 Come on, Phil! Come on, Phil! It's about a second. We didn't have a rehearsal, sir. Close the door. Close one for a walk, alright? Come on. Alright! That is fucking it! Take my ass! It's just you to squeeze your bullets! As our father-in-law scored when they put the wires on my bullets! That's the problem with an all-wish law. And speaking of our bullets, let's talk about how we each thought about this project the very first time, how we knew about it, and 007 down there at the end, Sam Jones, tell us how you discovered that you were up for the part. It was probably a year of process for me. I think Dino called me. I was working with Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews on this movie called Ten. There was nothing more, nothing more. And I had one line, an entire movie. And Belly said in my first interview with Dino, he said, who are you looking for right now? And I said, well, Blake Edwards, Julie Andrews, and Belly didn't work. Really? I didn't tell him I only had one line of dialogue. So we had our first meeting, many months went by, we had another meeting, and then finally, many months later, he flew me to London. I think we did 30 days of screen testing, and then one day he looked at me and he just pointed at me. I assumed that was his communication of, okay, you got the part. That's how I found out. So it was probably a year. So for Mike, when did it sort of come into your atmosphere? When did you first find out about it? Well, Nicholas Rowe was going to make it originally. And then Dino was anxious to make a part two straight after. So Nick had suggested that I be the director to write the sequel. So I went in and I met Dino and I read the script and I just thought I was completely wrong. So I told him that. Then Nick and Dino fell out and then Dino pursued me to do the third film. I kept saying that I'm hopefully the wrong director for this film. He insisted. And it turned out you were perfect. Well, there was a very funny moment. I kept saying that. I'm not the right director. I don't think that's special effects. I didn't know that. So in the middle of the shooting we were now comfortably on our way and I turned to Dino and I said Dino, why did you choose me? And I was obviously sort of feeling out for a compliment. You're a great director. I worked with Fellini and people. Instead of which he turned to me and said nice. That's Dino. Where am I now making him? Multi-paper buster, and I'm doing it because he lied my face. Dino was a pesant. He was a delicious Italian pesant, you know, when he did everything and we were casting he said he was at the other end of the corridor and had heard somebody I thought might be good. He would come and my sister would go up and sell dinner. There was somebody he should look at But that's all it would do. He'd open the door, look at the actor, and go, he's up. Yeah. I mean, the actor, if it's Lawrence Olivia, anybody, he'd just look at everything that's done. Look, I've told him, you know, if he was flying, he saw the pilot, and he'd check out. If he didn't like the look of me, he wouldn't go on the plane. Anyway, I'm grateful that he liked the look of me. So I had a wonderful time in the end. So, is anybody hearing from this? Yeah. So George, how did you make this film? What was your first involvement with the film? This one? And will be when you speak. Yeah, perfect. Perfect. What was your first involvement with the film? The first involvement? I was working on a film called Shining. Oh, yeah. And we would come to an end. And Stanley Kubrick had this working 14 hours a day. So he took a look at the smoke. And I thought, oh, this is too much. And I heard that Splash had just started up for the second time. So I got through to the show in the studios, and I spoke to Bernie Williams. And I said, who's doing this first effects, Bernie? He said, nobody. He said, well, I can't get anybody. He said, the industry's too busy. I just need somebody. Because we've got this big American coming over from MGM. He's got five Oscars called Glenn Robinson. And we need an English special effects man to work with him. So I said, oh, if you like, I can do it. He said, when can you start? I said, well, I've got to give two weeks notice. He said, oh, I'll have a chat with the producer. I think Doug Twitty. So I said, oh, go and see Doug. And I asked Doug if I'm going to leave tomorrow. And Doug was very pleased because he got rid of me. He was looking at the money he was going to save. So I started in Flash Golden. And we went from there. Very nice. Melody, let's hear your story. How did it first get into your orbit? Well, I had actually auditioned for Flash Golden. And the part was given to another beautiful lady. And, you know, I didn't go on a bunch of business life. I was gone. And I'm in New York. I'm just there for one week. I'm visiting my boyfriend. And we're having morning coffee and following. And I hear, Melody, me and all. What? Yes. I decided you were not in a great day of art. In New York in the night of 10. I went, what? I had no idea. It was long off my radar by then. And I flew out that night. And I arrived in the morning with, some people