Return of Patrick Cotnoir
George Lucas Talk Show (GLTS) producer Patrick Cotnoir returned to Heyblabber podcast to talk about a number of updates since our last discussion. Below is the transcript of that interview.
Michael: So, today I'm talking to returning guest, Patrick Cotnoir. Patrick is, amongst other things, the producer on the George Lucas Talk Show. So welcome back, Patrick.
Patrick Cotnoir I'm back, baby! Can't get rid of me.
Michael All right. So, since we last spoke, there's been some additional developments with some of the things we spoke about, so I figured it might be nice to get you back on here. The documentary, 'I'm 'George Lucas': A Connor Ratliff Story', which we discussed, is being released on Blu-ray in November.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah. I think it's November 23rd. It's coming out from this company, Kino Lorber, which is a real, legit Blu-ray company, and it will never not be funny that that's happening. It took a lot of work because we had a lot of stipulations. I mean, I'll just give you the full rundown. We wanted it to be two discs; that was a big thing for us. And we wanted to have the most audio commentaries that have ever been on a movie before. Right now, I believe we're at 56, and the most we could find before this was 10. So, we are blowing it out of the gosh darn water. And there's over 100 hours of bonus features on this movie. It comes with the two discs, but then there's also a digital playlist that you get access to when you buy the movie. That will give you another, like, 50 hours or something like that, because we literally could not fit it all on the discs.
Michael Okay. So, I had written down 55 tracks. So, are you still adding, like, right now?
Patrick Cotnoir Yes. As of now, we have 56. I believe we're getting at least one more, so that'll be 57.
Michael Oh, wow. So, what is the drop-dead date on that? Like, when do you have to be finished?
Patrick Cotnoir Here's the great news. Since so much of them are digital bonus features, I literally can add stuff in 2032, you know what I mean? It's a YouTube playlist that you get, like a private YouTube playlist that you get access to, so I can add or take stuff off of the digital stuff anytime I want. The physical stuff, we're doing quality control checks on it right now, but I believe everything is good. So, that is probably going to be sent to the factory for manufacturing very soon. But digital stuff, literally no drop-dead date, which is great.
Michael So, you said the most you found before was 10. What was that movie?
Patrick Cotnoir It was a movie called Teddy Bomb. It was a pretty small movie from what I could tell, I have not seen it, but it seems that their big thing was like 'We're going to have 10 audio commentaries, and that's going to be the most that anyone's ever done. And we'll show them.' I'm very sorry to Teddy Bomb that your title has been taken away. But they were like, you know, 'The extras are doing commentary on it, and the PAs,' and all that stuff. And I was like, 'Okay, all right.' You know, as the kids say, 'Hold my beer.' So, I've not seen Teddy Bomb, I can't comment on the quality of Teddy Bomb. They did get a Blu-ray release, so good for them. But we're here to take the crown.
Michael All right. So, when is Teddy Bomb from? Do you know? What year? I am not familiar with that movie either.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me... let's look it up. Teddy Bomb movie. It was 2014. I will read the description for you. Hang on one sec. And you know what? I'll plug Teddy Bomb because I want them to have people see it. You can buy it on goldninjavideo.com. Coming of age sci-fi splatter comedy with a dash of Hong Kong style action, Teddy Bomb is the story of a beer delivery boy named Christian, who stumbles upon a ticking time bomb that also happens to be a sentient stuffed animal: A talking teddy bear that can melt your face off. He can't get rid of it, he can't go to the police, and there's no way in hell he can turn it off. To add insult to injury, the bomb's original owners want the property back, and they'll decapitate, gut, and eviscerate everyone that gets in their way. Whether Christian diffuses the bear or not - it's guaranteed that things will end in one big bloody bang. And their special features, it says '10. Yes, 10 feature-length commentary tracks with director, crew, cast, sound designer, extras, and anyone else you can think of.' Then there's a featurette, a short film, deleted scenes, alternate scenes, and more.
Michael There you go.
Patrick Cotnoir Check it out if you're on the hunt for Blu-rays, 20 bucks.
Michael So, I know you're not here to talk about Teddy Bomb, but I guess we should probably talk about it a little bit more. I mean, because one of the other things that I did want to get to is you have a new, well, not that new, podcast, Hey, That's Me! So, you've started in the last year, I think shortly after we spoke, and you do audio commentaries for movies that don't have commentaries, or at least people who haven't done commentaries. Is it always movies that don't have audio commentaries?
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, it's not movies that don't have audio commentaries, but they don't have them from the specific people that we're having on because the guests that we have on, we can have literally anyone from a movie or a TV show. So, it could be cast, director, costume designer, casting director, whoever we can get to come on is very cool. Tomorrow we're doing- Here's a little, I mean, it's not a spoiler once this comes out, but unless something massive changes, we're doing Michael Hitchcock is doing Best in Show. He plays Parker Posey's husband in the Christopher Guest movie, he's so funny in it. And then we're doing Follow That Bird, which I think you... Did you comment on the Patreon? Did I see that?
Michael Yes!
