Return of the Living Dummy (ft. Avery Jones)

[00:00:01] The most thrilling, spiky-ling series ever! From the pages of R. L. Stine's best-selling books, and the screens go on forever and ever. We now return to Goosebumps.

[00:00:19] Alright, Goosebumps Crew, we are back.

[00:01:01] And you might notice a familiar face. He hasn't been on here in a while. So even Google forgot about him. Because when I put in the Google Goosebumps podcast, it was us. But it only listed Isaiah still, Hayden and myself, that apparently decided to leave him. So apparently he's been off here so long they thought maybe he died. I don't really know. But I'm obviously enjoyed by Hayden and Bjorn once again. So welcome back, Bjorn.

[00:01:31] At least temporarily until you finish wrapping this fan film. Which is our topic for today. But he's also joined by a very special guest. He's been on here before a couple times. Mr. Avery Jones, the puppeteer for Slimey from the Goosebumps movies. So welcome gentlemen all the way from Australia. Yes. This has been a very interesting experience. Having you here. But it's been a blessing. And a curse.

[00:02:00] No, no, no, no. Well. No. No. So which one's the big spoon? Who's the big spoon at night? Which one of you is the big spoon? The big spoon at night. I think Slappy. Slappy. Yeah. That makes sense. That tracks. So as we get started here.

[00:02:29] We do have, you know, them on here solely because Bjorn's been shooting this fan film. And if you guys have been following the Night of the Living Dummy fan film Instagram page, you see like the production quality that's really went into this. Just the video quality alone is pretty spectacular. But everything else seems to be very well done on top of that. Like Bjorn's shown me a few things over time. We haven't talked a whole lot since he started this.

[00:02:58] Like he's been very enveloped in this project. But it's coming to an end. I think you told us right before we started, it wraps in two days. So it's crazy to think that this is already almost wrapped up. But, you know, we'll start with you Bjorn just because you've done kind of fan films in the past. You know, so you're kind of familiar, but I don't think it's ever been anything like this before.

[00:03:24] And you've put a lot of heart, soul and money into this endeavor. So, you know, tell us a little bit about this whole process, man. And, you know, what it's been like for you. Yeah, so it's funny. It started with like, well, obviously, Curse City Con. You know, I just when I was having my chat with Stein, I remember like, you know, here's the thing. Like he's 83 now and he's because he's Mick Jagger just had his 83rd birthday.

[00:03:53] So I go, yeah, I know they share the same birthday. And, you know, obviously we're in Curse City Con. That's when I finally got to see you guys. And then it's the Avery. And when I had my like conversation with Stein, which was still just, I don't know, it just feels like a fever dream weekend. When he came up to me, obviously we were chatting and I said, oh, you know, like I've made a lot of films. And I mean, I wish they would adapt the first Night of the Living Dummy. And he's like, oh, well, you have my blessing. And I was like, really?

[00:04:23] And he's like, yeah, but you can't profit. I'm just like, OK. So in other words, I can make it for free and just give it to the community. So that was where the light bulb went off. And I was like, well, I'm going to do it. And yeah. But the thing is, like, you know, he probably says a lot of things. So I remember messaging him like two months, three. No, when was it? No, it was in January. I messaged him in January just saying like, oh, you know, by the way, here's the Mr. Wood doll. It's looking really cool so far.

[00:04:51] Just to see if he remembered like me mentioning to him. And then he said, oh, it looks great. Like, can't wait to see it. And I was like, oh, cool. He remembers. So, you know, Stein has been kind of the sole reason behind this. And I remember I had a dinner with some friends and I told them my idea and what I wanted to do. And they were like, yeah, this sounds like good fun. And then I got one of my friends, Shannon, who works at the TAFE University there. And she said, oh, I can get some students involved.

[00:05:18] And honestly, they have all been such troopers, like, getting through this production with me. Like, they all came on board. You know, they're still learning themselves. But what they've helped create with this film is unbelievable. Like, when you guys see it, you're going to be pretty shocked. Like, some of the lighting setups and just the cinematography and how we managed to create this from the book. And that's the thing. It's very book accurate as well.

[00:05:46] So, to the fans, like, we've left nothing out. Okay? Like, we've even done, like, little moments from the books. Like, simple things. Like, I'll give you one. I mean, it's nothing major. But, like, there's a scene where Chris gets out of bed and says her foot gets tangled. And she's like, get off me as she gets out of the bed. Like, because it gets stuck. We even did that. You know what I mean? Like, we've done little things that, like, you could just cut. But we're like, no, no, no. Let's keep all the little moments from the book that people remember. And it's really fun to watch the Easter eggs get dropped while we're going to.

[00:06:15] There's been, Bjorn has, like, leapt from his spot to go, wait, I just thought of something. And he'll throw something in the background. Or he'll throw out something that someone can do. And I've seen him get very excited about planting these Easter eggs. Oh, good. So, there are plenty to look for, too. Yeah. Goosebumps fans, you know how in the TV series they would always plant these. Well, even in the movies and in the Disney show, they planted Easter eggs. We have done that.

[00:06:44] There is Goosebumps items, books, things, like, around the bedroom. That's like, you know, and even the concert scene, we planted one really cool Easter egg. So, keep an eye out for that one. Yeah, it's been one hell of an experience. But, again, like, I credit these students and their hard work. You know, I couldn't have done this without them. You know, and Avery coming all the way from the States to help with this. Like, you know, that's been another blessing.

[00:07:13] So, what were you saying about the puppetry the other day? Oh, the whole thing is very exciting for me, not knowing what to expect when I got here, either. But we've done a lot of fun puppetry moments, some technical artistic puppetry things for the nerds like me. And we've done more of those moments than the other two movies combined.

[00:07:35] So, we've been able to take the time to have Mr. Wood do some elaborate things that you won't think are elaborate. But when a puppet does them, it takes more than one person. And it takes coordination. And I think, yes, the other day we did something like 30 takes for something to get something right. But we're taking the time. And that's very exciting to me and my puppet brain.

[00:08:05] That's awesome. I mean, so I have seen some stuff that, like I said, Bjorn has shown me of Mr. Wood. And one thing that I thought really sent me over, I even told Bjorn this. I was like, I think I'm a bigger fan of Mr. Wood than I am Slappy at this point. And I haven't even seen this film yet. I've only seen, like, snippets of what you're doing with Mr. Wood. Specifically, there was a behind-the-scenes one of, like, you puppeting, like, Mr. Wood on a porch.

[00:08:36] And I can't remember which one of the girls you were kind of yelling at. But, you know, it was talking about, like, you and the mutt, you know, and the voice and the lighting setup. And everything. I was like, oh, my gosh. I was like, okay. It's like, no, I don't know. Like, Mr. Wood seems so menacing in this just from very little bit I've seen so far. So, I mean, so, like, just out of curiosity, I mean, when you – did you have a voice in mind for Mr. Wood before you even came over there?

[00:09:07] Or was that something you kind of came up after you had him in hand? I had a few thoughts, a few ideas I wanted to pursue. I have a video that I'll show you at some point. It's me just driving around trying different voices in the three lines that I could remember from the books. I definitely wanted him to be different than Slappy. Slappy is different than the film Slappy as well. So it's a different interpretation.

[00:09:36] I had some thoughts, but it definitely doesn't click until the puppet's there and you figure out how quickly the character needs to move. And, you know, what his face is shaped like and those kinds of things really inform the way my voices get developed. I had thoughts, but once I got here and was able to get hands on the puppet, I did the rest of my research and locked in pretty well after that. You nailed it.

[00:10:06] You nailed the voice. Okay. I'm just hoping they don't replace me with Jack Black. No, no, no. We've been joking around like, just so you know. Well, I need to tell you, but we have another guest on here. No, I'm just kidding. Bring him in. But it's funny, like Mr. Wood has definitely been like, yeah, like so much more menacing and cunning. But the weird thing is, like, he, like, Slappy's still been creepy though.

