SUPERMAN RETURNS turns 20 today

Twenty years ago this morning, I was at the Grauman's Chinese Theater for the first screening of the film I maintain is the best DC Comics film post-1981 that isn't directed by Christopher Nolan: SUPERMAN RETURNS.

It's a film whose reputation has waxed and waned over the years, but I've loved it from my first viewing and was very disappointed we didn't get a sequel or two. Brandon Routh was perfect casting as Superman and Clark Kent, and I was delighted when he got to reprise his role as Superman during the CW's Arrowverse CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.

If you ask me, he could still play Superman today. During my time on SUPERMAN & LOIS, I even pitched a multiversal crossover that would have brought Brandon and Tom Welling's Supermans into an adventure with our Superman. It never got further than an idea I pushed for, and as things played out there probably was never really a good place in the series to tell that story. Still I live in hope that maybe someday I'll get the chance to write it as a miniseries for DC.

I actually met Brandon (and his then-wife Courtney Ford) a couple times during the WGA and SAG writers strikes back in 2023. They were just as friendly and gracious as you'd want them to be.

My comprehensive celebration of SUPERMAN RETURNS on Scott Weinberg's OVERHATED podcast can be found in a variety of places. There's a weird glitch with this episdode. If you go to the Apple Podcast page on the web, the episode is there in full. If you try to download it through your iPhone app, only six minutes are there. 

To address this, Scott has made the episode available for free on Patreon here. You can reach it through the link or by searching OVERHATED on the Patreon app.

OVERHATED is also available on Spotify and you can find this ep here.

I'm embedding both the Apple version and the Spotify version below.

Thirteen years ago, one of my first pieces for Film School Rejects was a piece titled, "Why The World Needs SUPERMAN RETURNS." There's a lot of overlap in that piece and what you'll hear me express on OVERHATED. 

Sadly, some time last year, FSR ceased to exist and with it went all of the archives. The only way to find my original article is with the Wayback Machine. Given the anniversary and in the interests of preserving my writing, I'm reposting it below.

Why the World Needs Superman Returns

If everything had gone to plan, this summer we’d probably be getting the concluding chapter of a Bryan Singer-helmed Superman trilogy.  Indeed, for a while, it appeared we might get it.  The film opened in Summer 2006 to a bigger 5-day opening than Batman Begins had a year earlier.  Its worldwide gross was also about $17 million more than the Nolan Batman prequel as well.  It even earned a decent amount of critical acclaim, coming in at 76% on Rotten Tomatoes.  So while the film might not have been a Spider-Man-sized hit, it was a promising debut by some of the more superficial standards the industry uses to measure success.  The film certainly was far from being an outright bomb.

Some time ago, Quentin Tarantino mentioned that he was writing a 20-page review of Superman Returns, explaining why he loved it so much.  We’re still waiting on that, and since I’m about one-fourth the filmmaker he is, it seems fitting that my own review is that much shorter.

I really enjoyed this movie the first time I saw it and the passage of seven years has done little to dampen that feeling.  This is why it’s been so hard to see the narrative shift to the point where it’s assumed this movie was a horrible bomb.  There are people I know who loved it in 2006 who have since taken up the anti-Superman talking points, just because it’s cool.  Here’s where I blame Warner Bros a little bit.  I think if they had pushed forward with a sequel and released another solid film three years later, Returns would be a lot better regarded today.  Instead, they dragged their feet for a few years, the momentum dissipated and by the time Christopher Nolan was announced as producer, the internet had decided that whatever its merits, Superman Returns must be a bad movie simply because it failed to spawn a sequel.

Superman Returns is sometimes knocked for being too reverent to the Reeve movies, but that assessment overlooks what Singer accomplished by tying this movie to the Richard Donner continuity.  For starters, it means he can side-step having to retell the origin.  Not only was the first Superman film pretty well embedded in the collective consciousness, but at the time Smallville was already five years into telling its own origin story. 

The approach Singer took was not unlike how the Bond movies used to handle their continuity.  We’ve seen earlier adventures and we assume that some version of them is considered the backstory of whatever Bond we happened to be watching. (At least until the hard reboot with Daniel Craig.)  It builds on the past, while maintaining ties to it.  After all, it doesn’t bother me when the Bond movies haul out the Aston Martin, or when the familiar, 50 year-old Bond theme kicks in on the soundtrack.  By and large, it’s an approach that served Bond well and I think it works here too.

The film’s conceit is that Superman has been away for five years on a wild goose chase to the ruins of Krypton.  I know that some take issue with this, wondering why he’d go there when he “knows” Krypton exploded.  Does he?  We saw it explode – all Superman has is a recording from his father, which was made before the explosion.  If you opened your email to YouTube link to a video of your father saying “Son, I’m about to die in a car crash,” would you take it as gospel that actually came to pass?

I’ve also heard complaints that Superman would “never” abandon Earth.  I think it’s always dicey territory to lock oneself into a belief of what a character would “never” do.  People make mistakes, people act out of character – all it takes is the proper motivation.  In Superman II (which may not be in this film’s continuity, not that it matters), Superman forsakes his powers for a relationship with Lois.  He shirks his duty for something that matters more to him – true love and human connection.  It’s that quest for connection – to find what might be other survivors – that drives him out into space.  He’s searching for family, but only finds (in his own words) “That place was a graveyard.”

