Here Today Gone Trevorrow - An Emergency Minisode

[00:00:10] Hello Blankies, welcome to an emergency minisode. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I am Griffin Newman. I'm David Sims. Now usually this is a podcast about tomography's directors who experienced early success and

[00:00:41] are given a series of blank checks and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby. And today a check has bounced. Dramatically. Although actually I think he's going to cash a check. It should be fair.

[00:00:56] I think he's been cashing checks for the last 18 months on the preparatory work he's done on this project. Yeah, there's been a few checks cashed. I think so. I think he has made more money for not working on this movie than you

[00:01:11] or I will ever make in our entire careers. That is for sure correct. He probably makes more money at going to some meeting than I will ever make in my entire career. This episode is called, here today, Gone Travaro.

[00:01:27] Is that actually how you say his name or is it Travaro? Is it Travaro? I actually have no idea. I've heard it both ways. I've always said it Travaro but I'm now changing my pronunciation in order to make that joke land. And I think it landed so beautifully.

[00:01:45] I think so too. JD Amato, cast and future guest friend of the show, suggested that we call the episode Travaro Never Comes but I think that we saved that name for Colin Travaro's sex tape. Yeah, that's a little too like elegant for me.

[00:02:03] That's sort of a nice poetic title. This is not a poetic time for Colin Travaro. Yes. I think the witch is that Colin Travaro is no longer directing Star Wars episode, not now.

[00:02:21] Now go on. I mean you and I have talked Star Wars a couple of times on this podcast. We've talked Colin T before. We've talked Colin T. We've talked about his great works, especially his most recent great work, The Book of Henry.

[00:02:40] His magnum opus. I mean, I think the film that really he opened his heart and showed us everything he had inside. Yeah, that is true and more. Yes, it was extra. He gave us some extra. Yeah, he's been pretty extra recently and now he is extra.

[00:03:02] He's extra necessary, i.e., like they don't need him. He is extra. He is now like I can't complete this metaphor. Help me out here. I can't look. These are extraordinary times. I'm in shock.

[00:03:18] You know, I feel like right now it falls upon us to act as Walter Cronkite did on the night of the JFK assassination. You know? Yeah, solemnly remove our glasses, mop our brows. Yes. I mean, we are not the ones breaking this news.

[00:03:35] But I think it's a chaotic time and people don't know what to think. And we are here to try to make sense of this. I mean, I feel great about it. I don't know about you. I feel great. I'm in a really good mood. I'm really happy.

[00:03:48] I know. I know. It's sort of like usually when something like this happens, you have those mixed emotions where you're like, oh, you know, the guy is losing his job and, you know, no one ever wants to like root for someone to get fired or whatever.

[00:04:02] But with this, I'm like, look, I'm sure he's making money anyway. I'm sure they're like could they're just he they're considering him a sunk cost. And he was going to be the director of the episode nine. Like that's just simply unacceptable.

[00:04:18] Now, I've heard people say, you know what? I was fine with him directing it. I was resigned to episode nine being mediocre because that's the way the other trilogy worked. Sure. Returning to the Jedi. I know it never remembers the name of that, you know, Richard Marquand.

[00:04:32] Anyway, who cares? He'll be on a tight leash like these were all the arguments. Right. OK. Here are three counter arguments to that. To I would be astonished if Con Trevorrow, Travaro were capable of producing a return of the Jedi. Batting at that level, right?

[00:04:54] B, you still had Lucas at full strength overseeing everything at that point. You have Kathy Kennedy, who is like directing all the traffic, but she's not the brain source in that kind of way. And three, don't we want a better world than the world that existed before us?

[00:05:14] Don't we want society to progress and evolve? Shouldn't we complete a trilogy successfully? Right. Yeah. Why would why must be we were redo the sins of the past, the mistakes of our forefathers? Let's let's just try and give this to a nice good filmmaker.