[00:10:33] Yeah, Slappy just sitting around like he is right now, just on set, kind of just staring. His spook just saw, I think, once or twice over the last few weeks. Because the design is so good. And however Cesar makes his dummy eyes is incredible. They catch light in such a way where they're not moving, but you feel like there's something going on behind those eyes. So he's caught us off guard the other day.

[00:11:03] He looks alive. Yeah, absolutely. It's wild. Just from the eyes alone, like, they are very piercing blue. So he captured that description very, very well for that dummy back there. And the video Bjorn sent me was the closing shot of Slappy. That was... Yeah. Yeah. When they catch the light in some of these setups and we've got the haze and everything, it's great.

[00:11:31] I think it's going to, you know, make... What did you say? Make Slappy scary again? That was my idea. Because I was like, I feel like over the years, Slappy just became less scary like he was from the 90s. Like, you know, the book covers the 90s. And I just said, I think we've made him scary again. Finally. With his one line and his piercing blue eyes. Like, that was kind of my mission. Like, you know, obviously Mr. Wood is the main guy.

[00:11:58] This time we're giving him his spotlight because he's never had a spotlight. Literally never had a spotlight. You know, but I was also like... But I also want to make Slappy scary again. Like, I wanted people to be genuinely creeped out by him. And we've got some really eerie scenes where he's just sitting there in the chair and he just looks... He looks like... Yeah, I don't know. There's something going on in his brain. And we have this theory. Like, obviously, you know when you read the magic spell words, you bring Slappy to life.

[00:12:26] And it also brings Mr. Wood to life. We have a new theory. When Chris reads the magic words to bring Mr. Wood alive, Slappy must have come alive at the same time. He's in the room. He's in the room. So he must have come alive at the same time. So from that moment, he is alive. But he's just like... He was plotting in his head. He was plotting what to do. You know? Because that's what Slappy does. He's more of a thinker. Mr. Wood's just like a... Like a man of action. Like, he goes straight in.

[00:12:56] I'm going to kill your dog. I am going to vomit on all the kids in the audience. Like, I am going to just destroy your life very quickly. And Slappy, I think, is just a little more thought planning in his... What he's going to do. But yeah, no. Mr. Wood is definitely the star of this one. We have done... Like Avery said, we've done more puppetry for Mr. Wood than he did in both Goosebumps movies combined. So I put him to work well. Got it.

[00:13:25] I was like, we need this shot and this shot and this shot and this shot. And we need his arms doing this. And I'm still coming up with more things as we're shooting. I'll go, hey, wouldn't it be cool if... You know, dot, dot, dot. So we've added some fun little moments that have come to me as we're here going, you know, a puppet movie could do this. And yeah, there's some cool stuff that we just filmed the other night that I haven't seen yet.

[00:13:54] But I'm very excited about it. Oh, the lighting. We saw one thing on the monitor that looked really, really cool. Mr. Wood just looks like he's on fire. It literally looks like he's on fire. But he's not. He's just an evil little troll. But one thing I do have to really credit, too, that's made this film is the two girls. Like, our two leads are just unbelievable. Annabelle and Billie. You know, like, I've already told Billie, like, you're going to be a star. Like, 100%.

[00:14:20] Like, she is just so, so much emotion in her face. She's very natural. And she acts. And this is such a silly story in retro, you know, in the grand scheme of things. But she's taking it so seriously that it's great. She and I are both very mild-mannered people. And we spent a lot of time screaming at each other on this. So we bonded in a very unique sort of way. We call it the balcony scene, right?

[00:14:50] Like, that's the screaming match scene anyway. The stupid match of yours. Yes, that's the piece you've seen online. There's a lot of... Mr. Wood gets thrown around a lot in this piece. In that scene in particular, he is very abused. But somehow he's still intact. And yes, he's still here. Well, hopefully he's being thrown onto a mattress or something on the side. I assume there's got to be something wrong. That's on me.

[00:15:19] I'm usually just below frame catching him any time. We don't even trust the mattress. We're like, he might roll off the mattress and then hit the... So he's like, no, I'll just catch him. And then at least we know he's safe. So another thing when you finally do get to see this thing, you know, I'm always just out of frame doing something if the dummy needs it or on camera. Well, I just realized there's still one more thing we have to... One more scene we have to shoot where we're going to need you. And it's the... These two.

[00:15:49] Oh, I got you. Yeah. See, I thought... We thought Avery was kind of done. And I was like, no, there's actually one more scene. Dummy versus dummy. Dummy versus dummy to the book fans. You know what that is. Wait, it's not a spoiler. It's in the book. It's the strangle scene with... We did the... I was going to say, it's not a spoiler. I hope the audience has at this point read this book. So... It took three hours to get the barky strangle. It took three hours.

[00:16:16] So working with a real dog is a challenge. We got a shot. We got like moments of the shot. We eventually did it. But yeah, that was a day. Three hours behind to get that shot. But we got it. And then we had to huckle through the actual scenes. Like, okay, we need to go quick. Luckily, like I said, our actors are so good that they could... They almost like one take for a lot of the shots. So we managed to get what we needed pretty quick. And then they just go, oh, you're just a good...

[00:16:44] Not trying to blow smoke up my own ass here. But they just go, just a good director. You just told us what you wanted and we did it straight away. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. You girls are the best directors of yourself. And I know it's where I come from too. But they're both theater kids. So theater kids are used to one take. So I think that's a great skill set that they already had. Not that they'll give themselves the credit for it. But I noticed those things as a theater teacher.

[00:17:12] Yeah, when Bjorn said that you were joining the crew, Avery, I was like, this is going to be such a unique film. Because there's all of the different backgrounds of like... You've got theater, you've got Hollywood, and you've got the kind of college indie film project. And blending all of that together, that's kind of been something I'm curious about behind the scenes. What has been different from your time working on the movies

[00:17:39] to now having the freedom and the time to be able to really hone in on something rather than being rushed by an executive who's like, time is money kind of thing. Right. I think it's interesting in my perspective because we're all equals here. There's no Jack Black who we've got to finish all of his shots first and get him home because, you know, we're paying him the most money.

[00:18:07] So all of the slappy things in the movies got pushed to the end of the night. So we really had one or two takes at them if we got to do them. So everybody's kind of the same here. We're not working around egos and schedules and those kinds of things that if we need to take 30 versions of one shot, it's okay because the girls, they're still here

[00:18:35] and we're not in a rush to get them, you know, out of here so they could get on a plane to go shoot some other movie. So my favorite thing in all productions that I'm part of are collaboration and that everybody is working. And this is a quote from the making of Fraggle Rock in the 80s. We're all in service of the best idea. It's not necessarily just, you know, Bjorn's way or the highway.

[00:19:05] It's a collaboration and everybody can contribute. Billy will go, I really liked this line and you cut it and, you know, Bjorn will go, okay, use that. So there's a lot of teamwork and that to me is the very exciting thing because there's a lot to be gained when you work together rather than fighting each other.

[00:19:34] Yeah, that one line, I know the one you're talking about too. That was the, oh, my life is over. It's all because of that stupid dummy. I was like, we don't need that line. But then I kind of went, fine, we'll just, we'll shoot it. And yeah, I love that line. So, you know, he let her say the line. So again, they're both amazing. Annabelle is just so good as well. Like she's just, she plays the Lindy bratty sister really well. And then Billy just plays like the, like the, the softball.

[00:20:04] She's kind of like chill, but then she just, she does blow up. And when she blows up, it's usually because of something Lindy did. And she's the soul of this thing, really. Billy is the, there's a, there's a lot of, there could be a lot of pressure, but I don't think she's feeling it because we're all having such a fun, fun experience. We have this like handshake that we do, you know, and it just keeps them all grounded. I think I don't know. And they're quick studies too. If I ask for some need for the puppets, they'll, you know, you've got to watch where your feet land.