took me into a very odd room and shaved the front line of my hair. Died my hair black. And had to put on the costume. I think I exercised that week. And I went in there and they did it and we started. I didn't have a chance to breathe. So it was, I had no preparatory time whatsoever. So it was a pretty wild, radical thing that happened in my life. And I really appreciate it. And I want to thank all the wonderful guys and everybody in this cast we had. And we were very blessed. And to have it happening 35 years later, it's a, I'm frightened to talk about this. I'm not going to talk into it. I'm going to just tell you right now. That's my film at the end. So anyway, that's my story. So Howard, you've got a very interesting story of how you came to the film. Because there's a lot of folks that are involved in the film that couldn't be here tonight and that are no longer with us. Well, they just couldn't physically be here. And there's no one here from the band Queen, obviously. And Freddie was a big part of that band. And he told me a fascinating story earlier about the collaboration between the band and yourself and making the rest of the soundtrack. And I'd love to hear that again, but I'm sure they would. Yes. I mean, I don't know how I got into this film, really. Rather the same as everybody else. And I'd curiously now also work for Blake Edwards and Julie. Because I was musical director on Victor Victoria, which is about just before that. But actually how it happened was that the engineer at CTS went, well, that's John Richards, he's a very, very great engineer. He recorded all the bottom films. And we worked together a lot. And he ran me one Thursday afternoon. I was quite at their home in Barnes and he said, are you doing it any much? And I said, no, I'm not too much. He said, could you get over to CTS? He said, I've got a few people here, like the head of Universal and Dean. I went to see the group Queen. I said, just a minute. I mean, that sounds like quite a gathering. He said, well, can you get over here fast? So I said, well, what do you want me to do? He said, we'll tell you when you get there. Drobo, up to Wembley. And as Dean and I made a deal, and he said, I've got the 50 million pound here, and I'm playing the money. And I said, what's that got to do with me? He's a terrible interest every week. And I said, we have a, we've got a lot of money booked here for two weeks, but we haven't got any music. I said, well, that's the problem. He said to anyone that was the fact of the matter, but he hadn't got any music. And quite how that happened is quite a, Queen thought they could do it, but in fact, I think they didn't really come up. They came up with something, by the way. In fact, I won't go into that. He said, this was Thursday afternoon. He said, could you write a new score for the entire hall by Monday? So I said, well, I said, I think if you got Beethoven, and Kaczakowski, and everybody else all into the room, and they all worked, they couldn't do it by Monday. But anyway, we talked about it, and they said also, we want to fit the stuff the Queen has done into a score, but we want a classical score. We want to have a huge score with a big orchestra. So anyway, I gradually got choked into it. And I remember Dana, I said to her, he said, what do we do with the orchestra for two weeks? It's cost a fortune. I said, well, you'll have to pay them off. He said, well, you're now the musical director. That's your fault. He said, no, don't. Sorry, it was all like that. Anyway, I said it would take a month, at least to write a song. He did it in 10 days. I didn't intend to do it. He did. He had pneumonia. I nearly died doing that. What in fact happened was this, they agreed on four weeks, and then the sound editor decided, go on holiday, and I got the timings, and then this and that happened, and behind it, and then I've got to do the contract. My agent was arguing about that. By the time I sat down, all the time, two of the weeks had gone, and I remember sitting down there, and I thought, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I started writing, and I realised that it was the most colossal job to write. I was writing for 85 piece August, and in those days you're writing the Impencil in a school. And I didn't have time to play the piano. All I had time to do was write. So, in fact, I ran out of time, and eventually the time was actually a full 10 days, and the last four of those 10 days, I didn't go to sleep. I went out to the end of those four weeks. No, it's a terrible story. No, it's a great story, and it's a testament to everything that everyone's been saying about how this movie was, like I said earlier, this confluence of strange events that brought it together, and sometimes very improvised. But let's move on here to Peter. Peter, how do you first come into your... I'm going to use this. I picked up something, aren't I? Yes. Okay, I can take it. You can have it back. Howard, you can take it with you when you're done. If you hadn't told me this evening that the first time we met, I was doing a television where I was playing Brunel, and I couldn't learn the lines. I found it very difficult to learn the lines. It was full of mathematics and commas and mathematical problems. So I said, could I have a teleprompter? And that's who it was. It was my caution. Yeah, he was teleprompting. So I think that's how it came about. The circle took place, though, didn't it? Thank you very much. Very nice. And then along came Brian Pleasant. I mean, it was a faker company. There was no fucker else in the way. