Latest / Cinema Yūgen / Unveiling 'The Shadow': A Journey into 90s Nostalgia with Russell Mulcahy
Transcript
- 0:00G'day. That's right. It's that time again. Time for Cinema Yuga.
- 0:08Music.
- 0:15Yes, welcome back. Little Yuga night Cinema Yuga.
- 0:20And you host Kent Hill, classic episode request fan, requested classic Russell Mulcahy.
- 0:26Okay, he joins me to talk about The Shadow.
- 0:29The sun is shining, but the ice is slippery.
- 0:32The Alec Baldwin-led shadow film from the 90s, back before comic films were
- 0:41the order of the day. Few and far between.
- 0:45One of the good ones remembered, fondly remembered, I hope. I certainly enjoyed it.
- 0:50Great cast. Aside from Baldwin, you had the likes of Sir Ian McKellen.
- 0:54Tim Curry Penelope Ann Miller Great
- 0:59cast John Lone Of course from The Last Emperor Playing Khan Yes my Khan.
- 1:06Yeah great flick Love The Shadow And loved chatting with Russell About The Shadow
- 1:14So here it is That classic episode requested Cinema Eugenites Kent Hill Me talking with The V.
- 1:23Russell Mulcahy about The Shadow.
- 1:29What evil works in the hearts of men? The Shadow and Russell Mulcahy knows. G'day, Russell.
- 1:38Very good to be back, Steve. Fantastic. Yeah, it's fantastic.
- 1:42And it's a fantastic movie. Just been re-released here down under by Umbrella. A beautiful DVD.
- 1:49Sorry, not DVD. Blu-ray release.
- 1:52And you get to see the shadow in its most beautiful high-definition quality
- 1:58the thing that that made me think russell when the release was announced and
- 2:02i always look for i'm a bit of an extra features kind of guy there's never been
- 2:08many extra features like because you've never,
- 2:11we we chatted about this briefly before when i asked you if you'd done a commentary
- 2:16track for the movie you haven't have you no we never did one for the shadow.
- 2:22There was one for Resident Evil and Highland and uh,
- 2:26But, uh, no, no, The Shadow Week didn't do one. Okay. Well, that's good. I'm not sure why.
- 2:30I'm not sure why. That's all right. Well, who knows? Maybe, maybe they'll do
- 2:34a, uh, you know, some sort of special release later when it hits,
- 2:38uh, when it hits, uh, an anniversary and, uh, and then they might do something.
- 2:44But this, uh, The Shadow falls into a category of,
- 2:47of wonderful films and they're the comic book films of
- 2:51the 90s among them like dark man doll
- 2:54man vampirell the guyver the ah
- 2:57geez what's his name the hoff played nick fury in in a in a in a a version of
- 3:04nick fury the hoff albert pence captain american men in black judge dread dick
- 3:09tracy the joel schumacher batman movies the phantom the Ninja Turtles,
- 3:15the Crow, Tank Girl, Blade, Spawn,
- 3:19Barbed Wire, Rocketeer.
- 3:21All, all, all, all, wow, wow. Yeah.
- 3:26All the wonderful variety of the genre. Yeah, so I mean, yeah.
- 3:30So, I mean, we look, we look at the age we live in now, Russell,
- 3:34with comic book movies everywhere, you know, I mean, it's not a new thing,
- 3:41they're just a different kind of comic movie, yeah?
- 3:45I think so. I mean, I think from the title that you just laid out.
- 3:52You notice that there was a great variety in the material and also there's a
- 4:00great variety of the style.
- 4:02Some darker than others, some more sort of colourful, a bit dangerous.
- 4:09Yeah, so there was a different sort of different styles because there were so
- 4:15many different varieties, like Dick Tracy to Darkman to The Phantom.
- 4:21Yeah. Yeah. All very different. And a couple of great directors,
- 4:27great Australian directors in there, directing some of these movies yourself. Yeah, Alex Biles.
- 4:33Yeah, Simon. My English friend director, Steve Barron. Yeah. Yeah. Simon Winsor.
- 4:39Simon Winsor. Yeah. Sam Raimi. I mean, we're going to use America now,
- 4:44but yeah, it's a really great desire that I know and it's really talented,
- 4:51you know, just a great bunch of talent there.
- 4:54Yeah. So let's talk about the people that work with you behind the camera.
