"Flash Gordon" (1980) vs. "Highlander" (1986): Part 1

<v Speaker 1>All right, everybody, welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
<v Speaker 1>Be Serious podcast. We are here today to talk about
<v Speaker 1>two iconic movies from the eighties, one of which is
<v Speaker 1>celebrating its fortieth anniversary just a couple of months ago,
<v Speaker 1>the other of which is celebrating its thirty fifth anniversary
<v Speaker 1>in a month or so right around this time. And
<v Speaker 1>they are both cult classics.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, today we're going to be discussing Flash Gordon nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty and Highlander nineteen eighty six. We are going to
<v Speaker 2>have so much freaking fun talking about these movies.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Jason, our executive producer for this episode is your
<v Speaker 1>dear friend, mister Dale Selby. I want to give a
<v Speaker 1>big shout out to him. Thank you very much. Dale.
<v Speaker 1>He joined our Patreon page. I am sending him our prizes,
<v Speaker 1>which are headphones and a cool custom engraved coffee mug
<v Speaker 1>or you know what beverage he wants to put in there.
<v Speaker 2>Dale is one of my great college buddies. Thank you
<v Speaker 2>so much. He actually texts me and we talked about
<v Speaker 2>the episode, and he follows it gives a feedback, and
<v Speaker 2>I really appreciate you. Thanks Dale, You're awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So with most movies that we compare, we save
<v Speaker 1>final judgment for the end, and in this particular scenario,
<v Speaker 1>we have an unfair comparison. Right, there's one obvious movie
<v Speaker 1>that is better than the other movie in this comparison,
<v Speaker 1>and that movie is Highlight. Shut your dirty mouth.
<v Speaker 2>Flash Gordon. It's Highlander, Flash Gordon is. It's clearly the winner.
<v Speaker 2>I love both. I can't believe we decided this already.
<v Speaker 3>What.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so Flash Gordon is like an over budgeted high
<v Speaker 1>school musical. What are you talking about?
<v Speaker 2>We're comparing it to the movie where the leads can't
<v Speaker 2>even speak English.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, well, I guess we need to jump into tho
<v Speaker 1>the discussion now, because.
<v Speaker 3>There's the only one to the kids.
<v Speaker 1>Dad Gum, that song kicks so much. But I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I don't care which movie you're picking. That is the
<v Speaker 1>song of all of the songs on both of these soundtracks,
<v Speaker 1>that is the most awesome.
<v Speaker 2>It's awesome. It gets my you know what, it.
<v Speaker 1>Does, get your you know what, It gets my you
<v Speaker 1>know what too, it gets me going man, make that
<v Speaker 1>feel like a man.
<v Speaker 2>That might be my favorite Queen song of all time.
<v Speaker 1>Oh wow, I mean that is.
<v Speaker 2>Up there with the big boys, you know, Bohemian Rhapsody
<v Speaker 2>and I Want It All and.
<v Speaker 1>We Will Rock You.
<v Speaker 2>It's up there, Princes of the Universe. Freaking awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Wow. Well, So, as we mentioned before, these are two
<v Speaker 1>cult classics. They were not super popular movies. They were
<v Speaker 1>not in the US when they first came out, but
<v Speaker 1>thanks to Queen and thanks to a following that developed
<v Speaker 1>over time for both of them, they have become iconic
<v Speaker 1>movies that have stood the test of time.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I think HBO and VHS were vital to these two.
<v Speaker 1>Both of my experiences were with a video, although I
<v Speaker 1>think with Flashboard and I actually got to see that
<v Speaker 1>one in the night.
<v Speaker 2>I saw that in the theater as well.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So I didn't see Highlander until I was in college.
<v Speaker 2>This is the honest truth on both of these movies.
<v Speaker 2>Each time I watch them, I like them a little
<v Speaker 2>bit better every time I watch. Yeah, they are so
<v Speaker 2>much fun.
<v Speaker 1>And I'll say this, There's a documentary that came out
<v Speaker 1>about four years ago called Life After flash It's largely
<v Speaker 1>involved Sam Jones, but it has everybody in there. Surprisingly,
<v Speaker 1>almost all of them are still alive as old as
<v Speaker 1>that movie is. But It's a fantastic documentary that I
<v Speaker 1>encourage anybody to check out, very good quality stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I watched it too, and it made me love
<v Speaker 2>Sam Jones even more.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, what's a super guy? Yeah. I kind
<v Speaker 1>of wish that I had seen the documentary before I
<v Speaker 1>rewatched Flash Gordon. I think I may have enjoyed it more.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, you really, he was a guy who screwed up,
<v Speaker 1>owned it and has done everything he can to change
<v Speaker 1>his life to make about it.
<v Speaker 2>All Right, we're going to dive in.
<v Speaker 5>Let's talk about Flash Gordon first.
<v Speaker 1>We're going to jump into the history, all right.
<v Speaker 2>Flash Gordon was released December fifth, nineteen eighty, with a
<v Speaker 2>budget of twenty seven million dollars, and it made about
<v Speaker 2>twenty seven million dollars.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Okay, so it came Flash Gordon was born in
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen thirties. I mean, the character was created in
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen thirties. The King Features Syndicate was looking for
<v Speaker 1>a character that it could use to compete with this
<v Speaker 1>new character that had come out called buck Rogers. All Right,
<v Speaker 1>so buck Rogers was a space adventure. They're like, we
<v Speaker 1>need a space adventure of our own. They actually had
<v Speaker 1>an artist working for them who came up with this
<v Speaker 1>fantastic idea of a polo player from Yale that saved
<v Speaker 1>the universe. A polo player, a polo player because that was,
<v Speaker 1>you know, kind of the tough guy sport of the thirties. Yep.
<v Speaker 1>And so Flash Gordon was immediately successful, had the toys,
<v Speaker 1>had the comic strips, and then of course it started
<v Speaker 1>having cereals, you know, and we had Buster Crabb, who
<v Speaker 1>was an Olympic athlete, picturesque godlike you know, physique guy.
<v Speaker 2>He was a stud of the thirties.
<v Speaker 1>He absolutely was. And he played Flash Gordon in the movies,
<v Speaker 1>and he played Flash Gordon in the serials, and then
<v Speaker 1>a little later on he played Buck Rogers really also
<v Speaker 1>in the thirties. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. He was
<v Speaker 1>also in Buck Rogers of the twenty fourth century.
<v Speaker 2>But Drudgers in the twenty fourth and I have.
<v Speaker 1>Twenty fifth century. It's the twenty fifth centad right, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>His character's name was Commandeer Gordon Nice.
<v Speaker 2>Nice is cool.
