WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.759 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are strapping 00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:06.259 ourselves into the miniaturized submarine, maybe 00:00:06.259 --> 00:00:09.240 one like the one in Interspace, and preparing 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.339 to navigate the chaotic arteries of Hollywood. 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:14.119 Our guide is a director who spent his entire 00:00:14.119 --> 00:00:17.000 career successfully infiltrating the studio system, 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:20.140 only to, well, kind of blow it up from the inside. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.359 Joe Dante. That's a great way to put it. Born 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:27.320 Joseph James Dante Jr. back in 1946, Dante is, 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:30.519 yeah, a genuine master of mixing highbrow satire 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:33.299 with lowbrow horror. He's the cinematic equivalent 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:36.500 of a Trojan horse, you know, smuggling 1960s 00:00:36.500 --> 00:00:39.259 countercultural radicalism and pure anarchic 00:00:39.259 --> 00:00:42.060 cartoon comedy directly into the traditional 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:45.359 1950s B -movie structure. And that blend is just 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:47.119 crucial to understanding his lasting impact. 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:49.780 Our source material today is, well, it's a fantastic 00:00:49.780 --> 00:00:52.460 map. his journey tracing his path from film school 00:00:52.460 --> 00:00:54.579 dropout and trailer cutter all the way to directing 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:57.320 iconic hits like gremlins can't forget gremlin 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:00.100 the genre defining horror of the howling and 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:03.100 that deeply personal satirical gem matinee exactly 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:06.400 and for you the curious learner listening in 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:08.969 this dive is essential because it's really a 00:01:08.969 --> 00:01:12.269 masterclass in compromise and resistance. We're 00:01:12.269 --> 00:01:14.689 peeling back the layers on the operational reality 00:01:14.689 --> 00:01:18.010 of how a singular, often really subversive artist 00:01:18.010 --> 00:01:21.069 of vision develops, clashes with. Oh yeah, clashes. 00:01:21.250 --> 00:01:23.989 And sometimes, just sometimes, triumphs over 00:01:23.989 --> 00:01:26.430 the demands of the rigid, you know, profit -driven 00:01:26.430 --> 00:01:28.629 studio machine. Okay, let's unpack this then. 00:01:28.689 --> 00:01:31.090 Let's start exactly where his vision began. Yeah. 00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:33.510 The foundations of the B -movie auteur. Right. 00:01:33.590 --> 00:01:35.909 To understand the DNA of a Joe Dante film, we 00:01:35.909 --> 00:01:37.909 have to start not in Hollywood, but back in New 00:01:37.909 --> 00:01:40.000 Jersey. He was born in Morristown, grew up in 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.019 Livingston. And crucially, his father was an 00:01:43.019 --> 00:01:45.359 Italian -American professional golfer, actually 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:48.480 encouraged him towards sports. So that created 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:51.079 an immediate contrast in young Joe's life right 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:53.799 off the bat. Right. Because while the world wanted 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:56.099 him to be, you know, athletic and conventional, 00:01:56.540 --> 00:01:59.239 Dante was lost in the world of shadows and imagination. 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:03.219 His escape was drawing cartoon and spending every 00:02:03.219 --> 00:02:05.560 possible Saturday afternoon at matinees just 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:07.579 soaking up everything from sci -fi to horror. 00:02:07.959 --> 00:02:10.500 Yeah. And his original artistic career plan was, 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.979 in fact, cartooning. That was the goal. But he 00:02:13.979 --> 00:02:16.060 experienced what turned out to be a profoundly 00:02:16.060 --> 00:02:19.840 formative setback when someone dismissed his 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:22.240 passion by telling him cartooning isn't an art 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.840 form. Ouch. Yeah. That rejection of his first 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:27.819 love seems to have been the catalyst that pushed 00:02:27.819 --> 00:02:30.060 him into filmmaking, leading him to the Philadelphia 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:32.180 College of Art, which is now the University of 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:34.300 the Arts. It's kind of ironic, isn't it, for 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:36.319 someone whose films are just packed with cartoon 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.400 logic. He gets rejected by the cartoon world, 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.039 but then he carries its physics and its, well, 00:02:42.139 --> 00:02:45.580 chaos into live -action cinema. And while he 00:02:45.580 --> 00:02:47.659 was at art school, he was already cultivating 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:50.689 this obsession with horror. The sources show 00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:53.030 his foundational interests began incredibly young 00:02:53.030 --> 00:02:55.849 -like, at just 12 years old. He was already writing 00:02:55.849 --> 00:02:58.009 to the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, 00:02:58.150 --> 00:03:00.330 providing reviews of horror films for years. 00:03:00.610 --> 00:03:03.770 That kind of fan -level, deep, almost encyclopedic 00:03:03.770 --> 00:03:06.250 genre knowledge meant he was uniquely prepared 00:03:06.250 --> 00:03:08.710 for his true education, what people often called 00:03:08.710 --> 00:03:11.250 the school of Roger Corman. Ah, Corman. Right. 00:03:11.819 --> 00:03:14.680 Corman's New World Pictures was notorious not 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:17.439 just for exploitation films, but for being this 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:21.580 rigorous, like de facto film school. It launched 00:03:21.580 --> 00:03:24.860 careers for Coppola, Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:27.120 so many others. And Dante's apprenticeship began 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.319 in 74, not behind the camera initially, but deep 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:33.060 in the trenches of post -production. He started 00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:35.740 by cutting trailers for Corman. Yeah. Which wasn't 00:03:35.740 --> 00:03:37.580 just grunt work, right? This was like the ultimate. 