The Point Radio: Taking ANGRY BIRDS From App To Big Screen

These days the one genre that rules the box office consistently are animated family films (even more than super hero flicks). John Cohen came from projects like ICE AGE and DESPICABLE ME to convert the smash phone game, ANGRY BIRDS, into an even bigger movie hit. He talks about that journey plus his love for animation in general. Plus Mark Geist was among the brave men who lived the real life story of Michael Bay’s film, 13 HOURS:THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI . We find out what really happened that dark night in 2012.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. It's Mike Raub coming from movies like Despicable Me and The Ice Age. John Cohen is your go-to guy when it comes to animation. So it's only logical he is the name behind the Angry Birds movie. And we'll talk about how he went from app to the big screen.

Plus Michael Bay's movie 13 Hours hits DVD, but how accurate was it? We talked to somebody who was on the front lines that night in Libya. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio.

Get The Point Radio. When it comes to animated family films, John Cohen is a guy you want on your team. With titles on his resume like Ice Age and Despicable Me, John was a logical choice to be the writer and producer for Angry Birds, the movie. But my question is, how do you go from an app to the big screen?

You know, it was definitely an interesting story. We got started working on this movie back in 2012. And that just shows how long it takes to make an animated movie. And when you have something like Angry Birds, this is a game. These games have been downloaded over three and a half billion times.

That is a huge, huge number of people that have played or know these games. And normally when you have a property of this size with this many fans out in the world, it tends to be the kind of thing like a book series such as Harry Potter or a comic series, you know, Spider-Man or Iron Man. And with those types of properties, they have detailed mythology built.

And, you know, if you think about a Harry Potter book, every single world is defined in character and prop and everything. And with Angry Birds, there are a number of key things that people know and want from the game. You have these flightless birds that have these unique abilities, and they use a slingshot because they're fighting these bad babies. But beyond those key things, not a lot had been defined.

And so we were able to create our own mythology and to create an original story. And this movie is the origin story of how that strange conflict came to exist between birds and pigs. Was it tough to flesh out the characters? We were all, and I still am, fans of the game. And I can proudly say that I'm an addict at the game.

And what we did is when we were making this movie, we were constantly looking at it and thinking about it through the lens of what would an Angry Birds fan want to see in this movie? What would they want to see come to life? How could we bring it to life in an authentic way? And I'm very proud that the fans of the game have been going crazy with how much they love the movie.

So along the way, did Jon have voices in mind for the characters? From the very beginning when we were developing the story, you know, back in the beginning of the process, as my producing partner, Nikhil Head, David Maisel, Catherine Winder, and the directors and I were starting to think about these characters and their personalities, we would always say, well, gosh, Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones would be perfect for Mighty Eagles. We could only get Peter Dinklage or Jason Sudeikis and Josh Gad and Maya Rudolph or Kate McKinnon.

These are some of the funniest people out there in the world, and we were so lucky to get all of our first choices for this movie. I think the funniest cast that's ever been assembled in any movie that I've been a part of. It sure shows that Jon loves animation. You know, I have always been an animation nerd. It is just, they are my favorite movies.

I've watched so many hours and hours of cartoons on TV. When I was a little kid, I always drew little animated flip books and made little animated short films using an old 8mm camera that someone I knew had. So, yes, I've always loved animation and so lucky to have found a way to get to work in animation for a living. And some of his favorites? You know, I love animation with great physical comedy.

The classic Chuck Jones and Looney Tunes shorts and all of the great Disney films. One of my favorite films of all time is Pinocchio. And that was all huge, huge inspiration for me. I would say the biggest inspiration for me was actually something that isn't animated, and that was The Muppet. The Muppet's Jim Henson and Frank Oz and everything that they did and created with those characters, whether it was on The Muppet Show or The Muppet movies or on Sesame Street.

That comedic sensibility, the sophistication, the fun in all of the work that they did, that for me was the greatest inspiration in the world. Along with superhero flicks, it seems like animated family films own the box office this summer and will pretty much for the whole year as well. What does John think the reason is behind this? Now animated movies take a long time to make. Our movie took about three and a half years from beginning to end.