<v Speaker 1>So he's in those serials in the thirties and forties.
<v Speaker 1>And then there's a guy named Steve Holland who's in
<v Speaker 1>a TV show about Flash Gordon in the fifties, which
<v Speaker 1>is a very important TV show for one reason. There's
<v Speaker 1>this kid in the nineteen fifties watching TV named George
<v Speaker 1>who decides that he wants to grow up to be
<v Speaker 1>a movie director, and he wants to direct a movie
<v Speaker 1>about Flashcourt Little George, Little Georgie Lucas, Little Georgie Lucas.
<v Speaker 1>In the meantime. Unfortunately for him, this guy named Dino
<v Speaker 1>de la Reentes obtains the screen rights to Flash Gordon.
<v Speaker 1>It gets stuck in development. Hell Dyala Rennis has Frederic
<v Speaker 1>Fellini is the guy he wants to direct it. Have
<v Speaker 1>you seen any of Fellini's stuff?
<v Speaker 2>No, but I know he's revered.
<v Speaker 1>He's bizarre. Okay, it is. It's weird. Now. Dino had
<v Speaker 1>had some success with some comic adaptations. He had done Barbarella,
<v Speaker 1>and he had done this thing called Danger Diabolic. But
<v Speaker 1>for some reason, Flash Gordon couldn't get off the ground.
<v Speaker 1>Space Adventures had kind of fallen out of favor in
<v Speaker 1>the seventies. You had more it was more like sci
<v Speaker 1>fi dystopia type of stuff. When he goes to get
<v Speaker 1>to the see if he can direct the movie from
<v Speaker 1>King Syndicate features. They say, no, Dala Rennis already has
<v Speaker 1>it and he doesn't want you to direct. I guess
<v Speaker 1>I'll go direct my own space opera.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, this movie called Star Wars.
<v Speaker 1>It had just a smidgeon of success, just a teeny
<v Speaker 1>bit of success, And so suddenly Flash Gordon was moving
<v Speaker 1>on up out of development hell and into production.
<v Speaker 2>It's really it's incredible how these movies are so intertwined.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, and Lucas totally stole. Like the scrolling
<v Speaker 1>credits at the beginning of Star Wars totally comes from
<v Speaker 1>the Flashboard and Cereals the buns in her hair comes
<v Speaker 1>from the Flashcoordon comic books. I mean, he took all
<v Speaker 1>kinds of liberties, but you know, shame on them for
<v Speaker 1>turning him down when he asked to come direct it.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, Darth Vader and Ming the Merciless similar I mean, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>the two biggest batties in the universe.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all of a sudden, everybody's making space movies. Right,
<v Speaker 1>So at this point Fellini has moved on, He's not
<v Speaker 1>in it anymore.
<v Speaker 2>So he taps Nicholas Rogue.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, Nick Rogue is also kind strange.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he does this movie called The Man Who Fell
<v Speaker 2>to Earth.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, had David Bowie in it. So he goes with
<v Speaker 1>the guy who wrote Enter the Dragon that edbrus Lee
<v Speaker 1>in it. He goes with that guy. I don't remember
<v Speaker 1>where the guy's name is. They go and work on
<v Speaker 1>the script together, and they come up with a really good, deep, meaningful,
<v Speaker 1>symbol great script, and Dino dy Lorente says, no, this
<v Speaker 1>is this is not what I want. I want a
<v Speaker 1>comic book, and this is going to cost me way
<v Speaker 1>too much money. Yes, you're out. Let me find somebody else.
<v Speaker 1>And so he picks up Mike Hodges, who he had
<v Speaker 1>already slated to direct flashcoord in Part two.
<v Speaker 2>Really okay, well optimism, you know, yeah, sure, Mike Hodges
<v Speaker 2>did the Terminal Man get Carter?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, in Flash Cord right, Terminal Man was the only
<v Speaker 1>sci fi experience that he had.
<v Speaker 2>Well at this point, Dino has worked with this screenwriter
<v Speaker 2>named Lorenzo Simple.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, and we've talked about Lorenzo Simple before.
<v Speaker 2>Yes. He wrote Never Say Never Again exactly. He also
<v Speaker 2>wrote Three Days of the Condor Papion King Kong and
<v Speaker 2>was known to be the main guy who wrote the
<v Speaker 2>Batman series from the sixties.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the Adam West series.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, he's the guy who came up with Bam, Pale, crash, right,
<v Speaker 2>all that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Right, and say they went they went to him specifically
<v Speaker 1>and said we want a comic book movie like your
<v Speaker 1>comic book series. He said, this movie was just supposed
<v Speaker 1>to be fine.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so stop right there. Yeah, Flash Gordon. Yeah, if
<v Speaker 2>you take Star Wars, yes, and mash it up with Batman,
<v Speaker 2>the sixties series flash Cord, it gives birth to this
<v Speaker 2>wonderful thing we called Flashboard.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, this colorful thing that we.
<v Speaker 2>Call it fun awesome, goofy, this campy, fun thing we
<v Speaker 2>called flash book.
<v Speaker 1>It is perfect for kids. Keep going, let's see. But
<v Speaker 1>the guy who ultimately is responsible for the way that
<v Speaker 1>the whole movie works is this guy called Donna Elodnardi. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>he had more influence over the way the thing looked
<v Speaker 1>than anybody else, which is a little bit of a
<v Speaker 1>problem because he didn't speak English. A number one and
<v Speaker 1>number two he refused to read the script.
<v Speaker 2>He would make stuff and the director's like, what the crap.
<v Speaker 1>Is this pink trees?
<v Speaker 2>He had pink a boria was pink, and it was.
<v Speaker 1>And he would build these sets and it was there
<v Speaker 1>was so much stuff on the set that they didn't
<v Speaker 1>know where to set up the camera. There was no
<v Speaker 1>place they couldn't move around. It was just like Mike
<v Speaker 1>Hodges said, I think he was just out there just
<v Speaker 1>having fun. He didn't really care that we were making
<v Speaker 1>a movie.
<v Speaker 2>Mike Hodges needs a round of applause and a pat
<v Speaker 2>on the back for stealing this great movie out of
<v Speaker 2>the depths of this craziness.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the crew was Italian. Yeah, the cast was English.
<v Speaker 1>Mostly an American. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>They couldn't talk to each other. Dina d Lerenz just
<v Speaker 2>barely speaks English.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Sam J.
<v Speaker 2>Jones has never been in a movie before. I mean
<v Speaker 2>he'd been in one or two things.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he been to Blake Edwards, he was Playgirl, and
<v Speaker 1>he had been in Hollywood Squares.
<v Speaker 2>Now the Dame. The dating game.
