6: Cursed Productions and Cursed Impressions

Welcome to Born to Bicker! Tell your friends and fam about our crazy stories! 

This week, Griffin and Ellen go head-to-head in telling talking about some insanely cursed productions, including some of our own. One regarding the legend of the making of the Omen and the other about Werner Herzog's, Fitzcarraldo. We jump into the gory details, and unlock what really makes Murphy's law key! 

Let us know who you think won this episode, what you guys think about the stories, and who should now be another step closer to being our mom's favorite! 

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Email us at: borntobickerpod@gmail.com

Index:

00:00 -- Start

14:50 --  The Omen (Ellen's Story)

37:15 -- Fitzcarraldo (Griffin's Story)

Like what you're hearing? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Wow, getting back into it. Alright, hello, and welcome to Born to Bicker, a sibling rivalry podcast where we share some insane stories to help you get out of the insanity of your own life. I'm Ellen.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

And I'm uh G Money. That's gonna be my name from now on.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Oh hell yeah. Yeah. And we're siblings who like to argue. In this podcast, we talk about cursed productions and all things related to Murphy's Law. Plus our own crazy anecdotes from productions that we've been a part of. At the end, whoever can come up with the strangest tale wins the episode, and more importantly, is one step closer to being the favorite.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Which won't be that hard.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Sure. And this is Born to Bicker. Right? I know, I'm I'm gonna do I'm gonna talk about one production that I was on, but I'm gonna try to like go all the way around it without actually saying what it was.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

I yeah, I guess it'd be like a if you know, you know thing, but I don't know if anybody's gonna know this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Say it, spill the beans.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Um yeah, so this was not a production that we were in charge of. I was directing, and then one of our homies was shooting it. Um and if I remember correctly, it was maybe our first like official shoot in Atlanta. Um, and it's these artists that are signed to another very big hip-hop artist that is famous for being kind of chaotic, I guess. If you want to set the stage like that. Um it was like a pretty low budget thing, and they wanted to recreate this super iconic uh I I just wonder like how much if I say it'll be like too obvious what it is.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Well, I think as long as you don't get into too much of the like the nitty-gritty, as long as it's like very vague on like the generals, you know, I don't think people are gonna know.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Basically they didn't have this this much money. Or they didn't have that much money, but they wanted to recreate this super expensive uh club scene from another very famous hip-hop music video director that shifted into features himself. Uh so it was already kind of like an uphill battle because we obviously don't have the budget that they had to make that. And they were just fighting us every single step of the way. I mean, like classic. Yeah. So we showed up in Atlanta, we're like immediately hitting the ground running like scouting strip clubs and shit. We end up deciding on one, it's fine. We get a bunch of these extras in there, everybody's like ready to go. The artists are super late, obviously. Always I hadn't like gotten to talk to them or meet them at all before this shoot, whatsoever. But everybody kinda knew what we were supposed to be doing because it was supposed to be like a shot-for-shot recreation of this thing. And clearly they hadn't really been briefed by anyone that it was not gonna be able to be exactly shot for shot because we just don't literally we literally don't have the funds. Uh, but let's just say there are like a lot of guns involved in the video. Um and there was a moment where on set, uh damn, I'm like, is this gonna get me in trouble?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

No, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

There was a moment on set where, especially because they had brought their own security as well, who had like very big guns going on somewhere. And there was probably 20 prop guns.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Uh and actual prop guns, like, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

So we had a safety meeting. They're all like rolling their eyes about this shit. This is like pretty fresh off the uh Rust incident.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

So everybody's like hyper cautious of what could potentially happen here.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Right. And these guys don't go shit.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

They're not taking it seriously at all. And we have like a local gaffer who's kinda like at least he made it seem that he's kind of like about that life. Uh and these guys and their squad were like fucking around with the prop guns. Oh my god. And the gaffer had to like kind of G-check them on the spot and be like. If I remember the quote correctly, he was like, he was like, Don't fuck with me. Uh I'm from the place they don't talk about. And that was kind of like a pivotal moment in the shoot where we were like already starting to lose these guys, and we were way up against time. Like, if I s if I say this, it's gonna be obvious what movie it is, but like they're supposed to be wearing these white contacts, uh, and one of them, like for some reason there was like a delay in the shipment. So, like, our production team could only get one pair of them.

unknown 6:35

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

So they were going to wear one as like a reference, and then we're gonna VFX the other one. And there's two main artists. So one of them was fine with wearing the one, and then part way through, like, our production coordinator is like, you know what, I know where we can get another set of these contacts, but it's in a storage locker, like two hours away.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

So they leave, we lose them, all the while we're like struggling to keep these guys on board just to finish the video that they wanted to do. They do the round trip to get this this contact set, come back, and the other artist is like, I can't put it in my eyes, I don't want to do it. Oh, so it was a huge waste of time. Uh and we ended up having to VFX the entire thing, which made the shit go way over budget. And we barely finished on time, but we technically got it done.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Uh it's crazy, like I know myself I can't put in context. Like, I know I could not do it.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

So, it's a costume contacts, so it's like the type of shit where you have to like smash it into your eye and just hope that it's comfortable. And they gotta be wearing it for like the whole time. And they were already complaining constantly and pushing back at every step. And I'm like, look, I'm just trying I'm just hired to like help you guys get your vision across the finish line because like it's different because like normally when we go into a music video, I'm directing a concept that at least one of us had some sort of semblance in actually writing and you know whatever, but I'm like, I'm literally just here to to help you guys, and you don't want to do anything. They're talking shit the whole time. Yeah, it was God. It was a terrible experience. I'm honestly like kind of underselling it, but I just don't want to say too much.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Right, right. God, I I never understood the concept of like music artists getting on set and then just like dragging their feet the entire time. It's like, why are you even here then? Why why did you even agree to do this music? You don't have to do a music video.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