The tragedy of that loss is compounded further. By the time he returns to Earth, the world has moved on without him.  This cruel injustice is most keenly felt when he learns that Lois Lane is not only engaged, but has a five year-old son and is about to win a Pulitzer for an article entitled “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman.”  It’s a great dilemma to drop Superman in the middle of, as it forces him to question his place in the world, and his relevancy in the modern day.

One flaw I will concede is that the film doesn’t go far enough in showing us Lois’s side of the argument.  I would have liked to have a stronger sense of how the world realized it didn’t need Superman once he’d left.  Some of the most powerful Superman stories deal with him having to accept that his role as a perpetual guardian angel might actually be stunting the world’s progress.  That’s not a question the film pursues, though, and it’s unfortunate because Lois’s argument of “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman” never really gets a hearing.  Indeed, once Superman is pulling off all manner of super-feats to save the day, it feels like Lois really is reaching to make a case.

Instead, the film ends up exploring how Clark is even more of an outsider than he was before.  Here’s where I think Brandon Routh doesn’t get enough credit.  He might not draw such extreme distinctions between his Clark and his Superman that Christopher Reeve did, but by dialing down his Clark’s nerdiness, he makes him a more believable person.  In the Reeve films, the conceit usually was that any time we saw Clark, Superman was hamming his performance up. 

What Routh does is he largely makes Clark the “real” guy and turns Superman into the mask that can hide those insecurities.  Examine moments such as when Clark probes Jimmy about Lois in the bar, or when he later is talking to Lois and trips over trying to explain Superman’s motivations.  Little flourishes like that give Clark a reliability that Reeve’s version wasn’t often allowed.

It’s become fashionable to dismiss this film with the scoff that “Superman didn’t punch anything!”  Do me a favor – the next time you hear someone offer this opinion as if it means anything, please punch them!  I’m pretty sure if you go back into the lore that the George Reeves Superman didn’t punch anyone either, and even Reeve’s Superman rarely threw a punch.  Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I prefer that the movies I watch be about something.  Was Batman Begins a great film because of it’s deep exploration of Bruce Wayne’s character, or was it awesome solely by virtue of the fact that Batman uses some thugs for boxing practice?

And so what’s Superman Returns about?  In a great many ways, it’s the story of a father and son.

Richard Donner’s vision was very much in the same spirit.  Jor-El has a crucial line in early in the Donner film, one which is called back to not only in Superman Returns, but in a pivotal scene in the Donner Cut version of Superman II: “The son becomes the father, and the father becomes the son.”  Not insignificantly, this is in the voiceover that opens Superman Returns, and Marlon Brando’s visage reappears in the Fortress of Solitude, reminding us of Superman’s last link to his homeworld.

Partway through the film, Superman finds himself at an emotional crossroads and he heads to the Fortress.  Presumably he’s seeking guidance from the Jor-El program – but he finds… nothing.  The crystals that gave him access to that program have been taken by Lex Luthor.  Lex perverts them into the instruments of his scheme and by the end of the movie, the surviving crystals are lost forever.  The first film featured Jor-El’s physical death and now, and here he undergoes a sort of spiritual death.  In myth, the death of the father is often necessary to motivate the hero’s ultimate maturation and the loss of the crystals seems to symbolize this in part.

But as Superman loses a father, he gains a son.  This is understandably one of the more controversial aspects of the film.  I think some people reject the plot on its face simply because it had never been done before in the Superman mythos.  I have to admit, even though I’m a massive Superman fan, this is one of the reasons I dig it.  Another oft-heard ignorant dismissal of this film is that Superman is a “deadbeat dad.”  That’s a pretty unfair characterization considering he’s not even aware of his son until the final moments of the film.

The moment that pulls all of this together for me is when Superman pays a visit to his sleeping son, aware for the first time of his connection to the boy.  He echoes his own father’s words and he tells the boy that he will be different from everyone else, but that he will take his father’s strength as his own, gaining the benefit of Superman’s experience while Superman will watch over him, perhaps also learning something in the bargain. “The son becomes the father, and the father…” he trails off.

It’s the perfect way to close the circle, as Superman leaving his son to be raised by Richard White and Lois Lane directly parallels Jor-El sending Kal-El away to be raised by the Kents.  It’s for the boy’s benefit.  The Whites already are a family and it would be wrong for Superman to disrupt that, but it’s clear he’s going to be a part of the boy’s life.  As he tells Lois, “I’m always around.”

Superman explores Krypton in search of more of his kind, and much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, returns home find that it has what he’s been looking for all along.  He is not the last of his kind.  Not anymore.

Let’s not overlook some of the other virtues of Superman Returns. I would be remiss if I didn’t single out James Marsden for special praise.  Through and through, Richard White proves himself to be every bit the hero that Superman is.  Marsden also imbues the guy with an abundance of charisma and integrity.  He’s absolutely worthy of Lois, which is a pretty bold writing choice when it would have a lot easier to make him a cad whom Superman overshadows.  The script didn’t need to make Richard an antagonist, not when Superman already has his hands full with Lex.

I’ve heard some critics deride Kevin Spacey’s performance as “campy,” and often while tarring Hackman’s performance with the same brush.  I dispute both charges.  You want to see camp? Watch the Batman TV series.  That massive overacting that King Tut does? That’s camp.  The ridiculously serious speeches given by Batman and Commissioner Gordon? That’s camp.

