Podcast appearances and mentions of Chris Sparling

JOIN TSL WORKSHOPS: https://tslworkshops.cricle.so For decades, if you wanted to make it as a Hollywood writer, the first step was simple: move to Hollywood. But increasingly, screenwriters have found that they're able to create and foster screenwriting careers outside of Los Angeles. Two folks who have done that successfully, Will Fetters and Chris Sparling, join us today to talk about the practical logistics of making your Hollywood writing career work no matter where you live. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's always way fun to have a guest who is also a fan of the show. This week's guest is definitely a member of the tribe. We chatted up pre-interview about some of his favorite IFH podcast episodes like Ed Burns and Joe Carnahan and I knew front hen on we were on for a treat. My guest today is award-winning writer, director, and producer, Chris Sparling.Chris has written some of Hollywood's most original and fascinating screenplays like Buried, Greenland, Mercy, Down A Dark Hall, Reincarnate (featuring Leonardo DiCaprio), The Sea of Trees with Matthew McConaughey, etc.Enjoy my entertaining conversation with Chris Sparling.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.

Raconteurs et raconteuses, bienvenue dans La Machine à écrire, le podcast de celles et ceux qui créent des histoires. De ses premiers pas à la radio au début du 20e siècle, récemment rappelés dans Killers of the Flower Moon de Scorsese, à son avènement sur Internet incarné chez nous par Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk de John Lang, de La Guerre des mondes d'Orson Wells qui fit sortir les auditeurs terrorisés de chez eux, aux Hauts Plateaux de Xanadu sur France Culture, la fiction audio est un territoire d'expérimentation privilégié pour les auteurs et les autrices. Pour en parler avec nous, nous vous proposons d'écouter deux experts du sujet. Notre premier invité a démarré dans la publicité en tant que concepteur-rédacteur, ce qu'il est toujours en tant que freelance. Il est aussi cofondateur du studio Orson Productions, spécialisé dans la production et la réalisation audio. C'est là qu'avec son comparse Morgan Sommet, ils ont notamment créé « Telos », une série audio de science-fiction, et « Jacques a dit » un thriller audio et coproduit avec la plateforme Blynd, 3e fiction la plus écoutée en France en 2023. Nous sommes ravis d'accueillir Romain Mallet !Notre 2e invité a commencé à poster ses vidéos sur Dailymotion en 2009, à l'âge de 14 ans. Dans les années qui suivent, il perce sur YouTube avant de rejoindre le Studio Bagel en 2015. Il y a écrit et réalisé plusieurs courts métrages avant d'avoir l'idée de « Calls ». Le court métrage remarqué est adapté en série par Canal+ avec un casting de choix, et est ensuite décliné par Apple aux US. Il est aussi le coauteur et réalisateur du film « Stéphane » avec Lucas Pastor. Nous avons le plaisir d'accueillir Timothée Hochet ! Avec eux, nous explorons l'écriture de fictions audio. Alors…

Don't be afraid to plant your flag early on. This advice comes from writer Chris Sparling, who is known for the 2010 film, Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds and the 2020 film Greenland, starring Gerard Butler. In today's episode, No Film School's Jason Hellerman speaks with writer and director Chris Sparling to discuss: The first time Jason and Chris met, 10 years earlier  How Chris starts the writing process Talking to reps to get an accurate idea of what scripts will be successful Why Chris writes specs and encourages other writers to do the same Breaking out of the box people put you in  Recognizing it's not necessary to go after every single assignment How to manage your expectations when going out with a new spec Writer's block - Is it real and how to overcome it Why it's important to rehearse your pitch Memorable Quotes “If there's a real fire in you, that's the story you want to tell.” [6:10] “I'm constantly trying to pump out new material that shows another side to what I do.” [12:30] “You have to get out of your own way and power through it. [30:38] “Don't be difficult, but also don't undervalue yourself.” [42:52] Resources Buried Greenland  Find No Film School everywhere: On the Web https://nofilmschool.com/ Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/nofilmschool Twitter  https://twitter.com/nofilmschool YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/user/nofilmschool Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nofilmschool Send us an email with questions or feedback: podcast@nofilmschool.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raconteurs et raconteuses, bienvenue dans La Machine à écrire, le podcast de celles et ceux qui créent des histoires. Dans cet épisode, nous réunissons deux invités qui nous livrent avec sensibilité des récits introspectifs, personnels et intimes… pour rendre plus légère la vie des autres. Notre premier invité est une figure bien connue de la scène, du cinéma et de la télévision. Vous l'avez découvert dans la troupe des Robins des Bois sur Comédie et Canal+ dans les années 90s. C'est aussi le chef des cheveux propres dans RRRRrrr!!!  qu'il co-écrit avec ses camarades, avant de se lancer dans la réalisation et l'écriture de films plus personnels tels que Casablanca Driver, Papa, Low Cost, Pas très normales activités ou Les Ex. En 2021, il coécrit avec la coach Charlotte Wils un livre pédagogique et autobiographique intitulé Fort comme un hypersensible, thème qu'il développe par la suite dans un seul en scène. Dans son premier roman L'Expérience, il raconte l'histoire de Léo, un homme à cran au bord de l'implosion, qui s'autorise une séance de cinéma pour respirer un peu, et qui va vivre une expérience qui va changer sa vie. Nous avons le plaisir de recevoir Maurice Barthélémy. Notre deuxième invitée est une scénariste, réalisatrice, comédienne et chanteuse qui a fait ses débuts sur YouTube en 2015. Cinq ans plus tard, elle diffuse sur sa chaîne une mini-série autoproduite How to Be Your Own Best Friend et Le Tarot un court-métrage qui remporte le Prix de la Fiction au Frames Festival d'Avignon. Après un premier rôle au cinéma dans Habib, la grande aventure où elle donne la réplique à Bastien Ughetto et Catherine Deneuve, elle obtient un financement du CNC pour produire une deuxième saison de sa série. Librement inspirée de ses propres expériences, elle y raconte l'histoire d'une jeune autrice qui doit écrire une série et la pitcher à des producteurs. Mais rien n'est plus difficile quand son appartement vient de brûler et que tout dans sa vie semble vouloir l'empêcher d'avancer. Nous sommes heureux d'accueillir Inès Banzet-Benhagouga. Voici deux artistes qui se racontent, exposent leurs doutes, leur hypersensibilité, et leurs questionnements pour mieux se comprendre et partager leur expérience en tentant d'alléger un peu le quotidien de leurs spectateurs et lecteurs. Alors... Est-ce que nos failles sont de bons sujets ? L'hypersensibilité aide-t-elle à écrire ? Peut-on écrire un récit singulier en restant universel ? Le huis-clos permet-il de mieux parler d'introspection ? Est-ce qu'on finit toujours par se raconter à travers la fiction ? Faut-il interdire les sachets de popcorn au cinéma ? C'est à toutes ces questions et à bien d'autres que nous répondons dans cet épisode. Bonne écoute ! Les œuvres citées dans cet épisode : L'Expérience de Maurice  Barthélémy (Plon, 2023)  How to Be Your Own Best Friend d'Inès Banzet-Benhagouga (2022-2023) Papa de Maurice Barthélémy (2005) Low Cost de Maurice Barthélémy (2011) Johnny Got His Gun de Dalton Trumbo  (1971) Buried de Rodrigo Cortés et Chris Sparling (2010) Les Ex de Maurice Barthélémy (2017) RRRrrr!!! d'Alain Chabat, Maurice Barthélémy, Marina Foïs, Pierre-François Martin-Laval et Jean-Paul Rouve (2004) Casablanca Driver de Maurice Barthélémy (2004) Combien tu pleures ? d'Inès Banzet-Benha gouga (2023) How to Get Things Done de Robert Benchley (1949) S'abonner à notre newsletter 5 Bonnes Histoires le vendredi.  Nous suivre sur Instagram La Machine à écrire: @podcast.lamachineaecrire  Maurice Barthélémy : @barthelemymaurice Inès Banzet-Benhagouga : @ibaby.art  Yannick: @yannick.lejeune  Mike: @mikecesneau Nous suivre sur Twitter La Machine à écrire: @lmae_podcast   Maurice Barthélémy : @m_barthelemy  Inès Banzet-Benhagouga : @inesbanben   Yannick: @yannicklejeune  Mike: @MikeCesneau Nous suivre sur Facebook https://www.facebook.com/podcast.lamachineaecrire  https://www.facebook.com/maurice.barthelemy.7  Crédit photos : Léa Schneider (@lea__sc / @Lea__Sc) 

This week on Bottom of the Stream we are talking about 2016 Netflix original movie - Mercy! If you are watching along please check you have the right flick; as there are many, many movies with this title! Mercy is Directed by Chris Sparling and stars Tom Lipinski; James Wolk and Caitlin Fitzgerald. Listen in to hear what we made of this family drama with a twist!    Bottom of the stream is a weekly podcast, hosted by film lovers Adam and Nick, exploring the parts of Netflix that most people don't go to in a bid to find out what hidden gems are lurking down there Every week we rank the films we watch against each other and place them in what we like to call THE STREAM TABLE which can be found on our website  www.bottomofthestream.com Follow us on Twitter, instagram and letterboxed at @bots_podcast  Please consider supporting the show on Patreon, If you do we will give you lots of bonus content including early access to the episodes. Check it out over at www.patreon.com/bottomofthestream   We also now have a discord so join us to hang out https://discord.gg/wJ3Bfqt

Episode 425: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) talk about the richest man in the world - not Elon or Bezos, working with people you've never met, and Shaan's latest D2C business idea. Interested in working with Shaan as the CMO for Guts? Email Shaan@Shaanpuri.com. Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here. SHAAN'S NEW DAILY NEWSLETTER --> shaanpuri.com ----- Links: * LVMH * Chris Sparling Twitter * Tiny * Olipop * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. ------ Show Notes: (02:05) - Working with people you've never met (08:05) - Billy of the week: Bernard Arnault (18:05) - Chris Sparling (30:35) - Are you learning the right lesson from this? (40:35) - Who generates more ideas? Sam or Shaan? (42:50) - Shaan's DTC idea ----- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Jeremy Giffon is the former general partner of Tiny, a holding company for cash-flowing businesses. Jeremy and I talk about Tiny and acquiring businesses, science and religion, the origins of culture, why you shouldn't take advice, and what he's working on next. — (00:31) Jeremy's background (4:52) Starting MediaCore while in high school (7:24) How to get more high schoolers startup-like experience sooner (11:02) What is Tiny & how is it different (14:41) What's enabled Tiny to be great (19:47) Growing popularity of acquisition entrepreneurship and holding companies (27:29) Qualities of great companies (32:03) Greatest lessons from Tiny's founders, Andrew Wilkinson and Chris Sparling (38:21) Why advice is overrated (41:48) Why he left Tiny and what's next (46:22) On the origins of Western culture (51:32) Science and religion (58:59) Pre- and post-fall (01:10:34) What he's optimizing for in life (01:14:56) His take on enlightenment (01:17:31) His question for listeners (01:18:51) Whether there are “true desires” — Spencer's Twitter: https://twitter.com/sp1ns1r Spencer's blog: https://spencerkier.substack.com Jeremy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremygiffon

Colin and Brent discuss Andrew Wilkinson and Chris Sparling going public and how to structure a holding company with LLCs, C-Corps, QSBS, and more.Enroll in Colin's Acquisition Course & Community at IndiePE.com.Reach out to Colin Keeley and Brent Sanders on Twitter with any feedback. Sell your SaaS at VerneHQ.com 

A Gerard Butler nightcap that'll have you shaking your drink from the tension, this movie really surprised me. It overachieves in every way. Reportedly made for a 35 million dollar budget, it looks like a 100 million dollar film. A seemingly familiar premise is enlivened by a smart narrative tweak and incredible, carefully calibrated, maximum suspense at every turn. I was sleeping on Greenland, and I shouldn't have been (director Ric Roman Waugh and writer Chris Sparling are two of my favorites, not to mention it has a great late-game cameo by another favorite of mine, Holt McCallany). Let me know what other Gerard Butler films I should do for this little series at dan@voyagemedia.com, @BenamorDan (Twitter) or watch_this_tonight (Instagram). If you enjoy the show, do the show a solid and drop a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. And subscribe now for future episodes.