I know, they just want to act too cool and shit, but yeah. I mean that that is gonna pale into that that is gonna pale in comparison to the actual cursed production I'm talking about, obviously, because like a lot of the stuff we do is like one-day shoot, so I'm like, okay, my worst day ever is like, you know, ten times easier than anything that I'm gonna talk about in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

A hundred percent. I um I had a production that I was on that also was like not not horrendous, but it was probably the worst day I ever had on set, where I was like a PA for this large film that was doing pickups in my college town, um, and I was still in college, and so I agreed to do this because I was like, this is so cool, and like there's big names attached to it, so I was like super excited to do it. Um I was the transpot PA like in the morning, and then I was gonna shift to being like a normal PA. Um, but I ended up driving the director of this, and he liked me, so I like shadowed him the entire time because I think he just thought it was like cool to show off to a kid who like liked film and you know was super into it and whatever, whatever. Um that being said, it was like I think three days or something, but one of the days I started super early. We were out like in the sun the entire day uh on the beach, like getting bit up by fucking sand termites and shit. And then the next day, it was the final day for everything, and they had these crazy stunts that they had to do, and they were like trying to get it done, and we were going over and overtime, and it was crazy, and everybody started freaking out. Of course, because anytime you go into overtime, people start to lose their shit a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, and this was if you go into overtime, it's like for the people that don't know, you know. I mean, I don't do many union things really, but like if I'm remembering correctly, it's like 1.5 times the pay for every hour after 10 hours to 12, and then it's double, I believe, after that. So it gets exponentially more expensive the further the day runs over, and then you have to be considerate of the turnaround time as well because there's standards around you know how much sleep the crew is getting, obviously. If you have an early day the next day, especially.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Yeah. Well, and it was it was interesting too because the union or the project was union, but I was non-union because PAs can be non-union under certain circumstances. I wouldn't be able to tell you what the circumstances are. I just remember I was able to work on it. And granted, this was in Georgia, so you know, it's a little bit looser there as well. But we started going in overtime, and then I was still like the transport PA to a certain extent, so I was helping drive people back to the hotel rooms and stuff like that. And as the day drew on, I hit like hour 19 and then hour 20 of being on set, which is like super illegal, and nobody seemed to give a shit. And so I got to a point where like I dropped the last person, I thought the last person that I was gonna drop like off at the hotel, and I get a call from somebody, my boss, who was like, Hey, we're gonna need you to come back to set, and I literally just said, No, sorry, I'm on hour like 21, and you're gonna get billed from all this for sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Were they cycling other crew out? Like, for example, like a first assistant camera? Are they like sending them home and then getting a new guy in to like take over?

SPEAKER_02 12:42

I don't think so. I think it was one of those things.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

You're gonna make so much money if you're like in a position like that, and it's just like double time for the city.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

I think they were just trying to like push in all of their chips to get this day done because it was like the last day of the entire production, and they had been filming for a while.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

But this was like the third day of pickups at the very end of everything, and so I do think that camera people and whatever were on like hour maybe 15 or 16, but since I'm a PA, I've also been there since the crack of dawn. So I'm like, you know, and they they hire I will say also, not to keep on like, I don't want to get down a rabbit hole too much, but a lot of times productions will try to shoot in other states that aren't California and New New York in an attempt to try to skirt around some of the union and um like hard lines that are drawn in the sand from California and and states that are used to productions.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

If they do it in the states at all.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

You know, not like Romania or something.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Right. So I do feel like in the beginning, Georgia and you know, um Louisiana and some of the southern states were getting like how far can you go until we can, you know, we get in trouble for pushing. But it wasn't. And you can get in trouble. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

You can definitely get in trouble.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

And then productions out of a lot more money.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Yeah. But um definitely not as bad as the productions that we're gonna talk about because these are absolutely insane. Um, but should we rock, paper, scissors for who goes first?

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Alright. Right.

unknown 14:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_02 14:39

I'm gonna go first.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

You gotta establish a rule with that.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Well, I think you can choose, right? Yeah. Uh I gotta go first because I also feel

The Omen

SPEAKER_02 14:50

like my production is not the um most obscure. I feel like a lot of people are gonna know what this is, but I just I was so drawn to it because I feel like it's just so insane when you get down to the nitty-gritty of it. I it every time I did like try to do research on other things, I was like, I kept coming back to this.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Um, but so Only because I can read it right now. I'll just say there I there's something in the water like in the 1970s in general.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

I'm sure like there's productions you can find out there equally as crazy to some of these, but I I feel like every cursed production I've ever heard of took place from like the years of 1970 to maybe the early 80s.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

That and that's how I always feel about serial killers too.

unknown 15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Like, why were the 70s so prevalent for serial killers? Like, why was there so many renowned ones or like notorious ones, I should say.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

I don't know. And I mean it's harder to report some of these things because there's no, you know, we're so interconnected now that like anyone's just a DM away from you know, whistleblowing some crazy shit.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yeah. So I am going to talk about the omen. Um, I knew a little bit about this before writing it, but I just didn't know how much was actually involved and how like insane the story gets. So bear with me. I will say some of it seems to be like, you know, people will claim it's coincidental, or like maybe there's embellished parts of it. So take it as you will as I go along, but I will say that the story is incredibly insane if you take it like full on with the truth.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

I've seen this movie quite a few times, and I honestly I had heard that it was similarly cursed as like the Exorcist set, but I don't really know anything about it.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

