The whole Housing Market is propped up on these bad loans. They will fail. The Housing Market is rock solid. Its a time bomb. Mike murry who gets his hair cut at supercuts knows more than alan greenspan. He does. You know what . Im pissed off. The American People are getting screwed by big banks. I am getting madder and madder. Its unbelievable. This guy walks into my office and says theres some shady stuff going down. We are having a big old party. A few outsiders saw what no one else could. The whole World Economy might collapse. Im sure the world bank has more incentive than greed. Youre wrong. No one is paying attention. The banks got greedy. You want to bet against the banks . I think we either hide or have a stroke. Kind of brilliant. Fraud has never, ever worked. Eventually things go south. When the hell did we forget all that . How can the banks let this happen . It is fueled by stupidity. That is not stupidity. Thats fraud. Tell me the difference between stupid and illegal and i will have my wifes brother arrested. [laughter] do you have any idea what you just did . You bet against the american economy. If youre wrong, you can lose it all. The banks defrauded the American People. Now we kick them in the teeth. Here we go. You talked to strippers. Bad loans. Not going to be able to refinance. On all my loans . What do you mean all your loans . I have five houses and a condo. Charlie joining me now is the films writer and director adam mckay and steve carell. I am pleased to have them both here. Welcome. It is great to see you. Look at this. Hollywood occupies wall street. There you are. Of course, the other stars are here, too. Howd you do that . Adam i still cannot figure it out. Charlie this is a comedy or a tragedy . Adam it is both. It is a true story. We knew from the beginning it would never adhere to one strict genre. These guys, real people that steve plays and Christian Bale, all of these great actors, when they found out there was a bubble, they were very excited. These were exciting times. They were having there was a lot of energy. That changed and became tragic. It is kind of both. Charlie youve wanted to do this. To read about you in this magazine, you wanted to make this movie about wall street and about the crash. Adam yeah. I read this book and i felt like Michael Lewiss book was one of the books of our times. I really felt like it dealt with a lot of issues. I think it dealt with culture, it dealt with character and it dealt with information. You do not often see those three things intertwined so brilliantly. By the time i was done reading it, i felt i had looked behind the curtain of wall street i know it is more complicated than that. So, we decided with this movie that we were going to go for it all. We were going to try to explain it, have great characters, go for the whole thing. Charlie it is a little different than anchorman. Adam i do not think it is different at all. Can you explain how it is different . Steve Character Development was very similar. [laughter] steve adam would be at the monitor. Adam likes to work, he has a microphone. In his little directors area. Charlie a megaphone. Steve amplified. He has a microphone. And he barks orders. He gives us adam im very german when i direct. I want exactness. I want marks to be hit. Steve it was similar in a way to anchorman, except the things were talking about. Charlie how was it similar . Steve in the sense that you have complete freedom to fail. You knew that adam would protect you. If you stunk, he would not put in the movie. That really is it. Its a great protection because then you try all sorts of thing. Charlie you take risks. Steve it is great as an actor to be able to do that. Charlie tell me who this is that you portray, Stephen Eiseman . Steve the characters name in the movie is mark. We change the name. It is based on stephen. He is a brash, bold. He does not suffer fools. I met with him. Actually, mr. Eiseman showed up the second day i was shooting. And was instructed to sort of lay low. Dont hang out at the monitor. Sort of be a fly on the wall and within minutes, he was giving adam notes. He was walking on the set giving me instructions. Charlie notes . Steve they were great. Adam the guy is a smart guy. Look, steve, it is great to have you. You cant throughout the movie, when you see the movie, you are aware that carell doing mark is constantly getting phone calls in the middle of conversations and walking away from people. I went up to the real guy. Steve, you cannot come and in the middle of me talking to him, he got a phone call and walked away. He is always on the phone. Telling you what you should do. Yet, you love him. He is on the side of the angels. He is definitely a good guy. Charlie so, did you talk to him about portraying the role, but what he thought . His mannerisms . Steve but sort of creepy doing that. Charlie creepy . I thought that is what great actors did . Steve it is weird because you do not want to feel like you are stealing their soul. You do not want to feel like you are examining them. They are some sort of science project. When youre sitting across from them in a diner on the upper east side. Ooh, look what he did with his hand. That is just weird. You are doing it, but you do not want to feel like you are taking advantage. I want to be respectful and pay respect to him as a person in the portrayal. Charlie its hard to say that anything after the last one that was nominated for an