<v Speaker 1>That's what it was, the dating game. So that's we
<v Speaker 1>should We should go there in just a second when
<v Speaker 1>we start talking about the actors. But before we do that,
<v Speaker 1>let's talk about the beginning of Highlight.
<v Speaker 2>Let's it's a kind of magic.
<v Speaker 1>It's a got.
<v Speaker 2>So. Highlander was released March seventh, nineteen eighty six. This
<v Speaker 2>had a budget of nineteen million dollars. In its box
<v Speaker 2>office was thirteen million dollars. This was originally titled The
<v Speaker 2>Dark Knight.
<v Speaker 1>Yes. The idea for the story was born from the
<v Speaker 1>imagination of the writer Gregory Whiton. Gregory when he was
<v Speaker 1>about nineteen years old, he went to the Tower of
<v Speaker 1>London and down in the basement of the Tower of
<v Speaker 1>London they have like the largest armory museum in the world, right, right,
<v Speaker 1>And so he's looking at all of these suits of
<v Speaker 1>armor and other war battle increment weapon things, swords and
<v Speaker 1>about armor and shields, and he's like, what if there
<v Speaker 1>was a guy who's in a bunch of these things,
<v Speaker 1>like he had worn these things throughout history. And that
<v Speaker 1>was the spark that led to the idea of the
<v Speaker 1>immortal man who has worn all of these battle uniforms
<v Speaker 1>throughout history.
<v Speaker 2>It's such a simple idea, but it's such a good hook, right, Oh,
<v Speaker 2>it's fantastic. What if there was a guy hook who
<v Speaker 2>didn't die and this was his armor?
<v Speaker 1>Right? So Gregory white and he went to UCLA to
<v Speaker 1>get his film degree. He had actually planned initially he
<v Speaker 1>had planned to be a doctor. Really yeah, okay, And
<v Speaker 1>so while he was still just out of high school.
<v Speaker 1>He had gotten his paramedic certificate because he thought that's
<v Speaker 1>a good way to get familiar with the medical field. Right.
<v Speaker 1>And so when he goes out to UCLA to go
<v Speaker 1>to film school there, he gets a job as a firefighter,
<v Speaker 1>which is why later on he goes on to write
<v Speaker 1>the script for the movie Backdraft.
<v Speaker 2>This guy is taking the most of his opportunities, right, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>I'm here at Tower of London. Boom script, my part
<v Speaker 2>time job, fireman, boom script.
<v Speaker 1>He wrote and directed this series called The Prophecy. I
<v Speaker 1>haven't seen it. I don't know if it's any good.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Christopher Walking, Yeah yeah, Christopher Waltkins like Gabriel the Archangel. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and he's like pissed, so oh wow, okay, yeah I
<v Speaker 2>like it. So he has this grad project of writing
<v Speaker 2>a script. He uses the idea that he came up
<v Speaker 2>with from his strip to the Tower of London to
<v Speaker 2>write this script. And congratulations to his professor. I don't
<v Speaker 2>remember his professor's name, but he said, instead of saying
<v Speaker 2>things like professors say sometimes to their students, so this
<v Speaker 2>is scrap and here's all the thing's wrong with.
<v Speaker 1>It, he said, this is a really good script. As
<v Speaker 1>a matter of fact, this is so good, I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to put you in contact with this guy that I
<v Speaker 1>know that's an agent. We're going to see if we
<v Speaker 1>can option it off for you. And that's what they did,
<v Speaker 1>and the script got picked up. Grad student gets paid
<v Speaker 1>two hundred thousand dollars for the script. Yeah, I mean
<v Speaker 1>it was.
<v Speaker 2>Two hundred grand a lot of money.
<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of money.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, he could have done what miss what's her
<v Speaker 2>face did and Christmas story and said c plus you
<v Speaker 2>know plus. But yeah, he told me this is good
<v Speaker 2>enough to turn into an agent. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And so the guys that pick up his script are
<v Speaker 1>called William Panzer and Peter Davis. Okay, and so they've
<v Speaker 1>got this script that they like a lot, they do
<v Speaker 1>decide they're going to make some changes to it.
<v Speaker 2>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>The original script was a good deal darker, not as funny,
<v Speaker 1>and didn't have a romance story to it.
<v Speaker 2>That's a good move. Yeah, some other changes that it had.
<v Speaker 2>The immortals could have children, right, so like McLeod had
<v Speaker 2>like thirty seven thirty seven children, right, Why.
<v Speaker 1>Did you have thirty seven children? Because we didn't want
<v Speaker 1>to have thirty.
<v Speaker 2>The Kurgan was a little different too. He had been
<v Speaker 2>over time, he had been cut up and beat up
<v Speaker 2>and burned, and he was much more grotesque character.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and he also was a more sympathetic villain.
<v Speaker 2>The only thing he had was the prize, like that
<v Speaker 2>was the only thing he was going.
<v Speaker 1>For, right, He had lost everything over his centuries of living.
<v Speaker 1>He had lost all meaning to life except for this
<v Speaker 1>one thing, the prize at the end, to finish this competition,
<v Speaker 1>and that was what got him up out of bed.
<v Speaker 6>Everything we got, we got Joker from the Dark Night.
<v Speaker 2>We got Clancy Brown full on Psycho. It's better to
<v Speaker 2>burn out than fade away.
<v Speaker 1>I gotta say for Clancy Brown. I mean he Clancy
<v Speaker 1>Brown wanted it to be more like the character was written.
<v Speaker 1>He had this idea that he was going to be
<v Speaker 1>in a bowler hat and like a nice suit instead
<v Speaker 1>of dressed like a punk rocker rest of the time,
<v Speaker 1>and was into this idea of there being an intellectual
<v Speaker 1>motivation behind the darkness that he had. But he did
<v Speaker 1>Psycho real well.
<v Speaker 2>He did Psycho really well.
<v Speaker 1>It kind of made the movie.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely This guy's awesome. So Clancy Brown, you probably recognize
<v Speaker 2>him as the bad cop Captain Hadley from The Shawshank Redemption.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the unbelievable prick actually had the audacity act magnanimous
<v Speaker 1>about it, right. He was also in Starship Troopers and
<v Speaker 1>he was also I didn't know this. He's done a
<v Speaker 1>lot of voice work, but he was Curterer in Thor Ragnarok,
<v Speaker 1>the big horned villain at the beginning the fights at
<v Speaker 1>the end. That's Brown doing that part.
<v Speaker 2>He's got a great voice, which is huge.
