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Dani Abraham — producer, co-director, Otis the dog's personal publicist, and the woman whose first AD got guns drawn on him at 6:45 a.m. over a swapped license plate — joins James and BJ to break down how a crying night, an 11 p.m. text from James, and a $7,300 budget became Stupid Games, why the CW is a flex when you only spent seven grand, and what it actually takes to just go make your movie.
The Tracksuit Podcast is media industry professionals sit down with fellow creatives, filmmakers, and experts for wide-ranging authentic, unfiltered conversations about the entertainment industry - covering everything from the business of entertainment to the unexplained. Hosted by BJ Hendricks and James Cullen Bressack.
James: Hello and welcome to the new episode of the Tracksuit Podcast. Today, we have producer Dani Abraham.
Speaker 1: That's me.
James: And also director, though she says she'll never do it again.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
BJ: I'm over it. And no no actress on it either? I feel like you've been Technically, in stuff
James: for
BJ: she
James: sure.
BJ: was an actress in Murder Mystery. Well, then
James: yeah.
BJ: Actress as well. Go ahead and throw that on there. Also, a finance advisor as well.
Speaker 1: $30 million.
BJ: How's your life right now?
Speaker 1: Good. It's busy. It's good. We like busy.
BJ: I mean, we just had a we just had a conversation with each other where uh we were all talking about like, oh man, it sucks not to be busy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love a nap, but also it like I'd rather be busy than busy than bored. Like that's
James: Does Otis even let you nap?
Speaker 1: The best nap buddy.
BJ: Is Otis Otis your dog?
Speaker 1: Otis is my dog.
BJ: You had a cute little bandana on him
Speaker 1: Yeah.
BJ: yesterday, the little blue
Speaker 1: Yeah. bandana I saw
BJ: on He Instagram. got
Speaker 1: groomed and he's so handsome and he smiles like that. He's so cute.
James: I talk very frequently with our like mutual friends like Jackie or or any of the people that we have in common, Nicholas, uh about how funny it is that you make these little like movie memes of your dog like the Otis C and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: The Otis C, the white the white Otis?
James: Yeah, exactly. And I just like whatever she's watching, she just puts her dog into Yeah. a poster of it and changes the title and we just it just cracks me up. I
Speaker 1: took that absolute cinema meme and I put his face on it.
BJ: Did you say you did the white Otis?
Speaker 1: The white Otis, yeah. Two seasons of it. That's
James: great. Oh yeah, yeah, send us. We'll we'll cut them in. We're going to send send them to me. They'll be here. Some
Speaker 1: of my best work, my talents are wasted.
James: Yeah, yeah. I liked it more than the Nolan version.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I know. The Christopher Nolan version. Defy the dogs.
BJ: So before we get started on on so many random questions, so the police situation that just happened to you
Speaker 1: Oh my god. was
BJ: wild.
Speaker 1: Well,
BJ: What like
Speaker 1: it didn't happen to me though. It's like so that 's why I feel like it's I was like right there when it happened. First of all
James: Danny's like clarifying, no, it wasn't me. I wasn't in trouble. Not even
Speaker 1: Wasn't
James: mistakenly. me.
Speaker 1: Never me. Um no, I well, I've had situations where like the police have come to my sets because we maybe were filming without a permit and then you sweet talk them and then they let you stay and everything's good. I kind of thought that was what was happening yesterday. I don't really know. It happened at 6:45 in the morning and my
James: Oh that that's Oh my
Speaker 1: god.
James: you didn't need coffee that day.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Oh we were wired. No, I was on set um about like day five. You know, it's Friday. We're going to have a great day. I park next to my first AD. We like make faces at each other through the window. Like like today's going to be so fun and great and um two seconds later, four cop cars pull up behind us. And then I get out of the car and go up to my first AD and he is like he's like he doesn't even realize it's happening actually and then I'm like what's going on behind us? And he was like, I have no idea. Then they the cops yell at me, get away from the vehicle. Okay, so I back up and then I'm like like so sorry, Dave. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that I thought you would have done anything cuz he is the most delightful human on the planet. Um but uh somebody has been robbing homes in LA with his exact car that he has and the actual robber very smartly uh swapped his license plate with the bad license plate. And when they saw this exact car with the exact plate pull up in Burbank yesterday, they all assumed he was the guy. Anyways, he's never been more scared in his life. There were weapons drawn. There were six police officers for a guy who was like all I did was you know, go to Dunkin' Donuts and I'm 4 minutes late to work.
James: How did the cops deduce that it was the wrong like the license plates got swapped because like that could be just a really convenient alibi?
Speaker 1: Right. Well, so here's here's what's really great is um the DMV they may be the worst place to go, but they really do make sure that your car and your license plate is is with you. So it's the VIN number. Yeah, the VIN and the plate um are going to um match up and then um if they don't match up, then they go, oh hey, this plate doesn't belong on this car. Oh sorry, Dave. You're free to go. Sorry about the guns pointed on you. I was just like, all right, I guess we're going to go back to the jungle dino world and pretend like nobody was outside pointing guns at my crew.
James: Did he get right back to work or was he just like Yeah. was he like you know, shaken by it all day?
Speaker 1: Super shaken obviously, but then um it was like, all right, we got a date to make.
James: And he was like just chilling, able
Speaker 1: Yeah. to
James: get back to And work.
Speaker 1: he got through and we wrapped an hour He
James: probably early. actually did it. He probably actually did it. He wrapped an hour early. He had to get out of town. He's like, let me get out of here. I got an hour.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't
James: You heard got this. an extra hour. You haven't heard this.
BJ: I take this man to sushi or something. I'm
James: joking. I'm joking. I'm joking.
BJ: How did you two meet?
Speaker 1: That's a better story. Well, actually it's all a great story.
BJ: No, no, cuz cuz mine comes mine comes way after. My story with you comes way after meeting him and I I don't think I actually know how you two met.
James: Well, we just celebrated our 10 year, right?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: Yeah, our 10 year friend
Speaker 1: Actually, friend
James: anniversary.
Speaker 1: our first photo together I looked was August 2nd, 2017, which would be tomorrow. Our friend anniversary I guess would be July 20 5th.
James: So so yeah, so why don't you tell how we met?
Speaker 1: Uh it was 10 almost 10 years ago. So 2017 and we were in the airport waiting for our birthright trip to go to Israel together, which
James: Yes. is
Speaker 1: so cool. And it's been 9 years that was the best 10 days of my life. Um and I met you and you're like to this day one of my best friends, which is the most incredible thing and I think that that's I mean that's kind of what it's about, right?
James: We'd be better friends if you lived in the valley. But yes, you are one of my best friends, but she sometimes tries to get me to go to the Grove and I'm just like, oh god. You know, and not that I don't like the Grove, but I don't like how hard it is to park at the Grove. Like it's got the biggest parking structure in the world and it's still impossible to find parking there.
BJ: LA people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But
James: the Grove that's why
Speaker 1: I
James: is extremely walk. Christmasy, which is why I love that
Speaker 1: Christmasy part. all the time. Yeah,
James: I love the Christmas
Speaker 1: Although Well, I we're love the Jews. Christmas
BJ: I do love Christmas.
Speaker 1: No Christmas.
James: Yeah, but as a Jew, I love Christmas. I like going to New York for Christmas. I like the Christmas You like the
BJ: Christmas
James: vibes. vibes. Yeah.
BJ: I used to I used to throw uh Christmas parties for uh Google. One of my random jobs that they made me do when I was in tech. And I was good at it cuz I love an event. Don't get me started.
Speaker 1: I do love an event.
BJ: But because Christmas was so worked around red little bit of silver, green, that whole thing um the the lawyer who I I actually worked for under she uh she was Jewish. She was just like, we cannot have all this green and red. It will not it will not work for Yeah, everybody. we saw
Speaker 1: blue and white. And so we did.
BJ: We would do everything blue, white, and silver and it would win everybody. People love
Speaker 1: So powerful.
