Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interview of the Week: Lyn and David E. Talbert are Directing and Producing Netflix musical "Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey," credits: First Sunday, Baggage Claim, Almost Christmas

Transcript

Interview of the Week: Lyn and David E. Talbert are Directing and Producing Netflix musical "Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey," credits: First Sunday, Baggage Claim, Almost Christmas · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
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Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
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Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here we come
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Speaker 1: great Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
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Speaker 1: these goals and make these dreams possible, It's going to
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Speaker 1: be about you in the relationships that you create. I'm
1:04
Speaker 1: gonna introduce a relationship I've had long time ago. My
1:08
Speaker 1: next guest are writing, directing, producing, Power Couple Land and
1:12
Speaker 1: David E. Tawer. They currently have trending on Netflix. They
1:16
Speaker 1: told me already thirty two countries. They've been number one.
1:18
Speaker 1: They've got premiered in a hundred and ninety countries Netflix.
1:21
Speaker 1: Jingle Jangle A Crystal Story, a live action musical. The
1:25
Speaker 1: addital film critics include you may be familiar with these
1:28
Speaker 1: first Sunday Back Exclaimed, Almost Christmas and El Camino Christmas.
1:32
Speaker 1: They're also releasing two books, The Square Root of Possible,
1:35
Speaker 1: a Jingle Jango Story, is a picture book for ages
1:38
Speaker 1: four through eight, and Jingle Jangle with the Invention of
1:41
Speaker 1: jeronas a Jangle is a middle grade novel for ages
1:46
Speaker 1: eight through twelve. Please work with the money making conversation.
1:48
Speaker 1: My man and my lady, I said, said my first
1:51
Speaker 1: lay the first lady then, and David E. Tawer, you know,
2:01
Speaker 1: it's the beauty of it because I have a fantastic
2:03
Speaker 1: relationship with Netflix, and they just sit in the movie
2:05
Speaker 1: I put in the past where I just get them
2:07
Speaker 1: first out and so every since this movie be on
2:09
Speaker 1: the rate I've been trying to get to you. I've
2:10
Speaker 1: been trying to get to you because I just want to,
2:12
Speaker 1: first of all, to let you know how much I
2:14
Speaker 1: love you and also how much I you know, even
2:17
Speaker 1: before I saw the movie, how proud I've been up
2:20
Speaker 1: our relationship and what you've done, you know, all the
2:23
Speaker 1: way back to Radio DJ, you know, play right, you know,
2:27
Speaker 1: sitting in the l A go just just making our
2:29
Speaker 1: own dreams come true. Many stories we had back in
2:33
Speaker 1: you in l A when you was when you was
2:34
Speaker 1: relaunching your your plays back and then always been a
2:38
Speaker 1: fan of you and just watching your story and then
2:41
Speaker 1: being introduced to lending her story. I just wanted to
2:44
Speaker 1: just tell you, Man, I love you too. And meeting
2:46
Speaker 1: the first Lady officially again but also with our history,
2:50
Speaker 1: Man has always been powerful. And just seeing the project
2:53
Speaker 1: that you put out and and the thing I love
2:55
Speaker 1: about Netflix is that, you know, we always have a
2:58
Speaker 1: hard time trying to get black projects seen nationally internationally.
3:03
Speaker 1: You know, they always kicked out as domestic products. And
3:06
Speaker 1: then when it goes internationally, oh well, you know, we
3:08
Speaker 1: may take you to the Caribbean, We may throw your
3:11
Speaker 1: bone and send you to South Africa, but no, no,
3:14
Speaker 1: but Netflix a hundred and any countries is where your
3:17
Speaker 1: project premiers. Tell us about that, that response and the reaction,
3:22
Speaker 1: and it's been you know, Lenny and I've been been
3:24
Speaker 1: caring this for a while. But man, just good seeing
3:27
Speaker 1: your brother, and thank you for everything over the year. Brother.
3:30
Speaker 1: You've always reached out when you didn't have to, and
3:34
Speaker 1: and and and pulled the brother up man and gave
3:37
Speaker 1: me a voice and a platform. So just thank you
3:39
Speaker 1: man for all the years what you've done for artists
3:43
Speaker 1: like myself and giving him a voice and the platform.
