Last Looks: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Summary

How Did This Get Made? – Episode Summary: "Last Looks: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"

Release Date: February 28, 2025

Hosts:

• Paul Scheer (The League)
• June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie)
• Jason Mantzoukas (Big Mouth)

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Introduction and Tour Announcements (00:00 – 06:50)

The episode kicks off with Paul Scheer greeting listeners with his characteristic enthusiasm, introducing the topic of discussion: "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Paul is joined by Jason Mantzoukas for this entire episode, setting the stage for an in-depth and humorous critique of the film. Paul thanks a Discord user, Johnny Unusual, for suggesting the alternate tagline, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Menace in Venice" (01:44).

Key Highlights:

• Tour Updates: Paul and Jason announce changes to their spring tour, including new locations like Boise, Denver, Portland, Austin, Seattle, and San Francisco. They express excitement about these new venues, especially Boise, Idaho, which they humorously mention has shown a surprising number of attendees (04:27).
• Guest Addition: June Diane Raphael will join them only for the Los Angeles shows due to her involvement in a "very cool part" of an upcoming project. Jessica St. Clair is introduced as her replacement for the rest of the tour, promising dynamic interactions and humorous escapades (05:24 – 06:33).

Main Discussion: "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (06:50 – 31:54)

Initial Reactions:

• Jason Mantzoukas: Expresses strong negative emotions about the film, describing it as “so bad it left a bad taste” (02:29). He mentions needing to watch "Raiders of the Lost Ark" afterward to cleanse his palate.
• Paul Scheer: Contrasts his approach by diving back into the original comic books, finding them "great" and highlighting the disparity between the source material and the film adaptation (03:06).

Critique of the Film:

• Story and Execution: Both hosts agree that while the movie had a promising premise—merging historical figures and literary characters—the execution fell flat. Jason criticizes the film's pacing as "slow, boring, and ineffective" (14:01).
• Technical Flaws: They delve into specific issues such as the unrealistic portrayal of the Nautilus navigating Venice's narrow canals (15:27) and the misspelling of Sean Connery's character, Sir Percy Blakeney, as "Quartermaine" (16:40).
• Character Development: The hosts lament the underdevelopment of richly conceived characters from the comics, noting that the movie failed to capture their essence, resulting in a "slap dash" adaptation (16:11).

Listener Contributions:

• Corrections and Omissions: The episode features listener feedback from the Discord community.
  • John Not Connor (11:04): Provides historical context, discussing World War I's timeline and the movie's deviation from historic accuracy.
  • Davon from Brooklyn (24:52): Questions Mina Harkness's abilities, differentiating between lore from Vlad the Impaler and traditional vampire myths.
  • Micah from Illinois (26:43): Shares insights on Sean Connery’s casting choices and the impact of the film on his career.

Behind-the-Scenes Insights:

• James Robinson's Perspective: Sean McBee shares information from screenwriter James Robinson, revealing that initial scripts included a Prussian villain and a flesh-eating gas plot. However, post-9/11 sensitivities forced significant changes, detracting from the original vision (29:12 – 31:23).
• Audience Interaction: The hosts appreciate listeners who contribute detailed corrections, enhancing the discussion's depth and authenticity.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason Mantzoukas (02:29): “It was so bad it left such a bad taste in my mouth.”
• Paul Scheer (15:27): “The Nautilus measures 70 meters... so there's no way it's making those narrow turns.”
• Jason Mantzoukas (14:17): “I just want to recommend the Junia Ba graphic novel... it's a giant book and absolutely gorgeously drawn.”

Corrections and Omissions (31:54 – 32:48)

The hosts continue to address additional listener feedback, further dissecting the film's inconsistencies and missed opportunities. They touch upon historical inaccuracies, character age discrepancies, and other plot-related flaws, all while maintaining their signature comedic banter.

Key Points:

• Historical Context: Listeners point out discrepancies in the film's historical setting, such as Tom Sawyer's age relative to the storyline’s timeline (28:22).
• Script Changes: Monday nitpicks include how studio interventions altered James Robinson's original script, diluting the film's potential (29:49 – 30:15).

Apologies and Final Thoughts (37:36 – 39:40)

The episode concludes with an "Apologies Theme," where users express regret over their votes for the film, acknowledging its shortcomings.

Highlights:

• Keithosaurus Rex (37:36): Apologizes for voting for the film, labeling it as having excessive exposition and poorly executed action scenes (38:03).
• Aaron from Vermont (39:05): Shares a heartfelt thanks, mentioning personal connections to the film despite its flaws (39:05 – 39:14).
• Final Remarks: Paul and Jason reiterate their disdain for the film while appreciating listener contributions, promising to continue their entertaining critiques with upcoming episodes (39:29 – 40:05).

