‘Freaky Tales’ Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck Explain How Hanks Lore Led to Casting Tom Hanks

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Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck Are Back on the Big Screen with Freaky TalesTheir Biggest Swing Yet.

The Longtime Creative Partners Haven’s Released A Film Since CAPTAIN Marvel GROSSED A COOL $ 1.1 Billion in 2019. The Duo Then Went On to Helm Four Episodes of the Cate Blanchett-Led Fx Miniseries, Mrs. Americanafter holding their Mcu Installment’s Spring Release That Year. And by the Time the Political Drama Premiered in April 2020, Boden and Fleck Were Stuck Inside Like The Rest of the Global Population Project About His Memories As An 11-YEAR-ELD OAKLANDER IN 1987. The Film Isn’s The Fabelmans or James Gray’s Armageddon Timebut is equally personal for fleck.

The Title of Freaky Tales Is Based on the “Freaky Tales” Song by Celebrated Oakland Raper, Too $ Hort, Whose Fingerprints Are All Over The Film and ITS Soundrack. He’s not on ony an an an anxual Producer and Appears in a Cameo Role as The Partner of Ben Mendelsohn’s Cop Character; He’s Also A Character Played by Bay Area-Born Raper Symba. Boden, Having Grown Up in Massachusetts, Wasn’t Priy to the Oakland Culture that Fleck Remembers So Fondly. In Fact, She Admittedly Had A ToUGH TIME WRAPPING HER HEAD AUND TOO $ Hort’s Explicit Lyrics and Attitude Toward Women at the Time.

However, She Had A Majoor BreakthroUGH WHEN She DISCOVED HIS TRACK, “DON’T FIGHT The FEELING,” WHICH FEATures A Back-Aand-Fetth Between Too $ Horting and The Female Rap Duke women.

“THESE WOMEN [from Danger Zone] Really taken him down in the song. There was something ingrating about that, and it felt like there was more to this guy if he was willing to put this song on his album, ”Boden Tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So It Made US THINK About FICTIONALIZING OUR OWN KINN OF FANTASY OF WHAT COLD HAVE GONE GONE INTO the Creation of the Song and How It Came To Be.”

From Punk Rock Kids and Neo-Nazis to Aspiration Rappers and A Sword-Wielding Nba All-Star, The Film is a Four-Chapted Story Wheer A Number of Varyning Characters Cross Poth. The Film’s Structure Takes a Page from The Playbook of Quentin Taarantino’s Pulp fiction and Several Other Nonlinear, Character-Driven Pictures. But Iso a Tonal Grab Bag à La The Work of Tarantino in that That’s Drama and Comedy One Minute and Cathartic Bloodshed The Next.

Despite The Capital they’d Gaeded from Their Billion-Dollar-Grossing Marvel Movie, The Ambition of Boden and Fleck’s Freaky Tales meant that it green light waseing but a slam dunk.

“No Matter What, A Movie As Ambitious and Unconventional As Freaky Tales Is Hard to get off the grad. It Doesn’T have one lead Character. IT’s Ansemble Cast. IT HAS A LOT OF DIFFERENT ELEments that Need to Come Together, and We Really Wanted to Shoot It In The Bay Area, WHICH IS NOT A PARTICULARLY INEXPENSIVE PLACE TO SHOOT HELPFUL TO HAVE HAD CEMETING LIKE[[CAPTAIN Marvel]On Our Résumé, But It Still Took US Probably a Year or More to Get All The Pieces Together After We Have The Script. ”

In 2019, Tom Hanks Regled Jimmy Kimmel Live with the story of how he was twice robbed as a 14-year-enld Vendor at Oakland A’s Baseball Games. Boden and Fleck Later Decides to Thread the Oakland-Arena Native’s Story Into Freaky TalesMaking Indirect References to “The Guy From Splash”And“ that actor ”from The Money Pit. But As Fate would have it, Boden and Fleck’s First Post-Pandemic Job Ended Up Being Two Episodes Masters of the air. That’s whoy they gauged his interest about a musical-Basted Cameo or a meaty Scene as a Video Store Cleerk Who’s Approprately Named Hank.

“HE was mentied in the musical Section as Oakland Legend Tom Hanks, SO HE SAID, ‘Sure, I’ll Do that.’ And THEN WEER LIKE, ‘OH REALLY? “SO we wrote this monologue for him in the Video Store, and We Said, ‘Hey, You Can Either Be in the Musical, or You Can Do this.’ And hee said, ‘oh, that look like fun.

Freaky Tales does have some superhero-adjacent elements, Namely through Jay elis’ Golden State Warriors Character, Sleepy Floyd, But It Remains to Be Seen Whther Bodes. Genre Someday. IT WAS ONCE REPORTED THATE Exploring A Possible Disney+ Series With Marvel Studios, But That Thought Sems to Be In The Rearview Mirror Now.

