The Open Queue
A podcast where we talk about entertainment, pop cultural and the daily life of navigating the entertainment industry as a creative.
The Open Queue
Streaming vs Theaters: Deep Cover and the Future of Comedy
Has streaming created a world where we're drowning in content but starving for quality? This question kicks off our deep dive into how digital platforms are reshaping the entertainment landscape—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
We explore Hollywood's growing obsession with established IP, from the surprising success of Barbie to the head-scratching announcements of Hot Wheels and Sims movies. Studios increasingly shy away from original stories, preferring the safety of pre-existing fan bases. We reveal the startling new hurdle for screenwriters: many are now told to publish their scripts as books first, then return if they sell well. Would Star Wars even exist in today's risk-averse environment?
The conversation shifts to film marketing in the streaming era, where traditional advertising channels have disappeared and movies must fight for attention in an oversaturated digital landscape. Comedy films suffer particularly in this new paradigm—something we discovered firsthand while watching "Deep Cover," an absolutely hilarious comedy that received minimal marketing but deserved a theatrical release where audience laughter could have enhanced the experience.
We compare the current streaming landscape to a restaurant buffet: abundant options but inconsistent quality. When everything is available, nothing stands out. Yet streaming has created opportunities for mid-budget films and niche content that might never have found distribution in the theatrical-only era. The solution isn't choosing between theaters and streaming, but being more intentional about which content belongs where.
The episode wraps with our fantasy reboot picks, including nostalgic favorites like Centurions, Gargoyles, and Dino Riders—properties we believe could thrive with modern technology if approached with genuine creativity rather than cynical cash-grabbing.
Join our conversation about where entertainment is heading and share your thoughts on what properties you'd love to see rebooted. Follow us @OpenQueueProductions on Instagram to continue the discussion about the evolving entertainment industry.
Welcome to the Open Cue, a podcast where we talk about entertainment, pop culture and the daily life of navigating the entertainment industry as a creative. I'm your host, shako Omari, and I'm joined by my business partner, charles Malone. We'll sometimes have other creative guests on to tell us about their journey in the industry, dealing with their ups and downs, struggles and successes. We'll also touch on current changes to the business of television and film, as well as cue up what we're watching, listening to, or a piece of art you've been inspired by. The music you're listening to is a theme from the movie Deep Cover, composed by Daniel Pemberton, and now let's get cued up.
Shaka Omari:Hey, and we are back the Open Cube. So I think, like to start off with, just to get everybody an idea of what we're going to be talking about today, one of the things I wanted to talk about is streaming really killing cinema or is it just forcing it to evolve? Also, we're going to be talking about this really, really cool movie we saw, funny enough, on streaming, a comedy movie called Deep Cover, and we'll get deeper into that, like further on. But I think maybe, charles, do you have a rundown of things that you want to maybe talk about on the business or anything you're inspired by?
Charles Malone:Oh, OK, I thought we were like, oh, like, oh man, are we skipping the? The inspired by today? Okay, what I've been inspired by this week? It goes right into kind of what we're talking about today and what's going on in the business, which is like ip, whether it's established ip versus original ip. They're gonna we're gonna jump down into industry news at some point, but they're doing a Hot Wheels movie and this is both frustrating and inspiring all at the same time. I'm inspired by the ability to take something that has no overall story and can make something really interesting, like what Barbie done is actually inspiring. Barbie had no real story, but what they did with it was fantastic.
Shaka Omari:The ingenuity to create a storyline and bring it to the real world. Because, I will admit, when I first heard that they were making a Barbie movie, I was like why? And it was live action Animated, I would have been like, sure, whatever, but live. I was like, but why?
Charles Malone:That's like Lucky Trap is now has a Sims movie in development. Sims has. That's like uh, lucky trap is now has a sims movie in development. Yeah, sims. Sims has no story, so it's gonna be a lot of fan service, but I'm with the success of barbie. I'm like intrigued to see what they do right and, at the end of the day, I do find that really inspiring that's. That's
Shaka Omari:That's a good inspiration, I have to say. You know, um, but to your I guess it's true, because as kids, when we'd play with like Barbies or Hot Wheels, we'd create our own story and narrative about why the car is going upside down or crashing into this one or racing on that one. So I have to say, as long as they do it justice I guess is the correct word I could think of right now or at least they do it the way that Barbie, they give a good story fundamentally. Uh, I think that will work. Funny enough, I don't think I've been inspired by it. Yeah, I'm terrible.
Charles Malone:Yeah, I'm terrible. I didn't ping pong it back.
Shaka Omari:It's okay. Um, cause I realized I asked that question. I was like Ooh, I am unprepared. Uh, I don't know if there was anything that really inspired me this week other than, ooh, I am unprepared. Uh, I don't know if there was anything that really inspired me this week other than, um, doing some editing of our podcast. To be honest, uh, that was a lot of fun. I enjoy the creativity and listening to us and learning the editing process. This is my first time doing it, so, um, yeah, I guess that's what I would say to everyone out there If you're worried about doing something cause you don't know how to do it, dive right in. You might actually have a lot of fun and be inspired while doing it.
Charles Malone:So there's another one that inspired me, and there's been things like this before, and I think there's going to continue to be things like this. There's a group bubbling that created their own festival. It's called Creative Camp.
Charles Malone:Have you heard of this?
Charles Malone:So it's one of those independent filmmakers and creatives are coming together to see how many short films they can make in a short amount of time, and it was completely crowdfunded. And now they're starting their own festival. It's called Creator Camp Film Festival, but they're trying to disrupt the the film market with like. We feel, as creatives, that the industry is starved of original content and again, I think we talked about this off off the podcast, but the barrier of entry to the film industry is like insanely high. It seems like like an impossible task, so people are taking amongst themselves to either sell fun or go other routes of like screw the big studios, let's just do it ourselves. And that's another thing that's been pretty inspiring is seeing people not sitting around waiting for a handout or someone to say yes and going, and doing it themselves
Shaka Omari:A hundred percent.