[00:05:32] Yeah. Now, now this is the big question. Who should take over at the time of recording? That's a couple of days after the news broke. There have been a stunning lack of leaks because I feel like very quickly after the Lord and Miller firing,

[00:05:46] Howard was thrown out as they had their shortlist right away. You were starting to get reports of what went wrong there. And we still haven't heard much other than Kathy Kennedy probably saw a book of Henry.

[00:06:00] Well, let me backtrack and tell you what I've been reading on the gossip blogs. Because I feel like this is crucial to why maybe we don't have a shortlist. So, you know, a couple of months ago, well, you know,

[00:06:15] we know all the other Kathy Kennedy's fire, the directors of Han Solo, like you mentioned, you know, she's not been afraid to throw the baby out with the bathwater if she thinks it's vision she has. And Mike Ryan's treated there have now been more former Star Wars directors

[00:06:30] than successful Star Wars directors. That is essentially accurate. Yes. So you've got Trevor. He's he was hired or directed episode nine practically like like a year and a half ago. Right? Like, you know, at the same time as they hired Ryan Johnson pretty much. More like a year.

[00:06:51] Yeah, like a long time ago. So then the book of Henry comes out far away. Exactly. Then the book of Henry comes out. It's a critical disaster. It certainly there's a lot of hubris on all sides there because Colin Travro seems a little blindsided by it.

[00:07:11] Right. We do our episode. We dunk on him hardcore. It's even more embarrassing because we have the final word on everything. Exactly slam dunk the funk, you know, and all that. And book of Henry, you know, on balance bad movie. Yes. Yes. I agree.

[00:07:27] I agree. The word what what you're what I'm reading in the especially there's this vulture piece that hit today written by Chris Lee that seems to suggest that Colin Travro and this is Chris Lee's words not mine is a slightly arrogant man. Interesting.

[00:07:47] I don't mean to blow the doors off here, but the Colin Travro after making one indie movie and then getting hired to make Jurassic World has a somewhat inflated opinion of himself as a filmmaker. Interesting. I'm just letting all of this settle in

[00:08:02] because I know it's something that none of us could have ever considered. And no, never. Because he was blessed by Steven Spielberg, you know, with the Jurassic World hiring and he was blessed by other big shots like Brad Bird,

[00:08:16] who sort of apparently recommended him for the Star Wars gig. Because of all that, he had his idea of whatever Episode 9 was going to be. And he, you know, he was running with that and very, very confident of himself. And it sounds like Kathleen Kennedy was incredibly

[00:08:35] not confident about his idea for Episode 9. Now, now like about a month ago, they brought on a new writer to take over the script with a previous word. Yes. Because he had previously been in charge of writing. Exactly.

[00:08:55] Him and his partner, Derek Connolly or whatever his name is, that's his name. Right. Screenwriter of Monster Tracks. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And maybe it was because they had a Creech-centric Episode 9. I don't know the details of what his pitch were.

[00:09:10] But we know at this point that America is not ready to meet Creech. So America has been learned by. America proved that it was not ready. Maybe Con Trevor thought it would be ready in 2019. I can't tell you for sure.

[00:09:23] And so he's got this story pitch that clearly right. They're rejecting it. They're like, we're going to bring in a new writer and it does seem something came to a head and Kathleen Kennedy was like, you got to go. If you read this vulture piece. I do not.

[00:09:38] I will read it as soon as the episode is done, which is a wrong time to do it in relation to this episode. I just want to read you the last line of it. Please do.

[00:09:50] A lot of these guys got very rich, very fast and believed a lot of their own hype and they don't play by the rules. They want to do shit differently. And Kathleen Kennedy isn't going to fuck around with that. So there you go.

[00:10:05] So in charge, I don't know. I feel like the rumor or whatever, the thing people seem to be sort of whispering is like, why not just keep around Ryan Johnson? Seems like everyone's pretty happy with episode eight that all seem to go smoothly. I agree now. Right.

