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Afternoon is on the Drive. Anthony se Ferrante is a well He made his
feature writing and directing debut with the Atmospheric Ghost Story Boo, but he's been
a lifelong horror fan and he's parleyed all of his fandom into the production of
the Shark Nato franchise, which is out with its tenth anniversary edition, newly
remastered, never before seen kills and Thrills, More Sharks, More Nato,
and I can't wait to see it. Anthony, thanks for joining us,
Nah, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. So we have
our share of tornadoes, we do not have our share of sharks. You
should be you should be worried because everything that we did in the Sharknado movies
has come true. So I don't want to wish that on you. But
you know, the weird thing is that there was a there was like a
mini funnel in Los Angeles about three or four months ago, and I was
picking up debris and I was we were looking at it and loving that actually
looks like our cgi sharks. Because the Japore looked like it almost looked identical
to a shot from a Sharknado movie. So again, be careful. We
watch the watch the skies. It's not necessarily tornado. It's the sharks that
can can really do some damage. The tornadoes are scary enough, even though
we're so used to them. When the sirens go off, everybody's grabbing their
camera to go get a picture of it. So they don't do that in
Sharknado, do they They don't go take a picture of it. Well,
let me get let me maybe I can get the shark flying by. Yeah.
And unfortunately, unfortunately, a chainsaw's not gonna help you against a regular
tornado either. So that's true. I mean, maybe that's the danger and
what we've done for for the Oklahoma residence. It's like, hey, mom,
Dad, I got the chainsaw. It's like no, no, no,
no, and it's there's no sharks in it. Oh, so we
better go protect ourselves now. Sharknado, the tenth Anniversary edition is out and
it'll be at AMC Quail Springs twenty four, Bricktown sixteen, and Regal Warren
and more, Tulsa's AMC South Roads twenty with Imax and Dolby B and B,
Tulsa, Star World twenty and Regal Warren and Broken Arrow, all the
places where you can see it. How did you come up with the original
concept? Did you just decide, hey, let's make a scary tornado we
even scarier. It was just we tried to come up with the most ridiculous
idea. Jacob harre Wright, a guy who write a couple of scripts with
we would come up with some stupid ideas and one of them was Sharknado,
and and honestly, sci Fi was like no a couple of times, and
then I wrote a reference to the Sharknado and another script for them, and
they go, that's when we must make this movie. And that's that's what
we you know. It was just a title that that tickled us, and
we thought it was kind of silly and fun, and we were trying to
find a way to make it without Sci Fi, and then they decided to
do it. And I was fortunate enough to come along for the ride and
make six of these movies. So, you know, we always believed in
the promise of the premise, and I wanted to deliver and over deliver,
you know, regardless of budget and time. You know, we had six
months start to finish, no money, eighteen days and it just was lightning
in a bottle. Something happened. But you know, I never gave up
on the movie. If anything was like, well, you know, if
it destroys my career, at least I went down in Flaming Sharks and and
you know, and that's what you do. You got to put everything in
it. And you know, be damned when anybody thinks. We wrote the
theme song to the film, The Ballad of Sharknado, and someone told me,
don't put that out there. People are going to make fun of you.
And I was like, no, we're putting it out and you know,
it's a little Ramon's type ditty kind of thing, and it's, you
know, uh, go go go, go go, run away from the
Sharknado. It's your greatest puff of foe. Don't want to get eaten by
Sharknado. And it just it just you know, it was fun and that's
what the whole movie was. It was just a celebration of fun. And
now people can get see it in the theater. There there's a generation that
grew up on it that know what it is. From TV. They see
it every year and then now you're gonna get a whole new generation. They're
gonna go to a theater and get that communal experience that people had on Twitter
that first night. So and we remastered it for theatrical it's a different experience.
It's the same ridiculous movie, but with you know, four K remix
sound new Sharks. We went back into the original cuts of the movie to
see if there's stuff that we ran out of time to do, and we
put some of that stuff back in the film, did a little bit of
re editing. Basically, George Lucas this thing to make sure the Sharks shoot
first. Anthony Ferranti is the director and writer of Shark Nado and this is
the tenth anniversary which is playing in and around the area this week. As
it opened, so audiences were at first wait, no, really, and
then hey, this is cool, but what about casting? Was it difficult
to get people to be in the movie? No one, No one wanted
to be in the movie. They put out a casting notice, you know,
you sent out offered just the name talent, and every time they sent
out something with Shark Nado was like no, no. And then they then
they then they set out a casting, noticing, no, it's called Dark
Skies. Yeah, that's the ticket. And then of course, uh,
you know, we got our when we got our cast, and then they
found out it was gonna be called Shark Nado, and then they were gonna
come after me with their their pitchforks and fire and like, you must change
this title. Our careers are ruined. It's like, no, it'll be
good. It's called Shark Nado. It's so much better than Dark Skies.
