IFH 778: Crafting Over 160 Films, Tales of Creativity, Conflict, and Cinematic Hustle with Jim Wynorski

Alex Ferrari 1:54
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Dave Bullis 1:57
I just thought of so, you know. Hey, look, you know, this guy directed 150 movies, so why not just name it that? I mean, you know, after all, the guy has done every genre you could think of, and it just, it makes more sense than than anything else I was gonna call it. So, without further ado, with guests, Jim Wynorski.

Jim Wynorski 2:17
Dave, I'm happy to be here.

Dave Bullis 2:19
You guys. You know, Jim, you and I have been not only Facebook friends for a while, but I mean, I'm a huge fan of your work, obviously, because I don't know a single filmmaker who hasn't stumbled upon one of your films, you know. And just to rattle off a few of them, we have to, we have to mention shopping mall. Desktop, okay. Desktop, or two, the return of Swamp Thing 976, evil two. And as we were just talking about, you know, you did camel spiders with, with Brad, who's actually been on the podcast, and, you know, he actually co wrote camel spiders. So, you know, he did so, so there you go. And also, I forgot, I also, I almost forgot to mention sorority house massacre two and hard to die, which, which, by the way, is what actually got us talking, because they're coming out on Blu ray. And I wanted to show you a message. And, you know, Jim, it's just really great to have you on the podcast. Oh, thank you, Dave. So So Jim, just to get it started off. I mean, you know, you started off your career, I mean, just coming right out of the gate, like, I mean, you just came out swinging. So, you know, I wanted to ask, Jim, how did you get started in this, in this wacky, wacky world,

Jim Wynorski 3:30
All right! Well, that's the question everybody always asks, and I'm kind of sick of answering it. But I want to make it quick,

Dave Bullis 3:35
A different question.

Jim Wynorski 3:38
I work. No, no, it's fine. Okay. I worked in New York as a directing commercials, and I always had it in my head that I wanted to come out here and direct movies. So I I packed up my stuff in a car and drove across country, and I came out here, and I was willing to do almost anything to get into directing movies, and I struggled for about two and a half three years, doing anything I could. And finally I got someone to read some of my scripts, and all led to work with Roger Corman. And finally I got, you know, to direct the movie in 1983 so that was the Lost Empire. And then from there on, I said, I'm I'm headed straight up the ladder. And my next film was chopping wall and death or two, big bad mom or two now this earth, the list kind of goes on and on. I think I'm up to about 165 - 170 movies at this point.

Dave Bullis 4:50
Yeah, you and Takashi Meka are so prolific in just directing movies. I mean, it's just, I think you guys are really machines, because you just. I mean, both of you are able to, you know, get things made, and actually, you know, direct these products and actually get them out there. And that is that, in of itself, any three phases of what I just actually mentioned are difficult enough, but you guys just are rolling with them. You with Takashi Meka.

Jim Wynorski 5:18
I don't know who that is, but I'm sure he's very successful, and I try to be the same.

Dave Bullis 5:26
Yeah, it's Kashi meke. There's a lot of like, Japanese horror films, like audition.

Jim Wynorski 5:31
Ah, okay, then that's why I'm not familiar with his name.

Dave Bullis 5:35
Yeah, I'm a huge nerd who has no life Jim, so,

Jim Wynorski 5:39
Okay, no problem, no problem.

Dave Bullis 5:41
So,

Jim Wynorski 5:42
You know, I'm sure I could name a couple directors nobody's ever heard of, too. But thing is, it's, it's if the guy is prolific, that a guy is prolific. I've slowed down in the last couple years, but I'm still, I'm still pranking. And when it was one summer where I made nothing, summer one year where I made about six movies that year, and that was like it was almost too much. Kind of burned me out. But again, between writing, producing and directing, I've got about 165 maybe 170 I don't know, I haven't counted, but it's up there.