oscar that , anything is a turn for you. Because you have made the turn. [laughter] steve that could be interpreted so many different ways. Charlie you know what i meant. Steve adam is going to the same sort of thing because he is known for anchorman. But i think anyone who knows ive known adam since 1990. Anyone who knows him knows this is not a big surprise. Everyone that he wouldact want to make this kind of film. Steve and that he would do it so elegantly. Hes so smart. And so passionate. Its a perfect fit. Charlie someone said in writing and reading this piece and other pieces about him that in a group of comedians he is the funniest guy in the room, even though you have never seen him on screen. Steve definitely. Absolutely. He is the guy with the microphone, at the monitor, he is the one lobbing those lines out that are everyones favorite lines in the movie. Your job is to try and say without laughing and without ruining his delivery. So, yeah. He is the funniest person there. Charlie why no role for will ferrell here . Adam we discussed it. At 1. I said to will, you know, at one point, i said to will, you know, there are some cameos we could do. He said, no, do this on your own. God bless, will. He came down and visited the set and hung out. Thats will. He had no reason to be there other than to support the guy he works with and we had a great time with him. He has been amazing. Very excited for this movie. Charlie people who watch the show have heard me interview michael 10 times, including about the big short. Tell me the story, for those of us, that you tell in the film. Adam what drew me to it Michael Lewis is an amazing writer. It is a book everyone should read. What i loved about it was he burrows down on these four or five outsiders who, despite the numbers being cartoonishly obvious that there was a housing bubble, for some reason this little group of guys were the only ones that saw it. And right away i was hooked because i just love what is that what does that say about our culture . Charlie all of the smart people on wall street did not and the small group of guys did. Adam on top of that he has humor, rhythm, and most of all , he has got information. By the time i was done reading the book, i felt like i did pretty good shape of what led to the 2008 collapse. Yet id been completely engaged with these characters who are so amazingly played by these actors. I just never read a book that did that much where was learning, engaged, it was dramatic, tragic, funny. It is effortless. Charlie assuming you knew all the stuff about derivatives. [laughter] steve that is what adam called. That is why adam called. Charlie he knew you knew. Steve he knew it would be so easy for me to improvise. It is hard because adam likes to improvise. To improvise a leg which you do to improvise a language you do not speak is tricky. You have to throw some things in your back pocket and bone up a bit before you charlie learn to pronounce certain words . Steve learn them phonetically. But there were days, some of the actors were better. Jeremy strong was great at it. He was always loaded and was really articulate. But i know, no, did not know much about it. I read the book and learned as much as i could before we started. Charlie did you learn something about the financial industry because of this . Steve i did. Its terrifying. The entire charlie terrifying how it couldve happened . Nobody smart saw it coming. They do something about the Housing Market. Steve it is terrifying that it could happen again, and that nothing has really changed. Adam we say it at the beginning of the movie, we say all they did was look. Its terrifying that a whole society can be looking to the right when the information is to the left. The total amount of people that caught this were like 20, 22 people. We focus on these four or five, but its amazing that billions of people can be looking in one direction Charlie Michael found them, too. Adam thats lewis. Charlie knew who he was. He was looking for a way to tell the story. Then he found a few guys who bet who got it and that on their own. And then picked adam and then picked the characters that would make the best story. He found the true outsiders. If you look at the other people that bet. The Christian Bale character is amazing. A guy who listens to speed metal. Has a glass eye, is on the spectrum. When i talked to him, he was one of the most brilliant, honest decent people you will meet in , your life. Charlie lets go to the first scene where steves character is talking to his wife. All right . Here it is. Hey, excuse me hi, honey. The therapist called. You did it again. There were no cabs. You are running around like you have to write every wrong in the world so angry. Fine. You know what . Im a mean guy and im pissed off. You have no idea the kind of crap people are pulling and everyone is Walking Around like they are in a damn enya video. You know what they care about . They care about the ballgame and what actress just went into rehab. I think you should try vacation. We agreed that interferes with work. I love my job. You hate your job. I love my job. I love my job. You are miserable. I love my job. I love my job, honey. Mark. Cynthia, im ok. My cab. Thats my cab. That is my cap. It is not. Ill call you later. [laughter] charlie so now that hes gone, tell me about him as an actor. Adam he is so humble that i knew he would be good. It was so much fun. I worked with him in two other