Shaka Omari:Somebody had said something to me a couple of weeks ago which was you can't sit around and wait for someone to validate you, you have to validate yourself, and so absolutely on with that. Okay, Well, I guess I wanted to hop over a couple of things in the industry that I figured would just be interesting to talk about. You know, one of the things you were saying just now was bringing original content or something creative. This is going to be a backward backpedal to that. Just to let everyone know. It's around. This time Jurassic World Rebirth came out and that's a sequel. I think it's like what the sixth, seventh I don't even know at this point in time what it is, but apparently it's doing really well. I haven't seen it yet, but that is kind of exciting to me, because I do feel like sometimes reboots and sequels can get a little annoying to continually watch. But I think if you do it well and the story is good, it's exciting to see like that world it spanned or like a franchise continue on.
Charles Malone:So I mean this goes right into the barbie hot wheels. It seems like studios are trying to and rightfully so right, I think we we sometimes forget, when we focus on just doing the creative, that this is still a business, right, and they they're they're trying to mitigate loss and and risk by going for things that already have an established fan base to try to guarantee viewers as a strategy. That is. That is smart and in theory that is smart, but in practice what ends up happening from some of these big studio projects is they sacrifice the creative just to like get a movie out. I think of the, the apple show, and here we go mentioning Apple again, the studio episode where there's a Kool-Aid movie. I think that's how it starts right.
Charles Malone:The whole show starts with like well, we need to make a Kool-Aid movie, which could be inspiring if they can pull it off, but at the same time, why Should we Do we need a Kool-Aid movie?
Shaka Omari:You know? That reminds me of a line from Jurassic Park. They were so preoccupied with what they if they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
Charles Malone:Yeah, but I'm bummed. I never got to miss my chance to find one. Oh, wait, wait, hang on.
Shaka Omari:I think it's this one Nope Record scratch. You're wondering why I just got here.
Charles Malone:Yeah, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to mouse these buttons, but the the should we? Should we do this? Do we need it? Do we need another Jurassic? You know when? When is the next Star Wars or? Or Jurassic Park or Harry Potter? And it seems like we're no longer taking chances on the future of cinema or franchises by just rehashing the things that we've already seen.
Shaka Omari:Well, you know it's interesting because you did say IP was something you wanted to talk about and what I've discovered to your point, it seems like now the industry is trying to do a shift to getting established IP, having, you know, eyeballs on it already, but it seems the route they're going is by picking up books now.
Charles Malone:They've always picked up books.
Shaka Omari:But it seems like it's ferocious now, like now, instead of taking an original script from someone, one of the things I'd heard from a writer friend of mine is that they told him okay, your script is good, turn it into a book, publish it, let us know how it does, and then come back to us and we'll make it into a film. So it's almost like they need to test the market first with a script as a book to see if people read the book before they turn it into a film.
Charles Malone:The long story short. Star Wars the original trilogy wouldn't be made today?
Shaka Omari:No, it would need to be a book first.
Charles Malone:Yeah, that's sad, okay. So, speaking on that, I think you said something earlier this week or today because time doesn't exist for me
Shaka Omari:That new parent life.
Charles Malone:Yeah, just life. Life, be life y'all. It had to do with the devil advocate of if we hit reboot or superhero fatigue, and I thought you had a really good outlook on it.
Shaka Omari:You're talking about like something I'd read or heard, is that it's not necessarily superhero fatigue. That's a great buzzword, but what it is is that people are tired of these superhero stories that don't matter. And so if you do a good story, kind of like Thunderbolts Thunderbolts was one of those ones that was kind of not marketed I don't think as well as it could be, but it had this wonderful hidden message and you really cared about the characters. People enjoyed it.
Charles Malone:Yeah, I think Thunderbolts that made me change my opinion. Thunderbolts and your thing kind of made me readjust the way I looked at superhero fatigue or IP fatigue. When you're talking about rebooting a TV show from the nineties and like do we really need that? Is that we do if it's really well done. But if you're going to try to churn this out in a meat factory really fast just to try to lazily make some dollars, I don't think it's going to do that well, because you're not putting care into the, the ip itself and the audience that like made it successful and you're just like, well, they'll watch it again because it's nostalgic for them and that, that's it. And then you just slap some writers on it without care and they just churn out this bland hot dog of a product.
Shaka Omari:That is a good analogy, hot dog, because it's like the way it was explained to me. We could talk about streaming. I think we're going to talk about streaming a little bit later. But it's like they give you a fine steak in the first movie and then, instead of caring about the characters, now that they know that you like the steak, they give you like a steak from a buffet table and expect you to just enjoy it as much, and it's like no, no, no, no, no. I came to the steakhouse because the steak is good. I don't want a buffet steak Like. That's not what I'm asking for.
Charles Malone:You know it, I will.
Charles Malone:I will take that and add to it with or more. So I'm going to slightly change your analogy
Shaka Omari:Yeah, go ahead.
Charles Malone:Uh it's.
Charles Malone:It's like when, when you have a like a restaurant, that that opens up like a like small cafe or mom and pop restaurant and it hits right. It hits because it's small and it's made with care. And then you open up two, three locations, you're like oh, this is great, now I can get this in like all different parts of the town. And then it gets bought out by like a billion dollar company and they go like how can they reproduce this for the masses? And they do it well enough. We're like okay, well, now, this chain, now this is a chain restaurant and you can get this in Atlanta and in Chicago and in LA. And you're like all right, it's not as good as it used to be, but it's still consistent. And they're like well, now let's make this a global chain. And they continue to like tweak and down the recipe for everyone. Until now, like man, do you want to go to this restaurant?