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's true. They have to be true. In those days, I looked in the mirror, I see my face, my beard, my eyes, and I think, Biden got your sexy. Guy, for this! I won't go to my childhood. I saw it buster-crabby. It was wonderful. It altered me. Yorkshire, son of a co-minder. I pretended to be... I pretended to be a whole man jumping down the embankments in front of the flying scots and all that. So I always wanted to play. And when I heard they were going to do it after an eye-clawdice at the time, they said, well, there's no end to my talent. It wasn't different. All of a sudden. They wanted to play. I went to Elstree and Brooklyn and Godnard as well. And I would say all the time that Mike was always kind and sweet. When I was training there, I met Tina for the first time. Look, Tina, you don't be like me. Okay? And you're a great kid. And you're as good as that mother-big-spine I like it. If you were a bad kid, then I want you to have a sword. I said, what's a fucking sword? A sword! I know what a sword is. It's supposed to be the most powerful man. Anyway, I've both of me very powerful men. I said, to show his power, he must most of the time just use his fists. And that, like John Wayne. You know. But I haven't. Anyway, but anyway, I've had about three interviews. And I said, I'll tell you what, Tina, if you don't give me this part, I'll break your neck. I'll break your body. I'll tear your fuck off everything. No one wants to be like you. No one wants to be like you. And I see my life in my life. Mike was there and said, it's all right, Brian. I'm sure you're going to play it. You don't have to hurt him, Brian. You're going to play it. And of course, I was cast in it. To give an example, I mean, there is a sequel in it in which we attack Rocketship Ajax. Mike was there. One of the rehearsals we had all the time. I love the stunt men. I always adore the stunt, stunt artists. They're all of me. All the lads are in it. Tina, everybody, we're all in it. And I'm there waiting. And of course, he took my three days to get the dynamite together, especially next to the monsters. So I'll winger it up in your pocket. That's it, then, I think. I'm flapping Mike doing it. And great flapping wins. And so forth. And then they remember them saying, Stem Mike said, I run in Brian. And I just great Bazooka. But he also made a carport. And I came down. Samai! And I said, Scotland 40. Come on, flesh. I'll go. Who wants silly forever? Dave and Dollywood. What wins? Mike said, cut, cut, cut. Ryan, we put in the special effects. It was fantastic. Everybody just worked perfectly. I played for Justin, three musketeers. And he did that. And he did that. What do you want to do? I want to sit down. We'll get that. Well, now that we've got Bollocks, Cocks and Tits, we'll get them. We've got that out of the way. Trevor, what was it like working with Ryan? Can I say any more? You've only ever got that long? That was fantastic. I mean, he used to be a joker all the time. What? Come on. The last to dance is a queen. Yes. It's a famous one. The last to sit down is Queen. It's Sam and me working. I can't remember. Ted Cowell? Yes. Ted Cowell was called the Bureau. And he had his broken nose. Yes, he did. And he was a rugby player. He was, yeah. He had a pomegranate leaf. He had a passion for pomegranate leaf. That's a pomegranate leaf. He kept all the film, the flash calls, on all the balls. And he was playing all the time in his pub. He's the loviest bearer. He's the last character on the poster to your left right here. Speaking of other characters, and back to some people who couldn't be here tonight, I'll throw some names out. Whoever wants to jump in with a story, feel free. But let's start with Ornela Mouti. Anybody want to say anything about working with her? I've got Ornela Mouti. First of all, she was a ball. And she and I got along so well. And when we had the, and she's Italian. And when we had the, there's a menu. And we had, at the opening in 1980, she came in and the Duchess of Kent was going through the line and we were doing our royal vows. And the Duchess of Kent goes to him and says, oh, how nice to meet you. What was it like being, you know, having to case down one who wasn't a human being? And Ornela goes like this because, you know, she's hearing all this stuff at a time. Beep, beep, I'm gonna beep. Ornela, she means human person. Oh, I thought she meant me. I loved her. We had a fight scene with the pillows. I'm telling you, we had a ball. We just, we got along great. In fact, she came back to LA when I was living there and I went to visit her. And then I didn't work and she became famous. Okay, so... We'll move right along to Timothy Dalton