<v Speaker 1>Later on, I got a little secret thing that I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to talk about with Thor Ragnarok and Flashboard a
<v Speaker 1>little bit later on. But there's connection. There's always these connections,
<v Speaker 1>and I got it coming up. Okay, awesome, awesome. So
<v Speaker 1>William Panzer and Peter Davis have the script, they decide
<v Speaker 1>they want to make some changes to it, and then
<v Speaker 1>they decide, okay, now we've got to get a director
<v Speaker 1>to direct it, right, And so they've got a list
<v Speaker 1>of like twenty directors to look at, and somehow somebody
<v Speaker 1>gives them this movie called Razorback, Razorback, Razorback, which is
<v Speaker 1>an Australian movie that is basically Jaws in the Outback
<v Speaker 1>with a giant Pig as the Shark.
<v Speaker 2>Sounds great, sounds great.
<v Speaker 1>I've heard that it's one of those movies that you
<v Speaker 1>just think this sounds like the biggest pilot crap, but
<v Speaker 1>it is actually really pretty good. I want to go
<v Speaker 1>see it. I've watched the trailer and I'm like, this
<v Speaker 1>is actually interesting enough that I would go watch it.
<v Speaker 1>I haven't seen it, but I can tell you also
<v Speaker 1>the interviews that I heard, they said they watched the
<v Speaker 1>first ten minutes of this movie and they said, that's
<v Speaker 1>our guy.
<v Speaker 2>This guy's name is Russell mckahey.
<v Speaker 1>Then they watched Deryan Duran's Hungry Like a Wolf and
<v Speaker 1>they said, that is definitely our guy.
<v Speaker 2>This guy's known for music videos.
<v Speaker 1>Right, and some that we've talked about in the past,
<v Speaker 1>including Bonnie.
<v Speaker 2>Tyler totally Clips of the Heart, Totally Clips of the Heart.
<v Speaker 1>But he also did the very first video that appeared
<v Speaker 1>on MTV by the Buggles. He's the one who directed
<v Speaker 1>video Killed the Radio Star.
<v Speaker 3>That is awesome.
<v Speaker 1>The third installment that we've talked about that he directed, yes,
<v Speaker 1>was from our def Leppard episode Okay. He directed the
<v Speaker 1>Pour Some Sugar on Me video.
<v Speaker 2>The Pour Some Sugar On Me video.
<v Speaker 1>No, not that one, not that one. No, the first one,
<v Speaker 1>the horrible was the one that directed that one where
<v Speaker 1>they're in the old lady's house and you have the
<v Speaker 1>random crowd of people I don't know, the wrecking ball
<v Speaker 1>and the manly women.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, go back, flashback our Death Lepard Hysteria episode. Go
<v Speaker 2>listen to us talk about that crazy, crappy video. And
<v Speaker 2>then they said put that one in the trash, and
<v Speaker 2>they made the one that we all know and.
<v Speaker 1>Love right that. He did not direct that one, but
<v Speaker 1>he did direct Hungary Like the Wolf, and that was
<v Speaker 1>enough to get him this job.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, Hungry Like the Wolf was a great video. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>did Betty Davis eyes, He did Wild Boys by director a.
<v Speaker 1>Ton of Billy Joel videos, he was. And he did
<v Speaker 1>some queen stuff too.
<v Speaker 2>He did Princess of the Universe. Yeah, I might as
<v Speaker 2>well just go direct the music video myself.
<v Speaker 1>Right, and let's go ahead and have Freddie Mercury fights
<v Speaker 1>with swords. Christopher Lambert, are you ready to jump into casting?
<v Speaker 2>Let's go into casting, all right, back to flashboard. There
<v Speaker 2>is some connective tissue between these two movies. Okay, casting wise, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>the number one draft choice to play the lead character
<v Speaker 2>in Flashboard.
<v Speaker 1>Number one draft choice for the quarterback for the New
<v Speaker 1>York Jets.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, and the number one draft choice to play
<v Speaker 2>the Highlander in Highlander.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, it was Kurt Russell. Both movies, both movies, both movies.
<v Speaker 1>He was number one choice.
<v Speaker 2>He was the number one choice. They offered him Flash Gordon,
<v Speaker 2>and he turned it down. Yes, they offered him Highlander.
<v Speaker 1>He accepted, and then Goldie Hahn said, your Scottish accent sucks.
<v Speaker 2>No, I don't know what she said. Let's go make Overboard.
<v Speaker 1>Oh is that what happened?
<v Speaker 2>That's what happened.
<v Speaker 1>She talked him out of it.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know Goldiehan in nineteen eighty seven had some pool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well that bikini in Overboard.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, Hello, Arnold Schwarzenegger almost got the part as Splash Gordon.
<v Speaker 1>Can I just say something real quick? Yes on this topic.
<v Speaker 1>In the movie Overboard, you have the perfect connection between
<v Speaker 1>Fright Night and the Lost Boys because you have ed Herman,
<v Speaker 1>who played Max and the Lost Boys on the same
<v Speaker 1>ship with Roddy McDowell, who played.
<v Speaker 2>Mister Vincent Vincent in Fright Night. That is incredible. I
<v Speaker 2>did not make that connection until just now. All right,
<v Speaker 2>So Kurt Russell was supposed to be Flash Gordon. Sam J.
<v Speaker 2>Jones got this because Dino de la Renzez's mom was
<v Speaker 2>watching the dating game and there's this guy she thought
<v Speaker 2>was really good looking. Sam J. Jones.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, how does that conversation go. We're having trouble
<v Speaker 1>finding an actor to play this part. Oh, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>I saw a very handsome boy game.
<v Speaker 2>You should give him a call. He's a very wholesome
<v Speaker 2>American boy. How does a guy who's produced multiple movies go? Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 2>that's a good good idea, mom, good idea. So listen
<v Speaker 2>to this. Arne Schwarzenegger, Uh huh didn't get the part
<v Speaker 2>because he had an accent.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, so let's just wait until he's a barbarian mister
<v Speaker 1>Dino de la Reentez and make his accent part of
<v Speaker 1>the character. I guess.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So he brought him back for Conan, right, and then
<v Speaker 2>off he goes.
<v Speaker 1>Flash Gordon has to be an all American guy.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely. Jeff Bridges and Harvey Kaitel were considered for the
<v Speaker 2>role of Flashes.
<v Speaker 1>See that's fascinating because Highlander is largely influenced by the Duelists,
<v Speaker 1>which is Ridley Scott's first movie about this continuing battle
<v Speaker 1>of swords that happens, and Harvey Kaitel is one of
<v Speaker 1>the main guys in them.