You're in you're in for a good one then. So our story begins with an incredibly devastating and heart-wrenching start. Gregory Peck, who played the beloved Atticus Finch in the award-winning film To Kill a Mockingbird, receives a call in France letting him know that his eldest son, Jonathan Peck, is dead. The 30-year-old television reporter was found in his Santa Barbara home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Gregory would later express his immense regret over not being there and noted the loss as the most terrible event in his life. It was only two months before he started filming The Omen, where he would go on to play a man who ultimately has to kill his son. The initial idea for the project allegedly began when Harvey Bernhard was having a discussion about the Bible with his friend at the time, Bob Munger. The born-again Christian reportedly stunned the producer when he asked, What if the Antichrist was your average kid? Bob told Harvey about the movie depicting the evil and darkness of the Antichrist. He thought the fascination with the biblical aspect and the commercialness of the idea would bring in lots of money from the box office. Bernhard agreed and began to pitch it, hot on the tales of films such as The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Crazy track record.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Crazy. Can you imagine being in that time too? Like the back-to-back movies. Talk about like a horror year.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

And like tragic events surrounding the people involved in all those. Like Rosemary's Baby, too, with the um. I mean, I don't know, I don't know chronologically when this happened, but like Roman Polanski and the Sharon Tate murder.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Yeah. I did look into Rosemary's Baby also when we were like uh trying to figure out research for this. Um, but that one's also insane.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

It's like kind of a it's not insanely similar, but like there's definitely some parallels to be made between those two movies.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah. So after David Seltzer wrote the script in a year, the two optioned it to several studios, including Warner Brothers, but ultimately it was picked up by Alan Ladd Jr. at 20th Century Fox. There, the pair decided on making the theme of the film non-ambiguous, making it a direct correlation of the deaths being related to the Antichrist character, and not just being a string of unfortunate events. These decisions led to the final pinpoints of casting. Originally, there were several actors considered for the role that Gregory Peck would eventually take, including Oliver Reed from Oliver and later Gladiator, Charlton Heston from the Ten Commandments, and Ben Hur, and even Dick Van Dyke, who turned down the role because of the violence in the gore. He would later call that decision stupid. According to the separate interviews with Donner and Harvey Stevens, over 500 boys auditioned for the role of Damien. The then four-year-old Harvey Harvey Stevens won the role after Donnie had encouraged the boys to attack him, and Stevens then clawed at his face and kicked him in the groin. The later they later altered his appearance to make him look more terrifying, as he originally had blonde curly hair. They straightened his hair and dyed it black and then gave him colored contacts.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

The first emo.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

The first emo. Hey, if a little four-year-old can wear contacts and that music artist can shove him in, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah. That sucks.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

With everything locked in, the production began principal photography on October 6, 1975, in various areas in the UK. Some say this is when the real curse began. On his way to production, Gregory Peck was on a plane when it was hit by lightning, which then caught the engine on fire and forced an emergency landing. This may seem common, but the superstition really kicks in when you learn that on the way to LA, not even two weeks later, producer Mace Neufeld had an eerily similar experience when his plane was also struck in the engine by lightning. Then, on a separate flight, David Seltzer's plane was also struck by lightning. And to put the nail in the coffin, no pun intended, Harvey, the other producer, was also almost struck by lightning when filming in Rome. He was in a field and almost got struck by lightning himself.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

God is like, nope.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Mace, who just had his plane struck by lightning, went to settle into his hotel only to find out that where he and his wife had planned on staying had been blown up by the IRA. During production is when things began to really ramp up. On the first day of production, some crew members were involved in a head-on car crash. Then, in a scene which Gregory Peck is attempting to flee the cemetery while being pursued by vicious dogs made for a terrifying attack. The stunt man, who had previously worked and trained with the dogs, went for a take, but they couldn't be called off once the attack started. According to sources from the crew, the dog seemed to become possessed by an unprovisional. Provoked rage and lashed out at the stuntman, Terry Walsh, biting through the protective clothing into his arms. The second dog had gone for his neck, barely missing his jugular. The pack had wrestled him to the ground and were refusing to listen to the trainer. Luckily, the stunt man was able to wriggle his way out and survive the attack.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

You fired. Didn't train shit.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Dude, I can't imagine having actual Rottweilers like really come after you must be fucking terrifying. Right? And they had done train dogs. They had done the stunt before, like multiple times in the in the lead-up. And they were fine then, so it was weird that like once the camera was on, they like Demons. Yeah. This wasn't the only petrifying encounter with the animals during filming. The baboons made for another equally horrifying tale. In another scene in the Omen, Damien and his mother are driving through a wild animal refuge when baboons attack the car. Production initially tried to have them attack by not feeding the animals the night before and then placing food around the vehicle with a baby baboon inside.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

When okay. I feel like that's something you definitely couldn't get away with doing anymore. Oh my god. That is insane. Crazed monkeys on set.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

They're like, alright, good luck.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

It's like some Looney Tunes shit where they're like, oh, let's have the dogs attack. We'll have this guy, like, with a bunch of bloody stakes, like, under his shirt or something.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Wouldn't that didn't create the effect that they wanted? The production swapped the baby for an alpha baboon in the back seat of this car.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

I don't want to meet I don't want to meet the alpha baboon.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

And then that triggered the baboons to actually start attacking the car. The terror and the screams of Lee Remick are real, fearing what might happen, despite the trainer being close in proximity, the intensity was too much to bear. Another strange coincidence was that just a day after filming this scene, allegedly, a worker at the Windsor Zoo where they had filmed the baboons died in an attack from a lion or a tiger.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

What?