who played Prince Baron. Anyone at all. Okay, Tim bought Dalton. I was bought there by myself. You know, everybody had a partner. And I was, you know, and I love playing pathetic anyway because you get nice presents and free alcohol. And he was so nice to me. And he knew I, and I don't know his situation. He would have me over. We only had one day off a week, a Sunday. And he would have me over to his house and have brunch. And he was so nice to me. He really helped me get through. And no, thank you, thank you. And before you leave, I want you. He was a gentleman and very kind to me. Brian, did you have any, thank you, thank you. I thought you liked sex abuse. I know he's not here to defend himself. I'll like speaking behind his back. No, I wanted sex abuse. Is it all right to tell that story where I'm playing? There were quotes. I never had a chair. And so, they built me a perch. I had these wings on my back. these wings on my back, it took half an hour to screw them on, but I couldn't sit down, so they don't be a perch, and all the camera crews went, they keep on, they keep on. We had the attention girls, I was like, we've been around ten weeks, you're the Roman dork. Yes. The attention girls were there all white, and I just darbed makeup on, black and yellow really, and so forth. And I was like, come on, I'll go around. And the leading lady of the attention girls, the girl called Manga, oh I do know enormous tits. I took her in his arms, and she was almost like, oh, God, I've got to have a... She's so gorgeous, she's gorgeous. And he found these huge tits. And eventually she edged her way towards me, and then all the other girls came along inside her, and they came towards me, and one of the girls said, excuse me, Brian, Manga, she thinks you're lovely, and you could see you was a caveman. What? I said, I can't, I've taken half an hour to get the makeup off, but I've taken an hour to unscrew my wings. I've taken somebody in her white makeup, and so forth. I said, absolutely bloody hopeless love, you know. I said, but Timothy don't squeeze her, and he looks like Errol Flynn. She said, she doesn't like him. But I wish for him, maybe, that she would want me to drag her across the floor, if she fancied me as a caveman, and hit her with a cap. I've never worked that one out at all. Well, that's not... Anyway, Timothy was awfully, awfully sweet. He's a great guy, and we had to... I was trying. Mike was the boss. That's right. And he let me do what the bloody ally liked, which I loved. So I could do anything I bloody wanted, which is absolutely lovely. You know, I mustn't... You never knew who was going to come on the set. You know, an elbow team came on with Fellini. Fellini was a little person. He was announced by the second assistant, Deep Roy! Calling Deep Roy! And the cyclist, Long King. I expected to see Geronimo sitting born. And Long King, Deep Roy, was about 34 inches high. And he came on. His little dwarf, he sat alongside me. He said, I'm not a midget. He said, I'm not a dwarf. I'm perfectly formed. I was meant to ask him, how big was his car? So I... Well, I just don't like... I... I... I... And where it goes? How big? Most of your material on screen was with Max Funcita, who also couldn't be here tonight. So what was it like working with that marvelous actor, and being his right-hand man in the film? Max. Max Funcita, yes. One of the great actors. I mean, his versatility was extraordinary. I loved what he did. And Onela, you've had a lot of scenes with Onela. Beautiful. Navish. Terrific. Well, I mean, it was crazy about the one name. You were switching their way between... I mean, so what? Very powerful. Maybe... Now that we've all felt relaxed, we've gotten to know each other, let's go down the road quickly. And for the performers, the line that you get asked to quote the most that might do you anywhere, in the streets, anywhere it should be. So, Sam, what do you get asked the most? Well, it's probably a toss-up between This Means A Psycho to Flash Gordon, New York Jets. What do you get asked to say? Well, it's Go Flash Go. Flash, we only have 14 hours. Do you get asked to quote the film at all? Your character in lines? Do people come up to you, strangers, and ask you to quote any lines, any dialogue from the film? Are you talking to me? Yes, I'm sorry. I could follow the weather. I should have said your name again, I'm so sorry. Do I remember any lines? Do people ask you to repeat any lines? Any fans? Any favorite lines? I think Peter sets up the whole film. In fact, the practice doesn't answer the meaning at the beginning he says, I just, I'm bored. What plain thing have you got for me today? And he said, there's something in the XK and he said, and he said, and he said, and he said, and the people there call it Eugh. Eugh. Thank you, thank you. And what is memorable from Peter? Brian, I have a feeling. I have a feeling I might know what the line is. I can't think of anything. It'll come back to me, but if you think of it, if you'd like to say it. I don't know if... I went about I'll drink a big thing and I came down in the street on behalf of Wales and things like that. I got there