- 4:58Starting, because I'm biased, starting with the writer, David Koepp,
- 5:04David Koepp, a very, very talented writer and director too in his own right.
- 5:08What was it like to work with David, who really has a flair for those kind of pitches?
- 5:16Yeah, he was wonderful. I think he just...
- 5:20I think the film before this was The Death Becomes Her. Right, right.
- 5:27Yeah, so... And then he obviously cut his teeth on the second Jurassic Park,
- 5:34in the second unit sequence when the T-Rex came to San Diego.
- 5:41Right, right, right. And so he cut his teeth directly on that,
- 5:44which is a wonderful film.
- 5:45Right. He was great to work with, full of energy, and we both sort of became
- 5:52in sync with the tonality of the script.
- 5:56It was a very imperial piece with fantasy mixed in, and it was great to say.
- 6:06And also, there was a wonderful sort of dark flint of humor that ran through it. Right, right.
- 6:13And he did very good at that. Yeah, like that, like every time they meet,
- 6:17the whole thing about the tie, you know, and he says, you know, where do you get the tie?
- 6:23You know, he goes off from, what was it? Brooks Brothers.
- 6:27Oh, Brooks Brothers. Yeah, Brooks Brothers. And he says, is that Midtown? He's like, yeah.
- 6:32But it's like... Yeah, they had a conversation about the destruction of New York.
- 6:38Yeah. And also they had a conversation about where to buy your tie.
- 6:41Yeah. Yeah, and that sort of lightness on the top, mixed in with the darkness
- 6:48throughout the film, which I thought was quite appealing.
- 6:53Yeah, it brings to mind that scene. Always when I hear that little banter between
- 6:58them, it brings to mind...
- 7:00Scene did you ever see james ivory's surviving picasso with anthony hopkins
- 7:04oh yes yes yes yes you know how that american god the american art dealer comes to buy a painting and,
- 7:12picasso keeps telling him or anthony hopkins keeps telling him that he likes his necktie,
- 7:17and finally he says i really like that necktie and he says will be my pleasure
- 7:20to give it to you and he just takes his tie off and and when he's walking out
- 7:25when he's walking out his back right Yeah,
- 7:28when he's walking out, the wife says to him, you gave him your tie,
- 7:32and he's like, I know, and he's grabbing his chest, I have a pain,
- 7:35like right here, you know, like,
- 7:37because he just sort of messed with him for like an hour, and great stuff.
- 7:42But anyway, yeah, so David kept great blood.
- 7:44The wonderful, sort of the illustrious, luminous Jerry Goldsmith doing this.
- 7:51Oh, my God. What was it like to go on the Jerry Goldsmith experience?
- 7:55Well, it was, as you imagine, just an incredible treat to work with someone
- 8:04who just admire so much their talent and their body of work,
- 8:10and then to work with them,
- 8:14and then the journey to sit down with you, watching your film,
- 8:19and you can see you tapping his fingers,
- 8:22and And he creates this wonderful score.
- 8:27And then he signed a bit of music for me. Oh, that's cool. And it's like,
- 8:31oh, this is very gold for me. Yeah.
- 8:35It's one of those dreams come through. Oh, yeah.
- 8:39So what, a page from the score of The Shadow or just a... You just signed...
- 8:44Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
- 8:47Yeah, a little spider. That's awesome. you've got that you've got that framed
- 8:52in your office somewhere no doubt on the wall or something like that yeah yeah
- 8:56so yeah that's awesome that's awesome,
- 8:59But, you know, you just think, oh, my God, great scores of, like, Star Trek.
- 9:06Oh, yeah. All these wonderful things that he did.
- 9:09And then when you hear him sort of put busy on your own film, it's like, wow.
- 9:15So you can't very much. I always think a film is a collaboration talent.
- 9:19Oh, yeah. And he's just another notch in the film to life.
- 9:27Yeah. Well, I mean, the score is always... It's like the DP, everything.
- 9:31The score is always the ice cream on the sundae, though at the end of the movie
- 9:36it kind of fills in the gaps.
- 9:40Well, yes. Well, it's more the heartbeat.
- 9:46Yes, right, right. The heartbeat pumping the blood through the creature.
- 9:51And sometimes the heartbeat can be very soft and indetectable and sometimes it can be raging. Yes.
- 9:57And, you know, and talents like Joe Goldman, when you see it in the world,
- 10:04you're unhealthy, which it's, yeah.
