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The Projection Booth Podcast

Episode 772: V.I. Warshawski (1991)

The Projection Booth Podcast

The Projection Booth

Film Reviews, Film Interviews, Film History, Tv & Film

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 269 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Noirvember 2025 keeps rolling as Mike teams up with author Dahlia Schweitzer and artist Rahne Alexander to crack open V.I. Warshawski (1991), Jeff Kanew’s glossy, big-city take on Sara Paretsky’s groundbreaking detective. Kathleen Turner commands the screen as V.I., whose night on the town swerves into murder, a dead former Blackhawks star, and a teenager who refuses to stay out of danger.

This episode brings together an incredible lineup: Sara Paretsky, creator of the V.I. Warshawski novels; screenwriters David Aaron Cohen, Nick Thiel, and Warren Leight; and director Jeff Kanew. They share the inside story of adapting an iconic literary detective, shaping Turner’s formidable on-screen persona, and navigating the film’s winding path from page to screen.

Along the way, we dig into Chicago’s cinematic grit, the film’s place in early-’90s studio genre filmmaking, and—yes—we spoil who killed Boom Boom and finally reveal what the initials V. I. actually stand for.

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Transcript

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1:10.9

westerns for as long as I can remember and in recent years they've become very nostalgic

1:14.4

for me. I love the aesthetic, the tropes, and I love seeing different filmmakers' takes on them.

1:20.4

At their best, they're incredibly entertaining, rewatchable, and some of my all-time favorite

1:24.5

movies are westerns. We'll mostly focus on Western movies made in Hollywood,

1:28.4

but we'll also be covering spaghetti westerns,

1:30.3

and one thing I'm very excited to get into are Western TV shows.

1:33.7

I've got some amazing guests coming on the show,

1:35.6

film professors, historians, and podcasters,

1:38.4

and tumbleweeds and TV Cowboys is part of the Someone's Favorite Productions Podcast Network,

1:42.8

and many guests on the show will be from other shows on the network.

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