Interview: Bryan Bishop has faith in those 'Avatar' sequels on Tomorrow Daily

[MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] Welcome back to the show, everybody. Long time viewers of Tomorrow Daily might recognize this face. He is a New York Times best selling author. Book Shrinkage. He is also an Adam Carolla sidekick. And he is on the film podcast Film Vault. We're excited to have Brian Bishop with us. Brian, bald Brian, you may now him as. Bald brian. That is my full name, I appreciate that I'm very comforted to know having listened to you for a long time, that you are in fact balding. It's not just an act everyone. It's not just a gimmick to get over on the public. This is the real deal. It's the real deal. Not not phony. I live that life. You live that bald life? I live that bald life. Also just for our viewers who might have missed you from our LA studio when we were back at First of all, where were you? Yeah, no kidding right? I know sorry. Congrats, you're having a baby this year. Yeah, that's true. I am having a little baby girl I'm very excited about. Due around the same time as your little baby boy. Yeah, our lives are changing. I know, how about a play date soon? Let's do it. And maybe we'll invite the kids and the wives too. Yeah, yeah, be our play date [INAUDIBLE] Are you as terrified as I am? I'm not. It's a weird thing. I feel like we've been trying for a while and it's sort of like a long time coming, so we're excited. I mean yes I'm nervous for obvious reasons, but overall we're excited. How about you? Well, I'm definite;y excited. It's a positive feeling, but I'm definitely like I don't know if I'm prepared for the level of change that my life is going to go through. Yeah, when we turned our guest room into a baby room, started to turn the guest room into a nursery, is when I sort of shed my first tear. [LAUGH] No more sleepovers for friends and parents. No more sleeping bag parties, no more pillow fights. Guest. I congratulate both of you. And I am just gonna wait. So everybody else is just having babies. And I'm like, I'll just see how that goes for all of you. And then I'll think about it. We'll send you a report. I have three very adorable dogs. You are a very busy person for someone who's gonna have a child. You have lots of stuff going on. Nah, I have a medium amount of stuff. Going on. Okay. So let's talk about, first of all, film vault that you do with Anderson. Yep. You also do it with producer Logan. Producer Logan does. We allow him to hang out. You allow him to chill and- He's the brains behind the operation. Which is terrifying. Same here. Same here. Same. Same. You guys have been doing a really good job. We wanted to talk about summer movies with you. Okay. Because it is Summer movie theatre now. We are on a precipice. Blockbusters, they are a coming. They are coming fast and furious. I think the little known film Civil War, Captain America: Civil War will be kicking off film season this year. I'm not quite sure what that obscure title is. I wonder if we're gonna hear much about that. The marketing has been extremely, it's close to nothing, really. It's pretty close to the best. It's really close to the best. I think they just want people to be surprised about it, maybe get some word of mouth out there. You might have a hit on your hands. Let people know about it. Maybe, but it's a really big summer for movies. We though last year would be a big summer. And it's turning out now I think we're just gonna start seeing these insane [UNKNOWN] every single year just packed into a very tight five-month schedule. Right. I hate the people who are too cool for school, and hate on everything, and are hipsters about it, but, I feel like this may be -- we'll see -- this might be the summer of sequels and remakes and reboots that nobody asked for. I don't know where another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fits into my life. The first one was a little too much. Agreed. Well, you're not ten. I was ten when it first came out thus I must have nostalgia for it, I was ten when the Transformers came out and I'm dying for every Transformer movie, give me more GI Joe. Teenage Mutant NInja Turtles not so much. Not so much? My nephew's excited I'll tell you that he's ten. So I don't know. Okay fair enough. Okay maybe I'll see him there when I go. May be you will. You're like hey kid are you excited about this he's like yes and you're like. Eh may, eh. [LAUGH] It's like take all the joy out of his life. Okay. Don't say sit next to any [UNKNOWN]. Okay I won't bring him down. Are we allowed to talk about the fact that you saw Civil War? Is that a -? Yeah we can actually. We can talk about it. There's no [UNKNOWN] We don't want to spoil anything for you though. No don't spoil anything just tell me what you thought. Give me your impressions. Give me your -. I will act out my impressions In a dance that I've been working on. An interpretive dance. For me it was more like. [LAUGH] I mean it was such a, yeah, I went to the premier and it was really fun. Brag. No, it's not a humble brag, it's a brag. Notice how she