Patrick Cotnoir Okay. We're doing Follow That Bird with director Ken Kwapis, who's a big... He's done a bunch of movies, but he's also did, like, 15 episodes of The Office and a bunch of Larry Sanders and stuff. He's a big TV guy. Very excited for that. And it's literally, you know, I do it with my friend, Brian Lynch, who wrote Minions and Secret Life of Pets and a whole bunch of other stuff, and it's just an excuse for us to meet people that we think are cool. You know, I always liked when we would have people on George Lucas Talk Show during COVID to talk about one specific project, whether we were doing, like, a Studio 60 day or, you know, a frickin' 1600 Penn day or whatever it was, the Buddies movies. I liked being able and forcing some of these people to talk about one thing for a very long time, even if they don't really remember that much about it. This show has been very fun because a lot of these people have not watched whatever we're watching in a long time. So, you get, like, the really fresh, really cool memories that they themselves have not thought about in 10 years, and I think that that's a neat experience that you don't really get on most other shows because, you know, who's doing that sort of long-form interview on one specific weird project in someone's career? So, I'm happy that people are enjoying it. People can listen to it anywhere you get podcasts. HeyThatsMePod.com. But we've had a ton of really, really cool people on.
Michael You have. You've had people talk about NewsRadio, Lost, I'm forgetting the name... Those two tickling movies.
Patrick Cotnoir Oh, yeah. Tickled.
Michael Yeah, Tickled. That was the first one you did, I believe. And then there's a short follow-up to that. Or are there two?
Patrick Cotnoir No, there's Tickled, which is the full documentary, and then there's The Tickle King, which is sort of an epilogue that David Farrier, the director who was on, put out maybe like, two years later, that sort of showed the aftermath of what happened to the people in the movie, and what happened to him after the movie came out. It's great. That's one of my favorite episodes, and people should definitely go see Tickled if you have not seen Tickled. It's one of the best documentaries to exist.
Michael I had not heard of it, or at least I hadn't seen it before you did it. I did listen to it first. And then I watched the documentary, which is the way to do it. But I always loved DVD, Blu-ray commentaries, and I remember getting made fun of because I would be like, 'Oh, did you watch the commentary?' And I remember my one friend was like, 'Who watches audio commentary?' I was like, 'Why would you not?' Like, that's the whole point of these DVDs, all these extras; you watch all the deleted scenes, and you watch the audio commentaries, and you can just spend hours and hours with this movie that you may or may not like.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, I mean, it's sort of like, it's a mini film school, you know? That's what sort of excited me as a kid, and now was, you know, you'd listen to these and be like, 'Oh, that's how they did it,' or, 'Oh, I want to do that! That sounds interesting.' And with a lot of the ones on the physical releases, you would get the writer or the director or the cast, and that was kind of about it. Sometimes, if it's like a, you know, makeup-heavy movie, you'd get a makeup person or something like that. But you never get to hear from the costume designer, really, or the cinematographer; it was rare that those people showed up on those kinds of things. And I'm like, those people have just as many stories, if not more stories than the stars or the director, because those are the guys who are, like, really in the trenches, and really putting this thing together in a way that the bigger names aren't necessarily privy to the drama and the, you know, the chaos that a film set can be. And just, you know, having worked on sets and having been around all these people for so long, it was like, those are the interesting people, and those people are the ones that I want to spotlight with this kind of show. I think we've been lucky getting to get some cool people who, like, some of them it's their first podcast, some of them have never really done interviews before. And I think that that's exciting for me. I've got a list of, I think, 1,500 people, where I'm like, any of these people I would like. So, hopefully we'll get to a bunch of them.
Michael Is that literally a spreadsheet that you have with 1,500 people?
Patrick Cotnoir Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I live and die on spreadsheets.
Michael Are they mainly, like, people you've already spoken to in some capacity?