comedies. I worked with him in chicago doing theater, second city. And what i saw in this movie was this hunger for the moment, this tenacious i wont quit until i know its true. I felt like we were both chasing down a straight half stray calf with every take. Charlie eiseman is a largerthanlife character. He found a way to get inside. He did not just do impressions. Adam absolutely. If you meet the real steve eiseman, he is very confident, very funny. Reads comic books. He brought this vulnerability. You can see the anger, the betrayal by the world in every scene. It is so perfect. He really did fine, he got a got his feet on the ground with a character that would have been very easy to go super big with. He has amazing instincts. He came in knowing, he has a big speech moment in the end of the movie that could easily have been hollywood strings. This is the moralistic moment. All steve did was say, i do not want it to be that. I said, i dont want it to be that either. We fought against that. To make it as real as we could while having it be a speech. It has great instincts. He knows when it is for real. He knows what he wants to see and then he just works and pushes to get there. That other guy he reminded me up off was Christian Bale. The two of them are kind of similar in their approach. Charlie as actors . Adam yeah. Yeah, yeah. As far as huge amounts of preparation and an amazing nose for the truth. I thought the two of them kind of charlie actors do that on their own . Do they go do that and when they show up they have it . Adam for sure. As a director you encourage them. I told steve, i would love to you to put on some weight. Four so, steve showed up 20 pounds heavier. I was like, oh, i do not think you would put on that some that much weight. Same thing with christian. I would love you to spend time with the real guy. Sure enough, he goes and spends a day and a half with the guy, gets real clothes, learns how to play drums like the real guy. Charlie learns how to play drums . Adam yes, in three weeks. Charlie you dont do that overnight, do you . Adam no, no. Especially the kind of drums he had to play with speed metal, one of the hardest forms of drums. In three weeks Christian Bale learned this song by pantera. Incredibly difficult song with double kick drums. Played it nonstop. A lot of people think of these guys as big movie stars. They are famous. Oh, Christian Bale, brad pitt. They are really good. Charlie is brad pitt producing this as well . Adam he and his company plan b. Charlie the got the rights to the book early. Adam exactly, exactly. Charlie was it a hard book to make into a film . Adam for me, i have always been looking for this chance to mess with the form. Ive always known that film has been around for a long time, and ive seen some movies i really liked like 24 hour party , american splendor, where they played with breaking the fourth wall. I felt like audiences can handle that. I think we are ready for it now. 30 years ago, no. When i read this book, yes, its difficult but i knew if i played with the fourth wall i could pull it off. And there could be a different kind of Kinetic Energy to it. So that is exactly what drew me to it. Charlie what does brad play . Adam he is the mentor to the two greenhorns. They play the rookies. Hes the old gunslinger who hung up his guns who hated wall , street so much. Endnow he has become an times prepper. He really thinks the whole world is going down. It is based on a true guy. These young guys convince him to come out of retirement so they can start trading these bigtime options. Charlie this is what new York Magazine said. It said, lately before mckay and his wife go to bed, he and his wife talk about Climate Change. And particularly the paper he stanford. He is that he might do a movie about it next. It will be serious but with some cool stuff. Then again, he is also interested in immigration. Do think there is a way to do movie about immigration that is a comedy and yet people who are antiimmigration would go see it . And be able to watch it and to have some degree of enjoying it . [laughter] adam we kind of did it with talladega nights. Charlie yeah, yeah, you did. Adam there is a way you can do this that is not condescending, not judgment. We are all in this. We are all trying to figure it out. Its a question. Can you do a movie where guys protect our border, these hapless characters, and end up crossing over to mexico and have to get back in . I dont know. Charlie do you as a writer and a director have a keen sense of interest in Public Affairs . Adam i just think we live in incredibly unusual times right now. I just think there are a lot of things happening right now that have never happened in the history of mankind. The giant media machine we have in the United States with thousands of tv channels. Charlie that is why you made anchorman. The basic cable industry. Adam exactly. I think we have this interconnectedness going on with our financial system, the internet. There are some things happening. And we have Climate Change, which possibly could be the biggest threat to mankind ever. I just think to ignore the subjects would be foolish. Charlie you can find absurdity in all of them. They are all comedy. Adam they are all crazily absurd. Charlie what is the connection between you and will . Adam we just have this crazy partnership. It started back in saturday night live. Charlie you were the head writer. Adam he comes from a divorced family. His