[00:20:33] Sometimes if you're working around puppeteers, like they're, they're really quick studies on all of those things. And so I've, I've had such, such a fun time. Billy's one of my, my favorite co-stars I've ever worked with. That's awesome. No, they're great. The kids that that was, but that was also like, like, yeah, she's the soul of the film, but it was also like, that was what was going to make this film was those two girls had to work. Like they had to be perfectly cast and like, yeah, they, they're so good. They're so talented.

[00:21:03] Like I know. And Annabelle was definitely more theater. Like she loves theater. That's like her main thing. But this is an experience for her as well. And Billy wants to be an actress. So yeah, it's like you've got the two worlds colliding there and they just, yeah, they're all so good. I'm so proud of them. And then our parents are really good. You know, Tess and William. Tess is like, she plays my mom really well, you know, but they're both parents themselves. So it's just natural for them.

[00:21:32] They don't have kids this age, but you know, still like they, but then again, they've got like the terrible twos and, you know, kids that sort of age. So they're used to yelling and bringing, just, you know, they've just started doing that. So like good goosebumps parents do. Yeah. But, you know, and you know, our editors are going to do an amazing job. I've seen little bits and pieces and like, and that's another interesting aspect of this is they're already assembling

[00:22:00] pieces of the movie as we're going. So if they say, Hey, two days ago we were shooting, you know, this scene and we need an extra piece. We're able to still jump in and pick it up rather than, you know, production on a, on a big Hollywood movie that'd be a second unit months from now doing, you know, inserts with hands and, you know, all of the stuff work and things like that. So it's very interesting to see it all happening live in, in real time. Like, like theater for me,

[00:22:29] like you can immediate feedback of that worked, that didn't work. And we're able to, to, to polish it up and get them stuff that they, that they need. And that's another thing I've been doing. Wait, if, if we could do this with the puppet, it'd be really cool. And so we've worked backwards a couple of times and there's, I think we've got some, some hands. There's some hands, it's creepy puppet hands acting going on, uh, feet. Yes. Lots of feet. And,

[00:22:59] uh, the, uh, the, the, I don't think anybody's ready for steamroller. So that's, that's pretty, uh, that was pretty, we did that. We actually got a steamroller and did that. So that's sick. So you've already done it. Okay. We did this with no money somehow. How did we do it? We, we, we, we, Oh no, you had money. We borrowed a steamroller. And we, we, we get it back. Didn't we?

[00:23:29] Just buy the driver a six pack. He's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even the guy that we got to do this steamroller, like he, he, he had like no acting training, but he was just like natural. Like he was just kind of like, Oh no. Oh, the kid. Oh, I'm so sorry about that. Like he was just so natural. Cause, cause he, sometimes if you overact, it looks bad. And then if you haven't had like, but he had, he was, he definitely worked in the sense he had no training. So it just looked natural. Like, Oh, like, okay.

[00:23:59] You just hit it. What you think was a kid, but it's actually a dummy. And then it just came out. Yeah. Perfectly. And I was like, great. This is awesome. You know? But yeah, we actually did that. We didn't change it to like a car or something. We decided to just stick with the steamrolling. And as soon as we, we, we've shot this scene, it starts raining. So just as the book described, the nature provided, and we were able to, to have the aftermath of the steamroller scene in the elements.

[00:24:28] That's true. Cause in the book, it starts raining off to the steamroller. And then like, he's like, Oh, what are you guys doing out in the rain? Like, I was like, it's raining. What the hell? Like, no, like the second it, we call it, it was, it was raining. So it was, it's, you know, the, the, the art guy. Yeah. Yeah. That's a sign. It was a sign. That's Alanis Morissette. Looking down on you guys. There you go. No, you know.

[00:24:59] So out of curiosity. So with this, uh, you guys are about done wrapping, but have you already talked about, like, have you added anything new to this that wasn't in the book? Can people kind of expect some things that maybe they wouldn't have seen potentially? I don't know. Like, one scene. But it's not a big scene.

[00:25:29] The only reason I added it, I shouldn't say, because it is, that is definitely a spoiler because it's like something that isn't in the book. So fans will see it and go, Oh, but it's only like one scene. It might be like 30, 40 seconds long. Like it's, it's, are you, it's basically a transition from one scene to another. And I won't say which scene, because in the book, it almost like cuts from one scene to another, but there's no like middle arching, like arching segment there. Like, it just feels like you've cut from here to here.

[00:25:58] Almost like I missed something in the book. And I was like, there needs to be like a moment here. Like, it just feels kind of, so I added that, which should hopefully transition well to film, you know? So the audience goes, Oh yeah, it didn't leave me hanging. And now we're just cut to this. I mean, we could have maybe done it with like a cool transition, but like a really sweet, like fast transition. But I think we needed to, I just decided to add a little scene in there instead. There's some new Mr. Wood insults. I don't know what's going to make the cut,

[00:26:28] but we added some insults. I can't, I can't help myself. I'll, I'll do the script, but I also, I've got to play a little bit too. So there's some, some new. Well, there is one that's spoiled already because Lauren's in this. Okay. But we want, I don't want to say the line because I don't want to ruin the line, but Lauren is playing Mrs. Miller, which we've already fixed. We already, it's already been mentioned on the Instagram. So basically there's the,

[00:26:55] the Miller's couple that live next door and they're like the old couple. But what we did was we thought every film has a wild card. Like the walking dead had Daryl Dixon, for instance, he's not in the comic, but they added him in and he was one of the most popular characters. We made Mrs. Miller younger than Mr. Miller. Like a, like a young trophy wife, um, kind of character. But she does herself up though. Like really like in, like when you see it,

[00:27:24] you're going to see Lauren and she did so well. So Lauren is in this, um, that goosebumps. And we made Mrs. Miller a little younger. Like there's a little bit of an age gap with the couple. And there's some Mr. Wood, Mr. Wood had to talk about it. So there is some insult. It was literally my first day working with these people. And I'm like, I'm just going to insult all of them. Let's go. So use your imagination. Yeah.

[00:27:55] Um, I don't know if this is a PG film. Like I will say this. I don't know how PG this film is at times. Cause it's kind of spooky. And gross. And gross. There's a particular moment that I didn't expect to happen in the concert scene. That's just briefly mentioned in the text. That, that. We shot. So, uh, there, there, if you want to give it another read there, the, he's doing everything. I've done everything from the book.

[00:28:24] I didn't want to leave anything out. Like I figured I'm putting the money and I'm doing, putting time, the effort. I have four, 50 copies of this book. I am going to really try and give the fans the most closest accurate book. Like, I don't think like the T even like the original 90 show, like it's so iconic and I love it, but I don't think there is a single episode that was as accurate as this. Like, this is close. This is almost like you read the book and watch the movie. Yeah.

[00:28:53] I'd be interested to do a read along viewing of the, uh, of this once it's all put together and, and line it up. Cause we, we, I was like, I'm just going to be pretty interesting actually to do a, uh, once this is actually released, uh, we may have to do like a, uh, director and puppeteer slash actor commentary on it as we're watching it. I agree. Just to, To kind of have a little something else out there for that.

[00:29:22] I think we should do that. I mean, like, I think there's a lot that could be brought back to memory about a certain scene that maybe hasn't been talked about today or, you know, plus, I mean, it's an inside thing. So, I mean, a lot of people, you know, will definitely be interested in this. Cause again, if you've, if anybody out there is actually following the night of living dummy fan film, Instagram page, uh, I don't know if you had a page set up on all platforms,

[00:29:52] but I just follow the Instagram one. Cause that's what I'm on the most, but I, I am. There's some very funny things on TikTok. Yeah. There you go. See, I'm not even on TikTok. I mean, I, I help manage the, uh, goosebumps crew one now, but that's, that's about it. Uh, I am definitely not a TikToker, but I'm old. So take that as you will. But I will say, like, yeah, well, I'm pretty old. Uh, but I will say like,

[00:30:21] I don't think that anybody will besides the production value, let's put it that way. From what I've seen so far, it looks like it belongs in the nineties. Like it looks like the nineties goosebumps. Like I got that vibe from just the little bit I've seen compared to like, say the Disney plus show where we were all kind of like, is it though? Is it though? So that alone has got me excited. And like I said, I am, I don't know how,

[00:30:50] but I really love Mr. Wood so far. Like, I think that might be my new favorite dummy. So he's great. Well, we should bring him in. You got to bring him in. And I bring him in. Yeah. Part of the agreement for Avery coming there was, he got one of the dummies. And I think Mr. Wood is the one you get to keep, isn't it? That's the one that Avery's going to keep. Cause Slappy can be repurposed. If this does well.