And you have a lot of time to really think about the movie, to look at every joke that you have in the movie, to iterate, to constantly make it better and better. And you're watching the movie and the scenes and the animated shots every day. So there are so many bites at the apple, and that allows these movies to be elevated into the kind of greatness that we're seeing from the Lego movie to Zootopia. Some of my favorite animated movies of the last few years have just been terrific. And one thing that we discovered in the Making of the Angry Birds movie were these adorable characters, the hatchlings.

And the hatchlings are these baby birds in the movie that were voiced by actual little kids, like my two and a half year old daughter voices, one of them. And these hatchlings have been so popular that we actually just created a short film that is now going up with the Angry Birds movie starring a couple of the hatchlings. That is an extra bonus thing that if you go to see the Angry Birds now in theaters, you will get to see the boy in the movie. So what's next on the drawing board? Oh, you know, I have a couple of things that I'm tinkering with, and we are still in the process of releasing Angry Birds around the world.

So that time, still Angry Birds focused 24-7, but definitely some cool things on the horizon beyond that. Angry Birds, the movie in theaters right now. The flight radio. It's time to say goodbye to Orphan Black. That and more as we look at what's going on in pop culture.

BBC America has given the green light for a fifth season of Orphan Black, but that'll be the last one. The ten episodes that will roll on the network in 2017 will be the final ones for the show. No word yet on exactly when those will premiere next year. If you're hesitating about spending the big bucks for an Oculus Rift headset, well, this might push you over the edge. The VR Hulu app is now available from the network.

Along with Hulu's entire library of programming, the app features a VR experience based on the sci-fi series, 12 Monkeys. Much like Superman and Batman, DC is celebrating the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman. It begins with the first issue of the new Greg Ruckus series that'll be in comic stores in a few days. There'll be a special panel at Comic Con, a new Wonder Woman logo on the way, and a couple of new hardcover collections that'll take place in the fall. Of course, it all comes to an end with the Wonder Woman movie, which is set to be in theaters in June of 2017.

Start digging through those quarter boxes. It looks like J. Michael Strosinski's Rising Stars, that series from the 90s under the top cow label, may be headed to the big screen. MGM has optioned the series. Guys from Atlas Entertainment who were involved with Superman vs. Batman and Suicide Squad will also produce, along with J. Michael, who's also set to write the script as well.

The Grammys will have a home for a good long time. CBS has struck a deal with the Recording Academy to broadcast the Grammy Awards all the way through 2026. And they keep the awards on there for 54 consecutive years, all on the network, which is a record for the longest continuous partnership between an award show and a network in TV history. It may have been a good month for DC and the comic book stores, but may not necessarily be very bright and shiny for the comic book industry overall. Only four comics managed to sell over 100,000, and that compared to last year is a big difference.

When it may have 2015, there were 10 titles that sold that much. We'll go over the top 10 and talk about more comic sales info for you coming up in just a little bit. Comic fan, former comic creator and of course member of the cast of Daredevil, Rosario Dawson, is serving as celebrity correspondent on the epic series America Divided. It's produced in part by Norman Lear and Shonda Rhimes, and the documentary will feature stories about inequality in education, housing, health care, and a lot more. When it debuts on the network later this year.

Despite a valiant effort by DC to capture both the number one best selling comic and graphic novel in comic stores during the month of May. Overall, not a very bright picture for sales when we look back and compare it to where things were just a year ago. Sales in May were down almost 9% to where they were in May of 2015. And when you put the whole numbers together, that means so far in 2016 comics are down about 5% from where they were just a year ago. That being said, here's your top 10 best selling comics in stores in May.

At number 10 Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man number 12, Black Panther number two came in at number nine. Also from Marvel, Darth Vader number 20 at number eight. At number seven, Justice League number 50, Star Wars number 19 rolls it at number six. At number five, Captain America Steve Rogers number one. At number four, Batman number 52.

Number three, Bestseller in May, Punisher number one. At number two, Civil War two, number zero for Marvel. And with a reduced price of $2.99, number one best selling book in comic stores in May, DC Universe, rebirth number one. Michael Bay's film 13 Hours, The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Is the true life tale of the Benghazi Annex security team who fought to protect members of the CIA against overwhelming odds on a very fateful night in Libya in 2012.