Dave Bullis 6:19
So, let's talk about that. Jim, how do you make, you know, six movies in a year? I mean, you know, I mean, there's obviously some post production with each of them. So are you starting one like in post production and that way? You know, did it sort of work out that way, or did you have a plan where you're going to do six movies in one year?

Jim Wynorski 6:38
Oh, well, no, I didn't ever, ever have a plan. It always happened when people would fold me up and saying, I'm doing this film. Are you available? And I don't think I ever said I wasn't. A couple of times I said I wasn't available because I didn't want like a project. But most times I you know, if it was an interesting topic or an interesting film, or our film, or sci fi. I've done every genre you can imagine. And this, you know, was a case where I would start pre, pre production on one while I'm doing it post, not another. And you can do both. The only time you can't really do anything else is during production of the movie? Yeah, very true.

Dave Bullis 7:23
I mean, because, you know, doing six movies in a year, I mean that that is a pretty challenging task. I actually had somebody on here who who made 12 short films in a year. So each month he was making a short film. And by the end, he was so burned out and tired, he was like, I never want to do this again, just because it obviously, as you can imagine, it's just so much, you know, every month it's like, you're, you're before you're done the morning and already playing for the next one.

Jim Wynorski 7:49
Well, it only happened a couple of times, you know, where I was working that hard. Other times, you know, was down to like, sometimes I did only one a year. Sometimes it was for a year, and that was just, it kind of evened itself out. So each film, each film was a was a kind of a nice experience, because I got to do something different. And it took me a lot of times. The films took me to foreign countries, etc, and that was all a lot of fun.

Dave Bullis 8:25
So when you got started, and you started to work with Roger Corman, I mean, Roger Corman is such a well known producer, he wrote the book, you know, how I made 1000 movies and never lost a dime. You know? What are some of the things that you learned just working from him, work working with him. I'm sorry.

Jim Wynorski 8:43
Well, I learned about distribution. I learned about how to make the movie for the for an audience, and not to make a movie for yourself, because if you make a movie for yourself, it sometimes not going to sell. So I always like, tried to figure out what my audience was or going to be, and I would aim to make a movie that was successful. And, you know, I had a couple bombs. We all have a couple of bombs, but, you know, in each case, I tried as hard as I could to make the right kind of movie and and even then, you know, there's always somebody who likes the movie you don't like. So I get emails and notes from people all the time about a movie I've kind of forgotten that they love. So it all again works out in the wise,

Dave Bullis 9:44
Yeah. So, like, what are some of the movies that people bring up to you? Like, you know, you were just describing, like, what are some of the movies that you they sort of bring up that you've kind of forgotten about?

Jim Wynorski 9:54
Oh, you know, I think so many Dave I, you know, and I don't want to negate any of them, but there's a couple of it, you know, I haven't watched it a long time. Just, you know, I don't know which one to pick, you know, I I tried my best, my damnedest with each one and and I'm always trying to, you know, you always have to second guess what's going to be popular six months from the time you make your movie, and that's what it's going to be selling. And I was pretty good at it in in the 80s and 90s, and even now, with with video changing and no more DVDs and etc etc, you have to kind of always be on the lookout for what's coming up and what's what trends are going to come along. The Internet has changed the way we watch movies.

Dave Bullis 11:09
Yeah, yes, it has. I mean, because you look at a movie like chopping mall, you know, and that takes place, you know, inside of a mall, obviously. And you know, it's, I mean, malls don't even exist anymore. So, you know, we'll move, for the most part, they don't. But, you know, it's like a that's why I like to move even more now, because it's like a slice of Americana that doesn't exist. You know what? I mean, that I sort of just gone, gone the way of the dodos.