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Yeah. Some some sources claim that it was the trainer that had worked with the production. Other sources claim that it was just like another worker that was there, but somebody did die of like a big cat attack the day after.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Freaky.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Towards the end of filming, the crew went to go get some of the last shots in the air. They planned on filming a few aerial shots in Israel and rented out a small passenger plane to do so. The second unit was all set to begin filming when a rich businessman bought the plane out from under them. The inconvenience turned into shock when the crew discovered through an CBS news article that the plane that they had intended to rent flew into a flock of birds and crashed, killing everyone on board just the next day.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

There's something about the plane crash, because mine also involves a couple of print uh plane crashes.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

I was like, is aviation safety just terrible back in the day, you know?

SPEAKER_00 25:19

I feel like similarly, you know, 60s, 70s, maybe, yeah. I feel like that's when a lot of like rockers died. Yeah. Also. That's true. What was it, like some of the Leonard Skinner guys died in a plane crash.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

And then there was that one band, right, where the entire band was wiped out by like Van Morrison died in a plane crash or something?

unknown 25:43

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

I'd have to look it up. Um It was a bunch.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

But it's hard too, because I'm like, they all seem like tiny planes, also, so maybe it was like How often are you hearing about that now? Just the technology of like smaller jets then.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Yeah. Um It's not even that long ago though. We went to the moon before that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

You know, like Well, another crazy I was listening to a podcast, Meta, uh right before this, but uh she was talking about the Malaysian airline that went missing. Bizarre story.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

I don't know if you know anything about that, but like Didn't they end up discovering the black box or whatever? Or no?

SPEAKER_02 26:26

They did. They discovered it. Oh god, what what is she?

SPEAKER_00 26:32

For some reason I thought they were like close to solving that, but maybe not.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

It was like they they have an idea, but they they can't exactly narrow it down because there's like a couple of things that happened. The plane turned in a way that only like a really skilled uh pilot would be able to maneuver the plane like really quickly. It like slipped on a dime.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

It wasn't like a hijacking.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

They think it would've they think it might have been one of the pilots.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

But he died, so like you also don't want to drag his name through the mud because what if he didn't do it?

SPEAKER_00 27:07

I mean, hey, you gotta speculate when a plane just up and disappears.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

And on one of the last days of filming, Gregory Peck and the crew decided to eat at a restaurant. And on one of the last days of filming, Gregory Peck and the crew decided to eat at a restaurant, which they had discovered.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Like it's like a tragedy, and then Gregory Peck decides to get uh chicken parm at It's just such an insane thing, too. Like I don't want to- Did you say something else got bombed by the IRA?

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Yeah, the the producer's hotel.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Uh and on one of the last days of filming, Gregory Peck and the crew decided to eat at a restaurant, which they then discovered had also been bombed by the IRA. Arguably, the most devastating incident tied to the curse of the film happened just after they had finished filming. Special effects designer John Richardson and his assistant and girlfriend at the time, Liz Moore, had moved on to filming A Bridge Too Far. The pair were driving along a road in the Netherlands when they were hit head on by another car. The tire of the second car smashed into theirs, decapitating Liz in the process.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Richardson was rendered unconscious but remained unscathed. It was an eerily reminiscent scene to what the pair had worked on for the film together, creating a moment where one of the characters, Keith Jennings, is killed when he's decapitated by a sheet of glass that falls off a construction vehicle while driving.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

When I remembered this movie, I think I watched it as recently as last year. That is like the first scene that I remember. Right? Just batshit.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Well, and the fact that it's like the special effects designer and the assistant, too, it's like. Bizarre. Um The real accident is also made more unsettling as it took place on August 13th, 1976. It was a Friday, the 13th.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

I feel like so far this might be more accursed than The Exorcist, if I remember that story.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

I think so too.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Correctly, which is like way more famous. I feel like nobody talks about this one.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

I'm glad. I'm glad that you say that because I was like, everybody's gonna know this.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

I don't know. I mean, I didn't know like any of this. And I've seen that movie like five times.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

And according to several sources, John Richardson had said the pair had just passed a road sign pointing to the town of Omen, 66.6 kilometers away.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

What I like almost don't even believe that.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

I'm like, I don't know if he's just embellishing to like I mean, obviously it's it's tragically.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

But maybe it's like an insane set of circumstances.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

I don't know, fucked up way of coping is like, uh well, maybe I can like, you know, make it into a story.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Oh my god, bro. But if that's true, that's like it's like almost too insane to be true. Yeah. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

I mean, even the fact that it's on Friday the 13th is insane to me.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Yeah. I mean, that would definitely be public record.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Yeah. Another member of the original crew, a stunt man, I think different from the guy who got attacked by the dogs, had also claimed that he had been pushed off by an unseen force while filming for a different project. In the scene, Alf Joint had to jump off a building and land on an airbag.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Alf Joint is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

It's such a stage name. It's so cool. Something that all stunt something that stunt men do all the time and usually have no problem accomplishing. But after several successful trials, Alf jumped and landed off of the usual range, hitting the ground. When he regained consciousness in the hospital, Alf claimed that he had been pushed by an unseen force. But unfortunately, those aren't the only incidents that befell what some claim as the curse of the Omen. The accidents still seemed to follow the productions into the future iterations. In 2005, when filming the documentary about the curse of the Omen, producer Alan Tyler confessed that two different camera crews in completely different locations had the same technical issues with the footage that they filmed. Then, in 2006, two different incidents occurred. One when actor Pete Postlewait's brother died suddenly after allegedly pulling a trio of sixes during a card game with friends. The actor said, The freaky thing for me, and it's very personal, on March 14th, my brother Mike died quite suddenly, just out of the blue. He would have been 62 in April. The lads at the club were playing cards with him the week before, which they did every Wednesday night. They were playing open three-card poker, and he drew a pile of sixes. One of them quite jokingly said, Well, your number's up, and it was the following Friday. Things that do happen, and sometimes we're not sensitized enough, we're not aware enough to see the connection.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Bizarre.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

