It’s Almost Here: Movies In Focus Gets A Sneak Peek At AIN’T IT COOL WITH HARRY KNOWLES

The long awaited second season of Ain’t It Cool With Harry Knowles is nearly here. The show originally started on Nerdist’s Youtube Channel in 2012 but Harry Knowles and director Brett Hart’s vision for the show grew (I interviewed Harry and Brett when season one launched) . The pair took to Kickstarter to raise funds for a second season that would give them more creative control, letting them make the show that they wanted to make. Things took an interesting turn after shooting ended when PBS showed interest in screening it – opening it up to a whole new (and wider)audience.

The interest from PBS led to a few delays in the show’s release and in true internet fashion, the conspiracy theories started as to why the show hadn’t yet hit screens. However, Harry and Brett were beavering away in the background editing their footage and honing it to make a show that met their true vision.

Movies In Focus has been lucky enough to see almost 50 minutes of the show and it looks great. The ‘sizzle reel’ I’ve seen includes a great interview with the mighty Burt Reynolds, as well as chats with House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon, horror guru Wes Craven, director Danny Boyle and famed film critic Leonard Maltin.

50 minutes from a three hour season is a relative drop in the ocean, but there’s a lot of good stuff on offer here: Harry teases some great anecdotes from his subjects; you could listen to Burt Reynolds talk all day and Willimon tells a few interesting tales on working with David Fincher and how House of Cards came to pass. Harry also gets geeky with Wes Craven over Swamp Thing, Danny Boyle talks Trainspotting 2 and Leonard Maltin discusses Disney’s controversial Song of the South.

This is a show for enthusiastic movie fans, so check your cynicism at the door, kick-back and simply enjoy.

Ain’t It Cool With Harry Knowles hits Austin screens on the PBS affiliate KLRU-Q on Saturday 7 February (before going national on NETA). The season runs for 7 episodes, with each episode being 25 minutes in length.