January 17

Nighthawks, 1981

Welcome to the 2020 season of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers. J. Blake and Dion Baia decided to go way down the alley and kick off the year with a personal favorite for the duo, a film that became a gritty, New York cult classic. The boys are tackling the Sylvester Stallone classic Nighthawks, from 1981.

Dion and Blake unpack the many stories revolving around the making of this movie, from an original two and a half hour cut that was severely chopped down to scale back the gore and remove the lead character background subplots, to the stories of the tension onset told to them by SNMS‘ old friend, retired NYPD Detective turned actor, producer and film consultant, Randy Jurgensen. The fellas are taking the Christmas tree down and putting the decorations away for this season opener in and all new 2020 edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! And thank you Moose!

And please check out Skillshare!

EXTRAS!

Check out our exclusive interviews with retired NYPD Homicide Detective turned producer, actor and film consultant Randy Jurgensen about his days as a cop, and his incredible history with some of the most classic films of all time!

June 15

Jurassic Park, 1993

Welcome back to another edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Dion Baia and J. Blake are back talking about a mega summer blockbuster that turns 25 years old this month, a film that literally changed the face of cinema with its use of DTS and Computer Generated Imagery for the better (or worse, depending on your feelings about CGI vs Practical Effects). That’s right, the boys are chatting the Michael Crichton/Steven Spielberg classic, Jurassic Park, from 1993!

Blake and Dion jump right in, discussing memories of seeing this film that glorious summer of 1993, and how incredible the visuals and audio were for cinema-goers at the time. They discuss the revolutionary Special Effects within this movie and how they evolved with the story from being robotic and stop-motion effects, to ground-breaking CGI. They cover the inception of this story from the brilliant mind of Michael Crichton, and how he was able to sell this idea to Steven Spielberg even before the book was published. They also dissect Spielberg‘s choices within the film and the moments that have now become that of cinema legend! So grab your partners, pile into the autonomous Ford Explorers, and whatever you do, don’t get out of the vehicles if there’s a power outrage, because the fellas are talking dinosaurs this week with an all new installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

Extras!

Check out this 1993 behind-the-scenes making-of documentary on Jurassic Park!

Take a look at these great and rare behind the scenes footage at Stan Wintson’s workshop, developing the various practical dinosaur Effects!

Here’s a great behind-the-scenes featurette creating and sculpting the full-size T-Rex dinosaur!

Have a gander at this great interview with Michael Crichton talking about Jurassic Park.

May 13

SNMS Presents: The Side-Cast-Origins, Travels and Close Encounters

Hello True Believers!! Welcome to a very special and impromptu edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! J. Blake and Dion Baia sit down and deliver a brand new episode of the Side Cast, laying the foundation for summer installments of both new, and reissued editions of this podcast series.SNMS Side Cast

The boys set the table and explain the premise of the Side Casts, and while doing that (because they go hand in hand), Dion and Blake lay out the origins of that podcast, and how it in turn morphed into Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! The fellas go on to talk about Blake‘s recent trip to California, where he met up and hung out with various Horror film composers he’d interviewed for this upcoming book, Scored To Death, and the stories from those meetings. They go on to cover the fun celebrities Blake met and hung out with while attending the Monsterpalooza Horror Convention in Pasadena, and he also dissects the various studio tours he went on while out there. They also preview the upcoming Side Cast Podcasts, as well as just keep the conversation lite, not focusing on one particular topic or film, as their usual format imposes. So come on down and pull up a chair with two old friends, as they enjoy each other’s company in another all new episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

Extras:

Check out the awesome James Remar photo Blake got for Dion at Monsterpalozza! AND He’s Blake with James Remar!

We’re all part of a Tribe..!” Take a look at highly recommended biography: Not Bad for a Human: The Life and Films of Lance Henriksen! AND Check out the Blake w/ the legend himself, Lance Henriksen!

Here’s Blake with The Last Starfighter star, Lance Guest!

And he Blake is with The Last Starfighter director and Halloween‘s “The Shape” himself, Nick Castle!

Take a look at Blake with 80’s action icon Al Leong!

Here’s Blake on the Town Sqaure and Church Backlot used in films such as The Monster Squad and The Lost Boys!

Have a gander at Blake having dinner with legendary film composers Harry Manfredini and Joseph Bishara!

Lastly, here’s Blake in front of Norman and Mama Bates’ house… there’s still a vacancy!!

April 15

Dick Smith – SNMS Presents: The Side-Cast: An Evening with a Hollywood Make-up Legend

Spring is upon us, and we here at SNMS thought we should again SNMS Side Caststarted re-airing the original series that paired Dion Baia with his cohort in crime, J. Blake in a string of podcasts called the Side-Cast. Originally airing on their sister site Podwits.com, the Side-Cast was the series catalyst for what became SNMS. To showcase where it all began we are reissuing this program, highlighting the anthology podcast that covered a variety of topics, so that they can not only breath a second life, but also continue what started in the Fall (with the exclusive interviews with Randy Jurgensen and with contributor and Horror enthusiast Dave H), where brand new content is generated as an off-shoot of the regular SNMS Podcast.

Since last week’s Dick Tracy Podcast mentioned legendary make-up artist Dick Smith, and was also about a film that relied heavily on practical make-up effects, we figured why not re-air a cast solely about this legend, which also contains Blake and Dion‘s personal story of their night with Mr. Smith. We hope you enjoy.

-(This podcast originally aired August the 4th, 2014, coinciding with Dick Smith’s passing.)-

In this very special edition of the Podwits Side Cast, Dion and contributor J. Blake celebrate the life of the “God among DickSmithMonsters_largeGods“, SFX master, Dick Smith. They discuss his many groundbreaking achievements in cinema and touch upon the highlights of his extensive resume, bringing to light some films audiences may forget Smith was apart of. The boys then get to the gem of the cast (in their minds) and relay their personal, exciting and hilarious story of the time they spent an evening with the master himself, 15 years ago, at an event they organized!

It is truly an insightful and entertaining cast and a must for any film fan, celebrating the life and work of a great artist. Please come and have a listen!

EXTRAS:

Here’s a write up Dion did in 2012 about the evening he and Blake met Dick Smith!