The Point Radio: Just How Real Is DONNY?

Ad man, TV talk show host and now a sitcom star. It’s been an interesting journey for Donny Deutsch and he talks about how it took him to his new series DONNY, where he plays a version of himself? Plus martial arts is back on the small screen with AMC’s INTO THE BADLANDS. Series Danny Wu reveals why this new series is definitely binge worthy.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. It's Mike Raub from Talk Show Host to sitcom. It's been an interesting ride for Danny Deutsch and he tells us how the journey got started. Plus, Kung Fu Action is back in a big way on AMC. Into the Badlands premieres in a few days and we've got to start and tell us just what

we can expect. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio.

AMC is jumping into the action. The Point Radio. AMC is jumping into the action-packed genre of martial arts with a new series called Into the Badlands, based a little bit on the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West. At the center of it all is actor Danny Wu who told me how it all comes together.

It's a pretty wacky show. It's a martial arts drama simply put, but it's obviously much more than that. It takes place in a dystopian future about 500 years from now where society's kind of something's happened and society's reset itself and it's struck in the area that we're in the Badlands, the protected area where they're run by seven barons and each baron

has an army of clippers that are kind of, it kind of harkens back old feudal times or even feudal Japan. And each baron has an industry and a power and then he controls his power with his clipper force. And I play Sonny, his regan, which is the most decorated clipper in the land.

In the 70s it was Bruce Lee. In the 90s it was Jed Lee. So is America ready for a new insurgent of kung fu action? Well I certainly think that we're ready for it on television. I think we've never seen this kind of action on television before.

I think a lot of fans have had to go to Eastern films to get their fill of this kind of action and now we're presenting it to everyone for American audiences on TV now. I asked Danny how he got into the business. Oh, I started my career in Hong Kong. I was born in America.

I graduated from the University of 1997 and went to Hong Kong and basically was pulled into the movie business. I was in a bar one day having a drink. Someone tapped me and scouted me for a TV commercial. I did that and then a month later a director saw that and called me in for an interview

and at the end of the interview he asked me to be the leading man in the movie. And I was like, what? Are you serious? I've never asked people in my life, are you sure you want to do that? I actually turned it down because they want to screw it up.

And then he kept calling me for a month every single day and finally at the end I'm like, if you don't blame me for screwing up, I'll give it a try. And I gave it a shot and I fell in love with the whole process and then two weeks later after I was done he recommended me to another director and that first year I did six movies. And from acting, what brought him into the director's chair?

I think, you know, having been in, you know, when I started producing I'd been in the business for a good like eight to ten years already and accumulated a lot of experience of just watching films get put together and just was excited about creating something that, you know, a story that people hadn't seen before or a way of shooting something that people hadn't done before and just wanted to do that.

And so I did that through directing a film and as well as producing several films, four or five films, as well as including this TV show, The Batman. Who were some of his influences? Well, I think, you know, obviously Hong Kong directors is a director named Trey Hart who, you know, directed Jet Li many times.

Once Upon a China being one of his best films and one of my favorite films. And also you couldn't guarantee, you know, who took that genre and kind of give me the own twist of it with Bill Bill. You know, I like his film and I can take on the company, a tiny company style a lot. Danny's got a pretty long resume, especially when it comes to great action films.

And I asked him among all those roles, are there any you'd like to revisit? Oh, that's an interesting question. There's a movie I did in Hong Kong in 2005, about 10 years ago, called One Night in Hong Kong. And it was an interesting story, the interwoven story of, you know, a poor assassin who's

been sent to Hong Kong to do a job he didn't want to do. And then in the mix with that, there's all these stories of cops trying to find him. It takes place within 24 hours. And it's probably the most favorite movie I've done. And I'd like to do another version of that movie for Western audiences.

So I asked Danny about his dream project. Anything he could do in any genre, right, direct or star in? And he gave me a pretty quick answer. Oh, one one story that I've been following since I was in high school, and this is actually part of it may actually actually even happen, is the story about a Japanese-American who

was involved in Italian mafia in the 70s and 80s. And he was actually became a maid man. And his name was Kupio Joe or Montana Joe. That was his nickname. And it's a really fascinating story.

It was a true story. He was really high up in the mafia. Then he got basically people were jealous of him. And he was, as fast as an ancient attempt was made on him, just shot him unblanked twice in the head and he survived.

And then he turned to the Fed in the 80s, I think it was 1984. He gave up the most amount of mafia members to the federal FBI at the time. And so it's an interesting story to have an Asian-American be part of the Italian mafia. Into the Badlands on AMC with new episodes every Sunday and see more at AMC.com.

Big dive in sales in comic book stores in October. All that and more as we cover what's going on in pop culture. Fish Mooney is alive and well, well, sort of. Jada Pinkett Smith is headed to a new project for ABC called Murder Town, which will star and executive produce.

The series is set to go to pilot with ABC in the spring. The follow up to World War Z now has a new writer, Dennis Kelly, who you know from Utopia took over for Steven Knight. But the film is still scheduled to be released on June the 9th, 2017. Brad Pitt will produce and star in the sequel as well.

After ending the third quarter on a 3% down note, when compared to 2014, comic sales at a bad month in October too, with a 10% or just under that decline in sales that covers both graphic novels and comics in stores. We'll run down the entire list and tell you what did sell in the comic shops coming up in a bit.