[00:10:21] By all accounts that has been the only Star Wars movie produced without a completely dramatic development and production. Right. Yes. Correct. Hey, I'd say let him keep driving the car. No need to take new shifts on the road trip. But we say let him keep driving the speeder.

[00:10:42] Yes, I would let him keep driving the speeder. Right. Yeah. Be I would say it's a weird position now, but like I wouldn't wish a Star Wars movie upon my favorite filmmakers anymore. It's a bit of a poison challenge. Two people up at the mouth. Yes. It's true.

[00:10:59] You know, everyone immediately takes to Twitter and they pick their favorite ever director essentially, or maybe some young up and coming star. And they're like, they should do it. And it's like, clearly there is a lot of thought about how this plane

[00:11:11] should be landed and Kathleen Kennedy is the primary auteur of like, you know, what Star Wars is going to look like. So I don't know. Yeah. If you really want to waste the feature debut of some big director

[00:11:24] you love or, you know, like the blockbuster debut, I mean on this, they're just going to get swapped in whole. Right. Or even worse, like waste them not working on another movie because they spend

[00:11:36] nine months in development on a Star Wars movie and then get pushed off of it. Right. Or they get like, you know, pushed aside while recuts happen or whatever. Right. Any of that. If Ryan Johnson seems to have figured out how to work within this system

[00:11:53] successfully, which by all accounts he has, and the movie itself is really strong and represents his own sensibility and his own like perspectives as a filmmaker, then let him make every single Star Wars movie. Yeah, exactly.

[00:12:08] I mean, just hand it over to him if he's, I mean, if he wants to do it, he may not forever. I mean, you know, he tweeted a month ago, I will make as many Star Wars movies as they let me make.

[00:12:18] I've had a great time working on this. I wonder if that is a genuine and I don't need to say anything, but I wonder if Ryan maybe felt anything in the earth, you know, he heard some trembles. Like disturbance in the force you're saying? No, yes.

[00:12:33] How did I? Yes, exactly. Because because the other obvious answer was would they circle back around to JJ A. Brooks and JJ has like, exclusively said like, I did my Star Wars movie. I don't want to do it. Right. Yeah.

[00:12:47] And it's a trying thing and he has a family that he's obviously very intent on being around as much as possible in episode seven, like took him away from them. So yeah, like he doesn't want to do it. Forget him. But clearly, yes, they want a steady hand.

[00:13:00] They want like they want some sort of practice experienced hand at the tiller. Do you have anyone in particular you'd love for this? Like, you know, Brad Bird's busy, like the original sort of choice for this, like who are we going to have?

[00:13:13] I mean, my answer is like my lift begins and ends with Ryan Johnson. Like honestly, there you go. Well, one endorsement. I mean, I see the other people who are thrown out and I love the idea of in

[00:13:28] my mind's eye them being able to make that movie successfully. But I don't have any faith in that being able to happen. You know, yeah, I guess the second best option is like, Eva DuVernay has

[00:13:39] been very vocal about her fandom of Star Wars and how much she'd love to make one. She just made a big sci-fi movie for Disney. Is that movie is good? I don't know if they're happy with that or you're gonna say go ahead. Go ahead.

[00:13:52] No, she just feels like this sort of easy option for people to sort of go to right because again, she's this up and coming. I don't know if she really want to make this movie. It just that feels like a nightmare. Eva DuVernay worked in PR for years.

[00:14:04] She knows how this shit works. Like she knows what a mess it is. And also remember, she was the first choice of length, Black Panther. She met with them and said, this is what I'd want to do. They said, this is what not what we do at Marvel.

[00:14:17] And she left and decides to make her own like original blockbuster, you know, adaptive thing that wasn't part of a franchise. Yeah, but she made it with Disney. I think the thing that would happen in the post. Right. Yeah. But she is in the Disney home right now.

[00:14:29] Like she made, she's making Disney's big March release next year. Which is why I think people keep banning her now and as a vocal fan of Star Wars. Well, look, I think two things are going to happen. Like one or the other, right?

