The Studio

- Ta-da. - Oh, wow. Thank you.

- Cappuccino time. - Wow.

I even did a little design in the foam there.

Is it a penis?

- It's a palm tree. -

It really does look like a penis. There. There you go.

- Okay, now I see. -

- Now I... Yes. - Yes, I get why you said that.

- It's a palm tree. -

- For you. - It's delicious.

Thank you.

And honestly, it's very refreshing to be with someone so creative.

Oh. Well, thank you.

Holy shit. Speak of the devil.

This is... MK Ultra 4 .

Huh? I have no idea. I was just flipping around...

No, this is... this is my movie.

This is... You know, I made this movie.

- Oh, this is you. Wow. - Yeah, yeah.

I had no idea. So you directed this?

Sort of. I championed it.

I actually... I bought the spec script for the original MK Ultra .

It was, like, a low-budget spy thriller, but they made it into a whole franchise.

Hmm.

If that guy can blow up cars with his mind,

how come he can't just take all the bad guys' guns away?

In order to, like, really understand MK Ultra 4,

you have to have recently seen MK Ultra 2 ,

which actually, in our timeline, comes between MK Ultra 3 and MK Ultra 4 .

Yeah, well, I've not actually seen any of them.

- Are you kidding me? - Mm-mmm.

- Oh, wow. - Sorry.

No, it's fine.

I mean, they made 3.8 billion globally, but not everyone...

They kind of got past a lot of people, I think. Yeah.

Well, look, why don't we do like a, you know, a marathon next weekend?

We can watch all of them. How many are there?

- There's seven of them. - Okay.

That sounds fun. Give you a live audio commentary.

- - Give you all the dirt.

Um, hey, this might be a little short notice,

but are you busy tonight?

Why?

I have to go to this, you know, work thing.

It's, like, a super fancy-schmancy

Cedars-Sinai fundraising black-tie gala thing.

I mean, it's actually really fun,

even if it is for kid cancer.

And there will be a lot of booze.

I would hope, yeah, given the circumstances.

Um, look, if you can't, you can't. It's not a big deal.

- I don't need you to come or anything. - No, no, no. I can.

I'm gonna... I can move some stuff around. Yeah, I would love to go.

Thank you for inviting me.

Are you sure? 'Cause there will be a lot of doctor talk.

Oh, I love doc talk.

I've seen Patch Adams 12 times.

You're so funny.

- Thank you. - No, it's good.

It's really good.

You know, the doctors that I usually date,

they're a bunch of self-serious egomaniacs, but not you.

You don't take yourself seriously at all.

No, I really don't.

- No, and it's really good. - Yeah.

Thank you.

I'm looking forward to it.

Breaking news. Tonight, chaos has spread across the city.

- -

Officials are advising to shelter in place.

This summer...

- You seeing anything? - No.

From the director of Her...

You smell that?

Oh, shit.

He's dropping trou.

We got this.

I got dooked!

Does this mean I'm gonna die?

We all gotta die sooner or later, buddy.

- And you're dying sooner. -

Duhpocalypse.

All right, y'all. We love it, but shit's wack up in here.

We got a trailer crisis.

Heartland theater owners are refusing to show this

because of the diarrhea explosion.

- What? - What?

Literally the funniest part of the trailer.

No, no, hold on.

This is a movie where zombies infect people with their diarrhea.

How the fuck else are we supposed to sell this, Maya?

- Hey, your tone, man. - Hold on now.

Are we losing the point of the film in the comedy?

We made a dark satire about medical disinformation,

- and I don't want that to get lost. - No, it's true.

It's a very deep and complex film,

but I want that diarrhea explosion in the trailer.

Okay, as long as you maintain my client's vision.

Okay, sure, but there's a real concern that the graphic depiction of diarrhea

will hurt the concession sales

- of brown liquids, i.e. Coca-Cola. - No. That's so stupid.

This is why I said we should've sold to streamers.

No testing, no theater owners.

- Leigh, don't be such a fucking agent. - Oh, go blow me, Matt.

Horror and comedy play better in theaters, and this is a horror comedy.

- Okay, you are 1,000% right. - Yes.

- He's right. - It's true.

- I said that. - Okay, okay, knowing my audience,

how about if we just lean into the whole zombie-shit aspect of it

and design soda cups with, uh, Zombie Dookie or Diet-rrhea Coke?