Jim Wynorski 11:36
Yeah! Well, yeah. But it people say, once you remake it. And of course, I say absolutely not. Why should I remake something that's good in the first place? You know? Yeah, I like coming I like coming in, doing a part two on a movie that I didn't care for, and seeing what I could do, or doing a part three or a part four. I already did a part three, but I did a lot of part twos, and I did a couple of part fours, but it was a lot of it. You know, it's fun to go in and try to do something different from the thing that's coming forward and to remake chopping all is ridiculous. You know, if you like making yours too, however good it is, it's not Jaws okay. And so, I mean, you could just do was actually a very good movie, but it's Jaws two, and nobody, nobody cares about it, because it's part two. But you know, same goes true. Same old is true for shopping. While I don't like to top my own hat, but I think that film is a perfect example of the time. And you couldn't make it today, you could, but it wouldn't be the same.

Dave Bullis 12:59
Yeah, it wouldn't be the same. And I remember, I saw our Facebook post from you about somebody was trying to make a shopping mall two or something, or or there was a news article that from some web movie website,

Jim Wynorski 13:10
That guy's been first trying to make that film for a dozen years. He doesn't have the rights. And every, every year or so, he comes along and says he's going to do it, and, you know, after 10 years, just, you know, shut up and move along. So, and I have part of the right so he's not going to make it without talking to me first. And I don't want to give up those rights unless somebody came along with a million dollars and I'll, I'll take it, when I'm gonna make it, it'll bomb, and mine will still be on top.

Dave Bullis 13:45
It's kind of like what John Carpenter said, you know, because whenever they do a remake, he said people would ask him what he feels about it, and he would just say, well, it's it's good, because I open up my hands, and a check magically appears.

Jim Wynorski 13:57
That's it. That's it. And, you know, like they, they all these remakes that are coming along. I'm so sick of them. They never, they never do it better, because they're always trying to remake a hit movie. It's better to go and remake a movie that was a bomb. But they won't do that because it's not financially viable. But, you know, I'd love to see beast of Yucca flags remade and or, you know, the the creeping terror we made, but they're not going to do it because you could or play. I think someone did remake plan nine, but it was probably even worse than the original. So anyway, I try to stay away from reboots.

Dave Bullis 14:53
Yeah, I know there's so many remakes and that, you know, movies are based on TV shows and stuff. Now I. Very rarely are they ever any good. I just I sometimes, I'll tell you what I feel Jim, I look at these posters and I sometimes I watch them on Blu ray and very and sometimes I even go see him in theaters. And I kind of wonder beyond me, because I'm not your normal movie. Goer, obviously, I wonder who these movies are marketed for. You know what I mean? I mean, are they marketed to people who used to watch the show or or what have you?

Jim Wynorski 15:27
I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, look at things like wild wild west or The Man from uncle. They're not even close to the old shows. So if you like the old shows, these songs stunk. And they think bad. And, you know, usually what I thought the only one that got it kind of right was Get Smart, because they, they, they kind of got it right. But most of these TV show readings like they watch and stuff, they don't know what they're doing. Chips, they did a chips. These things all fell on their asses. Keep remaking, you know.

Dave Bullis 16:07
And you know, it's sad, Jim, I see I'd seen all the movies yet you just named chips, and I saw Baywatch too, you know. Again, I'm not your average movie goer, but you know, it's just with chips. I kind of wondered even more so where they were going, Baywatch, I can, you know, I mean, people on a beach, I mean, you know, in bikinis or what have you that kind of writes itself, so to speak, with chips. It's almost like a whole different, you know, you know what? I mean, it's a whole different thing, you know. And to be honest with you, Jim, I thought they were gonna go real I thought they were gonna go real edgy with it, okay? I thought they were gonna go real edgy and say, hey, you know what? There's a lot, there's a lot of different protests, again, against police. There's, you know this and that, you know what? If they almost played into something like that, at least it would be a refreshing take on it, rather than you know what it was. And obviously, you know, there's a lot of different people giving input on different things, but I don't know. I just thought if there was, like an edge to it, maybe you know what I mean, it just had a little bit of a hard comedy, if you know what I mean, I think it would have been able to separate itself a little better.

