Tom Hall (l) and Joe Maggio (r) discuss Joe’s magnum opus that never came to be.
Amy Hobby and Avi Zev Weider welcome Joe Maggio and Tom Hall to revisit The Fall, a dark comedy set in Niagara Falls, NY, which tells the story of Bud Rosenquist, a deeply religious attorney and family man whose life comes unraveled when he gets away with the murder of his battle-axe grandmother. Suddenly, the simplistic platitudes which have guided Bud's life prove woefully inadequate as he struggles to navigate the complex world of sin, succumbing to the charms of a sexy, under-aged church organist, accepting a highly dubious promotion from his philandering boss, and employing hardcore pornography in an effort to counsel his sexually confused teenage son. In the end, having lost everything - family, home, reputation - Bud experiences the miracle he's been waiting for his entire life, awakening to the beauty and infinite possibility of life in a morally grey world where the only moral absolute is the necessity to be kind and support the people he loves as best he can. In this episode, Joe walks through the early-aughts indie film moment, Anonymous Content, John Turturro, CAA packaging pressure, the heartbreak of losing the film, and the AI materials that make the project feel newly possible. Check out the episode here.