BJ: people love a winner of it.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, winner of it. See, that's what it is. It's pretty. It's sparkly.
James: But the problem is is that other than like you know, the Adam Sandler songs and Hava Nagila, we don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: Oh,
James: like
Speaker 1: have you not heard the record by the Levys Hanukkah Rocks?
James: No, I have not.
Speaker 1: Go listen to it. But
James: I've got like I've got like the old Santa songs and stuff, you know, like we we just you know.
Speaker 1: David Diggs, Puppy for Hanukkah.
James: I know you've sent me that almost every year ever since it came out. She's literally sent it to me like one one year she sent it to me all eight
Speaker 1: All eight nights.
James: All all eight nights over and over and over again.
BJ: But I've been watching the view count and not I'm
James: surprised go up. you didn't cut Otis into it.
Speaker 1: Next year.
James: Yes year. But uh but yeah, so we met in the airport um and uh and became homies on this uh on this this journey through every city of Israel.
Speaker 1: Oh fun. Oh.
BJ: Dude, what was that like? Tell me about this cuz I feel ridiculously stupid, but like how does how does the birth trip work? I don't understand on that being the non-Jewish one.
Speaker 1: Um so well, Birthright is an organization. It's been around for a long time and basically Oh,
BJ: all of you got a trip. Sorry.
Speaker 1: Well, we do. Yeah, through the organization. Birthright's the organization.
BJ: I feel like I'm mentalist.
Speaker 1: And um it essentially is this uh organization for young adults to take a trip to the homeland to visit Israel, see what it's all about. I mean, look like
James: But all politics aside, I just saw free trip in Free
Speaker 1: trip. Go, let's go. And to be honest with you, like I you know, knew about as much as anybody else probably knows about Israel at the time. Like I was like there's it's scary. It's it's it's dangerous over there. I don't know if I want to go. I put the trip off E for years and then my boss was like, no, you have to go. Like you know, she just got back so she was like, you have to go. So I was like, I'll sign up. I went. I came back and I was like, this is actually the most incredible place in the world. People are the nicest people you've ever met. Oh. The food's incredible. I ate so much falafel. Um
James: I was just like free trip and hummus. I'm
Speaker 1: Free in. trip and hummus. And also I'm in.
James: I mean like free trip, I mean like hummus.
Speaker 1: And like obviously like But
James: like it's it was all inclusive so they they give you free hotel room, free flight, free
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: tours. So you're going on like these hikes and and you're with about like 30 people your age the entire time. So we all became homies cuz we're doing all the We're same sitting activities. on a
Speaker 1: bus
James: We
Speaker 1: together.
James: rode camels. We're on a bus. We're like going archery. Like there's all this fun stuff that we got to do. Yeah.
BJ: And so this Israel
James: Yeah.
BJ: Israel camp.
James: And it was it was 10 days, right? It was
Speaker 1: Yeah, 10 days. 10 days, 10 falafel. I rode two camels.
James: And it's completely free. All the food, all the everything, it's completely free.
Speaker 1: Except the falafel.
James: But but I was wilding out when I was out there being me and like you know, ultimately like in Israel that I guess or wherever we were going, they didn't understand like the concept of bottle service at the time. And so I just kept going, uh hey, I'd like to buy a shot of like tequila cuz we were old enough to drink. And I was like, let me let me get a shot of tequila. And I was like, well, how much for the bottle? And they're like, I don't know, like we got it for 60 bucks. We'll give it to you for 70. And I was like, awesome. And I got bottle service everywhere we went. So like I got everybody wrecked the entire trip cuz we were all like what like 20
Speaker 1: 25,
James: 25. yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: And so I got everybody wrecked the entire trip and uh so we were all we would have to wake up at like 5:00 in the morning on this on on this and be on this bus ride. And everybody was super hungover. So they'd love me at night and hate me during the day.
Speaker 1: Hike Masada.
James: Yeah.
BJ: Dude, I I'm so excited about that right there that that 30 seconds being a short. That just happened. I'm putting that shit out as a Oh short my god. for sure. I saw everybody wrecked. I said that's phenomenal. I'd watch Oh
Speaker 1: my god.
BJ: I'd watch this podcast right now.
Speaker 1: We did we would. We would go to like the Dead Sea. It was the most incredible thing ever. Hungover, thanks James. Like oh, there's salt in my eye. Oh my head hurts. And also I'm in the most incredible country in the world with these people who I would never have otherwise met. And to this day, like I'm still close with so many of them. So Yeah,
James: we have a group chat.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, and
James: and you know, one of our members of the chat passed away,
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: Chase, who was awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
BJ: What is your group chat uh title?
James: Birthright.
Speaker 1: Birthright.
James: Just cuz it's like that's it was made before we started on the Birthright and
Speaker 1: I mean, it
James: still look, exists. is it
Speaker 1: Birthright or is it Birthright Yo? Hold on.
James: Something like that, but it was made before the trip. All people we had never met. They put us all on Oh. like a group chat.
Speaker 1: I got two actually I got You
BJ: you were on a group chat with
Speaker 1: I have
BJ: Danny
Speaker 1: Birthright before
BJ: that? group
Speaker 1: chat and Birthright Yo. And I also still have Jake saved as Jake Birthright in my phone.
James: Oh nice.
BJ: Mhm. It's
Speaker 1: not the last name.
James: Am I still James Birthright?
Speaker 1: James Birthright.
James: Am I still
Speaker 1: You're James You're James Birthright.
James: Oh, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you
James: well, got I got a real
Speaker 1: got
James: last name.
Speaker 1: got upgraded to the
BJ: I
Speaker 1: full
BJ: got
Speaker 1: name. a
BJ: golden ticket. Mhm. The first and last It's a
Speaker 1: big
BJ: I got
Speaker 1: deal.
James: Yeah.
BJ: Click your profile link on the deal. You got a picture and everything.
James: And then like
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got your picture when you call me. It's like your contact.
James: And Danny worked with me on two movies.
Speaker 1: Technically three, I think. Technically.
James: What's the third?
Speaker 1: Tales from the Other Side.
James: Oh yeah, yeah, three movies. Yeah, so she produced Tales from the Other Side, the wrap around sequence, which was awesome.
Speaker 1: That was great. That Uh was so
James: so
Speaker 1: fun.
James: yeah, and that was Weirdly, she's worked on all of the stuff that involved my dad because all of those shorts were written by my dad for Tales from the Other Side.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I didn't realize that.
James: Yes, all of the short stories that were made were short stories my dad had made. So it was an anthology of of short horror things that he had written other than the wrap around obviously. Sure, sure, But sure. but this but that then Murder Anyone And then and then you know, forget about it. And then obviously not involving my dad. You did stupid games. Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah, yeah.
BJ: Yeah, that's so funny. Uh Danny and I were talking about another movie that your dad has uh that we are trying to get off the ground as well. We were like, well, you should just work on all of these cuz you've been on all of James's dad's There's movies. so Like
Speaker 1: much
BJ: this would make the most sense for Danny to produce all of it cuz Danny You know, is
Speaker 1: PJ just gave me a job. Did you know? Yeah.
James: Yeah.
BJ: Danny's like the best producer. He already told me. That 's why I told you that
Speaker 1: Oh nice.
BJ: yeah. It was came from him.
Speaker 1: I really stoked on Forget About It. That was Yeah,
BJ: Forget About It's amazing. Like that's going to be super awesome. So that's an interesting one. So real quick, I met Danny because James gave me a budget for a horror movie to do and I was in the same group as Danny to deliver the movies. James will tell you all day that I was late, which I was.
Speaker 1: Yes.
BJ: But at the same time, I started late cuz somebody else dropped out of the uh the 10 slate that he was able to get money
James: He started for. a few days later than everybody else. It wasn't like weeks or We months.
BJ: We started months later.
James: It was like three days later.
BJ: It was it was it was at least 90. Um I think it was during the strike and everything too. So we were trying to figure out how everything worked um when we were trying to film uh cuz I think some of the movies at that point in time had already filmed. Like It you was had already had It people was
James: still COVID, wasn't it?