Jim Wynorski 17:18
I Dave, I gave it 10 minutes, and I, I said, Screw this okay, and I didn't like the original TV show. I said, Oh, maybe they'll do something different. But whatever tack they took, I don't like it. And, you know, so I try to stay away from that stuff. I try to make, you know, if you look at most of my films, even my part twos and part fours are usually different from part ones. My death stalker two has nothing to do with death stalker one. Ghoulies four has nothing to do with ghoulies one, two and three, except for the fact I went back and I got the original dime from ghoulies to begin to be the lead. But most of my and my big bad mama two, it's nothing like Big Bad mama. One, I tried to do something different, and that was, that was fun. You know, I always wanted to work in different genres, like westerns, not gangster, sci fi, horror, Comedy, Family. I've done everything. I haven't done a war movie, but that's not my bag. So, hey lane, next question,

Dave Bullis 18:39
Well, you know, what speaking of, you know, sequels. And you said, you know, you did part twos and part threes. You know, what got us talking was, you know, on Blu ray is going to be sorority house, massacre two and hard to die, which is, you know, a continuation of the of the whole, the whole Hawk shutter saga.

Jim Wynorski 18:57
What I wanted to say is sorority house massacre two did not start off as sorority house monster could do. It was filmed under the title nighty nightmare and because and then Roger retitled its authority, house massacre two. But there were the original title was 90 nightmare, and I would have preferred it gone out under that title, but when that, when that film was finished, he said, make it again, because it was such a success. So I just made it again, and I added even more silliness to it, which is hard to die. And I'm so glad that those, those two films are finally coming back on the blu ray.

Dave Bullis 19:46
Yeah, especially hard to die because again, like you said, you know, you up. The Comedy of it. And I think it's especially funny because especially with the amount of times, you know, the, I'm sorry, the the amount of times that, that, that the, what's his name, Ketchum, Orville Ketchum, or catching, yeah, the amount of times in the brutality he goes through in the movie, I mean, literally,

Jim Wynorski 20:19
He's unstoppable. I mean, there's a scene there where he falls off a 25 story building and, and I remember when he falls off, I did a wonder brother's cartoon thing, and I shook the picture like what he had. So it was a true comedy. And, and, you know, some people still take it seriously, but I was winking at everybody during hatch film because I said this guy was indestructible in the first film, so let's really put him through the ringer in part two. He's like, stabbed, he's thrown down an element. He's thrown off a building and down a flight, a couple of flights of stairs, and they stab him with a, with a with a stapler and and they shoot him with a machine gun a zillion times, and then he still comes back, which is great. I wanted to make a third but, but I never got around to it, and it's too late to go back and do another one.

Dave Bullis 21:23
What was your idea for a third installment?

Jim Wynorski 21:26
Oh, it's called it's mentioned at the end of part two. It says Orville will return in, Orville in orbit, and how long did they look where he goes into outer but because of his they think he's evil. They send them into orbit, and hoxnetter comes and starts invade, invades a space station, and they have to find his orbiting often, get him out of it and put him and put him in so he sings the girls at the space station. That was the plan. And because he had some sci fi sets at the time, and I was going to do that, but I never got around to it. So you want to respond, yeah,

Dave Bullis 22:12
Yeah, because you had the idea for, like, a monster movie in space before, you know, Jason went to space, leprechaun went to space. So you had, you had those ideas before them.

Jim Wynorski 22:23
Well, I'm not really sure about the time thing, but, you know, this was 91 when I did hard to die. And so order in orbit was thought of and and kind of headed out there around 91 so, yeah, I don't, I don't know when lepretons were done, but, but I just know 91 was when I kind of came up with or when orbit I just, I just got so busy without the things that I never made it. And people have come to me and said, When are you going to make it? And Orville is now living in New York, and I'm bringing him back for a commentary on on the two blu rays, and that should be a lot of fun.

Dave Bullis 23:16
So yeah, cuz you, oh, I'm sorry, go ahead, you and him, you and him discussing the movies. Yeah, that is going to be an absolute blast.