Patrick Cotnoir Some. Yeah, some are. Some are just like, you know, I'm watching... I don't know, I'm just going to pick something out of the blue. I'm watching Seinfeld or whatever, and you're like, 'Who was the AD on this show? Like, what's that guy's deal?' And then you go look and you're like, 'Oh my god, he worked on Seinfeld, but he also worked on Boston Legal, but he also worked on Cheers.' You know, you go down the list and you're like, 'Who is this guy? Like, this guy has an insane career.' And like, I've either never heard his name or only seen his name pop up in the credits, but know nothing else about him. A lot of times it's just a cold reach out, which is cool. I've never met, you know, we talked about Ken Kwapis doing Follow That Bird. I've never met Ken before, but he's very excited to do it. Especially with, like, kids' movies or animated movies, there's not a ton of audio commentaries because they don't think that that is a selling point for children, which I understand. But it's also, there are so many of those, those projects that, like, you grow up with, and it is a formative experience on your life. You know, I've told people that were doing Follow That Bird and they're like, 'Oh. I watched that movie when I was a kid and it really messed me up,' because it's very sad and very like, you know, melancholy and stuff like that, and it became this cornerstone in their childhood because it was one of the three VHSs is that their parents owned. And why would you not want to hear how that thing got made in a long-form setting and not in a five-minute EPK that they put on as, like, a making a feature at... You can't get enough information across in that point. And especially movies, you know, Muppet movies or whatever, like, making a Muppet movie is so much different than making an all-human movie, I guess you could call it, because there's so many technological changes that you have to like go through that you're not even considering where you're like, 'Oh, these sets had to be built up, like, three feet off the ground.' And like, you know, 'We couldn't shoot too many takes in one day because their arms hurt.' Stuff like that is so interesting. I'm interested to hear if, like, how much did that... You know, this was Ken's first feature directing job, and like his first big thing. And I'm like, did that mess you up going to regular movies after that? Because you're like, 'Oh, I got so used to having to direct puppeteers and puppets.' What was the difference in shooting a movie with all human actors after that? What was the thing that you learned from that set that you brought on to other sets? You know, there's so many different things and movies like that I find particularly interesting just on a technical level, because... I'm just rambling right now, but I rewatched it last night, and you know, you watch The Muppet Movie, and Fozzie and Kermit driving that car is very cool. But in my brain, I'm like, I know how this works. I know that there's someone in the trunk that's, like, actually driving the car and all that stuff. But then you watch the Count drive his car in Follow That Bird, and it's a convertible, and it's a much smaller car, and you're like, I don't really know how this one works. Like, how did you do this? This is so much more impressive to me than The Muppet Movie, which is insane. That's the moment where you're watching this, because you're so used to seeing the Sesame characters in such a controlled environment, like on that street, and it's so hermetically, like, you're on a studio. And seeing him drive that car, you're like, 'Oh, this is real.' [laughs] You know? Which is fascinating. So, things like that, I'm just really interested to hear, like, what went wrong? And like, how long did it take to figure this out? And what is the pre-production process on that kind of thing like? And people like Ken are kind of the perfect person for that, because they have such an insane career. Also, we've realized, you know, if you're watching a movie that's two hours long, and you run out of stuff to talk about, it's like, all right, we're just going to talk about The Office for 20 minutes now, or we're just going to talk about Larry Sanders for 20 minutes now, and that's totally fine, because these people, you know, this project doesn't exist in a vacuum and so many things are related to it later on in their career. That was a very long answer to your question. I don't even remember what your question was.
Michael No, I'm not sure either. [Patrick laughs] But it's still very interesting. And yeah, like he was the person who directed the pilot in The Office, and I was going to say, I thought that was, like, Follow That Bird was probably... I thought I saw maybe there was one other thing before that, but maybe this is his first feature film.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, I think it was a made-for-TV movie. It was like an after-school special.
Michael But like, how does he get that job? Like, I think I saw, was it John Landis was supposed to direct it originally? But then that's it, right? Like, he doesn't do anything else with the Muppets after that, right?
Patrick Cotnoir No.
Michael So, that's very interesting.
Patrick Cotnoir It is. It'll be fun.
Michael And that was the idea behind one of the questions I sent was like, it's kind of an intense movie, particularly for a Sesame Street movie, and like, what were the discussions around that? Like, is it too intense? He's in a cage and he's crying.
Patrick Cotnoir And he's blue.
Michael And he's blue. I was going to talk about you said, you know, you have different types of people on for the commentaries, like not necessarily the actors, and that made me think of the Freaks and Geeks DVDs. Have you ever listened to them?
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael Where it's got, like, it's got the cast, but then it's got all these random assortments of people, like they have people who are on the message boards, a whole bunch of people like that. And it's also a very interesting time. I feel like Seth Rogen and Jason Segel are talking about how, like, they don't have any work and they're looking for jobs. It's like, you can't imagine that these days.
Patrick Cotnoir No.
Michael It's like this weird period in time where, you know, all Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks had been canceled.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, and they're like, 'Are our careers over? Is that it?' It's fascinating. We sort of did something similar to that with the I'm 'George Lucas' Blu-ray, because there's a handful of commentaries that are like fan commentaries. So, I gathered like, I'm going to say it was like 25 fans, 20-25 fans, something like that, and split them up into groups of four or five, and they all just talked and hung out. A lot of these people had never met before in person; they were people who were talking in the live chat and stuff like that. That was really cool and just like a very nice uplifting thing, just getting to hear how much people, you know, enjoyed the show and how much help it brought them during lockdown, and all that stuff. But very similar, you know? I think it's fun to hear from fans and stuff like that about how projects affect them, and how they met all their online friends and stuff like that. It's cool. So, that just made me think of that, sorry.
Michael So, when did you make the decision that you were going to do all these commentaries? Like, how long have you been planning and recording these?
Patrick Cotnoir For the doc?
Michael Yeah, yeah, sorry.