3:46
Speaker 1: But thank you brother. Well he has a great voice
3:48
Speaker 1: to Lynn. You know, well, you know the whole project
3:57
Speaker 1: you know of a musical, you know that is always
4:02
Speaker 1: not that's that's non traditional. You know usually have action
4:05
Speaker 1: adventures in black movies, comedies and black movies, but musical
4:08
Speaker 1: is non traditional. Tell us that whole setting it up
4:11
Speaker 1: and selling it to the studios and bringing it forth
4:14
Speaker 1: because this is not something that's done in a year.
4:16
Speaker 1: This is a time consumed project or you know, it's
4:19
Speaker 1: it's uh, the responsible and overwhelming man. You know, we've
4:23
Speaker 1: been we've been working on this for decades and you
4:28
Speaker 1: know with The vision was always to invite us to
4:31
Speaker 1: the table of the big event. Uh, world's a wonder
4:35
Speaker 1: and magic, you know, watching Harry Potter and watching Willie
4:40
Speaker 1: Wonker and watching you know, Kitty Kitty Bangs, Marry Copklins
4:44
Speaker 1: ain't know none of us ever in you know worlds,
4:49
Speaker 1: And so that was an idea too. You know, we imagine,
4:52
Speaker 1: we imagine for you know, kids that look like us
4:56
Speaker 1: all around the world can see themselves as as wonderful
5:00
Speaker 1: and magical and all that stuff. So that was really
5:02
Speaker 1: kind of the spirit. And when I got a chance
5:05
Speaker 1: to watch, you know, growing up watching The Whiz and
5:08
Speaker 1: that just you know, you know, that just blew me away.
5:10
Speaker 1: With Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, I always wanted to
5:14
Speaker 1: do something that was original, that that could really you know,
5:19
Speaker 1: heighten on imagination and and and the plays were a
5:24
Speaker 1: musical that we've done for so many years. They were musical,
5:27
Speaker 1: all musical based plays, been playing around music for twenty years.
5:32
Speaker 1: And Netflix came along, you know, when we had our
5:35
Speaker 1: son Lynn had we didn't have my son Lene had,
5:40
Speaker 1: but when he came along, it was like, Okay, it's
5:46
Speaker 1: time to put something out there for him to see
5:49
Speaker 1: with people that look like him, and that was really
5:52
Speaker 1: when it started to become from doing it as a
5:54
Speaker 1: Broadway play to doing it as a future rightly, yes, Um,
6:01
Speaker 1: that's that's really the basis of it all, you know,
6:04
Speaker 1: wanting to feed our inner child as well and representation.
6:09
Speaker 1: You know, it's very important, as you mentioned, about being
6:14
Speaker 1: part of the world and not just domestically, and that's
6:17
Speaker 1: where we're getting most A lot of the response, you know,
6:20
Speaker 1: is from the world, and I mean moms and mothers especially,
6:27
Speaker 1: but just everyone coming to me saying, Lynn, that is me,
6:32
Speaker 1: that is me. You don't know what that means to me,
6:35
Speaker 1: you know, just in tears, grown men in tears being
6:39
Speaker 1: tapping into that inner child something that they didn't know
6:43
Speaker 1: that they wanted to see and feel. So it's it's
6:46
Speaker 1: been amazing to have an opportunity like this and Netflix
6:51
Speaker 1: really got behind us as far as the story that
6:54
Speaker 1: we wanted to tell and the visual that we wanted
6:56
Speaker 1: to see. And um, you know it, I say, David's
7:01
Speaker 1: being modest, but I feel like we did this project
7:04
Speaker 1: in record time if you compare it to many of
7:07
Speaker 1: the projects like this, you know, um, in record time,
7:12
Speaker 1: like from where we didn't have a song from day one.
7:16
Speaker 1: To complete this in the matter of two years, it's
7:19
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. But it's our theater background that has helped us,
7:24
Speaker 1: you know, maneuver through things quickly and to get things
7:28
Speaker 1: done quickly because we hadn't had the luxury budget and time,
7:33
Speaker 1: you know. So um, that's kind of how we roll.
7:37
Speaker 1: And just really grateful and excited and proud. Well when
7:41
Speaker 1: you when you use the word inner child, the young
7:44
Speaker 1: lady who played the role with Journey Madland meles Um,
7:49
Speaker 1: you know, I get to see talent, you know, the
7:51
Speaker 1: growing up talented. But what did you guys find her?
