Movies We Like

Movies We Like Trailer Bonus Episode 11 Season 5

Filmmaker Nathan Blackwell on Hot Fuzz

Filmmaker Nathan Blackwell on Hot FuzzFilmmaker Nathan Blackwell on Hot Fuzz

00:00
“Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?”
Talking About Hot Fuzz with our guest, filmmaker Nathan Blackwell
In this episode of Movies We Like, filmmaker Nathan Blackwell (and co-host of TruStory FM’s own The Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast) joins Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to discuss Edgar Wright's comedic action film, Hot Fuzz. Nathan shares his love for the movie and how it has influenced his own filmmaking journey. The conversation delves into Nathan's path to becoming a filmmaker, from his early days making short films inspired by 80s classics to the challenges and triumphs of creating his first feature films.
Nathan discusses the making of his latest film, The Last Movie Ever Made, and how it represents a culmination of his experiences and growth as a filmmaker. He shares insights into the creative process, the importance of finding one's voice, and the challenges of getting an independent film seen in today's competitive landscape.
The discussion also touches on the heart of The Last Movie Ever Made, which lies in its exploration of the power of movies to bring people together and create a sense of community. Nathan reflects on how this theme resonates with his own love for films like Ed Wood and Bowfinger, which celebrate the passion and camaraderie of filmmaking.
Hot Fuzz serves as a perfect backdrop for this engaging conversation about the joys and challenges of independent filmmaking. Edgar Wright's clever blend of action, comedy, and genre love is a fitting parallel to Nathan's own journey as a filmmaker who has navigated the ups and downs of the industry to create something unique and personal. Join Andy, Pete, and Nathan as they celebrate the magic of movies and the resilience of the creative spirit in this inspiring episode of Movies We Like.
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What is Movies We Like?

Welcome to Movies We Like. Each episode, Andy Nelson and Pete Wright invite a film industry veteran to discuss one of their favorite films. What makes a movie inspirational to a cinematographer or a costume designer? Listen in to hear how these pros watch their favorite films. Part of The Next Reel family of film podcasts.

Andy Nelson:

Welcome to Movies We Like, part of the True Story FM Entertainment Podcast Network. I'm Andy Nelson, and that over there is Pete Wright.

Pete Wright:

It is. It's Pete Wright for reals.

Andy Nelson:

On today's episode, we have invited filmmaker Nathan Blackwell to talk about Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz, a movie he likes. Nathan, welcome to the show.

Nathan Blackwell:

Thank you so much for having me. And I don't just like it. I love it.

Andy Nelson:

It loves it. Well, the show is not called movie movies we love. So

Nathan Blackwell:

Alright. Okay. But I like it. Really, really like.

Pete Wright:

It's a strong one. Like a lot. That's okay. Like, seriously.

Andy Nelson:

Mhmm. But we are thrilled to have you on the show for a number of reasons. One, you're part of the true story, podcast network. You and Chrissy, chat about eighties movies over on, most excellent eighties movies podcast. It must be fun for you to not have to talk about an eighties movie for a change.

Nathan Blackwell:

It is. Yeah. I feel like I'm cheating, but it feels great. I don't know. What does that say about me?

Andy Nelson:

Oh, so funny, but also you are a filmmaker and your, your first feature film, the last movie ever made, is available now on streaming. It's played the festival circuits, and now it's streaming, and it's a fantastically, fun film. And we wanna talk to you a little bit about that before we chat about hot fuzz. So let's dig in. Filmmaking, just let's start with kind of just you and filmmaking.

Andy Nelson:

How did how did it start for you? What was the draw?

Nathan Blackwell:

So the reason why Chrissy and I do an an eighties movies podcast is because that's when we grew up. You know? And so I was really formed by Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Star Wars films. Like, I was the perfect age. That was like Atari and VHS all being invented, and then you can now consume that media over and over again at will, you know?

Nathan Blackwell:

And so that made those movies made me fall in love with movies. And so, of course, our first kind of films or short films, like, on Super 8 were, like, Indiana Jones and Star Wars Rapace. You know? And then eventually, we, quote, graduated to, like, ripping off other more abstract things, like Naked Gun and and Star Trek and stuff like that. But, yeah, I just always wanted to make movies, but well, let me put it another way.

Nathan Blackwell:

I always made movies with my friends, but I never, like, literally put 2 and 2 together. It's like, well, maybe I should do this. Like, the thought literally didn't seem realistic to me. And and I remember because, again, like, that was it was like, what what project are we working on? Let's talk on the weekends, things like that.

Nathan Blackwell:

But I just, you know, I so my friend when I was, I think, 16 said, what if we just try to do movies, like, for for, like, a living or something? What if we go to

Pete Wright:

For, like, a living or something. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

And and so there was a there was a in so in in Phoenix, South Mountain High School had a magnet program. So they had a high school of video production program and so South was really great. It was almost kind of like one of these things like, like a like a TV show to where they had so many different magnet programs. I'm blanking on the on the show. And and that so you had all these really overlapping crazy groups of students They had a drama program, a music program.

Nathan Blackwell:

They had an aerospace and law program. Wow. And so video production dance. And so you'd see the dancers all secretly smoking in the back and then the the the actors all hanging out with them. But the musicians, they were a little they were only more like band musicians.

Nathan Blackwell:

They were too stuffy to hang out with them, and there would be 1 or 2 video production people, but we were still kind of square too. And there were even, like, print, like, journalism print people. But so it was like a it was like an awakening for me. It was it was just like I, like, I had, for my first two years of high school, terrible grades because I just wasn't interested in any of those things. And then my second two years, that was when I transferred to South, it was just kind of like it it lit me up.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

My friend never took a film class. The one who said, let's try to do this for real. He never he never took steps 2.

Andy Nelson:

Was he into law classes?

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. He yes. Yes. He he became a he became a lawyer, but he was also a a trade musician, and now he's starting writing novels.

Andy Nelson:

Wow. Okay.

Nathan Blackwell:

And so that was really the thing. And so the last movie ever made is actually my 3rd feature film, but it's the first one to get distributed.

Andy Nelson:

Gotcha. Okay. Okay.

Nathan Blackwell:

So the the first one so I was kind of like I had this energy, this trajectory. So at this point, this is the nineties. And so this is when Miramax and Tarantino and El Mariachi and Kevin Smith, and it was like the resurgence of indie film. Like, let's go get it. Let's do it.

Nathan Blackwell:

If you build it, it will come. Like, all you have to do is make a movie and then you'll get into Sundance and then your next movie, you'll then you'll get to make a $2,000,000 movie and then you'll make a 50 you know, like, it was the dream. You know, they were, at that point, selling the dream. And so I totally was into it.

Andy Nelson:

It was easy to buy into with all those stories too.

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's all you saw. And it was one one success story after another. And so we made a $50,000 feature film on film and we didn't get distribution.

Nathan Blackwell:

You know? It's it's I because, first of all, I was a 22 year old kid, you know, and it wasn't my money. It was my producers. Like, my producer had found the money, but he was like he had cobbled together family and friends. So it was 2,000 here, 1,000 here.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Sure. Sure.

Nathan Blackwell:

And that and that created our our budget.

Andy Nelson:

Kind of typical indie, the first budget sorts of ambiance years. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

And we had no idea of what to do with the movie once it was done. Like, no idea. Like, there was no it was so opaque. There was no, like, understanding of how you hustle and and even even get how like, the process of navigating film festivals.

Andy Nelson:

I mean, having come from that those same kind of background, you send a film off to a film festival and you get a rejection. You're like, well, I guess that's it.