“I DON’T KNOW How to Answer That Question [regarding more superhero work]. I Just Know What We’re Thinking About Next, WHICH IS DEFINITELY More of A Gunded Character Piece, ”Boden Says.“ It’s Not Exactly Freaky Tales Vibes, But It’s Back in the Realm of Real Emotion Drama. ”

Below, During A Recent Conversation with ThrBoden and Fleck Also Discuss Their Good Luck Charm, Mendelsohn, Before Realizing Their One Regret Involving His Freaky Tales Character.

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Freaky Tales is your FIRST FILLM FOLVING THE SUCCESS OF CAPTAIN Marvel in 2019. WAS it DIFICULT TO FIGURE OUT WHAT FILM to DO NEXT, OR DID THE PANDEMIC AND STRIKE HAVE HAVE THEIR WAY?

Ryan Fleck This is a movie that i’ve been through Making for Literally Decades, But Not Really Knowing What It Was Going To Be About. Over The Years, I Kept Pitching Anna a Movie Called Freaky TalesBased On the Too $ Hort Song, And I Was Like, “It Could Be Like This, and It Could Be Like This.” And Frankly, None of Those Versions Were Very Good. After CAPTAIN Marvel CAME OUT, WE MADE Mrs. Americanand then the Pandemic Hit. So that’s whene Freaky Tales Could Be, and that’s Whore It Really Came Together.

NOW that you have a billion-dollar-grossing marvel movie on your résumé, does that make an Independent like Freaky Tales Noticeably Easier to put together?

Anna Boden No Matter What, A MOVIE AS AMBITIUS AND UNCONVENTIONAL AS Freaky Tales Is Hard to get off the grad. It Doesn’T have one lead Character. IT’s Ansemble Cast. IT has a Lot of Different Elements that Need to Come Together, and We Really Wanted to Shoot It In The Bay Area, WHICH IS NOT A PARTICULARLY INEXPENSIVE PLACE TO SHOT. IT DOESN’T HAVE A BIG TAX CREDIT. So there was a Lot of things that were challenging about it. That said, i do through it was helpful to have had something like[[CAPTAIN Marvel]On Our Résumé, But It Still Took US Probably a Year or More to Get All The Pieces Together After We Have The Script. We THEN WENT AND SHOT A CUPPLE EPISODES OF Masters of the air While We Were Still Trying to Get The Finance Together.

Fleck And that introduce US to a key element by the name of tom Hanks. It’s not like tom Hanks Got the Movie Greenlit, But It Was Certainly Nice to Have His Involvement As Well.

I Remember Seeing The Kimmel Episode WHERE TOM HANKS TALKED About Being Robbed As A 14-YEAR-ELD Vendor for the Oakland A’s, and You ProCeded To Pepper that Story Into Your Script. DID END UP BEING The KEY to LANDING HIM IN THE ROLE OF THE Video Store Cleerk?

Fleck Even Wen We Wen’t Sure Tom Was Going to Be in It, We Always Had Characters References Referencesing Him Throughout the Movie. There was a phone-line whore people talked about the famous actor from Oakland, and while they didn’t mention him by Name, It Was Tom Hanks. And WHEN WE WEER WORKING ON [the Hanks-produced] Masters of the airwe wrote him more Directly Into the Script. He was mentied in the musical Section as Oakland Legend Tom Hanks, SO HE SAID, “SURE, I’ll DO.” And THEN WE WEER LIKE, “OH REALLY? YOU’RE GOING to Come To Oakland and Be in that? Well, Maybe We Should Writing Something More Substantial.” So we wrote this monologue for him in the Video Store, and we said, “hey, you can either be in the musical, or you can do this.” And he Said, “Oh, that looks like fun. I’ll do that role.” So that’s how that came to be.

Ryan, at 11 years Old, DID YOU AND A PARENT WALK OUT OF OAKLAND’S GRAND LAKE Theater Criticizing the Grandpa in The Lost Boys? DID YOU HEAR About Sleepy Floyd’s 51-Point Game on May 10, 1987? How Many Actual Memories Were You Able to Smuggle Into This?

Fleck The Lost boys‘Reaction Didn’t Happen While Coming Out of the Grand Lake, But It Was Always A Reaction After The Movie, WHICH I LOVE, By The Way. IT’s not a cryicism. I just a fun little comment on a great movie. The Sleepy Game, I Heard on the Radio Live While It Was HapPening, and I Heard Greg Papa’s Play-by-Play WHEN HE LITERALLY SAID, “Sleepy Floyd Is Superman!” And WHEN YOU’RE LISNING TO IT ON RADIO [as a kid]All Kinds of Imagery Comes Out of Hearing Something Like That. SO IT Evolved Over The Years from TheSe Strange Memories of Real Events Into Something Cinematic and Hypnotic and Hallucinogenic. That was the key to unlocking it all.