just dropped that in? It's a brag, guys! I got to go to the premiere of Civil War. I sat right down the row from Nathan Fillion, and that is also a brag, and it was great! The theater was packed full of people who were just really excited to see the movie, which I'm sure will be the case with you guys when you go see it. And it was great. Are you on the Marvel train, are you excited about the Marvel slate? I'm excited about good movies, so I will give any good movie the proper respect it deserves. I feel like the beginning of the series has been really helpful, because now have a very effective scale for rating. We have the Deadpool to Batman v Superman scale, I wanna know where in the Deadpool to Batman v Superman scale does Civil War fall. Like it's at the top. Deadpool was pretty great. I think maybe cuz Deadpool is more of a personal individual film but if you really look at. But quality is quality. I would say it's right there equal. There's a certain character in the show that shows up. That like I'm not even gonna lie I shed a tear when that character showed, the way that character is. And it's just wonderful. Cuz they kinda blow it in the trailer at least one of the trailers I saw where Spiderman shows up is that what you're talking about? No. [CROSSTALK] If it's in the trailer it's not a secret. Right, well, but okay, I was just, I'm just trying to be kind to the people who are going spoilers. But the way they set it up, which you don't see in the trailers, makes it even better when he does show up in that moment. Okay, right. The way he's handled through the movie is so great. Excellent. And that kid is Spiderman. There's never been a better Spiderman. Really? A hundred percent, never been a better. It's the best Spiderman movie of all. Tobey Maguire can't touch it. The best Spiderman movie of all time is called Captain America. It is. No, thus far The best Spiderman movie is Civil War. But people are like I'm angry about you guys talking about this thing, let's talk more about the movies you're excited about. What are you excited about this summer what should we see. Christ I'm cautiously optimistic for this Ghostbusters reboot I want so badly to want to like it and. I'm a fan of most if not all of the principle people involved. Paul Feague generally does not make bad movies. Spy, did you guys see Spy? I did. I did. Spy should have been a very bad movie, Spy looked bad in the trailers. The trailer was terrible. And it didn't have a lot going for it but then I saw the movie and it was very, very good. And I was like, this is a good film maker who is in charge. A mastery of his craft like he is doing good things with maybe even limited resources, resources being the material. Five was great, Brides Maids of course was great [CROSSTALK] also really good. All terrible trailers, I would say all awful trailers so I have hope about Ghostbusters because they were all awful trailers when I saw the trailer for Brides Maids I'm like. This is going to look so dumb. And then I saw it and said, what happened? This is a great movie. Like, why did the trailer turn me off of this? I feel so sad that I waited so long to see it. I had a similar reaction to the trailer for the heat which was I know where this is going, it's a buddy film and she's uptight and she's crazy and they become friends but it was so much more than that, it was a better movie and that's a sign that a director's really on the top of their game. Speaking of directors who are at the top of their game, what do you think about four more Avatar movies? Yeah let's discuss. All right well okay. There's a- Wait, before you start, what did you think of the first Avatar movie? Because I think that's actually going to inform the rest of the conversation. Avatar was aiight. Like Avatar wasn't terrible. You cannot say Avatar was a terrible movie. However, you cannot say Avatar was a great movie. Great movie. It's all right, it was a B minus, maybe. I loved it, I saw it six times in the theater. Wow, I think when you bring in the word unobtainium, from a writing perspective, I get very upset. I agree with that. But I will say, it was very beautiful, and I liked The message and the stories sound very nice and I will see future Avatar movies. As will I. Listen you bring it back to, you started this whole thing off with the director, how many bad movies has James Cameron made? Zero! Zero. Zero bad movies. He doesn't know how. He doesn't know how to make a bad movie. He is a, by any. Reasonable definition. He is a masterful filmmaker. He makes between good and great films. So Avatar- By your definition he makes between all right and great films. Okay, fine, Avatar was above average. I will say it's above average. [UNKNOWN] I also think the fact that he's challenging himself to this level when He doesn't have anything to prove. He doesn't have to do that. He doesn't have to make four movies at one time. He can coast, he can go George Lucas on us and just nail it it. He could never make another movie as long as he lives and he would be fine. But making four movies at once is Herculean, and I think that