Pete Wright:

I guess I'm done.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. I guess yeah.

Andy Nelson:

Mhmm. Like, nobody there wasn't anything teaching you, like, well, this is how you do that sort of thing.

Nathan Blackwell:

Absolutely. This is pre Internet. We had to go through, like, magazines and books. So there was kind of, like, I was crestfallen. I didn't know what to do.

Nathan Blackwell:

Again, at that young of an age, I didn't have a good mind for business and things like that, you know, and so there was kind of a what I call the dark period to where I didn't I wasn't shooting things again. I was writing things, but I really wasn't like making things and putting them out into the world. I had I had lost a lot of confidence in myself. So then it was kind of 2,005 that I started to want to make things again. So I'd say it was maybe about 5 years or so that I that I thought of myself as a filmmaker, but I really wasn't making things.

Pete Wright:

I just I just wanna name check these properties. You're talking about Forever Midnight. Right? Yes. Yes.

Pete Wright:

Your first film, 99. Do you think the problem with that film was that the title was too close to the, Jaren Quinn Davies titled forever night about vampires.

Nathan Blackwell:

No. I think that's closest as It it it was actually as we were in production, Ben Stiller came out with permanent midnight. Oh. And I felt like that was That's right. A bigger blow to us.

Nathan Blackwell:

No. I the the problem so there was I I think the biggest problem other than us being total crap businessmen was Okay. So we'll

Pete Wright:

take that as table stakes.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yes. Yes. So that was well, let's say okay. That's 50%.

Pete Wright:

Okay.

Nathan Blackwell:

But I'd say the other 50% was that I was a 22 year old who would just not like, the movie itself is not entertaining enough to warrant, like, a 100 minutes long. You know, it's kind of like a American graffiti, my soul called life, very slice of life. Like, if I had made it over again, life experience, but just, like, just filmmaking experience of how to tell a more engaging story, that would have been the thing. And and, honestly, it was a little out of my wheelhouse. Like, I make comedies.

Nathan Blackwell:

I make, like, genre comedies and it's like, oh, now I have to be a serious filmmaker. I gotta make a serious movie.

Pete Wright:

And that's the first feature that you work on that you'd heard directly. That is the thing that is literally from your wheelhouse. Great. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

And so it was like, I've got to I've gotta be a serious filmmaker. I've gotta make a serious film.

Pete Wright:

Well and I will say, forever midnight, it does sound like the film you're describing, and the film that you wanted to make sounds like the constant epiphanies of Billy the Blood Donor. It sounds like you found your way a

Nathan Blackwell:

few minutes. Overcorrection. Yeah. So in 2005, my my brother, Logan, who acts in a lot of our stuff, he wrote a play called The Constant Epiphanies of Billy the Blood Donor and it was kind of a big hit. It never actually got like a full production, but we did stage readings and things like that.

Nathan Blackwell:

People really liked it. And so me just wanting to make something fun, so let's let's make it. It's, you know, it's it it it it's not too complicated. It happens in a in a number of different locations. Like, he was a bad playwright.

Nathan Blackwell:

He wrote plays like movies. It's like, oh, okay. We've got 20 locations and 20 characters. But it was fun and silly.

Pete Wright:

This play keep right being written as cut to and fade in?

Nathan Blackwell:

Right. Exactly. Yeah. It it lended itself to kind of more of an abstract, like, black box production rather than, like, actual sets. So the problem with Billy the Blood Donor was that we just wanted to film something and to do something fun.

Nathan Blackwell:

And so the experience of itself was absolutely worth it, but we ultimately just made a we made a $4,000 feature film, and it looks like a $6,000 feature film, you know? Yes. And so so it's it's definitely fun and enjoyable and it has a lot more of my style into it. But, a, it it's it's a it's a we shot a DVX 100 and it looks like it and so low production value. It didn't lend itself to to a lot of film festivals or getting like another, like, traditional distribution.

Nathan Blackwell:

Like, it looked like a backyard,

Andy Nelson:

film. Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

Because it was. So that's kind of why the last movie ever made, in a lot of ways, feels like my first feature, not just because it's the first one to get distribution, but it was the first one going into it. It's like I kinda knew what I was doing. I saw the end experience of it, it's like, okay, we're gonna make it, I now know how to kind of make a feature film, you know. You always feel like you never know, but I felt like I've had a much bigger a better grasp on the process and also then what happens afterwards.

Nathan Blackwell:

It's like how to do the film festivals, where we wanted it to end up. Between those, like, after Billy the Blood Donor, we did web series, we did short films, and I feel like that's really where I developed my voice. You know? Not to not to sound too pretentious, but, like, what are the things I'm into and what are the stories I like to tell? And so the last movie ever made really kinda felt like the first representative of that.

Andy Nelson:

Was it an idea that you already already had had or did what was the process of kind of nailing that idea? Because it's certainly I mean, the concept of people finding out that, essentially, the world's gonna end and going back and saying, you know what? We're gonna before it ends, we're gonna finish that movie that we started in high school that we never finished. The conceit of it already allows for a low budget kind of sensibility, which I think is smart when you don't have a huge budget. You can you can actually use that to your advantage.

Andy Nelson:

But, like, were you thinking about things like that? Like, when did when did the whole idea in the process kind of start, coming into your head?

Nathan Blackwell:

I had a bunch of different, like, lead ups failed, like, screenplays that I thought were low budget, but we're actually not low budget that I tried to get off the ground. It's like, well, we did this in our 10 minute short film. We could do this 10 times over. So like a like a zombie comedy, you know, like an a feature adaptation of our our web series, Voyage Trekkers, and then another script that just got out of hand budget wise. And so it was kind of like one of those when I realized the the current script that I've been working on and workshopping and even, like, doing some low key, like, auditioning for, like, reaching out to actors saying, would you be and then these are local actors, not name actors.

Nathan Blackwell:

Would you be into this? And just kind of and then even having, like, art department meetings for it, realizing just the scope was way out of bounds and kind of having that moment of lying in bed saying, I've gotta come up with something new because these other projects, they're just not gonna work. We don't have that kind of money. We have, what can we do on on pretty much no money? It was ultimately two ideas that I'd been toying around with, always searching for something fun and magical.

Nathan Blackwell:

Like, I I like those kind of like what I call, like, a comedy version of Black Mirror to where there's just a little tweak in reality and you can kind of have something fun. But it allows you but it kind of skirts around the idea of that you don't have a lot of money, you know. And so the whole it's like, how do I do a comedy version of that reality is a simulation, but yet do that in a way that's satisfying, that exploits the idea, but doesn't require a lot of money.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Right, right.

Nathan Blackwell:

And then the other idea was probably fueled by my own, like, feelings of getting older and regret and and just being an artist of, like, what if you had this character who who needed who wanted to have some meaning to their life and their whole idea was was doing, like, was finishing their high school short film. You know? Like, what would be the interesting, like, character aspects of that? And I kind of, like, workshopped it, like, well, what is it their movie? Like, what if it was like a like a puppet show that they were passionate about?

Nathan Blackwell:

And it was almost kind of like a like a like a documentary idea, you know, of someone so committed with something so ridiculous, but it was so important to them. Like, what is the, like, the character like, what what's what's the character interest in that person? You know? And so it was those ideas kind of, like, smashed up together after a night of drinking, you know, and and produced the the idea of, like, okay, so what if our main character finds out that reality is a simulation? So that gives us an opportunity to have an end of the world scenario by but skirting some of the typical cliches.

