There were a couple of pieces of unfinished business I had to bring up with Boyd Holbrook before getting into his new film, Sean Ellis’s The Cursed – a stylized, yet gnarly 19th-century werewolf movie that premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival to strong reviews (back when it was titled Eight for Silver). The last time I spoke to Holbrook he was promoting Logan, and Holbrook was so confident of Logan’s upcoming success (he was right to be optimistic), he was trying to bet anyone that Logan would make more money than Deadpool, a movie Holbrook liked a lot, but also targeted as a movie he wanted to beat because it, too, was a rated-R superhero movie. In the end, Logan did incredibly well, but still made about $150 million less than Deadpool so I was curious how many $5 bets he lost.
Also, while trying ot make a point, Holbrook took a shot at McDonald’s. Basically his point was people eat McDonald’s once then never eat it again. Now, due to no other information than the continued existence of McDonald’s, this can’t possibly be true. After that interview published, I received a handwritten letter from a publicist at McDonald’s thanking me for defending them against Boyd Holbrook (I didn’t really so much “defend” them as much as just point out people do eat their food; I, too, have had McDonald’s more than once) and also included some sort of elaborate Happy Meal looking collectible that I only saved, for five years now, and through a move, for this moment to show Boyd Holbrook what he had done. And that, who knows, maybe The Cursed could have had a Happy Meal tie in, including bloody werewolves for the kids, but now that would never happen.
Holbrook is also in Indiana Jones 5, directed by his Logan director, James Mangold. The plot of Indiana Jones 5 is so secret we still don’t even know who Holbrook is playing. But the question today is, would Holbrook risk another $5 on the future of its box office?
The last time I spoke to you, you tried to bet me and anyone else who would listen that Logan would make more money than Deadpool. Logan made $619 million, and Deadpool made $782 million. But your publicist wouldn’t let me take the bet because she was worried you were going to lose $5 to about 500 people…
That’s okay. I mean, 500 times $5…
Yeah, $2,500 … I feel you could probably swing that.
Well, yeah. Maybe. It depends on what it is. But hey, hats off to Ryan Reynolds. He’s doing great things.
Now you’re making a face like Logan underperformed or something, this beloved movie that everyone saw.
No, it overperformed, but a bet’s a bet.
Also last time you made a crack about how no one eats McDonald’s twice. Now, I didn’t defend McDonald’s, but mentioned I think people do seem to eat it more than once. After that published I received a letter in the mail from McDonald’s thanking me for defending them against Boyd Holbrook and it came with this fancy Happy Meal display I saved just for this moment to show you.
Wow. Don’t tell me it’s…
Yeah, the Hamburglar is in here.
That’s awesome. Well, damn. Do I have a hit out on my head from McD’s? I hope not. I was just playing, guys. I was just playing.
You cost yourself a sponsorship that day. You could be the face of McDonald’s.
I was really gunning for a lifetime supply of apple turnovers. By the way, are one of my favorite things and my guilty pleasure.
Just in general or their version of it?
I just remember that as a kid it was just this staple. You had me, McDonald’s.
You’ve turned a corner on that particular franchise.
I guess I have to, yeah. A lot of lessons were learned today.
Okay so this movie used to be called Eight for Silver. And now it’s The Cursed, which it’s probably a better title? I’m just used to the other one.
Yeah, me too. I mean, I get it. I was reading a lot of the comments and a lot of people enjoyed Eight for Silver. It is original, what it is to the film, and I also get it for marketing’s sake and what is this movie about? It could be that, which is fine. I even had a friend, he had a film. It was called Weirdo, which is such a great title. Of course, to spare him some ramifications because if McDonald’s is coming after me now and Ryan Reynolds, I won’t tell the name of what it was changed to, but yeah. It happens. It happens.
So see, if you hadn’t said what you said, kids could have gone to McDonald’s this week and gotten Happy Meals with werewolves in them in support of The Cursed.
Wow. Wow. All is lost. You know what they say, be nice to the people on the way up, because they’re the same people on the way down.
It’s such a good pairing. Get kids out there interested in gnarly horror really early on.
Yeah. Eight and up, seems appropriate.
This movie is pretty gnarly.
Yeah. I’m a big fan of, personally, I love watching horror films. There’s nothing better than getting a scare from a movie. And Sean’s an amazing director, and the film is really gorgeous and stunning, and it’s got that art-house feel to it. And I got to go all over the south of France. It was creepy and just kind of haunting out there in these vineyards. You just have this fog that looms over anyways.
What do you like about horror?
There’s something about it. It doesn’t matter if they’re great or if they’re bad or if they’re whatever. It’s just something about that anticipation. Because I don’t particularly like being scared in my life either, but I do like to double down when I’m watching a horror film and just kind of let this in.
Do you like the actual scary stuff? Or more the Friday the 13ths or Nightmare on Elm Street type movies that are fun?
Oh man, when I was growing up, Freddy Krueger, Jason, Friday the 13th, Halloweens, those three films were at the apex of horror films. So yeah, I’ve always enjoyed … “love/hate relationship” I guess is maybe the way to say it because you love the feeling off getting scared, but you hate the anticipation of the feeling of that.
I don’t know if you know this, but Jason and Freddy, they fought.
It’s like Alien vs. Predator type of epic battle.
We need more of those types of movies.
Yeah. Put the main bosses against each other.
You’re in the new Indiana Jones movie. They’re being very secretive about it. But I have one Indiana Jones question. Are you going to bet $5 it makes more than Deadpool?
Um…
You don’t have to do it with me, anyone out there can take this bet.
No, listen. Listen. I don’t have it in for Ryan Reynolds…
You made it clear. You like that Deadpool a lot. It was a spirited competition. In fun, you wanted to beat it.
Yeah, exactly. It was a spirited competition. I think this Indiana Jones film is going to be kick-ass.
Oh, I can’t wait.
I can’t wait for it either. I’ve seen a lot of it.
Oh?
Yeah. I’ve been doing it for nine months. But yeah. It’s badass. I don’t think it’s any secret that Jim Mangold is directing it.
The Logan director himself.
Exactly. And he’s an amazing guy to work with.
It seems like a good choice for you to be in multiple movies of his.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Jim has a way to just draw an amazing performance out of every actor he works with, and I think he’s very suited for this one. Logan, and obviously Ford v Ferrari, all the action stuff. I think you’re going to see all that kind of bottlenecking for Indiana Jones. We’re on literally our last week, week and a half of filming.
Oh wow.
And so I’m just trying to enjoy the last bit of it.
It’s always great talking to you, and I can’t wait to find out what the good folks at McDonald’s have to say to me this time.
Hey, tell them let’s squash it, man. Let’s squash it. I want to do some apple turnovers. I’ll work the food line. Put me in the window.
They’ll be happy to hear that. They finally won you over.
Come on. Put me in.
‘The Cursed’ opens in theaters this weekend. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