It's always way fun to have a guest who is also a fan of the show. This week's guest is definitely a member of the tribe. We chatted up pre-interview about some of his favorite IFH podcast episodes and I knew front hen on we were on for a treat. My guest today is award-winning writer, director, and producer, Chris Sparling.

A new MP3 sermon from Faith Covenant Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Church Membership Subtitle: What We Believe Speaker: Chris Sparling Broadcaster: Faith Covenant Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 6/19/2022 Bible: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18 Length: 28 min.

In this week's episode, we are joined by Christopher Sparling, screenwriter, producer, and director right from Lil Rhody! Christopher, Nick, and Sascha discuss the journey from writing independent films to traveling across the world to work with a Hollywood Studio, what it was like working on films in quarantine from his home in RI, how complicated it really is to get a movie made, and more! Have fun!

S&S Live (Episode 35): Writer Q&A w/ screenwriter Chris Sparling (writer of GREENLAND starring Gerard Butler, LAKEWOOD with Naomi Watts, THE SEA OF TREES for Gus Van Sant and Matthew McConaughey, BURIED with Ryan Reynolds and many more)! Ever wonder what it's like to write for A-list talent? Do you hope to write and direct? How do you get a movie sold to Netflix? We'll ask Chris all these questions, so join the live stream and get the answers to all these questions and more (and ask your own Q's in the Q&A!) Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrissparling WATCH a VIDEO version of this Episode: https://youtu.be/MaQCAD2tJ8c More great screenwriting and industry interviews and resources: http://scriptsandscribes.com/ Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/wey4e6E and Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scriptsandscribes Stay up to date on Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScriptsScribes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scriptsandscribes/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/scriptsandscribes/ Listen to the podcast on: Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/scriptsandscribes iTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scripts-scribes/id527744621 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XcDzrHXhwIfTtiLW1SXGY Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zY3JpcHRzYW5kc2NyaWJlcy5jb20vP2ZlZWQ9cnNzMg

S&S Live (Episode 35): Writer Q&A w/ screenwriter Chris Sparling (writer of GREENLAND starring Gerard Butler, LAKEWOOD with Naomi Watts, THE SEA OF TREES for Gus Van Sant and Matthew McConaughey, BURIED with Ryan Reynolds and many more)!   Ever wonder what it's like to write for A-list talent? Do you hope to write and direct? How do you get a movie sold to Netflix? We'll ask Chris all these questions, so join the live stream and get the answers to all these questions and more (and ask your own Q's in the Q&A!)   Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrissparling   WATCH a VIDEO version of this Episode:  https://youtu.be/MaQCAD2tJ8c   More great screenwriting and industry interviews and resources: http://scriptsandscribes.com/   Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/wey4e6E  and Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scriptsandscribes   Stay up to date on Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScriptsScribes  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/scriptsandscribes/  IG: https://www.instagram.com/scriptsandscribes/   Listen to the podcast on: Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/scriptsandscribes  iTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scripts-scribes/id527744621  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XcDzrHXhwIfTtiLW1SXGY  Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zY3JpcHRzYW5kc2NyaWJlcy5jb20vP2ZlZWQ9cnNzMg

This week's @EchoChamberFP https://www.instagram.com/echochamberfp/ is a TWO Parter!!! In 'Part One' we have a Prime Video Thriller, a Netflix Thriller, and Cinema Thriller! Do all good things come in three, listen and find out! The Voyeurs is written and directed by Michael Mohan and is now playing on Prime Video! A young couple (Sydney Sweeney, and Justice Smith), find themselves becoming interested in the sex life of their neighbors across the street (Ben Hardy and Natasha Liu Bordizz). What starts as an innocent curiosity turns into an unhealthy obsession, after they discover that one neighbor is cheating. Temptation and desire cause their lives to become tangled together leading to deadly consequences. 'Intrusion' is directed by Adam Salky and written by Chris Sparling. When a husband (Logan Marshall-Green) and wife (Freida Pinto) move to a small town, a home invasion leaves the wife traumatized and suspicious that those around her might not be who they seem. Chris Crow directs, Philip Palmer writes the new feature 'The Ballad of Billy McCrae' for Munro Films. Chris Blythe (Ian Virgo) returns to his home town in Wales after losing a fortune in Canada. He falls in love with Elen (Sianad Gregory), a volatile and charismatic woman. But Elen's father Billy (David Hayman) is a dangerous man and Chris finds himself torn between love and hate… This week we have: The Voyeurs Digital Release Date: 10th September 2021 Director: Michael Mohan Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Justice Smith, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ben Hardy, Katharine King So, Cameo Adele, Jean Yoon Credit: Divide/Conquer, Amazon Studios Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller Running Time: 116 min Cert: 18 Trailer: Here. https://youtu.be/_fiCdELSwwI Watch on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Voyeurs-Sydney-Sweeney/dp/B09CRVJ29L ------------ Intrusion Release Date: 22nd September 2021 Director: Adam Salky Cast: Freida Pinto, Logan Marshall-Green, Megan Elisabeth Kelly, Robert John Burke, David DeLao, Denielle Fisher Johnson, Mark Sivertsen, Brandon Fierro, Antonio Valles Credit: Netflix, Sea Smoke Entertainment, Creator Media Entertainment, EMJAG Productions Genre: Drama, Thriller Running Time: 92 min Cert: 18 Trailer: Here. https://youtu.be/tAJVDe205tY Website: Here. https://www.netflix.com/title/80206420 ------------ The Ballad of Billy McCrae Theatrical Release Date: 24th September 2021 Director: Chris Crow Cast: David Hayman, Sianed Gregory, Ian Virgo Credit: Munro Films, Production companies, Cymru Films, IFL, Sterling Pictures Ltd Genre: Thriller Running Time: 93 min Cert: 15 Trailer: Here. https://youtu.be/jDS8STxSUao Website: Here. http://www.chris-crow.co.uk/ ------------ *(Music) 'Thelonious' (feat. Common) by Slum Village - 2000 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/eftv/message

It's always way fun to have a guest who is also a fan of the show. This week's guest is definitely a member of the tribe. We chatted up pre-interview about some of his favorite IFH podcast episodes like Ed Burns and Joe Carnahan and I knew front hen on we were on for a treat. My guest today is award-winning writer, director, and producer, Chris Sparling.Chris has written some of Hollywood's most original and fascinating screenplays like Buried, Greenland, Mercy, Down A Dark Hall, Reincarnate (featuring Leonardo DiCaprio), The Sea of Trees with Matthew McConaughey, etc.One of his latest films, Greenland, which premiered in 2020 started streaming on Amazon prime this February.The disaster thriller film starring Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin follows a family who must fight for survival as planet-destroying comet races to Earth. Butler's family struggles for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster as the planet-killing comet races to Earth. John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his estranged wife Allison (Morena Baccarin), and young son Nathan make a perilous journey to their only hope for sanctuary.Amid terrifying news accounts of cities around the world being leveled by the comet's fragments, the Garrity's experience the best and worst in humanity while they battle the increasing panic and lawlessness surrounding them. As the countdown to global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.With its reception and regardless of the COVID 19 Pandemic, the film grossed $52.3 million at the Box Office and was announced that the sequel, Greenland: Migration is already in the works. The continuation of the story will center around the Garritys' journey across a frozen European wasteland to find a new home. STX has already acquired the worldwide distribution rights for the film at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for the sequel with a $65 million budget.Chris's path to becoming a renowned Hollywood blockbuster writer begun on the actor's path. He was inspired to take up writing after the 1997 hit psychological drama film, Goodwill Hunting which was directed by Gus Van Sant and starred Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and others.He left Los Angeles on a home (Rhodes Island) bound to recalibrate and focus on completing college and writing because it was a challenge juggling that and acting auditions. After completing college, Sparling returned to Los Angeles. With no connections or leads, he returned to Rhodes Island with the plan to make a movie of one of the many scripts he had written by then. Though he had no formal film production experience at this point, Sparling wrote, directed, and produced An Uzi at the Alamo which is about a young writer in search of his identity, pledges to his dysfunctional family that he will commit suicide on his 25th birthday. As the fateful day approaches, he stumbles upon love and a new sense of self. Fearing family humiliation if he backs out of his pledge, he prepares for his last birthday with the feigned support of his family.Of course, the film did not do well, but this is when things became interesting for Chris's writing career. He dusted up and sent out about one hundred specs to studios, managers, producers, literally anyone he could contact. He received back, only three responses and one of which was from a manager who became his manager and still is till this day. That was his first open door.When I saw the trailer for Chris's 2010 film, Buried, and the success of it, as an independent filmmaker, I was in awe and slightly jealous of how easy (cost, and production-wise), revolutionary the film is. Buried is a brilliantly twisted suspense and original screenplay that is a nightmare for claustrophobes. Sparling found mainstream success when his feature-length screenplay Buried was purchased by producer Peter Safran starring Ryan Reynolds.Ryan plays Paul, an Iraq-based American civilian truck drive. After an attack by a group of Iraqis, he Wakes up groggy in pitch darkness, to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter, flask, flashlight, knife, glowsticks, pen, pencil, and a mobile phone.It's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap. He is left to rely on his cell phone to contact the outside world. But the outside world proves not to be very helpful at finding a man buried in a box in the middle of the Iraqi desert. Paul must rely on his best resource--himself.The film premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was sold to Lionsgate Films. Buried was shown at several major European and North American film festivals. It was nominated for and won a plethora of European films awards because it was produced in Barcelona by Barcelona-based Versus Entertainment, in association with The Safran Company and Dark Trick Films.Some of the awards included the Goya Award, for Best Original Screenplay, a Gaudi Award in the same category, and the best European feature film of the year award at the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival in September 2010. This $2 million budget indie film made a gross splash of $21.3 million worldwide. Sparling had an immediate success from Buried; between the script going out in March of 2009 and the movie premiering at Sundance in 2010, and he suddenly needed an agent, an attorney, and everything legit in between. Intrusion, Sparling's latest film will be streaming on Netflix in just one week (September 22, 2021), starring Freida Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green. It is about a husband and wife who move to a small town. A deadly home invasion leaves the wife traumatized and suspicious that those around her might not be who they seem. Even though it was self-defense, it was still a homicide. However, it turns out that the home invasion was not a one-off, and there are many other missing person cases in which the invaders may be involved. Meera falls into a rabbit hole as she takes it upon herself to find out the truth.Enjoy my entertaining conversation with Chris Sparling.

