Speaker 1: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious podcast. We are here today to talk about
two iconic movies from the eighties, one of which is
celebrating its fortieth anniversary just a couple of months ago,
the other of which is celebrating its thirty fifth anniversary
in a month or so right around this time. And
they are both cult classics.
Speaker 2: Okay, today we're going to be discussing Flash Gordon nineteen
eighty and Highlander nineteen eighty six. We are going to
have so much freaking fun talking about these movies.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jason, our executive producer for this episode is your
dear friend, mister Dale Selby. I want to give a
big shout out to him. Thank you very much. Dale.
He joined our Patreon page. I am sending him our prizes,
which are headphones and a cool custom engraved coffee mug
or you know what beverage he wants to put in there.
Speaker 2: Dale is one of my great college buddies. Thank you
so much. He actually texts me and we talked about
the episode, and he follows it and gives a feedback,
and I really appreciate you. Thanks Dale, You're awesome.
Speaker 1: Okay, So with most movies that we compare, we save
final judgment for the end, and in this particular scenario,
we have an unfair comparison. Right, there's one obvious movie
that is better than the other movie in this comparison,
and that movie is Highlight. Shut your dirty mouth.
Speaker 2: Flash Gordon. It's Highlander, Flash Gordon is. It's clearly the winner.
I love both. I can't believe we decided this already.
Speaker 1: What. Okay, so Flash Gordon is like an over budgeted
high school musical. What are you talking about?
Speaker 2: We're comparing it to the movie where the leads can't
even speak English.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I guess we need to jump into the
discussion now because there can.
Speaker 3: Be only one to the dad Gum.
Speaker 1: That song kicks so much. But I mean, I don't
care which movie you're picking. That is the song of
all of the songs on both of these soundtracks. That
is the most awesome.
Speaker 2: It's awesome. It gets my you know what, it.
Speaker 1: Does, get your you know what, It gets my you
know what too.
Speaker 2: It gets it gets me going man.
Speaker 1: Make that feel like a man.
Speaker 2: That might be my favorite Queen song of all time.
Oh wow, I mean that is up there with the
big boys, you know, Bohemian Rhapsody and I Want.
Speaker 1: It All and We Will Rock You.
Speaker 2: It's up there, Princes of the Universe. Freaking awesome.
Speaker 1: Wow. Well, So, as we mentioned before, these are two
cult classics. They were not super popular movies. They were
not in the US when they first came out, but
thanks to Queen and thanks to a following that developed
over time for both of them, they have become iconic
movies that have stood the test.
Speaker 3: Of com.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think HBO and VHS were vital to these two.
Speaker 1: Both of my experiences were with a video, although I
think with Flashboard and I actually get to see that
one in the thing.
Speaker 2: I saw that in the theater as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I didn't se Highlander until I was in college.
This is the honest truth on both of these movies.
Each time I watch them, I like them a little
bit better every time I watch. Yeah, they are so
much fun.
Speaker 1: And I'll say this, There's a documentary that came out
about four years ago called Life After Flash It's largely
involved Sam Jones, but it has everybody in there. Surprisingly,
almost all of them are still alive as old as
that movie is. But it's a fantastic documentary that I
encourage anybody to check out, very good quality stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I watched it too, and it made me love Sam
Jones even more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what a super guy. Yeah. I kind
of wish that I had seen the documentary before I
rewatched Flash Gordon. I think I may have enjoyed it more.
But yeah, you really, he was a guy who screwed up,
owned it and has done everything he can to change
his life to.
Speaker 4: Make about it.
Speaker 2: All Right, we're going to dive in.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about Flash Gordon first.
Speaker 1: We're going to jump into the history. All right.
Speaker 2: Flash Gordon was released December fifth, nineteen eighty, or the
budget of twenty seven million dollars, and it made about
twenty seven million dollars.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so it came Flash Gordon was born in
the nineteen thirties. I mean, the character was created in
the nineteen thirties. The King Features Syndicate was looking for
a character that it could use to compete with this
new character that had come out called buck Rogers. All Right,
so buck Rogers was a space adventure. They're like, we
need a space adventure of our own. They actually had
an artist working for them who came up with this
fantastic idea of a polo player from Yale that saved
the universe. A polo player, a polo player because.
Speaker 2: That was, you know, kind of the tough guy sport
of the thirties.
Speaker 1: Yep. And so Flash Gordon was immediately successful, had the toys,
had the comic strips, and then of course it started
having cereals, you know, and we had Buster Crabb, who
was an Olympic athlete, picturesque godlike you know, physique guy.
He was a stud of the thirties. He absolutely was.
And he played Flash Gordon in the movies, and he
played Flash Gordon in the serials, and then a little
later on he played Buck Rogers really also in the thirties. Yeah,
it's kind of crazy. He was also in Buck Rogers
of the twenty fourth century.
Speaker 2: Drudgers in the twenty fourth and I have twenty fifth century.
Speaker 1: It's the twenty fifth century, right, Okay. His character's name
was Commander Gordon Nice.
Speaker 2: Nice is cool.
Speaker 1: So he's in those serials in the thirties and forties.