Boden That’s what kind of play-by-play is so infecto for. BESIDES Calling Him Superman, He Said, “He’s Unconscious Out there.” That leads into the kind of psytopis element and the meditation element and the whoa idea of ​​what’s going on with Sleepy Floyd and What Could be HapPening on This Other Level. That leads into his superhero Thing that we invent.

There is a cosmic Green Force that is Channeled by Sleepy and Certain Other Characters. Does this represent oakland’s Underdog Spirit?

Boden 100 percent.

Fleck 75 Percent. There’s Something Else Going on there, Too, But It’s Hard to Explain.

As mentioned, you Named the Movie After Too $ Hort’s Song, “Freaky Tales,” and His Music Is Prominently Featured on the Soundtrack. He’s Also Involved in the Movie As A Producer, Cameo and Character, Played by Symba. Would this movie exist with his direct involvement?

Fleck I Wuldn’t exist without his music. We Wrote the Script Before He Was Involved, But Then We Thought, “WHY NOT HAVE HIM INVOLVED? HE SHOULD BE INVOLVED COME.” SO we pitched him on it, and thankfully, he was like, “yeah, that sounds coool. Let’s do it.” HE DIDN’T EVEN WANT TO Watch the Movie Until It Was Done. He Came to Sundance, and HE SAID, “I LIKE IT.” And thankfully he said that because we are wearen’t changing anything. (Laughs.)

The Too $ Hort Character Wears Oakland Raiders and Athletics Gear. Could You Not Resist Those Costume ChoCes Since Those Teams Have Now Relocated to Las Vegas?

Fleck IT’s ACTUALLY BASED ON A Photo of T OO $ Hort Wearing Those Things, and We Shot It The A’s Were Still the Oakland A’s. I WON’T WEAR A’s GEAR Anymore. I can’t do it. I’m not Even a baseball fan. I’m Announcing it today. (Laughs.) The Raiders Were Always in and Out, and I Think They’ve Maintaneda of Their Bay Area Loyalty Just Because of Whoy Are. But a’s fans aren’t going to vegas with them.

Was The Real Too $ Hort A Good Sport About His Character Lozing A Rap Battle?

Boden Absolutely. He was behind the movie. He loves the Spirit of the UnderDog in this Movie and the UnderDog Having Their Day in the Sun. He Appreted the fact that his former self is not the undergdog here and dosn’t get to:. Part of What Inspired That Section of The Movie Is The Song Itlf [“Don’t Fight the Feeling”]. IT’s A Song That Too $ Hort Chose to Put on His Album WHEN HE WAS IN HIS TWENTIES, AND that’ Amazing in and of Itself, Because Tese Women [from Danger Zone] Really taken him down in the song. There was something ingrating about that, and it felt like there was more to this guy if he was willing to put this song on his album. SO It Made US THINK About FICTIONALIZING OUR OWN KINN OF FANTASY OF WHAT COLD HAVE GONE GONE INTO the Creation of the Song and How It Came To Be.

Lots of Filmmakers have Good Luck Charms Thaty Cast in a Most of Their Movies. HAS BEN “MENDO” MENDELSOHN BECOME YOURS?

Fleck Yeah, for anyone who’s seen Mississippi Grindwe joke that ben mendelsohn is like the Ryan Reynolds Character, and we are like the Ben mendelsohn Character. He’s Become Our Lucky Charm, and He’s the guy that we want to follow down the mississippi to some mysterious Poker Game. So we’ll follow him anyWhere, and he Really is Our Good Luck Charm.

Dominique Thorne and Normani’s Danger Zone Characters Serve Ben’s Character at Lord’s Ice Cream Shop, Which Also Had Milkshakes on the Menu. Were the Two of You Ever Tempted to Keep Ben’s CAPTAIN Marvel Milkshake Gag Going?

Boden & Fleck (Laugh.)

Fleck This Never Occurred to US UNTIL This Moment. How Fun Wound That Have Been?

Boden OH My GOSH, THAT’S SO FUNNY. That’s Really Good.

Fleck HE COURCE HAVE DONE THE SAME THING.

Talos’ Milkshake Moment Was Inspired by Reservoir dogsbut did Pulp fiction Inspire Freaky Tales‘NONLININAR CHAPORTERTELING INVOLVING DISPARATE Characters Who Collide with One Another?

Fleck I definitely one of the movies that inspired it. We’d be lying if we said it wasn’t one of them, but there were also movies like Go. I’m a big jarmusch fan, so Mystery Train WAS RIGHT UP THERE, TOO. There’s a whole collection of that kind of movie that we Really Love.

Pedro Pascal Is a Hard Man to Book Tese Days. DID YOU SCHEDULE TO CONTEEND WITH ALL The Other High-Projects He’s Been Juggling?