Notable Quotes:

• Paul Scheer (38:21): “Apologies to Jason, but I need some sort of post traumatic review of this film...”
• Jason Mantzoukas (38:46): “We're trying to have fun, assholes.”

Teasers for Upcoming Episodes (40:05 – End)

Before signing off, Paul and Jason provide sneak peeks into future episodes, including their next movie choice, "Doppelganger", starring Drew Barrymore and George Newburn. They offer a brief plot summary and share humorous teasers from the film's trailer.

Key Highlights:

• Next Movie: "Doppelganger" – A blend of romance and thriller elements with a supernatural twist (40:05 – 41:45).
• Upcoming Appearances: Tease their joint appearance on "Doughboys" for "March Madness," hinting at more collaborative fun (36:50 – 37:16).

Conclusion

Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas deliver a comprehensive and entertaining critique of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," blending sharp humor with detailed analysis. They engage with their audience through listener feedback, offering corrections and deepening the conversation around the film's numerous flaws. The episode effectively balances humor with insightful commentary, making it both informative and enjoyable for fans and newcomers alike.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Jason Mantzoukas (02:29): “It was so bad it left such a bad taste in my mouth.”
• Paul Scheer (15:27): “The Nautilus measures 70 meters... so there's no way it's making those narrow turns.”
• Jason Mantzoukas (14:17): “I just want to recommend the Junia Ba graphic novel... it's a giant book and absolutely gorgeously drawn.”
• Jason Mantzoukas (38:21): “We're trying to have fun, assholes.”

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Conclusion:

"Last Looks: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" serves as a quintessential example of "How Did This Get Made?"'s ability to dissect and celebrate bad movies. Through a blend of humor, detailed critique, and listener engagement, Paul and Jason transform a film misstep into an entertaining and informative podcast episode.

Transcript

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

Disconnect the Discord.

[Paul Scheer]

Hello my freaky darlings. I'm your host Paul Scheer, and this week we have Jason along with us for the entire episode of how did this get Made? Last Looks, where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a movie that Discord user Johnny Unusual thinks should have had the tagline the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Menace in Venice. Thank you Johnny Unusual for that alt tagline. Remember, if you have an alt movie tagline or title, submit it to us on our Discord and we might just read it on the show. Jason, I needed to bring you in today because, you know, very rarely do you and I talk about the show after the show is over and we were in Telluride and we both took a moment to talk about our experiences watching League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It shook us, right?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes, it was such a bad mo. It was so bad and it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I had to because we had talked about Alan Quartermaine and all of that adventure kind of serialized adventure storytelling. I had to watch Raiders just to get the taste of that movie out of my mouth. I watched Raiders and Then I will. This is a plug. I will shut out the Blank Check podcast with our friend Brian Michael Bendis, incredible comics. Comics writer is the guest. It's over three hours long. It's incredible. It's really a great episode of Blank Check, talking about Raiders.

[Paul Scheer]

It's really, really good. And I did the opposite, which is. I just listened to the episode because I know Raiders so well, but now I want to watch it again. But I did what you did before you recorded the episode, which is. I went back to the comic books, and I was like, the comic books are great. Oh, yeah, this is, man, so good. We gotta. We're gonna get into it because the Discord's very upset that we're upset with them, but I. I know.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't care. I don't. I don't even want to hear.

[Paul Scheer]

You are gonna hear about it. You're gonna hear about it. First, a big shout out to Dan from Rochester, who gave us that amazing theme song. We love these songs. Send it to us at. How did this get [e-mail]? keep it short. 15, 20 seconds is best. All right. I mean, let's talk about this. By the way, big announcement. We are making a little bit of a change on our. Our spring tour. Our spring tour has. Spring tour. What? What?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What spring tour?

[Paul Scheer]

That's right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We're coming to your town. Boise, Denver, Portland, Austin, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco.

[Paul Scheer]

We are going to be there. And also, NLA, tickets are [e-mail] now, here's the thing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Here's the thing. If you're in Texas and you want to come to the show, but you think you or someone in your family might have measles, please don't come.

[Paul Scheer]

Don't come.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Because the last time I came to Texas, you motherfuckers gave me Covid. And what I don't want right now is either bird flu or the measles. So Texas, get it together.

[Paul Scheer]

And by the way, I want to shout out, idaho. Idaho. Figure yourself out. This is the only venue so far that I'm like, wait, this is how many people are coming out? How did this get made? The first time I've ever been shocked aghast at the audience number. So come on out, Boise, Idaho.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Apparently hates the podcast.

[Paul Scheer]

I don't understand.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Not interested in the podcast. Prove us wrong, Idaho.