And then there's a guy named Steve Holland who's in
a TV show about Flash Gordon in the fifties, which
is a very important TV show for one reason. There's
this kid in the nineteen fifties watching TV named George
who decides that he wants to grow up to be
a movie director, and he wants to direct a movie
about Flashcourdon.
Speaker 4: Little George, Little Georgie Lucas, Little Georgie Lucas.
Speaker 1: In the meantime. Unfortunately for him, this guy named Dino
de la Reentes obtains the screen rights to Flash Gordon.
It gets stuck in development. Hell Dyala Rennis has Frederick
Fellini's the guy he wants to direct it. Have you
seen any of Fellini's stuff?
Speaker 2: No, but I know he's revered.
Speaker 1: He's bizarre. Okay, it is. It's weird now. Dino had
had some success with some comic adaptations. He had done Barbarella,
and he had done this thing called Danger Diabolic. But
for some reason Flash Gordon couldn't get off the ground.
Space Adventures had kind of fallen out of favor in
the seventies. You had more it was more like sci
fi dystopia type of stuff. When he goes to get
to the see if he can direct the movie from
King Syndicate Features, they say no, Dala Renis already has
it and he doesn't want you to direct. I guess
I'll go direct my own space opera.
Speaker 2: Oh, this movie called Star Wars.
Speaker 1: It had just a smidgeon of success, just a teeny
bit of success, and so suddenly Flash Gordon was moving
on up out of development hell and into production.
Speaker 2: It's really it's incredible how these movies are so intertwined.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and Lucas totally stole, Like the scrolling
credits at the beginning of Star Wars totally comes from
the flashboard and Cereals the buns in her hair comes
from the flashboardon comic books. I mean, he took all
kinds of liberties, but you know, shame on them for
turning him down when he asked to come direct it.
Speaker 2: Hey, Darth Vader and Ming the Merciless.
Speaker 1: Similar I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2: The two biggest batties in the universe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all of a sudden, everybody's making space movies, right,
So at this point Fellini has moved on, He's not
in it anymore.
Speaker 2: So he taps Nicholas Rogue.
Speaker 1: Yes, Nick Rogue is also kind strange.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he does this movie called The Man Who Fell.
Speaker 1: To Earth, Yeah, had David Bowie in it. So he
goes with the guy who wrote Enter the Dragon that
edbrus Lee in it. He goes with that guy I
don't rememberhere the guy's name is. They go and work
on the script together, and they come up with a
really good, deep, meaningful, symbol great script, and Dino da
Reente says, no, this is this is not what I want.
I want a comic book, and this is going to
cost me way too much money. Yes, you're out, Let
me find somebody else. And so he picks up Mike Hodges,
who he had already slated to direct flashcoord in Part two.
Speaker 2: Really okay, well optimism you know, yeah, sure, Mike Hodges
did the Terminal Man, Get Carter, Yeah, and Flash Cord right.
Speaker 1: Terminal Man was the only sci fi experience that he
had well.
Speaker 2: At this point, Dino has worked with the screenwriter named
Lorenzo Simple.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we've talked about Lorenzo Simple before.
Speaker 2: Yes. He wrote and Never Say Never Again exactly. He
also wrote Three Days of the Condor Papion King Kong
and was known to be the main guy who wrote
the Batman series from the sixties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Adam West series Yes.
Speaker 2: He's the guy who came up with Bam pal crash right,
all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Right, and say they went they went to him specifically
and said, we want a comic book movie like your
comic book series. He said, this movie was just supposed
to be fine.
Speaker 2: Okay, so stop right there. Yeah, Flash Gordon.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If you take Star Wars, yes, and mash it up
with Batman in the sixties series Flash Cord, it gives birth
to this wonderful thing we called Flashboard two.
Speaker 1: Yes, this colorful thing that we call it.
Speaker 2: Fun awesome, goofy, this campy, fun thing we called Flashbock.
Speaker 1: It is perfect for kids. Keep going, let's see. Oh,
but the guy who ultimately is responsible for the way
that the whole movie works is this guy called Donna Elodonardi. Yes,
he had more influence over the way the thing looked
than anybody else, which is a little bit of a
problem because he didn't speak English. Number one and number two,
he refused to read the script.
Speaker 2: He would make stuff and the director's like, what the
crap is this?
Speaker 1: Ye pink trees, he had pink a boia was pink,
and it was and he would build these sets and
it was there was so much stuff on the set
that they didn't know where to set up the camera.
There was no place they couldn't move around. It was
just like Mike Hodges said, I think he was just
out there just having fun. He didn't really care that
we were making a movie.
Speaker 2: Mike Hodges needs a round of applause and a pat
on the back for stealing this great movie out of
the depths of this craziness.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the crew was Italian. Yeah, the cast was English,
mostly an American. They couldn't talk to each other. Dina
d l Lorenz just barely speaks English.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Sam J.
Speaker 2: Jones has never been in a movie before. I mean
he'd been in one or two things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you been to Blake Edwards was the playgirl, and
he had been in Hollywood Squares, the data game.
Speaker 2: The dating game.
Speaker 1: That's what it was, the dating game. So that's we
should We should go there in just a second when
we start talking about the actors. But before we do that,
let's talk about the beginning of highlight.
Speaker 2: Let's it's a kind of magic.
