Check Book: Porch Stories

Ben built a porch and people came to see it.

Mar 24, 2025

Surprise! Blank Check has started a newsletter! Your favorite connoisseurs of context are gonna go on even more tangents, commit to even more bits, and share opinions on even more pieces of entertainment industry news because - hey, why not. Thanks for joining us!

IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION:

THE BARDI PARTY REPORT

Happy Monday, Checkmates. What a weekend it has been! Our 10 Year Anniversary Art Show came and went with much fanfare, gawking, and confused passersby wondering, “What the hell is this thing?”

The answer—a mix of artwork inspired by the films we’ve discussed on the podcast and the podcast itself, plus a LITERAL PORCH THAT WE CONSTRUCTED INSIDE OF THE GALLERY SPACE. We had sculptures. We had a bedazzled skull as an homage to Damien Hirst AND Ben Hosley. We had a watercolor of the rhombus. A print of Sully mashed up with Van Gogh’s Starry Night. And most excitingly, we had a series of “performances” by the main Blank Check crew, sitting on the porch, performing our daily activities.

David Sims’s performance had him sitting on the porch answering emails for an hour and not talking to anyone because he was too busy, plus, whaddya want from him??!?!

Ben took an edible, ate some Pop-Secret, and watched Joe Dirt.

Griffin showed up late (part of the performance), played Disney Emoji Blitz, and described his experience of seeing our pal Rachel Zegler star in Snow White in 4DX. Did you know they debuted a new scent for the Snow White 4DX presentation? PINE. Pitmaster, much???

And I posted the March Madness polls from the porch on Sunday, and started writing this very newsletter!

We want to give a huge thank you to everyone who came through to chat with us and check out the incredible artwork that so many talented folks took the time to put together. The remaining unsold prints will be available for purchase via Made by Mutant (I will share a link as soon as it’s available) and we’re awaiting some more PROFESSIONAL photos (aka not taken by my iPhone14) of the full gallery to share.

Here’s to another 10 years of boundless creativity and bits taken entirely too far.

LET’S CRACK OPEN THE DOSSIER

In addition to location shoots in Spain, Italy, Jordan, and the United States, the production of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade marked the franchise’s third trip to Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. According to producer Frank Marshall, the iconic English studio had become a “second home” for the series: “We couldn’t imagine not shooting at Elstree. They had great stages, great craftsmen, great support systems, and we felt like they were really our lucky studio. It really saved us a lot of time and money.”1 But in the time since the production of Temple of Doom, Elstree had entered a period of uncertainty: in 1986, Elstree was purchased by Cannon Group, Inc.—yes, that Cannon—whose own infamous financial woes led to the company putting Elstree up for sale after just a year of ownership. A 1987 deal with Weintraub Entertainment Inc. fell apart due to what Weintraub president Kenneth Kleinberg described as an overly high price paired with a studio that was only “marginally profitable,” but, in the summer of 1988, Cannon finalized a deal with a group of property developers who planned to shut down the studio by October of that year—soon after The Last Crusade wrapped its shoot.2 In response, studio employees, industry veterans, and local journalists launched a series of SOS (Save Our Studios) campaigns.3 According to Marshall, the world’s most famous filmmaker was more than happy to play a part in the campaign, taking time out of his mid-production to go plead for the future security of the studio in Parliament: “[W]e knew that if [the studios] started disappearing, then the craftsmen and the film people would start disappearing, too. All of the experience that had been passed down over the ages would be lost. So we took our biggest hitter—that would be Steven—to Parliament one day. We were shooting, but we put him in a car and raced him into London so he could appear in front of Parliament and make this plea in person. That was just part of our normal day [laughs].”4 Though a large portion of the studio was demolished in order to build a Tesco, the majority of Elstree was saved and renovated.5
When British actor Julian Glover arrived for his audition to play the German colonel Ernst Vogel, he had one obvious advantage that other actors did not: he was next-door neighbors—and friends!—with Indiana Jones producer Robert Watts. Plus, as Glover says, he was “eminently suitable” for the role. And yet, Glover didn’t land the part—it went to a different English actor, Michael Byrne, instead. But the day after his interview for the part of Vogel, Glover was told that he had been asked back in to audition for a different part, per Glover: “[M]y agent called and said, ‘They want you for Walter Donovan.’ So I went back in with an American accent, had a 20-minute interview, and got the part.” And the actor’s friendship with the film’s producer ended up paying off in an unexpected way: “Robert Watts suggested that my wife in real life [Isla Blair] play my on-screen wife, and she was delighted to do it.” Glover was also privileged to share the screen with the veteran actor Robert Eddison, who mostly worked on the stage and had not appeared in a feature film since 1972’s The Boy Who Turned Yellow, which I look forward to writing about in this newsletter whenever we finally get around to doing our Powell and Pressburger miniseries. According to Glover, Eddison was “was understandably very nervous and excited” to portray the Grail Knight: “He kept asking me, Am I doing it right, am I doing it right?” In the end, Eddison crushed, obviously. And joined by friend, family, and one lovably nervous old man, Glover describes The Last Crusade as “one of the happiest experiences in my life.”6
To close, here’s an insightful quote from Harrison Ford about co-star Sean Connery: “It was just really great to work with an actor who doesn't give a shit. I don't mean about the craft, but about his ego. We just clicked.”7 Hmmm, I wonder why?