If I was the friend that said, Well, your number's up, and my friend died like a couple days later, I'd be like, devastating. Yeah. That's crazy. The other occurrence was when the scene where actor Liv Schreiber finds the devil's birthmark on Damien, some 13,500 feet of film was inexplicably destroyed.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

I believe Shreiber is in the Omen.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

I think the new one.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

I was like, what? Dude would have to be like a kid in that. I think. I don't know how old he is. He's gotta be in his like 60s at this point. Yeah, that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Yeah, he would have been a kid.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Yeah. Damn, he's got a Tony. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Damn. He's one of those actors that I never really think about.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Sorry, Liv Shriber.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Also crazy, his first name is Isaac and he went with Leave. That's kind of fire.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Oh, his name's Leave? Have I been seen her? I think it's Leave. Whoops.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Sorry, Leave. Oops. He's probably listening.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

I wish.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, name the last. Name the last Leave Shriver movie. Actually, can't think of one.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

I his IMDB said uh Isle of Dogs.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

So he's not even he doesn't even appear on screen yet.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

Ultimately, all these moments could be chalked up to coincidence, seen as random, weird moments, and dismissed as things that were normal, but unusual chain of events. But the jury is out for whether or not this was truly a haunted or cursed production. That's up to you to decide.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

The cast and I will decide. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Yes, I was gonna cast and crew plagued by the awful events that occurred before, after, and during the production, seemed to lean into the idea that maybe they were toying with something they shouldn't have. Just after he had pitched the idea, Bob Munger said that he had warned Harvey at the time if you make this movie, you're gonna have some problems. If the devil's greatest single weapon is to be invisible, and you're gonna do something which is gonna take away his invisibility to millions of people, he's not gonna want that to happen. Such a fire line.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

He was cooking with that one.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

Okay, Munger.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Yeah. Yeah, Bob Munger. It's a rough name.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Oh, we're a great one.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

I feel like I could just picture him though.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Oh yeah. Bob wasn't the only one to have hesitations and misgivings about the final product of the film. When talking to the rest of the cast and crew during the filming of the documentary, Alan Tyler said, The crew that we spoke to had a sense that everyone involved in the production was freaked out to some extent. They all felt that something wasn't right, and that included the cast. Those were seasoned professionals. They'd seen a lot of productions and doubtless a lot of production accidents, yet they picked themselves this film more than any other as having something extraordinary about it. His stance while being somewhat skeptical inches into believing that possible greater play may be at hand after all, mentioning that what we were really shocked by is that while there are some aspects where you can say, I didn't really buy that, the further you go into it, the more you're not sure. So we went from being quite cynical to at least having doubts. All in all, the film is without a doubt least shadowed by an awful and strange series of events. To some, the curse is evident of all the incidents that surrounded the production, from the deaths to the technical issues to the plans that shouldn't have gone awry. While others think it's been the work of something supernatural or the devil, many still say it's simply unfortunate accidents.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

Yeah, I don't know. I think our shoot in Atlanta was probably crazier than that.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Those damn contacts.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

What's like car accidents and whatever, but like there's a lot you can embellish over time. The collective memory of the crew like adding in little spicy details like more 666 shit or whatever. Right, but like a lot of that is just verifiable public record. Plane crashed on this day.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

You know, this person was decapitated. It's insane.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

Yeah. And we just gotta learn not to have fucking wild animals on set. Enough with the baboons and like lions and shit.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

It seems to be a running theme in our pod.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

And it will continue to be a running theme.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Well, this one I guess is a little bit less animal focused, but it does take place in the Amazon, so Oh, hell yeah. There are a lot of a lot of animals in the mix for sure. So

Fitzcarraldo

SPEAKER_00 37:15

mine is about the production of Werner Herzog's Fitzcaraldo. This story really starts in late 1979, which is important because one of the reasons Fitzcaraldo is such a ridiculous production is that it's not just a bad shoot, it's a multi-year campaign of bad decisions, setbacks, recasting, jungle disasters. Uh, and Werner refusing to take a hint from the universe. By the time the movie finally comes out in late September of 1982, the thing has basically spent three years trying to die and failing. And to be clear, Werner is not just some director who got in over his head here. He's one of those guys where every single side story sounds made up. This is a man who in 1974 literally walked 500 miles from Munich to Paris because he believed that his mentor, film critic Latte Eisner, I'm gonna go with that, would stay alive if he made the journey on foot, and she did for nine more years.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

What? Why?

SPEAKER_00 38:16

She was gravely ill. Some sort of spiritual, I don't know, dedication. He's so weird. I mean, I have a million anecdotes. I forgot all the ones I wrote down, but yeah. He ate his own shoe. Uh when he had a bet with this other documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris, who to like test his dedication, was like, if you eat your own shoe, I will film this doc of you doing it.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

And they actually did it. So you can watch that.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

I gotta I feel like I gotta look it up now.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Um also I'm gonna really try not to like bust out my Werner Herzog impression through a lot of this. But it's gonna be rich. It's gonna be really hard not to. Uh this is also a man who got shot with an air rifle during a filmed interview in LA and basically shrugged it off. He said, and I quote, it is not significant.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Um I didn't have this in here either, but Can you imagine like you gets hit with the air rifle and you just go, oh.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Ouch. I think it was like an interview with the BBC or something like that. Um Yeah, there was another one. I guess it's contested if this is true, but by all accounts, I think it is true. Uh my other favorite weirdo in Hollywood, uh, Joaquin Phoenix flipped his car, and then apparently the first person on the scene to pull him out of the wreckage was Werner Herzog.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

No.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

And there was a bunch of like gasoline leaking everywhere, and he stopped Joaquin from lighting a cigarette after this. To not try to not make it burst.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

