"Denis Villeneuve"

Life is in session right now, with Denis Villeneuve. Twilight anesthesia, addiction to power, teenage dreams… and Paddles still makes it to dinner. We are not a medical podcast; it’s an all-new SmartLess.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sean Hayes?

  This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Google Book. So the other day, I wanted to make invitations for my dog Ricky's birthday party. And I've got three things open on my laptop. An adorable photo of Ricky, a picture of a birthday cake, and the RSVP details. Thing is, as much as I look like one, I'm not a canine birthday party invitation designer. That's where Google Book comes in. It's a whole new kind of laptop with a feature called Magic Pointer. I just click the photos and different elements on my screen and boom. Magic Pointer designs a customized birthday party invitation for Ricky. Click anything on your screen to create whatever you want. Visit googlebook.com. Available to 18 plus users.

• 0:44Sean Hayes?

  Compatibility and availability vary.

• 0:49Speaker 01

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• 1:20Speaker 02

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• 2:04Speaker 02

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• 2:19Speaker 03

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• 2:47Will Arnett?

  I wanted you guys to know, I hope you're rolling on this. You ready?

• 2:50Jason Bateman?

  Here we go.

• 2:50Will Arnett?

  I want you guys to know that this morning, this is the most serious call to open.

• 2:54Jason Bateman?

  Yes.

• 2:55Will Arnett?

  I've been in a rough place and this really, I feel like I've shared a lot in the last year of been a rough place, but I have been, a lot going on. And this saved me this morning. After a few days.

• 3:04Jason Bateman?

  I love that. You're saying you might not have made it, you might not have made it to lunchtime.

• 3:07Will Arnett?

  No, I would have made it. I'm not, I wasn't gonna take my own life, but I, I was in a pretty bad place. And knowing that I was coming here and then getting on and seeing you guys, this has just made my day. That's it. Isn't that nice?

• 3:18Jason Bateman?

  And is that why you took a little shower, a little self-care, combed your hair, put on a nice top?

• 3:23Will Arnett?

  I wanted to look nice for you guys, you know? I wanted to show up here and be respectful of the process that, that I, the one, the thing I can count on is, is you two ding-dongs.

• 3:34Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 3:35Will Arnett?

  And then the other, and then the other three ding-dongs who we work with as well, Rob and Bennett and Michael. So I know it's a late, Thanksgiving's been a minute, but I wanna say thank you and I'm very grateful for you guys.

• 3:45Jason Bateman?

  We love you and we thank you and you make our day too.

• 3:49Will Arnett?

  Always here for you, anytime you want.

• 3:50Jason Bateman?

  And so let's try to make other people's days and let's, let's get into a nice fresh episode of Smartless.

• 4:15Jason Bateman?

  Oh, speaking of medical conditions.

• 4:17Sean Hayes?

  I know, I can't even, I can't even.

• 4:18Jason Bateman?

  You don't want to talk about it?

• 4:19Sean Hayes?

  We can talk, I'm an open book, I'll talk about anything.

• 4:22Jason Bateman?

  Shaun, he wakes up in the middle of the night with his, with his heart thingy. Uh, for everybody other than Tracy, uh, here, the reminder is he's got an AFib situation, right?

• 4:32Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 4:32Jason Bateman?

  Which necessitates the paddles at the emergency room every once in a while.

• 4:36Will Arnett?

  Right.

• 4:36Jason Bateman?

  Which is just insane. It's like, if you had a car that would constantly just like have trouble getting started, you would eventually replace the battery.

• 4:43Sean Hayes?

  So you're replacing me on smart list?

• 4:45Jason Bateman?

  Well, nor just your heart, maybe?

• 4:47Will Arnett?

  No, we thought about it for one second, we never even...

• 4:50Jason Bateman?

  Can we get you on a list for a fresh pump?

• 4:52Will Arnett?

  We didn't do a deep dive.

• 4:54Jason Bateman?

  So he wakes up in the middle of the night and, uh, his heart's not working correctly, or so he thinks. And so he doesn't want to wake up Scotty, so he calls a Waymo for himself.

• 5:03Sean Hayes?

  Sure.

• 5:03Jason Bateman?

  And gets himself to the ER and Scotty wakes up, uh, later with a phone call from Shaun from the ER saying, "Hey buddy, I'm here, just want to give you a heads up."

• 5:13Will Arnett?

  Oh, good.

• 5:13Jason Bateman?

  So I guess it's kind of nice that he doesn't want to trouble Scotty and worry him and just calls him from...

• 5:19Will Arnett?

  JB, not once, twice that night.

• 5:22Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, in the same night.

• 5:22Sean Hayes?

  I got cardioverted twice, so I went under and then they gave me, Jimmy Kimmel calls me paddles, right, because of this.

• 5:27Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 5:28Sean Hayes?

  So paddles got it twice that night, uh, where my cardio, and yeah, it's pretty scary.

• 5:33Jason Bateman?

  And yet you still made it out to dinner the following night.

• 5:36Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, the same day.

• 5:37Jason Bateman?

  You weren't in a great place that night.

• 5:39Sean Hayes?

  No, I was a little foggy, I was a little foggy.

• 5:41Will Arnett?

  Oh, yeah, of course you were.

• 5:42Sean Hayes?

  More so than usual.

• 5:43Will Arnett?

  You've been, you've been, you know, electrocuted twice.

• 5:47Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 5:47Will Arnett?

  Uh, your, your body had been, you know, that's a lot.

• 5:50Jason Bateman?

  So, wow.

• 5:51Will Arnett?

  Are we, are we...

• 5:52Sean Hayes?

  By the way, the nurse, the nurse told me while before I did it, she goes, "You know, I had a big tough cop coming here once." And he said, "I don't want to be put under when you cardio, when you do the paddles, you know, clear, go." And, um, and the cop was like... He's like, "I don't want it, I don't want to be put under." She's like, "Sir, no, everybody is put under." She's like, "Nope, nope, I don't want it." And she goes, "I've never heard somebody scream so loud in my entire life." The guy, guy was like, "Ah!"

• 6:17Jason Bateman?

  Why? Because it hurts? What, it's an electrical shock, right?

• 6:20Sean Hayes?

  Well, your whole body goes, it's like being tased.

• 6:22Will Arnett?

  Right.

• 6:23Jason Bateman?

  So wait, so they're...

• 6:23Will Arnett?

  How do you know where it's like being tased? Sean Tased.

• 6:28Sean Hayes?

  Sean Tased.

• 6:28Will Arnett?

  That's your new name, not paddle, Sean Tased.

• 6:33Sean Hayes?

  Alright, that's enough.

• 6:35Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I mean, you got, weren't you tased once at an Indigo Girls concert or something? What's the story on that? You had parked your, you'd parked your Subaru with all the stickers, "Coexist" and all that stuff. You had parked, you were at...

• 6:49Sean Hayes?

  We used to stay in college for the Indigo Girls.

• 6:50Will Arnett?

  You were in Bando again. Okay, keep going, sorry.

• 6:53Sean Hayes?

  No, I said in college, and we'd say, if you take the N and the O out of Indigo Girls, it says, it says "I dig girls."

• 7:00Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 7:00Sean Hayes?

  Thanks, everybody.

• 7:01Jason Bateman?

  What a college.

• 7:02Will Arnett?

  Now, was this, you, you were, this was at Harvard?

• 7:04Sean Hayes?

  What a college.

• 7:06Jason Bateman?

  Hey, Sean, just to close the loop, are you on the, are you on the, the backside of, of figuring out this heart thing?

• 7:13Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I'm going, I'm going today after this.

• 7:15Will Arnett?

  I just want to get, I want to say this, all jokes aside, I, and we, I speak for Jason, love you very, very much.

• 7:23Sean Hayes?

  Likewise.

• 7:23Will Arnett?

  And the idea of you not being fully well is very distressing to me, to be honest.

• 7:29Sean Hayes?

  Well, thanks.

• 7:30Will Arnett?

  And I want to make sure that you're okay. So are we doing, is there anything else?