On this episode of Why Watch That:Our reviews (so far) at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, including:Petite MamanFollowing a girl's journey to her mother's childhood home, French auteur Céline Sciamma's latest is a tender tale of intergenerational connection.Céline Sciamma's TIFF '19 selection Portrait of a Lady on Fire garnered international acclaim for its sumptuous rendering of queer female desire and the overwhelming power of both truly looking and truly being seen. Sciamma's follow-up brings the writer-director's exquisite craft and acute insights into longing to bear on a tale of childhood grief and wonder.After her grandmother dies, Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) is taken to her mother's childhood home. While her parents go about cleaning out the house, Nelly explores the surrounding woods. She encounters Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), a girl exactly Nelly's age and to whom she bears a striking resemblance. The pair become fast friends, constructing a hut together, sharing lunches, and talking over the life transitions both are in the midst of. (Marion is only days away from going to hospital for an operation.) Incrementally, the girls' eerie similarities yield revelations that merge events of the past with those of the present.Working once again with cinematographer Claire Mathon and production designer Lionel Brison, Sciamma gently ushers us into a series of hushed, crepuscular spaces where the spectral meets the everyday and time seems to fold in on itself. Drawing lovely, subtle performances from her young stars, Sciamma allows us to see the world through Nelly and Marion's eyes. The result is a film of tremendous tenderness and sombre beauty that, like all of Sciamma's films, celebrates the spectrum of feminine connection. -DIANA SANCHEZSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSFrance, 2021French70 minutesDirectorCéline SciammaCastJoséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, Margo AbascalScreenplayCéline SciammaMothering SundayOlivia Colman and Colin Firth star in this deeply affecting adaptation of Graham Swift's bittersweet novel about secret love in post-WWI England.Featuring captivating performances from up-and-coming talents Odessa Young (TIFF '18's Assassination Nation) and Josh O'Connor (The Crown), and Oscar-winning veterans Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, and Glenda Jackson, this exquisite adaptation of Booker Prize–winning author Graham Swift's eponymous novella transports us to Britain's inter-war years for a story of grief, responsibility, and hidden love.Jane (Young) works as a maid for the Nivens (Colman and Firth), an aging home counties couple who, like so many other families, lost their sons on the battlefields of the First World War. Jane is having a secret affair with Paul (O'Connor), son of the Nivens' neighbours, the Sheringhams. Paul is the only member of his peer group to return from the front, a status that has left him with a powerful dose of survivor's guilt and a weighty sense of duty to his family, who expects him to pursue a legal career and marry a woman of his station — which is to say, not the likes of Jane.On Mothering Sunday, her day off, Jane trysts with Paul at his house while his parents are away. There is a sense of quiet idyll to their stolen hours of lovemaking and Jane's gentle exploration of this world of wealth and prestige. Yet a double shadow hangs over this precious day, arising from the horrors of the recent past and the disappointments and sacrifices looming in the pair's future.Scripted by Alice Birch (TIFF '16 world premiere Lady Macbeth) and directed by Eva Husson (TIFF '18's Girls of the Sun), Mothering Sunday draws us into Jane and Paul's rendezvous, vividly evoking both its sensuous peaks and sobering undercurrents before zooming ahead into a future time when all this can be placed in perspective. -DIANA SANCHEZSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited Kingdom, 2021English104 minutesDirectorEva HussonCastOdessa Young, Josh O'Connor, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Glenda Jackson, Patsy Ferran, Emma D'ArcyScreenplayAlice BirchThe StarlingMelissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd and Kevin Kline star in Theodore Melfi's bittersweet tale of a couple working their way toward the other side of grief.Melissa McCarthy has long proved she can play both wild comedy and heartbreaking drama. Working again with her St. Vincent director Theodore Melfi and buoyed by a superb supporting cast, she soars in a complex role that draws upon her impeccable timing and emotional instincts.Lilly (McCarthy) is always the one who holds it together when things go south for her family. A year has passed since she and her husband Jack (Chris O'Dowd) lost their infant daughter. Grief got the better of Jack, who's now recovering in a psychiatric clinic. Lilly holds down her job at the grocery store, keeps up the family's expansive rural property, and faithfully makes the weekly two-hour journey to visit her husband.Concerned that Lilly isn't tending to her own grieving process, a counsellor at Jack's clinic suggests that she see a local therapist, Larry (Kevin Kline, also appearing in Festival selection The Good House). The counsellor neglects to mention that Larry long ago gave up psychology to become a veterinarian — a practice that will prove germane when a dive-bombing starling begins wreaking havoc in Lilly's garden.The intricacies of Matt Harris's sensitive, canny screenplay allow us to observe the ways that every act of love — whether toward a spouse, a client, or an insistent bird — requires both generosity and boundary setting. Lilly can't bear the notion of being a quitter, but without some self-care, all her efforts to care for others could come to naught.Helmed with rich insight into the healing process by Melfi (Academy Award– nominated for Hidden Figures), The Starling lights upon a rare balance of levity and gravity, mischief and tenderness. -CAMERON BAILEYSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited States of America, 2021English103 minutesDirectorTheodore MelfiCastMelissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Timothy Olyphant, Skyler Gisondo, Daveed Diggs, Laura Harrier, Rosalind Chao, Loretta Devine, Kevin KlineScreenplayMatt HarrisPublicistNetflixThe Electrical Life of Louis Wain An eccentric artist (Benedict Cumberbatch) introduces Victorian London to the delights of cats, in Will Sharpe's enlightening biopic.From Ancient Egypt to TikTok, cats have accompanied humans on life's journey. But who made the creatures cute? The Electrical Life of Louis Wain tells the story of the Victorian-era artist whose widely published drawings of anthropomorphized cats transformed them from mysterious to irresistible. In a dazzling, career-best performance, Benedict Cumberbatch plays one of Britain's most influential eccentrics as a flurry of wild ideas and prodigious artistic output.Louis Wain (Cumberbatch, also at the Festival in The Power of the Dog) brims with creativity, even as his life in the 1880s oscillates between the delightful and the dizzying. To support his widowed mother and five younger sisters, the academy-trained artist sells drawings of animals from the country fair. His skilled and speedy portraiture impresses, but his often stormy view of the world and those in it keeps him from engaging much with society. That is, until he hires a kind, curious governess for his youngest sisters, Emily Richardson (Claire Foy), who illuminates his life in a way even he'd never imagined. Love blooms across the class divide — albeit to the chagrin of Louis's stern sister Caroline (Andrea Riseborough), second oldest and second in command.Writer-director Will Sharpe (television's Flowers, whose co-star Olivia Colman narrates here) uses dynamic visual technique and colourfully shifting mood to convey Louis's complicated mind, fickle wealth, momentous love, and consuming grief. Cumberbatch's transcendent performance stands at the centre of an impressive cast that includes Toby Jones and Adeel Akhtar (also at the Festival in Ali & Ava). Alive with imagination in every scene, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain shows just how we came to live in a cat's world. Meow. -DESCRIPTION COURTESY OF TIFFGALA PRESENTATIONSUnited Kingdom, 2021English111 minutesDirectorWill SharpeCastBenedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, Toby JonesScreenplaySimon Stephenson, Will SharpePublicistAmazon StudiosAll My Puny SorrowsMichael McGowan's touching adaptation of Miriam Toews' beloved novel about two sisters boasts a fine cast led by Alison Pill and Sarah Gadon.Michael McGowan's moving adaptation of Miriam Toews' beloved novel All My Puny Sorrows is propelled by nuanced direction, an affecting script, and a truly stellar, fearless cast. The story revolves around the women of the Von Riesen clan: writer Yoli (Alison Pill), who's tormented by self-doubt and is going through a tough, protracted divorce; her sister Elf (Sarah Gadon), a well-known concert pianist whose bouts with depression threaten to consume her; their steadfast mother Lottie (Mare Winningham); their no-nonsense aunt Tina (Mimi Kuzyk); and Yoli's precocious daughter Nora (Amybeth McNulty).The family are no strangers to sorrow. They left the Mennonite community after their patriarch (Donal Logue) unexpectedly killed himself. (It's not said explicitly, but the film suggests his church played a key role in his decision.) How the Von Riesens, especially Yoli and Elf, confront — and fail to confront — tragedy and trauma is the central focus of the film. The sisters' wisecracking banter and acute awareness of each other's foibles indicates a profound love and mutual dependency, but as Yoli struggles to understand Elf and protect her from her demons, the women's fundamental differences come to the fore.Oscillating powerfully between extremes of joy and sadness, All My Puny Sorrows is also one of the most erudite, literary films you will see this year. Much of the close relationship between Yoli and Elf is based on their love of books (stretching from Philip Larkin to D.H. Lawrence), reflecting their intellectual curiosity and capacity for life — which only makes the film all the more heartbreaking, and its ultimate embrace of life so touching. -STEVE GRAVESTOCKSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSCanada, 2021English103 minutesDirectorMichael McGowanCastAlison Pill, Sarah Gadon, Mare Winningham, Amybeth McNulty, Donal LogueScreenplayMichael McGowanEncounterA decorated Marine (Riz Ahmed) goes on a rescue mission to save his two young sons from an inhuman threat, in the latest from director Michael Pearce.Suspenseful, wildly imaginative, and eerily resonant, British director Michael Pearce's follow-up to his TIFF '17 Platform competitor Beast catapults us into a world where every encounter could lead to peril. Featuring an adrenalized lead performance from Riz Ahmed, this is a thriller for the age of cultural division and seemingly endless existential threat.A decorated marine, Malik Khan (Ahmed) is trained to identify risk. But what if the risk appears totally ordinary? Malik sees bugs. Evil bugs. Alien bugs that seem to be seizing control of people, one after another. Malik can't convince the world to sound the alarm, but he can at least protect his two young sons from global parasitic invasion — which might involve kidnapping them from the home of Malik's estranged wife.Written with Joe Barton (TIFF '17 world premiere The Ritual), Pearce's leap into large-scale filmmaking, with its nod to genre classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, brilliantly fuses dazzling spectacle with character-driven drama. Encounter's visuals are by turns gorgeous and shocking. Its atmosphere of American heartland creepiness is both familiar and unnerving.Yet the film ultimately rests on its performances. Oscar winner Octavia Spencer is masterful in a supporting role that prompts us to reconsider everything we've seen, while Ahmed cements his reputation as one of the most compelling actors working today. Whether playfully joshing with his boys, confronting far-right extremists, or defending himself against a human-insect hybrid, Ahmed imbues Malik's every gesture with magnetism and mystery, leading up to a showdown that blurs the cosmic with the cognitive. -CAMERON BAILEYSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited Kingdom, United States of America, 2021English108 minutesDirectorMichael PearceCastRiz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Rory CochraneScreenplayJoe Barton, Michael PearcePublicistAmazon StudiosThe GuiltyJake Gyllenhaal stars in Antoine Fuqua's thriller set over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch centre.Versatile action auteur Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, screening at the Festival as part of TIFF Rewind) reunites with his Southpaw star Jake Gyllenhaal in this riveting film about an emergency responder's desperate race to save a distressed caller. Unfolding in real time within the confines of a frenetic 911 dispatch centre, Fuqua's The Guilty delivers on its high-concept premise, channelled through another powerhouse performance from Gyllenhaal.As a wildfire rages towards Los Angeles, embittered police officer Joe Bayler (Gyllenhaal) winds down a chaotic but tedious shift answering emergency calls — a punitive demotion he received ahead of an imminent disciplinary hearing. His ennui is soon interrupted by a cryptic call from a woman (Riley Keough) who appears to be attempting to call her child, but is in fact discreetly reporting her own abduction. Working with the meagre clues she is able to provide, Joe throws all his skill and intuition towards ensuring her safety, but as the severity of the crime comes to light, Joe's own psychological state begins to fray and he is forced to reconcile with demons of his own.Every tense moment plays out on Gyllenhaal's face, as he spars with a dynamic ensemble of voices in his headset, including those of Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard, and Paul Dano. Building off a script from True Detective creator-writer Nic Pizzolatto, Fuqua and cinematographer Maz Makhani crosscut the white-knuckle drama with a montage of monitors broadcasting the apocalyptic inferno outside; a surreal, but all too familiar reflection of our mad world. -CAMERON BAILEYSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited States of America, 2021English90 minutesDirectorAntoine FuquaCastJake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, David Castañeda, Paul Dano, Peter SarsgaardScreenplayNic PizzolattoPublicistNetflixLakewood​​Naomi Watts stars in Phillip Noyce's nerve-rattling thriller about a mother struggling to rescue her son from a school shooter.Amy Carr (Naomi Watts) is out for what should have been a restorative morning run when a friend calls with terrifying news: the local high school attended by Noah, her teenage son, has been besieged by an active shooter. Deep within a network of forest paths surrounding her home, miles from town and nearly overwhelmed by panic, Amy refuses to succumb to hopelessness. With her smartphone as her sole means of intervention, she will draw upon every resource she can think of to ensure that her son survives the attack.Helmed by veteran director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Dead Calm) and written by Chris Sparling, Lakewood plunges us headlong into a desperate scenario unfolding in real time. The film echoes Sparling's acclaimed screenplay for Buried, a selection at TIFF 2010, in the sense that most of it unfolds as a one-person show, with Amy navigating the situation remotely. Yet Noyce's film also functions as a tribute to the power of a community working together in the face of calamity, as Amy enlists the assistance of an auto-body shop manager, a 911 operator, a rideshare driver, and one of her co-workers at the Marion County Division of Taxation to help her take matters into her own hands.It is rare to encounter a thriller like Lakewood, at once high-concept and heartfelt, exhilarating and poignant. It is also a showcase for Watts, who masterfully conveys a captivating fusion of impromptu heroism and maternal devotion. -DESCRIPTION COURTESY OF TIFFGALA PRESENTATIONSCanada, 2021English84 minutesDirectorPhillip NoyceCastNaomi WattsScreenplayChris Sparling See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"I was like, well, Buffet closes deals in like three weeks. And people like selling to him because he's nice and straightforward and he doesn't mess up their business. And so we just copied Buffett and started doing the exact same thing. And now we're up to about 30 wholly-owned businesses." — Andrew Wilkinson In today's episode, we're speaking with Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson), co-founder of Tiny. Here are some of the main topics we discuss: how Andrew reverse engineered Berkshire Hathaway to build Tiny how he started out making $60,000 from his basement how he runs a company with $1B+ in enterprise value with 5 decisions a day how to make an acquisition profitable using simple frameworks why Joe Rogan got ripped off by Spotify his inspiration behind starting the Tiny Foundation Welcome to the Conscious Creators Show; where through intimate and insightful interviews with authors, actors, musicians, entrepreneurs and other podcasters, you'll learn tools and tactics to 10x your creativity and improve your business and life. Like this show? Support us by following the show, leaving a review here and helping us spread the word by sharing the pod with one (or three) friends: https://refer.fm/creators Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA where we show you how to get paid to create online: http://www.creatorsmba.com Follow our host, Sachit Gupta, and get it touch if you have any questions or ideas related to the show: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok. Please enjoy today's episode and thank you for listening! Sachit Show Notes 03:06 The evolution of an inspiring technology entrepreneur and the inspiration behind it 12:56 The art of delegating & being a good manager 15:33 The secret behind successful entrepreneurship and the factors it depends on Or Fish where the fish are 21:28 Identifying opportunities, drawing a great team, and the structure and methods of buying and maintaining a successful business 24:38 The incremental value and making the most from best practice 26:35 The importance of ethics vs. skills, and the M & A approach Andrew's way 34:33 The idea behind Mailman and how his hobbies always transform into growing businesses 38:30 Following you natural inclination without compromising your freedom, and with maintaining your balance 42:59 The autonomy as a pillar of his ventures, and incorporated as a way of work for the team 49:47 Recommendations from a successful entrepreneur to podcasters 56:08 An insight on the types of personalities: the innovator, the founder, the scaler, and the operations person 58:13 Tools & Tactics on personal productivity 60:56 The philanthropic aspects of Andrew's entrepreneurship 68:53 The happiness effect according to Andrew Tweetable Quotes "I was like, well, Buffet closes deals in like three weeks. And people like selling to him because he's nice and straightforward and he doesn't mess up their business. And so we just copied Buffett and started doing the exact same thing. And now we're up to about 30 wholly-owned businesses." — Andrew Wilkinson "One of the interesting things about being a CEO for us is that we basically do not intervene in any way unless asked to so, unless the CEO wants to go spend a ton of money or they want our feedback on something, we don't talk to them." — Andrew Wilkinson "If you bring in somebody (CEO) that the team rejects, it's a complete failure, it doesn't matter if they're incredibly smart and they have a great strategy." — Andrew Wilkinson About Our Guest Andrew Wilkinson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada and developed an early interest in computers and technology at a young age. In 2001 he took over a tech news site called MacTeens.com. While managing this site, Wilkinson started to gain significant traffic to his site by covering tech news and reviewing tech products. After graduating high school, his tenure in college was short-lived and he decided to drop out after a few months. He started to become a freelance designer and this led to him starting MetaLab. In 2006, Wilkinson started a design agency called MetaLab. In a short period of time, MetaLab became a market leader for Silicon Valley companies that were looking for marketing and web design services. Some of the notable companies that were MetaLab clients included startups like Slack, Coinbase, Pinterest and Shopify as well as Fortune 500 companies like Apple, Google, Walmart, and Facebook. Today, MetaLab has launched over 205 products for clients and 3 of those products became billion-dollar businesses. Unsure of what to do with the proceeds, Wilkinson started reading about investing and quickly learned about Warren Buffett. This led to Wilkinson transitioning from a business operator role to investing full-time. After delegating his operating business to CEOs, Wilkinson founded Tiny with his long-time business partner, Chris Sparling. Tiny began buying profitable internet businesses and quickly started growing their portfolio due to their unique value propositions. Tiny would purchase businesses from founders in a swift, seamless manner by providing full or partial cash outs for founders in addition to getting deals done in less than 30 days. Additionally, Tiny would promise to not make any significant culture changes and hold the companies long-term. This led to significant growth in Tiny's portfolio and now there are over 25 businesses under the Tiny umbrella. Notable companies in Tiny's portfolio include Dribbble, MetaLab, PixelUnion, Creative Market and more. In June 2020, Wilkinson announced the launch of the Tiny Foundation. Wilkinson has noted interest in charitable areas such as science, journalism and child protection services.