00:03:38.349 --> 00:03:41.430 training in pace hype condensed storytelling 00:03:41.430 --> 00:03:43.830 oh absolutely it taught him how to sell a movie 00:03:43.830 --> 00:03:46.409 in 90 seconds flat He was handling marketing 00:03:46.409 --> 00:03:49.430 sizzle for Corman films like Cover Girl Models, 00:03:49.449 --> 00:03:51.990 but also, and this is really key cutting, the 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:54.289 American trailer for films like Federico Fellini's 00:03:54.289 --> 00:03:57.509 Emmercord. Fellini? Yeah. So he was learning 00:03:57.509 --> 00:03:59.449 how to market both the highbrow and the lowbrow 00:03:59.449 --> 00:04:02.069 in the same tiny cutting room. That skill, that 00:04:02.069 --> 00:04:04.310 blending of disparate tones into a frenetic, 00:04:04.349 --> 00:04:07.169 energetic package, that's the hallmark of his 00:04:07.169 --> 00:04:09.270 future directing style right there. Okay, and 00:04:09.270 --> 00:04:11.509 here's where it gets really interesting. Connecting 00:04:11.509 --> 00:04:14.069 his editing skill back to his early days, even 00:04:14.069 --> 00:04:16.990 before Corman, As a student, he compiled this 00:04:16.990 --> 00:04:20.449 project called the Movie Orgy in 1968. This wasn't 00:04:20.449 --> 00:04:23.410 just some fun VHS mixtape. No, no, it was epic. 00:04:23.490 --> 00:04:26.329 It was this seamless seven -hour compilation 00:04:26.329 --> 00:04:29.329 that he edited together himself. Pulled clips 00:04:29.329 --> 00:04:32.910 from B -movies, 16mm films, commercials, even 00:04:32.910 --> 00:04:35.029 trailers. Can you imagine sitting through that? 00:04:35.449 --> 00:04:38.370 Seven hours. It was essentially a curated interactive 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:41.050 history of schlock cinema. I have to stop you 00:04:41.050 --> 00:04:43.879 there. Seven hours. That experience must have 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:45.920 fundamentally trained him to think in cinematic 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:48.939 mashups. It wasn't about respecting genre boundaries. 00:04:49.060 --> 00:04:51.500 It was about taking all this disparate cultural 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:54.439 debris, a goofy commercial, a terrifying monster 00:04:54.439 --> 00:04:56.959 clip, a snippet of film noir, and stitching it 00:04:56.959 --> 00:04:59.779 together into something new, anarchic, self -referential. 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:02.319 Exactly. That is the birth of the Dante style 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:04.100 right there. Absolutely. And that foundation 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:07.509 paid off fast. By 1975, he moves up to directing, 00:05:07.509 --> 00:05:09.829 collaborating with Alan Arkush on Hollywood Boulevard, 00:05:09.829 --> 00:05:13.089 a highly empirical exploitation film. And the 00:05:13.089 --> 00:05:15.829 backstory of this film is pure Corman. It was 00:05:15.829 --> 00:05:18.490 basically a dare, wasn't it? Pretty much. Corman 00:05:18.490 --> 00:05:20.970 bet he could produce a feature film in 10 days 00:05:20.970 --> 00:05:25.069 on a budget of just $54 ,000. The cheapest film 00:05:25.069 --> 00:05:27.430 New World Pictures had ever made. Incredible. 00:05:27.470 --> 00:05:30.230 And Dante and Arkush hit that impossible target 00:05:30.230 --> 00:05:33.269 by writing a story about a B -movie studio. Ah, 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:36.470 smart. Yeah, because that plot allowed them to 00:05:36.470 --> 00:05:38.490 incorporate massive amounts of pre -existing 00:05:38.490 --> 00:05:41.649 footage Corman already owned. Just pure ingenuity 00:05:41.649 --> 00:05:43.670 to get around the budget constraints. It's the 00:05:43.670 --> 00:05:46.709 perfect start, really, for a career def - fine 00:05:46.709 --> 00:05:49.350 by working within the system's constraints while 00:05:49.350 --> 00:05:53.110 simultaneously mocking it. Right. That Corman 00:05:53.110 --> 00:05:55.829 grounding gave Dante the speed, the skill, and 00:05:55.829 --> 00:05:57.910 maybe that inherent cynicism needed to handle 00:05:57.910 --> 00:06:01.689 his first major break. Piranha in 1978. Okay, 00:06:01.769 --> 00:06:03.449 Piranha. This was the one that got him noticed 00:06:03.449 --> 00:06:06.069 outside of the exploitation ghetto, right? Exactly. 00:06:06.290 --> 00:06:08.790 Shot on a $600 ,000 budget, it was a creature 00:06:08.790 --> 00:06:11.170 feature written by John Sayles. Dante admitted 00:06:11.170 --> 00:06:13.829 the shoot was chaotic, done in a rush. He was 00:06:13.829 --> 00:06:15.730 apparently so convinced the film would be a total 00:06:15.730 --> 00:06:18.189 disaster that he spent the editing process in 00:06:18.189 --> 00:06:21.569 just a complete fog. Wow. But the film had a 00:06:21.569 --> 00:06:23.629 pretty powerful guardian angel, didn't it? Steven 00:06:23.629 --> 00:06:25.889 Spielberg. That's right. Since Piranha was such 00:06:25.889 --> 00:06:29.089 an obvious riff on Jaws, Universal was apparently... 00:06:29.100 --> 00:06:32.019 preparing to block its release entirely to protect 00:06:32.019 --> 00:06:34.319 their own upcoming Jaws 2. Which makes sense 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:35.879 from their perspective, but what's fascinating 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:38.699 here is that Spielberg himself personally intervened. 00:06:38.699 --> 00:06:41.540 He convinced Universal that Dante's film was 00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:45.259 clearly a parody, you know, a comedic, self -aware 00:06:45.259 --> 00:06:47.639 monster movie, and therefore not direct competition 00:06:47.639 --> 00:06:50.720 to their serious sequel. Huh. That's brilliant. 00:06:51.019 --> 00:06:54.519 Define Dante early on using comedy as armor. 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.620 His films could be violent, sure, but they were 00:06:57.620 --> 00:07:00.589 also fundamentally satirical. which kind of made 00:07:00.589 --> 00:07:03.329 them commercially palatable, or at least defensible. 