7:55
Speaker 1: Was it the casting session all you just said she's
7:57
Speaker 1: the one because she was Phenomenal's amazing. Yeah, we're flewing
8:02
Speaker 1: the new We did a worldwide talent search, flewing in
8:04
Speaker 1: New York. Um, we'll live down to five finalists. When
8:08
Speaker 1: we flew in there and I walked in there with
8:11
Speaker 1: Sean and she didn't come there to audition. She came
8:15
Speaker 1: to take what was hers and it was undeniable. It
8:19
Speaker 1: wasn't even a fair fight, you know, And that little
8:24
Speaker 1: girl is everything. I mean, we're looking at Shirley Temple
8:28
Speaker 1: and Judy Garland. We're looking at all of that kind
8:31
Speaker 1: of magic and wonder um and someone who was like
8:34
Speaker 1: an old soul and a young person's body. That's right, right,
8:40
Speaker 1: and you got it and that's what you know, Like
8:42
Speaker 1: that build out and that that's what impressed me so much.
8:45
Speaker 1: But like let's go with Lynn said, you know, two
8:47
Speaker 1: years what sound stage did you guys use? Where was
8:50
Speaker 1: this shot at? It was shot in London and the
8:54
Speaker 1: stages were called Arbor Field. We actually it used to
8:57
Speaker 1: be an army base and we took over the whole thing.
9:01
Speaker 1: You know. We had one section where certain sets were wrong,
9:04
Speaker 1: we had another section we were doing stunts. We had
9:06
Speaker 1: another section for offices, another section for props. So we
9:11
Speaker 1: had the full basis where they're like Star Trek and Aladdin. Um.
9:16
Speaker 1: So we were among good company, you know, coming in there.
9:20
Speaker 1: But first of all, I'm not gonna let y'all be
9:22
Speaker 1: humble here on this project, you know, because that's why
9:25
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, what sound stage? Because I know
9:27
Speaker 1: if you have not seen the movie Jingo Jango, it's
9:30
Speaker 1: on Netflix and Christmas Story Christmas during excuse me, and
9:34
Speaker 1: it starts out in the beginning with a very elaborate
9:37
Speaker 1: dance sequence that just set the tone, you know, just
9:41
Speaker 1: like I said, I wanted to guy, I'm just looking
9:43
Speaker 1: at your David corner. You know my wife. I love
9:48
Speaker 1: being who I am because you know, when you when
9:50
Speaker 1: you see people work, you go, that's my boy right there,
9:55
Speaker 1: you know, And I'm I'm walking through the sequence. How
10:00
Speaker 1: do you David put the dance sequence that was on
10:04
Speaker 1: the ladder? They came down, they come off the ladder,
10:06
Speaker 1: they're singing, just walking through the whole step process of
10:10
Speaker 1: storyboarding out that. Then they go outside they dancing, you
10:14
Speaker 1: know that all that, you know, like you know, I'm
10:17
Speaker 1: just sitting up there. I'm just sitting up there, David going,
10:20
Speaker 1: you got to be kidding me. And then y'all sitting
10:21
Speaker 1: up in linea well, you know, we just keep kids.
10:23
Speaker 1: And you're like, You're like my board Boots been known
10:29
Speaker 1: for forty years and he's seen me all my life.
10:32
Speaker 1: He's like, dude, he was like, son, this is like
10:35
Speaker 1: a real movie. You made, like a real movie. Like
10:38
Speaker 1: I made a lot of movies, and yeah, like this
10:41
Speaker 1: is like a movie movie. But I took I watched
10:47
Speaker 1: the movie The Greatest Show, which I love the choreography.
10:50
Speaker 1: So I hired the choreographer Ashley Wallan, who did that
10:53
Speaker 1: movie Brother from Australia. Wow. And so he came in
10:58
Speaker 1: and we just talked about Hell and Scot and talk
11:02
Speaker 1: about all those MGM musicals from you know, the early days,
11:06
Speaker 1: the fifties and forties and all that, when Oliver and
11:12
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Yeah, where you saw a full body dancing.
11:16
Speaker 1: And that's what I said. I wanted to be a spectacle.