It's always way fun to have a guest who is also a fan of the show. This week's guest is definitely a member of the tribe. We chatted up pre-interview about some of his favorite IFH podcast episodes and I knew front hen on we were on for a treat. My guest today is award-winning writer, director, and producer, Chris Sparling.Chris has written some of Hollywood's most original and fascinating screenplays like Buried, Greenland, Mercy, Down A Dark Hall, Reincarnate (featuring Leonardo DiCaprio), The Sea of Trees with Matthew McConaughey, etc.One of his latest films, Greenland, which premiered in 2020 started streaming on Amazon prime this February.The disaster thriller film starring Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin follows a family who must fight for survival as planet-destroying comet races to Earth. Butler's family struggles for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster as the planet-killing comet races to Earth. John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his estranged wife Allison (Morena Baccarin), and young son Nathan make a perilous journey to their only hope for sanctuary. Amid terrifying news accounts of cities around the world being leveled by the comet's fragments, the Garrity's experience the best and worst in humanity while they battle the increasing panic and lawlessness surrounding them. As the countdown to global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.With its reception and regardless of the COVID 19 Pandemic, the film grossed $52.3 million at the Box Office and was announced that the sequel, Greenland: Migration is already in the works. The continuation of the story will center around the Garritys' journey across a frozen European wasteland to find a new home. STX has already acquired the worldwide distribution rights for the film at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for the sequel with a $65 million budget.Chris's path to becoming a renowned Hollywood blockbuster writer begun on the actor's path. He was inspired to take up writing after the 1997 hit psychological drama film, Goodwill Hunting which was directed by Gus Van Sant and starred Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and others.He left Los Angeles on a home (Rhodes Island) bound to recalibrate and focus on completing college and writing because it was a challenge juggling that and acting auditions. After completing college, Sparling returned to Los Angeles. With no connections or leads, he returned to Rhodes Island with the plan to make a movie of one of the many scripts he had written by then. Though he had no formal film production experience at this point, Sparling wrote, directed, and produced An Uzi at the Alamo which is about a young writer in search of his identity, pledges to his dysfunctional family that he will commit suicide on his 25th birthday. As the fateful day approaches, he stumbles upon love and a new sense of self. Fearing family humiliation if he backs out of his pledge, he prepares for his last birthday with the feigned support of his family.Of course, the film did not do well, but this is when things became interesting for Chris's writing career. He dusted up and sent out about one hundred specs to studios, managers, producers, literally anyone he could contact. He received back, only three responses and one of which was from a manager who became his manager and still is till this day. That was his first open door.When I saw the trailer for Chris's 2010 film, Buried, and the success of it, as an independent filmmaker, I was in awe and slightly jealous of how easy (cost, and production-wise), revolutionary the film is. Buried is a brilliantly twisted suspense and original screenplay that is a nightmare for claustrophobes. Sparling found mainstream success when his feature-length screenplay Buried was purchased by producer Peter Safran starring Ryan Reynolds. Ryan plays Paul, an Iraq-based American civilian truck drive. After an attack by a group of Iraqis, he Wakes up groggy in pitch darkness, to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter, flask, flashlight, knife, glowsticks, pen, pencil, and a mobile phone. It's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap. He is left to rely on his cell phone to contact the outside world. But the outside world proves not to be very helpful at finding a man buried in a box in the middle of the Iraqi desert. Paul must rely on his best resource--himself.The film premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was sold to Lionsgate Films. Buried was shown at several major European and North American film festivals. It was nominated for and won a plethora of European films awards because it was produced in Barcelona by Barcelona-based Versus Entertainment, in association with The Safran Company and Dark Trick Films. Some of the awards included the Goya Award, for Best Original Screenplay, a Gaudi Award in the same category, and the best European feature film of the year award at the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival in September 2010. This $2 million budget indie film made a gross splash of $21.3 million worldwide. Sparling had an immediate success from Buried; between the script going out in March of 2009 and the movie premiering at Sundance in 2010, and he suddenly needed an agent, an attorney, and everything legit in between. Intrusion, Sparling's latest film will be streaming on Netflix in just one week (September 22, 2021), starring Freida Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green. It is about a husband and wife who move to a small town. A deadly home invasion leaves the wife traumatized and suspicious that those around her might not be who they seem. Even though it was self-defense, it was still a homicide. However, it turns out that the home invasion was not a one-off, and there are many other missing person cases in which the invaders may be involved. Meera falls into a rabbit hole as she takes it upon herself to find out the truth.Enjoy my entertaining conversation with Chris Sparling.

"John Garrity, his estranged wife and their young son embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary as a planet-killing comet hurtles toward Earth. Amid terrifying accounts of cities getting levelled, the Garrity's experience the best and worst in humanity. As the countdown to the global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven."

Leigh and Tim clash over Greenland, the disaster film starring Gerard Butler as a father trying to save his family from a planet-killing comet. Plus, there's a sci-fi take on Dracula coming; the Wicked adaptation gets a new director; and prepare for Uno, the movie?