Speaker 1: It's a good magic.
Speaker 2: So Highlander was released March seventh, nineteen eighty six. This
had a budget of nineteen million dollars in its box
office was thirteen million dollars. This was originally titled The
Dark Knight.
Speaker 1: Yes. The idea for the story was born from the
imagination of the writer Gregory Wyden. Gregory when he was
about nineteen years old, he went to the Tower of
London and down in the basement of the Tower of London,
they have like the largest armory museum in the world, right, right,
And so he's looking at all of these suits of
armor and other war battle increment weapon things, swords and
about armor and shields, and he's like, what if there
was a guy who was in a bunch of these things,
like he had worn these things throughout history. And that
was the spark that led to the idea of the
immortal man who has worn all of these battle uniforms
throughout his wory.
Speaker 2: It's such a simple idea, but it's such a good hook, right, Oh,
it's fantastic. What if there was a guy hook who
didn't die and this was his armor?
Speaker 1: Right? So Gregory White and he went to UCLA to
get his film degree. He had actually planned initially he
had planned to be a doctor. Really yeah, okay, And
so while he was still just out of high school.
He had gotten his paramedic certificate because he thought that's
a good way to get familiar with the medical field, right.
And so when he goes out to UCLA to go
to film school there he gets a job as a firefighter,
which is why later on he goes on to write
the script for the movie Backdraft.
Speaker 2: This guy is taking the most of his opportunities, right, Hey,
I'm here at Tower of London. Boom script, my part
time job, fireman, boom script.
Speaker 1: He wrote and directed this series called The Prophecy. I
haven't seen it. I don't know if it's any good. Yeah,
Christopher Walking, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: Christopher Waltkins like Gabriel the Archangel. Yeah, and he's like pissed,
so oh wow, okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah I like it. So he has this grad project
of writing a script. He uses the idea that he
came up with from his strip to the Tower of
London to write this script. And congratulations to his professor.
I don't remember his professor's name, but he said, instead
of saying things like professors say sometimes to their students,
so this is scrap and here's all the thing's wrong
with it, he said, this is a really good script.
As a matter of fact, this is so good, I'm
going to put you in contact with this guy that
I know that's an agent. We're going to see if
we can option it off for you. And that's what
they did, and the script got picked up. Grad student
gets paid two hundred thousand dollars for the script. Yeah,
I mean it was.
Speaker 2: Two hundred a lot of money.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of money.
Speaker 2: But yeah, he could have done what miss what's her
face did in Christmas story and said C plus you
know plus. But yeah, he told me this is good
enough to turn into an agent.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's And so the guys that pick up his
script are called William Panzer and Peter Davis. Okay, and
so they've got this script that they like a lot,
they do decide they're going to make some changes to it.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: The original script was a good deal darker, not as funny,
and didn't have a romance story to it.
Speaker 2: That's a good move. Yeah, some other changes that it had.
The immortals could have children, right, so like McLeod had
like thirty seven thirty seven children?
Speaker 1: Right, Why did you have thirty seven children? Because we
didn't want to have thirty.
Speaker 2: The Kurgan was a little different too. He had been
over time, he had been cut up and beat up
and burned, and he was much more grotesque character.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he also was a more sympathetic villain.
Speaker 2: The only thing he had was the prize, like that
was the only thing he was going for.
Speaker 1: Right, He had lost everything over his centuries of living.
He had lost all meaning to life except for this
one thing, the prize at the end, to finish this competition,
and that was what got him up out of bed.
Everything we got, we got Joker from the Dark Night,
we got Clancy Brown full on Psycho.
Speaker 2: It's better to burn out than fade away.
Speaker 1: I gotta say for Clancy Brown, I mean he Clancy
Brown wanted it to be more like the character was written.
He had this idea that he was going to be
in a bowler hat and like a nice suit instead
of dressed like a punk rocker rest of the time,
and was into this idea of there being an intellectual
motivation behind the darkness that he had. But he did
Psycho real well. He did Psycho really well. It kind
of made the movie.
Speaker 2: Absolutely This guy's awesome. So Clancy Brown, you probably recognize
him as the bad Cop Captain Hadley from The Shawshank Redemption.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the unbelievable prick actually had the audacity act magnanimous
about it, right. He was also in Starship Troopers and
he was also I didn't know this. He's done a
lot of voice work, but he was Curterer in Thor Ragnarok,
the big horned villain at the beginning the fights at
the end. That's Brown doing that part.
Speaker 2: He's got a great voice, which is huge.
Speaker 1: Later on, I got a little secret thing that I'm
going to talk about with Thor Ragnarok and Flashboard a
little bit later on. But there's connection. There's always these connections,
and I got it coming up. Okay, awesome, awesome. So
William Panzer and Peter Davis have the script, they decide
they want to make some changes to it, and then
they decide, okay, now we've got to get a director
to direct it, right, And so they've got a list
of like twenty directors to look at, and somehow somebody
gives them this movie called Razorback, Razorback, Razorback, which is
an Australian movie that is basically Jaws in the Outback
with a giant pig as.
Speaker 2: The Shark sounds great, sounds great.
