Hi everybody, I'm Drew McQueenie and I am one of the co-hosts of 80's all over. I'm joined today by Scott Weinberg. Say hello, sir. What's up, sci-fi junkies? I'm very excited to be doing this one this We'll get into all this but this is a very special movie to both of us We're gonna go ahead and start playing because it's a good full two-hour movie Every minute everybody get ready. Yeah, so basically pause your screen when you see the beginning of the universal logo Just pause that meant right there and then unpause the Universal logo on 3, 2, 1, go. There we go. All right, so true. Let's start at the beginning. This opening line, which is one of my favorites in film history, was very nearly the title of this podcast. Yeah, I was very insistent that Colitis on board would be a good title for this podcast and drew liked it, but didn't love it. And then I believe I think him and our illustrious producer came up with 80s all over. I think it's a great one of my one of the reasons I love that opening line is it is such a great banal reason for evil. He's just bored and wants to play. And I think it sets up such a terrific then rest of the movie.

And this whole opening, it's interesting because this is not a faithful adaptation by any definition, but the opening idea that Earth is about to be destroyed, Flashdale and Zarkov meet very quickly and get off the planet. That was done in like 15 panels in the original comic. And I think ripples throughoutipples throughout our pop culture i think you see it in plenty of other stuff whether it's hitchhikers guy to the galaxy is is clearly a rift on that or even the way uh... lukecy's first armors is both alder on being blown up and everybody leaving the planet i think they're all pretty common uh... disasters tight typhoon tornado and then one is as hot says, hot hail. What's hot hail? I don't know, but it sounds terrible. I love, here we go. Now, we're often running with the Queen soundtrack. And if you were a kid in 1980, this was a huge part of what got me into that theater was the first time you hear the way this record works with the dialogue and the sound effects man it is insanely evocative and the idea that Queen wasn't their first choice that you know Dino didn't even know what rock music really was until he heard them that's mind-boggling to me if you pay close attention to these credits, you'll notice that you, in most cases, see the character right before the actor's name pops up. And that's fun. I like that. It is. It's a great way of establishing with the style, the Alex Raymond style looked like. And the film definitely leans on a lot of the style, but it's not exactly the same thing. Like it doesn't look exactly the same. And I think it was interesting seeing how they got there and how a lot of it's just an accident because nobody understood each other in the production chain. There were like 15 languages being spoken. Yeah, I think the language barrier, we can get into this a little, but I think it's widely documented that the language barriers both intentionally and unintentionally cause some problems that I think Deino DeLarence was okay with some of the problems because he wanted to make something weird and different and the fact that he had these two different factions who didn't really know each other that well uh... they all had to just kind of follow his orders and that's what happened

and they went through a lot to get there because the nick roghtake that it's funny there's that there's the story that i'd always heard which was the nick roght went away and in secrecy worked for an entire year with his co-writer michael alan and they they came up with everything and then they went back and wait you went too far though you would make you what about go back even further

who was supposed to direct this before Nicholas rogue

well i i was heard the nick with everything and then they went back and you went too far though you would make you what about go back even further who was supposed to direct this before Nicholas rogue. Well, I I always heard that Nick Rogue was first. Well, fully okay, yes. Fred Rico Fellini was certainly part of that early conversation. Yeah, the the Deilerantis originally optioned it because he wanted Fellini to direct it. I don't think that he was ever in. And Felini was a huge, huge fan.

Like he grew up on them and they were his version of America. And I do wonder, you know, we wouldn't have gotten what we would get now like when you see the song Duvalarian, which is the same thing. Like something he grew up on. And he finally now years later gets to make it. I think Felini's, he still would have been struggling against sort of the limitations of tech

and what people had done up to that point,

but I bet it would have been a beautiful dream.

Like I bet his would have been struggling against sort of the limitations of tech and what people had done up to that point, but I bet it would have been a beautiful dream.

Like I bet his would have been very affectionate. The Nick Rogue version, they went away and again, like I heard the story one way, which was they went away and they worked in secrecy for a year and they came back and and pitched it in the room. he told them no and then picked the version he would make and rogue said I wouldn't make

that movie and left.

And the reality is that they work for a year together closely with 30 artists and like several drafts of the script and do you know new what was happening it's just that gradually I think he fell out of love with that version. Here comes Robbie Coltrane real quick you'll see a quick that's awesome very young. And there's the beautiful Melody Anderson, the very handsome Sam Jones will get to them in a bit but I I hope that listeners will forgive us because at least me because I plan to go through virtually every actor in this cast I absolutely love this cast some argue that Sam Jones is a little bit wooden and there's also the long standing rumors that everywhere from 10% to 95% of his performance was dubbed by an unknown still to this day, unknown actor. We don't know how much of his voice is dubbed. Let's just admit that right off the bat, right? We don't know. The best, no, but the best, the best most accurate versions that I've heard in terms of

free of kind of hyperbole in the accounting is that a lot of it was when Jones left early and just wouldn't come back and do stuff that they worked with both a physical body double for some of this stuff and with a voice double, but that the goal was always to make it sound like Sam Jones's voice that enough of the movie is him that they were clearly they hired somebody just to sound like him.

And that I think is why the rumor has always Persisted that it's all dumbed when of course I don't think it's nearly all dumbed I think that they can't be because so much of it was made up on the set like there's stuff in this movie where either you got the very best ADR of all time because it's perfectly synced or you have to accept that some of it really is Sam Jones because they were making shit up while they were shooting and frequently they had no idea what he was saying, like even within the production staff sometimes they didn't know what he was saying. So by most accounts, depending on what side you listen to either Sam Jones or producer de laorrentis they just didn't get along and either Sam was the the jerk or Dana was the jerk and Sam left after main principal photography didn't come back for second unit so a lot of his ADR was done by someone else and he didn't promote the film he didn't go on tour with it and a lot of people say that that really hurt his career and I can't help but agree with that theory well And it also doesn't help that he didn't promote the film, he didn't go on tour with it. And a lot of people say that that really hurt his career.

And I can't help but agree with that theory.

Well, and it also doesn't help that he didn't promote the film, but he did sue Dino D. Larentez for not making the sequels. And it's like you can't have it both ways, pal. You can't expect that they would have made sequels to a movie you didn't even try to help sell flash freaking Gordon so and I still I do think that you know when you look at

Ted and you look at the sort of legacy the film has and how it's continued to play in pop culture, at some point he made some sort of piece with it and clearly has accepted that flash Gordon is a giant part of his identity of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end ago. Why is he famous in geek circles? Well, I for me it's he is so great in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He has one of the greatest scenes in movie history and he's a huge part of why that scene works. He's wonderful in that sequence. He is major eaten in raiders of the Lost Dark. He has one of the greatest scenes in movie history, and he's a huge part of why that scene works.

He's wonderful in that sequence.

He is major eaten in Raiders of the Lost Dark.

He is porkins in Star Wars.

He is Henry, or Harry, I should say, in Superman IV.

He is Eckhart in Batman.

...