We answer questions from donors for our first ever charity Ask Us Anything session.We raised over $50,000 (with Chris and I matching dollar for dollar) and will be donating it to 1Up Victoria Single Parents Resource Center. Thank you to all the generous donors!Stuff We Recommended:The Dhando Investor by Mohnish PabraiThe E Myth by Michael GerberHow To Get Rich by Felix DennisThe Tao of Charlie Munger by David ClarkHoward Marks MemosCharlie Munger Lecture on The Psychology of Human Misjudgement (our animated version / full audio version)

En el Keep Rolling de hoy le toca el turno a la reciente "The Atticus Institute", investigación acerca de la existencia de un centro estadounidense que durante los años 70 se dedicó al análisis y experimentación de pacientes con supuestos poderes mentales. En él se dio el caso de una mujer que sufre una aparente posesión diabólica; los documentos audiovisuales relativos al suceso son ahora desclasificados. Enjoy! Si te ha gustado el programa, recuerda que tienes la posibilidad de ayudar a El Calabozo del Reverendo Wilson dándole a "Me gusta". ¡Gracias y feed the cvlt!

Coinbase is suspending trading of XRP. Ant Group tries to appease the CCP. Will we soon see immunity passports on our phones? We now know the identity of the first tech IPO of the new year. And why, if you’re doing to do some dirt, you might want to know that your car is probably going to bust your alibi.Sponsors:CalderaLab.com code: TECHMEME (all caps, one word)Tovala.com/rideLinks:Coinbase to Suspend XRP Trading Following SEC Suit Against Ripple (CoinDesk) Ant Considers Holding Company With Regulation Similar to Bank, Sources Say (Bloomberg) Los Angeles Vaccine Recipients Can Put the Proof in Apple Wallet (Bloomberg) Qualtrics Files for U.S. IPO Two Years After Sale to SAP (Bloomberg) Insecure wheels: Police turn to car data to destroy suspects' alibis (NBC News) TV Ratings: First Streaming-Only NFL Game Scores Solid Numbers for Amazon (Variety)Link to the AMA Auction with Andrew Wilkinson and Chris Sparling: https://lu.ma/tinyama

