Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: What up, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Nerdjet Report. I'm your host, Pablo. And joining me, as always, is Mister Brian Schultz.
Ridley Scott. Man is a genius when it comes to making movies. Prometheus, I still watch it.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Brian.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Winners on. I just thought it was dope.
And he did, obviously did Gladiator. He's done quite a few films, Brian, that when they're on the Martian, he has a bunch that when it's on, you watch.
And he said something that baffled me.
Not in the sense that, like, I'll say this is what he said, really. Scott says that this is gladiator two is the best film that he's had done, Brian.
I don't know how to receive it other than possible b's or he's just trying to, you know, promote this movie. He. I don't know, Brian. But better to me, this gladiator for me, is still number one. It is a masterpiece. Okay, Brian, your thoughts? What, what, first of all, what are the. What's the quote and your thoughts on this? This. This talk of this is the best I've ever. Come on. When Michael Jackson said, and this was like, way past his fine, he said, you ain't seen nothing yet.
We had already seen it.
There was. It was like, come on, Michael, really, you can't do any more than what you've done. And that was it. I don't think. I think we're falling around in the same realm of what really Scott is saying here, that gladiator two is the best film he's ever done. Brian.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: It's literally what he said, quote, it's the best thing I've ever made. And I've made a few good ones. End quote. I mean, normally you hear this quote from the producer, you hear this quote from the studio head. You know, remember all the quotes about how the Flash was the best superhero movie ever made? Right. Like, for the director himself to say it, it is a little unusual.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: So.
And I would say the trailer doesn't give me a lot of hope that that's true. Like, I definitely want to see the movie, but I don't get the sense of eternal classic from the trailer.
But it's interesting that that's the opinion. Okay, so that you. Yeah, I think part of its hype, you know, maybe part of it that really, Scott is like 86. And it's amazing he's still working at this level, but maybe he has those senior moments too.
But I mean, okay, so he's made a lot of movies, but I think.
I think there's a pretty clear top five.
So maybe the better question is, is there a chance gladiator two cracks the top five.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: All right, so you give me your top five, and I'll give you. I'll try to take a top five.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Okay. I think the top five is for him is pretty clear. So I think the top five is alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator one, and the Martian. To me, that's the five.
I would give Prometheus an honorable mention for its originality, but I think that's the five to me, that will last. Like, when you're looking at the library a hundred years from now, I think all five of those movies will be in there.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I can't. I can't think of any other films that he's made that I would possibly put up there. Prometheus, again, is an honorable mention because I enjoyed the story, the effects. Everything about it was really, really well done.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Because, like, he's got some other, like, my honor. Other honorable mention would be the director's cut of kingdom of heaven. I think that's.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: You mentioned that in the past before. I still haven't seen it, but you really give it a lot of praise for the director's cut.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Only the director's cut. But then, like, you know, then that next tier down, you know, I think some people, like, I enjoy Blackhawk down. I don't think it's in that top five, but that's a very.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Well, yeah, a lot of people like that one.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Um, you know, but then, you know, he's. He's got some stuff at the other end of the spectrum, too, certainly, you know, like Tom Cruise and legend. That's kind of rough. Like Exodus, gods and kings. That's pretty rough, you know. You know, and so he's, you know, he's all over the place. I. My biggest disappoint, actually. My busy disappointment, Napoleon.
Oh, interesting. That would be up there. My biggest disappointment was actually american gangster because he had Denzel. Because he had Denzel and Russell Crowe at the height of their power. To me, that movie should be in the top five, and it's just not there. It's just not quite that good. But on paper, that movie looks to me like it should be winning oscars, making money, and we're watching that movie for 100 years, and it's just not quite there.
I agree with you. Napoleon was a, was a pretty big letdown, but I felt like, you know, Exodus, kingdom of heaven in the theater. Robin Hood he's botched epics.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Robin Hood.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: He's made great epics, and he's botched epics before. So I wasn't totally shocked, especially when I saw Joaquin doing an american accent. I was like, ugh.
I was like, we might be in some trouble here.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: When I started reading about Napoleon and how he had trouble with one of his accents, and this dude didn't even like, nah, I'm not even gonna do that. That just, like, forget I'm out.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: But do you think gladiator two could get in that top five or on the Mount Rushmore? Do you think there's enough in this story to get it there?