[Paul Scheer]

You tell us. You say, come out. Come out. All right, we're coming out. You come out now, too.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But now, how come you never come to Idaho? How come you never come to us? Guess what? We Are now, meanwhile, coming to your town.

[Paul Scheer]

Denver says, come to our town the minute we put that on sale. Like, almost sold out immediately.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Fuck yeah. Denver, mile high, Absolutely blazed.

[Paul Scheer]

They got it. They understand.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They're ready to rock. Have we announced movies yet?

[Paul Scheer]

We have not announced movies except for the LA shows, because they're rescheduled. But I will say we are burying the lead a little bit because June will be with us in Los Angeles, but she will not be with us for the rest of the tour.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Bum, bum, bum.

[Paul Scheer]

She got a very, very cool part and something that I can't announce yet, but we will be able to announce it soon. But we have a replacement. We have opened up the safe, the.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Vault, we broke the glass in case of emergency, and we got her.

[Paul Scheer]

We got Jessica St. Clair to join us. The entire tour.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The entire tour. And we've managed to talk to every venue and she will be given a mic that cannot exceed a certain volume.

[Paul Scheer]

It is going to be. It's going to be interesting for me because it's the first time we'll have gone on the road together where I don't have children or my wife with me. Not that that's going to just will allow me to eat later and. And do stuff like that. But I'm excited for this. I think it's going to be absolutely fantastic to have Jess with us.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, my God. I. As part of our agreement with every city and every venue, all the venues will be encircled by trash cans on fire. So both to give everybody a chance to warm up, but also to really make St. Clair feel welcome.

[Paul Scheer]

You know what we got to tell. We got to tell Avril when she picks movies, not the discord about how we can kind of cater some movies to Jess.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We. Yes, absolutely. This, this, this. Without telling St. Clair, the podcast tour should, every step of the way, increasingly get more and more into dystopian trash can fires. For like, I. I want Jess feeling like she's lost her mind by the end.

[Paul Scheer]

We are going to break her by the end of this tour. By the time she gets to San Fran, she will be.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She's arriving broken.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, let's take a quick break. We're going to jump into corrections and omissions and get ready. People had a lot to say about the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I assume all they had to say was, I'm sorry. We voted for this.

[Paul Scheer]

They did.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We'll find out in a second.

[Paul Scheer]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't think we missed anything.

[Paul Scheer]

It was a snooze slog. But a lot of you called in and you wrote on the discord. So let's get into it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Guys, guys, you know what? Value your time. Value your time.

[Paul Scheer]

We do love the discord. I don't like who does it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Don't. Don't include me in that.

[Paul Scheer]

I love the discord. I don't love the discord. Around the discord. Being upset that we're upset with their pick. But anyway.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, my God, give it a rest. I'm not interested in hearing from anybody.

[Paul Scheer]

Young William, take us in with a corrections and omissions theme.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You got corrections? Maybe some omissions, we got some problems, and this is where we fix it. We didn't up. Maybe you up. Corrections and omission.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. Thank you, young William. All right, this is first up in the Discord from John Not Connor. Now, he writes, I won't vouch for the movie's complete historical accuracy, but I think it is meant to be real. Turn of the century world that we learned about in history class melded with many of the books that we were supposed to read in English class. In the late 19th century, technology was advancing much faster than it had been before, making new weapons and modes of transportation possible. Also, the European powers were dividing up the world and forming secret treaties requiring to go to war if any ally was attacked. These were the conditions that led to a worldwide war in 1914. But that would have been 15 years after the time of this movie. So this movie posits that World War I could have happened in 1899 if not for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Well, that's just a factual. I mean, yeah, sure.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Honestly, John, not Conor. Who cares? Who cares? And I mean that with all due respect, because, yes, anybody here can say there's an interesting confluence of characters and actual history and fantasy characters melding together at a particularly interesting time in history and blah, blah, blah. You can even say, Jonathan, not Connors, that, that the books, the Alan Moore comics are themselves a fascinating dip into this period. And these characters and what is itself super interesting, a faithful adaptation of these comics could have been a fascinating movie. What we got, what we covered was boring, was bland. And I don't value a movie that could have been great. I spent two hours watching a movie that was slow, boring and ineffective.

[Paul Scheer]

So the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, they only postponed World War I. That's. @ the end of the day, it's like cool. I guess. I don't know. I mean, I guess.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What did you do? What did they do? They got us to like, the war starts in 1914. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

All right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Thanks. Thanks. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This movie is a failure. And everybody texting or write whatever they're writing to us on should be just saying, you know what, our bad. We liked it because it's bad or it's a lot.