Speaker 1: I've heard that it's one of those movies that you
just think this sounds like the biggest pile of crap,
but it is actually really pretty good. I want to
go see it. I've watched the trailer and I'm like,
this is actually interesting enough that I would go watch it.
I haven't seen it, but I can tell you also
the interviews that I heard, they said they watched the
first ten minutes of this movie and they said, that's
our guy.
Speaker 2: This guy's name is Russell mckahey.
Speaker 1: Then they watched derand Duran's Hungry Like a Wolf and
they said, that is definitely our guy.
Speaker 2: This guy's known.
Speaker 1: For music videos, right, and some that we've talked about
in the past, including Bonnie Tyler totally Clips of the Heart,
totally Clips of the Heart. But he also did the
very first video that appeared on MTV by the Buggles.
He's the one who directed video Killed the Radio Star.
Speaker 2: That is awesome.
Speaker 1: The third installment that we've talked about that he directed, yes,
was from our def Leppard episode Okay. He directed the
Pour Some Sugar on Me video. The Pour Some Sugar
on Me video No, not that one, not that one. No,
the first one, the horrible was the one that directed
that one where they're in the old lady's house and
you have the random crowd of people I don't know,
the wrecking ball and the manly women.
Speaker 2: Yes, go back, flashback our Death Leopard Hysteria episode. Go
listen to us talk about that crazy, crappy video. And
then they said put that one in the trash, and
they made the one that we all.
Speaker 1: Know and love right that. He did not direct that one,
but he did direct Hungary Like the Wolf, and that
was enough to get him this job.
Speaker 2: I mean, Hungry Like the Wolf was a great video.
Did Betty Davis Eyes, He did Wild Boys by Director a.
Speaker 1: Ton of Billy Joel videos he was. And he did
some queen stuff too.
Speaker 2: He did Princes of the Universe. Yeah, you might as
well just go direct the music video myself. Right, and
let's go ahead and have Freddie Mercury fights with swords.
Christopher Lambert, are you ready.
Speaker 1: To jump into casting?
Speaker 2: Let's go into casting, all right, back to Flashboard. There
is some connective tissue between these two movies. Okay, casting wise, Okay.
The number one draft choice to play the lead character
in Flashcoordon number.
Speaker 1: One draft choice for the quarterback for the New York Jets.
Speaker 2: That's right, and the number one draft choice to play
the Highlander in Highlander.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was Kurt Russell. Both movies, both movies, both movies.
He was number one choice.
Speaker 2: He was the number one choice. They offered him Flash
Gordon and he turned it down. Yes, they offered him Highlander.
Speaker 1: He accepted, and then Goldie Hawn said, your Scottish accent sucks.
Speaker 2: No, I don't know what she said. Let's go make Overboard.
Speaker 1: Oh is that what happened?
Speaker 2: That's what happened.
Speaker 1: She talked him out of it.
Speaker 2: Well, you know goldiehan in nineteen eighty seven had some pool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that bikini in Overboard.
Speaker 2: Yes, Hello, Arnold Schwarzenegger almost got the part as Splash Gordon.
Speaker 1: Can I just say something real quick? Yes on this topic.
In the movie Overboard, you have the perfect connection between
Fright Night and The Lost Boys because you have ed Herman,
who played Max and the Lost Boys on the same
ship with Roddy McDowell, who played.
Speaker 2: Mister Vincent Vincent in Fright Night. That is incredible. I
did not make that connection until just now. All right,
So Kurt Russell was supposed to be Flash Gordon. Sam J.
Jones got this because Dino de la renz IS's mom
was watching the dating game and there's this guy she
thought was really good looking. Sam J.
Speaker 1: Jones, Yeah, okay, how does that conversation go. We're having
trouble finding an actor to play this part. Oh you
know what, I saw a very handsome boy game.
Speaker 2: You should give him a call. He's a very wholesome
American boy.
Speaker 1: How does a guy who's produced multiple movies go? Yeah, okay,
that's a good.
Speaker 2: Good idea, Mom, good idea, So listen to this. Arne Schwarzenegger,
Uh huh didn't get the part because he had an accent.
Speaker 1: Yes, so let's just wait until he's a barbarian mister
Dino Dila Reentez and make his accent part of the character.
I guess.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So he brought him back for Conan, right, and then
off he goes. Flash Gordon has to be an all
American guy.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Jeff Bridges and Harvey Kaitel were considered for the
role of Flashes.
Speaker 1: See that's fascinating because Highlander is largely influenced by the duelists.
Which is Ridley Scott's first movie about this continuing battle
of swords that happens, and Harvey Kaitel is one of
the main guys in them.
Speaker 2: There you go. So when Dino brought in Sam J.
Jones before we get off of Sam J. Jones, he
brought him in, he didn't talk directly to him. He
just tucked around him. So it's like it was literally
like a model. Oh yes, turn around please, oh yes, okay,
And he was talking to his producer and he's like, yes,
I think this is our flesh and let's face the
Sam J. Jones, big strong, athletic looking dude. Yeah, I
mean he had he was a model.
Speaker 1: He was a model. And it's funny that you say
that because, like Mike Hodges, after the animosity that developed
over the shooting of this movie, at some point said
to Dino de learned is why did you why did
you pick me to direct this? Like you know what,
what about my past made you? And he and Dino
de larn says, I like your face.