Charles Malone:You're like meh....
Shaka Omari:I think the biggest thing in your analogy to add is they also look to cut cost. How can we make this same quality for cheaper?
Charles Malone:Yep, it's cheaper and cheaper and cheaper until people don't want to go. I haven't been to McDonald's in like eight years.
Shaka Omari:And McDonald's is only good for a road trip.
Charles Malone:Even road trips, man, we do a couple of times like at least San Francisco. It's like six, seven hours in time. Not once did we stop at a McDonald's.
Shaka Omari:Wow.
Charles Malone:Like I, literally have not been to McDonald's in almost 10 years.
Shaka Omari:You've probably gotten rid of the salt crack that they use then, so it's out of your system.
Charles Malone:I will still stand by like McDonald's. Fries are some of the best guilty pleasure fries. They are, but not enough to drive me. And everything else on the menu is just like meh. Maybe my palate's just gotten better,
Shaka Omari:Okay, snob.
Shaka Omari:Yes, I just want to cover two more articles real quick about business, and then I think there was something we wanted to talk about marketing. But just in other recent news, the Paramount Skydance mergers they have a 90-day extension.
Shaka Omari:So that's in process now. I think that 90-day extension to have that merger happen,
Charles Malone:anti-mergers
Shaka Omari:Is happening. And then an interesting thing that you sent me for all our anime fans out there turns out that it looks like about 50% of millennials and Gen Z watch anime on a weekly basis. So Netflix, disney are battling, sony has Crunchyroll but they're battling for supremacy in the streaming wars. So anime is the new frontier that everyone is looking to.
Charles Malone:You said novels, and novels will always be a thing in entertainment because it's already established world and characters. But I think video games and anime are going to have their comic book run. Comic book run it's obviously already started, but I really think that the live action adaptation of anime is gonna is gonna hit over the next five, ten years. It clearly already has with with one piece, but it's we're gonna get some really good ones, because there's some amazing animes out there that even not I'm gonna. I'm anti reboots and remakes a bit, but I'd love to see some of these things. So, contradicting myself, I'm a hypocrite these would be really cool live action, as long as they're done with care, though. I think that's what it is. They're just giving us a mediocre product just to get views. Then it's going to be trash and we shouldn't support it. Or we're going to keep getting trash
Shaka Omari:Yep,
Charles Malone:but yeah, anime is going to have its run Also, I got a little grind grind my grind, my gears or a bone to pick. It's not. It's not as much as a hot take as it is like oh, millennials are like watching like anime at such in such mass, large numbers. So if you're between the age of 30 and like 45 and now you're, like this huge anime fan, I'm squinting at you with sus eyes. You can't see it, but I'm suspect of you jumping on this bandwagon in your 30s because you know, as someone who grew up,
Shaka Omari:look at this,
Charles Malone:yeah,
Shaka Omari:look at this gatekeeper,
Charles Malone:not, not gatekeeping.
Shaka Omari:OG, what is it huh, the OG ?
Charles Malone:Just bringing back the rough time of the 70s, 80s and 90s Nerds of like, oh, it's so cool now. And it has been for, like the last 10, 15 years, to be like oh. I like comic books and video games and like what's the name? Nah, you didn't.
Shaka Omari:Yeah, okay, that's fair. Look, I'll back you on that.
Charles Malone:I got roasted hard.
Shaka Omari:I will simply say we walked so y'all could run.
Charles Malone:For real. Gen Jin Jin, what Alpha Z mega.
Charles Malone:Yeah.
Charles Malone:Y'all could do this because we got. We got picked on hard when
Shaka Omari:yeah,
Charles Malone:yeah,
Shaka Omari:yeah yeah.
Shaka Omari:Bring your comic books to the lunch table, nerd you know. Wear an anime shirt of any kind, nerd yeah.
Charles Malone:But apparently there was some like machismo ass dudes who was out here beating up nerds in the streets and going home watching toonami.
Shaka Omari:So of course, because they weren't able to to make peace with themselves. Yet they're either a jock or a nerd. You know, I think our generation we kind of skirted the lines in between. We played football but also watched robotech, that kind of thing
Charles Malone:yeah, yeah, so that that's it.
Charles Malone:I'll stop gatekeeping you on.
Shaka Omari:Okay, I'll agree with you on that one, I'll take it. So there's another topic that I thought was interesting that we had discussed this week and that was about film marketing. So what are your thoughts on how films are marketed and this kind of ties into the movie that we're going to talk about today, Deep Cover? Because I didn't know anything about Deep Cover, it just showed up on my Amazon Prime as one of the posters, as one of the movies, and I sometimes think like I've been watching. I just watched a clip from the Fantastic Four that's coming out. Superman has been marketed all over the place. You know, again, it's a big tentpole summer movie. But I'm wondering how do you feel about marketing now? Because I was looking at some old trailers from the past and they really didn't like the Matrix trailer. They didn't really give us a lot, and sometimes I've seen trailers now, in my personal opinion, where it's like I just watched the whole damn movie.
Charles Malone:Yeah, well, I don't think we have enough time to get into how I fully feel about about marketing because, like they're the way that the marvel uh films have had taken the new spin on marketing, which is like put stuff in the trailer that absolutely is not in the movie.
Shaka Omari:yeah,
Charles Malone:which was like great
Shaka Omari:yeah,
Charles Malone:I was like where is this thing? Oh?
Charles Malone:no, just to get me interested. Oh well, it worked. Um, but marketing is changing. It has to change with with the generations. Like most gen z alpha people spend most of their time on youtube, tiktok, so there has to be this new run for like viral marketing that you know wasn't there when when we were going to the movie theater.
Shaka Omari:That's a good point.