00:07:03.569 --> 00:07:06.110 Precisely. And this satirical, self -aware tone 00:07:06.110 --> 00:07:08.949 was perfectly refined in his next major project, 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:12.350 The Howling, in 1981, another collaboration with 00:07:12.350 --> 00:07:14.829 writer John Sayles. Wait, The Howling. They adapted 00:07:14.829 --> 00:07:17.290 Gary Brandner's werewolf novel, but Dante and 00:07:17.290 --> 00:07:19.449 Sayles injected this heavily satirical tone, 00:07:19.529 --> 00:07:22.290 meaning the script only bore a slight resemblance 00:07:22.290 --> 00:07:24.649 to the novel's actual plot. This is where we 00:07:24.649 --> 00:07:26.350 see him truly define that self -aware monster 00:07:26.350 --> 00:07:29.089 movie thing we just mentioned. And at the time, 00:07:29.089 --> 00:07:32.009 werewolves were definitely seen as corny and 00:07:32.009 --> 00:07:34.810 old hat, as Dante put it. So what was the strategy 00:07:34.810 --> 00:07:37.029 there? How did he make it fresh? The strategy 00:07:37.029 --> 00:07:39.410 was pretty brilliant marketing disguised as filmmaking, 00:07:39.589 --> 00:07:42.569 really. He disguised the movie as a popular slasher 00:07:42.569 --> 00:07:44.990 film, which was huge at the time, kept the focus 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:46.970 on the reporter character, the seedy retreat 00:07:46.970 --> 00:07:50.509 setting. Okay. And only then did he bring in 00:07:50.509 --> 00:07:53.430 the supernatural elements slowly so the audience 00:07:53.430 --> 00:07:56.069 could get acclimated and not immediately rejected 00:07:56.069 --> 00:07:59.230 as something old -fashioned. He basically slipped 00:07:59.230 --> 00:08:01.629 the classic monster back in through the back 00:08:01.629 --> 00:08:04.870 door of contemporary horror. Very clever. And 00:08:04.870 --> 00:08:07.250 the film is also a benchmark for special effects, 00:08:07.449 --> 00:08:10.029 isn't it? It featured state -of -the -art prosthetic 00:08:10.029 --> 00:08:12.829 effects handled by Rob Botten after Rick Baker 00:08:12.829 --> 00:08:15.129 famously left the project to work on an American 00:08:15.129 --> 00:08:18.149 werewolf in London. That difference is pretty 00:08:18.149 --> 00:08:20.850 pivotal. It really is. Botten's work gave us 00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:23.889 that famous full on -screen werewolf transformation. 00:08:24.870 --> 00:08:28.029 Replacing the old corny cutaways or quick dissolves 00:08:28.029 --> 00:08:30.959 with this visceral, visible... almost painful 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:33.720 metamorphosis. Yeah, you felt it. Right. That 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:36.200 commitment to realism in the effects paired with 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:39.320 the satirical script cemented the howling's place 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:42.059 in horror history and really showcased Dante's 00:08:42.059 --> 00:08:44.679 ability to demand technical excellence even on 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:48.639 a limited budget. So post the howling, Dante 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.159 starts getting offers for major studio projects. 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:54.659 We know he famously turned down Airplane, which 00:08:54.659 --> 00:08:56.460 is just mind -boggling to me. I still can't quite 00:08:56.460 --> 00:08:58.700 believe that one. But he did direct two episodes 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:01.820 of the subsequent Zucker, Abraham's, and Zucker 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:05.139 police procedural spoof, Police Squad. Right, 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:07.860 Ring of Fear and Testimony of Evil. That was 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:09.899 his first experience shooting anything on a major 00:09:09.899 --> 00:09:12.519 studio lot, and it must have further honed his 00:09:12.519 --> 00:09:15.580 mastery of visual gags and that rapid -fire comedy 00:09:15.580 --> 00:09:17.720 style. And the Spielberg connection deepened 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:20.419 further when the success of The Howling led Spielberg 00:09:20.419 --> 00:09:22.740 to bring him on to direct a segment of Twilight 00:09:22.740 --> 00:09:26.259 Zone, the movie in 1983. Yeah, the It's a Good 00:09:26.259 --> 00:09:28.750 Life segment. Dante directed that remake, playing 00:09:28.750 --> 00:09:31.149 heavily into cartoon -style special effects surrounding 00:09:31.149 --> 00:09:34.409 the omnipotent kid. And crucially, the sources 00:09:34.409 --> 00:09:36.710 note that he also stepped in to edit George Miller's 00:09:36.710 --> 00:09:39.029 segment. Oh, right, after the tragedy. After 00:09:39.029 --> 00:09:41.509 Miller was understandably horrified and left 00:09:41.509 --> 00:09:43.590 following the fatal helicopter accident during 00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:47.110 production. That shows Dante was seen as the 00:09:47.110 --> 00:09:49.769 steady hand, right? Capable of handling highly 00:09:49.769 --> 00:09:52.789 sensitive, complex post -production work under 00:09:52.789 --> 00:09:55.330 just extreme pressure. Which brings us neatly 00:09:55.330 --> 00:09:58.509 to 1984, the year everything really changed for 00:09:58.509 --> 00:10:01.610 him. Based on the success and the technical assurance 00:10:01.610 --> 00:10:04.210 of the Howling, Spielberg personally offered 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:06.769 Dante the director's chair for Gremlins. Gremlins. 00:10:06.929 --> 00:10:09.870 Okay, this became his definitive success. But 00:10:09.870 --> 00:10:12.149 what's fascinating is Dante's own assessment 00:10:12.149 --> 00:10:14.480 of the experience. He admitted the shoot was 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:17.320 grueling. Chris Columbus's original draft was 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:19.820 heavily rewritten. And just getting the central 00:10:19.820 --> 00:10:22.059 characters, the gremlins themselves, to operate 00:10:22.059 --> 00:10:25.299 was apparently a constant nightmare of hydraulics 00:10:25.299 --> 00:10:27.220 and wire. Oh, I bet. And let's talk about the 00:10:27.220 --> 00:10:29.320 cultural message there for a sec. The film follows 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:31.740 those three simple rules for the Mogwai, right? 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:34.139 Rules which are immediately catastrophically 00:10:34.139 --> 00:10:36.419 broken. No bright light, don't get it wet, never 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:39.159 feed it after midnight. Exactly. These rules 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:41.399 are essentially laws of responsible consumption. 00:10:41.700 --> 00:10:43.840 And when these rules are ignored by the reckless 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.720 American teenager, chaos is unleashed in that 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:49.379 quintessential suburban town, Kingston Falls. 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:51.940 It's anti -consumerism wrapped in a Christmas 00:10:51.940 --> 00:10:54.320 bow. Pretty much. It's set during the holidays, 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.100 focuses on the pursuit of the perfect exotic 00:10:57.100 --> 00:11:00.279 gadget gizmo and the destruction that ensues 00:11:00.279 --> 00:11:03.860 when that cheap foreign import is mishandled. 00:11:03.899 --> 00:11:07.000 It's a really biting satire on the desire for 00:11:07.049 --> 00:11:09.769 novelty and the consequences of careless ownership. 