Jim Wynorski 23:27
Well, yeah, well, I'm giving Orville, I'm giving Gail, and I'm giving W Dutch come in and do the commentary with me, so that should be a hoot. I have Gail and Peter do so already has two, and I'll have Gail Peter and Debbie Dutch too hard to die. So that should be a lot of fun.

Dave Bullis 23:58
So how does that work? Jim, does you actually like fly out to New York and do you just meet them in a recording studio there?

Jim Wynorski 24:06
No, I'll have them. I'll have somebody in New York recorded and and I've got it all planned out how to do it. Shaft factory doesn't have a big budget, so I'm going to get or vote, probably by Skype or something like that, come in, but it'll, it'll be, it'll happen, and it'll be good, because I don't want him to say a lot, because he's Orville. Orville doesn't have a huge vocabulary. And I want him to be like, you know, I'm getting the original actor who played Orville come back as Orville, because the original actor was Peter spellers, and I never gave him credit. It was always an Orville. Catch him as himself, and I'm keeping it that way. And so Orville will say a few things, but he won't be. You know, talking at length about anything. Yeah, that'll be me and Gail. Yeah, am I trying to get I might try to get Melissa more too.

Dave Bullis 25:15
Well, yeah, you know, because, like, you know, like you and I right now we're talking on Skype shows. It's just amazing with what you can do nowadays. And you even mentioned that too with, you know, how the Internet has sort of changed the film industry, you know, based upon, you know, just distribution now, because, you know, you can always upload anything to YouTube. You could always upload anything to, you know, even if we didn't even, you know, if we made a movie in our backyard this weekend, we could upload it to YouTube, you know, stuff like that. And I wanted to ask Jim, do you watch a lot of, you know, maybe, like YouTube, or, you know, online videos that sort of, you know, amateur or even, like, you know, me, like amateur filmmakers make.

Jim Wynorski 25:54
Dave, I haven't got the time, I haven't got the time to do that. I mean, I do watch films, but to watch these, you know, like called backyard productions. I don't have the time. You know, some people do it well, but that means it gets out there, because word of mouth will get it out there. And some people take, you know, their, their, you know, their cell phones out to the woods right behind their house with non actors, and make these movies that they try to sell. And to me, they're unwashable, because, you know, they're not, they're not movies. They're just people trying to copy movies, and I see too many of them that I finally just gave up. I said, someone's gonna have to tell me it's good. So that's what usually happens. Somebody will say, Oh, this is good. This is good. This is good. And then I'll watch it,

Dave Bullis 26:47
You know, because one of the questions I had for you was, you know, because you know, you've done, you know, you've done all the different types of filmmaking, you know, you when you started, you were, you know, still shooting on probably 35 millimeter, we actually had, you know, the little low, actually, the film loaders, and you know you've seen production, sort of, you know that, and now you know we're in the modern day. So I wanted to ask you, Jim, have you seen like, producers just getting crushed now with like, different pitches by people like, like, you get like, you just said like, you know people that are trying to copy movies, maybe, you know they don't have they don't have a financial budget, or, I'm sorry they don't have a budget, or they don't have the finances, but they keep pitching producers to the point where now producers are just getting mobbed, because now there's not just, you know, 10 people trying to, you know, make, get them to make a movie for them. It's like, you know what I mean, like, get them to find money for them.

Jim Wynorski 27:35
You know, I'm part of that mob, so I have to, you know, it's, it's more competition, but most of the competition is amateur, and most producers see that as amateur and and so I still have an edge. Yeah, I'm still making, I'm still making a lot of movies that get out there for people to see. You know, I did my doggone series for Sony, and that was a case of looking around and seeing what was going to sell. How people don't do that anymore. They and that's why they're not successful. I looked around when I saw and DVDs were gone. DVD stores were gone. I said, Where do I get a DVD outside of Amazon? And the answer was, Walmart or Target or Best Buy. So I walked into best buying and and Target and Walmart, and I looked around and I saw what they were selling and independent horror movies were, you know, boxed in a one DVD set of eight selling from $5 and I said, don't make that. And I looked around and I said, what else is selling on a single DVD? And it was family movies. They're called babysitters. And so I said, Okay, I'll make a family movie. Make one about Christmas. I'll make one about a dog. And was very successful, and we continued to do we did three of them, and we're going to do another one later on this year, but with a different series. But that's why I'm still going strong, because I'm looking around, I'm seeing what's selling, and horror is kind of selling in the movies, but you have to get you have to get something big. But, you know, putting five hot chicks in a haunted house. It's not selling anymore, and so I not making it, and it's unfortunate, but you know, times change.

