of a shared thing generally. I mean, there still are those kind of dynamics that live in a world, but I think I don't know how you kind of foresaw it. Tell me what the actor you chose and how you foresaw it going.
Speaker 1:So I originally, for the longest time, I had John Goodman in this role, but I do think that he's a little too much of a screen presence. He really takes over whatever role he does and he has specifically a scene in True Stories where he talked about how sad he is and kind of plays that pathetic somber nature a little bit. But I was worried with the scene on the staircase. Could he really bring it? I think he could. But, I ended up ultimately going with Kyle McLaughlin.
Speaker 1:Yes, he is for those of you who don't know, he pretty much all of his film credits come from David Lynch.
Speaker 2:He's Twin Peaks right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was special agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks. He's in the original Dune, he's Paul in the 1984 Dune and he is also the main character in Blue Velvet. So he is the male version of Laura Dern for David Lynch. He just keeps going back to the Kyle McLaughlin. Well, he is primarily a TV actor and so I kind of also wanted to take the Jim Backus. He went on to do a bunch of TV especially like Gilliams Island.
Speaker 1:I wanted to take the reverse and to take somebody who had been primarily a TV actor and put them into this role. And I think if you've seen Twin Peaks, the Return, he plays three different characters pretty much and that season they're all the same character but they're in three different sort of mental and embodiment states. It's a weird show.
Speaker 2:I've yet to dive into the David Lynch era of my life, but I'm looking forward to it. It's really he's great.
Speaker 1:But I picked Kyle McLaughlin because I think he could really bring the sadness and melancholy to the role that he needs, but also being kind of a not ambivalent but almost ignorant to his son's stresses. There's a scene, right after he gets in the knife fight, where he's about to go and do this game of chicken on this cliff that ends up being fatal and he's trying to tell his dad about it and trying to have this heart-to-heart moment and his dad's like why don't we make a pro con list?
Speaker 2:That is absolutely.
Speaker 1:You should be like you should be forbidding your son from leaving. You should be taking him to the hospital.
Speaker 2:And he's like no, let's make a pro con list. It's that weird thing where the dad it's just a disconnect.
Speaker 2:He's trying so hard to be supportive and just like what do you need? Tell me what? But it's he's leaning too hard in rather than being. He's trying to be his friend versus being his parent, and it's a parenting's a hard balance in and of itself. But like it's that moment, like you said, it's like yeah, you should be, like no, this is dangerous, we can't do that, you know, kind of, and that's what, that is what he's looking for, and I think that's why you kind of get from. The detective is like Jim tries to throw a punch at him and he literally just like goes like listen, dude, you're going to get your crap together, we're going to move forward with it.
Speaker 1:It's also why he is patently not a rebel, because he comes to his dad and he's like hey, I got in a knife fight today. I want to talk to you about it. He's not like, don't worry about it. Whatever, don't worry, you'll be fine, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:The kid's dead, I'll just sweep it under rug, it's no problem. Now, yeah, so my not so big knowledge for lack of better phrasing of Kyle McLaughlin, it's. For me it almost acts like a against type a little bit, but I've known him a bit. Probably you probably can see it sounds like he has a lot of range and a different city in his roles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he, because he's done so much TV. I think he's been in a lot of comedies. He's in one of the craziest episodes of Law and Order you'll ever watch. He plays like the bad guy but also like just the ending, if you just go look up Kyle McLaughlin Law and Order the ending scene will come up and, even without context, is the craziest way to end an episode of television.
Speaker 2:Law and Order, sometimes man, and sometimes it just hits and you're like I don't know what I just experienced, but this is wild and this is why I'm going to watch the next episode.
Speaker 1:But yeah, he's kind of a kooky guy. And I think that that presence on screen would really add something to it.
Speaker 2:Kooky is a great word because it translates right into my guy as well. I think that's the vibe I went with Michael Shannon.
Speaker 1:I had Michael Shannon for Ray Framick. Nice Originally, but I think Michael Shannon is a great choice for this movie.
