🎧📖 Listen to the audio above or read it as text at the transcript tab. Don’t forget to check out the feature conversation with Brandon Routh here, too.
Earlier this week, actor BRANDON ROUTH joined me to look back at Superman Returns on its 20th anniversary. Today, he returns to break down a seminal piece of art from his life — 1982’s THE DARK CRYSTAL! It’s a film that reprogrammed his creative imagination and understanding of good and evil, ignited a lifelong passion for fantasy, and even helps explain the importance of Superman to him — and the world — today.
I’m going to let Brandon tell you all about it, but you should know it was directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz and it was written by David Odell from a story by Henson. You can read its screenplay here, if you’re curious.
This is a wonderful nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in the 1980s where family films regularly scared the living shit out kids like me and Brandon.
If you’d like to listen to this bonus episode with Brandon, but aren’t yet a paid subscriber yourself, you can upgrade now for $6 US a month or $60 a year. You’ll get full access to 50+ hours of bonus podcast content and more than 600 articles and educational resources for artists and art fanatics alike.
And don’t forget to listen to the first part of my conversation with Brandon!
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Say it with me again: the best way to learn how to write great screenplays is to read screenplays. Not just great ones, mind you — but ones that fell just shy of greatness or, in trying to fly too high, crashed and burned.
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Earlier this week, Sophie Hyde — director of films such as 52 Tuesdays (2013), Animals (2019), Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022), and the upcoming Jimpa and The Ideal Wife — joined me for some 5AM StoryTalk. You can listen to that here if you haven’t already. Today, Sophie returns for a bonus episode exclusive to my bad-ass paid subscribers whose supp…
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