Well, don't look for the sequel to Alien to get before the cameras for at least a little while. Neil Blomkamp, the director, recently said that the movie is on hold all pending Ridley Scott's Prometheus 2. Call of Duty, the movie well, it could happen in the first steps have begun with the formation

of activation Blizzard Studios. The game of publishers decided to get into the movie business and to take some of its more popular properties along. The first project planned is an animated series based on Skylander Academy. After ending the third quarter of a year on a 3% down note, sales of comics in comic

stores took a real dive in October, down almost 10%. But that's only the bad news. The good news is that 14 different titles that were released during the month all had sales of well over 100,000, which is something that hasn't happened, well, for a number of years.

Marvel was the big winner in that list with 18 of the top 20 slots and a couple of those titles selling over 200,000, that being Invincible Iron Man and Amazing Spider Man. And a couple more were almost at the 200,000 mark, that being Spider Gwen and Secret Wars. Put that all together. And here's a list of the top 10 best selling comics in the month in comic stores in October.

And we started at number 10 with Amazing Spider Man number two at number nine. Guardians of the Galaxy number one still from Marvel at number eight. Journey Star Wars F.O.S. number two at number seven. Jubaka number one at number six.

Star Wars number 10 at number five. Doctor Strange number one at number four. Secret Wars at number six at number three. Spider Gwen number one. Have you noticed that a DC title to be found number one best selling book in comic stores

in October, Invincible Iron Man number one from Marvel. The point, the point. AMC is jumping into the action packed genre of martial arts with a new series called Into the Badlands, based a little bit on the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West. At the center of it all is actor Danny Wu who told me how it all comes together.

It's a pretty wacky show. It's a martial arts drama simply put, but it's obviously much more than that. It takes place in the dystopian future about 500 years from now where society is kind of something's happened and society reset itself and it's in the area that we're in, the Badlands is the protected area where they're run by seven barons and each baron has an

army of clippers that are kind of it kind of harkens back old feudal times or even feudal Japan. And each baron has an industry and a power and then he controls his power with his clipper and I play Sonny is the region, which is the most decorated clipper in the land in the seventies.

It was Bruce Lee in the nineties. It was jedley. So is America ready for a new insurgents of Kung Fu action? Well, I certainly think that we're ready for it on television. I think we've never seen this kind of action on television before.

I think a lot of fans have had to go to Eastern film to get the feel of this kind of action. And now we're presenting it to everyone for for American audiences on TV. Now I asked Danny how he got into the business. I started my career in Hong Kong. I was born in America.

I graduated from the University of Nineteen Eighty seven and went to Hong Kong and basically was pulled into the movie business. I was in a bar one day having a drink. Someone casted me and scattered me for a TV commercial. I did that.

And then a month later, director saw that and called me in for an interview. And at the end of the interview, he asked me to be the leading man in his movie. And I was like, what are you serious? I've never asked to be blown in my life. Are you sure you want to do that?

I actually turned it down because I want to screw it up. And then just calling me for a month every single day. And finally again, I'm like, look, if you don't blame me for screwing up, I'll give it a try. And I gave it a shot. And that's my own love with the whole process.

And then two weeks later after I was done, he recommended me to another director. And that first year I did six movies. And from acting, what brought him into the director's chair? I think, you know, having been in, you know, when I started producing, I've been in the business for a good like eight to 10 years already.

And the community, a lot of experience of just watching films get put together and just was excited about creating something that, you know, a story that people hadn't seen before or a way of shooting some of the people hadn't done before and just wanted to do that. And so I did that through directing a film and as well as producing several films, four or five films, as well as including this TV show, The Batman.

Who were some of his influences? Well, I think, you know, obviously, Hong Kong directors is a director named Trey Hart, who, you know, they're a gently many times, Once Upon a China being one of his best films and one of my favorite films. And also even Quentin Tarantino, who took that genre and kind of did his own tricks of it

with Kill Bill. You know, I like his film and I like his take on the Chinese company style a lot. Danny's got a pretty long resume, especially when it comes to great action films. And I ask him, among all those roles, are there any you'd like to revisit? Oh, that's an interesting question.

There's a movie I did in Hong Kong in 2005, about 10 years ago, called One Night in Hong Kong. And it was an interesting story, interloping story of, you know, a poor assassin who's been sent to Hong Kong to do a job he didn't want to do. And then in the mix with that, there's all these stories of cops trying to find him. It takes place within 24 hours.

And it's probably the most favorite movie I've done. And I'd like to do another version of that movie for Western audiences. So I asked Danny about his dream project, anything he could do in any genre, write, direct or star in. And he gave me a pretty quick answer. One one story that I've been following since I was in high school, and this is actually a part of it may actually

actually even happen, is the story about a Japanese-American who was involved in Italian mafia in the 70s and 80s. And he was actually became a maid man. And his name was Tokyo Joe or Montana Joe. That was his nickname. And it's a really fascinating story because it's a true story. He was really high up in the mafia.

Then he got basically people were jealous of him and he was a fascinating attempt with me on him to shot him unblanked twice in the head and he survived. And then he turned to the Fed and in the 80s, I think it was 1984, he gave up the most amount of mafia members to the federal of the time. And so it's an interesting story that made American be part of the Italian mafia.

Into the Badlands on AMC with new episodes every Sunday and see more at AMC.com. That's a wrap for the podcast right now, but there's a lot more coming up and you can always catch us on great websites like ComicMix dot com voices from Krypton dot com. Get the point radio dot com and in the iTunes podcast directory. The pop culture upload is heard on great radio stations all over the world.

Make sure the one you're listening to has this. And of course, we're on Instagram under pop culture upload on Twitter under PC upload and the point radio on Facebook. See you back here in a few days. Get the point radio dot com.