Homer Badman (with Ari Harrison, Umbrella Entertainment)

But first, she was a university honor student who devoted her life to kids
until the night a grossly overweight perport named Homer Simpson gave her a crash course
in depravity. Babysitter and the beast. Ah crap if somebody had to take
the babysitter home. Then I noticed she was sitting on her wet Can I
grab her? We can? Oh, just thinking about her? Can't I
just wish I had her? Sweet sweet tweet? Can't? To mister Simpson,
you admit you grabbed her? Can What do you have to say in
your defense? Mister Simpson, You're a silence will only incriminate you further.
No, mister Simpson, don't take your anger out on me. Get back,
Get back, mister Simpson, No drabbitization may not have happened. Four
finger discounted. Welcome to four for a discount where today we are very excited
because we have been joined by a man who we hold we say very near
dear to our heart. Mister Davis, we have a coupley that he runs.
We certainly do we do. Indeed, we hold him in very high
esteem. Yes, let's say, yeah, today we are speaking or we're
joined by Ari Harrison. He is GM, the GM, the head hon
show at Umbrella Entertainments. There a film distributor home home video producer. If
you're at Australia, you have seen their logo on many a well going back
to vhs probably, but yeah, they are really helping well start to corner
the market on high end boutique home entertainment releases. The releases especially bring out
a lot of great Austraian material, but also a lot of great international material.
I think fans of this show will be happy to see that they're bringing
out like a very very very loaded Super Mario Brothers set. I was very
excited. I knew it was coming. There's like one hundred bucks and I
was like and then I saw a picture of on Twitter and I was like,
oh, that's an obscene mark up for a movie. And then he
oh no, you're getting at least two books and a poster and cards and
all this. I'm like about it. They're just throwing like a T shirt
because you knew he used to get T shirts of videos and stuff, and
it's like, I'm never gonna wear this T shirt. But all this stuff
is really great. It's it's a brick as he said, he holds it
up for us, and it's a brick. Oh, I know why I'm
paying Yeah, I know why I'm paying a C note for this. This
is definitely worth it. And yeah, yeah, but no, we're very
very happy to be joined by Ari and he's talking about an episode that we
really both like. On them mold it's like I'm a bad man. Yes,
it's indeed me too between me. Oh, mister Dano, don't take
your anger out on me. So yeah, we touch on Umbrella, and
we touch on on the episode as well. Of course we touch on the
sweet Sweet can we do? Yes? I was sitting there at times.
I'm just telling Guy once we finished here that there was allan's I was looking
Guy and Guy was just like a kid in some kind of store. It
was actually really appropriate episode usage here because yeah, I mean listens the show.
Not that I am a big movie nerd, I'm a big physical media
fan. You've got me back on the bandwagon. Yeah, I got Dando
back on the gear. Yeah, and yeah, Ari and Ari's company,
Well it's too great taste that tastes great together because yeah, they, like
we said, bringing out great stuff, continuing to bring out great stuff and
yeah, a big fan of the Simpsons. We had a really really good
talk. I was just sitting there smiling the whole time. I was back
smiling and looking I'm just like guys having so much fun, guys just nerding
out. So look, we hope you will to enjoy our chat with Ari,
and which we do cover unbrother for a bit at the start, So
I'll put time stamps in the description of this podcast. If you want to
skip straight to like the badman stuff, you can do that, But honestly,
listen to all the about unbrothers. It's it's fantastic what they're doing.
Yeah, if you don't want to hear guys smiling all the time, I
just want to say I love you Ari, really, I want to marry
him. It was total Chris Farley show. Shit. Really was Like I
mentioned that, I think I say dream job at least once during the d
once per sentence, but it was always in my mind. There was a
couple of things where he's like, oh, we do this, and guys
like Jim jump, I'm also doing this next week. Yes, I'm interested,
very interesting or subscripted you. So yeah, look, we're really happy
with this episode. We're really happy that Ari joined us. If you're a
movie rdie and I love this one. Yeah, yes, indeed, so
we hope you enjoy this episode of forming a discount. Oh my god,
you were coming to us. This is yeah quality audio material. But we're
talking about giving a description of where you're at coming to us from the coolest
office. It seems it looks like papered with posters, looking like an awesome
place to spend your nine to five. Yeah, Unfortunately the room I'm in
does not have the I DVD and blu ray wall, which many people love
to see as a background. But yeah, it's I'm at the Umbrella office
at the moment, and most people seem to be in the office today,
which is a less good. The sun's out, everybody's happy to be here.
Do you guys still work from home much? Or is it mostly in
the office now. It's a bit of a balance. I'd say probably three
days a week in the office and the other two from home. But most
people actually love coming in, yeah, which is great they would. If
you can get that cam a bit mobile, you can take us into that
special special room. You were telling us about Australia's version of the Criterion closet.
Yeah, happy to take you a bit later. Absolutely, a few
people in there at the moment. I think, so, what's it?
Got a copy of every physical release in there or something or Yeah, it's
pretty much every release we've ever done. And then there's sort of a whole
wall of all the latest releases. So anybody that comes into the office,
you know, any creatives, filmmakers, they can sort of have their pick,
like the Criterion closet and just take anything that we have left home with
them. And then there's a sort of wall of stuff that's sort of expired,
and whether or not we want to renew and continue reproducing DVDs with certain
titles. It just, yeah, gives us that outlook, and why are
we doing this remotely? Why did we go under the Because I got to
say, and we're going to of course talk about The Simpsons, about Homer,
bad fantastic episode to pick, by the way, but we've got to
look throw a lot of props Umbrella's way. I mean, I've been a
fan of the label for a very very long time. You guys are putting
out world class content. As far as I'm concerned. I've got basically every
every installment of the Drive In Delirium set, which is that is platinum level
stuff for film nerds. But you've been putting out great stuff for goodness knows
how long, but really seem to be upping your game over the last few
years in terms of putting out just really loaded sets. I saw the Super
Mario set that you put out on Twitter at the photo and I was like,
holy ship, that is massive. He's holding up here. Wow,
wait, look at that monster. They did weigh it. I don't remember
what they came up with, but it's it's it killing you and shipping.
Look, it's you know, at the end of the day, we see
it as just a quality product and if people love it, and the pre
orders were just super successful with this one, and we we really tailor our
releases based on, you know, how what the audience you know, are
coming back with, what the sales are like, and clearly there is love
for these you know, giant budget you know, game based features, and
we can see that you know, not necessarily game based, but Masters of
the Universe, the yeah, similar style. It's like, well, clearly,
these these style of films are really working. And so we're diving back
into some of our previous releases and how we can create the collectors edition versions
and trying to do everything, trying to do more releases in the four K
as that becomes more of a standard. But yeah, it's it's it's growing
from what we can see, and there is no stopping us at the moment.
We had sort of initially planned for sort of two collectors' edition style releases
at the vein in the same vein of Super Mario Brothers a month, but
looking at the schedule, it's like turning to be like five or six a
month, just because the amount of content that we've got coming in. One
of the big things for us is, you know, having the option for
the international stuff like Super Mario Brothers, Master the Universe, Tank Girl,
but also ensuring that we can you know, respect and restore and remaster the
Australian content because that's always sort of been our bread and butter, and you
know, that's how we've started, and we really want to ensure that we're
you know, supporting the filmmakers that you know, we know and love and
have been supporting us for so long, so you know, been doing a
lot of restorations throughout the years, I think we tend to do about fifteen
to twenty Australian film restorations a year, and that's yeah, blowing up even
more lately because the more restorations we do and the more re releases, more
producers and filmmakers come out and say, oh, can you do my film
next? And that sort of leads into our new release distribution when because yeah,
the company works across sort of new release films and library films and physical
and theatrical and a mixture of everything across Australia and New Zealand, it's like,
well a filmmaker wants us to, for example, work on their original
film, we always check in, oh what's happening, what's what? Are
you working on anything new and see how we can support them. So we're
constantly having conversations with the likes of Sean Burn when we did Devil's Candy and
he's got a new film he's worked looking on and we chatting with Zach Hilditch
because we've got his new film. He had these final hours seeing what we
can do with that. So it's an ongoing cycle. Really, it leads
it well, you may have addressed only that I wanted to talk about ARI,
but I mean it's you're talking to a couple of physical media devotees here.
I mean, Dando's got a huge wall of discs and Blue rays.
My house is essentially made out of discs and Blu rays at this day.