Speaker 2:Well, he, you know, he's just last year, in 2013, he's coming off of General Zod and man of Steel, but, like the rest of his filmography is just a wide variety of roles and in this playing kind of like the sheepish kind of father figure leans right into that.
Speaker 1:I feel like I just started watching Boardwalk Empire and he plays like the. It wasn't the ATF yet, but basically like the Prohibition Agent who's trying to track down.
Speaker 2:Steve Buscemi.
Speaker 1:But he's like a really like pent up religious guy in it and he's very by the book, but then he has these violent outbursts.
Speaker 2:It's a really interesting role, but only Michael Shannon could play, and so I think that's a not at all what you're talking about but, I, think it's like it kind of adds to the fact that he can really kind of mold himself into whatever character he's playing, he's definitely because like there's yeah, there's some roles like you're just the weirdest dude I've ever met in my life, and then, like Zod, it's like, oh, you're a presence Like I'm scared of you.
Speaker 1:He's really weird in shape of water too. Yeah, like he's, always eating candy and he, like, washes his hands before he pees and not after, and that's like a scene. That's like a scene in the movie. I don't know. He's a very interesting guy, he is for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think that all of that in that show is why I was like Michael Shannon could do this, Like it's very believable that he would just be kind of being told what to do more than giving direction a lot and trying to earn his son's like respect in a way that's not normal for a parent to do at least that in the traditional sense for sure. No, I think both of those are really interesting and great. Let's jump into the kids. So, we're halfway through our main cast. We say kids.
Speaker 1:All of these actors are 26, 27.
Speaker 2:That's the way it is in Hollywood. I've told this story before on the podcast, but my sister, my brother-in-law he's from England and he came over to a high school football game and he asked looks seeing the cheerleaders like when does the high school team play?
Speaker 1:Because they look so young to him and in all the American movies.
Speaker 2:they're all 25, 30, so so but yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And then I think that's smart, because the stuff you're touching on, especially in like modern movies you think of like euphoria, like you can't cast teenagers in those roles like doing stuff like that and I feel like there would be a little not to that extreme, but you're gonna be touching on stuff that you want somebody that's of age to be able to act and handle. But we're gonna talk about Plato. Plato played by Sal Manela, sal Manello. Sal Manello, you know he's also in Giant with James Dean. He's in Exodus and Escape from Planet of the Apes. For a sci-fi fans Comes from broken family father abandoned when he was a toddler and a neglectful mother Just every bad thing that could happen to a kid. This is, he's the example.
Speaker 1:He very clearly doesn't have any friends. He calls Jim his best friend and they met earlier that day.
Speaker 2:Literally, that's true. It's a really sad character. It's very sad, yes.
Speaker 1:He hangs out in an abandoned mansion. Yes, this is my home.
Speaker 2:You're like, oh okay, and strangely it's both like. One of the sweeter moments of the movie is when they come in and they're doing the whole tour, quote, unquote, and they're pretending to play house and stuff. It's the sweetness before the shit hits the fan basically Exactly. And it's a fun moment for sure. But Plato, who do you got?
Speaker 1:This is probably my wildest casting choice, and it's made even wilder by somebody that I picked earlier. I have Jaden Smith.
Speaker 2:Okay. Known for pursuit of happiness karate kid remake and, of course, after Earth, which came out the year before this.
Speaker 1:So he needs a little bit of a reputation cleanse at this point. He needs to be in something good. To be quite frank, and I also think that something that stuck out to me a lot on the rewatch is like Natalie Wood and James Dean both seem like adults playing teenagers which is fine. But Salmoneo is physically a lot less imposing than those two and he just kind of has a boyish face. And so really makes him feel like this younger kid. It makes a lot of what happens to him even more tragic.
Speaker 2:It leans into the innocence of the character, for sure.
Speaker 1:So Jaden Smith at this time would have been 16 or maybe just turning 18. And so he is definitely the younger of the three that I've got. But I also think with Jada Smith in that motherly role it would be kind of an interesting flip, because he's in two or three movies with his father playing a father son duo, and so I haven't seen him in a movie with Jada Smith.