Please don't kill me. And and so that I mean, I think that's
what it is. It's just like I mean, there was I think Steve
Gutenberg was offered and he passed. I think honestly, the closest we came
to somebody that would was actually legitimate was Crispin Glover, who I had like
a thirty minute conversation with on on the phone, and and Chrispin was like,
I don't understand why you want me to be in this movie. I'm
like, because they are offering it too. It's like, you know,
I want to play finn as if you know, you know, he's He's
like I got a brain injury or something, and I'm like, oh,
okay, Chrispin, and it was the weirdest thirty minute conversation. Love the
actor, love him to death, but it was like, I don't I
don't know if it would have been the movie it was with him in it,
but it was really kind of cool as if you can imagine, you
know, Sharknado starring Crispin Glover, it probably still would have been, you
know, just as crazy. But but but I think he's right. It's
like, you know, why why would we want him in this? It's
like, because no one else wants to do it, so I want to
come along for the ride and let's have some fun. But it didn't,
it didn't work out. And then and finally Ian Zering's name came up,
and it's like the moment they said Ian Zering, it's like, of course
that's Finn Shepherd. I mean everybody else was like that would be cool.
I mean Steve Gutenberg, who was in the fourth movie. I love Steve.
Steve would have been great. But I think what Finn, what Ian
brought to it is he just brought a legitimacy to that care grounded it in
this, in this thing. I think Steve would it would have been more
humorous like it was with Lavalanchila, which I think would have been great too,
But iron just there was a different kind of gravitas to it, and
I think people didn't expect him in a movie like this, and he just
sold it. So it took it from you have the comedy with the title,
you don't want to make it a comedy with everything else. Of course,
we did lean in heavily into the cheekiness and as it went along,
but the goal was always the characters are not in on the joke. The
joke is the title, in the in the in the movie itself. So
as long as you ground it, that's what makes it the special movie.
It is shark Nado, the tenth anniversary edition Newly were Master to end it
out never before seens kills and thrills, more sharks, more Nato. Did
you Anthony Farantius with us? Did you have to immerse yourself in any meteorology
to produce this? I actually I went to Vegas right before we were shooting,
and they had this shark exposition exposition, and so my family and I
went to that, and so I was, you know, not not that
it was gonna enlighten me on anything. But there there is one moment in
the script where you know, we were trying to figure out how I think
in the original script, you know, how how can you destroy these tornadoes
and stuff? And I went and researched a little bit about cold air and
hot air and could could bombs actually destroy it? And so there's a little
there's a little truth to this, even though it's still you know, bs
science. But but but I think I think the one thing is people go,
well, did they know that what they were making was ridiculous or were
they just completely oblivious? And I think there's a moment where Baths played by
Jason Simmons, shows up and I go, we're gonna throw bombs into tornadoes?
That's impossible. And he shows up literally steps behind an out of well
actually cold and warm air. Blah. It's like basil exposition and literally it's
like a Monty Pie movie. And it's like, if you didn't understand we
were in on the joke, that should have been the moment where a character
stands out it's like, yes, this is possible because X Y Z and
and I. That's again there's a there's a lot of money python in this
movie, the guy getting his arm ripped off by the shark and he's you
know, you know, crawling on the ground, and then the shark comes
and the smashes the top of his head. Uh. There's a lot of
silliness that I still can't believe they let me make this movie. He Finn
gets eaten by a shark and then chainsaws his way out and then pulls this
other character out of the shark. How is it that we got to do
this movie and then did it for six movies. It's it's it's a gift
and the fans came along with it. And that unhingedness, that energy of
desperation, I think is what made the movie what it was. Shark Nado
the tenth Anniversary Edition. It is out now at a theater near you,
Oklahoma City and in Tulsa. Anthony C. Ferranti is the director and writer.
And we thank you for bringing Shark Nado into our lives and joining us
today. Thank you so much, Lee, Go Go Go. Thanks for
listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to
listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeart Media Presentation,