00:11:10.049 --> 00:11:12.370 That's why it hits such a nerve. And Warner Brothers 00:11:12.370 --> 00:11:14.830 was genuinely shocked, weren't they? When the 00:11:14.830 --> 00:11:17.149 film became the third highest grossing film of 00:11:17.149 --> 00:11:20.490 1984, it proved Dante could achieve mainstream 00:11:20.490 --> 00:11:23.809 blockbuster success while still remaining deeply 00:11:23.809 --> 00:11:26.779 subversively personal. Yeah, and he sums up his 00:11:26.779 --> 00:11:29.240 legacy perfectly with this quote. It's the movie 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:30.919 I'm going to be remembered for. If I get hit 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:32.700 by a bus tomorrow, the headline is going to be 00:11:32.700 --> 00:11:35.820 Gremlins director hit by bus. He finds this legacy 00:11:35.820 --> 00:11:39.139 fine, he says, because even though it's not his 00:11:39.139 --> 00:11:41.559 favorite of his own films, it manages to express 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:44.440 his personality despite being this massive studio 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:47.399 production. But immediate success often invites 00:11:47.399 --> 00:11:49.759 immediate failure, or at least immediate interference 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:51.990 from the studio, right? Oh, yeah. The larger 00:11:51.990 --> 00:11:54.269 the budget, the less control the artist tends 00:11:54.269 --> 00:11:57.009 to maintain. The machine demands results and 00:11:57.009 --> 00:12:00.009 paranoia sets in. Which brings us to Explorers 00:12:00.009 --> 00:12:03.490 in 1985. Right. Dante loved the script about 00:12:03.490 --> 00:12:06.049 three friends who build a working spacecraft. 00:12:06.309 --> 00:12:08.909 Yeah. It was a deeply ambitious, effects -heavy 00:12:08.909 --> 00:12:12.070 project. But he felt the third act needed substantial 00:12:12.070 --> 00:12:15.159 work, needed development time. And Paramount 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:18.159 executives flat out denied him that time. They 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:21.139 forced Dante and the writer, Eric Luke, to basically 00:12:21.139 --> 00:12:23.840 improvise the story as filming progressed. Which 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:26.340 is madness. Cinematic madness, especially when 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:28.779 you're dealing with complex visual effects sequences 00:12:28.779 --> 00:12:31.600 and child actors. Okay, here's the real heartbreak, 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:33.200 though. And this is where we need to linger on 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:35.360 the tragedy of studio vandalism, really. Yeah. 00:12:35.419 --> 00:12:38.220 In the spring of 85, Paramount suddenly, like 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:40.799 without warning, changed the film's release date. 00:12:40.940 --> 00:12:43.659 Moved it from late August way up to early July. 00:12:43.690 --> 00:12:46.590 Oh, wow. And they demanded that Dante stop editing 00:12:46.590 --> 00:12:48.789 and deliver a shorter rough cut immediately. 00:12:49.149 --> 00:12:51.970 So what's the implication of that? They essentially 00:12:51.970 --> 00:12:54.110 cut off the narrative development process before 00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:56.669 it was even complete. About an hour and a half 00:12:56.669 --> 00:12:59.429 of footage was just brutally excised. Hour and 00:12:59.429 --> 00:13:01.990 a half. Footage Dante later stated is presumably 00:13:01.990 --> 00:13:04.929 lost. This wasn't minor trimming. This was like 00:13:04.929 --> 00:13:07.370 amputating the heart of the story. I always wonder 00:13:07.370 --> 00:13:10.799 what was in that missing 90 minutes. That vacuum 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:13.559 likely contained the character development, the 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:16.059 thematic weight that would have anchored that 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:19.039 ambitious third act. The film you see today is 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.980 really the result of commercial panic overriding 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:24.720 artistic diligence. Yeah, Dante was devastated. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:27.019 He said, the movie you'll see is not the movie 00:13:27.019 --> 00:13:29.159 I wanted to make. It's the movie I got to make 00:13:29.159 --> 00:13:33.289 up to a certain point and then had to stop. Still, 00:13:33.330 --> 00:13:35.769 despite being this truncated, compromised vision, 00:13:35.970 --> 00:13:38.730 it launched the careers of Ethan Hawke and River 00:13:38.730 --> 00:13:41.009 Phoenix. True. And it developed a strong cult 00:13:41.009 --> 00:13:43.590 following, which kind of proves that even a half 00:13:43.590 --> 00:13:45.710 -finished Dante film has some real power. Definitely. 00:13:45.929 --> 00:13:48.610 The next major studio hurdle was Interspace in 00:13:48.610 --> 00:13:51.690 1987. He initially turned down the script, calling 00:13:51.690 --> 00:13:54.710 it a blatant ripoff of Fantastic Voyage. Huh. 00:13:54.909 --> 00:13:58.070 He wasn't wrong. It only became appealing after 00:13:58.070 --> 00:14:01.190 Jeffrey Boehm rewrote it as a comedy, which... 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:04.740 You know, was a perfect vehicle for Dante's chaotic 00:14:04.740 --> 00:14:07.299 sensibility. Right. Dante recalled a positive 00:14:07.299 --> 00:14:09.240 experience making the film, especially praising 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:11.980 the cast. Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Martin Short. 00:14:12.139 --> 00:14:15.019 Great combo. But once again, we see that studio 00:14:15.019 --> 00:14:17.600 executive fear cycle kick right in. Yeah. Dante 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:19.600 recalled Warner Brothers executives taking him 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:21.720 out to lunch and trying to influence his creative 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.940 choices, telling him his work was. Not funny. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:28.740 Wow. Which is just an astonishing piece of feedback 00:14:28.740 --> 00:14:31.460 for a master satirist. And then they suggested 00:14:31.460 --> 00:14:34.360 recasting Martin Short, describing the star as 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:37.340 not very attractive. Wait, wait. They saw successful 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:39.899 test screenings but still tried to force a change 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:41.879 in the central comedic player? Apparently so. 00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:44.159 That just proves the executives were judging 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.620 the film based on these outdated notions of marketability, 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:49.840 not on genuine audience reaction. They were totally 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:51.960 out of touch with the very audience they were 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:54.889 trying to reach. Exactly. Dante chose to just 00:14:54.889 --> 00:14:57.429 plow on, make the movie he intended. But despite 00:14:57.429 --> 00:15:00.330 those successful test screenings, the film flopped 00:15:00.330 --> 00:15:03.090 at the box office. And his diagnosis was simple 00:15:03.090 --> 00:15:06.289 and scathing. The studio did not know how to 00:15:06.289 --> 00:15:08.750 promote it. He pointed out that the original 00:15:08.750 --> 00:15:11.090 poster failed even include the actors' names 00:15:11.090 --> 00:15:14.590 or faces on it. Oh, come on. It was an unmarketable 00:15:14.590 --> 00:15:17.250 comedy because the marketing department seemingly 00:15:17.250 --> 00:15:20.320 didn't trust the talent or the material. Okay, 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.139 so following the chaos of microscopic travel 00:15:23.139 --> 00:15:26.360 and executive anxiety, Dante retreated slightly 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:29.299 to the suburban nightmare of The Burbs in 1989, 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:33.279 a perfect vehicle for his black comedy sensibilities. 00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:36.259 Yeah, The Burbs. He was intrigued by the script's 00:15:36.259 --> 00:15:39.840 blend of that mundane, real -life suburban ennui, 00:15:39.940 --> 00:15:41.620 you know, the struggle with the lawn, the messy 00:15:41.620 --> 00:15:43.840 neighbor with high -stakes, almost supernatural 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:46.580 paranoia. Right. And for the lead, Ray Peterson. 00:15:47.100 --> 00:15:49.360 He cast Tom Hanks, who he rightly called the 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:51.679 reigning everyman, a guy that everybody can identify 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:53.799 with, drawing that clear comparison to classic 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:56.320 movie star Jimmy Stewart. Yeah, perfect casting. 00:15:56.620 --> 00:15:58.840 And the production itself was pretty unique. 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:01.960 Because of the 1988 writer's strike, the filming 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:05.200 was done entirely chronologically over 10 weeks. 00:16:05.379 --> 00:16:07.759 Really? chronologically yeah on the colonial 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:10.980 street backlot at universal studios dante leveraged 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:12.919 the setting stressed that the action had to be 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:15.240 confined strictly to the neighborhood he even 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.399 noted that the entire piece could almost be a 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:19.779 stage play except you know for the cinematic 00:16:19.779 --> 00:16:23.179 visual stuff they were able to inject okay now 00:16:23.179 --> 00:16:25.860 we absolutely must turn to the ultimate act of 00:16:25.860 --> 00:16:28.340 subversive filmmaking within the studio system 00:16:29.340 --> 00:16:31.980 Following the original's huge success, the studio 00:16:31.980 --> 00:16:34.659 desperately wanted a Gremlins sequel. Of course 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:37.500 they did. But Dante consistently refused, arguing 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:39.460 pretty reasonably that the first story had a 00:16:39.460 --> 00:16:42.940 proper moralistic ending. Which it did. But Warner 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:45.360 Brothers tried every conceivable variation without 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.539 him. Gremlins in Vegas, Gremlins in space, and 00:16:48.539 --> 00:16:51.220 just failed spectacularly to develop a workable 00:16:51.220 --> 00:16:54.259 concept. Finally, they came back to Dante, basically 00:16:54.259 --> 00:16:56.720 begging him to direct. And this is where his 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.309 artistic leverage was. at its absolute peak. 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.710 Dante agreed, but only on two conditions. The 00:17:03.710 --> 00:17:06.509 rare promise of complete creative control. Wow. 00:17:06.710 --> 00:17:08.910 And a budget three times that of the original. 00:17:09.809 --> 00:17:12.470 He had clearly learned his lessons from explorers 00:17:12.470 --> 00:17:14.569 in inner space. If he was going to re -enter 00:17:14.569 --> 00:17:16.910 the blockbuster machine, it had to be entirely 00:17:16.910 --> 00:17:20.509 on his terms. Good for him. And with that freedom... 00:17:20.730 --> 00:17:23.450 He delivered Gremlins 2, the new batch, in 1990, 00:17:23.710 --> 00:17:26.529 which is just a masterpiece of meta satire. He 00:17:26.529 --> 00:17:28.950 envisioned it not as a conventional sequel, but 00:17:28.950 --> 00:17:32.009 as a direct scathing satire of the original film 00:17:32.009 --> 00:17:34.150 and sequels in general. It is arguably the most 00:17:34.150 --> 00:17:36.130 personalized studio film he ever made. It's so 00:17:36.130 --> 00:17:38.450 self -referential. It relocates the action from 00:17:38.450 --> 00:17:40.769 the cozy suburb to the monstrous sterile clamp 00:17:40.769 --> 00:17:44.619 center. This Manhattan skyscraper run by a cartoonishly 00:17:44.619 --> 00:17:47.339 evil media mogul played brilliantly by John Glover. 00:17:47.420 --> 00:17:49.900 There's a direct commentary on the massive corporate 00:17:49.900 --> 00:17:51.980 conglomerates that own Warner Brothers itself. 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:54.200 He used that creative control just brilliantly. 00:17:54.259 --> 00:17:56.819 There are Daffy Duck cameos, bizarre new gremlin 00:17:56.819 --> 00:17:59.079 mutations, and most famously, that sequence where 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:02.940 the gremlins literally stop the movie. Yes. Breaking 00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:05.720 the film reel. Forcing Hulk Hogan to intervene. 00:18:06.380 --> 00:18:08.519 Dante stuffed it with his own anxieties, his 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:10.839 sense of humor. He even got Christopher Lee in 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:12.940 there as a mad scientist trying to genetically 00:18:12.940 --> 00:18:16.160 engineer the creatures. Creatively, it was just 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:20.079 an overwhelming success, a true auteur work that 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:22.460 Dante himself claimed contained the most personal 00:18:22.460 --> 00:18:25.960 influence. But commercially? Yeah, commercially 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:28.059 it suffered. It didn't perform nearly as well 00:18:28.059 --> 00:18:30.319 as the original. The takeaway seems to be that 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:32.900 audiences who maybe wanted just a simple, thrilling 00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:36.119 monster movie were confused by its intellectualism, 00:18:36.140 --> 00:18:38.220 its hyper self -awareness. It was maybe just 00:18:38.220 --> 00:18:40.759 too smart for its own sequel premise? Possibly. 