The Fly (1986)

Imagine you're reading a Playboy magazine in 1957, y'know-- for the articles. Then you stumble onto a little short story by a fella named George Langelaan. It's a little ditty called The Fly, about some lady who crushes her husband's dome in a machine hammer. You're like, "whoa! where did my erection go!" But then you find out he accidentally mutated into a fly/ human hybrid in a teleporting accident and that erection comes right back! Now, there was an adaptation with Vincent Price, which was very competent. Sure, the effects are somewhat hokey, but the story is very accurate and it's ambitious. Let's fast forward like a betamax cassette tape into the rockin' 80s, nearly 30 years later. Some pencil neck gets the idea to remake this film and it seems cursed from the outset. The first draft of the script was written by Charles Edward Pogue. Despite having an in with Twentieth Century Fox, and them paying for the script, they pass. Oh, and they won't sell the rights to make the film. With the help of Kip Ohman, they con some schmuck at Fox to be the distributor if they can get the film made elsewhere. Where do they go? Into the loving, muscular arms of Mel Brooks! One of the conditions of them making the film is a little rewrite of the scriptola. Walon Green wrote a script, but it was awful- so they rehired Pogue. But then, they hire a director who insists on rewriting the script, so Pogue is fired yet again. Now, they first went to David Cronenberg (Rabid, Shivers, Videodrome) to direct, but he was busy working on an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, aka Total Recall. They move on to Robert Bierman, but while he is working on the film his daughter dies. After halting production, he bows out and they go back to Cronenberg, who agrees to take over. The negotiations seemed super tense, given that Cronenberg asked for $750,000 and somehow got paid $1,000,000 instead. The film stars Jeff Goldblum, who uh... finds a way to fuse with a fly. He was actually dating Geena Davis at the time, which is how she ended up auditioning for the role, which she like totes nailed by the way. There are a few other actors, but who cares? The makeup and creature effects were done by Chris Walas (Gremlins, Scanners, Raiders of the Lost Ark), who won an academy award for his work. Walas would later serve as director for The Fly II. Howard Shore (The Brood, The Silence of the Lambs, Se7en), winner of three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, and four Grammy Awards did the music. We talk about tons more trivia, comic book adaptations, and nonsense that will make you wonder why you subject yourselves to this show each and every week. This week's "Hidden Track" is Putrid Fairytale by Slugdge. https://slugdge.bandcamp.com/ ; https://www.facebook.com/Slugdge/ If you ever have feedback or recommendations on future episodes, please let us know at [email protected]. You can always find us on our social media: Instagram, Twitter, Slasher App: @slasherspod Facebook: /slasherspod Reddit: u/slasherspod https://www.youtube.com/c/slasherspodcast Theme song is I wanna Die by Mini Meltdowns. https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ZAk6lUDsaJj8EAhrhzZnh ; https://minimeltdowns.bandcamp.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices