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Damn Dirty Geeks

The geek-driven podcast where a group of film industry pros and Special Guests discuss all aspects of genre entertainment. So expect a lot of talk about classic horrors, dinosaurs, black lagoons, monsters from the Id, time lords, final frontiers, galaxies far, far away and, of course, planets where apes evolved from men.
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Now displaying: August, 2015

A Podcast Created by Apes and Men. Visit our full website at DamnDirtyGeeks.com

Aug 31, 2015
TOM WOODRUFF JR. on BATMOBILES and PUMPKINHEADS

To the Batcave as the Damn Dirty Geeks welcome Academy Award-winning creature creator, makeup artist, actor and director Tom Woodruff Jr. to our podcast to discuss his amazing career and his earliest influences that started him on his filmmaking journey.

Tom has amassed a huge career in high profile films with his creative partner Alec Gillis, who together created Amalgamated Dynamics Inc./studio ADI, a leader in practical creature, makeup and special effects. A very brief list of Tom's credits include: STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, ALIEN 3, PREDATOR, JUMANJI, SPIDER-MAN (2002) and most recently BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE.

Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis own Amalgamated Dynamics Inc, one of Hollywood's top creature design, makeup and special effects studios. Tom not only makes some of your favorite movie creatures, he often performs as them in the creature suits he creates, including the Lead Alien in both ALIEN 3 and ALIEN RESURRECTION, the title creature of the original PUMPKINHEAD, and Bernie the gorilla in ZOOKEEPER. We discuss the particular challenges of suit performances in such films, and how his acting experience in these suits begins in the creature design phase bringing these aliens, apes and monsters to life on the big screen.

This episode starts off with some laughs about Tom's excellent replica of the original 1966 Batmobile from the classic TV series starring Adam West as Batman (see photos in the gallery below). The show had a huge influence on Tom's childhood and it was an early gateway into genre entertainment that we continue to remember fondly today in our careers. Tom also belongs to the ever-expanding group who credit KING KONG and PLANET OF THE APES as highly influential on his life and career -- it almost seems to be a theme of the DDG podcast, go figure.

Atomic batteries to power... turbines to speed... prepare to listen now!

Aug 20, 2015
TOM HOLLAND and FRIGHT NIGHT

Actor/writer/director Tom Holland returns to continue his podcast with the Damn Dirty Geeks, this episode focusing on his highly popular 1985 twist on the vampire genre, FRIGHT NIGHT... for real!

As Holland's directorial debut, FRIGHT NIGHT acheived that rare balance of humor and horror, and it helped revitalize the vampire film genre upon its theatrical release. Holland briefly recaps a final question about PSYCHO II and its critical reception in 1983 and today, then he and the DDG move on to sink our podcast teeth into FRIGHT NIGHT.

Slated as a 'throw away' film on Columbia's schedule at the time of its production, Holland relates how he put equal effort to creating rounded, rich characters for both villains and heroes alike, as he did with PSYCHO II. Just one of the reasons why FRIGHT NIGHT still holds up well as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Holland also gives his insights into how FRIGHT NIGHT "inherited" many of the effects crew that Columbia held together after GHOSTBUSTERS, which gave his "little" vampire film massive production value and made it a huge hit for the studio.

Tom also shares the genesis of Tom Holland's Terror Time, a website serving his fan community requests for autographs and movie memorabilia from Tom's films including FRIGHT NIGHT, PSYCHO II, CHILD'S PLAY and more. Be sure to check out this great site built for genre fans and like the Terror Time Facebook page.

The DDG wrap up this episode with Tom's thoughts on the future of film entertainment, including his predictions for the great impact that 3D virtual reality could have on our current theatrical and home video industry templates.

There's plenty to feed on in part 2 of our extended episode with Tom Holland, so listen, download and subscribe now before Jerry Dandrige turns you to the dark side forever!

Special thanks to our DDG theme composer Brice Cranston for engineering this recording.

P.S. Tom Holland proved to be such a popular guest for this episode recording, that a cricket even crashed our recording studio. If you hear a few chirps in the background, just pictured Mr. Holland and the Damn Dirty Geeks chatting on some veranda during a balmy summer evening and go with it!

Aug 10, 2015
TOM HOLLAND and PSYCHO II

The full contingent of Damn Dirty Geeks -- Frank, Jack, Frank, Trish and Scott -- spent a wonderful and informative evening with writer/director Tom Holland to discuss his successful filmmaking career and his daunting task of writing the 1983 sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's innovative horror thriller PSYCHO.

PSYCHO II began as a humble, low-budget cable film but Holland's taut, suspenseful script persuaded star Anthony Perkins to reprise his role as Norman Bates, a casting coup that launched this sequel project into the publicity stratosphere -- even if its production budget didn't follow.

Holland shares his earliest experiences as a theater actor with contemporary Dustin Hoffman, a contract player at Warner Brothers in the early 1960s, and his evolution into one of Hollywood's top screenwriters of notable films including PSYCHO II, FRIGHT NIGHT and CHILD'S PLAY among many others.

The DDG will soon release our second-part podcast with Tom Holland celebrating the 30th anniversary of his witty vampire film FRIGHT NIGHT.

Special thanks to our DDG theme composer Brice Cranston for engineering this recording.

Aug 6, 2015
STAR WARS, EMPIRE AND JEDI – A Look Back Part 2

With STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS just a few months from blasting into theaters, the Damn Dirty Geeks revisit the classic, original STAR WARS trilogy in two full length podcasts.

In Part 2 of this double-episode, Frank, Jack and Scott return to discuss RETURN OF THE JEDI that capped off the Original (and at the time, the only) STAR WARS Trilogy in 1983. Comparisons and criticisms abound between JEDI's lighter tone following up EMPIRE's cliffhanger (some say unsatisfying) ending, and how Episode VI caught a bit of a bad reputation for being as much of a toy-selling product as an exciting franchise finale. 

Yet the DDG also defend JEDI's important contributions to resolving the Luke/Vader conflict and creating a watershed dramatic moment in the Skywalker saga. 

We wrap up by each picking our favorite scene from the OT, as well as predict how the highly popular, internet-exploding trailers for THE FORCE AWAKENS could well revive the emotional impact of the Original Trilogy to this new Sequel Trilogy in a return to the feelings about STAR WARS we grew up with a long time ago in childhoods far, far away.

Special thanks to our DDG theme composer Brice Cranston for engineering this recording.

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