BJ: No, no, cuz I was in Vegas when it when
Speaker 1: 23 it was. 2023.
James: Yeah, it was still kind of COVID.
Speaker 1: It was like kind of COVID right before It was right before the SAG strike.
BJ: It actually Yeah, it was right before cuz that's what backed us up. We were ready to go on everything and then that happened and we were like, well, what do we do? Um that was kind of a a weird thing, but that is true. It was around that time because me and my husband who directs this podcast uh shout shout out James Runquist, went to Vegas, and in our flight to Vegas, and I don't think it was this trip, but it may have been, they took the mask man like
Speaker 1: Oh. like the
BJ: mask thing didn't have to you did not You
Speaker 1: have have
BJ: to to wear
Speaker 1: wear a
BJ: mask.
Speaker 1: a mask?
BJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The mandate, that's what I was looking for. Thank you for throwing that up on the screen because it's
Speaker 1: It's
BJ: fucking so stupid.
Speaker 1: hard.
BJ: Um, he's amazing. Um, but yeah, they they as soon as we walked into the hotel, the whole news was mandate just came off, and literally every worker in that hotel was like Yeah.
James: Do you know what's so surreal about the mask situation is like, you know, when I was making movies during it and I was meeting so many people for the first time only with a mask on, I had never met them before, like
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: crew members and stuff. And so like because you're not seeing like you know, half of their face,
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: you're imagining what the other half of their face looks like. And for some reason because the masks were pointy, I always imagined everybody's faces were more pointy than they were.
Speaker 1: Like
James: And like so whenever they took whenever everybody took off their masks, like in my mind I was like everything looked more smooshed in than I imagined because Did you
Speaker 1: forget what people look like or?
James: I had forgotten what people looked like. I thought they looked like bird people.
BJ: You you only knew real people from YouTube at that point time. You're like
Speaker 1: Everyone has beaks, right? Yeah,
James: I was like, oh yeah, but I imagined everybody beaky. Okay, maybe I have a very overactive imagination, I'm but I
Speaker 1: thinking
James: was
Speaker 1: like like
James: everybody went from or
Speaker 1: thinking
James: beaky of to pugs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thinking
BJ: everybody's like
Speaker 1: everybody looks pug like face. the crimson chin in your head, like
James: No, everybody looked like like like bird people in my mind, and then and then they became pugs when the masks were off because all of the faces were smooshed in.
BJ: And just to touch back in real quick cuz Danny is one of the dopest producers like that I've ever got to work with on the deal. Like she is so So let me just okay, so let me go back. We how we met was I got to go to this uh cool Beetlejuice
James: That's right.
BJ: uh sequel thing with James.
James: Yes. That
BJ: And right. and James took me to that, and it was super super fun, and Danny was there. Um, That
James: was fun. I remember Yeah. that.
BJ: And then we went to have Chinese food, and I had already met Danny during that time, but we were it was a it was a big group, so we didn't have a lot of time to like just conversate conversate during the Beetlejuice uh thing. We went to Chinese food afterwards.
James: Shout out that Chinese food spot too because that
BJ: Bang.
James: place is amazing.
BJ: So good.
James: Yeah, I learned about it from you.
Speaker 1: What is it called though?
James: It was just right across the street from like the Hollywood and Highland Center. It That's was just what right it was called. there. Hollywood and Highland Chinese. Whatever it is, but it's that that place was banger. It's really good.
Speaker 1: It's It
BJ: was so
Speaker 1: really
BJ: good. good.
James: I
BJ: Nobody think it had was the word in
James: dragon there. in it.
BJ: Yeah. Nobody nobody nobody knew how good this place was, and nobody was in it except for like maybe like one Chinese couple, and we were just like word. We went in there. It was unbelievable. And while I'm sitting at this table, I was like, Danny, you did Stupid Games, which is this phenomenal movie which we'll get into in a minute. But I go, you did the thing, and she goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm in the same group as you. Where's your movie? And this is how I always remember Danny cuz I was like, look at Danny throwing some shit at me about not not turning my movie in on time.
James: Danny always And throws
BJ: uh a
James: little bit of shade though.
Speaker 1: But like nicely, right?
BJ: It was It was It was great because also that restaurant was called Le Oriental Okay. Bistro. I believe that's what it was called. Oh,
Speaker 1: Le Oriental Bistro. Oh my god. Why
James: did I think it had the word dragon Where did you
Speaker 1: pull in it? that? Mhm. Oh my god, good job.
BJ: Yeah. We're going to pretend like that. It could be Dragon Le Oriental Bistro. But either way, I was almost intimidated to turn my movie in because my movie's very very gory, very very serial killer like heavy like real gory.
James: A lot of dicks getting cut A lot off. of
BJ: dicks getting cut off and stuff because Oh
James: really? Legitimate Let's dicks
Speaker 1: call
James: getting
Speaker 1: scissors. cut off?
BJ: Yeah, scissors it is. I know I know I knew I was going up another I guess another movie that was coming out with just porn stars. No pun intended like or no no shade cuz like do you.
James: There's another But
BJ: like
James: movie named Scissors with just porn stars which became a problem when the movie was released because the metadata across the two movies
BJ: Crossed
James: swapped. it all
BJ: up.
Speaker 1: Did you do this on purpose?
James: Yes, I did.
BJ: Oh shit.
James: It took Yeah, it took months for them to fix.
BJ: It's been Oh my it been a
Speaker 1: god.
BJ: It's been a crazy ride of of who's in who's movie and who directed what movie, and it was they got the producers right, but other than that you'd have to go through it and you'd be like that cast is not for the movie I'm about to watch on Oh. this particular platform.
Speaker 1: So like IMDB letter all of that was
BJ: No,
Speaker 1: wrong?
BJ: IMDB did great, but then Amazon it was Amazon It was
James: only on Amazon that it had the problem.
BJ: Amazon and Amazon was the first place that you really wanted to push people to because
Speaker 1: Yeah. that's what we
BJ: got.
Speaker 1: Well, it's also where people are actually It's
James: also
Speaker 1: paying.
James: connected to IMDB, so which Yeah. you think you'd think
Speaker 1: Yeah. it would have
James: gone
Speaker 1: Yeah, the that's
James: easiest true too. too.
BJ: And we sent so many messages with a distributor, with you, with us all being like, hey, that's wrong. I'll give you the entire list made up the exact way you need it for your dab. Like it it
James: Yeah.
BJ: you can copy and paste. And they would not change it and would not respond to any of the messages. It's
Speaker 1: just That's
James: just
Speaker 1: wild. wild
James: that it just takes so long
Speaker 1: Well, for
James: them
Speaker 1: in to
James: do
Speaker 1: my it. experience with I IMDB, like they update shit in a second. Yeah, and Amazon's just like, not my circus.
BJ: We so but now it's on Tubi. You can watch Scissors on Tubi.
Speaker 1: Yes.
BJ: But And
James: it with the right metadata.
BJ: With the right with the right metadata.
Speaker 1: But goodness. But
BJ: it was it was such a great uh opportunity to have to be able to make that movie, but I was intimidated by you because your movie was fucking so dope. Danny It was
Speaker 1: amazing. did
BJ: one of the dopest movies for that particular budget that you ever would have imagined. Stupid Games, it was so dope, and it's it's it's done so well in production value. It's done so well in the Stupid
James: Games,
BJ: you're yeah. the only person out of any That's true. of these slates, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like you're the only one out of any of these slates that actually did a PG-13 movie, like a movie that wouldn't be super R rated.
James: Yeah, yeah, for sure. All of them are much more R rated. But one thing I will pivot on real quick just to say one little non sequitur comment, but when you were saying Danny throws shade, I mean, I met her mom and and definitely she got it from her mom. The first time I meet her mom is at the premiere of Stupid Games, she introduces me to her mom, and the first thing her mom goes, oh oh you you financed the movie? You're you're James? And I was like, yeah. She goes, so when are you going to start paying my daughter?