Speaker 2:But I think that would be like I can't remember. I don't know if she's in karate, kid, she's a producer, producer.
Speaker 1:Okay, got it, got it, she may be, it's very possible.
Speaker 2:But when you talk about a remake, not everybody's going to watch it, especially when the first ones are so good.
Speaker 1:I also haven't seen it since, like 2011 when it came out.
Speaker 2:We all went for Jackie Chan. If we did watch it, I think I may have caught some of it, but I didn't watch the whole thing. It's fine, we're fine, we don't need it.
Speaker 1:It's a perfectly fine movie, but I think that, yeah, he was a prominent child actor who, kind of like, moved fully into music after Earth and now he's coming back and doing some voice actors and he's doing some other stuff, but he's still like not really returned to that scene, so kind of catching him on his way out, having that thing with Jada Smith.
Speaker 1:And then I also think, like, realistically, we're a studio casting kid who gets shot down by police officers in 2014. That role's probably gonna go to a black young man or woman, and so I think that that is a reflection of where society is at and still at today, and so I think that like having somebody like Jaden Smith, who is young, he has sort of the charisma that you need from Play-Doh, but also kind of this, like there's like a sadness to him and a sadness to the character.
Speaker 2:It's a likability and then also like empathy for the character, Like he's not so much of like a buffoon that you're like whatever, yeah, and also a chance at redemption for after Earth. Because yes, because we my group of friends we almost went to watch it and we just bailed to the last minute. We're like, do we wanna go watch that? No, but for those reasons I also chose Jaden Smith.
Speaker 1:So we are on the same page? No way, air high five, that's crazy, but all the literal.
Speaker 2:I was like huh, yep, yep, yep, big bomb, big bomb. Movie needs to re-heal both of those and the Jaden. The mom idea is great too, but yeah, there's all the same reasons. I think he needs a restart. He needs to get away from being like Will Smith's son and I think that was the hardest thing. He's like. Obviously they're trying to push him and it's the Nepo baby conversation, but like he clearly wants to be an artist and creative and I think this will give him a chance to stand out on his own a bit and with some material that's really good to sink into Cause.
Speaker 2:It takes especially that the third act when we go from the mansion to back to the museum.
Speaker 1:Griffith Observatory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, there's a lot of challenging work that goes on there, but, yeah, I think that we've covered it. It's good. And then all for all the same reasons.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Drip the words right out of my mouth. So last two, judy, played by Natalie Wood, big name in classic Hollywood. People know her from West Side Story as well as the searchers, the John Wayne film. That's a big one for her. She has this weird relationship with her father, finally gets kind of scolded for it in a physical sense and then she tries to run away with Jim after.
Speaker 1:Buzz dies pretty much, which the relationship with her father, I think is interesting because that's something that could be kind of I mean not relatively unchanged, because you'd have to change the way that they behave towards one another. But for those of you who haven't seen the movie, her father kind of scolds her for growing up. She's putting on makeup and he's kind of physically overbearing in a concerning way, and I don't know if it was intended that way in 1955, but, certainly watching it in 2024.
Speaker 2:It's like oh he's like a little too concerned with how his daughter looks and how she's dressing and stuff, and I think that that's still stuff that happens to this day for sure, and I think it's something that can be touched on, should be discussed, like I think it's part of parenting and that weird side of it that people should avoid. But reading a little bit about the movie Nicholas Ray, there was a lot of behind the scenes stuff and who knows what. Half of it's true and half of it's been turned into urban legend and de myth and stuff. But a lot of it was like oh, we intended this character to be gay or this character to be bisexual and you never know in those times because they were so constrained to what they could do. So I'm sure there was a lot that's been put in subtext.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know specifically the relationship between Sal and Jim is mentioned in the celluloid closet, which is a documentary about 1950s and 60s Hollywood and how closeted actors or openly gay actors were playing these roles with gay subtext, regardless of either with the permission of the director or just because that's their truth and their experience. So, I remember, and you can certainly see at least Salmoneo playing it that way. It's not quite reciprocated with James Dean. But it's kind of like his admiration isn't 100% friendship oriented.