WHAT IS THE TEAM INTO THIS WEEK?

David Sims, Host: “I recommend UPTOWN GIRLS which I saw this week at the Nitehawk as part of their reconsider this series!! Melancholy! Mature but good hearted! Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning both putting up triple doubles! Lush nostalgic lensing from Michael Ballhaus!!”

Griffin Newman, Host:

AJ McKeon, Editor: “I’ll recommend Running Point on Netflix, is it great? No, but is it a fun watch if you’re a sports fan and your partner couldn’t care less about sports but likes Kate Hudson, then yes!”

Marie Bardi, Social Media: “Friend of the show Seth Rogen’s new series The Studio premieres this week on Apple TV+ and it is must-see-tv for Blank Check listeners. I don’t want to reveal too much but the cameos are out of control, the humor is Curb Your Enthusiasm-level, and it looks freaking fantastic.”

JJ Bersch, Researcher: “I want to give the biggest recommendation possible for Magenta, the new line of curated card games from the geniuses over at CMYK (Wavelength, Monikers). I’ve only had a chance to check out three of the first four games, but each of them has been brilliant in their own unique way. My favorite is Fives, a trick-taking card game that’s fast paced and strategically complex but also streamlined enough that my five-year-old daughter can comfortably play. Her favorite is Fruit Fight, a frantic push-your-luck game full of heartbreak and treachery. And my wife kicks ass at Figment, a cooperative game that asks you to argue about just how much of a certain color there is in a series of handsomely drawn optical illusions. Of course, I’m also psyched to play the last game, Duos, which looks like a card-based, team-up take on another CMYK classic: Spots. As someone who frequently buys board games that my friends and family don’t actually want to play with me, it’s been so exciting to see how quickly people can grasp each of the Magenta games—and how much they want to keep playing them.”

Alan Smithee, Pseudonymous Editor: “I’ll recommend Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection, a book about this moment in history that’s pretty much unlike anything I’ve read. It’s also a book that is (at times) brutally unpleasant (and at other times funny and sad and stirring, it’s not all horrific). If that’s not your vibe right now, then a backup rec: Patrick Hoffman’s Clean Hands, a book that just absolutely owns. A short, tense, propulsive corporate espionage thriller. Couldn’t put it down.”

MARCH MADNESS UPDATES!

Here’s where we are going into the final matchup of the Sweet Sixteen:

We had our first real nailbiter of a main-feed race with Cronenberg (2) v 70s Altman (6). Cronenberg ended up winning by only 11 votes! In terms of major upsets, Mel Brooks (4) and Francis Ford Coppola (5) both took down the top seeded contenders in their quadrants - Bong Joon-Ho and Guillermo Del Toro, respectively. Things are starting to get PRETTY INTERESTING!

Today, you can vote for either Orson Welles (3) or Peter Jackson (2) in our main-feed challenge, and for either “Christmas Coal” or 90’s Indie Comics on our Patreon.