Episode 774: Cop (1988)

Episode 774: Cop (1988)

Noirvember closes with James B. Harris’s Cop (1988)—the first time James Ellroy’s feverish fiction hit the big screen. Mike teams with Andrew Nette and Rod Lott for a deep read of Harris’s adaptation, where James Woods’s unhinged Detective Lloyd Hopkins hunts a killer across eighteen years of buried violence.

The trio digs into Ellroy’s original novel Blood on the Moon and the wilder, abandoned incarnation that came before it—L.A. Death Trip, the unsold, manuscript that first birthed Hopkins. Using material from Ellroy’s own accounts and critical studies (including the brute-force early drafts, the rewrites demanded by Otto Penzler and Nat Sobel, and the shift to publishable structure), the conversation maps how a doomed finale turned into a tight serial-killer pursuit.

The episode also features a new interview with James B. Harris, who breaks down the challenges of translating Ellroy’s structure, keeping Hopkins’s mania intact, and staying faithful to the narrative rhythms of the novel. What emerges is a portrait of a filmmaker wrestling with source material born in chaos—reforged into the dark, abrasive thriller that helped spark decades of Ellroy adaptations.


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Episoder(1000)

Episode 749: O Pagador de Promessas (1962)

Episode 749: O Pagador de Promessas (1962)

Mike is joined by Robert Bellissimo and Philip Marinello to explore O Pagador de Promessas (1962), the landmark Brazilian drama from director Anselmo Duarte. Also known internationally as The Given Wo...

25 Jun 202555min

Special Report: Underland (2025)

Special Report: Underland (2025)

Mike ventures deep beneath the surface with director Rob Petit to discuss Underland (2025), a haunting, meditative documentary that charts an extraordinary subterranean journey into the hidden worlds ...

19 Jun 202524min

Episode 748:  The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Episode 748: The Exterminating Angel (1962)

What happens when a lavish dinner party refuses to end? Mike is joined by filmmaker Miguel Llansó and critic Rob St. Mary to unpack the surreal social satire of Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel (...

18 Jun 20251h 27min

Special Report: The Travel Companion (2025)

Special Report: The Travel Companion (2025)

Mike chats with co-directors Travis Wood and Alex Mallis about their debut feature The Travel Companion (2025), a painfully funny look at friendship, ambition, and emotional unraveling among aspiring ...

17 Jun 202522min

Episode 747:  Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumber (1972)

Episode 747: Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumber (1972)

We wrap up Maudit May with a look at Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers (1972), a once-lost independent musical that’s recently been restored and released on Blu-ray by the American Genre Film Archive...

11 Jun 20251h 35min

Bonus Interview: Charles Evans Jr.

Bonus Interview: Charles Evans Jr.

The day we released The Brave episode, producer Charles Evans Jr. texted me to say that he was sorry he hadn't gotten back to me but wanted to share some memories of making the film. We discussed how ...

9 Jun 202524min

Episode 746: The Brave (1997)

Episode 746: The Brave (1997)

The Projection Booth continues its spotlight on rare and elusive cinema with The Brave (1997), Johnny Depp’s directorial debut and a film shrouded in mystery since its limited release. Adapted by scre...

4 Jun 20252h 5min

Episode 745: Ángeles y querubines (1971)

Episode 745: Ángeles y querubines (1971)

Mike is joined by podcaster Aaron Peterson (The Hollywood Outsider) and filmmaker Miguel Llansó (Crumbs, Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway, Infinite Summer) for a conversation about Rafael Corkid...

30 Mai 20251h 7min

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