Patrick Cotnoir That's okay. I'm a commentary boy now, so it's hard to know what we're talking about. When did I decide to do it? That's a great question. I mean, when we said we were going to do the doc, one of my big things that I said was, 'That's fine, but we have to get a physical release. And I don't care how you do it, but you have to figure it out.' And then, you know, the movie came out, and it played in theaters and it played on VOD, and all that stuff, and I was still actively pushing for it and really trying to make this happen. And we had the thought, you know, most of the people who have seen the doc who want to see it have seen it already, you know? Whether they went to the movies that weekend that it played at Alamo, or one of the screenings around the country, or they watched it on VOD at home. And how do you get people to watch it again, or buy it, or you know, get that physical copy? And the answer is sort of like, make it so undeniably filled with extra stuff that they haven't seen that spending $30 seems like a no-brainer. I remember I thought of the commentary thing pretty early. I think we talked about it, we did a stream for our second Kickstarter, which was the 'Finishing Funds' Kickstarter, in order to, you know, finish the editing, finish the color correction, the sound mixing, and getting it into festivals and stuff like that. And I think on that stream, we were talking about how we needed to record a commentary. And then I said, 'No, let's record 10 commentaries.' Something like that happened, and that was sort of the moment where it was like, 'Oh. Well, if we're putting this out on home video, then this should be like balls to the wall, packed to the gills with literally any piece of media connected to this show that I can find,' you know? And so, it got so much, it has like, four live shows, you know, they filmed all these live shows for the doc, and I went through, and I edited those together because they were not edited into full pieces, and it was just like, who can I rope into helping me with this? Who has been a good friend of the show that I think will not mind me asking them to do it? So, it was pretty early on, but once it was the idea, it sort of became my sole focus. Like, I've been working on this for a year and a half now, and we probably started recording the commentaries last June, maybe? Something like that. Done around June-ish of this year, once the deal was finalized. It was about a whole year, which was great. It was very nice that so many people gave their time and their effort. And, you know, some of them are people talking a lot on it, and really just talking through the entire thing. Some of them people are doing bits, they're like, 'Okay, if I'm doing a commentary, I'm only doing X, Y, Z during it.' And some of them are just people, you know, you'll watch the movie and you'll just hear all of a sudden like, '[small chuckle] Oh, that's funny.' It's like a lot of very... It's just like someone is watching a movie with you. So, it's varied, and I wanted them all to feel different, and I wanted them all to feel unique, so you weren't like, 'Well, I really listened to one commentary. I know what they're going to say.' It's like, no, everyone is literally doing whatever they want to do on this. So, there's some really funny stuff. My favorite one-I haven't listened to all of them, I'm going to be honest with you, because there's too many, so there's a lot that I have missed-but my favorite one that I've heard a lot of is by Brian Jay Jones, who wrote the George Lucas biography, George Lucas: A Life, the like, legit big thick one. He treats it like a scholarly text, and it's really amazing because he's just like, 'Oh, you know, Connor's relationship with his father in the scene, it's so unlike George's father because George and his father really didn't get along.' And he'll just, like, talk about George's biography and then relate it back to what he's watching in the movie, and it's really, really funny and fascinating. So, you know, it was more of an exercise in... It was sort of the Jurassic Park thing in that it was more to see if we could than to see if we should, you know, which was... I think it paid off. I think it paid off, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. And, you know, I got the QC Blu-ray to, like, do the quality control on it, and it was the first time that the movie felt real to me. Even though I've seen it in theaters and I've seen it with big crowds and stuff like that, like, going to the audio tab to change the audio on the Blu-ray or, like, adding subtitles, it was just like, 'Oh, this is a real thing that people are going to be able to buy!' And it was a very weird moment. It was very weird.
Michael So, I did pre-order the Blu-ray. I think I got it from Target. I don't know which one benefits you guys the most. Is it directly from the...?
Patrick Cotnoir I mean, the thing that's going to benefit us the most, because I think most of the money from this, if not all the money, is going to go to the filmmakers. So, the only way that this would benefit us the most is if we're selling it at a live show, which we'll have starting mid-November, we'll have a bunch of copies that people can buy. I think that is the way that we will get the most benefit out of it. But also, like, it doesn't matter if we are getting paid for that. We just want it out there in the world, and we want people to have copies and enjoy it and stuff like that. So, I appreciate you asking, but yeah, that would be the way, if you see us at a show and you don't have one, starting at our Chicago shows in November, we should have copies.
Michael Tangentially, Jar Jar-related. How much mention of Jar Jar is there on the Blu-rays?
Patrick Cotnoir A great question, a great question. Jar Jar's got a big section in the doc because our first sidekick on the show was Shaun Diston, who's a comedian who you've heard on Comedy Bang! Bang! and he's a writer and producer on Twisted Metal, which season two just came out on Peacock, it's very fun, people should watch it. So, there's probably, like, 10 minutes of Jar Jar talk in the movie, but then we also have extended interviews with Shaun and a few deleted scenes that he's a main part of. So, I would say there's probably close to 20 minutes of Jar Jar content that is not in the movie.
Michael Oh, wow. Okay.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah. Which is probably more than you expected.
Michael You said you haven't listened to all the commentaries. So, how many are you actually on?
Patrick Cotnoir That's a great question. That is a really good question. Let's see. My guess, before I count, my guess is six. Okay, here we go. One, two, three, four, five, six, oh god, seven, eight. Yeah, okay. It's eight.
Michael Okay.
