S3E30: Exorcist Meets Crypt Keeper – The “Billy Friedkin Experience”

The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

The idea seemed so natural. Get WILLIAM FRIEDKIN – director of “THE EXORCIST” – to direct an episode of our little horror anthology TV show – “TALES FROM THE CRYPT“. It just so happened that RICHARD DONNER – director of another great contemporary horror classic, THE OMEN – was one of our illustrious executive producers. It made hiring Friedkin a no-brainer to us.

But then, another of our EP’s – the mercurial JOEL SILVER – told us (or, rather, screamed at us) that we were crazy.

“He’ll kill you! He’ll fuckin’ kill you!” is how Joel put it.

Now, remember: that was Joel Silver talking and Joel was notorious for being someone who “fuckin’ killed’ other people as easily as he breathed. But, Gil and I persisted.

We figured, compared to Joel, how fuckin’ crazy could Billy Friedkin be?

Have We Got STORIES!

As you’ll hear in the episode, Gil went right at that question and invited Billy to lunch where Gil read Billy the riot act right up front. He put Billy on notice that we shot every episode in five days – even Zemeckis! – so Billy wasn’t getting a sixth day no matter what, so he better toe the line right fucking now!

For a moment, Gil was convinced that Billy was going take a swing at him. But, then Billy laughed instead. He had come out of guerilla filmmaking, so this – using our wits more than our wallet – felt familiar in the best ways.

Billy had no issues whatsoever playing by Crypt rules. And his episode – “On A Dead Man’s Chest” is a classic.

Our Panel

Helping us reminisce about our collective experience working with this iconic, mercurial, driven but deeply collaborative talent will be Randall Thropp (Crypt’s wardrobe supervisor), Todd Masters (Crypt’s make up special effects guru), Sherrie Rose (one of the episode’s actors), Ed Tapia (Gil & Alan’s executive assistant) and Jason Stein (one of the Dad’s From The Crypt – who co-executive produce this podcast).

One of the joys of doing Crypt was getting to work with some iconic filmmakers. With some – like director Billy Friedkin, it was both a joy and a Master Class. Quick note – we recorded this confab a few days after Billy died August last year.

To mangle Shakespeare, we did not come to bury Billy, we came to praise the hell out of him!