- 10:09So what, just briefly, when you watch your, the cut of the film for you the
- 10:15first time, that's sort of, that's the composer, well, that was his process
- 10:19just to watch it and you see him sort of,
- 10:22do you suggest stuff to him or do you just let him watch it and take it in and
- 10:26then he goes away and starts writing music or something like that.
- 10:30We shouldn't have a chat, and then we watch the film together with no music. No music, right.
- 10:38Some composers act like temp school. Right, right.
- 10:43So give them an idea, a nice general idea, where you sort of feel the music going.
- 10:50Did you have a temp? Joey, for example, and another.
- 10:53Yeah, Joe, for example, and Alan Silvestri, who did Rick Astray,
- 10:59want to see the film, no music. Right.
- 11:02And they can see from the story, from the drama, from the acting,
- 11:05from the editing, and the scenes.
- 11:08They can feel the scenes. And the flow of the scenes and what comes before and what comes after.
- 11:13And I was watching the film, but also Joe, the next week, and he's actually
- 11:18one seat across the aisle.
- 11:21And so he liked it to aspire in it and you just see his hand moving like a conductor,
- 11:29very softly, with one finger.
- 11:32And I'm going, oh my god, I love that thing.
- 11:37So you can see the tentoes that he was working out as he watched it.
- 11:41It was like, he wasn't even aware of moving, but the hand with the finger was just like...
- 11:49Yeah, she was clearly the one watching. That's beautiful.
- 11:54That's kind of how you... And then at the end we'd have a chat.
- 11:57Yeah, so it's kind of how you imagine Mozart might have been,
- 12:01you know, just naturally gifted enough to sit there and watch it and he's already
- 12:05got it sort of figured out in his head and then he just goes away and makes the magic.
- 12:11Yeah, and even if you look like the Rookerman, And like Elton,
- 12:17Elton was very much of a tattoo with Lewis. Right, oh, yeah.
- 12:21He could get the Lewis and he could just like see the music when he read the Lewis.
- 12:28So, yeah, it's a special art, it's a special talent, it's a special genius.
- 12:33Oh. It's a genius, really. Yeah, and it must have been just incredible to see it.
- 12:38See it where most of us are seeing it from documentaries or photographs,
- 12:43you've been in the room and probably...
- 12:46Listen to a live Jerry Goldsmith conducting the score to the shadow, which is, yeah.
- 12:53I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah, he doesn't do much of that.
- 12:59I mean, that would be extraordinary to see the whole, you know,
- 13:04do the own and do the subject and then see the shadow for the whole of the ball would be special.
- 13:10Yeah, yeah, with the live. Yeah, I like that new sort of platform for movies,
- 13:16like with the actual score being played by an orchestra at the front.
- 13:21It's very reminiscent of the old silent flickers where the guy would play the
- 13:26organ in the corner, you know.
- 13:28But of course on a much more grandiose scale.
- 13:33Next person on the list is Steve Burnham, who was very much De Palma's man behind
- 13:38the camera for a lot of De Palma's pitches.
- 13:42What was your experience like with him as the director of photography?
- 13:47He was great. He was great. He was also very popular with the producer of Mark
- 13:55Brickman. Right, right, right.
- 13:57Mark Brickman. Yeah. And so he worked on Carl Lee's White, which he had used to work.
- 14:03So I guess, yeah, because Marty had worked with Brian Palmer.
- 14:06I mean, you know, Carl Lee's White. Yeah.
- 14:12I think he fell more into the film.
- 14:18The idea was to give it very much that sort of 40s, 30s, 40s look.
- 14:25Right, right, yeah. So, yeah.
- 14:28So he very much, he has that sort of lovely glossy studio look.
- 14:34Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a... It's a master.
- 14:38Yeah. I mean, when I think of the shadow, the, the, the closest film in, in its period that I, I,
- 14:46associate it next to, well, there's two films actually, is The Rocketeer and
- 14:50Dick Tracy, which are very beautifully photographed.
- 14:56Stylistically beautiful comic books, you know, because it captures not only
- 15:02the flavor of the period that you're going for, but the flavor of the comic
- 15:07book, which made it notorious or famous,
- 15:11depending, you know.
- 15:13No, I agree. Actually, I really enjoyed The Rockets 2.
- 15:19It's quite a special film, I think. And it did well, but it's worth watching again.