Speaker 2: Well, oddly enough, that was not the worst choice or
the weirdest choice that Dino da Lawrence has made while
casting Flash Gordon.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so.
Speaker 2: While he is looking for doctor Zarkoff, it came down
to two guys. Topel, who.
Speaker 1: Is this the Little Girl Life?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Fiddler on the Roof to me? He is
also Colombo from forty Your Eyes Only. He is James
Bond guy, right, But he also wanted this guy named
Warren Oates. You know him a wild bunch, Well yeah,
but you probably know him better as Sergeant Hulkin from Stripes.
Speaker 1: Yes, uh, lighting up Francis.
Speaker 2: And so they couldn't decide between Warren Oates and Topal. Yeah,
so they flipped a coin like legitimately, Like he said,
I've made some of my best decisions by doing this flip. Topel,
You're in all right? Max von Sideal got the part
of ming the Merciless.
Speaker 1: Yes, because he was a big fan of the comic
books growing up and he was excited to play this villain.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He had played Jesus Christ. Yes, most people probably know
hi from The Exorcist, right he was the priest and
the Exorcist. Yeah, he actually plays the devil in Needful Things.
Oh yeah, he's one of the few guys who's played
Jesus and the Devil in his acting Christ interesting yeah. Yeah,
so he's being the merciless. One of the guys that
they had originally looked at was Keith Carrody.
Speaker 1: So Keith Carodine was the other guy in the duel
list with Harvey Kaitel.
Speaker 2: There you go, good job. Also considered for the role
of doctor Zarkov was Dennis Hopper. Kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that had been weird.
Speaker 2: This is the one that blows me away. Okay, now
before I say this, I believe that they really knocked
it out of the park with casting on Flash Courton, Okay, Okay,
Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson were if he leads yeah,
Topel Home Run.
Speaker 1: Well, Melody Anderson got the part, like she didn't even
get the part. Initially it went to some sort of
swimsuit model and then Dino de la Renis, in his
normal style, was like, Nope, I change my mind. Let's
get this other girl. And she literally they called her
it said can you come to London tonight.
Speaker 2: She says she felt like she was kidnapped. Yes, Like
She's like, I've got a v show.
Speaker 1: Phone call and now I'm on a plane and now
my hair is getting dyed and we're starting production.
Speaker 2: Which we got to talk about that real quick. Sam J.
Jones has brown hair. They bleached it blonde. Melody Anderson
has blonde hair. Ye, they colored it brown.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Continuing on with that thought, Max fun side Al awesome.
Speaker 1: Yes. Peter Winguard Wineguard was played.
Speaker 2: He was awesome.
Speaker 1: Yes, had to learn how to throw his voice like
a ventriloquist because the mask was so heavy that that
set designer decided to make.
Speaker 2: He choose the scenery like crazy Clitus does.
Speaker 1: Awesome, he really does.
Speaker 2: Timothy Dalton future James Bond. Oh yeah, playing an Errol
Flynn like character. Yes, Prince Baron, he was amazing.
Speaker 1: Yes, but the best has to be Yes.
Speaker 2: Brian Blessed as Prince Bolton.
Speaker 1: Gordon's Live Gordon's.
Speaker 2: Flying Blind on a rocket cycle. Everything he says is
over the top and amazing.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I gotta say something about that, right. So
he said that when he was a kid, this is
the character that he would play as a kid when
they played Flash Gordon out in the Field or whatever.
He would always be this guy. And so whenever he
found out they were making the movie, he went to
them and said, you are going to cast me in
this part he said, I will break your back, I
will break your butt, I will cut off your you
will put me in this movie.
Speaker 2: And it worked.
Speaker 1: They put him in the movie.
Speaker 2: Oh well, who wants to live forever? Even like when
he's like muted, like they like Volta on, We're gonna
kill your daughter if you don't bow to me, he's
like hell Ming, like, okay, fine. You know who else
was freaking amazing in her role or Nella Muti as
Ming's daughter, Princess Aura. Yes, I don't know if I'm
even saying her name right.
Speaker 1: She is.
Speaker 2: Literally she's playing the sexiest.
Speaker 1: Person in the universe, and she was appropriately.
Speaker 2: She is the sexiest person in the universe. I was
seven years old, and I was like, I have a.
Speaker 1: Name, very very high. And speaking of kids and their reaction,
we we talked to Caleb, like Caleb my eleven year old, Yes,
and he had watched both of these movies with me,
and you get and so you're talking to him and
you said, what was your favorite part? And he goes,
I think it was when he was communicating telepathically, and
then all of a sudden, he went, Wow, this girl's
really turning me on.
Speaker 2: She's a Sparble Boy. So that's the cast. I mean
we're talking Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Mary Angela Mulatto
as General Kulla. Yes she everything she says is over
the top, like Brian, she said, what do you mean
Flash Gordon approaching open fire?
Speaker 1: And we had Richard O'Brien, the guy who played riff
Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which he wrote,
yeah is and by the way, teaser for upcoming episodes.
We will be covering the Rocky Horror Picture Show this
season or.
Speaker 2: Next Yes, we can't wait for that. That's gonna be awesome.