I mean, having said that, it's kind of tough times for physical media
in a lot of ways, and I'm wondering if and when Umbrella sort of
started feeling a shift or a bit of a sea change, and how you
guys decided to address that. Yeah, well it was pretty clear obviously during
COVID, I'd say Umbrella. So my dad sat up Umbrella in two thousand
and one, and I've been sort of working with him since about twenty fifteen
twenty fourteen, and now he's still around but sort of taking a bit of
a step back. But it was duringing COVID where we sort of did a
bit of an internal restructure at Umbrella, sort of took a step back and
wanted to focus and realize what do we want to focus on? And at
the end that it really came down to focusing on sort of local filmmakers and
local content. And one strength that we always had was the significant library and
right now, we represent about I think it's almost fifteen hundred films and TV
shows that we represent Australian and New Zealand distribution rights for. And what we've
been growing is acquiring rights for our World Sales catalog and so actually representing the
world rights for a lot of films, and that catalog's about four hundred Australian
films and TV shows and so that became a sort of unique proposition that we
had and something that we wanted to grow. And so when you're seeing you
know, certain films like Brian Trenchjard Smith's Catalog Man from Hong Kong and things
like that with distributors in the UK and US, we've facilitated and work with
those deals dead in driving exactly and so we were, you know, we
support that and for us, it's about, you know, while we try
to do all the things that we can in Australia and New Zealand, it's
also about getting them out around the world because it's different audiences, different ways,
and each company, you know, has different ways of operating. And
although we are sort of direct competitors with companies like Second Site and Arrow and
Shout Factory and Criterion. We're also all really close with them and we're constantly
going back and forth and talking to them. Yeah, it's not like we're
all, you know, fighting each other. We also operate in different ways
and different territories and try to partner up on different releases, so it is
something it's quite a bit of a family in the way we sort of operate
and all chat to each other. It's it's really great, but yeah,
I mean during COVID there was a a bit of a shift. Obviously,
everybody was working from home and nobody going to the cinemas, so we had
this library that became really appealing because no new films are being made, and
really what we were seeing was a pretty big increase in physical media, which
was great through the likes of JB Hi Fi and Sanity, but we knew
that wasn't going to last. That was all going to sort of die off
after COVID, And what we were noticing is that we wanted to have the
option to bring more of an audience directly to Umbrella, not having to be
so reliant on retail stores to sell the DVDs, And that's where we started
working on what would be a sort of unique proposition that people would have to
acquire a certain version from Umbrella compared to what would be the standard version in
retail, and that from there grew on. I mean, I think one
of the first releases we did was Martyrs. If you guys got your hands
on that one, yeah, yeah, I had to wash my hands after
I got my hands on my very very nasty, extreme French horror movie for
those unaware, Absolutely and like an incredible movie. But that was clear from
that unique proposition that we put together for that collector's edition that there was an
audience here that we could sort of target, And so we started trying out
various other ways to promote them and what we could include in the collectors releases
and you know, what special features we could put together. And the special
feature side is something that we've always known and something that we always wanted to
support and adding more you know, special features to discs, getting interviews,
whatever it is. But then it was like, all right, how can
we even broaden this out? Can we add books in there, or you
know, you know, alternate cuts is always a big one. Can we
restore and remaster certain things? And with Mario Brothers, we were the we
found some It was the it's on somewhere there. It was like all the
hidden it was like a hidden cut and deleted scenes that we'd found from the
original Blu Ray release and we were the only ones in the world that had
that, and we knew, okay, there's something more that we can do
here. So it's a lot of It takes quite a bit of time,
you know, with my team looking out and just sourcing what's out there that
might have been missed from previous releases, and how can we make something that's
unique for the world. And that's really what it came down to. It's
not just servicing Australian and New Zealand customers, but servicing the world. And
then it came down to, you know, what are the content that we
can get and sort of trying out. You know, it started to be
sort of one release a month, and now, as I said, it's
about five or six physical releases a month. And now the website and the
sales that we get through the website are the lead for us, whereas retail
is second. It used to be sort of servicing retail was the priority and
the website was second to that. Now it's complete other way around. You
know, we're servicing customers directly through our website and retails, just sort of
the cherry on top. What would be your favorite kind of special feature on
physical media? Yes, I know there is a lot of people who are
the commentary people. I'm a big fan of the behind the scenes just in
terms of, you know, if it's done right, a bit of a
featurette in terms of how it was made. I also love, you know,
the featurettes where they go back twenty years later, thirty years later to
revisit. We're currently working on one of them. We've just sort of finalized
it for Wake and Fright. We're doing a four K restauration Wake and Fright,
and Yeah, I think the team are going to go the whole nine
yards in terms of the Collector's edition, you know, putting a lot of
effort into lots of different promotional items. Yeah. One thing that we've we'd
love to explore more is like we did with Talk to Me, the actual
hand that we put together for that release. Trying to actually do physical products
that can be a bit tough sometimes, but you can't really do it with
something like Super Mario because Nintendo are just going to chase you. But other
releases, you know, with the right approvals, we can put together actual
physical collectors memorabilia sort of thing. We made a little pig for razorback,
for example, which was a lot of fun, and yeah, keen to
continue doing more of that. Ari are there any sort of title acquisitions or
special features that Umbrella has developed that you're proud of solble that maybe sort of
got really really positive feedback from consumers. I mean Super Mario Brothers was,
Yeah, one of the big ones. Everybody's super stoked about that, and
it's we're all super proud of what we've put together. It was such a
you know, extensive release and so many different hands and people helping us,
which is just fantastic. But you know, until it actually gets into the
consumers' hands, you know, there's it's always unsure about how things will be
taken on board. But we're feeling pretty confident about Super Mario Brothers. But
I think look from the Australian side of content, that's really where we're most
proud of. You know, representing the essentially the biggest library of classic Australian
films and TV shows in the world is something that we're super proud of and
really we've never gotten any government support for that. It's really been all on
our own position and how we can support the filmmakers. And really it's filmmakers
like old you know, directors and producers who haven't seen a dime on their
films fifty years and now we're getting them a bit of a retirement fund after
re releasing. So that always brings, you know, a happy smile to
our face and exploring, all right, well we did this film, what
other films do you guys own, and what else can we bring to life?
And especially some of the small hidden gems that are you know, old
TV movies from the eighties that you know, haven't been even seen since the
eighties or may have had a VHS release at one point. That's always super
exciting to us to see what audiences think about those films. Oh god,
you've just got me thinking. There was I'm showing my age here, but
there was made for the ABC Sci fi limited series that ran in like nineteen
eighty called Time Laps, where you know, this guy got cryogenically frozen and
work up in the Brave New World of like nineteen ninety two. But I
just remember thinking, oh my god, this is the ship, and I'm
looking everywhere on the internet for It's like, surely someone's got a yanky VHS
rip that they put up on YouTube. But no. So I know,
I'm glad that you guys might be on the case with something like that.
Yeah, well, we can certainly look into that time lapse nineteen eighty.
I found it on IMDb. All right, hopefully I can come back to
you with some good news. Imagine that it just made it happen. I
just manifested it. We're talking a bit about physical media here, Ari,
but you guys are of course taking a leap into the brave new world of
streaming as well. Can you tell us a bit about Brolly, a bit
about what sets it apart and what kind of programming and I guess what kind
of maybe other features you would like that to have as well. Yes,
so Brolly was you conceived also during COVID, you know, realizing that we
have such an extensive catalog, as I've mentioned, which really wasn't being utilized
on certain platforms. We deal regularly with Netflix, Stan, ABC, SBS,
Foxtel whoever it is in Australia and New Zealand, but they're not always
going to take certain classic Australian films. They you know, look at the
films that have the stars like Two Hands with Heat Ledger, you know,
all those ones are consistent sellers, but it's all the small films that don't
really get touched and also within the library. And so Brolly was just conceives
our out of that idea where we wanted to make these films widely available for
an audience. And look, it took a few years to get there,
but we launched in November and you haven't only did a simple publicity launch and
already have had to twenty thousand subscribers sign in and start watching. And so
we're going to start our full paid media campaign in the next I think around
April to really bring it home. But the idea behind Brawley was really to
service this giant library that we had and then start externally licensing a bunch of
content, again focusing on Australian stuff, but also anything genre leaning, anything
that we felt would work through our curation side. And so we got a
curator who's been a programmer at various festivals around Australia and the world, he's
the one putting together the various collections, so allowing the sort of highlight of
different ideas and concepts into the packages for people to watch. So, you
know, one of the things we always talk about on the streaming side is
just the scroll fatigue that you can get where you're not sure what you want
to watch tonight and not sure what there is to watch tonight. So actually
having somebody highlight that for you and bring in a reason sort of start a
conversation is really important. And we're going to have everything sort of directly linked
to Letterboxed, which was another opportunity that we thought and so working closely with
Letterboxed in our campaigns is something that we're planning. And then separately to that,
we set up a podcast called Sunburnt Screens, which is hosted by a
guy called Lexi Toleopolis, a comedian and an interviewer and he's just a giant
film whisperer who loves to chat about all things Australian films and he's there talking
with a lot of the different filmmakers and talking about the films that we have
on BROLLI. So linking it all together back to umbrella making it available.
