Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini Ep #123: "Sharknado Mania!" with director Anthony C. Ferrante

Episode Date: August 3, 2017

This week: Saluting Robbie Rist! The virtuosity of Warren Zevon! Gilbert goes to Stonehenge! And Anthony remembers John Heard! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're now going to go live with today's show's new Storm Chaser Van Cam and reporter Ron McDonald. Ron? I'm proud to be joining the Today Show as part of the Storm Chaser Van Cam mobile studio. Storm Chaser Van Camp Mobile Studio. This vehicle was designed to get as close as possible to a tornado, particularly a sharknado. Shark! Shark!

Shark! Shark! Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And this is Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. We're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Bertarosa, who ruined like about four of our shows, didn't he? No, you started that rumor, which is untrue. Now, we have someone on who I've worked with before. And he's willing to admit it and talk about it.

Yes. admit it and talk about it yes we work together on the soon to be released sharknado5 ladies and gentlemen meet anthony c ferrante hey guys how you doing anthony got it now so you are related to me and Frank were talking about Franny and Teicher. I've been told that there is a relation there, which makes sort of sense. So, you know, I can play piano a little bit. So I guess there you go. I've never really investigated how I'm related. But, yeah, there is. That would blow my mind.

Because this show is all about show business history, and in many cases, the connections, the strange connections. If the director of the Sharknado franchise was related to Ferrante, that would cause me sleepless nights. They used to be on the air like every minute back then. Yeah, they did the lounge stuff. It was the lounge kind of music a little bit too, right? You bet.

Yeah, so the go from the lounge music, and then we actually, Robbie Wriste and I, wrote the theme song for Sharknado, the Ballad of Sharknado. So, you know, there's some lineage there, you know, so it's that pop culture kitsch stuff. So we kind of figured it out. Is Robbie a friend, Cousin Oliver?

Yeah, Cousin Oliver and I have a band called Quint, so we do a lot of the songs in the Sharknado movies. We love Robbie. We see him on Facebook all the time. What I love about Sharknado is I get to travel. To a green screen. I did Sharknado 4, and that was supposed to take place in Texas. I was riding a van, a weather van, through Texas.

And I said, oh, are we going to Texas? And they said, no, we're going to be doing it in Central Park. Because, you know, if you've ever been in Central Park, you go, wow, how did I wind up in Texas? And now in Sharknado 5, my character is now in Africa. And Rio, even though we don't see the Rio thing. How will we do this? And they said, well, we're planning on shooting in Central Park again. in Central Park again.

Because in Africa, quite often, you'll see an old lady on a park bench feeding pigeons. You know, we ended up doing it on green screen because we didn't have time to get to Central Park this time. The area in Central Park, the big rock formation, was like, you know, we took some photos, like this could actually work as Africa. But compared to what we did in the fourth one, aside from Las Vegas, we shot most of the United States in a parking lot in Los Angeles. But the fifth one, we went abroad.

We went to five different countries. So we actually – you didn't get to come with us, but we went to Bulgaria, England, Italy, Japan, and Australia. So we kind of basically upgraded from parking lot. didn't get to come with us but we went to uh bulgaria england italy japan and australia so we we kind of uh basically upgraded from parking see they're they're traveling over you're not traveling but don't feel bad for me i i got to see central park give our listeners some context too what's what's your character oh okay is it the same character in four and 5? Yes, yes, yes. I'm Ron McDonald, investigative reporter, action reporter.

And, yeah. And I think to show the care that's put into Sharknado movies, in the first one, they filmed me in a cow-nado. It was a bunch of cows. Oh, cows, a cow-nado. And I got, they all fell on me and I died. And I heard if you see one version of it, if you rent it, I die in the cow-nado. If you see it on TV, I don't. Yeah, actually what happened that was is we ran ran out of visual effect shots uh because it takes

you know we have like two months to do like a thousand shots usually and we had a sort of a coda where a shark or a cow slammed into you in front of the van it didn't make it into the uh sci-fi cut but when we get to do the dvd version which i call the the slightly better version we're able to kind of put uh extra things in because we never really fit. You know, we were finishing things up to the wire. So it gives us a chance to kind of finesse for DVD. And they did an extra shot because I love the idea of you getting smashed by a cow. But you didn't die.

You just broke an arm. Yes. I mean, it still works. I'm in the neck sharknado in a little arm cast around my wrist because that's what happens if you're in a cownado. Well, now that you're bringing up the next one, we'll plug it. Sharknado 5 Global Swarming. And Anthony, when does it premiere?