- 15:25Oh, yeah. It's got, I mean, again, like The Shadow, it's got some beautiful
- 15:31direction by Joe Johnston and a great script by the boys, Danny,
- 15:36and sadly, Paul is dead now, Paul DeMio.
- 15:39And again James Horner
- 15:43you know doing what he does best yeah
- 15:46and just yeah well I mean it's it's a it's a good time like the shadow it's
- 15:51a good time at the movies and you know but just beautiful stuff so let's let's
- 15:57let's dip in really quickly you work with Stan Winston on the effects the Stan
- 16:02Winston experience, how was that?
- 16:06Always good. Yeah. And thanks for doing that.
- 16:10We also used RGA, who did a lot of work on The Predator. Right.
- 16:17So, yeah, so that was...
- 16:20I always wanted... I mean, I actually wanted more effects in the film. Right.
- 16:28And so that was, you know, little battle with the producers sometimes.
- 16:34Just trying to get more in there so luckily
- 16:37we got the night to come alive I wasn't
- 16:40going to think I wanted the night to become giant but
- 16:43it worked I mean the effects were fun oh yeah yeah and they like the transfer
- 16:50is really sharp for this new blu-ray so it does yeah no it's really good it
- 16:58is It's a very beautiful... They've done a very nice job.
- 17:02Unlike... Sometimes they buff it a little bit, but they did a really nice job
- 17:07in bringing this one to Blu-ray.
- 17:10I mean, it does... In some shots, of course, as always, I think it belies some of the...
- 17:17A little, a little. It dates them a little, but not significantly,
- 17:22because if you're enjoying the movie, you're not really paying attention to
- 17:25the quality of the map lines and all that sort of crap in the background.
- 17:29You know, you should be enjoying the story.
- 17:34Yeah, it was sort of on the borderline.
- 17:37It was still early-ish city.
- 17:42They didn't really have water down that well, So there's a number of effects
- 17:47that were still being tested, you know, and CG now is flawless. Yeah.
- 17:53It really is. I mean, they've totally got hair down, water down, fire. Yeah.
- 18:00Yeah. Awesome. But no, I mean, but like I think... But then I, yeah.
- 18:05I started making films like Rageback and Highlander.
- 18:09Right, right. It made way before CG. So a lot of my learning and craft basically
- 18:16smoke and mirrors. Oh, yeah.
- 18:19Doing everything more practically, more theatrically.
- 18:23Yeah, that's still the beauty of those movies is there is an art to it.
- 18:31There's not just a computer to fix it. There's an art to it.
- 18:34And a lot of people are sort of going back and trying to do more things practically
- 18:40because actually sort of they test you more to do it practically in that,
- 18:45you know, it's easy enough to sort of throw any CG effect in. Yeah.
- 18:49But to try to sort of create it and trick and be clever, it's a lot more work. Right, right.
- 18:57But just tripping back to that moment, it harkens to mind.
- 19:05You did a, there was a documentary, I know you don't like to talk about Highlander 2.
- 19:10I'm not talking about Highlander 2, but there's a documentary on...
- 19:12Oh, no, no, we don't talk about that.
- 19:14No, no, no, no, there's... But there's a documentary on one of the releases
- 19:18of Highlander 2 where you talk about...
- 19:21You did the big, there's a big street shot and it was all practical whether,
- 19:25whether Chris Christoph flies around on a flying skateboard or whatever it was.
- 19:31And you, it just reminds me of the comment you made when you were asked about
- 19:35that in the documentary, you said, I had to almost go back to my music video
- 19:39and a chewing gum and popsicle sticks and, and just, you know,
- 19:43hope the magic work. Oh, absolutely.
- 19:45Yeah. I mean, yeah, it was just, it was guys there on the set running,
- 19:49pulling on a rope and, And you shoot some scenes at 6 frames seconds,
- 19:54some at 12, 11, 15, whatever.
- 19:57We would just like shoot a shot and go, let's shoot this at 11 frames seconds or something.
- 20:01And, you know, there was only a few actions.
- 20:05I mean, there was one, yeah, sometimes the rope would get caught up because
- 20:10they had to go behind it and start getting set and 20 guys pulling it.
- 20:14And once it got stuck and the crystal oxen was flying fast. and he goes,
- 20:20stop dead, and he sort of spout another cork.
- 20:25It looks horrific, doesn't it? Oh, it does. Yeah, it looks phenomenal.
- 20:31For something that is, like they say now, the purely analog way of filmmaking,
- 20:36it's quality second to none, second to none.