<v Speaker 2>There you go. So when Dino brought in Sam J. Jones,
<v Speaker 2>so before we get off of Sam J. Jones, he
<v Speaker 2>brought him in, he didn't talk directly to him. He
<v Speaker 2>just tucked around him. So it's like it was literally
<v Speaker 2>like a model. Oh yes, turn around please, oh yes, okay,
<v Speaker 2>And he was talking to his producer. He's like, yes,
<v Speaker 2>I think this is our flesh. And let's face the
<v Speaker 2>Sam J. Jones, big strong, athletic looking dude. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>mean he had he was a model.
<v Speaker 1>He was a model. And and it's funny that you
<v Speaker 1>say that because, like Mike Hodges, after the animosity that
<v Speaker 1>developed over the shooting of this movie, at some point
<v Speaker 1>it said to Dino de learned is why did you
<v Speaker 1>why did you pick me to direct this? Like, you
<v Speaker 1>know what what about my past made you? And he
<v Speaker 1>and Dina de larn says, I like your face.
<v Speaker 2>Well, oddly enough, that was not the worst choice or
<v Speaker 2>the weirdest choice that Dino Da LaRence has made while
<v Speaker 2>casting Flash Gordon. Okay, okay, So while he is looking
<v Speaker 2>for doctor Zarkoff, it came down to two guys. Topel, who.
<v Speaker 1>Is this the Little Girl Life?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yes, Fiddler on the Roof to me? He is
<v Speaker 2>also Colombo from forty Your Eyes Only. He is James
<v Speaker 2>Bond guy, right, But he also wanted this guy named
<v Speaker 2>Warren Oates.
<v Speaker 1>You know him a wild bunch?
<v Speaker 2>Well yeah, but you probably know him better as Sergeant
<v Speaker 2>Hulkin from Stripes.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, uh, lighting up Francis.
<v Speaker 2>And so they couldn't decide between Warren Oates and Topal. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>so they flipped a coin, like legitimately, Like he said,
<v Speaker 2>I've made some of my best decisions by doing this flip. Topel,
<v Speaker 2>You're in all right? Max von Sideal got the part
<v Speaker 2>of ming the Merciless.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, because he was a big fan of the comic
<v Speaker 1>books growing up and he was excited to play this villain.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. He had played Jesus Christ.
<v Speaker 1>Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Most people probably know hi from The Exorcist, right, he
<v Speaker 2>was the priest and the Exorcist. Yeah, he actually plays
<v Speaker 2>the devil in Needful Things. Oh yeah, he's one of
<v Speaker 2>the few guys who's played Jesus and the devil in his.
<v Speaker 1>Acting Chris interesting.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, so he's being the merciless. One of the
<v Speaker 2>guys that they had originally looked at was Keith Carrodin.
<v Speaker 1>So Keith Carrodine was the other guy in the duelist
<v Speaker 1>with Harvey Kitel.
<v Speaker 2>There you go, good job. Also considered for the role
<v Speaker 2>of doctor Zarkov was Dennis Hopper kind of interesting.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, that had been weird.
<v Speaker 2>This is the one that blows me away. Okay, now
<v Speaker 2>before I say this, I believe that they really knocked
<v Speaker 2>it out of the park with casting on Flash Courton, Okay, Okay.
<v Speaker 2>Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson were if he leads yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Topel home Run.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Melody Anderson got the part, like she didn't even
<v Speaker 1>get the part. Initially it went to some sort of
<v Speaker 1>swimsuit model, and then Dino de la Reentis, in his
<v Speaker 1>normal style, was like, Nope, I changed my mind. Let's
<v Speaker 1>get this other girl. And she literally they called her
<v Speaker 1>and said can you come to London tonight.
<v Speaker 2>She says she felt like she was kidnapped.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, Like She's like, I've got a v show phone
<v Speaker 1>call and now I'm on a plane and now my
<v Speaker 1>hair is getting dyed and we're starting production.
<v Speaker 2>Which we got to talk about that real quick. Sam J.
<v Speaker 2>Jones has brown hair. They bleached it blonde. Melody Anderson
<v Speaker 2>has blonde hair. Yep, they colored it brown.
<v Speaker 1>Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Continuing on with that thought, Max fun Side Ol awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Yes. Peter Wininguard Wineguard was played.
<v Speaker 2>He was awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, had to learn how to throw his voice like
<v Speaker 1>a ventriloquist because the mask was so heavy that that
<v Speaker 1>set designer decided to make he choose.
<v Speaker 2>The scenery like crazy Clitus does.
<v Speaker 1>Awesome, he really does.
<v Speaker 2>Timothy Dalton future James Bond Oh, Yeah, playing an Errol
<v Speaker 2>Flynn like character. Yes, Prince Baron, he was amazing.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, but the best has to be Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Brian Blessed as Prince Bultan.
<v Speaker 4>Gordon's Live Gordon's.
<v Speaker 2>Flying Blind on a rocket cycle. Everything he says is
<v Speaker 2>over the top and amazing.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so I gotta say something about that, right. So
<v Speaker 1>he said, when he was a kid, this is the
<v Speaker 1>character that he would play as a kid when they
<v Speaker 1>played Flash Gordon out in the Field or whatever. He
<v Speaker 1>would always be this guy. And so whenever he found
<v Speaker 1>out they were making the movie, he went to them
<v Speaker 1>and said, you are going to cast me in this part.
<v Speaker 1>He said, I will break your back, I will break
<v Speaker 1>your butt, I will cut off your you will put
<v Speaker 1>me in this movie.
<v Speaker 2>And it worked.
<v Speaker 1>They put him in the movie.
<v Speaker 2>Oh well, who wants to live forever? Even like when
<v Speaker 2>he's like muted, like like Volta and we're gonna kill
<v Speaker 2>your daughter if you don't bow to me, He's like,
<v Speaker 2>hell I Ming, like okay, fine. You know who else
<v Speaker 2>was freaking amazing in her role? Or Nella Muti as
<v Speaker 2>Ming's daughter, Princess Aura. Yes, and I don't know if I'm
<v Speaker 2>even saying her name right.
<v Speaker 1>She is.
<v Speaker 2>Literally she's playing the sexiest person in the universe.
<v Speaker 1>And she was appropriately.
<v Speaker 2>She is the sexiest person in the verse. I was
<v Speaker 2>seven years old and I.
<v Speaker 1>Was like a very very high and speaking of kids
<v Speaker 1>and their reaction, we we talked to Caleb, like Caleb
<v Speaker 1>my eleven year old, Yes, and he had watched both
<v Speaker 1>of these movies with me, and you get and so
<v Speaker 1>you're talking to him and you said, what was your
<v Speaker 1>favorite part? And he goes, I think it was when
<v Speaker 1>he was communicating telepathically, and then all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 1>he went, Wow, this girl's really turning me on.