Charles Malone:I just talked about this with another film executive how a lot of indie movies and some even bigger movies or midsize movies are taking to Reddit AMAs with their filmmakers. They do an ask me anything on Reddit to help generate buzz. Letterboxd does a lot of like generating for for new movies. I think the film industry is adapting to more social media marketing than more. So, like we don't watch commercials anymore,
Shaka Omari:right,
Charles Malone:for the most part, where when we were growing up or even into our like late teens, early 20s, when you're watching something on tv, you you would get a movie trailer somewhere in there,
Shaka Omari:right, right
Charles Malone:, to get you interested in what's coming out. And without that, it's like where do you go to watch? Like you have to seek movie trailers.
Shaka Omari:Right, the YouTube. I think, like the only major time you see those are sporting events. There's a sporting event we're dropping our trailer during, like the Super Bowl or whatever, because they know people are going to be watching that live event and commercials are part of it. But if you're watching a TV show, unless you again go to YouTube or you're paying for one of the tiers that has commercials, you're probably not going to hear about anything.
Charles Malone:Even for I know somewhere these two things kind of go together. We're going to talk about, you know, did streaming create this ultimate buffet? That kind of makes it harder to market movies. It's like when you're walking into a sea of content and it's like, hey, look over here. Hey, look over here. You have a new anime series or this new tv show is dropping. There's a new tv show dropping on each individual platform and it's not all aggregated into one place. Like how do you so?
Shaka Omari:do you think, you know? Based on on that comment, do you think that the reason why so many studios are going after established ip as opposed to taking a risk on something original is because they don't know how to market, so it's better to get something that already has been marketed via video game, you know, novel or book series versus? I'm just going to pick up this script from this writer that no one really knows about, because I just love the story and believe in it.
Charles Malone:Depending on the content of the original IP definitely affects the level of difficulty that comes with marketing it. Everything ever at once was something that the general public now understood via the Marvel Universe doing a really large lift of like the multiverse for most people. So it was like here's this new multiverse wacky movie, and the trailer was actually really compelling. Had a huge hook of like oh man, whatever this is, this looks fun right yeah, and that was one of my favorite movies of that year.
Charles Malone:You know we haven't got a chance because we're starting so to talk about it, but man, what a fun original movie that, to me, beyond the magic of, like, the wackiness of the multiverse, they did something that was culturally specific yet universally like resonant, which was like, oh, what a like an amazing balance. So just that's just my little love for everything everywhere all at once. But they did a great job also marketing that, that movie. But I think it was an easier lift, given like
Shaka Omari:marvel,
Charles Malone:yeah,
Shaka Omari:and the superhero genre kind of that that makes sense,
Charles Malone:where you did like an indie drama about like you and your friends in a cabin.
Charles Malone:It's actually actually a really good story, but it's going to be a little bit harder and that's something to probably like hit streaming.
Shaka Omari:Right, that makes sense. You know. It's the same way as, like Ryan Coogler's Sinners, I felt was really marketed as a horror, but I didn't find it to be that terrifying, to be honest, you know, but it's like that's the niche that made the most sense to sell it as.
Charles Malone:So I've heard mixed things about the marketing on centers. People say it wasn't marketed well enough. But I think, living in LA, it's really hard to judge how well things are marketed because for us, driving around the city, you see billboards and posters everywhere, whereas, like when I go up to San Francisco, I almost see zero movie posters. Oh really, it's almost all tech. Every billboard is some sort of tech company, depending on where you are. I think the marketing changes I felt Sinners was marketed, because I've seen it like eight times around the block, from buses to little like the whatever you call the paper ones that go on the wall.
Charles Malone:I can't think of them.
Shaka Omari:Poster
Charles Malone:yeah sure. Then the billboardsboards and then the word of mouth of once. The movie did drop yeah, really did. A lot of the heavy lift it felt like yeah, I gotta go see this movie.
Shaka Omari:That, I think, really helped it. Everyone hopping on, you know threads and twitter x, whatever it's called now I feel like that. Uh, you know. And then influencers as well. Influencers is a new avenue that they use to market. Now I saw a bunch of them, like Straw Hat Goofy is one of them. That was, you know, talking about sinners. There's a girl on threads called Black Nerd Girl, I believe is her name, that was posting a lot about Ironheart and you get these little tags that you can add that just pop stuff up on your feed if that's the stuff that you're interested in.
Charles Malone:It's a tough one, so thinking about Deep, deep Cover before we get into it. I feel like you said this, so I'm going to give you credit. It's a movie that would have crushed in the early thousands. I feel like, as a theater movie, like being there laughing with people because it was. It was genuinely an unexpectedly funny movie. And where are the places for these type of hangover comedies and the current marketplace for like films? I feel like a lot of comedies go straight to streamers.
Shaka Omari:Yes, I feel so too. I don't know if, and I don't know if that's like a thing of people don't know how to approach comedy in this, this world, because, again, a lot of the comedies from the past you know, like there are a lot of things you could say that I think. I think Rush Hour now has like a disclaimer at the beginning of it on streaming, because some of the jokes might be offensive.
Charles Malone:I'm rolling my eyes
Shaka Omari:yeah.
Charles Malone:I was going to leave that out, but yes, no, you're gonna leave that one in. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you on that. Everything can't be, no, just rolling eyes.
Shaka Omari:Yeah, yeah yeah, um, so I I wonder if that's like some of them. Sometimes they're afraid they feel safer to market and go directly to streaming than to be marketed publicly. You know, I haven't talked to anyone about that, but that's just been something I've been wondering
Charles Malone:yeah, there there's.
