Verbal Diorama

What's this?! What's this?! There's colour everywhere! It's officially the final episode of Verbal Diorama of 2022, and my dreams of producing an episode on The Nightmare Before Christmas become a reality, just before Christmas! While this may have been Tim Burton's idea, and Tim Burton's vision, the real maestros behind the scenes on The Nightmare Before Christmas were undoubtedly Henry Selick an...

There's (a little more than) One More Sleep 'Til Christmas , and with a Thankful Heart , it's time for Verbal Diorama to give some festive love to The Muppet Christmas Carol , so It Feels Like Christmas , finally! Starring Kermit, Miss Piggy, Statler and Waldorf, The Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens, Rizzo the Rat as himself, and the inimitable Michael Caine in his career-defining role as Ebenezer S...

After Tim Burton made his phenomenally successful Batman movie, he had his choice of personal projects, including a Batman sequel and a Beetlejuice sequel, but he chose this deeply personal story based on a sketch he had drawn as a withdrawn teenager; of a thin, solemn man with what looked like scissors for hands. Enlisting the help of screenwriter Caroline Thompson, together they would craft the...

Tim Burton didn't intend to return for Batman Returns after his smash hit Batman movie in 1989, but after Warner Bros gave him free rein on the project and allowed him to fully "Burtonize" the movie, he agreed. The result was, unsurprisingly a completely Tim Burton Batman movie. Full of the typical gothic, macabre, dark and sexualised version of Gotham you'd expect. Warner Bros, though, didn't exp...

Super Troopers is a remarkable achievement - a comedy with no established comedic stars, an unknown director, and a very low budget that seemingly came out of nowhere, to become a huge hit when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. And while I hate talking about Harvey Weinstein on this podcast, for obvious reasons, he was pivotal to Super Troopers ' initial financial success, which...

Not your average vampire story, Let the Right One In is a haunting, beautiful and unique take on vampiric lore, as twelve-year-old Oskar meets Eli, a young girl who moves into his building with her guardian. But Eli is more than she seems, as her 'father' Håkan is seen butchering young men and trying to collect their blood. His constant failure leads her to take matters into her own hands, and peo...

Halloween 2022 was the 30th anniversary of the airing of Night of the Sentinels Part 1 , the pilot episode of X-Men: The Animated Series, with Night of the Sentinels Part 2 airing a week later. Her original plan to launch an X-Men animated series had failed in 1989, but a couple of years later Fox Kids CEO Margaret Loesch was adamant she would get the X-Men on the small screen. The series itself w...

The movie that Edgar Wright called the "Best zombie movie I've seen in forever." and "my favourite zombie film of the 21st Century", Train to Busan is nothing short of phenomenal. With perfect action set pieces, the claustrophobia of being trapped in a zombie-filled train, and interpersonal and class conflicts brewing throughout, what starts as the simple story of a workaholic father taking his da...

One Cut of the Dead was a movie that came together in only eight days, with a tiny budget, that its own actors paid to be in. Not only would it garner major financial success, earning over a thousand times its budget back, it would also be a huge critical success (100% on Rotten Tomatoes!). Most importantly, it encapsulates exactly why this podcast exists in the first place - to celebrate every fa...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a patron pick by Pete, is a visual and audible treat. A sweeping epic about love, loyalty, lust and oppression, and a genre-defining Hollywood game-changer when it came to bringing Chinese wuxia martial arts films over to Western audiences. From terrific performances by Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi, to stunning cinematography and outstanding fight chor...

To mirth, to merriment, to manslaughter! What defines a loving family? Is is the rosy-cheeked cheery-faced privileged bullies at Camp Chippewa, or is it The Addams Family? Pause for thought. The answer is, and always will be, The Addams Family's honest depiction of love and acceptance. This is not only on full display once again in Addams Family Values , but includes a clear message from writer Pa...

Come with me if you want to listen.... to one of the biggest episodes I've ever made on one of the most ground-breaking and important sequels ever made. From the original 1984 low budget slasher, to a big budget action sci-fi spectacular, Terminator 2: Judgment Day upped the stakes in every conceivable way. With James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton returning, and a new Terminato...

The MCU has changed a hell of a lot in 15 months. Back in June 2021 Loki was on everyone's lips, my Avengers series was winding to the end of Phase 3, and Marvel had officially started Phase 4 of the MCU with WandaVision ... (and June 2021 is when this episode was originally recorded.) Post Vision's death at the hands of Thanos, and the resulting snap, Wanda Maximoff is bereft. She ends up in West...

