Why Is This Not a Movie‪?‬ Mike Vago

Jonathan Ames' detective novel A Man Named Doll, and its sequel The Wheel of Doll combine the playfulness of Bored to Death (which Ames created) and You Were Never Really Here (which Lynne Ramsay adapted into a film in 2017. It's a tricky balancing act between tones that Ames pulls of with aplomb.

Here to talk about why it should be a movie is Aquarium Drunkard writer and editor Jason Woodbury, who also hosts the Transmissions podcast.

Paul Chadwick's long-running comics series Concrete is about a man who's transformed into a hulking cement-like monster, who wants to use his newfound power to make a difference... and isn't really sure how to go about it.

Comics writer Ted Anderson (The Spy Who Raised Me, Side Effects, Orphan Age), joins us to talk about why saving the world makes for a less interesting story than trying to help in small ways and not always succeeding.

2016's The Nice Guys was a terrific action comedy, with a smart script by Shane Black, and two charismatic, bankable leads in Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe. But it barely made its budget back and was quickly forgotten.

Screenwriter Scott Myers, who also runs Go Into the Story, the screenwriting blog for The Black list, joins us to talk about why Hollywood has lost interest in action comedies, AI and the aftermath of the WGA strike (which was resolved the day we recorded this), and why The Nice Guys deserved either several sequels or a limited series. Myers is also the author of The Protagonist's Journey, a book about screenwriting and storytelling, and we talk a fair amount about both in this episode.

Rube Waddell was a pitcher in the early days of baseball with one of the most colorful stories in all of sports. In 1903 alone, he threw 302 strikeouts, won 22 games, started the season sleeping in a firehouse, ended it working as a bartender, and in between starred in a play in which he refused to memorize his lines; met, married, and divorced one of his several wives; accidentally shot a friend through the hand; and was bitten by a lion.

Author Randall Lotowycz (The DC Book of Lists, Superhero Playbook, Michael Recycle) joins us to talk about why a character study of one of the game's most colorful oddballs could be the anti-Forrest Gump.

We're back to kick off season 5 with Preeti Chhibber, multitalented podcaster (Women of Marvel, Desi Geek Girls, Tar Valon or Bust) and author (A Jedi You Will Be, Avengers Assembly, Spider Man's Social Dilemma), who's here to tell us why her favorite Spider-Man movie is a Playstation game. Look for new newest book, Spider-Man's Bad Connection, in bookstores everywhere!

1984's Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension was a fun, pulpy mess of a sci-fi adventure, which promised us a sequel... which we never got. Nearly 40 years later, screenwriter Earl Mac Rauch wrangled the rights to the character away from the studio and gave us a novelization of Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, the movie he never got to make. And it's not very good.

So to wrap up Season 4, a brief meditation on the pitfalls of reviving a property by creating a watered-down version of the original instead of pushing forward with new ideas. As we coast to the end of the season, my voice is starting to go, so bear with me this week, as I talk about a movie I wanted and never got, the joy of throwing every crazy idea you can into a story, and the importance of keeping things moving forward.