- 20:41And just talking about craft, that kind of craft, briefly,
- 20:46relating to one of the scenes, the mirror maze ending of
- 20:50the shadow i read once i read once that
- 20:53during the filming of this a similar type of scene
- 20:56in enter the dragon the cinematographer made
- 20:59this mirrored piece to sit
- 21:02in front of the camera and had only a tiny little square for the iris of the
- 21:06camera to see through so that you couldn't see the so that you couldn't see
- 21:10the camera and the operator in the mirrors is that is that the same technique yes yeah yeah yeah.
- 21:22They're complicated to shoot, but that is a very common technique to use.
- 21:30It's you've got a very small hole for the lens to look through.
- 21:34It's so small that from 15 feet away or whatever, you don't notice it. Right, right, yeah.
- 21:41And so you can actually sort of do a pan around the room without being seen.
- 21:47Yeah, and hide that, yeah. Because I just thought that was like,
- 21:50you watch those scenes, you think, how do you not, how do you hide everyone,
- 21:55you know, behind the camera?
- 21:58And then I thought, you know, it just makes sense. It was so genius.
- 22:02Just use a mirror and. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 22:06But also, yeah, you don't have all this movie. You have one guy or you have a mirror in both heads.
- 22:12Right, yeah. And the mirror just hides the thing. Yeah, no, I was just curious
- 22:16if that was still in vogue when you did that sequence.
- 22:21Yes, and then obviously we used some green screen with two characters so we
- 22:25could crack the mirrors and explode mirrors and whatever.
- 22:28So it's a combination of real and, yeah.
- 22:32Yeah, it's like your second movie that ends with the hero.
- 22:37It's your second movie that ends with the hero and a lot of shattering glass
- 22:41as he feels the quickening, if you will. Oh, that's... Yeah,
- 22:46I didn't think about that.
- 22:47You also need to express it with the Highlander and me. Yeah.
- 22:51Yeah. Because it's like, I thought, wow, Russell likes to shower his heroes in exploding glass.
- 23:00Yeah, you know, I never thought of that again. It was like, you know,
- 23:06it's an interesting observation. Yeah.
- 23:08It's like, I forget which other... Someone interviewed Kurosawa or something
- 23:13like that, and they said, do you love rain? Because in a lot of his movies...
- 23:18There's there's this thunderstorms and a lot of
- 23:21rain and he said you know my movies really
- 23:24well i forget who it was someone interviewed kurosawa i forget
- 23:27it's on that there's a documentary on the
- 23:30uh well there was a documentary on the dvd release of ron which has the making
- 23:34of ron and it was made by that filmmaker chris marker who made uh larger tay
- 23:40and it's a wonderful all right It's a wonderful kind of expose of Kurosawa filming Ran,
- 23:49which must have been incredible to sit and watch.
- 23:52Someone would watch someone, even like if I was on the set of one of your movies,
- 23:57I'd be, you know, people say a movie set's kind of boring.
- 24:01I always am fascinated. I could sit and watch people make movies for days.
- 24:05As much as watching movies, I could watch people making movies for days.
- 24:09I think it's fascinating.
- 24:11But yeah so let's next time I'm down there shooting I'll definitely invite you
- 24:18oh okay cool I won't make any noise I just want to sit and watch I'll carry,
- 24:23I'll carry drinks or chips or whatever it is.
- 24:29No no we'll give you a chair give me a chair oh
- 24:33that's beautiful thank you that would be so cool but that would be awesome really
- 24:40but let's let's let's get to the cast before we wrap up alec alec the ball alec
- 24:47the baldwin what was it like directing the man who plays donald trump on saturday night live.
- 24:55Oh goody that i tell you what they need to do a whole like a feature-length
- 24:58movie and he plays donald trump like an awkward bio i agree i agree yeah yeah
- 25:04yeah you know you know he he's just uh It was just amazing.
- 25:10Because this was kind of when Alec Baldwin was Alec Baldwin,
- 25:18like big marquee Alec Baldwin, you know.
- 25:22Yeah. Wasn't it? Because he'd done Hunt for the Red October and all that by then. Yeah.
- 25:28Yes, exactly, exactly. And which he took over from Sam Neill, yeah? Yeah, yeah.
- 25:36Did you take over the character?
- 25:39Well, I've heard a lot of different stories, so I don't know.
- 25:42Well, that was one of the two. He took over one of the characters.