<v Speaker 2>She's a smart boy. So that's the cast. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>we're talking Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Mary Angela Mulatto
<v Speaker 2>as General Kalla. Yes, she everything she says is over
<v Speaker 2>the top, like Brian, she said, what do you mean
<v Speaker 2>Flash Gordon approaching open fire?
<v Speaker 1>And we had Richard O'Brien, the guy who played riff
<v Speaker 1>Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which he wrote,
<v Speaker 1>Yeah is and by the way, teaser for upcoming episodes.
<v Speaker 1>We will be covering the Rocky Horror Picture Show this
<v Speaker 1>season or next.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, we can't wait for that. That's gonna be awesome.
<v Speaker 2>He plays a character called Fiico.
<v Speaker 1>Yep.
<v Speaker 2>And actually in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I believe
<v Speaker 2>it's the opening song they mentioned Flash Gordon in the lyrics.
<v Speaker 1>There was another guy this is. This is kind of
<v Speaker 1>an interesting, interesting one. Philip Stone played the High Priest.
<v Speaker 1>He was also the guy in the shining that was terrifying.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, he was the guy that was encouraging Jet to discipline.
<v Speaker 4>Yes man.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, just as a side note, there's a
<v Speaker 2>lot of Bond connections here.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, let's do Sean Connery connections because we're about
<v Speaker 1>to talk to Sean Connery getting cast in Highlander in
<v Speaker 1>just a second. Yes, So Timothy Dalton auditioned to play
<v Speaker 1>the part of James Bond replacing Sean Connery. He just
<v Speaker 1>didn't get it.
<v Speaker 2>George Lazimbie got it. Timothy Dalton was like twenty three
<v Speaker 2>to twenty four. Yeah, they decided maybe a little too young. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>So they came back to him in eighty seven and
<v Speaker 2>he was a great Bond right, hit some less than
<v Speaker 2>stellar scripts to deal with, but I thought he was
<v Speaker 2>really good.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so here you go, here's some Bond connections for you.
<v Speaker 2>Flash Gordon Wise all right, Max vun side Al plays
<v Speaker 2>Blofeld and Never Say Never Again. Timothy Dalton, of course
<v Speaker 2>plays James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licensed to Kill.
<v Speaker 1>Yep.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, look very closely, you gotta look super quick. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>there's a guy loading Flash and Dale Arden's luggage on
<v Speaker 2>the playing at the very beginning of the movie. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>do you know what I'm talking about. There is a
<v Speaker 2>guy who's loading their luggage and literally he's.
<v Speaker 4>Like, here you go, sir, uh huh.
<v Speaker 1>You know it's his whole line?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, A j Mister Hermann all he does is load luggage.
<v Speaker 2>That's Robbie Coltrane. He ends up playing Hagrid in the
<v Speaker 2>Harry Potter movies. Okay, and he plays he plays Valentine
<v Speaker 2>and the World Is Not Enough and GoldenEye. He's like
<v Speaker 2>a James Bond bad guy and he's in the freaking
<v Speaker 2>Harry Potter movies. Hey, Topel plays Colombo in For Your
<v Speaker 2>Eys Only. Yeah, so there you go.
<v Speaker 1>So moving on to casting of Highlander. Okay, so we've
<v Speaker 1>got Russell mckahey directing. They can't get Kurt Russell to
<v Speaker 1>be the part, right, they have some other ideas. Do
<v Speaker 1>you can you tell me who? They said, yes, go.
<v Speaker 4>Ahead, yes.
<v Speaker 2>So the person who nearly got the part was Mel Gibson.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, which has been very interesting given this the Scottish Highlands.
<v Speaker 2>If mel Gibson had done, would we have got Braveheart?
<v Speaker 1>Probably not?
<v Speaker 2>No way, right, right? Mark Singer remember him the beast
<v Speaker 2>Master himself? Oh right, They wanted him. They also asked
<v Speaker 2>or thought about Michael Douglas, Ed Harris, Sam Shephard, David Keith,
<v Speaker 2>Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn and Sting.
<v Speaker 1>Right Sting, who had just a little while before done
<v Speaker 1>the movie The Bride, which had a Clancy Brown. They
<v Speaker 1>also wanted Sting to do music too.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, so the Queen wasn't their first choice for Highlander.
<v Speaker 2>They wanted either Duran Duran Russell McKay, right, Duran Duran
<v Speaker 2>Sting or David Bowie.
<v Speaker 1>Right. Well, we'll talk more about that in a minute
<v Speaker 1>when we get to the soundtrack. Yes, right, okay, So
<v Speaker 1>they can't get any of those guys, right. Russell McKay
<v Speaker 1>is sitting there flipping through a magazine and he comes
<v Speaker 1>across a picture of Christopher Lambert. I asked my we
<v Speaker 1>were talking about this because he was Christopher Lambert, right
<v Speaker 1>for me? Right? But then you were like, I think
<v Speaker 1>it's Christopher Lambert. And so I asked my neighbor, who's French.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, how do you pronounce this name? And
<v Speaker 1>he's like Lombert. I was like, long, Lombert, Lombert, and
<v Speaker 1>he's like, yes, Lombert. And I was like, okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>nobody's pronouncing that.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Christopher Lombard.
<v Speaker 1>But I'm gonna call him Christopher Lambert. I call him
<v Speaker 1>Christopher Lambert. So he had been in his first English
<v Speaker 1>speaking movie just recently, called Gray Stoke, which was about Tarzan.
<v Speaker 2>He plays.
<v Speaker 1>He plays Tarzan, right, and in the movie they picked
<v Speaker 1>him this is surprising because of his myopia, not because
<v Speaker 1>they wanted a guy who couldn't see, but the fact
<v Speaker 1>that he couldn't see caused him to have this like
<v Speaker 1>a thousand yard very deep intense stare, like through the
<v Speaker 1>top of his eyes. And they just thought it looked cool.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he had this piercing stare. Yeah, because he can't
<v Speaker 2>see anything.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So Russell mkay. He sees him in this magazine
<v Speaker 1>doing this intense stare that is really just a result
<v Speaker 1>of his almost blindness, and decides, hey, this should be
<v Speaker 1>our guy.
<v Speaker 2>That's hilarious. You know. You mentioned that. And one of
<v Speaker 2>the things that they talked about during the filming. They
<v Speaker 2>would have these long battle scenes in Scotland. They would
<v Speaker 2>press the hill and they'd be like, cut, tell Christopher
<v Speaker 2>to take his freaking glasses off. He couldn't see anything.
<v Speaker 2>He was totally blind.