It premieres August 6th, this coming Sunday on SyFy. I believe it's like 8 or 9 o'clock, one of those times. Okay, so two days from now. Because this will be on Thursday. Great, yeah. It's Sci-Fi Super Bowl. People get together, have parties. I know, it's a cultural phenomenon.

Now, is there certain things with Sharknado where they take a drag on a reefer or take a shot? I always tell people this. I think the thing is, is I can safely say that the creation and the writing and the making of Sharknado's are not made under the influence of, under any kind of drugs or alcohol, which should scare people even more. But you have called it one of the great stoner movies of all time.

Well, yeah. Well, yeah, when we were, when we were watching the first one of the great stoner movies of all time. Well, yeah. Well, yeah. When we were watching the first cut of the – like the finished cut of the first movie before it aired, I watched it and said, you know, this is – maybe in five years it's going to be a cult movie

and we probably made the greatest stoner movie ever, you know, unintentionally. And, of course, I think both of those came true pretty quickly. It wasn't five years. It was kind of instantaneous. And stoners across the world are just embracing it. We actually do have a potnado in this movie. A potnado. And I love when people ask me, they say, well, do you get killed in the movie?

And I said, it really doesn't make a difference in the movies. That's using logic that if someone's killed that it's over with them it's like in the sharknado movies you watch someone get killed and two scenes later they're walking around or they're or they're chainsawing their way out of a shark yes but but but we do kill people in this movie for good in in the movie. We actually get pretty dark. It becomes Empire Strikes Back in this movie. Oh, I like that. Tell us, give our listeners some history. Anthony, tell us how you first got involved in the franchise. Is it true that you and your partner were spitballing titles? Yeah, Jacob Herr and I occasionally write with him. He's a really amazing guy, a really amazing animator.

And I was doing a lot of horror movies for SyFy, and so they always would want to come up with a ghost title, come up with the leprechaun. Leprechaun's Revenge. Leprechaun's Revenge, which is the first Sharknado sighting. And so we're throwing lava birds, and then Jake goes, Sharknado. And we love that title so much, and we kept trying to figure out what to do with it. We pitched it to one of the companies that does pitching to SyFy, which I think didn't pitch it to them as Sharknado,

but as like Sharkstorm or something. And so in the Leprechaun script, I wrote a reference to a Sharknado because they were trying to cover up the Leprechauns. And it said something like, we don't want to have what happened in that town over. Remember Sharknado? They never lived that down. And Syfy saw that name and they're going,

we must make this movie. And that's kind of the evolution. Jake and I always knew what a great title it was. And when we were shooting the first movie, no one wanted to be in a movie called Sharknado. So they called it Dark Skies. And so we always kind of knew

it was going to be called Sharknado and the third day of shooting, we were shooting in the hardware store and all my cast cornered me and said, come here, come here! It was like, it reminded me of Frankenstein with the pitchforks and the fire

and they're going, we heard this movie might be called Sharknado. It's like, well, they might call it that or they might call it something else. No, they gotta call it Great White Skies. They gotta do this. You gotta make sure that they don't call this. And apparently Tara and Ian were freaked out.

I think Ian says that he got onto his agent saying, you gotta get me out of this thing. But I remember telling them specifically, I told them, if it's called Sharknado, it will be a good thing. Because we knew the title had magic. And that was one thing I was sort of right about. But they were freaked out about it.

But the cool thing is that they didn't let it affect their performance. I mean, Ian Ziering chainsaw his way out of a shark, birthing himself out of the shark. And he did that with gusto. And there was no like, I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna do it half-assed. He gave 100%. So did

Tara. Everybody gave a crap on that movie. They embraced the cheese with it, but all the characters play it straight, which is what the magic of the movie is. It's kind of like Airplane. If everybody's in on the joke and plays it up as camp, it's not as funny as if you're playing it straight. So the silliness comes from the event, which is the Sharknado, and the circumstances. Everything else is they're in a movie about lava or they're in a movie about an earthquake.

We've talked about that on this show, how originally the studio wanted them to put comedians in Airplane. And the Zuckers were saying, no, you need Lloyd Bridges. You need Leslie Nielsen. You need straight faced actors. And the funny thing is, is with Leslie Nielsen in those first couple of like airplane and naked gun, he was hysterical because he was playing it straight poker faced. Yeah. And then later on, I think he started to say, hey, I'm pretty funny. And then he started acting goofy. Yeah.