- 25:46Yeah, yeah, no, it's... Anyway, yeah, Alex is extraordinary.
- 25:52He has to work with from anywhere from the first meeting to the read-through,
- 25:58to rehearsals, just very giving, very smart.
- 26:03Yeah, I can't say it was a bad thing.
- 26:06It was a joy to collaborate with him, and it really is a collaboration with Alex.
- 26:12And he's very giving with other actors too.
- 26:15The whole set is all with Benelope and John and Tim Curry.
- 26:24Oh, yeah, dude, Tim Curry.
- 26:27And I mean, forgetting, not forgetting Alec, but including Alec, what a massive cast.
- 26:36Penelope Ann Miller, when she came into this movie, she had just been directed
- 26:40by Richard Attenborough, then Brian De Palma, then yourself.
- 26:44She did, I think she did Chaplin, then she did Carlito's Way,
- 26:47and then she did The Shadow.
- 26:49So that's some pretty lofty company. and then of course you've got Sir Ian McKellen
- 26:55like you mentioned the great oh my god Sir Ian McKellen yeah,
- 26:59absolutely we're happy I forget I mean people people we became very what's that
- 27:06people forget he's in this movie.
- 27:09I know I think you know what I think he forgot we became good friends with this
- 27:15film and I just saw him a couple of years ago I saw him down in Australia I saw him,
- 27:22perform and play at the City Opera House and went backstage and saw him again
- 27:27and just wonderful and he said, you know what,
- 27:30darling, I've never seen the film, which I got him upset, but he's just terrific.
- 27:38Oh, yeah, darling. And he became very, very good friends after doing that.
- 27:44I can only imagine, I'm yet to see, there's apparently a very good documentary
- 27:49where he He teaches acting or he talks about acting or the craft of acting.
- 27:53I forget the title. Oh yeah. Yeah. But I've heard it's, I haven't seen it,
- 27:57but I've heard it's very good looking forward to that one.
- 28:00You had a lot of marvelous Asian American actors, James Hong,
- 28:05Al Lung, Gerald Okamura, like the, the big trouble little Chinatown boys,
- 28:11you know, in the movie, which was,
- 28:14can I ask you one question?
- 28:15Russell has been burning a hole in my pocket for years.
- 28:19What? About the shadow. Not personal. Here you go. What is the joke that he tells you?
- 28:26That Alec Baldwin tells at the start. He says something in Mandarin or whatever it is.
- 28:33Do you know what he says? Oh, you know what? Oh, my God, you should have put
- 28:37me on that, right? Oh, okay.
- 28:39I've completely forgotten. Well, you'll have, I mean, I'll find out.
- 28:44All right, let's do it. We'll find out and you'll have to air that in.
- 28:48I'll go, yes, that was a joke.
- 28:49All right. I've completely forgotten. That's all right. I know it was funny. Okay.
- 28:53Was it something simple, though? Was it like a contemporary genre?
- 28:56Oh, yeah, it was very simple, very simple, very sharp. Okay, cool.
- 29:01That's all right. Well, if you think of it, I can always type it.
- 29:05That's so funny. No one's ever asked that, so that sort of set my mind. Okay, sorry.
- 29:12It's funny what sometimes very simple things can grab you and that will haunt
- 29:17you, like you said, put a hole in your pocket or whatever for you for years.
- 29:21Like, what was the joke? Yeah, yeah.
- 29:24That was amazing. I was talking about someone else, about the movie,
- 29:27and they put it in my head. They said, I wonder what that joke was.
- 29:31And I said, well, yeah, I mean, I said, I know they're all actors,
- 29:35and they're trained to laugh and cry on cue, but what if it was a genuine joke
- 29:40and people actually laughed?
- 29:41I mean, did they actually laugh? Was it actually ad-libbed, or was it in the
- 29:46script? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 29:47No, no, no. No, it was good, but oh my God, now we should prep me on that. Oh my God.
- 29:53Anyway. That's all right. Don't worry, don't worry, we'll get over it, we'll get over it.
- 29:57You'll think about it and... Find out.
- 30:00Yeah, and... It'll be our mission this week. All right, yeah.
- 30:06And listeners, look for the answer to that question. I'll type it in the little
- 30:11write-up underneath the... Yeah.
- 30:14So it'll be a hidden Easter egg if you actually read the article as well as
- 30:20listen to the wonderful interview. you but uh yeah just rushing through the
- 30:25rest of the great cast peter boyle my gosh love peter.