Dave Bullis 29:57
Yeah, as we talk about how you know the horror you have to have, you know, something different. Have you seen, you know, some of the horror movies like, you know, The Blair Witch Project, paranormal activity, you know, kind of like movies like that, that sort of your main were made. So what did you think of those movies?

Jim Wynorski 30:24
Well, I made a shitload of money by by parroting the Blair Witch Project. I made five different editions of the bear wench project, and each of them made a ton of money and and so, yeah, I've seen those movies I and I made. I need. I made a movie called paranocas activity, and because of the the situation, Cinemax bought it and never ran it because they were afraid of being sued, so they bought it and buried it. I wish they would take it out someday, but right now, it's in their vault and probably never coming out. But it was one of those late night erotics that I was I was where I was parroting the movies, and it just took it, like, two days to shoot it, but it was fun, and they bought it, and then they got worried about it, and then buried it. But most of my other stuff from that period has shown up on Showtime or Cinemax

Dave Bullis 31:37
So, so Jim, just out of, you know, out of curiosity, because we're talking about, you know, about sales and distribution all that, if you

Jim Wynorski 31:43
You're boring, Dave, come on, ask me some good question.

Dave Bullis 31:47
So I think this is fascinating, because you know, you're walking the walk, Jim, I don't know. I know. I know, like, you know, numbers and stuff.

Jim Wynorski 31:55
I'm feeling bored myself, so I must be boring for anybody out there listening. But go ahead your show.

Dave Bullis 32:02
No, I swear, I swear, this is good. This is an interesting question.

Jim Wynorski 32:05
I'd have turned this off agency. Now, if it wasn't me, okay,

Dave Bullis 32:09
Most people turn me off, Jim. Most people just turned me off immediately. So, but what I was going to ask was this, this is an interesting question, I swear. What I was going to ask is, you know, what advice Jim would you give to? You know, a filmmaker out there who is going to do something in horror. Because I know, I've, obviously, you know, a huge amount of people

Jim Wynorski 32:26
Not giving anybody that advice, million dollar advice. So getting that from me, I'm keeping all my good ideas close to the vest. You know me put put five girls in a haunted house. Them run around. You'll make a you'll make a bundle. No, Dave, I can't tell you, but what's gonna what I what I keep really close. And narrow. I'm just like, I'll give you one. All right, I'll give you one, but I threw it out already. Okay? I ran across on the internet. I ran across this place in Mexico called the island of dolls, which is a real place where people have brought their unused dolls and they hang them in the trees, and go Google it, and you'll see this place, and you'll say, oh, fuck, I wouldn't spend any more than five minutes there, and it have to be broad daylight, okay? And I said, I want to do a movie about the island of dolls. I started to do a little prep work, and then I did some research, and I found that somebody in Mexico was making a movie called Island of the Dolls in Spanish. And I immediately stopped work because I figured this is going to come out maybe, and it's going to be unwarranted competition. So I stopped. But anybody out there who's got, you know, money and note and lots of courage should go make Island to dolls, and it may be that the Spanish version come out, but I'm not, I'm not going to go and do it until I find out what the Spanish version does and but that's again I was looking you're always going to be looking for something unusual that's going to strike a chord with your audience, and the island of Donald is certainly unusual and certainly creepy. And I figured, okay, there's something I can do, but some bastard beat me to it, so I. I, you know, have some more ideas coming, but I'm back. I can't say what they are. There's people stealing them. I'm sure there's a listener out there on your cat podcast people and say, Ah, now I got it. I'll do that. Okay. I'm not giving with him. The good ones yet.