Andy Nelson:

You don't have to deal with explosions or solar flares or

Nathan Blackwell:

Right. Exactly. Like, you know, like, are people still going to work, You know, like power outages, people, like, burning cars, you know, things like that. And and so you can kind of have kind of a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, ridiculousness to it, of, like, the voice saying, apologies for the inconvenience.

Andy Nelson:

You know? It's just perfect.

Pete Wright:

Well and you know the other thing, and and I you really at least I can feel the eighties sensibility that you bring to this movie. Like, there is a sort of sincerity that I feel when I'm watching John Hughes. You know what I mean? Mhmm. And, the fact that it's about movies, I I think I'm glad you didn't go with the puppet show.

Pete Wright:

I think that would

Nathan Blackwell:

have been absurdist.

Pete Wright:

But the fact that you went about movies is something that I think is more universally universally relatable because I think we all have a little bit of that thing where we wanna finish the thing we didn't finish when we were younger. Right? It doesn't have to be movies. It probably wouldn't have been a puppet show, but there's something. Right?

Pete Wright:

And and that, I think, makes it really touching that that he's able to do this and to do it at at not not to do it better, not to fablement it, but to do it the same as he did it in high school is chef's kiss. It's it's really great.

Andy Nelson:

And it's also by being a movie, it creates community. Like, if it was writing a novel, like, I've gotta finish that novel. Oh, great. Then we're just see watching him sit in a room by himself for the next movie. You know?

Andy Nelson:

Right. Snooze. But film that's you know, filmmaking creates such community, and that's, I think, such an important part of that of being, you know, in the film community, making a film, you really kind of create this family of these people that you're working with day in and day out. And that's a valuable part of this story because it's bringing people together who hadn't seen each other since then. It's helping him reconnect with his ex wife.

Andy Nelson:

You know, neighbors that he hasn't really talked to a ton kind of come over, come in, and become part of the core thing. And that's what's nice about it is in this time when everybody is about to have their lives switched off essentially, they're able to find that that connection with one another.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. I I I it was one of those things that I I got into it and and you realize, oh, I'm kind of channeling my love for movies like Ed Wood or Bofinger or, you know, I I when I started writing it, you know, I didn't realize that I was writing a movie about movie making, which is almost kind of like its own genre, you know?

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Sure. Sure.

Nathan Blackwell:

To where you've got the guy with the crazy idea, he brings in a lot of misfits, and then they kinda find their own family, you know? I knew that I was making a movie about someone who was alone and isolated and was kind of creating a family of misfits, but I didn't know I was sliding right into that kind of specific genre until I was, like, halfway through it.

Pete Wright:

That's funny. That's that's funny. That that to me is, like, the heart of the movie and you didn't even know it.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Yeah. But but I I I and the thing is that I love those kinds of movies. Like, I Yeah. Like, I like, specifically, I think Ed Wood was, influential of this one.

Andy Nelson:

Talk about Tim Burton's Ed Wood Or yeah. Or maybe also Edward, the filmmaker in some

Pete Wright:

cases, but A

Nathan Blackwell:

little less. Okay. Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

But it writes the it's the behind the scenes of this is the process. I know the wall moved. Oh, it's fine. No one's gonna notice. It's like that that passion that they have.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Exactly.

Andy Nelson:

Just like, let's do this thing.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. I and I I I re recurringly use, like, a joke, and I don't get any response to it, but I keep using it to where it's like some like a like an actor bumps into the wall and goes like, oh, should we do another take? It's like, oh, I feel like in real life, he'd have that same problem. Let's just move on. You know?

Nathan Blackwell:

You guys would get it.

Andy Nelson:

But That's

Nathan Blackwell:

that's awesome. Real life. That's amazing.

Andy Nelson:

So okay. So you so you got the movie made. I mean, you were still working independently, low budget. Are are you able to say what sort of budget or is that still kind of like

Nathan Blackwell:

I yeah. It's so it's definitely, I can't say the exact number, but it is definitely micro budget. It's all self financed. And so, we did pay some people, like, $100 a day, and then some people still even still to kind of pull off the budget we had, a lot of people like myself deferred their salaries. But, yeah, it we didn't have we don't have any investors other than people who are actually part of the the production.

Nathan Blackwell:

So it's just a couple of us who who were just putting in money as we were going.

Andy Nelson:

Gotcha.

Nathan Blackwell:

So so it's much more budget wise. It's much closer to clerks, adjusted for inflation.

Andy Nelson:

Gotcha. Gotcha. You talked about, like, the first time you went and made a movie, the the challenges of going into it, not knowing all the things. Like, how do you what, like, how do you hustle? What do you do?

Andy Nelson:

Do you just submit to festivals? What's the process? What's changed between the late nineties and now when you were reaching out to festivals and just kind of, like, starting this whole thing? Because it's also I mean, there's a lot more information out there, but it's also a lot more aggressive in the things that filmmakers need to do to kind of get their films found and into these things.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. So it's kind of become a bit of an arms race in in diminishing returns to where, I would say, every decade, there's been less there's been less people purchasing independent films. So the DVD market falling out, even kind of like the streaming bubble popping a bit. Like, there was a time that people would gun to try to get a Netflix deal or an Amazon deal, and those are really super rare now because they're producing their own stuff and they have their own kind of mandates. And then again, there was times where you can get on Amazon Prime and as an independent, you could make money for the streams and then they cut the revenue that you would get by, like, 1 tenth.

Nathan Blackwell:

And so there's been more films made, there's more access to film festivals and information, but there's even less buying of independent films. Now the biggest obstacle is getting your movie seen from the noise. And so you've gotta work you've gotta work more and the chances of success are way, way lower. So it it's it's not as bad as music, but it's not great for sure. You know?

Pete Wright:

And it's not really moving in the right direction.

Nathan Blackwell:

No. No. Yeah. Absolutely not.

Pete Wright:

Just talk us through the journey toward distribution because I I can't remember. There was a a while. I don't know how many, how long ago it was you wrote and you said, hey. I'm in this thing. You can go buy the movie and watch it now, which felt like, was that part of a festival or that was, like, a a specific deal?

Nathan Blackwell:

You usually have so when the movie's done, you're gonna have a film festival run, and you have to be mindful about where you premiere because some film festivals want a world premiere. Some film festivals want a regional premiere. Let's just say, for instance, if we had a Sundance caliber film, which, no, we did not get into Sundance. But that's okay because Sundance is different now than it was, like, 20 years ago.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Right.

Nathan Blackwell:

And so we don't wanna spoil our world premiere by playing, let's say, like, a a small local film festival, and then, oh, sorry. You've already had your world premiere. And so some film festivals require world premieres, some don't.

Andy Nelson:

That's a real game.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. It's a real game. And so and then it's like if I wanna play at the Phoenix Film Festival and then also at some film festivals in Tucson, it's like, sorry, you've already had an Arizona premiere.

Pete Wright:

Yeah. Okay.

Nathan Blackwell:

So that's tricky with LA, that's tricky with New York, that's tricky with Midwest and things like that. And so you have to understand and not all film festivals require that, and so you have to kinda do a little research. But, yeah, so so usually for us, our film festival tour kind of lasted about a year, and it was totally different than I would have imagined. You know, you know, I thought that, okay, it's this is kind of a nice straight down the middle, a lot of people can enjoy it, and it has a lot of genre love in that aspect, but I feel like it was kind of a little more mainstreamy. And really, we ended up getting much more embraced in the die hard genre community that also liked comedy.