shows how much he cares about this property. That said, I don't if I'm to, of all the James Cameron properties, I don't know if Avatar is the one that I want to see a lot more of. Like I need, I need more True Lies in my life! I need more of the Abyss. The Abyss. I need movies that sort of never Never had that life, we have alien movies, we have terminator movies and they just gone in different directions up and down but I need to see more of understory. Cameron, good story teller, good movie maker, we'll see it. Fair enough. So I'm curious about I'm really curious about Suicide Squad. So I want to discuss the DC Universe here because I think there have been a lot of rumors. If you have not been paying attention, Suicide Squad went into reshoots. Mm-hm. Supposedly there were three weeks of reshoots? Mm-hm. That's not uncommon. That's a whole movie in some cases. That's not uncommon though. Three weeks! That's a lot. That is typically a bad sign but there are movies that have Done well and even thrived because of the reshoots. One that comes to mind is Anchorman. Anchorman had a whole nother subplot about something, someone got abducted, or they abducted an animals from the zoo, or there was some weird thing where it just didn't work. They reshot the whole thing, literally a third of the movie, and that was the part about the panda giving bird, all that stuff. Sure, yeah. And it ended up being a much better movie, so, They realized this part isn't working, they went around and fixed it so do not throw the baby out with the bath water. Fair enough. So what do you think of what you've seen thus far. On the other one I was cautiously optimistic, this one more I'm guardedly optimistic. I love this movie so much and I want it to be good and I want it to be the superhero movie that we all need, ala Deadpool, but I'm also terrified that it might fall on it's face and fall victim to the pressure to be funny or, yeah exactly, the pressure to do what Batman vs. Superman didn't do which was Just be so self serious and so Grim. Dark. Grim. It's been beaten to death. Gritty. Gritty. Grim. Dark. Instead of Hungry Hungry Hippos, that's what I refer to as Gritty Gritty Grim Dark. The most depressing toy you can get for your kid. That's very true. Scowling Batman. Although, we've talked about it, I thought Ben Affleck was great as Batman. I'm, I'm more- The more sceptical about that character and that was the one that I walked away the most impressed with. I am, I stand alone on an island in not liking Ben Affleck in that movie. I thought he was one of the worst parts of the movie. Really? But you're with everyone else. Everyone else, they're all about Ben Affleck was the best part of the movie. Who's your favorite Batman? We're separating Bruce Wayne and Batman, because I'm going to ask you next who was the best Bruce Wayne? Okay, it's such an obvious answer it would have to be Christian Bale. Persuade I think and so it, but Christian Bale is so great and he's, he brought a physicality to the role whereas Michael [UNKNOWN] never really, he's a smaller guy. I never really bought him beating up and threatening and blah blah blah whereas the part Christian Bale brings the physicality to the role and you buy him as The Dark Knight, the guy who terrorizes and terrifies villains and criminals. You buy that because he's an intimidating figure Do you buy it though, on top of the fact that you've seen Christian Bale in American Psycho? And so there's that duality to his, you've already seen it and so- He's bringing full Bale to the role. You're bringing Bale baggage. You're bringing Bale baggage into, because that's what it felt like why we we liked it so much was because we Saw him play American Psycho and it was just like, that guy could be Bruce Wayne right? Not quite a serial killer, If he was just a vigilante instead of a serial killer, You'd buy it. Like Bilbo Baggins I'm pre disposed to love almost everything Christain Bale does because because of American Psycho. Fair enough. It didn't hurt but you know what Credit to the producers for finding that guy who was so great at that thing and making him a slightly different version of that thing. All right. What is your favorite movie of all time? I don't think I could possibly narrow it down. Although, American Psycho is probably in that top 25 range. Really? I was just thinking about, totally random, but I was thinking about how rare it is to see a movie now, like current movie, and you're like that's one of the all time greats, and that is now in my top 20 or 25. Sure. I saw Whiplash, last year, or a year and half ago now, And that is in my top 25 all time. And you're thinking top 25, that's not that. It's all kind of a lot. No, it's not that many movies. That's a very small list if you've seen a lot of movies. Yeah, which you do. Well, I've seen a fair amount of movies. I think that's because we formulate who we are and what we love at an earlier age. And it's harder to Hold current stuff up to the things that formed your love of cinema. Yes, you have a nostalgic crystallization in your mind. The movies that you