Imagine stumbling into a room and seeing an unfinished cut of a film that's never going to be released,

but you can't get it out of your mind for decades, and then one day you co-write, direct,

and produce a version of it.

Howdy?

I'm Jeff Goldsmith, and this is the Q&A.

My agenda is simple.

Each week I plan to bring you in-depth insight into the creative process of storytelling and

folks. That is just the story of what happened today with the comeback trail, and we have with us

as our guest, writer-director, George Gallo. That's right, the same George Gallo who wrote the

classic Midnight Run is here with us, and what's cool is George got the co-star of Midnight Run

in his latest movie. That's right. It stars Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Tommy Lee Jones.

That's a heck of a cast. Now, you might be saying to yourself, wait a minute, I haven't heard

of this. Or wait a minute, I've seen some bad reviews online. Well, there's a story behind that, and that's why we

have such a long podcast today. But in advance, the one thing I want to tell you about the reviews is,

there was a version that George was not comfortable with that came out for European television

in 2020, which got some reviews that were not favorable, and George has since recut the movie

and been able to release it the way that he wants, and it's a really funny movie.

You should definitely check it out.

Essentially, the pitch is a filmic version of the movie The Producers, wherein the Schlocky

producer that Robert De Niro plays is purposely trying to sabotage his own film

for an elaborate insurance scam. As you will hear, George loves telling a good tale, and we had

quite a chat. George went into depth about his creative process, but also about the contract

...