Patrick Cotnoir But it's not just eight by myself. Like, I'm on one- You're getting exclusey here on who's on what. I have a solo one, and then I have one with the director, the cinematographer, the producer, and I. Then I have one with the editor and I, where we call Griffin and a bunch of people from, like, George Lucas Talk Show. I'm on one with two of the EPs, one of whom is this guy, Rod Bogart, who gave a lot of money in the Kickstarter, he's a former guest of the show, but he was a software developer for ILM in the '90s, worked on the special editions and a whole bunch of stuff, and that's a real- That's maybe actually one of my favorite commentaries because it's just us talking about like, '90s ILM and how computer stuff works and things, and it's really fascinating. What else? I'm on with Bobby Moynihan and Connor. I'm on one with my friend Sam, who's in the doc, and his dog, Scout. I'm on one with my mother, who's on the show a bunch. And I'm on one with Rich Sommer, who's also on the show a bunch. So, pretty good.
Michael That does sound pretty good. I mean, I guess I have to ask with Rich Sommer, does somebody else make a special appearance? I mean, I don't know if I want to spoil it, or if you want to spoil it.
Patrick Cotnoir There's only one way to find out, and it's to listen to the Rich Sommer commentary.
Michael Yeah. I mean, I'm making a list in my head. Sounds like the Brian Jay Jones is definitely one, Rich Sommer is definitely. I mean, obviously, I'm going to get to all 57 or whatever.
Patrick Cotnoir Obviously, obviously.
Michael I'll make a little spreadsheet.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, no spoilers. I mean, look, we definitely talk about him, I'll tell you that. For people who don't know, Rich has a roommate named Steven Charleston, who shows up on the show a lot. And he's a little stinker. So yeah, maybe he shows up. I don't know, I don't know. We'll find out.
Michael One of the things I did want to ask, and I don't know if you mentioned is, what's the initial run of Blu-rays? Do you know what the...
Patrick Cotnoir I actually don't know what it is. I think it was like, 1,000 maybe, but I'm not 100 percent sure on that. I know we talked about it at one point, but I don't remember where we ended up. And the goal is, you know, they're going to send this to a few brick-and-mortar stores, too. So, the goal is to get this in like Amoeba here in Los Angeles or, you know, places like that. I want them to sell it at UCB in New York, just because so much of it takes place at UCB. But yeah, you can, I mean, you know, this isn't plugs right now, but this whole thing is a plug, so I might as well. You can get it on Target, Walmart, Kino Lorber's website, or Amazon. The Amazon price is actually pretty good right now and probably will be until it's preordered. I can't see it going back up. So, that's probably the easy forum where you can get them.
Michael Okay, so 1,000. I mean, roughly, like, that's a collector's.
Patrick Cotnoir It's a collector's!
Michael It's a collector's number there. Maybe there'll be additional runs, I don't know.
Patrick Cotnoir That's the hope, right?
Michael That's the hope. And back to Brian Jay Jones. He wrote the Jim Henson biography, right? That's one I did read; I do have the George Lucas one, I haven't gotten to it yet, but I do definitely want to check that out.
Patrick Cotnoir He's very good. He's very good, and he writes books about people that I care about. He did a Dr. Seuss one, too. He did Washington Irving, who, you know, a writer from, like, the 1700s, I've not read that one. And he's currently finishing up one on the history of the U.S. Capitol because he used to work at the Capitol, which I think will be really fascinating. I'm very excited to read that one. But yeah, he's very good at what he does, and he picks people that Patrick likes. [laughs] You know, I've never met the man in real life, but we've been on so many Zooms together, which is so funny. It's always weird when you're like, 'I know that guy. And then you're like, 'Well, I've never actually met him in real life.' But you know, we've done so many things, and he's always down to help us with whatever we want, which is very fun. You know, we lucked out. I was going to say we lucked out having a lockdown because we got to meet so many cool people, and so many of them feel like we're friends now, which is great. And it helped when I moved to L.A. because I felt like I knew so many people, because so many of them had been on the show.
Michael That's better than feeling like you know people just because you've listened to them on a podcast.
Patrick Cotnoir That is true.
Michael And then being like, 'Oh no, I don't actually know that person. I've never spoken to them.'
Patrick Cotnoir But that happens to me, too. That happens to me constantly, except it's people that I'm working with now, and I'm like, 'Oh, I don't really know Scott Ackerman that well. Why am I doing...' You know, whatever? It's just like, I've just listened to you for 1,200 hours in my ears.
Michael I guess I wanted to talk a little bit about the Star Wars live reads. When we spoke, Naboo Movie had come out, and Kamino Kaper was on its way. Since then, Kamino Kaper's been out, and then...
Patrick Cotnoir So many have come out since then.
Michael You finished the Prequels, you did the original trilogy, and the Christmas special. Right? That's where we're at, at this point, and the sequel trilogy is coming up in January.
Patrick Cotnoir January 10th at Dynasty Typewriter. For people who don't know, we've been doing live reads of the Star Wars scripts at this theater called Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. It's been insane casts. This last one, who did we have? We had Clancy Brown, we had Jared Harris, Laraine Newman, Rich Sommer. Other ones we've had Richard Kind, Tatiana Maslany, D'Arcy Carden, Jack Quaid, Colton Dunn, Haley Joel Osment, Vic Michaelis, Bobby Moynihan, just like, a real insane, insane group of people. But yeah, by the time this goes up, The Return of the Jedi one will be live on YouTube, and that means there'll be seven that are up there, which is crazy. It feels like we just started, but we've really, like, crammed them in in a very short amount of time.