BJ: Oh shit. Oh shit. And I
James: was like, oh man.
Speaker 1: Oh.
James: That was my Have
Speaker 1: a wonderful bad. night, Ms. Runquist.
BJ: I said I said that asshole No, I
James: love
BJ: called
James: her. me That was I thought it was funny. I No. started laughing, but Erica that was amazing.
Speaker 1: Erica But
James: she and definitely threw some shade, and Oh, I'm for like sure. that's where Danny gets it.
BJ: That's Apple Apple right next to the tree on that situation. But That now
Speaker 1: me you and my mom are the same
James: Apple
Speaker 1: Apple.
James: meets tree.
Speaker 1: We share we share a brain cell. We share an Yeah. Apple core. Yeah, we are the same person.
James: But come on, that was funny.
Speaker 1: That no, it was funny. It was I mean, Yeah, and honestly it's hilarious, but oh sorry.
BJ: You did the same We thing.
James: promised we were paying her on Forget About It.
BJ: You were perfect on the shade. Like you were perfect. You were just like, okay, well like where is your movie at? Like I want to see your movie. You can see mine on some things. Mine's done.
Speaker 1: Mine's done.
BJ: And like I remember just random comments throughout the night like at the Chinese restaurant Danny would be like, yeah, yeah, cuz yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz mine's done. Mine's Cuz done.
Speaker 1: my movie's out and it's on streaming, and I turned mine in in September, and it's March, and
BJ: Where where where did that concept come up? Did you have that script before the James Oh,
James: I
BJ: Scissors thought you of
James: meant the
BJ: Investment?
James: concept of turning it on on time. Oh, I
Speaker 1: thought you meant the concept Oh no. of me being an asshole.
BJ: That's three separate things, Ray Fans. Three.
James: That's how interpretation of a moment can change.
BJ: Let me cross the person.
Speaker 1: Um, well so I do want to give a shout out to to my two creative partners on Stupid Games, Tanner Adams who wrote the screenplay, and Nicholas Wendell who Who's
James: been on the podcast. Has
Speaker 1: he been on the podcast?
BJ: Yeah, he has. Yeah. Oh
Speaker 1: hell yeah.
BJ: Nick's amazing.
Speaker 1: He's the best. I'm going to see him later. I actually want to see both of them later. They're taking me to see Practical Magic for the first time.
James: Oh, you've never seen Practical It's Magic?
Speaker 1: vaginal It
James: would
Speaker 1: shocking be
James: your
Speaker 1: information. favorite
James: movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. Yeah,
James: that's such a you movie. Oh
Speaker 1: what? That's Oh, I thought we were
James: She said where is it playing? Is it at the
Speaker 1: Have done that too with them.
James: Is it playing at the Hollywood Forever?
Speaker 1: It is. Yeah.
James: Oh yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: So I don't Oh
BJ: yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited, but I like
BJ: Oh, your Cemetery movie
Speaker 1: Yeah. coming out
BJ: then.
James: What a great movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Nicholas was on the podcast, and I'm sure he talked about Stupid Games too.
James: Yes, Um, very in depth.
Speaker 1: he he and I go really far back like to when we were 19 years old in college, and we met in school, and um he was kind of like the guy in school who like had a knack for horror. Like I think a lot of people in college they really want to do like those cerebral like film students sort of movies. And like Nicholas was like, I 'm going to do something smart, but also scary. And he made this really awesome Slender Man movie, and I always knew him as like the horror guy. And then right after college he and I made a little horror short series. Um, it was like a interactive web series before Bandersnatch. Choose your own adventure, it was very cool. Um, and I kind of from that point was like I just want to make horror shit with this guy. Like if I'm going to do it, it's going to be with Nicholas. James called me at 11:00 p.m. on like honestly a pretty bad night for me. I don't know what was going on. I'm on Prozac, guys. It's amazing, but I wasn't then. I was crying. I was like at home. James calls me in the middle of the night goes, hey, like I 'm doing this thing, explains this $7,000 budget sort of thing, which is more money than I've ever
James: I didn't randomly just call you at You 11:00. did. We were talking before that night No, no, and
Speaker 1: no, I
James: was
Speaker 1: I like like the story better that you just randomly called me at 11:00. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's true, but it was we were talk we were texting. We
James: Yeah, were
BJ: texting. yeah, yeah,
James: no, I
BJ: And
James: just want to make it clear I don't just randomly call people at
Speaker 1: At 11:00
James: 11:00 p.m. at night like answer my call. Here's a job.
Speaker 1: But it was it was You you it was
BJ: kind of do. You kind of do.
Speaker 1: It We
BJ: literally was kind had of a
Speaker 1: awesome
BJ: discussion though. where he was like you I called you.
Speaker 1: I was like having a bad night. I was talking to my friend, and you know, like we were texting, and then um yeah, you called me, and then I picked up and you're like, hey, I 'm doing this thing, you know, the $7,000 movie like I don't know what you program or slate or whatever you want to call it. Um, and I'd never been handed money to just go and like make something that I get to make. Like it's been sure like you get hired to make stuff, but like no one's ever been like, here's money, come back to me with your thing later. And by the way, I need it in 5 months. Like that was the that was the the the caveat. I was like I need it in 5 months from now. And I don't I I don't push deadlines.
BJ: No, you definitely don't. Working working for you at this point in time, which is how I put this movie It's not that
Speaker 1: how I
BJ: was it about
Speaker 1: is, to do but
BJ: on things. Like Danny is so on top of it. Like it's crazy. Your organization skills
Speaker 1: That's really nice of you to say I
James: love cuz
Speaker 1: sometimes that. I'm like uh
James: Danny Danny called me during the process too and was like, you know, James like she was so nervous and and sad. She was like, James, we we've gone over budget. I was like, oh god, how how bad is it? And she's like, it's it's about 3 I was like 3,000. She's like $300. And I was like, Danny, I'll just give you $300. She was like, oh okay.
Speaker 1: Really?
James: She yeah, but she was like she thought it was like the end of the world. I was like, yeah, I'll just give you 300 bucks. Like what?
Speaker 1: You say You say $7,000 in 5 months on $7,000 in 5 months, not $7,300 in 5 months and 4 days, which
James: Yeah, is so technically actually also
Speaker 1: what it's it was. It was 5 months and 4 days.
James: it's not as uh it's not as catchy uh that it's a $7,300
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
James: but it was a $7,300
BJ: That's that's that's insane. And then what you produced out of it was so good because it like to me your game with in the trailer when I originally saw it I was like that game footage Yeah. looks
James: Yeah, the game
BJ: unbelievable. is amazing.
James: I
Speaker 1: That's
James: still can't believe they haven't released the game cuz they talked about doing that, and I thought that
Speaker 1: Yeah. was super
James: cool.
Speaker 1: Well, so that I kind of to go back to kind of like what it was, right? So it's like me and Nicholas and and and Tanner we would get together and we would like be like, okay, we have 5 months to turn in a whole movie. We don't have a script. What are we going to do? And we threw around a million ideas, and at somehow I think the the idea um Scary Game of Life came up like, oh, we should take like Jumanji, right? Like Mhm. take the Game of Life and then like make it real, and bad things happen to you, you know, like and we were like, well how do we do that on a small scale in my apartment? By the way, that was my apartment. And um
James: Yes, high high high production high value. high
Speaker 1: production volume, my apartment. We painted the walls to make it look better. And like it's just like how do you make this interesting? And so we did we made up a game, and to be completely honest with you, I don't think I understand the rules, and there's like a whole scene where like we are explaining the rules, and it's really long, and it's like super convoluted, and actually it's hilarious because everyone's just sort of like okay, I'm sure we'll figure it out. Like it's like
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: so I almost feel like that's the reason why it can't be a physical game is cuz it really is very much a it's truth or dare with a little bit of like never have I ever. Like it's one of those like get to know you type of games, but we threw in like a demon and a possessed board game pieces and everything starts moving on its own, and that was the interesting part more Yeah. so than the rules of the game. I
BJ: was like, how did you That do was it? And you were like magnets.