dad is a musician. Im from a divorced family. My dad is he musician. We are both basically the same age. We laugh at the same things. What i love about will is he just, he does not believe any of the hype. He is in no way full of himself. Both of us believe in no drama. And both of us sort of constantly laugh about the fact that people are stressing out about movies, where in 40 years we are not going to be watching movies anymore. Its going to be charlie what are we going to be watching . Adam you know, 4d virtualreality discs. So, yeah, it has been an amazing relationship. He has also got a great sort of view of the world. He is political, social yet not strident. He has got a sense of humor. We have an amazing partnership. Charlie are you interested in the president ial primaries . Adam i guess so. Sort of like finding the power in your fridge went out and everything is rotten inside. Charlie you did not know it was this bad. Is that what youre saying . Adam that is what i am saying. It is really shocking. I am 47 and i feel like a 90yearold man when i talk about it. I have to tell my daughters it did not used to be this way. Charlie when you think of trump, do you want to create a character like trump knowing it would be an instant success on television . Adam we actually on funny or die we did a character called denaldo trumpez, a mexican trump. Complaining about the all the americans coming down to drink tequila. And how he wants to build a wall. That ended up getting 25 mlion hits. Yeah. I have never seen anything like trump, ive got to be honest and ben carson. It is beyond the bounds of satire. The Movie Network looks so quaint and rustic. Yeah, yeah. Charlie its so far out there. Adam if network happened now, it would just be you would not even blink. The guy got people to yell out their windows. You would move right on. Charlie you told in the same piece, you said, i dont think this movie is just about just banking. That is really what is about, isnt it . How does the system go wrong . What happened so that all of a sudden you have a bubble . Adam i think this is one of the Big Questions confronting us as humans in the next 100 years. How it is very easy to start to create an institution but its hard to maintain them. And corruption, especially when we are doing as well as we are because of this money tends to seep in faster, i think this is the next great question we have to confront, whether it is Climate Change or banking or the military or whatever it is. We have have to look. I would even point to terrorism to say that a lot of those terrorists are coming from country that are crazily corrupt where the bottom 90 have no money and the top 10 have money. I think it is the number one issue. And that is really kind of what drew me to this movie. I think that dynamic is something that needs to be heavily explored and discussed. In an abstract way. Regardless charlie so what is on the drawing board . Adam as far as movies . I am looking at a couple different movies. I have an interesting one about , well immigration with will , ferrell and i. Im looking at a movie about sociopaths that is a little darker. The idea that our culture, eventually we want to cultivate sociopaths, because they make a lot of money. They are great for corporations. They are great as surgeons. Sort of a dark comedy. Theres another script im kicking around which is a dark superhero script. I have three or four projects kicking around. You always see which one takes root. Charlie it takes its own direction . Adam exactly. charlie it is great to have you. Adam pleasure. Charlie the big short is the movie. Back in a moment. Stay with us. Sure, tv has evolved over the years. Its gotten squarer. Brighter. Bigger. Its gotten thinner. Even curvier. But whats next . For all binge watchers. Movie geeks. Sports freaks. X1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. Tand thats what were doings to chat xfinity. Rself, we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. And this includes our commitment to being on time. Every time. Thats why if were ever late for an appointment, well credit your account 20. Its our promise to you. Were doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. Because we should fit into your life. Not the other way around. Charlie the great ron howard is here. An Academy Awardwinning director and producer. His films include apollo 13 and frost nixon. His latest is in the heart of the sea. It tells the true story of the disastrous voyage that inspired moby dick. Here is the trailer for the film. We were headed for the edge of sanity. Like we were apparitions, phantoms. Trust gave way to doubt. Hope to superstition. The tragedy of the essex is a story of men. And a demon. Charlie i am pleased to have ron howard back at this table. Welcome. Ron good to be here as always, charlie. Charlie the true story of the essex. What is the story . Ron wheel ship essex left in 1819. In 1820, it was looking for whales. Charlie it moved further out in the ocean. Ron the whales, hunted. That was the Energy Industry of its time. Whale oil, that was lighting the streets of paris, london, new york, philadelphia, lowering crime rates. It was a huge market issue. But it was political. In its own way, it was as relevant as oil, the Energy Industry, is today. These guys for all the reasons of ambition, trying to feed their families, going further and further out. And they were struck by a whale a bull sperm whale