Michael So, they're all great.
Patrick Cotnoir Thank you.
Michael I've been very impressed with the readings and the cast. I know we talked about last time you had Eric Bauza, I'm getting the name right, he was he did Jar Jar in all three. Unfortunately, the third film, I think he had maybe, like, one line.
Patrick Cotnoir I think so, which I would have had a deleted scene, though, that we added back in. I think he did.
Michael I think that might have been the only line he actually ended up having.
Patrick Cotnoir Maybe.
Michael But I do remember, I think he might be the only person who got like, a series wrap for Jar Jar Binks. So, that ties back into the topic of this show, which is good.
Patrick Cotnoir Of course, of course.
Michael Now, I would have encouraged some fan fiction, you know, maybe bring Jar Jar in, but I know you're not really doing too much fan fiction.
Patrick Cotnoir No, none. I would say none.
Michael I mean, there's some ad-libbing and some additional things. I didn't hear the 'Weesa free!' at the end of Return of the Jedi, which...
Patrick Cotnoir That's true. I don't know why we didn't do that. We should have done that. I'll tell you what the real reason is, probably. Pete, who's one of the other narrators in the show, is not a big special edition guy, and I have to fight tooth and nail for so many special edition things. Man, I mean, here's the thing. I'm like, should I just record it right now and go add it into the mix? Because I could easily do that.
Michael Weesa free?
Patrick Cotnoir Weesa free. The problem is, it takes so long to export and so long to upload. And the plan is to put it up tomorrow. So, I don't think I have time to do it. So, Pete's not a big special edition guy. I had to fight, like, tooth and nail to get 'Jedi Rocks' into this one, because I said it was so much more exciting than 'Lapti Nek.' I wanted both songs in there, and it was a battle. So, that's definitely why 'Weesa free' is not in there, unfortunately.
Michael But you did have the special edition Jabba scene, right? In the Maclunkey Treasure Island. Am I misremembering that?
Patrick Cotnoir You are remembering that correctly, but that is the scene that was shot in the '70s, you know?
Michael It was a scene that was shot in the '70s and finished in the '90s.
Patrick Cotnoir Well, but I'll say this, and I'm going to push back on this until the end of my days. Corinne, who played Jabba in that scene, wore the big Declan Mulholland coat. You know, the man who was standing in for Jabba was not playing it as a slug was playing it as, like, you know, a big man, and that's what that was. So, we played it as if it was the '70s.
Michael Okay, okay.
Patrick Cotnoir Maclunkey was not in there. Oh, no, Maclunkey WAS in there! Andy Daly ad-libbed Maclunkey, you're right. But the Jabba scene is in there.
Michael Okay, okay. I don't want to argue this. I'm fine with all these.
Patrick Cotnoir But that's why I came today was to argue about this.
Michael I agree with your choice of including, I did want to talk about that, both 'Lapti Nek' and 'Jedi Rocks.' I feel like that is the perfect version of Return of the Jedi. Also, I keep forgetting what the name of the new Ewok song is, but also...
Patrick Cotnoir It's just like 'Ewok Celebration,' or something like that.
Michael But the old one is 'Ewok Celebration Song.'
Patrick Cotnoir So, the new one is 'Yub Nub,' right? No, the old one is 'Yub Nub.'
Michael The old one- No. Well, so the real name is 'Ewok Celebration Song,' I'm pretty sure. Then, it might be...
Patrick Cotnoir Let's see. Oh, it's called 'Victory Celebration.'
Michael 'Victory Celebration,' that's the new version.
Patrick Cotnoir I believe so.
Michael As in 30 years ago, new version. So, you also included both of those, although 'Yub Nub' was a sing-along.
Patrick Cotnoir Sort of, yeah.
Michael So, that's good. I really did like the 'Lapti Nek' and 'Jedi Rocks.'
Patrick Cotnoir Thank you.
Michael Is there the possibility of releasing any of the music from these movies as its own thing, or does that get into...?
Patrick Cotnoir Jedi Rocks' went up as a like, 'music video' on the YouTube page by itself. I'm sure 'Lapti Nek' will at some point, too. The world's been in a weird place, and I've sort of felt weird about releasing Star Wars clips. I don't know if you've heard.
Michael I HAVE heard.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that will probably go up once the full show goes up, is my guess. I think releasing in terms of like, putting it on an album is dicey and would cost a lot of money. We did a George Lucas Talk Show album during COVID, just the songs we had sung on the livestream, or like, music videos we had done on the livestream, or whatever. And we wanted to put... Rachel Zegler was on, and we asked her to sing her favorite Star Wars song, and she sang 'Rey's Theme,' and we wanted to put that on the album. And because we did that, we had to pay John Williams money. We legitimately paid him a few hundred dollars because we wanted to get this on there. So, doing that, it just becomes a dicey proposition of, like, licensing music, and then you can't license it forever, so it becomes like a, you know, it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. But they'll be on YouTube, you know, in separate forms.