Speaker 2:Right, he's writing that fine line between being just admiring James Dean and then also kind of wanting to be in in love with James Dean.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think that a lot of those roles could be accentuated in a modern context?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, with Judy, who did you have in mind?
Speaker 1:So I have two candidates that I think work for this one. Since we don't have to play by the normal rules, I am going to go with my initial candidate. So I'll go ahead and say who I had as my backup, because she was an established actor by this point. I had Dakota Johnson because I wanted to play off Natalie Woods like old Hollywood kind of legacy.
Speaker 1:And I feel like this character does need a certain old Hollywood like Shina Se qua, and so I had Dakota Johnson, because she's an Epo baby and she does have kind of that look to her. Obviously, she's in the news now for Madam Web, not necessarily for good reasons. But she is a good actress.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say that, and then I'll also say she was in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.
Speaker 2:Listen. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were both in Twilight.
Speaker 1:Yes, she was in the Suspiria remake, which is very good. She also was in a movie with my pick for the James Dean character, so that was another little connection that I had. But I do think I'm ultimately going to go with Billy Lord, who is Carrie Fisher's daughter. She was in all of the new Star Wars trilogy and she was in. Oh, I had all of her information down and then I deleted it and put Dakota Johnson in.
Speaker 2:I'm not familiar with her work too far into she started working in 2015.
Speaker 1:So, it was like she's in Booksmart she's Gigi, so she's like more of a minor character or minor actress, like she hasn't really had as many of the big name gigs and everything, but she's been working consistently since 2015. And I think she really has the look of a Natalie Wood type and I think she's a good actress. So having her be there and kind of grounding that performance, I think I like her a little bit more than Dakota Johnson. I feel like Dakota Johnson would almost be distracting.
Speaker 2:A little bit.
Speaker 1:I think Billy Lord could pull off the high school sweetheart kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as well as like the fawning over James as well as her father as well as convoluted feelings that are going on. For sure I also lean Nepo Baby a little bit. I went with Zoe Dutch, if you're familiar with her. For those of you who home that don't know her this year she's in the terrible movie I guess because I never saw it, nobody did Vampire Academy. But she's known for being in Zombieland 2, the movie why Him? With James Franco and Brian Cranston. And then she's Leah Thompson's daughter who plays.
Speaker 1:Martin McFly's mom.
Speaker 2:OK so, but for all those general reasons I think she has a classical Hollywood look to her. But I think she can definitely play into that. Seeing her scenes in Zombieland 2 where she's playing this preppy airhead like that's pretending to fawn over everybody and stuff and just be ditzy, I think you tone that down a bit, obviously, make it more naturalistic and like you've kind of got Judy in a nutshell to an extent she's almost like not quite this level, but she's almost like a mean girl a little bit.
Speaker 1:A little bit A mean girl who then kind of turns into like a more sensitive person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when reality hits she's like, oh, all this high school stuff doesn't matter anymore. Yes, but yeah, I think she's an actress again that hasn't really got her due yet. She's gotten some roles here and there, but I feel like she should be a bigger deal. Weirdly enough, like she could kind of be have the same trajectory as like a Dakota Johnson for sure.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that was kind of my logic as well. I thought, like she has the great look, but she also has the range to kind of play that kind of no care in the world, to suddenly like oh no, what have I done? And like playing off those extremes, which is a very teenage thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:We're at the final, last role here, james, obviously, james Dean. A tall task, yes, for anybody to try to knock out, but let me know who you got.
Speaker 1:OK, this. I kind of am glad you picked this movie because I get to go on the record on my soapbox about something, something that I have been saying since 2017. Oh, some tea. I picked Anton Yelchin. Ok, it's the James Dean role.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I think.
Speaker 1:Anton Yelchin was at least my generation, but I would say our generation's.
Speaker 2:James Dean OK.