The daywalker returns to Verbal Diorama for Sequeltember, and this time he has a Blood Pack. Guillermo del Toro admired Stephen Norrington's Blade so much, he analysed it in depth once he took the reins for Blade II . He wanted to build on the world of Blade (1998) by upping the blood, gore, martial arts and monsters, while also staying true to Norrington's original vision. On its release in 2002,...

The power of the sun, in the palm of my hands... Welcome to Sequeltember: The Sequel. Another round of sequels to movies previously featured on Verbal Diorama, and the month starts with a sequel that surpassed its genre-defining original. Spider-Man 2 is, 18 years after its release, still widely regarded as one of the best comic book movies ever made. It's not hard to see why. It has a relatable,...

Spending my vacation in the summer sun, gettin' lots of action and a lots of fun, scorin' like a bandit 'til the bubble burst, suddenly it got to be August 31st! Come on everybody, gather 'round, I'm gonna show you how to knock 'em down. When I'm on the ball, I'm the number one, and I'm gonna show you how it's done. It's time for the annual birthday episode! While I pride myself on being your Girl...

Auguest concludes, with the first, second and third rule in a crisis situation... I have no respect for those who have no respect for logic. Joining me to talk about Ivan Reitman's fan-favourite Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito buddy comedy TWINS are two hosts of a podcast that could be the twin podcast to Verbal Diorama; Drew and Matt from Sequel Pitch! I know, right! Practically twins! W...

Auguest continues! Impulse. Response. Fluid. Imperfect. Patterned. Chaotic. All words to describe this podcast, but also uttered by Nathan describing the brain of his ultimate creation; Ava. But can Ava pass as human? Let's find out as we delve into Alex Garland's (sort-of!) directorial debut, EX MACHINA ! This week's guest wasn't lucky, he was chosen. I had to use all of my self-awareness, imagin...

Auguest continues! Snootch to the motherf**king nootch! Verbal Diorama returns for another guest hosted episode for probably the best movie writer/director Kevin Smith has ever made - DOGMA . There's no pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than being joined for Dogma by the human embodiment of the Buddy Christ, Andy from Geek Salad, for his Holy Trinity of guest appearances. He has a pen...

Auguest, a month of amazing guest-hosted episodes, begins! I'd have to be pretty stupid to host a podcast about killing and then kill him the way I described in my podcast. I'd be announcing myself as the killer. I'm not stupid. TW: This episode includes a discussion about a scene which depicts forced sex/sexual assault/rape as well as Sharon Stone's recent revelations that she did not consent to...

Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts for the latest episode of this podcast. What is it? Well, it's an audio file you can listen to at any time, but that's not important right now. Surely Verbal Diorama can't be serious? Well, Verbal Diorama is serious, and don't call me Shirley. I'm Em, I'm your pilot for this flight, and the life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing: f...

Another Nanorama (episodes slightly shorter, but focusing on interesting titbits of information) on the history and legacy of Promising Young Woman , and how important this movie is, regardless of your gender. If this movie makes you feel uncomfortable, it's doing its job. TW: This episode covers suicide, rape, sexual abuse, lack of rape convictions, as well as a rant on the recent overturning by...

It was a fever dream while making Piranha II: The Spawning that gave James Cameron his idea for a terrifying metal endoskeleton crawling through flames. From that initial idea, he would write a draft, and with the help of Gale Anne Hurd, he would have a script that would sell to Orion, and funding from Hemdale Film Corporation. That script was called The Terminator. Made for a comparatively tiny $...

It's not every first time director who hits it out of the park with their first feature, especially one based on an original idea, with an unknown cast. Luckily (or rather unluckily for Halo ), an existing project that had brought them together had crumbled, and so a partnership began between powerhouse producer Peter Jackson, fresh off his The Lord of the Rings trilogy and newcomer Neill Blomkamp...

Ack ack ackack ACK ACK! Based on the Topps trading cards of the same name, a movie version of Mars Attacks! first started gathering pace in the mid-80s, but without Tim Burton's involvement. After several years in development hell, screenwriter Jonathan Gems and director Tim Burton got involved, with a script which was costed by Warner Bros at $250 million to make. Not even Titanic would cost that...