Michael Okay, so that's why the digital version does not have that song, right?
Patrick Cotnoir I believe so. This is a deep cut. This is a deep cut question, yeah.
Michael Only the record that I have, which I cannot listen to because I do not have a record player, has it. So, I've never, I don't think I've ever heard it. And I was like, why is this only, you know, record only? Is that the only thing, or is there another one? I don't know.
Patrick Cotnoir There might be... is the Hairspray song on the digital? You Can't Stop the Beat,' with Bruce Vilanch and Watto singing. That's a good one, too.
Michael Maybe someday I'll get a record player.
Patrick Cotnoir And then Steven Charleston sings 'I'm Easy' from Robert Altman's Nashville. I don't know if that's on there.
Michael Oh man!
Patrick Cotnoir [laughs] Yeah, there's a few good things on there. But to anyone who's listening who wants a record, I'm sorry, we don't have any more. We got rid of them all. Connor may have a few that he gives away at shows, but beyond that, they're long gone. And they go, you can, like, find them on, what is it? Like, Discog, Discogs.com, or something like that. They go for a good amount of money, which is stupid.
Michael So, when you said get rid of them all, you mean sold off, right? Not like, toss out.
Patrick Cotnoir No, we didn't toss them. We either sold them or Connor gave them away at a live show or something.
Michael Okay. I wanted to ask about the cast a little bit more. I did notice that for the prequels, you had Obi-Wan, Anakin, Jar Jar, at least, main characters, they were pretty consistent throughout for the original trilogy. I keep wanting to call them sequels, but they're the original trilogy.
Patrick Cotnoir Switched up a little bit.
Michael It's really only Rich Sommer, who is consistent, main character-wise. So, was that like...?
Patrick Cotnoir No, not a choice. It was schedule. It was all schedule-based. I don't know how we got that lucky keeping Vic, and Haley, and Eric doing for prequels. It was truly a miracle that that happened. But it's one of those things where you've got to book a show three months out so that you can start selling tickets the night of the previous show. People don't know their schedules, and people don't know what they're going to be up to or if they book a gig. You know, it happens. I would have loved to have kept cast, like that's always the goal, but there's only so much you can do in terms of that, especially when it's a show that's not paying people, you know?
Michael Understood. Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was scheduling or if it was just wanting to give other- Because you had you have such great... So, you had Richard Kind as Darth Vader in A New Hope. Then you had...
Patrick Cotnoir Diedrich Bader for Empire.
Michael And then you had Clancy Brown, who I feel like his Darth Vader is pretty, pretty impressive. Like, if they weren't going to use the James Earl Jones AI, I feel like he could step in pretty...
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah. Yeah. No, it was. Yeah, it was purely, you know, Richard doesn't live in New York and, you know, it's just based on who's around. Which, I'm happy to get new people, I like getting new people in because you also get to see what people's takes are on things, and a lot of people go different ways. Richard's Vader is very different than Clancy's Vader, and even, like, Jack's Han is different than Danny Pudi's Han, and it's, you know, it's all different, which is fun for me. But I do like having that center, the Rich, you know, Rich being Luke and all of them. It feels like it grounds it in at least one reality a little bit.
Michael So, can we expect Rich to come back at the end of Episode VII and just kind of stand there and stare?
Patrick Cotnoir Schedule permitting. Schedule permitting. We'll see. We'll see.
Michael A little older and... we'll see.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, yeah, yeah. We will all be a little older in January, I'm sure. I'm sure by January, we will all be a little tired.
Michael Yes. So, what was the decision to have Fozzie Bear - how did that come about - as Chewbacca?
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah. Well, Eric decided to do Chewbacca; he had a baby Fozzie for Chewbacca in Revenge of the Sith, he had a baby Fozzie puppet that was from Muppet Babies. And then, you know, my friend had a Fozzie puppet, and I was like, 'This makes sense. We should try to do this.' Like, if you're going to have baby Fozzie play younger Chewbacca, why not have regular Fozzie play, you know, original trilogy era Chewbacca? So, it was purely a, 'Oh, I have a Fozzie puppet at my disposal. Let me use that.' And it really, it worked out. I think it's so funny. I think the image of him walking around with the Fozzie is such a funny visual.
Michael So, what's the criteria for putting on a George Lucas Talk Show these days? Is it something... Because you're not, you don't generally do the livestream only, right? You're mainly doing in-person.
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah. It's rare that we do livestreams. We do occasionally; we try to do like two to three a year, probably, something like that. But it's mostly in person. I think people got burned out on our end doing livestreams sometimes, and it just became a lot more work than people wanted to do. So, the live shows are fun. We mostly do New York at this point, we try to do at least one or two in LA every year, and then this year we're, we did, or we're doing Chicago in November. We do any other ones? We did San Francisco. I think that was it. You know, it's when are we all free and available and can do it and in the mood to do it? I think that's the healthiest way to keep the show moving, you know? Just do it when you want to do it instead of making it feel like an obligation. It makes it feel a little more fun, you know?
Michael So, it's not like you've set out at the beginning of the year and say, 'We're going to do five shows and split it up.'
