The Point Radio: LEGO Voices And BLACKLIST Reveals
Transcript
The Point Radio I'm Mike Raub. Well, it is Superman, Batman, even Wonder Woman on the big screen right now. It's Legos, the movie. We talk to the cast about voicing iconic characters and playing with toys. Plus more on the black list and when will we get some answers? Let's get to the point. This is The Point, The Point Radio, get The Point Radio
Superhero purists may not like it, but for the rest of us, the Lego movie looks like it'll be a whole bunch of joy in the movie theater. Along with some original characters, there's some familiar ones too, like Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, and even Batman, played by actor Will Arnett. Everybody knows who Batman is, but what was fun was taking that kind of iconic character, a character who's so such a part of the fabric of popular culture and kind of changing the rules to him a little bit. That was fun and that's funny to me because he's not necessarily the Batman that we've all become accustomed to.
And to get that voice right. You know, I think that we talked, Phil and Chris and I talked early on about the idea of looking at all the Batman that have come before and trying to… Back to the original Batman, yeah, back to the Batman before the dinosaurs. I think that we were trying to see what would make us laugh and what we liked about all those Batman. And so the first couple of sessions we spent a lot of time finding that voice and what was kind of working and what wasn't.
And we kept hitting on that the more serious Batman took himself, the funnier he was. And that's kind of where we ended up. Actor Chris Pratt plays one of the original characters in the film, Emmett. This movie is truly like Emmett's journey as a character. It's a really very clear story for him. So like, this is if he was to ever as an old man say, let me tell you a story of my life.
He would just pop in the Lego movie, DVD and say, this is the entire story of my life. There wasn't a lot of backstory because you know exactly who he is when he starts out. He's this very kind of sadly lonely character who doesn't feel like anyone thinks that he's special. And through the course of this movie he's given an opportunity to do something very extraordinary and test himself and prove that he can believe in himself. And also become less lonely by inheriting this family of master builders.
I don't know. I didn't have to have too much backstory in terms of like just like doofus with extraordinary things happening around him. I was like, I know how to do that. So how hard was it to combine live action, CGI and animation? I think the most difficult thing was actually getting a story that made sense and was entertaining of all of all the things. But from a technical standpoint, I think probably getting the CG to look photo real and be full of like thumb prints and scratches and dust and dandruff and make you think that it was a real Lego set that matched up with all the real Lego things that were in the movie.
So you couldn't tell was probably the hardest part. And of course, everybody has fond memories of Legos. Actress Elizabeth Banks. My earliest memory of Lego involves like grabbing them from my sisters. Like, no, they're mine. I'm playing with them now. And I was very bossy about it.
And then my journey now, I have two young sons. So like I've now journeyed back to just I like to build things. I can admit this about myself. I'll spend time with my sons on the floor and I'll build something that I think is cool. And my kids, I should present it to them and they immediately smash it.
And those memories continue right up to today for Will Arnett's family. Yeah, I have a three year old and a five year old and they're both extremely excited. They're and they're going crazy. My youngest keeps calling. I love it. He keeps referring to the movie as the Lego Batman movie. Catch the Lego movie in theaters also showing in real 3D.
Hey, we're Super Bowl. Here comes the very latest in pop culture. The DC vertical project I zombie may be coming to television. The CW is ordered a pilot written and executive produced by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas. The book, as you know, ended abruptly back in 2012 when writer Chris Roberson left DC. Of course, again, it all depends on the success of the pilot when pilot season actually comes in the spring a few weeks from right now.
The same time, the CW will be considering other pilots, including the one for the flash series. Good news all around for fans of the series. Bones, the veteran drama has been renewed for a tenth season. According to Fox, phones will also return to its original time slot. The series goes back to Mondays at 8 p.m. beginning on March the 10th.
The second Captain America movie is a few weeks away from hitting the theaters and the third one is not yet been greenlit. But Marvel has already announced directors for that film and they are Anthony and Joe Russo, who did direct the second Captain America film. The Winter Soldier set to hit theaters in April. They say it's all based on some very positive reaction and test screenings to the cap movie. And it goes no word yet on whether Chris Evans will continue as Captain America, although he does have a six picture deal with Marvel Studios.
NBC is breaking tradition and moving the Emmys to Monday night on August 25th. The 66 primetime Emmys will air on the network rather than the usual Sunday night slot. Actually, it's all a little early too because for the past years on CBS, ABC and Fox, the Emmys have been on in September. As far as the move to Mondays go, that's the first time that's been scheduled since 1976. Writing on the success of the second season of the following, Kevin Williams, creator of the show, got a pilot order for a new project from CBS.