[00:14:43] Something like the Han Solo thing where like three weeks from now, we see like a shortlist. You know, like. And like Robert Zemeckis is on it or whatever, you know, like some sort of like very established. Old school Spielberg generation guy like Ron Howard West, you know. Right.

[00:15:02] Yeah, exactly. And then maybe some other names or whatever and they pick from that or we don't hear a lot. And then they're just like, Ryan Johnson did a great job or maybe even the last Jedi comes out and it, you know, whatever does well.

[00:15:14] And they're like, like, wait, episode eight looks great. Episode nine is going to be by the same guy. Like nothing to see here, folks. That's kind of my prediction. I mean, right now I think they have episode nine scheduled for

[00:15:26] May of that year because they've made this shift. I think they push it back. Yeah, that might. And I highly announce, you know, in order to work around yeah, Ryan Johnson's schedule for last Jedi and they just let him. That all makes sense. Continue driving the car.

[00:15:43] Because, you know, as we know, and it's very sad, Carrie Fisher died and they were all pretty clear about like we had a rough idea of where episode nine was going to end and like, you know, how the arcs are going to

[00:15:55] regress and now that's going to have to be different. So there's definitely like someone needs to come in and write Star Wars episode nine, like be it Ryan Johnson or someone else. Like that job has not been completed. It's not like they have it ready.

[00:16:08] The script is ready. And it's like we just need a solid hand to come in here and get everything done, like how Return of the Jedi sort of. Worked, you know, George Lucas was like, I know what the movie is.

[00:16:20] Someone here and someone just come in and direct it because they've been all pretty clear that as much as there was a master design for these three movies, the idea was. Seven is Hans movie, eight is Luke's movie, nine is Leia's movie. It does seem that way.

[00:16:36] So yeah, that's a bummer. It's a major, major bump. But Colin Trevor not making episode nine is a major success. Yeah, we won. You're welcome. He's going to kill us though. He's not. He doesn't know who we are.

[00:16:55] I mean, I'll say, you know, I've always been worried a little bit, a little bit about how much I should talk to him. You do. You like to make fun of him. I do. And I do it publicly and I do it loudly and I do it frequently.

[00:17:08] Yeah. All those things are. Still in a position, right? I'm directing a massive, massive movie. He still had that career cash. Hey, right? Yeah. And I went into my manager's office the day the news broke because I had to self tape and audition and they said like, hey,

[00:17:27] you must be excited about that. A con Trevor on his. And I was like, oh, no one is worried about the ramifications of me talking negatively about him anymore. I mean, he's at a low ab right now. Yes.

[00:17:41] I did this whole six week press tour for the tech, which ended with me in Australia at night doing phone or interviews with people in India. And the final question I had on the final interview at the end

[00:17:54] of the six weeks was you've been very outspoken in your hatred of Colin Traver. Can you tell us what's behind that? Who is that? Who asked that? They must listen to the podcast. They must. They must. They have to. That's where you do most of your,

[00:18:08] I know you like tweet about it occasionally, but come on, like that's a blank check. I believe some blankies also included that as a trivia fact on my IMDb page. Oh, so maybe they were just reading right off of your Wikipedia or IMDb or whatever.

[00:18:24] It might be also on Wikipedia. I'm listed as being married to TC 14. Thank you very much for that. Oh, that I was actually going to bring that up. I think that's, you know, especially a lot of people said,

[00:18:34] you know, a woman has never made a Star Wars movie. And that's something that needs to change. TC 14 has been steeped in Star Wars for a very long time. We've never seen conclusive evidence that she died. So she probably is still alive because that's how it always works.

[00:18:52] I mean, you saw her, she served that tea. She knows what a dead eye is. She can recognize them with her own eyes. I think it's a pretty logical choice. Sorry. No, she's a steady hand. I mean, she never dropped the tea.

[00:19:08] And I also think you're right that we haven't had an actor from a Star Wars movie direct to Star Wars movie. But of course, who would know the inner workings of a Star Wars shoot better than someone who's quietly been on the inside for 20 years? It's not longer.