That's when did that happen? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

I don't know, I'd have to look into it again. There's so much about him that is just kind of like he I just feel like he's one of the most mythical figures. He has an aura around him. There's not many others that do in that weird, almost like cult of personality way, like a David Lynch or something, but rest in peace.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

Rest in peace.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Uh Renner Hard South. Okay. Yeah. I haven't honestly haven't seen a movie of his in a long time.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

He's gotta be like 90, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:40

He's up there. But yeah, so when I say the production of Fitzcarallo becomes absurd, it helps to know that it was already being led by somebody whose default setting was mythological lunatic with conviction. The premise of the movie is already unwell. It's about a man in the Amazon who dreams of building it an opera house in the jungle, and in order to fund that dream, he decides he's gonna haul a steamship over a mountain from one river to another. A normal filmmaker hears that and says, Okay, we're gonna fake that. Werner hears it and says, No, we should actually drag a real ship over land in the jungle. This is also something you couldn't get away with anymore.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Oh no. Anybody would be like, What the fuck are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00 41:24

What makes it even better is that Herzog was basing this story on a real story, except the real-life rubber baron moved a much smaller boat and took it apart first. Herzog heard that historical version and went, interesting, but what if I made it dramatically more difficult than the actual event it was inspired by? He didn't want the idea of obsession, he wanted obsession with machinery. In November of '79, Herzog sets up his first filming camp near the border of Peru and Ecuador, and before the movie can even properly begin, he's caught in conflicts involving the military, settlers, oil and lumber interests, um, and suspicious indigenous Aguaruna communities, which is already such a funny place for a film production to begin. Full geopolitical and local crisis from the jump.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Sounds great. Let's go right there.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

Yeah, let's get right in the crossfire. And they literally will get in the crossfire in a second here. Uh in December, armed agarunas attack the camp. That first attempt collapses. Thomas Mouch, the DP, recalls that local people stormed the camp and burned down the production's medical station. No movie, no momentum, no cool first-leg jungle footage to salvage. Just Herzog getting told by reality within weeks that maybe this whole thing should just not exist.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Now, here's where the timeline really helps, because that disaster in 1979 in December does not lead to a quick, okay, let's just try again next month. According to AFI, Herzog spends 13 months scouting for a new location. So when people talk about Fitzcaraldo like it was one famously difficult shoot, no, by the time the cameras are rolling again, the thing is already over a year deep into attrition.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Then finally, in 1981, filming begins again near Iquitos in northern Peru. And at this point, the movie stars Jason Robards as Fitzcaraldo and Mick Jagger.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

What?

SPEAKER_00 43:33

The one the only as his assistant.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

What? How old is Mick Jagger at this point? Like 30?

SPEAKER_00 43:40

I don't know, but he's like damn near at the peak of his fame at this point.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

That's crazy. Yeah, let's get Mick Jagger to drag a fucking ship through the jungle on his own.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

Right. So that's just that's one of my favorite strange alternate universe casting facts ever. There's a version of this movie somewhere where Mick Jagger's standing in the Peruvian Amazon in a Verder Hertzog Fever Dream, and I'm really sad that we're on somebody should have been making the making a documentary right then. And somebody is making a documentary. Too bad he never makes it on.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

But he never makes it in. But so we'll we'll get to the doc later. But it's funny that you say that because the documentary about this movie is, in my opinion, a much better and more fascinating watch than the actual movie itself. Um this isn't just like a small false start. Herzog shoots for four months with that version. Enough time that you'd think, okay, maybe they've stabilized. Maybe now the movie is simply difficult in the usual jungle production kind of way, but of course that would make too much sense. Robards uh contracts amoebic dysentery, has to fly home, and his doctors forbid him for returning.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Can you imagine being in nineteen nineteen eighty and then getting fucking dysentery?

SPEAKER_00 45:05

I can I can't imagine getting dysentery ever. Yeah. It would be horrible.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

But like you can imagine.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

And you're in the middle of it's like, it's not like you're just running down the road. Like, they're at a pretty undeveloped side of town. Like it's not a quick fix for any of this shit.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

As a traveler, I think one of my biggest fears is getting fucking like food poisoning, dysentery, whatever, whatever. Strange. In like a third world well that not I shouldn't say it that way.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Well, still they don't have like you can't just like easily make a call. You can't easily get into like a hospital.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

You probably don't even have a toilet, like an actual toilet. It's probably just like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

You're done for. And that's gonna prove to continue to be an issue. I mean, they already had their medical attent burnt down like the first time, but yeah, that continues to be an issue. Um so yeah, dysentery, he's gotta fly home. Doctors say, you can't go back, brother. Um, so now the lead is gone after months of shooting, and the production basically blows up for the second time. And because this movie is allergic to merely ordinary disaster, Nick Jagger also drops out. AFI says the production is delayed six weeks while Herzog looks for a new lead, and Mick can't stay available for reshoots because of prior commitments. Uh he says, Losing Mick was, I think, the biggest loss I have ever experienced as a film director. Um I liked him so much as a performer that any replacement would have been an embarrassment.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

Damn, is Mick Jagger a good actor?

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Or turns out Herzog is just a huge Stones fan. I don't know. I feel like it's probably the latter.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Probably.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Um in April 81, filming resumes with Klaus Kinski taking over the lead role. And this is where the story crosses from difficult into mythic. Because Kinski is not exactly a calming presence. He was not the adult brought in to steady the room. He was Klaus Kinski, who already had a volatile history with Herzog. Just for reference, as legend has it, in one of their previous films, Agiray, Wrath of God, Herzog threatened to shoot Kinsky and then himself for wanting to abandon the set. Roger Ebert makes a point where he says, Jason Robards would have played a madman. Kinsky just seemed like one. Which for the screen is incredible, but for the crew, maybe less fun. Mauch said they had to reshoot five weeks of material to replace the Robards footage. And that the actual shooting schedule stretched to more than eight months across South America and Munich. Something tells me they're not making bank.