11:20
Speaker 1: Um because if you ask any any black person with
11:23
Speaker 1: their faith musical and they're gonna all say the wind, Yes,
11:28
Speaker 1: that's crazy. I mean that's forty years ago. So but
11:33
Speaker 1: I wanted to make something that was a spectacle, something
11:37
Speaker 1: that was big, something that when you saw it, and
11:40
Speaker 1: I would tell my friends all the time, like, you know,
11:43
Speaker 1: this is something, you know, this is pretty big movies
11:45
Speaker 1: like oh Man, bless you, David, bless you. It's gonna
11:48
Speaker 1: be one of the days they're doing one of his plays,
11:50
Speaker 1: you know, you know, Sean, I just couldn't put it in.
11:54
Speaker 1: But but when I showed that first scene and people
11:58
Speaker 1: doing backlip cameras up here are you know, stepping off,
12:05
Speaker 1: then you get it. But it was it was just
12:08
Speaker 1: a vision of wanting to present us as in the
12:12
Speaker 1: best possible, the boldest, most beautiful, vibrant light. And when
12:17
Speaker 1: it came to the costumes, even then, um, you know
12:21
Speaker 1: it's a Victorian era. Our costume design was like, okay,
12:25
Speaker 1: we're gonna do the costumes in the Victorian era, and
12:28
Speaker 1: then well, I look for us, we're looking at the period.
12:32
Speaker 1: So for me, I was like, okay, we're only maybe
12:35
Speaker 1: one or two generations from your ancestors, so that to
12:39
Speaker 1: me would have been infused. And I just wanted to
12:42
Speaker 1: just glorify our beauty and our heritage and our hairstyles
12:47
Speaker 1: and fabrics and all of those things within this period.
12:52
Speaker 1: I wanted something original that you've never seen, but it
12:55
Speaker 1: was still as vibrant and colorful as The Wizard of
13:00
Speaker 1: Pause and all the movies that we would see that
13:03
Speaker 1: would just be it would just pop off the screen,
13:07
Speaker 1: you know, but so rooted in and grounded, you know,
13:12
Speaker 1: because if you notice, it doesn't look like like we
13:14
Speaker 1: would all wear those clothes, you know, it looked like
13:17
Speaker 1: a costume. It looks like they're they're they're African in there,
13:26
Speaker 1: you know, And so that's really what it what it was.
13:30
Speaker 1: I wanted to highlight just the beauty of us so
13:34
Speaker 1: that it could be normalized. You know, and we see
13:37
Speaker 1: it every day walking on the street. You see it
13:40
Speaker 1: going to thereports, everywhere else. Why can't we see it
13:43
Speaker 1: on the big screen. Well, you guys delivered on the
13:46
Speaker 1: big screen. You delivered the humor, you delivered the heart.
13:50
Speaker 1: And then, like I said, if just throwback like far
13:53
Speaker 1: As Whittaker. Okay, so I was as far As Whitnaker
13:56
Speaker 1: way back in the day when he did uh Jason's lyric.
13:59
Speaker 1: I had a little small role with far I'm just
14:02
Speaker 1: throwing a little credit back. And thank I was fast
14:06
Speaker 1: fraid of the tap dancer, the crackhead tap dancers, So
14:10
Speaker 1: so I go a little back. But what I didn't
14:12
Speaker 1: know was that far As with the hold a note.
14:15
Speaker 1: That's what I didn't though, I did not know that
14:21
Speaker 1: talk to us about you know, I'm not on the
14:23
Speaker 1: giveaway in the story, but definitely that that that that
14:26
Speaker 1: that moved me in a good way. The the the
14:28
Speaker 1: the special effects, you know, like I said, your boy,
14:31
Speaker 1: your boy was talking about this a movie movie. You know,
14:34
Speaker 1: I'm getting when you see a Star Wars, that's you know,
14:37
Speaker 1: the special effects that's a movie. That's that's not just
14:39
Speaker 1: a that's not like open range and you're riding on
14:42
Speaker 1: a horse. That's all he's saying. The special effects, the costume,
14:45
Speaker 1: the snow looked like snow. You know what I'm saying.
14:48
Speaker 1: The special effects look real. The singing was seamless, didn't
14:52
Speaker 1: look like they were lip sinking all that the day
14:54
Speaker 1: nobody looked like that. They was out of sink and
14:57
Speaker 1: all this was he That's all he was saying. It's
14:59
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Speaker 1: E r AI. You can't put a word on it,
17:02
Speaker 1: you know, professionally, you go, hey, man, whatever, you guys,
17:05
Speaker 1: whatever was invested in that movie. I saw it on
17:08
Speaker 1: the screen. I saw it in the storyline. I saw
17:10
Speaker 1: it in the edity, I saw it in the music.