[00:31:19] We're already talking Slappy's nightmare. We're talking living dummy too. We're, we're literally just doing the trilogy, like redoing the whole thing, like living dummy too. And I said, let's just recost these girls. So Billy can play Sarah. Annabelle can play Amy. We're going to keep the same cast all the way through, but we're going to change up. Um, I guess. Yeah. Acting pool is small. So you got to repurpose the same kids over and over.

[00:31:49] Yeah. The acting pool is small, but we were talking about like how some of these scenes are so big and so crazy. Like, I think that's why they never made the best one. Yes. Because the vomit like scene, that was hard to get what we needed. And then like the dog strength. I'm like, they would have read that and been like, yeah, we're not doing this one. This is going to be too hard. This is no, there's just a hand being squeezed in living dummy too. You're not a dog being choked. Like it think of like, it's like almost a little downgrade, but yeah,

[00:32:18] I can see why they didn't do it. Mr. Woods, like already to, I need to contribute to the conversation. If you're talking about my new picture, this is all we get all day, every day, every, every time I see them, it is, it is still just so amazing. What Caesar was able to do. Like those, they look so good and so good. They do. Like Mr. Wood,

[00:32:48] like 90s kids in library, you know, one of our good friends. He even said, Mr. Wood. You want one? You want one of these? I want to slap you in Mr. Wood. I'll pay whatever. I love slap you too. I think I, I think I want Mr. Wood. I think the package deal is you got to get them both and sit them in a chair next to each other. And then you have like the, the thing, and then you can put debt, you get a dentist dummy and just throw them on the floor. Dennis can be laying flat on the floor.

[00:33:18] Like I'll just, uh, yeah, he nailed it. Like, I'll just put it in front of this little, this little movie poster here. Just a little something, but honestly, I still need to frame mine. I've got mine in the, still in the tube. He just, I don't know what he did, but yeah, he just brought Mr. Wood to life. And even like 90s kid library, like all those guys that we're friends with that fault. They've been following the film. They said like,

[00:33:48] this is like the cannon, Mr. Wood now, like he is just Mr. Wood. Like, like, and people can't, people cannot say now that it wasn't ever made. We made it. It's going to be on Google forever. No matter what they say about the podcast, that'll come up. That'll be there forever. I will say that was one of the questions I had. I was going to say if this does well, because I already told Bjorn, I was like, you know, conventions that we're starting to do now, they all have film festivals.

[00:34:19] And I told him, I was like, you know, when we do these, we can enter this into those film festivals. And if we can get traction and get going, there could be funding. Even Scholastic might even look at this and go, Hey, yeah, no, we'll, we'll be on board with this. Unlikely because, you know, they, they don't like us for some reason, apparently, but that said, maybe that changes their mind when they see how popular, maybe this could get. And, uh, you know, when it's a passion project from, um,

[00:34:48] a fan with, you know, a good cast around him, that says a lot. So, I mean, I, I think this could go the distance and you already said, you know, this is pretty stressful. I mean, would you want to do more if you had the opportunity? I would do more. Like the thing is like, if we had the funding and we had like, you know, we'd have a bigger crew and everything like, yeah, it takes more stress off you. So, because I've had to do so many other things aside from just directing, you know, it's,

[00:35:18] it is a little more stressful. So if you have a full crew and that's the thing, if, if scholastic did go, okay, well, these guys know how to make goosebumps films or shows, they know the source material. Like let's get the fans to make it. Let's give them the funding to do it. And then at least we can give the goosebumps community, like something to actually look forward to in the media side, because I mean, Disney, I don't know what happened there. I still, I find that kind of bizarre to me. And it's funny. We joked about it.

[00:35:45] There was a trailer that they released for the trailer for the Disney show. It had Avery Slappy laugh in it. Yeah. But it wasn't in the show, but there was one random trailer that just used the, like in the, you'll laugh. I do. I do it a little better. You do it. Do it now. Do it now. No, no, no, no. This is about Mr. Wood. Not about me, but like, it was weird. Right. It was very strange, but the, the, yeah, it just, I don't know. It didn't, it just didn't land.

[00:36:15] And I'm like, so I guess in a way I was just like, I'll stop this. I'm making my own film. Like I'm sick and tired of watching these films. I don't want to see. Yeah. We, we, we as fans would love like scholastic to be on board with us, to do really cool stuff like this. But the problem is when you get, the actual companies in, they have the control at that point. It's not like how you do in your cast does now where you can do these things that you've said,

[00:36:45] you know, you've got somebody over your shoulder all the time going, no, you can't do that. You know, take this out or this will cost too much money or, you know, but I don't think this will fly. We need to keep PG. Take this out. So what your passion now has become is a corporate ordeal. So maybe it's best. It stays in the fan area as much as, you know, but that doesn't mean it can't open doors to something else. You know what I mean? That can be income producing. Cause all, like you said,

[00:37:13] you can't take any money for this or they do come after you with the lawyers and that's no good. Um, yeah. Has to be all done for free. And I'm probably not even going to upload it to my YouTube. I'm probably going to literally make a whole new account and just post it there. Um, that's probably how we're going to do that. Like for the release, you know, and we just, here you go goosebumps community. Um, there's been enough Reddit posts about why they never adapted it. Well, here it is. It's been done.

[00:37:41] So enjoy for as many years to come. That's the thing. I think everything. Well, obviously, cause I mean, obviously, I mean, we're, we're treating this kind of like an interview, you know, with like, uh, you know, actors coming through a PR stunt, but I mean, like Bjorn still, obviously is a goosebumps crew member. He hasn't left despite what Google says. Uh, he is still a goosebumps crew member. So, I mean, we will upload it here.

[00:38:10] I'll upload it on my, we will get this thing everywhere. And like I said, we'll take it to film festivals, the whole nine, uh, once this is done because, uh, one, you're our brother and we, you know, we support this a hundred percent, but also just from what I seen it, like I said, I think it looks phenomenal. Uh, this to me already blows, what Disney plus tried to do out of the water. And I haven't even seen a minute total of this yet. So that's,

[00:38:40] that's saying something. And it's free. That's the other thing that I, that I think is so cool about giving things to fans. You don't have to go to a special theater, find the theater nearest your city to watch the special screening or anything. It'll, it'll come to you free of charge in your home. If you want it, it's, it's, I think that's a really cool thing. I don't know what other fandom does that. I just always wanted to see this book adapted.

[00:39:10] Like I always just wanted to be able to watch it. And I never could. I'd be like, Oh, okay, well I can watch living dummy two and three and bride, but I can't watch one. This sucks. So I'm like, well, I'll just make it so I can enjoy it myself. And I'm trying to talk him into putting an old school VHS filter on it. So you really believe that it's, uh, we can have a version. I can do it. I will say I have a filter that I can do it too. If you want me to do it.

[00:39:39] Oh dude. I think that would be amazing. Like we could have two versions of it. You want the 4k shot. And then you're going to have VHS versions. Like you're watching the old 90, like, like it's literally a lost episode, lost movie. Actually. It's a lot of movie. Like they, what's your runtime on this? Do you know yet? Or was that kind of waiting until all the scenes and the footage. And then it's going to be at least an hour and 20 to 30.