I put the question to the court – is Entourage’s Ari Gold campy?  Because both Hackman and Spacey’s interpretations of Lex are far closer in temperament to Ari than they are to anything on the Adam West Batman show.  Here’s an exercise to try: take any scene where Hackman’s Lex berates Ned Beatty’s Otis and mentally replace them with Ari and his assistant Lloyd.  You’ll find it’s pretty damn easy to cast those characters in those roles.  Hackman’s Lex might be larger than life, but that’s just because he’s a conceited, egotistical megalomaniac.  It’s still a far cry from “camp,” and I’d argue that Spacey’s Lex is even more restrained.

I’ll cop to the fact that Lex’s scheme isn’t perfect.  I wish that the emphasis was less on how he was pulling a land swindle and more about him using the crystals to cultivate more Kryptonian technology.  Imagine what “the greatest criminal mind of our time” could do with all of that at his fingertips.  I think it would have been more unique than making Lex obsessed with land and it barely requires any restructuring and rewriting of the script.

There seems to be some misunderstanding of exactly what Superman does to get rid of the island.  Some viewers apparently walked out confused that he was able to pick up an entire island of kryptonite without feeling any ill effects for several minutes.  It’s seen as a “plot hole” that the radiation doesn’t kill Superman immediately.  It’s no plot hole at all – the viewers just need to be paying attention to notice:

1)     Superman has just recharged in the sun.

2)     The island is only laced with kryptonite – not made of solid kryptonite.  This is actually underscored by the fact that he stands directly on it for several minutes before feeling too many ill effects.

3)     When he picks up the island, he’s actually burrowed below the construction, putting a fair amount of earth between him and the worst of it.  The higher he flies, the more these extraneous chunks of earth break away, exposing him to more and more radiation.

4)     The kryptonite has a visible effect on him, but like a boxer going the distance, Superman fights through the pain.  It’s not as if he defeats the fatal radiation through sheer force of will.  He merely puts all of his strength into lasting just a few moments longer – long enough to complete his task.  It’s nothing short of heroic that he keeps going. Tony Stark’s suicide run in The Avengers reminds me a lot of this, actually.

The effects and production design are top notch and the film has a number of great set-pieces.  I feel bad for those who don’t get at least a little thrill from the plane sequence, the massive disaster sequence in Metropolis or the yacht sequence.  The script reaches for real emotional resonance too.  Early on, Lois wonders why Superman couldn’t even say goodbye before he left, scoffing that “It’s just one word, goodbye.”  Later, Lois pleads with Superman not to go on what surely will be a suicide run.  Taking a beat, Superman looks at her and Routh manages to make his reading of just one word – “Goodbye” - convey everything that needs to be said about how he feels and that he doesn’t expect to survive what he’s about to do.  Superman Returns succeeds because it never forgets that it’s about these people and their relationships with each other.

It may not be a perfect film, but how often does one find such a film?  Superman Returns doesn’t get enough credit for everything it does right, and for its ambitions to tell a different kind of Superman story.  You can’t judge the value of a film by how many sequels it spawned or how many careers it launched.  Does the fact that Henry Thomas  had few notable roles after E.T. diminish the power of his performance there? Or the legacy of the film?  Is Batman Begins a great film only because it beget The Dark Knight, or can we assess its creative success on its own merits?  I won’t dispute that there are metrics to measure the business success of a film but it would wrong to consider only those figures while giving the film a superficial reading.  

For years, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, staring one-time Bond George Lazenby, was the black sheep of the James Bond series.  Its tone was different from the others, and the “new” Bond was jarring for many. The fact the next film did its best to return to more familiar ground offered fuel for the claim that OHMSS was a film best forgotten.  But times eventually changed and this Bond was eventually re-evaluated with a more objective eye.  I have hope that Superman Returns will eventually achieve a similar renaissance.  Bryan Singer and his team made a film that they should be proud of, and it deserves to have those merits recognized.

-----

This article provoked a follow-up post, which you can find here.

Juliana James and I talk about our time on SUPERMAN & LOIS on the Missing Frames podcast

With the new SUPERMAN movie coming out this summer, there's a lot of hype in the air for the Man of Steel. I've already done a few podcast interviews focused on my time on SUPERMAN & LOIS and I'm always leery of doing too many podcasts. I'm not Kevin Smith - I don't have enough stories to fill multiple 90-minute slots without repeating myself.

But when Shawn Eastridge reached out to me about appearing on Missing Frames as part of his "Celebrating Superman" series, he mentioned some of the other Superman figures who were participating. I decided I couldn't be the guy to tell him "no" when so many other people I'd grown up idolizing were saying "yes."

To keep things interesting for people who may have heard me already on The Superman & Lois Tapes and All-Star Superfan Podcast, I invited my friend and fellow S&L writer Juliana James along, thereby insuring that at least 50% of the conversation would be unique for listeners.

The result was a fun conversation that we enjoyed so much it seemed to fly by. 

If the embed above doesn't work, you can listen to it here and on Apple Podcasts here.

Also, I made an appearance last month on "It All Comes Back To Superman," talking with Michael Bailey about three unmade Superman projects: Superman Reborn, the infamous Kevin Smith/Tim Burton project Superman Lives, and J.J. Abrams's Superman Flyby.

You can listen to that episode here and on Apple Podcasts here.

I'm the featured guest this week on HOMICIDE: LIFE ON REPEAT with Reed Diamond and Kyle Secor!

HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET wasn't quite my first taste of what we later came to call "Prestige TV" but it might have been the first show I loved that passionately. I wasn't there from the start - though the show debuted in January 1993, it wasn't until almost exactly three years later that I became a serious viewer of the series. By that point, I was already a regular viewer of ER and THE X-FILES, both of which were redefining how network TV looked and felt. I also was an occasional, if not regular viewer, of LAW & ORDER.