17:13
Speaker 1: I saw in the in the in the in the
17:15
Speaker 1: you know, because every story has to have momentum, you know,
17:18
Speaker 1: and it had momentum. It had reason to care that
17:21
Speaker 1: that that that's beautiful man, that and so so. But
17:24
Speaker 1: you guys are the creators and I'm the participant. What
17:28
Speaker 1: got you there? You know you said two years but
17:31
Speaker 1: you know it's rewrites is sometimes questioning your decisions working
17:36
Speaker 1: with the studio in its case, Netflix, How how did that?
17:40
Speaker 1: How did that journey get you there? David and Lynton, Well,
17:43
Speaker 1: for me, it's it's if everything's attention to detail. You
17:47
Speaker 1: were talking about the digital effects, and you talked about
17:49
Speaker 1: the c g I character in the story book that
17:52
Speaker 1: the gears, that everything, that hair, the costume. You know,
17:56
Speaker 1: when when I would come to the studio with you
17:58
Speaker 1: and if I was remember one time, I was about
18:02
Speaker 1: seven minutes later, we're going to break and I said, Roshan,
18:04
Speaker 1: I'm here, bron a little bit. Lady says, don't know
18:06
Speaker 1: what you missed? Your break? Brother here? Yeah, no, I understand,
18:10
Speaker 1: you'll get it next time, said the result. I got
18:12
Speaker 1: to sell tickets here. I understand that. I told you
18:15
Speaker 1: seven flocks. We gotta business. We gotta don't know fule,
18:20
Speaker 1: but he let me know that that the detail and
18:23
Speaker 1: the level of knowing your worth, knowing your value, knowing
18:27
Speaker 1: what you're here to do, and making sure that you
18:30
Speaker 1: crossed every eye that you cross, every tea dit every eye.
18:33
Speaker 1: That's who I went witnessed with you. When we're doing
18:36
Speaker 1: a place in l A. You would come sitting back
18:39
Speaker 1: and that look here, brother, I like the scene. But
18:41
Speaker 1: now you can do blah blah blah blah blah blah
18:44
Speaker 1: and so, but and so, what we took from from
18:48
Speaker 1: watching people like you build empires, build businesses detailed and
18:55
Speaker 1: it's it's with this opportunity, with this budget, this landscape
19:01
Speaker 1: that Netflix gave us. I wasn't trying to just get
19:05
Speaker 1: in here and and and pop my collar and beat
19:08
Speaker 1: my chest about how the big the budget was. You
19:10
Speaker 1: gave me ten dollars. Our goal was to make it
19:13
Speaker 1: look like a hundred dollars. It was a hundred dollars.
19:16
Speaker 1: Our goals to make it look like five hundred dollars.
19:18
Speaker 1: And so that's what that's what we did. We we
19:22
Speaker 1: we kept our nose to the grind. We didn't we
19:24
Speaker 1: didn't let up. And when it was time for the
19:27
Speaker 1: even the end credit to the Sea, let's let's do
19:29
Speaker 1: some more. The name of the movies. They don't want
19:34
Speaker 1: to tell people un off like move like okay, you
19:38
Speaker 1: away stated to the end of Marvel, and I was like, oh,
19:40
Speaker 1: they do it something out and so and so. And
19:45
Speaker 1: we were fortunate enough to have great partners and Netflix,
19:49
Speaker 1: great partners, and Nick Nesvid and Scott Stubert the head
19:52
Speaker 1: of film and creating exec and and great partners in
19:55
Speaker 1: our digital effects team who surrounded us with the top
20:00
Speaker 1: of the food chain. And we talked about forest, the
20:03
Speaker 1: Oscar winners, we got Oscar winners, Tony Winners, felicip with
20:07
Speaker 1: Jad and Nick Andy Rhodes, Emmy winners, Pegan Michael pete Aton,
20:11
Speaker 1: Grammy winners who wrote the music. He got winners who
20:14
Speaker 1: also produced and wrote the music with us. So we
20:17
Speaker 1: surrounded ourselves with people that are the top of the
20:19
Speaker 1: food chain so they can help elevate us. And that's
20:22
Speaker 1: what and that's what they did. They helped, they helped
20:25
Speaker 1: breathe life and elevate our vision so that it was
20:28
Speaker 1: even the how it turned out was even better than
20:33
Speaker 1: we could have imagined ever imagined it to be. Okay, now,
20:36
Speaker 1: now this is this is, this is come come on,
20:40
Speaker 1: come on, come to the home. He is a fearless leader.
