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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
The Man in the White Van: A Conversation with Director Warren Skeels
Get your popcorn ready as we sit down with Warren Skeels, the visionary director behind the upcoming film "The Man in the White Van", releasing theatrically on December 13th, 2024. Based on the true story of convicted serial killer Billy Mansfield Jr. in Florida in the 70s, when our parents told us to stay away from strangers in vans, this is the origin story. Warren's personal journey from Jacksonville to his directorial debut in Hollywood has been nothing short of remarkable. With roots as a latchkey kid, he infuses his own experiences of unease and mystery into his storytelling, crafting a thriller that promises to grip audiences. We unearth how Warren’s passion for true crime and survivor stories steered the narrative away from typical serial killer tales, offering a fresh perspective that will linger with viewers long after the credits roll.
As we navigate the contrasting landscapes of safety perceptions from the 1970s to today, Warren reveals how technology and media have reshaped modern fears and parenting. Together, we dissect the film's authentic portrayal of innocence lost and the chilling presence of the titular white van. The stellar cast—featuring Madison Wolfe, Ali Larter, and Sean Astin—brings depth and dynamism to the screen, fueled by a collaborative spirit on set. This episode promises to enthrall true crime aficionados and thriller buffs alike with behind-the-scenes insights and the promise of a cinematic experience that is both thrilling and thought-provoking.
STORY SYNOPSIS: Based on true events. In 1975 Florida, a series of violent disappearances go unnoticed, and young Annie (Madison Wolfe) is targeted by an ominous white van that stalks her every move. As the menace escalates, her parents dismiss her fears, and Annie is soon plunged into a terrifying nightmare that shatters her world.
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The Man In The White Van Trailer
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Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it.
Speaker 2:Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it. This is the Wait For it Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I am your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1:And I'm your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and we've been given a very special opportunity to screen the man in the White Van, which is releasing theatrically in the US on December 13th.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very exciting. It is based on true events here in 1975, florida, where a series of violent disappearances go unnoticed and young Annie, played by Madison Wolfe, is targeted by an ominous white van that stalks her every move. Played by Madison Wolfe, is targeted by an ominous white van that stalks her every move. As the menace escalates, her parents dismiss her fears and Annie is soon plunged into a terrifying nightmare that shatters her world. So before we get started and discuss the film, we have the director, warren Skills, in here today. A very great opportunity for us to speak to him. Warren, how are you doing today during this holiday season, and if you want to give a moment also to our audience, to just to him, warren, how are you doing today during this holiday season, and if you want to give a moment also to our audience to just introduce yourself?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. When you said if you just want to take a moment, I thought you were saying. I thought you were actually going to say if you want to start off with a Duval, just start off with a Duval. Hey, by all means.
Speaker 1:Duval, jacksonville Zone, jacksonville Zone, yeah, jacksonville.
Speaker 2:Zone. Oh my God, I can't even talk about that. Hit on Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 3:That's next level.
Speaker 2:The guy should be out for the whole season.
Speaker 1:That will be the whole episode.
Speaker 3:We're actually just going to talk about the fallout from the game.
Speaker 2:Right, right, no, okay. So back to the movie, right, yeah. So I'm from Jacksonville. I went to Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, which I think is really like a. I mean, I had incredible experience there. I know a lot of other people did. There's been a lot of alumni have gone on to do some really great things, both as educators and working artists, and I think it's just a real treasure that we have here in Jacksonville kind of a you know something special that we have here. So I went to school here and then went to Southern California afterwards and I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and that really kind of became the foundation for me as an artist moving into filmmaking and as a producer and a screenwriter and ultimately a director.
Speaker 2:I partnered with Brenda Kolb here at Tiger Lily Media and back early 2000s, like 2003 or so, and we started Tiger Lily Media together and then I left and began Skeels Films, primarily focused on entertainment. Tiger Lily is a phenomenal commercial production company. We had a lot of fun making some entertainment product and she and the team over there, andrew Fallon we're all good friends and you know they just do exceptional work now and she's really, you know they've really grown the company since I left in really cool ways. But I started Skills Films really focused on entertainment and my first project out of the gate was a TV show called Siesta Key. It's on MTV and you can stream it on Paramount Plus now.
