Unnatural Selection

This month on Unnatural Selection, join Emma and Kaylee on a journey through Hill House, not sane, as they compare Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House to its first film adaptation, 1963’s The Haunting. Let’s see how two men in the 1960’s managed to portray the lesbian situationship at the heart of this harrowing story, what makes black and white film such an interesting choice, and how sound design kind of goes hard. And don’t worry, our old friend the Hays Code makes an appearance.  Content warnings for The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson include: suicide, death of a parent, death of a loved one, abandonment issues, a labyrinthine house, mild gaslighting, and repressed lesbianism. Content warnings for The Haunting (1963) include: suicide, death of a parent, death of a loved one, abandonment issues, a labyrinthine house, mild gaslighting, and repressed lesbianism (but in a slightly different way). The articles and book Emma references in this episode can be found here: The Films of Robert Wise by Richard C. Keenan https://www.tcm.com/articles/behind-the-classics/961615/behind-the-classics-the-haunting-1963 https://frontrowfeatures.com/features-category-of-interviews-and-spotlights/in-retrospect-robert-wise-and-julie-harris-converge-on-hill-house-33927.html https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1208-terror-suspense-and-the-power-of-suggestion-in-the-haunting/ https://thelastdrivein.com/category/literature-the-novel-and-the-screenplay/nelson-gidding/ http://www.monsterzine.com/200201/haunting.php You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and Kaylee most anywhere @kayleerowena. You can find more of her work at https://kayleerowena.com, including preorder information for her debut graphic novel with Jordan Alsaqa, Affairs of the Haunt, which releases April 2027. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support, you can become a patron at https://patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this podcast was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

It’s been a while since we’ve covered a movie on Unnatural Selection that’s plagued with production problems, riddled with lawsuits, and suffering from abysmal CGI. Join Emma and Greg for a special Emma’s birthday episode where they talk about the 2005 adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s short story A Sound of Thunder. This episode is short, it is detailed, and it features a surprisingly detailed description of a manga trope. For the best listening experience, Emma recommends reading A Sound of Thunder before listening. It will take you five minutes and it’s free online. Content warnings for A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury include: gun violence, trophy hunting, and the origin of several time travel tropes. Content warnings for A Sound of Thunder (2005) include: gun violence, trophy hunting, death of a loved one, drowning, the only Black actor in the party dying first in a weird and drawn out way, bugs, and terrible CGI. The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/mar/08/news https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/12/19/renny-harlin-and-pierce-brosnan-hear-a-sound-of-thunder https://www.denverpost.com/2005/09/03/thunder-a-jurassic-farce/ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-sep-02-et-sound2-story.html https://variety.com/2005/film/reviews/a-sound-of-thunder-1200523576/ https://variety.com/2004/film/markets-festivals/elie-s-new-chapter-1117909400/ https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakdowns/2005-2/a-sound-of-thunder/ https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/sound-thunder-combining-futuristic-prehistoric Emma can be found on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social. Greg can be reached via the Moonshot discord or directly at hamamelis. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support, you can become a patron at https://patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can find more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Crack open those D rations to snack on as Emma and Theo break into new territories for the pod—nonfiction and multi-stage adaptations. They break down Louis Zamperini’s life story three ways: through Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, the 2014 Angelina Jolie-directed Oscar-bait film Unbroken, and the 2018 Pureflix-produced sequel Unbroken: Path to Redemption. There’s a lot to unpack in this one folks, and the audio may be a little wonky since Emma edited it while on an airplane.  Content warnings for Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand include: WW2-typical violence, graphic descriptions of starvation, graphic descriptions of POW camps, descriptions of PTSD, abuse, death, injuries, fascism, alcoholism, mild spousal abuse, a handshake with Hitler, and 1930’s anti-Italian sentiments. Content warnings for Unbroken (2014) include: WW2 movie-typical violence, actors visibly starving themselves, depictions of POW camp violence.  Content warnings for Unbroken: Path to Redemption include: depictions of PTSD flashbacks, alcoholism, mild spousal abuse, and evangelism. The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://scriptmag.com/reviews/cross-road-the-unbroken-path-of-matt-baer https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/unbroken-path-to-redemption-sequel-on-louis-zamperini-focuses-on-faith-his-return-home/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/making-unbroken-angelina-jolie-fought-758081/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/coen-brothers-rewrite-angelina-jolies-424417/ https://collider.com/angelina-jolie-jack-oconnell-unbroken-interview/ https://www.postmagazine.com/Publications/Post-Magazine/2015/January-1-2015/Editing-Unbroken.aspx You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and Theo @fourwholemoons.bsky.social. You can find more of Theo’s projects at www.theodoremonk.com or on his podcast The Friendship Factory. If you’re interested in more collaboration from Emma and Theo you can check out the vod of Sonic and the State of Denmark on the Moonshot Youtube channel. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support, you can become a patron at www.patreon.com/moonshotnetwork. The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Have you ever trekked through the Arctic tundra in search of your shitty dad who made you out of corpses? No? Well, either way, Emma and Chloe have the episode for you! Listen in on their discussion about Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic Frankenstein for hot takes about giving Victor a tragic backstory, Jacob Elordi actually being a pretty good Creature, and just how Catholic this adaptation really is. Special thank you to Riley Hopkins for helping to edit this episode. Content warnings for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein include: death of a child, death of a loved one, death of a parent, false criminal accusations, a bunch of mental breakdowns, and bringing the dead back to life (he won’t tell you how, though). Content warnings for Frankenstein (2025) include: death of a parent, death of a loved one, wolves mauling an old man, death of animals, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and bringing the dead back to life (like, really in detail he will tell you every bit of it). The articles and interviews Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/guillermo-del-toro-on-frankenstein-and-remaking-a-monster/ https://scriptmag.com/guillermo-del-toros-frankenstein-is-the-ultimate-distillation-of-his-screenwriting-craft https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/books/review/the-book-review-guillermo-del-toro.html? https://variety.com/2025/film/news/guillermo-del-toro-frankenstein-hollywood-mentorship-tiff-1236512295/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/making-of-frankenstein-guillermo-del-toro-1236448616/ You can find Emma on bluesky at crabmoney.bsky.social and Chloe on twitter @chlosephine_ . Unnatural Selection and So Emo I Fell Apart are both a part of the Moonshot Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support them, you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Grab a hotdog and hit the stands because James and Emma are about to wax poetic about baseball for an hour and a half through the lens of Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural and its 1984 film adaptation. They talk about what makes good writing versus good baseball, how shockingly horny this book is, and that Robert Redford should be allowed to fail despite being the world’s oldest 19-year-old. Plus, some actual statistics and info about the season taking place in this book and real players similar to our fictional protagonist! Content warnings for The Natural (1952) include: assault with a firearm, death by baseball, ambiguous consent, misogyny, so much horniness, and some really visceral overeating. Content warnings for The Natural (1984) include: assault with a firearm, death by baseball, and misogyny but in a different way from the book. The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/06/movies/an-all-star-team-puts-the-natural-on-film.html https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/11/movies/film-redford-and-duvall-in-malamud-s-natural.html https://variety.com/2025/film/features/barry-levinson-interview-alto-knights-rain-man-1236343241/ https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/23/arts/bernard-malamud-talks-of-writing.html You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and James @rememberthatguy.bsky.social. More information about their show Remember That Guy? can be found at https://linktr.ee/rememberthatguy. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Network. If you like what you’ve hear and want to support, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork. The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Mount your horse and begin your journey to Canterbury with Emma and Ria as they dig into an excellent movie and extremely loosey-goosey adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales—2001 cult classic A Knight’s Tale! Must an adaptation of a 14 century book be accurate or can it not simply operate on vibes alone? Why is the fact Chaucer is one of the movie protagonists accurate to the book? Who’s getting freaky in the Czech Republic on the weekend? All these questions answered and more in today’s episode.  Content warnings for The Canterbury Tales includes: stories of violence, stories of rape, and 1390’s typical racism, sexism, religious opinions, and fart jokes. Content warnings for A Knight’s Tale (2001) includes: jousting violence, pre-9/11 crude humor, and a naked Paul Bettany. The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-14-ca-63182-story.html https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/16/how-we-made-a-knights-tale-heath-ledger-paul-bettany-brian-helgeland https://www.theringer.com/2021/05/11/movies/knights-tale-heath-ledger-behind-the-scenes-stories-paul-bettany https://splicedwire.com/01features/bhelgeland.html You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social. Ria can be found on bluesky and twitter @ria_tee and on Instagram @riaeliza. Both Unnatural Selection and So Emo I Fell Apart are a part of the Moonshot Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support us, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com/

Don’t get Sicilian Defensive as Camilla and Emma break down the very first limited series in Unnatural Selection History—The Queen’s Gambit! They get into the details of chess history, compelling orphan origins, and how hard it is to find good adaptation interviews from high lockdown in 2020.  