Really just inviting new audiences to come and find and understand that there are these
hidden gems and films like Road Games with Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis.
People would have no idea about that film or that. You know, there's
what's his name in The Man from Hong Kong where there's two people fighting on
Ularu. I mean that that's just never going to happen again. It's like
a martial arts scene on ularus. It's pretty incredible. And yeah, some
crazy action films that are just not going to be made again, and so
pairing them up with like a Texas Chainsaw massacre or Reanimator so that there are
those sort of opposing audiences that can be reinvite, you know, reinvigorated really
to explore new content. That's that was sort of the idea. That's the
thing. If you liked Fast five, you might like Midnight Spares. Yeah
exactly that I mean very different, but yes, they both got cars in
them. Should we talk about the Simpsons for a while, this is a
Simpsons team podcast. We probably should, although I could very easily geek out
about mergers and acquisitions all day. But why Homer bad man, Yeah,
I think I don't know. I've always had a bit of a love.
That was just the first when you guys reached out to me. That was
the first episode that came into my head. So I think that was That's
the reason why. And I've always had a love for that episode. No,
Actually, I rewatched it this morning and it's still it's just it's great
and I'm watching and I'm going, wow, you know, Home is getting
me tooed here, So it seems like it's still pretty relevant and works really
well. It's Yeah, I had a lot of fun with that episode.
I didn't know whether they the approach they took felt like it was written by
men because they portrayed a lot of it was a pisstake of tabloid meaned,
but the women were portrayed all that well in this and that they sort of
just went crazy and then realized, oh, we should have listened first,
and it's like, oh no, but this it seemed like everyone when crazy
or everyone you know, it was rock bottom. Yeah, I had an
opportunity to further their own agenda just by taking shots at Home. And whether
it's yeah, the guys at rock Bottom or the the Gang of protests outside
the house. For me, I mean, we'll talk about this a bit
more when we reviewed the episode down, But for me, this episode really
just did so many things well that The Simpsons did well or does well when
it's firing on all cylinders. I mean, it's got really sort of dumb,
silly humor that everybody could get. It's got like gags where you might
I might have to hit the encyclopedia. I might have hit Wikipedia for that
one, just to sort of get the reference or I understand exactly what they're
talking about, or get the nuance of it. Terrific guest. I just
love the Dennis Friends of course, would play Homer in a teleymovie. Has
so many great things about this episode. Yeah, it's just amazing. What
about you, What are some of your favorite moments ari from this one that
you can recall. I mean it's like the German guy introducing the gumming stop
saying gummy exclusively in the medium of gummy. Yeah, and obviously like the
little action sequence as he smashes the pop rocks with the soda candy boys.
Yeah. When did this episode? It would have been in about ninety five,
Okay, Yeah, so it's right in the midst of that cool guy's
walking away from explosions things as well. Yeah, I think I really enjoyed
just the rowdy, roddy peeper aspect. I think just rock Bottom in general.
Yeah, that's got all that whole tabloid aspect. I mean it was
pretty massive in America definitely back then. I think I take off of Hardcam
or something hard copy, hard copy, yeah, yeah, yeah, but
I mean having Harry Shearer do the voice for that guy, he's just he
was built in a lab to do that kind of thing, to do that,
to voice that kind of character, that kind of host. I just
love that this was written by Greg Daniels as well, that's right, Yeah,
a co creator, a creator of the US remake of the Office,
so cready, I think the create He also did King of the Hill as
well. Oh yeah yeah and movies as well. You know, yeah,
like he's a great dander is an absolute legend. But yeah, you can
just tell I watched his thinking it might have been a Swartswelder one just felt
very swar Swoader esque episode. But do you think Homer was a bad man
in this episode? No, just misunderstood who among us has not reached out
for a sweet candy tree. Yeah. Actually, I think that's that's one
aspect. I did really enjoy the fact that it's one of Homer's worst traits
that gets him in trouble. But yeah, I mean he's still he's a
bad man in sense of like he's just a glutton. It's bad dad and
a bad dad in the lottery guards. But I mean Bart and Lisa believe
him the whole time. They have full trust. Yeah, why did you
pause there for a second. But no, not a bad man, no,
no, just yeah, a victim of circumstance, he might say.
So it starts off with Bart and Lisa picking through the the cereal, picking
them up shallows that were like that are when you were growing up. I
mean, how are you in your thirties, twenties, late twenties, late
twenties, Yes, he's still you were a kid in the nineties, so
ish, like the early two thousands, so you still had the cereal that
used to have the mascots and the cards and there and stuff like that.
I was a big fan of fiended that were you a fan of all that
kind of stuff? Really? I think I got my first age of vampires
yeah, good times. Would you what it was you when you were growing
up? Look, did you have like mascots in the cereal? Usually cricket
players, right, cricket cards and ship like Yeah, things like jazz musicians,
World War two veterans. I'm sure I've mentioned on one of our shows
in the past. There was Peters Burro out this ice cream called Sunday and
I had these tiny little marshmallows in it, and yeah, much like much
like Bart with this cereal, I was going through going these marshmallows are so
I mean, it's surrounded by ice cream, which isn't bad either, but
I'm like, the marshmallows are the real fine. You know, anyone else
would go to it and go, why are there no marshmallows and the Sunday
ice creamed? But then Herber tells me about the trade show and he got
the on the tickets from the Krusty Clump Bars. This reminded me of the
one and six Mars Bar promotion from years ago. Remember that you used to
be able to feel the rapper and tell whether you want to free Mars Bar.
Did you ever work out that trick? Yeah? I remember there was
a lot because they had a few different competitions with you know, a lot
of the chocolate bars, but I do remember there was the Mars Bar one.
Yeah, but I don't know if we'll I knew about the trick,
yeah, so you could feel the rapper and see what it said, free
Mars bar, and not like I'll take this one, so thank you.
But I remember. So you're literally out there mangling merchandise. But it's weird
because funny, I've got a funny memory. I just played golf a lot
of my dad growing up, and he used to play camp on a Saturday
morning and all the oldies be out there playing camp, and I'd always get
themselves a Mars bar, and they didn't know about this one and six promotion,
so that it was like go after the competition and as you get to
each holders, look at the top of the bin and to be always Mars
Bar rappers, you'd be like free Mars Bar, free Mars Bar, free
Mas Bar. And it got to the point where they got the clubhouse,
was like, you can't claim any more Mars Bars here because I'm not gonna
have any left. So I stopped rifling through are making the place look like
red was the hobby. Was the Krusty Klumpbar? Was that? You know?
Was that in more episodes? I don't think so, it's just just
for this one. Yeah. I love how they keep putting k's on crusty
merchandise. I mean, it's what it's a it's a gig that doesn't really
fly these days. But was it the Krusty Comedy Coat classic? Oh oh,
that's a bad acronym, so in one of those. Don't call me
a chick? Chicks huh? Sorry about my unenlightened brother. He will make
the next few hours a living hell. Oh I don't know, see this
fart. Disembell are for the game where condemned criminals dig at each other with
rusty hooks, do a little housework, and you can play for five minutes.
Way, Yes see, Lisa Nails aren't hard to tame. They all
follow their video cutuge. She brings out the game Disembowel of four. What
was your game of choice growing up? Ari? Oh, that's probably Grand
Theft Aldo Okay, yeah, which one? Though it would have been JDA
three around that time. Yeah. Excited for the new GTA absolutely, yeah.
I was a big fan of five, But I think San Andreas has
a special place in my heart. I think that's the one. Yeah,
we all sort of have a soft spot for. Are you much of a
gamer? I'm not here. Yeah, still like on and off, you
know, with the right sort of things. I used to be playing a
lot of online games called Judy et cetera, but now it's more single player
stuff. Did you ever play Simpsons Hit and Run? I did. I
was a huge fan of a great game, that is. Do you think
of all the things that gets remastered, how can you not be remastering this
game or like making a secret at least? Did you see somebody had I
saw something on YouTube maybe a year ago. Somebody had redesigned the whole of
Simpsons Hit and Running and like I forgot, Yeah, a new design.