[Paul Scheer]

And these aren't even the complaints. These are just people that are giving us some facts to put it in, like these.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't need them.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, some like somebody like Rudland, he goes, you know, I wonder what the sequel would have been. You know, the sequel comic miniseries had the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen dealing with the aliens from H.G. wells War of the Worlds.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Listen, we all read Black Dossier. We know the stories. They could be good. That's not what you made us watch the issue.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. It could be anything could be good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, anything could be good. This, I, I feel like a lot of the feedback is it could have been good.

[Paul Scheer]

And here, yes, we agree with. Yes, that's why we are so upset. Now Ghost Bag does. I like when people go to town on the, on the math and the science of it because Ghostbag writes, okay, how is the Nautilus? That's the big ship traversing the narrow 16ft deep Venice canals. Given both its height and length, looking it up on Google, The Nautilus measures 70 meters. That's 230ft long and 26ft wide. The ship in this film seems to be a bit longer than that. So there's no way it's making those narrow turns.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, it's inside of the Venice canals. What are we talking about? But here's the thing. Even something as stupid as that, if the movie had been successful, I would not care.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, that's that you never question it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

If it works, I wouldn't give a shit. But the More the movie is so such an offense to logic and narrative storytelling that all of the little nitpicks the Nautilus could never fit in the Venice canals, et cetera, et cetera are only even more annoying because they can't do anything right in this movie as far as I'm concerned. Concerned they have all of the playing pieces for such a fun, adventure filled story and all they do is nothing.

[Paul Scheer]

It's a slap dash. It's a slap dash. And this is what goes into a dove is saying because dove is saying like look, this movie did not care at all. As a matter of fact, at the end when they go to Sean Connory's grave, they misspell the name Quarter Main, right? It is spelled Quarter like the, like the currency when it's actually spelled Q U, A T, no, no R. So I mean, like, how could you misspell the character's name on the pivotal moment?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, the movie is lazy, it is boring and it is a waste of an incredible property. Incredible characters, largely fantastic actors. Yeah, I, I don't understand what, what people are annoyed about. Other. You know, I couldn't find it. But I just want to recommend the Junia Ba graphic novel that's all about Captain Nemo and the Nautilus and it's a giant book and it's absolutely gorgeously drawn and it's a beautiful story about Captain Nemo finding a little girl and raising her on the Nautilus. And it's awesome and it's a stunning book.

[Paul Scheer]

I want you to remember your joy for that because now we're going to get into some things that are going to make you angry. All right, we're going to go to the phones and we are going to hear from Jen, who is defending the Discord vote.

[Jen]

Hi Paul, My name is Jen and I am calling to defend the Discord vote for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I think for a lot of us who are fans of the podcast who've been watching for a really long time, this might have been the first really bad movie that we saw in theaters. I know, I'm a Discord member. I voted for it. And the reason I did is right before I went off to college, I remember seeing this in the theaters with my dad and thinking that this was a truly terrible movie. We laughed the whole time. It was one of the worst things we've ever seen. And I just have that memory. I'll also add that my dad has passed away, but we did go see the live show of you guys in Durham. And he did laugh throughout it, so thanks.

[Paul Scheer]

Aw, that is. I love that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, Jen. How can I be mad at Jen?

[Paul Scheer]

Jen really knew that you might be coming at her, so she had to kind of.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I was ready to be fired up at Jen. And then she comes in with a dead dad. Not only a dead dad, but a dead dad who's a fan of the show.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, this is, you know, like she.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow, thank you, Jen.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm gonna say this, and this is the issue that we always talk about on the show. And it's great that every now and then we prove the point, which is just because it was a bad experience for you and it's a bad movie does not mean it's a bad movie. Like, by the way, I see tweets people like, you know, you should do on how did this get made the Brutalist? I'm like, first of all, I love. I love the Brutalist.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And we're.

[Paul Scheer]

And it's like, well, just because it wasn't enjoyable to you, like, it is not like a terrible movie. And this is the issue. It's like I was bored by it. So you guys, what can you guys do with it?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know what it is? It's. It's not. I, and I think I said something like this on the episode. But it's not enough that a movie is unsuccessful or bad or boring. Like because I actually, because a lot of those things are just boring. Like something that, like mistakes that we made early on. Not mistakes, but movies that we covered early on without having Avril to vet stuff in the beginning meant that we, we covered movies that, yes, were bad, but we did them because we knew they were bad or unsuccessful or failures. The, the best example is the M. Night Shyamalan. Avatar the Last Airbender adaptation.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Which boy. Boy could that be a. Similar to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen based on a beloved ip, A live action version of a previously, you know, a graphic novel or an animated type of thing. A big, big time people adapting it. Boy, isn't this exciting. And then snooze. Boring. Avatar the Last Airbender. The movie is boring and it's not a good for the show because it wasn't. It wasn't exciting or interesting. They weren't making such big swings that they could fail enough or they weren't finding themselves in situations that were juicy for us to dig in on or have fun with. It felt like it was boring or bored and I was bored with it.