Content warnings for The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis include: death of a parent, alcohol abuse, medication abuse, childhood drug abuse, child sexual assault, shitty adoptive fathers, and 60’s-questionable depictions of the story’s sole Black character. Content warnings for The Queen’s Gambit (2020) include: suicide, death of a parent, alcohol abuse, medication abuse, childhood drug abuse, shitty adoptive fathers, and questionable depictions of the story’s sole prominent Black character. The interviews Emma references for this episode can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX6SvqjBedY https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/interview-audio-scott-frank-d9e8489138cc https://www.npr.org/2020/12/28/950010157/queens-gambit-co-creator-scott-frank-wanted-to-explore-the-cost-of-genius https://ew.com/tv/the-queens-gambit-netflix-scott-frank-interview/ https://www.theringer.com/2020/11/17/tv/the-queens-gambit-netflix-scott-frank-limited-series-godless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9gjJhyCyw You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and Camilla @anteatermom.bsky.social. You can check out Camilla’s Twitch streams at WeAreAlexandra and the VODs at WeAreAlexandra on youtube. Emma and the Alexandrite System are both a part of the Moonshot Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support them, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com/https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Life finds a way and so do film adaptations. Join Emma and Greg to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Unnatural Selection’s third anniversary with the adaptation that both started their relationship and made Emma want to start this podcast—welcome, to the Jurassic Park episode! Emma and Greg get into the nitty gritty details of dinosaur development, blending lawyers and PR guys, and how sometimes making changes to characters based on who you cast makes things better, actually. Content warnings for Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton include: dinosaur-related gore and death, death of an infant, children in peril, mild weirdly handled classism/racism, the folly of capitalism, and more computations than you’re expecting. Content warnings for Jurassic Park (1993) include: dinosaur-related gore and death, children in peril, electrocution, and the folly of capitalism. The book and articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: Shay, Don; Duncan, Jody “Making of Jurassic Park” Copyright 1993. Published by Ballantine Books. New York https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/06/movies/film-visiting-jurassic-park-for-real.html https://sffgazette.com/sci_fi/creating-jurassic-park-a-classic-interview-with-author-michael-crichton-a1296 https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/jurassic-park-turns-25-scenes-moments-iconic-summer/story?id=55332468 You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and Greg on discord at Hamamelis. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and was to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork.    The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com/https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Become a very technical boy with Emma and CJ as they break down how on Earth a $1.5 million pitch for a film of William Gibson’s short story Johnny Mnemonic became a $30 million Hollywood flick starring Keanu Reeves. They get into Gibson and director Robert Longo’s friendship, the fact a director’s cut does not really exist, and how sometimes editing is everything. Content warnings for Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson include: violence, cyberpunk gore, vaguely questionable portrayals of trans characters, and a junkie dolphin.  Content warnings for Johnny Mnemonic (1995) include: violence, cyberpunk gore, slightly more questionable portrayals of trans characters, memory loss, mourning the death of a child, an epidemic taking place in the early 2020’s (but not that one), and whatever the hell is going on with the Preacher. The articles and resources Emma and CJ reference on this episode can be found here: https://www.wired.com/1995/06/gibson-4/ https://www.wordyard.com/dmz/digicult/gibson-8-4-94.html https://www.screenslate.com/articles/johnny-mnemonic-black-and-white-robert-longo-interview https://web.archive.org/web/20070627074200/http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/98-3/issue7/gibson.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-24-fi-5524-story.html https://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/5140 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/apr/30/johnny-mnmemonic-keanu-reeves-william-gibson Smith PA, ed. Conversations with William Gibson / Edited by Patrick A. Smith. University Press of Mississippi; 2014. You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and CJ on most socials @nearfutures. CJ is a part of Sly Robot Games and you can find more of his work at https://cjlinton.com/ including his game Bring Down the House, which Emma loves dearly. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and was to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork.    The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Journey forward to the year 2035 and take a trip to Chicago with Emma and Dominique to figure out just what all the robots are up to these days. These two read the quintessential robot sci-text I, Robot by Isaac Asimov and do a bit of their own puzzle solving to figure out just how this series of short conundrums with the three laws of robotics became a Will Smith cop action movie in 2004. Get real deep into the concept of robots as a metaphor, grounded near-future tech, and egregious product placement in this month’s Unnatural Selection.   Content warnings for I, Robot by Isaac Asimov include: space religion, robotic puzzles, cave-ins, being trapped on an asteroids, being separated from your robot caregiver, and dying (but only for a little bit).   Content warnings for I, Robot (2004) include: standard action-movie violence, drowning of a child, car accidents, robot racism, uncanny valley special effects, and an absolutely absurd price for two beers.   The articles Emma references in this article can be found here: https://www.screenwritersutopia.com/article/d19127d8 https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/i-robot-movie-writer-interview-jeff-vintar-talks-isaac-asimov-ties https://variety.com/2025/film/news/alan-tudyk-i-robot-test-screenings-will-smith-1236486844/   You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and Dominique on most socials @DomSDickey. You can find places to read their writing at https://dominiquedickey.com/ or through Neon Hemlock press for their novella Redundancies and Potentials. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and was to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork.   The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com