SPEAKER_02 48:07

Yeah, but like so.

SPEAKER_00 48:08

And a lot of people a lot of people on this crew that are working are are locals too, so I got a feeling that they're getting taken advantage of. But all the while that's happening, the set conditions sound completely feral. Arrows being shot from the forest, Brazilian engineer resigning after warning there was a substantial chance the cables hauling the ship could snap and kill dozens of people. And a crew member supposedly saved himself from a deadly snake bite by immediately cutting off his own foot with a chainsaw.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

And Herzog, of course, chimes in. It was a good decision. He lived.

SPEAKER_02 48:47

Oh my god. That's fucking nuts. And he probably's like, that's so sick.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

He's like, this is gonna be a dope story. So shout out to the guy's foot. The relationship with indigenous communities around the production is also one of the most complicated and troubling parts of the story. The DP recounts that two indigenous men drowned in the river after taking a lar uh after taking a boat through against prior warnings.

unknown 49:14

No.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

And then you get one of the all-timer insane production anecdotes, which is that Kinski was apparently so unbearable that a local chief offered to kill him for Herzog. That story hangs around this movie for a reason because even if you know Herzog and Kinsky had a famously deranged working relationship, this takes it to a level that feels biblical. Imagine your lead actor being such a destabilizing force that the local solution proposed to you is murder. And if I remember correctly, I think that they this person legitimately thought he was some sort of demon. I think is what the quote was.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

I could see it.

SPEAKER_00 49:54

Like he actually thought he was he was possessed by something because he was so erratic and insane.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Actors, am I right?

SPEAKER_00 50:03

This guy is insane. I don't know if you've ever seen his face, but you'd be like, I could believe it if I didn't know anything about him.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

No, but I bet he probably looks like a little twat.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

No, he's he's creepy. He's got like a Nazi vibe to him. I don't know. Meanwhile, the central nightmare is still ahead of them. The boat, the actual ship, the giant steamship that Herzog insists on pulling over a muddy incline for real rather than faking it. Ebert calls it a 360-ton boat. Other accounts often round it differently, but the enduring point is that it was not some cute bit of practical effects. Uh it was a colossal, real, dangerous engineering feat in a terrain that was already too hostile. So the documentary, Burden of Dreams, uh, which was shot, you know, as a behind-the-scenes featurette, if you will, that became an entire feature with a life of its own as a cult classic. Uh this is what makes the whole thing stop sounding like the exaggerated legend and start feeling super real. Criterion describes the climactic footage of the giant steamboat, which Herzog had shipped hundreds of miles, being cast adrift in a raging river during filming.

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

As the boat lurches, Herzog's cameraman is thrown down and bloodied.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

And running all through Burden of Dreams is Herzog slowly spiritually decomposing on camera. Criterion quotes him describing the jungle as a place where I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it. The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. And the land that God, if he exists, has created in anger.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

I feel like every time he opened his mouth, he's like, This is gonna be a banger.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

He's like incapable of not dropping bangers. That's what I love about him.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

He probably rescued Walking Phoenix and he was like, You're saved.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

I I just I would die to be a fly on the wall, uh, just hearing any sort of conversation between the two of those people.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

Oh, I bet it's like they're not from this planet. The most like, yeah, hoity-toity, fantastical like commentary.

SPEAKER_00 52:26

Insane. Uh that and that's what makes the story so narratively satisfying. The movie and the making of the movie become the same story. Fitzcaraldo is about a man trying to force a lunatic dream into reality through sheer will, and the production of Fitzgeraldo is Werner Herzog doing exactly that. He's not just depicting obsession, he's reperforming it with ropes, uh, engines, disease, and a very real chance that everything could collapse. And somehow the thing keeps going through the rest of 1981 until filming is finally completed in November. Months and months of sustained ordeal after the earlier 1979 collapse in the January 1981 restart. The movie had multiple lifetimes. Then, after all that, Fitzcaraldo finally reaches audiences in late September of 82, opening in New York and in Los Angeles. Which means that from that first failed camp in November of 79 to public release in September of 82, the film's the film spends nearly three years clawing its way into existence. Three years for one movie about dragging a boat over a hill, and the making of documentary becomes almost as famous as the film itself. Honestly, with as cursed as it seemed this production was, it's not that bad for how long the timeline's not that bad.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

I thought it was gonna be worse. And it kind of reminds me a little bit of um Heart of Darkness.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 53:56

You know? Where it's like, I I know the documentary. Well, I mean, Apocalypse Now, everybody knows Apocalypse Now, but like I know the documentary very famously about the making of these, you know?

SPEAKER_00 54:09

The they're definitely like spiritually similar, but I would say that you gotta watch Burden of Dreams too. I really want to. It's like it's just it's it's chaotic and kind of sad, but like funny.

SPEAKER_01 54:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

I don't know. It's more of a comedy, but I'm gonna get into that a little bit too.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

Um yeah, so maybe it was worth it because Hertzog won Best Director at Cannes that year.