The new big-budget disaster movie Greenland comes out on streaming this week. It starts Gerard Butler as the central character, trying to save his family including his son who lives with type 1. Award winning screenwriter Chris Sparling had never put diabetes into one of his movies, but he knows all about T1D. His wife is Kerri Sparling, writer of the very popular, and now archived, blog SixUntilMe. Stacey & Chris talk about writing something personal into a movie and then handing over control to a different director and producer, as well as what it's like to try to make movies during COVID restrictions. Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Kerri Sparling interviews Chris for Children with Diabetes  In innovations –JDRF begins at-home early T1D detection. More on the new JDRF T1Detect program  This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode Transcription (rough transcript, computer only - check back for proofed version) Stacey Simms  0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop, created for people with diabetes by people who have diabetes by Gvoke HypoPen, the first premixed auto injector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.   Announcer  0:21 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  0:27 This week, there's a new movie all about a big global disaster and it features a main character with type one. award winning screenwriter Chris Sparling had never put diabetes into one of his movies. And he was a bit concerned about how it would all turn out.   Chris Sparling  0:41 I became so in a way overprotective of getting it right. And it being portrayed right because the last thing I wanted to do was to finally incorporate diabetes into a movie of mine and for it to end up being portrayed wrong.   Stacey Simms  0:55 Many of you already know Chris, sort of his wife Kerri Sparling wrote the very popular blog six until me for almost 15 years. We talk about diabetes in the movie and at home and about the entertainment business during this time of COVID in innovations JDRF begins at home early T1D detection. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of the show. I am so glad to have you here. I am your host Stacey Simms and we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes by sharing stories of connection. Something different This week, we're going to talk about Greenland. This is a movie it's releasing in the US on video on demand it stars Gerard Butler and Marina Bakkerin who you probably know from the Deadpool movies. I put the trailer in the Facebook group and Diabetes Connections of the group. But the basic plot is that these are estranged parents, maybe they'll get back together, but they are working on their marriage just as a world ending cosmic disaster happens. And wouldn't you know it, their son has type one diabetes, so diabetes, type one insulin, this all becomes a plot point. Now we've talked about this a lot before so many films and TV shows have gotten diabetes exactly wrong. But Greenland has a big advantage. And that is as you heard in that opening tease, and that screenwriter Chris Sparling, whose wife lives with type one, we will get to Chris in just a moment. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by one drop and getting diabetes supplies is a pain. Not only the ordering and the picking up but the arguing with insurance about over what they say you need and what you really need. Make it easy with one drop. They offer personalized test strip plans plus you get a Bluetooth a glucose meter test strips lancets and your very own certified diabetes coach. Subscribe today to get test strips for less than $20 a month delivered right to your door no prescription or co pays required. One less thing to worry about not that surprising when you learn that the founder of one drop lips with type one, they get it one drop gorgeous gear supplies delivered to your door 24 seven access to your certified diabetes coach, learn more, go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the one drop logo. My guest this week is an award-winning screenwriter. He is someone that I've never met, but I feel like I kind of know because for many years I and many of you read about him in Kerry Sparling’s blog SixUntilMe. Kerri spent more than 14 years writing about her life with type 1 diabetes which included meeting and marrying Chris, who has been featured in blog posts about kids and family and everything you would expect. Kerri has stepped back from the blog to pursue other projects in her own writing. And Chris has a big movie coming out this week as this episode airs, Greenland, which debuts on American streaming this week. Chris, thank you so much for joining me. Welcome to the show.   Chris Sparling  3:53 Thank you. Thank you for having me.   Stacey Simms  3:55 It's great to have you. I feel it. As I said, I feel like I kind of know you. So I appreciate you kind of taking the leap and coming on not a movie or writing podcast, but a diabetes podcast. So this should be really fun. What made you decide I mean, you've been writing movies for an awfully long time. What made you decide to put diabetes?   Chris Sparling  4:14 You know, it's something I've been wanting to do for a while this movie presented a pretty unique opportunity for me to do it for a couple of reasons. One, the movie is the first of what's called Greenland. And it's about an incoming asteroid that's going to hit Earth or comet, it's going to hit Earth. It's this existential threat that everyone on earth faces. So kind of by nature of that alone, there's a ticking clock built into the movie, right? It's just when this thing's going to hit you're trying to get to the bunkers in Greenland. I tried to get there safely and survive. And so on the macro level there is that that large ticking clock at play, but the movie itself is different than say, deep impact or Armageddon in that it operates more on a personal level than those two movies do. You know it's not a movie checking in with what the government's doing to try to up the asteroid or anything like that, it's really more like the movie, the impossible if anyone listening ever saw that it's a great movie. And it's all to do with seeing it through this one particular family's lens, how they're going to survive this, this Cataclysm. So built into that I wanted to have a more personal, it's a more personal story. And I'd like the idea of having a more personal ticking clock as well. And so the son in the movie has type one. And now that's not to say the only reason why I gave him type one is to say, oh, that'd be a cool narrative device is to add yet another ticking clock. But it also quite honestly, it just, as I said, at the beginning of this long winded answer is that it gave me You know, I've been wanting to do it for a while, you know, Kerri and I have been together for a very long time. So I've seen type one up close and personal for a very long time. And, you know, I think it's kind of, it's somewhat misunderstood, if not even known condition by a lot of people. So it was, you know, I'm kind of hesitant to use the word educate, because I'm not really trying to do that, but maybe just shine a light on it a little bit. And, you know, this was a, an opportunity to do that on a, I guess, a large screen, or one of your house.   Stacey Simms  6:08 But I'm really curious, as you said, This isn't a movie where you're going to take time to actually do a formal education about type one, just as I wouldn't expect a formal education about a comment hitting the earth, and you know, what would happen, but you do have to explain these things. And I'm curious, you know, how do you work that in, you know, I assume we'll see things like injections or a pump or something like that. But was it difficult to kind of write it into the fabric of the story without, you know, Hey, everybody, we're gonna talk about diabetes.   Chris Sparling  6:34 Now, it was, to a certain extent, because, you know, as you will know, it's diabetes, you know, it's sometimes can fly a bit under the radar. You know, I recently, it was kind of bizarre to do it. But it's fun, I did it, I did an interview with Kerri. And so we were talking like you and I are talking now. And as I told her, then, and I don't always know when she's low, I don't always know when she's high, you know, things are beeping and everything else. And sometimes she takes on a certain characteristics, when that's going on. And I do know, or if I see you're sweeping a bunch of juice or whatever, but like, but sometimes I just don't know. And so to kind of to represent that on screen is difficult, because if you try to go too far in one direction, or the other, it may start to feel very false and forced, and almost cartoonish. And I say 100%, didn't want to do that. But if you go too subtle with it, which diabetes can sometimes be a rather subtle condition, you know, at times, and, you know, if you do that, then it just, it doesn't register for the audience at all. So to kind of dramatize that, what I did was I had the boy, the young boy in the in the movie, let's take one, I gave him a pump. And, you know, to kind of develop a shorthand with the audience, right out of the gate, there's a scene early on in the movie, where Gerard Butler who started in the movie, he's seeing that basically, he's been away, he, his wife had marital problems, and he's kind of they're trying to work it out, he and his wife now and he's coming back, he hasn't seen his son in a little while. And you see, there's a nice tender scene between him and his son, where he notices the pump, the insulin pump, and he says, you know, you know, basically, there's something to the effect of I do like that better than the shots. And you know, just kind of getting it across to the audience, someone who may not be as familiar with it as you are. Or I might be what's like, oh, okay, I get, you know, I can understand that you're certain things, I have a certain amount of knowledge about diabetes. So yeah, it's not, it's small things like that along the way, I've no doubt there will still be things that some people watching, it won't fully kind of hook on to, and they won't fully get. But at the same time, I think there might be elements of it that people watching might be like, Oh, I had no idea. I had no idea that having diabetes would require something like that. Or even to say, the immediacy and the importance of insulin, it kind of where I spoke earlier about this massive macro level existential threat that they're facing. But they still have to get to these bunkers in Greenland, if they're going to survive. And there becomes a situation where this boy get he needs his insulin, because he gets separated from it. And it's like, well, yeah, the large scale goal here remains, but if we don't get you there safely, and again, I mean, just maybe telling maybe to a certain degree, informing the audience who might not know that insulin is not just something like, again, you take it whenever you don't know, I don't know what some people might think, like, you just take it once in a while you take it as you feel like it or I don't know, whatever the misconception might be,   Stacey Simms  9:09 that we eat a cupcake, you need your insulin, right? (laughs)   Chris Sparling  9:12 Yeah, yeah. I think if nothing else, maybe it'll open, not open people's eyes. That's actually wrong, especially maybe just kind of illuminate the topic a bit for some people.   Stacey Simms  9:19 You know, again, I said at the beginning, I'll probably say a few times. I know very little about the industry, the movie industry and and what it takes to write a movie and produce and get, but I would imagine that and you've done projects before, where you've been involved in every step, right, you've written and then you've produced it, or you've been more involved. But with this, you you wrote it as my understanding, and what happens after you kind of hand off your baby because the director can change things, right. The actors have to change things. I guess I'll ask it both ways. First about the diabetes. Did they get it right the way you had hoped? And then we can talk about the movie?   Chris Sparling  9:53 Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, I mean, first, even before diabetes, yes, that always happens. I mean, I've directed movies, I produce movies, all of which have been ones that I've written. So, you know, in those instances, I have obviously quite a bit of control over what the final movies gonna look like in this instance, having just written it. In other movies I've only written, you know, there's always an understanding that when you hand it off, essentially, you know, your depends on the project, quite honestly. I mean, sometimes just as the screenwriter, I am still very much involved with the production because the director or the producer probably see the value of having the person conceived it but but with this, I was involved but not see, like, on a day to day level, that's for sure. Look for the diabetes of it all. You know, I was happy with it. And I was, there were a couple days when I was on set. And, you know, there was I just happened to be there. One of the days they're shooting a scene in in the grocery store and use the sons, they're shopping with his dad, and he's like, Hey, can I get some juice in the dad's like, yeah, sure, go get some. And I remember talking to the directors like Rick, listen, he's like, I was like, you know, my wife generally doesn't drink juice for fun. I'm not I mean, again, I know. She perfectly well, I should be no problem. She could if she wanted to just you know, but I was just I became so in a way over protective of getting it right. And it being portrayed, right, because the last thing I wanted to do was to finally incorporate diabetes into a move your mind and for it to end up being portrayed wrong. But in talking with Rick, he was like, No, no, it's cool. You know, I guess he was, meanwhile, he had his friend on speed dial who was the parent of a child of type one. He's like, No, no, I talked to them. I've consulted with them over and over again. And they said they get no, they let their child have juice if they want it and everything else I was like, and like, on an intellectual level, it made perfect sense to me. But I was I mean, I was kind of like waiting that we hold on a second rate bumps, you know, so to fully answer the question, I think the director, the producer was I think they did a really good job. I think people watching the movie and will it be 100%? Right? I don't know. I mean, people might see it and say, Hey, I don't know if I agree with that. Or not. But everyone's situation in their approach is different. But I could say if you kind of widen the aperture a bit and take a look at it, I think people are gonna I think it does it handles it accurately. For the most part.   Stacey Simms  12:02 I would have been like Gatorade zero, and then he can get a juice box for later.   Chris Sparling  12:08 Yeah, I mean, that's I'm saying like, everyone's situation is different. Right?   Stacey Simms  12:11 So let's talk about movies for a little bit. Was this your dream job? Was this something you always wanted to do?   Right back to Chris in just a moment. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And you know, I've talked about this before, but it's still striking to me when Benny was a little, you know, you give your kid a bath almost every single day or he goes swimming all summer long. And I always noticed his fingertips, you know, they were poked so much, that they were full of these little holes up and they just looked really awful. Especially when they got wet. It was almost 16 I'm not looking at his hands very much anymore. But man, when we go to the endocrinologist and Dr. V looks at his fingertips, they are normal. We've been using the Dexcom for so long. Now it was seven years. And with every new iteration, we have done fewer and fewer finger sticks. The latest generation the Dexcom g six eliminates finger sticks for calibration and diabetes treatment decisions. Just thinking about doing the 10 finger six a day we used to do chasing my toddler around, it makes me so glad that Dexcom has helped us come so far. It's an incredible tool. If your glucose alerts and readings from the G six do not match your symptoms or expectations. Use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. learn more, go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo. Now back to Chris and he's talking about whether this is still his dream job. Does he still love working in the movies?   Chris Sparling  13:38 Yeah, 100% I mean, I started like eons ago, I started as an actor. And I lived in Los Angeles for several years doing that. And while I liked that, and sure, it would have been great to have ultimately done that it just wasn't really it's a really, really tough racket, trying to be doing the struggling actor thing. You know, it's fine when you're really young doing it. But at a certain point, you just feel like, wow, I have like no agency, I've almost no control over my future. You know, it's just really, really tough. So I just kind of felt I needed a little more control over my career. And so yeah, so to be involved in this industry in any capacity was was always my goal.   Stacey Simms  14:16 How does it work these days? I mean, people will say, well, you can write from anywhere. But I've got to imagine that the whole industry, if not moving slower, shut down. I mean, 2020 it's been a mess for everybody. But from a filmmaking standpoint, how did this even get done? When was I guess we'll talk about Greenland, but in general, like, how are things getting made right now?   Chris Sparling  14:36 I mean, yeah, Greenland was all written, shot well before the pandemic, but at the same time post production, it got shut down for a while in post production. So it didn't get completed, completed until in the midst of the pandemic, you know, and then as far as the release of it, yeah, I mean, it's supposed to be in theaters two or three different times, then take a push back and push back. But separate from that, you know, as 2020 is going on. I've actually had two other movies shoot during the pandemic, I just had one that wrapped two days ago in Albuquerque. And so for me personally, it's been a, you know, again, I mentioned earlier, but I can't complain people have like real, you know, things there, especially during 2020 people have had really awful things that they've kind of faced, I'm not certainly gonna, I'm not going to complain about having a movie pushback or not being able to visit set because of COVID. But yeah, I mean, it's been a bit of a bummer. That's, you know, I'm still human, like, it was a bit of a bummer to, to have two movies that, you know, I wrote and produced, and I was basically producing from, you know, one was an Ontario as a movie called Lakewood that I did with Naomi Watts. And then a movie that I just did born in Albuquerque that wrapped two days ago. And it's like, I was watching real feed, like real time feeds from the camera, in my house, in my home office. And my situation of you know, being very protective in particular carry, you know, having type one, and so we are, we're very, very locked down here and the COVID of it all. And so me going to set me being on set just wasn't really an option for me. So   Stacey Simms  15:58 that's interesting, though, I had no idea that you know, things, I guess a few we've seen TV shows, we've seen things being filmed a little bit here and there. But it didn't occur to me that full scale production or partial scale production, because you were in your house looking at things was going on. I don't even know what to ask, are they putting their masks on until they like jump in front of the camera? Is it locked down? Is it just a free for all? Because?   Chris Sparling  16:18 No, no, definitely not? No, it's it is I mean, I really wish, you know, for other industries that are still out there, and people are working, you know, maybe it's just not feasible, but the film industry to its credit, and television industry, they really have some great protocols in place. I mean, it's their zones that I like, I'm not going to get into like all the like, they were really, really strict measures. Because again, I mean, there are a lot of unions involved to this screen actors, guild writers, Guild, Directors Guild Producers Guild, so they're very protective of their membership for, you know, in the first place. And there's regular testing and everything else. And again, that's a luxury not I mean, not a lot of people have that. And then it depends on the size of the production. I mean, if you're talking about a big, let's say, Marvel movie, I mean, you could, in that instance, they're going to probably create a massive bubble, wherever and like they rent out an entire hotel, or like they do a Mission Impossible, where they literally rented out an entire cruise ship. And just everyone lived on the cruise ship off the coast of Norway while they were shooting there. So like, I mean, that that wasn't   Unknown Speaker  17:16 like that. But that makes sense. If you can afford Yeah, but   Chris Sparling  17:18 if you can afford it, yeah, I mean, it's budget plays a big role. But it's really, really difficult as it should be. Because it's there are people at risk. And yeah, the actors in particular, because, you know, when you're rolling the cameras, you can't have masks on anymore. So you have to be really, really strict and in how you go about your productions.   Stacey Simms  17:36 What do you think is going to happen with entertainment? In the next few years, I was having this conversation with a friend in terms of are we going to see COVID and people in masks and kind of that real life reflection in the next couple of years in sitcoms, where people are trying to reflect back to us what we've been through this year? Or do you think we just need a couple of years away from it? Before we can start seeing?   Chris Sparling  17:57 It's interesting, I've had that exact conversation with a lot of people, where is it going to be in stories? Is it going to be that you pretend COVID just never happened? Or do you incorporate it, even if it's not just like a major part of your story, it's just an element of life that everyone is familiar with it. So it's not if you just mentioned all they get someone gets sick during COVID, a couple years ago, you just off handed say it and there's no explanation because everyone in the world is going to know what that is. So it's either, you know, in I'm of the mind where, when we're out of this, I want to be out like I don't I don't want to look back on this and try to make it I certainly don't want to make it part of other people or right now. It's you see people trying to make pandemic movies and everything else. And I'm like, I want no part of that. I want no part of that at all. And that's fine. I'm not judging them for maybe wanting to I'm just saying for myself. Yeah, I'm hopefully looking to the future here and want to get past this and move on.   Stacey Simms  18:51 I'm with you. I think we'll know for sure if like a rom com next Christmas makes money and they're able to do like a meet cute with COVID. emasculate that takes off, then we'll know but I don't think it's going to.   Chris Sparling  19:03 Yeah, and I know like I my wife watches this is awesome. You know, I I saw a couple times where they're wearing masks on the show sort of there now, and that's fine. I mean, I'm not judging it. I'm just saying for myself,   Stacey Simms  19:15 I would but I'm with you. I want to be entertained right now. I'm not maybe as we get past it, we can reflect for but I could be meant, you know, it'll be interesting to see because there are different opinions about it for sure. Looking back to Greenland, I wanted to ask you, why did you give diabetes to the kid in the movie, and not the wife character? Was there? Was there a thought process there?   