20:44
Speaker 1: You know, you know, in this business, we all have
20:47
Speaker 1: a bit of a chip on our shoulder and our
20:50
Speaker 1: biggest competition is ourselves. And he's brilliant. I mean they
20:55
Speaker 1: we call him the actors director. And so for them
21:01
Speaker 1: to feel comfortable enough to allow him to play their
21:05
Speaker 1: instrument be at Forest Whittaker and Felicia Rashad and a
21:09
Speaker 1: Niken Ony Rose. If you if you let go and
21:12
Speaker 1: you trust him, he is going to take you beyond
21:15
Speaker 1: what you imagine for yourself. And that that's the thing,
21:20
Speaker 1: you know, you have to have a playbook to work with,
21:23
Speaker 1: to add to, and you know, we are grateful for
21:26
Speaker 1: everyone that added to that playbook and elevated it. But
21:29
Speaker 1: it started off with the vision, you know, and the story.
21:33
Speaker 1: So that woman I got told you first, lady, come
21:39
Speaker 1: on first, lay the truth. It's the truth. And so
21:45
Speaker 1: you know you haven't seen anything like it because you
21:48
Speaker 1: haven't seen him do it, you know. So it's it's
21:54
Speaker 1: just a testament to you know, all his hard work
21:57
Speaker 1: and everything that we've always wanted to see ourselves. And
22:01
Speaker 1: there were no rules, you know, We've we've never played
22:04
Speaker 1: by the rules when it comes to creativity, and he
22:09
Speaker 1: knows I never do. And I'm like, well, why who
22:12
Speaker 1: says you can't? You know, kind of like what Journey says,
22:14
Speaker 1: No one ever says I can't. You know that That's
22:17
Speaker 1: how I feel. We operate in a lot of ways.
22:20
Speaker 1: And um, I mean even we still watch it today
22:25
Speaker 1: and I'm still affected. You know, I still cry on
22:30
Speaker 1: the moments. You cry, you know, when I see forests
22:33
Speaker 1: and when I see the communication between the father and daughter,
22:37
Speaker 1: you know, it reminds me of my you know, dad,
22:40
Speaker 1: And so it that's what it is. You know. We
22:44
Speaker 1: always say you can't touch someone else. And let's first
22:47
Speaker 1: you've been touched and we're touched by this and we're
22:51
Speaker 1: just I mean, it's amazing that everybody else is. Before
22:53
Speaker 1: we go to the two books that are coming out
22:55
Speaker 1: and tied to the to the jingle jango franchise. I'm
22:58
Speaker 1: put to word franchise. Okay, um, trendy. You know it's
23:04
Speaker 1: because you know, I watched the movie and you know,
23:07
Speaker 1: then I go, I know how Netflix works. Okay, So
23:10
Speaker 1: so when it started trending, Okay, how was the the household?
23:15
Speaker 1: You know, baby, we can we how come on? Now,
23:19
Speaker 1: you had to get on your you had to start
23:21
Speaker 1: dancing in the house when it started trending. Go on, now,
23:24
Speaker 1: come on, David, come on live. I go to You know,
23:29
Speaker 1: I'm a big emotional big It was really emotional for me,
23:37
Speaker 1: you know. And uh and and so now you got
23:40
Speaker 1: me here. Uh but uh, you know, to do what
23:48
Speaker 1: you loved and to be able to after thirty years
23:51
Speaker 1: in business, to go to a hole, to blow the
23:54
Speaker 1: level that people thought you were in a box that
23:58
Speaker 1: they had put you and assume that this was is
24:03
Speaker 1: all that you had in the tank, and to know
24:06
Speaker 1: that you had more in the tank for all these
24:08
Speaker 1: years and someone finally gave you an opportunity to show
24:12
Speaker 1: it and for you to put it out in the world.