James: The one thing I find really strange about like being friends with you and knowing you uh is outside of um like work how many ways our lives intersect in different ways that
Speaker 1: Mhm.
James: like we we're not even like aware of. And and it just comes out of nowhere like I was hanging out with Abra and became really good friends with Abra, and then you were like, stop, how do you know Abra? And then Abra was her counselor in summer camp Which is when she
BJ: wild was
James: a shit. kid. Shout out Abra because we love you.
Speaker 1: Shout When out she Abra. was a
James: kid, I'm like
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: what?
Speaker 1: I mean, she's yeah, she's a couple years older than me,
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: and like we went to the same summer camp, and she was she was our unit leader. Our camp counselor sounds better.
James: And then I And then I started randomly talking to our puppet girl Jackie uh about uh and and I get a phone call from Danny, and she's like, FaceTime me, FaceTime me right now. And I'm like, no, I'm in the middle of stuff. She's like, just do it. And so I like I'm like, why? You're being weird. And so I FaceTime her, and she's there with Jackie while I'm talking While you're to
Speaker 1: talking
James: her, to her. and I 'm like, what? How did that even happen? How is that possible?
Speaker 1: Cuz we're both bubbly people, and we talk to everybody, and everyone's our friend. And then like uh we also are like, oh wait, you're a friend and cool and creative and awesome. How do we make shit together and call that work? You know, like
James: Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why. but
James: it's but it's wild
BJ: Yeah,
James: how our
BJ: lives do
James: so many different things where it's like, of course you know Danny. Like if somebody tells me they know you, I'm like, yep, no, I believe it. I believe it. Danny just somehow knows everybody I know.
BJ: I'll be throwing your name out now like over the last like few weeks. I'll be like, yeah, Danny like Dani Abraham or I'll just like and I just wait, and I'm like, please just say that you already know cuz I composed everybody for this new movie that we're doing. Everybody's trying to like throw their resume into the hat.
James: Oh yeah. Well, I love Those that. are the things. That's
BJ: So
James: great.
BJ: I'm like, look, the only thing I can tell you is that you have to talk to Danny if Danny looks I
Speaker 1: just found
BJ: Scissors
Speaker 1: out of that there's a girl who works at Surreal with my name.
James: Oh, the other Danny?
Speaker 1: Dani Abraham.
James: No, that's Dena Abraham.
Speaker 1: Dena Abraham.
James: Uber Ham.
BJ: Uber Ham.
James: That's Dena Abraham.
BJ: Everybody knows the name.
Speaker 1: Um yeah I found that out also yesterday. I I was in some weird fifth dimension yesterday where everything was happening. I found that out. I found out that my coworker might be stealing cars. I don't know, but
James: Yeah. no, everything's
Speaker 1: fine. Everything's fine. So
James: Yeah, right after the Mercury retrograde, too. I
Speaker 1: know.
James: It
Speaker 1: What's
James: didn't going happen on? during it.
Speaker 1: I know.
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But yeah, anyways, I I do find that I'm a pretty social person, so which is a problem when you have to work at a place where you're supposed to be quiet.
James: You also directed a feature at the age of 16 years old.
Speaker 1: It was a little older. It was 18.
James: 18 years old. Was
BJ: that your first?
James: She never released it.
Speaker 1: I just found it.
James: You just found release it.
Speaker 1: Literally
James: Release it. Release just it.
Speaker 1: found
James: Release it. it. I Release will
Speaker 1: not it. I will not
James: Release it.
Speaker 1: When I say just found it, I mean last like Monday found it.
James: Oh, you're releasing this.
Speaker 1: And I was plugging in an old hard drive from high school just like looking for I was looking for like old like home videos. I was like maybe it's on this hard drive. I opened it up. I have this folder Young Filmmakers Club. I go no way.
James: Why are you not releasing it?
Speaker 1: Because
James: Get Aubrey to premiere it at Fantastic Fest.
Speaker 1: James, this is maybe the worst I mean like I don't want to say it's bad cuz like everything in life is arbitrarily good or bad, right? But
James: Let's release it. I 'll give you $7,000 for
Speaker 1: Deal. it. Sold. $30 million?
James: I'll give
Speaker 1: Sold. you
James: seven
Speaker 1: Handshake grand for it.
James: You
Speaker 1: done. give me
James: sight unseen. Give me the movie.
Speaker 1: Knowing Aaron, and it's so funny, too. The name of the movie is Knowing Aaron, and then the the the thing that like made my like brain kind of tickle is I have a movie coming out. Um we're premiering at the San Diego Out Festival next month. Um and the the movie's called Meeting Marsha, and I was like oh Meeting Marsha kind of sounds like Knowing Aaron, and now I 'm like
James: Sounds like a double feature. Release Yeah. the movie.
BJ: Knowing Aaron, Meeting One of them. Marsha.
James: Release the files. Release the files, Danny. Release the files.
Speaker 1: Knowing Aaron final final final final .mp4.
BJ: That's wild cuz like you also How did you come about on the Meeting Marsha movie? Like is that that's something you just produced and We it's
Speaker 1: produced like that last year. It's coming out.
James: You had a movie at Slamdance that you just produced.
Speaker 1: It was a show uh yeah pilot like a short. Yeah, I was like a line producer on that. Um I got pulled on, and then um that actually won the jury um
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: award, Grand Jury Award, which was
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: really awesome. It's a great It's a great pilot. Um Vicky Wakes Up. Victoria Blade wrote, directed, starred in it. She's amazing. She's so cool. She's got awesome music. Go listen to it. What
BJ: was that called?
Speaker 1: Uh Vicky Wakes Up.
BJ: Dude, that's all those titles kind of sound similar like Vicky Wakes Up.
James: It's always the name of somebody doing something, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Knowing Aaron, Stupid Games.
BJ: Stupid Games just sounds great, though. Okay, so we should go back to that.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
BJ: Um you directed that with Nick.
Speaker 1: I I co-directed it, but I really want to give Nick his flowers. He like is what I was trying to say earlier when I'm like he's the horror guy. He like that stuff like runs in like his blood. Like he is the If you're like I have a vibe that I 'm trying to hit, he he's got you, and we were like we want to make this 90s vibe, and so when I say like he directed I would say it was like 75 25 like in terms of like my vision and his vision. His vision was so strong, and it really shines through, and I 'm so proud of him, and actually his very next feature that he got to direct was a million dollar budget,
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: which is incredible. Um and it's clear because he was able to take $7,000 and like put that in a way that looked like a million dollars.
James: Do you think making the $7,000 movie has helped you be able to go on and do other stuff? I think
Speaker 1: so. I think that what 's funny about it is the amount of people who reach out to me how did you make your first feature? And I was like I just did it cuz $7,000 is $0.
James: Oh, yeah. You just But it's But it's it's it's the thing that propels you to just
Speaker 1: Yeah.
James: go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like oh now I have money to pay for food
James: Yep. for
Speaker 1: my crew.
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like that was what it was. It was just like I was You should just going be
James: living to get
Speaker 1: my in
James: your own apartment on
Speaker 1: Same Like I should have. No, I got I got our our our good friends um Eliza and Oh,
James: yeah. Yeah, yeah. Eliza Yeah. and Eric Roberts.
Speaker 1: Yeah,
James: Yeah, of they and course.
Speaker 1: oh my god. Cindy Okay,
James: they would. Yeah, Cindy. She's There's a lifesaver.
BJ: Shut
Speaker 1: oh
BJ: up my god. with that. They are the They They You just are had them the on best. set, too, didn't you?
James: Yeah, they they do they do every movie of mine, and they literally sent me a a giant case of pickles because they know I love pickles on like the the wrap of the the last movie I had. Incredible. I love
Speaker 1: them. I love them.
James: Incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
BJ: It's amazing.