- 30:31Boyle joseph matt is it mayor or my i can't i don't know if it's mayor or my
- 30:36he's a british actor he plays the curator of the the museum oh yeah wonderful
- 30:42actor uh you got to work with the dad from ALF.
- 30:46Max Wright was his little sort of assistant.
- 30:49Ethan Bennett. Oh, I love that. Because I was a big fan of the show at the time. Right, yeah.
- 30:55It was terrific, yeah. Big dad from ALF, yeah. There's a great,
- 30:58I mean, the character actors in this movie,
- 31:02My goodness, Jonathan Winters is the police captain.
- 31:07Goodness, who else have we got?
- 31:09I forget the bloke's name. I think it was Gerald. Was it Gerald Avery?
- 31:14Oh, I can't think of him. He played the switchboard operator,
- 31:18you know, the big vacuum switchboard operator.
- 31:20Oh, right, yes, the guy on the screen. Yeah, he's been a lot.
- 31:25He's got William Bowden. Yeah, yeah, he does, yeah. Yeah, or HP Lovecraft.
- 31:30But, yeah, but... Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, my memory of his name has just gone out the window.
- 31:36But, yeah, there's a marvellous cast, marvellous, a lot of people behind the scenes.
- 31:40My final question, because I've kept you longer than I'd hoped,
- 31:44Russell, but thank you for being a sport.
- 31:46My final question is, in this age of great comic book films,
- 31:51if you're making The Shadow again tomorrow, not literally,
- 31:56but soon, that asked you to do The Shadow with today's, all the toys and the
- 32:04tropes of today's comic book movies, would you do it? And who would be The Shadow?
- 32:13I probably would. It would be
- 32:15different. I think we'd approach it a little differently for these times.
- 32:21Probably got a little darker, darker and sharper. and, I mean,
- 32:26I would even say don't even do it, period.
- 32:29I think we just reinvent it, basically.
- 32:32The Fastcast, oh, my God.
- 32:35I would read that choice. I would ask for a suggestion. Okay,
- 32:39right. Do you have one? Ah, The Shadow.
- 32:44Probably, probably Tom Hiddleston. Ah, interesting.
- 32:50I'd like to see I'd like to see him do a bit more than he's done I reckon he's got the chops,
- 32:57Right, right, right. I particularly liked it when... Yeah, I mean, I...
- 33:02Yeah, I particularly liked it when he played bloke who wrote Great Gatsby. Jeez.
- 33:07Fitzgerald, Scott Fitzgerald. He played Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen's Midnight
- 33:12in Paris, and I thought he was brilliant.
- 33:14I thought he was a better actor than he is in the Marvel movies.
- 33:18Not that the Marvel movies are terrible, but I just think sometimes these people
- 33:22have a bit more in their quiver than they're allowed to shiver.
- 33:26Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
- 33:29Very good. Very good. No, it's really, yeah.
- 33:32Well, yeah, you always see reinvention of franchises or, you know, so it could happen.
- 33:40Totally. Never know. You never know your luck in a big city,
- 33:44certainly not in Hollywood.
- 33:46Yes, only the shadow knows.
- 33:49Only the shadow knows. The sun is shining, but the ice is slippery.
- 33:53My guest has been Russell Mulcahy. Thank you.
- 33:56Russell, for being a good sport and putting up with me rambling for far too long.
- 34:00We've been talking about the shadow. It's out on Blu-ray here in Australia.
- 34:06You probably get it already in Blu-ray in America, but the Blu-ray over here
- 34:09is a beautiful addition put up by Umbrella Entertainment.
- 34:13Go check it out and find out.
- 34:17Thank you, Russell. Good on you, mate. Cheerio. Yes, Russell Mulcahy,
- 34:22great bloke. We had a couple of chats during the podcasting them softly days.
- 34:30And yeah, we also did an interview about his other film, Ricochet,
- 34:34which I believe is getting a nice re-release 4K.
- 34:38I believe in the full aspect ratio, first time in the full aspect ratio, which will be awesome.
- 34:46Russell Mulcahy, he's a great bloke, the shadow. Check the links in the description.
- 34:52And as always, my little Eugenites, thank you for listening to us on Spotify
- 34:58or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts.
- 35:01I'm Ken Hill, and until next time, you've been listening to Cinema Zero Game.
- 35:11Music.