Nathan Blackwell:

So it wasn't a comedy film, it was a genre film. So we we actually got into a lot of horror film festivals that programmed us as counter programming. Like, here's a little mint. You just saw people getting chainsawed.

Pete Wright:

Right. Welcome to a palate cleanser.

Nathan Blackwell:

And they and they loved it, like, when we would get into Chattanooga or Popcorn Frights or FilmQuest, like, the reviews would start rolling in on Letterboxd, and they were all about it. So that was awesome. Like, I never submitted into a horror film festival, but I think we got into about 3 or 4 of them. They would reach out to us. I saw you in Chattanooga.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. So, yeah, we we played I was only able to go out to a couple. We well, Phoenix Film Festival was an amazing experience, but, yeah, I was only able to go out to a couple. So now ever since COVID, a lot of film festivals have a online portion as well. So we played at the Chattanooga Film Festival, but only in their online programming.

Nathan Blackwell:

We weren't playing there in person. So I was initially bummed by that because I wanted to go to Chattanooga because I heard that it was a really fun film festival. And so it was online, and so I was reaching out to people I knew, hey, it's available online if you wanna see it. You know, you can buy a ticket. And so I didn't get, like, the experience of going to the Chattanooga Film Festival and meeting other filmmakers, but that film festival was just a perfect fit for the movie because we got so many reviews and and other different film festival programmers saw it there and and then kind of invited us to get into their film festivals.

Nathan Blackwell:

So, yeah, it was ultimately really, really rewarding. Nice. But, yeah, it's weird. A a lot of these festivals are now doing an online portion of it. And I and and I wouldn't jump at all of them or it's like if we got into one that was in person and on live, maybe I wouldn't promote that we were also online.

Nathan Blackwell:

Because I also needed to a certain degree to have a certain I needed some people to actually rent and buy the movie at some point. Yes. You know? And so may maybe, like, the last couple of ones that were that were in person and online, I would not mention the online aspect to it Gotcha. And just the in person.

Nathan Blackwell:

But, yeah, eventually what we did was is that we reached out because we don't know the world of distribution. I reached out to a sales agent, that helped kind of navigate us through that world. And we had been getting solicitations by random sales agents that I didn't feel great about. You know, it's like you would you like, they would post the listings at a film festival, and on that day, you would get, like, 2 emails from rando, sales agents. And I was like, I don't know about these guys.

Nathan Blackwell:

And it's really tough because the world of micro budget feature filmmaking is not inherently profitable.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah, right.

Nathan Blackwell:

I compare it to amateur wrestling or minor league baseball to where the system itself is meant for either you dip into it and you don't, you luck out or you graduate to the next level. But there's just not enough money in the micro budget world to just make micro budgets. I'm sure some people do it. Again, I'm sure some people can make a career out of amateur wrestling selling swag at the back of their, you know, the in the trunk of their car.

Andy Nelson:

Somebody's doing it. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

But you have to work so hard to do it. Yeah. You have to work so hard to make your money in micro budget filmmaking because honestly people don't watch a lot of micro budget films. And when I say micro budget, I'm talking about really 250,000 and under. Gotcha.

Nathan Blackwell:

You know? And usually, it's more like a 100,000. Right. Yep. Real real strong.

Nathan Blackwell:

And we didn't have that. And so if you don't have a name actor in it, if you're not doing a genre like, there's some genres that can succeed, especially if it's on a platform like like Tubi or Freevee that it's like there's no cost. You can just watch it. And it's stuff and it's it's the obvious picks like stoner comedies or horror films and things like that to where it's an easy buy in and if they don't like it, they can turn it off after 15 minutes, you know? It's a lot tougher if you're trying to kind of make a quote normal movie that doesn't not normal movie because I I certainly don't make normal movies, but if you're making kind of a a a a multigenere film.

Pete Wright:

What is the transition, though? Because now you've we've did did something happen that was fantastic that gets you now automatically into, like, Apple and and, you know, the places where I can buy it? No. So it's it's way more boring than it sounds.

Nathan Blackwell:

Great podcasting.

Pete Wright:

Right.

Nathan Blackwell:

So getting in so if you so we got a distributor, and then the process of delivering your movie to a distributor is arduous and tedious. It's basically they give you a list of 50 things they need and each of those things could take like a a week, you know. Right. But luckily if you if you kind of like anticipate some of these things then you're not gonna then you're gonna be okay. It's like we need a trailer, these different sizes, these different formats.

Nathan Blackwell:

We need posters. We need behind the scenes images. We need photos. But then that that stuff is obvious, but then they need a whole bunch of legal stuff.

Pete Wright:

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Pete Wright:

Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

They need clearances. They need error and omission insurance. They need a copyright report, a title report. Basically, someone to look and make sure that you've got your copyright in order, but you're paying, like, a couple $100 for someone to just, like, look you up online and Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

I know.

Nathan Blackwell:

To do the due diligence.

Andy Nelson:

That's a thing.

Nathan Blackwell:

The important thing is that it's coming from a third party Yeah. Company saying it's okay. Yeah. And so the distribution company doesn't require that, so they feel good. To sell it to Amazon, to sell it to Apple, they need to provide that.

Pete Wright:

Right.

Nathan Blackwell:

And so you also need to submit your movie to a quality control company for a couple $100. And, again, they're just looking at your your movie and saying, okay, no drop frames. Yeah. You know, this this is correct. This is right.

Nathan Blackwell:

You know, closed captioning, all these different things. And so it starts to add up and you realize that it it it starts stacking up into a couple $1,000 just to turn in your movie.

Pete Wright:

Yeah. Do you are you responsible for handling language, like translations for captions? Or

Nathan Blackwell:

I only had to turn in luckily English. But there was a there was a clause in there that we also had to turn in a French dubbed track because the French don't actually like to read subtitles, apparently. Imagine that. Yeah. It's funny.

Nathan Blackwell:

It's like a lot of these these countries we see their foreign films, and and they're known for, quote, subtitled films. They only watch dubbed films.

Pete Wright:

Interesting.

Nathan Blackwell:

But luckily, it's like, we don't we're you we don't need to submit that. It's like the ones I was worried about was was having to submit a French dubbed track and then also submitting a 5.1 surround sound system. Mix.

Pete Wright:

Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. And and yeah. And and I and I it's like, I don't think that people are really, like I I think micro budget films are not are not cranking up We're not

Andy Nelson:

cranking the speakers for it. Right.

Pete Wright:

This this wasn't mastered in Atmos?

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

This is it's not it's we're not using it for the next demo disc. Right?

Pete Wright:

And we're gonna need it in 3 d for the Vision Pro. So go ahead.

Nathan Blackwell:

Exactly. So luckily, they they they said, no. That's fine. You don't need to do that because we hadn't we had just mixed it in stereo.

Andy Nelson:

Are they distributing it, internationally at this time, or is it just domestic?

Nathan Blackwell:

It's also on Amazon, in the UK as well. In

Andy Nelson:

the UK. Gotcha.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Okay. And it it may be somewhere else that I don't know, but I think it's just right now, in the US and, the UK.

Andy Nelson:

So with all of this, and we'll certainly have the links for the movie in the show notes. Definitely, people check it out because it's a it's a heartwarming, fun funny, funny movie, definitely worth watching. But with all of this, has it gotten you to a place where you have, anybody, like, saying, hey. Can we, put some money behind you? Let's get another movie made.