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, not really. I think, yeah, at this point, we're basically like, we will probably do Sketchfest, you know, in San Francisco, we will probably do LA shows the week of the Sketchfest down in LA, we'll probably do New York Comic Con and do a Bell House show that week in Brooklyn, and we'll probably do a Christmas show. Sort of anything else on top of that is gravy, you know? But having those touchstones of like, 'This will probably happen, this will probably happen, this will probably happen,' and then if other stuff presents itself or makes sense, then we'll fill it in as we go.
Michael So, I don't know if we talked about it last... I think we talked about it a little bit last year, like, what happens after the movies, the Star Wars movies are used up? I mean, you still have the sequels, you still have the Ewok movies, if you want to venture there. Solo and Rogue One. But then what happens after that?
Patrick Cotnoir I don't know if we will do Solo and Rogue One. I don't know if those two would be super fun being read. Same with the Ewok movies, really. I have plans for stuff, though. I don't want to spoil it because I think it's a fun reveal.
Michael All right. In the Star Wars universe?
Patrick Cotnoir Some, some.
Michael Yeah. Well, that was going to be my other question. Do you move on to other franchises or just movies?
Patrick Cotnoir What would you want to see?
Michael Not Star Wars?
Patrick Cotnoir You would not want to see Star Wars?
Michael No, I'm asking... Are you asking me?
Patrick Cotnoir I'm asking you.
Michael I mean, I think I already put my vote in for the Ewok movies...
Patrick Cotnoir Here's the problem with doing the Ewok movies, though. In the same way that the Holiday Special is so much Wookiee, or I should say Shyriiwook, so much of the Holiday Special is Shyriiwook. The script, however, is in English. The Ewok movies, I don't think I've seen a script, but I cannot imagine that it is mostly in English, and not that much happens in it. Like, you know, in terms of scripting. A lot of those movies are visual, and I don't know that it would necessarily be the most fun read in the same way that the Holiday Special was a little tough to do as a reading. There's fun parts to it, but there's a lot of stuff that's logs, even though I am very pro-Holiday Special in general. That doesn't mean we won't do it or won't try to do it, but at this point, I think there are, I have at least five, including the sequels, there are five more things that I would like to do.
Michael Okay, okay.
Patrick Cotnoir And then I have ideas for stuff that is not Star Wars-related.
Michael This is obviously something that can be expanded, I'm sure, to other universes. I have a personal... As I think I mentioned in the email to you, my other podcast is about Groundhog Day, so I would say a live reading of Groundhog Day might be something interesting, which also ties in with our mutual friend, Rich Sommer.
Patrick Cotnoir Oh, sure.
Michael Do you know what I'm referring to?
Patrick Cotnoir I don't, but keep going.
Michael So, Rich Sommer's birthday is Groundhog Day.
Patrick Cotnoir Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I did know this, and he did the podcast, right?
Michael He did my podcast.
Patrick Cotnoir Yes, I did know this.
Michael And so, you know, Rich Sommer as Phil Connors.
Patrick Cotnoir I'll say this, I'll say this. I think we've gotten very lucky that we have not gotten any cease-and-desist letters. And I think that my idea for a way to continue this series avoids any major legal issues.
Michael Okay. I think that mainly covers most of what I wanted to talk about. Is there anything else you wanted to mention? We talked about your podcast. People should go listen to Hey, That's Me!
Patrick Cotnoir Yeah, I think go listen to Hey, That's Me! HeyThatsMePod.com. George Lucas Talk Show is GeorgeLucasTalkShow.com. You can preorder the Blu-ray on there or go to ImGeorgeLucas.com. That's a lot of websites, sorry. If this is out before October 11th, we're going to be at New York Comic Con, we're doing a show at 1:00 PM on Saturday. The 10th, we're doing a show at the Bell House, but that'll already be sold out by this point. The movie comes out mid-November and then November 23rd we're gonna be at the Den in Chicago, which may be sold out, but I don't know so go check. And then, December 18th, we're doing an early show and a late show at UCB in New York. January 10th, we are doing The Force Awakens live read, which in-person is sold out, but you can get livestream tickets at SWLiveRead.com. We'll also, I believe, be at San Francisco Sketchfest and probably doing a show in L.A. in January. Beyond that, I don't know. So, yeah, go check all that out. I'm on Instagram @Cotnoir.
Michael Okay. I did just remember one thing: Last year, when we spoke, you mentioned that you had cast Ahmed Best in something, which hadn't come out. Is that still the case?
Patrick Cotnoir Still hasn't come out. It still hasn't come out. I would love it if it did. I'm ready! It would make my life so much easier if it came out, let me tell you that. It's an animated project that, due to corporate mergers and changes in regimes at certain streamers, has sort of gotten into a place where it's being tried to be shopped around to other places. We'll see.
Michael Okay. All right. We'll have to keep an eye out then for that. Other than that, I think I'm good on my end. If there's nothing else you want to mention, then I really appreciate your time. Appreciate you coming back.
Patrick Cotnoir Thank you for having me.
Michael Thank you.
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Transcribed by Aveline Malek at TheWordary.com