24:15
Speaker 1: And the calls that I've been getting and the text
24:18
Speaker 1: that I've been getting from people I haven't talked to,
24:22
Speaker 1: and I can't tell you how long, man, it is,
24:24
Speaker 1: just it's a it is. It is still overwhelming and
24:28
Speaker 1: very emotional for me. And I'm just thankful, man. And
24:32
Speaker 1: I ain't never going back. I know, I tell you
24:34
Speaker 1: one thing. I ain't never going day. That's why I
24:37
Speaker 1: knew man, Like I said, you know, I'm a Netflix
24:40
Speaker 1: like they always allowed me to review top movies or
24:43
Speaker 1: top talent. And you know The Old Guard, you know, uh,
24:47
Speaker 1: the Five Blood uh uh, you know a Tiger King
24:50
Speaker 1: you know, uh Jamie Fox is a recent movie to trade.
24:55
Speaker 1: All these action adventures, all these are historical, the soap
24:59
Speaker 1: opera type formats. Here was a black Christmas musical. And
25:05
Speaker 1: so I told my wife, I said, look, I said, uh,
25:07
Speaker 1: you know, I I'm putting on social media, putting in
25:10
Speaker 1: my news letter. You don't even know this, you know,
25:11
Speaker 1: I'm just I gotta do what I gotta do for
25:13
Speaker 1: my boyd Okay. And then so when it trended, when
25:17
Speaker 1: I saw it a number ten, my wife said, that's baby,
25:19
Speaker 1: it's number ten. That's a good sign. That's that's a
25:21
Speaker 1: good sign. I said, because they're gonna move up. I said,
25:24
Speaker 1: I know how this thing work. They're gonna move up.
25:27
Speaker 1: And so so I know how Sean McDonald was feeling
25:31
Speaker 1: for you, because I know how much I fight for
25:34
Speaker 1: us to get equal opportunities, and I know how important
25:38
Speaker 1: that finally, you know, all the work you guys do
25:41
Speaker 1: for somebody to say, oh, it's only good for the
25:43
Speaker 1: United States, nobody want to see it, no place else,
25:45
Speaker 1: nobody want to see nobody else, and to get the Netflix.
25:49
Speaker 1: And I've said that the other actors who coming to
25:50
Speaker 1: the show about to be able to premiere in a
25:53
Speaker 1: hundred countries allows you to really understand your value, Lennon David.
25:59
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying, man, is that you know, look
26:02
Speaker 1: at your value is not being showcase worldwide. And that's
26:07
Speaker 1: the beauty of this moment we're having right now, is
26:09
Speaker 1: that nobody's boxing you in. Nobody in Netflix said you
26:12
Speaker 1: know something, we're gonna do you just in the United States. No,
26:16
Speaker 1: we're gonna premieer you a hundred eight when they premiered
26:18
Speaker 1: Tyler Perry and Falcon Grace in January, and then it
26:21
Speaker 1: went whoa when he when he jumped out of twenty
26:26
Speaker 1: seven thous from twenty seven million views and downloads and
26:28
Speaker 1: stuff like that, that shocked them. And now to come
26:31
Speaker 1: back and see what you guys are doing with a
26:33
Speaker 1: Christmas classic, I'm just come up and put the word on.
26:36
Speaker 1: I'm putting franchise on this, and I want the classic
26:39
Speaker 1: on this and for it to be translated in thirty
26:43
Speaker 1: two languages, like I'm watching it in Manadarin, watching and
26:48
Speaker 1: they're singing the songs, you know, in Hindi and you know,
26:52
Speaker 1: Czechoslovaki and and it's it's unbelievable. I know that pact.
26:57
Speaker 1: I remember with Steve and I, Steve Harvey and I
27:00
Speaker 1: this book act like a late to think like a man.
27:02
Speaker 1: When we sold three million copies and they came back
27:05
Speaker 1: saying it was translating the Russian. You know they were
27:07
Speaker 1: translated in French, you know, translating Spanish, not Spanish, not
27:13
Speaker 1: not Mexican Spanish. You know Spain Spain Spanish, which is
27:15
Speaker 1: a different, different, different tone. Basically you can speak eachlan.
27:19
Speaker 1: But we're in Spain translation, you know, so Peru and
27:23
Speaker 1: thirty different languages. It was translated, so I know what
27:26
Speaker 1: you said. I understand that people so appreciated the value
27:29
Speaker 1: of work. You know something. We're gonna translate it because
27:32
Speaker 1: other people need to understand that this is entertaining, this
27:35
Speaker 1: is heartwarming, and this is this is a valuable for
27:38
Speaker 1: us to be bringing to our household. That's the key,
27:40
Speaker 1: bringing your product into our household so we can share.