<v Speaker 3>And they did all of the sword fights. They did
<v Speaker 3>all of the sword fights, and he didn't get hurt
<v Speaker 3>until part two. Right, that's amazing. Yeah, I mean that's
<v Speaker 3>amazing himself. But he had been trained. I got this
<v Speaker 3>a little bit for you, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, he had been trained by this guy named Bob Anderson,
<v Speaker 1>who was a Canadian Olympic gold medalist in fencing. He
<v Speaker 1>did the sword work for The Princess Bride, which is
<v Speaker 1>the best sword fight in cinema history in my opinion.
<v Speaker 1>He did the Mask of Zoro, he did the Lord
<v Speaker 1>of the Rings. And here's your here's another James Bond connection.
<v Speaker 1>He did Die another Day. Okay, but you're ready for this. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>he's got a small speaking part in Empire Strikes Back.
<v Speaker 1>But that isn't the coolest thing. The coolest thing is
<v Speaker 1>he was Darth Vader during all of the lightsaber fights
<v Speaker 1>in Empire strikes Back. Yes, of the Jedi, that is awesome.
<v Speaker 1>This is the guy that trained Christopher Lambert how a
<v Speaker 1>sword fight. So the small speaking part that he had
<v Speaker 1>in Empire Strikes Back, he is the guy at Echo Station.
<v Speaker 1>His character's name is Trey Callum and he says, we've
<v Speaker 1>spotted the Imperial Walkers. All right, that's Bob Anderson. Sweet.
<v Speaker 1>I think playing Darth Vader is way sweeter though. Yes, yes,
<v Speaker 1>So they call up Christopher Lambert's agent, who says, yes,
<v Speaker 1>he's six to two and of course he speaks English, right,
<v Speaker 1>he does, right, And so they go to meet him
<v Speaker 1>and she's doing all the interpretation for him at the table,
<v Speaker 1>like they're like, oh crap, we are screwed. This guy
<v Speaker 1>doesn't speak like when he said when he says hello,
<v Speaker 1>how are you are? You know, it's very very heavy
<v Speaker 1>French yes accent, which to me it never bothered me
<v Speaker 1>a bit. It's kind of like it's kind of like
<v Speaker 1>Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. The fact that his accent
<v Speaker 1>wasn't spot on is okay because he lived in a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of different places. You talk, funny, Nash, where are
<v Speaker 1>you from? Lots of different places? Yeah, yeah, okay, he's
<v Speaker 1>been a live for four hundred years. He's going to
<v Speaker 1>have a weird way of talking.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. But here's my problem. Okay, I mean I love Highlander,
<v Speaker 2>don't get me wrong. But the actors who played the policeman,
<v Speaker 2>they auditioned American actors who are living in England, and
<v Speaker 2>they rejected them because they had acquired too much of
<v Speaker 2>an English accent. And McLeod had lived in the United
<v Speaker 2>States for four hundred years and he still can't be understood.
<v Speaker 3>That can be only one he I understood him perfectly.
<v Speaker 2>So Ramirez. They land Sean Connery himself as here is
<v Speaker 2>the Egyptian Spaniard. Yes, he is the world's most famous
<v Speaker 2>scott just making a Highlander.
<v Speaker 1>Yes right, yep, but that wasn't now the script was written,
<v Speaker 1>but his sp his Spanish accent was on perfectly. He
<v Speaker 1>worked so well, yeah, you give him my God because
<v Speaker 1>it's wrong. Right. So here's a guy we're talking about,
<v Speaker 1>Sean Connery, who when's the last time he lived in Scotland? Right,
<v Speaker 1>he does it. He still has a Scottish accent, so
<v Speaker 1>don't give me this. Well, he's been he's been in
<v Speaker 1>America all this time. He's going to have an American
<v Speaker 1>accent by now. Well, Sean Connery didn't.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, fair, fair, right, And by the way, the only
<v Speaker 2>reason he took this is because they air shooting schedule
<v Speaker 2>was in Scotland. Where are we going Scotland.
<v Speaker 1>I'm in the million dollar paycheck for one week's worth
<v Speaker 1>of seven probably days.
<v Speaker 2>Isn't hurt seven days?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And so he was at the end of that
<v Speaker 1>seven days like if they went over, they had to
<v Speaker 1>pay him extra bill and he's like, you're not going
<v Speaker 1>to make the cut to Russell and like, Russell McKay
<v Speaker 1>ten minutes before his time, ran out said it's a
<v Speaker 1>rap for you.
<v Speaker 2>This is what he did. So he's like, oh crap,
<v Speaker 2>we'll right out of time. He's like, all right, Sean,
<v Speaker 2>look to your left, all right, look pissed, all right,
<v Speaker 2>now look up now, look down now, look happy? Now
<v Speaker 2>looks sad. It's a rap, and he goes you bost it.
<v Speaker 2>So here's a couple other names I got for you. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>these are the names that were considered for Ramirez. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>they got Sean Connery.
<v Speaker 1>I mean it was written for Sean Connery. Yeah, it
<v Speaker 1>was written with him in mind. Yes, the Egyptian spaniard.
<v Speaker 1>Let's get the world's most famous scott Okay.
<v Speaker 2>But they looked at Lee Van Cleeve, Clint Eastwood, Clint Eastwood,
<v Speaker 2>are you kidding me? Malcolm McDowell, Gene Hackman, Michael.
<v Speaker 1>Cain, and Peter O'Toole. Malcolm McDowell I think would have
<v Speaker 1>been probably my favorite of those that.
<v Speaker 2>Would pretty good.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>All right, here's the other thing. Heather McLeod, who is
<v Speaker 2>his love interest in Scotland, and his wife fifteen yeah,
<v Speaker 2>his wife, yes, right, Virginia Madison auditioned for that role.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, she didn't, right.
<v Speaker 2>She shows up later in Highlander two the Quickening.
<v Speaker 1>Right right, Yeah, you told me about her. I forgot
<v Speaker 1>about that.
<v Speaker 2>She's the best part of Highlander to the quick Is
<v Speaker 2>there a part of that movie? That's it. That's the
<v Speaker 2>that's the end of it.
<v Speaker 1>Right there. You haven't watched that movie.
<v Speaker 2>I did watch the movie for this podcast. I watched
<v Speaker 2>Highlander two.
<v Speaker 1>You're not getting paid enough money.
<v Speaker 2>All right, listen, let's just talk honestly about Highlander two
<v Speaker 2>for a second. Okay, in all honesty, I told you
<v Speaker 2>I saw Highlander two first in the theater.
<v Speaker 1>This is why you don't like Highlander one as much
<v Speaker 1>as you should.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well maybe so. But I remember sitting in a theater.
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, man, this is crap. This this just sucks.