sank the ship. And they were forced to abandon. And struggle to survive. And this is that story. And 30 years later it inspired Herman Melville to write moby dick. I had no idea that that mythic figure, that whale existed. Charlie and somebody came along to write a story about that, which is the movie. Ron Nathaniel Philbrick wrote about the story of the essex which had been forgotten. When i found out about it, i felt like it was it scratched an itch. For a long time, i wanted to make a movie set in the sea. In a playful way i had done some sequences for splash and cocoon. Getting over my phobia of the ocean. Charlie what is your phobia, drowning . Ron the darkness, the isolation, and the hugeness. I dont feel like i would have any control out there. Anyway directors like control. It is a very powerful story. And i felt like it was something really original to offer audiences. When i say that, it seems odd, because there is a classical nature to this. So many of the themes do resonate today. From a cinematic standpoint, i do not think this movie could have been put together this way without Movie Technology thats finally in place. When i saw life of pi, i finally realized this story could exist and that character could not, of the whale, would not be something the audience would have to suspend disbelief, but instead, you can have a totally immersive experience in the theater watching this. Charlie what is that technology . Ron cgi. Photo realism. Cgi has been with us for a long time. The movie i did in 1987 was willow. It worked for fantasy for a long time very effectively, but photo realism is always a challenge. In recent years, that breakthrough has been made and allows directors to get more and more of what it is they are dreaming of, imagining in their minds onto the screen. Charlie i want to get back to this story in a moment but the technical challenge of this is huge. Ron the technical challenge was huge. Charlie you have a big water tank out there. Ron it was a combination of things. It is probably the most challenging movie i have ever made. The logistics. The narrative, the structure of this movie is a little bit unusual. Its, the drama, the demands on the actors. They had to drop weight. Remarkable. Charlie they were away for a year. Ron they were adrift for 90 days. I had to keep minding that and creating an environment where they could flourish. And then there are the technical challenges. Both in terms of shooting on tanks and matching that with things we are going to shoot in the real ocean. The planning had to be so thorough, and yet it is a live action movie. At the end of the day, you do not know what elements you are dealing with charlie did you have to go with a certain kind of training with the actors . Ron they went to, they went to Sailor School and whaling school. And we had technical advisors. We had help from, theres a fantastic museum in nantucket. Mystic. New bedford as well. And we had a captain from the south street seaport who knows all about the tall ships. And helped us with that. Charlie and you had to recreate nantucket. Ron that was oldschool hollywood stuff. Do your designs, do your research and build the set. I felt like i was a kid on the mgm lot. Speaking of mgm, when i was about 8 years old, i was doing courtship of eddies father, and my dad was with me. I saw a lot of people in sort of tricorn hats. We followed them and it was the remake of mutiny on the bounty. There was a stage that had this big tank. And there was the bounty and Marlon Brando was in the part. And Charles Lawton was once again playing the captain. I remember standing there and watching this thing float in the tank, never imagining that i would wind up directing a scene with similar challenges. Charlie what is interesting is the first scene in the movie when melville shows up to interview the last survivor of the essex. Ron its him with his burning desire to get to the bottom of the story. Charlie melvilles . This guy was not even talking to his wife about it. Ron there was survivors guilt. They had no idea at the me, but gleason, the actor who plays the older nickerson, tom holland plays the younger nickerson. Much of the movie is seen through his eyes. Charlie why is that . Ron i like the immediacy of a point of view approach. I feel that i am, i want these kind of adventure stories to not be grand canvases but to be focused. What would it be like to be there . That is one of my guiding theories. Charlie whenever i have someone like that here, i say, take me there. Give me a sense of what it was like for you to be there at the moment of your worst fear. Ron it is fascinating to look back at this story and directorally interesting because you are dealing with a mythic figure and it was interesting to play with it. The men themselves are transformed by thicrisis. They went out there with a lot of hubris, pride. That was the period of manifest destiny. Our job is to conquer the world. And Everything Else should bow. And here, you know, they were confronted with this force of nature. And when, after the whale sank the ship, in their journals you can see them wondering, is this divine retribution and for the life we have lived . Because whaling was slaughter. It was the most brutal kind of mercenary industry you can imagine. Charlie you have on the one hand the ship versus the whale. On board you have the conflict between pollard, the captain. Ron that is very much out of filbrooks book. Pollard, he