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Freaky Tales: Directors on Too $hort & Sleepy Floyd Inspiration & More

Writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck spoke to Bleeding Cool about their '80s-inspired anthology film Freaky Tales, casting & more.

When writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck conceived Freaky Tales for Lionsgate, it became an ode to their childhoods and the punk scene of 1980s Oakland. Featuring an all-star ensemble cast, the film is a multi-track mixtape of colorful characters — an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teen punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector — on a collision course in a fever dream of showdowns and battles. The duo behind Captain Marvel (2019) and AppleTV+'s Masters of the Air spoke to Bleeding Cool about the inspirations behind the film, reuniting with stars Tom Hanks and Ben Mendelsohn, recruiting Pedro Pascal, working with the late Angus Cloud (who passed in 2023), and an update on their upcoming Prime Video series Criminal from creator Ed Brubaker based on the Marvel & Image Comics of the same name.

Freaky Tales Writer-Directors How Film Is Ode to '80s Punk and Pop Culture

Bleeding Cool: What's the inspiration behind 'Freaky Tales?'

Fleck: 'Freaky Tales' comes from a Too $hort song I heard as a 10-year-old growing up in Oakland. Too $hort's a legendary Oakland rapper I had no business listening to those lyrics at 9 or 10 years old, but they always stuck with me as an amazing song and a great potential title for a movie one day. That was the initial foundation for 'Freaky Tails,' but it evolved from there about the Sleepy Floyd game I heard on the radio where (sports commentator) Greg Papa calls Sleepy Floyd, "Superman," and wondering how a basketball player could become a superhero? Once we got that idea, which was fun to roll with. It was also inspired by the punk scene in the Bay Area at the time and all our favorite pulpy crime films that inspired Pedro Pascal's storyline.

You got such a wide range of talent in 'Freaky Tales.' How did you get Pedro, Tom Hanks, and Ben Mendelsohn involved?

Boden: We have worked with Ben Mendelsohn, and this will be our third movie with him. We've worked with him a couple of times (on 2015's 'Mississippi Grind' and 2019's 'Captain Marvel'), and we called him up. We told him about the movie, and he said, "I'm in," so that was that. With Pedro, we sent the script, and he loved it. He got on the phone with us, and we had all the same references for pulpy, fun movies we loved from the 80s, all the movies that inspired this one. We wanted this one to feel like popcorn, fun, and movies, and it was a love fest. He said he would do it, and we were like, "Yes!" so he was our number one choice for that role. [Turns to Fleck] You want to tell him about Tom Hanks?

Fleck: We worked on a show called 'Masters of the Air,' which was the World War II drama he produced, and we got to know him a little bit through that process. We wrote him into the script even before we did that. He was written into the musical section of the script as a little dancing cameo moment, and he said, "Sure, I'll do that," and then we were kind of like, "Oh, okay."

When it came time to schedule him to come to Oakland, we were like, "Wait for a second! Are we not taking advantage of what Tom Hanks can do? If he's going to come, maybe we should write something for him." We wrote that video store scene for him to play this video dork, as another character calls him in the movie. We wrote that for special for Tom, and we were like, "Hey, so you can either do a little dance, or you can do this?" He was like, "Oh, yeah, I'm definitely playing Hank," so yeah, that's how that was born.

Given the stories you guys wrote, were there ones that were cut and perhaps revisit sometime in like a TV series or a sequel film?

Boden: No, we hadn't; we didn't cut anything out of this movie. This is the full movie. Could there be a 'Freaky Tales 2?' We won't say "No" to that. You want one?

Definitely, I'd enjoy the hell out of it.

Fleck: If people show up to see this one, we'll make another one.

Can you speak about working with Angus Cloud and what he brought to the film?

Fleck: We loved working with Angus. He was an up-and-coming actor everyone knew from 'Euphoria,' and the goal of the movie was to pepper as many younger and older Oakland presence, people and actors into the movie. It was a no-brainer to ask Angus to be part of the movie, and that role (of Travis) he plays is written like a straight down the middle on paper. If you read it, you're like, "Oh, this guy's playing it straight," while Ben's character (The Guy) is the one who's all over the place, but Angus brought so much of himself you can feel him coming through. You care about (Travis) in a way you weren't intended to, but what's great about Angus's performance is that you feel for the guy.

Boden: [Angus] was such a joy to work with. We felt so lucky to have him on set.

What was the hardest sequence to get through in the film?

Sleepy's (Jay Ellis) revenge rampage at the end. It was the most challenging, not for any reason other than it was so ambitious, and we didn't have enough days. ['Freaky Tales' is] an indie film, and you're always struggling for days, but Jay brought it, and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

It had so many Tarantino vibes on that thing. I loved it.

I was so proud of it. Thank you.

Shifting gears, what can you tell us about 'Criminal' and how that project is coming along?

We shot 'Criminal' last summer in Portland. It was so much fun and a great shoot, and it's still in post right now. Ed Brubaker is the writer-creator, and that's about it.

Freaky Tales, which also stars Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, and Too $hort, is in theaters.

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