Charles Malone:It seems like the things that draw people to the movie theaters are the big action films that you want to see, these like epic stunts and scenes. But I think this forgotten thing about comedy is one of those things that are better with other people. Yeah, comedy shows, improv shows, stand-ups and movies there's nothing like being in a space with other people laughing not to say things aren't funny home by yourself, but there's there's just this energy or like contagious laugh. The laughter is contagious, yes, so like watching some of the people and their laughing does enhance the funny.
Shaka Omari:I mean one of my favorite moments as a theater go-er back in college.
Shaka Omari:I'm dating myself now, when the Hangover came out like that is a movie to see with a group of strangers, because the laughter in that everyone's different tone of laughter. Someone starts laughing at something that nobody else laughed at, which then makes everybody else laugh.
Charles Malone:Someone has a funny laugh that makes the people laugh even more.
Shaka Omari:Somebody throws out a random comment like, oh, come on, can you believe that or no, you know it. Just that theatrical experience in the Hangover was one of the best, the best ones that I had been to, and I just that's how I felt about Deep Cover. I watched it by myself but I was like, oh my gosh, this would have been like I rolled to the side one time, clapping, laughing about something, and I would have loved to have been like in a theater, just knowing everyone else was laughing at the same thing that I was.
Charles Malone:Yeah.
Charles Malone:I watched it with my partner and I think it's a little different because I didn't watch it with someone, but I agree, in a room full of people, it's that I don't know it'd be something to share with others and it would have been great. Can you believe how funny this was, especially for, like I felt like it wasn't marketed. It just showed up on Amazon's thing and we're like you know, let's just put something.
Charles Malone:Bring this on and do watch the whole thing like just dying, because it it was really that unexpected.
Shaka Omari:It was good. It was good. Thank you for recommending that to me. I thought it must be just like a movie to to watch in the background or something. And when you told me it was good, I was like you know what? I'm going to start this movie just to see what it's like. I'm probably not going to be interested, and this is something I do say about the theatrical experience. I realize when I'm in the theater, I turn off my phone and I'm in the movie. When I'm at home, I get a notification, I find myself in my phone and then I click to another app and then I realize, oh, I got to rewind, or do I want to rewind and I'm not experiencing the movie. This movie, however, had me rolling so hard Like I put my. Somebody texted me and I put my phone on silent. I put my phone on do not disturb because I didn't want to break the engagement of this movie.
Charles Malone:Oh, wow, I didn't think about that. It is true, I find myself multitasking a lot being at home and I have to go in intentionally with the thought, when I'm watching certain films, like I'm going to watch this film and I'll like turn the lights off and like set the mood. This one, like yourself, I had every reason to get on my phone because we genuinely put this on to be background noise and we didn't even intentionally ignore phones, we just did because the movie was that funny and engaging. I think we also forget that there's I think you don't like horror films, but that's another genre that is better with the group of people. Um, there's nothing like a theater. People just like oohing, aahing, screaming and jumping together.
Charles Malone:So I don't know.
Charles Malone:There's certain things. I think we should start pushing for theater again. I do like to see Apple trying to push for like theatrical releases. I know some of this is financial reasons, but I think we all sometimes forget the experience of like being together in a place. Listening to an album at home by yourself is nice, but experience at concert is a whole different vibe. We're still a pack animal to a degree, I think
Shaka Omari:community
Charles Malone:yeah, doing these things with with the community bring something to it
Shaka Omari:all right.
Shaka Omari:Well, you know, on that, I think we should just go ahead and dive in to deep cover uh unless there was something else you wanted to cover
Charles Malone:yeah, let's, let's do it.
Charles Malone:Uh, we've already started talking about how, how this was surprisingly funny. We didn't give anyone a the premise of this movie. So if you're new to what we're talking about, deep cover is a comedy on amazon prime that's streamable right now. Uh, and it's about three improv actors that are pulled into deep cover to like go and find these like criminal organization or shut down something.
Shaka Omari:Yeah, this I'm laughing because I'm just thinking about the movie. I think it's such a unique idea, right, like, like, as an actor, you know you get to play, pretend and you like go into these roles and you really like try to become and be believable for the audience that you live in this world and you are this thing. So how great of an asset to use that talent as undercover work, you know, kind of like spies or whatever to try to do that. I just was like, oh, this is, this is such a unique premise that I didn't even think about to just get some amateur actors to do undercover work
Charles Malone:so going with like right on target with everything we talked about today.
Charles Malone:This was an original story that was inspired by, by something real, two of the, the writers, um, that's how they give the, the original idea, to reality. Because, like in new york, there was an article about actors that were hired by the nypd to do very like low-level stings and it turns out the actors were better at going undercover than the actual like officers because this is what they do.
Charles Malone:They act right yeah and the movie just really runs with this premise, where you have like a veteran improv actor, then you have a method actor and then you have like an IT guy who like joins the improv thing for confidence
Shaka Omari:yeah, yeah.
Shaka Omari:So just to give everyone spoiler alert. Yeah, we're probably going to go into some details, so if you haven't seen it yet, pause the podcast, go watch it, come back to it. I gave you a beat so you had time to pause. So the actors in this are Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Kat. She is an American improv teacher and so she's on a work visa. She's been there for a while. Like all actors. She had a dream of becoming great at it and moving on, but instead she's just teaching, and one of the tough things that she has to deal with is that her students are finding success before she even does, so she's got that kind of chip going with it. Then there's Orlando Bloom, who hats off to this man Like, this role that he played in this had me dying.
Charles Malone:He's probably one of my favorite characters.
Shaka Omari:Yes, he plays a method actor, so he's one of those actors that wants to be taken seriously. Everything is dramatic and I write my backstory full of pages, you know, even if my line is only hey, how are you doing today? Why do I say you know, how am I doing today? I lost a son at 35 and da-da-da-da. So my how are you doing today is really grounded. So he plays that to such perfection, absolutely great. And then the third character is Nick. Who you're talking about is like the tech IT guy who
Charles Malone:Nick Muhammad
Shaka Omari:oh, nick Muhammad, sorry, nick Muhammad is the actor.
