The Spiel

There is a brand new Steven Spielberg movie out in theaters this weekend so of course we had to dive into it on The Spiel. Vespe is joined by his longtime friend and ex-Ain't It Cool colleague Drew McWeeny to dissect, as best they can, Spielberg's Disclosure Day, which could very well be his final cinematic statement on the topic of extra-terrestrial beings. The conversation begins with a spoiler-...

Prominent indie actor Lou Taylor Pucci (Southland Tales, Thumbsucker, Evil Dead 2013) is our guest this episode to talk about a new title for The Spiel: *batteries not included, the 1987 film produced by Steven Spielberg, directed by Matthew Robbins, and starring everybody's favorite '80s old couple Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. Lou's new movie, Touch Me, is a weird-ass movie about aliens and cul...

DC Pierson (Captain America: Winter Soldier, Community) returns to talk a little about the brand new restoration of his cult classic indie comedy, Mystery Team co-starring Donald Glover and Dominic Dierkes, as well as continue his Spiel journey of watching every Transformers movie until all have been conquered. At this point in the Transformers franchise we're pretty sure Steven Spielberg's creati...

Kevin and Matthew McManus (American Vandal, Cobra Kai, Redux Redux) jump in the passenger seat for a revving chat about Steven Spielberg's Duel. Shot in 10 days, this 1971 TV movie was Spielberg's first real introduction to Hollywood. It's an adaptation of a Richard Matheson short story that follows a spineless city boy as he's tormented by a faceless truck driver that prowls the rural roads outsi...

Legendary action director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) is our guest this week to talk about the latest chapter of his Strangers reboot trilogy, his collaboration with Steven Spielberg early in his career, and how much of an impact Jaws has had on many of his films, including his own killer shark flick Deep Blue Sea. We talk color theory, visual storytelling, how and when you can lose an...

Did you know that Steven Spielberg produced the classic '80s cult film Three O'Clock High? Well, we didn't either, until our guest, writer/director Kevin Lewis (Willy's Wonderland, Pig Hill) came to the show wanting to discuss it. It's a simple story about a high school dweeb (Casey Siemaszko) challenged to a fight by the new kid in school (Richard Tyson) and the chaos that ensues as he tries ever...

TV Mastermind Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) makes his feature directorial debut with Dust Bunny starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, and newcomer Sophie Sloan. On the surface this film has nothing to do with Steven Spielberg, but it turns out that it was originally developed as an episode of the Amazing Stories reboot and Spielberg himself gave notes on the script that survived to...

Steven Spielberg tried his hand at a Twilight Zone-ish series in 1985 that didn't exactly set the ratings world on fire, but would prove to be formative for a whole generation of imaginative kids. Amazing Stories brought in a combination of seasoned pros like Scorsese and Clint Eastwood and exciting, young talent, including today's guest, writer and filmmaker Mick Garris. Mick became famous for hi...

Emmy Winning writer (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) and very funny standup comedian (People Pleaser) Josh Gondelman returns to The Spiel to talk about a film that most people probably forgot was produced by Steven Spielberg: 2010's True Grit starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Hailee Steinfeld in her first major role. Based on the Charles Portis novel, previously adapted as a...

Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger, I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore) joins Vespe to talk about one of the most impactful films of Steven Spielberg's career, Twilight Zone: The Movie. They dip into the tragedy, of course, but there's more to this anthology than the controversy. This film brings together some of the best filmmakers of the era in John Landis, Joe Dante, Spielberg, and George M...

Aaron Sagers is not only a pop culture journalist, he's also a well-known paranormal investigator. He's the founder of ParanormalPopCulture.com and you've seen him on-camera for Travel Channel's Paranormal Paparazzi and Paranormal Caught on Camera, and Netflix's 28 Days Haunted. In short, he knows a lot about movies and the spiritual world, so he was the natural choice to come in and talk about Po...

Steven Spielberg's documentarian Laurent Bouzereau returns to The Spiel to discuss Vespe's favorite movie, Jaws, and his great new deep dive documentary made in conjunction with Amblin and Nat Geo called Jaws @ 50. There's a lot to talk about in terms of the legacy of Jaws, the impact it had for good and ill on both the film industry and the fishing industry, as well as where it fits into the lexi...