• 7:33Sean Hayes?

  Today, I'm going to like a super specialist.

• 7:34Will Arnett?

  Okay.

• 7:35Jason Bateman?

  But what does that mean? You're going up into the thigh again. Is it like, are we knocking you out again? Like, is this a major surgery?

• 7:41Sean Hayes?

  It's not surgery, it's just, it's like a two hour procedure.

• 7:44Jason Bateman?

  So it's, it's not a general, it's just that, the twilight?

• 7:47Sean Hayes?

  It's not even two hours, it's an hour.

• 7:49Jason Bateman?

  You getting the twilight?

• 7:50Will Arnett?

  Propofol.

• 7:50Sean Hayes?

  Propofol, yeah.

• 7:51Jason Bateman?

  This, this, this is what's driving all of this. You're so addicted to, to anesthesia.

• 7:58Sean Hayes?

  It's pretty beautiful, yeah.

• 7:59Jason Bateman?

  I know, what is, you know, you know what happened to, to Mr. Jackson, right?

• 8:04Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, well, I'm not taking it to sleep.

• 8:06Jason Bateman?

  Well, you know, slippery slope.

• 8:08Will Arnett?

  JB, you had it right when you got your, your thing?

• 8:10Jason Bateman?

  What did I have?

• 8:11Will Arnett?

  When we had our things, when we all had our things looked at.

• 8:13Jason Bateman?

  What happened? What, what?

• 8:14Will Arnett?

  When they went up our butts.

• 8:15Sean Hayes?

  Oh, you, no, you mean the body scan? A body scan?

• 8:19Jason Bateman?

  No, you're talking about a, a, a, a colonoscopy, right?

• 8:22Will Arnett?

  Yeah, remember?

• 8:23Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, that's just a twilight. Is that propofol?

• 8:25Will Arnett?

  That's, that's propofol.

• 8:26Sean Hayes?

  Now, like the cop, I requested no anesthesia.

• 8:29Will Arnett?

  It's a propofol.

• 8:32Jason Bateman?

  Come on, keep it clean. We've got a respectable guest.

• 8:34Will Arnett?

  Yeah, come on.

• 8:34Jason Bateman?

  Respectable guest on deck.

• 8:36Will Arnett?

  Okay, let's, well, let's hear it. Here's the, go to the intro, JB. This is great. Hey, guys, fresh off the pages of Wikipedia comes his very special, he always talks about his special intro that he does, and it turns out, he looked at, again, it goes back to my, that thing that I hate, which is people go like, "I did some research," and I'm like, "Oh, do you have the internet?" I do too.

• 8:56Jason Bateman?

  That's my wife's line. I don't, I've never, I never say I've done research on anything.

• 9:00Will Arnett?

  I know you don't.

• 9:01Jason Bateman?

  Man, today we have simply put one of our finest filmmakers living in the world, okay? His films have received 28 Academy Award nominations, taken home nine of them and grossed nearly $2 billion. His films have captured the small and the nuanced human condition, as well as the enormous scope and scale of sci-fi's most complicated stories. Guys, he's our perfect guest. For Will, he's a Canadian. For me, he's a beast of a director, and Sean,

• 9:25Will Arnett?

  No way.

• 9:25Jason Bateman?

  He's a titan in the sci-fi world right now. Ladies and gentlemen, here he comes, Denis Villeneuve.

• 9:32Sean Hayes?

  No way!

• 9:32Will Arnett?

  You're kidding me.

• 9:34Sean Hayes?

  Oh my god, no way!

• 9:36Speaker 06

  I feel bad to interrupt your conversation.

• 9:38Jason Bateman?

  I apologize for the length of it.

• 9:39Speaker 06

  I was learning a lot of dramatic.

• 9:41Will Arnett?

  Mais c'est pas, c'est pas vrai. Ça, c'est incroyable que vous êtes ici aujourd'hui Denis.

• 9:48Speaker 06

  Vous parlez français?

• 9:49Will Arnett?

  Un petit peu, mais ah, c'est incroyable.

• 9:52Jason Bateman?

  One cigarette, one mistress.

• 9:55Will Arnett?

  I take a coffee with my mistress. No, no, Denis, what an absolute honor.

• 10:00Speaker 06

  It's my great pleasure to be with you.

• 10:02Sean Hayes?

  I just wrote you an email, like a dorky email, like three or four months ago. I don't know if you got it.

• 10:07Jason Bateman?

  You did?

• 10:07Sean Hayes?

  Yes.

• 10:08Jason Bateman?

  Hold on. What, do you know him?

• 10:10Sean Hayes?

  No.

• 10:10Jason Bateman?

  It was just a fan, fan email?

• 10:12Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I just wrote you an email, just like, "Oh my god, I..."

• 10:14Will Arnett?

  He got it, but no comment.

• 10:16Sean Hayes?

  That's right.

• 10:16Jason Bateman?

  What was it? Was it notes? Was it notes on a lot?

• 10:19Sean Hayes?

  It was notes on Arrival.

• 10:21Speaker 06

  You did? I'm not sure I got that email, I'm sorry.

• 10:24Sean Hayes?

  No, but you know, Arrival I've seen, I don't know how many times. I just think it's one of the best movies ever, ever.

• 10:32Jason Bateman?

  I mean...

• 10:32Sean Hayes?

  It's just incredible.

• 10:33Speaker 06

  Thank you, Sean.

• 10:34Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 10:35Jason Bateman?

  So, so much good work. My goodness.

• 10:38Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 10:39Sean Hayes?

  That's it.

• 10:40Will Arnett?

  That's it, yeah, that's the interview.

• 10:41Jason Bateman?

  Thank you for joining us. Bye now.

• 10:44Speaker 06

  All right, I go back in the dark.

• 10:45Jason Bateman?

  No, no, no.

• 10:49Speaker 06

  Yeah, but it was pretty dramatic because I don't, I don't know you gentlemen. And, and it was a very intense conversation you were having about your common friend that is having.

• 10:59Speaker 06

  I feel that.

• 11:01Sean Hayes?

  It's, it's, it's actually sounds more intense than it is like Afib. Afib doesn't cause a heart attack. Untreated, it can cause a stroke, but Afib itself is not that serious, I'm told. We are not a medical podcast. We are not giving any.

• 11:20Jason Bateman?

  I want a second opinion on all of this. It seems it's just too common, these trips to the fricking emergency room. Anyway, well, you know, we're all of that age. Denny, we're, you're, you're near us, right? We're all in our mid 50s or close to it. That all this, all this shit starts to, starts to wobble a little bit. The nuts on the, on the, on the wheels start to get a little loose, right? And, and we all need to start like.

• 11:43Speaker 06

  We are, we are at that peak and now we're starting slowly.

• 11:46Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stuff starts to ache.

• 11:48Will Arnett?

  Let's, let's think that we're maybe plateauing before we get to the downhill, Denny. Let's think that, just enjoy a little plateau.

• 11:55Speaker 06

  We are on that plateau, yes, yes.

• 11:56Sean Hayes?

  Keep talking about this part.

• 11:57Will Arnett?

  But we'll talk about, we, we end up talking about a lot of this stuff because Jason says, because it's happening. And also we're friends and, and it's, I don't know about you guys. It does seem like, I, I said to Sean the other day.

• 12:08Jason Bateman?

  Things are falling apart?

• 12:09Will Arnett?

  No, life is in session right now. It does feel like in the world, life is in session.

• 12:14Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 12:15Will Arnett?

  And you have to, I, I've had a certain amount of not to get lately of, of surrender to it. And just like, I, you, I can't fight it. I have to kind of go with the flow a little bit these days. And I'm concerned about things with health and with family and, and friends.

• 12:28Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I literally listed all the things Will's going through last night. And he's like, oh yeah, wow.

• 12:33Will Arnett?

  But everybody is, everything, nothing's happening to me. Life is just happening.

• 12:37Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 12:38Will Arnett?

  And so anyway, so Denny, you're catching us in a moment where we're, this is about as philosophical as we get.