Speaker 1:He was this actor who really caught up a lot of steam. He, in 2014, was in seven films. Like he was doing a lot of work. Most of it was really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He's in Green Room, if you've seen that. Yes, it's a really great like bottle thriller for you Trekkie's out there. He was Chekhov in the 2009 Star Trek. Yes, he's actually Russian born, but he's in one of my favorite films of all time.
Speaker 2:Thoreau.
Speaker 1:Bretz that came out in 2017.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good one too.
Speaker 1:But he also died very young. He died very tragically in I think it was in 2017. And it was an auto related accident. It was a manufacturer error with the Jeep, where it read that it was in park but it was actually in neutral and it killed him that way.
Speaker 2:That's a question. When we went to check the mail yeah, it was really awful, one of the worst ways Really awful and there's a movie called Alpha Dog that he did when he was like 12 or 13.
Speaker 1:He has so many good roles and he's so good in it and that movie also has Justin Timberlake in it, but he was very good for what Alpha Dog is. Antonie Elchin is amazing, and so I think he is pretty much always going to be the like what could have been in my mind for this crop of actors that's now really hitting their stride, and so I think that casting him in like literally a James Dean role, I think he's a better actor than James Dean, just by like modern standards, and what.
Speaker 1:I've seen them in. But yeah, so that Antonie Elchin is my pick, and I also think in 2014, like, if you go look at photos of him, he had kind of a James Dean haircut going on Like he looked a little bit like him. He looks he's like 24, 25 at this point, so he's around the age that James Dean was as well.
Speaker 2:So it's like he rides that great line of being having a leading man look but having like a character actor spirit. Yeah, and I think that that's what you need for like this role in particular, and I think that's what James Dean was like. He was like this good looking classic Hollywood golden boy was was like no, I want to be more. I don't want to be just these typical guys that show up in suits and say stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and no, we, we I'm saying speaking we for the podcast, but we do love some Antonie Elchin, green rooms, one of Cass's favorite movies. Corey and I both really love everything that Anton's in. So I'm mad I didn't even think of him. But like he, like you said, he's really busy this year. Like in a normal episode, like on the big ones, we this would be here, we'd be like, well, we can't take him out of any of it.
Speaker 1:Which another fun fact about this is that in 2014,. One of the films he was in is called Rutterless, which shot in Oklahoma.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I know some people who worked on that crew.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They said he was very nice, which made me even more sad, Right, Because I was like. I was like don't tell me if he was a dick, but like how was working with Anton and they were like, oh, he was great and I was like shit and that's that makes it so much? Worse yeah.
Speaker 2:And he was a great guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, that's. I mean, that's pretty spot, that's like that's nail on the head right there. To contrast you, I went with Taryn Egerton. Oh, also a great actor. Also a great actor. He looks kind of like James Bond a little bit. But I think he's also one that likes to do a lot of interesting projects. Most people will know him from Kingsman, Also Rocket man, when he played Elton John a couple years ago. As well as he was, he's a voice actor in Sing those he's the gorilla.
Speaker 2:So he, and then he's also in. The most recent thing was Tetris, which I want to watch, but I've heard it's not that great.
Speaker 1:I've heard it's good. I heard he's really good in Blackbird. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Apple TV series that has the jump. I can't remember his name, but he's a great character actor.
Speaker 1:Yes, he was in, like the Clint Eastwood, like Richard Joule.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, no, but Richard Joule, if I can type the name real quick, paul Walterhauser.
Speaker 1:Yes, paul Walterhauser, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, he's, no, he's great. I thought about Dacre Montgomery from Stranger Things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because he kind of has the same similar vibes.
Speaker 2:but I don't know what he's capable of other than being like the bad boy. I haven't seen that yet. I'm not judging it, but Taren Egerton I felt like he's a leading man with a lot of range. It can have a lot of fun with the run.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I've heard Taren Egerton do an American accent.
Speaker 2:He did one. I think he does one in Tetris, because he's playing an American.