Nothing makes me feel older than having to explain that this was a time when network TV drama felt truly groundbreaking and cinematic to a degree that it hadn't before. This was pre-SOPRANOS, before HBO launched what generally gets credited as the start of Prestige TV. It's not hard to see why that's where most tellings of TV history start there. HBO's pedigree for writer-driven, cinematic, elevated television is probably unmatched. There's also a certain romance to framing the most remarkable TV as being the product of premium cable - as opposed to broadcast television, where the major networks were free to all the unwashed masses.

You're paying a premium for cable TV, so you need to believe that HBO is giving you a superior kind of product, right? As much truth as there is to that, at least two of those HBO shows - THE WIRE and OZ -  have a direct lineage to HOMICIDE.

The things that made HOMICIDE so innovated on network TV in the 90s have all long since been absorbed by premium cable series, prestige streaming series and even current network television. Handheld camerawork, morally ambiguous heroes, downer endings, and controversial storytelling now practically form the Peak TV Starter Pack. Maybe the only technique that still feels truly unique to HOMICIDE is the editing - specifically the jump cuts and the triple takes. In just about every other way, HOMICIDE feels like a show that could have premiered today.

And to the younger generation, HOMICIDE might as well have just debuted. Though the series got a DVD release, it's barely been syndicated in the last 20 years and it had long been absent from streaming. This year, that was finally redressed, as an HD remastered release came to Peacock. Converted to widescreen and HD, the show doesn't look EXACTLY how it appeared in the 90s, but it holds up well, even though a concession to get the show out there resulted in almost all of the iconic music cues being replaced by material cheaper to license.

As a concession to get the show to a new audience, I'll accept it. This was one of the shows that made me want to be a TV writer. It's the show I found myself emulating often in my early writing. Though it often gets lumped in with other cop procedurals, it's much more character-driven than any other procedural. The emphasis is on the characters more than the cases they work. A case is frequently merely a catalyst to force a character to deal with a personal challenge or to provoke a different side of their personality.

A hallmark of the show was the intense interrogation scenes, with the most powerful of those going to Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton. He'd get inside a suspect's head, break them down psychologically and more often than not, get a confession out of them. It was riveting character drama that just as often would be balanced by quirky humor and idiosyncratic characters like Richard Belzer's Detective Munch. It did things I didn't know could happen on TV - the heroes didn't get their man everytime. Some cases never got closed, the dead going unavenged.

One hour kicks off with the discovery of Detective Crosetti's body, forcing the unit to confront the likelihood he killed himself. Everyone deals with it differently - his partner Lewis insists it couldn't have been suicide and goes as far as trying to interfere in Detective Bolander's investigation into Crosetti's death. Frank and Tim are sent to plan the memorial service, allowing for some dark humor about the cost of cookies. Lt. Giardello is stuck with department politics over how bad it looks to have another suicide. 

All of this leads to a moment I've discussed before - Lewis and Bolander coming to a head over their conflict, only to have the moment interrupted by the autopsy report. The official finding: suicide. Watching Lewis spiral as his denial finally runs out and then fully break down as Bolander pulls him into a bear hug is one of those TV moments that has stayed with me ever since.

Years later I was running a TV drama series for my college campus TV network and I attempted to do a storyline with similar emotional impact. This being 2001, when I shared the script with everyone, they all assumed I was inspired by the equally gut-punching BUFFY episode "The Body." The truth was I'd had the intent for this episode before "The Body" even aired and my direct inspiration was "Crosetti."

Another trope that turned up in a lot of my early work were interrogation scenes. At least three times while in college, I found an excuse to work an interrogation into something I filmed, and it came up in more than one script. The perfect culmination to all of this nearly happened when one of my SUPERMAN & LOIS episodes would have called for what was essentially an interrogation between Lois Lane and an antagonist. Alas, a rebreak of the story ended up denying me the moment that seemingly my entire career was building towards.

As is evident, HOMICIDE made a meaningful impact on me as a creator and an audience member. Over the years, I've paid tribute to it before, broken down the pilot, and reexamined one of the show's most controversial moments - the Luther Mahoney shooting. Thanks to a Twitter conversation, I even connected with and later went out to drinks with Reed Diamond, who played Detective Kellerman. We sorta became whatever you call an internet friendship these days. (Pen-pals? Digital friends?) Which brings me to the real point of this post...

At almost the same time HOMICIDE launched on Peacock, Reed and one of his surviving co-stars, Kyle Secor (Detective Tim Bayliss), launched their rewatch podcast HOMICIDE: LIFE ON REPEAT. Every week, Reed and Kyle recap another HOMICIDE episode, delving into their recollections of making it and sharing their perspectives on the series with three decades of hindsight.

They also usually welcome a guest, typically a writer, director or fellow cast member, but on occasion the guest is someone with no professional connection to the series. If you somehow missed the post title, by now you've probably intuited the reason for this long preamble is because *I* am this week's guest.

I can't tell you what a thrill it was to be "in the Box" with "Kellerman & Bayliss" for a little over an hour. The topic of the show was Season 1, episode 8, "And The Rocket's Dead Glare," but we veer into other topics. I haven't heard the edited episode yet, but I talk about what scenes in David Simon's HOMICIDE: A YEAR ON THE KILLING STREETS directly inspired a subplot in this episode, and we even got into a brief discussion of copaganda.