loved as a teenager, a young man, young woman, whatever it is. What was your favorite movie last year? Favorite movie last year. The Big Short was my favorite of the big Oscar movies. I was kind of hoping that would win. I loved the storytelling, I loved the way it took a very I held it in stark contrast to Spotlight, in that they both took very serious, semi-recent, true historical subjects, and one was a Batman v. Superman style slog to the end where nothing surprising happened and nothing Fun or joy, granted it's a very heavy subject That seems very difficult But, but, but The Big Short was also about serious, heavy stuff, where people lost their jobs. But you can also bring in moments of levity. They told the story in such a unique Interesting way, and almost there was a joy of film making. I'm not talking about the flying ha, ha, has, you could tell there was bursting at the seams with ideas- We're excited about what we're making right now. Yeah, and they could have done different things with spotlight and less, a big sort was my favorite. Of the Oscar movies, and just to answer your first question, my favorite movie last year was Sicario.>> Sicario was such a good movie. Sicario was brilliant, was brilliant. I loved it. [CROSSTALK] I would agree with you that The Big Short brought a novel approach to conveying the information. I just didn't think it worked. Really? I didn't think it, because I didn't come away from it, especially those bits where they Stepped out and spoke to the camera. I didn't come away understanding the concept. Really? Like the gambling scene, which was I think, a really brilliant way to convey that idea. I still went, wait a minute, I don't understand what this scene is actually Actually trying to tell me. Interesting. How much gambling do you do? A fair amount. He has a problem. I do. I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. I understood the metaphor. I understood how it worked in the context of a crap game. I just didn't understand how that How that related to To the real world. To the [INAUDIBLE] shorting Okay, fair enough. stocks. We're going to have to have, this is going to be a much longer discussion, because we all love movies. So, we have to wrap everything up, but I'll be back tomorrow. [CROSSTALK] We don't have a show tomorrow, but you can come back anyway and talk about it. I"ll be here. cameras on. Last question- what is the movie you think everybody should see that they have not seen of all time? Ever of all time? Ever. Wow, that's a tough question. What's the movie that people should absolutely see that they probably have not? I'm not sure that I could even answer that. Holy I think Shakes the Clown. Wow. She's got that, just in the hip pocket, ready to pull out. I didn't see that coming. No, my husband gave me that, showed me that movie years and years ago and I'm like, all right. I would say Death to Smoochy is another one. It's terrible, but I love it. I didn't see those coming. When people ask me what's my favorite comedy of all time, I will often give the answer of Groundhog Day. It is really that brilliant. I feel like a lot of the viewers of this show probably have seen that movie. Maybe we have some young viewers, though. Okay, if you haven't seen Groundhog Day, it is [CROSSTALK] Really is yea. [CROSSTALK] It's a brilliant brilliant comedy. If you have seen that and you are like how about a different moving. Viewers that fell in love will probably laugh at this because I used to bring it up all the time, I haven't brought it up in awhile. But have you guys seen the original Manchurian Candidate? Yeah Yeah. It is a brilliant movie. It holds up. Redford's in that, right? No, that is Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra is the lead in Manchurian Candidate. Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra, and Lawrence Harvey. [CROSSTALK] It is a brilliant movie, holds up, from a movie from 196 To whatever it was. It was de facto banned for many years because it was right before Kennedy got assassinated, about a presidential assassination attempt. Kennedy gets assassinated, the movie buried for decades, and finally came around in like the late 80s. And has not been seen by enough people. The black and white part turns off a lot people I think. Let's do it. Interviews, but man, man, it'll grip you. And bonus- And don't watch the remake. If you watch it before you watch Civil War, you'll get a reference in Civil War. It's true. wow. You will. There is a Manchurian Candidate reference in Civil War. That is all the time we have. You can read Bryan's book shrinkage, New York Times best seller it's on the list. Yeah, join the rest of the world Yes, join You're the only one who hasn't read it. If you haven't read it yet, so you should read that. Then, you can also check out the film volt, and then you can find him at [UNKNOWN] Yeah, on twitter [UNKNOWN] the [UNKNOWN] show on iTunes as well as film vault. Enjoy. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me you guys. I'll come back and talk movies anytime. Yes, we'll be right back with [UNKNOWN] and our into it.