• 12:44Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, that's it.

• 12:44Speaker 06

  The thing is that it's good that, that Sean is, is, is actually taking care of it and making tests. And then because if the, the, the, the bad thing is when you have a surprise that comes out of nowhere.

• 12:55Sean Hayes?

  Oh God, yeah.

• 12:55Speaker 06

  That as I like, if I lost a friend of mine that was like 58, Jean-Marc Vallée, the director of a, a Dyer's Bayers Club. Who, and, and just. Biggest surprise, he was a healthy guy and he just fell on the floor, bang. And it's things that so it's good that you you're at least you know you are taking care of it. There's someone say so, so it's gonna be good.

• 13:19Will Arnett?

  Yeah, you have and that gives you perspective, right? You when you have that sort of when you get that that contrast and when you see that happen. And these guys know I lost my friend, my dear friend Jeremy last year quite suddenly as well. He wasn't even, I guess he was had just turned fifty three at the time. And it was very sudden and and it really does. It really puts everything in perspective a little bit, you know. For me, it did. I don't know about you with losing your friend, but it the perspective.

• 13:50Speaker 06

  Absolutely, absolutely. It's a big shock, yeah. The thing is that the doctor said is what is shocking and what we don't accept is that people actually have days of peremption. I mean, there's a sometimes we are meant to be of a certain length. And sometimes it's some people are meant to live less long. It's it's shocking, but it's true.

• 14:07Jason Bateman?

  An expiration date.

• 14:08Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 14:08Speaker 06

  Yeah, expiration date. I was I was doing French, sorry.

• 14:13Speaker 06

  D'apparence.

• 14:15Jason Bateman?

  Well, somebody somebody put it well the other day to be they said, life is a journey. Death is a destination, you know, and it's it's it's true because we're all going there.

• 14:22Speaker 06

  That is true. That is true.

• 14:24Jason Bateman?

  And it's like, what do you do? What do you do with your time? Are we doing are we using our time correctly? We're at that age where we are sort of, you know, past the midway point. We're we're at that age where you start losing your parents and mortality really comes into focus. And have you used your time well to this point? And what are you going to do with your remaining time?

• 14:43Speaker 06

  A wonderful theme in all of Danny's work.

• 14:46Jason Bateman?

  Yes, exactly.

• 14:47Speaker 06

  But it's it's a theme that is is is is one of the main theme of Arrival. And that's what one of the thing that I loved about the short story. It was based on the story of your life written by Ted Chiang. That is a little masterpiece. And it's about, yeah, living to the present time, to make the best out of it and not to be afraid of living because of the fear of death. And that I thought was a nice thing in this movie, in the in the short story, sorry.

• 15:10Will Arnett?

  I first of all, I didn't I didn't know I didn't know it was based on a short story, Sean. You you knew that.

• 15:15Speaker 06

  You have to read the short story.

• 15:16Will Arnett?

  I will.

• 15:17Speaker 06

  The short story is a masterpiece. It's like twenty eight pages or something written by Ted Chiang, a very, a very, very strong sci fi writer. And it's like it's a little gem, yeah.

• 15:28Will Arnett?

  I'm gonna look it up today. And I also think just hearing you say that reminds me of it's really brought into focus. To, and it seems almost elementary, like kind of so obvious, but you gotta tell the people you love that you love them. And you've gotta make the most of those. It's not, it's not about living the most you're moment. Like, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna parachute today or whatever. It's, it's more that go and, and spend time and tell the people you love that you love them and, and be as loving as possible. And, and I've really been.

• 15:59Sean Hayes?

  I think so too. You know, I, I just saw this thing, Willie, everybody, that the pastor was saying at a commemorate, what is it called? A speech at, at a college commencement speech? And, and he said, when you're, he goes, I've seen thousands of people die. I've been on the, you know, our hundreds or thousands, whatever he said, standing next to them on their deathbed. And he goes, not one person said in their last breath, bring me all my awards. I wanna see my awards one more time. Bring me, bring me, bring me my certificate from college. I just wanna hold it one more time. And he said, what people ask for are the people that they love, like Will was just saying. And that's the only thing. They don't say, bring me all this, all the stuff I made.

• 16:39Will Arnett?

  That is so, I love that.

• 16:40Sean Hayes?

  Or all the, all the achievements I've, I've made. They say, bring me the people I love.

• 16:44Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 16:44Sean Hayes?

  And that's it.

• 16:45Jason Bateman?

  Well, Danny, so, oh, I imagine you get access to some of the greatest writers, stories, ideas, scripts. Is there, it must be hard to pick? And is there something that jumps out at you quickest when a project comes before you? You know, if, if it's, if it's a story about mortality or, or the human condition or, or just, just the human part of something? Is, is there something that, that you really like to make movies about? Sort of a through line that exists in everything?

• 17:24Speaker 06

  It's a good question because I say through, through the, my, the movies I've made, it's, I always have the weird impression sometimes that the movies are choosing me more than us. It's like the projects comes and there's something, a connection that is sometimes difficult to explain, that is very intimate with the project, but. Um, but recently I I've been more drawn towards uh uh books that um. I all books that have been with me since a long time, like the Dune books, the books that I read when I was a teenager. And that those books have deep roots i- in my um. My mind and in my soul and my the the those books have been with me through. Through the years and I know that because I have a relationship of decades with the these books.

• 18:08Speaker 06

  I know that it it it means something so deep that I I it it makes sense to spend years trying to adapt them. I I will have the same uh have the same relationship with the book that I I I um. I'm starting to work on uh in an adaptation of Arthur C Clarke Rendezvous with Rama. Which is a a space uh uh movie that takes but it's the place in space is a book that I've read when I was very young again. It's a books that stayed with me through the years and um. When they have roots like that it's a but to answer to your questions, yeah, existentialism movie about the question about our our our. Why are we here?

• 18:46Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, right.

• 18:48Sean Hayes?

  I love that.

• 18:48Jason Bateman?

  And then is it is it but is it is it somewhat daunting to, you know, especially with books that you that you love? You've had it in as a part of you for so long. Is it is it brutal to try to adapt those because, you know, most books are too long to fit inside of a hundred and twenty page script? And so you've got to get rid of a lot of stuff. Now with Dune, fortunately, you were able to break it up into two parts and uh the second one was the second half of the book.

• 19:15Sean Hayes?

  Massive fan, massive fan.

• 19:16Jason Bateman?

  As opposed to a sequel, so it's just you broke the book up into into two films, which is incredible. The third one potentially. Three, right? Well, the third coming up, right, is a is a is a brand new story.

• 19:29Speaker 06

  It's the it's the second book that will be the adaptation of Dune Messiah, which is the second book. Now, the the first movies were about that that first book, Dune. It is uh uh the first artist I've I've approached when when I decided to make this addition was Hans Zimmer. Because I was just out of a of a movie with him and I absolutely adore working with him on on Blade Runner.

• 19:49Jason Bateman?

  He's amazing, yeah.

• 19:50Speaker 06

  Two thousand forty nine and and and.

• 19:52Sean Hayes?

  For Tracy, that's the composer, Hans Zimmer.

• 19:54Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and he um.

• 19:57Jason Bateman?

  Why did why did you choose the composer first?

• 20:00Speaker 06

  Because I knew that I will need the score in Dune will be essential, will be absolutely crucial to the success of the movie, to bring that kind of sacred quality that I wanted. And also because it's like, it's a matter of context. I was working with Anz. You were asking me, what will you do next? And we were talking about Dune and I saw his face change because it's his favorite book too. And we start to talk about it and the brainstorm about it. And Anz said to me that he had not seen the David Lynch movie because he wanted to stay pure, a virgin. He didn't want to see. He said, one day I know I'm gonna make the score for a new Dune adaptation. I want to know nothing about what has been done.