[00:19:26] If not longer. Who knows how long TC 14 has really been going for it? Well, it was a long time ago. Yeah, it's too far from where we don't know. Exactly. So TC 14, I would say definitely at least on my top five candidates.

[00:19:41] I just wanted to get that out there. And looking at my IMDB trivia page right now and it says on multiple occasions, the Newman has stated it personal to say in for director Colin Travarro and is about to never work with him.

[00:19:52] He considers Travarro to be morally bankrupt and minimally talented. So thank you to whoever wrote that. Something you should get off of your IMDB page, in my opinion, immediately if not sooner. Morally bankrupt. Like that's not the kind of thing that you want any director to see.

[00:20:13] Jesus, you only have nine items of trivia. This is one of nine items. Yeah, one of them is just the fact that you and I have a podcast together. Yeah, another one. Three of them are the names of your family. So it's really like there's five other items.

[00:20:30] Yeah, yeah, I agree. But you know, one of them is that you dropped out of college and one of them is that you were fired from Lainey. So this is like not the best IMDB trivia page I've ever seen.

[00:20:41] You might want to like get your favorite kind of melon on there or something, you know, some nice sort of like regular facts. We all know that honey do with the money melon. But I like that the other the other fact is that

[00:20:54] I base my running off of the P1000 and terminate it too. Yeah, that's the one good fact that in that you host blank check everything else is basically like he dropped out of college. He didn't get jobs or he has a family which like congratulations.

[00:21:11] Right now, you know, this is just an emergency minute. So I think we got to wrap this up. You're in Toronto. Yeah, we're on the phone right now. I'm in I'm in Toronto at the Toronto Film Festival. I'm seeing movies.

[00:21:23] I'm going to go talk to George Clooney in like three hours. Okay, it's shut up dude. Fuck a hobble brag. I think we should wrap this up. But I want to leave our listeners with with one final plea. Okay. Yeah.

[00:21:37] For years now, I've been telling people that if you see director Colin Travarro on the street, he's gonna kick in the penis. Oh boy. God, even when he's down like this. That is my exact point. I am now lifting my fat loss.

[00:21:56] I'm saying if you see Colin Travarro on the street, give him a pass. That's going through a tough time right now. Public firing. He's eaten crud. Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying if you see Colin Travarro on the street, neither kick nor punch his penis. That is my official decree.

[00:22:17] Let it not be said that the blank checks podcast is not just and fair. Now, if I hear of any penis kicks or punches, I'm going to be very, very disappointed. Very disappointed. Yeah. And that's your final call.

[00:22:39] I think it's very, we should just call you judge Newman for now on. So it shall be. And you know, if they ever make a judge to you should probably be in it. Right. And then we'll do judging the judge judge to hyper judge. Yeah.

[00:22:57] Judging the judge to hyper judge exactly hyper judge judging hyper judging the judge. Colin the judge to hyper judge. Yes. I just sequels both the name of the movie and the name of the podcast about the movie. And those, of course, are your final thoughts. Of course.

[00:23:15] That's how I wanted to end this. Oh, we love you, Ben. Yeah, this is crazy. We had a whole phone call cross country phone call just to talk about fucking Colin Travarro getting fired. May his name never be uttered again.

[00:23:31] It was an emergency mobisode and look, a mobisode mini so but maybe you're listening to it on your phone. I pray we never have to do it again. Exactly. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, subscribe. Thank you. Thank you all for our social media.

[00:23:48] Oh boy. Thank you. Laymon coming for our theme song Joe Bowden pat Reynolds for our work. Tune in in a couple of days or the devil wears Prada with my sister Romley Newman. Yeah, it's going to be good. And as always. What were you saying?

[00:24:07] I said it's going to be good. Devil wears Prada. Oh, it's a good app. It's a good app. We got it in the can. It's a good app. Yep. And as always, may the force be with you.