- That's it! - Oh, my God. You're a genius.

He's a fucking genius.

Okay, what if we have a shit-free theatrical trailer,

save the shitsplosion for the red band, call it a brown band.

No, uh, that's a very good idea,

but honestly, I think we gotta lead with the shitsplosion.

When's the absolute hard-out deadline to ship this?

Absolute out the door, drop-dead, done, finito, 10:00 p.m. tonight.

Okay, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna tweak this joke, but we are not gonna cut it.

I'll ram it through with the theater owners.

- Thank you, everybody. - Thank you.

- All right, Matt. - Yes.

I really appreciate you having my back on this.

No problem. And just so you know, Johnny, this is a hill I will die on.

We are getting that shitsplosion.

- Thanks, buddy. - Yeah.

Shit.

- Can we order some fucking sushi? - No, I am so sick of sushi.

I have had SUGARFISH three times this week.

Hey. Are you fucking leaving?

Yes, I actually have a very important event I have to get to, unfortunately.

- Uh, what about the fucking trailer? - I have my phone.

Just text me new cuts as they come in, all right?

I'm sorry, what's more important than Duhpocalypse ?

Just a charity event for Cedars-Sinai. I'm actually, uh...

well, I'm dating a doctor who works there.

- Oh. Hmm. - You're dating a doctor?

- I am, yeah. - What kind of doctor?

- Pediatric oncologist. Huh? How's that? - Oh, fun.

- Yeah. - Impressive.

What do you and a doctor even talk about?

All sorts of smart shit, bitch. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

- What do you talk about? - Okay, well, let me ask you this.

What does a pediatric oncologist do, Matt?

It's kid cancer. I don't like the connotation of any of this shit.

- I know all this stuff. - Right.

We're looking at cuts until the 10:00 p.m. deadline,

so are you sure you're gonna be able to sign off on them?

Yes. Luckily, she understands that what I do is very important,

and she really respects what I do, and she's very accommodating.

- So I'll have my phone on. - She sounds amazing.

- Please have your phone on. - We'll email you.

Look, I owe it to you to be completely transparent. This is a drug trial.

And while, obviously, the goal is to cure your daughter,

there is a risk that the trial will not work at all.

Okay, here's what we're gonna do.

We do not cut back to Josh after the shitsplosion.

You just stay on Knoxville. We don't see Josh covered in diarrhea.

No, look, it's an ethical dilemma for me. I mean, obviously, it's a...

it's a very, very hard choice for a parent.

So take some time and think about it...

Also, make the fart really wet-sounding. Really juice it, okay?

Great. Thanks.

Shit.

- Sorry, work thing. It's... - I know.

- Never ends, right? - No.

- Holy shit. Look, look, look. - What?

It's a plaque for all the movies they shot here.

Oppenheimer . Gigli . Fight Club though, that's cool.

Oh, I've heard of that one. Fight Club . Yes.

I haven't seen it, but I've heard of it.

You haven't seen Fight Club ?

- No. - Oh, my God. That's crazy.

- We gotta add that to the list. - Oh, God. How many is it now?

It's like 47 movies or something like that.

- Oh, 47 movies? - Yep.

That's probably more movies than I've seen in my entire life.

Better get started tonight then, huh?

Oh, Sarah.

- Hello. - Oh, hi.

- These are friends. - Oh, cool.

- This is Dr. Rebecca Chan-Sanders. - Hi, how's it going?

- Hello there. - This is Dr. Steve Chan.

- Hi, what's up? - Hi.

And this is Matt Remick.

Yes. Double MDs. Impressive couple, right?

Oh. Thank you very much. And I have to say, this is impressive.

- What? - Is that tailored?

- Oh. Yeah. - It's brown.

I mean, it's rust, kinda. If you need a good tailor, I could hook you up, man.

- Oh, no. Mine's a rental. - Oh.

You'd never know.

So, Steve is the CAR guy at Cedars.

Oh, wow. That's awesome. I'm actually kind of a car guy myself.

I have a Aston Martin, a Fiat.

I just got a Studebaker from the '60s.

Sorry, no, no, no. CAR stands for "Chimeric Antigen Receptors"

for all those party people here.

Pardon us. Super nerd alert.