• 20:45Speaker 06

  I want to stay. Why I'm talking about this is because Anz, right at the beginning, said, but is it a good idea to tackle to the, to get close to a teenager dream? To try to bring to the screen something that is so dear into our art. And it is dangerous. It's, it's, you're, you're meant to fail. You're gonna fail. It's like you have to accept that you're gonna fail, that you're gonna, you will be able to bring a little bit, a bit of it, a part of that dream on screen. And the rest will be far away from it. And that space between what you achieve, what you were able to bring and the thing that are different

• 21:27Speaker 06

  means that I have space to grow and to get better to make another movie. If I had absolutely succeeded, then I'd be in deep trouble.

• 21:38Will Arnett?

  Well, I mean, by that measure, Denis, by that measure, it would seem that if, if you were to look at it, trying to hit that target of, of that dream, of a teenage dream, if you will, if you were to do that to the letter, to the number, to be right, exactly, that would be in effect the failure. Because the success would be everything beyond that, the unknown that you would bring that's new, right? Like that idea. I, I wonder if, you know, I think about the films that you've made and they have such scope to them. They are, they are these, there's a sort of an epic nature to, to all of them. I'm such a, like Sean and Jason, I'm such a massive fan of your films. And I wonder.

• 22:23Will Arnett?

  They're so ambitious visually, storytelling wise, all of it musically, all those elements. They are very ambitious, they are very big. And was there a moment when you were young, when you saw a certain film or a certain type of film, and you said, that's... Because for me, and Jason, you may be able to answer this too, as a director, are there moments where you go, this is where I want to go? Like, this is the kind of thing that inspires me?

• 22:52Speaker 06

  There's a... I remember that one of the first movies that had a big impact on me was, and I saw it on TV, frankly, was 2001: A Space O.D.C. When I saw that film, I was like, oof, that really was like almost a trauma at first.

• 23:05Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 23:06Speaker 06

  To see those apes, being afraid of that sculpture in the middle of the desert. It was so frightening and strange and poetic and powerful images. I would say that discovering the work when I was young, discovering the work of Steven Spielberg was a true close encounter of the third kind. That's a movie that really blew my mind when I was a kid.

• 23:34Will Arnett?

  Totally.

• 23:35Speaker 06

  Also, when I saw Blade Runner the first time, that is another one.

• 23:39Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 23:40Speaker 06

  The original Blade Runner. That was something that I really... And I'm a Star Wars generation.

• 23:47Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 23:47Speaker 06

  The first movie that I asked my parents to see in the theater the first time, I said, I want to see that. Usually, they were bringing me to the theater, but the first time, I said, I would love to see that, looking at my dad's newspaper. It was Star Wars. And that was something that changed the... I remember the oomph, the energy coming out of this movie. It was incredible at the time. I was 10 years old, like probably you. I was like the target audience. I was like, it was, the impact of that film was insane.

• 24:20Will Arnett?

  Yeah. And we will be right back.

• 24:27Speaker 07

  In studio, here's Hugh Joints.

• 24:31Speaker 07

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• 26:20Sean Hayes?

  And now, back to the show.

• 26:24Jason Bateman?

  Well, you know, something that I love about, I think 2001 might be my favorite film. And the thing that I think really draws me to it time and time again is not only the music, but the, and his composition, etc. But something that I just realized while you were talking, that it does so well, that your films do incredibly well, is, as Will said, your scope. Your scope, your ability to cinematically capture scope and scale in the obvious large scale, but in also in the internal scale as well.

• 27:04Jason Bateman?

  The massive scope of a human's internal experience in a certain story. Like, there are things that are incredibly small and intimate that goes on in 2001, as well as the obvious external large scope of space and these machines and etc. Talk a little bit about your ability to capture that and the departments that you're drawn to in filmmaking that allow for you to travel as wide on the internal journey of a character, as well as the external of these massive undertakings that you do from a production standpoint.

• 27:46Speaker 06

  The thing, I think that scope and visual effects and things, it's not that difficult. I think that the thing that is a challenge that I'm focusing a lot on set is to try to make sure that the emotional journeys of the actors, of the characters, are authentic. People are talking to me about intimacy, but I think it's more, it's, everybody, all the directors are trying to be, to bring the intimacy, the inner world of the actors, of the characters, sorry, their inner journey on screen. But it's about the inner logic, the authenticity of that journey, to make sure that it feels like...

• 28:28Speaker 06

  Genuine human reactions. And I think that's where the strong emotional impact comes from. When you feel that there's something that feels real, that feels like you can relate to. And it's a, it sounds obvious, but specifically in sci fi, I feel that very often, characters are not, they don't behave like real humans. It's a, it's a personal, it's a personal rea- uh, sensation sometimes that I have.

• 28:55Will Arnett?

  They can be two dimensional.

• 28:56Speaker 06

  And it's, it's coming, yeah, maybe, or it's, it's just like I, I, coming from the documentary, I did documentaries when I was young. I, I, um, it's something that I think that I'm really focusing as I'm writing, when I write or when I, I, I read the screenplay or when I'm, I'm, I participate the, the writing process of a screenplay, I, I try to focus on and with the actors as well. To make sure that that journey is, feels like grounded.

• 29:27Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 29:27Speaker 06

  Has roots in, in, in something real. So when Amy Adams see the alien, we believe it because it feels genuine. It feels like a, a, a real human reaction. Does it make sense?

• 29:40Will Arnett?

  Well, you need that counterbalance. Jason, Jason, you, you kind of brought it up about that inner, and then you were just touching on, I, I was thinking about specifically, uh, uh, Stellan Skargard character in the two Dune films. Yeah. As this, um, I forget his character's name.

• 29:57Speaker 06

  You know, the Baron Arkanen, yeah.

• 29:58Will Arnett?

  Yeah, and he's this, he's this, I mean, he's this incredible villain of all villains in a way. He's this sort of despicable person who does the most, sometimes the capable of the most awful things. And yet you see in that moment when he's, you see him eyeing the throne and, um, the throne is available. That moment, you see, he's not just a bad guy like Jabba the Hutt, not to make that comparison or talk down, but you see the envy, you see the desire for that, the thirst, the hunger for it, to reach with his eyes or reaching for it, could it be mine? In this way, that's almost Shakespearean. Yeah?

• 30:37Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 30:38Will Arnett?

  And, but very real and human too. I, I found that shot of him, when you cut to him, I found that very alarming.

• 30:45Speaker 06

  Yeah. Well, you're making my day. And I thank you so much because you're the first one who's talking about that moment. It's exactly this idea of addiction to power. The man is about to die, but still, the idea that he could get closer to power is like a human addiction. I'm really, thank you very much for pointing that.

• 31:07Jason Bateman?

  But there are, you know, there are components to building a moment like that that you're just uniquely incredible at in your ability to balance all departments to create that moment. And so for our listeners out there that aren't as familiar with what happens on set and the sequencing of things, talk a little bit about how you approach a moment like that where you know that it needs to have the authenticity of sort of the human condition to counterbalance this crazy, odd sort of space world, netherworld, that's not really that tangible, but the human emotion is, and so that needs to be real while this other stuff is not that real.

• 31:52Jason Bateman?

  And are you thinking, I'm fully reliant on the actor to really ground this with no acting and just being raw? Or do you predetermine a certain visual language, a certain piece of music from Hans, a certain bit of sound design from your mixers? Like, you know, there's so many different elements that you can do to build a moment just perfectly like that.

• 32:18Speaker 06

  It's a very good question, thank you. It's a, it's a, it's a, all shots are different from that specific moment where the Baron is like lying on the stairs. It's a character, for those who haven't seen the movie, it's a character that is just about to die and sees suddenly the throne. The king has left the throne and the throne is up the stairs and he's looking at the throne and is crawling towards it.

• 32:44Speaker 06

  And with a moment like that, it's a, it's a, I will say it's a very simple image. So it's, it's about Stellan. It's, I, I, I explained to Stellan the idea and, and Stellan Skarsgård, who plays a baron, will, will perform and, and bring that to the, to life. Sometimes I, I will say that the camera angles and the, the camera movement can help to en- enhance or, um.

• 33:13Sean Hayes?

  Elevate?

• 33:14Speaker 06

  Elevate, thank you very much.