Charles Malone:You have to say his name, because I never remember his name
Shaka Omari:yeah, who plays the character Hugh, and Orlando Bloom plays the character Marlon. Nick Muhammad, who's known for, like Ted Lasso, he plays like the nerdy IT guy who has a hard time connecting with people and like joining in socially awkward, basically. And so he stumbles upon an improv class, because sometimes some of the suggestions for people who have a hard time publicly speaking is to take an acting class or an improv class. That makes you think on your feet and get out of your shell your own way. So the three of them get an opportunity by a police officer played by Sean Bean which I'll get into a little bit later, but Sean Bean is excellent in everything he does to go on an undercover sting to do something simple, low level like you're talking about, to just
Charles Malone:yeah, I think they had to go and catch someone selling counterfeit cigarettes.
Charles Malone:If you don't know improv or unfamiliar with improv it's like most people listen to this understand improv. It's a game where you just essentially yes and your way into funny scenarios, uh. But in this movie they keep yes, anding further and further into more trouble and they don't know when to shut up. So all they had to do is go in and tell the guy, like you know, I want the fake cigarettes. But then, of course, the method actor.
Shaka Omari:It's actually I thought it was the method actor at first, right, so the method actor brings something to it, like because all three of them go in like separately.
Charles Malone:Oh he does. He just makes it more serious after.
Shaka Omari:You're right, yeah, but it's the awkward character played by Nick Mohammed who? So the thing that they're supposed to say is I'm looking for something more affordable, which is then they give the illegal cigarettes and then he's like, is that it, is that all you want? And then the IT guy gets so like stressed he's because he's awkward. He's like, uh, yeah, and uh, something even more affordable. So when he says that, then Orlando Bloom's character, the method actor, just escalates it.
Charles Malone:What do I look like? He says something wild. So they keep going deeper and deeper to the organized crime scene. Yeah, all because two of the characters don't know how to stop talking.
Shaka Omari:Yes, you know, as an actor you commit to the role, but the problem is, is that Marlon, because he is a method actor, overcommits. And Nick, because he's awkward, just does whatever to keep going because he's not sure what he's supposed to do.
Charles Malone:The cocaine scene
Shaka Omari:Sorry, I'm laughing through this whole podcast. This is how good this movie is. So the cocaine scene that you're talkin g about, they, they yes and, and uh, the at the cigarette place, and the person is kind of like I'm not trying to give a full description, but the person is like, are you looking for something more? Like whatever? And they end up in the organized mob and so they have to test out to make sure that the cocaine is actually cocaine that they're trying to buy. And so they put Nick Muhammad's character, hugh, to test the cocaine. And I'm going to keep laughing.
Charles Malone:He's never done, clearly has never done cocaine before. So they offer him a bump and he tries to say, no, I don't do the key thing, because he doesn't want to do the coke. So he's like, oh, he wants a whole line. So they give this guy a whole line. So, out of the pressure of worry about being killed, he does the first line. He's like oh, that's definitely cocaine. Orlando Bloom's character, because he doesn't know when to shut up, was like well, how do we know? The restaurant Fake.
Shaka Omari:Yes and yes and
Charles Malone:so now Mohammed has to do a whole second line of coke that he did not want to do.
Shaka Omari:Yeah, do a whole second line of cloak did not want to do. Yeah, I mean like that, that is just like a small part of the comedy. I think in this whole movie uh which again I'm dying of laughter because the performances and the acting in this are absolutely amazing things just keep escalating. Because now that they're in sean bean's character, the police officer is like, well, you've got to keep going, because now you've stumbled onto an even bigger crime ring, like you were just supposed to get something small, but now, as a police officer, like why are we going to pull it? Now You've opened up the world of crime to us. And so it just keeps escalating and escalating and certain situations keep happening in a comedic way that makes them seem more relevant and more real. Don't want to give too much away, but you know they end up dealing with a hit man at a certain point and that gives them even more street cred. And then they keep going and going, and going.
Shaka Omari:But the thing I wanted to say about Sean Bean, which I thought was interesting and again, spoiler alert Sean Bean is known for dying in a lot of TV shows or movies Lord of the Rings, his character dies. Game of Thrones, his character dies. So I think there's like this joke on the internet I'll have to look it up where it's like Sean Bean keeps dying in a movie. You're going to have to watch this to figure out if Sean Bean survives. That's all I'm going to say.
Charles Malone:I didn't know that so so now knowing that, yeah, just go go and watch it. It's again really low bar. I went in knowing nothing about this. Recommend just as, like you want to watch a funny movie at the end of the night, try to go in with low expectations. But we we both really ended up enjoying a movie that wasn't marketed really well and both were expecting it to be something on the background to something. I thought orlando bloom, as an actor, did a phenomenal job in um across the board, all three of them, even the antagonists and the surrounding characters everyone was just genuinely fun. It was. It was a fun movie.
Shaka Omari:Yeah, like it. Like I said, this was a movie. I feel if streaming wasn't a thing, this would have been a fun movie, a fun summer movie with all the a thing. This would have been a fun movie, a fun summer movie with all the blockbusters that we have, like Jurassic Park and Superman and Fantastic Four and, you know, f1. This would have been a fun movie in the mix of all of that, because you've got all these action movies with elements of comedy but just a nice comedy movie in the mix for summer. I think this would have been like probably the number three movie out of all of those action movies, fighting for the number one, number two spot.
Shaka Omari:I, I truly think so
Charles Malone:yeah, I I genuinely believe if amazon, or whoever else is behind this movie, gave it a theatrical push with a decent marketing budget, I think it would be a movie we're all talking about right now and seeing
Shaka Omari:Yep 100%.