James: A lot Actually one thing to clarify a lot of people randomly ask me uh why Eric Roberts was in um Darkness of Man for literally 1 second just saying I'll take a taco at the taco truck scene uh in the movie,
Speaker 1: Uh-huh.
James: and that's just because he was on set that day
Speaker 1: Incredible. uh
James: bringing the stuff and and Love
Speaker 1: that.
James: with with Cindy and and and the daughter and and Jean-Claude Van Damme literally was like Eric Roberts is like my favorite actor like Runaway Train like all this stuff and he was talking about that, and I was like you know he's here right now, and he's like what? And so he went up to went up to him and was like you have to be in the movie, and I was like there's nothing for him to play, and Eric was like well I could just do this, and I was like go ahead, and so like literally we put him in, and I I was awesome. I love that he did, but so many people are like why is Eric just in this out of nowhere for one word? And I was like uh because he was there, and we thought it was cool.
Speaker 1: Jean-Claude Van Damme fan girling over Eric Roberts is amazing.
BJ: Mhm. He
James: loved Runaway Train.
Speaker 1: I love that.
James: And the Pope of Greenwich Village. Yeah.
BJ: Mhm.
James: Shout out.
Speaker 1: I also love how much he loves movies.
BJ: Mhm.
James: Eric Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Cuz
James: What a what a legend. Yeah,
BJ: He
James: what a he
BJ: did
James: great us guy.
BJ: He did us a favor because of James for Scissors.
James: Yeah, he 's in Scissors.
Speaker 1: Oh, he is? I got a
BJ: Yeah. So we did we did we did like he did a really cool mayor role, and James was like yo he would kill this, and I was like we can't get Eric to do that. There's no way, and he was like yeah we we you Let me talk, and like it it worked out really well um on
James: You came it. straight from the airport to your set.
BJ: It was a It was such a wild situation. He was He He was so dope. Like we filmed it uh we filmed it uh in Vision. And um
Speaker 1: Love that space.
BJ: Uh I do too. Uh shout out Vision. Like thank you. Um we we were there for hours because his flight got moved from Burbank Airport to LAX coming in. So we were thought you know hey he 's flying into Burbank. Um he 's going to be here in like 30 minutes once he gets off that flight. They moved the flight to land at LAX, and so he had 2 hours of hanging out. So we were all trying to figure out like what can we do? What can we film here? Cuz Vision is so amazing. They have so many unique sets that you can grab footage from really really quickly once you rent it especially when nobody else is there. Um but yeah he uh he showed up, and like dude he is the best Q card reader I've ever seen in my whole life. But we did Q cards for him because it was not fair for us to to do you know he he's doing us a favor. So we did these amazing Q cards for for him, and uh I never saw anybody deliver a performance like that where he could just read those Q cards so amazingly easy.
Speaker 1: He should be on SNL.
BJ: And they were they were set up around the room, too. So he would just be like boom I know. Dude, him on SNL would be phenomenal, and then yeah when he comes in, he's so sweet, so nice, and we were so appreciative cuz that's such a big actor to have on a movie that's not a lot of money, and then he came in, and he like sat with my husband, and uh and was basically like all right we're going to underline this. We're going to circle this, and he just went with his Sharpie all over the cards. He was like here's what I want to do. I want to do this. I want to do that, and then he just knocked out maybe three or four different rounds of that.
Speaker 1: Wow.
BJ: The hardest part of the whole scene was I mean there's multiple cameras, but the the hardest part of the scene was to make sure that those Q cards could get removed fast enough as he is going through those situations. I'm just standing there being like
Speaker 1: Flip it. Flip it.
BJ: grabbing and trying not to make a noise for
Speaker 1: Sure.
BJ: that as well. Oh my
Speaker 1: god. You
BJ: know what I mean? And then Eric was great. He was like don't shoot me from below. I don't like that. I'm sorry. Sorry, man. He said don't shoot me from below.
James: Eric loves being on movie sets, so it's kind of amazing. You know he's like he goes from set to set to set. I remember I did a a movie with him uh Sally Floss that he would um he acted in.
Speaker 1: Emily Pierce production designer.
James: Yeah, exactly, and I was like hey uh this was during COVID, and I was like hey Eric it's a really small role like it it's just like one monologue. Can Can you do it? And he was like I can, but how small is it? Like how much time do you actually need? And I was like well I don't want to insult you, and he 's like no no no I I really need to know because I 'm filming two other movies that day. So how much time do you actually need? And I was like I could get you in and out in an hour, and he 's like I 'll be there, and so he literally was in and out in an hour, and I was like yes.
Speaker 1: Three movies in one Yes, day. three
James: movies one day. I was like yes.
Speaker 1: What a guy.
James: What a legend. He just loves working and doing stuff. It's so amazing. It's yeah.
BJ: We we got an extra scene out of him. Like he was going to do this whole mayor thing that's that at this podium and it's great and like all the photography stuff happens and it's great. Boom boom boom done, and then all of a sudden he's just hanging for a little bit, and we're like could we get you to have like make a phone call in this conference room for things? And he was like sure, and he's just like and he just gets on it, and he like knocks it out. It's fucking awesome, and then he was like I'm going to go home. He was like bye, and I was like this is I great. love
Speaker 1: that. That's amazing.
BJ: And then congratulations on Dancing with the Stars, too. Like that's just super sick. Um
James: Somebody who's truly the lifeblood of indie film like Eric lending his name and his time to just every indie filmmaker in Los Angeles is like you know what a legend.
Speaker 1: Seriously that's what I mean. I love how much he loves films. Like
James: Yeah, dude dude deserves his flowers like nobody else. You know he really has done That done whole
BJ: family
James: favors I
BJ: mean
James: for sure. Cindy hooking people up you know her daughter everybody with with catering and stuff that family is amazing.
Speaker 1: Grace yeah. Everyone should cater from Grace. Grace Catering LA.
BJ: Oh, Grace Catering LA. I know now we just I I want to just figure out weird things that we can like put Eric in anytime for things just
James: I feel like you should just always have Eric. Eric should be Eric should be a requirement to have Eric We need in your movie. being
Speaker 1: John Malkovich, but being Eric Roberts.
James: I know, right? It's like the new the new thing we should do a reality show with that. Um but I love Eric. I love you man if you're watching this.
BJ: Yeah, thank you for everything. Um what could what got you into this industry period? Like when did you start wanting to be in the entertainment industry? Like how did that all work? Give me a Give me a Danny Young.
Speaker 1: Such a I mean well that's the funny thing, too, is it's like I I went to summer camp, and I There was a video hug. We called it hug because we're Jewish, and is activity in Hebrew. Um there was a video hug run by
James: Aubrey?
Speaker 1: Aubrey Perry.
James: What?
Speaker 1: And
James: Shout out Obs.
Speaker 1: that's so funny. So I mean like I kind of just always loved watching movies, and the idea of making movies was really cool to me. Um I was also a shockingly a theater kid. Um and I you know I did like the plays in middle school, and I did them at camp also, and you know the the the reality is like I think acting is really awesome and fun. I'm not an actor.
James: I don't know. You were pretty good as the theater docent. Let's You let's know what? hear the line. Let's hear the line.
Speaker 1: If everyone can please uh take a seat. Wait, what was the line?
James: I don't
Speaker 1: It know was the Oh line. no it was uh ladies and gentlemen And I remember it. It's
James: Intermission
Speaker 1: ladies to and gentlemen. We are now taking a break for intermission.
BJ: Killed it.
Speaker 1: No. Nailed it.
BJ: Nailed it.