It's an untitled drama thriller about a pair of detectives who handle stalking cases for the Threat Management Unit of the L.A. Police Department. Like other pilots, it'll be considered for series come springtime. Well, we can't resist saying it, but it looks like Sean didn't save the world. Sean saves the world. The NBC comedy series has been officially canceled by the network.
Production has been shut down even though the show received a five episode back order for a total of 18 episodes this season. 14 of those, however, were shot. 12 have aired, which leave two more that will turn up on some form of the NBC family at some particular point in time. It all comes down to ratings concerned next turns to the Michael J. Fox show, which aired adjacent to Sean. NBC reportedly would like to continue the show, but again, ratings have been pretty much in the basement.
The point, the point. There's no question that audiences have embraced the NBC series, the Blacklist. With the added DVR viewing, the series is now among the most watched shows on television and easily the biggest hit of this TV season. As a serialized drama, though, there's a lot of questions put forth week to week. Perhaps the biggest question of all is, do the people behind the show really know where they're going?
I talked to executive producer John Isengrad. We don't want to go on. We do have answers to these, you know, to many of these questions and don't want to tease too much. And, you know, we felt like it was it was a sort of bold move to to do that and to to to lay out some answers. So what we don't want to do is continually be teasing the audience and not not answering the questions that we're raising.
And so, you know, we're doing that as best we can. Hopefully that's satisfying and we'll continue to hopefully surprise ourselves in how and when we we answer those questions. As showrunners and executive producers, do the guys really know the time when to give answers and when not to co-executive producer John Bogan. Yeah, well, you know, it's difficult. It's hard to know. And we're constantly asking ourselves that question that you just asked about when when is too soon.
You know, are we giving away too much? Are we burning through story too much? It's also sort of a difficult balance of the show is a sort of strange hybrid of serialized and standalone episodes. We have a case of the week each week. And so, you know, we want to service that and we want to have cool, different, unusual black listeners. But at the same time, we want to come back to our central characters and the larger questions that are, you know, raised by the by the show. And so, you know, we just try to gut check each other in the writers room and try to slow down, I guess, as much as we can, because the instinct is to, you know, move quickly.
So the big question is, will we get answers soon? Yes. And, you know, yeah, that's yes. We there is absolutely a definitive answer and it is something that will take hopefully many years to answer, but it will certainly not be something that we will, you know, lay out right up front here. But we will, you know, as I feel like we've done in the first 10 episodes, we'll continue this year to give concrete answers to that and other big questions.
They may not just be the final. Of course, a lot of the success in the show certainly can be credited to the acting of James Spader. And I asked both Johns what they think that he brings to the show. You know, I think he's brought the sort of strange sense of humor that the that the character has that the show has. And I think that sort of that's something that he he tells me he saw that in the original pilot script and and I didn't see it as much.
But I do. I do think he, you know, I mean, Spader himself has a very strange perspective on the world, you know, and a funny, very funny guy. And so, you know, in speaking with him and getting to know him and starting to get to know his his voice sort of allows us to to think in terms of what would this guy say? What would he do? What would he think is moral or not moral?
And so I do think that that sense of humor in that voice is something that he's he's been helpful in sort of filling out. That was as John mentioned, it's morality. We have a lot of conversations, John, and then with James as well, about, you know, what would read where would he draw the line? What is his view about good and evil right and wrong? And I think he's very determined that the character not, you know, he's not a psychopath.
He's not someone who, you know, has no sense of right and wrong. I think imbuing him with a sense of right and wrong really protects his character from just becoming evil. And I think he's very aware of that. And that is another thing. I think that perspective is something I think he has helped to bring.
The pacing of the show is intense, to say the least. So how is it work for the cast members? Is it tough to unwind with the camera stop? Cast member, Parmander Negri. I enjoy those moments of doing those scenes of like running around chasing bad guys because you can't sort of almost like cops and robbers.
But no, I don't come. I don't come. I actually have quite a good laugh in between takes. So but, you know, when you get down to the actual work part of it and doing the scenes, you know, you enjoy that part of it and get focused for those moments. And, you know, knowing what you want to do with it, obviously.
But no, I don't come home. And maybe the glass of wine at the end of the night helps me. But I think we have a pretty I think, you know, we have a good balance on start. You know, nobody goes totally, you know, crazy or anything like that. But I think we have a good balance.
Catch up on the black list right now at NBC dot com. New episodes every Monday on NBC. The point. That doesn't go right down, but there's a football game and a groundhog to deal with this weekend. And that means more than likely plenty of stuff happening in pop culture.
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