Well, one of the things I want to give a shout out to John Hurd. John Hurd was the first person we cast in the first Sharknado movie. Yeah, we were just going to ask you about him. He just destroyed us. But he kind of got it. And I remember him telling me, like, on the last day of shooting, he was like, I don't know what the heck you're doing,

but I think there's some sort of method to your madness. And I think this is going to be really cool. And the thing with John is John basically gives a little of the comic relief in Sharknado, but he plays it straight. And having him there gave us a lot of credibility, and that got us to Ian and Tara and everybody after that. But I recently watched the movie, and he's just so good in the film. And we kind of improvised a little bit, and he did all this amazing stuff.

And when we were at Comic-Con and we heard about it it was just heartbreaking because he was just he supported it from the beginning he was the one guy that was on board uh and and such a great actor and i remember hanging out with comic-con the first year that sharknado broke we hung out with them and it was just you know it was cool a great guy great actor and you know it's just it's sad to see see that that amazing talent not here you know it was cool a great guy great actor and you know it's just it's sad to see see that that amazing talent not here you know underrated actor really and and good in comedies i mean if you think of i think of scorsese's after hours oh yeah and it cut because in cutter's way sure he seems a winner and but but you look at all the movies that he just he was in big he just was in everything cat people that's right as weird as that he just, he was in big. He just was in everything. Cat People. That's right.

As weird as that movie was, he's great in that movie. Very underrated. And what I remember about Cat People is Nastasya Kinski and Annette O'Toole both being naked in it. Yes, as you pointed out to Michael McKean when he was here about his wife. Well, I wanted to pay her a compliment. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. And now back to the show. His death scene to John heard in the first Sharknado. Very funny.

Yeah. You know, you know, the one of the things, you you know we were trying to come up with weapons and stuff and uh when we were working on the script um the idea of the the bar stool being his weapon i i you know the thing is i always knew that there the movie needed to go a little further and be a little uh odd so uh in the script i buried the idea that because it makes sense he would not leave his bar stool if the whole thing was gonna uh collapse so i buried the idea that, because it makes sense he would not leave his barstool if the whole thing was going to collapse. So I buried the idea that the barstool was being taken with him. So it was sort of there, but we never drew attention to it because I knew I was going to have him use it as a weapon and carry it around most of the movie. And I knew the producers might go, what are you doing? This makes no sense, but I knew it would work. And he had just went,

John had just went through an operation at that time. I might, it might've been like a heart operation or something. And that bar stool was heavy. And, you know, he never complained once. And, you know, I, you know, if he said, I don't want to carry this, we wouldn't have had him carry it, but he wanted to, he was in it. But that thing was, I, it was hard for me to lift up. And this man who had been through an operation, like I'm doing it. It's like, he's it it's like he's he

is he is the true action hero of that thing because that barstool was uh i think one of the funniest bits in the film you know he's just not gonna let it go terrific actor and did i and zearing have any idea what a second career he would have i don't think anybody knew that it was going to blow up like it did like i said we kind of, you know, we knew the title was special and we knew we made something that was kind of unique, you know, for what it was, you know, put together with, you know, chewing gum and duct tape. And, you know, we just made this crazy movie that could have destroyed everybody's careers and didn't. But but but I think that, you know, they you know, I think they kind of did it and they just thought it was just going to be another movie, both him and Tara, that was going to come and go. And then that night it blew up, and everybody found us. I mean it's one of those rare instances where there was no marketing.

It was all the stuff that we did grassroots. We put out the trailer early. We did a music video. We started a Facebook page that myself and a couple other people just kind of posted stuff on. We started a Facebook page that myself and a couple other people just kind of posted stuff on. And then I remember one of my editors from a previous film, Chris Conley, he called me up like two days before the movie airs going, you know, I was in 7-Eleven and people were talking about Sharknado. I'm like, yeah, right. Because, you know, I've written and directed a bunch of these movies where, you know, they come out, they have their little audience, and then they go away.

It's like why would someone in 7-Eleven be talking about Sharknado? And I was wrong about that. He was accurate. And then that night, it just, it was a tweeter storm. You know, it was just bizarre to see, you know, we were going to do live commentary, and I thought I was going to get, hey, you suck, Ferrante, and all this other stuff. And suddenly people are just having fun, and you couldn't keep up with the tweets like Mia Farrow and Damon Lindelof and Judah Friedland. It was like, it was just insane. Patton Oswalt.

So, you know, I don't know what it was. I think, you know, everybody keeps Monday morning quarterbacking about what it might've been. I think it was, the trailer looked like basically something that looked like a studio movie that there's no way it could live up to it. So I think they're going, we got to see this because this looks insane and crazy.