Chris Sparling  19:38 It's tough to say I mean, don't really recall. I mean, probably wrote this movie by now maybe four years ago, years ago. I don't know. If I decided at this moment. I'm going to make a movie and give a character in a family that type of diabetes would I make? I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe again, just kind of speaking to this. Again, I'm hesitancy an opportunity to make some seemed like I was on a crusade and it wasn't I'm not on it at all. But like, I think there are a lot of people I'm gonna be frank, I don't think a lot of people know that kids can get diabetes. I just don't think that they, I think a lot of people, I think when they just hear the term diabetes, I think they mean type, they just assume it means type two, they don't even think that there is a type one or type two, they just think there was diabetes, and to maybe see a child, the 78 year old child with diabetes, maybe that kind of will at least, I don't know, in a waste stop some, someone long enough to say, Well, wait a minute, I never knew that. Little kids can have diabetes. For example,   Stacey Simms  20:35 I mentioned in the intro this interview that, you know, I kind of knew of you knew you a little bit from Kerry's blog, my son said he was 14 years ago. So she'd been writing the blog for a while when he was diagnosed and was one of the first things I found and like many people, because very, very popular blog, you know, I read everything she wrote, I feel like I knew so much about Kerri. And it was a huge help to me, even though I have a son. And it was something my spouse who has type one, what was that like for you? Was that like a different world kind of like, okay, Kerry's writing her blog, but you were mentioned it we knew about your family we do about things that are going on? I'm curious what your perspective on six and told me is,   Chris Sparling  21:11 I mean, I've always tried to be as supportive as I could with everything that she's doing in the community and elsewhere and on the blog. Yeah, that was no different. I think it speaks more to just how the internet itself has changed. Overall, we're, I mean, she started blogging when people didn't even, like, I want to say she was one of maybe two or three bloggers who were blogging about diabetes at the time. And this was, you know, that's at a time when the internet, like blogs were pretty new, and people weren't generally sharing, they weren't comfortable sharing personal information online, so much. And nowadays, that's all the internet is. And so like, so it's kind of a different space. And it was, it was a much more. You know, it wasn't it wasn't the juggernaut it is now I don't mean her blog, I mean, just like any kind of blog, or social media account, or anything else like that. So her writing personal details about, say, our relationship, and then our, you know, our marriage, and then our then our daughter at first, it just seemed we were okay with it for a while. And then just again, speaking for us, this is no comment on anyone else who might be doing this now, currently, but it's just for us, we just kind of decided that, you know, just wanted to be a little more closed off with the personal stuff in that way. So that's why if you go back, I'm sure in her blog, maybe when you started. I mean, there was a I remember a lot of stuff we she would talk about the stuff she and I were doing is kind of like a young couple going into New York City and hanging out. And, you know, so because it was kind of it was just kind of fun, and had almost like, you know, almost had like an early Facebook field where you just felt like, Hey, I'm writing this to my friends and family. Right? You know, as opposed to, you know, you write this stuff, and then all of a sudden, it's just, it's fodder for anyone to comment on or anything, I don't know. And it just became, I don't know, if it's a conscious decision or not, it just became more of like a Yeah, just to kind of pull back a little bit in that way on her on her blog and stuff.   Stacey Simms  22:57 Yeah, for me, it was almost like a teachable thing in terms of not just diabetes and learning about what an adult perspective was, but really did help me a lot gain perspective. And even when my son was two, it was also a really good kind of template almost in terms of sharing, because it did educate a lot of us along the way. Because that was before Facebook and social media. Really, I know, you're probably not gonna think about Facebook in college, and that was it. But I mean, for you know, in 2006 when I think she started as a five there was no social media really so right. It was a really good lesson in protecting your privacy, especially as it went on. But you know, it's it's a different world. People can't share enough some people. So isn't Greenland has been released, I believe in Europe and some other parts of the world because that's, I've seen it in some of the parenting Facebook groups. People have been chit chatting over it. Yeah. I asked if anybody had any questions for you. And most people just said, I loved it. But it scared me or like, Oh, my gosh, I didn't want to think about those kinds of things. But I did get a great comment from Sarah, who said, Stacy, can you tell Chris how much my nine year old son and I appreciate it? how accurate it was? Yeah, she has a question for you. She wants to know how difficult it was for you emotionally, to write something like this with so much personal experience from this disease that you've said it's been about four years, or maybe more since you actually wrote the script. But seeing as this really is something scary in terms of end of the world, and like a lot of parents I have like, Oh my gosh, if he's stranded or you know, it's even just like, it could be forgetting his diabetes back at the movies. It doesn't have to be a comet hitting the earth or plane crashes. Terrible. Yeah, we're all scared. Did you get emotional kind of writing this and thinking about carry? Yeah,   Chris Sparling  24:38 I mean, it's emotional. Now even watching again. For that reason. I think it's it. There's another and this is kind of what I was driving at with incorporating diabetes, where again, I didn't want it to seem like just some plot device. Like you said, it doesn't have to be a comet hitting the earth. It doesn't have to be a pandemic that we're all dealing with. But those things there's no Another whole layer for people living with diabetes or any chronic condition for that matter, any medical condition for that matter, it's it there is an another ongoing in a way unrelenting element to your life into the life of the people who care about you. You know, and that's, I think what I wanted to really portray is that it's like, again, even though these people are selected, and that's, you know, not giving away much they are among the very, very few people selected to go to these bunkers in Greenland. You know, someone made the joke recently, it's like, you know, Gerard Butler has saved the president so many times, it's only it's only fair that he's selected. But anyway, so they were and it's like, okay, that's, that's great. But like, that doesn't nothing changes it for at least as of current standards of medicine, nothing changes, the fact that this kid still needs his insulin, and it was emotional in that way. Because we've been there, you know, we've been in those instances, and I'm sure so many people listening have where sometimes stuff can get scary. You know, I talked about the subtlety of it before. And sometimes things can go from subtle or zero to 60 pretty fast. And that by itself, those moments are emotional when they're happening. And so to kind of to try to incorporate them into even something fake. I mean, you try your best to just make it feel real and realistic and kind of pour yourself into it as much as you can. So yeah, it's, it was a you know, so yes, sir.   Stacey Simms  26:19 I promise I will not get too nosy. And ask you lots of personal questions about Kerri. But I am curious, I don't talk to a lot of partners, spouses of partners and spouses of people with type 1 diabetes. And that's a different experience than being a parent or being a person with type one. I'm not gonna ask you to make a grand statement, you know, what have you learned? or What advice do you have? But I am curious, when you met Kerri. And this is a long time ago, as you said, I'm, I don't know if you can remember. What did you think about diabetes at the time? Were you really worried about dating and then getting very serious with someone who had something like this? Do you remember?   Chris Sparling  26:55 Yeah, I do. I had a very limited, very limited exposure to type one, only because a good buddy of mine, he had been for a little while dating a girl with type one, prior to me meeting Kerri. And the standout thing was that she was low one time, and she threw a pumpkin at him. So like, that was my introduction to type 1 diabetes, that sometimes when you're low, like you can kind of like your behavior can be you know, not like, I don't know, something you come out of here, we'd like you to depending and, and she just happened to get like, very aggressive for some reason that that is, and I was like, Wow, so that was a completely rough and probably ill informed introduction to diabetes. And then I met Kerri. And, you know, thankfully, she never threw a pumpkin at me. But But yeah, I mean, it's so I learned it a lot from just being with her and being around her and see how she manages the disease. But I mean, this, the thing is that I met her God, I mean, she must have had it for about 18 years, 15 years, some anywhere from 15 to 1819, whatever it was, before I met her, so she was very accustomed, you know, to dealing with this as an adult, because naturally got as a child, and then I should say, naturally, she got it as a child. So naturally, her mom and her dad, were helping her as a child, but then she, I met her as an adult. So she has several years of managing this disease on her own. And so it was kind of like I had to, you know, again, this is just specific to my relationship with Gary, I'm not trying to map this onto how other people do their thing. But like, I learned the boundaries in a way of like, what is the best way for me to be helpful in these situations. And even something simple, like I learned very early into this day, know that if carry is low, you have an instinct, when someone's not feeling well, for any reason. You're like, Oh, just sit down, sit out, you know, if you're feeling if you're feeling dizzy, whatever, she's the opposite. And then this is just her. She's the opposite. She doesn't want to she doesn't want to sit down. Because sitting down in a way, mentally allows it to settle in more for her. She, you know, she can't fully explain what she's saying. She's, like, I can't resist it, if I'm accepting it. And that, you know, again, it's not some woowoo thing. It just for her. That's it. So, like little things like that. Over the years, I've kind of and then bigger things over the years that I've come to say, all right, well, this is my role in this, I guess.   Stacey Simms  29:07 Getting back to screenwriting for just a moment. You know, there's a lot of I think a lot of people think that any job in the movies is super glamorous. And it's not as difficult as it is screenwriting has to be so difficult to me to think about. Because you're you're pretty much by yourself writing. But I'm curious. Do you have any advice? I mean, for anybody listening who would love to do what you were doing?   Chris Sparling  29:29 Yeah. Um, read screenplays. It's the best education you could possibly get. I mean, there are entire screenwriting programs. You could go spend a couple $100,000 on right now. And I'm not taking away the value of that but at the same time, I would put it right up there with just reading the screenplay a week.   Stacey Simms  29:46 How do you get a screenplay? Pardon my ignorance?   Chris Sparling  29:48 No, it's fine. I mean, just go online. Just Just go to Google and type movie screenplays and I'm sure like the vast majority of movies you've seen in like are you can read screenplays for   Stacey Simms  29:58 Is it still fun for you?   Chris Sparling  30:01 Yes, I this, I've been doing this for, like professionally for over 10 years now it's been my, my job. You know, just like anything else, things start to get a little old. I think for the next 10 years, I think I look forward more to writing and directing more as opposed to just writing. You know, I've directed a couple movies so far, but I want to do more of that I think in the next 10 years will say, yeah, I mean, I still love it. I love what I do. I feel very fortunate that I, you know, I tried for a very long time to break into this industry. And so like, I never lose sight of that. Yeah, I mean, there's certainly days that you just, it's just not happening. You're just trying and you're like, wow, I'm really awful at this. And so no, and, and other days, you're kind of like, Yeah, maybe. I think it's interesting, during, in the COVID of it all, like I've been, I remember, especially, you know, early early on in it, where everyone was on lockdown, and everyone's like, Oh, you must be getting so much done, you must be in so much writing done having all this time. And I was like, I can nothing done. I'm like, I can't get my head in the game at all. And that went on for a while, like creatively, I just couldn't get there. I guess, understandably, given the circumstance. But over time I was. It's gotten easier. I think more than anything. Now. It's just a time thing i'm sure Kerri would agree with this is that because of how we're doing things with, you know, with with us and our kids being you know, home from school, and that's just how we're doing it. It's just, there's a lot of us being here and having to having to kind of shuffle responsibilities back and forth. And so, you know, the amount of time I actually have, and that she has to take it worked on is that's pretty valuable commodity these days.   Stacey Simms  31:36 Yeah, no doubt. So before I let you go, is there anything that you can share with us that you're working on now, in terms of writing or things that haven't started yet?   Unknown Speaker  31:45 Yeah.   Chris Sparling  31:49 You can tell I, you know, I have a long gestating project. Basically, it's an adaptation of Stephen King's the talisman. I don't know if that one's ever going to happen, quite honestly. It's just I mean, it's something that it's it's Steven, not the name drop, but it's a Steven Spielberg project that he has been trying to do for like 35 years, there have been like, I don't know how many iterations of it that just just kind of come together, then he changes his mind or it doesn't happen. And then he moves on and then tries again, and like 510 years later, so who knows if that this one will follow that same trajectory. But that's one that I've been working on for a while, and then and a couple other projects. And then I'm just I just started a new script of my own. So in other words, not like a writing a script or adapting a script for somebody else. Right. You know, it's one that I'm hoping is going to be my next directing project. So,   Stacey Simms  32:34 so yeah. Okay, so we will look for greenlit, I will put all the information in the show notes where people can find it. Anything that we should look for that might be like a diabetes community, in thing I mean, now I have to look for the juice in the grocery store.   Chris Sparling  32:47 Yeah, there's that scene. I mean, there's the pump scene. You know, there's the scene where, um, there's a lot of them. It's not like it doesn't it's not like some small facet of the movie. I mean, it's so   Stacey Simms  32:56 cool. The mom isn't trying to read six until me like the panel there's no like   Chris Sparling  33:01 easter egg thrown in. Right? Um, you know, it's interesting though, because the the LED with this there's Kari asked me this question when choosing interpretive me which again, which is kind of bizarre. She was like, Why? Why does she's even curious. In the movie, the boys wearing an old like Medtronic pump in? She's like, why that old pump? Why not like a more modern pump even more modern Medtronic, but I don't know, I mean, quite honestly, I mean, it's probably the props department that chose that one. And the director approved it. And then they're also clearance issues where you can't just use a product, right? You'd have to get approval from the company. And so I could find out, I'm sure, but still, what I do wonder, and I might have done the same thing had I directed movie is that old model is older model PUMPS LOOK more medical, they look like medical devices where a lot of the more you know, more modern pumps will say they look sleek, they look like cell phones, they look like you know, and so I think for an audience, if the if part of the effort here is to kind of maybe shine a light on this on this condition, this disease, you certainly don't want them to be confused, where they see something like well, what is that? I don't know, it's a phone or what is that? That and, and I think, you know, that's, I don't know what that is. I don't know if that's a fun fact, I don't know how you classify.   Stacey Simms  34:15 Now, that's exactly what I meant that sorry. When because when we look at the screen now we're all gonna be thinking like, wait a minute, because I know my audience, they're gonna pause it, they're gonna look at it, they're gonna zoom in if they can, and you know what pump is that? And that's, that's a really good reason why?   Chris Sparling  34:30 I don't think it's a fun fact, because I don't know if that's the right way. Right? It's like a fun speculation. There you go.   Stacey Simms  34:37 You know, we're bonkers that way we'd like to know. So we'll see what happens. Chris, thank you so much for joining me and you know, for for speculating and for sharing so much of your time. I really appreciate it. Oh, thank you.   Unknown Speaker  34:54 You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  35:00 For more information about the movie, the trailer where you can watch it, all of that at the episode homepage at Diabetes connections.com, wherever you are listening, if you're listening on a podcast app, you can always come back to the homepage and find out all of the info. Not every app has a great way to see the show notes. You know, we're on Pandora and Spotify and apple and everyone's just slightly different. So I like to keep it at home base. We also have transcriptions for every episode this year. And we're starting to go back and add them for every episode. So I'm very excited about that. I will also link up the carry and Chris interview that he mentioned, because Kerri scooped me she got the interview first. It was really fun. I interviewed my husband before for this show, and it's a little bit of a weird feeling. But it was a lot of fun to watch them and I recommend that especially if you're a big fan like I am of six until me and of Kerri. Up next we're going to talk about this new at home test kit from jdrf. First Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Jeevan hypo pin, almost everyone who takes insulin has experienced a low blood sugar and that can be scary. A very low blood sugar is really scary. And that's where evoko pen comes in. It's the first auto injector to treat very low blood sugar gvl caple pen is pre mixed and ready to go with no visible needle. That means it's easy to use in usability studies. 99% of people were able to give g vo correctly. I'm so glad to have something new, find out more go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the G Volk logo g book shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma. Visit chivo glucagon.com slash risk.   In innovations this week, where we talk about the latest and greatest in the technology sectors and new stuff in our community, I want to tell you about jdrf new T one detect this just came out last week as you're listening to this episode, if you're listening to it when it first airs, and T one detect is jdrf snoo screening education and awareness program. So basically, it's screening you for type 1 diabetes auto antibodies, I'm going to read a little bit from the jdrf website. They say until now t Wendy symptoms and a diagnosis often come out of the blue. Today, families can use testing to detect t Wendy early so they can plan and prepare with one blood test anyone at any age can find out before symptoms even occur. If they are at risk for developing to end, the test is easy, simple and can help save lives. So this sounds great. This sounds a lot like trial net, who we've talked to before, my understanding is that it's different. It's not quite the extensive test. And by that I mean, it looks like a different test, it's a finger prick, and you send the blood samples back to the lab. And then you get your results back. And they say you get next steps as to what they mean and what to do. So I'm hoping that that also means counseling of I haven't seen anything about that yet. Because, you know, that's the only that's one thing about doing these tests, any health tests by mail, right, you want to get the results. And then you want to have somebody sitting next to you telling you what you do with those results. So you're not feeling alone. You know what, if you have these antibodies, you don't know what they mean, you know what I mean? When you click through the website, it actually takes you to enable bio sciences, T one D auto antibody testing, and that's from whom you actually order the kit, you make an account with the company, you can check through your options on privacy, you can decide if you want to make your results available to jdrf. You can say Do I want bio sciences to have my personal health information, there's a lot you can do here. The tests are not free is my understanding. But I didn't see anything about cost anywhere on the website. However, I didn't get far enough through it to actually order the tests. And what's interesting here is that T one detect will be available to people whether or not they have a family member who has type one diabetes, and that's different from most of the other screenings, including trial net. So a lot of questions here. I have reached out to jdrf they have said that they're you know more than willing to come on. So now it's just a question of scheduling. So I'll be putting in the Facebook group Diabetes Connections of the group when we are ready to go with that, and I will certainly solicit your questions and we will get them answered. My biggest question is, why make this separate? jdrf I believe already helps fund trialnet. So why now fund something different when trauma needs money? So I'm going to find out I'm sure we'll learn much more. I am definitely in favor of more research and more testing because boy, if we could test everybody for type one, we could learn so much more about possible prevention and treatment and all that good stuff. So don't misunderstand my questions here for doubter cynicism. I'm just really curious about this new program and of course, we will find out more programming note for the rest of the year. I'll be honest, I'm not really sure we have about two weeks left to go for 2020 and I do have the shows planned out. We're going to do wait wait, don't poke me the Game Show that I aired at friends for life. If you didn't go to that winter conference, you'll be able to hear the show and you'll actually be able to watch it, I'll put it on YouTube the same time the podcast goes live. That's always a lot of fun. And then I have another panel that we taped earlier this year about the type one and type two community with some familiar faces to many of you. And that will be the last episode of 2020. However, as I've said before, there's always some interesting stuff at the end of the year. And if we're able to jump in with some more breaking news, or something really interesting, comes up, you know, it's not like I'm traveling This year, we're all sitting around on zoom. So we will bring you you know, any breaking news that happens in our community, and I basically just reserve the right to throw a new show in here or there. But we are almost done. Holy cow this year, and not much for reflection. I'm not quite sure that I'll do a lot on 2020 I think I need to get a little further away from it and further toward Good Stuff and Being with you all the view more in person before I can really properly reflect but I gotta tell you, I am glad to see 2021 on the horizon. thank you as always to my editor jump you can. It's from audio editing solutions. And thank you so much for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here next week. Until then, be kind to yourself.   Benny  41:18 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All rounds avenged   Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Chris Sparling is an American screenwriter, director and producer best known for his work on Buried, The Sea of Trees and The Atticus Institute. He chats to Tom about ten of his favourite songs: “Fall on Me” - R.E.M., “Alive” - Pearl Jam, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” - U2, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” - Oasis, “Your Song” - Elton John, “God Only Knows” - The Beach Boys, “Yesterday” - The Beatles, “Pass the Mic” - Beastie Boys, “The Boxer” - Simon and Garfunkel, “Live Forever” - Oasis.