I've done more than a few podcasts and this was easily the most fun I've ever had on a show. Reed and Kyle were great and I just loved the energy I was feeling while we recorded it. Hopefully some of that joy comes across in this week's installment.

The direct YouTube link to this week's episode is here.

You can find it on Apple Podcasts here.

You can find the main site for the podcast here.

All episodes are uploaded - with video - to YouTube here.

And if you're interested in the New York Magazine that discusses the misconduct that many of the Baltimore cops who inspired the show are accused of, you can find it here: David Simon Made Baltimore Detectives Famous. Now Their Cases Are Falling Apart.

Podcast appearances on The Writers Panel and Children of Tendu

In a complete coincidence I had two podcast appearances drop on the same day this week.

First, my friend Ben Blacker had me on The Writers' Panel to discuss my thoughts on networking on the picket line. We're in the nineth week of picketing and I've met something like fifty writers while picketing. And as I mention in this podcast, I also met Brandon Routh (SUPERMAN RETURNS) and his wife Courtney Ford (LEGENDS OF TOMORROW.)

Listen to The Writers' Panel here.

And then I got to fulfill a nearly decade-long dream by appearing on a podcast hosted by another two of my friends and former co-workers, Javier Grillo-Marxauch and Jose Molina. Their show Children of Tendu is one of the greatest resources for an up-and-coming TV writer and it was an honor to speak with them about my path from internet guy to assistant to staff writer.

The episode I'm on is called "Live from the Strike Line."

Listen to Children of Tendu on Stitcher here.

Listen to Children of Tendu on Apple Podcasts here. 

Listen to Children of Tendu and download the ep as an MP3 here.

I'm a guest on the GEEK HISTORY LESSON podcast!

Another podcast appearance (I'm really enjoying these), this time with Jason Inman and Ashley V. Robinson on Geek History Lesson. We're talking about the greatest Superman stories ever. If you ever wondered what my Top 5 Superman Stories are, wonder no more.

You can access the podcast at any of these locations:

Direct Post

Apple

Spotify

This was a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy it!

Hear me discuss the crazy LOIS & CLARK episode "Lucky Leon" on a Superman podcast!

A few months back, I met Matt Truex at a party for a mutual friend of ours, where it took only a few minutes for me to determine that not only were we both Superman fans, but that Matt was one of the hosts of a LOIS & CLARK podcast I had listened to somewhat frequently: Lois & Clark'd: The New Podcasts of Superman.

So by the end of the evening, Matt had invited me as a guest for one of their upcoming episodes, leaving the selection of episode to me. They were in the middle of the second season and - knowing that the show basically drove off a cliff during season three - I wanted to get in for one of the shows in what I remembered as the glory days.

"What I remembered," being the operative phrase there. I watched the show when it first aired, beginning in 1993 and abandoned it about a third of the way into season four. Every now and then I'd catch a few episodes in syndication, particularly from their first season, but by and large, I've not revisited most of the series since it first aired.

With a couple choices off the table, I looked at a list of upcoming half-dozen or so eps and narrowed it quickly to two choices: "The Return of the Prankster" and "Lucky Leon." I recalled that Bronson Pinchot was the Prankster and that at the time it was fun stunt-casting, but between that, and some of the goofiness of the episode, I feared it was one that wouldn't age well. I didn't want to go on a podcast and spend the entire time tearing the episode apart.

"Lucky Leon" on the other hand, was one that I recalled as an exciting and important episode. It had Lois and Clark's first real date and it ended with the shocking death of district attorney Mason Drake in a car explosion. I recalled this set up a really terrible follow-up, but I also was pretty sure the follow up was such a letdown because the set-up had been great. The choice seemed obvious - "Lucky Leon."

This is how I came to learn that you should not trust your memories of what was good in 1995 if you haven't revisited it recently. "Lucky Leon" has the feel of an episode hastily pieced together by the writing staff over a weekend, as they abruptly try to set-up and pay off several threads that should have been threaded over multiple episodes. Dramatic plot points are dropped in and forgotten and the villains' scheme doesn't really hold up to logical scrutiny.

And all the stuff I remembered about it being awesome? Yeah, that was five minutes of the episode.

So it didn't end up being the lovefest I was hoping for when I picked this episode, but fortunately the episode is entertaining in such a WTF way that the podcast itself is fun listening. Check it out below or access it here.

The Black List Table Reads podcast is coming April 16th!

Big news (for real!) on this April Fools Day! The Black List continues to expand its brand with a weekly podcast called The Black List Table Reads, launching April 16th on Midroll Media.

Black List founder Franklin Leonard presents a new script every month, read by a rotating cast of talented actors, along with interviews with members of the Hollywood screenwriting community and beyond. The first featured script read for episodes 1-4 is Balls Out, written by Malcolm Spellman (producer of Empire) and Tim Talbott (winner of the 2014 Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award).

The full press release is below, but I've gotten a few additional details and clarifications from Franklin Leonard. These Table Reads will be separate entites from the Black List Live series that thus far has had four successful live shows in Los Angeles. "The podcast readings will be studio recorded. No live audience," Leonard said. "The live staged readings will continue as they always have and will remain scripts selected from the annual list."