[Paul Scheer]

That's it, Jason. I don't want to. I don't want to burn you out just too early because, look, people are still popping in with thoughts about the movie is what we do. And Aaron had some more insights about Sean Connery's Lord of the Ring connections. And this is something that I think is going to be slightly interesting, maybe more interesting than the film. We'll see.

[Aaron]

Hi, Paul, this is Aaron from Vermont. You mentioned that Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. And Stuart Townsend, who played Dorian Gray, was actually cast as Aragorn and fired after production began with Peter Jackson apparently thinking he lacked the gravitas for the role. It's hard to imagine Anyone besides Ian McKellen or Vivo Mortensen in those roles. And I think maybe we all lucked out in that respect. Anyway, I saw A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen around when it came out, and that was enough for me. Love the show. Thanks.

[Paul Scheer]

Bye. Okay, look, I am. That always bums me out when you hear an actor getting fired. I, I was fired off of the Eddie Murphy movie Meet Dave. I've talked about this in the past, you know, and it's always a, you know, look, there's a lot of reasons, and for my, in my case, it was I didn't have a good enough butt crack. They wanted somebody to have a bigger butt crack than I did. So, you know, look, there's a lot of reasons. Gravitas, butt crack.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, Aaron from Vermont. Love Vermont. Shouts to Middle Berry College and all of Vermont. But I, I like those stories, too. Like the, the actor who shot Two weeks on There Will Be Blood and was replaced by Paul Dano. You know, stories.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, Eric Stoltz, Back to the Future. I would love to see. I would love to actually see, because here's the thing, and I think it's. And it could, it could be the same for this. I'm fascinated because I know Eric Stoltz is a good actor. Right. We've seen a body of work from Eric Stoltz to know he is not a bad actor. But for whatever reason, it didn't work.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And well, and Zemecka says, you know, that it was too serious. Right.

[Paul Scheer]

And I would love to see it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

There was a darkness to Stolz's Marty McMahon. Right.

[Paul Scheer]

And I would have loved to have seen that. Just to see the different take. I mean, that's kind of the fun of it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, wouldn't that be great?

[Paul Scheer]

They only just play it without the, the audio track up. It drives me crazy. Come on.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

At this point, the thing about this, and to Aaron's point, I love stories like this. It's great to hear about what Sean Connery didn't do or to imagine a Lord of the Rings, blah, blah, blah. Does any of that make it worth it for us to sit through League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for two hours? No, absolutely not. It's not worthwhile enough. The special interest tidbits are not value added enough for a slog of a movie.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, Jason, you got me thinking, and I. I'm just curious. Did I ever show you some of the lost Back to the Future auditions?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, no, for sure.

[Paul Scheer]

This is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I've never seen any of this.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, this. I'm just gonna play a clip of it. You can find them online. This is so much fun. I think. All right, I'm gonna. I guess, you know, you can kind of pick who you want to see. This is. I got Billy Zane as Biff. I got. I got. I got Peter DeLuise as Biff. I got Kira.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Cedric.

[Paul Scheer]

Cedric, yeah. Kira. Cedric is great. I think I want to show you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, and chemistry tests together. Interesting.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm going to show you Ben stiller as Marty McFly.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Great.

[Paul Scheer]

Here we go. So what are your parents like? Are they as square as mine? Lorraine, lately I've come to the conclusion I don't know anything about my parents. Marty, why are you so nervous? Well, have you ever been, like, in a situation where, well, you know, you have to act a certain way, but. But when you get there, you're not sure you can really go through with it?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, when you're out on a first.

[Paul Scheer]

Date with someone, sort of. I mean, there it is. That's kind of great. So they have, like, so many great people auditioning. It's a really fun one to watch.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, yeah, And I love stuff like that. I loved. What the SNL special recently. That was just an hour of talk. People talking about their auditions.

[Paul Scheer]

Watching their auditions.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, so uncomfortable.

[Paul Scheer]

I was uncomfortable for them. It made me so upset. Okay, this is just another clarification of Mina Harkness from Devon in Brooklyn. Here we go.

[Davon]

Hey, Paul, it's your resident nerd, Davon, calling out of Brooklyn, New York. I am listening to your League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and a question with acts of Mina Harkness of why she can walk in the daylight and turn into a bunch of bats. Is that the power of Dracula? So, no, she has the blood of Vlad the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler, who is a true vampire, can walk in the daylight and do all that Crazy stuff. When he bites people and turns them, they turn into vampires or lesser vampires who can't walk in the daylight and have all those weird fetishes with the cross and the garlic, yada, yada, yada. I mean, it is a different lore, but basically, Mina in the League of the Extraordinary Gentleman has inherited Dracul's true blood. So she can walk in the daylight. She can. Well, she can walk in a daylight, but her powers are hab. Anyway, I love the show.