sort of reflected that the class system that existed in nantucket at the time. That was a little more european. And owen chase was more of that jacksonian new american, not from the island, but expected, the respect of all he had achieved. By all accounts, he was kind of the Michael Jordan of it all. He could just do anything, and everybody, some fears him, but everyone admired him. Charlie played by Chris Hemsworth. Ron i had a great experience with him on rush. I thought he more than inhabited the character. He developed a character in very surprisingly creative ways. And so, when he brought this to me and i read about the real owen chase, i thought that he was born to play this part. I was about to say it, i had twice before prepared movies and could not ultimately get the financing together and make the productions go. Charlie earlier in your career . Ron in the middle of my career. Early in the 1980s, i wanted to do a true story of about the greenpeace ship rainbow warrior. It had been confiscated by the spanish, in spanish waters. And there was a cool escape. I never could get that together. Then, oh, around 2000, i wanted to make the sea wolf. Jack londons book. I like that 19th century, rugged adventure with the sea testing men on the moral dilemmas that arise. I did not get that movie off the ground, either. The reasons were kind of mutual, because i do not think i could necessarily achieve it in a way that i could presented to audiences and really fulfill the possibilities of the story. When chris brought me this, a kind of Charlie Chris brought it to you . Ron it is a script that Paula Weinstein had had for 12 years. Since philbricks book, she optioned it. And you know, i looked at it and i thought, the technology is here to do this. I have all these experiences behind me. I think i know how to do it now in a way that i could not have confidence before. I thought Chris Hemsworth was the perfect guy to inhabit that role. Charlie then you got benjamin walker. Ron a great new york actor cillian murphy. Brendan gleeson. Young tom holland. An excellent cast. Charlie where did you find the ship . Ron we found a ship in england. A tall ship. It gets used in movies. They use it for educational purposes. Its very busy. It is called the phoenix. It was about the size of the essex. We had to convert it with some set pieces to make it look like a whaler. And then we had to build the deck of that. And use that for, on a tank with hydraulics for the whale attack, for a storm, for some other action. When were out to see in the Canary Islands back on the phoenix charlie sailing across the atlantic. Ron we filmed all that and got a lot of details. Then we went out there with our actors that went through sailing school. In the whale boats, after they were adrift. Charlie this is the essex setting sail. Mr. Chase the anchor. Take the helm. Make sail. Lets go. [shouting indiscriminate orders] [indistinct shouting] the essex still wont clear watch your step. Stand clear. Oh make sail. Nice piece of work. Charlie there you go. Ron well, that is just chase making it look easy. Yeah. Look, it was thrilling to enter this world and learn something. I think this period of time between getting to make rush, learning about formula one, and this story has been one of the richest, most interesting creative periods for me. It is a fun time. I am getting to make some documentaries. My kids are grown. I am trying to explore the media. Charlie it may be the best time of your life . Ron maybe. Ive had some great rich periods. That time around making apollo 13. Charlie what about the time between apollo 13 and a Beautiful Mind . Ron i did ransom. The grinch. I like to keep moving around and explore different genres. Charlie did you do another one from the trilogy . Ron dan brown. The Robert Langton mysteries. Inferno. We just finished filming in europe. That was a great experience, a lot of fun. Look, the business side is more and more complicated. In every aspect of media, theres a transformation going on. That puts stress on economics but it also opens up a lot of channels creatively. I think it is an incredibly exciting time. Charlie a lot of people working at hbo and showtime and doing remarkable stuff. Ron it is broadening, and with it, audiences tastes are growing more sophisticated. Youre able to make films that target specific audiences in ways you could not justify before. As a storyteller that is exciting. Charlie this is another scene on the ocean. When the crew of the essex is getting ready for a storm. Here it is. [wind howling] that squall, starboard bow. We sail immediately. Not just yet, mr. Chase. This is moving faster than that. Let it come. The men are soft from months on land. They need a good baptism. Let them know how it works. We dont shorten sail, itll catch us on the beam. Chase, we will stand on. Mr. Lawrence, hold our course. Well lose half a day running like that. We will skirt the edge of it. The men cant handle this, then god help us all. Charlie there you go, the conflict between your characters. Ron again, out of philbricks book. This is his first voyage, pollard. He came from a family, famous whaling family. He was determined to prove himself. A lot of pressure from the family to come through. Again, it is a huge the companies investing, they were more than entrepreneurs. This is an industry. And there was National Pride at stake, all of it. And so, he was determined to go. The events that follow, which