Yeah, like a high death version of it. Yeah, it's incredible.
I think you're not getting paid for it, but you know you didn't because
he's a fan. He loves it. Yeah, that was awesome. I
remember always trying to get the Homer car. Yes, yeah, ad this
episode airing in ninety five. I mean, this is right smack in the
middle of the like more combat e as well? I mean, and like
growing up when I was playing. It was late late ninety four. Yeah,
yeah, I mean I'm essentially playing Space Invades and pac Man, which
are completely sort of bloodless. Then you get to someone where you get to
rip out someone's heart, We'll set them on fire. It's like, oh
hot, damn, this is the best video game of all time. But
I just got here in my notes that this is me but with a Blu
ray with a good commentary, Like, that's how you get me. What's
one thing I feel like with streaming now I miss the most is it's the
special features. Right, So like I for example, the Simpsons, right,
they got all the Simpsons episodes on Disney Plus. But one of my
favorite things about the Simpsons DVDs with the commentaries. That's one of the reasons
why I just brought those DVD's was just for the commentaries. And you think,
why not put those commentaries on there? Would you know why they would
not? Is there a legal reason they might be not putting on there on
the streaming the streaming service? Yeah? Is there something Brollie could do?
Absolutely with our collections, at least on Brolly, we're trying to add more
special features and also add the audio options. For a commentary. But I
think one of the reasons they aren't on certain streaming platforms from a studio perspective
is that they aren't necessarily they're not directly related to the film, in which
you've got other people all talking about the film, but the studio might not
want certain representation through whatever they're talking about because it's That's the only thing I
can think of, because sometimes there's a disclaimer at the start of commentaries where
it says, like, the people in this audio commentary and not represented.
This man does not represent us. Yeah, it's usually when anold Schwartzenek is
doing a commentary. You'll listen to his ones with I've never heard a Swortsnawr
commentary ever. I didn't notice he did them. He did one for Total
Recall, and I think he did one for Conan. Holy shit, I
have to hear this, and I think the one with the one for Total
Recalls has as him saying hello, I'm Paul Verhoeven. And if you believe
that, you believe there are Richard Simmons Junior's running around. It's like Jesus,
oh it's white. Because I always just thought it would be the easiest
special feature to put on a streaming service would just be the audio commentary,
have an alternative tracking the audio track. On one side, you know,
we're sort of thankful that doesn't happen. Yeah, I mean the Simpsons.
But otherwise, you know, it gives it that unique proposition for for us
in terms of creating new commentaries. Yeah, I think we always try to
low on as many different commentaries as we can, and you know, either
with where the filmmakers are at now setting up a new commentary, but it
is it is a bit tough for a lot of people and they're like,
oh, you know, another commentary. But then new filmmakers sort of dive
at the opportunity. They can't wait to do a commentary for their film because
it's you know, it's quite a bit of a lost art chance to revisit
as well. Then there in creation, Yeah, I imagine you would have
guys like the Raca Raker boys who probably grew up on commentaries as well,
and they're like, yeah, we'd love to do something like that and probably
grew up in the golden age of commentaries too. Yeah, we were almost
not going to have their commentary on Talk to Me, because I think there
was so much that had to be cut out because they were just rambling and
swearing a lot that the producers weren't too happy with it and needed to prim
it. There was certain things like that where it almost didn't make the deadline,
but we got got it there in the end. So do you find
do you prefer to get the filmmakers doing another commentary or just sort of like
fans given a fan perspective of commentaries, or do you like to a bit
of both. We always prefer the filmmakers, especially if it's been a long
time between them having made an initial commentary for the release, but it sometimes
can be great to have actors or directors paired with an interviewer or some sort
of scholar or somebody who can represent the film. What we found with you
know, certain films like Wake and Fright, it's like Scorsese is like a
huge fan of the film, so trying to see what we can do with
him and so many other filmmakers. There's a filmmaking doer Justin Benson and Aaron
moorehead you know really well. They did The Endless and Something in the Dirt
Synchronic and they just recently did the whole Marvel series Monight, Yeah, Moonnight,
and so we know them really well and they're huge fans of Waken Fright,
so you know, seeing how they can support it, whether they would
do a commentary on Awake in Fright. It's always a cool option to hear
from different filmmakers and how it even inspired them to their work. Yeah,
it's a cool addition. You're also finding there's a bit of a rise of
academics or just super fans who are really articulate when it comes to commentaries as
well. I mean in Australia, I think we've got Alex Heller, Nicholas
Good made of my name, O Westwood has done a fair fe I mean
in the US you got Tim Lucas. In the UK, I got Cat
Ellinger. I often find that I'll get a commentary or get a disc just
to hear their commentary. I mean, I may be sort of so so
on the movie. I'm like, I know they're going to have some really
valid and interesting things to say about this. No, absolutely, there are
you know, more coming out, and it's so exciting when we find somebody
new that can provide a whole nother aspect. And Alex Heller Nicholas is just
so fantastic at that she's really great and such a supporter of Australian sort of
films and unknown Australian films. But what we do sort of how we actually
put it together, is that we get different sort of curators. To an
extent, we call them sort of blu ray producers, and sort of one
or two people might be in charge of Super Mario Brothers for example, or
certain films, and they sort of go off and try to put together and
put a proposal for what the whole package should look like. And some of
them have different contexts. And these are not just in house Umbrella people.
These are people from all over the world. And some of these are programmers
at Fantastic Versts and south By, you know, people who have worked closely
with Arrow and Shout. It's all as I said, it's all a bit
shared and they're working on this Arrow release but our Umbrella release. So yeah,
it's a lot of back and forth with them, but we sort of
give them the opportunity to drive it and how they want to see, you
know, it being curated. And so there are sometimes people who specialize in
Asian cinema and they'll handle our Korean really is for example, dream Job.
But enough about that, let's let's go back to the I just want to
ask, so, with other companies that have rights of films that you may
want rights to, is there any opportunities where you can go, Look,
we'll give you the rights of these two if you give us that one.
Yeah. Absolutely, That's happened a few times, yes, like a draft
swap. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah, it does happen
a lot. To put it simply, And at the moment, we're also
working, you know, with because we try to be the first one out
in the world. That's always like the aim for everyone. So it is
a bit of like, you know, how can we share and collate and
work together? I know with The Raid. At the moment we're working on
a rerelease of The Raid. We're working with Gareth Evans and he's been super
helpful giving us all this exclusive material. But does the box look like the
Tower? Yes, because that's just got a four K release. Yeah,
I'll cut that the four K release in the US or the UK just recently,
is that right? I got a yeah, four K release in the
US, I think by one of the studios I think it was Sony,
so they just did the sort of standard four K release. But where we're
really going to town on this one, and the box is the is the
building? Okay, because that's the thing I mean even just buying I mean
saying getting a new release on four K is good, but it's like you
could juice it up a bit. Guys. Well, I just find sometimes
I'm not talking about umbrell, I'm talking about the studios when they the release
of movie Insto, Like you know, a couple of trailers and things,
and you're like, there's why aren't you putting shit on there? Because the
thing is I think that's why physical media kind of died down was that people
weren't willing to fork out that extra money. If it's just like, well
I can just subscribe to Disney Plus and get the same thing, what's the
point in buying the physical media. But that's why I love with what you're
doing with your release. Is like the Super Mario one, you're holding it
before this big chunky box. You look at it, and it's you can
justify dropping money on that. Absolutely, Yeah it is. Yeah, it's
And the thing is with these title when we I guess people don't really know
this as well, that when we license it to a Netflix or a Stan
or a Foxtel or whatever it is, that license usually lasts about one or
two years and then it has to be renewed, and that can only be
renewed if they're happy with the audience statistics that we don't get to see at
all, how many viewers, et cetera. And if it doesn't get those
views, that it won't go back up on that streaming platform. And then
also the rights who from the people we've acquired the rights from. It's not
always the producer of Super Mario Brothers, it's another company, and that company
may have then not got those sales results that the producer expected, so it
doesn't end up with them again when it's re licensed, and then it goes
back to the producer and they need to find and so it's like this whole
process where films can disappear and they can go off platforms for years and years,
I mean. And so that's where if you buy this one physical addition,
you'll have it forever. It is not guaranteed, even if you pay
for it on iTunes and Google. Unfortunately, if our license runs out,
we have to take it down off iTunes and Google, and even if you've
paid for it, I don't think it stays up there. I don't know,
so your rental as opposed to paying to own it. If you're paying
for it, I think if it actually gets fully taken down and they remove
it off the site, I don't think you actually get to keep it.