[Paul Scheer]

Love you guys.

[Davon]

Glad you guys are all safe from the fire. Please keep pumping out these podcasts because they bring me so much joy.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

See? Great work.

[Paul Scheer]

Love it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Great work. Every. Everybody who's called in so far from someplace I live.

[Paul Scheer]

Is that. I mean, maybe we should just make that part of the Collins. You have to be there.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And this I don't mind, because. Okay. Yes, great. So Mina Harkness, who is, you know, a huge part in the books. I've also continued to go on and read the books. Yes. Vlad the Impaler. And my understanding is Vlad the Impaler and Dracula are different. Vlad the Impaler, a historical character. Dracula a fiction character. So. Thank you, Davon.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I. Again, I like a comment like that. It's really good. And I think we're gonna get another one like that from Micah in Illinois.

[Micah]

Hey, guys, it's Micah from Illinois. Love your show. You guys have kept me alive. I've been driving an hour to work every morning. On the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen episode, you talked about the fact that Sean Connery. I've turned down, you know, the Matrix and at least one other job to do this one. I heard in an interview years ago that the reason he accepted the role of, you know, Quartermain in this movie was because he had turned down the Matrix because he didn't understand the script. And then when you realize how big of a mistake that was, he promised himself he would jump on the next script that he didn't understand. And unfortunately for him, it was the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. All right, well, anyway, guys, you know, keep doing God's work. Thanks so much. And I'll hear you all in the morning.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, now this is interesting because I have. I have heard this story as well, and I think the. The way he's kind of put it together is actually quite interesting in the sense that he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I won't. Like. I'm. I'm clearly not hip enough to get it, and I can. I could see. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. This is what these idiots that America is going to, like, I'm going to do this movie and just being so, so wrong about it in every way. I do love that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. Oh, and I think, you know, I also think that, you know, there, if you're in that position where you've missed out on these kind of massive properties that are. That go on to be massive hits, and you are given this and, and not for nothing, you know, maybe I'm certain this was a bad script, but at the very least it had the. It was coming with the kind of.

[Paul Scheer]

Right lineage, right?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes. I mean, an Alan Moore comic series. A like, these are the people behind the scenes are real people. It's not just like Sean Connery's taking a flyer. So I understand why he made this choice, but boy, you know, he was led astray and what, what a disappointment for him, I'm sure. And it puts him out of the business, basically.

[Paul Scheer]

Look, and now we're going to go away from this for a second and say, yes, we got a bunch of other corrections in here. We got like that Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde was never very big. He was very small. Then somebody else points out something like, Tom Sawyer was published in 1872, which would make sense why he would be a grown up in 1899. But the problem is the story was set in the 1840s, so at this point, Tom Sawyer would be about 60 or 70 years old. And now at this point we're just like, all right, well, now we're just pulling out threads again. It's not even worthy of pulling out these threads because, yeah, these.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I feel like people are trying to say, like, these are avenues you should have talked about.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, and I'm like, why now?

[Paul Scheer]

Here's what I got. This is the one I've been saving for you because I think this is actually a really good one. This is from Sean McBee, a great corrections and omissions person who is writing to us about some information that he has not seen published anywhere. He got this information directly from the screenwriter James Robinson. Okay. And all of this is from an interview that he did with James on an old podcast. Okay. So this is what he wrote. He said when James.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm so sorry, what's the podcast? Should we.

[Paul Scheer]

I don't know. Okay, got it, got it. Now, when James is hired to write this, only the first six issues of the comic had been released. It wasn't zero, as Paul claimed. Well, that was my research. And one of the initial conditions placed on his adaptation was that it had to include a younger member over the concern that the league was composed of older members, endangering the appeal to the young demographic.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is why that's the Tom Sawyer who's not in the book, right?

[Paul Scheer]

And then James Robinson goes on to say the script was vastly different. Robinson is an incredibly accomplished comic book writer. He wrote the 90s Starman, the JSA Golden Age miniseries and countless other things. And he tried very, very hard to be true to Alan Moore's original comics, but was impeded by several factors. As an example, the original script involved a Prussian villain who was planning on unleashing a flesh eating gas on New York where the film would primarily take place. But then 911 happened and the studio said, we gotta pivot away from that. We can't be in New York, we can't have an attack. And then a bunch of producers came forward and they were like, well, we gotta change a lot of this stuff. We gotta reshape this entire thing. We gotta get it to check all these boxes. And that's how the movie became what it is. He goes, if anyone wants to hear this 18 minute long league of Extraordinary Gentlemen discussion, he posted it to YouTube just for the how did this get made Crowd. There's a lot more information there and you can find it on a link that we'll have in our show notes, but you can also find on the Discord so that I think kudos, kudos to you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Super interesting.