• 33:15Sean Hayes?

  Sure, that's why I'm here.

• 33:16Speaker 06

  Anyways, to bring force into an idea, the camera is, is always very powerful. But, but it's all, the, the, the birth of the idea is acting, of course, yeah.

• 33:28Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, that's cool.

• 33:29Jason Bateman?

  But, but let's say perhaps, especially in this.

• 33:32Speaker 06

  And to answer to, the, about music, it's something for me that it's a power. It's very, music is super powerful and, but I try to not think about it as I'm shooting because it needs to be on screen first.

• 33:47Sean Hayes?

  Sure.

• 33:47Speaker 06

  I, I, it's something that.

• 33:49Sean Hayes?

  Well, I had a question about that.

• 33:50Jason Bateman?

  Well, let, let me just finish this, one point, there's one, sorry. But so while the music can come and does come much later in the process, the assets you may need on the set to create the visual of it, i.e. a techno crane or whatever it is, that you want to shoot that scene in a certain way. You need to have a lot of that stuff predetermined so that you've, you've got your crane there that day and, and your, your, your rigors have, have set up the lighting in such a way, et cetera, et cetera. So how do you manage the balance between having an actor have the freedom that you want to give them, but also fit inside sometimes a very technical and pre-thought

• 34:33Jason Bateman?

  and heavily prepped visual sequence that you need them to fit inside of? Hit this mark, react this way, turn this direction, you know, to fit something that may have other departments all predetermined.

• 34:46Speaker 06

  But it depends. A good example will be the sandworm riding where Timothee Chalamet, playing Paula Tradies, will, uh. Uh attract a sandworm. And then when the sandworm arrives nearby him, he will jump on the worm and ride the worm. So it's a sequence that is like heavily storyboarded.

• 35:03Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 35:04Speaker 06

  And needs a month of prep. And at this moment, the, let's say that the choreography that I impose. Uh, I'm more of a dictator. I impose a rhythm, a precise choreography that Mate asked to follow. But inside that choreography, there's tiny moments where Timothy, when I'm in close up on him. How he can anticipate the arrival of this beast toward him. The way you can act with his eyes or there's tiny thing in the micro precisions of acting that he can bring. I mean, that I'm open to two ideas, but the general, sometimes it's more loose.

• 35:47Speaker 06

  Some sequences, I have, there's more space for the actor. And those are also, I love when I have time to give space to the actors to.

• 35:59Jason Bateman?

  Let them freestyle a bit.

• 36:01Speaker 06

  Read to bring some ideas. And I'm talking about the, the, the settings of a scene. It's, it's, it's can be that, it's, it's very inspiring when, when, when people bring good ideas, but.

• 36:13Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, but complicated sometime when you, when you have stuff that's predetermined. And then you've got an actor that's got different ideas and it's like, well, no, no, no, we can't. This isn't one of those scenes where you can freestyle.

• 36:23Speaker 06

  Yeah, exactly. No, exactly. But in the same time, it requires tremendous acting skills to be able to, to perform and, and to bring life to, to. Like Timothy facing the worm or Amy Adams facing the aliens or to be in a relationship with something that doesn't exist. It's like, it requires nice imagination and, and, and it's not easy to, to, for actors to perform in those movies with big toys and all these things. And to, to answer to your first part of your question about techno cranes or dollies, et cetera. Those are, are, it's, it's all planned in, in advance as when I built the scene. It's all drawn, prepared, so we can, we know exactly what kind of technology we'll use on the day, of course.

• 37:07Sean Hayes?

  Was there a lot of green screen versus volume stage on Dune 1 and 2? What was the... Did you use any of the volume stages? Was it all green? Was there a split?

• 37:19Speaker 06

  No, we were all out. We were almost as possible outside in the real environment or with real sets. We built as much as we could and we were in the real environments in the desert and those landscapes are... For the people who have been in the landscape that are bigger than life, that bring humility inside you, that the impact on those landscapes is tremendous on the actors and myself and the cinematographer.

• 37:53Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I watched the whole behind the scenes, all of it, all of the Dune.

• 37:57Speaker 06

  We know.

• 37:57Sean Hayes?

  Both Dune. I couldn't consume enough of it. It was just... I was just blown away with how it's made. And one dumb question I have is when people are walking in the sand and it's the first footprints in the sand, that's one take. Like, how do you do that?

• 38:18Speaker 06

  It's a...

• 38:19Sean Hayes?

  You know what I mean?

• 38:19Speaker 06

  You're gonna love showbusiness. You're gonna love showbusiness so much. The right crew. It required a certain amount... We can erase footsteps in the background, things like that with CGI, but you cannot have an actor walking in his own footsteps again because that's a nightmare for VFX.

• 38:37Sean Hayes?

  So you have a crew with rakes?

• 38:39Speaker 06

  So it means that we have to plan to find areas where we will each take move the camera or put the camera on a dolly and move.

• 38:49Sean Hayes?

  Find another spot.

• 38:50Speaker 06

  And to make sure that we have the perfect place to do five or six or seven or eight takes, that we will also have... The crew will have the discipline not to make any footsteps. We choose... It feels... It sounds simple, but it's not. It's like when you have a crew of 800 people in the sand to make sure that everybody follow the same path.

• 39:11Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, amazing.

• 39:12Speaker 06

  And it gives the opportunity to see crazy things. Like, every night when I was going back... From the set, when at sunset, the, the, the, there were a hundred people grooming the, the sand dunes. To read the footsteps that we had made. So the wind will do his work during the night. And it's very poetic. It's that I felt, oh my god, I'm, I, I might make yellow mania.

• 39:33Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, you're a monster.

• 39:34Speaker 06

  Because people grooming the desert.

• 39:36Jason Bateman?

  Sweeping the sand.

• 39:37Will Arnett?

  Believe me, I've had the same thought. I went, uh, uh, Jason made some footsteps in the sand and he yelled at his caddy. He said, you missed a footprint.

• 39:46Will Arnett?

  When he was playing golf. He's a, he's a real monster. But, but, you know, I, I was, I was, when I was thinking about, uh, you were talking about the actors and, and, and asking them to have imagination and working with them on all these thoughts and these inner life and stuff. And I was thinking about the collaboration that you've had with, with a bunch of different actors across, uh, a bunch of your films. You've, you've used, uh, and worked, not used, you've worked with lots of people in different roles. Um, uh, I was trying to think, uh, um, who, well, certainly our friend Josh Brolin. You've worked with, uh, a lot, uh, you know, I think, starting in Sicario, which, which is, which I want to get to.

• 40:26Jason Bateman?

  Another great one, yeah.

• 40:27Will Arnett?

  Which is an incredible, I urge anybody, if you've never seen Sicario, to please see that.

• 40:33Jason Bateman?

  Oh my goodness.

• 40:33Will Arnett?

  It's, it's so phenomenal.

• 40:35Jason Bateman?

  Thanks.

• 40:36Will Arnett?

  Jake, uh, Gyllenhaal, you've worked with a couple of times, I, I think, right, uh, with prisoners.

• 40:42Jason Bateman?

  Emily Blunt.

• 40:42Will Arnett?

  Emily, and then our, our good friend Emily.

• 40:45Jason Bateman?

  You've had a lot of repeat collaborators.

• 40:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 40:48Speaker 06

  But the, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's all about the nature of the project and the, and the parts, sorry, my answer is a bit boring, but it's a, yeah, I, I wish I could work with, uh, all of them again.

• 40:59Jason Bateman?

  I'll do it.

• 41:00Speaker 06

  And, and, but it's, it's just,

• 41:03Speaker 06

  but it's, it's a, it's a thing that honestly I, I adore working in, in the United States is to have access to, uh, all these incredible actors. I mean, it's like, and it's casting is very strange. I mean, it's a, uh, you, you, um, bring someone on, on, on, and, uh, it's intuitions about the, the, the proximity of, of, of an actor and, and a role and, and you. To gamble in some ways, but.

• 41:34Sean Hayes?

  You can I go back?