[00:40:08] I'd say 80 to 90 minutes. Could be more. it just depends. Like, cause if there's little moments here and there that don't flow and we have to cut or something, um, yeah. Like it, it's just a matter of, but I think it's going to be, but the script is written for an hour and a half. Yeah. Neighborhood. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. Full feature length. I mean, we're talking even more than the hour long specials that we got back in the nineties. That's awesome. Mind the living dummy. And that's why there's a lot of Mr. Wood. Um,

[00:40:38] but, and the interesting thing is too, like we were saying is, you know, Mr. Wood doesn't come alive for a long time in the film. Like there's a good, probably 45, 50 minutes. But what keeps it exciting is the fact that it's just Lindy pranking her the whole time. So you think he's alive, but he's not alive. Like don't spoil it. What if no one's read the book from 1993? I'm starting to spoil it.

[00:41:07] This is my one shot at this. I'm trying to get them going for a house together. And he's trying to do spoilers on the internet. He's ridiculous. This is, that's great. Every day. It's been a month of his life now. He's just beautiful. We're roommates. I sleep at the foot of his bed. It really is. Mr. Wood's one shot, isn't it? Yes. It's your one shot. And then I, I, I don't get the chance for the spin-off,

[00:41:37] but, uh, we'll talk to, uh, Bob about that. Writing a new story. About the new one. I was going to say, Flappy's come back from basic destruction. And they do say that the, uh, the evil inside the dummies can't be destroyed. So Mr. Wood could make a return. We just have to get somebody to write him a new story. What does Stiles say at Coast City Con? Who the hell is Mr. He forgot about me.

[00:42:07] Yeah. He totally forgot about him, which is hilarious to me. Uh, because Flappy just took over, I guess. He literally, he didn't just forget. He's like, who the hell? Disgraceful. It was pretty bad. And, uh, I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. You could definitely tell he completely forgot. Like, he's 83 now. Like, I mean, like, you know, we,

[00:42:37] I love you, Bob, but like, how could you forget this guy? Come on, that nose. This face, come on. That nose. Honestly, the nose, like, I see why the nose is the way it is. Cause on camera in some of the shots, it just looks so good. It makes him look more sinister in certain shots. I don't know what it is, but the nose just with the eyebrows, like it all comes together. And, um, it looks exactly like the trading card, just minus the real hair. Yeah.

[00:43:06] We couldn't control that. I didn't want real hair on the dummy. I was like, no, just give him kind of like a, kind of a thing, you know? And no, he nailed it. He nailed it. These, these dummies are great. I, I will definitely be reaching out to Caesar for, for, for other, other needs I have. You'll have to get us. I need, I need, I still need a movie. So maybe he's the one. How, how was it using these puppets compared to other ones you've used? I mean,

[00:43:36] cause like I have never seen any of Caesar's work, be used. Like what's probably being done on this film. So, you know, what was working with these like? Uh, so I, I, yeah. Cause I don't know what Caesar's work typically is. I, I said it, I think I said it to you. Every puppet has its own set of, of quirks and tricks and things. So you, uh, uh, can learn, you know, how to best use the, uh, the, uh,

[00:44:06] mechanics and things to your advantage. Uh, so to me, the no puppet is better than the other. Some of them are, are, uh, more finicky or more, uh, delicate or things, but I, I, they've got so much personality in the eyes that is, is such a, a wonderful, uh, of the movie slappy. I could communicate a lot with the eyelids and, uh, these guys don't have those moving eyelids. So the, uh, the,

[00:44:35] the fun challenge is to fit, find angles and things with the head to, uh, to convey those, maybe a bit of the Kubrick stare through those eyebrows or, uh, you know, you're, you're looking up at him. So the nose, the shadows are great. Like there's, there's so many fun things. Uh, they're, they've just, they've been a blast. The, uh, the, the whole conceit to go back to that of developing Mr.

[00:45:03] Wood's voice is he's kind of smiling always. So I decided that I needed to smile and whatever voice came out had to be through my own smile. So, uh, so he's as evil as he is. He's, he's got a little glee behind all of those things, sort of like the, uh, Mark Hamill Joker is, is one of my jumping off points for, uh, for this. And then I went back and listened to the things that he said, inspired him. So I'm trying to, uh,

[00:45:33] you know, mix all of the things in there. I wanted him to be as different from slappy as I could, but, uh, uh, yeah, they've, they've been such a, such a joy to work with the, the mechanics are beautiful and the costumes are next level. So I've got, yeah, he's got little running shoes that we've actually, I think muddied up a little bit. Yeah. I can't speak highly enough of the dummies. They're, they're, you know,

[00:46:01] they're what make or break the movie. And, uh, we, I think we've, we've got good, uh, you know, good tools to, uh, to build the, build the thing around beautiful coverage of these, um, these dummies. Like, you know, and the crazy thing is, so in the book, it says that it doesn't even say that slappy's eyebrows move, or it just says that his eyes move from side to side and his mouth opens and closes. Like there's no descriptive of his eyebrows or anything. And Mr. Wood. So I'm like, we got the moving eyebrows though. Like, so, so another, another fun thing to,

[00:46:31] to look out for is that slappy's eyebrows do move once in the movie and it's very significant. So I'll, I'll say that because we, I've used those very limitedly. Oh yes. It's what I think I teased to, to you, but obviously that's, that's a big spoiler that we don't want the audience to see. Um, we recreated something for the fans to be like, um, yeah. And yeah,

[00:47:00] it's just been a crazy experience. And even the, even the, uh, able to build, uh, separate hands or, for these dummies that I've been able to control in a way. I typically control the soft, squishy puppets that I work with too, uh, with, with elbow rods, uh, not elbow rods, wrist rods, um, have been, have added a lot of personality to these dummies in a way that I didn't anticipate when I got here, but I, I, you know, sitting around and waiting for some other shot, I was able to go,

[00:47:30] maybe I could do that. So there's the hands there's, there's, there's pointer fingers and there's a special, fingers that, that, uh, for bonky. Uh, and then he's got little pick points where you can attach the, the elbow rods in and get just a little bit of movement that, uh, these guys don't normally have. And I think it adds a lot to the, uh, to the life of them. A lot of those standing scenes when he's talking to the girls, he's just like, uh, yeah. And you may not notice it. It's all,

[00:47:59] it's all subtle puppetry things. If I've done my job well enough, you won't notice you go, Oh, uh, how did he do that? You won't do any of that. But, uh, there's that one when he gets up off the ground. I love that show. That's my favorite. The, the, without spoiling it, just, yeah, he brushes himself off. He falls down a lot and he, he brushes himself literally off. And so he did have the finger, but he was picking his nose at the time. So somebody,

[00:48:28] it's all highbrow, you know, highbrow entertainment. Yeah. But like, yeah, this guy in the background though, has just been terrifying the girls. Cause they're like, slap me staring at me. Cause it's cause it's the way he's done the eyes. You know, they come so high, like the, the, the expression and then the high eyebrows. Like, so if he's sitting in the corner, it looks like he's just staring into his soul. And I think that's,

[00:48:56] and I think some of the crew is still spooked by all of them on camera. So like, we're all still freaked by him. And we've been here. Which I can't believe. You know, we talked earlier about the, the lighting and lighting plays a big key in horror, especially. So when I saw some of the stills that Bjorn had sent over from very early on, when he first started doing this with slappy, and I don't think I've seen any of Mr. Wood, but slappy specifically sitting in the chair with what look,

[00:49:26] what, what was meant to be moonlight coming on and stuff. That was a beautiful shot, but eerie at the same time. Like if I walked into that room by myself, I might second guess that dummy's existence there. It was a very, very cool shot. So imagine being on set all day with this. Yeah. And then certain night shoots and stuff. Yeah. I will say this. We did mood lighting changes. So like we would be in the middle of a scene where Mr.

[00:49:56] Wood like is talking, but then the moment he's about to do something sinister, the lights, we change the light like mid dialogue. So there'd be like a scene where like, where he'd be like, Oh, apologize. And it would almost do like a push. And the lights would just, we change the lighting like mid line before he's about to do. Yeah. That's cool. Like a little subtle white change. Like he's sucking the light out of the room with his dark. Yeah. Very cool.