Shaka Omari:So we say all that, to say streaming is great and all, but I really think that the theatrical is where it's at.
Charles Malone:Well, yes, and no, I'll give a counterpoint.
Shaka Omari:Oh, please.
Charles Malone:To streaming as we're getting ready to close out. I think streaming does give us a place for the mid-budget and niche films to thrive.
Shaka Omari:I have a question on that. Do you feel, then, streaming would be better as an indie service for, like a lot of indie movies trying to come up, smaller budget films, or do you, you know, like that space, since it seems like what studios are doing now anyways, is putting all the major blockbusters in the theater?
Charles Malone:Yeah, I think that's. That's part of the answer. I think that a lot of people end up finding their. It reminds me of Boondock Saints, which ends up being like a cult classic that you occasionally will just yell it was a fire fight. Yes, One of my William Defoe roles. It was just it's a such a fun movie. I think streaming has a lot of opportunity to do that for a lot of filmmakers. Hmm, you know, the opportunity of cult classic.
Charles Malone:I see you thinking
Shaka Omari:well, you know, I was thinking about this because I like that idea. I was just thinking it would be interesting if the studios did something like how they did with Hulu right, where they just made one streaming service for all their indie films that you could go and shop their library. Oh okay, you're giving me eyes. Well, what's the issue?
Charles Malone:I had a gut reaction to just the words of one more streaming service.
Shaka Omari:No, like get rid of the streaming services they have now. Like get rid of Paramount, because again, the TV shows and things like that, that's cool but it's costing them a lot of money. People are hopping back and forth. I don't think you really need a ton of, I don't think you need a Paramount Plus and a Disney Plus and a whatnot. I think you know Lord of the Rings, it One streaming service, basically cable. Just go back to cable. That's what I'm saying.
Charles Malone:I mean partially, yeah
Shaka Omari:, but I was thinking because there was something like I will admit, as a tech guy back in, you know, I guess before the streaming really hit off during the pandemic, I was very much like, oh my gosh, streaming, yes, because who wants cable? Everyone's tired of having this smorgasbord and you never know what's on cable and you pay for all these channels that you don't want. Streaming will make it equitable for the average consumer or whatnot.
Shaka Omari:Not realizing what they were planning on doing with streaming, and a mentor of mine at the agency that I was working at at the time said something to me I found so very profound and just goes to show that sometimes your nerdy tech side does not trump wisdom and experience, he said to me I hear what you're saying, shaka, and I know that you're excited about the technology and what's cool about it, but the problem is right now, everyone knows where to go to get the quality that they want. You know when HBO is like your fine dining restaurant, t hat's where you go. You know your network stations are kind of like your mid-tier restaurant, like an Applebee's or a TGI Friday. And you know your smaller networks, which it was like AMC at the time had just started doing their own original content or whatnot. You know those smaller streaming ones are like your fast food, like you go. You know what you're going to get. It's easy. Or maybe he was saying network Tv was like fast food. You know what you're going to get. You know the formula, the procedural, that kind of thing. He said when all these streaming services come out, they're going to be fighting for market share in a way that they've never fought before and it's going to end up being a buffet.
Shaka Omari:And I realize that now because, again to what we were talking about earlier, there's so much stuff on all these streaming platforms that I don't even know sometimes what to watch. Sometimes something is not marketed. I didn't even know it was on there, I don't find out about it till later, or an algorithm recommends it to me, so it's not like you know. Hbo turned from HBO to HBO, max to Max, now back to HBO. You used to know, if you went to a certain TV, what you were going to get. Now it's just like I don't even know what I'm going to get and is it going to be any good? And do I even want to watch? And so then you end up watching youtube.
Charles Malone:So it goes back to like too much content is streaming the buffet, giving us too many options
Shaka Omari:of mediocre food.
Charles Malone:Yeah,
Shaka Omari:because, like I love a buffet, I will kill a buffet, but I'm not expecting high quality buffet food. Like I'm just not
Charles Malone:I got.
Charles Malone:Just, I got like partially. I'm still thinking about is there an indie service that is actually like doable? It kind of reminds me of the criterion like oh man, you know you can go there for like, I mean for tons of stuff. But mostly you think like I'm gonna go hit some of the old classics if they, if one of the streamers really started putting some bucks behind mid low level like independent films and original content, you knew like well, hulu blank was for all these new original hulu originals actually is kind of doing that challenges as hulu originals, because I've seen some funky, fun originals, especially their horror stuff like Huluween. Again, isn't some of these movies the best movies? No, but it's still that entry level that we need to find the next generation of filmmakers.
Shaka Omari:Agreed. Agreed
Charles Malone:Because many filmmakers have said this before like you can go to film school all you want, but the best way to learn how to make a film is making a film.
Charles Malone:But it's like hard to get that opportunity
Shaka Omari:and I think that's what youtube might end up doing, because, you know you, it's the place where, as a creator, you can take a risk and you could put it on youtube and see what works and what doesn't work, and you may find the next Kubrick as a 30-year-old YouTuber, because they're just uploading their short film, but they made on an iPhone, yeah well. So, with that being said, I think we're going to. It's a good place to wrap up, but I do have a question for you, since we started this with reboots, got a question for you Is there one reboot you would actually love to see?
Charles Malone:reboot live action animated. Just I guess, if I had to, if I had to pick
Shaka Omari:dealer's choice.
Shaka Omari:Whatever it is that you want, like if you did a reboot of an anime, or if you did a reboot of a. Uh, like I know you complained in our earlier podcast about final fantasy. You know, okay, whatever, if there was a reboot that you could make. Is there one that you're like? Oh my gosh, I have a great idea for this. Or a reboot completely out of it for you, because I know you'd love to expand the universe. But if you could reboot, what would you love to see?