• 41:35Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 41:35Sean Hayes?

  Just one really quick question about the music, because I thought that was interesting. You said you you were talking to Hans before you started. And do you listen to cues or music before you even start thinking about how you're going to film it? To get ideas? Or writing, you mean? Do you envision stuff from listening to music? Or or do you wait to incorporate it later?

• 41:59Speaker 06

  I'm going to be very honest. Every time I write or direct listening to music. And that's why I say music, I'm very sensitive to music. I absolutely love music, but it has like, you know, I remember once one of my first film. I was directing a specific scene and as I was like alone in my bubble with my headphones, listening to this fantastic piece of music. And I was saying to myself, it's gonna be amazing. Wow, it's gonna, it's gonna sound. It's the power of music, you know? Then you look at the scene without the music like.

• 42:36Speaker 06

  And the same with writing. Sometime I write something and I'm get emotional. I'm like, oh, my God, maybe I'm great. And then you read it the next morning. It's like, no.

• 42:48Speaker 06

  It sounds stupid, but but I saw it sounds, but it's the truth. I cannot work with music. I work with silence. Then I can try to. And it in silence is my friend. I love my sets are very boring. I'm not a funny director. I'm someone who loves to be in that. When I get in the car in the morning, it's total silence. I need silence. I arrive on set, I need silence. And I try to protect that bubble all day long. That's where I can find my way. When there's music, I'm gone. It's too powerful.

• 43:22Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 43:23Speaker 06

  And this is why, when I to answer to your questions, it's like even I have music from the from the past movies right now. I cannot listen to this music. It's too powerful.

• 43:34Sean Hayes?

  Oh, yeah, you introduced me to Max Richter. Because I never I never heard of him. And then I was like, what is that? Incredible.

• 43:40Jason Bateman?

  But staying with music, though, where for you does the score and the sound design begins? Talk to us about that process for you, and when does it happen?

• 43:54Speaker 06

  First of all, yeah, it has to, I try to think about the sound and the structure, the sound design as much as possible in the screenplay. And I know as I'm writing that I will need music there, there, I will create a sequence, a musical sequence more. It's something that is embedded in the DNA of the screenplay. But then, when we edit the film, there's like, I'm working with an editor, Joe Walker, who is a master, that Joe is coming from, was studied as a composer, he was a composer first, then he did sound at the BBC as a sound editor. So where I'm going is that sound, what I love, and one of the reasons I started to work

• 44:37Speaker 06

  with Joey, we made many movies together, is that for him, sound is as important as the image. And it's something that when I was making indie movies, I felt that the sound was coming at the end of the process, and with very little time, and I was always kind of disappointed not having the proper time to make a real embedded sound design. And so now, I try to bring the sound as early as possible. So it's like, as I'm shooting, we have a sound designer that start to create, specifically with SyFy, to create the sounds that will be fed to the editing room very early on. So I'm, these sounds, I had time to live with them, and make sure that they will enter

• 45:22Speaker 06

  the test of time, and get used to them, and make sure that they are right through time. It's not just flashes, that last minute flashes. And it gives, of course, more time to explore, experiment, and so the sound is something that is, again, as important as the image and the...

• 45:44Speaker 06

  With Johan Johansson and Anzemer, both composers were flirting close to the the sound design sometimes, meaning that the music sometimes there's like a dance that I install between the designers and the composer that they will flirt and cross sometimes the border of one of each other and for that it needs communication.

• 46:08Jason Bateman?

  But that sound design is embedded prior to you spotting with the composer and figuring out where you're going to put some of the music. So it's the sound design first then, yeah?

• 46:19Speaker 06

  Yeah, but I would say that it depends on the sequence. Sometimes I said to the team, here is Anz. We will let, we leave, Anzemer is not known to be subtle, you know, when he can invade the soundtrack, it means there's no... So there are some moments where we say, okay, that's the area. I said, here is going to be, we go full Anz or here we go. It's trying to find the right balance between what the sequence, the scene needs. It's about the needs, it's the movie that guides me.

• 46:51Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 46:53Sean Hayes?

  We'll be right back.

• 46:57Speaker 03

  From the original Free Second Opinion studio, here's Hugh Joints.

• 47:02Speaker 06

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• 48:23Jason Bateman?

  And now, back to the show.

• 48:26Will Arnett?

  Can we just touch on Sicario for another moment if we could? Because I'm and just talk about how that came.

• 48:35Will Arnett?

  How that came to be, how that came into you, into your purview and what sort of led you? I don't know, there's something about that film that I find just adore. So visceral.

• 48:46Speaker 06

  It's a, I have been very interested by the border between United States and Mexico. I thought it was like very meaningful place in the world about our reality about it. It was very and I was looking for, I was reading about it. I was looking for a project and that will be for story, something that will allow me to explore that zone and came into my hands at one point I read a lot, but one project came called Sicario, written by Taylor Sheridan.

• 49:23Will Arnett?

  Yeah, the great Taylor Sheridan.

• 49:24Speaker 06

  The Sheridan is well known now for all the work he's done, but at the same it was one of his first screenplay and it still today, it is by far, by far, one of the best screenplay I ever read.

• 49:36Will Arnett?

  Wow.

• 49:36Speaker 06

  It's the amount of research that Taylor had done to bring that world to life. I still, the best compliment I have about Sicario is when I, I meet border officers or people that police, policemen of the officers that are people work at the border who saw Sicario and said, that's the real deal. And honestly, it is because of the work that Taylor had done. He had done his homeworks and when you were reading the screenplay, you knew you were in front of something that felt authentic. Very, very strong screenplay. I remember reading it and I was like, the screenplay was so intense. I finished the screenplay, I was drained of energy. I was like, oh my god.

• 50:19Speaker 06

  I love it. I'm so sad that I loved this so much. I would have to go in the dark and I was just out of three very dark movies in a row and I was said to go back there, but it was exactly what I was looking for. And it's by far the movie that was the fastest process. I read the screenplay, met the studio, we got along spontaneously and we did the casting. It went bang. I was behind the camera with Roger Deakins. It was like one of the fastest project I ever made. And still to this day, it was a very nice shoot because there was like just a nice balance between the budget and the subject and it was a nice shoot.

• 51:04Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I just want to say, JB, I want to get to your point, which is I just want to touch on the great Taylor Sheridan. Again, you can tell, I never read the script, but you could tell the material was so strong, it really comes through, you know, not just obviously the visual and the way the film is is incredible, but also that the material was really strong. I think it was pretty.

• 51:24Speaker 06

  Ah, he had crazy ideas. I mean, like that border shoot, that slow motion car chase at the border. Great ideas, great. Taylor is amazing to write cinema. Very cinematic ideas, great dialogues, great characters, but very strong sense of cinema. I'm still grateful that I had the chance to bring that on screen.

• 51:48Jason Bateman?

  That shootout you mentioned there at the border is one of the most tense things I've ever seen, still probably ever will see. And, you know, there's, you know, there's obviously great planning that goes into something like that because it's just so intricate. But I guess that's my question, how much planning did go into something like that? And just more generally, when you're working and your visual taste, your aesthetic, your sense of composition and whatnot is just unmatched. And you're working with your equals in cinematography, with people like Roger Deakins and Greg Fraser.

• 52:29Jason Bateman?

  When you sit down and you start to shot design and shot list and pre-vis and all that stuff in prep and decide how you're gonna actually photograph something, what is the relationship with cinematographers like that, that are so accomplished and so, in a good way, opinionated? What's the back and forth that goes there? Do you let them know kind of what you're seeing and look for them to kind of plus that? Or is it the other way around? Do you let them start to design things and then you let them know whether that fits inside your plan?