27:44
Speaker 1: That's what I love about this project. And I just
27:46
Speaker 1: don't want you to walk away from this interview saying
27:49
Speaker 1: not understanding how you guys are changing lives. How you
27:53
Speaker 1: guys see a movie theater. Nobody could go in the
27:55
Speaker 1: movie theater. But when people turn on their television in
27:58
Speaker 1: their house, man, that's that's a different grade of opportunity
28:04
Speaker 1: because racism. Because they ain't going to that black movie.
28:07
Speaker 1: It's over the movie there, they can walk past. But
28:09
Speaker 1: when they turn it on and you started treating, I'm
28:11
Speaker 1: gonna telling some day you're talking about you got emotional.
28:14
Speaker 1: Your bar over here was straight up in tears for
28:19
Speaker 1: you because I knew the blessings and the talents I've
28:23
Speaker 1: always seen in you. I've always known in you, always
28:25
Speaker 1: capable of doing and producing, was showing and that's just
28:28
Speaker 1: the start. Like you said, you're not going back. Your
28:31
Speaker 1: damn right, you ain't going back because I ain't gonna
28:33
Speaker 1: let you go back. Okay, not at all, Tanning Tanning
28:43
Speaker 1: my microphone. Now let's talk about these two books. You
28:45
Speaker 1: got a Jingle Jangle, The Invention of Geronicaus and The
28:48
Speaker 1: Square Root of Possible. Let's talking about that. Yeah, So, Um,
28:53
Speaker 1: I wanted to do some companion books with the film,
28:55
Speaker 1: and you know for my son as well, Um, the
29:00
Speaker 1: Square would be Possible. It's just pushing that same thing
29:03
Speaker 1: that we had in the film. I want children to
29:05
Speaker 1: find their square the possible and have a fun story.
29:08
Speaker 1: And I have an amazing illustrator that illustrated it, Tara
29:12
Speaker 1: Nicole Whittaker, and it's released through Penguin Random House and
29:17
Speaker 1: so it's a sweet Christmas story to tell and it's
29:21
Speaker 1: great to go along with the kids. And Invention of
29:24
Speaker 1: Gerracas Jangle is that middle grade book for the older
29:28
Speaker 1: kids that they could read to delve in a little
29:30
Speaker 1: bit deeper to the story. And we had a full
29:33
Speaker 1: circle moment where Um, Felicia Rashad read the audio book
29:37
Speaker 1: for that, so it'll be released. Yes, when is the
29:42
Speaker 1: audio being released for that? Okay? Cool available for preorder now.
29:50
Speaker 1: They'll be available tomorrow and anyone that purchases a book
29:54
Speaker 1: you'll get the song Square would be possible for free
29:57
Speaker 1: from the soundtrack. Just upload your receipt to Jingle Jingles
30:01
Speaker 1: Jangles song Dot. And I said, I'm outful right there. Okay,
30:06
Speaker 1: every Wednesday, I I have a dainty thousand plus fan club.
30:11
Speaker 1: Please tell you people to send me the link okay,
30:14
Speaker 1: nine am, and to go out, you know, Like I said,
30:17
Speaker 1: I've already put you guys two weeks ago. I put
30:19
Speaker 1: you guys in my fan club. You didn't know it
30:22
Speaker 1: about know about that, but I gotta do what I do.
30:24
Speaker 1: I would have put this on my social media. I
30:25
Speaker 1: got almost a million social media followers, So please get
30:29
Speaker 1: those links to us. Like I said, this was just
30:31
Speaker 1: a This is just to say thank you, David. I
30:33
Speaker 1: love your brother Lynn, your special You truly are first lady.
30:38
Speaker 1: You've shown your first lady status on this interview. Made
30:42
Speaker 1: the grade two years. Absolutely. I thank you brother, you
30:48
Speaker 1: you know, and there's a there's a lot of people
30:51
Speaker 1: that say they want to see other folks win and
30:55
Speaker 1: behind closed doors and do everything to stop them from
30:57
Speaker 1: getting there. You've always not only wanted to see me
31:00
Speaker 1: when challenge me to be the best version of that
31:04
Speaker 1: from and I thank you for that man, and I
31:08
Speaker 1: want to thank you both for coming on when tomaking conversation.
31:10
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