While the podcast will draw from the annual list, the intent is also to showcase scripts that have been hosted on the website at blcklst.com. Franklin Leonard confirmed that to qualify there will be "No opt in necessary. The scripts that we do identify via the website will be those that receive high scores and work particularly well for the medium." He reiterated, "Though in all likelihood, many of the scripts we do for the podcast will come from writers who have hosted scripts on the site, that won't be the only place we find them. Case in point, our first script, BALLS OUT, was on the annual list."

The cast for the first script has yet to be announced, but you check the podcast out yourself on April 16th. Midroll Media's press release follows.

MIDROLL MEDIA LAUNCHES FOUR NEW PODCAST SHOWS

Spontaneanation, CARDBOARD!, The Black List Table Reads and Womp It Up! Expand Earwolf and Wolfpop Universe of Entertainment; Company Continues its Investment in Content; Entices Audiences with New Episodic Shows & Serialized Storytelling

LOS ANGELES, APRIL 1, 2015 -- Midroll Media, the leading digital media company providing a 360-degree suite of podcast production, distribution, and monetization services to artists, entertainers, and thought leaders, announces its spring rollout of four brand new shows, Spontaneantion with Paul F. Tompkins, CARDBOARD! with Rich Sommer, The Black List Table Reads, and Womp It Up! debuting throughout the month of April to be added to its slate of programming. The new shows underscore Midroll’s ongoing strategy of working with the best talent to develop original, entertaining, and innovative podcast programming, while expanding the breadth of its podcast audience.

Host, comedian, and actor Paul F. Tompkins, actor Rich Sommer, innovative film executive Franklin Leonard, and actresses and improvisational comedians Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham bring their unique and highly anticipated podcast shows to the company’s owned-and operated comedy and pop culture sites, Earwolf and Wolfpop. The unveiling of the new slate of podcasts continues to highlight the unprecedented momentum of both the medium of podcasting and Midroll Media.

“Midroll is committed to providing great original audio, and this spring we have some wonderful new shows lined up. Comedy fans who love Comedy Bang Bang, With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, and Improv4humans will be excited to know they can now get new, weekly shows from favorite performers Paul F. Tompkins, Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham," said Chris Bannon, Chief Content Officer for Midroll. “And our new Wolfpop shows mirror two major pop culture passions: Rich Sommer’s CARDBOARD! celebrates the huge community of board game fans; Franklin Leonard’s Black List Table Reads captures the imagination with pure audio storytelling, with performances of some of Hollywood's most desirable scripts.”

Spring Rollout of Fresh, Original Shows for Earwolf & Wolfpop-- Spontaneanation Leads the Charge.

Throughout the month of April Midroll introduces shows hosted by Earwolf fan favorites like Tompkins, whose show leads the pack with his show debut on April 1st, then releasing on Mondays following launch. Both Tompkins’ and St. Clair’s shows join Earwolf’s comedy fold, curated by Scott Aukerman, while Sommer’s and Leonard’s shows join its sister site, Wolfpop, curated by Paul Scheer, as the first new shows on the network since its launch in November 2014. See below for show descriptions.

April 1st - Spontaneanation with Paul F. Tompkins

Paul F. Tompkins has appeared on Earwolf more than any other guest, and for good reason. He’s been writing and performing comedy for twenty years, racking up a countless number of accolades. Longtime podcast comedy and improv all-star Paul F. Tompkins hosts Spontaneanation. It's a completely improvised show, from monologue to interview, to long-form sketch. Join Paul, his special guests (including Michael Sheen, Aimee Mann, Kaitlin Olson, and Dave Foley), and his incredibly talented friends from the world of improv--hailing from The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Superego, and other first-rate Los Angeles collectives--for an hour of comedy that none of them ever see coming. Fans can catch new episodes of Spontaneanation Mondays on Earwolf.com.

April 9th - CARDBOARD! with Rich Sommer

Actor and new podcast host Rich Sommer loves board games. But we're not talking about the stuff of your grandparents’ rec room--things have changed a lot since people started to gather around the bridge table. Whether you're a serious player or a newbie, give a warm welcome to your personal board game evangelist. Ty Burrell of ABC’s Modern Family joins Sommer for the fun as his first guest on episode one. Grab your game of choice, discover a new one, and get your cocktail pairings ready for CARDBOARD! with Rich Sommer, coming every other Thursday on Wolfpop.com.

April 16th - The Black List Table Reads

The Black List Table Reads takes the best and most exciting screenplays Hollywood hasn't yet made, and turns them into movies for your ears. Black List founder Franklin Leonard presents a new script every month, read by a rotating cast of talented actors, along with interviews with members of the Hollywood screenwriting community and beyond. The first featured script read for episodes 1-4 is Balls Out, written by Malcolm Spellman (producer of Empire) and Tim Talbott (winner of the 2014 Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award). Follow the coveted stories as they unfold on The Black List Table Reads Thursdays on Wolfpop.com.

April 20th - Womp It Up!

Womp It Up! is the latest spin-off of Comedy Bang! Bang!, featuring Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham in character. The show joins the ranks of other Comedy Bang! Bang! offspring The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project and With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus. This formidable duo also created and star in the critically acclaimed Playing House on the USA network, which was recently renewed for a second season. So slather cream cheese all over your Digiorno and get ready to get WOMPED because everybody’s favorite intern, Marissa Wompler (St. Clair) is throwing on the cans for her brand new school project podcast Womp It Up!. Her teacher/mentor/co-host/former sniper, Charlotte Listler (Parham), will be there to DJ and divvy out love advice, joined by other special guest stars. Get a front-row seat to the madness of the Marina Del Rey lifestyle! Catch all of the antics bi-weekly, Mondays on Earwolf.com.