Andy Nelson:

Or what's what's the what's happening

Nathan Blackwell:

now? So I would so not literally. Like, no one has come in come out of the, the darkness and said, hey, let's talk about something. But my existing collaborators, they wanna do something again. And that includes people that have that have put in a little bit of money saying, what's what's the next project?

Nathan Blackwell:

Let's go again. So it's less of a door opening up and it's more kind of an evolution of what we are already doing, of kind of like going up the steps a couple steps at a time. You know, so I also teach one class a semester, at the the film department at Glendale Community College, and I tell my students that the people who you really are going that are gonna change your life in terms of networking are the people on your level. It's not gonna be someone who who kinda reaches down from the clouds and offers you an opportunity. It's gonna be you're gonna be leveling up with your friends and you're gonna give each other your opportunities, you know?

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh, I'm shooting this thing. Can you be on it? You know, like, I've the, like, the main star in the film, we worked together, we first worked together in, like, in 2008 on a short film at Scottsdale. Adam? Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

Adam Reaney. Yeah. And then and then there's a number of people who I so I went to Scottsdale Community College twice. I went, in the nineties right after high school, and then I went back in 2007 after Billy the Blood Owner to kind of reignite the fire again. Sure.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. And that's where I I and I actually went back. I thought I was gonna finish the degree. I did not. Oh my gosh.

Nathan Blackwell:

I I I've gone 5 years and haven't gotten my 2 year degree. You know, I think I'm just missing, like, a communications 100 class. Like, I've got I got all the math. I got all the English stuff. Hey.

Pete Wright:

You gotta have something to reach for.

Nathan Blackwell:

Then so Alright.

Pete Wright:

Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

There's still a number of people from SCC that I still work with today, and and that's kind of become our community. You know?

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. That's awesome.

Pete Wright:

But no one gives off that your local Nathan Fillion vibe like Adam Rainey.

Nathan Blackwell:

It's yeah. It's true.

Pete Wright:

Yeah. He's got something. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Awesome. I give

Pete Wright:

it our we gotta transition to the movie, and I just have this question. You picked hot fuzz, which is amazing. But given the last movie ever made, I have to tell you, I'm surprised you didn't pick The World's End.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Well, that's a little too obvious, don't you think?

Pete Wright:

Is it is it too obvious?

Nathan Blackwell:

No. It was it's funny. You know, I I really like The World's End, but I love love Hot Paws for whatever reason. Yeah. And it and it's funny because have you ever had this with movies that, like, some of your favorite movies, you kinda didn't love it the first time you saw it.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Like, whether it was expectations or whatever or you just weren't kind of

Andy Nelson:

We talk

Nathan Blackwell:

about that

Andy Nelson:

all the time. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. You just weren't kind of prepared for the oblique, like, entrance into it. Like, I felt like that way with The Big Lebowski. It's like, maybe next time. Like, it didn't work for me.

Nathan Blackwell:

And then the next

Pete Wright:

I'm still waiting for that one.

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So I was still The next time, oh, that was funny. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

We well, we could revisit. That was funny. And then it just kept getting better the more I saw it. It's not that I disliked Hot Fuzz, but I was like, no Sean of the Dead. Like, I had really loved Sean of the Dead and some of the things I responded to other than, like, the kinetic filmmaking was the the kind of like the the story of Sean.

Nathan Blackwell:

And with Hot Fuzz, it's very different. Hot Fuzz is much more a little more of a cartoon. It's a it's much more of a buddy cop movie. The style is very similar, but it was a little less grounded, a little more, hyperkinetic and and ridiculous. But, eventually, I ended up rewatching it and preferring that over shot of the dead.

Nathan Blackwell:

Interesting.

Andy Nelson:

Asking you an important question. What's your perfect Sunday?

Nathan Blackwell:

Yes. My perfect Sunday. Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

No. But but, honestly, I I think that a key part of this film, and this is where why I think it's interesting that, that you landed on this film is that there is such an element of this film that is pulling from so many of the buddy cop movie tropes of just action movie tropes. It's it's grabbing all of that and playing with all of it in a very clever, funny, funny way. But also as Edgar Wright showed us in Shaun of the dead, he's able to use it in a way that even if the characters and the story is a little cartoony and and and really silly, you still end up having a lot of genuine heart in it. And I think watching our 2 characters kind of go through the motions of all the all the buddy crop tropes, like we're checking everything off all the way through, but then smartly, like playing with them and twisting them and doing something different with them and using it to kind of give us something that feels different, that's it's it's spoofing on all that stuff, but at the same time, it's really kind of an homage to all of the the joy that we get in watching movies like point break.

Andy Nelson:

You know, when when Danny shoots his gun up in the air. Yeah. At the end because he can't he can't shoot his dad. Like, you totally buy into it, and you could see, like, it's it's exactly that same struggle that Keanu Reeves had in point break. And it just it works so well.

Andy Nelson:

But so, like, so many of these movies are from the eighties and like you're growing up in the eighties and drawing on all of that stuff. I can see your draw to it. It's very much the same for me. Like my initial draw was Sean of the dead. I saw hot fuzz and I'm like, yeah, it was great, but I don't like it as much as Sean of the dead.

Andy Nelson:

But the more I watch hot fuzz, just the more I'm like, it's grown on me so much to the point where I probably have seen it the most of the trilogy at this point.

Pete Wright:

So Yeah. Well, because Nick Nick Frost plays the same character. Simon Pegg does not. Right? Like and that's the that was the jarring thing for me is do I buy Simon Pegg not as Sean?

Pete Wright:

Right? And and I because I love Sean so much.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Absolutely. Like, I I think the thing I really respond to with this film is the genre bending that is able to go through these tones of being sincere and then being ridiculous. I mean, there's a scene where the entire building and everyone inside explodes It it blows up so much that every brick is separated from the building. And then everyone is just lying around.

Nathan Blackwell:

Are you okay? Are you and everyone survives that blast. Yeah. You know? That is the most ridiculous thing in the whole movie.

Nathan Blackwell:

But then there's other moments that are genuine and tender, and you get kind of this bromance between our two characters, and you feel it. Like, so that kind of genre bending, but also, like, going from comedy to, like, cop movie and and and them playing and the almost the characters knowing that they're in a genre and having fun with it like bang, bang, bang. It's like, oh my god, we're living a movie. Yeah. And that kind of that genre blending is really appealing to me.

Nathan Blackwell:

And then also the playfulness of not only the story, but just the filmmaking style. The filmmaking the storytelling is so playful, like the scene where, Simon Pegg is at early in the beginning and he's he's he's talking to Janine and he's gotta go away and it's like their official breakup moment or they've already broken up and they're he's basically just telling her. And it's secretly Cate Blanchett in in a mask, you know? The the playfulness of the writing and the storytelling is just so good, and I love it. Like, I love that type of storytelling.

Andy Nelson:

Right. You're like, to the point where she dramatically takes her glasses off like she's revealing who she is, but she still has the face mask on, so you're still not getting anything. Like, it's just a dramatic glasses removal. And I also love the bit in that scene where she's you know, it's not I can't remember the 2 guys, but it's not Bob. It's Todd.

Andy Nelson:

Hello there. You know? Just like

Nathan Blackwell:

Does Bob look like a guy I would be into? And they're, of course, all totally covered up in their hazmat suits, their clean suits.

Pete Wright:

The, I all of the genre bending sort of name checks that you guys have have already revealed, no one said horror yet, and this has some gruesome killings

Andy Nelson:

Yes.

Pete Wright:

That are wonderfully shocking. And,

Andy Nelson:

of course, it

Pete Wright:

has one of my very favorite, favorite deaths in movies, death by church.