He plays a character called Fiico.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And actually in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, I believe
it's the opening song they mentioned Flash Gordon in the lyrics.
Speaker 1: There was another guy this is. This is kind of
an interesting, interesting one. Philip Stone played the High Priest.
He was also the guy in the Shining that was
so terrifying.
Speaker 2: Yes, he was the guy that was encouraging Jet too discipline.
Yes man. By the way, just as a side note,
there's a lot of Bond connections here.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's do Sean Connery connections because we're about
to talk to Sean Connery getting cast in Highlander in
just a second. Yes, So Timothy Dalton auditioned to play
the part of James Bond, replacing Sean Connery. He just
didn't get it.
Speaker 2: George Lazimbie got it. Timothy Dalton was like twenty three
to twenty four. Yeah, they decided maybe a little too young. Yeah,
So they came back to him in eighty seven and
he was He was a great Bond right, hit some
less than stellar scripts to deal with, but I thought
he was really good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, so here you go, here's some Bond connections for you.
Flash Gordon Wise, all right, Max von side Al plays
Blofeld and Never Say Never Again. Timothy Dalton, of course
plays James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licensed to Kill. Yep, Okay,
look very closely, you gotta look super quick. Okay. There
was a guy loading Flash and Dale Arden's luggage on
the plane at the very beginning of the movie. Okay,
do you know what I'm talking about. There is a
guy who's loading their luggage and literally he's like there
you go, sir, uh huh.
Speaker 1: You know it's a whole line.
Speaker 2: Yes, A j Mister Hermann all he does is load luggage.
That's Robbie Coltrane. He ends up playing Hagrid in the
Harry Potter movies. Okay, and he plays he plays Valentine
and the World Is Not Enough and goldeneyew he's like
a James Bond bad guy and he's in the freaking
Harry Potter movies. And Topel plays Colombo in For Your
Eys Only. Yeah, so there you go.
Speaker 1: So moving on to casting of Highlander. Okay, so we've
got Russell mckayey directing. They can't get Kurt Russell to
be the part, right, they have some other ideas they
can you tell me who they? Yes? Go ahead, Yes.
Speaker 2: So the person who nearly got the part was Mel Gibson.
Speaker 1: Yes, which has been very interesting given this the Scottish Highlands.
Speaker 2: If Mel Gibson had done, would we have got Braveheart?
Speaker 1: Probably not?
Speaker 2: No way, right, right? Mark Singer remember him the beast
Master himself? Oh right, They wanted him. They also asked
or thought about Michael Douglas, Ed Harris, Sam Shepard, David Keith,
Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn and Sting.
Speaker 1: Right Sting, who had just a little while before done
the movie the Bride, which had a clancy. They also
wanted Sting to do music too.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, so the Queen wasn't their first choice for Highlander.
They wanted either Duran Duran Russell McKay, right, Duran Duran
Sting or David Bowie.
Speaker 1: Right. Well, we'll talk more about that in a minute
when we get to the soundtrack. Yes, right, okay, So
they can't get any of those guys, right. Russell McKay
is sitting there flipping through a magazine and he comes
across a picture of Christopher Lambert. I asked my we
were talking about this because he was Christopher Lambert, right
for me?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: But then you were like, I think it's Christopher Lambert.
And so I asked my neighbor, who's French. I was like,
how do you pronounce this name? And he's like Lombert.
I was like, long, Loombert, Lombert, and he's like, yes, Lombert.
And I was like, okay, yeah, nobody's pronouncing.
Speaker 2: That right, Christopher Lombard.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna call him Christopher Lambert. I want to
call him Christopher Lambert. So he had been in his
first English speaking movie, just recently, called Gray Stoke, which
was about Tarzan.
Speaker 2: He plays.
Speaker 1: He plays Tarzan, right, and in the movie they picked
him this is surprising because of his myopia, not because
they wanted a guy who couldn't see, but the fact
that he couldn't see caused him to have this like
a thousand yard very deep intense stare, like through the
top of his eyes, and they just thought it looked cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had this piercing stare. Yeah, because he can't
see anything.
Speaker 1: Right, So Russell mkay. He sees him in this magazine
doing this intense stare that is really just a result
of his almost blindness, and decides, hey, this should be
our guy.
Speaker 2: That's hilarious.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that. And one of the things that they
talked about during the filming. They would have these long
battle scenes in Scotland. They would crest the hill and
they'd be like, cut, tell Christopher to take his freaking
glasses off. He couldn't see anything. He was totally blind.
Speaker 5: And they did all of the sword fights. They did
all of the sword fights and he didn't get hurt
until part two. Right, that's amazing. Yeah, I mean that's
amazing himself. But he had been trained. I got this
a little bit for you, right.
Speaker 1: Yes, he had been trained by this guy named Bob Anderson,
who was a Canadian Olympic gold medalist in fencing. He
did the sword work for the Princess Bride, which is
the best sword fight in cinema history in my opinion.
He did the Mask of Zoro, he did the Lord
of the Rings. And here's your here's another James Bond connection.
He did Die Another Day. Okay, but you're ready for this. Yeah,
he's got a small speaking part in Empire Strikes Back.