Charles Malone:Before I answer. I think that is a great, great point. I would love to see some of these executives that I think lack imaginations, considering the seats that they're in um, look at this from a part of world expansion. Instead of rehashing the same material with, like, new actors, find ways to expand an existing universe to give us new storylines to, to give us new characters. Like mandalorian was great because it was like expanding the, the lore. You know. I think star was to do better once we start stepping away from the skywalker storyline. I get it, that's what the franchise was built off of, but now it's big enough to transcend skywalker. So if, if we're gonna do that, give us, give us new things in existing worlds, not just the same world rehashed all over again. But if I had to pick, uh, geez, that's that's. That's really hard.
Charles Malone:I have some fun unexpected ones and I know this has been talked about. There's a tv show from the 80s I think would be fun. I don't know if you watched it. It's called the Centurions.
Shaka Omari:Oh, bro.
Shaka Omari:Hundred percent. Hey, before anyone runs with that, you have to bring us on on that. Ok, that was a fan of that as a kid. If we were to reboot that, I wouldn't even care. I wouldn't even mind rebooting it animation wise. But, yeah, you know, you got to include us.
Charles Malone:I'm pulling out Deep Cuts.
Shaka Omari:Yeah, that would have hit me. I didn't think anyone knew about that one.
Charles Malone:I had good toys growing up.
Shaka Omari:Same, same.
Charles Malone:As we try to like make Hot Wheels and movie and things I've been thinking about, I was like dude, it wasn't really a toy, it was a TV show first, but Centurions were like the OG, almost Iron man to me.
Shaka Omari:A hundred percent.
Charles Malone:I don't know which one came first.
Shaka Omari:I have an episode of that on a VHS tape somewhere back at my mom's house. I promise you.
Charles Malone:So Centurions, I think would be really cool. Live action, especially what we can do now with CGI. I would probably reboot Centurions or another 90s one that's good. That might be like. It can either be really bad or really good, Rebooted or made live action and I know I'm still on cartoons, but Gargoyles.
Shaka Omari:Yo, I think they are actually going to reboot that. I feel like they. I mean, I know people have been begging Disney to do that. For sure I think it would. I think I feel like there's like enough fan fever for it to happen. I could be wrong.
Charles Malone:Oh, it's in development for Disney+.
Shaka Omari:Boom
Shaka Omari:Yeah, yeah, See, see, yeah, that's. That's another one that's dear to my heart. You know, to be honest with you, those 80s, 90s cartoons hit man.
Charles Malone:Everyone's going. You know well, you know Barbies and I was like, Mattel, Hasbro let's hash out the GI Joes and everything.
Shaka Omari:Yeah.
Charles Malone:It's like all right, but we got some deep sleepers because no one's thinking about Centurion.
Shaka Omari:No, not at all. I don't know if you ever saw this cartoon, the Dino Riders, that one for me I'd reboot that animation 100%. I would do it as an anime, I think in like the anime style. But that one for me it's kind of the same thing. Again, I feel all these cartoons were created to just make toys, but it's basically people from another planet, I think planet or humans in the future, I can't remember which one it is. They're being attacked by like bad guys or whatever in space and they travel through a wormhole and end up crash land on Earth in the dinosaur age. And so the good guys I can't remember what their names are they have this way to communicate telepathically with the dinosaurs. So they're all friendly and they use their technology and the dinosaurs to build a village. The bad guys that crash land with them use what's called like a brain box to take over the dinosaurs' brains and make the dinosaurs their slaves. So you've got like T-Rex, with like armor and missiles, fighting like a brontosaurus and everything else like that Absolutely awesome.
Charles Malone:Oh, it looks like in 2015,. They started talking about trying to do a development with Mattel, but I'm going to tell you right now, from the getter, this looks wild. I don't know if this works.
Charles Malone:This looks so wild.
Shaka Omari:I'll find a way to make it work. Also, I know it's been in development hell, but I'm going to put it out there. Please, please, please, bring me on Robotech. I just want to do a live action Robotech.
Charles Malone:That one will probably happen. That and an Astro Boy
Shaka Omari:yeah, yeah, I could see Astro Boy. Yeah, yeah.
Charles Malone:I think I already did the animation reboot of it All. Right, until next time.
Shaka Omari:Yeah.
Charles Malone:Follow rate share. Drop us what you would reboot. I'm pulling out deep cuts like Centurion, but if you listen to this, what would you? What's something that you love, that you would like to see made?
Shaka Omari:Yeah, let us know. I'm curious what people want to see rebooted or remade Not the crow, Just don't send me the Crow again.
Charles Malone:I know we want original content, but in the vein of what we're talking about. Fine, I just have to throw one more shade at you.
Shaka Omari:All right, Well, until next time, keep us in the queue Well we're following you, man. You got used to it, okay, yes, don't forget to follow us like share. You can follow us at OpenQueueProductions at IG. You can follow me at Shaka Omari. You can follow Charles at some point in time, you know what?
Shaka Omari:If someone out there, a marketing person, wants to just go ahead and create one for Charles, let's go ahead and just do that.
Charles Malone:You know, until then you can follow those sprouts, gelson, what else you got? Kroger's and Publix, depending on which coast we're on.
Shaka Omari:Actually, you can also follow him on this app called Beli, because this man goes. He's like a foodie he eats everything. If you need a food recommendation, he's got it in Los Angeles. He's got it in San Francisco. It's called B-E-L-I.
Charles Malone:Nope, well, okay, okay, you can follow me at Good Belly on the Beli app Still growing mine.
Shaka Omari:Awesome. We'll see you next time. You think might really enjoy this conversation. The music you're currently listening to is a theme from the TV show Centurion, composed by Edie Harbour. Until next time, see you in the queue.