[00:50:26] I ain't spoiling that one, but Oh my gosh, that was beautiful. I avoid it. So Benny comes in the room. Don't worry about it. That was, that moment was my favorite with lighting change. Like when she's reading that card, something happens. And it just, we did like what the 90s show did, but we used lighting to do the, the, the whole transition thing. And it just looked really, really cool.

[00:50:55] I'm very excited to see it with score underneath it. Cause I know that's going to plus it even more. So I, I'm just ready to see the whole thing. Yeah. It's going to be so good, but yeah, like I said, these girls, they're going to be stars. They're going to be massive. Like if Annabelle wants, if it's theater, she wants, she's going to be huge in theater. Billy's going to be a massive film. Like I, I told her like you will be there. What about me? Bjorn? No, what about me? You got crushed. Say something about me. You got crushed by the steamroll.

[00:51:24] I really got to read this script. I don't know how it ends, but I'm very excited to see where my character goes. You need such a, I was told your performance was a little wooden. So. You want me to kill him? I'll kill you for that. He will, he will use a spell. I don't know. Move my arms. I'm going to choke that guy out. All right. You already choked Bakke out. Poor dog.

[00:51:54] Poor dog. Yeah. That's stupid. Is that what it was? Yeah. Let's move on. I don't want Peter after me too. Especially in Australia. There's a lot of, so you got your pick, but a lot of them are pretty dangerous. Out of curiosity for my own personal thing, Bjorn has shown me spiders and a bunch of other stuff that just happens to be on his morning commute or in his house. So did you guys come across anything while you're filming?

[00:52:23] Because some of this had to be at night, right? I did. Yes. We came, Bjorn came across the spider to giant huntsman, but we've been lucky so far not to find any in the house. But I freaked everyone out because we dug the hole for Mr. Wood's burial scene. And they dug the hole and this giant huntsman that was living in the dirt just came out. And I was like, everyone was freaking out. And then I'm like, Bjorn, Bjorn, come here.

[00:52:53] And I'm just, I just put my hand out and I'm just like, come here, come here. And I'm just like carrying it up the stairs like this. And I'm like, they don't really buy it. And even if it does, it's not going to hurt me. And then everyone's just like, boom. And he's having a show and tell with the, with this spider showing around everybody. And we're all, Audrey was filming it. Audrey was like filming. It's like, Oh, he's friendly. I'm like, don't make any subtle dreams or he might run. You guys did not see what just happened. Whenever you're,

[00:53:21] you were talking about digging the spider up, my cat ran under my desk and brushed up against my leg, scared the hell out of me. Oh my God. All the cat needs is a iron boot. Welcome. You're welcome. That was, that was me adding the cinematic value to this, which goes back to when do I do the second one? The second one. Yeah. I'm in that one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:53:51] Nice. We could, we could dress you up as Dennis, I guess. Dennis is a loser. We just have to change your hair color a little bit and chisel your nose down. Maybe you can be, you don't want to touch this nose. This nose makes the money. Some wooden surgery before you can do part two. Yes. I need to meet a, what? I genuinely want to do it. I actually want to do it. And the good thing is too,

[00:54:20] is like she reads the magic words, like really soon on, but we do the book. So we'd have the scene where like Amy's name is written red paint all over the walls. Like we would do the full thing, you know? Except we change it to be about Mr. Wood. Yes. It's just, the fans wouldn't mind that. Imagine if we did just do that. I literally don't be too bad. Just the words that it's like, like, then they get something different. You would have to change something to be a bit more sinister. Because from the way it sounds, Mr.

[00:54:50] Wood's a bit more evil and sinister than Slappy is. Just throwing it out there. That's what I've been going for. Again though, like I would actually do it. I would ask those two girls to play the sisters. But it would be like, Billy would have to be Sarah because she's tall, older. And then Annabelle would be like perfect. Don't get on a roll. We've talked about this for hours. We're like, I'm almost convinced he'd do it next week. And we've come up with new Goosebump book titles that we're going to pitch to Bob.

[00:55:19] That's been a thing. We've come up with our own Goosebump story. It's, it's been, what was, what was the main one? Well, let's not spoil it. Let's, let's save those and let, let Bob do his, do his magic first. Not even one title. I'll give them the title. Go ahead. Welcome to the oven. And that's all I was saying. It's just called welcome to the oven. And it's, it's a, yeah. And I'll give them the, the lead character's name has to be Kevin.

[00:55:48] Just Kevin is the name for some reason we came up with. Protagonist. So yeah, it's about an evil oven. Welcome to the oven. And we came up with one of the coolest plot points for this. That I said, it actually sounds like a Goosebump book. Can we please pitch? And then we said Tim would do the artwork. It'd be like an evil oven on the front with like the knobs turned. So they look like angry eyes half hanging out with like a pizza slice, like a tongue. And you'd have the little red combo sneaker hanging out. Like it's eating a kid or something. Like we have this idea.

[00:56:16] Our genius is underappreciated. Truly. For the 30th anniversary, they can collaborate on this. Tim would do it. And, and Tim would do it too. So I, I would like to see that personally. Welcome to the oven. I don't know why it just came. You know, he said that the, the, the names just popped in his head. We both just kind of went, Oh, that one, that sounds great. That sounds awesome. There's, there's a few more. We got a few more.

[00:56:43] We'll come up with the entire series and just hand it to him and say, you're welcome. You know? Yeah. We'll do the work for him. He's an older guy. Now we'll just do this. Then we'll do a new. We have talked about other ones on this podcast in the past, you know, like Turkey, Turkey, you know, or other Thanksgiving special. But if you do that, we please, man, we've got to pitch that to him and say, please make this happen.

[00:57:14] I don't know why, but I loved the name of it. The actual story. We had the whole opening, like few chapters, like already, like, this is what would happen in this story. And then we had the ending. We just need the middle. What happens in the middle, but we have the, we definitely have the beginning and the end all locked in. I don't know what this story would be, but would it be more free street? No, no, no. If you can do a potato, uh, you know, lawn gnomes, why not an oven? You know what I mean?

[00:57:43] Why not? Like the, just, isn't confined to just monsters as, you know, the horrors or mass. Imagine this, like they're, they're, they're having dinner and then the oven breaks down. That's how it starts. Okay. And mom's like, Oh, we need a new oven. They open the newspaper and there's an ad and it just has need a new oven. And it's just a phone number, but there's no, there's no details, no details about the company name or anything. They just order this new oven. This truck pulls up and this guy brings it in,

[00:58:13] but he doesn't like speak. And they're like, how long is it going to take? He just makes grunting sounds. Guy was kind of weird, but he's got some strange burns on his face. Perhaps. Yeah. Like we had this whole concept and in the middle of the night, Kevin's trying to sleep and he just hears like, what is, what is, what is the same company that, uh, I'm drawing a blank. Like,

[00:58:42] actually that's not a bad idea. That's how a lot of the YouTubers nowadays do get their fan, uh, films made is through Patreon. So maybe, maybe that's something, something to that. What was the company? Like click with the remote. You can just have it be the same company. Yeah. Well, and you know what? It's kind of a notch like welcome to the day. So like, you know, and you know what we can, and when we pitch it to Stein,

[00:59:12] we get the cover up done too. You already get the art done first. We get the, it was the Verona. Verona is the company. Oh, okay. Okay. That would be so cool to make that. Yeah. Say now, if you had it tied into that, Verona made the click remote for the nineties episode. Now they made the oven too. You know, it's just like this company that makes weird household products that mess with your life.

