Gregg Turkington
It's movie time!
- Gregg Turkington, various occasions
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| Gregg Turkington |
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| First Apperance | Podcast Episode 1: "Ghostbusters" |
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| Aliases | Mister Movies, The REAL Mister Movies, Bilbo Bogart |
| Relatives | Gregg's dad (father) Gregg's brother (brother) |
| Portrayed by | Gregg Turkington |
Gregg Turkington is an American film expert, actor, and director, known for his frequent guest appearances on the movie review series On Cinema, hosted by Tim Heidecker, as well as his own movie review show, Our Cinema. He has also infrequently hosted On Cinema himself.
Turkington is best known for his movie reviews on both On Cinema and Our Cinema, but has also appeared as an actor in Ant-Man (2015), Deck of Cards (2022), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), as well as having starred in and directed episodes of the television series Decker, where he portrays Special Agent Jonathan Kington.
Turkington is a prolific movie buff, having watched movies his “whole life.”[1] He is also a notable film collector, having founded the Victorville Film Archives in an effort to promote movie preservation, after his personal movie collection was destroyed while filming Decker: Port of Call: Hawaii.
History
Before the start of the On Cinema podcast, Turkington was an acquaintance of Tim Heidecker. Heidecker has stated in an interview that he has no recollection of how he met Turkington, though former seemed impressed by Turkington's extensive movie knowledge and personal collection of films.
In October 2011, Turkington was featured as a guest in the first episode of the On Cinema podcast, hosted by Heidecker. Turkington was chosen by Heidecker as his first guest due to the fact that Turkington was the person Heidecker knew with the most movie knowledge. The podcast proved to be immediately successful, and Turkington was brought on very frequently for his expertise in subsequent episodes. Around April 2012, Turkington was otherwise unemployed.[2]
In June 2012, Turkington was working on a book covering “30 years of film expertise,” and hoped to release it soon after.[3]
Over the summer of 2012, Turkington began to teach film appreciation classes at the La Habra Community Center, giving lectures on film history to children and seniors.[4] His course was held Monday nights at 6:30 PM, and did not continue into the fall.[5]
In 2012, Heidecker collaborated with Thing X, a division of TV broadcaster Adult Swim, to turn the podcast into a full movie review video series for the website.[6] Turkington continued to make frequent guest appearances on the new form of On Cinema.
In December 2012, Turkington announced that he was resuming teaching film history classes at local community centers, in between filming seasons of On Cinema at the Cinema.[7]
In early 2013, Turkington won an award for “On Cinema Guest of the Year” for the year of 2012, for which he received an On Cinema mug and a sandwich platter.[1]
In July 2013, Turkington announced his plans to attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by watch 500 movies in 500 days, an undertaking he called #500MoviesIn500Days.[8] Turkington solicited donations from fans of the show to afford more films and supplies to keep the endeavor going.
In February 2014, Turkington temporarily became host of On Cinema at the Cinema,[9] due to Heidecker requiring surgery due to complications from a disease he was suffering.[10] Turkington's guest was film producer and professor Larry Turman.[9]
In 2014, Heidecker, inspired by films he had reviewed on On Cinema such as Jack Reacher, began work on a self-produced movie titled Decker, starring himself as Special Agent Jack Decker, and occasional On Cinema guest Joe Estevez as President Jason Davidson. Adult Swim worked with Heidecker to distribute the movie as Decker: Classified, now having been divided into episodes and aired as a mini-series. Turkington also made an appearance in the series as Jonathan Kington, a CIA codebreaker that assists Decker. Though Turkington initially claimed he never consented to appear in Decker, he later began to enthusiastically promote the series, and assisted Heidecker with future seasons.
In late 2014, Turkington successfully completed #500MoviesIn500Days, having surpassed his goal and now calling it #501MoviesIn501Days.
In 2015, Heidecker, having moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, leaving control of the show to Turkington. Turkington began hosting the show himself, with a focus on continuing to maintain the level of movie expertise and guest quality Heidecker had set. However, Heidecker soon moved back to Los Angeles, and took control of the show back from Turkington. At the same time, Heidecker had brought Turkington onto the production team of the second season of Decker, titled Decker: Port of Call: Hawaii, to assist Heidecker, who was feeling overwhelmed by the creative requirements. Turkington found the experience creatively fulfilling, despite an incident near the end of production in which his personal collection of movies, used as props in the series, was destroyed during filming.
During the 3rd Annual On Cinema Oscar Special, an annual event in which Turkington frequently would attempt movie-related publicity stunts as the finale to the specials, Turkington revealed the existence of a living James Dean, having allegedly faked his death in 1955. Heidecker was shocked, finding it hard to believe that Dean was in fact still alive.
In late 2015, Turkington was approached by a fan of On Cinema. The fan, saddened by the destruction of Turkington's movie collection, offered Turkington ownership of a storage facility in Victorville, California, in which the entire stock of an out-of-business movie rental store was being store, unused. Turkington relocated to Victorville and founded the Victorville Film Archives to properly archive and catalogue the enormous collection he was now steward of.
Heidecker, still wanting to continue the Decker franchise but uninterested in being involved creatively, offered Turkington exclusive rights to write and direct a third season, hinted by Turkington to be titled Decker 3: DVD. Upon airing, the full title was revealed to be Gregg Turkington's Decker vs. Dracula, with James Dean playing Dracula. Three episodes were produced and aired, before creative differences between Heidecker and Turkington, revealed in a documentary created by Heidecker, forced production to be halted. Turkington, disappointed by the cancelation of the series, later released a recreation of the series intended ending. Despite this, Turkington continued to star in and offer creative input to later seasons of Decker.