[00:06:05] Speaker A: It's tough with sequels, right? It's tough as sequels, even though it can be done. James Cameron, Terminator two. Yes.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the aliens. Like, that. He's the one guy that can do it, basically. Well, I shouldn't say that Lucas did it with, I mean, bear. Prayer strikes back would count. Dark Knight would count, but, like, yes. So it can be done.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: The problem here is that what we've seen in the trailer is not like we haven't seen before. It's just being done differently. Different set of events, different time period, different actors, obviously.
But I don't know how much better you can retell this story.
There's certainly going to be some twists. Obviously. You have great actors like Pedro Pascal. You have quite a. Quite a cast here, Brian.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: My only concern, and I think the concern of everyone who's seen the first gladiator will be, how different will this be and how much better the performances will be.
Can you bring us back to that magic when everybody's chanting, chanting, Maximus. Maximus. And then. Then it just stops. And this dude is just right. Signing his signature, being very vexed.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: Yeah, vexed.
Hello. So I think you're right. I think that the place you have to start is, can the combination of Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington in this form, Pedro Pascal, and whoever else is in the two brothers who are playing the evil emperor in this, can the total of that approach match or exceed Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Richard Harris.
And honestly, this was one of those where, like, they nailed the little roles like Oliver Reed as proxy mo. Incredible performance. Died during the making of the movie.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: And you can. You can see they did a crow thing on there.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah. And then when he's killed at the end, it's not him. Right. Yeah. But then, like, even they had, you know, like, Damon Honsoo, as he will.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Be returning too right.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: But he was great in that role. Ralph Mueller, who was the bodybuilder playing the bigger gladiator, thought he was excellent. So they nailed all the little roles as well. The senator who had played iclaudius in the PBS show that, the Gracchus, I think his name was. So like, they had all of these characters nailed. That's probably where you have to start. And I'm just like, you went 100 over 100. Like, how are you beating that with this?
[00:08:54] Speaker A: With another hundred?
I mean, there's certainly more spectacle, right?
But again, it's like you're just trying to outdo what you just did and can you do it? But that's only the question.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: But Gladiator one, you know, Russell Crowe is an interesting career, but for those five or six years, like, that's as good a five or six years as any actor submitted in the last, like 30 years. That stretch where he was doing like, the insider, like Gladiator, beautiful mind, like, everything that guy did.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: But did he do La confidential before?
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Gladiator before? So that's the one that starts the run. It's from LA Confidential through like a beautiful mind.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: He's as hot and as consistent and as brilliant as any actor had been. And then they catch Joaquin Phoenix at the start of what becomes a legendary career.
And, like, they're obviously hoping. They're like, hey, we got Denzel. Although I don't think they're getting, they're not getting prime Peak Denzel.
And he's not trying for that in this movie, clearly. But they're betting on mescal. They're betting on Paul Mescal as, like, he's the Joaquin, right. We're catching him at the same moment where he's going to go on to win oscars and be a megastar. And that's how we can. And then we've got Pedro Pascal, who's a bankable, like very reliable, like kind of, you know, a list guy now. But I don't know. It just looks too disjointed. It looks like it's trying to do too many things to me to be what Ridley, really. Scott says his best movie. Like, that's an all time movie, right? That's not like is act. Snyder says his best movie. I'm like, all right, like, you made some decent ones, 300 good.
But, you know, you know, but I.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Don'T give, you know, but those, I have to put asterisks on those before we move on. I gotta put an asterisk on 300 and watch me sure. He ripped a.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah, he ripped that story. He just visually told it in a beautiful way and he didn't change the story. And I think that's what made it so great.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: But when, obviously when he goes off on his own, that's. We get whatever. We get River Moons.
We still have to do our show anyway.
Yeah. So gladiator to the best film.
I don't know if this is a winter Soldier play, trying to just throw it in your brain so that you can go in with that expectation, but best film is gonna be. I'm trying not to go into this film. When I go see a Brian thinking that I'm just. I'm trying to just go into there just to watch a good film.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: A good sign for them, though. And this is kind of tangential, but we can wrap up with it.
I think the momentum of the summer box office, which took a while to get going, it looks like people want to go to the movies this fall and there are not a lot of big movies. So tracking numbers for Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, that is supposed to open north of $100 million in the US.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: I had asked you, what is it tracking? And I said over 100, and you said 80. Now it was tracking over 100.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: I saw the tracking for Joker two, which we talked about saying, hey, there's no chance it's going to match the first one. Well, the opening weekend tracking now is between 135 and 150.