[00:59:42] we'll have to see if Caesar can make us a, uh, uh, oven dummy. So I'll tell you what, you know, pitch it as a series, like, Papa meat. So I, I'm a big fan of that channel. He does a lot of stuff with puppets, uh, on that channel and with the Canyon. And he has a stove puppet called Margaret. And it was made by creature kid. They nailed it. So, well, maybe we have to reach out to creature kid. Okay. We need an oven too. Uh, just,

[01:00:13] we had a void for the oven too. It like talks to Kevin. It's like, and then like, he's like, I can't see them. Oh, they're a little further in the back. You got to get rich and deeper. But then like the oven, like literally extends, like, it's like a whole inside, you know? And then like it closes and then it turns on and it's like all heat. And he's like, I can't get out. I can't get out. And then, and then the ending, you just now just go,

[01:00:42] just go ahead. We're giving you, okay. We're giving you the, and then the twist ending is that the parents come down. They're like, Ooh, something smells good. Like, Ooh, did someone make cookies last night? And then they open the oven, the cookies come out, but it's got like Kevin's face on like the cookies. That's a good ending, right? We, we came up with this whole thing, but I was like, we need the whole middle section though. We're like him in the oven, like, they hate each other, but then they start becoming, they start becoming like friendly. And then he gives them like false. What's the word?

[01:01:12] False security. False security. And then he's like, I got some yummy cookies in here. Is it a musical? I don't know why that's how the oven sounds, but that's his voice. I don't know. I think we should definitely get the guys who did the musical for goosebumps involved. And like, you could do this cool thing. Like he walks into the oven and then he's crawling through like a tunnel. Like that was the whole idea. Like it extends out like a giant.

[01:01:43] Yeah. And that's what the, the oven is not just the oven. Never ending hallway is the never ending oven. Yeah. Like, I don't know why, but we love this concept and we like, I actually want this to be written and made. Like we have to get signed to do it pretty soon too. So it hasn't been all business here. We've been, we've also been cooking up our cooking up, cooking up. I just, what was the other one? We had a gotten milk.

[01:02:12] It was another goosebump title for some reason. Got milk. Got milk. It was a title for a goosebump. We don't have the story for that one, but we just, we were just coming up with a title. Well, I had an idea for the cover on it. It's like a guy milking a cow, but it's like green slugs coming out. It's like, that's, that's the milk. But then again, that, that came to me. You know, they've had egg monsters from Mars. So we've had eggs as a, as a villain before. So, and sponges, like I said,

[01:02:42] and potatoes. So let's just keep moving with, and chickens, chicken, chicken. So. Got milk. We can move with the breakfast. We'll move with the breakfast thing. Yeah. We'll just have a breakfast sporgasbord here of, of goosebump monsters. I think that's something that's the delay was we came up with, but I was like, the oven one was like, I actually want this. I actually want this one. Like, if we're not careful, that will be the next book that doesn't exist. Yeah.

[01:03:12] We couldn't do that. We could do that. Cause it hasn't been done. Right. They did chill. You know, how we're talking like Mr. Wood to get, that's true. They did chill. Mr. Wood's revenge would just be the name of the book. Like he's all glued back together from the same roller. House of shivers. You could just make a Mr. Wood story. Honestly, I would like to see him in another adaptation. That. Avery, do I have to fly to the States? We all love slappy,

[01:03:41] but there's been enough slappy over time where there's been a lot of fans that even have slappy fatigue, but he'll, he'll always be around. He'll always be number one to most people, but maybe it's Mr. Wood's time to shine. I don't know. Just throwing it out there. Maybe that's something. Do an original. I will say, I'm curious. I'm curious about this next house of shivers.

[01:04:06] I'm curious to see if Stein may have done something with Mr. Wood. I don't think so. With the new house of shivers book. I just want to know. We've jogged his memory. Yeah. It was slappy. It was slappy on the cover. Yeah. I'm just curious if, you know, there was another done. It was in the foreground that I don't really.

[01:04:34] I remember I asked him and Tim said he got, when he got the description, cause he would only get like a couple sentences or like a chapter. He got the sentences he got was slappy's description. Like it was literally like the brown shoes, the gray, the, the, the gray suit, the red, the, the, the brown painted. Somebody screwed up, but it still became the most iconic. Not a living dummy cover. Regardless. It's a shame that we didn't get the Mr. Wood one. Like I showed earlier.

[01:05:04] So obviously it's not Mr. Wood, right? This is not Mr. Wood, but I'm curious to know. Who that is intended to be. Yeah. And like, what they're going to do. Another brother. Another family member that was cursed from the same coffin. And carved. How many of us are there? Cause the vibe, the vibe I get. It makes me like giving really weird.

[01:05:33] This is like slappy coming back to something. Again, I could be, I'm like completely theorizing right now. The doll is like covered in spider webs and it's, broken. So I don't know if it's, this is just some random dummy or if this is like a callback that slappy's coming back to a doll from the past or a dummy from the past. I don't know, but I'm interested to see. What's the story? It looks like slappy just walked in on,

[01:06:03] uh, Mary Ellen cheating on him with this dummy. That's what that cover looks like. That's the story. We'll see what happens in that book. If that was a Disney plus book, that's probably what they would have done. Yep. They like those adult Riverdale themes. You can literally get your finger right in there. It is like really big. You can like, but, uh, you know, we're coming up close to the end of the episode, but before we do,

[01:06:32] I do want to ask, uh, Avery, this is your first time in Australia. So, uh, you know, tell us a little about her experience there. I know it hasn't all been shooting, uh, this nine living dummy fan film, you know, as a first time Aussie, I'm going to call you for, for the moment. Uh, you know, what's that experience been like for you? No, uh, the thing I was the most concerned about was the, the time change, but, uh,

[01:07:00] because I'm such a night owl and I worked through nights anyway, that hasn't affected me at all. So it's, it's been very, it's been very nice. I've been, uh, uh, able to go to the, uh, the, the theme parks that are here, Audrey and I are such huge theme park nerds anyway. So getting to go to, to movie world and dream world here, uh, we've got to go to Australia zoo, which we have seen, you know, on TV our entire lives. Uh, so,

[01:07:30] and, and then, you know, Bjorn's been a terrible influence in getting me to, continue my blind boxes addiction here and opening more toys and things while we're here. So, uh, uh, no, I, I really had a great time. I mean, dummy mini book too. While you're there. I finally got it. I had to come across the world, but I finally got my mini brand living dummy book. Um, uh, yeah, the, uh, it's, it's, it's been, uh,

[01:07:59] it's been so much fun. Luckily, uh, luckily Audrey's been able to come as well. Her schedule allowed her to be here. So we, we've been, uh, it's a little vacation for us in between all of the, the filming and, trying new foods and things that, uh, we don't have as successful as, well, Audrey loves snacks and things. So she's having fun. I've, uh, we, I've tried that you might now. I've, uh, I've, I've, I've got to pet a kangaroo. You tried it with her city,

[01:08:28] but you weren't there that morning. That's right. Yeah. What's the consensus? I conveniently missed it somehow. Well, you said that, but Bjorn's mom tried to force feed you some, some veggie might while we were there. No, I'm good. I don't, I don't buckle to peer pressure. I'm good. What's, what's the consensus on Vegemite? I have tried it now. Uh, it's not what I expected it to be at all. Um, Audrey liked it. Audrey liked it. Um,

[01:08:58] we found our, our snacks here that we like. We, uh, you know, I've, and I haven't met a spider yet, so I've, I'm doing great. They're climbing on this box right now. The Bjorn, he's pointing out. Um, but, uh, no, I, I've had such a, such a fun time. back home, I was burned out of making, uh,

[01:09:19] monsters and creatures and things for myself to be able to completely mentally shift gears into another project that I'm not responsible for. It's been such a, uh, a fun, uh, break for me, for me mentally. And, uh, I, I've, I will add, we will absolutely be back. Uh, we've already talked about next time we come, we're going to do, you know, X, Y, Z. So, uh, we're going to be making an, I believe in dummy too. Yes. When we're making dummy too, we've got to, uh,

[01:09:49] it'll be, uh, you know, the oven one. So that'd be the oven one or Mr. Wood. He's going to have to make a dentist on me though. Yeah. He would have to make a dentist. And we need a couple of those. We can throw around. I mean, a couple of slappies to throw around. Yeah. Cause, uh, he gets crease cracks his head open at the end. So we're going to need the slappy for the cracking of the head. Like, but what was the favorite snack? I didn't even ask what the favorite snack was yet. Favorite snack. Uh, so,

[01:10:18] so the cinnamon donuts are everywhere and that's a great thing. So donut King is the king of donuts for me here. So if you ever come and visit donut King has wonderful cinnamon donuts. Yes. That that's probably the winner. They're boiling hot, but they're good. Sorry. Crispy cream. Have you had a chance to try Randy's donuts? Randy's Randy's donuts in, no, it's in Los Angeles.