In 2016, with financial backing from Heidecker, Turkington started the Victorville Film Center, a second-run movie theater in Victorville, down the road from the VFA. The VFC's programming was personally created by Turkington to promote Popcorn Classics, movies selected by Turkington on a popular On Cinema segment. Later that year, the VFA was immolated in an accident caused by a faulty vape pen. While a portion of the archive was being stored at the VFC to be shown at the theater, most of the collection, along with Turkington's personal belongings, was destroyed.
In 2017, Turkington hosted the Our Cinema Oscar Special, an authorized replacement for the annual On Cinema Oscar Specials. Later that year, the VFC was destroyed in an electrical fire.
Turkington was a key witness in Heidecker's murder trial, which occurred after several attendees of Heidecker's Electric Sun Desert Music Festival died from ingesting vapes given out at the event. The prosecution called Turkington as a character witness to elaborate on the various creative differences Heidecker and Turkington had had over the years of working together. Heidecker later called Turkington himself, attempting to use a long-standing argument the two had over Star Trek to demonstrate that Turkington was unfit to testify.
Despite this, Turkington continued working with Heidecker on On Cinema, and in 2018 was given complete creative control over the property after Heidecker lost the rights to the brand due to legal issues with the Delgado Fund. The Delgado family, now owners of On Cinema under their Delgado Media Holdings company, felt that Turkington's long relationship with the show made him uniquely qualified to run it in Heidecker's absence. Turkington petitioned the Delgados to keep Heidecker on staff as an announcer, though Heidecker eventually quit out of frustration of having lost the rights to his creation.
In 2019, Heidecker regained ownership of On Cinema from Delgado Media Holdings, and took over creative control from Turkington. Later that year, Turkington was featured in Mister America, a documentary following Heidecker's failed campaign for district attorney. Turkington had been lead to believe by the director, Josh Lorton, that the movie was about the VFA, and was incensed that the movie contained very little of the footage they had shot.
In 2020, during the filming of the 7th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special, Turkington operated the Mobile VFA, a vehicle owned by the VFA as an exhibit for the special. However, due to the operation of the vehicle inside a closed set, Turkington as well as many other guests of the special suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning.
In 2021, Turkington began his own Oscar special, feeling unwelcome at the annual On Cinema special being broadcast on the newly formed HEI Network. However, Turkington was invited by Heidecker to appear on the program, as his participation had been integral in previous years. Turkington accepted, and during the course of the special made a bet with Heidecker over the winner of that year's Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards. Near the end of the special, HEI security consultant LaRue began making threatening actions towards Turkington, having come to the conclusion that Turkington was responsible for the previous year's carbon monoxide incident. Turkington, feeling unsafe by LaRue's actions, attempted to leave the premises, resulting in LaRue being injured by the Mobile VFA during Turkington's escape.
Due to the results of Turkington's bet with Heidecker during the special, as well as desiring not to escalate any more issues with LaRue, Turkington signed over ownership of the VFA to HEI. However, he still retained creative control over the organization.
In late 2021, Turkington announced a movie he was working on titled Deck of Cards. The movie, written and directed by Turkington, was based on a traditional deck of playing cards, and was funded by Pop-Secret after Turkington won a promotional contest held by the company. Production of the film was fraught, and a heavily edited version of the film was released on the HEI Network in the summer of 2022. Turkington was unhappy with the final result of the film, though he later would go on to say that despite not being true to his initial vision, it was still worth watching as a completed film.
In 2022, Turkington started VFA Expert Tours, a series of tours around the Hollywood area that would take attendees to various locations from famous film franchises. However, only one tour was completed before the 2022 Dekkar Tour, using the VFA Expert Tours Van as transport, ended in the vehicle being totaled. The lack of a functioning vehicle forced Turkington to cancel all future tours indefinitely.
In 2023, Turkington was offered creative rights to a potential movie based on the Pep-Boys chain of vehicle repair shops by businessman G. Amato.
Personal Life
Little is known about Turkington outside of his work on On Cinema and with the VFA. He is an avid fan of the James Bond and Lord of the Rings film franchises, and read the original Hobbit book before the films were released.
Turkington cares deeply about the direction of On Cinema, and has fought back against changes to the format that do not focus on movies. He was very negative upon Dr. San's appearance on the program, feeling that it was drifting towards a focus towards alternative medicine that did not offer the audience what they were there for.[11]
List of non-appearances
Trivia
- In 2011, Gregg had family living in Dallas, Texas[12].
- His favorite film series was once said to be James Bond.[13] This may have changed upon the release of The Hobbit.
- He has watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at least four times.[7]
- He is a fan of soup and salad bars.[14]
- His favorite John Travolta movie is Grease.[1]
- He does not like olives.[1]
- He enjoys magic.[15]
- He greatly enjoys coffee, stating that the “more coffee you drink, the more movies you can watch.”[16]
- Gregg claims to be a Guinness World Records holder, having watched 501 movies in 501 days. However, the validity of whether or not this is actually a world record to be achieved is disputed.
[META] Trivia
- Gregg Turkington is portrayed by, well, Gregg Turkington, an actor, comedian, musician, and writer best known for his work as “America's Funnyman” Neil Hamburger.