See that's a dark future. It's very different for me because I went off
physical media for a little while. I know, a couple of years ago.
I'm just kind of like, ah, maybe just kids and money and
just couldn't afford it. And then because the kids were run into Space Jam
right and it was on Netflix, and Netflix are like it's going to be
gone soon. I was like, that's okay, Wait a minute, I
don't own Space Jam. What am I going to do? And then I
just realized, wait a minute, that's going to happen to so many movies
that I love, that they're just going to be taken down and I won't
be able to watch them anymore. So it's time to start buying again.
Yeah, and I think I remember Space Jam was like a pretty hot Blu
ray at the time. I don't know if they did a re release,
but I remember looking into it a while back because a lot of the time,
yeah, oh okay, they've done the four K now, But I
remember a lot of the time for me because I'm a massive collector. I
have about fifteen hundred Blu rays and four k's myself. But it's like I
would notice that there are certain titles that I don't have in my collection,
and I'd look on eBay and it's like they go for four hundred bucks or
something, and I'd be like, all right, let's just try to license
the rights for Australia and New Zealand do our release and I can float it
out my well, are you going to do a special box? Let me
know I would certainly buy it. Yeah, all right, we'll see what
we can do. What's what's there's no chance of ever having a Simpsons release,
is there, even like the Tracy Olman shorts or anything like that,
because they've never had a physical release. Yeah. I think the thing is
that Disney one of the toughest to work with. See, sometimes there are
certain studios that we can license content off, especially physical releases, physical rights,
but there are some of the studios that just notoriously are impossible, and
unfortunately The Simpsons is one of the you know, the hottest properties for them
with Fox and Disney, and I don't think they'll ever externally license it,
at least of the time being. But you would think at some point they
would do some giant Simpsons box set. Yeah, I don't understand when they
never released those the Olmond shorts. Maybe they're embarrassed by them. I have
no idea. Yeah, I don't know exactly, or it's just hidden in
some archive where you know, it's just not a priority. Really, that's
that's at the end of the day, and that's where we see a lot
of the opportunity come from. It's that while it isn't a priority for so
many other distributors and companies, at least in Australia and New Zealand, that's
like such an opportunity for us where they're not doing anything with these rights,
and you know, we can get them some returns and get the filmmakers happy
again, getting their films out there, you know, actually giving some life
to these classic films that remain untouched in a vault in their archive. Essentially,
what was the hardest to get over the line that you can recall.
I don't know. I know there's there's a few that were I mean,
I guess I can say there's a few that we're still always in talks with.
There are certain films that have just taken years and years and years,
you know, one of them being Goes to the Civil Dead and if you
guys know that, yeah, with Nick Cave, that is just like notoriously
one that so many people have constantly asked for for such a long time,
and we'd love to do it and we know that owner, but it's just
it's just impossible to get there. There are others, but I'm too worried
that if I tell you guys now, somebody else is my idea. Yeah.
So, but it's a lot of the classic Australian stuff and like the
really big titles that haven't had the proper blue blu ray release and HD release
on physical and we're very close to a few may just I mean in a
general sense, like the hottest of all the titles in my opinion is the
Peter Jackson Trilogy, the original. Yeah, and they what is original like
low budget stuff like Bad Taste to meet the Feeble. Bad Taste was in
my mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so those like uh, you
know, key titles from a lot of everyone in the world wants those titles,
and luckily for us we have. We just recently hired a new head
of sales and acquisitions for us in New Zealand and she's quite close with that
with the Jackson team, so hoping that we can get there, but it
is a long process and separately, you know, as I said, I'm
quite close with Second Site and Shout Factory and they've sort of filtered offers through
me to get to that trilogy for example. So it's a lot of navigating
how that all operates. But there is a growing side of that library that
we'd love to explore. Yeah. I remember in the nineties going to the
video store and there's two covers that it has burned in my mind that does
always intrigued me, and it was the Bad Taste cover and the Evil Dead
Too cover with the skull just as the kid going, I have to watch
these movies one day, and I think, yeah, I mean Peter,
because Peter Jackson actually took all the rights back for those films, so he
owns them himself, and obviously he is known for remastering and rescoring content with
the Beatles get back and they shall not go old. So yeah, he
runs. He has his own facility in New Zealand and has remastered a lot
of content New Zealand films. So look, I'm not going to I can't
say too much, but next year from Umbrella you'll start seeing a lot more
New Zealand films added to our library, which we're super excited about. It's
been one of the key strategies for US is to focus on not just Australia
but New Zealand and sort of you know, representing for them for the world.
But you may have seen as well, we did a partnership with Vinegars
Syndrome in the US, so not everything goes through vinegar Syndrome. We're sort
of selective about how we balance it out, but we want to give them
more content as well. There's two eighties movies that I want an Australian release
for and you're gonna laugh at me and I don't care, but it's Short
Circuit and Mack and Me, the one that Paul rud always puts up on
the Con O'Brian show. I want Mac and Me and Short circuit. They're
both with Disney, so shit, really, yes, they have been requested
many times, we have looked. I believe they're both with Disney. Feel
free to cut this out down and this is just me geeking out. But
you talked about Vinegars syndrome. Are you guys going to be releasing cemetry?
Man? Here, they're the ones who are doing the big They did the
big release of cemetry. Man, didn't they or was that someone else?
I don't know, it might have been them. So the way the partnership
works is actually us giving them content. Actually the other way around at the
moment, but it is something we exploring. We're ruining his business for him.
He's like, I can't answer these questions. I'm trying to give you
stuff without giving too much. I'm trying to see because I've got our upcoming
slate, and I mean I could probably give you a few juicy stuff of
some titles that are coming through in the next few months. So we've announced
Master the Universe, I mean next month. Yeah, like in the next
week or two weeks, we're going to announce the Raid. We've also got
Primer an Upstream Color if you know those films. We've got a bit further
down the line, Harmony Korean's Trash Humpers, which should be a lot of
fun. That is one dirty movie. What else that we're doing it a
new release of a new early spell called Late Night with the Devil, which
they just released the trailer in the US. It looks so fucking dope.
Well, I'm happy to give you guys some tickets to the premiere if you
have, get guys down there. Yeah, with that, we couldn't personally,
so we'd love to. Yeah, with that one, we're planning a
pretty extensive, full size release, you know, somewhat similar to Talk to
Me. We're going to go to town with that one. I think,
what else have we got, like back to some of the Korean stuff,
Joint Security Area, some other Australian stuff, love and other catastrophes, dating
the Enemy, and there's a few more I probably can't mention, but yeah,
it's a it's a mixture of stuff coming through that. Yeah, with
some studios that kind of just fell by the wayside of went out of business
or whatever. Is there is there a catalog like a happy hunderground for you
guys, I mean, or is it just too tied up in red tape
because I mean, yeah, most of the universe of cannon production. I'm
wondering if the Canon catalog is like, oh yeah, we could do Runaway
Train, or we could do he smirked. There. I think it really
depends. Sometimes when they fall over, they ended up they end up getting
acquired by another company, and that can be sometimes just like a bank a
holding company that don't want to do anything with it until they do the company.
Yeah yeah, So like when that happens, we can't deal with them
to acquire rights, they won't actually do anything, and so that becomes a
bit of an issue. But it usually ends up somewhere. It's like,
comes down to a lot of chasing and negotiating and sometimes, if we're lucky,
it ends up back with the producers. But it can be pretty rare.
And there are certain companies as well that buy certain rights and perpetuity,
usually studios, so it can sit with them for forever in their vaults.