Nathan Blackwell:

Death by church. Yes. Outstanding.

Andy Nelson:

Which church? Well, I guess there's only one death by church. The other was just an impaling

Pete Wright:

by church. It's just an impaling by church, but that would be my second. Yeah. Yeah. This really hurts.

Pete Wright:

Is outstanding. And and I think that's one of those things that Edgar Wright gets away with by making something that's really horrific that makes people like my wife watch this movie with me and and be shocked and shrink down into her seat, but it happened so fast that you kinda get over it and get back into the sincerity and the comedy and all the other things. Like, that's that's part of the filmmaking, like and and the writing wizardry that they're able to pull this off.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Well and I think part of it is, like, the seriousness of Nicholas Angel through the story. Like, he's our character. We're following him. It's a serious case of murder that's happening, but everybody else has this air of lightness.

Andy Nelson:

It's just accidents. Like, nobody takes anything seriously because nothing's bad ever happens in this town. And that creates this air of lightness that allows, I think, for that comedy to blend so well with some of these pretty gruesome, murders or accidents

Pete Wright:

Really?

Andy Nelson:

Or whatever. Whatever is the other term that he said. It's an incident. The traffic traffic incident, whatever. Right.

Andy Nelson:

Right.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. It it's, I think, Edgar Wright on the commentary track said that it's cop versus serial killer. That's the kind of genre that they're in. Like, I mean, it is kind of going after the lethal weapon, Bad Boys 2, Point Break kind of buddy story. But it it's really like cop versus serial killer, which is kind of like dirty Harry and some of those other ones of, like, the more, like, grind house y kind of, like, revenge.

Nathan Blackwell:

Like, the cop has to go to the next step to stop this this brutal killer.

Pete Wright:

Yeah. We're just a hair's breath away from what's in the box. Right? Like

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Uh-huh. And then and then he's also throwing in just because we're in the British countryside, there's definitely, like, a wicker man vibe by the fact that we have this it ends up being, like, this this criminal cult of city, like the the city council, the

Nathan Blackwell:

Mhmm.

Andy Nelson:

The people who want like, their motivation for everything is just because they want their village to be perfect. And so they're willing to kill whoever is in their way to keep it from becoming that. And I think that's that's another twist that we have is, like, these British country cult movies that is kind of its own thing as well brought into this as the the villain for the silliest of reasons.

Nathan Blackwell:

Mhmm. Yeah. Another appeal of this movie is that it's just so crafted. It's so thought out in terms of the setup and payoffs and the casting. Like, you have a who's who of British actors here.

Nathan Blackwell:

It's like someone said it's it's like they raided the retirement like, the British retirement home and said, everyone, you're going to work today. You know? And yeah. And it's just so fantastic. And and you also get this other layer of the British don't get to make these big kind of cop action adventure movies.

Nathan Blackwell:

And we're gonna do it, but we're gonna own it. It's gonna be the Bobby. It's gonna be the countryside. There's gonna be a swan, and we're gonna lean into the silliness of it, but the wish fulfillment of it.

Pete Wright:

Yeah. Yeah. I we we've talked a lot about about story and structure, but I'm I'm curious, you know, as somebody in in, you know, working so intimately in the micro budget space, Like, what inspires you about this movie from the production side, from camera, from like, what are you what are you watching for?

Nathan Blackwell:

Mainly in terms of of writing and how everything is formed and constructed and and layered and introduced. But in terms of production, is just how well the camera is telling the story and the transitions and and again, just the inherent playfulness of each shot. Like, Edgar Wright doesn't shoot coverage. Like, each shot is its own thing, you know, which must be exhausting to make. But each moment is its own thing, and it's telling its own thing even like the way that the close ups are.

Nathan Blackwell:

You know? And just how much fun and playfulness you can have with how you're doing a character entering into a shot, how you're doing, like, you know, a a a tilt up from another character, talking to them, like these inserts, like, how much power and fun you can have with them is really the kind of thing.

Andy Nelson:

And Edgar Wright, I think, is really smart with that anyway. Just like the way that he and, you know, Simon Pegg working with him on the script, but then knowing how to put scenes together in such smart ways and and quick ways to give us all the information. Like, I'm always always impressed by the way that he cuts together the sequence of, Nicholas moving from London to the country and the train rides and the cab rides and the cell phone bar. Just every the cuts and watching the cell phone, bars get smaller and smaller. That whole thing is, I don't know, like, 15 seconds, maybe.

Andy Nelson:

It just it's so fast, but we get everything we need to out of that in in the journey out to the country.

Pete Wright:

They do the same thing with the reveal of all of the different hooded participants in the run at the end. Right? So that's why every corner he comes around, there's another hooded person hiding behind some piece of of set that is that and and they do that in, like, 7 seconds. They reveal the whole thing, which is fantastic. It made me think of the like, you you talk about the fun, but also the, like, sort of the complexity of the structure of having the the run through the gardens when angel does the the jump over all the fence all the fences, and he gets to the last one, and clearly there was an acrobat hiding there waiting to jump off a trampoline to do that final flip.

Pete Wright:

Like, that is that's a complex setup that is hysterical, to lead up to the payoff of Nick Frost running through the fences directly. And and so all of all of those kinds of, like, structural elements where you put people so that the jokes work, I think is is this movie is just chockablock full of them.

Nathan Blackwell:

So did you ever hear, like, in like, from from Mad Max, George Miller would always make sure that the action that was happening was in the center of the frame. So he could cut so fast, but your eyes were in the same zone rather than, like, the Michael Bay, like, chaos cinema of, like, over here, over there, over here, over there. I saw, like, a a YouTube film essay saying George Miller cuts even faster than Michael Bay. But because everything is all the action is happening center frame, you're always you're always looking where the things are gonna be. And and I started to kinda do that with a lot of the Edgar Wright stuff, and and during most of the shoot out, everything was was dead center in terms of of the where your eyes were gravitating towards.

Andy Nelson:

Well, it's a lot of planning in your framing when you're shooting and also knowing how shots are gonna cut with each other. I'm always impressed in the shot when Danny's dad, Jim Broadbent's character, Frank Buttermen, he's doing the tour, and he has a, I don't know, like, a piece of paper or something. He crumples the paper up, and he tosses it over his shoulder. And then we and it it in the shot, and they're walking through a hallway, and Danny clearly is gonna catch it, but he's behind him. But then as soon as Danny ideally would be catching it, we cut to another shot, and they're done with the tour.

Andy Nelson:

And it's Frank Butterman in the room clapping his hands together going, so in the exact spot where he would be catching that paper. And just like that movement of the paper and catching it, like, it it's like those sorts of cuts are are so well thought out and just like the structure of, like, the production, the actor, the performance, everything, and then the editing to get the timing so perfect. And it's that's a trick for sure because it requires so much planning across who knows how many days apart those two shots were were filmed. But just like planning all that, it's mind boggling.

Nathan Blackwell:

Absolutely. It it's master level, like, editing and and then shooting for the edit. You know? Like, the match cuts and just the movement. I think that's one of the reasons it's like, I there is just like I I can't unpack everything of how much work or how much thought came into this, you know.

Nathan Blackwell:

There's a certain part that I aspire to make a movie like this, but, also, like, there's no way that I would make a movie like this. There's just so much.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah.