Now, it may not hold the same because that last movie kept going. Once they got the awards buzz, everyone kept going to see it. Yeah, but that is a massive open. That's not quite deadpool and Wolverine, but that's a hell of a lot closer to that level than I would have ever thought. And if you look at the placement of those two movies, they kind of have, like three and four weeks to themselves in terms of adult movies. A lot of kids movies this fall, gladiators around Thanksgiving, not much else there. So that could be a big open. That could be a thing for like three weeks, four weeks. There is no avatar this December. There is no Harry Potter at Christmas. Like, so, you know, I mean, this movie sounds like it's ridiculously expensive. It might be hard to make money, but there's a chance that, like, people are going to be fired up to see this, especially in the opening weekend and, and see if Ridley Scott was. Was lying or not.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Oh, snap. That's, that's, that's.
But Brian, because we're, we're on this genre of not talking about superhero films, let's real quick talk about Michael Mann's heat.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: I didn't know about this until I saw an Instagram. And he's saying that this movie is going to probably be like 3 hours in length. What are your thoughts on having in a. Having a classic, Brian?
Oh, my words is one of my.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Favorite show about heat.
It's not a superhero movie, but it actually kind of. Some of the characters have a little bit the DNA of that. Let. Shall we say.
Well, the first one was 3 hours, in fairness, okay. And was a hit, but not like a mega hit. It's become more of a hit through vhs, dvd, tv, rewatch.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: So classic, almost.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Oh, it's a classic. No, it's a classic, but, like, took a little while. It was a slow burn classic.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: But the way this worked, if people don't have followed this story, it's really interesting. So Michael Mann actually wrote a book, okay, for heat to that he published. They wrote a full novelization. And the novelization is basically like. It's kind of like the Godfather two in the sense of it goes backwards in time and forwards in time.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: So he revisits the characters in their early days and then brings it back to kind of what would now be the present, which, of course, is the future relative to heat one. So the novel looks.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: So they're playing the same dudes.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: So the. The two thrusts of the novel are, they explore Vincent Hanna and Neil McCauley, Pacino and De Niro in their early days, where they're rooted in Chicago, which. Okay, that's where Michael Mann got the inspiration. So there's some. There's some individual Chicago. There's an individual Chicago thief and the FBI agent who chased him in real life that Michael Mann used as the basis for the two characters you see in the movie, which is set in LA.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: The book follows them in their early days. The book also takes Val Kilmer's character, Chris Scheherelis, and follows what happened to Chris after he didn't go up to the apartment to get arrested.
And so it goes forward.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: And so what? The longstanding rumor has been that Adam Driver will play the young Neil McCauley as he was in Michael Mann's Ferrari. And apparently they had a great time working together. And that Austin Butler would play Chris Shahirulis, the Val Kilmer character. We've not heard anything about the hanna character, but those are the two actors who have been attached. And that's been fueled by, if you find on YouTube. There's video of Austin Butler, like, training in the desert to, like, shoot and handle a handgun. And he looks an awful lot like. If you look at the way he's moving and then if you remember the way Val Kilmer handled the weapons in heat, they look very similar. And so a lot of people believe this is. He's prepping for that.
And Michael Mann saying, this movie. This movie's been greenlit and he's going to shoot it within the next twelve months.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
Interesting. Very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing that.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: I will be there to see it.
To your point, though, a three hour heat sequel. In this climate of film, I'm not sure how big the audience for that is. I'd be very curious. He's got two. He's got some, like, if he has Austin Butler and Adam Driver, he's got some younger stars who I think matters.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: What sort of budget are they looking for to do?
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Well, not mega. I mean, this would be more like in the 150. Like 100, 150. Because, like, it's not like, it's not an effects based story. Right. You're not going to like all that sort of stuff. This is like, this is very realistic.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: And it's made like 400 or 300. 300 or 400 million on this.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah. But it's gonna be rated r for sure. Yeah. Like you. Yeah. You would need probably 400, I think, for this to be a success. And then you're. You're betting on awards. You're betting on awards nominations for somebody in this movie?
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah.
Let us know in the conversation below what you guys think of this storyline for Heat two. I'm interested.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: There's so many lines in heat one. I think the script is like, can they, you know, can they come up?
[00:17:50] Speaker A: I gotta get this book now.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: So I can read it for me.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: The action is the juice.
All right, Tom side.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Oh, man.
Yeah. Let us know in the comment section below what you guys think and we'll see you next time on the ninja report.