[Paul Scheer]

You came in, you gave us some info. I love that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And James Robinson, a truly like fantastic comics writer, like a, one of the legendary comics writers of that era, you know, so I think super interesting. And that sounds like an interview I'd be more interested in listening to than I would be to watch the movie.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, there's many things I'd like to be doing that are painful that I'd like to do more than watch a movie. Again, you know what? And honestly, without any further ado, I, I, that's the winner. I mean, that's the winner of this week.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Let me just, let me, I'll just shout out one James Robinson comic that I think is worth reading is his. It's, it's because it's short and it's full gonzo insanity and it's called Airboy. Oh, it is a fantastic comic series from, I don't know, maybe 10 or so years ago, maybe longer now.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, Sean McBe, you are the winner. You don't get anything, but you get this amazing theme by Bombay Beach Revival. Hit it. You win. All right. Now, if you want to chime in with your own thoughts, do it at your own peril. I mean, after this week, you know, look, we really served you up, but we're gonna get this or just.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Or just think of them to yourself and enjoy your own cleverness and don't feel like you need to send it.

[Paul Scheer]

But we do need something to fill up these episodes. We do need something.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We do.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I mean, we could make it all just chat.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'll just listen. I mean, we could talk about Shorzy. We sh's back. We can talk about A Thousand Blows, the new Steven Knight show. We can talk about Reacher Season 3.

[Paul Scheer]

I want to talk about the Lauren book, the Lorne Michaels by the Wayne book. That's so good. All right. Anyway, make sure you hit up Disconnect the discord. Discord. GG HDTGM or call us at 619p a u l a s k. All right, we'll be right back. Hey, everybody. Just wanted to give you a quick heads up here. There's something we should all be doing. It's going to improve your life, make every day a little bit better. And that is eat more Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yes. Think about it. All the gurus, all the coaches out there, they've never said the words eat more Reese's. I mean, that combination of sweet chocolate and salty peanut butter, I mean, this is something that brings other people and ourselves joy. That's why there's two in a pack shop. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups now at a store near you found wherever candy is sold and often in my pantry, because I love these. As a small business owner, you don't have the luxury of clocking out early. I know that. Right? You know your business is on your mind 24 7. So when you're hiring, you need a partner that grinds just as hard as you do. And that hiring partner is LinkedIn jobs. Let me tell you, when you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. They make it easy to post your job for free, share it with your network, and get qualified candidates that you can manage all in one place. And LinkedIn's new feature can help you write job descriptions and then quickly get your job in front of the right people with deep candidate insights. Okay, at the end of the day, the most important thing for your small business is the quality of candidates. And with LinkedIn, you can feel confident that you're getting the best. Find out why more than 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring today. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com valuable. That's LinkedIn.com valuable to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. We all would love to travel around the world, but there's one thing often keeping us back. The language gap. Oh, the language gap. Well, you don't need to mind the gap if you have Babbel. Okay. Babbel is a program, a language learning app that gets you talking. With 10 minute lessons created by over 200 experts, you can start speaking a new language in three weeks or at your own pace. Whatever you want to do. You can focus on practical real world conversations. It makes learning to communicate easy and effective. I love Babbel. All right. I am trying to learn Spanish. I am getting better at it. I am in the middle of my first week doing it and I have to tell you, I love it now. Want to join me on this language journey? Well, Babbel is gifting our listeners 60% off subscriptions at babbel.com Bonkers get up to 60% off at babbel.com Bonkus spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com Bonkers babbel.com Bonkers rules and restrictions apply. Jason, we are back and I'm sure that you've noticed that every week we release old how did this get made episodes back into the feed. They're matinee episodes and oh, we had some good ones. We just re released the number 23, which is still one of my favorites that we've done. That's a Jim Carrey movie where he was obsessed with member.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes. It's like a thriller.

[Paul Scheer]

Top secret. Great.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Top secrets.

[Paul Scheer]

And then. And then this week is one that was kind of out of the box, but I love this one too. This is the Justice League, the Snyder cut with Griffin and David Tech boys. I love those guys. And they're doing an amazing series on Spielberg right now, which.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's what I was just about to say. They're doing the early Spielberg movies right now. ET Jaws, Close Encounters of the third kind. They have been incredible episodes.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm bummed that we're not in it, but I also feel like we don't deserve to be in those. We need to be on the. We need to be in the. On the outside. We got to be in the.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Sorry. We absolutely deserve to be in there. They've got the fudgeing doughboys on.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, let's.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right, all right. If you've got Mitch and Tiger Weiger on the show, you can have the. How did this get made?