Right in the middle of the action that night was military veteran Mark Geist. I served 12 years in the Marine Corps from 84 to 96. I got out, I was deputy sheriff and then I become a police chief in a small town. And then started in the private sector doing private investigations and bounty hunting for a while. And then when the war kicked off, got into contracting as a private security contractor and did that for the next nine, ten years or from then on up till 2012.

So what actually happened on September 11th, 2012? Well, I was out in town actually. And my job, I worked with GRS, it's called Global Response Staff. And our job was to protect case officers as they go about doing their job in some of the worst parts of the world. And they didn't have us there unless it was unless it was really dangerous.

There were not in every place where people are at. And then that night I was out in town with one of the case officers and I got a phone call that there was something going on at the consulate. And so we ended our dinner and headed back to the annex. And I took over security at the annex while the rest of the team had went over and pushed off the attackers. The attackers had actually overtaken the embassy or the consulate, I'm sorry, and were holding that ground.

And we had five guys that went over there, pushed them off. Oh, you know, pretty much overcame pretty, pretty surmountable odds over there. Rescued the security detail of the ambassador and found Sean Smith's body. At that time we were unable to locate the ambassador's body. Made our way back to the consulate after repelling another counter assault.

Had three attacks at the annex, the last one culminating in a mortar attack which killed Tyrone Woods and Glenn Doherty and injured myself severely and Dave Ubin as well. Outside of the movie, does Mark feel that the media has treated this story fairly? Well, you know, it's unfortunately, the politicians immediately took this thing and turned it from an event that was about saving lives. And overcoming tremendous odds to a political football that was bounced back and forth from left to right. And, you know, that's the information that the news media had.

And I'm sure there's some of them that didn't help out with that. And, you know, it wasn't until, and we really weren't set on getting, coming out with a book or anything. It was about, when they started not telling the truth to the family that really kind of an honor in the four Americans that died, and that's what the book does. And if you go out and buy the DVD, you'll see that that's what the DVD does. It's intended to show people that come in together and focus in on our similarities instead of our differences.

Really, you can overcome, you know, you can overcome anything and accomplish just about anything. And, you know, it's a great movie about Americans serving Americans and taking care of each other. And that's what we have to do with America. Sometimes bringing a true life story to the big screen and it runs into a few bumps along the way. I asked Mark if there's anything that happened in real life that we didn't see in the film.

You know, I can't really, I'm sure there's things, if I really put a lot of thought to it, that I wish would. But after seeing the way that they put it together, that Michael Bay put it together, I can't really think of anything that they missed because it really truly shows a bunch of Americans coming together and overcoming insurmountable odds and working together to do that. And, you know, he did, he showed that and that's what the book was about and that the movie's about the same thing. And they just did a fabulous job of putting it together. They kept us involved throughout the whole process.

So, you know, if we thought they were going a little bit different or something needed to be done different, they always asked us about it. And so it was a great relationship between Paramount, us, and Michael Bay. So despite the politicians, overall, are Americans a little naive about terrorism? I think that, you know, it's one of those things that we have to pay attention to, that we need to fight to fight over there instead of here. And, you know, we have Americans out there serving in diplomatic facilities around the world that are putting their lives on the line.

And again, that's kind of what this movie is. It's not just about our event. It's about the Americans that are sacrificing their lives, both the military, the private sector that worked for all the government agencies, as well as private security contractors, who put their lives on the line every day to make sure that this country stays. 13 hours, The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, directed by Michael Bay and available right now on Blu-ray Combo and Digital HD. That does it for the podcast, but you know we're coming back and when we do, we'll bring number six.

Trisha Helfer, the girl who made clones cool way before The Black, comes along to talk about her role in Powers and just who her character will be. I think you'll be a little surprised. All that and more on websites like popcultureupload.com, get to pointradio.com, trektvnews.com, and ComicMix.com. We're in the iTunes podcast directory. We're under popcultureupload on Facebook and PC upload on Twitter and Instagram. See you right back here. Get the point radio.com.