<v Speaker 2>But my wife, who had watched Highlander and loved it
<v Speaker 2>because it's this action packed love story, she was like hurt,
<v Speaker 2>like cut to the bone, because this movie sucks so bad. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and then I was like, well, this stupid sci fi
<v Speaker 2>movie is just dumb.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>Well, then I watched the original Highlander. I'm like, okay,
<v Speaker 2>I get it. They undercut it. They absolutely undercut it.
<v Speaker 1>I have never seen it. I will never see it.
<v Speaker 1>When I heard that it was coming out, I was excited. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>and then somebody I knew went and saw it and
<v Speaker 1>they said and they came and they told me. They're like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>they're supposed to be Aliens. And I was like, I
<v Speaker 1>will never see that movie.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>It ruins everything good about Highlander. It ruins it.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, it does.
<v Speaker 1>And the ideally apparently number three like just acts like
<v Speaker 1>number two didn't exist, right, smart move.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, and then I want to talk about the
<v Speaker 2>role of Brenda for a second.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, okay.
<v Speaker 2>Brenda was played by this actress named Roxanne Heart. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>I don't recognize her from anything. I think she's been
<v Speaker 2>in Chicago Hope or she.
<v Speaker 1>Was in The Verdict with Paul Newman, which was a
<v Speaker 1>big court drama in the early eighties.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she's been in some stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. They actually got her because she was a stage
<v Speaker 1>actress and so they saw her in a play that
<v Speaker 1>she was in.
<v Speaker 2>I thought she was fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, great.
<v Speaker 2>Her character is a little bit goofy to me. That's
<v Speaker 2>one of the flaws that the New York Police department
<v Speaker 2>has a sword expert at their beck and call, ready
<v Speaker 2>to handle all sword forensic problems.
<v Speaker 1>Forensic scientist.
<v Speaker 2>She is a sword expert.
<v Speaker 1>She's both.
<v Speaker 2>Because there are such things.
<v Speaker 1>I'm an attorney, I'm a guitarist. I'm a podcaster. You
<v Speaker 1>can't put me in a box.
<v Speaker 2>Bro She's a forensic genius and super sworded expert. Yes, okay, fine, fine, but.
<v Speaker 1>She was a She was a perfect casting because she
<v Speaker 1>could play intelligent. Yes, she is pretty without being overwhelmingly so.
<v Speaker 2>I thought she was very attractive.
<v Speaker 1>By the way. Speaking of super sexy attractive women, us
<v Speaker 1>back to flashborn Christopher Lambert's love interest for several years
<v Speaker 1>like twenty Sophie Marceau, who of course was the princess
<v Speaker 1>in Braveheart. Sorry yes, and also.
<v Speaker 2>A bonder heck yeah, the world is not enough.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of other hot girls, Dino Dealer Entis's granddaughter.
<v Speaker 2>Freaking Jiatta Oh my gosh, majors. Yeah, and she can cook.
<v Speaker 1>That makes her major majors.
<v Speaker 2>All right, so we've cover Oh no, no, no, So Roxanne
<v Speaker 2>Heart was chosen over Brook Adams, Rosanna Arquette Jennifer Beals.
<v Speaker 1>Brook Adams had gotten the part. Brook Adams got the
<v Speaker 1>part and fell through.
<v Speaker 4>Is that right?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? And Roxanne Hart was there to jump into the place.
<v Speaker 2>And I told you Brook Adams is a whole lot
<v Speaker 2>on for me. Also, they wanted Tanya Roberts okay, and
<v Speaker 2>she passed to do of you do kill?
<v Speaker 1>Okay?
<v Speaker 2>How about that?
<v Speaker 1>Nice?
<v Speaker 2>All right? That's casting for Highlander.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So just another quick character. So Lieutenant Frank Moran,
<v Speaker 1>the kind of chief inspector, is played by Alan North,
<v Speaker 1>who was Dreben's partner in the Police Squad series that
<v Speaker 1>led to.
<v Speaker 2>Nake a Gun. Yep, Wow, that's awesome.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 2>One of the things you mentioned was some of the
<v Speaker 2>deleted scenes, but there are a bunch of scenes that
<v Speaker 2>were filmed for Highlander, including I think one major scene
<v Speaker 2>with castigear. Yeah, like McLeod's friend. Yes, all those were
<v Speaker 2>filmed and then lost in a warehouse fire.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they cut them. They were supposed to be I
<v Speaker 1>believe it is a Japanese immortal and he was working
<v Speaker 1>in some office complex and there were supposed to be
<v Speaker 1>and there was this big fight that they filmed between
<v Speaker 1>him and the Kurgan but he was using two swords.
<v Speaker 1>He was using the two sword samurai technique. Look like
<v Speaker 1>it might have been good, but all we have left
<v Speaker 1>is photographs.
<v Speaker 2>That's too bad.
<v Speaker 4>It's too bad.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the last bit of information I'm want to give
<v Speaker 2>to you. Okay, you ready for this?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, this is going to blow your mind. You're ready
<v Speaker 1>for this. Yes.
<v Speaker 2>According to this particular actor, he was offered the part
<v Speaker 2>of Connor McLeod okay, but he turned it down to
<v Speaker 2>focus on his wrestling career. Hulk Hogan, Ladies and Gentlemen
<v Speaker 2>says that he was offered the part of Connor McLoud.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with that. That's
<v Speaker 1>not possible. He might have been the Kergan.
<v Speaker 3>He might.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, he'd have been in the wrestling scene at the beginning.
<v Speaker 1>That's what they offered him. He was gonna fight the
<v Speaker 1>fabulous free bird.
<v Speaker 2>Hulk Hogan, Ladies and Gentlemen.
<v Speaker 1>No, I don't know that. I'm not going for that.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think I'm gonna buy that. Okay, Okay, all right,
<v Speaker 1>so we don't.
<v Speaker 2>Cast, don't casting?
<v Speaker 1>All right, both movies?
<v Speaker 2>All right, now we're onto the movie movie ready for production. Yes, okay, guys,
<v Speaker 2>that is the end of part one.
<v Speaker 1>Join us next week. We will be back for part two.
<v Speaker 1>Until then, be sure and hit us up on Twitter
<v Speaker 1>at Shirley Podcasts, hit us up on Facebook at Shirley
<v Speaker 1>podcast You can email us if you want to shirlypodcast
<v Speaker 1>at gmail dot com. And if you feel like buying
<v Speaker 1>us a cup of coffee for the month, you can
<v Speaker 1>sign up on our Patreon page five bucks a month,
<v Speaker 1>you become an executive producer of one of our episodes
<v Speaker 1>and more exciting things if you go up from there,
<v Speaker 1>so hit us up there as well. See you guys
<v Speaker 1>next week.