E3S13: More Buried Bodies

The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

STORIES are a lot like BURIED BODIES – especially if you’re the one who buried them. Just like with a body, you can bury a story. Sometimes – in time – we forget about them. Meanwhile, there they sit. But, whereas bodies rot into nothing while buried, stories often gain heft and weight – and even significance. Some stories, just like ghosts, seem to rise from the dead and haunt people!

That’s the idea behind this episode. Except for the haunting people part. Gil and I both have buried bodies – stories we haven’t even told each other yet!

Part of that is because we spent 25 years not speaking to each other. That’s a source of buried bodies unto itself!

Gil tells some great stories about starting out. Long before he became a successful movie producer, he wanted to be a successful theatrical producer in New York. If you want to know how to break into show business, listen to Gil’s story. Circumstances and technology have changed, but the need to be bold and willing to think on your feet? That never changes!

Alan traces his “post-divorce” journey. That will include stories about his time on THE OUTER LIMITS and working with blind advocate, actor, singer and motivational speaker TOM SULLIVAN. Alan and Tom adapted “Adventures In Darkness”, Tom’s autobiography. Blind since birth, Tom’s parents got him into Boston’s famed Perkins School For The Blind. That was Helen Keller’s alma mater.

One night, when he was eleven, Tom and two blind classmates broke out of Perkins. Later that morning, the Coast Guard caught them in a row boat in the middle of Boston Harbor.

Gil also tells the story behind “HOME MOVIES“. That’s the student film turned successful feature film that Gil and director Brian DePalma made together with KIRK DOUGLASS, STEVEN SPIELBERG and GEORGE LUCAS. Gil also will talk about some of the other extraordinary people he’s become friends with while making movies and TV shows for a living.

Alan will talk about COUSINS – the unmade script he wrote about country singer MICKEY GILLEY, televangelist JIMMY SWAGGART and “The Killer”, rock-n-roll icon JERRY LEE LEWIS. All three men are first cousins and grew up together in the 1930’s and 40’s in Ferriday, Louisiana. In particular, the story focuses on Jimmy and Jerry Lee – their love and toxic envy of each other. And it focuses on their cousin Mickey’s unsuccessful attempts to repair their relationship.

Yeah, there are lots and lots of buried bodies.

But, it turns out? There are stories still ahead of us – as yet untold because they literally haven’t happened yet. But, when they do, you know damn well we’ll speak them here first.

One more reason to subscribe!