Speaker 2:And that was, I mean, kind of a life-changing career experience and ended up leading to the opportunity of you know moving back into scripted and making my directorial debut with this film, the man in the White Van, which really harkens back to my favorite stuff, the juicy stuff of you know why I love filmmaking. Of you know making horror thriller suspense. That's kind of my sweet spot and what I enjoy watching. So when this story sort of kind of unpacked itself to me from the survivor, it was something that I really wanted to sink my teeth into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Warren, you know, when we got the screener, we were able to see some of your personal connection towards this story, from a childhood experience to now being a parent yourself, and that helped me be in the right headspace before pressing play. Could you tell our audience a little bit about what went behind your desire when making this film?
Speaker 2:I mean, I grew up personally as a latchkey kid in Jack's Beach, florida, and walked and rode my bike back and forth to school and I experienced being followed by vehicles at times in ways where it just felt strange and awkward and creepy, but at the same time you're a kid, you just don't want that negative attention. And that was something that I really kind of dialed into with the woman who Annie is based on, because she was having the same sort of experience with a white van in 1975. And you know she was coming of age and she wasn't quite a young lady yet, but she also, you know, she wasn't quite ready to give up being a kid. So she was kind of caught between these two worlds, while this man, this predator in a van was slowly following and targeting her and began stalking her. And so that was something I really kind of connected with of just those feelings of not you know, you don't. I think for children it's like they want positive attention, right, and they really don't want negative attention. So when they have negative attention the natural sort of tendency, I think, is to sort of avoid it or try to believe that it doesn't really exist. That's not really happening, and I think that's kind of what happens with a lot of victims and that's really kind of what dialed me in with this story.
Speaker 2:But then also now, as a modern parent with children of my own, that's a very different perspective. And today we have Life 360. I mean, we got our kids on lock right, we know where they are all the time and there's a cell phone call away or a text away. We have video cameras and we have security and of course we're just completely inundated from mass media with the idea that you should be fearful of everything everywhere all the time. Danger lurks behind every corner.
Speaker 2:And for me this period of time in the film back in the 70s was a very different time period where that was not the norm. Mass media. There really wasn't mass media the way there is today. Of course, social media didn't even exist, internet didn't exist, 9-1-1 wasn't in play yet we didn't have video and security cameras at every corner and and you know there was a little bit of a you know kind of ignorance is bliss.
Speaker 2:And if you lived in a rural town there really was, you know, everyone kind of knew everybody and there wasn't a sense of danger. And when I talked with the detective who had was around during that period down in Brooksville Florida. He just said that you know that the worst thing that the deputies sort of ever really got into that the level of crime was just trying to get the town drunk home on a Friday night. So the idea of murder or serial murder or crimes against young women was it was really unfathomable to them and unfathomable to the parents in the movie and you know that sort of disbelief not even really a disbelief, but just the idea that it wasn't even in like the slate of possibilities in their mind and that not being on the that slate of possibilities just ultimately opened up Annie, for you know a tragic nightmare on Halloween.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm so glad that you brought up, you know, just the thought process of these small towns, because these things just you just did not believe that they would happen. You always hear because you've mentioned that you are a true crime enthusiast, as am I, and you listen to a lot of quotes and they say I just didn't see anything like this happening here. This is something that happens in a big city, you know. So this case itself has been subject of numerous true crime podcasts and, as I mentioned, as a self-professed true crime enthusiast, how did your passion for the genre kind of influence the decisions you made while making the film?
Speaker 2:Good question. First off, the point of view of the story. Knowing that it was a personal story that came to me in a personal tie, sharon, the co-writer and I really just wanted to tell that with as much authenticity as we could. And what I found also as an interesting perspective was that unique perspective from the victim. So this was a sort of a story that involved a serial killer, but it wasn't a serial killer story. The story is the survivor, the story is the victim, and rooting it in her perspective was the most significant sort of light that we really wanted to kind of guide us through the narrative of the film and the story.
Speaker 2:Because most serial killer stories are it's either MO about the serial killer or about a detective or a journalist tracking down their guy. And while that's fascinating, interesting I love a lot of the stories, the Zodiac Killer being one of them, of the stories you know, the Zodiac Killer being you know one of them Just having that perspective from the victim and what she saw versus what we might see from the you know as an outsider, kind of like a dramatic, irony standpoint, is interesting. But to me it wasn't going to ground us with Annie. So when we're living in her world. We're seeing everything basically from her point of view in that narrative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Warren, obviously you have an amazing cast here. Madison Wolf delivered a standout performance in your film, but you have an outstanding cast as well Sean Austin, ali Carter, breck Basinger it feels like I'm at the Oscars. I'm only naming a few, but which is really crucial. That's really crucial to this story because we invest a lot of time with the family, and I'm curious for you what was your reaction to forming such a strong cast and how did it feel seeing that play out through the filming process?