But that isn't the coolest thing. The coolest thing is
he was Darth Vader during all of the lightsaber fights
in Empire strikes Back. Yes, of the Jedi, that is awesome.
This is the guy that trained Christopher Lambert how to
sword fight. So the small speaking part that he had
in Empire Strikes Back, he is the guy at Echo Station.
His character's name is Trey Callum and he says, we've
spotted the Imperial Walkers. All right, that's Bob Anderson.
Speaker 2: Sweet.
Speaker 1: I think playing Darth Vader is way sweeter though. Yes, yes,
so they call up Christopher Lambert's agent who says, yes,
he's six' to, two and of course he Speaks, english, right,
Right and so they go to meet him and she's
doing all the interpretation for him at the, table like they're,
like oh, crap we are. Screwed this guy doesn't speak
like when he said when he says, hello how are
you are? You you, know it's very very Heavy french yes,
accent which to me it never bothered me a. Bit
it's kind of like it's kind of Like Mel gibson
In Brave. Heart the fact that his accent wasn't spot
on is okay because he lived in a bunch of different.
Places you, talk, Funny, nash where are you? From lots
of different? Places, yeah, Yeah, okay he's been a life
for four hundred. Years he's going to have a weird
way of. Talking.
Speaker 2: Yeah but here's my. Problem, OKAY i MEAN i Love,
highlander don't get me. Wrong but the actors who played the,
policeman they Auditioned american actors who are living In, england
and they rejected them because they had acquired too much
of An english. Accent and McLeod had lived in The
United states for four hundred years and he still can't be.
Speaker 1: Understood that can be only one HE i understood him,
perfectly So.
Speaker 2: Ramirez they Land Sean connery himself as mirror is The Egyptian. Spaniard,
yes he is the world's most famous scott just making A.
Speaker 1: Highlander, yes, right, yep but that wasn't now the script was,
written but his, spot His spanish accent was on. Perfectly
he worked so, well, yeah you'll give him my god
because it's. Wrong. Right so here's the guy we're talking,
About Sean, connery who when's the last time he lived In? Scotland,
right he does. It he still has A scottish, accent
so don't give me. This, well he's been he's been
In america all this. Time he's going to have An
american accent by. Now, Well Sean connery.
Speaker 2: Didn't, okay, fair, fair, Right and by the, way the
only reason he took this is because their shooting schedule
was In. Scotland where are we Going? Scotland i'm in the.
Speaker 1: Million dollar paycheck for one week's worth of seven probably.
Days isn't hurt seven? Days, Yeah and so that he
was at the end of that seven, days like if
they went, over they had to pay him extra bill
and he's, like you're not going to make the cut
To russell and, Like russell McKay ten minutes that's before
his time ran, out said it's a rap for. You
this is what he.
Speaker 2: Did so he's, like oh, crap we'll right out of.
Time he's, like all, Right, sean look to your, left all,
right look, pissed all, right now look, up, now look, down,
now look, Happy now looks. Sad it's a wrap and he,
goes you bost. It so here's a couple other NAMES
i got for.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 2: Okay these are the names that were considered For. Ramirez,
okay they Got Sean.
Speaker 1: CONNERY i mean it was written For Sean. Connery, yeah
it was written with him in.
Speaker 2: Mind, yes The egyptian. Spaniard let's get the world's most
famous Scott. Okay but they looked At Lee Van, Cleeve Clint,
Eastwood Clint, eastwood are you kidding? Me malcolm, McDowell Gene,
Hackman Michael, cain And peter.
Speaker 1: O'Toole malcolm, McDowell i think would have been probably my
favorite of. Those that would pretty.
Speaker 2: Good. Right all, right here's the other. Thing heather, McLeod
who is his love interest In scotland and his wife Fifteen,
yeah his. Wife, yes, Right Virginia madson auditioned for that. Role,
okay she didn't get, it, Right she shows up later
In highlander two The, quickening.
Speaker 1: Right, Right, yeah you told me about. HER i forgot about.
Speaker 2: That she's the best part Of highlander to the Quick is.
Speaker 1: There a best part of that?
Speaker 2: Movie that's. It that's the that's the end of.
Speaker 1: It right. There you haven't watched that.
Speaker 2: MOVIE i did watch the movie for this. PODCAST i
Watched highlander.
Speaker 1: Two you're not getting paid enough, money all, right.
Speaker 2: Listen let's just talk honestly About highlander two for a. Second,
okay in all. Honesty, WELL i told YOU i Saw
highlander two first in the.
Speaker 1: Theater this is why you don't Like highlander one as
much as you.
Speaker 2: Should, okay well maybe. So BUT i remember sitting in a.
Theater i'm, like, man this is. Crap this this just.
Sucks but my, wife who had Watched highlander and loved
it because it's this action packed love, story she was like,
hurt like cut to the bone because this movie sucks so. Bad,
yeah and THEN i was, like, well this stupid sci
fi movie is just. Dumb, Right, well THEN i watched
the Original Highlander i'm, like, OKAY i get. It they undercut.
It they absolutely undercut.
Speaker 1: IT i have never seen. IT i will never see.