[01:10:47] It's the one that, it's the one that Tony Stark, the big donut. Okay. That is like in my family, me and my wife, my parents, my brother, we all have like unanimously agreed. That is the best donut that you will ever have. Oh, okay. There is like multiple different people have been, and I've been like, you've got to try Randy's. You have to try Randy's donuts.

[01:11:17] Get just a classic glazed. Try that out. If you like it, go and try all of their other donuts. It's incredible. Noted. Noted. I don't know. I normally only get donuts when it's a fall season. So I go to an orchard and I'll get like apple cider donuts or, you know, pumpkin spice donuts or something. Those are phenomenal too. That's the best way to have a donut. Yep. Oh yeah. Fresh off the tree.

[01:11:47] They even let you pick them yourself. It's crazy. That's nice. Well, I think that's what, I think that's what I enjoy about it most. Yeah. As long as it doesn't have a worm in it. We got to go to donut. I just want donuts now. I don't want to don't. Usually Bjorn is eating donuts or some kind of junk food. I've been, I've been the snack king this podcast, dude. I've been munching on a bag of cookies. Yeah. I've been noticing.

[01:12:17] I was like, God, I want one of those cookies. I had them. I had them down on my desk. I knew I should have put them down on the floor before we started recording. And I made it like halfway through and I was like, damn, I want a cookie. And then it went downhill. Oh, and I'm just upset with the Scottish food now. Oh yeah. Did we talk about that? Were we recording yet? We were talking about the iron brew. Oh gosh. That was before. Yeah. That was before. So you got to try iron brew. It is like,

[01:12:46] it's their number one soda soft drink. It is delicious. Like you look up iron brew and they have like fun runs and everything over there. Yeah. That's just all promoted by like, it's the most popular drink. And the ads online are very funny. If you just bare minimum, go like some of the ads. Iron brew as a little kid. That's like, what did he say again? The little kid that's like, I don't know. He grabs the clerk's face and he's like, it's not just a zoo.

[01:13:15] I cannot oversell it. It was very funny. I was like, Oh my gosh. I was like, I want, we were saying, I wonder if like the dude, like a, like a brave heart collaboration one where it's like, let me take a lace. But then it was like, I am bruised. So he's had one, by the way, he's, he's this into this drink and he's had one of them.

[01:13:44] I don't normally drink soda, but oh my God. I love it so much, dude. I need to like find a store around me that stops like a case of them. And I will just keep them in my fridge all the time. Not good, but it's not good to be drinking them. But I'm also like, I like it so much. I want more. And I'm like, and there's literally a guy on the cover of the can going like, and he's like, sounds like the kid should have been on the can.

[01:14:15] I think so. But like, they did a video with Chris Hemsworth and they were like, can you try the iron brew? And he was like, Oh, I can try the iron brew. And he like put the accent on. And he was like, he's like, do you like, he's like, Oh, it's delicious. And she's like, is it actually? He's like, no, it's actually delicious. It's really good. This is, this is what he's, this is what he's raving about. Right? That drink it. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'll see if I can find one of them. Yeah. Like I said, apparently it's like old Coca-Cola.

[01:14:45] There's cocaine in it, kids. So be careful. He's had one. You can Amazon private. It's on Amazon. Oh, there you go. It's on Amazon. There you go. Okay. I'm going to try it. I'm going to give it a go. Yep. You can get your cocaine. It's expensive as hell though. $18. Well, it's imported.

[01:15:14] So that kind of makes sense. I mean, it says ships from Amazon, free delivery tomorrow. What do you mean? It's imported. There's no way it's getting from. It's not imported. Like it's here. It's no different than like. They're running out. A stopp. It's up at your door. And he's just like, get this in you fella. No, literally.

[01:15:45] I didn't know Bjork was here this morning. And I just hear iron brew. It's good for you. From the. Turns out he was asleep and he was dreaming. I mean, you drink a lot of like, like, look, I didn't know if I would like it. Cause like, I'm used to my taste. So it was like, you guys are used to like Dr. Pepper and stuff. So you may not like it, but I took a sip and was like, Ooh, Ooh. It's like a mixture of fruity flavors. I wonder what fruit it is. And then the rest of the day,

[01:16:13] he had a Scottish accent that kind of turned into Schwarzenegger at one point. Irish. I was like, tell Mr. Wood to get to the chopper. Tell Mr. Wood to get to the chopper. Oh man. Well, I guess, uh, I guess our closing, our closing out here, um, you know, just, we're really excited to see this, uh, everything we've talked about, everything I've seen so far.

[01:16:43] Um, I, I am stoked for it and I know it's going to be great. Um, you know, obviously we'll be promoting the crap out of it all the way till its release, which I think is next year, right? It's not this year. Yeah. I mean, we may see a rough cut later this year. Like, honestly, is there a, do you have like a date you're trying to get it out by or is it just kind of, just whenever you, well, I was like, Oh, Halloween, but I'm like, that's too long. I don't want to wait that long. Um,

[01:17:13] I'm just thinking like maybe around the March, April time, hopefully maybe we'll have it all cut and done. And the thing is Halloween's kind of in all holidays now. So really, you know, Valoween, St. Patrick has Leprechaun in itself, uh, with work Davis, you know, you can always find it. Yeah. We just dress Mr. Wood like a Leprechaun for the rest. I mean, he's already a ginger. Just throw it out there. I mean, he's already a ginger. Yeah.

[01:17:43] Some good marketing. These are some good marketing ideas. Yep. And then he has a, it all comes back to the iron brew, doesn't it? I love it. I don't know what it is. I loved it. And every celebrity I saw try it, loved it. So I'm like, well, I have to try this now. And I saw it in the fridge and it had its own like iron brew fridge. I was like, we got to wrap this thing up or we're going to be here another hour.

[01:18:13] Oh man. Well, you know, I know you guys are still filming a couple of days left, but we do appreciate cutting time out, come and hang out with us. Except for you Bjorn, you're supposed to be here anyway, but you know, God love you. I wanted to be there for the event you guys were at. Sandy, you know, I wanted to be there for that, but I was filming. I couldn't even see Edward Furlong. He came to Australia for the first time ever to Melbourne and I couldn't even go. Cause I was filming. So I had to,

[01:18:41] but then I saw a big side poster when we were at the shops and it literally had only his autograph on it. I was like, Oh my God, I need this. But now we'd already blown all this money on higher. I bought 30 cases. But one iron brew and it was $80 and he already spent it all. But, uh, yeah. So I think that's going to wrap it up for us again. We appreciate you be sure to check out. And I love you. Not a fan film on Instagram,

[01:19:10] Tik TOK and wherever else it is at. Is it on everything Bjorn? Or is it just those two primarily? At this point, like we have a Tik TOK now. And then, uh, I'm thinking just doing a whole new YouTube page for when we start doing like teasers and trailers. And, you know, I think we'll just have a whole new account. Um, because obviously not monetized as well. So I think we'll just do a whole new channel for it. Yeah. No, excellent.

[01:19:39] Thank you guys for having us. I mean, I'll be back. I'll be back to the regular, the regular show soon. So that's good. I don't know. You already sound like you're on the project number two, whichever that is. No, I mean, four, and five, and four. And then we're going to make a, we're going to make a goosebumps book about, we're already authors now. We're, we're, we've, it takes a month off and we're already writing the new book.

[01:20:08] It'll be like chapter one of the new book will be like, Kevin was so thirsty. That's been an iron brew. Kevin was so thirsty. He reached in for an iron brew. Wow. Okay. Well, we're going to end it there. So Bjorn, have you forgotten our closing? Or do you need us to stay safe and have a very scary day?

[01:20:38] That's it. He's still got it.