00:18:41.059 --> 00:18:43.819 Following that, he delivered another deeply personal, 00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:45.900 critically acclaimed film that still struggled 00:18:45.900 --> 00:18:49.519 commercially, Matinee in 1993. This one was set 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:51.799 during the high -anxiety backdrop of the Cuban 00:18:51.799 --> 00:18:54.140 Missile Crisis. Right, matinee. It starred John 00:18:54.140 --> 00:18:56.599 Goodman as Lawrence Woolsey, this fantastic stand 00:18:56.599 --> 00:18:58.839 -in for the real -life cinematic showman William 00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:01.660 Castle. Oh, yeah. Specializing in horror and 00:19:01.660 --> 00:19:04.339 sci -fi B -movies, complete with theatrical gimmicks, 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:07.380 buzzers in the seats, the whole nine yards. Matinee 00:19:07.380 --> 00:19:10.000 was clearly born of Dante's own deep -seated 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:12.299 nostalgia for that world of Saturday matinees, 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:15.059 the communal experience of the theater, especially 00:19:15.059 --> 00:19:18.769 during a time of national fear. glowing reviews, 00:19:19.130 --> 00:19:21.450 the film failed to turn a profit. It's almost 00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:23.390 a confirmed pattern by this point, isn't it? 00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:25.849 The more niche, personal, and nostalgic the subject 00:19:25.849 --> 00:19:28.349 matter, the less likely mainstream Hollywood 00:19:28.349 --> 00:19:30.509 audiences were to embrace it. Seems that way. 00:19:31.109 --> 00:19:33.230 And the battles continued even in television. 00:19:33.869 --> 00:19:36.750 His 1997 made -for -TV film, The Second Civil 00:19:36.750 --> 00:19:40.049 War, a really sharp social satire about anti 00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:42.990 -immigration, where states secede over immigration 00:19:42.990 --> 00:19:45.369 policy. Which sounds incredibly relevant now. 00:19:45.549 --> 00:19:48.089 Doesn't it? It suffered a tremendous amount of 00:19:48.089 --> 00:19:49.970 interference during post -production from an 00:19:49.970 --> 00:19:52.190 HBO executive who reportedly softened the ending 00:19:52.190 --> 00:19:55.099 considerably. Ugh. And then there's the cautionary 00:19:55.099 --> 00:19:58.559 tale of Small Soldiers in 1998, the film about 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:01.440 military action figures coming to life. Dante 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:03.740 started with a mandate to make an edgy picture 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:07.000 for teenagers. Okay. But once Burger King signed 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:09.759 on as a massive sponsor to promote the film and 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:12.440 sell toys. Ah, the dreaded tie -in. The tone 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:15.950 shifted entirely. The mandate changed to softening 00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:18.750 it into a kiddie movie to protect the sponsor's 00:20:18.750 --> 00:20:21.809 brand image. This led directly to scenes involving 00:20:21.809 --> 00:20:24.549 action and explosions being cut or minimized. 00:20:24.869 --> 00:20:28.589 Furthermore, Dante claimed 12 uncredited writers 00:20:28.589 --> 00:20:32.019 worked on the film over five years. illustrating 00:20:32.019 --> 00:20:34.279 the sheer committee -driven nature of the final 00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:37.539 product. The creative vision was just diffused 00:20:37.539 --> 00:20:39.880 by the marketing requirements. Right. Moving 00:20:39.880 --> 00:20:42.880 into the 2000s, Dante faced perhaps his biggest 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:45.420 creative street jacket yet with Looney Tunes. 00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:48.380 Back in action in 2003, that live -action animation 00:20:48.380 --> 00:20:51.460 hybrid. Yeah, Looney Tunes. He agreed to direct 00:20:51.460 --> 00:20:53.539 it for profoundly personal reasons, didn't he? 00:20:53.619 --> 00:20:56.380 It was a tribute to his idol, Chuck Jones. And 00:20:56.380 --> 00:20:58.319 it sort of served as a placeholder for his own 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:01.079 unmade biopic about Jones' early... years at 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:03.460 Warner Bros., which he planned to call Termite 00:21:03.460 --> 00:21:05.700 Terrace. And he and the screenwriter, Larry Doyle, 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:07.900 were adamant that this film should be the anti 00:21:07.900 --> 00:21:10.220 -space jam because Dante really disliked how 00:21:10.220 --> 00:21:12.339 that earlier film represented the classic Looney 00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:14.859 Tunes brand and personalities. Felt it favored 00:21:14.859 --> 00:21:18.019 celebrity over character. Okay, a noble goal. 00:21:18.500 --> 00:21:21.299 Yet, even with that specific passion intent, 00:21:21.660 --> 00:21:24.920 Dante stated flatly that he had no creative freedom 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:28.200 on the project. He labeled the experience the 00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:31.180 longest year and a half of my life. Wow. The 00:21:31.180 --> 00:21:33.359 constant studio input apparently changed the 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:35.640 plot continuously, ensuring the final product 00:21:35.640 --> 00:21:37.920 bore little resemblance to his original vision. 00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:39.960 And the most egregious example of interference 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.880 involved the humor itself, right? Studio executives 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:45.299 grew tired of the film's initial set of jokes 00:21:45.299 --> 00:21:48.220 and insisted they be changed. Get this. They 00:21:48.220 --> 00:21:52.240 brought in an astonishing 25 gag writers. 25. 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:55.000 To rewrite jokes that were short enough for the 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:57.539 animated characters to dub in quickly. Think 00:21:57.539 --> 00:22:01.000 about that. 25 writers hired just for quick gags, 00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:03.500 yet Doyle remained the only credited writer. 