Speaker 1: Um but yeah so I mean I got I was a theater kid, and then you know I decided that acting was like not it for me, and I started doing stage crew, and I loved building sets for the plays, and I did that, and then I moved um from uh Connecticut which we were living right outside of New York City, and then my parents moved me to Minnesota, worst thing ever. Can you imagine moving midway through middle school from like a suburb of New York City to Minnesota? I just kind of was like I need to find like friends who are also like theater kids and and and film kids, and like it was really hard for me to find that that community, and when I moved to Minnesota, I went to the TV the TV studio like every high school has like a you know weekly news show, and I was like my my dream is to make a movie, and I really want And I was trying to do this in my high school in Connecticut, and it just never panned out, but I was like I want to make a movie, and I want to make a club, and I started this club at my school called Young Filmmakers Club, and he was like oh you got to meet this kid Jack and this kid Adam, and they'll join the the club, and me, Jack, and Adam we were the first first three members of this club, and we're like like guys we're going to make a movie, and
James: And and that that was was the the movie.
Speaker 1: stuff the movie Knowing Aaron which is so I I won't be doing that. Well $8,000.
James: I said seven. Why is it Why is it Why
Speaker 1: Cuz is
James: it
Speaker 1: every time you tell me it's going to the price goes up.
James: It's $6,000.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I I made that, and then I was like I want to go to film school. I want to go to film school. My parents like you're not going to film school. People don't make films. That's not like a thing that people do. You can go to broadcast journalism. You can go to school and major in broadcast journalism. How
James: did your parents think movies got made?
Speaker 1: I don't I literally Do you want to ask Erica again? She'll give you some sassy answer. She
James: No.
Speaker 1: She
James: I don't want her to hate me.
Speaker 1: No, she loves you James. No, she uh I honestly like was like I'm I want to do film, and my mom's like you're going to be a starving artist and uh you know do you want to do that? Why don't you go into advertising? Why don't you go into broadcast journalism and produce the news? And I was like the news is sad, and I don't want to go into advertising because it's evil, and um it was right about both of those things.
BJ: What What's up? What's been your dream forever, though? Like what do you want to do?
James: Scooby-Doo.
Speaker 1: Oh, would love to do Scooby-Doo.
James: No, really that is that is her dream.
Speaker 1: That is my dream. My dream is Scooby-Doo. No, well yeah, but like my dream is to make movies and to make movies forever.
BJ: What is your dream situation to do? Like what do you want to do like career wise or like movie wise You know or I'd
Speaker 1: love to run a production company. I'd love to find I want to make family content like It's so great Like when you're saying Scooby-Doo or like I mean my dream job or my dream movie to make is Airbud, you know I Oh love
BJ: my god that's my husband's dream movie.
Speaker 1: James?
BJ: James. Sorry. Sorry. He loves Airbud more than
Speaker 1: They are rebooting it. They just announced it. Oh, I'm so excited. I just like love I love Otis Bud? Otis Bud.
BJ: What? That's so crazy between you two. That's wild. He loves
Speaker 1: I some
BJ: Airbud. love
Speaker 1: It's just I feel like when I was a kid I watched so many movies with my family, with my parents, and like that was a bonding experience for like me and my mom. Like we watched Lizzie McGuire together. We watched The Sandlot together. And like my dad and I we've watched like Scream together. Like we Those are like the things that bonded me and my parents. And like my dream is like to make content for kids that like not only is for them, but also for their parents.
BJ: That's so I cool. mean
Speaker 1: and maybe that's kind of how Stupid Games became a little bit less R hard R because we were I I was making it for me. I wasn't making it for you know. We were making it for like ourselves. And like that's the kind of content I would rather watch rather than like really gross gory horror stuff. And not no shade, no knock to it. But that's the reason why And
BJ: you got so much awesome press for I'm watching this with my daughter. I'm watching this with my son.
Speaker 1: That was crazy.
BJ: Like I'm watching it with my with my child. Like
James: You guys got more letter box than some of my bigger movies.
Speaker 1: And we got a lot of letter box reviews. Some people hate it, but like keep engaging, you know.
BJ: I mean and for the budget, like it's different when you're going to make something that's I say this because I think Obsession's amazing, but I saw I told you this on the phone the other day where I was just like, hey like I love Obsession. And like shout out to everybody who created something that's so amazingly awesome. But at the same time I go, man I know filmmakers that would do that same thing for that budget. I'm just going to be an honest. Like I don't want to be mean about it, but like I know people that would if you give us $600,000 and you Oh give
Speaker 1: yeah.
BJ: us you know X amount of cash like Oh my
Speaker 1: god, if I had $750,000 these You
BJ: know Yeah. Yeah yeah both of you. Both of you would be my like go to people to be like yo and Nick
Speaker 1: Yeah
BJ: too to yeah. be like hey like if you have that and I'll throw James Connealy into the mix as well I think as as as that type of of group. It's wild.
James: But also I would go as far as to say like if they had I mean you know not Obsession numbers, but you know just the exact same movie of Stupid Game if it was in every AMC theaters like all the movie theaters and and the same marketing budget as Obsession, that movie would have done millions.
BJ: 100%
James: You know what I mean? Like it's it's having that marketing Yeah. behind it is also what helped propel that. So And
BJ: right.
James: and the availability.
Speaker 1: Yeah, You know it what was
James: I mean?
Speaker 1: accessible.
James: It was accessible and in every theater. Like you know and that's not to knock on Obsession. I think it's a great movie. But I do think some of these indie films could do serious numbers in theaters if they were actually put in theaters with a marketing budget behind them. And Right. and they they
BJ: 100% aren't
James: given them. So they get written off a lot more often when they're just straight to streaming. Because people look at them and they're like, oh this is a you know a little indie movie on Tubi or this or that.
BJ: Mhm.
James: If you see a movie in a theater, you automatically go this is a movie.
BJ: No, you're you're right. But and and then and I'm not scaling this down in any level, but I felt that same way with you know because none of our movies could go to theaters for what we were able to do for the budget and and our circumstances on making these from James. But yours went to CW. Which Oh like yeah. blew But my brain. that was pretty
Speaker 1: cool.
BJ: You like It I was It like
Speaker 1: felt really cool cuz I told my cast I was like I was like you guys are in the CW. That's hot. Like you know like you have to be a certain level of attractive to
James: Yeah. be
Speaker 1: on the CW. And I was like my cast is CW hot. Hell yeah. I was very proud of them.
James: And you guys are doing a year later screening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're doing a screen Oh my gosh. Oh my god, in two weeks, August 15th. So
James: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know when this comes out, but yeah we're screening here in LA. If you're around, come see it. $12.
James: Mhm. Yeah. Please
Speaker 1: help us pay for the theater. Um
BJ: Where but can they watch the movie also? Where
Speaker 1: Well after it's we're taking it off only until August 15th and I'm just kidding.
James: It's on Tubi. It's
BJ: on Tubi.
James: Yeah.
BJ: But you want to watch it with It's on a
Speaker 1: Tubi.
BJ: crowd.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
James: Watch a movie in a theater with a crowd. Watch a born indie film.
BJ: In case this comes out in a month from now
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah. You're right you're right you're right. It's it's accessible on Tubi. It's on the the CW streaming app. It's on Prime Amazon Prime Video. Amazon.
James: Anywhere you would rent the
Speaker 1: Anywhere movie. you would rent the You movie. should
BJ: have a DVD for this thing. I'm just saying. I'm just I
Speaker 1: did
BJ: saying.
Speaker 1: make a DVD case
BJ: Where of that. like opens up into a game and play your own game on the thing. Don't get me started. Should we make another movie?
Speaker 1: Should we make another movie? Oh my god, we should. Forget about it.
BJ: Yeah. Um we are all three of us are making
James: Pre-production this
BJ: movie. right
James: now. Yeah.
BJ: And pre-production for for a movie that is phenomenally awesome. We've been trying to make this movie forever.
James: Yeah.
BJ: Um just because James's dad wrote a Gordon Ressick wrote an amazing script. It was always something that we ever since I got to read it years ago, it was phenomenal. People I've showed it to it they've all been like good shit. Like it's hard to find good written scripts.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
BJ: And this script is phenomenally done. And and James came to us and he goes, hey we were always going to do this live action. Like that was the original plan to do this movie. Um and James goes, I had a dream. I want to do it puppet.