Audiences and Advertisers ‘Hungry’ for New Content and Listening Experiences

As mainstream awareness continues to grow, the appetites of both audiences and advertisers grow, too. Last month Edison Research's The Infinite Dial 2015 reported that "monthly audio podcast consumption grew from approximately 39 million monthly users in 2014 to approximately 46 million in 2015."

The surge in popularity of the podcast medium has also caught the interest of advertisers who are attracted by the authenticity and intimacy of the native advertising experience created by host read and fan-appreciated ads. While the business of podcast ads continues to evolve, podcasts as entertainment are drawing larger numbers--and brands want to be where audiences are flocking.

Midroll, recognized for its expertise in monetization and its relationships with both brands and podcasters, represents more than 200 podcasts to advertisers, including shows on its owned-and-operated networks along with other popular off-network favorites. With the challenge of keeping inventory high as advertiser demand for shows skyrockets, the newest programs from Earwolf and Wolfpop all debut this month with launch partner advertisers: Audible, Cards Against Humanity, Harry's, Loot Crate, MeUndies, R&R Games, Squarespace, and Xero.

“Just as audiences are listening to our shows, we’re listening to and learning from them as well. Earwolf and Wolfpop provide key insights for us, allowing us to delve deeper into new episodic shows and serialized storytelling,” said Midroll Media CEO Adam Sachs. “We are supremely excited to welcome the newest members of our growing creative family, in order to delight audiences old and new with the newest shows.”

All Earwolf and Wolfpop podcasts are available for streaming on iTunes and Soundcloud.

Hear me talk Michael Bay on the Draft Zero podcast!

Stu Willis and Chas Fisher recently invited me onto their podcast Draft Zero to talk about about the work of Michael Bay:

Together, Stu, Chas and Bitter come through with their long-threatened episode to see what – if anything – screenwriters can learn from analysing the work of one of the most successful filmmakers all time, Michael Bay. We look at THE ROCK, THE ISLAND, and PAIN & GAIN, and cover writing great villains, controlling the flow of information to the audience (via car chases, of course) and creating visual decisions on the page. 

Go to the episode's page here.
Download the episode in mp3 form here.

As you probably guessed, this ties into my book MICHAEL F-ING BAY: The Unheralded Genius in Michael Bay's Films, still available on Amazon for only $4.99!

His movies have cumulatively earned $2.4 billion in the domestic box office, making him the second most-successful director of all time, right behind Steven Spielberg. If one gathered the top six directors in that category, that same man would be only one of the half-dozen to not also be in possession of an Academy Award: Michael Bay.

Commercial success and meaningful art don’t always go hand-in-hand, but is it possible for a filmmaker to consistently hit his mark with the audience without truly doing something right artistically? Professional critics have long taken aim at Bay’s music-video-honed visual style, full of fast cuts, moving camera shots, hot women. The internet is full of negativity and scorn for the director too, but has anyone truly given Bay’s oeuvre the benefit of the doubt?

Michael F-ing Bay: The Unheralded Genius in Michael Bay’s Films is the first-ever attempt to approach the Bay catalog from an intellectual standpoint. Come ready to find the deep subtexts and profound meanings in Michael Bay’s filmography.

EXPERIENCE – the controversial discussion about man’s relationship with God buried within Armageddon!

DISCOVER – how Pearl Harbor demonstrates that emotional truth is far more vital than strict adherence to actual historical events!

LEARN – how The Island is a pointed allegory attacking the proliferation of remakes and reboots that Hollywood produces!

UNDERSTAND – the vulnerable confession that Michael Bay offers under the cloak of a true-life Miami crime story in Pain & Gain! And much more!

My appearance on Chicks Who Script podcast, and the Hollywood echo chamber

I'm proud to announce my appearance this week on the new podcast Chicks Who Script, featuring hosts Emily Blake, Lauren Schacher, and Maggie F. Levin. They focus on screenwriting and film-related topics, and while they do give a lot of attention to women's voices in Hollywood, that's not the exclusive focus of their show. As it happens, I was their first male guest.

You can find the podcast here.

From their description: "Bitter Script Reader stops by to talk about the Internet echo chamber, "crap plus one," rape scenes in screenplays, lesbians on television, and Bitter's love for Brians Scully's script Merciful. Plus, we take our first trip through the mailbag and ask Maggie and Bitter how they got started reading scripts professionally."

First, I apologize for my occasionally-fast delivery. I'm terrible at this when there are multiple people in the room and I think it's because subconsciously I want to get my point out before the topic moves on. The show moves fast and in at least one instance, I don't think I did a good job of explaining why I was making a particular point.

Emily and I had privately discussed our frustrations with "echo chambers" on the internet.  An echo chamber is when members of a certain community who hold a particularly opinion or set of opinions about a contentious issue end up seeking out those who agree with them. There's nothing wrong with that, unless your perspective on an issue is entirely informed by this interaction. When you surround yourself with the same 50 or 100 or 1000 people who agree on the issue with you and are just as angry as you about it, you can convince yourself that this is the only perspective on the topic, or at least the only correct one. After all, everyone you've talked to agrees with you, right?

This is why knuckleheads who get their political news exclusively from Fox News (or even worse, that biovating lump of calcified puss, Rush Limbaugh) have convinced themselves that Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist who right now is cutting a deal with the Taliban while converting us to socialists under his fascist regime.