But you know, one of the big things for US is going you know
where it negotiations is for a very significant Australian company's library, and that includes
a lot of international stuff and a lot of Australian films that have never been
released in HD and really big ones that have just yeah, very surprising they
haven't, but it's because they just don't have the resources and the time to
put that as their focus. And so if that happens, I mean,
alongside the New Zealand side of content, you know, we're going to be
pretty filled for the coming months and I'm sure there'll be a lot more announcements
to come. Just just like Unbrothers just sort of just really taking off right
now. It just feels like now's the moment. Yeah, I mean definitely
on the physical side, it's just growing. We're seeing is seeing it as
a growing audience, and it's something that we want to, you know,
focus on more and more. And the more we do, the more love
that we seem to be getting for it, and so it's just like all
right, let's just keep trying. It's kind of akin to like the rebirth
of Vinyl. I mean, we're recording in dan Do studio here. He's
got a shit ton of vinyl on the wall here, and yeah, a
while back it was like I've got on my big brother's records and nothing to
plan on. I'll just throw them out, But yeah, people are buying
a lot more violent I'm o CDs last year people and people are going to
be buying collectors editions and special editions of discs I reckon. I mean,
if you're if you make it worth the money, if you load it with
good features and you you know you're good, you do good transfers. Yeah,
if you build it, they will come. Yeah. No, we
believe in that wholeheartedly. And I do think there's actually a growing interest in
physical releases because there are such big supporters of it, whether it's you know,
Giamo del Toro always talking about physical releases. And the great thing is,
you know, we are actually in contact with a lot of them and
just send them just free stuff, just you know, just to have a
look at and so you know, when the time comes maybe they can help
support us with whatever releases and just big fans of Umbrella just getting it in
the right hands. I love that it feels like a community as opposed to
a corporate kind of thing, and it does feel like I mean, I'm
sure that at the bottom line is important to you guys, but at the
same time, it's like you guys calling up Arrow or Share saying hey,
what do you got We've got this? Yeah, almost brands like, guess
what we found it is? Yeah, it definitely is a community. And
look all the companies we're dealing with, all independent companies, you know,
and everybody sort of all respects each other. It's you know, there's nobody
really who has has you know, any fighting issues and we all see,
you know, how how tough it can be and how things can go wrong.
But it's not all releases will work, and it's about trying new things.
But it's great to see everybody really exploring new ways to make it work.
And you know, when a Second Site and Arrow are growing and going
in different directions, you know, it's it's great to see. It just
means more audiences. And like for us, we know that we are not
as well known as Vinegar Syndrome and Second Sight, and for us, that's
a huge opportunity, you know, for us to take in more of the
market. That's say, I mean, I've got us film buff friends who
were like, oh god, I've got to I'm looking up astray and shipping
rates because I'm buying buying stuff from Australias. I'm getting they're buying stuff from
Umbrella. Yes, yes, so we're trying to Yeah, well, the
shipping rate when it is you're shipping a brick. Do you think do you
think the announcement of Disney pulling out of physical media lit a fire on to
collector his ass going, well, Disney is doing it, I better start
getting some start supporting this again. Yeah, I definitely think so. It
made some significant changes, especially in the sort of warehousing and packaging side that
people would have no idea about. A lot of the warehousing solutions that we
used to use have had to change. We've had to find new partners because
a lot of them were so reliant on Disney and Fox and the studios that
they've just like, you know, no Disney, no company essentially and they've
had to disappear. So we're in the midst of actually, you know,
working out new solutions with new partners to see how we can sort of add
a bit more Umbrella flair. I would say to our packaging and our postal
and you know that service and the customer service there, because yeah, it's
critical to our releases and also to the brand. Do you think that could
help you guys potentially get some Disney releases down the track and Disney not going
to make them. You guys can say, look, people really want this
on physical media. What do you reckon? I mean, I hope.
So it just depends on who ends up managing the rights for them and how
that works. But look, I definitely think so at some point in time
that those doors will open up. And you know, there are certain companies
where we think, oh, we'll never get that film, and then we
do and it's like, great, that opportunity came out and they and once
they start saying that there is a result there and they don't actually have to
do anything, and you open that door in that relationship, then you sort
of get the whole thing, the whole opportunity there. So absolutely we'll get
back to home a badman. Then we probably the Homer is now he's at
the at the candy fair and he eats the super sour ball and he finds
the wax slips Man, which I think is hilarious a lot of the fact
that once the guy's hiding home puts the wax lips sandy pants that's where he's
storing. But March's no law to eat celer unless she puts some sugar on
it, and Homer finally finds the Gummy Venus de Milo Gummy Bears, Gommy
curved heads got me jawbreakers is slimy of them are Gomy Venus Milo carved by
Gummy, othersans who work exclusively ins and medium of gummy. Will you just
stop saying gummy so much? I've never been a huge Gummy fan. What
was your lolly of choice growing up? I've never been a real gummy guy.
I mean I would say after school, I was probably going down in
the milk bar. Yeah, it was probably sour coke bottles were probably might
go to coke bottles. I was so against them. Yeah, I'd say
our coke bottles or raspberries, yeah, or musk sticks. We occasionally there
was a couple of milk bar still left in Geelong here, and I just
love the idea of kids being able to go there and still get the mixed
bag of lollies for two dollars. Yeah, that's great. It's rare.
It's really. It's one not near your house, isn't there there is?
Yeah? I drive past every day and I'm like, I'm going to go
in there one day, and I never do. Just like the idea that
it's there though still just still it still looks like a nineteen eighty five milk
bar at the front. Probably they're probably gazing out the window. One day
he'll stop. We didn't really have any big candy fairs, though I was
thinking about it when I watched. It's like, I mean maybe the Royal
Melbourne Show was like maybe when you could get showbags, but it was not
like that. No, it's not. This is almost like a toy fair,
but for candy, isn't it. Yeah, it's awesome. Yes,
I'd be totally there. Did you see the sign at the front said that
in the next room or something that's candy shaped? Brat Poisons Convention? Those
were Marge's coke bursts open. This gives Home with a chance to steal the
gummy Venus de Milow and see you and how candy boys. It just a
great action sequence, as he said, very mid nineties, isn't it Ransom
face off conn Air? I think we always like it when Home is sort
of competent and something, even when it's just the most impracticable skill, but
the fact that he's able to improvise an ied out of pop rocks and coke,
you know, using the old urban legend and turn it into a scene
out of corn Air or something. I think that's just brilliant. But the
kids are now having a ball all the candy. The babysit a is still
wedding in the car, and Home's dropping a home and he says, you
wants to scratch himself in two places at once. She asked him to drop
her off, and it's where he finds the precious venus on her behind.
And yeah, it doesn't work it well for home, it does it?
It does not? One? I mean, yes, one can see how
she would make that mistake given yeah, his choice of words, his tone
of voice, and just the look on his face. Why would anybody want
to touch a girl's butt? That's where coruities come from. Dad, I
don't understand what if she's saying it did well, Lisa, remember that postcard
Grandpa sent us from Florida of that alligator budding that woman's bottom. Oh yeah,
that was brilliant. That's right. We all thought it was hilarious,
But it turns out we were wrong. Dad, alligator was sexually harassing that
woman and the dog of the Copperton ad same deal Dad, it's kind of
a gray area. Now you mentioned this recently, and what was it on
South Like maybe yeah, talking about the Coppertone ad from that, because I
mean goes to the Ambler. We do a South Park podcast as well,
And yeah, I've got a few more years on you, guys, Ari,
but I'm know I grew up in the nineteen seventies and remember that they
used to have the copper tonad with where the dog was pulling down the bikini
bottoms and mentioned that Jodie Foster was actually the model for that. Yeah,
so you see a child's bear behind you, you wouldn't happen. Now,
you certainly would not that you'd be on a watch list. But they build
a shandy town out the front and that is following him everywhere through traffic and
at work and marches. There's nothing she can do, so Homer police to
God help me God, and he gets a phone call from God free Jones,
who is played by Harry Sheer and I just love this whole rock bottom
thing. I feel so over home because he thinks he's, you know,
cleaning his case. So that went really really well. I just love him
trying to insinuate himself with the rock bottom guys I like to report on Saudsquatch.
I thought it was fair and even handed, but it goes terribly.
I love that when he watches it, when it finishes, he doesn't say
anything. He just turns the TV off and then says, all right,
we're moving under the sea. What a great sequence that is, a little
man, it's just full of bangers, though all the friendly crustaceans just end
up getting eaten. But that whole I'm just working up the reworking the footage
to incriminate it. I just think so much you can, but it's essent.
Don't take your ringer ound on me. What about the farm that had
like the brothels, the sex one. Oh, but now the media absolutely
handing Homer. You know, they take photos of him in the shower,
he slips over, he slips Newton oxygen tench gives him. Sexual powers are
very that guess you shared so often in social media now, the sexual powers,
I mean, what was that? What are they talking about there?
What is that in relation to it? Must be I think it's just meant
to be just tabloys going extreme with things, right, or was there actually
there was a thing in the nineties where the National inquir or something like that
got a picture of Michael Jackson sleeping like a hyperbaric chamber. Wow. And
yeah, they sort of took that and ran with It's like gives him god
like sex powers or something, or Basil was just on more whacko Jacko.
This is before you had sort of conclusive proof about other things. We get
the various talk shows here as well, and just the woman who never met
Homer Simpsons and she just breaks down your tears say more than what real evidence
ever could we get? Gentle band, poor gentle bend getting shot well traanked.