SPEAKER_01 54:41

Oh my god. Of course he did.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

So shout out to all the casualties.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

That one guy who lost a foot was like, at least I didn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 54:50

Showing up there with a peg leg, just staring holes into Werner's head as he hops up on stage to grab that award. Um, so I got some more fun facts because it's easier to rattle these off. Yeah. Uh there's not one but two plane crashes getting into the jungle, critically injuring five crew members and paralyzing another one. Whoa. Um The DP's hand was split open trying to film the climax. He underwent a two and a half hour operation to put his hand back together again without anesthesia. As he screamed and thrashed in agony, one of the camp prostitutes reportedly calmed him by pressing his head between her breasts.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

Oh my god. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

The film was shot during the one of the region's driest summers on record. Indigenous Amawaka launched a hit and run raid on the film camp. One man survived an arrow through his throat. Uh the indigenous man's wife was hit in the abdomen, necessitating eight hours of emergency surgery on a kitchen table.

SPEAKER_02 55:55

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 55:56

According to Herzog, I assisted by illuminating her abdominal cavity with a torchlight, and with my other hand sprayed with repellent the clouds of mosquitoes that swarmed around the blood.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

Oh god, dude. Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

Herzog decided against a revenge attack, believing it would be bad for relations.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

What is he gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 56:17

I don't know why a revenge attack would be up for you know, up to him, but I mean maybe it's that one chief that's like, I'll kill your lead actor if you want me to. He's director and uh general, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 56:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

Uh after filming Rapped, they left the ship in the forest, where it remains to this day.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

And then a little bit about the documentary. Um showing an early edit to a trial audience, director Lesblank was surprised to find that the reaction was laughter. I was baffled, recalls Blank. I thought it was kind of tragic and sad, but I edited it some more, and they still laughed. So after that, I played it for the laughter. It's basically a tragic comedy. Um, and a final quote from Hertzog on this movie is uh In Burden of Dreams is I shouldn't make movies anymore. Clearly exhausted and devastated by injuries and the deaths. I should go to a lunatic asylum. I feel even if I get that boat over the mountain and I somehow finish the film, anyone can congratulate me, but nobody will convince me to be happy about that. Not until the end of my days.

SPEAKER_01 57:34

Oh my god. Did he well he went on to make other movies, so he wasn't that beat up about it.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

And Burden of Dreams becomes an incredible cult classic.

SPEAKER_02 57:45

Yeah. Damn, that is crazy. Yeah. The amount of people just getting fucking ripped in half on this. Shot in the torso, like losing a foot.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

Honestly, I feel like the omen is like almost on par with this with this toll, but they're just two very different types of curses.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

Yeah, yeah. And yeah, this one seems like just so absurd. Like none of this had to happen. I mean, not that it had to happen for the omen, but the omen was more like accidents-based, I guess, and this seems like a bit more preventable.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Going in, you you you could only guess as to the number of of casualties here. Yeah, the omen is just shit is just happening to them. This is like they're going straight into the shit.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

Yeah. God. And you like, yeah, can you imagine coming back and you had this insane story, and then you're like, oh, by the way, we need to film like another eight months in the jungle. Like, do you wanna do you wanna come on this production?

SPEAKER_00 58:53

Like, I'm out.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

You know?

SPEAKER_00 58:56

Yeah, you're like, do you wanna come back for your 21st hour as a PA set?

SPEAKER_02 59:01

Ugh. There's mosquitoes, and you might get bit by like a really poisonous snake, and you might get shot with an arrow in the throat. Oh my god. Dude, I didn't craze like I was crazy enough, but I was talking to my producer um that I work with at work, and he was talking about how he was backpacking in Hawaii one time, and he like was shirtless, and he took his backpack off and then he put it back on, and he like got bit, and he was like, What the fuck? At least he screamed and he like took the backpack off, and all of a sudden a centipede like this big dropped on the ground, and he was like, It was so big it sounded like a snake hit the ground, and it was like a Polynesian centipede or something like that, and his lymph nodes like swole like swelled up and he started like sweating and it was like really bad. He was like, I'm 15 miles out in the middle of nowhere in Hawaii. Am I gonna die? And they meet this like native guy, and the native's like, No, you'll be fine. Um, but that's crazy. The island must hate you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:05

Oh my god. As if I needed another reason to hate centipedes.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

Oh, they're so positive. Yeah, yeah, and they can be venomous or poisonous or whatever, whichever one it is. But I'm like, oh nasty. Um but I do like the jungle, that being said, I think it's cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:25

There's probably a lot of centipedes in the in the Amazon.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:29

Yeah. Our next episode, we pre-rolled, which I don't remember if we talked about it in the last episode or not. Um, but we're also doing scam artists for the next episode. So just putting that out there so y'all know. We'll get into that. And if any of you guys have any crazy tales about your life or productions that you've gone on or like been a part of, please let us know because that's super interesting for us um being in production.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

I think we might know some peeps.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:59

We might know some peeps who have some insane stories and would love to read it out. Um, if you guys have anything that wants to be shared or not, we can always just read it ourselves, but we'd be fascinated either way. Send us your stories at born to pickerpod at gmail.com. That's B-O-R-N-T-O-B-I-C-K-E-R-P-O-D at gmail.com. Please follow us on Instagram um where it's the same spelling, born to pickerpod. We'd love to hear from you and let us know who you think won this episode. Who do you think won this episode?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:32

We can't keep deciding amongst each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

I know, it's too hard.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:36

Uh you give me the dub?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:39

Yeah, I'll give you the dub.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

Alright, I'll take this dub.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

Hell yeah. I'll take this W. I do really want to watch Birdman Dreams now. I've actually never seen it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:46

It's so fucking good, dude. I haven't seen it in a long time. It's gonna be so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

Um, but yeah, and then we're gonna be filming the next episode right after this, so uh tune in for the next time and tell your friends and family to listen in. We're gonna try to level up.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:05

Yeah, let's blow up.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:07

We're gonna blow up and act like I don't know nobody.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:11

And then you blow up.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

And then you blow up. And that's all for this one.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:16

Goodbye.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

Bye. Thank you.