00:22:03.859 --> 00:22:06.220 It was an assembly line of comedy that must have 00:22:06.220 --> 00:22:08.460 just crushed Dante's soul. That sounds like a 00:22:08.460 --> 00:22:10.500 director whose initial passion for cartoons was 00:22:10.500 --> 00:22:12.700 crushed all over again, only this time by the 00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:15.240 corporate machine itself. Exactly. Following 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:17.859 that grueling experience, Dante returned to his 00:22:17.859 --> 00:22:20.259 horror roots in television, directing episodes 00:22:20.259 --> 00:22:22.960 of the acclaimed horror anthology series Masters 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:25.700 of Horror. Right, including the adaptation of 00:22:25.700 --> 00:22:27.960 Alice Sheldon's short story, The Screwfly Solution. 00:22:28.460 --> 00:22:31.119 And here's a fascinating detail about self -editing. 00:22:31.460 --> 00:22:33.960 Dante had wanted to adapt this story for years, 00:22:33.980 --> 00:22:36.119 apparently even starting a feature script way 00:22:36.119 --> 00:22:38.240 back when he was at New World. Oh, really? Yeah. 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:40.940 But when he finally made it as a one -hour episode, 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:45.519 he realized the story, which is this deeply bleak 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:48.440 tale of human extinction triggered by a genetically 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:52.519 engineered virus, was... So depressing that if 00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:54.359 he had made it as a feature film, nobody would 00:22:54.359 --> 00:22:57.059 have come to see it at all. Sometimes the smaller 00:22:57.059 --> 00:22:59.259 format saves a story from commercial failure 00:22:59.259 --> 00:23:03.039 just by lowering expectations. Exactly. He continued 00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:05.140 his genre commitment by launching the web series 00:23:05.140 --> 00:23:08.000 Trailers from Hell in 2007. Which is fantastic, 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:09.640 by the way. Oh, it's a great resource, where 00:23:09.640 --> 00:23:11.700 directors offer commentary on classic and cult 00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:14.079 movie trailers. He also directed the independent 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:17.619 3D horror comedy The Hole in 2009, which actually 00:23:17.619 --> 00:23:19.819 won an award at the VMS Film Festival. Good for 00:23:19.819 --> 00:23:22.720 him. And meanwhile, to, as he joked, get the 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:25.460 rent paid, he directed 10 episodes of of the 00:23:25.460 --> 00:23:28.119 Hawaii Five -Zero reboot between 2011 and 2017. 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.200 Okay, but here's where we get maybe the truest 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:34.640 measure of Joe Dante's artistic ambitions, the 00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:37.779 extensive boneyard of unrealized projects. This 00:23:37.779 --> 00:23:40.859 list is just a profound window into the films 00:23:40.859 --> 00:23:43.099 Hollywood prevented him from making. Yeah, the 00:23:43.099 --> 00:23:45.619 what -ifs. The passion project he struggled for 00:23:45.619 --> 00:23:48.640 years to fund was The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, 00:23:48.819 --> 00:23:52.000 a biopic about his mentor, Roger Corman, specifically 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.460 focusing on the making of Corman's 1967 LSD film, 00:23:56.619 --> 00:23:59.660 The Trip. Wow. This film would have seen Dante 00:23:59.660 --> 00:24:01.880 grappling with his own mentor's controversial 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:05.140 past, wouldn't it? Corman, this visionary producer 00:24:05.140 --> 00:24:07.859 who launched so many careers, but who also often 00:24:07.859 --> 00:24:11.549 produced epically questionable Well, trash. Exactly. 00:24:11.549 --> 00:24:14.390 They came close, apparently twice. Dante even 00:24:14.390 --> 00:24:16.529 directed a live table reading of the script back 00:24:16.529 --> 00:24:19.390 in 2016, starring Bill Hader as Corman, Jason 00:24:19.390 --> 00:24:22.089 Ritter as Peter Fonda, and Ethan Embry as Jack 00:24:22.089 --> 00:24:24.269 Nicholson. Great cast for a reading. And here 00:24:24.269 --> 00:24:26.529 is that fantastic, morbidly practical detail 00:24:26.529 --> 00:24:28.529 that says everything about the realities of independent 00:24:28.529 --> 00:24:31.349 filmmaking. A cameo role featuring Roger Corman 00:24:31.349 --> 00:24:33.630 himself was reportedly shot in case he died before 00:24:33.630 --> 00:24:35.869 production could ever actually begin. Get out! 00:24:36.430 --> 00:24:39.730 Seriously. They were so afraid of losing the 00:24:39.730 --> 00:24:41.950 central figure that they future -proofed the 00:24:41.950 --> 00:24:44.250 film's existence. I have to pause and reflect 00:24:44.250 --> 00:24:47.910 on that level of morbid practicality. That speaks 00:24:47.910 --> 00:24:50.750 volumes about the dedication required to birth 00:24:50.750 --> 00:24:52.970 a passion project outside the studio system, 00:24:53.130 --> 00:24:55.650 where the sheer length of the development process 00:24:55.650 --> 00:24:58.710 means you genuinely risk the death of your key 00:24:58.710 --> 00:25:01.279 subjects before you can roll cameras. It's incredible. 00:25:01.460 --> 00:25:03.539 Despite all that effort, the project was effectively 00:25:03.539 --> 00:25:06.460 shelved following Corman's passing and was eventually 00:25:06.460 --> 00:25:09.220 adapted into a graphic novel instead. A shame. 00:25:09.480 --> 00:25:12.220 And his other passion biopic, Termite Terrace, 00:25:12.259 --> 00:25:14.960 about Chuck Jones, also remains unmade. Right. 00:25:15.059 --> 00:25:18.039 And he was attached to some huge mainstream franchises, 00:25:18.059 --> 00:25:20.240 too, which gives you a glimpse into what those 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:22.420 films could have been under his satirical eye. 00:25:22.740 --> 00:25:25.180 He pitched an early attempt at a Jaws sequel 00:25:25.180 --> 00:25:31.269 as a spoof titled Jaws. Three people. Zero. I 00:25:31.269 --> 00:25:33.329 imagine that level of self -parody aimed at a 00:25:33.329 --> 00:25:35.569 massive franchise like Jaws. Wouldn't that have 00:25:35.569 --> 00:25:37.309 been something? And he was attached to the Batman 00:25:37.309 --> 00:25:39.549 early on. What's fascinating about this is the 00:25:39.549 --> 00:25:42.509 casting idea. He wanted John Lithgow to play 00:25:42.509 --> 00:25:44.569 the Joker. Lithgow is the Joker, directed by 00:25:44.569 --> 00:25:47.829 Dante. The very idea. It suggests a tonal shift 00:25:47.829 --> 00:25:50.289 toward the truly bizarre, probably channeling 00:25:50.289 --> 00:25:53.309 the original absurdism of the 1960s Batman TV 00:25:53.309 --> 00:25:56.039 show, maybe. Could be. wild to think about. He 00:25:56.039 --> 00:25:58.019 was also briefly attached to the early development 00:25:58.019 --> 00:26:00.619 of Jurassic Park, which is another fascinating 00:26:00.619 --> 00:26:04.240 counterfactual. But we also see the cycle of 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:06.400 interference repeating with other high -profile 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:09.000 projects. He was attached to direct a tongue 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:11.160 -in -cheek version of The Phantom with Jeffrey 00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:13.859 Baum. Okay. But Paramount pulled the plug right 00:26:13.859 --> 00:26:16.619 before shooting over budgetary concerns. The 00:26:16.619 --> 00:26:18.619 subsequent version was made much more seriously 00:26:18.619 --> 00:26:21.259 under a new director, and Dante only received 00:26:21.259 --> 00:26:24.250 an executive producer credit. Just constant interference. 