[Paul Scheer]

Boy by the way, you and I are going to be appearing together, I believe, on the Doughboys for the March Madness. I'm very excited about that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, let's double down. We're definitely doing it together.

[Paul Scheer]

We are definitely going to be on it together. So don't let anyone dissuade you from that, Jason. Well, you know what? The Discord has, you know, caused a lot of the discord of the Discord. Well, you know what? Now they're coming with their hat and their hand, their big Dr. Hyde hat in their hand with some apologies. And here is an apologies theme.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm sorry. So sorry.

[Paul Scheer]

This is from Keithosaurus Rex. Personal correction. I am sorry for voting for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I had never seen it and I had high hopes. A movie with so much exposition left so much unsaid. The character spent more time fighting with and rearranging furniture than the Property Brothers.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Bam. This is how we ended up with a second term of Donald Trump. I haven't seen it, but I voted for it. Get it together, Keithosaurus Rex. It's time to know what you're voting for. Don't vote from a place of ignorance.

[Paul Scheer]

Do the research now. Ghostbag writes. I admit I voted for this film to be covered, but when I watched it on Amazon prime one day out of boredom, I sat there with my mouth agape, wondering how something like this could have ever been made. Apologies to Jason, but I need some sort of post traumatic review of this film and a podcast titled how did this get Made? Seem like the best place to go to properly break this piece of shit movie down.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't want to be in the business of helping you out of a traumatic.

[Paul Scheer]

We're trying to keep the energy light here, people. We want to make this a fun journey.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is not a. We're not trying to trauma bond with you as the audience. We're trying to have fun, assholes.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, well, let's get one final apology. And this one is. We can hear it. We don't have to have me read it. Here we go. Sorry.

[Aaron]

The Discord voted for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It wasn't my choice and only serves to further erode my confidence in the democratic process.

[Davon]

I love the show. I feel so bad that you guys hate it. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, because it's my. One of my favorite bad movies. The CGI is terrible. And like Jason said, it's a really good book.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, it is. It is a good book. And it's also a very bad movie. Both of those things are true. I'M not trying to take. I'm not trying to take it away from you guys who voted for a bad movie. It is bad.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, they got it. They got it. And as a matter of fact, we're gonna try to make it okay, in a way, with our next movie. So, Jason, thank you for joining me for this. This was awesome to have you here. And, you know, now I feel like we've laid down the law, people. You can come back next week and you can write your math equations and your ship sizes. I will not come at you as hard as Jason did.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Disconnect the discord. That's our. Lock the gates.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, Next week we'll be going from joyless journeys to some double trouble. That's right. Next week we are watching Doppelganger, starring Drew Barrymore and George Newburn. Oh, wow. Always wanted to see them together. Here's a short breakdown of the plot. Our main character, Holly, flees from Los Angeles to New York after a fatal incident mysteriously involving her family. While starting an affair with the young writer she happens to be renting a room from. Holly finds herself being stalked by a homicidal maniac who happens to look just like her. Is it her evil twin hallucination, malignity, or, as the film is dubbed, Doppelganger? You'll have to watch to find out. This film has a 24% on rotten tomato and a letterboxd user. Sophie Cinema calls it a bloody hellraiser of a beef flick that cycles ludicrously from cable era wet dream to Lovecraftian nightmare, from masturbation to defenestration. Holy cow. Now I want to see it even more. All right, listen to the trailer. Remember, this was the runner up in the Discord pic.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Holly has found someone new.

[Paul Scheer]

Sorry I scared you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Someone very secret.

[Paul Scheer]

It's very romantic.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Someone who hides from us all another self. A deeper, darker side that is capable of the unimaginable. And now the only thing she has to fear is herself.

[Paul Scheer]

You can stream Doppelganger for free on Tubi, Philo and the Roku Channel, dailymotion and more. Now, I encourage you to also check out Hoopla Canopy and Libby, which are digital media services offered by your local library that allow you to consume movies, TV, music, audiobooks, eBooks, and comics for free. All right, that's it, everybody. Remember, if you listen to us on Apple podcasts or Spotify, please rate and review us. Please also make sure that you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on. It helps the show and we appreciate it. You can visit us all on social media at hdtgm. And a big thank you to our producers. That's right, Cody Fisher, Molly Reynolds and our movie picking producer Avril Halley, who has been sidelined for two weeks due to you discord users. Oh man. Anyway, our associate producer is Jess Cisneros and our engineer is Casey Holford. We'll see you next week for Doppelganger.

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[Paul Scheer]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Paul Scheer]

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[Paul Scheer]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Paul Scheer]

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