are a horrific storm and a knockdown, all came out of the true story. Charlie how much do you enjoy the preparation before you start shooting, getting to know the story that you want to tell . Ron i love it. I dodged movies based on real events for a couple of decades as a director, because i thought it would limit my creativity. But ive always loved history. Apollo 13 taught me it was liberating. It was inspiring. And the other thing is that not only is the research amazing, not only do you get these opportunities to do what you do interview people, try to inhabit their head space but the stories you can choose, the res more credibility. Because the extreme event happened. No one can argue with it. I will tell you very quickly. I always do test screenings with a cards where people fill out their likes and dislikes. Even though i have final cut, i like to know how audiences are responding. Early on with apollo 13 it was universally appreciated. There was one guy who rated it poor. Charlie that is the guy you want to talk to . Ron that was the card i looked for. There had been no advertising. Nobody knew anything about apollo 13 or remembered the mission. But this guy wrote terrible, i would not recommend it. I couldnt figure out why. I flipped over the page, please comment on the ending. Wrote, a giant letters, more hollywood b. S. They would never survive. He did not know it was a true story. This is why you do a true story because they did survive. And isnt that remarkable . Charlie and the talent of a filmmaker is to be able to make a movie where people know the ending. Ron i discovered also with that, and ive seen it over on over again and it helped me when i am making fictional movies, is the more the details are interesting, you might know overall kind of what happened, but when you see a movie, you are moviegoer, you kind of can guess the endings of most movies. Youd probably be close. Whats fascinating is you do not know what the characters are go through and experience. And you dont know who is going to make it. But you also dont have an idea about just the attention that the tension that can be involved in navigating these various crisis points. Whatever tone, whatever genre, every movie has to be a suspense movie. That is what i have discovered making apollo 13. I think in the heart of the sea is a cousin to apollo 13. You go out with one attitude, and an intense thing changes everything. And then you come back and some people transform and other people tragically dont. Thats sort of the story of the essex. Charlie transform or adapt . Ron both. I think philosophically, based on some of the notes i saw of the men, there was a philosophical transformation as well. Again, they went out there with this hubris, this is my realm. I am a seamen. What happened, one of those whales turned on them that they began to doubt everything about their place in the world. Charlie this is another look at the whale. Here it is. [pounding] oh what was that . The sea find mr. Lawrence oh [grunting] ron we did not exaggerate. Charlie was that filmed on the sea . Ron a lot of that was filmed on the tank. Again, the whale is cgi. That is the size of the whale, that big. Charlie what color was the whale . Ron the whale was not white. There was an albino whale that melville used. There was a skin disorder that older whales can get that makes it look blotchy. It has been fascinating to bring this story to audiences. And i think it is, you know, i think it is something that demands to be seen on the big screen. I think you need to find that as a movie director today. Because, there are more and more distractions, more reasons to do other things. And yet, the big screen movie experience is something that can be very memorable. Charlie has Robert Langdon turned out to be the character you wanted him to be . Because, i always, i thought he had the possibilities of being indiana jones. Ron well, the books, the dan brown books always guide us. And langdon is a man of intellectual action. And thats his superpower is his ability to recall and problem solve but, you know, he is not a man of action. That is always what attracted tom hanks to the character. Charlie a thinking man. Ron he is not solving it by punching people out or shooting them. Its always about trying to out think. Right. And so, i enjoy those movies. They were a lot of fun to make. They take you to all corners of the world, especially europe. Delving into areas. And tom loves playing Robert Langdon. I love directing tom. The dan brown stories are very original and inferno is a fun one to stage. Charlie at what point did he write inferno . Ron it is the latest of the books. Charlie it is great to have you. Ron likewise. Charlie the film is called in the heart of the sea. It opens in theaters in imax 3d, of course, on friday, december 11. Thank you for joining us. See you next time. Emily he got his start in west philadelphia, working for the fresh prince himself, and later biggie, and p. Diddy. His breakthrough came in 2007, when he met a woman the world would come to know as lady gaga. Trot carter helped take gaga unknown to multiplatinum, then brought in his job title from Talent Manager to tech investor, betting on spotify and uber. But his own path to hollywood was unexpected, coming from a tough neighborhood, with a father who did time for murder. Proof, he says, you write your own future. Joining me on studio 1. 0, founder and ceo of atom factory, troy carter