The Projection Booth

A 1982 cul-de-sac lands among feathered dinosaurs, and the pitch is pure Spielberg. Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Culture Cast team up for a crossover on The End of Oak Street (2026), David Robert Mitchell's summer sci-fi adventure, produced by J.J. Abrams, with Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as parents on the brink of divorce.

They start spoiler-free, then dig in: why this does the Spielberg pastiche better than Super 8 (2011), the echoes of Poltergeist (1982), E.T. and Stephen King, a Michigan that looks suspiciously like Southern California, the original ending, and the leg-biting moment that made both of them yell. They also rank the Jurassic Park (1993) sequels

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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

The Projection Booth is part of the Weirding Way Media podcast network. Explore more of our shows at http://weirdingwaymedia.com.

A country star who walked away from the spotlight, a mystery that won't stay buried, and songs that each have a job to do: Heartland (2026) is a Netflix thriller with a country heart.

Mike talks with writer-director Shana Feste ahead of the film's November 13 Netflix release. Feste explains why she writes women who don't care whether anyone likes them, and how film noir helped her uncover the part of Misty, played by Jessica Chastain, that she had left behind.

The film is available to view on Netflix starting November 13, 2026.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

The Projection Booth is part of the Weirding Way Media podcast network. Explore more of our shows at http://weirdingwaymedia.com.

A notorious leather bar, a murdered film critic and a Hollywood shoot that turned Christopher Street into a battleground. Mineshaft (2026) is a new festival documentary about gay New York in the late 1970s and the killing that fed into William Friedkin's Cruising (1980). Director Jeffrey Schwarz, fresh from the Tribeca premiere and a run of festivals including Outfest, joins Mike White to talk it through.

The conversation starts with Addison Verrill, the Variety critic murdered at 36, and the one box of district attorney files that survived, autopsy reports and crime scene photos included. Schwarz explains how he earned the trust of Verrill's sister, found his partner Bob Geary, and why he refused to make another exploitative true crime film. From there the trail leads to Paul Bateson, the killer who also appeared in The Exorcist (1973), and to Arthur Bell's Village Voice columns, the leaked script and the street protests that dogged Al Pacino and Friedkin.

Also on the table: Friedkin's refusal to be interviewed, the vintage audio that still gives him a voice, protest tape Schwarz held onto for thirty years, Vito Russo, and the Showgirls (1995) documentary he hopes comes next.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

The Projection Booth is part of the Weirding Way Media podcast network. Explore more of our shows at http://weirdingwaymedia.com.

Strip a soldier's letter of its name, date and salutation, and the sentiments barely change: scared kids who want to be home. That idea drives Behind the Lines (2024), a new documentary in which actors, letter in hand, read wartime letters and emails from World War III to Iraq and Afghanistan, set against archival footage.

Director John B. Benitz and Andrew Carroll, founder of the War Letters Project, join Mike White to trace how a stage play, If All the Sky Were Paper, became a film. Carroll recalls the house fire, a cousin's Buchenwald letter and the 1998 Dear Abby column that set the project off. Benitz explains why he broke Ken Burns's rule by putting actors on screen, even though Burns's Better Angels Society helped sponsor the film.

They also dig into a Pearl Harbor sailor's letter held back for a year by censorship, Laura Dern's laryngitis the night before her studio session, a first cut of over three hours trimmed to ninety minutes, and a Japanese woman's apology, with a thousand folded cranes, to a family killed by a balloon bomb. Why do the funny letters matter as much as the harrowing ones?

Follow Behind the Lines on Instagram and visit the film's official website.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

The Projection Booth is part of the Weirding Way Media podcast network. Explore more of our shows at http://weirdingwaymedia.com.

Three people, one conversation, ninety minutes: that was the stage play Sheepwell. Now it's a feature film, and it's heading to the Austin Film Festival as a fresh voice in a very crowded field.

This Special Report brings Mike White together with Sheepwell (2026) co-writer and producer Danielle DeMatteo, producer and star Lauren Elizabeth Harris, and actor Mark Ryan Anderson. DeMatteo founded the nonprofit SheNYC Arts, which first staged the play at its Off-Broadway festival. Harris runs Pathway Pictures.

They dig into the hard part of adaptation: turning characters who only get talked about into people you can see, and building two roles that never existed in the original play. They trace how a staffer's insistent phone call put the script on DeMatteo's desk, why producing makes Harris a better actor, what Anderson found stepping into a close-knit set late in the shoot, and what Harris hopes women will see in her character. They close with Austin plans and what each guest tackles next.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

The Projection Booth is part of the Weirding Way Media podcast network. Explore more of our shows at http://weirdingwaymedia.com.