BPS 262: How I Built a Billion-Dollar Directing Career with Raja Gosnell

Today on the show, we have director, Raja Gosnell. He directed
comedy classics like Big Momma's House, starring Martin
Lawrence. Never Been Kissed, starring Drew Berrymore, and
Yours, Mine & Ours starring Dennis Quaid.

Raja is best known as the director who brought not one but two
beloved children's cartoons to the big screen, Scooby-Doo and The
Smurfs. We also discuss the original vision that Raja and writer
James Gunn had for Scooby-Doo. Let's say we finally understand why
Scoob and Shaggy always had the munchies.He also directed the
relatively low-budget runaway hit Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Raja's
films have grossed almost $2 billion at the worldwide box
office.Raja wasn't always a director; he started his film career as
an assistant editor in the late 1970s.

His first credit as a film's main editor was the romantic comedy
The Lonely Guy (1984), for director Arthur Hiller. During the
1980s, Gosnell served as editor in films directed by Tom Laughlin,
David Worth, Bob Dahlin, Bert Convy, Christopher Leitch, Annabel
Jankel, Rocky Morton, Phillip Schuman, and Chris Columbus.For Chris
Columbus, he edited the comedy film Heartbreak Hotel (1988), which
features a 1970s teenager kidnapping singer Elvis Presley to bring
home as a gift for his mother. During the 1990s, Gosnell would
serve as editor in several more films by Columbus.The 1990s started
with Gosnell working as an editor in two high-profile projects:
Pretty Woman (1990) by Garry Marshall and Home Alone (1990) by
Chris Columbus. Both turned out to be among the major hits of the
year 1990.

He then worked in the Columbus films Only the Lonely (1991), Home
Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and Nine
Months (1995).Raja and I discuss his remarkable career as an
editor, why he jumped to directing, and why he chose to do the
thing everyone says not to do direct children and animals. I had a
ball talking shop with Raja.We also discuss his remarkable new film
Gun and a Hotel Bible, which he co-directed with Alicia Joy
LeBlanc.Based on an award-winning play, GUN AND A HOTEL BIBLE is
the story of a young man on the verge of a violent act (Pete) and
his encounter with a personified hotel bible (Gideon). Can Gideon
sway Pete before Pete pulls the trigger?

Enjoy my conversation with Raja Gosnell.

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