To put it less flippantly, back when being a "birther" was all the rage, Fox devoted a substantial amount of airtime to those claims that Obama was not a U.S. citizen. It got so much attention (on Fox) that it must be true (if your only perspective on the world was Fox's). So once expert after expert (who were often easily discredited or impeached via other outlets) made hay with this issue, the average Fox viewer instinctively rejected any "evidence" that the President's birth certificate was legitimate. And they found easy support amid their own echo chamber.

The Daily Show regularly uses Fox clips to show how that network works to stay "on message" and then fan the flames of a story. It's something you can take note of pretty easily in politics, but to be honest, you can find echo chambers on just about any topic on the internet: sports, religion, baking, technology.

And Hollywood.

So when I used the example of geek websites to explain how an echo chamber works, my intent was to pivot and talk about how some communities for aspiring writers are not helpful.  They can be supportive, full of a lot of well-meaning people. And they can also be havens for angry aspirings who find it easier to blame the industry for their shortcomings than to take a good hard look at their own work.

I touched on this a little while back when I discussed the development process at one company where I worked. I wanted to debunk some of the myths about "Hollywood." (People on these sites always speak about Hollywood as if it were some sort of monolithic collective.) There's this idea that all movies are made for reasons solely of commerce and never for artistic passion. While commerce is always part of the equation, that doesn't mean that the people fronting the money for the films are completely indifferent to the subject matter they deal with.  It's not uncommon for producers to seek out something that excites them even in a project that was made for the most cynical of reasons.

So when someone posting a comment from Idaho starts pontificating about everything wrong with "Hollywood" and how no one in that town has any idea what they're doing, I get a little annoyed to see a chorus of "Right ons!" as if this person as any idea what goes on in the development process. They act as if bad movies were made specifically to piss them off, and I don't think it's very helpful at all to give advice who's foundation is built on supposition and a half-remembered interview with some insider.

I also get really annoyed when writers convince each other that readers are the enemy - especially when readers are confronted with brilliant writing. One of the biggest myths is that a script reader will never support good work from another newbie because they're jealous that they haven't made it yet. In this way, the unrepresented convince themselves that the problem isn't their own work (it's clearly brilliant, right?) but those evil people who stand between them and their rightful career.

Bullshit.

Readers LOVE finding awesome scripts. It makes us look good to our bosses when we can be the first ones to discover something hot. There's a lot of excitement to being the guy who found that one lump of gold amidst the sea of mediocrity. True, we don't want to waste our bosses time on something they might hate, but that doesn't mean we're timid to the point of stamping everything with a PASS.

Some of my best days as a reader were when I could walk into an exec's office or shoot him an email that said, "You really should take a look at this when you get a chance." The sad thing is, there just aren't enough good writers to make those days abundant.

In the echo chamber, you might weigh your work against the crowd and assess yourself as the biggest fish. Indeed, perhaps the other guppies might agree with that. "Dan is the best we got, how is it possible he got a PASS from ICM? That reader must have been envious of his talent!" Or maybe Dan is just a big fish in a small pond. Until you've seen the regular sort of submissions that an agency or a production company gets, you have no idea what the standard is.  Sure, you might have read some of the most exemplary scripts by writers like Sorkin, and you've probably seen the worst movies to grace the box office and convinced yourself that you just need to be better than that week's worst release, but that's not how it works.

Strive to keep perspective. Don't always retreat to the comfort of your message board or your website community. If you find your community is built on a lot of resentment and anger, leave. If it seems like every week is little more than whining about some injustice done to your career and how much Hollywood sucks and is run by stupid people, leave. Cynicism is healthy - but bathing in it daily is like spending an entire week in the sun without skin protection - it'll eventually give you cancer.

Most importantly, remember that a lot of people on those sites are talking out of their asses. It's possible to have educated oneself about the entertainment industry without having worked in it, but always give the proper level of authority to proclamations from people way on the outside.

My appearance on Hollywood Bound and Down podcast

I'm the featured guest this week on Joshua Caldwell's podcast Hollywood Bound and Down.  In a chat of about 90 minutes (geez, I'm long-winded), you can find out a great deal about me as Josh and I talk about climbing the ladder in Hollywood, some of my experiences in development, and a lot of talk about the projects I involved myself in in college.

I haven't listened to it yet. (Contrary to what the long interview might lead you to believe, I kinda hate the sound of my own voice in long stretches.)  However, I remember that Josh asked a lot of interesting questions even though I had been concerned he'd hit on the same subjects I see asked about again and again in my inbox.  I hope you guys enjoy it, and if you're curious about the podcast in general, here's a handy introduction below...

Hollywood Bound and Down is a podcast hosted by writer, director, producer and MTV Movie Award winner Joshua Caldwell. Interviewing industry professionals Joshua explores the world of Hollywood for those at the beginning of the careers and discusses how they became successful, broke in, got their start, the art and craft of making films, television, web series and more. His guests to date include actress Missy Peregrym (Rookie Blue), Writer/Director Eric England (Contracted), Writer/Director Julian Higgins (House), actor Manny Montana (Graceland), screenwriter Kyle Ward (Machete Kills) and screenwriter/writer's assistant Adam Gaines (The Bridge).

Josh's twitter: @Joshua_Caldwell.
 HBAD Twitter: @HBAD_Podcast.


Here's the iTunes link: Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hollywood-bound-down/id692417004?mt=2 

My episode: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/007-bitter-script-reader-blogger/id692417004?i=168941430&mt=2