00:26:24.589 --> 00:26:26.750 It proves that even when the talent is proven, 00:26:26.970 --> 00:26:29.650 the studios will often revert to cautious commercialism. 00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:32.730 Seems to be the pattern. And his extensive list 00:26:32.730 --> 00:26:35.029 of refused opportunities confirms his selective 00:26:35.029 --> 00:26:37.529 nature, too. He turned down directing Halloween 00:26:37.529 --> 00:26:40.710 III, Season of the Witch, The Flintstones, Casper, 00:26:40.809 --> 00:26:43.170 even the James Bond film The World is Not Enough. 00:26:43.390 --> 00:26:46.650 Wow. bond. Yeah. He only chooses projects where 00:26:46.650 --> 00:26:48.829 he believes his distinct worldview, that blend 00:26:48.829 --> 00:26:51.690 of wit, anarchy and satire, can actually be expressed. 00:26:51.970 --> 00:26:55.150 And that worldview is informed by just a phenomenal 00:26:55.150 --> 00:26:59.720 synthesis of influences. Beyond Corman and Chuck 00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:02.920 Jones, Dante cites the witty anarchy of Frank 00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:05.920 Tashlin and Ernst Lubitsch, the grand style of 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:08.259 Mario Bava and Jean Cocteau, and the classic 00:27:08.259 --> 00:27:10.940 horror of James Whale. His favorite films reflect 00:27:10.940 --> 00:27:14.140 this synthesis perfectly, ranging from Lubitsch's 00:27:14.140 --> 00:27:17.519 comedy To Be or Not to Be to Sergio Leone's epic 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:20.240 Once Upon a Time in the West and Whale's masterpiece 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:22.500 Bride of Frankenstein. It's a combination of 00:27:22.500 --> 00:27:24.839 the witty, the grand, and the monstrous. Exactly. 00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:27.900 He even admitted he frequently steals gags. from 00:27:27.900 --> 00:27:31.119 the manic 1941 comedy, Hell's a Poppin'. A director 00:27:31.119 --> 00:27:33.880 who steals gags from a 1941 comedy to put into 00:27:33.880 --> 00:27:35.960 a commentary on corporate media? Like he did 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:38.519 in Gremlins 2. That is exactly what makes Joe 00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:40.700 Dante such a singular voice in American cinema. 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:43.180 Hashtag neck outro. So, okay, what does this 00:27:43.180 --> 00:27:45.259 all mean when we synthesize Joe Dante's career? 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:47.779 His trajectory is really a portrait of constant 00:27:47.779 --> 00:27:50.880 negotiation. His infectious enthusiasm, that 00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:53.779 deep love for B -movies, cartoons, satire, was 00:27:53.779 --> 00:27:56.099 consistently, it seems, at war with the relentless 00:27:56.099 --> 00:27:58.720 commercial demands of major studios. Yeah, and 00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:00.799 that negotiation led to signature successes, 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:03.400 absolutely, like Gremlins. But it also resulted 00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:05.779 in profoundly heartbreaking, truncated projects 00:28:05.779 --> 00:28:08.720 like Explorers, where a significant chunk of 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:10.799 the film was just lost to a panicked release 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:13.819 schedule. Right. And it also led to creatively 00:28:13.819 --> 00:28:16.750 controlled... be noble failures like gremlins 00:28:16.750 --> 00:28:20.549 2 which was simply too honest too meta in its 00:28:20.549 --> 00:28:22.670 appraisal of the sequel premise for mass appeal 00:28:22.670 --> 00:28:26.069 his genius really lies in his ability to blend 00:28:26.069 --> 00:28:28.470 comedy and horror so seamlessly that allowed 00:28:28.470 --> 00:28:31.150 him to be a powerful social satirist while somehow 00:28:31.150 --> 00:28:33.390 maintaining commercial appeal at least sometimes 00:28:33.390 --> 00:28:36.829 he packaged the anti -consumerism message of 00:28:36.829 --> 00:28:39.470 gremlins and the anti -immigration satire of 00:28:39.470 --> 00:28:42.390 the second civil war in highly entertaining approachable 00:28:42.390 --> 00:28:44.890 genre packaging and if the battle for artistic 00:28:44.890 --> 00:28:46.950 integrity is the primary theme of his career, 00:28:47.130 --> 00:28:50.009 then that extensive boneyard of unrealized projects, 00:28:50.230 --> 00:28:52.529 from his Corman biopic to his early version of 00:28:52.529 --> 00:28:54.910 the Batman, that might actually be the purest, 00:28:54.910 --> 00:28:57.289 truest window into his ultimate artistic ambitions. 00:28:58.079 --> 00:28:59.839 It shows us the path he wanted to take before 00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:02.180 Hollywood interfered so often. Which raises an 00:29:02.180 --> 00:29:04.180 important question, I think, for you to consider 00:29:04.180 --> 00:29:07.299 as you wrap up this deep dive. If a filmmaker's 00:29:07.299 --> 00:29:10.000 true passion is sometimes found not just in the 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.680 films they made, but maybe even more so in the 00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:15.960 films Hollywood prevented them from making, what 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:18.799 other hidden masterpieces do we need to investigate 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:21.700 in the film archive of the imagination? It's 00:29:21.700 --> 00:29:24.170 a great thought to chew on. as you maybe watch 00:29:24.170 --> 00:29:26.349 his films again, perhaps with a new appreciation 00:29:26.349 --> 00:29:28.410 for the battles fought on the cutting room floor 00:29:28.410 --> 00:29:30.650 and behind the scenes. Thanks for joining us 00:29:30.650 --> 00:29:31.250 for the deep dive.