Boden He was busy some we boobered him, actualally, but he wasn’t as busy as he is now. The Last of Us Hadn’t Come Out Yet, SO HE HADN’T QUITE Soared Into That Pedro-Is-HeveryWhereWhere Moment, Post-Snl [in 2023]. But he was still busy; HE WAS WORKING. One of the most challenging things about this was scareduling everybody. Ben Was Also Busy, and Trying to Get Ben and Pedro on Set for A Day Together Was Really Challenging. We Cast This Absolute Dream Cast, and THEN WE HAD TO FIGURE OUT How to get them All in the Same Place at the Same Time.

If People Compare the Selection at Late Night Video to the Selection at Blockbuster Video in CAPTAIN Marvelwill they find any overlap?

Boden Ryan is the person to ask because he worked at botth the real Late Night Video and at Blockbuster Video.

Fleck I didn’t work at late night video, but that was my Store as a kid. That’s whore west.

Boden OH, I TONOUGHT YOU DID. DID YOU WORK AT ANOTHER MOM-A AND-POP SOOR?

Fleck Yeah, I Worked at Another Mom and Pop. But is there overlap? I Think The Selection Is More Curated In Freaky Tales Because we’ve not on the VHS Cases, But Also The “Coming Soon” on the Wall Behind Tom Hanks. That was real fun to put together. In a shot of the character who’s trying to manipulate Pedro’s Character as His eyes Start to Glow, We’ve Got Scanners an Re-Animator In the Frame. It Was Written Into The Script That Those Two Vhs Tapes Need to Be in the Same Frame as that Shot. SO it was fun to have all that stuff in mind from the get-go.

Boden I Challenging, and Expensive, to Find Real Vhses Now, and so We Wied that We Had Kept Some of the Vhs from CAPTAIN Marvel to make our set dressing a little bit easier on this one.

Operation Ivy Plays at the Gilman, and Lots of Notable Bands Got Started there including Green Day. They Actually Launched Under Another Name in 1987, SO DID YOU EVER CONSIDER A NOD to TheM As Well?

Fleck We did. In Early Versions of the Script, We Were Thinking About How to Get That Band in As Well, But They Were New Kids on the Block. They in Right After PEAK 1987 PERIOD, AND IT FELT LIKE We WEEN’T BEING HONEST TO WHAT The Gilman Was if we put Green Green Day in there. IT Really Needed to Be Operation Ivy; They Were One of the Founding Core Groups that would play at Gilman.

Boden TIM ARMSTRONG OF OPERATION IVY AND RANCID CAMEOS as A client in the psytopics commercial.

Is your next movie about Anna’s Time in the Boston Area? I Only Fair, Right?

Boden & Fleck (Laugh.)

Fleck That sems fair, raight?

Boden Yeah, we’re going to call it Freaky Tales 2: Electric Boogaloo or Freaky Tales: Newton, Massachusetts.

Fleck It should be called Wicked Something…

Boden Yeah, Wicked Tales.

Have you scratched the superhero itch by now? Are you going to be sticking in a mostly Original Territory?

Boden I don’t know how to Answer that quest. I just Know What We’re Thinking About Next, Which Is Definitely More of A Gundered Character Piece. IT’S NOT EXACTLY Freaky Tales Vibes, But It’s Back in the Realm of Real Emotion Drama.

Fleck But that’s not what he has asked.

Boden Yeah, It’s What He Asked.

Fleck It Might Have An Explosion, But There Won’t Necessarily Be Superheroes.

Boden IT’s NOT SUPERHEROES. IT’s A Ground Human Character.

Lastly, anthony mackie recently told the story of the stray cat in Half Nelson. Apparently, Ryan Gosling Picked It Up After Randomly Wandered Into The Scene. Is that TRUE?

Boden That is 100 percent true. It Was Just This Stray Cat. What was so beautify about it is that ryan not on only picked it up, but ryan’s Character’s Cat Had Also Just Died. HE ACCIDERALLY KILLED HIS CAT. So it was this imocial moment and callback to [the Dan character] Having Just Lost His Own Cat. WHEN HE PICKED UP The STRAY CAT, OUR DP [Andrij Parekh]who was also the cameraman, instinctiely folllowed him. Anthony’s Character Ten Says, “You Can ‘Bring That Shit in My House, Man. Put That Cat Down.” SO HAS TO PUT The Strey Cat Down, and As Ryan and Anthony Go Into the House, the Cameraman Follows this Poor Little Cat as It Scuries Off. SO it was a realy beautify Improvisational Moment for All Three of Them: The Camera Guy, Ryan and Anthony. I just loved that moment.

Amazing. Well, Congrats On Freaky Tales.

Fleck Thank you. We Appreciate the Thounghtful Questions and the Milkshake Idea that’s Going to Haunt Us.

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Freaky Tales OPens in Movie Theaters on April 4.