Pete Wright:

Our pal, CineMetrix, has hot fuzz. The overall is right around 2.1 to 2.4 seconds depending on who submitted her average shot length and Fury Road, 2.6. Wow. To your to your point about George Miller, there there are sequences, you know, because they they'll stay on Cinemetrix hot fuzz, like, the first 30 seconds or first 30 minutes or, you know, chase scene that that drop is, average shot, like, drops as low as 1.7. Even the Fury Road trailer is the only thing that drops into 1.4.

Pete Wright:

Wow. Shot, like, the 1.4. I think that's remarkable. I never made that connection, but you're absolutely I mean, that's right on. This movie's crazy, what they get away with.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. And you you never really unless you've had maybe, like, 2 or 3 beers, you're never nauseous or confused. You know? Yeah. It it just all makes sense, and it's so thought out.

Andy Nelson:

As far as the performances, I mean, you know, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost are our core characters here as, you know, Nicholas Angel coming to the country to work, Nick Frost as as Danny, the, police constable who is not as bright and is but is really excited about somebody, like, working with somebody who's seen action in the city. You know? And Simon Pegg and Nick Frost obviously have kind of created kind of a a a buddy pairing that has, you know, lasted past this trilogy of films, past Edgar Wright's films. Like, they've certainly gone on to do a number of things together. You know, and there are a lot of great cinematic couples that have, kind of transcended certain films.

Andy Nelson:

What do you think of this as a couple, like a a cinematic team and what they bring to a film like this, but also just any film that they're in together?

Nathan Blackwell:

As a double act, like, I love them. Like, I I'm a fan of the the TV show that they were in, Spaced, and then also, like, The World's End. Yeah. They're they're definitely one of my favorite cinematic team ups. And and I think it's because the stories that that they're in, they have that aspect that they're dealing that they are they're they're stories of of some sort of heart that they're growing older or they're dealing with some other issue, but it's always manifested in a in a a fun metaphor.

Nathan Blackwell:

But and then the stories that they they tell are inherently very silly in a lot of ways. They they're writing that line of of grown ups wearing it's like I I say with my lead actor, Adam Rainey, it's like, I'm always making him a sad man in a sci fi outfit, You know? And writing that line of trying to make him

Pete Wright:

Human.

Nathan Blackwell:

Human and also doing something that is childlike in a lot of ways. You know? Being very much an adult, but yet trying to do something silly and playful.

Pete Wright:

Well, look at the slide of hand that you get with Nick Frost in this movie. The fact that his his story is not just being the doofus, but, but being the guy who individuates from his father and being the guy who learns how to be an adult as a as a separate individual. And that is a a vastly more mature story than this movie probably deserves.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. And he also gets to be an action hero too. Yeah.

Pete Wright:

He gets to be an action hero too. Right.

Andy Nelson:

Going back to your point, like, all the things that he commented on to Nicholas early in the film, have you ever jumped through the air firing your guns? Yeah. Have you ever fired your gun in the air screaming, ah, no. I've never done that. Like, all of the things that he calls out, like, then they get to do later in the film, and it's just fantastic.

Pete Wright:

And and a big shout out to the rest of the police squad, the police service.

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh my god.

Pete Wright:

I watched Olivia Coleman and Rafe Spall and Patty Considine. Like, I watched them more attentively this time because I feel like I haven't paid enough attention to them over the years as I watch this movie. They are incredible. They're incredible

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah.

Pete Wright:

At just subtlety of comedy. And, I every turn, they're just hysterical.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. You could never get them all like, they've everyone is like, the supporting cast has just gone on and gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. Like, they're it it is just such a such a packed house of talent. You know?

Pete Wright:

And Stephen Stephen Merchant, piss taker.

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. One scene. Yeah. One scene.

Pete Wright:

One scene.

Nathan Blackwell:

You've got Mark Freeman, you know, Bill Nighy. Again, that is literally Cate Blanchett in a in a mask in this scene.

Andy Nelson:

Well, and Peter Jackson, his father Christmas. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yep. So, yeah, he was able to really, pull in all sorts of favors and favors and just get all of these people to just pop in for brief bits.

Andy Nelson:

Steve Coogan is a police inspector too. It's like

Pete Wright:

it's

Andy Nelson:

so fun seeing. And the and you we've already talked about, like, this amazing lineup of people like Billy Whitelaw, Edward Woodward,

Nathan Blackwell:

oh my god. Yep. Timothy Dahl Freeman. Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Paul Freeman. Like, people who are very famous British faces from the past who in and some of them, like Edward Woodward in wicker man, like, who have come back to do feel like this film that so perfectly taps into some of the the past sort of projects that they've done.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. There's so much talent in this, and then they've only gotten bigger. And so rewatching it is a real treat.

Pete Wright:

Yeah. It's adorable. It's really a cute it's a cute, performance now that so much water's under the bridge for them professionally.

Andy Nelson:

What do you, where are you with, Edgar Wright and his needle drops? There's, quite a lot of, great hits in the soundtrack, which I think is it's a really fun one to listen to. But what do you think of all of these?

Nathan Blackwell:

Well, I was just watching and going, oh my god. All the like, we hear, like, a couple seconds of this song, couple seconds. That must have been so expensive. Yeah. I just think about the music budget.

Nathan Blackwell:

That's another thing. I don't know. He must not have any free time or have no hobbies. But, yeah, he's super into music and super granular into all of that as well. That flies right over my head personally, but it's so well done.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. And I think, you know, there's that level and, you know, you were talking about kind of like the generational groups of people coming up. And I think that there is something about filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and, Sofia Coppola and Edgar Wright who have a sense of music almost as much as they do the film, like the film industry. Right? They really have tapped into all of that too.

Andy Nelson:

And they're able to pull these tracks. It's like, I that's not something that I feel like I've heard in movies before, yet it it ends up fitting so perfectly in kind of like this tour of this perfect little village. And I don't know. I just I I love these filmmakers who really have a handle on grabbing songs for the soundtrack that just don't feel like the same song that I've heard a gazillion times because it worked in one movie a while back. You know?

Andy Nelson:

They're coming up with something different.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. He's got yeah. They're deep, deep cuts. And, most of that flies over my head, but it feels great. Like, it like, it it feels like the perfect moment, like, it was written for each of these.

Nathan Blackwell:

And it it it's a unique soundscape that doesn't feel like they're just kind of regurgitating some of the same tracks.

Pete Wright:

But like you said, I mean, what's the that's what's so brilliant about it is that you don't have very long to appreciate it. It just you moves on to the next thing so fast. There'll be a super jarring match cut or something that'll take you away, and the music trick goes with the cut. And I find that I mean, it's no it it it's no, baby driver in in that regard, but it's it's there. And and and you definitely get the I I feel like all of the Edgar Wright sort of quintessential transitions play with the soundscape too.

Pete Wright:

So you get those fantastic, like, walk by transitions that'll and and the music goes away too with the body. It's just, it's it's amazing, just how precise it is for a movie that is as goofy as it is. It's really great.

Nathan Blackwell:

And you get the sense, like, there I mean, there there were a couple of specific needle drops, like, expensive ones in Shaun of the Dead, but not many because it was such a low budget film. And so you really get a sense, like, he is, like, busting out the catalog and really going for it for this time around.

Pete Wright:

Well, Sean of the dead, the all the needle drops were the that entire budget was spent on the records that they threw at the first zombie. Like, that that was, like, those are that was the appreciation of music because they couldn't afford to play it. So they were just talking about the albums as they threw them. I thought that was really brilliant.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. That was very funny. Yeah. I think it's mostly just like the queen track that I can think of with Sean of the dead that was just so prominent, yeah, which is,

Pete Wright:

a good That was a whole budget. Perfectly used. Yep.