very early and came to the gates and called all the policemen Blembs, which they love. You're all Blembs, they love it. So I went to the gates. I was opposite number 10. I was there half an hour early and you can't go to the Prime Minister comes and after about half an hour you have to be on the shoulder. Hello, Brian. You're also about 18. I'd explain how I'd drink. I can't go in, I'd say. You go in, I have to wait for you to go in. And they said, it'd be for a walk and so on. And he made me a cup of coffee and a little omelet, a simple omelet. And then he took me. And there was a whole government and there was a whole committee and so forth. And he said, well, Brian, please. Would you do it? I said yes. And I stood on the chair and I stood on the table with the whole select committee and the whole cameras and he said, GORION TODAY! Yay! I mean, the question is, is that it? I'm not too sure that that's what's going on. So let's, and did you, I figured it's a bit of a ask you to do anything that like you know, when they see you and they quote things and they're coming at you all the time and things. Why am I flying all the time? I said, I mean, don't fly here. No, I mean, it was a great experience with GORION. Was he like this? He was wrestling that. It's fucking down. It's still noisy. So the film gets through, you know, it's, I do have a question about the language barrier. I mean, this was this amazing, you know, soup that was going on. You had the international cast, you had, you know, Lorenzo Semple doing the script with Dino, I think, thinking comic book style, thinking 66 Batman, which had, I don't want to use this word, but everyone always talks about the camp, you know, aspect of it, which I don't think, but there are bits there, but was there a language barrier between Dino and Lorenzo and the cast and the crew and Mike with the crew. You mentioned something earlier, Mike, about the language barrier, things taking a bit longer. Was that a major issue throughout the production? No, not really. I mean, Dino Donati who did the costumes and the sets, who's brilliant. I mean, the wonderful design, the wonderful Ines films. I mean, he spoke very little English, and I'm not sure he ever read the script. Basically I and the gorgeous Hulk and his team are my wonderful crew. I really have to improvise. So I just, I, normally I keep a very tight, you know, tight, around a very tight ship, and I realize that I was just going to have to relax and see what they came up with. When I was there on the day, and then I went with the help of everybody else improvise. And I think that's partly why the films got this kind of lightness. It's a bit like a souffle. It's not over-produced at all. So a lot of it was accidents and things that occurred as you go along. The other day I was, I remember for example when Ming put six the sword into the prints at the beginning as they might forget. And I thought, why is blood red? And I said, why don't we have blue blood? He's an aristocrat, so we'll have blue blood. And in Arborio, when the young man's bitten by the thing, I had green blood, you know. So there's a big article coming out in Empire, and I thought I'd better look on the website to see what's on them. Somebody in there said, oh, we caught this director. He's continuity eras all the way through it. There's red blood and there's green blood. They really thought he fucked up there. It was abstract. What about those costumes? Everyone talks about how heavy those costumes were. And Peter, you would talk about how heavy the costume was. And you couldn't stand up for long. You had to rest on the wall because it was so heavy. Had you worked in much experience with a full mask like that before? In anything? In any productions? Have I been in the last before? Yes, for the length of a character. I remember that. Yes, I remember. It was very difficult because it was so black and you could have to sort of transform something, which is very difficult to do. But it was a challenge. You did it wonderfully, right everybody? So there's a lot of craziness going on with the production and then things start to wrap up and then it gets a release. And I think at the time I'd imagine Universal and Dino were all hoping for a trilogy at least. I mean this was the age of Star Wars and we wanted to see more of this sort of adventure. So what sort of happened? What happened with the release? Melody, you've got a great story about and Mike as well about the marketing and everything and the difference between how it was experienced and appreciated in America versus Europe and Asia and places like that. Melody, I love you guys. Melody. She's not right. I was full. Her film was a huge hit in Asia and Africa, found down here throughout the continent and in England. And it did well in the United States but for some reason and Mike says this very well, which I would not pass. In the United States the poster was mean space, not flash Gordon. And of course me was not going to be someone who did the promotion. And so nobody knew, you know, got to associate like with Batman, Christian Bale and all that to associate whatever you say. That's right.