And then they saw it and it was wall-to-wall action for a low-budget movie. And it was the title and it was free and it was a summer where pretty much all the movies that came out were kind of depressing and dark. And it's also kind of strangely family values wholesome. So kids could watch it even though people's limbs are being ripped off. But go back to Robbie Riss. Robbie also knew that it had potential. And when he saw a rough cut of the movie,

he said, it's a movie that doesn't know it can't do that. And I live and stand by that with the whole phenomena is that it continues to prove it's a movie that doesn't know it can't do that. And I live and stand by that with the whole phenomena is that it continues to prove it's a movie that doesn't know it can't do that, both from the way the phenomena broke and then just how we pull these movies off each time. And we don't have like two years and a hundred million dollars. We're still kind of a tiny little movie that somehow we find a way to go shoot in these different countries. We go there and we're figuring it out as we go along. It's not like we have a crew, kind of an ongoing crew of about maybe six people that travel to all the countries and then are cast,

and then we would pick up production services places in those countries. We just went and had fun. It's like a party. It's hard work. But six months, and we have a movie finished like this. I think timing is certainly part of it, as you say. But also, it's rewarding to people who are pop culture aficionados like we are. And Patton, we know, is a movie buff.

You're watching something like this. There's Twilight Zone references. There's the Baywatch opening. There's all kinds of... There's a lot of movie dialogue. There's stuff that's rewarding for people like us. I've always been a geek. A lot of inside jokes. A lot of inside jokes, some of them that go completely over people's heads.

Even my first movie, Boo, I loved that movie, The Changeling, by George C. Scott. Oh, we talked about that movie on this show. Sure. Yeah. So there is a little, the ball that rolls down the stairs appears in my movie. And the guy that played the kid in that movie, Voldy Way, was a friend of the producer. So we snuck him into the film. And he's being pulled away in this mental thing. And someone says, time to take your bath car, Michael.

So that's like so buried. That's great. You know, five people get it. My best obscure reference was in Headless Horse in my second movie. And it was, so it's about a, it's a Headless Horse movie. So in the convenience store, there is a art department poster that's Roland's Thompson gum sold here. A Warren Zevon reference. There you go. Bless your heart. Because he has Roland, yeah, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner. So that was my little nod to Warren, gum sold here. A Warren Zevon reference. There you go. Bless your heart. Because he has, you know,

rolling the headless Thompson Gunner. So that was my little nod to Warren, who I love. So we always put stuff in. And then, first movie was kind of jazzy, you know, so we had the little Jaws references and stuff. But then in the second movie, I really wanted to do that kind of homage to the

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, the Twilight Zone episode. And when we were getting ready to shoot it, my wife and my daughter and I were watching Airplane. And she says, we got to get Robert Hayes. So I called the producer saying, we must get Robert Hayes to play the pilot. And he's going, no, because then, you know, you're going to do Airplane references. And then with my fingers crossed, I'm going, I promise we will never do an Airplane reference if we cast him. And they go, okay, okay. And of course, we did Airplane references. an airplane reference if we cast him.

And they go, okay, okay. And, of course, we did airplane references. And that kind of was the beginning of where we were able to kind of do things like that in Sharknado where kind of the tide shifted and we were kind of making more little references to things. Even the taxi, you know, we had Judd Russell in the taxi driver. Yeah, I was going to bring that up too. And then if you look at the cab company, it's the Bickel Cab Company. Oh, a taxi driver reference. Yeah. But that's catnip for guys like Gilbert and me.

Oh, yeah. Travis Bickle. Yeah, we love that stuff. I mean, I'm saying when you get Damon Lindelof and Patton and Olivia Wilde and people like that are tweeting about it, I think part of that is people are jazzed by the fun of that. I mean, it's a movie on one level, but it's a parlor game too. There's a lot going on. And it's stuff too that we're not sitting there going, hey, look, telegraphing. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this.

It's like for me, it's stuff that as a geek, I put in for myself in the handful of other people. I had to fight to get Christine in the fourth movie. It was one of those things where they said, you can have this or you can have Christine. And I'm like, the car from, you know, I go, okay, well, I'll take Christine any day. And then in the fifth movie, let's see if you get this. So we're shooting in London and we had the opening is at Stonehenge. And so we have a reference to Silver Shamrock. And so our working title when we were doing it to throw people off of Sharknado was that we were called Silver Shamrock.

So do you know the pop culture reference to Silver Shamrock? Oh, is that the Halloween? Ooh, Gilbert. Nice work, Gilbert. Three more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. You pulled out. Three more days to Halloween silver shamrock shamrock

yep there you go that was Halloween 3 and I forget that actress season of the witch was it Tom Atkins

he was he was the handsome lead but who was the villain Dan O'Herlihy Dan O'Herlihy oh yes

yes yes from Twin Peaks yep yeah so they're in the Stonehenge villain. Dan O'Herlihy. Oh, yes. Yes. From Twin Peaks. Yeah. In the Stonehenge cave, you'll see a little silver shamrock thing and a melted skeleton mask. So it's a

blink if you miss it, but it's one of those little Easter eggs. You know what my favorite part of Halloween 3 was? Dan O'Herlihy has Stonehenge in part of Halloween 3 was Dan O'Herlihy has Stonehenge in his place. He has it there. And

his only explanation, the only thing the writers could come up with for him to say on how he was able to move Stonehenge to his room is, we had quite a time getting it over. Good gag.

Yeah. So it's like, okay. But, you know, the weird part is I don't know if you've been to Stonehenge. We went to Stonehenge and we actually kind of stole the location and shot a few shots there when we weren't supposed to. But Stonehenge is small. Yes. I was there. It's huge.

And I'm thinking, oh, my God. And you get there and it's like I could like take two steps and I'm there and I could probably lift up one of the rocks. So I always thought it was kind of weird in Halloween three. But now I kind of buy. Yeah, you could probably have taken a few of those rocks. Hey, we shot Sharknado there and they didn't know we were doing it. So, I mean, sure.

Daniel Hurley in a helicopter stealing stonehenge isn't that far i was doing a job in london and i really i decided i gotta go to stonehenge and and also i thought it would be this it always you get the impression it's enormous and then you know you see it and it's like some rocks yeah i wanted to ask you has have you heard from carl gottlieb about the all about all the jaws stuff yeah you know i i ran into carl gottlieb i think it was right after sharknado one uh there was a screening for jaws 3d in uhD in Hollywood, and I went to go see it, and I don't know if it was in 3D or not. Maybe it was or maybe it wasn't. I can't remember.

But he was there, and so I went up and talked to him a little bit. And we actually tried to get him and the director of Jaws 3D, which his name is escaping me right now, Joe Alves. Yeah, Joe Alves, right. That's right. I think he did the production design on first Jaws. And so we were going were going oh it'd be cool to kind of get sneak them into sharknado

two or three and it just it never worked out because he's a comedy writer in addition to writing jaws i think he would appreciate this yeah it would have been it would have been a blast to kind of get him in there but uh the actually the one thing that i think was really cool is uh we were at we're at universal orlando for Orlando for shooting number three, Oh Hell No. And they didn't have the ride, which bummed us because they had recently gotten rid of the Jaws attacking thing. But they still had the Jaws dangling in one of the little piers there. And so we wanted to do a gag with that Jaws thing. I guess we had to go and get permission from

Amblin, which is basically Spielberg's company. And probably Spielberg had to sign off on it. I mean, it helps that SyFy is part of NBC, which is part of Universal. But Amblin signed off on it, which to me is like, OK, that's the closest that I'll be able to kind of touch Spielberg's garment. They're aware of Sharknado, and they're OK if we're kind of paying a little nod to it. Have you ever used or tried to get Richard Dreyfuss? Richard Dreyfuss was on the list for, I think, the second or third movie and it never worked

out. I think they reached out to him. Sometimes people want to be in the movies and sometimes they don't. Or sometimes it's scheduling. As you know, a lot of times it's like, hey, Gilbert, we want you in the movie. Are you available tomorrow at 4? Is that how you approach them? And then suddenly the night before, we're writing dialogue.

I think that stuff you got was written the night before. Yeah. And luckily I wasn't doing the chuckle barn in Indianapolis. You've also had some of our podcast guests, Anthony Paul Schaefer, Penn Jillette, and Gary Busey. Those are three of our peeps.

Paul Schaefer was amazing. When they told us we were going to do Paul Schaefer, we were like, oh, we've got to get Paul to do one of our songs. He played basically an out-of-work performer because he wasn't on Letterman anymore. And we had written a New York song for number two. And to teach Paul Schaefer how to do the song that we wrote

was kind of like, I mean, I was always a big fan of Letterman and him. Yeah, us too. Even as far back as Saturday Night Live. So that was like, this was super cool. And then Gary Busey, and who was the other one? Sorry. Oh, Pendulet. Oh, Pendulet was super cool. And then Gary Busey. And who was the other one? Sorry. Oh, Pendulet.

Oh, Pendulet was really fun. He came on. That was a really quick scene. But Gary Busey was very, very interesting. Probably the most surreal moment on any i it is it on on any of the shark nano movies we were rehearsing the the scene with it so it's him tara reed david hasselhoff and uh and then ryan newman who played the daughter and so we cleared everybody out of the room and we're rehearsing this and so so, you know, the movie's weird and there's stuff like quantum boxes

and weird dialogue and stuff. And Gary's like, I don't understand. There's sharks and a tornado. And like, so we're trying to explain to him what it is. And then they start rehearsing and he starts asking David Hasselhoff a little bit about, like, well, what the quantum box does, I don't understand. And so Ryan and I, there's nobody in the room,

but Ryan and I and the other three. And Ryan and I kind of just stepped back and just watched this conversation happen between Gary and David Hasselhoff. And David Hasselhoff trying to explain to Gary Busey what's going on. And then Tara Reid kind of being the mediator between the two of trying to kind of get it back around to like let's focus this. And Ryan and I were just trying not to laugh because it was just – it was insane. Because you're starting to listen to the logic that they're trying to put into this. And it's like,

well, it's, you know, we have sharks and tornado and you're trying to put logic to it. And the idea was one of those moments, Gary Busey, putting a lot into it. I just don't understand.

What's what's, what's a quantum box. And it's like, just say the line, please. How we'd basically dealt with it because he was just getting bogged down into it. I turned to Gary. I said, because we were running, you know, we have 12 hours to shoot these movies.

We have no time to do these scenes. And, you know, this was probably like the sixth or seventh scene, a different location in that place we were shooting. And we had to get going. And so I turned to Gary and I go, Gary, I got an idea. I'm going to turn the camera on you. And I'm just going to let you improv for the next 10 minutes. And he's going, that's a great idea. And so we did two takes, two 10-minute takes of him just like going off the rails, kind of sort of hitting the beats and stuff.

And it was brilliant in how insane it was. And then we basically got him out of the room. We did a reverse and I did the close-ups on the other actors and we kind of picked it up and picked the pieces up. And in the movie, it makes sense that it works.

It is funny. And we did, I think it's on the deleted scenes, we put like the full version of his rant into the deleted scenes. It's insane. But that was the way we did it

and it worked. I'm looking at some of these guest stars, and it's kind of like how we put this podcast together. These are our people of choice. Charo, Bo Derek, Wayne Newton, Susan Anton, Lou Ferrigno. In Sharknado 5, Charo plays the Queen of England, because of course it's Sharknado. And Fabio plays the Pope

and he speaks Italian it's amazing were there any complaints about Fabio being the Pope I don't know the whole Fabio thing happened we were in Italy it was the day before we were about to shoot and I'm like why don't we have the Pope

in this movie so I called the producers going we need a. We need to film the Pope because it doesn't make any sense with this other thing. The Pope needs to be there, meets Finn and gives them something important. And they're going, well, I don't know if we buy that. It was like, well, okay, what do we need to do? And so we went back and forth for 20 minutes. I go, okay, that works. And so they had to find a Pope costume that night. They found a Pope costume. We didn't have Fabio at the time. We didn't know who was going to play it. So we had a small crew.

So I ended up playing the Pope for these scenes. So I'm basically Fabio's double in a weird, bizarre world where Fabio doubles other people. I'm doubling Fabio because we didn't know it was going to be him. So we left it so the reverses would be shot in L.A. And then they call and say Fabio is going to be the Pope. And so that's how the pope thing happened. So, yes. You know, and in addition to the fact that Tara and I had to kiss my hand as the pope.

So I think that was kind of fun. How did you approach Olivia Newton, John? You don't you don't see her doing much these days. I don't think she's done a movie. And you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think in like probably 15 years maybe, maybe longer. And she was on our list as far back as three. And one of our line producers, Dylan Fox and Scotty Mullen, our casting director and the writer on this one, have been courting her for a very long time.

And it worked out for this movie. And it was so – that was another one of those things that was just really cool to have her on set. She was there with her daughter, Chloe. They play these kind of kooky scientists that kind of help Tara read a little bit her character in the movie. And Olivia

was up for anything. I mean, and she's just so good. She has such great timing. We actually, the sequence with Tara, we wrote a song in honor of Olivia Newton-John called Brand New You that kind of has that sort of Xanadu early 80s vibe. So, you know, we just loved her presence. And she actually gave Scotty and I these shark tooth necklaces. It was a really nice gift. So it's like that meant a lot to me as well.

It was really, really sweet. Would you like to use this moment to point out that Olivia Newton-John was a Jew? gift. So it's like that meant a lot to me as well. It was really, really sweet. Would you like to use this moment to point out that Olivia Newton-John was a Jew? Yes. Or is a Jew? You, you, I was, you see, Frank knows exactly how I think. I'm reading your thoughts. We've done so many of these. While you were talking about Olivia Newton-John, I was saying, I got to jump in and say that Olivia Newton John is a Jew. There you go. And she

had these like, I think her parents were like her father and uncle were these like big intellectual. I think her uncle was a famous scientist. Yeah. Mills Bor or something. Oh, wow. I have to look that. Well, that makes sense that she's a scientist and olivia newton john always looked like such a goyim but you this is something i wanted to ask ask you anthony maybe that maybe the the answer is obvious once you guys said on the title of sharknado, you knew you were in love with that title, how did you get—was it a long journey to this idea that during storms, sharks could get swept up? And they said, okay, these two things work together. You know, a lot of stuff, it's just like, you know, you combine two things, and then, you know, they were developing the script and um it just was it just was a natural progression of what it was it was always you didn't think of that before you

thought of sharknado though you just you locked in on the title and then it was a bit of serendipity we know what it was it was it we the the two images i think that we locked on is that there's sharks in a tornado and a chainsaw needs to be involved i I think they did an early drawing with a guy in one of those, the diving bell thing, holding a chainsaw, even before Ian even was involved or anything. I mean, that was just some silly concept art that he created before any of this happened.

And so, yeah, no, I mean, there was this thing that we knew there was something special, and we were talking about it even before it was greenlit, of like, oh, you know, it'd be there was this thing that we knew there was something special. And, you know, we were talking about it even before it was greenlit. Like, oh, you know, it would be cool if this and that. And then this all happened. So, yeah, it was – there was just a lot of – it was kind of funny, too, that the script and the underwrote ended up having a chainsaw in it because we were thinking along the same lines as well. Did you hear from somebody who said that this had happened?

That sharks were sucked up in a storm and landed in somebody's backyard? I think in Perth or something. Here's the thing. Okay, so you want to know the scary part of Sharknado. We are the crystal ball for what will happen because every time you go, this is ridiculous, this stuff doesn't happen, things happen. And one of the big ones that I remember is we shot in Orlando the third movie. And two months after we left, I don't know how this is possible, a diesel truck full of sharks overturned on the freeway. Wow.

a diesel truck full of sharks overturned on the freeway. Wow. We left Australia, and then suddenly sharks were raining down in some place. Like earlier this year, there was sharks dropping down in some places. And then the scariest one of all, so in number three, oh, hell no, we originally approached Donald Trump to play the president of the united states which was ultimately going to be played by uh or ultimately played by uh mark cuban so you know we were this close to having the president of the united states be donald trump in sharknado and we basically ended up with him as our sharknado president in reality so it's kind of kind of kind

of interesting so How bizarre. Yeah, and it was a timing thing. It literally was, they didn't get back to us in time and we had to start shooting and suddenly they cast somebody else and it was too late, but they were interested in doing it. So I mean, I think more people would have voted for him if he was running through the White House with the machine gun kicking down sharks.

He would have won the popular vote at that point because it's like, hell, come on on i want that guy around the country so tell us again when this when shark what's the full title sharknado 5 global sharknado 5 global swarming uh and it's airs uh august 6th which is this coming sunday uh on sci-fi uh check your local listings listings because it airs in weird time things. But I think it's 8 or 9 o'clock Eastern Standard Time

and then adjust from there. And tell us the tagline. The tagline is Make America Bait Again. I love it. Yeah, we have a blast with this. We could interview you for hours, Anthony, just about the cast. Yeah, I know.

Bless your heart for putting these people. I mean, George R.R. Martin, Robert Klein. I mentioned Lou Ferrigno. Susan Anton. When was the last time you heard that name? Oh, my God. Yeah. Gosh.

Golden Girl. You know, George R.R. Martin was so top secret. We got a call saying he wanted to be in it, and we had to go to New Mexico, and he owned a movie theater there. And we filmed it there, and we were under lock and key. No one knew he was in the movie until they watched the film. And then everybody on the internet was so pissed. It's like, he's in Sharknado, and he's not writing the next Game of Thrones book? What the hell?

So everybody was all mad at us because we took him away from writing the book. They were like, oh, this is cool. No, they were mad at that. And I just got the melody in my head now from Ferroni and Tysha. Uh-oh. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. This is from Midnight Cowboy? Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

All right, Anthony, that's your assignment is find out for us how you are connected and related. I will do that. We need to know. So it's the director. We've been talking. This has been Gilbert and Frank's amazing, colossal obsessions. And we've been talking to the director of Sharknado 5. And what is that title again?

Global Swarming. Global Swarming. Global Swarming. Global Swarming. Anthony C. Ferrante, who may or may not be related to Ferrante and Teicher. And give our best to Robbie, who was Murray Slaughter's son on the, excuse me, Ted Baxter's adopted son on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Robbie Rist. Yeah, you got to bring him on another show. He's fantastic.

I hear he's a great storyteller. He's an amazing storyteller. And the thing is, is that he has actually been on the he's been a part of something pop culture every decade. Like, you know, he was part of a Brady Bunch and then he was part of Galactica 80. And then he was part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then Doc McStuffins and Sharknado. So where pop culture phenomena goes, Robbie goes. But he's also an amazing musician.

He plays in 50 million bands in Los Angeles. That's what we hear. He's Prince and Elvis Costello rolled into one. I mean, he's just an amazing guy. Robbie Wrist, right of town. And bless your heart for the Warren Zevon reference. My old neighbor in the Kings Road Apartments in Los Angeles. You're the third person that actually got the reference.

And one of my dream movies is I would really love to make the Warren Zevon biopic because I love his story and the journey and that documentary on when he was going to pass away. Like he did the last album he did, he knew he was dying of cancer. The Wind. And so they followed him around, The Wind, great album. And you saw how, like, well, you know what? If I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out on my own terms. And that song, Keep Me In Your Heart, one of the greatest lines in the history of songwriting is,

my wheels keep turning, but I'm running out of steam. And that was the of songwriting is my wheels keep turning but I'm running out of steam and that was the last song he recorded in his living room and you can't not listen to that album and go how often is an album written and performed by someone that knows that they're dying it's just and it has the same

sense of humor and all the artists that came to support him anybody that hasn that doesn't know much about Zeevon, they should go find that documentary, but also buy that album and listen to the lyrics. It's cathartic and it's beautiful. He was such an amazing tunesmith.

It's a VH1 documentary, I think, as I recall. It was a making of. I was living in his building at the time, so I actually got to see some of those people come and go. was that was shot in the king's road apartments in west hollywood where where uh where he recorded he was at 1.2 l to travel and that's where they recorded a lot of that record and i got to see those people coming and going and them shooting some of it but he was a great great artist for so many reasons the the letterman

interview you know what again another quote that he said is like what have you learned about that you know he's interviewing him knowing this is the last time he's going to see him he devoted a whole episode to him and he used to fill in for paul schaefer uh warren zivon did on the show and he goes you know what have you learned about this and he goes you know i learned to enjoy every sandwich and it's like it's a good mantra for people to understand to to take to heart you know enjoy everything and. And it's like, it's a good mantra for people to understand, to, to, to take the heart, you know, enjoy everything. And I think that's,

you know, I mean, you know, I make movies because I enjoy it and, you know, we just go and do the best that we can and have fun. And I think that, you know,

there was a lot of life in that man. And yes, indeed, you know, he's left a lot. I was just listening to his best of album a couple of weeks ago and just, yeah, uh,

the, um, uh, played all night long. Yeah, that's from The Envoy. He somehow rhymed. Brucellosis. The only guy that could use the word brucellosis,

brilliantly use it in a song. All the cows have brucellosis. We'll get by somehow. Oh, wrong album. That's from Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School. I misspoke. Yeah, okay. They're all great.

And that Letterman interview, that whole hour, you can find it on, I believe you can find it online. It's well worth seeing. Yeah, okay. They're all great. And that Letterman interview, that whole hour, you can find it on, I believe you can find it online, and it's well worth seeing. Yeah, yeah, and buy any album that has it. He was a genius. So, once again, this has been Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions, and we've been talking to Anthony C. Ferrante, who may or may not

be related to Ferrante and Teicher. And what's the new movie and when's it airing again? Well, before we do it, you should say it's a podcast-nado, as you do in film. Podcast-nado! It's a podcast-nado!

There you go. Anthony, thank you. This was funny. Congratulations. Thank you. August 6th, Sci-Fi. Thank you guys so much for having me on. We'll send our people there.

I really appreciate it. Take care, buddy. Thanks. Thanks, Gilbert. Thanks, Frank. Colossal Obsessions.