Yeah, but it was a great cut though, where he's just falling
back into the crowd reminds me of that that doll, the Krusty he's got
the puppet he kicks into the crowd. One of my favorite moments of all
time is then we get portrait of an ass grabber and home it thinks it
sounds classy, but obviously it's not going to Well, it's got portrait in
the title Loo, come on, it does exactly. The girl threatens the
scream of the video, so he was the adorts his name, that's Dennis
Franz now is the NYPD Blue. Yeah, because he basically cornered the market
playing sleazy guys for god knows how long. Okay uh, and then had
this terrific career rebrand by playing Cipplewits in M Y p D Blue And that's
the others did He were strip with short sleeves and Sipwits. Was initially like
this real, just alcoholic racist cop and he was so much more likable than
David Caruso that he became the hero. But yeah, I mean Dennis Friends.
Yeah, became a sort of a really late in life TV star as
a result of the NYPD Blue. I think he just retired after that.
You don't really see him anymore. I never watched NYPD Blue. It's always
I think it's on Disney Plussible. I think going to reviews, I love
cop shows. Do you like cop shows at all? Ari? I mean,
I guess the Wire would be that's the one. Well, I think
if you're gonna watch that, you're pretty much well yourself. It's good.
I've got the Blue Ay box out of that one, and it's just that's
incredible. Yeah, Yes, now I've got the Blue A box set as
well that was yeah, my first into the Wire. It is incredible.
It's one of those shows where people still don't like it's not known why my
mum wouldn't know what the wire is for example, Right, it's not like
a commercial thing, but like people who know the Wire love the Wire.
They know about the Wire absolutely, and it's yeah, it seems like I
think now I've tried to get a few friends into it, and it seems
like some of them stop at the third episode or third episode. They're like
hooked and they'll watch, you know, smash through the whole thing. But
it is it's quite Yeah, it's a patient watch and you actually have to
be you know, listening in and attentive the whole time. You can't sort
of be your on your phone otherwise you just miss sort of crucial details the
whole time. It's sort of like Sopranos. I guess, yeah, well,
yeah, that's the thing. Now. I feel like they make TV
now. I think it's been proven with the idea of people are going to
have their phones in their hand anyway. Yeah. Yeah, second screen things
are very very real phenomenon. There are certain films that we look at as
well when we're sort of acquiring new release content. It's like, you know,
is this the sort of film where some but he's going to just turn
it on after a hard day, you know, working and they're going to
start cooking in the background, and it's just a bit of you know,
something on the TV and that it's a massive audience. So what's what like
your category? So I thought that's one of them, just like background noise
while you're cooking, Like what do you define that kind of film as?
Also with like comfort feeling or a security blanket, isn't it. Yeah,
it's usually like the trashy, you know, action film that might have you
know, Bruce Willis before he was you know, he's all finished up.
But there was a lot of schlucky Bruce Willis films towards the end. But
you know, some of those ones with like a face or a name that
you might know that sort of thriller or action there they sort of fit that
mold. But for us, we're pretty genre leaning and horror leaning, so
we do a lot of horror stuff in the new release side, but it
changes all the time because we have to sort of work through the appetites of
the streamers and the cinemas, which then also relates back to the audience.
Forgive me, I don't want to. I'm probably gonna ruin the very nice
relationship with bil. Are you guys affiliated with via Vision at all? Or
is that is that competition? Uh? Competition? We are We do know
them well and look, yeah we we We love those guys as well.
There always a pleasure to deal with and we work you know, in in
quite tandem to an extent with them, and so I love, I love
went straight into like pm O there that great work. Yeah, they're good
guys a lot. It's like, yeah, we because we know if we're
if we're looking to acquire content and somebody's just recently acquired it, well it
must be Vibe Vision, it must be them and there's nobody else. But
they do also do you know, they're quite different as well compared to us.
There's a lot of content that we know they won't touch, and they
do a lot of the classic American stuff that we probably don't do. A
lot of the studio releases that they do incredibly well. They also do a
lot of TV stuff that we just don't do any of. So yeah,
there, but there they are. They really genuinely are a great bunch of
dudes to deal with, and but we also end up selling them some of
the extras and stuff of titles that we that they get the rights back to
after we forget to renew them. So I was just thinking, Yeah,
they brought out stuff like say the Ginger Snaps trilogy or you know, Rob
Zombies Halloween movies and put them in a set, and it's like, yeah,
you've got some pretty good features on there, or some of that stuff
seems important from from the US, and it feels like something Umbrella would do,
Yeah, but better, No, Umbrella would do it better, thank
you, thank you. Yeah, but we've got Brock when doing the live
news reports and he sees the put turns on the infrared, he's chewing his
own juices, which is just the chicken in the in the oven, and
the people believe the Homer is guilty. Homeer says, you can't trust the
TV anymore, very unhome alike. But the kids seen the as it walks
off, they give their TV a big hug. Yes, I think we've
all had TV at some point in our lives. Were you were you a
TV kid growing up? Like, were you in front of the TV.
Yeah, I mean definitely for The Simpsons. You know, I think it
was six o'clock, six, six pm week night, channelt Yeah, weeknight,
and then i'd try you know, the Neighbors was not and that was
as soon as that, you know, I didn't watch Neighbors. Once a
Neighbors music started, You're like, it's time to go do something else now,
Yeah, it's starting to go outside and play. Yeah, and then
it was into Fox eight, which you just do reruns and everything. But
yeah, definitely, I'd say The Simpsons was definitely a big influence for me.
Sitting in front of the TV at six o'clock every night just feels like
such like an entire generation of kids were just sitting in front of the TV
watching Fox eight on the weekend mornings because those super Simpsons weekends. You talk
to any fan growing up, like the nineties, it just like, yeah,
Saturday, Sunday mornings, you watch the Simpsons. I think we realized
at the time that everyone was just watching the same thing at the same time.
It doesn't doesn't happen anymore. Yeah, No, you're right, it's
pretty incredible, I think as well, like South Park because South Park wasn't
really maybe it was on SBS Comedy Channel sometimes yeah, but yeah, everything
for me south Park was just through yeah foxtowl just I remember. Yeah,
a big south Park fan. Yeah yeah, massive south Park fan on the
south Park podcast then yeah, definitely like having rewatched south Park a few times
now from beginning to end, which I haven't properly done with Simpsons. I've
sort of gone through it and then stopped. And then there are certain seasons
which I skipped because you know, but also much more of a yeah,
I mean the commitment to the Simpsons side is much bigger obviously, but yeah,
yeah, definitely a big south We're currently season four of south Park.
We went back to the starting movie vis and we just did the chokey hair
tampons and oh nice. Now, as far as this episode goes, you
mentioned have we skipped the part where Homer's watching the stand up comedian on TV?
Because that right now, said Letterman. Then he turns off Letterman and
then puts on the stand up comedian. Just that the fingers my favorite first
of all, my favorite gift to you. I'm not sure, but yeah,
just the give it up, but the whole mister t e et mash
up gag is like, oh no, this is exactly what a stand up
comedian wearing a tie would say. This is where they get the idea.
Lista suggests they do the public access video and it still doesn't go well.
Does it well? He does a good job, but no one watches it
gets too whole, calls yes for none of them being though yes, switchboards
are lighting up. But he also takes the piss out of old Tommy bikes
as well, which pays off a little bit later. The poor old Penny
fas Yeah. Yeah, this is where Willie arrives with the tape to prove
his innocence because he is rowdy roddy peeper. Hum. I love amature video
and your show is the most armaturr video I ever saw. My Hooby is
secretly videotaping couples and girls. I didn't come forward because in this country it
makes you look like a perfect but every single Scottish person does it. Oh
baby, oh yeah, old baby, Oh no, that's mere quimby here
we gosh, thank you. Yeah, this crazy completely. You know,
the courts might not work anymore, but as long as everybody is videotaping everyone
else, justice will be done. I remember this coming on. I'm like,
maybe Fox SAT or Chance whatever, and my mum walking in as Quimby
was gone with that woman in the country, was like, what are you
watching? I was like the Simpsons. It's like, what's going on here?