Speaker 2:So, first off, ali Larder and Sean Astin were just absolutely incredible to work with. They had such a I mean, they came on board as executive producers of the film and wanted to make sure that this film got made and got out there, and just having sort of that level of commitment to the film, it was humbling. And then the fact that they are lending their acting talents to the film as well, in roles that are, you know, they're the parents, the disbelieving parents, and it would really be easy to kind of look over them. But they play a significant role in in why it is that things escalate as much as they do. And you know, and Allie is, you know, she's so wickedly talented. Sean Astin is, you know, he's a cinematic legend, right, I mean, the Lord of the Rings and Rudy and Goonies, you know, like I was one of my favorite movies growing up.
Speaker 2:So there was a, there was actually a fun afternoon with the leads, uh, madison and Breck, who played the kind of two female leads in the film, the sisters.
Speaker 2:They had never seen the Goonies and we had all got together like on a like on an off day from filming and, uh, allie had us over her like being her Airbnb and she was cooking steaks and she had some wine and that she was, uh, she was starting a wine industry thing.
Speaker 2:So she was like, oh, taste this wine, and here's some steaks to go along with it and and we were also having like a fun kind of it was like a family dinner right and I asked the girls if they'd ever seen goonies and they said no, and and sean was like going through like netflix for stuff, and she was like ah, ah, he ended up, was like well, here, just like put it on Goonies. So we're having dinner, goonies is playing on the background and Sean ends up going through this whole like it was almost like Mystery Science Theater 3000. He was just going through and telling us all the different behind the scenes stories and the making of Goonies. And you know, for me it was incredible and I think for the girls they didn't know half the people he was talking about, but I think they had some appreciation. But for me personally, it was definitely an experience I'll remember.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's really cool. I am also in the boat of having never seen the Goonies. So if you do have another Airbnb watch party, please let me know. Here in Jacksonville I will gladly attend. But, warren, as we kind of wrap up and we get to our final question here, we know we got a busy day here today. Just want to know what the journey has been like for you leading up to the film's theatrical release. You know you've had all the traveling to premieres, exciting events like San Diego Comic-Con, interviews such as this one, preparations how are you and your family feeling about this moment? And with the man in the White Van hitting theaters on December 13th, what's next for you as audiences? Get ready to experience it.
Speaker 2:It's been a pretty fascinating journey, I'd say. You know, once you finish the film, you're just done and you really kind of want to sit back and you know whatever an audience's experience is going to be is what it's going to be. You really can't change how someone's going to react to it, positive or negative. You always hope it has the intended reaction to it. I hope it's just a thrill ride for them. But going to Comic-Con, all of these are sort of firsts, so it's just been a blast. You know, being able to go to Comic-Con and have that experience I'd never been to Comic-Con before, so that was just a really unique time. And then you know gearing up now to go on this kind of six city tour with the film starting off.
Speaker 2:You know kicking off in Jacksonville tonight. You know I'm thrilled. You know any chance in Jacksonville tonight. You know I'm thrilled. You know any chance you can get to. You know, show your just from a filmmaking basis. Anytime you get a chance to show something that you've created and be able to talk about it and answer questions and, you know, maybe stir some questions and a conversation about a topic like this I think is a good thing. So I'm looking forward very much to that and looking forward to 13th and an audience hopefully wrapping their arms around this film and spreading the word. And then after that I actually have a suspense thriller, a supernatural suspense thriller that the writer of man in the White Van and Sharon Cobb and I together have co-written, and we're sort of looking forward to developing that. It should be a tasty treat for audiences.
Speaker 1:Awesome, warren. Well, we really appreciate you jumping on again. I know Phil mentioned it. You got a lot going on, including the time of this recording. I believe that premiere here in Jacksonville. We love to see Jacksonville Zone have success and we're going to be supporting you 110%, so join us in that support. Whether you're listening or watching at home, everything you need to know about the Wait For it podcast and the man in the White Van is going to be linked in the show notes of this episode. Make sure to get your tickets. Its official release in theaters again is Friday December 13th, and then, once you do that, all you have to do is wait for it.
Speaker 3:So I heard you're looking for a go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it.
Speaker 2:Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it.
Speaker 3:This is the Wait For it Podcast.