• 53:05Speaker 06

  A sequence like that, battle sequence for instance, has to be planned months in advance because it's a puzzle. Different parts have been shot in different places. And you have to create a piece of highway with all these cars. It has to be very, very well planned according to sun positions. And so it's storyboarded. And of course, working with someone like Roger Deakins will have a strong input. That's what I love. It's like a collaboration. I mean, it's like we will find together the right angle according to the board that I did. But I'm always open if someone has a better idea

• 53:49Speaker 06

  on set that will make the shot even stronger. The thing I love working with Roger is that we both are, when we are looking for a shot, looking for the angle. Not multiple angle, but one. And we work, we used to work with one camera and just making sure that, that's something, that search for the best angle possible is something that would...

• 54:11Jason Bateman?

  You're only working with one camera?

• 54:13Speaker 06

  Something I really, really loved. On Sicario, yes.

• 54:16Jason Bateman?

  Only one?

• 54:18Speaker 06

  No, no, it's I I will say it's because I'm monomaniac and it's something that Roger has. We try want to to put a second camera on one and and it was a disaster. I mean, you feel it. You you know, it's not right. It's like it's a there's one place to put the camera and the rest is. We we are both on a movie like Doom, sometimes there was additional cameras. It's because of the nature of the beast. I didn't have the choice and and Greg Fraser had that that flexibility to to. But I will say it's.

• 54:54Sean Hayes?

  I have four cameras on me right now.

• 54:56Will Arnett?

  And we wish it was zero and we wish it was zero. We wish. Is there a possibility to do zero?

• 55:01Sean Hayes?

  No, because I want I want to make sure we get it.

• 55:03Will Arnett?

  Denis, I want to say I I I was thinking about your films and your your filmography, your all the things that you've done. And and they've not only have they been epic, as we discussed before, and had tremendous scope and but in. But also, they've been you've tackled a lot of I I don't want to say that they're dark, but there is darkness there. You you challenge people in that in this sort of the darker realms. Certainly, some of your your earlier films and your Canadian films that these guys might not know about.

• 55:34Sean Hayes?

  Polytechnique and Cindy.

• 55:36Will Arnett?

  I'm thinking about Polytechnique, which is about the Montreal massacre, which is which was a terrible incident in Montreal in 1989. I was there. I was in Montreal that at that time.

• 55:46Sean Hayes?

  You were?

• 55:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah, yeah. And I was living there and and I those films were, or as I mentioned before, Prisoners and Enemy. And and then you get into even Sicario. These are these are these are heavier subjects that you're tackling. My question is, where when's the rom com?

• 56:05Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 56:08Speaker 06

  Actually, my my first feature film was some kind of a rom com.

• 56:14Will Arnett?

  Was it?

• 56:15Speaker 06

  Or not? Yeah, it's not a good one, but it was it was.

• 56:19Sean Hayes?

  She did lose her life at the end, but.

• 56:22Speaker 06

  Actually, he dies.

• 56:27Speaker 06

  But but. The the it it is one of the reason when I did Scaryou, I uh I knew arrival was coming after. And and I did Scaryou knowing that I will make a movie with more light. Uh uh and because I I was like, it's true that I had made a series of film that were pretty violent and dark. And that is a it it it there's a toll to this, there's like a weight. Uh and I needed to go uh toward and I think that science fiction also helped me to go toward something like looking in in in the future or something that's more uh uh there's more light there, I feel right now, so it's a uh.

• 57:06Jason Bateman?

  Please don't stop making the dark stuff too, because there there is an up. No, but seriously, there's there's there's an uplift and an excitement of watching a filmmaker do things at at at your level, no matter what the what the genre, what the mood is.

• 57:19Will Arnett?

  JB, you're JB, would you agree that like if somebody says there's a Denis new Denis Villeneuve film coming out, you're like.

• 57:25Jason Bateman?

  Doesn't matter what it's about.

• 57:26Will Arnett?

  Yeah, doesn't matter. Where do I line up?

• 57:28Speaker 06

  Thank you, gentlemen, you're very generous with me this time.

• 57:30Jason Bateman?

  No, it's true, yeah, yeah.

• 57:31Sean Hayes?

  Oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna shit talk you when this is over.

• 57:34Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah.

• 57:36Jason Bateman?

  Well, speaking of the of the earlier stuff.

• 57:38Will Arnett?

  Let's ask Brolin, let's ask Brolin for the real deal.

• 57:40Jason Bateman?

  Are there any films, are there any films from the beginning of your career that you would enjoy perhaps reshooting nowadays? That knowing what you know now and and do, not that you have any regrets, but anything that which which I should phrase it differently. Which film from your past do you think would be most fun to redo now that you know things now that you didn't know then?

• 58:00Speaker 06

  Wow, that's a nice question. Uh do you know that the the past movies are like uh you you you're the father of those movies? I I uh it's like I see movies sometimes as as a as a selfie of yourself. Say when you know when you look at pictures, a picture of yourself when you were a teenager, the shame.

• 58:19Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. It's the hairdo in the clothes.

• 58:22Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, and I have that relationship with my past work. Sometimes I look at it, I'm like, hmm, ooh.

• 58:28Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

• 58:29Speaker 06

  That's the truth. They say I will, I would like to go back to my teenage years. Nope.

• 58:36Jason Bateman?

  Hey, how do you, how do you, Denis, how do you take care of yourself with these massive months-long shoots? Yeah, health-wise, or?

• 58:43Speaker 06

  Honestly, that, what, what, what, very simply, I need good hours, sleeping hours. And one, one thing that I did on, on the past two movies, which was like, um, advice in fact, from Ridley Scott, because I said, I asked Ridley, how do you do it? How do you, how can you make? Say, when I make a movie, Ridley makes three movies. And he has a very high pacing, and it's just the, how to make sure that your hours, shooting hours are regular, that there's no, and, uh, so I, I, I, we do what we call French hours, meaning we shoot 10 hours a day, but without break. No lunch, no breaks. So it, it means that the hours are always the same.

• 59:25Speaker 06

  You always start the day at the same time and end the day, no overtime. So it's like, it creates a balance in your schedule. So you're not, uh, all content, content.

• 59:34Jason Bateman?

  You do that on, on every job?

• 59:37Speaker 06

  On the, on the past jobs, yes, yes, yes. I didn't do that on Blade Runner, and I almost died.

• 59:42Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, what, how are you on night shoots? Night shoots will kill people. I mean, literally, unfortunately, at times.

• 59:48Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's, it's about to create a balance in the schedule, yeah. Trying to find a balance, or you will protect the crew from being exhausted. Because for the people who don't know about shooting, it's just that, the nature of the, the, the structure of the schedule, because of the turnaround of the actors, sometimes you have, you end up starting your day in the middle of the afternoon and finishing late at night. So it's like being in constant jet lag. And it's not good for, for creativity.

• 1:00:11Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I totally agree.

• 1:00:12Will Arnett?

  It's terrible for creativity. It's terrible.

• 1:00:14Jason Bateman?

  Knocking on, knocking on an actor's trailer at 3:00 in the morning. We're ready for you.

• 1:00:18Will Arnett?

  You know, when they say, they, they say, they go, hey, guys, it's lunch, and it's 12:00 midnight, and you're like, what do you mean lunch? This is not lunch, I'm sorry.

• 1:00:27Speaker 06

  Are you land on set at 6:00 PM and say, hey, good morning, and it's cut the, cut the crap?

• 1:00:34Jason Bateman?

  Denis, aside from the, from the-

• 1:00:36Will Arnett?

  Are you a Montreal Canadiens fan? Is that what you were gonna ask him?

• 1:00:39Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, exactly. Well, well, it was part of it. It's like, aside from the good sleep, what, what, what's, what's the other thing that you do to really sort of decompress and get away from the incredibly, um, you know, immersive work directing is? Do you, do you, do you watch something silly on TV? Are you a sports fan?

• 1:00:57Will Arnett?

  Do you watch hockey?

• 1:00:57Speaker 06

  No, but as I'm shooting, honestly, when I shoot- I make a film, it's a 24 hours, 7 days a week commitment. There's no way to relax. For me, it's a, I'm 100% present to the project. So there's no, specifically on a movie of them. Sci-fi movies, it's every second, not even sci-fi, any movies. There's no, the way I will recover from a movie is to go back home in Canada, in the forest, go with my, my family, spend time with the kids, with the family. And that, that's where I recharge my batteries. But during a shoot, during a shoot, there's no moment where I can, I know that.