It's pretty racy with Quimby's going for it. Mby's going downsaids I feel
like that scene would have been cut out of commercial TV, even maybe not
because Fox that used to just play the full episode, but Channel ten we'd
cutch it out occasionally, not exactly six o'clock viewing, but yeah, it's
revealed here. So this is where they show Ashley he's realized that she's realized
that Homer is innocent, and rock Bottom make the correction. There's a big
list of things. I won't go through them here. You can find them
online from the Simpsons archive. And they do the thing on Raddy Roddy people,
and as Homer says that man is sick, listen to the music because
he has learned nothing. And that is the end of the episode. I'm
so glad we revisited this one. This is just chock full of bangers as
far as I'm concerned. Just great, great one. Line is great visual
gags, great character development. I mean not character development, but I mean
it's true to Homer's personality and puts it in a really interesting context. Yeah.
I just had so much fun with this one. Yeah, definitely,
thank you so much for choosing that episode. Absolute delight that one. But
let's talk about Unbrother just one more time before we go. So you've got
exciting things coming up. Let's talk about Brolly one more time. So,
how can people find Brollie's just apps avaiable on TVs? On the Android devices?
Yeah, so it's Brolli dot com dot are you, and you can
check it out on apps as well. It's on iOS and androids so and
also on most TVs on their apps, So lots of different ways to check
it out. If you go to Brolli dot com dot a you, it's
got the whole list of the various apps and you can click through and download
the apps. How extensive was it to make that app? Was it a
long process? Yeah? It took a while. It really. It was
the process of working with the company just to make sure it was ready for
the consumer, just because we could have launched a lot, you know,
sort of earlier but just certain tweaks we wanted to make to make sure it
was really just as easy as possible to get in and start watching, you
know, trying to not push through any sort of classification problems and things like
that. That was another hurdle that we had to deal with the Classification Body
of Australia. But in the end we've just said, like you tick a
box that says you're eighteen or I think from your day at birth. Otherwise
you have to do a pin code or whatever it is. But like,
because there is yeah, we didn't we wanted to launch with RI eighteen content
as well. Like I mean, some of them are a couple you know,
slightly seedy films from their eighties and sexploitation stuff, but anytimes it's yeah,
oxploitation and Umbrella is just a match made in heaven as far as I'm
concerned. I mean, I'm friendly with Mark Hartley and I mean not quite
Hollywood just really sort of feels like a real dam bursting for you guys as
well. I mean, I've still got the DVD sets that have got like
the five osploitation titles in them. I'm never ever giving them up. There
they're just goal as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, No, absolutely.
Look, we work very very closely with Mark. We're very close friends with
him and he's been a huge part of, you know, our focus around
restorations and remastering. He oversees a lot of them. He also curates a
lot of the Blu Ray packages for us, for the classic Australian stuff.
I think at the moment he's working again on a box set that we're about
to announce called Osploitation Rarities and it's Lady Stay Dead, Final Cut and Cross
Talk as a box sort box sets. So yeah, and the aim is
that if that one works, we'll do a few more Osploitation Rarities box sets.
Always going on Osploitation. I love it, yeah, because it is
yeah, and not many people know about it. And Mark Hartley's documentary Not
Kaite Hollywood is just such a great entry point to understanding what the hell happened
because it is crazy. I mean, just as a quick summary for people
who have no idea. In the eighties, there was a sort of tax
rebate for people to make films in Australia because we didn't really have much of
a film industry. And so they essentially the rebate was one hundred and fifty
percent, meaning if you were spending ten million dollars in Australia making a film,
the government would give you fifteen million dollars. So out of that came
over the top, you know, too much money budgeted, you know,
crazy high budget shlock. Essentially, some of it's awesome, some of it's
just insane, but you know, some serious gems came out of that sort
of period, you know, the biggest being sort of Mad Max and Crocodile
Dundee. And it's estimated that Crocodile Dundee brought in like a billion dollars of
tourists, you know, you know money. We're still being told to put
Simps in our barbie when we go to America. Indeed, well it'll never
disappear. So yeah, that's it's a huge part of Australia that that era
and sort of what Australia was represented to oversees it, even though it was
very oka and probably yeah shifted. Now. I'm just amazed that Australia,
the Australian industry never took the Mad Max the time and just ran with it.
I mean, it's like, why didn't we make you know, a
dozen fucking me knockoffs a year? The Italians did it. We didn't do
it. No, I don't know. Yeah, well, I mean I
guess Brian tried. Like dead End Driving has got a bit of Mad Max
feeling to it, and there's a lot of you know, there's a lot
of car stuff, but not necessarily a lot of post apocalyptic stuff. Yeah,
fair enough, but I guess yeah, I mean, I haven't seen
Fury Overse yet, but the new Mad Max it was just incredible. Fury
Road was just what a show. I got very very lucky in that when
I'm acquiring content for Umbrella, I get to go a lot to the international
markets. And I got to go to the the world premiere in can Film
Festival for Fury or Fury Road, and I remember people like cheering in the
audience, like hollering and hooting, and it was Yeah, it was.
It was a lot of fun. They were going nuts. Any festivals lined
up in the new Future, Yeah, we'll be. I'm going to go
back for Canned Film Festival, so it can is usually a massive one,
just because we're dealing with you know, catching up a second start and Shout
Factory and all those people, but also dealing with all the studios understanding what
content they have. Anybody else is working on stuff. It's crazy. Everybody's
you know, remastering their classic library titles to four K and some of them
are just the shittest films getting such deluxe treatment when such great films and not
even released on Blu Ray. But that's just how it happens sometimes. Do
you think four K is it? Do you think because you've gone from Blu
ray to four K, is there going to be another one? Or is
four K where we're going to be resting there forever? Yeah? I think
I think four K is it. There's been a lot of sort of discussion
points around that because I think if you're going any further into eight K,
it's like a bit too grainy and crisp where it doesn't look you know,
right, So I'd say, yeah, four K will sort of bit the
end, which is yeah, I hope. So, yeah, they're trying
to make high frame rate thing a thing for a while. All right,
Well, Ari, it's been absolute pleasure to finally have you on the show.
Thank you for joinings here to talk about how a bad man no problem
at all. It's been an absolute pleasure. Guys, thank you so much
for having me. And we have to get you on going down to South
Park at some point. Yeah, I would love that absolutely, all right,
guys or the best Man, thanks a bunch. Thanks. As we
said you you could hear guy gushing the entire time clean up on All four.
I had to cut out like several times, just like I'm not worthy.
But Aris just what a great dude, and know I love about it.
He clearly has a passion for what he's doing. Absolutely, because there
are many scenarios where you know, dad starts a business, son takes over.
It's it might not necessarily built someone to do, but he does it
because he's Dad started it. No, Ari, He's fucking he wants to
do this. Yes, it's clear that I was the most excited person on
this podcast. Running a close second was because you like talking about the Simmons,
but he also liked talking about what he's doing with the Umbrella. And
if you're a film nerd or a physical media aficionado, you should also be
excited, not just you know, whether you're Australian or not. I mean,
these guys ship all over the world, and deservedly so, because they
make quality content, not unlike your pal's gun and Dan. Check out Brolly
dot com dot au as well. Check out all those the stuffing you can
find available on there. Absolutely yeah, I mean, if you're not a
physical media person, first of all, why Secondly, yeah, get on
the streaming service that these guys have set up. Brolli dot com dot au
chuck full of good stuff. Also, they've got a mass of the universe
that coming out. Holy shit, I cannot wait. I'm so excited.
It's it's gonna be. It's worth it. Just don't do web such just
cheat the mass of the universe. And for people whose taste are a little
stranger, they've got osp flotation up the wazoo. But they're also bringing out
like a cool Rucker Howard Double with Paul Vahoven's Flesh and Blood and the eighties
classic the Hitcher. We've got some exclusives as well, don't we. We
absolutely did. He said it was like, oh crap coming out. So
when you hear when you hear a lot of when you're a lot of redactive,
Yeah, that's the juicy stuff. Too hot for TV, yes or
podcasts. But yeah, guys, don't forget you can't support us by following
our supporters on Patreon, Patreon, dot comp slash fourthing a discount. Find
a link for that in the description of this podcast. As well. We've
got exclusive podcast on there. We've got Talking Sign Foud, We've got Tales
of Futurama, the Movie Guys podcast where we review movies, which works well
with this podcast. It's certainly as well as Speaking of the Hill. But
also I forget check out our other podcast going down to South Park, the
one of our friends, the Office Talk and more. He at the Fourthing
of Discount Network. Thank you so much for listening to the show. Next
week we're gonna be doing another season eighteen review, getting back to the season
eight's justly so much fun to get some guests on the reviews some classic episodes
as well. Really has been Yeah, you'll find this more happening more and
more often. But anyway, guys, think you again for all of your
support. Mister Davison your final words for those amazing listeners out there. It
may sound like I was doing so during this episode, but no, I
am now off to go mangle my merchandise sh