Legendary film producer, director, and documentarian Frank Marshall is my guest on the show today to talk about his working relationship with Steven Spielberg, a creative partnership that goes back to Raiders of the Lost Ark and continues on to this day. Marshall co-founded Amblin with Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy. We talk about what necessitated Spielberg creating his own production company, ho...

Frequent Steven Spielberg collaborator David Koepp is our guest this week. Koepp is the screenwriter behind Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of the Worlds, and Spielberg's upcoming UFO/UAP flick as well as the director of the criminally underrated Stir of Echoes. Koepp also penned the script for the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth, which hits cinemas July 2nd. We talk about his work in the Juras...

Director Jonathan Entwistle (Karate Kid: Legends, The End of the F***ing World, I Am Not Okay With This) joins Vespe to talk about the incredibly divisive Spielberg film, Hook. Spielberg's Hook is a bonafide classic for a whole generation, but if you're not part of that younger Millennial generation it has the reputation of leaving you cold. The story is about a world where Peter Pan is real and h...

It might come as a surprise to some folks that Steven Spielberg directed the pilot for Columbo, titled Murder By The Book, but that he did and it turned out to be one of the most important projects of his early career as his success with this episode is what got him the gig directing Duel. If you're going to talk about Columbo and Spielberg then you're going to need a guest who knows their whodunn...

The Spiel co-host, Josh Robert Thompson, is stepping away from the show, but before he leaves to pursue his own creative endeavors he and Vespe take a look back at his time on the show, discuss our favorite episodes, guests, and experiences while he was behind the mic. You'll hear plenty of behind the scenes stories, more Spielberg, Lucas, and Morgan Freeman impressions, some Scott Wampler anecdot...

Veronica Cartwright joins The Spiel hosts to talk about her incredible career, from The Twilight Zone to The Birds to Alien and Witches of Eastwick, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and, yes, even Scary Movie 2. Cartwright also shares her thoughts on Steven Spielberg's career, including an incredible anecdote of watching Jaws for the first time with Richard Dreyfuss. There are so many great stories...

Charles Soule (author of the Star Wars: The High Republic series as well as some of the best Star Wars comic books) joins the show to talk all about one of the most controversial and heavily debated Steven Spielberg films: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We all know co-host Josh Robert Thompson goes to bat for this one, but does Soule? We dive into the George Lucas of it all, a...

Incredible composer Bear McCreary (God of War, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Battlestar Galactica, Happy Death Day) knows a thing or two about composing badass scores. Vespe challenged him to come up with top 5 favorite John Williams/Steven Spielberg collaborations and the resulting episode sees McCreary putting his Top 5 against Vespe' Top 5. Originally only available on the show's Patre...

The Spiel welcomes Anthony Breznican, Vespe's Kingcast co-host and entertainment reporter extraordinaire at Vanity Fair, to talk about Amblin's Innerspace. This weird-ass movie was directed by Joe Dante and produced by Spielberg and is all about a shrunk down Dennis Quaid getting injected into Martin Short's butt and that's just the start of this crazy '80s flick. Bond-esque villains, mini-Kevin M...

I think we can all agree that Steven Spielberg knows how to end a movie. He's got some all-timer endings in his filmography, but he also has some divisive endings. We're talking about War of the Worlds, A.I., Munich, and more. Noted filmmaker, podcaster, entertainment host, and professional geek Clarke Wolfe (Malum, Torn Hearts, Sending in the Wolfe podcast) joins JRT and Vespe to examine some of...

The Goonies is an important movie for folks of a certain generation, including the absolute madman who is this week's guest. You know him from Pitch Perfect 2, The Suicide Squad, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Silicon Valley and now he's here to talk about The Goonies, Richard Donner's coming-of-age adventure story produced by Steven Spielberg. We bounce around a lot in this episode, going from behind-...

Leave it to Vespe and JRT to turn a conversation about the 1995 Amblin family adventure story CASPER into a lewd, R-rated talk about ghost titties. In our defense, bad influence (and James Beard award-winning author) Mallory O'Meara is our guest and despite all of our best efforts when we three get together things get chaotic and talk quickly turns to horniness. Does Casper hold up? Which of the t...

Celebrated genre author Stephen Graham Jones (The Indian Lake Trilogy, Mongrels, I Was A Teenage Slasher) is a huge fan of both Twister and Twisters, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and shows up this week ready to talk about what made him laugh, cry, and jump for joy in both the 1996 original film and its 2024 sequel. Topics include: An all new patented crazy wildlife story fr...