• 1:01:42Speaker 06

  And it's that, yeah.

• 1:01:44Sean Hayes?

  And because of, because of that dedication, you will now have made, it will go down in history, Dune as a franchise, just like you loved Star Wars as a franchise as a kid. You created-

• 1:01:55Will Arnett?

  You've inspired-

• 1:01:56Sean Hayes?

  -a franchise that will last forever in the, in the minds of these kids.

• 1:02:00Speaker 06

  I would say, I was, I didn't do it thinking about the word-

• 1:02:03Sean Hayes?

  No, of course not.

• 1:02:03Speaker 06

  -franchise. For me, it was, I was making two movies-

• 1:02:06Sean Hayes?

  Of course.

• 1:02:06Speaker 06

  And, and it was not, it, it, there was no, because franchise, for me, it's always like something that is linked with commerce, or like-

• 1:02:14Sean Hayes?

  Total.

• 1:02:15Speaker 06

  -there's a plan for-

• 1:02:16Sean Hayes?

  Okay, it's three great movies.

• 1:02:18Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:02:19Sean Hayes?

  Three great movies that are connected.

• 1:02:21Speaker 06

  No, but it's not, it's not bad, it's just that I was not saying to myself, okay, I'm starting a franchise.

• 1:02:26Will Arnett?

  Right, there wasn't, there wasn't your goal.

• 1:02:28Speaker 06

  I'm adapting this book in two movies and-

• 1:02:30Sean Hayes?

  Right.

• 1:02:31Speaker 06

  -see what happens.

• 1:02:31Sean Hayes?

  But, but for the fans, we're so happy you're making three of them.

• 1:02:34Will Arnett?

  But, but Sean, not only that, but, but also, does it ever occur to you, not unlike you, looking at your father's newspaper and saying, "Please take me to this movie." It, it must be kind of cool knowing that there, there's somewhere, there is a kid who said to his parents, "Please take me to Dune, please take me to Dune 2." Who 10 years from now says, "I want to study film." Who makes a film with people they know and makes a big, huge film. And they do it because they saw Dune when they were 7, 8, 9, 10. To, to be inspiring in that way, I think it's, it must be very cool.

• 1:03:09Speaker 06

  I don't know if it, it had happened or something, but it would be moving to think that- People could be inspired. Uh, uh, uh, I, uh, one thing for sure is that I made those movies. Uh, we were talking about darkness and violence earlier. Then the movies were made in a, uh, for PG thirteen instead of rated R. It was the first time after, uh, apart from Arrival, all my other movies are, are for adults. This one, I, I insisted, I agreed with the studio also to, to make it, uh, PG thirteen because I wanted the movie to be, uh, uh, accessible, uh, to a younger audience that, uh, that would have the same age as when I read the book. That, so it's a, it's a, I thought it was, um, inspiring for me.

• 1:03:54Sean Hayes?

  And adults like me who have the brains of a thirteen year old.

• 1:03:58Will Arnett?

  Yeah, at best.

• 1:03:59Speaker 06

  Yeah, but for me, I, I like the idea that it, it, those movies are taking themselves seriously, meaning that they are sci-fi that are not, um, that, uh, doesn't apologize to be sci-fi or I love, I remember when I saw The Empire Strikes Back when I was thirteen years old, how the impact on the, of that movie on, on me, uh, twelve years old. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I thought the darkness of it, I felt that there was someone who was talking to me as I was, uh, was trusting me as a kid.

• 1:04:29Sean Hayes?

  And, and when Darth Vader said, I am your father, I was like, what would that feel like? Inside joke.

• 1:04:37Jason Bateman?

  Well, Denny, you are, uh, you seem as kind as you are talented. I, I just, I can't thank you enough for, uh, talking to us, the three, um, ding-dongs for an hour.

• 1:04:46Speaker 06

  It was a pleasure to, to chat with you this, this morning, and it's a pleasure. Thank you very much for the invitation and you, thank you for your generosity as well. That means the world to me.

• 1:04:54Jason Bateman?

  Well, thank you, sir. Congratulations on all your great work. Please keep it coming.

• 1:04:57Speaker 06

  Take care. See you later.

• 1:04:59Jason Bateman?

  All right.

• 1:04:59Speaker 06

  And good luck, Sean.

• 1:05:00Sean Hayes?

  Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you.

• 1:05:02Jason Bateman?

  Bye.

• 1:05:05Jason Bateman?

  Well, you got, you got blessed by the great Denis Villeneuve, Sean. I think your prospects look good.

• 1:05:10Will Arnett?

  He just said, keep, basically like, hope you live.

• 1:05:13Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:14Will Arnett?

  From the great Denis Villeneuve.

• 1:05:16Sean Hayes?

  He's, yeah, I mean.

• 1:05:17Will Arnett?

  Hey, hey, if you're, if you're, if you're out there and you're not familiar, and again, we, I know that we do like, we compliment our guests a lot because we have people on that we like and we respect and, and we get shit for it sometimes. You guys just, all you do is compliment. Well, we like to compliment people who are really good at what they do. And if you're not familiar who Denis Villeneuve is, and you're not familiar with his films for some reason, I really, this is true, I urge you to go and watch some of his films, all of his films, his Canadian films that he made and his current, he's just an incredible, I mean JB as a director, right?

• 1:05:53Sean Hayes?

  Just stunning, yeah. It's like he's, he's not, there, there aren't many in his league. I, I think it's probably about, it ain't deeper than 10 and it's probably closer to 5.

• 1:06:02Will Arnett?

  No, and again, he made Brolin look good. You know what I mean?

• 1:06:05Sean Hayes?

  Oh, it's very hard to do.

• 1:06:06Will Arnett?

  I mean, think about that, shows what a filmmaker he is.

• 1:06:09Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I think how many cameras that takes.

• 1:06:11Will Arnett?

  Off the, you know?

• 1:06:12Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. But he's really cool. He's, uh...

• 1:06:15Will Arnett?

  So cool.

• 1:06:15Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, and, and you can tell he's, he's in charge, which I love.

• 1:06:19Will Arnett?

  Canadians are cool, right?

• 1:06:21Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, the accent, I think he needs to work on a little bit. He's from Des Moines, um, but he's...

• 1:06:27Sean Hayes?

  No, he's not from Des Moines. No.

• 1:06:29Jason Bateman?

  No, dummy. God.

• 1:06:31Will Arnett?

  He's, uh, he's from, I think he's from Montreal, yeah?

• 1:06:35Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:36Jason Bateman?

  Quebec.

• 1:06:37Will Arnett?

  Well, he's, Montreal's in Quebec, but, uh...

• 1:06:39Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah. Um, he's not related to Jacques Villeneuve or, or, uh, Gilles Villeneuve, right?

• 1:06:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:47Sean Hayes?

  But, um...

• 1:06:47Jason Bateman?

  I don't know who those people are.

• 1:06:48Sean Hayes?

  Those are Formula One drivers.

• 1:06:50Jason Bateman?

  Oh, excellent. Wonderful.

• 1:06:52Sean Hayes?

  They were. Um, you know, you know what, um...

• 1:06:55Jason Bateman?

  Here he comes.

• 1:06:56Sean Hayes?

  You know, I love that he brought Close Encounters up, you know?

• 1:06:59Jason Bateman?

  Oh, yeah? Why's that?

• 1:07:01Sean Hayes?

  Well, cause when, I remember that one moment when, you all saw the movie, yeah?

• 1:07:05Will Arnett?

  This is gonna be so lazy. This is, this is, honestly, this is gonna be so freaking lazy.

• 1:07:10Sean Hayes?

  When the little kid is standing there waving, waving to the aliens as they're leaving, he actually says out loud...

• 1:07:17Jason Bateman?

  What does he say? Bye. Bye.

• 1:07:30Sean Hayes?

  Nice, on your. Nice, buddy.

• 1:07:45Will Arnett?

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