It WHEN i heard that it was coming, OUT i was. Excited,
yes and then SOMEBODY i knew went and saw it
and they said and they came and they told. Me they're, like,
yeah they're supposed to Be. Aliens AND i was, LIKE
i will never see that. Movie. Yeah it ruins everything
good About. Highlander it ruins.
Speaker 2: It, yes it.
Speaker 1: Does and the ideally apparently number three like just acts
like number two didn't, exist, right smart.
Speaker 2: Move, yeah, okay and THEN i want to talk about
the role Of brenda for a second.
Speaker 1: One, okay.
Speaker 2: Okay brenda was played by this actress Named Roxanne. Heart,
YES i don't recognize her from. ANYTHING i think she's
been In Chicago hope or.
Speaker 1: She was In The verdict With Paul, newman which was
a big court drama in the early.
Speaker 2: Eighties, yeah she's been in some. Stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah they actually got her because she was a stage
actress and so they saw her in a play that
she was.
Speaker 2: IN i thought she was. Fantastic oh, yeah.
Speaker 5: Great her character is.
Speaker 2: A little bit goofy to. Me that's one of the
flaws that The New York Police department has a sword
expert at their beck and, call ready to handle all
sword forensic.
Speaker 1: Problems forensic. Scientist she is a sword.
Speaker 2: Expert she's both because there are such.
Speaker 1: Things i'm an, Attorney i'm a, Guitarist i'm a. Podcaster
you can't put me in a. Box Bro.
Speaker 2: She's a forensic genius and super sworded. Expert, yes, okay, fine,
fine but.
Speaker 1: She was A she was a perfect casting because she
could play. Intelligent, yes she is pretty without being overwhelmingly
SO i.
Speaker 2: Thought she was very.
Speaker 1: Attractive by the. Way speaking of super sexy attractive, women
ba's Flash Gordon Christopher lambert's love interest for several years
like Twenty Sophie, marceau who of course was the princess In.
Braveheart sorry, yes and also a bond.
Speaker 2: Girl heck, yeah the world is not.
Speaker 1: Enough speaking of other hot, Girls Dino Dealer entis's granddaughter.
Speaker 2: Freaking Jiatta oh my.
Speaker 1: Gosh.
Speaker 2: Majors, yeah and she can.
Speaker 1: Cook that makes her major.
Speaker 2: Majors all, right so we've cot oh, no, no, No So
Roxanne heart was chosen Over Brook, Adams Rosanna, Arquette Jennifer.
Speaker 1: Beals Brook adams had gotten the. Part Brook adams got
the part and fell, through is that? Right? Yeah And
Roxanne hart was there to jump into the.
Speaker 2: Place AND i told you Brook adams is a whole
lot on man for. Me, also they Wanted Tanya roberts,
okay and she passed to do a youw do a?
Speaker 1: Kill?
Speaker 2: Okay how about?
Speaker 5: That?
Speaker 2: Nice all, right that's casting For.
Speaker 1: Highlander, Okay so just another quick. Character So Lieutenant Frank,
moran the kind of chief, inspector is played By Alan,
north who Was dreben's partner in The Police squad series
that led To Naked.
Speaker 2: Gun.
Speaker 1: Yep, wow that's. Awesome you.
Speaker 2: Know one of the things you mentioned was some of
the deleted, scenes but there are a bunch of scenes
that were filmed For, highlander INCLUDING i think one major
scene With. Castigear, yeah like McLeod's. Friend, yes all those
were filmed and then lost in a warehouse.
Speaker 1: Fire, yeah they cut. Them they were supposed to. BE
i believe is A japanese immortal and he was working
in some office complex and they were supposed to be
and there was this big fight that they filmed between
him and The kurgan but he was using two. Swords
he was using the two sword samurai. Technique look like
it might have been, good but all we have left is.
Photographs that's too.
Speaker 2: Bad it's too. Bad here's the last bit of INFORMATION
i want to give to.
Speaker 1: You ok you're ready for.
Speaker 2: This, yes this is going to blow your.
Speaker 1: Mind you're read for. This.
Speaker 2: Yes according to this particular, actor he was offered the
part Of connor.
Speaker 1: McLeod, okay but he.
Speaker 2: Turned it down to focus on his wrestling. Career Hulk
Hogan ladies And gentlemen says that he was offered the
part Of connor.
Speaker 1: McLeod, Yeah i'm gonna go ahead and disagree with. That
that's not. Possible he might have been The. Kergan he. Might,
oh he'd been in the wrestling scene at the. Beginning
that's what they offered. Him he was gonna fight the
fabulous free Bird.
Speaker 2: Hulk, Hogan ladies And. Gentlemen, NO i don't know If
I'm i'm not going for.
Speaker 1: THAT i don't Think i'm gonna buy. That, Okay, okay all,
right so we don't cast.
Speaker 2: It don't cast, him.
Speaker 1: All, right both?
Speaker 2: Movies all, right now we're onto.
Speaker 1: The movie ready for? Production, Yes, okay. Guys that is
the end of part.
Speaker 2: One join us next. Week we will.
Speaker 1: Be back for part. Two until, then be sure and
hit us up On twitter At Shirley, podcasts hit us
up On facebook At shirley Podcast you can email us
if you want To surely podcast at gmail dot. Com
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there as. Well see you guys next.
Speaker 2: Week