Speaker 1:That goes over there to try to buy the Tetris rights and then, but everything else, he's very it's still very British, or whatever the UK where he's from which I mean, I guess, like it's established that his family moves around a lot and I think you could have Sure Like if you wanted to be like just use your accent, you could work it in.
Speaker 2:And he's also kind of a fish out of water because it's a new school, so like you could be very easily like they're an uppity British family.
Speaker 1:He's also an amazing actor, and Brits are way better doing American accents than Americans are.
Speaker 2:They're showing us up a lot. There's a lot of everybody's like why are the Brits taking all the American rules? It's like we'll do better, I guess.
Speaker 1:So we both picked non-Americans for our all-American main cast member, but that's fine.
Speaker 2:It works, it's fine, but no, I think both of those are great. Man Anton's such a good pick. Thank you, that's such a good pick.
Speaker 1:That's such a good pick, that was like the only one I didn't have to think about, because as soon as you picked Rebel without a cause, I was like well, anton's James Dean.
Speaker 2:But who else I've?
Speaker 1:literally been like anytime anybody will hear me talk about it. I'm like he was our generation James Dean. Let me tell you what I got to say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, that's 100% agree. That's not a hot take on this podcast, for sure.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:But yeah, well, that's our cast, really quick. Let's do a rundown. I'll let you give your cast real quick and I'll give mine, and then we'll wrap up the episode.
Speaker 1:For Goon. I have Aaron Taylor Johnson For Judy's mom. I have Carla Gugino For Judy's dad. I have Kyle Chandler For Ray Frimmick, the detective. I have John Hamm For a hopefully named character. Crawford Family made. I have Jada Pinkett Smith. Got it For Buzz. I have Will Polter For Carol Stark. I have Linda Hamilton For I almost said Jim Beck, it's for Frank Stark. I have Kyle McLaughlin For Plato. I have Jaden Smith For Judy. I have Billy Lord or Dakota Johnson.
Speaker 2:You can go either way with that one.
Speaker 1:And then for my Jim Stark, I have the one and only Anton Yelchin. Rest in peace, Rest in peace.
Speaker 2:Cool and with mine, goon. Colson Baker, mgk, judy's mom, mary Louise Parker, judy's father, luke Perry, ray Frinnick, tony Todd Candyman himself. The Crawford Family made. I'll lovely in the script, call her Maryetta in MM. Ritz, played by Constance Marie Buzz, gunderson, o'shea Jackson Jr, Carol Stark, kate Blanchett, frank Stark, michael Shannon. Plato played by Jaden Smith, judy played by Zoe Dutch and Jim Stark. No relation to Tony Stark, played by Taryn Eccerton in my version. I feel like both are really solid.
Speaker 1:I would watch either one of these movies before I would watch the original Rebel Without a Cause again. That's not really a knock on Rebel Without a Cause, that's fair.
Speaker 2:I think our taste that's the beauty of the podcast is like you get to take it to an era and you kind of go like these are my favorite actors and stuff, and you try to find some balance there of like not picking all these A-list people, but you still get to go oh I love this actor, let me put them in there and stuff. So I love that. I love both cast some great deep cuts and deep picks. Here and there it's unexpected picks too. But yeah, that's our episode. Justin, thank you so much for taking the time to jump on here and talk a little bit about film and shop and then reimagine some of our favorite movies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you guys want to keep up with Ultraviolet, just go to Instagram. It's. The handle is at uvfilm. My Instagram is at Justin. Underscore. Underscore, jane. That's two underscores, but we should have some. We should have a zine coming out sometime soon. That is one of our Indiegogo rewards. So if you pledge to that tier, you'll get it for free, but if you want to, we're gonna have a pay. What you want model, and any funds that you spend on that will go to submitting UV2 festivals. So if you like the sound of a dating vampire short film and you want to support us, go online. You can either read the zine for free or you can kick me some cash. Either way, I would love for you guys to support me and my crew and all of the lovely people who worked on it. Awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, justin, again, thank you so much for coming on. Everyone, thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode. We'll catch you next time on the Quantum Recast, and we'll catch you next time. So, I guess, say goodbye, justin, bye.