Chris Sparling, writer of BURIED, THE SEA OF TREES (nominated for the Palm d'Or at Cannes), MERCY and the soon to be released GREENLAND, is a veteran at working remotely and taking meetings online. In this episode he offers tips on virtual networking, maintaining focus and writing well. 

Chris Sparling, Associate Pastor, Tehachapi Church of the Nazarene John 8:1-11

This week we chat about Netflix’s eighteenth film, the 2016 triller ‘Mercy.’ Directed by Chris Sparling starring James Wolk, Caitlin FitzGerald, Tom Lipsinski, Dan Ziskie, Michael Godere and Michael Donovan.   Make sure you follow us at Flix Forum on Facebook or @flixforum on Twitter and Instagram and answer our question of the week, 'Were there any goodhearted characters in this film?'   You can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Podbean so please subscribe and drop us a review or 5 star rating.    Be sure to watch 'Spectral' before next week's episode. You can see the trailer here. 

Chris Sparling returns to the podcast this week to for a follow up conversation about 'Sea of Trees', and for a thoughtful conversation about writing and directing his latest movie, 'Mercy', which is streaming on Netflix. We also get into the value of screening your movie, the importance of a good film editor, how uncredited screenwriters make a living, and some of Chris' upcoming projects. Follow Chris on Twitter at @chrissparling. Mercy is streaming on Netflix right now. Go watch it. Run Time - 1:07:07 Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com.

Chris Sparling, whose credits include “Mercy,” “Buried,” and ATM,” talks to Sean Tuohy about his journey from Providence, R.I. to Hollywood, how he developed and produced his early films, how his screenwriting process has evolved, and why he still feels like he has something to prove as a screenwriter, director, and filmmaker.

This week I chat with Chris Sparling about walking the red carpet of Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Sea of Trees, lessons learned from his directorial debut in Atticus Institute, and the grind of editing the last pieces of his latest film, Mercy. Also, we discuss the potentially infinite roles of a producer. Follow Chris on Twitter @chrissparling. Run Time - 1:07:43 Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com.

The writer of the Cannes premiering Sea of Trees, directed by Gus Van Sant, as well as thrillers-in-a-box Buried and ATM, talks about the good side of being pigeon-holed, breaking in, writing for himself, and lots more.

America's Most Haunted Radio talks with writer/director CHRIS SPARLING about the making of fascinating faux-documentary possession movie THE ATTICUS INSTITUTE.Anchor Bay Entertainment presents disturbing horror thriller THE ATTICUS INSTITUTE, from producer of THE CONJURING Peter Safran, released January 20st, 2015. Written and directed by Chris Sparling (BURIED) in his directorial debut, THE ATTICUS INSTITUTE stars Rya Khilstedt (DEXTER), William Mapother (LOST, THE GRUDGE), Harry Groener (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER), John Rubenstein (ANGEL) and Sharon Maughan (THE BANK JOB).Dr. Henry West founded The Atticus Institute in the early 1970s to test individuals expressing extrasensory abilities: E.S.P., clairvoyance, psychokinesis, etc. Despite witnessing noteworthy cases, nothing could have prepared Dr. West and his colleagues for Judith Winstead. She outperformed every subject they had ever studied – soon gaining the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense, who subsequently took control of the research facility. The more experiments they conducted on Judith, the clearer it became that her abilities were the manifestation of evil forces within her - there are powers that exist in this world that simply cannot be controlled.Chris Sparling is from Providence, Rhode Island. He wrote the 2010 film BURIED, for which he won "Best Original Screenplay" from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, as well as a Goya Award from the Spanish Academy of Cinematic Art and Sciences. His Black List script, ATM, was produced by Gold Circle Films and released by IFC in 2012. His most recent script, SEA OF TREES,starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Gus Van Sant will be released in 2015.

On Episode 7, Chris Sparling (writer of Buried, ATM and writer/director of The Atticus Institute) joins the show to discuss his writing process, how he got into the film industry, Ancient Aliens and conspiracies, his latest film The Atticus Institute and how to grow from criticism.

This week Chris Sparling returns to the podcast to discuss his career as a filmmaker. This includes writing - Sea of Trees and The Atticus Institute will be out next year - the complexities of directing, and the various roles a producer can have on a specific project. Plus, I learn what it scenario best warrants calling M. Night Shyamalan for a consult. Enjoy. Follow Chris on Twitter @chrissparling, and check out p4dc.com to learn more about the Spare a Rose campaign. Run Time - 1:00:12 Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com.

Chris Sparling, writer of "Buried," talks about finding inspiration from airplanes, obituaries and bunk beds.

Continuing the conversation with Chris Sparling to talk about life after his first movie 'Buried', the writing process and movie making experience of his second movie 'ATM', the business mind behind releasing a movie On-Demand before a theatrical release and life as a father. Enjoy. ATM will be available on Video on Demand channels March 2, 2012 and will hit theaters April 6, 2012. Chris was previously on Just Talking to discuss his movie 'Buried', you can find that episode here. Be sure to follow Chris on Twitter @chrissparling. Run Time - 51:09 Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com.

This week I'm joined by the screenwriter for the movie 'Buried', Chris Sparling. We spend a good portion of the podcast talking about the process and experiences that led to his movie being made including the time spent working on the script and Skyping across the Atlantic Ocean with the film's director. Also discussed were the differences between the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival and what it's like hanging out with M. Night Shyamalan. Episode fifty-four was a blast to record. Believe me, you're in for a treat. Enjoy. Run Time - 41:32 Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com

Cinematographer Eduard Grau created some award winning short films of his own including Bitter Kas and Scarlet Sunrise.  He studied filmmaking at ESCAC in Spain. Edu won the cinematography award twice at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for Friends Forever and The Natural Route. He shot his 1st feature, Honor De Cavalier, at only 23, which premiered at Cannes, followed by a film in LA, called Kicks. Edu was able to pair with director Tom Ford on the visually stunning Academy Award nominated A Single Man, a story that centers on an English professor who, after the sudden death of his partner tries to go about his typical day in Los Angeles. Edu has also worked on a horror/thriller feature film called Buried from director Rodrigo Cortés and screenwriter Chris Sparling about a US contractor in Iraq who is buried alive in a coffin.

Writer, Director/Producer, Instructor, and Actor Chris Sparling joins us to discuss differences in marketing two completely distinct films and about the grassroots approach to filmmaking. He also discusses his experiences in LA as an actor to focusing on writing and producing back in Providence and beyond Providence.