AI Summary
5 min readIn 2009, John Kiriakou was sitting in business class next to a stranger who turned out to be Matt Nix, creator of the hit USA network series Burn Notice. Kiriakou told Nix that the show's tradecraft was so accurate he had been freeze-framing the credits to find out who the CIA consultant was. Nix replied that he had no consultant—he had just been obsessed with spy genre films since childhood and did all the writing himself. By the time the plane landed, Kiriakou was the show's new consultant. That chance encounter, and the relationship it launched, frames this joint episode of Dead Drop and How Not to Make a Movie, in which Kiriakou and producer Alan Katz talk through the long arc of spy storytelling on screen—and the very different business of making it today.
Two paths to the same friendship
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:17) **Introduction: Why This Episode Exists** - John introduces Alan Katz, creator of the *How Not to Make a Movie* podcast, and explains they’re doing a joint episode about spy movies.
- 2 (05:02) **How John and Alan Actually Met** - The two trace their friendship back to their mutual manager/agent, Nick Mechanic, and a memorable first meeting in an ER.
- 3 (07:35) **The Failed Spy-Horror Mashup Pitch** - Alan and John recall their earliest collaboration: trying to merge spy and horror genres, which produced a terrible idea.
- 4 (13:58) **Nick’s Addiction Crisis and the Moment of Tough Love** - John describes finding Nick unconscious and bloody, and how Alan’s firm intervention cemented their friendship.
- 5 (19:33) **How Alan’s Podcast Was Born from Creative Disaster** - Alan explains how making *Bordello of Blood* was a soul-crushing experience that led to a two-decade depression—and eventually to his podcast.
- 6 (24:04) **Podcasting as the True Creative Medium** - Both hosts argue that podcasting gives creators total control, unlike film and TV.
- 7 (42:20) **The First Spies We Ever Met** - John and Alan compare their earliest spy influences, from James Bond to Maxwell Smart to *The Prisoner*.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
IN THIS EPISODE We join with another podcast in the Costard & Touchstone Family - The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast - to explore how NOT to make a SPY movie. John and Alan Katz (he's both the host of The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast and the co-writer/executive producer of this the Dead Drop podcast) talk about the spy TV series and movies that inspired them both when they were kids, in John's case, to become a spy, and in Alan's case, to want to write about them. And, they'll discuss the process of turning real life spy stories - like John's - into a movie or TV series.
SHOW NOTES
You can find The How NOT To Make a Movie Podcast everywhere you find your favorite podcasts or here. If you enjoy Dead Drop - and The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, please check out the rest of our podcasts at Costard & Touchstone. Your next podcast obsession is just a click away!
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