MIPtalk - Episode 2 - Jon Turteltaub [ 1:27:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jon Turteltaub had a run in with a gorilla.  It was his third trip back to the African continent, a place he had first visited will directing the film Instinct starring Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr.   He was standing with a group of tourists in the rolling hills of Uganda, observing roughly 30 mountain gorillas who had reluctantly come to accept people visiting them.

Except for one.

The “big bully protector of the family”, as Turteltaub describes the animal, didn’t like where he was sitting.   The 5 foot tall, 450 pound gorilla with “a head the size of Kansas and arms the size of Missouri” reared up and came charging, instantly traversing a distance of 30 or 40 yards in seconds.   Everyone in the group backed up but Jon stood his ground.   He felt the gorilla brush past him and was profoundly relieved that he had been spared.   Immediately afterward he remembers a thump on his back that “felt like a car”.  To find out what happened next check out the latest episode of MIPtalk.

If you’d like to learn more about Jon you can check out his credits here.

For additional reference we’ve included links to some of the people, places and things discussed in this episode:

Winter’s Tale
US Navy Deploys Dolphins Against Terror
Whale Deaths Linked to Navy Sonar Tests
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Everybody Poos by Taro Gomi
Fantasia
Saul Turteltaub
Wesleyan University
Think Big
The Barbarian Brothers
3 Ninjas
Cool Runnings
Spencer Breslin sings JJJS
I.Q.
Joe Roth
From the Earth to the Moon
Jerry Bruckheimer
National Treasure
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
Jericho
Nuts
Harper’s Island
Rwanda Cinema Center
Creative Visions Foundation
Dan Eldon
Paul Kagame
Colin Powell
Karl Rove
Joe The Plumber
Pixar