Dave Bullis 35:20
Well, you know, there are people who have, like, who have networked through this podcast just randomly, like I would, I would get messages like, Hey, Dave, I met this person because your podcast. And I'm like, how? But you know they,

Jim Wynorski 35:34
Well, I'm sure they're out there listening, but you know, I, I thought you were going to ask more, you know, immediate questions, like, you know, who was, who was hard to work with, who was easy to work with? Where'd you get the idea for this, or whatever? But I think, I guess a discussion about business plans is, you know, it might, it might be interesting to some people out there.

Dave Bullis 36:02
Well, I always try to go from a different vantage point. I mean, we didn't talk all about business plans. I mean, we talked about your movies and stuff like that. I so I got it if you want, I can ask you some of those questions. So like, so so so Jim, who was very difficult to work with?

Jim Wynorski 36:16
Tonya Roberts, hate her gut, Jennifer Rubin, hate her guts. Robert Culp who I loved as a kid, hated his guts. And there's more, but those three are the top top three.

Dave Bullis 36:38
So why are they? Why are they the top three

Jim Wynorski 36:41
Because they Well, Robert cup was a prick and a half prick and a half gave nothing but problems on the set. He didn't like the lens I was using. He didn't like this, he didn't like that, he didn't like the meal, he didn't like anything. And he kept people waiting, and I he the whole fucking crew booed him when he on his last day, and he deserved it. Tony Roberts, I just, my lawyer insists that I always just say I hated her guts. That's that's legal to say, and she's still alive, and could come back and stab me, but yeah, and say when Jennifer Rubin hate her guts. I mean, I'm never worked with him again. I'm pretty easy and going guy, but these chicks, oh, my God, never again.

Dave Bullis 37:47
So I mean, in a situation like that, Jim, where someone is just being a complete pain in the ass or a huge fucking prick, you know, what do you do in those situations?

Jim Wynorski 37:57
You gotta knuckle under, kneel down and kiss their asses for two weeks. Because once you have a month, once you have them on film, they could walk and ruin the whole picture.

Dave Bullis 38:13
And you kind of, you know, you hear about situations like that too, like what happened with Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis, you know, where they didn't get along at all and because Bruce kept you know, you know, I mean, so It's situations like that, you kind of always wonder. I mean, I've been in that situation myself, Jim. I mean, people who listen to listen to this podcast know my stories to hell. I did a whole podcast episode about it with a with a friend of mine.

Jim Wynorski 38:37
I mean, these guys, I had actors steal from the makeup assistant. I had actors, you know, called tantrums, and you know, you gotta, I don't know how weird, and I can see why some of these people hardly ever work, because stories about them gets around. I didn't say, you know, I didn't say Tanya did that, or Jennifer Rubin did that. But I have an actress that I can't mention who stole from the makeup girl we found, we found the makeup girl's wallet in her trailer, stuff down behind a mirror after she wrapped I said, the only way I got there is if she took it. So that's what happens and and, you know, I went to I I couldn't get the wallet back to her on time, but I did give her I went to petty cash, and I said, How much was in the wallet? She said, 104 wallet? She said, $125 I gave her $125 I said, we'll find your wallet. And sure enough, we did. And got back to him,

Dave Bullis 39:51
Yeah, that was pretty good at you Jim, by the way.

Jim Wynorski 39:55
Oh, you know, this girl's working for peanuts and for someone to steal her wallet and then stuff it down behind a trailer mirror in their trailer. I didn't know that at a time. I just said, Well, maybe, you know, yeah, we said, but you know, we had the petty cash there, so I gave her on and a quarter, and I said, you know, we'll find your wallet. And we did. We got back to her, and I did not tell her where it came, where it was found. I lied, because I didn't want the story to get around that's an actress you all know. And I wish I could tell you, but I won't.

Dave Bullis 40:49
Well, I tell you what, Jim, when we get off the podcast, you can tell me, and I'll keep it a secret.

Okay, well, we'll look and

Get smart the cone of silence. Remember the cone of silence? Well, we'll do

Jim Wynorski 41:00
We'll lower it. Will lower the cone of silence. Man, I'll tell you. I'll tell you all kinds of great stuff.

Dave Bullis 41:08
And

Jim Wynorski 41:08
I mean, there's good stuff too. There's there's actresses who got drunk on the set. There's actresses who did almost everything you could imagine an actress doing, and actors too crazy people.

Dave Bullis 41:29
So, you know we talked about, I know we're running out of time, Jim, I know you have to run soon. Yeah, I know we talked we've already talked about people that you know you didn't like working with. So who are some of the people, people that you did like working with?

Jim Wynorski 41:41
Most of them, 95% of them, everybody, everybody that you can imagine that worked for me. They were super nice people. Erica, Lenny act, Angie Dickinson, Heather Locklear, Nicole Eggert, even though she's given Scott Baio a run for his money, Nicole Eggert was it was a was an angel. Um, I'm trying to work with so met Tracy lords. They're all they were all nice, easy going people who wanted to have a good time. And it was always crappy when an actor would step in and just say, Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make everyone's life miserable. And it's happened a few times, you know, after 160 movies or 70 movies, or whatever it is, you know you're bound to meet someone you don't like, and I've been a few, but most of them can't speak enough. Speak highly enough. Angie Dickinson brought in a present for a PA on a casino it was his birthday. Heather Locklear had Tommy Lee come down to the set. And Tommy Lee, Brooke, Charlie Sheen, before his he went, he went into the stratosphere, and for all the winning stuff. So I met all these people, and it was a lot of fun, you know. And you know, the girls I was going out with, I always tried to put them in my movies. You could kind of see who I'm dating, if you just start looking at the cast list in the movies. I said, go along.

Dave Bullis 43:33
Well, you got to keep the girlfriend happy. Come on, Jim.

Jim Wynorski 43:36
So true, so true. But, you know, sometimes I had a temper because they weren't good actors, you know, you got to give them a part that that is kind of okay, but if they're not good actors, you're going to look like an ass. So I had to kind of hit people to certain parts, but I did,

Dave Bullis 43:58
Yeah, and that's a good and that's directing to you know, you you you know people's limitations, you know their strengths and weaknesses, and you play to that, you hide their weaknesses and promote their strengths. And you know that that's a part of directing.

Jim Wynorski 44:12
Well, yeah. Anyway, yeah, good story. You know, some good stories.

Dave Bullis 44:24
And Jim, I'm gonna put a link, by the way, to the upcoming blu ray release of hard to die. And sort of house

Jim Wynorski 44:31
Do not, do not, do not put a link, because shout factory called me up and said, What the fuck are you doing? And I had to take that thing down yesterday, so, because they want to make their releases and shit. So I said, Okay, I took it down, but it's coming.

Dave Bullis 44:56
I see, is that how they actually did? They really call you and just say, hey? Jim, what the fuck you doing?

Jim Wynorski 45:02
I can send you the I can send you the email. Okay, what the fuck you doing? Okay,

Dave Bullis 45:11
Please do. Jim, please do. I would love to read it so everyone, I will not link to that.

Jim Wynorski 45:19
There's nothing to link to it's all gone, but it's coming, trust me, it's coming. I just, I just could not say it okay or say it on Facebook. They got so pissed off. So anyway, onward

Dave Bullis 45:42
Jim, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been an absolute blast. And again, I wish you the best of luck with everything.

Jim Wynorski 45:49
Dave, I appreciate it, and I hope the listeners got something of enjoyment out of this one. Next time, let's just talk about chicks and and stuff, and we'll have a bigger audience.

Dave Bullis 46:02
You see, I can't come up with the questions. That's the problem. That's always the problem, man. So

Jim Wynorski 46:07
All right, well, look, I'll just say thank you for talking, and I'll catch everybody at the movies.