Speaker 1: I love And he's that. like
BJ: he's like I want to do a puppet. And at first I want a plane. And I go I look back at James. James is behind me, my husband. I go, huh? Puppet? I was like like and I I thought I was like James is fucking with us man. Cuz you don't never know. Sometimes James will just be like, oh I left the restaurant when you're going to meet him at the restaurant. And he's like, no I didn't leave the restaurant. Fuck him.
James: I always go like as weird as possible with my dad's scripts though because like I feel like I'm able to like that's my creative license of almost like telling his stories. You know and and and he was such an eccentric creative organic person. Um like if you see murder anyone all of the stuff we did visually did not exist in the script and wasn't done that way in the play. That's just how I interpreted his work, but I kept the words the same.
BJ: Mhm. Okay got it. Got it.
Speaker 1: I love love that by the way the all the different styles and versions.
James: Yeah.
BJ: Same. We're doing something similar with forget about it. And just to clarify like these were scripts that were plays before they were now feature films.
James: Yes.
BJ: And I think that's what's so amazing about this. Like they're they're written in a way that is I don't know it's almost like people don't write that way anymore. Uh whether like no matter what like the comedy like there's a few scripts that Gordon has that are just absolutely phenomenal and somehow another more today relevant than they were when he would have wrote them in my opinion of things. Yeah. It's got this vibe. So it's for us three to be able to work on this where I was like oh my gosh like Danny is such an amazing producer. Like will we ever get to work with Danny? And then James calling me and being like I want to do this movie, but I want to do this movie as a puppet uh situation because this is the reason why I think it would work which we should let him talk about. But then at the same point in time I want Danny to produce it. That's what he said. And he was just like yeah I want Danny to produce this movie. And I was like yes we get to work with Danny. That was my whole like goal since that night at that restaurant of being like your movie done yet? All things I was like you know what Danny's going to get this shit done. Well
James: Danny's Danny's a powerhouse. I have always believed in Danny. I've always loved her abilities and and she's been such a badass. And and I think that she's been involved in some of the most important projects of my career. So I think that that's I think that it's really special and uh and we have a a very height emotional bond in that way. And um and I I love that we get to do this stuff together.
BJ: That's for sure. Like you're going to like you've done Have you guys have done what three projects now really together? This will be the fourth?
James: Yeah. Yeah, but we talk a lot. We talk a lot. I feel like I'm I feel like I'm involved in all the projects that that I have nothing to do with it. And I'm sure she feels the same about mine cuz I'm talking to her the whole time. So I
Speaker 1: love it.
BJ: Oh that
James: Yeah, I
BJ: deal
James: was though. the one who called the cops. No I'm I'm joking. Unfortunately we are getting to the end of the episode. So we'll have to have you come back on. Um we have so much we have so much more to talk about. Maybe we'll do it after we're done filming. Forget about it cuz we'll have We could do a forget about it episode and talk about Yeah maybe we'll have you and Jackie. Um before we jump uh what advice do you have for people that want to be uh
BJ: Oh yeah.
James: badass lady producer?
BJ: Mhm.
Speaker 1: Um honest I think I said it earlier. Um if you're like I want to make a movie what like what is stopping you? Make your movie. Like I I think it took me it took me a long time to figure that out too, but like you know you gave me that small amount of money very small amount of money which paid for some food. And then I made my movie and I've been working as a producer full time as a producer since which is amazing cuz I was you know that was the dream. So um make your movie.
James: Sometimes it's that nudge of somebody believing in you enough just to give you something. I remember my grandma put money behind me and it was $100 that she put. But but the fact that she believed in me enough to do that made me go I got to make this $100 mean something. Yeah
Speaker 1: and the
James: You
Speaker 1: $100 know was $100 you didn't have.
James: Exactly.
Speaker 1: And now you got to make something with it.
BJ: And we should definitely do another episode of the thing cuz you got the same thing out of it. Like I use James's money with a little bit of my own to try to prove a point to myself where I was like man I don't know if I want to direct a movie, but I'm like I want to direct something just to see.
Speaker 1: To see if I can do it. Right. And that's the thing too like there were no stakes. Like the the the the stakes were high in my head, but there were no stakes like really. Right? Like if I made a trash movie, then I made a trash movie.
BJ: Same.
Speaker 1: But like somehow To get
BJ: that opportunity yeah. that you're not paying $7,000 out of
Speaker 1: Yeah your
BJ: pocket
Speaker 1: yeah.
BJ: to do And is you
Speaker 1: learn
BJ: phenomenal. and
Speaker 1: everything's a learning Yeah.
BJ: It's nice.
James: Let me ask you this live live on the podcast. Um you want to be a uh like a a studio head and all that stuff, right? Uh or or run your own production company. Um and as an alumni of this and knowing how how much it does for for filmmakers, do you want to help me pick next year's 12?
Speaker 1: Yeah actually.
BJ: Oh my gosh, is that a thing? Oh shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah You want to I
James: help
Speaker 1: would. me
James: pick next year's 12 filmmakers?
Speaker 1: Yes I would.
BJ: All right, we'll do
Speaker 1: Oh it
BJ: together. I
Speaker 1: I would love that.
BJ: Oh my gosh, We'll do it
James: together. that would be sick. That would be
BJ: Oh
Speaker 1: yeah.
BJ: uh
Speaker 1: Wait really? I would love
BJ: Yeah.
Speaker 1: that.
BJ: That would be If sick. you're going
James: to help me pick next year's 12
BJ: That would be super
James: Okay. super
BJ: awesome. You
James: heard it here first guys.
Speaker 1: DM You
James: don't
Speaker 1: me.
James: have to just wow me. You 're going to have to wow Danny. DM her. DM
Speaker 1: me.
James: Get out of my DMs. How can people find you on socials?
Speaker 1: Um I'm on Instagram.
BJ: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pretty much only on Instagram at Danny Aib. I also post TikToks of my dog
BJ: Mhm.
Speaker 1: at Danny Aib.
BJ: A lot of It's it's dog heavy channel.
Speaker 1: Yeah But
BJ: now I we know
Speaker 1: tweet
BJ: about uh Airbud. So
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll get to I have three personality traits just to be really clear. It's it's dogs, movies, Jewish. And
BJ: I love we
Speaker 1: talked about all of them today. So
BJ: What is what is your what is your eye what is your uh uh Instagram say? It says
Speaker 1: An uh
James: ice cream. She forgot ice cream.
Speaker 1: And I
James: love And I
Speaker 1: love ice ice cream. cream too.
BJ: I love ice cream too. What is it? It's it's
James: Yeah.
BJ: yeah same And same.
James: cookies and
Speaker 1: Thank
James: cookies. you. I should
Speaker 1: dress British.
BJ: Bam. Done. And I was like as soon as I got to see that from you, I was like I love Danny so much. Like I we were talking about Just you
Speaker 1: be were
BJ: like
Speaker 1: fashionable just so and funny. That's all I'm saying.
James: And also yeah you heard it here reach out to Danny and send uh your log lines and pitches if you want to be.
Speaker 1: Okay, she me a DM at Danny Aib. Send me your log lines. Send me um any you know past work maybe that you've done that makes me know that you're a real filmmaker. Um and maybe we'll fund your movie $7,000. That'd be so fun. Oh I can't wait.
BJ: Are you looking for a studio head and you have not figured out who to get? Then you are looking for Danny Aib.
Speaker 1: Oh my
James: Danny god, Abraham that'd be amazing. or or Dani Abraham.
Speaker 1: Dana Ibrahim.
BJ: Oh there. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. We'll
James: see you next week You're guys.
BJ: amazing.
Speaker 1: Oh.
James: I love you.
Speaker 1: I love you. Wait also wear the green. Wear the green team.
James: We wear the green I know
Speaker 1: we
James: team. wear
Speaker 1: the green team.
BJ: Like how did nobody realize the entire time that we are all in green?
Speaker 1: Green.
James: We're the green machine.