Andy Nelson:

Perfectly used. What else about this film? Like, this is it's grown for you as, like, one of your favorites. It's something that you just can't get enough of. What else about it allowed it to grow so much in its esteem for you over time?

Nathan Blackwell:

I would say also just kind of like the Britishness of it, you know. So I I went to England, last year and I was so like, it was so hard for me. I was gonna go to Wells where they shot Hot Fuzz. And it was so hard for me to cut that out. Basically, I had to decide, am I going to Wells or am I going to London?

Nathan Blackwell:

You know? It's like, oh, okay. Sorry, Wells. Like, it was but just just the idea of of it being a a unique world and a unique feeling and and, again, the British countryside. You you you know, I see plenty of, like, like, BBC murder mysteries in the British countryside, but not a lot of action comedies in the British countryside.

Nathan Blackwell:

You know? So there is there is kind of like a destination aspect to this movie. There is a certain degree of of of travel to this movie, which is really fun and appealing. I did have when I when I went went to, the UK, I did have a blue Cornetto and a red Cornetto.

Andy Nelson:

Okay. You just need the green one now.

Nathan Blackwell:

Greens are hard to find, apparently. But, yeah, I I don't think we've mentioned it. But but, yeah, the Edgar Wright Simon Pegg, Nick Fox movies are called the Cornetto trilogy.

Andy Nelson:

Yeah. Right.

Nathan Blackwell:

Which is basically like a you know, it's like a an a a freezer. Like the ice cream.

Andy Nelson:

The drumstick. Like the American drumstick. They're a lot of that. Flavored. Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

Yes. Right.

Pete Wright:

Right. What are the flavors? I've had all kinds of drumsticks, but what are the flavors? Raspberry, I assume.

Nathan Blackwell:

I wonder what the green one is, if that's the one with the world's zest.

Andy Nelson:

I'm assuming it's like a mint chocolate chip sort of thing.

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh, that's not gonna be it. And I think I think blue is pretty normal. I think blue is like vanilla maybe with some, like, caramel on it, and then red might be strawberry or or something like that. That would be my guess.

Pete Wright:

This week's show is sponsored by Cornetto. Right.

Andy Nelson:

I'm looking right now. They have a variety of flavors, strawberry, mint chocolate, nut, lemon, whippy, which is yogurt flavor with a chewy chocolate, Valentine's Day flavors, and Cornetto soft, which is soft ice cream that comes in chocolate chip cookie dough, royal strawberry, unicornetto Oh. Dragon Cornetto, vanilla chocolate, royal chocolate, and double chocolate. The Cornetto soft is sold on the street by vendors and is made on the spot with an ice cream dispenser, but the other flavors are premade and factory packaged. So, oh, they also have a flavor called Cornetto Enigma, which consists of cookie and cream, raspberry, and double chocolate flavors.

Andy Nelson:

Wow.

Pete Wright:

Wow. Yeah. I think they overshot the mark.

Andy Nelson:

They have. They're just just a few, just a few. That's that is amazing. You know, we're getting close to the end here. I but I you know, this is a film that is so incredibly full of tropes.

Andy Nelson:

It's just like part of the joy of it. Do you have any particular favorite tropes that they tap into that are from action movies, buddy cop movies, any of those sorts of things that you see it and it's just like, god, this is so enjoyable the way they're using this trope.

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh, that's a tough one.

Pete Wright:

Oh, well, it's the gearing up montage at the end. Oh, yeah. That He comes out with the horns

Nathan Blackwell:

of guns. Yeah. Right. Right.

Pete Wright:

Yep. That's That's my favorite.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Absolutely. That's fantastic. I really love the, I guess, like, the first scene of, like, bromance where they're like they're like watching Bad Boys 2. They're kinda drunk where he's dropped his guard.

Nathan Blackwell:

Nick Nick Nicholas Angel's dropped his guard, and they're playing that kind of lethal weapon buddy comedy thing to where it's it's just teetering on almost romance, you know? But you get the sense that these two guys who have been at odds with each other are now kind of loving each other. And they're even leaning into, like, that that musical soundscape and the way it's shot, it's very lethal weapon or Tony Scott.

Pete Wright:

You know what's funny? That's really the setup to the the punch line to that scene is later when when Frost asks, did you really buy me a piece, Orchid?

Nathan Blackwell:

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's been impounded. And I also really love the moment where all the the the other members of the police station flip and become, like, on their side.

Nathan Blackwell:

And suddenly, now everyone is busting each other's balls and loving each other too. It's like Oh, right now. Being a twat. Okay? Like, they're like, they're they're they suddenly have a brand new dynamic of that that pivot of going from adversary to now, I'm I'm right on your side, and now we're gonna we're we're, you know, we're we're best friends.

Nathan Blackwell:

We're we're gonna, like, break each other's balls.

Pete Wright:

Even to the point of absurdity, he hucks up the the trash can at him in his head, and they just laugh it off.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. I love how how they they take that, which which happens, and they just dial it all the way up until the dial practically breaks off.

Andy Nelson:

Practically sitcom. Yeah.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Nelson:

That's perfect. So funny. I well, for me, it's just like it has to be when Danny shoots into the air. It's like that it it's so perfectly tied into, like, the emotional core of the scene and everything, which is then the way that, like, it just makes me laugh so hard when he does that because I'm like, there it is. And it's done so perfectly.

Andy Nelson:

So

Nathan Blackwell:

yeah. Yeah. And and and another one, which is the big overly dramatic, like, fight between the good guy and the villain, but in a model village. So they're, like, towering kaiju. Right.

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. And it's and and it's so overdone to where punching and punching and then, oh, I'm gonna grab your fist, and now I'm gonna crush your hand and I'm gonna stand up. And they're like, ah, and then they do then they reverse the punching, and it's just so and then slow motion, and they fall back and then they land on on a on an actual, like, model house, and they're like, oh. Right. And just taking taking that that whole, like, end villain fight so melodramatically is just wonderful.

Andy Nelson:

It's perfect. Well, Nathan, it has been so fun chatting with you about this, about the last movie ever made, about your career. Thank you so much for joining us over here.

Nathan Blackwell:

Oh, thank you so much for having me. This has just been a a delight.

Andy Nelson:

Can you tell everybody where they should go to learn more about, you know, your movie and your your projects and you?

Nathan Blackwell:

Yeah. So, the last movie ever made is, now on Amazon and Apple TV in the states and then in on Amazon in the UK. Our our production company, Squishy Studios, you can go to our website. You can find us online. We've got a lot of our short films and web series and things like that at squishy studios.com.

Pete Wright:

Can I watch the blood one? Can I watch blood? The the Billy and the blood donor?

Nathan Blackwell:

Yes. You can. Forever midnight and Billy the blood donor are both on our YouTube channel.

Pete Wright:

How did I miss that before making my stand ashamed?

Andy Nelson:

That's fantastic.

Nathan Blackwell:

I live with Shane.

Andy Nelson:

Well, it has been so much fun chatting with you. Thank you again so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. And, for everybody else out there that we hope you like the show, and we certainly hope you like the movie like we do here on Movies We

Nathan Blackwell:

like.

Andy Nelson:

Movies we like is a part of the True Story FM Entertainment Podcast Network and the Next Reel family of film podcasts. The music is chomp clap by Out of Flux. Find the show at true story dot f m and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, threads, and letterboxed at the next reel. Learn about becoming a member at the next reel.com/membership. And if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, we always appreciate it if you drop one in there for us.

Andy Nelson:

See you next time.