Yeah.

Uh, we had no famous people.

We had a tone shift that worked for better or worse, maybe didn't, and I think it was, like, a risk.

And truthfully, I was ready to upload the movie onto YouTube.

And thing that, like [laughs] I had a meeting on the Universal lot, and they were basically, "Hey, nice movie.

Obviously we're not gonna buy it, uh, 'cause it's, like, Universal." But on the way out, they were having a press event for Jurassic World, the most recent Jurassic World, and I saw between me and a fence, like, all of the, like Nick Curcio, and all these different, like, online movie influencers that I had watched online.

I was just like, "Oh, man, if I could just get them the movie." So I, like, called my manager, and I was like, "Hey, if I, like, sneak into a thing and get kicked off the Universal lot, is that, like, a forever ban? Like, will that affect my career?" And he's just like, "Whatever the fuck you're about to do, just don't tell me." So I snuck in there.

[laughs]

[laughs]

Basically, I was pretty, I was in the dumps.

I was in a really, really dark place, and the, you know, I was, like, diving into a lot of, like, post-1940, I don't know why I wanted, like, I needed, like, post, you know, World War II philosophy that came from the, like, you know, interacting with, with ent- like, evil and entropy or whatever, and, like, moral cohesion.

And I think I never was pulling from, from, like, you know, No Exit or, or, or any of the...

I hear, I see the comparisons, duh, obviously.

Also, people have been going through what I've been going through from the beginning of time.

But, like, I was trying to, like, I wasn't pulling from any individual place when I was 22.

Mm

And I also feel like, unfortunately, that may confuse some viewers because if they go and think it's a horror movie, they're going to be like, well, where's the killer? Where's the slasher? Where's this? I'm like, yeah, but sometimes the greatest horror is having to live with something and not having an answer to this burning question.

I would love to speak to that too.

Cause it's very funny.

There's a read on the film that what's what, you know, this movie is really a hangout movie at war with a horror movie.

And those genres are pretty antithetical to each other.

You know, like I think that horror is the most distilled version of like the hero's journey where there's like constant conflict.

you overcome conflict guy with a knife in this room, guy with a knife in this room, you overcome a conflict, you learn from it and then you internalize it.

But I wanted to throw that at you and I wanted to get your thoughts in terms of the horror movies that Linklater was already making without us maybe really consciously knowing it.

Keep going.

We get our 30.

Um, semi, you know, harsh- harsher part of the story, but, uh, we also...

It's, it's weird 'cause it's very baked into the themes of the film, but, um, we also lost a friend, you know, during COVID.

And anyway, uh, his parents, uh, started a film fund in his name called Spark the Arts.

Um, his name's Evan Sparks.

And, uh, they gave us an extra fi- like five.

What did that first cut look like, uh, in terms of that mix?